Shepard couldn't believe the recovery team actually found them both still alive. Erane had a few fractures, but Orian was far worse. The crash landing shredded his wings apart and broke several vertebrae. What little medigel was left would keep him stabile for a short time. While Raloi medicine was advanced enough to save the Prince he'd be bound to a wheelchair and have only limited use of his arms. Queen Thebe demanded that he be taken to the Normandy and treated with everything they had aboard.
"Not a single ounce of floatstone shall be sent off world until my son is fully healed."
The Commander knew tensions were high and she needed to be delicate. "I want to help, but our shuttle was just destroyed and the Normandy can't land on a planet."
"Can't it just hover above the ground, or just off the balcony?" Thebe was growing frantic.
Nardar spoke up after crunching the numbers. "With all the floatstone in your atmosphere having a ship that size get close to the ground could generate all kinds of gravitational anomalies. Also any safe form of gangplank needed to reach the hanger bay would require three to four days to construct."
Moirah Magton began squealing in delight. "If we can't bring the ship to Orian we'll bring Orian to the ship!"
"We can't. Our shuttle is a pile of scrap." Shepard was getting tired of stating that fact.
The avian redhead beamed like a lighthouse. "Your shuttle may be destroyed, but clan Dwara brought our own. Rosetta helped us work out a few bugs in the system and we were going to show it off on the last day of the festival."
Alhena was on the woman in an instant. "Why didn't you tell us this earlier!"
"With everything that's been going on, I forgot."
Shepard soon found herself in a blimp hangar not too far away. Three of the deflated airships sat parked awaiting their next mission, but behind them was a silhouette that felt out of place on the low-tech world. It's design borrowed from several Citadel races. Much like the old NASA ships it was a little more than a pointed tube. The wide back end looked similar to those of Turian/Volus structure with extendable portions. The engine resembled that of a high efficiency Salarian frigate. It was all blended together with the deep purple color and smooth contours of the Asari. One thing that set it apart from any other race was the fact that the wings were close to the front and highly articulated much like those of a bird.
"It almost looks like it could flap its way to space."
"The control ailerons were the hardest to get right, but the First-Breath was meant to be piloted by gifted Runners like Orian. They insisted on high maneuverability; their the ones who can fly so we listened to them." Moirah was clearly proud of her clan's creation.
The Quarian duo was already hard at work integrating what remained of the Ursa Major's flight and navigational systems. "Quite impressive what the Raloi have managed to accomplish without advanced electronics." Zun'Zoll commented.
The overalled bird grinned like a child. "Oh wow thank you. That means so much. Of course we kinda had to what with faulty wiring able to toss a vehicle thirdy feet into the air or squish the operator."
"I haven't seen any launchpads around. How do you plan on getting this thing airborne." The Raloi had yet to send manned craft into space and that worried Shepard.
Moriah pointed at the compacted dirigibles. "First we use those to reach the upper stratosphere. At the correct altitude First-Breath will be dropped from a harness and fire a solid fuel rocket to break through the thermosphere. At the exosphere the rocket will detach to fall back to Turvess with guided parachutes and the ship will use onboard engines to dock with the Normandy."
Miranda spoke up from her spot just behind the Commander. "After a small group of us disembark, the craft returns home to the applause of billions. Not just for the first successful manned flight, but for also saving their beloved royal son. Should this succeed the companies that made this ship will corner the market."
"Everybody wins." Moirah said looking a bit embarrassed that her ulterior motives were exposed with such ease.
Shepard didn't mind the corporate angle that the Dwara clan would spin on this. "Now we just need to figure out who's going to stay behind until the Council ships arrive."
There was only enough room in the cargo bay for eight or so people in the ship. Shepard, Orian, Miranda and Nardar were an absolute along with what remained of the Geth. Matriarch D'aris reluctantly chose to stay behind so her company wouldn't get undercut by Evast raun or Dyeppa who were staying. Bellso got permission from Kalius to join; which annoyed Shepard for some reason. The Vorcha refused to leave each other so Iroth had to stay. Armelsta and Erane chose to remain on Turvess as their injuries would heal with relative ease. Vrax foresaw a chance for more combat star hopping with a Spectre than being planetside. Along with them would be the two pilots and Moirah herself.
"Life support?"
"Ready."
"Fuel level?"
"Full."
The ground crew triple checked every gauge, dial and readout in the book as the flight crew were bid fond farewells and good luck. Some Raloi started a picket group that demanded Shepard stay and clean up her mess; namely the eighty foot scorched circle in the forest filled with dead cyber-zombies. The elderly Yadan representative Hendar Marvosh was front and center with a sign of his own. Orian's gurney and a small crate of supplies and raw materials were loaded snugly in the ship's back.
With all civilians and personnel evacuated from the arena helium was released from tanker trucks into their respective aircraft. In minutes the only thing left to do was cut the mooring lines. With a lurch the odd team of giant balloons and spacecraft rose upward. Time went by slowly with nothing to do but listen to the Prince's heart monitor beep steadily. Nardar had placed him into a medical coma as they did not have enough medigel to spare Orian the pain of two missing limbs.
The tension building in everyone since liftoff reached its peak as the blimps did the same. No one aboard had been in this situation before. All modern civilizations relied on the elegant and gentle gravity manipulation of element zero to escape a planet's pull. Yet here they were doing things the old fashioned way. Just a group of people strapped into a bunch of chairs about to ride what was little more than a directed sub-nuclear explosion straight to space. No escape pods, no shields, no turning back.
The Commander didn't know if she was thrilled or terrified; it made no difference when she heard the tethers disengage. Immediately she felt her stomach jump to her throat and blood drain from her backside with a painful tingle. Before anyone could get use to the zero-g sensation of falling the booster rocket ignited; pushing all members of this strange crew into their seats. A deafening roar accompanied by tremendous vibrations that felt like they would shake the aircraft apart filled Shepard with the realization that for the first time in her life she had absolutely no control. All she could do was pray for a safe journey and try to not wet herself. By the time they broke through the thermosphere Shepard had a brand new sense of respect for early human astronauts.
"Stage two complete. Dropping main booster."
"Main booster away."
"Firing orbital thrusters."
The rumbling died down from nightmarish to something almost reasonable. The Spectre opened her eyes and became acutely aware of two things; she was alive and needed a change of pants. Others around her looked to be in much the same condition. Nardar was gripping the armrests hard enough to turn his knuckles white. Miranda had thrown up on herself, and Bellso fainted. Vrax was just laughing like a madman. Shepard wondered with a blush if Wrex liked rough rides too.
"It's so beautiful!" Up ahead Moriah had her snout flat against a porthole.
The last bit of lingering fear was washed away by the look of pure wonder on the silly little bird's face. Everyone Shepard knew who lived on a planet had stories about the first time they saw their world from orbit. All of them deemed it a life changing experience. This was one thing the Commander even with her new sense of emotions could never feel for herself. She had no world to call home. A pang of what she believed was envy shot through her heart as Moirah wiped tears of joy from her eyes.
"Normandy to First-Breath, this is acting officer Kal'Reegar. We have you on radar and are in position to receive you in the hanger bay."
After some tricky maneuvering by EDI and help from a few EVA certified personnel the falcon shaped craft slid into place. Shepard went to change in her cabin as the others brought the Prince to medbay. With ample medigel and two bags of blood from the supply crate Orian underwent surgery. Nardar's quick thinking and Dr. Chakwas steady hand put things back in place with little problem. Moirah helped too by uploading the medical encyclopedias she brought to EDI though all she had to do was flip pages. When the light went green Shepard and the Raloi were allowed to visit the still unconscious Runner.
Moriah's gaze lingered on the scarred stumps protruding from Orian's back. "This isn't right." Her voice was soft and tired. "The Prince has been flying over Cloud Reach since he was little more than a toddler. I remember being on the deck of the transport ship my parents booked us on for a ride to the capitol. When I looked around I saw him gliding low to the ground just off port. He was carrying a banner that said Arrive as strangers, leave as family. I never felt so welcomed before." The others nodded in agreement. Clearly the people of Turvess were fond of their current monarchs.
One of the pilots spoke up. "I'll donate my wings to him."
The Salarian dismissed this idea. "Would not solve the problem only transfer it." Nardar tapped his chin in thought. "I have seen several examples of synthetic wings made for avian species wounded in artificial disasters." He opened his omnitool and accessed the new Raloi anatomy files. "Normandy has the necessary materials onboard. Could utilize recovered nanites from Dragon teeth as micro fabricators."
"We can have EDI reprogram them after it's done pulling every byte of data from that Geth chunk." Miranda had joined the group at some point.
The well dressed amphibian began checking the weight and flexibility of the other pilots wing. "Light, stiff at base with semi-rigid tips, three major sections. Compressed steel leading to high grade plastics. Carbon fiber would make for better feathers; easier to paint. Tactile sensors require to much electricity to be safely used on homeworld."
Dr. Chakwas was following along better than Shepard and knew the next step. "Then we'll need to clone samples of nerves system tissue from an intact wing."
It took two days and about forty man-hours to complete the surgery. Unfortunately Orian along with the other Raloi began to decline in health. Migraines, cramps, dizziness and reduced cognition. Tests showed that they had actually metabolized the Eezo in their systems. All other known species grow nodes in their brains where the substance builds up. Nardar determined that with element zero so abundant on Turvess that life uses it in much the same way humans do salt. Eezo laced food would draw suspicion from parties that may realize Raloi blood could be filtered for the valuable substance. Instead the crew's tech specialists put together simplified environmental suits that enriched the air supply with Eezo. Sensitivity to foreign germs made a good excuse.
The Prince woke not long after. He assured his mother that everything was fine and he would be sending the First-Breath down with the pilots right away. In that time EDI managed to pull all remaining info from the Geth. To everyone's surprise it had been a stowaway. Unfortunately it did manage to send a message through the relay, but it's contents were not the location of Turvess. Five seemingly random systems were selected as top priority.
"Those are the Holy Stars!" The Commander had to admit that Orian had a good eye.
Reegar shook his head. "They must be colonies from the Prothean era. If the Geth think they're important enough to go through all this for then you can bet it'll mean bad news for the galaxy."
Nardar spoke up as well. "Weapon vaults possibly. Ship yards even."
"Or worse. We must not allow the Geth to learn anything more." Miranda's voice held a foreboding that said more than her words
"We won't." Shepard assured her team. "Reegar have the crew ready for FTL. Miranda set a course for Omega; we'll need a new shuttle. Nardar try and figure out probable locations for colonies in those systems." People went to work immediately.
Shepard took the Prince aside. "Orian I'm going to need you to tell me everything you know about your clan founders."
"Fine, but you need to tell me about the Reapers. If there's something out there that can threaten the whole galaxy I want to know about it. Then blow it to hell." The Spectre couldn't help but smile at her fellow cyborg.
"That is exactly what I'm going to train you to do."
END
Thank you for reading Space Taxi. I've had a lot of fun writing this and hope you've enjoyed it. As I said in part 1 I am not going to be writing a full story, but that doesn't mean it has to end for good. If you want to pick up where I left off you have my permission. Just make sure you give credit where credit is do and send me a PM to let me know when you've posted your first chapter.
Have a nice night everyone!