A/N: Briefly introducing another asari OC. Or at least mentioning her, but I thought this story could do with more Spectres. Especially asari Spectres!

Chapter 29 – Trouble On Horizon

Year 2198 CE
Discovery, Capital of Horizon

Whoa, I had no idea it was so late already, Oriana Lawson thought, her eyes widening in surprise as she looked away from her computer terminal, her gaze falling on the wall chrono, the blinking digits informing her that it was currently quarter to eight on the Friday evening, most of the staff having departed almost three hours earlier. Thankfully, I'm almost done with this, she let out a breath of relief, looking down at the report she had been compiling for the past few hours.

Following the Reaper War and considering the state that Earth was in, the Terminus colonies had banded together and agreed to help out the cradle of humanity in restoration to its former glory, and for the next ten years had sent generous shares of the colonial riches back to Sol System. Oriana had expected that as Earth slowly got back up to its feet, in time the Alliance would require less and less aid, however, it seemed as for some reason the very opposite was becoming true. Whether it was the good old human greed at play here, or some more sinister motives, Oriana could only guess, but for some reason the Systems Alliance demanded ever increasing quotas of various resources without offering any explanations, only citing that it was classified information.

Oriana had just outlined a plan on how to comply with the new eezo quotas requested by the Alliance, unable to stop herself from inserting some strongly worded sentiments about the unreasonable demands, even if she knew that her protests would not amount to much. Everything about these new quotas seemed somehow off, and the fact that the point of delivery was actually given as Mars instead of Earth was even more suspicious. She had asked Miranda to look into these developments, mentioning the Mars link, to which Miri had replied that the Alliance had established four new facilities on Mars during the past few years, or at least they were the ones that Miranda knew about, and gaining entry had so far proven very difficult even for a Spectre.

Having put up the last finishing touches on her report, Oriana rose from the table and stretched, wincing, unaware of how stiff her back had become from all the hours of sitting in a slightly hunched position. She retrieved her purse and the purple scarf, a gift from Miranda on her last birthday, picked up the datapad containing her report and stepped out of the office, the lights dying down and the room sinking into darkness as she left. The corridors of the relatively small four storied administrative center of Discovery were empty as she had expected, her colleagues no doubt already hitting the downtown pubs or engaging various different forms of entertainment on a much anticipated start of yet another weekend. No wonder I keep getting dumped all the time, nobody really wants a girlfriend that's married to her work the way I am, she thought, a little bitterly.

Oriana quickly entered the main offices, depositing her datapad with the other reports meant for Governor Erikson to peruse when he returned to work at the beginning of the next week. She was about to swiftly turn around and leave again, when she realized that she was not alone in the room, the realization startling her as she jumped with an embarrassing tiny squeak. "Gods... I thought I was all alone in here," she confessed, looking at her fellow workaholic, noticing that the woman behind the desk in front of her quickly put away something that looked like a handkerchief, turning a little away from Oriana, unwilling to face her and giving the distinct impression that she had been crying. "Uh... working late as well?" she asked uncomfortably, deciding that bolting for the door now would be far too rude.

"Yes... yes, I... had a report to finish," the other woman finally gathered her bearings, replying in a slightly hoarse voice. Oriana knew her fairly well, of course, having sat next to Samantha Traynor through dozens and dozens of meetings of the heads of different departments over the past year. Working mainly as Erikson's aide, Traynor was responsible for several special projects, one of them being the settlement and expansion of the Horizon colony, and as such, their spheres of influence occasionally crossed, resulting in an increased familiarity between the two.

"I know how that is, got delayed by the same thing," Oriana said, smiling encouragingly and Samantha tried to return the smile, but in truth she still looked rather depressed, making it more difficult for Oriana to simply abandon the other woman. "Well... just don't sit here too long, okay? It's already getting very late."

"I won't, I'm... almost done," Traynor replied quietly. "Just having some problems with the new emigration policies issued by the Systems Alliance."

"Oh? What about those?" Oriana asked, partly curious herself, partly hoping that talking about these problems would distract the other woman from her gloominess.

"They have drastically increased paperwork for anyone who wants to leave Sol permanently with the intent to settle on the colony worlds," Traynor said, her sadness quickly replaced by annoyance and anger. "I suppose I can understand that, it's getting more and more difficult to keep people wanting to stay on Earth, because the planetary restoration is stagnating and living conditions remain very poor. But this isn't the way to do it. They should take steps to make people want to stay there, motivate them to remain and help, not just... well, it's like keeping them there in diplomatic chains!"

"There's something very odd going on with the Alliance leadership," Oriana said, feeling a little worried by these revelations together with what she already knew.

"Yes, and we need a steady influx of new settlers to push ahead with our plans of settlement," Samantha nodded. "What's even worse, they are pressuring the governor into starting advertisement campaigns to encourage more people to return back to Earth! I won't stand for that, I just won't..."

"I don't think many would fall for that, I mean, they know what the situation on Earth is like and would recognize flowery promises for the deception that it is," Oriana said, shaking her head angrily. "But it feels almost as if Earth is..." Trying to gear up for a war? She thought at herself, deciding not to voice this concern aloud, not truly believing that it could be the case. "Oh, never mind, I was just thinking aloud," she quickly added, noticing Samantha looking at her curiously.

"Alright," the other woman managed a small smile. "Well, I... better get back to the report," she said reluctantly. "Won't take me more than fifteen minutes, I think."

Oriana hesitated. She rather liked Samantha Traynor, and the professional relationship they had developed. The woman was supremely competent in everything she attempted, possessed a very wide skill-set and was something of an overachiever and perfectionist, but Oriana saw those traits only as something positive, knowing that she was much the same, slave to the desperate urge to always perform every task as best as she could. In a way, in Samantha she felt something akin to a kindred spirit and she did not want to abandon Traynor when she clearly was bothered by something. "Is… everything alright?" she asked, a little cautiously, not wanting to embarrass Samantha. "I mean... I'm not actually in a hurry..."

"Yes, I'm fine-... oh," now it was Samantha's turn to freeze as she realized what Oriana was offering. "I, um... well... I just got a message on my omni from my girlfriend, few minutes before you came in. Apparently, I just got ditched..." she confessed with a depressed sounding sigh.

"Oh... I'm so sorry, Samantha," Oriana's face fell. There had been rumors about Traynor being involved with someone who was a bit of a loose cannon and a powerful biotic to boot, but Oriana was not one for gossip. Still, while working in a large office such as this, it sometimes became impossible not to overhear things.

"Well... I suppose it was inevitable," Samantha sniffed. "I'm actually surprised it lasted as long as it did. Jack was never going to be one for the idle life on Horizon, and after six years I suppose it was inevitable that she would have had enough. She began taking the odd jobs throughout Traverse, I imagine not always legal, showing up on Horizon now and then to... rekindle our relationship. But she never stayed long, and I... guess I knew the writing was on the wall. The message I got just now simply made it official."

"That's tough," Oriana sighed, now taking a seat at Traynor's desk. "You know, it's interesting... I got stood up myself a few days ago. Though I guess it was a bit of my own fault," she confessed, blushing a little, aware that her interest in dating asari was well discussed throughout the office, not that she cared or anything.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Samantha gave her a sympathetic stare. "What happened?"

"Solania is a sweet girl, really, but she had been growing very frustrated about me always staying so long after work hours. Let's just say that she felt like I wasn't paying her enough attention, so..."

"Yeah, I've heard how energetic those asari maidens are, they demand a lot of attention," Samantha chuckled, making Oriana's blush deepen even more.

"Yes, umm, that is true," she bashfully admitted. "But well, it didn't help that I was over thirty minutes late for our restaurant date couple of days ago. When I finally arrived, she was long gone and the waiter brought me a note from her, basically telling me that it was all over and not to contact her for the next century or until I die, whichever happens first."

"Ouch," Samantha winced. "Sounds like she was seriously angry."

"Well, I sort of deserved it," Oriana sighed. "Managing a relationship is a real hard task for workaholics like us."

"I'll say..." Traynor nodded, then grinning as she thought of something. "Hey... I just had an idea. Since we both have been freshly dumped, how about we crack open a bottle of brandy and… well, I don't know, celebrate our freedom and newfound possibilities, or well, whatever the reason, just to make us feel better about ourselves?"

"Hmm," Oriana mused thoughtfully. She had very limited experience with alcohol, even a glass of wine at the restaurant made her tipsy, but she didn't want to disappoint Samantha. "Well, alright... where do you want to go?"

"Go? We don't need to go anywhere," Traynor grinned, picking up a passkey from a drawer of her desk. "This gets us entry into Erikson's office, and to his drinks cabinet... it's literally bursting, so he won't notice a bottle missing, I'm sure!"

Oriana blinked, then barely managing to keep herself from bursting into a fit of giggles, enjoying the feeling of thrill at this tiny misdeed that Samantha was contemplating. "Alright!" she agreed with a vehement nod of the head. "Let's go and plunder the governor's rum!"


Armali, Thessia

"Well, I guess that about covers everything I had to tell you, Shepard," said a young asari huntress, rising from the table in a small open-air restaurant located on a small island of a river stretching through the largest of Armali's parks. It was an early morning, and the restaurant would not begin to serve food for several hours at least, which meant that Shepard and her fellow Spectre contact could hold their bi-weekly meeting without any interruptions.

"Sure thing, Yannika," Shepard smiled at the asari. "I'll see you again in two weeks. Take care." Just like Tevos, Irissa preferred her Spectres to exchange less critical, but still sensitive intel directly, which Shepard acknowledged as being a wise decision, especially with all the Shadow Broker attention upon the asari dealings in particular. It also promoted camaraderie between the Spectres, which Irissa believed would be beneficial should they ever need to team up to complete an objective. Still, Morgan suspected that the temporary asari councilor had a rather strange sense of humor, considering that the asari Spectre acting as her liaison between Thessia and the Council was called Yannika Vasir.

"Thank you, Shepard. Good fortune to you and your family," Yannika replied with just a hint of a smile and left the restaurant, heading directly for her skycar as Morgan remained a little behind, deciding to combine her way back to the T'Soni Estate with a light jog. Of course, at first she had been slightly concerned about working together with the younger sister of one Tela Vasir, considering that the young asari knew exactly what had happened between Shepard and her older sister. But while acting stiff and cold towards her at first, Yannika had eventually grown to become a lot more pleasant towards her, especially after the two of them had an open talk about just what had happened with Tela. Shepard hadn't even wanted to kill the older Vasir, and she had offered to heal her injuries after their fight at the top of the Azure Hotel, only to have her offer rejected, the proud Spectre preferring death to mercy by what she considered to be her enemy.

As Shepard settled into a slow, leisurely pace of her jog, simply enjoying the beautiful sights of the park everywhere she turned to look, she kept thinking back to her conversation with Yannika, in a way feeling relieved that the young Spectre hadn't had much to report to her. After the turmoil of the past few years, Feron's murder and the new Shadow Broker seemingly having some kind of insane grudge against the asari, no news meant good news for Shepard and her family.

After Tevos had stepped down from the councilor's post, at least for the time being the worst of the black PR against the asari had ceased. It was possible that the Broker had simply ran out of worthwhile ammunition to use, and to Irissa's credit she had kept her dealings extremely transparent in order not to give their detractors anything else to use against the asari. Still, a lot of the damage had been done already, first of all in the shift of public opinion towards the asari, many of them choosing to leave the Citadel and other multi-cultural centers of civilization, as they were often made feel unwelcome by the rest of the population. Waves of dismissals from multi-racial corporations also hit thousands and thousands of asari employees across the galaxy, forcing them to flood back to asari dominated worlds.

Secondly, the Republics had taken a significant economical blowback due to these disasters caused by the Shadow Broker. The reparations paid to the humans and turians put a serious strain on the budget, many asari leaving the Citadel and returning to homeworlds sent the unemployment rates spiraling out of control and reduced the income from taxes. And lastly, while the salarians certainly were not as hypocritical as to blame the asari for their actions regarding the Prothean beacon on Thessia, they felt forced to follow the public opinion and scorn their ancient allies, at least temporary turning their backs on Thessia. As a result, the asari lost out on lucrative deep space exploration missions and Rim colony contracts, which now the Sur'Kesh representatives offered to both quarians and turians.

In the past half-year, however, Irissa's work, guided by Tevos' considerable and wise advice from the shadows, was slowly starting to change things. The public opinion gradually became less negative towards the asari, and many of those who had fled the Citadel were now considering a possible return, no longer having to fear for their safety. This was where Aria now began to make her move, using the massive resources she had hoarded ever since retaking Omega. Her media network spun pro-asari propaganda at every opportunity, doing so highly effectively, playing in particular upon certain prejudices regarding the asari, such as their fabled promiscuity. While Liara could not help being a little mad at Aria for choosing this approach, even Morgan's bondmate could not deny the effectiveness of Aria's methods.

Morgan also suspected that some of Aria's financial resources had been used to stabilize the Asari Republics from plunging into bankruptcy. This, combined with most of the influential matriarchs knowingly or less knowingly ending up with owning a share in one or the other business owned by the Queen of Omega, put the asari leaders firmly into Aria's pocket, exactly as she had envisioned her eventual intentions a decade ago, when she had put her plans into motion. Of course, she had initially thought that the process might take seven or eight decades, but this Shadow Broker interference had played right into her hands. Still, her bondmate had suffered badly as a result of this interference, and it meant that the Broker was now at the very top of Aria's hit list.

There was still the matter of ongoing investigations into the matriarchs who had known about the beacon, and into the extent of Tevos' involvement. Irissa was proving to be very masterful at time-wasting, and Morgan suspected that the case was destined to simply fall through the cracks and eventually fade into obscurity, especially considering that the short attention span of the non-asari part of the galaxy had seemingly already forgotten that such an investigation was still ongoing. At some point, however, Irissa had to come up with some sort of result, because Tevos needed her name cleared if she still wanted to return to her position as a councilor. And while Tevos herself kept firmly insisting that she trusted Irissa, Morgan sometimes privately wondered just how motivated the temporary councilor of the asari was in clearing her predecessor who would subsequently then put her out of the office.

News coming in from the rest of the galaxy suggested that the dust was slowly beginning to settle everywhere, even if now and then some spots of trouble tended to emerge. Unexpectedly, the turians had been to blame for the latest string of complications. The rebuilding of Palaven was taking too much time and resources, even with the aid of the geth, and many amongst the higher ranks of the Hierarchy began to seriously consider leaving large parts of the planet remaining as it were, a desolate wasteland, a grim monument to the legacy of the Reapers. After all, the beautiful garden world of Digeris, largely untouched by the Reapers and suited for dextro-based life, lay in the neighboring system, and after many difficult deliberations, Primarch Victus finally came forth with the decision to begin relocating part of Palaven's population to Digeris, with the intent to eventually move the seat of the government there as well.

This decision was not received with great enthusiasm by a large part of the population, particularly those who had spent the entirety of the war fighting either on Palaven or Menae, now feeling their efforts diminished by the decision to partially abandon their homeworld. One of the leaders of this opposition was Garrus' father, and Victus tried to use his friendship with Garrus in order to build bridges, but the elder Vakarian was far too stubborn to listen to anyone over this, and the net result of these peace negotiations was a flat zero. Garrus had been feeling glum and depressed about being unable to convince his father to reconsider, and during the peak of the tensions, armed conflicts had broken out in Cipritine and other major cities, but fortunately in the end cooler heads had prevailed. Victus and the majority of the Hierarchy were still pressing ahead with the Digeris relocation plans, but at least now the relocation would not be enforced, extending everyone a choice whether to leave Palaven or not. Still, this controversial decision threatened to split the turian society right down the middle, which in itself was a worrying sign for galactic unity.

In the meantime, the krogan seemed to behave, the salarians appeared content to be left to their own devices, the quarians were mostly concerned with building up their numbers to sustain a viable population, the batarians sat quietly and didn't dare to cause any trouble after the thrashing they had taken from every side. As for the humans... Morgan still felt the bubbling bitterness towards her kin and using her own colorful expressions, couldn't give a shit about most of the news coming out from Sol or New Arc.

But all these thoughts of galactic politics started to quickly fade from her head when her feet now took her down the road meandering through the neighborhood of several sprawling villas, lightly jogging past the blossoming hedges on her way back to the T'Soni Estate. This was a potentially important day for Shepard-T'Soni family, as they would finally learn the results of Lita's latest aptitude tests, required for admittance into the most prestigious school of Armali, named after the famous Matriarch Dilinaga, a school from which both Liara and Benezia had graduated from. And while Morgan had full confidence in her daughter's abilities, Liara had been a bundle of nerves these past few weeks, and earlier this morning, having noticed that her bondmate's hands were literally shaking with nervousness, she had forbidden Liara to drive the skycar on the short trip to the school, demanding that instead Shiala took her and Lita, brushing aside her bondmate's weak protestations.

Liara's skycar was parked on the landing platform outside the estate when Shepard, just about starting to break out a few droplets of perspiration, finally finished her morning jog and walked back inside the mansion, looking around for her bondmate and their daughter, unable to spot either of them. Morgan ran her hand through her slightly damp hair, wondering where the two most important people of her life were hiding, trying to decide between the urge to seek them out and the ever growing need of a warm shower.

At that point, Aethyta came down the stairs and gave her a slightly odd stare. "I was about to message you," she said gruffly. "Where the hell did you get lost for so long?"

"Uh... I had my Spectre meeting?" Morgan blinked, uncertain about reasons behind Aethyta's slightly weird behavior. "Has something happened? Where's Lita?"

"I sent her over to Aria's house to play with her 'big sisters' as she calls those two," Aethyta's voice softened a little at that.

"Okay, that's all good and well. What about Liara?" Morgan asked. "Did she say anything how things went at the school?"

"Well, that's the thing," Aethyta sighed. "She didn't say a word after getting back. Just ran past me, clutching a datapad against her chest, looking as if someone had kicked her. Went straight to your room and locked herself in. Won't respond or let me in."

"Oh, fuck," Morgan paled, her heart going numb with fear as she dashed upstairs, forgetting to even thank Aethyta for letting her know, running all the way towards their bedroom, finding the electronic lock activated on the doors, not even bothering to knock but instead quickly inputting the access code, knowing that if Liara had been terribly upset, it would not have occurred to her to change it.

The view inside the bedroom was very much like she expected and feared it might be. The datapad lay on the floor, having been violently tossed against the wall, nearly snapping it in two. Liara herself had crawled into the bed, curled into a fetal position and shaking with sobs, Morgan barely able to look at her bondmate without her heart shattering into a million pieces.

She picked up the datapad on her way towards the bed, sitting down at the foot of the bed and for now avoiding touching Liara's shaking frame, wanting to first read the contents of the datapad, just to understand what had triggered this outbreak. While the datapad was badly smashed, it was not completely destroyed and Morgan was still able to digest the contents of the message written on it.

'Dear Lady T'Soni,' the missive said. 'Please find the enclosed results of the aptitude tests of your daughter, Lita Ashley Shepard-T'Soni. Based on these test results and due to her lack of biotic ability, we think it would be most prudent for young Lita to receive two additional years of home schooling, after which we would happily offer a revaluation. However, in light of the many generous donations that the school has received from House T'Soni over the years as well as considering your own actions during the Great War, we feel that in this case, an exception should be made. We would be happy to accept Lita Ashley Shepard-T'Soni amongst the students of Dilinaga Primary School.'

Wait a minute, Morgan thought, feeling a little confused. Lita's in! What the hell is Liara freaking out for, then? She looked upon her bondmate again, Liara desperately pressing her face into the pillow, already soaking wet with her tears that did not show a single hint of ceasing. Sighing deeply, Morgan slid down on the bed, gently rolling up against her bondmate, comfortingly pressing against Liara's back, a little frightened at just how tense the asari was, every muscle in her body hard like a tightened cord.

Morgan began to softly stroke her bondmate's shoulders, her sides, hoping that the contact would relax her a little bit, but it was clear that to get through to Liara she would need a meld, and so she pressed her brow against the back of Liara's crest, lightly tapping the side of the asari's head with her fingers. "Knock, knock," she said softly, asking Liara to invite her consciousness into joining with hers.

"Please..." her bondmate whimpered instead, not responding through the mental link. "I just... can't..."

"Knock, knock," Morgan simply repeated again, knowing that despite Liara's token struggles, it was exactly what she needed. "You can. You need this. Stop fighting me."

The sniffling and the crying stopped only a little as Morgan felt the small, reluctant tug at the back of her mind, instantly throwing herself at the small gap that Liara had opened, hoping to seize her opportunity before Liara had decided to shut her out again. 'What are you so upset about, love?' she wasted no time in pushing forth with the questions. 'Lita got accepted, everything is alright... isn't it?'

'Did you read why she was accepted?'

'Yes, but... aren't you putting a bit too much emphasis on that? The most important thing is that she'll be able to receive the best education available on Thessia.'

'Shepard, they would have never taken her, unless for the T'Soni family name. I want only the best for our daughter, but if I have placed her into a position where the only way for her to succeed is to fall back on the reputation of our family... then she will grow to despise me for what I have done to her.'

'You can't know that, Liara. Maybe she'll choose to pursue a field in which her biotic limitations won't hinder her. It is ridiculous to torment yourself over something that probably won't even become an issue...' Morgan tried to apply the approach that she found always worked the best when trying to calm down Liara, sending supportive and loving thoughts through the bond, together with what she hoped were rational, logical arguments, trying to appeal to her bondmate's logical, scientific mind.

'I'm... terrified by the thought of ever losing her love,' came the quiet confession, the shaking of Liara's shoulders lessening just a little bit.

'That's never going to happen, surely you feel how she idolizes you,' with that Morgan sent several of her own memories through their mental link, some of the tender and loving moments that she had witnessed between the young mother and her child, playing together, blissful expressions on their faces in a knowledge meld, or teaching Lita to swim in the shallow waters of Lake Armali. 'You have felt the depth of her love for you. That kind of bond will not be broken because of this, I have no doubt about it.'

'I... I... you truly think so?' the doubts were slowly starting to fade, Liara's sobbing ceasing and body starting to relax from its seized up state.

'I would stake my life on it, sweetie,' the words were accompanied with increased physical contact, wrapping both her hands around Liara's midriff and pulling the asari tighter against her, the closeness aiding in helping Liara shake off the last bits of depression, now that the worst had dissipated. 'I don't understand why they would not accept her, anyway. Is the lack of biotic ability really such a big deal for the asari? You know I am not a biotic, and I can survive just fine. I've never felt disabled just because I don't have biotics.'

'It is... not just that, Morgan. Her aptitude scores are considerably lower than the average for her age.' Liara began to pull out from the meld then, and Shepard reluctantly allowed her, hoping that the asari was not about to slip back into her depression."I spoke with Dr. Lorisia recently," her bondmate spoke aloud, turning around to face her. "She looked over some of the more recent scans, and identified reduced activity in parts of Lita's brain. The only consolation is that she could have been even worse off, because of what I stupidly put myself through. Should have been worse off..."

"But... I know that she's not stupid, Liara," Morgan shook her head, refusing to believe it, now beginning to feel a little depressed herself, even if she did her best not to show it. "I have spent enough time with my own daughter to know that she is a bright, inquisitive and resourceful lovable little brat, there doesn't seem to be anything at all wrong with her!"

"It is... nothing obvious. She sometimes takes a long time to grasp new concepts. That is all. It is for that reason they recommended that I spend more time teaching her at home. They said I had done well, but we simply were a little behind the curve," Liara explained.

"Well... it's not so bad, really," Morgan tried to summon a smile, then pressing her brow against Liara's as they lay embraced, savoring the comforting closeness. "She might not grow up to be the fiercest commando or the brightest scholar, but there is nothing that would stop her from becoming a famous musician, or poet, or... I don't know, a chef, anything really!"

"Yes, I... I suppose that is true," Liara smiled in return. "I guess I have been harboring the foolish hope that she would follow into my footsteps, but... while that would make me happy, it might not be what Lita grows up wanting. Morgan... I thank you for making me see reason in this."

"I'm just... relieved I could help, love," Morgan smiled, tentatively brushing her lips against Liara's, finding them immediately ensnared into a gentle, caressing kiss. "At some point we really need to stop dwelling on our past decisions and focus on thinking about the life ahead of us," she said as their lips parted.

"I will try, if you promise to do the same," Liara spoke quietly.

"A promise it is," Morgan smiled, leaning closer to her bondmate to seal the resolution with another kiss.


Discovery, Capital of Horizon

Oriana Lawson woke up with the unpleasant feeling of her head being filled with rocks and weighing a ton, groaning as rays of the midday light burned her cheeks and stabbed her eyes through the closed eyelids. Cursing this mother of all hangovers, unable to remember just how or why she happened to be suffering from it, Oriana slowly rolled over in her queen-sized bed, trying to escape the offending light of the star Iera, ending up unexpectedly bumping against a warm body in her bed.

"Sol?" she muttered quietly, wondering whether her ex-girlfriend had come crawling back to her. No, that can't be, she was really pissed off at me, I think she's already on a shuttle back to Ilium... she mused, recalling the last message she had received from Solania.

Too lazy to open her eyes, Oriana Lawson simply slipped a hand under the covers and briefly touched the other person in the bed next to her. The skin was soft, but lacked the defined texture of asari skin. She slowly ran her hand down the body of her bedmate, conducting a simple explorative study. Human... female... oh gods, definitely a female, Oriana let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she had been holding as her hand moved over the naked breast of her companion, unable to keep herself from rubbing her thumb against the sensitive nipple, hearing a quiet sigh escape the lips of her still slumbering partner. Unashamedly, she moved her hand even lower, tracing the outline of the stranger's hip, feeling mildly shocked when she discovered that the other woman was not wearing any underwear, naked just as she was.

Dear lord, did I hook up with some complete stranger last night and brought them home to have sex with? Oriana asked herself desperately. What the hell is wrong with me, that's not me at all!

Then she finally decided to open her eyes... saying nothing but a quiet "Uh-oh..." when she found herself staring in the slumbering, confused face of Samantha Traynor...