“Freaking mess.” Jess muttered. “C’mon.” She eased past a group of engineers and techs and found an open spot near one wall. “Glad that’s over with.”
“Are you?” Dev leaned against the wall next to her, watching the crowd go by. “I thought you did great.”
“Dev.” Jess half turned and looked at her. “C’mon. Those things are supposed to be an hour long with six pages of notes. I blew them off and everyone knows it.”
Dev studied the crowd. “They all don’t look unhappy.” She said. “And I heard people saying they were really relieved not to have to listen to... um.” She paused. “To all the bullshit?” She pronounced the last word carefully. “I think that’s what they said.”
Jess chuckled wryly. “They didn’t, did they?”
“Yes. What’s bullshit?”
“Ah.” Her companion leaned against the wall next to her. “Its the excrement from a four legged, hoofed cud chewing mammal that no longer exists.” She replied. “The male of the species.”
Dev looked at her, then she took a sip of her beer and merely shook her head.
“Let’s hang out here for a little while.” Jess said. “See who comes over and starts trying to suck up to me.” She regarded the crowd with an ironic eye. “See if any of the new bio’s has the guts to come talk to you.”
“Agent?” A soft voice interrupted them. “May I take your jacket?”
Jess turned to find a server there, a young bio alt almost her height, with curly red hair “Sure.” She put her drink down on the small table next to them and undid the catches on her jacket, stripping out of it and handing it to him. “Dev?”
Dev had already put her drink down. “Is this usual?” She undid her jacket, as the bio alt patiently waited. “Thank you very much, Ayebe.” She handed him the fabric, receiving a real, though brief smile from him in return. “Have you been downworld long?”
“Six months.” Ayebe said. “It’s a tough adjustment.”
“To some things, yes.” Dev agreed, picking up her glass. “This.” She lifted it.
“Yes.” He chuckled. “I will have your garments sent back to your quarters.” He gave Jess a nod of respect, then he went on to the next group.
“You know him?” Jess asked, casually.
“That Ayebe?” Dev pondered the question. “I know his set.” She explained. “I trained with a group of them doing rec in the creche. I don’t think I know that specific Ayebe though.”
“They all have the same name? I’ve heard them called all sorts of stuff here.”
“They’re all Ayebes. A-B.” Dev pronounced the letters separately. “I think he’s an A-B-800 Instance 6. But they get nicknames sometimes.”
“Oh.” Jess said. “You don’t have that problem.”
“No. I’m the only NM-Dev.” Dev agreed.
“One of a kind.”
“Yes.” Dev said. “So it seems.”
“I like that about you.” Jess told her, noting the faint blush that was visible despite the low lights.
“There you are.” Jason appeared next to them, with Brent and Elaine in tow. “Nice speech.” He gave Dev a brief smile. “Short and sweet. Half the citadel wants to kill you the other half wants to kiss you.”
“Which half are you?” Dev asked, unexpectedly.
Jason paused in mid breath, and stared at her. “What?”
Jess started chuckling. “Which half are you?” She asked Dev, then paused, looking embarrassed as the conversation seemed to fade out for a second and a bubble of intensity formed around the two of them.
“Well, I definitely don’t want to kill you.” Dev said, after just a little too long a moment, as their eyes met.
“Anyway.” Jason apparently caught his breath and plowed ahead. “Bain’s happy. No one else matters.” He clapped Jess on the shoulder. “Sandy decided to take a bottle to her quarters and get drunk so you don’t have to worry about her jackass tongue tonight. Ready to dance?”
Jess was still looking at Dev’s face. “Sure.” She muttered. “I’m ready for anything.”
“Great.” Jason turned and stood on his toes. “Hey, they finally got the grub out. I’ll grab some. Brent, stay here.”
Brent took up a spot against the wall next to Dev, folding his muscular arms over his chest and watching the crowd with a skeptical frown.
Dev leaned next to him, sipping her beer. After a minute she turned and looked at Jess, and smiled, getting a smile back as Jess lifted her mug and both eyebrows at her.
**
“Here you go.” Jess took a seat on the ledge next to Dev, handing her a plate of assorted goodies and then setting her cup down.
Jason and Elaine, and Brent and Tucker were ranged on either side of them, holding an informal court as a long parade of people came up to say hello.
Dev was happy to sit quietly and watch, kept well supplied with treats from Jess’s frequent escapes through the crowd. They were on one end of the big room, in the curve, with the transparent panels providing a colorful backdrop as the storm continued to rage.
She had her legs pulled up crossed under her, with a plate balanced on one knee, and was fully occupied in listening to Jess talk to the other agents as she kept an eye on people approaching from her peripheral vision.
There was a lot of conflicting emotion going on. But Jess seemed to be in a pretty good mood, so she supposed the party was going well.
The food was good, and she was enjoying it. She and Brent had traded fish rolls, since he preferred the ones with the crunchy seaweed in them and she liked the other kind, and she had spent some time talking to him about the work she was doing on the carrier.
He liked that sort of thing too, so now he was explaining about how he tweaked the engine tork on his carrier and she was wondering if she could try doing that on hers. On theirs, she mentally corrected herself, since the carrier really was assigned to Jess.
Jess was sitting side by side with her, and their shoulders were pressed against each other. Since their shoulders were both bare, it was a warm and pleasant sensation she was very much enjoying just as she had enjoyed their banter earlier.
It made her feel good, to think that Jess was beginning to trust her a little, enough to joke around. Dev knew that was rare, both between bio alts and definitely between bios and natural born but she liked it. She thought about what she’d asked Jason, and then what Jess had asked her, and it made her smile.
Of course she didn’t want to kill Jess. Dev munched her fishroll, stealing a glance at her companion’s profile. Of course, she really didn’t have any idea what kissing her would be like. It was an intellectual question since she’d never kissed anyone, but she supposed it would be all right.
“Ah, here they come.” Jason nudged Jess. “The kids finally scraped up the guts to come meet you.”
“Would you stop it?” Jess growled. “I’ve got enough crap to deal with.”
“C’mon Jess. Enjoy it for a change.” Jason waved the newcomers forward. “You earned the bump. No one gave it to you.” He said. “Screw that bitch Sandy and her buddies. They’re just farting jealousy in three colors.”
Jess regarded the new agents and their partners dourly. They all seemed ridiculously young to her, all slim and leanly muscled, with short cropped hair and cleanshaven faces.
Of the agents, four were men, and two were women. All of the techs were men, but that wasn’t unusual. Two of the male agents had dark hair, two had light, and both women had brown hair and looked like each other.
Very average.
The tallest of the men came forward. His name plate said Arias, M and he had a quiet self possession. “Agent Drake, I just wanted to compliment you on your speech.”
Jess eyed him wryly. “Yeah?” She said. “If you blinked, you missed it.” She said. “Maybe I’ll get lucky and they won’t ask me again.”
“Remember when Bricker did it last year?” Jason said. “Kept us standing there for an hour and a half. Bastard.”