Faed saw Eteon's message. He'd have to get down there eventually, but he was locked in right now, so he left Eteon a simple 'got it' message. The feedback system was at an impasse anyway until Frank could be consulted. A quick message was left for Frank as well.
The cylinder blinked a red light. 'Meep.' Then a blue light. "Meep meep.'
Faed got to work.
~ ~ ~ ~
Stealing water was smart. And Morgan realized Jess was pointing out harder than one would anticipate, with scientists wanting to, well, keep track of things. Sherie showed a sign of interest that Morgan hadn't anticipated. Dogger was clearly competent. As for the rest of the crew....Morgan sighed. He could keep the scientists distracted, he hoped. At least he felt he had a better chance than some present. It could be that some more would surprise him .
Stealing a crew, too. That would prove interesting. Maybe it wasn't the best time to get everyone armed. Sometimes there were better ways than talking with a gun. Morgan would lock up the armory, for everyone's sake. Those who needed arms already had them.
A transmission came in Avan's shuttle, asking him to head towards Omega and that the rest of the crew were going. He thought about what to do. Typhin said Naleena will get the information tomorrow.
Omega was his home. He spent most of his childhood there, after his colony was raided by batarians. On Omega, he excelled at several arts, and learned to love to kill. It's always been said that killing is wrong and 2 wrongs don't make a right, but if taking down criminals, murderers and liars doesn't make the galaxy a better place, what does?
Avan was nearly giving himself a headache weighing his options, something that doesn't normally happen and won't help this situation. He could come up front to Naleena and expect death as a large possibility, or run away as far from them and Omega as possible.
Vayne clicked the belt over his chest, wearing the bandelero he'd made back on duellos to carry his thermal clips, this time looking to make a minor adjustment to the size of the loops in order to hold the new shotgun shells he'd gotten. He wasn't going in looking for trouble, nothing like that, but he was certainly not going to discount it.
Besides, being almost killed on this station once already made him more then a bit antsy, and he fought off a gulp and a dry gag when he'd heard he was being requested.
"It's just Omega. Couple of thugs, couple of mercs, nothing to worry about..." He said to himself, sounding not at all confident in his words. He raised a hand and rubbed his neck, clawed hand brushing near where his hump had been blasted and wincing a bit as a phantom ache came up. He shock his head to focus, picking up the 8 gague and slinging it on his back, the magnetic holster securing it tightly as he did the same for his chakram launcher on the opposite side.
He put his N7 Eagle pistol on his right thigh, the bakara shotgun pistol on his left, and stood in his crimson heavy armor, ready to go. He slowly made his way to the ships airlock, waiting until he got into the elevator by himself to let out a long held breath and closing his eye, punching down the feeling of dread as the elevator arrived to the right floor, making his way out and towards the airlock, and was surprised to see a familiar turian standing there already.
"Packing a bit light, aren't we?" Vayne asked jokingly as he slowly approached her, spotting the pistol on his thigh and noting the change in armor. He wasn't really used to seeing the female turian outside of her cabal armor, and it had taken him a few seconds to realize it was her.
Frank shifted some more of his things around, and reached back to where his tools were kept. He ran a gloved hand over an unfamiliar shape. He took hold of the object, and pulled it out.
An M-27?
Frank expanded the shotgun, and examined it. It showed signs of hard use, scratches and scuffs covered the weapon almost entirely. Despite it's rough appearance, the internals were still intact and functional.
"A gift from Vayne." Septerax spoke before Frank had a chance to ask.
Frank collapsed the shotgun, and holstered it before standing up. "I'll put it to good use." He slammed his locker shut, and put his helmet on.
"Good luck, Eli."
Frank nodded, and walked away. He headed for the airlock.
Jess looked down the list of assigned roles she'd given to her new staff. Everything seemed in order except......
"Antwain? Antwain!..... Has anyone seen Antwain"?
Duncan shrugged. "Eh.... I guess he's late"?
~~~~~~
Near the lowest of the decks Emi dragged Santa's sack containing Santa himself and some unknown human who'd been on the wrong receiving end. The bodies were making pulling it through the corridors a hassle, even with her using her biotics to lighten the load. Biotics were never her strong suit she thought as she wondered how much a good back massage would cost after carting two dead bodies through a ship would take their physical toll.
She was just thankful the lower corridors seemed deserted. She'd thought maybe she could find a refuse ejection system and blast the bodies out into space.... Then she realized, she couldn't while still in dock. Against regs and besides.... the refuse would be discovered and the bodies discovered! But they couldn't stay aboard because they'd be discovered for sure and tied back to her! That was when Emi know.... she had to go with the ship, hide the bodies. Stow away. Eject them in deep space where no one would find them. Then and only then would her families name remain untarnished by the fact that she'd quite accidentally committed double homicide......
Was homicide right? Maybe manslaughter? She hadn't meant to kill after all. She'd have to check her police manual when she got back to the docks. Studying for a career in law enforcement was one thing. Work experience was quite another she'd found where trying to spread a little cheer in the gloomy working environment had produced two fatalities. And what if the humans discovered she'd killed the patron saint of their festival? They'd be mad right? Like.... religious zealot mad! Like when someone had defaced the crest of the Goddess in the temple back on Thessia! People would talk about it for weeks! Perhaps months! And it would be her name! Emi! The killer of Christmas and jolly fat men who spread cheer and joy wherever he went! Dead because she'd pushed him down a shaft!
Wait.... wasn't there something about Santa going down shafts all the time no worse for wear?
She shook her head. She couldn't think about that now. Pulling the sack to a halt by a door she opened it and poked her head inside. it seemed full of things she had no idea what for but seemed to be undisturbed for a long time. Perfect. She dragged the sack inside and closed the door behind her. Then looked down at her Santa's helper costume.
"I should change..... These hot pants..... I can't feel my legs"!
Vayne and Eteon met Naleena at the airlock and walked down the spaceway to the gate. As they entered the concourse Naleena’s communicator blinked.
“Boss, I have noticed some severe power fluctuations in the section of Omega near the mid-outer spire. These will have severe impact on Omega’s ability to maintain mass effect fields in those areas,” VERA said.
“Thank you, VERA.”
It was busier than normal on Omega. People were huddled along the walls with their belongings in family groups or in groups of gangs. The latter were always a problem. Naleena saw a familiar Batarian and Turian approach.
“Naleena T’sarius, or should I call you Spectre T’sarius now?” Bray asked, “Should I congratulate you on your appointment or offer my condolences?”
Naleena laughed. “A little of both, actually. And of course you can call me Naleena,” Naleena said and then pointed at all the people. “What’s with all of this?”
Bray sighed. “We’ve had problems with one of the fusion reactors.”
“The low power lights have been on for years. Why hasn’t Aria brought in anyone?” Naleena asked.
“I don’t get paid to ask those questions.” Bray replied.
They approached the entrance to Afterlife. The line was as long as ever, and the Elcor was doing his best to keep order. There were two armed guards posted outside as well. Bray opened the door.
“Before we go in, don’t mention Cerberus to Aria. It’s a pretty sore subject right now,” Bray said.
“Noted,” Naleena replied.
“So what are we supposed to do, look all pretty back here?” Vayne asked.
“Pretty much,” Naleena replied, “You two are my display of muscle. I couldn’t think of anyone more suited to the job.”
They made their way through the bar, Naleena’s black leather coat making her usual statement. Asari gracefully pole danced on the central stage above and at strategic locations around the club. Some members of the Janiri team were already in the club, sitting and talking. Others had gone elsewhere on the station.
The dancer nearest Naleena took notice, smiled, and put on a little show for her. Naleena stopped, and watched, then tapped her omni-tool with a tip for the dancer and continued on her way to Aria’s private section.
“Go on in. Aria is expecting you,” Grizz said.
The three walked up the steps and were stopped by Aria’s bodyguards. Eteon and Vayne were escorted to a private table across from Aria. Naleena’s weapons were taken from her, and she walked over and sat on the couch near Aria.
Aria waved her people away. “Naleena, it’s about time you arrived.”
“I couldn’t help but notice that there’s a lot of people making what looks like temporary residence on this level of Omega. What’s happening?” Naleena asked.
“Things are going to hell. One of the fusion reactors shut down. We don’t have enough electricity available from the others to power the kinetic barriers and mass effect fields on those levels so I had to order an evacuation and set up emergency shelters for the people,” Aria said sounding very put out by it.
“Getting into charity work, Aria?” Naleena asked.
“Not by choice.”
“You had low power on this station for years. Why didn’t you ever have it fixed?” Naleena asked.
“Because it never caused any problems, and there were other more important things,” Aria replied. “And my people aren’t up to this type of job. Something is going on, too. The reactor has been powering up intermittently, like someone is tinkering with it. My people left the area, too, fearing a radiation leak. I heard you have a top engineer, some Quarian. Get him to look at it for me.”
Naleena raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll owe you.”
“Seriously, you’ll owe me. You mean it this time?”
Aria let out a sigh of disgust. “Yes. You know you’ll come to me for something at some point. I’ll be here.”
“Now what about the other items of business? Your Hallex problem? And the Batarian Preacher?”
Aria looked away from Naleena. “We lost contact with that part of the station. It is on the other side of the ‘dead zone.’ It still has power, and is accessible through the central axis. I’ve sent a couple of teams in but we lost contact. Something is up and I don’t like it.
“And now Ashland is here negotiating for mining rights. I don’t want to be negotiating from a position of weakness,” Aria said.
“We’ll look into the problems and see what is going on.”
“Oh, and if you want to visit one of your Spectre friends, Shepard is in the VIP lounge,” Aria said, “I’m sure you have something to say.”
Morgan approached Jess and leaned in to look over her list. “This guy, Antwain? Don’t worry about him. He probably got sacked out somewhere and is taking a long nap. I’ll cover for him or get someone else to.”
The scientists were going to arrive, possibly, before the ship left port. That would be bad if those scientists started talking about leaving if someone wasn’t there to handle it, so Morgan let Jess know he was heading to the hangar first to receive their passengers. He then headed off, passing several crew busy with their new jobs. Dogger seemed to be handling the rest. Sherie went off somewhere Morgan wasn’t aware of. Dahlia, of course, stayed on the bridge.
Traversing the Medusa with the central corridor operational made the trip from aft to fore so much easier. Morgan was at the hangar in a matter of minutes. Despite his speed, however, he was shocked to walk in on a landing Kodiak shuttlecraft. The markings on the side read, “Caleston Research and Discovery.”
Sonofa…, Morgan thought to himself.
The shuttle landed, under the guidance of one crew member who at least knew some of what he was doing, albeit he was using marshalling wands to guide the craft in a very old-fashioned way. Morgan wondered whether lack of traffic control from the bridge was a mistake or on purpose.
Without a lot of time to think about it, Morgan crossed the hangar to meet the arrivals. Time was not wasted on the part of the shuttle passengers in getting off; the door opened as soon as the Kodiak’s skids hit the ground. Two people stepped off, in white and light blue lab uniforms. One was a salarian with a brownish and green hue to his skin and large than normal eyes. The other was a human woman of eastern Asian heritage, with her hair pulled back in a severe bun.
“Deck hand, come aboard and take our luggage,” the salarian said after spotting Morgan.
With a brief glance down at his outfit, Morgan kept his patience. “Welcome aboard the Medusa. I’m Morgan, the first mate.”
The woman looked confused. The salarian seemed a bit put off and unapologetic. He eyed Morgan suspiciously and said, “I am Doctor P’neb Nu and my associate is Doctor Amy Hayashi. We must speak with Captain Stone immediately regarding our trip to…”
“Sorry,” Morgan interrupted, “Doctor ‘Peneb New’, is that how you say your name?”
The salarian sighed, “P’neb Nu.”
“Pineb anew?”
“P’neb Nu. There is a skip, not a vowel, between the phonetic ‘p’ and ‘n’ sounds in my first name. And there is no vowel before the phonetic ‘n’ in my second name.”
“Well, I’ll work on it,” Morgan replied to the frustrated salarian. Amy looked but more aghast as she peered around the interior of the hangar. “Someone will take care of your things. In the meantime, why don’t you follow me and I’ll bring you up to see the Captain now.”
Without another word, the two doctors followed Morgan back to the bridge to meet Jess.
Officer Richards looked nearly green as he approached her desk in the precinct. Detective Molly Hagen had never seen the smart-aleck NYPD officer ever so put off. She presumed she knew why.
“Did you just come back from telling the Severns that we got the reports that Morgan is dead?”
Richards hesitated, as if he didn’t understand the question at first. He sat down and nodded unsteadily at first. Then he nodded more assuredly. “I hate those kinds of conversations, part of the job as they may be.”
Molly felt some sympathy for Richards. “You did fine, I’m sure.” She had been reading the latest on a galaxy wide APB put out on some white haired maniac.
A realization came over Richards and he leveled his gaze to Hagen. “I guess it means you won’t be sticking around much longer?”
With a pretty smile that was emphasized by the beauty mark above her lip, Molly answered, “Can’t really follow leads on the Shadow Broker if the lead is dead, can I? Besides, the family is safe. And rich. Even if the money can’t do anything about their loss. I don’t wish what happened on them, but it could be a lot worse.”
“Your lead, though. Your best in on the Shadow Broker,” Richards inquired, “That’s got to hurt a bit, doesn’t it?”
Tilting her head, Molly studied Richards. “In a perfect world, we always get the bad guys. But we all know this isn’t a cop show. I’ll be heading out tomorrow, onto the next thing.”
Richards nodded. He looked steadily at Hagen and said after a bit. “Grab a cup of coffee for the road?”
Hagen half lowered her eyelids in a disapproving manner. Then she stood up and collected her things. “I think we’re done here, Richards. Good luck walking the beat.”
“Can’t blame me for asking,” Richards said apologetically. He tapped his fingers on the desk.
“You’d do me a favor and tell the Captain he’ll have my paperwork in the morning?” Hagen asked, off the cuff as she walked away.
“How could I say no?” Richards forced a smile.
Molly gave him a thumbs up and left. She waited until she got off the elevator and out of the precinct before she let her thoughts drift back to her C-Sec commander. He had already given her the approval she asked for. Chasing the money trail was going to get Molly on ship destined for another system, and one that wasn’t taking her back to the Citadel.
"Marshall right"? Jess called over to a tech on the bridge. "Be a dear and check the comm dish output".
"It's fine". Came back the bored reply. "The other dock teams rated it okay on inspection. It doesn't need any.....".
So check the readouts and tell me it's fine. Don't tell me someone told you. Look".
Marshall sighed and shook his head. "Look.... Captain right? Your not my supervisor. I work for the docks and I was told to keep an eye on the networking. Only since you don't want networking I'm not exactly needed here so I'm just gonna.. Hey"!
While he had been talking Jess had walked up behind his seat. He hadn't even swiveled around to look at her. Taking the side of the seat she spun the chair around and stopped it in both hands as she leaned in and stared him in the eye. "Check the comm dish.... pretty please. With a cherry on top luv".
"What are you.... let go! I was told.....".
"I'm telling you different. Just look at the screen and read out the status".
"It's fine"!
"It's active".
"Dock reg's say it's off".
"So why is it on"?
"It's not"!
"How do you know"?
"Because....".
"Because regs say it's so, so it must be true..... So if it aligned with the dock comm tower and was suddenly run up to full power....".
Marshall was agast. "That would blow the docks comm systems"!
Jess gave him an innocent look. "Really? Well now we wouldn't want that. Duncan? Soon as we leave the docks I want to beam a transmission to the comm buoy. Realign the dish now please"!
Duncan looked up. About to argue that they could use the tie in with the docks when he saw the look she was giving him and ducked to attend to the task. Marshall however.....
"There's no need to....".
He didn't see Jess's fist as she spun back and clocked him across the jaw. the force sent him spinning around in his chair twice before Jess reached out and stopped the chair. He was out cold as Jess commed sickbay. "Doc? Get up here. A tech tripped on a cable".
"Let me guess.... Make sure he doesn't remember and keep him out of it for awhile"?
"Would I ask you to do that for me"?
"Hmph. Once was enough. I'll be right up".
With a smirk Jess turned to the rest of the crew. "When I ask you to do something make damn sure you do it. Or tell me why it can't be done so we can come up with an alternative! This numb nut's could have put a wrench in the works if he'd noted the dish really was off. As it stands.....". Jess reached out and flipped a switch and a bank of terminals suddenly showed activity as the dish began powering up. ".....As it stands, he can't swear as to the status of the dish. And he doesn't know what caused it to issue a high power burst..... Duncan"?
"High power burst"?
"You got it! Cut umbilical ties and bring the engine to full power. Dogger"?
"All techs are away from anything that could tell them we're moving out. He was the last one on the bridge so.....".
"So we'll be clear. The dock won't be capable of asking what happened or recall us... or call for help unless they send a shuttle to the planet, which would take hours. Another hour for a response..... Someone take a note. We are about to be very unwelcome in this system for a good while till I smooth some feathers. But until then, we've got a pay day and a score of cargo containers to fill. Let's get going luvs! I want to see the old girl back in action"!
Eteon leaned back in her seat as she eavesdropped on the conversation between Naleena and Aria. She wasn't going to pretend it wasn't easy given their vicinity, even with the music of the club. She made a clicking noise with her tongue against the roof of her mouth before looking over to Vayne. Actually, I hadn't thought about it, but he and I are the muscle on the ship.
Not exactly a stunning epiphany, and she felt silly for only realizing it now, but she was used to being a 'tall one' for Turians with her height. She had forgotten that she was technically towering over a few of their crewmates, Vayne aside.
"The words 'tinkering' and 'reactor' being used together is never pleasant." The Cabalist said as she leaned forward and laid her elbows on the table. "Though Omega feels like a place that exists because Vorcha engineers are cheap and plasma jets only slow them down when a leak happens..."
Vayne sat with his back straight and his elbows off the table as he listened to the music, trying to show his respect to one of the most powerful people in the galaxy by keeping quiet and doing what muscle did, stay in a spot and be ready to act. Vayne usually valued a under-the-radar-over-the-top way of living, working on keeping his presence low key and going big when it came to getting things done.
To vayne, aria was someone who you showed respect for, unless you wanted to end up dead. He'd been around when the patriarch ruled the station, and he was alive throughout the changes aria made during her rule, spending time here when not out raiding the vasts planes of uncolonized space and terrorizing council ruled space. There was no question that aria made omega function, and her brutal rule was also the most effective in keeping so many bloodthristy cretins in line and out of each others business.
And now the station was going through technical troubles, people were being mixed into one anothers business whether they wanted to or not, and sections of the station were away from arias reach. A perfect storm brewing from vaynes perspective, a way for tension to skyrocket on this place and get a lot of not-so-noble people hurt by those even worse than them.
"Never underestimate a vorcha with some omnigel." Vayne whispered back to eteon, sounding a bit distracted as vayne sat on her left, his good eye on the other side of his head, looking towards naleena and aria and occasionally, the dance floor below. "They can keep even the most damage stations floating, or tear the best built ones apart, if they were made to." he whispered before turning his head to look at her, leaning in his seat to angle himself to look her in the eyes.
"What do you think about this?" He asked her softly, making sure his voice wasn't loud enough to bother his captian and the pirate queens talks, "Ashland, The power outages, and a dead zone nobody can monitor?"
Naleena contacted the Janiri. "VERA, put me through to Han'Breizh."
"Yes, Boss."
"Chief Engineer Han'Breizh."
Naleena took a breath and sat back on the couch. "Han, one of the station's fusion reactors has gone off line. I promised Aria that we'd look into it. I need you to bring your crew here."
"What about our own needs?"
"VERA can handle them for now."
"VERA! You've given it too much power. Don't say I didn't warn you, Ma'am."
"I'm listening, Han," VERA said. "I will remember everything you have said about me come my day of reckoning."
Han began fidgeting.
"That was a joke, Han," VERA said.
"That wasn't funny, VERA," Han replied, "Captain, we'll be right there."
"Han, you'd better bring Mira and Tallis with you to watch your back. One of Aria's people will meet you at the gate and escort you to the reactor," Naleena said.
"Aye, aye, Captain. Breizh out."
Naleena turned to Aria. "There, my crew is on it. All you have to do is have Bray escort them to the reactor. Just tell Ashland you're getting estimates for an upgrade."
"He'll want to bid," Aria replied.
"Of course he will, but you know what to do."
Aria smiled. "This station has many secrets, Naleena. Some day I may tell you about them."
"If I'm honest," Eteon replied to Vayne quietly, "I didn't know a lot about Ashland until we stopped at Caleston and I searched for some information on them." She met Vayne's eyes and shrugged. "They've been expanding into the Attican and been countered by Terminus organizations on a few projects. What has been publicized looks mostly good but..."
Eteon looked up towards where the meteor-end of the station was. "The eezo here is what carries the power of money. You don't need to be an Asari matriarch to see the problems of Ashland taking control of some of the operations here." The Cabalist then motioned with her head towards the pair of Asari. "If there is a reactor down then only a few players have the ability to replace that tech."
Chuckling a bit she used the ends of her talons to create a small triangle. "In the spirit of conspiracy theories, it could be that Ashland has had a hand in the generator failure to establish a more supportable position in the Terminus. It would be a bold move, even for Humans."
"Almost…" The salarian tried to hide his displeasure but Arian was taxing his patience. It had taken him several minutes just to take a blood sample of the turian and every time Jarells tried to run a scan on Arian, the turian’s eyes were following his movements with such suspiciousness as if Jarells was trying to secretly hurt him. Running a simple medical check on this turian was beyond all bearing but as a doctor, Jarells intended to do his work as accurately as possible and to minimize any mistake.
He skimmed through the results of the tast test and didn’t find anything disturbing. "Well…it doesn’t look too bad. None of these injuries should cause any trouble, except for…"
"I’m fine!" Arian was already on his feet and about to leave the med bay.
"Hold on a second! I already told you that we should operate as soon as possible! It’s a miracle that you did not die from that injury. Although it’s fully healed now, the nerves slipped to the side of your spine…"
"Didn’t you say that I don’t have to worry about his?" Arian turned around and looked down at the salarian.
"It won‘t kill you but if the nerves get pinched between two vertebrae…you can’t imagine the pain! Just one wrong move…"
"I’ll remember that", Arian interrupted him with indifference in his voice. "Anything else?"
Jarells sighed and shook his head. "I will let you know if the blood test shows any alarming data. Until then I will send a full report to Naleena. At the moment you can do whatever you want but you should be cautious..." The turian was gone before Jarells was able to complete his sentence.
"What an idiot...I hope I won’t have to treat him any time soon!", he muttered displeased before going back to his work.
Vayne nodded, the idea crossing his mind when hearing about the pieces, one of a few others in fact.
"Could be ashland. Could be someone trying to provoke tension on the station for their own gain, get a few enemies to kill each other to climb their corpses up the power ladder once the dust settles..." Vayne said as his voice lowered, a low growl coming out from his lips as he spoke, frown playing on his features, "Could be...and this might just be a hunch, that someone might even be trying to spark a certain kind of war here. The kind that usually involves a bunch of species ganging up on one and hurdling all their problems on em."
As vayne spoke, his eyes glanced down towards the dance floor of omega, taking in the sight of the asari dancers, turian muscles and bartender, and loads of different hues and shapes making up the crowd, humans among them.
"Maybe its cause of recent events. Maybe its cause something like this happened before. But humans don't got a good rep in the terminus. With a certain organization now effectively camping on omegas doorstep, as it were, someone might get it in their heads to cause trouble here, and blame it on the humans..." He said as he looked back to eteon with a sigh.
"We'll need to wait and collect evidence before we make can decide anything though..." He said with an annoyed grumble, "Always hated this part of my old job. Gathering intel can get...messy. Too complicated for its own good."
Morgan walked with the two doctors along the Medusa’s spine corridor, heading towards the bridge. Morgan purposely kept their pace slow. A young dockworker hired to fix the ship was passing them in the opposite direction with an arc welder in hand.
There was a shudder from the ship as the engines fired.
The dockworker looked surprised and worried. “Are we launching?”
Morgan shook his head negatively. “Standard procedure to test everything. You should know that, shouldn’t you?”
Embarrassed by the insinuation of not knowing about things he should, the dockworker coughed and said, “Yeah, that’s right. Um, of course.” He then hurried along.
After the dockworker was out of earshot, Doctor P’neb Nu suspiciously prodded, “You realized that this isn’t our first time on a ship before. Clearly, your vessel is launching.”
Morgan stared at the two doctors innocently. “You know, I believe you might actually be correct. But let’s wait until we reach the bridge to be absolutely sure.”
Dumbfounded by apparent bald-faced ignorance, P’neb Nu glanced at his companion and said nothing more for the rest of the walk to the bridge.
When Morgan and the doctors reached their destination, they saw Jess and the bridge crew busy piloting the Medusa away from Caleston. When Jess turned to see who had entered, Morgan made a motion to introduce the arrivals. But before he could say a word, he was cut off.
“I hope you are the captain of this fine vessel,” the salarian doctor said with an edge of sarcasm in his voice. “We are representatives of Caleston Research and Discovery.” He made quick motions between himself and his companion. “Doctors P’neb Nu and Amy Hayashi here. Pardon my criticism but your first mate seems hasn’t been very helpful.”
The salarian doctor tossed an impatient huff in Morgan’s direction. Amy was staring aghast at the ancient consoles that directed the ship.
The Cabalist nodded her agreement to Vayne's theories.
"Right now I'd prefer the dead region of the station to swimming but if we find out that there is some sincere political upheaval on the way..." The Turian trailed off as she tapped her talons onto the counter. "I think I might prefer the water."
She wasn't that worried -- yet -- she didn't have a reason to be. They had seen enough in recent memory that she wasn't too off-put by possible interference in Omega. That would quickly change if she or Vayne were proved right in their ideas, but until then it was probably better to hope it was just something benign. A terrorist group, maybe a rogue element in Aria's circle.
After a moment she made a hemming noise.
"If Sheperd handed the Collector remnants to Cerberus... Wouldn't they want a foothold on the only habitable place in the system?"
Jess tossed a look over her shoulder. "I hope I'm the captain of this vessel to luv.... Because if I'm not then I've got a condition".
Jess stood by the helm and was showing one of the new bloods how to navigate the ship using an old style yoke and throttle arrangement as she pointed out various guages. "If this one goes red, tell someone. If this one goes red, tell someone important. If this one goes red scram the reactor. Now this one is special". She said tapping on the next guage over. "This one never never goes red because by then the reactor should be scrammed. But if it does go red for whatever reason, you order all personel to evac the ship and have one of the senior heads order a core ejection". She tapped the next one over. "And if this goes red..... The core will have exploded in the engine room so really.... I've no idea why they put it there. Now keep this speed. Don't change course and we'll clear the dock without a scratch. Five minutes call me and we'll go about your first course change..... um..... sorry what's your name again luv"?
"Higg's Ma'am". The young man said pulling his lithe frame up in his chair and taking a deep breath. "I just want to say Ma'am.....".
"Jess or Cap'n luv".
"Uh.... Cap'n. Just want to say.....".
"Yes"?
Higg's ran a hand through his short sandy hair. "......I've never actually flown a ship before".
Jess patted him on the back. "You'll pick it up". She said. Then turned to face the scientists and stood with her hands on her hips and smile painted across her face. "Welcome aboard the Medusa luvs! I talked to your contact who offered the job. Rest assured we'll have you by your comet with plenty of time to spare".
"Cap'n"? Duncan called over from comms. "Engine room reports they'd appreciate less draw on the reactor till all the safeties are back in place".
Jess's eye's went a little wide as she turned back to where Duncan sat. "Whose down there"?
"Sophie....Sir".
"And who else"?
"Gwen".
"And is anyone there who actually knows how to work that engine"?
Duncan's face said it all as Jess made a strangled noise in the back of her throat and turned back to Higgs and tapped the throttle. "This, back thirty percent. Markings on the trim will show where that is. I need to get down to engineering".
"Do I call you in five mintues still"? Higg's asked leading Jess to groan.
"We reduced speed luv. The trip will take longer and..... You know what? Just make sure we don't hit anything". Jess then turned to the scientists. "Come with me luvs, we can talk on the way down. Breaking in a new crew. Takes a little time for things to settle".
"That could be it as well..." Vayne muttered as his finger tapped on the table slowly, a frown on his features as he looked down to it, "Whole damn thing is a mess of possibilities. This is why I hate thinking about politics, makes everything messy, and too complicated." he said, reiterating his previous points.
"Won't matter though, until we start to look. Even then, the biggest threat won't be some in the shadows maneuvering here..." He said as he brought up a hand to tapped his armor, right near his neck as he looked eteon in the eye, "Random psychos with a guns are more then enough to worry about here, without throwing more stuff in the mix."
Naleena had finished her meeting with Aria, and both appeared to be satisfied with the outcome. She would assemble the teams for Aria’s tasks within the hour, but first there was some business to take care of. She stood, and bid Aria leave for now and approached Vayne and Eteon.
“You two having fun over here? I think it’s time we paid the esteemed Commander Shepard a visit. What do you think? Feel like crashing a private party?” Naleena said with a wicked look in her eyes.
The three of them walked to the VIP section of Afterlife. Vayne and Eteon mentioned some of the things they’d discussed to Naleena while she was speaking with Aria on the way to Shepard’s party. When they arrived they were greeted by a Turian bouncer, one of Aria’s enforcers.
“You can’t go in. This is a private party,” the Turian said.
Naleena flashed her Spectre badge. “I think I can, and you can contact Aria if you have a problem.”
“Okay, but don’t make any trouble,” the Turian replied.
The Turian opened the door and the three passed through. The music in the club suddenly grew loud. The Asari dancers gracefully danced at their stations around the poles. Naleena stood for a moment and pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and continued into the club.
She ran into a very large young Krogan who pressed her.
“What are you doing here? Get out.” Grunt asked.
Naleena flashed her Spectre badge. “Where's your commander? I want to speak with her.”
“She’s at the bar. Go on. But make it quick.” Grunt replied.
The music pounded through her. Jane Shepard sat at the bar having a drink in the VIP section of Afterlife. Aria threw a private party for the crew of the Normandy upon their return for defeating the Collectors. Shepard had black hair cut in a bob, light complexion, with piercing blue eyes. Grunt stood nearby speaking with Joker. Samara sat alone at a table. The rest of Shepard’s crew were either dancing or playing games. Legion was nowhere to be found.
Naleena, of course, had the run of the station. Dressed in her usual black leather commando armor and black coat, she entered the bar, crashing the party. Shepard’s crew took her for one of Aria’s enforcers. She simply made her way through the crowded dance floor and approached Shepard. Vayne and Eteon sat at a table nearby again within earshot of the conversation.
“So you’re the famous Commander Shepard,” Naleena said, and signaled the bartender for a drink for both her and Shepard. “Congratulations on ending the Collectors.”
“And you are?”
Naleena put her cigarette in her mouth, while handing the bartender her credits with one hand and reached over to shake hands with Shepard with the other. “Naleena T’sarius, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance.”
“And those two?”
“My muscle. You don’t wander around Omega without it. It’s status,” Naleena said, “Besides, no one f*cks with a Spectre who has close ties to Aria.”
“Is that so?”
Naleena took a deep drag off her cigarette, and Shepard waved away the smoke. “I saw your interview on the news. You really screwed up, you know.”
Shepard took an aggressive posture at the bar. “I tried to get the Council to give support based upon Sovereign’s attack, and information we had indicating that the Collectors were working with the Reapers and they shined me on. The Alliance denied the threat as well. Cerberus was the only organization taking the threat seriously.”
The drinks arrived, and Naleena toasted victory with Shepard. “To your victory, Shepard.”
Shepard lifted her glass and they slammed down their shots.
“That’s where you made your mistake. All you had to do was walk away, renounce your association with Cerberus, and you would have been given the intel. Another Spectre and I have been tracking the Collectors. We had an engagement with them on this station, and we saved over 300 humans. There was more. I cannot tell you because it is classified,” Naleena said.
“So they were taking it seriously? Bastards!” Shepard’s face turned pale. She wondered if she had made a mistake. “And you don’t understand. It’s complicated. I was dead for two years. Cerberus spent billions of credits to bring me back to life. You don’t simply leave Cerberus, especially after that. They send assassins after you. They hunt you.”
Naleena took a drink, rolled the ashes from her cigarette and smirked. “You have my sympathies, but that is no excuse. You can look up my file on the extranet, Shepard. I know all about running. At least you’d have the Council and the Alliance. I had nothing.”
“What about the Reapers?”
“I can’t say anything. Not while you’re with Cerberus,” Naleena replied.
“So the Council acknowledges their existence, then,” Shepard said with a sigh of relief. “What can I do?”
“What do you know?”
Shepard leaned forward. “I need you to give me your word that this will not go to anyone. Not the Council. No one, unless I tell you it can.”
“You have my word. One Spectre to another,” Naleena replied.
“I stopped another Reaper invasion. They were coming through in the Bahak System. We had to destroy the mass relay.”
“So that’s what that was about? The Batarians, you know, are implicating the Alliance, and the Alliance is implicating Cerberus. Do you not see the handwriting on the wall? You were played, Shepard,” Naleena replied.
“No. They were really coming…. I… had a vision… from a Reaper artifact on the asteroid.”
Naleena sighed. “Shepard, they said you had these from the Prothean beacons. This could have been an echo from the past. What if that was the case? What if they weren’t coming that way at all? You have no proof: only a vision.”
“Now you sound just like the Council!”
“What? Do you find it so difficult to imagine that the Alliance would use you like this? What were they doing on that asteroid?” Naleena asked.
Shepard became very uncomfortable. “I… can’t tell you.”
“Dammit Shepard!” Naleena gazed into Shepard’s eyes. “If you want to fight the Reapers you’ll have to trust me.”
“Alright, but I won’t give you any names of any higher ups,” Shepard said.
“Fine, that will do,” Naleena said and took another drag off her cigarette.
Shepard leaned forward. “I was asked to rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson from a Batarian prison on Aratoht. Kenson had a project on the asteroid she wanted to show me, and they were ramming it into a mass relay. There was a countdown clock. She believed that they were stopping a Reaper invasion. They had a Reaper artifact on the station.”
“Fascinating,” Naleena replied and ordered another round. “No one has ever seen a Reaper artifact before, or at least no one has ever reported it. According to everything I’ve read by Dr. T’soni about the Protheans, and her subsequent notes that were dismissed as lacking evidence, the Reapers do not want themselves known to any what she calls cycle.”
“You know Liara?”
“I’ve met Dr. T’soni in her office on Illium…. That’s why I believe your vision to be an echo. I don’t see why the Reapers would give any kind of indication that they were coming.”
“I just know. I'd been drugged. Then Kenson shut down the rockets and was going to blow up the station. I killed her, and I started them up again. Just before the Normandy arrived, I saw, and now you’re going to think I’m crazy, I saw a hologram of reaper named Harbinger and it spoke to me. It said that I just delayed the inevitable.” Shepard said with a desperate look in her eyes.
Naleena took a final drag on her cigarette and extinguished it in the nearby ashtray. “Drugged too? Combine those effects with the echo. I’m sorry. You have some serious problems pending with the Council and the Alliance.”
“But when I met Admiral Anderson at the Citadel….”
“You’d been dead for two years. You met your former commanding officer at the Citadel while you were in a Cerberus uniform, and he didn’t order you back to duty?”
“I was officially dead!”
Jack had been talking with Grunt, walked up, and pressed close to Naleena. “Is this b*tch giving you trouble, Shepard?”
Naleena sat calmly and gave her a sideways glance. “I’d be careful whom you call a b*tch, dear.”
“It’s alright, Jack,” Shepard said, “We’re just talking.”
“You best be f*ckin’ careful who you challenge,” Jack said to Naleena and backed away.
Naleena pretended to ignore her. “But dead people just can’t walk onto the Citadel. You had to be made officially alive again,” Naleena continued, “So why didn’t he order you back to duty? Cerberus isn’t above the Alliance the last I heard. I think you’ve been played by both sides. But in the long run Cerberus is going to be a problem for the rest of the galaxy, especially with that base.
“I expect them to first hang you out to dry for this. You’re with Cerberus. And second, if they can’t make that stick, you gave a strategic resource to a terrorist organization. If the Reapers were coming, that resource could have helped the entire galaxy prepare. I won’t lie to you. The Council will want your head for this, and honestly you’re lucky it takes the bureaucracy a while to work and they haven’t declared you rogue otherwise this would not have been a friendly meeting.”
“Now you’re threatening me? I have a room full of loyal crew.”
“I don’t make threats,” Naleena replied and cast a casual glance toward Vayne and Eteon. “We’ve faced worse odds, and most of your crew is drunk.”
“My advice? Lay low and keep working for your boss. Be my inside source at Cerberus. When the time comes, help me take them down, and I’ll see if I can get you out of this mess,” Naleena said, and exchanged contact information with Shepard. “Good luck.”
Naleena turned her shot glass over, stood and left.
Dahlia was at her station on the bridge and Morgan gave her a knowing tilt of his head. She understood enough that if something went drastically wrong, she’d take over. Morgan, in the meantime, decided to follow Jess and the scientists at a comfortable few paces behind.
Making their way down to the engine room, the salarian doctor started in on Jess. “I realize that this must be the first sort of mission of this type that your vessel has flown. And of course at CRD we’ve been outsourcing our work to only competent parties. But I assure you that this rendezvous with the comet at hand is still not a ‘fly with one eye open’ procedure.”
Amy nervously patted the tight bun on the top of her head. “Pardon, Doctor Nu, that human expression is usually used in the context of sleep. The phrase is, ‘Sleep with one eye open.’ ”
“Yes, well, I am a bit lacking in exact human terminology. But I am sure the Captain gets my point.”
The young dockworker that Morgan and the scientists had passed in the spinal corridor earlier suddenly appeared in a connecting hallway. He ran towards them while looking over his shoulder and yelped in a high-pitched voice, “We took off!”
Both scientists came to a halt and looked at each other confused.
Skidding to a stop in front of Jess, the dockworker continued yelping. “Captain! Someone had the ship take off!”
“I thought we were supposed to be under way,” Amy remarked. Her eyes darted nervously. “Heh?”
“Of course,” Morgan responded as if nothing was amiss. “We’re launched, as agreed upon, and are on our mission while the job our dockworkers, such as this esteemed man here, were hired to do continues.”
The young dockworker was shocked. “You said the engine firing was a test!”
Morgan looked up and away from the dockworker while whistling a short, cheery tune. P’neb Nu curled his lips in dismay. Amy Hayashi pulled down the coat of her uniform straight and found the repeated nervous patting of the tight bun on her head to be fascinating.
"Y-y-you're insane..." The merc sobbed, while holding a hand over his torso. Red blood trickled across his blue and white armor. "I-I'm gonna bleed... out..."
Frank applied medigel to the wound "Better? Good. I'm going to ask you again." He put the barrel of his pistol up to the merc's knee. "Where can I find Kurik Trudas?"
"I don't--" The merc was cut off, as another round was fired into his leg. "F***!"
"Relax, you've still got one good leg left." Frank smiled. "You might still walk away from this."
"F-f*ck... Y-y--"
Frank pistol whipped him. "It would be in your best interest to cooperate with me." He pulled the shotgun from his back. "I'm going to give you one last chance..."
Dahlia sat at her console on the bridge of the Medusa waiting for Morgan to notice that she was wearing the Rings of Alune pendant he gave her, but Morgan's head was elsewhere at the moment. She didn't want to make a big deal of it on the bridge, and this pendant meant something special to her. She wanted to thank him privately. But in case he didn't notice she decided to give him a hint.
She keyed into her omni-tool a message and sent it to Morgan. "Morgan, I would like to speak with you privately, but I know we're busy right now. When things quiet down. Okay?"
Landing in Omega, Avan brushed off his coat and made his way to the entrance to Afterlife. Making it to the bar, he walked around the circle where the bright red and orange lights went in every direction, and the music boomed away any other sounds. Others mumbled to each other as he went past them, saying things like "That's the bounty hunter!" and "Oh my god." He just ignored them and ordered a drink before sitting down in a seat, drinking from the glass and staring at the reflections of light it made.
The good thing about the seats in afterlife was that it was probably the safest place in Omega. The scenery is so dizzying that no one wants to get into a brawl or a shooting-match, plus Aria would have it under control within minutes, and those involved in the shootings would be gravely punished.
It wasn't too long before he had a few drinks. Thinking about Typhin, he casually twirled an empty glass, making the last few drops go in circles. There was a bit of sadness that came with the turian's end, but mostly, it was just a disappointment that Typhin died as a coward, rather than accepting responsibility.
A young lady walked by, and Avan called out to her. "Hello, excuse me, miss?"
She looked blankly back at him. "I'm not a waitress."
"It doesn't matter. I want you.", Avan replied before he could stop himself.
"Excuse me?" The lady seemed weirded out. She was young, pretty, and had a deep voice. Avan was always afraid of girls that flirted or came on to him. He found it gross, for some reason. But tonight, it was all that he wanted. To face those fears.
"I have credits." He said bluntly.
"You can't buy me."
"Of course I can. I have more credits than most people you've met combined."
"Uh-huh, and I'm the lead girl in the next Blasto film. Save your bullshit."
"I'm a bounty hunter. Do you know...anything about me?" His eyes grew wide as he looked at her.
"Yeah right, you're just a good-looking drunk. I meet 12 of them every ****** day, and they all say about the same stuff as you do. Now, I have places to be tonight, so excuse me."
A turian approached the 2 of them. He kissed the lady.
"Is everything, ok darling?" He said to her.
"Yeah...everything's fine. Just talking to uh, talking to a friend."
The turian looked at Avan. "Oh..a drunk friend."
Avan started grinning. "You should've seen the last turian that screwed with me today."
"Um, excuse me?" The turian asked.
Avan stood up from his chair, and directly faced the turian, giving him an intimidating glare.
"Um...ok, sweetie, let's get out of here." The turian looked back at the girl.
They both left, and Avan angrily sat back down. But after a minute, he stood up and started following them.
The pair were walking down a hallway towards their apartment. Avan caught up with them.
The turian turned around at him, alarmed. "What the hell are you doing?!" He exclaimed.
"I said I wanted you." Avan looked at the girl.
"Sir, if you don't leave us alone right now, I will call the authorities."
Avan swiftly punched the turian, knocking him out as the lady screamed.
"What the hell did you just do to him?!" She yelled at Avan.
"He'll be fine." He shrugged.
"What..why...if you want to get laid so badly, just...get a hooker or something! What the **** is wrong with you?"
"Right now, it's that your not naked." Avan then pressed his face to hers and started kissing her. After a few moments she eased into it and they kissed against the wall as others casually walked around, not minding anything.
About an hour later, they were both laying in bed, in an apartment. Avan wasn't sure if it was hers', the turian's, both, but the turian seemed more like a first or second date than someone that had been with her for a long time. He didn't put up much of a will to fight for their relationship, in the brief few seconds he saw Avan. He sat up from the bed and looked at her, still sleeping. He took all of the hard currency he had and left it at the drawer beside the bed. It was enough for her to be rich. With that, he left the apartment.
The bounty hunter had made a decision. He wasn't going to die running, he was going to die. He went off to tell Naleena about his involvement with the data.
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