black hole SUN


CHAPTER ONE - GLYCERINE

"we live in a wheel where everyone steals, and when we rise
it's like strawberry fields."

The holo-tape surrounded a huge portion of the south street on Shalta Ward, Block 71-52, the words "C-SEC CRIME SCENE" and "CAUTION" floating lazily by.

The drell Officer Karliah Zaeran carefully made her way to the front of the gathering crowd to where a pair of her fellow turian C-Sec officers stood guard. It was all they could do to reassure everyone that there was nothing to see there, and that they should move along.

"I just got the call, what we got?" she asked as she fell in line between them.

"808," the silver turian marked in angular blue lines replied simply.

"A homicide? Cyrus, you're joking!" Karliah cried.

The red-brown and golden-painted Sergeant Marius Rillian to her right shook his head. "A volus was shot right in front of his apartment building, the bullet barely grazed him, but it managed to puncture the suit and-"

"Boom." she shuddered. It didn't take much imagination to think about what happens when those high-pressure suits were damaged. "You know, I do have a perfect memory, maybe if I could get a good look, I'd be useful to Investigation."

"Oh no, my good lady," Marius cried, his arm shooting out and stopping her before she got a glimpse. "'Tis not something you would wish to set thine eyes upon."

Karliah rolled her eyes. For some reason, Sargent Marius Rillian had gotten it into his head that all drell spoke in fancy, formal words. No matter how many times she'd explained that it was just how Drellish was translated and that she spoke Galactic, it didn't stop him from his over-the-top expressions.

"I know, Rookie, and I know what you're trying to do, but if the Investigators haven't gotten it into their heads what a lizard like you got, they're never gonna." Cyrus reassured.

She sighed and shook her head. "Did you see what happened?"

"Yeah, didn't wanna, though. It's gonna take a lot of ryncohol to get rid of that image. There's a reason why no one's really sure what volus look like outside of their suits."

"That bad, huh?"

"Awful. Don't even try and look, I'm not gonna let that get into your perfect memory, got it, Rookie?"

"Rookie". Karliah had honestly hoped that after a year of service, the name wouldn't stick. But soon one year passed, then a second and a third. When became quickly apparent that the Shalta 7th wasn't getting anyone new anytime soon, she resigned to her fate and irritating nickname. Most of the turians meant well by it, although some used it as a means to remind her that without bleeding blue and dying for the cause, she would never be one of them.

"Well, it seems as if Investigation is wrapping up," Marius noted.

"Theyr're done already? They just got here!"

Cyrus laughed mirthlessly, "Maybe they got a perfect memory too."


Redacted. More than half of last night's report was either completely inconclusive or retracted. All that remained was the time the Investigators arrived at the scene and the volus' name, Cal Bolun.

Most frustrating, though, was that even ballistics was unable to ID the murder weapon, not that there was much left for them to examine. They weren't even able to read the coding off the bullet. By the language, Karliah was starting to believe the gun was made untraceable and no one was willing to admit it.

"Rookie? What are you reading?"

Marius always made a point to arrive late once he'd attained a rank where no one really cared. Unfortunately for either of them, he seemed right on time.

"She's reading last night's report," Cyrus replied for her with a grumble, "Didn't we tell you to leave it alone?"

Marius shrugged, "I see no harm in it. Anything interesting, my good lady?"

"Nothing."

"Figured it would be boring, it always is when Ryland-"

"No, I mean exactly that. Nothing. Look at this, Marius, it's practically blank!"

He stared blankly at the offered datapad, "Well. Would you look at that. What do you make of all of this?"

"Coverup," Karliah replied lowly.

"That… is not out of the question, honestly."

"I mean, think about it, there's no way they couldn't figure out where the gunshot even came from."

With a wave, a holo-map of Block 71-52 sprung to life from her desktop.

"I think you should keep your mouth shut before you catch hell from Lieutenant Irrian," Cyrus growled.

Marius ignored him. "But there were no witnesses."

"Exactly! So we can rule out the killer being on the streets, otherwise someone would have seen them. The bullet was also lodged into the street panel below instead of through to the other side and getting left in a wall."

"A shot from above. Very good, Rookie."

"It couldn't be Building 2, its roof isn't vacuum-sealed. Neither is 3's, or 8's for that matter. Morris was patrolling on 71-51, right on our border, he would have heard it if it came from these three."

With a touch, six of the eight buildings in the block grew dark, leaving two on either side of a corner.

"What is she doing?" Cyrus demanded.

"What no one else in this damn precinct seems to want to. Investigate."

"It has to be one of these two," Karliah announced, "But I think it's 5, 7 is too awkward of a shot."

"Good morning, Officer Zaeran," an unfamiliar, warbling turian voice announced.

Karliah barely glanced up at the dark-carapaced turian who had suddenly appeared next to her before noticing the badge and official uniform.

"Vice Executor Faustius, sir!" she cried, jumping from her chair and snapping to attention.

It was rare to even see even the head of the Ward, Captain Bell, visiting the smaller precincts, seeing a top-brass official was practically unheard of. Seeing the second-in-command, the Vice Executor in the flesh was the chance of a lifetime.

Cyrus, of course, had the forethought to close the map before standing himself with a salute. "Always a pleasure to see you, Vice Executor."

"At ease, officers. I've been taking a tour of the Citadel Wards as of late, and I've heard talk that our Zaeran was one of the best Enforcers that Shalta has to offer."

"You honor me, sir," she replied with a smile, "But I could never call myself that. In fact, many of the others here still call me 'Rookie'."

"On the contrary. I've heard talk that you have even developed your own tools and applications for your omni-tool."

"It's not- it's nothing that would interfere with my work, of course! Sir!" Karliah stammered, "I don't require any note-taking devices, drell like myself have perfect memories. Instead, I tried to better integrate this eyepiece and my omni-tool for added efficiency."

"May I take a look?"

More afraid of refusing him than actually willing to share these secrets, Karliah reluctantly drew the tool from her forearm and handed it over.

"This is impressive work, Officer, very impressive. Perhaps you should look into a Network department career."

"I've given it some thought. Sir."

"Now, I hope you don't mind me saying so, Officer Zaeran, but you are a very good Enforcer, top of your class if I'm not mistaken," Faustius said, depositing the omni-tool in her palm, "I should hope that your particular… talents wouldn't get in the way of your work, or that of Investigation's."

Karliah's heart jumped to her throat. How was she supposed to respond to that? She swallowed, realizing that the Vice Executor was indeed looking for a reply.

"Of course not, sir. My duty and my place is here with Enforcement, I serve Citadel Security and the people of Shalta Ward with my service."

"And I am glad to hear it. As you were, Officer." Faustius nodded coldly. "Oh, and Officer Gairaka, your cousin says hello."

Cyrus smiled politely, "I'm sure he does, sir. Thank you."

The turians waited until the Vice Executor had stalked out of earshot before turning their attention to her.

"What was that all about?" Cyrus asked.

Only Marius noticed the way her shoulders shook or the way she wrapped her arms around her waist, the way she always did when she was pretending not to be upset.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" he asked, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"He- he must have found out," Karliah stammered, "I applied for Investigation again. They- they didn't even let me take the test."

"Oh, wow," replied Cyrus. "I'm so sorry."

"You and me both, Gairaka."


Five names. Five faces staring back. Five kills.

With a flick, one of those faces faded from the holo screen, faded from the universe forever.

While they may have served their purpose long ago, that time had passed, and they were more a liability than anything, a group of children to beg for money, for power, for anything to keep their mouths shut.

And it was time to move up in the world.

Four more left. Four. And then Vakarian and all those bastards at C-Sec would pay.


A/N: So this story is two years in the making, I went through close to six revisions before I finally made it here, and I'm so glad it's finally finished! I hope you all enjoy the story to come, I'm planning on posting about once a week, so stay tuned!
Also, don't forget to review! I love hearing from you guys and love talking with you all even more!