Dreaming

Jak was in motion even as he felt Lara reaching out with her mind and songs. Illia was at his side as they ran into another room. In it, a cocoon that was almost the same as the one Jak had been in sat in the middle of the floor. This one was closed and it took no imagination to know what lay within. Korri was still screaming. It was both mental and audible.

"Is she awake?" Jak demanded even as he went to his knees beside the cocoon. He stared to the side and Korri's envirosuit suit lay there. In pieces! "What the-?"

"It had a number of trackers and other nastiness installed." Illia said flatly as she too knelt. "She is safe in the cocoon. It is a sterile environment and when it comes time to get her out, the geth have Zumin's old setup ready for her. Including a suit they are building."

"Illia, I don't know much about quarians, but I do know they never leave their suits." Jak protested.

"That is an error, Collains Pilot." A familiar green form stepped into Jak's view from the other side of the cocoon. AF-43765 held some kind of machinery that it set beside the cocoon. "Creator Korri is asleep, but she is experiencing great distress. We feared as much when we removed her from her covering."

"Then let's do something about that." Jak did not wait for permission he laid both hands on the cocoon. He was immediately assaulted by fear and pain mixed with sorrow and loss. "Illia..." He grunted as he focused on Korri's slumbering mind, soothing her the best he could. He had no idea what he was doing, but she did quiet a little. I am here, Korri. You are not alone. I am here. Korri's screams tapered off to whimpers. I am here. You are safe, girl.

"Keep her calm, Jak. We will handle the nightmare." Illia said quietly as music soared around him. The rachni had focused on her and the music swept into Korri, pushing the darkness of her fear away. In moments, she had quieted and Jak sank back, breathing hard. He was not sure why he was so tired. He hadn't done anything! Illia caught his questioning look and she shook her head. "Mental or physical, it takes energy, Jak. You have never exercised those mental muscles. They won't be strong."

"I guess that makes sense." Jak took a deep steadying breath and then another. Lara?

Still here, loverboy. Korri's songs are dim, but calmer. Lara sent with a wicked laugh. I feel odd. But good. Where am I?

"You are in a recovery bed, rachni style." Illia said both aloud. Both could hear her. "Good news is you are very, very clean both inside and out. Bad news? It stinks and you will need some help to get the residue off."

I don't know a lot about rachni. Lara sent. Can I learn? She asked a bit shyly.

"You will learn a bit more than you will want to." Illia smirked at Jak's expression. "They are good people, but very different from any others I have met. Their methods are not for the squeamish."

I see. Lara sighed deeply. No time like the present?

"I am here, Lara." Jak paused, looking at Korri. The green geth sat beside the cocoon and nodded to him.

"We will remain with Creator Korri until she wakes." The geth sounded a bit worried. "But she will not react well to our presence."

"No." Jak laid a hand on the cocoon and felt it shift under his fingers. "You say you brought a suit for her?"

"Our consensus had revamped a suit for her from Zumin's stockpiles." AF-43765 replied. "Male and female quarians differ in shape however, so she will need to be fitted for it. That will require her to be conscious. We do not wish to frighten her."

"Neither do we." Illia said with a frown. "But some fear will happen. She was raised to think of your people as mindless killing machines. Jak and Lara will help, but they too will need envirosuits for when they leave, since we won't move them in cocoons. I do not know anything about quarian social customs." The asari mused. "What little contact I had with quarians was always short and to the point."

"And we cannot ask anyone else." Jak shook his head as Illia did. "What if… we ask Korri?"

"Hmmm?" Illia queried. "She is asleep."

"Stop me if I am going into territory I should not." Jak spoke slowly and carefully. "But asari can share memories. Lara and I cannot do what you do, but we share something else. I am pretty sure Korri shares it too. She can hear you and me when we speak in our minds. It is probable she can hear Lara. So… what if we made a dream for her?"

"You want us to put her in a fabricated dream?" Illia sounded confused by that.

"No." Jak shook his head quickly. "Or… maybe? Lara and I were somewhere else before I woke and she...well..." He blushed and Illia smirked.

"I believe the human saying is 'jumped your bones'." Illia laughed as Jak blushed brighter. "Jak, it is nothing bad. You didn't hurt her and she didn't hurt you. She wanted you. You wanted her." She raised a hand when Jak started to protest. "You did. Admit it."

"Yeah, okay. I did. Happy?" Jak asked sourly.

"There are few things in life as beautiful as a meaningful relationship between beings who love each other, Jak." Illia wasn't looking at Jak. Indeed, she was staring at the wall, but her eyes were far away. "She gives you joy and you return it. That is a good thing, Jak. Never doubt that. Don't throw that away. You will regret it if you do. Trust me. I speak from experience."

Do you love the rachni? Lara's words were a little hesitant.

"Yes. It is hard for me not to." Illia admitted. "I melded with them, you see. With the queen. I saw so much. Good, bad, indifferent. I saw it all. She didn't know what to expect, but we agreed that it would be a good experiment. I have no regrets."

A feeling washed over Jak from everywhere. The rachni music was soothing calming, but also held tinge of something that Jak could only define as love. He could feel the alien music weaving a tapestry through his mind and it felt good. He smiled as Illia's face turned a lighter shade of blue Was she blushing?

Neither do we. Came a response from what had to be the rachni queen. What is it you wish to try? She asked Jak.

Korri has lived her entire life in isolation. Jak said quietly as Illia moved towards the door and beckoned him to follow. He did. From the feel of her mind, she did not seem to understand what Elan'Shiya was trying to do. Why the medic cared. I do not know if anyone showed her compassion or understanding before Elan'Shiya did. We need to, but we also need to be prepared because she will not understand it.

So what do we do? Lara asked.

We take her home.

A bit later

Jak sat down on a convenient rock and smiled as the mental world solidified around him. The geth hadn't understood entirely what was needed, but now that Illia and the rachni had explained, they had outdone themselves. Nothing could possibly beat a computer for pulling up digital images. These Jak did not know. He had never been on this world before. He smiled as the sky took on a lighter tinge and Lara appeared beside him. She was wearing the same kind of garment he was, a quarian envirosuit without a closed helmet. Instead, both wore clear plastic domes that would serve as quarantine filters while showing their features. Her suit was white to denote her medic status. His was orange to denote military.

The landscape was bare rock with scattered trees and shrubs all around. The image had been pulled from geth files on Rannoch and given form by the rachni's mental wizardry. There were no signs of technology, quarian or geth and none of the scars of industrialization or the war that had scoured the quairan people from their home and sent the pitiful remnants fleeing for their lives. The sky and landscape were very different from Jak's memories of Earth, but he had to admit, the view was beautiful. He smiled at Lara and she smiled back.

"What?" Lara asked.

"Just thinking how beautiful the view is." He was eyeing her instead of the landscape and her face pinked. "I have some ideas for later."

Children. Illia's tone was amused rather than ironic. We are ready. Start small.

"Right." Jak took a deep breath and nodded. "Do it."

The beautiful view around them vanished as bare metal walls surrounded the pair. The rocks and trees were closed off by metal as a ceiling appeared over them, harsh lights blocking away the sky even as the metal enclosed them both completely. The room was not small but it was totally bare. This as from Lara's dim memories of the quarian ship and she shivered a little. She hadn't been awake, but she had roused a few times during the scans and seen a little. Jak laid an arm around her.

"I am all right." Lara said with a frown. "I feel a bit of fear, but we need to ease her into this. If we simply dropped her outside with no warning, she would go mad."

Indeed Illia's mind sent. Quarians live their whole lives in isolation due to their weak immune systems. The rachni can help, but there may be side effects. We want her calm before we do anything and we will need to explain what happened to her suit.

"Yes." Jak gave Lara a squeeze and then nodded to no one. "We are ready."

He watched as a form solidified nearby. Korri lay on a small bed. Her feature obscured by the plastic tent-like thing that covered her. She wore a green patient gown and her face was peaceful in sleep. She was older than he had thought, but her face held a curious vulnerability as well. He and Lara waited and the slumbering quarian gave a small moan as she woke. She jerked as realization dawned. She wasn't in her suit and she didn't know where she was.

"This is not the real world, Korri." Jak said as she froze, her face suddenly fearful. "Easy Korri. I am Jak, remember?"

"And I am Lara." Lara said with a small, sad smile. "We didn't meet."

"This… No." Korri sat up on the bed and hugged herself tight. The tent expanded as she did, but she was too scared to notice. "No!"

"Korri." Jak tried again. "You are safe. You are in a quarantine enclosure. It is clean. You are clean. You are safe, girl. You are safe." Korri was breathing hard, almost hyperventilating. Jak looked at Lara and she nodded and started to sing.

The song was ancient. Jak didn't know the history of it, but he had heard it the first time in his first life on the streets of Old Madrid. He had heard mothers singing the tune to their children and it brought a soft, sad smile to his face. He would never see Earth again. He knew that.

Korri stared at the pair of humans as Lara sang another verse and started the refrain again. She was humming along with Lara when the human finished the refrain. She smiled as Jak did. If you ignored the three fingers and the fact that her legs bent the wrong way, her body was not that dissimilar to humans. Her skin was dark, almost as dark as people of African descent that Jak had known. Her hair was also dark and long. The only real difference on her face was what passed for ears and Jak wasn't about to comment on that. He likely looked just as strange to her.

Lara finished her song and smiled at the quarian who returned it a little hesitantly. "Hello Korri. As I said, we have not met. My name is Lara."

"You are the one who Admiral Daro'Xen hurt." Korri looked around. "This is odd." She hugged herself again.

"This is not real." Jak replied. "At the moment, your body is asleep."

"This is a dream?" Korri asked, pinching herself and frowning. "Feels real."

"I don't know quarian physiology, but in humans all dreams feel real, Korri." Lara replied. "They take images from our subconscious minds with all of the sensory data and flash across our conscious minds. They don't generally make any sense, because they are fragments, not the whole. This is different. We created this world and pulled you into it across our link. We were not sure it would work, but I am glad it did. We need to talk."

"I am dead." Korri said weakly. "I was told that if I leave the fleet, my suit would-" She paused as Jak coughed. "Yes?"

"They told you?" Jak snapped, ire rising. "They told you that you would die if you fled?" Korri nodded. He cursed in Spanish and Korri eyed him.

"They didn't want you following your father." Lara sighed. "But you have and you are safe now."

"But it was built into my suit!" Korri cried.

"Which the medics had to dismantle to get you into proper care." Lara nodded as Korri stared at her. "The binders, trackers and self destruct systems cannot hold you now. We have another suit being fabricated for you. One without trackers or punishment devices installed." She wasn't faking that anger. She was genuinely furious at what had been done to Korri.

"I was a danger to myself and others." Korri said sadly. "I had to be controlled."

"Maybe." Jak shook his head at the word. "But we will not treat you that way. You are not crazy, Korri. Sad, sick and hurting, but not crazy. I know crazy. You are not."

"You don't know me. I did horrible things." Korri said weakly.

"Korri, I was a soldier." Jak replied. "A pilot. I know horrible. I fought pirates and slavers across dozens of planets. I have seen the worst that a sentient being can do to another. I have had it done to me." Lara wilted, but he laid his arm around her. "Neither of us are denying your pain and fear, Korri. You have a right to them. But you are not irrational despite all that. You can still function without the drugs that you gave yourself." He smiled a little sadly. "Makes me a little jealous. I needed pharmaceutical help for a long time. Until I met Lara and Illia that is."

"I am a traitor." Korri said weakly, only to freeze as Lara snarled. The human stepped forward and Korri bit back a scream as Lara pushed the quarantine enclosure and it fell away. "No!" She begged.

Lara did not hesitate. She embraced Korri and held her tight.

"The environment is not real, Korri." Lara said as Korri started to cry. "You cannot get sick from this. And I will be damned if I don't offer what comfort I can." Korri was staring at Lara through streaming eyes as Lara held her. "When was the last time anyone offered you comfort?"

"Elan'Shiya tried." Korri said weakly as Lara hugged her again. "But I couldn't. After everything, I couldn't."

"What did they do to you, girl?" Lara demanded. "Did they...?" She stared at Korri as if seeking wounds.

"They never hurt me." Korri said as Lara scrutinized her. "But I was always the traitor's daughter. They never let me forget it."

"Korri, I am about to say something that was will shake your worldview to its core." Jak said quietly. "Lara will not let go. She will help. We have both gone through world shaking experiences and we understand how painful they can be." She bowed her head and he shook his. "Oh this, won't do." He stepped forward and put a finger underneath Korri's jaw. He eased it up until she was looking into his eyes. "Korri. Your father was not a traitor."

"He ran away." Korri said weakly.

"He didn't know about you, Korri." Lara said savagely. "And after what the quarians did to him? I don't blame him!" She hugged Korri again. "I knew him for several years and he was always good to me. Not always nice or gentle, but he meant well. He helped me and Jak through the worst thing we have ever encountered." Jak nodded. "Thing is, Korri… They never told you what happened to his family, did they?"

"He was an orphan." Korri sounded a bit dubious. "They said he was orphaned in a pirate raid. He was so angry though." She slumped. "A lot like me."

"You both had rights to anger." Jak said sternly. Then he looked away. "Korri… Are quarians good or evil?"

"What?" Korri stammered, completely flummoxed by the question. "What do you mean?"

"Are quarians good or evil?" Jak asked. "As a whole. are they the good guys or the bad guys? In your mind, which are they?"

"They are my people." Korri said after a moment. "I don't… I have known good and bad. I cannot say that they are either. They have treated me...fairly well..." She gave an eep as Lara squeezed her again. "Hey!"

"They treated you like shit." Lara snapped. "Worse. I bet they recycle shit to reuse as compost or other things. You? You were inconvenient and probably unwanted. Korri…. Quarians killed his family."

"What?" Korri stammered. "No. No, that is impossible!"

"His grandparents were exiled from Rannoch prior to the end of the geth war." Jak said quietly. "They didn't know each other then, but they met in their exile. They must have met others, but we have no records on that."

"But..." Korri stammered and Lara hugged her again. "Why?" Lara looked at Jak, her eyes pleading. "Why would quarians kill other quarians? Please tell me." Korri begged.

"Because of us, Creator Korri." Jak, Lara and Korri all stiffened as a small, green geth appeared in the dream world.

"Geth are the cause of your father's family's death."