Well, what do you know, another chapter in another week?! I'm guessing I've finally gotten over my latest spat of writer's block, and boy do I feel great. I'm hoping everyone is enjoying this story. I'm honestly shocked at how popular it's become seeing as how it started as a little one-shot I wrote for a friend that was heartbroken Nihlus died in the game. Please do follow if you want to read future chapters and write a review if there's something you really liked or something you want to critique. Have a wonderful day everyone!
Chapter Six
The ship was quiet. Nihlus walked the small corridors as they sailed through the stars, thinking. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a crew this big. His ship was a modified turian corvette with a minor stealth drive, enhanced maneuvering, automated system operations and enough comfortable space for ten turians. Even with that much crew capacity, he often operated alone. Shepard, Tali'Zorah and Thane were sleeping in the port bunks while Sidonis, Garrus and himself were sleeping in the starboard bunks. Wrex was large enough to up the entire aft bunks himself and had trouble keeping his head from crashing into the ceiling.
"Probably the first friendly krogan on a turian ship in, forever really, and immediately complains about being cramped." Nihlus chuckled to himself. Truth be told, he couldn't believe everyone's sleep schedules were this in sync. Shepard had been serving on a human military ship, Sidonis and Garrus had been on the Citadel, spirits know where Thane was the last few years, and krogan were tough enough to go ages without sleep. And yet, it was only Nihlus who found himself awake. He kept walking past the small armoury and straight into the cockpit. The ship was fully automated and could run on a crew of one, but it still needed a pilot for precision flying. Nihlus had guided the ship out of the Citadel with his crew watching, and Shepard was more than happy to compare him to a friend of hers.
"Twenty seconds out of the Citadel. Not bad." she'd said. Then a wide grin spread across her face. "But my pilot Joker could have done it in ten."
"Your pilot Joker could have also found himself in C-Sec lockup." Sidonis had shot back. The human and turian seemed to like each other and had bickered for a while, much to the amusement of Tali'Zorah and Vakarian. It was good fun that would hopefully build strong ties.
"A team that trusts is a team that triumphs," Nihlus muttered bitterly as he sat down in the cockpit. His father's favourite catchphrase, and the ideal that got him killed.
"I wonder if I still have that bottle of horosk." he wondered aloud.
"I'm probably gonna regret this, but what's horosk?" a voice came from behind him.
"Shepard. Sit down." Nihlus turned his seat around. His slender human companion smiled and took the copilot's chair. She leaned forwards as Nihlus activated his omni-tool. The lock to his private store came up and he quickly punched in his code. The panel between the two of them slid open, revealing several different bottles of liquid. Some were intricate and old, covered in asari writings. Others were short and utilitarian, a turian design making it easier and more efficient to drink. And still, others were unadorned and simple, products of glassmakers of Earth.
"This is horosk." Nihlus reached down and picked up a turian bottle of dark orange liquid. "Only thing in this galaxy that'll hit you harder is ryncol."
Shepard looked down at the bottle, then back up at Nihlus. "Thanks, but no thanks." She laughed. "I'd like to keep my organs in working order."
"Fair enough. It's made for dextro-amino lifeforms so it might just kill you." Nihlus grinned. "See that purple bottle, the one that looks like a cylinder?"
"This one?" Shepard asked. "It's fancy." It was fancy. The cylindrical glass was carved with complex designs from asari mythology, detailing life lessons and the wishes of one of their goddesses.
"Very. It's called akantha. Nice and warm, with a good aftertaste. I stole it from a pirate queen in the Traverse." Nihlus leaned back in his chair.
"That sounds like a good story." his companion responded. The human woman shifted the bottle in her hands as she gazed at him expectantly.
"Maybe." Nihlus chuckled. "I was investigating a string of high profile kidnappings about three years ago. Nobody vital to the running of the galaxy, but diplomats, business giants, even regional and one planetary leader. Every trail went cold except for one asari diplomat."
"Who was she?" Shepard asked. The excited glint in her eyes intrigued Nihlus. He'd have to get a story from her after.
"Nassana Dantius. Good family, highly placed, worked under Councillor Tevos even though they hadn't really met. She sent a private message to Saren and Tela Vasir, the two most prominent Spectres. She thought she could find a Spectre for hire and insisted we help her sister Dahlia who had been captured near the Macedon system, in the Artemis Tau cluster." Nihlus sneered at the memory. "Saren and Vasir were busy, so they forwarded the message to me. Turns out Dahlia was the ringleader and was trying to sell the high profile captives as entertainment slaves. She needed credits to fund a base on a planet in the Macedon system and blackmailed Nassana to get it. Nassana didn't take kindly to that so she sicced the Spectres on Dahlia."
"What happened next?" Shepard leaned forwards. She'd gotten the akantha open and already downed a third of the bottle.
"Well, Dahlia and her men opened fire the second they saw my ship. So, I shot back." Nihlus gave Shepard a lopsided grin. "I'm a much better shot than they were." He cracked open the bottle of horosk and took a short swig.
"Hard hitting. Right." Shepard drawled as Nihlus shook his head clear.
"You have no idea." Nihlus smiled broadly. Shepard tilted her head but motioned for him to continue.
"Well, I took out the whole gang. Rescued the planetary leader, some regional ones, a CEO, and a couple diplomats." Nihlus' voice darkened. "If I'd been a single day earlier, I would have saved them all. But Dahlia got bored and decided to use some of the prisoners as target practice for her men. Add that to realizing I'd been tricked, and I was very upset with Nassana Dantius."
"I'm guessing she didn't last long after that." Shepard took another sip.
"Honestly, I have no idea. I read up and found some very interesting business dealings Nassana made. I also found that she had another three sisters, all of which were commandos in service to a Matriarch Caricia. They were most displeased when I told them all about their little sister's shady practices. They promised me she'd be dealt with properly, and I was sent that bottle a week later." Shepard looked down at the elaborate designs and resealed the half-empty bottle.
"We'll finish it when we find the Matriarch. Deal?" Shepard held out the bottle.
"Deal." Nihlus tapped his bottle of horosk against Shepard's. "Now, it's your turn."
"Oh really?" His companion laughed. "Maybe I like to keep the mystery."
"Not much mystery. I read your file and reports. I wouldn't have chosen you to be a Spectre if I left you as a mystery."
"You were the one that recommended me for the Spectres?" Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Why? Most turians I've met tend to have nothing but disdain for humans."
"You must have met very few turians." Nihlus raised a hand placatingly. "I'll admit that our species' conflict. A lot. But turians are soldiers. We're not like the asari that can remember slights for centuries or salarians who will pass down hatred through generations until no one even knows why they have it. Spirits, we're not even like the krogan. They'll just shoot you because." Nihlus stroked his mandibles as he collected his thoughts and leaned forwards. "Humanity is considered an upstart. You showed up out of nowhere and managed to give us a challenge. That change caused bitterness. But a turian doesn't make it far if they let themselves be consumed by bitterness. So when the time for a new Spectre to be selected, I searched through human records. I wanted someone who could show the rest of the galaxy your species' potential. And I found everything I wanted." Nihlus raised his bottle to Shepard.
"Well, you certainly know how to make a girl feel special." Shepard brought a hand to her cheek.
"I've got some experience." Nihlus took a swig of the horosk and leaned back in his seat. "Now, your turn."
"Mmm. When you read my file, did you see the section on Elysium?" Shepard mimicked Nihlus' movement.
"Yes. It said you earned yourself more commendations in one day than any other soldier in Alliance history."
"Yeah, well, it doesn't say much about everything I had to do to get it." Shepard's gaze lowered to the floor. "I was one of maybe thirty Alliance soldiers on leave on Elysium. Luckily, we were all in the spaceport of the capital when the Blitz hit. The techs came running, screaming about twenty frigate-sized warships that were entering the atmosphere. Elysium didn't have an official fleet garrison or defence stations. All twenty ships just landed and unloaded a thousand batarians and pirates." Shepard's gaze turned hard as she looked back up at Nihlus. "They slaughtered every single person in one of the outlying settlements. One hundred and fifty people gone in seconds."
"What happened next?" Nihlus asked. He held his bottle but had no intention of taking a drink anymore.
"The marines and I took charge." Shepard laughed ruefully. "More like I took charge. The marines aren't used to being in command, they're used to ship-to-ship assaults. I organized them into my command staff and then we ordered all colonists back to the capital. We lost more people as the pirates started looting farms and settlements, but almost the entire population made it into the city."
"How many did you have?"
"I started with thirty marines. By the end of the first day, I had five hundred people. The capital had a police force of about twenty, but the armoury had about a hundred guns. Add that to every farmer keeping a pistol or rifle for hunting and almost everyone was armed." Shepard took a breathe and collected her thoughts. "We moved skycars and anything large and made barricades and guard posts. Even with all that, we would have been annihilated if the pirates used their ships. Lucky for us they wanted slaves and loot, not corpses and burning wreckage. The pirates attacked the next morning with the sun in their eyes.
"Not very smart pirates, considering the sheer guts it took to attack an important Alliance colony." Nihlus murmured.
"I think their leadership didn't take part, otherwise things would have turned out very differently." Shepard agreed. "They came at us again and again with everything they had. Krogan assault troops, batarian slave masters, human pirates." Nihlus noted the disgust in Shepard's voice as she mentioned the enemy humans. "We beat them back each time with minor casualties. Well, minor casualties on paper. But I can still remember each person that died next to me."
"That can be a good thing." Nihlus interrupted. He continued as Shepard glanced up at him. "If you ordered those people to war and then didn't care if they died, you wouldn't be fit to be a leader. Hell, you wouldn't be fit to be a Spectre. But you do remember, and that counts for something."
"Thanks." Shepard gave him a tight smile. Nihlus was intrigued with the way human lips and cheeks moved with their facial expressions. He motioned for her to continue her story.
"By the fifth day, we'd lost fifty people. But the pirates had lost well over two-thirds of their number between our guns and traps, and their own infighting. They decided to make one last push to take the city before the Alliance came bearing down on them. I don't know who it was, but some colonist made a video of the final assault. It caught me standing on the barricades shooting at the pirates while I dragged a young girl behind cover. I saw them all watching me so I rallied them and pushed back until the pirates retreated. By the time they made it back to their ships, the SSV Einstein and a support fleet under Rear Admiral Mikhailovich were in orbit. They bombed the pirate frigates before they could take off and Alliance marines landed and captured the rest. Myself and the marines in the capital were given medals, and a few of them recommended me for the Star of Terra. I don't think the Admiral was actually considering it until that video of me surfaced, and then the whole Alliance knew my name and my 'heroics'. So I got an award and a commission on Captain Anderson's ship."
"And award it sounds like you deserved," Nihlus reassured Shepard. She seemed overly bitter about the memory. "How did the Einstein get there so fast? You couldn't have been able to get a distress call out at first if the pirates were doing their jobs."
"I was talking to my mother when the attack hit. She was the XO on the Einstein, and actually gave birth to me on that ship."
"A damn good thing." Nihlus chuckled. "Get some sleep Shepard, you deserve it."
"Please, call me Caren. I mean, you haven't stopped me calling you Nihlus this whole time. Seems only fair."
"Alright, Caren." Nihlus liked saying that name. It was easy for him to pronounce, unlike several human names. "I'll wake you if we make it to Feros."
"See you in the morning." Shep-, Caren, grinned. Her smile was nice, Nihlus decided as the human woman walked away. Alone with his thoughts and a bottle of horosk, he turned to the viewport and stared out into the starry abyss.
"What were you doing Saren? What was out there that scared you so much?" Nihlus whispered.