After the fake confrontation with Miranda, the rest of Casey's meal was relatively uneventful. She finished off the plate of mush without talking to anyone, and was soon escorted to her cell by Garrus.
It looked pretty much how Casey had expected: a small room containing a bed, a sink, and a toilet. There was a camera in the corner of the room, and the whole place was dimly lit with a red light. Exhausted, though in reality she hadn't really done much, Casey climbed into bed fully clothed. Garrus stood with his back to the wall, facing her. She looked at him longingly, but then found her eyes drawn again to the camera.
"It's the same as the others," Garrus began. "Records visual, but no audio."
Casey nodded. "I wish you could sleep next to me."
"Me to," he replied, "but while I'm pretty sure the guards would have no problem with me…uh…having my way with you, seeing me curl up beside you may raise some eyebrows."
Casey smiled, "I'm sure. Do you know how the others are getting on?"
"As far as I could tell the other prisoners are giving both Thane and Miranda a wide birth, and Samara and Grunt fit in just like all the other guards." He looked at Casey, a concerned expression crossing his face. "You should get some sleep. I'll stay here until you drift off, and I'll be back first thing in the morning to take you to breakfast."
Casey nodded, and slid lower under the covers. Before she knew it, the world had slipped away, and she was dreaming of a much more pleasant place.
Casey woke up to the sound of several people yelling. Garrus was nowhere to be seen, and what with the prison being out in the middle of space, and there being no clock in the room, she had absolutely no idea what time it was. She jumped out of bed and hurried to her door, where there was a small window. Unfortunately she could see nothing except the door directly across from her in the hallway, where the eyes of another inmate looked out of that small window, clearly also attempting to find the source of the noise.
"Get off me!" The yelling was getting louder, and Casey caught a brief glimpse of a man with a shaven head being dragged past her door by three Turian guards. All too quickly they had passed through another door, and Casey couldn't hear him anymore. The eyes of the other inmate were still on her.
"What was that all about?" Casey asked, deciding that she could hardly be shanked in the shower for asking a question.
"No idea," the female voice replied. "Probably got sold. Hard to believe, but there are places worse than here." There was the sound of another door opening, and suddenly the eyes disappeared. Casey followed suit, stepping back from the door. Within moments it had opened, and Garrus was standing in front of her. It was all Casey could do not to throw her arms around him.
Casey found a seat at breakfast next to the Salarian she had spoken to the day before, and as far away from Eileena as possible. The tables filled quickly, and soon the hall was filled with chatter. A few of the women had asked her name, and after a little conversation, Casey decided now was as good a time as any to start asking some questions about Jack. But she needed to tread carefully.
"So, who do you think is the most dangerous prisoner in here?" She asked in what she hoped was a casual tone.
"Why?" Asked the Salarian woman straight away, "looking to anger someone else before you've finished your meal? I was surprised that biotic didn't tear your head off yesterday."
"Just trying to work out who to stay away from," Casey replied quickly.
"Eileena, she's dangerous," a blonde woman said, grimacing as she took another spoonful of her food.
"Yeah, so I've heard," Casey said with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She tried to move the conversation along. "Does everyone eat in here at the same time?"
"Yeah," replied the blonde woman.
"No," the Salarian argued. "Some of the extremely dangerous ones eat in their cells."
Casey's heart sunk.
"Surprised they let you out with your record," a woman with short black hair added. "Though I guess that's why they gave you the guard. How is he?"
Casey wasn't sure how to respond. "Uh…fine?"
The three women looked at each other. "No problems with him?" The blonde asked. Casey shook her head. "Well lucky you," the black haired one sneered. "You must have one of the few guards in here who doesn't like to take advantage of the 'special benefits' that come with guarding the women. Wish I was so lucky, mine barely lets me sleep at all." She nodded her head towards the guard standing next to Garrus, a human man with short brown hair and a lot of tattoos.
"My first guard was a Krogan," the blonde muttered. "Damn near killed me, one of the only times I've seen Kuril really lose it with a guard."
Casey wasn't sure what to say. She noticed for the first time the scars all along the blonde's arms, and looked away. Prisons were meant to keep civilians safe, but not like this: not by subjecting people to the kinds of crimes that could get them locked up in there in the first place. She reminded herself that these women were all dangerous, but it was hard to think that way when they looked just like her, joked with each other, and talked about their children.
After breakfast, it was work detail. Tedious manual labour involving the creation of various omni-tool parts. Casey spent hours hunched over a small table, with screws the size of her smallest fingernail, trying to slot them into the correct sections. Then after lunch, more of the same. By the time the buzzer sounded, signifying it was time for everyone to hit the showers, Casey was actually happy. Her attempts to find out more about subject zero had been unsuccessful: finding people to actually talk to when she was branded as one of the most dangerous criminals (made obvious by her personal guard) was the first hurdle, and then finding people who actually knew about Jack was another. Casey was so consumed in these thoughts that she was already heading towards a shower cubicle before she realised where she was, and that she actually hated showering here. She looked around, no sign of Eileena yet, but Casey knew that news of Eileena's interest in her had spread: everyone was keeping as far away from her as possible.
Casey sighed and took off her towel, instantly feeling grateful for the hot water as it relieved the tension in her shoulders. She felt the stresses and strains of the day begin to leave her, washing away with the sweat and grime.
"Hello Isla."
Casey turned around rapidly, expecting the worst, but luckily it was Miranda standing in front of her, not the Asari.
"I see you've made quite the impression already," Miranda said with a grin, looking at the empty cubicles on either side of Casey.
"I have that effect on people," Casey replied, trying her best not to blush as Miranda hung up her towel. Unlike Casey, she seemed to have no issues about public nudity, and it was obvious why. Miranda always talked about how she was designed to be perfect, and seeing her now, Casey could certainly agree with that. Her slender body had curves in all the right places, and as Miranda squirted the cheap prison soap onto her skin, Casey couldn't help but wish she was the one rubbing it in. She shook away these thoughts just as quickly. It's the Hallex, she thought angrily, it's making me crazy. We're like Rats in a cage.
"Hear about the Hallex they pump in here?" Miranda asked, as if reading Casey's mind.
"Yeah," Casey replied, ensuring she kept her eyes on Miranda's face and nothing else.
"Not sure it's effecting me as much as the others, maybe because of my alterations. I feel a little relaxed, but nothing too drastic. What about you?"
Casey, who had at that moment in time been daydreaming about massaging shampoo into Miranda's hair to the old song 'Girls just wanna have fun', shook her head vigorously "yeah, no, nothing really happening to me either."
"Hello Isla." Casey turned, and unfortunately for her, this time it was Eileena, accompanied by her two human friends. Though Casey wondered if they actually were friends, or simply other women that Eileena had decided to keep, like pets, at her side.
"Hi Eileena," Casey replied, feeling it would be rude to say nothing at all.
Eileena eyed Miranda up and down, but said nothing, turning quickly back to Casey. "I wanted to continue the conversation we had yesterday, about friendships, and how they can help you in here."
"She's not interested," Miranda said from behind Casey's back.
"Funny," I don't think I asked you, Eileena said coldly, glancing at her for only a second.
"No thanks," Casey breathed, willing herself to sound tougher and more confident than she actually felt. She was aware of more and more women around the room staring at her.
"There can be a lot of benefits, you should really reconsider," Eileena persisted. Miranda stepped in front of Casey. "She said no."
Eileena raised an eyebrow. "You know, it's odd that you're so concerned about her when yesterday you wanted to, what was it?" She put on a high pitched imitation of Miranda's voice, "wear her teeth as a fucking necklace?"
The air around Miranda's body began to ripple with blue light, and Casey knew this was a sign that she was getting angry: her biotics were strong enough to tear Eileena in half, and it was clear that at this moment she wasn't far from using them. When Miranda spoke, however, her voice was calm and balanced. "We agreed yesterday to watch each other's backs, and it's much harder for me to do that if you're on hers." She moved closer again to Eileena. "So back the fuck off."
Eileena grinned, and she too was soon surrounded by flickering blue light. "Careful sweetheart, don't push me. I'd hate to have to scar up your pretty face."
Casey knew this was something serious, both of these women looked like they had powerful biotics on their side, however she couldn't quite get over the fact that everyone involved in this dispute was completely naked. It seemed to take the edge off a little.
Just as Casey was considering putting on a towel, Miranda said something Casey couldn't quite hear, but apparently Eileena did, because at that moment she hit Miranda with a biotic field so strong she was thrown into the wall. She got up angrily, hitting Eileena with a singularity. She struggled free though, and threw another field at Miranda, this time hitting Casey too. Casey found herself flying through the air, and smashing into the tiled wall. She fell to the ground with a thud, splitting her lip. She was dizzy, and watched drunkenly as the blood from her cut flowered in the water by her hands. She was vaguely aware of Miranda and Eileena throwing each other around, and also that most of the women in the room were shouting words of encouragement or otherwise to the women.
Then the showers turned off and a siren began to sound. Guards flooded into the room and began herding the women out, while others separated Miranda and Eileena.
"There's another one!" A guard was standing by Casey now, staring down at her.
"She was fighting too!" One of the women yelled.
"No she wasn't!" Came another voice.
"I saw her punch Eileena!" A third voice added.
"Bullshit!"
"She didn't do anything!"
The guard looked confused. "Get them out of here!" He yelled to the ones restraining Miranda and Eileena, "We'll deal with this later!"
He dragged Casey to her feet. "Vakarian, this the one you're looking for?" Casey saw Garrus about twenty feet away, apparently searching for her. He hurried over, and the guard pushed her towards him roughly. "Get her back to her cell," He guard hissed.
"Yes sir," Garrus replied, in a tone that Casey recognised as the one he adopted just before he shot someone in the face. He picked up a towel and wrapped it around her, before gently leading her towards the door.
"Can you walk?" He asked.
"Yes," she whispered, knowing that no matter how much her body ached, it would look far too suspicious for him to carry her gently back to her cell. Even if she wished he would.
Once inside, Garrus led her to the bed, where she climbed under the sheets gratefully. "What happened?" He asked, and Casey relived the story as quickly as she could. A wave of exhaustion had overpowered her, and her body ached from head to toe. "What do you think will happen to Miranda?" She asked when she got to the end.
Garrus shook his head. "I don't know, they're not very forgiving of that kind of behaviour."
A worrying thought just crossed Casey's mind, "A guard told me that if I caused trouble in the showers I'd be showering with the men for a month…do you think?"
"That won't happen to you," Garrus interrupted. "They'll see on the cameras that you had nothing to do with it."
"But what about Miranda?"
Garrus paused, before answering "I promise, I'll make sure that doesn't happen."
Casey nodded, yawning. "I'm so tired, and I ache all over."
To Casey's surprise, a grin spread over Garrus' face. "Mind if I join you?"
Casey gave him a puzzled expression. He continued, "EDI knocked something together using a bug I planted on the camera when you were asleep last night." Garrus stood directly under the camera, so that it wouldn't be able to film him, and took out what looked like a small data disk. He inserted it into a little slot on the side of the camera. "It sends false information: just a looped video of you sleeping, so now that's all they can see."
"Like that old movie!" Casey exclaimed, but Garrus looked blank. "You know, with the bus? And it has to stay at fifty, otherwise the bomb will go off, but they make a fake video so that the criminal watching the camera will think they're all on the bus, but actually they got off…" She trailed off, Garrus' face was still blank, though a smile spread across it. "I haven't seen it, but it sounds awesome."
He moved closer to Casey, took off his armour and slipped into bed beside her. She felt the exhaustion wash over her again, and lay back against his arm. "Go to sleep," he breathed, "I'll be with you all night."