A/N: Happy New Year to everyone!
"What do you mean, she just walked out of here?"
Melara stood staring intently at the confused C-Sec commander as he filed through his records. Vina stood at her side, casually glancing around the entrance to the holding block, one hand resting as usual on her pistol at her hip.
"Just that, ma'am," he said. "Escort came in with Spectre clearance and Council orders. Took the prisoner out of here not twenty minutes ago."
"Who was the Spectre?"
She could hardly believe any of the other Spectres would remove her prisoner without talking to her first, and there was no reason she could see as to why anyone on the Council would order the merc moved. They'd just been discussing her less than fifteen minutes ago.
He filed through his console, then activated a display of credentials. "Noriya L'Leyne-"
"L'Leyne has been dead for six months," Melara said tersely. She nodded at Vina, who drew her weapon and headed down the cell block, peering in to units. "Pull up surveillance."
Looking pale, he did so. "I don't understand. We double checked everything. I even have a signed order from V'Dess. It was all kosher-"
He played back the 2D surveillance records. Very clearly, an asari appeared and checked in at the desk, then went down the block. She returned a few minutes later with Red en tow, checked out, then departed the office.
Melara's eyes narrowed as she instantly recognized the asari. "That is not a Spectre."
Stepping in and accessing his console herself, she pulled up the surveillance on Red's cell. As she watched Athena appear and start talking to the merc, she activated her omni-tool, pinging V'Dess. The Head Councilor answered almost immediately.
"Yes, Melara?"
"I'm betting you didn't actually authorize a dead Council Spectre to remove Thiredra'Gerrel from C-Sec holding."
"What? No, of course not! What has happened?"
"Athena apparently has access to Spectre Services and C-Sec's records databases. She falsified her credentials, strolled right on in and removed Red from holding. I'm showing a very valid looking authorization signed by you ordering the move."
"We will immediately look into the weak spots in both databases-why would she take Red? Do you know where they may be heading?"
"No idea, but given she's the one that tipped me off to Moore's location, I'm betting she knew Red would be there and this entire thing was a set-up just to get this to happen. She left at most about twenty five minutes ago. I'm in the C-Sec computer, and I'm putting in an order to lock-down the docking ring. If they haven't gotten onto a ship yet they won't be able to leave the station."
"I will authorize that order immediately-"
"Captain," Vina reappeared, her face grim. "Moore is dead."
"What?"
"His cell is powered on, but he is dead. Shot right in the face."
"That's- that's not possible. We have sensors that monitor any kind of weapons discharge, not to mention the vitals of each prisoner. The moment any gun went off or his heart stopped alarms should have been ringing all over the place," the harried officer said.
Melara pulled up the cell surveillance for Moore. "The equipment is still registering his vitals. They're showing a heartbeat. You're sure he's dead, Vina?"
"Half his head is gone. I'm positive."
Mel zoomed in on Moore' s body. Even on vid, it was obvious the man could not possibly be alive. Rewinding the footage, she watched as Athena let Red into the cell with a gun. Moore stood abruptly from where he was sitting and opened his mouth, but before he could let out a sound, the merc coolly shot him in the face, then stepped out again. The barrier was reactivated.
"She dropped that barrier at will, and reactivated it without sending notification to this station," she said. "That gun was a modified Reeger 19. The sound it makes can easily be mistaken for a sharp, dry cough."
Stepping around the console she walked toward the door, Vina immediately turning to follow as she called back to the officer. "Contact your superior. I want every C-Sec officer going through surveillance for the dock and every corridor between it and here. See where they went and if you can pinpoint which ship they may have gotten on!"
She switched her omni-tool to the Normandy. "Joker, I want you to power up engines. You may get a ship name in a few moments, if you do- do not wait for me. I want you to undock and pursue that ship if possible."
{Understood. Cross-checking and starting engines now.}
"You think she wanted Red in order to get that Cinch?" Vina asked as the two ran toward the docks.
"I'm betting she didn't necessarily want the Cinch itself, but rather to find out where she got it," Melara replied furiously. "She tipped us off knowing we'd likely pick Red up right along with Moore, bung her in a cell, and provide her with the exact leverage she needed to insure the quarian's cooperation. Every time I think that asari could not get any more manipulative and scheming-"
{Captain, this is Captain Marley with C-Sec. We have retrieved surveillance. The asari and the quarian merc passed into the docking area and boarded a small ship at slip 189-3 in civilian public docking. Flagged 'Hopeful'. Looks like she unclamped about twenty minutes ago.}
Twenty minutes was just enough time for a fast little ship to pass Jupiter. In another fifteen, they'd be to the Pluto relay. If they passed through it without their launch coords being tracked and tailed, there would be no way to know to which of the twenty eight systems connected to that relay they went. In several, it would only take half an hour to reach the next relay- far shorter than it would to pinpoint their first jump.
If they hit the Pluto relay without the Normandy directly on their tail, they would be lost. Problem was, even with her superior engines, the Normandy would never reach them in time to track them through the relay.
"Joker, get on the horn to every ship in the solar system, any ship that is close to the Pluto relay. We need someone to capture the coords of a ship, ident flag 'Hopeful'. We'll be on board in two minutes, and I want to be in space and after them one second later, do you understand?"
They ran through the docking ring then down the airlock ramp. Almost as soon as they had passed into the ship the doors were closing, the vessel unlatching. Melara walked up behind Joker's chair.
"Any luck getting a response?"
"So far, two vessels near Jupiter have answered and are starting toward Pluto to at least try and capture the jump coordinates, but by their top flight speeds and my estimates, they will be exactly 2.3 minutes late."
"No ships closer?"
"None that are responding as yet to my hails."
"Keep trying them."
"Do you think Athena may be blocking transmissions, keeping those ships from our hails?" Vina asked. "She walked a prisoner directly out of C-Sec and allowed the murder of a second one with apparent ease and no technological interference."
"Right now I put nothing past her. Keep trying Joker."
"We will reach our top flight speed in four seconds," he said. "We will arrive at the relay exactly seventeen minutes, nine seconds too late."
Melara's hand gripped the back of his chair so tightly her fingers started to ache. Unconsciously, tiny wisps of biotic energy snaked over her fingers as she fixed her eyes to the view screen and displays.
She already knew what was going to happen. No ship would make it in time to capture the jump coordinates of Athena's vessel. She and Red would disappear into the ether of the galaxy. Using all the resources at Melara's command- her mother, her underground contacts, all her connections- it would still take months if not years to ferret them out again. Athena had the largest information network in the galaxy. She had long since proven that, like her mother, if she did not wish to be found she usually could not be.
Still, Mel was stubborn, a Spectre, and not even remotely ready to give up. They needed to know where Red had gotten that Cinch. Melara didn't particularly care if the quarian was arrested again, but they could not have a possible cache of these kinds of artifacts just laying around for her OR Athena to just pick up.
As Joker verified the ship had vanished through the relay with no capture of its jump coordinates, Melara knew this was not the end of it. One day- and her gut said that day was coming soon- she would be face to face with that abomination of an asari again. Despite her promise to hear Athena out on their next meeting- a promise she would keep, her honor demanded no less- she knew what was going to happen. After Athena had told her whatever it was she wanted to tell her, Melara was going to kill her, or die trying.
No matter what, one of them wasn't walking out of that meeting alive.
It was almost midnight station time at the research base around Nakira. Sihra, still regaining her strength, had been moved out of the infirmary and into a small set of rooms. Dae had opted to sleep in the infirmary herself, to be closer at hand in case the infant rakir had need of her.
Despite the hour, however, she was not currently asleep but rather on her feet, swaying slightly as she hummed softly to the bundle in her arms. As he regained his strength and even started to grow a little, little Aleu had become fussier about having to sleep on his own. He seemed to like hearing her voice.
This was how Melara came upon them. Pausing in the door of the infirmary, she folded her arms and leaned on the wall for a while, silently watching her bondmate. The tension on her face slowly began to melt away, her dark eyes reflecting the scene with growing affection.
She watched for several minutes before Dae spoke up. "Are you going to stare at us all night or come in?" she asked in a soft singsong. Mel wasn't surprised that her wife had known she was there. Dae was trained as an assassin. Even in safe surroundings, assassins didn't live long if they could be taken unawares.
"Might stare at you all night," Melara replied with gentle amusement. Dae half turned, giving her a wry look, and Mel straightened, heading her way.
"How did things go?" Daenys asked.
"Well…and badly. We should have an answer in the morning regarding the rakir's uplifting. The rest…I'll have to tell you tomorrow. I don't even want to think about it right now. How…um…how is he?"
"Sleeping, finally. He likes being held, to hear someone else close. Lily says that's because in the pouch they can still hear their mother's voice, hear her heart beat. He can tell this pouch is artificial."
Melara nodded, then made a rather nervous gesture that made her wife blink a moment. "Can I…um…well, can…you know…?"
Dae couldn't help the grin that appeared on her face, and nodded. Moving gingerly and carefully, she shifted the pouch and the baby rakir within into Melara's arms. The Spectre still held him a bit awkwardly, but she was holding him…and of her own volition.
As Mel looked down at him, Dae felt hope as she saw affection reflected in her wife's eyes. That affection suddenly seemed to collapse into a fearful despair- carefully schooled, but definitely there. Suddenly worried, Dae touched her elbow. "Mel? What is wrong?"
Melara cleared her throat, shaking her head. "Just…a lot has happened. I have a lot to tell you but…not right now. Just…just not right now. In the morning, I promise. After I've slept some. I just…we're not going to be able to be here long. We'll probably have to head out by tomorrow afternoon. Neska should have the Council's answer by then and she and her team are more than qualified to arrange the meeting with Sokka and solidify a treaty if they give their permission."
Dae nodded a little. "Will you be back soon?"
"No, probably not. Not unless we really need to be. We have a lot that needs to be done. I can't say with any certainty when we'll be back here."
Dae's brows wrinkled and she looked at the bundle in Mel's arms. Her wife didn't have to ask to know what she was thinking. She didn't want to leave the baby, but neither could she stay here for weeks or months apart from her wife. Dipping her head a little and meeting Dae's eyes, Melara softly said, "You'll want to ask Neska for a list of any special equipment or sundries we need to get this little guy. If he's going to be away from this infirmary for that long, I want to make sure he's getting all the care he needs. I mean, Lily can help but-"
As she spoke, Dae's eyes changed from forlorn, to confused, to astonished. Flinging her arms around Mel's neck (and supremely careful not to squeeze the slumbering Aleu) she silenced her with a sudden kiss. As it broke, she gasped breathlessly. "You mean it?"
"I mean it, Dae. He deserves whatever good he can get in this galaxy, just like everyone else. And he couldn't ask for any mother to love him more than you."
"Mel! Oh, thank you! Thank you…you hear that, little one? You belong with us now. You have a Tatta and a Tama that will love and take care of you no matter what."
Mel wasn't surprised at her bondmate using the traditional asari words for parents to refer to them, and actually thought it fairly fitting. 'Mommy and Daddy' were a human and turian thing and tended to be gender specific. What she'd called her own father seemed intrinsically tied to Del and would feel wrong to use. To Mel, there would ever only be one Bába.
So I'm 'Tatta' now. So be it, she thought, looking from the delighted face of her bondmate down to the little slumbering soul still nestled in her arms. Just…please, don't let me fuck this up too badly.
Irie tried not to pace outside of the docking slip where Gerty's tiny merchanter was clamped. Though she had every confidence he'd pass the vetting of the Council there was always a risk he would not. He had proven himself at the very least a compassionate man who tried to do the right thing- she hoped he would not suffer for that because of her, and because he'd had the misfortune of being docked at her station when this had all gone down.
She had already concluded her call with her mother, using the Council's secure communications network and top notch encryption. Liara had of course been very relieved to see her eldest daughter was all right…but very troubled at what little she had heard. Irie didn't reveal the truth about what it was she had found- instead, she told Liara she would be coming to her home to tell her in person. Sam and Liara lived not far from one of the relays they had to use to get back to Oasis anyway- an overnight stop there would not delay them much. Liara had suffered and bled and given far too much of herself in the war against the Reapers- at the very least she deserved to hear this troubling news face to face.
Irie's thoughts kept returning to her research, trying to figure out ways to boost the megascope's capabilities; the first tests she'd need to run the moment she got back; what tests she could have King start before she got back…
"You look so deep in thought I'm not sure even a laser bore could tunnel down to you."
She blinked and turned around. Gerty smiled at her. "You about ready to go?"
"Yes, I..more than ready. I am glad to see you. The Council cleared you with no problem?"
"Well…we had a short but rather intense discussion about some minor past criminal activities of mine- nothing over the top, mind, but nothing I'm proud of either- but yes…we came to an agreement. I have official clearance to participate in this classified matter. So, as I am now your official supplier and chauffer- allow me to escort you back to Oasis so we can get started."
"Yes, but on the way I wish to make an overnight stop. I want to fill my mother in on the situation face to face rather than over a vid or an omni-tool."
He looked stricken. "Your mother?"
"Yes," she said, knitting her brows. "She has full Council clearance and her advice and expertise will be invaluable. It is not much out of our way and should not take long…are you all right?"
"I-I'm fine."
Her brows knit tighter. "If you do not wish to take me I can secure alternate transportation to see her-"
"No, no, it's…it's not that-"
"Then what is it?"
"Your mother…Liara T'Soni-"
Ah. Her face smoothed as she finally understood. "Yes. She is just an asari, Gerty, like any other."
"The things she's seen, and done…"
"You will find her quite mortal, I assure you, and quite well-grounded. However, if you find meeting her makes you too nervous, you may remain on ship board while we are there. I would not want to overwhelm you."
"No, I think I can handle it, it's just…I've never met a real life legend face to face before is all. W-well, before you, I mean-"
"I am hardly a legend," Irie smiled.
"We can debate that on the ship," he said, then smiled as he offered his arm. "Doctor, if I may?"
She took his arm politely and allowed him to lead her onto the tiny merchant vessel. In only a few minutes they were leaving the Citadel and heading toward the Pluto relay. A day's flight would see them to her mother's house, a day would be spent there, then another day from there back to Oasis base.
Despite the weight of what was waiting for her once she got back home, she found herself looking forward to spending three days in Gerty's company, and that realization prompted a faint blush and a realization that for the first time since her husband's death, she was actually feeling healed enough to want that happiness back in her life again.
