Melissa Good - Xena Sci-Fi 1 Partners By Melissa Good

“Got the prisoners locked up in the storage facilities.” April reported. “So Kurok says now he might be able to get the comp out of unlock since we have only friendly chips inside.”

“How's the weather outside?”

“Sucks.” Mike said. “Raining like crazy. Flooding in the carrier bay, what's left of it.” His jumpsuit was wet. “I got into my carrier though, and ran scan. Nothing in range.”

“Good.”

“Your rig's in one piece too.” Mike added. “I think if they get comp back up, Dev had it tied in.”

“She did.” Jess agreed. “But without comp we don't know how much scan and comm got sent back to the otherside and I..” She paused, as the lights flickered overhead, morphing from white, to red, then back to a blue tinged daylight that meant normal, whatever that really meant anymore. “Ah.”

Clint got up. “Mains are back.” He looked relieved. “Let me start getting things ramped.”

“Thanks Clint.” Jess commented, blinking a little in the new illumination. Behind her, she heard the mech in the mess systems start a low buzzing, and the working teams looked around, visibly brighting at the returning power.

“Sure, Jess.” Clint blushed a little, then hurried off.

April inspected the bandage on her arm. “Seems like ten years since we showed up here.” She commented. “Glad to see the doc got systems back. He's pretty wicked good. I was watching him on that comp.”

“Well. I guess that's where Dev gets it from.” Jess said, after a moment. “Figure he used his genotype.”

“That's kinda weird.” Mike said, after a bit of an awkward pause.

Jess shrugged. “Is what it is.” She looked past them to the door, which had opened, and admitted Elaine. “Whats up?”

“Comp came up, ten seconds after that comms did and there's a full sec broadcast coming in to your sig.” Elaine said. “Urgent repeat.”

With a sigh, Jess pushed herself to her feet, glad, at least, that standing no longer felt like she was having knives poked into her from all angles. “Could be good, could be bad.” She said. “Let's go find out.”

They walked back to central ops, and as she entered, Jess spotted Dev working at one of the consoles. Her partner looked up as she came in, and as their eyes met Jess almost forgot completely what she'd come for. She angled her steps to the side and went to Dev's workbench instead of the main comms board. “Hey.”

“They have a message for you.” Dev offered up at once.

“I have a message for you.” Jess ignored the rest of the room, and put her hand up against Dev's cheek. “That is, you look really stressed. What's up?”

“Jess” Elaine called over.

“Hang on.” Jess lifted a hand in her direction with out turning around. “Devvie?”

Dev's expression altered, and she smiled faintly. “I'm okay.” She told Jess. “Just a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff that happened, I guess.”

“Hang in there, Dev.” Jess stroked her cheek with the edge of her thumb. “Just hang in there, and maybe we'll get to sit down and talk about it soon. Okay?”

“Yes.” Dev's smile broadened a little. “Now you should take your call, Jess. I think it's important.”

“Not as important to me as you are” Jess knew the whole room was listening, and found herself not caring at all. “Try and chill.” Now, finally she turned and walked over to the big comms station and sat down next to Elaine, tucking a set of ear buds in her ears and extending her hand to the scan pad.

“That's fucked up.” Elaine commented. “But you know, at this point I don't care.”

Jess smiled briefly and put her hand flat on the pad, feeling the tickle as it validated her, and the embedded chips beneath her skin. She looked up as the screen lit and tried not to blink, as the scan beam hit her eyes for a brief instant.

Then the screen cleared, and she heard the static and phasing of the looped message.

“HQ HQ HQ.” The metallic, male voice echoed softly in her ears. “Drake J, standby.”

“Ack” Jess answered quietly. “Drake, J on comm.”

Then the line switched, and she heard the rumble of carrier engines and the screen lit to reveal a male face looking back at her, older and scarred, with thick, wavy gray hair. “Drake.”

“Yes.” Jess responded. “Jesslyn Drake, senior agent, Base 10.”

He nodded. “We got a high density squirt detailing an attack by force. Validate.” He ordered. “Benson Alters on comm.”

Jess remembered him, from school. “Yes sir, I remember you from in flight tactics class.” She commented. “The squirt was valid. Details in person.”

The man relaxed just a trifle. “Ack.” He said, to both her spoken and unspoken words. “Due local approx two. Clear entrance?”

Jess shook her head visibly so he could see it.

“Ack.” He responded. “Please keep this channel open. Report as needed.”

“Ack.” Jess, at last, felt a sense of relief. “Will do.”

The visible image disappeared, but the waveform remained, and she keyed it to overhead comms sending the soft sound of the open carrier into the room. “Open sig.” She announced. “We've got fleet inbound.”

The sounds of utter relief around her matched her internal feelings exactly. “Apparently a message from here got through.” She said. “So whoever made that happen, I love you.”

After a brief pause, everyone looked at Dev, who looked up in surprise, a visible blush appearing on her face. “Um.” She cleared her throat. “I don't think I did that.”

“Did I say you did?” Jess's brows arched slightly.

Dev blushed more deeply.

“Now, if I was a betting woman... “ Elaine drawled. “And I checked the logs, I bet we'd find someone's creds on that message in here.”

Doctor Dan looked up from a console he had his head completely inserted into. “Please don't make Dev pass out.” He said. “She's had a tough day.” He got up from the floor and sat down. “And I think that was the best news we could have hoped for.”

“Got that right.” Jess sighed. “Maybe this is closer to over.”

“Let me make sure everyone's on PTT.” Elaine was busy with her board. “Full power's back, and the non coms are getting the rest of daily operations up.”

“Yes.” Doctor Dan said. “My advice now is, we all get some rest before the cavalry gets here, and starts asking questions. They'll be on scan and keep off any other funny business here.” He glanced at Jess. “You might want to take a trip down to med.”

Questions. Yes. Jess recalled all the things they'd been through, and how that was all going to look to HQ. “Let's hope they believe us.” She stood up. “Let's go, Dev. “

Obediently Dev left her work and joined Jess at the door, dusting her hands off as they left ops, and walked together down the hall. “Are we going to med?”

“Yeah.” Jess said. “I need another shot, and you've got a bump on your head.”

“I do. It hurts.” The bio alt agreed. “Is it over now, Jess? Did we win?”

Jess walked along in silence for a few moments, then she nodded. “For now, I think it is.” She allowed. “And I think we survived more than we won. But I'll take it.”

Dev reached out and took her hand, closing her fingers around Jess's. “Me too.”

Part 26

Jess paused to dust a bit of debris off her sleeve, before she presented herself to the intelligence room, holding her hand to the plate and feeling the tickle of scan as it read her.

The cavalry had, in fact arrived. A dozen carriers and six big transports, carrying enough troops to handle an invasion force, which is what they'd apparently been expecting. Hard to say, really, who had been the more surprised when the most they had to do was post patrols and find places to park since the carrier bay was half in pieces.