Chapter 1 - Sophira T'Stali
On board the shuttle, Sophira T'Stali sat restless on her flight to Thessia, her home world. She had cut her 3 month trip to Illium short after learning of the reaper attacks across the galaxy, horrified by the destruction on Earth and Palaven, to return to her wife Kaylari. She knew their world would not stay free of the reapers for long and wanted to make the most of it before they got there. Business was booming on Illium too, she thought. In the one month i was there, i had made 6 months worth of profits. But never mind, life is too precious to be greedy, and what we have already is more than enough. I wonder where Kaylari is stationed, i cant wait to see her again, to hold her in my arms...
"This is your captain speaking, we have reached the Athena Mass Relay and should touch down on Thessia in approximately 1 hour. Entering the relay in 10... 9... 8...".
"Oh great, yet another one of these things", Sophira moaned to the Asari next to her, "there's something about them that gives me a bad feeling, you know? They look so ominous and threatening". She watched the giant reley grow bigger as they approached it, and when they got close, the rings began to spin faster. Then suddenly the shuttle was enveloped in the mass effect field, and her attention was drawn to the beautiful aurora glowing bright blue against the darkness of empty space.
"This is the only thing that gets me through it" replied the Asari. After a sharp jolt, they were in the Parnitha System. The shuttle could hold up to 20 passengers along with the 2 crew members, and it was packed. Most of the people were asari, but there was also a female human and a male turian. As a merchant, Sophira could see the looks of hidden anguish on their faces as they whispered to each other. With the human and turian home worlds devastated by relentless reaper invasions, she guessed they were wanting to avoid the war by staying on the 'Crown Jewel of the Galaxy'.
"Are you two okay?" she asked them softly.
The human could no longer hold in her emotions as she buried her face in her partners neck. The turian gently wrapped his arms around her, doing his best to stay strong for her. "We'll be fine thanks, it's your people we're worried about" he said, his voice deep, almost smooth.
Confused, Sophira asked "what do you mean?".
"We lived together on the Citadel and, after seeing the vids of whats happened to our worlds, our fears turned to your world. We're C-SEC officers, so the Cerberus attack delayed our plans to come out here, but. We just don't want to see Thessia share the same fate". He spoke with the cool confidence only a turian could manage in times like these.
His partner lifted her head, blinded by tears and she cried "We just wont let that happen. We wont!" Sophira watched, like everyone else, as the tears fell down from the humans truthful eyes. Ashamed she thought, how could i be so judgmental These are such good people, a rarity these days, and i suspected them cowards. By the Goddess, i am so stupid!
Her eyes never left the woman's such a rich and deep blue, glistening with the layer of tears, and after a long moment she said "I... I don't know what to say. Your actions are humbling".
The woman rested her head on her partners arm, and closed her eyes. The man in turn leaned his head against hers and rubbed her shoulder. Before he too closed his eyes, he gave a weak, yet reassuring, smile to me. Feeling eyes on her, Sophira looked around the shuttle to find a justicar watching her. Suddenly nervous, she quickly looks away and decides to call Kaylari.
Pulling out her head piece, wriggling around in the seat trying to get it out of her unnecessarily tight pants, felt so awkward knowing the justicar was keeping an eye on her. A couple of taps on her omni-tool set up the call and the ring tone started in the head piece. "Hey Soph!" said an excited Kaylari
"Hi babe! how are you?" Sophira replied, forgetting all about the justicar.
"Im great, survived the trip through the relays did you?" Kaylari teased.
"Yeah we just got through the last one, thank the Goddess. We're in the Parnitha System now, about 50 minutes away from the space port".
"Oh that's great Soph, i cant wait until you get home. Hey you'll never guess where im stationed. At the Temple of Athame! Top priority security, Commander Shepard is on his way here!".
"Wow! You'll get to meet Shepard? By the Goddess you are lucky, I've been following his journey on Battlespace". Sophira exclaimed enviously, looking out the windows as if to see the Normandy on its way to Thessia.
"Well, i should be getting back to duty, the scientists are getting annoyed at me. Call me back before you land OK Soph, love you". The happiness in Kaylari's voice made Sophira smile.
"I love you too babe. Look after yourself Kay, and... if he's not too busy, could you get Shepard's autograph?" trying her best to ease in the question.
"Haha, i'll see what i can do. Talk to you soon"
"See ya!". Sophira disconnected and took her head piece off, making the mistake of putting it back in her pocket. Glowing from the anticipation of returning home and a possible autograph from Commander Shepard, she looks back out into space, reapers now being the last thing on her mind.
