Chapter 39
The shuttle parked in front of a well-lit entry to a compound of buildings. Cassidy and Garrus stepped out and Garrus asked the guard, "Garvin Vakarian, private?" The guard said, "Adviser Vakarian, sir, go through the entry, take the left side walkway to the second building. Inquire with the guard there."
They walked. It was a humid night, clear so the stars were out. There were two pairs out taking in the sky. They reached the second building and approached the guard. "Garvin Vakarian, private?" The guard opened the door for them and said, "Second floor, left side suite, sir." They went in and up. Garrus touched the chime. The door opened and Solana was there. "Father! They're here!" Solana came out and hugged Cassidy then touched foreheads with Garrus. "Come in! We've been waiting for you!"
They went in and Garvin touched foreheads with Garrus and then did the same with Cassidy. "Welcome to our temporary home, Cassidy." He led them to a table where there were four bowls of fruit, with glasses of some white wine, Cassidy's fruit in a blue bowl and a blue-ribboned wine bottle nearby. The windows were open and a soft breeze was blowing in. "So, son, tell me about the final Battle for Earth." and so the evening's conversation began.
It got late and Solana took Cassidy to a room off to the side. She said, "You and Garrus will be in here for tonight. She sat on a chest and motioned Cassidy into a chair. She reached into a drawer near her, took out a brightly wrapped package and handed it to Cassidy. "Happy Birthday! I know its late, but this is the first chance I got, so . . open it." Cassidy smiled and opened the package. "Oh how pretty! Sapphire blue satin pajamas and a matching robe and flip flops. Thank you, Solana." Cassidy got up and kissed Solana on the cheek then sat back down. "Where did you get this?" "After Mother passed, I went back on duty. We were on the Citadel on leave one day and I saw this in a shop. I didn't know when your birthday was so, I got it and had it wrapped and put it in my bag and left it there. I grabbed my bag when we had to evacuate and that's how its here." Cassidy said, "That's very sweet and its going to come in handy tonight. I didn't come down expecting to stay, since we didn't expect to find you tonight."
Solana "So, what do know about the family ceremony?" "Not a whole lot, but you should know that um, Adrien Victus is going to stand in the father's place." "Really? Wow, that adds a layer to things. Did you do an adoption bonding with them yet?" "No, he just asked this evening. He's going to arrange something later." "OK, well, you are going to need a dress. We might be able to have one custom made on Illium, because well there aren't any dress shops here on Palaven anymore and they wouldn't have ones to fit a human anyway. When do you want to do this?" "How long do you figure until your estate is repaired enough to move back?" "It will have to wait for the vital stuff but father is figuring 4 months." "Can we get all the planning done in 5 months?" "We can do that. It might be interesting getting it catered, but we'll see. Maybe Rahana Victus will help, she's the Primarch's niece."
Cassidy asked, "So, we need a trip to Illium?" "Yes." "Are you fit for duty on the Normandy?" "What? Oh, ah, Commander Solana Vakarian, Engineer 3rd class, fit for duty, Captain!" "Excellent, Commander. You may report to Chief Engineer Adams in the morning. Ok, now that's out of the way. What else do I need to do?" "You need to decide on face paint. But that can wait. Basically you'll need to get the Victus ceremony done and oh, decide about face paint for that, too." "I'll think about that." Cassidy yawned. "I'm sorry, its getting late on ship time."
Garrus came in. "Are you done with my mate, Solana?" "She's all yours, Garrus. Besides I need to go pack." "Pack for what?" Cassidy said, "She's going to be our newest engineer, meant to fill in for Tali once we get Tali back to Rannoch." "I see. Alright then, Commander, you are dismissed." said Garrus. Solana saluted and turned to Cassidy, "Facilities are out this door and across the room, middle door. Goodnight, Garrus, Cassidy."
"I'll be right back," said Cassidy and she picked picked up her gift and took it out to the restroom with her. She came back and Garrus said, "That looks lovely on you. Something from Solana?" "Yup. So, what does your father have to say?" "He says the family estate is mostly intact except there's no power and the vehicles were donated to the cause. The power probably won't get out to there for another 3 months and then he'll move back. He'll probably have his brother move in. My uncle's had it hard, lost his wife in the initial Reaper attack here, she was shopping in Cipritine when the Reapers first hit. Then Patrus was lost when the Reapers took the Citadel. He was C-Sec and would have been helping get people onto ships for the evacuation. He didn't get out before the arms closed." "Oh, Garrus, I'm sorry. Patrus jumped to my defense when Khalisa bint Sinan al-Jilani was badgering me one time, up by Bailey's office." Cassidy pulled up her omni-tool and found the picture of her and Garrus with Tali and Patrus. She looked at Patrus' face for a bit, then closed it and went to hug Garrus.
They went to bed and Garrus pulled her close and held her as they went to sleep.
She woke up and it was still dark out. She checked her omni-tool. 0700. Garrus was sitting up. She took her fatigues and went to the restroom. When she came out, Solana was waiting to go in. Cassidy went back into the room and rolled the pajamas and flip-flops up in the robe and used the robe's belt to tie it into a neat bundle.
She went out to the table where there 4 trays on the table and a turian walking out. She distributed the trays around the table, keeping the one with the blue tag attached.
Garvin came out, dressed for the day and sat at his place. "Cassidy, Garrus tells me that you are going be adopted as Adrien Victus' daughter." "Yes, sir." "May I ask what precipitated this relationship? You need not answer if it makes you uncomfortable." "He was on the Normandy as the new Primarch to negotiate for the Turian Heirarchy in the summit where the krogan demanded a cure for genophage as a condition for any help from them. Victus' son, Tarquin, was with his team pinned by Reapers. I and my team got down there and helped them clear out the Reapers, then I got Tarquin's morale up so he could get his team invested in the mission again. I and my team helped them on the mission and Tarquin took a huge risk to clear a complication in the final moments. In order to pull him clear, I had to strip his shields so I could pull him back to safety. Unfortunately just after I pulled him, an explosion went off behind and he got burned because he had no shields. We got him and the other wounded soldiers from his team back to the Normandy. Dr Chakwas took Tarquin first and did what she could, but his lungs had burned, too. I was there with Adrien when Tarquin was brought back to consciousness to say his good-byes. I don't mourn Tarquin as much as his father does, but I do mourn him. Tarquin did what he had to, to save a mission of galactic importance. And I liked him. I will be proud to count him as my brother." "Garrus said something important had occurred. Thank you for telling me. We will be proud be aligned with the Victus family."
Solana and Garrus came to the table. They ate in silence for a bit. Cassidy excused herself for a moment. She went in the other room and pulled up her omni-tool. She put in a request to Victus. It was a few moments before he came on, "What can I do for you, Captain?" "I'm formally requesting that Commander Solana Vakarian, Engineer 3rd class be transferred to the Normandy for an indefinite tour of service." "Request granted, Captain. She has an exemplary record, I'm sure she'll be an asset to the Normandy. Captain, please notify me when you have at least 48 hours leave to spend here on Palaven." "I will let you know, Primarch." "Victus, out"
She went back out to the table. "Commander, your transfer to the Normandy has been approved." She sat down to finish her breakfast. Garvin looked up at Solana then at Cassidy. "You're taking her on as crew, Cassidy?" "Yes, sir. We will be losing an engineer when Tali'Zorah goes back to Rannoch. Taking Solana on now will give Tali time to orient Solana to the job. She will be reporting to Chief Engineer Adams." "I see. I'm sure you have an ulterior motive here, Captain." Cassidy turned to her omni-tool. "Cortez, we have moved since you dropped us off. Bring the shuttle to our new location. EDI, we have a new engineer coming aboard, Commander Solana Vakarian, inform Chief Adams and place her in a vacant room on Deck 6." She stood up, picked up her bundle. Garrus and Solana stood up and Garvin got up, " 'No comment', heard loud and clear, Cassidy, I won't grill you any further, today." He came up, touched foreheads with her, then Garrus and then Solana. "Cassidy, Solana, Garrus, take care and keep in touch."
Cassidy led Garrus and Solana out of the compound and to a field beyond where the shuttle was coming in. "Cortez, this is Commander Solana Vakarian, new engineer. Solana, this is Lieutenant Steve Cortez, shuttle pilot and keeper of the armory." "Welcome, Commander Vakarian." said Cortez. They landed and EDI met the shuttle in her platform. "Captain. Adviser. Welcome Commander Vakarian, please allow me to show you around." Cassidy said, "Solana, this is EDI, our ship's AI or at least this is her mobile platform." Solana said, "Hello EDI. Adviser, Captain." Solana went off with EDI.
"Joker, Thessia next, please." When they got there, Liara rode in the shuttle with Cassidy and Samara. Liara looked out at the extent of reconstruction that had occurred so far. She was reassured by what she saw. They landed in a field just outside the capital city and Samara said her goodbyes. They headed back to the Normandy. Cassidy asked Liara, "Have you heard from Aethyta?" "Yes, just this morning, in fact. She's back on Illium. They have had some damage from Reaper beams on factories, com satellites and other things, like the Nos Astra spaceport. Apparently they just got a new com satellite up." "Any of your contacts checking in? Actually, they are trickling in. Once the planetary communication satellites go back up, I'll be in much better shape." "Heard from Feron?" "No, not yet, but I'm fairly confident he survived. He said he was going to head to somewhere the Reapers had been and gone." "Did the Reapers get to Kahje?" "No, actually the Hanar Illuminated Primacy may be the most active of the species for awhile." "I hope Thane benefited from the study he went to Kahje for." "I'll try to find out, when I can get hanar signals relayed to us."
When they got back to the ship, Cassidy said, "Joker, Earth." "Heading out, Captain." Some of the girls were playing volleyball and a spike sent the ball right at her. She caught it and tossed it back. She spotted Mrs Hughes and waved her over. "Captain, what can I do for you?" "We are going to be arriving at Earth just after lunch. However I'm not going to send your girls down today. I want to make sure that there's somebody assigned to them from the Alliance, to make sure they are dealt with appropriately and aren't taken advantage of. I know that you and Mrs Deepak will do that, but you don't know what's going on down there, nor who's who. So, once I get a liaison for them, I have that person come up here to talk to them. We'll arrange for them to go down tomorrow once housing is found and we know who's going to do what."
Mrs Hughes replied, "Yes, good plan, Captain. Well, we have two 18 year olds. Both want to join the Alliance, since that is their best assurance at housing, food, training and security. There are six 17 year olds. One of those is Kaitlyn, who's very gifted intellectually and wants to join the Alliance immediately. I told her I would sign for her if she was sure. She hasn't wavered. The other five want to finish high school, they were just starting their final semesters. There are five 16 year olds and two 15 year olds. We'll put all those through the rest of their high school training, but one of the 15 year olds, Melanie Rand, is showing emergence of biotics and she needs specialized training." "Thank you for the info. I'll see what I can do."