Chapter 7
Catch a Ride
White haze filled Finn's vision. He was sure he was dead until he tried to move. As his joints answered with various levels of soreness, he realized that his vision was beginning to clear, revealing what was left of the cab's controls.
There was a groan behind him, followed by, "Disbelieving; are we alive?"
"I'm afraid so." Mannon popped her neck and let out a relieved sigh.
"Can't say the same for the cab, though." Finn tried the handle of his door, only to find it stuck. He managed to kick it open on the third try, which helped clear the rest of the smoke out of the cab. He and Mannon stumbled out of their respective doors and took a moment to steady themselves before helping Darsan. It was difficult, but they managed to get the elcor out of the cab with relatively little difficulty.
"Finn?" asked the mysterious woman hijacking Jake's frequency. "You reached the J-27 docking bay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Finn replied, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. "We're all fine. Thanks for asking."
"Are you there?"
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Finn said, "Look, we almost died a dozen times back there. We would have been toast if I hadn't managed to get the cab up and running again, so as you can guess, I'm not in a particularly good mood right now."
"Keep your voice down!"
"Why? So my friends don't find out? I think they deserve to know why they almost died!"
"Finn?" Mannon asked, both her and Darsan giving him strange looks. "Who are you talking to?"
"The real thief. That's right, isn't it?" Finn asked. "The person who really stole the Creator's Tear. She's the one who let me out of my cell."
Alarmed, Mannon asked, "You helped steal the Creator's Tear?"
"No!" Finn sighed and explained, "She planted it on me while we were watching Siren's Call. She promised to help clear my name if I helped her get it back, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth the trouble."
"Look," said Finn's mysterious benefactor, "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help more back there, but time's a factor here."
"Who are you?" Finn demanded. He was tired of being chased, tired of the nightmare that had come about from what was to be just a routine mission. "You expect me to trust you, to just go wherever you tell me. The least you could do is give me a name!"
There was a long pause. "Fair enough. My name is Hikari Goto."
"Hikari." Finn repeated. It wasn't much, but at least he could put a name to the voice now. "Fine. I'm guessing you know Mannon and Darsan."
"Indeed. Tell Darsan I like his hat."
"She likes your hat." Finn told Darsan, prompting the elcor to give another one of his rare smiles.
Turning his attention to his surroundings, Finn said, "We're at … a docking port."
"That's a bit vague?"
"Yeah, but I'm not sure which one. I think it's J-27, but I was a bit too busy to double check the map." Finn told her. "The cab's pretty much totaled."
"Cripes." Mannon said, her eyes on her omni-tool, "We're all over the local extranet news, Finn."
Finn glanced over at the console to see a news feed displaying a replay of the moment the cab slid by the large chunk of construction. A smaller screen showed a zoomed in version, with Finn's face faintly visible.
"Sarcastic; nice headshot, Finn."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Shaking his head, Finn glanced around the area. It didn't take long to spot a large electronic bulletin board that read 'Docking Area J-27'.
Nodding, Finn said, "Looks like we made it, Hikari."
"Excellent!" Hikari said, glee clear in her voice. "Damn, you're a lucky bastard."
"Thanks for that." Finn replied dryly.
"There's no time to lose; you're looking for the Merida. It's a modified asari transport, should be in bay five."
The three of them ran into the docking area. Security seemed lax; aside from a decontamination field, there was nothing that hindered their progress. There wasn't a single officer in the security scan point either.
Running his finger around the rim of a cup of coffee, Finn commented, "Still warm. It's like whoever was on duty just took off all of a sudden."
"Don't worry about security, Finn. I've taken care of it." Hikari told Finn, a smug tone in her voice.
Finn raised an eyebrow, though he was pretty sure she couldn't see him. "What does that mean?"
"It means that they're busy with something else. I'm not an idiot, Finn; if you and your friends get caught, I'll never get my Creator's Tear back. Now hurry up! Security's thick, but they'll catch on eventually."
The docking bay was much more spacious than the one where the Ulasomorf had been directed. Thanks to the wide space between the individual bays, Finn and company were able to get a good look at the ships in dock; there were a few volus cargo carriers, a rather nice-looking turian ship of a build that Finn didn't recognize, a very nice and quite large luxury starship marked with the symbol of the Zuen-tech corporation, and a few smaller obviously private vessels.
Finally, they saw it; in the back of one of the rear docking bays was a vessel just a bit larger than the Ulasomorf. Finn could tell it was the Merida from its smooth curves that signified its clearly asari design, though seeing the name 'Meridia' written on the side with the silhouette of a dancing quarian pretty much made it clear to anyone who looked at it.
"Found it." Finn told Hikari. "Damn, that's a big ship for a dancing troupe."
"Great! All that's left is to grab the Creator's Tear and get out before they realize you're there."
"I was afraid you'd say that." Finn muttered, motioning the others to follow quietly.
As the group hurried towards the vessel, Finn spotted the cargo ramp. A quarian in oil-smudged clothes worked frantically at a control console at the top of the ramp, possibly because of the four-legged dog robot hiding beneath the ramp.
"It's Jake!" Mannon whispered.
Finn held up a hand for silence; the quarian hadn't noticed them yet, and Finn wanted to keep it that way. Careful to move so that the bulkhead of the Meridian shielded them from view, they continued approaching until they were right beside the asari vessel.
Finn tapped the side of his head. "Jake, can you hear me?"
"Hang on." Hikari's voice answered. There was a brief burst of static followed by Jake's voice saying, "Finn! There you are! About time you dragged your sorry butt here!"
"Hey Jake. Sorry it took me so long, but-"
"Yeah, Hikari filled me in."
"She did?" Finn smacked himself in the head, saying, "Of course she did. She's been talking to you all this time, hasn't she?"
"Yup. I'm still a bit mad she messed with our special bro-link, but if it'll get you in the free and clear, count me in."
Finn smiled. "What would I do without you, bro? Listen, hold tight; I'll see if I can't deal with our engineer friend."
Motioning for the others to remain where they are, Finn straightened up and strode around the part of the hull obscuring them from view. "Oy, there you are!"
The quarian jumped at the sound of Finn's voice. Terror clear in his tone, the man asked, "Who are you?"
"Who, me? I'm Engineer Bob, Ilium troubleshooting and repair. Heard about your little problem and got sent to lend a hand."
"We didn't send a request." the quarian said uneasily.
Finn patted the console, saying, "Didn't have to; you're still tied into the Ilium grid. Something goes wrong, and my department gets a note. So what's the trouble?"
"Uh …" The quarian stuttered as Finn pushed past him to get to the console. After pretending to analyze the system for a minute, Finn nodded, saying, "Oh, I see what it is."
"Y-you do?" The quarian moved to Finn's side to get a better look at the screen.
Finn put his arm on the quarian's shoulder and pointed with his other hand at the console. "Right here."
As the quarian squinted, Finn activated his omni-tool, saying, "There's a robot dog chewing on the power cables."
"What? What in the-" The quarian's body stiffened as a low-level electrical pulse shot from Finn's omni-tool and left him unconscious. Finn quickly caught the falling quarian and dragged him inside the ship, calling out, "We're in."
Jake ran up the ramp, followed a few moments later by Mannon and Darsan. Mannon looked at the quarian, concern in her eyes as she asked, "You didn't hurt him, did you?"
"Nah." Finn sat the quarian down beside a large cargo container. "He's just knocked out."
The console activated. "Come on, Noir! Why haven't you got that ramp up yet?"
Trying his best to mimic the quarian engineer's voice, Finn replied, "Sorry; got distracted."
"Distracted? By the ancestors, Noir, get focused! We need to get out of here now!"
As if in response, a loud siren flared to life in the not-too distance. Mannon and Darsan stared at Finn as he fumbled with the controls.
"Damn it, security's on us! Noir, we're heading out. If you can't get the ramp shut, activate the emergency shield and get out of there!"
As the comm shut down, the entire ship began to shudder.
"What are we going to do?" Mannon asked, steadying herself against a large crate. "If they take off-"
"Think that's pretty much a given at this point." Finn told her. "Damn; Jake's messed this up good."
His eyes widened. Running to the edge of the ramp, Finn shouted, "Oy! Jake! Get on board!"
"You got it, bro!"
Moments later, Jake ran into view. The ship had already begun to lift off, but with an impressive leap, Jake managed to land on the ramp.
Running up to Finn, he said, "Hang on! I've got this!"
Jake's back panel recessed. Instead of his usual buster cannon, however, he had a small pen-like device that looked oddly familiar. The blue light on the end activated, accompanied by a shrill sound that made the hairs on the back of Finn's neck stand on end. Almost immediately, the ramp began to rise.
As it clamped into place, the console's comm activated again. "Good work, Noir. Strap in; we're heading out now."
"Where are we-" Finn's question was interrupted as the ship shot forward, causing everyone in the hold to stumble.
As the inertial dampeners kicked in, Finn realized everyone was looking at him.
"Well," He said with a weak grin. "At least we got off of Ilium."
