“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.”
“They have a message for you.” Dev offered up at once.
“I have a message for you.” Jess ignored the rest of the room, and put her hand up against Dev's cheek. “That is, you look really stressed. What's up?”
“Jess” Elaine called over.
“Hang on.” Jess lifted a hand in her direction with out turning around. “Devvie?”
Dev's expression altered, and she smiled faintly. “I'm okay.” She told Jess. “Just a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff that happened, I guess.”
“Hang in there, Dev.” Jess stroked her cheek with the edge of her thumb. “Just hang in there, and maybe we'll get to sit down and talk about it soon. Okay?”
“Yes.” Dev's smile broadened a little. “Now you should take your call, Jess. I think it's important.”
“Not as important to me as you are” Jess knew the whole room was listening, and found herself not caring at all. “Try and chill.” Now, finally she turned and walked over to the big comms station and sat down next to Elaine, tucking a set of ear buds in her ears and extending her hand to the scan pad.
“That's fucked up.” Elaine commented. “But you know, at this point I don't care.”
Jess smiled briefly and put her hand flat on the pad, feeling the tickle as it validated her, and the embedded chips beneath her skin. She looked up as the screen lit and tried not to blink, as the scan beam hit her eyes for a brief instant.
Then the screen cleared, and she heard the static and phasing of the looped message.
“HQ HQ HQ.” The metallic, male voice echoed softly in her ears. “Drake J, standby.”
“Ack” Jess answered quietly. “Drake, J on comm.”
Then the line switched, and she heard the rumble of carrier engines and the screen lit to reveal a male face looking back at her, older and scarred, with thick, wavy gray hair. “Drake.”
“Yes.” Jess responded. “Jesslyn Drake, senior agent, Base 10.”
He nodded. “We got a high density squirt detailing an attack by force. Validate.” He ordered. “Benson Alters on comm.”