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[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Luscious lay zip-tied on the floor. It appeared he had struggled to get free, and his hands were a bit blue. Well Naleena did say to make sure they were tight. He heard hard footsteps hitting the floor of the bridge echoing off the walls. He turned his head and saw her approaching. It appeared to be in slow motion in his drunken stupor her black leather coat flared behind her.

 

She reached down and grabbed Luscious with one hand and picked him up into the air by the collar and threw him into the chair he had been sitting. Naleena was furious. Many of her team were injured and some gravely wounded. Her ship was partially malfunctioning. And her quarry had escaped. It was this man's fault. All of it.

 

Luscious had feared Iyana but was able to extend his miserable life. He knew there would be no such compromises.

 

Naleena started in. Unlike Jess' anger, or like Iyana's mockery, Naleena's was calm and cold. "You realize what you've done, don't you Luscious? I hope you're proud of this: Sixteen murders; mutiny; torture; and a whole slew of minor charges I won't even bother to read them."

 

"I didn't kill the sixteen crewmen!" Luscious objected.

 

"Stop your sniveling. You've heard of transference of guilt? It means if you take part in a crime and one of your compatriots commits the crime you're as guilty as they are? We have your entire confession on video. But that's not why I'm here," Naleena said, and then put her face about three inches from Luscious'. "I'm here to find out more about this mysterious person, Iyana, and you're going to tell me everything you know about her."

 

"And if I don't?"

 

"You have no say in the matter because I'm going to take it directly from your mind. I'm going to take every last detail about her, what she did, and what you did aboard this ship after you betrayed your captain. I will warn you. This is going to hurt... a lot. The more you resist, the worse it is going to hurt. If you put up a lot of resistance, although I can't see that you would have any at all, you will feel like your head is going to explode. But I know you like to do things the easy way. You're a survivor. Oh, and one last thing. Don't try to think lies. I can tell the difference between the truth and lies." Naleena said and her eyes went black.

 

Naleena saw it all from the beginning to when Dahlia put zip ties on him. She learned everything about Iyana that she showed Luscious, or that she spoke in the general vicinity - things she might have said over a communicator within earshot. She saw the savagery. Everything. Luscious put up a pathetic resistance. When she broke the probe, Luscious was still alive but was bleeding from his nose. Naleena had what she needed, and she partitioned it in a part of her mind. She would show all of this to Jess so that Jess could decide Luscious' fate.

 

"If it was up to me, I think slow decompression in the airlock would do the trick," Naleena said. "We'll have to wait for Jess."

[Cknarf]

Frank nodded to Essul, who was standing guard outside the Medusa's medbay.  He reached for the door controls.

I'll probably just be in the way.

He stepped away from the door, and sat down, with his back against the wall.  A set of Alliance tags, blackened with carbon, hung around his neck.

[Kel Riever]

Aboard the Khukuri, Xhuan Setura stood over the pilot’s shoulder until she was positive the ship was on its way, outrunning her enemies, and on it way to the Mass Relay out of the system.  As soon as she felt safe, she transferred command.  Xhuan raced to the hangar where Iyana’s interceptor had landed.

When Xhuan stepped out of the elevator, the hangar was abandoned of all personnel as Iyana had requested.  The interceptor, caught at an odd angle by powerful deck magnets, was still; the loss of a thruster had obviously made landing difficult.  Xhuan could see Iyana’s shoulders and helmet through the lightly tinted cockpit glass, her head angled downward as if she was taking a rest. 

Before Xhuan could move to get a closer view, Iyana teleported out of the cockpit to stand in front of her.  Iyana’s armor was fissured in places and her right flank was covered in a bloody sheen.  Three red holes in a tight pattern were clustered on the right side of her abdomen.  Despite what Xhuan thought must have been severe pain, Iyana stood like a statue.  Then one of her legs trembled as if about to give out.

“Iyana!”  Xhuan cried.  She ran to put an arm around her master for support.  “My superior, forgive me.  I must get you to your quarters and have the surgeon attend to your injuries.”

For once, Iyana let Xhuan help her.  “It pleases me to know you are not so stupid as to think to bring me to the medical bay.  No one can see me like this.  You understand.”

Xhuan stared with her vibrant green eyes directly at Iyana.  “I do understand.”

With a sigh, Iyana pulled off her helm, tossed it to the deck, and ran her fingers through her white, sweaty hair.  “It would have been sweeter if Morgan fired too.  I had him lined up perfectly to shoot Stone.  Of course things would have been worse for me, but you know my secret for pain, Xhuan.”

“My superior, we should attend to your wounds immediately.”

“No. Not so fast,” Iyana raised a palm in protest.  “First take me around to the other side of my interceptor.  Some trick of Stone’s leaves me wondering how she got that rig to catch me.  I tell you that woman is in the wrong career.  Blame the lack of her full array of original organs.  Maybe part of her brain was replaced along with that artificial eye.  Otherwise she’d know to work with me.”

“Not all see your way, my superior.”

“So flattering, Xhuan.  You know how to cheer me up.”  Iyana leaned on Xhuan for support but guided them around to the opposite side of her craft.  There, the cavity of the lost thruster stared, but inside of the cavity was the rig, which had welded itself to the interceptor, out of sight of cameras.

“No explosives detected?” Iyana asked Xhuan with a tinge of uncertainty.

Xhuan confirmed, “Of course not, my superior.  All landing craft are scanned for such things before landing, emergency or not.” 

Iyana laughed, then gasped from her wounds.  “Jess Stone, you dark witch, you have me enthralled.  Was this rig her fist shaking at the sky?  Get me closer.”

“My superior?...”  Xhuan was cautious.

“Come on.  Stone is semi-intelligent.  She somehow got the bomb I mounted on the Medusa’s spine diffused.  She was the one who didn’t hit me with something that could harm Morgan when I tempted her.  The cat likes to play.”

Leaning on Xhuan, Iyana moved closer to the welding rig attached to her interceptor.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena threw Luscious out of the chair onto the floor and sat in the chair herself. She shoved him face down, put her foot on him, took out a cigarette, lit it, and leaned forward resting her elbows on her knees. She was waiting for Jess to show up.

 

She began to talk to Luscious. "It boggles my mind how you could do such things. Mutiny is one thing. I can almost understand how one could be power hungry enough to take over an enterprise and run it as their own. But you couldn't do it because you didn't have the backing of the crew. You had to contact this particular Shadow Broker operative to do it for you.

 

"The trouble with people like you is that you always underestimate those whom you contract to do your dirty work and overestimate your own abilities. If it was getting rid of one pesky captain on the ship, fine. That requires a simple assassin. But you have neither the inclination nor the skill set to captain a vessel. I have your idiotic ramblings both on video and in my brain..."

 

Luscious made a grunting sound.

 

Naleena raised her boot and stomped it squarely on his back. "Shut up!" she screamed. "Don't make me kill you before Jess gets here. Trust me, you want her to kill you and not me. Death by dismemberment... I've never killed anyone by that method before, but with you I might make an exception."

 

Luscious was shaking, and Naleena noticed a puddle of urine under Luscious.

 

"For the sake of the Goddess! Luscious, you need some more wine to help you relax a bit." Naleena said and put her cigarette in the corner of her mouth, took the bottle of wine from which Luscious had been drinking in her right hand, and grabbed Luscious' by his hair with her left and made him drink. "There, that's better, isn't it? That's the way you do things. That's how you stood by and watched as fifteen of your crew were dismembered alive by that witch you hired. And you ended up not as the ship's captain, but as another one of her lackeys. But that wasn't enough. You had to torture and rape one of them yourself. You disgust me. You have no idea how much I am having to restrain myself from ending your miserable life. The longer I'm in your proximity, the longer I'm going to need to spend in a shower." She let go of his face and sat back in the chair.

 

Jess would arrive soon, she hoped. The sooner Luscious was dealt with the better.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

In the Medusa's medical bay, the doctor was working on Morgan. The scans indicated that the wounds were very severe. One of the rounds had hit his spleen, another his liver and the third passed through, narrowly missing his aorta.

 

"The medigel slowed the bleeding but there are so many small blood vessels in this area that it would be impossible to get to them all without surgery," the doctor said, "You did well to put him into a biotic coma. That was quick thinking. You probably saved his life. Can you keep him there while I make the incisions to do a deep application of medi-gel?"

 

Dahlia nodded. She couldn't speak without breaking concentration.

 

The doctor proceeded to work and removed the tiny fragment in the liver and applied medigel, and did the same to the spleen. The medigel took only minutes to seal the blood vessels and would stay that way until Morgan's body healed itself over the next few days. The surgery was a success. Dahlia left Morgan with a kiss on his forehead for good luck. The doctor had a supply of synth blood universal type and Morgan received two pints over the next two hours. Morgan would be unconscious for about six hours. With his condition stable, Dahlia left med bay and made her way to the Shuttle Bay.

[Terca]

Audron, Hermes Ridge, Noveria

 

Deidrus stood in the command deck as his ship soared through Noveria's freezing winds towards the listed coordinates of EK's development station. It was officially logged in Noveria's registrar however it was possible that the exactly location may have been edited. Many facilities were built into ridges or mountains to make them more easily protected from the elements or espionage, if the EK facility was Cerberus then it was likely that there would be subtle ways of making sure that someone passing by wouldn't just find it easily.

 

But the Salarian who was overseeing the records seemed quite pleased with his own notes. If he had that much confidence then he would notice a mistake, even the small ones which make the small misdirections of espionage oh so useful. So the Spectre was mostly banking on the intercept FoF on the Audron to detect the contact pings the facility would use when they needed emergency supplies. It was possible that they used an honor system based on knowing where to land but that would leave them high and dry. It would then require a ground sweep, something which was time-ineffective and dangerous in the Noveria climate. For now, it was just the issue of getting to the coordinates.

 

A tone on his omni-tool played and he activated direct comms.

 

"Brief checkup concluded. Callum and Sabina are in mission condition. No concussive effects and the armor is undamaged." It was Septimus who had taken the liberty of checking over the armor and corpus of the other Turians involved in the crash. Deidrus himself was fine, he had done enough on his own in the past to self-diagnose potential issues with armor or mind. His crew he wanted to be certain of. "They will be ready for any missions on Noveria."

 

"Make sure that Sabina has her weaponry in condition. Eteon never used hers and was self-conscious enough that taking her as Iicos was simple." Deidrus said before cutting off transmission. Septimus was far too used to Deidrus love of curt discussion on missions to be offended.

 

The Iicos was of course an exploratory member of the Hierarchy who needed to be judged. Most expeditions bar those that hung by threads carried at least one. Before, Eteon was the Iicos handled by the Audron and with her leaving (and their lack of a biotic) the Cabals were asked to send a member. Sabina, a tech expert, was the response. Deidrus would have little direct interaction aside from missions but those below him, the Opto in particular, would be present most times in order to watch her progress. That didn't mean that the Spectre wasn't conscious of the youth, it was a shame on a Lieutenant for the weakest in their ranks to be gravely injured since it meant their entire command structure had failed to perform a part of their duties.

 

It gave him some stress, but also gave his mind something to be distracted with innocently while he waited for the combat zone tone to sound.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Essul tilted his head to frank as he watched him lean against the wall, greeting his comrade with respect as he analyzed the small body language movements and details.

 

"You look awful..." Essul concluded, taking a position opposite of frank as his eyes went to the dogtags around his neck, recognizing the pattern and glaring a bit, "What happened down there?" he asked, though he seemed a bit out of it as he continued to stare.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Vayne let out a sigh, wincing in pain as he continued to stay where he was, slumped on the ground with a dagger in him. He had faded in and out, enough to see them take eteon away and the others to leave.

 

"Good...I wouldn't want to stay here either..." Vayne said aloud and to himself, eye looking to golt, or rather golts dead carcass, as he couldn't help but smile.

 

"You know...seeing you like that...it puts a smile on my face." Vayne said to the dead body as he looked up to the ceiling, "The last member of Captain Sangar's crew...laid to rest like a damned varren...." he said as he felt his eye getting a bit heavy, knowing it was probably from a lack of blood. He hadn't told them about his damaged hump from omega, the organs preventing him from having the safety of a redundant vital organ system, from going into blood rages, even slowing his healing down a bit.

 

It wasn't that important, though it did meant his heart was doing a bit more work to compensate for his damage secondary heart...that could be a problem.

 

"No need to worry them..." he said half awake, half asleep, a content smile still on his face as he felt himself drifting away, "Alls right for now....think I'll take a...a quick nap..." he said as he closed his eye, 'Just for a few minutes...to help perk me up...'

 

And then the old krogan felt into a catonic state, as his body worked hard to keep his metabolism going and his vital organs functioning. Consciousness was a luxury at this point, there'd be plenty of time for that sort of thing when he was better, or dead.

[Redbelle]

Jess stood in the room that Morgan had been shot in. She'd climbed out of the Medusa's bowel's ages ago and recovered her helmet... Then she'd looked at the spot on the ground where Morgan had fallen.

 

It should have been Iyana. But that woman had been cagey. Laid a trap within a trap within a trap for them and she'd been helpless to see through, much less pull it down around her ears.

 

She could do better.

 

She would be better.

 

A slight shudder reverberated through the souls of her feet and she roused herself. The ship still needed attending to. Things weren't over till she was on her bridge and she made sure they were over. Her comm had messages which she'd been ignoring.

 

Iyana had the cube.

 

Grud.... Jess realised she didn't even know what was on it! It was just a, 'in case of emergency' trinket handed over from captain to captain and now it was in Iyana's hands!

 

She had to talk to Fox. Let him know. Find out if he had a cube and what his contained to get a clue as to what Iyana had taken from them when she spotted the data slates that had fallen onto the floor when the table had tipped. She picked them up and examined the data on them.

 

It was more than she knew about them. More than she wanted other's to know about herself! Iyana had these? How? Why?

 

A shudder again. The ship wanted her on the bridge and she stepped lively. But deep down she knew they had a bigger problem at hand.

 

They had a mole.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The Janiri crew arrived with anti-grav platforms to move Vayne. Six crewmembers lifted the old Krogan enough and Irina slid the platform underneath him.

"We've got this from here," one of the crewmen said.

 

"I'll be alright." Vayne coughed a bit from being moved. "You did good out there, Irina."

 

"I'm going with ya. I should have my head and wrist looked at anyway." Irina said. "Besides, I'm Krannt now. You're going to have to explain how that works to me, but I've got to make a quick visit to the lavatory, and I see one right over there. I'll catch up."

[Cknarf]

"Nothing I want to talk about right now."  Frank stared straight ahead. "But thanks for asking, buddy."

Frank's gaze shifted to the right of Essul.

"Hello again."

"Frank. You?"

He looked down at the tags, before taking them in his hand.  Using his thumb, he wiped away the soot.

"James, huh? That was my dad's--" Frank looked back up.  His brow wrinkled in confusion.

Modifié par Cknarf, 09 octobre 2014 - 08:02 .

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Your father was in the alliance?" Essul asked curiously, still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. There wasn't anger in his voice, or animosity fo any kind, but it wasn't the warmest way one could ask the question either.

[Redbelle]

Jess tried to ignore the vandalism aboard her ship.

 

She was really going to kill that woman for this. Kill her slow and painfully with an axe.

 

She couldn't ignore it though. Her mind was to in tune with noticing the odd discrepancy and so she saw everything that woman had done. She'd need month's to undo the damage and catalogue the repairs. As long as all ships systems still worked they could probably do that under thrust.

 

Needed to fix the sensors.... Do it later. Just get the ship moving and out of this place......

 

Grud she hoped Morgan was doing okay. If only to find out how he'd found out what he had whispered in her ear.

 

And on top of everything..... A mole hunt. Or maybe not?

 

The entered the central lift tube and rode it up to the bridge. When the door's opened she spotted someone......

 

Sitting in her chair.

 

Jess planted her hands on her hips and blew an exasperated breath. "Well I guess since you helped me get my ship back you may as well get a view from the best seat in the house".

[Cknarf]

"Huh?" Frank looked up to Essul.  "Oh! Yeah, he was. Honorably discharged after first contact. How did you know?" He looked back to the tags in his hand.  He didn't remember picking them up, let alone putting them on.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"It was a guess..." Essul said with a simple nod, arms crossed as he looked ahead, not at frank but just out into space it seemed, "I assume he was wounded in an act of bravery as well, since it was an honorable discharge..." Essul said as he looked to frank again, this time with a bit of curiosity in his gaze, "I have to say though, you never struck me as the nobility type, Frank Eli."

[Cknarf]

"That hurts, buddy.  It really does." Frank chuckled.

"Anyway," Frank waved his hand "The turians messed him up pretty bad.  He never talked about it, but he didn't have to.  His scars told the story well enough." Frank ran a finger across his face in multiple places. "The strangest part is, despite all he went through, I never, not one time, heard him bad mouth the turians." Frank shook his head. "You know how some of those old Alliance guys can be." He said, while standing up.  Something down the hall caught his attention.  "Finally.  Here comes Vayne. I was beginning to think that they had forgotten about him."

[Cainhurst Crow]

"No...I don't know how they'd be." Essul answered honestly, understanding a bit more about his comrade while also raising More questions. In the hegemony, awards and accolades were awarded only to those of superior birthday. Enlisted officers like him would never have mention outside of a general acknowledge of service. To get an honorable discharge one had to have both the right blood and right spirit for it.

Seeing the krogan 've wheeled in unconscious, essul couldnt help but wince as he saw the condition he was in, eyes catching sight of the piece of metal inside of his chest.He made way as they escorted him to medical, staying quite as he watched like a hawk.

[Cknarf]

As Vayne was carted in, Frank peeked inside the medbay, in an attempt to see how things were going.  The doors closed, before he could get a good look. He shrugged, and turned back to Essul.

"So you've never experienced any hostility from humans, simply because you're batarian?" Frank raised any eyebrow. "Try chatting with Irina sometime, then.  I heard she was on Elysium..."

[Cainhurst Crow]

"There's been hostility, however..." Essul stated bluntly as he looked frank in the eyes, "I've never meet a retired human of anything. Or an old member of your kind who wasn't from q historical vid in fsct..." Essul explained, the edge in his voice softening considerably.

"The only humans I've ever meet were criminals and enemy combatants. Neither have wanted me to live for very long..." he said as he closed his eyes ans sighed, "Same for turians, krogan, asari, even other batarians outside hegemonic space..." he said as he looked towards the ground.

"This crew....its ths first time I've been able to interact with foreigners and not have meet with rancor, or needed to use deception tk do so."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The entered the central lift tube and rode it up to the bridge. When the door's opened she spotted someone......

 

Sitting in her chair.

 

Jess planted her hands on her hips and blew an exasperated breath. "Well I guess since you helped me get my ship back you may as well get a view from the best seat in the house".

 

Naleena sat in Jess' Captain's Chair smoking a cigarette with her left boot planted securely between Luscious' shoulder blades. She had an expression unlike any Jess had ever seen her show before. There was something very cold about the way she looked. Upon seeing Jess, Naleena reached down and grabbed Luscious' feet and extinguished her cigarette on the sole of his boots. Then she stood and flipped Luscious with her right foot sending him rolling toward Jess.

 

"I'm sorry I didn't wait for you, Jess, but some things simply could not wait," Naleena said. "I've finished my interrogation of this filthy creature. I took it from his mind. I was not gentle. The pathetic creature even tried deception. You should know that I warned him ahead of time. I told him that it was going to hurt, and that the more he resisted, the more it would hurt.

 

"But the guilty always resist. It's the fear. It's the fear of what we might find out, and he had a lot to fear. Didn't you Luscious?"

 

Naleena began walking slowly around him toward Jess, her heels clacking on the floor.

 

"Then I began to contemplate how best to punish him for his transgressions. I even considered death by dismemberment which is something I would never consider in the past, but such are the gravity of his deeds that they may warrant such barbarism. However, he is fortunate that I loathe to lower myself to that level. And this is your ship, Captain Stone, and this is your prisoner. His fate is in your hands.

 

"Before you decide anything, I wish for you to join with me for a moment so that I may share with you everything that I discovered. There were some interesting things about Iyana in that mind of his, too. Know this, Jess, that this is not over. I will bring Iyana to justice for her crimes."

 

Naleena finally arrived at a position where she stood facing Jess and held out her hands palms up. "Will you join with me?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Secure Com Channel Alpha

 

To: Cell Leader 4

 

What the hell? You knew where I was embedded and somehow the information I gave you ended up in the hands of Operative Iyana. I could have been killed. I warned you about Operative Iyana before, yet you gave her the information. You didn’t see firsthand the kind of monster she is. Cannibalism? Torture? And we fought an army of creatures that must have been the results of some failed genetic experiments. The ironic thing was that she had no intention to keep the Medusa. This was just a big game to her including killing the crew. How many people must die for this woman's amusement before the Broker does the right thing? And what I still don't understand is why you gave this witch the information I gave you. Fortunately I survived otherwise you would have lost one of your top operatives. What the hell gives?

 

Operative 66

 

End transmission

[Terca]

Flushing the poison from Eteon's system was doing her good, but she was still feeling some of the more nasty side effects, namely, immune failure.

 

The doctor had worked quickly on her once Morgan was out of immediate danger and after administering an antidote knew there was something up when she didn't eventually rise, and her lungs began to fill with fluid. It took a few minutes for him to determine the issue, Turian pulmonary edema. Something which was exceedingly rare but was common in the past. Fortunately, with a connection to the extranet he was able to find out that in 2020 the Turians had synthesized an agent to kill what was a common plague virus in their colonies. The virus commonly caused the fluid in the lungs, but went extinct once proper treatments were carried out.

 

Eteon, however, should be immune as all Turians were. She wasn't immuno-compromised, her medical history said as much. So there was an internal factor.

 

Once it was clear the poison was at fault, immune system boosters were pumped into her. The fluid in her lungs was still an issue but for now she was stable. He just hoped nothing else was lurking in her blood stream.

[Kel Riever]

To:  Avan Rezal

From:  Interstellar Commercial Bank

Your account has received a deposit of Cr. 205,000

A memo was attached to the deposit:

Nice job.  The client was pleased, and paid a bonus of Cr. 38,000.  Expect further requests in the future. --T

End message. 
 

[Kel Riever]

The crew moving Vayne from the Janiri had stopped at the Medusa’s medical bay on the way to the shuttle.  Jobe came out to look at the krogan and give him a once-over before he was sent on his way.  The old doctor of Jess’ ship had seen so much, but to care for the people who rescued him brought him such relief it was all put aside for the moment.

Jobe could see the krogan had it bad.  For some reason, normal regeneration wasn’t taking over.  Jobe made notes on a datapad for the receiving physician on the Janiri, nodded to the crew, and Vayne was sent on his way.

~ ~ ~ ~

Iole had been with Naleena’s Scythe the entire time.  When she had received word of the wounded, she couldn’t help but scan the names and breathed an inward sigh of relief when Frank wasn’t on the list.  She paid a bit of attention to Jenus and Tallis, but once she read that the wounds weren’t severe for them, she smiled slightly.  It wasn’t a fight for them if they didn’t feel it some.

So much was going on that Iole didn’t see any of her companions after Mira left until Jenus showed back up in the bay, alongside the crew who were bringing up the krogan, Vayne.  Jenus had her commando leathers ripped, and Iole snorted a laugh; Jenus looked like she had stepped out of a B science fiction movie, with all the rips in just the right places.  “Showing off a bit?” Iole teased Jenus.

“Oh, look who had it so easy, golden eyes.”

“I bet you’re fishing for a compliment,” Iole replied and winked.  “Well, it’s your lucky day.  Nice job.  And I mean it.”

Jenus slapped Iole on the shoulder as she walked past.  “Irina should be here in a moment.  I’m hopping the shuttle back to the Janiri, so is Irina.  And you’re flying.”

Iole looked uncertain, “But…”

Jenus stepped closer to Iole, being somewhat serious for once, “Listen, it wasn’t easy for most.  Your guy is fine…”

“He’s not…”

“Shut up, Iole.  He may need someone to talk to him.  But Naleena trusts you and this krogan needs someone with a steady hand flying the shuttle.  Mira and Tallis are staying.  I’m sure you’ll be back, especially if Naleena needs you.  You want to confirm it with Mira?”

“No,” Iole answered, understanding. “You’ve got a thick crest but you aren’t a liar.”

Jenus laughed. “Goldie.  I only lie when I say something nice to you.”

“*ssh*le!”

[Kel Riever]

To:  Snowman/Operative 66

From:  Leader Cell 4

Aren’t you making assumptions?  Are we going to level accusations?  You haven’t gotten a satisfactory answer back to me on the rogue agent.  Shall I not trust you?

This is a hard business and people who purchase the information will do what they want.  Our client’s are confidential, and their use of our data is their concern, not ours.  Let’s not ruin a good working relationship, Snowman.

If this is a veiled demand for more assets, then fine.  You have another Cr. 17,000 to your account as of this message.  Don’t ask me for more until more work is done.  Your next target will be submitted to you shortly.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina caught up with team moving Vayne in the shuttle bay. Dahlia was there, too. They were loading Vayne onto the shuttle to move him to the Medical Bay on the Janiri since the doctor on the Medusa had a difficult task dealing with Eteon’s condition.

 

“I can’t tell you how much I hate this,” Vayne said.

 

“Vayne, you earned the ride. Dr. Tolus will have that thing out of you in no time.” Irina said and smiled at him.

 

“I don’t like Salarians poking around in places they don’t belong, and that’s all around the insides of a Krogan,” Vayne said. “You never know what they’re minds are thinking.”

 

“Tolus is alright. At least that’s what I’ve heard from Textbrain, and I’d take her word on that,” Irina laughed.

 

Jenus saw Irina hobbling at a fairly normal pace while she was helping load Vayne. “Red!”

 

“Not so loud,” Irina replied. “I got slammed into a wall by a giant Krogan.”

 

“That was before she blew the top of his skull off,” Vayne said.

 

“I think every bone in my body hurts,” Irina replied. “I think he outweighed me by about 2300 pounds.”

 

“Damn! I knew you were crazy. Tell me about it!” Jenus inquired.

 

“Jenus, I’ll tell you what. When we get back to the ship, after I’ve had some *yawns* rest, and after Vayne gets out of Medbay, we’ll get together and Vayne can tell you what a real battle is like.” Irina looked over at the old Krogan knowing that this was his battle story to tell. Right now, I’d kiss ya but you’re on duty.”

 

Irina climbed into the shuttle, took her seat in the front behind Jenus, and strapped in.

 

Dahlia was quiet, and she got on the shuttle, and sat near Irina.

 

“What’s eating you?” Irina asked.

 

Dahlia turned to Irina, her eyes appeared sunken. “I held Morgan throughout his surgery. I kept his mind from feeling pain, and kept him calm and slowed his heart rate to a crawl so that he wouldn’t bleed out while the doctor applied medi-gel to all of the small areas…. I’m very tired.”

 

“You should get your own wound looked at.” Irina said.

 

“Perhaps later.”

 

The shuttle arrived on the Janiri. Vayne was taken to Med Bay, and Irina went with him. Dahlia went to her quarters.