Partners - Book 1

by Melissa Good

  Dev definitely wanted to go back to that whole kissing thing. “I don’t know. But when you start doing that I don’t really care about what’s going on either.”

  “That bother you?”

  “Does it bother you?”

  Jess tilted her head and they kissed again, in a silence that lengthened quite a bit. Then she took a breath and let her head rest against Dev’s. “Feels too good to bother me,” she said. “That’s never happened before.”

  Dev sighed. “Pretty much everything’s never happened to me before so it’s difficult to say.”

  Jess smiled. Then she looked past Dev to the comm console, which started crackling. “I think I hear my blaster calling my trigger finger.”

  Dev gave her a brief hug. “Did you want to talk to them?” She indicated the radio. “I’m going to take a walk downstairs.”

  “No I didn’t.” Jess returned the hug, startled by the jolt of positive emotion it gave her. “But I will.” Reluctantly she released Dev, and eased into the chair. “I’m going to tell them we’re pulling in with a full load, and bargain a little.”

  “Won’t they know you’re not the fisher people?” Dev asked, resting a hand on the chair arm. “You said they went to this place before.”

  “It’s automated,” Jess said. “We swing the boat in and they hook up to the back of it and the fish go out that way. Nothing face to face.” A faint smile appeared. “Too dangerous for both sides. They don’t want to be able to identify the fishermen, and the reverse is true too. Everyone knows trade crosses the lines.”

  “I see.”

  “Market’s like that too. I’ve been there,” Jess said. “It’s all barter for weight chits, no record of anything. No one wants to know, they just want your money.”

  “Maybe they’ll have that honey mead,” Dev said, with a slight grin. “That happened up on station too. Sometimes a shuttle would...um...‘get lost’ or come in dock for repair from the other side. Doctor Dan has some things in his office that came that way. You weren’t supposed to talk about it.”

  “We aren’t either.” Jess said. “It’s against the rules. Everyone knows it. No one cares.” She gave Dev’s arm a squeeze. “G’wan and stretch your legs. Let me figure out what story I’m gonna tell them.”

  Dev tugged her hood up and trotted off, feeling oddly buoyant as she went out the hatch and rambled down the steps. Though it was cold outside, the spray had diminished and they were traveling relatively smoothly over the calming seas. Dev went over to the rail and looked out, sucking in a deep lungful of the salt misty air.

  She felt a little strange. She felt like she wanted to jump up and down and laugh, which would be very inappropriate. It would also be very inappropriate for her to go back into the control center and pull Jess out of her chair and into the hammock.

  She suspected, however, that Jess wouldn’t mind it at all.

  This was something she didn’t have any programming for. Sex she understood, at least, she understood a lot more now than when she’d had classes about it. The class hadn’t mentioned anything at all about this wild, warm, happy feeling that made her want to run around and laugh.

  What did it mean? Was it correct?

  Did she care?

  Dev smiled into the wind, reveling in the rush as it pushed her hair back and moistened her skin. Then she turned and rambled toward the inner hatch, bouncing a little as she laughed, if only to herself.

  “VESSEL NORTHERN STAR, come about to starboard, slip six Decca.” The radio voice was rough, and harsh sounding. “Cut engines standby to offload.”

  “Check,” Jess answered. “Put the chits on the deck when you’re done. Crew’s sleepin.’’

  “Got it,” the voice said, then cut off with a burst of static.

  The fishery was enormous. Dev was almost glued to the window as they approached, peering up and up and up at the structure that towered over the waves, almost as tall as the citadel.

  This wasn’t rock, however. This was steel, long and very heavy pylons going down into the ocean with spaces between them for boats, and huge hatches with solid doors just above the waves.

  Above that was platform after platform, layered one atop the other with weather stained steel stretching up higher than she could see. “Wow.”

  “Big, huh?” Jess was standing next to her, hands tucked into her hip pockets. “Know what that used to be?”

  “I have no idea.” Dev trimmed the throttles, aiming for the slot they’d been directed to by the gruff voice on the radio.

  “That used to be an oil rig, Devvie,” Jess said. “Way way back in the day, when we pumped petroleum from everything we could to power combustion engines.”

  “Ah.” Dev regarded the structure. “That really is old then.”

  “It is,” Jess said. “Swing around and back us in. I’m going to watch the grapples.” She moved to put her hood up, then frowned and carefully tucked her dark hair into it. “Hope no one’s close enough to get a shot of my mug,” she muttered.

  There was an actual note of discomfort in her voice, Dev noticed. “Would you like to park this vessel?” she said. “I could go watch. If they see me, they’ll think I belong to the boat.”

  Jess stopped in mid motion. “Are you reading my mind? Can they teach you to do that?”

  Dev merely looked puzzled at the question.

  “Never mind.” Jess pushed the hood back. “Good idea. These guys are pretty well known here from the response I got on comms. You do look like them. More than I do anyway.” She traded places with Dev and watched Dev shrug into her jacket and fasten it. “Be careful.”

  Dev cocked her head. “I’ll try to,” she said. “I’m going to go back in that area just behind where this is. It has that metal wall.” She went to the hatch and ducked through it, moving quickly down the steps as she heard the engines change their timbre.

  The fishery was in a calm area, and the winds had dropped to almost nothing, so the boat was comfortable to walk around as she went across the deck and squeezed back between the walls so she had a view of the back. Jess swung the bow around and then reversed the drive, moving them slowly back into their assigned dock.

  It was still very cold, but not the bitter cold of the white. Dev pushed her hood down after a few minutes, and watched the approaching dock, seeing the worn chains and bumpers meant to cradle them as they moved in. The sense of the age of the structure increased as she got a better look, the metal stained with weather and age and dented in many places.

  As the boat closed into its position, she saw the grapples start to move, and she watched in mild apprehension as they shifted around the boat, one of them with a big hook aiming for the hatch in the back.

  “Station keeping,” a loud, oddly accented voice sounded out suddenly. “Lock on.”

  Dev heard a set of thunks and then the grapples were all over the back of the boat, pulling open the hatch as a boom came sweeping down with scan on it and dove into the big tank where the animals were.

  She watched it for a minute, before she realized there was another figure on the dockside, watching her.

  What should she do? Dev looked at the figure, who was slowly walking down the edge of the platform, with an unhurried motion. He seemed to be searching for something, so she climbed casually up onto the platform where the fishing controls were and perched on the wood topped steel seat, letting her hands rest on the knobs.

  He paused as the boat settled into idle, its back end fitting neatly between the bumpers as they came to a halt. He studied her intently. After a moment, he lifted a hand and waved.

  Dev immediately waved back, leaning forward on her elbows after she let her hand drop. She was hoping that would be enough, but a moment later, the man made a motioning forward gesture to her, and seemed to expect that she’d obey it.

  Well then. She got up and climbed down to the deck, moving out behind the wall and keeping near the rail to stay out of the way of all the grapples opening the hatches and start
ing to unload the fish, hooking up a chute to the rear of the ship making a path for them to swim out.

  There was a space of water between the side of the ship and the dock, and Dev was glad of it as she came to the rail across from him. “Hello.”

  He leaned on the bumper. “Old man there?”

  “He’s sleeping.” Dev said the first thing she could think of. “I could go wake him up if you want me to.” She looked behind her.

  He held a hand up. “No no.” He shook his head to emphasize the thought. “Just wanted to know if you got any word about some renegades we heard about stealing fish.”

  “Yes,” Dev said. “They tried that on us. They came over and dropped people on the deck and tried to take us over, but we fought them off.”

  “Yeah?” The man’s brows lifted. “You got guns onboard?”

  “Yes.” Dev didn’t see any point in denying it.

  He shook his head. “Careful with that, lass. You get caught with them, you’ll end up bait.” He glanced at the chutes. “Nice catch.”

  “It was hard work.” Dev felt an eerie sensation, as though someone were standing behind her watching her back. She kept herself from turning though, reasoning that with the water between them, and the steel wall of the ship she was relatively safe.

  He nodded. “Betcha.” He straightened up. “Thanks for the news.”

  Then he looked intently at her. “Know who they were?”

  Dev shook her head.

  He stared at her for a brief moment, then he merely nodded and turned and walked away. “Later.” He lifted a hand, but didn’t look back.

  “Goodbye.” Dev waved back even though he wasn’t watching. Then she turned and crossed the deck, coming back inside the metal wall only to be startled nearly out of her wits when she came face to face with Jess, fully armed, with her big blaster in her hands and an extremely serious look on her face. “Oh.”

  “Nice,” Jess said. “You have any idea who that was?”

  Dev shook her head. “Um.” She gently eased the muzzle of the blaster to one side. “Were you going to shoot him?”

  “If he’d taken one step toward you, sure,” Jess said. “And then since the back of this thing is hitched to the wall we’d have both died together in one big ass flame ball, but there you go.” She put the blaster back into its side mount and sighed. “That was Davog Stern. He’s one of the other side’s big hot shot agents.”

  Dev sorted through all that. “Like you?”

  Jess smiled briefly. “He’s got ten years on me, but yeah, sort of. Maybe if I live that long I might get as nasty a rep as he has. Hard to tell.” She edged over and peeked across the deck. Now that the other side’s big bastard had left, the place was deserted again but that itch was surfacing between her shoulder blades and she wanted out of the shackles. “Good thing you were on deck. If he’d caught me he’d have probably gutted me with the laser knife he had in his right hand.”

  Dev blinked. “He did?”

  Jess regarded her with a bemused expression. “Did they give you programming to fight?”

  “You mean like you do?” Dev watched her nod. “Well, you sometimes don’t know what you get but I don’t think so. Is that incorrect?” She asked, hesitantly. “I remember in the hallway, when the base was attacked that Brent didn’t have anything to fight with. Is that usual?”

  Jess stepped back into the shadows. “Most of the time techs don’t. That’s not their gig. That’s our job. But they know how.”

  “I see.”

  “Let’s get under cover.” Jess nudged her toward the stairs, tugging her hood up and tightening the catches so it hid her face. “Hope they hurry up.”

  “WHAT IN THE hell’s taking them so long?” Jess growled. “How many damned fish were in that thing?”

  Dev consulted her scan. “The tank is almost empty of animals,” she said. “I don’t think it can count them though.”

  Jess snorted softly. “What did you tell him when he first walked up?” She asked abruptly. “I missed that when I was falling down t...I mean, getting to the back of the deck.”

  “He asked for Sigurd. I told him he was sleeping,” Dev said. “Then he asked me about the attack.”

  “And?”

  “And I told him about the pirates. I said they tried to get our fish, but we fought them off, and they went away.”

  Jess had her arms folded over her chest, and she was thinking hard, her eyes slightly narrowed. “You tell them who they were?”

  “No. I said I didn’t know. He warned me not to get caught with weapons.”

  “That’s where I came in,” Jess said. “I heard the rest. Bastard.” She paced across the deck again, her body language restless and almost jerky. “What’s his angle. What’s he looking for?”

  Dev regarded her mildly, but didn’t answer since she really didn’t have anything to add.

  “Now he’s wondering if you knew who they were and didn’t want to squeal, or what.” Jess went to the vid and studied it. “What’s he doing here, Dev? I didn’t expect to see one of them out here. They usually steer clear of the fisheries. Too many uncertain loyalties for it to be safe for them.”

  “He didn’t seem to be in any discomfort,” Dev said. “He did seem very interested in who the attackers were, but...” She cocked her head. “It almost seemed like he was expecting me to say something different.”

  “He expected you to ID the bad guys as Interforce. Most any fisherman would have,” Jess said, quietly. “So now he’s wondering if it was because you didn’t know, or because you didn’t say that for a reason.”

  Dev frowned. “Is that a bad thing?”

  “It could be.” Jess leaned on the console. “C’mon, bastards. Get that tank empty before he decides to find out more about us.”

  Dev sat down in the control chair and let her hands rest on the throttles.

  It seemed a way to get ready to do something since Jess was pretty sure that something was going to happen that would require her to do something.

  “C’mon...c’mon.” Jess was repeating behind her, shifting restlessly. She already had all her weapons on her, and her jacket was unfastened over her armored jumpsuit.

  “Where do you want to go when they finish?” Dev asked, rubbing her thumb over one of the gauges, where the glass over it had gotten a bit cloudy.

  “What?”

  Dev half turned in the seat to face her. “When they’re done. Which way do you want to go from here?” She was fascinated by the almost ceaseless motion of Jess’s body, now channeled into a slightly rocking pacing stride. “Are you in distress? Should we do something?”

  Jess went to the vid and stared at it. “I feel like a sitting duck.”

  Duck. Dev’s brow furrowed. She’d heard people say that word but it had something to do with crouching down, which she supposed could be related to sitting. Was a sitting duck different than a standing one? “All right.”

  “I think they know something, Dev. I think they’re planning on coming at us.” She flexed her hands.

  Dev got up and walked to where she was standing, looking up at the vid. It showed the back of the boat, where the grapples and arms were still busy, a heavy flow of water rushing down the chute and into the fishery’s lower level. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong, and yet, she could feel Jess twitching next to her.

  It made her breathe a little faster. She wondered if she would be turning to the controls next, shoving the engines forward and trying to wrench them free of the fishery.

  The radio crackled, making them both jump. “Northern Star, attention.”

  Jess went over and sat down, picking up the commset and slipping it onto her head. “Star,” she said, in a brief, clipped voice.

  Dev continued to watch the vid, seeing the water flow start to reduce.

  Static sounded for a moment. Jess felt the tension in her ratchet up a few notches and she glanced quickly behind her. “Dev, you might want to come over here and hold onto something
.”

  Dev obediently left the display and came over, settling next to Jess and wrapping her hands around Jess’s arm.

  “Okay.”

  It made Jess smile, despite everything, and after a moment her body relaxed a little. She clicked the comms a few times. “This is Star, who called?” She cocked her ears, and watched the vid, her body waiting for the sight of armored figures pouring down the dock.

  Another crackle, then the voice came back. “Stand by for weighting. Check ninty-eight percent live. Good stock.”

  Jess stared at the speaker. “Thanks,” she said, belatedly. “Twohundred fathoms.”

  “Ice pack?”

  “Not far.” Jess kept to the clipped tone.

  “Weighting 7.5K, 2.5 chits per. Stand by for delivery.”

  Wow. Jess did the math in her head and her eyes popped wide open. No wonder they had full jars of honey onboard. And that was for one load. “Holy shit.” Her eyes tracked to the deck, seeing a grapple coming over with a large can dangling from it. “That’s our payoff, Dev.”

  “Payoff?”

  “That’s what they get for delivering the fish. Trade spots. With any luck they’ll let us loose and I won’t have to start shooting.”

  Dev hopped into the seat Jess vacated, and got ready to start the engines up, not really understanding what was going on. Behind her, Jess went to the hatch and drew her blaster, inching the door open and watching the dock intently.

  The grapple descended, and then they heard the loud, hollow sound as the can hit the deck. Then the grapple arm released and lifted clear, and the next moment the locks and shackles surged into motion, making Jess lurch against the door and start forward before she paused and relaxed. “Damn.”

  “Is there something wrong?” Dev asked.

  “Plan worked,” Jess said. “I wasn’t really expecting that.” She put her gun back in its holster and dogged the hatch shut, feeling the boat float free as the last of the grapples let loose of them.

  “Northern Star, egress to starboard, keep to your lane,” the voice warned. “Stay clear of station.”