Mass Effect: Event Horizon
A Mass Effect Fanfiction
By Drussius
Chapter Thirty-Six: Judgments
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South Ravine, Just Outside Scott…
Illitha crept forward slowly, her Avenger assault rifle trained on the dark and rocky landscape ahead of her, warily looking for any sign of Reaper activity. Her newly-claimed armor made her feel much less apprehensive about the possibility of engaging Reaper forces, but she still hoped to avoid confrontation. They were just entering the ravine south of the city, and she hoped that they would find it secure enough to get some rest. It was close enough to the city, however, that there was a very real possibility of Reaper stragglers wandering through it. Especially since it was such an obvious potential hiding place. The sun was rising, marking the end of a very long night spent disabling devices in the city, and Illitha really hoped to avoid conflict here and get some much-needed rest.
Rachel moved forward while Illitha covered her. The blonde moved quickly and quietly up to a large, jagged rock formation and stopped there, her rifle trained ahead of her while she motioned for Illitha to advance. Illitha left her spot and crossed the rocky ravine floor until she reached a large boulder adjacent to Rachel's cover, and then she crept forward, heading toward another bit of cover right at a bend in the ravine. The gulley was a twisting, winding path, so they were forced to advance one turn at a time, lest they fall into an ambush.
Illitha examined the new stretch in the rift that lay ahead of her, and noted small holes in the walls high-up in the faces of the rock wall on the left side. She frowned and engaged her night-vision visor, hoping that she might be able to see into the darkness of the spaces, but she couldn't make out anything more than she had been able to without it. The openings were small, but they still seemed like natural places for attackers to hide. She waved Rachel forward.
The blonde hurried to a spot against the ravine wall opposite her, pausing there to scan the stretch ahead of them. Illitha saw the suspicious look that entered the blonde's eyes, and knew that her companion was thinking the same thing she was. Rachel crept over to her and knelt behind the same rock she was using as cover.
"Those spaces are small, but husks could definitely have crawled into them," Rachel whispered.
"I was thinking the same thing," Illitha nodded. "B-but if we can clear them, we could… I… M-Maybe there's space enough to get some sleep. I would feel much better sleeping in s-some kind of shelter than in the open."
"On the other hand, if we're asleep and the Reapers move into this canyon, we'd be trapped."
"True," Illitha frowned.
"What do you think?" Rachel asked.
"Well… We cannot climb up to those," Illitha guessed. The sheer rock face below the holes looked fairly impassable without climbing gear to assist. "But they might connect to a more accessible entrance ahead. We should keep looking."
"Want me to cover the holes while you advance to that next bend? Or do you want me to move up while you cover them?"
"I will move up. Cover me," Illitha suggested.
"Aye aye," the marine nodded, training her weapon on the holes in the wall ahead.
Illitha rolled her eyes and sighed. She had given up on trying to convince Rachel that she wasn't the one in charge, but it still didn't mean she liked it when the girl answered her as if she had given an order. Up until now, she had kept her tech armor deactivated because the glowing orange panels made her easier to spot, but now that she felt like ambush might be likely, she decided to activate the system. She smiled when the defensive fields appeared across her chest, shoulders, arms and head.
With her rifle ready, she moved toward a jagged section of the canyon wall that jutted out near the bend, keeping low and trying to stay quiet. Her destination seemed like a good spot from which to survey the next area. Her gaze kept drifting upward to the holes in the canyon wall above, but she trusted Rachel to cover her if any threats emerged. To her vast relief, husks didn't leap from the holes as she passed beneath them. She darted behind the protrusion in the wall, and then peered out from behind it carefully, examining the next stretch of the gulch.
There was a small hole about five feet up almost immediately around the bend on her left, and ahead of her, she could see cavern entrances on both sides of the ravine. However, it was not the caves that made her quickly duck back behind cover and turn toward Rachel, giving their prearranged signal of danger. There was a lone figure seated on a rock at the next bend, with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He looked human, but Illitha didn't want to chance startling the man and having the human shoot at her. However, that was the least of her worries. There was the chance the man could be indoctrinated or otherwise pose a danger to them.
Rachel moved up slowly and cautiously, pressing her back to the wall of the ravine just at the bend, and she peered out to see what Illitha had spotted, quickly ducking back once she'd had a look. The man was about fifty meters away, so he was unlikely to overhear them if they whispered. Illitha decided to take that chance.
"Something seems off here," she voiced her suspicions. "I… I see… T-there are caves on both sides. Why would he sit out in the open with his back facing the path leading in from the city?"
"Agreed," Rachel hissed. "This reeks of an ambush."
"Could he be indoctrinated?" Illitha suggested.
"Could just be a group of assholes preying on people fleeing the city," Rachel countered.
"What?" Illitha stared at her. "W-Why would anyone do that?"
"Think about it," Rachel frowned. "Supplies are scarce, the Reapers are destroying the city, and people are trying to survive. A ruthless person might decide that taking whatever they can from others will increase their own chances of survival."
Illitha's brows came together as she considered the idea. It seemed so… heartless… to steal from frightened people leaving the city. The idea had never even entered her mind. But she supposed there might be some, even among her own kind, that would be willing to take from others to save themselves. Faced with the two possibilities – bandits or indoctrinated servants of the reapers – she found herself hoping the man ahead was indoctrinated. The former seemed even more reprehensible. At least if they were indoctrinated, such people would be harming fellow humans against their will.
"What is the plan?" Rachel interrupted her with the question.
"I…" Illitha was about to suggest they reverse course and find somewhere else to take shelter. But her conscience refused to allow her that option. If these men were ambushing people fleeing the city, leaving them be would allow them to keep hurting others. She sighed. "Do you think you could fit into the hole just around the bend from you?" she gestured.
Rachel briefly leaned out to get a look at the opening in question, and then drew back and nodded.
"Good," Illitha smiled. "I… I think you should slip inside and see if it connects to the other caves ahead. If this is an a-ambush, then there will be more people hiding in those caverns."
"Seems like a reasonable guess," Rachel nodded. "What about you?"
"If… If the caves connect and you spot anyone, c-come back and tell me. Then I w-will move up and fall into their trap. That will keep them focused on me. You can disable some of them and then come to my rescue."
"You want to make yourself bait… again," it was a statement, not a question. Rachel stared at her in amazement.
"Do not look at me like that," Illitha frowned. "It is making me nervous."
"Fine," Rachel averted her gaze, slinging her rifle over her shoulder. Then she quickly darted around the bend and grabbed the edge of the hole in the ravine wall, pulling herself up with remarkable speed and silence.
Illitha waited behind her cover while the marine looked around in the cave. The waiting was always hard, but she'd had to do so much hiding and waiting over the past few days that she was becoming used to it. She closed her eyes, silently praying to the Goddess that she would be wrong this time. She hoped it was just one weary man who was resting on a boulder. But deep down, she knew it wasn't.
"You were right," a whisper confirmed her fears after a short wait. "These caverns are all connected, I'm guessing. There are a couple guys lurking near an opening up ahead with rifles. Not sure if they're bandits or indoctrinated, but this is definitely an ambush."
Illitha put her head in her hands and sighed. Danger lurked around every corner on this planet, it seemed. After indulging in a moment to silently complain about the general course of her time on Terra Nova, she raised her head and nodded.
"Okay. Get behind the men there and be ready to disable them," Illitha suggested. "T-Try not to kill them if you can avoid it. I will give you a three-minute head start to incapacitate as many as possible, and then I will head up the path and fall into their trap. P-Please do not let them spot you. If they capture you…" she trailed off. If they captured Rachel, she would not be a distraction, she'd be volunteering to be captured or killed instead.
"I won't let you down," Rachel promised, and then vanished into the darkness of the hole.
Illitha engaged her armor's shield generator and waited. She could have manifested a barrier, but she wanted to save her strength in case this plan of hers went sour. The Alliance armor had the capability to generate a barrier for her, so she saw no need to tax herself unnecessarily. Once she was sure she'd given Rachel enough time to deal with one or two of the men, she readied her weapon and stepped out of cover, creeping up on the lone man sitting ahead of her as if she was unaware of the danger.
She was only about ten meters from the man on the boulder when a single shot struck her shield and was deflected. She whirled to face the direction from which the shot had come, and spotted a dark-haired man with a thick beard, who was pointing a rifle at her.
"Lower your weapon, bitch! We've got you surrounded," his voice rang out.
Illitha lowered her rifle just the slightest bit. The man on the boulder had quickly slipped off of his perch and taken cover behind the rock, aiming his weapon at her. She also spotted a few others, men and teenagers, in the caves on her right, all with weapons in hand. There were five all together, by her count.
"I-I am only trying to… find shelter," she told them, trying to stick to the truth since she knew she was a bad liar. "I am n-not here to make trouble."
"Maybe not," the man who had spoken stepped out of the cave entrance, still with his rifle trained upon her. "But that's some fancy gear you got there. The tech armor especially would be useful to us."
"I n-need it," Illitha protested. "I am working to d-disable Reaper devices in the city. Without the protection, they might kill me…"
"Probably," the man smirked. "But it doesn't change the fact that we'll be taking your weapon, your armor, and your omni-tool."
"Please," Illitha pleaded, and her desperation was genuine, but not due to fear. "I do n-not want to hurt you."
She glanced from man to man, and noted that one of the men and the two teens all looked uncomfortable, but resigned. She was guessing that some of them weren't happy to be part of this little group. It gave her some hope that it wouldn't have to come to bloodshed. Their spokesman and the man behind the boulder, however, were both watching her with barely-restrained glee as she begged them to stop what they were doing. She wasn't sure what they were thinking. She had three forms of protection, while none of them even had armor. If she wanted to, she could probably have killed all five of them by the time they managed to disable her tech armor and shielding. Especially since she knew that Rachel was waiting in the caves behind her to lend assistance.
"Hey, Mel," the man that had been perched on the boulder spoke up. "I've never seen a naked asari…"
"Strip," the spokesman, whose name was apparently Mel, ordered. "Everything. Clothes too."
Illitha found herself blushing at the idea, but was also filled with a horrified and sickened feeling of realization. Would these men truly force a stranger to strip naked for their own amusement? She'd thought them merely desperate and selfish, but now they seemed positively cruel. A good deal of her hesitance to hurt them evaporated in that instant.
"You… You are not wearing armor," Illitha pointed out, her voice edged in steel. "I have armor, a kinetic barrier, tech armor… and biotics. You may outnumber me, b-but if you force me to fight, you may have an unpleasant surprise coming."
"Mel," one of the others, a teenage boy with unruly brown hair, stepped forward. He put a hand on the elder man's arm. "Let her go. She's fighting the Reapers. We shouldn't be trying to take her stuff."
"Listen to your friend," Illitha urged, but she was already focusing on her biotics, preparing to unleash a singularity to snare him.
"Last chance, bitch," Mel growled, raising his rifle and pointing it at her head. "Strip. Or we'll wound you and then do it for you."
Illitha's response was immediate. She hurled a biotic orb that struck the man in the chest and blossomed into the whirling gravitational field of a singularity, hoisting both Mel and the teenager into the air and trapping them there. Almost immediately, a shot rang out, and the man behind the boulder pitched over backward. Illitha turned her attention on the two remaining figures… one man and one teenage boy, both standing in separate cavern entrances. However, both of them immediately cast aside their weapons and raised their hands. She glared at them.
"Come out of there," she ordered.
Both figures filed out into the open, and Rachel emerged from one of the caves behind her. As the blonde walked into the open, she laughed softly.
"Nice work, Spectre," Rachel joked.
"You're a Spectre?" Mel stared at her incredulously.
"I-" Illitha was about to deny it, but Rachel cut her off.
"You're damn right she is," the blonde stepped forward, training her weapon on the two that had surrendered. "She's here, working for days without sleep to defend our colony, and you try to rob her of her equipment? You try to make her strip?"
"It was Mel's idea," the teenage boy caught in the singularity protested. "I tried to convince him to stop."
"You did," Illitha nodded, and then turned toward Rachel. "What about the others?"
"There were three in the caves on this side," the blonde informed her. "All unconscious, but alive. As for the bastard that suggested seeing you naked," Rachel frowned. "He raised his rifle and was going to fire on you. So I shot him."
Illitha sighed, closing her eyes. The man might have been repugnant, but she still hadn't wished him dead. However, she was glad that Rachel had been willing to protect her. She stared at the four prisoners in front of her, at a loss as to what to do with them. Her singularity collapsed, dumping Mel and the teenager unceremoniously to the rocky ground, and she was quick to train her weapon upon the elder man.
"Toss that rifle away," she warned.
The human glared at her, but did as he was instructed, tossing the rifle to the ground near her feet. Rachel walked over and picked it up, and then collected the discarded weapons from the others as well. Once she was in possession of all of the group's weapons, the blonde turned toward Illitha.
"Well? What do we do with them?" she asked.
Illitha knew that Rachel was simply playing up the role of deferring to the Spectre, but it didn't make her any happier about being the one responsible for deciding the fate of the group. She regarded the four prisoners uncertainly.
"Would you please drag the others out here?" she asked.
"Aye aye," Rachel saluted and disappeared into the cave.
"You're awful polite for a Spectre," Mel sneered at her. "I think you're lying."
"Shut up, Mel," the teenager hissed.
Illitha smiled at the boy, and then turned her gaze upon the elder man. "Does it really matter now if I am lying? I have a weapon, and you do not. So whether I am a Spectre or a cook or an engineer, you have no choice but to do as I say."
"Or what? You'll kill me?" the human stared at her intently, as if trying to gauge her willingness to hurt him.
"Any man who would force a solitary female to strip for his enjoyment would be no great loss to the galaxy," she bluffed. She was glad she was wearing a helmet so that he couldn't see her eyes. She couldn't murder a prisoner in cold blood. Not even one who had been willing to put her in the position Mel had demanded.
The human stared at her for a moment longer, and then closed his eyes and let his head fall back to rest upon the rocky ground, releasing a sigh of frustration. Apparently, he believed her capable of killing him. She wasn't sure whether she was relieved or offended.
"You have been ambushing people fleeing from the city," she accused them. "How many?"
"Dozens," the teenage boy answered, bowing his head. He looked miserable.
"And how many were women who were humiliated for your amusement?" Illitha glared.
"None," the boy looked up at her earnestly. "I swear! We just took their food and weapons."
"What is your name?" she asked him.
"Elliot. But people call me El."
"You seem to have a conscience," she pointed out. "So why… How could steal from desperate people?"
"Me and my brother," the boy sighed, his eyes upon the man that Rachel was just dragging out of the cave. "We ran into this group when we were fleeing the city and got ambushed. Jay convinced Mel that we could be useful… He's a great shot with a rifle."
"And you had no problem taking from frightened people who were fleeing from the Reapers?" Illitha demanded.
"My brother hated it," Elliot insisted. "During ambushes, he used to put the crosshairs of his rifle on Mel's head instead of the targets…"
"What?" Mel exploded. "That son of a-"
"Shut up!" Illitha shouted in a rare display of fury, turning an icy glare toward the elder man. When he lapsed into silence, she returned her attention to the teenager. "Who else was unhappy here?"
"Jack and Danny," the boy gestured to the two seated next to him, the man and teenager that had surrendered. "We all talked about leaving, but we didn't think Mel would let us go."
"He will now," Illitha murmured.
"We can go?" the man that had surrendered stared at her suspiciously.
"If you wish, you can leave after I have asked a few more questions," Illitha nodded. "As for you," she turned her gaze upon Mel, her expression hardening. "You will be leaving this ravine immediately. You will not be taking any food or weapons with you. And you had better avoid any large concentrations of people. Because if I ever see you again…" she trailed off. She didn't want to threaten him, because she wasn't sure she could make it believable. It seemed safer to leave the threat to his imagination.
"Without a weapon or anything to eat, I'll die out there," Mel growled.
"You obviously didn't care when you were doing it to others," Rachel pointed out before Illitha could say a word. "But if you like, we could kill you right here," The marine trained her rifle upon his forehead.
"Alright, alright," he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I'm going."
"Move your ass," Rachel ordered.
Mel slowly got to his feet and then started running southward. Illitha watched him go, and then turned toward Rachel. She didn't really like giving orders – she didn't want to give in to Rachel's insistence that she was in charge – but in their current situation, she felt the need to keep up the fiction that she was a Spectre. When she spoke, resignation was clear in her voice.
"Follow him. Make sure he leaves this ravine behind and is well off into the fields."
"Aye aye," Rachel grinned at her, sprinting after the fleeing bandit.
"What about the rest of us?" Jack, the surrendered man, asked hesitantly. "If we leave, can we take some of the food with us?"
"How much food do you have?" Illitha asked, surprised that they would consider leaving any of it behind.
"We have a stockpile of stuff taken from refugees," Elliot told her. "There is enough food to survive on for a while. I can show you."
"When Private Sanders returns," Illitha shook her head. "Given the situation, I will not trust you enough to follow you into these caves alone."
"I understand," Elliot nodded, as did the others. "We never wanted to hurt you, but I can't blame you for doubting us. Could I…?" the boy trailed off, and then shook his head. "Nevermind."
Illitha almost smiled. She couldn't count the number of times in her life she'd started to ask something and then decided against it like that. This was the first time she could recall someone doing it to her, and she started to understand why it had always irritated Aida when she did it.
"What?" she asked.
"I… I just wanna check on my brother," the boy admitted, her eyes upon one of the unconscious figures Rachel had dragged out of the cave.
Illitha examined the unconscious man, and noted that he shared the teenager's unruly brown hair and general features. "Go ahead," she stepped back so that she could keep both the teenager and the other captives in her field of view.
"Thanks," the boy scrambled over to his brother's side, pressing his fingers to the side of the man's neck. The look of relief that passed over Elliot's face a moment later was obvious. Illitha didn't know about human anatomy, but was guessing that the spot on the neck that the teen had touched was a place where one could feel an obvious pulse, similar to a spot in the folds at the back of the neck for her own species.
As a group, they waited for Rachel's return, and Illitha occupied herself by practicing expanding her barrier into a dome. It was something she continued to do whenever she had a few spare moments, and she was making great progress on the skill. After several attempts, she managed for the first time to extend her barrier and maintain it, and was hard-pressed to conceal her glee. She could feel the field fluctuating, and knew that it would never stop a bullet, but now that she could project her barrier and maintain it, she just needed to work on strengthening it. She noted with some discomfort that her prisoners – especially the teens – were watching her in fascination, and she wondered if she might be the first biotic they had ever actually seen in person.
She would have liked to continue practicing, but the unconscious members of the group were starting to wake. Elliot's brother was the first to regain consciousness. Illitha listened while the teenager explained to his brother what was happening, and she heard the word 'Spectre' mentioned during the hushed conversation. She saw the young man's gaze resting upon her speculatively, but he seemed content to remain quiet. The other two were likewise quiet when they awakened, but they regarded her with expressions that were decidedly hostile.
Awkward silence reigned until Rachel's return. When the blonde jogged into view, Illitha smiled, feeling much better once she was no longer alone. The young marine approached and saluted.
"He's gone. Never even looked back," she reported.
"Good," Illitha smiled.
"Can I ask a question?" Elliot's brother spoke up, regarding the two curiously.
Rachel looked to Illitha, who merely nodded. She was already growing tired of playing the role of fearless leader. She hoped she wouldn't have to keep it up much longer.
"El says you told us we could go if we wanted," the young man began. "What if we wanted to stick with you?"
Illitha's brows rose. She hadn't actually considered the idea of taking any of them with her. She had only been trying to make it clear that she didn't intend to keep them prisoner. But if they wanted to come with her… she paused to consider the idea.
Could I even trust them? She wondered. They have been ambushing and robbing desperate people. How do I know they will not shoot me in the back the first time I drop my guard? And I certainly cannot take them into the city without arming them, so denying them weapons is not an option. But it might help us to have a few more guns on our side when we go back into the city to finish disarming the devices. We'll be there for days… maybe weeks…
She closed her eyes, torn by indecision. She just hoped that none of her emotions were too clearly visible on the small portion of her face left exposed by her helm. These men all believed she was a Spectre, or seemed to. She supposed it was natural that they might want to stick with her. If she ran into a Spectre on this planet, she would probably want to stick with them as well. If anyone would know what they were doing under pressure, it was a Spectre.
"How could we ever trust you?" Rachel demanded, saving Illitha from voicing her concerns. "You were all stealing from terrified refugees. If we give you weapons and take you into the city with us, how do we know you won't shoot us both the first time we need to sleep?"
"I know what we were doing was wrong," the young man confessed. "But I needed to protect my little brother, and we both had to eat. We didn't know where else to go. But I would much rather send El somewhere safe and go with you-"
"No way!" the teenager cut in. "I'm not running off somewhere and letting you go back into the city. We're staying together, Jay. You promised."
"I'd rather see you in a safe place," Jay sighed. "But you're right. I did promise we'd stick together." He turned his attention to Rachel and Illitha again, smiling apologetically. "We would much rather go with you into the city. If you're fighting the Reapers, maybe we could help and actually do some good."
"Yeah," the other teenage boy, Danny, spoke up. "I'd rather fight Reapers than my own people."
"I agree," Jack nodded. "If you can find it in yourselves to trust us, I'd be willing to help you with your mission in the city. Anything to get rid of the Reapers."
"Not me," one of the other two men shook his head. "If you're serious about letting us go, I'm outta here."
"You can go," Illitha nodded. "But Rachel will follow you to the end of the ravine and beyond. Do not ever let us see you again."
The man nodded and got to his feet, walking south. The second man hesitated for a moment, then got to his feet and looked back and forth between Illitha and Rachel.
"Which one of you shot Joey?" he demanded.
"I did," Rachel volunteered. "He was about to shoot at the Spectre."
The man glared at her coldly, taking a step closer. Rachel just stared at him, not bothering to raise her weapon. After the two regarded each other for a moment in silence, the man finally spat in her face. The blonde winced reflexively, wiping the offending matter from her cheek, and then in one lightning-fast move, she slugged him in the gut, doubling him over.
"Next time I see you, you're dead," the man coughed, staggering away.
"You're welcome to try, Asshole," Rachel's tone was icy. "I'll be following you all the way to the ravine's end. Look back any time."
The blonde followed the two men to the south, and Illitha watched them until they walked out of sight around the next bend in the canyon. She turned her attention to the four that were left behind, trying to decide what to make of them. They all seemed sincere enough in their wish to help fight the Reapers, but given the manner in which she'd met them, she didn't feel like she could trust them.
"Where are the things your group stole?" she asked. "Where do you store them?"
"These caves stretch along the entire ravine, but they don't go very deep," Jay explained. "We stayed in this general area. The stuff Mel stole is all piled in the back of that tunnel there," he pointed. "About twenty meters in."
"So… I think… I-It would only take a minute to go in, grab something, and come back out," she guessed.
"At most," he nodded.
"I… You… If you are all serious about joining me on my mission in the city, perhaps you would demonstrate your willingness? I would like two of you to bring out all of the things you stole, so I can take stock."
"Of course, Spectre," Jay stood up, and Elliot was quick to join him.
Illitha watched the two disappear into the cave. She knew she was taking a risk… there might be weapons with the supplies that the two could use to attack her. But she wanted to believe they were sincere about helping. If they attacked her, she was sure she could overpower them again. After all, she was the only one with armor and kinetic shielding. In the meantime, if they had been truthful about the food, she might be able to get a proper meal. And then, when Rachel returned, she could get some much-needed sleep.
She just hoped she wasn't making a mistake by trusting these humans…
Resort Hospital, Mivian Heights…
Aida stood in the doorway of the captain's recovery room, watching the elder asari sleep. She was deeply relieved that not only would the captain live, but she had been conscious and aware, and there seemed to be no signs of mental damage beyond a little bit of initial confusion. It would take some time for her wounds to heal, but just knowing that she would recover did a world of good for Aida's morale. She did, however, find herself wondering frequently who Lethia might be. The captain had initially said that name upon waking. But it was a name she hadn't ever heard the elder asari mention before. She found herself wondering if the captain had a bondmate or a sister that she didn't know about…
Prathus had likewise been showing signs of recovery. While the turian had not yet regained consciousness, she expected him to do so at any moment. When she'd last visited his room, he had been moving in small ways… shifting the position of his legs and the like. She only wished she had similar good news in regards to Selura and Neela. The asari remained comatose, and Neela's delirium had worsened to the point that the quarian was no longer making any sense at all. Rebecca was currently in the isolation room with ice packs gathered from the bar downstairs, attempting to bring the pilot's fever down. Aida would have loved to help, but since she had no environmental gear, she couldn't enter the sterile environment without making things worse.
She was beginning to truly worry that Neela would die of the reaction to whatever contaminants she had been exposed. She cursed the salarian under her breath. His cruelty was beyond measure. He had shot Selura with armor-piercing rounds. Couldn't he have done the same to Neela? It seemed a terrible thing to wish for, but to disable a quarian's suit and let them die slowly of anaphylactic shock was such a horrible act…
"Dalinas?" a hoarse voice broke her from her thoughts.
Aida was shocked to see the turian standing in the doorway of his recovery room, staring at her with a bewildered expression. He shouldn't have been up and walking around. It must have been painful just to stand.
"Prathus, you should be in bed!" Aida hurried to the turian's side, putting an arm around him to support him.
"What happened?" Prathus was clearly confused. "The last thing I remember was trying to run from Salik's ship. Then…" he trailed off.
"That mercenary said the ship's engines detonated," Aida explained. "You were propelled into the forest. You had a nasty head wound when you arrived here. There was some bruising in your brain, and you have been unconscious for about a day."
"Galactic Standard or Terra Novan?"
"Galactic Standard," Aida laughed. "The days here are too long to use as a measure."
"So I'll be okay?"
"You will. Your legs are well on the way to healing already. The medigel alone has been enough to help speed the process. In another day, I think you will be fine. But you should rest while you can," Aida urged, assisting the turian back into his bed.
"What about the others? Any word?"
"Captain Nisaria was conscious for a little while and we spoke a bit. She has weeks of recovery time ahead of her, but she will make a full recovery," Aida's smile was bright as she delivered this news.
"Good," the turian nodded. "And Xara?"
"I wish the news was good. Her fever is so severe that Doctor Tillman is packing ice around her in an attempt to bring it down," Aida sighed. "Combined with the allergic reaction in her throat and lungs making it hard for her to breathe…" she bowed her head, "She may not survive. She is delirious."
"Damn it," Prathus growled. "We never should have agreed to go with Golash. We should have listened to T'Zari and backed out."
"We needed the information to save the captain," Aida said softly. "We had no choice."
"We had choices. We could have insisted the three of us remain together instead of splitting up. We could have chosen to wait outside and let Golash find the information himself, and then gone in to access the archive after the mercs left…" Prathus shook his head. "How is Leneur taking the news about Neela?"
"She has not yet regained consciousness. I expect her to recover without lasting damage, but she lost a lot of blood and reinjured her arm. Doctor Tillman repaired the injuries, but she will need time to heal."
"We got hit pretty hard by the last couple of days," Prathus muttered. "And most of the damage was done by what we hoped was an ally. At this rate, the Reapers won't have to kill us. We'll manage to do it ourselves…"
A soft sigh escaped Aida at the news. She hated to admit it, but she thought he was right. Very few things seemed to be going for them in the overall scheme of things. But at least most of them would recover.
"Any word from T'Zari?"
Aida shook her head. "The last report sent back was quite some time ago," she bowed her head. "I am worried about her. Who knows what happened to her?"
"T'Zari is stronger than anyone gives her credit for… even herself," the turian voiced his confidence. "She'll survive whatever the Reapers throw at her."
"I hope you are right," Aida sighed. If only the Alliance soldiers could get communications up and running…
"How are you holding up?" Prathus regarded her intently.
"Me? I am fine," Aida lied. "I am just glad you and the captain are recovering."
"Right," the turian's tone was skeptical. "What's on your mind, Dalinas?"
"Just… the course of things. Neela's condition is horrible, and most of the Sileya's crew is hospitalized with some form of injury. Illitha is out of contact, supplies are scarce, and the Alliance hasn't been able to do much of anything. It is…" she groped for the right word, finally settling upon "…frustrating."
"Well, I'm glad we agree," Prathus chuckled. "They need to come up with a plan. Or we do."
"Can we at least give the captain time to recover? I would feel much better with her ready to help."
"You're not alone. The galaxy needs all the asari commandos it can get right now."
"Excuse me," a familiar voice interrupted from the doorway.
Aida turned to smile at Gradian, who stood just outside the door with a middle-aged man in an Alliance uniform. The lieutenant looked a little uncomfortable.
"Gradian," Aida greeted him with as much cheer as she could muster. "What are you doing down here? Is everything all right?"
"Depends on how you define 'all right'," the lieutenant said softly. "I'm down here because I've been placed in charge of security and operations down here."
"What about your normal duties?" Aida asked.
"I have been removed from special operations oversight. I just spent the night briefing my replacement," Gradian sighed. "But I didn't come here to talk about me," he shook his head, gesturing to the man standing with him. "This is Lieutenant Alexander Mullins. He's been placed in charge of the investigation into the bombings."
"Bombings?" Aida blinked. "What bombings?"
"You haven't heard?" the other man stepped forward, cutting off any reply Gradian might have been about to make. "I will explain everything in a moment, but first I have a few questions to ask you. Would you please accompany me to a private area somewhere?"
"You can use this room," Prathus spoke up from his bed. "I was the Executive Officer of the Sileya, and Dalinas was under my command. I want to be present if she is to be questioned in connection with a bombing."
"I'll be setting up an office somewhere," Gradian informed them, excusing himself from the room.
Aida regarded the remaining human curiously. He was tall and thin, and his features were extremely sharp and angular, while his facial shape was very thin and almost skeletal. In combination with the pale, pock-marked skin of his cheeks and a sparse two-day growth of beard, he had a very ill-favored look. He stepped forward and picked up the datapad from the basket on the dresser next to Prathus's bed, activating the display and scanning the notations there.
"According to this, you're comatose," the human pointed out. "You seem very talkative for a comatose turian."
"He regained consciousness not fifteen minutes ago," Aida explained. "I was just filling him in on his condition and the conditions of the other members of our crew. I have not even had time to run any scans or examine him yet."
"Ah yes, your crew," the human deactivated the device and returned it to the basket. "You've all had a bit of bad luck. I spoke to the other doctor and got her reports on the patients here. One quarian dying of exposure, two asari recently given life-saving surgery at the cost of all of our remaining medigel, and a turian with severe head trauma who is comatose… or was," he amended with a nod toward Prathus.
"What is your point?" Aida asked, crossing her arms and glaring at the human. She didn't like his apparent lack of sympathy for all of the hardship her friends were enduring.
"Well, my point is, they all have pretty solid alibis for their whereabouts at the time of the explosions. You, however…" he regarded her with an intensity that she found unnerving, "no one remembers seeing you for about a half hour just prior to the incidents in town."
"Are you suggesting Dalinas was responsible?" Prathus glared at the human. "She is a medic and a cook, not a terrorist."
"I am not suggesting anything," the human said mildly. "I am pointing out a simple fact. I have spoken to every man, woman, and child in the town above over the course of the night and this morning, and have just spoken to the sentries down here and to Doctor Tillman. None of them can account for your whereabouts, and you are the only one whose movements I have not yet verified."
"I would never blow anything up," Aida protested, a little shocked that she was even being considered a suspect. "I was down here all night, at my captain's bedside while she slept."
"So Private Mills mentioned. But he also said you left the room at approximately 31:20 local time and he didn't see you in the room when he passed by until about 31:50, which was seven minutes before the explosions," the human continued to regard her with his penetrating gaze, his attention unwavering. "Where were you at that time?"
"The only time I left the captain's side was to… to shower," Aida recounted. She'd felt guilty even for indulging in that much time away from Captain Nisaria, but as one of the only two physicians, she needed to keep herself clean… and she'd needed to unwind a bit. Concern for her friends had been keeping her very tense.
"And of course, as Doctor Tillman was asleep at that time and all of the guards assigned to the hospital are male, no one can verify that…" the human pointed out. "Correct?"
"Well… that is true," Aida nodded slowly. "But how could I have set any kind of explosions in a half hour? Where would I even get the explosives? I have been working down here the entire time."
"I was wondering the same thing," the human's expression turned pensive. "But a truck filled with salvage from the city came in last night. It included a number of types of explosive ordinance. Anyone could have managed to steal some while it was being transferred to the armory."
"But I doubt anyone remembers seeing an asari wandering around up there," Prathus cut in, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "It's not like there are dozens of asari roaming around that she could have blended in with. Blue faces tend to stand out in a town full of humans…"
"No, no one mentioned an asari," the lieutenant conceded, seemingly unfazed by the sarcasm. "I am merely trying to get to the bottom of this little mystery. The facts are, there were five explosions in the town last night… all five Reaper artifacts were destroyed. No one saw anyone entering or leaving those buildings, and apparently everyone has an alibi… except for you," his gaze returned to Aida. "Captain Tarrislav is concerned that the destruction of the devices will have alerted Reaper forces. He is of the opinion that you and your fellow asari have been undermining our security."
"He said that?" Aida was surprised. The last time she'd spoken with the human captain, he had been surprisingly polite and reasonable. She wondered what had changed.
"He spoke at length about another asari, and her recent attempt to convince us that the Reaper devices were dangerous-"
"There has been word from Illitha?" Aida's heart leapt. "What did she say?"
"Nothing of relevance," the human shrugged. "To get back to the matter at hand-"
"You're talking about a member of my crew," Prathus interrupted. "I'd like to know what her message said."
"There was no message. Just a schematic of the Reaper devices sent back with a warning that they were range boosters for indoctrination," the lieutenant explained. "And word that she'd convinced one of our people to commit mutiny and stay in the city against orders…"
"Illitha would never advocate mutiny," Aida glared at the human. "She is the most loyal and good-hearted soul in the galaxy."
"I can only relate what I was told," the human muttered. "I wasn't myself present for the report. Five of our men returned with the supplies and the data file last night. If you want more information, you can talk to them," he addressed this last statement to Prathus, and then turned his gaze upon Aida once again. "You, however, will not be able to talk to them just yet. Since your whereabouts cannot be determined at this time, you will have to accompany me to the security office in town. Until I can account for your movements to my satisfaction, you will have to be held under guard. I apologize for the inconvenience."
"Wait… you are arresting me?" Aida was shocked. "I am one of the only two trained medical personnel in this hospital!"
"And possibly involved in a bombing," the human added. "You do not strike me as the type to commit such a blatant act of sabotage, but I must follow this investigation to its conclusion. I know it is unpleasant and perhaps unfair, but I would appreciate your cooperation."
"How long do you plan to detain her?" Prathus demanded.
"We do not have the proper equipment here for interrogation with biometric scanners and voice stress analyzers. I have the engineers working to program some, but in the meantime, I cannot allow you to roam freely through the town and hospital. I hope to be able to find some answers in twenty-four hours or less."
Aida felt sick. The last time she'd been imprisoned anywhere, she had been a captive of pirates, on her way to be sold to slavers. She didn't particularly relish the idea of being confined to a cell, even if her captors were a bit more trustworthy this time around. She sighed and gestured toward the datapad with Prathus's medical notes on it.
"Can I enter the notes for Prathus's status before we leave?"
"Of course," the human nodded and stepped back, gesturing for her to proceed. "I trust you won't mind if I read them when you're done."
"Of course not," Aida sighed. "I have nothing to hide."
Aida quickly entered her notes into Prathus's chart so that Rebecca could follow up when she had the time. Then she offered a nervous smile to the turian before allowing the human to escort her from the room. As they were leaving, it occurred to her to warn him.
"Stay off your feet for another twelve hours minimum. Give the wounds time to close completely. I will be fine."
She already knew that her XO wouldn't listen, but she had to give him the proper medical advice. She would have liked to speak to the captain before leaving as well, but she didn't feel she would be allowed to visit all of her friends before being escorted to her cell. She frowned as she was marched out to a waiting skycab. She knew she wasn't guilty of bombing anything, but she hoped that this human could be convinced of the fact. She wasn't sure what to make of him yet.
Isolation Room, Resort Hospital, Mivian Heights…
Neela shivered, but there was no escape from the cold. It was agonizing, but she couldn't make sense of the sensation and her surroundings. She was lost, prey to fevered hallucinations and fragments of memories. She kept trying to rise, but hands always forced her down when she attempted to move. She could feel the hands, but she didn't know whose they were. She closed her eyes, gasping for air… it was so hard to breathe… and she was so very cold. Couldn't the captain reengage the environmental controls?
Where was she? The Ganaza… It had to be. Perhaps the hands were her mother's? But why was it so cold? Were the environmental systems offline? Perhaps the engineers were working on it. Jaliya? Dorn? Surely they would get it working soon. Or… perhaps they were under attack. But why wasn't she in her suit? Had she been injured? Who were they fighting? The Geth? Yes… Her people were attacking the Geth… it must have gone bad somehow.
"Mother?" she wheezed. The simple word sent her into a coughing spasm.
Gentle hands helped her to sit up. A voice was speaking to her, but she couldn't make sense of the words. It was a little easier to breathe in this position, but not much. Where was she?
Ah… she smiled wearily… she was being fitted for her first suit. The cybernetic interfaces had already been grafted into her skin in preparation for the fitting. Her father must have been somewhere nearby. He was the best suit technician on the ship. He would surely have crafted every inch of the suit for her. She looked around for him, but there was only a strange alien that hovered over her. Where was her suit?
No, she couldn't be getting a suit. Her implants had malfunctioned. Perhaps surgeons were preparing to replace them with new ones. That was why it was so cold. She was on a sterile table in a surgical room. But she was coughing. It was hard to breathe. They wouldn't risk performing surgery if she was sick. She didn't understand. It was so hard to concentrate. She felt like she was dying…
Dying…
Oh Keelah, I'm dying…
The thought passed through her head, and she struggled to slip from the grasp of the hands that held her. She couldn't die here. Not now. She needed to see Selura. She couldn't go without saying goodbye. But where was Selura? Was she hiding in her sleeping niche again? Everyone had been so mean to her because she made a mistake.
"Selura," she whispered the name urgently. "Please… I need her here…"
She wasn't even really sure what she was saying. She only knew that she couldn't die without telling the asari how she felt. She knew she was asking her mother to put her life at risk by requesting this… To put the asari in the same room with her while she didn't have a suit. But she didn't want to die alone.
"Mother please…" she begged, "I need her."
The voice said something, but she didn't understand it. Why couldn't she understand? Was she truly so sick that her mind couldn't make sense of the words? The voice didn't sound like her mother's. And the blurry figure didn't look like her mother. It was a strange alien. The alien looked familiar, but she couldn't remember where she'd seen it…
"Please," she begged again, "I… I just want… to hold her hand… before I die…" she coughed violently.
She hoped her mother would do this one thing for her. Just one chance to touch Selura's hand… to feel her skin… if she was going to die, surely her mother would give her this one last gift…
.
.
Author's Note: Happy Holidays! And as always, thank you to everyone who has taken time out of their day to read, review, favorite/follow or otherwise pay any attention to the story. Your continued interest is awesome, and I hope I am continuing to entertain.
I'm sorry that the holiday edition of the story isn't a little more upbeat, but this was written several weeks ago, and I have just been posting on my normal schedule (until today). I never looked ahead to see which Chapter would end up where. So, you all have my apologies for the tone of the Chapter, but hopefully you all still enjoy it. And since I don't have much else to say about the content of this Chapter, I'll just finish by saying I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday!
The next update, barring any disasters, will be on my usual schedule, which would put it on Saturday morning. Take care of yourselves!