BACKROOM DEAL

PART 3

"Hey, Ryder, hold up!" Drack called out to her. He was casually leaning up against the wall near the stairs that led to Tann's office in Operations. His attention was squarely on her previous location. Kesh. She must have said something to her grandfather prior to coming to the meeting.

"Yes, Drack?" Celeste already anticipated where the conversation may go. Kesh voiced her opinion against using the batarians on the strike teams. More than likely Drack felt the same.

"You talked to Tann?" He motioned with his head for her to follow him down the steps and out of the view from the window where the salarian's office was. She almost forgot that he could look down and see who was coming to pay him a visit.

"I did," She took a breath.

"This sure sounds like varren shit to me." His words were gruff but she knew where he was coming from. The whole idea smelt bad. Shady business was going down in the shadows of the Initiative. She could get that much of a picture after coming across couple of scavengers on Eladeen. It almost felt like the selection process was not that picky on some ends. Their predecessors set the plans in motion and it seemed all of them got off the hook for it. Now everyone in Andromeda was dealt with the bad hand and they had to make it work somehow. "The kett were all over that ark we found. How come we didn't come across any of those batarians in those test tubes like my scouts?"

"I can agree with you. It doesn't make sense. Logically, my own conclusion is that perhaps the kett just assumed that the whole place was filled with salarians. Seemed like the pods were position in with the non-essential staff. That would have given time for the security team in Andromeda to discreetly remove the pods without anyone really knowing." Celeste boarded the tram to head back to the docking bay to meet up with Kandros. She noticed that Drack didn't hesitate on following her. Taking a seat, she looked over at her compatriot for him to join her but she noticed that he was standing in place.

He noticed her bewildered look. "Old habits die hard. Don't have to go very far if we are attacked if I'm near the door."

This raised her eyebrow. "But wouldn't the intruders come through the door?"

"I'm counting on it." He flashed her a krogan grin. This got a chuckle out of her. Being around him was never a dull moment. She almost welcomed this uplifting parlay. "Look, kid. I've been some thinking on this whole batarian crap." His voice became grim. "I know Kesh told you she was against it. Believe me, I may sound old, but you don't want to mess around with those four-eyes."

"You old? Hah!" Celeste teased. She rose up from her seat as she felt the tram decelerating.

Drack's voice remained serious. "I have dealt with quite a few in skirmishes during my pirate days. It wasn't pretty. I have seen things they have done to humans that may make the kett look more like salarian scientists."

Celeste let her eyes adjust from the artificial sunlight as they walked out to the docks. She turned to see Drack tagging along beside her. The determination in his eyes was unchanged as he followed her step towards the Paarchero. This made a soft smile spread across her thin lips. It almost felt like he had a duty to protect her. The thought was moving to her. Though, she decided not to tease him about it. She welcomed all the army she could get, especially if her idea went south. After all, it was her idea and Tann would make sure to remind her of that every nanosecond he got. "Kandros says his strike teams need the assist. Especially on Eos. We can't let that colony fail again. This is our last shot." The thought of using the krogan still nagged the back of her mind. "Think Morda will agree to help?"

"We are just now softening her up. I don't think she will come around just yet."

"Yeah, she still calls me 'Nexus," Celeste frowned. The word was filled with hatred as it flowed out of the female warlord's mouth. "I don't think she's too soft yet."

"Trust me. If she wasn't coming around, you would be dead." The krogan stated the obvious. Walking into New Tuchanka was rough. In Clan Nakmor's eyes, Celeste Ryder, was not the human pathfinder, but a stiff from the Nexus. Nexus period. If Drack wasn't around as a guide…..she shuddered to think of what would happen.

"Then we are out of options. This has to work." Her pace quickened as she saw the ark coming into view. A small security team had already formed outside the entranceway. Kandros at least was not taking any chances. She paused and brought up her omni-tool. "Lexi?"

"Yes?" The asari doctor from the Tempest replied back seconds later.

"Can you come to Ark Paarchero and meet me in the cryo chamber? I'll give you clearance."

"I'm on my way."

Drack looked at her puzzled. "Why her? Don't you have your own doctor?"

"Dr. Carlyle is busy with Scott," Her voice pained by the mention of her brother's name. A firm reminder of her other duty on the Nexus. "I'm sure the salarians will have their own doctor for the monitoring process, but I want someone I can trust."

"Salarians are sneaky bastards. I don't put anything past them." Drack gave his affirmation loudly as they walked past a couple of the species they were talking about. "I just didn't know that Lexi was coming. She keeps hounding me about a check-up. I'm old that's it."

"Just feels like the other day we were on this thing battling the kett," A chill went down Celeste's body as she looked around. The place was started to look cozier. A complete opposite from her first arrival. With each ark being in similar design, the path to the cryo chamber was easy to follow. A skeleton crew was left on board to do system checks. Some stopped whatever task they were dealing with to see who their guests were, but only glanced briefly before returning to whatever they were working on. They didn't look nervous at all. She guessed they weren't told of the discovery.

Kandros and more of his men greeted Celeste and Drack as they entered the cryo chamber. They were heavily armed. Apparently, the head of the security was expecting the worse. Two pods were just ahead and surrounded by several workers who were finalizing the thawing process. An orange toned salarian with red facial markings noted their arriving and seemed a bit uneasy about it. He stood at a terminal, looking at data that was pouring in from scans, but his eyes kept darting over in Celeste's direction. Moving past Tiran Kandros, Celeste approached the salarian. "I'm Ryder. The human pathfinder." She held out her hand to greet him.

"I'm Dr. Aden," He spoke quickly, ignoring the hand as he purposefully avoided contact with her and moved over to the two pods to scan them with his omni.

Celeste looked over at her turian contact for any explanation but he shrugged in response. She then noticed Lexi walking in. She smiled at her ship's doctor. "I'm glad you can make it."

"For you always." The asari smiled warmly. She moved over to Dr. Aden. "I'm Dr. T'Perro. I'm here to assist."

"I think I can manage two," Aden snapped sharply.

Lexi blinked. "I'm sorry. I am sure you are capable of-"

"Is there something wrong, doctor?" Celeste moved around her doc. The salarian's attitude was strange.

"Nothing is wrong," He grumbled as he moved past her back to his terminal. His posture was tense as if he was on edge knowing that Ryder specifically was there. She decided to shelf this for later. She needed to get this done so she could check on Scott.

Lexi walked over to the pods and did her own scan on her device. Her eyes flickering across the data that displayed. Celeste took her side. "We all set, Lexi?

"Blood pressure a bit elevated, but not alarming. They are not self-aware yet."

A loud hiss came from the containment units as they started to slowly warm up to acceptable temperatures. It was crucial not to rush. A lot of species couldn't adapt quickly and the sudden rush could have caused cardiac arrest. The clicks of guns being cocked and ready to go could be heard in the background. The pod doors lifted open and the wet thawing out forms of the two batarian males were revealed. Their bodies twitching as their organ systems were coming back online. They were no longer in 'sleep mode.'

Dr. Aden moved in front of Lexi and scanned them again. "Heart rate increasing as suspected. Body temperature elevating to normal ranges."

A groan from one brought their attention back to the pair. It was the one on the left. His skin tone was bit of a darker brown with an old scar mark over his right eye. The shape of the scar was ragged so most likely some sort of animal attack. He was probably lucky he didn't lose the eye. His right forearm had a faded tattoo with an emblem she was not familiar with. Some sort of pirate or merc gang? It seemed as if someone tried to burn it off. The other batarian was lighter in color with two scars of battle on his arms. He had a similar tattoo on his leg but it was more predominant.

Kandros eased up beside Ryder and peered down. His face grew dark and she noticed his mandible clenched up. "Talons…"

"Pirate gang?"

"Merc group on Omega," Drack spoke up from his spot.

Celeste exhaled through her nose and she looked over at the turian. "You sure about doing this?"

"If they were with the Talons then they will be trained in combat. I need them, Ryder." His avian eyes looked directly at her.

"Where the hell am I?" The left batarian was coming to and the right one was starting to move his limbs. "Why is it so fuckin cold in here?"

"You were in cryo," Aden blatantly said. "That is normal."

"Give them some space," Celeste motioned everyone back. The next few minutes had to be delicate. Lexi gave her a worrisome look and Ryder nodded her the okay to stay where she was.

"Relax. The effects of the cryo containment will wear off I assure you. It is important that you do not move quickly at once," Her soothing voice spoke out. "Do you remember your names?"

The four eyed alien blinked at her as he slowly rose up, ignoring her instructions. He studied each of them and then saw the guns that Kandros' team were displaying. He growled, baring his sharp incisors and then nudged his friend. "Wake up, dumbass. This was a scam!"

The other sat up quickly, becoming startled. "They said we were free!"

"Easy," Lexi hushed them. "You are in the Andromeda galaxy and we are not here to harm you.

Celeste stepped forward slowly. "I apologize, but we were not aware of you being onboard to just now. Whatever deals you had in the Milky Way we do not know about. I just need you to calm down; there will be no harm to you." The batarians studied her but remained quiet. Taking another step forward, she pursued it further, "You said 'they', whom do you mean?"

"The Alliance. We turned in our boss for asylum. Didn't like the conniving bastard. Said we could come here and start over. Lots of opportunity."

"Like slavery?" Dr. Aden flatly commented.

"Creds," Eye scar corrected matter-of-factly. "I don't care how. As long I get my share."

"So if you're not the Alliance, then who the fuck are you?" His friend shifted a bit as he tried to get up from his pod. His body stumbling as his muscles were not ready for the move yet. Lexi was at his side within seconds and gingerly slipped his arm over her shoulder.

"Easy. You can't get up just yet. Let your body adapt," She gave Ryder a crisp look. "Ryder, please." Her voice filled with frustration. "I need to treat them."

"We need to keep them isolated," Kandros shook his head. "Until we can get them to agree."

"Agree to what?" The first batarian was trying to get his muscles moving as well.

"Let's just start over," Ryder held up her hand to stop him. "I'm Ryder. The human pathfinder for the Initiative. The Alliance is not here. They were left back in the Milky Way. You are about six hundred light years away. Can you please tell us your names and how you joined up? I apologize, but somehow they missed you so it's a shock to us."

The four-eyed alien stared at her wordlessly for a moment. He then looked over at Kandros once more. Celeste held her breath. She really hoped that this wouldn't end in a firefight. "I'm Drokira Krec'donrek. He's Ralea Drackarok."

Finally allowing herself to continue breathing, Celeste flashed him a tooth full smile. "Nice to meet you both. Any family back home?"

Drokira paused and she figured he was going to remain tight lip on any further but he surprised her. "I had a wife named Pacor Fapfalok. I was originally from Aratoht. My wife is still there. I was in enforcement, but the work was tough and hard. Didn't get many days off so I left around 2183."

"And your work with the Talons?" Kandros pointedly asked as he jerked his head towards the still visible tat.

Drokira scoffed. "Saw that didn't you? Tried to get the damn thing off. I dabbled with them on Omega. Trained me for assault missions. Mostly against rival gangs. Aria would never step in and we were losing territory. The Suns and Eclipse took most of the best paying jobs. Around 2184 I left there and joined up with the pirate gang called the 'Outlaws.' Ran by humans. What a dumb name."

"Humans are not really creative." Drack huffed as he listened in with his arms crossed. "They have a group here too called that."

"I found Ralea there. We had a good run for a while. Attacking mostly passenger shuttles. But the boss got greedy. Cut back on our pay even though he was making a killing. One day he made the mistake of taking down an Alliance shuttle and massacring the officers. That brought them in. They were on us like Vorcha to a piece of meat. They put a bounty on all of our heads. The ports were becoming too unsafe."

"We contacted the Alliance to broker a deal. We give them our boss and they grant us an asylum." Ralea piped in as he finally got his muscles strong enough to stand up with Lexi's support.

"They told us that a woman named Jien Garson was leading this gig." Drokira looked back over at Celeste as he tried to stand up as well. His legs wobbling.

Celeste moved quickly over to keep him steady as Drokira continued to get out of the pod altogether. "Jien is dead. She was killed by the scourge when we arrived here." She gritted her teeth as she felt his weight pushing onto her as she helped him. So far things were going smoother than planned, but she wasn't too sure if she should get down to business now or not. Keeping rapport with these guys was key. Once she could see that he was good on his own, she slowly backed away. "Did you ever get to contact your wife before you went into cryo?"

Drokira remained withdrawn and barked, "Why would a human care?"

"Because maybe I do," Celeste sized him up and kept her eyes on him. It was hard to talk to them because of their extra pair of eyes. She didn't know which set to look at.

"I sent her a message right before cryo with a few creds from my deal." He shrugged haphazardly.

"I'm going to have Dr. T'Perro here examine you and make sure there were no side effects from stasis. Would that be alright?"

"Then we are free to leave?" Ralea countered.

"Ryder…" Kandros' voice rose up in alarm.

Celeste knew the idea of two batarians just walking around the Nexus would not go well with Tann and many habitants of the station would become very cross with just the idea. She had to do this tactfully now. The further they were from cryo, the less likely they could get them back into stasis if they couldn't broker a deal. "Look, Drokira, Ralea. I don't know what crimes you may have committed in the past other than what you disclosed to me. Frankly, right now, I don't care. What I do know is that we are in need of your help. Your expertise and training could really give us the advantage that we need."

"What about our payment? Where do we stay?" Drokira cracked his neck loudly.

Ryder felt Tiran pushing past her to take control of the situation. Her time was up. She cringed, seeing his back now to her. "My men need you on our strike teams on Eos. We are losing against the kett and our outpost will suffer the consequences. You will be paid and I can find accommodations."

"Don't trust them. It wasn't part of the deal," Ralea murmured over to his friend.

Drokira paused and stared right at Celeste. His dark eyes analyzing her facial expression. "We did our part. No more deals. We're not staying on this ship. Wherever we are. Provide us transportation."

"For fuck's sake…." Kandros muttered hotly under his breath. He stiffened his posture and glanced back at his counterparts.

Celeste's eyes went wide as she followed his intent. The batarians were going to be ordered with or without 'help' to go back into cryo. She had to act fast! "What about Eos?" The question blurted out so rapidly that she didn't even know what she was doing. The entire situation was playing out so hastily that she couldn't keep up. She mastered getting angaran aid. A non-Milky Way race that they had no data on, but brokering a deal with batarians was going nowhere. She had seen the devastation at Promise and Resilience. The hope that colonists had were now particles of sand. She didn't want Prodromus to have the same fate.

"We already said we are not helping!" Ralea snapped angrily. He shoved Lexi away.

"Not to help," Ryder perked up. She made sure to speak slowly and softly. She had to keep control of the situation if she was going to make this work. "We have an old station there named Promise. It's deserted. Several miles away from Prodromus. No one from the Initiative will bother you there. I will make sure of it. A shuttle will be given to drop you off only and supplies."

She struck a nerve with Kandros. A growl escaped his throat and he pulled her back to him. "We need every supply we can get. There's salvage there that we haven't collected. We can't send them there." His bony head was just inches away from her face. His talons squeezed around her arm tightly.

Ryder felt like she knew what she was doing, but now the turian's protest put her in an awkward situation. She wanted him to trust her to see how this would play out. Her blue eyes peered over his shoulder to see Drack standing there looking on with his arms crossed. "Thanks for the assist…." She muttered to herself. Was the krogan testing her? She had to remain calm. Getting the batarians on their side was crucial right now. Especially for the viability for Eos and the rest of the Andromeda galaxy. A little bit of reverse psychology may do the trick. Her hand rested gently on Kandro's arm and her blue eyes looked up at him. She gave him a "trust me" glance. Pivoting back around her heel, she met the hard stances of Drokira and Ralea. "The kett are starting to overrun Eos so we cannot guarantee your safety. Too many of our own people have been lost."

Drokira chortled, "We can take our chances against them."

"Believe me. You don't want to mess around with those guys. They are a pain in the ass and harder to beat than you think." Drack finally spoke up.

"About time….," Celeste playfully rolled her eyes at him.

"Come on, Krogan. What are they paying you?" Drokira bantered.

"Nothing," Drack flatly replied. His yellow tinted eyes squaring them off. "This isn't Omega, four-eyes. Think you're tough because you were with the Talons? Hah! Think again." Celeste grimaced. So much for diplomacy…

"Back off or I'll-," The other snarled.

"You do what? Hurt me? I killed a maw that ate guys like you for a snack." The old reptilian alien shook his head. "Let's just let them go, Ryder. I survived for a while. They can too. Just hope the kett don't exalt you."

"What the hell are you ramblin' out about, old fool? Just stop with the damn riddles!" Ralea hissed. He slapped his friend's arm to get his attention. "Let's just leave. We can find our own way out."

Lexi grabbed at their harms to halt them. "Ryder!"

Celeste knew she lost this negotiation. Maybe time on Eos is just what they needed. They would have to be patient and let the batarians see first-hand what awaited them. She just hoped this gambled time would not cost her lives of their colonists. "I hope you change your minds. I'll have a shuttle prepare to take you down to Eos."

Kandros barely moved his mandible as he bore his eyes deep into her. "You three escort them and get the shuttle ready," The order was barked out.

Drokira gave Celeste one last look before following the team out. She winced as moved her focus back to the troubled turian in front of her. She could tell he was fuming. His fists were clenched, he looked at her as if she just signed a deal with the Archon himself. "I trusted you….." His words were cracking. "Those supplies should be going to the colony. What will we tell Prodromus? That now they have to worry about batarians raiding them?"

"If you don't like this then you talk to Tann about it," Ryder had enough. She hated to get involve with station issues, but her heart went up against her at every turn. Her mother was the same type of woman. Another reason why she didn't think she should have followed in her dad's footsteps as the next Pathfinder. The title clearly did not suit her. She knew that he would have not chanced the idea of letting a known hostile race free. There was always another way. Tiran Kandros proposed the ludicrous suggestion to integrate them into Apex. She was going to make sure to hold this over his head. "Kandros, you recommended this idea to me and I wanted to do everything I could to help you out. I can still make this work. You just have to give me more time. I'll contact Bradley. I trust these two."

"Do you?" He raised an eye ridge. "They are pirates and Talons. More of them are coming over on the Quarian ark. We need to get the kett under control before that happens. I already have my men spread thin as it is. Skirmishes with the scavengers is not helping either."

Celeste sighed hard as she watched him leave the ark. "That went well," She smiled wryly at Drack.

"Could have gone better." The krogan shrugged.

"Enlighten me."

"You could have had two dead batarians."

"I'm afraid that is what is going to happen…." Her voice trailed off as she headed out the ark herself with her teammate in tow. She never really wished harm on anyone. Her good nature once again got the best of her. Now she was off to visit her brother with mind swirling in a maelstrom of "what-if's."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."