Chapter 27 - Solving Asari Problems

"Ask an Imperial about Eldar diplomacy, and assuming they don't just give you hysterically laughter, they will say that Eldar only use it to get into position to put a knife in your back." - Inquisitor Garret 'Flamebringer' Ajax of Ordos Xenos

"Humans. Foolish animals. Unable to see what must happen, and they call us fickle and capricious? We use what we must to ensure tomorrow follows today." - Farseer Eligor, male Senior Seer Council member, Craftworld Ae'Imedra

Arlas looked up from his seat in his personal room on the lander as Yol'Pvera contacted him. *The noisy mon-keigh is at the bay door, and is displeased. Did you skip the debrief again?*

*(When is she not?)*

His pithy reply didn't amuse the spirit, and he tied off the energies he had been directing into his two wounds through the healing rune. A moment pulling up his undersuit, and he strode out to the troop bay. He sealed the door to the armory, and then opened the troop ramp. "Lioness."

The human was apparently not in the mood for games. "What were you doing in the secure lab the second time? You were ordered to go with the others to the lander."

Arlas sighed, apparently wiping out a room full of enemies on his own had not impressed the mon-keigh. Or perhaps her annoyance had overridden her fear. But he wasn't going to admit he went in there to kill the insect queen, only to stop when his dangersense had screamed in utter terror at him as he had leveled the fusion gun. "Ensuring something wasn't to become a problem later."

She waited, before reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose and grimacing as she realized that was all she was getting. She glanced at his gut, before shaking her head. "Well, since you weren't injured enough to require Doctor Chakwas' attention, suit up. We have a mission. Noveria debrief after that, and you are required to attend."

That surprised him, and made him consider reporting to the doctor, though he figured the healer was too busy with actual injuries to deal with the minor scrapes he had. "By your command."

He headed back into the lander without waiting to be dismissed. He had to do some spot patches on the armor, and put the damaged death spinner away. He didn't remember his weapon getting damaged, and that concerned him. He had entered the state of Exarch before, but this was the first time he had not remembered everything he had done during it. He would have to be more careful, and talk with a Farseer before he entered the state again willingly.

Done suiting up, he glanced at the Wraithguard, standing in its holder with its three weapons encased around it, and suddenly smiled. *(Kap'Eiyl. Starcannon, shuriken cannon, or D-cannon?)*

The spirit wasn't expecting his question, and sent back confusion, making Arlas mentally laugh. *(I was ordered to bring the Wraithguard along on the next mission. What weapon do you want?)*

The spirit was silent for a moment, before sending malicious pleasure. *Starcannon. Not sure what we will be up against, so want something reasonably effective against anything.*

He smirked, before pulling the spirit stone out of his armor, and slotting it into the chest holder for the Wraithguard. As Kap'Eiyl's mind expanded to fill the wraithbone construct, Arlas began checking the starcannon to ensure it was undamaged. Arlas finished the checks as Kap'Eiyl finished taking control of the Wraithguard, and slammed shut the armored chest, sealing his spirit stone inside the construct, before grabbing the starcannon.

A minute later, they were in the elevator, and Kap'Eiyl had joined the group of beings that thought the damned thing was too damned slow. Arlas let him complain, and led the way up to the airlock near the pilot's station. The asari and volus spectre had stayed back on Noveria, and with Liara, Tali, and Jaclyn in the medical bay, it was a smaller group than normal near the airlock. Joannis wasn't in her armor, instead standing above the map station in her fatigues, examining the fourth planet in the system while she began briefing the team. "And with Arlas here we can begin. Sensors picked up a signal from the fourth world in the Pax system of the Horse Head Nebula, quickly cut off. We came closer to do a more detailed scan and found an asari vessel with a pair of turian frigates alongside. The turian vessels show signs of being pirates, and the asari vessel is damaged. No one has responded to hails. Under the circumstances, I am assuming the asari vessel is in distress and requires assistance. We are going to disable the pirate vessels, then board the asari vessel to assist as able. Lieutenant Kaidan will be in charge of the boarding team, with Sergeant Williams in charge of the second fire team should they need to split. Arlas you are… what is the Wraithguard doing here?"

Arlas gave her a grin as he finished deploying his helmet, sealing himself in his armor. "Jaclyn wanted it to come on the next mission. So the Wraithguard is coming on this mission. It is the next, yes?"

The glare was reward all its own, as the Wraithguard purposefully strode to the airlock, though it had to crouch the last half of the walk, prepared to lead the attack. Arlas took his place right behind it, before pulling out his fusion gun, his flamer pistol on his hip, long rifle and sword on his back. He was carrying extra grenades for this mission, as ship to ship boarding would be difficult, and extra explosives might turn the fights that could swing either way. He did make a mental note to add a shuriken rifle to his arsenal, if only to give him an option between obliterating the target when he could spit on it and blowing holes in the other side of the ship. A quick glance at his omnitool as it pinged showed that he had received a layout of the three ships, though the layouts did note they were taken from standard blueprints, and the ships they were boarding might not match with them.

Five minutes later, the ship shuddered slightly, so subtly that Arlas was certain that only he felt it, and then shuddered again a few seconds later. Half a minute after that, he reached up and grabbed one of the rails along the ceiling, right before the ship suddenly lurched, and Joker spoke up. "Pirate frigates are missing their asses, but might have a backup generator for secondary weapons. Hurry and board, so I am not a sitting duck here."

Arlas and Kap'Eiyl didn't wait for the pilot to finish, already getting into the airlock. Kap'Eiyl pressed against the door that would open to the asari vessel, Arlas right behind him. Wrex and Ashley were next, taking seats near the door, and Kaidan, Icivia, and Garrus were at the back of the group. As the airlock cycled, the ship's announcement system relayed a message. "...been set to repeat. This is asari private vessel Goddess' Fortune, under attack near Veles in the Pax system by pirates. We have a VIP on board, and require immediate assistance from any armed Citadel vessel receiving this. Mayday code alpha gamma seven niner niner victory. I repeat, we have an asari VIP on board, and require immediate assistance. This message has been set to repeat. This is…"

Icivia waved her omnitool, before tapping on it, then clenching her mandibles in surprise. "Huh, well haven't ever seen that code before. That is a mandatory 'drop everything and come help code.' 'Vital to continued smooth functioning of government.' Must be related to the asari Council of Matriarchs, maybe even the Empress."

Arlas was busy looking over the asari ship's layout, wondering once again why the asari designed their ships with such long wings and that massive gaping hole in the center. This was a one hundred and fifty meter wide ship with a ten meter wide hole in the center, and the wings extended fifty meters on both sides, leaving the interior fifty meters wide and twenty five meters tall, including the ten meter hole, for crew and ship functions. The vessel was only some seventy meters long, and had seven total decks, assuming the layout was the same as a standard model. Going by the code attached to the message and what Ghost had said about it, he had his doubts.

It took a minute for the airlock to finish matching and synchronizing up with the asari airlock, before Kap'Eiyl shifted forward, the small hatches not meant for three meter tall war constructs. Inside the asari vessel, however, the ceiling soared to nearly four meters, and was richly furnished. Neither eldar bothered to appreciate their surroundings, the pirates firing as soon as the wraithguard left the airlock.

Arlas watched the small pellets that the mon-keigh considered dangerous hit the wraithguard, and simply bounce off its thick armor, before smoothly raising and firing its starcannon. A large round, probably from a long rifle or shotgun, hit the elongated head of the wraithguard, but only dug a small chunk out. The powerful starcannon, however, obliterated the turian pirates it hit, melting torsos and limbs with even glancing blows.

Kap'Eiyl began advancing into the thickest of the fire, ignoring their ineffective return fire, while Arlas activated his cloak, and began sneaking up the side of the hallway, activating his communicator to Kaidan and Joannis back on the ship. "Kap'Eiyl and I will make our way to engineering and clear that. Once done there, we will sweep up the opposite side of the ship, and meet you at the bridge."

He was already leaving, even before anyone replied. After a moment of neither human trying to call him back to the group, he turned his attention back to the corridor in front of him, swapping to his long rifle to shoot a turian in black armor stepping out of a doorway. He frowned, before contacting Joannis. "Lioness, Arlas. How do I tell the pirates from victims?"

"When we hard docked, I was able to contact the captain. It is an asari only vessel, so anyone not in leathers or a white crew outfits is a pirate. The pirates are all turians in black armor without identifying marks, so it will be easy to identify hostiles."

He glanced at the wraithguard as Joannis ended the call, before shrugging. *(Nice that our enemies are so easy to identify.)*

The wraithguard shot another pirate, and disabled a grenade by crushing it underfoot. *Would that we were always so lucky.*

Arlas laughed, as they continued down the high hallway. With only minimal resistance for the two of them, he was able to take in the surroundings, and found them disgustingly opulent. Plush carpets, paintings and tapestries on the walls, well padded cabinets filled with crystal decanters, it was everything the eldar hated, and secretly feared. It was so similar to what their society had been like right before the fall, full of unnecessary opulence and decadence.

The living eldar idly twisted and flicked his head, his long rifle screaming as he did, avoiding an enemy sniper's attack while his own blew the attacker's head off. He chastised himself, a battlefield was not a place to contemplate the universe. At least not for any useful lengths of time.

The fighting for the rest of the trip to the back of the ship was relatively light, individual and small fireteams of turians stepping out of rooms or setting up crossfires through the doors. The small teams barely even broke the two eldar's strides, as the turians tended to focus on the larger form in the middle of the hallway rather than the one that ducked into doorways and vanished from sight. Arlas was a bit unhappy that his kill count was comparable to the wraithguard's, but in the tight, narrow confines of a ship, that was to be expected.

After a few minutes of fighting, taking out maybe thirty troops, they reached a large, sealed bulkhead. Arlas glanced at the sign on the wall beside the door, which was labeled 'engineering,' before activating his warp jump generator. Kap'Eiyl would wait while Arlas scouted the next room. Arlas jumped to where he expected the ceiling to be on the other side of the door, immediately firing his grapple up to keep him from dropping, trusting his cloak to keep the turian hostiles from spotting him.

He was wrong on both accounts. The ceiling was far higher than he expected, another five meters higher, and he dropped just enough for his cloak to shift from stealth to scatter mode. For all his scorn about their discipline making the turians depressingly predictable, they were still predators, and even slight movement attracted their attention, unlike the oblivious humans. He was just starting to note things when the first bullet screamed past his head, and then the rest of the dozen turians were firing on him even as his cloak shifted back to concealment.

He made a second jump, this time up to the actual roof, and managed to stop his fall before it could reveal him again. He sent Kap'Eiyl the room layout, lots of consoles and machinery, and most of the turians were moving from their positions near the two bulkheads to the search the rest of the room for the intruder. There were four exceptions who were staying put, one at each bulkhead, and two guarding four asari. There were a dozen dead turians, and two dead asari in leathers scattered about the room.

Then Kap'Eiyl burned through the bulkhead with his starcannon, and forced his way into the room. This immediately attracted the attention and fire of all the turians still in the room, though Kap'Eiyl quickly began blasting them apart with his weapon meant to take apart medium and light tanks, as well as heavily armored infantry squads. The turians' barriers stopped the plasma bolts from hitting them directly, but the lightness of their armor meant that the sheer heat from the bolt dispersing right next to them burned and cooked them alive.

Arlas didn't have to do much, other than snipe the two pirates guarding the four asari. He allowed himself to be modestly surprised when the asari, instead of screaming, reacted to the guards messy demise by grabbing their assault rifles, and getting into cover before firing on the nearest turian, tearing him apart before he could react to the sudden attack.

Caught between the invisible eldar hanging from the ceiling, the eldar war construct ripping into them with no concern for their counterattacks, and asari crew women using biotics to tear them out of cover, the turian pirates didn't last long. As the last pirate was lifted by the asari for Kap'Eiyl to use as target practice, Arlas depowered his cloak, and then dropped the ten meters to the floor, landing easily. He flipped his hood down, before turning to the asari, who were pointing weapons at him and the wraithguard, but not firing or flinging biotics. *(Careful, Kap'Eiyl, a biotic warp could do significant damage to your chassis.)*

The spirit sent back his understanding, and kept his massive cannon pointed at the ground to one side. The eldest asari of the four finally decided to talk. "Who are you?"

Arlas didn't even hesitate. "Time travelers."

The only noise in the engineering room was the sound of Kap'Eiyl slamming his left palm against his helmet. Arlas sent him a thought while he waited for the asari to get over their shock, unable to filter out his amusement. *(True no matter how you cut it. I seriously doubt we jumped across universes without at least some temporal drift, and everyone is a time traveler. Moving forward. Most do it automatically though.)*

Kap'Eiyl's mental groan was all the answer he got, before the asari spokeswoman got her voice back. "Try again, and make it believable this time."

Arlas gave her a shrug. "Fine, I am a forward scout of a super race, here to conquer the pathetic primitives to use as menial labor and concubines."

Kap'Eiyl sent him a feeling of disgust, but the asari were now having a whispered conversation between themselves. "Chief, I think that is the eldar."

"Wait, the one that won the galactic sword tournament?"

"And works with the two new human spectres?"

There was a long moment of silence, before one of the engineers spoke louder. "I'll go get my harem outfit."

Arlas' left hand slammed into his helm with enough force to rock him back a step while Kap'Eiyl's hysterical laughter rung in his head. He knew he was never going to hear the end of this 'asari domination' joke now. He spoke before the younger asari could do more than stand up. "Just… seal the damned room and keep the engines from exploding. We are going to push up to bridge."

Kap'Eiyl headed for the door they hadn't burned through, still laughing, but Arlas thought of something. "Why are the pirates here?"

That got a reaction, as all four asari froze, their expressions hardening as they stared at him, then shared a glance with each other. After a few seconds, the one that had been addressed as Chief replied carefully. "This is a VIP vessel of the asari republics, on a recovery mission for the Empress. They may have thought we had someone important on board. And the turians aren't pirates. They called themselves Separatists."

Icivia sat in the secondary communication room of the Goddess' Fortune, behind the only display that also let her see the door in. She had scattered her turrets around so no section of the room was uncovered, and then canceled the distress call, before cutting off the jamming. A quick glance showed Garrus in cover near the back of the room, sniper rifle at the door, completely focused. She allowed herself a small smile, whoever had put 'insubordinate tendencies' in his file was an idiot.

But since he was so far off, she could do her other job, and tapped into the turian rebel's systems. She recorded everything, and simply watched and listened, and after a moment typed a quick message. She was modestly glad that Tali was unconscious in the medibay, she was the only one that had a chance of catching her doing this, and it saved awkward explanations or worse, confrontations. A moment later, she received a specific countersign, making her smile again. Even better.

A moment of work, and Garrus was none the wiser, as she started getting information from the group. Another quick message, and once she got a reply, she tapped a couple keys, sending the eldar's omnitool frequency and location to the eldar pair, as well as the recommendation to use explosives on the walker. Small arms fire seemed utterly ineffective, and the group lacked biotics.

Two minutes after she started, she put away the second, secret omnitool, and resumed watching the computers. "Garrus, move up and help the others. I can hold here long enough for reinforcements if they somehow circumvent one group."

Garrus looked like he wanted to say something, but after a moment simply nodded. Most other turians would have been incensed by his hesitation, but personally she preferred that in her squad. It meant they were thinking instead of just reacting. Any fool could follow orders and react, it took brains to command, and Garrus was shaping up to potentially be a very unorthodox leader, if not an actual Spectre.

Once he was out of the room, she pulled out the second omnitool again, and sent a longer message, before getting back to work. Being a double agent wasn't the easiest or even most rewarding work, but on missions like this, it definitely showed its value.

Arlas ducked into cover, and watched the grenade sail past his door frame, making a mental to ask Icivia how she had managed to direct the turian separatists this way. They had brought twenty more troops, blocking the hall with furniture from the nearby rooms, and had a pair of grenade launchers and a missile launcher. Arlas had managed to snipe the missile launcher before it could shoot the first time, but had taken a sabotage attack immediately after, and every time he tried to get back to sniping, the turians bombarded him with more sabotage charges, overloading the heat sinks on the long rifle.

The fire was so thick that Kap'Eiyl had decided to get into cover, firing his starcannon as fast as its heat vents would allow, now that the enemy was using explosive weapons against him. Arlas threw a grenade, blowing open a section of the barricade as the plasma engulfed it, but the turians were smart, perceptive, and attentive. None were caught in the blast. He grumbled as he sprayed with the double pistol, before activating his communicator. "Icivia, Arlas. Did you need to send every last competent opponent my way? I thought Wrex wanted something to play with as well."

The turian female laughed. "What is the matter? Enemy too much for you?"

A turian died as a shot from the starcannon as it melted his helmet, and Arlas snarled something unflattering in his native tongue. He put up the double pistol, drew his flamer and sword, before warp jumping behind the barricade. Suddenly flanked and pinned against their own barricade, the turians frantically tried to reorient on the eldar, but he had killed five before they even began turning, and then he jumped to the other side of the barricade, hacking his way to the center from the other side. Kap'Eiyl suddenly charged, crashing through the barricade and into the distracted enemies' backs.

The turians died as they tried to fall back, the flamer pistol and sword driving them off the barricade and into the open where Kap'Eiyl scythed them all down with his starcannon. Done pushing through the barricade, he contacted Icivia again. "Barricade breached, hostiles terminated. Moving up."

"What… A minute ago there were seventeen on it. There are none now! What the spirits…?"

"Eldar."

He pointed up the hallway, and sent his approval to Kap'Eiyl. He didn't need to send orders, the veteran Shadow Spectre knew you had to press when you breached a line, and was already striding forward. The wraithguards weren't built to sprint, but they could move surprisingly quickly for someone unfamiliar with the design. Arlas just smiled and continued advancing, switching to his long rifle and pushing power into his cloak as he stalked behind the now somewhat mauled wraithguard.

As they advanced to the bridge, Arlas suddenly glanced at one of the stairwells they were passing, and slowed. "Kap'Eiyl, take cover. Something down the stairwell."

He had heard someone talking below him, so softly that even Kap'Eiyl missed it; the turians wouldn't have heard anything. He sent what he had heard, before slipping down the stairwell. He paused twice as his danger sense spiked, and a quick check showed two cleverly concealed traps. One was a simple warp grenade, but the second was a series of flashbangs set into the wall, set to go off as someone stepped on one of the last three steps. The flashbangs would blind and deafen anyone in the stairwell, a clever assistance for anyone in the room who would be expecting the blast.

He paused at the bottom of the stairs, looking into the room. A dozen asari huntresses were scattered about the room, heavy barriers and barricades scattered to provide a vicious crossfire for anyone trying to push in. Arlas spent a moment examining the situation, before frowning and backing up the stairs, and activating his communicator. "Icivia, a dozen huntress at my location, heavily entrenched. Continuing to bridge."

"Not making contact?"

"No point. They are defending a position, and likely the reason for the attack. Location of remaining turians?"

"Clustered in and near the bridge. Trying to repel Wrex and the others. Going to help?"

"Are Orks as stupid as they are odorous?"

"... You know I don't know the answer to that."

Arlas didn't reply, simply heading down the passage to the bridge. The turians wouldn't know what hit them, at least the ones in the passages wouldn't. If the ones in the bridge had a brain, they would have already sealed the bulkheads, and had ordered the ones outside to kill Kaidan's group as quickly as possible and damn the casualties.

He contacted Icivia to get an idea of how many turian pirates were left, and where they were. Their conversation quickly revealed there were two dozen left, most in the passage outside the bridge, holding back the rest of the Normandy group through sheer numbers, but a few were in the bridge. He sent Kap'Eiyl ahead to hit the pirates in the back, while he jumped into the bridge to finish off the pirates.

Arlas was leaning against the wall of the bridge three minutes later, smirking behind his helmet at the mon-keigh just now entering the bridge. His plan had worked with only minor problems, Kap'Eiyl had strode into a portion of the corridor that had been planted with anti-personnel mines, and he had certainly not expected a pair of turrets in the bridge to target him as he had landed. All of the asari on the bridge had been executed by the pirates, making the four survivors in engineering, the dozen asari in the room Arlas had found, and a pair of asari that the mon-keigh squad had saved the only survivors out of forty registered crew, according to a manifest Icivia had found.

He watched the rest of the Normandy's ground team disperse as Joannis issued orders over the communicator, but she hadn't issued any orders for him, so he and the wraithguard began making their way back to the ship. He and Kap'Eiyl were as Joannis issued a message. "All hands, this is the Captain speaking. We are taking on three guests as a courtesy to the Asari Republics, so treat them as VIPs until we get to our next destination and drop them off. All ground team cleared by Doctor Chakwas, to the communication room for debriefing in fifteen minutes. Arlas, report to me before the debrief."

Arlas rolled his eyes, wondering what the human wanted to complain about now. It took a few minutes to finish getting out of the airlock, the decontamination protocol was apparently always active, even when moving between ships, and then there was the wraithguard squeezing in with him. Kap'Eiyl mentally snarled his thoughts on the situation. *Never again. If I need to get this thing out again, I am leaving through the hangar or the lander.*

He let the spirit make its way down the walkway at its own speed, while he moved toward Joannis. "Lioness."

The human gave him a glare, before handing him a small data screen. "We have the coordinates of facility that was reviewing the pictures, so you can stop being malicious about following orders. The system is listed on the map as GJ 1245, or Cygni."

He took the data screen, before turning to the map and shifting the view. He ignored the human's glare, inputting the coordinates on the map, and frowned at the listed system. "That is right next to your home system."

Joannis gave him a smirk, before reverting the map back to its previous location, a system with six stars and an asteroid field, orbiting a medium orange star. "Best place to hide something. No planets, three dwarf stars, and enough radiation to convince the curious to not bother. But first, we are swinging by Thessia."

She gestured to the map as she continued. "STG identified a ship with Benezia's transponder moving through the relay network. It is taking a roundabout path, but we think it is heading toward Thessia, the asari homeworld. There are only two places where she can respond to Liara's legal challenge, and there are enough defenses on the Citadel to make that suicide. That leaves Thessia as her destination."

He stared at the map, before turning his head slightly. "And she can not just ignore this… legal challenge?"

"Not if she wants to keep in control of her fiances. Liara undercut her ability to mobilize them to assist Saren, and she has only a day or so leeway between the deadline and arriving on the planet. I have more information, but we can save it for the briefing after the debrief of Noveria and the ship fight."

She glanced at the elevator, before sighing. "And as useful as the wraithguard was, can you not bring it through the command center again?"

He nodded, before heading for the debriefing room. No sense in heading down to the hangar only to come right back up, and using a warp jump was simply excessive since there wasn't an emergency. He took his usual position by the door, making sure the recording crystal was still intact and powered, before pulling out his weapons and beginning to check them over; his armor would have to wait until he got back to the ship. And what he saw was not encouraging. The flamer pistol was showing significant wear on the exterior tubing in spite of his previous repairs and the self repairing nature of the wraithbone, the power blade had a tiny crack along the guard, and the fusion gun was showing some wear on the barrel. He was going to need to do some significant maintenance soon, and that was just on his weapons. The last time he had seen wear on eldar weapons this bad was during his forty year hunt on a chaos infested world, hunting for lost spirit stones and no resupply but what he found or carried with him, and he had done this in less than half a year.

The eldar looked up as the others started entering, before putting away his weapons. Once everyone had arrived that was allowed, he noted they were still missing Jaclyn, Tali, and Liara, and Joannis started the debrief. Sadly, this time he couldn't just passively listen and let the briefing go on, as there was a point where he had been separated from the group, and the others who had been with him were unconscious in the medical bay.

Once the mon-keigh finally finished going over everything in exhaustive detail, Joannis finally moved on to something he was actually interested. "Alright, our next mission is the capture, or failing that the elimination of Benezia T'Soni. According to Liara, her lineage has significant pull with several other lines, and Matriarch Benezia herself has even more with several individuals. So even if she isn't in charge of the T'Soni funds, she can still do some damage. We are currently burning hard for Thessia, but we are going to arrive either at the same time as Benezia, or just behind her.

"Also, we have three asari on board, who will be leaving us at Thessia. Arlas, Wrex, that means avoid them, and be polite if you do have to interact with them. Everyone else, be on your best behaviour. Dismissed."

As everyone started filing out of the room, Joker came over the comms. "Councilors on the line, ma'am. Want to take it, or should I send 'em to voicemail?"

Joannis sighed, before reaching up to pinch her nose. "Dammit Joker."

Arlas smirked as he slipped out the door, heading to the medical bay to check on the gyrinx and his unconscious eldar. He had to give the doctor something, so the eldar wouldn't panic if she woke up and he was out on a mission. It was just a message crystal, but it would help keep her and the gyrinx from lashing out if she came to and he wasn't nearby. Then he headed to his lander, to start making repairs to his weapons, and maybe make a new one, he needed a shuriken catapult, the double pistol just wasn't accurate enough at range. Maybe he could build one into his forearm armor…

He paused as he entered the hangar, thoughts of integrating a shuriken catapult into his armor sidelined by a familiar figure slowly walking around the lander. Lyla Astyonthia, the young asari from the tournament that had actually impressed him, was examining the lander, though she glanced over as the elevator opened. Her mind didn't become laced with fear when she saw him, but, surprisingly, pleasure. "So, you were the aith-catuaman of the vessel. I wondered."

He was surprised when she gave him a quick bow and a small smile. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you knew. I was certain I didn't do anything to give away my position as heir apparent. What gave me away?"

He gave her a small shrug, before placing his long rifle on the armory table. "You were the only one that didn't have the stance of a crew or guard."

The asari blinked, before laughing softly. "Given away by my companions. That will take some training to get around. But thank you for the answer, I doubt others that might spot it would be so willing to give it away."

Arlas shrugged, before opening the long rifle, and pulling out the ammo block. He glared at it for a moment, before looking up at Lyla as she leaned forward, examining the long rifle. He could tell, from her emotions, she wasn't really interested in the rifle, but instead trying to make herself appear more appealing. "Can I help you with anything?"

She gave a soft laugh. "Yes, training but that would require more time than I have on this ship. I was actually wondering what your price was."

The Eldar paused, before turning slightly to look at her, actually giving her attention as he let a bit of scorn enter his voice. "Price. Sorry, I am not for sale."

She laughed at his response, before shaking her head. "I didn't mean like a slave or servant. I meant hire you as a teacher. Two of the asari you fought on the second day of the tournament were my teachers, and you didn't even bother drawing your weapon. Mother was… not amused, and is looking for replacements. I was thinking you fit the position rather nicely."

Arlas just stared at her waiting for the rest of the speech. When she simply tilted her head and waited, he replied with a raised eyebrow. "And I assume, considering your position, that you know of what I told your… Councilor?"

He didn't say what his personal thoughts on the councilors were, realizing it could only hurt his position, as the asari replied. "Of course, but surely by now you have seen enough to give your leaders a report. Wouldn't earning favor with the eldest, the diplomats, the most sophisticated, and, more importantly, the richest race be better than the favor of childish mon-kiys? Inventive, determined, tenacious, yes, but still childish."

He snorted in amusement. "I get in trouble when I call them mon-keigh, why do you get away with it?"

She smiled. "For calling them 'not of the people?' Because it is true."

Arlas acknowledged her point with a nod after a second of staring at her before replying. "Your points are well made, but I am not here to make friends, that is the Seer Council's decision. I am simply here to note what threats are present. I doubt I would have learned about the geth or the batarians if I stayed with your people. So until my people show up, I will continue to wander. My gratitude for the offer though, and if I get the opportunity, I will keep your offer in my thoughts."

Lyla nodded and soon left, letting him get back to work. Arlas watched her leave however, his eyes hard and ignoring the rifle on the workstation in front of him. After the elevator door closed, he mentally reached out to Yol'Pvera. *Yol, take a note. Priority assignment: figure out why and how the asari leader's child knows eldar terms.*

A/N - Chapter divided to get updates out faster/on time and keep you from getting 10k+ word 'chapters.' And go vote on the current poll on my profile page. More votes, more incentive to keep writing. Just like more reviews, readers, favorites, follows, and everything else does.