I do not own Mass Effect or any of the characters.
Stowaway
David winced, slowly opening his eyes as he felt himself jerk. He looked around and took in his surroundings slowly. He and Jentha were still lying in the crate of medi-gel, but he could hear voices, and the crate wasn't moving anymore. He gently shook Jentha awake, then covered her mouth and motioned for her to follow quietly. She nodded and he carefully climbed out, helping her out afterward before carefully looking around the crate. There were several people in uniforms with a black vertically-stretched hexagon symbol with two yellow arms reached from just outside the bottom point up along the sides to the top of the two stretched sides. The crew members of whatever ship they'd ended up on were scanning the crates. David and Jentha remained out of sight while they scanned all the crates, and when theirs was scanned, the man hummed thoughtfully.
"What's up?" another asked.
"We got shorted on medi-gel," the man said.
"A lot?" the voice asked.
"Not enough to fuss over," the man said. "And it is from Omega."
"Mark it down and we'll pass it along," the second voice said.
The first grunted in agreement and wrote something on the crate's paperwork before they all left the cargo bay in the elevator. David waited a few moments before taking Jentha's arm over his shoulder and quickly heading to the back of the cargo bay, where an access ladder connected with Engineering. He carefully helped Jentha up through the hatch and closed it after them. When he looked around, he found they were in a dark area underneath the stairs of the Engineering deck.
"Stay here, okay?" David whispered. "I'm going to see whose ship we're on."
Jentha nodded and David gave her a quick kiss before turning himself invisible and heading for the stairs. However, just as the was halfway up, a door opened and a man in a black and white uniform similar to that of the crew that checked the crates wore. Except, David recognized this one's face. It was the freelancer in the black armor that had helped Archangel. David's eyes widened and he froze. There was no way. Of all the people to work on that ship, why him? The man walked through the net door, not noticing David, and a younger voice reached David's ears.
"Oh, Commander, those T-six FBA Couplings went in perfectly," the male voice said, just before the door closed.
David quickly returned to Jentha, turning visible again and sitting beside her on a bench, staring at the ground with wide eyes.
"How bad is it?" Jentha asked.
"You remember that freelancer with the black armor that helped Archangel?" David asked, receiving a nod. "He's a commander, and this is his ship."
Jentha's eyes widened and she swallowed hard, nodding. "What do we do?"
"We have to wait for them to go somewhere we can escape," David said. "I'll...figure something out until then."
Jentha nodded and leaned on his shoulder. "Can I get some more anesthetics?"
David nodded, injecting some more into her leg. She sighed in relief, and he wrapped his arms around her, trying desperately to think of a way out of their new mess.
David pressed himself into the corner of the elevator as three other people stepped inside, heading up to the crew deck. The door opened and they all stepped off. David slipped out just before the door closed and carefully made his way to the galley, finding the cook, Rupert, apparently, easily, and snuck past him to the food stores. He waited until Rupert turned to talk shit with some of the other guys who were giving him a hard time about his cooking, and snatched some military rations. Not much, but enough for himself and Jentha to last another couple days, if they rationed it carefully.
He quietly headed back to the elevator and stood out of the way to wait for someone to use it. As he waited there, two other crew members walked over and pressed the up button, David hesitating before joining them.
"So, how long are we going to sit at Omega's docks?" one of them asked.
"I don't know," the other shrugged. "The commander's Turian friend got hurt pretty bad during the fight, so they're waiting for him to get patched up. Then after that, they need to recruit that Salarian doctor. Then I think we're good to leave."
The elevator dinged as it reached the CIC and David glanced around for a moment, frowning as he saw that the setup was similar to a Turian ship, but it was crewed by humans. Then, the doors closed and he pressed the button for the Engineering Deck. After a moment, it dinged open and a guy frowned, looking into it as David carefully slipped out past it, leaving him to be confused about who had been in the elevator.
David held his breath, Jentha doing the same, as several voices passed overhead, talking about inventories not matching up with food and medi-gel. David glanced at Jentha, who smiled weakly. She needed to be seen by an actual medical professional, such as the ship's doctor, Chakwas, David had found out her name was. But for obvious reasons, that wasn't an option. But they had finally left Omega. Hopefully they'd reach somewhere habitable soon. Somewhere they could either go into hiding or steal a ship of their own.
"I'm going to go and get some more medi-gel," David whispered.
"No, they'll be checking it," Jentha argued quietly.
"You need it," David whispered. "Besides, they won't be checking the actual dispensers."
Jentha's eyes widened, but before she could argue, he vanished, heading up to the elevator. It was getting risky using the elevator, since hardly anyone ever went down to Engineering, but he didn't have another choice. So, he quietly took the elevator up himself, then left it, heading for the medical bay.
"So, where are we going this time?" Rupert was asking Archangel, Garrus, David was pretty sure was his real name.
"Korlus," Garrus said. "A junkyard planet for decommissioned starships."
Rupert shook his head just as Dr. Chakwas walked out of the medical bay. David quickly darted to the medi-gel dispenser and got three applications, not much, but enough to last for a few days, then darted out when Chakwas opened the door again, apparently already finished checking on Garrus's injuries. However, in his haste to leave, he didn't see her double-check the medi-gel dispensers' levels.
David quickly took the elevator back down, once again confusing a crew member, and headed back down to Jentha, giving her one of the doses.
"That was a stupid risk," Jentha said.
"I know," David said. "But you need the medicine. I won't let you die."
Jentha sighed, giving him a sympathetic look before pulling him into a kiss. "Don't get yourself killed either, alright? I don't want to lose you. I want you to realize I just gave up my whole life for you. That should tell you how much I love you."
David smiled. "I know. I'll be careful. I promise."
Jentha smiled and nodded, leaning against David as he sat beside her.
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