Chapter 11
Iron-red dust, so fine that it was like liquid, poured out from between her fingers like blood streaming from a severed artery. The sand pooled at her feet, returning to the rust stained surface of the plateau. She knelt and scooped up another handful, this time in her artificial hand. The fine powder left a stain that matched her tattoos on her metal fingers that wouldn't come off even as she rubbed them against her armor.
Aerisa stood and swiped an arm across her brow, wiping away the beads of sweat that had accumulated on her sapphire scalp. The merciless sun beat down harshly, and the climate control system built into her body armor struggled to keep her core body temperature in check. It wasn't doing a very good job. The asari commando shivered as she felt another stream of sweat trickling down her back, but the feeling short-lived as her body glove whisked away the moisture.
Taking a swig from her water flask, Aesira turned towards her quarian companion. "You find anything unusual?"
Nyssa, who was intently studying her omni-tool, shook her head. Her visor, mirrored to reflect the harsh sunlight that was slowly roasting Aesira, shimmered with whites and violets. "I don't know," she said. "The geological survey says this crater was formed during the Krogan Rebellion, but not by what. I guess that's unusual?"
Aesira didn't answer immediately. She shielded her eyes from the sun and looked out towards the horizon. They were perched at the edge of an impact crater whose ridgeline stretched for miles in either direction. It was a gargantuan geological formation that couldn't be appreciated at ground level; they only saw the crater in its entirety during their approach to the planet. The walls of the crater were stratified, with different colors stacked on top of one another.
"This isn't it," Aesira muttered. She took another sip from her flask, noting that the once cool water had slowly warmed.
"What's that?" Nyssa asked as she stepped to the asari's side. "Did you say something?"
Blinking away some sweat that had pooled at the corner of her eyes, Aesira shrugged. "This isn't the right place."
"You sure?" The quarian raised her omni-tool, scanning the horizon. "Why do you say that?"
"Well, look at it," Aerisa replied as she knelt and scooped up another handful of rust-colored sand. "This crater is huge. How large is it? Fifty kilometers wide?"
"Seventy-three point four kilometers, actually," the quarian replied in her melodious voice.
"Yeah, okay, seventy-three kilometers then," Aerisa echoed with the hint of a smile. Leave it to the quarian to know the exact numbers. "What do you know could cause something like this? It's got to be a meteor or asteroid or comet or whatever."
"Is that a problem?"Nyssa responded with a question, as she usually did. "You said that in your dream, all you saw was a flash, an explosion. An asteroid impact would certainly match that description."
Doubt crept into Aesira's voice as she replied. "I guess. But think about it. Planetary impacts don't just happen instantaneously, right? You'd know months or years in advance." Nyssa nodded. "In my dream, there were krogan fighting or training. Why would they be on a planet that was about to be kicked in the face by a giant space rock? It doesn't make sense."
"This whole trip doesn't make sense," Nyssa jested. The smile was hidden behind her now-opaque mask, but was carried on her words.
"Yeah, yeah, smart-ass." Aesira rolled her eyes in mock irritation. "Even so, look around you. Do you see any pillars of rock or columns of stone? What about on her flight in? In my dream, I was standing on one. I don't see any here. This isn't the right planet, Nyssa."
"Well, the Rebellion happened fifteen hundred years ago, so whatever rock formations could have eroded away." The quarian pointed at the crater walls. "You can see where the walls are smoothed by the winds. But, this is your quest, Aesira. It's your call."
Standing, Aesira tried to take another drink from her water supply but noticed it was empty. She muttered a curse. She really wasn't sure what to make of the planet, but her intuition was telling her they were on the wrong planet. "I say we head back," she said as she and Nyssa made their way across the ridge. "I'm ready to get out of this heat anyways."
"I've been meaning to ask you about that," Nyssa said. There was concern in her voice. "My suit sensors say it's well over forty degrees. How are you coping with the heat?"
"You mean besides sweating like a Thessian pig? I'm fine." She wiped away the sweat beading at the tip of her nose and grimaced. "I'm going to smell awful after this. But, yeah, it's hot, but my suit's keeping me relatively cool. It's nothing I haven't faced during commando training. The jungles of Thessia are terribly humid and were way worse than this." Aesira turned towards the quarian, noticing how she seemed not to be affected by the heat at all. "How about you? You've got to be feeling the sun in that suit."
"No, not really." Nyssa shook her head and plucked at her suit. "Our suits are self-contained environments, completely sealed off from the outside world. They've got pretty robust temperature moderators built in, and with the amount of tinkering most quarians do, the suit is very efficient at maintaining a consistent and stable body temperature, regardless of outside environmental conditions. I'm currently running at just about thirty-four degrees, which is around quarian body temperature."
"Quarian engineering has always amazed me," Aesira smiled. "It must be nice to be in that suit."
"It's like a prison," Nyssa said quietly, regret and dejection in her voice. After a few seconds, the quarian changed the subject, all hints of mournfulness gone or at least carefully concealed. "Why'd you join Eclipse, if you don't me asking?"
It was an expected question, but Aesira wasn't sure what Nyssa's motivations were. She detected no malice or suspicion in the quarian's voice; all she heard was curiosity. The girl was simply intrigued by her mercenary history, Aesira decided. Plus, if she wanted to change the subject from her suit to something else, it was an easy and quick fall-back question.
"I guess I wanted a family of sorts," Aesira said finally. "I know it sounds weird, but up until that point, I'd been operating alone for almost half a century. I was an independent bounty hunter or assassin or whatever for hire. I didn't have any partners or anything. Working along was nice. You didn't have to worry about anyone else, and if you screwed up, you only messed up yourself. I didn't have to figure if my partner was trustworthy or if he'd been bought out or something. I've heard tons of stories where a group is betrayed from the inside, and I didn't want that to happen to me."
The asari shrugged and wished she had taken extra water. "But, after a bit, I guess I just got lonely. It's nice to have your own freedom, but after a few decades, you start talking to yourself on your ship, and you realize you need a companion. Someone, anyone would have been good. So, I figured joining Eclipse would be a good idea. They're a mostly asari group that focuses on the work I've had experience: assassinations, smugglings, scouting, that type of thing. Plus, my commando training made me an instant hit, so it seemed like a great deal." She paused. "At least until I nearly died," Aesira finished with a laugh.
Nyssa echoed her chuckle, though it was mostly hollow. The quarian wasn't as lighthearted towards life as Aesira seemed to be. She eyed the asari. "You were an assassin?" Nyssa asked, and Aesira imagined the look of curiosity behind the visor. "I know you said you were a commando, and I've read that's what asari commandos do, but it's just hard to imagine you as the cold-blooded killer type. I guess you seem so young?"
The asari responded with a mock erotic dance routine, but clad in full armor, it didn't have the intended effect. Even so, Aesira laughed heartily when Nyssa seemed taken aback by her display. "Yeah, most asari my age are still doing the whole dancing-and-stripping thing. I tried that for a couple of years after commando training, but I never liked it much. You weren't allowed to kill the obnoxious customers. Besides, I'm two hundred-something years old.
"Now a question for you," Aesira said as the ship came into view. "I know most quarians are techno-geniuses, but I haven't heard of any who deal with biology." She pointed to her prosthetic arm. "You've got a knack for cybernetics and you know your biology. Why'd you choose this path instead of, say, starship engineering?"
Nyssa didn't respond immediately, and Aesira worried that she might have asked something personal. Finally, she replied in a voice that was automatic, devoid of any melody. "Cybernetics has a lot of mechanical and electrical engineering spliced in, as well as biology. I had a talent for the medical sciences, and decided that it'd be a prudent to mix the two areas together since we quarians are naturals at all things mechanical. It's worked out well."
Nyssa's words were dead, and confirmed Aesira's suspicions that this was a topic she shouldn't have touched. "Oh," she responded lamely.
They reached the ship a few moments later, and as the airlock cycled, Nyssa studied Aesira's face. "You're dehydrated," the quarian said as the airlock chimed twice.
Aesira nodded once, grateful that Nyssa was still watching over her health. "I'll go get something to drink," she responded as she headed towards the galley.
The quarian stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Water, Aesira, no alcohol. It'll only dehydrate you faster."
"Okay, okay," Aesira smiled. "Water it is."
"I'll get the ship ready for departure," Nyssa said as she headed towards the cockpit.
Aesira watched her friend's retreating form, before heading to her quarters. As she stripped out of her smelly armor, she wondered what could be in Nyssa's history that would illicit that cold response. The quarian was on her Pilgrimage, which meant she couldn't be more than twenty years, Aesira decided. It wasn't like Nyssa was some asari commando deep undercover. Then again, she couldn't see through that visor, so there was no telling if Nyssa really was a quarian.
Tossing her body glove into a basket, Aesira stepped into the refresher unit and hoped the soothing water would carry away her suspicions like the dirt and sweat washing away from her body.