Happy New Year!
No GrimGrave this time around. I hope my mistakes aren't too numerous. Ahem. Better late than never… right? And Ulcassi, doll, I'm not ignoring you! It's all part of my grand scheme.
Onwards!
Planetary Roulette
Shepard shuddered as warm, talented fingers danced along the curve of her spine, applying pressure just so and reducing her to a pile goo. She moaned happily, lifting her hips as those hand skirted around her buttocks and down the backs of her thighs.
The warmth disappeared, but her whimper of protest died in her throat as the length of a curvaceous form blanketed over her; breasts to shoulder blades, rear to pelvis. Shepard shivered mightily as lips brushed against the shell of her ear, and fingers threaded between hers, pinning her in a vulnerable position that wasn't entirely disagreeable.
The woman above her whispered something inaudible, a tongue flicking against the Shepard's earlobe, and her hips twitched, the v between her legs throbbing hotly. A thigh nudged them apart, pressing into their junction and she pushed her hips back eagerly, that split second of friction leaving her aching for more—
"Commander?" A sharp knock dragged Shepard halfway out of her dream, but she clung to the fading vestiges of pleasure, screwing her eyes shut.
Her right hand was released and, a moment later, nails dug into her hip—
A second bout of knocking, more urgent than the first, forced her to roll of bed with wrathful growl. She slammed her hand on the reader next to the door and it slid open with a pneumatic hiss.
Her ire faded considerable at the sight of Liara's wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Still, the lingering pleasure from her dream clashed with the painful reality of her battle weary body and made her gruffer than intended. "What?"
"Is... Is everything okay? I heard you crying out."
Fuck's sake. Shepard dragged a hand through her hair. "Why are you walking around at this hour?"
Liara cleared her throat, but that wide-eyed stare didn't waver ...Why was she looking at her like that? "I was just… I couldn't sleep."
Shepard stepped aside, shaking her head at her own foolishness. "You can come in if you want."
…
Shepard grunted, her abdominal muscles straining as she finished her rep. Liara had fallen asleep not too long ago and her presence in the room had made it difficult to go back to sleep. Instead, she had gone down to the gym to work out some of the residual frustration from her dream. The woman dismounted carefully from her upside-down position, landing in a crouch and wiping her face with a conveniently place towel.
What had that dream been all about anyway? She hadn't had one of those kind of dreams since she'd been a teenager.
Shepard stole quietly into the galley and liberated a couple of apples and a ration bar, making a mental note that they were low on supplies as she headed back to her room. Liara was still curled into a ball, her side rising and falling slowly, but the pillow squeezed between her thighs hadn't been there before.
Shepard wasn't sure how she felt about that.
She cleared her throat, torn between wanting to rid herself of her uninvited guest and wanting to let the obviously fatigued woman rest. In the end, her bleeding heart won out and she placed the rations she had gathered on the desk beside her bed before turning to enter the small washroom located to the rear of the room.
The captain's quarters was the only room in the Normandy with its own bathroom and she relished in the privacy it allowed—regardless of tight quarters.
She released a sigh as she stepped under the cold. The day has just begun.
Her side smarted when she ran the bar of soap over it, but she didn't so much as flinch, her mind elsewhere.
Liara had been acting strangely these past few days, even before her collapse, and that was troubling considering the scientist was usually quite dependable. Would it be too forward if she asked what was going on? Liara was someone she could consider a friend, after all. Her intelligence and steadfast loyalty made her irreplaceable.
When she returned to her room, a towel wrapped snugly around her, Shepard was slightly surprised to see that her bed was empty and neatly made. She reached out and found the bedspread was still warm, resisting the urge to climb in and getting dressed instead.
"There you are; good as new. And thank you for coming to see me before it worsened significantly."
"Mhm…"
"Liara told me you two are heading out today."
"Did she?"
Dr. Michel stared until finally Shepard asked, "When did she come by?"
"This morning. Between you and I, she's had trouble sleeping. She seemed to have has a little more success last night, so I told her to keep doing whatever it was she did."
Shepard pretended not to notice the pointed look she received.
After donning their suits, Shepard and Liara boarded the one-man craft the scientist had lovingly dubbed "Discovery." It wasn't until they were actually inside the ship that Shepard realized their proximity: there wasn't room to turn around, much less to do anything but half-crouch behind the pilot's chair.
"Are you sure you don't want to share the seat?" Liara asked.
Not if it meant basically sitting in the other woman's lap.
"It's a short distance."
The planet that loomed before them was one-fourth the size of Earth and its high mineral content had washed its entire surface with red. Liara had hypothesized that desert planets with their high temperatures, more intense sunlight, and lack of obscuring foliage were their best bet.
That narrowed down their list of possible places to a whopping 13 planets.
The scientist had also charted out an area around 1200km across where the terrain would expedite any sort of electronically sent message. She wasn't one to leave room for error and her attention detail was admirable.
"Brace yourself for atmospheric entry."
Their landing was surprisingly smoother after the initial and violent jarring, and Shepard was only a little unsteady when she took her first step onto solid land. The ventilator on her suit kicked into high gear and a toxicity warning flashed across the front of her visor, reminding her that they had a limited amount of time to linger here.
"This way, Commander."
...
Shepard had to admit, it was to just be along for the ride rather than the leader of the expedition for once and, while they had come away empty-handed, it had still been strangely enjoyable to have some 1-on-1 time with her subordinate.
There was something strangely endearing about the dejected slump of the Asari's shoulders. "Maybe next time."
There was something... unnerving about the grateful smile that curved the Asari's lips. "Yes… Next time."
"Next time" didn't happen on the next planet, while trudging through what turned out to be quicksand nor did when the duo outran a feral feline creature. It didn't happen on Gamma 7, where the air was so acidic that entry had actually peeled off the fresh coat of paint Liara had toiled to apply and it definitely didn't happen when the seismic activity of Celestia Beta nearly swallowed them and the ship whole!
Shepard exhaled slowly, gritting her teeth against the sting of the antiseptic Dr. Michel dabbed against her collar. That damn cat had a slow-acting poison in its razor sharp claws, apparently, and she was beginning to feel the effects now. Partial paralysis was "a lucky outcome" according to the good doctor.
Yeah, well, tell that to her oddly heavy limbs and tingling extremities.
To make matters worse that tingle was reaching up her neck, making her speech slow and clumsy.
"Commander, you have an incoming transmission from the Galactic Council."
Fantastic.
The starmap in Navigation had been replaced with the holograph of a Turian diplomat. It was with no small amount of difficulty that Shepard saluted her superior.
"Commander Shepard, it's come to my attentions that you're leaving a trail of destruction in your wake. Where exactly are you bound?"
She gritted her teeth. "I'm sure that's none of your business, Councilor Sparatus. I'm not currently operating under Council orders."
"No, of course you aren't." His snide tone made her bristle, but she managed to hold her tongue. Her brow was too stiff to furrow in any case. "Just know that I've got my eye on you. Spectre."
Her trigger finger would have twitched had it been able to. Or had it? She couldn't tell… She really needed to sit down. "Will that be all, sir?"
"For now."
The room when dark and Shepard slumped into the nearest chair, her vision swimming. She tried to reach her comm link, but her limbs felt like lead. Perhaps Dr. Michel had been wrong about the severity of the poison? Perhaps-
The pneumatic hiss of a door opening interrupted her thoughts and a croak escaped her throat as she tried to desperately get the other person's attention.
"Is someone in here?" She heard a woman's voice ask through the haze that descended over her frantic mind. "Shepard?" As she sank into a wave of darkness, she... swore she heard— "MAI!"
A hand caressed her cheek, warm and slow. Shepard screwed her eyes shut, forcing her breathing to remain even though her instincts pumped adrenaline through her system. She could vaguely hear Dr. Michel's voice, but she couldn't make out what was being said. The other—the hair-stroker—responded in kind, but the gentle motion didn't cease.
The rapid beeping of a heart monitor pierced through the veil of disorientation and she realized pretending to be unconscious would do her no good. When she opened her eyes, the hand withdrew and she was face-to-face with Liara.
"You're awake." Relief made her eyes glassy.
…? How long had she been out?
"It seems I misjudged the toxin's strength." Dr. Michel said. "A strand managed to survive the antitoxin and mutated, attaching itself to your red blood cells and wreaking havoc on your nervous system. Can you feel this?"
Had she not seen Dr. Michel pinch her thigh, she wouldn't have known it had happened.
Wait…
"Where is my suit?" Almond shaped eyes darted about, but there was nothing within reach to rectify semi-nudity.
"If you'd please answer the question, Commander?"
Liara handed her a thermal blanket and she accepted it gratefully drawing it around her despite the fact that she started perspiring almost immediately. "No."
"Hm… I'll need to run more tests, Commander. I'll need you to stay here overnight."
"Absolutely not."
Thin eyebrows drew together. "And if you go into shock again? Don't be stubborn."
She looked to Liara for help, but the blue-skinned woman was looking down at her hands.
"...It's just one night?"
"And then you're free to get chewed up by some other beast."
Shepard's sigh was acquiescence enough.