Partners - Book 1

by Melissa Good

  “Commander.” One of the ops monitors came over and handed Bock a pad. “This just activated.”

  Stephan looked at it, and cursed under his breath.

  “What?” Bricker said.

  “I presented your idea to Jess Drake.” He said, handing the pad over. “She elected to muster out instead of going along with it.”

  Bricker took the pad and stared at it. “Are you kidding me?” He looked up at Bock. “What kind of idiot is this?”

  “No kind of idiot, sir,” Stephan said, quietly. “Family’s been in a long time.”

  Bricker handed the pad back. “We don’t have time for this crap. Agent wants out? Fine. Get someone else to be part of the project. I’m sure you can find someone.” He looked at Bock’s face. “What’s the problem? You need a visit to psych too?”

  “Maybe,” Stephan said. “Maybe I just got Jess’s point.”

  “What?”

  “John, you reminded me how few our resources are. So now you tell me to throw one of them away? We’re not machines.”

  Bricker looked exasperated. “We don’t have time for this. Do you not get it? Do you not understand what that breakthrough means? That they’ve found a way to grow plants again, here, on the surface?”

  “I get it,” Bock replied. “So now you want me to send people. People, John? Our people? Into enemy space to try and get that technology and bring it back. People who are here, who don’t trust us, who don’t trust the people that back them now.”

  “Maybe we should go all bio alt,” Bricker said. “At least then they’d do what we told them to do, instead of wringing and crying and being pansy assed pieces of crap. I told you. I don’t have time for this. The Council wants a plan, by tonight, to get someone in there.”

  “I’ll see if I can find anyone willing.” Bock turned and started to leave.

  “If?”

  Bock turned. “Unfortunately, sir, until you make good your plan to replace us with biddable robots, we still have a choice. We don’t force our people to go. We ask them.” He swiveled and left the comms center, heading for his office in the back section of the stronghold.

  Word was already spreading. He could see ops agents loitering in the hall, watching his approach, gathered in groups. He remembered being one of them, wondering what ‘they’ were going to ask now, viewing ‘them’ as the Brickers of the world who never really cared about what the cost was, only saw results.

  Well, he was a them now. Stephan grimaced uncomfortably. At least, that’s what his title said.

  “Stephan.” Jason Anders cut in front of his path, with Elaine Cruz next to him. “Can we speak with you?” Both were experienced agents. Both veterans. Apparently they’d been elected spokespeople and, he abruptly remembered, both were friends of Jess.

  Bock regarded them, then sighed. “Sure.” He waved a hand toward his door. “C’mon.”

  “HE DOESN’T GET it,” Bricker said to the closed door, and then swiveled around to look at the rest of the people in the comms center.

  They were all looking back at him with closed, silent faces. He could sense the anger in the room. “I can replace all of you with them too,” he warned. “We have a mission here, people. That’s bigger than any of us.”

  He turned back to the console and started keying in requests.

  DEV WAS SEATED on a plastic bench, her elbows braced on her knees, sweat dripping off her as she tried to catch her breath. Her whole body was shaking with her just ended effort, and she blinked salty droplets out of her eyes that landed on the gym floor.

  She had never been so tired. She flexed her hands, rough and sore from the climbing system and felt a blister forming just at the pad between her fingers and palms. She was dressed in the light singlet they used in the gym and there were bruises on her knees and arms from all the work.

  “NM-Dev-1?”

  Dev looked up, to find a phys proctor there. “Yes.”

  “You have completed group A and group B tasks. Well done,” the proctor said. “You are complete for the day.” The woman gave her a sympathetic look. “I know it’s been a long session.”

  “Yes,” Dev responded, direly grateful for the news.

  “The rest of the day is scheduled clear for you to review previous classes. Okay?”

  “Yes,” Dev said. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” The proctor gave her a smile, then shut her pad down and walked away, leaving Dev alone in the preparation area.

  She straightened up and ran her hands through her damp hair, knowing from the ache in her arms she would be experiencing this class for quite some time. At least she had some space to relax now, and a night meal to look forward to.

  It was cycle end today. That usually meant the dining hall would give them something a little different, cakes, or maybe even some protein bars and she was glad of it since her body was craving replenishment from the past while.

  Footsteps made her look up again, and she blinked as a familiar figure entered the gym and came over to where she was sitting. “Hello, Doctor Dan.”

  “Hello, Dev.” Daniel Kurok took a seat next to her. “How are you?”

  “Tired,” Dev answered honestly. “It was a very hard gym session.”

  You could always answer Doctor Dan straight. He was the first doctor she remembered recognizing as a child, and the one who always had the time to talk, and explain things. He was a man of middling height, with straight, blond hair the same shade as hers, and a calm, appealing personality.

  She’d always liked him. All the sets did. Doctor Dan was one of the very few who would talk to you as if you were actually a person. Not talk at you like most of the teachers and all of the other administrators tended to.

  “I can imagine.” Dan’s gentle grayish blue eyes regarded her. “I know you’ve been very busy preparing for your new assignment. Are you excited about it?

  Dev thought about that. “I am,” she said, eventually. “It’s hard, but knowing so much is good.”

  Doctor Dan smiled at her. “I’m glad to hear that. I came to find you because something has happened and they need you to go to your assignment sooner than we thought. I’d like to talk to you about it before you start getting ready.”

  “How soon?” Dev asked. “I still have programming to get.”

  “Tomorrow.” Doctor Dan put a hand on her shoulder as she stiffened. “But don’t be scared. You have what you need. The rest of the programming is just information, not skills and we’ll send it with you.” He reassured her. “Can you come with me? We can have dinner and talk.”

  It was like getting a buzz. Dev wasn’t sure what to say. She’d never been invited to go to a meal with anyone except one of her crèche mates. “Yes,” she finally answered. “I need to change first.”

  “No problem.” Dan patted her bare shoulder. “Go on. I’ll wait for you outside in the lobby.” He watched her walk off toward the changing space and sighed, glancing up as someone else walked up. “This makes me very unhappy, Randall.”

  “I know.” Doss sat down on the bench just vacated. “I know you had plans for this one.”

  “It’s not just that.” The chief geneticist sighed. “I know you think I’m probably against the assignment, but I’m not. I think it’s a damn good idea, matter of fact.”

  “You do?” Doss seemed astonished.

  “Yes, I do.”

  Doss scratched his head. “So you think this might work?” He asked. “Do you really think one of our products can do this?”

  Dan looked at him with an oddly wry expression. “Yes, I do,” he repeated. “I just wanted to be prepared for it. Send the right set, properly trained and programmed.” He frowned. “Not something jury rigged like this is. I have suspicions about their success motives.”

  Doss shifted uncomfortably. “What do you mean?”

  Kurok stood up. “Never mind. I could be wrong,” he said. “But I’ll be escorting Dev down there. I have our flight assignments already.”

/>   “Oh, but Daniel.” Doss said. “You have so much in work here!”

  “I know. It will need to wait. I want to find out what this emergency is. My sources in Interforce have told me the situation downside is not good.” He frowned. “I don’t want us to end up a scapegoat.”

  “But they wanted us. They came and asked us, Daniel.” Doss looked troubled.

  “Mm. Yes, they did,” Dan frowned. “And you should have brought me in when Bricker was here. I know them better than you do.” He turned and headed for the entrance. “You should have known better, Randall.”

  Doss got up and followed him out the door and into the quiet lobby. “But there wasn’t time, really.” There were three bio alts sitting on a bench near the door, waiting for their classes to start, but otherwise it was empty. He lowered his voice anyway. “Daniel, please don’t cause us trouble. I was hoping this order was the start of something big for the company. A breakthrough.”

  Kurok looked at him. “I’m afraid you’ll just have to trust me, Randall. I’ll do what I think is best for all of us,” he said. “And if not I’ll try to warn you in advance.” His face tensed into a faint grin. “But no promises.”

  “What does that mean, Daniel?”

  Kurok put his hands in his lab coat pockets, an anachronism they all kept over their light, pale, one piece jumpsuits. “It means you need to just let me do what I think best. Not that you have a choice.”

  “Yes, well, all right.” Doss sighed. “Please keep me advised on the progress.” He hurried off, leaving his colleague to take a seat in the lobby to wait.

  Kurok did, dropping into a chair and idly studying the three men seated waiting. Ayebees, he mused, his mind running over the DNA he’d encoded in them, laying down a biological structure suited for the role they were meant to fill.

  One of them noticed him, and waved. He waved back, and all three smiled a little, glad to be paid attention to by a doctor they knew held high status in the crèche. “Have a good session, lads.”

  “Thank you, Doctor Dan.” The one who had waved spoke up. He stood then, and led the other two into the gym as the door opened and chimed green, leaving him alone in the hall.

  Kurok sighed. Then he caught motion in his peripheral vision and turned to see Dev emerging from the gym, fastening her badge to her coverall pocket. He smiled in reaction, proud of his meticulous work that was so evident in Dev’s attractive features and well made body.

  He supervised many sets. But Dev was one of his personal efforts. “That was fast.” He stood up. “Let’s go get something to eat. I bet you’re hungry.”

  Dev smiled bashfully. “They worked me hard in the gym today,” she said. “And it’s cycle end. I think we’re going to get some extra tonight.”

  “Well, don’t worry about it.” Kurok led the way through the halls. “We’re going to the little place we working scientists eat, so you’ll get fed, absolutely, as much as you want.” He triggered the door to the grav lift and stepped in, waiting for Dev to join him before he pointed up with his thumb and they both kicked off.

  The tubes were pretty empty and they drifted upward through the clear glass, as the station’s rotation brought them to aphelion, and they were faced with a vast star field overhead.

  Dev enjoyed the sight immensely. She didn’t usually get the opportunity, since most of the crèche areas she was accustomed to were down lift. “They’re so pretty.”

  Kurok had been looking up also. “They are, aren’t they?” He said. “Savor them, Dev. You won’t get to see them downside.”

  “That’s what they said.” They reached the top and she followed him through the hatch. They were now in one of the upper residential areas, and she turned her head from side to side looking at the plush carpet, and woven tile walls. “Only clouds.”

  “Only clouds.” Kurok led the way to an entrance where a bio alt was standing, manning a small desk. “Hello, Ceebee 245.”

  The bio alt, dressed in a black jumper with silver piping, looked up. “Oh! Hello, Doctor Dan.” He glanced at Dev, but didn’t address her. “Would you like a table?”

  “Yes,” Kurok said. “For two, please. My friend Dev here is joining me.”

  Ceebee 245 looked briefly at Dev, then he half bowed and indicated the door behind him. “Of course, Doctor. Please come this way.”

  Dev felt very out of place. She followed Doctor Dan inside, and found herself in a bubble that held several dozen tables, about a dozen of which were occupied. She knew the people in the room were all looking at her and she had some idea that her kind weren’t allowed.

  Kurok, though, seemed oblivious to this. He pulled out a chair for her at the table they were led to, and sat down himself. “Ceebee, please bring us two fruit punches to start with.”

  Ceebee 245 nodded in acknowledgement and disappeared, heading toward the service area.

  Kurok leaned on his forearms. “Dev, I know this seems very strange to you. But I’m doing it for a reason.”

  Dev looked around. “I’ve never been here before,” she said. “It’s very pretty.”

  Kurok smiled. “Yes, it is,” he said. “You know, the assignment we’re sending you on, I think sometimes you might end up in places like this with your natural born partner. And you might even be wearing clothing that will make people think you’re not a biological alternative.”

  Dev remained silent, listening to him intently. That was all extremely interesting information and she filed it away for study later.

  “So I wanted you to just see what this was like before you went downside.” He looked at the pad on the table. “But I think I’ll order for both of us, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Okay,” Dev said. “I don’t really know what any of this is.” She indicated the ordering pad.

  “I know. And for a while you probably won’t downside either, but your partner will help you with that.”

  Dev smiled and nodded.

  He keyed in an order, then turned his attention back to her. “They’ve given you a lot of programming this week, haven’t they?”

  “Yes.” Dev was relieved to be talking about something more familiar to her. “I had two sessions. The first one was very long. It was all tech, really hard. Then I had lab.”

  “I saw your lab results. You did very well.” Kurok said. “The programmers were really pleased with how you took the program, too.”

  Dev grinned in response. “Thank you.”

  Kurok smiled. “I’ve seen the programming. What did they actually tell you about this assignment, Dev? What did they say you were going to do?”

  Dev was a little confused. Wouldn’t Doctor Dan know that? “Doctor Doss explained there was some problem that they wanted me to try and help with. He took me to meet a man called Bricker, who said I would be working with them to try and solve the problem.” She paused. “They didn’t say exactly what I would do, but the programming was a lot of tech, so I guessed I would be working with that, and with something to do with security.”

  Kurok regarded the young, serious face across from him. “Does that worry you?”

  Dev considered the question. “I don’t know. Should it?”

  Kurok waited as two plates were delivered to them, and the server silently left. He watched his dinner companion study the contents, then pick up the implements on one side and put them neatly to use.

  That, at least, they’d given her. “They must have told you what Interforce does, didn’t they?” He sliced up his protein and took a sip of the fruit juice.

  Dev shook her head, chewing thoughtfully and swallowing. “I know what we got from the downside class. That’s all.”

  Figures. “Well, Dev, you’re right that you’ll be doing something with security.” Kurok said. “Interforce sends people to do things that make the lives of people who are on our side better, and prevent people who aren’t on our side from hurting us.”

  Dev thought about that. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

  “Well, i
t doesn’t, if you just look at the surface of those words,” Kurok said. “What that really means, Dev, is that you’ll be doing some dangerous things, and it’s possible you could get hurt doing them. You could see other people hurt.”

  “Oh.” Somehow, though, Dev had known that. Something in the programming had told her, she reasoned, since she felt no prickle of surprise at the words, nor dread hearing them. “I’ll do my best to be safe,” she said.

  Kurok smiled again. “I know you will,” he said. “When I put you together I tried to give you the ability to adapt, and to handle difficult things. This assignment is going to be difficult, but I think you can do it.”

  Dev produced another tentative smile at the compliment. “Thank you.”

  “What I am going to warn you about, though, is about how people downside will feel about you, about what you are.” His voice gentled. “There are other bio alts in Interforce. But none of them will be doing what you will. Some people might not like it.”

  Dev nodded. “Like here, when they don’t like it when someone else gets higher skills,” she said. “They want it too. Or they think they should get it.”

  Impressed, Kurok regarded this product of his making. The insight was more than he expected, and showed a self awareness he hadn’t quite anticipated. “Yes, that’s it exactly,” he said. “Have you had trouble like that much here?”

  Dev shrugged. “A little. I think its also mostly because I’m—” She hesitated. “There’s no one else in my set. Everyone else has someone who is just like them, and it makes them stick out less.”

  “Well, that’s true,” Dan said. “You’re a developmental unit. The other sets know that.”

  “They do,” Dev said. “But it doesn’t stop them from wanting the programming too, even if they’re not sure what it is.”

  Kurok put his fork down and touched her hand. “You should have come and talked to me about that, Dev. I could have explained it better for you.”