Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Raining hard, in fact, the sheets of water falling down past the cams, down the front face of the base, down toward the sea that crashed directly against the mountain wall.

  It felt good to be back in the base, she decided. Here she had a long list of things she could do, from checking in mods for her carrier, to doing gym, to getting rad. She stood with a smile and decided she’d get busy doing any one of those things.

  Maybe she’d stop by and visit Doctor Dan first.

  JESS ENTERED THE conference room and regarded the two men seated at the table with a noncommittal look. She took a seat across from them, rested her elbows on the table, and folded her hands together.

  They were roughly her age, and as she studied them in silence, she had a sense that maybe one of them was a relative at some degree since he had that Drake angularity and Justin’s sharp gray eyes.

  He confirmed it a moment later. “Hello, cousin,” the man said. “We’ve never met, but I’m Tomas Santander. A Drake bastard from a couple gens back.”

  “Hi,” Jess responded equably.

  “This is Elliot Brack,” he introduced his companion, who delivered a brief nod to Jess. “We’re the new directors of Juneau and Rainier Base, respectively.”

  Jess regarded them. “Changes there?” she asked after a pause. “Before or after?”

  “After,” Brack said. “Shoulda been after Bain. No one wanted to think that went any deeper than him.”

  “It did,” she said.

  He shrugged. “So we kind of performed the unclusterfuck goods in the west, and now we’re here to figure out what to do next.”

  “What does that mean?” Jess asked.

  They exchanged glances. “Well.” Brack shifted a little in his seat. “A bunch of us took a step back from the craziness and decided killing each other was just shitass dumb. We didn’t want to do it.” He paused, thoughtfully. “I’m a senior at Juneau. My partner comes from Cooper’s Rock.”

  “Ah.” Jess nodded. “So you...you refuse orders, shoot people, or what?”

  Brack smiled thinly. “Yes. We started getting comms back from the fight here and figured either we put a stop on the deal or we’d all end up losing everything. Pure self interest.”

  Jess perked up a little. “So what’s the scam?” she asked. “They didn’t all of a sudden wake up one day and realize they’d been intaking maniacs. They knew.”

  The two of them exchanged glances, then Tomas shrugged and leaned forward. “What did Arp tell you?”

  Jess leaned back in her chair and hiked up one knee, wrapping her arms around it. “That we were a target.”

  “We?”

  She indicated herself then him. “That they realized we were getting to a tipping point.”

  Tomas nodded. “He was right. On both counts. They did a bio study and started collecting spirals, maybe two, three years back. Turns out ours are more pervasive than most.”

  “Sticky,” Jess said. “They thought they were trying to breed it out of us, and it turns out we were breeding it into them.” She gestured outward. “All of them. Never diluted.”

  Brack nodded. “Surprised to hear a field agent knows it.”

  Jess smiled. “I hang around with scientists and bios,” she said. “It’s in me. I know what I am.” She pointed her thumb at her own chest.

  Tomas nodded again. “So Arp was right. That genetic signature is a crazy nightmare. It’s going to drag this part of humanity into chaos.”

  “It’s already chaos. You been to the outlands lately?” Jess asked.

  “We have,” Brack said. “The engineered DNA is making it worse. It makes people hard and pitiless and very uncaring.”

  “Amoral sociopaths, in fact,” Jess said. “Don’t expect me to feel bad about that. I didn’t make me.”

  Tomas smiled. “I was the test subject of the study,” he said. “Once they tested me and found all that engineered kickass, I got hit with every crackpot idea on how to stop it there was. Every drug. Every freaking electrical manipulation.” He lifted his arm and pulled back his plain black jumpsuit sleeve, exposing a wrist circled with scars.

  Jess regarded him. “Better you than me,” she finally commented. “For everyone.”

  Tomas started laughing. “True.” He rolled is sleeve down. “I failed the battery. I was just enough crazy to be a lab rat. I’ve seen what you can do when people annoy you, Drake.”

  “So you see the problem,” Brack said.

  “I do,” Jess said. “I just don’t see a solution. Because if you intend on castrating my entire homestead, I have news for you.” Her eyes twinkled gravely. “There aren’t enough of you to even try.”

  “We wouldn’t if we could. It’s spread too far. We would end up depopulating the whole eastern half of Atlantia,” Brack stated. “It really wasn’t about that, and it’s a double edged sword. We need those spirals. Keeps us even with them, even if they have more resources and better tech.”

  Jess regarded him. “And if Interforce keeps taking all the natural leaders, it keeps a lid on Drake’s Bay.”

  Brack nodded. “True. You do get it. Interforce got it. No one really knew what to do about it, no one wanted to lose that edge. And then after the whole thing with Bain...” He cleared his throat. “But now there’s a complication.”

  “Seeds.”

  Tomas nodded. “Put it over the top. Made everyone west crazy.” He flexed his hands. “Literally all they could think of was this resource in the hands of... um...”

  “Amoral sociopaths,” Jess said. “Not in the pay of Interforce ones, I mean.”

  “Not just that,” Brack said. “It changes the whole landscape of the east.” He cleared his throat. “Makes it independent from the west, and that’s where all the admin is. You know that. You went to school.” He laced his fingers together. “Life in the west is relatively cush. We control trade, all that. This is the wild hinterlands.”

  “So yeah, the want made them crazy. Knowing someone else would have the edge,” Tomas said. “A little of us in that, too, cousin.”

  “Ironic,” Jess said after a minute’s reflective silence. “My brother sold his son to the other side so they could breed us. I wonder if they realize what that would mean.”

  “Tayler?”

  “Tayler,” Jess confirmed. “I found him up on station. They were figuring out how to make more of them and deliver them for a price.”

  Both men were silent, blinking in some surprise at her. “Holy shit,” Tomas finally said. “So Station Two did turn.”

  Jess shrugged. “It was a business deal to them. No one really has that—us and them—thing all the way down except maybe us,” she said. “Was about cred. Other side was offering a lot of it.”

  “Money talks,” Brack said. “Old, old history.”

  “Pointless and stupid. There were already copies of Drake DNA up there,” Jess said. “Whole thing for nothing. This whole thing for nothing because the Bay’s not going to give up that cave,” she added. “We’re going to figure out what to do with it.”

  “We’re not going to try and stop that, Drake,” Tomas said. “They sent the science samples back. They’re going to try and replicate it of course.”

  “Of course,” Jess said, dryly. “After all, you got all the brainiacs out there. We just have maniacs here.”

  Both of them looked a little uncomfortable. “A success at this could help everyone y’know,” Brack said. “Not all of us are complete assholes.”

  Jess and Tomas exchanged looks, a brief flash of shared understanding that excluded the other man.

  “Anyway, we need to figure out what to do about this base. They took sides.”

  Jess smiled. “They took my side.”

  “They did. We heard the comms. Everyone knows what that cave means. They want a piece of you.” Tomas’s lips quirked. “Except no one really wants a piece of you, Jesslyn. You’re just an obstacle to everyone’s plans, including Interforces’.”

  “Sucks to be m
e.”

  “It does,” Tomas said. “Just like it sucked to be me, being fried and doped for years and then finding out half the Interforce agents in the west were intakes for cred.” He looked as disillusioned as he sounded, a slightly detached, unfocused look to his eyes.

  They regarded each other in silence for a long minute. “Call in Jason,” Jess finally said. “Let’s sort out the options. No one’s going to take a hit for taking up my part if I can help it.” She paused. “Except maybe me.”

  DEV FASTENED THE neck of her lined jumpsuit and attached her creds to the pocket before she made her way out her seldom-used quarter doors and into the hallway.

  She immediately encountered several mechs who greeted her with smiles as they went in the opposite direction. The halls were almost empty, though, and she was aware of how few people were around as she made her way through the operations levels and up to med.

  Med was also quiet, and she hesitantly poked her head into the room with the tanks, pausing as a technician looked up to see her.

  The tech greeted her with a brief smile. “Hello, Dev. That was really something last night, huh?”

  “Yes.” Dev took this as an invitation to enter and she did, walking over to the last tank where now the screens above it were alive with motion and color. Inside, the liquid seemed to have changed shades, and she could see the tips of Doctor Dan’s fingers twitching. “He’s moving.”

  “Yup.” The tech came over and joined her. “Usually that starts up when the nervous system realizes it’s in a tank. Good sign. Last night I figured...” He paused and shrugged. “He was gone.”’

  “Yes.” Dev put her hands up against the glass. “It was really sad.”

  “Been a lot of that lately,” the tech mused. “But I never heard the field song before. That was something to hear.” He peered into the tank with her. “Made my hair stand on end.”

  “Me too,” Dev said. “Do you think it helped Doctor Dan?”

  The tech thought about that for a minute. “Never heard of anything like that before,” he said. “But hey, who knows, right?”

  “Why would it make you feel like that?” Dev asked, curiously. “Prickly?” She rubbed her hand over one arm.

  “Don’t know.” The tech leaned against the console. “Something about the sound, and the echoes in here, maybe. Or the fact it means someone kicked off.” He shrugged. “Usually the ops people get konked in the field and just sink to the bottom or end up crab food.”

  Dev grimaced a little.

  Jared entered, stifling a yawn. “Oh. It’s you,” he said to Dev. “Your agent called this morning to check up on things. Didn’t you believe her?”

  Dev frowned and took a step back from the tank. “Of course I did. I just wanted to say hello.” She indicated the figure floating in the liquid. “Thank you for taking such good care of Doctor Dan.”

  Jared chuckled.“He took care of himself. Wasn’t anything I did.” He swung a console around and started it up. “I hear we’ve got nabobs in. Guess we’ll find out what the plan is after we told them to get lost.” He sat down and tapped a few inputs. “And anyway, I...”

  He paused and looked up at Dev.

  Dev looked back at him in question.

  “Brad, excuse us,” Jared said, after a pause. He waited for the tech to leave and the door to close before he leaned on the console and squinted at Dev. “Something happen to you?”

  Dev’s brow rose. “Quite a lot of things have happened in the last while.”

  “I’m not getting any synaptic return from you,” Jared said. “That closer?”

  Dev hesitated then shrugged. “I had my collar removed,” she said. “The synaptics are no longer embedded inside my brain. So I suppose that is why you do not see them.”

  Jared looked surprised. “I didn’t think that was possible. But wait. That’s right you and Jessie went up to the space station, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” Dev said. “It was done there.”

  “Why?” he asked. “I thought the whole point with you is that they could keep giving you new stuff. Without that, aren’t you just like one of us?”

  “Yes, actually, that’s true.” Dev smiled. “It will be difficult, but I’m glad I had it removed.” She turned as the door opened and waved as Doug and Brent entered, both in offduty suits. “Hello.”

  “Hey, Rocket.” Doug glanced at Jared. “They said you were in here. Want to come see my new bus?”

  Brent grinned a bit ghoulishly. “Had lots to choose from.”

  “Sure.” Dev was glad to get away from the questioning. “And then I have to go find Jess and have a meal.” She backed away and joined them at the door. “Goodbye. Thank you.”

  Jared watched her in silence as they left, a speculative expression crossing his face.

  “DID WE WIN or lose in there?” Jason asked as he followed Jess out of the conference center and down the hall. “Holy crap.”

  “Who the fuck knows. At least you got the bars.” Jess’s stomach growled. “Let’s find the wrenchers and get some chow.”

  “Yeah, but after what you said do I want them?” Jason sighed. “Oh hell, I do. I like what it felt like taking this place over. I won’t lie.”

  Jess smiled, unseen. “You did a damn good job. Of course I wouldn’t be saying that if you went the other way.”

  Jason made a face. “And gotten my ass kicked.”

  “Maybe not. I think we were about out of circus tricks,” Jess admitted. “Could have gone either way there. I think I just got lucky.”

  “You’re still senior,” Jason said, after a little silence. “Or are you? What the fuck are you gonna do about the Bay? All that seed crap? That needs a politico. That’s some big time admin jackassery.”

  “Don’t want that,” Jess said. “Had my share of being the Drake. That one damn council meeting did it for me. I don’t have the patience for it, and everyone knows that. I won’t talk. I’ll just shoot people who annoy me.”

  “True,” Jason said. “But if not you then who? Needs someone in charge.”

  “Doesn’t need me, so we’ll have to figure something out.” Jess fit a comms into her ear and tapped it. “Dev. You there?” The line opened and she heard a lot of background noise, and she loosened the comm unit with a grimace. “Oof.”

  “We’re in the landing bay,” Dev said. “Doug is examining his new vehicle. Brent is here as well.”

  Normal. Sounds of mechs. Sounds of rain on the roof, now firmly sealed. The hiss of offgassing.

  Home. “C’mon in for chow,” Jess said then shut the line down. “Wrenchers.”

  Jason smiled. “Guess I have to break the news to Brent,” he said. “See who I can get him assigned to. He’s a good tech.”

  “Not as good as mine.” Jess led the way through the corridors toward the mess.

  “No.” He made a face. “That why you didn’t want any part of a promotion, Jess? Everyone in the Citadel knows you’re stuck on her.”

  Jess stopped and turned, he stopped behind her, his hands coming up automatically palms out, chest level. But she just smiled at him. “Maybe,” she admitted. “She matters to me.”

  Jason lowered his hands.

  “She’s a mech. She’s a flyer,” Jess said. “I don’t want her going out with someone else, and I don’t want her to have to hang out at the Bay fixing boat motors if I chuck this joint and take her with me.”

  His face tensed and shifted. “Interforce owns her contract,” he said. “Is it an option for her to just walk out with you?”

  Jess merely smiled.

  Jason’s eyes widened a little, and he drew in a breath and let it out. “Wow.” He glanced around. “Maybe we should finish this over a drink?”

  “Or over some mushroom cakes.” Jess indicated the hallway and started along it. “I’m buying. Did I thank you for coming to save our asses yet?”

  He caught up to her, and they crossed the main hall where a trickle of jumpsuited figures were moving and ente
red the mess.

  DEV PAUSED IN the entry to the mess and looked around, spotting Jess at a back table. She waved and went to the line and grabbed a tray. There was an AyeBee behind the counter, and she smiled in greeting. “Hello, AyeBee.”

  He smiled back. “Hello, NM-Dev-1.” He offered her a glass of kack. “I am glad you are back. We have heard many stories about your good work.”

  “Thank you.” Dev selected from the dispenser and waited for it to produce a plate. “It was difficult.”

  “Yes,” the AyeBee said. “But good. Things are optimal now. Things are changing.” He glanced past her, and in reflex Dev turned her head to look behind her to find two mechs in jumpsuits. She had to look twice to realize one was bio alt.

  Bio alt, and though a little hesitant and shy, sitting at a small table with his workmate, having breakfast here in the operations mess just like she’d be doing in a moment with Jess. He looked up and their eyes met, and Dev smiled at him.

  After a brief, startled moment he smiled back and lifted one hand with its thumb upraised.

  Interesting. “Excellent.” Dev moved down the line with Doug and Brent behind her, picking up several packets of seaweed crackers before she took her meal back to the table Jess was sitting at with April and Jason. “Hello.”

  Jess bumped her with her shoulder. “Gull’s eggs. Must be my birthday.” She indicated the trays. “Yum.”

  Dev regarded the contents of hers and forked up some of the egg. It tasted completely different than the eggs she had consumed on station, but she liked them. “These are good,” she said. “And actually, it is my natal date in fact. So it’s nice but probably not related.”

  “What?” Jess half turned and stared at her. “It’s your birthday?”

  Dev paused chewing and nodded.

  “How come you didn’t tell me?” Jess demanded. “Dev!”

  Dev swallowed and took a sip of the fizzy drink. “Why would I tell you?” she asked in some confusion. “It’s in the records. Did you need to know that information? I am sorry.”