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.