Chapter 18: Doldrums
Rikka reported to her shift at the armory ten minutes early. She had taken the position as a combat tech primarily for two reasons. First, she had a natural aptitude for the work, second, the considerable amount of time she'd spent in Torr's machine shop had provided her with ample experience beyond what she'd had when setting out on her Va'Seras.
Fort the most part, her duties were to maintain the various firearms, omni-tools, kinetic field generators and other materiel used by the destroyer's garrison. Two other techs shared in the work as well. While one tech was usually sufficient to keep up with the task, it was not unusual for the workload to double or even triple for a brief period, especially if the soldiers were undergoing particularly difficult training sessions or drills. Plus, the extra labor allowed for a few extra hours off that would not normally be available to an adult quarian.
Yun'Varrel vas Andras looked up to see his new assistant walk in carrying a half-disassembled assault rifle.
"I've been working on it in my spare time," She offered by way of explanation. "I still can't figure out what's wrong with it."
"Allow me." Yun took the weapon in his hands and gently turned it over a few times, occasionally running his fingers across exposed mechanisms or weights. "Check the shaver?"
"First thing I looked at once I had the thing apart. It doesn't make any sense, I've tried swapping out the heat sink too, but then the firing rings freeze."
"Just set it on the table for now, we'll get to it later."
Rikka nodded and did as the senior tech had instructed. Torr would have melted the thing down for scrap by now, but the weapon was a high end sniper rifle that had significant sentimental value to the Captain. That in itself was enough to spur Rikka to decide to work on it back in the domicile later that day.
A small, pale blue shuttle drifted into dock with the Andras. The vessel bore a single inhabitant, not well known galaxy-wide, but a hardened veteran and well respected among her peers. Malea T'komé waited for the sound of docking clamps engaging along the top and bottom of her diminutive transport and then keyed the final leg of the auto dock sequence to prep the airlock.
Once at the airlock, she secured the helmet of her special-made environment suit and ran the airlock decon program. She could almost taste the sterile, crisp air as thin white lines traced across the surface of her outfit, systematically destroying any bacteria, viruses, fungi, or other potentially 'unpleasant' organisms. Moments later, she received the all clear signal from the destroyer, and pressed the key to open the outer door.
The Andras' bay doors parted a moment later, revealing a smallish chamber filled with crates, canvas mesh, and quarian marines. Malea entered the docking bay, remembering the first time she'd set foot on a quarian vessel, over two centuries ago. The ex-commando shifted her gaze up to Captain Tenga at the back of the room. The officer gave her a nod and the soldiers in the bay cleared out, satisfied that they wouldn't be needed.
"Welcome aboard the Andras. Please, this way." The Captain motioned for her to follow and made his way towards the bulkhead. Malea followed the quarian through the various corridors and up multiple ladders to reach the combat deck. Within a few minutes, they could hear Drill Sergeant Raan's gruff voice barking orders over the sounds of gunfire at the shooting range.
"I assume he's been briefed?" The asari delivered the question without turning her head as the firing range came into view.
"He asked for an asari, preferably one who had trained other biotics."
T'komé nodded. "Smart kid. Did you tell him I've trained some of your people prior to him?"
"I believe that was the deciding factor. Plus it was easy to get you clearance-" Genro paused. "Well, relatively speaking."
The former commando nodded and remained silent, watching as the various cadets took their turns drilling holographic geth with training rifles. One of the students in particular caught her eye.
"That's him, isn't it?" She pointed to the tallest of the group.
Genro nodded.
"Still hasn't gotten his adult suit yet?"
"Not until his training is over. We custom tailor every environment suit to fit the wearer. Part of that means adjusting or modifying it to accommodate the individual's profession. In Nolta's case, we'll have to account for his biotics, particularly the type of effects they'll have on the material."
Malea only offered a small grunt in acknowledgement. She watched with a seemingly detached interest as her soon-to-be pupil methodically loosed a series of bursts at the oncoming holo-geth, dropping each one in close succession.
His shots were dead on, not something she would have expected from a youth just back from his pilgrimage. the asari mad no comment for several minutes as the other cadets took their turns. Only two of them displayed similar proficiency, one of which was unquestionably a full-fledged marine already. "I'll talk with him soon, but I'm fairly tired. It's a long way from Thessia."
Tenga nodded. "Of course. I'll show you to his quarters."
Rikka was struggling with a stubborn firing mechanism from one of the marines' rifles when the captain arrived, accompanied by a shapely asari dressed in a strange looking environment suit. The outfit was brown with black straps across the areas where a normal environment suit's section seals would be.
"Miss Nall, this is Malea T'komé. She's going to be Nolta's biotic trainer for the next few months or so."
Rikka offered a sheepish wave. "Hello…" A pause, "Um, do you need me to move to different living quarters?"
The Captain shook his head, much to Rikka's relief. "No, we have a special area set aside for her; she just needed to know where to be able to find him."
Nall nodded in understanding.
"'Scuse me." Nolta's brogue interrupted the awkward silence. "I take et you're Mess T'komé?"
The asari turned to face the young biotic. "Yes. And you're Nolta."
Lae offered a nod in the affirmative. "Aye." He leaned to get a look at the inside of his domicile. "Well y' be stayin' here?"
"We've arranged for a personal unit for Miss T'komé, Nolta. You and Rikka will continue to share this bunk." Captain Tenga intoned.
Malea's body language signaled fatigue. "I look forward to seeing your progress, Mr. Lae. Now, if everything had been attended to, I would like to be shown to my quarters. I've had a long journey."
"Of course. This way please."
Roha'Lae stepped aboard the Andras for the first time since his poorly received welcome of his son. Nolta had sent specifically for him, whether to apologize or continue grilling him, Roha could not be sure. He was positive about one thing;he was going to have to be honest with his son this time around. Anything less would simply ignite the boy's ire.
The former marine worked his way through the various decks and finally got to his son's quarters. Three sharp raps on the siding of the young man's cubicle produced a familiar "Come en."
Roha entered the diminutive domicile. Other than the usual double bunk and corner table, the room only contained a rifle, some spare parts and Nolta.
"So, did you call me here to finish the job?" The elder quarian quipped, half serious.
"Father," Nolta swung out of the top bunk and stood in front of Roha. "I- I'm sorry I blew a coupla section seals atcha back when y' ferst came t' veset me here." The youth hung his head. "Y' know better'n anyone I've got a violent temper'n a long fuse, but, well, et's not acceptable behavior t' go bitin' off yer dad's head. I'm sorry."
Roha nodded. "I understand son, I forgive you." He embraced his son. "I'm sorry too. I should have been forthright with you about your mother, why she died." The elder quarian released his embrace and stood back.
"Thank you, I forgev y' te. I understand why y' told me what y' ded about mother. I don't like et, but I understand." Nolta offered a small shrug.
"Tael was-"
Rikka peeked into the room and tried, unsuccessfully, to reach the rifle parts resting on the corner table. "Sorry to interrupt, could you hand me those?" She pointed to the components resting on the tan surface.
Nolta gathered up the various parts and handed them over to Rikka, who offered a nod and a quick "Thank you" before ducking back out of the cubicle.
Nolta turned back to face his father, almost immediately picking up on the bemused expression in the man's eyes. "What?"
Roha's smirk grew. "You've been on your crewship what, eleven days now, and you've already got a girl storing stuff in here as an excuse to talk to ya?" He chuckled. "Seems you take after your old man after all."
Nolta shook his head. "She bunks here. Rikka's training t' be a combat tech."
"But she's in your unit, right?" The smile still hadn't vanished from Roha's face.
"M' platoon, yes, but so's th' rest o' th' garrison. 'Sides, et'll be a while b'fore I start lookin' fer a gerl. I need t' fenesh m' biotech trainen ferst."
"Speaking of…" A new, feminine voice entered the conversation.
"Busy day…" Roha murmured as he noted the asari in the doorway.
"Your first session starts in fifteen minutes on the combat deck, sparring ring." Malea stated. "Whatever you're doing, you need to wrap it up."
Nolta said good bye to his father a few minutes later and proceeded to the sparring ring. Malea stood ready with a small briefcase filled with various instruments. After affixing a specialized omni-tool to her wrist she motioned for him to enter the ring, and directed him to stand with his arms out at his sides. T'komé started scanning along the young man's skull, back arms and legs. After two minutes, she had a useable map of Nolta's nervous system and adjoining tissues.
The asari pressed a key on her omni-tool and the ring's holo projector produced a full size representation of the young man's brain, spinal column and immediate periphery nerves, complete with element zero nodules.
"Tha's… …me?" He'd understood, intellectually, that there were deposits of the metal in his body, but only now did it truly sink in.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Malea stood, arms crossed, grinning at the young man's sense of wonder. "This scan will help me to calibrate your first amp and will help you to focus on the right parts of your body to generate the strongest mass effect fields. You'd be surprised what having a mental image of what your deposits look like can do for your overall capacity."
Nolta continued to examine the image even as he spoke. "What exactly es an 'amp'?"
Malea closed her eyes and dipped her head in understanding. "Ah, you wouldn't know about amps would you? No, I guess not. Biotic amps, excuse me, amplifiers, coordinate your bio-electrical impulses to improve your overall field strength. Makes the task of generating mass altering fields less of a strain on your nerves as well."
T'komé turned to the case she'd brought and produced a stout metal rod, which she proceeded to set on the floor. Three keystrokes on her omni-tool caused the device to emit a faint blue glow for a few seconds. "Go ahead, try to pick it up."
Nolta reached down and curled his hands around the small gray object, only to find that it was prohibitively heavy. Malea held up her hand to indicate that he should stop.
"I'd have been shocked if you'd been able to lift that. There's a mass effect generator in that piece of metal that I used to exponentially increase its weight. For now, we'll just try to counter that effect." The asari extended her hand and Nolta did likewise. "Focus on the rod, then picture the element zero along your spine. Think about the rod as though it were full of holes, lighter than air, whatever works."
Nolta did as he was told, and his trainer was mildly startled to witness a blue aura already forming across his forearm. All her years of experience told her that he shouldn't have been able to produce a visible field already, let alone without any formal training, or, for that matter, an amp.
"I felt… somethen… …what'd I de?"
Malea looked down at the metal rod, seemingly unaffected, but something told her differently. "Try to pick it up again."
Nolta did, this time the piece actually budged slightly. The quarian stumbled back in surprise, then remained silent. For her part, T'komé waited. This was unusual, her pupil had to have used his biotics before, but how much was the question.
"Well et always take tha' kind o' focus t' do tha' little?"
Malea looked up. "Hmm? Oh- No, no it won't." She shook her head, "Once you become more adept with your abilities, your brain will start associating various movements with different techniques. Exactly what those motions are is up to you, but once your nervous system gets used to it, you'll be able to do far more with much less effort…" Almost as an aside, she added, "The amp will help with that too…"
The asari said nothing more for several seconds.
"Ma'am."
She shook her head. "That will be all for today Nolta. Go rest."
The youth shrugged and made his way back to his quarters. Malea scanned the metal rod she'd extracted from her carry case. Nearly 15 kilograms lighter than what she'd set it to. The quarian admiralty board would have an insanely powerful biotic in their arsenal before long.
Author's Notes:
Writing technical details about subjects in which I am not particularly knowledgeable (for instance, programming / circuitry / technology / use of/training biotics) is actually far easier than most would probably assume. The trick to it is not to get into the meticulous details of protocols or schematics, but to work with the basics of what I do know. Far too many shows/books/etc. (take Star Trek for instance) try to get into little details that they are not able to explain and suffer badly as a result. In trying to make the Captain/crew sound technical as though each and every one of them were thoroughly versed in the topic, the writers often come across as garbled and jargon spewing, cheesy or just plain moronic. (Sorry to put it that way, but it's the truth) They stray so far from plausible explanation that I have largely grown to hate the shows (Well that and the fact that seemingly 89.352% of the episodes revolve around parallel universes/time travel which = recipe for failure.) (though they do tend to have excellent character development.
Also, when possible, research helps, (for instance, 'pigging' is an actual practice in oil drilling companies).