Chapter Forty-Five: Double Strike Pt V
Their fate, intertwined
With the Ancient's Creations
They were - Reclaimers
DOS-Class Supercruiser Jubilance
Luckily for Commander Shepard, Sangheili warships used the same layouts of decks and corridors as every other ship he had tried to navigate throughout his career. Sure, the walls were curved, the paint-scheme was a unique silver-purple, and the crewmembers he passed by were Sangheili that towered over him, but with the guidance of one of Ultra 'Harum's Rangers he was quickly able to get to where he needed to go.
Deck Seven, towards starboard and aft. Corridor Twenty-Three.
Shepard stepped off the lift as it gently slowed, reaching its given destination of Deck Seven.
"Down this corridor, take a left. Forty meters, then a right," his Sangheili guide said, pointing the way out of the open lift doors. The Ranger had recognized Shepard - he had been part of 'Harum's Rapid Response Force that had rescued Recon-One, then promptly been evacuated by the Normandy as Reaper drop pods started to inundate B-1274.
"Thanks," Shepard said, nodding at the Ranger as he stepped off the lift.
Even though he was not commanded by Shepard, the Sangheili brought his arm to his chest in a salute, a gesture of appreciation for the Normandy saving him from B-1274.
The lift doors quickly slid shut leaving the Commander to walk alone through the empty corridors of the Jubilance.
It was something that Shepard had been surprised by. He'd expected a ship the size of the Supercruiser to have an equally large crew, but he'd discovered that wasn't the case at all. Aside from a couple of mostly-Quarian engineering teams working on power cable repairs, the Jubilance's corridors were bereft of activity.
He'd brought this up to his Ranger guide, who had explained that ever since their Great Schism and the dissolution of the Covenant, the Sangheili had struggled greatly to crew their ships. Even now, the Jubilance was running on just above what could be considered a skeleton crew.
And it still took thirty-seven Reapers to their eternal graves above B-1274, alone, and surrounded, Shepard thought.
Even the Jericho's nukes had only managed to blast eighteen Reapers to atoms, although the Prowler was more concerned about forcing an opening to allow the Jubilance to escape its encirclement rather than maximizing the number of targets in the blast zones.
Shepard started walking, bootsteps echoing off the curved corridor walls.
It had been twenty hours since they had jumped away from the moon. The Jubilance, the Normandy, and the Jericho were all loitering in close proximity in a random point in deep space. After the debriefing, which was… interesting, to say the least, Shepard and Liara headed back to the Normandy for some much needed rest.
He had stopped by the Medbay on the way up to his quarters. The glass was frosted over, an intentional feature that obscured vision in to allow Doctor Chakwas privacy. Sierra-087 and Sierra-104 were standing just outside waiting, still as statues in their hefty Mjolnir.
Garrus was there in one of the standard beds, recovering from nearly full-body muscle and tendon strains and tears. A consequence of his heroic effort to get the severely wounded Sierra-058 back to friendly lines.
The Spartan sniper was currently the sole focus of Doctor Chakwas, placed in the intensive care surgical suite in EDI's datacore. It was the ship's only completely sterile room — a necessity for the proper regulation of the AI's sensitive cores, and also inherently useful in a surgical setting.
After Shepard had slept for almost ten hours, he had a strong desire to try and catch up more with Tali. Though it had been only months, to him it had felt like years since he last saw her, especially with how… different she had acted during the debriefing.
On his way back to the shuttle bay he stopped by the Medbay again. The glass was still frosted, and the Spartans were still exactly where they had been standing — to the inch. The only thing that had changed in the scene was the addition of the Master Chief, who matched his fellow Spartan's silent, stony disposition.
He turned right down corridor twenty-three, and a couple of dozen meters down saw a lone Quarian sitting on the deck, back and head pressed against the wall behind.
It was clear that she was resting, and he got halfway towards her before she slowly turned her visor to face him. "Hey Shepard."
"Hey Tali." Shepard walked up and sat down right beside her. In his casual BDU's he could feel the cold of the wall seeping through his clothes as he pressed his own back against it. "Been busy?"
Tali scooted closer to Shepard and rested her head on his left shoulder. The Commander could feel the soft silk of her helmet's cloth covering and hardness of the side of her visor. "Keelah, you don't even know. First time I've been off my feet in fourteen hours. Running out of stims pretty quick."
"How's it comin'?"
The Quarian sighed heavily. "Slow. This is an alien ship, with alien tech. I should have known better than to be so gung-ho. Basic stuff like armor replacement, cable repair, comms work, we can get a handle on, but…"
Shepard could feel Tali release tension, relaxing as she leaned against his side and his shoulder. "So many new things… inert plasma, magnetic field manipulation, pinch-fusion power, and don't get me started on the repulsor drives..."
She trailed off her sentence suddenly.
"Tali?" Shepard said, glancing at her with raised eyebrows. "Tali?"
No response. She was fast asleep, Shepard could tell by how slow and heavy her breathing had gotten.
He couldn't help but smile. This was the Tali that he remembered, the one who felt comfortable enough around him to fall asleep almost immediately on his shoulder.
Shepard looked across the corridor, out of an opposing stretch of viewport showing the stars and space out beyond the ship. There was a emerald-green nebula within visual distance, clearly why Tali had picked this particular section of the corridor to rest in.
Before he knew it almost an hour had passed. Shepard had unknowingly shut off his brain, refusing any kind of thoughts about the ongoing war to intrude upon this perfect, quiet moment.
Echoes of heavy footfalls brought him out of his quasi-meditation, and he slowly turned his head down the corridor, the same direction he had come from. Tali was undisturbed, head still limp on his shoulder.
It was clear to tell who had come calling as soon as all eight feet of him rounded the far corner.
R'tas Vadum notes the pair resting in the corridor, and he lightened his steps as he approached.
"Fleetmaster," Shepard greeted quietly. "What brings you by?"
The Sangheili peered down on the scene, seeing Tali's chest rise and fall in the rhythmic breaths of sleep. "I was hoping to get a progress report."
"Can you take a message?" Shepard asked, tilting his head lightly to the snoozing Tali on his shoulder. "She's had a long shift."
R'tas padded over to the wall and pressed his back against it, sliding gently down until he was sitting on the deck next to Shepard. He looked out the opposite viewport at the black vacuum punctuated by the pinpricks of the stars. They sat there, embracing the peace of the moment.
"You know, only three people have ever addressed me in the manner that she did," R'tas said eventually, looking over to Tali. His voice was lowered considerably in consideration for the sleeping Quarian on the other side of the Commander. "Challenged my command in such a way."
"I'm assuming things didn't turn out well for them?" Shepard asked.
"No," R'tas shook his head, "They did not. The first died when the tips of my blade pierced both of his hearts. The second I killed with my bare hands - I broke his neck. The third I vented out of an airlock, with the entire crew watching."
"Jeez," Shepard said, "That's one way to do conflict resolution..."
"In the old Covenant, to question a superior was to question their capability. It was a challenge of their ability to lead. We were meant to blindlessly - zealously - follow orders that were given, to carry out the Prophets grand designs with absolute fervor. If you did not command from a position of strength and fear, you did not command at all."
"The False Prophets, you mean?"
"Yes. The False Prophets. They were the supreme leaders of the Covenant. Their word was law. They sparked the thirty year war with the UNSC as part of their Great Journey." The contempt was easy to read in the Sanghieli's words. "How many of your kind did I kill at their behest? How many worlds did I turn to glass? Far, far too many…"
"It weighs on you, doesn't it," Shepard asked softly. "The decisions you have to make in command."
"Every day. Every day I feel the shame of my atrocities. Every day I think about where we could have been if we had embraced the Humans, instead of hunting them down like animals - and all because we followed the Prophets without question..."
'Vadum let the sentence drag off into another long moment of silence.
"Why did you back down?" Shepard asked him. "During the debriefing. I thought you might have leapt over the table when Tali said she wanted to borrow your ship."
"Borrow was not the term she used, if I recall."
R'tas took a deep breath and a long exhale. "Because she was right. Even though she was arrogant, insolent, rude… she was still right. The Jubilance is hardly in a shape to fight. We were lucky to have escaped B-1274 with our lives, let alone with a ship that still functions. The rest of my fleet is in a different part of the galaxy. So is Admiral Lasky, the UNSC, and the rest of the allied navies. It is just us here, and just us will not be enough once the Reapers arrive at Rannoch."
"You Humans have an expression," R'tas continued, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. The Jubilance needs work. My engineering team consists of six Sangheili, four Unngoy, and two Huragok. She has offered two-hundred and fifty of her own to help. That is a resource that I would be foolish to turn down."
"She took me by surprise too, you know," Shepard said of her. "I've known Tali for a long time. She's been a part of my crew for years, and is one of my closest friends. But the way she just came swinging out of the gate like that… that was unlike her. It had been more than six months since I last saw her. A lot must have happened during that time."
"Mm," R'tas muttered. "What was she like in the past?"
Shepard thought on that one for a moment. "She was on her Pilgrimage when I first met her."
"When young Quarians leave the Migrant Fleet?" R'tas asked, recalling what he had read about the race from his intel packets.
Shepard nodded. "She was in trouble, and we helped her. Turned into her getting a spot on the Normandy."
The Commander turned his head to look at Tali again, helmet still tucked into the crease of his shoulder. "She was eager, and curious about everything — wanted to prove herself to everybody. The best damn engineer and mechanic I've ever seen. She just gets technology, and if she doesn't understand something, god-forbid you get in her way while she's trying to figure it out. She's courageous, almost to a fault. You and I, we've been around the block a few times. I'm thirty-two, been serving since I was eighteen. Fourteen years. You?"
"Seventy-two," R'tas replied. All Sangheili worthy to fight enlisted at their sixteenth year of age, and he had been no exception. "Fifty-six years in the military."
Shepard gave a quiet whistle. "See, exactly what I'm talking about. She's only twenty-five, left the Fleet for the first time at twenty-two. She was inexperienced, naive, too timid sometimes. Damn near got herself killed in combat a few times with careless mistakes."
"Haven't we all?" R'tas posed.
"Touche," Shepard replied. No one was a perfect soldier… well, except maybe for the Master Chief. "She was a quick study though. I came to learn just how much I could depend on her. Her loyalty to her friends, crew, and her people has no bounds."
"I could tell that," 'Vadum said. "Risking the ire of a complete stranger in the interest of protecting her Fleet… bold. And she didn't even know who I am or what I'm truly capable of."
"Can you blame her though? What would you do for you people if their fates were on the line?"
R'tas sighed. "When I unwittingly left my home stars, my people were still at war with each other. Those who wanted to continue the Covenant, and those like the Arbiter and myself who did not. Clan against clan, brother against brother, faith against pragmatism. The Great War never ended, the combatants just changed."
The Sangheili leaned his head against the wall behind them, closing his eyes. Home. Sangheilios. He wondered if he would ever see those dark blue seas again.
"You know, you can still throw me out of an airlock if you want."
'Vadum and Shepard both tilted their heads in surprise to hear Tali's voice. She hadn't moved a muscle that Shepard could feel, still resting her head on his left shoulder.
"Just so long as you promise to pick me up before my oxygen supply runs out, right Shepard? Unless you think I'm arrogant and insolent too?" Her tone was light, her voice made melodic by the modulators in her helmet.
She took her head off of Shepard's shoulder, rolling her neck and reaching her arms above her in a stretch. She then brought her legs close to her chest and hugged them with her arms, resting her head on her knees and turning to look towards Shepard and 'Vadum.
"I thought you were sleeping," Shepard asked.
"Well, I was. Though I do appreciate his efforts, the Fleetmaster here was just a little loud with his words."
"I used to be Special Operations," 'Vadum said. "If I had pleased, I could have come up and killed you in your sleep and not even the Commander here would have noticed."
"I see…" Tali said. "So, you're just out of practice then?"
R'tas chuckled, despite himself. "I haven't been involved in a ground operation in years."
"Don't want the Imperial Admiral getting his boots dirty, is that right?" Tali quipped.
"Something like that."
The Quarian sat up straighter and looked into the Sanghieli's eyes. "Fleetmaster, I want to apologize for my behavior during the debriefing. You're right. I was rude. You risked your life and ship to come to the aid of me and my crew, and I should have conducted myself better."
Tali looked away from both of them, resting her chin on her knees timidly. It was a few silent seconds before she spoke. "I was also scared. Scared that I'd almost died. Scared that my crew had almost died. Scared that the Reapers are back, for real —Keelah. I was scared for the Migrant Fleet — my home… not to mention going more than two days without sleep."
"Tensions were high," 'Vadum replied with a quiet patience that surprised even him. "Flirtation with Death himself can be stressful. Your points are valid. You had been brought before an alien leader on an alien ship, after being betrayed and imprisoned by superiors you trusted, not to mention the Reapers."
R'tas clicked his half-jaws together. "I also nearly let my pride get the better of me. It is something I have been working on. The only thing my pride has gotten me in the past has been conflict and death. I should have maintained a calmer demeanor. For that, I apologize. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to conduct the debriefing after giving everyone time to simmer down and think."
"Seems we just got off on the wrong foot," Tali said. She looked down the Sangheili's long, outstretched legs. "Do you have feet?"
"Hooves," 'Vadum answered. All three of them looked out the viewport for another moment.
"Did you get scared?" Tali asked R'tas. "When the Reapers showed up right in front of you?"
"Hmm," R'tas grunted, thinking on the question. "There was some fear, yes. Fear means you are alive. Mostly though, there was just rage. The Parasite is unholy. An abomination. You either cauterize it, or it consumes you. I do not wish to be consumed." The Fleetmaster's two missing jaws twitched with phantom pain again.
"Well, we both want the same thing, right? Getting to Rannoch? Stopping the Reapers?" Tali asked.
'Vadum simply nodded.
"You really think your plan is going to work?" Shepard asked his Quarian friend.
"All I need is an audience with the Admiralty Board, then a chance to run my indoctrination detection program on Admiral Xen," she said. "Getting that meeting is going to be the hard part."
"Hence the large, threatening warship," R'tas said.
"And why it needs to look like I am the one commanding it," Tali said. "They'll just start shooting if you try and talk to them Fleetmaster. And Shepard, I know you're charming, but you can't call for a parlay, being Human and all. I know Admirals Raan and Koris will be open to talking, it just has to be me saying the words."
"So we go in, force a meeting with the Admirals, expose Xen, and exonerate you," Shepard recapped. "Then we convince the Migrant Fleet to go to Rannoch to try and stop the Reapers from corrupting the Geth."
"If we make it that far," Tali said.
"Right, if we make it that far," Shepard amended.
"Assuming that the Arbiter makes out from Thessia better than we did, the rest of our ships should be coming to rejoin us," R'tas said.
"Where?" asked Shepard.
"Here," the Sangheili replied. "These rendezvous were already agreed upon and stored in our nav computers."
"But how long would they take to get here from Thessia?" Tali asked.
"Three, four days at best speed." The Fleetmaster thanked his Ancestors that the slipspace drive hadn't been damaged, buried within the deepest, most armored recesses of the stern as it was.
Tali shook her head. "We can't wait that long. We have to make for the Migrant Fleet as soon as we can. Within the next day."
"Well in that regard, how are repairs going?" R'tas asked, finally getting to ask the question he came down here to ask in the first place.
Tali allowed herself a long breath and deep exhale before resting her head against the wall behind her. "Um. I mayyyy have ordered a drink too large for my emergency induction port."
"Emergency induction port?" R'tas asked curiously.
"It's a straw," Shepard explained.
"Ah," R'tas said. He looked at her with a clear gaze of I told you so. "I said that you didn't know our tech."
"Yeah you did, but Quarians do work on other race's ships all the time," she said. Tali rolled her shoulders sheepishly, then continued, "Still internalizing that you said you're from a different galaxy… giant alien ships with no element zero. It's fascinating, but it's all brand new. Feels like I'm learning how to use an omni-tool for the first time."
"If it gives you any consolation, I only know how to use our technology, not fix it," 'Vadum said.
"Thanks, that does help," Tali replied, letting a bit of sarcasm color her words. "The basic concepts I'm familiar with. I know what plasma is. I know what fusion is. I know what gravitic-driven propulsion is. The way that they're implemented in your ship, it's just so… well, alien. The good news is we're proceeding well with hull and deck repairs. Even if they are from a different galaxy, armor plating and arc welders are familiar enough. We've got almost all of the largest gashes in the outer hull patched, and will be shifting work to smaller holes and sealing exposed interior decks."
"Good," R'tas said. The comms arrays had been repaired by the Jubilance's two Huragok, and the pinch-fusion reactor had been coaxed into plateauing at a stable eighty-eight percent. "Keep at it. I will check back in with you in a few hours. Commander, any news on the Spartan in surgery?"
Shepard shook her head. "None other than that she's alive. I'll send an update when I know more."
'Vadum nodded in thanks before getting his boots underneath him and rising back up. He went to walk away from the pair, but stopped a few meters away and turned his long neck to look sideways back at them.
"And Captain vas Kael, thank you for the information. First I would smash your mask in, and then I would throw you out of the airlock."
Shepard and Tali watched him go, both realizing that they certainly did not want to get on the Fleetmaster's bad side.
SSV Normandy
Twenty-one hours.
Twenty-one hours had elapsed since Sierra-058 was brought into her Medbay on the shoulder of the Master Chief and placed into her care.
A rough-looking Vakarian had limped in behind her on the support of Vega's shoulders, and Chakwas had directed him to a standard bed where the auto-docs would start to diagnose and treat the Turian's ailments. Garrus quickly passed out as he was injected with pain medications, his mind and body finally accepting the fact that the fight was over.
As the surgical suite's VI automatically placed the severely wounded Spartan into protective cryostasis, the towering Chief had pulled her aside and handed her a datapad.
"She's not like you," he had said. "You need to know how much."
Chakwas had glanced at the contents of the datapad, initially taken aback. It was a UNSC datafile, and she had never seen so many top-secret clearance and above notices on a single document in all of her years serving in the military.
"None of that data leaves this room," Chief had told her. It was crystal clear just how serious he was, judging by the intensity of his gravelly voice. "Read it all."
ORION Project Generation II - Subject Augmentations. She saw that there was a countdown in the corner of the datapad: a notice of total deletion of all contents in four hours.
"Bring her back," he had said, before leaving her alone with the echoes of heavy bootfalls.
She had needed the entire four hours. There was so much information, so many tests, so many studies, so much research and excruciating detail of the procedures. The more she read, the more fascinated she became, the more stunned she became, the more… horrified she became.
Carbide Ceramic Ossification: Advanced material grafted onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable. Coverage exceeding three percent total bone mass carried risk of significant white blood cell necrosis.
Muscular Enhancement Injections: Protein complex injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time. Five percent chance for subjects to experience a fatal cardiac volume increase.
Catalytic Thyroid Implant: Platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues. Possibility for rare instances of Elephantiasis. Consequential suppressed sexual drive.
Occipital Capillary Reversal: Submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of the subject's retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase. Retinal rejection and detachment, permanent blindness possible.
Superconducting Fibrification of Neural Dendrites: Alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Three-hundred percent increase in subject reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity. Significant instances of Parkinson's Disease and Fletcher's Syndrome.
As Doctor Chakwas had finished scrubbing up and stepped into the surgical suite, she couldn't help but look at her patient with equal parts wonder, fear, and sadness. What had they done to you? What had they done to all of you?
Twenty-two broken ribs. A shattered breastbone and collarbone. A well-collapsed lung, substantial internal bleeding in the left kidney, stomach, spleen, tears all along the gastro-intestinal linings. One-hundred and fifteen individual embedded pieces of shrapnel along with their accompanying cuts and lacerations in the epidermal and dermal layers of skin.
With grim resolve and determination, Chakwas had set about her duties with the help of her surgical robot and forty years of medical experience. Like always, she didn't notice the passing of time until she was finished. All at once the strain of a seventeen-hour procedure racked her aging body. Her eyes burned, her back and feet ached immensely, her clothes itched as a result of the accumulated sweat brought on by the focus required by her and pressure of the operation.
Most importantly though to her, was that her patient was alive.
More than that, she was already awake.
Chakwas had nearly panicked when Sierra-058's vitals spiked, fearing that she was suddenly coding, but it was just her regaining consciousness. She supposed that even tripling the dose of intravenous pain medications and anesthesia was still not enough to keep the Spartan down for long.
"How do you feel?" Chakwas had asked after making sure that her patient was stable.
"Alive," was the short, curt response. She closed her verdant green eyes right after she spoke, saving her energy.
It was unbelievable really. Any other soldier would have been long dead with those kinds of injuries. She didn't think even Commander Shepard could have survived, Cerberus cybernetic enhancements or not. "Your team has been waiting outside. I'll go get them."
Chakwas had let out a mighty sigh as she stepped back into the Medbay proper, removing her headdress, mask, and gloves as if they were made of lead and casting them aside into a disposal bin.
Vakarian was awake, reading through a datapad of his own as he rested. The Turian had suffered nearly full-body strains and tears of his major muscle groups, ligaments, and tendons. Twenty-one hours of precisely injected medi-gel, rapid regrowth hormones, and pain relievers had done him well - he looked alert and watchful as ever, eyes widening in suspense when he saw Chakwas come back out. "Is she?..."
"Alive and awake," Chakwas answered. She walked over to the wall-control that would unfrost the Medbay's glass partitions. "How are you feeling Garrus?"
"More sore than I've ever felt in my life," he replied. "Could have been worse though. I'm not the one who took a missile to the chest."
"You weren't the one this time, you mean," Chakwas jested. She had been the one to patch up the Turian when he had taken his own missile at close proximity, back on Omega. "Try walking in eight hours. Have someone bring you a meal, your body needs the nutrition"
"Yes ma'am."
The three other Spartan-II's of Blue Team had taken the signal of the glass defrosting that they could come in to check on their comrade. Chakwas simply pointed the three of them to the surgical suite, collapsing in the chair at her desk. "She's waiting for you."
As each of the armored Spartans passed by her, they offered her subtle nods of thanks and acknowledgements. The Master Chief was at the rear of the column, setting down a warm coffee for her at her desk. Chakwas was not shy about reaching into a drawer in her desk, withdrawing a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy, and pouring a generous amount into the tall mug.
Garrus watched as the Spartans filed into the surgical suite. As the door closed behind them, he wondered what kind of reunion was occuring between the supersoldiers, and what was being said. Not even a minute had passed before Sierra-087 and Sierra-104 stepped back through the doors and made for his bed.
104 placed a gentle hand on his shoulder briefly. "Fred," he said, swiping two fingers across his faceplate.
"Kelly," 087 said, patting one of his legs with considerate softness. She mirrored the gesture, two fingers swiping across her visor as well.
Fred and Kelly turned to head back out of the Medbay, but Garrus' attention was directed towards the Master Chief as he now exited the surgical suite, stepping over besides him. There was a datapad in his hands, and he handed it to the Turian.
"Good work," was all he said. Coming from him, it was all he needed to say. He too, performed the same motion with his two fingers that the other Spartans had before following his two compatriots back into the Normandy's Crew Deck.
Garrus looked down to the datapad, seeing a few lines of simple text displayed on the screen.
Thanks for getting me off that moon.
You can spot for me any day.
Good shooting Archangel.
- Linda
Thessia, Parnitha System
Capitol Government District
Erissa Levas looked up at the colorful sign on the face of the building she stood in front of. Sapphire Spectre. There was gaudy neon outline of a sitting Asari with one leg provocatively raised accompanying the words, an image that had always made Levas roll her eyes.
The dive-bar was in an out-of-the way part of the Capitol government district, tucked between two strip malls of less-than-stellar reputation. It was the first time Levas had seen the front of the bar devoid of waiting clientele; the ragged rope barriers were devoid of occupants, and the lone Asari bouncer at the door was sitting on a tall stool, absent-mindedly swiping through a datapad out of boredom.
It was two in the morning, when activity at the bar and on the street outside should have been at its busiest, but instead, Levas found herself as one of only a couple of dozen or so other Asari that were out and about. She walked up to the bouncer, who gave her only the most cursory of glances before tilting her head towards the door that would lead inside.
Levas reached into a pocket of her pants and tossed a hundred credit chit onto the bouncer's datapad, swinging the door open and striding through before the Asari could react to being randomly tipped more than half of her daily pay.
The interior of the Sapphire Spectre was even darker than the streets outside, given the lack of moonlight within the bar. What little illumination there was came from a couple of drink signs behind the long bar, the few functioning hanging lamps over some of the tables and booths along the walls, and of course, the raised dancing stage in the very center of the joint.
As Levas' eyes adjusted to the low-light she counted six whole souls in the bar - a far cry less than the Spectre's maximum occupancy of over two hundred. One was the bartender, diligently cleaning glasses with a washcloth, one was the lithe, barely clothed dancer swaying rhythmically on the raised performance platform, and three were Asari watching the dancer gyrate from seats just off of the stage.
The last patron of the bar was sat in the corner booth that was the absolute furthest one from the front door, facing away from Levas.
Even just by seeing the back of her ridged head, Levas knew exactly who it was, and for a brief second her heart fluttered.
By the Goddess, this is happening.
She took a breath to try and steady herself, then started to walk over to the table. The bartender gave her a quick look before going back to her cleaning, but the Asari around the stage were too focused on the dancer to pay any attention to her.
Before she knew it Levas was sliding into the booth opposite of the Asari already sitting.
Their eyes met, and for a few seconds the entire world constricted to the tunnel of their shared gaze.
"Erissa," she said. Levas shuddered as her name rolled musically off of the other Asari's tongue.
"Teysa," Levas replied, speaking the word in a setting other than in her dreams for the first time in years in forty long years.
"I thought you had died."
"I almost did."
The bartender flashed by their table, dropping off a pair of drinks for the two of them.
A tall Akantha for Teysa, a popular Asari liqueur. Served out of the bottle: Warm, smooth, and smoky.
A Biotic Kick for Erissa. A cocktail: Tuchanka dry, bourbon, ginger beer, and a twist of orange.
It was their usual orders. This was not the first time the bartender had served these two.
"I got the report that the Reapers had wiped your mining colony off of the map. Every Asari killed," Teysa said. Her dark navy eyes bored into her like a deep-sea drill. "So imagine how I felt when I got your message two days ago. Imagine how I feel now, sitting across from you."
"I had accepted that I might never get to see you again," Levas said. Both of their voices were low, but they were sitting close enough to hear each other over the resounding treble and bass of the bar's loud music. "Turns out that wasn't the plan in store for me."
"So what was the plan? Sneak onto Thessia? Tevos forbid you from ever setting foot here for the rest of your life," Tessa reminded. "Escaping death, traveling across stars, risking imprisonment... just to see me?"
Levas lied, and told the truth. "Yes. I want to talk."
Teysa gave a short laugh. "Talk. Is that all you want to do?"
Levas felt her cheeks flush. Again, she lied, and told the truth. "No."
Teysa took a long, deep draw from her Akantha. She hadn't taken her gaze off of Levas since the commando had sat down. "I have the room."
Erissa grabbed her drink and started gulping it down. For all the grungy charm the Sapphire Spectre had, the two Asari never spent much time there.
"By - by - by the Goddessssss! Erissssaaa!"
Teysa bucked as Levas expertly completed her passionate work. Her lover's gasps and moans had set that familiar fire within her that meant she wouldn't have stopped for anything until she had pushed Teysa over the top of that mountain of pure pleasure.
Desperate hands grabbed Levas' head and brought her up from between Teysa's legs. They found each other's mouths, soft lips and warm tongues eagerly exploring familiar territory.
Finally Erissa pulled herself away, collapsing besides Teysa in the queen-sized bed in the cheap hotel room. They had attacked each other like wild animals the second they had closed and locked the doors. Forty years of lost time to make up for… it had been an intense two hours.
They laid there wrapped in each others arms for several minutes, the only sounds the whine of the A/C unit and their heavy breaths.
"I've missed you every day," Teysa said, rolling to her side to look into her eyes again, that deep, intense look that made Levas weak every time. "Every. Single. Day. All thirteen-thousand, two-hundred and sixteen of them."
Levas smiled with happiness, kissing Teysa again. "I could tell."
"The largest ship in the entire fleet. Ten thousand crew," Teysa said. "But the Ascension never felt more empty ever since you left…"
Levas pulled her even closer. Matriarch Teysa Lidanya was the Captain of Erissa's commando unit's last post - the pride of the Asari Navy, the Destiny Ascension. She has also been Levas' lover for the better part of three hundred years.
"You know I always come back to you," Levas said.
Another kiss. This time when they pulled away, Lidanya had a more serious look on her face. "Are you here for Tevos?"
She nodded slowly. "She has something we need."
"And who is 'we' exactly?"
"The Sangheili. The newcomers. You've seen the reports — the ones who showed up out of nowhere above Earth, right before the Reapers arrived."
Something clicked in Teysa's mind. "They're the ones who rescued you from the mining colony, weren't they?"
"Yes. They are the only reason my team and what survivors there were from Tarissa are still alive today. They're why I am able to be here, next to you again."
"So, they saved your life. Who are they? What are they doing? Is it true they can destroy a Reaper in a single shot? Were they the ones who killed Aria T'Loak, like the rumors say? Are you working with them?" Teysa bombarded. "Goddess, so many questions. If we just melded, you could show me everythi - "
"No!" exclaimed Levas. The force behind the word surprised the both of them. She had to look away from Lidanya. "No. We can't meld."
Teysa furrowed her brow in concern. "Why? What's wrong?"
"It's…" Levas started. Her heart was beating hard. There was nothing more that she wanted to do than to meld with her love, to become one again after so, so long. But she couldn't. "I melded with the leader of the Sangheili, so that we could better understand each other. When I did… something changed in me."
Teysa took a hand and caressed the side of her partner's cheek. "Changed? You don't seem very different to me…"
"I was shown something."
"What?"
"I was shown the plan. Her plan," Levas said. "And I was shown what part I have to play."
"Her plan?" Lidanya parroted. "I don't understand."
"You wouldn't," Levas said. "You couldn't. But answer me this: Do you believe in what Tevos has done? Do you think it's right that we've isolated ourselves during the galaxy's most trying moment?"
Lidanya's response was instant. "Fuck no. Every day that goes by I wish we were out there with the rest of them. We lauded ourselves as the heart of the Citadel civilizations, the shining standard to be compared to." She sighed, moving to sit up in the bed, pulling her knees to her chest. "But instead of standing alongside our allies… here we are, on indefinite planetary guard duty. It's eating me alive, the inaction. The selfishness of it all."
"How many others feel the same?" Levas asked. As Admiral of the Asari's First Fleet, the commando knew that plenty of information came her way.
Teysa shrugged. "People are keeping quiet, but its east to tell. Lots of frustration. Lots of anger. Lots of disagreement with Tevos' call."
Levas thought for a moment. "Do you trust me?"
Teysa's eyes narrowed in slight suspicion, but she answered truthfully. "Always. Forever."
"I know you've been invited to Tevos' gala."
Lidanya rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me."
A lavish sunset party hosted by the Asari Councilor, well, former Councilor according to the other Citadel races. Influentials and hopefuls from the various republics hoping to curry favor, and top officers from thevarious military branches would all be in attendance. "I'm taking your invitation. Go back to the Destiny Ascension — quietly."
Teysa looked hard into Erissa's eyes. She knew the voice that Levas was using. She was on an Op. "Tell me... Are you going to kill her?"
Levas forced herself to keep her gaze. She lied, and told the truth. "No. I'm not."
Lidayna's shoulders sagged in the slightest relief. "This goddess-damned war… Once I'm back on the Ascension, what then?"
Levas checked the clock on the wall of the room. "In eleven and a half hours, stand down. Please, Teysa, just stand down. You'll know when."
Teysa nodded slowly. "Okay. I trust you. But I swear Erissa, you better not make me wait another forty years."
"Never again." Levas kissed her deeply. It took immense effort to pull away from her — it always did. "Oh, I'm also going to need to borrow your face."