Ah. Hm. The man with the gun. “Okay.” Dev agreed.
Jess came over and leaned against the wall, folding her arms across her chest. “Don’t let the jackassery get to you.”
Dev looked at her, blinking a few times. “Is that… supposed to refer to the rude attitude?”
Jess nodded. “We’re all pretty hard on each other. Sandy and I never got along.”
“No problem.” Dev said.
“Does it bother you?” Jess asked, in a quiet tone.
“Does it bother you?” Dev returned the question.
The tall, dark haired woman studied her in silence for a long moment. “Hmp.” She finally grunted. “Damn good question.” She turned and headed back to her door. “Very damn good question.”
Dev waited until the door closed, then she turned and went to her own quarters, scanning through and letting the heavy panel slid shut behind her. She stopped and looked around, taking in the room with a fresh set of eyes.
On the workspace, there was a packet, and some covered pads, delivered when she was on the mission, apparently. So this, for now, was home. She bypassed the table and headed for the sanitary space, already looking forward to the wet thing, and fresh clothes, and the tour Jess had promised her for later.
Today had, after all, turned out to be a really, really, really good day.
**
Dev looked up as she heard a buzz at the door. She got up and went to it, triggering the latch and stepped back as the door slid open and Jess entered. She was dressed in one of the more casual jumpsuits, with fewer pockets and softer fabric.
Dev had realized that there were a few different kinds of garb. One was this type, and she was wearing the same now too, and another was the kind she had worn to pilot the carrier which was a heavier fabric, with clips and embedded links for the carrier’s systems to plug into.
She liked the lighter one. It was very comfortable. She’d made a note to ask Jess about the sleeping clothes though. “Hello.”
“Ready?” Jess’s eyes swept briefly over the interior. She spotted the packet on the workspace and walked over to it. “You open this?”
“No.” Dev said. “I didn’t know what it was.”
Jess worked the clamp and opened the padded envelope. “C’mere.” She shook out the contents into her hand then turned as Dev approached. “Last bit of archaic crap we use.” She reached up and took hold of Dev’s jumpsuit collar.
Dev stood stock still, not really sure what was going on. She could feel the warmth of Jess’s fingers against her skin , though, and she decided it felt nice.
“There.” Jess let her hands fall, producing a brief smile as Dev gave her a questioning look. “It’s like the one I have.” She touched the insignia on her collar. “Except the bottom enamel strips are green instead of black.”
“Oh.” Dev reached up to feel the item now fastened to her suit. “Thank you.”
“It doesn’t mean anything except that you’re one of us.” Jess said. “I guess when we coded you in as ops tech, it triggered the whole process so that included this.” She picked up a few other items that had dropped out of the packet. “This is your chit card.”
Dev studied it. “Okay.”
“When you go on missions, you get credits.” Jess explained. “You can take this and go to the exchange, and trade the credits for stuff.”
“Stuff?”
“Stuff. You know, like…” Jess paused. “Well, I guess you probably don’t know. Nevermind, I’ll take you there and show you. It’s easier than explaining.”
“Okay.” Dev replied amiably.
“You can also use it at dinner for drinks or extras, which I’ll show you today too.” Jess concluded. “And this pad template – you can specify what you want in here and supply will take care of it for you. Like something other than crackers for the dispenser or a different temperature profile.”
“Okay.” Dev said.
“You can put the card in your ident pack.” Jess said. “Okay? So let’s go talk to Bain. I want to get your status clarified before I have to go and have back alley fights with everyone I work with.” She turned and led the way to the door.
What did that mean? Dev wondered. She followed Jess through the hallways, passing the ops center and continuing around the curve into a gray shaded hallway she hadn’t been in yet. This one had two scans, which she felt as an itchy tingle as they went through.
At the end of the hallway was a shielded door, guarded by two big security officers. They regarded her and Jess as they approached, and only at the very end did they move aside and key the door open.
Jess ignored them. “Thank you.” Dev murmured as she went by, seeing a pair of pale blue eyes half hidden in a blast helmet regarding her before the man turned and face forward again.
They walked into a small outer office, and the door behind them closed. Jess stood quietly before the inner door, looking around a little as a soft sets of bings and clicks sounded, then the inner door opened.
“Ah.” Bain was seated behind a big desk, watching as they entered. “ Right on time, Drake. And I see you brought your charming companion with you.” He got up and came around the desk, extended his hand to Dev. “Hello, my dear. You are very welcome to this meeting.”
Dev politely shook his hand. “Thank you, sir.”
“You did some excellent work.” Bain told her. “Extraordinary, for your first flight, hm?
“I did the best I could.” Dev smiled. “I’m very glad it all worked out correctly.”
“Yes.” Bain went back behind the desk and gestured for them to sit down in the two chairs in front of it. “Well, Drake, looks like your plan succeeded.” He steepled his fingers. “Hm? All of you returned and I’ve gotten some intelligence here that indicates you left some.. hm… consternation shall we say behind you?” He pushed a folder across the desk.
Jess took it, and flipped through the plastic like sheets inside. “Ah.” She grunted. “So that’s what that ledge was.”
“Hm. Yes.” Bain nodded. “Plasma station. Took out quite a quarter of the mountain face when it exploded. I daresay you left your mark.”
Wow. Jess sounded the word silently in her head. She selected a grainy picture and passed it to Dev. “Big boom.”
Dev studied the picture. For a moment, it was a blank, then suddenly the memory flashes popped in, and she recalled the high speed dive past the cliff. She tried to tie in that memory with the picture, which showed a huge hole where the ledge had been.
“Well done.” Bain said. “I would guess you’ve set them back quite a bit, Drake. Sure you ddin’t make any more friends on that side though.”
“Mm.” Jess gruned. “Wasn’t the lab they had the new growth experiment in though.”
“Ah, no.” Bain agreed. “That’s what I wanted to discuss with you. That needs to be addressed. I want you to do it.”
Jess closed the folder. “Two days ago I wasn’t even cleared for active duty.” She said. “One day ago I was being processed out.”
“And?” Bain cocked his head at her.
“There’s probably a better choice than me to take on a new mission.”
“I disagree.” Bain shook his head. “I realize you were involved in several very stressful incidents, but given the resources we have right now, I cannot recommend another in your place.” He watched her expression. “Besides, your wish to leave us was all based around the presence of your new associate here, and I believe you have, as they say, gotten over that.”
Jess pondered this. “Yeah, now both her and I are taking crap from every direction because of it.”
“Indeed?”
“Indeed.” Jess said. “This started off as a hair brained scheme by Bricker. Everyone knew it. Now everyone needs to know what the deal is.”
“Hm.” Bain tapped his fingertips against his lips. “My view is, yes, it was a hair brained scheme that unlikely as it was, worked.” He said. “The people up at LifeSource took him seriously, and gave our friend here what skills they could in so short a time, and this morning it was amply demonstrated that their cobbled together effort performed as well as any of our training programs could.”