Eden
He was the unseen, the silent blade. She was the protector, the shining lance.
Together, they will fight.
Right and wrong are more often shades of gray than black and white.
Can they change the fate of the galaxy?
Can they save each other?
It was disquieting, Thane thought to himself, that Shepard and Miranda had decided to place the geth so near the AI core. Even with the containment field around it, a determined saboteur could certainly escape to wreak havoc in the ship's systems. He would need to appraise her of the flaws, although he hated to give her more worries. Her features had become more careworn over the last few weeks. Nearly imperceptible lines had etched their way around the thoughtful eyes, the lips that should always smile. But he saw their appearance and grieved for their cause. Most nights, he had to coax her to take her rest and she would fall in to bed, instantly asleep until the next crisis called her up. Watching her negotiate to bring another ally to her side-one who should by any account be a mortal enemy-Thane could only hope that he had the strength to carry the role she needed.
Perhaps his precautions wouldn't be needed, however. Shepard, with her incurable optimism, was deactivating the force field. While he wasn't as familiar with geth as he was with biological beings, its-Legion's stance appeared unthreatening.
Her negotiation completed, Shepard brought up her omnitool to address the crew. "I know some of you are uncomfortable with having a geth aboard, but Legion has given us some valuable information. We have a way of neutralizing ninety percent of the geth faction that it calls the heretics. According to Legion, the heretics are the ones that have allied themselves with the Reapers. If we succeed, we can eliminate these heretics as a substantial threat. We should reach the heretics' station in approximately twelve hours. I suggest we all take the time for some rest and relaxation. It's likely the last downtime we'll have any time soon. Enjoy yourselves, Shepard out." Shepard concluded her brief announcement.
As she shut down her omnitool, she turned to him, a secretive smile on her face that smoothed away the fine lines. "I have a surprise for you. Come on!" She led him down to the cargo bay area and paused in front of the entrance to the hold. She was bubbling with some secret joy that warmed him again.
"Okay, close your eyes," Shepard requested, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "I'll let you know when you can open them again."
"I can still hear your movements, siha," he teased her lightly, deciding to join in her playing. "Sight makes little difference to me."
"That's not the point. Close your eyes!"
His lips quirked in a slight smile and he shut his eyes obligingly. He followed her into the bay, his senses easily able to track her movements. Clean metal and old ozone along with warm filtered air met his faculties.
"EDI, initiate the program we set up," he heard Shepard say. There was a short pause, during which he could hear a fan start up and feel brighter light glare into his closed lids, before she continued excitedly, "Okay, you can open your eyes now."
Before him spread a desert. A tiny pocket valley a few miles across was filled with golden sand that sparkled under a cheerful yellow sun. In the distance, cloud shrouded peaks faded to purple and black. Nearby, red and brown sculptures of rock rose in fantastical shapes. He looked around in amazement, marveling at clear blue sky overhead and the dry heat flowing into his lungs. He spread his arms wide, feeling the sun like a physical pressure on his scales. A laugh curled out of his throat as he turned wide delighted eyes at Shepard. "How is this possible? My mind knows we are upon the Normandy, but my body speaks of open spaces and sunlight."
She laughed with him, happiness at his reaction flooding her features. "Do you like it? I figured, we can't get to a desert just yet, but I might be able to bring the desert to us. EDI can make holographic projections for battle simulations so it made sense that she could project more. Sound, sight, even some environmental effects. All possible thanks to the latest technology." The illusion was so real that he could see individual grains of sand float past on the light breeze.
He embraced her, loving the feel of her sandy skin against him. "It is a wonder to my senses, as are you for creating it." At her slightly confused expression, he chuckled and continued. "Yes, I like it very much. What place have you recreated, siha?"
"Well. Eden Prime."
"Eden Prime," he echoed. "That is an...odd choice of locations. Are you certain you are well with this?"
"I know, it does seem strange as a vacation spot, doesn't it? Don't worry, we aren't anywhere near where the Beacon was. But it's the only place I had enough information on to construct this. The Alliance has a lot of vids of the planet, including this area. I didn't peek though, I just gave EDI and Tali the files and instructions." She grinned, pulling him along the floor of the valley. "I think Tali is a secret romantic, she took the whole project from me and finished it practically overnight, I have no idea how!"
EDI and Tali had outdone themselves in crafting the locale. He wondered how the AI was able to simulate the passing of distance since the cargo hold was only a few dozen yards in size. When he passed his hands through some of the dunes, he could feel that supply crates had been stacked up to lend a physical presence to the illusion but his eyes were completely fooled. He leaned back against the crates turned scenery, trying to enjoy the heat. Shepard settled next to him.
"Is this what your native planet was like?"
"I believe Rakhana was like this once, before it died. Tales told in the quiet of the night spoke of wind and sun and great storms of sand."
"Have you ever been there?"
"No. I was born long after our rescue by the hanar, and my travels have never taken me there. Why this line of questioning, siha?"
"I'm working up to asking you something personal. May I?"
"Of course." He smiled at her, turning from his contemplation of her creation. "You, of all people, needn't worry about intruding. What would you know of me?"
"Will you tell me about Irikah?"
He tilted his head, slightly puzzled. Curious, that she would be the only one to ask him of her. "Siha, I will tell you anything you wish to know. Memories of Irikah are always close to me and I am happy to share them with you. However, I would not have you made discomforted."
"I want to know about you, your past, and your love. I'm not afraid."
"As you will, siha." He brought up the painful memories slowly.
"She was a scientist, a geneticist. When we met, she was an assistant on a research project concerning the evolution of Kepral's syndrome's resistance to antibiotics. She was as dedicated to her work as I was to mine. It..suited me."
She looks up at me, resting in the muddled sheets. "Another contract?" she asks.
"I shouldn't be long."
"You will need to return very soon."
"I swear I will be back in time, Irikah."
She rests her hand over her burgeoning belly. Her face forms into a smile. "I know, you always return to me. Be quick."
"When Kolyat was born, much of her time was taken by the responsibilities of motherhood, but she would steal time to study and research. As Kolyat grew older, she was able to devote more time to her projects."
"She loved music."
"Figures dance over a raised platform. Delicate harmonies picked out in string and song.
Her eyes close. She smiles, reaches out as if the music is tangible in the haunted air.
Pattering like rain interweaves with golden chiming bells, quavers to an end. Ringing silence ends the theme."
"She called me home that last time, excited about a discovery she had made."
"The console beckons with a new message. Her voice carries to me.
"Thane! You won't believe what I just discovered! It's amazing, and so simple, I can't believe I didn't think of it before!
Setir said I might even get my own department. Come home, love, we need to celebrate!"
"But I returned too late and she was gone. I never learned what she had discovered."
He closed his eyes, sighing out the memory to drift on the empty air, not opening them until Shepard twined her arm around his.
"I'm sorry Thane, but I think you needed to let yourself talk about that."
He thought for a few moments before he answered her unspoken question. "I think...that you are right. Her memory seems dearer than ever now that it no longer pains me." He glanced away briefly. "I believe I...saw her a few weeks ago. I'm unsure of whether it was a vision or hallucination but it was not a memory."
"Hmmm. What did she say to you?"
He felt her muscles tense despite the casualness of her tone. He held her arm tightly in reassurance. "She said that it was time to live."
Shepard smiled at him then, her butterfly touch caressing his face. "Irikah's a smart woman. You should listen to her. After we return from this mission, we ought to go to Kahje together and visit your home."
"To lay old ghosts to rest? Yes, that would be fitting." He examined the whorls and lines that covered her palms, committing another detail of her body to memory. "In Earth history, there was an art called 'palm reading.' This line," he traced the center of her palm, "signified a strong spirit and great heart."
"What do yours say?"
"Drell don't have palm lines in the same places. I don't believe your readings would apply to me." He matched Shepard's palm to his, then turned his over to let her examine the smooth network of scales that covered his hands. Tiny flecked scales webbed over his palms, fine enough that any creases were indistinguishable from the patterning.
"I swear, Thane, you know the most esoteric information," Shepard mocked him lightly.
"A side effect of my training," he smiled back at her jab. He was starting to understand what she didn't say as much as what she did say. "Perfect memory can be convenient. For example, you said once that we should do our best to improve the moment we are in. I now propose that we follow this excellent advice, and explore the unfamiliar lands about us. An adventure for the senses."
"You're right, we're losing time. Let's explore!"
They traveled the hills and dunes, hand in hand, playing over them like children. They had sand fights, flinging fistfuls of illusory dust at each other, although she claimed he was cheating when his inner eyelids closed against the imaginary grains. They tumbled and wrestled, laughed through the bright sunlight, all times and cares forgotten. They came to rest at last in the shadow of one of the dunes. In reality, it was the join where two partitions came together, but in their pretending, it was a flattened oblong of gray rock shaded by piled sand.
Somehow, not by his doing, Shepard had wound up lying half across his lap, her limbs flung haphazardly about his body. They had detoured out of the hologram long enough to pick up a bundle of supplies, and Shepard was entertaining herself by tossing spheres of fruit into the air and trying to catch them in her mouth. She missed as often as not, but the sight of the plump globes dropping into her throat was too captivating for him to suggest that she stop. When she pressed one of the objects to his lips, her fingers traced a filigree about his mouth before withdrawing. He smiled to himself as he rubbed her belly in return. She was turning his mind to other forms of thought again and he suspected that it was intentional.
That suspicion hardened into fact when he felt her hand ghost along the fastenings on his pants. He knew she was extremely curious to find out what was under them, and he took much delight from thwarting her. For now.
"Siha." His breath whispered out of him and he barely managed to catch her hands in his before she could get too far. "My desire for you grows by the minute. You are beautiful and alluring, and it has been a very long time." He paused and let some of the long held desire shine through his eyes. His fingers slid down her slender waist to her hips, tightening almost painfully before he strictly controlled himself again. "But I enjoy luxuries as much as any other, and I would prefer," a kiss placed on her jaw "soft sheets, " another to her pouting lip, "music," he licked her sweaty nose, making her squirm, "And enough leisure to do ourselves justice."
"Hmmm. I do like the sound of leisure," she laughed up at him, apparently well satisfied with her effect on him. "And justice. Will we get to play good cop-bad cop again?"
"Should we perhaps ask Captain Bailey for a pair of handcuffs?"
"Mmmmmm, now who's being tempting?"
"I believe your people say that 'Turnabout is fair play?' And one other that I came across a short time ago may also apply. "All is fair in love...and war." Feeling her spirit of mischief possess him, he ran his fingers teasingly down her sides, knowing that humans were often highly sensitive there. He was rewarded by seeing her, Commander Shepard, squeal and curl into a defensive ball. He again played his hand over her ribs until she was rolling with laughter and desperation.
"Surrender! No more, please!" she gasped, red faced with laughter and embarrassment. "You win!"
He relented at those words, allowing her to recover to a sitting position. "You may discover soon that either in love or war, I will always come out on top, siha." His words hung in the air, filled it with promise, exactly as he had intended. And he now had the supreme pleasure of seeing Shepard lose her composure twice in one day.
Her face even more flushed than before, she muttered something about getting a cool drink and scurried off. Thane smiled to himself quietly. He was looking forward to the end of the mission.
A/N: Fluffy chapter is fluffy. Only a few tiny grains of plottiness occur in this chapter-it's meant to basically showcase a happy, non-life-threatening moment between these two birds of a feather. Regularly scheduled plotness shall resume in the next chapter as we plunge through post-ME2.
kiwibliss, lyssalu, Luna, thank you so much for your constant time and input.