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Chapter four
Rivalry
Shepard paced back and forth in her quarters wondering if she should go see if Soze was alright. He did kind of get beaten the hell up, she thought, Jacob's still in the Med-Bay. She tried to quell her feelings of guilt for getting two of her teammates hurt just to push Soze. Bullshit, straight bullshit, she thought again angrily, There was absolutely no way around it, I had to test him. She decided that she would visit him in thirty minutes just to make sure he wasn't dead. She hated thinking like that, but it was entirely possible. Jacob had sustained multiple broken bones from their fight and Soze didn't even get to the Med-Bay.
Meanwhile, In the Mess Hall
Garrus and one of the crewmen were currently in an intense arm-wrestling match. (True, neither wanted to win because Grunt called winner) Zaeed was telling a war story to an enthusiastic Kelly and Kasumi was thinking of how to get Gabby and Ken together. She saw how they acted together and she thought she had the perfect plan. They will never expect this, she thought with a mischievous smile, Now just need to find a way to kickstart this.
Ever since Pragia Jack had been a lot friendlier with the crew. Except for the obvious exception Miranda of course, Jack thought that it was mainly because Miranda acted so high and mighty with her accent and her perfectly made genetics. At least she wasn't the only one who hated Miranda; Shepard distrusted Miranda immensely. Well actually she distrusted anybody working with Cerberus, Jack amended, And Miranda and Jacob just happened to work for Cerberus.
Thane was praying in Life Support when Samara walked in, "Ah, Samara do you need something?" Thane asked. Samara walked over to him and answered, "I was wondering if you would care to join me in meditation? Nobody else on this ship do and I get lonely." Thane thought about this for a few minutes, for some reason warning bells were going off in his head but he agreed to meditate with the asari. He felt a twinge of guilt for not asking his siha first but he didn't see the problem with meditating with Samara.
Jacob stood up slowly groaning in pain when he felt his broken ribs. "Mr. Taylor I recommend taking it very slowly," came the stern voice of the ship's medic Dr. Chakwas. "Don't worry Doc I have this handled," said the always cocky Jacob, "I will just get back to weapon repairing now." Chakwas pursed her lips but decided to allow it. As Jacob walked to the elevator to get back to the CIC he almost bumped into Shepard, but thankfully for Jacob she dodged him. "Hey Commander," he nodded to her. "Oh hey Jacob, How are you feeling?" she asked him with no small amount of concern. He just laughed but then he stopped to cough, "Don't worry Commander, he didn't hurt me that bad," he lied.
Shepard then said goodbye to him and wished him the best of luck, once he was out of view she shook her head and chuckled at his foolishness. She then returned her mind to the business on hand; checking up on Soze. She walked into the Med-Bay and turned to Chakwas and asked, "Did you see Jon? Is he okay?" Chakwas sighed in exasperation before answering, "No, he wont even let me in the AI Core, he locked me out!" Shepard paused and with an angry expression on her face walked over to the door of the AI Core and screamed, "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? HUH? I DON'T ALLOW LOCKED DOORS ON MY SHIP! OPEN UP THIS INSTANT!" After a few seconds the door slid up and there stood Soze wearing his black and red business suit, his sunglasses and even had his hair combed correctly. He looked her dead in the eye and said, "A word, Commander?"
` She stepped inside the AI Core/Soze's quarters and looked around. Inside she saw many different things that she didn't really expect such as: the Katana currently hung up above his bed, several real books on his desk, a few guns and an older looking extranet terminal. He started pacing and lit up a cigarette while doing so, "So Ms. Shepard what the bloody hell do you want?" She was surprised at his non-characteristic harsh tone, granted she did yell at him first, but still it wasn't like him to do that. Shepard cleared her throat before answering, "Well, firstly I came to check up on yo-" he interrupted her by snorting derisively, "As I was saying," she continued, "I came up here to check up on you, and then I hear that you locked out the Medic? I don't allow locking of doors on MY ship."
He turned to her and responded coldly, "Considering you have a bloody thief, a mercenary, two Cerberus operatives, a goddamn Krogan and an assassin I figured you'd be understanding of why I would want to have my gear protected." She just gaped at him for a moment before collecting herself and angrily responding, "I trust all of my crewmates and they would never do that!" He just smirked and said, "Sure they won't, because we both know that there is absolutely no reason that Miranda would want to find out more information about someone that even Cerberus can't figure out." She actually had to agree with him on this, but she still decided to make him an offer, "How about this, I make sure Miranda stays out of here and you keep the the door unlocked, Deal?" Soze gave this some thought and then nodded, "Sounds reasonable," and then they shook hands.
Holy hell what was his problem? Shepard thought as she walked out of the Med-Bay. Back inside the the AI Core, What the hell is my problem? Jon thought, Jesus fuckin' Christ. He walked over to his desk and took out a pill bottle and popped off the top. After taking two of his pills he instantly relaxed, he crossed over to his bed and proceeded to get into a meditating position. He realized now that the information he had just received was stressing him out more then he needed to be. He had to relax and take it slow, then tomorrow he'd apologize to Shepard for being such an ass.
Back in the Mess Hall everyone was eating except for (obviously) Soze and Joker. Thane was hip to hip with Shepard but he could feel Samara's eyes on him, making him feel extremely uncomfortable. Shepard was oblivious to Samara as she was laughing and telling stories about the days of the original Normandy to the rest of the amused crew members. "Haha, I remember when we were in the Mako and my driving turned our tough turian friend into a little girl!" Garrus grumbled, "You all should be lucky you didn't have to go in that. It was a death machine!" The rest of the crew got a huge laugh out of that.
Up in the cockpit Joker was arguing with EDI, "Mr. Moreau, tampering with my system is against protocol and I will have to contact Shepard," EDI stated. "Yeah yeah, go tattle to mommy," Joker muttered. "I do not understand your last sentence, are you making a joke?" came the reply. Joker just nodded and then EDI said, "That is funny." Joker laughed and shook his head.
After dinner Kelly went back to her terminal and after a quick check to make sure nobody was around opened up Fornax Online and began browsing the categories, stopping when she got to the Drell section. She opened up the first video after making sure the volume was turned off, three minutes into the video her jaw was dropped and she didn't notice when Thane walked up behind her, curious to see what she was doing. When he got close enough to see what was on her screen he chuckled, making Kelly jump and frantically attempt to exit the browser, but only succeeded in turning the sound on making all of the crew members in the CIC to turn and stare at her. After she turned off the sound and exited the browser she turned towards the laughing Drell with her face roughly the same color as her hair.
"I apologize ms. Chambers, for scaring you of course," Thane said in his deep voice. Kelly suddenly became extremely self conscious when he apologized, it was mainly to do with Kelly's schoolgirl crush on Thane. "Nuuuuhhhhh No prrrobbleem Thaaane," Kelly managed to stammer out. Thane walked back to the elevator extremely amused by the poor girl's embarrassment. If she has a fetish for Drell, maybe I can send Kolyat a message telling him about this girl, he mused, it'd probably make Kolyat forgive me faster and Kelly can satisfy her major crush on Drell. He felt as if this was the perfect plan.
Kelly tried to calm her fast beating heart, breathe in, breath out, she thought. She thought that maybe it wasn't exactly Thane that she had a crush on, it was more like she was attracted to the whole race. Similar to the way all men are attracted to Asari, she was attracted to Drell. She probably just needed to find a Drell and get laid, but there weren't many of them left. Maybe Kolyat, she thought but just as quickly dismissed the idea, sure they were similar in age and they could easily contact (she could just go to the Citadel on her shore leave,) AND nobody had to find out.
Thane couldn't shake the feeling that he was being followed and after looking around the elevator he seemingly put his hand on nothing, but then Kasumi appeared. "Dammit Thane, how did you know I was in here?" Thane just smiled and said mysteriously, "The art of being invisible does not mean that you are not visible." Kasumi just grimanced, "Whatever Krios, anyway not really why I'm here, I have been reading Kelly's emails and she has been obsessing about your son Kolyat." Thane again just smiled at her, "I already set wheels in motion, I have this handled."
