Chapter 6: Learning experience
Two weeks later:
Tokus' funds were beginning to run low. He'd been as frugal as he could, but paying for lodging for himself, Nolta and Kala was quickly draining his reserves. Food wasn't a problem, at least, not for himself or Kala, they had plenty of MRE's from the outpost. Where Nolta was obtaining his sustenance the turian couldn't even begin to guess, but evidently the youth had the situation worked out.
The Captain stopped just outside of the young man's room, listening to see if he might be about to intrude on any personal conversations or such. Satisfied that he wasn't going to violate the quarian's privacy, Voran keyed the door chime.
"Who es et?"
"Tokus."
"Come on en."
The mercenary entered the room catching sight of the quarian sitting at the head of the bed, the myriad components of his Kryr II neatly organized in front of him.
Nolta caught the captain's gaze and explained. "There's not much else t' do. Tell you release me from yer charge, I can't resume m' pelgremage. I've spent th' last few days tryin' t' optimize the heat sink and linear accelerators."
Tokus nodded at the weapon's element zero coils, a series of specialized loops that catapulted the rifle's slugs to obscene velocities. "May I?"
Lae gingerly grasped the part and handed it to the turian. Voran rotated the component in his hand, sighting along the length and turning each ring to align it in a specific pattern. "This how you had it originally?"
Nolta nodded. "Yeh, never was all that good with maintenance, mostly just pulled th' tregger. Could pop the cam from a geth at fefty yards on th' range."
Voran's upper lip flexed outward as he returned the rings to the position he'd received them in. "This configuration will get you better accuracy, but your stopping power will suffer for it."
"Accuracy's what I shoot weth. Ef the bullet can't het th' target, et doesn't matter ef et can stop a krogan."
"Good man." The respect in Tokus' manner radiated through his armor. "So many soldiers these days want their targets to go down in one hit, but they don't care how it's done. Do it quickly, do it cleanly, and you'll save everyone a lot of trouble." He carefully handed the component back to the pilgrim.
A moment of silence passed, Voran was about to speak again, but stopped himself as Nolta began his own sentence.
"I want t' thank y' Captain." He nodded as if to emphasize his statement. "You and Kala 've treated me like, well, normal I guess. Back on th' fleet, everyone treated m' special, like I was, unusual. I always knew I was deffrent, but, never knew how." He shook his head, reminiscing.
"No matter what I ded, someone else was better than me. I would always come up second or therd, but never ferst. The only thing I could do best was fight."
Tokus tilted his head and raised the cartilaginous ridges that served as his eyebrows signaling that he wanted the youth to expound.
Nolta huffed. "Hand t' hand, marksmenanshep, ef et envolved combat, none of 'em could touch me. I dedn't want that though. I just wanted t' be normal, for Keelah's sake! Good at engineering, at tech werk, somthen' like that." Tokus heard the bitterness in his tone.
"Et sucks, knowing that somehow, yer unique, but no-one'll tell y' why. They act like yer special. Y' know, en th' head?" He gestured towards his helmet with a sharp motion. "Y' look around and they all seem t' think they're smarter or somethen'. Et's bloody wrong!"
Tokus noted his young friend trembling with anger.
Nolta closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming himself. "I'm, sorry Captain, I jest, I guess I needed t' vent."
Tokus nodded "It's fine. If you keep it bottled up, it'll explode on the battlefield or somewhere stressful, and you don't want that." He waited for Nolta to digest the comment.
"People are afraid of what they don't understand," he finished.
Nolta heaved a deep sigh. "Aye, I guess that's true." A pause. "They sure as 'ell never understood me." He closed his eyes, recalling some dark memory. "My parents were given special permession t' hav a second child. Th' baby was stellborn, took her weth et. I never knew why, m' father wouldn't tell me." A sharp huff sounded from the quarian's helmet. "Now I know. Th' eezo exposure kelled 'er slowly."
Neither said a word for several minutes. Tokus shifted where he stood, pondering the quarian's revelation. Nolta finally spoke up again, evidently calmer than before. "I'm worried about 'er."
"Kala?" The turian's question came out flatly.
"Aye." Lae sounded almost despondent. "I thenk she likes me."
Tokus nodded. "So you've noticed."
"Et's nice, having a gerl like ya' an' all, but I hav t' get back to m' pelgremage soon." Nolt looked down. "'Sides, we're not even t' same species, hell, we're not even th' same amino base; a sengle kess could put me ento anaphylactic shock. I don't wan' t' hert her, but I hav t' break the news t' her sooner or later."
Tokus nodded. "That's what I came to talk to you about. My funds are running low..." He stopped for a moment, then cut to the chase. "She wants to go with you."
"I guess et can't be put off any longer." A hint of sadness crept into Nolta's voice when he responded. "I'll hav t' talk t' her tonight."
XxXxX
Tokus went against his better judgment that evening by deciding to eavesdrop on the couple. He watched as the two conversed, simple small talk comprising their initial discussion.
xXx
He had started out strongly enough, but his resolve quickly faded when Kala had taken his hand. It was such a simple gesture, but so charged with meaning. She'd helped him walk before, supporting his shoulder and arm to ease his step, but she'd never taken his hand. Nolta felt the warmth of her palm even through the specialized, insulated material of the environment suit's glove. His gaze lingered on each of her fingers, slender and delicate, but strong. Two more than almost any other species.
He looked into her sapphire eyes, each smiling at him with a now familiar radiance. "Kala, th' Captain's probably told y' that I hav t' get back t' m' pelgremage soon."
Her eyes seemed to brighten further as she nodded. If they kept up like that, she might be a quarian before long. "He's also told me that you were hopin' t' tag along."
"I would like to, yes."
"Look," his voice failed him. "Look, et's… We've only known each other for a little while. I don't want t' rush thengs. My pelgremage es gonna take me to some frighteneng places, and, I can't be responsible for anyone other than m'self."
"I can take care of myself, besides, it's not like I'll be alone." Her free hand trailed across the edge of his helmet and Nolta couldn't help but try to picture the warm, soft touch of her fingertips on his jaw.
His resolution snapped. Somewhere deep, he had a strong affection for this woman, where it had come from was anyone's guess, but it was there, and it refused to back down. "Ef you're sure… jest… gev et some time."
Tokus leaned around the corner. Youri was cradling the chin of Nolta's helmet in one hand and holding his left hand in the other. Her face bore a warm smile as she gazed at his faceplate. "Fine. I'll think about it, but you already know what I'm going to say." The smile didn't fade from her face as she reached up and around the quarian's neck, pulling her lips to his mask.
The silver lights in the quarian's helmet disappeared for a moment, then returned as Kala broke away from the faceplate.
XxXxX
Krovak Torr watched his newest employee with a hint of concern in his visage. Three weeks had passed since she'd killed the batarian rider gang, but her demeanor hadn't changed since the event. She was still focused on her work, but it seemed more purposeful, like she was trying to forget what had happened. Torr caught the sound of her muttering under her breath and moved closer.
"...ittle bosh'tet!" Her right arm snapped down, still clutching a short, flat tool meant to push specialized components into difficult-to-reach spaces. The young woman re-inserted the tool and tried again, but the result proved the same.
"Need any help there?" The massive beast's voice rumbled through her audio filters.
Rikka offered a sigh and stood up handing the instrument to him. Torr purposefully eased down to the cramped compartment she'd been working on. "Where is it?"
She knelt over his colossal frame and pointed to the wayward metal plug that had stubbornly refused to yield to her efforts. The krogan gave an understanding grunt and wrestled his arm into the narrow casing. Moments later, a soft click was heard and Torr lowered his arm from the speeder before handing the tool back to the tech.
"So, what did I just modify?" he chuckled.
"Engine output ran through the left side," she explained, resuming her station beneath the vehicle. "Convoluted mess of circuitry, bypassed it for better efficiency."
That was another thing that had changed, he thought. She'd always been most comfortable while working; whenever she was elbows deep in some program or engine block, you could get all kinds of conversation out of her. Whenever she wasn't working, she was quiet, reserved, and uncertain. Now, even while she worked, her tone had become more clipped, to the point.
"What's eatin' ya'?"
"Nothing."
Too easy. "It's a heckuva lot more than that." He waited for a response. Nothing. "Look, you made your first kill. To a krogan, that's a rite of passage. You should feel proud; a friend was threatened, you did what you could in his defense." He grinned, though she couldn't see it from where she was working. "Good bit 'o 'could' it was too."
Rikka heaved a sigh and pushed out from under the speeder. "I've got a lot of work to do."
Torr's smile vanished. "Look, I understand that you need to work this out, but keeping it to yourself is unhealthy. I'm a krogan, I approve of what you did, but that don't mean I can't help."
The quarian closed her eyes, processing his offer. "Okay, here it is. They give us guns, weapons, whatever, when we go on pilgrimage, you know, for self defense." She rolled out from under the machinery and glanced at Torr, who gave a slight nod. Nall pushed back under the speeder and resumed her task.
"They give us moderate training, marksmanship, hand to hand, tech attacks, that kind of thing, but it's all geared towards staying alive. Not once are we told 'if you see these kill them'. I attacked those batarians."
The krogan's voice was firm. "No, you defended yourself, acted on instinct; exactly what you should've done. This is Omega, the law of the jungle was born here, kill or be killed. They don't send you out on pilgrimage to end up on Omega. You're adapting, just like you're supposed to."
Author's notes:
Kala has been a really fun character to write, young, impetuous, and perky. Come chapter 7 or 8, I know she'll be changing at least slightly, but I'm not sure how. I know how Nolta will be changing, but I'm not entirely sure how to develop it in the next few chapters either. I guess what I'm trying to say here is I really wish Writer's Block didn't affect outlines. (I still can't get one up.)