Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Tayler sniffed it suspiciously, then took a gulp, with evident approval.

  “Jess,” Dev said, suddenly. “I think you should see this.”

  Jess sighed. “Words like that never end well. Something going to blow up again?”

  “No. It’s a message for you.” Dev looked over at her. “From your home place.”

  THE FIRST THING he was aware of was a hell of a headache. Despite that, training surfaced before instinct just as it was supposed to, and he kept his breathing slow and even, his eyes closed. He was lying on a somewhat yielding surface. Under the pads of his fingertips he felt the synth fabric of station furniture.

  The air smelled stale, but there was a hint of chemical on it. A stirring that brushed it across his face told him the life support systems were not quite dead yet.

  He was under gravity, and that meant the grid was engaged with station rotation.

  He could hear the tap of fingers against input pads and motion in the air.

  His proximity sense told him there was no one nearby, but he cautiously cracked open one eyelid partway just to be sure.

  He saw the back of a guard, stun stick cradled in his arms. Beyond that, the central control console with a bunch of agitated bodies around it.

  He opened both eyes, but didn’t move, waiting for his vision to clear and come back into focus, which it did very reluctantly. He spent a moment trying to remember what the hell had happened. Then it came back, and he instinctively closed the fingers of one hand, finding it empty.

  Well. Something had gone right because the techs around console were station techs. He saw Doss messing about with a screen, and in his visual periphery there were the bodies of the other side, still and stiff.

  He could also see bio alts on the floor curled in a down position. But neither sight nor ears detected the presence of either Dev or Jess.

  Mixed bag. With a sigh, he reached up and undid the hold down, which crossed his chest and went over one shoulder, clearing both arms for action and an indication that he’d been put here by someone who understood that concept.

  He sat up carefully, grimacing at the vicious pounding in his head, and upon inspection, discovered the lump on one side of it. Gingerly he twisted his neck in both directions, feeling the pops and crackles as his spine moved back into proper alignment.

  A weight fell onto the top of his legs, and he realized the blaster was still in place, inside his front shirt pouch. He quietly removed it, and slid it into the small of his back before he stood up.

  “I just don’t understand what happened.” Doss said in a peevish voice. “We have nothing, nothing I tell you that would do that to those men.”

  Maybe it was the knock on the head, but Kurok suddenly felt himself in a different space, his eyes seeing the people around him in a completely different way. “I can probably explain,” he said quietly.

  Doss whirled. “Daniel! You’re awake!”

  “Brilliant of you.” Kurok moved slowly forward, easing past the guard who stepped aside for him, hand hovering over his stick. “Thank you, Charles.”

  “Daniel, look at this.” Doss pointed at the bodies. “There’s been terrible damage, and our guests...” He paused as Kurok’s eyes met his. “What happened?”

  Kurok shooed aside the techs around the console and sat down behind the master station. “Our guests were extremely busy trying to destroy the station,” he said. “Something stopped them.” He keyed in one of the pads and entered his codes.

  “Something,” Doss said slowly. “Was it that agent?”

  “Oh, probably not.” Kurok smiled. “I’m going to have someone from the crèche come up here and bring these sets up. We could use them, and I see now it’s been unsealed.” He reviewed the screen. “Yes, it has.”

  “The special unit and that agent went there,” Doss admitted. He sat down in the seat next to his colleague. “Daniel, did you hurt those men? They just wanted to talk to you. Please. I don’t understand.”

  Kurok studied him. “Randall, those men aren’t our friends.” He saw the movement of muscles across Doss’s round face and knew there was shifty in play, and he wasn’t completely in control of the situation.

  But no mind. He would play the game a bit longer. “Attention.” He reached over and keyed comms. “This is Doctor Dan. I need salvage and repair teams to report to their stations and a medical team to central operations with a biometric kit.”

  He released the comm lock and a moment later a voice answered. “Yes, Doctor Dan. We are deploying.”

  “Thank you.” He was relieved to hear Dev’s voice, and he suspected the feeling was mutual. “Now, Randall.” He rested his elbow on the console and then pushed the sleeve of it up, exposing the skin of his arm. “Do you see these?”

  Doss eyed his skin, which was patterned in old, brown lines. “Yes.”

  “When I was fourteen years old, I was living in a science center on the other side.” He rolled his sleeve down again. “Interforce attacked it and killed almost everyone inside, leaving myself and perhaps one other person alive.”

  “So the captain of the vessel was correct?” Doss asked. “You were from their side.”

  “I was,” Kurok said. “I was taken to the Interforce labs, and they made a valiant attempt at brainwashing me. I let them think they’d succeeded.”

  Doss shifted away from him. “I see.”

  It made Kurok smile. “I would have been a perfect mole, eh? I was a moppy little blond haired kid. They put me through field school, and when I was eighteen they paired me with an enforcement agent and put me into service. And unfortunately, for them and perhaps for me, I found in that enforcement agent someone I could, and did, pledge allegiance to.”

  “I see,” Doss repeated.

  “Do you?” Kurok’s eyes twinkled a little. “Remember I told you about Interforce agents? Justin was as good a psychopath as the best of them.”

  “Well. Perhaps not.” Doss said, stiffly.

  “Mmm. Well between us, me and Justin, we did dozens of emplacements and missions and probably ended up wiping out thousands of people, some of which I probably was related to,” Kurok said. “So you see, Randall, talking to them would not have been very successful.”

  “You were really Interforce,” Doss said. “That’s why you stayed there, all that time, those months.” He shifted slightly. “I knew from your records of course, but I thought you were perhaps a scientist for them.”

  Kurok shrugged. “I stayed last time because I saw an opportunity to get into the other side’s clutches, and if I was lucky, I’d get my hands on the little stinker who had Justin killed. And I did.” He smiled at Doss. “Justin was Justin Drake. Jesslyn’s father.”

  “Yes,” Doss said in a faint tone. “His son James did approach us, Daniel. I think you must realize that.” He slowly lifted his eyes and stared at Kurok. “It was a three part deal, very lucrative. We would send him seed, and in return, he would send us what was priceless to the other side, the means to make agents like his father and sister.”

  Kurok stared back at him. “What?”

  “They don’t have any like that, you know.” Doss went on in a surreally calm voice. “It would take us to create them, and of course, I knew I couldn’t tell you about it. I just told you it was a study. I knew you’d believe that.”

  “Despite what I told you, you were going to make genetically imprinted psychotics anyway?” Kurok kept his voice equally calm. “Really, Randall?”

  He nodded. “Yes. After I saw agent Drake, I understood why our customer wanted that so badly. It’s really quite a different genetic set. You pointed that out yourself, Daniel. Don’t you realize just how lucrative this will be for us? I hope I’m not making a mistake telling you this. I’m sure you understand.”

  Kurok sighed.

  “After all, it will be many years before we hand them over.” Doss seemed to take encouragement by his colleague’s lack of response. “Plenty of time to perfect the set. And you pro
ved how successful it could be, really, Daniel, with your next generation model. So intelligent! So efficient. I can’t believe I didn’t see it earlier.”

  “Dev’s not...” Kurok paused and sighed again.

  Doss patted his arm. “I knew it’d be all right once I explained it to you. You’re such a smart man and very logical.”

  “Mmm. With any luck I’ll be dead before the first one of them grows up and kills everyone on station.” Kurok shook his head. “It’s like breeding saber tooth tigers. But what the hell.” He lifted a hand and put it back down. “After all, it’s no different than what the Drakes themselves are doing downside. They know what their target endpoint is.”

  Doss literally beamed at him. “Exactly!” He then frowned “But now, with all this damage...” He looked around at the bodies on the floor. “I suppose I can tell them it was an accident.”

  Kurok pinched the bridge of his nose hastily.

  The hatch filled with figures, and then a flood of bio alts entered, a half dozen of them with med kits over their shoulders. “Over there, lads.” Doctor Dan pointed. “Just bring everyone up, will you please? They were put down for safety.”

  “Yes, Doctor Dan.” The TeeBee in the lead nodded confidently. “NM-Dev-1 advised us of the situation.”

  So many levels of meaning and so unexpected. “Excellent.” Kurok smiled at him. “Carry on.”

  The medical team went over to the down bio alts and started to work. The security guards standing around relaxed and looked longingly at the drink dispenser. The rest of the bio alts split into groups and went to various stations, pulling out tool kits and opening side panels.

  Doss watched them for a moment. “Did you teach them all the station mechanicals, Daniel?” he asked, after a long pause. “I wasn’t aware.”

  “You probably just weren’t there when we went over that module,” Kurok said blandly. “It was in the extended technical section. I think twelve B.” He tapped out a few commands on the input pad. “I hardly had a chance to show them today.”

  “No.” Doss acknowledged. “I suspect you have made a long and careful plan.”

  Kurok tapped steadily. “Oh you can always count on me for that.” He keyed in a set of inputs and did a double tap with his thumb, apparently focused on the screen.

  “Daniel, I think you should stop what you’re doing.” Doss’s voice got louder. “In fact, I think these guards should escort you to your quarters. Until we sort out what happened.”

  “What happened was I created a keyed neurotransmitter and activated it.” Kurok sat back and let his hands drop to his lap. “I wasn’t going to let them take apart the station, Randall. Really.”

  “You killed them?” Doss’s eyes were curiously focused.

  “Yes, I did.” Kurok folded his hands together and simply sat, waiting. “I’ll be glad to go to my quarters if you wish,” he added in a mild tone. “But that’s not going to change what happened.”

  “I see.”

  “They were going to kill us all, Randall. They almost had the station at null. Did you want to die? They had no idea what they were doing.”

  Doss sighed. “No, of course I don’t want anyone to die.”

  The guards looked uncertain. “Sir.” One of them edged a step closer. “I’m sorry, did you need us to do something?”

  Doss half turned towards them. “Oh no, Captain. We were just discussing things. In fact,” he licked his lips, “I think you can go back to your office. Everything seems all right here.”

  The guard nodded in some relief. “Okay, sir, we’ll do that.” He motioned to the other guards and they started for the door as the first of the bio alts began to come up. “We’ll send a report.”

  “Yes, you do that.” Doss waited for them to leave then turned back.

  “I’ve asked for med to come and pick up the bodies,” Kurok said. “My guess is you’ll have until that shuttle ends up downside before you start getting called by your clients.”

  “I’ll have to tell them what you did.”

  Kurok shrugged. Then he stood up. “Matter of fact, I think I’ll go by med myself. I have quite the headache. And then I’ll go to my quarters.” He started around the console when Doss put his hand up to stop him, moving slightly into his path. “Randall, don’t.”

  “Will you kill me, too?”

  “I’d rather not,” Kurok said in a kindly tone. “So get out of my way.” He started forward and moved past Doss as his colleague moved out of the way. He headed for the door as his head started to pound harder.

  A TeeBee intercepted him. “Doctor Dan. May we go with you? You said you needed med.”

  “Sure.” He waved the TeeBee and two restored KayTees after him. “Let’s go get everyone settled, shall we?”

  “Doctor Dan, what should we do here?” One of the BeeAye’s was back behind the console. “May we start repairs?”

  “Start repairs.” Kurok paused at the doorway, looking back at Randall Doss who was there, alone, with the bio alts still staring at him. “Don’t get in their way, Randall. Be a good fellow, will you?” He waved and slipped through the hatch with the bio alts hard at his heels.

  “We’re glad you’re okay, Doctor Dan,” the TeeBee said, timidly. “We were worried about you.”

  “Thank you.” Kurok glanced around. “Now can you tell me where NM-Dev-1 and Jesslyn Drake are?”

  “In your lab, sir,” the TeeBee said. “There are several sets with them.”

  “Excellent, let’s go there.”

  JESS STUDIED THE screen for the nth time, aware of just how far away she was from being able to do anything useful about the message she was staring at.

  Dev was buried in the screen next to her, the pale light from it washing her face in blue as her eyes flicked over the contents with some intensity.

  Behind them, four TeeGees and an AyeBee were playing with Tayler, tossing a ball back and forth to keep him entertained.

  “So what do you figure, Dev?” Jess finally asked. “Akers turn rogue or did those bastards who shot at the nomads decide to band up and attack or did the nomads finally gain critical mass?”

  “I don’t know.” Dev had all ten fingers moving over the pads. “There is something blocking the transmitter, Jess. It must be physical. Maybe the shuttle hit it when it was going out.

  “So can ya fix it?” Jess asked.

  “It’s outside,” Dev said. “I can inspect it, but we can’t reach it without a self contained suit.”

  “We got those?”

  “They exist.” Dev’s gaze went inward. “I don’t have any programming on them.”

  One of the TeeGees heard her and came over. “NM-Dev-1? I have programming on the exosuits,” she said. “We just got it just last month.”

  “Really?” Dev peered at her. “I didn’t know your set was mech?”

  “They were giving us maintenance,” the TeeGee said. “Of the hydroponic tanks. They have a part outside.”

  Dev nodded. “We should go inspect the transmitter. Jess, do you want to attend?”

  “Sure.” Jess got up and glanced behind her, watching the game for a moment before she led the way to the door with Dev and the TeeGee at her heels.

  Outside, it seemed the station was getting back to normal, the hallways filling with people and jumpsuited technicians moving from panel to panel adjusting things. They gave the two dark Interforce uniforms a wary look, and twice proctors looked like they were going to interrupt them, moving into their paths and holding a hand up.

  Jess waved them off and soldiered on past.

  They made their way along the edge of the station to a platform mid way between two rings that gave them a view of the top of the structure.

  “Hmm.” Dev edged along the clear space. “I can see the solar array is out of line.”

  “Yes,” the TeeGee agreed. “It’s not in sync, the lower one is.” She pointed as the sun blasted through the station again, highlighting the several shades of gold in her curly h
air. She was taller than Dev and had a larger body. “I am surprised they did not send mech out to fix it.”

  “I think someone wants it to remain offline,” Dev said in a mild tone. “There are many incorrect things going on.”

  The TeeGee nodded “Yes. We know this. They locked us in the crèche, and we saw the controls being set to space us. They wanted to save the air and power for natural borns.”

  “That is normal.” Dev folded her arms over her chest. “There’s programming on it.”

  “There is programming on it, but it still feels very incorrect,” the TeeGee said.

  “Yes,” Dev said.

  Jess had been listening. “Hey, we’re not all assholes. At least, not that kind.”

  Dev turned and smiled, putting a hand on her arm. “No, not at all, Jess,” she said. “I’m sorry.” She looked at the TeeGee. “They gave Jess an award for saving everyone and being brave,” she explained. “She’s very special.”

  The TeeGee studied Jess with interest. “That is excellent.”

  Jess was glad the sun blast hid the blush she felt heating her face. She changed the subject. “Okay. So if they fix the solar stuff, then the radio’ll start working? Devvie, we gotta get out of here.”

  “Yes.” Dev pointed along the hall. “Let’s go to the maintenance and see if we can encourage them to fix the array.”

  “Would my blaster be encouraging?”

  “Let’s try asking first.”

  THE MECH STATION was in chaos. Dev, Jess, and the TeeGee paused at the entry, letting the hatch slide closed behind them.

  The large pod was full of people and repair kits with natural borns yelling orders and bio alts scrambling around.

  “This seems suboptimal,” Dev said.

  One of the bio alts, carrying a mech pack on his back, was protesting. “Sir, Doctor Dan ordered us to begin repairs!”

  “I don’t give a shit what he said. You go where I tell you!” the natural born yelled at him. “Stupid piece of fluff brain!”