by Melissa Good
“Ahhh.” Jess pulled over her own plate. “Now that’s a rare treat. I didn’t think they were doing these until the induction ceremony.”
“They were testing them, ma’am,” the server replied quietly. “We were instructed to give them to all the patrons here tonight.” He turned and disappeared again.
“Hey, wait.” Jess called after him. “Bring us over some kack, then. These don’t go with beer.” She broke off a corner of the substance and popped it into her mouth. “Mm.”
Dev tentatively did the same, mouthing the substance as her eyes opened wide. “Oh.” She blinked. “Wow. What is that?”
“It’s called a brownie.” Jess was busy with her own. “I guess because it’s brown.” She regarded the item. “One of the very few things from the old times they can still make, though I think they make it now with rice flour from the paddy caverns and gulls eggs.” She looked up. “Like it?”
“Yes. It’s really nice.”
Jess looked up, then looked around carefully. “Want to see if we can steal whatever’s left back there?”
Dev looked up from her plate. “I thought I was supposed to keep you out of trouble?”
Jess just grinned at her.
Chapter Nine
DEV CURLED UP on her side, pulling the light cover over her and settling her head onto the cool pillow. She could hear various soft noises, of course, doors opening, and the far off sound of the air circulators and machinery.
Closer at hand, though, now she could hear faint sounds next door, beyond the inner panel that separated her room from Jess’s. Motion, as though Jess was pacing. The sound of the dispenser opening and closing.
Voices. Dev listened, and thought she caught Jason’s low, male tones, then a definite echo that was Jess’s laugh.
She liked that sound. Jess didn’t laugh often, but when she did it made her face relax and brighten and her eyes sparkle. Dev was glad to see that because she knew she’d caused it herself a few times and Jess seemed to appreciate the humor when she had.
Very good. Dev stretched and exhaled, finding herself very happy.
It felt good to lie there quietly, after the very long, very active day. Her body was tired but there was so much to think about she didn’t really want go to sleep right away.
Jess had shown her where the flight log was in the computer, and she decided she would look over it tomorrow to see what she’d done, and what improvements she could make. Then there was the carrier to go inspect, and Jess said she’d take her to the systems workshop and show her where she could build the modules they would use.
And Jess was working on a new mission for them, so maybe she’d find out about that tomorrow too. And there was the gym to explore, and...
Phew. Dev smiled into the darkness. So busy, but that was good.
She felt sleep slowly coming over her despite her best intentions, and though there was more to think about she let her eyes close.
She was just drifting off when the door buzzer chimed, a soft light coming on next to the inner portal as her eyes popped wide open again.
Quickly, she got out of bed and went over to it, putting her palm against the scan plate and blinking a little as it slid open and the brighter light of Jess’s quarters flooded in. “Oh, hello.”
“Whoops.” Jess was holding something in her hand, her body outlined against the light. “My bad. Didn’t know you were sacked out.”
“Only just,” Dev said. “Is there something wrong? Do we need to do something?”
“No.” Jess leaned against the doorway. “I won a flask off Jason on a bet on our rescue. Thought I would share a glass with you since we both were part of it.”
“Oh!” Dev smiled and took a step back. “That would be very nice.”
Jess took that as an invitation and crossed over to the worktable, taking a seat in one of the chairs and setting what she was carrying on the table. She had two small cups in her other hand and put them down as well, the items softly scraping and clunking against the hard surface.
Dev sat in the other chair and waited, watching her. Jess was wearing the same short outfit she was, and the low lights outlined her tall form with an interesting mix of points and shadows. The red mark, from the burning had gained a black bumpy outline and Dev wondered if there would be one for the thing they’d done that day.
Then she figured she could just ask, and she did.
“Hhm.” Jess was pouring a measure of the liquid in the big bottle into the cups. “Not usually for a rescue, no,” she said. “That gets a different reward.” She indicated the thick jacket hanging outside the gray cabinet. “That, or my promotion, that kind of thing. Missions are planned. They’re.” She pondered. “Attacks, not defenses.”
“I see.” Dev took the cup when it was handed to her. “What is this?”
“This comes from topside,” Jess said. “Matter of fact, it comes from the other side’s topside. It’s honey mead.” She held it up to the light, displaying a rich, golden color. “From their Ag station. They’ve still got bees there. We lost all ours.”
Dev sniffed it. “How interesting,” she said. “We learned about bees in the crèche, but I’ve never seen them. They used artificial pollination in the gardens there.”
“Hold that out,” Jess said, and then, when she did, touched her own cup to the one in Dev’s hand. “To this experiment, however far it goes.” Then she brought the cup to her lips and sipped the contents. “Welcome, Dev.”
“Thank you.” Dev copied her, finding the liquid thick and rich, and sweet, burning very gently as it went down her throat into her belly. It almost made her shiver. “Wow.”
Jess cupped her hands around her glass and smiled. “What do you think of it?”
Dev took another sip, pausing to think. “It’s very different. It feels like it’s staying on my tongue a long time after I drink it.”
“Uh huh.” Jess studied her, intrigued and a little surprised at the supple power of her new pilots body, now relatively exposed in the light clothing. Her arms and legs were firm with muscle and she had visible definition under her light golden skin.
Jess hadn’t expected that, but then, she had to admit she’d never really thought about it too much before either.
Bio Alts in the citadel were just window dressing. Jess had no idea if any of them even had names. She certainly never bothered to look at them with their clothing off.
But this one, now.
This one interested her. She watched Dev cautiously swallow another mouthful, and after a brief pause, lick her lips, an approving expression on her face. “Like it?”
Those clear, pale eyes lifted and met hers. “It has alcohol in it?”
“Yes.” Jess chuckled briefly. “Our one remaining vice.”
Dev nodded. “In the crèche, too. Doctor Dan gave me some before I left, but it was really different from this,” she said. “I like this, and the stuff we had at dinner.”
“Yeah, the beer’s not bad.” Jess leaned against the workspace table. “You get to taste some really weird stuff on the outside. You’ll see.”
Dev looked up at that, and grinned. “I’m glad. We heard stories about downside from some of the people who came to the crèche, but it sounded so strange we didn’t believe most of it.”
Jess grinned back. She was getting used to seeing the collar, the faint glowing traces not really seeming out of place around Dev’s neck. The metal itself was very thin and flexed a little as Dev moved and she wondered if it was ever uncomfortable.
What would it feel like? She only just stopped herself from reaching out to touch the thing, and supposed Dev didn’t pay much attention to it. Guess you could get used to pretty much anything. “Does that bother you?”
Dev looked around, then at her. “What?”
“The collar.” Now, Jess surrendered to curiosity and lifted her hand up, touching it with her fingertips. “Does it pinch, or whatever?” She felt the almost smooth surface shift a little, as Dev swall
owed.
“No.” Dev cleared her throat, glancing aside with a touch of embarrassment in her expression. “Don’t think much about it usually.”
Jess lowered her hand. “It feels warm.”
“Body heat. When I got it put on at first it used to...” She paused. “I felt it, sometimes. But now I don’t.” She looked up and met Jess’s eyes. “When you get programmed, the sensors come down over your head and clip into the slots here.” She touched the collar herself. “Then they tell you to go down, and when you come back up, there’s a bunch of new knowledge there.”
Jess rested her chin on her hand. “Do you know ahead of time what you’re getting?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did you ever get something you didn’t like?”
Dev considered that. “I don’t think so.”
Jess grunted softly. “I can remember some classes I wish I hadn’t been forced to take. You’re lucky.”
Dev looked thoughtful for a long moment, then she smiled. “Yes, I am.” She glanced away and then back again. “Are we going to go outside soon? For this mission thing?”
“Yes. I just haven’t planned out when and where yet. But it’ll be soon. They want this taken care of before it can take hold.” She added. “So get some rest tonight. We might be on the move after they get me the weather and mechanical status tomorrow. Then the timing and sleep gets pretty random.”
Dev nodded. “Night and day didn’t mean much in the crèche. At end of schedule, you just reported to your sleep pod, and stayed in it until the cycle completed. She looked around the room. “I like it better here. You don’t know what might happen.”
“You like that?”
“I think it’s really interesting,” Dev replied. “Everything’s new and different.”
Jess studied her cup. “I never thought about it like that. Every day is different here, in a way.” She exhaled. “So I better let you get some rest and go sack out myself.”
“Thank you for the drink. It was very nice of you.”
Jess met her eyes and smiled. “Ah.” She stood up. “Dangerous for me to drink it all. I end up walking into walls and singing.” She took Dev’s cup and the bottle. “I’m glad it worked out this morning, Dev.”
“Me too.” Dev smiled back, letting her elbow rest on the back of the chair she was sitting in. “You know, it’s the one thing we bio alts all really want. To find a place we can belong, and to do good work.”
Jess raised the bottle, and then she turned and approached the door. It slid open as she neared, and then closed behind her.
Dev sat there for a while, absorbing the sweet taste on her tongue, and replaying Jess’s words in her head. She decided she liked Jess a lot, appreciating her straightforward ways and her quirky sense of humor.
And she had been, except for Doctor Dan, the kindest person Dev had met so far anywhere. Almost treating her just like another natural born sometimes. It was nice, and it made her feel really good and with an abrupt suddenness, she realized no matter what difficulties they would face, she wanted to be here, and not go back to the crèche.
It was good to have interesting people around her, even if some of them were rude. It was good to be able to do hard, and difficult things.
Abruptly, the door between her quarters and Jess’s opened, making her blink as the tall, dark haired woman leaned into the opening. “Hello,” she murmured, half sitting up and peering through the shadows.
“Door’s not locked.” Jess outlined the obvious. “So just don’t scare yourself if you walk by and it opens.” She ducked back away and the door closed again, leaving the room once more in quiet peace.
Dev studied the door, quite surprised. She could see the scan pad light was now a calm green instead of the red it had been before, and she wondered what that was supposed to mean. She diligently searched her programming, but there were no references to anything like that in there.
Figures. Dev got up and went behind her workspace, sitting down and pulling her pad over to her, logging in with a thumb press and calling up the rulebook of the citadel, which had provided her with a lot of useful information so far.
After a few minutes reading, she pushed the pad back, unsatisfied. There was nothing in the book about doors, or quarters, or anything like that. Dev rested her chin on her hand and frowned a little. Then she sighed and got up, returning to her bed and snuggling back under the covers.
Maybe it didn’t mean anything. Maybe it was just Jess’s way of saying she was happy with having Dev on her team.
Maybe she’d just gotten tired of ringing the bell. Dev wouldn’t have thought of going into Jess’s quarters on her own. Bio alts were always on the locked side of the door, after all. You found that out pretty fast in the créche.
Dev let her eyes close again, this time fading into sleep before she really had a chance to think about anything else.
JESS SET THE bottle down in her cabinet and put the glasses on the tray underneath. She studied it for a moment, and then she turned and wandered over to her bed, dropping down onto it and looking up at the ceiling.
She was tired. It felt good to be tired, in the way that you got when you’d expended energy in doing something worthwhile.
Body tired, instead of mind tired. She stretched and settled herself, squirming around and getting under the covers as the lights dimmed down around her, as her eyes caught the soft glow of the light across the room.
What, she pondered, would her new pilot think about the door? Would she understand why Jess had turned off the security between them? Probably not. She smiled wryly. Hell, she really didn’t understand why she’d done it, except that she’d realized she had found a little bit of sympathy in her for Dev, who had been thrown into her world with only the barest of preparation for it.
She’d always been a sucker for the underdog, and Dev had risen to the challenge, with a calm courage that surprised and charmed her, and made her want to do what she could to keep the kid on the right track.
Everyone had thought Dev was going to be at best an embarrassment and at worst, a mortal danger to the people she was here to work with. It made her feel good to know she’d had a part in having Dev prove otherwise.
Jess wanted her to succeed. She smiled into the darkness. She did. And in the silence of her own conscience she could admit that she did, and it had nothing to do with what Bain wanted either. It felt good to have something to focus on that kept her interested.
Dev interested her. She suspected she would go on interesting her. She also suspected they could achieve good things together, and be successful. Jess rolled over onto her side and wrapped her arms around her pillow.
She felt her body relax, and she spent a few minutes going over the day in her mind, before the pictures slowly faded into her dreams and she was out, her breathing slowing and evening, a smile still on her face.
THE ALARM BROUGHT Dev standing up in an instant, her heart thundering as she looked around her in shocked bewilderment. The lights had snapped on in her quarters, and she heard noises outside, but in this very moment she had no idea what to do.
The alarm was a low, unnerving howl, growing to a climax and then falling again, setting her nape hairs on edge as the screen above her workstation lit up showing a grid of the citadel with lots of flashing red points.
Something was wrong. After a second of indecision, she bolted for the door between her and Jess’s quarters reaching it just as it popped open, revealing Jess halfway through getting into her jumpsuit. “Oh!”
“Get kitted up,” Jess said. “We’re under attack.”
Dev scooted over to the dressing case and started getting out of her sleep ware, glad of the clear direction. She hesitated, and then grabbed the suit she used in the carrier, jumping into it and sliding the catches closed with one hand as she grabbed her boots with the other.
“Where are they?” Jess’s voice bellowed from the next room. “Airborne?”
Dev got her boots on and grabbed he
r kit, shaking her head to clear it as she headed again for the door that had stayed wide open.
Jess was fastening her sidearm, her head bent toward the comms unit on her workspace. “The dock? The shuttle dock?”
“That’s right!” A voice answered. “Stupid bastards are pounding the landing pad, shuttle’s in there—was about to leave!”
“What the hell?” Jess grabbed her heavy rifle. “C’mon, Dev,” she said. “Stay close to me out of the way. Not sure if we need to launch or not.”
Dev was, again, very glad for the clear direction. “I’m ready.”
Jess looked at her, then smiled briefly. “Yes, you are. Good choice on the suit.” She turned back toward the door. “Central, live fire in the halls—coming down.”
“Watch out! We heard fire in the outer ring! They may have penetrated!” The voice came back. “Ops to all details, stand by! Stand by we may have enemy in the complex!”
“Shit.” Jess slammed her comm helmet on her head and headed for the door. “Put your hat on, kid. You see anyone pointing anything at you dive for the floor.”
“Yes.” Dev put on her own unit, clicking into the comm stream and hearing an eruption of voices as she settled the earpiece in. She got right behind Jess and stuck with her as they went out the door in the front of Jess’s quarters.
Lights were flashing a deep, warning red. The entryway to central ops was likewise lit up. Down the curved hall there came the sound of heavy, running footsteps.
“Go in that entryway, put your back to it.” Jess stepped out into the hallway and blocked the way into ops, swinging her heavy rifle up and into position as a group of dark clad bodies came barreling around the curve at her.
Dev did as she was told, hitting the wall with her back just as she heard Jess release the safety mechanism on the big weapon she was holding.
