Chapter 3: The asari and the damn fogria

The week dragged. It didn't drag like a mule or bull pulling a plow. It dragged like a snail dragging a mule and a plow. At first I had expected reports and updates on the goings on but I quickly found out that nothing was happening. They were walking and talking, but no progress was made on the case. The big criminals, the gang leaders, the drug dealers and the rats all agreed on one thing: they had no idea what anyone could want with me.

So I started connecting to passing by mobile extranet terminals to hack the governmental databases, which were encrypted, true, but not inaccessible. There was a moderators entrance which had barely any security and I managed to scour the military databanks of the Alliance before I got shut out of the system.

I also managed to get information about the Council maintenance reports, the Volus governmental economical plans and the database of some project called the Shadow Broker.

That one was rather interesting, telling me about some really obscure things about some of the people on the Citadel. But none of what I found was of any importance to the case, though Garrus received a bounty for the Shadow Broker cache when he presented it to C-Sec.

'So have you made up your mind?' asked Garrus, in what I now recognized as turian.

He had bought me an upgrade for my omni tool that translated the common languages into english for me. I'd gotten one that translated things to japanese as well, but since I wasn't that good at japanese, my money had been wasted.

'About what?'

'Are you staying on the Citadel or going away?'

I had given it some thought. A lot of thought, being cooped up in this safe house all day. But with over five hundred channels, I could forgive this isolation. Most of the channels had been adult, with Garrus assuring me that he had never used the TV before in his life and that it must have been the batarians who'd installed all the channels.

The way I figured, if I stay then I'm a burden. But where to go? Garrus had told me that Ilium would be the safest place for me to be as long as I didn't sign any contracts there. Ilium was as safe a zone for someone hunted by someone else that he could think of and he seemed to be very certain of that. But wouldn't I still have to be cooped up in some tiny apartment all the time?

I'd imagined that I would leave, get a job on a ship and adventure through the stars, but the Alliance had refused me nine more times throughout the week and I had lost all hope on that front.

As a final resort Garrus had suggested for me to work on a trader ship. It was a volus vessel, so I wouldn't be welcome, but I wouldn't get killed either. And this, I felt, was the best option to go by.

'I want to fly.' I said to Garrus seriously.

'Ah... Look, even if they have accepted you as one of the crew, eventually they'll have to strip down to a skeleton crew for more profit. You won't be among that crew.'

'I'll find another ship. All I need is a reference, a background of experience with ships and any alien vessel will take me on.'

I'd made this point before and it hadn't convinced him yet.

'Alright.' he sighed. 'I can't stop you. And I'm running out of food, so you'd better hurry up. The ship's leaving today at noon.'

Noon was actually dawn here for some reason that no one could satisfactory explain to me. Also, midnight was midday, which basically cast around the time of day in different directions for no apparent reason.

And so we started to make our way towards the taxi stands. They were flying to and fro, in no apparent patterns. But then we reach the calling platform.

Seven taxis swooped down around us. They obeyed the traffic laws perfectly and I wasn't suspicious at first, just surprised at our luck to get such a wide choice of transport. Garrus had reacted the second the first taxi had landed though.

He'd thrown me behind a bearing pole that supported the roof of the market district of the Wards. I wasn't sure which part of the Wards though, it all looked the same to me.

He himself had taken cover behind the next taxi to land, throwing in a grenade into the midst. The men who came out were all soldiers and all of them looked very grim.

None of them had noticed the grenade. The second that the final taxi had opened it's doors the grenade went of, blinding everyone, me included since I was thick enough to look at it.

I heard punches being handed out to people, a gunshot, shouting and angry voices. When I had regained my vision I saw three turians, Garrus among them, tying up a dozen human soldiers, all of whom were giving me nasty looks.

I felt a sharp pain in my knee and looked down to see my jeans covered in blood. What had happened? I touched it and screamed in pain as I located the bullet wound. Looking about I saw a dozen bullet holes in the ground next to me. I'd escaped death by three inches. Interesting. I quickly applied a dose of medi-gel and the hole was covered with skin-look-a-like material that would feed nutrition until the hole was healed or it was out of nutrition.

It took me a moment to realize that I should have removed the bullet first and another moment to realize how lucky I was that it had gone straight through. The leg hurt but the painkillers and the synthetic skin did a good job. Flesh wounds were a concern of the past. Unless you died.

'Min, are you alright?' asked Garrus, bending down to check my leg.

'Yeah, I'm fine. What's going on? What happened?'

One of the turians, also C-Sec stepped forward.

'Garrus, these are Alliance military. What do we do?'

Garrus seemed startled by the news.

'Alliance? What the hell?' he stormed over to the group of humans and started asking them questions.

The only reply the men gave was that he had no right to arrest them.

'I do. Fire upon civilians is punishable no matter what organization you belong to, save for Spectres. This is either an act of war or a crime, but either way I'm bringing you in.'

The turians around Garrus nodded in approval as he put forward that logic and I saw that he had a few admirers.

The humans cursed worse than ever but it made no difference. Within minutes C-Sec shuttles had come to pick them up.

'Look, I have to go. I've got two hours left until the ship leaves.' I said quietly to Garrus.

'Yeah, I'll have one of the officers give you a ride.' he nodded.

I looked at him, sad to leave. Throughout the week we had gotten to know each other pretty well. He liked the same kind of music I did, though he thought that some of the human music songs were too whiny. He had taught me an awesome karate-like move, a strike to the diaphragm and an upwards thrust to the throat in one fluid motion. The only counter was to either accept a punch or move a far distance away. The risk was to get in the enemies strike combination.

I had been amazed at his martial skills. There was no way that I could ever learn to move as fast as he did.

I hugged him briefly.

'Thanks for everything.' I said.

He looked unsure of how to reply.

'Yeah, I... Yes, no problem. After we interrogate these guys we'll tell you who was after you.'

'Wait, you can't seriously let her go.' said another turian. 'She's a witness.'

'So are we. She's going. This place isn't safe for her.'

'The boss will fire you!' said the turian in amazement.

'I gave him human soldiers. Ammunition against the Alliance. He'll promote me.'

The other turians looked so impressed by his daring that I had a hard time not to laugh.

'Take her to the dock. It's dock...' he checked his omni tool, '"A" nineteen. It's a volus trading vessel.'

One of the officers nodded and led me towards a shuttled. Just before I entered I received a message for my omni tool. It was Garrus's e-mail address along with the words: Keep in touch.

The speed of everything, the fast paced departure and the attack left me speechless as the shuttle flew on towards the dock.

'So... impressive work on Akuze.' said the officer conversationally. 'I'm sorry for your loss.'

'So am I.' I said quietly. It only now dawned on me that I was not only leaving the Citadel but also the dependency on others behind me.

'If the Alliance knew what was good for them, they'd hire you. I've seen your marks in engineering and you're like a quarian.'

He sounded like an enthusiastic fan.

'What's your name?' I asked.

'Wans. Demorian Wans.' he said cheerfully. 'And I know your name, of course. The C-Sec has been buzzing with it in my department. Ah, here we are.' he finished sadly as we arrived at the dock. 'Have a pleasant journey!'

The volus are very short, rather plump-looking creatures. Because of the chemicals in the atmosphere on their original planet, they can't breathe oxygen like we can and so always wear enviro-suits with masks that obscure their faces. I stepped forward to the volus who looked more like a robot than the rest. This was the captain.

'Ah, the human. Just in time.' he took a very deep breath. 'We are almost done-' another deep breath, '-with loading the cargo.'

'Shall I get straight to the engines?' I asked.

'Yes. I have an asari aboard as well, so you won't be the only non-volus.' he said between deep breaths. 'She's at the engine deck as well, I think. The only place that you'll have some place to sleep, but better than nothing.'

I nodded, eager now. I longed to rough the space in a small trading vessel. It seemed like such an adventure.

The ship was a pyramid-shaped half-oval square, odd but aerodynamic, with only one window at the cockpit.

'You are familiar with Astra Lux engines?' asked the captain, seeing me eye the ship.

'Standard engines designed with a medium mass effect core that can travel the same length as a turian war ship Agarda. No standardized shield, have to be modified by hand. Easily upgradable and in a luxury economical income class, am I right?'

The volus nodded, impressed.

I entered the ship, which smelled a lot like a Mako, only clearer, colder somehow. It refreshed me.

The crew was close to a skeleton crew already, but all of them knew what they were doing. I followed the signs to the engine deck and put my bag down near an improvised bed. I hadn't noticed the asari sleeping in it as I sat down.

Asari are blue human-like people, I wasn't really sure whether they were all actually female or if it was just a myth originating from the fact that no one has ever seen a male asari.

'Ah!' I said in surprised and leapt up from the bed.

'What? Oh, again? What?' asked the confused asari.

'No, no, sorry I didn't notice you were there. You were under the blankets and... all.' I tried to explain.

She looked at me and blinked, shaking the sleep out of her eyes.

'Oh. You must be our new engineer.' she said, smiling sheepishly and getting up.

'Yeah. I'm Min.' I offered her my hand, which she shook.

'I am Liara. I, myself, have no purpose on this ship. I am merely buying passage to Regdov, an obscure planet in the Terminus Systems.' she said, explaining things before anything could be misunderstood.

'Terminus? Isn't that mostly pirate and rogue nations which roam the space?'

'Not quite, but it is the one I mean, yes.'

I nodded, impressed. This asari must be a powerful biotic if she is heading out there alone. I saw a heavy handgun hidden under her pillow.

'I'm looking forward to travelling with you.'

'So do I.' she replied, sitting back down on the bed.

'Ah, how long is to wherever you are going?' I asked, looking about the engine deck.

'Regdov is a week's travel from here, but we will be stopping at ports as well, to trade and find out the value of things. These volus are serious about making money.'

A week in such a small room would definitely put my adventure desires down. But I didn't mind for the moment.

'So what's on Regdov?' asked as I began to make friends with the engine. It was full of the worst kind of crap. I shook my head. This ship had been sorely neglected.

'I have heard of ruins there and suspect that they might be prothean.'

'So you're an archeologist?' the stupid engine wouldn't go above half the power unless I cleaned it out. How could one mess up a mass effect core so badly? I set a standard routine for rerouting which made a tiny difference to the mess, but the engine was too neglected for me to fix in one hour's time.

'Yes. I am an expert in protheans, though my studies haven't been given the attention I would wish they did.' replied the asari.

I looked around at her, frowning.

'You're an expert on protheans?'

'Yes.'

'But they died out... a long time ago.' I didn't know the specifics. 'And they left nothing behind. Or very little.'

'Indeed. And that is what I am trying to understand.'

'Yeah, but I mean; if they barely left anything behind, how can you be an expert?'

She smiled at my criticism, clearly having heard this before.

'I doubt that there is anyone alive today who knows about them as much as I do. I have spent forty five years researching them with unsurpassed dedication. If anyone else knows more than I do then I would love to meet them and share the knowledge.'

I nodded.

'So what do you thi-... Wait.' I looked around again. 'Forty five? You don't look a day older than twenty.'

I had imagined ancient asari with white hair and a cane. Though they didn't have hair. And their natural biotics supplemented canes.

'Ah, and so I would be if I had been human. But asari live long lives and being only a century old, I am barely more than a child amongst my people.'

'Wow.' I said, blinking in amazement. 'I was just confused... no grey hair.'

She laughed.

'Ah, that is why humans always mistake me for twenty. I should have known.' and she laughed again.

It really wasn't that funny.

The engine began to complain as the pilot started it up. The captain came down to see us.

'So here's the deal. All you have to do is to keep it running. If it breaks down, fix it. But I won't pay for spare parts for it, so just patch it up the best you can.' he said between deep breaths through his mask.

'No problem.' I said. 'Just let me clean this out and it'll be as good as new.'

'No, I don't have the money for spare parts-...'

I held up my hand, scanning the core with my omni tool. It was in bad shape and parts would do, but some precision patching was just as effective, if not more so.

'There's no need for spare parts.' I said, waving him away. 'Now let me do what I do best.'

'Engines?' he asked, enthusiastic at my responses.

'No. Pressing buttons.' I replied, not looking at him.

I began with removing the core burns on the exterior of the core itself. Not cleaning them was just plain unprofessional.

'Who was the previous engineer?' I asked, annoyed. 'Because he sucked.'

'My brother.' answered the volus, not sure how to take that.

'Oh.' I searched for words but couldn't find any. 'Well he sucked.' I finished bluntly.

The volus shook his head and left.

'You were too hard on the captain.' whispered Liara.

'How so?'

'His brother died on the trip to the Citadel. He suffocated in his suit.'

And now I felt bad. The guilt was really, really heavy on me as I continued working.

'So this is why they aren't too fond of humans.' I said, sounding conversational.

'You couldn't have known.' comforted the asari.

'I could have been tactful.'

'You are not the kind of person who's tactful.' she said, musingly.

'Are you a human expert as well?'

She didn't reply. It took me four hours just to fix the exterior of the core, patching together all the burnt power circuits and rerouting the original ones back to where they were supposed to be.

Liara was watching me interestedly.

'I haven't seen Phor work as much on this engine as you have done.' she commented. 'Maybe you were right. He might have been a poor choice for an engineer.'

'I can do a lot more for the core, but not right now. Any more tweaking at the moment will have it imploding.' I said, pretending to walk away towards the bed very carefully.

'Oh! But you shouldn't have-...'

'I'm joking. I'm just sick of numbers.' I said, sitting down beside her.

'We are within relay range. Heading to Horse head nebula in three, two, one...'

I felt the ship being dragged along a kind of powerful elastic rubber that shot us away into the space.

As they didn't report the drift I checked it on my omni tool. We drifted over three million light seconds. I shook my head. This ship could do with a better pilot as well.

'What is it?' frowned Liara.

'See these numbers? That's the normal drift for a ship after a relay jump. Here's ours.'

She blinked.

'That's... poor. Even for a ship this old. You might have put in too much power for them to manage it.'

I hadn't thought of that. I decided to go and speak with the pilot.

'What is it, Earth-clan?' asked the volus, looking frantically at his instruments as I entered the cockpit.

'I just cleaned some of the crap away from the engine, so you'll have more power than usual to compensate for.' I said, gesturing vaguely towards the engine deck.

He looked at me, or I thought he did, it was hard to tell with the suits, and then nodded.

'I'll make sure to adjust the power feed.' he nodded.

After having spent five hours on this ship, I decided to finally take a tour around it. There wasn't much to see. There were four decks all in all. The crew deck, the destination deck, the engine deck and the cargo deck.

The showers were made for volus, so I wouldn't be able to use them. Well I could, but my skin would melt off my skeleton and I would die a painful death. Something a few of the volus seemed to look forward to. Mercifully enough they had normal toilets.

None of them approached me in the mess as I took my portion of the food. The volus ate a kind of paste with something green and something that looked like a very hard bun. I knew it was hard because they had to break it open with their knives.

I'd been given pasta with gravy and fruit juice. Not bad, considering the state of the rest of this ship.

'I chose to travel with this ship because of the food.' said Liara as she sat down beside me. 'They are not friendly or even polite, but it has been months since my last good meal.'

I shook my head in amazement.

'Being an archeologist doesn't pay off?'

'Not as much as I had hoped, no. Most of what I find is later salvaged and monopolized by private companies. I have no say in the matter.' she sounded bitter. 'But I do gain a lot of valuable knowledge that they miss out on. I am in the process of writing a book on the protheans that I expect will raise my funds. For now, I am forced to travel like this.'

'I'm sorry about that.' I looked around to make sure that no one heard. 'They don't even have real showers!'

She laughed.

'That is a standing issue for wherever I go. Though in most places the excavation team provides showers, lodging and food.'

'Wait. Excavation team? How exactly do you, um, archeologize?'

'Whenever ruins or technology from the protheans is uncovered the people finding it usually send out a message on one extranet site or another. Sometimes they send messages directly to me, like now, and I will proceed with the excavations, aided by their machinery. But this time it doesn't sound like a ruin or a building. It was a very obscure piece of rumour that I found buried in planetary data that was gathered by probes. The exact location hadn't been pinpointed and so there had been no way to confirm, short of scouring the planet by foot.'

'Then how will you find it?'

'I have a program that picks up on anything prothean. It had taken me more than a hundred excavations to finish the program but I am confident that it will do it's job.'

I nodded. This made perfect sense.

'So is prothean tech and artifacts valuable or are they just really old?'

She pondered the question for a moment. It seemed to have more than just one answer.

'If I dig up a burial site, then it will be valuable to me for I learn of rites and customs of the protheans, thus helping the rest of the galaxy to understand them but ultimately, it won't be worth any money. But if I dig up a prothean databank or tech cache then it could sell for a rather high amount, but I would never sell such a thing. Not that I come across anything like that often.'

I nodded again. I could see her problem. She was interested in the knowledge with no care for monetary gain beyond the necessities. This was a hard line to walk and I felt very impressed by her perseverance.

'But why don't people just keep the ruins, artifacts or things like that for themselves?' I asked. 'Why do they ask for archeologists?'

'Most do keep them. And often these relics are worth little. Most of what I visit is exactly the same as that which I have visited a hundred times before. And many will never know a treasure even if they find it. And then there are some who simply clear away the rubble.' she looked angry at that. 'Because they don't realize the potential value the ruins might hold. But there are some who are willing to have experts have a look at it. After all, they do not pay us so they have nothing to lose and might gain a trinket if they do call us.'

What she was describing sounded very exciting and interesting. I almost wished that I could come with her. Of course, I couldn't. Not while the people responsible for my mother's death were at large. I felt an uneasy feeling creep up on me as I realized that I hadn't started looking. I had enough money to make my way back to Akuze. But I couldn't survive Akuze again if there were any more bugs left. A thought struck me. Well, it didn't strike me, more like slapped me and told me to get a grip. I considered it in silence for a while, eventually deciding to hold it off until I was sure that I should.

'And why did you take a post on a volus vessel?' she asked me, seemingly to break the silence.

'A few reasons. Mainly because they are headed my way. Port Maverick, from there I can hire a ship to Akuze. Also, because this trip pays me seven hundred credits. More than any other one-way thing. I think that these guys are afraid of an engine dying on them.'

Which was very likely considering the state of the core.

'Akuze...' she mused. 'I've heard of it lately, I think.'

'You have?' I'd hoped that she was far enough away from reality to know about it.

'Yes. I'm not sure where though. Do you have family on Akuze?'

'Not anymore.'

'Ah...' she looked down, red-faced, as far as asari went. 'Forgive me for mentioning it then.'

I tried to read my facial expression, but couldn't due to the annoyance of letting this slip.

The ship went out of FTL two hours later, a pleasantly short trip due to my constant tweaking of the engine.

'You know what you're doing, Earth-clan, I'll give you that.' said the captain, visiting the engine deck to check up on us. 'Two more stops miss T'Soni and I expect payment. No more stalling or I'll have you work in the mess for the next month.'

She nodded calmly as if it was no problem but as the volus turned his back on us I saw panic in her body language.

My mother had a way of recognizing when you did something wrong. And she would have a very good way of getting it out of you. She would put pressure on you, simply by waiting and watching while you waited for the judgement to be made. Until you were in panic about how bad it could be. Then she would sit down next to you and hug you, saying that it's not really that important. At this point one usually spilled the beans and spent the next two months washing dishes.

I looked at the asari levelly, watching how she felt more and more uncomfortable. Then I realized that she had already panicked and sat down beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

'You have a good cause for which to hitchhike for free.' I said simply.

'I don't know.' she sighed covering her face with her hands. 'This isn't the first time I travel with his ship and crew. And this isn't the first time I'm late in payment.'

Why had I wanted to hear this exactly? I couldn't remember. I had no idea how to deal with crying aliens.

'I owe more money than I can pay back within the coming year. Thirty two thousand credits. I don't know how to make that much money in three weeks. I don't think that I have more than that until the people in question come collecting.'

'Can't you ask you parents for money... or something?' I asked, remembering the question I had about asari males.

She laughed bitterly.

'My mother is a powerful matriarch. As far as she is concerned I'm wasting my time with these digs and excursions. She would happily lend me a million credits if I were to spend them on something she approves of.'

'Say that you want to buy a pony.' I suggested.

'Did you fail to hear the word "powerful"?' she asked, looking up. 'And what is a pony?'

'It's a thing... like a tiny horse. Girls like them because... they are fun to look at. And you can ride them.' I tried to explain.

'I hope that that's not a euphemism.'

I shook my head, trying to figure out what that could be a euphemism for.

'Good. Because everyone keep telling me that I'm lousy at recognizing them.' she said bracingly. She looked a lot calmer now. I decided to ask her.

'Look. Do you know what happened on Akuze recently?'

She shook her head, puzzled at this change of topic.

'Well, it got destroyed by huge creatures.'

Her eyes widened as she remembered something.

'Are you that girl? The one who survived amongst, what was it, two hundred colonists?'

'Yes.' I said, exasperated. I didn't like people bringing it up. 'And I need someone to come along with me to Akuze. I also have more than thirty two thousand credits.'

She made the connection instantly.

'I'm sorry, but I can't be derailed. Not even for so much money, which I think that you should not waste, by the way.'

'I wasn't finished.' I'd expected as much. Ruins were important while they were still fresh. Figuratively. 'There is something in particular that I'm looking for and that I don't expect to find on Akuze. Something that I'll need help with.' I touched the gun under her pillow very pointedly. 'And I'm willing to go and help you with the ruins first.'

She frowned and tried to figure this out in her head. There would apparently be gun fire involved. But she would be free of debt. Yet she had no idea who I was. But she would be accompanied to the ruins. What if this was a set-up? They wouldn't have sent an Alliance symbol for a set-up.

'What is it that you are looking for?' she asked, having made up her mind.

Regdov was a very rocky and green world. There was life on it. Birds that jumped twenty feet in the air with their powerful legs before taking off. We'd rented the shuttle that took us here for one month, that's when the volus vessel would be returning to pick it up from Port Coulai, the closest asari colony from here.

I sniffed the air. It was very clear, as the air usually is in the mountains, but still tinged with thick sweetness.

'I can see why the protheans lived here.' I said, looking about the paradise. A frog-like thing with six legs jumped out of the water. It looked at me balefully, opened it's mouth to allow the two tongues to roll out and took a deep breath. It seemed to have frozen as still as a statue and remained that way for as long as I looked.

'Come. It will not move until we leave.' said Liara, leading me away. 'My scans tell me that there is a prothean object just north of where we are right now. On the opposite side of where the probe had been sent.' she frowned.

'How would it have detected anything if it wasn't even on the right spot?' I asked, not really caring about the answer.

'I don't know. Either this was a very extensive colony or several different ones. It is also possible that this world was fully settled fifty thousand years ago.'

'No way. There'd be a lot more stuff left.' I shook my head. I was certain of that.

'Every other world I have visited was exactly the same. An obscure structure that might have been part of something larger would stand with no signs of anything else around it. As if someone was picking up the crumbles and missed one. Or not noticed it.'

'You think that they covered up behind them as they died out?' I asked, frowning at this logic. Maybe they'd all found god and decided that there was no more point in living. Who knows, right?

'I think... I think that someone else must have done that.' she said seriously.

'What, pirates?'

'No, I mean back then. I don't think that protheans were the only civilization that was space-faring. Thought I am I certain that they were the most advanced ones at the time.'

I tried to figure out the implications in my head as we walked along a naturally-made path towards our goal.

'So what you are saying is that there was a civilization that, though inferior in numbers and technology, wiped out the protheans?'

She shook her head.

'I do not know. There are so many theories about the extinction of protheans, many of which seem plausible, that I don't know what to believe.'

I made a funny noise that was a snort, I think.

'You're the expert, it's your theories that should count, not some extranet forum... nerd opinion.'

'You are right. And as I said before, I am not certain what to believe.'

The omni tool started making frantic noises, encouraging us to stop at the top of a rather high hill or a very low mountain.

'This is it.' she said bracingly.

'You know, when we spoke about "excavations" and things,' I said, looking about this place in doubt. 'You made it sound as if we would have tools. And railings.'

'But this is not an excavation site. This is us; making a potentially monumental discovery.' she said, excited at the prospect.

I pressed a few buttons on my omni tool, calling the shuttle to our location. There was just enough ground for it to land without making the dig site inaccessible.

We took forward a number of laser cutters, some sort of hammers and pickaxes, a kind of metal totem-like thing that created strong shock-waves. Different recording devices, a shield that filtered the UV light from the sun and an instruction manual on how to use all of this. It took us four hours to set all of this up, during which we speculated wildly about what might have caused the prothean extinction, going as far as suggesting that they might still be alive somewhere on a hidden world. Or that they were all ghosts.

'Yeah, maybe they invented something that could turn them into dark energy. Immortality at it's best and all that.' I said, rolling my eyes. I knew that we were being ridiculous.

Finally, having calibrated the lasers to touch nothing but ground and work slowly so that nothing would be damaged by it, we could have a break.

'You do this on your own usually?' I asked, exhausted from all the physical work. The volus's ship engine seemed like a walk in the park right now. To be honest, my joy of all green was gone by now as this place was very hot, very green and I hadn't taken a shower in four days. Last time was at Port Ethi, a small turian colony that was particularly beautiful but very dangerous because of it's toxic rain.

'Yes.' she sighed as she sat down in the shuttle, it's door opened wide to give us a beautiful view of the landscape above and below. 'I must admit, help makes a huge difference. Especially from someone who is technically apt. I expected to be here for weeks, setting all this up, but we might be done by tomorrow.'

I looked at the pile of equipment left to set up before we could start digging. Metal covers to keep the rocks from falling on our head once we finally enter our tunnel, spikes to keep the hill, or mountain, from becoming structurally unstable by our digging. An electric field around the area, with low voltage, to keep wild animals away. I'd had some fun with setting that one up, vibrating through out the whole thing. I still trembled here and there.

'You are dedicated, I'll give you that.' I sighed.

She'd been setting up the power lines for the lasers and her electric shocks hadn't been nearly as fun. Eventually I had to do it for her because her clothes had started to smoke.

Only now, that we got a chance to think about other things aside from equipment manuals, did I realize what I was doing. And what I had been doing all day long. I was on some alien planet with weird frogs and spiralling birds, a a bird with only one wing that had good legs for climbing trees and then jumping form them. I was also searching for an obscure piece of prothean ruin, and I was doing so with the help, or as the help, of an asari prothean expert. I had to admit, none of this was a part of my plan. But I had time. For now, there was a more pressing matter to attend to.

'Liara?'

'Yes?'

'I have a question. About, ah, your people.'

She looked curiously at me.

'What do you want to know?'

'Is it true that there are only asari women? There aren't any men?'

She laughed at that question which made it sound very stupid.

'Male and female are terms that we didn't know of until interstellar travel was discovered. Asari are mono-gendered, the same way that indigenous life form of Thessia, our home planet, is. Of course, this leads to many rumours about, ah, promiscuity and other perverse rituals.'

I thought about this.

'So... how does it work?' I blushed. 'I don't mean to pry or anything, but normally there's a "man" involved when making babies.'

We both laughed at that, though I sounded a lot more hesitant than she did. Sex wasn't new to me, it was alien.

'We do not mate the same way that other species do. We do not always require bodily contact. It is a melding of our minds, leaving an imprint of our genetic code. It is a complete and ultimate union that displays trust in each other. Or so I like to think of it, though of course, there are always those who sell their services for money.'

I nodded.

'So, you "mate" through biotics?'

'Yes.'

I thought about this. How could evolution have happened in such an odd way on Thessia? Normally there's two of everything. A man and a woman. Left hand and right hand. Up and down. Sun and moon. Day and night. Left brain, right brain. Maybe Thessia defied the unwritten law of physics in more than one way? On the other hand, if they are all natural biotics, then maybe two doesn't have to mean different. It might be two of the same. Oh. It was, wasn't it? They needed to be two for mating. I was getting stupid.

'Now I have a question to ask in turn.' said Liara, and I was certain that I knew what was coming.

I hadn't told her why I needed her help or why I was paying so much for it though she had tried to trick it out of me on several occasions.

'Sure.' I said, bracing myself.

'What happened on the Citadel?'

I blinked.

'What?'

'What happened on the Citadel? As far as I can tell, eighteen is young, even by human standards. Normally you should still be in school, educating yourself. I did not ask for it didn't seem to concern me at the time, but you have started to shut yourself away day by day. It is harder to speak to you every time I wake up.'

I thought about this. Maybe that was it. Maybe I was just too wrapped up in myself to have time to talk to others. I'd been plotting ways of approaching my dilemma, avenging my mother, finding the people responsible. And I had forgotten that no one else was as preoccupied as I was.

'I'll give you the short version.' I offered. I'd edit it well. 'At first I arrived at the hospital with the soldier who survived as well. I spent there, what, a week? Then I was allowed to go home, only... home isn't home.' I couldn't talk about it. I couldn't phrase it right. I couldn't even phrase it wrong, the words were stuck in my throat.

Liara said nothing, just watched me intently.

'My father was on Eden Prime when the stuff on Akuze happened.' I began again. 'And he had met another woman. Well, your kind aren't women I suppose, but it doesn't really matter.' I wondered if I minded that Liara was an asari or whether Liara'd mind that my father had decided to cheat on my mother with an asari. I decided that it didn't matter. 'And when I realized what was going on...'

There was a long silence. I looked up to see whether Liara had understood.

'And you blame asari for seducing your father?' she assumed, with good reason.

'No.' I replied honestly. 'I blame my father. The asari hadn't been married and had a child. She hadn't forced herself on him. He had made the choice to be with her and he made the choice to have a child with her.' my voice was full of venom and hate at those words. 'You don't know someone. Not ever. Especially not when they are never there to be known.' I laughed bitterly. 'He hadn't seen me in real life since I was six. I'd spoken to him over the extranet now and again, but that's it. He was a complete stranger. Now he's a stranger that I have good reason to hate.'

Liara thought about this for a moment and, though she didn't show it, I could sense relief coming from her.

'I would have thought that you would blame our different way of life for your father's mistake, and not the other way around.'

I shook my head. She hadn't understood the key point.

'No, look. If you had cheated on your wife, or husband, would you then take the person you had cheated with to see your family? And bring her daughter at that?'

She blinked, confused.

'You are right. It makes no sense.'

Again, she had failed to see the obvious. Were everyone so thick or was I just too trusting? I didn't know.

'You're wrong. It makes perfect sense. It undoes everything. If he was brave enough to bring her, Melana or whatever her name was, then he, no, then both of them had a good explanation for what had happened. It had been unintentional, that can't be denied. If he'd meant to betray mother then he would never have shown his lover's face anywhere near me.'

Liara looked at me for a second in wonder.

'You are much like an asari matriarch.' she said eventually. 'You ignore the obvious and look straight to the truth of the matter.'

'What is a matriarch? Are they some kind of oracles?' I asked, blushing with the praise.

'They are elder asari. The matriarch stage is the final stage in the life of an asari. The experience they gain on their way to becoming a matriarch makes them exceptionally valuable leaders. This is why our race excels at diplomacy, more than any other respect.'

'So you'll become a matriarch?'

'Yes, someday. But it will take centuries yet. We do not enter the matriarch stage until around six or seven hundred years of life.'

'Wait. Remember the day we met? In the mess? You said that your mother was a powerful, rich matriarch. How old is she?'

'She is roughly seven hundred years old. But she is cunning and very powerful in biotics, thus many other, elder, matriarch look to her for counsel.'

We were silent for a long while, watching the flickering sunset. The silence was broken by a message that had somehow reached me out here in the middle of nowhere.

It was from Garrus.

'Min, this is Garrus. I can't say much in case someone intercepts this transmission, but I must warn you, and this time you'd better take the hint.' he paused. 'Do not trust the Alliance. The soldiers, they were hired directly by someone in the Alliance. You are off the grid right now and wherever you are and whatever you are doing, keep doing it until we've managed to establish who's behind it all.' he looked down at a note. 'Also, your father tells me that he is really sorry and knows how you must feel. He wishes that you will be well. He's also forwarding money to a secure account.'

The message ended with an account number and an access code. I tried to check how much money I now had, but there was no connection to the extranet out here. I guessed that Citadel must have some kind of amplifiers of signals.

'What was that about?' asked Liara. As the message had been played up into my earpiece, she hadn't heard a thing.

'A friend with a message from father and some more money.' I shrugged.

'He must be really worried about you.'

I shook my head.

'Actually, as best I can tell, he'd like me to stay where I am, wherever that may be.'

Liara looked shocked.

'And I thought that my mother was distant.'

I sighed. She clearly wanted to talk about her issues as well.

'What's wrong between you and your mother?' I asked, returning her curtsey.

'I can tell that you don't want to know.' she smiled.

I harrumphed.

'Well I didn't, but now that you say it like that I do. Go on, what's your story?'

'She is a very powerful person. Always associating with diplomats, aristocrats and leaders of people and worlds. Many of her friends and followers assumed that I would follow in her footsteps, become a great and wise matriarch.' she shook her head sadly. 'That is one of the reasons for my interest in protheans. They are enigmatic and obscure. Only a very few are actually researching them and here I don't have to keep my head down, for no one will care either way.'

'So... you research the proteans to spite your mother? That doesn't sound very matriarchal.'

'No. I have always been interested in them, but I never considered pursuing my interests until the matters with mother elevated. More and more people began insisting that I would follow in her footsteps, so I left. Much like you did. And began studying protheans. It is only in recent five or six years that money have been scant. I'd managed to take a good amount of credits before I left.'

'Your mother must have been thrilled.' I whistled.

'She wasn't particularly enthusiastic, no, but she never told me to return nor to abandon my research. She simply never showed much enthusiasm for it.'

'Do you speak with her still?'

'Yes. From time to time. But I don't want her to know how much trouble I am in. That would force her hand and send for people to bring me back to Thessia, or Citadel. Wherever she lives at the moment.'

I took a deep breath. This had been a very deep conversation. I wasn't sure if I liked Liara or not, but if we were comfortable with talking about these things, then I guess I had made a friend, at least.

As I was taking that breath, my mouth opened and I yawned widely.

'It is getting late.' smiled Liara. 'We should eat and then rest.'

'Oh no!' I complained. 'It's them! The fogria! Jean didn't like them and I'm afraid of why she didn't like them!'

Liara stared at me uncomprehending.

'You don't like them?'

'I don't mind them. But, that soldier form Akuze, Jean, she didn't seem to like them. And she seemed to know something about them. And I don't know what. And I'm not sure I can eat them on that basis.'

I know that I sounded stupid but that was the best way I could describe my mixed feelings about this plant. 'It tastes fairly... alright.' I offered as I saw Liara's amused smile.

'It is said that they taste differently for everyone.' she said, taking a bite out of one.

'Oh yeah, I'd heard that. But it's really just different for every species.' I nodded knowledgeably.

'That's the red fogria. This is the green one. It tastes differently depending on the hormone levels in your body. So it may even taste differently for the same person, if he or she has mood swings.'

'How does hormones affect taste?'

'Taste is just a perception to tell us how our body would like something. Though with all the chemical additions, that sense is merely procreational, during the more primal stages of evolution we have used it to great effect.'

'That doesn't answer my question.' I frowned. She was more talkative than usual.

'No. I don't know the answer. I haven't studied human biology and physiology much.'

Hoping for a change in taste, or hormone levels, I took one of the fogria. It taste much the same as it had before. I looked at Liara eating them and willed the damn things to taste better. The next one was perceptibly sweeter.

'Oh, cool. They are like, mind fruits.' I laughed.

'What?'

'Well, I'm not sure what I thought about...' I said, thinking about all the various thoughts in my head as I had bitten into the fogria. '... but it tastes slightly sweeter.'

I wanted to cry with frustration as Liara suddenly wore the exactly same expression as Jean had done when we had discussed the taste of fogria before. I should have looked up fogria on the extranet.

'What? What's the big secret?' I asked, annoyed.

'It's just unusual, that's all.' said Liara, smiling.

I worked hard but eventually saw the signs of lie in her body language. She'd done a good job of covering it up.

I threw my hands up and reached for the canned food instead.

'Don't tell me, I'll find out soon enough anyways.'

Morning brought sore muscles and parched throat along with it like an unwelcome guest bringing a drunk DJ and his girlfriend. I didn't want to dig anymore, it reminded me too much of home. Of Akuze. Of Darya, the colony.

Also, I smelled awful, so the first thing we did was to go down the hill, or mountain, and find a lake or stream or waterfall to get cleaned up. Asari didn't seem to smell bad as far as I could tell, but the dirt on our hands was still a matter that needed to be attended to. Also, she didn't need to wash her hair, as she didn't have any. I'd pointed that out to her on out way down.

'True, but my scalp needs hygienic care if I don't want it to start to flake at the ends. Also, sweat gathered at the back of my neck...' she gestured towards the muscles that seemed to be lined up on the outside on her neck. '... might cause infections or at least bad odour.'

Very luckily for us we found a river running just at the foot of the hill, or mountain. A river that zigzagged between the mountains and hills, coming from what seemed to be the tallest mountain. I guessed that there would be a lake if we followed it but Liara pointed out that there might be dangerous animals in the lake and so we made do with the river.

At least there were no dangerous land animals. I knew that with certainty because this vegetation hadn't gone beyond grass and small bushes, so there were no mammals on land yet.

I'd usually been shy about how I looked and never undressed in company if I could help it but at the moment, clean was the preferred state, and not clothed. But looking down at my body and seeing the burns from the radiation, the scars from the surgery and the bullet wound from the shot in my leg made me almost grotesque.

I couldn't help but sit down and bury my face in my hands. I'd done the same thing last time I showered. I tried not to tremble as hate for my appearance made me cry with frustration, but there's only so much self restraint one could manage. I tried not to touch any of the scars as I began washing myself and did my best to ignore Liara's gasp of horror as she looked around to face me.

'What has happened to you?' she asked, her voice full of worry.

'You don't get out of a place full of thresher maws and rachni without being marked.' I said in a tone that suggested I meant to say "shut up and look away".

She didn't notice my tone. Instead she came over to me and tried to hug me.

'I don't need pity, Liara. Leave me alone. Just-...' I was too upset to speak so instead I walked away from her, further down stream so that I'd be out of her sight.

The worst scar was the burn-like scar on my stomach that covered most of the left side of torso and my forearms that I'd kept hidden under my shirt. It was ugly. I felt like a vorcha. The surgical scars were thin and neat. If it hadn't been for the rest of the scars, I wouldn't have minded the surgical ones. I wasn't vain, not really, but this was too much, even for me. I touched the scar on my face as well, the tiny burn just at my hairline. It wasn't particularly noticeable as the surgeons had planted the hair back on, covering most of the scar.

Who'd want me? I was bad mating material. And I haven't even mated yet! This was so unfair that I felt more tears coming.

'Shit. I mean crap. Alright Min, take a deep breath. Wash. Go back.'

With this I looked forward, stubbornly not looking down, no matter what my hands felt, and washed away the dirt and sweat with the soap I'd brought. It smelled nice, the soap, and I was distracted, thinking of real showers and beds with width, like the one in Garrus's apartment. I missed Garrus and his cool and easy manner. I missed TV. And I wanted to find out what those fogria were about. And I wanted to know what was going on on the Citadel. Why should I be careful of the Alliance? The human version of the Council? They should be protecting me!

A theory formed in my mind but I dismissed it because I had no proof. I needed proof, or else I'd go berserk.

I found it hard to look at Liara when I had at last returned to our dig site. I wasn't sure what I had said or if I had offended her and she was silent, so I couldn't judge what she was upset about.

'I'm sorry if I offended you.' she said as I was closer to her and the shuttle where she had started to set up a mineral scanner. 'I didn't mean to... I had no idea.'

'No, no. That's fine, I just overreacted. I'm vain or something, I don't know. But it's dealt with. I think. So let's get back to work.' I tried to be and sound casual but, again, there are somethings in body language that can't be faked.

She nodded bracingly, ready to be productive and inspired all over again and I remembered that I really didn't want to do any more of this stuff. But, alas, work never goes away on its own. If it did, meaning would cease and we would all die from boredom. You know, because boredom is much worse than starvation and war.

'I found something that might encourage us to work at a higher rate.' said Liara.

I had to look up and see this. Did she bring drugs? A robot? A salarian? She was pressing buttons on the omni tool. She'd brought music.

At first it didn't make sense to me and I thought that the singer was singing in asari. I'd told Liara that I couldn't speak that many languages. But then it dawned on me that the singers voice was simply that hard to follow. It was rather like a whisper, hypnotic and rough. Take that, the drums, the violin and various other instruments and music sounded very... work-like.

'I like it.' I nodded. 'Who are they?'

'Ah... I don't know. But I was adviced that a steampunk band, or was it sound? Anyway, I was adviced that steampunk would be a fitting genre for working with tools.'

It was. It felt a lot easier to start working again. Though my body still didn't fancy moving about much, I felt much lighter on my feet and bending was a good deal easier.

It took us seven hours, lunch included, to set up the rest of the tools and we started reading the instruction manuals, with no music to help us.

'I'd have thought that you knew how to use these by now.' I pointed out.

'These are a different make, and upgraded at that, from what I am used to. Usually I use human, turian or asari technology. They make more sense and are generally easy to control. But this... Well, we shall see.'

'Who made these?'

'A salarian colony makes them. Look, even the instruction manuals are in the colonial language.'

She pointed out a few markings that I'd taken to be decorative.

'Good thing they translated it.'

After a few more minutes it was clear that nothing more was to be gained for the manuals and we decided to have a go at drilling.

Everything was calibrated. Everything was powered and regulated. And I had my newly bought goggles on. I'd gotten them at Port Ethi.

'Alright, stand back and watch.' I said with a sense of occasion.

The thin laser started rotating and I could see the heat shifting the earth bit by bit at the same time as a hydrolic "cleaver" drill started it's careful way down the area of excavation.

After five minutes we had to stop and remove all the earth that the drill's two heads had moved up in order for the lasers to remain where they were and hit their targets. And we repeated the procedure. After every five minutes or so we stopped to shift the dug earth and to adjust the drills and lasers. Eventually the lasers gave a warning signal telling us that there was more than just earth bellow. It had taken hours, I didn't even like to think how many, but I knew that, even though we had started work with the sun only slightly past the centre of the sky, by now it was half way down, past the horizon.

'Do we go on now, or should we stop for the night?' I asked, hoping to end this quickly. I was tired as hell and I didn't want to wake up and do this again.

Liara looked at her watch. Then looked at the hole we had dug.

'There really isn't enough light.' she said eventually, as if conceding defeat. 'We should call it a day. Or night.'

I had to agree. I doubted that we could do much more without light.

'We did good.' I said encouragingly. 'Very good. Tomorrow we'll see what's hiding under the earth.'

I could see Liara squaring her shoulders, eager to find out exactly what's hiding under the earth. I wasn't too interested, but I wanted to know what it was that we had been working on for so long.

All this work with tools and dismantling things had actually brought one positive thing to us. We now had beds. Or one bed, but it was a really large one. Because we had to prepare the equipment inside the shuttle before mounting it, so that it wouldn't get sand into the mechanism, we had made a kind of work table. This work table took up the whole shuttle, but was very stable and, with the right pillows, very comfortable.

We didn't have the right pillows, but we had the next best thing. All our clothes in bundles.

'You're not going to tell me about the fogria, are you?' I asked, as we began eating a late dinner.

'I have. There is nothing more to it.' but she didn't meet my eyes.

'Fine, have it your way.' I said, biting into my canned, asari-planet beans. They were called Odni. The omni tools translation of that word was – A hidden stranger in a dark alley with three forks in his backside. Which wasn't a good translation. Liara had told me that they were the equivalent of human rice, and so I was satisfied with that.

The night was actually as warm as the day had been and so I took of my long sleeved shirt for something more comfortable. It was too dark, I thought, for my scars to be seen. And my earlier panic wasn't likely to return in my exhausted state at any rate.

I would have screamed had my mouth not been full of beans when something grabbed my left arm. It was only Liara, I knew that, but in the dark everything seemed a lot more likely. Like a rachni with hands.

'This really bothers you.' she said, stroking my scarred skin.

'Yes. No touching.' I said, pulling my arm away. And trying not to spill my beans. Literally.

'I just want you to know that... even with the scars, you are still beautiful.'

I thought this through. It didn't sound like a lie, but who knows? It was, in an odd way, comforting. It occurred to me that, while most would have said that out of pity, Liara was probably saying this because of her mono-genderedness. Maybe I looked different to her than I would to a human. Meh, it was still a nice thing to say.

'You haven't seen nothing.' I muttered, trying not to sound too pleased with the compliment.

'I did.'

'Oh yeah. Look, I know that it's disgusting and all that, but you don't have to comfort me or anything. I'll bet that there's some kind of surgery that fixes this. It's only skin, anyways. I'm not going to mope about it.'

She thought for a while. I could tell that she was thinking because she didn't move.

'Maybe I said it the wrong way. I don't know how to, ah, woo someone.'

I put the beans down so that I wouldn't drop them accidentally. Woo? Like in couples? Really? Me? Interesting. I wondered how I would react if a woman ever wooed me. Then I realized that one had. Kind of.

'Oh.' I let out a long breath. 'Woo? As in..?'

'We have spent much time together. And I have come to trust you, Min. You are my friend. But I feel that we could be more than that. I...'

I frowned at the unfinished sentence. Then Liara quickly drew back.

'What?' I asked, alarmed.

'I shouldn't have mentioned it. Forgive me, it was nothing. I should have known that... humans are different. And see us in another light...'

Oh crap. I had offended an asari. And a friend. I hadn't thought of that. More than a friend? I hadn't thought of that either. This was unfair towards me on so many levels. She'd have to give me time, at least. Pushy, pushy, pushy.

'Look, Liara.' I said in a half business like and half "seductive" tone of voice. 'I... think that I feel the same way. But you have to give me time to figure it out. You dropped a big bomb there. So to speak. I've never... you know... "united".'

She moved into another sitting position and the atmosphere in the shuttle seemed to change. It seemed to become homey.

'Of course. I realize that it might not have been something you have considered before.' she said, relieved. 'But don't do anything that you don't want to do.'

I thought this through. I wanted to do it. Admittedly, I wanted to do it with a man, but asari seemed to be a lot like... men. Only looking female. And when it came down to it, they were both, really. Or rather, they were none. No. They were independent women. Much like men, only with a feline power in them. I thought about what attracted me. I really thought. Nothing came to mind. Did I skip puberty? No I hadn't, I could remember the awkward bits of it clearly. Did I skip romance? Well, I am only eighteen... I couldn't figure this out. Curse Liara for bringing this up. I was too tired to make a decision one way or another. And so I decided to go to sleep.

The bed didn't seem nearly as big now as it would have without this new piece of information.