Ripples in the Stream
A D&D / Shadowrun / Mass Effect crossover
by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, derive any profit from the story. D&D, Shadowrun and Mass Effect are the property of their respective copyright holders. Jorukaia and other unfamiliar characters in this story, however, are mine.
Matriarch Benezia T'soni. Now, there was a name to draw attention. Her unexpected arrival at Illium was enough to send the upper-crust of the rich and famous on this most outward of the asari colonies into something of a tizzy behind closed doors. The last time such an illustrious matriarch had arrived here, she had come only to extricate her wayward daughter from legal entanglement with some of Illium's unique legal tripwires.
This time, no one knew why one of the most powerful matriarchs on the Circle of Matriarchs was coming to Illium, and the not-knowing was driving certain individuals crazy with apprehension.
Due to security and logistical concerns, the T'soni private yacht did not dock at Nos Astra, the largest starport on Illium. The reasons for this were twofold. First, the starship was her private property, and it had to be ready for a quick getaway, if necessary to preserve the matriarch's life. Second, it was the size of a cruiser, being an older style of asari cruiser, and thus not capable of planetary landing. Luckily for her, Nos Astra boasted a geosynchronous docking station for such large ships, along with several orbital tethers to the surface proper. The gleaming hull of her yacht slid smoothly to a stop a few kilometers from that station, and one of her private shuttles took her, and her entourage, to the surface.
Benezia had been a creature of politics and high society for many centuries, longer than some of the "movers and shakers" of Illium society had been alive. She had taken after her great grandmother in that regard, first learning the art of polite conversation at her grandmother's knee, then later becoming her secretary and, when grandmother grew old and frail in the last extremity of her years, her agent in the political arena.
The T'soni family had been known for breeding good diplomats and powerful matriarchs for more than two thousand years, though not necessarily within the same generation. Benezia played to type, tall, regal, calm and poised.
Her face betrayed not a whisper of her bitter wish that she could scream at the simpering twit, who was giving her a guided tour of Nos Astra's starport and shooting her bodyguards uncertain little glances.
Benezia's nerve had been stretched to the finest of threads over the past week. First the call from her daughter, at first quite normal, then utterly terrifying. Calling Aethyta immediately, she had begun to slowly disentangle her schedule for the next few months, but such was her enmeshment in Thessian politics that it would take some time to do that. Aethyta, however, despite being a matriarch and just as powerful as Benezia herself, in her own way, had been able to set off for Therum within the hour. Benezia now regretted she could not have done the same, though she knew that it wouldn't have made a difference.
The agonized waiting, with no word save the confirmation that Liara was gone, had driven her into seclusion, though she had taken the time to visit the Temple of Athame, seeking a soothing balm for her tearing nerves. The unexpected sympathy of one of the priestesses, a matron named Shai'zhri, had broken the matriarch's steel resolve, and she had left the temple with tear-streaked makeup, but a much lighter heart.
Now, however, her nerves were once again jangling with her anxiety, frayed to the point where only centuries of iron control kept her from telling this twit to shut her blabbering mouth and get out of her sight.
"You're looking good, Benezia." Aethyta offered her a teacup and saucer with one hand as she set the teapot back on the tray.
Benezia accepted it with a nod, seated in her chair in a fashion that would have had the busy-bodies back on Thessia whispering in shock. Instead of being perched regally, with back straight 0and eyes watchful, as was her perennial habit, Benezia was hunched, slouched, and actually had her feet tucked up under her in the chair itself. Her long robe was in some mild disarray, a few of the underlayers folded and bunched by her unusual posture. "We both know that's a lie, Aethyta. We should be frank with each other when it's just the two of us."
"Suit yourself." Aethyta sprawled on the couch opposite the small table between the pair. "You look like shit. Have you slept at all?"
Benezia grimaced slightly, the tea had a slightly bitter aftertaste. "A little. A few hours, here and there."
Her old lover gave an understanding nod, "I went the entire trip to Therum awake. Damned near crash-landed, I was so goddamn tired."
"You didn't though."
"I didn't have to deal with backstabbing murderous cutthroat bitches either."
Benezia gave a faintly pained smile at that. Aethyta had never much liked the niceties of politics, being a far more blunt and direct personality. Not that Benezia was bad for preferring more subtle methods of spreading her ideas, just different. That love had bloomed between the pair was still something of a marvel. The raucous, wild-child and the politician's daughter.
"Let us not re-open old wounds, please."
Aethyta gave a faint twitch, but nodded. "There wasn't any sign of her when I got to Therum, but I did run into a squad of geth down in the cavern her team was exploring."
"Geth?" Benezia sat up straighter, her expression turning puzzled, "Beyond the Veil? I thought-"
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before. Turns out, they seem to have just been biding their time. Now, there're dozens of reports of Geth sitings, and figuring out which ones are in a position to have been the ones that took Liara is damn close to impossible."
Benezia gave a world-weary sigh and slumped back into her chair. She couldn't quite help the soft, almost inaudible sob that escaped her as she did, but Aethyta's keen ear did. The younger matriarch got to her feet, slid around the side of the chair, and was massaging Benezia's neck before the older woman could protest.
"Goddess above, Nezzie, you're tighter than a screw two turns past lock." Knowing fingers dug into pressure points, and Benezia let her head fall forward with a relieved groan.
"Mmmmm... You always did know how to relax me."
"I had to learn some way to get you to let me into your bed." Aethyta's fingers kneaded, slower now, more sensual than massaging, now that the worst of the tension was smoothed away.
A tap drew Benezia's attention to a young asari standing at the doorway, gazing at her with a strange expression. Aethyta smiled faintly to her, moving around to rest a hand on the youngster's shoulder. "Ahh, my apologies for not introducing you first. Benezia, meet Jona Siberys. She's a girl I picked up on Therum. She's agreed to help us find your daughter."
Despite her soul-deep weariness, Benezia drew herself up into her habitual regal posture, giving the young one a slow nod as she gathered her somewhat scattered wits. Goddess, she was tired of this. "It is well to meet you, young maiden. Come, sit, and we may converse on your contributions to the search."
A moment's hesitation passed before the young girl, no more than Liara's age, came to sit near the old matriarch. "Good to see you, Matriarch. I trust all is well with you? Well, aside from our current task?"
The T'soni Matriarch had to hand it to the youngster, she knew her manners. "I am well, though a touch fatigued. I would prefer that we keep the pleasantries to a minimum, however. Just what sort of skills do you offer to our endeavors?"
"I can fight, track, and have sources of information that are hard to come by. I also have the contents of a damaged prothean beacon in my head, and want them the fuck _out_." the youngster's teeth gritted as she massaged her temple. Benezia shot Aethyta a surprised glare, which Aethyta deflected with a shrug of one shoulder.
"I see. Well, perhaps we could find a use for you."
"You need me, Matriarch. More than you realize." The young woman's eyes were an odd, pale yellow, as they gazed intently into Benezia's own light-blues. "Your daughter was targeted because she had information that would be vital to- someone. I have no doubt he has her in custody right now and is doing his best to extract the information he needs from her. How long, in your honest opinion, could Liara hold out before breaking?"
Aethyta was rather put out that Benezia hadn't even glanced at her nightie, but she knew how focused the older asari could be. "C'mon, Nezzie, it's time for bed."
The matriarch made an impatient gesture as Aethyta gently slid her arms around Benezia's waist. Nezzie had been sitting at that console for the past six hours, had hardly eaten anything, and it was already into the wee hours of the morning. "I can't, 'Thyta, I just can't."
"Nightmares?" At Benezia's slight nod, she gave a sigh and hugged her softly, "Doesn't matter. You need the sleep, Nezzie, or you're going to be no use at all."
Benezia's sigh of frustrated agreement was long and harsh, but she got out of the chair without having to be dragged out. "What would I do without you, 'Thyta?"
"Probably go completely insane." Aethyta gave the older woman a slight smile, "Don't worry, the news will still be there in the morning. Why don't you tell me a bit about what you've figured out while we get ready for bed?" Aethyta was already ready for bed, had been for the last three hours.
"Well, all of it is negative so far. Liara hasn't used any of the alternative methods I made sure she memorized before letting her go off on that thrice-blasted trip..." Aethyta hugged her former lover tighter, letting Benezia cling tightly to her.
"Alright, so she's being kept in a place where she doesn't have extranet access. We already figured that part out. Anything else?"
Benezia shook her head, "No, nothing. Well, no, I won't say that, there was something, but it's not related." She gave a faint sigh as Aethyta untied her sash and removed the older woman's robe.
"Mmmh? What? I haven't been keeping up with the news of late."
"Well, Saren Arterius, you know, the turian Spectre? He's been officially struck from the roster this morning."
"Really? He must have done something huge to get that, he always was a loose cannon." She slid a soft, silken nightgown over Benezia's shoulders, not something too alluring, she didn't want to get all worked up herself tonight, and sat her friend down on the bed, gently massaging her shoulders.
Benezia gave a soft laugh, "You could say that. He was implicated as part of, if not the one behind, that attack on Eden Prime."
Aethyta's fingers paused, but only for a moment, "That human colony? The geth attacked there, didn't they? Might that not be related to the geth that abducted Liara?"
"No way to know. The Geth are attacking in all sorts of strange places. And even if he is involved, no one knows where he is." The older woman gave a deep sigh, letting her head fall forward under Aethyta's strong, skillful fingers.
"Didn't I hear something a while back about a prothean site on Eden Prime? Or at least a dig site uncovered by new excavation?"
Benezia gave a shrug, "I don't know, maybe. Goddess, that feels good..."
The younger of the two matriarchs gave a gentle smile, pressing a bit deeper and coaxing Benezia towards sleep, "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it'll still be there when you wake up." She had to smother a laugh as her former lover gave a huge yawn.
"Yes, I suppose. Goddess, I'm tired..."
"I hadn't pegged you as a particularly religious type, Nezzie." True, she hadn't been very religious back in her matron days, but almost all Matriarchs had to at least pay lip-service to the Goddess.
"I'm not. But, well. For the past few days, I've been talking with Priestess Shai'zhri at the Temple. She's been so kind and understanding, giving me an ear to which I could pour out my troubles without having to hold back."
"Ahh... Well, you sleep, and tomorrow we can see what else we can figure out, alright?"
Benezia gave a nod, shifting and sliding into bed. Aethyta remembered that she liked to spread out, but now, she curled up on one side of the bed, as if trying to shut out the world entirely. She waited, slowly stroking the other woman's shoulder and back until she felt the soothing rhythms of sleep calming her lover's mind.
Carefully, and as quietly as she could, she rose and slid out of the room, letting the door lock silently behind her. Benezia's console caught her eye, and, out of curiosity rather than the insatiable need Benezia had shown, she poked through the open screens.
News reports from a dozen different outlets, astrographic plots showing times and places of supposed geth attacks, along with color-coding to indicate the reliability of the reports. The entire galaxy was dappled with dark-red pinpricks of "fairly untrustworthy" reports, but there were a few nuclei of dark-blue "confirmed" ones, spreading to merge into the ocean of stars.
She pursed her lips, then noticed that Benezia's personal mail program was running in the background. Her lips quirked into a smile as she brought it up. She told herself she wouldn't read any of the important matriarch's correspondence, she wasn't some giddy maiden anymore.
Shareholder reports, stock quotes, dividend disbursements. The usual high-finance crap. Aethyta had to deal with more than her fair share of it herself, what with all the many corporations she held stock in, but Benezia was also on the board of directors of a few firms as well. There were a couple of notices of meetings she had missed, which made Aethyta squirm little.
Benezia really had put her entire life on hold the instant her daughter needed her, but possibly if she had been a bit more attentive- No. Benezia was already castigating herself quite enough on that score, no need to add to her torture.
One email, dated three days ago, caught her eye, with the heading "Notification of Director Inspection". She had told herself she wasn't going to read any of these, dammit, but she was curious and some of the spam that had managed to worm its way past the filters was downright hilarious. There was no such thing as 'asari viagra', her species had high enough libidos as it was.
The message unfolded in front of her eyes, and she almost clicked away from it out of self-defense to avoid the sudden barrage of lethally-legal phrases and the storm of paragraph-grenades. She scanned it, and missed it on the first pass, her eyes sliding shut with fatigue. She sighed, rubbed her eyes and reached to close the window when the name stabbed out at her and froze her as solid as a Stasis field.
Saren Arterius was on Noveria. The date of his visit was, Aethyta rapidly checked the clock, yesterday. He couldn't possibly have finished his business by now and gotten away, not with the entire galaxy now out hunting him.
Her lips curled and her eyes suddenly gleamed. "BENEZIA!"
Jack's day was being a bitch. One of those ones where good things kept happening, but also really fucking shitty things too. Take her current predicament for example. On the one hand, the job had gone without a hitch. Find a guy, let him know the score, put the fear of her into him. Scare the piss out of him, was how Aria had phrased it. Well, Jack had certainly done that, and gotten his shit too. That had been fun. Being the messenger of Aria's displeasure with the farther-flung members of her network of spies, informants, procurers and providers was one of the things Jack really loved about her new life. This particular shitstain had been overcharging Jack's boss and, once he already had her money, had had the sheer balls to jack the price on her. Aria did not like people who tried to extort her, and so had sent Jack to make her displeasure known.
Now, however, things were not fun, and Jack was breathing in the way her boss had taught her to keep the rage under control. Aria didn't like guns that fired themselves when dropped, and treated her operatives the same way: if you had a problem that would make you mess up a mission, she either didn't use you, or, if you were good enough otherwise to be valuable, got you the help you needed to do your job without shitting yourself.
Right now, it was testing Jack's rather strained patience, having to deal with the cops.
"Right, and after that?" The bitchy asari's voice was just whiny enough to make Jack's teeth grit.
"Then he said 'if you like varren that much, we've got a few who'd like to meet you'." Jack gave a faint smile, her eyes still closed. "I told him if he liked watching varren fuck that much, he should go join in."
"And was that when he pulled the gun?"
"Yep." Jack deliberately popped the P. "He told me to shut my mouth, or he'd stitch it shut."
That, at least, had made the asari wince. Prissy bitch. "I see. And then?"
"That's when the thunder rolled in..."
Getting pinned down by gangers, how fucking stupid was this?
A bullet pinged off the dumpster she was using for cover, which didn't smell as bad as she might have thought. There were five of them out there, Jack had smashed four already with her first shockwave. She didn't have more than a heavy pistol on her, and the gangs here seemed to prefer concealed shotguns when they really meant business. Or were Krogan.
She heard the roar of a krogan in bloodrage and smirked. She rolled out of cover to catch him in an overpowered Throw, smashing into his enraged face when he was just a meter away. The look on his face when his charge suddenly reversed directions was priceless, but the other four gangers had their selection of guns pointed in her direction.
Jack was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them. She rolled back into cover without waiting to see where the krogan landed, charging herself up for another shockwave to deal with the rest of them.
She was interrupted by a "What the-", which was rather abruptly cut off by a cry of pain. Human, not krogan. Meaty sounds ensued, and the thud of a body hitting the wall with considerable velocity.
Then it all went quiet. Too quiet. Jack could see again by that point, so she rolled out and saw a rather comical sight.
The Krogan was standing on tiptoe, his head thrown back, and pressed against the wall of the alleyway. An absolute monster of a handgun, more than thirty centimeters long Jack judged, was jammed under the krogan's chin, at such an angle that the shot, if and when the trigger was pulled, would angle back and blow the top of his head clean through his hump.
The most amusing thing about it all, though, was the fact that it was a petite little asari that held the krogan at bay.
Jack's gaze dropped to the floor, where the other gangers were resting. Four big hulking bruisers down, three curled up in little fetal balls of pain. the other one just sprawled limply, his head at an odd angle as he slumped against the wall.
"I suggest you drop the gun. My friend and I will be leaving. Once we're gone, you leave, is that clear?"
"Y-Yeah, fffuck, yeah." The krogan's voice was muffled, but his answer was backed up by him dropping the shotgun he had been holding. Jack wasn't about to let that thing go to waste, though. It had put a hole through both sides of the dumpster she had been hiding behind, and she wanted that thing, for its mods if nothing else. She scooped it up, making the krogan growl until the asari pressed the muzzle of her own gun a bit tighter under his chin.
Jack nodded at the girl, who angled her head in a 'get going' motion. The human smirked slightly and did so, sauntering rather than hurrying, and fiddling with her new toy until she reached the mouth of the alley. There, she let it collapse again and settled the big, beautiful monster into the bag she had had with her. Not a particularly big bag, but big enough to hold the stolen weapon, along with the other implements of her trade as Aria's messenger.
There was a shout from back down the alley, the sound of biotics being used, and a cry of pain. The asari backed out of the alley, gun in hand, but when she turned away from her target and faced Jack, she gave a grin. This close, Jack recognized her, the dark-blue asari with the pale-gold eyes that had been at that tournament!
Jack had told her boss about her when she had contacted Aria to report the job done, telling her how the girl had fought, the almost sensual brutality of how she had put down that Eclipse bitch, and a bit of the fight on the bridge, what little she had seen from her vantage point a few floors overhead. She hadn't been able to see much, but the dark blue asari standing alone on the bridge with a half-dozen krogan down in front of her had been an intriguing sight.
She gave her rescuer a crooked smile, was about to greet her, and that's when the cops turned up.
"The name's Jona." The asari tore into the platter of varren-ribs with gusto, making Jack grin at her.
"Jack." The girl had invited her out to dinner, to 'get the taste of all that ass-kissing out of our mouths'. Jack had laughed and taken her up on it. She had had to turn over the krogan's gun, but at least she got several scans of it and could have her own fabricated once she got somewhere with more relaxed fabrication laws.
"Nice to meet you formally, Jack." The asari grinned, a bit of barbecue sauce clinging to her chin, which she didn't even bother wiping up as she tore another chunk of meat off the bone.
"Gotta admit, I haven't seen an asari eat like you do before." Jack took another big bite of her burger. Fish Dog Food Factory wasn't exactly an upscale restaurant, but the portions were big, tasty and cheap.
The asari just grinned and sucked the shred of meat into her mouth, tucking the last bit in with her tongue. "I grew up having to kill my own food. Kinda gives you a different perspective on things."
Jack's brow shot up at that. "Kill it? What the hell kinda goddamn bitch of a mom does that to her kid?" Well, she should talk.
"The kind that died early." Aaand there were the feels.
"Fuck, sorry."
"Don't be, you didn't know." The asari tore another long strip from the rib and set the now-cleaned bone to one side, chewing enthusiastically.
"Still. Sorry. Look, I'll pay for it."
"Nothing doing, Jack, my treat. I've got the cash for it, I don't use much." She flagged down their waitress, "Yeah, we're gonna need at least one varren-sack for this. Damn good stuff, but even I can't eat it all in one sitting."
"Of course, Miss." The human woman smiled, making a note, "Anything else?"
"More fries," Jack mumbled around her latest bite of burger.
"Right you are, Ma'am. I'll be right back with those." She sauntered off, the 'happy varren' on her skirt seeming to wink at the pair.
Jona smirked as she glanced over at the hungry biotic. "Damn, you really do pack it in."
"Biotics, duh. Gotta eat five thousand calories to maintain body weight, and all that fucking shit."
The young asari across from her laughed and picked up another rib. "Damn straight." She paused, looking up at the vidplate mounted nearby. A few dozen of them were scattered around the place, playing various sports channels, this one had just cut to a short news segment. Jack looked up in time to spot the now-familiar blurry images of something dark against the Illium skyline, winging its way away from a stream of traffic. The ticker at the bottom, along with the subtitles, was relating the news that no new data on the "Great Bird of Illium" had come to light just yet, but that Spectre Tela Vasir had decided to become involved.
"Vasir, huh? Didn't think she was into bird-watching."
"Mmmm." After some hesitation, Jona put the rib back with the three others she hadn't finished yet. The pile of nine stripped bare bones stood as testament to her appetite. "Say, I'm not sure if you'd be interested, but I'm gonna be raising ship soon. I was thinking, I saw a bit of your fight with that bruiser back a few nights ago. You want to come with?"
Jack blinked in surprise. "What brought that on?" Aria had been rather specific in her instructions regarding this girl: go slow, get to know her, see if you can get her to go with you, and see if she'd make a useful asset. And here the girl was, inviting her out on a jaunt to somewhere dangerous. Jack was beginning to wonder who was recruiting whom.
"I got something of a job coming up. I don't think it'll be too dangerous, but there's liable to be a scrap when we get to business. I could use someone to watch my back, who won't pull punches, or hesitate." The girl's eyes were direct, calm, but somehow almost pleading.
Jack hesitated. On the one hand, she liked this girl. She'd seen her fight with the sister and felt almost a kinship with the asari who could be so brutal. On the other hand, Aria had sent her to keep a low profile, getting involved in something big would not make Aria happy. Still... "...Fuck it, sure, why the fuck not?"
Jona grinned and nodded as the server arrived with more fries for Jack, and a takeout bag for Jona. "Great, thanks."
Once the waitress was gone again, Jona flicked on her omnitool, placing a call. "'Thyta? Yeah, it's Jona. Don't worry, I'll be there on time. Listen, I met someone who I think would help out a bunch. No, I don't think you've met her. I'll bring her around at the station, alright?" She heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes expressively at Jack, "No, 'Thyta, I'm not- Look, she already agreed to help out with our little business. Yes, that business. I think she'd be good at it. Yeah, you'll get to meet her and decide for yourself. Alright, see you then."
"Family problems?"
Jona hesitated a moment, giving Jack an odd look, before shrugging and shutting off her omnitool again. "You could say something like that. She's not my mother, though. More like a colleague."
"So, where's this station then."
"Geosynch Station, top of the Tether. I'll get you the details in a bit. We raise ship tonight. I've got a few things to do before then." Her eyes twinkled, "Make sure to wear something elegant, by the way. We're working with a couple matriarchs."
Jack swore through a mouthful of burger and cleared her mouth with a swig of soda, "Just what the fuck have you gotten me into?"
The ration bar tasted like compressed, freeze-dried gelv-shit. And that was being charitable. Still, it helped steady his roiling stomach.
His latest interrogation session had been nipped in the bud by what he had found done to the girl. She had put a brave face on it, but the implications of what had been done sickened him to the point where he couldn't face her. Not yet, at any rate.
Spirits blast him for a fool, he had to be more careful around thralls. He had gotten a bit heated during the last session, the little girl had been so infuriating. At one point, he had threatened to have her-
He couldn't face it, not just yet. He had to get himself under control. At least the thrall had had the intelligence left to apply first aid to make certain that his prisoner wouldn't get infections or worse, and had even bandaged her horrific injuries, but the girl had forced him to see what had been done to her anyway, and that, more than anything else, had been the cause of his stomach's revolt.
Liara still had the sparkling fire she had had when she was first captured, while he was the one deteriorating under these interrogations.
He finished off the last of the ration bar, turning his mind to the topic at hand. His thief had contacted him and specified a time they could hash out the details of her payment, and it was almost time.
He settled himself at his desk, listening to the soothing sounds of the surf behind him and trying to quiet his jangled nerves. The chime alerted him, and he placed the call.
"Kasumi."
"Saren." Her hooded head appeared over his desk's vidplate. One of the new, expensive holographic systems, with a vastly higher resolution than the prior models, it let him study her features, as much as could be seen, in greater detail. "Right on time."
"I value punctuality. Speaking of which, I understand you have a package for me."
"Yep. It wasn't easy to get either, I'll need twenty percent more for unexpected expenses."
"Let's see it first."
The figure tapped a few keys, and a few images appeared to left and right of her face. Still shots, and a metallurgical scan running next to an animation of the long, spear-like artifact. He leaned forward, checking the images, and his mandibles split in a faint smile. "Excellent."
"I do good work. But that work comes at a price. Five hundred thousand should cover everything."
"Yes, yes. I'll have it transferred to your account." He wrenched his attention from the hovering image and turned back to the thief. "You'll probably want to lay low for a while, stealing a prothean artifact from under the noses of its guardians tends to put a target on one's back. I have access to a location that possesses all the amenities, and would allow you to wait for the heat to die down."
"Thanks, but no thanks, I have my own arrangements." The human woman gave him a smile, her eyes gleaming in the shadows under her hood. "If you'd be so good as to transfer the funds, I'll send you the details of the blind drop."
He tapped a few keys, sending the call and the associated images to one side of the holographic screen, while his financial program splayed open in the other. His eyes flicked through various accounts, siphoning enough out of them in inconspicuous amounts to make up the desired sum and rapidly shuffling it through several dummy fronts before depositing it into her numbered account. "Done. The funds should clear within the next forty hours. The drop?"
A soft ping indicated another file incoming from his contact, "There are the details. You won't be able to reach it before I have the cash, so if there's any problem with the funds, the drop will be empty."
"I understand. A pleasure doing business with you, Ms. Goto."
"Likewise." She gave him a cheery grin, "See you around the galaxy, Spectre." Her face dissolved into smoke as the connection was terminated.
He sat back and steeled his claws, letting the edges of his natural ones glide over the smooth, metal ones of his prosthetic. He'd lost his left arm several years ago, and while Citadel prosthetics were quite good, his Master had gifted him with a new one a few months back. He was scheduled to undergo further upgrades within the next few days, and he wasn't looking forward to it, but anything that made him more useful to his Master was necessary. He had a galaxy to save, after all, and if a little personal discomfort and existential angst were required for that, it was a price he'd gladly pay.
He wasn't sure why Nazara had had him negotiate with the galaxy's most notorious thief to obtain that particular artifact, but he didn't question his Master's motives. He couldn't, not with all that was at stake.
Vasir stepped through the door, a quick glance up, left and right took in the expanse of the shuttlebay. Nothing too fancy, just a disused hangar, though it was unusual for the hangar doors to be open when it wasn't in use. still, if her contact wanted the doors open, that was their problem. The Karman-Line Station hovered just above the atmosphere of Illium, suspended on the vast, thick cables of the orbital tether system that required some of the most advanced engineering in the galaxy to maintain. At the end of the more than forty-thousand-kilometer length bobbed the Geosynchronous Orbit Transfer Station, its own orbital speed precisely matching the rate at which the Groundside Station rotated beneath it, keeping the great cables taut.
The Karman-Line Station boasted more restaurants and hotels than hangar-days, but it was an important stop along the route from the surface to orbit. Shaped like a torus around the hexagonal array of cables, it facilitated the great cargo transfer cable cars running up and down the length of the orbital cables running from Station to Groundside. Originally, it had been a barracks and meal center for the workers assembling the titanic construction of the towering cables, dangled down lower and lower towards Illium's atmosphere until they linked up with the cables being boosted skyward from Groundside Station. Now, it was mostly a tourist trap, while the great cargo carriages ran skyward and earthward through the center.
This particular hangar bay was on the interior side, around midway through the station. Vasir didn't know why her contact had chosen this spot, but it wasn't her business to ask that, not when she claimed to have data on the whereabouts of a certain wanted fugitive.
There was only one person in the hangar when Vasir arrived, wearing an elegant, but simple cocktail dress which came down to her knees. Human, brunette, tanned skin and strangely exotic golden eyes as she turned from the open hangar doors to note Vasir's arrival. Vasir herself had come prepared, wearing her signature silver-and-midnight armor, though with the helmet off.
"You said you had intel for me?"
The woman crooked a smile at the Spectre, turning back to the view outside the kinetic barrier shield holding in the atmosphere. "Yes."
Vasir strode forward, setting her helmet on a nearby crate. Apparently, someone was using this disused hangar as a temporary storage shed. "Well?"
The woman did not speak for a long moment. "It is strange, isn't it?"
Tela's eyes narrowed, "What is?"
The woman sighed softly, motioning with her chin towards the view. "Your people have built such incredible wonders. Spires to rival the greatest dreams of fancy."
Her gaze tilted down, peering over the edge of the hangar bay's lip, "Below us is all that is Illium. And above, infinite possibilities."
Vasir frowned, "Get to the point."
The woman let out an amused breath, turning to the Spectre, "And there it is. The true voice of this age. Cynical. Devoid of passion, of wonder."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
The woman gave a faint smile. "My apologies. I tend to wax philosophic when I gaze upon the stars." She turned, giving the Spectre a look, though her body language was a mixture of open and closed. Hunched shoulders, arms crossed, but standing otherwise erect and with a frank, direct gaze. "I know you've been hunting for her."
"Define 'her' in this context." Vasir didn't want to take too many chances.
"Jorukaia."
Tela snapped a curt nod. "Start talking."
The woman paced slowly while she talked, her long legs elegant and graceful. "Tall, strong, durable. I heard she drunk three krogan into a stupor before I even got involved. I'm still piecing together what I know from a night where I got severely drunk, so please bear that in mind. What I do remember, however, was so horrifying that I had to mention it to someone."
The Spectre nodded faintly. Some of her informants had had similar stories, she recognized an ass-covering gesture when she heard one. "Alright. So what can you tell me? she's on Illium still?"
"Yes, but not for long. She'll be shipping out today, I think. Maybe tomorrow."
Well, that certainly put her on a timetable. "When? Which ship?"
The woman's dark, straight hair floated behind her as she shook her head, still pacing. "Don't remember that, even if I heard it at all."
"Damn. Then what do you remember?"
"That she's here for a reason. A mission-"
"On Illium?"
"No, Spectre. In this galaxy."
That brought Vasir up short, blinking at the woman in surprise. "This galaxy? She's extragalactic in origin?" This girl had to be playing her, or had been played herself.
"I don't know, possibly? Either way, it doesn't matter. She said she's here to stop a war, by any means necessary."
"War? What war? There isn't any war going on right now." Well, not unless you counted the cold-war stalemate between the Batarian Hegemony and the Terminus Systems, or possibly the border skirmishes between Council Space and both of them.
"Not a war that's going on now. One that she says will happen."
"...Right, and she claimed to see the future too?" Vasir was beginning to seriously suspect that this girl was either deranged, or had been fed a massive wad of varren-shit.
"No, not that. But she did have a convincing argument." The girl's hands raised, motioning with them as she talked. Quite expressive, even if somewhat vague. "Everyone knows that the Citadel is the heart of the relay network, sitting in the center like a spider in a web. All relays lead to the Citadel, eventually, and it makes sense that the biggest of them would be the central one. The Citadel makes itself the heart of your civilization by dint of being at the very center of it, both astro-politically and by the sort of geography you get by applying the relay network to the galaxy."
Vasir nodded, wondering where she was going. All this was schoolgirl stuff.
"So, what if the Citadel controls the Relay Network?"
"No one's ever proven that, one way or the other."
The girl nodded, dismissing the point, "But no one's ever fully explored the Citadel either. We just got so far, then the expense of examining it further got too high and we gave up. We simply don't know what's in the underlevels, for all we know the entire relay network might be a vast weapons system, designed to hold the entire galaxy under the prothean guns, ready to fire an asteroid at a world from anywhere in the galaxy. We simply don't know."
Vasir gave a dismissive nod of her own. "Theories like that have been floating around the extranet since long before your species discovered spaceflight, that's nothing new."
"But if the Citadel does control the relay network, then someone with the right access codes could conceivably shut it down. Turn off the entire relay network at one stroke."
Vasir gave another nod. "It's been theorized before."
"I think someone's got the idea that the Citadel can do just that, and believes he has gotten a hold of the access codes to do it. However, because he doesn't want to be found out prematurely, he's trying to find a back door into the Citadel, one that isn't monitored and policed by the Citadel Fleet, and I think he's close to doing it."
"Really." Vasir was starting to get bored with this. The girl was just spouting off some two-bit conspiracy theories and linking them up into a chain of terrorizing suppositions.
"Saren's hunting for the Conduit and Jorukaia intends to stop him from finding it, or if he does find it, from making effective use of it."
Vasir straightened, her gaze growing hard, "And just where did you hear that."
"Direct from Jorukaia herself." The girl was smiling faintly, now that she'd gotten Vasir's attention again. "Saren has either been handed a colossal bit of misinformation, been manipulated into a potential betrayal of the Council, or has actually gone insane, I don't know which, and neither did Joru. The point is that Saren believes that he's got the capability to cripple, if not outright destroy the entire galactic political structure in one stroke. What he intends to do with that power is of no consequence, he must not be allowed to use it at all."
Tela had been a Spectre for a good century by now, she'd long learned to sift genuine intelligence from the crackpots spinning theories. "So what do you want for this little tidbit."
"I'm not done yet, Spectre. Regardless of his motivations, or the accuracy of his beliefs, I see that there's a number of potential outcomes to this. First, Jorukaia's mistaken and Saren isn't up to anything bad, in which case, he'll capture her and bring her in when she confronts him." She held up one finger.
"Second, Saren is planning some sort of coup, but has faulty intel and won't find a back route into the Citadel with which to pursue it, in which case, he'll be found and prosecuted." Another finger was raised.
"Third, Saren finds the conduit, but wasn't intending to do more than secure a security breach, in which case he comes in and explains himself to the Council and all is forgiven." A third finger joins the first two.
"Fourth, Saren does have designs on power, and he can find the conduit." She turned to give a level gaze at the Spectre. "In that case, he has to be found and stopped before he can put his plans into effect. If the relay network is shut down for any significant length of time, it'll throw your civilization into chaos. A day without relay travel is a major inconvenience. A week? A month? A year? That would destroy the Council as assuredly as a fission bomb going off inside the Council Chambers."
Vasir shivered slightly. The girl was right. There were several potential outcomes to this, but, "So Jorukaia intends to go after Saren, to forestall this worst-case scenario then?"
"Exactly. She'd be overjoyed to find out she's wrong, I think. But if she's right and the galaxy stands on the brink of an existential threat? Better to risk her own life in the protection of the galactic peace." Those pale-gold eyes seem to glitter a bit as the girl smiles at her. "Sounds like she's doing your job for you, huh?"
Vasir glowered at the girl. "Right, so that's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't give me any insight into how to find the girl herself."
"She's older than you are, Vasir, and has hundreds of years of combat experience. As to where she is, well, she's closer than you think."
'That cunning bitch.' Vasir had her gun out and up even as those golden eyes went molten, and a suddenly very dark-skinned woman's hand was grasping her wrist. The bullet smashed into her target's left bicep, tearing a long grove through the scales before spraying blood on the wall. The astonishingly strong woman slid around the Spectre, twisting her hand up behind her back, and one long arm grasping her other wrist to hold her still against the taller woman's chest. Vasir kicked backward, but the angle was wrong, and she felt something snake around her ankles, binding them together. A glance down showed the long tail trapping her legs and she spat out a string of curses, mostly at herself for forgetting about that.
Joru's breath was hot on the side of her cheek, "We're working towards the same end, Vasir; the preservation of the galaxy. I don't want to fight you, but the scenario I outlined leaves us no margin for error. There is no contingency plan, no fail-safe. If Saren does indeed have the information he needs to shut down the Relays, and can indeed find an unguarded route back to the Citadel, and he does indeed have a patron that desires such disruption, then I'm the only thing stopping him."
"What patron?" She almost spat out the words, trapped in the taller woman's iron grip. It wasn't that uncomfortable, though the darastrix's grip was tight enough to prevent Vasir from getting the leverage needed to break free.
"Saren is working with the Geth. They're probably trying to destabilize the Council prior to a full-scale invasion, and with the Relays under their control, they'd be able to mop up even the vaunted Turian Fleets with ease."
Vasir quit trying to struggle. Joru was insane, but... It was a potential threat. Blown out of proportion, sure, but she was a nutter. And so strong she didn't even have to work to hold Vasir immobile. On the other hand, she was in point-blank range. "Fine. I get it. I'll look into Saren."
"That's all I ask, Spectre." Vasir didn't wait for anything else. She pulsed her biotics violently, flaring out with a Throw in all directions. She felt herself freed, and dropped into a roll, bringing her gun up.
Jorukaia had vanished.
"...FUCK!"
AN: Merry Christmas to you all! Or whatever holiday you celebrate! I had intended to get this one out earlier, but I realized I had something of a major plot hole in dire need of some continuity-cement. I hope things are going well for you, and that you enjoy this belated X-mas gift. ^^ It's shorter than the last two, but this was a natural stopping point. The next chapter should include the crossing to Noveria, as well as dealing with the bureaucracy, while Vasir plays catchup and A Team Is Assembled to deal with their little darastrix problem. Vasir does not like being helpless. Hehehehe...