"Grunt?"
Melara was more than happy to see the krogan warlord, of course- and while she wasn't entirely surprised at his appearance, it had still taken her unaware.
"Good to see you, Speck," he said, with a friendly punch to her shoulder. "Hear we got some good fighting brewin'."
"Urdnot Grunt, I am glad you were able to join us," Karina said. "I trust you read our proposal?"
"Read it, and am raring for it," he said with a grin. "I've got twenty five solid krogan battle cruisers massing that should be entering the Sol system in two days."
"Good to hear it. Melara, while the salarians have already offered a fleet to explore the extra-galactic relay system and prepare for galaxy-wide evacuations- if it comes to that- we have asked Grunt to lend his forces to their number. His ships will help secure the Forbian relays as is necessary and provide additional security to the scientific end of the process. Grunt, we are hoping to have some sort of access between the Citadel and the linkway of the Forbian system in dark space by the time your ships and the salarian vessels arrive; however it may not be possible. If not, it will take approximately two years at our top FTL speeds to reach the first of these signatures."
"Not particularly feasible," Grunt said.
"No. Even if our ships could maintain top FTL speed constantly for the entire journey, two years is an unworkable time frame. Your ships may have to linger in the Sol system for an indefinite period of time. If we are unable to establish contact from the Citadel to the first Forbian relay, then we will have to consider other options. Your additional parties should be arriving by tonight."
"Understood."
"Additional parties?" Melara asked.
"Yes, which brings us into why we wanted to speak to you in person. Eír and Zyara will be arriving to accompany the extra-galactic fleet through that relay. From your mother's personal testimony and from your own just now, describing their efforts to help you at the mining operation and at Oasis, we feel that extending them this trust is justified."
Melara stiffened. "Zyara?"
"You would know her as 'the Wolf'."
"I see."
"Melara, if you feel these two cannot be trusted we will eliminate their participation in this mission immediately," Karina said.
"Is it just Eír and Zyara that you are sending?"
"If your concern lies with Athena or Thiredra'Gerrel let me put those to rest. They will be remaining inside the galaxy, aiding in what capacity they are able, but we are keeping them under very close watch. By the laws of this Council both are still considered dangerous fugitives, however these circumstances are…unique. Given all that has happened and what they have been able to contribute we are willing to allow them to help as they are able, but we are not willing to have them 'out of our sight' as it were."
Melara relaxed a bit, then nodded. "Good. I…it is my impression, regardless of my personal feelings, that Athena and Red are indeed trying to help- though they still may have their own agenda for doing so that they have not yet shared. I am grudging but willing, as you say, to give them the benefit of the doubt- but not to give them free rein with no precautions. Eír and the Wolf are a different story. While Eír has lived for quite a while in the shadows, I believe she has more than earned the right to be trusted and has proven herself a friend since the War- a War she herself was a veteran in, fighting against the Reapers on Earth and aiding in the effort to stop the genophage on Tuchanka. Her animosities were only ever toward my father, and even then, they were not truly her own. As for the Wolf, I have no reason to distrust her. If this Council has more information on her than I and feels such trust can be extended I have nothing to say against it."
"We do, and that is good to hear. Urdnot, your request is granted. Eír and Zyara will be permitted to join your mission and help you in any capacity you see fit."
"Thank you Councilor," Grunt said.
"Captain, we have taken possession of the alien corpses from Oasis," Karina concluded. "There will be extensive studies done on them; we must learn everything we can about them and how they function. We will forward our findings to you as soon as we have them. We also have your sister's report on her findings from the winged alien that injured you. We will be looking into developing defenses or serums against it."
"And the ship we discovered?"
"Is still in the process of being extracted and analyzed. We will forward you any necessary findings from that as well."
"Good. The Normandy will be in the Sol system for the next day or two, and we are at your disposal."
"We will let you know the moment you are needed. For now, unless there is anything further, this session of the Council is concluded."
Almost the instant they strode out of the chamber, Melara looked over at Grunt. "You put in the request for Eír and the Wolf to join you?"
He chuckled. "Wondered how long it would take you to ask, Speck," he said. "I did. Eír is still a member of Clan Dundrin- despite the old Matriarch's attempts to get her name wiped out of it. She's also a good friend."
"Wait, what?" Mel drew to a halt, stopping him. "Eír's your friend?"
"Yeah, has been since just after the War, from when she was working for Aria."
"I had no idea."
He shrugged. "We had dealings now and again. She's good for slapping things around, and can even hold her ryncol. Guess Osco's modifications gave her an iron-clad stomach. Liara filled me in on the situation when she picked up Ashley. I'd just gotten the request from the Council, and since Eír was already in on things I messaged her to see if she was interested in joining me. Could be we run into some heavy hitters, and from I've heard they're scared of biotics. Might as well bring the strongest biotic alive to help hit back."
"It makes sense, I just…I had no idea you knew her."
"Mel, Thug was part of my krant. He was my brother, and he was her brother. Eír is your mother's sister as well. She and the Wolf are family. So is Athena."
Mel glared. "You trust Athena?"
"Are you kidding me? Only thing I'd trust her to do is put a knife in my throat- but I'd trust her to have a reason to do it first. May not be a good reason to anyone but her, but she'd have the damn reason, and she'd think it was right when she did it. For now, I can say that so long as she thinks she's doing the right thing, and nothing happens to change that, she'll behave herself."
The apartment the Alliance had granted to Liara and Sam as temporary quarters was an officer's suite, meant for visiting Admirals and Generals. Even now, centuries after the war, the Alliance treated Liara and civilian members of her family as honored dignitaries, giving them all the same considerations as they would members of royalty or the highest political echelons galaxy wide.
They had picked their daughter up from Tuchanka, where she had been staying under the watch of Grunt, his wife Atha, and more or less the entirety of the clan of Urdnot. Grunt and one of his daughters had come with them as far as the Citadel, having been summoned by the Council not long before Liara and Sam arrived, and he had promised to stop by the apartment to fill them in before departing again. Liara would never admit that while Grunt had many children, and she loved them all, Nessa was far and away her favorite. The young female was striking, had a rich sense of humor, and was well respected as a captain in her father's own battle fleet.
Nessa had come with them to New York while Grunt attended the Council meeting. She was seated nearby in the living room, watching Ashley play on the floor with a few toys while Liara rummaged for lunch in the kitchen. Sam was in the back bedroom.
Five years old, Ashley was an enthusiastic and very energetic young asari, and not much possessed with a sense of caution. As such, she seemed fearless, always wanting to look and touch and try something. Nessa thought she was very krogan.
Sitting beside her toy trucks and dolls, Ashley rolled one of the trucks further than she had wanted. Reaching out a hand, her fingers lit up in a flare of energy, and the truck came sailing back, smacking her awkwardly in the chest. She laughed, and Nessa shook her head.
"She did it again, Liara."
"Used biotics?" Liara asked, quickly coming out of the kitchen. While it was not uncommon for young asari Ashley's age to start sparking randomly- and usually harmlessly- most could not use their biotics at their own whim or with any real degree of strength until they were about seven or eight. "They were the same this time?"
"Yup, just like before. Damned strange if you ask me."
Liara sat herself down near her daughter and picked up one of her dolls. "Sweetheart, why don't we play a game?"
"Ok, Tama," Ashley said. "You want to play racing with the trucks?"
"Not at the moment, love. Right now I want to try a new kind of game, all right?"
"Ok. How do you play?"
"Well, you see, I have Honey Doll in my hands right now. I want you to see if you can bring Honey Doll over to you without using your hands. Can you scoot back a bit?"
Ashley grinned, eager to play. Clearing away her other toys she shifted back on her bum until she was a couple of more feet away. Liara smiled.
"Perfect dear. Now can you do what you just did while Tama was in the kitchen? Can you bring Honey Doll over to you without getting up?"
Ashley's face grew smug as well as joyful. Reaching out a hand, her fingers suddenly flared with biotic energy. The doll in her mother's hands was snagged and darted across the open space between them to land with a bit more grace in the little girl's lap than the truck had. Liara's eyes widened, and she paled.
"By the Goddess…"
"I win!" Ashley said, waving the doll triumphantly, before tossing it back. "Again!"
"You see what I mean?" Nessa asked. Liara lifted her voice.
"Sam! Sam, come here. You need to see this."
"What is it?" Sam stepped out of the bedroom, heading over. "What's going on?"
"Watch this. Ashley, one more time. Can you bring Honey Doll to you?"
Ashley eagerly did so again, easily bringing the doll over to her. Sam went still.
"That shouldn't be possible," she said.
"I cannot believe it either. This is…to say this is unexpected is…not adequate."
Sam moved over to her daughter, sitting down and gently taking Honey Doll out of her lap. "Ashley, I want to see if you can do something for me, ok?"
"Sure Tatta."
Smiling a little, Sam lifted her hand in front of her face, and let her biotic energy shimmer over her fingertips, creating a pretty, rippling halo of purple and white light. "You see that? You've seen me do this before, right?"
"Yeah. I like it, it's pretty."
"Yes it is, sweetheart. Can you do the same thing? Make the light on your fingers like that? Make it dance?"
Ashley held her hand up in mirror to her father, her face squinting a little in concentration. The same biotic energy began to dance over her hand. It was a bit weaker and sparked a bit more than her father's, but it was a good effort nonetheless.
Sam sat back on her heels, feeling as if she'd been gut punched. "How did this happen?" she asked softly.
"Nessa, you did not encounter anything strange on Tuchanka while she was there? She did not touch anything?" Liara asked, moving closer and also looking at her daughter's hand.
"Nothing. She only left the Urdnot complex once, and that was with me and Tuffa. Nothing happened."
"But she started doing this?"
"Yeah. It was normal at first…it's just in the last day it's…been like that."
Sam covered her face a bit, then took her daughter's hand gently between her own. As the biotics died, she kissed the girl's fingers.
While it was uncommon for an asari that young to be so adept at biotics, it was nothing to be alarmed over, and Ashley was not the first of Liara's children to blossom early in such a way. Irie had become quite the adept escape artist as a child, always finding a way out of her high chair or her play pen, before they discovered she was using biotics to do it. It made sense that Ashley, as well, would blossom early in such a fashion.
It was not the fact she was using controlled biotics so young that was bothering them. It was the fact that it was not normal biotic energy she was using. The energy that had swirled around her little fingers was not blue, but purple and white.
Ashley was not a biotic. She was an extrobiotic, just like her father.
"Did I do ok, Tatta?" Ashley asked, a bit puzzled by what was going on.
"You did just fine, sweetheart. Keep playing. I need to talk to your Tama for a moment."
"Ok. Nessa, do you want to play?"
As Nessa moved over to play with Ashley and keep her entertained, Sam drew Liara into the kitchen.
"This should not be possible, Li. How is this happening?"
"I do not know. I-I cannot account for it. She has been near no artifacts."
"Is it me? Is it…just being around me, I mean?"
"I cannot dismiss the possibility, Sam- but I do not see how that is likely. I have been around you a great deal more than Ashley has been, and there has been no changes to my biotics. I would think if mere proximity were enough we would have seen some measure of alteration in my own dark energy. Maybe because she is so young-?"
"What if it hurts her? We don't know the effect this kind of energy has on a growing child. What if it hurts her somehow? Causes side effects?" Worried, Sam raked a hand over the back of her head, trying to resist the urge to pace. "Could it be…I mean, I know it's not supposed to work that way but…could it be genetic?"
"Sam, you know better than that. Much as I and others would love to believe it, we still have never found an indication that any trait is truly inherited from the father species. And the first faint flashes of her biotic energy before now were always blue, just as normal biotics."
"I know, I just…"
Liara caught her hands and nodded. "I know you are worried. I am too. We will monitor this, have some tests run. We will make sure she is safe and healthy, Sam. We will get to the bottom of this."
"I am not going to let anything happen to her."
"I know you will not. Neither will I. Neither will her sisters, or the rest of her family."
She hugged her wife close, trying to quell her own worries and misgivings in the process. Ashley had always been a robust and healthy child. She had shown no sign of the same problems that had plagued Sam when she had first encountered the Inusannon artifacts and acquired the 'extrobiotics'.
Perhaps this will provide proof of true inheritability from a father species, Liara thought. Perhaps-
A chime sounded at the door, and they heard Nessa rise to answer it, then Grunt's deep voice. Reluctantly, she released the hug, giving Sam a brief kiss. "Come. If Grunt is here the others will be soon."
Aleu was glued to the window of the shuttle all the way down from the Normandy.
Liara had messaged her daughter that they'd been put up in temporary military housing in New York. Grunt had gone straight there from the Citadel, but Mel had returned to her ship just long enough to retrieve her family.
Though the young rakir had seen Earth several times before- either in vids, pictures, or from the Normandy's viewports as it headed into the Citadel- he had never before been down to the surface. So far as Melara was aware, no rakir had set foot there before. While she was eager for her son to see it, she was simultaneously trepidatious. While Harmony Rising and those who thought like them were in the vast minority, it only took one nutjob to hurt the boy for being a 'demon'.
The soldier in her was unconcerned, of course- most of their brief visit would be on a secured base, and if they did venture off of it, he would be surrounded by experienced and armed soldiers able to protect him. The parent in her, however, was not so easily confident.
They came in over the harbor. The weather in New York was bright and clear, and Mel peered out with her son as he took his first look at the city, and pointed out areas of interest.
They landed on base only a few minutes later, arriving at the apartment with a very animated young rakir. His nostrils had not stopped flaring, nor had his happy, bobbing little dance halted once, since they'd stepped off the shuttle. Entering the room and seeing Grunt, however, gave him an outlet for his excitement. In the next instant he was airborne, tackling the huge battle master.
"Ha ha!" Grunt laughed, as Aleu clung to the side of his neck and tried to bite at his plates. "Careful you don't chip your teeth, boy."
"Aleu, do not chew on Uncle Grunt," Dae said with exasperation.
"Uncle Grunt, we saw the harbor and the New Alliance building," Aleu told him. "Did you bring Nessa or Trunk?"
"Trunk ain't here," Grunt said, referring to his youngest son who was just a little older than Aleu. "I did bring Nessa though. She'll be happy to see you."
"Indeed I am," Nessa said with a grin, coming out of the back bedroom with Ashley on her shoulders, with Liara and Sam on her heels.
Ashley saw Aleu perched on Grunt and immediately squealed. "Naphoo!"
"Ash!" Aleu grinned and waved awkwardly, before all but leaping down from Grunt's shoulders. Nessa swung Ashley down before she could try doing the same, the asari girl all but tackling the rakir boy. In moments they were wrestling around.
"No claws," Melara warned her son, though she knew Aleu would die himself before ever so much as knicking Ashley's skin. Going over, she hugged her mother tightly.
"Mel," Liara said softly, hugging her back.
"We have much to discuss."
"Yes…that we do."