This is a kinda short interlude focusing on our favorite ex-merchant. I did my best to recreate the writing style I used in the first few chapters. Let me know how bad it is by reviewing! :)
The apartment was shrouded in darkness. The only sources of light were the windows, allowing a faint trace of the Ward's street lighting inside, an eerie glow in the middle of black nothingness. Aside from the quietly spinning vent fan in the corner of the room, everything was silent.
A pair of quick beeps were heard before a new orange light popped in, an omnitool flickering into existence. Its owner shuffled around a bit and let out a tired groan as he raised his head and sat up on the couch after the rude awakening. He glanced over at the cup on the table, making sure it was empty before diverting his attention to the beeping device. A bright flashing icon of an envelope stood out from the rest. He tapped it without hesitation, causing the omnitool to beep again as a confirmation as it projected a message window above.
Come to the Dark Star Lounge. It's urgent. Please hurry.
-Malo
Malo'Veia nar Chilaan was one of the people Kenn would have hated to let down, especially after their long mutual history. Malo had helped him with everything, from getting safe passage off Omega to finding a fine place to live on the Citadel, a rare occurence with members of the quarian race given the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy crap that was usually necessary to set something like that up. Yes, Kenn certainly owed Malo a favor. Or twenty.
Kenn sat up, eliciting a loud creak from the overused couch, closed the omnitool with one last beep and stumbled towards the door. The severe allergic reaction had miraculously gone away like it never happened and he was thrilled to finally get up and give his legs some much needed exercise. That being said, he still had to get used to walking after multiple days of almost complete immobility. It felt good to get moving.
The short trip from the apartment to the cab station didn't take him long, to his surprise. Before he knew it, he found himself sitting in one of the dark red skycars. He couldn't help but gaze at the color for a while – it was almost identical to the dominant color of Kirah's suit.
He realized he hadn't seen her for a while.
All of a sudden, his omnitool beeped and lit up again.
Where are you?
-Malo
Kenn didn't bother replying, instead he closed the omnitool and pushed the car to its limit, racing past the traffic and leaving it behind. He had no idea how much time he'd stayed asleep for, and Kirah could surely take care of both him and herself. That problem was to be solved later.
Malo wasn't usually this persistent, however. Whatever he needed must have been important. Adrenaline slowly made its way into Kenn's bloodstream as he jumped out of the cab after landing, relishing the feeling of his great health improvement and ran through the street towards the meeting place. People were staring at him like he was crazy, but he didn't give a damn. The whole world seemed brighter than it did yesterday.
After climbing up the last flight of stairs, he immediately headed toward the Lounge's entrance. The familiar sight of a male quarian's dark green visor greeted his eyes as he gradually slowed down to a complete stop.
"Malo!"
"Kenn," the other quarian exhaled with apparent relief. "I'm glad you came."
"You sounded awfully worried there," Kenn casually remarked in an attempt to ease the mood. Malo stayed silent, which baffled him. "What's wrong?"
"Kenn, this isn't about me," he almost whispered, stuttering. "I don't know how to say this... I'm afraid something's happened to Kirah."
"You can't be serious," Kenn grinned. "Kirah knows how to look out for herself damn well. Better than I do, at least." Keelah, he wished he believed his own words. Doubt began eating away at him slowly.
Malo raised both of his three-fingered hands, ready to make an objection, but was interrupted when Kenn decided to continue.
"This is bullshit. Come on. Do you really-"
"Kenn, look," he barked and pulled a battered metallic sphere out of his pocket, a large burn mark spreading across its entire side. "Yes, I really do. Do you believe me now?"
The blue suited quarian shifted nervously before accepting the sphere. He carefully rotated it around in his palm, examining the damage. It had been nearly destroyed, the memory chip was surely fried. Then he remembered. Didn't Kirah take Zero with her?
"No," he breathed out in shock. "This... I..." He struggled to keep the nightmarish thoughts at bay. "What happened?"
Malo shrugged. "I don't know. I found this one or two floors below near the entrance of a storage building of sorts, and noticed it looked a lot like the design you told me about earlier. Thought I should let you know. I had no idea it was this serious, Kenn. I'm sorry..."
"I need to find her," Kenn spoke, looking up at his friend. "Malo, help me, please. Keelah, I couldn't live without this girl. She was always so careful... she's gotta be somewhere nearby."
Malo slowly nodded, but said nothing. He wasn't sure how to avoid making the truth seem even more painful.
"Please."
The sight of Kenn almost begging for help was one of the most moving things Malo had ever witnessed, given the young man's attitude and intelligence.
"I'll help as much as I can," was all he said.
Kenn continued inspecting the damage Zero had sustained. The chassis was barely holding together, nearly beyond repair. He prayed to the ancestors that the memory chip be functional. There simply was no finding Kirah without it. A brief scan with his omnitool shown that the power capacitors had been recently discharged. This could only mean that Kirah had used the drone to defend herself.
He could certainly do with less evidence than that.
"We need to patch it up," Kenn declared, doing his best to hide any shakiness in his voice. "I have some spare parts at my place, we could use these."
"Lead the way."
They didn't say a word until they were sitting in a cab heading to Kenn's apartment. The shocked young man struggled to focus on driving. Why don't these things have a damn autopilot?
"Do you think the drone's going to be of any use?" Malo spoke. The silence was maddening to Kenn, and he likely felt the same way about it. Any conversation would feel better than none at all.
"Hopefully," Kenn muttered. "Honestly though, I'm not so sure... Depends if her memory survived the overload."
"Her?" Malo asked confusedly.
"I mean Zero," Kenn explained. "I tried to make her behave like a real person. She was supposed to be a companion to Kirah, in a way." He hung his head down. "It didn't last long."
"You don't know that yet," Malo said. "It... she might just save Kirah's life if she's still functional."
"Yeah." Kenn slowly raised his head to check on the traffic, then continued staring at his toes. "I still can't believe this. When you told me, I thought you were joking. Then I felt like I was hit by a hammer."
"Don't worry," Malo almost whispered in an attempt to cheer his friend up. "We'll find her. I know she's important to you."
"You do?" Kenn looked up at him. "I don't remember telling you anything about it."
"It was obvious." He let out a chuckle and paused for a while. "How come you didn't notice she was missing?"
Kenn felt blood surge into his cheeks, suddenly thankful for the mask.
"Before that, we... uh..." he blurted out awkwardly before going silent.
"Oh," Malo chimed. Kenn could easily imagine the grin plastered over his face. "I get it, carry on."
"I... I wasn't ready," he explained. "And, well... I got sick and tried to sleep it off. I woke up to your message today."
"Damn it. Let's hope Zero has something useful."
They arrived at their destination. Kenn carefully parked the cab at the last free spot, happy to finally move on his own, and headed out towards the apartment block. Malo followed him without a word.
"Make yourself at home," Kenn said after a while, unlocking the door. "It is technically your apartment, isn't it?"
"You could say that," Malo replied. "Thanks. Whoa... This place looks even better than I remember it." He stood in the doorway for a moment, observing the room.
"Kirah's job." Kenn smiled a bit, then remembered what he had to do. "First things first. Want some tea? Water? Anything?"
"Water will do, thanks," Malo spoke from the couch, doing something on his omnitool. "Just checking on my engineering software. Everything's good."
"Glad to hear that." Kenn frowned when he realized he'd likely have to find quite a few replacement parts to bring Zero back. "We have a lot of work to do."
