The shuttle had landed inside the cruiser's hangar. The door opened, but before Arek set a foot outside, the sound of solid boots stomping towards him greeted them.
"Good, you're both back! And in time!" A smile of relief brightened her scowling face, and her strong hand patted Arek's shoulder. "Crusher was getting impatient, we have to leave Omega's orbit soon to keep up with the schedule. Everything all right? Did you find out anything?"
Oh fuck, I knew I forgot something! Over all the excitement of finding Mojo, and actually having a somewhat normal conversation with him, the second half of Amalthea's order had slipped his mind. His hopes to learn more about the turian during their shuttle flight back had been dampened by Mojo's tight-lipped replies. After a while, he had ignored Arek, and pretended to be asleep. Well, that was still better than being laughed at, insulted or mocked, and Arek considered the development as an improvement. Now he felt guilty that he had almost forgotten the ugly reason that had made this development possible.
That he couldn't answer Amalthea's question after she bought him the time to sort matters out with Mojo made it worse.
"Not much," he lied, which was bad enough, but not as bad as the thought of disappointing her. "Uh, Mojo, why don't you tell her what you know about that Murakos guy? After all, you know him from your time on Omega." He hoped that was true, and that Mojo wouldn't say anything that gave Arek's little act away. The turian looked at him through squinted eyes, gave a snort, and turned to the asari.
"Just anecdotes, nothing what the kid hadn't figured out already, I'm sure. Where is she? I need to talk to her."
"Meyrani? In her quarters." The frown returned to her face, and she took a step closer towards the turian. "After all, she suffered some ugly injuries, patched up or not, Mojo. She deserves a rest."
"Thanks." Not wasting another moment with Arek and Amalthea, Mojo walked past her, and hurried towards the elevator. The asari stared after him, her hand searching for Arek's shoulder.
"Did he just thank me?" Her fingers clenched around his shoulder, forcing Arek's knees to give in. "Hold me, Arek, I think I'm fainting!"
A shower. And sleep. Washing the last 24 hours off his body, and then banishing them into the realm of bad dreams, so they could be forgotten after a while. Yes, that sounded like a good plan. The elevator's doors opened, releasing Arek into the corridors of the crew's quarters.
Action was all good and fine, the more, the better, but two missions, two failures within a day and only very few hours of sleep in between – no, this wasn't Arek's idea of fun.
"Hey, Arek, finally back?" a short woman greeted him, May, one of the navigators if his memory didn't fool him. He smiled at the elderly woman and nodded, glad that she continued her way to the elevator. For once, he didn't feel like small talk. Small talk usually meant questions, and that meant he either had to give answers he didn't want to talk about, or he had to lie.
According to the artificial night-and-day cycle it was past noon. Not that it mattered. Noon or midnight, there was always the same humming from the engine room, and the chatter and the buzzing of crew members walking through the corridors. Some had finished their shift, and either headed for their quarters, the bar or the mess. That was a perk of living on a cruiser – with a large crew and shift duty, he could order breakfast food for lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack when he was on his way back to his own bed.
Talking about beds. His omni-tool signalled an incoming call, and he grinned when he saw the caller's name.
"Good evening, Sydney. Yearning for company? Sorry!" He jumped out of the way when he bumped into a weary looking hangar worker. To avoid another crash he stopped, and squeezed himself closer to the wall. White light from tube lights fell upon him, blinding his tired eyes.
"Why else would I call you? Got two hours left before my shift starts. Are you free?" Husky voice, and straight to the point, that's what Arek liked about the chief engineer. Technically, he was free, at least as long as Amalthea was caught up in the paperwork for their unscheduled need of a shuttle. He was also tired. So, what would it be – giving himself into Sydney's able hands, or going into his own bed, alone with his thoughts, until Amalthea showed up and strangled him for slipping away before answering her questions.
"Gonna be at your room in 20 minutes, after a shower. Need to get rid off the smell of Omega."
"Be here in five, and I scrub it off your body myself."
Arek's grin widened. Somebody was hungry and didn't want to wait for his snack. Worked for him just fine, two hours with Sydney equalled an afternoon in the gym. If he skipped training he could sleep longer.
"On my way." He ended the call and turned around, heading back to the elevator. The chief had a quarter of his own, bathroom included, on the engineering deck, 'close to the madness,' as Syd used to say. It was too small to accommodate two people comfortably, but it offered enough space for sex.
"Hello, Arek," a croaking voice called after him when he was about to enter the elevator. "Wait, please."
Great, on his list of people whose company he could live without even on good days, this guy was in the top three.
"Barat. Hi." A fake smile would have to do, he was too tired for fake enthusiasm. The drell caught up with him, smiling down on him. "Weren't you and your team deployed on Urdak today?"
"We returned two hours ago. Success was certain, and we reached it fast. Forgive my forwardness, but I don't envy you. Bodyguard, such a fulfilling task, and on Omega! Ah, I don't wish to lie to you – in my heart, I always wanted to see Omega myself one day. I hope you had a pleasant time despite the ungraceful task?"
"As pleasant as a station founded on crime can be. Gotta admit though, Omega has some nice sides." Nice. Arek grinned at his own understatement. Beautiful, or awing was closer to the truth. The market from above, with the colorful life streaming through the streets, and the sight of docks where spaceships dived from the endless space into a tight-knitted world – Arek hadn't expected that he'd find beauty on the roof of an abandoned building. And he would have missed it if Mojo hadn't pointed it out to him. That this guy had an eye for things like that was difficult to believe, a puzzle piece that didn't want to fit into his picture of the turian.
"I'm sure it has."
Oh right, Barat was still there. Arek had a bad hand with infiltrators lately. Unlike a certain turian, the drell wasn't rude, nor had he picked up any fights with Arek, yet, but...
"Urdak is an interesting place. I assume in terms of crime, it is worse than Omega, less organized. That made our assignment dangerous, of course. I shot off some heads, I'm afraid it couldn't be avoided."
"Probably not." When Mojo looked down on him, sneered at him or insulted him he could fight back. The turian mocked his hair, Arek mocked Mojo's scars, the universe was in balance.
The drell, sharply dressed in his dark clothes with the long, black coat, always showed pleasant manners. He always had a smile for him, and treated Arek with polite kindness. However, Barat's arrogance and smugness was so sickening, it drove Arek crazy. If he snapped at him, and the so friendly drell with his large, sad puppy eyes complained about him, Arek would be the kind of bad guy he didn't want to be. Funny, how a feature of a species were charming in the face of an individual he liked, and how he despised the same feature when another individual annoyed him. Too bad that Barat wasn't a second Kalron, or he would have enjoyed a quick chat with the second drell on board.
He twitched when Barat put a hand on Arek's shoulder.
"Do you have a free moment? Allow me to treat you for breakfast. I could tell you more of my mission, and you could tell me about yours."
"I'm sorry, I have a meeting." Well, that was one way to call it, and it wasn't a lie, except for the part of being sorry.
"Ah, what a shame. I hoped you could enlighten me why I was – complimented out of my own quarter by those two turians. Of course, I also hoped you'd spend some time in my company, instead of the hairy arms of the chief engineer."
"Uh, I... they kicked you out of your quarter?!" Right, Rani and Mojo shared a quarter with the two drell. The two teamed up against Barat? They teamed up? These news where fascinating enough to ignore the other remarks.
"I'm sure they'll divulge their secret to you in due time. You're a team, aren't you? Ah, I envy them." Barat leaned forward, fixing on Arek's eyes.
Arek shuddered, struggling against the impulse to jump back when a long, smooth finger glided along his throat.
"You should consider a drell some time. You'd be delighted with the pleasure my species can offer you." Eyes like wide, black pools were coming closer, and the intense voice vibrated in Arek's ears.
"I'll keep that in mind, thanks." An unpleasant shudder was running down Arek's spine. The skin seemed to itch where Barat touch him, and Arek felt a sudden urge to scratch his throat, to make the itch go away. "But now excuse me, I gotta go, Syd's waiting."
"Enjoy yourself."
Exactly what I'm planning to do, thank you very much. He hit the elevator button and slipped inside as soon as the door opened. He smiled, as politely as he could without pulling a grimace, and nodded Barat goodbye, waiting for the door to close.
Weirdo. He selected the engineering deck, and leaned against the elevator's wall. Just his luck that he'd be on the same ship with a renegade turian and a predatory drell, and both had it in for him in the most contradictory ways. Yet, he couldn't deny that Barat had piqued his curiosity – was there really something unique sex with a drell offered? He had to ask Kalron about this. Hell, he wouldn't mind asking him for a roll in the proverbial hay to find out by himself, but alas, Kalron had given him a quite clear answer the last time he tried.
And then there was the mysterious sudden partnership between Rani and Mojo. What did he want from her all of the sudden, and whatever it was, she agreed to talk with him about it, in private? Could it be, that...
No, Arek, no judging of others by your own standards! Not everyone here is all about hooking up. Certainly not Rani who has her love of her life. Ah, sacred monogamy! The elevator came to its hold, and Arek stepped outside.
Thank God fate spared me that curse. Without waiting for another encounter to delay his plans, Arek hurried to the chief engineer's quarter.
The building never seemed to end. He looked down – if he fell now, he'd fall to his death. He had to go on, there was a ledge to grab on, he had to reach it! The tips of his fingers touched it, but it wasn't enough. He stretched, and his foot was slipping from its hold. There, a cable! He let go of the wall, closing the hand around the cable.
His feet dangled above the endless abyss when the muscles his arm became weak. His fingers opened, the cable slipped from his grip and he stood on the roof.
"Enjoy the view," a chuckling voice whispered, and the majestic starship across the market burst into fire.
"We both have our share in this." A hand touched his shoulder. "I misjudged you, you should consider a drell, Arek Turner." And the world started shaking.
His head was throbbing, his eyes were hurting behind closed lids. He curled up, turned his head, but the shaking didn't stop.
"Arek! Don't pretend you're sleeping!"
The voice had changed, it was less deep, it has lost its flanging as it whispered his name.
"I'd rather fuck you than him... Ouch!" He shot up in his bed when his cheek was pinched. He rubbed his eyes, and blinked against the sleep that didn't want to give him free. Somebody had pulled away the light-tight curtain and sat on the edge of his bed. Artificial daylight illuminated the room behind the figure. He heard two other voices chatting, recognizing Sellrin, the salarian engineer who shared his quarter, and Alex, human sentinel and roommate no. 3.
His fourth roommate was glaring at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that, and no, I neither want to know who 'you' nor 'him' is." Amalthea grinned, poking his cheek. "You're putting some of the wildest asari maidens to shame, you know that, Arek Turner?"
"The way you say it I'm not sure if that's a compliment." He laughed, and regretted it when his headache came back at its full force. He wiped over the ceiling of his bunk bed, and the status screen flickered up in soft, orange letters and numbers. Good, he had worried for a moment that he had overslept, but it hadn't been more than three hours since he had fallen into his own bed.
"But I guess you didn't wake me up to question my morals?"
'"There's not much left to question," she chuckled. "Not that I mind, just don't end up pregnant before the war is over."
"I hope that I'll be dead and dust before science figures out how to make that possible! In case it happens during your lifetime, tell me about it when we meet in Heaven."
"If you can wait a few centuries, I'll give you a full update." They both grinned, and Arek wondered if the concept of having an 800 to 900 years difference of life expectation was as weird to the asari as it was to him if he thought about it too long. What did they think if they saw an old human, knowing that their own were still children around that age? It was a strange concept. He and Amalthea were around the same – well, stage of maturity, how could it not be confusing for the asari that Arek being in his late 20s was as old as an asari toddler, if measured solely in years.
And then there was Sellrin, Meyrani's boyfriend of some sorts, who had just hit 20 standard years, and yet, due to their different life expectation, the aalarian was his senior.
Vorcha, though, reached full maturity after six standard years. Arek shifted uncomfortably as he kept thinking about that, and he was glad when Amalthea spoke on.
"Talking about updates," she changed the topic, leading his thoughts into another direction. She wouldn't have woken him up without a good reason, and he hoped he didn't have to expect more bad news.
"We tried to find you earlier, but after we didn't find you here, nor in the showers, mess or bar, we could make some creative guesses that we'd rather not find you until you're back."
"We? Wait this doesn't have, by any chance, something to do with Rani and Mojo suddenly having a private conversation after highjacking their room?"
"It has everything to do with that." She looked over her shoulder, assuring herself that Alex and Sellrin were still busy with their discussion. Judging from her frown, Arek guessed that, if she could, she'd push those two out of their room as well.
"First off, I have no clue what you've done, or how you've done it, but thank you! Mojo's still the rude, arrogant ass he is, but he has dropped a large portion of his don't-care act."
"Guess it was less my influence and more the fact that both our acts got people killed." Arek rubbed his temples, wondering if the screams and the smell of the fire would haunt him forever. Yes, losses were part of a soldier's life, and he had learned to go on and put the dead behind him. Still, it had been impossible to forget the first dead that had once happened because he didn't have a chance to prevent them, and now he wouldn't be able to forget the dead he was responsible for.
"Don't punish yourself, Arek." Almathea covered his clenched fists with her hands. "We figured out a bit more about that Murakos guy, also thanks to what Mojo could tell us. There was a chance for you to save the family, yes, but they didn't just die because you warned Murakos instead. He's ruthless, and he doesn't leave witnesses behind. From all what we know now, they would have died in the flames even when you guys hadn't been there, and even when all his demands had been met."
"I'm not sure that really makes me feel better. But I get what you're trying to say. If Rani hadn't intercepted the distress call, if we hadn't found them, if Mojo hadn't been from – lived on – Omega before we'd never had known about a shortcut, and they'd have died for sure. My decision just... sped up the inevitable... Nope, not really feeling better, I fear. But thanks for trying." He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He was grateful to have a friend like her, sane, strong, trustworthy, and he hoped he could be an equally good friend to her some day.
"You will. Give it some time." She smiled, then she leaned forward, lowering her voice. "Listen, what I tell you know has to stay between the two of us, Meyrani and Mojo, you hear? No confidential drunk talks and confessions when you're with Kalron, or one of your lovers, Arek."
"Or course not! Thea, I know when to be serious!"
"Good. Meyrani and Mojo put together what they'd known so far, and dug a bit deeper," she began to explain. If she was surprised that the two of them suddenly worked together then she didn't show it. Arek, however, raised both eyebrows; the attempt to picture Mojo sitting peacefully at a table and exchanging information with any of them gave him a headache. He wished he could have seen that conversation, if it was only to know if Rani had to threaten to slit Mojo's throat again. Or – as unlikely as it sounded, even to him – if Mojo was realling pulling himself together from now on. He'd ask Amalthea about these specific details later, for know, he kept his mouth shut and listened.
"Mojo had a hunch that there was more going on than a simple haggle for money and influence between a politician and a gang. Murakos is a genius at wiping his traces, so there's not much yet. Except for one thing: One of his active contacts, an asari called Dinra, has also been in steady contact with a human named Boris Price."
"I'm not sure if I'm learning about Murakos, or if I'm hearing about a plot about the latest telenovela. Sorry, I shut up, please go on!" He bit his tongue when she growled at his interruption.
"Over the last years, Dinra was involved with one of the gangs on Omega, Eclipse. There are also few hints that she's a double agent for Aria T'orak, Omega's leader, but Meyrani and Mojo's research didn't confirm any of that."
"Boris Price is different?"
"Not so well hidden ties with Cerberus."
"Holy fuck!" Cerberus seemed to have their noses everywhere these days, and they'd been more relentless during the last week than they'd been over the last few years. And they rarely got involved with persons or situations just for the kick. "Am I wrong, or did this just get a lot bigger?"
"That's what we're going to find out soon," she replied with a grim smile. "Let's say, there's a Cerberus base that not only has Alliance relevant data, but is also under command of a close acquaintance of Price. Miraculously, against all the odds, we've been assigned to that mission, and no, I don't want to know how they managed to do that."
"Who did what... oh, you mean...!" He grinned. Meyrani was smart with computers on a level beyond Arek's grasp, he hadn't been aware of this adventurous streak slumbering in her. Hacking into the ship's computer and manipulating the assignments? Not bat, not bad at all.
I have to apologize to her for thinking she's just some cute, sweet nerd. Damn, I'm surrounded by badasses!
"So, where are we going?" He pushed his blanket away, and threw his legs over the edge of his bed.
"Noveria, but don't get too excited, we still have two days until we leave this system." She shoved him back onto the bed when he was about to jump out. "You look horrible, so get enough sleep until then, will you? But first, let me tell you the plan."