Partners

It was a simple device. It took in water, made breathing air out of it, and then recycled the exhaled breath into the process. Dev had programming on it, and she understood it's workings, but she realized abruptly the programming was mostly to maintain and manage the devices not so much about using them herself.

That was, the programming told her, one of the things the agents did, like the weapons she knew how to power and fix but not aim herself. She had only rudimentary knowledge of how to put the gear on, for emergencies.

Oh well. It was far too late to go back now. She would just have to use what programming she had and adjust to the situation. It was an emergency, after all... wasn't it?

Dev watched Jess closely, just a bare outline in front of her, and mimicked her motions as best she could. She waved her boots and felt the fins propel her, and she held her hands out in a balancing motion as she swam after Jess. It was quieter than she'd imagined, with just the rush of the water against her ears, and as they moved away from the rocks the water didn't pull so much at her and it became a little more comfortable.

They angled down and approached the tube. Now she could see the end of it, lit dully with a green ring and in that light she could see outlined a metal grate that stretched across from end to end. There was a sense of pressure against her ears, and she swallowed in reflex, feeling it ease as memories of the creche surfaced, those times when they balanced the bio systems and the tanks would cycle.

As they rounded the edge, the force of the water sucked them against the metal with starting fierceness, and she grabbed hold of the grate before the force could suck her through it as April and Mike thumped against it next to her. She glanced at them, their eyes barely visible in the faint light from the helmets.

Jess moved cautiously across the grid, motioning them to follow. She mimed putting her hands carefully on the metal, and shifting her body over the cross pieces. Her knee pads gripped the surface, and she was able to move fairly quickly with her three companions sticking in her shadow with meticulous care.

When she reached the far edge of the tunnel, she stopped and waited until they clustered up next to her. Jess pointed through the square grid, the opening just large enough for her to squirm through it. She reached through with one hand and put it flat on the rounded wall of the tunnel, a faint blue light appearing around her glove after a moment.

She looked back at them.

April nodded and lifted a hand, flexing it's fingers and causing it to glow blue for an instant. Mike and Dev nodded also, but kept both hands firmly in place.

Jess eased through the grate, twisting and getting her grip with a smoothly athletic grace until her entire body was inside, and both hands, and both knee pads were firmly anchored.

She moved a little further, and Dev went next, her smaller form transiting the grate with far more ease as she got her gloves in place and released her leg grip, pulling her lower body in and tucking it next to Jess's. The action was difficult, but she felt it was well within her strength, and now that she was getting used to the pull of the water, it vaguely reminded her of being under heavy G in the creche.

She felt her body adjust to that, shifting and positioning to resist the force almost automatically.

The only light was the faint ones from their gear, and the green ring behind them. Dev concentrated on following Jess, aware of the two agents behind her as they moved along the curved wall of the tube, deeper and deeper into the tunnel until the outer ring and the grid was invisible, and they were coming closer to the intake raceway that sucked the water through turbines they could feel vibrating under their hands.

It was amazing. Dev suddenly felt like despite the strangeness and the imminent danger, being there with the others and working this very difficult task was good and right and she was glad she was doing it. She released one glove and moved it over as Jess did, aware that her partner had paused, and looked back at her, only a slight reflection of her helmet light revealing her eyes.

Dev smiled inside her mask, and saw her partner smile back. Then Jess turned her head and moved further down the tunnel, pausing after about a minute and waiting for the rest of them to catch up.

Jess lifted her hand up and pointed towards a smaller tunnel, half hidden by the curve of the main one. There was a scoop at the edge of it, sticking into the flow and redirecting part of it into the smaller tube, and Jess transferred into it smoothly, this time laying on her belly on the bottom of the curve.

It was still more than wide enough to accommodate her, but she kept her head down and squirmed forward in a side by side motion Dev tried hard to copy. Now that the pressure of the water was behind her rather than at her side, the task was easier, and she got the sense too that the flow was lessening.

Then they came around a slight curve, and Jess stopped.

Ahead of them was a solid ring of light, this one faintly purple. Jess turned as they came up next to her and released one hand from the tunnel, closing her fist, then opening it and fanning her fingers before closing them again.

Scan. Programming kicked in. The ring was a bio scan, like the one they used in the citadel. Dev eyed it, remembering what Jess had said about the ones there, and how they could kill you if you weren't correct.

She doubted any of them were correct right now. She suspected if they passed over the ring, they would be seriously damaged.

Dev studied it. The inner ring was smooth, there were, of course, no control surfaces available but in the green glow, she could see a flush mounted panel behind it, with tracers of lights flickering over its surface. It seemed clear to her that if she could reach it, she might be able to do something useful.

It also occurred to her that of the four of them, she was of least value, and shortest association.

Without further consideration, she released all four magnetized surfaces that held her and let the water yank her forward, so suddenly that even Jess's excellent reflexes couldn't react fast enough to stop her. A flash of green went past her, and she felt a strong tickle of scan, but then she was through it and activated the magnets to grab on just past the ring.

Excellent. Dev took a moment to look back, a little startled to see Jess's face outlined in the green light, so close to the scan she could almost see it reacting to her presence. Her partner's eyes were wide and shocked, and her body was tensed as if she was about to lunge through the ring after her.

So Dev held up a hand, and waved it, then she moved over to the panel and started to examine the surface. Anchoring her knees firmly, she reached inside one of the leg pockets on the over-suit and removed her portable scanner in the water bag she'd sealed it in, and activated it with some difficulty due to the rubber and her gloves.

The scanner evaluated the system and returned results to her. She observed them, and felt another layer of programming surface, as the codes and outputs slowly came into focus and her understanding. She tuned the scanner and reversed the polarity of it's beam, slowly matching it to the panel's algorithms.

It was difficult. She could barely see the scanner's screen, and the water was thrumming against her, making her waver in the flow.

She glanced to her right, seeing all three agents crouched just on the other side of the ring, watching her intently, and oddly, she felt herself blushing.

Then she returned her attention to the scanner. The codes weren't matching and she frowned, searching in her programming for hints of what to do. It occurred to her that the mission was counting on her to be able to do something useful, and she felt very uneasy about failing in that.

For a long moment she studied the scanner, then she recalled the change she had made to find the fish. She recalled that program in the device and put it in debug, reviewing the code she'd used. It wasn't the same, but there was something there that she felt might be interesting to try.

She made note of the code block and went back to the panel scan, instructing the device to change its matching pattern, referencing her previous block and after a moment, the lights tracing on the panel changed.

That was interesting, she hoped, in a good way. She retuned the device again and rescanned, and then reversed the polarity of the signal and the lights stuttered, then went out. She turned her head, and saw the green ring sputter, then morph to a lower, light yellow color.

Her eyes met Jess's and Dev had to shrug, lifting one hand and then returning it to the scanner. She shook her head, then sucked in a startled breath when her partner released her hold and sailed through the ring, without taking her eyes off Dev's.

It was over in an instant. Then Jess was grabbing hold next to her, a grin visible behind her mask. She touched the plas front of it to Dev's and gripped her neck, squeezing them together.

It almost made Dev lose her hold. But then the others were alongside and Jess released her, giving her a pat on the side of her head. She looked at both April and Mike, and they both held up one hand with a thumb pointed up at her.

Dev figured that was good. She returned the gesture, then tucked her scanner away and got ready to follow Jess along the tunnel again now that the way was clear.

It was good. She'd done the correct thing.

**

Jess held them up just short of the end of the tunnel. The water emptied into a large open space and there was enough light ahead for them to see each other by. Holding a hand up for caution, Jess removed a small reflective square from one of her leg pockets and positioned it, looking carefully up and to all sides to see what was outside the tunnel edge.

Satisfied, she swarmed outside onto the wall, pausing for a long moment to gauge any reaction, before she lifted a hand off the tank and motioned them forward.

Once on the wall, the pressure of the water stopped, and the absence of the thrumming pressure was almost as startling as it's start had been. Dev clung to the wall with one hand and a knee, looking around at the big space with interest. There were grates on one side of it, big and on the bottom. But on the wall there was a ladder mounted, and that's where Jess was heading.

It was still mostly dark. The light from within was a beam focused on the grates, leaving the rest of the space in shadow with only the occasional reflection moving against the wall and across their bodies.

Jess reached the ladder and paused, motioning them to stay against the wall. She removed her fins and clipped them to a ring on her suit, getting her boots on the ladder rungs and moving quickly upward.

Dev watched her, seeing her approach the top of the ladder and remove one hand from the rungs and put it on her blaster grip. She felt motion next to her and saw Mike and April doing the same, both of their eyes glued on their leader.

But Jess released her grip and continued moving upward, the upper half of her body rising up out of the water. When only her boots remained in view, she reached down and motioned them up, and then disappeared completely above the surface.

For a moment, no one moved. Then Dev realized they were waiting for her to go first, and she did, not bothering putting her boots on the rungs just pulling herself up with her arms until she broke the surface, looking quickly around for Jess.

Her partner was standing in a small, open space with her gun out but her body relaxed, apparently just waiting for them to join her. Dev climbed up and over the small wall at the top of the ladder, and let herself down on the other side, moving to the left to let the others out.

She removed her mask and let it hang around her neck as the breather ran out of water to convert, and drew a breath of air that was full of chemical smell and old moisture, abruptly replaced by Jess's scent as she found lips touching hers with gently insistent passion.

“You.” Jess whispered in a barely audible tone. “Are a rock star.” She straightened and took a step back as April emerged from the pool and climbed into the drainage area.

Dev resisted the urge to try and look up what a rock star was. She busied herself getting her gear sorted out, watching Jess and following her lead in draining the water from between the layers of her suits. It ran away down the drain in the floor and she checked her scanner, glad to see it hadn't come to any harm during their underwater entrance.

When they were all secured, Jess motioned them forward, then turned and lifted her gun from her hip, adjusting a setting, then firing at the ground they had been standing on.

Instantly, it was dried, as their suits had already done likewise.

Jess led them through a short corridor and into an area that held lockers lining both walls. Just as they reached it, the sound of a door opening made them all plaster themselves against a dark area to one side of the door, watching as two men entered and went over to different lockers.

They seemed disgruntled. They removed suits from the lockers not very different from the ones Jess's team were wearing, only they seemed bulkier and well worn. The men climbed into the suits and headed for the same place they'd come out of the tunnel from, cursing as they picked up a set of fins from the ones lining the walls.

“Going to fix your hack.” Jess whispered into Dev's ear. “Hope you remember how ya did that for the way out.”

“I do.” Dev whispered back.

Jess smiled and ruffled her damp hair. “It's a good sign. They're not on alert.” She kept her voice very low. “This is one of the first development centers on their side. Tech's not razor edge, they don't figure this a target. It's just research.”

“You thought they'd go check that.” April breathed. “That's why you dried the floor.”

Jess nodded. Then she removed a plas from her pocket and put it against the wall. Faint tracings showed up, and she indicated a path on one of them. “We're here.” She said. “We need to get here, so Dev can synch in and find out where the targets are.”

Mike nodded. “That looks like a remote scan station.”

“It is. We'd never make it to central.” Jess pointed at a part of the map. “Behind six or seven layers of bio. But I think the'd keep Kurok as far away from that as they could anyway, so we might get lucky.”

“You think he's here?” April whispered. “Why here?”

“It's far away from their science center where we'd expect him to be, and my guess is, the project they want him to cough up data on is here.” Jess said. “They want him to duplicate her.” She indicated Dev. “The other side. They don't like bios. They buy them from our side, but they killed the program way back when.”

“But would the other tech be here too? The met blaster?” Mike asked, glancing around. “Why here?”

“Isolation.” Jess folded the map back up and stuck it in her pocket. “No one heard of that new tech. Not a whisper. So either it's all coming out of here, or I've fucked up and we're going to die for nothing. Ready to find out?”

Both agents paused, then shrugged, and gave her a thumbs up.

Jess smiled. Then she eased around the lockers and triggered the door pausing a long moment before she slipped through and into the corridor beyond.

**

They were in the lower areas of the complex, Dev realized. She could hear machinery behind the walls, and the corridors had a rough, utilitarian feel to them that reminded her of the base at the pole they had recommissioned.

So far only two people had appeared in their path, and both times Jess had somehow found a place to hide them and they had walked on by without looking in their direction, busy about their tasks, or talking to each other.

They passed several staircases heading downward, and as they passed the door, the sounds of life trickled up towards them. Soft clashes and bangs and the clatter of metalware, and occasional voices, and once, a rapid thumping that made all three agents smile in a grimacing sort of way.

Then they turned down a long corridor that was more dimly illuminated, with doors on either side regularly spaced with vents in them that allowed the soft hum and clatter of machinery to leak out. Jess stopped about mid way down this corridor and paused in front of one of the doors, looking quickly back and forth.

They could hear someone coming. The sound of multiple sets of boots were heading towards them, from the top of the hallway they were standing in.

April and Mike drew their blasters, moving past Jess and braced themselves against the wall, cradling the weapons with their muzzles faced upwards, their eyes pinned on the direction of the noise.

Jess faced the door and put her hand over the lock, sliding a probe into the opening and half closing her eyes.

The noise got louder. Dev pressed her back against the wall on the other side of the door, admiring the calmness of her companions. Despite the relative newness of the two rookie agents, they were steady in their resolve, and ready to face off against whoever it was who was coming towards them.

Steady, too, were Jess's hands as she worked to pick the lock, as the echoes got louder and louder, now voices were heard – rough and male voices that matched the heavy booted steps they could hear just around the next corner.

“Okay.” Jess pushed the door forward and stepped in, reaching out to grab Dev and pull her in with her, as Mike and April spun and joined them getting the door shut just as the oncoming group cleared the turn in the hall and came down it.

Two men were inside the room and they stood as the four of them entered, one reaching back for a console keypad just as he was blown apart by April's blaster.

Mike took the other one out, his fire crossing April's fire in a neatly matched sending of death.

“Nice.” Jess had pulled Dev out of the way, now she released her and crossed over to the console. “See what you can get, Dev. Let's get this trash put in the disposal.”

Dev sat down at the half circle of comp and put her hands on it, looking from one end of it to the other and waiting to see what, if any programming surfaced. There was a session open on one of them and she tapped in a common query, regarding the screen intently as the results came back.

The syntax was unfamiliar. She tried again, this time changing the query slightly. When the response came back this time, it was still wrong, but the error message triggered a memory.

“Any luck?” Jess was wiping her hands off on a piece of fabric.

“Not yet.” Dev murmured, her eyes tracing the letters on the screen. Why did it seem familiar? Was it the.. She paused and concentrated hard, closing her eyes.

“Dev?”

Jess's hand was warm on her back and distracting but she thought about the message and then realized why she knew it. “Oh.” She opened her eyes and typed in the request again, changing the order of the words. This time, the response came back readily and she exhaled, shaking her head. “I'm not sure if this is good or not, Jess.”

Jess leaned next to her and looked at the screen. “What's wrong? It's answering you isn't it?”

“Yes.” Dev went a level deeper, using a routine she dredged out of her earliest school memories. This brought up a page of code and she let her eyes run over it, feeling a strange sinking sensation in her stomach as the code triggered further programming and she understood the system she was using.

“And?”

Dev took a breath and started hunting in the system. “Let me see what I can discover.”

Jess clapped her on the back and straightened up. “Dev's in.” She told the other two agents. “You find their schedule?”

Mike came over and handed her a plas, taken off the wall on the far end of the room. “Shift change in about twenty minutes.” He replied. “Not much time.”

“This stuff's old.” April commented. She had one of the floor to ceiling consoles open and she was examining the machinery inside. “You were right, even have some digital converters in here.” She crouched down in front of the system. “I saw some stuff like this in what was left of Cheyenne mountain.” She looked over her shoulder. “My clan sheltered there a few times.”

Mike came over to join her. “Yeah – thats not too much newer than the stuff we kicked in the ass up in the ice.” He studied it. “Why the hell didn't they upgrade this place?” He turned and looked at Jess. “If this is where their hotshot stuff comes from?”

Jess shrugged. “Hopefully we won't have an opportunity to ask em.” She went to the door and stood against it, listening to the sounds outside. There were more boots moving through, and she could hear people talking, After a moment she relaxed as the discussion filtered through as one about fishing and the next supply run due in.

Nothing about intruders. Nothing about weird things happening to the perimeter defenses. Nothing about three Interforce carriers huddled just out of sight outside.

So far, it seemed they were undetected. Jess was still nervous though, since such an easy penetration raised immediate concerns in her gut. Was it really possible they'd flown in, landed, and inserted without tripping anything?

Huh.

“Jess.” Dev called over, softly.

Jess left the door and ambled over to the console, letting a hand rest on the back of the chair Dev was seated in. “What's up. Found something?”

The screen was full of characters. Dev touched the surface with one finger and indicated two lines. “There's nothing in here about a new weapon.”

Jess exhaled. Maybe that was why it had been so easy. Wild goose chase.

“However.” Her partner said. “This is a damage report on a part of the facility, and the damage appears to match what you saw at North base.”

“Yeah?”

“A central point of explosion, with a three hundred sixty degree radius.” Dev asserted. “This report is just a recap of equipment that needs to be replaced and a complaint that six persons were damaged during the event.” She tapped in some codes, and the report appeared, in plain lettering that Jess could read. “There.”

Jess studied the images and the text. “Seems the same.” She murmured. “Are there labs around that area?”

Dev brought up a schema and wiremap of the site, her typing growing more confident. She indicated a semicircle around the damaged space. “These are research facilities.”

Jess tapped it with one finger. “That's where we'll start.” She said. “What's this?” She indicated a round chamber on the other side of the facility, one she hadn't seen in their research. “The intel didn't show that.”

Dev sent a request to the system. Then a second. But the response was the same “There is no information on that area.” She told Jess. “Just that it's secured.”

“That's where we'll end, then.” Jess said. “Close it out, Dev. Let's get moving.”

Obediently, she did, getting up to join the agents heading for the door. What else she'd found for now she kept to herself, hoping it didn't mean what it seemed to.

It always was right to get all the information first, wasn't it?

**

Late watch, and the halls were busier than expected. Jess pressed her companions back into an alcove for the fourth time, waiting for voices in a cross corridor to die down, only to have another set grow louder.

“Time's ticking.” April uttered almost soundlessly.

“Getting blasted would make the time go faster.” Jess remarked back. “Immediate gratification, yeah?” She cocked her head and listened. “Okay let's go.” She eased out into the hall and kept flat to the wall of it, moving quickly along the angle towards a side corridor about twenty feet down.

Halfway there a door opened and in a flicker of motion a man was emerging into the hall, turning to close the door behind him and then back around to head right towards them.

April bounded forward and took him, getting him by the throat and breaking his neck in a swift motion as Jess bumped the next door she passed and, feeling it move, shoved it open and stood back as April dragged the body over and dumped it inside.

It was dark in the room, and Jess spared only the briefest of looks before she closed the door silently and they moved on. They got to the cross hall and turned right, spotting the door to the damaged area at the end of the hall, blocked off with warning signs.

It was quiet and dark here. None of the rooms they passed showed any signs of life and Jess ignored the barricaded door as she went to the lab door across from it and listened hard past it.

Dev went to the door that was blocked and studied it, bending her head a little closer and sniffing at the scent coming from it. She straightened and returned to her team mates, tucked behind the angle that prevented them from being seen by anyone in the hall they'd just come down.

The lab door opened to Jess's pick, and they slipped inside, closing it behind them. Inside it was cool and dark, and Mike quickly lit his hand light and moved to the center of the room. April followed suit, and they moved in a circle, revealing the contents of the room.

It was a lab no doubt. Dev recognized a lot of the equipment at once, and she went to the comp station and sat down at it, programming kicking in hard as she picked up a pad and keyed it on. “The room over there smelled like it did in the base.” She commented softly.

“The burned smell?” Jess asked. “Or do you mean there's dead bodies in there?”

“Yes.” Dev answered, looking up. “I don’t' know what is in there, but it's the same smell.”

“Ugh.” Mike grimaced. “Hope we don't need to go in there. Training or not, my stomach nearly kicked my ass when we were recon over at North.”

April sat down at another console and started exploring it. “Looks like this place hasn't been touched in a while.” She lifted a hand covered in dust.

Dev nodded. “This program was last accessed thirty days ago.” She reviewed the screen. “I don't think this is what we were looking for. It's something to do with peas.” She half turned and looked at Jess. “They attempted to grow them under rad. It didn't work out.”

“Sure didn't.” Mike had been examining a tall rolling cart against the back wall. It was covered in trays. He held up one. “Looks like dead seaweed.”

Dev got up and went over to the tray, examining it. “That's synth dirt.” She poked a finger in it. “They worked with that up on station, but I didn't think they sent any downside.” She removed a curled, brown crinkly thing from it and looked at it. There were tiny shreds of substance at the bottom of the item. “Part of it worked. They got roots.”

Jess came over and peered at it over her shoulder, pressing her body against Dev's back. “Roots?”

“Roots.” Dev's sudden smile had nothing to do with the roots. “Plants put them down into the dirt, and suck up nutrients. Sometimes in the creche, they would hang them upside down and spray vitamins and things on the roots to make them grow better.”

The three agents regarded her with more than a touch of bemusement.

“Okay, well, anyway, let's go find the next lab.” Jess said. “Dead plants aren't going to do a damn thing for us.”

“Have you eaten fresh plants?” Mike asked Dev curiously.

“Yes.” Dev put the plant down and dusted her hands off. “They tested everything on us. Some of it was interesting in a good way. Some of it wasn't.” She added. “Sometimes people would get sick.”

“You did once.” Jess observed, as they abandoned the lab and headed for the door. “Didn’t ya?”

“I did.” Dev agreed. “But most of it was pretty good, or at least, I didn't mind it.”

They fell silent as they reached the door and Mike and April put their backs to the wall on either side of it, while Jess tilted her head and listened. “Dev, anyone out there?”

Dev removed her scanner and set it to bio, reducing the power. “I didn’t want the to see this.” She started a fast scan, half turning to direct the device along the outer hall they couldn't see. “There are two bio objects.” She said. “About twenty feet from the door. They are stationary.”

She shut the scanner down and pocketed it.

“Yeah I hear them.” Jess leaned closer to the door, as quiet settled around the four of them. She closed her eyes and shut her light off, and concentrated.

Her mind called up the hall outside. The T junction they'd come down, and the curving corridor going the other direction directly opposed to the destroyed room. The two men were near the door on the other side of the junction, and Dev was right, they were standing still.

Talking? Jess carefully focused her ears, imagining herself outside the door but invisible. She was aware of the faint movement of air against her skin from the door vents and on that bare breeze came words.

Two men, definitely. One of them was angry. She could hear the sibilant emphasis, and it suggested to her mind that he was using a pointed finger, and firm gestures. She made an image in her head about it, and then, hearing the hesitant responses, imagined the other person as lesser ranked.

Scientists. She caught a word, project. And then another, alkaloids. Jess leaned against the door and pressed her fingertips against it, absorbing the vibrations as she strained to hear what they were talking about. Then she heard footsteps, and she straightened and opened her eyes as they came rapidly closer.

Jess took a step back and braced herself, as the steps came right to the door and stopped. She heard the keypad being accessed and took a breath, jerking a little as Dev appeared next to her. “Don't get in the way.” She whispered, her body already tensing in anticipation of the kill.

“There's a cabinet there.” Dev whispered back. “Maybe we could hide and listen to them?”

Split second. Jess made a low sound in her throat and pointed her light to the huge cabinet, door standing half ajar. They other agents moved silently over to it and slipped in side, as Jess and Dev followed, getting the cabinet door shut just as the main door opened and the two men came inside.

They flipped the lights on and walked right past the cabinet, going to the console and standing over it.

The door shut to the lab, and Jess let her hand casually rest on her blaster. It was awkwardly close inside, but none of them moved, staying alertly still as the men started to talk.

Almost still. Jess leaned against Dev, who was standing next to her, and, invisible in the darkness let her chin rest on her partner's head. After a brief pause, she felt the bio alt lean back and a moment after that, a gentle touch on her leg almost made her forget what they were doing there.

They heard noises, then the sound of pad entry, and bodies seating themselves in chairs. No one spoke for several minutes, then they heard creaks, and the sound of a hand slapping metal.

“That is it. I told you, it was wrong.” A deep voice said. “It's unstable. Look. It's right there, in the emitter results. How many have to die to prove it?”

“No one cares how many.” A quieter, gentler voice answered. “Do you not understand, Gregory? They are past caring. All that matters is they can use it to destroy.”

“They took our project!” Gregory shouted. “They took it, and put it to the wrong use, and now look! If they had just waited, we could have perfected it and it would have worked right!”

“And we would have ended up killing just as many people, is that what you wanted?”

“It wasn't a killing device.” The loud man calmed, and seemingly turned to face the cabinet. “It was meant just to grow things.”

The quieter man snorted. “Do you truly think anyone believes that? Oh yes, Gregory. Yes. A device to bring the light of the sun into a cavern and it will grow peas. Yes.” He said. “And oh by the way, it also blows up everything for a half kilometer around it.”

There was a brief silence. “It worked.” Gregory said, shortly. “You saw it.”

“So did Denst. He just saw a better use for it.”

Jess nodded silently. The two inventions had come so perilously close together she'd wondered if they were related. Finding them one and the same didn’t make her job easier, but at least, she only now had one target.

Two if you considered Kurok.

“Well, Denst is on his way here.” The loud man now sounded resigned. “I'm sure he'll get what he wants out of us.”

“One way or the other.” The other man sighed. “Look, Gregory, I am sorry. It would have been a good thing, to be able to grow plants, real plants, downside once more. Maybe if it keeps blowing things up, they'll give it back to us, and we can try again.”

“Maybe with a little more effort, they will get the bio matrix out of our visitor.” Now the loud man chuckled a little. “Save us all a lot of time.”

“Peh. Let's go get some dinner. Leave these damn labs for tomorrow.”

Jess could feel Dev's ears prick, the gently rounded surface moving a little against her shoulder. They listened to the men close up something in the room, then go to the door and open it, shutting the lights and leaving. She waited until the echo of the door closing faded, then grunted very softly in her throat.

“What was that all about?” Mike whispered. “Who's Durst?”

“He's their equivalent of the old man.” Jess murmured. “Okay, let's get out of here. Now we know at least we're on the right track.” She eased the cabinet door open and paused, then slipped out into the dark room and going to the door. She could hear the footsteps fading, and she almost keyed the lock, then stopped. “Dev, scan again please.”

Dev was at her side, and busy with her device. She ran a sweep, then another, edging the scope out a little. “It seems empty.” She said. “However, there is a power fluctuation nearby.” She showed the display to Jess, the light from it casting stark shadows on the ceiling.

Jess glanced at it. “We better get going” She opened the door and they moved out into the hallway, keeping flat against the wall as she moved past the intersection and along the labs on the opposite curve. The wall across from them was obviously damaged, big dents and protrusions marred the surface, and it was discolored.

The labs on this side of the half circle seemed to be still in use, faint lights showing behind the door frames and inset plas windows, and finally one on the very end that was labeled control.

Jess picked that lock quickly and they slipped inside.

They used their lights rather than turn on the overheads, and found a space that was in active use, with no dust visible. Mike went to the desk and sat down, and April cruised over to a tall datastore, opening a panel in it and touching a screen inside.

Jess went to the back wall where there were shelves, that had gear on them. She motioned Dev over, and pointed at them. “Check these out”

“This was the lab.” Mike said. “Code name was Paprikash.” He studied the screen. “Everything's locked down.”

“Got any passwords?” Jess asked Dev casually.

Dev glanced at the console. “No.” She said. “My programming says they change them often. There would not be much point.” She went back to examining the devices, picking one up and studying it. It was roughly square, and covered in a grimy black dust that smelled of carbon.

Inside there was a flat plate, which was scorched and pixelated. She ran her scanner over it and touched one part, examining the gritty dust that came off on her fingertip.

The scanner came back blank. It had no idea what this was, which was interesting to start with. Dev set the scanner down and removed her multitool from her pocket, setting to work on the device and easing the sections apart.

“Be careful with that.” Jess observed. “I have no intention of scraping you off the walls.”

Dev paused, and glanced at her. “This is inert.” She said. “But I will be careful.”

Jess hung around for a moment more, then she went over to a cabinet and opened it. Then she blinked. “Well, crap.”

April scooted over and peered inside. “What the hell?” She said. “Is that a tunnel?”

“Interesting.” Dev had stepped to the side and peeked past Jess's elbow. Where the back of the cabinet might be expected here was a roughly cut hole in the rock, it's opening covered with a piece of cloth that half hung down exposing half the entrance.

It was interesting, and there was a damp, cold breeze coming out of it that held a hint of salt on it.

“Never look a gift horse in the ass, kids.” Jess said. “Let's go see where this goes. If it's hidden in a cabinet, in the back of a lab that was doing black ops, chances are it goes somewhere we need to go.”

“Not much here anyway without cracking the codes.” Mike agreed, juggling his hand lamp. “That'll trigger an alert.” He removed his blaster from it's holster and started forward, edging past the cloth and entering the tunnel. April followed him, after a quick glance at Jess, and then Jess motioned Dev to enter.

“I'll bring up the rear.” The agent said, taking out her own gun and cradling it between her hip and her wrist. She closed the cabinet doors behind her and paused, pushing one open again a bit and then re-closing it just to be sure they would have a way back out.

Never paid to take those kinds of chances. Jess flicked on her light and entered the tunnel, stepping carefully along the uneven ground as she followed Dev's slight form.

A tunnel in a cabinet made no sense to her, on the surface of it. Though she knew there were a few hidden hallways back in the citadel, they were purpose built and formed the same as the facility was. This thing looked like some guy had hammered it out step by step with a hand blaster.

“Not much dust in here.” April commented quietly.

Jess ran her hand along the wall and examined it. “No.” She admitted. “They used this recently.”

“Yeah.” The other agent agreed. “But what's up with that? A tunnel into a lab?”

“Mm.” Jess ambled up closer to Dev and ducked a little, as the tunnel got a bit shorter. She also got the sense it was going uphill, her thighs feeling the motion as she walked along. “No telling.”

Mike paused up ahead, and held his hand up. He moved a pace or two more slowly, exploring with his light the ground on the right hand side of the hall. “Body.”

Jess eased forward past Dev and came up next to him. Not quite a body, but a skeleton, the whiteness of the bones clear and sharp in the raw light from their handhelds. “Huh.”

“Old.” April commented.

Dev slipped in behind her partner to get a look. “We had something like that in our lab in the creche.” She said. “But it was on a stand. They taught us biology with it.”

Jess nudged the skull over, and displayed a hole the size of her hand in it. “Probably wasn't a teaching aide any time recently.” She said, studying the untidy pile of bones, before she leaned over and picked one up, lifting it up and running her fingers across the surface. “Not as old as it seems.”

April focused her light on it. The surface was clean and bare, but nearly white. “Doesn't make sense to find this here.” She looked down at the rest of the skeleton. “That was an open entrance back there. No way they had this body here and didn’t know it.”

“Interesting.” Jess tossed the bone down and dusted her hands off. “Let's see what else we can find.”

They left the skeleton behind and continued along the hall, now noticeably pitching upward. The tunnel got a little wider and in carved pockets they came upon shelves, long abandoned and half collapsed.

Around them, there was an almost constant soft patter of rocks and pebbles shifting, but none except Dev looked around on hearing it. She hadn't been downside long enough to get used to being inside stone walls to where parts of them coming down on her didn't bother her.

Going along inside the tunnel, though, seemed like it was a good thing. Unless they came upon someone sneaking the other way, it looked like this was a good path to take to avoid being noticed.

There were tunnels like that in the creche, actually. Dev smiled a little, remembering them. The service access-ways where older bio alts worked, keeping the station working but also providing the youngers a way to sneak past the proctors and sometimes, if they were really lucky, get to snitch an extra ration from the mess area.

You didn't get to use them, so much, when you were out of basic but she felt the thrill of adventure all over again thinking of those odd occasional ventures of her youth.

“Sh.” April drew against the far wall. “Hear that?”

Jess cocked her head to one side and lifted a hand to push her hair behind her ear. There was a moment of silence, and April flushed a little, then the sound repeated. “Air handlers.” She said, after a pause. “Cycling, maybe.”

“That's a lot of compression.” Mike said, after a pause. “Almost sounds like... “ He went silent.

Dev considered the sound. “It actually what it's like when you evacuate a chamber to space.” She said. “That sound of rushing air just all at once.”

The three agents regarded her somberly.

“But I doubt they're doing that here.” Dev acknowledged. “Since there's a distinct lack of vacuum downside.”

“Vacuum.” Jess repeated. “Well, we're heading in that direction anyway.” She edged forward and took the lead, one hand holding her light the other on her gun stock.

Dev hurried to catch up, as the other two agents brought up the rear. She stayed just behind Jess, and they made good time up the tunnel as the sound started to become very obvious, a periodic thumping boom that coincided with the bits of rock coming down around them.

It was getting colder, and as they moved up another steep slope a gust of damp, chill air came down and dusted past them, making Dev glad they'd mostly dried out.

They reached a level area and in the faint glare of Jess's light, they could see a sharp turn ahead. They slowed and approached it cautiously, finding a another bend, and a larger open area beyond it, stretching out in the darkness.

Jess proceeded inside, shining her light around to illuminate a large natural cavern with a series of tables inside it. Though the booming sound continued, it still seemed a way aways and she walked further inside and motioned the other agents to spread out.

Dev stayed at her heels, and followed her across to the center of room, arriving at the tables and bringing out her own light and scanner. They were covered with trays, and she scanned the closest of them. “This is bio.”

“Yeahh.” Jess walked slowly alongside the tables and studied the contents. “What is it?”

“Proto soil.” Dev said, poking the substance with her finger. “I saw this in the creche in the labs. It's what they used to grow things.” She ran the scanner over the next tray. “There is vegetable substance here.” She dug in the dirt and extracted something, which she held up. “That's a plant.”

Jess came over and looked at it. “Doesn't look like much.”

“No.” Dev put it back. “It's a bean, but it's dead. They tried a lot of stuff with beans.” She made a small face. “I didn't like them a lot.”

Jess studied the tray then she tipped her head back and directed her light straight upward at the ceiling of the cavern. There was something mounted there that was neither rock or natural, and she blinked a few times, trying to force it into focus.

Dev came to stand next to her, running her scanner over it and regarding the results “This is the same shape as the device on the shelf, but much larger.” She showed the wiremap to her partner. “Do you think it's the device they were speaking of?”

“Yup.” Jess shut her light off. “Not taking that back with me.” She turned and headed over to where April was examining an output schema. She was halfway there when a loud bang echoed through the chamber and then several voices were heard along with footsteps, getting louder fast, and coming closer.

'Back in the tunnel.” Jess herded them out the way they came, everyone scattering fast as motion started in the chamber behind them and after a long moment, lights came on just barely missing their forms as they darted back past the bend and into the short hallway behind it.

A rising hum of power thrummed through the rock and Jess pressed her self flat against the rock wall, pulling Dev close to her as the sense of loose electrons made her grimace.

“Hair's standing on end.” April said. “Something's got a lot of juice back there.”

Dev shut down her scanner and removed the power pack, stuffing both in her pockets. She could feel the flow of power as an itch along her skin. “Feels like the rad showers upside.” She said, briefly.

“Yeah? Then I know why you like water better.” Jess closed her eyes. “Shut your eyes and let's hope this rock protects us from what ever the hell they're doing.” Running back down the tunnel wouldn't much help, she figured, and at least here they could have a chance to get some intel.

She felt Dev press against her left side and without thinking, put her arm around her pilot's shoulders. As the crackling energy surged around them, she heard voices yelling over it.

Dev stiffened. “That's Doctor Dan.”

Jess kept herself firmly in place, her eyes tightly shut. “Save us the trouble of finding him. Today's going much better than I hoped.” She commented. “Now if we don't all explode, it'll be perfect.”

Part 22

It was hard for Dev to stand still. The waves of energy were thumping against her skin producing a sensation that was a mix between an itch and a slap and it was growing more painful every second.

She fought the urge to jerk, concentrating on taking deep, even breaths and holding herself still.

“Hang on.” Jess uttered almost right in her ear. “Gotta stop soon.”

Just as she said it, they heard yells, and an anguished scream and then low throbbing thump that blasted against the rock wall and sent them all flying back down the tunnel, slamming against the far wall and reeling to keep their respective balance.

“Holy shit.” Mike grunted, grabbing hold of the wall to keep his head from crashing into it. “What the hell was that!”

“Their super cooker.” April wiped a trace of blood from her nose, which had come to a full halt against the rock wall. “Blowing up I guess.”

“Let's go.” Jess headed back to the wall and pulled her long blaster, coming around the edge of the rock as a roiling ball of black grit and dust boiled through the entrance to the big chamber and overwhelmed them. It was thick and pungent, full of particulate and almost impossible to breathe in.

Dev instinctively closed her eyes, as she half turned away from the particles. She heard Jess curse, and she shaded her face, forcing herself to look as the air around them turned into black unpleasantness. She took a quick breath and followed her partner's dim form as they charged through into the chamber, hearing chaos and loud bangs inside.

It was a nightmare. Lots of loud noises, and crackling sounds, and Dev was hard pressed to keep up with Jess as she bolted across the floor and dove for cover behind the big table in the center. It was half overturned, one corner crumbled into the floor and the trays of samples had scattered everywhere throwing the scent of synthetic dirt into the air.

Barely consicous of it, Dev felt a rumbling overhead and she looked up, seeing traces of fire in the device hanging over them, it, too, hanging partially down with electrical sparks popping out from every direction.

Not good.

On the far side of the room men were yelling. There were two behind a console, and five or six more in a pile near the far wall. They were all struggling, and that's where most of the yells were coming from and as the device above them flared it cast the group in stark shadows before it faded out again.

“Get security!” One of the men yelled. “He's loose! Damn it who took off the cuffs!”

A second later a low howl started sounding, and the lights in the corridor outside turned from white to red.

“Uh oh.” Jess peeked up over the top of the destroyed table, and spotted motion outside, coming fast. “Okay” She half turned to face the other two agents. “It's crunch time. I”m guessing our buddy Kurok is under that pile. Let's get him and get out, and get as many of the other side as we can.”

“Ack.” April pulled a second gun from another holster, her face lighting up with anticipation. “Bout time for some killing.”

“You got it.” Mike got off one knee and into a crouch. “I want lots of green dots on this one.”

Jess glanced at them, and then shook her head.

“Glad you asked me along, Drake.” April said, giving her a brief grin. “Been a hell of a first mission so far.”

“Dev, take this.” Jess handed her partner a blaster. “Stay here while wel make a distraction. You wait and try and get it into his hands so we've got another vector.”

“To Doctor Dan?” Dev took hold of the gun and wrapped her fingers around it.

“Yup. He knows how to use it, and since it's keyed to us, it won't blow up on him.” Jess said. “Be careful.” She added, after an awkward pause. “Keep your head down.”

“Okay” The bio alt put a hand on her knee. “You be careful too. I don't want you to get damaged.” It was too dark to see Jess's face, but somehow, she knew her partner was blushing. Maybe because she was too, a little.

“Okay.” Jess turned a little. “I'll go first, cover me, then come on. Ready?” She asked, watching both the younger agents nod. “Let's go do what we do.”

It was time. She blinked, and focused and then in a flicker of motion surged up and over the table as the entrance filled with half armored bodies. “Yeahhh!!”

Guns focusing on the pileup arrested their motion as helmets turned and saw her in mid air and all of a sudden a security response turned into an intense firefight. Blaster fire erupted everywhere in an instant and amid the darkness and the dust blue and green flares cast intense shadows.

Dev took a grip in the gun she had been given and watched the activity, half of her scared for Jess, half of her unsure of whether giving Doctor Dan the gun was a good idea.

She hoped he would really help them. It was so very unsettling to have seen his name, and his code in the consoles. As though he had worked there. But Jess seemed to have no reservations about him, and she supposed the one thing she could trust was Jess's judgement since, after all, she'd trusted Dev, hadn't she?

Yes, she had. She'd trusted her utterly, after only a very short time.

There was blaster fire overhead. She kept behind the table, with the air full of dust and debris is was very hard to tell what was going on, though somewhere nearby she suddenly smelled flesh burning and heard a hoarse scream.

The alarm out side changed, going from a low howl to a klaxon, and as she watched the other entrance filled with newly arrived bodies, behind half shields, all shooting inside. She felt a bolt come past her, and the heat made her blink hard.

It occurred to her that bad things could happen.

She edged around the side of the table and kept low to the ground, straining her eyes to see what was going on in the corner. She could see four people on top of the pile of bodies, their arms and elbows flying as they pounded what was underneath. Something they were hitting was moving, though, twisting and turning and through a break in the dense air and the fire, she caught a brief glimpse of pale hair and a familiar profile.

She felt a sensation of shock, as though she'd jumped into cold water.

It was Doctor Dan.

They were hurting him.

Without thinking any further, Dev turned everything over to instinct. She scrambled out from behidn the table and raced cross the floor, hopping suddenly as a bright flash headed towards her.

The blaster fire hit the floor and vaporized a pile of dirt, but she was past it, tucking the gun under her arm as she reached the struggling group of people and grabbed the nearest one of them and yanked backwards as hard as she could.

He came tumbling off the pile and smashed into her, but she hopped out of the way and let his body roll past her as she moved forward again to grab the next person.

Hands grabbed her though, and she twisted, pushing her elbow into the dimly seen form behind her and hearing a gasp from the motion. She ducked past the figures arm and it triggered programming, as her body responded automatically and pulled her adversary to the ground.

Then she went back to her task, and hooked an arm into the arm of a man hitting something, turning and using leverage to pull him up off the stack and over her own back, to thump on the ground.

“Dev.”

Dev turned and saw a hand extending from the pile and she grabbed it, hauling backwards and yanking the owner of the hand with her, sensing something coming at her from behind.

She ducked and went to one knee, as a bolt came right over her head, sizzeling into the now unraveling pile and sending body parts exploding everywhere. A hand bounced off her as she got her hands on Doctor Dan, who was turning over and reaching for her at the same moment. “Doctor Dan!”

“Sh.” He looked bruised and in great discomfort. “Lets get under cover.”

“Are you okay?” Dev asked. “I think you are bleeding.”

“Probably.” Doctor Dan wiped his hand across his head, and it came away with a dark stain. “Now I remember all over again why I switched to science.” He muttered, ducking instinctively as something came hurtling over his head. “Move, Dev. Before we get squashed.”

They half crawled, half scrambled, ducking bolts and running bodies as they got behind the big table, hearing more screams and something exploding.

Dev got the gun from under her arm and handed it to him as they crouched behind the fallen cover. “Jess said to give this to you.”

He covered it with one hand and looked past her, then his eyes met hers. “She did, eh?” He managed a faint smile. “Hmm.”

“Yes.” Dev said, slightly confused. “She said it would be good to have another person on our side.” She ducked as a blaster hit slammed into the table, and sent a shower of synth dirt over them. “This is very difficult.”

“Yes it is.” Dan exhaled. “Far more than I thought it would be.” He looked past her again, then drew up the gun and leveled it, cocking his head a trifle as he aimed and fired. “Take that, you stupid bastard” He watched the bolt slam into one of the running figures. “So is there a plan to this, Dev?”

“They were going to distract everyone so I could get you the gun. That was about it.” Dev said. “Jess didn't say what was supposed to happen next.”

Doctor Dan, surprisingly, chuckled. “Some things never change.” He said. “All right, let's go help. Stay behind me if you can, Dev. I don't want you to get damaged.” He cautiously lifted his head up over the edge of the table and got both arms clear, leaning on the surface and cradling the blaster in both hands.

With the smoke now billowing out of consoles, it was almost impossible to see what was going on, or who was shooting at who. But Doctor Dan was taking aim and letting off short blasts of plasma,

Dev wished there was something she could do. She spotted Jess and came half up on her knees, her eyes going wide as she saw her partner being slammed against the wall by three of the half armored men and one of them raising a blaster to shoot her.

She really didn't understand what happened next. One moment she was kneeling at Doctor Dan's side, the next moment her hands were hitting the back of one of the half armored men and she was pounding on him, yelling her head off as she yanked on his arm as she attempted to pull him over and away from Jess.

He struggled, but she was past thinking about it and she pulled him away, and tossed him across the floor where a blue bolt intersected him.

His body exploded into several pieces. In the glare, his face was shocked, his helmet coming off and his eyes protruding from their sockets as he died.

Dev jumped over the flying leg that came her way and headed for her partner again. She picked up a piece of the table and swung at one of the guards holding Jess, feeling a sense of ferocious rage that shocked her – but not enough to make her stop.

She saw the man raise his gun towards her and she batted it out of his hands, whacking at his chest and head and anything she could aim at to make him get away from Jess. He went down and she leaped over him, heading for the third guard.

He turned as she approached and his gun hit her metal piece, sending it flying from her hands.

Then she was grappling with him for a minute before a loud sound happened next to her and then the man was just taken out of her grip and slung against the wall like a bag of silica packets. She ducked to one side and then was grabbed herself, but there was a friendly feel to it and the next second she had Jess's voice in her ear.

“Nice! Let's go before we all croak.” Jess pushed her forward and let out a startling sound that was high pitched and clear, in a pattern that made everything in front of them shift.

Bodies moved. Somehow, Jess knew the difference between the good and the bad ones, as she hauled them all back toward the tunnel and pointed her blaster up over her shoulder, firing an intense, long burst at the device hanging over the table as a dozen enemy soldiers pelted toward them.

The device slowly lit up and then abruptly flared, and as they reached the back corridor a heavy, crackling sound suddenly filled the chamber and then yells followed it along with a booming roar that nearly blew them into the opening and flowed past them to rattle the stone.

The ceiling started to come down, on the room, and on them, and rock slid and pummeled them as they twisted and turend and fought their way through it to let it fall behind them and block anyone from following them.

“Shit!” Mike yelped, as a rock nearly smacked him in the head. “Did that thing blow up?”

“Hope so.” Jess replied. “That was my intent. Now move!!!

They half rolled half stumbled around the corner and pelted down the rocky tunnel, as it filled behind them with debris, hauling up for an instant as a dust cloud puffed at them and turned their dark suits grayish white

“They aren't following us.” April concluded. “At least not this way”

“Let's get out the other way, and see if we can make it out of here.” Jess said, in a short, gruff tone. “Doctor Kurok – you okay?”

“I'll live.” Doctor Dan replied. “Don't get me wrong, but I'm very surprised to see you all here.” He commented. “Gratified, but surprised.”

“I bet.” Jess turned as she walked, glancing at April and Mike, who were now silent and covered in soot and burns. “You two all right?”

“Not bad for my first firefight.” Mike held up a hand, which had a scorch from fingertips to elbow. His jumpsuit was penetrated, and there was some blood there. “Got four of them.”

“Three here.” April said. “But no hits.” She added, with a touch of pride in her voice. “But I tell you what, Drake – I've never in my life seen someone move like you do.”

“I have.” Kurok said, dryly. “But not for a good long while.”

Jess wiped her hands off and gave him a brief smile. “I”ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should.” The doctor said. “Thank you all, by the way. It was getting pretty gritty in there.” He ran a hand through his dust streaked hair, and there was a visble circular bloody bruise on his wrist. He was dressed in a non descript jumpsuit, but there were rips and gashs in it that also showed blood.

“You need med?” Jess asked, briefly.

“You have med?” Kurok turned the question on her. “If not, then no.” His eyes twinkled just slightly.

It was dark in the hall, and it was hard to see what was really true and what was just bluster. Jess understood that though, and she smiled to hide a grimace of her own as she twisted the wrong way. “You okay, Dev?”

“Yes, fine thanks.” Dev was physically unhurt, but her head was filled with wondering about her attack on the people who had been hurting Jess and Doctor Dan. She knew she had programming not to do that. In fact, it was echoing in her head right now, bothering her as she tried to keep her footing on the uneven path.

Bio alts were not supposed to hurt natural borns. The programming was very, very clear. Even with the overlay of the tech stuff, and all that it was one of the first programming basics they all got on their very first session.

Dev remembered it. She remembered coming up from it, and looking at the programming tech, and feeling almost ashamed, because of how powerful the lesson had been and how clearly it had been made to her it was a rule never to be broken.

And here she had just broken it. She had hurt a natural born. She had caused another to become dead.

She wasn't sure if she was in more discomfort about that, or about how little discomfort she'd felt in actually doing it

“What if they know we're here?” April asked, after a minute's silence, as they walked quickly along the dark tunnel, using just the barest hint of light to lead the way.

“They know you're here.” Kurok said. “That second klaxon was the intruder alert. The first one was just for me.”

“Figured that. I know at least one of those guys recognized me.” Jess said. “Just makes it more interersting.” She slowed as they reached the end of the tunnel and approached the half cloaked entrance to the cabinet cautiously.

With the edge of her gun she moved the cloth aside, pausing to listen hard. Everyone went still behind her. Jess moved forward at a slow pace and put her hand against the inside of the cabinet door, pushing gently against it and opening it out into the lab.

It was dark, and still as they'd left it. Jess emerged into the room with the rest of them following, and she went right to the outer door and stopped to listen again.

Still quiet. She opened the door and they all flowed out into the hallway, turning quickly right and bolting down the corridor the way they'd originally came.

Then the klaxon burst into blaring alert and all around them echoed the sound of running feet and Jess knew theyw eren't going to get out the way they got in. She led them down a side corridor as they heard a patrol coming up towards them and going by instinct she ducked past a long, tall wall mounted ladder and saw a service hatch next to it.

Yells went up in the next hallway, and she heard the overhead in battle language, theirs, tracking them. Not good.

One touch on the blaster and the hatch burned open. She kicked it in and wormed her tall form inside, pressing her body flat against the wall as the rest followed her. She shoved the hatch shut and burned it closed, running a melt point along all three edges.

Then she indicated the narrow, panel filled space that had barely room for Dev to walk in, with lights and tracers on either side of them. “Careful. Most of that's live.”

“Nice.” April muttered.

“No one's gonna chase us through here then huh?” Mike eased forward and took point. “We know where we're going?”

“Where are we trying to go?” Doctor Dan spoke up. He was just behind April, with Dev and Jess behind him.

“Going for the wet.” Jess said. “Know a route?”

Kurok glanced over his shoulder at her. “The wet. Should have figured. We've got a Drake with us” His lips twitched, almost unwillingly, into a faint smile. “I know a route. Not going to be easy.” He tucked the blaster in the back of his belt and motioned Mike back. “Let me go in front, if you don't mind.”

“Sure.” Mike amiably changed places. “You know this place?”

“I helped build it.” Doctor Dan replied, in a very wry tone. “But that's a long story we don't have time for now. So just follow me, and hope I remember this place as well as I just boasted I did.” He moved cautiously forward, turning sideways to ease through the electrified walls.

Dev glanced at Jess, whose brows twitched, but otherwise didn't react. Instead, she tucked her own blaster away and put her hands on Dev's shoulders as they moved forward, Mike turning sideways as well, but April managing to edge through with just a fingerspan clearance on either shoulder

It felt good to have that touch on her. Dev could also pass easily between the walls, but she felt Jess twisting behind her as it became too close for comfort.

It was warm, and she could feel the electricity on either side of her raising the hair on the backs of her hands. “I'm glad we found Doctor Dan.” She whispered to Jess, hearing her partner laugh very softly under her breath.

“Me too.” Jess whispered back.

“He knows this place.” Dev's voice went even lower.

“Figured he might. The stuff you got on the other side came from somewhere.” Her partner uttered, her lips very close to Dev's ear. “It's okay.”

Dev nodded, falling silent. Jess surely knew what she was doing. Maybe she could talk with her after. If they came out of this undamaged.

“You all right?” Jess's breath tickled her earlobe.

Dev took a breath. “Yes.”

“Thanks for whomping on those guys for me” Jess said, casually. “Shoulda seen the look on that one bastard's face when you body slammed him. Cracked me up.”

Dev didn't answer, feeling a very uncomfortable twisting in her gut thinking about it.

“Okay.” Doctor Dan called back at that moment, making her push that aside. “We need to climb.” He pointed at a wall mounted ladder that extended up into the darkness, seeming to go on forever. “No way to get thorugh on this level.”

“Then lets get climbing.” Jess said. “Sooner the better before they sweep in here and figure out where we are.”

“I”ll go first.” April didn't wait for comment, but got her hands on the rungs and started moving up.

“Let's hope they havent' found the carriers.” Jess murmured. “Or it's going to be one hell of a long, very cold swim.”

**

It was a long climb. Jess realized after a few minutes that whatever she'd done to herself was going to make the effort extremely uncomfortable but she sucked it up and pulled herself up after Dev stolidly.

Pain was relative. Where she'd been injured now felt like a knife had been stuck into it again, and she felt like she'd maybe broken a rib again.

But there was no med, as Kurok had pointed out, and no option so she pushed it to the back of her mind and just kept going. So far, she thought, things were going better than she'd expected. They'd gotten in, found the new tech, found out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be, found Kurok, rescued him, and were now trying to extract.

Really, could have been a whole lot worse.

Not to mention she'd gotten to see Dev go a little crazy on her behalf, the look of intense fury so out of place on her cute face that laughing at it had almost lost her a hand.

Jess glanced up, to see her partner swarming up the ladder ahead of her, moving easily and lightly up the rungs, the line of her jaw visible as she watched Mike ahead of her.

Damn she was good looking. Jess let the thought distract her, glad she had something to think about besides how much danger they were in and how much her body hurt.

She wished they were somewhere else. She wanted a few days just to hang out with Dev again and she was pretty sure they weren't going to get that anytime soon. Jess sighed, dredging up a memory of the taste of hopping shrimp and how it felt to have Dev kiss her.

“Pst.”

Jess only barely stopped in time, her shoulder bumping Dev's leg. The climbing had stopped and now she looked up to see Kurok slowly easing into a duct that ran along the top of the wall theyd been climbing up and she was relieved to see her climbing was over for a while. She climbed up another rung and felt Dev's hand come to rest on her shoulder, a friendly bit of warmth that made her smile, if only briefly.

Far off, she could hear klaxons. “Bet they're running all over the place looking for us.”

“Yes.” Dev responded quietly.

They moved up a few more rungs as April disappered into the duct, settling near the entrance to let the others get a bit further inside. Jess glanced at Dev's face as they remained momentarily still, and saw a tension there that seemed new. “Hey.”

The pale eyes tracked to hers. “Yes?”

“You okay?” Jess put a hand on her arm as she prepared to move off the ladder. “You look pissed off.”

Dev paused in mid motion and looked at her partner, one pale eyebrow lifting.

“Never mind. We'll talk later.” Jess heard a loud bang behind them and she guided Dev forward and scrambled after her, getting the hatch cover closed just as running bootsteps sounded loud and echoing below, expecting and hear the sound of hands and feet on the first set of rungs on the ladder. “Move it people.”

“Heard em.” Mike said.

Jess waited for Dev to get a bodylength down the duct before she turned and sealed the hatch with her blaster, leaving a square of blackened metal that sent a wave of heat out that made her blink. She reversed herself and swarmed after the rest of them, realizing the tiny space and cramped motion was even more annoying than the climb.

Ugh. Jess caught up to Dev's heels and now they progressed with silent speed, heading towards a T junction she could just see the outline of ahead of them. She could hear sounds below and behind the duct they were in, and briefly hoped the space was important enough to prevent the enemy from just vaporizing it.

She could feel air pushing against her though, and figured it was part of the ventilation system and when you were primarily below ground, that was, in fact, important.

They hit the corner and started to the right, and the duct started to slant downward. At first the pitch was gentle, then Jess could feel gravity tugging at her, pulling her forward as the angle steepened.

It was also getting darker inside and colder, and as Jess reached out to touch the duct wall, she felt moisture on it that faintly stung her fingertips and as she got a few bodylengths further she felt herself slipping and knew where they were headed.

Instinctively she reached out and grabbed Dev's ankle. “Turn around.” She said, as her partner reacted. “Go feet first.” She released her hold and braced her arms on either side of the duct as she swiveled herself around and watched Dev do the same. “Okay, go.”

It was dark past her and the sounds of the others had faded a little. Dev slid a few feet more then she shot forward as the angle steepened further and without hesitation Jess shoved herself after her. She let gravity take her, but got her gloves on and used friction to control her speed so she didn't overtake her partner.

An explosion sounded to their rear, and Jess yanked her hands in as she felt a pressure wave building behind her. She caught up with Dev just as a rumbling roar vibrated the walls of the duct and bright light erupted behind them and cast sharp shadows ahead.

They reached a sharp turn just as the blast wall hit them, and then they were falling as the duct turned straight down, just barely ahead of the fireball. Jess kept her head tucked down and tried to ignore the heat against her neck, as they passed outside the duct and were in free fall in the air.

Everyone was earily silent. She could smell water strongly, though, and she crossed her legs and tucked her arms around her body. “Dev, cross your ankles.” She risked a call out.

“Yes.” Dev sounded nervous.

Then they heard in succession three splashes and judging the depth by the sound, Jess reached out suddenly and caught hold of Dev's shoulder, pulling her closer and wrapping her arms around her pilot just in time to get her secured before she sensed the impending impact and they hit the surface of the water.

Ice cold. The brined chill invaded their suits immediately as they plunged downward. Jess released one hand and clamped it over Dev's mouth and nose, unlocking her legs and kicking hard against the downward motion. She felt Dev start to struggle and kept a firm hold on her, as their plunge slowed.

The chill faded a little as the water got trapped in her suit, and they started upward as a cloud of bubbles exploded around them. Jess kicked harder and blinked a couple times as the water stung her eyelids, and then they were reaching the surface and their heads emerged in the air.

She released Dev's mouth but kept hold of her as she shook the hair out of her eyes, looking around in the dense gloom and spotting motion nearby. “You okay?” She asked Dev, keeping her mouth close to her pilot's ear.

Dev coughed a little. “Yes.” She finally said, after clearing her throat.

“Good.” Jess turned on her side and started swimming, heading for the edge of the huge pool they were immersed in. Cavern walls rose around it, and there was no obvious exit, the water touched the rock on all sides. “Not sure we just didn't slide out of the frying pan and into the fire though.”

Dev paddled for a moment, then memory kicked in past the thrumming shock and she remembered how Jess taught her to swim. She moved from a hesitant motion to a more confident one, as she followed Jess through the water to the far wall where the others were gathering.

In a moment they were all face to face. “Now what?” April asked, keeping her voice very low.

“What is this place?” Mike asked. “Collecting tank?”

Doctor Dan had one hand on the wall and he was rubbing his eyes with the fingers of the other. “Desalinization sump.” He looked around the cavern. “They're on to us. They flooded the exit.” He pointed at the wall across from where they were. “That leads outside.”

“How deep?” Jess asked.

Kurok studied the wall. “Fifty feet. Which, on one hand probably saved our lives, but on the other... “ He cleared his throat. “And it's at least three hundred feet through the flooded tunnel to the outside.”

Jess nodded. She stripped off her water kit and handed it over to him. “Put that on.” She said. “Everyone else, gear up.” She turned at a faint echo then ducked as overhead flood lights came on, bathing them in stark brilliance. “Move. Fast.”

The first blaster fire hit the wall a second later, as everyone got their gear in place and Jess shoved them towards the far wall.

Kurok grabbed her arm. “What about you?” He asked, watching her intently. “If you think I'm leaving you back here, you've got another thing coming, Jesslyn.

Jess smiled briefly at him. “I”ll be fine. I can hold my breath.”

“No one can, that long.”

“I can.” Jess ducked a sizzling burst. “Move it or it's gonna be a moot point.” She grabbed both Kurok and Dev and shoved them underwater, as she heard a power launch land in the water at the far end of the cavern. She ducked her head under and pitched downward, into the dark depths of the water.

Dev had her mask on but she was half turned in the water, watching Jess with a worried expression on her face Jess smiled at her, aware of the tiny bubbles of air trickling from her nostrils.

They were sinking down in the water and she spotted the outline of the luminescent tag on April's blaster. Going horizontal in the water she pushed her two charges forward, and swam after them with easy kicks.

Above them, she could hear motors approaching and she angled lower, watching April and Mike watching them approach. She lifted a hand and circled her finger, pointing at the almost invisible, flooded entrance tunnel below them.

Kurok and Dev kept looking back at her, and as they all reached the tunnel level, Kurok turned and made to lift off the mask he was wearing, signaling that he would share it with her.

Jess pointed at the tunnel insistently and pushed him towards it. The pressure was building on her chest, and she let a few more bubbles slip out before she realized Dev was swimming towards her, a determined look on her face.

She grabbed Dev and tried to turn her around but her partner pointed at her mask, and looked adorably worried about her. Jess sighed, but when she looked past the bio alt she saw the rest of the group headed in her direction with determined expressions.

Jess released Dev, and held her hands up in a stopping motion. She hurriedly emptied her lungs of the rest of the air and felt her body twitch, as it sensed what was coming. She consciously contracted her chest and, as Kurok reached her and Dev grabbed for her arm, she coughed out the last free air and let her lungs expand, drawing in the icy cold water in.

It was a shock, as it always had been right from the very first time she'd done it, back in the day, back when she was just a kid and had no idea what she was doing until she'd done it.

It was almost pain, a rush of tingling ice as the water filled her and her lungs struggled to react, switching from their normal function to one so different. But after a moment it was done, and she felt the familiar sense of effort in drawing in liquid rather than gas, that drag on muscles not often used for this purpose.

Jess blinked again and felt the clear inner eyelid slide down over her eyes, allowing her to focus and just in time, because the sound of underwater sleds cut through them and they were out of time. Jess pointed urgently at the tunnel and started towards it, sweeping them all ahead of her as they got out of their own way with wide eyes still staring at her.

There was no time to consider the implications. Jess increased her speed, and herded them all ahead of her as they entered the tunnel and started through it.

The sleds caught them halfway thorugh and Jess turned, pulling her blaster out and hoping the sealing held as she pointed it and fired. The energy burst lit up the tunnel, outlined their enemy and fortunately didn't cause the weapon to blow up in her hand. She locked her knees together and moved her body in a smooth motion, aiming at the nearest sled and firing.

She could hear the weird sizzle as the blaster fired through the water, the seal at the muzzle allowing the energy out. The beam hit the sled and it veered off, slamming into the wall of the tunnel as the other two sped up and came at her.

She could hear the roar of the ocean coming closer. The sleds had light fins, and were mech models, not intended for surf and she sped up herself, ducking a blast that nearly hit her head and glanced off the roof of the tunnel.

Two return shots came past her from the other direction, and the two chasers dove for the tunnel floor. Jess sucked in water faster, the strain of the mechanics of breathing liquid adding to her already protesting body's discomfort.

She pointed the blaster down and got a shot off, as she kicked against the wall to avoid a return hit from the sled's gun. Another shot came past her, then a second, and as the sled aiming from her tried to avoid it, a wash of surf came in the tunnel and shoved it sideways into the third.

Jess turned in the water and got her arms flat against her sides, letting her body settle into a rhythmic motion that caught up to the rest of the team as they reached the end of the tunnel and headed for the protective grid. Just short of it the water rippled, and then a blue light burst into being, outlining the metal and pulsing it's own warning.

Everyone hauled up shy of the metal and they turned, as the sound of more chasing sleds echoed loudly behind them.

Trapped. Jess ran her eye over the grid. It wasn't scan, just plain old electrified with enough current to turn them into octopus crisps. The squares were small, probably large enough for them to get thorugh but one current wrong would send them into the rippling blue light before any chance of avoiding it.

Mike and April looked at her, as Jess cautiously approached the glowing surface, holstering their blasters for now.

Dev settled against the floor of the tunnel, her heart thumping so fast it was shaking her. She felt very overwhelmed, and programming or not all her confidence had slipped away leaving her scared and unsure of what to do.

So she watched Jess, moving around in the water without any gear at all on, breathing water.

Nothing in her programming had prepared her for that. Even Doctor Dan was watching her and his eyes were wide too, his head shaking a little back and forth almost unconciously.

How was she doing that? It was like someone going out into space without a suit.

Unable to fathom it, she turned and regarded the grid. She could feel the power running through it from where she was, and realized belatedly that they were trapped behind it. A motion caught her eye and she turned to see Mike and April turning and facing the tunnel, drawing out their guns and preparing to fire.

Light blazed down from the chamber, and she could count four, and then six big lamps approaching them. Doctor Dan floated next to her and took out the gun Dev ahd given them, putting himself between her and the coming lights.

He looked over at her and gave her one of his kind, sad smiles, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder.

Dev turned to look for Jess, finding her near the bottom of the tunnel, just short of the grid, examining something on the surface there. She pushed off from the wall and swam over, watching in fascination as her partner's mouth opened and she sucked in water, her shoulders and chest moving visibly.

Jess looked up as she approached and pointed at the ground. Dev settled to her knees next to her partner and looked at what she was looking at, which was a box welded into the tunnel surface. Jess pointed at the box, then pointed at the grid, then shrugged her shoulders in question.

Dev looked at the box. Then she turned and looked at the tunnel wall, then tipped her head back and looked up. She pointed at the ceiling, where a half round duct was visible, then followed it with her finger as it stretched back towards the inside.

Jess moved suddenly, grabbing her and throwing her down as blaster fire hit the bottom of the tunnel next to them, sending a wave of almost heat over their bodies as they tumbled in the water, drifiting dangerously close to the grid.

Mike and April returned fire, but the inside of the tunnel lit up with counterfire, as the ten sleds barreled towards them. Jess grabbed Dev's lower leg with one hand and turned to drop onto her back, reaching up and triggering her blaster pointed at the ceiling just past her partner's ear.

Dev flinched as a rolling blast of water hit both of them, and before either could react they were shoved against the grid with an audible crunch. Instead of being blasted into a crisp, they were just bumped and bruised, and Jess managed to get her hands on the metal and pull herself through and into the open sea.

The sleds arrived a second later, and slammed into the grid.

The rest of the team opened fire as they swam rapidly towards escape, and for a long moment the entire tunnel was filled with criss crossing blaster beams.

Then Mike, April and Doctor Dan came rolling out into the sea, Jess aimed her gun inside and fired off a pinpoint shot, and the grid reactivated and shorted explosively as it arced across the sleds jammed against it's surface.

The power of the blowout scattered them and sent them tumbling through the water, bouncing off the rocks that lined the channel as they fought to regain control of their motion.

Jess was the first to do so. She quickly whirled in mid motion and headed for Dev, who had managed to get a grip on a piece of rock and was looking around in a dazed sort of way. Just past her the agent spotted Mike and April, and furthest away, Dan Kurok.

As she reached Dev's side she looked back at the entrance to the tunnel, and saw it half energized, sputtering and flashing as the sleds, or what was left of them, drifted apart and bodies drifted without internal motion.

Well, that gave them a few more minutes. Jess pointed at the surface and started swimming upward slowly, taking a route parallel to the coast.

Fifteen minutes later, they were surfacing in darkness, only the sound of the surf around them. Jess had led them to a small pinnacle, and they clung there catching their breaths. Or in Jess's case, exchanging hers as she spent a moment expelling all the water in her lungs, prepearing herself for the effort as she lifted her head out of water and did the exchange.

So there they were, heads just above the surface, lips blue and shivering, four of them staring at Jess as she coughed and hacked and nearly ended up dry heaving as her body reluctantly resumed processing air.

“They'll be after us in a minute.” April said, after a long moment of silence.

“Yes” Doctor Dan said, in a weary tone. “Everyone all right?”

Jess rested her arm on a rock and her head on her arm. “As all right as Im' gonna get.” She said, her voice a hoarse rasp. “Carriers' are half a mile that way, around that point.” She indicated the darkness that blanketed everything. “Gonna be a bitch getting there.”

“Yeah, thought that was a different direction we were going in.” Mike said, quietly. “Guess we better start swimming before they figure out what happened in that tunnel and launch a patrol.”

“Sorry about that.” Kurok spoke up. “There's a cross tunnel there that would have taken us under the rock all the way along the rock along the coast but it was closed off. No way to get into it when it's flooded like that.” He now, carefully, looked at Jess. “That's quite a trick.”

Jess coughed. “Yeah, I'm a hit at parties with it.” She looked around. “Maybe we can get out and go overland.” She examined the coast, only barely seen in the night.

“Tumbled rocks. Be a hike.” April said.

“It's mined.” Doctor Dan said, briefly. “Probably not a good..” He fell silent as another sound came over the waves. “Ah, the'yre on the way.”

A boat's engine rumbled, getting louder as they listened. “Okay.” Jess said. “We should go down again. We've got enough charge in those cannisters to last 48 hours.” She coughed again, pushing away from the rocks as she prepared to duck under the surface again. “Keep the slope on your left hand side. We'll make our way near shore.”

The sound of the boat got louder, suddenly and they scrambled to get gear in place and get under the water. Dev settled her mask and tried to ignore how cold she was, when suddently, the noise triggered something in her. She reached out to Jess and grasped her arm. “Wait.”

“What?” Jess moved closer. “You all right?”

“That sound is something I remember.” Dev said. “It's... “ She pulled her scanner out and lifted it above the waves, waiting for the water to drain before she popped the cover and booted it up. “I think I... “

A light pierced the darkness, sweeping around.

“Better think fast, Devvie.” Jess said. “We've come to far to get splatted this easy.”

The scan came back. “Look, Jess.” Dev showed it to her. “It's the fishing boat.”

“The fishing boat? What fishing boat?” Jess peered at the screen, rubbing her salt irriatated eyes. “You mean.. you don't mean Sigurd's boat? The one we stole?”

“And brought back. “ Dev said. “Yes, it is.. it has the same profile.”

The other agents and Kurok were clustered around, peering over Dev's shoulder along with Jess. “What does it mean?” April said. “What's it doing here?”

“Good question. Along with, who's driving it?” Jess said. “In either case, that boat's something we need, and maybe cover enough to get us back to the carriers. So we're gonna find out who's in it the hard way.”

Kurok cleared his throat. “Maybe they'll pick someone up floating in the water.” He suggested.

“Not one of us voluntarily.” Jess said, briefly. “We stole the boat last time.”

“Not one of you, but maybe me.” Doctor Dan said. “Some old scientist washed overboard of something.” He added. “Worth a chance, isn't it?”

“What if it's already been commandeered?” Jess said, after a moment's silence.

Doctor Dan smiled. “Then I'm no worse off than I was, and I can likely distract them long enough for you all to get away.”

“What makes you think we'd try?” Jess smiled back at him. “But you can distract them long enough for us to climb onboard.”

Kurok chuckled a little “Deal.” He took off his underwater rig and handed it to her. “Good luck.” He slipped off the rock and started swimming towards the sound and light of the boat.

“You too.” Jess said, just loud enough to be heard above the surf.

When he swam out of site she settled the mask around her neck and regarded the rest of them. “Let's go.” She said. “I'm not going to wait for them to make a decision, whoever they are.”

“Right.” April got her rig adjusted and disappeared under the waves. Mike was right behind her, and they both moved off in the direction Kurok had gone.

Dev and Jess regarded each other for a minute in silence. Then Jess moved forwad and tiilted her head, giving Dev a long, warm, passionate kiss. When she backed off, her pilot's lips looked far less blue, and her expression looked far less bleak. “C'mon. When we get out of this, you and I are going to find a place and lose the world for a good long time.”

She put Dev's mask in place and took her hand, putting her own mask over her face and slipping under the surface with her partner in tow, the last sounds she heard the clanging of a bell, and the sound of changing gears.

**

The light beam penetrated the water, sending a spear of green tinged white almost far enough to hit Jess. She finned clear of it, then went still as she felt the tickle of scan on her skin.

The other agents felt it, and hands went to blasters instinctively. Jess watched the light outline Kurok's body for a long moment, then she turned in the water and headed for the far side of the boat.

As they passed under the hull the engines rumbled audibly, and looking up Jess could see a faintly circular motion starting. So they were turning towards Kurok. Who was taking a big chance, being casually brave in the way they often were who were part of the corps.

It's only life, right? Jess focused on a low rock outcrop just past the boat and when she reached it she turned, studying the position of the boat and sorting through her options. Only life, and it never paid to plan too far ahead because crap like this happened and you just had to go with it.

Jess pointed up at the hull, making climbing motions with her hands. The eyes watching her looked doubtful, but the heads nodded and she started upward with a quiet, sinuous motion.

Her throat hurt. It felt raw and sucking in a breath of air sent prickles of discomfort across her chest. Jess grimaced and swallowed, knowing she'd be paying for her little party trick for a good long while. She put the pain aisde and studied the hull above her, now closing in as the boat moved slowly across the surface.

Big engines churned the water, making it hard to see, but she caught sight of the side, and the flushing panels for the big tanks and headed for them.

Chancy. Right between the engines. But she knew where they lead. Jess pointed to the hatches, which were in the open positoin allowing water into the holding tanks, and the rest of them nodded. Useless right now to tell them how tight the timing would need to be- she just made a sign for them to stick close behind her and went for it.

It was fast, and hard and as she banged through the open hatch and into a tank full of irritated fish she had to wonder how good an idea it was to begin with.

As her hips cleared the opening she whirled in mid motion and caught the edge of the hatch, reaching back through and yanking Dev past her, as the two other agents caugth hold just as the engines increased power and they swung around, slamming Jess into the tank wall.

Mike lost his grip and his body went into the prop wash, as April grabbed him by the belt and held on Jess reached back through and added her own hold, pulling April into the tank and getting a good grip on Mike's arm.

April had the sense to get out of the way. She released her hold and swam clear, coming to rest next to Dev holding onto the back tank wall.

Mike got hold of the edge of the hatch and pulled himself in, turning as he cleared it to make sure he still had all his bodyparts. He shook his head and floated free, banging against the tank wall as he checked his legs.

Jess turned her light on and sent a beam through the tank, seeing the reflection as thousands of eyes were mirrored back at her from the nearly full tank.

Damn good thing Mike hadn't gotten cut. Jess spared a grimace for the idea, then she pointed forward and started to swim towards the other end of the live fish hold.

Above her, she could hear the tackle being retracted, and hoped it meant that Kurok was onboard. There was too much metal for her to hear any voices, but she could hear muted tones of what might be yelling. That could be good, and could be bad for them.

The fish parted as they swam through. It was a mixture of catch, some larger specimens with a host of smaller ones, a lot of cod mixed with some barracuda, and a few small sharks. Jess ignored them as they moved through, nothing was close to their size and likely to want them for lunch and the bulk of bio hid their human signatures to any average scan.

She was aware of Dev swimming gamely at her side. A sideways glance, though, showed her a very tense look on her partners face, and it occurred to her that she might be pushing the bio alt past her abilities, given she'd been less than a month on the job.

But Dev's jaw was clenched in a stubborn way, and now that they were in the holding tank she was taking brief moments to look around at the fish they were swimming through with a hint of curiousity.

Then she seemed to sense the attention and her eyes met Jess's, a brief smile appearing on her face as she licked her lips.

Jess felt a flush of warmth flood her skin, and was glad the mask hid her blush. Crazy. Ridiculous for her to react that way given how long she'd been on the job and all those years of learning control.

Dev took hold of her arm suddenly and she jerked her attention back to her partner, then realized they were about to crash into the wall. She put a hand out to stop them and waited for the rest to catch up, light from the deck filtering down through the heavy hatch cover and paiting them in greenish blue stripes.

Jess slowly moved to the surface, staying flat against the wall until her head emerged into the small space between the top of the tank and the hatch. The others emerged a moment later, and they remaind quiet and still, listening to the sounds now very audible through the deck of the boat.

Dev pulled the mask off her face and let it sit around her neck, glad to have her head outside the unrelenting chill of the water. The air was cold too but it seemed somehow less so than the water, and she blinked a few times, and drew in breaths of air that were filled with brine and fish scent.

It was so strange to think they were inside the tank, on the boat. She remembered being on the deck, and the polar bear, and now she wondered who was on the boat and what had happened to the fishing people.

“Bring it up!” A loud voice yelled. “Hurry!”

The hydraulics cut in and they felt the boat shift as it pulled something up.

Jess listened to the boots crossing to watch, and when they faded, she eased the service hatch up a trifle and peeked out. A moment of watching, then she pushed it all the way open and pulled herself up thorugh it, clearing the way and rolling out of sight behind the big bait lockers.

All the men on the boat were on the far rail, watching the crane pull in something in a net. She coudln't see any faces, but a quick scan of the profiles didn't trigger her memory of any bad guys and when the other three joined her, she stayed crouched where she was, holding her hand up for silence.

The crane was swinging over when powerful flood lights suddently lit them from the cliffside, and then the roar of engines sounded over the waves.

“Kill your engines. Prepare for boarding” A loudspeaker pealed out. “Remain where you are or you will be shot.”

Jess exhaled. “Gonna be one of those days.”

“Going to be?” April asked, with a quizzical expression.

The crane came to rest with it's net on the deck. It was wrapped around a man shaped figure, but the crew ignored it as they scattered to stations, yanking open the big weapons chest against the back wall and arming themselves.

“Stay still.” Jess watched the action, as the crew returned to the rail, all of them with their back to her as they waited on the approach of the heavy armored cruisers.

Every crewman had a weapon There was a surge of motion suddenly, and a familiar figure shoved his way to the rail and stood, hands planted firmly on his hips as the boats appraoched.

Dev smiled, recognizing the captain. “Look, Jess.”

“I see.” Jess managed a brief grin herself. “Old bastard. Knew he was too tough to get squashed in ice.”

The first destroyer swung to, floodlights hitting the side of the fishing vessel and whitwashing it in glare. “Stand to.”

'Kiss my ass.” The captain yelled back. “What the hell d'you want?? You're scaring off the damn fish!”

The man with the repeater stared at him in silence. “You're in restricted waters!” He finally yelled. “Prepare to be boarded.”

“Like hell!” The captain yelled. “You put a foot on here I'll blow it off!” He brandished an old, scarred blaster. “Show me on what chart it says this is restricted? It's just an old shoal!”

“He's got guts.” April said, mildly. “They could blow him out of the water in ten seconds.”

Jess braced herself against the wall and rubbed her eyes. The tension was ratcheting up in her and she felt her body starting to twitch. It took a lot of effort to stay pressed against the side wall, behind the steel separator that was between them and the rail the crew was lined up against.

'They could, but they're not.” Mike said.

“They won't.” Jess peered through a rope hole in the wall. “They depend on fish loads just like everyone else does in the big pop centers. Piss off the independents and you end up eating limpets and scraping algae.”

“They have levarage.” April nodded. “The elders taught us about that, back home.”

The destroyer motered closer, and swept the deck. “We're looking for a man overboard. Have you seen them?”

Sigurd laughed. “So now you want my help?” He said. “Get lost! There's nothing here but fish, buddy.” He waved the blaster at them. “We've been here for hours. Didn't see any man overboard. Overboard of what? That rock?” He pointed at the pinnacle.

The boat came even closer, and Jess could see them sweeping the deck with scanners, and she pressed back, turning her body sideways to them. “Ready.”

'See them.” Mike alighned himself next to her, as Jess tucked her head down a little behidn the bait chamber.

“What the hell are ya doing?” Sigurd yelled. “Stop that!” He released the catch on his blaster audibly and then fired off a blast, making the other vessel erupt in angry chaos. “Keep your filthy tech to yourself!”

Someone else fired on the other side, and the next minute bolts were going everywhere, hititng the metal deck and deflecting.

“Hold!” The other ship captain bellowed. “Hold your fire!”

“Assholes!” Sigurd called out. “Consider your dock closed for us!” He waved a hand at the crew. “Pull in the nets! Let's get out of here.”

The crew burst into motion, heading for the big net wheel in the back and holstering their weapons to grab tackle around the deck. The hydraulics kicked in and the crane arched over to open up the back hatch of the tank, as the net started to retract and bring it's catch into the hold.

The net the crane had brought onboard was forgotten, near the front of the deck and apparently empty and lifeless. The destroyer idled nearby and dind't move away, the scanners sweeping them despite Sigurd's threat. But as the net came aboard, and the shining bodies of fish started to diesappear into the hold, the scans faded.

“Find other waters.” The captain of the destroyer ordered. “We won't hold fire next time, hear me?”

Sigured made a gesture at him, his arm outlined in the lights on the back of the deck with it's rude symbol. The captain watched the ships slowly turn and start quarting in a searching pattern, keeping themselves between the shore and the fishing vessel.

Now powerful lights were coming on at the shoreline, and the waters were churned and illuminated, outlining anything below with piercing light. A shout went out,and a loud double thump sounded, then a low rumble that erupted into a booming roar that exploded up throught the surf and sent a shockwave outbound that rocked the fishing boat violently.

But the crew took it in stride, and once the end of the net was aboard Sigured yelled for the helm to turn around, and take them on an outbound course to the west. The crane rumbled over head and two of the crew attached it to the big hatch, standing back as it swung the big portal closed.

The destroyers and their explosions faded off behind as they moved away from shore and into the waves, as the fishing gear was lashed down and the crew gathered near where Sigurd was standing, his arm braced against the steel hull, the blaster cradled in his other elbow.

Silence fell, only the whistle of the wind, and the slosh of the sea heard over the rumble of the engines.

Jess judged the distance, then she pushed off from the wall and stepped around the bait locker, with the rest of her little gang behind her. She stopped a few body lengths from the rest of the crew, her hand resting on her blaster. “Dev.” She said. “Go check out your buddy.”

Dev slid out from her shadow and trotted across the deck, kneeling down next to the net.

Sigurd studied Jess. He moveed away from the control station and came over ot her, the blaster cradled in one arm not quite pointed at her, but not quite not. He stopped just within reach and tilted his head to look up at her, pale eyes as cold and hard as hers were. “Know why I'm here?” He asked, after a moment of silence.

“No.” Jess answered, honestly. “Last time we met you abandoned me and this tub to a trap in the ice. Didn't expect we'd be meeting again.”

Sigurd nodded. “So I did.” He glanced around. “So I was paid to do. Didn't expect to see you again either. Or this boat. But you brought it back.”

“I did.” Jess agreed. “Never considered otherwise. Runs in the blood.”

The fisherman shifted a little, the gun easing to one side. “Well.” He glaned around. “I dont like owing people.” He scowled at her. “I screwed you over, and you repay me for that by leaving me a boat, with a profit, and enough god damned black diamonds to retire on. You suck, Drake.”

Jess smiled, with only a little humor. “You're welcome.” She caught the looks of the crew, which were far more friendly than she remembered. “Hope everyone got a cut.”

The captain nodded. “You didn't ask me how I knew where you were.”

“Don't care how you knew.” Jess pointed at the horizon. “Need to drop us off past the western turn. We'll swim in. No sense in risking this tub.”

“Then we're even.” Sigurd said. “I drop you, we're done.”

“Yes.” She turned her head. “He okay, Dev?”

Dev was helping Doctor Dan sit up. The scientist looked more than a little battered and there was blood on his head, but he lifted a hand in her direction and waved it.

“All right. Let me get this thing pointed right.” Sig handed his gun off to one of the crew. “Siddown for a few minutes. I dont' want those goons to catch on.” He climbed up to the control bridge, leaving the agents to take his advice and sit down on one of the equipment lockers.

Doctor Dan came over to join them. “Well.” He looked around. “Unexpected.”

Jess nodded. “It's not over.” She said. “We've still got to get to the carriers and get out of here.” She made space next to her so Dev could sit down. “I'll feel a hell of a lot better once Dev's got her hands on the throttles.”

Dev managed a smile.

One of the crew approached, with a drink container ana stack of cups. He offered them the cups in silence and they took them, holding them as he poured something steaming into them. “Agent.” He addressed Jess. “Sorry about the ice.”

Jess lifted the cup in his direction then brought it to her lips, the half spicy scent of seaweed tea reaching her nose as she sipped it.

“We heard about the bases.” The man said. “One of them from North was a cousin.” He turned and left them, as the fishing vessel started a slow, almost meandering arc that took them away from the brightly lit search site, as another explosion reached their ears.

“They're going to end up blowing up something important.” Doctor Dan said, his hands wrapped around the cup he'd been given. “But at least it's keeping their attention.”

No one asked anything. Jess slowly drank her tea, aware of Dev's body leaning against her, glad of just these few minutes of stillness and peace.

She was tired and she hurt. She could see that April and Mike were equally exhausted, though neither had said even a word of complaint. She knew Kurok was hurt, and she could see Dev was stressed. And now they would have the challenge of entering the water again, then finding a way ashore unseen, then finding their carriers and hoping like hell they were still hidden and their two techs were safe, and not dead.

All that to worry about, not to mention finding a way home from deep enemy territory when she knew every soldier they had would be hunting them, and then, if they did manage all that, having no idea what she was going home to.

Ugh.

She sipped the hot tea appreciating the warmth on her sore throat, knowing that no discussion of anything would take place before they were safely in the carriers, and that was all right by her, since it gave her some time to think about what they'd done and try to understand it.

The boat started motering around in a searching pattern of it's own, as though it was looking for fish. There was some chance they were still under surveillance, and Sigurd was taking no chances as he meandered slowly west, heading for the promontory headland their carriers were hidden behind.

At least, she hoped they were. She didn't think she could trust Sigurd to take them home. Though. She glanced at Dev. At least if he did, they'd both get some rest. The thought of curling up in bed with her partner was so enticing, she almost wished...

No, she didn't. Jess finished her tea and stood up, adjsuting her oversuit and preparing it to go again into the water. “Be glad to get these off and get something dry on.” She commented. “We've got a medkit in the bus, Doc.”

Kurok smiled wryly at her. “I think we should get as close to shore as we can.” He said quietly. “If the tide's out, there's a rock wall – if they can pull up against it we can stay dry.”

“You know a lot about that place.” April spoke up.

“Yes.” Doctor Dan agreed.”I was born there.” He leaned back against the wall. “Grew up there, until I became part of a project that ended up with me changing sides.” His lips twitched. “But that's a story for another time.”

“Wow.” April said, with a note of respect in her voice. “That must be quite a story.”

“Mm.” The pale haired man made a sound in his throat, glancing at Jess and then looking away. “It was.”

The crew stayed away from them. They worked at their tasks, and got the nets ready, just going about their jobs as though there weren't five strangers sitting on their deck, and patrols watching their movements.

A few minutes later, one of the women came on deck, with a pot of something and a stack of worn plates. She put it down on the locker and offered April a spoon, then walked away, dissapearing back down into the interior area of the ship.

“This safe?” April indicated the pot.

“Is anything?” Jess handed out the plates, and the utensils piled on them.

“Good point.” The younger agent dumped portions of the fisherman's typical fish stew on the plates and then sat down and started in on hers. “Better than that stuff at the pole.”

Jess took a mouthful and had to agree. She watched Dev from the corner of her eye, as the bio alt stolidly worked through the stew and gently nudged her with her elbow.

Dev looked up at her in question.

“Want more tea?” Jess asked.

“No, I'm okay with this.” Dev pointed at the stew. “It's warm.” She added. “But I agree I will be very glad when we can change itno something dry.” She seemed to perk up a little at Jess's continued attention. “I'm really glad the fisher people came out okay.”

“Me too.” Jess agreed.

“But they said they left us there on purpose.” Dev frowned. “That wasn't good.”

“They got paid to.” Jess scraped up the last of her stew. “It happens”

“Then why are they helping us now?” Dev whispered. “It's confusing. Coudln't they be being paid to do bad things now too?”

“Anything's possible.” Jess also kept her voice very low. “But Sigurd's shackled with the same ten ton ball of honor that I am. When we were with him before it was a handshake deal. He had no pact with us, just did it as a favor to his old uncle. Must have been a lot of cred, to get him to walk away from this thing.”

Dev frowned.

“When I brought the boat back, I put him in deep debt to me.” Jess went on, in a casual tone. “Both in cred, and in honor and he's got to pay that off.”

“Oh. He has to?”

“Has to.”

“I see.” Dev finished up her stew. “I am going to speak to him then.” She put the plate down. “I want to see if he got my note.” She ducked past Jess before the agent could react, and headed for the control center, moving past the crew and mounting the steps with stolid confidence.

Jess put her plate down and paused, not sure if she should follow or not. She glanced at Doctor Dan, who was sititng quietly having finished his meal.

“Not what you expected, hm?” Kurok inquired.

“No.” Jess admited.

“Me either.” The scientist sighed, shaking his head. “Me either.”

**

Dev opened the door to the control area, pausing when the men inside turned to look at her.

Two of them immediately headed her way, but the captain lifted his hand. “Leave her.” He growled. “Take off.” He added, gesturing to the door. “I can handle this crate.”

The men walked past Dev, making a point of staring at her as they went by. Dev merely looked back at them, waiting for the door to close and taking a moment to enjoy the lack of cold wind.

Sigurd kept his hands on the controls, but one eye on her. “So.”

“Hello.” Dev came over and stood next to the console. “This was a very pleasant thing to drive. I liked it.”

The captain's eyebrows hiked up. “You drove it?”

“Yes.” The bio alt agreed. “I had to.”

Sigurd eyed her. “So. You're a jelly bag brain?”

Dev nodded. “I'm a bio alt.” She said. “I dont 'think I have any jelly in my head though. There's not much room with all the programming in there.”

“That's freaking strange.” The captain commented. “I never would have pegged you for that.”

Dev took that as a compliment. “Well, I didn't expect you to let us die in the ice. So I guess you really don't know about people, do you?”

Sigurd turned his head fully and looked at her. “You wrote in my log.”

“I did.” Dev put her hands on the console, flexing the fingers a little as the chill left them. “I wasn't sure what happened to you and your family, but I hoped you made out okay, and I wanted you to know that.”

“Why?” The captain asked. “We screwed you over. Left you to croak. Hoped the ice crushed you and this tub, and they promised me they'd replace it.”

“Yes, I know. But I still hoped you made it out okay.” Dev said. “A lot of people try to hurt us. I was taught to expect that.”

He sighed. “Great.” He said. “Enjoy that hopeful attitude while you can cause life's gonna beat it out of you.” He glanced at her again. “Anyway, those bastards double crossed me and we ended up running for our lives from em. My fault. Paid a kid for it.” He looked out at the water. “So get out of here, okay? I gotta figure out where I can set where they don't know I”m letting you off.”

“Okay. Goodbye.” Dev touched the console and turned, retreating from the control surface and heading for the door. “Good luck.”

“Yeah, you too.” Sig said, without turning around.

Dev closed the door behind her and climbed down the steps, passing the two crew members who immediately clambered up past her. She started around the corner only to crash headlong into a tall body coming the other direction, and bounced back, trying to catch her balance. “Oh!”

“Ah.” Jess grabbed and steadied her. “There you are.”

“Here I am.” Dev agreed. “That discussion was not very successful, but I'm glad I had it.” She told her partner. “I was in discomfort thinking those people had all died. I'm glad they didn't.”

“Since they just saved our asses, me too.” Jess leaned against the wall and stuck her hands in her pockets. “Be glad to get back in our bus though.”

“Me too.” Dev echoed her words. “Its been a day full of much discomfort.”

“No kidding.” Jess sighed.

They both fell silent for a bit. Then Jess cleared her throat. “You did a hell of a job in there, by the way.” She indicated the way they'd come. “Didn't have a chance to say anything before.”

Her partner leaned on the wall next to her. “It was difficult.”

“Very.” Jess said, giving her a sideways look. “Cold?”

Dev nodded. “There was a lot of under the water things.” She said. “I was just thinking how nice a hot shower would feel.” She admitted.

“Mm. Yeah it would.”

They were both silent again, for a moment. Then Jess draped her arm over Dev's shoulders and simply stood there, as the fishing boat made it's lazy circle and started to drift towards the promentory. The waves were building and it made the vessel rock as it slowed, the lights outlining white tinged waves all around them.

“Storm coming in.” April came over to stand next to them. “Heard the crew talking about it. They don't want to stick around.”

“We don't either.” Jess said. “Another ten minutes and he'll be close enough to that wall. Let's get ready.”

They gathered on the port side of the deck, staying behind the bait locker as the boat maneuvered back and forth, setting out their nets and then moving clear of the lines, slipping sideways in the water as they turned to view the set. Then, casually, Sigurd turned the bow around and as he did, the lights on the boat blinked out and five dark clad figures hopped onto the seawall.

Then the engines revved, and the lights came back on, and the boat moved around the promontary as it laid out another line of nets, rocking in the waves as from the dakrness, one of the destroyers appeared, splashing them with floodlights.

Jess led the way across the seawall, broken in spots and dangerous. She got to the end of it as they heard the destroyer engines, and jumped off onto the rocky beach they'd landed on.

One turn of the lights and even the carrier's camoflage skin wouldn't help them. Jess bolted across the surface and led the way to where they'd left the craft, coming around the corner of the rocks and knowing a moment of perfect relief as she spotted the faint outline in the reflection of the destroyer's floodlights.

The other two agents split off and got to their rigs as Doctor Dan followed Jess and Dev to theirs, Jess barely leaving enough space for the hatch to open without smacking her in the face as she palmed the lock.

Battle lighting was on inside and the hatch shut behind them as they entered. Dev went to the pilot's station and strapped in, undoing the catches on her watersuit and peeling it down off her shoulders and exposing the clinging undersuit beneath it. She started her preflight checks, getting ear cups settled and reflecting that she was gladder to be sitting down in her seat that she could have possibly imagined.

Jess stripped her outer suit off to the waist as well, glancing over to where Doctor Dan was fastening the restraints around him on the drop rig. She got into her own chair and swung her panels around, hearing the rising hum as Dev powered systems in the faintly blue lit darkness of the inside of the carrier.

The front window went from opaque to clear, and she could see searchlights moving in the darkness over the water. “Dev, give me power please.”

“Yes.” Dev shunted batteries to the weapons systems and got the engines online. “Tac 1 to Tac 2 and 3, status?”

“Tac 2, ack.” Chester murmured. “Two to go.”

“Tac 3, ack.” Doug waited his turn. “Ready.”

“Dev, get ready to lift. I think your fishy buddies could use some help out there.” Jess got her targetting systems aligned and leaned back in her seat, very glad of the support and wishing for some painkillers. Now that she was sitting down, it was getting harder to push the pain aside, and she took a deep breath then released it, forcing her concentration.

“One moment.” Dev got her power grid aligned and stripped her gloves off, dropping them to the carrier deck as she curled her hands around the throttles. “Ready.”

“Go go gadget.” Jess said. “Hang on.” She advised Doctor Dan. “I learned that the hard way.”

Doctor Dan tightened the restraints on the rig and leaned against it, giving her a brief nod in return. “Anything not water's good for me right now.”

Jess studied his face. “You gonna last?”

The scientist regarded her with a wry expression. “I have broken ribs.” He said. “If one of them doesn't puncture a lung, I'll be fine. Thanks for asking.” He ended that with a slight grin, seeing the grimace of sympathy on Jess's face. “I wouldn't cooperate with them and they didn't like that.”

“You went with them.” Jess said, not quite asking the question.

“I did.” Kurok answered. “They wanted me. I wanted to see what they were up to. Neither side got anything positive out of it since they wouldn't tell me why they wanted me.. aside from hinting they wanted me to teach them how to create something like her.. “ He moved his head in Dev's direction. “And.. “ He sighed. “In the black humor department they somehow forgot what business I was in before I went upside and ended up shocked and enraged when I killed a few of them after they spent a few hours applying electrical leads to me.”

“That what we busted up?” Jess knew what that felt like, and acknowledged a moment of true sympathy for the man. Now that she had time to just sit quietly and look at him, she realized he probably had more than broken ribs.

“I figured I might as well see what all the fuss was about as long as I was being beaten up for it.” Doctor Dan relaxed against the drop frame, letting his hands rest on his thighs. “And yes, they'd just caught up with me when they suddenly realized I was the least of their worries.”

Jess let her head rest against the padded chair. “Glad we found you.”

Kurok smiled. “I'm glad too.”

Dev boosted fast, up and over the ridge of rock with the other two carriers right behind her and as they headed over the water they spotted the fishing boat facing off against the destroyer, dodging a bolt of blaster fire. “Jess!”

“Yeah, I see em.” Jess swung the targetting system around and drew a bead on the enemy vessel. “Jacktards.”

“They have seen us.” Dev said. “I think they're going to shoot.”

“I think I”m going to shoot first.” Jess locked on and fired a long burst. “Take us right at em.”

Dev nodded, and complied, sending the carrier at almost water level past the fishing vessel right at the destroyer. She saw the energy suck a moment beofore Jess cut loose on the forward guns, stitching across the side of the ship in a barrage that brought a thunder of explosive eruption that lit the night sky for a brief moment.

Then the water boiled, and the destroyer was gone. Dev flew the carrier through a dark cloud of smoke that dispersed as she bent their course into a tight curve, feeling the welcome pressure of g force against her body. She slowed the carrier as they approached the fishing vessel, and peered at it. “They seem intact.”

Below them, the bell on the ship was ringing. Dev piped the sound inside, as the other two carriers lifted and joined them. They hovered briefly, until the fishing vessel started back around to pick up their nets, several figures on the rail visbly waving at them.

Jess chuckled. “Now they owe us again.” She safed the weapons. “Dev, take us due west, stick to the coast, stick to the waterline. Tell the kids to follow us.”

“Will do.” Dev transmitted the instructions, then plotted her course and swung the carrier around to point and engaged the engines.

It felt so good to be sitting down in her space. Dev wished she'd had time to completely change, but the warmth inside the carrier was penetrating her chilled skin, and she adjusted the temp a bit upward, as the shivers had almost worked their way out of her body.

It occurred to her then that they had likely done well with this mission. Some big important thing had been destroyed, and they had Doctor Dan with them. She and Jess were both functional and she hadn't wrecked the carrier this time. Excellent, really.

She just really hoped there was someone left for them to report it to.

“Keep a tight eye out, Dev. If they pick us up this is going to be ugly.” Jess got up from her position and opened a locker, pulling out a dry shirt and pulling it over her head. She got one for Dev and moved forward, putting it down on her console. “Put that on. You must be an ice cube.”

Dev had just finished engaging the autonomic systems, and she lifted her hands clear and picked up the fabric gratefully. “Thank you.” She said. “It was really cold in that water.”

“Yeah.” Jess patted her shoulder. “I”m going to heat up some tea. My throat's killing me.”

Dev pulled the shirt on, the warm, dry fabric feeling wonderful against her skin. She released her restraints and stood up, pulling the water suit all the way off, storing it neatly on a hook and removing a standard jumper from her kit. She pulled that on and fastened the catches over the shirt, at once a lot warmer.

She rubbed her hands and sat back down, reviewing her course and checking the wiremap closely. The coast was rugged, full of cliffs and outcroppings and though the autonav was programmed to avoid collision, she didn't want to take any chances.

There had been a lot of chance taking, this last while.

She could hear Jess moving around and getting her drink, and wondered how Doctor Dan was doing. A glance in the mirror showed her partner's profile, but she couldn't see Doctor Dan from where she was sitting. Then something caught her eye. “Jess?”

“Hm?” The agent turned around and came over to her, handing her a steaming cup.

“I think you did yourself damage.” Dev said, gravely. “There is blood on your back.”

“Yeah? Oh crap.” Jess turned her back to her partner. “Fresh?”

“Yes.” Dev put the cup down and got up again, touching Jess' shoulderblade. There was a spreading stain on her shirt. “May I look at it?”

“Sure.” Jess rested her hands on her console, feeling the brush of cool air as Dev pulled her shirt up, the pain now becoming evident to her since she had to focus on it. “Damned knife.”

“Traitor's knives are sharpest of all.” Doctor Dan had half turned in the rig area and was watching.

“So true.” Jess said, after a moment. “There's a kit behind the locker there, Dev. See if you can clean it off, and put something over it. “

“Yes.” Dev went to the locker and retrieved the aid kit. “Doctor Dan taught us to do this.” She smiled a little, and looked over at her mentor. “We would get hurt some times in training.”

“Yes.” Doctor Dan smiled back at her. “I remember it well.”

Dev brough the kit back and got the cleaner and some plas bandages out. She eased the shirt up over Jess's shoulder and studied the injury. “Something has penetrated your back here.” She reported. “Also, it is very bruised. Right here.” She touched the edge of her partner's shoulderblade.

“Is it the same place I got hurt last time?” Jess studied the console.

Dev regarded the skin before her, touching the scar now red and visible. “Yes.” She said. “It appears to have opened up?” She gently cleaned the place, aware of the sound as Doctor Dan released his belt and came around the weapons console to peer at the injury.

“Hm.” Kurok said. “Let me take over this, Dev.” He said. “I've had a little more experience.” He removed the pad and the clenser from Dev's hands. “Have your tea. I think your lips are still a little blue.”

Dev was glad to step back and let her teacher take over. She scanned her boards again, then sat down in her chair, picking up her cup again and sipping from it.

She didn't think her lips were blue, since she felt quite warm now. She settled her ear cups in place and started a comm scan, listening for the faint sounds of enemy radio. She caught the faint echo of the carriers behind them, and then she keyed in the sideband system. “Tac 1, Tac 2.”

“Tac 2, ack.”

“Stand by for nav synch.”

“Ack.”

Dev sent their course and lock, and waited for an acknoweldgement, trying not to think too much about how tired she was. “Is it okay, Doctor Dan?” She asked, noting that the wound already looked a lot better.

“Oh, I think it'll do fine.” Kurok murmured. “This was a really bad puncture.”

“Yeah.” Jess said. “dalknife, six inches, to the hilt.”

Doctor Dan stopped moving and craned his head to look around Jess's shoulder. “Beg your pardon?”

“Dalknife.” Jess said. “Must be new since your time. Carved from basalt rock, triangular, sharp as hell, but with burrs all along the blade so it carves you up like a seaweed milkshake.”

Kurok pulled his head back and looked more closely at the old wound. “That explains the triangular bifurcation.” He said. “That must have.. “

“Nearly killed me? Yeah.” Jess didn't sound upset about it. “I lost what felt like half the blood in my body before they got me into a chill kit and back to the tank.”

“Wow.” Doctor Dan seemed at a loss for words

“Yeah, that's what the meds at base said.” Jess sighed. “They're not really sure how I managed not to croak. Certainly Joshua meant me to.”

“Joshua?”

Jess glanced back at him. “My last tech.” She said. “My former partner, who went to the other side.” She eyed her own shoulder. “Thought it healed.”

“Mostly.” Doctor Dan said, in a quiet tone. “Looks like most of the internal is healed, but this outer part split apart... maybe in the fight.” He carefully applied a plas tack and eased the edges of the opening closed, putting a layer of goo over it and putting a bandage square in place. “There you go.”

“I banged it up at base when they went for you.” Jess recalled.

“I remember that.” Dev reached over and put a hand on Jess's arm, giving it a squeeze. “Against the door.” She heard a hail on comms and turned to answer it. “Excuse me.”

Jess straightened up and slid her shirt down, then she went over to her locker and got out of the water suit, trading it for a dry regular issue she eased over her now quite painful shoulder and fastened. She turned, to find Kurok watching her, with a quiet, grim expression.

She managed a brief grin, then she sat down in the gunners chair and relaxed, glad, at least, she hadn't done anything newly lethal to herself. Bruises, for sure, but that didn't involve external blood loss.

“You know.” Doctor Dan perched on the edge of the rig casing, just to her right. “I didn't understand, truly, what the situation with your former partner was, when they asked us to particpate. They didn't explain and Alex didn't either.”

Jess glanced at him. His eyes were shifted slightly off her, a hard, sea ice glint to them. Dressed as he was, with that look, most of the scientist about him had faded away leaving something more primal in it's wake. “They just wanted it fixed.” She agreed.

“They said it was a trust thing. I didn't get it.” Kurok now focused on her. “I couldnt imagine what a tech could have done that caused that much upheaval.”

“Think I was some prima donna or something?” Jess's lips twisted into a droll wryness.

“No.” He answered quietly. “I knew you weren't. I thought it was political. It wasn't.” He indicated her back. “That wasn't. That was a personal betrayal on a level I can hardly comprehend.” He shook his head. “Not from.. not from one of us.”

Jess felt something long tense relax in her, unexpectedly. She watched him faintly shake his head, one hand slowly closing and unclosing, so very obviously remembering a time when he had been what Joshua had been, trying to fathom doing what he'd done. “Yeah.” She said. “You got it.”

Dev watched them both with deep interest. This was a side of Doctor Dan she'd never seen, and it was facinating, because as he said those words she felt the programming in her echoing them very intensely – he was aghast at the thought of that betrayal and she could feel that in her gut, in perfect echo.

He had said, one of us. That was the first time she'd heard him refer to himself that way, but it was true. She could see that now, see how he was more like Jess than anyone she'd known in the creche. More like Jess, and April, and Doug, and even Jason, back at the citadel.

“Yes.” Doctor Dan sat down in the equipment ledge, letting his elbows rest on his knees. “I do get it.”

Dev went over to the dispenser. “Would you like some tea, Doctor Dan? I think that clothing you have is still wet.”

He gave her one of his gentle smiles. “I would like that a lot, Dev. Thanks.”

Jess got back up and went to the gear locker, rummaging inside it. “Here.” She dug out a thickly woven overshirt and handed it to him. 'That'll probably fit.”

“Ah.” Kurok touched the fabric. “Something from home, eh?” He glanced at Jess. “Haven't seen that pattern in a while.” He took the cloth. “Drake's Bay harbor shirt.”

Jess smiled in reflex. “Always keep one around for gale force conditions.” She was glad to shift the conversation to something far more mundane. “It's woven to keep wind and sand out.” She explained to Dev, who was looking curiously at it. “Next time we're there, I'll get you one.”

“It's pretty.” Dev reached over and touched the fabric. “I like the colors.” She added. “It reminds me of the cloth thing in the big room there.”

Doctor Dan looked up at her. “You've been to the Bay, Dev? I didn't hear about that.”

Jess took a cup of hot tea back to her station. “Happened after you went hostage.” She said. “My mother was in an air crash. We went to her processing”

Several conflicting emotions flashed over Kurok's face. “I see.” He murmured. “Sorry to hear that.”

Dev retreated back to her chair and checked the nav. Everything seemed stable, and comp showed no scans, and no targets, save the other two carriers. Nothing was following them.

She thought about the shirt, and about getting one if they went back. Maybe they would go there if the base was damaged, Jess had said, and Dev found that thought appealing. She had liked the place, even if people were strange, and there seemed to be discomfort about her, and Jess there.

“Yeah, well.. it was more an excuse to get out of the base, and see what I could do about coming out to find you.” Jess admitted, with a smile. “She and I never really got along, after I went.”

“Ah. I see.”

Dev glanced in the mirror, and saw that Doctor Dan had taken off the top part of the water suit so he could put on the dry shirt. The light inside the carrier wasn't bright, but she could plainly see the patterns on his arms, faded, but visible against his pale skin, a good portion of which was also darkened with bruises and crossed with thin red marks and cuts.

It seemed like he was in discomfort. But he put the shirt on and picked up his tea, and smiled back at Jess, his eyes gently twinkling in the overhead battle lighting.

It seemed like things were starting to be better again. Dev sipped her tea with a sense of lightening tension in her, and she settled herself into her chair as the feelings of uncertainty and doubt faded.

Really, it seemed like they could do anything.

Part 23

Daylight found them skimming over ruffled gray waters, warily eyeing a dark black line off in the distance heading for them.

Dev had just settled back into her seat after a short nap and she had a ration box clamped down next to her as she studied the met report. Behind her, Doctor Dan seemed to be sleeping almost standing up, and Jess had just leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes for a while after driving while Dev rested.

She felt okay. It would have been excellent to have slept a little longer but the irresistable urge to close her eyes was gone and she felt like she could keep going as long as she needed to now.

Her chair was still a little warm from Jess's body, and she smiled as she leaned back in it, checking their course and reviewing the results of her most recent scan. There was nothing around except the other two carriers, even the waters they were cruising over seemed empty of most life.

They had left the land far behind. Nav was reporting they were just a few minutes shy of crossing the invisible line that divided her side and the other side, and she directed the scan downward to review the ocean bottom below.

Yes, there it was. She traced the line on the bottom that marked the intercontinental plate, remembering her lessons about the geology of the planet downside they never saw. There was a certain sense of relief as she crossed over it, even though she knew it really did not keep anyone from following them.

It meant they were that much closer to.. Dev paused and considered. Was the citadel home? Had the creche been home? She tapped the word into comp and waited for it to come back, studying the results with interest. What was home, anyway?

Home was a place of refuge or residence, apparently. It was a place one belonged to, where they kept their posessions and where they did a significant part of their daily living.

Well. Dev pondered. That, for her could be either place, or, in fact, this carrier. She'd done a significant part of her daily living so far sitting right in this very seat, but she was pretty sure that wasn't really want was meant.

Ah. 'Archaic – home was often not a place but philosophical location, where one would feel at ease and at peace, a comfort of the heart.'

Hm. Was there any place that fit that for her?

Dev heard a faint sound behind her and she glanced in the mirror, seeing Jess shift a little in her chair. Her eyes were closed, and she was using one of the thick jackets as a blanket, her head resting against the padded surface of her swiveled back chair.

The lights were dimmed inside the carrier, only the consoles emitting a low, faint blue glow but she could see Jess's even, slow breathing and she felt herself relaxing as she watched. One of the few peaceful moments she'd encountered thus far in her short sojourn at Interforce, she realized, had been curling up with Jess to sleep and she wished they could do that now.

Even without the sex thing.

Dev sighed, and returned her attention to the console, setting up another scan with slightly different paramenters and letting it start. The course Jess had given her would take them north of their base, almost to Quebec City, and then south, but first there was this storm to get past.

There were no ice caves to hide in, she noted mournfully. Perhaps they would get to the outer edge of the lonely escarpments past Quebec before the storm caught them, and shelter there. She adjusted the thrusters a little, and regarded the output of the scan, glad to see nothing on the horizon aside from the threatened met.

Her ear bud crackled slightly, and she pressed it a little more firmly into her ear. “Repeat?”

“Tac 1, Tac 3.” the soft response came back. “This is Mike.”

“Ack.” Dev responded in a low tone. “Status?”

“Nominal.” He responded. “Reporting low band chatter, sea level based, northwest.”

Dev checked her own comms, seeing the faint signal. “Ack.” She said. “Ident?”

“Negative.” Mike said. “Fishing boat, maybe.”

They'd outflown the only fishing boat Dev developed a personal interest in. They were days behind them now, and she didn't think getting involved with another boat would be an excellent thing to do. What would Jess do, though? Would she want to see what was out there?

Dev frowned, shifting her attention from the comms to the reflection and back. Jess wanted to get back to the citadel, that was for sure, and diverting could get them in trouble with the weather. She wondered if she should wake her partner up to ask.

But Jess looked so tired. Dev wavered another moment, then clicked into comms. “Tac 3, Tac 2, Tac 1. Divert ten degreees northwest, long scan, report.”

There was a brief silence. Then the comms came to life. “Ack.” April said. “Ten degrees, at mark.”

“Ack.” Mike sounded distinctly relieved. “Signal locked, parsing.” He reported. “Stand by.”

Dev adjusted her own course and nodded, feeling a sense of relief, and also, of correctness. She picked up her dispenser of tea and sipped from it, then set it down and selected a seaweed cracker from her ration and put it in her mouth.

She wasn't sure, really why Jess didn't like them. They were crunchy and slightly spicy and they went well with the tea. It also provided some contrast to the fish roll, which tended to be a little bland.

Another sound made her look up again, but this time it was Doctor Dan, who came over to her and sat down on the side of the console, holding a ration kit. “Good morning, Dev.”

Dev smiled. “Hello.” She greeted her mentor. “Are you in less discomfort now, Doctor Dan?” She asked. “After your rest?”

“Oh, somewhat, yes.” He sipped his tea. “It's been a very long time since I've had to deal with being kicked around like that, no doubt about it.”

His voice was soft, and a little hoarse. Dev studied him from the corner of her eye, noting the painful looking bruise along one of his cheekbones. “Why did they hurt you?” She asked, keeping her voice very low to avoid waking her sleeping partner.

“Mm.” Doctor Dan pondered the question. “Probably because I was doing my very best to make trouble for them. They don't like that you know, Dev. I wasn't being very correct to them.”

“Oh.” Dev listened to the scan results, then restarted it when it came back empty. “I guess we were doing that too.”

“You were.” Her mentor agreed. “Doing a damn fine job of that, in fact, Better than I did. But that does usually end up with someone getting into a bit of discomfort.”

“Like Jess's back.”

“Mm.” Kurok nodded slowly. “But that.. the original hurt, Dev, that was a very wrong thing.” He added, gently. “It made me very angry to see that, you know, because what you are doing, this work, involves a lot of trust.”

“Yes.” Dev said. “It would be like you hurting one of us.”

Doctor Dan went very still, his eyes staring at the steam from his cup for a long moment before he looked back up at her. “Yes, its that kind of trust.” He answered quietly. “You have to trust, that the things I do to you are not going to hurt you.”

“I do.” Dev responded. “We all do.” She added, half turning to look seriously at him. “Not everyone else.”

Kurok put his cup down and laced his fingers together, resting his chin on them. “Why? Why me, and not others, Dev?”

Oh, that was a good question. Dev shifted her eyes to the window and looked out at the choppy sea, almost a black color frothed with white as it passed under them. “I don't know.” She finally answered, a little unsettled. “I just feel like you woudnl't hurt me. I always did.. we always did. I talked to some of the others, and to Gigi.. you remember Gigi?”

“Yes.” Doctor Dan smiled at her. “I do remember Gigi.”

“She said the same thing. That when you went down, you.. “ Dev paused. “Sometimes you wondered. But with you we never did.” She heard him sigh, a little. “We always thought you cared what happened to us.”

“Mm.” Doctor Dan made a low noise in his throat. “I do care.” He answered softly. “In a way, Dev, all of you are, to me, as though you were my children, the ones I never had myself.”

Dev smiled, and her eyes lit up.

“So maybe that's what you feel, when you feel that way.” He concluded. “What happens to you all matters to me, even though sometimes I know those things can sometimes be bad, and unhappy things.”

“Bad things happen to natural borns too.” Dev said, after a pause. “Like what happened to Jess.” She reached out and touched his hand, where another bruise was evident. “And to you.”

“That's true.” Her mentor returned her smile, then it faded. “When bad things happen, it's hard for natural borns to trust other people, because it could happen again. But I think Jess does trust you.”

Dev nodded. “She knows I care about what happens to her.” She answered readily. “And I do, but Doctor Dan.. “ She glanced at the console, and adjusted a setting. “I think that made me do something very incorrect. When I saw them hurting Jess, I .. “ She hesitated.

“You hit them.” Doctor Dan said. “I saw you.”

Dev nodded. “Yes. I did. That was incorrect, wasn't it? I remember the programming for that.”

“Ah.” Doctor Dan opened his ration box and removed the fish roll inside, setting it on the console and fishing the crackers out with it. “That's a complicated question, Dev.” He opened the crackers and ate one. “Because you understand your basic programming, and you know that was in there.”

“Yes.”

“Well, it was.” Doctor Dan leaned back a little, against the side of the control area. “But when I was preparing you for this work, I did do some changes to that programming, because I knew you might end up in a situation like that one, and I wanted you to be able to respond to it.”

Now, that was a suprise. “Oh.” Dev murmured. “You did.”

“I did.” Kurok bit into his fish roll. “Because I think you realize Dev, that I used to do work very much like this.”

“With Jess's father.”

There was a long pause before he answered, and his face twitched a little. “Yes.” He finally said. “I dind't know you knew that.”

“Jess found out before we left.” Dev sensed some serious discomfort on his part. “They sent her some of her father's things, and one of the things was a picture.”

“Of us?” Doctor Dan said, after long breath.

“Yes.”

He sat quietly and finished his roll without saying anything else for a few minutes. Dev finished herse as well, and waited, since she could see he was thinking har about something. She checked the console, and the chron, and calcuated it would be another ten minutes or so before they were close to the signal's location and could see anything.

“Well.” Doctor Dan rested his elbows on his knees and nibbled on his crackers. “I didn't expect that, Dev, but yes, it's true. I was her father's partner, way back when.” His face looked quiet, and thoughtful. “So you see, I knew very well what I needed to prepare you for.”

“Yes.” Dev agreed. “The programming is excellent, Doctor Dan. I've known everything I needed to.” She indicated the carrier. “Especially about this vehicle. It's been difficult, but I could do it.”

He smiled, a warm sweet smile that made her smile back. “Thank you, Dev. It's always nice to have your work recognized, isn't it? I don't get that opportunity often.”

Dev knew a moment of delight, seeing her mentor's unexpected reaction to her words. Of course, she knew what that was like, to have your work praised, and yet somehow she never thought... She looked at Doctor Dan again. “Thank you.” She said. “I'm really glad I got this assignment.”

“Even though it's so hard?”

Dev nodded. “Yes. It's hard, but it's good work.” She glanced in the mirror then looked back at him. “And I'm glad I'm getting to help Jess.” Another glance in the mirror would have shown her a pair of interested blue eyes watching, that had now gained a faint twinkle in them, but Dev focused her attention on her mentor. “That's been really good.”

He grinned a little. “You like your partner.”

“Very much.” Dev assented immediately. “Jess has been so nice to me, and she's so excellent at this work.”

“Mm. She comes from a long line of people who were very good at this.” Doctor Dan said. “Sometimes natural borns have traits, like sets can have, and they inherit them from their mothers and fathers in the same way that we develop sets to have certain talents in the creche. You understand?”

“Yes. Is that how she does the fish thing?” Dev asked. “That was a very big surprise. There were some people in the citadel who said Jess was a fish, but I didn't think they meant that so literally.”

Doctor Dan looked thoughtful. “That was a big surprise to me too, Dev. I can tell you, having pulled him out of a number of underwater situations, that she did not inherit that from her father. It must be something that was being modified slowly through generations in her family. Its very interesting and I hope I get a chance to talk to her about it when we're done with this part of the mission.”

“It's amazing. I think Jess is amazing, and I'm so glad I got to do work with her.” Dev got it all out in a rush, feeling a warmth on her face and a slight feeling of confusion. “I really like her.”

“Yes, I know you do.” Doctor Dan's smile broadened. “I'm glad.” He patted her knee. “No matter how hard this gets, Dev, remember that part. It's the reallyimportant thing.” He told her. “Its very important to be able to take good care of our friends, right? So that's why I changed your programming a little, so that you'd be able to do that if you had to.” He hesitated. “Don't ever feel incorrect about helping people you care for.”

“Yes.” Dev felt a true sense of relief. She didn't like thinking about being so incorrect. “So it's okay for me.”

Kurok nodded. “It is okay for you, because we're asking you to do very difficult things that most bio alts don't get to do.” He clarified. “So don't worry about it.”

Dev nodded at once. “It's like the sex thing.” She said placidly “Right?”

Doctor Dan chuckled unexpectedly, putting his box down and rubbing his face with one hand. “Ah, well, yes, I guess it is, sort of.” He sighed. “In that, it's all right for you to do things that your creche mates will not get to do, because of the work you're involved in.”

“Good.” Dev was satisifed. “Thank you for telling me that.”

He patted her shoulder and went back to his fish roll, chuckling a little to himself and shaking his head.

“Tac 2, Tac 1”

Dev touched her ear cup. “Tac 1 Go.”

“Scan complete, standby to synch.” Chester reported. “Check tab 2.”

Dev engaged the comp and retrieved the scan from the other carrier, reviewing it and matching it against her own. She was of Doctor Dan peering over her shoulder, and moved aside a little to give him a better view. “We heard a comm signal.” She explained. “We weren't sure what it was. “

Chester's scan showed only a ghost profile. She compared it to her own, and tuned the comp a little more, warping the sine waves and resending the probe.

Doctor Dan peered at the screen and tilted his head just slightly to one side, his eyes narrowing a little. “That looks old.” He said. “Reminds me of the remote base stations they used to run on the coast, before they put the sat relays in.” He looked thoughtful. “Hm.”

“Hm.” Jess's voice startled both of them, and they looked up to see the tall agent coming to stand behind Dev's chair, draping her long arms over the top of it. “Sorry. Coudln't sleep through people complimenting me. What's up?” She gave them both a wry grin.

Dev blushed, wrinkling her nose as she sorted through the surge of emotion. “I'm sorry, did that cause you discomfort?”

“Nope.” Jess peered at the screen. “We pick something up?” She eased around the other side of the chair and leaned against it, her elbow resting on Dev's shoulder.

“A signal.” Dev pointed it out. “It's just an echo on Chester's scan but I can see the sine of it.” She traced the line with one fingeritp. “It's not very strong.”

“No.” Jess shook her head. “What did you say it looked like?” She asked Doctor Dan.

“Local signal hub.” He answered succinctly. “Used to be a lot of them in relay, before we had topside.”

Jess regarded the readout and then she keyed in met and brought up the storm front, her eyes flicking from one to the other rapidly. “Okay. I don't want to leave this unseen, but we're out of time. Let's do a water level overfly of the coordinates, then take us up and to the north, Dev. Get over that line of clouds.”

“Yes.” Dev got her restraints in place, as Jess pushed off and went back to her seat and did the same. Doctor Dan collected the remainder of the rations and stowed them, moving back to his position in the drop rig and strapping down. “Do you think it could be another fishing boat?”

“Maybe.” Jess got her targetting systems up and synced, powering the forward guns up with a light touch. “But I'm not going to take any chances. Someone paid Sigurd to skunk us.”

“Seems an easy answer to that.” Doctor Dan said. “We know they were looking for you for Gibralter.”

“Seems like, but I”m not sure it is them.” Jess said. “We saw some funny things in the white. Found a cavern full of jacktards pretending to be Interforce that were gunned down but not by us.” She got her gloves on and settled into her chair, leaning back and letting her eyes focus past the screens.

“Rivals?” Kurok suggested.

“Don't think so.” Jess tightened her restraints. “There's something out there I think we've been missing. Tied into the leak we had at base, and how they've been able to penetrate us pretty much at will lately.”

“Hm.”

“They got all the way into our shuttle base after you.” Jess reminded him. “A dozen security sweeps and we can't find someone who has the intel and access to allow an attack force of that size to get all the way in to our pad? Really?”

Doctor Dan eyed her thoughtfully.

“And they knew you were there.” Jess tuned the guns. “Dev, bring us in.” She settled herself. “Let's make sure we don't leave some loose end at our backs that ends up burying a knife in it. Have had enough of that this year already.”

Dev got the carrier off auto nav and took control of the engines, giving them more power and feeling them respond as she brought the craft down to wave level and cleared the light layer of fog, giving them a clear view at last.

In the target zone they could see a small rocky island, and as they approached, craft launched against them. “Here we go.” Jess flexed her hands. “Bet they didn't expect us.”

“Bet they didn't” Doctor Dan said. “And we didn't expect them either.” He added .”Whoever 'they' are.”

**

Flying the carrier into battle was very different then just flying it from place to place. Dev felt her peripheral vision expanding as she tried to take in everything around her as she bent their course downward, skimming the tops of the waves as they bore down on the island.

Two blocky forms were headed right at them at equal speed and she felt the weapons systems draw power as Jess took aim, then scan blared back at her with solid green blips and comm crackled urgently. “Jess..”

“Yep, I see it.” Jess lifted her fingers off the firing controls but didn't remove her hands from them. “Broadcast our ident.”

Dev did so, blasting out the signal that defined their craft type and serial number across a wideband.

“Incoming, incoming.. “

“That's Jason.” Jess keyed comms to sideband. “Tac 1, Tac 2, Tac 3, stand down. Potential friendly.”

“Potential?” Doctor Dan was watching the screens with interest.

“You never know. “ Jess keyed to main comms and selected one of the emergency short range channels they used. “BR270006 calling BR083003, copy.” She listened to the crackling. “Jason?”

Blast of static. “Holy shit! Jess!”

“Definitely Jason.” Jess felt their speed slow as they closed in with the two oncoming carriers.

“They are damaged” Dev commented. “Twenty five percent power output, and very fractured external skin.”

The two carriers eased off and now, at this distance they could see the ravaged exteriors. “Jason, go back and land. We'll follow you in.”

“Who you got there?” Jason's voice came back at once. “Scan's nothing but scrap in this thing.”

“April and Mike and their techs.” Jess said. “Me and Dev, and the doc.” She watched the two craft carefully, seeing them shift off axis and try to hover on jets that were visibly sputtering. “We're just coming back from the other side.”

“Op codes are correct.” Dev reported. “But those machines are severely non optimal.” She started a calibration scan, moving away from the erratically shifting craft. “There are three persons onboard. One in the closer carrier, two in the other one.”

“Okay Jess... back.” Jason's voice crackled thorugh. He sounded exhausted. “Fucking glad it's you.”

Yeah. “Tac 2, 3, stand by to land on that rock pile.” Jess instructed. “Drop in on the east side.”

“Ack.”

“Ack.”

Dev carefully trimmed her landing jets as she followed Jason's carrier in, close enough now to see the horrible damage. One engine wasn't functioning at all, and there were rents across the back and side of it, all the way to the pilot's area that had taken out part of the clear plas as well.

Worse than she'd done her first flight, in fact. Dev checked the register and confirmed the second craft belonged to Elaine and Tucker, and that Jason seemed to be alone in his. She wondered what that meant, and hoped it didn't mean something bad had happened to Brent.

Though it seemed likely, since things right now were so difficult.

But her fears were unfounded, as she gently settled the carrier on top of a pile of rocks near the water, and spotted Brent's powerful form climbing up from the waterline to meet them.

He was dripping wet, and there was a fish in one hand, large and silvery and still twitching. He looked over at them as they settled on the uneven surface, and as Dev extended and balanced the skids, she saw a look of relief on his face

“Now let's see what the hell's been going on.” Jess released her restraints and stood up, slapping the holster with her hand blaster on it to her flight suit before she headed for the hatch. “Set up a long scan, Dev. Don't want to get caught with my ass on this rock pile.”

“Yes.” Dev started that up, as she heard the thump of the hatch opening and a blast of cold, wet, salty air blew in. She watched Jess and Doctor Dan emerge from around the side of the carrier and walk towards where Jason had gotten his carrier safely landed, meeting up with Brent as he approached the offgassing machine.

She finished setting up the scan and released her belts, pausing to stop and get her jacket and put it on before she headed for the outside. The ramp was only partially extended, as the rocks were preventing it from fully deploying and she carefully transferred her weight from it to the slippery rocks as she got outside.

The line of dark clouds were moving ominously closer, and she fastened the jacket's catches as she made her way across the rocks. April, Mike, Doug and Chester caught up with her as they reached the others, where Elaine and Tucker had also arrived to hear Jason starting to explain what had happened to Jess.

“Fucking disaster.” He sat down on a rock nearby. They were standing in the center of a cleared area, down close by the water where waves were crashing up with increasing intensity. “Big ass fucking disaster. We started getting weird ass scan not long after you left.” He rested his elbows on his knees. “Three, maybe four hours. Everyone thought it was just some strage met or something, but we kept losing long range scan, and then short range was going in and out. So Bain asked me and Eli to do a standard patrol.”

Elaine also sat down, bracing her hands behind her. She had a painful looking burn on one cheek, and had been limping. “So we did.” She said. “Six hours, until we saw a big storm coming in and figured we should get back inside before it got to us. On the way back to the base, all hell broke loose.”

Jess was leaning on a tall boulder, her arms crossed over her chest. She remained silent however.

“We were about a quarter hour out from the pad when we started getting squirts on the emergency freq, but they didn't make sense. Power outages, things going crazy, the pad roof opening... couldn't tell what was going on but then we got into visual and we knew.”

“We knew.” Elaine echoed him. “We could see the tonks blasting at the side walls.”

Jess looked grim.

“So we came in from the west and went to work.” Jason said. “Did the best we could, figured we were making some headway when the storm came out over us and … we ducked ot of it but they didn't.”

“They kept attacking.” Jason confirmed “Every system we has was being blasted by met and they just kept flying.” He glanced at Jess. “Someone mighta mentioned they came up with that instead of that grow shit.”

“They're connected.” Doctor Dan remarked quietly.

Both agents looked hard at him.

“Its some kind of energy transforming system.” Kurok said. “Originally transfering hydro to photosynthysis, but someone found out how to use it to change EMF polarity and let it slide past instead of disrupting.”

Everyone was briefly silent, watching him with intent eyes.

“Sorry” Doctor Dan said, to Jess, after the silence had become uncomfortable. “What with everything else we really didn't have a chance to talk about it.”

“Anyway.” Jason continued “We were trying to find a way around the storm when we heard you incoming.” He looked at Jess. “Whatever the hell was going on just got crazier then. We saw Bain get out.” His expression only twitched a little, but the effect expressed his feelings about that more explicitly than words would have.

“Yeah.” Jess said. “So then what?”

“They got the base sealed.” Elaine said. “Complete lockdown, and no mattr what those bastards wanted they weren't getting in. So we took off.”

“Lockdown.” Jess murmured. “No comms?”

“Nothing. Sealed like a virgin outsider.” Jason confirmed. “Woudln't respond to emergency, to squirts, idents, nothing. We got out of there before they came back with something bigger to blow the doors open with. Headed out after your trail – but then we went headlong into all of them trying to get back.”

“That was a long ass fight.” Elaine chimed in. “If they hadn't been tweaking these things we'd be vapor right now. As it was, we only got away because they got some kind of recall and took off.”

“Probably was Bock, calling them in to skunk us at the pole.” Jess spoke quietly into the wind ruffled air. “He's dead. I killed him after I found out he turned us over to them.” She added, watching their jaws drop. “I”ve seen North. If Ten looks like that, we might as well go hunt p.. “ She caught the frown on Dev's face and paused. “I mean, scrounge. Maybe take over the pole again and see what we can live on.”

“Bock.” Elaine spoke the name slowly. “He was the hole?”

“He was a hole.” Jess confirmed. “In more ways than one.” She added drolly. “Though.. he didn't start to be so much of an ass until lately.” Her expression turned thoughtful, and she glanced at Dev. “In fact, not until after we came back from that second run.”

Jason exhaled heavily “Anyway we just barely got to this place, and we've been hanging out here trying to fix these damn old busses enough to get back home.” He paused. “Whatever home is now.”

“Well.” Jess regarded the incoming weather. “With that coming in to hit us, I think you should leave the damn things here and come on ours. We managed to get through our mission mostly intact.” She regarded the three other carriers. “Let's lift, and find some shelter other than this rock.. which is.. what... Bermuda shoals?”

Jason nodded. “Sounds good.” He stood up. “Glad you made it.” He waved his hand. “Let's pack up and get moving, Brent. Sorry we wasted your time fishing.”

“Sokay” Brent regarded the fish with his usual glum expression. “No idea what to do with it anyhow. Figured we'd do it raw.” He glanced at Jess. “Though I heard you can cook em.”

“I can. Just not now.” Jess sighed. “Hell. Maybe if Ten is a graveyard I'll take you all back to Drake's Bay with me. Make my family's day.”

Doctor Dan snorted lightly under his breath, his lips twitching. “I see not much has changed there.”

Jess produced a brief grin, then pointed to the carriers. “Let's go.”

Tucker and Brent went to grab kits and everyone else headed for the three carriers, Jason letting them all go ahead as he dropped back with Jess. “Hey.”

“Hey” Jess repeated.

“You sure about that space doc?”

“Yeah.” Jess nodded. “He's okay”

“You figure out what his background is?” Jason persisted. “There;s some weird stuff we heard about him and with all this scamming bullshit going on, don't want to take a piece of it back with us. He can get lost between here and there, you know what I mean?”

“I know what you mean.” She kept her voice down, watching the scientest and his protege heading for her craft. “Yeah, I found out what his deal was. We can talk later about it, but he's okay.”

“He was us?” Jason persisted.

“He was us.” Jess confirmed. “Matter of fact, he was my dad's partner.”

Jason almost tripped and went sprawling, saved only by Jess grabbing his arm and steadying him. “What?”

“We'll talk later.” She gave him a slight shove towards April's carrier. “G'wan. We got enough troubles without inventing any from him.”

She got back onboard as Dev was spooling the engines up and she sat down with a sigh. “Dev, lift, then when the rest of them hold and give me full power. I'm gonna blow up those crates.” She settled into her position and keyed up the guns, pulling down the restraints and buckling them in an absent motion.

She was glad they'd found Jason and Elaine. Of all the agents at Ten, she liked them the best and she had the most confidence that they weren't part of the problem.

At the last minute, Brent scrambled onboard and hit the hatch lock. “Hullo.” He grunted, looking uncomfortable. “Jase said to fly with you.”

And, Jess had to smile inwardly, he was one of the few who would challenge her judgement and act to protect her even if she had no need or want of it and know she wouldn't likely shoot him in the head in response. Not that Brent was an agent, but he was big, and muscular, and he'd take orders from her.

And he wasn't a bio alt, whose creator was, in Jason's mind, still suspect.

Dev turned around and smiled at him. “There's a seat up here.” She indicated the jump seat next to her console. “But please hurry as we are starting to get wind alerts.”

Brent looked a smidgen happier, stowing his kit in the locker and going up to join Dev in the pilot's station. He pulled down the jump seat and extended his legs forward, strapping himself down and exhaling. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Dev responded. “I'm glad you aren't damaged.”

He had a few scrapes on him, but he half grinned in response. “Yeah, back.”

Dev got them underway, feeling better about the mission now that she knew for sure that not everyone in the citadel had become dead. She'd developed a mild liking for the other tech, and thougth they had gotten along pretty well before all this had started.

She handed him over a set of ear cups and got the carrier to altitude, pausing and rotating as she sent power to the guns A moment later, the carrier vibrated as Jess fired, blowing first one and then the other damaged craft and sending pieces of them flying off into the roiling ocean.

“One way to get a new bus.” Brent commented. “Damned piece of crap.”

Dev took them into a tight curve, then headed north west, running a long scan to determine if they were going to make the coast before the storm caught them, nudging the throttles forward and taking them to full speed.

They crackled through the sound barrier just as a thunder boomed overhead.

**

They made the coast with a minute, literally to spare. Dev dove at full speed towards the cliffs, already losing some control as lightning exploded around them, both Brent and Jess yelling advice at her and pointing to barely seen gaps in the stone wall through the blinding rain.

She saw the slot canyon and turned the carrier on it's side going through it, not entirely due to it's narrow width. The sudden motion made her passengers yelp and grab for handholds, giving her a moments peace to get the jets under control and fight off the violent gusts of wind.

She hoped the others were behind her as she barreled through the gap, spotting the crooked entrance to what seemed to be a cave on the left hand side wall. She aimed for it, dropping down and cutting the engines as a lightning flash blasted the top of the carrier, waiting a breathless five seconds for the charge to dissapate before she kicked in the landing jets.

Then they were inside. It was a bare crevice and there were cracks and gaps letting in torrents of water, but the wind cut out and gave her control to land near one wall clearing space behind her as the two other carriers piled on hot on her tail.

The storm rolled in on top of them and there were so many lighting strikes it blinded scan completely, and nearly deafened all of them until she cut the sensors and shut down everything hard.

Power was crackling everywhere around them. It was worse than the first storm she'd felt outside Quebec, and Dev had all she could handle to make sure the systems were safed and the guns deactivated. She saw Brent activating the heavy shield that slid down by gravity alone over the windows wrapped around her station and the entire craft was vibrating with the force of the thunder booming overhead.

“Holy crap.” Brent said.

“Indeed.” Doctor Dan had gotten away from the drop rig, and it's associated floor plate opening and he was now seated on the back shelf they used for sleeping, tucked against the back of the carrier. “Forgotten how much I don't miss weather in space.”

Dev was glad the shied was down as something thumped against the carrier with enough force to make it move on it's skids. “Thank you.” She told Brent. “I”m not really used to all this weather either.”

Brent snorted, giving her a baldly skeptical look. “I can't freaking imagine what you had to fly through up there then.”

That was, she supposed, a compliment. “Mostly sims.” She admitted. “They emulated weather but not like this.”

He studied her. “No shit, that first time out with us was your first real gig?”

She nodded, giving him a sheepish little smile.

“Fuck.” Brent shook his head in bemusement.

“I'm going to make sure those other two landed okay.” Jess had her jacket on. She got her hood up and sealed a moment before she hit the hatch, then jumped back and half turned as a blast of lightning outlined the opening in brilliance.

“Maybe not.” Doctor Dan dove across and slammed the hatch shut, throwing his arm over his head as another blast nearly came inside. “Bloody hell.”

Jess had her hand shielding her eyes as she blinked furiously. “Shit.”

Dev got up and went over to her, putting a hand on her arm. “Jess, are you damaged?”

“Over flash.” Her partner shut her eyes and dropped back into her seat. “What the hell is going on with this weather? This something else they're cooking up, Doc?”

“Not that I know of no.” Doctor Dan cautiously picked his head up, and then moved back to his makeshift seat. “One thing we learned the hard way, eh? You can't screw with mother nature.” He studied Jess. “You all right, Jesslyn?”

Jess kept her eyes closed, still seeing the after flashes against the inside of her eyelids. She felt a moment of narrowly avoided massive stupidity, and the warmth of Dev's fingers on her shoulder was guiltily comforting.

After a brief moment the warmth increased, as she felt Dev's hip press against her shoulder, and cautiously she opened one eye halfway, and peeked up. To her relief, though there was still an after flash, she could make out Dev's features as her pilot looked at her with that deep, intense concern. “Well you don't have two heads. I'm probably okay.”

Both of Dev's eyebrows hiked up.

“And I could see that, so it seals the deal.” Jess leaned back in her seat and relaxed a little, opening her other eye cautiously and very glad they had most of the internal lighting off. “That was a dumbass thing to do. Thought we had more cover in here.”

“We were talking about weather before.” Brent spoke up. “Gettin worse. You said it. Ain't nothing like this I remember from when I was a kid.”

Jess considered that, thinking back to her childhood on the coast, and the days and days she'd spent outside on the wate.r “No, me either.” She said. “Met said, back at Ten, storms were increasing. Problem is no one knew why.”

“Figure this was what Syd drove through?”

Doctor Dan cleared his throat “Syd?” He said. “From North?”

“Used to be.” Brent glanced at him. “Oh right. Happened after you were gone.”

Kurok looked from him to Jess and back, his fair eyebrows lifting in question.

“They took out North station. Seven of then got out, two made it to Ten alive. Barely.” Jess supplied. “Probably now it was a waste of time, and waste of Dev's heroics.”

“They destroyed the base?” Doctor Dan repeated “Both of them?”

Jess heard the note in his voice, and smiled grimly to herself, knowing that ferocious urge to retaliate down to the nth degree. Kurok was one of them, all right. No matter how long he'd spent up on that station, or what he'd done up there, that loyalty was baldly evident. “Yeah. With that energy weapon, we think.”

Kurok exhaled. “Stupid.”

“Comms out.” Brent commented. “Saw the other two safe land though.” He added, after the awkward silence had gone on too long.

“Thanks Brent.” Jess remained where she was, closing her eyes again. “Guess we should just stay put and wait for the worst of it to pass.” She ran a few things through her console, bare responses from the few systems Dev had left running. They had at least an hour to wait, she figured, before they could move out again, go west, and south, and come in to the citadel to see what was left.

If anything was. The idea of moving on to Drake's Bay was becoming more real, and now she had to consider the idea that bringing a squad of Interforce home might also make it the other side's next target.

Never let the other side have the last blood. Wasn't that the rule? Jess let out a slow breath.

The rain redoubled it's thundering roar, and the booming overhead was almost contiuous. They all fell silent and sat quietly, listening to the noise. Jess checked the met screen again and then she shrugged, leaning back and composing herself to grab a power nap.

Funny how that was so easy now. She was in the middle of a death storm on a mission from hell with at least three strange people in her bus and she felt her body relax as though she was back in the citadel in her own bed. When Josh had been her driver... hell, even before she'd have been gulping kack and taking stims the whole damn time.

There was something tremendously fucked up going with her. But a nugget of pragmatism shrugged it's shoulders since really, what was there else to do?

She heard Kurok settle himself on the shelf, apparently with the same idea. “Just get as much rest as you can.

She spoke up. “Not much else to do until this passes.”

“Yup.” Brent grunted agreement. “Anyway bad news can always wait.”

Dev set the long range scanner up to do a continual sweep, then she tilted her control chair back and let her muscles relax, her peripheral vision catching sight of Brent getting as comfortable as he could on the jump seat.

The carriers weren't really meant for comfort. The seats were functional but mostly unpadded, the other surfaces hard and unyielding. It was meant for relatively short missions, even the food stocks were generally set for no more than a week.

But if you were tired enough, you could sleep and Dev felt that stealing over her, the thrum of the rain becoming almost hypnotic. She half turned her gimballed chair so she could directly see Jess's station, and after a few minutes watching her partner rest, let her own eyes close.

**

Thunder was still rumbling as Dev brought the carrier in a wide arc to the southwest, coming up on a line roughly close to the one she'd used the last time they'd approached the citadel, when they were coming back from Drake's Bay. They'd received no communications from the facility and Jess was standing behind her, hand resting on her chair as she watched the craggy slope approach.

“Crap.” Brent grunted. “Place looks dark.”

“There are no emissions from the facilty.” Dev confirmed. “Scan shows no pattern.”

Jess sighed. “Dev, go for the side entrance I told you about the last time.” She was already in her battle suit. Now she went to the area near the hatch and added her long blaster to it's leg holster. “I”m sure this is gonna suck. Brent, tell the other two to drop after me, and we'll meet just inside that hatchway.

Brent was trimming the comp responses and squirting them to the others. He nodded, and continued his work.

It was raining outside. There had been no response to their secure channel squirt, and no reaction to their presence. Jess had, generically speaking, a bad feeling about all of that and she'd steeled herself to find inside what they'd found in North base.

Then. “Jess.” Dev started. “Incoming message, singleband, on base frequencies.”

Jess darted back over to her and studied comms intently. “Huh.”

Brent craned his neck to look. “That's base.” He said. “Took em long enough.”

“Should I make a standard contact?” Dev asked. “The signal is correct.” She waited for Jess to nod, then keyed in the frequency. “BR270006 to base. Copy?”

There was a brief silence, then comms lit up. “BR270006, centops. Stand by for class a scan.”

Jess nodded. “That's right.” She said. “Brent, tell the others what's going on.”

Brent nodded.

“Mm” Doctor Dan had eased up on the other side of her, his hands on the back of Dev's chair. “Hopefully finding us inside won't trigger a destruct sequence.”

Jess eyed him. “Was that a joke?”

“Maybe.” Kurok produced a faint, wry smile.

They felt the scan, heavy and intense, passing slowly through the craft, leaving behind a tingle that had an almost slimy consistency. Jess tried not to hold her breath, her hand flexing as the scan passed through the chips in it, causing a deep itch.

“What is that?” Dev asked Doctor Dan, in a low tone.

“Full genetiscan.” He replied briefly. “They'll match that to the files, to make sure whoever's on this carrier is safe.”

“I see.” Dev adjusted her ear cup. She could hear the faint hum of the radio subcarrier and tuned it a little, waiting for a response. “I'm glad someone's there, at least.”

“Hm.” Doctor Dan grunted.

“BR270006, confirmed. Please have your flight approach emergency entrace 12 south, be aware there is no facilty.”

“That doesn't sound good.” Brent said. “Bay must be trashed.” He cocked his head slightly. “That sounded like Mike.”

“It did.” Jess said. “Dev, the south 10 is down near the base of the mountain there.” She pointed at a now visible half round opening near the ground. “Hatch is open. Usually they don't use that for things this big. Just send the collecting trucks out that way.”

“Okay.” Dev dropped their altitude to almost ground level and started a slow approach, tuning scan as they angled around the barren rock surface and came in line with the entrance. She turned on the front floodlights and engaged the landing jets, aiming for the very center of the bare opening. “There does not seem to be much power on.”

“Scan was on emergency beam.” Brent said. “They must be on batts.”

Jess drummed her fingers on the back of the chair. “Hold up, Dev.” She said, her eyes sweeping the inside of the cavernous entry. “Tell them we see some obstruction – and we're going to find an alternate entry.”

Dutifully, Dev relayed the message.

“You can see inside there?” Doctor Dan asked, in a quizzical tone.

“No. Well, yes.” Jess said. “I can see inside but I don't really see any blockage. I'm bluffing.”

“BR270006 – there is no reported damage in the entry. Please proceed.” Comms crackled overhead, as Dev piped it through, half turning to look at her partner in question. “Also, Jason wants to speak to you on sideband 5.”

Jess picked up a headset and put it on, tucking the ear cup into her ear. “Jase?”

“What's the deal?” He asked. “You think we won't fit?”

“Something doesn't smell right.” Jess answered honestly. “Why that bay?”

“Only one clear enough?”

Maybe. Jess studied the bay, calling up in her head where it was positioned in the citadel, and what led to it. “Go on and enter. I”m going to go park on five deck.” She put her hands on Dev's shoulders. “Take us to that place I showed you first.” She told her pilot. “Jase, if they ask, just say I didn't think we'd all fit. Keep in comm synch though.”

“Ack.” Jason clicked off, and then April's carrier moved slowly ahead of them, towards the indicated bay with Mike's coming in behind her.

Jess watched them approach for a minute, then squeezed Dev's shoulder. “G'wan.”

Dev gently eased them across the harsh and stony ground on the back side of the citadel, the rain pattering noisily against the stone and running down in rivulets down the slope and on down further to the lowlands that merged into the inland sea just out of view.

“Centops, this is BR270006. We are sending Tac 2 and Tac3 ahead.” Dev spoke quietly into her comm. “We have propulsion damage and are not certain of close in steering.”

Both Doctor Dan and Jess turned and looked at her in surprise.

“Nice.” Brent nodded. “Last thing they want is a bus slamming in there.”

“Acknowledged, BR270006. Stand by.”

Dev fired the side jets and slowly brought the nose up, running through some steering tests in apparent random that ended up with the carrier lifted up several levels and coming even with a small, half ledge midway up the slope. “Is that the one?” She said. “I didn't want us to get in trouble for refusing to do what they were saying.”

“So you lied to them.” Jess looked amused.

“Yes.” Dev nodded. “We know how to do that.”

Doctor Dan chuckled softly under his breath. “We don't teach that. It's part of what makes us human.” He took a step back. “Are you going to go in that door?” He asked Jess.

“Yes.” Jess went over and resumed her long rifle, going to the hatch and seating the rest of her weapons more firmly. 'Put me down gently, Dev. I don't want to use the drop pack they'll pick up the plasma ejection.” She flexed her hands. “If I get in, I'll open the big door and you can land.”

“Want some company?” Doctor Dan asked.

“After I open the door. It's keyed to me. Seeing yours and Brent's body parts flying off into the mist isn't on my schedule at the moment.” Jess could sense the wall coming closer and she put her hands on either side of the hatch, waiting. “Open when ready, Devvie.”

“Ah.” Doctor Dan grunted softly. “You're the safety officer.”

Jess turned her head and looked at him, a faint smile on her face. “Senior agent. If they havne't re keyed it. We'll find out in a minute.”

The hatch opened, and a blast of cold rain smacked her, sharpening her attention before she jumped out of the carrier, landing on the nearby rock ledge with a faint skidding motion. She could feel the edge of ice in the downpour and quickly went to a small angle in the rock and stepped inside it, bumping open a scan plate and putting her hand on it.

Now, one of two things would happen. Either she'd get blasted half to hell, or the door would open. Jess was tired despite her nap and she dind't really want to be blown out into the rain.

She felt the tickle against her left palm, the remedial scan finding the chips embedded in her and keying to them. After a long pause, she heard a soft click, then felt a vibration where her shoulder was pressed against the stone and then an opening appeared to her left, outlined in lurid blue.

Deep scan. She drew her breath and stepped inside it, feeling the penetration to her very core. There was no way to fake this out, it did a walk of the entire DNA chain and she swore she could feel it do just that as it wound inside her and the bio scrape held her in stasis until it was done.

Either you passed, or you died. It was an isolated system, not hooked up to centops, and only the principal and the sec comp who keyed it knew whose codes would work and those two were never command level. An obscure and somewhat cynical check and balance.

Abruptly the scan broke off and released her, and she started breathing again. Apparently Bain's note hadn't gotten to security nor been deemed official, and she was still a grunt.

Jess smiled grimly, as she drew her blaster and very slowly moved inside, feeling the change as her vision flattened and sounds become sharper and more clear. A small hallway dog legged to the right and she slid into it, listening hard.

It was cold, and damp, and only emergency lighting was on. She didn't hear anything other than faint mechanical, so she moved further in, getting around the dog leg and into the larger area beyond.

It was empty and silent.

The emergency bay was generally shut down and unused at the busiest of times. There were a few lockers against the wall, that had gear and weapons in them, and at the far end past where a carrier could park there was an entrance into the ops level of the station.

Everything might be on the up and up. Jess went over to the manual controls of the large external door and triggered them, opening the casing and exposing the very old fashioned and competely hand operated chains that opened the hanger bay. She unlocked them and holstered her blaster, cautiously starting the process of ratcheting the bay open.

Rain spattered in immediately, along with a powerful beam of light from the front of the carrier waiting patiently outside. Jess got the door opened enough to let Dev land, and the landing jets flared as her pilot slid inside, cutting off and dropping the carrier to it's extending skids in very short order.

The hatch popped open and both Kurok and Brent hopped out “Jase's screaming for ya.” Brent said. “They tried to slam the door shut on them, that new kid got their bus halfway out and blocked it.” He gave Jess an appreciative look. “You called it.”

“Yeah.” Jess sighed. “Sometimes I hate being right.” She climbed up inside the carrier and went over to where Dev was shutting down the engines. “Hey.”

“Hold on a moment.” Dev uttered into comms. “Jess.. “

“Yeah, I know.” Jess picked up a headset and put it on, keying the coms to the backup board. “Finish shutting down.” She pressed the ear cup to her ear. “Jase?”

“Fuckers!” The agent bawled in her ear. “Where the hell did you go? We're hauling ass across the rocks, fuckers were in there waiting for us with blasters. April let off a barrage and we got out while they were picking up their own heads and asses.”

“Keep coming along the ridge line to the big gray rock. Check behind it.” Jess sighed. “Thought this was too easy.”

“So they got this place.” Jason was still fuming, sounds of the storm surrounding him. “Lazy ass jacktards let em take it.”

“Kids with you?”

Brief silence. “What? Oh.” Jason coughed a little. “Yeah everyone's here. You said that big rock? What … oh.” There was another silence. “I see it. Be there in a minute. Out.”

Jess put the commset down. “Shitcakes.” She sighed. “Well, at least the place probably isn't a smoking hole.”

“Yes.” Dev was just climbing out of her seat. “I told centops we had mechanical difficulties, and they advised we were no longer on scan. I suggested it might be the angle we had to hold at.” She turned and regarded her partner solemnly “They did not call after that.”

Jess sighed. “I”m going to have to shoot them all to get into bed with you aren't I?”

Dev blinked a little, then issued a hesitant half grin.

Jess grinned back and motioned to the hatch. “Sooner I start the better.” She put her hand on Dev's back as they walked down the carrier ramp and back into the bay to join the others. “Let me go wave them in and shut the door.”

She ducked out into the rain and shaded her eyes, spotting six jacketed figures bolting along the rough ground headed towards her. They were hidden from the oversight above by a ridge of rock, and a minute later they gained the hatch and pelted inside.

“Fuckers!” Jason hissed as he rambled to a halt, his jacket shedding rain everywhere.

“Uh huh.” Jess closed the manual hatch and looped the chain around the mechanism. “Keep it down. I'd rather them not be sure where the hell we are for the moment.”

The rest of them shed their jackets and then gathered around her. “Did you know that was going to happen?” April asked, checking the blaster seated at her side.

“Still not sure what did happen. Not sure if it's that this place is taken over, or they think we're outlaw.” Jess told her, in a calm voice. “Though based on the fact the hatch let me in its starting to look more like we got bad guys inside.” She glanced around the cavern. “Not that you can see much in any case.”

“Emergency power.” Doctor Dan remarked, as he finished a circuit of the bay. “Could just be manual ops.”

“Could be.” Jess exhaled. She went across the bay past the carrier to the inner hallway and pulled out a panel, peering inside it. “Perimeter system is active, according to this.”

Dev squirmed in next to her and peered at the old tech with interest. There was a very basic representatation of the citadel, faded tracings of hallways and chambers, with dimly illuminated rings here and there. “This is the central place, isn't it?”

“Yeah.” Jess put her fingertip on a spot near it. “Problem with that is, if we go through any of these gates they'll know where we are.”

“That's a bad thing?” Brent asked.

“If someone other than us is in charge up there? Yeah.” Jess rested her hands against the outer walls of the console. “You know how centops is. They've got the big overscan that shows them where everyone in the cit is.” She pondered the problem. “I'm sure they're on their way here now.”

“If they know where it is.” Jason folded his arms across his brawny chest. “Not everyone did. If they've taken over, no guarantee anyone told them about this.”

“No guarantee they didn't. Depends what jacktard was in ops.” Elaine sniped. “Glad Sandy'd already bought it she'd have had them waiting outside with an antipersonnel mine.”

“Well.” Jess left the hatch and went to the small and nondescript door that would lead further into the citadel. “No sense hanging around letting them have time to figure it out. Let's go.” She cautiously palmed the lock and felt it give way under pressure from her shoulder, moving outward and letting into a tight, enclosed space. She eased into it and cleared the way for the others, moving forward into the chute like corridor until she was at the far end.

There was a turn to the left, and then another, the walls melding at the end of that from the natural gray rock to the smooth surface of the inside of the citadel.

She drew in a breath, and the air smelled familiar. Clean and sterile, with a hint of mech on it and a faint tinge of salt air, this far down, this low in the facility. No stink of battle, or of burning, she noted.

Another ten minutes walk east, and she'd encounter the rough hewn hallway that led to the intake cavern, and on the far side of the corrdor they were about to emerge into was the entrance tot he lower spaces where the bio alts lived.

Jess paused, and considered that, as the rest of her little gang filled up the hall behind her. She'd been down there maybe once, maybe twice just on a fam tour years back, and remembered very little of it.

Cautiously, she approached the opening, it's slanted gap blending into the walls and making it invisible when looked at from the outside. She paused just short of it and listened, but there was no sounds trickling in, no motion or even a far off klaxon. A gentle touch on her back nearly made her gasp, but she bit the inside of her lip and looked back over her shoudler.

Dev was there, her pale hair distinctive in the shadows. She held up her portable scan. “There are people approaching.” She whispered. “They have weapons.”