Nar Shepard

by TheH8fulM8s

The Migrant Fleet traders came to Mindoir hoping for a chance to open overtures with the new people called 'humans'. A rare opportunity to build connections untouched by the cold hand of the geth war and the blame other races placed on the quarians. Instead they found ruin and death. And a little girl. Who, like them, now had nowhere to call home. (AU: Shepard Raised by Quarians)

3. Three-Headed Dog

Chapter 3: Three-Headed Dog

"Damn batarian bastards," Kal'Reegar vas Neema said as Captain Yun'Razi led him down the road towards the eastern edge of the colony. "Somehow leaving one survivor feels almost worse than leaving none."

"Sixty," Yun'Razi said, she regarded him over one shoulder, her single luminescent eye unsettling him, "sixty survivors, Kal'Reegar, or at least there were when they took the children." Kal stammered an apology. "Let's just go see what Hana'Nur has found." Kal fell into an embarrassed silence.

Everybody in the corps knew the story of Yun'Razi. Her Pilgrimage had nearly ended with her a slave on Kar'Shan. Kal, one of the new kids on the Neema, had stupidly fallen for an age-old prank when he told his older crewmates he'd been detailed on the Mindoir mission with her.

"Ask her for her Pilgrimage story," An'Hal had said, "she's loves retelling it." Kal'Reegar learned a lot about trusting the word of An'Hal when Hana'Nur vas Shepherd, having overheard his conversational request, had calmly told him that he'd wake up one morning with his waste systems venting air into his helmet.

Yun'Razi had stepped in and stopped her. That had made Kal's embarrassment all the worse. He felt almost guilty when he thought about how simple and pleasant his Pilgrimage had been by comparison. He slipped into the memory as the long walk stretched before him.

By luck he'd wound up on the Salarian homeworld of Sur'Kesh after a false-start onboard the Citadel, making the rookie mistake a lot of young quarians did. His first valuable Pilgrimage lesson was that profit found a way to justify prejudice even where laws claimed none could exist. No-one wanted to hire quarians.

When he'd made a complaint to C-Sec a well-meaning Salarian sergeant had explained to him that a special exemption had been made to the Citadel Station Fair Employment Act. If an employee could not guarantee a contract of at least fifteen galactic-standard months no employer could be required by law to hire them.

The sergeant made none-too-subtle hints that a few sealed doors might open if Kal filled out a profile with the clandestinely name 'Religious Observant Employment Program'. He'd launched into a long explanation that Kal stopped when the words 'half-pay' came up.

Kal'Reegar was military, born and raised on the Raham-Anan, the last quarian warship built at the Reegar shipyards on the Raham Bluffs of Rannoch's equatorial deserts. His family had defended the Migrant fleet for the better part of three centuries. His ancestor Sul'Reegar had held the shipyards for three weeks while one million refugees were taken piece-meal into the orbital stations around Rannoch in preparation for the Great Retreat. He was a proud quarian and no-one's fool. He told the sergeant, and everyone within earshot, as much.

The Salarian had offered him a big grin after that and finally mentioned that his hatch-brother was looking for a short-term ship-board mechanic for a flight to Sur'Kesh. Lucky break. Until the morning Kal woke up to guns in his face and a high-pitched voice politely informing him that he needed to step outside and surrender himself to the Talat Customs Authority. The C-Sec sergeant and his hatch-brother had needed a short-term mechanic because they'd been trying to offload a shipment of red-sand rapidly.

If Kal had fears that he'd languish in a salarian prison he quickly found that justice, like most things, was handled with speed on Sur'Kesh. The inspectors who questioned him seemed almost disappointed at the honesty and cooperation he gave them. They must've wanted a challenge. Ultimately, he was dubbed an innocent, if exceptionally naïve, youngster who didn't need prison-time.

The Customs office gave him a decent job working in the general ship-repair department that all salarians were provided for by their government. He'd spent a few weeks marveling at the natural beauty of the planet, to the point that his father had to warn him their allocated digi-space was nearly overwhelmed with the waterfall pictures he was sending them.

Pilgrims often boasted that they were going to see as many homeworlds as they could, a detached way of understanding what every quarian was fighting to reclaim, but few ever made it closer than orbital stations. He knew he was lucky, exceedingly lucky.

But he'd still felt stuck.

He had no clue what he was going to bring back for his gift. He wanted to join the crew of the Neema. Han'Gerrel vas Neema was the favorite to take the place of Admiral Uma'Res vas Neema, who was, like most of her colleagues on the Admiralty board, approaching the twenty-year mark that traditionally Admirals took as the retirement age from their high position. Han' Gerrel was young and ambitious. Kal'Reegar wanted to follow such a leader.

It was a shame every other quarian hoping to join the Heavy Fleet felt the same way. He'd wanted a real gift. Not new air filters or updated processors, that was too basic. He wanted something tangible. Something that would change quarian society. He spent hours after his shift running the obstacle course the Talat Customs Office kept for its officers, hoping the activity would spark something in his brain.

"Uli'Rann. Prazza'Vael." Yun'Razi's voice snapped him out of reverie and back onto Mindoir. The marine and scout were making a slow progress toward them. Prazza had the stumbling, rubber-necked wobble of the dazed and confused. Uli'Rann's front was brown with drying mud. Kal'Reegar adjusted his grip on the Carbine he'd been gifted before leaving for Pilgrimage. It would be his first real chance to use it in service of the Migrant Fleet.

"Hana'Nur is with her," Uli'Rann said without any greeting, "Prazza…had an accident. He's a little out of it. I think maybe his suit VI slipped him painkillers."

"Great," Yun'Razi said, "he'll be singing 'My Suit and Me' the whole ride back to the Gorach." Yun'Razi turned her visor skyward, thinking. "Take him back to the main group and let him sleep it off. Then I want you examining the big red crates, Uli'Rann." With a slightly more chipper tone she continued. "The batarians missed the best kind of salvage."

"Oh!" Uli'Rann perked up. "Smuggler's cache?"

"Rocket drones," Yun'Razi sighed, "no granger-units. I want you to make sure the drones are packaged right. I don't want them rattling around on the trip back. Then parse out what's the best stuff. We don't have room for everything."

"Ma'am?" Kal'Reegar asked. "I know the batarians bombed the major landing platforms but I think we could get away with bringing the Gorach in out here. It's flat enough."

"The Gorach stays where she is," Yun'Razi said, "and Kal'Reegar?"

"Y-yes, ma'am?"

"It's unwise to tell a Captain what she should do with her ship," she said, "especially if she's flown more planetside missions than you've had birthdays."

"He's just trying to be helpful, Yun," Uli'Rann said, "see you later, Kal." Kal'Reegar nodded stiffly, trying not to spontaneously collapse into an embarrassed singularity. They found the prefab easily enough; none of the other buildings had lights on inside. They entered into a spacious living room and Kal'Reegar whistled through his teeth.

"Stainless steel. Non-recycled plastic. Plexiglass windows." He noted the open-air plan of the first floor. The kitchen and dining area looked out over the back-fields and a small garden. A huge digi-screen television took up the wall across from an L-shaped sofa. It was all so new and comfy. His time on Sur'Kesh had been long enough ago that he'd forgotten how much every other race in the galaxy had.

"Perfect timing, Yun, come in here. We have a lot to discuss and not much time to do so," Hana'Nur said from the dining room, "first lower your outputs." Kal followed her orders without comment, winding down the output power of his audio to a whisper.

She had opened up a terminal-computer atop the round dining table and assembled a pile of documents and datapads around her. Or had found them that way when she'd entered the house.

"Hana'Nur," Yun said, "what's happened? Prazza is almost unconscious."

"The boy is an idiot," Hana'Nur's blank helmet turned and regarded Kal, "ah, you brought help. Good. A Reegar aren't you?" Kal visibly relaxed when she didn't recall, or pretended to forget, his faux-pas over Yun'Razi's past.

"Kal'Reegar vas Neema," Kal said with a crisp salute, "ma'am." Hana'Nur wasn't his superior officer but the aura she brought with her made him nervy. She tapped the holographic keyboard in front of her. There appeared an image of a white box marked with a helix-stylized green 'S'. Kal'Reegar cocked his head at it.

"I recognize that," he said, "I almost got mugged under a sign shaped liked that on the Citadel."

"It's a Sirta Foundation kit for the upkeep and maintenance of biotic implants and amps," Hana'Nur said, "there should be one somewhere around the house. Please, go find it. Try to be quiet." Yun'Razi did not countermand her request.

"Yes, ma'am," Kal'Reegar said, "are we expecting hostiles to hear us?" Hana'Nur glanced away from her console and Kal felt the confused stare under her opaque visor.

"No," she said patiently, "however, Jane is sleeping. Her room is the first door at the top of the stairs. Check the lavatory first and then the master bedroom." Kal collapsed his Carbine onto the mag-clip over his right shoulder and made for the stairs.

He noted the each of the three doorways in the little corridor with a soldier's eye, noting cover positions and blind spots without really thinking about it. He opened the middle door onto a small lavatory. It was clean, by human standards at least, and didn't give him much hope. His VI told him the mirror doubled as a medicine cabinet, a very quarian use of space he thought, but inside he was stunned to find little more than antihistamines, mild NSAIDs, and a stack of chewy vitamins long gone stale.

Where's the antiseptics? He thought. The eye-drops. The sedatives. The damn triage units! Non-quarians all seemed so unprepared for the idea that they might get sick or infected. Their immune systems were good but they weren't invincible. He saw no Sirta kit.

The master bedroom could've comfortably held three adult quarians with plenty of extra room. The bed was an impractical size and when he found no storage space under the low frame he felt almost offended at the wastefulness. He shoved aside a ridiculous amount of clothes in the closet space and groped around inside a safe that, to his surprise, had already been ransacked.

Batarians? No. The rest of the house is still in one piece. We haven't seen much signs of looting around here. Main attack happened on the colony. What-

A door opened in the hall. His head snapped towards the noise, eyes already narrowing in show of intimidation. The girl met his tensed, ready motion with a little arch of her right eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Jane?" he said stupidly.

"Yeah?" She was a little over half his height and he had to remember that humans grew bigger than most quarians. Her hair was wet and her skin pink from the heat of water. Her eyes were shadowed and tired but alert in a way he'd not expected from a kid. A comforter covered her from shoulders to ankles, her bare toes wiggled against the cold floor.

"Kal'Reegar. Migrant Fleet Marines. Sorry, did I wake you?" She looked at him oddly again.

"Why are you whispering?" She whispered at him.

"Oh, damn it," he adjusted his externals, "there. I didn't wake you, did I? I was trying to be quiet."

"I can't sleep much," Jane shuffled over to the edge of her mother's bed and sat down, "is Hannah still here?"

"Hannah? Oh!" Kal'Reegar stopped rummaging and leaned against the doorframe. "Hana'Nur? She's downstairs with Captain Yun'Razi." Jane slumped forward with a heavy sigh of relief.

"Good," she looked at the closet, "if you're looking for the gun Miss Talvert took it." She frowned. "I guess she's dead too."

"Heartless bastards," Kal growled, "what are they thinking? They can just scorch a colony and get away with it? Your Systems Alliance held out against the Turians for crying out loud." He fixed her with a stern look. "You mark my words, Miss Jane, the men who did this are gonna pay in blood." A cold flame flickered in the center of her eyes, green and devouring, and the girl gritted her teeth tight.

"They killed everyone," she said, "I hope they all die."

"You said 'Miss Talvert', took your mama's gun?" Jane nodded and cast her watering eyes around the room. Kal made his voice strong. "Hey, soldier." Jane looked at him. "I can't imagine what's going through your head right now, but you need to stay here with me. Now I'm looking a crate with a big ol' green 'S' on it. Seen it?"

"My kit," Jane perked up, distracted from her grief for the moment, "why do you need my kit?"

"No idea," Kal shrugged, "Hana'Nur said 'go get it' and I'm heading back only when I got it." Jane nodded towards the hall and scooched off the bed. Kal followed her to a room absolutely cluttered with things. Posters on the walls. Datapads stacked haphazardly on the terminal desktop. His suit VI gave the standard levo-amino food warning as he looked at a pile of colorful, empty boxes on the floor.

"I was really hungry," Jane said when she saw him looking, "I went through all the cereal in the house. Even mom's gross Fiber-Focus one." She stuck out her tongue and scrunched up her face. "So tasteless." She tossed her blanket aside, revealing a pair baggy flannel pants and a wide-hemmed Edmonton Blood Dragons Jersey.

"Mom started keeping it in here since I like to lay down when she checks my readings," Jane said, she reached behind the headboard and withdrew the steel briefcase. "Here." She handed to him then retrieved something from the floor. Kal cocked his head at the plushie toy she started hugging tightly to her chest. It was pink and vaguely resembled a jellyfish, then he noticed the pair of little pistols sewn into each fore-tendril.

"Hey," he chirped, "I know that guy." Jane looked at her toy and offered a tiny smile. "Blasto! You a fan?" She nodded. "Oh, did you see his vids in a cinema? I always wanted to do that but back on the Raham-Anan they never did anything but old-people documentary vids on Movie Night." Jane's smile went a little lopsided.

"No," she said, "I was like seven when the first one came out. Mom didn't even let me watch them until I was in a hospital on Elysium for my implant surgery." Kal bent forward to look her in the eyes.

"Important question," he lowered his voice, "Blasto or Blasto: Kahje's Finest?" Jane grinned.

"I really liked Kahje's Finest." Kal'Reegar pumped his fist once and whooped.

"Finally! I had to go outside my own species to meet someone with some real taste. That shootout with the Elcor Mob-Boss at the end," he put on a deep, monotone voice, "Agonized Plea: I need a doctor."

Jane lifted her Blasto plushie and made her voice sound ethereal.

"This one will summon the other a funerary priest."

"Futile Dying Invective: I'll see you in hell, Blasto." Jane lifted one of the armed tentacles of her toy.

"The other should preserve a space for this one. Pew-pew!" Kal slumped against the wall and groaned dramatically. He caught the second Jane's smile faltered and he stood back up. She fiddled with Blasto's guns. "Guns are louder in real life than in vids."

"Yeah," Kal said, "a lot louder." He felt awkward and out-of-place. "Well, you better try getting some more sleep, Miss Jane. Hana'Nur and Captain Yun'Razi will see us through." He turned to leave.

"Hey, Mr. Reegar?"

"Just 'Kal' is fine."

"Kal. Are you going help the other kids? The ones they took? You're gonna rescue them…right?" Kal'Reegar was not a coward but he found it difficult to meet the girl's eyes.

"I don't want to lie to you, Miss Jane," Kal said after fighting with himself for a moment, "I don't think that's gonna happen." Jane didn't burst into tears, that might've been easier to deal with, she shrugged, gave a defeated little shake of her head to clear her hair from her face and hugged her Blasto plushie a little tighter.

"I guess I knew that," she said, "its not like their parents are gonna be around to yell at anybody over it."

"Hey," Kal said, "don't think like that. Someone's gonna make those slavers real sorry they ever came here. If they did this to a quarian ship you better believe the Migrant Fleet would respond."

"They killed everyone they couldn't take," she snapped, "except me. That's only cuz Miss Talvert came here and made me hide in the water tank." Her voice roughened with emotion. "You guys got here before anybody." She kicked the pile of cereal boxes so they scattered. "Nobody cared what happened to us."

"Well," Kal said, "those batarians wrecked your comm buoys before they attacked. Standard tactics." He would've kicked himself if he was flexible enough. What good was that knowledge to her?

"I was hiding for two whole days," Jane said, "and nobody came to…" she cut herself off and turned a suspicious look on the quarian. "Hey. 'Three-headed dog.'"

Kal's translator tried to make sense of the string of utter nonsense.

"…you have a three-headed pet?" Jane rolled her eyes at the question.

"No," she said, "sorry, that was stupid of me. Miss Talvert told me people were coming to help. That they'd say 'three-headed dog' when they found me and I should do what they say." She shrugged. "I didn't ask cuz I figured she meant humans but…"

But you wanted someone coming to your rescue, Kal kept the thought to himself. Any kid wants to know she's worth saving. He was curious about the code-phrase.

"Soldiers? Alliance Marines?" Jane made a face.
"No," she answered like he was asking which side of his suit was the front, "we came out to here to get away from the Alliance." She shrugged. "Or that's what mom always says…said."

"Two days is a long time," Kal sighed, "maybe they didn't get a message out in time."

"She said they were coming," Jane said, sounding especially hurt by the idea that she'd been given false hope, "I guess she did say that might take a few days at most."

"At most?" Kal felt a little tickle of alarm on the back of his spine. "What Relay are they coming from?"

"She didn't stick around to say. She shut me in the water tank and ran away. I thought she was going to rescue the other kids," Jane hugged her Blasto like he'd vanish, "but she just saved me." Kal left his sharpening sense of danger aside to at least try comforting her.

"I'm sure if she could've-"

"It's cuz I'm a biotic," Jane cut him off, "I'm not dumb. Miss Talvert was teaching me how to use my powers and stuff. She was my gym teacher." She smiled a little. "She was so cool. She used to be a secret agent til she got too old."

"Secret agent, huh?" Kal couldn't stop a laugh.

"Heeeey," Jane drew the word out, miffed, "she was so! She said she used to travel all over the Terminus Systems on 'work'. That she learned about biotics and guns and stuff from 'the best of the best'." Jane blinked and her face scrunched up again in thought. "Y'know…she never said much about what she did though."

"Well, what did she say?"

"She 'looked out for humanity's future'," Jane chewed her lip, " 'like you, Jane'." Jane's fingers dug into her plushie, "she…she never said that about the other kids." Jane looked around the room, suddenly less secure. "She only moved here after I got the implant surgery…"

Across species, cultures, and the isolation of his envirosuit, Kal'Reegar still felt the residual icy fear the girl exhibited.

"Kal, you really didn't come here because Miss Talvert called you?"

"Afraid not, Miss Jane," Kal said, wishing he could lie and make her feel better.

"Kal?"

"Yeah?"
"You're not gonna leave me here alone, right?" Kal'Reegar knelt to be level with her.

"I'll hitchhike back to the Fleet before I leave you on this planet alone, Miss Jane. Count on it." She uncurled a little. "Did your Miss Talvert serve in the military? Could she know about a secret base or something?" Jane's face paled.

"She hated the Systems Alliance," Jane said quietly, "even more than my mom did. Mom didn't like them cuz she thought they were too focused on exploring the galaxy before fixing Earth. Miss Talvert…" she grimaced at him, "Miss Talvert said that were too focused on playing nice with aliens instead of keeping humanity safe."

"So, these friends of hers wouldn't be Systems Alliance?" Kal felt the strongest urge to have his Carbine in hand, finger on the trigger.

"No way," Jane said, "but who would it be?" Her face was desperate for reassurance. "Kal, who's coming?"

"Maybe nobody," Kal'Reegar said, "but I think we should go downstairs and tell Hana'Nur. Ok?" Jane nodded. "And Jane?" The little human looked up at him, all trust and fragile hope. "Begrudging Respect: You're tough for a jelly-fish, Spectre."

Jane smiled.

"This one apologizes for politely reminding the other that a jelly-fish stings."

Hana'Nur accepted the news about Miss Talvert with less visible reaction than she received the Sirta Foundation case. That at least had gotten Kal a polite 'thank-you'. Yun'Razi was pacing the living room and speaking into her comm.

"Anything not small enough to fit in the ordinance locker aboard the ship stays where we found it," she said to the ground team. After a brief silence she spoke once more. "Ivo'Solda, take the Gorach into hiding between the moons. Keep watch on the Relay. Report anything that comes in."

"Jane," Hana'Nur said calmly, "I want you to go get changed into sturdy, comfortable clothes. The kind you wouldn't mind spending several days in. You have a backpack?" Jane nodded, stoic as an eleven-year-old could be. "Fit in two changes of clothes. Do you have emergency kits around here in case of injury?"

"Some stuff under the sink," Jane said.

"Pack it in," Hana'Nur waved at the cabinets, "then you pack the high-calorie bars your mother kept for the days you trained with biotics." Kal's head spun with the sheer amount of data Hana'Nur had accumulated in less than an hour. Jane was ramrod straight and paying close attention. Miss Talvert must've extended her clandestine experience to instilling her pupil with discipline.

"Did your mother have nutrient pastes for emergencies?" Jane's composure broke a little, she squeezed her eyes shut and stuck out her tongue. Hana'Nur couldn't keep a little laugh out of her voice. "Better than going hungry, little one. Those go in too." She tilted her head. "Jane, what's wrong?"

"I can't fit all that in my backpack!" Hana'Nur tapped her on the nose gently.

"You bring it to me," she soothed, "I'll show you how quarians make space. You'll have plenty of room left over." She took Jane's hand in her own, rubbing her thumb across the girl's knuckles. "Jane, you need to tell me now if you want to come with us."

"If she what?!" Yun'Razi exploded.

"She'll remain on the Shepherd," Hana'Nur said without looking away from Jane, "my ship. My choice. My head if the Fleet doesn't like it."

"If?" Yun'Razi said. She stormed past Kal and loomed over Hana'Nur but paused as the other woman raised her hand for peace.

"Jane?" The girl took Hana's hand in both of her own and squeezed it tight.

"I wanna go with you," Jane said, "I don't wanna wait here anymore." She smiled. "I trust you."

"Ok, Jane," Hana'Nur said, "go get your things and then," Hana'Nur held up both fingers and her thumb, "find three things you can't live without. Understand, Jane? Three. No more." The human opened her mouth to protest but then seemed to think better of it. She nodded, spun on her heel and disappeared up to the second floor in a twirl of red hair.

"Hana," Yun'Razi said, "you've lost your mind."

"The worst they can do is exile me," Hana'Nur said, "and they won't do that." Kal shuffled in place and tried to slip away.

"I should go help-"

"Stay there, Kal'Reegar," both women said in unison. He snapped a salute and tried to melt into the nearest wall.

"Hana'Nur," Yun'Razi said, "what's the plan here?"

"Jump a Relay to Elysium and leave her with their military. They can take over from there." Kal'Reegar breathed a sigh of relief. That was a good idea and it eased his conscience to think Jane would be safe no matter what they did.

"And they'll just say 'thank you very much, strangers' and send us on our way? Hana'Nur, if we take her onboard a quarian ship, whatever our reasons, I doubt they'll just let us slink back to the Migrant Fleet. They'll impound the Shepherd and the Gorach until they're satisfied we aren't involved in the massacre here." Yun jabbed a thumb at herself. "At the very least it's what I'd do if the situation was turned around. We leave her somewhere safe and let the humans handle this."

"Yun," Hana'Nur sounded a touch annoyed.

"No. This mission is my command and that means I bear responsibility," Yun'Razi stepped in Hana'Nur's space. "Hana, I understand you don't what to leave a child all alone but think about-"

Yun'Razi turned suddenly, then activated her comms.

"Where? When? Oh, damn it! Engage silent run. Give them nothing to see and stay off comms except for short-burst battle-data transmission." Kal'Reegar tensed as Yun'Razi turned back to Hana'Nur. "A ship just left FTL. Frigate size. Moving fast towards the planet."

"Three-headed dog," Kal said to himself.

"Jane," Hana'Nur raised her voice slightly, "hurry up."

"Ok!" Came the muffled reply. "I'm getting my boots on!"

"Yun," Hana'Nur said, "you need to uncrate the rocket drones."

"We're coming back empty-handed," Yun'Razi growled, she barked into her comms, "prepare for emergency evac! Marines to battle-positions around the Shepherd. Scouts break out the rocket drones and have them ready for combat." She pointed a finger an inch from Hana'Nur's visor. "Hana,I want your word the people coming here aren't some well-meaning Alliance troopers. I want you to promise me we aren't about to start a war with the Humans."

"I promise, Yun," Hana'Nur said, "and thank-"

"Oh, cram it," Yun'Razi snapped, "reserve your gratitude for after we make it out of this alive. Kal'Reegar!"

"Ma'am?" Kal's heels clicked together.

"Stay with Hana'Nur and follow every instruction she gives you. The child is our mission now apparently." The prefab door slid open onto the cold Mindoir night and Yun'Razi vanished down the road at a sprint.

"She's in a better mood than I'd hoped," Hana'Nur commented after a moment, "it's the batarian raid making her sentimental I imagine." She beckoned Kal'Reegar outside toward a frictionless-dolly, a brand-new one, humming quietly upon small mass-effect fields. It was burdened with an entire filing cabinet, a large crate marked with the Sirta Foundation logo, and, after a Hana'Nur placed it there, Jane's kit.

"I got my stuff," Jane announced from the backdoor, "I almost got it to fit in the backpack!" Hana'Nur nodded at the dolly.

"This is going back to the Shepherd. All of it is mission-critical, is that clear?"

"Like a freshly cleaned visor, ma'am."

"Jane," Hana'Nur said as she met the girl half-way, "how do you like Kal'Reegar here?" The girl shrugged.

"He's ok, I guess."

"Thank you, Miss Jane," Kal said.

"Excellent," Hana'Nur took the last few items from the girl; her plushie, an unassembled model ship still in its box, and a digi-frame. She artfully tucked these into the spaces of the blood-red backpack and zipped it shut. "Now you stay by him and he'll lead you back to my ship. You be a good girl and do as he says. Understand?"

"I understand," Jane nodded, "where'd the other-"

"No questions right now, Jane," Hana'Nur rose, "I'm going to scout ahead of us. You might not see me for a bit." She touched the girl's cheek. "But I'm nearby no matter what. Kal, move out."

"Let's go, Miss Jane, Hana'Nur is counting on us." Kal wrapped his hands around the dolly handle and pushed it along at a brisk pace. Jane jogged to keep up with him, her backpack shuffling as she slung it over her shoulders. When they swung around the front of the pre-fab Kal'Reegar glanced back towards where they'd left Hana'Nur.

He wasn't surprised to see she'd vanished.

"Hey, Miss Jane," Kal'Reegar chirped, "how bout I tell you about the time I met an Salarian Special Tasks Group operative?"

"Ok," Jane dug her thumbs under her back-pack straps and walked alongside the dolly, "what's the Salarian Special Tasks Group?"

"How'd the Doctor say it?" He took a deep breath and spoke at a hurried pace. "'STG resolve incidents quietly. Works well for missions. Resolve tense situations before greater problems occur. Would say more but,'" here, in imitation, Kal sucked in a gulp of air, "'would have to kill you.'" Jane goggled at him in wonder. Kal found the expressiveness refreshing if a tad confusing.

"That's how he talked if you could believe it. Didn't like to waste words." Kal pushed the dolly a little faster and slipped into story-telling. Every quarian had experience spinning a tale and Kal enjoyed the chance to chat. "So lemme tell you about a little thing called Pilgrimage."

He'd hardly gotten into his story for all the questions that came his way. Jane was curious little human and had an odd, detailed attention span for a kid. Maybe it was human thing. Kal'Reegar got the feeling it was simply a 'Jane' thing.

"But what if you can't find anything valuable?"

"Oh, well, that's not often the case," Kal said, "I mean at the end of the day if you bring back enough light-bulbs that's still a gift."

"What'd you bring back?"

"Ah!" He leapt on the chance to advance his tale. "See, I was saying that I liked to exercise in the Customs Office training yard after work and one day I finish a run to find this salarian watching me. He introduces himself, but all I can catch is that he's a doctor."

"A doctor…who fights?" Jane's dark-red eyebrows met in skepticism.

"Miss Jane," Kal'Reegar said, "you spend enough time traveling the galaxy and you will find every kind of crazy thing. So, the Doctor tells me he thinks I could use some more work on my form."

His comm came to life all at once.

"Attention everyone," Yun'Razi's voice was firm, "we have reports that an unknown ship has taken up position just outside orbit." Kal glanced skyward on instinct, though of course he could see nothing in the darkness except the moons and uncountable stars. It must've seemed as peaceful three days ago when the batarians slipped into orbit unnoticed.

Three-headed dog.

"And?" Jane's hair hung black in the lightless background of the high-grass fields.

"Maintain radio silence," Yun'Razi went on, "and everyone get back to the Shepherd."

"And," Kal kept his voice even if not completely carefree, "I told him I'd be wiling to hear a few pointers." He turned to look Jane right in the face. "Jane, if you ever meet somebody who likes to talk? The last thing you do is give them excuse…"

Jane smiled. Kal'Reegar described the Doctor's rapid-fire advice and tried to properly mimic the way he'd finally slowed down after ten minutes.

"'Better to write down. Here for a few days? Three at most. Apologies, have dinner with colleague tomorrow or would have it sooner'." Kal snorted. "I barely got a word in edgewise. He was on vacation, see? Wanted a little brain-teaser. Two days later he brought me a binder about," he made two inches with his thumb and finger, "so thick. His dinner-date canceled."

"So? What was in it?"

"We have confirmed shuttle launches," Yun'Razi said nothing else and the comms went dead.

"It was…" Kal cleared his throat, "it was a STG style tactical book. All about how a small unit can outmaneuver a larger one. Tricks. Strategies. Stuff that he tailored to 'quarian physiology and suspected shortage of resource materials'. His words. Said it was puzzler. Good exercise."

"That was your gift," Jane said, "you brought back his book."

"You're a smart kid, Miss Jane. I did that exactly."

"So?" Jane's eyes twinkled with interest. "What'd they say?"

"Well," Kal said, "uh, see. The thing about military types is…they're not real fond of youngsters like us coming in and saying we know better. And for somebody to bring back a whole book, written by a non-quarian, and say 'hey, we should do things this way'." Kal flinched as he remembered the line of relatives dressing him down for insulting the Neema with his 'gift'. "Lucky for me Captain Han'Gerrel vas Neema saw something useful in it. And just like that, Kal'Reegar nar Raham-Anan became Kal'Reegar vas Neema."

"That's so cool! Does everyone fight like that now?"

"Heh, kid, I don't think the Captain has looked through that thing much further than a few pages." Kal shrugged. "Probably just wanted to humor the enthusiastic kid. I'm a Reegar. We've always been marines and if one washed out like that…anyway it's like I said earlier. Any gift, no matter how bad, so long as its-"

"I don't believe that." Kal stopped short, hands pulling the dolly to a stop. Jane was fixing a stern look on him. "I bet that's not why. I bet he really thought it was a good idea." Kal nodded.

"Uh, thanks."

"I mean it," Jane turned to face him fully, "why shouldn't you do things different? Why should anybody get angry? You wanted to help."

"It's complicated, Miss Jane," Kal said, "quarians get protective of things like that. It's…not a lot of people helps us out and we get proud about taking care of our own."

"So?" Jane scuffed the road with her boot. "What good is being proud of yourself? Police Chief Shin and his officers were 'proud'. They're all dead." Her face twisted up. "Miss Talvert was 'proud'. She's dead."

"They tried I'm sure-"

"I told my mom I wanted to learn how to fight," she snapped, "I told her I wanted to learn how fight with my biotics and she kept saying 'no'. 'You don't need to, Jane.' 'You're not gonna ever have to fight, Jane.' 'Jane, just do what I say.'" Kal rubbed his palms against the handle, shuffling from foot to foot.

"If I'd known how to fight…" Jane's voice caught.

"Miss Jane, you can't put that on yourself," Kal said, feeling useless and vulnerable, "what could you have done?"

"I could've done something."

"Jane?" They both jumped as Hana'Nur emerged from the high-grass. "Come walk with me for a few minutes, dear." Jane smiled, rubbing at her right eye and nodded. Then she glanced down and frowned.

"That's my mom's gun…Miss Talvert?" Kal noted the Hydra pistol on Hana'Nur's left hip. There was a smear of dark brown on the barrel.

"She fell fighting,"Hana'Nur said, her visor turned slightly towards Kal, "lot of blood around her. Not every batarian might've survived this raid. Tough for an old woman but they caught her in the open." She turned back to Jane. "Come on, Jane. Walk with me."

"Can't we all stay together?" Jane said.

"You wanna learn to fight, Miss Jane?" Kal offered. "Scouting is a big step towards that. Hana'Nur can teach you better than anyone. Even the Doctor." Jane looked between the quarians and chewed her lip. "Go on. We'll meet up at the Shepherd."

Jane blinked and shot him a look.

"At…at what?"

"My ship," Hana'Nur said, holding her hand out, "come on, Jane. I'm scared out there by myself. I need you to protect me."

"See you two at the ship," Kal'Reegar called out. Hana'Nur unclipped a disc from her belt and tossed it to Kal. His snatched it from the air, fingers curling carefully away from the trigger. A concussive grenade.

"Miss Talvert's omni-tool gave me a comm channel," Hana'Nur spoke through the closed mic of her helmet. Jane remained blissfully unaware. "I haven't heard much yet. Kal, don't do anything stupid. Hopefully they'll pass you by." Kal nodded, swallowing a little as his heart pumped a few beats faster.

"See you, Kal," Jane said, "thanks for talking to me."

"Anytime, Miss Jane." The girl's mouth quirked, and she fixed him with a commanding glare.

"Be careful," she said, "ok?"

"Yes, ma'am," Kal said, smiling under his visor. The two of them vanished into the high-grass. The material of his gloves squeaked when he gripped the handle and the dolly hummed afresh as Kal started pushing it forward. His breathing became loud inside his helmet and he took a few shallow breaths and then one big one.

"They're coming in from the east. Everyone get ready. If they talk we talk. If they start shooting we start shooting. But no-one will say we started it." Yun'Razi's voice whispered through the comms. "Four shuttles. Kal'Reegar?"

"I'm fine, ma'am," Kal said, "I'll be just fine." He hummed softly to himself. The little tuneless jingle that played in the Talat Customs Office elevator. It was rapid and jagged music that would stay in his head forever.

Then the hissing from behind and overhead began.

Breathe, Kal. Breathe. There were no shadows to hide him, not that it would matter if they were scanning for life signatures. There was a dip and push in the air above him as a sleek gray shuttle swept overhead and raced towards the main colony.

Another burst of engine noise. The second shuttle tailed the first.

Breathe.

The third shuttle passed him by. Kal picked a spot to make his stand and began an itinerary of his available weapons.

The last shuttle hummed in and its searchlights it cast his shadow ahead by ten yards. He felt the air displace. He heard the little bursts of the thrusters adjusting and picked a spot between two prefabs to slow himself to a stop. The shuttle hovered forward at a lazy lilt and banked fluidly as it descended to the ground.

Resist panic response. He recalled the Doctor's writings. Instincts from time when biggest threat ground predators. Useless against higher intelligences. Brain fights brain. Think and fight. Rare skill. Very effective.

He kept his fingers wrapped around the dolly handles. The shuttle doors spread open like the wings of a predatory bird. Five figures hopped out. The fact that he didn't immediately find himself ripped apart by gunfire gave him some hope.

Three soldiers approached him. Their guns held casually across their chests. Each wore fine, cutting edge armor, the kind Kal could only ever dream of owning, with no identifying colors or insignias. The helmets gave him no hint of a face, but he guessed they were all human. The leader, a tall woman, stopped a few dozen feet from him, black visor sweeping him over and looking around the space behind them.

"Good evening, ma'am," Kal said. The visor snapped back to him.

"You shut up and don't move," she said, with a kind of exhausted menace, "but first put your hands up until your elbows are straight." Kal obeyed without complaint. The woman tapped the side of her helmet. "Yeah, just one out this way."

Her back-up stalked over to stand behind her, guns at rest but arms ready to aim. Kal searched them for any identifying marks or symbols. He found none. The leader kicked the edge of her boot against the dolly and the metal ring made him twitch.

"Find anything good?" She plucked the Sirta case from the dolly. "Now what do we have here?" She shook it at him. "What's this for?"

"I'm not sure, ma'am," Kal said.

"No? Just like it cuz its shiny? You and magpies got that in common?" She dropped the case back onto the dolly and stepped around to be a few feet from him. "Take anything that looks nice and isn't nailed down. What's the standard operating procedures for a whole race of thieves?"

Talk good. Chapter Ten of the Doctor's manual had covered this. Talk used for three things. Intel gathering, expressing sadist tendencies, or to cover fear. Should keep opponent talking. Provides time to think.

"Respectfully," Kal said, identifying the make of her gun as a Mattock-96 assault rifle, more than powerful enough to shred his suit at close range, "I'm just a soldier, ma'am. I don't know what half this stuff is for."

"Yeah," the leader said, "but you know it's not yours."

"No, ma'am, it is not. You're right about that."

"So, tell me, parasite," she made a motion to one of her troops, "where exactly did you steal this from?"

"House down the road," Kal said, "maybe half a mile." The trooper coming towards him holstered their rifle.

"Take his weapons," the leader said. The trooper advanced and Kal took two steps backwards without moving his arms.

"No, ma'am, sorry, ma'am. I can't allow that." He didn't flinch when the barrel of the leader's rifle pressed against the front of his visor. Maybe he'd be dead in the next second. Maybe not. He'd be screwed for sure if they took his Carbine.

"I shoot you here," the leader said, "and I'm wondering how many people would even care. How many people would care about some suit-rat crawling around a human colony like a goddamn maggot around a corpse-pile?"

"Rough estimate," Kal'Reegar said, "about seventeen million." The two figures by the shuttle were coming over. "To be more specific, a ship carrying no fewer than eight thousand active warriors."

"Tell me where the girl is, quarian. It's about the only way you live another minute." The leader pressed her gun against his visor, the little round hole filling the world like a black sun.

"Girl?" The gun moved away from his mask.

"Fuck this. Wales, Ahmed. Strip him out of this suit and start coughing on him til he talks."

Kal tensed as the troopers moved on him. A male voice snapped out across the road.

"Belay that order," the speaker was obeyed at once, "Lieutenant, go take a water break." The Lieutenant's visor stayed on Kal for a long second before she marched away.

Kal knew what came next. The Talat Customs Officers had a similar tactic. Intimidate, threaten, and then bring in a third party to defuse the situation. The man who walked up tapped the side of his helmet and his visor cleared to show a middle-aged human with a wrinkled, kindly smile.

"Now, my friend," he said, "I have to apologize for my lieutenant. She's on edge. Have your people found any survivors?" He gestured. "Go on and put your hands down, son."

This one wants information.

"I'm afraid not, sir," Kal stepped back to grasp the handle of the dolly. Wales and Ahmed flanked it and began to unload the filing cabinet. Kal did not protest.

"Captain Jan Roper," the man said, his accent sing-song, "born in the New Dutch Union on Earth. You?"

"Kal'Reegar vas Neema nar Raham-Anan. Born on the Migrant Fleet." The Captain chuckled.

"Ah, where else?" He gestured to his men. "We're answering a distress call. You've truly found no-one?"

Wait for moment. Utilize all aspects of surroundings.

"If we had," Kal said, sliding his finger slowly to the altitude adjustor on the dolly's handle, "we'd have helped them. We came here for trade, sir."

"Who's your commanding officer?" As if in answer a series of explosions lit the night from the main colony. Yun'Razi must've misliked her humans.

The Lieutenant spoke for all present.

"What the hell?!"

The soldiers turned in amazement, Kal'Reegar deactivated the frictionless dolly and shoved it sideways. The filing cabinet slid off and took one soldier to the ground. The other stumbled as the spinning dolly slumped down onto their feet. He drove his shoulder into Captain Jan Roper's chest and sent him sprawling.

Then Kal'Reegar was running for his life.

Something whistled by his head and the next instant he was in the cover of the prefab, racing towards the back. The grass was further away this close to the colony. The very beginnings of a new farmstead. There were pursuers behind him and to his left, coming around to cut him off.

Movement paramount to outnumbered fighter. Benefit of disadvantage: nearly 99.9% of enemies will attempt to flank and overwhelm. Easy to know what opponent will do. He could see the Doctor's ecstatic grin in his mind's eye. Enemy that can be predicted is enemy that can be defeated.

Kal squeezed the flashbang grenade in one hand as he unholstered his Carbine with the other. He threw the disc-shaped explosive underhand, so it zipped through the crawlspace of the prefab to meet the flanking attack. He heard a human's exclamation just before his VI dampened his audio-intake.

The sharp burst of the explosion rippled under his feet as he turned the corner and sprinted to the far side of the prefab. He turned half-way to aim the barrel of his Carbine at waist heigh and compressed the trigger a second before he cleared cover.

Two soldiers died where they were stumbling, blinded and deafened, against the prefab's side. The air ionized around them and became a long finger of electricity, passing through the first trooper into the second and scouring a long black burn into the wall. The humans shook and swayed grimly as every nerve ending fried inside them.

Kal released the trigger and tripped as he darted past his first ever human kills. The Carbine in his left hand, he ducked to scoop a Mattock off the ground into his right, finding the adjustment awkward for his flatter palm and longer fingers. He nestled the butt of the short rifle into his elbow and dropped to one knee as he aimed back to the corner he'd rounded.

Recoil mitigated best by low aim. He aimed low, at the feet of the solider who was chasing him. The rough Lieutenant emerged, gun aimed high for Kal's head, now at stomach height, and fired twice into the prefab across the street. Kal's first gunshot stepped on her second and the Lieutenant's shield flared a mocking, triumphant navy-blue. The gun bucked upwards and Kal squeezed the trigger twice more.

Second shot center mass, the shield held. Third shot grazed the shoulder. The shield held. Kal spun, desperately to his left and fired the Carbine again. His shot was wild with his momentum, but the Lieutenant leapt for cover as the current vaporized a huge section of the high-grass behind her. Kal kept his feet and ran out onto the road.

Iffy. He thought. But if its down to three-on-one-

He screamed in surprise when a shot slammed into his shields and darted for the nearest cover available, the dubious barrier of his abandoned dolly. He scuttled into the small space offered by the half-toppled filing cabinet and peeked over the gray metal edge. A bare-head human in uniform grays advanced from the shuttle, laying down another three shots from a pistol.

Pilot. He thought with a twinge of embarrassment. Four-on-one.

"I've got him out on the road," he heard the pilot yell, "someone get around on his blindside." Kal angled the Mattock's muzzle over the edge of his cover and fired twice blindly, grunting when the recoil punched the rifle butt into the side of his helmet.

"Warning," his VI said, "trauma detected-"

"I know shut up!" He could hear footsteps coming back up the side of the prefab, ready to trap him right where he'd started and finish him off. He cursed himself in the millisecond of life he had remaining. If he had back-up or better weapons or-

Of most import, the salarian Doctor's voice echoed in his mind, overcome idea that equipment makes difference. Have killed drell assassin armed only with pencil. Unsharpened pencil.

He had two guns and time. The Carbine needed to recharge but one more shot could blast away his enemy's shields. The Mattock was powerful but so was the recoil. He couldn't stand up…

"Let's do this, you three-headed bosh'tets!" Kal'Reegar rolled over twice, red armor turning dark with rain-fattened dirt, and bore both guns forward on three more humans. The Lieutenant had learned her lesson and jumped back into cover. But in the little alleyway of the prefab and the high-grass, the kindly Captain and his other trooper hesitated.

And that hesitation killed them. The Carbine in Kal's left hand blasted a short-lived beam that scrambled their shields then tumbled as Kal slapped both hands onto the Mattock. Steadied by his shoulder and the ground Kal picked his shots.

"Two shots center mass," he breathed, punching two holes in the Captain's stomach, "one shot head!" Captain Jan Roper's visor exploded into a geyser of black glass and blood. His trooper slid on the mud, grasping for support against the smooth prefab wall. "Two shots center mass, one shot head!"

The shots crawled up the side of the trooper's body. Hip, shoulder, temple. He slumped against the wall, standing for a second before his knees folded outward and his armor scraped along the metal siding as he slid downward.

The hiss of an overclocked heat sink, above his head, told him he'd gotten very lucky. The pilot planted his foot hard onto Kal's back, catching body armor. Kal'Reegar rolled, relinquishing the rifle to grasp at a thin, five-inch-long combat knife sheathed at his thigh. The handle was wrapped in red cloth bearing Khelish script that read, approximately, klenn-gef.

'Little Friend' glinted in the darkness as Kal brought it spearing into the pilot's left knee-cap. The human screamed and toppled. Chapter 17: Close Quarters Combat. Damage leg when possible. Prone enemy vulnerable.

Kal followed the collapsing pilot and straddled his stomach, he stabbed the knife upwards, underneath the ribcage instead of through it. The pilot's face wrinkled then relaxed with sudden death. Kal had the grim revelation that humans and quarians shared remarkable similarities in body structure.

He felt the presence overhead before his suit VI blared a warning, he turned, knife raised and was staring down the barrel of the Lieutenant's rifle once again. Her finger twitched.

Kal jolted and shut his eyes but felt neither the impact of the shot nor the sudden pain of a suit puncture. He cracked his eyes slowly and saw a strange violet shimmer around the Lieutenant's outline, almost lost against the night-sky.

Kal shimmied over the filing cabinet, grasping the pilot's pistol in hand and sighting it on his frozen opponent. Years later, looking back, he'd kick himself for not firing then and there but ultimately, he assuaged himself with the fact that he'd been a fresh-from-Pilgrimage new-kid who'd never seen Biotics before.

He ran for the prefab and took cover, then, as his reflexes relaxed he finally noticed the little girl standing on the roadside, arms extended and hands curled into little trembling fists. Jane's freckles wrinkled under her eyes and above her mouth, teeth bared in a snarl of concentration.

"G-good work, Miss Jane!" Kal crept cautiously out onto the road, snapping his brand-new pistol onto the mag-clip on his right hip. "Uh. I guess, hold her for a second and I'll get her arms or something and we can-"

He was shoved aside by Hana'Nur, who'd emerged silently from the night once more. She walked around to the front of the stasis bound Lieutenant and fired twice into her visor at point-blank range. Jane made a noise and the Lieutenant rocked slightly backwards onto her heels before falling flat onto the road.

"Kal'Reegar, get the dolly moving," Hana'Nur marched over to Jane and knelt to be level with her, "and you never disobey someone like that again, Jane, do you hear me?" The girl rubbed a little trickle of snot running from her nose. She gave a tired defense of herself that Hana'Nur batted down with a few stern words.

Jane took a seat on the filing cabinet when it was loaded, blinking with bleary eyes at the carnage around them. Kal'Reegar felt a little rush of guilt at the violence but the girl made no signs of discomfort. Hana'Nur took something from the derelict shuttle. Kal retrieved his weapons, both quarian-issued and battle-won, then began to push the dolly down the road. Calmly as if they were family out for a stroll through the one of the liveship recreation zones.

Hana'Nur fiddled with her omni-tool for a few silent moments until a burst of static, gunfire, and frightened voices broke the quiet.

"Damn it! Fury-1 to Honno-Ji! We have taken heavy casualties and we need reinforcements! where are you guys?"

"Sorry," Hana'Nur said, tapping a button, "just making sure the dummy audio loop is still working." She gestured skyward. "The frigate was using the same channel as poor, departed Miss Talvert. An oversight on their part." She tapped a few more buttons and the comm-line went dead. "We have enough time to get away."

The main colony was lit by a few sturdy floodlights and they described a square of light around the quarians. The Marines were still hunkered down, though they watched the sky more closely than their surroundings. Kal'Reegar gently shooed Jane from her perch and pushed the dolly straight for a large, long-nosed ship roughly the size of two of the 'three-head dog' shuttles that lay dormant around her.

She was a Corvette once used by the Shepherd-Glenn Mining Concern before that human company, an early extra-solar venture, had gone belly-up. Facing bankruptcy, the company sold off a stock of relatively new mining equipment to the first buyers they could find.

Enter the Migrant Fleet. Willing to purchase an inventory of mining probes, transports, and vehicles. The Fleet paid more than what was fair, that was often the case with non-quarian merchants, but Kal knew they'd gotten theirs back. The quarians had chosen the meeting point based off of proximity to the Terminus Systems.

Any plans Shepherd-Glenn might've had to claim insurance loss to pirates was voided by the bounds of galactic law. Hana'Nur's knowledge of safe business zones made the transaction smooth and subtle. She was granted the captaincy of one refurbished miner-transport vehicle and, in what had to be a victory lap, choose to leave its registry half-way human.

Kal'Reegar wagered saving a little human girl more than made up for a bit of light, mutual, trade trickery. He considered a few blown-apart human corpses as he shifted the dolly around a large divot in the ground. Well, that was just unavoidable, I'm sure.

Rocket drones hovered past him, scanning the horizon for more targets. Two marines met him at the perimeter of the ship.

"What'd they do to wake the wrath of Yun'Razi?" he asked. Gyl'Blom vas Gorach nodded his head back and forth, his foam-green talrin swaying til he found the right words.

"They threatened to kill us all if we didn't do what they said," Gyl leaned in and whispered further, "they didn't exactly use the words, but we felt reasonably threatened." Yun'Razi strode down the docking ramp of the Shepherd, her omni-tool glowing orange around her left hand.

"We're taking off in ninety seconds," she said into the comm, gesturing at Kal'Reegar she hissed, "secure that, now!" Kal took the Sirta kit in first, while Gyl got the filing cabinet up-right.

The cramped Shepherd was tense with its imminent departure. Half of the sixteen seats inside were full already. Mostly the occupants were non-military personnel, for whom a little trading expedition had become a nightmarish adventure. But amongst the eight occupants were Prazza'Vael vas Neema and, Kal was surprised to see, Uli'Rann vas Gorach.

"Kal'Reegar," Uli'Rann chirped, "how is our little concern?" The big marine swayed a little in his safety harness and Kal suddenly noted the bright-yellow triage unit covering his arm from fingertips to the seals of his shoulder.

"Suit breach?"

"Feh," Uli said, "a lucky shot…unlucky shot. Went straight through my bicep but Yun'Razi wouldn't let me wait outside." His light, slightly drunken tone suddenly made sense. Uli was pumped full of painkillers and antibiotics. "I hate the yellow, don't you? Can't they make them in blue. I like blue…"

"Hold that thought, Uli," Kal said. He crammed the Sirta kit into the personal locker beneath the back two seats. He slid open the larger equipment storage space at the very back of the vehicle and poked his head inside. Behind him, two voices chattered at each other as Gyl and one of the other marines struggled in with the filing cabinet. Kal waved them over.

There was a worrying metal screech before they finished fitting the bulky item in amongst their salvage, but time was against them. The Sirta crate went in on top of the cabinet and Kal sealed the door for take-off. He set about securing his weaponry in the arms-locker they'd installed next to the door. He jogged to the docking ramp and pressed against the wall to admit three of the marines outside then slipped by to reach the last of the Shepherd's passengers.

"We'll be easy to spot once we clear atmos," Yun'Razi said, "the Gorach is still hidden but I don't know how it'd handle a one-on-one fight with these humans. We did fine down here but we've completely lost the element of surprise and once they know their ground-forces are wiped out…"

Hana'Nur was crouched in front of Jane, helping her fit a large, spherical helmet over her head. There was a hiss of air as the seals around Jane's neck connected to a child-sized suit of bright orange, environment-sealed fabric. Jane wiggled her fingers inside the black handpieces and bounced on her toes.

"Ptew!" Her voice spit over the audio out-puts. "Hannah, my hair keeps getting in my mouth."

"Oh, my goodness," Hana'Nur said, double-checking the seals as diligently as only a quarian could, "Yun, do you hear that? Her hair keeps getting in her mouth."

"I got lucky," Yun'Razi said, "I've only lost an eye in my life."

"Heeey," Jane grumbled. Hana'Nur squeezed the girl's shoulder.

"You're ready for take-off, Jane. Go with Kal'Reegar." Hana'Nur fell into a rapid dialogue with Yun'Razi that Kal strained to hear as he led their human guest up into the ship. About fourteen voices raised in protest at the sight of the little non-quarian. One voice simply shouted a happy greeting.

"There she is! Jane, are you alright? No trouble getting back to us I hope." One could feel Uli beaming inside his helmet as Kal'Reegar and Jane took their places in the seats next to his and Prazza's. "What funny suits you humans have. It's all baggy. Not tailored at all."

"Hi, Uli," Jane said, then with a gasp added, "did you get hurt?!"

"This," Uli waved his triaged arm, "is nothing. I bet I don't even get an infection off this one." He nodded at Kal. "You make sure she's strapped in safe and sound, Kal'Reegar. We're responsible for her."

"Yes, sir," Kal responded automatically, tightening the harness straps around Jane's middle and chest, "how's that, Miss Jane? Too tight?"

"No," she said, Kal yanked the harness, "ow! Now it is!"

"Sorry," Kal said, "I'm guessing you're used to big civilian-style transports with crumple-zones and working inertia dampeners." Kal sealed himself down into his own seat. "Well, the Shepherd isn't like that. She's reliable but-"

"Wait!" Jane's bubble-helmet twisted to look at him. "You said it again! Is this ship really called the Shepherd?"

"Yeah," Uli yawned loudly, "oh, I'm sleepy. Yes, Jane. We got it off some humans a while back. Why?" Jane shook her head.

"That's…that's just so weird." She turned to Uli. "My last name. It's spelled different but its-"

"Jane Shepard," Hana'Nur called out as she marched on board. She sidled past a dozen questions to stand before the young human. "I know there is a lot going on, dear, but you really need to be more careful." She presented a blood-red backpack to them.

"Sorry, Hannah," Jane said glumly, "I wasn't even thinking." Hana'Nur sealed the backpack away in the personal locker with her Sirta kit and then, rising, took Jane's hand in her own.

"We'll get you out of here, Jane," Hana'Nur said softly, "are you alright? It's not easy leaving home."

"It's not home anymore…"

"I'll be right up top with Yun'Razi."

Jane nodded mutely. Hana'Nur ignored her other passengers as they tried to ask her what the human was doing onboard, and she climbed a small ladder to take her seat in the cockpit above them.

"Attention," Yun'Razi's voice shot through the ship, "take off in ten seconds. Everyone who's got something to say to the Ancestors speak now." A few voices began whispering rapid oaths in Khelish. Jane squirmed a little in her seat. A snore rumbled through Uli'Rann's audio output.

"Hey, Jane," Kal'Reegar whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Mocking Rhetorical Question: You scared, Spectre?" Jane sat up a little straighter and gripped her safety harness straps.

"This one," she said in Blasto's voice, "is merely anticipating the next moment eagerly."

"Launch! Launch! Launch!" The engine roared like a behemoth and the ship shook violently as it rose. Jane made a startled sound that was lost in the first hum of the inertia dampeners. The rattling became a teeth-shaking shiver and Kal laughed reflexively as the Shepherd angled herself up towards the stars.

"Here we go, Miss Jane," he said, a mad rush of excitement kicking in, "anything can happen now!" The little girl's hand wormed into his and squeezed hard enough to warrant a minor warning from his VI.

"Clearing atmos in fifteen seconds!" The bucking of the ship became less violent and then, it vanished entirely. "Atmos cleared. Gorach, this is Shepherd. Ivo'Solda, do you copy?"

"Ivo'Solda, here," a thin, reedy voice answered over the general comm, "good to hear your voice, Captain."

"All hands brace for shock," Hana'Nur cut into the conversation, "the frigate is moving on us."

"Gorach, prepare to flank enemy and target their thrusters. Hana, kill the frequency now!" The comm lines went dead. "Hope they didn't hear that…"

"What's happening?" Jane's voice was a static hiss next to him.

"We're probably about to get hit with a ship-to-ship virus," Kal said, "targeting systems and-whoops, there goes the lights!" Jane's hand gripped his again in the sudden darkness. A quarian trader had taken up his prayers again, louder this time. The overhead speakers put forth an unfamiliar voice.

"I am Captain Mara Singh of the Honno-Ji," a woman said, "I'm advising you to voluntarily shut down your thrusters and prepare to be boarded." Kal'Reegar sat up, the harness straining against his shoulders, and shouted at the ceiling.

"Oh, get lost, you no-colors flying bushwhacking piece of pyjak dung! I killed five of you planet-side and I want some more!"

"Kal'Reegar," Yun'Razi called down from the cockpit, "your enthusiasm is noted. Keep quiet."

"This is Captain Hana'Nur vas Shepherd," Hana'Nur said, calm as ever, "you have no right to attack us in this way. We are an ambassadorial trade mission from the Migrant Fleet. It is my duty to warn you that further hostilities may constitute an act of war with our government."

"I am not inclined to cease any actions on the authority of a non-state loosely aligned around an armada of homeless aliens," Mara Singh said, "with special consideration towards the kidnapping of a human child."

"They did not!" Jane piped up. "You get away from us! I'm not going with you-" Kal'Reegar ducked his head down and whispered to her.

"-and," Jane blinked, Kal repeated himself, and she spoke, "and also…grav se'spes, von!"

Kal's glowing eyes were little sunrises of mirth behind his visor as he nodded.

"Spit on who's grave?" Uli asked, cracking his neck in either direction as he sat up. "Are we there yet? What happened to the lights?"

"Jane Shepard agreed to come with us," Hana'Nur said, "so that we could escort her to the Systems Alliance in the Vetus System." With a slight, knifing tone she added. "Can you confirm your own intentions, Captain Singh? Or is the cooling corpse of your deep-cover agent planetside all the intel you're willing to share? I'm warning you to break off your attack now."

"No-one else needs to die, Captain Hana'Nur," Singh said, "we're here to look after our own, so you start looking after yours. Or will the Fleet consider the loss of your entire expedition fair trade for an act of pride?"

"Why only her?" Yun'Razi snapped suddenly. "Do you have any idea what's happening to the children the batarians stole from this world? Right now, they're being punished for crying. Would you like to know how few will survive the next three months!"

"Yun," Hana said.

"Not your concern," Mara Singh voice was touched with the barest hint of irritation, "and not my priority. Last warning. Shut down your thrusters or I'll be forced to consider your entire ship hostile."

"Hana," Uli called out as he popped his good shoulder, "I think you've strung her along enough now."

"They weren't quite in the gravity well, Uli'Rann," Hana'Nur said, "Yun, it's time for us to leave." The lights flickered back to life. There was a brief burst of static and Mara Singh's voice was lost. "Counter-viruses uploaded. They've lost guns, lights, and gravity. Kinectic barriers are going down in ten seconds."

"Ivo'Solda," Yun'Razi barked into her comms, "all ahead fall, target the thrusters."

"Kal?" Jane tugged his hand.

"Miss Jane," Kal said softly, "qaurians might not handle germs too well but there's one thing we've perfected in three centuries of bumming around the galaxy." Jane nodded; her eyes rapt behind her helmet. "Free bit of advice. If you can't take a quarian on land? Never let them get inside a ship!"

Backlit by the deceptively peaceful graveyard of Mindoir a human frigate listed suddenly as its thrusters fizzled. A dozen finely tuned viruses wormed through the Honno-Ji's major systems and left her helpless. A shadow broke suddenly away from the twin moons and soared with sharkish intent towards the injured vessel.

The frigate had the angular, hawkish silhouette of the Turian navy but was daubed in the soft blues, violets, and grape-reds of the Migrant Fleet. Along her hull was painted a creature that would've looked to human eyes like a cloven-hoofed cat, its fangs bared at the Honno-Ji.

The Gorach dipped her starboard side in towards the planet, skirting the banks of its gravity-well. At the helm, Ivo'Solda, sighed in frustration as his visor fogged up again and made a note through his VI to have the issue checked upon return to the Fleet.

As an after-thought he asked of the officers present, "Do we have a firing solution?" At the affirmative he wagged his hand at the shape of the Honno-Ji.

"Cripple them."

An observer might have seen a bright blue flash at the nose of the Gorach as she swept over the Honno-ji. They'd be unlikely to see the twin impacts of disruptor torpedoes across the aft thrusters or the small swirl of unstable mass-effect fields ripping them into a metal hurricane.

The Honno-ji, bereft of her propulsion system, began the hard, fiery sink into the atmosphere of Mindoir.

The Gorach moved onward, shadowing the Shepherd in her wingspan like a protective falcon. The ships raced each other to the Mass Relay, blue and gray and eternal at the rim of the system.

When Jane Shepard finally wrenched her fingers from Kal's hand she realized that everyone onboard was looking at her. She couldn't see their faces; she couldn't even see their eyes for the most part, but she could feel them watching her.

It was like being the new kid in class but like ten times suckier.

"What?" she asked, squirming a little.

"Some of them have never even seen a human before," Uli said, yawning again, "they don't mean any harm."

"Jane?" Hannah…or Hana? She felt like she was getting it wrong somehow…climbed down from the cockpit to check on her. Jane smiled. It was so weird. She hated people fussing over her but…

…but with her mom…

She looked up and Hana repeated her question.

"Not much sleep," she admitted, "only a little here and there." Hana'Nur rifled through the place she'd thrown Jane's backpack, then went inside her Sirta kit. She emerged with a little gray bottle that Jane frowned to recognize.

"A sedative?" She didn't keep the whine out of her voice.

"If you don't think you need it," Hana said, "I won't make you take it, Jane. But you need sleep, klenda."

Jane's translator caught up to the word and she smiled a little. Her mom said 'young lady' when she was trying to be fair too.

Or…she did. Once. Because now she was dead.

"I…I don't want to sleep. When I sleep there are…"

She noted some movement, one nosy quarian had leaned forward to hear her better. She shrank into her seat.

"Hey, Gyl," Kal said next to her, "why don't you check for a suit-breach or something." His tone rippled through all the eavesdroppers and their visors turned back towards the front of the ship.

"There are dreams," Jane finally said, feeling stupid, "I don't like them. I see my mom. The batarians. The…other kids…"

"Oh, kid," Kal sounded so sad.

"Sorry, Jane," Uli added. The seals around Jane's neck hissed and the helmet lifted off. She winced at the sudden stale air and sound of the ship. A few quarians, not quite so distracted as she thought, made little worried sounds as she breathed out. She shook her hair away from her face.

The hands that gave her the sedative were odd and alien. Larger but somehow more fragile than her own. She kept thinking the envirosuits would feel cold and uncomfortable but there was softness in the palm that cradled her cheek, the warmth of the skin underneath it. Hana's visor gave away even less of her face than the other quarians' did.

Jane couldn't help thinking there was a smile underneath it. Hana's thumb stroked her cheek bone.

"Jane," she said, "I promise if you take this you'll sleep soundly."

"No dreams?" She was distracted by the red swirls of Hana's head-cover-thing. It was pretty.

"You'll dream," Hana whispered, "but you'll dream of a warm place." Jane popped the sedative in her mouth and was too tired to wince at the way it fizzed against her tongue. Hana fixed her hair, laid her back gently into the seat, and said in her sweet-sounding accent. "And when you wake up? You'll be there."

Jane Shepard slept for the first time since gunfire had erupted from the main colony in the red dawn. She slept through the Relay jump. She slept when Uli'Rann produced a bundle of fabrics from the trade-stock to slip under her head as a pillow.

She slept through a heated argument between Hana'Nur and Yun'Razi that ended at the words 'Invoking the Ruah' and the rapid assurance that Yun didn't have to go that far. She slept through the sad, tense silence that followed. She slept through the next three Relay jumps and was sleeping still when the first Patrol Fleet ships hailed the Shepherd and the Gorach to confirm their identity.

She did not stir, not at all, as Kal'Reegar leaned down to whisper into her sleeping ear.

"Maybe not the original plan but…as of now, Miss Jane, you are the first human to ever enter the Migrant Fleet."