VICTORY RISE, DAY ONE.
19:37 pm

When my hours were done in C-Sec, I put on my jacket and went home- even if I was shot at. Sure I'd take call-outs in the middle of the night, but for the most part, my off-hours were mine. Work and life were separated and should remain so when you're in law enforcement. In theory, anyway.

Oriana and I had fallen into a rhythm the past year, especially since my day shift had aligned with hers. I would come home first, sometimes with rations, sometimes not. We shared dinner if she stayed at mine, and decompressed our workdays together; it was soothing, the routine. Rarely did we go out - we were content with each other.

And then the Austin case thrice-fucked everything.

I was alone here in Epiteia, and I loathed to dwell. I could read in my little static prefab and wonder if I would see the end of a sniper rifle again, or I could go for a run. Besides, a moving target was harder to shoot, and I had a deep rooted suspicion that the 'lousy shot' I had dodged was deliberate, Blackwatch or no.

The rings of Eritum glittered above me as I took my second 10k of the day, too vibrant to ignore. It was bright enough to count all ten track marks, shepherded into place by a neighbouring moon. I found myself looking up every so often to stare at them; perhaps colonies had their perks, after all.

The water lapped against the shoreline as I traced the ghost of my morning route. Lakes were still a novelty to me; I grew up surrounded by an endless sea, and I understood the ebb and flow of an ocean. The lake, though terraformed, seemed too eerie, despite the placid horizon.

-we're proud of our scenery here in Epiteia, even if most of us don't swim.' The captain looked briefly at a report on her table before-

Hmm, why hadn't I thought of this? Did I really trust turians to have mounted an efficient search and rescue expedition of the waters? The reluctance they had for the stuff in general was astounding. All races had myths and creatures of the deep, but to turians, it was their nemesis. Though humans frankly had them beat for quantity of stories, which Oriana delighted in explaining while-

-and they sing from the water, to lure travellers to their death,' she said. She had straddled my thighs, and I could feel her shift to-

I jogged on, chasing the memory from my mind. I would indulge in it later. Oh, how I would indulge.

"VITA," I said, poking the interface on my arm. "Cross-reference case number EP-42375 with the word lake."

Orange lines blurred my vision. "Certainly. There are eight matches. What would you like me to do with them?"

"Send them to my aural link, text to speech."

"Understood. There, done. Would you like me to do anything else, Detective Krios?"

Even the damn VI misranked me. "No. Fuck off." VITA's voice was too chirpy for reports that had words like dermabrasion and purification in them, but she would have to do.

The first was a memo from yesterday, and a name caught my eye. Cosmus Galnius, the police station's ever smiling desk sergeant, had asked for help. He wanted volunteers to search the lake again. There would be one last investigation of the waters tomorrow, this time twenty kilometres from the centre of the community. I was not surprised that nothing was found so far.

It seemed the previous attempts via drone were thorough enough, and I could find no fault in Galnius's methods. A diving team would have been preferable, but the long ranged sensors sometimes had better luck, especially in silted water. I would attend the search party tomorrow if I could spare the time, though interviewing the families of the missing would take my priority.

I ran past a familiar house, slower than last time. The same turians waved at me from their garden as they had this morning, though this time they were desperate for my attention. "No! No, no - don't run off!"

My calves twinged when I stopped; I bounced on my heels to slow the burn. They were lucky to stop me before I made the bend - that was the point where I forced myself to sprint. "Yes?" I said.

The woman put a hand to her chest and exhaled heavily. "You really like to run, huh?" She was short for her kind and dressed in odd, pink clothing that clashed with her yellow colony markings.

Her son was delighted by the chase and giggled, pleased they had caught me. I put him at five years of age, thereabouts; he had his mother's pale plates, but a darker hide.

"Is there a problem?"

She put her hand on her hips and smiled at me. "I know this is strange to say, but do you want some vegetables? For free, I mean. I have so many and I don't know what to do with the spares. They're levo, obviously, I'm not trying to poison you. You're the only non-turian I've seen in months, other than Natasha and-" she paused, then huffed out a breath. "I am aware this all sounds very creepy."

I raised a brow. "I've run past your house a few times," Precisely five times, in fact, thanks to the journey back to the prefab. They had an odd garden full of lumpy, ugly sculptures I suspected she made herself.

"It's why we stopped you. I don't know your schedule or anything, and I thought-" she winced. "Yeah, that doesn't help me with the creepy, does it? Anyway! Vegetables. I have them. You want some?"

There really wasn't a right way to respond. "Ah?"

"I have no idea who else to give them to, Natasha won't accept anymore." The name sounded either human or asari. Sully, perhaps?

Still, the conversation was not what I had expected when she flagged me down, and I felt myself blink twice before I could speak. "Well. That's kind of you."

"Just- wait there a moment, I'll be back. You're doing me a favour, seriously." She practically skipped to her house, pleased.

"Hi." A small pink vegetable was taken from a tiny pocket and held up to my face. The child did not follow his mother, too curious to follow. He held a tuuli radish; I knew they could dominate gardens if you didn't control them. Such was the way with salarian plant life.

A crumb of garden dirt fell onto my undersuit and I brushed it off. "My mother taught me not to accept vegetables from strangers. Are you strange?"

"No," he said, offended.

"That's good, then." I let him place the radish in my outstretched hand; it was rude to shun gifts, especially from a child. "Thanks. My name is Kolyat. What's yours?"

Little talons poked the ridges of his tunic, unsure what to say. "Mom's getting you more tuuli."

"That's, ah, kind of her. Is she nice, your mother?"

"She's okay." Damned with faint praise, poor mother.

"Only okay? Surely not." He looked up at me, green eyes still curious. I don't mind it when children are ignorant, their questions are innocent enough. They at least can be taught not to be assholes, if you get them early.

"Are you like Blasto's friend?" he asked me.

Of course he would. Timan Ami, the bane of all drell outside of Kahje. He was the only one of us aliens can name, a bit part character known for playing Blasto's gadget maker in the vids. No one can remember the actor's name either; the poor bastard would be eternally Timan for the rest of his life.

"Like Timan, you mean?" I said. "Yes, I'm a drell. I don't know Blasto, though. I'm a policeman from the Citadel."

"Oh," was his disappointed reply. His mother scolded him as he flailed his limbs past her, a box in her hands. "No running in the kitchen!"

"You really don't have to do this," I said, accepting the gifted box as it was thrust at me. She had drawn a strange lumpy person on the top, and I hoped by all the Gods it wasn't meant to be me.

"It's no problem. They'll only rot otherwise. I've met my food bank quota, you're doing me a favour. I put some other levo vegetables in there. It's not all tuuli, don't worry. You can keep the box too, saves me from recycling it."

"You're very kind, thank you." I looked at my bounty; I could see asari maeta, human tomatoes and a bunch of greens that could be from anywhere. "I'm Kolyat Krios, I'm down the road from you. Not sure how long I'll be here, but pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"I know. My brother said."

Brother? "Sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"I never gave it. I'm Mora Galnius." That answered that, then. I looked behind her, beyond her odd garden with ugly ornaments; I really did not want to talk with an officer from work, not now.

"Is he around?" I asked.

"Nah, he lives on the other side."

I smiled, relieved of a social burden. "I'll see him tomorrow, anyway."

We were interrupted by the thumping feet of her son, and a toy was shoved into my hands. I recognized Captain Jane and The Guardian nestled in his cowl; the pair told the children of the galaxy to brush their teeth and to be kind and helpful, amongst other things. Their holos were everywhere and inescapable.

"This is Kane Laconic. He has cool swords." I examined what he gave me. It looked roughly like a drell, but no one I would know. Ridiculous shades were stuck to his face and his obnoxious armour clashed hideously with his scales; if I was his age, I would eat it up, no question. "Do you have swords?"

My father's mitza dagger hung on the wall above my bookshelf. That one he never used for his work, too pretty to bloody. "No," I said.

"I wait in the shadows, you are soon dust," the lump of plastic chirruped. I almost dropped it.

-we all become dust in the end, Kolyat.' He put his hand on mine, and I wanted to pull away. 'Entropy does not have to win if the mark we make in this world leaves a-

Small talons yanked the toy back. "Ah, sorry," I said, loosening my hold. "Lost in my thoughts."

"Kae! He loves those damn things," his mother said, by way of apology. I shifted the box awkwardly against my hip. "He talks about them to anyone who listens."

"No harm done." I could see he was desperate to ask me questions again, but knew he could not interrupt his mother. She placed a gentle hand behind his crest and Kae fidgeted under the touch, toys clutched to his chest.

Mora looked between us, hesitant. "Are you- you're here to help with the missing children, right? My brother works at the station, he mentioned you. Said someone from the Citadel was coming to help."

It was a subject her son was familiar with. He stared at his feet, aware of the importance. "I went to school with Juvus," he told me, not looking up.

"Hush, Kae."

I looked at him; I wasn't letting this go, even if his mother wanted to. "Is he a friend?"

Is, not was. Kae nodded. "He has bigger feet than me. We share a table at school. He's good at math."

Children focused on the smallest of observations, and often made the better witness for it. I find the memories of other species fascinating; turians and human children were almost eidetic with detail, but as they got older, the ability goes.

"What does the school say about Juvus?"

He focused on fiddling with his toys, nervous at the question. I never meant to make him anxious, but I was curious. "That he's missing and that we should help find him if we can."

"We help out with the search parties," Mora said, watching her son carefully. "All his class do."

I thought it was a very turian response; I knew the community would grieve and move on faster than most, according to the Historian I had interviewed; it was warming to hear there were those that still gave a damn enough to fight it.

-our memories absorbed into Spirit stones, the ripples go on-

"That's good to hear," I said. "I shall try to attend tomorrow's lake drudging if I can."

"Ugh, Cosmus is crazy about driving that carrier of his in the water," she said. "But every bit helps, you know?"

"Indeed," I said. "Thank you for the food. I should take this back."

I ended up walking back to my prefab; jogging with a box full of vegetables was hardly an efficient way to run a 5k. I left a portion of tuuli to soak in the sink while I heated up an MRE, listening to the audio files of the interviews of the families I would see tomorrow.

They were the usual stressed, grieving responses, but a couple caught my attention; one parent keened her grief as I ate my dinner, and I paused the audio to let the memories of it sink in. "I just took my eyes off her a moment. I was baking plenta for the Lifebearer Brigade donation drive- I had to get them all done, we had to be ready to leave soon."

I checked the file as the interview continued; it was Icina Duvitus who spoke, mother of Plivia. She was precise and clipped, despite her obvious distress. "Pliva was- she was playing with her friends. I don't know why she's gone, why has she gone?"

Raw tuuli radish and lukewarm grunnen stew do not mix, but I had to finish it. "Who were the friends?" Detective Adaraka asked her; he had led most of the interviews. So far he had asked exactly what was expected, but I still did not have all the details together yet to work out if they were the right questions.

"Ah, the Aberdas girl, and the little boy down the road. I saw them and thought they were sweet, they were all holding hands." It was interesting she didn't know their names; surely you would know your children's friends-

-the Historian was given my best 'please continue' smile. 'The kids all played games together, so I was told,' he replied. 'The girls would fight over who would play Jane-

Adaraka leaned to the theory they were grabbed together, going by his report. Some witness statements from other families put the children in different places at the time of the disappearance, which made me wonder why he had thought this.

"Can you think of anyone who would harm you, or wish to harm your family?" Adaraka asked her.

"No. I- no. We have friends here, everyone has been so kind, we were happy. Pliva didn't even cry at night anymore, I said she could play outside and would be safe. I- oh Spirits, this is my fault, my fault-"

I played another file. This time the subject had a rougher Palaven dialect; male, middle-aged. It was the kind I was used to hearing at the station, both from my colleagues and the perps we arrested. "I was fixin' the skycar, piece of shit Elkoss thrusters were off again," he said. "I saw the kid, the one with the stuck up mother, the Duvitus bitch."

"Can you remember her name?" asked a female voice. Officer Sully was leading this interview; despite the casual misogyny, she kept an even tone to her questions.

"What, the mother? Icina, I think. Anyway, her brat was walking back down the road alone, and she was carryin' something."

"What was it?" asked Sully. I could hear something being moved in the file, some kind of rustling.

"Looked like a pistol, a toy maybe. Kids are always playing Spectres, ain't they? It was around noon. I knew it was, because I saw the time on my omni-tool, I was runnin' a diagnostic for the thrusters. You wanna look? I saved the data."

"What about the other two children? Did you see them?" I heard a click of a datapad. I guessed Sully had shown them their holos.

"No. Just the bitch's kid. "

The discrepancy between the statements was not uncommon for a case like this. The memory of other races were faulty, unreliable and frustrating to iron details out of.

I am used to it now, but my career in C-Sec almost came to an abrupt end thanks to my impatience. Oh no officer, I think it was an asari. No, wait, a human. Definitely a human.

I had a cold beer and a pinch of se'aus to chase my bland dinner, my reward for the day. My mind still could not shut itself off, but I knew I had to clean both myself and the dishes before I went to bed.

Ah, the depths can take the dishes. Beer, wipe down, bed, reports; there we are, evening planned. I could even stay up and read crime scene files in bed, a perk to my isolation. Perhaps I should call Oriana, even though she had shut me out since I left for Epiteia-

-I'm beginning to associate the smell of that to a naked Kolyat, you know,' she said, watching me as I cleaned myself. 'Are you going to stand there,' I told her. 'Could use a hand-

Most drell smelt of some form of anfre oil; we used it to keep the frills of our body clean without water, our original form of soap. I was halfway through wiping myself down when my omni-tool bleeped at me. I had a vid-holo request, but from my own apartment.

If it was T'Lori, he would have his scabby crest shoved through his ass when I got home. I scowled at my portable terminal before answering, undersuit back on in a haste. How did he always ring when I'm in the middle of something, did the bastard have a sixth sense? Was it a special asari mind trick?

Curiosity got the better of me. I'm glad it did, so very relieved to see the face behind the call. "Ori, I wasn't expecting you. Hello."

That she had even contacted me was a surprise. We did not part on good terms, despite the emails I sent her after. "Hey, Kolyat," she said.

I checked the data on the corner the screen. It was the middle of her night cycle; odd that it would sync with mine, so far away. "It is good to see you; I was thinking of you." She had changed out of her work clothes and was dressed in a looser shirt I knew she slept in. The fact that she was in my apartment instead of hers was …pleasing.

"Going out or staying in?" She took in my half naked appearance with a raised brow; by her shameless staring alone, I decided not to yank my suit up and tied the sleeves around my waist, aware of the effect it had.

"In for the night, tried to go for a run around the lake. A kind family gave me vegetables when I went past their house, said they would only rot otherwise. I have no idea what to do with them all. I had to walk back with a box full of tuuli."

She smiled. "That's sweet. You're in the colonies now for sure," she said. "The only thing you get for free on the Citadel is abuse."

I discovered there are people willing to buy and sell just about anything in Zakera, but let it slide. "I can tell you where I'd rather be, but you know." I tilted my head at the holo; it was my turn to be shameless.

The terminal showed me Oriana curled up on the couch; a blanket I brought from New Mexico fell from her shoulders as she shifted. The past year we had practically lived together at my place, her belongings merging with mine. She said it was purely selfish, that she used me for a faster commute to work and the gym.

We told the oddest lies to each other. "T'lori gave me the number, hope you don't mind," she said. "I'm calling from yours, obviously- had to check on the Fish."

"How is she?"

Oriana smiled past me, looking at what I assumed was the Fish in question. "Asleep, same old. She has a lot of fans, by the way. I keep on getting asked by our friends if they need to feed her. I tell them there's a VI, but I just think they want to see your weird pet."

By friends, I assumed she meant my work colleagues. "T'Lori has been, I know. Bastard sent me a vid touching my books."

"He said. Don't worry, he put them back in order."

That was a surprise- Oriana must've made Bats feel some semblance of guilt. "I wasn't sure if you've been getting my emails," I said. "I sent you my contact details yesterday- you didn't have to speak to anyone from work, I know T'lori can be awkward."

She seemed hesitant to reply. "Bats is perfectly nice to me," she said, staring at her hands. "I've been getting your mails, I just-" Oriana sighed. "I haven't mailed back. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess."

I examined her face before I spoke; her eyes seemed hollow, though she had not worn her usual eye paints for the call. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just tired." She stretched her arms up above her head, and I followed the movement.

It took every bit of my will to force myself not to pump her for information like I would a suspect. "I'm glad you called, anyway."

Oriana plucked at her shapeless clothes with a snort. "Not as if you're getting me at my best, you know?"

"I can't forget whatever it is you give me," I said. "Literal fact, Oriana."

"Don't be facetious."

"I'm not."

She scrubbed at her face with her hands. "Right on time with the sass."

"I'm always happy to see you, you know that." I changed the subject before she closed the call, even though we both needed sleep. "How's work? Is the LV-426 project up and running?"

Oriana found people homes for a living, I only put them in jail. For every family she found a place for, ten needed more. Planets that once had a thriving ecosystem were dying of radiation, thanks to the war. The remains of the Reapers might have been blasted into the nearest sun, but they left behind a parting gift.

There was a corruption to deal with that would take years of terraforming to fix; it was a slow, hard process that left a large chunk of the galaxy without homes or food. All I knew is that some nights her work left her maudlin. But then, so could mine.

She breathed out heavily. "Yes, finally. I might take some time to visit the colony, see how it is. They're calling it Morioh now, LV-426 is a bit of a mouthful."

I knew she had the vaguest of plans to build a place there, even if it was just a holiday home. The planet had a dry belt of desert land, perfect for drell habitation; I was reluctant to agree to it. Colonies were her business, not mine - my life was the Citadel. "Perhaps I could travel with you if I can get the time off. A vacation."

Oriana dented her lip with her thumb. I recalled a moment of my own tracing the softness there, how her tongue had licked the pad. "Where you are has just been registered as a level three multi-species habitat. Kellum placed it on my desk this morning, he figured I'd want to know."

I heard her say the words as the memory faded; she had wrapped her arms around her knees now, face tilted towards me. I cleared my throat before I spoke, a lingering desire coiling my memories still. "Intriguing."

"Small universe, hey? Out of all the damn colonies."

There was no such thing as coincidence, not in my line of work. Perhaps in hers there was. "I assume they would need more levo farms for a swelling population."

She shrugged. "All I know is more mixed refugees are moving there. Interspecies families mainly, mostly turian and asari bondmates, some human. The Hierarchy is using it as a test subject for their xeno-colonial studies; there's even talk of relaxing the citizenship tiers for aliens, but I'm not sure if that's true."

Like Captain A.D and her mixed family; I wondered what part she had played in this. There was more to her than just 'captain,' it seemed. "Explains a few things I've observed."

There was a pause as she considered her words. "Speaking of that. Not sure if our company will be outsourced to build tower blocks, but maybe. Kellum asked me to ask you if you had a feel of the place yet."

Was that really the reason she called? "As what, C-Sec's DI Krios, or as Kolyat, Oriana's boyfriend?"

"Both? You don't have to if you don't want to," she said. "You're seeing the place through a cop's eyes, I suppose. Murder and theft everywhere."

"Give me time, I've only been here three days." I raised a brow. "Not that it's unpleasant to see you, but did this holocall only happen because your boss wanted a favour, or…"

Oriana snorted. "Been debating calling you since you left. Been thinking about ditching your scaly arse, too."

I assumed she was joking about the ditching. "I've missed you, Ori. I'll take whatever mouthfuls of water you'll give me."

She looked up and the holo flickered. "Oh for- seriously?" The tilt of her jaw stretched her neck in delicious ways, and before I could get lost in the memory of her scent, she spoke again. "You are aware of the words that fall out of your mouth, right?"

Perhaps it was laid on too thickly, but it was the truth. "Yes. I miss you terribly. A vid call is not enough."

"Urgh." She tugged at her hair, for once pulled back from her bare face. "Why, why am I doing this? Why am I here, in your stupid apartment, talking to your stupid face, instead of doing whatever the hell it is twenty six year old women are meant to do? I'm on the Citadel, for Christ's sake."

"I can think of several examples of what happens to those twenty six year old women," I replied. I felt my own temper rise now, the inevitable sarcasm biting through. "I've seen the statistics up close."

"Yes thank you, Mr. Cop, duly noted. I'll stay inside and wash my hair, then." She had curled up her knees flush against her body now, head thumping gently against them. "Why am I still here?"

"Because of my Fish," I said. She made a strangled laugh, muffled by the curve of her body. "Don't take it out on her, she's had a rough day. All that sleeping and eating, it's exhausting."

Oriana looked up in a grin, probably towards where Fish lingered. "She let me pick her up today, you know. When you come back she'll like me more."

"Only out of spite, I can assure you. Fish is evil, Oriana- you know this."

There, I had made her laugh again. She was smiling now, and I felt it mirrored on my own face. The pair of us were terrible at working out what we wanted from the other, and I wondered if we ever would.

There was a pause as she looked at me, her eyes tracking mine. I had no idea what she saw through the screen, how she would remember this. "I'm staying the night if that's okay. Got an early start at work. Not sure I want to though, now that I mention it. Alone with the Fish, yikes."

"Keep one set of eyelids open, she knows where you sleep."

The thought of her in my bed made me desperate enough to drown in memories of it and her. It was not the sex my mind leapt to, but the routine. Of Oriana putting on her face cream that tasted awful. How her legs kicked the covers free, every night without fail.

How she listened to her quartets and orchestras to fall asleep, always curled to one side. How she leant into me when I joined her if she was still awake, pale fingers wandering just so.

How her lips felt against the spines of my crest when-

Ah. Perhaps it was the sex, too. "I wish I was there. That bed sounds good right now. Mine is-" empty, alone "-hard. A bad mattress."

"Poor thing," she said, smiling at me. "I'm sleeping diagonal tonight, just because I can."

I returned her smile. All I needed was for her to ask me for a memory and I would give it to her; it was our version of dealing with long distance stress relief, and-

-her voice was low in my ear through the commline; I recalled how her breath felt there instead. 'And what did I do after that? Hang on, let me just get my shirt off, my bra is-

"-I said, Fishy is probably annoyed I've going to bed early. Your mind wandering again?" Oriana knew it had, she always did.

"Hmm? Fish can get what she's given." She smiled at me again and I reacted like the love sick fool I was. "You still holding up okay, or do you need to sleep soon?"

"A bit longer with you is okay." So much had gone wrong this month between us, but this time it was the physical distance that was the culprit.

"Oriana, I know I was… asocial, this month," I said. "Especially during the inquiry. I overflowed into you, and you took the brunt of everything."

The smile dropped from her face. I had said the wrong thing, of course I would. "Knowing you're an arsehole doesn't magically fix the fact that you were one."

I wondered if I had it in me to ditch everything here and run to her; I stared at the table, very much aware the answer was no. There was a case to close here, and I would see it through.

"Perhaps we should have this conversation in person. It's hard to talk when I'm away like this."

Her voice was hard now. "You have your work. I know."

Anger bubbled up in my chest; I was trying my hardest not to lash out at her. "It feels like I was sent here as my punishment. I want to be home, with you." Why did she have to-

-Bailey's voice filled my head. His tired eyes ignored me to focus on the scrolling monitors on his VI. "Look, kid, the sooner you solve it, the sooner you can come home-

"-hard to feel sorry for you when you're on a health resort," she said, screwing her face up at me. I missed half of what she said. "How is that a sentence, exactly?"

"I've been to a crime scene today. Would you like me to describe the smell of a dead body sitting in bathwater? I can if you like."

Bathtub, rifle, legion, missing.

"No. Obviously." Oriana crossed her legs. I remembered the feel of them against mine and focused on the curve of her neck instead.

"Oriana-" I started to say, but the hololine jerked and flickered and suddenly she was talking over me.

"-I might be away too. I was thinking it would be good to visit my sister. Don't worry, Fish has plenty of volunteers to look after her."

The idea of more people in my personal space, touching my things, was enough for me to shake my head. No. The fact Oriana wanted to travel to Noveria, however, was more worrying; the jostling animosity between salarian and human relations put her right in the centre of their territories.

"Is that wise? What does Miranda say about this?" She was holding back something; her jaw twitched. "Ori?"

She sighed. "It's nothing to worry about, this will all come down to nothing. Salarians and humans have too much to lose. Randa's been talking to a dalatress from a colony near the border- ah, not sure if I should've told you that. Pretend I didn't. Anyway, she'll let me know when it's safe to travel."

"Of course." I might not see eye to eye with Miranda Lawson, but when it came to Oriana, we were equal partners in obsession. "Good. That's- good." I paused, then put my hands behind my back. The movement made her eyes move to the lines of my chest, and she looked away.

We both struggled to find words; so much was off limits. "Still have a week to myself, though," she said, clearing her throat. "I don't want to waste it. Feels like I should do something, you know? Maybe I could visit another Ward."

"You could come here," I said. "There's a lake for you to swim in, right outside my door. The night skies are beautiful if you like that sort of thing. The rings dominate the skyline."

"Maybe. Yes. I don't know."

She was never this vague. Arguing with her when we first met was a much treasured memory; she was always so sure about everything, my Ori. "That's a confusing answer, my love. I have a bed here that is big enough for us both, and-"

The static clicked as she made a noise my translator failed to read, a little human growl of frustration. "For fuck's sake. You arsehole."

That was unexpected. "Uh-"

The sleeves of her shirt were used to scrub at her cheeks. Was she crying? "Do you know what pisses me off? I'm furious with you. Whenever I try to explain why I get upset - and it's annoying because I can't explain to you precisely why I think you're an utter bag of cocks right now. You are the only person I know that can infuriate me to the point of inarticulation."

Humans really did push universal translators beyond their capabilities. "It is not my intention to make you feel that way." I rubbed my brow, annoyed. "And you've always told me how it is. I always know, Ori. I get it, you're angry I'm here."

"You think?" She made another one of her grumbling noises. "I am not coming to the Castellus system just because you clicked your fingers. This is what you do, Kolyat. You expect me to fit around you, never the other way around."

I thought she was just as bad at that, for wanting me when it was convenient. We used each other terribly. "It was an offer to spend your free time at a vacation spot with me, not a demand. You might not have to work, but I do. One of us may as well enjoy the scenery while I'm here."

She gave me a look. "Because your job is more important than mine? That I should drop everything and run because obviously I'm the one that can just do that."

I was desperate to point out the flaw in her statement. She told me she had free time, and I was only suggesting how to fill it. "But you said-"

"I know what I said. You didn't listen. There's a difference between remembering something and actually hearing it. Just- no, I'm done, I'm not arguing with you about memory again. Fuck, Kolyat."

If only. I knew if we were in the same room, we would be by now; neither of us were brilliant at solving arguments any other way.

"Oriana," I said her name in one exhale. "I know your work is important, more so than mine. I am merely saying that there is room for you here. If you want to visit, you can come."

That human growl returned. "I'm going to bed. If you want me, you know where I am." She looked at me and even through the blue of the holoscreen I could see the fight had gone.

"I miss you," I said. I didn't know what else to say.

"Night, Kolyat," she said, gentle and quiet. Her goodbye was at odds with the fuck yous and bag of cocks of her previous words.

That made me feel like a bastard, more so than her anger ever could. "Sleep well, Ori," I said, to the silence of my prefab. She never heard me anyway.