Chapter 11
Kevin's walk back to the entertainment room was quiet but filled with mental noise. In addition to simply mentally preparing himself for the fight, he was dealing with the idea of fighting in front of a crowd. While a few extra quarians might not seems like a crowd to others, it wasn't the number of onlookers that was the issue. The real issue was how distracting the sideliners tended to be in numbers both great and small. Just about any one on ones he had in previous years were with targets he intended to kill and who had just noticed him sooner than expected. They were alone, or at least were alone enough that anyone in the immediate area wouldn't have seen the fight until it was too late.
"It's alright, Kevin. It's just a few extra people. Nothing to fret over," he said to himself. "Just ignore them and you'll be fine."
He stopped just outside the entertainment room door and rolled his head, causing his neck to crack a few times in the process. A deep breath, and he activated the door panel. When the door split open, he found the quarians spread about the room, curiously eying the square, empty place. Bela had taken position up on the podium on the side and was inspecting the controls there with Riik, while Siri, Kar, and Tyr were on the opposite side chatting. Tosh and Ralik were looking up at the ceiling, pointing out some random piece of lighting equipment. Arla was stretching by herself on the far side of the room.
When Kevin entered, everyone noticed him right away and abandoned whatever they were doing just prior to that. They spread themselves around the outside of the room, while Siri took a position on the podium.
"Ralik, why are you here?" Kevin asked.
"Well, when I heard that you and the hotshot quarian were going to beat the crap out of each other, I had to come observe," Ralik admitted, amused.
Kevin sighed and placed his face in an open palm.
"Kevin, Arla," Siri called out. "You both get a few minutes to warm up, then we will begin."
"We?" Kevin asked to himself. Taking his alotted time seriously, he began to stretch his muscles. As he warmed up, he noticed that Arla had removed the armor normally attached to her suit. She was more exposed now, but far more agile. Kevin was hoping she'd have opted to keep the armor on, but she obviously knew better. Kevin decided at this point that biotics were out of the question. He was pretty sure the quarians were unaware that he was biotic, and he wasn't going to reveal that to them by crushing Arla's limbs accidentally or otherwise. After a few minutes of prep and warm up, Siri called down to them again.
"Arla, Kevin, to the center please." She seemed to be the acting supervisor for this duel, which made sense. She was the captain, and likely had to be the supervisor over several duels in the past. She was literally the most qualified. "The rules are simple. No broken bones and no grabbing of vitals. Kevin, this means you cannot use any vital piece of Arla's environmental suit, such as the various tubes or cables, as a holding point. This is a duel, not a fight. Let's keep it civil."
"Understood," they both replied. Kevin immediately knew he was at a disadvantage, but it was one he could live with. He hadn't intended on using any 'hair pull' moves, or moves that might grab at the tubes under her hood. That was a dreadfully tactless sign of desperation.
"The winning condition is by request, and something I could agree on. The first able to hold their opponent's head to the floor, and only the floor, is the winner of this challenge."
"Really? Head pressed to the floor?" Kevin asked. Of all the challenges he had witnessed, that was a strange winning condition. It was obvious who made the request.
"Yes. You may begin."
The room fell completely silent as the onlookers waited for the two in the middle of the room to start their bout. Starting with Bela, a light rhythm was generated by using her hands to tap, hit and smack various areas on her body. As the others joined in, it grew in volume and complexity. Soon only Ralik and Siri were the only observers not coating the room in quarian-derived mood music. Right off the bat Kevin recognized that it followed a basic 3 / 4 beat sequence, but after that the details faded behind the focus on his opponent.
Arla immediately adopted a low stance, hands up and open. Kevin kept his stance as neutral as possible. It was the hardest to counter from, but the hardest to predict. With Arla being as trained as she was, Kevin rationalized that he shouldn't be the one to make the first move. He knew that the first strike was always the hardest to make connect. The opponent had all the time in the world to watch for your first move, and finding any way to be unpredictable tended to make the difference, at least in Kevin's experience.
"Aren't you going to get ready?" Arla asked with a slight hint of irritation.
"I am ready. You can come at me any time you want," Kevin taunted, doing his best to ignore the others.
Luckily, Arla was more than willing to get this started. She took the bait and approached for her first strike. She continued to hold her low, crouched stance until she was within striking range, where she quickly swept her leg for a tripping move. It was an unusually predictable opener, at least for what Kevin expected from Arla. He simply hopped over the leg as approached, making ready to counter. What he didn't expect was that Arla continued the momentum and spun around while standing up, bringing the extended leg around for a fast second waist high kick.
While it was unexpected, Kevin was not caught off-guard. He used his arms to block the force of her leg, and caught it before it fell away. With one of her legs completely under his control, normally he would break it right here and be done. But this was a duel, not a fight to the death. Arla had since jumped off of her one good leg and used it to swing a kick at Kevin, and this time it was expected. Kevin used his free arm to deflect the kick over his head. He let the leg he held rotate in his arms and threw it upward as the quarian fell. The new, awkward angle that Arla was falling at didn't allow her her to gracefully land on all fours as before. She hit the ground on her side, and now was Kevin's turn to attack.
Originally, Kevin's style of fighting was directly based on the training he had received in the military. It was fast, direct and went for the crippling blow first. Over the years, however, that didn't quite make the cut. Kevin used the fundamentals, but continued to improvise on the base tactics. He adopted a style more suited to dodge around melee attacks first and counter second. This was because if someone knew that he were there to kill them – regardless of how long they were aware of it – when he confronted them, they often lashed out like a cornered beast.
But now he was on the attack. He opted to try and suppress her arms first before going for the challenge win. The fact that the holding of the head was the objective made winning difficult, as simply pressing the head down meant you were going to have to deal with retaliation from all four limbs. This initial counter would have worked if Arla had not rolled just beyond his range. Even still, she had to get to her feet and still fend off his counter attack. Kevin's counter came as an arm in full swing, aiming to press itself into the side of Arla's helmet. He knew he couldn't do any real damage, but the aim was to disorient, not damage. Arla saw it coming in time, though, and she used her arm to absorb the blow.
This sort of back and forth dodge, deflect and counter continued between the two for several minutes. As they fought, the observers began to cheer for one of the two while the quarians quickened their battle rhythm. They also adopted using the floor and the walls as objects to create a rhythm as well as their bodies. After seven minutes of constant close quarters combat, it was looking to boil down to whoever made a mistake first.
That moment came when Arla spun around to deliver a momentum enhanced left elbow strike towards Kevin's face. She was sure it was going to make contact, and as such exposed herself by not facing Kevin when the strike was meant to hit. Kevin didn't dodge this one, but rather caught it with his left hand. With as much speed as he could muster, Kevin weaved his right arm around hers and he pulled hard to throw her over his shoulder. The nimble quarian jumped to lessen the damage to her shoulder from the strain, and as a result was pulled over Kevin's head. She had shifted her weight to change her center of gravity so that she would come down on her feet when she landed, and Kevin felt the weight shift. He knew she was going to have the advantage if she succeeded in sticking that landing, but he already had plans of his own
The very second that Arla's feet had touched the ground, Kevin kicked his right foot out forward while still moderately hunched from the pull to catch her right in the butt. In that contorted position he was in, it was more a shove than a damaging blow. This was all Kevin was going for, though, and he put as much kinetic energy into that shove as he could. Arla ended up stumbling forward at the speed of a sprint, only stopping when she came in contact with a wall. She used her hands to soften the impact with the unforgiving obstruction. Kevin instantly saw this as his opportunity to finish the duel with only a few more moves.
He didn't give Arla the chance to get away from his counter this time and he was right behind her when she smacked into the wall. He grabbed her left elbow once it was exposed from using her hands to lessen her impact, and placed a leg right behind her feet. He sharply yanked backwards, which caused her to trip on his leg. Kevin did as best as he could to follow her decent, albeit in a more controlled fashion, pinning the arm he held under her own body when she hit the floor. After this point, he was sure this fight was over. He hovered over her downed body, pressing a knee into her left thigh to keep it still. That was the leg he feared the most retaliation from. His left hand was occupied with holding down Arla's unpinned arm, and his right hand was placed firmly on the quarian's transparent helmet visor.
Arla fought with everything she had to move herself from that position, and tried to knee him with her only mobile limb. This, however, had little effect on the human. After only ten seconds of her fruitless thrashing, Siri called the duel.
"Enough. The duel has been won. Kevin Folner, you are the victor of this challenge."
Arla ceased her attempts at freedom and Kevin got up off of her. They were both panting from the strenuous exertion they put forth during the battle, and Kevin had beads of sweat gathering on his forehead and temples. He offered a hand up to his defeated opponent, but she got to her feet without his assistance. Once they were both to their feet, the others within the room all started on their cheers, jeers and opinions while taking slow steps towards the duelists.
"Impressive moves, Folner!" shouted Bela.
"That was the best duel I'd seen in months!" Kar yelled, practically hopping from excitement.
"I can't believe you beat Arla!" Tosh exclaimed.
"You're not done yet, you'll get him next time," Riik assured.
"Solid stance, you two. It could have gone either way several times. A great duel indeed," Tyr summarized.
"I'll admit, I didn't think you were going to stand a chance, Kevin," Ralik stated.
Captain Kortel was the only one to stay silent.
"Where. . . Where did you learn. . . To fight like that?" Arla inquired between breaths.
"I guess you could say. . . It's part of. . . Of the job," Kevin answered.
"And what. . . Job would that be?"
Kevin thought a minute on how much information he should divulge to the curious quarian. He wasn't sure if the truth would cause her to accept his superior fighting ability, or reject it solely based on what it was. In the end, he figured the truth had a higher chance of gaining either respect or trust.
"I take contracts. . . To kill people. I'm an assassin of sorts. Self-appointed title, mind you. The fighting skills are improvised versions of military training, while picking up a few moves here or there from other people."
She paused as she stared at him before taking a step back.
"An assassin?" She repeated. The room quieted down immediately.
"Arla, don't call him that. It's an egotistical title." Riik shouted.
"I apologize. I meant 'Professional Murderer'," Arla stated, taking Riik's advice.
"Hey," Kevin interjected. "Call me what you want, but I'm anything but professional." Another half-joke, intended to disarm to seemingly hostile undercurrent of the conversation. Clearly, humor was not his strong point. "It's not my fault you challenged me at one of my strengths."
"I can't believe we let ourselves be 'rescued' by a human killer!" she yelled, derailing the conclusion of the duel.
"I haven't killed anyone here, have I? Look, if you're so disturbed by my profession, I can turn around and drop you back off on that whitewashed planet I picked you up from."
"Whoa," Tosh said, stepping in. "Let's not make any hasty decisions, now. Arla, I advise a breather?"
"I bet this ship belonged to someone you murdered, too!" Arla accused.
Kevin. . . Had nothing to say. That was a really good guess. He simply stood there with an open mouth and a finger pointed, meant to suitably reflect the accusation. Unfortunately for Kevin, the accusatory point was hollow and meaningless.
This was when Arla pulled the knife from the sheath on her calf and held it firm in front of her.
"Then you won't object if I challenge you to an armed duel," Arla more or less demanded.
The other quarians and Ralik were all uneasy and surprised by this sudden turn of events. Everyone except for Riik took a step back, away from the two confronting individuals. Siri finally had to speak.
"Tavval. Get your head right. We're not here to kill each other."
Arla rotated her shoulders in preparation. "I just want a 'friendly' duel, captain. No harm in that, right?"
Kevin shook his head. "Arla, look. I've only ever unsheathed my blade for two reasons. To clean it, and to kill someone. I can't guarantee in any way you'll walk away from this without injury. I have no stop points in my technique."
"You're sounding awfully afraid for a contract killer, Folner," Arla prodded.
Again, Siri stepped in. "Tavval, if you go through with this and get yourself badly injured, I will not be on your side. Any injuries you gain will be your own lesson to learn. As your captain, I strongly suggest you walk away. This is not the way to handle this."
"Can I once again stress that I have no guarantee of stopping in time?" Kevin pointed out for emphasis. "You do realize how much of a disadvantage you're at, right? With your suit possibly getting punctured and all?"
"That was a bit low, Folner," Riik coldly stated.
"Are you backing down from a challenge? I thought you welcomed them. Are you going to take me on, or are you just going to stand there like a volus trying to negotiate a bad deal?"
Kevin was beginning to fully realize the pride issues that Siri had warned him about. Arla didn't know how to lose at all. It wasn't any help that Riik was in her corner fueling the fire either. Regardless, Kevin was not about to be called an incompetent volus in front of anyone. This time, he would have to take the bait. He unsheathed his blade with his right hand and held it in a reverse stance, so that the blade itself stuck out by his pinkie finger rather than by the index finger.
"Alright. I'll see your challenge met, Tavval."
"Keelah protect them both. . ." Siri muttered, shaking her head.
Everyone in the room was tense. This was a situation that could get real ugly, real fast. The excitement of the duel that was present during the first fight was disturbingly absent now and there was no attempts from Bela or anyone to ease the tension with more rhythm. With no proper doctor aboard, any serious injuries might not get the attention they would need. Medi-gel was incredibly useful, but it was no miracle gel.
Kevin calmed himself as best he could. The danger of the situation caused his adrenaline to pump through his system, and he couldn't let that get ahead of his reflex and combat logic. His head began to feel warm as the synapses began to fire at faster and stronger rates than usual. He briefly analyzed Arla's stance. She held the knife forward, rather than the backward hold he had on his, and in her left hand. This meant their blades were on the same side of the battle. She would most likely go for a wide slash first, or an aimed thrust. He would be able to tell early on depending on how her arms moved.
Kevin's armed close quarters combat, or CQC, abilities weren't largely based on improvised military techniques like his unarmed hand-to-hand was. The military only did a short training session on how to properly handle bladed weapons and where to strike with them in the event it was necessary. Such weapons were unorthodox in this modern era, as guns generally overpowered bladed weapons all the time. Despite this fact of life Kevin loved using his guardless, black metal knife. It was silent, never required ammo, never needed a thermal clip and most importantly, was never stopped by suit-based kinetic barriers. Sure he used guns when it made sense, but often times he had to kill an armored target without alerting anyone nearby. A mass effect field-hardened knife sharpened to the molecule did that with beautiful ease, and he made it a priority to make sure that he could wield it with fluid finesse – even against other melee armed opponents. He spent more time training with his knife than he did learning and improvising his unarmed combat skills.
That knife wasn't just his weapon. It was his closest and most trusted friend. And now Arla had awakened its cold, vicious wrath.
Kevin took a preliminary step forward in order to draw Arla in. It worked, and she started her approach. Oddly, she seemed to slow down as she drew close. It wasn't her, though. Kevin's brain was in full focus, and a familiar clarity washed over him. The same clarity he usually experienced as he was about to make a hit on a designated target. That was coupled by the heightened state of the activity his brain allowed him to process far more things in a shorter amount of time. Since his brain was used to processing things at a certain pace and it was forced to deal with an increased amount of information that could be analyzed at once, Kevin always perceived things as moving slower when this happened. It was his edge, and he often used it to its fullest when it came about.
It was plainly clear to him that Arla was going for a delayed, aimed thrust. Her slowed motions gave Kevin plenty of time to more accurately observe and predict her moves. With one quick and seamless motion, Kevin pointed his blade down, pushed her thrust off to his right, stepped forward and used his left hand to deliver a staggering blow to her left shoulder. Arla was not able to withstand the direction of the impact, and she slowly began to fall. As the quarian combatant made her patient descent, she slashed from where her deflected knife had ended up, trying to catch Kevin in his side somewhere. Anywhere.
But Kevin had learned long ago to never forget where an enemy's strength was and where their attacks could spring from. He deflected the slash upwards over his head since his knife was nearly already in position, but purposely angled his blade so that it could continue close to the hair on his head. This made it so that as he stepped forward again, he could easily grab her wrist just passed the butt of her weapon with his left hand as she sustained her sluggish downward direction. He used this to his advantage, crossing her left arm over her chest when she finally hit the cold floor and slamming it in place at her right side. Kevin noticed that the impact on her wrist had disarmed her, forcing her fingers to part with the knife. The killing blow was all that was left to ensure that this mark was eliminated. A tightly clenched fist held his black tool of death firm and true, and he launched his fist outward as if to punch Arla square in the face. Instead, his fist was aimed just to the left of her neck so that the blade jutting out the right side would fatally slice into her throat, and perhaps more.
But something ticked in his head. This wasn't a marked target.
Kevin forced his fist to come to a complete halt, and not a moment too soon. Arla's death was only centimeters away. Kevin came to his proper senses with a long and strenuous exhale while his pupils shrank back to normal size. You need to calm down right now, Kevin, he told himself. He held his dominating position for a few more seconds, breathing heavily. When he felt he could fully bring himself to do it, he backed off of Arla and stood up straight. The blade was sheathed without a moment's notice, and Kevin took a step back to view the others around the room. They had all just begun to react to what they thought was to be the death of their Second Lieutenant. Everything was still moving slow, but that feeling of intense control and clarity began to ebb away. The movements of the others began to return to normal, and he saw just how everything had ended up.
Arla was beaten. She did nothing but lay there, motionless. However, she was not motionless due to death. She, too, was panting again as he was. It was the chilling fact that she had been beaten in only two moves and that she nearly died in that instant that consumed her. To compliment all this tension, the room was totally and deafeningly silent.
"Arla?" Tosh called, breaking the silence. "Tavval? Are you alright?"
There was another minute or so of stark silence companioned by a lack of any real movement about the room.
Finally, Arla stirred. She stood straight up, not even bothering to grab her knife. She looked down for a short moment, then she looked about the room until her gaze settled upon Kevin. She let out a held in breath and started to break out into a run for the door. Everybody watched her leave, and she didn't take a moment to look back as she hit the panel to open the door. She ran out into the hall and the door closed behind her.
Then everyone else began to move again, as if barriers holding them in place had lifted. Most let out an exasperated sigh of relief, whilst leaning against a wall for support. Kevin heard a few mutterings, most notably Siri's 'Thank Keelah.'. Once everyone had caught their breath, they all gathered in the middle by Kevin.
"Wow," Tosh said in astonishment. "I was blown away. The calculated, ruthless efficiency. You only made two moves and the battle was fatally over!"
"Remind me never to take you on in a fight," Kar said.
"Holy crap, Folner. I think you just got me aroused!" Bela jokingly exclaimed.
"Thank you," Riik said solemnly. "For not injuring Arla. A soldier never misses that predatory look I saw in your eyes. I know that you could have. . ." He trailed off before speaking the dire truth.
"Predatory look?" Kevin asked with a smile, unsure of what Riik was referring to, but his question went unheard.
"Yes, we are all thankful for the painless outcome, Folner," Siri stated. "That woman is making me too old too soon. Alright everyone, the show's over. Give the victor a few minutes to breathe, alright?"
While the other quarians were corralled out of the entertainment room, Siri stayed behind as usual. Kevin wasn't aware, though, as he was busy dealing with an oncoming headache and the aftereffects of a large adrenaline rush. He placed a pinched thumb and index finger on the sellion of his nose and let out a sigh. His eyes were closed, but he could hear Siri walking up to him from behind. He turned around with no real sense of haste and opened his eyes to confront the captain.
"Look, I'm sorry with how that turned out. I almost-"
Siri cut his apology short with a raised hand.
"Almost. But you didn't. You gave her more than enough fair warning."
"Weren't you worried that she might have been killed?"
"Keelah, yes. I really thought I was going to lose my officer there. But you've shown a great deal of control, and I'm grateful for that."
"So you were just going to let it happen?"
"It's not as simple as that. They're not children, Kevin, you know this. They may act like it at times, but who doesn't? As their captain, I aim to protect them from the threat at large but I can't always save them from their own mistakes or themselves. That requires a personal approach that a captain cannot make due to her duties and position. But you. . . You have done more that I could have hoped for in that regard."
"I don't feel like I did much of anything, other than turn Arla pale. Well, figuratively."
"I always feared Arla's own ego would be her end. Today, it nearly was, and she was forced to confront that fact herself. I imagine she has a lot of reflecting to do after today's events."
"How do you think she'll take this? I mean, the loss of the Forverna was hardly a day ago."
"Arla's a tough one. She'll be depressed at first, yes, but she learns from her mistakes when she makes them. This was the first time she lost a duel, and the first time she stepped way beyond her own boundaries. Both were mistakes, and one nearly cost her life. She'll most definitely learn from that."
"Good to hear. Even the best have to learn how to lose once in a while," Kevin boldly stated.
"Although I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if she were to be confronted by her opponent to offer respects and congratulations on a fair duel, don't you think?"
"Ah, right. If I didn't, I'd be gloating in a sense," Kevin agreed, scratching his head in embarrassment from forgetting.
"Now you have the right idea. Give her some time alone, but don't wait too long, alright? My guess is that she's coping with the loss by checking the engines or tinkering with that lab in engineering." Siri nodded her head to Kevin and left the entertainment room.
Kevin started to mull on what to do. How on earth was he to confront Arla after all that? His mind was drawing a complete blank, and he never liked that. Being stumped on a situation was a bad habit to get into. His usual solution for these rare moments of cognitive absence was to 'wing it' and see how things played out as he went along. He had to wonder just how bad the encounter could really go. He ended up deciding that he would go talk to Arla after a meal and a shower. That should give her enough time to cool down, right?
After another long sigh, Kevin made his way out of the entertainment room and went to engineer another edible concoction. He went out of his way to take his time as he made his food and ate it, looking to soak up as much time as possible. Despite this valiant effort, he only managed to consume forty-five minutes by the time he exited the mess hall. When he entered his quarters to take his shower, he thought about reviewing an audio log to soak up some time, but this was not the time to be adding descriptions to old files. He'd just have to take a long shower. And that's exactly what he did. He took an extra-long shower – twenty minutes from removing his clothes to drying off. After dressing himself in a suit that just happened to be nearly identical to the one he was wearing earlier, he grabbed his Kassa Fabrication pistol and the mods he planned on upgrading it with. He had a sort of backup plan that he'd go mess with the workbench if things didn't go so well. At least there he'd still be in the vicinity. Armed with a plan to wing it and a plan B, he started for the engineering room.
The hallways were desolate. Siri had probably ordered everyone to stay put for a few hours while he sorted things out with Arla. He'd have to thank her for that later. He didn't need any added distractions. Luckily his headache, while still present, was beginning to wane. At the very least, he'd be able to concentrate on not making things worse. While he was confident in his ability to fight, he was not confident in his ability to make nice. He often said the wrong thing at the right time, and he was well aware of this. At the door to engineering, he stopped, drew in a breath and let it go.
"Here goes nothing," was his classic remark to himself.
Once inside, he saw no silhouette against the bright eezo drive core, and there was no quarian standing in front of any of the terminals around the perimeter of the walkable area. He opted for the elevator on the left side of the room, closest to the workbench – just in case. When he stepped onto the lower floor, he found that Siri had called it. There he found Arla playing with Ralik's lab. She was likely changing the configuration of the lab, and he knew that would ruffle Ralik's non-existent feathers. This didn't bother Kevin in the least, though. It kept her distracted enough that she didn't seem to notice him come down.
For five straight minutes Kevin just stood there, staring at the back of the quarian girl as she worked on the lab, waiting for that one witty comment or ice breaker conversation starter to materialize in his head. To his grand dismay, it never happened.
I give up, he thought to himself. Plan B. Plan B!
Kevin did as he had planned. He pulled out his pistol, the two mods bought on Illium and the necessary tools from the bench and he set them all together. He didn't even get to get a closer look at his pistol before he heard Arla talking over the hum of the engines.
"Nothing to say? Not going to brag? Give me an 'I told you so' speech?" Apparently she knew he was there the whole time. Whoops.
"If I was that much of a jerk, you'd know by now. I did come down to congratulate you on an exciting fair hand-to-hand duel, but I find that my social skills aren't quite up to par. In short, I forgot what I was going to say."
"A shame," was her cold-shouldered reply.
Kevin started to inspect his pistol and prep it for modification during the bleak absence of conversation. He started by attempting to replace the micro mass accelerator with the titan model had had purchased. The result would be a lot more punch per shot, but a lot more kickback and additional heat generation. The problem was, the gun was not allowing him access to the chambers necessary to change out the part. Something was different from other gun models he had worked with in the past.
"You were right, by the way," Arla suddenly stated. "I shouldn't have challenged you to an armed fight."
Kevin wanted to respond in so many different ways, but he felt anything he could have said would just sound negative or wrong. Instead, he opted for the ever easy choice of silence.
"Augh, that was so stupid. The captain always did tell me my ego would be my end, but I guess I had to see it to believe it."
She pounded a fist into the closest terminal on the lab, and the bang resonated throughout the rest of the equipment.
"But why now? After all that, and this happens now?"
"Even the best must lose from time to time," Kevin stated, still working in vain to get that blasted gun to behave. "If the best do not lose, they have to way no keep their skills in perspective." Kevin thought it best to keep the topic on something they both could relate to. Combat.
She didn't respond right away, but she did offer Kevin a glare from across the lower engineering deck. He was oblivious due to his continued tampering with his ill-mannered pistol.
"Is that what you tell all your victims?" Arla asked.
Kevin said nothing but simply stopped working on his gun. It was frustrating him, and Arla's snide comments weren't helping. She must have noticed, because she had something else to say.
"I'm. . . I'm sorry. It's just. . . I admit, I don't know how to lose. That on top of the realization that you were a contract killer. . . I don't know. I guess I got overwhelmed."
"I don't see what my supposed profession has anything to do with this."
"I've never dealt with an assassin before, much less be escorted home from a burning ship by one. I didn't trust you to begin with, so it was just another reason not to trust you. People grow up understanding that assassins are bad guys that sometimes get caught by the good guys."
"I have to admit, that's a pretty crappy reason."
"I know that. Look, I don't trust you, but everyone else is having no problems getting along with you at all. The more you're around, the more you make me feel like an outside to my own people. Even Riik was impressed by your moves today, and now I feel completely alone."
"If you stopped trying so hard to hate me, that problem would resolve itself. I'm not asking you to trust me, Arla. Just stop treating me like I'm a slaver."
There was no response from Arla this time. Kevin figured she was inspired to muse on that for a minute, and as such got back to work on his gun. Still, the gun would not cooperate with him. He was getting fed up with it.
"Piece of crap. Why won't this work? It's not like this is a difficult process."
Kevin slapped the gun down onto the workbench and rested his forehead on his right hand. He stopped to ponder why the gun would not work as expected. It was nearly brand new and it was in perfect working condition up until this point. As he racked his brain for a solution, an omni-tool lit quarian arm appeared to his left. She tapped a few buttons on her omni-tool, paused, tapped a few more and then a small light on the side of the gun lit up. Kevin picked it up and went to manipulate it as before, and this time it opened.
"How?" was his simple inquiry.
"This is a Kassa Fabrication weapon, and a new one at that. The higher end brands changed a few things in their newer model weapons in order to make illegally modifying them less accessible. You need to manually shut off the auto-targeting firmware and firing mechanism controls before the gun can even be tampered with."
That said, Arla quickly slunk back to her lab work. Kevin picked up the pre-modded pistol and looked at it, soaking in the tech information that had just been dumped on him.
"I guess I'm getting behind on my tech. I know enough to be dangerous, but. . ." He took the stock micro mass accelerator out and placed it on the workbench. "But not enough to be lethal."
He replaced the empty space in the guts of the gun with his titan model micro mass accelerator and closed the chamber. He put the gun down and turned around to face Arla.
"I'll make you a deal," Kevin stated. "You teach me tech, and I'll teach you top tier CQC."
"What makes you think I'm even interested in that?" Arla questioned. She could hardly hide the fact that hostile tone she intended to use was lost amongst a growing curiosity.
"What happens when you finally see improvement upon a plateau? You want to learn more, to get better. Even if it's not to be the best, knowing that there's a way available to you to gain those enhanced skills is tempting. You won't tell me, but you want the training. It's in your guts."
Arla stopped working on the laboratory and looked at Kevin. "You do realize I'll be gone in a couple days, right? That's hardly time to learn anything."
"Actually, I work best during crunch time. What about you?"
The quarian shook her head at the absurdity of the proposal. Her answer didn't seem to follow her analysis, however.
"Deal," she confirmed, sounding almost whimsical. "No combat training today though, alright? My arms and legs are already bruising as it is."
"Likewise. I should probably make it a point to stop by the med bay for some medi-gel. Care to join me? The sooner it's treated, the better."
"Hmm. Just for a quick stop. I have data logging to do in the crew quarters."
Suddenly Arla was no longer interested in the makeshift lab. It was clear to Kevin that she was glad to at least be distracted from the depressing outcome of her duels amidst the sorrow of the tragedy of the Forverna. Perhaps she had even decided to stop trying to hate him so that she could rejoin her quarian society. She had the walk of someone who had just had a major weight lifted off of their shoulders. Everything went better than expected, as far as Kevin was concerned.
Kevin followed behind Arla on the way out of engineering. He left the room with a sense of victory, one he did not have following the fights. Those were on his comfortable turf, in a sense. He knew how to fight and had no problems doing so. Social interaction was something he perceived as one of his weakest links. The fact that the outcome of this didn't end in foul names or bloodshed meant to him that his reliance on being able to wing it during unprepared encounters was still something he could do. Even more, it meant that he could still consider this a victory. Victory over his own shortcomings. He couldn't help but crack a smile at the feeling this gave him, since this feeling was rare. Not because he lacked shortcomings, but rather because he tended to play to his strengths more than trying to round himself out. Becoming a mercenary and taking contracts to kill seemed like the best solution in that sense. Social interaction was little, and he relied more upon his ability to circumvent suspicion, shoot a gun or swing a blade.
The trip to the med bay was silent. Neither party had anything to say, and both knew that attempts at small talk would be unsatisfying and comically pathetic. They merely went in, treated their damages with medi-gel, nodded to each other and went their separate ways. Despite this, Kevin still counted the situation as a win for everyone. Arla learned a lesson, Kevin calmed Arla down and nobody lost a friend.
Kevin decided at this point that the bridge would be his next stop. Barring Kar drooling over the ship's controls, it tended to be one of the least visited places during FTL travel, and he wanted a moment alone to think over how things went before he forgot the nitty gritty details. A mental recap always gave him a chance to judge himself as if he were a bystander, observing his own actions. However, just as he was about to enter the briefing room, he was stopped by Arla's voice coming from the stairwell.
"Folner."
Kevin stopped his trek and turned to see the quarian standing in the dim stairwell entrance. "Hmm? Yes?"
"I just, uh. . . I just wanted to. . ." It seemed Arla had made the decision to do something she was typically not used to as well. Her words lacked her usual straightforwardness and her voice had trouble holding onto confidence. "Thank you. For, you know, not killing me."
"Oh. No problem. I mean, I wasn't trying to kill you," Kevin responded with a light tone.
"But you could have, and you didn't. I probably would have if our positions had been switched."
Kevin scratched his head. "That's. . . Not a very comforting thought, I have to admit."
Arla placed a hand on the visor of her helmet and shook her head. "What I mean to say is. . . We have similar understandings of combat, so I know how hard it is to break a reflexing routine move. So thanks for going out of your way to not slit my throat."
Kevin chuckled. "You're welcome, then."
Without another second passing, the quarian quickly turned and headed down to the second deck and out of sight. Kevin shook his head with a smile, keenly realizing how much easier it was to be on the other end of such awkward social moments. He stepped up to the door to the briefing room, let it open and stepped inside. He looked up and, as he should have expected by now, saw Siri'Kortel standing in the middle of the briefing room, leaning against the table. Additionally, Kar was not in the bridge.
"Friggin' a, woman," Kevin burst out. "The fact that you're always where I am at the most unexpected times is starting to creep me out."
"What?" Siri asked with an innocent head tilt. "I came up here to make sure you weren't trying to distract yourself from your current task."
"Pfft. That's already handled," Kevin scoffed with a dismissing hand wave. "Looks like your captain's intuition is getting rusty."
"I take it that since there were no weapons fired that everything went well?"
"Better than I expected, at least. I think she's done hating me now."
"That is better than expected. And from your attitude, I'd have to think you two kissed and made up."
"Har har. Not everything is resolved, she's just less openly hostile now. Now I just have to make sure I watch what goes into my food more than I have to worry about her sending deathly gazes and concocted accusations in my direction."
"It's a start, I suppose. Good work on disarming the hostilities. Also, did Arla approach you after you two already had your hugs to thank you for not killing her? Likely on your way here?"
"That door was closed," Kevin said warily, not interested on beating around the bush. "How did you know she thanked me?"
Siri tilted her head back ever so slightly. "Let's just call it a captain's intuition."
Kevin's rebuttal was unintended silence. As Siri finished off her final word, she headed for the hallway. Instead of walking around Kevin, she used the tips of her fingers on one hand to lightly push Kevin aside, but not out of any malcontent. More an action to stack on top of her victory over Kevin's not-so-serious attacks on her ability to know her crew. If Kevin could see through her deep blue visor, he would probably see a smile.
Now typically left alone, Kevin was once again confused. He placed a hand on his chest where Siri had touched to push him out of the way. He considered that a flirty move, even if his understanding was based on context. He had seen it done at Afterlife numerous times, even if he wasn't the one on the receiving end. Often times he was close enough to those involved that he could pick up on just what context that sort of body language that move implied, and it was just about always used in a flirtatious manner. It could have been that he was understanding it wrong, however. After all, that was Afterlife.
It wasn't anything he wanted to dwell on, though. Such things could easily dominate any mind willing enough to jump into that maelstrom of thought. Instead, he focused on an internal replay of the fight and the moments afterwards. Particularly his conversation with Arla. If he could wing it like that more often, he might even gain confidence in not knowing what to do. He sat down in the bridge and began to pick apart his memories before they got fuzzy. Something that he expected to do for an hour or two, depending on potential interruptions. Luckily, he was not, and he was left to his thoughts for a while.
