This is an introduction to my FemShep. I wanted to some part of it from a first person perspective, introducing her early life, her general outlook, principles and so on. So, the first part is written from Shepard's POV. Also, it contains how she meets her sister.
-Part 1-
My name is Elia Albarn Shepard. Parents happened to be big fans of some boy band from Britain in the early 2000s, and they decided that they'd saddle me with an annoying middle name. I like my first name, though. I guess I can forgive them their quirks. They did bring me into the world, after all!
I was born on a frigate in the middle of a pirate attack. Mum was the XO aboard the SSV Panama, Dad was the Flight Lieutenant. I was three weeks early; this probably caused their slight error in judgement with regard to being prepared for my coming. The pirates, whom I later learnt were a rogue faction of the Blue Suns mercenary band, attacked our ship over the planet Corang in the Verr system of the Hawking Eta Cluster. They probably wanted the vast amounts of eezo we happened to be carrying back to Arcturus for study. Humanity still hadn't truly understood biotic ability in their species. The higher-ups apparently believed bringing a few tonnes of the stuff that was known to amplify (and possibly even cause) it for study in one of their most advanced science labs would provide some answers. Good idea, if you think about it.
On to my birth. In my opinion, one of the reasons I turned out such a mutant was that the medic delivering me decided to do so near the drive core, adjacent to the eezo stores aboard the ship. A drive core that happened to have exploded prior to the event, thus thickly permeating the atmosphere with eezo particles. Not that the parties involved had much of a choice. Ursula Thurston was the ship doctor's name. The fact that she popped me out was a miracle. To add to the general chaos, the med-bay also happened to have been blown up by the enterprising pirates prior to the event. Hence, the delivery near the destroyed drive core.
My mother later told me that she perched upon the table of the chief engineer, with only her sister (my aunt), Tamara and the good doctor in attendance. Aunt Tamara had been there presumably to shoot down any intruders who made it through. We were close enough to the escape pods to make a quick exit if required. Dad was doing some crazy manoeuvring to try and get away. Three minutes after I was popped out, the evac order came.
Aunt Tamara carried my mother, completely exhausted from her efforts, and Dr. Ursula carried me, to the nearest escape pod. Or, so I understand, from the story I pieced together interrogating the three other major players in this delicate operation. And so, Elia Albarn Shepard was born, for better or worse. I'd like to think it was mostly for the better, though.
Apparently, most of the crew, including my father, survived the attack, and the Systems Alliance sent over an evac team to take us to the nearest facility. In the aftermath of the incident, my mother, Commander Hannah Mary Aldin-Shepard, and my father, Flight Lieutenant Donald Jason Shepard were posted to different ships. Mother took command of the SSV Arcadium while Dad took the helm of the SSV Bonaparte. Their daughter was rotated through both these ships growing up. A life that went on this way until she was three. Early on, brain scans showed massive abnormalities. Biotic response levels were off the charts, and until a better understanding to the phenomenon could be established, it was attributed to the (over?) exposure to eezo at the time of birth. Brain activity indicated probable genius-level intellectual progression.
When I was three and on my father's ship, it was attacked (again) by a slaver frigate commandeered by some batarians (typical). Luckily, a pirate frigate commandeered by one Aleena D'Envers, a retired asari commando huntress was in the area at the same time, and they heroically fought the slavers off. Unfortunately, the ship was almost completely destroyed by then. When the evacuation order went out on board, I was comfortably asleep in the closet of the CO's cabin. The CO at the time was Captain Ralph Sommers-a big burly Irishman with twinkling blue eyes. I heard later that he died in the attack, along with twenty five others, including my father. The whole crew. I can't recall why I was in his cabin, but I suppose it could be called luck.
The ship's engine was still functional somehow, and since no damage had been done to the area of the ship I was on, it was still capable of sustaining life when the Aleena's mercs came on-board to collect their loot (no point wasting good resources even if the rescue hadn't been successful). As such, I was still alive, and was very diligently putting together a model of the asari dreadnought, 'The Destiny Ascension' after waking up from my nap. That was where Aleena found me. Since she didn't know what to make of me, she just decided that I was part of the loot, I suppose.
In later conversations with her about the meeting, she informed me that I'd looked at her in mild surprise, and then, proceeded to display my intellectual prowess by showing off the completed model proudly. She decided that she'd take me along on her ship, at least until she could figure out a suitable course of action. She had a crew of about twenty, a mixture of different species. There were the usual-salarians, turians, krogan and asari. There were also two quarians-one her helmsman, and the other her engineering specialist (predictably). There was also a female elcor on board (their medic), and surprisingly, four humans, two twenty-something females, and a pair of male twins about two years older than me. Ultimately, Aleena decided to keep me on the ship to provide company for the twins, Jake and Martin. The Systems Alliance officially declared me dead, in addition to my father and the 25 others who'd actually died on the SSV Bonaparte. Ironically, it was not to be the last time this was to happen in my life. It was probably the longest I'd stayed dead in the records, thinking back.
Life aboard Aleena's ship, the 'Kaitlyn', was interesting. I learnt how to control my considerable biotic power under the tutelage of Aleena herself, and Parr, her second-in-command. He was one of a dying breed - the krogan battlemaster. They outfitted me with implants they got off the black-market. Turians, humans and to a lesser extent, salarians and quarians all needed them to gain control over their biotic ability. I later found out that the implants they put into me were turian military-grade, not that much different from the L2s developed by the Alliance. They were supposed to cause adverse reactions in humans (migraines, nerve damage, and several other nasty side-effects). I never had any such issues, though.
I also displayed a great aptitude for tech (I'm a genius, so of course, it was natural), and before long, had learnt as much as I could about electronics, mechanics, computers and other related topics from Lea, the ship's quarian engineer. By the time I was twelve, I was probably more skilled than her, and that is no idle boast.
Natalya and Irene, the humans aboard the ship, were two of the galaxy's best known thieves and saboteurs. They showed me how to pick locks, hack systems, and do many other rather illegal things besides. All useful skills, mind you. Their instruction has saved my life several times. The twins grew up along with me, becoming useful in their own way. They both liked guns, and learnt all they could about different weapons - how to use them, mod them, and so on. I did a bit of that too, when I wasn't busy taking things apart and putting them together, picking locks or shooting down targets with my biotics.
Eventually, they started taking us out on their missions, raiding mercenary camps, or military outposts. Aleena had many rules, one of the foremost being that we never attacked the defenseless. You'd never find our ship raiding a civilian colony. Many times, we even took out slaver camps because Aleena was against the notion of slavery. I appreciated where she was coming from. (Since I was also extremely well-read. I had an eidetic memory. I could easily pirate copyrighted material off the extranet, and spent many happy hours reading the philosophies of different cultures, fictional works of the greatest exponents of each species- I had a particular fondness for human dark fantasy novels and the discourses of the famous drell philosophers)
There are many interesting stories I could tell about my time aboard the Kaitlyn, but these are for another time. Suffice it to say that much of my development as a person was down to the influence of Kaitlyn's crew, and in particular, its captain, Aleena. She was by no means a saint, or some paragon of virtue. She believed that the only person you needed to live with at the end of the day is yourself. She was consequentialist, one of her favourite teachings being that that the measure of an individual was determined by the consequences of their actions, and not the action itself. The action is always something you come to terms with on your own. This was to become one of the guiding principles of my own life.
When I was sixteen, Aleena decided to retire from her life of piracy, for reasons that were to become clear to me later. She dropped her crew at different destinations, depending on where they wanted to go. Most of the crew had been with Aleena twenty years or more, and were understandably distressed at having to leave. Aleena was firm, however. She would retire, and we all had to find our own path.
The twins, Natalya, Irene and I, decided to stick together and we zoned in on a human farming colony called Mindoir for our drop. The night before I left, Aleena sat me down in her cabin and initiated a mind-meld with me. It was the first of many mind-melds I was to have in my life. It was the ultimate show of trust, of faith, and in this case, she believed, a farewell. I was the daughter she never had, and she was sad to see me leave. I promised her that we would meet again, no matter what. She smiled through her tears, and said she'd look forward to it.
The five of us landed on Mindoir and managed to find work at a private security firm. Course, Natalya, Irene and I had to use false identities; Natalya and Irene because they were wanted criminals, and me, because I was supposed to be dead. The twins never had an identity they could call their own, having been found by Dr. Tyne (the elcor doctor on Aleena's crew-she had an almost unparalleled knowledge of anatomy and medicine, but being an elcor, wasn't the most adept surgeon. Those duties fell to the other crew members, most often, me, once I was old enough) on the Citadel. It was a story never told to me. So, we registered as a family of five, Natalya became my mother, and Irene became the twins' mother. Natalya and Irene were a married couple (at my prodding, I may add. It was probably the only part of all this stuff that was actually genuine-the two of them loved each other and needed a genius like me to realize it for them).
It was a peaceful enough existence for two months. Then, the infamous slaver raid on Mindoir happened. A ring composed mainly of batarians carried it out. They inflicted monstrosities on so many innocents at the colony. The five of us, well-armed, skilled former pirates that we were, saved as many as we could, holing up in the large basement of a school. We shot whoever came nearby, remained vigilant, regularly scouted for more survivors, basically doing all we could to save as many as possible and keep them safe. I suppose each of us felt like we owed it to the universe to defend the weak. All told, we saved about sixty people. It was frustrating that we couldn't do more, but there wasn't really much more we could have done in that situation. The slavers slaughtered those that wouldn't be useful, and cranially implanted those who would. I was mildly desensitized to such horrors, but there was no doubt that they created a lasting impact. Slaving was wrong… And batarians were despicable...
The SSV Einstein, a cruiser which happened to be passing the area, responded to the distress calls from the colony. They couldn't stop the batarians, but they did manage to evacuate us and several others. The five of us were considered important enough to a meet with the CO. Being well-armed helped. Saving one Commander Bardsley escalated the issue far enough.
And so, the five of us were ushered into the communications room of the SSV Einstein and made to sit down on (rather comfortable) chairs around a holographic projector. A QEC. The Captain joined us after a time. Let me declare now that it is very difficult to surprise me. Very, very difficult. So extremely difficult that I could count the number of times it has happened. This was one of those times. What happened next was almost cosmic providence. There is no other way I can explain it.
The CO of the SSV Einstein was Captain Hannah Shepard. My rather illustrious mother. She greeted us and asked us for our account of what happened. My four companions generally looked to me for leadership, despite the fact that I was the youngest. I recognized her straight off the bat and suddenly found myself paralysed by indecision.
I looked over at Natalya nervously. She frowned, sensing something was wrong. I took out my omni-tool. Hands shaking, I took out my father's locket and started playing one of the vids from it. It had a picture of my parents and I on it, and an embedded memory chip with happy memories. Aleena had found it on my father's body and entrusted it to me when I turned thirteen. It was probably the only reminder of a life I was supposed to have lived.
I looked up at my mother. She was stunned. The vid played out-it showed me walking to my mother across a room, on unsteady baby legs.
As it ended, I looked up to see tears streaming down Mother's face. "Er, I'm sorry. But, where did you get that? Did you find it in the wreckage of a ship by any chance? I lost my husband and my daughter thirteen years ago….."
I shifted my feet uncomfortably. I decided to go for the truth, however far-fetched it sounded, because well, it was true. "Yes, I'm aware of that. And the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the SSV Bonaparte. But, your daughter wasn't lost as permanently as your husband." I looked up. Emerald green eyes met sapphire blue.
"You're her, aren't you? My El. You were alive all this time."
"I am biologically your daughter, yes. However, I don't believe I've turned out quite the way you'd have expected. It has been a while."
"I don't know what to say."
-Part 2-
Suddenly, the projector lit up. Admiral Hart, the CO of the largest fleet in the System's Alliance, the Fifth, and the de facto leader of the Alliance military appeared at the other end. He said, "Captain Shepard,….", and stopped when he realized something was wrong. The man looked at a loss for words. It seemed obvious that he wasn't really used to seeing soldiers cry.
Mum immediately wiped her eyes and saluted him stiffly. "I apologize for this, Admiral. I have received some rather astonishing news."
"It is very hard to faze you, Hannah. Take your time. I can imagine the horrors you must have witnessed." The idiot thought the Captain was crying because of what she saw! How weak did he think she was!
Hannah cleared her throat. "It isn't just that, Joe…. I found my daughter…. She's alive."
Admiral Hart reeled backwards. "Er, Hannah. Did you say your daughter's alive? Elia?"
"Yes…" Hannah motioned me to come beside her. Seeing no reason not to comply, I obediently went over and stood next to her.
I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to say, and so, decided to fall back on levity, as I always tended to.
"Umm…. Nice day we're having, huh? Slavers attack a colony and people come back from the dead."
"Are you really Hannah's daughter?", demanded the Admiral. He looked suspiciously at me.
I looked back impassively. Did he really think a person of my considerable intellect would make such an outlandish claim if it weren't true. The gall of the man (thinking back, this negative first impression probably explained why I was so inordinately happy the day I found out that Hackett had taken his place)!
"Yes, sir. You can test it out if you want. Though, if you stop to think about it, it'd be remarkably foolish to lie with such a story. Saying I'm somebody who supposedly passed away thirteen years ago isn't something you do for kicks."
"I suppose. Very well. Captain, the SSV Trafalgar is about two hours away from your position. Please board the freighter with your five companions and come ASAP to Arcturus Station. I fear this debriefing is not something to carry out over quantum entanglement."
Hannah nodded weakly.
Hart severed the link. Hannah pulled a chair and sat down. I drew up another and sat down next to her. My companions remained seated on their own chairs, staring off into space, unsure what to do with themselves. Silence prevailed for what seemed an eternity.
Presently, Natalya came out of her reverie. "So, er… the four of us better make our way out huh? I'm sure you two have a lot to catch up on."
The other three nodded and shuffled out of the room, gladly following Nat's lead. Anything to escape the weird atmosphere that had descended upon the room.
Finally, mother spoke up. "I'm sorry. This is rather overwhelming."
I shrugged, and did what I always tended to do when I wanted to think about something - I fished out my packet of cigarettes. I lit one for myself and offered one to mother. Surprisingly, she absently accepted, and lit hers too. She sat back, took a long drag, and exhaled slowly.
"Yes. I could probably have gone away without doing what I did, and you would have been none the wiser. I don't know why I did it. It was an irrational impulse."
I thought for a bit, sucking on my cigarette. "Maybe it's so I can do something else. I've been in a merc group almost all my life. I have no formal education, though I'm probably better read than most. The skills I have are good for only one thing. Destruction. I create chaos. The galaxy is a place full of injustice. Constructive solutions take time."
Hannah considered me for a moment. "I don't really know you, but the Commander is difficult to please. He was impressed with what he saw. Finding out you were just workers at a security firm surprised him. He suspected there was more to it. A whole lot more."
She paused, stubbed her cigarette on the ashtray and stood up. She began pacing around the room.
"We had an entire life planned out for you. And, then, I lost both you and Don. We both knew it could happen any time, especially considering our profession. But we wanted you to see the galaxy."
"If it's any consolation, I have seen a lot of the galaxy. Though, I'd scarcely believe it was in the way you expected."
"What do you intend to do now?"
Hannah stopped pacing. I looked up at her.
"Why are you interested? I will come to your station and meet your Admiral with you. Beyond that, I do not know. Do you want to be a part of my life? You don't believe need to believe you owe me anything. I can look after myself."
"This is an outlandish situation. I honestly do not know what to feel. Happy, or betrayed, or sad, or sorrowful, or indifferent… I see you for the first time in thirteen years. I don't know you. But you are my daughter. The forces of the nature have made that an unbreakable, intimate bond."
"There is no right answer. There are options and those have consequences. You need to decide what you can live with."
Hannah considered it for a moment.
"I want to try. I lost you for thirteen years. If you'll let me in."
I let out a deep sigh. It was...relieving. "I suppose I hoped that would happen."
Hannah laughed heartily.
"In some cultures, they believe that when you sigh, you lose a part of your happiness. Maybe I should be offended?"
"Like you said, I don't know what to feel either. I didn't expect to be transported right into the ship where you were CO. I recognized you from the holo-vids on the locket, and suddenly, I couldn't just act like it wasn't important."
"Sometimes, the universe conspires to have certain events happen. A large number of beings call it destiny."
I took a final drag on my own cigarette and stubbed it out.
"And those are people who would probably accept dei ex machina in entertainment devices as strokes of brilliance, even though the only thing it shows is the creator's incompetence."
"All life is imperfect. It makes it easier to believe in greater powers."
"Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's right."
Hannah chuckled. I looked at her questioningly.
"You certainly don't pull your punches. You state your opinions with a blunt assured rationality", she commented.
Then she seemed to think of something, but shook her head, holding out her hand to me. This was an important moment for the two of us. She was asking me to back up what I'd just said with actions. I took the hand, and stood up, and she immediately hugged me tight, stroking my hair. She was a tall woman. Probably where I got my above average height from. It felt...comfortable. Familiar.
"Come on. Let's go up to my cabin. There's a whole lot to catch up on and there's no time like the present to start. There's also someone you should meet."
"Who? Some long lost sibling?", I asked, jokingly.
Mother laughed. "Funny that your offhand guess is exactly right."
My eyebrows shot up several inches. "What!?"
Mother nodded. "You have a sister. Her name is Elisira Noel. She's three years younger than you are."
I did the math in my head. "So, you were expecting when you lost us?"
Mother nodded, eyes turning misty. "I was so lost after I heard about Don and you. The doctors feared for Eli's health. But she's a fighter. She survived...And she forced me to survive with her. She got me to live again. I don't know where I'd be without her, El..."
I nodded, unsure what to say. I hated these situations where feelings threatened to suffocate the atmosphere. As always, I went with levity. With a healthy dose of theatrics. Defense mechanism? Probably, now that I think about it.
"I do find it rather galling that I got saddled with a middle name like Albarn, while she gets something like 'Noel' that isn't such a mouthful."
Mother burst out laughing. I joined in after a moment.
Eventually, when we'd both sufficiently calmed down, she took my head in her hands and kissed my forehead. "Oh, El. You're just precious. Never, ever change, my dear."
"Wasn't ever planning on it", I replied, smirking.
After a while, Mother said, "Well, we should really go up to my cabin now."
"You got any booze? It tends to be a good ice-breaker."
She raised an eyebrow at that. "You're sixteen, El! Which also reminds me, when did you start smoking? It's not a good habit."
I shrugged. "Most alcoholic beverage establishments only prohibit the sale of liquor to humans under eighteen. You bought the liquor. Technically, you aren't breaking the law, and neither am I. As to when I started smoking, it was about a year ago, I do it occasionally to relieve stress. Natalya buys em for me, and the only ones I ever smoke are Omega Lights. Nothing overly worrying."
Hannah considered this. "You have a warped view of the world. Then again, most exceptionally gifted people do. But, we can't have more than two drinks. We still need to meet the most powerful man in the human military, after all. And Eli's still too young for it, so you're not to give her any."
"Those terms seem fair."
"Good. Let's go."
Mother and daughter walked hand in hand up to the cabin.
-0-
Hannah's cabin was quite spacious. A comfortable looking sofa (that I vaguely remembered) sat in front of a huge wide screen holo-projector. A queen-sized bed sat on the left, and a study area took up most of the right side. They'd already passed through a seemingly large toilet on their way in. A girl of middling height, a redhead (like both mum and I) sporting pigtails, sat on one of the two chairs in the study area, earphones secured, engrossed in the datapad she was looking at. She looked up as the two of us came into the room. She took her earphones, put down her datapad and bounced up into Hannah's arms, hugging her tightly.
She was as cute as a button! I wanted to keep her and hold her and hug her and cuddle her and...wait, she wasn't a fucking teddy bear.
"I was so worried. The early reports of the slaver raid on the extra-net news agencies sounded pretty serious."
It felt weird listening to my sister talk, because it sounded so much like me. Well, apart from the slight rasp I was developing (probably from all the smoking I got done).
Mother's face hardened.
"It is pretty bad down there, Eli...I was just talking to Phil and he told me that we lost more than half the people at the colony to those batarian raiders. If it weren't for Elia here, things would have been much, much worse. It makes me so angry we just don't have the resources needed to protect all these people when such things happen."
"It's okay, mum. We do all we can with what we have."
She detached herself from her mother, and noticed me behind her. Feeling like I had to prove I was a living thing (and not some inanimate object), I waved at her and said, "Hi there!", in what I hoped was a cheery voice.
"Hello Elia...wasn't it? Funny...my sister had that name too", she replied, unsure and looking at her mother for help.
Hannah nodded. "Eli, this is probably going to come as a big surprise to you, but there's no other way I can think of breaking it to you, apart from being direct. This is Elia, and she has the same name as your big sister because she is. Elia, meet Elisira, your little sister."
Little sister looked shocked. She took two unsteady steps backwards. "This isn't a joke, is it? Because if it is, I'm so going to stop you from getting your favorite Akantha the next time we're on shore, mum... Dad and big sis died in that pirate raid before I was born! I know they didn't find her body, but several of the crew were unaccounted for anyway. It just doesn't make sense."
She looked like her world was falling apart around her. Seeing my decidedly cute sister all forlorn, I did what any good big sister would do and sidled up behind her to provide support. I carried her to the bed, where I lay her down, then enveloped her in (what I thought) was a comforting hug. Elisira was prickly for a moment, surprised at the sudden turn of events, before she eased into it. It felt nice. I started playing with her hair. Pigtails! So cute! They fascinated me.
Elisira cried for a while. Softly. From first impressions (proven mostly correct later), my little sister seemed like a compassionate, soft, grounded individual. Also, cuddly. If I was being honest, I'd have to characterize my own self as violent, harsh and confrontational. She possessed a maturity that had eluded me growing up (and still continues to elude me, truth be told). I knew, right then and there, that I'd never let anything harm her if I could help it. She was MY little sister.
Mum seemed to sense that her daughters had some catching up to do, and simply decided to leave us to it, pouring herself a glass of her favored akantha and sipping on it.
Presently, Elisira stopped crying. She looked at me intently. It would have been almost disconcerting if I weren't so taken with the blueness of her eyes. If I were to put a label to it, it was the same color as the sky in Thessia.
"You seem to be fascinated by my hair."
"They're pigtails. What's not to like!"
Elisira laughed. "Yours is nice too."
Then, she began playing with mine.
"I keep it much shorter, though."
"Still pretty cool!"
She wiped the tears (when did they spring up!?) leaking from my eyes.
"I didn't know I was crying", I said, surprised.
"Well, they were quiet tears. I don't blame you."
"Quiet?"
"Yeah. Like weeping and sobbing. Weeping is quiet, the tears leak out. Sobbing is loud, tears get forced out. Something like that."
"I haven't really thought of it that way."
Little sister shrugged.
"It's all cool...you seem strong."
"Huh?" That was a curious change of topic. Going from tears to my physical ability.
"You carried me here...with some ease, I may add. I'm not exactly light."
I shrugged. "Never thought about it much."
"I just remembered something - when mum talked about you, she kept mentioning how quickly you manifested biotic ability."
"Well, yeah. I have biotics. And I can use them well... I think."
"Show me. Please!"
"Er, all right."
I saw an extra glass of akantha on the table Mother was sitting at. She obviously meant what she said when she told me I could drink. A lady of her word. I picked it up with my biotics and guided it to my hand. It was pretty darn easy for me. Then again, people displaying my level of ability for it were quite rare, and I had been taught by a krogan battlemaster and an asari huntress. I sipped the akantha. It tasked exactly like Aleena's favorite - the one they marketed as the 'Thessian Sunrise'. Manufactured (through some subsidiaries of subsidiaries) by the Omega Conglomerate.
Little sister was impressed, though. She whistled in admiration.
"That's so cool! Did it hurt?"
"Eh. Not really. I don't really need to think about it much for such manipulations. Aleena and Parr drilled me well enough that it is second nature to me."
"Aleena and Parr? Were they the ones who took care of you all this time?"
I nodded. "Not just them, actually. The entire crew of a ship called the Kaitlyn. Aleena was the commander. She's a retired asari huntress. Parr was her second. Clan Nakmor. An old warhorse, if you ever saw one. Krogan battlemaster. They don't make many like him anymore."
"So, you travelled around on a spaceship? What was it like? Who else stayed on the ship? And..."
"Settle down, Eli. If you bombard your poor sister with so many questions, she might just up and run away. And to tell you the truth, I don't know what El's been up to for the past thirteen years either. So if there's a storytelling session coming up, I want in", called Mother from her seat. She looked happy.
Elisira turned to me. She looked adorably scared. "You won't run away, will you? I've not had a big sister all my life, and Mum's missed you like crazy for so long. You're not allowed to!"
I kissed my sister's forehead on impulse. "I'll not run away. I can't. Not when I know I have such a cute, precious little sister. I will always be there for you. That's a promise. And now, let's go over there so mum can hear the stories too."
Little sister nodded happily and then held on tightly to me. "I'll make sure to hold you to that." Then, her smile turned impish. "Now, carry me there, big sis", she commanded, in a put-on haughty tone.
She called me 'big sis'. That felt...nice. Warm and fuzzy. I could get used to it.
I grinned back. "I'll do better."
So saying, I fired up my biotics and carefully floated in air, before guiding us to the sofa, where I sat down next to Hannah, with Elisira in my lap.
Elisira looked at me, stunned for a moment, before she laughed merrily. "You're such a show-off, big sis."
"First impressions count. And I've gotta have my little sister looking up to me", I said, with a lopsided smirk.
Mother had been watching all this with interest. "Well, your mastery over biotics is something I've never seen before in any human. It's even more impressive given that you're so young. The students on our most advanced military programs find it difficult to pull off things similar to what you did, and if they do, it drains them terribly."
"Probably to do with their implants. Mine are custom-modded asari military grade. And I've had good teachers, like I said."
"I see...and it doesn't strain you, even a little bit? I'm only making sure because we don't understand biotic ability all too clearly...at least, not like say, the asari do. I don't want you to suffer any damage that's hidden from view."
"Don't worry so much. It doesn't. And Aleena made sure all my biological signs were on the mark before she started teaching me...Though, if I get drunk and then start trying to lift your whole ship up when it's on ground, that's the time you may want to think about stopping me."
Mother laughed. "So, Aleena is the one I have to thank for looking after you?"
"Not just her. The whole crew. The two women you saw downstairs - Natalya and Irene. And the twins, Jake and Martin. They were on the Kaitlyn with me too."
"Tell us about them", said Elisira.
"It'll take a while."
"We have nothing but time", commented Mother, smiling wide.