Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect,any of the planets mentioned in this chapter, Kowloon-class freighters, the Systems Alliance, the Attican Traverse, asari, or Times Square on Armistice Day. Everything else is mine, but feel free to borrow.
Chapter 01 – Shore Leave
Electric sparks leapt off the MSV Infinite's drive core like a flares leaping off a star. William Truman wiped the sweat from his forehead and knelt down to the first discharge cable, struggling to attach it to the drive core's control panel.
The intercom cracked. "Truman," Captain Miranda Dalton says, "Chen says we're about to hit Zion's atmosphere. You have that drive core ready yet?"
"I'm working as fast as I can," Will snapped, shoving the cable into the correct port. Another spark of lighting leapt off the drive core as the energy flow reversed. Will paused for a second to make sure he was still alive, then reached for the second cable.
The Infinite was nothing special – a Kowloon class freighter, that ubiquitous symbol of the Systems Alliance's commercial enterprise. Will had only signed onto the ship's crew as an engineer a few months ago, but the captain and her crew had been working the Attican Traverse for at least five years.
It was dangerous work, of course – Will's predecessor had made the mistake of wandering outside the ship while they were grounded for discharge on Xawin, and gotten eaten by a thresher maw for his trouble. Even if you played everything absolutely by the rules – dock only at colonies, atmospheric discharges only, and stay the hell away from the Terminus Systems – you still ran the risk of being shot up by any of the thousands of pirate bands that called the Traverse their home. So, it wasn't surprising that someone like the captain would try something like this.
Normally, Will would have rejected the plan right off, but he had been more than a little drunk at the time and the though of trying to run the expanse of the Traverse all the way to Earth with a cargo hold full of element zero had seemed like an exciting adventure at the time.
Idiot.
"Truman…" the captain said, warningly.
"We're going to play a game, captain," Will said, pulling in the second discharge cable, "I'm going to stop the ship exploding, and you're going to shut the hell up."
The discharge cable snapped neatly into place. The drive core flared, lighting up the engine room like Times Square on Armistice Day.
"Truman, if you don't get that drive core ready right now…"
"Hold on!" Will shouted. He jumped to his feet, swung himself over the main control panel, and threw the switch.
From outside, it must have looked like someone throwing the switch on the galaxy's biggest holo projector. Lightning flared up along the Infinite's bow as she slipped beneath the waves of the gas giant Zion's upper atmosphere. Sparks whipped up and illuminated the hydrogen and helium around them, conjuring up a light show as beautiful as any aurora. Will only wished he could see it.
"And," he announced with a staccato beat, "we are done."
Sighing with release, he lay back on the floor and thumbed his com.
"That was a close shave, Truman," the captain said.
"You don't pay for me 'close,' captain," Will said, "seems only fair you shouldn't blame me for it either." The com channel crackled with static, and even without seeing her Will knew the captain had just rolled her eyes.
"Are we going to explode any time soon?" she asked.
"Negative, ma'am," Will replied.
"Good. We're setting down on Asphodel for a brief shore leave, then finishing our run. We should be out of the worst of it, now."
"Roger that, captain," Will said, pushing himself to his feet, "let's do it."
Port Redwood might have been a tiny outpost by Alliance standards, but after a month in theInfinite's cloistered corridors it was like being let free on the streets of Constant. Claude Dupree took a deep breath as he stepped out of the Infinite's sterilized interior and into Redwood's equally sterilized airlock.
"Ah," Dupree said, "don't you just love the fresh smell of recycled air?"
Will chuckled and stretched his arms up above his head, stepping out of the airlock behind the Infinite's cargo master. "Beats the hell out of sitting next to a giant lightning rod all day," he said.
Dupree smiled and strode off down the station corridor. Will had never been to Asphodel before – all their previous stops in the Utopia System had been on Eden Prime – but Zion's largest moon seemed surprisingly busy. Station personnel and hydrogen-3 miners walked past on both sides in the wide corridor, Will keeping close behind Dupree's larger, crowd-breaking form.
"So," Dupree said, obviously eager to strike up a conversation, "Mai turned me down again."
Will rolled his eyes. "And this surprises you?"
"I'm charming, witty, good-looking," Dupree answered, counting off his fingers, "what's not to love?"
"You hid inside her quarters to watch her get undressed," Will said, pointedly.
"Oh, I remember that!" Dupree exclaimed with an air of wistful nostalgia, quickly shifting his course to take them down a side corridor leading to the main cafeteria, "couldn't walk for a week afterwards. But it was worth it."
Will sighed. "I don't see why you have to reduce everything to sex."
Dupree looked back over his shoulder as they passed through the end of the corridor and into the cafeteria. "That's because you have a small…"
He was cut off when a man in black body armor nearly bumped into him from behind, sending him reeling to the floor. The man didn't stop moving, and Will managed to get out of the way just in time as he walked by.
"Hey!" Dupree shouted, rising to his feet, "Who the hell do you think are?"
The man didn't answer. By the time Will was able to get a good view of the corridor back to the main causeway, he was gone.
Dupree shrugged. "Damn good for nothing mercenaries," he muttered, starting again toward the cafeteria service counter.
The cafeteria was like all cafeterias – messy and crowded, with walls painted in regulation colors guaranteed to make you think unceasingly about throwing up. It reminded Will a bit of being in high school again, but with miners and armed security personnel.
It was when Will reached the service counter that the analogy broke down. Piled up high beneath the transparent plastic screens were mountains of good old-fashion terran food. It certainly wasn't the finest cuisine in Citadel Space, but it beat the hell out of MREs.
No sooner had he seen the food than Will found himself pressed up against the screen, saliva dripping from his mouth.
Something hit him sharply on the head. Will looked up to see one of the cooks, a middle-aged woman in an old-fashioned hairnet and apron, glaring down at him.
"Are you going to order something, spacer?" she asked, "or are you just going to stand there and waste oxygen?"
"Right, right," Will said, looking back up, "I'll take two large double hamburgers, two ArcoFizzes – refills are free, right? They've got to be – and a side order of fries. You want anything, Claude?"
Will looked over his shoulder at the cargo master, who was clutching his stomach. "How can you…"
"No self control," Will said with a smile, plugging his credit chit into the machine. The woman shoved the tray across the counter, and Will walked off to find an empty table.
Dupree caught up with a him about thirty seconds later, carrying an apple. Will rolled his eyes.
"Hey," Dupree said conspiratorially, leaning in behind, "you see her? Over by the corridor?"
Will followed Dupree's finger. The woman standing the doorway would normally not have excited much attention, but here on Asphodel there was almost nothing that could stand out as much as blue skin and a sculpted head.
"She's an asari, Dupree," Will said, "they're an asexual species. No way would she be interested."
"I'd asexual her species," Dupree answered.
Will rolled his eyes. "I'm not with him," he said to the world at large, "he just followed me back from the ship."
Dupree sighed. "Figures. What's an asari doing out here, anyhow?"
Will shrugged. "Beats me."
He was about to turn around and look for another table when someone screeched out, "Truman! Dupree!"
Will turned to look back down the corridor. Mai Chen was striding directly towards them, glaring furiously.
Dupree opened his arms. "Mai, baby, where've you been?"
"I don't have time for this, Dupree," she said, "the captain wants the both of you back on the ship right now. There's been a change in plans."
"What about my lunch?" Will protested, holding up the offending tray.
Chen rolled her eyes. "Fine, if it means that much to you. Just get back to the ship. Noveria's waiting."
Will raised an eyebrow. Noveria? Why the hell would they be going to Noveria?
"Truman!"
He snapped back to his senses, and followed.
