ONE MEETING

Her voice softly hummed as she made her way up the ladder in the hangar. Gil paused from his datapad as he saw the blue Asari walk past him. Her appearance wasn't common in his area. Before the red head male had a chance to blurt out a greeting, she was gone through the doors. Peebee was on a mission. She needed more scrap parts for her secret project and managed to sneak sometime down in the cargo bay to dig through what was salvaged recently on Voeld. She was hoping to find some element that was the key to everything, but instead she found the same old junk. Celeste tried to best to recover what she could, but their current mission had whisked them away to a kett facility to rescue the Moshae. A mission that Peebee was privately thankful she wasn't asked to be a part of. She was close. Way too damn close to finish up what she was hiding from the others. She didn't like the idea of someone tampering while she was away even if she could convince Kallo to guard the door to her "quarters."

The ship's area designated for the Apex Strike Team Deployment, Research Terminal and Vendor Kiosk was surprisingly empty. Most of the times she would find Liam or Vetra hovering over the terminals of the nearby science station. Yawn. Unless it was research on the Remnant then she didn't want to know about it. At least not yet. She noticed the door to work area that Jaal took up residence in was opened and the faint sound of voices could be heard. One was distinctively was Jaal's and the other sounded like Celeste. Peebee ruled the obvious possibility that the meeting was nothing more than a recap of the latest mission on Voeld. Then again, she did notice that she was taking him along more frequently on missions. Even when it didn't involve any Angaran interest. Curiosity got the better of her and she stepped quietly to the door and then glanced back behind her to make sure no one had popped into area to notice her snooping.

"Ryder, thank you again for recovering the Moshae. She means a great deal to the Angaran. Especially the Resistance." Jaal was sitting on a stool near a table that housed some type of gun that he was working on. Ryder had her back to Peebee as she stood to face him.

"I'm just glad we could help. I know how important she is to you."

"To all of us. She is after all the greatest mind on the Remnant. I can't even imagine what vile things Archon did to her…" His voice lowered darkly. "What kind of monster would do that to her? To my people? Everyone I knew….I…"

Celeste stepped forward and gingerly wrapped her fingers around his arm.

"Jaal..." His name rolled off her tongue softly. "I know this will change…everything, but you can't let the Kett defeat you this way."

Peebee made a face of disgust as she saw the affection practically oozing from her commander's lips and stepped away. Her mind went back to what Jaal said about Moshae Sjefa. 'The greatest mind on the Remnant?' Tiptoeing, she backed away from the doorway and then whirled around on her heel to walk towards the ladders that led to the lower section of the ship again. It was time to visit the medlab.

Inside the medlab Moshae Sjefa was resting comfortably in the first bed as Dr. T'Perro was working at her desk. The Asari doctor lifted her head up from her terminal as Peebee walked in and got up quickly to welcome her. Peebee tried to shift her path towards the Moshae's bedside but Lexi's warm smile blocked her. "I didn't have an appointment with you, Peebee. Is something wrong?"

"Huh?" The question caught Pelessaria off guard as her main focus remained on the Angaran female in front of her. "No, I, uh, I thought it would be best to welcome our visitor." Her fingers intertwined nervously at her waist.

"I'm sorry, but my patient needs her rest."

"So…I should come back in an hour?" Peebee hopefully asked.

Lexi narrowed her brow. "A few days." She noticed the Asari's mouth gaping open to protest. "She has undergone a traumatic experience both mentally and physically. Her body endured a lot of experiments that are foreign to me. Additional tests will be need to be conducted on an hourly basis."

The medical reasoning for the denial was making Peebee even more frustrated. "Come on, Lexi." She pleaded as her voice peaked. "Just five minutes then she can go back to sleep."

This didn't faze the doctor. With her arms crossed, she glared sharply. "Goodbye, Peebee."

With a heavy, exaggerated sigh, Pelessaria stomped out of the medlab in defeat. A few chosen words huffed under her breath. How did Lexi not see the importance of the meeting? After all, it could unlock more not only on her project but everything on the Remnant?

Tapping her cheek with her finger to ponder her next move, her glance moved to the upper level of the ship again. Jaal! He was their emissary after all and his decision could trump Lexi's. Making a mad dash and almost knocking over Drack as he was exiting the kitchen, Peebee glided up the ladder. She could hear Drack's grumbling below, but ignored him. Just as she reached her destination, she was confronted with a confused Celeste. The woman's blue eyes stared right back at her and she shifted back some to avoid any collision. "Whoa, Peebee." Her hands held up. "What is the matter?"

"Uh, hi!" The asari smiled back nervously. She didn't expect Ryder to still be there. In the back of her mind she was grumbling about what took Celeste so long to talk with Jaal. "You, uh, going off to do stuff?"

Celeste tilted her head in confusion as she looked at her friend. "By stuff, I'm sure you are referring to reports? And yes, it's going to be a long one. Are you okay?"

"Never better," Peebee flashed her an over bearing grin. "Have fun. I was just going to work….on my project. That's it."

This frustratingly caught Ryder's attention. "Oh, how is that coming along?"

"Great. I-I was just going to ask some questions about the Angaran to Jaal. You know to learn more about them."

Celeste blinked. The statement seemed to throw her off and she shifted her body uncomfortably. "I didn't know you were interested in learning about their culture….but that's great to know." The red head smiled, but Peebee could tell it was painfully forced.

The conversation was lasting longer than it should and she needed Celeste to get out of there. A devilish smirk spread across her blue lips. "So you and Jaal..are you-"

"I have reports to do." Celeste uttered in haste as she sidestepped around her shipmate to head to her own quarters.

Once she was out of view, Peebee jumped in victory and gave a fist pump. "Yes! I got it!"

Out of her peripheral vision, she caught the glimpse of someone watching her. She turned to the right to see Liam taking on the entire scene and gawking at her with a confused look on his face. Clearing her throat, she entered Jaal's room and turned to stick her tongue out at Liam, but was not fast enough and found the door to her face.

"Peebee, did you need something?" Jaal's voice caught her attention and she saw him sitting there with his blue eyes staring at her.

"I wanted to learn more about this Moshae. Who is she? What does she know about the Remnant?"

Jaal thought for a moment. "She is our greatest teacher. She knows everything about the Remnant." He chuckled at some private joke. "Though, I cannot recall in detail everything."

Peebee decided not to press the issue right off. She walked over to a counter and picked up a small medallion and studied it in her fingertips. "What do you know?"

When there was no answer, she noticed that the purple skinned Angaran sat there in silence as his eyes studied her. "Forgive me, but ever since the Kett led the attack on my people, we find it hard to trust outsiders."

"I'm not an outsider," Peebee shot back as she placed the medallion down in frustration. "I'm on this team with Celeste. Same as you."

The alien contemplated this for a moment. "I'm not the Moshae so I cannot tell you everything." A beat. "You are an azari. Correct? Perhaps, you can tell me about your kind."

"Asari," She emphasized the pronunciation firmly.

He cleared his throat. "My apologies. Suvi gave me access to your ship's terminal to research your database to learn more about the different aliens in your Milky Way. I have made it through the humans and the krogan, but not the asari."

"Deal," Peebee moved to another part of the room to examine his things. "Asari can have male or female partners to procreate." She shot out quickly as she pivoted around to face him. "Your turn. What do you know about the Remnant?"

The sudden statement about her kind's sexual preference completely caught Jaal off guard and his large eyes blinked as he shifted some in his chair. "That's um…unexpected." His face became flushed. "Forgive me. I didn't expect that you would…uh, thank you for that fact." He stood still as if he debated on pushing the fun fact further or not. "As I told Ryder, I was not the Moshae's best student. With being part of the Resistance, my expertise is more on the Kett and not the Remnant."

Groaning, Peebee threw up her hands in exasperation and left, leaving a confused Angaran in the room. Deciding to give it one more shot, Peebee made her back down the medlab and hoped there would be some way she could sweet talk Dr. Lexi in ignoring her protocol as a doctor. She was surprised when she returned that the doctor didn't have Drack guarding the door. As she got closer, she heard voices talking on the other side and realized that the Moshae was alert. Ignoring her better judgment, Peebee entered quickly to come face to face with a flustered Dr. T'Perro glaring hard at her. "Peebee, I thought I made it clear."

Peebee peered around the other asari's shoulder to see the Moshae trying to see who her visitor was and caught her glance. "Moshae Sjefa! I just want to learn more. Please. It's for a project."

Lexi grumbled as she moved to block her intruder any further passage. "This is nonsense."

"I am alright. Thank you. Please, let her pass," The Moshae's weak voice talked over her. The Angaran female was sitting up in bed with a look of interest and a soft smile as she saw Peebee's grateful expression. "Jaal told me that Celeste found you at the Remnant ruins on Eos. Perhaps we could trade our knowledge."

"Thank you, thank you! All I need is one meeting with you." Peebee's voice filled with glee as she ran over to the bedside earnestly. Then she grinned, "Or more if I have follow up questions."