The sound of a buzzer woke me, one hand instinctively reaching towards my weapons on the bedside table, but I checked myself, pausing for a moment to clear my head. There were no gunshots, no explosions, no roaring and screaming outside. Relatively speaking, this was as peaceful a wake up as I was ever likely to get. I allowed my arm to relax slightly before I rose, yawning and stretching. Station time, according to my omni-tool, was in the AM, early, before most people would even be awake, though that honestly depended on how late they had decided to stay up.

The door slid open with a slight whine as I approached, still tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I recognized the face markings of the turian named Kravos, and beside him... I allowed myself a perfunctory glance before instantly turning my eyes back to the turian. It wasn't that the asari was naked, or clad in a dancers outfit, but something in the way that she carried herself was undeniably attractive, one hip cocked to the side with her hand resting on it. She was wearing a suit of light armor, which seemed new, or at least new enough that it hadn't been subjected to any fire. I wasn't the greatest judge of asari age, that much I could admit to myself, but compared to the ageless poise of Aria, this one seemed... more vibrant, energetic, glowing like a sun. A sly smile sat easily upon her lips as she looked at me, her gaze much more daring than mine had been.

"So." She said, and I had to fight back the shiver building at the base of my spine as her voice washed over me. "You're the one that has made Aria so curious." I heard Kravos chuckle behind her, and shot him a glare, one that failed to have an effect.

"Did I really?" I forced a smile onto my face, trying to seem much more nonchalant than I actually felt. Guns, I was good with, explosions, bullets, they wouldn't phase me. Conversation? That was where my grace ran headlong into a wall. "I suppose that you're the guide she sent me?"

The asari nodded. "Maleia." She said, holding out her hand in introduction. I noticed that she hadn't given a family name, but she didn't seem interested in revealing anything more. Her hand waited, outstretched.

Tentatively, I took it. My father always told me that a person's hands could tell you a lot about the individual. I felt calluses there, hardened skin from hands that worked for a living. "You know where we're going?"

"The lower computer core." She nodded. "No access terminals, but if you bring the right equipment, it'll get you access to all kinds of systems."

I frowned thoughtfully. "Aria doesn't expect us to bring Kravos, does she? This will work much better with fewer people. I don't really plan to get into any firefights."

The turian answered himself with a shake of his head. "I'm not stupid enough to walk into a place like that." He grumbled, beginning to walk off.

As he left, I looked back at Maleia. "Do you mind waiting for just a minute? I was asleep when you buzzed at the door."

She shook her head with a shrug, gesturing her approval before I stepped back, letting the door shut behind me. I leaned against it for a moment, chewing on my lip before I straightened up, moving over to the bed to dig out my suit. I stripped quickly, shivering as the cool processed air hit my bare skin, goosebumps racing over my body before I tugged the suit on, zipping it up carefully. I felt the thrum of energy hum through it as the suit shrank slightly, conforming to my skin. The black, tight fabric hugged my form, and I stretched slightly to test it, smiling to myself. I pulled my soft boots on over the suit, then reached up, braiding my hair back out of the way. I clipped my visor over my ears, activating the various overlays to test it before I pushed it up to my forehead. Last were my weapons, the two pistols resting on my lower back, the rifle on my left shoulder.

Maleia looked up as the door slid open again, her eyes once more casually running over me, the corner of her lips curling up. "I have to say, for a human, you clean up quite nicely." She chuckled, as her eyes returned back to my face.

I blushed, fighting the heat out of my cheeks in a valiant effort as I shot her a look of my own. "Well, lead the way." I said, and she grinned at me, obviously recognizing my attempt to change the subject. She said nothing, however, simply nodding and stepping off down the hallway. Before we could even reach the end, however, she had stopped, bending down to pry a panel out of the wall. This revealed a ladder that disappeared down into a black, unlit hole.

"Down we go." She said, pointing down. "There's an aircar waiting at the bottom."

I grimaced, but it was clear that she expected me to go first, so I lowered myself gingerly into the hole, feet finding a rung before I allowed my body to slip in. Slowly and cautiously, I began to make my way down, hand over hand, feeling my way in the darkness. Maleia, in turn, pulled the panel back into place behind us as she slipped into the hole after me, moving with a confidence born of familiarity.

For a time, we climbed in silence, the only sound our hands and feet on the metallic rungs of the ladder. Finally, I couldn't take the overwhelming pressure any more. "How far down is it?" I asked, looking up, though the sheer blackness prevented me from seeing her above me.

"We're almost there." Was her reply. "I think."

With an unseen grimace, I carried on. The bottom, when it came, caught me by surprise, and I almost stumbled, turning on the light from my omni-tool, unsure why I hadn't thought to do so earlier. Maleia dropped lightly to the deck, looking around at the small enclosed space before leaning forward and pulling another wall plate free. I slipped through at her insistence, finding myself in a surprisingly large area, looking around to try and get my bearings. "How do you know about all these passages?" I asked, looking around at the discarded boxes and crates. It seemed like a disused hangar, of sorts, though I couldn't see any vehicles.

"I was born on Omega." She responded, walking forward towards the center of the hangar, slipping between various piles of garbage. "I discovered more than a few when I was small and could fit into all the tight places I shouldn't have been in."

"And how did you end up working for Aria?"

Maleia grunted as she pushed between two storage containers that were close together. "Well, it was this or end up dead eventually, so I chose the option that would give me some longevity."

I frowned, slipping through the crack behind her. "And how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

She grinned over at me, pausing to lean against a cloth covered object. "Oh? You don't tell anyone anything about yourself, and now you're asking all these questions? Do you see the hypocrisy here, Lauren?"

"I'm twenty-six." I said, smiling. "Does that make it easier?"

"I'm eighty seven." She said, grinning. "So I'm not old, myself."

To my mind, that was pretty old, but I had to remind myself of the longevity of the Asari. I couldn't even begin to imagine how old Aria was, and asking her was certainly out of the question. Maleia, however, seemed unbothered by this, reaching down to tug the end of the cloth she had been leaning, pulling it off the aircar hidden beneath.

"I hope you're ready for a wild ride." She said, slipping into the driver's seat and activating her seat restraints. "We're not taking an approved route, and I do want to avoid detection, if at all possible."

I shivered slightly, settling in beside her and strapping myself in. "You've done this before, right?"

She just laughed.