Greener Pastures

by 10tonsoffun

Kolyat leaves Earth after the war and returns to Kahje, where he joins the royal guard. Together with the drell princess, who initially does not like having Kolyat around, he attempts to save the drell from extinction. This story is related to my other story 'Biotic Beginnings'. It is recommended, but not needed, that you read 'Biotic Beginnings' first. Warning: Sexual content

Greener Pastures

2190 CE (Four years after the war)

Kolyat Krios had done what he could for humanity. In four years following the end of the war, he had stayed on Earth with his friends, helping them rebuild the planet that had acted as the stage of the final battle against the reapers.

As biotics, Kolyat and his friends had been valuable in the many different rebuilding projects they had involved themselves in. Even though Jack had given birth to her daughter Luna shortly after the war, she and Charles had taken a huge responsibility in the reconstruction of London in particular.

The first couple of years on Earth had been hard. Rebuilding was slow, and the aliens that had been trapped on Earth following the destruction of the mass relays, understandably, got impatient, longing for their homes. Luckily, this impatience resulted in some extremely diligent work on the destroyed mass relays. And, thanks to a fantastic cross-species effort, the mass relays were reactivated in 2188, just two years after the end of the war.

It had taken another fourteen months to establish a mass relay connection to Kahje, and another full year for Kolyat to realize that it was time for him to leave Earth.

He had been at Vera's wedding when it happened. James Vega had invited Liara T'Soni, Garrus Vakarian, and Tali'Zorah, but apart from them, Kolyat had been the only non-human at the ceremony.

He cared deeply for his human friends. He owed Jack and her team everything for trusting him and taking him in without prejudice after the death of his father, and there was not a single day where Kolyat did not mourn the death of Commander Shepard, who had reunited him with his father and been there for him more than anyone when Thane died.

But at the wedding, Kolyat realized how much he missed his home. He had not seen Kahje in seven years, and he had not seen another drell since the war. Although he felt very appreciated among his friends and the rest of Earth's population, many of whom would recognize him as 'the cool drell from the Psychotic Biotics', he felt isolated and somewhat alone. And as James and Vera Vega danced their first dance as a married couple, Kolyat slowly clapped along with the rest of the crowd and decided to himself that it was time to go home.

Kolyat shook his head, the waltz that James and Vera had been dancing to stopped playing, and he was back in the present, sitting in a shuttle, just about to break through Kahje's atmosphere.

He didn't know exactly when he had slipped into his 'memory trance', but looking at the other drell he was traveling with, he was not the only one. Reviewing important or fond memories was a common way for drell to pass time during space travel.

The shuttle shook as they entered Kahje's atmosphere, and the other drell, who had been lost in their memories, 'woke up'. Excitement started spreading in the shuttle, and Kolyat guessed that he was not the only one who had not seen Kahje in years. He, too, felt thrilled. They would be on the ground in a matter of minutes.

Kolyat's emotions regarding Kahje were ambiguous. He missed it, because it had been so many years. After all, he had spent his entire childhood on the planet. On the other hand, Kolyat's most painful memories, those he tried to avoid at any cost, were from Kahje.

He probably wouldn't live on Kahje, not permanently. He had liked living on the Presidium, but the asari had only just begun the reconstruction of the Citadel. It would take decades before they were done. For a drell like Kolyat, who would be lucky to make it to 90, that was a long time, although the asari probably thought it was nothing.

The shuttle landed on Paku Island, home to the biggest drell city on Kahje. With 90 % of Kahje's surface covered by ocean, the drell mostly lived on islands placed under climate-controlled domes to protect them from the humid air. A few of the domes were actually on the bottom of the oceans, where drell and hanar could live more closely together. But even with the domes, Kepral's Syndrome was still a very real threat to the drell. The humidity was simply too high on Kahje. Kolyat knew it all too well.

Paku Island was placed right next to the Paku Reef, the place in Kahje's oceans with the highest concentration of hanar, making it the political hub for the drell. Everything they did was discussed and cleared with the hanar. It was their planet after all.

Kolyat was born and raised on Paku Island. This was where his mother was buried. In fact, she was part of the reason he had wanted to return to Kahje, but also why he dreaded it.

Stepping out of the shuttle, he immediately recognized the smell and the feel of the salty air from his childhood, and he had to concentrate to repress the memories that were trying to fill his head.

Paku island primarily consisted of sand, but there were a few cliffs along the northern shore and a large green jungle-like area with palm trees and a lake in the middle. The island was home to nearly 100,000 drell, but not large. Kolyat was able to walk from one shore to the other within an hour, which he had done many times as a child.

Kolyat had heard reports about Kahje back on Earth. They had said that Kahje remained nearly untouched by the reapers, who had focused on more threatening races than the hanar. Looking out over the city from the raised shuttle landing site, Kolyat could conclude that the reports had been correct. In fact, everything looked exactly like he remembered it from seven years earlier.

The palace, the tallest building ever constructed by drell, still loomed over the rest of the city, which were mostly one- or two-story buildings, and palm trees still lined the roads, only they seemed a little taller than when Kolyat was a child.

He decided to visit his mother's remembrance site. The drell did not bury their dead. Instead, they would cremate the body and throw the ashes in the ocean. Traditionally, drell would make something similar to a human gravesite, of which Kolyat had seen many during his years on Earth, to honor the dead, even though they weren't actually buried there. Of course, having perfect memories, the drell did not need these remembrance sites to recall their experiences with a loved one. But they could sometimes be helpful in calling forth a particular memory.

Kolyat found his mother's remembrance site on the lawn in the shadow of the palace. It was a simple marble plate on the grass. His mother's name was written on it with elegant, swooping letters.

Irikah Krios

He laid down his sword, which he had held onto ever since he took it from a Cerberus phantom he killed during the war, and sat down in the grass in front of his mother's plate. Then he closed his eyes for a second, allowing himself to sink into his memories.

Kolyat looks up at his mother. She is scared. He has never seen her like this before. His mother was even braver than his father. He can hear someone shouting from outside the house, and his mother runs to the front door and locks it. Then she grabs his hand and drags him into the living room.

Kolyat is crying, but his mother wipes his tears away, pushes him into a closet and orders him to stay there and be quiet. She grabs one of his favorite toys, a hanar plush toy, from one of the shelves and shoves it into his hand.

"Whatever happens… Stay here, stay quiet!" she says and closes the door.

Light comes into the closet through a thin slit between the doors, and Kolyat sees his mother running around in the living room. From outside the house, he can still hear shouting and someone banging on the door.

His mother disappears into the kitchen and comes back into the living room with a big knife, the knife that Kolyat is forbidden to play with. She hides the knife behind her back just as the front door explodes.

A group of batarians storms into the living room, carrying big guns. His mother takes the knife and sinks it into the eye socket of the first batarian. Kolyat gasps as blood starts spraying onto the floor. The batarian falls down and twitches on the floor until he finally is still. Meanwhile, Kolyat's mother runs into the bathroom, but two of the other batarians drag her back out. She is kicking and screaming.

Kolyat wants to help her, but she ordered him to stay hidden.

The batarians push her two her knees in front of the one with the knife sticking out of his head, they point their guns at her head. Kolyat starts to sob, and he puts his hanar plush toy into his mouth to try and silence himself.

"Where is he?" one of the batarians ask.

She spits on his boots, and the batarian kicks her in the stomach.

"Where is your husband?" he asks, as she is pulled back on her knees.

Again, she spits at his feet, and the batarian raises his pistol and shoots.

The noise of gulls brought Kolyat back to the present reality. He opened his eyes and stared down at his mother's name on the marble plate in front of him. Right next to it, just to the right, was a similar plate. Kolyat's aunt Paloma, his mother's sister, had taken care of him after his mother was murdered and his father returned to his 'battle sleep' to hunt down her killers. Just like Thane, Paloma had suffered from Kepral's Syndrome. The disease had been at a late stage when Kolyat left Kahje seven years earlier. And now, reading her name on the marble plate next to his mother's, Kolyat realized that she had not made it through the war.

He could taste something salty, even saltier than the air, and he realized that he was crying. With his aunt Paloma gone as well, Kolyat had no more family left. He was alone. Almost more alone on Kahje than he had felt on Earth.

He wiped the tears away and picked up his sword. Irikah's ashes had been thrown into the ocean, but Kolyat had been forced to release Thane's ashes into space. His father had never really come home.

With his razor sharp sword, Kolyat scratched his father's name on his mother's plate. Then he stood up, put his sword back in the scabbard on his back and looked down at the plate at his feet.

Irikah Krios

Thane Krios

For as long as he could remember, Kolyat's biggest wish had been to see his parents united again. When Kolyat was very young, before his mother was killed, Thane had taken work as an assassin to pay for the family. He was rarely home, but the few memories Kolyat had with both of his parents, together, were his favorites. Seeing their names together at a remembrance site was not how he would have wanted to reunite them.

He turned around and looked up at the palace. The sun was hidden behind the main tower. There was something intimidating about the palace, but he guessed that was the point.

The palace was home to King Toro and his family. This particular family had been leaders of the biggest drell tribe on Rakhana before the hanar evacuated them. The hanar had only saved 375,000 out of almost 12 billion drell, and according to Kolyat's teachers in school, the royal family had been handpicked by the hanar to ensure that the saved drell would be a cohesive group with an established hierarchy.

Since then, the drell had adopted democracy and elected a parliament. The king was no longer the official ruler of the drell, but the title still existed, mostly as a cultural institution. Many drell still appreciated his insight and valued the royal family for the link they provided to Rakhana.

The palace was an amazing piece of architecture, even if the king was not as powerful as his home suggested. It was built almost entirely out of sandstone, using the same methods that had been used back in the deserts of Rakhana. Ironically, the water molecules in the Kahje-air that were killing thousands of drell every year was actually making the palace stronger than it would have been on Rakhana.

Kolyat's desire to go to Kahje had been satisfied. He had seen his mother's remembrance site again, but the fact that he was surrounded by drell again had not made him feel significantly less alone. He had not been back on Kahje for more than a few hours, and he already wanted to go back to Earth, back to his friends.

Walking through the business district, Kolyat kept his eyes open for a place to stay. It was getting late, and even if he decided to go straight back to Earth, he would have to spend at least one night on Kahje. His parents' house had been sold many years ago, so, assuming that his aunt Paloma's apartment had been taken over by someone else, Kolyat was looking for a hotel.

The business district was a lot more racially monotonous than what Kolyat had gotten used to on the Citadel. Almost everyone was either a drell or a hanar. He only saw a few asari and a single volus.

"Mr. Krios! Mr. Krios, over here!" someone called.

Kolyat looked over his shoulder and saw a hanar gliding out of its shop, waving at him with one of its pink tentacles.

"Mr. Krios," the hanar merchant said, gliding all the way up to Kolyat. "This one has seen you on the extranet. This one also remembers your father. He was an excellent servant to the hanar."

Kolyat bowed to the hanar, as was the custom.

"This one's face name is Xhardan," the hanar continued.

"An honor to meet you, Xhardan. I am Kolyat Krios. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The special relationship between the hanar and the drell was called the compact. As a show of gratitude for saving their entire race, any drell was obliged to offer their service to a hanar in need of help. In general, there was not much the drell could do to help the hanar, who lived in the oceans and were more than capable of taking care of themselves. But on land the hanar were vulnerable and too weak for most physical tasks, and the drell were happy to help.

Xhardan placed one of its tentacles on Kolyat's shoulder. "This one appreciates the offer. It only came to greet and congratulate Mr. Krios on his work. But this one actually is in need of help."

Kolyat bowed.

"It would be an honor and my absolute pleasure to help," he said.

It turned out that Xhardan was an artist. Hanar artistry was extremely popular with the drell, who were willing to pay good money for their paintings and sculptures, which were often characterized by aquatic shapes.

Xhardan had sold some of his paintings to the palace, but they were too heavy for him to carry. Kolyat was happy to help. He had nothing better to do, and he had wanted to see the palace from the inside since he was a child. He hoped that carrying Xhardan's paintings would mean that he actually got to enter the palace.

"This one has never sold anything to the king before," Xhardan said, as they walked towards the palace. "It is a great honor."

Kolyat held on tight to the case with the paintings inside. If he dropped Xhardan's paintings, he would jump on his own sword in shame.

As they reached the gate, Kolyat expected the guards to ask him to leave his pistols and his blade, but there were no guards.

"Strange," Xhardan said, and they continued into the courtyard, which was also empty.

This was as far as Kolyat had ever been before, once on a trip with his school. He reviewed the memory quickly. There had been guards, many guards, and servants.

"Why is there no one here?" Kolyat asked, placing the case gently on the tiles.

Xhardan's answer was interrupted by an explosion and a series of gunshots coming from inside the palace. Instinctively, Kolyat pulled out his pistols. "Stay here!" he said to Xhardan and ran into the palace.

He arrived at the throne room, and enormous hall with ancient drell relics along the walls. Perhaps this was where Xhardan's painting were supposed to hang. At the far end was the king's throne. A slightly smaller throne next to it belonged to the queen.

Immediately in front of Kolyat was a group of six heavily armed soldiers. They looked like batarian mercenaries. They were suppressing two drell wearing the traditional black royal guard's uniform. The guards were trying to take cover behind the thrones in the other end of the room, but they were under too heavy fire to shoot back at the mercenaries. One of them was hit in the chest and fell to the ground.

"No!" Kolyat heard someone scream and he noticed that the queen was also hiding behind the thrones.

Taking advantage of the fact that the mercenaries were unaware of his presence in the throne room, Kolyat raised his pistols and easily picked off the first two, before the rest spun around.

"Shoot!" one of them shouted.

Kolyat spun to cover behind a pillar, but the sandstone almost immediately gave in to the bullets, and his cover was crumbling quickly.

He wished he had the rest of the Psychotic Biotics with him. He could have used Vera's barriers or Prangley's raw force. But Kolyat was alone.

Shooting madly at the nearest mercenary, he ran to the next pillar. He was not sure if he had hit his target. He hadn't fired his pistol outside a shooting range since the war, and he felt rusty.

Before the mercenaries could shoot his new cover to pieces, Kolyat holstered one of his pistols, formed a biotic barrier and rolled away from the pillar. Immediately, he felt the barrier weakening as the mercenaries riddled it with bullets. He pushes his biotics, but knew that he wouldn't last long under such heavy fire. While holding up his barrier with one hand, he fired his pistol with the other. Luckily, his aim was true, and he managed to drop all the batarians.

Kolyat placed his hands on his knees and panted. He was exhausted. If he was rusty with his pistol, it was nothing compared to his biotics. Since the war, he had only used his powers very sporadically, and only to help when performing heavy lifts in the various rebuilding projects he had been involved in on Earth.

He looked across the room at the thrones, which, like the pillars, had been shot completely out of shape. He sensed movement. At least it looked like someone was still alive. He ran the length of the throne room and found the queen, hiding behind the remains of her throne.

She screamed when she saw him, and Kolyat quickly lowered his pistol to seem less threatening.

"It's okay," he panted. "It's okay, Your Highness."

The queen's guards lay next to her. One was dead, and the other was quickly bleeding out. She was crying and hyperventilating.

"Are you hurt, Your Highness?" Kolyat asked, unable to tell if she had been shot.

She shook her head and looked up at him with bewildered eyes. "My husband…" she gasped, out of breath. "My daughter… In the gardens…"

Kolyat nodded. The queen was most likely not the only target of this attack. King Toro and the princess were still in danger.

He picked up the dead guard's submachine gun, put in a fresh thermal clip and handed it to the queen, who held the weapon awkwardly. Then she noticed the blood of her guard on her fingers and dropped the submachine gun with a scream.

Kolyat picked up the gun and shoved it back into her hands. "Hide, Your Highness," he said.

She looked from the weapon and up at him. Then she nodded.

"I'm sorry about this," Kolyat said.

The queen looked confused, but then he shot out one of the giant mosaic windows behind him. It had probably been very expensive.

Quickly, Kolyat ran up the wall and grabbed the window sill. With one last look back at the queen, he pulled himself over and crawled out of the window.

Hanging on the outside of the palace, he noticed how high it actually was. The royal gardens were below him, but he could not see any sign of the king nor the princess. He started climbing down the outside of the palace. The sandstone was very smooth, but drell were naturally gifted climbers, and Kolyat quickly descended until he was low enough to jump. He landed nimbly on the graveled path and sniffed the air to try and locate the king or his daughter. But the perfume of the many exotic flowers in the garden was too strong.

Then he heard someone shouting in the distance and started running in the direction of the noise. He sprinted as fast as he could along the path. There was another shout and a gunshot, and Kolyat left the path, trying to take a shortcut through the bushes.

Kolyat sprinted through the dense undergrowth, jumped across a narrow stream, vaulted over a hedge and landed right in front of another two batarian mercenaries. Before they could react, Kolyat had pulled out his sword and cut them down. He looked in the direction that they had been facing and saw the king and his daughter running along the path, escorted by a single drell in a guard's uniform.

Bodies of both guards and mercenaries were scattered on the gravel around Kolyat, who looked in horror at all these dead drell.

Up ahead, the king and the princess had reached a giant statue of Illythia, one of the sainted hanar who had facilitated the rescue of the drell from Rakhana. To Kolyat's horror, a batarian jumped out from behind the base of the statue and stabbed his omni-blade into the guard. The blade passed all the way through the drell's stomach and exited out the back, and the guard went limp and was tossed to the side by the batarian.

Kolyat, who had been frozen to the ground, sprinted towards the statue. The unarmed king was alone with the princess and the mercenary.

He ran until it felt like his lungs were about to burst out of his chest, and jumped in front of the king just in time to parry the batarian's omni-blade with his sword. The batarian growled and stabbed once more, this time at Kolyat, who parried again.

When the mercenary lunged at him with his blade again, Kolyat stepped to the side, but he wasn't quick enough and his shirt was cut open. Kolyat ignored the searing pain in his stomach and grabbed the batarian's wrist. With a swift kick behind the knee, he forced the mercenary into a kneeling position, and Kolyat drove his sword down through the narrow opening in the batarian's armor, right at the collarbone.

More batarians appeared, and Kolyat raised his sword again, backing up against the Illythia statue, keeping King Toro and his daughter behind him.

The batarians, there were three of them, looked at his sword.

"Up close and personal," one of them said. "I like it."

The three batarians holstered their assault rifles and activated their omni-blades, as they slowly closed in on Kolyat.

One of them, the one who had spoken, lost his patience and tried to decapitate Kolyat with a violent swing. But Kolyat ducked and also managed to avoid being hit by the second batarian's blade. Then he saw that the third had almost reached the king. Kolyat rolled underneath another swinging blade, grabbed the batarian and pulled him away from the princess, who had been just millimeters from the mercenary's blade. Still holding on to the collar of the batarian's armor, Kolyat found a weak point on his lower back and drove his sword right through the spine.

He quickly tossed away the dead batarian. There were still two left. Kolyat lunged at one of them, trying to hit him under the arm, where his armor was weak. But the batarian moved, and Kolyat's sword was deflected off a shoulder guard.

Kolyat, who was wearing his simple civilian clothes, was at a clear disadvantage. Any good hit with an omni-blade, and the fight would be over. But he had to very careful about where to hit the batarians. Even though his Cerberus-invented sword had an incredible sharp and durable blade, hacking through heavy armor was not a viable tactic. Instead, Kolyat had to rely on his speed and mobility.

When the two remaining batarians decided to rush him at the same time, Kolyat jumped as high as he could, kicking the first batarian's arm so his omni-blade nearly skewered his partner. He landed behind the two mercenaries with his two pistols already drawn and pointed at the backs of their heads. Before they could turn, Kolyat fired both pistols.

He then holstered his guns and picked up the sword that he had dropped and placed it on his back. He looked around to make sure that there were no more mercenaries. It didn't seem like it.

"Are you okay, Sere?" he asked the king, bowing deeply.

King Toro nodded.

The princess hid behind her father. Kolyat did not know anything about her. But he remembered the day she was born. There had been a huge celebration on Paku Island that day. Kolyat had been five years old when she was born. He quickly reviewed the memory to remember her name.

"Princess Vidani," he said, bowing to her as well.

She did not answer but stayed behind her father. She would be 17 years now, and clearly she was very shocked by the violence she had just witnessed.

Like Kolyat, both King Toro and the queen's scales were shades of green, but Princess Vidani's scales were orange, but looking almost pink in the setting sunlight. Vidani di Toro was very beautiful, Kolyat realized.

"You're bleeding," she said, pointing to Kolyat's stomach.

He ripped open the hole that had already been made in his shirt and inspected a long thin cut across his stomach.

"I am okay," he concluded. That was the good thing about fighting against omni-blades. At least they were so sharp that, as long as they didn't penetrate too deeply, the cut would always be very clean.

"My wife," the king said, looking up at the palace.

"She is in the throne room, Sere," Kolyat said. "She is not hurt."

The king hurried towards the palace, dragging his daughter after him. Kolyat followed them through the gardens, into the palace and up the stairs to the throne room.

They found the queen by the thrones, surrounded by members of the royal guard.

"By Arashu," she said and ran to her husband and daughter. Kolyat stayed in the background, watching the royal guards in their black uniforms. Now that the king was safe, they began carrying corpses out of the throne room.

"We are okay," King Toro assured his wife. "Thanks to this young drell."

He waved Kolyat forward.

"It was my duty, Sere," Kolyat said, bowing to both the king and queen.

The queen smiled at him. "We owe you our deepest gratitude. What is your name?"

"I am Kolyat Krios, Your Highness," he answered.

The king looked at him intently. "I believe I have heard that name before," he said.

Kolyat sighed. "The king may be familiar with my father Thane Krios. If you have heard my name, Sere, it was probably due to my work with the human group called the Psychotic Biotics."

The king nodded. "Now, Mr. Krios. I believe I owe you something as a show of gratitude," he said. "What do you want?"

Kolyat opened his mouth but was interrupted by the princess.

"Don't be modest and ask for nothing," she said. "We will not accept that."

Kolyat, who had indeed been just about to refuse payment, smiled and nodded. He looked around the room. What could he possibly ask for? Credits? But should he specify an amount? Perhaps he could ask for permission to build a house on Paku Island. But he wasn't even sure if he wanted to live on Kahje. That was his biggest problem. He had no idea what to do with his life now that the war was over. He didn't have many useful skills beside his ability to fight. Looking around the room gave him an idea, though.

"I would like to join the royal guard," he said.

King Toro looked at him. "Done," he said. "But I think that would benefit my family and I more than it benefits you. You can be a guard, absolutely. But isn't there anything else I can give you?"

Kolyat shook his head, and the king smiled. "Welcome then, Mr. Krios."

-X-X-X-

2195 CE (Five years later)

Kolyat sat in his room in the palace. After a few years in the barracks, he had eventually been promoted to captain of the royal guard and was given his own personal room inside the palace. The black uniform was still the same, although there were quite a few decorations on it now.

He closed down his computer. He had just finished a call with Charles and Jack, or Jennifer, as she was now called. Kolyat would have to get used to that. She had announced her name change at the wedding, which Kolyat had of course attended. She and Charles had moved to Australia with their children to open a new school for biotic children. Kolyat, who had not been back on Earth since the wedding almost three years earlier, hoped that he would soon get the chance to visit his friends again.

It was early in the morning, and he had guard schedules to go through. The administrative responsibilities in his new job were not exactly exciting, but Kolyat had discovered an unknown talent for planning and supervising. And it wasn't like arranging training sessions was much more boring that standing guard in front of the palace. The most exciting thing that had happened since the assassination attempt five years earlier was a minor protest in the courtyard.

Kolyat left the schedules on his desk and strapped his sword to his belt. He could go through the schedules later. He wanted to go for a walk through the palace first. It was good for the men to see him around the palace sometimes. Knowing that their captain could show up at any time kept them on their toes.

He met the first guard, patrolling the hallway outside the throne room. Kolyat noted that he looked awake and aware.

"Good morning, Danz," Kolyat said.

Lieutenant Danz spun around a crisply saluted his superior officer. "Good morning, Captain Krios."

"Isn't Sergeant Thimèz supposed to be guarding the throne room this morning?"

Danz nodded. "Her father just passed away, so I gave her three days off and took over her shifts."

"Good man," Kolyat said. "I'll take the next two days."

"It's okay, Captain," Danz replied. "You don't have to…"

Kolyat placed his hand on his lieutenant's shoulder. "Give Sergeant Thimèz as much time as she needs, and let me know if you need a temporary replacement in your platoon."

"That will not be necessary, Captain," said Danz. "I can make adjustments."

Kolyat smiled. "Good. Just make sure not to adjust by taking all the extra shifts yourself, yeah?"

"Understood, sir."

Kolyat continued into the throne room, running his hand across the pillars that had once given him cover. It was a ritual for him. Every time he entered the throne room, he would make sure to touch the pillars, which had of course been repaired since the assassination attempt.

To his surprise, Kolyat saw the king sitting on the throne at the far end of the room. It was very early for King Toro to be out of bed.

Kolyat paced across the room and stopped in front of the throne. "Good morning, Sere. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The king looked down at the captain of his guard.

"I am getting old, Krios," he said dryly.

It was no lie. King Toro was showing clear signs of ageing. His scales were not as shiny and colorful as they had been, and his voice was becoming very croaky, even for a drell.

The king seemed to be sad. Perhaps he was suffering from an age crisis.

"What is wrong, Sere?" Kolyat asked.

"I am not getting old," he said. "I am old!"

Kolyat did not know what to say, so he remained quiet.

"Thanks for not commenting on that, Captain," King Toro sighed.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Kolyat asked.

The king shook his head. "Not at all. I am just worried about my legacy. I only have one child, a daughter who I love more than anything, but she is still unmarried and I have no grandchildren. You know the history of my family. By only having one child, I have endangered the future of the royal bloodline."

Kolyat nodded in understanding. He had heard the rumors in town. If Princess Vidani was somehow prevented from having children, she would be the end of the royal bloodline. Unfortunately for the king, it was far too late for him to have another child.

"The princess thinks it is unfair that she is expected to produce children at such a young age," the king sighed. "I can't blame her. I sure wasn't ready to be a parent when I was 22."

Kolyat smiled as the king slipped into memories from his youth, and he walked back out of the throne room, leaving King Toro alone with his memories.

Later that day, Kolyat was guarding the royal family during their lunch. King Toro was discussing the future of the bloodline with his daughter.

"Just because my name is Vidani di Toro shouldn't mean that I should be forced to have children now!" the princess insisted. "I can have children later, and the bloodline will be fine."

The king sighed. "But I won't be around forever. I want to die knowing that my legacy is secure."

"You are not that old!" the princess objected.

The king smiled. "Vidani, flatter is not going to change reality."

"It is not fair, father. I do not want to marry and have children. Not right now. I want to travel!"

King Toro shook his head. Kolyat knew why. They had never found out who sent those mercenaries to murder the royal family. Naturally, with an unknown threat out there, the king was not fond of the idea.

"It is too dangerous," he said.

"Father, that was five years ago… If someone wanted us dead, don't you think they would have tried again?"

"You are not traveling anywhere!" King Toro finally said.

"If I had siblings, you would let me!" Vidani said, putting down her cutlery, glaring at her father.

"Maybe," the king said, taking a drink from his cup. "But you don't."

"That's completely unfair!" the princess shouted, standing up.

"Stay at the table, dear," the queen said.

Kolyat looked away. He didn't like this part of the job. He felt that he was intruding on the royal family's private family discussion. But the king and his family was so used to having guards and servants around at all times, they acted like Kolyat wasn't even there. So Kolyat was surprised when his name was mentioned.

"I'm leaving, father," Princess Vidani said. "If you want to keep me here, you'll have to lock me in my room."

The king sighed.

"At least take Captain Krios with you," he said.

"What?!" the princess shouted. "No! I don't want to be Princess Vidani di Toro for once. That's the entire point of traveling to places where there are no other drell! I don't want any servants to come with me, and I don't want a bloody guard!"

Kolyat looked at the king, who nodded back at him. "You'll take Captain Krios with you, Vidani, or there will be no traveling," the king said.

"I don't want him to report everything I do back to you," Vidani said.

The king nodded. "He will just be there to keep you safe."

The princess sighed. "Ugh, fine! I'll take him with me!"

A few weeks later, Kolyat and Vidani stepped off a transport ship on Palaven. Kolyat was wearing civilian clothes, per the princess' demands. She had also forbidden him from being armed, which Kolyat had chosen to mean visibly armed. So he had left his sword back in the palace, but he kept his pistols in a shoulder holster, hidden underneath his leather jacket. There was absolutely no way he was allowing the princess to walk around with an unarmed guard.

"Don't walk so close to me!" she hissed at him, as they walked out of the transit station in Palaven's capital, Cipritine.

Kolyat, who was carrying both of their bags nodded. "Yes, Princess."

She whirled around and glared at him. "I forbid you from drawing attention to the fact that I am a princess, in any way. You cannot call me that!"

"Yes, pr… Yes, Miss?"

"You can call me Vidani, but I would prefer it if you just didn't talk to me!"

She turned around and continued towards Cipritine's business district.

Kolyat sighed and followed her with the bags. Like Kolyat, the princess was dressed very modestly compared to her normal attire at the palace. She looked like any regular female drell that you would find at the market on Paku Island, except she was unusually well-groomed and very pretty.

He made sure to keep a distance from the princess that would not annoy her, but still wasn't too far away to keep her safe if anything happened.

Kolyat's brain automatically analyzed every single movement as he followed the princess down the street. Every time one of the turian locals looked as if he was hurrying towards her, Kolyat felt all his muscles tense up. But most of them were just busy or trying to catch a transport shuttle.

There were too many strangers, potential assassins, for Kolyat to monitor. He needed more guards, he needed to plan and to divide the street into sectors, so they could manage security properly. He hadn't even had the opportunity to perform any form of reconnaissance before the princess just waltzed out onto the street. It was nerve-wrecking, and he hadn't even been on Palaven, a relatively safe planet, for more than a few minutes. He was already regretting that he had agreed to escort the princess. She didn't even want him there.

He took his eyes off the princess for a moment to look at the buildings around them. Many of them were in the process of being rebuilt, and several just stood there, empty, scorched and scarred. Palaven had been hit hard by the reapers, perhaps even harder than Earth. Princess Vidani also seemed to have noticed how badly scarred Palaven was, even nine years after the war had ended. She had stopped in the middle of the street and was looking around. Kolyat also stopped, leaning against a lamp post.

The princess walked back to him. "You were on Earth, right? Was it like this there?"

"It was much worse right after the war," Kolyat replied. "It only takes seconds to destroy something beautiful. Building it can take decades."

She silently nodded and looked around again. Kolyat knew what she was thinking: Compared to places like Earth, Palaven and Thessia, Kahje had barely felt the reaper invasion. Maybe it wasn't so bad for the princess to see how other planets were still having to deal with the aftermath of the war. Kolyat just wished that he wasn't alone to protect her.

"Let's get to the hotel," she said.

"Yes, princess."

She raised a finger and glared at him.

"Sorry," he said.

"Just keep your distance, Krios."

Later, when Kolyat sat in his hotel room, waiting for the princess to come and get him, he wondered how long she was planning to be away from Kahje. She hadn't been willing to tell him or her father anything specific about her travel plans.

She had promised to pick him up before going out to dinner, but Kolyat was starting to fear that she had left without him. He knew that she did not want him around, but he had his orders. The thought of Princess Vidani wandering around on her own was terrifying.

He breathed a deep sigh of relief when he finally heard a knock on the door.

"Captain Krios," the princess called.

Kolyat quickly put on his jacket to cover the shoulder holster and opened his door. "Yes, princess."

She shook her head. "You know, Krios, I thought about leaving without you, but I didn't. So would you please cooperate with me? I am finally in a place where nobody knows who I am, and I want it to stay that way, understand?"

He nodded. "I am sorry, Vidani. It's a habit."

She smiled overbearingly at him. "Forget the habit."

He closed the door behind him and followed the princess towards the elevator.

"A drell never forgets," he said. It was an old asari saying, which, Kolyat had learned, was also said on Earth in relation to elephants.

The princess smiled. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Whatever pleases you will be fine," Kolyat answered. "But I think we're lucky if we just find a place that serves levo food."

The princess, who had never left Kahje, looked confused for a second. "Oh, right!" she finally said. "Turians are dextro-based."

Kolyat nodded as they stepped into the elevator.

When they reached the ground floor and exited out onto the street, Kolyat allowed the princess to go ahead to put distance between them as she had demanded. But she stopped and turned around. "What are you waiting for, Captain?" she asked.

Kolyat shrugged and joined her.

"I feel like eggs would be good," she said, continuing down the street. "Do you think we can find a place that serves eggs?"

-X-X-X-

2195 CE (Four Months Later)

"Absolutely not, Princess," Kolyat said.

Vidani glared at him. "Don't start calling me that again, just because you think you know better than me!"

Kolyat crossed his arms. "With all due respect, Vidani. I have been on Omega. It's not that great, and it's very dangerous!"

After several months of roaming around the galaxy, where much of what they had seen was reconstruction projects in various stages of completion, Kolyat and Vidani was traveling again. Most lately, they had been on Sur'Kesh, where the Salarian Union was, not surprisingly, finding new methods and using cutting edge technology to rebuild their cities. To Kolyat's great displeasure, Vidani had pointed Omega out as their next destination.

"What's the point of you being here, if I can't go anywhere?" Vidani asked sourly.

They stood at the docks on Illium, and Kolyat was doing everything he could to prevent Vidani from entering the transport ship to Omega. If he allowed her to go and King Toro found out, he would certainly be executed as soon as they returned to Kahje, assuming they survived Omega.

"Listen, I am trying to protect you, by saying that it is not safe to go there," Kolyat insisted. "Last time I was there, our host was nearly kidnapped and we barely escaped with our lives."

Vidani snorted. "Before we came to Illium, you said we shouldn't go, and we've been here for two weeks, and nothing has happened."

Kolyat sighed. "Illium is nothing compared to Omega. We're lucky if we even get there without being attacked by pirates."

"You are boring, Captain," she said. "I am going to Omega! I know you have been ordered to follow me wherever I go, so you can either obey your order or go back to the palace without me."

Kolyat's head dropped. He was in quite the predicament. If he came back without the princess, he would also be executed. The rules in the royal guard were very specific.

Not feeling quite ready for decapitation, Kolyat eventually followed the princess onto the ship and flew with her to Omega.

When they landed, Vidani stepped out first, and Kolyat followed, carrying their bags and with all his senses working at maximum capacity to anticipate any threat against the princess.

"Phew, it stinks!" Vidani said, waving her hand in front of her face.

Kolyat nodded, looking out at the crowd. He remembered the smell of Omega, and it immediately triggered memories. He saw flashes of Cerberus agents sneaking through the hallways of Aria T'Loak's mansion, Patriarch being shot again and again and Hilary Moreau saving Kolyat and his friends with her flying skills.

He shook his head. He needed to focus on the present. Omega was not a safe place to slip into his memories. Vidani was already getting too far ahead. Then, Kolyat saw a human grab her wrist.

"Hey, where are you going, lizard?" the human asked. Not surprisingly, he seemed very drunk.

"Excuse me, sir?" Vidani answered, as Kolyat pushed his way through the crowd.

The human pulled off Vidani's bracelet. "Nice bling," he said and pocketed the jewelry.

"Hey!" Vidani complained. "That's mine."

"Not anymore," the man slurred, shoving her away. Kolyat caught her and stabilized her.

"He took my bracelet!" Vidani said.

Kolyat placed himself between the man and the princess and placed their bags on the floor.

"Oh, another one," the man laughed. "Now, you be a good little lizard and get out of here. This is none of your business."

Kolyat did not answer, but held out his hand and stared at the man.

"Get lost, you fucking loser! Do you know who I am? I could have you killed, and they would never find your body!" the man said, pointing a threatening finger at Kolyat.

Kolyat looked down at his hand, then back at the man.

"The bracelet, sir," he said.

"Fuck off," the man sneered and pushed Kolyat in the chest. "Your kind is not welcome here, drell!"

Kolyat took a step closer to the man. He smelled of alcohol and stale urine, like a concentrated version of Omega. "The bracelet," he said.

The man looked confused. Clearly, he had not expected such a calm response from Kolyat. In fact, his fists were already curled, ready to swing.

"Are you a priest or something, lizard?" he asked. "Why are you just standing there?"

"Small dogs bark all the time," Kolyat replied, holding his empty palm right in front of the man's eyes. "Big dogs… Big dogs don't have to bark."

"Who are you calling a dog?" the man shouted angrily.

"Both of us," Kolyat replied calmly. "You're the small one."

The man tried to punch Kolyat, who grabbed his fist and used his other hand to remove the bracelet from the pocket and hand it back to Vidani. When the man tried to use his other fist, Kolyat grabbed that as well. He remembered how Jack had once urged him to put down any opposition on Omega as quickly and violently as possible. There was only one way to get the drunken brawlers and petty thieves of Omega to stay away. It was about showing that you were too dangerous to mess with.

"Look away, please," he said to Vidani and broke both the man's wrists.

The man fell to the floor, screaming in pain, and Kolyat quickly picked up their bags and walked away with Vidani.

"Was that necessary?" the princess asked. Clearly, she had not looked away.

"You were the one who wanted to go to Omega," he said, leading her away from a group of very angry-looking batarians.

The princess gasped. This was the first time she had seen a batarian in the five years since the assassination attempt.

"Can we just leave now?" Kolyat asked, pulling her into an alley that was empty apart from a few sleeping junkies.

She shook her head.

"But…"

"No!" she said. "You can leave. Go back to my father. Tell him where I am!"

But as Kolyat had already concluded, the only thing worse than going with the princess to Omega was leaving her on Omega by herself. He refused to leave without her.

Vidani pointed at a large flashing sign at the end of the alley.

"What's that?" she asked. "I want to go in there."

Kolyat read the sign. "No," he said. "Please, anywhere but there."

"What's wrong with that bar?" Vidani asked.

"Afterlife is crazy," Kolyat explained. "It's not a place for a princess."

Vidani smiled. "Perfect. For the duration of this trip, I am not a princess, remember?"

"Please," Kolyat said. "You are making my job very hard. Did the experience we just had not show you what kind of place Omega is?"

She started walking towards Afterlife, and Kolyat quickly followed.

"You'll keep me safe," she said confidently. "I am ordering you to go to this club with me."

Kolyat was about to complain again, but he could not go against a direct order. He just hoped that Aria was still in charge on Omega. Not that she was a friend, but at least they had met before. But that was almost ten years ago.

"Who owns this club?" he asked the krogan bouncer, as they made their way into Afterlife.

"Aria T'Loak, of course," the krogan replied. "Got a problem with that, drell?"

Kolyat, who was thankful that Aria was still in charge and not another unknown psycho, thanked the bouncer and followed Vidani into the club.

The bass immediately assaulted his eardrums. He could have sworn that the DJ was playing the exact same song the last time Kolyat entered Afterlife. He was about to review the memory, when Vidani called him from a booth next to the dancefloor.

It was early in the evening on Omega, but Afterlife was already filling up. Vidani had been lucky to find an empty booth. Kolyat placed their bags underneath the table and sat down across from the princess, who was looking around the nightclub, taking in the unique atmosphere.

Kolyat of course remembered the place vividly, but Afterlife still seemed wilder than he imagined. People were doing drugs at almost every single table. A group of profusely sweating young men on the dancefloor had taken off all their clothes and were dancing as if they were possessed, and no one seemed to bother telling them to put their clothes back on. At one of the bars, Kolyat was sure that a turian and an asari was actually having sex, right there in the middle of everything. He glanced across the table to Vidani. She didn't know where to look. At one moment, a krogan getting stabbed in the back grabbed her attention, but then a salarian with a life-size inflatable asari walked in.

"This is… fascinating," she said.

Kolyat had to admit, it was hard to take his eyes off the other guests in Afterlife.

"If you stay right here, I can buy us a drink," Kolyat said. "But you have to promise to stay right here."

She handed him a credit card. "I'm paying."

"But…"

"No offence, Captain. But I think I can afford it better than you," she said, forcing him to close his fingers around the credit card.

Even though he was quite satisfied with his wages, Kolyat had to concede that Vidani was right. After all, every drell on Kahje paid a portion of their taxes to the royal family. So he hurried to the bar and returned with two glasses and a pitcher of something that had been recommended to him by the asari bartender. He handed Vidani her credit card and poured her a drink.

"Are you drinking on duty, Captain?" the princess asked teasingly, looking at Kolyat above the rim her glass.

"My old human officer didn't mind. With her, it was actually like a requirement," Kolyat replied and poured a drink for himself.

Vidani took a sip first. "It's good," she said.

Kolyat held out his glass. "Cheers," he said.

She looked at the glass and then at him. "What?"

"Cheers," he repeated. "You touch your glass to mine and say 'cheers'."

"Well, cheers," she said and put her glass to his. "Another human thing?"

He nodded. "I can't believe I haven't told you about this before now. My human friends do it all the time."

"Humans drink quite a lot, don't they?" she asked.

Kolyat smiled. "I don't think it's all of them. But the ones I know… Yeah…"

They finished the pitcher without talking much more. Looking around at the other guests was very entertaining.

Suddenly, as Kolyat was scanning a newly-arrived group, trying to determine if they were a threat or not, a familiar asari stopped in front of their booth. Kolyat had not seen Adina T'Loak since the war, but obviously she was back on Omega.

"How are you, Kolyat?" she asked, leaning over the table to hug him. Adina's top, which wasn't leaving much to the imagination in the first place, was pulled down, and Kolyat quickly leaned into the hug so he wasn't just sat there with her cleavage in his face.

"I am doing well, thank you," Kolyat said. As he hugged the younger T'Loak sister, he could see how other club guests were ogling her ass.

Adina proceeded to shake hands with Vidani. "I had to see if Aria was just taking the piss," she said, smiling at the heir to King Toro's throne. "We don't get many drell here, and certainly not many drell princesses."

Vidani was visibly annoyed that she had somehow been recognized. "You know a lot, asari," she said.

"I am Adina T'Loak, Princess," Adina laughed, sipping from the cocktail in her hand. "I know it all. Actually, some people call me princess too, you know. Princess of Omega."

Vidani smiled politely at the asari. "An honor to meet you."

Adina snapped her fingers and a waiter appeared, seemingly out of thin air, and placed another pitcher on the table. She quickly made sure that both Kolyat, Vidani and Adina had full glasses and disappeared again.

"Don't worry, princess," Adina said, stirring her drink with the straw. "On Omega, you can be whoever you want to be."

"That is comforting," Vidani replied.

Adina pointed at Kolyat. "So, Krios. What are you doing on Omega with a princess? Not in trouble, are we?"

"We probably are," Kolyat said. "As a member of the royal guard, I am escorting the princess during her travels. But, we were probably not supposed to go to Omega."

"Why not?" Adina asked.

"Captain Krios seems to think that it's a dangerous place," Vidani said.

Adina smirked. "Not if you know the right people," she said. "And Kolyat knows the best people. No one is going to bother you here. From now on, you are both under my protection."

"Thank you, Adina," Kolyat said and, feeling much more relaxed now that they had the confirmed support of the T'Loak sisters, took a nice big drink.

"No worries, Kolyat. I have to go to a meeting now, but you guys can stay on Omega as long as you want. Oh, and if you see Jack anytime soon, could you tell her to come back here to piss off my sister? I miss watching those two bicker."

"I will," Kolyat promised.

"Nice to meet you, Princess," Adina said, kissing Vidani's cheeks. "Oh, and Kolyat, say 'hi' to Kurt from me if you see him. He has just moved to the Citadel to help finish the Presidium."

Kolyat nodded and waved to Adina, who hurried away to her meeting.

"She is a weird asari," Vidani said, feeling her cheeks where she had been kissed. "But friendly, I guess."

Kolyat smiled and took another drink.

"Is it normal for asari princesses to wear… Well, basically nothing?"

"As far as I understand, she is not a real princess," Kolyat explained. "And compared to many of the other asari in here, she actually dresses quite modestly, doesn't she?"

Vidani glanced at a nearby podium, where a naked asari was hanging upside down on a pole, and nodded.

"Who are Jack and Kurt?" she asked.

"Jack is called Jennifer now," Kolyat said. "She was the leader of my human team. Kurt was a former student of hers, another member of the team. He and Adina are close… Sort of."

Vidani nodded in understanding. "Tell me more about them."

"It's a long story," he warned.

"We can always order another pitcher."

Without knowing why, perhaps it was because he had had a few drinks, Kolyat began his story at the very beginning. He told Vidani everything about how his father had left to work as an assassin, how his mother had been killed, and how he had been raised by his aunt Paloma. He told her about how Commander Shepard and his father had tried to prevent him from also becoming an assassin, and how Thane had been killed when Cerberus tried to take control of the Citadel. After a long introduction, he told her how he had joined a group of human biotics, had fought his father's murderer and eventually ended up on Earth, just in time for the final battle against the reapers.

"Whoa," Vidani said at the end of his very long tale. His story had taken so long, they had managed to empty another pitcher and a bottle of wine, sent to their table 'on the house'. Vidani stood up, walked around the table and held her hand out to him. He looked at her in confusion.

"Do I have to order you to dance with me?" she asked.

Kolyat smiled nervously and rose from his seat. With a cautious glance back at the bags underneath their table, he took the princess' hand and led her onto the dancefloor.

Vidani was a very graceful dancer, while Kolyat felt more insecure, trying to apply his best sword fighting footwork on the dancefloor.

Before long, Vidani's hands slid through the open front of his leather jacket, and she quickly located his pistols.

"Whoops," Kolyat said, but continued dancing as if nothing had happened.

"Have you been carrying these all this time?" she asked, putting her fingers around the grips of both guns.

He nodded. Honestly, he could not believe that she hadn't noticed anything in four months. They danced for a couple more minutes, before Vidani suddenly walked back to their booth. Kolyat thought she was mad that he had been armed all along, although she had specifically demanded that he wouldn't be.

He slowly walked back to her and sat down.

"You don't understand what it is like," she said after a painfully long silence.

"Understand what?"

"What it's like to be a princess! I am sorry, I know I have been strict with you, but you just don't understand what it is like…"

Kolyat agreed wholeheartedly. He had absolutely no idea what it was like to be a princess.

"My family is expected to lead our species back to Rakhana. But every single drell, hanar AND salarian scientist who have studied the planet says it is impossible," she said, leaning back in her seat. "Do you realize how much pressure I am under? I am expected to do the impossible!"

Kolyat nodded. Thankfully, one of Adina's waiters brought them another bottle of wine. He quickly poured some into Vidani's glass.

"And," the princess continued. "On top of all that, there are these huge expectations, from both my parents and the drell in general, that I am going to continue the royal bloodline. But I feel so trapped in that palace… How am I supposed to meet people? Never mind having children!"

Kolyat shrugged. He didn't have any answers to Vidani's questions, but he was beginning to understand why she wanted to get away from Kahje for some time.

"You must have plenty of suitors," he eventually said, not sure what to do.

She laughed.

"Are you flirting with me, Captain Krios?"

Unable to answer, he poured wine into his glass and picked it up. She raised her glass as well.

"Cheers," she said.

He smiled back at her. "Cheers."

He drank and then realized that he might have a possible solution for one of Vidani's problems.

"I have an idea," he said.

She looked at him over the rim of her glass. "Let's hear it."

-X-X-X-

Kolyat and Vidani were waiting in the lobby of a small, but seemingly brand new building. A human assistant, a young man, had politely asked them to take a seat and wait until his boss was ready to see them.

"Mr. Krios and Ms. di Toro, the ambassador will see you now," the assistant called, smiling brightly at his guests. Presumably, the embassy did not get many drell guests.

Kolyat and Vidani walked past the security desk where Kolyat had already handed in his pistols. After the dancefloor discovery in Afterlife, Vidani had agreed that Kolyat could keep carrying his guns, as long as he kept them hidden.

They reached the ambassador's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Kolyat opened the door, and allowed Vidani to enter first. He felt perfectly safe in this building. Before he and Vidani left Kahje, Kolyat had received the news that Oriana Lawson had been made the first ever human ambassador to Rannoch. He easily trusted the remaining Lawson twin with both his own and Vidani's safety.

"KOLYAT!" Oriana screamed, as he walked through the door. She jumped out of her chair, ran around the table and jumped into his arms. "It's so good to see you!"

Kolyat, who had not seen Oriana since he left Earth five years earlier, hugged her tightly.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" she asked.

"It was a surprise," he said.

Oriana smiled and ran back to her desk. Holding down a button, she gave instructions to her assistant: "Gabriel, reschedule all my appointments for the rest of the day."

"Yes, Ms. Lawson," the assistant replied, as Oriana returned her attention to her guests.

"And who is this beautiful drell?" Oriana asked, smiling at Vidani.

"Oriana Lawson, meet Vidani di Toro…"

Oriana gaped at him and began fidgeting with her hair.

"Kolyat!" she said in an accusatory tone. "You did not bring your crown-princess to my office without warning me!"

Kolyat was impressed. There was no reason for a non-drell, except maybe a hanar, to recognize the name of the princess. But Oriana was incredibly smart, which was why she had been handpicked to be ambassador at the age of 28.

Vidani laughed. "Don't worry, Ambassador. I am actually trying to stay undercover, although Kolyat, for a drell so talented in the art of stealth, is doing everything in his power to reveal my identity to everyone in the galaxy."

"Please, just call me Oriana. Is this a diplomatic visit? Undercover or not, you are an official representative of your people, Princess."

Kolyat shook his head. "We are just here to talk. Everything is off the record, so far. I have an idea I would like to run by you."

Oriana sat down at her desk and sent Gabriel out to buy lunch. Her office had huge panorama windows, allowing them to look out across the desert.

Oriana had been ambassador for little more than half a year, but she already seemed to be immensely popular. After the geth were killed along with the reapers when the Crucible fired, the quarians had been working on a way to rebuild them. On top of her work as an ambassador, Oriana was helping the quarians bring the geth back in a way that prevented history from repeating itself.

Most quarians, after years of exile, now lived on Rannoch again. Parts from the surviving ships of the Migrant Fleet had been used to build settlements on the homeworld.

"Quarians that have been born on the Migrant Fleet will still have to wear their suits most of the time," Oriana explained. She had also been involved in immunity research. "They have lived in sterile environments for too long to just remove the suits. But newborn quarians should be allowed to go without suits for a while to get used to Rannoch's environment."

"Really?" Kolyat asked. "Quarians can drop their suits?"

"Yes and no," Oriana answered. "Babies inherit large parts of their immune system from their mothers, during their development in the womb. So it might take many generations with more and more exposure to the environment to develop a strong enough immune system for quarians to drop the suit completely. And even then, quarians have always had relatively weak immune systems. Which is why I would recommend that quarians, even if we get to a point where suits are no longer strictly necessary, should take precautions in the form of antibiotics and immuno-boosters, particularly before close contact with us non-quarians."

"What about the geth? Are you close to reactivation?" Kolyat asked.

Oriana explained that there were still a lot of debate whether to bring the geth back or not.

"Admiral Tali'Zorah has a house close to mine. She lives there with Garrus Vakarian, who works as a security advisor to the Admiralty Board," Oriana said. "Tali is the most popular admiral on the board, and she is recommending reactivation. She believes that the quarian owe it to the geth after they helped during the war."

According to Oriana, the quarians who disagreed with Tali argued that the geth was likely to be angry that they had somehow accidentally been killed by the Crucible.

"I have been supporting Tali'Zorah's campaign to reactivate the geth," Oriana revealed. "Actually, I have been using Joker and EDI's relationship as a good example of a successful organic/synthetic relationship. Since EDI was reactivated a few years ago, with quarian help I should add, she has shown exactly the same loyalties as before the Crucible shut her down. In fact, she seems to be even more loyal to organics now than before. She says she is happy that she was reactivated, even when organics had the chance to live without synthetics."

Kolyat looked at Vidani. He did not know her thoughts on synthetic lifeforms. It was not irrelevant for his plan.

"So, Oriana. Will the geth be reactivated or not?" the princess asked.

"It will take a year, maybe more, to get the technology in the right place, and then I think there will be a referendum among the quarians. And with the traction that Tali's campaign has gotten, I can't imagining them voting against reactivation."

Kolyat rose from his chair and walked to the panorama windows. He looked out at the desert.

"Princess Vidani has a problem," he said. "We, the drell, have a problem."

"Kepral's Syndrome?" Oriana guessed. Again, Kolyat was impressed with her knowledge.

"That is a significant part of the problem, yes," Vidani said. "I am expected to lead my people back to Rakhana, but…"

"…That is impossible," Oriana finished. "Rakhana can no longer support organic life."

"Exactly," Kolyat said.

"And now you have come to see me, because you think the drell could live on Rannoch?" Oriana guessed.

Vidani nodded. "It was Kolyat's idea," she said. "I like it, although I think it will be difficult to convince my people that Rakhana is out of the picture."

Oriana smiled at them.

"Good thinking, Kolyat," she said after a short pause, chewing on her pen. "It might not be Rakhana, but Rannoch would be perfect for the drell. As I am sure you have noticed, it is very hot and arid here. Living on Rannoch should, over time, eradicate Kepral's syndrome as a major drell issue."

Oriana joined Kolyat at the windows and looked out at the desert, stretching in front of them.

"There is plenty of space here," she said. "Approximately 12 million quarians survived the war, and the numbers haven't gone up much since."

Kolyat nodded. 12 million was nothing. Sadly, there were even fewer drell. Much fewer. Less than 200 years earlier, the hanar had saved exactly 375,000 drell in order to prevent the race from dying out. The remaining 11 billion drell had died on Rakhana, fighting over the last reserves of food and water. Since then, thanks in large parts to Kepral's Syndrome, the drell had not been able to reproduce fast enough to maintain a stable population. After the war, there had only been an estimated 250,000 drell left in the entire galaxy, and with so many dying every year from Kepral's Syndrome, they could not afford to wait for the hanar scientists to come up with a cure for the disease. They needed to move the drell. But Rakhana was a no-go, Kolyat knew it, and Vidani knew it. Rannoch was promising, and if they could get Oriana to help, Kolyat had high hopes for the future of his race.

"I see two potential challenges," Oriana said. "First of all, you guys are levo-based, but all organic life on Rannoch is made up of dextro amino acids. Drell would not be able to eat the local flora and fauna. So a very reliable trading route would have to be established to keep the drell population fed. But that should not be hard at all."

"And what's the second issue?" Vidani asked.

"The quarians," Oriana said. "Introducing another species like the drell could very well make it harder for the quarians to reintegrate to Rannoch. It could be dangerous, or it may just take them a little longer to get rid of the suits."

"We are not moving here if it puts the quarians at risk," Vidani said.

"We would have to conduct some research, for sure," Oriana said. "Luckily, drell do not tend to carry many communicable diseases. For example, Kepral's Syndrome cannot be transmitted to a quarian, which is good."

"Do you think the quarians would allow it?" Kolyat asked.

She nodded.

"It is not at all unrealistic. As long as we can prove that your people do not pose a health risk to them. And if we can get Tali to back the idea, I think you have a good chance of success. I will do anything I can to help, but you should know that this could take years of negotiations and preparation. And you, Princess, will have to convince your people that Rannoch is a great alternative to Rakhana."

Vidani gave Oriana a determined nod. "If we can do this, you will be sainted, Lawson."

Sainthood, in recent drell history, was reserved for the hanar, the saviors. And Vidani was suggesting that Oriana, a human, could join their ranks. In that moment, Kolyat realized the importance of their project. They were taking the first tentative steps towards the second salvation of the drell. Suddenly, he could feel tingles up and down his spine. This was huge. And he was a part of it, an important part of it. He had suggested Rannoch. He had introduced Vidani to Oriana.

He felt that he had a grand purpose in his life. He hadn't felt like this since the war, when all organic life in the galaxy had been in the balance. This time, he was trying to save the drell.

He smiled at Vidani, who grinned back at him. There was hope.

Oriana was back behind her desk, taking notes on everything they had talked about. She stopped her furious typing for a second and looked up at her guests.

"You two are coming with me to dinner at Tali's house tonight," she said. "We need to involve her in the project as early as possible. There's a lot of political footwork to be done."

There was a soft knock on the door, and Gabriel entered with their lunch.

"Thanks, Gabe," Oriana said, still typing. "Have you cancelled my appointments?"

"Yes, Ms. Lawson."

"Good. I want you to keep as much space open as possible in my calendar the next two weeks, please. I will be starting a new project."

"Another one?" Gabriel asked.

She smiled up at him. "This one is a doozy."

He snorted. "Yeah, as if the geth and quarian immune systems are normal things for an ambassador to deal with."

"Just don't clog my calendar with meetings with diplomats who are mostly here to stare at my boobs," she said.

Gabriel laughed. "I will. You can't blame them though. It's a good thing I'm gay, or I would never get any work done."

Oriana winked at her assistant, who said "bon appétit" to Kolyat and Vidani, pointing to the lunch plate on Oriana's desk, and left the office.

"Isn't he lovely?" she asked, once Gabriel had closed the door behind him. "You'd think he was the one with the designer genes."

Vidani looked confused.

"I'll explain later," Kolyat whispered.

Later, on the walk from the human embassy to Tali's house, Kolyat enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine heating his scales. With an average surface temperature over 40 degrees Celsius, Rannoch was just perfect for the drell, who needed a lot of heat to keep their bodies going. Kolyat looked at Tikkun, as Rannoch's sun was called, hovering above the horizon it would soon sink below. In a short time, moving the drell to Rannoch had become the purpose he had needed in his life. And now, enjoying the perfection of the planet, there was nothing more important to him than seeing this plan through. He hoped Tali'Zorah would be willing and able to help.

He looked at Princess Vidani, who was talking to Oriana as they walked along a tiled path through the sand. Her orange scales were reflecting the sunshine beautifully, giving her a pinkish glow. The princess was smiling brightly, a huge contrast to the sour mood that Kolyat had experienced from time to time earlier on in their travels. She seemed to be just as excited about this plan as he was, perhaps even more so.

Oriana was leading them along the path, holding a silver umbrella to protect her from the powerful sunlight. For a human, the temperatures and the radiation levels on Rannoch were very high, which was why both the embassy and Oriana's house were equipped with very powerful air-conditioning systems. Even though the sun was now low on the sky, Oriana, who also wore special tinted glasses when she was outside, still carried the umbrella.

Like many of the other places they had been, Kolyat and the princess saw many construction projects on Rannoch. But unlike the other places, Rannoch was not experiencing reconstruction because of the reaper attacks, but because millions of quarians had moved back to the planet. Some buildings from before the geth drove the quarians off the planet were still intact, but most quarians chose to build new homes to better suit the quarian lifestyle, which had changed a lot since they were driven from their homeworld 300 years earlier – the use of enviro-suits being the most prominent change.

Kolyat looked around at the houses that were being built along the path. In several of the construction sites, he could see how they were using remains of the Migrant Fleet to build homes to the returned quarians.

"How many ships are left in the Flotilla?" Kolyat asked, nodding toward one of the construction sites.

"Considering the losses in the war, the quarians still have an impressive fleet of over 20,000 ships," Oriana answered. "But since most quarians now live on Rannoch again, the big liveships are no longer needed. Many of them were old and only kept going because the quarians are such brilliant engineers anyway. But the parts are very valuable here on Rannoch."

Kolyat nodded. To him, quarian architecture looked very practical. As with their ships, the quarians seemed to value functionality over aesthetics. He thought about the palace back on Paku Island. If the drell was to move to Rannoch, the princess would have to move out of her luxurious home. Kolyat wondered if she had thought about that at all.

They arrived at Admiral Tali'Zorah's house, a mansion-like construction on the edge of a cliff with an amazing view of the setting sun.

"That's my house over there," Oriana said, pointing across a small canyon to a smaller building. "The view is not as spectacular as here, but I can't complain."

Tali came out of the front door, holding parts from a disassembled geth housekeeping unit. "Start cooperating, or I'll never reactivate you, stupid bosh'tet!" she cursed, throwing the mechanical parts down on the sand in frustration.

"Hi Tali," Oriana said.

The admiral looked up. "Oh, hi Oriana," she said. "Keelah, Kolyat, what are you doing here?"

"Hello, Tali'Zorah," Kolyat said.

"Kolyat is escorting the drell princess," Oriana explained. "We have something very important to discuss."

Tali greeted Vidani and picked up the pieces of geth from the ground. "I was just trying to repair this little thing," she explained and asked them to follow her into the house. "But I can't get the hydraulic system to work."

"Not activating the geth prematurely, are you, Admiral?" Oriana joked.

Tali shook her head. "Keelah, no! I would be exiled… Again. I'm just doing some preliminary tests."

"Where is Garrus?" Oriana asked as they sat down on couches in Tali's enourmous living room, looking at the sunset through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Tali shrugged. "I sent him to the market for some groceries. I'm not sure why he's not home yet. He is probably calibrating the neighbor's fishtank or something like that…"

The former C-Sec agent walked in through the front door a few minutes later, carrying two large bags of groceries.

"I bought almost all the levo-food they have, honey," he called. "Do you think Oriana likes sushi? I think it's fish, but I'm not sure."

"It is fish," Oriana explained from the couch. "Good to see you, Garrus."

The turian noticed that Tali had already been joined by Oriana, and also Kolyat and Vidani.

"Oh," he said. "Hey, you're here."

"And with Kolyat Krios and the drell princess," Tali added excitedly.

"Good to see you all," Garrus said, looking nervously at his shopping bags. "I hope I bought the right stuff."

"Sushi will be fine for us," Kolyat, who was familiar with the human dish, assured him.

Vidani gave him a nervous look. Clearly, she was still not sure what it was.

They all gathered around the table to eat dinner while the sun finally disappeared below the horizon, and Oriana told Tali and Garrus about Kolyat's plan.

"Well," Tali said, having heard everything that Oriana had to say. "I'm in."

"Thank you, Admiral," Vidani said, nodding at Tali.

"It will take years, though," Tali sighed.

Oriana nodded. "That is what I said."

"We are aware that it will take some time," Vidani said. "Actually, I think the drell will be harder to convince than the quarians."

"The threat of extinction should be motivation enough," Kolyat added.

"Will it be that hard to convince the drell to move here?" Garrus asked. "It's been centuries. Are they still that attached to Rakhana?"

The princess nodded.

"Think of the quarians," Oriana said, gesturing at Tali. "They never forgot about Rannoch. Tali and her people have been saying 'keelah se'lai' for generations. It means 'by the homeworld I hope to see one day'. But now, luckily, that saying no longer makes sense. Now every quarian can see the homeworld by just walking out their front door."

Garrus nodded. He knew how much it had meant to Tali that the quarians were finally back on Rannoch.

"Rakhana means everything to us," Vidani said. "But it is a completely different situation. We cannot return. It is impossible. And, sadly, we cannot stay on Kahje either. I need to get the drell to realize this."

"You will probably need hanar support as well, Princess," Oriana said. "If you don't get that, the compact will keep many drell on Kahje."

Kolyat, who was once again impressed by Oriana's knowledge about the drell society, nodded. The compact was a complicated relationship, and if the hanar were not supportive of the drell moving from Kahje, it would never happen. Most drell would be more than willing to risk their health and maybe even extinction of the drell to fulfill the compact.

"Sounds like we all have work to do," Tali said. "I will send a quarian research team to Kahje as soon as possible. We need quarian scientists to evaluate drell society to see if you can be integrated on Rannoch."

"Of course," Vidani said. "I will go straight back to Kahje and talk to my father about our plan."

Kolyat and the princess spent the night in Oriana's house. Despite being about half the size of Tali's, Oriana's home had more than enough bedrooms for all of them.

"Do you live here all by yourself?" Vidani asked, as Oriana showed them to their bedrooms.

She nodded.

"Don't you ever get lonely?" the princess asked. "There can't be many humans on Rannoch."

Oriana smiled. "As the ambassador, I can give you the exact number. There are currently 97 humans living on Rannoch, that includes Gabriel and myself, and another 14 have applied for permanent residency. But Gabriel is the only human I meet on a regular basis. But we don't really see each other outside work. But I am not lonely. I have made many quarian friends, and Tali and Garrus have been wonderful."

"No husband?" Vidani asked. "Your father must be nothing like my father…"

Oriana coughed. "I assure you, Princess, without knowing your father personally, I can confidently say that he is nothing like mine. But you are right. No husband. My sister always told me that she was too busy for romance. I used to say that she was stupid, but I have to admit that she made some good points."

She opened a door and motioned towards the bed. "I think this will suit you, Princess."

Vidani thanked Oriana for all her help and disappeared into the room, leaving Oriana and Kolyat alone in the hallway.

"She is sweet," Oriana said.

"The princess is known and popular on Kahje for her kindness," Kolyat answered, following Oriana down the corridor.

"And popular with you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Excuse me?"

She punched him playfully in the arm. "I've seen the way you look at her, Kol. You are not just watching her every move to protect her from assassins, are you?"

He swallowed hard. He had thought that he was harder to read. If Oriana had noticed, the princess probably already knew.

"I think she is very beautiful," he admitted in a low whisper.

"I think you are right," Oriana replied, whispering as well, as they stopped in front of another closed door. "So why don't you do something about it?"

"She's the princess," Kolyat argued. "I'm nobody."

Oriana huffed. "Have you told her about the Psychotic Biotics? You are not nobody."

Kolyat nodded.

"Well," Oriana said, smiling and grabbing both his hands. "Make a move then, Captain. If she doesn't want you, she is crazy."

She kissed both his cheeks. "Goodnight, Kol."

"Goodnight, Oriana."

Kolyat watched her disappear into the master bedroom and opened the door to his own room. With a deep sigh he took off his jacket, grabbed his pistols from the shoulder holster and placed one under his pillow and the other in a linen closet. He then took off his shoulder holster and his shirt, which he folded neatly and placed on a chair.

As he sat down on the edge of the bed to take off his boots, Kolyat thought about what Oriana had said. He couldn't forget that he had been so obvious. He had tried to hide his feelings so well that he had suppressed them. He had murdered his own love for Vidani, but after the conversation with Oriana in the hallway, it was all coming back, and Kolyat shivered. The thought of her getting undressed just a few doors down was making him dizzy. He did not understand. He never felt like this, and he had always been mystified by his human friends' descriptions of these sensations.

He kicked his boots off and placed them neatly next to the bed. He then took off his pants and noticed that the thought of the princess getting undressed had made him hard.

He allowed himself to fall back on the bed, and as he lay there, staring up into the ceiling, he imagined kissing Vidani. They were back on Kahje, standing on one of the beaches on Paku Island. The sun was painting her scales pink, and she pressed against him. It was almost like sinking into one of his memories, except this had never actually happened.

With a blink of his eyes he was back in Oriana's guestroom, still staring at the white ceiling. He breathed a deep sigh and tried to relax himself. He had to focus on the plan. Moving the drell to Rannoch and potentially saving his entire race was all he needed to worry about. Naked except for his underpants in Oriana's air-conditioned house, he was beginning to feel cold, and he quickly crawled under the blanket, but it would be a long time before he finally closed his eyes and fell asleep.

-X-X-X-

Finding transportation from Rannoch to Kahje was impossible, so the princess had decided to go back to Illium to find someone that could take her home. Kolyat, of course, had gone with her, and they had managed to find a ship to Kahje.

The asari captain had been doing business on Kahje for decades, and she recognized the princess immediately. Vidani had been given one of the officer's cabins, while Kolyat had to sleep with the rest of the crew. Kolyat looked around the room. Most of the crew was asleep, only a few beds were empty. Someone had to fly the ship.

Unable to fall asleep, Kolyat put on his clothes, grabbed his pistols from under his pillow and left the sleeping quarters. There was a window right outside the door, and Kolyat looked out at the stars. They were queued up by a mass relay, waiting for other ships to pass through first. Kolyat could see several of them, silent giants hanging in the sky, patiently awaiting their turn. The Illium-Kahje Shipping Lane had been among the busiest before the war, and it seemed that traffic was almost back to normal. Every two minutes or so, there was a bright blue flash, and the mass relay sent another ship hurling across the galaxy.

He leaned his forehead against the cold window and looked past the relay and the waiting ships at the stars. Orbiting one of those stars was Kahje, and Kolyat could not wait to get back to his normal duties. Everything would be much easier when he could just concentrate on his job and didn't have to spend every day with the princess.

"Captain," a familiar voice said, and Kolyat spun around. Princess Vidani was standing right next to him. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I was… Just looking at the ships, Princess."

She sighed and joined him at the window. "You know, I asked you not to call me that… Kolyat."

He quickly turned and looked at her. She had used his first name. She never did that.

"We are alone. And the crew already knows that you are the princess."

She nodded and leaned against the steel railing. "I know. I am not trying to hide my identity. I just want you to call me Vidani."

"Okay," Kolyat said hesitantly. He had never gotten used to not calling her princess. "I will try… Vidani."

"Don't try," she said softly. "Just do it, Kolyat. That's an order."

He could not help but smile. "Yes, of course."

She slid her hand along the railing until her fingers reached his. She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him softly. "Come with me."

Kolyat felt like he had been electrified by her touch, but followed Vidani into her cabin.

"I wanted to thank you, Kolyat," she said. "Going to Rannoch was a brilliant idea. I truly believe that this plan might save our kind."

"I am just glad I could help," Kolyat answered. He couldn't help noticing how she was still holding onto his hand even though he had followed her all the way into her cabin, and they were just standing in the middle of the room.

"It was an excellent idea," Vidani continued. "I would like to thank you, on behalf of the drell people."

"That is not necessary," Kolyat said, but she placed her free hand over his mouth.

"And this is a show of my personal gratitude," she said and removed her hand from his mouth. Before Kolyat had understood what was going on, Vidani stood on her toes and placed her lips on his.

The kiss was over quickly, but the taste of spice lingered on Kolyat's lips long after. Vidani still stood in front of him, still holding his hand. She was smiling.

"That wasn't much of a 'thank you'," she said, and then followed a deeper, much longer kiss.

At some point during the kiss, Vidani let go of his hand, dove under his jacket and pulled out both pistols. She threw them on the desk and pulled his jacket off.

Kolyat placed one hand on the small of her back and used the other to caress her cheek. Her scales were extremely smooth. She felt soft and warm.

"Oh, Kolyat," she moaned and ripped his shirt open. "Thank you."

She then pulled her own nightdress off.

"No, pri.. Vidani… Thank you," Kolyat sighed, staring at her naked body."

She giggled and pulled his shirt and shoulder holster off while Kolyat kicked off his boots. He still wasn't sure what was going on, but with Vidani standing naked in front of him, his next move came to him instinctively. He reached out and ran his fingers down Vidani's body. She was so soft and beautiful. Even more so than he had imagined.

"Gorgeous," he whispered, as she started to work on his belt.

As soon as they were both completely naked, Vidani pulled him down to the floor. Kolyat's brain fought against it. The floor was cold, and the drell needed warmth. But Vidani had an idea.

"Heat me up," she purred, wrapping her legs around him.

Kolyat forgot everything about the warm bed that were just a few meters away as soon as he slid into her for the first time.

"Oh, Kalahira!" she moaned and grabbed the back of his neck.

Kolyat pushed into her again, and she continued to purr.

"Yes," she panted. "Yes, Kolyat!"

He pulled her closer to his body and kissed her again, he could feel her breathing quickly onto his lips, and she moaned. He heard himself making strange noises as well, noises he was sure he had never made before.

Vidani licked the scales on his neck, and he lifted her on top of him. He barely registered the cold floor against his back, as Vidani lowered herself onto him while he thrusted upwards.

"Ah, again, Kolyat! Again!"

He did as he was told, and Vidani gasped and shook. Her fingers were fanned across his naked chest, but Kolyat grabbed her by the wrist and licked the palm of her hand. He could taste the mild poison that all drell had on their scales. The poison did not affect other drell, so he did not have to worry about hallucinations.

A few thrusts later, and Kolyat finished, allowing himself to lie flat on his back, panting. Vidani laid down on top of him, resting her head on his chest, which was rapidly raising and lowering as he breathed.

"I am sorry about that," Kolyat said, putting his arms around her. "I shouldn't have…"

For the second time that night, Vidani placed her hand over his mouth. "Yes, Kolyat. You definitely should!"

She started licking the scales on his chest, and Kolyat sighed deeply. It was such a surreal experience. Vidani was his princess, and the most beautiful drell he had ever seen, and now she was lying naked on top of him, running her tongue over his scales, a traditional show of affection.

But both Kolyat and Vidani were in deep trouble. Traditionally, drell were not supposed to be intimate before their wedding. This tradition was generally not observed among the younger generation of drell, and with the dangerously low numbers of drell left in the galaxy, some had even begun encouraging young drell to have as much unmarried and unprotected sex as possible. But Vidani was the princess and heir to the throne. As a member of the very traditional royal family, she was definitely expected to remain pure until her marriage. Kolyat shared his worries with her.

"I don't care," she said, leaving his scales alone for a moment. "If any other young drell can get away with it, I will do exactly the same."

"But…"

"No, Kolyat," she said. "I want you, and if you want me, which your actions since we entered this room tell me that you do, we should be able to be together."

"I am just a captain of the guard," Kolyat said nervously. "You are the princess. You are supposed to be pure. I will be executed."

"No, you won't," Vidani assured him. "My father likes you. Do you really think he had no ulterior motives for sending you with me around the galaxy?"

Kolyat was shocked. If he understood Vidani correctly, she was insinuating that King Toro had put them together, hoping that they would fall in love. He could not believe that. He expected the king to want someone else for his only daughter. A drell from a good family. But there were no longer any drell lords for Vidani to marry. Thinking about it, a captain of the royal guard was perhaps not so bad, and his confidence grew.

"I need to know why this happened between us," Kolyat eventually said.

Vidani kissed him again. "As I said, I wanted to thank you for your help. And I wanted to have sex with you."

Kolyat wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her lightly. "Is that all?" he asked.

After another kiss, Vidani laid her head down on his chest again. "No," she whispered. "I want you. And if anyone finds out and complains about the two of us having sex, I will just order you to ask my father for my hand in marriage. Then we can do whatever we want to."

Kolyat laughed. "I get the feeling you have been trying to order me to fall in love with you since this trip started," he said.

"Who? Me?"

"You ordered me to call you by your name, ordered me to go to Afterlife with you, threatened to order me to dance with you, and now you want to order me to marry you?"

"I thought you liked orders, Captain," she joked, kissing the side of his neck.

"These are unnecessary orders," Kolyat replied, licking the top of her head. "You only have to ask."

She looked up at him. "Please, will you warm me up again, Kolyat?" she asked.

He rolled her over and placed himself at her entrance again. She elegantly wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer.

She smiled mischievously up at him and licked her lips in anticipation. "Come on, Kolyat. I asked nicely."

Kolyat could not wait to get back to the palace. But he no longer looked forward to concentrate on his duties instead of constantly looking after the princess. Instead, he planned to change the guard schedules as soon as possible. He wondered if anyone would find it suspicious if he signed himself up for all the night shifts outside Princess Vidani's chambers.

---

Author's notes:

You have been reading 'Greener Pastures', another one-shot related to my story 'Biotic Beginnings'. This one obviously takes place between the war and the last chapter of 'Biotic Beginnings'.

I had a good time writing from a alien's perspective, and I hope this was an interesting read for you as well. One of the stories I have been planning is about Oriana, and that will probably include something about how the plan of moving the drell to Rannoch panned out.

Another thing, I know that the Kolyat/Oriana pairing is a popular one, so I hope you won't be too upset that we didn't really see any Koriana action here.

As always, thank you so much for reading. Please, let me know in a review if you liked it, and don't hesitate to tell me if there is any particular one-shot idea (building off of Biotic Beginnings) that you would like me to pursue.

Oh, and make sure to check out my other stories and follow me to receive news of any future works.

Cheers.