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[Cainhurst Crow]

"That could have gone better..." The krogan said as he watched the skycar disappearing, even as the typhoon shots rang out at it, and knew as well as the others that this chase wouldn't last. He sighed, looking back towards the others as he approached.

 

"Everyone okay?" He asked as he took a glance to the assembled group. He couldn't see much major injuries, aside from the pummeled pride and a bit of bruising, external and emotionally. Hearing the boss's word made him nod.

 

"Alright...glad we all made it out of this one." He said, letting out a long held breath he hadn't realized he'd had. He'd thought someone might get injured, but it seemed he was wrong.

 

As the fire department began to arrive, another skycar raced towards the scene. A c-sec model as it pulled up and landed in front of the others, opening as Essul got out, his Argus Rifle drawn as he looked around the area.

 

"Where are they? Where's the Hostile?" The batarian asked as he approached the others, having only now managed to arrive from his duty guarding over the corpse.

[Cknarf]

Quintus

 

Quintus sat at Adir's station, taking advantage of the larger screen for his casual porn viewing.

 

"Hey man, I got your sh*t." Frank said as he came up the stairs.

 

"Took you long enough." Quintus said, not bothering to turn around.

 

"Sorry. I was talkin' with... are you watching porn?" Frank asked, as if it was a surprise, or something.

 

"Yup."

 

Frank was about to ask the name when a krogan tomkah rolled up on screen.

 

Nope. NOPE.

 

He'd seen this one before.

 

"You uh... might wanna cut this one off while you got a chance..."

 

"Why?"

 

Frank fast-forwarded it about ten minutes, then hit play.

 

"AHHHHHHHHHHH--"

 

"What the f***?" Quintus turned off the video.

 

"Makes my a**hole sore just watchin' it."

 

"Was that... She wasn't..."

 

"Yes."

 

"Absolutely disgusting." Quintus shook his head. Slowly, his talon moved back to the play button. He turned it back on.

 

"FUUUUUUUU--"

 

Frank turned it off again.

 

"Hey!"

 

"Really?"

 

Quintus just shrugged.

 

"Finish it later, you sick bastard." Frank handed the case over. "Now are you gonna open this, or what?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina dusted off herself and turned to Essul. "Gone. She made fools of us. If I get my hands on her, I'll..."

 

"Get your ass kicked," Naleena said. "Irina, she's a master. Essul, we're canvassing these buildings looking for Arian. We think the kidnapper may have left him in one of these apartments. It's going to be a long night."

[Redbelle]

The Typhoon on her back once more, Anika gave a tight smile. "Your to hard on yourself Nal. though if the paper work is getting on top of you then you need to hire someone who can do the grunt work. Your a Specter. That means you don't bury yourself in things that don't matter. you give that to others so you can do what your meant for. When you need advice have someone close to you with the knowledge. Get someone to keep your equipment in good condition. Whatever's holding you back, outsource it.... I can help you get back in trim. But if it means burning the candle at both ends then I'd rather you get your rest so whatever you do, you can focus on it....". Anika sniffed. "As for performance... Let's not worry about that now because if you get me started I start with 'I want' and end in 'My armor'.

 

With that, Anika moved off towards the buildings and reached up to pull off her respirator. The smoke was clearing and as Anika walked away she commed the Medusa.

 

"Duncan? Hey you. It's Anika. Listen, I need to talk to Jess, face to face. I need to talk to her.... She's not available? Oooookay. Is Kolme around? He is? Great! listen, can you put him on? I've got a request.....".

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena waited for Anika to finish her conversation with Kolme.

 

"I'll take you up on that offer for getting me back in condition. And I know you're right about hiring someone. VERA does a lot of the work as it is with compiling mission reports for me. It's the personnel stuff that's bogging down everything," Naleena said. "I had no idea that being captain of a starship would be like this. I mean I have Selani handling the day to day command operations, but I don't have an executive officer. I need an XO to handle the administrative work.

 

"I think a Turian would be too rigid. You've seen the ship, Anika. Asari, Human, or ... Salarian?"

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Understood...." Essul said with a nod, not needing another word said as he began to make his way to the apartments, trusting Naleena's word on this one.

 

Vayne regrouped with the others as he looked to Irina, "Some day. Hopefully if the dice land in our favor." He said as he looked to Naleena, "Hey, at least none of us are going to the hospital this time...I hope." he said, a bit of gallows humor to try and lighten the mood.

[Kel Riever]

The Medusa

Dahlia wasn't on the bridge at the time, but when she felt the Medusa shudder with the firing of the engines, she was fairly surprised not to have heard about it before it happened.  Then she heard the klaxon from the Citadel Dock as the Medusa was about to pull away from her berth before the gangways had been recalled.  

Marshall was up on the bridge, actually trying to learn something about the ship from a datapad manual.  He felt the engines fire as well, like everyone else, and found it really surprising since no one on the bridge had given the order.  Then his com opened up with the voice of the second mate.

"Marshall, this is Dogger.  You're gonna get the Medusa clear immediately, and to the nearest patch of open space.  Full throttle, let the whole damn thing rumble.  And if we can get the guns to open fire without hitting anyone for some target practice, or breaking any laws, that's what we're gonna do.  You don't ask questions on this, you just do.  Got it?"

"Who's going to fire the guns?  The gunnery chief is in with the captain.  And so is Morgan."

"What'd I tell you about questions...never mind, I'll figure it out from whatever Babe set up in gun control.  Dogger out.  Start flying!"

Marshall really had no idea what was going on, but it sure sounded important.  He hoped traffic control would understand.  And someone was probably going to have to come up with a really good excuse.
 

[Redbelle]

On the bridge, Duncan was flapping as the watch stander and only person on the bridge. He'd stayed at his comm board but was now hovering between it and the helm uttering the mantra, "We are so dead. We are so dead. We are so dead", Over and over again. His comm board was lighting up as demands to know what was going on, to power down their engines and that Dock securtiy would be notified if they didn't comply swarmed in. Further adding to Duncan's dilemma. "We are so dead. We are so dead. We are so dead"!

 

The hatch to the Bridge opened and Marshall came flying out. Duncan stood before him as he beelined for the helm. "Marshall"! Duncan called out in relief. "What's going on? No one's told me what's happening and the Citadel's going to send security after us if we don't tell them what we're doing but I don't know what we're doing and I was all alone and I called Dogger but he told me to hang tight and I've been hanging and he never called me back and I just wanna knoooooow".

 

Marshall brushed passed him brusquely as he moved passed and jumped into the helm seat as he ran through a quick check. "Haven't locked down moorings? Good. Goodbye moorings"!

 

The ship shuddered as Marshall issued an emergency mooring release command and the ship came free of the Citadel dock. Marshall immediately hit the station keeping thruster's as without the moorings maintaining a link from the Medusa to the station, the ship was now set to move in a straight line from the point they disengaged from the dock, rather than maintain the circular orbit the rotation of the Citadel dictated. From behind, Duncan was wringing his hands in worry.

 

"Maaarshaaaal"!

 

"I don't know"! He spoke back, focusing on his maneurves. "I just got told get to open space fast"!

 

"But... But thats.... Should we be abandoning ship? This sounds like an abandon ship thing"!

 

"Just get on the comm and tell whoever wants to know anything! Tell them we had a sudden build and need to vent. Or a worm's entered our engine governer's or.... Dammit Duncan, your the comm's guy! Tell them something"!

 

"Tell them something..... Right"! With something to do, finally, Duncan returned to his board and set a open general channel. "Attention.... please..... We are soooo dead"!

 

If Marshall had a free hand, he would have facepalmed.

[Kel Riever]

Jenus

"Hey, sorry about that," she called back to Anika, only after trying to catch every detail she could about the skycar until it disappeared.  She felt the air coursing through her lungs from her expenditure, and had to jog a bit back to the others.  "Arian probably couldn't care less that we came for him.  But I cared."

Jenus went to Irina and leaned on her shoulder with her hand.  She looked at Anika, and Naleena though.  "I tried.  I had a chance.  It was a good one, it just didn't work.  We got taken by surprise.  More shots on goal and we could have done it.  As it stands, we'll just have to get her, or at least Arian back, sooner rather than now."  And with a nod to Vayne, Jenus added. "You're part of my crew anytime, Vayne, not that I choose these things.  But Goddess be taken, you impress me."

Her thoughts returning to the skycar, Jenus looked back to where it had been in the sky last she saw, as if it would reappear.  She pointed to the spot, like she was calling it out.  Next time.....

[Redbelle]

Anika gave Jenus a cool look. "I can see why you did it. Count yourself lucky I had to settle for this thing". Anika flicked her soft padded vest with disdain. "Hitting me wearing that wouldn't tickle. You think we're in the clear? Any more? I saw a sniper rifle on her back. That could have been the shooter but there could be more....".

 

Anika looked around at the group and asked. "What do we know? Arian got taken... Do we have any information on who? When? Is he the target? Seems like they just made an effort to mess with us just now. For a sniper to shoot non lethal first and since we're all still alive I'm saying we're either being played or that sniper's really bad at her job".

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena

 

"We're in the clear. I think the shooter was a master assassin, Anika," Naleena replied. "News reports implicate that a Turian matching Arian's description was involved in a murder, or was a material witness. The shooter didn't want to be killed. She wanted us to use non-lethal force so we'd hesitate, and she could escape. I don't have a clue where Arian is. She either took his omni-tool, or he's shut it off. I think we'll check these three buildings, then wrap it up."

 

They spent the next three hours going door to door in the three high rise apartment buildings. Arian was nowhere to be found in them. C-sec had an APB out, and he was a person of interest in a murder. Naleena called off the search, and gathered her team in the parking lot.

 

"We did the best we could. We can't search the entire Zakera Ward," she said. "It's been a very long day, let's head back to the ship and get some rest. This is in C-sec's hands. We'll have to wait to be contacted by the kidnappers or for C-sec to find him."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Dahlia

 

The ship vibrated and Dahlia nearly fell over as it broke free. What in the void is going on? Dogger? What is going on?

 

This was one of the times Dahlia hated the ship. Primitive communication, primitive systems. Dogger was the second mate on the ship and usually could be found in either engineering or gunnery. She dropped down the nearest hatch into engineering for a quick look and asked around and got a bunch of blank stares. Idiots!  Then she headed to gunnery and found Dogger near where Babe usually hung out.

 

Dahlia found him and her aura was flaring blue. "Dogger, what in the void is going on? What is the ship doing breaking moorings without informing me? Where's the Captain?"

[Redbelle]

Anika nodded, but hesitated. "Nally.... I need to go back to the Medusa. Don't....". She said raising a hand. ".... Don't start. I need to talk to Jess and see if.... Look this is getting ridiculous. I want to spend time with you but all my gear is on the Medusa and this team you have is a fast response team....". Anika took a deep breath and went on. "I need to have it out with Jess and figure a way out of this. And I need to find a way to fit in with the rest of your team so I'm..... well.... useful. Jess and I go way back so I know I can convince her. I'll be back when I can and I hope after... We can talk about what I can bring to this team other than Gofer and handy charge dummy for the biotics on the team".

[Redbelle]

Dogger stood in the main gunnery station and was in a conference call with the other stations.

 

"That's right. Soon as we clear the Citadel and we're out of their threat range you wait for my command then fire the rail guns..... No.... No don't put grapeshot canisters.... No, dummy shells..... Dum-Mee sheeell's! They have an explosive charge that'll vaporize the canister's.... Newtons laws jackass! Don't you..... Wait... No wait a minute".

 

Dogger muted the comm and pointed to the firing panal. "Dahlia, your smart right? Figure out what Babe did to make this console fire the gun. She's done something, made changes..... Morgan's authority. He's up with the Cap'n and Jess right now. Don't know what..... don't wanna know either. Saw Largo and Hayasi and Sophie head up to her quarter's with chains. Think it might have something to do with Babe. You hear there was a problem at the TerF office? Scuttlebutt is that Babe got set off and now the Cap'n is handling it.....".

 

Dogger unmuted and called back to the other stations. "Okay, so I'm going to say this again because I don't want you dogs to get this wrong. Wait till we're in the Nebula and fire the guns on my signal. Course I know why! First Mates orders! You follow order's yah dog or ol Dogger will come down and make you regret the day you were born"!

 

Muting the comm again Dogger turned to Dahlia. "Ahhh. Sorry. Lad's need a firm hand sometimes. S'pecially when they don't know what's going on. Long as we make sure they think we know more than they do, situations like this they'll do as their told. Who knows. Maybe it's Jess's idea of a scam. Or she's rubbing someone up the wrong way for something later. She'll let us know when it's time. Meantime, get ready on those guns. We're firing dummy rounds so we'll keep the space clear".

[Kel Riever]

VERA

VERA, in holographic form, busness suit at the ready.  Smokes at the ready. Eyes calm.  VERA was waiting for Naleena as soon as she came through the airlock.

"Boss.  Someone is in the conference room waiting for you.  They asked me not to tell you who, and they are all clear.  I would have to tell you if you ordered me to, but if I may make a suggestion to the finest Spectre to ever roam the galaxy, only able to be tied in her magnificence, you should simply walk into that conference room whenever you are ready to.  The person waiting is patient enough."

VERA took a deep drag on her cigarette.  Flattery she read, would get a person nowhere.  That was a myth created by humans, she was convinced.  Statistics proved otherwise.

[Redbelle]

Across the ship in the Loading bay, Kolme was down in the maintenance hanger tinkering. That Stone woman had been true to her word and much of his workshop had been moved across to her vessel. The ship was only remarkable in how unremarkable it was. Which in itself was remarkable. The ship practically oozed all the qualities Quarians looked for in their ships. Structurally sound with plenty of space aboard for modifying the interior. The water in the cargo container's was puzzling but then, humans sometimes did things that never made sense until later. It wasn't important to Kolme anyway. He had his own priorities.....

 

The Armature's Stone had liberated stood idle. Kolme looked at the one he'd yet to adjust and shuddered. Geth tech indeed and primed to destroy anything they were pointed at. He'd been all for taking them apart when Jess had shown him their computer systems were not Geth. Then she'd shown him her idea's on modifying them.

 

Her designs though, while inspired, warred with Kolme's own pacifist nature. That Quarian creations, built under his nose with his own fabrication tools by the traitorous Yeli who had disappeared.... Well, he could get his revenge. If not on her then by subverting the tools of destruction she'd created into something more benign and useful to society.

 

Then there was the message from Anika. He'd read it and seen she had a problem in her Armor. to much time to put it on in an emergency. That was indeed a design oversight on the part of the designers. to much pre-contact methodologies had survived past learning of better ways to go about engineering and design. It was quaint really. Adorable perhaps even. But as Kolme started brainstorming solutions the answers came to mind quickly and the fabrication machines started spitting out the parts he'd need....

 

That was when his comm went off. "Kolme? Hi  I'm Sophie. I'm.... Not now I'm on the comm!... Sorry. I'm sending Gwen down with a design for a chair....".

 

"A chair"? Kolme asked, taken aback. "Sophie is it? Perhaps you are not aware of who you are talking to. My engineering skills are unparalleled. I can service a broken FTL drive with a tooth pick and make it run better with nothing more than duct tape and a pound of iron. My skills are somewhat better spent in other area's than designing chairs".

 

"Even one that can sit a person inside it and resist two tonnes of force"?

 

"....... What"?

 

"Right... Better make it three.... Oh geez she broke it?.... Better make it four... No five! Look, come up with something and I'll come down and let you know what it's for. We're nearly done up here I think.... uh oh. Anyway Gwen should be there by now. Gotta go.  Catch you later"!

 

As the comm clicked off Kolme heard a noise behind him and the sound of feet pattering away. He turned, but saw nobody. He did however see a data slate that hadn't been there a moment ago. Picking it up he looked at the screen and saw a digital post-it on the display.

 

To Kolme.

 

Captain want's this please.

 

Gwen.

 

Kolme looked about his fabrication workshop and sighed. It looked like life on board ship was going to be even more busy than life on the Citadel.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena

 

Naleena walked over and grabbed Anika by her arm. "Gofer? Is that what you think you are to the team?" she said then sighed and looked up at Anika with her pale blue eyes, her chiseled facial features accentuated in the lighting. "But you're right. While you're everything to me, you don't know the team, and they don't know you. You've worked with them on one mission when I had you as a fire team leader. You have a home here. You'll fit in," she winked at Anika as they climbed in a taxi that Naleena hailed and drove back to the ship.

 

When they returned, the Medusa  was gone.

 

"What? Jess left and didn't even tell us?" Naleena asked and turned to Anika. "I guess you'll just have to stay aboard a bit longer. I'll have VERA raise the ship and see if she can find out what's going on. Why don't you use my shower, and I'll be up in a few minutes. VERA said I have to see someone in the conference room right away."

[Redbelle]

Anika stared at the berth the Medusa had been in. And after a long while, she sighed.

 

"......Grud dammit Jess..... First the Janiri.... Then Medusa"? She turned and followed Naleena back to the Janiri. "One day, one day I'll have my own ship and you'll all be my crew. Then when you all come back from shore leave you return and find me and the ship gone and everyone will remember poor little Anika, all alone on the dock side waiting for her ship to come in and bouncing between other ships and, and.... Oh forget it". She grumbled as she trudged back to the Janiri. "A shower sounds just what I need.... If you finish your meeting fast you might catch me in it". Anika said impishly as a little of her good humor shone back through.

[Kel Riever]

Iole

The door to the Janiri's conference room slid open.  Iole sat in one of the chairs, in her suit of Commando Leathers, with a rather earth-like dark brown leather jacket over it.  She had a duffle back laying on top of the table.  

Golden eyes turned towards Naleena, ready to receive whatever it was that she had to say, or do.
 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena entered the conference room and saw Iole. She closed the door behind her, sighed, smiled, and opened her arms.

[Kel Riever]

That response drew a tear from Iole.  She jumped up, and crushed into Naleena's arms.

"I'm sorry!"  Iole hugged her tight.  "I mean, Goddess, I needed someone to understand."

[Cknarf]

Using his talons, Quintus plucked a few strings on the shiny black guitar. There were obvious scratch marks near the sound hole, but the pickguard was free of any blemishes, likely due to the fact that Quintus was left handed. 

 

"What do ya think?" Quintus asked, while fiddling with one of the tuning keys. Frank caught a glimpse of the markings on the head.

 

 CF Martin & Co.

 

Est. 1833

 

"That's it?"

 

"What do you mean that's it?"

 

"You made it seem like a big deal. I doubt Marius would give a sh*t about a guitar."

 

"He would if he found out how much I paid for it... Dropped a fuckload on this thing." Quintus attempted a brief dexterity exercise.

 

"How much is a fuckload?"

 

"A hundred."

 

"A hundred credits? That's hardly--"

 

"Thousand."

 

"Son of a b*tch." Frank chuckled. "What, was it fulla coke or somethin'?"

 

"No, but it was still totally worth it, though. The ladies love it."

 

"Can you play it?"

 

"Pffft. Can I play it. Of course I can play it! Kinda sorta. A little bit..." Quintus trailed off as he fiddled with the strings in no particular order. "I just don't know many songs, that's all."

 

Frank just shook his head.

 

"Here. I'll play somethin'." Quintus plucked the first part of twinkle twinkle little star. Badly.

 

"So... you bought a guitar you can hardly play for a hundred thousand credits? Couldn't you have got something a bit more... reasonable?"

 

"Hey, this one's special, remember?"

 

"How so?"

 

"The guy I bought it from said is belonged to some famous Earth musician. I forget his name." Quintus shrugged and started plucking again.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena held Iole tight. "You silly, crazy Asari," she said. "You could have been put in prison for 40 years. Don't ever pull a stunt like that again. I know you love Frank, but I also know that there are rules in the military. I did some checking. If you want out, you can apply for a discharge and they'll approve it after this tour of duty which may be over in a couple of years or less."

 

Naleena put her hands on Iole's shoulders and looked into her golden eyes. "And it would be a shame to deny the galaxy of those eyes for 40 years. I'm just glad to have you back. So here's what we're going to do. You can mark down that you were on personal leave for a few days, and that I neglected to inform the team, and I forgot about it," Naleena said, and then admonished her. "But this is the only time that this can happen. Is that understood?"

[Kel Riever]

(ooc:  Iole's eyes are actually mostly gold.  She has gold flecks on her skin, like freckles.  There's this other asari, though, with silver flecked blue eyes, from way back when...)

Iole nodded, and wiped her eyes.  "It's that, first, I hope you get to meet this matriarch named Kira one day.  She...she knocked me out of it.  I mean, we could have run, maybe forever.  This crew...it's a big galaxy.  But I never would have been able to go certain places, and I always would be looking over my shoulder.  Even when Frank was gone.  So...oh, void...it really is much more exciting, Naleena.  I think I know where I want to be, it really affirmed a lot for me."  Iole thought of Frank.  "Everything, really.  I want the whole deal for as long as I can have it.  There was this fear that...that you know we...we have so little time with those we love, that aren't us.  Which is most of us.  He's a human, Naleena, and I...I got scared I was going to lose him."

Grabbing Naleena again, she could feel Iole tremble, in a combination of fear and her thrill.  "Something to look forward to.  I've got something to look forward to." 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena thought about Anika and took her hand. "Matriarch Kira sounds like a wise Asari. Every one of us needs something to look forward to, Iole. Even your Spectre," she said and smiled. "But some of us have to be patient. Write to Frank and explain. Ask him to wait for two years. You can visit him on leave. Two years isn't that long. I have waited two centuries for this one. So, if you'll excuse me, I have that someone waiting for me now," she squeezed Iole's hand and left for her quarters.

 

She entered her quarters and found Anika in the shower, disrobed and joined her.