Wednesday

"Hi, Liara."

"Hello, Grunt." Liara wasn't surprised, though she did wonder which of the crew had coordinated the visiting schedule. Less than an hour after Cortez had dropped her off following lunch yesterday, EDI had arrived, declaring that Joker had decreed an afternoon of 'chick flicks'. The idea that Joker had suggested the playlist had been more than a little unsettling, but fortunately, Vaenia was nowhere in evidence. Fleet and Flotilla, Check and Mate, and She's A Keeper provided a full afternoon's combined viewing and discussion of the actual romantic customs of the various species as opposed to how they were portrayed for the sake of broad cinematic appeal. "Bakara, Wrex, it's wonderful to see you!"

"Had to talk to the Council, anyway," Wrex declared, turning to study the surrounding buildings before lumbering inside. "Any chance the pyjak's hanging around out there?"

Liara shook her head. "With the security system that Samantha and Kasumi set up, we would know." She knew Feron's skills, and as good as they were, they stood no chance against the combined talents of the two women. Her sleep might be troubled, but it was not from the fear that he would gain access to the flat.

"Pity," Wrex grumbled, shrugging his massive shoulders. "The whelp and I were going to turn his skull into a biotiball."

"I appreciate the thought," Liara told him, "but Feron hasn't been seen on Earth in several weeks. He's probably long gone."

"He'd better stay moving, then," Grunt declared with a predatory smile. "The bounty out on him is going to make him very popular."

"Bounty?" Liara stared at him with a sinking feeling. Surely Beth hadn't -

"Your father's doing," Bakara clarified, settling her bulk on the reinforced sofa that Shepard had purchased for just such visitors. "I can see the krogan influence in that one," she observed approvingly, loosening the sling that had been secured across her hump.

"It doesn't seem to have translated to the next generation," Liara admitted, unsure for once whether to be relieved or rueful at the notion. No krogan would have submitted so meekly for so long.

"There is strength in you," the krogan matriarch stated with calm surety. "It simply requires the right fire to ignite it. How is the child?"

"Growing," Liara replied, approaching to peer at the trio of bundles that Bakara laid out on the sofa cushions. "They're so tiny," she marveled. Their heads were even larger in proportion to their bodies than adult krogan, and they seemed to be all eyes and mouth. It seemed impossible that they could grow to be Wrex's size.

"They're large for their age, actually," Bakara said with pride. "Possibly due to the smaller clutch size."

"Or possibly just really good genes," Wrex suggested, looking down at his offspring with obvious satisfaction.

"I'd heard that the clutch sizes have been much smaller than historical data suggests," Liara said. Considering that historical data recorded up to one-thousand fertilized eggs per female per year, she had to wonder if Mordin had done a bit more tweaking to the genophage cure than he had let on.

Bakara nodded. "But there are clutches now," she said. "Almost every female who has bred has laid eggs, and the babies are strong and healthy. None stillborn. That is worth a lower clutch count."

"Just means that we have to breed more often to make up for it," Wrex observed with a lecherous grin at his mate. "Even the whelp is getting into the act."

"You have a mate?" Liara asked the young krogan, but Wrex uttered a bark of laughter.

"Mate? He's bred almost as many females as I have!"

Grunt puffed up visibly at his leader's words. "There is one though," he said. "Taraka. She's special … a warrior, like Shepard." His blue eyes gleamed with a fierce pride. "Our children will be strong."

"I'd love to meet her, Grunt," the asari told him, "and I know Beth would, too."

"You will," he promised. "I will bring her once her eggs have hatched. Our children should know their clan and krantt."

"Particularly this one," Bakara added, nodding toward Liara's belly. "It will be good for them to have a companion whose lifespan can match theirs." She cocked her head, gentle humor in her eyes as she added, "Perhaps one of our children will even take your daughter as a mate."

"It's possible," Liara agreed, trying not to dwell on more somber thoughts suggested by Bakara's words: that Ash and James, Garrus and Tali and all their children would age and die while krogan and asari lived on for centuries. That Beth would likewise age and die. She'd told Shepard once that the asari were pragmatic about such things, treasuring the time they had with shorter lived mates, but would she be able to apply such principles to herself, if it ever came to that? "You think you could live with an asari in the family?" she teased Wrex, putting such broodings away for the moment.

He shrugged. "Already got one," he rumbled, "and any kid of Shepard's isn't going to be lacking for breeding requests on Tuchanka."

The offhanded statement was enough to bring tears to Liara's eyes – damn her crazed hormones – but she was saved by Grunt.

"I got a present for the baby," he announced, looking immensely pleased with himself as he rummaged in the pack he'd been carrying, coming out with -

"It's … lovely, Grunt," Liara managed, accepting the offering and turning it this way and that. "It's -"

"It's Kalros," he supplied helpfully. "Hottest toy on Tuchanka right now."

It was indeed the Mother of All Thresher Maws in miniature, reproduced in surprising detail in the plush figure that was perhaps two feet in length, with the gently bobbing tentacles adding another foot.

"Some salarian company started making them, can't keep them in stock," Wrex put in. "This was the last one they had in the shop; Grunt and I had to do some serious headbutting to get it."

"Thank you," Liara told them, more genuine warmth in her words now. "I can understand why Kalros would be popular."

"She is the pride of Tuchanka," Bakara confirmed. "The thresher maw that defeated a Reaper."

"The maw hammers are getting used again," Wrex added. "The clans and krogan from all over the galaxy come to see her and offer her food. Think she's added another ten meters since the war ended … not that anyone's measured her."

"What … does she eat?" Liara asked, trying to calculate how much meat would be required to sustain that vast bulk.

"Mostly metal and minerals," Wrex said. "People bring loads of stone, old wrecks. Tuchanka's loaded with that kind of stuff. Some offworld pyjaks bring gold, platinum, brand new machinery, but Kalros doesn't give a damn. She eats it all … plus anyone who gets too close to the offerings." He chuckled suddenly. "Had a documentary crew show up, wanted to record a vid with 'extreme close-up'. Specially shielded cameras and everything … except they forgot to shield themselves. Still waiting to see if she shits out the cameras. If the memory chips managed to survive, ought to be some good footage."

"Your appointment with the Council is in half an hour," Bakara reminded her mate.

"Yeah, yeah," Wrex grumbled. "Wouldn't want to miss that."

"What are you meeting with them about?" Liara asked.

"Obtaining rights to more planets to colonize," he replied. "I've beaten down the idiots who can't think of anything but taking over the whole damned galaxy, got the clans putting their energy into rebuilding Tuchanka, but having some extra territory to expand to should help shut up the holdouts, and if the fertility rate holds where it is, it should be a few generations before we outgrow them."

"Not everyone is happy about that," Grunt put in with a scowl. "The idiots would rather claim territory through conquest, even if it turns the rest of the galaxy against the krogan."

"The females are satisfied, however," Bakara said. "Better that every female bear fewer children than none bear them at all. The genophage can be re-created, should the krogan again be perceived as a threat, and would likely be far worse than the original was. The female clans agree that such foolishness cannot be allowed to doom our race, and we will stand firm."

"My secret weapon," Wrex chuckled with an evil grin.

"Do the other males object to you enlisting the females' support?" Liara asked him curiously, but it was his mate who answered.

"Those who wish to breed have learned not to," she replied serenely. "Generations of focus upon nothing but conflict have brought our people to the brink of ruin. Adversity will remain the fire that tempers us, the stone that sharpens us, but the blade of our strength can no longer be allowed to cut indiscriminately."

"And if no sex isn't enough of a motivation, I crack their heads," Wrex finished, adding with considerably less enthusiasm, "All right, time to go play politics. C'mon, whelp. You need to learn to do more than fight."

"You mean for when I'm old and toothless like you?" Grunt shot back, but he followed his clan leader out the door.

"Is Wrex grooming him as a successor?" Liara asked Bakara.

"Perhaps in time, if none of our offspring is suitable," the krogan replied, "but his immediate goal is to encourage the young bloods to think beyond their next battle, to focus on what will help all krogan, not simply themselves or their clan."

"Did you want to go with them?" Liara asked. "I could watch the little ones for you."

Bakara shook her head. "Wrex and Grunt can handle the Council. The children will need to eat soon, and I do not think that an asari's anatomy is adapted to the task."

"No, it isn't," Liara agreed. Krogan females fed their young by regurgitating partially digested food from their second stomach. "Would you like something to eat, then? Beth left enough food to feed a small army." And she'd managed to make an embarrassing dent in it on her own.

"Human food tends to be too mild for krogan tastes," Bakara remarked, "but Shepard did recommend something called 'Thai' to me."

"That does sound good," Liara replied with a rueful smile as her own stomach gave an approving gurgle, "and I know a place that delivers."