Now? Jess exhaled slowly. Now, after Bain showed up, and she’d gotten promoted, going offline wasn’t really her first option. Bain wanted her to take care of this problem, and she had a feeling if she did, there might be more in it for her than he was letting on.
Now things were exciting and good things were happening. Bricker was gone and she saw an opportunity for her to really get herself ahead.
And then there was Dev. Jess pondered her new pilot. Dev the surprisingly skilled. Dev the surprisingly courageous. If she went offline, Bain would surely put her in team with someone else, so as not to lose those significant skills and then what?
Would any of the other agents treat Dev the way she had? No one really liked the idea of the bio alt, especially now that she’d proven herself more than useful. They’d probably find away to get her into an ‘incident’.
She didn’t want anything bad to happen to Dev. Jess relaxed a little, and felt the pain ease. She wanted to keep on working with Dev and have her be part of the success she could feel out there ahead of them, just outside her reach.
So going to med was out. Jess very slowly sat back. Then she got to her feet and went over to the big cabinet, opening it up and fishing inside her gear pack for one of the packets of analgesic she’d stored in there. She got one out and opened it, then swallowed the tabs down with a quick, dry gulp.
“Now what?” She mused. The idea of sitting at her desk made her grimace, so she went over and picked up the info pad, carrying it with her as she slowly climbed the steps up into her relaxation area and adjusted the flexible couch, stretching out on it on her stomach and setting the pad on the shelf at the head of it so she could see the screen.
It wasn’t entirely comfortable, but it wasn’t entirely uncomfortable and she’d gotten used to the position as her back had started to heal once they’d let her out of the hospital. She settled herself and keyed the pad controls; calling up the mission plan she’d started to work on.
It would be a tough run. She studied the layout of the laboratory. There would be no getting in there any easy way, especially after their attack yesterday. She could see the bounce backs showing multiple layers of scan and as they themselves would be, figured the lab and all the outer defenses would be on a very heightened alert.
So.
Jess studied the intel report on the lab. Approach from the air wouldn’t work. She zoomed in on the facility, realizing after a minute that the latest sim scans were based on digital input that probably came from her carrier.
From their carrier. She watched the replay, remembering that long dive and the feel of heavy G’s on her as Dev made the old bus stand up and really shake its booty.
Jess smiled, and then went back to studying the screen.
The lab was buried into granite promontory. The defenses were hardened, and she watched the scan as a transport arrived, going through several layers of security before it was allowed to dock on an isolated landing pad, the muzzles of heavy blasters visible surrounding it.
She watched as guards came out and inspected the transports manifest, and then, the pilot was remanded back inside and a troop of unfriendlies came out to offload whatever the contents or people were.
No easy way in that route.
Jess studied the promontory. If the facility was anything like the one she was in, though, there were infrastructure components she might be able to take advantage of. She knew that they had to generate power and feed themselves not too differently than Interforce did, that the granite cliffs likely held the caverns full of phosphorescent organisms, the ultraviolet lit growing platforms, the captive fisheries, the rakers of seaweed or else some form of equivalent technology to let them feed themselves and create the power needed to run the scientific technology.
She tapped a request into the pad and waited for a response, her body slowly relaxing as the pain medication took effect. As she tapped on the edge of the shelf her mind drifted, and she found herself wondering what Dev was up to.
That puzzled her. Why would she care? Why should she care? Jess frowned, but nevertheless, she keyed over to the locator and tapped in Dev’s name. After a brief pause, the locator came back with a coordinate, and she grunted, satisfied her pilot had taken her advice and gone to rad.
Hm.
The thought of the warm glow suddenly sidetracked her, and after a pause, she got up off the couch and took the pad with her, easing down the steps and crossing over to where she’d left her indoor boots.
Putting them on, she went to the door and through it, heading for the rad area through sparsely populated halls. Why not get a dose of rad herself? It had been several days, after all, and she could just as well go over the plans flat on her stomach in her dose room where at least she’d get something useful out of her time while she waited for the intel to come back.
The drugs had made the pain bearable. It remained as a dull throbbing, but at a level where she could put it aside, and it didn’t affect her moving and walking. Even her headache had faded a little and she sighed in relief as she passed through the central corridor and turned right down into rec.
A good portion of the citadel was at the attack site, either cleaning up, or taking readings, making reports, developing plans to prevent it from happening again and there was no one there to see her arrive at her door, putting her palm on the lock and passing inside.
Once the door shut, she paused, and stood there thinking.
Time was of essence. Jess reasoned. Why not get even more done at the same time? She walked over to the com and typed in a code. After she heard a faint buzz, she leaned closer. “Dev?”
There was a brief pause, and then the buzz stopped. “Yes?” Dev’s voice came back. “I’m here in the sun space, as you suggested.”
Jess nodded to herself. “I’m in mine.” She said. “Mind if I join you? I want to go over the plan.”
There was another brief pause. “I don’t mind.” Dev responded. “That would be nice. It’s sort of making me want to go to sleep in here.”
“Yeah. It does that.” Jess said. “Be there in a sec.” She released the com and turned, leaving her space and walking the short distance down the corridor to the one assigned to her pilot. She put her palm on the lock and the door opened, letting her inside.
She paused in the antechamber, setting her pad down and glanced into the main section. Dev was relaxing on one of the couches and for a moment Jess felt a little lightheaded and short of breath. “Damn drugs.” She muttered. “How do you like this?” She added, in a louder voice.
“It’s nice.” Dev responded. “It feels nice, though it’s different than being in the real sun.”
‘Is it?” Jess stripped out of her jumpsuit and inhaled sharply, as an injudicious motion sent a bolt of pain through her shoulder. She waited for the pain to ease, and then she folded the suit up and put it on a shelf, and added her boots to it. “What’s the sun like?”
“Well.” Dev turned her head as Jess entered, and their eyes met. “It’s.. um.. a lot brighter for one thing.” She said, after a pause to clear her throat. “When it comes into the crèche, all the regular lights go off, and it’s just… it’s different.”
“Mm.” Jess eased slowly down on the chair next to the lounge Dev was on. “So it’s.. I remember reading that it was yellow.”
Dev shook her head briefly. “In space, it’s white.” She said. “It feels good.” She looked up at the ceiling. “This feels good too, but not the same way.” She looked back over at Jess. “It’s too dark to read from.” She held up her book.
Jess let herself be distracted. “What is that?” She pointed at it.