Chapter 28 - The Call of Duty

Illium Entertainment News Update - Most human porn actors have formally quit the Galactic Union of Liberated Performers, Inter-species Transgressives, Dominants, Orgy Workers and Nymphomaniacs. The humans announced they will organize on their own as the Pan-galactic Union of Sex Stars & Extreme Exhibitionists. PUSSEE acting president Thane X. Cannon said the move was done to protest the larger organization's 'disgraceful anti-human bias.' "They refuse to push the vid companies to hire more of our species, even in gangbang vids," Cannon argued.

GULPITDOWN President Destinee Asscension said the union regretted the situation but stressed that it was the humans who had abandoned talks meant to resolve the dispute. "We had been involved in intense negotiations and were close to finding a mutually-satisfying position when the humans abruptly walked out. Nobody is more frustrated by this situation than I am." Asscension added that if the humans didn't moderate their demands "they might end up only able to perform with themselves." Both sides said they may resume talks in the future, arguing that several potential openings remain available.

Cpl. Haldrok Purdakas, a young turian soldier, had been in the Citadel Security interview room talking to a pair of officers for the better part of two hours when Commander Armando Bailey walked into the room. "I've got it from here," he curtly told the other officers, who dutifully rose and exited the room. The corporal, already nervous, grew even more agitated as they filed out and he found himself alone with C-Sec's top cop.

Bailey remained standing. He said nothing at first, instead merely drumming his fingers along the top of a chair. His face was an expressionless mask. "Can I get you anything? A drink, maybe?" he blandly asked. "We have dextro tea. Just the generic brands though."

"Commander Bailey, I already told the other officers everything I know, I swear," the corporal anxiously declared. "I really must return to the barracks before-"

Bailey cut him off. "I've already been in touch with your commanding officer, so you don't have to worry about being declared AWOL," the commander announced. "I told your CO you were being questioned as a key witness in a potential security breach. You'll be glad to know, I'm sure, that he told me to take as long as I deemed necessary to get every relevant fact and detail."

"Yes sir," Purdakas stammered. "I'll do my best."

The commander eased himself into a chair opposite the young soldier. "Relax, son. No one's accusing you of doing anything wrong. In fact, it's to your credit that you came to us immediately. But you have to admit the story you have been telling us is a mighty peculiar one. There's been a lot of strange activity on the Citadel recently so we're not dismissing it out of hand. But we have to be certain we know exactly what it was that you witnessed. So, how about you humor me and tell the whole story one more time, from the beginning?"

Cpl. Purdakas sighed, took a deep breath and began relating the bizarre events of the last 24 hours.

I had just returned to the Citadel for the first time in nearly a year. My unit had been on patrol on the outer edge of the Hades Gamma cluster. Pretty lonely, but the upside is you save up a lot credits 'cause there's nothing to spend them on out there. So I figured I would splurge on a night out on the Silversun Strip and wear my dress uniform too. Act like I was a high roller. For a night at least, you know?

So I'm relaxing in a hotel bar and casino, placing a pretty large bet on a round of ultimate quasar when this asari comes up and takes the seat next me! She was a real head-turner too, with golden highlights on her crest and wearing this tight orange cocktail dress. She orders this really fruity drink and glances over at me! Spirits, I couldn't believe my luck! At first. Then I think, 'Oh yeah, the asari must have seen me place that large bet. She's probably an escort looking for a rich customer.' I had been out in space for a while, you know, and I'm not above paying for a melding, but I was pretty sure that I couldn't afford this asari. Not unless I wanted to go through all my savings in one night.

I'm about to tell the asari this when she beckons me to get closer and listen to her. I lean in to her. "Carefully!" she say under her breath. "Don't attract any attention!" Her eyes dart around the casino to see if we're being watched, then she whispers to me, "The nathak's hibernation is over. The beast will leave its cave to hunt *before* the seasons change." She says it really slowly and dramatically too, then returns to her drink.

"Excuse me, what?" I reply. Just sort of blurted it out because I had no idea what the nathak business was all about. I've never even seen one outside of a zoo.

The asari turns to me and repeats, this time a little louder, "The nathak's hibernation is over. The beast will leave its cave to hunt once the season changes."

"I'm sorry, I'm still confused. What is this about?" I ask. "And is it 'once the season changes' or 'before the seasons change'? 'Cause you said it both ways."

"Before! Before!" the asari says while trying to move her lips as little as possible. She then looks up at a sign on the wall and exclaims, "Oh, goddess! This isn't Club Pulsar, is it?!"

I shook my head. "No, this is the Hotel Constellation's casino."

The asari lets out a loud groan, hops off her stool, starts to run out of the casino like her crests were on fire, gets half-way across the main floor, realizes she hasn't paid for her drink yet, turns around and sprints back to the bar, gives her credit chit to the bartender, impatiently bobs up and down while waiting for her tab to be cleared, grabs her chit and sprints out of the casino even faster than during her first attempt. She was just one big blue and orange blur.

'Spirits! What was that all about?' I think. I also realize that there was something familiar about the way that asari ran. All of the sudden it hits me: she was Lieutenant Kada A'Lenko! You know, from the Blasto vid?! See, there was this scene in the vid where Commander Shi'Paard and her commandos all run around under a waterfall - without any, umm, clothes - and there was just something particularly memorable about the way the Lt. A'Lenko actress dashed through the water. I must have seen that scene 100 times by now. Well, that was Lt. A'Lenko running across that casino floor! I'd stake my life on it.

Now, I have an older sister who clerks at the embassy and she's always telling me stories about de-classified espionage missions and what not. She'd tell you that what that asari said sure sounded like a coded message that spies use. 'Maybe I should find out more about what that asari was doing and then report it to the authorities,' I thought. Do my duty as a good citizen, you know? The asari had said that she meant to go to Club Pulsar, which was just down the Silversun Strip thoroughfare a bit. So I head over there.

Sure enough, I spot her at the bar, talking to another turian. I watch her for a bit until she gets up and leaves through what must have been a service entrance into the casino because no customers were in there and it lead into a dimly-lit corridor. I tailed her instead of the turian she talked to because he was kind of a rough-looking customer, and, umm... yeah. That and I knew I'd be able to recognize the asari's walk. Then as I'm trying to keep enough distance between us so the asari doesn't see me, I feel a tapping on my shoulder. I spin around and there's this salarian looking me up and down. "Excuse me, but what are you doing in here?" he asks.

"Nothing," I say.

"It sure looked like you were following that asari," he says. "Are you even supposed to be in this area?"

"And who are you?!" I ask, imitating Councilor Sparatus' voice so I'd sound really intimidating. "Are YOU authorized to be in this area?!"

That's when I had a sudden flash of pain and everything went black. It must have been a neural shock. I woke hearing the voices of two people standing over me: the asari and the salarian. They must not have known I'd regained consciousness. I decide to lay perfectly still and listen.

"I don't know why! He just followed me here, I guess," the asari explains. "Was zapping him really the best idea?"

"It seemed like the only option I had," the salarian replies. "Can you wipe his memory?"

The asari says that's not an option. "Even if he was willing to meld, erasing memories is really difficult. There's a good chance I'd botch it," she says. "What do we do?!"

"Let me think," the salarian tells her, then a few moments later adds, "Ok, if it was you that approached him, then he's probably just a random civilian - even if he did follow you here. If all you told him was the code phrase and nothing else, then we're probably okay. We just leave him in a dumpster and go. Right now."

Next thing I know I'm feeling biotic energy lift me up and start carrying me away. I hear the salarian shout, "No! Put him in the one for leftover dextro food!" I feel the momentum shift and a moment later I'm being dropped into a garbage-filled dumpster and hear the lid being slammed shut. I wait a few minutes to be safe, then climb out. That's when I called C-Sec.

Commander Bailey drummed his fingers on the table. "How old did the salarian look? What was his skin tone?"

Cpl. Purdakas thought for a second and replied, "Young-ish, by salarian standards. His skin was... dark green, I think."

Bailey nodded. "And you're absolutely certain that the asari was the actress from the Blasto vids?"

"Dead certain," the corporal replied.

Bailey nodded again and stood up. He signaled for the door to the room to be opened. "You're free to go, corporal. Thank you for your cooperation."

"I just heard from the Special Task Group's Directorate," Major Kirrahe announced as he met with Agent Solik Vass for lunch at a Presidium cafe. "You will receive a commendation for 'service above and beyond the call of duty.' Well done, lad."

Vass shook his head in surprise. "I don't understand. Why?" he inquired.

Kirrahe began glancing over his menu. "Well, an anonymous source inside C-Sec - the same one that tipped the Special Tasks Group off to al-Jilani's investigation, as a matter of fact - told us that C-Sec knows that the STG is working with the asari matriarchs here on the Citadel. It seems they have a source, a turian, that observed a young STG agent and a known asari spy working together. The STG was also alerted to the fact that C-Sec is trying to discern the meaning of our secret message, 'The nathak's hibernation is over. The beast will leave its cave to hunt before the seasons change.' Commander Bailey has apparently assigned his best code-breakers to this project."

The major paused to sip from a glass of water, then continued. "Of course, we aren't currently working with the matriarchs and the supposed code phrase isn't one we have used. When headquarters asked me if I could explain why C-Sec had come to these erroneous conclusions, I told them that Agent Vass had created a series of fake missions and tricked an asari agent of the matriarchs into thinking they were her new assignments," he said, adding with a smile, "This explanation did have the virtue of being true. The Directorate, which has been concerned about the possibility of C-Sec discovering the true purpose of the Blasto vid, deemed your actions a brilliant example of counter-espionage work. It was also impressed by the initiative you took in doing it."

Vass remained confused. "But I didn't create it to be misinformation for C-Sec! They weren't even supposed to know any of it," the young agent argued. "The missions were just things I created for Linia's benefit. Her going to the wrong casino and talking to a turian other than the actor I hired and then that turian following her was completely random. After I shocked him, I was praying no one, least of all C-Sec, would believe his story."

Kirrahe shrugged. "Details," he replied, then returned to reading his menu.

Citadel Newsnet - Business owners across all wards are reporting that quarian employees have suddenly walked off the job."He had been doing repair work here for a couple of months and then one day he didn't show up. We haven't seen him since. Didn't even try to collect his pay for the last few days that he did work," said the owner of a skycar dealership. Despite the seemingly coordinated nature of the walkouts, they do not appear to be part of any strike or protest. The quarians have issued no demands and none of the former workers could be located for comment. A Citadel Security spokesman told us, "We investigated a few of the disappearances and determined in each case that the 'missing' quarians had simply booked transport and left the station." - Emily Wong reporting

Linia T'Pala had only just arrived on the set of Blasto: The Battle for the Citadel, when krogan actor Jorgal Dreed approached her. "There you are! Been looking for you," he rasped. "Have you talked to Suzra'Bonah today?"

"No, but I'm on my way to the makeup trailer now," Linia responded. "Why do you ask?"

Dreed was the doting father of three asari maidens and he had taken it upon himself to act as the quarian makeup artist's surrogate protector too. Suzra liked Dreed and knew that he meant well, but she was a fiercely private person who didn't like anyone poking into her affairs.

"I saw her first thing this morning and she was clearly upset about something. Refused to tell me what it was though," Dreed growled. "And, uhh, I may have gotten a little angry when she wouldn't say. She did tell me that it was not because Tyruss had broken up with her. I think she might be covering for him though. Suzra knows that if I learn that Tyruss has just been toying with her all along that I'm liable to kill him. And Tyruss is a good friend, so I'd like to avoid doing that if I can."

"You want me to talk to her and find out what's going on?" Linia asked.

The krogan nodded. "Yeah. I mean, you are her best friend."

"Okay, I'll talk to her," Linia declared. "I'm heading that way anyhow."

Linia found Suzra'Bonah in her makeup trailer, staring intensely at a datapad. She hurriedly put it away when she saw the asari actress enter. Linia took a seat in one of the main chairs. "So, what's up?" she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," the quarian tensely replied as she began to touch up the golden paint on Linia's crests. "Didn't you have one of your dates/spy missions with Solik last night? How did that go?"

"It was a bit of a mess, actually," Linia acknowledged. "After all of effort that Solik put into it setting it up, guess what happens? I accidentally go to the wrong casino and talk to the wrong turian! Then the turian follows me to the place I was supposed to go to and Solik has to use a neural shock to knock him out! Then we tossed him in a dumpster and ran off!"

"Keelah!" Suzra exclaimed. "How much trouble did that cause for you?!"

"None, actually. Nobody saw us do it," Linia revealed. She broke into a devilish grin. "To be honest, it was kind of exhilarating! I mean, 'hiding a body together then fleeing the scene' isn't something I would have ever thought would make my 'best dates ever' list, but it is totally on that list now! The other good thing is that Solik still doesn't know that I know that he's just made up all of these 'secret missions.' I was worried that my screw-up might cause the whole thing to unravel," she explained, adding, "Maybe I should tell him, but he's put so much effort into this that I'd hate to spoil that for him."

Suzra'Bonah became quiet, then muttered, "I'm happy for both of you." Her voice cracked as she spoke. Her body started to quiver. She tried, with little success, to keep her breathing even. She began to choke back sobs.

Linia immediately felt terribly guilty for going on about the good times she was having with Solik when she knew that something was troubling Suzra. "What is it? What's wrong?" she anxiously asked.

Suzra took several deep breaths then grabbed the datapad that Linia had saw her reading earlier. "I am not supposed to show this to anybody outside of the migrant fleet," she said in-between breaths. "You cannot speak a word of this to anyone, understood?" Linia nodded and took the datapad. The message was in quarian. Linia hit the auto-translate function.

"To all members of the Migrant Fleet ship Marketa," the message began, "You are hereby ordered to return to the ship without delay and by the fastest means possible to the coordinates listed below. This order extends to all those still on their pilgrimage. Your return will satisfy its requirements. You will be expected to remain with the flotilla for the next several years at a minimum. This is a matter of the utmost security for the entire Migrant Fleet. Refusal to return will result in immediate exile and your name being struck from the Marketa's manifest."

Suzra did not need to do or say anything further. Linia understood her dilemma completely. Suzra had pinned her future on being with Tyruss. She had worked doggedly to make that happen. She had immersed herself in turian culture in order to be accepted into Tyruss' family and his community on Palaven. The big public event where she could make that transition was only a few weeks off. And now Suzra was being told to abandon all of that and return to the flotilla immediately. The message did not even explain why. Refusing meant disgrace in the eyes of her people and forever cutting herself off from her family.

For Linia, the choice would have been obvious: pick the person you love. But she was an asari. Her people's entire culture was built around seeking out other species and sharing that culture. Being forced to choose between cultures just didn't happen. Linia knew from her talks with Suzra, however, that quarians were much more insular. The importance they placed on the bonds of family and to loyalty to the flotilla meant that being marked as an exile would be emotionally devastating for Suzra. Yet she also adored Tyruss. Leaving him would just as certainly break her heart.

"Come here," Linia told her friend while holding her arms open. The quarian accepted the asari's embrace. Suzra's body trembled as Linia gently rocked her in her arms.

"ItsNotFairItsNotFairItsNotFairItsNotFair..." the quarian sobbed.

"Didn't expect to see you again so soon," rasped Matriarch Aethyta as Linia and Suzra'Bonah took seats at her bar. The bartender nodded in the direction of the quarian. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Suzra'Bonah vas Marketa. Suzra, this is Matriarch Aethyta. She's a thousand years old!"

"Really?" asked the quarian in a hushed and weary voice.

"Yup. You don't get to be a matriarch until you get within spitting distance of a millennium," Aethyta explained. She reached under the counter, produced a bowl of nuts and shoved them in front of the quarian. "Here, these are dextro-amino-based. We've got crackers too, but I'll have to go into the back to find those."

Suzra stared at the bowl, sighing but not touching it.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that part. Hang on," Aethyta declared. She reached under the counter again, this time producing a straw. The matriarch then activated her biotics and lifted the nuts out of the bowl. She shrank the mass effect energy sphere holding the nuts aloft until the snacks were crushed into a fine paste. Aethyta let the resulting goop pour back into the bowl, then placed the straw in it. "Enjoy," she told Suzra. The quarian stuck the straw into her visor's port for beverages and took a sip of the now-liquified snack.

Linia smiled at the matriarch's biotics display. "Suzra is the reason why I came back here. She needs your wise counsel," Linia earnestly explained. "She's facing a terrible dilemma involving the turian she is dating and an urgent message she received from the migrant fleet. I don't know what to tell her, but I thought, 'I DO know a matriarch right here on the Citadel! We can draw on her millennium of experience!' So, what do you-"

The young asari's inquiry was cut off by the matriarch's sudden roaring laugh. It echoed through the bar and drew stares from several other patrons.

"Oooh! Oh, Goddess! I haven't heard anything that funny in decades," Aethyta explained once she started to regain her composure.

"I-I don't understand," Linia stammered. "What did I say that was funny?"

Aethyta rolled her eyes and grabbed a bottle of liquor off the top shelf. "What's funny is the idea of anyone asking me for relationship advice," she remarked as she poured two shots, pushing one in front of Linia. She then grabbed a different bottle, poured a third shot, put a fresh straw in it, and pushed it in front of Suzra. "It's kind of like... making an elcor your gymnastics coach. You could probably do better with any other random person on the street." Aethyta knocked back her shot in one gulp.

"No, no, no. You ARE a matriarch," Linia insisted. "You have the wisdom that only comes from living an asari lifetime and the perspective that comes from observing centuries-"

Aethyta again cut Linia off. "Is that how they teach it in schools these days? No wonder the galaxy is still so fucked up!" she cackled. "Well, here's what they don't teach you: living for a thousand years just means that you have had that much more time to screw things up, get your heart broken and accumulate regrets."

Linia refused to believe this. "Yes, but you learn from those experiences..." the young asari argued.

The matriarch shook her head and poured herself a second shot. "No, you don't learn. You make the same mistakes over and over again because the heart doesn't work like other organs. It's gonna do what it's gonna do," Aethyta retorted. She motioned to Linia to drink her shot of liquor. The maiden complied and a brief coughing fit followed. "Living for a millennium also means you have more opportunities to fuck things up on a truly epic scale," Aethyta declared. "What do you even know about me other than the fact that I am a matriarch?" she asked.

"Well, you're here on the Citadel and, umm..." Linia replied. She had nothing else to say. She ended the comment with sheepish shrug.

"I thought so," Aethyta declared. "So you don't know that my bondmate was Matriarch Benezia?" A shocked look appeared on Linia's face. The matriarch nodded in response. "Yup, *that* Benezia. The one who worked with Saren Arterius. So, as you can see, I really know how to pick'em," she sarcastically laughed. "We only got together a century and half ago. That was what more than 800 years of 'life experiences' did for me. Got a daughter out of it at least. Still haven't talked to her though. So, with that track record, I shouldn't be giving advice to anyone."

Suzra'Bonah loudly slurped her liquor through her straw. "We don't need this matriarch bosh'tet anyway. I've made my decision: I'm not going," the quarian declared. She signaled to Aethyta to pour her another round. Suzra continued, her voice rising as she spoke, "What do I owe to the Migrant Fleet anyway? Why do I need it? What has being a quarian ever brought me except the galaxy's prejudice? Why would I choose that over being with my luzveh and joining his noble house? Keelah, what could I even contribute to the fleet if I did return? I'm a makeup artist! They don't need me!"

"Ha! And that's just after one round!" snorted Aethyta as she refilled Suzra's shotglass.

From the far left side of the bar, a voice shouted, "Nurrah'vai Rannoch!"

Suzra turned in the direction of the voice and shouted back, "Ilveh Se'lai!" The quarian began slurping up her second shot.

Aethyta and Linia both turned and discovered that the other voice belonged to an asari with blue-green skin. She was seated at the bar and drinking a cocktail. She raised her glass to Suzra, finished off her cocktail and walked over to the trio.

The matriarch looked at Linia while nodding in the direction of the other asari. "Her name's Jacana. One of my semi-regulars. A journalist, she claims. Spends enough time here that you'd almost think that reporting on *me* was one of her duties for her employer..." the matriarch drolly remarked. Jacana smirked slightly at the comment but otherwise said nothing.

"Since when can you speak quarian?" Aethyta asked.

"Since always," Jacana replied.

"Your accent is perfect!" Suzra declared, her voice now slightly tipsy.

"I should hope so!" Jacana laughed. "I had centuries of practice!"

She followed that with a question in quarian to Suzra, prompting a longer conversation between the two. Aside from a short bit at the beginning where they said their full names and was therefore presumably proper introductions, neither Aethyta nor Linia could follow any of the rest of what they said. One comment by the asari clearly startled Suzra and prompted several follow-up questions. The conversation ended when Jacana asked one last question in quarian. Suzra hesitated briefly, then replied with a single word. Jacana gasped in response.

"Hey, don't mind us..." Aethyta snarked.

Jacana gestured to Aethyta to refresh her cocktail. "My new friend here was explaining to me a recent priority message she got from the Migrant Fleet. The message doesn't state it explicitly, so a translation wouldn't catch it. But if you do speak quarian, it's pretty damn clear why the message is such a high priority. And, uh, yeah, it's a doozy."

"And?" Linia asked.

Suzra, suddenly anxious, said something in quarian to Jacana. The asari replied in the native language, her tone and body language clearly meant to reassure. Jacana turned back to the other asari. "I cannot tell you. Suzra'Bonah has already bent the rules pretty far just by revealing the mere existence of the message to non-members of the flotilla."

"How can she tell you then?" Aethyta rasped as she placed a fresh cocktail in front of Jacana.

Jacana took a sip of her drink, grinned slightly and replied, "Because I *am* a fellow member of the flotilla. Well, sort of. I don't actually belong to a ship. But I am a quarian."

"I'm confused," Linia announced. "I thought all quarians had to be a member of a ship in the flotilla. And, umm, you're clearly an asari, not a quarian."

Suzra cleared her throat. "Being part of the same flotilla that first fled Rannoch is how we maintain our ties to the homeworld now that no quarian has been born on the planet in the last three centuries," she explained. "That requirement never applied to the ones who initially fled Rannoch though. It only came afterwards when the subsequent generations were born."

"Biologically, I may be an asari, but my father was a quarian and I was born and raised on Rannoch," Jacana declared. "By quarian custom, that's more than enough."

"Wow..." muttered Linia. "So, if you were born and raised there, then you knew what quarian society was like before they had to wear the exosuits, right?"

Jacana nodded 'yes.'

"Please tell us," Linia asked.

"Yes, please," Suzra chimed in.

"Where to start?" Jacana muttered as she took another sip of her cocktail and reminisced. "Rannoch was dry. Hot but not unpleasant. The farming season began with herding quorach into pens, pouring seeds and pollen on top of them and letting them loose into the fields. Had to do it to fertilize the crops. The quorach would create these massive billowing multi-colored clouds as they thundered through the fields. Some brave souls would run alongside the beasts, just for the thrill of it. We'd all watch from a hill or from towers overlooking the fields. There were no insects, so hardly any of the harvest crop would be lost. Hunger was never a problem. Town squares and parks would have fruit trees that anyone could pick from. The nights were cool and the moon was so bright that it never really got dark. Dinner was usually a light meal of fruits and nuts because most families would go swimming together in a lake or a river after the moon rose. The water was so clear that the moonlight shined right through to the bottom."

The asari sighed and drank the rest of her cocktail, and continued, "Quarians, both sexes, wore their hair long. Black was by far the most common color, followed by white and then copper. I used to braid hair for my cousins - and I was damn good at it! It really helps to have ten fingers instead of just six. Most of my best childhood memories involve running around and playing with other quarian kids, their hair flying every which way..."

Jacana paused and glanced over at Suzra, who was breathlessly waiting for the asari to continue. "I have an idea," she told the quarian. "Instead of merely telling you about my memories, how about I let you experience them?" Suzra slowly but very deliberately nodded 'yes.' Jacana leaned in towards the quarian, whispered "embrace eternity" and her eyes went black. The two became frozen in place. Aethyta and Linia were left to themselves. An awkward silence prevailed.

"So... how about those Usaru Maestros? Think they'll make it to the biotic ball championships this year?" Aethyta eventually asked Linia. The actress shrugged and the awkward silence returned.

Jacana's eyes returned to their natural hue after 15 minutes. She was now perspiring and short of breath due to the strain of maintaining the meld. Suzra, by contrast, was overwhelmed by the experience and still didn't seem to have fully snapped out of it. "It was so much more than I assumed from the stories in the books," she gasped to Linia. "Just things like the feel of the wind's breeze, the warmth of the sun on your skin, the chill of the water when you first dive in... Children once had so much space to run through and explore. They laughed all of the time. It could be that way again. I *have* to help make that a reality."

Suzra began to slide off her seat. Linia grabbed her by the arm to keep her upright. The quarian barely seemed to notice. "There was a harvest ritual that's been forgotten where the farmers would paint their faces into silver half-moons!" Suzra exclaimed. "I'm not imitating aliens by learning makeup. No, I'm keeping a quarian tradition alive..."

"Yeah, I'm calling a skycab for you two," Aethyta declared. "I think you've already had a full evening."

The following day, Suzra Bonah vas Marketa picked up her lone piece of luggage and prepared to board the transport ship she had jointly chartered with two dozen other quarians who were leaving the Citadel to re-join the Migrant Fleet. Linia T'Pala, Solik Vass, Jorgal Dreed and Tyruss Aklaysius stood nearby to wish her fond farewells. Tyruss was the last to do so.

As Tyruss embraced her one final time, Suzra looked up at the turian and dramatically said, "I want you see behind this mask. I want you to see who I really am."

"I already have," Tyruss tearfully replied.

Vass leaned over to Linia and whispered, "Hey, aren't those the final lines from Fleet & Flotilla?"

"Shush!" Linia whispered back. "Let Suzra have this..."