Partners - Book 1

by Melissa Good

  Doctor Dan had told her she could trust Jess. Dev thought about that. She trusted Doctor Dan. So it must be all right. She put a hand on the curved nose, obviously new, and could see through the lines and gears the now empty spot her chair would rest in.

  At least for her, it must be all right.

  “Dev?”

  Dev removed her head from the wiring and moved around the forward struts. “Yes?”

  “Here’s the mod chamber.” Jess pointed to a door behind the dock. “You said you wanted to get some time in there sometime.”

  “You mod?” Clint kept a wary eye on Jess, but circled back around to where Dev was standing. “You wouldn’t be interested in being a part of the assembly would you?”

  “Yes,” Dev said, instantly. She could feel the programming bubbling up, as she ran her eyes over the internal systems and their schematics flashed behind her eyes. “I would really like that.”

  “You would?” Jess was watching her in some bemusement.

  Dev nodded. “It’s in my programming,” she said. “How to run all the things inside, and fix them when they break. It would be great to touch and work with them firsthand.”

  Clint clasped his hands dramatically to his chest. “I’m in love.”

  Jess rolled her eyes.

  Dev grinned, a little uncertainly. “Is that good or bad?”

  “Seriously.” Clint smiled back at her. “It’s really great when one of you all take a true interest in the old buses. We work hard to keep them flying.”

  “And we take them out and wreck them.” But Jess’s voice was mild and indulgent. “Be careful, Clint. She kicked my ass as a pilot her first run. She’ll take your job away if you don’t watch out.”

  “I didn’t kick you,” Dev said. “I would never do that.”

  “I saw the log,” Clint said. “So they figured out how to make the real deal, huh? Crazy.” He studied Dev with curious eyes. “Oh, well. At least they made her cute.”

  Dev gave him a slightly startled look.

  “Yes, they did.” Jess found herself agreeing, somewhat to her own surprise, enhanced when she caught Dev blushing at the words.

  That made her blush, the unfamiliar sensation making her swallow. “Hey.” She redirected all the attention to the carrier. “So what’s the deal with the engines.”

  Clint hesitated, then he cleared his throat and went with the subject change, moving around to the far side of the carrier where the huge engines were cradled, waiting for installation into the frame. “Y’know I heard rumors we were getting some new gear, but I don’t know if the new stuff’ll hold up like these babies did.”

  “They...um...” Dev felt a little confused, and a little lightheaded, but she wasn’t sure why. “They had a lot of power. More than the sims. I was surprised.”

  Clint beamed, fully restored to good humor. “Why thank you, kind lady.” He made a half bow. “I tuned them myself. Let me take the cover off the cowling here and show you some of the tunings.” He pulled a tool from his coveralls and started wrenching the engine cover, turning his back to them.

  Jess tilted her head and regarded her companion. Dev was studying the ground, a faint smile on her face. After a second, she looked up and met Jess’s eyes.

  For a moment, the hangar faded out a little and then they both looked away. Dev shook her head a little as she stepped forward and joined Clint at the side of the engine.

  Jess put her hand on one of the bare struts and stood there watching. She was aware, vaguely, that something a little odd was going on, but she wasn’t sure what it was, so she leaned against the carrier and listened to Clint’s monologue as Dev circled the engine and peered inside, the bright lights of the work bay gilding her pale hair.

  Slowly her mind returned to the plan, and she straightened carefully, moving past the carrier and approaching the engine. “Clint, the Old Man wants me to buzz out probably plus 48. This thing going to be ready?”

  Clint looked up at her. “Plus 48?” He exhaled, and looked around. “Crap, Jess. Most of my mechs are working on the retaining wall at the bay. We gotta get that done before tomorrow night.”

  Jess lifted both hands slightly and let them drop. “Not my schedule.”

  “No, I know.” Clint sighed. “Well, Dev, you up to help out for real? I could use a pair of hands.”

  “Yes,” Dev said. “That would be excellent.”

  “We’ll do our best,” Clint said. “But Jess, I’m not guaranteeing anything. You may need to take a loaner if you have to go out plus 48.”

  Jess frowned. The last thing she wanted to do was go out with a strange vehicle. It wasn’t as if Clint’s team didn’t take equal care of them, but you spent a lot of time learning the quirks of what you were... Her thoughts stopped, and she focused on Dev.

  Dev, who had stepped into this carrier for the first time, and flown it with no familiarity at all. “We’ll cope,” Jess said. “I’d rather have ours, but Dev can handle it.”

  Dev looked up and grinned at her over the top of the engine, a smudge of silicone grease on her nose. “Thank you,” she said. “I am not sure that’s really true, but I’m glad you think so.”

  “Ah, and modest as well.” Clint leaned next to her and pointed out a bit of machinery. “See that? Regs say the noz has to be ten inches, but I found a way to put a throttle inside there that really boosts the exhaust.”

  “Oh yes!” Dev straightened, holding her hands up as though they were around throttles. “I remember that, how much faster it seemed when I was changing direction, and heading up.”

  “Yeah, I can still feel it.” Jess rubbed her shoulder. “Knocked my ass out of my chair twice.”

  Clint chuckled.

  “I did?” Dev seemed amazed. “Really?”

  “My fault. Forgot to tighten my harness.” Jess eased over and peered inside the engine. The internal mechanics of the technology she’d mastered never really much interested her. She knew how it all worked, of course. Every agent did, it was part of the training. You never knew when you might get caught outside and need to make repairs, for example.

  But still. That’s what the techs were for, after all, to pilot the carriers, sure, but also to know how they worked, and be up on all the systems so they could keep everything moving at the rate the agents needed to get their goals met.

  And Dev, apparently, was going to be one of those kind of techs who slobbered over the gears. Jess gave Dev a tolerant look, as she dug into a gyro.

  Without warning, Dev hopped up onto the engine and lowered herself head down into the inside of the big blast chamber, both arms braced on either side easily bearing her weight.

  Clint gave her a surprised look, then cocked his head and glanced over at Jess. “Drake.” His face scrunched into a wry grin. “I think you may have gotten more than you bargained for in this new driver of yours.”

  Jess gave him a wry look of agreement. “Had occurred to me.”

  “Is that the plasma igniter?” Dev asked, lowering herself a little more. “Wow. I didn’t know it looked like that.”

  Jess walked over and poked her head inside the engine.

  “Yes, that’s it,” Clint said, directing his hand over the object. “It’s one of the few things on the old crate that’s direct drive. That cabling system routes right into the throttles. Real old school.”

  “Wow.” Dev pulled herself up and sprawled over the top of the engine, flexing her fingers a little. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Wow,” Jess echoed. “I didn’t know that either.”

  “Hey, Jess.” Clint lowered his voice. “Are you going to trial that new weapons rig? The one they hook up to your head?”

  Jess looked quickly around, but they were alone. She gave Clint a warning glare.

  He interpreted the look. “Everyone knows. You know how this place is. I heard it in the lunchroom last week.”

  Jess did know. She exhaled. “Not until they get the bugs out of it,” she said. “Since you heard that
, you heard about what it did to Don.”

  Clint frowned, and nodded. Dev remained quiet, looking from one of them to the other.

  “Not the way I’d choose to go,” Jess said with a note of finality.

  “Gotcha,” Clint said. “So, anyway, once we get these chambers in here rebuilt, we can remount the engines.”

  “I would love to help,” Dev reiterated. “This is great.”

  “You want to help too, Jess?” Clint asked.

  “No.” Jess patted the engine. “I’m going to go run the tactics boards and see what’s out there. Catch up with you later, Dev.”

  “Okay.”

  Jess gave a light wave, and walked off, wondering why in the world she suddenly had an urge to learn about plasma injection.

  And get her hands dirty.

  Chapter Eleven

  IT WAS LATE by the time Dev got back to her quarters, her head buzzing with all the stimulation from the day and her hands and arms covered in silica gel.

  She’d had so much fun with Clint. He had the same enthusiasm for the machinery as she did and it was really enjoyable sharing that while at the same time getting important things done to get their carrier back together.

  She’d learned a lot from him, too. Pieces and bits that programming left out, and additional understanding that let her put parts of what she had together better. All good, and they’d made some progress on the engines, too.

  She went into the sanitary unit and stripped out of her jumpsuit. Clint had suggested she ask for the kind of work coverall he used, which was a tougher fabric and had more pockets in better places for all the adjustment tools.

  Dev flexed her hands, noting she’d gotten a few cuts and scuffs on them from the work, but the discomfort wasn’t significant and she divested herself of her underclothes and started the water running.

  She had to laugh a bit. Everywhere her jumpsuit wasn’t, she was covered in dirt and grunge, and it was very nice to get under the warm water and scrub. She had no idea in the world what she would have done up in the crèche. The amount of rad it would have taken to get this off her skin—boy that would have hurt.

  Her stomach growled, and she shut the water off, stepping out and grabbing a towel to dry herself off with. Then she paused and considered how natural it was starting to feel to be here, which in itself didn’t seem natural because she’d only been here a few days.

  But she did feel that way. She put her suit and underthings into the laundry basket and wrapped the towel around her, walking out into the room and crossing to her uniform case. She opened it and then paused, faced with a small surprise.

  Along with the standard jumpsuits and her pilot ones, now there were a few others. One in a deep blue and another in purple that seemed very casual. She pulled aside the regular ones exposing the blue one and touched the fabric, which was very soft.

  “Hm.” Dev put on a pair of dry underclothes and studied the blue suit, liking the feel against her skin very much. “Wonder where this came from?” Was it another thing from Bain? Or maybe just something that came as part of her job? Maybe it was something she would need on the mission.

  Of course. Dev took out one of her regular off duty suits and slipped into it, fastening the catches and transferring her insignia to the collar.

  She went back into the sanitary unit and picked up her comb, raking it through her hair to order it.

  She was just finishing when she heard the inner door open, feeling a funny little prickle down her spine as she looked in the mirror and Jess appeared in it, leaning against the edge of the entrance. “Hello.”

  “Finished wrenching for the day?”

  Dev turned and put the comb down. “Yes. I really liked it. Is that wrong?” She watched Jess’s face, noting anew it’s distinctive shape and the piercing quality of her eyes. “I didn’t mean to be incorrect.”

  “You weren’t.” Jess’s eyes shifted and met hers. “You’re a tech. Some techs just want to drive and do mods. Some like to wrench. It’s all right,” she said. “Want to do dinner? I got stuck in comp pulling tracking data. I just got back.”

  “Me, too,” Dev said. “I’d love to go. It’s been a long time since breakfast.”

  “It has. C’mon.” Jess turned and led the way through her quarters to the outer door, which she palmed open. “Any good news on the old bus?”

  “Yes,” Dev said. “I think we did good work today. “

  They walked along the corridor, which seemed a lot busier than Dev remembered it. There were a lot of people clustered in groups and passing them.

  Jess angled toward the wall to avoid a group of talking men. “Mess is going to be a damn circus.”

  “What’s a circus?” Dev asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “What’s a circus.” Jess mused, as they turned down the hall and paused, spotting a big crowd outside the mess hall. “In the old days, they used to travel around and put up tents, where you could go to see performing animals, and clowns, and trapeze artists.” She glanced at Dev, who was staring at her in fascinated incomprehension. “I’ll show you on scan later.”

  They squeezed past the crowd and entered the mess, only to pull up short again. Every table was taken, and more had been shoved in until it was packed with bodies.

  Jess turned and went over to the food service area. “I vote we get a bag meal and go sit on the porch.”

  “Okay.” Dev went right along with it, having no real desire to squeeze in with the crowd. She took the wrapped package the Ceebee handed her and followed Jess out the door again, pressing back against the wall as a half dozen men in fancy looking suits pushed past them.

  She saw Jess’s eyes narrow, but she merely edged past them and headed down to the lifts. Dev kept close after her, and shortly they were going down to the lower corridors. When the lift stopped and they stepped out, they were alone.

  “What a nuthouse,” Jess grumbled. “I hate these damned ceremonies. Everyone and their mother’s asshole shows up for them.” She strode down the hall and the air got damp and salty as they made their way to the lock and went inside. “Weather’s broken for a while. We can get some air.”

  Dev waited, holding her package, as the lock cycled and the outer door opened, giving them access to the small platform overlooking the sea.

  Unlike the previous time, the winds were quiet and the sea below them was only rustling with a dim roar, not the fierce crashing Dev had heard the last time Jess brought her here. She sat down on the bench next to Jess and unwrapped her meal.

  The air smelled wet and salty, but she liked it. She could almost feel the rasp of it against her skin as a physical thing, and as she took in a lungful, it occurred to her that the real thing felt very different than the manufactured air she’d become used to in the crèche.

  That never smelled like anything. This she could taste on her tongue and as she took a bite of the roll that was in the package it enhanced the flavor of it. She peered at the item curiously as she chewed. “This is interesting,” she said, after a minute.

  “Seaweed roll,” Jess said, a little indistinctly due to her mouthful. She swallowed and regarded hers. “They take the little stuff they catch in the seine nets—the krill and tiny shrimps and all. Then they mix it with grain and wrap it in leaf weed.”

  “I like it.”

  “Me too.” Jess smiled briefly. “But you seem to like everything.”

  Dev leaned back against the wall, extending her legs out and crossing them at the ankles. “Well.” She chewed thoughtfully. “Nothing’s really been bad yet. I like some things more than other things, but I haven’t gotten anything yet that made me just stop.”

  “Did you up there?” Jess leaned her elbows on her knees, her back too sore to press against the wall.

  “Yes,” Dev said. “There was a kind of fruit once. I just got a smell of it and it made me sick.”

  “Huh.”

  “They stopped making the fruit,” Dev continued. “They tried all that stuff
on us.”

  Jess’s jaws moved stolidly, ingesting the roll. The pain was killing her appetite but she knew she had to get something inside her before she took more drugs for it. She’d found that out the hard way. And she did like the things, the spicy taste and crunch of the grains appealed to her.

  Maybe a good night’s sleep would help. She finished the first roll and took out the second one. There were also some rice cakes inside, and a tube of water. At the bottom a piece of sweet dough to finish with.

  She’d had many of these meals usually out on assignment, or waiting for insertion, but occasionally in the heat of ops they’d get them delivered to the comm center too. Not fancy, but it kept you going.

  She glanced at Dev, who was busy consuming everything in her box with a studious seriousness that almost made Jess laugh. They had both fallen silent, but she was surprised to realize it was a comfortable silence, requiring no chatter between them.

  She liked that. Jess herself wasn’t much of a talker, and it seemed her new pilot wasn’t either which seemed to her to be another good sign. In the dim outside solar powered light that lit the platform, Dev was cast in low color shadows, her pale hair contrasting with the darkness of her suit. She appeared relaxed, looking around as she chewed with a contented expression.

  Jess went back to her own meal trying to ignore the once again throbbing ache in her back, trying to remember just how much of the painkiller she had left in her quarters. Maybe she could take some and just sack out—

  The touch on her arm nearly made her jump out of her skin. “Urf!”

  “Wow. Sorry about that.” Dev withdrew her hand. “I didn’t mean to alarm you, I just wanted to ask you a question.”

  Jess turned the seaweed roll around in her fingers for a moment, then glanced sideways at Dev. “Go ahead and ask,” she said. “But be careful about grabbing me. Sometimes I don’t think first and I could hit you without meaning to.”

  “Okay.” Dev studied her with a serious expression. “Is there something disturbing you?”

  Jess was caught by utter surprise at the question. “Me?”