Chapter 2

At 10 paces

The scout ship landed in the Nimines docking bay without incident. If it were visible you might have seen the steam coming from Garrus's collar. He was so angry he couldn't even talk, he couldn't even respond to Aelia's maniacal laughing which was still ringing in his ears.

The scout ship door opened and he almost fell out, eager to remove himself from the docking bay and from her. But as he stepped out the Captain and XO were waiting. Neither of them appeared very happy. As the rest of the recon team stepped out of the shuttle Aelia stopped laughing and the previous wide grins of the recruits were replaced with anxious expressions.

The Captain began to bellow loudly, his face contorted with rage.

"What the fuck did you lot do? I told you explicitly, to get in, get out and not be seen. I said if they heard more than an insect fart from your team I would not be happy."

Aelia started to speak, "Captain…I…I…"

"Was I addressing you, Officer Goran?" He asked, her response a timid shake of the head.

"No that's fucking right, I'm addressing Officer Vakarian 8th tier Citizen, soon to be 7th tier Citizen."

Garrus's jaw was tight. "Captain, we came across a munitions store about a half mile from the compound. We thought we could blow it up, make it look like an accident, munitions accidents happen all the time… you know." His mind was racing, his father had taught him that if you take leadership you take the responsibility for the whole team, he was livid but he wasn't about to duck his accountability.

"You thought you'd blow it up, did you? Do you realise that since that happened the batarians have been in contact with several other batarian cruisers in the area? And those were the communications we've intercepted; Spirits knows how many other messages got out. Those damn cruisers could be on their way here NOW. Did you know that they might be moving the colonists somewhere else because of that little stunt you pulled? And that if we go in now they're likely to be ready for us and looking for trouble? By blowing that munitions hut up you also possibly blew up our element of surprise and the chance to save those civilians."

Garrus looked at the Captain and ignoring most of what he said, replied, "Captain, you said possibly blew our element of surprise?"

Mikras pursed his mouth, his voice softening "Yes, possibly, it means that you might get away with your little bit of sabotage. There's lots of chatter but they haven't moved…yet. But it also means we can't move until we know what they're doing; we'll have to wait around for a few more days. When things have settled down we can either regroup and get moving and hopefully get those colonists out without incident or you lot will be facing disciplinary action. You better have something useful to show me for this Vakarian."

Pen moved forward, giving the datapad to the XO.

"What does it say Camillius?"

Camillius began reading and was nodding her head. "This is good Captain, it's the whole layout of the compound – there's lots here, have you read it all, Saies?"

"No, not yet, there seems to be some encryption on part of the data, I'm not sure why they would only encrypt part though and not the whole thing."

"We'll hand it over to Nasius, his team can deal with it now," the Captain replied.

"As for you three, you're confined to quarters for the next 24 hours. Dismissed."

Captain Makris moved out quickly from the docking bay. The XO addressed the junior officers.

"You lot are fucking lucky – you heard the Captain – the only place you're going now is your quarters. You will not stop to bathe or to eat, now fuck off, out of my sight." She turned to the recruits next and all Garrus heard as he stepped out through the docking bay doors was, "You little turds had a great time, didn't you? Well now it's time for the turds on this ship to have a great time, latrine duty for both of you."

Garrus stepped into his quarters, having moved quickly to get there, catching sight of neither Pen nor Aelia on the way. The cabin was small, only about 8 feet by 6 feet, and no window, but at least you didn't have to share sleeping space with any other of the Junior Officers.

He removed his armour placing it back into the specially moulded case under his bunk. His underwear, typical turian military-style black long johns and singlet top, was soaked with his sweat and he stunk like a varren in heat. But he didn't give a shit. This had to be the worst scouting mission he'd been on. Right now he was imagining putting his talons on Aelia's neck, squeezing and watching her pretty little tattooed face turn mottled. Spirits knows what his father would say to him if he dropped citizenship tiers.

He grabbed some dried rations he'd stored and opened the packet, more for need of nourishment rather than true hunger. His appetite was only for grievous bodily harm to a certain female turian. He wished for a moment that the military was restricted to males, but decided he liked having females around, some of them anyway.

There weren't that many females on the Nimines; of the crew of about 100 around half were raw recruits, grunts starting their obligatory turian service through the military, with a third of those being female and most would transfer at some point to civilian duties. Then you had the junior officers about 35 in total, only 13 of those were female. Of the remaining senior officers, only two of the 12 were female, the XO and the navigator. Strictly going on percentage there were only about 30% females on the ship.

He remembered his time as a recruit – there were lots more women around then – many were pretty and demure, not surprising then that they moved quickly into civilian services, life in the military was crude. The females who stayed around were rougher, tougher, good fighters and soldiers like him. Once you got to senior officer level the women there were different again, scary different, maybe because he was still young and easily intimdated.

None of the females he had met in his seven years of military service he regarded as 'his type', but then again he didn't really know what 'his type' was. It didn't matter anyway, relationships, in terms of ongoing partnerships between the sexes, were discouraged, especially on small military ships. Although they were given a lot of personal freedoms, having time for a relationship meant you didn't have time to do your job, as the hierarchy often said.

Sex though, that was a different matter, the rules were simple enough; yes you can have sex, and there was lots of it around, some of the ships he had served on had been hotbeds, but you should be discreet. Discovery means punishment. Anyhow, why was he thinking about sex? He was still livid with Aelia's antics back on the scouting mission. He rubbed his eyes, at least 24 hrs of confinement meant lots and lots of sleep. He turned his bedside light off and lay down on the bunk. It was only a matter of minutes and he was asleep.

His slumber was disturbed by a pinging noise at his cabin door; the time was seven a.m., meaning he'd slept for 13 hours. He rose and opened it to find Caius Flavian standing there.

"Flavian, what are you doing here?"

"The Captain briefed me on what happened, thought I'd give you some rest before coming to see you," he looked Garrus up and down. "You stink."

"Thanks, well, haven't been allowed to wash yet, stuck here for another 10 hours."

"I got you out of that one, go and wash and we'll meet in the mess. I want your side of the story Vakarian."

"Ah…okay see you in 15 then." Garrus was slightly perplexed at Flavian's statement of getting him out of it, but felt grateful and grabbed his wash gear and a clean ship suit and headed down for a much needed shower.

As he walked down to the mess it was pretty clear that most of the crew had heard what happened, seeing as he got some pretty odd looks; he wasn't sure if it was confrontational though, no one said anything.

The mess only had a few of the junior officers scattered in a couple of small groups. He saw that Flavian was sitting with Terentius at the back of the hall.

Terentius nodded at Garrus as he sat down to join them. Flavian spoke first.

"Vakarian, I know it wasn't you who blew that munitions hut up." Terentius nodded in agreement. "The Captain knows that too."

Garrus looked at Flavian "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, he knows, as you, I and Terentius here know, Goran is a loose cannon. She's an excellent scout, a good soldier, an even better fighter, but she's got a chip on her shoulder so big I don't think she has a shoulder anymore."

"Well, I don't know what I can do about that, Flavian. I have no skills in interpersonal counselling."

"Well you have to do something."

"Why? I'm not her superior officer, as she has reminded me time and time again. I might be put in charge of missions but I don't outrank her. Why don't you speak to her? Or Terentius, or perhaps one of the senior officers?" he could see Terentius shaking his head.

"Well, technically I don't outrank her either…yet, and the senior officers have more pressing things to worry about."

"But she'll listen to you."

"Look the situation is this…I'm not going to be here much longer…."

Garrus interrupted, "You're leaving?"

Flavian continued, "Yes, I've been promoted. I'm going to Palaven for a short while before they reassign me to a new ship."

"Does that mean a new scout?"

"Yes, we've got our eye on one of the enlisted recruits, she's young but she's shown talent for scouting and the Captain is going to reassign her to scouting team after we've finished up here. That's when I'll be leaving, too. Terentius is going to be training her."

Terentius smiled at this, "She's pretty cute, too."

Flavian laughed, "More than I can say for most of the females on this ship. Seriously though, the Captain made it clear to me that you'll be assigned to every scouting mission Goran is on and you'll be in charge. He says if you are taking the responsibility, as you did for the munitions explosion, then you're to take responsibility for her as punishment, you were the one in command."

"If I'm in charge of her for every mission still doesn't mean she'll listen to me, that's continuing punishment. She has a good rapport with Pen perhaps he could…"

Flavian interrupted "No, not Pen. He's good at his job, but he has no command presence; it has to be you Vakarian. The Captain wants it dealt with sooner rather than later, which means before we go smash those batarian slaver scum."

Garrus rubbed his hand over his face, "I guess I have no choice then."

"That's right, no choice."

"I don't think I can do it right now, I'm just as likely to beat her up as want to listen to her and any 'problems' she has."

"That's okay, you've got the next eight hrs to think it through before you have a chat with little Aelia Goran. Senior staff wants you down in the main battery. You're good at calibrations, aren't you?"

Garrus was grateful for the distraction. Yes, he was good at this, and it kept his mind occupied. Occasionally, thoughts of what happened down on the planet came to forethought but he dismissed them and moved onto the next lot of firing algorithms. After eight and a half hours he finished his shift and wandered back up to the mess hall. He still had little appetite but went anyway.

The mess was full, no sign of any of the scouts. Good, he thought, no sign of Aelia. Most of the junior officers had finished their shifts and were eagerly packed in. Food here wasn't too bad, the senior officers had their own cooks; he'd gotten friendly with one of them over a few card games and he had occasionally given Garrus some leftovers, mainly as payment for losing bets, it was welcome though, not much could be done with credits here apart from squirreling them away.

He grabbed a few morsels and a drink then headed on down to his cabin. He wasn't sleepy – a bit of exercise was probably in order, a good way to blow off some steam. He changed into his training gear, black leggings and a loose fitting singlet top, and went down to the lower deck of the ship.

Training rooms for all the crew were here. Junior and senior officers shared training facilities. The enlisted recruits had their own space. He often came down at this time, when most were eating – usually only a few officers were here. Today when he came in there was only one other junior officer and XO Camillius running hard on a treadmill.

Garrus was a creature of habit; he did his usual routine, several rounds of weights followed by a 40 minute solid cardio. He liked to round the session off with a sparring session if he could, but his regular partner Joram, one of the largest turians he had ever known, had recently been transferred, so he concentrated on the punching bag. He did need to keep his sparring up but until he got a new partner this would have to suffice.

He was concentrating on kicking when Aelia walked in. She was wearing her training gear as well, tight black leggings, but her singlet top was tight accentuating her waist. She immediately walked over to him.

"Agh, finally free, hate being cooped up," she said nonchalantly. Garrus ignored her and kept kicking.

"What's up Vakarian?"

"As you can see, Goran, I'm a little preoccupied right now. Why don't you get started and concentrate on your own workout." His kicks and punches were increasing in tempo as he spoke to her.

"What crawled up your ass and died?"

Garrus stopped kicking "You seem to be fixated on my ass, Goran. You mention it time and time again. But if you must know, your attitude crawled up there and I'm looking for an enema to flush the bastard out."

She started laughing, "Wait, am I right here in saying that you're pissed at me for what happened? Because you got the blame? I was happy to take it, Vakarian, I just never got the opportunity – you took it from me, the Captain will be thanking us later."

He looked over at her, his teeth were clenched and the anger came flooding out, "I told you that we weren't going to blow that hut up yet you set the charges and did it anyway. I took the blame because what happened down there was my responsibility. I'm pissed because what you did was reckless and irresponsible."

"Oh how honourably turian of you, Vakarian." Aelia shook her head an irritated look on her face.

Garrus moved up close, his face now only inches from hers.

"I'm sick of your bullshit, Goran. The Captain put me in charge and he'll continue to put me in charge because he can't trust a fool like you. If the batarians leave, then those colonists could end up being slaves, or worse. You might be happy to have that on your conscience but I'm not." He was virtually snarling at her now.

"Well they haven't left, Vakarian. The talk is we're going in – in 36 hours' time."

Garrus's unclenched his jaw. "What? When did they say this?"

"Orders have just come in; if you go back to your cabin they've probably left you a nice little note. And, as I've said, I've probably done everyone a favour by doing what I did, you might think it reckless but that's less trouble for us going in later rather than your lame sabotage technique." He caught a glimpse of the anger in her eyes again, "Perhaps if you have a problem with me we should settle this in the ring."

By this time, several others had come into the training room and were listening in, which was hard to avoid as Garrus' and Aelia's voices were raised to just below shouting level and were all that could be heard beside the background hum of bikes and treadmills. XO Camillius was still there and she too was listening intently.

Garrus snorted, "I can't fight you." he shook his head.

"And why is that?" Aelia asked.

This was followed by XO Camillius interrupting, "Yes, why is that, Vakarian? Better not be because she's female." The XO stood nearby, wiping her arms and face with a towel.

Aelia stood with her arms crossed in front of her.

Garrus was taken aback by the XO's intrusion into the conversation and stuttered "Well it's, it's because, I mean… it's not the female thing, it's just that, well…" He was lying about the female thing, getting that across to Camillius without sounding like a jerk was going to be difficult.

Camillius remained in position this time, tilting her head questioningly to one side.

"Well, look at her." He finally stuttered out, "And look at me."

"What?" the XO said "You being the fine male specimen that you are, what is it? Please enlighten me, Vakarian."

"I'm more than a head taller than her, I'm much bigger, and she's tiny, even by turian female standards."

"Yet she's one of the top ranked hand to hand specialists on this ship, as are you," she grinned and shook her head. "You've never fought a woman before, have you, Vakarian?"

Garrus's arguments were crumbling, he didn't want to fight her, that's exactly what he was trying to avoid. He was good at hand to hand, very very good. No other had beaten him. No other male that is.

"No, I haven't." He admitted.

The XO clapped her hands. "Well then, I think little Aelia Goran is up for the challenge."

Aelia was grinning wildly, adding chirpily "Are you up for it Vakarian, or is it too much an affront to your masculinity?"

Garrus gave her a wild look and reluctantly nodded his head, "Yes, I'm up for the challenge."

He was right about Aelia being small, although in all honesty her overconfidence gave off the illusion that she was bigger, he hadn't thought too much of it before. Damn it, he thought don't think I'm going to go easy on you Goran.