Body tired, instead of mind tired. She stretched and settled herself, squirming around and getting under the covers as the lights dimmed down around her, as her eyes caught the soft glow of the light across the room.
What, she pondered, would her new pilot think about the door? Would she understand why Jess had turned off the security between them? Probably not. She smiled wryly. Hell, she really didn’t understand why she’d done it, except that she’d realized she had found a little bit of sympathy in her for Dev, who had been thrown into her world with only the barest of preparation for it.
She’d always been a sucker for the underdog, and Dev had risen to the challenge, with a calm courage that surprised and charmed her, and made her want to do what she could to keep the kid on the right track.
Everyone had thought Dev was going to be at best, and embarrassment and at worst, a mortal danger to the people she was here to work with, and it made her feel good to know she’d had a part in having the bio alt prove otherwise.
Jess wanted her to succeed. She smiled into the darkness. She did, and in the silence of her own conscience she could admit that she did and it had nothing to do with what Bain wanted either. It felt good to have something to focus on that kept her interested.
Dev interested her. She suspected she would go in interesting her. She also suspected they could achieve good things together, and success. Jess rolled over onto her side and wrapped her arms around her pillow.
She felt her body relax, and she spent a few minutes going over the day in her mind, before the pictures slowly faded into her dreams and she was out, her breathing slowing and evening, a smile still on her face.
**
The alarm brought Dev standing up in an instant, her heart thundering, as she looked around her in shocked bewilderment. The lights had snapped on in her quarters, and she could hear noises outside, but in this very moment she had no idea what to do.
The alarm was a low, unnerving howl, growing to a climax and then falling again, setting her nape hairs on edge as the screen above her workstation lit up showing a grid of the citadel with lots of flashing red points.
Something was wrong. After a second of indecision, she bolted for the door between her and Jess’s quarters reaching it just as it popped open, revealing the dark haired woman halfway through getting into her jumpsuit. “Oh!”
“Get kitted up.” Jess said. “We’re under attack.”
Dev scooted over to the dressing case and started getting out of her sleep ware, glad of the clear direction. She hesitated, and then grabbed the suit she used in the carrier, jumping into it and sliding the catches closed with one hand as she grabbed her boots with the other.
“Where are they??” Jess’s voice bellowed from the next room. “Airborne?!”
Dev got her boots on and grabbed her pilots kit, shaking her head to clear it as she headed again for the door that had stayed wide open.
Jess was fastening her sidearm, her head bent towards the comms unit on her workspace. “The dock? The shuttle dock?”
“That’s right!” A voice answered. “Stupid bastards are pounding the landing pad, shuttle’s in there was about to leave!”
“What the hell?” Jess grabbed her heavy rifle. “C’mon, Dev.” She said. “Stay close to me out of the way. Not sure if we need to launch or not.”
“Yes.” Dev was, again, very glad for the clear direction. “I’m ready.”
Jess looked at her, then smiled briefly. “Yes, you are.” She said. “Good choice on the suit.” She turned back towards the door. “Central, live fire in the halls coming down.”
“Watch out! We heard fire in the outer halls! They may have penetrated!” The voice came back. “Ops to all details – stand by! Stand by we may have enemy in the complex!”
“Shit.” Jess slammed her comm helmet on her head and headed for the door. “Put your hat on, kid. You see anyone pointing anything at you dive for the floor.”
“Yes..” Dev put on her own unit, clicking into the comm stream and hearing an eruption of voices as she settled the earpiece in. She got right behind Jess and stuck with her as they went out the door in the front of Jess’s quarters, and entered the hall.
Lights were flashing a deep, warning red. The entryway to central ops was likewise lit up and down the curved hall there came the sound of heavy, running footsteps.
“Go in that entryway, put your back to it.” Jess stepped out into the hallway and blocked the way into ops, swinging her heavy rifle up and into position as a group of dark clad bodies came barreling around the curve at her.
Dev did as she was told, hitting the wall with her back just as she heard Jess release the safety mechanism on the big weapon she was holding.
“Halt!” Jess let out a powerful bellow.
“Whoa whoa!” The man in the lead put the brakes on and held a hand up. “Security! Hey! We’re friendly!”
Dev quickly poked her head out from behind the steel entranceway and saw six men in heavy armor ramble to a halt and duck for cover, despite the fact they were far more heavily armed and outnumbered the lone agent holding the hall against them.
She could see their widened eyes and had to wonder.
Jess kept them hopping for a second, then she shifted the muzzle of the heavy gun. “What’s the scoop? Nothing’s down here. You guarding ops?”
“Affirm.” The man in front said.
“Right.” Jess surged into motion. “C’mon, Dev.”
Dev followed her down the hall and past the security guards, as they rapidly came past them and took up station at the entrance to the command center. “They were scared of you.” She commented to Jess, as they sped through the central hall.
“Sure.” Jess was turning her head from side to side, her hands shifting on the gun. “I’m an ops agent. We’re nuts and they know it.”
“I see.”
Jess heard the sound of live fire percussion up ahead and she slowed a little, hugging the wall. “Actually, what they really know is that if I think they’ve turned, or working against the best interests of the organization in my estimation I’ll blow them apart.”
“Oh.”
“They have to wait for permission to blow me apart.”
“Oh.” Dev’s vocal inflection changed completely.
“Stay behind me.” Jess flattened herself against the wall. She could hear the explosions and she sidled forwards and reached the curve, ducking down and snaking her head around the edge to see what lay past it.
The hall, surprisingly, was clear, but she saw flashes past the next set of doors. “Okay, c’mon.” She straightened and moved along the hall, coming around the bend and seeing Jason and Brent crouching just out of the line of sight. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Jason glanced past her, then back down the hall as Jess and Dev joined them. “Fucking mess. I swear this place is going to shit.”
“What’s up?” Jess touched her ear. “Don’t hear crap on com.” She said. “Anyone know what the deal is?”
“Shuttle landed. Next thing we knew we had inbound, and a big bang on the dock.” Jason said, in clipped tones. “Heard blaster fire in the outhall. They blew the cams so no one can see what the hell’s going on.”
“Let’s go. Next door.” Jess pointed, then she led the way forward, with Jason right at her side.
Brent and Dev followed along. Dev noticed Brent was also carrying his pilots’ gear and he, like her, didn’t have a weapon. She hadn’t seen any of the techs carry a gun, and she figured that was why she had no programming at all about them.
She knew what they were, of course. She’d seen pictures of them. But she’d never encountered anyone with them in the crèche; even the security proctors who were in charge of keeping order didn’t carry anything more than a shock stick.