A Matter of Race and Character
LANGUAGE BARRIER
Mess Hall, Hierarchy Vessel 'Arcadias' – 21:12pm Zulu – 18th February 2183 CE
Valni was tired from the exercises. Actually, no, it would be fair to say she was exhausted. Almost sixteen solid hours of war games and military manoeuvres had left her physically drained and her muscles aching. She felt run-down and had a mild tickle in her throat. Valni put on a cheerful front, though. There was no way she was going to look weak in front of the crew. I just need to rest, she told herself. There was still another day of war games to get through, and she was confident that Kenneth wouldn't mind an early night. He was very accommodating.
The Mess Hall was packed; almost a third of the crew had been on rotation and they were now ravenous from the day's activities. Taking their trays of dextro and levo-amino food, Kenneth and Valni made their way to a metallic table, set slightly apart from the other groups, and sat facing each other.
"This isn't exactly the romantic venue I had in mind when you mentioned having dinner this morning," Valni whispered, smiling across at her secret lover.
"I can make it up to you when we're on the Citadel," Kenneth promised, "I know a terrific little restaurant on the Presidium. Great choice of levo and dextro cuisine. Really fancy. Table cloths and everything."
"Table cloths? Mr Donnelly, you're spoiling me. Next you'll be telling me they have breadsticks."
"Three different kinds! And I've heard tell of doilies, but I think that's a myth!" Valni laughed quietly while Kenneth enjoyed the scene before him. "Doesna seem fair we can't enjoy the same food, though," he continued. "One of the pleasures of dining out is being able to sample each other's meal."
"Yeah, I must confess, I occasionally steal food off Antoni's plate."
"Well, I guess some things are universal," Kenneth noted wryly. "You know, I've just realised, I don't even know what you like to eat," he added, looking over the multi-coloured cuisine on her plate. The only item of food he could identify was a dark, slightly purplish coloured meat that he'd come to know as 'louza'. It was extremely popular among the crew, and he wondered if it was the turian equivalent of chicken.
"You know what I like to drink, though," Valni pointed out.
"Don't I just," Kenneth agreed, recalling the bottle of brandy he'd snuck into her room to thank her for the Scotch she'd provided on their first night. "It's getting harder to convince the supply officer that the bottles are just for poker games." He nodded towards Valni's plate. "So, I couldna eat anything there?"
Valni shook her head. "And your food would probably do me a lot of no good. What is it?"
Kenneth pointed to each item with his knife as he listed them. "Aberdeen angus – medium rare – tatties, fried tomato, and mushrooms." He pointed to a cream-coloured concoction on Valni's plate. "That looks like mashed potato."
"This is minced tarzogourd," she said, scooping a little onto her finger. "It's a sweet, creamy, trisected marrow traditionally referred to as 'Maiden's Fingers'." She smiled and licked the food off the digit. Kenneth grinned as Valni slid her finger between her lips and sucked on it. He glanced around the hall, slightly taken aback at her obvious display of flirting. No-one gave any indication that they'd seen her.
"So, what's that?" he asked pointing to a bright turquoise fruit sitting forlornly on a separate plate.
"That's a rho'dainnberry," she replied. "It's a delicacy."
"Can I try a bite?"
"It'll make you sick. It's rather strong."
"Then I won't swallow," he said, shrugging.
Valni relented and passed the fruit over to him. He held it up to the light, iridescent colours shimmering across its surface. Leaning forward, Kenneth bit into the strange fruit, mulling the flesh around his mouth.
"That's not bad," he stated after a while. "Not overly sweet. A bit savoury to be honest… There's a hint of spice, too – More of a meaty flavour than a fruit."
"Big surprise it's a favourite on Palaven," Valni commented.
Kenneth nodded and continued to chew the berry. His expression subtly changed as the heat gradually took hold. The spiciness of the berry actually made him cough. "Oh, wow, that is strong. It's got a real bite to it. Almost reminds me of a tarka dahl."
"Tarka dahl?" Valni repeated.
"A human delicacy," Kenneth explained, beads of sweat already starting to form on his brow. Valiantly, Kenneth kept chewing, refusing to be beaten and stubbornly tried to ignore the growing discomfort. But, the heat didn't subside. After a while, Kenneth opened his mouth and waved frantically. "Okay. Hot! Hot! That is bloody hot now!"
Valni giggled at Kenneth's odd display as he struggled with the fiery berry. A few of the other crew glanced over at the spectacle. Kenneth gagged slightly and spat it into his napkin, a thick smear of juice still clinging to his burning lips.
"How can you eat that?" he exclaimed. "It's like chewing molten plastic!"
"You just have to develop a taste for it," she replied, reaching over and taking the other half of the uneaten berry from his tray before popping it into her mouth.
A few of the crew who'd been watching the scene in amusement suddenly grimaced at the sight of a turian and a human sharing food. Valni caught the expression of the crewman sitting with his friends closest to her.
"Oh, shut up Winkleman! I've seen you eat live grubs before now!"
"That was part of survival training," the crewman argued.
"No, it was last month for breakfast!"
"Yeah, but they were… surprisingly tasty," he mumbled back, trying to ignore the bemused expressions on his friend's faces.
Kenneth wiped his mouth again and guzzled his glass of water down in one gulp. "Is the burning sensation normal?"
"Yeah, but the rash around the mouth isn't," Valni stated a little worried now. Kenneth's lips looked pink and raw. "Maybe you better see the doc?"
"Again? Oh, he's gonna be pissed."
"Don't care. Come on," she insisted, rising and walking around the table to drag Kenneth from his seat. For such a slight woman it always surprised him how strong she was. "On your feet, engineer! You're my responsibility; now let's get you patched up."
Protesting futilely, Kenneth was dragged through the amused crowds of onlookers towards the exit.
"Okay, but just answer me one thing…" Kenneth began.
"What?"
"Is that guy really called 'Winkleman'?"
The doctor had his hands full when they walked in. A couple of young soldiers, shirtless and bandaged around the torso, were sat on the examination bed, while a woman stood in one corner of the room, nursing her left elbow which appeared to be severely swollen. Tesserius noticed the pair enter and quickly moved over to intercept them.
"More injuries from the war games?" he asked. "I've had ten cases already. It's always the same during manoeuvres. Some people just won't listen to my advice." Kenneth and Valni exchanged a guilty glance between them.
Valni hastily explained the situation. Upon examining the human's inflamed mouth, the doctor had merely sighed resignedly.
"Perhaps I should get you a season ticket, Donnelly?" he admonished. Kenneth tried to answer but his mouth was too sore. Instead, Tesserius handed him a glass containing a worryingly familiar smelling liquid.
"Here, swill this around your mouth, but don't swallow it."
Kenneth took a tentative sniff. It smelt like that antiseptic the doc had seared Kenneth's shoulder with.
"It's diluted," the doc assured him. "But, seriously, don't swallow."
Taking a deep breath, Kenneth put the cup to his lips and took a swig of the revolting concoction. He doubled over almost immediately, breathing hard through the pain while he methodically rinsed the stuff around his mouth.
Eventually, he gagged the vile liquid back into the cup and sagged back against the wall. Valni moved to check on him, but the doctor took her arm and moved her to one side.
"He'll be fine. It's only temporary. But, listen; am I right in assuming you've had a skin rash recently?" Valni nodded softly, not bothering to ask how he knew. "Thought as much." He reached into a drawer and pulled out a small tub of cream. "This will ease the discomfort. Pop back once the manoeuvres are over and I'll give you another shot."
Only when he was sure Kenneth had regained the power of speech did the doctor let them leave in order to receive more injured crewman from the day's activities.
The pair walked back to her quarters. Neither of them were in the mood now for anything remotely physical, but Valni invited Kenneth into her cabin anyway. He hesitantly accepted.
She told him to lie on the bed, while she retreated into the shower room; reappearing a few minutes later, slathered in cream and wearing her 'Hello Krogi' nightwear.
She crawled onto the bed beside him. He hadn't bothered to undress and had only removed his jacket and shoes.
"How are you feeling?" Kenneth asked as he gathered her up in his arms.
"Very tired, to be honest," she admitted.
"Just close your eyes for a bit," Kenneth insisted. She did as she was bid and rested her forehead against his.
With their heads touching, and their arms entwined, the couple quickly fell into a deep, undisturbed sleep.
The next day was dominated by a further twenty hours of war-games. The human forces had taken the previous day's humiliating defeat to heart and fought back against the turian troops with renewed vigour. The two sides alternated between attacking and defending their bases, both forces gaining equal victories against the other, until the final deciding battle late in the evening which turned into a down-and-dirty grudge-match. The sun had long since set beneath the Sanves horizon and a persistent deluge of rain saturated the ground. The dark and wet conditions forced the combatants to rely on infrared detectors to hunt their enemy down.
The humans, whilst defending their compound, had unexpectedly changed tactics and moved almost the entire garrison out of the base to attack the turian compound, leaving only a token force in reserve. A couple of turian scouts intercepted the main bulk of humans and quickly alerted their own squad before being captured. Converging on the human's last reported position, the turians launched an all-out assault; the two forces clashing and taking heavy losses on both sides, until finally battling themselves to a standstill with neither side making headway.
After three hours of gruelling fighting, a truce was finally called to proceedings.
The asari commandoes moved across the field to congratulate the troops and later proclaimed the manoeuvres a triumph of strategy, guile and resourcefulness. The soldiers of the 43rd came away from the exercises with a healthy respect for human discipline and tactics; while Antoni and Valni both agreed that it was much better to have the Alliance as an ally then as an enemy.
Verress had unexpectedly given all Arcadias crew taking part in the manoeuvres the next morning off, which, she suspected, most of them would use to catch up on some sleep.
Arriving back on Arcadias, Valni didn't even bother stopping for food but simply snuck back to her cabin to meet Kenneth (she'd provided him with a passkey). Upon seeing her sopping wet form in the doorway, Kenneth quickly helped her strip off her mud-splattered combat gear and told her to hit the shower. She invited him to join her, and very soon Kenneth's wonderful five-fingered hands were gently massaging away the aches and cares of the day. It wasn't long before she'd relaxed so much her eyelids started to droop. She was too exhausted for anything else and, after towelling off, the couple simply lay down on her bed together. Valni was asleep a few seconds after her head hit the pillow.
She awoke feeling incredibly relaxed.
Valni opened her eyes and let out a small sigh as she stretched out on top of her mattress, or more specifically, on top of Kenneth, and marvelled at how comfortable he was to lie on. Compared to turians, human bodies were suppler, smoother. They hadn't evolved on a planet with a weak magnetic core; they didn't need the metallic carapace that protected turians from excess radiation. And that made them softer; their skin less rigid. Result: They made wonderful cushions!
Valni was lying on Kenneth's back, sliding her hands between his chest and the mattress as her eyes roamed over his human face. He wasn't classically attractive by turian standards. There were no mandibles; he had no colony markings on his face; no long sensual crest of horns. And, despite the glorious feel of his softer skin, she had to admit, she sometimes missed the harder carapace. Seeing him naked was like seeing a plus-sized turian with his plates removed – It was an odd sight to say the least.
Plus his pigmentation was far too pale – completely the wrong colour – and his talons (or nails, rather) were too short and brittle. He had hair! Right now his nose, already three times as big as an average turian's, was squished against the pillow bending it out at right angles. And his feet were, quite frankly, weird! Those five toes on each foot just stuck out straight like that. What with their oddly shaped feet and the way their legs bent, it was a wonder humans didn't fall over all the time!
Logically, she shouldn't find him attractive. Everything about him was wrong. And yet… All of those elements combined with his laugh; his sense of humour; his voice; his fragrance; everything together made him work. She liked him, and, for some inexplicable, wonderful reason, he liked her, too. In the end, that was all that mattered.
Tearing her eyes away from his face, she glanced around the room. The place was a mess! Their clothes were strewn all over the floor and the bed covers had long since been discarded. Valni lay across his naked back, relishing the delicious heat from his body and his foreign scent. She nuzzled the back of his neck, her nose poking through the thick hair and she inhaled deeply. Aliens should not smell this good, surely? she reflected. The biology is all wrong. Their chemistry is different. Isn't that what I was taught at military college?
The alien in question stirred beneath her; his eyes opening and his low voice muffled by the fact he was face down in the pillow.
"Oooh… Am I nothing but a cushion to you, woman?"
Woman! It was a phrase he'd started using ever since their first night together. The first time she'd heard it, she wondered briefly if it was meant to be derogatory, but, knowing Kenneth a lot better now, she was sure he used it as a term of affection. And, to be honest, she actually liked it – It reminded her that at least one person didn't think she looked like a teenage boy.
Valni shifted her weight a little, letting him turn his head enough to be able to see her, and get some air.
"If you're as comfy as other humans, then the Alliance should send us more personnel – I'd be happy to act as quality controller."
"So, did I pass? Did you sleep well on me?" he asked.
"Dead to the world!" she replied, leaning back against the pillow.
Kenneth rolled onto his side so that he was facing her. There were odd indentations on his left cheek from the pillow. Valni laughed quietly at the red-streaked pattern on his face.
"What?"
"You do have colony markings," she said, tracing the pattern with her finger.
Kenneth touched the indentations on his cheek. "It's wrong to mock the afflicted," he chided.
"Couldn't help it," Valni admitted. "And, it almost suits you. A little asymmetric, perhaps. But, if you had the same pattern the other side…"
"I'd look even more ridiculous!" Kenneth finished.
"Yeah, but cute." She stroked his neck. "Ridiculously cute."
They kissed in greeting.
Pulling away, Kenneth examined her face, his eyes following the intricate red and blue colony markings accentuating her features. "It's beautiful, by the way," he commented, running a finger across the blue 'eyebrow' over her right eye. "Never really noticed just how elaborate some of them are. And each pattern is unique." He didn't recall seeing any member of the crew with the same markings. Turian culture was evidently very diverse.
"We have a lot of different dependencies, districts and autonomous regions back home," Valni confirmed, "each with its own diverse background, customs and language – Which, unfortunately, can lead to conflict. When the asari first made contact with us we were still recovering from a war."
Kenneth nodded, recalling the history lessons from school. "And then we turn up on the scene and it starts a new war."
"Something we seem to have in common."
"Can't we all just get along?" he asked wryly.
"Well, it's not for wont of trying," Valni smirked, pulled him into an embrace and kissing him again. "You just have to get over the language barrier," she added, toying idly with his hair.
"Are there many languages on Palaven?"
She nodded. "Somewhere in the region of three hundred, I think. With even more on the colonies. We rely on translators most of the time. But, there are compulsory courses on the common language… And xenolinguistics. I spent two months learning simple phrases in Mandarin – Along with the most commonly spoken asari and salarian dialects."
"We don't have those compulsory courses," Kenneth admitted, "not for grunts like me. Only the Communication Specialists study languages."
Valni nodded again. "Your language is English, right?"
"Yeah," he confirmed, "it's probably the second most widely used language on Earth. But it's the official language of the Alliance. What's yours?"
"Tarqui'ilet," she replied. "It's a northern dialect, not commonly spoken back home."
"Aye, well I do seem to have a thing for northern women," he joked. Valni grinned back. "Not commonly spoken?"
"It's more complex, placing greater emphasis on the sub-harmonics."
Kenneth's hand brushed up and down her arm. He seemed to be considering something. "Can I hear it?" he asked. "Without the translator?"
For a moment it looked like Valni might say no but, after a few seconds of thought, she pulled away from him and sat up in a kneeling position. "You're sure you want to hear it?" she asked cautiously.
"Indulge a man's curiosity."
Valni hesitated briefly and then lifted her arm; the soft orange glow of her omni-tool lit up her face as her fingers danced over the display, recalibrating the language settings.
"You'll have to turn yours off, too," she pointed out.
Kenneth quickly made the same adjustments to his omni-tool and sat back expectantly, staring at her. He was suddenly apprehensive – Wondering how she'd react to his unadulterated voice. Would she still like it? Would he like her voice? He realised that she was probably thinking the same thing.
The couple were silent for several seconds, until, finally, Valni opened her mouth and spoke…
The sound that came out caused Kenneth's eyebrows to arch in surprise. He hadn't really known what to expect, but the pitch of her native tongue was well outside the normal vocal range of humans. Her inflections flowed from her mouth like water across harp strings; the notes blending into one another; pitches and tones rising and falling into an unintelligible whole that almost resembled free-form jazz played on a flute. There was a suggestion of birdsong to the language, and, very occasionally, sharp clicks would enter a sentence. The strange flanging effect in turian speech meant that it sounded like she was trying to harmonise with herself. Kenneth knew he had a tin ear when it came to music, but this language, this melody that was coming out of Valni's mouth was fresh and mellifluous. He could honestly listen to it all day… He had no idea what she was saying, but it was wonderful to hear.
"You should make a recording of this – There are markets on Earth where you'd make a fortune…"
Valni started in surprise and covered her mouth with both hands, stifling a laugh.
Oh Spirits, that's what human's sound like?
It was like he had something stuck in his mouth! His warm Scottish accent was still there, soft and sweet to her ear, but the words were totally incomprehensible. There was a rich plummy texture to the tones, and, periodically, a few pleasant sounding trills would enter a phrase. Occasionally, it would shift into what sounded like a deep hiss. Other noises were more tuneful, some of them appearing to fuse together while others had a staccato quality; each syllable punched from his mouth like Kenneth was hammering them out on a drum.
Valni goggled at the human; grinning as he continued to talk enthusiastically about… something.
With a small shake of her head, she reactivated her omni-tool and turned the translator back on. Kenneth's meaningless ramblings suddenly became clear: "…And I canna imagine how many fans you'd have. They'd be beating down your door."
"Can I assume you liked my dialect, then?" she asked.
"Aye, you assume correctly," Kenneth confirmed. Valni leant forward to embrace him.
"'Aye'," she reiterated, "well, English has its plus points, too."
"That's good to hear," Kenneth mumbled, his response slightly muffled by the presence of Valni's lips. The kiss was deep and sensual, her warm breath sweet on his tongue. Finally, they parted.
"So, what exactly were you saying?" Kenneth asked.
"Oh, that was an ancient family secret my dad taught me." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I was describing how to make Sticky Louza Flatbread with Blue Bean sauce."
Kenneth chuckled in delight, his laughter silenced only when she kissed him again. Kenneth eagerly drew her closer, caressing her supple spinal plates as she pressed into him, forcing herself atop his chest and slowly running her hands over his head, letting the soft hair flow between her fingers…
While Valni had the morning off, Kenneth's duties obliged him to report to the Engine Room by zero-nine-hundred. When he'd showered and dressed, and after tucking her back under the covers, Kenneth, somewhat reluctantly, left Valni snoring softly on her bed, and sauntered through the quiet corridors to engineering.
He was surprised to walk into the Engine Room to find only a skeleton crew monitoring ship functions. Inquiring with a passing artificer, Kenneth was told that Arcadias was remaining in Sanves' orbit for a little while longer, allowing the crew some much needed downtime. They hadn't been given shore leave, but Kenneth still thought that it was an uncharacteristically generous gesture from the Captain.
The crew seemed none the worse-for-wear from the events of the past week, and even artificers Fanthe and Torrickus, so grievously injured during the batarian attack, had sufficiently recovered from their wounds to take on light duty. Kenneth had to marvel at the turian resolve to carry on no matter what the circumstances.
Operating in a nearly empty Engine Room was an eerie experience. After working in such a crowded environment for so long, it was strange to see only two or three people in such a large open space. Moving down to the Core Monitor, Kenneth tried to ignore the echoing sounds of his footfalls and took up position at his console, spending the rest of the day on general maintenance and system monitoring.
He only saw cadet Bron for an hour that day, as her duties and drills took her elsewhere; though Kenneth was never told where. After she'd been recalled by her supervising officer, he noticed she'd left a data-pad behind on her console and hoped it wouldn't prove important.
The day slowly wore on into the evening, and as Kenneth prepared for the end of his shift he checked all the monitoring stations set up around the Drive core. The most remote station was down a level and around the back of the Core, at the end of darkly lit circular catwalk. It was this area that Valni and Kenneth had occasionally retreated to in order to steal moments together – The lack of monitoring devices and the fact it was so isolated meant there was little chance of anyone walking in on them.
Kenneth quickly ran the core numbers on the console, cross-referencing them against the previous day's figures. Everything checked out. He was just resetting and closing down the control panel when he perceived someone else in the corridor…
"You left so quietly this morning, I never got a chance to thank you for tucking me in," a voice behind him stated.
Kenneth smiled and turned around to face her; gazing at Valni's amused face. "Aye, well you looked so peaceful there, I dinna want to wake you," he replied. "Besides, it looked like you needed the rest." He glanced down at her feet. "And speaking of being quiet – How'd you sneak up on me?"
"Years of practice," she replied simply, leaning in to feather her forehead against his, and squeezing his arms in her hands.
"You know, it's customary to ask how your day was first," Kenneth said drolly.
Valni pulled away. "Well, I went to the doctor again…" she started.
"Nothing wrong is there?" Kenneth asked frowning.
Valni shook her head. "Just a general check-up after the war games; and I was scheduled for another booster. Plus, he likes to good chinwag with the crew… But, he keeps trying to persuade me to re-join the Marine Corp."
"Why?"
"Oh, he thinks I'm wasted here. Thinks I'd be better off in the field – Been trying to persuade me for six-months."
"Why don't you do it?"
"I'm happy here," she insisted, wrapping her arms around him. "Really quite happy."
Kenneth grinned and eagerly returned her embrace when his omni-tool flared to life and the comm-link chirped insistently. "Engineer Donnelly, please respond," a voice interrupted.
Exchanging a glance, the couple parted – Duty called.
"Donnelly here," Kenneth replied.
"I've been trying to contact you at your station in engineering, but I couldn't get an answer," the voice explained. "You have a priority vid-link from Gellix. It's from Senior Engineer D'Ceni."
"Really?" Kenneth was slightly taken aback. "Okay. I'm at the lower monitoring station. Put her through here." His omni-tool faded.
"You weren't expecting her call?" Valni asked.
"No, nothing was scheduled. Why would she be calling me?" he asked. His mind started racing. Was Gabby OK?
Kenneth quickly turned on the display and waited for the connection to stabilize. Slowly, an image started to take shape… A face appeared on the screen. And it wasn't asari.
"Gabby!" Kenneth exclaimed, staring at the slightly weather-beaten aspect of his friend. She was wearing a thick orange coat, padded with fur, and her face was flushed. It looked like she'd been running outside. There were still patches of snow on her shoulders. "Hi. What's happening? Are you okay?"
"We're fine," Gabby confirmed slightly breathlessly. There was a lot of breakup on the picture. "I had to use Erata's clearance code. They wouldn't let me call out."
The face of the asari in question homed into view and smiled warmly at Kenneth. "Donnelly – And Officer Severan, good to see you both," she commented happily.
The asari certainly looked happier then when he'd last seen her. She must be over whatever was troubling her. Kenneth returned the smile, and then concentrated on Gabby. "Why couldn't you call?" he asked.
"We've had some problems here…" The signal disappeared intermitantly. "…call out… …Level 4 clearance only."
"Guess that explains why you never got back to me after our last chat," Kenneth offered cheerfully. But Gabby's face showed no sign of amusement; in fact, she seemed worried. "Okay seriously, what happened?" he demanded. "You alright?"
"We're fine, but… things have been a bit hectic here."
"Bad weather coming in again?"
"No… Well, yeah… But, we've also had company."
"What kind of company?"
Erata placed a warning hand on Gabby's arm and gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. The expression on Gabby's face seemed torn.
"I'll… have to tell you all about it when I get back," she admitted reluctantly.
Kenneth frowned. "Well, alright… But listen: any update on when…" Gabby raised her hand and cut him off.
"I know what you're gonna ask Kenneth, and all I can tell you is I'll see you when I see you. But… something more important to ask. Can… do something for me?"
"Sure. Name it."
"I've been trying to get a message to Chaill."
"Chaill? Why?" Kenneth asked, suddenly realising he hadn't heard from the krogan since their third day on-board Arcadias.
"His ship's not far from Gelli… I've been speaking to him quite a bit," Gabby admitted. "He's been involved in combat." The image started to become increasingly distorted. "The Auroto was attacked… They lost a few of the crew… his last message… said he was fine… assured me he was okay, but I haven't heard any more recently." The picture briefly dissolved into static. "…Weather patterns are interfering with our systems… can't establish a clear link."
Valni leaned toward the screen. "Give us the Auroto's last known position. I'll get the comm-officer to put a lead out; find out what's going on," she assured her.
"Sending coordinates," Gabby said as she tapped away on her omni-tool.
"But you're sure you're okay?" Kenneth insisted.
"Yeah, but a super-cell's moving i… …can't move from the base for a f… days… …plenty of rations, though. Trust me, we're safely bunkered down."
"Do you need evacuation?" Kenneth asked. That last statement had worried him. He could feel his heart-rate increase sharply.
"No, nothing like that," Gabby replied. "We've got a job to do and we're gonna do it. Don't worry Kenneth. We've got a good squad here. Joric's as tough as they come."
"And it'll be a hot summers day on Gellix before I'd let anything happen to my team," Erata added, gesturing to Gabby. "Trust me; kitten here is in safe hands."
"'Kitten'?!" Kenneth repeated – Gabby's odd nickname almost making him forget his fear. "What's that all about?"
Gabby rolled her eyes. "I'm not going into that right now…" The picture died, and Kenneth thought they'd lost the feed entirely before the image stabilised and her face reappeared on the screen. "…ack before you know it, Ken. Have a wee dram ready for me."
"It'll have to be life-or-death before I share my stash to you, Gabby," he replied in jest, trying his best to sound calm.
But the signal had gone. The forced smile on his face fell away. He stared at the blank screen for a few seconds until Valni placed a comforting hand on his arm.
"They're OK," she stated firmly. "Trust me on this. The Gellix team won't let anything happen to them."
Kenneth nodded slowly. "Chaill can certainly handle himself in a fight. I'm certain he's fine. And Gabby is pretty much surrounded by armed soldiers, but…" He turned to face her. "I still worry, though," he admitted. "When I can see someone standing next to me, when I can hear their voice, and reach out and touch them…That's when I know they're safe. Like here, now, with you."
"I know… that's one of the reasons I like you," Valni assured him. "But she's in good hands. Commander Joric is one of the best. Her reputation is almost as infamous as the Captain's."
"Well, if she's anything like Verress, then she'd be too scary for anyone to risk attacking her," he joked. But Valni could tell his heart wasn't in it.
She smiled reassuringly; her hand brushing across his cheek and up through his hair. She leant forward and their foreheads touched. He smiled in response, properly this time. Valni give him a brief, tender kiss; then simply hugged him. Kenneth returned the embrace, feeling her heart increase in tempo through her clothing. He exhaled steadily, seeking comfort in her arms, while guiltily enjoying the warmth of her body, and savouring this stolen moment of tranquillity…
Unfortunately, neither of them had noticed that they were no longer alone.
"Is that what you've been teaching him?" a voice suddenly accused.
The couple broke apart hurriedly and stared down the catwalk, seeking out the source of the question. A tall figure was standing in the shadows at the far end of the corridor, appearing to glare at them in contempt. Obscured in shadow, Kenneth couldn't identify the turian figure, but Valni's stomach had twisted when she'd heard the voice.
It was Trajan!
Authors Note: I originally imagined this story would be relatively short at around 50,000 – 60,000 words, but it seems to have taken on a life of its own (the chapters do appear to be getting larger). So, I may have miscalculated when I estimated the story would be 24-26 chapters in length. There's a distinct possibility it will be slightly larger – As in closer to 110,000 words and over 30 chapters in length.
It still hasn't reached the half-way point yet, but almost there; a couple more chapters...