Space travel was not as glamorous as most brochures would have you believe. It was a big galaxy, full of exciting and amazing destinations, with things one wouldn't believe existed without seeing them with one's own eyes. But for someone like her, always on the metaphorical road, all space travel meant was cheap hotels, long waiting times in shitty space stations, and crappy food to go most of the time.
There was the occasional perk with nice dinners when trying to grease up one of the clients. And the uninhibited nights of wild sex with people she'd never have to meet again. Those two went very rarely together.
in this case, for example, the redheaded human girl in front of her was definitely not there for business. She had introduced herself as Aliana Shepard, "call me Lana", and she was interested, so to speak.
The glee she had reacted with when they had shaken hands had been adorable. She had practically shouted her thoughts, the first time she had done th Courtesy of Thessia. Loud, and very enthusiastic.
She wasn't interested in her as much as interested in the fact that she was asari. In some other circumstances, being reduced to the fetish "blue babe" would have annoyed her, but it had been a while. She could work with that.
And she was adorable, after all. It was her first time, which really piqued her own curiosity.
"So, um, miss T'Diol..."
"Call me Luan," she said.
Lana smiled at that, and nervously took another swig from her drink. By the looks of it, she had gone through a few already, and showed no signs of slowing. She would have felt bad if the human didn't want it so bad.
"Luan," she said. "What do you do? I mean for a living. I mean it's crazy, if I lived for a thousand years, what kind of career could I have? I'm supposed to be prepared with my training in less than a month! I mean it's crazy, for you a month has to be like the blink of an eye, right? How old are you? I mean, that's rude for a human to ask, because then you go all oh my god, you look so good for forty or something, which really is not a compliment at all."
The girl caught herself after that long tirade, and as a way to fill time, finished the bottle she was drinking. With a simple gesture, she called the bartender and gestured at both of them.
"I'm two hundred and twelve," Luan replied, smiling easily. "It is not a rude question for an asari. We do not age the same way as humans, it is hard to tell for non-asari."
"Meaning we age like, crazy fast? One blink of the eye and bam, we're in a nursing home playing Skillian Five for buttons," Lana giggled.
"The ephemeral flower is the most precious of all," Luan said.
Light asari poetry. Corny, as the humans would say, but always seemed to catch their attention. It was all in the delivery. Lana gave a nervous giggle and downed a third of her sweet vodka mixer in one long gulp. It was such a crude drink, one favoured by the younger human crowd. Sweet alcohol with chemical flavours, such a waste.
Maybe she'd show Lana a few asari drinks she could enjoy.
"Do you... um... do you have a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend? I mean, what would asari say?"
"Friend, lover, mate, there are so many words in your language we could use," Luan said. "And no, no committed relationship worth mentioning. What about you?"
"No. Not anymore..."
Her expression turned dark, and she went straight to the bottle again. Rebound sex, with an asari to boot. Now that was something she could get behind. She chuckled at the thought, sipping her own belfade. A dry distillation from berries growing in the austral regions of Lesuss. The significance was lost in the rest of the galaxy, which made the bitter drink all the more enjoyable.
"Well honey, his loss," Luan said. "Or was it her loss?"
"His," Lana replied. She shook her head and brought her omni-tool up, flicking through until she brought a picture up.
Oh Athame's tits, now I've got to listen to her sob story.
The girl was about two decades old, just how much in love could she have been, really? She flicked the image to show a picture of a family. Two older adults, four kids, Lana, and a young man who had all the looks of a Systems Alliance soldier. It was like they made them at a printing press, they all looked the same to her. Given the getup most of them were wearing, it had to be one of those New Year celebrations humans seem to favour.
I guess when you live so little you have to celebrate you've made one more.
"That's him," Lana said.
"Uh-huh. Well, he's cute, but honey, you were slumming it. You're much too good for him."
She masked it well, but Luan saw a mix of emotions playing just under the surface, as if her expression was just a mask. Angry, sad, quite the cocktail. Oh, this was going to be fun. She finished her drink, and when Lana made to order more, she stopped her, grabbing her hand. The skin to skin contact was electrifying.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" she said.
The girl hesitated. Well, it was now or never. Either she was coming, or she was done. She had a flight to catch in the morning and a long list of meetings for the next week and a half. Her answer came when the human took her hand, interleaving their fingers, and led the way out.
"Where are we going?" Lana said once they were outside.
The air was somewhat chill, and she felt the human shiver when a gust of wind wafted around them. Lusia was no Thessia, but Monoi did offer its perks. And one of them was an amazing view of phosphorescent seas from the taller buildings of the city. Like the room of her hotel.
"I want to show you something. Come on," she said, and led Lana away.
They walked slowly along the streets. Too slowly for Lana's taste, as it turned out. On the first darkened corner, Lana pulled her closer, and gave her a deep kiss.
It was such a surprise that she didn't react immediately when something jabbed her neck. But she felt the thought, she had just been drugged. Luan pushed Lana away, surprise and anger flaring her biotics, but she didn't even get a chance when the small human reacted by bouncing straight off the wall, and hitting her with a spinning kick right on the head.
She never knew what made her pass out, the attack or the drugs.
"Not bad," Miranda said. "The act was a little thick, but good enough."
They were standing in the safehouse, one room away from the asari. Luan T'Diol. The only clue they had to what Roy had been up to in Thessia. Shepard had taken her down, then dragged her to the aircar waiting for them. Simple, clean, she thought she had done a perfectly reasonable job. Now she was waiting with a hood voer her head, and biotic restraints keeping her in check.
"According to the information i had, she was looking for a quick lay. Innocent girl on the rebound..." Shepard shrugged.
"It hit a little too close to home. It is easier to let details slip when you do that. But it was a good job."
Miranda never gave straight compliments. There was always something to improve, something to perfect. It was more than being a perfectionist, Shepard was starting to think she was incapable of just saying "good job" with a smile and leave it at that. Maybe that was how she had been brought out, who knew.
"She didn't react at all when I showed her the picture."
"She wasn't looking at Roy, she was looking at you," Miranda replied. "Now she will look."
Shepard gave Miranda a look, but all she did was head for the door. At least she had stopped telling her to stay back, be quiet, and watch. She had started to grow tired of that. She would still do it, but she didn't need to be told every time.
Luan was tied up to a chair, her head covered in a hood, and she jerked up as soon as the door opened. She was breathing hard, her head darting left and right as Miranda walked in closer. The clopping sound of her heels echoed through the mostly empty room in a very calculated way.
"Who's there?" Luan said. She had tried to sound tough, but had failed miserably.
There was no answer. Miranda kept walking around her, keeping a good arm's length away. Clop, clop, clop, the sound was coming with an eerie regularity.
"What do you want? I haven't done anything!"
Again, no response. After another lap, Miranda stopped on the opposite side of Shepard, and spun the chair around. That got a surprised yelp from Luan, who by now was trembling like a leaf in the wind.
With good reason. If she sold out Roy I'm going to kill her.
Her hand stole towards her hip, where her folded Stiletto pistol was, but Miranda stopped her with a look. Not yet.
"Who are you!" Luan snapped.
Miranda pulled the hood out with a hard yank, a surprised yelp from the asari accompanying her action. Luan looked up, but Shepard missed what her expression was. She tried to look around, but there was nothing to see. Only an empty room, and an unsettling murderous presence behind her.
"Hello Luan," Miranda drawled. She placed one of her feet on the seat of the chair, between Luan's legs.
"D-Do I know you?"
"No, but I'm hoping you know him," Miranda said, and brought up a picture with her omni-tool. Roy's recruitment picture, a fresh buzz cut and a flat look looking ahead at the camera. "Think carefully."
"N-No..." she muttered, looking away from the picture and back at Miranda.
If she's looking for sympathy, she's in for a surprise.
Miranda didn't give anything away. She didn't even blink, it seemed, her face set in stone with a relaxed expression. Like she could be there all day. Like she didn't really care whether that asari in front of her knew or not, or what the consequences would be. Like this was just another Tuesday for her. So, Luan looked at the picture again. And again. Every time she'd look at Miranda, and Miranda would calmly look back at her.
"I don't know..." Luan muttered. "I don't know! I haven't seen him, I don't know him!"
Miranda sighed, closing her eyes as she shook her head. Luan's pleas had turned rather pitful, just begging for them lo let her go.
"I really wish you hadn't said that," Miranda said.
Without missing a step, she pushed the chair, and with a pitiful cry, it fell back on the ground, Luan hitting the floor hard with the back of her head.
"I haven't seen anything, please..."
"You see," Miranda said, casually walking around to stand by her face, "we know you met with him. See?" She flipped her omni-tool, and showed a still of the security camera footage. Roy and Luan, shaking hands. "If you had said you had met him once, I might-"
"Him! I just met this human once, you all look the same! I s-"
Miranda kicked her on the face, stopping her tirade with a cry of pain. She then placed her foot over her throat, the heel pressing on the side of the neck while her toes dug on the other. Not enough to choke her, but enough to get the point across.
"As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted," Miranda continued, "I might have believed that before you lied to me. Now, I won't be sure whether I can believe what you say when I interrogate you, which means it will take forever, and neither of us will enjoy it. You least of all." She looked at Shepard. "Although it will be instructive."
She pulled the asari up, righting the chair and spinning it around again. Luan was definitely nearing panic state. She looked at Miranda, getting nothing from her, then at Shepard, getting a hateful glare instead. She hesitated, and chose Miranda to look at.
"So," Miranda said, leaning close to the asari. "Convince me."
They spent three hours with the interrogation. Shepard had expected it to involve more sharp implements and pain, but Miranda stuck to asking, over and over, picking small details, changing them to see if she'd notice. It was all quite boring indeed.
Still, Miranda hadn't shied away from biotics or blunt force. After three whole hours, Luan was just sitting in her chair, quietly sobbing as blood dripped out of her nose.
"That's it?" Shepard said.
"I doubt she knows anything else of note," Miranda replied, giving the asari one last glance. "Seems like all she knows is that Roy went to the University of Thessia on the Serrice campus."
"So what now?"
"Now we look at the timetables from that day, and try to find a lead. He must have met with someone there."
"I meant her," Shepard said. Luan didn't look up at that. She had stopped a while ago.
Without missing a step, Miranda reached for Shepard's pistol, and unfolded it. He offered it to her in her left hand, and an injector in the right hand.
"Up to you," she said simply, and walked off the room.
Shepard looked down at her hands, and then at the asari. She wasn't looking up, and didn't do so even as Shepard walked closer and knelt right besides her. She did wince away when Shepard put her hand under her chin, trying to raise her face to assess the damage.
"Why didn't you tell us at first?" Shepard said.
"I didn't remember," she muttered. "I swear, please... I'm sorry..."
Shepard hit her on the back of the neck with the injector and stood up. It took only a few minutes for the drugs to take effect, and the asari passed out without any more trouble. She would wake up in a few hours with a massive headache, and a big gap in her memory. To make it good, she removed all the restraints, then took all her valuables. Not that she needed them, but it'd give her something to fill the memory gaps. Mugged and robbed. Sucks to be her.
When she walked out of the building and into the aircar, Miranda didn't even ask what she had done. The door closed, and they took off towards the spaceport.
"Your next assignment," Miranda said, pointing at the datapad in front of her.
"I thought I had training to do," Shepard replied, picking it up.
"You do. The assignment starts in three weeks, I have gotten you an internship with Binary Helix."
"What about Thessia? I've been studying asari culture every day since I got here!"
Miranda allowed herself a small smile. No patience. That was the main reason she was making her wait, really, she needed to learn patience.
"I'll look into that. In the meantime, study your assignment. You have to get up to speed with biotech and computer systems."
Shepard grumbled something unintelligible, but complied. Just the way Miranda liked it.
Author's Notes: Reliable intel is so hard to come by. Specially when you're a paranoid bastard. And Miri seems to be doing OK turning Shepard into mini-her.
Reviews! Wow, just a few chapters of average length, and I get feedback, thanks!
Toothless is best: Much like Miranda, just get the best of the best that are in the black market :)
Legendary Junk Mail: Thanks! Always fun to be breaking new ground. It's mostly going to be a collection of scenes, but it's fun to think about (whoever said that about their own death?)
bluemarlin: Thanks! I'm hoping I'm not going too dark with Miri. I mean, the Ice Queen and all that, but hey, she mellowed out eventually.
Bolondka: Haha, surprise! I'm going for the butterfly effect. BIG changes! :D
So, next time... Well, I'm not sure yet. I want to do a bit of development first, before the key scenes come through. So we'll see! Thanks for reading and reviewing, ta-ta!