Author's Note: I would like to thank everyone who has taken an interest in my story for their comments and support. I apologize for taking so long to get this chapter up, but hopefully the next update will be quicker.

Mass Effect: Event Horizon

A Mass Effect Fanfiction

By Drussius

Chapter Two: Complications

Over Terra Nova, Now…

Captain Julisa Nisaria's rush to the bridge had been delayed by necessity. The shudders running through the deck and the mildly disorienting shifts as the inertial dampeners realigned themselves told her that they were under attack, and that her pilot was employing evasive maneuvers. It seemed prudent to hurriedly don her armor and grab her shotgun and helmet before responding to Neela's call. By the time she reached the bridge, the vibrations in the deck beneath her feet were growing steadily worse, and she had only to glance outside to see red bursts of enemy fire flashing past the viewports with alarming regularity.

"Why have we not jumped to FTL to get out of here?" she demanded, irritated that Neela, who was an excellent pilot, hadn't come to the most obvious solution.

"Captain, the kinetic barriers are on the verge of collapsing, and we have a dozen fighters firing on us," Neela's voice was laced with both anxiety and anger. Julisa's intuition told her that the latter was not directed at her. "There are bits of debris everywhere. I'm afraid if I try to go to FTL speeds, the beating we are taking will collapse the mass effect envelope before we get anywhere."

"And we will be flooded with Cerenkov radiation," Julisa finished. "We have no choice. This is not a military vessel. We cannot take this sort of punishment for long. Get us out of here."

"Understood," Neela brought up the navigational display, hurriedly plotting a course. "Preparing for a jump to FTL speed..."

The ship was jarred by a blast from one of the fighters, and Julisa, who was just sliding into the chair to her pilot's right, saw a warning appear on the interface in front of her, informing her that the kinetic barriers were down. A mere second later, another blast hit the ship, the impact much more pronounced. The displays in front of both of them flickered momentarily, and the ship's tail started drifting to one side. Neela quickly adjusted to compensate for the drift, but it was a persistent problem. Even with Neela's frequent corrections to adjust, their path became erratic at best.

"Captain," Neela's voice was filled with uncertainty.

"I know," Julisa cut her off. She knew what her young pilot was about to say. "The fusion drive is damaged. We cannot go to FTL speeds when we cannot stay on course. Get in close to the space station. There is a good deal of debris floating near the wrecked portions. Maybe we can get these fighters to back off a little."

"The fighters!" Neela suddenly cried.

Julisa looked over at her uncertainly, wondering if perhaps the quarian was starting to lose her grasp on the situation due to fear or stress. "As I said," she repeated. "Perhaps we can lose them-"

"No, Captain," Neela interrupted. "The fighters we picked up on Noveria! If they're armed and we can fuel them, perhaps I can use one of them to engage the enemy fighters and draw them away from the Sileya."

Julisa's eyes widened as the realization dawned that the young pilot was right. While she was unsure that a prototype would be armed, it was an idea worth trying. The Sileya would be destroyed in a matter of minutes if they didn't distract the fighters with a new target.

"Get down to the cargo bay," she ordered. She transferred the navigational controls to her interface so that she could take over piloting the ship. "I will have Prathus and that scientist meet you down there."

Columbia System, Four weeks earlier…

Julisa Nisaria relaxed on a comfortable sofa in the home she shared with her bondmate, watching with rapt attention as their daughter Eleira stood in the center of the room. The girl was playing an intricate tune on her illeuth, a flute-like instrument with dual resonating chambers, which allowed it to simultaneously produce sound in two different tones. While her daughter was only an adolescent, she demonstrated great virtuosity, and aspired one day to be part of a larger ensemble of musicians, playing in the great concert halls of her people. The soft sounds of the instrument wove into a beautiful melody, if one that was perhaps a little simplistic, since it was only a piece designed for practice.

As the girl's father, Julisa was as proud as she could be of her daughter, and never tired of watching and listening while she followed her dreams and worked to perfect her art. She only wished that her bondmate was with her at that moment, to make the scene perfect. Lethia was a gifted scientist, and was temporarily away to attend a gathering of scientific experts from all over known space on the salarian home world, Sur'Kesh.

Soft digital chimes echoed through the room, announcing that there was an incoming communication. The distraction caused her daughter to miss a note, and the music stopped altogether, accompanied by a groan of irritation from the girl. Julisa smiled, amused at her daughter's obvious displeasure over the tiny mistake, yet another sign of the seriousness with which she approached her music. She slipped from the seat and headed for the terminal. A soft touch to the holographic screen activated the comm channel, and when she spoke, her voice held traces of barely-suppressed mirth.

"This is Julisa."

"Julisa Nisaria?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"Yes. To whom am I speaking?"

"My name is Wesiria T'Lani, a representative of the Asari Embassy on the Citadel. Miss Nisaria, I am sorry to be the one to pass along such unpleasant news, but a turian patrol ship found the remains of a transport vessel, the Nusani, in the Horse Head Nebula. They passed along the names of the deceased they could verify from the passenger manifest, including one that our files list as your bondmate…"

Whatever else the stranger was about to say was drowned out by a heartbroken wail from behind Julisa. She hurried over and pulled Eleira into her arms, holding the trembling and sobbing girl close. The voice on the comms tried to offer a clumsy apology, but Julisa didn't even hear it. A part of her mind was screaming at her that she should be in tears along with her daughter… That she should be assuring Eleira that everything would be alright... That she should be asking whether the woman on the comm link was sure that Lethia was dead. But the only thing she could feel was anger.

Julisa was a former commando, and the sole concrete thought her mind was willing to form was that she needed the coordinates of the vessel's wreckage so she could find out what happened. It had to be an attack by pirates, she decided. She couldn't believe it could have been the result of simple mechanical failure. Not on a vessel full of scientists and engineers. Pirates were the only plausible cause. The need to start searching for the worthless scum that had dared to take her bondmate from her was overpowering. When she got her hands on them…

Her anger quickly reached a boiling point at the thought. The genetic influences of her batarian father screamed for vengeance.

A bluish-purple aura flared around her, startling Eleira, who slipped out of her grasp and scrambled away from her in fear. A shrill scream of rage exploded from deep inside of her, and she rounded on the terminal and hit it with a warp field so intense that it shredded not only the terminal, but the wall and floor around it…

"Captain, we are ten minutes out."

Julisa's head snapped up from where it had been resting on her folded arms, and she gasped, momentarily disoriented by the transition from dream to reality. She rubbed her eyes in an effort to get them to focus, and her gaze fell upon the static image of her bondmate and their daughter displayed in a frame on the desk in front of her. The two were sitting together in the garden behind their family home. A capture taken so long ago…

"Captain? Are you receiving me?" the youthful voice of her quarian pilot sounded in the aural implant in her ear.

"Yes, Neela," she sighed. "I will be up momentarily.

The Sileya was a small vessel, composed of only three decks, and was built in the style of asari cruisers and dreadnoughts, in a ring around the propulsion elements. However, unlike the larger military vessels, which were not designed for suborbital descent, the Sileya's decks were oriented horizontally, rather than in rings with artificial gravity oriented toward the ship's central axis. The ship's hull was slightly wider at the back, tapering gracefully toward the bow of the ship, with wing-like 'fins' extending out from the top and bottom, right and left sides. It had been modeled after the Destiny Ascension.

The interior of the vessel consisted of only three decks. The lowest deck featured a large cargo bay at the aft that occupied the majority of the deck's area. The main engineering section and the main battery covered the remaining area. Because the ship's propulsion ring ran through its heart, the mid-ship deck was split into two halves, one on either side of it. The starboard half held the life support suite and the port half housed the upper engineering section. The upper deck's space was taken up by the bridge, the crew quarters, the mess hall and the small room that served as the infirmary. The only feature aboard the Sileya that was not typically found on non-military vessels was the main battery; most civilian vessels were not armed. But Captain Nisaria had learned the hard way that a smuggler's ship needed to have some teeth in a pinch. The Sileya would never be able to stand up in a true ship-to-ship firefight, but it was beneficial to have the ability to deliver a quick blow before attempting to run from an aggressor.

The Sileya's interior corridors and rooms were composed of a bronze-colored polymer-carbon fiber blend, and decorative arches were molded into the surface of the walls in each room. The arches lent some visual interest to the various areas of the ship. While other forms of decoration were sparse outside of the crew lounge, the vessel was beautiful inside and out.

Because the asari people were a very social species, the crew quarters were a largely shared space. The crew lounge was the hub of the area, and was furnished with some comfortable sofas, a central table, and various terminals for extranet access. A large vid monitor dominated the majority of one wall, and there were a few decorative objects displayed on the other walls of the room.

The lounge was adjoined by a single bathing area and restroom facility on the aft side. On the opposite side was the crew barracks… a large room with six sleeping niches molded into the decorative arches in the walls, one niche per arch and two arches per wall. Unlike alliance vessels, which had small and cramped sleeping pods for most crew members, the sleeping niches aboard the asari ships were spacious enough to be comfortable for two; bondmates serving together often shared the same niche.

The captain had a private cabin adjacent to the crew barracks. It was a relatively small room, barely large enough for a desk with a private terminal, and a full bed instead of a crew bunk.

She rose from her seat and picked up her shotgun from its spot on the desk next to her, delivering the compact storage-mode version of the weapon to the magnetic "holster" attached to the back of her belt. The magnetic lock held it firmly in place. The shotgun was a relic of her past, from days long before the advent of thermal clips, but she never saw the need to upgrade to current technology. She stretched briefly, and then headed out.

When the door from her cabin to the crew lounge opened, Julisa was greeted by the lovely melody of an asari singer's voice, delivered in a very credible emulation of concert hall acoustics by the room's audio system. The song was unfamiliar to her… something currently popular on Thessia, she guessed. It seemed to be about two lovers, caught on opposite sides of a damaged Mass Relay. Both of her asari crew members were seated at the table in the center of the lounge. They were playing a GUI interface version of an old human game… she believed it was called "Go." Both looked up when she entered and bowed their heads in greeting.

"Finish your game quickly or save your progress for later," she addressed them both. "We will be offloading our cargo soon."

"Yes, Captain," they answered in unison.

"Captain, will we be able to link to the FTL comm buoys after we deliver the cargo?"

The question came from Aida Dalinas, the ship's cook and medic. She was an upbeat and energetic maiden, whose youthful face sported extensive decorative patterns in a dark crimson shade. They extended from the outer edges of her brows to the scalp crests just above her ears. Aida was the member of the crew that currently had the longest history of service on the ship.

Julisa had ordered that use of the communications systems be limited until their job was finished; it seemed imprudent to allow unnecessary transmissions while delivering cargo that might have been stolen or something banned by council law.

"Once we are out of the system," Julisa nodded. "Eager to get back into the debate over the proposed sanctions against the Alliance?"

"The vote is coming up soon, and I am hoping to be able to participate. Many batarians lost their lives, and an entire system is gone. Whatever their reasons, the Alliance should be held accountable for their actions." Aida's sorrow for the lives lost was plain upon her face.

One of the benefits of an E-democracy, Julisa supposed, was that it encouraged her people to take an interest in matters of law and government. However, in her view, Aida spent an excessive amount of time debating something or another in their people's VI-moderated chat systems. She had a sneaking suspicion that Aida's participation was more about socializing with other asari than it was about the actual debate of law and policy.

"Captain?" the other asari, Illitha, spoke up timidly.

The girl was extraordinarily petite for an asari, lacking much of the curvature that was common to most of their species. She favored short-sleeved tops, and as a result of her position as the ship's engineer, her forearms and hands were blotched with stains in various shades of gray – a side effect of contact with some of the lubricants used in modern machinery. While the lubricants themselves could be washed off, the skin beneath was often discolored for days afterward.

"Yes?"

"Where is Prathus? Is.. is he on the bridge with Neela?"

"Yes. I need him monitoring the system for communications anomalies. Why?"

"I-I…," Illitha bowed her head and shrugged. "It is not important, Captain."

Julisa was attached to each member of her crew in her own way, but at times she found Illitha's shyness to be trying. She knew it wasn't really her fault; Illitha was simply more comfortable in the solitude of Engineering than she was at the center of anyone's attention. Not everyone could be as outgoing as Aida.

"What is it, Illitha? I need to get to the bridge."

"Um- After our rendezvous, I need his assistance in switching out the CO2 filters in the life support systems. It-it is impossible to get them in and out quickly without a second pair of hands. If I do it b-by myself, it would have to be delayed until we dock planetside somewhere… so that I can take the system offline," Illitha explained. Then she hastily added, "Wh-which is fine, if you would rather I wait, Captain. The current filters will still function for a couple of weeks before they, uh… b-before there is a dip in efficiency."

"After we hand off the cargo, ask Prathus for help. We will only be docking for a few hours when we reach Illium. We have another job lined up immediately following this one."

"I hoped we would be able to get off the ship for a while before the next run," Aida cut in. Disappointment was plain upon her face. "I would love the chance to tour some of the restaurants on Illium, and perhaps spend a night or two in a club somewhere."

"I am afraid not. But the next run is a legitimate shipping job, and it pays extremely well. Afterward, I think we can afford a couple weeks' shore leave."

Both girls smiled at this last statement, and Julisa nodded once, satisfied that she had addressed their concerns. She started toward the door, intent on getting to the bridge, but was brought up short when another thought occurred to her.

"I want both of you in environmental gear. Our rendezvous is set to take place in an asteroid belt. We are supposed to be meeting at a small and secluded little docking station, and we have no way of knowing what the conditions will be there. I want the crew ready if the cargo transfer has to be done in an airless environment."

"Understood," both girls chorused.

Julisa swept from the room, leaving her crew to hastily save the progress of their game and head for their lockers to retrieve their enviro-gear. She moved swiftly through the bronze corridors and rooms of her ship toward the bridge. The Sileya had been her home for nearly thirty years, and she'd seen more crew than she could count come and go. She came to appreciate them while they were aboard the ship, but they all left eventually. The ship always remained in their wake. Deep down, she depended on that one constant in her universe, when everything else had been stripped away over the decades and centuries of her life.

The moment the door to the bridge opened, Prathus started giving his report.

"No sign of any unusual transmissions in the area, and we've detected no recent ion or hydrogen trails. Sensors haven't detected any ships in the asteroid belt. If there are ships out there, they've been patiently waiting for our arrival."

"Neela, bring us into the field and head for the designated coordinates," Julisa instructed. "Prathus, I want you in the main battery, so that we are ready to react if this turns into an ambush."

"Understood," Prathus swiveled his chair around and lurched to his feet, limping from the room.

Julisa lowered herself into the chair her turian crewman had just vacated, sliding it up to the interface and bringing up the scan data. Next to her, Neela busily made course corrections, bringing the Sileya into the asteroid belt and weaving around the floating chunks of rock. The captain was always pleased with the quarian's skillful maneuvering.

The captain alternated between watching the scanner results displayed in front of her, and glancing out through the viewport, looking for some sign of a ship or facility in the area. Neither she nor her pilot spoke while they drew closer to the coordinates they'd been sent. Instead, it was the soft chime heralding an incoming communication that broke the silence. Julisa activated the channel.

"Identify," the voice had the deep and raspy quality common to batarians.

"Sileya," Julisa responded. It was fairly common practice during these illicit deals to use concise transmission bursts, so that there was less chance of detection in the event that there was another ship passing through the system.

"Bay two open," the voice answered her, and the signal cut off.

The communication was replaced by an extremely weak beacon pulse, obviously intended to serve as a guide to whatever facility waited at their rendezvous. It was not uncommon for small pirate bands or mercenary groups to use robotic mining equipment to hollow out an asteroid, or set up prefab units on an uninhabited moon for use as a base of operations. Over time, particularly successful groups often expanded these crude bases of operation into small but functional docking facilities. However, their continued existence required secrecy. Julisa's earlier feelings of apprehension returned in force. She activated the intercom to the main battery.

"Prathus, listen. Neela will bring us into the docking bay. She will remain on the bridge and you will stay in the main battery, while the rest of us deal with our customers. I want the two of you prepared to act if the situation becomes dangerous. We may need to exit in a hurry, Neela. So be ready."

"Understood," Neela answered her, accompanying the response with a nod.

"Prathus, I want you prepared to target any other ships in the bay. Once we are all safely aboard, you should be able to cripple their ships before they can get to them. If their barriers are already up by the time we leave, I want you ready to disable the docking clamps or bay doors instead."

"I'll be ready, Captain," Prathus's deep voice answered.

Julisa pivoted her seat away from the console and stood up, gazing out through the viewport, waiting to see what kind of facility they were dealing with. It wasn't long before Neela brought them into view of their destination… a small asteroid with two bays carved into the side of it. The entrances were protected by the subtle blue glow of containment barriers. She could see a small vessel docked in one of the bays. Neela steered the ship toward the second.

The captain reached back and grabbed hold of her shotgun, pulling it free of the maglock and pressing her thumb against the activation sensor. The weapon expanded from its compact mode and aligned itself for firing. A small beep announced that the targeting systems were active and the firearm was prepared for use. She turned and left the bridge, signaling Aida and Illitha to meet her in the cargo bay. Then she headed for her cabin, to prepare for what she felt sure was coming.

Over Terra Nova, Now…

Aida Dalinas braced herself against the wall, trying to gain stability in response to the most violent impact the ship had suffered since coming under attack. She had been in the crew quarters when the captain rushed out in her armor, and it had taken only one look at the elder asari's face to prompt Aida to go directly to her locker and get into her environmental gear.

She was now on her way down to the engineering section to see if there was anything she could do to help Illitha. She had great faith in both the skills of the Sileya's quarian pilot and the expertise of the ship's engineer. Between the two of them, she was certain the ship would be okay. Her haste to reach engineering was the result of her need to be certain her closest friend was safe, not because she was worried Illitha would be unable to handle her duties.

She was approaching the elevator when another blast rocked the ship, causing it to lurch violently. Aida lost her footing and pitched over, sliding across the deck, her helmet striking the wall soundly. The lighting in the corridor flickered. She struggled to get to her feet, only to be forced to drop back to her knees for added traction in response to yet another strike. Because of the violent motion of the ship, she had to assume that the inertial dampeners had gone offline.

The lights flickered again, and then the corridor was plunged into absolute darkness for a brief time. When the blue emergency lights kicked on, Aida remained rooted in place, kneeling on the floor. Thoughts of what the loss of primary power might represent were terrifying. Her fearful musings were interrupted by another sudden lurch of the vessel, which threw her into the air. She closed her eyes, jaw clenched, and braced herself for the impact that would come when she hit the deck again.

It never came.

She was floating weightlessly near the center of the corridor, which seemed to be slowly spinning around her. It was a disorienting sensation, and it took her a moment to even figure out which direction was the floor and which was the ceiling. As she studied the motion of the passage around her, she realized that not only had the mass effect fields serving to generate artificial gravity been lost, but that the ship was spinning out of control… or perhaps she was. Either way, she had to assume that the ship was now without motive power.

"Aida?" Neela's youthful voice startled her.

With some effort, she waved her arms and twisted around enough to look in the direction from which the voice had come. The young quarian was walking slowly toward her. She blinked once, uncertain that she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing. Neela paused – upside down from Aida's point of view – and tilted her head to the side, as if she were wondering what Aida was doing. Aida stared back at her, puzzled.

"Neela? How are you walking?"

"My people live on starships, remember?" the quarian reminded her. "Many of us have features built into our suits to assist us in the event of a loss of gravity, such as electro-magnetic field generators in the soles of our boots."

Aida nodded slowly.

"Get down from there," Neela reached up and grabbed her arm. "We need to get to the cargo bay. We have to get the fighters fueled and into space if we can. Though it may already be too late…"

Aida clutched at her arm, struggling to bring her feet down to the deck. Even after she managed that, however, she maintained her hold on Neela, to keep herself from floating away from the floor. Neela tried to shake her off, and then gave an exasperated sigh.

"You are in environmental gear! Activate your magnetic boots, and let's get moving!"

A hint of purple crept into the color of Aida's cheeks as she blushed. She was glad that her helmet concealed any obvious signs of her embarrassment. As the pilot had suggested, she activated her boots and felt her feet adhere instantly to the deck. She took a few steps experimentally. Her training was in medicine and the culinary arts; she'd never had to move in zero gee conditions before. The difficulty of walking in the magnetic boots was something unexpected. The magnetic field created resistance when lifting her feet. She now realized that this was why Neela had been moving so slowly when she first saw her.

"You know, for someone who was training to be a physician, you can be a bit dumb sometimes," the quarian pointed out.

"I feel foolish enough already," Aida glared at her. "Statements like that do not help."

"Come on," Neela resumed her path along the corridor, crouching once she reached the far end. There was an access panel in the wall, and she activated her omni-tool's minifacturing suite to provide her with the tool she needed to open it. "With the power out, we'll have to crawl through the maintenance crawlspace and go down the ladders to get to the bay."

Aida nodded, but her worries about Illitha's well-being were distracting her. The young engineer would never have abandoned her duties, and if the ship was without power, it probably meant that engineering had suffered a direct strike. The thought of her closest friend having been killed brought tears to her eyes. She watched the quarian work with growing impatience. She needed to know that Illitha was alright.

Her concern prompted her to activate her omni-tool and open the private channel the two of them always used.

"Illitha, can you hear me?"

There was no answer.

Columbia System, Four weeks earlier…

Aida waited in the cargo bay for the signal from the bridge that would confirm that the ship was secured by the docking clamps. Of course, it would hardly be needed. When the docking clamps locked onto the ship, the sound would be unmistakable. Nearby, Illitha was maneuvering the cargo drone around the bay, and Aida watched as the huge, hovering piece of equipment floated around overhead, kept aloft by mass effect fields. Guided by the expert direction of the shy engineer, it was soon in place over the first of the crates. The arms closed in on the sides of the container, and it remained there, waiting further direction.

The swish of the elevator door opening caught Aida's attention. She turned and saw the captain stride into the room with her shotgun in one hand and helmet in the other. The woman was wearing a silver suit of lightweight combat armor, decorated with thin blue highlights along the edges of each section of protective plating. The smile that brightened her expression was a reflexive one, and a stark contrast to the considerable amount of alarm that she felt when she saw the captain prepared for conflict. She simply couldn't help smiling at Captain Nisaria, regardless of the situation. She would admit it to no one else, but she was secretly enamored with the elder asari.

She couldn't describe in words, even to herself, precisely what it was about the captain that attracted her. She could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen her smile. She'd never heard her laugh. The elder asari was serious, stern, disciplined… everything that Aida was not. And while she knew that the captain had been a commando for a great number of years, she knew none of the specifics of her service. She had to assume that the captain was comfortable with violence and killing, two things of which Aida did not approve. She guessed it could be a simple case of hero-worship. After all, the captain had saved her from a terrible fate. Perhaps not in dramatic fashion, but saved her nonetheless.

"Captain?" Aida tilted her head, regarding the elder asari with curiosity. At her words, Illitha turned to greet the captain. When she saw how the woman was dressed, however, her pale blue skin turned ashen.

"Get pistols from the equipment locker. And I want you both to protect yourselves with barriers."

"C-captain?" Illitha's voice was a few octaves higher than normal, a clear sign to Aida that the girl was alarmed.

"We are going to proceed as if this is a normal deal. But I will not lie to you. The remote location and the measures our clients are taking to keep their facility secret concern me. My instincts tell me that they have no intention of allowing us to leave. Get the pistols."

Aida hurried to the locker, retrieving two pistols from within. They were simple Predator models, but would serve just fine if the need to defend themselves arose. She secured one to a magnetic anchor on her enviro-suit, and took the other one to Illitha, who looked like she was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack. Aida took hold of one of the engineer's hands, giving it a gentle squeeze while she pressed the second pistol against the maglock at her friend's hip, securing it in place.

"Do not panic," she tried to reassure her friend. "You concentrate on running the drone and keeping your barrier up. Unload the cargo. Even if the captain is right, she will never let anything happen to us. And if anything goes wrong, all you have to do is run-"

"Illitha," the captain interrupted her. "If violence breaks out, I want you to concentrate on getting the equipment aboard and readying us for departure, not on fighting. The pistol is for emergencies only. And Aida," the elder asari turned her gaze upon her. "You cover Illitha with pistol fire or biotics if you must, but concentrate on seeing her aboard and then get aboard yourself. I do not want either of you taking risks on my behalf. I will defend myself. Understood?"

"Understood," Aida's gaze shifted her gaze to her friend, and she waited for her to say something.

"C-Captain, I cannot… I… I-I cannot do this," Illitha stammered, her tone barely above a whisper. "I am not a soldier."

"You are not going to be fighting-," Aida started to respond, but the captain cut her off again.

"Who is the most proficient member of this crew at controlling the cargo drone?"

"I am," Illitha whispered.

"So if we need to get out quickly, who would be best suited to rapidly maneuver the equipment back into the bay? Should Aida do it?"

"No. She is awful at it."

Aida blinked. Had Illitha just said-?

"Concentrate on your job. I need you focused."

Aida watched her friend intently, and was relieved when the girl took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then nodded. She smiled at the engineer, noticing as she did so that the motion dampeners were kicking in, which meant that they were decelerating. She guessed that they were maneuvering into the docking bay.

"If the situation devolves into violence, they will be focused on me. I promise," the captain told them. Aida found herself smiling at the elder asari's confidence.

The captain slipped her helmet on, and Aida did the same, securing it in place and engaging the suit seals. Illitha hesitated a moment before following suit, possibly spurred into action by the loud metallic bang of the docking clamps locking on the hull. The three of them turned to face the cargo bay doors, waiting patiently. Illitha raised her left arm and activated her omni-tool, a finger hovering over the glowing interface, ready to engage the uplink to the bay doors.

"Captain, we are secure," Neela's voice sounded through the intercom.

Illitha triggered the doors and the massive ramp lowered. Aida picked up a datapad from where it lay upon the cargo bay control console, accessing the cargo computer and transferring the shipment manifest to the handheld device. Tapping it idly against her leg when she was done, she noted with some relief that they were not going to be offloading in an airless environment. From her vantage, the barriers over the docking area's exterior doors were clearly visible.

Once the ramp touched down on the docking platform that extended to meet it, the three of them disembarked. Aida's eyes swept the docking bay with intense curiosity. The bay was a huge open area, with two massive apertures leading out into open space. Wide walkways ran around the perimeter of the room at the midpoint of the walls, and a similar walkway bisected the bay, running the length of the chamber between the two ships. Each walkway was equipped with a docking platform that could be raised or lowered into place so that ships of different configurations could unload with ease. There was a large door set into the wall at the back of the bay, with a small control area for the docking bay's equipment adjacent to it.

Her gaze drifted to the other ship in the bay. Unlike the Sileya, which had graceful lines and an almost sculpted profile, the second vessel was angular and intimidating. It had several protruding wings, all of which arced forward and came to points, and the hull was decorated with smaller protrusions in lines along its edges, very much resembling spines. It was a menacing sight.

The three of them walked along the adjustable docking platform, and then waited while a connecting ramp aligned itself, sparing the need to readjust the position of the platform every time a new bunch of crates was unloaded.

"Illitha, start offloading," the captain ordered. "Stage the crates here until we know where they want them placed."

Aida saw Illitha nod and activate her omni-tool, and a moment later the cargo drone hovered slowly out of the ship and onto the platform, with a crate trapped firmly between its arms. Her attention returned to the matter at hand when the captain started descending the ramp, advancing to meet a small group that was approaching along the walkway. She hastened to catch up, and then fell into step beside her.

The realization that the approaching clients were all batarian struck her only after they had moved a little closer. She instinctively took a few steps nearer the captain, apprehension filling her. Not that she hated batarians… her sorrow over all the lives lost in the Alpha Relay disaster was genuine. But it had been pirates and the threat of batarian slavers that had originally brought her into the service of Captain Nisaria. She had no desire to experience the fate she had once been rescued from.

Aida's thoughts were drawn back from her past by the harsh tone of one of the batarians. "Is there a reason you're armed?" the batarian at the front of the approaching retinue gestured toward the captain's shotgun. Aida thought it an odd question, given the fact that all three of the batarians were also armed.

"Surely you can understand a little caution," the captain said pleasantly. "This is our first deal, after all. You are armed as well."

"We will be confiscating the weapons. Hand them over," the batarian barked.

"Then we will be leaving. With the cargo," the captain turned slowly. However, Aida noticed that she did not turn so far as to let any of them out of her field of vision.

"Wait!"

The captain pivoted to face them. "Do we still have a deal then? Caution on both sides seems prudent. Either we should all disarm, or all of us should keep our weapons."

"Offload the cargo," the batarian ordered. "Line it up along the wall on the walkway here."

Aida stepped forward and presented her datapad to the batarian that had done all the speaking, assuming he was the spokesperson for the group. She could hear that the captain was passing along the instructions for offloading to Illitha, who was still staging the cargo on the platform by the ship. The client snatched the datapad from her hand, scanning the list of crate numbers and weights displayed there. The delivery contract stipulated that the contents of the crates would remain anonymous and undisturbed, so this was the only manifest Aida had been able to assemble.

"And the payment?" Aida prompted, doing her best to submerge the unease she felt at being within arm's reach of a batarian criminal.

"It's on the way," the spokesperson turned and gestured toward a fourth figure, which was approaching along the walkway, dragging a hover-pallet behind him. Aida watched the progress of the newcomer warily for a moment, and then glanced back at the captain, drawing reassurance from her presence. She saw one of the crates being settled on the deck behind the captain and released from the cargo drone's hold, and was further encouraged by the fact that Illitha had managed to get past her worries and was doing her job.

The new figure, also a batarian, placed the shipping pallet in front of Aida, and she activated her omni-tool, scanning the cases on the pallet to confirm the contents. The deal was not for a payment in credits, since a transfer of credits could be traced if someone worked hard enough at it. Instead, they'd settled on a sizeable quantity of refined palladium, which they could then sell through either legitimate or black market channels. Aida studied the readings displayed on her omni and smiled in satisfaction.

"It is all here," Aida assured the captain, who in turn motioned to Illitha, directing her to pick up the case of palladium and return it to the ship when she sent the cargo drone back for the next crate.

Aida moved out of the way and stood next to her captain. There was nothing left to do but wait while her friend offloaded the last few crates. Then they could leave. She was beginning to think that the elder asari had been wrong about their clients meaning to prevent them from leaving. Things might have been tense and a little uncomfortable, but so far they had been civil.

When Illitha was settling the final crate on the deck of the walkway, Aida smiled in relief. She was ready to get away from their clients and back aboard the Sileya. However, when she turned to walk back to the ship, she saw the captain make a very subtle motion with her hand, turning her palm downward and giving one short wave, as if signaling to stay put. Aida froze in place for a second before turning to face their clients again.

"It has been a pleasure to do business with you," the elder asari spoke in a pleasant tone. "I hope that next time there will be more trust between us, so that the weapons are not necessary."

"We will deal with you again soon," the batarian spokesman responded.

"Then we will trouble you no more."

The captain started to back away from the group calmly, but did not turn her back on them. Aida, following her lead, did the same, and noticed for the first time the signs that her captain had spotted more quickly. The batarians were shifting restlessly. All four of them had their fingers on the triggers of their weapons. And they were watching intently as Aida and her crewmates withdrew, as if waiting for something. The realization hit her like a biotic strike…

They are waiting until we turn so they can shoot us in the back!

Aida froze, trying to figure out how they were supposed to get out of the makeshift station without getting killed. The captain's instructions about covering Illitha and getting back to the ship safely were forgotten. Her mind went blank.

"Trouble! Neela, ready the ship for departure!"

The captain's shout startled Aida, but not nearly as much as it shocked her when a streak of bluish-purple hurtled past her and into the midst of the batarians, impacting with their leader, who was thrown violently backward by the sudden strike. Captain Nisaria seemed almost to materialize where the batarian had been standing. It was the first biotic charge that Aida had ever witnessed firsthand, and she was astonished by the speed and violence of it. She managed to start moving dazedly, fumbling for the pistol at her side.

"Captain," Neela's voice broadcast through the channel that was designated for the entire crew. "The docking clamps are still engaged. If we try to pull free without disengaging them, it might damage the hull."

Aida wasn't sure if the captain heard Neela's warning, but if she did, she was too busy to do anything about it. Biotic energy rose around the elder asari in wispy tendrils, and she focused it into a solid ball, which she hurled at one of the batarians. The biotic throw struck with enough force to send him over the walkway railing. His scream was cut off a moment later by a sickening thud. The biotic attack was followed by several shotgun blasts at a second batarian, and then a quick turn and a kick to the underside of the third one's rifle when he tried to bring it to bear. The captain moved with the grace and fluidity of a dancer, using physical strikes and biotics at close quarters with amazing proficiency.

The captain's bravery finally inspired Aida to respond to Neela's transmission.

"The captain is holding them off. I will get to the docking controls."

Aida ran past the two-on-one melee, noting with satisfaction that the batarian spokesman still hadn't recovered from the captain's biotic charge, though he was still moving. Swallowing the suddenly bitter taste in her mouth, she fired her pistol several times at him in passing. She had no idea if the shots penetrated his shields or if his shields were even active, but she didn't pause to look. She covered the distance to the console at the back of the bay in record time.

Her eyes frantically scanned the console interface and she experimentally pressed a few of the holographic keys. A message appeared which warned that an authorization code was required to access secured systems. She activated her omni-tool, initiating the automated hacking routine, hoping that the program would be sufficient to break the console's encryption. She glanced up worriedly to see if the captain was still faring well.

The last of the batarians had fallen, and the former commando fired one final round from her shotgun into each of the prone forms. It was a jarring thing for Aida to witness, and she flinched at each of the shots. A part of her immediately wished she had never been exposed to the image of the asari she so admired firing those last three times. She was about to ask after the elder asari's well-being, when a loud metallic clunk to her left drew her attention. The door she had noticed earlier opened, and batarians started pouring out. Five or six made a run for the second ship in the docking bay, while two others raised weapons and fixed their eyes upon Aida.

She looked desperately toward the captain for assistance. A shroud of biotic energy enveloped the elder asari, who then seemed to vanish in a streak. To her dismay, however, the streak impacted with one of the batarians running for the ship, not one of the pair nearest to herself. It occurred to her in that instant that the captain had made the right choice. If the batarians got aboard their ship, it would put the entire crew in danger rather than just one of them. However, the precious seconds that Aida wasted hoping that the captain would save her would have been better spent taking cover.

The explosive sound of assault rifle fire was almost deafening, reverberating off of the walls of the enclosed space. The first few shots struck her barrier, causing her to stumble backward, and she quickly took cover behind the console. Hisses and snaps were barely audible over the din of the weapons as rounds struck her cover or came close. A smell like burning plastic filled the air, and she could hear small crackling and hissing sounds during the occasional lulls in the attacks.

Crouched behind the console with her cheek pressed against the cool alloy, she raised one arm over her cover and fired a few rounds blindly with her pistol, hoping to give the batarians pause. Her arm was quickly withdrawn afterward, and glanced at her omni-tool. Her hacking routines were having no luck in breaking the console's encryption.

"Keep her pinned down," she heard a harsh voice command. "I'll flank her."

Panic engulfed Aida, eclipsing any hope that the captain might return and save her. She was not a warrior. She wanted to be a chef. She wanted to open a restaurant on Thessia. She wasn't suited to combat. She had no idea what to do. She didn't even dare to fire a few blind shots again, as the sounds of projectiles ricocheting off of her cover and the wall behind her were almost constant.

She turned to see if she might be able to make a run along the walkway toward the ship, and her heart almost stopped. One of the batarians had moved around to that side and was taking aim at her, his face twisted in a cruel smile of triumph. Aida concentrated and put every bit of energy she had into reinforcing her barrier, hoping it would be enough to prevent his shots from killing her. She also raised her pistol and fired wildly at him. His return fire was much more precise. Two shots shattered her barrier and knocked her to the floor, and the third tore through her arm, wrenching an agonized scream from her lips.

A trail of white arced down on the batarian from behind, striking him in the back with a sound like breaking glass. Aida watched in astonished relief as his body turned white with frost, his limbs froze up, and he fell forward, lying on the deck like a fallen ice sculpture. She focused her energy, forming a small orb of biotic force, and she hurled it at her fallen foe. He shattered into innumerable pieces, his frozen body annihilated by the force of the blow.

Illitha was sprinting toward Aida and the console, firing her weapon as she approached. Seeing her friend bravely coming to her defense spurred Aida back into action. After re-manifesting her barrier, she scrambled to her feet, knees shaking as a result of her growing fatigue, firing at her remaining attacker. Their combined fire overloaded his shields before he could take even a few steps toward cover, and he pitched over mid-stride, riddled with bullet wounds. Blood pooled around the body.

Aida swallowed heavily, feeling a little sick. Her whole body was shaking; she was unused to maintaining a barrier for as long as she had, let alone forcing herself to reconstruct a shattered one. Using biotics was tiring even for asari, who had a natural gift for it. Beside her, Illitha hurried to the console, frowning at it. Aida hurriedly applied some medigel to her arm to keep the wound from bleeding and allow it to begin healing; the limb was already slick with purple blood.

"Thank you, Illitha. If you had not come to my rescue…" she trailed off.

"I thought… I mean… I am just glad that my omni minifactured and deployed the cryo drone successfully. I h-have never used any of the combat software installed in it before," the engineer admitted.

Aida knew her friend well enough to see that she was deeply upset, but she was doing an admirable job of hiding it and concentrating on the task at hand.

"Can you get the ship uncoupled before more of them arrive?" Aida questioned, looking at the bullet-riddled console, which was intermittently spitting sparks into the air.

"I… I am not sure," Illitha was frowning again. "Th-that batarian damaged the console pretty heavily with all that fire. The processor is still intact, but the holographic interface is damaged. I need to establish a remote link to the system with my omni and then hack through their encryption."

Aida looked around for any immediate sign of danger, and smiled in relief when she saw the captain running toward them. The elder asari was apparently uninjured, and shot a questioning look at the two of them as she approached. Aida shook her head uncertainly in response to the unasked question.

"We have to go," the captain's tone conveyed a sense of urgency. "A few of them got aboard the ship and sealed the airlock. Their ship will undoubtedly have remote access to the docking controls. If they get the engines powered up and maneuver outside before we do, they will have us at their mercy."

Illitha nodded, working feverishly on her omni. After what seemed like an eternity to Aida, her friend finally let out a small squeal of triumph. Aida caught herself thinking that the utterance was more like the sound an adolescent would make when meeting her idol than the sound a grown asari should have made over the pleasure of completing a task.

"I have a link established! Hacking the system now."

The captain grabbed the young engineer by the arm and started toward the Sileya, pulling her along. "Come on. Hack on the run."

Aida fell into step behind her crewmates, and the three of them dashed along the walkway toward the Sileya's waiting cargo bay. She had to bite her lip to keep from whimpering as she ran. Even though the medigel bound and sealed the wound and numbed the pain considerably, running was jarring her arm repeatedly, generating little jolts of pain with every step. Illitha was little better, stumbling along awkwardly because she was busy breaking through the facility's encryption and wasn't watching where she was going.

The docking clamps disengaged from the ship and started to retract just as the three of them reached the cargo bay's ramp. The docking platform started to swivel out of position a moment later. The captain was quick to activate the crew's comm channel.

"Neela, we are free of the docking clamps. Get us out of this bay! Prathus, as soon as we are clear, I want you to fire on the face of the asteroid above the bays. It is too late to disable their ship. By now they will have their barriers up."

"Understood, Captain," Prathus's answer came quickly.

Aida smiled proudly at Illitha, impressed with her friend's quick work under stressful conditions. The girl had already maneuvered the loading drone aboard and sealed the cargo bay doors, and the ship was in motion. Aida loved her friend dearly, but she never imagined that the engineer had it in her to overcome her fears when she needed to. She'd secretly thought Illitha would crumble under any real pressure. Now she felt deeply ashamed of that assumption. It wasn't a very appropriate opinion for a friend to have, especially since it had been Aida who had repeatedly found herself at a loss as the stress mounted. Illitha had saved her life.

She ran to a terminal and called up an outside sensor scan so that she could see what was going on. There were viewports on other decks of the ship, but the cargo bay had no such luxuries. With the cargo unloaded, it was more or less empty, save for the large shipping container that had been converted to a clean room to serve as personal quarters for their quarian crewmate.

Illitha moved up beside her, and they watched on the display as the ship cleared the asteroid's docking bay. As soon as they were clear, Prathus opened fire on the surface of the asteroid with the Sileya's mass accelerator cannon. It wasn't the huge weapon found on a dreadnought or even a cruiser, but it did its job admirably. The well-placed shots collapsed each bay in turn. Aida smiled. The turian's specialty might have been communications and information systems, but he was a fine shot with the ship's weapons. It could take the batarians weeks to clear enough of the rubble to get out of their facility.

"Neela, set us on course for the Mass Relay. We need to get to Illium," the captain ordered through the comm link. Then she turned to Aida, glancing down at her injured arm. "Aida, see to your injury. Illitha, help her if she needs an extra hand. Then find Prathus and get to work on replacing those CO2 filters."

Aida watched the captain go, and she couldn't help smiling. While the former commando showed no outward sign of worry over her injury, she still got the feeling that deep down inside, the elder asari did care about them all. Not for the first time, she wondered what had happened that prompted the woman to hold everyone at arm's length. She hoped that one day they would be close enough that she could ask without worrying that the question was out of line.

Illitha snapped her out of her musings when she suddenly threw her arms around her, hugging her fiercely. Aida winced at the sudden pressure on her wounded arm, even as she laughed softly.

"I-I thought you were going to die," the engineer whispered.

"Thanks to you, I will be fine," Aida murmured fondly. "But I would really appreciate it if you stopped crushing my injured arm…"

Illitha practically shoved her away in her haste to let go, and her hands flew up to cover her mouth. Her eyes conveyed embarrassment and heartfelt apologies far better than words ever could.

"Goddess, Aida… I am so sorry…"