Palavan

"Father, i was followed."

"Hmm," the elder Vakarian half snorted. "Do you know how many?"

"Please," Solana gave her father a scathing look.

Castis chuckled as he stood and straightened his shirt. "I wanted to be sure you were my daughter."

"Oh really?" Solana raised a brow plate. An odd habit she had picked up from the humans she worked with at the human embassy. She pulled the small pistol from the holster under her dress jacket, double checking the thermal clip. "And whose daughter would I be?"

"Your mother is actually quite charming," Castis tapped a small rhythm on the liquor cabinet and swinging it aside after a a quiet click. "How many?"

"Two tailed me to and from work, same pair," Solana closed the curtains over the apartment's windows. "They made a few side looks on the way in. A car that held three, a pair on a park bench and a glance up at the building across from us. So I am putting it at nine."

"Nine?" Castis drew a compact shotgun from the arsenal, along with six thermal clips. Then, after a moment of contemplation, he drew a pair of heavy pistols as well, and setting them on top of the cabinet, closing it. "Why nine?"

"Same pair waited for my shift at work, indicates they did not have the proper number for a full time surveillance. On top of it, they were fairly sloppy. I would expect they don't have available resources for more that one sniper and one spotter to be across from us," Solana explained in a fairly contemptuous tone.

From the corner of the room, placed just behind the broom, she picked up a long hunting rifle and leaned it against the wall next to the large picture frame window. She liked the window. Just past the next building it gave a decent view of the aluminum salt planes just outside the city. In the morning the reflection coupled with the dark purple rock formations and small orange trees...amazing. It never failed to put a smile on her face.

"Plum…"

"What was that?" Castis asked as he stepped back from down the hall and stepped into the small kitchen. "Want a drink?"

"Oh, the humans at the embassy mentioned that the color of the rock formation in the Plains are a shade they call 'Plum'," Solana shrugged as she accepted the beer her father held out for her. "Of course they also said the Mallak trees were 'dwarf trees'."

"Dwarf? Like...small?" Castis couldn't help but raise his brow incredulously. "The Mallak trees aren't the tallest in the world, but they are pretty big! They hit over six foot regularly!"

Solana gave shrug while taking a drink. "They showed me trees from Terra," she wiped her mouth with the small cloth she carried in her pocket. She always had it. Every morning she could hear her mother's voice reminding her to pack it into the small space in her pistol harness that was for the purpose. With a small shake of her head, she banished the thoughts and looked back to her father. "Apparently they have trees that grow 12 to 21 meters on average."

"There is no way that's true!" Castis shook his head with an incredulous snort as the front announce bell rang. "They must have been trying to pull one on you!"

"I thought so at first but I checked later and it checked out," Solana put her back to the wall next to the window and crouch onto her heels. She took another pull from her beer as she thumbed the safety on her pistol. "I even messaged Garrus and he said it was true."

"Oh how would he know," Castis rolled his eyes, setting the barre of his shotgun against the center of the door. "The boy is a notwit."

"Thought you didn't like talking to the humans," Solana laughed. "The term in 'nitwit'."

"Yes well," her father coughed into his fist. The ones that come to the park for the morning drills aren't so bad. Some of the like to stay and play larasta. And stop giving me that look!"

Solana chuckled and, with much effort, managed to pull her oversized grim into a shaky wide smile. "Anyway," she went on, taking pity on her father. "Garrus said he was taken to Terra with Shepard after helping the Alliance with something on their moon."

"Shepard, huh?" Castis nodded. "Good human. He was a good influence."

"Oh?" Solana smirked. "Even if Garrus left C-Sec to parade across the galaxy with him?"

"Even if," Castis smiled a rare smile before turning to the door. Keeping the his gun against the door, he stepped to the side and cracked the door enough to glance through. "How can I help you gentlemen?"

Planet Bob, Terren Second Wave, Sector Two

Oriana flipped her blueberry scone again. It wasn't very good. Too dry, even for a scone, and not many berries. Granted real berries on this planet would be expensive anyway, the soil just wasn't right for many earth plants.

Funny thing was, though, was that she didn't really like scones anyway. Never did.

….Except that one in the small coffee shop on Illium. Could have been the company.

"Oh geez…." one of her shallow friends giggled behind her soft pink hands. With their long painted nails. Hands that never saw any hardship. Or even effort. "Oriana, you're playing with your food again."

"Mary, leave the dear alone! Her father works hard!" the fat girl of the group smiled a condescending smile while giving Oriana a small glance from the side of her eye. She probably assumed Oriana didn't notice it. Or the not so subtle dig about the fact that her father worked for a living, unlike their own pampered families."A few less calories couldn't hurt her," she added ironically.

By everything holy, she hated this planet. And everybody on it! It was full of pretentious snobs. All of whom were the equivalent of morons. In theory Oriana was behind the local schooling when she got here, but she immediately took the top grade slots. And coupled with tryouts in a good most of the sports clubs, all of whom where pathetic, she catapulted to the most popular person on the school.

Her looks helped, of course. She wasn't quite as perfect as Miranda, but still….

"Oh, I heard some...aliens came in recently," the fat girl, Sarah, Orianna thought, anyway. She didn't really keep track. The 'popular' clique latched onto her and held on like a starving varren. Either way, disgust dripped from her mouth almost as freely as the drool she lost while she ate.

"That's terrible!" Mary gasped, putting her perfect hand over her mouth as she chewed a nibble oh her own scone. That she drank with an iced coffee. Like some sort of monster. Orianna wondered what it would feel like to hold her down and break all those nails….

"Orianna was on an alien planet," the obligatory shy girl said, a note above a whisper. She then shrunk beneath the dirty looks the other two girls gave her.

Honestly, Orianna liked Miriah. She was tall, maybe six foot? Her limbs were long and thin but had smooth grace to them that she tried to hide beneath a veneer of artificial clumsiness. Her hair was long and that shade between not-quite brown, but not-quite black. She kept it hanging so that it covered most of her pale, nearly sickly white skinned face. One of her dark brown eyes was perpetually covered, in fact.

God save her. She was living a damned teen drama. She just needed some jock to compete with a nerd for her.

Orianna only barely heard the chime at the door, indicating it opened, lost as she was in her thoughts. That sudden gasps from around the table brought he to her senses however.

Glancing at her 'friends' she saw them stare wide eyed over her shoulder, toward the door. A bit of food dropped off of Sarah's fork, unnoticed, giving note the the seriousness to whatever was behind her.

"This seat taken?" a deep rumble asked as a three finger hand gripped the back of the empty chair that sat between herself and Mariah.

Turning, Oriana's flashed over that krogan, meeting his eye. "Feel free," she said after a beat.

"Thank you," he pulled back the chair and sat slowly, as he tested whether it could hold his weight.

Three months ago Orianna would have thought this krogan to be huge. But then she met the one her sister was working with. In comparison, this one was kinda small.

The deep scratches in his head plates, one of which she felt confident was a healed over bullet hole, gave testament to his experience, however. He wasn't wearing that heavy armor one would normally associate with a krogan, but he his clothes were still reinforced. He didn't have an obvious gun either, but against a small group of humans he wouldn't really need one anyway.

The front door chimed several more time as most of the cafe emptied. Including the staff, Orianna noted. Mary made a small move to get up but froze when the krogan turned an eye at her.

The tension in the room was actually rather relaxed as several people came in, taking various tables around the room. All human. Orianna watched the in the reflection from the little vase in the center of the table.

"Well, lousy service…" a woman clicked her tongue as her shoes clicked over the tiled floor, and slipping behind the counter. "Who wants drinks?"

"Me." "I'll have some coffee." "Tea please."

Orders from behind her gave her the rough number of five people in addition to the woman behind the counter. And the krogan.

"So…" Orianna said after taking a sip of her tea. She was kinda proud that her hands didn't shake. "How can we help you, sir?"

"Oh, polite!" the krogan smiled, seemingly pleased. "At this moment of a negotiation, most people are either frozen stiff, or sobbing messes, much like your two friend here."

Following the krogan;s gesture, Orianna realized he was indicating Sarah and Mary. Not Mariah. The girl on the other side of the krogan sat seemingly clam. Both her hands were clasped on the table before her and her hair hung down over her face as usual. Except now She could see the girl's dark eyes sliding over the people that must have been behind Orianna.

"Yes, well….Not everybody has a sister like I do, sir."

"Ha! True!" the krogan slapped the table, ans sloshing a couple of the drinks. "Of course that's why we are here, though, so I'd say it's more trouble than it's worth."

"Girl," Miriah said quietly enough that Orianna questioned she heard anything for a moment.

"I'm sorry?" she asked after a moment.

"The krogan," Miriah spoke up, nearly to a normal conversation level. "She is a female."

Orianna blinked for a moment before looking at the krogan.

She, apparently, grinned widely as she ran a hand over the low curved head plate. "That's is true, I'm impressed. Most people, most species honestly, don't really learn the differences."

Miriah looked Orianna in the eye for probably the first time since they met. The intensity in those eyes…..

"The female head plate is shaped differently," Miriah explained. "Males have that ridge on top. Females don't. Female voices are smoother too."

"Very good!' ther female clapped while nodding her head in approval. "I'm doubly impressed!"

"I want to study xeno-medicine," Miriah said, her voice shrinking slightly as she spoke of herself.

"Let's hope this all goes well then," the female pat Mariah lightly on the shoulder, then turned to Orianna. "Assuming your sister is a reasonable person."

"Oh...no…" Orianna groaned, rubbing a hand over her face. "This is going to go poorly then…."

Eclipse Transport Shroud, Shower Room

It was nice to have hot water roll down muscles burning from exertion. One could feel the knots loosening under the pressure of the jets. The hot steam going into one's lungs, giving the feeling of being full….Not something Hestalia got much at home.

Home. She missed that stupid little farm on Elysium. The old fashioned wooden house she had built by hand with Hannah.

That stupid creaky third stair on the main case. Neither of them could figure out how to fix it. Then it became character. Part of the household that proved it was living.

The bathroom off the master bedroom was, naturally, amazing. The bathtub and shower both designed so that the couple could be together comfortably. For cleanliness purposes, of course.

Probably, the only complaint was that Hannah couldn't handle water as hot as Hestalia liked. In fact the temperature could actually burn her skin and the pressure would leave bruises.

Crap.

Now Hestalia's urges came up. She had only left her maiden years less than twenty years ago. The drive for children crept up in her whenever she thought about her wife.

"Need more with her….." Hestalia whispered to herself. She wasn't going to have nearly enough time with Hannah. Humans...they lived so short, but so bright. And Hestalia loved the burn….

"Hey Captain!" a voice called from the steam filled door of the communal shower, startling her, the hand that had begun to drift down her belly snapped away and slipped around her back as she spun.

"Yes, hello!" Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit….. Hannah's love making had rubbed off on her more than she realized. When she was alone she tried to…. NOT THE TIME!

"Good work as usual," one of the new troopers smiled as she stripped her body glove, storing it in a small locker between the entrance and the shower chamber proper. "Always impressed to see you in action! I learn a lot watching you."

A small frown nearly crossed Hestalia's face before being crushed. This one spoke oddly. Something smug. A little too casual. Some forced cheerfulness.

"Well, I learned a lot from my family," Hestalia put her own false friendliness into her voice.

"Ah...yes...the humans," another asari trooper snorted. This one was sitting on one of the benches going through the motions of taking off her boots. Taking a lot time for one boot.

Young and stupid, Hestalia's mental growl never touched her false smile. Racist and untrained.

Or was she?

Now that Hestalia thought about it, she, herself, might be the odd one. Spending so much time with humans as she did she was constantly bombarded by emotions. Seriously….they had so many! They were masters of both control and yet slaves to them.

Managing the treacherous waters of a human military wife was rough. Then the twins. Scared children, given to a near stranger. Thanks to them Hestalia learned to see the small flashes of emotions that she wouldn't have before them. Sometimes the long view asari took blinded them to the now.

"So, how is it living with humans?" another trooper asked. This one leaned against the door jam, her left arm just out of view. She was young and seemed to be actually curious. "Heard you had a couple of their young."

"I did, yes," Hestalia nodded picking up the bar of soap. It was a present from Hannah. The scent was amazing. A flower from earth known as 'Lavender' that she had first encountered when she went to meet Hannah's parents on Earth.

The memory brought a true, wide smile to her face.

There she was, nearly four hundred years old, most of those spent in one war or another, a skilled, experienced merc, one time pirate, part time bounty hunter….other, less savory things…. But still, her knees shook to meet two stern faced, wrinkled humans.

"I liked them enough I made my own with their mother," Hestalia chuckled as she lathered her body. The confused look the troopers made almost made her chuckle into a laugh. Bar soap was weird in space. Hell, anyplace, really. Another habit she got from Hannah, but so worth it.

"What if it only lives a couple hundred years?" the trooper still working on that one boot nearly spat. "Who know what humans-"

"Krasha!" the young one at the door interrupted, shocked at her companion. "That's… I can't even begin to get into how inappropriate that is! What is your problem with humans?"

"How about you shut your mouth, Sorma?" Krasha shot back, turning to glare at Sorma. "Humans are soft, arrogant, and breed like Krappa!"

"Enough," the sharp voice of the first trooper cut off anything else Krasha may have said.

"But Cap-Yalla," Krasha half whined.

"Enough," Yalla said again as she took a shower spot a couple places away from Hestalia, leaning her heads into the water. Turning her head to regard Hestalia, Yalla gave a pained, apologetic look. "I'm seriously sorry. For everything."

A chuckle began in the back of Hestalia's throat. One that built into a full laugh as she shook her head. "Oh, Captain, if anything, I, should be apologizing here!"

Quarian Migrant Fleet, Tonbay Admiral's Office

"Jane…." Shala'Raan tapped her visor on her hand. "Jane…."

"Yes, Admiral?" Jane stood at stiff attention, her eyes over the admiral's head. She took in the ships of the Fleet and was a bit surprised at the feeling in her stomach at the thought of not being able to see them again.

"I have no words," Shala sighed and leaned back in her chair to gaze up at Jane. "You take stupid risks. You put lives in jeopardy. You almost break laws. You do break rules. You have...I…..don't…."

"If I may, Admiral?" Kal'Reeger stepped forward from his position of attention to the side of Shala's desk. The difference in the way human and quarian military stances was interesting…..

"Admiral?"

With a blink, Shala shook her head. "Sorry, I'm a bit tired. There has been so much paperwork because of our Captain here," Shala waved vaguely in Jane's direction. "On top of that I spent the last eight hours listening to Daro go on about our ancestral right to retake the geth as servants."

"I am constantly amazed by the quarain ability to survive in the darkest most desperate situations," Jane said flatly enough that Shalla was impressed with her control.

"Yes well, we are nothing if not survivors," Shala chuckled ruefully. "Apologies, Kal'Reeger. Speak freely."

"Yes," Kal cleared his throat as he glanced between the two powerful women in the room. "Captain Jane'Shepard has an amazing tactical skill. A lot of her actions may seem reckless and random. Even hastey. Ill advised. Dangerous. Insane-"

"Okay, Kal!" Jane growled, shooting the marine a glare that carried through her visor.

"Heh," Kal turned to face Shala'Raa. "Under the Captain's command we have had twelve casualties. And only had one ship damaged enough to be brought into dry dock for repairs."

"Is that so?" Shala tapped a few times at her terminal and nodded. "So it is. Your point?"

Kal stood slightly traighter as he looked at Shala's eyes directly. "She told each family, personally, to express her condolences. She has, also-"

"Kal," Jane's voice was low with threat. "Don't."

For a long moment Kal kept his gaze on the admiral before shaking his head slightly. "Sorry, this is important, captain."

Shala squashed her surprise at the low growl that escaped Jane as her gaze turned to a glare with enough heat Shala wouldn't have been surprised to to have burn a hole through the viewport.

"Kal...Just spit it out," Shala crossed her arms in irritation.

"She has been helping to support the families that lost people," Kal spoke quietly. "She has been in contact with two that lost their bondmates, and helping them cope. She has more compassion for our people than I have seen in our own commanders."

"Is this true?" Shala turned to Jane, her helmet tilted slightly. She knew the answer by the Captain's stiffness, but wanted to hear it from her mouth.

"...Yes," Jane said at last.

"Well…," Shala sighed as she stood to regard both people in the office. "I have gone over the reports from all involved, as well as gone over the data. I've had the data analyzed by special ops, as well as battle command. I feel I agree with Xera'Raan."

"Xera?" Jane blinked looking at Shala fully for the first time since she entered the office.

"Yes, my jam'ma think you are slightly insane."

"Heh...ah!...*cough*" Jane fought back a laugh with a low cough.

"Now, in review, this matter will have to go before the Admiral Council, but it should just be a formality. And, as it is within my purview, I am reinstating your command of the Perugia. You will, of course be kept on station until the hearing," Shala made a few taps on her console as she spoke.

"Admiral...I…"

*Beep*

Jane frowned as she glanced back at the door.

*Beep*

"I have a secretary," Shala's eye narrowed.

*Beep*

"A good one," Kal chuckled. "I've tried everything from threats to bribes to begging to get audiences when I was a cadet."

*Beep*

"Yes, well, Poor'an Kelzan has only become more stubborn in his age," Shala snorted opening her desk drawer and pulling out a small holdout pistol. "He keeps bugging me about how much i eat."

"Sounds like a good man," Jane chuckled as she popped her neck to one side then the other. Her shoulders rolled once and somehow she became one of the most dangerous creatures Shala had ever been in the same room with, even without a weapon.

*Beep*

"I'll get the door," Kal bounced a couple times on his toes, the chance to let out his tension making him seem like an eager child. Even with the heavy slab of steel he drew from his lower back.

The knife, if one could can something like that a knife, was terran basic issue, given to marines as backup hand to hand weapons. This particular one had been a gift from John'Shepard. For some reason knowing that made it seem more dangerous to Shala.

"Yes, please," Shala said locking a thermal clip into her gun.

Turian Lexicon

Larasta: a strategic game that is similar to human chess mixed with Risk.

Asari Lexicon

Krappa: Insect like creature that is about the same size as an earth rabbit. They share similar breeding habits.

Quarian Lexicon

Jam'ma: Child of a secondary mate. Ex- Xera'Raan is the child of Garu's secondary mate, and is thus, Jam'ma to Shala'Raan