Partners

“Mm.” Jess glanced at the screen. “Yeah. That's no good news.” She moved forward and slipped into the outer hall, finding it dark and empty. Not surprising since these were the very lower levels of the facilty and only really frequented when something needed fixing, or you wanted to get to the cavern.

Jess had always been after the latter, and had found the entryway to the manual chamber years back but never bothered wondering what it was for until she'd been taken there the night she'd made senior. She'd always figured it was a storage space, for the gear they used on the outside.

Everyone did. No one was encouraged to ask about it. She looked down the long, empty corridor and started walking quickly along it, spotting the first distinctive outline of scan at the other end.

“Pst.” Kurok hissed softly, and pointed at a dark, sealed doorway to the right.

“What?” Jess looked at it. “We go in there, they'll have us cornered. It's a storage chamber.”

“It isn't.” Doctor Dan went over to it and opened a panel. “At least, it wasn't.” He amended, peering at the circutry inside. “You used to be able to get down into the bio alt living quarters from here.”

Jess studied him with interest. “What does that get us?” She asked, one eye watching the scan console. “They're probably in there scared crapless.”

'Well.” Kurok keyed in a few codes. “That's probably true. But they're far less likely to shoot us than the people on their way here. So unless you'er prepared for a very long and probably lethal firefight in the hall, let's see if we can find another way into central.”

With a faint click the door opened. They slipped inside and Jess got her hand light on, shining it around a bare and apparently abandoned chamber before Kurok shut the door behind them. “Not much in here.”

“No.” April got her own light on and stepped to one side. “There's a portal there. Looks like it hasn't been used for a while... but that...” She stepped closer and peered at a looming piece of mech and her nose twitched a little. “What is that?”

“Processing unit.” Doctor Dan said, quietly. “That's the outer wall skin there. This is where they handled bio alt dead.” He fell silent, then went to another door on the far side of the chamber. “This should be a lift.” He touched a palm pad and lights came on in the chamber, low and stark.

Dev eyed the big machine, feeling a chill come over her. She remembered the processing she'd witnessed and felt a desire to get as far away from the device as she could.

“We're out of time..” Elaine had been listening at the door and now she took a step back, drawing her blaster. “They're coming in.”

“Keep trying Doc.” Jess joined her, and Jason took up a position next to the processor. “We'll keep em occupied.”

“I”m sure.” Doctor Dan muttered, as he pecked at the console. “Damn it.”

Dev and Brent peered at the controls from either side of him, while the other techs plastered their backs against the wall. They'd just gotten into position when the door blasted open and then the room was filled with plasma fire.

Jess dropped to her belly, her eyes taking in the attack squad and absorbing the clothes and the stance and freeing her trigger finger to pinpoint them. She took out the first one and then blew an arm off the second, her body halfway protected by the step she was sheltered behind.

It was loud.

The attackers were yelling, in battle language that wasn't theirs and they had full armor on and it was a mess. Jess heard April let out a yell and saw a figure flying past her, but she squirmed around and put herself between the bad guys and that door and just kept firing.

The armor took a lot of hits, but Jason kept up a crossfire in counterpoint to hers, and after a few minutes the door closed again and they were inside with six dead enemy bodies, a room full of plasma smoke and the smell of burned flesh.

“Everyone okay?” Jess asked, after a brief pause.

“Yeah.” Jason came out from around the processor, going to the door and swiftly opening it to peer out. “That was ridiculous.”

“Bullshit.” Elaine grimaced at a long burn down her arm. “But now we know. It's them.”

“It's them.” Jess got up and rolled a body over, examining the full armor. “Any luck, Doc?”

“Yes and no.” Kurok said. “I got the door to trigger, but ah.. most of us can't go through it. It's keyed to organisms with biosynaptic control collars.”

Dev reached up and touched her neck in reflex. “Like mine?”

Doctor Dan studied her somberly. “Yes.”

Dev went to the door, hauling up as Jess got there ahead of her. “No she can't.” Jess said, her body blocking the door. “We've got no idea what's down there. They could all be compromised.”

“They could be.” Kurok agreed in a mild tone. “Nevertheless, she's the only one of us who can go.”

“They're going to come back.” Jason remarked. “I can hear an alarm.”

“Yeah.” Elaine pulled her head back in. “Lot of boots heading this way.”

Dev regarded her tall and irritated obstacle. “Jess.” She could see her partner was in discomfort. “I think I could do good work in there.”

“You do good work everywhere.” Jess studied her intently. “But you've got no idea what's down there.”

“That's true. But if I go, I'll find out.” Her partner responded in a mild reasonable tone. “And if I can get to the control sets, I can let you all in.”

Jess was aware of Kurok's eyes on her, but he remained silent as she weighed the risks.

“Incoming!” Elaine yelled, getting back form the door as Jason and Mike grabbed the dead bodies and jammed them against the inside of it.

No real choice. “Go on.” Jess said. “Be careful, huh?” She moved away from the inner door and took up a positon in the angle of the alcove, taking aim at the door frame and putting a thin bead of plasma around it.

“I will.” Dev touched her on the side and moved to the door, as Doctor Dan keyed in something then gave her a nod. She went into the square space and felt scan take her, the collar on her neck twitching a little as she closed her eyes.

It seemed to get hot. She felt a moment of panic. Then the inner panel slide open and there was a step down and she moved over, and the panel shut with a bang.

She was alone.

Then she turned and a second door opened, and she was facing a wall of bodies, and a bright light blinded her.

**

Instinctively, Dev threw her hand up in front of her eyes and then closed them, half turning her head. “Ow.” She could see the flashes from the intensity of it on the inside of her eye lids. “Please stop!”

Then light shifted, and she heard voices, whispers that resolved into her short name. Cautiously, Dev opened her eyes and looked at the crowd, seeing row after row of bio alts, all staring at her.

“NM-Dev-1.” It was one of the Kaytees. “How did you get here?”

Dev blinked a few times and let her hand drop. “Hello Kaytee.” She said. “We just arrived at this facility. What's the situation?”

The bio alts were very upset, she could tell. She could now see anxious faces and there were smudges of dirt and bruises on the Kaytee's face.

There were three or four Kaytees in fact, and some Beeayes, in the front. Behind them, she could see the other sets, some of them hurt, many with blood on them as well.

“Incorrect people came and did bad things.” The Kaytee closest to her said. “They made a lot of natural borns dead, and some of us too.” He showed his arm, which was covered in a clumsy bandage. “We can't get to med.”

“That's bad.” Dev said. “Are there many of them, the bad ones?”

“Yes.” A second Kaytee said. “They came in through the big bay, and the place where the shuttle comes.” He said. “They made the base systems incorrect.” He looked exhausted. “Nothing is working. There were some big explosions, and only batteries are up.”

Dev nodded. “They have a new gun.” She said. “I was at North Base. It made everything burned there.”

“Yes.” A Beeaye said. “That's what we heard.” He winced, and held his left arm with his right, closed to his body. “The natural borns made us come in here, and locked the hatches.”

“The bad ones, or ours?” Dev asked.

“Ours. They were afraid more of us would be made dead. Tech Super Clint made us come in here.” The Beeaye said. “We don't know what is happening upstairs. The systems are all down, but they put on the scan to keep the incorrect people out from here. They said no one could get in.”

“Yes.” Dev said, again. “I was upstairs, and I was the only one who could come thorugh the door.” She pointed behind her. “We came in a secret way, and now I have to make it so the people who were with me can come down here.”

The Kaytee looked doubtful. “Will they hurt us? They told us to stay here and not let anyone in.”

“Its some of the agents. My partner Jess, and also, Doctor Dan.” Dev told him. “They want to fix things.”

“Doctor Dan?” The name echoed back from many lips. “Doctor Dan's here?” The Kaytee asked. “They said the incorrect people took him far away.”

“We rescued him.” Dev said, knowing a moment of intense, personal pride at the reaction, and the widening eyes of these, her own kind. “He was far away on the other side. We had to do a lot of difficult things to get him back.” She explained. “But we did, and he's here, in the other room.”

“The bad people here said they would stop doing incorrect things if the natural borns gave them the one you are with.” A Beeaye said, hesitantly. “The one you called Jess? They are very angry about that one.”

“I know.” Dev said. “We did bad things to them.” She said. “But that was because they were keeping some of the natural born from here from coming back.” She glanced behind her “But we have to let them in here or I think the bad people above are going to make them dead.”

“If we let them in here the bad people may make us dead.” The Kaytee said. “They already made a lot of us dead. We don't want to get hurt again.”

Dev straightened up, the faint lights catching on the piping and insignia she was wearing. Her collar was covered and theirs weren't, and she wondered if they viewed her as one of them, or one of the other. “We have to let them in.” She stated quietly. “It's the correct thing.”

The group hesitated, many eyes going to the Kaytees as the most advanced of the sets among them. But it wasn't a Kaytee that finally spoke up.

“They may make us dead anyway” The Beeaye nearest Dev shook his head. “It doesn't matter. We should help Doctor Dan.”

Now a lot of voices erupted, and heads nodded “We have to help Doctor Dan.” One of the PeeAres said. “He will keep them from making us dead.” He said. “He'll know what to do.”

Dev waited, as the discussion went around. She knew she had no way of forcing the question, so she waited to see what the result was going to be. Before she took things into her own hands, because she had the programming for that, and it was her job.

She would help Jess and Doctor Dan, even if the others refused to do so.

Maybe the Kaytee knew that because he looked at her, and he nodded. “We should help Doctor Dan.” he agreed with the majority. “And Beeaye is right. They might make us dead anyway.”

They cleared the way to the control consoles, where three of the bio alts were just sitting and watching screens. Dev went up onto the platform and one of them moved to make room for her, letting her sit down. “They have systems locked upstairs.” The man said. “We can't touch anything.”

Dev pulled the pad over and examined it. Then she keyed in a routine and entered her credentials, waiting to see what would happen. One of two things were likely, either the systems would stay locked, or they wouldn't.

After a moment the screen cleared and gave her access, and she nodded and started keying in other things. “They did not check for access from here for someone with operations credentials.” She commented. “That was not optimal for their objective.”

The bio alts were all gathered around watching her attentively. “They did not expect any of us to have them.” The Beeaye said. “You are the first.”

“I am the first.” Dev agreed. She called up the routine for the door and studied it, mindful of the need to hurry. She didn't know what was going on in the outside room, but she didn't think it could be good based on the thumps and bangs that were transmitting through the stone and metal between her and where Jess was. “Get away from that access and be safe.” She ordered. “I am going to open it.”

The bio alts all scattered to the walls and crouched down, obeying her as if she was a natural born, even the Kaytees. Dev altered the programming and recompiled it, then applied to the door, and an instant later there was chaos everywhere.

Dark clad bodies tumbled through the opening and fired back the way they came, then bigger fully armored forms came hauling through with a deflector sending blasts back over everyone's heads.

Instinctively she dove off the console and got behind it as the room filled with blaster fire, and falling bodies, and a lot of yelling. It smelled of burning substance and scorched stone and she tucked her head behind the panel and hoped Jess was okay.

She heard Jason say get down and she closed her eyes, pressing against the wall as she heard a powerful explosion, and the vibration nearly sent her tumbling.

Screams broke out, and then, after another rattling explosion, she heard the sound of hatches sealing with a deep, ear impacting whumphing sound.

Then, abruptly, it was quiet.

“Fuck that was close.” Jason's voice broke it. “I get em all?”

Dev got up and hopped back up onto the console, freezing when she saw the floor covered in bodies. “Oh.” She blinked in the heavy smoke and felt her heart sink, as the impact hit her. “You... what did you do to them?” She asked Jason, her heart starting to race.

All the bio alts, the ones she'd been just talking to, were on the ground, limp, unmoving.

Jason was half covered in blood and he stared at her, then looked across the space filled with bio alt dead. “Sorry.” He answered briefly. “Didn't have time to code anything but us.”

Dev took a step back and bumped into the console, feeling like she was going to be very sick. She saw Doctor Dan starting to move towards her but a second later Jess was there instead, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at her partner. “They let me open the door because I said they would be safe, and they believed me.”

“They sent a bunch of them in after us.” Jess told her, in a quiet tone. “We were out of options, Dev.” She looked around. “Check them. They might have just been coded out.”

“Do we really have time for this?” Jason asked impatiently, falling silent when Jess's blaster came around and targetted him. “Did you totally lose your mind?” He asked her. “They're bios.”

Jess stared at him, then looked at Dev, then looked back at him. “I might have lost my mind but not about this. Bios or not they're ours.” Jess said. “Check them.”

“She's right.” Doctor Dan spoke up. “You are responsible for them. It's in the contract.” He moved past Mike and April and went to the first of the bodies, lowering himself next to it. “They're not krill.”

“It's not going to matter if they catch us in here. We'll be feeding the krill.” Jason stated. “We don't have time for this...” He caught a motion and looked back at Jess, who had taken the safety off her blaster. “You're seriously going to shoot me?”

“Yes.” Jess said. “But for insubordination under fire this time.” She motioned the rest of the agents. “Check them.”

She stayed by Dev's side, as the agents started moving amongst the bio alts, and joined Doctor Dan in kneeling by their side. “If those were our grenades, they should have had them passive coded. I helped test the damn things.”

Jason shook his head and went to the group near the wall, stepping over the broken and obviously dead bodies of the enemy soldiers. Elaine had already knelt next to one of the AyeBees, touching the side of his face with relative gentleness.

Kurok looked up from a Kaytee. “They're hard down.” He said. “But I think I can probably bring them back up.”

Jess felt Dev's shoulders relax a little. “How long?”

Doctor Dan shook his head. “Don't know. No gear here.” He stood up. “We can leave them where they are. They'll just stay down.” He straightened slowly and rubbed his hands together. “Maybe this was the safest thing for them, Dev.” He came up onto the platform. “Are you all right?”

Dev took a deep breath, and released it. “Yes. I think so.” She could feel her knees shaking, and the feeling of wanting to throw up was easing, a little. “That was a terrible feeling, Doctor Dan.”

“I know.” He patted her on her other shoulder, since Jess had possession of the one closest to her. “So now what, Agent?” He asked Jess. “Now that we didn't get blown up, that is.”

Jess sat down at the console and started accessing things. “First thing is, secure that damn door.” She said. “This your login Dev?”

“Yes.” Dev sat down too, because she felt like she was going to fall down otherwise.

“Good work.” Jess keyed through systems, mirroring the ones from centops and hoping no one up there was watching. “Surprised they didn't close.. oh, okay I see what they did.” She chuckled softly under her breath. “Clever, Devvie Very clever.”

When Dev didn't answer, Jess looked over at her, surprised to see a few tears sparkling on her face. She was leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her hands were folded together, tense enough to have her knuckles show through the skin over them.

Kurok sat down next to her and patted her arm and Jess felt a surge of emotion that made her forget completely about the console. She half turned away and then saw all the rest of the agents and techs headed towards her, now that the fate of the bio alts appeared settled.

They were watching her. Jess felt briefly at a complete loss, all her instincts driving her to pay attention to the woman next to her and the cold hard knowledge of her training that told her she better do otherwise or risk losing control of the group. Jason had already called her into question, and though he'd backed down, she knew the barb had legitimate sting.

Damn it.

With a good deal of effort, she wrenched back around just as April reached the platform, forcing her eyes to reread the screen twice before the details registered.

“So whats going on up there.” Jason braced his hands on the console and peered at the screen, apparently setting aside their previous disagreement. “That centops?”

“Yeah.” Jess muttered. “Just standard scan... not sure what the hell they're doing they know we're here.”

Mike and April sat down and started to key in screens, using general access that would be expected from the bio alt area. “Maintenance is offline.” Mike said. “Power's about twenty percent.”

Brent came over and wedged himself on the other side of where Dev was sitting and cleared his throat self conciously. “Thanks for getting us in.” He addressed the bio alt. “They were about to fry my ass in there.”

“You're welcome.” Dev answered quietly. “I'm glad everyone is safe.”

Jess felt her hands start to twitch and she lost focus, not really caring what was on the screen in front of her. “Fuckers.” She uttered. “I just want to get them out of here.”

Jason patted her on the back. “Easy, Jesseroo. Don't lose your mind again on us. We'll get em out of here.”

“They've got control of centops, and main ops.” April concluded. “I can't get any parsing from there at all.” She regarded the reporting stats. “Most of the systems are down. The bay is locked open, and it looks like there was a lot of boom in there.”

“Ah.” Jess said. “Yeah, that's the one big place we're vulnerable, if that big hatch is open. But we've got scan in the corridors..”

“Scan's off.” Jason had been tapping on the pads. “Makes sense, or they'd be dropping like flies going throught he halls.”

Oh. Yeah. Right. “Well, then we can go through them too, if they haven't figured out how to reset it to block us.” Jess said. “Anyone want to guess what they want? What they're holding out for?”

“You.” Jason stated bluntly.

“That much for revenge?” Jess tilted her head and stared at him. “Get out of here.”

“Ah.” Doctor Dan cleared his throat. “That is one detail I managed to ferret out. Sorry I neglected to mention it I've been a bit distracted.”

“Yeah me too.” Jess finally turned away from the console and let her knee bump Dev's, getting a quick flash of those pale eyes and the briefest of grins in return. “So what did I do outside blowing out half a mountain?”

“Their ruling council was meeting in it at the time.” Doctor Dan informed her. “You wiped out half the leading scientists and all their top politicians. Which I think explains, by the way, their interest in me.” He added, in a musing tone.

The agents turned and stared at Jess.

Jess remained quiet for a short while. “I wasn't aiming at that.” She muttered finally. “I was just trying to be a distraction so Jase could get those teams out.”

“Shit yeah.” Jason said. “No way were they a target we didn't even know they were there.” He added. “Did we?” He looked at Jess. “Did Bain know?”

“Not that he told me.” Jess admitted. “That facility wasn't even a specific target.” She looked at Kurok. “We wouldn't have even published it, since we knew we had a leak.”

“Mm.” Doctor Dan grunted. “Alex said nothing about that. Possibly on purpose, if he thought they would try to compromise me.” He continued, without any seeming emotion. “Certainly, the other four that went with me didn't last long.”

“They tortured them?” April asked.

“No. They just killed them outright.” Kurok replied. “Didn't have any use for them. They had no intention of negotiating they just wanted me and knew I would insist on coming with the others if they went.”

“Did they know that? The guys that went with you?” Jason studied him intently.

“No. They weren't Interforce. Alex thought if he gave them some administrators it would pacify them.” Doctor Dan patted Dev on the back. “He held you and Jesslyn in much greater esteem.”

“It could have been tables turned easily. I .. “ Jess looked at Dev. “We could have been blown out fifty times in that. It was only Dev's flying that saved our asses.” She got up. “So I've got two choices. Either turn myself over to them and hope they take me and leave, or we have to take the base back and hope it frustrates them enough to give up.”

“And the reason they are interested in her.” Doctor Dan concluded. “Is that Dev's been a greater success than any of us had intended. If I could replicate that success for them, it would solve a number of their problems.”

Dev straightened up and wiped the back of her hand across her eyes. “I tried to do my best.” She murmured. “Was that incorrect, Doctor Dan?”

“No.” Jess answered before he could. “Fuck them. You just do what you do. What happened wasn't your fault.”

Dev looked at her, then at Doctor Dan, who smiled and nodded. “But many people took damage.” She looked around at the still, silent forms of the bio alts, and the dead soldiers. “Is that really correct?”

“No time to argue about it.” Jason tapped the screen. “They're doing a sweep, and if they have enough firepower they're just going to blow out that door. We're sitting ducks.”

Jess absorbed all the eyes on her, and knew a moment of truth in her guts.

“Jess.” Dev's voice was suddenly loud and next to her. “You weren't really considering allowing them to take you away were you?”

Jess turned her head to meet her partner's eyes. “If I thought they would just take me and fly off, and leave the rest of you alone, I would.” She responded bluntly. “But I think they just set this up as a trap, and once they get me, they'll blow this place with everyone in it and if I”m going to die today, I'm not going to do it gagged and immobilized.”

“So we really should have flown off back to the pole.” April mused. “This is an end game.”

“It's always an end game.” Elaine said. “Didn't they tell you that in school? We're always expected to splat for the cause.” She rubbed some dried blood off her hands. “Granted, we try not to splat in huge numbers. It drives the school crazy trying to replace us.”

Jess looked at her, then scanned the rest of them. “So is that what you want?” She asked bluntly. “You want me to turn myself into them and let you all get out?”

They all stared back at her.

“That's not what I meant.” Elaine said. “It is what it is, Jess. Don't get all crazy about it.” She leaned against the console. “Let's just figure out what to do and get it done, before they blow out that door and make this whole scene irrelevant. You got a plan?” She looked pointedly at Jess.

Jess felt her shoulders hunching defensively and she stood and paced a little, ending up next to the big screen. She studied it, her mind completely blank until she realized she was going to have to turn around and say something because they were all waiting for her to.

She was tired. She was hurting. Her lungs were aching and she had no idea what the hell to do except just go run into central ops shooting or …

Or what?

Slowly she turned and looked at Kurok. “There any way into the security hall except the blue corridor?”

Doctor Dan exhaled a little. “Yes there is.” He said. “But I'm not sure what that gets you. Operations hall is closer to central than security is.”

“There's a rig being held in Security we might be able to use to get past them.”

“Wait.” Jason held a hand up. “You'er not talking about that brain thing? The one that splatted Devon?”

Jess nodded.

“What is it?” Kurok asked.

A loud, hollow thump sounded on the other side of the wall. “Okay, we're out of time.” Jess said. “Let's get to security sector. We might be able to pick up some allies there, depends on how far they penetrated in the maze.” She got off the platform and headed for the inside corridor.

Dev instantly trotted after her, carefully stepping around the silent, slumped bio alts scattered around the room. She caught up to Jess as the rest of them also started moving, and had a brief moment to catch her partner's hand and squeeze it.

Jess looked back at her.

“I don't want you to give up to them.” Dev said, quietly. “Or if you do, take me with you.”

The pale blue eyes watching her suddenly warmed, and softened, just before the rest of the group reached them. She winked at Dev, then she waited for Doctor Dan to come up to the door, and then she gestured him forward. “After you.”

Kurok pushed the inside door open and passed through it, and they all followed, leaving behind the room full of silent figures and scattering of dead ones.

Part 24

It was dark, and cold, and the walls were covered in condensation. Jess was standing at the end of a long, damp corridor with her hands braced on either side of a small doorway.

The rest of the group were stretched out along the hall on the other side of her, waiting in silence, for the return of Dan Kurok.

“Where the hell is he?” Jason uttered, speaking over Dev's head to Jess. “He cross us too?”

“No.” Jess didn't wait for Dev's reaction. “He's square.” She didn't even sound angry about the question. “If he's taking his time, maybe that's a good sign. He got further.”

Jason leaned back against the wall then he slowly let himself slide down it, coming to rest with his forearms on his knees. “Okay, maybe.” He sighed. “Fuck, I'm tired.”

Jess pushed off and thumped against the opposite wall, deciding to join him in sitting. “Park it, Devvie. We might as well take a break for a minute.”

Dev sat down next to her, wrapping her arms around her knees. “It's difficult to wait.” She said. “I hope Doctor Dan is okay.”

Jess squirmed over a bit, until her shoulder was pressed against Dev's. “He knows where he's going.” She assured her partner. “I knew Bain had some back channels, behind ops and that office he used, but they were locked down.”

Everyone had settled down and now that she was sitting, Jess hoped Kurok would take a few minutes more as it would at least give her a chance to come up with some kind of plan once he did come back.

Dev exhaled softly and the sound, then, distracting her and making Jess turn and focus on her. “Hey.”

The bio alt returned her gaze. “Hello.”

“You okay?” Jess asked, in a barely audible mutter.

Dev didn't answer for a moment, then she cleared her throat. “I think so.”

“Think so?” Jess asked. “That thing in the room bug you?”

Dev's pale brows twitched.

“The mine messing up the..” Jess paused. “Everyone in there getting blasted?”

“That bothered me, yes.” Dev finally said. “It felt very incorrect, when that happened.” She leaned closer to Jess. “I feel like I hurt them.”

“Mm.” Jess grunted softly. “Why'd you open the door?” She asked, in a mild tone. “Back there? They were safe in there.”

Dev stared at her in silence for a bit. “You were being attacked.” She said finally. “You were in danger – they would have made you dead.”

Jess nodded. “That's right.” She said. “You put me above them. I bet you never thought for a second before you opened up that hatch.”

“I didn't” The bio alt murmured. “That's incorrect, isn't it?”

“No. It's absolutely correct.” Jess put her head against Dev's. “There's an us and a them, Dev. Us is you and me, and them is everyone else. Hope you don't want to change that.”

Dev sat there breathing for a few moments. “Are you saying it's correct that I would want you to be safe, even though that meant all those sets, and everyone else were made dead?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” Dev stared at her in total absorbtion.

“Really.” Jess responded, with a faint smile.

“I don't think that's what they intended with my programming.” The bio alt ventured.

“But?”

Dev frowned. “What but? Is this one of those ass things again?”

Jess started to shake, and she lifted one hand to cover her face.

Her partner sighed after a moment of this. “It's true though.” She said, a touch mournfully. “I valued your safety more than I did theirs, or even mine.” She acknowledged. “So I guess whether it's correct or not is sort of a non question.”

Jess shifted a little. “I would have done the same thing, Dev.” She said, quietly. “So don't sweat it. We don't really have the time or space to worry about it now anyway.”

Dev thought about that, pondering if she was, in fact worried. She decided she was really too tired to be worried and just wished the whole thing was over. She could talk to Doctor Dan about it afterward, surely he would be able to tell her what the truth of it was.

Then, between one breath and the next, the lights went off and they were plunged into total darkness.

Jess surged to her feet and the rest of them followed, as she found the door opening by touch and without pause backed a step and kicked out at it, impacting the panel with a sodden crack.

“Hope that wasn't your leg.” Jason commented.

Jess kicked the door again and this time it flew inward, and she followed it, all in such pitch darkness not even a shadow showed. “Let's gol” She called over her shoulder.

Dev scrambled after her partner, holding one hand out ahead of her to prevent her from crashing into anything. The only thing she could hear was the scuffling of their motion and the rasp of Jess's skin against the wall ahead of her. “Jess?”

“Sh.” Jess ducked past something unseen and reached back to grab hold of her hand. “This is behind Bain's office.” She said. “Let's get through it and go take centops.”

“Sounds good.” April said. “No sense hanging around in here.”

“No sense worrying about scan either.” Jason said. “Let's just kick the ass of anything we find.” The sound of him drawing his blaster and setting it was loud against the rock walls, and then the small space they were in was filled with a lot more noise just like it.

Dev just stayed by Jess as she started forward, unlocking a door just in front of them and swinging it open. She paused and listened, then she turned on her hand light and shone it around, picking out the staid interior of the office Bain had used when he'd been in the citadel.

Empty, and dark. They moved across it and went ot the door, where a lifetime ago Jess had talked to Bain about her promotion, reaching the door just as thunderous explosions rocked the walls around them.

“Oh, that's not good.” Elaine sighed.

Jess paused at the door and waited for them to join her, then she unlocked her blaster and raised her other hand, pausing, then letting it fall.

Jason moved past her in silence, bumping the front door to the office opening and passing through with April and Mike right behind him. Elaine stayed next to Jess, and the techs stuck together and brought up the rear as they all emerged into the outer hall.

Here, there should have been security guards, but nothing living was there and they moved on through the outer chamber and then through the main hall door into the sector corridor. Far off they could hear more explosions, and very faintly, shouting.

Jess and Elaine kept up a watch as they moved quickly through the hall, coming around the curve and into the main space where the air was already getting stuffy. “Handlers off.” Jess commented. “Dev, run your box, see what's coming at us.”

Dev and the rest of the techs already had their scanners out and going, the screens reflecting in ghostly silver and outlining their faces. “There are life forms heading in this direction. “ Dev said. “They are moving fast.”

“Not as fast as we are.” Jess urged them forward and they caught up to the rest of the agents, as they came around the circular wall that pointed them into the operations center. The big door was dark and open, and they went through and then stopped.

It smelled of blood, and burned flesh. Jess shone her light around and went still, seeing mostly destruction all around them. “Shit.”

“Unsalvagable.” Jason remarked. “Let's move on.”

“Let's move on.” Jess repeated, turning and leading the way out of the room. “Sounds like they're running. You figure the bay?”

“Yep.”

“Let's go.” Jess took the lead now and they broke into a run, heading down the hall and down ramp towards the carrier bay, as the sounds of fighting grew louder.

A moment later the corridor was filled with fast moving bodies and Jess felt her senses tingling, as she swung her blaster around and targetted the first of them. “Ware!”

“Got em!” Jason let off the first blast, and then ducked as one came back at him, and then the hall was full of blaster fire, lighting up the shadows as they bounced off the rock walls.

“Down!” Jess yelled at the techs, before she nailed a bad guy in the jaw with her elbow and took him down, using his body as a shield as a long yellow beam nearly blew him apart.

April was hugging the corner of the wall and aiming past it, letting out long bursts and then drawing back as fire hit the wall next to her. The enemy they were firing at were wearing full armor, and their bulky, hardened figures were deflecting the blasts as they poured forward.

Jess got down behind the dead soldier and propped her gun up on his hip, ignoring the blood and burned plastic all around her. “Dev! You down!”

A hand touched her thigh and she nearly hit the roof, stifling a squeak as she only just stopped herself from whipping around and clobbering her partner. “Grahba... oh good.” She wrenched around and fired, catching one of the enemy in mid leap about to land on her. The blast shoved him sideways and she ducked and felt the impact on her shoulders, but she shoved backwards and sent him against the wall.

“Clear!” Mike's voice rang out, and Jess grabbed Dev by the arm and hauled her up as they started down the hall again. There were three bodies on the floor and Jason and Elaine were shooting over the rest of their heads as another three of the enemy were retreating before them, firing as they went.

Jess studied the pattern, then she stopped and ducked behind the curve of the wall. “Hold up!”

The team flattened themselves against the wall.

Jess saw the flicker as the enemy paused and waited. Then she turned and faced Jason who had ended up behind her. “They're drawing us.” She watched him nod. “Wanna step in it?”

He shrugged. “Choices?”

“Bad, none.” She let out a low whistle and shouldered her blaster. “Let's speed it up. Techs, stay down.”

Dev obediently crouched and felt the warmth as Brent and Chester came up next to her. She could see Doug dimly across the hall, and then there was rapid motion as Jess led the agents across the hall and into the opening where two corridors met, lighting everything up with blaster fire.

“This sucks.” Brent said, succinctly. “Want this shit to be over.”

“Yes.” Dev agreed. 'This is definitely non optimal.” She watched anxiously as the agents disappeared from her view and then loud noises happened, bright flashes coming from around the bend of the corridor.

“Don't sound good.” Chester noted.

Dev had her scanner out and she watched the wiremap, shifting a little so Chester and Brent could see it. 'Isn't there something we can do to help?” She asked, finding nothing readily at hand in her programming. When it came to ground battle, firefights, the agents were the ones who took the lead and the techs were supposed to, at best keep their heads down and stay out of trouble.

Well. “Let's go in there.” Dev got up and pointed to a half open hatch. “That's the cafeteria, isn't it?”

“What's left of it. “ But Brent moved past her and they piled into the room, Chester getting his light on and flashing it around as the took cover from the stray bolts coming down the hall.

The room, though dark, was relatively undamaged and Brent went over to the wall panels to see what he could make of them.

“Not much we can do.” Doug had his head inched around the half open door, watching. “No guns, no guts no glory.”

Brent snorted. Tucker came over and sat down next to him, resting his elbows on his knees.

It seemed wrong. Dev kept her eyes on the wiremap, on the figure she knew was Jess moving through the halls, the outline almost obliterated by the energy flares from the blasters.

She saw Jess's outline jerk suddenly, and impact against the wall.

She felt strangely lightheaded. “Brent.” She turned and offered the scanner. “Could you hold onto this please?”

“Sure.” He took the instrument. “Dropped mine out on the... where ya going?”

Dev slipped through the open door and started down the hall, heading around the corner and through the next crossing, picking up speed as she approached the long series of archways that led to the shuttle bay.

She could smell smoke and burned elecronics, and as she cleared the next entry she saw the battle, the enemy behind the blast doors and the agents pinned down in front of them, unable to go any further.

Jess was curled up near an overturned cabinet and as Dev headed for her she sensed a surge of energy coming at her and dove for the floor. “Look out!”

From behind her. The hall was filling with enemy, blasters raised.

Dev rolled for the far wall as she saw the agents start to turn and she slammed into the hard surface, as a bolt hit the rock right over her head.

A hand grabbed her arm and she was pulled along the floor, blaster fire almost singing her shoulder as she found herself hard against the wall, Jess's tall body in front of her.

Jess was yelling. The agents were firing, the enemy was firing back. Dev heard someone cough loudly, then Jess called uot Jason's name.

There was no answer.

She felt everything slow down a bit, as the thought occurred to her that they were in very big danger, and it was likely that very soon they were going to be made dead.

Dev knew what that was. She hoped it would be fast, and that it woudln't hurt, too much. She felt Jess press against her and she reached out to take hold of her partner, very glad she'd at least made a conneciton with someone, and got to understand what that love thing was.

She was very glad she'd gotten to know Jess. Gotten to do good work, and be as close to a natural born as one of her kind could be.

She'd gotten her mark, after all.

A loud, crackling boom filled her consicousness and she tucked her head along Jess's side, feeling her partner shift suddenly and turn to cover her, wrapping her arms around Dev and pushing her against the wall as a flow of energy passsed over and thorugh them, a flaring edge of pain that sent her to the edge of consicousness.

Then a thumping sound, and a blast of air replaced it, and the darkness blew out, replaced with piercing halo'd lights that made stark beams thorugh the smoke now visible in the hall.

Jess released her and turned, sweeping up her blaster in a deadly motion only to swing it's muzzle up as she got up om her knees and swiveled around.

The enemy were on the ground, bodies contorted. The archways were lit with a familiar blue glow and the overhead lights had all come on along with the air handlers. “Someone got the systems back on.” Jess said, finally, rising to her feet. “Status?”

“Okay.” April got up from the ground, finally looking stunned and a bit overwhelmed. “Mike?”

“Ow.” Mike was sitting with his back against the wall, cradling his right arm with his left. “Broke something.”

Jess headed over to where Elaine was crouched over Jason. “April, go get the techs.” She circled Jason's sprawled legs and knelt down on the far side of his body. “Take one ot the head?”

“Yeah.” Elaine exhaled. “If med's down, he's toast.” She regarded the long, dark burn that scored half his face, and the charred remains of one ear. “Stupid bastard. I told him to duck.”

Jess turned and regarded the rest of the space. She went to the comms panel on the wall and keyed it, hearing a soft crackle in return, but no response. “Tac.” She uttered into it. “Any comms, respond.”

She waited, then repeated the message.

Another long silence, then rather than from the comms, they heard a response coming from the cross hallway just before the shuttle bay.

“Not much to say.” Dan Kurok limped into view, his eyes flicking over them with something like relief. “Took you long enough to get them down here.” He sat down on a box, looking completely exhausted. “This is the only area with any grid I could bring up.” He blinked mildly. “Once I'd taken everything down that is.”

“That was you?” Elaine studied him.

A faint, very wry smile appeared on Doctor Dan's face.

“Thougth they were leading us on.” Jess looked up as the techs came into view following April. “Let's rig a carry, get Jason to med.” She eyed the hall. “If this sector's got power, that one might too.”

“Marginal.” Kurok said. “This was the last of them, I think. They got comms as I got into the back halls and they took off, left a squadron behind to clean up.” He studied the bodies on the floor. “Hope that's all of them. There's not much in the way of protection left here.” His eyes lifted to Jess's. “And they will be back.”

“What about people?” Elaine asked. “Anyone else from the teams here?”

Kurok just looked at her.

'Shit.” She shook her head.

“Maybe Bock was right.” April commented. “He said it was over. We were just prolonging it.”

Jess watched them rigging a sling, then she walked back over to where Dev was seated on the ground, extending a hand down to her. “He was right.” She hoisted her partner to her feet. “But it doesn't matter because we don't stop just because it's a lost cause.” She studied the bio alt. “You okay, Devvie?”

What, really could she say to that? “Yes.” Dev looked around at the dissipating smoke, and the bodies on the ground, and her battered colleages, and Doctor Dan. “Seeing as I thought they were going to make us dead.”

“Not yet.” Jess sighed. “Maybe soon.”

“I see.”

“Let's see how hard we can make it for them.”

**

It did seem a lost cause. Dev was on her knees, her head inside a wall panel as she studied the readouts on her retrieved scanner. There was so much damage everywhere, it seemed very difficult to know where to start with fixing it.

“Crap.” Brent was in the next panel. “This is bullshit.”

Dev construed that to mean Brent agreed with her assessment, and she made a small noise of assent. “The batteries are being drained at 10 percent per standard hour. Then there will be no power available.”

“We can suck off the carriers for a few hours.” Chester suggested. “But that's it.”

“That's it.” Brent agreed, touching the commset on his head. “Tuck, you there?”

Dev continued her evaluation, trying not to think of the long corridor they were next to that led eventually to her quarters, and rest. There seemed to be no end in sight to the trouble, and she'd reduced her wishing to a simple one for some water and maybe even a packet of those seaweed crackers Jess hated so much.

The power generation systems were offline, that being the crux of the issue. Without them, the citadel had to run on what power was in the batteries, and that was draining rapidly. “How were they operating before? The systems were up when we were downstairs.”

“Someone had the security systems turned off.” Brent said, darkly. “Whatever jacktard let them in, prob. Hope they're carbon char somewhere.”

Dev pulled her head out of the cabinet and looked at him. “You mean, someone here was on their side?”

“Sure.” Brent said. “Knew there was a stinker left here. Let them in the first time, when they bombed the bay.” He tapped his comms again. “Tuck? What's up in med?”

Worried about Jason. Dev could see the tense lines in his face, and she knew a moment of understanding there, that despite the gruff words and attitude, there was caring there for his partner who had looked very damaged to Dev before they'd taken him away.

Doctor Dan had gone back downstairs to bring up the downed sets, and Jess had started inspecting the facility to see what harm had been done to it, apparently having taking no damage herself in the fight.

“Okay thanks.” Brent said into comms, crouching back down and going back to studying the panel. “They got power to med.”

“Damn good news.” Chester said. “They can splint up Mike's arm, too.”

The commset in Dev's ear rustled and she turned her attention from her scanner. “Ack?”

“Hey Dev.” Jess's voice burbled through. “Your buddy got some help up and going and we cleared out centops. Bring the wrenchers up here – got better access.”

“Ack.” Dev stood up. “Jess said we should go to the operations center.” She told the other techs. “They have made it more optimal.”

“And they've got chairs.” Doug climbed down out of a service hatchway. “No damn connections here anyway, just service trunks.” He said. “Two of the big power transfer banks got fried. This is a mess.”

“Yes.” Dev closed her scanner and secured the panel. “But at least no one is trying to make us dead at the moment, and we have good work to do.”

“You bios' talk funny.” Doug said, as they headed down the hall towards centops. “You know that?”

“We talk funny?” Dev eyed him. “We don't spend most of our time talking about excrement and posterior bodyparts at least.” She protested. “I had to load a custom dictionary into my scanner just to know what you are saying.”

Doug eyed her, trying to hold back a smile. Brent didn't bother, snickering under his breath as they moved through the central hall and past the now active scan gate into ops.

“Hey, what was that with you giving me your box and taking off before?” Brent asked, suddenly. “You looking to get fried on purpose?”

“No.” Dev admitted as they approached central systems. “I was concerned that Jess was in danger.” She glanced up as the emergency lighting overhead flickered a little. “So I wanted to see if I could help in any way.”

They reached the ops door and therefore the conversation stopped, as they entered and found Jess and April inside.

The ops center had taken some considerable damage. Two of the console banks were burned and dark, and there were blaster scores on the walls. But the emergency lighting was on and two more of the banks had some limited screens active and the room was cleared of any bodies.

“Ah, the wrenchers are here.” Jess looked up from a large piece of plas she had spread out on the console top. “What's the status?”

'Batts are crap.” Brent said. “Got maybe three hours left.”

Jess nodded. “That's what the scan said here too.” She indicated one of the two working consoles. “We need to get the exchangers up. We dont get power going we might as well just get in the buses and go fishing.”

“Yah.” Brent sat down at one of the working stations. “Nothing's working down there.”

“Want me to take Doug and see what the status of the intakes are?” April asked. “Might as well move the carrier into the big bay anyhow.”

Jess nodded. “Do a fly around and get a comp scan while you're at it. We need to get at least enough cycles to get scan and met up.”

April nodded and headed for the door, with Doug following her obediently.

“Lift's cycling from downstairs.” Brent commented. “Getting biologic readings.. looks like the Doc got things going down there.” He studied the screen. “We should get scan relayed in here until we can get power up those buckheads could be sweeping down on us and we'd never know it.”

“I have our carrier configured to relay that.” Dev spoke up briefly. “So far there is nothing approaching and the weather seems all right.” She took a seat and started connecting her portable scan to the console. “I will send it in here so everyone can see it.”

“That's my driver.” Jess put a hand on Dev's back and gave it a little friendly scratch with her fingertips. “There were less bodies in here than I thought there would be. Only two.” She changed the subject. “We took them to processing, and after Elaine finishes with Jason and Mike in med, she's going to do a foray to see if there are more – there's a lot of people missing.”

“Maybe they got out?” Brent suggested. “Could be they were trying to evac when they were getting crunched.”

“Well, if we don't find bodies, and there's nothing floating ashore, that's a possible.” Jess turned as there were footsteps in the hall, and then let her hand drop to her blaster as the doorway was filled. “Ah. You.”

“Ah, me.” Dan Kurok agreed. “I have brought all the bio alt sets up, and instructed them to start repair, or restoral, whatever they are capable of.” He said. “They told me someone should check the carrier bay out, as they thought some might be trapped in there.”

He sat down in one of the watch chairs and leaned back, his pale eyes reflecting the emergency lighting despite their bloodshot nature. “Home sweet home, eh?”

Jess returned a wry grin to him, then keyed comms. “April, ack?”

“Ack.” April's voice came back, with the sound of wind behind it. “We're moving across the external fascia.”

“When you're done recon, inspect the carrier bay. Word is people might be in there.”

“Bodies might be in there too.” April said. “My guess is they dropped some nasty in the top there, big place, all you'd need is gravity.”

“Find out and report.” Jess said. “We'll be working on the tie lines in here.”

“Ack.”

“So, they were on batts the whole time?” Brent looked a touch confused. “I don't get it. When we got here it was like they had no idea we were coming, except that hatch on the north side.”

“They were on batteries.” Kurok confirmed. “This place has big ones. I had quite a bit of trouble getting them shut completely down.” He looked at his hands, and then flexed them. “No way to get the systems they were using to watch for everyone off except for that.”

“So they had scan?”

“They had, I think, very limited internal wireplots.” He said. “I got the sense, when I was sneaking around trying not to get shot that whatever the plan was originally there wasn't much left before we got here.” He looked thoughtful.

“Common problem.” Jess sighed. “All right, I”m going to go down to the intake cavern” She glanced at Dev, who immediately stood up and set her scanner down on the console. “We'll be back.”

They walked out into the dimly lit corridor and Dev felt glad they were now by themselves and it was quiet. A motion flickered in and out of her peripheral vision, and she recognized one of the BeeAyes carrying a box away from the cafeteria. “I'm glad Doctor Dan made them all right.”

Jess nodded, her face quiet and pensive. “Know what I feel like doing?”

The question opened up a lot of possibilities. “I'm afraid I don't.” Dev finally answered.

“Wish I could go to my quarters, take a shower, eat two sets of rations, and sleep for two days.” Jess said. “This is so fucked up I don't see an end to it.”

“Mm.” Dev nodded a little. “I would like all that, and also, to lay in bed with you.”

Jess managed a smile at that. “Really?”

“Absolutely.”

“Yeah, that would be nice.” Jess admitted. “Damn I”m tired.” She draped her arm over Dev's shoulders as they walked through the unnaturally silent halls. “Y'know, I just don't get what was going on here. They come here, supposedly to get me, but then they take off, and leave a watch squad who can't even tell when they're being infiltrated by us?”

Dev shook her head. “I don't understand most of this either.”

“I mean, what the hell?” Jess went on. “You know?”

“No, I don't know. What's hell?” Dev noticed they were passing one of the dispensers in the hall. “Can we get a drink?”

“Sure.” Jess detoured over to the alcove and bumped the door open, removing a container and handing it to Dev, then taking one for herself. The residual cooling in the casing had kept the temperature relatively down, and she popped open the drink and took a sip while she stood there thinking.

They were still in the secure area. The halls were barren, and dingy looking in the emergency lighting, and it made her feel grim just looking around. Down one hallway was the long winding corridor down to the intake cavern, and cross angles to it was the short branch that led to her quarters.

Their quarters.

The other direction was to the developmental tech area and... Jess turned, as something out of place caught her eye. She set the container down and drew her blaster. “Stay here.” She told Dev, then started down the side hall towards a half open door that had no business being accessed.

It was an unmarked door and there was silence beyond it. Jess cautiously pushed it open with the muzzle of her blaster and waited, ears cocked, as the rough crunch of the manual opening faded. After a moment she glided around the edge of the door way and into the room, hitting the preamp on the blaster and lighting up the room in pale blue wash.

Then she replaced that with the glare of her hand light and holstered the gun, letting out a long, aggravated sigh. “Dev!” She called out. “C'mere.” She keyed her commset as she heard her pilot's light footsteps approaching and half turned as the bio alt entered. “See if you can get some lighting on in here wouldja?”

'Yes.” Dev turned on her own hand light and explored the room, finding a control console across from where Jess was. “It appears this facility isn't used?” She sat down and keyed in a command. “It's empty.”

“That would be the problem.” Jess tapped her commset again. “Centops, Tac 1, Ack?”

“Centops.” Brent answered. “Gohead.”

“I'm in sector blue thirty.” Jess said. “Looks like they borrowed a few things.”

“Ack.” Brent answered. “Relay?”

“Ack.” Jess responded. “We'll pick it up later. Proceeding.”

“Ack. Relay and mark.” Brent said, clicking off.

Dev had succeeding in getting the low level illumination on, and now she turned and regarded the empty room. “What is this space?” She asked. “I dont' think you showed it to me before.”

“No.” Jess said. “Let's get walking and I'll tell you about it.” She waited for Dev to join her and they headed down the hall again. “That room.. it's a complex there's more than one space in there – it's where all the black ops stuff ends up.”

Dev nodded gravely. “It seemed quite dark.”

Jess turned her head and regarded her partner. 'Was that a joke?”

Dev shrugged.

'Anyway, the biggest thing we had in there was a new weapons rig that you kind of plugged into.” Jess explained as they got to the access hallway. “It's gone. Few other things are too but that one.. “ She shook her head. “Hard to say if it's more dangerous to us or them.”

“Like that thing they made.” Dev observed. “That was dangerous to them, wasn't it?”

Jess thought about that as they walked down the steep passageway into the cavern. “Yeah.” She said, after a bit. “But this was... well, if they figure out how to make it work all those fights you saw us in? Us against them in the hall? It would give them an advantage.”

Dev could feel the cold, wet air against her and she pondered as she followed Jess closely. “They wear more things than you do.” She said, eventually. “Is that to protect them?”

Jess worked the airlock into the final cavern. “Yeah. Our plasmas are more intense than theirs, and they don't.. they don't train agents like we do.” She led the way into the rock pathway. “They care about living. It's what makes us crazy to them.” She paused, regarding the huge space. “We're harder kills because we don't care.”

Dev's brows creased. “So this thing will make them not care?” She hazarded.

Jess produced a brief, grim smile. “It wires your guns into your head. You fire at the speed of thought.” She put her hands on the rock, her fingertips twitching. “I let them rig me into it once.” She turned her head and looked at Dev. “You never want to stop shooting. I nearly took out the test chamber.”

Her pilot frowned. “I dont' think I understand that.” She said, in an apologetic tone. “Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?”

Jess shook her head and pointed down to the board storage area. “It's not stable. Next guy who tested it fried himself. They ended up giving him a mercy kill.”

The waves were thundering in from under the rock wall, and the spray coated them as they reached the platform and looked out over the fractious water. Unlike the previous time, when the intake tunnels were in work and the water was swirling in a powerful, predictable way, now the waves were smashing against everything, breaking hard against the rocks and sending explosions of water halfway up to the ceiling of the cavern.

It seemed wild and frenzied. Jess leaned back against the rock wall, and folded her arms over her chest. “What is going on here, Dev? That's the question.”

'Well.” Dev copied her pose, glad to be still and quiet for a bit. “I was thinking about that when we were on the carrier on the way back here, and one thing that seemed interesting to me was those people on the other side are really focused on you.”

“On me.” Jess repeated, in a doubtful tone. “Why me?”

“That's what I was wondering.” Her partner admitted. “They got that man Joshua to do bad things and caused you difficulties. Then the man Bricker tried to use me to make it less difficult, and after that, the man Bain got you not to leave. Then they paid the captain to do bad things. Then they were trying to get us on that market island, and they chased us and when we got back, we found out they took those people and Doctor Dan and wanted you in return for them.”

“Hm. Yeah.” Jess agreed. “I thought it was because of the Gibralter run but you know what? It started before that.” She frowned. “It started with Joshua, but turn an agent, and go through all that just to put me on ice? Why?” She unfolded her arms and paced a little. “I”m a good agent, I've got a pretty decent record, done a bunch of missions but nothing more or less than someone like Jason, or Elaine, or hell, even Sandy had done.”

“I see.”

“That's why they were all pissed when they bumped me to senior, by the way.” Jess produced a self deprecating smile. “I wasn't about to turn it down, but I really hadn't earned it. Shoulda been probably Elaine.” She crossed her arms again. “But I guess Bain had his reasons.”

“Doctor Dan told me I could trust you, and the main Bain.” Dev said, unexpectedly. “So maybe there was a reason for that. Maybe there are things we don't know.” She paused. “That happened a lot with us in the creche. They would do things a lot and you never really knew why because they didn't tell you everything.”

“Mm.” Jess looked thoughtful. “Doesn't really matter now I guess.” She studied the cavern. “The raceways down there look clear. If they're all right on the outside we can try a restart after we check the transfer stations.”

“What will happen then?”

“We get power.” Jess started trudging back up the ramp. “We can bring systems up, and talk to home base, and figure out what the hell we're doing to do when those bastards come back here... “ She paused, and looked back at Dev. “But they'd have done that already, right? Send word to HQ about all this?”

“The man Bock seemed to think that was a bad idea.” Dev joined her. “Remember he said, that they would think bad things about us if we did that?”

“He just didn't want us to communicate. He tried to get them to kill us, remember?” Jess frowned. “Of course they'd tell the top – they killed two bases. We need help.”

But as she said it, she felt that pang in her gut that meant a warning. She remembered something that Bain had said, so long ago now that it felt like someone elses lifetime. “But there's no point in worrying about that right now I guess. Let's just get things up and running here so at least we can... “She paused, in thought.

“Have a meal.” Dev supplied a conclusion for her. “It has been a while.” She added, mournfully.

Jess chuckled, and shook her head. “How about we stop and get some of those damn awful crackers?” She suggested. “I hate them but at least they're something and they never spoil.”

“Excellent idea.”

**

“Centops, Tac 2.”

Jess got her comms in place. “Centops, Ack.” She took a swallow of kack to clear the seaweed crackers from her throat. “Go ahead April.”

“External intakes look okay, no obstructions seen.” April said. “But we just dropped into the bay and got shot at. Think we need some backup from inside.”

“Ack.” Jess got up. “Will check.”

“Jess.” Dev looked up from her console. “A Kaytee says the doors to the bay are secured from the inside. They just reported.” She selected a cracker and put it in her mouth, munching quietly. “I have asked them to put on comm where they can.”

“And a Kaytee is?” Jess inquired, sitting back down.

“One of the pilots.” Dev supplied, listening to her comms. “A PeeEff also says they have found the cut in the transmission lines and are reviewing it.”

“Where is that?” Brent asked. “I”ll go have a look too.”

Dev turned her head and looked at him. “Level six, west service corridor B.”

Brent got up and headed for the door, which was now properly secured and scan protected, and opened after he passed the gateway. “Let you know.” He tossed back before the hatch shut.

Jess studied the marginal wiremap. “Dev, you got any way to patch comms to the service bay? Let me talk in there?”

“I will try.” Dev hunted through the systems she had access to. “There are a lot of things very suboptimal.” She reported. “I think whatever the disruption was on level six also removed service for scan and comms.” She tapped further. “I can possibly activate any vessel comms and relay.”

“There are carriers left in there intact?” Jess asked, going over to peer over Dev's shoulder. “Oh, okay. I see. The transports are still in there.”

“Yes.”

“Give it a try.” Jess studied the wiremap intently.

Dev carefully patched the comms on the board through an emergency relay, and then to the service craft left in the bay. “It's done.”

“Attention.” Jess watched the relays trigger, a faint trickle of communication. “Attention, this is centops, reg centops, Drake eleven on comm.” She waited a moment. “Ntac, respond.”

“Centops, Tac 2. Relaying external.” Doug's voice echoed softly in Dev's ear. “Scan shows motion inside, sending vid copy.”

“Ack.” Dev answered, studying the vid. Doug had his carrier up on the lip of the escarpment, just barely at the edge of the opening, but she could see the destruction even from there. “Oh.”

Jess leaned against her. “Oh, crap.” She murmured. “Look the hell at that.”

The entire top hatch was disrupted, the metal edges peeled back and gaping, one whole side lying over draped down the side of the cliff. It was as though some huge force had exploded from within, forcing the hatch up and out of it's seating deep in the rock.

A crackle. “Drake!” A voice came through comms. “Ntac, sendit.”

“Wants validation.” Jess said. “Don' blame him. I could be anyone up here saying I'm me.”

'That sounded like Cliff.” Dev said, in a low tone. “Should I talk to him?”

“Hang on.” Jess put her hand on Dev's shoulder. “”Meet in my neighbor's bunk to pick up your shells.” She enunciated quietly into the comms. All the code in the world was good, but sometimes, there were personal bits that were worth more. “Ack?”

There was a long silence. Then the sound of breathing. “Ack.” Cliff's voice sounded, even on ratty comms, profoundly relieved. “Topside?”

“Friendly.” Jess said.

“Tell them to come. Lot of cleanup needed here.” Clint's voice now sounded exhausted. “Inside hatch's warped. Can't unseal.”

“Ack.” Jess said. “Standby. Tac 2, copy?”

“Tac 2 moving.” April said. “Rolling vid.”

Jess settled down in the chair next to Dev as the grainy vid resolved, a soft rumble of thunder in the background adding appropriate soundtrack to the view of destruction below.

**

Dev adjusted the landing jets on her carrier as she carefully lowered it into the carrier bay, tilting it forward and holding in pattern as she lit up the work area underneath her.

The destruction was extensive. She could see three recon craft hard against one wall, blackened and scorched but at least in one piece. They were they ones with active comm she had tied into.

Everything else was.. Dev shook her head. It was hard to recognized the service bay, everything was charred and blackened, the only clear space two landing pads on the far side of the space. April and Doug had landed on one of them, and they were examining the destruction while she stayed in the air giving them light.

At least six carriers were blown apart in blasted bits, all with the typical pattern they'd seen in the North station. Dev was glad she was still in the air, since her scanner was indicating to her lumps and chunks of what was, once, people.

People she might have known.

Her comms buzzed softly. “Centops, BR270006.”

“Ack.” Dev answered.

“Go ahead and land on pad 24, Dev. We're about to start up the intakes.”

“Ack.” Dev shifted the jets sideways and moved over April's carrier, lowering the craft slowly until it landed on it's skids with a soft bump. She secured the systems and put everything on standby, then she released her restraints and got up. After a brief hesitation, she pulled on the jacket she'd gotten in Quebec city, and fastened it, then she steeled herself and went to the hatch, triggering it open.

It didn't actually smell as bad as she'd expected it to, and she walked down the ramp to the platform and stood there for a moment, looking around.

The faint sound of light rain coming in from the ruined roof hatch pattered around her, and the soft echoes of April's speech and the dull thunk of Doug trying to get the inside hatch open.

It was incorrect, and unpleasant, and Dev sighed as she climbed down off the platform and headed over to where Clint and April were standing. She'd gotten halfway there when she felt, rather than heard, a vibration through her boots, and saw the other two look up and around. “Man, I missed that sound.” Clint looked relieved, managing a brief smile as Dev arrived next to them. “Hey, Dev.”

“Hello. “ Dev responded. “I'm sorry there's so much unpleasantness here.” She told him, sincerely. “But I”m glad you didn't get damaged.”

Clint blushed visibly. “Glad you didn't get offed either.” He said. “I figured if anyone would pull through, it'd be you guys.”

“Was that the generators coming back online?” April asked. “That rumbling?”

“Not yet, they have to run the water through for a few minutes before it builds up the turbines.” Clint said. “But that vibration means they got the intakes going.” He looked past April. “It's not as bad as it looks.”

April gave him a skeptical look.

“The bodies are mostly theirs.” Clint looked her right in the eye, then turned to Dev. “You were right about those cards. We coudln't do much about it though. They came in a blew out the roof with that new thing.. focused the lighting on it someone said.”

“Yes, something like that.” April agreed. “So, did they all just leave out of here or what?”

“Got a comms, long range.” Clint said. “We knew something was going on, saw all the batts go offline, but we couldn't get through to anyone.” He studied April. “We didn't think any of the teams would really come back here.” He sat down on the edge of a service console. “Figured they'd just tank the place.”

“Thank you for making the sets safe.” Dev spoke up, after an awkward pause. “That was excellent of you.”

Clint managed another slight smile. “They're all right.” He said. “Didn't want them to get snuffed.”

Abruptly, the overhead lights flickered on, what was left of them, and all around them the clicks and pops of returning power was causing boards to flash and signal lamps to come on. That was followed by a sodden crack, and they all turned to see the inner hatch slowly, peeling open.

“Good job, Doug.” April started over to where he was just stepping back. “So what do we do to secure this place? We got anything we can do about that hole in the roof?”

Doug dusted his hands off and stood aside as they joined him, and the open hatch started to admit slightly grubby, jumpsuited figures in, all with faintly illuminated collars. “C'mon in, people.”

A Kaytee slipped in and spotted Clint. “Chief.” He looked as relieved as he was able to. “May we help?”

“Sure.” Clint waved them in. “Let's start cleaning up I guess.”

The Kaytee turned to Dev. “Is it optimal?” He asked. “May we do this?”

Dev had her hands in her jacket pockets, and she straightened a bit as they all turned to look at her. She was surprised and a little disconcerted at the question, understanding almost belatedly that the bio alt was waiting for her permission to proceed. “I think that would be excellent, Kaytee.” She responded after a brief pause. “We have a lot of work to get things correct.”

The Kaytee looked relieved. “Yes.” He said, touching the commset in his ear, with something like pride. “A lot of good work to do.” He half turned and whispered into the comms, and then started towards the service bay, as more bodies started to slip into past the half open door, pausing to look around at the destruction before moving inside.

'They put them on comms?” Cliff asked, looking at Dev. “And hey, you in charge of them now?”

“Me?” Dev blinked at him. “I don't believe I am in charge of anything.” She objected. “Jess had me talk to these sets, I am just familiar to them.” She didn't see the point in revealing the internal status consideration of bio alts. There was already enough discomfort around and she didn't want to add to it.

“Only staff left here.” April added, briefly. “Made sense to cable them up.”

“Right.” Cliff pushed himself to his feet. “Hope someone shunts some power to the chow hall. I'm hungry.”

“Me too.” Doug came over, dusting his hands off “Hey, that's a slick jacket, rocket lady.”

“Thank you.” Dev decided the thought of something more to eat than crackers, even if it was a cold fish roll, was excellent. “We should go see if that's ready. I'm sure the people in the central operations room could use some food as well.”

“Lead on.” Doug said. “Not much else we can do here until they're ready for us to lift out debris.”

Dev regarded them all with a sense of bemusement. Then she merely shook her head and threaded her way across the rubble on the floor and slid through the hatch, glad to leave the discomfort of the destroyed facility behind her.

**

“Okay, that's more like it.” Jess studied the ops board, now pulsing with restored power.

“Yes.” Doctor Dan agreed. “Nice to have eyes and ears again.” He scanned the screen. “Met isn't incredibly awful.”

No, it wasn't. Jess started up the ops routines, and sent the restart sequences to comms and scan. All around her she could hear the faint, but perceptible hum of power and though they were still deep in the crapper, it made her feel a lot better.

“Got the divert to batts in.” Brent commented from the next board. “Rechargin.”

“See if you can get some techs up to start pulling those boards.” Jess indicated the two fried subsystems. “I've only got remedial weapons on this one.”

“Ack.” Brent went to comms, the paused, and glanced at Doctor Dan.

“Right.” Kurok slid into a seat next to him and put a commset in his ear. “They'd probably listen to you but they'll listen to me faster.”

“Or Dev.” Brent commented.

Doctor Dan's lips tensed into a faint smile, and he half nodded. “Attention, this is Doctor Dan.” He said in the comms. “I would like a team of PeeKays and TeeBees to come to the operations center, and bring everything needed to rebuild centops stations P15, and P212, quickly.”

The comms crackled immediately, soft, eager voices answering him. “Thank you.” Kurok said, and clicked off comms. Then he leaned on the console and sighed. “Hasn't been the best week of my life, tell you that.”

Jess was about to comment on that when the door opened, and Dev and Doug entered, their arms filled with ration bags. “Ah” She found herself smiling. “Now it's perfect in here.”

Dev came over to where she was seated and put down her burden. “We thought it would be a good idea to have a meal.” She explained. “The machines are not yet restarted, but we found these in the preparation storage area.”

“Dont have to ask me twice.” Brent came over and claimed a ration, then retreated back to his seat.

Dev handed over a ration to Doctor Dan, then sat down next to Jess with her own. “Clint thinks it is possible they have a mesh screen that can be attached to the bay roof to help cover it.”

Jess had opened her ration and was scarfing a fish roll. She chewed, then paused, and swallowed. “Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks.” Jess lifted the roll.

“Welcome.” Dev glanced at her, then grinned a little turning her fish roll around to find a place to bite into it. Now that the air handlers were back on, it was less damp and chilly, and she was starting to feel more comfortable, almost like she was ready to unfasten her jacket, in fact.

“That looks sexy on you.” Jess commented.

Dev paused in mid chew and looked at her in surprise.

'The jacket.” Jess clarified. “I thought it did when you got it, but now I really think so.” She was keeping her voice low, but not whispering.

“Um.” Dev swallowed hastily. “Thanks, I like it.” She added. “It's comfortable.. I was cold when I got off the carrier but it's getting warmer now.”

“Yeah, environ's coming back up.” Jess scooted her chair closer, setting aside her worries for a short time out. “Kind of cool to just talk about stuff for a few minutes, huh?” She rested her elbow on the console and her head on her hand.

Dev put her rations down and pulled a bit of cloth from one of her pockets, standing up unexpectedly and using the cloth to clean off Jess's dusty, bruised face. “You appear to need rest.”

Jess had her eyes closed, and there was a faint smile on her face. “Do you know how long it's been since someone wiped my face off for me?”

“No, I don't.” Her partner answered promptly. “Was it a long time?”

“Very.”

“Do we know what tasks we want to accomplish now?” Dev asked. “Or do we have time to take a rest?”

“Good question.”

Jess felt the gentle brush of Dev's fingers against her skin and thought about how good it would feel to just do something as normal as go back to her quarters, get washed up, and take a nap in her bed. It felt like it had been months since she'd done that, though she knew it hadn't actually been all that long.

It was ridiculous, but she just wanted to do one mundane shift. Wake up and go to ops, get a met report, scan the overnight squirts.. Jess opened her eyes and looked around at the half destroyed room, at fried consoles now being worked over by bio alts, and at the scorched places on the floor she'd scraped up what she assumed were colleagues remains from.

“No sign of anyone on the long range.” Brent spoke up. “Nice to have that back. Storm's moving past too, looks like we'll have some clear for a while.”

Jess reached out with her free hand and circled Dev's leg with it, just savoring the simplicity of the contact and acknowledging how good it felt when Dev rested her forearm on her shoulder and they just spent a few quiet minutes being together.

Dev moved, circling around Jess and standing behind her, putting her hands on her shoulders and starting to knead them. “I lookeod this up in comp.” She said. “Let me know if I do it wrong.”

It was nearing second watch, outside, Jess knew, the skies would be darkening into dusk. “Brent, we get the sit report off to HQ?”

“Yup.” Brent grunted, his mouth full of mushroom cake. “Got a squirt ack back, but nothin else yet.”

Jess leaned back and let her head rest against Dev's body. “Put out a low band signal out, see if anyone's in hiding.” She said. “Not enough wreckage here for everyone.”

“Will do.”

The door opened again and Elaine entered, coming around the console to take a seat next to Jess. “Med's fully synched. I got Jase in the tank, he's holding his own.” She exhaled. “Nice to get systems back. How's met?”

“Quiet.” Brent said. “Glad Jase's all right.”

“Yeah, me too.” Elaine nodded. “Arias's got a formcast on his arm, he went off to work down in the pit.” She glanced at Dev, who was still standing behind Jess, her hands working the agent's neck. “Oh that's nice. Didn't know they programmed them for that.”

“They don't.” Dev answered, before Jess could straighten up. “I looked it up in comp.” She could feel the tension suddenly wind into Jess's body, though she didn't move, all the muscles in her arms and shoulders coiled under her fingers and she stopped trying to squeeze them since there didn't seem to be any point to it. “It is nice.”

Doctor Dan had been quietly watching. Now he stood up. “I'm going to go get a wash and a hot cup of something. Based on the last scan metrics, we're clear for a couple hours all around.” He said. “Might as well take advantage of it.” He gave them all a meaningful look. “Right?”

“Agreed.” Elaine nodded. “Not sure how the hell we managed to get this all done, but here we are. You tell the west coasters?”

Jess nodded. “Brent sent a squirt. Maybe they'll send someone up from Picchu before the next front rolls in. Without met, I don't think they'll come at us.”

“I'll take watch then.” Elaine said. “Go on and chill Jess. You've had a longer run than we did.”

Thus held out, Jess was unable to keep herself from accepting the offer. “Okay.” She stood up and clapped Dev on the back. “Let's go get that shower you wanted, Devvie. Buzz me if anything shakes, E.”

“You know it.” Elaine took over the console, pulling over an unopened ration and settling in.

“I'll stick.” Brent said. “Got scans running.”

Jess lifted a hand and they left ops, walking the short distance to the entrance to Jess's quarters while Doctor Dan went in the other direction.”Have a good rest.” She tossed back over her shoulder at him.

“You too.” He gave them both one of his gentle smiles. “Dev, we should talk later, after we all get some sleep.”

Dev just nodded, before they parted and went to the entryway to their space.

Jess touched the lock pad and the door opened, the lights inside perking up as they walked inside. “Ahh. Home sweet home.” She remarked, walking in a few steps and stopping, letting her senses scan the inside of the room.

The air handlers had been on long enough to clear the damp chill from the room, and a slow inspection allowed Jess to relax as she noted the telltales that confirmed no one had entered in her absence.

Not sure why they would – even with the enemy rampaging around the citadel her personal quarters could not have come up on the list of interesting places, given that there was nothing in them that she treasured or even probably much cared about.

Her eyes fell on the trunks that had come from her father, and she paused, reviewing that supposition.

“I”m going to go get in the wet thing.” Dev ambled on towards the door separating their quarters.

“Mind if I join you?” Jess asked, after a pause.

Dev paused at the door and looked back at her. “Why would I mind that?” She asked, in a puzzled tone. “The space is somewhat small for both of us but it should be sufficient.”

“Just asking.” Jess sighed. “My brain's exhausted like the rest of me.” She undid the catches on her jumpsuit top as she followed Dev into her space, not entirely sure why the thought of just using her own facility was making her uncomfortable. Brain crick maybe?

Maybe.

Dev's space was emptier than hers. There wasn't any clutter around, and the only thing sitting on her workdesk was the square, somewhat worn shape of the book she'd left behind. “Gotta get you some knick nacks, Devvie.'

Dev paused and turned to look at her. Then she sighed and trudged towards the comp screen only to be pulled gently to a halt as Jess intercepted her. “I don't know what a knick is, much less a nack.”

“Just things you keep, reminds you of stuff.” Jess turned her and prodded her towards the shower.

“Oh. Like that little oil thing you got me at the market.” Dev nodded. “Yes, I have that in my space up there.” She pointed to the relaxation area.

They entered the wet space and Dev was very glad to turn on the water, feeling the mist hit her face as it spattered agaisnt the rock wall. It felt very good to step under it, and feel the warmth hit her skin, a relief from the persistent damp cold.

Jess eased in behind her and Dev heard her let out an almost silent sigh. She turned to face her partner, seeing her leaning back against the rock with her eyes closed, droplets from the shower dotting her skin. “Jess?”

“Mm?” Dark lashes fluttered and lifted, as Jess opened her eyes to peer back at her.

Dev studied her gravely. “You seem.. um..”

“Damaged? Incorrect?” Jess ventured.

“Upset.” Dev concluded. “Are you mad about something?”

Her partner regarded her for a moment. “I”m here naked with you in a shower. How mad could I possibly be about that?” She asked, then smiled. “I'm not mad, or upset. I'm just freaked out about what we just went through and I don't really know where to go from here.”

“Do we need to go anywhere?” Dev asked. “I think I like it here.” She was enjoying the beat of the water against her back and she offered Jess some soap. “We did good work here, correct?”

“Well.” Jess took the soap but instead of using it on herself, she started scrubbing Dev with it. “If you mean, is it good we're back in control of the citadel, and the bad guys have run off, sure.” She observed. “If you mean, is it good that they saved all the bios, and not all the carriers blew up, and we got power running again, sure.”

Dev shyly took a hand ful of the soap and started washing her partner's skin. There were a lot of bruises under the surface of it, and one long scratch down the inside of her arm. “I see.”

“I just don't know what to expect next.” Jess clarified. “Are they going to come back again with the met weapon? They going to try to do something with the stuff they stole from here? We can prepare at some level but then – how did they get in the first time? Even with the power off, the batts would have kept them out. I just don't get it. I don't understand now what they're after.”

“Besides you.”

“Dev, I don't think it's me.” Jess shook her head. “I don't buy it. I'm not that important. I think they're using me as an excuse.”

Dev didn't really understand that. “An excuse for what?”

But her partner shook her head again. “That's what I don't know. I dont' know how far this goes.” She moved closer and lowered her voice. “I don't know what I can trust.” She cradled Dev's face in her hands. “Except this. Except you.”

It felt quite overwhelming. Dev understood she had no programming for this. The feeling went past any instruction or class, and touched a deeper and more primitive part of who she was. She took a breath. “That makes me so happy.”

“Happy?” Jess's forehead touched hers.

“Yes.” Dev whispered. “I want to be a part of you.”

Jess's eyes opened wider, in a moment of ungarded wonder. “Really?”

“Absolutely really.”

Jess circled her with both arms and pulled her close. She closed her eyes as she felt the pressure retured, and as she stepped under the force of the shower it felt like it was washing her clean.

All the vague sense of failure disppated. She was able to shift all the accomplishments they'd achieved in the recent past into perspective, having this one touchstone cement into place. It was odd – she'd never needed anything personal at all and now she felt like this change had become important as..

“Jess.” Dev spoke up. “I think it's possible I might fall asleep right here. I cannot breathe in the water like you can, so I think we should finish before that happens.”

Jess started chuckling. “Yeah. Thanks for reminding me .I need to get a anti dose into me before that little stunt gets me into med.” She pulled back and tilted her head, giving Dev a kiss on the lips. “I want to be a part of you too.”

It was good. Dev enjoyed the kiss and felt a jolt of happiness inside. It was very good.

And on top of it, she sensed there was sex practice in her very near future.

**

There was, in fact, a lot of good things in her very near future, but not quite sex practice yet. Dev was dry, clean, in fresh sleep clothing and she had a cup of hot seaweed tea sweetened with some of the honey they'd brought back from their last mission, watching curiously as Jess applied an inhaler to her nose and mouth, taking deep breaths from it.

She, too, was in the brief sleep clothes and as Dev watched she flexed her toes a little as she sucked in another lungful.

Somehow, she stopped thinking about what wa going on elsewhere in the citadel. The world had shrunk in a way, down to the room they were in, and the two of them, alone.

“Is that a medicine?” Dev asked, after a while of silence.

Jess nodded. She pulled the mask off her face and cleared her throat. “It's an antibiotic vapor.” She stated. “Kills anything I might have picked up sucking in all that salt water.” She paused, and regarded Dev soberly. “What do you think about that?”

“I think it's amazing.” Dev said promptly. “If you mean how you breathe water. That's the most amazing thing I have seen yet downside.”

“Hm.” Jess took another few breaths, then lowered the breather again. “Part of my sordid family history.” She glanced at Dev. “My mother, in one of her crazier moods, decided she'd toss the genetic dice and paid off some crackpot she found to tweak her eggs.”

Dev's brows contracted. “Excuse me?”

“Kind of like what they do for you, up there.” Jess examined the inhaler, finding it empty. She set it aside. “He switched a few things around and when I was born, the result was this.” She indicated her chest. “They thought I had a birth defect at first. Were going to terminate me.”

Dev blinked hard. “Excuse me?” She said again, a little louder.

“We've got no resources for people who can't contribute, Dev.” Jess said, in a mild tone. “They don't keep defective babies.” She took a sip of her own tea. “Where was I.. oh yes, my internal arrangements. Anyway, what I ended up with was a kind of feathery cups around all the air tubes in my lungs and when I put water in them, they filter out the oxygen and deliver it.”

This time Dev merely shook her head slightly.

“Huge breakthrough. Mom had all sorts of plans for me.” Jess said. “Then of course I tested in.” She indicated the citadel walls around her, and produced an ironic smile. “She never got over that. My father just laughed his ass off because she'd done it without asking him.”

Dev sipped her tea in silence for a while. “I've taken some of the biologic programming.” She said eventually. “That was very dangerous to attempt.”

“Sure.” Jess agreed. “She was nuts. I could have come out with two heads and ripped her apart in the process.”

Dev's face scrunched.

“Anyway, it's borderline useful, as you saw. I don't do it often.” Jess sighed. “Hurts like hell, and there's this to contend with after.” She lifted the inhaler. “But I gotta tell ya, it was worth it seeing your face. “ She chuckled. “Your eyes nearly came out of your head.”

“I was very surprised.” Dev agreed. “So was Doctor Dan.”

“Hard to say if I'd pass it or not.” Jess examined her hand idly. “We've been adapting for a while out there.” She held the hand up and spread her fingers. “Got a little bit of webbing already, and my skin repels the cold water. Common over at the Bay.”

Dev put her cup down and moved closer, taking Jess's hand and examining it. There were scars along the back, and there, between each finger, a rounded bit of skin where on her own hands there was none. “Wow.” She looked up at Jess. “They're so careful about making changes up in the creche, and here it's just happening.”

“The ability to adapt is what kept humanity alive.” Jess said. “So many species couldn't and died.”

The bio alt curled her fingers around Jess's and looked at her. “You're amazing.”

Jess grinned unexpectedly. “Nice for you to say that, instead of saying I'm a freak. In school they thought I was.”

Dev looked thoughtful. “Yes, I know what that feels like.” She said. “I felt like that in the creche, because I was the only instance of my set.” She reflected. “It's sort of like the same thing.”

Jess was about to protest, and then the words penetrated and she thought about them instead. “That's exactly what that feels like” She murmured. “I always felt like I was different. Even in school where everyone there was supposed to be different – I never felt like I belonged.”

“Because of this?” Dev touched her hand.

“Because of everything.” Jess answered. “I just always felt.. “ She glanced off across the room. “I never felt like I fit in. Even when I was tested, and accepted into the corps, and went through the training. There was just something there that never felt all the way right.”

“Like something was missing.”

“Maybe.”

“I thought maybe my weird feeling would go away once I had a contract.” Dev said, mildly. “And it did.'

“It did?”

She nodded. “I felt like this was my place.”

Jess got up and put the inhaler on her workspace, then came back and sat down next to Dev, leaning forward and letting her elbows rest on her knees. “Maybe they programmed you for that.”

“Oh, they did.” Dev immediately nodded. “They gave me programming about this place, and a lot of the tech in it, but it wasn't something in my head that thought that, it was something in here.” She touched her stomach. “It was a bit like... “ She let out a relieved sigh. “Ah.. like that.”

Jess thought back to her arrival at the citadel and tried to remember what that had felt like. Had she been glad to be there? Had it been a welcome, or just another set of challenges?

Had it ever been home? Had her home ever been home? Jess shook her head and lifted her hands, wiggling her fingers “Want to go to bed?”

“Yes.” Dev set her cup down. “I would like that very much.”

Jess turned and studied the latest readouts from ops. They were still very quiet, just standard entries from Elaine, and a few tech notes from Brent. Weather was stable.

With a slight grunt she stood and waited for Dev to join her, then they walked over the bed in her quarters and settled onto it, the lights in the room dimming obediently as they sensed the pressure on the soft surface. “Damn that feels good.” Jess stretched out and felt her body relax. “Comfortable as that chair is, it aint' like sleeping.”

“No.” Dev curled up next to her and reached out to touch Jess's arm, fitting her fingers around it in a gentle clasp. 'This is nice.”

Jess rolled onto her side and smiled. “Want to do something nicer?”

“Yes I do.” Dev took Jess's hand and kissed it, feeling the skin warm under her lips. “But if we're supposed to rest, shouldn't we?”

“No.” Jess leaned over and kissed her on the lips. “We should do what we want to do cause you never know what's gonna happen next.”

Dev was more than glad to defer to her partner's wisdom in that regard. Her body was already appreciating the touch, sensation growing and making her both want to touch Jess back, and for that all to continue.

The lights dimmed further, and only the slight glow from the screens on Jess's workspace and the trim around the walls was visible, casting them both into shadows. Dev felt the fabric of her light shirt being pulled up and then Jess's touch was exploring her skin and the pleasant sensation increased.

She touched Jess back, and heard a soft sound come from her. That was interesting. She repeated the motion, suspecting she was pleasing her partner and also making her feel good as well.

She wanted that, even more than she wanted to feel good herself. Jess had seemed sad to her, despite her demurral, and she wanted to see if she could make her feel happy.

So she called up all the things she'd learned about sex, and set to work applying them, touching and tasting and listening for those little noises, feeling Jess's breathing get faster as she moved closer and their bodies pressed together.

Lying down, the fact that Jess was so much taller than she was didn't matter, Dev was glad to discover. She felt Jess's arms curl around her as she continued her exploration, moving down her partner's body with a sense of pleasant curiosity.

She slid her hand down and found Jess's shorts already gone, and realized her own were too. She wondered for a moment when that had happened, then forgot about it as a touch caressed her inner thigh and her breathing caught from it, a surge of desire flooding through her and making her press her head against Jess's stomach.

Her body felt warm, for the first time in days. She even felt a little sweat breaking out, as she returned the touch and then went further, trying to remember what it was that Jess liked her to do as she felt her partner's body shift and tense under her, a low growl rumbling from her throat.

Ah yes, she remembered the motion and the touch, and the position that was just like....

Jess's body started to convulse, the grip on on Dev tightening as she kept up the rhythm until she could hear gasping, then she relaxed the pressure, gentling and slowing the motion as Jess slowly relaxed, rocking them both lightly in an embrace.

Dev was pleased. She thought she'd done the right things. “Was that okay?”

Jess laughed silently, her body jerking with it. “Never got programming for that, really?”

“No.” Dev fitted her body against Jess's with a feeling of contentment. “Not at all.”

“Fuck.” Jess slid her hands along Dev's slightly sweat dampened sides. “You could get paid to do that.”

Dev enjoyed the touch, especially when Jess started gently teasing motions of her own. “I can't get paid for anything, actually.” She remarked. “But I'd rather not do it with anyone but you.”

“Ah, is that so?” Jess's attentions got a little more intense.

“Yes.” Dev whispered, her body starting to hum with pleasure. She welcomed the heat as Jess pressed against her and wondered how she could have even thought getting rest would be better than this.

Really!

Jess lay quietly, on the very edge of sleep. Her body was sensitized yet sated, knowing a sense of inner peace so rare as to almost not to be trusted.

Almost.

Dev was curled up next to her, pale head burrowed into one of Jess's shoulders, and one arm flung over her, the steady warmth of her breath tickling the bare skin.

It felt so good. So good, and so very unusual for her. There never had been the feeling she had right now, not ever before when she'd shared a bed with someone.

She'd never felt this relaxed, this at peace with herself.

Even knowing it woudln't last, that a minute from now, or an hour, or even if she was lucky a handful of hours she'd be back in the maelstrom and facing death, or worse couldnt stop her from savoring this feeling of peace, and contentment, and yes, of happiness.

Didn't matter. Jess wiggled her toes and let her thoughts slip, savoring now the feeling of sleep taking her over, tucked under the covers in her own bed, with her own...

What, really, was Dev? Her partner? Yes. Her lover? Jess smiled briefly. Well yes, apparently so. Her friend? She thought about that word, tasting it cautiously on the back fo her tongue. Yes, maybe Dev was that too. If they both survived, it would be intresting to discover what they ended up being.

Dev belonged to Interforce though. Jess frowned. They'd paid for it, and like all the rest of the bios in the citadel, her pilot was property of the corps and had no say in her future.

Maybe they could last long enough for Jess to retire, and then.. She remembered, abruptly, what her brother had revealed at Drake's Bay. Jesses eyes opened and she looked up into the darkness of her quarters. If she retired, and went civ... could she pay off Dev's contract and bring her the Bay?'

She'd have all the resources of the Bay behind her now, wouldn't she?

Dev stirred in her sleep and nestled closer, the dim reflection from her collar catching Jess's eye. If she did buy her contract, could they take that off? Would Dev want to have it off, if it meant no more programming for her?

Hm. Jess shook her head and firmly closed her eyes. Time enough to think of that once they got out of the mess they were in now. No sense in counting your shrimps before you brought the basket up, right?

Right.

At last, she let sleep take her, resolved to get as much rest as fate would let her.

**

Hands grabbed her and she twisted, pulling against straps that kept her flat on her back, wrenching her arms to pull them free to fight.

It was dark. It was loud. She could hear screams and explosions. Nearby there was laughter, and then she felt the hot agony as a knife plunged into her and her back arched as she tried to move away from it.

An ankle came free, and she twisted more violently, lifting her knee up and kicking out against the hands holding her down. A body slammed down over her and she let out a deep growl, her eyes flickering shut and then open as the rage built, bringing clean energy to her.

A yell of alarm, and she convulsed, throwing the body off her and breaking a strap holding her wrist, and now she was half free. She slammed her fist into a moving head and grabbed a hold with her fingers, feeling one sink into an eyesocket as she used the body as as shield to intercept the energy beams she sensed coming at her.

The body fell over and she used the momentum to pull her up and against the straps, feeling the strain and then the heavy snap as the leather parted and she was on her feet.

“She's loose!”

Yes. Jess let the rage take her. The pain in her back faded, and she slammed against the nearest body, knocking them back and revealing, for a split second the handle of a blaster that she got her fingers on and yanked from it's holster.

“Look out!”

She was caught up in the dream this time, it's vivid starkness playing out but the waves of horror she'd felt before in it wasn't there. This time she could feel her heart pounding, and her skin flushing, and instead of feeling terror, she understood she was the genesis of it.

It was an exhilerating sense of freedom, startling and new and in the foggy way of dreams she knew a moment of wonder as she went with the newness of it, fading back into the action and surging forward.

Hands grabbed her and she spun them off, letting her mind slide down into that space where everything went black and white and she went from captive to hunter, turning and spinning as she pulled the blaster into her body and then unlocked it, recognizing the keys as one of her own.

Josh's blaster. She brought it up and ducked a thrown arm, swiveling in the other direction as she let out a long blast of energy, cutting through bodies and consoles as people dove in all directions away from her.

Then she saw the doorway open, and fill with armored bodies and she kept on going with the blaster, getting the guards in the face in a swath before she got all the way around and saw Josh.

Just long enough to see his eyes widen before she blew his head apart in a splatter of bone and blood.

No thought, just instinct, her legs propelling her body up into the air as return fire lit the space she'd been in and she twisted and kept firing, the blaster growing hot in her hands.

Stark and clear and raw, as she threw herself into the battle and lost all regard for her own safety, aware of a rush of energy that sent her back up into the air and into a twisting turn that had blaster fire shooting to every side of her but somehow missing a hit, and the delicious sensation of tumbling in mid air as she returned the shots with pinpoint accuracy.

Then there were dead bodies all around, not the least of which Josh's, and she was getting her balance enough to start for the door.

And then her peripheral vision caught a motion and she turned and aimed as a black sheet of glass slid closed giving her just one brief glimpse of a profile before it was gone, and the wall sealed with a blue tinted edge as she stared at it, frozen in a moment of time.

A voice whispered in her ear. Jess felt the dream slowly fade, with her in frozen stasis, the shock of realization moderating to a knowledge of her true surroundings as she opened her eyes to find Dev gazing at her in total, absorbed concern.

“Dev.”

Dev looked around, then back at her. “Yes? Are you all right? You were moving around and I thought you were dreaming.”

Jess took a few breaths, as her body came down from the battle high. “I was.” She murmured. “I was having that same bad dream but.. “

“You weren't yelling this time.” Dev settled back down next to her. “It didn't seem dangerous to interrupt you.”

“No, I...” Jess paused to think. “It wasn't the same. Ended weird.” She admitted. “Or maybe.. I dont know if I.. maybe it was me that was different this time. I wasn't.. “ She paused briefly. “I wasn't scared. Something changed.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Dev queried.

“I think its a good thing.” Her partner said. “I think I remembered something. Maybe.”

She checked the chrono and then relaxed again, putting an arm around Dev and letting her eyes drift closed. “We can worry about it in the morning.”

“Okay.”

“Along with everything else. “

**

The soft chime of first watch sounding woke her up. Jess glanced at the chrono in some startlement, then blinked the sleep out of her eyes as she propped herself up in bed.

No dreams this time. Just a long space of delicous oblivion, almost as normal as it once had been to wake up here.

A slight sound nearly made her bound out of it, then she belatedly recognized Dev's form as the bio alt entered from her own quarters and came over to the bed, a steaming cup in her hands. “Hello.” She offered Jess the cup. “Would you like some tea?”

“Sure.” Jess pulled her legs up crossed under her and took the cup. “Been up long?”

“About a half hour.” Dev said. “I checked with operations, and things are still nominal, so I thought it would be all right to let you rest a while longer.”

Jess sipped her seaweed tea and observed her tech over the rim of her cup. “You feel better today?”

Dev smiled. “I do.” She admitted. “Do you?”

Jess considered that. “Yeah.” She said. “My back's a little sore still. But okay aside from that.” She stretched her body out a little and realized it was true. “Let me go check in.” She got up and went to the workspace, carrying the tea with her. She sat down and ran her hands through her hair, then started to key up the screens.

“Jess?”

“Huh?” She glanced up to find Dev approaching, a bit of her discarded clothing in one hand. “What's that for?”

“If you're going to go on vid comms, you might consider putting a shirt on.” Dev suggested. “I know if I was on the other end of the transmission it would be very distracting.”

Jess glanced down, then grinned. “Ah, they're used to my ugly old carcass.” She took the shirt Dev was offering her anyway, and put it on, then triggered comms. “Ops?”

Dev went over to the other screen and tapped something into it, reviewing the results intently.

The vid cleared after a moment and Jess was looking at April “Morning.” She greeted the rookie agent. “How's life?”

April was in a fresh jumpsuit, and looked alert and rested. “Good morning.” She returned the greeting. “Elaine and Brent are offshift. Jason is stable in med, and Mike is getting the bay recomissioned.”

“Thanks.” Jess nodded. “How's met?”

“Line of storms is building, expected overhead plus four.” April responded crisply. “Mike said they got a screen up over the bay, should stand up to the rain.”

“Right.” Jess felt a sense of the inevitible brush over her. “Plus one, in the recon chamber. Let's put the plan down. Let everyone know.”

“Ack.” April responded immediately. “Plus one.”

Jess closed comms and leaned her elbows on the desk, regarding Dev with a bemused expression. “I guess it's time to go be in charge, Devvie.” She pushed herself to her feet. “Let's get ourseves in order and get some grub, and go do what we do.”

“Jess?”

“Hm?”

Dev came over and touched her side. “You do not have an ugly old carcass.” She stated. “Not if the comp dictionary gave me back the correct reference.”

Jess smiled at her. “Ah, you're a sweet talker, you are.” She affectionately cupped Dev's face in her hands. “C'mon, Devvie. I'm a wreck.”

Dev shook her head, her eyes watching Jess's intently. “You're the most beautiful person I've ever known.”

Jess felt the blush, and she blinked a little, finding herself surprisingly tongue tied. “Um.” She cleared her throat gently. “I don't think anyone ever said anything like that to me before.”

“Really?” Dev straightened up as Jess tilted her head down and they kissed. “I dont know why not.” She gave her partner a hug. “But I'm glad I got to say it.”

Jess smiled, staring across her quarters as she returned the hug, rocking them both back and forth. “Me too.” She finally said. “Meeee too.”

Part 25

The ops status room was familiar and not, patched walls combining with the well remembered long table shifting Jess's perceptions as she circled the latter and paused at the head of it, resting her hand on the big chair there before tugging it out and settling into it.

She motioned Dev to the monitoring console up a step on a platform at the back of the room, and the bio alt had just seated herself and started tapping the tablets when the door opened and the rest of the agents and techs filed in.

She was in a fresh jumpsuit, with her insignia on the collar, and given what had happened, she knew that in fact, as well as in theory she was in charge here. There simply was no one else, and even if there had been she'd have taken it.

“Okay.” Jess started talking once everyone had sat down. “So we have a marginally functioning base here.”

“Marginally.” Brent nodded in agreement. “One thing we do got now is power. Batts are all topped up and we charged all the carriers while we were at it.”

“Good.” Jess said. “We've got a storm front coming over in three hours. Anyone want to give me odds we'll get a wave of boom with it?”

“No odds.” Elaine still had the look of recent sleep about her. She'd woken up and insisted on attending the meeting. “Fuckers'll be back – unless they already have what they came for.”

“The weapons rig?” Tucker asked. “Good luck to em with it. Hope it fries them like it did the last poor asshole who put it on.”

“Maybe they'll figure out how to use it. You almost did.” Elaine looked over at Jess. “I heard them talking after you tried it.”

“Not almost, I did.” Jess shrugged “Wasn't particularly hard. You just want to kill everything in your path and it helps you do it. They were more scared of me in that thing than I was of it.”

The other agents studied her thoughtfully. “So.” Elaine mused. “Did they want it and you separately, did they want to prevent you from using it, or did they figure to make you an offer you couldn't refuse?”

Instead of immediately scoffing at the idea, Jess considered it. “Good question. What do you think. Dev?”

Dev looked up from the console. “What do I think?” She repeated the question. “I don't have enough information to have an opinion.”

“That never stops us, kid.” Elaine addressed her directly. “Here, opinions are like assholes and breasts. Everyone has at least one.”

Dev blinked at her.

Jess chuckled dryly. “If I had to bet, I would bet they just wanted to fry me for Gibraltar, and they took the rig because they found it accidentally. They sure as hell haven't made me an offer - they've been way too busy trying to shoot me for that.”

Elaine exhaled. “Maybe it would have been better if they had. Maybe you could have brought us with you. This looks pretty dead end to me here, Jess. That would have at the least, got us inside there.”

“If they didn't kill us.” Jess remarked. ”No way they'd trust me no matter what the offer was.”

Mike and April remained quiet, their eyes shifting from one to the other. Their techs were sitting quietly also, in chairs on the far side of the room near where Dev was busy again at her console.

“Hmph.” Elaine shrugged. “Still a dead end here.”

“Might be dead end.” Jess confirmed. “Based on this stuff.. “ She indicated the plas damage reports with a thumb. “We can probably get the outer guns up, and some of the shields, but if they come full at us, that won't last long.” She pondered the plas. “We'll get some of them though. I'll make sure they have some regrets before they tank us.”

“Storm''ll skew that too.” Brent was sitting at the table with them, not with the rest of the techs. He had that faint air of slight discomfort of someone not sure of their place. “Scanner's can't tell the diff between plasma fire and incoming lightning. We could end up firing at clouds.”

“That's not correct.”

Everyone turned to look at Dev in surprise. The bio alt had swung around again and was looking back at them.

“The spectrum is different, according to this comp.” Dev pointed at the console. “It's point four three five out of phase.” Her voice was quiet, but confident. “That is tunable.”

The room went silent for a minute.

“Lemme see.” Brent got up and mounted the step up to the console, pausing behind Dev and peering at the screen.

“Dev rigged her comp to find fish schools at depth.” Jess commented. “So she's probably right.”

Brent glanced over his shoulder. “Didn't say she wasn't.”

“Anyway.” Jess returned her attention to the rest of the group. “We'll operate under the assumption we'll be attacked when the storm hits. Let's get whatever defenses we've got up, and shunt power to them so we don't just let the roll over us. Then if they penetrate, and come in again, we'll draw them to a central point.”

Elaine nodded. “Logical place would be centops.”

“Sure.” Jess agreed. “But we would have to leave a trail of broken doors to it through the heart of the citadel. Likely?” She watched her fellow agent lift a hand and let it drop. “We keep them as close to the perimeter as we can. If they hit the carrier bay focus them into maintenance level six, and if they get into the shuttle bay use security main.”

“That makes sense.” April spoke up. “So the deal is we leave breached entries to both spots?” She said. “And boobytrap em?”

Jess nodded. “You and Mike take care of that.” She said. “The rest of us will work on the defensive systems unless Dev's already done that.” She eyed her partner.

“Not quite yet.” Dev admitted. Brent was now seated next to her pouring over the data on the screens and leaning on his elbows as his eyes flicked over the readouts intently. She went back to working on the screen, as Mike and April and their partners stood and headed out leaving Elaine behind at the table.

“So we make a valiant last stand or hope HQ sends support?” Elaine asked, propping her chin on her fist. “I'm okay with that, by the way. Worse ways to go.”

“Jess.” Dev interrupted gently. “I am getting biologic readings in what is listed as a storage facility.”

Jess got up and came over to see, Elaine circling the table to join them. “What is.. oh.” She leaned on the back of the seat Dev was in. “No ident?”

“Scan is not working well in that location.” Her partner apologized. “It's just showing bio.” She paused. “And it's not some of us.”

“Us?” Jess eyed her.

“Biological Alternatives.” Her partner clarified. “We have these.” She touched her neck, as if reminding Jess. “They do read on scan.”

“Don't forget you're more us.” Jess indicated herself and Elaine. “Maybe I can talk to your buddy and see what we can do about that necklace.”

Dev's eyes went a little rounder, and she tilted her head as she focused intently on Jess. “What?”

“Later.” Jess glanced at Elaine. “Let's go find out what that target is.” She said. “Dev, you two stay here and get as much working as you can in weapons and defense.”

“Yes.” Dev said. “But Jess, please take care.”

Jess paused and regarded her, a faint smile crossing her face. “I will.” She lifted a hand in a wave and headed out the door, Elaine ambling after her, not without giving Dev a long, considering look.

Dev stood up. “I think the systems in the operations room are more functional.” She said. “Would you like to move back there to work on this task?”

Brent stood. “Sure. Why not?” He led the way down the step and out of the room. “So you and Jess hook up?” He asked her, as they walked along the corridor.

“Yes.” Dev had taken care to look the term up the last time Jess had used it.

“Didn't think that was reg.” Brent commented. “Guess it don't matter much now though.”

“Yes, it is not correct for bio alts.” Dev agreed. “But I was told it was all right because of the job I am assigned to.” She touched the pad on the door to the operations room and it opened obediently for her. “However I think you are correct in saying at this time, it does not seem important to worry about.”

“Sucks.” Brent grunted agreement. “But I'm glad you guys hooked up.” He volunteered suddenly, surprising Dev. “Been good for Jess.”

Dev sat down slowly at one of the big consoles, and put her hands on the pads, but she didn't start keying anything. “What does that mean?” She finally asked, turning to look at Brent who had settled across from her.

He looked back at her, looking a little startled. “Huh?”

“That thing you said.” Dev persisted. “About it being good for Jess?”

“Oh.” Brent hunched over the inputs. “Nothin.”

Dev waited, but there seemed to be no other response forthcoming, so she shook her head and went back to the screens, calling up all the schematics of the citadel and studying them.

It seemed likely to her that regardless of what they restored there was all kinds of incorrectness heading their way. However, she had a job to do so she started several diagnostics running, and brought up a power schema and leaned on her elbows to look at the multi-levels of tracings, glancing to another screen to look at the power levels now available through the complex.

It was a little like the carrier, really, only on a much bigger scale with a lot more power vectors. In her craft, she had batteries, and the engines, now she was seeing energy being created by the hydro turbines at the base of the cliff, storing power in giant holding cells and then down-stepping the current into distributed stations scattered all over the facility.

Complex, but she had programming for it. Or, at least, she had enough general programming so that she could figure out what to do from there since she didn't really have the true specifics on these systems as she hadn't been expected to manage them.

Well, that could sort of be applied to a lot of things she'd ended up doing here, couldn't it? Dev started to balance the power across the systems. Especially with Jess. She hadn't gotten any programming at all about that.

Had she?

Dev leaned on her elbows and stared at the screen, not really seeing the results of the scan as she pondered how she felt about her partner. What she knew of her. Whether she'd been keyed to recognize her, and programmed to be loyal to her.

She thought about the first moment she'd seen Jess, sitting on the bench, outside the entrance to the citadel, looking so sad, and so defeated, and felt all over again the startled leap of her heart as something in her wanted to go and touch this person, and find out why she looked so lost.

Was it programming?

Dev decided she didn't think so. She didn't want to think that what she felt for Jess had been programmed into her. She wanted that to be real and like a natural born, and not be...

“Hey.” Brent said. “She's hot, huh?”

Dev watched her own reflection in the display as her brows contracted over her eyes. She turned her head and peered at Brent in bewilderment. “Excuse me?”

Brent blinked. “Jess. She's hot, huh?” He repeated.

Hot. “Um.” Dev was now quite distracted. “In my experience I've found her very pleasantly warm, actually.” She said, slowly. “Is there a purpose to the question?”

Brent grunted and shook his head, then went back to his console, tapping into the pad with stolid deliberation. “Fuckin' A.”

Dev pinched the bridge of her nose and went back to her scan, shaking her own head in silence.

**

Jess was aware of Elaine's eyes on her as they stalked the corridors, ignoring the bio alts heading in the opposite direction. “You figure it's some of us hiding?”

“Maybe.” The other agent said. “So tell me. What's that thing like in bed?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“You mean Dev?”

“Yes. The jelly bag brain.” Elaine responded. “Your little moch mech tech toy.”

Jess glanced at her. “You trying to piss me off on purpose?” She asked, in a mild tone.

The next moment she was in side corridor, and Elaine had her blaster pressed against her ribs. “Yes I am.” The other agent said. “Because I don't know who this Jess Drake is and I have to wonder if they didn't get to you after all because the Jess I know would have shot me for saying that.”

Jess felt a sense of shock and belated awareness of danger. She looked intently at Elaine's face. “You want me to shoot you?” She queried. “You don't think we've got enough trouble here without you and I scrapping it out? Really?”

“They get you, Jess?” Elaine stared right back at her. “Let me end it. You don't want that on you, not with your history.”

Jess felt the tension start to build in her. 'They didn't get me.” She replied. “Maybe I'm just tired.”

“Bullshit.”

“Maybe being able to trust my partner made a difference.”

“Bullshit.”

“Maybe I just got a thing for her.”

“Really?” Elaine unlocked the blaster. “I don't think so. I think they bought you and now we're just the remnants being turned over to those bastards.”

Jess's fingertips twitched. “Don't be stupid.”

“I'm not. You've been acting like a space case civ since you got back. Either they got you, or you're on something. Either way, you aint' running me.”

The motion surprised both of them but Elaine more, as the weapon smacked against the far wall and then she was on the ground, bent over Jess's knee, fingers gripping her throat like a vise, inches from having her back broken.

She could feel it. Feel the strain, and the strength that held her motionless with respectable ease.

“No body bought me.” Jess's voice held a familiar rasp. “And the last thing I took was a bio pack inhaler since I had to breathe water out there saving everyone's ass.”

Elaine looked up and saw the ice veneer on those pale eyes and in that moment she relaxed completely, holding her hands up in surrender, palms exposed. “Now that's more like it.”

Jess relaxed her fingers. “Just because I'm not a fucking maniac all the time doesn't mean I turned.” She said. “That's a bullshit thing to say.”

“You're different.” Elaine stated. “Look what it took to get you to do this.”

Was she? “I am tired.” Jess straightened up and pulled Elaine up to her feet. “And Dev's made a difference but not what you think.” From an objective view, she didn't even resent Elaine's attack. She might have done it herself if they swapped positions.

She had been acting a little weird. A little soft, maybe, distracted by the focus on these new and strange emotions she'd been experiencing. Still, no call to shove a gun up her nose.

Elaine went over and retrieved her blaster, safeing it and shoving it into her side mount holster. “So you're not screwing with her? I don't believe it. You can't tell me those vibes are fake.”

“C'mon.” Jess led the way back through the cross-corridor and into the main, walking with long, impatient strides. “Our sleeping arrangements are really none of your fucking business.”

Elaine kept up with her. “What's the big deal? I sleep with Jason, and with Tucker, and everyone knows it. We all knew you weren't bunking with Josh, but you've never been shy about that.”

“Dev's different.”

The shorter agent rolled her eyes. “No shit.”

“Not like that.” Jess felt suddenly uncomfortable. “She's just a nice kid.”

They started down the slanted path to the storage bays, tucked at the base of the cliff where the stone held the chill all the time. “She's technically off limits.” Elaine suddenly said. “Not that I figure that would stop you.”

“Didn't stop her.” Jess felt a faint flush color her cheeks and was glad of the gloom of the corridor. “She's pretty close to being one of us.”

“Wishful thinking?”

Jess shook her head. “You saw the comp vid. Dev's got a mind of her own.”

They walked in silence for a minute. “She's not a regular bio anyway, that's true.” Elaine said, finally. “Got some smarts and I think she's stuck on you.”

They reached the end of the hall and Jess cycled the lock, palming the patch at the door and standing back as the stone lined steel ground open. It exposed a man lock, and they entered, waiting for the door behind them to completely close before they triggered the next one.

The sound of the hatch opening echoed loudly, and as they stepped through, they both went quiet, and still, as the panel slid shut behind them and closed with a grinding snick.

Inside the big cavern were irregularly shaped storage capsules, originally part of the rock structure but sealed off with heavy plas and doors that were firmly shut. Jess drew her blaster and unlocked it, making no effort to muffle the sound. She let the echo of that fade too, and then she moved forward into the space.

Elaine followed, moving a shoulder's width to her left, and shifting her blaster to her right hand. She touched the comms set and lowered her voice. “Ops, ack.”

“Ops.” Brent's voice answered.

“Target?”

“Stand by.”

They moved further into the cavern and approached the first set of storage alcoves. Jess let her head swivel to the left, and then the right, straining her ears for any signs of life. The fact that no one had come to greet them made her now expect intruders and not refugees from the base, and she felt a sense of impatient anger rising.

Her own comms tickled her ear. “Jess?” Dev's warm, slightly burring voice whispered. “Go.” Jess grunted.

“Comp sweep.” Her partner said. “Comms set to loop.”

Jess stopped walking. “Repeat?”

“Comms set to loop.” Dev said again. “Admin lock, top sec.”

“What?” Elaine drifted over, watching her.

Jess turned and started back to the hatch. “Let's go.” She rapped out. “Dev, break it.”

“Ack.” The bio alt responded readily. “In work.”

They got to the door and Jess hit the pad, turning and putting her back to the wall as she swept the area in front of them. “Seems like something got hung up in comms.” She told Elaine. “Got the feeling we're being drawn here.”

Elaine didn't question it. She ducked into the hatch as it opened and turned in a circle with her blaster drawn, moving in pattern with Jess as they retreated behind the closing door.

The rumbling blast sent them back against the inner door, but the outer held, and as the inner keyed open they tumbled out and started back for ops at a run.

“Day is full of suckage.” Elaine remarked. “Tell ya what.”

“Getting worse every minute.” Jess powered up the ramp towards the main operations corridor, as alarms started to blare and lights rapidly morphed from white to red. “And it's starting to really, really piss me off.”

**

Dev focused intently on the screen, her fingers tapping lightly on the input surface as she ignored the sounds and vibrations of the room around her.

A piece of debris flew by her and she ducked, pressing her hands flat against the pad and then straightening, surprised to see the screen go blank, then show a process in progress. She looked down at her hands, then quickly looked around the room, hoping whatever it was she'd done wasn't too disruptive.

The door burst open and Jess appeared, outlined in raging red light with Elaine behind her. “What's up?”

“Somethin blew up in the cave.” Brent responded. “Plas based, but our sig.”

Jess hauled up short. “Ours?”

The tech nodded. “Key frequency defense plus four.” He added. “Like maybe they thought you were the bad guys.”

“Huh.” Jess circled the console Dev was at and safe'd her gun. “El, secure med, and get everyone under cover.” She said. “Can we get comms to the cavern? Bitch if they're some of us making a last stand.”

“No.” Dev sorted through the requests. “Comms is cut to that whole sector, and most of scan.” She indicated the boards. “This junction here appears damaged.”

The door opened again and Jess's hand went to her blaster, then paused as Dan Kurok's familiar outline appeared. “Ah. You.”

“Ah, me.” Kurok agreed. He had a toolkit strapped around his body and if no one had known better, he'd have been taken for any other tech in the corps. “I think we've got incoming.” He slid into a seat next to Brent and pulled a pad over. “Ahead of the storm.”

“Scan's clear.” Brent objected.

Dev pulled over a pad of her own and called up the link to her own carrier, parked on it's pad in the damaged carrier bay. She accessed it's systems and studied the output, keying in and starting a scan from it's position. Then she blinked. “Jess...”

Jess's shoulder bumped hers as the agent leaned closer and her head turned as her eyes tracked to the reading Dev's finger was pointing to.

Dev heard the hitch in her partners' breathing and felt her straighten up as the door opened yet again and April bolted in, blaster in hand. “Someone was bringing the grid down.” The young agent's voice was breathless yet crisp. “I blew out a body in a cabinet but didn't stop to pick the pieces up.”

“Brent, lock everything down.” Jess said. “Go to emergency code two, and seal everything you can.”

“Ack.” Brent went to work.

“No time to draw them elsewhere.” Jess slammed a hand against the console. “Fuck I”m tired of not knowing what the hell is going on.”

Dev was speaking into her comms. “Yes, please move clear.” She was triggering beam level protections in the carrier bay, watching the power re-balance as Brent sealed the access. She paused, then switched over to a second set of comm syncs. “Kaytee, Kaytee. Ops.”

“Here.” The soft voice answered.

“There is danger.” Dev said. “Incorrect persons are in the facility, doing damage.” She looked up, sensing eyes, to find Doctor Dan regarding her from the next console. “Please make yourselves safe.”

“We will take care.” The Kaytee responded. “May we make the incorrectness stop if it is possible?”

Dev looked at Doctor Dan. After a very brief moment, he nodded. “Yes.” Dev said, into the comms. “Doctor Dan says that is permitted.”

“We understand.” The Kaytee said, and the comms clicked off. Dev took a breath and released it, then she shifted her attention to her carrier scan. “Jess, there are craft coming towards this facility.” She said. “Systems are now stable.” She added, as she felt Jess's hand touch her shoulder, fingers warm and powerful as they squeezed gently.

“All right, let's seal everything we can, and make it..” Jess stopped speaking as the inner door to ops opened, the one that led to the technical spaces. She turned to face the door, drawing her weapon as it filled with large, armored bodies.

“Ah ah.” A tall, gaunt figure eased past them. “No shooting, Agent Drake. These fellows have no sense of humor.” Alexander Bain had his own blaster firmly in his grip, though the muzzle was pointed at the ceiling.

The armored bodies had long blasters cradled in their arms, the security insignia of Interforce silver and bold on their chests. There were six of them, and they spread out to cover the agents in the room.

Jess left her free hand on Dev's shoulder but shifted slightly so her body was between the guns and her partner. “Glad we bothered to clear the shuttle bay for you.” She kept Bain in view, the security agents in her peripheral vision.

“Alex.” Dan Kurok stood up and faced him. “Whats' going on?”

“Ah, that's the question isn't it?” Bain paused behind the damaged master console at the top of the stepped rise. “As Agent Drake noted, I appreciated the effort to allow my cruiser to land. Fortunately it will also allow me to leave, once my business here is finished. Pity you interrupted that.” He glanced at April.

“You were taking the power down?” April asked hesitantly. “But..”

“Yes. This facility has become.. hm.. let's say a pawn in a much larger struggle. A down payment, as it were.” Bain studied them. “This will make an excellent forward base.”

Jess felt a sense of shock as the words penetrated, matching up with the faint, instinct driven suspicions that had started to bubble up in her. “For them.”

“Certainly.” Bain agreed, in a mild voice. “You should have listened to Mr Bock, Drake. He was telling you the truth, about it being over. It is. “ He checked a chrono strapped to his wrist. “In perhaps an hour, the West coast facilities will be finding that out as well.”

“You sold out.” Kurok walked forward, ignoring the gun muzzles swinging in his direction.

“Oh, come now, DJ.” Bain waved his free hand. “You know better than anyone how fluid sides can be.” He leaned against the chair behind the console. “I thought perhaps you realized what was in the wind when you volunteered to be captured. Didn't figure you'd be back so soon.” He produced a chilly smile. “Didn't offer enough?”

Kurok's posture shifted, just slightly, just enough to make Jess's nape hairs prickle. “They didn't offer me a dime, Alex.” He answered softly. “But then I didn't go for that. “

Bain eyed him. “You went for Tagaron.”

Kurok smiled faintly.

“You always were a sentimental idiot.” Bain shook his head. “After all this time? I hope you left him intact.”

Doctor Dan's smile broadened, but showed no real humor at all. “I didn't mention it at the time.” He glanced at Jess. “But that's why they were chasing me. I'm afraid I didn't.” He looked back at Bain. “So now what, Alex? They just come in and take over?”

“Yes.” Bain said. “A foothold on this coast, then the rest. I”m afraid I wasn't able to get the rest of our leadership onboard with my plan, but no matter. It's just a little more time.”

“So that's why you've been blocking comms, and why Bock did.” Jess spoke up, calmly. “You didn't want them to know.”

“Of course not. “ Bain agreed. “And indeed, you proved yourself to be the one consistently inconsistent obstacle in this entire affair, Agent Drake. You never did what I expected.”

“Not even when you had Josh try to take me out?” Jess said.

“Indeed.” Bain tilted his head in her direction. “And you can see, I couldn't allow you to leave the force after that, Drake. You're far too dangerous.” He cleared his throat. “Stephen would have shot you, of course. You never would have gotten to the harvesters, not with Drake's Bay coming into your control. Too much resistance there.”

“I”m not an easy kill.” Jess remarked, in a quiet voice.

“Certainly not.” Bain said.

Dev just sat there listening. There was so much going on that was wrong. She could see how angry Doctor Dan was, and she could feel the tension in Jess's body, and the shock of the agents and techs in the room was almost palpable.

This was very very bad.

This was betrayal, like the betrayal Jess had suffered, when her partner had damaged her in that other place. She could see it in Jess's posture, and in Doctor Dan's expression, and in the look of fury in Aprils' eyes.

“So.” Bain said. “I will ask you all to go into the recreation facility, where we will seal the doors. Then I'm sure our friends will find something entertaining to do with you. Terribly sorry about it all.” He said. “Nothing personal, you understand. I appreciate all of your talents, I just cannot afford them at this time.. ah ah, none of that.” He pointed his finger at April. “My dear, this suit I'm wearing will send that blast right back at you and I would hate to damage the equipment here. “

April slowly let her hand fall away from her gun, glaring at Bain with seething intensity.

The security agents pointed their blasters at them. “Put your weapons on the table.” The nearest one to Jess barked. “Or I'll blow your arm off.”

Jess stared steadily at him, leaving her hand on her blaster, her nostrils flaring slightly as she stood quite still in the silence. “Sure you want to leave me behind?” She met Bain's eyes directly. “I might just kill them all.”

Bain's ice gray eyes narrowed a trifle.

“You said yourself I was too dangerous.” Jess said. “You feel safer with those six bozos or with me?” She ignored the looks of startled outrage from her erstwhile team. “Maybe I want to go with you.”

Dev felt a completely different kind of shock. Was Jess really doing what it appeared?

Would she go with the man Bain?

Would she leave them all behind?

Will she leave me behind?

There was a momentary silence. Then Bain broke it. “Drake you do interest me.” He said, with a faint almost rueful smile. “Do you really expect me to believe you'd turn your back on this place, these people, your history, and change sides? Come now. I know better. I knew your father, didn't I?”

Jess remained calm, breathing easily. “So what has this ever offered to me? I was going to be mustered out until you showed up. “ She took a step forward, putting a bit of distance between herself and Dev. “This place? These people? My family'd be glad to see the last of me. You know what I am. You want to waste that?”

“I see.” Bain looked thoughtful. “Hm. Ah, you might have a point there, Drake. It seems to me you act more for your interests than anyone else.”

Jess smiled. “I'm not my father.”

“That's for sure.” Kurok spoke up, briefly, and crisply.

Jess ignored him. Ignored the look she knew she was getting from Dev, who was smart enough to realize what she was saying and know her own betrayal.

It was what it was.

Dev felt a wave of unhappiness flow over her. She looked down at the console, not wanting to meet any of the other eyes in the room.

“I owe you more than I do Interforce.” Jess continued. “No matter how you did it or why.”

Something that might have been a faint charmed smile appeared on Bain's face. “Hm.” He checked his chrono again. “Put your weapon down, Drake, and I might consider it.”

Jess pulled her blaster out and tossed it to one side without hesitation. She kept her back to the rest of the room, not daring to look at any of them.

Especially not Dev. She could almost sense the horror and confusion from her, and the steaming fury from Kurok standing just to her right.

That, at least, she understood at a deep, gut level, and taking one very short peek at his face, Jess suddenly knew at her very core exactly what or more specifically who his loyalty was anchored to and finally she had a personal understanding of why.

But she was out of choices. Turn her back on those security rifles and she'd be dead.

“Well then.” Bain said, after a long pause. “The rest of you, to the door. I would just shorten your distress but certain machinery in this facility is not worth risking blaster fire.” He waved them forward. “It appears Agent Drake and I have something to talk about.”

Jess was nearest the door. She kept her eyes shifted as the rest of them slowly started moving, walking past her as Bain came down and stood at her side. “I”m not often surprised, Drake.” He said, conversationally. “Quite an interesting sensation.”

“Yes, sir.” Jess murmured softly.

Dev came past her, trying to catch her eye. But Jess refused to meet it, only just keeping from biting the inside of her lip as her peripheral vision caught Kurok's hand coming to rest on her partner's shoulder and the faint, soft intake of Dev's breath.

There was a pain there, she hadn't expected. Jess drew a breath in and pushed past it, focusing on what she knew she had to do.

Then, April was the last to come past her. Now Jess lifted her head and met her fellow agent's glance for one very long moment, as April shifted her direction just slightly as she moved around a chair, her face a stolid, stony mask.

“I will have to rearrange some things. Find a place for you.” Bain was saying. “I'm sure your new colleagues will be.. hm.. even more surprised than I was.”

“I”m sure they will.” Jess's heart started to pound. “But I've never really been predictable, they tell me.”

Bain chuckled. “Something that might well prove to my advantage. Hm?”

“Maybe.” She felt the blood rush to her skin as her senses sharpened and she dislocated her thinking brain from her instincts as April came up even with her and she let second thoughts and regrets go. The energy flooded through her and her hand shot out, fingers closing around the knife hilt at April's hip. “”Or not. Like now, for instance.”

She drew and spun and slammed her hand and arm as hard as she could into Bain, feeling the grinding shock as the blade in her hand penetrated his light armored jumpsuit and cut through him, as a blast of energy hit her and filled her world with fire.

She let out a roar and yanked the knife back out, then plunged it back into his body again, the hardened blade cutting through his energy suit and sending a keening scream up into the air.

She heard Kurok shout, and Dev yell her name and a scramble behind her but all that mattered was feeling the hot blood on her hands and feeling the jerking of Bain's body as he gasped in her grip.

She hit the wall and took Bain's body with her, feeling something hit him as she yanked the blaster out of his hand and spun again, letting instinct drive her as she fired back towards the guards and dropped to her knees to avoid the returning fire.

She could smell blood, and she was lifting her blaster to fire again when something hit her and blew her back against the wall again, knocking her into darkness as she felt the world fade away, the sound of her own name echoing weirdly at volume following her.

**

Pain woke her. Even breathing hurt. Jess felt something shift under her, relatively soft and yielding as it cradled her body and she forced one eye half open to see what was going on.

A scanner pulled back out of her view and was replaced by Dan Kurok's face, a spattering of blood staining his cheek as he gazed at her. “You were wrong.” He said, glancing at the scanner. “You are most precisely and exactly your father.” He shook his head. “Pair of idiots, the both of you.”

Jess managed a faint smile as she tilted her head up a little, to find Dev looking back at her, since she was the owner and operator of the surface Jess was laying on. Her partner looked totally and completely freaked out, and she could see from the look of her eyes that she'd been crying.

And still was, apparently, as a tear emerged and rolled down her cheek. “Sorry.” Jess managed to croak at her. “I land on ya or somethin?”

Dev answered by hugging her, which hurt, and didn't, all at once.

“Sixty minutes to arrival.” Brent's voice echoed softly.

“Guns six and eight are up.” April replied. “If they come in east we can maybe get one or two of them.”

Jess could hear the sounds fading in and out. She tried moving a hand, then stopped immediately when a bolt of pain resulted. She thought she heard the door open, and the sound of a bio alt speaking, but all of it was being overshadowed by the thump of Dev's heartbeat under her ear.

“Bain?” She muttered.

“Extremely dead.” Kurok answered her, gently pressing something against Jess's upper arm. “Don't try moving. You blew out your neural net.” He continued. “Don't be surprised if you smell blue and pink for a while.”

“Ok.” Jess was happy to comply. “They still comin?”

“Yes.” Doctor Dan replied. “Your crazed dramatics merely delayed our collective splatting by perhaps an hour.” He gently lifted Jess's other eyelid and peered at the exposed pupil. “Three of them blasted you right after you hit him.”

“Ugh.”

“Mm.” He grunted. “Thought we lost you early there for a minute.” He released the eyelid. “But you are, in fact, a damned hard kill, Jesslyn Drake.”

“Fucker.” Jess managed to get out. “Died too slow. Wish I”d had time to make small pieces out of 'im.”

“Damn you Alex.” Kurok sighed. “I should have realized something wasn't right.” He admitted. “Idiots upside didn't let me talk to Bricker when he came. He knew something.” He rested his hand on his knee. “I never thought he'd... “ He paused, and shook his head. “Now asking us makes sense.”

Dev released one hand and touched his knuckles, but remained silent.

“Bricker needed someone Bain couldn't touch.” Jess whispered in agreement. “Finally saw one of my nightmares out last night. Remembered to the end. Saw him there. Watching Josh try to take us out”

“Alex?”

Jess nodded. “Think he wanted to take over the cit easy.” She whispered. “Just have em hand it over. Thought he had everyone's number.”

Kurok exhaled. “But he believed you wouldn't turn.” He said, in a quiet, serious tone. “And like an idiot I told him Dev wouldn't either, so the two of you had to go.”

Jess nodded. “Somethin like that.” She burred softly. “Harder he tried to see us croaked better we got at escaping it.” She managed a brief smile. “Didn't put it all together in time.”

“No.” Kurok sighed again. “And our past together blinded me.”

“He blocked comms. Dev found it.” Jess closed her eyes. “Then I knew for sure.”

Kurok glanced past her. “Yes.” He said. “Sorry I was only half right about the trusting thing, Dev.”

Dev sniffled a little. “I saw his vehicle land. I thought that was a good thing.”

Doctor Dan sighed. “That was the half wrong. I told you it was okay to trust him.”

“Sorry I made you think you were all wrong.” Jess felt the gentle hold on her tighten. “Had to get him close.” She felt exhausted by the small effort of speaking. “Least I'll croak knowing I got that bastard first.”

Kurok patted her hip very gently. “Rest.” He said. “Take care of her, Dev. Let me go see if there's any havoc I can help with.” He stood up and hitched the scanner to his tool kit, moving over to take a seat at one of the battered consoles.

There was a quiet moment, then April got up and came over to them, crouching down next to Jess and resting her fingertips on the steel floor. “That was ace.” She told Jess bluntly. “Glad you used my blade for it. Most blood honor it's ever seen.”

Jess managed another small grin. “Glad you got my sig.”

April shook her head a little. “Tried to make my head believe you were turning and it just wouldn't go.” She replied. “Not when you refused to look at any of us.”

Jess was quiet for a moment. “Specially her.” She moved her head a tiny bit towards Dev.

“Specially her.” April agreed. “So now we go down in flames. But that's okay, you know?” She said. “It's right.” She touched Jess's hand, then stood up and went back to the console, sitting back down and getting on comms.

So now, at last, Jess shifted enough so she could look up at Dev, who was seated against the wall with both arms wrapped around her. The bio alt looked as though she'd been through a full speed carrier wreck and as she looked back, what she was feeling was open and very evident on her face.

Oh. Jess felt.. well, she wasn't sure what she was feeling, but it was very warm, and very powerful and it was making it hard to breathe. “Hey Devvie.” She uttered. “You're not too mad at me are ya?”

“No.” Dev said, after a brief pause. “I just though they made you dead, and I was.. “ She stopped and took a few breaths. “I didn't want that.”

Jess was glad she was lying still. It felt good just to be able to stop, and think, and say what she wanted to say. “In about sixty minutes we're probably both going to be made dead.” She said. “But I'm real, real glad I got to know you.”

Dev just nodded back.

“My dad once said.. “ Jess half smiled. “You'll know what love is because its the only thing that hurts as much as it feels good.” She nodded a little. “He was right. But it's good.”

“It's good.” Dev repeated softly. “I'm glad you didn't really want to go with the bad guys, Jess. I would have missed you so much.”

Unexpectedly, Jess felt tears sting her own eyes, as she felt Dev hug her close, and the pressure of her head pressing against the side of her own. It unlocked something inside her that she really couldn't quantify, but whatever it was made her want to get up and move around and be a part of what was going on the room.

She didn't want this to end. “Gimme a hand up.” She told Dev. “Let's go see if we can help.”

“Doctor Dan said for you to rest.” Dev objected, even though she helped Jess sit up anyway. She waited, watching her partner work to catch her breath, before she stood up and carefully held on to her arm as Jess rose with her.

The pain was really overwhelming. Jess just stood there breathing for a moment, holding onto Dev so she wouldn't just fall right back down. Every nerve in her body felt like it was being smacked with a round head hammer and it was all she could do to lock her knees in place to remain upright.

After a minute she looked around. There were a pile of bodies, the guards and Bain, in one corner on the lower level and the walls and one of the working consoles had deep, angry black scores on them from the firefight. Near her the wall surface was covered in dried blood, and she could smell the copper scent now as her senses settled.

Mike Arias was seated next to April, his arm in a plas casing, and Brent next to him had a bandage on his head. Tucker and Elaine were on the second console, he with a black eye, and she with half the hair on her head burned off and a scorch mark covered in a bandage across the side of her face.

Elaine briefly looked up from her screen and gave Jess a wry smile. Then she went back to her inputs. No real need for her to say anything, apparently.

Jess managed the few steps over and took a seat at the end of the desk, resting her elbows on the steel surface as Dev sat down next to her. She looked at the screen output, her eyes focusing on the incoming scan, showing a dozen ships pretty much nearly on top of them.

Doctor Dan came over and sat down on the other side of her, just as the outer door opened and one of the Kaytees entered, looking around at them. “Over here, Kaytee.” Kurok lifted a hand. “I”m going to send them back downstairs.” He told Jess, as the bio alt headed towards them. “Maybe they'll get lucky.”

Jess turned and looked at Dev, who was looking right back at her. “Don't suppose you want to go with them, huh?”

“No.” Dev answered straightforwardly. “I would not.”

Jess nodded, and looked back at the screen. “Then let's just go out doing what we do.”

**

Dev studied the oncoming vessels, forcing her mind to focus on the problem at hand and not on the horrible thing she'd just been through.

Everything seemed mixed up and upside down. Jess had been right – she had no real idea now who to trust except for Jess herself, and for a moment even that had been in doubt.

She felt her eyes sting again, remembering that. An awful feeling that haunted her even when she told herself that all Jess had been doing was acting.

Doing her job. Making the man Bain believe she was joining him, to get him to let his guard down.

And yet still it hurt. Dev looked up as a warm touch covered the back of her hand, and found Jess regarding her, bloodshot eyes blinking slowly in evident discomfort. “Would you like a drink?” She asked.

“Yeah, but not the kind they have in here.” Jess admitted, with a faint grin. “Hey you okay? You still look freaked out.”

Dev shifted her gaze briefly, then returned it. “I really though they made you dead.” She indicated the security guard. “And that really bothered me.” She felt Jess's grip on her tighten. “And I thought you were going to leave me here and it made me feel so lost.” She added. “I think I want to throw up.”

Jess's eyes widened, apparently getting more of an answer than she'd expected. “Ah.” She murmured. “I'd never have left you, Devvie.” She lowered her voice. “Honest.”

Dev managed a smile in return.

“Dying, on the other hand.” Her partner gave her a wry grimace. “I”m pretty good at that.”

Dev exhaled. “Yes.” She answered, briefly. “Jess, the bad guys are almost here. “ She changed the subject.

“I know.” Jess chafed the back of her hand with the edge of her thumb. “It sucks right now.”

“I wish we could just go have a snack on the ledge and watch the water.” Dev whispered. 'I don't want to be dead, and I really don't want you to be.”

Jess leaned back in her seat and gazed around the room. The citadel was as ready as it was going to be and most of her colleagues were just quietly resting where they were, eyes focused on the displays. Kurok had his head cradled in his hands and for a moment, for her, the world went still.

That happened, sometimes. Jess was never sure if it was a real thing, or just something her mind conjured up to give her a chance to think for a minute.

Sometimes a good idea came. Sometimes in that quiet moment, there was clarity and facts that had been running around in the back of her head presented themselves in the form of a solution to whatever problem she had.

But no. Jess exhaled, and the world rushed on again. There was no magic solution for this. The armored carriers would come in and attack them, they would do their best to defend the citadel for as long as they could, and then, if they penetrated it would come down to a hand to hand in the corridor.

“Short range scan has them.” Brent commented. “Standing by to bring up the guns.”

“Bring them up.” Jess ordered. “Wish I could help you aim em, but I've got the reflexes of my dead aunt right now.” She stared at the comp screen, ignoring the pain. “Dev, send a broadband out, all alert, any endpoint.”

“Yes.” Dev settled her ear cups and exhaled. “Base 10, Base 10, all call.” She spoke clearly. “Inbound hostile, alert prime. Take cover.” She put it on replay and scanned her screen again. The call beam spread out neatly from the citadel, and she could see faint echos back, passive acks that were scattered across the landscape.

“Thanks.” Jess said. “Now send out a broadcast internally. Tell all the non coms to take cover, and seal themselves out of operational areas.”

The door opened, and Doug entered, carrying spare rifles slung over his shoulders, and a sack full of mines. He set the mines on the console near April and a moment later, Chester came in similarly laden.

Dev spoke quietly into the internal comms, repeating Jess's message, and now the techs set up the long blasters near their agents, as the agents settled into the weapons rigs, fitting their hands into the ceiling mounted triggers relatively the same as the ones in the carriers.

There was a set above the seat Jess was in, but she didn't even attempt to pull them down, watching her fingertips twitching as waves of pain rippled through her body. She doubted she could lift her arms above her head, and the shot Kurok had given her was only slowly returning her nerves to a normal state.

There would be no fighting for her, not in time today anyway. “Dev?”

“Yes?”

“Listen.” Jess leaned carefully over towards her. “If they end up shooting this place to pieces, I ain't going to be able to do much about it.”

Dev considered this. “I see.”

“Stick over there with Doug and those guys.” Jess said. “They might do better.”

The bio alt adjusted an ear cup and folded her hands on the console. 'I think I would rather stay here, next to you.” She responded. “If that's all right.”

“If that's all right.” Her partner sighed. “You want to get killed? Probably by my skull coming off my neck and breaking yours?”

Dev looked up, her expression suddenly as open as Jess had ever seen it. In an instant, unexpectedly, the woman sitting next to her was no longer a bio alt, no longer even a tech. She was just this person Jess found herself really caring for.

“Yeah.” Dev said. “I want to share whatever happens to you. I don't care what that is.” She spoke the words carefully, as though considering each one with great care. “No matter what the programming says”

“It says otherwise?”

Dev nodded. “We're supposed to value our lives.” She agreed. “Since we do have value. People pay highly for us.”

Jess carefully propped her chin up on her fist. “You're nuts.”

“Yes. I have come to that conclusion also. I have gone far outside the programming for what I'm doing.” The bio alt said, in a mournful tone. “That is, I suppose, nuts, if the definition I looked up about that is correct, and you are not referring to an ancient plant once consumed as a snack.”

“Me too.” Jess reached over and took her hand, bringing it over and placing a kiss on the back of her knuckles. “Stay here by me, Devvie. Been such a long time since anyone's given a shit if I lived or died I might as well enjoy it.”

Her partner looked a bit happier. She smiled a trifle and went back to her screens, providing the voice, as it were, of the citadel. “This is central ops.” She murmured into her comm. “Yes, it's' Dev.”

Usually, that was Elaine's job, or sometimes it had been Sandy's. Jess had almost never been tapped for the duty, and people had told her it was because her voice made everyone nervous.

That had always been okay by her. She hated the sound of her own amplified yap.

“Six minutes, mark.” Brent said. “Coming into range. Comm blackout.”

“Shunting power to the guns.” Doug had settled into his station and had a commset on. “We've got plenty of juice, at least.”

“Front side battery is up.” Tucker reported. “Generators are tapped to full.”

Jess looked up to find a full, comprehensive display in front of her. She glanced at Dev, who was busy with her own screens, and blinked her eyes a few times to get them to focus. “Unless they open up when they're in range, hold off.” She said. “Let them get right in our faces.”

“They'll see the power grid up.” Elaine said.

“Maybe they'll figure Bain left it that way.” Jess responded. “They sending out any comms?” She asked Dev, who shook her pale head. “He would have told them to come right in, soon as he landed in the shuttle bay.”

“Funny we didn't pick that up on scan.” Elaine shifted to look over at her. “Just how many layers does the scum go down here, Jess?”

Jess sighed, understanding the comment. “Dev caught his speeder in the bay, on our carrier's scan. I just didn't have time to investigate it before we were in the weeds.” She caught sight of Kurok, settling into a tech station, and keying it on. “Hey doc, how'd his boat slip in behind scan?”

“Keyed reflector.” Doctor Dan responded, almost absently. “He's .. well, he was, top sec. The idea was, he might have to come into a facility that had been turned.”

“Irony's a little crunchy.” Elaine remarked.

“Yes. Well.” Kurok rubbed his eyes. “What can I tell you? It's old technology. They had it when I was still active.”

The rest of the agents were now listening intently. “You were a tech, huh?” Elaine asked, after a brief pause.

“Yes.” Doctor Dan looked up at her, seeing the doubt. “Agent Drake'll vouch for me. I think she probably has a picture of me in diapers or something like that.” He said, the tiniest bit of a twinkle entering his pale eyes. “Not that we really have much time for that sort of thing, and anyway if I wanted to blow this place up or shoot someone I would have done so already.”

“Three minutes.” Brent backed up the statement.

“He's fine.” Jess remarked, returning Elaine's inquisitive stare. “Just concentrate on aiming. We're not going to have much space to miss in.”

Keyed reflector. Dev turned that term over in her head, feeling it tickle some programming, deep down. She nudged it back and forth, and tried to call up what it evoked, but it remained elusive, just out of her mental grasp. Keyed reflector. That meant, she reasoned, something that would... maybe.. “Doctor Dan.”

Kurok looked over. “Yes, Dev?”

“If they could do that for the man Bain's vehicle, making scan ignore it, couldn't the bad guys do the same thing with our guns and their vehicles? Make them reflect the beams?”

“Well.” Kurok answered thoughtfully. “They could, if they had the frequencies, Dev. Those change... or at least they did, regularly.” He adjusted his screen. “Here they come.”

“In range.” Brent said, calmly. “Freq's changed last week.” He added. “They did it cause that guy said to.” He pointed at Bain's body. “Weren't scheduled for another ten days... just remembered that.” He added, somewhat defensively. “I'd just come on shift and heard some guys saying it in the mess.. they thought it was a good idea to change em.”

Everyone's eyes shifted to the dead body, then they all looked over at Jess, who'd straightened in her seat. “Change them now.” She said, without hesitation. “Hurry.”

The techs dove at their inputs and started tapping, while Jess and Elaine pulled the scan to their own stations. “Faster.” Jess said, seeing the line of destroyers now on visual, close enough for the outboard cams to resolve them.

“The codes are locked, Jess.” Dev's head lifted. “We can't change them.”

“Fuck.” Brent added a half second later as he came to the same conclusion.

Jess got up and almost ended up on the ground as she grabbed for the edge of the console when her body seized up. “Fucker!” She got over to Dev's chair and looked at her screen, seeing the admin lockout, and the request for creds that had denied her partner access. “Gimme.”

Dev slid out of the way and gave her access, as she watched her partner tap painfully on the screen.

“They're spooling up.” Tucker said. “We're gonna take it right in the kisser. If they've got our codes it'll cut through the shields like water.”

Jess cursed and got the last few letters of her own creds in and entered them. “Let's see if we can't hoist his ugly dead ass on it's own petard.” She said. “He upgraded my access.”

“Probably was going to lay the blame of everything on you if it went sour.” Elaine suggested. “Your login over everything.”

“Yeah, rogue agent.” Jess muttered. “We'd all be dead. Who'd dispute it.”

The damn screen seemed like it took an eon and longer, the pulsing white dot in the center expanding and contracting as though it were breathing and she heard the yell of alarm from Brent just as it finally, finally disappeared and obediently presented schematics to her. “Go!” She awkwardly hopped out of the way as Dev got her hands on the controls and her fingertips raced over the smooth surface.

The lights flickered, and she heard a far off rumble.

“Direct hit.” Kurok stated. “They're aiming for the turbine entrance.”

“Dev?” Jess uttered.

The bio alt finished her work and lifted her head. “I don't really know what I just did, and I have no idea if it will work but you can try it.”

A humming boom sounded, and then several more, as Elaine, Mike and April let loose with the perimeter guns, then a crackling roar vibrated the rock around them and knocked loose a few bits of shale.

“Shields are responding.” Brent remarked. “Fucking nice timing, yo.”

Jess managed to sit back down without falling, and rested her elbows on the console, waiting for the flashing bolts to fade from her vision. “Just keep shooting.”

She could hear the repeated booms, an almost subliminal rumbling that was power being fed to the big outside guns, and released as the other agents aimed and fired. It was strange not to be joining them, but it was far easier to sit as still as she could and just watch the action on the screen.

“Jess.”

“Uh?” Jess rotated her head slightly to look at her partner. “Hey good work.” She added, belatedly. “Thanks for keeping us from being vaporized. You rock.”

“Yes, I'm glad it was effective.” Dev said. “May I continue to work with your identity?”

“Sure. I'll discipline myself later. You can help.” Jess managed a half grin.

Dev returned the grin, then went back to work.

Jess gave up watching the screen and watched her partner instead. She could see the bio alt's pale eyes flickering over the data, and she was inputting steadily, a look of impossibly cute determination on her face.

“Got one.” Mike said. “Didn't expect the beam to take him. Could tell by how he was flying.” He looked over at Jess. “Good call.”

Jess lifted a hand and pointed her finger at Dev. “Rock star.”

“Very well done, Dev.” Doctor Dan said. “They've figured it out. Splitting apart and heading for the other side of the ridge, unfortunately.”

“Want us to take the busses out and hunt them?” April asked. “We've got nothing for guns in the back.”

“How many're left?” Jess asked.

“Ten.” Brent said. “Two're heading for the carrier bay now.”

“Tell them to take cover.” Jess told Dev. “You'er not going to make it to the bay in time.” She said. “Arm your carriers to implode and wait on my mark.”

Mike's eyes opened wide, but Elaine nodded. “You'er going ot blow the bay?”

“I'm going to blow them if they land in it.” Jess corrected. “Got any better ideas?” She eyed her fellow senior agent, who gave a short, decisive shake of her head. “No? Okay then.”

“No.” Elaine swung her triggers around and let loose with a long blast, tracing an arc of fire across the front of the citadel and catching the very tail end of one of the enemy. “After that rig your buddy there did? I'm all in.”

“That one just clipped the cliff and went down.” Doctor Dan was busy with scan. “Nice shot.”

“Thanks.. uh.. doc.” Elaine swung the screen around and continued hunting. “Rookie watch out there. You got the end guns.”

“Got it.” Mike had the tip of his tongue sticking out from between his teeth and bore down, focusing so hard on his comp he nearly bashed his forehead into it. “Bastard!

“Clipped him.” April picked up the arc and leaned back as the enemy swerved and went for zenith, tracer fire chasing him up the the ridge. “The rest of them are out of line, Jess.”

“Yeah.” Jess sighed. “Dev, you tell them to get out of the pit?”

“Yes.” Dev nodded. “I spoke with Clint.” She added. “He's in some discomfort, but he agreed to take himself and the others to safety.”

“Carriers are rigged.” Elaine said. “If we blow them, we're stuck here.”

Jess nodded. “We're stuck here anyway. We have comp inside?”

Tucker sent the image he had of the carrier bay to the big screen, showing a grainy view of the inside of the huge space, wisps of offgassing emitting from the four carriers, and machinery in it's half reconstructed position. There were still a few moving figures in view, and Clint's distinctive one, waving an arm at a half dozen bio alt techs who all had bundles and packs of tools in their grip as they bolted for the hatchway.

“They can't seal that hatch.” April said, suddenly. “If they get in there and we don't blow them, theu're inside.”

“That's what these are for.” Elaine pointed at the long guns. “Soon as we're done here, we'll get those all warmed up.”

A flash caught their eye, and the temporary covering to the bay blew out in all directions, sending metal fragments raining down into the bay.

“Clear!” Dev yelped into the comms. “There is danger! Take cover!”

A moment later the bay was lit with landing lights and six destroyers came in fast, all wing and angled body in stark contrast to the stolid carriers hunched on their pads.

“Where's the other two?” Mike asked. “I don't see them on scan.”

Dev scrambled to get comp on the back side, and widened her scan, pulling in the signal from her own carrier for as long as she figured she'd get it. “No sign.”

Jess felt a jolt of alarm. “The back door.” She said. “If they've got Bain's keys that might be one of them.”

“It is.” Kurok stood up. “One you like to accompany me? I don't much care for surprises.”

April stood and joined him. “Doug, stay here and help blow things up.” She picked up a long blaster and energized it. “Let's go, Doc. I'm in the mood to kill people.”

Doctor Dan paused and looked at Jess, one pale eyebrow lifting in question. Jess waved her hand at him, and was glad to restrict her reaction to that as she slowly put her arm back down.

“The'yre down.” Brent said. “Light the trigger?”

Jess looked back at the screen and saw the hatches opening, judging the distances. “Blow the two nearest them.” She instructed, shading her eyes just in time as Brent lit off the explosives, setting off the emergency destruct systems on the two carriers designed to keep them from ending up in enemy hands.

The screen whited out. Seconds later, the ripple of the blast transmitted through the rock followed by a scream of sound that cut off abruptly as Brent slammed a control. “Got em.” He grunted.

Dev touched her ear bud and listened intently. She could hear booms and thumps, and then, high pitched screaming that was human and not mechanical. The white hot engine systems of the two carriers were scorching the interior of the bay with super thermal heat, and she hoped hard that Clint, and the other sets had gotten out.

Another signal and she tuned it. “Dev! It's April! Send h..” She turned. “Jess, April is in distress.”

“Uh oh.” Jess said. “Get those blasters ready, kids.” She managed to get to her feet and headed towards the far wall, where the guns were leaning. “Check scan.”

“Scan's down.” Brent said, suddenly. “We're dark to the wall.”

“Shit.” Tucker got up and went to an emergency station .”I'll see what I can get on the manuals.”

Jess picked up a blaster and cradled it against her arm. “Dev, c'mon over here and take cover behind the console. There rest of you techs too.” She took a slow, deep breath, shoving the jangling pain in every nerve ending down and bracing herself against the rock surface.

“No sense blowing the others.” Elaine got up and picked up one of the longer guns, coming over and putting the bulk of the main console between herself and the door, bracing the blaster against the top of the stations and un-safing it. “I can hear shots.”

Jess could hear them too. “Sounds like a lot of them.” She said. “They must have popped that back hatch wide open.”

“Probably loaded most of the troops in the ones that hit that, and only skeleton in the bay.” Elaine said, regretfully. “We guessed wrong.”

“Yeah.” Jess looked up as the lights changed, from the standard emergency stations to stark red, and the alerts started to go off on every board she could see.

“Ops compromised.” A harsh voice sounded. Bricker's, Jess realized. “Systems deact, standby for lock out.”

The systems would lock themselves and then destruct. Jess exhaled, and got the blaster in position, sensing, and then feeling Dev slip in behind her. “Been fun, Devvie.”

Dev put a hand on her hip, the touch warm and comforting all out of proportion to the motion. “We all hope we get to do good work and make our contracts happy.” She said. “I did both.”

Jess smiled wryly. “You sure did.”

“And I got to be in love.” Dev continued. “I think every single set in the creche would wish they were me.”

Jess turned her head and regarded Dev. “You glad you're you?”

Dev stretched up and gave her a kiss on the lips. “Yes.”

And so. Jess felt the discomfort fade, and her disappointment with their failure ease off and her mind steadied and eased as she stopped trying to force the future and let her decisions fall where they might. The time for questions was over, and now, it just was what it was.

“We fought the good fight.” Elaine commented, peering down her blaster's spine. “Time to pay, Jesslyn.”

“Time to pay, El.” Jess drew in a breath and got her hands on the triggers, as she heard the thump of boots in the hall, and the crackle of power slamming the outside of the hatch. “Just keep shooting.”

“We will.” Tucker had a blaster. So did Brent, and Doug, and they joined the agents shoulder to shoulder as the hatch buckled and slammed inward to the floor.

The room lit white and blue with fire.

**

“Keep down!” Jess yelled back over her shoulder, as she aimed and took a shot at the edge of an armored shoulder she spotted outside the door.

The room was full of smoke, and the red lights made it dark and hard to see anything. The first wave had come flying it shooting, and now a half dozen armored forms were piled in the front part of the room, their legs blocking the hatch open and giving their comrades a shot into the ops center.

No way out. Jess could see shadows flickering on the far wall, and then a second later a mine flew in. “Shit!”

Tucker leaped over the console and booted the mine back out the way it came, getting just behind cover before it exploded and filled the entry with golden fire that rippled out and flowed towards them.

Jess turned and dove for the ground, taking Dev with her as the force flowed up over the console and over their heads. “Watch for them behind it!”

“On it!” Mike said. “Bastards!”

Jess looked up to make sure the plasma had dissipated, then she got back up and leveled her blaster, letting off a long burst as one of the enemy came right at them, clearly expecting them to be stunned. She trained her sights on his face plate and watched it heat to white hot, as he hauled up and tried to turn back out of the way.

Too late. His head exploded inside his armor and he dropped, reeling backwards as two more came in, skidding to a halt when they saw the body heading towards them and turning to retreat as two beams hit them from Mike and Elaine's guns.

Another mine. Another ducking, but this time the energy ripped through the bottom of the consoles and Tucker went down in jerking agony, his blaster flying from his hands and nearly hitting Dev in the head.

Brent heaved one of their own mines out the door and they ducked as the booming roar filled the space.

“We should just charge them. They'll just pick us off.” Elaine got over by Jess. “If we're going to die, might as well do it fast, Jess. We can't hold out forever.”

“Hang on a little longer.” Jess half stood and got off a shot, hoping her knees would hold her. She felt Dev grab and steady her and got wedged into place agaisnt the console, forcing her body to behave. “Any idea how long we've been fighting? How long till that storm was due over?”'

“It will be soon.” Dev replied “We've been doing this for almost forty five minutes.”

“Why?” Elaine asked “What the hell does a storm do for us? They're the ones who have the damn magic mushrooms Jess – we don't, and even if we did, it does nothing for us here in the kill zone. “

Fifteen minutes. Jess exhaled. “Okay.” She let the gun rest on the console and blinked the sweat from her eyes. “Elaine, take these guys out the back, down Bain's hallways. I'll cover you.”

Elaine looked at her. “Cover us?”

Mike threw another mine out, and ducked. “Ware!”

“Look.” Jess got her head down as plasma rippled through the room. “I can barely stand up. I'm not going to be able to keep up with you all.” She uttered. “Get the hell out, and just go.”

Dev crouched quietly behind her partner, listening. The consoles were all dead, locked out by the security systems and there was nothing else she could do except keep Jess company.

She could see Elaine's face as she looked at Jess, surprising emotion tensing the muscles there.

“Jess, we can't leave you here.” Elaine finally said. “Screw it.”

“You can.” Jess lifted her head. “Everyone listen up.” She raised her voice. “On ten, head out the back with Elaine on point. I'll cover.”

There was a moment of silence, then Mike cleared his throat. “If it's all the same to you, senior, I'd rather stay.”

“Ack” Brent went back to the bag of mines, arming another one and handing it over to him.”

“Ack.” Doug echoed, looking up and over from where he was kneeling next to Tucker. “I'll answer ack for him too.”

Jess's eyes flicked around the room, and then paused on Elaine's face, before she turned and regarded Dev. “Can I at least get you to listen to me?”

Dev gazed steadily back at her. “Please don't ask me to leave you.” She replied, simply. “I really don't want to.”

Jess sighed. “You're all insane.” She turned and put her hands back on the blaster. “All right. Just take as many of them with us as we can I guess.”

Her voice sounded indifferent, but Dev, who was just in the right spot, could see her eyes blink, and the faint flash of tears as they escaped and landed on the metal surface of the useless station.

She wasn't sure she understood what that meant. But she knew it was a strong feeling.

Elaine got in next to her and propped her blaster up on the edge of the console, sighting down it. “Y'know, I always figured I”d go like this.” She let off a blast, as a dark figure flickered past the entrance. “Never thought I'd make it to retire, or you either.”

“Yeah.” Jess muttered.

Elaine leaned forward so she could see Dev. “And you... “ She grinned briefly. “You're all right, NM-Dev-1.”

Dev smiled back.

“Specially if you hooked this one good.” Elaine nudged Jess's arm, then returend her attention to the doorway, and six bodies inbound. “Here we go.... for the corps!” The last words were a bellow and in an rush of energy the yell was picked up and carried forward, as the six enemy soldiers came right at them, dodging the blaster fire and returning it with their own.

Jess just kept firing, the blaster rifle thumping against her chest as she let off quick bursts, going from one target to another to another as the air itself started to burn, white fire and dark shadows taking the color out of everything as the red lights themselves died and the shots became a continuous thunder.

One of the enemy dodged past Doug's rolling body and leaped over the console right at Jess. She released the blaster rifle and drew her sidearm, continuing to fire as he came flying through the air and slammed into her, a hit she had no way of avoiding.

The pain ramped with unexpected ferocity and she felt her back hit the wall as he landed on her, hand already raised with the butt of his gun slamming down at her.

She couldn't budge her torso, but she got the blaster in between them and squeezed the trigger, the muzzle shoved hard against his belly as she felt him cough.

His hand swerved as he went for her hands instead of her head and then he was hit from the side by a small, fair haired figure that got a shoulder under him and heaved him off against the wall as Jess rolled clear.

The man bounced off the wall and reached out to grab Jess, but he was yanked away and slammed against the floor and then his arm was pulled behind him as that same, slight, fair figure landed on his back and removed his shoulder from it's socket, surprising a startled yell of pain from him.

Jess started to get up, then something impacted her hard and sent her flying to slam against the wall herself, and she drew and breath and got her hands up in time for her vision to clear and see the big armored figure in front of her raise it's gun and the pre-aim splashed on her face.

Then it was gone because a body was blocking it, half kneeling, half sprawled across her with it's arms raised in a protective spread merely meant to assure the coming blast would tank the both of them.

A moments hesitation on his part, some ancient animal brain instinct that held his finger for just a breath.

Just long enough for Jess to get one arm around her protector and one hand on her fallen blaster and to reach around and aim herself and force her hand to contract on the trigger and her wrist to withstand the backblast as the gun bucked in her grip as the blast took the gun right out of the enemy's hands.

Her boot hooked his, and her other one slammed out and caught him in the groin and then he was being blown backwards as two other blaster beams hit his body.

And then, for a long moment, it was quiet.

White emergency lights were blinking on and off, and the room was full of smoke and the smell of burned flesh and blood. There was no sound from the outside hallway, where they could see blinking lights as well.

Then a roar of sound shuddered through the wall and they could hear the crackle of comm, and the sound of battle language that wasn't theirs, and the sweet, sweet note of panic that meant maybe, somehow something had swung their way.

Motion now, and running boots, and the next thing they saw was a crowd of bodies in pursuit yelling loudly and carrying shadowy pieces of gear, their necks flashing with faintly colored tracing around their necks.

Jess blinked. “Bios!” She let her body thump back against the wall and felt Dev do the same, as her partner started shaking. “What the hell???”

A roar then came from the other side of the hall, and the next moment there was a huge pile up, blasters going everywhere, and the eerie cascade of power arcs energizing as the fight passed them by, leaving the corridor outside clear.

Somehow, Jess got to her feet, carrying Dev with her and they surged forward, past the consoles, stepping on the enemy bodies and joining the other agents and techs at the doorway as they bolted outside.

And then the stopped. The huge central corridor meetpoint was filled with rapidly falling enemy, with hand blaster fire coming from the hallway leading down to the caverns and power arcs being fired from the technical gear carried by the bio alts on the other.

“Holy shit.” Elaine grunted, holding a bleeding gash on her side.

Then one jump-suited figure dodged to the front, and yelled out in that same, unfamiliar battle language, a powerful and commanding tone that cut through all the noise as the figure swept their arm up and the arcs died down.

There were only two of the enemy left, and they dropped their guns, and lifted their hands, staggering back against the wall and slamming their backs against the rock surface.

And then it was briefly quiet again.

Jess forced herself forward, nudging her way through the crowd of bio alts who turned their heads, then parted quickly when they saw who it was. She emerged at the front of them, and stopped next to Dan Kurok, who was battered and covered in grime.

April limped forward from across the lines, leaving a crowd of support staff in varicolored jump suits behind her.

“Next time.” Dan Kurok finally said, spitting out a little blood. “I'm going to pretend I didn't see the memo.”

“Fuck yah.” April agreed, lifting a shaking hand to touch a blast on the side of her head. “They definitely didn't go over this in battle school.”

Jess put a hand on both of their shoulders. “Nice timing. Thanks for saving our asses.”

“Thank you, for drawing the attention of every god damned one of them to ops and leaving the halls clear for us.” Doctor Dan said. “Wheres. ah.”

Dev had followed Jess through the crowd of her fellow sets, and now was standing quietly next to her, just behind the three of them, with Elaine, and Brent, and Doug after her.

Clint emerged from the group of armed workers, and walked over to join them. “Crappy day.” He was holding one arm close to his body. “Now what?”

They were all silent briefly then everyone looked at Jess.

Jess looked around at the smoke filled, body filled, stale air filled space. Then she sighed and looked at Kurok. “Think you can get the systems started back up?”

Doctor Dan shrugged. “Suppose we'll find out.” He looked up as a loud rumble sounded, shuddering through the halls. “Let's just hope the rest of their fleet isn't in that storm.”

**

The one undamaged place was the mess hall. Jess was more than glad to be sprawled in one of the chairs in the back, as bio alts and citadel techs mingled and worked on temporary rigs set up on tables and counters everywhere.

“Got the batts on line at least.” Clint had taken a seat next to her, looking exhausted. “Air handlers are cycling.”

“I hear.” Jess responded quietly. “If anyone can get the mains back, it'll be the doc.”

“Who is he, Jess?” Clint asked, keeping his voice low. “I heard him talk their talk in the hall.”

It was hard to even muster up the energy to respond. Kurok had given her another shot of something, and that had started the pain fading but Jess knew she was almost at her limits. “He was my father's first partner.” She answered. “He was a tech. One of us.”

“Oh.” Clint looked surprised. “Really?”

Jess nodded. “My dad could talk their battle talk too.” She added, not really sure if that was true, but not really caring.

“Right yeah.” The mech senior nodded. “And hey, he made Dev, right?”

“He made Dev.” Jess agreed. “And he sure did a bang up job there.” She looked up as her partner came over, putting down a cup of water next to her hand and taking the seat next to her with one of her own. “How ya doing, Devvie?”

“I”m really tired.” Dev responded in a soft, husky voice.

“Well, seeing as you were beating up guys five times your size and throwing me around like a rag doll I'm not surprised.” Jess rested her chin on her hand. “Can we talk sometime about how techs aren't supposed to step in front of a blaster pointed at their agent?”

Dev took a sip from her cup and swallowed it.

“You did that, Dev?” Clint asked. “Wow.”

“She did that.”

The outer door slid open and April and Mike entered, steering their way through the busy crowd back to where Jess was seated.

“I'll go finish trying to work on the security systems.” Dev got up and eased past them as they came over. “Excuse me.”

The two agents sat down. “We got all the trash taken out.” Mike said. “Had the bios bring up those donkey carts they use and hauled the bodies out and dumped em.”

“Got the prisoners locked up in the storage facilities.” April reported. “So Kurok says now he might be able to get the comp out of unlock since we have only friendly chips inside.”

“How's the weather outside?”

“Sucks.” Mike said. “Raining like crazy. Flooding in the carrier bay, what's left of it.” His jumpsuit was wet. “I got into my carrier though, and ran scan. Nothing in range.”

“Good.”

“Your rig's in one piece too.” Mike added. “I think if they get comp back up, Dev had it tied in.”

“She did.” Jess agreed. “But without comp we don't know how much scan and comm got sent back to the otherside and I..” She paused, as the lights flickered overhead, morphing from white, to red, then back to a blue tinged daylight that meant normal, whatever that really meant anymore. “Ah.”

Clint got up. “Mains are back.” He looked relieved. “Let me start getting things ramped.”

“Thanks Clint.” Jess commented, blinking a little in the new illumination. Behind her, she heard the mech in the mess systems start a low buzzing, and the working teams looked around, visibly brighting at the returning power.

“Sure, Jess.” Clint blushed a little, then hurried off.

April inspected the bandage on her arm. “Seems like ten years since we showed up here.” She commented. “Glad to see the doc got systems back. He's pretty wicked good. I was watching him on that comp.”

“Well. I guess that's where Dev gets it from.” Jess said, after a moment. “Figure he used his genotype.”

“That's kinda weird.” Mike said, after a bit of an awkward pause.

Jess shrugged. “Is what it is.” She looked past them to the door, which had opened, and admitted Elaine. “Whats up?”

“Comp came up, ten seconds after that comms did and there's a full sec broadcast coming in to your sig.” Elaine said. “Urgent repeat.”

With a sigh, Jess pushed herself to her feet, glad, at least, that standing no longer felt like she was having knives poked into her from all angles. “Could be good, could be bad.” She said. “Let's go find out.”

They walked back to central ops, and as she entered, Jess spotted Dev working at one of the consoles. Her partner looked up as she came in, and as their eyes met Jess almost forgot completely what she'd come for. She angled her steps to the side and went to Dev's workbench instead of the main comms board. “Hey.”