The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night
Chapter 37
Myral, Lorek
"Mama!"
Kay jumped from the airlock to the surface of the landing pad and beamed at the young asari running toward her. She knelt down and scooped the girl up as they met.
"My Rose!" Kay said as she stood with her daughter in her arms. "I missed you, ya little booger!"
Rosie giggled and hugged Kay as T'Lees approached with a warm smile.
"Hey, Blue," Kay said as she and T'Lees leaned in to share a soft kiss.
Will and Eleena stood in the airlock and smiled as the family reunited once again.
"Welcome home, dearest," T'Lees cooed.
"We have a house!" Rosie exclaimed. "I have a room!"
Kay raised her brows in exaggerated surprise. "Really! I've missed a lot the past few days, huh?"
She and T'Lees began to walk toward the village as Rosie nodded excitedly and pointed the way.
"We've got a place for you two as well," Tul said.
Will and Eleena both turned in surprise to see the quarian standing off to the side of the airlock. The asari sighed and shook her head before jumping down to the ground.
"Goddess, Tul, when the hell did you sneak over there?"
Tul'Sorrin snorted in amusement. "I simply walked up right when you landed."
Eleena gave him a sideways glance and teasing grin. "Yeah, well… don't be so covert about it next time."
"I'll try to make more of a racket in the future," the quarian mused.
"Sounds like you all got a lot of work done while we were gone," Will mentioned as he dropped to the ground.
Tul nodded and motioned for them to follow. "Indeed. I completed the comms relay far sooner than I anticipated, so the majority of our time was spent bringing buildings in the village out of disrepair."
Will could already see from the landing pad that a fair amount of overgrowth and debris had been cleared from the closest buildings in the village.
"Damn, you all got a lot done," Eleena commended.
"Indeed," Tul'Sorrin replied. "We haven't cleared enough space for everyone yet, but there is plenty of room on the ships until we are done."
"You said you have a place for us already?" Will asked.
Tul nodded. "That's right. It is a smaller prefab, but it has a large attached workshop which we all agreed would be perfect for you, Eleena."
The asari smiled softly. "Wow… thank you."
"Your mother and sister have been staying there for the time being, but they don't plan on staying now that you're back," Tul informed them.
"How many of us don't have a place to stay yet?" Will asked. "I don't know if I feel comfortable taking this place if half the team still has to live on the ships…"
"We will only need to clear a few more," Tul answered. "But the numbers aren't solid because we have not 'assigned' the homes, per se. There were a couple that made sense, such as the 'workshop house' for you and Eleena, but we agreed the group as a whole should determine how and to whom the others are allocated."
"You're taking a very calculated approach to this," Eleena joked.
The quarian shrugged. "We all agreed that it would be unfair to make the decisions without the consultation of the group as a whole."
"Except for our place, apparently. And Kay, T'Lees, and Rosie's place," Will noted.
"They have a kid who needs some damn normalcy right now," Tul countered. "And as for you two… who the hell else would actually prefer half of their home to be filled with tools and heavy machinery?"
Will laughed. "Fair enough."
Although there were a handful of cleared buildings near the landing pad, Will noticed that Tul had been leading them further into the village where most of the overgrowth was still present. It was a short walk, but Will appreciated the potential for solitude. The quarian came to a stop as they rounded a corner and placed his hands on his hips.
"Well, here we are."
Will and Eleena followed him around the corner and took their first glimpse at what was to be their home. Like most of the buildings in Myral it was a prefab structure that had been heavily modified over the years to suit the needs of the original owners. It consisted of two main sections: one which Will assumed to be the living quarters and the other quite clearly being the workshop. The workshop's slide-up door was already open, offering a glimpse into the cave of mechanical treasures awaiting Eleena's curious eyes. The living quarters appeared to be rather simple, but with plenty of potential for making the place their own.
"Damn," Eleena said. "You weren't kidding about this place being perfect for us."
Tul crossed his arms. "There will definitely be enough to keep you occupied."
"I don't know," Will muttered. "Part of me still feels uneasy about all of this."
Eleena and Tul remained quiet for a moment before he continued.
"This town was home to dozens of families," Will said. "And they're all gone because of us. We led Cerberus here."
"I have been struggling with this as well," Tul admitted. "It is unfortunate that we do not know the fate of the townspeople." He glanced over to Will. "That said, we have found plenty of computer terminals and holopads scattered through the homes. Perhaps one of them has the answer."
"Or a security system?" Eleena asked.
"Also a possibility," Tul agreed.
Eleena reached over and put a hand on Will's shoulder. "This wasn't our fault, Will. We don't know what happened after Cerberus attacked… but it's important to remember that it was Cerberus who was hunting us. And for what? Putting one of their sick, twisted laboratories out of commission."
Tul looked to the ground and nodded. "And we know how the story ended for that Cerberus cell."
Will let out an angry sigh. "Yeah."
The hiss of a mechanical door interrupted their conversation. The trio turned their eyes to the front door of the house where a young asari woman had stepped into the doorway with a welcoming smile. She raised a hand and waved them over.
"Eleena!" Menaere called out. "Will! You're back!"
Will glanced over to Eleena and Tul. "Let's continue this moral quandary later."
Eleena smirked ruefully and began marching toward the door. "We sure are," she called in response to her sister.
Will and Tul followed close behind as Menaere stepped down the stoop that stretched up from the ground to the doorway. Eleena reached out to offer an awkward hug to her sister, which the young asari gladly accepted.
"I'm glad you're okay," Menaere declared, clearly not sure of what to say. "I've seen vids of the fighting on Palaven. It looks… nightmarish."
"It was." Eleena put her arm around her sister and turned them back toward the house. "And I'll tell you about it later. Right now I'd rather think about anything but the death machines bearing down on the galaxy."
"Heh, fair enough," Menaere replied. "Well, mother and I have been staying here and fixing the place up for you two."
"'Fixing it up?'" Eleena asked.
"You know, just making it feel homey," her sister replied.
A third asari appeared in the door. Sevora placed her hand on the doorframe and smiled gently at the sight of her daughters standing side by side.
"Eleena, William, I'm glad you're back safe and sound," she said. "Let's go, Menaere. We should leave them to some well-deserved rest."
Eleena shrugged. "You could at least give us a tour first."
The elder asari straightened her posture at the request. "I…"
"We would be happy to," Menaere said, finishing her mother's thought. "C'mon in!"
Tul cleared his throat. "I should get back to the landing pad and see if Shansa needs help doing the post-flight inspection."
They waved as the quarian quickly hurried out of sight before following Menaere's lead up the steps to the front door. Sevora moved to the side as they entered the small living room and conjoined kitchen that made up the main living area. It was obvious that the furniture had suffered from a long period of disuse and neglect, but just as clear were the attempts that had been made to clean and fix up what remained in useable condition. The decor was surprisingly quaint, with colorful drapes lining the edge of the ceiling to soften the hard corners and walls of the prefab structure. A few digital picture frames were scattered around the living area set to display a wide variety of subjects such as a tropical beach, a beauty-shot of a turian cruiser, and a particularly sappy picture of Will and Eleena on the day of their bonding ceremony. Eleena spotted the latter image and stepped up to the shelf where it stood.
"Where did you find this?" She asked.
Menaere smiled sheepishly. "We asked some of your friends for help. Fayneer had most of the pictures."
Eleena tapped the frame, causing it to blink and display a new picture. Will's brow lifted in nostalgic surprise at an image of himself, Shansa, Eleena, Tul'Sorrin, and Kallux posing proudly in front of the bow of the Hyperion.
"Tul'Sorrin actually had that one," Menaere commented.
Will stepped toward Eleena and the picture and chuckled. "I remember this one. It was about a month after we all met and Project Sommesh had been dealt with."
"Right!" Eleena exclaimed. "I think this was right after we finished our first contract as a team!"
"The pirate colony on Caleston," Will remembered, snapping his fingers once.
Eleena laughed and pointed to the picture. "Goddess, Will, you look like a kid!"
"It was nearly a decade ago," Will argued with a grin. "And some of us can age physically in that time."
"There's another room," Menaere pointed out.
Will looked to the side where the young asari stood gesturing toward a door. Will and Eleena turned and stepped through the open door into a small, but functional, bedroom. To the left the bed was situated against the wall facing a floor-to-ceiling window on the direct opposite wall. The view through the window was a breathtaking vista of village rooftops, all overlooked by the peak of a distant mountain and its closer foothills that surrounded them. The ever-present storms of Lorek obscured the mountain's peak through clouds and rain.
"That's quite a view," Will said with a thankful smile.
Eleena pointed to the wall that ran parallel to the bed. "Is that what I think it is?"
Will turned his attention to what appeared to be a series of shelves built with a collection of reclaimed materials. Sitting on the center shelf was a trio of books.
"You made us a bookshelf?" Will said excitedly.
"It was mother, actually," Menaere corrected.
Eleena looked back through the door to where Sevora stood. The elder asari nodded.
"I wasn't around much for you as a child, Eleena. But if there's one thing I remember it's that you always loved your stories," she said. "And your model ships. I… don't have any of those, sadly."
"Mother," Eleena stepped back into the living room.
Eleena looked Sevora up and down as she searched for words before giving up and shaking her head. "Thank you."
"I was not a good mother for you as a child," Sevora said. "I'd like to make up for that."
Will and Menaere watched as Eleena crossed her arms and averted her eyes. "It's a start."
"All I ask is that you let me try," Sevora replied.
"If the galaxy wasn't falling down around us I might be more spiteful," Eleena admitted. "But right now… sure. I'll give you a chance."
Her mother nodded appreciatively and looked to Menaere. "We should give Eleena and William some privacy to settle in."
The young asari followed her mother toward the door and glanced over her shoulder. "Don't forget to check out the workshop!"
Eleena perked up as she glanced toward the only door in the home that had not been opened. Menaere grinned and waved goodbye as she and Sevora stepped outside and shut the door behind them. Will stepped up beside Eleena as she hurried to the door and tapped the console to send it sliding open.
"Wow…"
She stepped inside and let her wide eyes wander the workshop. Eleena reached out and ran her fingers over the casement of a heavy-duty drilling, boring, and milling machine. Various other pieces of fabrication equipment were scattered around the room on recently dusted workbenches.
"I haven't had private access to equipment like this in decades," Eleena said. "And when I did it was on a cruiser with a few other engineers I had to share with."
Will stepped inside after her and scanned the room. Sevora and Menaere had cleaned the workshop, as they had done with the rest of the home, but had clearly left much clutter in place. Will suspected they had done this to give Eleena the thrill of digging through and searching for promising gadgets, and judging by her excited expression, Eleena was eager to do just that.
Eleena blinked and glanced over to him. "I've got a lot of work to do in here… cataloging, hardware performance analysis…"
"I have a feeling I'm not going to see you for a few days," Will teased.
She grinned. "You can help if you want. I'll show you how to do the easy stuff."
He chuckled. "If you think I can help without slowing you down."
"Oh, you'll definitely be slowing me down," Eleena said with a small laugh. "But you're worth it."
Will stepped up to her as she turned to face him. They shared a gentle kiss before parting and turning their eyes back to the central workbench.
"You want to get started now?" He asked.
"I'm offended that you have to ask," Eleena said with an excited grin.
Despite the fact that Lorek had a fairly high average temperature, Myral's days were comfortably cool thanks to the weather patterns of the surrounding mountains that sent cool air down the valley from the perpetual storm. Will had come to appreciate the morning hours as he grew older, and eagerly took the chance to take a quiet, solitary walk after waking up. He had attempted to bring Eleena along, but she very firmly grunted and rolled away to the other side of the bed in response to his proposition. The morning sun was barely cresting over the mountain peaks as he set out, and had risen to shine through spotty cloud cover by the time he reached the outskirts of town. It had been many years since had been to Myral originally, but a few landmarks jogged his memory and helped guide him to his first destination.
"I'm sorry, Welkinn," he said with a sigh. "I wish someone had been around to keep this place tidy."
The small temple near the edge of town looked as nondescript as Will remembered it. Except, of course, for the heavy vegetation and overgrowth that had attempted to reclaim the area and grown up its sides. He walked around the temple to observe its condition before igniting his omni-blade and setting to work slashing at the dense flora. It took at least an hour to clear the majority of the vegetation, after which he took a break to sit and rest in the shade of a tree just a few meters from the temple. After relaxing for a few minutes and wiping the remaining sweat from his brow, Will stood and approached the door. When the panel on the door did not activate upon his command he raised his omnitool to provide auxiliary power, causing it to reluctantly slide open. He activated his omnitool flashlight and stepped inside.
The interior of the temple was filled with stale, musty air that gave Will an involuntary cough as he stepped inside. On the ceiling a painting of the Circle of Pillars looked down on him as it had many years ago. It wasn't until he approached the far end of the room that he finally noticed a change: the book that had sat upon the altar, the First Words, was missing. Will frowned and stepped forward to investigate further, but the old book was nowhere to be found.
"I guess someone had time to grab it before they left," Will mumbled to himself.
Will turned and walked back to the door, shutting it behind himself as he turned to continue his walk. The path thinned as he walked beyond the temple until he eventually found himself stepping through heavily encroaching vegetation. By midmorning he had climbed nearly halfway up the hill, which gave him a stunning view of the valley below and the town nestled inside it. He took a deep breath and dropped down to sit on a boulder as he took in the vista before him.
"It is quite lovely," a voice said.
He jumped in surprise and looked to his side where T'Lees stood a few meters away with a small smirk.
"You scared the hell out of me!" Will laughed.
T'Lees grinned and stepped toward him. "I was out for my morning walk and saw you hiking up nearby. And I never pass up an opportunity to sneak up on a friend."
He chuckled. "I didn't know you were a 'morning walk' person."
"It depends on where I am" she replied. "When we were living on Invictus? Goddess, no. Altakiril?" She laughed at the suggestion. "But here? Certainly."
"It's weird thinking of this place as a home," Will said. "Arvuna was the last place I lived that wasn't a ship or city. This fresh air and cool breeze… it's nice."
"It is wonderful," T'Lees agreed.
"Kay didn't want to come with you?" Will asked.
She smiled. "She volunteered to watch Rosie for the morning so I could clear my head. I love the girl, but-"
"But everyone needs some time alone," Will finished. "Yeah, I get it."
"Eleena?" T'Lees inquired.
"Sleeping in," he chuckled.
They silently gazed into the valley, each taking in and cherishing its natural beauty. After a minute without speaking Will finally looked over to T'Lees and crossed his arms.
"Do you mind if I ask you something about Rosie?"
Her single brow flexed inquisitively. "Ask away."
"I know you and Kay kind of had her by 'accident,' right? I mean, as accidentally as an asari can have a child," Will began.
T'Lees laughed softly. "A particularly lusty evening aided by numerous glasses of wine can cause certain… mental inhibitors to become distracted during bonding."
"Right…" Will acknowledged slowly. "So, if it hadn't happened 'accidentally' do you think you two would have had a kid at some point?"
Fayneer nodded softly. "I certainly would have pursued a child with Kay, yes. When we met I had been devoted to my business ventures for decades, and the idea of a child or romance in general was simply not possible. I was a rather hands-on manager in my business, as you know. With all of that said, however, I cannot be positive that Kay would have reciprocated my desire."
"What about now?" He asked. "What if Kay came up to you today and said she wanted a kid?"
"Now?" She eyed him curiously. "This is something you and Eleena have discussed."
"Briefly," Will admitted. "My immediate thought was that she was crazy. But, fuck, everything is crazy right now."
"Well, to answer your question, I would have said yes," T'Lees answered. "Kay and I were not living particularly safe or virtuous lives before all of this, after all."
He crossed his arms and nodded. "I see."
Fayneer smiled. "If you want my advice… I would suggest waiting to see how stable Myral becomes for us." Her omnitool chimed. "Ah, it appears as though Vayren's debriefing will begin soon. Shall we head back to town?"
Will stood and stretched his arms. "After you."
Together they set off down the hill, wading through stubborn grass and stopping every so often to take in the fresh mountain air and views of the late morning sun shining on the village below.
Vayren's debriefing did not cover anything that Will had not already heard. Interestingly, the Spectre did bring up his concern for Sai's well-being, a gesture for which the raloi very bashfully thanked him. He encouraged the team to pay close attention to Sai's health, noting that lingering effects from the Reaper's intrusion could take days or weeks to manifest. However, his concern for Sai was very carefully worded; he only briefly touched on the possible mental and psychological damage that the Reaper may have inflicted, and did not mention indoctrination by name at all. From there the meeting fell into a more casual flow in which those who had stayed on Myral gave an update detailing the work they had completed on the town's restoration and refurbishment.
"And that brings us to the final big accomplishment: the uplink," Tul'Sorrin stated. "While the uplink itself was a relatively simple undertaking, we all agreed that routing the signal through a number of physical proxies would increase the difficulty of both decrypting the signal and tracing its source."
"Excellent work," Vayren commended. "And it is operational? Tested?"
"Both, yes," Tul replied. "I will be sending instructions to everyone soon on the proper use protocols."
"Wonderful," Shansa replied. "Unless anyone else has something pertaining to the mission, I'd say we should discuss our housing situation."
Seeing that he would not have much to contribute to this portion of the meeting, Will opted to direct his attention toward Eleena.
He leaned toward her and lowered his voice. "You look eager to get back to that workshop."
"We only got through a tiny bit last night," she replied. "So, yeah, obviously."
A few footfalls at his side drew his attention as Kallux stepped up beside them. "Am I interrupting?"
Will shook his head. "No, what's up?"
"I'm thinking of heading to Tuchanka during this little bit of downtime while the techies do their work," Kallux informed them. "Any chance you two would like to go with me?"
Eleena tilted her head slightly. "I'd be glad to, Kallux… but why?"
"Dangerous to travel alone these days," the krogan answered. "Plus… I enjoy having you two around to talk with. Helps me think through things properly."
Will smiled. "If there's nothing urgent happening I'd be happy to tag along."
Kallux nodded. "Then I'll talk to Shansa and Vayren about taking one of the ships or Kodiaks."
As the krogan departed to rejoin the housing conversation Eleena snapped her fingers and pointed to Will as if she had just remembered something.
"Hey! I need to talk to Tul before we leave. He mentioned something about stealth tech before we left for Palaven."
Will raised a brow. "Like a stealth field generator?"
Eleena shook her head. "No, no, for the ships. Remember when we rescued him? He said they were testing some experimental stealth tech…"
"That sounds… advanced," Will chuckled.
"I know," she sighed. "But he seemed eager to tell me about it. Said there might be something we could work with and maybe implement on one or both of the ships."
"Then let's talk to him before we head out," he decided.
Eleena nodded as they turned their attention back to the group's conversation. The discussion was still centered around who would be willing to forgo a house in the town for the time being, and it seemed the group as a whole was being almost too accommodating.
"Sounds like this is going to take a while," Will snickered.
Eleena tugged on his arm. "We could head back to the workshop and get our hands dirty."
Will grinned. "Coming from you have no idea how to interpret that."
"Then it sounds like you'll have to tag along and find out." She turned for the door and held her hand above her shoulder to beckon him along.