Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Jess absorbed this information. She lifted her hand and watched it float in space as an announcement clicked on with the same information and warning about removing restraints.

  At once, she released her belt and let it drift free, then let go of the chair arms and pushed herself up. “Whoa!”

  “Jess, be careful.” Dev released her own belts, getting ready to assist.

  Jess straightened out her body and relaxed, drifting up near the ceiling of the cabin. She reached up and pushed her finger against it, inverting and going downward head first. “This is cool,” she said. “I like it.” She felt her entire body re-aligning as her joints appreciated this lack of tension.

  It felt great. She turned herself around slowly and watched Dev watch her, Dev’s short hair lifting around her head.

  After a moment Dev released her hold and pushed upward, and they floated together in the middle of the cabin.

  Jess tucked her knees up and rotated so they were facing the same way.

  “Null can be fun,” she said. “It takes a while to get used to.”

  Jess did another tumble in the air, then rotated and stretched her body out as though she were flying and extended her hands toward Dev, who caught hold of them.

  She pulled Dev to her, and as they met in mid air, she accurately aimed and kissed Dev, keeping that up as the momentum rotated them together. She let out a chuckle as they parted slightly, then leaned in for another kiss. “Let’s see if I can take your mind off where we’re going.”

  It was a new experience, and Dev more than welcomed it.

  Chapter Six

  IT WAS ALWAYS interesting to watch the shuttle come in. Dan Kurok leaned against the outer wall, appreciating the gentle dance of the big craft as it nosed carefully closer, aiming for the docking connector between two struts of the station.

  It was quiet. The station was in night shift, and most of the staff and bios were in quarters and crèche respectively, leaving only a few people loitering about.

  Doss, of course, and a half dozen of the scientific administrators, two of the station ops, and near the far edge of the docking ring, three security guards.

  Kurok watched them in some amusement as they shifted from boot to boot eyeing the shuttle. He had no earthly idea what the guards thought they were going to get to do in this little scenario, but he was half tempted to just let them find out the hard way the difference between station and downside.

  “Daniel.” Doss came over. “They’re almost here.”

  “Yes, I see the shuttle.” Kurok indicated the big craft settling its nose in to the docking ring. “Now, suppose you get rid of those two proctors, and the guards, and let me handle this.” He stepped around Doss and headed for the lock.

  “But, Daniel, don’t you want them to take care of the unit?”

  “No.”

  Doss hurried after him, and they joined the small group of administrators. “Daniel, I must protest.”

  Kurok rounded on him. “Please don’t bother, Randall. You’re asking for trouble, and if something stupid and lethal happens there’s a limited amount I can do about it.”

  One of the other administrators sighed. “Dan, c’mon. We know this is your super special project but the bottom line is it’s a bio unit. You can’t pretend otherwise.”

  Kurok shook his head and folded his arms. “Fine,” he said. “It’s not me that’s going to end up either dead or horribly damaged. I’ll just stand back out of the way because you all can’t be bothered to remove your heads from your asses and listen to me.”

  “We have security here,” the man answered, stiffly.

  Kurok just chuckled without humor.

  The inner lock opened, and as he expected, Jess and Dev were the first ones out. Jess was in front, her very tall figure encased in the solid black with green piping of an Interforce drop suit, head sweeping back and forth, body thrumming with energy.

  Her eyes found the security guards, and she grinned, meeting Kurok’s gaze next. Behind her Dev was keeping up with her longer strides, dressed in her deep green tech jumpsuit, but over that she had on a beautiful and shimmering greenish blue jacket that was obviously not Interforce issue.

  Both had regulation packs on their backs, and Jess had done them the courtesy of not having any visible weapons hanging off her, though Kurok fully expected the pack to contain them.

  Dev looked wary and anxious.

  “Wow,” the administrator next to Kurok muttered. “I didn’t expect the agent to be that big.”

  Kurok chuckled again then went forward, leaving the group behind. He got smiles from both visitors and then a moment later he gave them both hugs, spending a long moment embracing Dev and patting her on the back. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered into her ear. “Just relax.”

  Dev responded with a powerful squeeze and a real smile, then she stepped back diffidently as Jess gave him a hug.

  “How was the trip?” Kurok asked as they started toward the welcoming committee.

  “Interesting,” Dev said, eyeing her partner. “I think Jess enjoyed the null a lot.”

  “Oh, I did,” Jess said. “Thanks for arranging for the private bunk. Woulda probably freaked out the civs in the main cabin.”

  “Let’s save that story for later,” Kurok said. “Please be patient with the idiocy you’re about to encounter. We’ll get through it and go have some dinner.”

  “Mm,” Jess rumbled low in her throat. “I promised Devvie I’d make sure no one got jerky on her.”

  “I figured that.” Kurok smiled at the group they were approaching. “Please try not to shoot the walls. Vacuum disarranges everything and is tedious to fix,” he added in a low tone. “Well, everyone.” He raised his voice as they arrived. “Let’s make introductions.”

  Everyone, including the proctors, was staring at Jess, who, after a moment, seemed to find this funny. She casually draped her arm over Dev’s shoulders and waited, making a point of reaching over to brush some nonexistent dust off the tech insignia at Dev’s collar.

  Kurok saw the motion and stifled a smile. “This is senior agent Jesslyn Drake, of Interforce, and her tech partner and pilot, Dev,” he said. “As you all know, Dev was born here, and is a prototype for the Interforce tech service that’s been extremely successful.”

  “Yes, hello.” Doss edged forward, bravely extending his hand to Jess. “You are most welcome, Agent Drake.”

  Jess took his hand and clasped it, staring hard at him after she released her grip.

  “And of course, welcome back, ah...Dev,” he added belatedly. “We were very gratified to hear of your excellent work.”

  “Thank you, Director,” Dev responded. “Thanks to Doctor Dan, I was well prepared for this work and have had excellent programming to assist me in performing it.”

  Kurok smiled at her. “Dev is far too modest. But we can all discuss that later. I’m sure our guests want to relax after their journey from downside.” He glanced at the two visitors. “Let me walk you to your quarters, hm?”

  “Well we...” Doss paused, finding those cold and unnerving blue eyes fastened hard on him again and noting the uneasy and nervous expressions on everyone else’s faces, most especially the proctors. Even the other administrators were completely and unusually silent, leaving all the talking to him. “I mean, you see we do have some protocols, Daniel and—”

  Jess shifted a little, straightening up to her full height. “Hey,” she barked, getting everyone’s attention immediately. “Dev’s us now. You better treat her like one of us. First one who doesn’t is gonna get my fist in their face. Got it?”

  The administrators looked at the security guards, who stared back, wide eyed.

  Kurok merely stood and waited. He could smell the fear, and though he knew Jess was putting on a show, the potential for violence in the tall figure next to him was real.

  “Oh, of course, no!” Doss recovered first, and stepped up, gaining himself points if he’d only known it. “Of cours
e Dev is our welcome guest, as you are, Agent Drake! We’re very thankful you could take time from your busy schedule to come up and assist us in moving the project forward.”

  “Great. We done posturing now?” Kurok said. “C’mon you two. Let’s get you settled.” He put a hand on Jess’s back, feeling the silent laughter as he guided them through the crowd toward the portal from the shuttle bay into the main part of the station.

  Dev glanced at the proctors as they moved through, giving them a polite smile as they backed up out of the way. They looked troubled. Everyone looked incorrect. But she had Jess’s arm over her shoulders, they were with Doctor Dan, and for now it all seemed like it was going to be all right.

  They cleared the dock doors, and then Jess just stopped, tipping her head back and staring up. “Are those stars?” she asked after a brief pause.

  Doctor Dan gently guided them to the side of the passage so they didn’t block traffic. “Yes, those are stars,” he said. “I forgot you wouldn’t have seen them on the shuttle.”

  The station had clear panels and Jess was under one, looking up at the speckles and pinpoints of light against a silky black background. She hadn’t been sure of what to expect, and now she wasn’t sure what to think when Dev took her arm and pointed down. “That’s what downside looks like from here.”

  She refocused and looked out a second panel, seeing a huge gray surface rolling below them, bathed in shadow and darkness. At the very edge, she saw a slice of brighter light. “What’s that?”

  “Ah. That’s the sun about to come up,” Kurok said. “Does that a dozen or so times in an orbital day.” He could hear, in the edges of his hearing, the servos in motion to move the solar panels, and the motion caught Jess’s attention. “Let’s get you in quarters. You’ll have plenty of time to sightsee, I promise.”

  Up until the time they’d left the shuttle, it had seemed routine. Jess reluctantly started to move, letting her eyes scan everything. Station was very, very different. Walls were clear or visibly metal.

  The air smelled strange and sterile, like the depths of the systems storage bunkers in the Citadel.

  Her balance felt odd.

  And there were stars overhead and the world below, the dark surface punctuated by flashes of lightning that rippled across it.

  She had no connection to the surface. The comms didn’t reach up here.

  She felt Dev take her hand, and she was glad. She focused her attention on the walkway and set aside the wonder for a little while as she listened to the bumps and low, subvocal thumping around her as they walked across some main corridor and headed for a large, vertical clear tube.

  There weren’t many people around, she noticed, and no visible bio alts.

  “Okay, we step in here, and kick upwards,” Kurok said. “Remember how to do this, Dev?”

  “I do.” Dev took a firmer hold of Jess’s hand. “Jess, this is null.”

  The tube seemed like a complete drop to the bottom, but Jess felt the lack of gravity as soon as they cleared the entrance, and like Dev, she pushed upward and then they were just drifting up past other levels, mostly darkened.

  It felt amazing, just like the shuttle had once they were out of the earth’s gravity. It was almost like being underwater.

  Then light blasted them, and she jerked in reaction, turning toward the source and seeing a ball of white fire come up over the edge of the world, laying a silver surface over the tops of the clouds and bathing the inside of the station.

  “That is the sun,” Dev said. “A star, close up.”

  “That’s cool.” Jess watched the light move in fascination. “It just burns in space?”

  “It does,” Doctor Dan said, as he guided them to a landing platform. “Here we go. This is the distinguished guest quarters.” He led the way back into gravity, and they walked along a plush corridor whose roof was open to the stars. “I assigned your rooms personally.”

  “Mmm.” Dev made a low sound. “I think that possibly caused some discomfort.”

  Kurok chuckled. “It did. I won’t lie to you, Dev. There was some idea of putting you in crèche quarters, but I refused to allow it.”

  Jess eyed him. “Good idea. Cause I wouldn’t have gone for that.”

  “Yes, I know.” Doctor Dan paused before a door, and then opened it with a touch. “Let’s go inside and have a talk.”

  “Good idea,” Jess repeated with a wry expression. “Got some grog in there?”

  Kurok paused. “Do we need some?” He watched both heads nod in response. “Ah. Let’s go to my quarters for our chat then. I’m more prepared there.”

  KUROK’S QUARTERS WERE on the other side of the ring level they were on, and his were the last in the section. They met no one on their quiet walk, the hallway lights dim save the spears of sunlight that darted through panels at regular intervals.

  Kurok palmed his door and waved them inside. “We’ll keep this short. I’m sure it’s been a long day for you both.”

  Had it been? Dev didn’t feel particularly tired. Especially now that she knew she wasn’t going to be spending the night in the crèche or in transport quarters. She smiled a little as she felt Jess bump against her and looked aside to see the brief grin on her face.

  “We’re fine,” Jess said for them both. “We got to relax this afternoon on the beach.”

  “Ah, I think I know the beach you speak of.” Doctor Dan smiled as he closed the door. “Are you also a cooker of fish?”

  “I am.”

  His quarters were, for station, spacious and included three rounded bubble shapes in a mixture of clear plas and brushed metal. The front one included an area to sit, and the walls were mild and translucent, a soft non-color that had a number of framed images on them.

  Dev stood quietly and waited, but Jess went to the images and looked at them with interest as Doctor Dan retrieved a bottle and some glasses from a cabinet. “I think I’ve been to a few of these places,” Jess said.

  Doctor Dan smiled. “No doubt you have. That underwater cavern is just up the coast from Base Ten.”

  It felt very strange to be there. Dev thought she knew what it would be like to come back to the station, but things turned out very differently than she’d expected. It was interesting to her how that made her feel inside.

  Maybe it was that they had started from Jess’s home. Had spent the trip in a private cabin so different than her journey downside.

  Now here they were in Doctor Dan’s private space, which she’d never seen before. It was nice and she noticed the Drake’s Bay shirt Jess had given him hanging on a notch near the door. “This is a very pleasant space,” she said after a moment.

  Doctor Dan looked up from pouring the drinks. “You think so, Dev? It’s all right, I suppose. The porch has a nice view.” He indicated a sealed door. “We can go out there later if you want.”

  Jess detoured over and peered at the door. “Airlock?”

  “Safety.” Doctor Dan brought a tray with him back to the seating. “All of these subsections are designed to self seal in case of cracks or punctures. The shields are good, but micro meteorites get past them sometimes and a break in the surface will really ruin your day.”

  Jess looked at the opening and then at him. “Nice, but a little creepy.” She walked over and took a seat in one of the chairs, sprawling at her ease as she took a glass. “Thanks.”

  Unfazed. Completely at home. Doctor Dan remembered that was a hallmark of most of the agents he’d ever met and certainly had been one of Justin’s.

  Even though she was now in a station in space for the first time in her life, Jess had that air of commanding the circumstances he remembered so well. “Here you go, Dev. I think you might have had this before.”

  Dev took a glass and sniffed it. It was honey mead and she smiled. “I have, yes.” She took a sip and relaxed a little in her seat next to Jess. “I like it.”

  “So do I.” Kurok sat down and regarded them. “First of all, thank you both for coming
up here.”

  Jess grinned. “Interforce is as interested in this project working out as you all are. They want more of Devvie.”

  “They do,” Kurok agreed. “Which is quite bemusing to me, of course, since my thoughts of being able to structure a set that could do what I myself had done seemed, more than once, to me to be self satisfyingly gratuitous.”

  “That really what you were after?” Jess asked, swirling the mead in her cup. “Seemed crazy to me that you brought that out right when we needed it.”

  Dev felt a bit self conscious, listening to the conversation, since the it in question was her. But the mead was good and she just sat quietly sipping it, content to let Jess do the talking.

  “Mmm...not exactly,” he admitted. “What I was after was something a bit more radical.” He relaxed back into his chair, regarding the liquid in his glass. “Something I’m only willing to discuss with you here, where I know we’re in private.”

  Jess’s brows lifted a little.

  Kurok winked at her. “Because I know every inch of these walls.”

  “That a problem here?” she asked. “Thought this place was full of high minded scientists.”

  “Hopefully that was as full of Interforce drollery as I remember.”

  Jess chuckled in acknowledgment and lifted her glass in his direction.

  “One of the things we’d always done here in creating bio alt sets is limit them,” Kurok said. “Limit their intelligence, especially in the area of self determination and independent thought. You can do that, you know. There’s an area of the brain where that develops and you just fill it with null matter and it never does.”

  “Mmm. So you did intend them to be servants.” Jess said, but in a mild tone. “That’s what the Bay always thought.”

  “The Bay, being what it is, with the history it has, would naturally think that.” He smiled at her. “Since it’s as much an incubator as anything I have up here.” He paused, then exhaled. “Anyway, it wasn’t so much they were designed to be servants as they were designed to be content with what they were asked to do.”