Chapter 43: Reckoning
xxxx
I kicked back in the co-pilots seat, legs crossed and feet propped up on the dashboard of the CRF Castellus. For a moment I stared out the window at the FTL flux and then back to the left, at Rana sitting in the pilot's seat. The engineer didn't have to do much while we were in FTL drive, so she was leaned back in the bucket seat fiddling with her omni-tool. Tweaking outputs or coming up with new apps, knowing her. I smiled a little; despite everything going on around us...
For such a small ship, the Castellus was incredibly equipped. I had even been able to find enough parts to entirely replace the damaged shell of my Elite armor. I'd left the fitted helmet on Zephine, so I had to retrofit a Turian helmet and deal with a short fringe. Oh, and Delina was gonna be pissed – all of her nice paintwork was gone. Now I was just stuck with a basic dark grey camo. Except for the right arm. Instead of leaving it crimson, I covered it with a layer of black. I hadn't done a good job, but I was done with trying to keep my armor pretty. I had lost, destroyed, or torn up enough sets now.
But Rana… I had been able to find a set of Contractor Engineer armor for her; light, hard armor. It was just a basic grey – I had done away with the red right arm. It had a whole slew of features like omni-tool amps and overclockable kinetic barriers. Hell, it even fit her. Quite well. I didn't know how 'standard' armor would look on her, but the lighter grey was working pretty swell. "Ya know… you look good in hard armor."
The engineer looked up from her omni-tool, almost hiding a smirk. "Implying that I did not in traditional uniform?"
"No." I shook my head, defending: "It's just different. That's all. There was nothing wrong with your uniform."
She nodded slowly and raised her brow suspiciously. "Is that so?"
"Yeah." I replied carefully. It felt like a trap.
"I am surprised you would want to look at more armor and less…" The engineer trailed off, gesturing to her form for lack of an adequate word.
"Hey, I'm just saying that I've never seen you in hard armor." I defended lightheartedly. "'sides, I still remember Zavalon."
"As do I. We were drenched in swamp water." Rana noted dryly.
"Yeah… I guess that wasn't very romantic." I admitted.
"No." Rana shook her head, rose, and lazily walked over. "But up until then it was quite so."
She had gotten out of my sight. I knew the Asari was standing right behind me, but I wasn't about to move. I was comfortable. she couldn't have been up to anything too bad. I mean, she'd already sabotaged my chair before I got in so that it spun out of control for several seconds. I glanced up just as she leaned over the back of the chair, fiddling with my hair for seconds and the kissing me. She drew away slowly, adding: "I certainly hope that ordeal didn't shatter the idea of a second date."
"Definitely not. Once all this is over…" I started, staring up at her, "I mean, once we take the Contractor down."
"That is becoming more and more of a long-term goal."
"Well, maybe sooner." I offered. "Fine by me."
"I look forward to it." The Asari smiled, disappeared from view again. "But for now, the jump to Thessia is approaching."
"Right." I responded, straightening up in my seat and pulling up a few haptics. The Asari homeworld had been one of the shortest relay jumps. Once we were there we would be able to get back on track. In theory, anyway. I had a bad feeling in my gut as we approached the relay.
xxxx
"This is Rana T'Lan of the 517th Commando division. Requesting a docking bay at hanger 231A for the CRF Castellus." The engineer announced to local authorities, glancing over at me nervously. I did what I could to help with the approach… there were a lot of systems to monitor, even with two of us.
"Your IFF is marked as Contractor paramilitary. There is already a Contractor frigate in the requested hanger. Per recent security updates, no more than one paramilitary ship is allowed to dock at a time. Please defer your approach."
"Shit…" I muttered. Why the hell are they here?
"Negative." Rana continued. "This is an official matter. And we're only using a Contractor frigate for transportation!"
"I'm sorry, but rules are rules. Please defer."
"Get Chief T'Raela on the line." I ordered, activating my comm link for just long enough.
There was a pause. We heard the addition of another comm line.
"This is T'Raela. What's the holdup?"
"Chief T'Raela," Rana explained, "This is Rana T'Lan of -"
"The 517th commando division. I remember the name. But you're piloting a Contractor vessel now." The chief didn't sound convinced. I couldn't blame her.
"I understand how this must look…" Rana protested, "But we just need a place to land. The matter is urgent."
"Alright. How many of you are aboard?"
"There are only two of us, Chief." Rana reported, looking over at me again – lines of worry etched into her brow.
There was another pause. "Alright. You're cleared to dock. We'll have a quarantine team to meet you and confirm ID."
"Understood. Thank you." Rana nodded slowly, shut the commlink, turned to me and said: "What could the Contractor possibly be doing here?"
"I dunno. It can't be good, though."
"Certainly not." Rana paused. "The embassies are nearby as well."
I raised my eyebrow. "Let's hope that's not why they're here."
We were soon enough docked. I grabbed my helmet and donned it in front of the airlock. Things could escalate all too quickly if they realized they were dealing with an unrecorded alien. Kaira wasn't here to bail us out with her fancy Spectre cred.
The sealed containment doors opened, allowing us to step out on the gangway. Rana and I walked shoulder and shoulder as we left the vessel – and faced the quarantine team. Holy hell. 12 commandos with assault rifles trained on us. I hadn't expected a warm welcome, but this was rather overkill. At least they let us get onto the dock before one yelled out:
"That's close enough." She motioned her rifle at me. "Take off the helmet."
"I'd rather not." I responded slowly and certainly, hoping she would be easily sway
"Sir, you're going to have to take off the helmet for ID purposes. Now."
Well shit. It looked like we were going to have a diplomatic incident either way. "Alright…" I responded, shaking my head slightly and then slowly – as to buy time in which the police commando might have changed her mind – raised my hands to unlatch the modded Elite helmet. My armored fingers found the mechanism and no one was backing down. I started to break the seal.
"They're clean. Stand down."
The swarm of police officers lowered their rifles and parted as T'Raela approached. She looked worn down. Even more so then the last time I had seen her. "Sorry for the trouble commandos. After last time the Contractor showed up… well, we don't trust them."
"Why are they here now?" Rana asked.
T'Raela shrugged. "According to hanger command, they were returning ID tags to the families of the deceased."
"They're glorified mercs. You bought into that shit?" I asked, a little annoyed as I glanced over at the larger Contractor frigate and clipped my helmet back down. Crisis averted.
"No, I know it's a complete heap of Varren rot. But since high command can't get their act together and bring down a restriction order… there's nothing I can do." T'Raela explained, watching us – mostly Rana, since she wasn't concealed by a helmet – and apparently catching on our concern. "You don't think they'd go after diplomats again?"
"I can see little other reason for them to dock here. Industrial sectors are kilometers away." Rana deduced quickly.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much. All of the embassies have Crossfire bodyguards. Seasoned commandos." T'Raela offered, waving off some of the officers.
I laughed bitterly. "You think that's going to stop the Contractor? One Elite could tear those guards apart."
"They were heading towards the high residential district." The gears could be seen working in T'Raela's head. "I'll get a police cruiser to bring you out there on the double."
"Thank you, Chief." Rana nodded appreciatively. "We may be acting on heightened suspicions, but The Contractor does not play with any moral standing."
"Understood. The cruiser will be ready in just a minute." The chief responded. "If you don't mind, I'd like to impound the Castellus."
"Sure. Just lock down that other frigate." I pointed to the other Contractor vessel. T'Raela looked like she was about to protest. "Consider it a favor to galactic security."
"Alright. it's clearly against the rules, but rules be damned. I'd like to see those bastards take one in the gut." She nodded once more and took off at a fast walk.
Rana and I made our way across the hanger, towards the shuttle loading area. The young Asari shook her head. "Why would the Contractor attempt something like this now?"
"It's perfect timing." I growled. "The team's split up. Try and strike in extra fear and conflict."
"I suppose so." Rana said, then remained silent. "We will know soon enough."
xxxx
"The guards aren't responding." The cruiser pilot reported as we approached a bridged set of towers.
I exchanged glances with Rana, then ordered: "Take us in. Can you drop us off on the bridge?"
"Yes. That should be right above the main diplomat quarters in the west tower."
"Good."
Rana stretched her hands out. I tapped the chest of my armor, testing the integrity as we approached the drop. The door opened well before we reached the bridge and we stood up; Rana drew her M45 and I drew the VR666, and we stood there in the frame, hanging on by one hand and readying to jump.
The bridge was underneath us. Without hesitation we dropped from the cruiser – which had barely slowed down. I scrambled a little, regained my balance some distance from the edge before taking off in a sprint towards the west tower, not slowing down as I approached the wall but charging my biotics and blasting through the glass.
I dropped a meter or so onto the floor and into a hallway that went around the outside of the tower. I looked around quickly. There were bullet holes in the walls. Small fires here and there. The bodies of several Crossfire mercs lay strewn about.
One Contractor Assassin.
Rana didn't stop; she kept running, past me and when the outside hallway came to an end, turned to the left and headed towards the core of the building. Since she knew the way, I followed right on her heels, barely making it around one corner, running onto the wall of another in order to keep momentum. And finally we reached a wider hallway. We must have been near the outside wall again… there were more sliced up Crossfire guards.
We came to a stop in front of door 456. It had clearly been opened with a formed breach charge. Rana I stood shoulder-to-shoulder outside for a second. I could tell it was an apartment – but one ravaged by a fight. The Crossfire mercs had put one hell of a fight against the intruders. Furniture was strewed about. There were a couple fires from incendiary ammo.
Rana and I entered simultaneously, ducking through and checking our corners. Daylight could be seen from around one wall… and we ventured forth.
There was a crack of glass. Followed by a modulated voice. An Elite.
"Tell me where she is. I won't ask again."
"Unlike you…" An Asari choked, sounding as though she was sputtering through blood, angrily continuing. "I have a duty. And I'd rather die with hon-"
Glass shattered. I could hear the merc as she fell, scream fading quickly.
"Search the apartment. The target has to be here somewhere."
"I don't think so." I growled, spinning out of cover with the voltage rifle on my shoulder and quickly acquiring targets. The Turian Elite and four assassins.
"What the…" Stier started, staring at me for a moment. He had no weapon drawn… but all four Assassins had their katanas drawn. "How many times must I kill you before you stop coming back, Jackson?"
"Same could be said for you." I growled. Stier seemed comfortable with the assassins around him. They were fidgeting a little, ready to attack. Rana was against my left shoulder. "But your luck ends here."
"On the contrary." Stier laughed, then quickly ordered his assassins - "Kill them."
The first assassin to move was met with a stream of high-voltage particles that devastated her weaker shields. In fact, they overloaded and electrocuted her momentarily. that was just long enough for Rana to blast her with the shotgun.
But the other three had closed in. I flung the rifle onto my back and formed two biotic blades. Two assassins took me on; the third went after Rana. I deflected the first with my right blade, spinning her swords quickly around and out of her hands. Before she could recover, my momentum carried around clockwise; I blocked the other Asari with the same right blade while the left pierced through soft chest armor. That assassin went down, gurgling: "Avenge me sisters!"
I glimpsed Rana blasting her respective opponent with the shotgun, using her new omni-tool blade to deflect a hit – before quickly cocking the M45 and firing again.
I still had an Assassin to deal with. She made a horizontal scissor-swipe at me, leaving me no option but to drop backwards. While her blades were extended from her sides, my boot was clear to catch her right in the jaw. Her helmet deflected the hit to some degree; my momentum carried over into a backwards summersault. When I popped back up and formed new blades, a Contractor shuttle was just outside the window. And Stier was leaping to safety. The assassin, while stunned, was trying to make the same escape.
I roared furiously, sprinting towards the window, overtaking the assassin, almost reaching the gap before the shuttle rolled away from the building and fell into a swift descent.
"Forrest, watch -" Rana warned. I heard the Assassin running up behind me, probably going to jump out the window suicide-style. I had other plans. She was coming from my right, and so I spun that way, left fist arcing out and biotics flaring. And I caught her in the gut, immediately reversing her direction and smashing her into the wall just two meters from where Rana stood.
The engineer looked surprised, shotgun still raised, a single scratch in the shoulder of her armor. It had only chipped the paint. I nodded.
She holstered the M-45 and called out: "Mother! Please tell me you are still here!"
I glanced back out the window at the distant Contractor shuttle; I cursed that slippery bastard Stier. There was nothing I could do there, so I diverted my attention to the unconscious assassin. At least we would have intel. I relieved her of both swords, omni-tool and utility belt and zipped her hands together with a cable cuff.
With her dealt with, I went to help Rana search for her mother. I didn't get very far. The young commando was helping the matron out of a secret floor compartment between living room and bedroom. Decelia too was unharmed. Just shaken.
"You alright?" I asked, just to be sure.
"Y-yes," the older T'Lan responded. "No doubt thanks to the two of you…" She paused and then added. "It was just earlier today that I became worried about you, Ran. I don't know why…"
"I am not the one you should worry about." Rana consoled, sitting her mother down in the least disturbed part of the kitchen. While they spoke quietly I took the liberty of straying away, acquiring a fire extinguisher and dealing with the flames throughout the apartment.
That only took a minute. Then I felt like I could stop for a minute and check on Decelia.
"…I've known they were watching me for weeks now." Decelia explained. "Their agents were not exactly subtle."
"Mother, why did you not tell me this earlier? We could have done something!"
The older Asari shook her head. "I'm certain you had more pressing matters. Besides, I thought they were simply watching me, especially after the first few days."
"We could have found time. I am certain of it." Rana persisted.
"I suppose you could have. I did not think they would try the same stunt twice." Decelia shook her head. "Either way. Thank you both for saving me again. I have to ask, though – where are Kaira and Delina?"
Oh yeah. I had kinda forgotten that was why we were here on Thessia. Rana and I exchanged glances as if to make sure we were on the same page. I reached for an empty chair and started to sit down. "It's a long sto-"
I stopped mid sentence as the Elite sensors picked up sound. Footsteps. Several sets. Running. Best I could tell, they were down the hallway. Neither of the Asari heard them yet. I quickly stood and warned: "We've got company."
Rana's eyes suddenly shot to the entrance; she rose without looking away. "Mother, it would be best if you stayed down for a minute."
Decelia ducked down behind the counter. I drew the VR666 and took a strong, open position. I could roll to cover if shit went down, but I would be able to stop anyone who tried to rush into the room. Rana drew her pistol and took cover behind an interior wall. We waited. The footsteps got closer and Rana noticed them too.
I shifted my stance. I was horribly exposed, relying on the Elite armor's protection to take the brunt of any attack.
They were on us. Two forms leapt through the doorway, guns raised and quickly trained on me. And we both paused, neither firing. Even Rana was hanging out of cover, shotgun trained but not firing.
"What in the hell is going on?"
Delina. I almost laughed as I lowered my rifle. "I could ask you the same thing."
Kaira shook her head disbelievingly. "We followed a Contractor frigate from the relay. I was afraid they were going to cause trouble here. What happened?"
"Stier and a pack of assassins. He got away again, but I captured one of the assassins."
"Yeah yeah. Nice work saving the day and all." Delina grumbled, holstering her shotty. "How the fuck did you get here?"
Rana shifted about, standing next to me. "You followed the CRF Castellus, did you not?"
Kaira nodded. "You were on board that frigate?"
"Yeah. We seized it when they tried to recon the Zephine debris." I confirmed.
The commander opened her mouth as to say something and then reconsidered, shooting Delina an annoyed glance before asking: "Are you two alright?"
"We are fine, commander." Rana replied.
"As am I." Decelia responded, rising from her cover.
"I'm sorry, ambassador. I should have realized that the Contractor would not be held back by security guards." Kaira offered rather downtrodden.
"You did what you could, Spectre. I thank you for that. Although I might request we go somewhere else to converse… At least until the corpses have been disposed of."
"Understandable." Kaira looked at me, or my helmet anyhow, and then made eye contact with Rana. "I believe we have quite a bit of catching up to do."
So we moved out. I slung the unconscious Contractor Assassin over my shoulder and trailed behind.
xxxx
The four of us stood around the comm center. Decelia was up on the bridge with T'Vanalia just for a little while as we got shit sorted out. None of us had time to clean up or change out of our armor, and I being the only one with a helmet, had to clip it to my back while we worked things out.
And Kaira wasn't happy. "What in Goddess's name happened back on Zephine?"
"You ordered us to go back in and manually set the power cores to overload." Rana stated.
I picked up where she stopped. "The Contractor had already overridden controls and set the place to blow. We hardly got out of that place before it went boom. We just barely outran the explosion."
"We didn't entirely escape. All of our equipment was offline for some time and most of it was destroyed." Rana noted.
The commander shook her head. "Faeven's codes worked. We set the cores to overload. We started falling back before we had all the prisoners. We waited at the extraction point as long as possible. I wasn't sure what the hell happened. You didn't answer any raises after the initial pull out."
"But… you ordered us to go back in shortly after!" Rana protested.
"No. My last orders were to evacuate. I thought I made that clear." Kaira scowled a little.
Rana and I looked at each other. We both knew what we had heard. I brought up my omni-tool, accessing recent commlink logs. Somehow undamaged.
There was Kaira. "We can't let this base fall back under Contractor control. Are there any other teams close to the power reactors? We need to start the overload manually. This isn't going to be easy."
And then me. "Copy that, Commander. T'Lan and I can go back in."
The pause. Then Kaira once more. "Alright. Jackson, T'Lan… Get in there and get the job done. Make it quick and don't take any unnecessary risks."
I closed my omni-tool up and regarded the Commander with folded arms. She didn't look up from the inactive holo projector.
Rana suddenly gasped. "Goddess! That entire conversation was a fabrication!"
It made sense. I knew at the time Kaira wouldn't order us to do something like that. And I ignored my gut instinct.
"I'm sorry." Kaira started, still not looking up. "You were depending on me for orders and this happens."
"How the hell did the Contractor get into our comms like that?" Delina growled.
"I do not know. Now that I have access to our main network, I can investigate…" Rana began, her thought process having potential for an intangible rant. "And I can update every last connection and encryption."
"It also explains the confusion at the relay. I thought it was just a matter of damaged communications arrays…" Kaira continued, then suddenly shook her head despairingly. "Where have you been all this time?"
"Zephine. Patching up our equipment n' shit." I responded.
"So the comm chatter about you being with the 5th was forged as well." Kaira was sinking. I could feel her energy spiraling downwards.
"Why didn't you check with them?" I asked hesitantly.
"I did. You weren't there, but they had gone through some boarding skirmishes with a Contractor frigate. Several of their troops were taken."
"We could have been among those abducted…" Rana noted dully.
"That's why we waited by the relay. When the Castellus passed by once… we knew we just had to wait. And sure enough, it came right back. We trailed it to Illium thinking you might have been incarcerated." Kaira shook her head once more, flashing back and realizing: "I left you both for dead."
Rana and I exchanged glances. That was the truth, but neither us wanted to be that blunt about it now, even though we had wanted to before. Rana spoke up. "By all means we should have been dead. We were caught well within the blast radius."
"Let me get this right…" The arms specialist began again. "This whole time you've just been kickin' it on Zephine?"
"I would hardly say that." Rana argued. "The day cycles are hot enough to kill. We ran out of water within hours and none of our equipment was functional."
Delina raised her brow suggestively, as if reminding us that we were alone and together for two days. It didn't help that Rana and I were standing right next to each other now, armor damn near brushing.
"And nothing like that happened." I growled warningly. Kaira shot the arms specialist an annoyed glance. Delina didn't seem all that bothered by the situation; she was more amused by her attempt to make us uncomfortable.
"And you managed to ambush the Contractor reclamation team and use them as a way out." The Spectre deduced.
"With the omission of a few details, yes." Rana confirmed.
"I take it the blast destroyed your armor."
The engineer raised her right hand as to study the new hard armor. "Yes. It was stripped to the base mesh in many places."
Delina whistled impressed-like.
"I don't know if this is undue, but…" I prefaced my next words. "But what about Faeven?"
"I had my doubts about her." Kaira raised her head. "She's not entirely there, but she proved to be invaluable. The Contractor launched several cyberwarfare attacks. She was able to disarm them before they could cause any harm."
"And the data we uploaded?" Rana asked.
"It began erasing itself shortly after. Faeven shut down the command before we lost all of it."
"How much did we lose?"
"At least half of it." Kaira winced momentarily. "But there's still a tremendous amount for us to go through."
I cringed as I asked: "Was it worth it?"
"You tell me." Kaira retorted bitterly. "You're the one who nearly died several times over for it."
"I guess we'll see." I didn't know what to say. Without going through it… Well, I sure as hell hoped there were some answers in there.
We were almost silent before Rana asked: "How did the rest of the fleet fare?"
"Well. Up until the relay battle. We didn't have our act together and they took some losses. The 5th and 6th divisions especially." Kaira explained. "They're hanging back in darker space and making repairs."
"And the Cavalry?" I added.
"Ryala has gained from the situation. Many of the prisoners were able fighters with a grudge against the Contractor. It didn't take much for them to sign on."
"Figures." I nodded once.
"Keep this up this chattering and we're all going to need nice dresses and fine wine." Delina complained. "I say we get back out there and make the Contractor hurt." For emphasis she punched her palm violently.
"Agreed. With the Contractor situation resolved here for the time being…" Kaira started. "Although that still leaves Matron T'Lan."
"We're just baiting the Contractor if we leave her now." I pointed out.
"For once I agree." Delina spoke up. "And I don't think that fucker cares how many guards get in the way – he's going to get his target."
"My place is here." Decelia suddenly spoke up, stepping down the short flight of stairs from the bridge. "I cannot ignore my responsibilities. Even if it unsafe, I would rather take the risk than compromise who I am."
"Especially if Stier is in charge here, they will be back." I warned.
"And we have the comms room here. I am sure you could fulfill your duties remotely." Kaira added, covering the discontent that was gripping all of us.
"Perhaps. But I would be nothing but a burden to you and your crew, Kaira."
"We can spare the space as long as we're going up against the Contractor."
"And," Rana quickly added, "With fewer ways to leverage us, he will be left with the lower hand."
Decelia was hesitant for several seconds. "I suppose the committee would accept my temporary absence under these circumstances. My only request is have a short time to gather my work."
"We can arrange that." Kaira nodded. "I'm sure we could pick up additional supplies while we are here."
We all exchanged nods and various glances – Delina gave a look like she wanted to duke it out again – and started to move about our separate ways when the commlink rang. Decelia moved away, back up the bridge.
Kaira returned, opening the holo. I recognized Ryala immediately. She was still armored up, standing yellow upon the table.
"Captain T'Deras," The commander acknowledged. "What's the situation?"
"About 120 of the prisoners are now enlisted in the Cavalry. We're working on finding room and gear for them now."
"Understood. We might be able to help with that. What about the other 80?"
"They're either too shaken up to fight, or they don't want to fight." Ryala explained. "But they're geniuses. We can't let them fall back in the Contractor's hands."
"Understood. We can probably transfer them to the citadel." Kaira nodded.
"Forrest, Rana… glad to see you're back among the living. I thought you might have been caught in the Zephine base when it blew." Ryala smiled faintly.
"We were." I scratched my head. "But yeah. We're here now."
"Glad to hear it." The Asari Vanguard nodded. "That's it for now. I just wanted to give a brief report, Spectre."
"Thank you. Goddess be with you."
"Same goes for you."
The holo disappeared. Kaira looked over her crew, us. Her eyes were sunken, light catching the lines etched underneath. By the looks of the adept she hadn't slept in a while. "Alright. Let's go regroup. I want to have a word or two with Chief T'Raela."
We nodded, cracked various knuckled and necks, then fell into line. I tugged my helmet on again, sealing it and disabling the voice modulators. There was no need for intimidation at the moment.
The completed 517th, with the temporary addition of Decelia, made its way out onto the gangway and onto the docks. The two Contractor frigates were several bays down from the Akina, but I could see a whole bloody procession going on.
"What the fuck are they up to now?" Delina wondered aloud.
I took a better look. The Contractor troops and techs were being filed of their ship, surrounded by police and commandos. Several officers saluted as we approached. I could see that the paramilitary crew was being stripped of weapons, amps, omni-tools as they were herded off. About time.
"Spectre." T'Raela acknowledged as she approached.
"What's going on here?" Kaira inquired curiously.
"We're able to arrest all these goons as 'accomplices to terrorism.' It's not much, but it's a start."
"And the shuttle that came from the tower?"
The chief shook her head. "Sorry to say, it got away. Damn thing had anti-tracking tech built in. It hightailed to the next spaceport and got whisked away."
I grit my teeth. I wanted to find Stier. Make him pay. I didn't say anything else, opting to listen as the conversation carried on.
"Are you going to instate a restriction against Contractor vessels now?" Kaira asked.
"I'm doing what I can. I'm filing another case for High Command to approve. Seeing how consistently the Contractor is here to cause trouble, they'd be fools to keep sitting around."
"Good. I'll put a word in with them. what about these two frigates?"
"Not much we can do with them. We don't have any use for them, and all the gear is military grade. The only place we could sell it here would be the black market. And… well, I have my reservations on doing that."
"Understandable." Kaira nodded, looking over at the frigates and the last of the Contractor goons. "I'd like to requisition those ships. I can compensate you if need be."
"No need." T'Raela responded vehemently. "I'd be happy just to see them gone and put to good use."
"Thank you, Chief. Good luck getting this mess sorted out."
"Yeah. Same goes to you. I'd really appreciate it if you could stop the Contractor from haggling us much more."
"We're working on it." She repeated quietly, "We're working on it."
I glanced about as we moved on. Rana and Decelia had gone with a police escort to gather the diplomat's work. That left just the three of us to walk silently towards the shuttle port.
"So…" Delina began hopefully. "Shore leave?"
"No." Kaira responded bluntly. "We're just getting some fresh supplies and going back on the hunt. Shore leave will have to wait."
The arms specialist threw up her hands despairingly.
"I'm sorry, but now's not the time, Delina."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it." T'Kasan grumbled, walking with folded arms. I doubted whether she actually got it.
"Forrest." Kaira started, not slowing down.
"Yes ma'am?"
"I apologize for how things turned out. That was inadequate leadership on my behalf."
"A lot of it was out of your control." I pointed out respectfully.
"And there was far more I should have done. I'm sorry for leaving you and Rana hanging." She shook her head. "That was far, far too close of a call. Whatever it takes, we need to avoid such disasters in the future."
I was about to say something when Delina piped up again. "Can we at least go to the bar? For a little while?" She glanced over at me, winking impishly. "I'm sure Forrest could use a few shots after that ordeal."
"No." Kaira and I responded simultaneously, leaving no room for negotiation.
xxxx
