Chapter 11: N8 – part 4

Looking around her new kitchen, Jane smiles as she checks the cupboards to ensure that the stasis charms are keeping her fresh food stable. It might be overkill, but two years' worth of fresh ingredients and another six months' worth of non-perishable ingredients are a good buffer for if she's ever stuck somewhere. Especially considering that time will drop dramatically if she's housing a few other people.

After closing the cupboards, she turns around to the kitchen table, where she's laid out the supplies for her trip. Six weeks of I5 MRE's, 10 days' worth of water pods, her emergency beacon, datapad, and spare omni-tool. A small suit repair kit, just in case something happens. All of it goes into her pouch along with her ID stone and Citadel ID.

With everything packed, Jane walks out of the cabinet and curses as she fishes around in her bag for the ID stone. After a few seconds, she touches the stone to the door handle before picking up the playing card sized cabinet and slotting into her wrist sheath. After putting the stone back into her pouch, she unsticks the wrist sheath and places it on the small of her back instead. With her most valuable possession now out of sight, she pulls her cloak over her shoulders and heads for the Shaanxi:2 docks.

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Walking up to the only asari ship currently docked on Shaanxi:2, Jane activates her omni-tool and uses it to ping the ship.

A minute later the airlock opens to reveal a blue skinned asari with white markings on her face. As she looks down at Jane, her expression goes from welcoming to disgusted, "Well?"

Jane looks up through her tinted faceplate, "I've booked passage to INX2834." As she says that, she brings up the confirmation on her omni-tool so the asari can take it.

"Fine, come aboard. I'm captain Aeuna. If you make any trouble I'm going to dump you on the next habitable planet, whether they've got a space port or not. Understand?"

Jane nods, "I understand."

"Good, welcome aboard. You'll be bunking with the turians, or you can sleep in the lounge. Your choice."

Jane shrugs as she climbs into the airlock, "Either's good."

As the airlock closes behind Jane, Aeuna says, "I hope you bought your own rations, as I was expecting a human and didn't pickup anything for a suit rat."

Jane smiles and pats her pouch, "I've got plenty."

Aeuna looks at the pouch curiously, "I've never come out this way before, are those any good?"

Jane nods, "Oh definitely. I've got my life in this one now, and I was told I need to come back every 10 years to have it recharged."

Aeuna nods, "That would limit the market somewhat."

Jane just nods at the inner door opens and Aeuna walks into the ship, "This is the lounge, and the passenger quarters are just through the door on the right. There's a communal fresher in there too." Aeuna points at a couple of doors in the far wall, "The door on the left is for crew quarters, and is off limits unless one of the girls takes you in herself. Everything to the right is off limits to passengers, and the only thing to the left is the cockpit."

Jane nods, "What about entertainment?"

Aeuna laughs, "We have a selection of holo's from Thessia if you want to watch them. They're not the clubbing sort though."

Jane nods, "I might take you up on that."

As Aeuna walk into the cockpit, she calls back, "You'd be the first."

Now that she's been left to her own devices, Jane looks around the lounge before going to sit down next to Bruccia, "Hey Bruccia, thanks for helping me get passage. Any idea what our routes going to be?"

Bruccia looks at Jane in amazement, "You got on the ship without checking the route first?"

Jane shrugs, "Well, yes. It's not like there's anyone else going that way. Besides, I figure we're probably going to the Horse Head Nebula, and then taking FTL over to the system."

Bruccia's crest lifts in humour, as do the crests of the other two turians sitting in the lounge. "Funny. That system is too close to the core for FTL travel to be safe. Though I suppose you could petition the Hierarchy council to be taken through the only known safe path."

Jane shakes her head, "As appealing as that sounds, I'm sure I'd be arrested for some reason before I even got close to the council."

Another turian says, "You got that right. There's no suit-rats on Palaven, and that's the way it should be."

Ignoring the barb, Jane instead asks, "So what route are we taking then?"

Bruccia pulls out a datapad and brings up a map of the galaxy, "We're going to take a couple of relays to get to the Shadow Sea. I'm sure the asari are going to want to stop to see what trade opportunities they have at each major relay. Then we follow this small spur all the way back round the core to Inex."

Jane shakes her head, "That just seems horribly complicated."

"Well, when you own your own ship, you can try the journey to Inex by FTL. Just watch out for stray planets."

Jane tries not to glower at the crest displays going on around her, as most people wouldn't know how to read those. Instead she pushes herself up, and walks to the refresher so that she can avoid punching someone. As she's sitting there, the distinctive feel of a ship lifting out of a gravity well begins.

Once she's finished, she pokes her head into the cockpit and waits for Aeuna to seem to relax, "Excuse me captain, could you give me access to your holos please. I rather think my time will be better spent watching some entertainment than trying to talk to Bruccia with the other two turians around."

All the asari in the cockpit laugh, and Aeuna says, "Emezie, you're closest. Set her up with access and get back to your seat. We're coming up on our first jump, and I want to be at Noveria before shift change."

Curiously, Jane asks, "What's your schedule looking like?"

"In a hurry are you?"

Jane shakes her head, "No, just curious."

"We've got a load of food for Noveria, then we're off to Intai'sei for a week. After that we stop at Horizon for a week to trade and inspect the ship. After that it's two weeks of jumping from empty system to empty system until we reach the colony. I'll be there for two weeks to sell the bulk of my cargo, and pick up a new cargo before heading back."

Jane nods appreciatively, "Thank you, I had wondered why the journey's so long. Do you get much business on the way?"

Aeuna turns her attention back to the controls as the ship closes in on the Mass Relay. Skilfully, she manoeuvres the ship into position while her co-pilot connects to the relay to set their destination.

Seconds later, Jane watches in awe as she's able to watch relay transit for the first time. Once the jump finishes, and the stars seem to just jump from one configuration to another, Jane can't help but let out a gasp of awe.

Aeuna chuckles, "First time seeing a relay jump?"

Jane nods, "I've never been allowed near a window during a jump."

"Well, fun's over. You've got access to the vids, so leave us to our jobs."

Jane heads back to the lounge, and scrolls through the vids before picking one at random.

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A couple of weeks later finds Jane, as one of only two people with omni-tools on the ship, walking around the outside of the asari ship scanning it for any dings, dents, or blown emitters. Inside Emezie is doing the last of the maintenance in the engine bay, before she inspects the eezo core.

Surprisingly, despite being around 25,000 light years from earth, Horizon is a human colony. Though, not one that she's willing to walk through twice, as the one time she did she couldn't tell if the glances she got were covetous, murderous, or a mixture of the two.

Jane flexes her shoulders as the space between her shoulder blades itches something fierce. "Emezie, how do my scans look?"

From inside Emezie answers, "One moment Jane, I'm just checking over the last of the engine linkages."

"Could you hurry please, as I'm seriously wishing I had a rifle right now."

Emezie laughs, "Don't worry, Holiss was a commando before she joined the family business. She's got your back."

Jane shudders, "That's easy for you to say, I took one walk through the colony and I swear they couldn't decide if my bag or my… what's the human word… boobs? Yes boobs. I swear they couldn't decide if my bag, boobs, or bodysuit were more valuable and desirable."

Emezie laughs once more, "Lucky you, we all know what they find desirable, and it's nothing we're wearing. That's why it's only Aeuna and Poayne head out to do their trading, even then they're both armed and armoured. Don't worry, we've got good scanners, and Kelesste is the best damn navigator I've ever seen. If they try to follow us, we'll be through the relay before they can get a shot off."

Jane shakes her head, "While I was on Shaanxi, one of the engineers said something about never inviting Murphy to show up. I think that's the sort of thing he was talking about."

"Right, right. Though I don't know what another person has to do with anything. What were you doing there anyway?"

"I wanted to see if I could get a job on one of their ships. But they told me my suit wasn't suitable. Couldn't even visit most of the city either."

Jane can almost picture Emezie shaking her head as she answers, "Yeah, they've taken being anal about quarantine to levels that even a Volus banker would find excessive. They told us we couldn't visit the cities either, even if we wore one of their isolation suits."

Jane nods, and then pauses as her omni-tool squarks, "I've found something on the hull. I've marked it in your program."

Emezie takes a moment to answer, "I've asked Holiss to have a look, as she's already on top of the ship. Keep going, and hopefully it's nothing."

A few minutes later, Emezie asks, "How comes your so bad with mechanical stuff?"

"I learnt about suits instead. And the humans have been buying suits from the fleet."

"Fair enough, explains why you were on Shaanxi too."

Apart from that one anomaly, Jane's scans find nothing else of note on the ships hull. So it is with a great deal of relief that she returns to the lounge.

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Later that evening, Jane sits on the edge of the couch, acutely aware of the fact she's the only person on the ship without a handy weapon. Around her, each of the turians have put on various grades of armour, and are fingering their rifles nervously. Holiss is still in her full kit as she stands in the cockpit door while Aeuna takes off.

Poayne's voice calls, "Captain, I'm reading six signatures lifting off the planet."

Aeuna's voice calls from the front of the cockpit, "Hold tight everyone, we've lowered the gravity generators to 0.4% of standard. Emezie be ready for full thrust in 10 seconds."

Emezie nods, "Yes captain, capacitors are at full charge, you have 167 seconds of 120% thrust when you need it."

"Kelesste, 5 seconds to FTL. Emezie, monitor the engines… now!"

Jane grabs the edge of her couch as the ship lurches forward underneath her. In the corner of her HUD the medical monitoring program starts flashing a warning as her heartrate jumps to 85bpm, exceeding her allowed threshold by 5.

From the cockpit Aeuna calls, "Kelesste, FTL"

As suddenly as it started, the acceleration G forces stop as the ship transits to FTL for 10 seconds. As the ship comes out of FTL, all of the lights in the lounge go out, and Aeuna calls, "Everyone, stay calm, we're running dark for a few minutes to check for pursuit."

A second later Emezie calls out, "Eezo core quashed, fusion core quashed, 30% capacitor charge left, plenty of charge to restart the cores."

"Well done everyone, Poayne, anything on passives?"

"I've got one contact heading towards the relay. And it's gone."

"Five more minutes then."

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Several minutes later Jane hears Aeuna breathe a sigh of relief and say, "We're almost at the relay, no sign of anything on sensors so I think we're clear."

A moment later, the ship shudders and the sound of an explosion echoes from the rear of the ship. Abruptly the lights fail and Aeuna shouts, "Azure! Emezie, what the hell just happened?"

"I have no idea, the computer is telling me that it registered a hit from a metallic asteroid 30cm in diameter, and they're also saying that there was a significant eezo signature in impact that matches the signature of a spinal mounted weapon."

Poayne calls out, "Passive scans have picked up 6 eezo signatures heading our way. Active scanners are inoperable without core power."

Unaware of the fact her passengers have heard every single word, through the open door that Holiss was standing in, Aeuna flicks on the lounge speakers, "Goddess. Attention all passengers, we have just had our engines shot out, and there are six eezo signatures heading our way. Normally, we'd be running for the nearest relay, but… Well… Those of you who wish to try and escape, the escape pods have their own power supply and an emergency beacon. Personally, I'm going to try and fight, and hopefully take enough of them with me that… Goddess, why now? I'll be frank, if anyone has any better ideas, then I'm open to suggestions, but at the moment we're all sitting ducks. It's looking like we can either live as fuck toys for some batarian or terminus system warlord, or we can die here. I for one don't like either of those options."

As she's talking Emezie runs through the lounge and out of the door on the other side.

Jane sighs and shakes her head, even as her hand reaches to the wrist sheath on her back. Before she's even aware of it, she's pulled the sheath off and is already reaching up to her face plate. As her hand stops inches away from her faceplate, she sees the disgusted looks the three turians are giving her.

Rather than deterring her, those looks cement her resolve and she removes her faceplate with one hand before refastening her wrist sheath where it's supposed to go. As she stands up she releases the clasp on her cloak and allows it to fall back on to the seat, giving a good view of the clan markings on her face, and the Systems Alliance insignia on the back of her suit.

Behind her, the three turians first share a surprised glance at her humanity, and then the surprise turns into shock as the internal lights of her suit highlight the clan markings.

"Holiss, I need to get past as I have a suggestion."

Holiss turns around to say something, then steps out of the way in surprise when she sees Jane's uncovered face.

Leaning into the cockpit, Jane says, "Captain Aeuna, I have a solution that should get us all out alive. I just need to know if you have any mag-boots I can use."

Aeuna turns away from the cockpit window, defeat clear in her posture. As she sees Jane, she freezes in surprise, "Goddess, you're human."

Jane nods, "I am. I'm also a Systems Alliance citizen, and rather famous at the moment. So, I wanted to travel incognito and avoid the possibility of being kidnapped or enslaved after Elysium."

Emezie comes running back, "Captain, we've lost the engine room and the ships stores are on the other side of a bulkhead. Who's the human?"

Aeuna starts to laugh as the stress gets to her, "That's our quarian. Hey, human, what's your plan?"

Jane shakes her head, "I've got a cabinet with a four bedroom house inside, and enough supplies to last us months. My suit is rated for EVA, and it has its own air supply. If you have some mag-boots, then you all get into the cabinet, and I take it outside. I'll then return to the ship and we can wait for rescue. Otherwise, we put it in the airlock and set it to open without decompressing. Then we hope they don't pick the cabinet up after while we're waiting for rescue."

Aeuna's laughter subsides into burst of chuckling, and she says, "We've got a few minutes, so set it up in the lounge. Kelesste, grab the mag-boots from the cargo bay. Everyone else, grab your gear from your bunk."

Jane turns around and takes the cabinet off of her wrist as she walks to the centre of the lounge. One of the turians looks like they're about to say something before they see her fishing around in her bag for her ID stone.

Once she's unshrunk her cabinet and opened the door, the turian steps into her space, "What do you think you're doing wearing those markings human?"

Jane switches to turian herself, "I am proudly wearing the markings my Nest Mother taught me when she adopted me into her clan. What of you? How can you say you have honour after the words you said before you knew who I was?"

"No honourable turian would ever hide themselves like that."

Jane snarls in an imitation of a mandible chittering, "I was not hiding myself. Did I ever claim to be other than I am? Your sight was so shallow that all you saw was the suit. Did you even check what language I was speaking?"

The turian draws himself up, "I was a wing leader, I see far more than you."

Jane brushes him off with, "I am a patrol leader in the Systems Alliance. I oversaw the defence of Illyria on Elysium, I have the higher ground."

Stepping backward, the turian bows briefly with their talons pointed away from Jane, "I acknowledge your superior view."

Switching back to English, Jane shakes her head, "Stand up, we don't have time to waist on ceremony. I'm afraid I don't have any dextro stores in here, but there's plenty of water. The plan is that we use the cabinet as a lifeboat, and I either walk out of the ship and hide, or we set the cabinet adrift and hope they don't pick us up."

Bruccia walks inside to have a look around, quickly followed by the other two turians.

As soon as they do, Jane realises that the asari crew all witnessed her confrontation with the turian, and she puts her facemask back on to hide her blush.

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A few minutes later, Jane watches stoically as Bruccia is about to press the button for the airlock. Deciding to give it one last try, she says, "Bruccia, there's still time for you to get in the cabinet."

Bruccia looks at Jane, "I would rather die a hunters death than starve surrounded by a bounty of food I can't eat."

As Jane give him her clans salute, Bruccia presses the button to close the airlock from inside the ship. As the airlock is decompressing, Jane looks down at her wrist, where the shrunken cabinet, and the asari, are stuck in the holster. As the airlock opens behind her, she activates the mag-boots and steps out onto the hull of the ship. She's not even taken three steps when the first ping appears in her HUD, as Bruccia sends her a message, to be forwarded as soon as they're rescued. Over the next couple of minutes, the messages keep coming as she makes her way to the rear of the ship, and the ruined engineering compartment. As she reaches the edge of the damage, she pauses for a few second to look at the fact the whole section of ship seems to have been sheered off.

A moving light catches her eye, and Jane quickly turns off her own lights, trusting in her suits ability to amplify the starlight enough for her to safely navigate wreckage. Once she's made her way to the remnants of a corridor, she's reduced to feeling the floors and walls to navigate in the darkness as the twisted ruins of the ship cut off most of the starlight she was using. Following the corridor brings her to the bulkhead that's keeping the rest of the ship pressurised.

With a now known location, Jane turns around carefully to check the small patch of stars she can see, searching for any sign of movement that would signify a patrolling ship. When nothing moves for a couple of seconds, she activates a torchlight function on her omni-tool and looks for somewhere to hide.

Back the way she came, she can see a doorway to the left, and she heads towards it. As she walks in, her torch light illuminates the store room, with half an intact wall connected to the hull on the space side of the room. In the other half of the wall is a massive hole where something that was in the engineering room was pulled off the wall along with the rear of the ship.

As her light casts across the room, a glittering power starts to become visible as is spreads out from a ruptured water tank. Moving around the tank, Jane smiles as it becomes apparent she can squeeze behind it, and hide against the wall leading into the rest of the ship.

Once she's settled, Jane turns off all her external lights, and switches the Omni-tool over to Augmented Reality mode and settles in to wait. After a few minutes in the oppressive darkness, she starts to scroll through all the apps she's bought since her mother gave her her first omni-tool, the one that's currently in her pouch. After a few seconds she pauses as she comes across an app that translates vibrations her suit feels into sound.

With a laugh, Jane activates it, "It's funny isn't it mum, I bought this to try to listen into your conversations, only to find out it's practically useless in atmosphere." Jane turns her head as if trying to listen to the faint sound of gunfire that she can now hear, "Yet, here in the vacuum of space, it works perfectly."

Jane doesn't even try to stop the tears that fall as the gunfire continues. Or the screams of pain that are loud enough to be transmitted into the walls of the ship. As the last of the gunfire fades to silence, she allows herself to cry properly as a human, at the same time, between sobs, she begins the modified turian wake that she was taught by Juvetana.

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It's nearly half an hour later that Jane is pulled from her thoughts as a couple of human voices comes close enough to her wall that the suit picks up the vibrations.

"Well, that's it, we've searched the entire cargo bay. I thought you said this was an asari vessel."

A second voice replies, "That's what the registry says, and it's what they saw on Horizon. Where do you think they're hiding?"

The first voice sounds exasperated, "I don't know, it's not like we can ask the turians. Stupid bosh'ets getting themselves killed." Jane hears a thump, that she assumes is the voice kicking a container, "Not even anything worth a damn in the cargo. It's not like we can sell yarn and plastic on Omega."

The second voice shouts over, "Hey, stop kicking the merchandise, and give me a hand with this door will you?"

The first voice shouts back, "You idiot, that's a bulkhead. If it's stuck, it means there's hard vacuum on the other side. Must be the engine room."

The second voice says something that becomes clearer, "… there was a suit-rat, maybe they survived."

The first voice laughs, "If they did, they got sucked out the ship after that shot. If they didn't, their suit would have ripped, or they were killed in the explosion. Either way, there's no chance there's anyone on the other side of that bulkhead. Let's check the escape pods."

"Can I launch them if…"

Jane leans her head against the wall as the voices fade away once more. With nothing else to do, she activates the sleep and comfort options in the suit, as well as ensuring that the mag-boots are still switched on.

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Several hours later, Jane has been woken up a couple of times by loud enough bangs to reverberate through the entire ship. This time though, the feeling of impact is accompanied by a sudden movement to one side.

Quickly, Jane braces herself so that she can't be flung about if the movement changes direction. However, her precautions prove to be useless as the acceleration continues for the next 30 seconds and then stops.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, Jane switches on her suit's lights as well as the torch mode for her omni-tool. Looking down at her arms, she shakes her head at the thin layer of snow that's formed and brushes it off her suit to the best of her ability. While it's not a problem for her suit, if she was running on a mini fusion reactor rather than magic, the frost would have increased the fuel usage by an order of magnitude.

Jane slowly works her way around the water tank, before checking it with her omni-tool. It's already completely frozen, and the ice is continuing to sublimate into water vapour before refreezing as it comes in contact with the vacuum of space.

"Fortunately, water won't be a problem with the cabinet."

Slowly Jane starts to inventory the rest of the room, and smiles as she comes across an EVA suit with a full oxygen tank. The rest of the supplies are now frozen fruits, veg, and protein. While she's inventorying stuff by the door, her lights catch the edge of the bulkhead to the rest of the ship.

With a frown she walks out of the store room into the corridor and stares at the partially open bulkhead, "Well, that's a pain."

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Cautiously, Jane pushes the bulkhead open into the cargo bay and stops in dismay as she sees the bare floor where there should be cargo. Looking up she sees all of the panels hanging down, and where there should presumably be wire runs are instead empty ducts.

Cautiously she makes her way towards the front of the ship, first checking the kitchen, where all of the cupboard doors have been ripped off, and the cupboards stripped of anything that can be easily taken. Just past the kitchen is the centre of the ship, and a gaping hole in the floor that's open to space. Around the walls of the room is evidence that there used to be a fair amount of equipment that has been ripped out. Finally she reaches what used to be the lounge. Instead, it's now a virtually empty shell with the skeleton of the couches the only thing left, as they're welded to the wall.

As Jane slowly looks around, an oddity crystalises in her vision and she suddenly realises that all of the doors have been destroyed, even the internal airlock looks like someone took a fusion torch to it.

With hurried movements, Jane checks the quarters and the freshers to find the same thing. Anywhere that has a door has had it brutalised. Even if she could expand her cabinet somewhere, she couldn't make it air tight enough to open the door without killing everyone inside it. Additionally, anything that might be worth even a few credits has been taken, including the ships black box and emergency beacon.

With sagging shoulders, Jane lifts her wrist so she can see the cabinet. "Sorry everyone, I'm going to have to stay out here. Damn it, I know they can't hear me."

Despondently, Jane pulls the Alliance Emergency Beacon out of her pouch and activates it before putting it in the cockpit, briefly noting the ragged edges where they've take a torch to the view ports after the ship was exposed to space.

With a bitter laugh she does some math, "Well, I'm fucked. We're around 25,000 light years from Alliance space, that means that the fastest they could get here is 125 days. At least you guys will be fine, as… six of you, 730 days of supplies for one person, as you've got 121 days of supplies before you start eating into the dry food. Longer if you plant the seeds I bought."

Absently Jane reaches into her pouch and pulls out a water bulb to squeeze into her intake port. As she squeezes hard and nothing comes out, her attention is drawn away from her situation to the water bulb. Holding it up to her face-plate she bends the thin neck of the bulb and frowns as it snaps off. Then she really looks at it and watches as it's quickly freezing from the outside into the centre of the bulb. Holding her hand out, she lets the bulb go, and frowns as it doesn't fall to the ground. Instead, it slowly drifts away from her at the same speed she let it go.

Shaking her head, she pulls her pouch off her waist and brings it closer to her head so that she can more easily move the next bulb into the intake port. An idea the works enough for her to drink half the bulb before the ice clogs the stem of the bulb.

With a hysterical laugh Jane launches the bulb with a spin, "Why did I think only 10 days of water would be enough in an emergency?"

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Two days later, Jane looks at the discarded bulbs dotted around the lounge as she does an inventory of her supplies.

As she's feeling through her pouch she pulls out her spare omni-tool.

"I forgot I had this. Now what am I going to do with you."

Glancing down at her wrist, she smiles and pulls the cabinet off the sheath. Leaving the omni-tool to float in one hand, Jane fishes around in her pouch for her ID stone.

Once she's found the stone, she places the cabinet on the floor in front of the door to the rest of the ship and holds it in place gently. With her other hand she touches the stone to the cabinet and ensures that the sticking charms have taken hold before she removes her hand.

Grabbing her spare omni-tool, Jane deactivates the mag-boots and pulls herself to the top of the cabinet. Once there, she activates the omni-tool and gently affixes it to hang over the top lintel. Once she's sure it's not moving, Jane gently pushes off the cabinet to bounce off the ceiling and land on the floor as she reactivates the mag-boots. Turning towards the cabinet Jane leans forward into a bow, and turns the torch of the spare omni-tool on in a wide beam.

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Four days after the attack, Jane is floating above the floor of the lounge as she looks up from her omni-tool where she's been reading the full technical manual for her suit, rather than the maintenance manual she read before. With a sigh she activates her mag-boots and twists in just the right way to orientate her feet to the floor.

Now anchored once more, Jane turns to the cabinet and projects a 3D model of her suit above her wrist.

"Well, I assumed I was fucked before, but now I can officially say I'm fucked. See this module on the back of the suit here?" Jane points at a thin addition to the suit in the image, "This is a water tank. If I had one of those I could activate the recycling features of the suit and reduce my water needs by 84%. As it stands, I don't have that, and I have one water bulb left. I've still got plenty of food though, so at least I know I won't starve."

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Six days after the attack, a delirious Jane licks her dry, and cracked, lips as she carefully places the last water bulb in space. Carefully stepping backwards, she turns around to face the cabinet and shakes her hands in a 'tada' motion.

"Th…" Jane coughs and tries to moisten her throat enough to talk.

With a cracking croaking voice, she says, "This is my mum, well a poor portrait of her anyway. I was on my way to meet her for the first time in… in… a long time. I figured that as I was on medical leave I should really make the effort to visit. After all, I see my other mum every few months. Or I did anyway. Where was I…"

Jane trails off as an angel appears standing next to her, a spherical halo hanging above her head and illuminating the entire room. In awe, Jane watches as the angel raises her hands and gently pulls the faceplate off her suit.

It's then that Jane realises that she's died, as there's no rush of air, or the feeling of vacuum forcing the air from her lungs.

With that realisation, Jane's posture relaxes, and a faint smile cracks her face, "Hello, I know I've passed on, but if you can talk to the goddesses. Can you let them know that the asari crew are in my cabinet. We're in the Shadow Sea. They've got enough food for a few months, but I think they'd appreciate being rescued sooner than later."

In front of her, the angel laughs and hands her a golden goblet filled with liquid water.

Jane bows her head and croaks, "Thank you." Before taking the goblet with both hands and bringing it up to her face to take a sip. Apparently, just because she's dead doesn't mean she's suddenly become hydrated.

As Jane lowers the goblet, despite her desire to gulp as much water as she can, the angel says, "I'm no angel, you can call me Petunia."

Jane carefully takes another sip before saying, "Hello Petunia, I'm Jane."

Petunia smiles, "I know you are child. I also know you could have saved yourself at any time, just by opening that door."

Jane shakes her head, "But then they would have died."

Petunia nods gravely, "They would. But is their life really worth yours?"

Jane looks at Petunia like she's stupid, "Well, duh, I'd have opened the door if they weren't."

Petunia smiles gently, "It seems like that won't be necessary, as I'm responding to your emergency beacon."

Jane shakes her head, and almost wobbles off balance, "You can't be, only the gods could do that."

Petunia shrugs, "That's what they say, yet here I am. A housewife from Surrey saving your life."

Jane takes another sip, and has to hold her stomach as it cramps up. Once she's recovered, she smiles wanly at Petunia, "I'm going to skip the philosophy, and just say thank you. But if you've got a dive ship, it won't be suitable. You'd kill all the asari before we even reached the aether sea."

Petunia nods seriously, "You're right, that would be a problem. Tell you what, would you be willing to take my mark in return for saving your life. I'll then repair the ship and fill it with air. Then I'll make sure that it's a relay ship that comes to perform the actual rescue."

Jane nods easily, "Sure, that sounds good."

As soon at the last word leaves her lips, Petunia reaches out to touch Jane on the forehead as she says, "With this mark, you will be my eyes, ears, and hands in the world."

As the last word registers, Janes eyes roll up and she blacks out.

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Jane wakes up to find her face is lying against a hard carpet. Confused, she carefully pushes herself to her feet and looks around the lounge. Apart from the carpet, the entire lounge looks exactly like it did when she boarded originally. Cautiously, she walks over to the cockpit and pokes her head inside.

"Oh, that's a relief, I thought I was dreaming."

From behind her Petunia says, "Good morning sleepyhead. Could you be a dear and open your cabinet door please?"

Jane spins around and stares at the armchair that's sitting in the middle of the lounge.

"What? How?"

Petunia shakes her head, "I've been sitting here the whole time. You're just too out of it to pay your normal levels of attention. Now, I meant it when I asked you to open the cabinet door. As I don't want to go through this more than once."

Jane reaches up to touch her forehead as her mind finally catches up with what she was doing before.

Petunia shakes her head, "Don't worry about that, it won't do anything unless you're using a lot of magic. Magic that you don't actually have."

Jane just nods agreeably and walks across the lounge and opens the door. As she comes face to face with Aeuna, Aeuna stumbles backwards in surprise, her rifle pointing to the ceiling. As she recovers from the shock, Aeuna then starts to laugh hysterically at not dying.

When none of the asari venture out of the cabinet, Petunia looks around the doorway with a smile, "Well, come on then. I don't bite… Well, I don't unless you're my wife and we're in bed together. But you're all safe."

With that absurdity given, the asari crew gingerly walk out of the cabinet and immediately head for the furthest points of the room away from Petunia.

With a sigh, Petunia sits back in her chair, "My name is Petunia and I'm from the Systems Alliance responding to the emergency beacon that Jane activated. If you want to know my rank, then N9 will suffice. That's by the by, as Jane is still seriously dehydrated, so I need you to keep an eye on her and make sure she drinks a couple of sips of water every hour." Petunia shakes her head, "I swear she's looking to be almost as bad as my nephew on the whole self-sacrificing front."

Looking up again, Petunia gestures to the room around her, "I've repaired everything I can, I even found your engines. I'm sorry, but I couldn't replace the computers though. Or the eezo core for that matter. But hey, at least you have your fusion core back."

Petunia points at the cabinet, "I'm sure you're going to continue using the cabinet, if only for the beds and the bath. Just remember that there should always be one of you inside at all times, as the door can always be opened from the inside. But only Jane can open the door from the outside."

As the pause stretches out, Aeuna squeaks out, "We will."

Petunia nods, "I'm afraid I can't stick around, as if I make a mistake, you'll all catch something like Prothean Syndrome, except for eezo. At which point you'd all die screaming. But there is a rescue ship on the way, and I'll make sure they can travel by relay."

All six of them watch as Petunia vanishes into thin air, leaving only the armchair and carpet to show she was ever here. A moment later, Emezie gasps and rushes over to Jane, who has collapsed on the carpet again.

Together, three of them pick Jane up and move her into the cabinet while Kelessa heads to the ships stores to find a medical kit.