Chapter 16: vas Andras

Nolta stepped into the ring neither confident nor nervous, but curious. What little he knew about his abilities seemed to suggest that they amplified force, but that was what he was about to find out.

The young man's opponent offered his hand, and the two combatants shook as a gesture of camaraderie before taking their stances. Like all quarians, Nolta had received basic training in hand-to-hand combat before leaving on his pilgrimage. His opponent was Mizna'Aaln, a full fledged marine with more than a few years of CQC training under his belt.

Pen gave the starting signal and Nolta launched into an explosive leap at his opponent. Mizna dodged to the side just before the youth's attack would have impacted. Aaln brought his hand around in a counter attack, expecting Nolta to be up and on his feet, but the young man had other ideas. As soon as he'd reached the apex of his leap, he twisted his body to face his opponent, reaching out with his left arm as he did so. It was a risky, highly unorthodox move, but it paid off.

Mizna felt a grip on his wrist and nearly lost his balance as Nolta pulled him forward. The marine felt a thunderous blow land on his back as Nolta's elbow came down in a brutal swing. The marine found himself toppling forward even as his opponent's curved calf swung into his solar plexus. A moment later, Nolta's opponent collapsed to the deck, completely unconscious.

Pen'Sul vas Andras stood motionless. The young man had downed Mizna in under ten seconds, something that had never been done before. Sure, the man had been beaten before, sometimes even knocked out, but the standing record was two and a half minutes; and even those that had won against him had taken a fairly significant beating. Sul managed to shake the stupor from his head long enough to call the captain- and a medical team.

"You beat… How… ?"

Nolta turned towards him, hanging his head. "I'm sorry ser. I went starseyde. I dedn't thenk et'd be that powerful…"

Pen just stared at him dumbly. "That… wait… What would be that powerful?"

Nolta looked down at his hands, holding them palm up as though they were covered in blood. Lambent sapphire light lit the tips of his fingers. "My… Biotics. I, hadn't tried them out en a controlled environment before…"

"Wait, you're a- Does the Captain know about this? !"

"Aye, I'm fairly certain he does…" Lae let his arms fall to his sides.

"Your certainties aren't misplaced." Captain Tenga stood in the doorway opposite the sparring ring. "Thank you, Sergeant, you are dismissed."

Pen thumped his chest with one fist, the quarian equivalent of a salute, and then left the room.

"So," The Captain returned his attentions to his new crewmember. "It seems you at least have a basic understanding of how to use them after all."

"Mizna will recover, though his pride is somewhat more damaged than his body." Captain Tenga stood, his back to the young man who had been instructed to sit at the head of the briefing room's table. "Your actions in the sparring ring were irresponsible, if impressive." The Captain turned to face his crewmember.

Nolta didn't make eye contact. "Aye Ser, et was stupid of me. T' be honest, I don't even fully know what I ded. The physical actions, yes, but the other…"

"The biotics,' Genro supplied. "It's understandable that you don't know how to control them yet. From what your father told me, you must have learned about them on your Va'Seras."

The young man nodded.

"Well, you still have a rest day before you take an assignment on this ship, but I think that little display on the combat deck would incur a penalty of some sort. I am cutting your rest period by eight hours."

"I understand, Ser."

"I run this ship tight, son. I look out for my people, but that means I discipline them as well. Your, 'offense' wasn't terribly serious, I've had soldiers get overzealous in the ring before." He paused. "That will be all. Dismissed."

Nolta offered a salute as he stood. "Ser."

Just before the youth mad it to the door, Captain Tenga called after him. "Nolta-"

The young man stopped and turned to face the officer.

"The choice is yours, but given your reputed- and observed- combat aptitude, I would be very glad if you selected a position in the marines. We can always use another soldier- so long as you check yourself."

Nolta nodded. "Aye, Ser, I'll gev et strong consideration."

"That's all I'm asking."

Rikka woke up a few minutes after Nolta had left to explore the ship. She didn't immediately get out of the bunk; sleeping in would be a luxury she would only get on rare occasions after she'd taken an assignment. After allowing herself a minutes to doze, the young woman began her own explorations of the ship, noting that little maintenance issues that would normally have gone unattended for days were nowhere to be found.

Aboard the Tugara, the maintenance crews had to work around the clock to keep the ship running at a semblance of smoothness. It was rare to walk through a hall and not see a panel removed or a bundle of wires hanging from the ceiling, usually with a mechanic or tech fumbling through the systems. The Andras, however, was a far younger ship, and that translated to fewer issues in terms of maintenance, which in turn translated to an overall semblance of stability.

The quarian made her way to the mess hall, figuring that much of the crew would migrate there during their break. The long, straight corridors leading to the chamber were a slightly dimming white, adorned with large black glyphs in quarian script. Rikka stopped at one of the symbols and lovingly traced the edges with one finger, recalling the glyph used to represent her own name. She loved the symbols, their shapes, their lines, their edges.

"Hey, smudge my artwork and I'll see to it that the captain throws you in the stockade for a week!" A gruff voice called.

Rikka snapped from her reverie and looked down the hall to see a female quarian approaching. The woman's environment suit had a yellow cowl and several symbols and characters painted onto the fabric.

"Ma'am?"

"Vuyoc'Millu vas Andras, ship's painter. I don't appreciate people screwing up my work." The elder looked Rikka up and down. "You're new here aren'tcha?"

Nall offered a conciliatory nod. "Yes Ma'am. I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- your work is so beautiful…"

"Hm. At least someone appreciates it. All the soldiers here give me nothing but guff. Been here longer'n most of 'em too." Vuyoc tilted her head to the side. "Y' know our young ladies, like you- all work'sa art too. Don't you let any o' them riis-headed boys tell you anyways else."

"Ma'am?"

"They treat you with respect or they don't get to talk to ya. That simple. Captain doesn't put up with that kinda nonsense, neither should we. You just remember that." With those words, Millu continued on her way, having imparted her wisdom to the youth.

Nolta returned to his bunk with plenty to consider. He had weighed his skill sets several times both before his pilgrimage and during it. He'd sparred against marines during his combat aptitude tests, but those were before he'd known about his biotics. That his gift could be useful in battle was now blatantly obvious, though he still wasn't sure if all it could do was amplify the force of a blow or perform anything other than mild telekinetic feats.

After a few minutes' contemplation, the youth decided to see what kind of data could be found on the extranet. Several keystrokes later, he had a search string displaying on a large orange screen projected on the wall via his omni-tool. He opened one of the links titled "What are Biotics?" Much of the information in the article consisted of material he was already familiar with, things like what biotics were, how people became biotics, nutritional needs, etc. he scrolled down to a wide range of detailed statistics.

A few more minutes' browsing led him to a page titled "Biotics: Applications and facts". Payload! Nolta grinned and opened the link.

"Biotics are largely misunderstood among civilians. Many who are blessed with these abilities are shunned because people mistakenly believe them capable of mind reading, or of possessing psychic powers. In truth, these persons are simply gifted with a high concentration of element zero in their nervous systems, allowing them to use bio-electricity to generate their own mass altering fields.

Most biotics require years of training to master their abilities, but some individuals have been able to develop their talents in as little as a few months or, in extremely rare cases, several weeks. Due to the relative scarcity of biotics, most species' governments offer large incentives to biotic individuals for joining military service, but such powers can (in some cases) extend beyond combat applications, most notably in the medical field-"

Nolta frowned. Medicine was one of his worst skills. He'd tested in the lowest thirty percent of his age group. he shrugged and resumed reading, skipping through various articles until he found one that detailed exactly what people with his abilities were capable of. Rapidly shifting mass effect fields could tear things apart on a molecular level in a skill known commonly as a 'warp', lift and throw fields could be used to send objects careening over great distances…

He was beginning to understand why a quarian biotic would be so significant in terms of military engagements. A lone adept could indeed handle a small squad of geth… The final section of the article made his heart rate skyrocket.

It has been demonstrated that particularly powerful biotics can create points of such incredible mass as to actually form measurable gravity wells. These 'singularities' behave in much the same way as a black hole on a significantly reduced scale, influencing everything within a considerable radius. Objects near the event horizon are quickly destroyed, while anything nearby is pulled towards its center. Creating such fields is an incredible strain on the body and mind, and even the strongest specialists can rarely sustain one for over a half minute.

Lae felt a surge of energy. That kind of power could in theory cause damage to a starship. He could not in good conscience refuse to at least develop his abilities. Such talents might put them on the home world again. Tomorrow, he would inform the captain, Nolta'Lae vas Andras nar Ichtome would join the Migrant Fleet Marines.

Author's note:

Okay so I did a bit of Googling (is that even a word?) and found out that the name "Nolta" not only exists, but is apparently quite common, (although I have no idea where…) Rikka is apparently the name of a sacred Japanese flower or something… o.O I think it's supposed to symbolize beauty in nature. Genro seems to be a Japanese hierarchy of some type. (Amazing how so many Japanese/Quarian words seem/sound similar)Tokus… I'd rather not go into (It seems half or more of the names I come up with off the top of my head actually exist somewhere.)