Jess came over and sat down on the bench next to Dev’s locker, her exercise gear in her hand. “Sorry.” She said. “I think we’re nasty to each other because we know it’s pointless to make friends. You just lose them. After a while of that, you just walk around the pain.”
Dev sat down next to her. “I understand.” She said. “Sometimes it was like that in the creche. You never wanted to get too close to anyone because they could get assigned at any time and you’d never see them again.”
Jess nodded. “Yeah.”
Dev looked down at her hands, clenched a little on her workout suit. “Well.” She said. “You know, I’m your pilot, so maybe it’ll be that whatever happens will happen to both of us at the same time.” She glanced up, getting caught by Jess’s intent gaze at close quarters. “So maybe its okay to be nice to me.”
After a brief, still second Jess relaxed a bit, her face easing into a faint smile. “I’m nice to you because I like you.” She said. “I don’t like a lot of people.”
Dev felt an unusual heat on her skin, and knew it was her turn to blush. “Thanks.” She said. “I like you too.”
Jess’s smile became more pronounced. “So let’s go swimming.” She said, getting up. “Don’t pay attention to the crap I say, Dev. Sometimes I just talk out my... “ She paused, and laughed. “Sometimes I say things just to hear myself talking.”
Somehow, Dev thought, as she changed into her workout suit and followed Jess into the big open space. Somehow, she didn’t really think that was true. She thought Jess said exactly what she felt.
At least, she certainly hoped so.
“Okay.” Jess led the way around to the shallow end of the pool and stepped into it. The brief exercise clothes just outlined her tall form, and she paused for a minute and let her hand down to test the temperature. “Ah.” She sounded surprised.
“What’s wrong?” Dev stepped in next to her. “Oh. It’s warmer than it was earlier.”
“Yeees.” Jess seemed pleased. She splashed into the water and then dropped into it onto her back, making a wave swirl out from her all over the tank. “Oh, I like this.”
Dev followed more slowly. She took the time to enjoy the feeling of the water buoying her, it’s warmth immediately penetrating her and easing muscles just a little sore from her earlier exercise. “That feels very nice.”
Jess had gone to the edge of the pool and was leaning against it, her eyes half closed. “It sure does.” She agreed. “Damn, I’d forgotten what that felt like.”
Dev made her way through the water over to her side. “Why is it warm now?”
Jess exhaled. “I don’t care.” She shifted her shoulders and let her head drop back. “Just feels good.”
It did. Dev flexed her hands, breathing in the smell of the water. The sound of the treadmill had faded, and now only the clank from the weight bearing space was audible, along with the hum and low buzz that was the air handlers high over head.
“Okay.” Jess reluctantly opened her eyes. “So here we are, in the pool.” She pushed away from the side. “What did you do when you jumped in?”
“Just this.” Dev made a paddling motion with her hands.
“Natural instinct.” Jess looked approving. “Babies do that, when you drop them in the water.”
“You drop babies in the water?” Dev’s eyebrows went up.
“Just a saying.” Jess launched herself forward. “Watch.”
Dev did, avidly. Jess lifted her arms up and put them forward, pulling back against the water and making her go forward. She was also kicking her feet.
“Ow.” Jess stopped after a few strokes. “Damn it.” She rolled over onto her back and used her legs to move her back to where Dev was, keeping her hands folded on her stomach. “Fucking shoulder.”
“It must hurt a lot.” Dev said, with sympathy.
Jess came to a halt next to her. “Driving me crazy.” She admitted. “Okay, now you try.”
Dev thought about what she’d just seen her companion do, and made a picture in her head about it, running through the motions in her imagination before she took a deep breath and presented herself to the water.
At the first stroke, her head went under. Dev only just kept herself from sucking in a breath in surprise, moving her other arm forward and exhaling as her head broke the surface again.
“Whoa whoa... “ Jess’s voice echoed behind her.
Dev’s head went under again, and then she suddenly felt hands on her hauling her up to the surface. She spluttered as she came up again, shaking the hair out of her eyes as Jess came around in front of her and grabbed her other arm just above the elbow. “Wow.”
“Stop.” Jess was trying not to laugh. “You’re sinking like a damned rock.”
Dev stopped moving, blinking the water out of her eyes. “That’s why I stuck to the paddling.” She explained. “If I stopped moving I went under.” She could feel the grip on her, warm and sure, but not uncomfortable.
“So I see.” Jess pushed her gently backwards until they were shallow enough for Dev to stand. “Okay.” She released the bio alt, rubbing the tips of her fingers together as she remembered the strength she’d felt under the soft skin.
Interesting.
“You were doing this?” Dev leaned forward a little, and moved her arms in a swimming motion. “Right?” She peered at Jess, droplets of water dripping off the tip of her nose. “It looked so easy when you did it.”
“Right.” Jess motioned her sideways. ‘“Let me hold on to you and you can practice it here where it’s harder to drown.” She gave Dev a quick smile. “It looked easy for me because I’ve been doing it all my life.”
That sounded like a very good idea. Dev leaned forward again and Jess moved closer, putting a hand under her belly and another on her thigh. For a moment, Dev completely lost track of what she was doing as her body reacted then the water hit her in the face and she forced her arms into motion.
“That’s it.” Jess commented. “Over your... yeah. Cup your hands, don’t slap the water.”
Dev did her best with the unfamiliar moves, then as she did as Jess suggested and cupped her hands, she felt the strong pull against the water. Then a sudden tickle of programming clicked in and it went from awkward to familiar in the space of a breath.
Strange, and then not. A familiar sensation to her but usually not this visceral.
She started kicking her feet in the same rhythm, and after a minute of that, she felt Jess’s hold shift, from her stomach to her back, the long fingers tangling themselves in her light covering and holding her up.
“I’m gonna let you go.” Jess said. “Just keep that up... that’s right.”
Then the grip was gone, and she was moving forward in the water, this time without the odd and jerky lack of coordination that had shoved her head under the surface previously.
“Turn your head on every other stroke and breathe.” Jess called out, surprisingly close by. She was swimming alongside her, and every time Dev did turn to that side, she took a breath and saw her companion do the same.
There was a memory there. She realized it wasn’t really programming, it was something else. Something dimmer and less certain, a flash of a mental picture that brighter and colder and had a lot more noise.
A thundering rush, and laughter.
Then it was gone, and it was just her, and Jess, and the big empty space again.
They reached the end of the tank at about the same time, and she grabbed the edge and held on, the bottom far below her feet. “Wow.” She spluttered. “I didn’t sink.”
“Nice.” Jess complimented her. “You keep this up you might not drown if we get dumped out of the carrier one of these trips”
Dev wiped the water out of her eyes with one hand. “Does that happen often?”
“It happens.” Jess was also holding on, moving her other arm around carefully. “Huh.” She looked a little relieved. “Water’s helping loosen it up” She turned around. “Below my shoulderblade, you see any bumps there?”