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

Doctor Dan smiled his gentle smile at them. “Brilliant answer. Carry on.”

Dev had been sitting quietly, listening to it all. She found herself extremely glad to have her mentor at her side, and it was very interesting to hear him speak about both of his identities. “Thanks, Doctor Dan.”

He patted her hand. “Now, go on. Ask away.” He instructed Alters. “I assume you haven't seen the sec vid yet or we probably would not be bothering with this session.”

“It's spooling.” Elk agreed. “We really just wanted to talk to her about her experience here.”

Dev folded her hands. “I have had an excellent experience here.” She stated. “I've gotten to do a great deal of work, and I think my participation has been a positive one.” She cleared her throat. “Where would you like me to start?”

The three officers exchanged looks again. “Well.” Alters cleared his own throat. “How about at the beginning?”

**

“Holy shit.” Elk turned and looked at Alters as the door closed behind their erstwhile interviewees. “Is she for real?”

“Can't wait to see those vids.” Alters had his chin resting on his fist. “She's a lot smarter than I thought she'd be. That's a serious brain in there.”

“No kidding.” Bezette mused. “I saw the original vids from the Gibraltar run. I thought it was a joke, you know? Someone screwed around with the recorder, but then we got the intel from the other side on the blowout. That kid can fly.”

“So Drake pegged it.” Alters chuckled. “Bricker was right. But can they duplicate that? She's a developmental, that doc said. A one off.”

“Guessing he can.” Elk said. “He knows what it takes better than anyone does. Better than any of us, anyway.” He shook his head. “DJ Kurok. Who'd have guessed? Never did know what happened to him after he mustered out.”

“You knew him back then?” Alters asked, curiously.

Elk shook his head. “Not so much. He was Justin Drake's tech. Justy raved about him. Never had another partner like him, from what he said, before he retired. Always thought there was a story there. Justy wasn't emotional about much but he always was about DJ.”

“He came from the other side.” Bezette spoke up. “That was the big deal about him – he got swiped as a juv in a capture in the dev station over there. They brought him over, someone had the big idea to see if he could be turned, put him in psych, they figured he might do for field school.”

“What?” Alters said. “From the other side? Were they nuts?”

“Nope, that's why they paired him with Justin.” Elk nodded. “Family bleeds Interforce colors, you know? Someone in psych told me there was no such thing as un-turnable but Drakes were the closest thing to it. Solid as granite to the point of pigheaded blind devotion to the cause.”

“Drake.” Bezette sighed. “Family full of wildcats and wide eyed insanity. Glad they kill on our side though, tell you what.”

“Tell you what.” Alters agreed. “So did Kurok turn out to be trustworthy?”

“Hm.” Elk drummed his thumbs on the table. “Now that I'm remembering all this... I think they weren't ever sure if he totally bought into the force, but what he did buy into was Justin Drake. So maybe it all worked out that way. He was a damn good tech, from what I heard.”

“Justin left a lot of enemies on that side.” Bezette stated. “He knew he had limited time out. Never cared, though. Too bad they got him – heard his shooter got a medal for it.”

“Based on these..” Alters held up the plas. “His kid paid them back for it in typical double Drake fashion.”

**

Jess was lying on her back in her bed, hands folded over her stomach and eyes closed when she heard Dev enter her own quarters next door.

It felt impossibly good to just be relaxing, having someone else be in charge of the chaos for a while. She was mildly curious as to what would end up happening to her, but where once that would have given her a gut ball of anxiety now she felt almost nothing about it.

Would they muster her? Jess doubted it. No matter what the ins and outs of what they'd been through she knew she'd done what she could and the bottom line was, the base was still intact, and still theirs.

So it would be, what it would be. Jess turned her head as the door between their quarters opened, and Dev entered. She came over and sat down on the edge of Jess's bed, and returned her smile. “Hello.”

“Hello, Devvie. You're a sight for sore eyes.”

Dev leaned closer. “Are your eyes sore too?” She asked in a concerned tone. “What does med do for that?”

Jess chuckled. “That's just one of those stupid archaic sayings, Dev. It means I'm glad to see you.” She reached out a hand and touched Dev's leg. “They grill ya?”

Dev eyed her. “You don't really mean cook, right?” She hazarded. “They asked me some questions. But Doctor Dan was there to keep it all straight. He told them they weren't allowed to be mean to me.”

“I like him more and more everyday.” Jess asserted. “They weren't mean to you, were they?”

Dev shook her head. “No. They asked me a lot about things here, and how I did tech, but they were all right.” She studied Jess' face. “I hope they let me stay.”

Anxiety from a completely different direction smacked Jess in the kisser. “Oh...wh. Wait.” She jerked up, propping her weight on her elbows. “What makes you think they won't?”

Dev blinked in some surprise. “Well, they said this was something that the man Bain had approved, and now.. “ She let the words trail off, seeing the alarm in her partner's face. “I think they thought I did good work, Jess.”

“Fuck.” Jess was now sitting bolt upright in bed. “They asked me how I felt about the project before I walked out of there and I told them it was the best thing that ever happened to me.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I didn't think those guys were that dense... let me go talk to..” She paused and looked at Dev, who had captured her fingers and was holding them. “What?”

“Really the best thing?”

Jess took a breath, then paused, caught by that husky whisper. “Um.” She felt a blush heat her cheeks unexpectedly. “Yeah actually it is.”

Dev exhaled slowly.

“So let me go talk to them.” Jess rolled up out of the bed and headed for the door, pausing when her comms lit. “Damn it.” She swerved the desk and hit the relay. “Drake.”

“Agent Drake? Alters voice filtered through. “We've done reviewing the vid. Can you come to the debrief room, please.”

Jess exhaled. “Sure” She clicked off. “C'mon. You come with me. We might as well find out our fates together.”

Dev scrambled to stand up and came over to join her willingly. “Will they get upset?”

“Don't care.” Jess took her hand and led her out the door, glad, in a sense that soon she'd know the worst, one way or the other. Dev leaving? Screw that. She'd go with her. Jess was pretty sure she could talk Kurok into taking her to station, if she had to.

It was only minutes walk and they were at the debrief, and she scanned them in. Alters was alone in the room, and he looked up as they entered. “Ah.” He said. “Agent Drake, I didn't expect...”

“This is my partner.” Jess stated, taking a seat and motioning Dev to do the same. “Deal with it.”

Alters studied both of them. Dev was wearing her tech's jumpsuit, with her insignia on the collar, and with the suit fastened all the way up, her collar was covered and invisible and as such, she and Jess looked like any other agent and tech pair he'd ever seen. “Okay.” He agreed mildly. “This won't take long anyhow.”

Jess folded her hands and waited.