|25|


They were in a chamber, incarcerated for the temporary…Casnar looked up as the door opened and the man named Counti Di Viusire entered, "….She's asked for you, and given her discomfort, we thought we would be merciful and grant you see her….What with you being mates," he said and gave Casnar an acid-inducing smile. Casnar passed a look to the others, Kasumi, Sieis, and eighteen bantons among the room without windows.

"Where is Catherine," Sieis stood up from his seat on the floor and looked squarely on the Counti, "…What are you doing with Catherine….You would leave us alone if we gave you what we could find in the city below ground."

"We've had to change our relationship in light of new events, gray and ugly one," the Counti beckoned to Casnar, "…If you want to see her while the offer is extended, please, move a little faster?"

He turned from Kasumi, "…Mind everyone, Goto," he muttered as he went out with the man and the door closed behind him.

They went down a lift and up a ramp to some raised platform circumventing the interior of what appeared to be an observation room—Casnar saw Shepard lying flat on her back….She appeared to open her eyes as they came down the steps from their higher level, "….Casnar?" He was quiet as he looked over her situation—her hair had been clipped and removed, a wig of electrodes in her scalp and the eyes were tired and red….She looked like she was dying. "What is happening," she whispered, "…Why are you here?"

He looked from her questioning eyes to the Counti's placid face, "…Why does she look on the edge of life, what have you done to her?"

Braith started to pull herself upward and reach for him—tethers kept her tied down, but tendrils of light seeped out of her fingers, dripping with an eerie quality to vanish in thin air, "…She's stuck," the Counti said grimly, "…It makes none of us happy to see her this way, but she has a lifeforce in her that needs to come out….It belongs to Lothiraxl….An energy source that is badly needed by the city….Suppose it's her own punishment for destroying its container in the Citadel, but the reason your mate walks and breathes is because of it….They are connected, and it needs to be freed."

Kneeling partially by the table bed she was upon, Casnar took hold of her hand, tendrils teasing out and misting over their fingers entwining together, "…I'm here, Braith," Casnar whispered to her, her eyes watching his, "…I'm sorry I wasn't there in the imaging center when they took you….I would have—"

"Been able to do nothing to help her and it," Counti replied, having listened.

Casting a green eye over his shoulder, Casnar refocused on her, "…You look bad….I don't know what I can do for you—" Her fingers tightened as they communed….It communed….

Help us…..Help Catherine…..They intend to tear us with her connection to Lothiraxl through the zonepad….Destroy the zonepad….Destroy it…..We will find another way….Please, Casnar Soterios!

He was speechless….Braith's eyes were closed and yet her fingers twined tremulously with his….Are you the reason I've been seeing things when I touched the door before, he thought to it.

Allies in the walls….Not all Lothiraxl is one….Many beings in the city vying for power….Help us, Casnar….Let Lothiraxl fight its own war to survive….Alliance is innocent….Knows nothing about history of the city….Lothiraxl will live forever but new control must exist….Free us….Free us!

He stared at the face not so long ago was under him in a flat bed on the floor of an attic, a face he had watched go by him every day from her home at 89 Cherry Lake to the port bar, passed his shop….And he desperately wanted to return with her….Alive. "I….Will pray that the transfer through Catherine saves you," he whispered loud enough for Counti to hear, "…What can I help with?"

"I think you can keep yourself at a distance," Counti said, "…We'll bring Catherine into the transfer vat and connect the two by a nice plunge in the liquid Surr's had made ready for them…Shepard will be free in a short time, you will see…" He curled his finger and Casnar followed him away from Braith, whose eyes were open again, locked on his back.

"Casnar," she called after him—he glanced over his shoulder at her and tried to convey his deepest inner thought through that gaze, "…Casnar!"

"Relax, Braith, they'll help you," he turned his eyes away from her stare, feeling the anger searing into his neck….Casnar kept his face mute and reserved his inner chaos from anyone who might be watching—particularly the Viusire….And Kaidan who was standing up in a window overlooking the room with a group of labcoats and Alliance uniforms. "Catherine…Why will Catherine be the help she needs?" Casnar tested the Counti.

The Counti gave him a thoughtful examination with his gaze as they waited at the rim of the platform, "…Haven't you been using her to acquire access with the city's systems?"

"I see she can interact with it, but what will she be able to provide for Braith and this energy holding up inside her….It has taken a toll on her, just trying to let itself out, no?"

"The Surr believes that Catherine's tuned to the city, which is a bridge we can adapt for Braith Shepard's fellow entity to cross from one to the other, and by those smaller linked jumps, be reacquired by Lothiraxl—it needs a purge otherwise, and Mister Alenko is against providing Miss Shepard as a battery," Casnar only thanked the gods of his that Alenko had a heart for her then, "…So it is fortunate that you happened along and we were notified through our last meeting with Surr and portmother…."

"Portmother…Surr," Casnar ruminated aloud, "…Separate governing departments of the city?"

"They are….Portmother operates from the Barend, located on the surface of the city, and handles the upper air whereas Surr controls the inner city…Surr must work with portmother and both collaborate on how the city above and below functions…" He hesitated, "…They disagree on an assortment of issues, but both acknowledge Lothiraxl needs a new power….And we are not at liberty—we visitors or guests to Lothiraxl—to go making this public knowledge."

"Why is Lothiraxl losing…Power?"

Counti sniffed distastefully, "…Over the years Lothiraxl has become divided…Various factions have emerged, and some have tried to go places they do not belong….Inhabitants below with Surr have become….Agitated…And Surr is working to stem the problem properly with portmother, the Alliance, and others who have come to woo the city….You may not realize it, but Lothiraxl is the perfect utopia—it provideth everything from food to water to air, electricity, temperature modulation, gravity, pressure…It's a city of knowledge—and it's alive….But the powers that be will always quibble, and as the city assumes growth—"

"More are coming to live here?"

"That," Counti agreed, "…But the city grows and expands….Something about the inner core that determines this….We've had several growths in the past fifteen years—"

Fifteen….

"….And so there is regularly an invitation to certain planets to submit a number of their select pops…Populations, you understand," Counti glanced up at the room above through the window, "…Humans are the city's latest invitees, and we have brought some other help around the galaxy to enjoy peace here…Relatively speaking….As well as peace outside….Owe that wisdom to our dealings with Reapers and Lothiraxl's kind hosts."

Braith was still watching them when Casnar glanced down at her table, the floor moving apart to allow another table to rise up next to hers….He caught his breath shallowly as he saw who was on it, and behind their tables both, a panel in the floor slid open in which something thick and glistening was churning through and about, "…What is that supposed to be for," Casnar asked, Catherine looking about in a panic, her hair loose from her braid as she caught the attention of Braith and the pair did not take their eyes from each other. Suits in the same nature of Counti's uniform came into the room and surrounded the tables, taking off Braith's restraints and carrying them away…She was picked up and carried to the pool of liquid, now cast with a silver luminescence.

"Don't worry," Counti was watching Casnar's expression carefully, "…She will be fine and you will be able to go back to your mundane little lives wherever you've established that," Casnar nodded to this and looked up at the window.

"Should we go up there and join them?"

"We can," Counti turned to go, "…You know, you may have the option of staying here….Lothiraxl could use someone with your family's background of engineering."

"We can talk about it," Casnar said, slipping his hand into the pocket of his waist to remove the flash grenade, "…I'd like to see that Lothiraxl has a future first."

The moment the door opened, Casnar set the trigger for the small grenade and waited until Counti had stepped in ahead of him after climbing the top of the stairs, and with a roll then as he made a turn, the grenade wedged itself into the corner of the wall and floor—a siren sounded—the flash startled everyone and singed clothes and skin as the room lit brightly—Casnar fell down the stairs, as if knocked out of the way by accident and landed on the bottom of the case, those below turning to run up top and check on him, "…What happened?" Casnar coughed and pointed to the room where people, the Counti included, were trying to collect their bearings, and waving those off him, he was left to his own devices—the staff below working on Catherine and Braith were left with one or two to mind them, but so distracted as they were, Casnar shoved both into the liquid, pulled out Braith who held limply to his neck and trickled tendrils of blue lightning, and helping Catherine out of her binds, they fled the chamber, running up as fast as they could with Braith in his arms to the platform and out the next doorway opening—right into Kasumi, Sieis, and Miranda at the lead of the bantons.

"Where were you!" Casnar snapped at her—Miranda scowled and pointed to a large krogan waiting at the other end of the corridor.

"I was persuading him to help, but it looks like you've been resourceful—" Casnar pushed her ahead of him, Braith clinging to his neck as Catherine ran into Sieis—the two embraced and Sieis trilled as everyone made for the door with the krogan stepping out of the way—in his hands, or claws, a large shotgun he was ready to use.

The krogan and Casnar sized each other up again, "…Don't blame me—she's the one who shot you," he growled as they went by, nodding to Miranda in the lead. They ran down the corridors, doors "happening" to open and guiding them further from their imprisonment….Casnar didn't ask how Sieis and Kasumi had gotten out with the others, or how Miranda and the krogan had gotten in (automatically assuming it had something to do with the doors and whatever was controlling them, and he had a suspicion it wasn't Catherine), but he did say with sudden exclaim, "….Destroy the zonepad!"

"I don't have it," Catherine shouted, "…The zonepad was taken—I don't know where we're going either!"

Sirens started to call as the doors opened ahead of them, slammed closed behind them, until in the chaos of their flight they fell through space, "….Oohoh, shi—" Miranda's famous last words as they fell into darkness and kept falling…..Casnar held on tight to Braith, shouting he fucked up and hoped he'd have the chance—

And then they stopped mid-air….Looking about each other, adrift in what seemed a large well of silver steel with a glowing luminescence, Casnar and the others turned their eyes downward to spectral lights blinking in existence and warming, heightening, reaching from the depths to catch them.