Chapter 51
The morning brought the unwelcome false light of a Citadel day into the bedroom.
Anne was still curled in close to Pallin who kept a firm arm around her.
"You awake?" she said quietly.
"Yep."
"I'm sorry about last night."
Pallin frowned. "Why?"
"I shouldn't have dumped all that on you."
"Anne, I'm glad you did. You kept all of that inside yourself. I can't imagine how hard it's been for you to adjust to living here after... well, let's just leave it at that."
Anne peered up at the turian from where she'd had her face buried in his side.
"Would you like to finish our talk?"
"Indeed but first-" he said with a dramatic flourish of ripping off the blankets covering them, "-let's get some food."
After a nice and easy going breakfast – one interrupted briefly by Laelia who joined them for a few minutes before leaving for work, they finally sat opposite each other in the living room and talked in earnest.
"I can make people do things, feel things even if they don't want to. I don't do it but I could. If I wanted to. Which I don't."
She searched Pallin's face for any sign of disbelief or astonishment. Anne only found him looking grave and serious as he listened to her thoughtfully.
Anne sighed and continued. "They found these machines. Ancient and huge. Jack called them Reapers. He said that there's cycles that happen when they come back and wipe out entire civilizations before disappearing again. That's why he started experimenting with me. They found one and they pulled it apart."
Pallin watched Anne carefully.
"They found parts of it that they could use in humans. They could use in me."
"Anne..."
"I know what I am, Pallin! I was born to be an experiment. I wasn't meant to have a family or a normal life. Jack made me! He made me to..."
She stopped as it got a little too much for her.
"To what, Anne?" Pallin pressed her gently.
Anne's blue eyes stared out the window at the view over the Presidium.
"He made me to control them. And then he would control me."
"Jack doesn't have you, Anne."
She finally turned her gaze to Pallin who smiled at her. "And you're not an experiment to me. Tell me... is Ortha leaving any time soon?"
"I think the end of the week."
Pallin nodded. "Good. I need to meet with him."
"Oh?"
"I need to know how far this goes in order to figure out a plan."
"Welcome back, Captain. How is the little Miss?"
Ortha gave a tight smile to his next in command, Neimix, as the krogan greeted him back at his docked ship.
"She's fine. Not particularly impressed by her choice of partner but she's young. Plenty of time to convince her otherwise."
The krogan grinned. "Will she be paying us a visit?"
"I don't know. Leave it with me, Neimix. I'll see if I can't get her to call over tomorrow."
"Yes, Captain. Just so you know we've had a call from the Boss."
Ortha frowned. "Everything going as planned?"
"Yes but she wants to speak to you, Captain."
"Hmm. I better get to it then."
He tossed his jacket on to a nearby chair as soon as he stepped into the cabin.
Ortha mused over how he'd have to tidy the place a little while he scaled over the piles of data-pads the littered the floor next to his desk and terminal.
After taking a moment to prepare what he was going to say, Ortha placed a call out on secured channels.
It took a few tense seconds before the Boss answered.
"You're back."
"Neimix said you were looking for me?"
The Boss's piercing blue eyes stared at him unnervingly from the static filled image on screen.
"How is Anne?"
"Good. She's gotten a lot better. Barely recognized her to be honest."
"She's eating well?"
Ortha chuckled. "Like a varren. Took her out to dinner and she cleared her plate. It was nice to see."
"What about the security situation on the station?"
"She's undiscovered. He hasn't found her yet."
The boss huffed. "And we'll keep it that way. Are you in a secure enough position to take her with you?"
Ortha shook his head. "Not yet. Still keeping one eye on that Spectre. It's what we feared, Boss. He's in the pocket of the machines."
"Well... we'll need to fix that."
Ortha frowned. "What about you? Any news from the interrogations?"
"Nothing concrete but we've got plenty of data to go through. Jack has twigged that his pet project hasn't communicated in their latest update. We're bunkering down here for his guaranteed attempt to regain his facility."
"You want help?"
Ortha watched the faint smile curl up the lips of the blonde haired and scarred human female on the screen.
"No. You take care of my daughter and watch the Spectre, old friend. I'll deal with Jack. We've enough bodies here to hold this place for a very long time. He's gonna have to learn the hard way that if he wants this facility he's gonna have to wade through the blood of his own men. I'll be in touch soon."
The screen went black as the Boss cut off the call.
Ortha leaned back in his chair and pondered.
