The Red Moon Collection - 2 - Three Phantoms

Chapter 22

MSV Hyperion, Sahrabarik System, Omega Nebula

"Should only be about twenty more minutes," Shansa informed Will. "We were running pretty low there... I usually like to refuel a lot sooner than this."

He leaned back in the co-pilot's seat. "I know, I know. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure we got to Lorek in time."

She nodded understandingly. "It's no biggie." Shansa gave him a small smile. "If I didn't think we'd make it, I would've said something."

The past twelve hours had gone by excruciatingly slow. Will had managed to sleep for a few hours, but restlessness and anxiety had forced him out of bed long before he would have liked. Since then, he had wandered the ship as Shansa piloted them back to the fuel depot near Omega. The rest of the crew seemed capable of passing the time easier. Tul and Vayren were hard at work digging through caches from Russon's omnitool in an attempt to locate what they needed. The last time Will had checked up on them they were writing a program to help with a mass decryption of reassembled data pockets.

"Captain?"

Will looked down to his omnitool. "I hear you, doctor."

Tyrixis sounded drained in every possible sense of the word. "T'lees is awake, if you'd like to speak with her. I've brought her up to speed on everything since... well, since she was injured."

"I'll be right there." Will pulled himself to his feet and looked to Shansa. "Give me a shout when we're done fueling up?"

The pilot nodded. "You bet."

He ducked through the door and made his way to the bunkroom. As he stepped through the door he saw T'lees sitting in a chair beside her bunk. Tyrixis knelt at her side, scanning the still-bandaged asari with her omnitool.

T'lees fluttered her eye not covered by medical wrap and looked up to Will. "Captain Hume..."

Will stopped a few feet in front of her. "Hey... Fayneer." He put on a reluctant smile. "I'm glad you're awake."

"I wish I could say the same," the asari replied weakly as she raised a hand placed it on her aching head. "The doctor has informed me of my condition." Her held her lips tightly in what looked like an attempt to put on a brave face.

He looked over to the turian. "Were there any changes since the last time I was here?"

Tyrixis shook her head once. "No."

The doctor's omnitool flickered as it applied another dose of pain relief medi-gel. T'lees drew and exhaled a deep, satisfied breath as her hand lowered back to her side.

"T'lees..." Will let out a sigh. "Fayneer. I'm sorry about this."

There was a short silence before T'lees responded.

"Do not apologize," the asari said quietly. "The only person who deserves blame is Narenthus Antarian. And perhaps the soldier who threw that grenade."

"He's dead," Will said quickly.

T'lees smirked lightly and nodded to herself. "I assumed as much."

Will looked down. "Either way... I don't think that's entirely true. If I had been faster-"

"I do not want to argue this," she interrupted. "What I do want is to make Antarian pay the price for his misdeeds. I want him dead. I thought he had taken everything that mattered from me; now I see how dismally wrong I was."

Tyrixis let out sound that resembled a hiss. "Death is not enough for him. I want him to suffer."

Will looked between the two and tried his best to understand how they felt. "I know you're both hurt right now, but our mission is to capture Antarian. Not murder him."

"He doesn't deserve the mercy of captivity," the turian countered, her voice dripping with venomous disgust.

"This isn't about what he deserves." Will crossed his arms. "We have a job to do."

T'lees let out a small sigh. "Yes, of course." She looked back up to Will. "And I do not wish to jeopardize our arrangement."

He nodded in agreement and looked over to Tyrixis. "Doctor?"

She gave him a sideways glance and stood up, having finished her medical work. "Ms. T'lees, I suggest that you rest for now. The medi-gel will finish sealing the wounds within an hour or two. I will be back to check your bandages then."

The turian turned and walked briskly from the room as Will and T'lees watched. He turned back to the asari and frowned.

T'lees looked to Will. "She told me that Agent Rentarius... Corsin... was killed." There was clear anxiety in her tone.

"I'll hold up our end of the deal," Will quietly assured her. "Assuming you hold up yours."

The asari nodded gratefully. "Thank you. I was worried that Agent Rentarius was the only member of the crew who would ensure it."

"I can't issue a pardon, but I think Vayren will be more inclined to believe that you're earnestly trying to help now that you've quite literally taken one for the team."

T'lees frowned and furrowed her brow. "I... I am sorry?"

Will shook his head. "Sorry. Cynical humor is how I manage sometimes."

"I see." She shrugged softly. "It must be a human thing."

"Na, it's just not a Thessian thing," Eleena corrected with a smirk as she walked in.

"Huh?" Will glanced over his shoulder as she approached, feeling as though he had missed something.

Eleena motioned toward the injured asari. "She's got a pretty thick Armali accent." She nodded toward T'lees. "That's where you're from, right?"

T'lees nodded slowly. "That is correct."

"Pretty upper-class, too," Eleena observed as she looked to Will. "And since she was the big boss around those factories, she's probably not used to your kind of wise-cracking directed toward her."

"I..." T'lees stuttered and shook her head.

Eleena turned her attention to Will. "I think Vayren and Tul have something promising. Might wanna check it out."

He nodded. "Thanks, I will." He looked down to T'lees. "Are you gonna be okay for now?"

The injured asari raised a hand and rested it gently against her bandages. She winced softly but nodded in affirmation.

"Yes... yes, I will be fine. I will rest for a while, as Doctor Rentarius suggested." She looked up to the pair before her. "Thank you for your concern, Captain Hume."

Will held his eyes on her for a moment. "Sure."

He turned with Eleena as she made her way to the doorway and followed on her heels. They stepped through the hall and into the open door of the crew's quarters where Tul sat at the dining table with Vayren leaning over his shoulder. The salarian looked to the side and waved over Will and Eleena as they entered.

"I hear you two are onto something," Will announced as he stopped at Tul's side.

"Hopefully," Tul'Sorrin answered as he worked at his datapad. "I'm running the decryption pass now."

Eleena crossed her arms. "Which is?"

"Russon's omnitool synced a large amount of temporary data with the VI of whatever ship was used to shuttle him around," Vayren explained. "We were able to recover some data from the recycled cache. A set of planetary coordinates was referenced multiple times as the 'seat.'"

"Antarian's base of operations?" Will suggested.

"That's what we hope," the Spectre answered. "But coordinates are only half of what we need."

"I'm guessing a planetary name is the other half," Eleena said with a smirk.

"How insightful," Tul quipped. "That's right. But there is no record to indicate which one these coordinates might be referencing. If there was, the data is corrupted beyond recovery. However, we did find references to auto-pilot courses set to and from mass relays. The two used most recently were the Caleston One relay, which connects to the Omega Nebula, and the Sankrin relay, which is located in the Nubian Expanse and connects to the Caleston Three relay. Before that, there was a four day dormancy of relay use."

Eleena nodded in understanding. "So they used the Sankrin then Caleston One to deliver them to Omega. Does that mean they originated from the Nubian Expanse?"

"So it would seem," Vayren affirmed. "And the Nubian Expanse has only two planets capable of supporting life."

Will stared down at the datapad. "Pragia and Yamm," he read aloud.

Eleena looked to Vayren. "What now? Check both planets?"

"We could," Will interjected as he continued to read. "But they seem different enough. Why not ask the person who's been there?"

"You are assuming that this 'seat' and Antarian's personal villa are one in the same," Vayren countered.

Will nodded in agreement. "Call it a hunch. I have an idea."

"I'll get her." Eleena stepped over to the door and leaned through toward the bunkroom on the opposite side of the hall. "Hey, T'lees, get out of bed. We need some help in here," she called, unsympathetically.

Will gave the asari a smirk. "She is recovering from a serious injury, you know."

Eleena walked back over and shrugged. "She'll live."

"So the doctor says." Will watched the door.

A few seconds later, T'lees placed her hand on the doorway and stepped through slowly. It seemed as though she was working to maintain her balance as she crossed the room to the others and looked around curiously. Her hand instinctively rose to rest on her bandages once again to ensure they were properly in place.

She offered a weak smile and looked to them expectantly. "You called?"

Will nodded and turned to face her. "Describe Antarian's villa... estate... whatever he called it, for me."

T'lees blinked, slightly confused. "What about it?"

"Everything you can remember," he replied.

"Alright." She looked to the side as she thought intently on where to start. "It was large, of course. I remember the ship that brought me to the complex landed on the planet itself and the descent was beautiful. Most of the surface was oceanic and the little green islands made it unforgettable. He met me when we landed and brought me on a very short skycar trip to the villa."

"How short?" Vayren inquired.

"It could not have been more than a minute," she answered while turning back to them. Her voice was slow and tone deliberate, as though she was working carefully to form each word. "From what I could see through the windows, it appeared as though the landing pad was simply on the opposite side of the facility from Antarian's personal domicile. We could have walked there in a few minutes."

The Spectre nodded. "I see. Continue."

"After the landing, I was treated to a meal over which Antarian and I discussed business. Or, to be more accurate, I was highly encouraged to transfer control of my business assets to him while maintaining a facade of personal control."

Eleena raised a brow. "'Highly encouraged?'"

T'lees gave her a bitter smile. "I have had a standing arrest warrant with the Thessian government for quite some time. Apparently he found out about it."

"Why even keep you in the picture at all?" Will asked with a hint of suspicion.

"Antarian made only a small portion of his business ventures publicly known," T'lees responded. "He made it very clear that he would control my manufactories, but also that I should not let anyone else know that I had been usurped. 'Continue living your life as normal,' he ordered me. Then, a few weeks later, his ships began showing up to retrieve my goods." She shrugged. "I also had to replace my entire accounting department with his people."

Vayren cleared his throat. "The villa?" he reminded her.

"Yes, my apologies." The asari crossed her arms. "After dinner I was led to my room. It was nice enough, but I spent most of the night out on the seaside balcony. As you can imagine, being blackmailed and losing everything I had was not easy to bear, but being near the water reminded me of my old home on Thessia. Being so close to the sea was comforting. It reminded me of when I was a child."

Will narrowed his eyes slightly. "What else struck you about the planet itself?"

"The night was long. Too long. A full standard day passed before the sun rose again and I was shuttled back to the ship to be taken home." T'lees shook her head irritably. "And it was hot. Almost too hot for me to enjoy the ocean the way I once did back on Thessia. My scalp felt like sandpaper by the time I left. The vegetation was beautiful, though, despite the heat. Well, at least the vegetation that grew in the region around Antarian's estate."

"Is there anything else you remember?" Will tilted his head hopefully.

"I... no. I am sorry, it is just a little hard to concentrate at the moment," she answered slowly.

Tul glanced over his shoulder. "Captain. Take a look at this."

Will turned and placed a hand on the table beside the quarian as his eyes scanned the holopad. Tul had the travel advisory information for Yamm on the screen with that of Pragia minimized. His lips curled into a hopeful grin as he read down the list.

"Ninety-percent ocean," he muttered to himself, "and nearly a seventy-hour solar cycle. Above average surface temperatures."

Vayren, who had stepped up to Tul's other side to read, looked over to Will. "It's far from definitive."

"But nothing T'lees said matched Pragia," Tul countered. "Except for the surface temperature." Tul leaned forward and tapped the screen. "Wait a minute. The ship Antarian used when he confronted us on Nedius, he said we would face the guns of the... 'Pride of Kalabsha,' right?"

Eleena chuckled and shrugged. "Maybe? I have no idea. How did you remember that?"

"Because this rang a bell," the quarian answered as he tapped the screen. "Yamm is in the Kalabsha System."

Vayren let out a sigh and crossed his arms. "Fine, fine. I suppose that's enough evidence to eliminate a reasonable doubt."

T'lees looked around the room. "Do you require anything else? I am afraid I feel a bit lightheaded..."

Will turned and walked up to the asari. "That's all we need, but I'm sure we'll have more questions before long. Until then, get some rest." He smiled appreciatively. "And, thank you."

Her eye fluttered gently. "Of course."

T'lees slowly spun and made her way through the door with cautious steps. Will raised his omnitool to activate his comm.

"Shan, how's the refueling coming along?"

"Be done in a minute or two," she replied.

Will looked to the others with a smile. "Plot a course for Yamm. Kalabsha System, Nubian Expanse."

Once underway, Will informed the crew of their destination over the ship-wide comms and was met with no objections. Tul and Vayren jumped immediately into gathering intel on Yamm, only for Will to object and order them to get at least a few hours of sleep. As they reluctantly agreed, the rest of the crew took note and did the same. Shansa was the last to retire, as she had to stay at the helm and guide the Hyperion through the relays and into the Nubian Expanse.

Will's five hours of sleep were intermittent at best, and he eventually decided to walk the ship a few times in hopes of luring out drowsiness. He slid from his bunk in his plain, long sleeping shirt and pants and wandered into the forward hall. Will rarely walked the ship barefoot and he could feel the cold metal deck sting at his feet as he turned for the cargo bay. Shansa had lowered the lights throughout the ship before setting off to bed, giving the Hyperion an atmosphere rarely seen now that the crew was large enough to justify leaving the lights at full strength around the clock. As Will stepped through the door to the cargo bay a soft whimper caught his ear. He paused and listened intently until he heard it again, barely audible over the soft hum of the ship's engines. Will turned to the left and squinted. He rarely looked to the forward starboard corner for the cargo bay, as it was almost always empty, but this time he saw a figure sitting with her back against the wall.

"T'lees?"

The asari jumped in place and jerked her head to the side, wincing in pain as she did so. "Oh! Captain Hume... you startled me."

Will approached her and put on an ambassadorial smile. "Sorry. I wasn't sure it was you."

"I suppose I am not a threat anymore." She looked back down to her lap.

"Huh?" He raised a brow as he came to a stop a few feet away.

"I do not require a watcher at all times now, it seems," T'lees explained.

"Oh, right." Will let out a sigh. "I think that went out the window when everything went tits-up on Lorek."

She looked up with a bewildered expression. "My translator must have malfunctioned."

He blinked and thought back before chuckling softly. "It sounds like Tul has more work to do on that colloquialism algorithm. I meant to say, 'when things went bad.'"

T'lees eyed him curiously as she nodded understandingly. "I see."

It was difficult to see in the dim light, but Will noticed a gentle glimmer under the asari's right eye. He knelt at her side before turned and sitting up against the wall beside her.

"You alright, Fayneer?"

The asari raised a hand and quickly brushed the moisture from her cheek. "The pain is... rather severe."

Will glanced over to her with a frown. "I thought the doctor said your wounds were nearly healed over."

"Yes, I can feel that they are indeed sealed." She raised her hand and gently felt at the bandaged side of her head. "The medi-gel has done what it can, but Doctor Rentarius has told me that it will take weeks or months before the body realizes it no longer needs to use pain to alert me of..." T'lees trailed off and winced once again. "Well, this." She let her hand fall from the bandage.

"I see." Will looked back ahead. "If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."

The asari smiled weakly to herself. "You are a good man, Captain Hume."

"I hope so," he answered. "So, you're from Thessia, huh?"

T'lees smirked softly at the attempt at smalltalk. "That is correct. Your engineer, Eleena... she is quite observant. I could not place her accent, however."

"Heh, well she's from Cyone, but she grew up with her turian father."

"Hmm," she raised a finger to her lips contemplatively. "Interesting."

Will glanced over and looked the asari up and down. "She also said you sounded a bit 'upper-class.'"

T'lees smiled bashfully. "My family was quite wealthy and influential in my youth, yes."

"So what happened?" He crossed his arms as he watched her.

"What happened to what?" she looked over to him and tilted her head.

"If your family was so wealthy and influential, why are you wanted by the Thessian authorities?"

The asari averted her gaze. "It is a long story."

"I'd really like to know." His tone grew slightly more serious. "And I do need to know that I can trust you. Or at least not have to worry about being stabbed in the back."

"I am not sure I feel up to telling the entire tale in detail, but what I told you when we met is true. I am not a violent or malicious criminal." She looked back to meet his curious gaze. "I suppose I could manage a condensed explanation."

Will crossed his arms. "I'd appreciate it."

T'lees shifted her gaze up and squinted as she thought in silence for a moment. "I suppose my youth would be the best place to start." Her eyes fell back to his. "I was raised as any asari born of my social status would be. Education on proper etiquette, speech, diplomacy, biotic conditioning and of course all standard academics. What I was not taught much of, however, was the family business. That is, until shortly before it all fell apart. I was one hundred and seventy, I believe, when my mother told me how we had grasped such power and wealth in only a few hundred years. She and her sister had inherited a reasonable amount of wealth from their mother, which they invested in creating the largest illegal arms smuggling and dealing operation in the Athena Nebula."

"Risky business," Will noted.

"It was," she agreed. "Which is why they were found out after only a few hundred years. Shortly before she was arrested, my mother told me everything. When she was taken into custody, she denied my involvement and swore I knew nothing of the operation. I was young enough that they believed her." T'lees paused as she contemplated how to proceed. "My course of action afterward was... unwise. I was aware that over half of the organization had remained undiscovered by the authorities, and I immediately seized control of all that I could. I should have sold all of the assets and put that part of my life to rest, but I was a young maiden, eager for danger and excitement."

Will eyed her closely. "So you kept it," he concluded.

T'lees nodded. "I told myself that I would do it all differently. More convincing business to hide the smuggling behind. The 'best' volus accountants credits could buy." She laughed and shook her head. "Just like a girl of that age to assume she knew better than the mother who was five-hundred years her elder."

"You're obviously not stupid," Will said bluntly. "And you'd only recently been exposed to the... nefarious source of your family's influence. Why even consider it?"

"As I said, I was young, foolhardy and shortsighted," she answered. "For over a century and a half I had had no direction. I was itching to find a purpose; an undertaking, you might say. I leapt at the first one that presented itself." The asari let out a sigh. "Of course, it was only another two and a half centuries before my operations were discovered. Fortunately, one of the few things I had done that my mother and aunt had not was infiltrate the Thessian law enforcement. I was able to flee the system with enough credits and supplies to start from scratch in the Terminus Systems." T'lees shifted her eyes from Will to stare straight ahead. "Fifty years later... here we are."

"You lasted fifty years before they sent someone to capture you?" Will raised a brow. "How thick is the bureaucracy on Thessia?"

She smiled lightly in amusement. "I hid my trail. It is possible my case was inactive and they discovered evidence of my whereabouts by complete happenstance. I suppose you do not ask the commandos after you befriended them?"

"Yeah, guess that question slipped my mind." He looked ahead and leaned back against the wall.

After a short silence, T'lees placed her hands on the deck and pushed herself to her feet with a small grunt of exertion.

"I should try to rest," she said as she looked down to Will. "The pain is not so intense now and I should take advantage of it."

Will glanced up and nodded. "Thanks for opening up, Fayneer. I'm not sure I trust you yet, but... well, we'll see."

"I would not expect you to trust so soon." She bowed her head gently. "And my thanks to you, Captain."

He continued to sit in the corner of the cargo bay as T'lees slowly walked to the door and disappeared into the forward hall, her steps so smooth and deliberate that she seemed to float across the deck. Will shut his eyes and drew in a deep breath, hoping that his restless mind would permit just a little sleep. He tried for a few minutes and was met with no such luck. He finally decided to open his eyes and simply stare at the ceiling. Waiting would have to do for the next few hours.