Mass Effect 2: Interstitial Spaces
By: bsmart
Disclaimer: Rated R (or M depending on the site) for the good stuff, you've been warned. Currently its cursing and violence, we'll see where it goes from there. Mass Effect is owned by whoever owns Mass Effect and I do not begrudge them it at all.
V-V
Chapter 6: Brunch in Hell
V-V
"So what have we got?" Alyssa asked as she stood around the Normandy's conference table with Jacob and Miranda.
Miranda pulled out four datapads and laid them out on the rich mahogany conference table. "These are the first four candidates we've identified," as she spoke their profiles were displayed by the projector buried in the center of the table.
"Is this a joke?" Alyssa asked. "Three aliens and a convict?"
"No, it's not," Miranda said with an upturned nose.
"So you expect me to recruit three aliens to work with the human supremacist group?"
"No, we expect you to recruit the three aliens to work with Commander Shepard."
"Just pointing this out, but I think they might notice the logos you spray on everything."
Miranda put both hands on the edge of the table and leaned towards Alyssa. "If you can see past your prejudices and work with us to stop the Collectors so can they."
"I'm also human. They're the ones ya'll think should be on their knees serving us."
"It's not like that Shepard," Jacob said from the far end of the table with his back to the door.
"Oh? Did I miss the memo where you made it clear that human supremacy didn't include humans being supreme?"
Jacob pressed his lips together until most of the color drained out of them and Miranda cut in quickly. "Cerberus is about protecting humanity Shepard. That's our goal. The rest of the galaxy isn't going to take care of us."
"Ah, protecting humanity," Alyssa parroted while nodding her head sagely. "So what clear and present danger did the residents of Chasca pose?"
Jacob's back went ramrod stiff and what color Miranda's face drained away.
"Admiral Kohaku was clearly ready to hand the keys over to the aliens wasn't he? What with trying to investigate what the hell happened on Akuze when you fed a platoon of marines to a Thresher Maw for fun. Corporal Toombs, now there was someone ready to destroy our species. He certainly earned veins full of thresher maw venom."
"Shepard..." Jacob said quietly.
She was on a roll though. "Advancing humanity was certainly worth feeding people to thorian creepers on Binthu though. The marines in the 10th Frontier on Alathe needed to have rachni drones dropped on their heads so you could test them out I presume. That a few hundred of the humans you are so eager to protect got ripped apart is just the cost of doing business huh?" Alyssa couldn't tell whether Miranda was ready to kill her or yell at her but she wasn't going to let up. "You idiots play fast and loose with science and tactics on pointless bullshit. On the plus side you usually manage to get plenty of your own killed which is a net win for the galaxy. The problem is your fuck ups usually wind up getting a lot of innocent people killed in the process."
"Shepard!" Miranda snapped.
Alyssa stared right into Miranda's eyes at a wattage usually reserved for military grade lasers. "The real problem is when things go just as planned and you start killing innocent people on an industrial scale. Like I said, you wanting me dead worries me a lot less than you wanting me alive."
Adrenaline was singing in Alyssa's veins as she looked at the two operatives. The part of her brain that was always tactically analyzing positions went into overdrive formulating plans on how she could eliminate the two Cerberus operatives and secure the ship before anyone opposed her too strenuously. To their credit both Miranda and Jacob seemed to realize just how keyed up she was and were tensed up, seeming to contemplate how they'd handle her if things turned violent.
In the center of the table the dossiers continued to cycle through one another but the three people collected around the table weren't paying attention to them. The pressing silence as all three people regarded each other drew on and on with no resolution and each of their hands appeared to be drawing towards the butt of their weapons by millimeters at a time.
Alyssa was one wrong twitch away from pulling out her submachine guns when the doors of the conference room slid open and the slender young redhead who had brought her something to drink walked in. She took one quick glance around the room and picked up in the tension. "Did I come at a bad time?"
Alyssa's eyes had remained on Miranda's the entire exchange. She'd been watching Jacob out of her peripheral vision as well as the redhead but because of her angle from the side of the room Miranda couldn't without losing sight of Alyssa. "What is it Yeoman?" Miranda snapped after she took her eyes off Alyssa and turned to the intruder.
Having someone turn their gaze from her during a stand off wasn't something Alyssa was used to so Miranda's distraction left her momentarily at a loss for an appropriate response.
Looking like a scolded child the Yeoman stood up straighter and fumbled open mouthed for a moment before spiting it out. "You'd requested to not be disturbed but EDI wanted to let you know we are only three minutes from the relay and was requesting a destination for Joker."
"You ignored a privacy request for a course clarification?" Miranda asked incredulously.
"Omega," Alyssa said loudly enough to end Miranda's reprimand. "Tell Joker to make for the Omega relay. We've got two people on the list there so we might as well get it started there."
"Yes ma'am," the yeoman said before she turned and scurried back out the door.
"It's as good a reason as any," she muttered as Jacob and Miranda both turned back to her.
"You don't like Cerberus, we understand that Shepard," Miranda said.
"And krogans dislike salarians," she said.
Miranda wasn't going to be put off or deflected though. "This is not a Cerberus mission, not any more. When you accepted this job the Illusive Man put you in charge, Shepard. This is your mission, your ship, your crew. We do what you order, how you order it. We are all here to stop the Collectors and nothing else."
Alyssa nodded slowly. "Don't think I won't be holding you too that."
"Shepard," Jacob added. "Those things you saw two years ago? This crew had nothing to do with them. Most of the crew here was recruited specifically for this mission and have no ties to Cerberus otherwise."
"When a Cerberus recruiter came around and asked them to join they said yes. That's enough," Alyssa growled.
"Doctor Chakwas didn't take long to convince. Neither did Joker when we offered him his flight status," Miranda quipped.
Alyssa shot her a glare that would have reduced her to ash if it could have.
"Even the illustrious Commander Shepard only took one recon mission to a colony and the council turning her down to accept our help."
Alyssa was ready to draw when Jacob's voice cut in, "Ladies, Omega."
Miranda kept calmly glaring at Alyssa while the Spectre returned it full force.
"We need a game plan for Omega," Jacob urged them. "We've got two people to contact. Which do we go for first?"
It was nothing but a ploy to deflate tensions in the room but it worked. Miranda straightened up and her superior glare evaporated. "I think we need to find Dr. Solus first. We need to find out how the Collectors are paralyzing the colonists or we don't stand a chance."
Alyssa's first reaction was to disagree, even if she'd been thinking the exact same thing. Her temper was getting the best of her though, and dangerously close to jeopardizing the mission. She might hate Cerberus and everyone allied with it with every fiber of her being but she had a job to do. "Agreed. Archangel looks to be good at what he does but if we're all statues it's not going to help us. What's Dr. Solus' location," She asked as she straightened up.
"A clinic, in the lower wards," Miranda replied. "Details are sketchy."
"We'll need to find someone local then," Jacob said.
Alyssa looked at him. "I don't suppose you know a guy?"
"Not personally," Jacob said. "Intel says that Aria T'Loak, the top local crime boss, might be a useful source of information."
"You want me to ask the mob?"
"The mob rules Omega. Aria has managed to stay on top with Eclipse, Blue Sun, and the Blood Pack all vying for control of the station," Miranda explained. "A former member of the STG decides to set up shop on the station, that's the kind of thing people like her notice."
"She might also have a location for Archangel," Jacob added.
Alyssa sighed, "Worth a shot." She felt the quiver in the deck plates as Joker piloted the SR-2 into the relay's capture field and then light shove backwards as the ancient reaper device catapulted them across the galaxy. "That's it, dismissed." Jacob and Miranda both started to head for the door but Alyssa called out. "Lawson."
Miranda paused. "Shepard?" Behind her Jacob turned his attention back to the women.
"Tell Timmy that if I ever show up in a Cerberus recruitment vid, or in any of your propaganda ever again I will personally handle destroying everything he has ever worked for in his life."
Miranda paused, blinking as she looked at Shepard before nodding. "Understood."
Alyssa stood in the conference room brooding for a little longer before deciding to move on. Where, she didn't really know. Back to the cockpit with Joker perhaps, or to find Dr. Chakwas' med-bay. With the Alliance refusing her and with the council offering her nothing more than her spectre status back she was stuck with Cerberus. It also meant she was stuck on this ship. This too bright, too clean, chrome lined scow was now her ship whether she liked it or not.
Deciding movement beat inactivity she left the conference room only to be brought up short in the doorway by the same redhead that had so raised Miranda's wrath moments before. "Yeoman?"
"Yes Ma'am!" she said with a slight bounce. "Yeoman Kelly Chambers." With her arms clasped behind her back holding her datapad other parts of the yeoman moved with the bounce.
"What is it?"
"I thought you might want a tour of the ship ma'am." Kelly offered as she brought the datapad around front and held it in both hands.
The earnest and eager to please yeoman might have been disarming if not for the elongated orange hexagon sewn into the left breast of her uniform. "Lead on yeoman."
Yeoman Chambers was at least a head shorter than Alyssa. Alyssa had never thought herself exceptionally tall but she was a bit above average. Chambers looked to be on the short side which combined with her bobbed hair and slender build gave her a very pixish air.
Kelly gestured towards the room behind Alyssa. "You're familiar with the conference room. And you came through the lab to get here," she said pointing to the starboard side of the ship. "Hopefully Dr. Solus will find it adequate when he arrives. If he doesn't I can requisition anything he might need." She turned to the side and led Alyssa to the port side of the ship where the sliding doors revealed a work space with racks of weapons and the tools to maintain them. "This is the armory. Mr. Taylor works here keeping up our equipment." Like the rest of the ship it was, clean, shiny, and far too bright. It did look to be fully stocked however. Kelly turned towards the bow and into a short hallway with a coffee pot and small cupboard filling the outer hull wall. A small window was right above the counter the pot sat on. "A little galley for the bridge crew," Kelly confirmed. "I know how much you liked coffee so I made sure we'd have a pot close at hand at all times."
Which wasn't incorrect. The rich aroma of the bitter brew in the pot was calling to her. Then the little Yeoman scooped a mug up off the counter and thrust it towards Alyssa's hand.
"Half cappuccino, half cream, with a shot of chocolate syrup," she announced proudly.
Alyssa started a bit as the Yeoman had gotten it exactly right. She looked at the mug, it even had the Alliance crest on it in gold leaf. "Thanks," she muttered.
"That's my job. There's a head on the other side off the hallway to the lab," she said as she continued on into the CIC. "This is the CIC. It was modeled after the Normandy SR-1's obviously." She pointed to a terminal to the starboard side of the galaxy map's pulpit. "That's my station." She led them to the elevator and sent it down. "We didn't go all the way with the turian design details like the SR-1 did. No staircases, just the elevator or the gangways by the head and galley."
Alyssa nodded and sipped at her coffee, which was ice cold. She wondered if the yeoman was as detail oriented as Miranda, and exactly where the hell she'd learned how she took her coffee. It was, she grudgingly admitted, perfect.
"Third deck," Kelly announced as the doors as the aft doors slid open. "This is the main crew deck. Crew head's and showers on either side," she said. "Separated by sex, civilian ship after all. Crew quarters on either side," she said pointing towards the doors on the aft bulkhead. There's a lounge to port, " she said gesturing down the hall with her data pad, "and we already have quarters set up to starboard for the team we're assembling."
"Thinking ahead at least," Alyssa muttered.
"Well we couldn't have them all sleeping in the cargo bay could we?" Kelly teased. "I'm eager to get to meet some of them," she continued on. "Turian, salarian, krogan, you don't get to meet many aliens growing up in Kansas."
Alyssa snorted. "You joined the wrong organization if you're eager to meet aliens, yeoman."
"No, no," she said shaking her head. "Cerberus is about protecting humanity, not about subjugating aliens."
"I've heard that line before," Alyssa deadpanned. "I still don't believe it."
"It's true! I don't want to hurt anyone, I love other species. Completely different cultures from totally different worlds. The different perspectives and customs, humans are a known quantity, we deal with them every day. Aliens though, how would humans relate to them, work with them? I mean you commander, you had a ship full of them and look what you accomplished. You even fell in love with an asari...," Kelly's excited ramble stopped immediately when Alyssa's expression went from bemused interested to pure ice.
"Do NOT speak of her," Alyssa warned.
"Sorry Commander, I didn't mean anything. I actually admire how you...," Kelly nervously licked her lips as Alyssa continued to stare daggers at her.
"The tour, yeoman."
"Right, the ship," Kelly turned and hurried around the corner of the elevator and passed one of the ship's ladderways. In the center of the room was a pair of large tables and around the perimeter were doorways. "This is the ship's mess, obviously. We can move things around if we need and even show movies, " she said trying to sound chipper but still obviously strained from her faux pa. "Cabins for the ship's officers are around the perimeter, that one's mine." She pointed to the starboard one farthest forward. "Forward of that on the starboard is the medbay." She led them forward and Alyssa say the doctor inside treating a crewman. "Port is the XO's cabin, and office. That's where Ms. Lawson stays" Kelly pointed down a narrow corridor leading forward from the communal area. "That way is the main battery. Storage lockers on either side of the hall. Not much to see there."
"How's the ship armed?"
"Armed? Oh," Kelly checked her data pad. "Two forward firing mass drivers, two torpedo launchers, and guardian laser coverage all around. We're actually quite a bit more heavily armed than the SR-1."
Alyssa nodded. She took it with a grain of salt given the organization's taste in handheld firearms.
Kelly led them back to the elevator and down. "Deck four," she said as they stepped off. The wall in front of them had a long viewport over the shuttle bay below. "Cargo bays port and starboard. She turned and led Shepard through a door in the aft bulkhead of the hallway. "And here's main engineering," she said with a gestured that encompassed the entire compartment. It looked a lot like most engineering deck's Alyssa had seen. Piping and cabling everywhere connected to machinery she didn't have any idea what it did. Farther back she could see the iridescent drive core of the ship humming away. "I have no idea what any of this does aside from making the ship go," Kelly admitted. She led Shepard back out and to the elevator and stood in front of the viewport and pointed down into the bay. "Deck five is the main shuttlebay and cargo bay and that's it. The SR-2 is quite a bit bigger than the SR-1 so atmospheric maneuvering is problematic. For most insertions we carry Kodiak shuttles instead of trying to land the ship."
"You've got extra space," Alyssa commented.
"From what I gather the engineers figured we could fill it up with cargo if we didn't need more shuttles. I think," Kelly admitted.
"If there's nothing else, where's my cabin?"
Kelly got a big smile on her face. "Oh that's not all commander. Let me show you your cabin." She called the elevator and got back in, thumbing the button at the top. The elevator climbed quickly and seconds later opened up into a tiny receiving area with a door in front of them labeled, 'Captain's Quarters'."The engineers were trying to follow the old Normandy's profile when they made the SR-2," she explained. "But when they started to lay everything out they had space left over up here. They didn't really know what to do with it and I think were going to use it for a cargo bay but the Illusive Man made the call and had it retrofitted into cabin for you." Kelly stood by the door and waited.
"What?"
"The door's keyed to you, no one else can open it without your permission."
Alyssa doubted that but she played along anyways thumbing the lock. It turned green and slid open. "You must be kidding me."
Kelly bounced, actually bounced, ahead of Alyssa and into the cabin. "No, it's all yours Commander." She pointed out things quickly. "You've got an office to starboard. Behind that is your head, with a real working shower. Forward you've got your bed and a sitting area with lockers for your armor, weapons, and clothes. Oh, speaking of which, I'll bring those up if that's ok with you."
Alyssa nodded then jerked a thumb towards the port side of the cabin. "And that?"
"Oh! That's your fish tank."
"Fish tank? On a starship?"
Kelly nodded. "3,500 liters with mass effect fields to keep the water in. Big enough for anything you'd want to put in it. If they live in salt water of course."
"On a starship?" Alyssa reiterated.
"Fish are very relaxing, and Doctor Chakwas suggested that you could use something to help you unwind. So I had a fish tank added."
"You did?"
Kelly nodded. "I think it was a closet but I didn't think you'd have a lot of clothes so it would have just been wasted space."
"So you put in a fish tank? Ok." It was probably the most ridiculous thing she'd ever seen. A ship on a mission to stop the collectors, likely to be engaged in combat on a regular basis, and she had a gigantic fish tank. Three and a half metric tons of water they couldn't even drink. She looked around the space and had to shake her head in amazement. It was only slightly smaller than her apartment on the presidium and it could have held three of her cabins from the Normandy. Even for a civilian ship is was ludicrously excessive.
The silence finally broke Kelly, "I'll let you get settled in here. I'll just go get your bags Commander."
Alyssa nodded and didn't pay her attention as she left. The ship itself was remarkably like the original Normandy. A lot bigger of course, but much the same in it's layout. She was happy to see that even though it was a civilian ship, and in a few places like this cabin, and having an actual lounge they had gone nuts, but overall it was admirably packed to the gills. The few areas with enough room to stretch out were well thought out and didn't interfere with proper operations. She supposed it would do the job.
She walked through her new cabin to look it over. The office was more than she expected. The wrap around desk was actual wood, polished to a mirror finish. A workstation was set up for her and Joker would have approved of the chair, black leather. It was thankfully attached to the decking. Her head wasn't much, but the toilet, sink, and shower were hers and hers alone. She still looked up at the ceiling over the shower, half expecting to see a camera lens there.
The bed was nice, firm like she liked it, and big. Over a meter and a half wide. She flashed back to her bed on the old Normandy. It had been intended for one and even though it was larger than the crew bunks it was still tight. She'd never minded who she'd had in it for company though. She and Liara could sleep in this bed and never even touch if they wanted to.
The couches in the sitting area were comfortable, some kind of dark fabric. The lockers for her armor and guns had additional locks on them. The small dresser was already stocked with clothes but she emptied them out on the bed. She did the same for the duty uniforms she found in the closet. Even if they hadn't had the Cerberus crest on them she wouldn't have worn them. If she'd been in Timmy's shoes she'd have bugged everything, including her clothes.
When Kelly returned a few moments later and Alyssa let her in the little yeoman was straining to carry her bags. Alyssa took the one with her equipment from Kelly and dropped it in the office before putting the one with her clothes and personal items on the bed. "Get rid of this stuff," she said indicating the pile of clothes she'd emptied out of her drawers and closet.
"You don't want it?" Kelly asked.
"I don't trust it," Alyssa corrected.
It was Kelly's turn to frown. "We all want the same thing Commander. We want to stop the collectors."
"I've seen the way Cerberus does things firsthand," Alyssa said. "Bugging this ship and my clothes would be the least awful I've ever seen ya'll do."
Kelly nodded slowly and went to work scooping up the discarded clothes and managed to get them reasonably well bundled in her arms before heading for the door. She paused at it and turned back. "We're six hours out from Omega Commander. You might want to get some rest."
"Thank you, yeoman," Alyssa said as the door slid shut behind Kelly. It wasn't a bad idea but her head was spinning with too many thoughts to just lay down and rest. The simplest and most prevalent being that in the space of less than four hours she'd gone from being gung-ho to get back with the Alliance to stop the collectors to sitting on a Cerberus ship with no other recourse to stop the threat. By all right she should have been storming the ship with a detachment of Alliance marines, not acting as it's captain.
Then there was the yeoman, a xenophile, cheerful, exuberant, eager to please young woman who was everything that Cerberus wasn't supposed to be. Someone who would be close to her, always reminding her that Cerberus wasn't all that bad. She was such a disgustingly obvious plant that it was insulting. She was also physically everything that got Alyssa's attention. She was positive that detail hadn't been overlooked either. If they knew enough to make her coffee perfectly they undoubtedly could have talked to old squadmates about what turned her head.
If Joker was right about the rest of the crew she'd undoubtedly find them all much the same, hand picked to be the least offensive they possibly could, short on human superiority and long on saving the day. She didn't know what annoyed her more, the obviousness of it or that she'd have done it in their place.
And of course there was confirmation after confirmation that she really had been gone for two years with no satisfactory explanation as to how, where, or most importantly why. She unlatched her gauntlets and tossed them aside, looking at the faint scars that criss-crossed her left hand, tracing them with her fingers. Dying, no matter how many people said it, or how she taunted Joker about it made no sense, that simply wasn't possible. So where had she been, what had happened? The evidence was piling up that her memories of the Normandy's demise were accurate but then what? What if Cerberus had spent the last two years brainwashing her? Was that why she'd agreed to work with them?
That thought sent a horrified shiver up her spine. Could she trust her own body after they'd put her back together. Could she trust her own mind.
Alyssa stood up and unlocked her armor, tossing it on the bed before starting to unpack her things and stow them around the room. She finished by locking her armor into the special cabinet that had been set up for it.
She had no answers, just reams of questions. Reams of questions and a tired that was dragging her ever closer to the bed. She gave up fighting it, dejected by the lack of answers or clarity. She tucked her pistol under her pillow and did her best to get some sleep.
V-V
"And I thought I grew up in a hell hole," Alyssa said as Joker piloted the Normandy around an asteroid and Omega hove into view.
"Welcome to the galaxy's asshole," Joker snarked as he worked the controls. "Home to the galaxy's finest collection of space trash, criminals, mercs, and the ethically challenged."
"Where's the relay at?"
Joker worked the controls and a small red marker popped into existence on the cockpit's port side, blinking slowly red. "A couple billion clicks that way. Quiet right now."
"We need it to stay that way for a while."
"Works for me," Joker said. "I don't even like being in the same system as the thing."
"Look on the bright side," Alyssa said as she clapped him on the shoulder. "If this all goes right, you get to jump it."
"Yeah, great." He flicked on the comms and started to look for a docking port.
"Something near the Afterlife club," Miranda said. Joker raised his hand in acknowledgement.
Alyssa turned and saw Jacob checking out his submachine gun. He was dressed in the usual skin tight lightweight armor she associated with biotics. Miranda had traded in her black and white catsuit for a slightly bulkier set of armor minus the heels. For her part Alyssa was in full combat armor with all her weapons.
"Alright, think I got something. Guy wants to be paid in cash but says the docking port is only a couple hundred meters from the club. So uh, who's got the wallet?"
"Cash?" Jacob asked.
"Welcome to the Terminus," Miranda quipped. She tapped something in on her omni-tool and spoke into it. Satisfied she turned it back off. "Just be happy they didn't want to be paid in precious metals."
"Yeah well, I told him half now, half when we leave."
Kelly came up to Miranda and offered her a small pouch. Miranda opened it and pulled out a stack of scrip before sending Kelly away. When the yeoman left Miranda started counting but Alyssa found herself watching the redhead go back to her terminal. A happy little terrorist she might be but she filled out the seat of her uniform nicely.
"If you're done leering at the yeoman..." Miranda said with a roll of her eyes. She slapped half the stack of bills she's pulled out in Joker's hand.
"Jealous?" Alyssa asked but Miranda ignored her.
Joker brought the ship in and docked it gently but winced when he heard the metallic scrap of the docking clamps on the hull. While Jacob and Miranda stood by the airlock Alyssa leaned in close to Joker and quietly said, "Get on the horn. Find someone around here and have them scrap that fucking logo off the side of the ship and repaint it. I may have to put up with it being plastered everywhere in here but I want if off the side of the ship."
"Will do boss ma'am," Joker replied.
"Coming?" Miranda asked as the airlock cycled open.
"Don't get your panties in a bunch Lawson," Alyssa said as she left Joker and followed. Outside a volus was rifling through the stack of bills that Miranda had handed him but he was apparently satisfied by what he found.
Omega was everything Alyssa had been expecting from the description. The hollowed out remains of a mining town abandoned by the company that founded it so long ago no one even remembered the species that had owned it. Of course just because the company had moved on didn't mean the people had. Tens of thousands of people had chosen to stay and try to make a life for themselves. Hundreds of thousands of more had joined them. How successful they had been was open to interpretation.
"What a dump," Alyssa growled. The architecture was a mish-mash of whatever happened to be laying around at the time. The docking bay was built from what appeared to be old cargo containers and Alyssa could see at least three different models of docking arms built by two different species. There was no customs or security. They got off their ship fully armed and all three of them walked right out of the bay without so much as a side long glance. Alyssa activated her suit's comms. "Joker, get some guys down to the airlock with rifles. I don't want anyone getting close to the ship without us knowing about it."
"Roger that."
At some point someone had hollowed out the asteroid that had once been Omega. Either the company that used to mine it or overly hopeful colonists but the center of the asteroid was just gone and the gaping chasm now at the heart of Omega was a sight to behold. Towers rising out of every surface, even hanging from the ceiling. Some even had hastily constructed bridges strung between them and even a few dangling cargo containers who's purpose she could only guess at. All around there was wear and tear speaking to a population too busy trying to survive and too poor to care that the streets were cracked or some bulkhead was rusting. How the place was still operational she'd love to know. One bad weld, one neglected bit of maintenance. Life in space was too chancy to get by hoping someone would keep those things running or observe those details out of the goodness of their hearts.
The path from the docking bay had spit them out onto some kind of main street and just a little ways down from what had to be their destination. The club, it could hardly be anything else, rose above the surrounding squalor as a shining beacon of excess and debauchery. In stark contrast to the surrounding, largely brown, environment. Bright neon in red and purple curled around the huge building's facade while holoboards three stories tall projected images of dancing asari in outfits barely big enough to call lingerie for all to see. The name 'Afterlife' was emblazoned over the doors in dancing flames.
"Well that was easy," Alyssa quipped as they all headed for the club. There was a large crowd milling around outside. Some of them staggering around, trying to get what passed for fresh air outside, other's waiting, others just hanging out in front of some place they wanted to be in but couldn't be for whatever reason. Closer to the door a line was forming down the steps in front of an elcor flanked by a couple of batarians with shotguns.
Alyssa, Miranda, and Jacob all ascended the stairs towards the doors but before she could say anything to the bouncers one of the batarians stepped in front of them brandishing his shotgun. "Where do you think you're going?" He snarled.
"We're here to see Aria," Miranda said, stepping up along side Alyssa.
The batarian snorted, which for a creature with that many nostrils was not a pleasant sound. "You and everyone else. Back of the line."
"She'll want to talk to us," Miranda insisted.
"Oh really?" he sneered. "Back of the line," he growled as his shotgun started to turn towards them. Alyssa's hand lept out to grab the barrel of the weapon and hold it in place, away from them.
"Point that thing at me and you'll fucking eat it, squint," Alyssa said coldly.
The batarian lurched back, pulling his shotgun away but the barrel dropped towards the ground. "This isn't the Citadel mule, you aren't in charge here. Get lost! All of ya!" It was that moment that something caught the batarian's ear and he cocked his head to the side to listen. He nodded agreement to some unseen directive even as his shoulders slumped. "Come on," he grumbled as he turned towards the door and opened it.
The crowd in front of the elcor started to yell and complain but the quadrupedal bouncer pounded the ferrocrete with his fist knocking off a few chips and immediately silencing the line. Shepard was already inside the club's entryway following behind the batarian and her companions. There were groups lining the sides of the arched entryway, clustered around small couches or just standing in groups. Most were talking which seemed to be the main attraction of the space as even through another set of doors the bass of the club's music was a throbbing thump against her eardrums.
A group of batarians clustered around a couch spotted the group as they walked past, and a few jeers were thrown their way and at their escort. Apparently they were too drunk or dumb to leave it at that because Alyssa spotted a few knives coming out. Not omni-blades but good old fashioned slabs of sharpened metal. Before the drunken aliens could take another step towards her Alyssa's left hand had one of her submachine guns out and right in their ringleader's face. "Uhn uh uh," she cautioned them with an evil smirk.
The view down the barrel of her gun seemed to change his mind and the ringleader and his entire group beat a hasty retreat towards the doors. One had to pause to make a rude gesture at her but the sound of her weapon's capacitor's charging changed his mind and he tucked tail and ran.
"We're here for information Shepard, not to start a war," Miranda said to her as the doors to the club opened.
"War implies you could find a batarian with the stones to fight someone who can fight back," Alyssa sneered as the smells, sounds, and sights of Afterlife washed over them.
The music was too loud with a thumping bass line that pounded at your temples. The lights were simultaneously too dim and too bright, highlighting in arctinic glare the stages where human and asari dancers writhed about, on poles, or on each other while the floor below was plunged into gloom with nothing but the weak orange light from the base of the walls and tables to highlight it. Bright laser lights flickered through the haze filling the air, a heady mixture of thing various races enjoyed smoking or otherwise inhaling intermingling with sweat and a gentle undertone of vomit. The entire club was full of every race she had ever seen, a couple she'd only read about, and at least two she didn't even know existed. There was room to move through the sea of people, but not much.
The batarian knew where he was going and led them around the huge central stage that dominated this floor of Afterlife towards a raised platform that overlooked the whole club. The ramp the batarian was leading them to was guarded by a turian with an assault rifle and after a quick discussion he let them pass as did the batarian who followed behind the three of them, shotgun still in hand.
The ramp's curled upwards ninety degrees until they came to a receiving area. To their right was a group of tables, apparently some kind of VIP section given the proximity to the club's owner and the dress the people had, and to the left, was Aria.
The defacto ruler of Omega was sitting on a long couch with her back to the entrance and overlooking the club. In either corner of the box an asari dancers were slowly moving their bodies to the music from below but something was muting it, reducing it to just a background beat. Aria's dark purple head didn't even twitch as her four guards cautiously took a step towards Alyssa. The turians across the way were both armed with assault rifles while the batarian nearest her had a pistol and the one closest to Aria had a shotgun much like the door guard who was still behind them. Alyssa could already feel her heart rate speeding up.
The batarian nearest Aria brought his omni-tool up and started to advance towards her. Alyssa took a quick half step backwards and everyone tensed up. Rifles rose fractions of a centimeter, hands moved to weapon grips, and everyone's stance shifted.
"It's just a body scan, to ensure you are who you say you are," Aria said without turning her head.
"I don't think so," Alyssa said watching the batarian. She didn't trust strangers with omni-tools, she'd seen them put to too many creative uses. Grenade fabrication, shield overloads, blasts of superheated plasma, on top of the much simpler uses like flash fabricated blades. That a batarian was the one approaching her with it did nothing for her confidence.
"You don't have a choice," Aria replied firmly and the Batarian took another step towards her.
Her right hand snapped backwards and found the barrel of the door guard's shotgun even as her foot was connecting with his knee, bending it backwards with the sickly pop of torn ligaments as her hand came forward, ripping the shotgun from his grasp and sending it clattering across the floor. She was regaining her footing as her left arm hooked out and around the batarian next to her's throat, dragging the startled alien in front of her as her right hand grabbed his wrist and smashed the butt of his own pistol into the middle of his face.
The turians were bringing their rifles up but with their compatriot between Alyssa and them there was little they could do as she grabbed the gun hand of the staggering batarian in front of her and aimed his pistol at the one with the glowing omni tool and pulled the trigger twice, sending mass driver slugs through his leg above the knee, dropping him to the floor as she shoved her batarian meat shield towards his friends, using his momentum to help snatch the pistol from his grip.
Neither turian could get out of his way quickly enough to Alyssa bringing her stolen pistol in line with them and like the first target, putting two rounds into each of their legs, sending them sprawling out on the floor where she easily put a round into the body of each of their rifles as they laid there.
Through it all Aria never flinched and Alyssa paid her no real mind as she broke the pistol down and tossed the components towards the tables with the VIPs and she collected the door guard's shotgun. The unfortunate employee was laying on the ramp, holding his ruined knee and trying to crawl backwards down the ramp as Alyssa came up on him with long determined strides. "Remember what I said?" And she raised the butt of the shotgun and smashed it across the batarian's face with a wide arcing swing that sent blood and busted teeth clattering down the ramp. The shotgun joined the pistol in its component pieces as Alyssa turned back towards Aria.
"Jesus, Shepard," Jacob whispered as Alyssa walked by, he'd only just managed to draw his submachine gun by the time she'd finished shooting.
"Well, I think we can accept that as proof of your identity Commander," Aria said with a light chuckle as Alyssa walked around the edge of the couch. The dancing girls were cowering in the corners of the box as the sounds of booted feet came charging up the ramps towards them. "Have a seat," Aria said coolly as she gestured towards the couch. When the shocked guards stormed up and found their compatriots lying on the floor bleeding Aria cut off their reprisals with a dismissive wave. "Just get them out of here, we're fine."
"Aria T'loak?"
Aria snorted. "So you decided to shoot up the place before you were even knew for certain I was who you were after? You're either very sure of yourself or very stupid. Maybe both."
"It's been a rough couple of days," Alyssa said as she sat down.
"Rough enough to shoot a man for turning on an omni-tool?"
"Apparently."
"Well since you just shot three of my men get on with it."
"Dr. Mordin Solus, I need to find him."
Aria glanced over at Shepard then huffed. "The crazy salarian? He set himself up a clinic down in brown sector." She snorted. "He hasn't made himself any friends down there, he wasn't too eager to pay the Blue Suns protection fee," she said conspiratorially.
"I'll be sure to shed a tear for them," Alyssa replied while wondering to herself what kind of egghead could stand up to the Blue Suns. The mercs might be lacking in morals, intelligence, and basic hygiene but guns and the will to use them they had in spades. "Where exactly is his clinic in brown sector?"
"Section eighty seven, deck twenty nine, subsector eight," she rattled off. "But it's not going to be that easy."
Alyssa sighed, "It never is."
"There's a plague moving through brown sector. It's hitting every species there, except one."
"Which one?" Alyssa prodded.
Aria looked at her out of the corner of her eyes and smirked. "Humans."
"Great."
"The good doctor says he's working on a cure but so far," she waved her hand dismissively.
"What about the rest of the station?"
"Quarantined," Aria fired back. "I saw to that right away. No one in or out of brown sector, no exceptions. The doctor can either find a cure or... the disease will run its course. Either way I can't afford to chance the spread of it. No one will pay to watch an asari with a fever and puking her guts out shake her ass."
"Any idea where it came from?"
"None. People just started to fall over and die. Well, most people."
"What about Archangel?"
"You're a week too late for him."
"How's that?"
He makes friends about as well as you do. He finally pissed enough people off and now he's got Eclipse, the Blood Pack, and the Blue Suns working together to be rid of him. He went to ground a week ago and no one has seen him since."
"Of course."
Aria smirked, "Look on the bright side, they aren't parading his corpse through the streets yet so maybe you'll get lucky."
"What exactly did he do to piss them all off?"
"The same thing people like him always do, upset the balance. Things work on Omega. The way they work doesn't sit well with white knights like Archangel. So they try to change them, but Omega doesn't care if one turian doesn't like the way things work. So he started to mess with the status quo, horn in on Eclipse's smuggling, the Sun's protection rackets, and the Blood Pack being the Blood Pack. Surprise, surprise, the heavily armed mercs used to getting their way pushed back."
"What's your stance on this?"
"I don't care. Archangel is too busy helping the poor and down trodden with what the mercs do. Simple vices like I provide are too pedestrian for his attention. As for the mercs, they're big boys. If they can't handle one little turian sticking his mandibles where they don't belong then someone will take them out and they'll play ball with me the same way the others did."
"Just like that?" Alyssa asked skeptically.
"Just. Like. That," Aria said back. "I am Omega Shepard, nothing happens on this station that I don' t know about and Omega is the closest thing to a central hub the Terminus has. So if these two bit mercs want to keep working out here they can either get in line, or someone else will beat them into it. There is one rule out here Shepard," she said turning to look at Alyssa through harshly drawn eyes, "Don't. Fuck. with Aria."
Shepard snorted, "Right."
Aria shook her head slowly. "Go get your Salarian, and see if there's anything left to collect of the turian. Either way, get what you're here for and get off my station. Omega has no use for you Shepard, and neither do I."
"It's been a pleasure," Alyssa sneered.
Aria went back to looking out over her club and ignored her.
Miranda and Jacob were still standing where she'd left them, staring down a couple of Aria's replacement guards who looked distinctly nervous when Alyssa's eyes swept over them.
"Well, it worked," Miranda stated.
"Partially," Alyssa corrected. "She doesn't know Archangel's where abouts."
"Still, better off then we were," Jacob added as they walked down the ramp and started to leave the club. "What the hell happened back there?"
"I don't like being scanned," she said as she flipped one of the door guard's teeth out of the way with the tip of her boot.
V-V
It only took a few minutes prowling through Omega's streets for Alyssa to start comparing it to the Phoenix mega-plex where she had grown up. Dingy streets, desperate people, the stink of unmanaged garbage in the air. There was one huge different though, Phoenix at least had the towering skyscrappers, glinting in the desert sun to give the appearance of being of a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Omega was just the slums of Phoenix, and nothing but the slums of Phoenix.
Even that brought some insight though. Even though most of its residents were aliens to her she was still able to pick out the old familiar patterns. The way power flowed through the people, who was on top, who wasn't, who wanted to be, and who just wanted to be left alone. It was something she was familiar with, and something she never wanted to see again.
The main elevator down was in a market half a kilometers walk from Afterlife. It was a busy, bustling place full of people but they all maintained a respectful distance. In a place like Omega without any law disputes about pickpocketing or even just invading personal space could wind up being settled with pistols.
Merchants hocked their wares from stalls built from pieces of debris or alcoves hollowed out of the station walls both rock and metal. Some tried to disguise the origins of their places of business with colorful fabrics or bright neon lights but they weren't fooling anyone. They were loud, pushy, and willing to say anything to get your attention for even a split second.
The familiarity only served to make her mood worse though. She'd put the slums of Phoenix, and what she'd had to do to survive in them, behind her. Or so she'd thought, they had an unnerving way of finding her again and again to remind her just where she came from.
"Yeah, I knew Shepard."
Alyssa's ears perked up at the mention of her name, and they way it had been said. She turned towards a nearby stall that was selling electronics and the wall of vid monitors it was using to attract customers. On some of the screens there was a news report from the Alliance, Westerlund News according to the tag line. The reporter's name caught her eye, Khalisah Bint Sinan al Jilani, and even with his face obscured Alyssa could still discern the identity of one of the lieutenant's from her former gang. The deep scar in his chin gave him away. He'd just assumed when he'd come to beat her for disobeying on of his orders that she'd take it. The brass knuckles she'd had on her had put that theory to rest, and left a lasting imprint on his chin. He was only identified as a, 'Leader of the Tenth Street Reds.'
"What was the commander like," al Jilani asked him.
"Lissy?"
God she loathed that nickname.
"Lissy was a nasty little bitch," she said with a gruffy synthesized chuckle. "Best drug runner and hitter we had back then though. Couldn't tell you how many keys of red sand she ran right under the cop's noses back in the day."
"She ran red sand?"
"Sure, red sand, e, everything. She had a real knack for it."
"And a hitter is and enforcer," Khalisah prompted.
"If you wanna get fancy about it, yeah. Lissy made sure the other gangs couldn't horn in on our territory and kicked out the ones in our way. She had a knack for knowing how to get rid of people in her way."
Alyssa's entire body was starting to shiver in rage. "I should've killed the bitch."
On screen al Jilani was moving on, "So she ran drugs and acted as an enforcer, any thing else?"
"Nothin' major, help with the protection rackets, rode herd on the whores when they needed it. Heh, Lissy used to love to take her cut from them on their backs if you get my drift," the slovenly gangbanger chuckled evilly.
For her part Khalisah just let the camera and interview linger on that point for a few moments before moving on. "So did the news that Commander Shepard appears to be working with Cerberus surprise you?"
"Hell no, the Reds are all about humanity. Lissy's just keeping true to her heritage. She never did like the way aliens were trying to horn in on our business."
The interview faded out and was replaced by Kahlisah standing on a ground level street corner in Phoenix's slums, incredibly out of place with her perfectly coiffed hair and expensive business dress. "That was an earlier interview with a local leader of the Tenth Street Reds, a gang from Phoenix who have in recent years expanded across the Americas and even to other worlds. It would appear that these former compatriots of the Commander were not shocked at all by her recent appearance in a Cerberus propaganda piece. Khalisah Bint Sinan al Jilani reporting from Phoenix for Westerlund News."
Miranda looked at Jacob as Alyssa's eyes continued to bore holes in the vid screen even as it moved to showing some turian program in their own shrieking, hissing, language. They both kept glancing furtively at each other until Alyssa turned on her heel and started to march off as the elevator to the lower levels was visible ahead.
As they edged around the last shop they could hear a batarian protestlyzing from atop a shipping crate, speaking out to the gathered masses about galactic purity and how it must be protected in light of the coming darkness. It was only as their group drew near that the makeshift priest stabbed one of his calloused fingers at Shepard and howled, "You! Human! You and your race are a blight on galactic purity!"
Before Miranda could fire back with a quip of her own or even try to distract Alyssa her heavy pistol was out of it's holster on her left hip. The Spectre held it with ease, her eyes never straying from her path as she held the gun in her right hand, across her body as the huge hand gun boomed and pink tinged blood and gray bone chips fountained from the batarian's shoulder as the impact and it's shock sent him tumbling backwards from his perch and sent the assembled crowd running.
"The feelings mutual," she growled.
V-V
Author's Notes
Feedback: bsmartfanfic at yahoo.com
1) I love fish, Alyssa likes fish. A big fish tank on a supposed warship is still fucking stupid however. I couldn't help myself, I had to point it out. Then again Shepard has an apart twice the size of what the entire rest of the crew has to live in.
2) So yes, I tweaked the SR-2's layout a good bit. Sue me.