|39|
Rain pelted the desert…Kasumi couldn't figure why so much rain could leave a place dry as a bone, but then she had not seen the daytime yet over the Mier…The skims hovered still over the tarmac while they inspected the bodies quickly over and then sought to the churned-up trail now full of plinking divots cupping water, "…What's off in that direction," she asked. At the edge of the tarmac, where the penlights were beaming upwards, Kasumi's cape flicked in the rain, "…Obviously the city's there, but why would they go that way…Or do they just not even know…"
"They may think they can access the city," Tetonbaum said, stepping along the tarmac and looking off…"But if I'm certain, they will be seeking something more fitting their bulks and bodies….The ravine rises onto the higher flats, and there are numerous crops of caves to go into…Maybe that could be something they think they will find refuge in—"
"What about the rachni," Kasumi glanced at Tetonbaum as he waved over to the others holding a prayer over the dead burrells, "…Won't they be around to catch them?"
"Rachni maybe, if they can catch them…The queen will be nesting and her drones keep tight…But the workers, if they see something might inform us….It does nothing if the bantons and Catherine are above ground in this rain however."
Kasumi raised her arm in the rain and tapped out a sequence of numbers into her device, and instantly her cloak went into its transparent concealment…Through her own sight per mods to the gear she kept in her hood, the night lit up black and white and she could see more clearly the disturbed silts of the dunes and through the rainfall, "…I'll track them…You provide me cover, won't you," she glanced at Tetonbaum as he uncannily looked right through her—at her…
"Of course…Anything for a pretty human…"
"You charmer," she dashed off, lightly avoiding the puddles as Tetonbaum and his th'anes watched the phantom of her shape in the rain disappear into the desert.
"Braith….Braith?"
"Oh…God, you're awake again," she stumbled off the side of the bed and ran over to the medicine bottle left on the table by the drellahna who had left and would check in later, not to intrude on the younger sered, but Braith only knew she'd gone and would not say when she'd return, but had indicated the bottle when Casnar's eyes opened, "…Hold on, I'll get you this…Whatever it is and we'll drink it—you'll—" Braith tripped on some of the carpeting overlapping the floor from beneath the bed and the table and fell, bobbling the medicine as she landed on the corner of the mattress and Casnar sat up gingerly to catch her wrist—the bottle remained secure as he pulled her to him, "…Casnar, I'm," he placed her arm over his neck and laid back with her on his chest, lower hand cupping the small of her spine above her pelvis and scooting over….
"I'll drink it if you bring it close to me and not spill it over my feet," he smiled and was relieved it was only her in the boudicea, "…I'm sorry—"
"Why are you sorry?" She handed him the bottle and uncapped it before she let go, "…Why are you saying that…"
"I think I asked for this all…To happen…I didn't want it to and…" Falling quiet, he drank the medicine and closed his eyes, laying the bottle down between the pillows after he'd finished it, "…I was attracted to her—"
"That's not a reason….You were raped and there are bodies left to make it kind of blatant it wasn't an act of consensual sex, Casnar…Listen to me preaching—Casnar, we're going to catch her, find out why she did it, then I'm going to skin her alive with my own hands and a razor laser…She's not going to die that way, but I'll beat the lights out of her—"
"The zonepad…I think she's got a connection still to the Assembly, Braith…I don't think she left them at all."
Miranda leaned against the table—burrells guarded the bantons, watching the poorly advancing inquiries going forth between Wrex and the aliens, "…They lose their ability to speak?"
"They're afraid…" Wrex turned his neck to see her, "…There seems to be some rift in the bantons that was covered by their loyalty to the hope of surviving with someone called Mourele…He's dead…These ones separated from those loyal to that one called Sieis…But that's all I know from what I've got to work with here…" He turned back to a gray and brown-tinged banton, "…This one's called Mrutil…He's the second down from the order of leadership, and the more talkative."
"So will he talk to me," Miranda leaned forward, the gold eyes of the banton Mrutil sloughing open with thick eyelids…These were slightly upturned, giving him a remarkably gentle look, but the size of Mrutil was two burrells' worth…He raised his shoulder to hide from her, "…They're distrustful—"
"Of humans," Wrex said, stepping around the crowd of nine bantons in the coniulde, "…For aliens with little background for your species, they have good instincts."
"The human, Catherine," Wrex and Miranda turned, a smaller banton with an opaque skin to his nose and the fore of his brow, "…She is not human…"
"That doesn't make any sense—"
"They're not that fluent with the language they've learned so far," Wrex grumbled, "…No big issue…"
"Catherine is dead…Like meat gone bad," the banton went on, ignoring their looks, "…Assembly is using the human to come here and learn…Sieis does not believe me…But I saw the Counsil human kill her and bring her to the big ship…"
"What…So she's a clone or something contrived off the original?"
"Sieis love Cat…Not easy to see truth," another banton, emboldened by his comrade, began to speak, and a soft tinge of blue dusted his pronounced temples as he stood from sitting on the floor, "…Sieis has power of girah…Strange one…He is bonded to Cat…Thinks that human with him is Cat…We think it is to control him as help to Assembly…Send human to collect samples of leading humans and others…Like shell for collection—she mates with creatures, never Sieis…Only others…"
"What—that's—"
"Sounds tragic," Wrex declared with a smidge of indifference, "…She collects samples through her—"
"Where does she bring the samples?"
"What do you mean she still works for the Assembly," Braith looked into those tired green eyes, "…She said they were running from them—" he shook his head…
"I don't know," laying back his head he covered his eyes, "…I need to sleep…The medicine makes me feel sick…"
"Do you want a bath or something…Food?"
"No…Braith, I'm never going to be able to forget it….What she did to me…She took my seed like she was procuring a—"
"Stop, before I lose my cool and you don't seem like you're ready to talk about this—I'm sorry, talk…Talk all you want, I'd be better at talking marines into battle…Sorry, I suck," she flicked a tassel from one of the pillows, "…I don't know how to help in something like this…" Laying her hand underneath her cheek she looked across his tebris at the wall, "…I can fight Reapers…I can help protect a galaxy, but I can't…I will, I'm just not," Casnar pulled her head up by a gentle grip on her hair and touched his brow to hers, sliding their noses together in a pained comfort….He made a soft mewl through his throat and Braith let him continue to rub his nose against hers—a drell's physical expression of soothing himself from his humiliation, loss, and helplessness. "Do you want me to make love to you…" He nodded… "How about a bath, I saw the bathroom….We can—"
"I want her to go away….I see her…the freshest memory in my mind, Braith…"
"This is highly unmedically sound," she moved up on him and kissed his mouth, drawing her tongue across his lip as his came out to greet hers, "…I'll give you something else to picture in that damn memory of yours."
|TO BE CONTINUED|
