Except for the fact that the bedroom was empty, Riah knew someone else was with her. She tried to sit up, the effort immediately knocking her on her back, a cough filled with phlegm racking her body before subsiding into a struggling wheeze. Pain shot up throughout her face, which she realized was going through the process of swelling as her body reacted negatively with the filthy bacteria of the station. She laid back, staring up at her familiar ceiling, the hum of her mother's old air purifier struggling to work in the corner of the room.
She stared dumbly up at that ceiling, wondering how she'd made it back home after the explosion.
Through her ill mind she vaguely recalls stumbling through the streets, her cracked visor's makeshift repairs barely keeping out the contaminants of the world outside her suit. She painfully remembers falling headfirst into the ground and someone coming to her aid and calling out to her, but doesn't remember how she ended up home.
"Mom?" she calls out, her throat burning and her voice low and weak.
The room shakes, causing her to startle before she remembers the life she'd walked into. Golems, magic, ghosts, Santi. In her fever she thinks she can see him out of the corner of her eyes, hazy and clear and distant and near. Whenever she turns to look at him he seems to disappear from her view. The room shakes again as she struggles to turn to see him, the concerned sound the rattling of her mirror makes giving her the impression that Santi is telling her to lay down and rest.
"Is that you, dead boy?" she calls out.
The room shakes in response.
"I'll take that as a yes." She keeps seeing him out of the corner of her eye, though he looks different. Terrifying. "We need to find a way to talk to each other," she whispers. "I need some sleep."
The room shakes in response and Riah doesn't mind that she'll have the human beside her this time.
"Ugh."
Riah opens her eyes, the sound of someone rummaging around waking her up.
"Shhhh, shhhh," she hears a voice she instantly recognizes as her mother's and feels her gentle hands atop her head, caressing her. "You need to rest."
Riah reached up and held her mother's hand, "What about-"
"Shhh, calm down, everything is alright." The room shook in agreement. "Just rest."
"-out of my house!'
Riah opened her eyes, seeing several asari standing over her, her mother struggling against one of them as they shouted over each other. Had her face not felt like it was splitting open Riah would have smirked when she saw her mother punch the asari, laying her flat on her blue ass. The room shook, though the asari didn't seem to notice.
"-lies have questions!" the asari who was fighting against her mother shouted, while an older asari stared at her face and shined a light into her eyes.
"Jinme, enough!" she yelled before standing up, looking down at Riah. The quarian girl couldn't make out the look on the older asari's face, but it looked like it was something approaching pity. "We are leaving. Miss nar Moreh, if you nee-"
"Out." Her mother growled.
She was sitting up before she was even conscious of her actions, dizziness catching up to her as she sat upright, causing her to sway on her bed. The room shook and she felt alone and scared. Then her mother came into the room.
"Lay back down sweetie, you're still sick," she began as she tried to put Riah back onto the bed.
"Mom, how long… what?" Riah began, finding her mouth dry. Her mother noticed her distress and pressed a canister of water against her mask's seals, Riah greedily drinking as much as she could.
"It's been four days," Yili answered, "since Santi and Katja…" she knelt down and touched her visor to Riah's, "I knew you would be in danger, but we planned for that..." she gave out a heavy sigh, her shoulders sagging notably.
"Oh, but I'm fine now," she answered weakly, not at all feeling fine as she did so. She raised a fist, "Go me." She went back to her water, her throat feeling much better as she did. "Was… there anything left?" she asked, hoping her mother would understand.
"Yes," Yili answered while glancing over at two bags, one labeled Santi and the other Katja. Riah could tell there were filled with something heavy and wet, bloody stains smattered around the zipper. "That's all that's left." Riah and her mother shared a look.
Their friends were shredded pieces of meat inside carrying bags. All according to plan.
"Ok," Riah said as she slowly moved her legs to the side of the bed, her mother standing up and offering both her hands. Riah gladly took them and together they pulled her up to her unsteady feet. "Ok," she whispered, "Ok, I'm fine," she began, dropping her mother's hands and taking a single unaided step, her legs feeble after days of illness. "I feel terrible."
"You were lucky," Yili whispered, "Saestzea found you in the street, after the blast. She brought you back here."
"Sae?" Riah choked out, amazed that the slut would ever lift a finger to do something other than fondle a man's genitals. "She brought me back here? You're joking."
Her mother sighed, she looked incredibly tired. "No, I'm not. She even came by the next day and asked how you were doing." The next moment Riah found herself in her mother's arms, warm and safe. "You… well, I suppose it doesn't matter now. Do you want something to eat dear? I'll make you your favorite dish." She didn't wait for a response before putting her visor to Riah's cheek and looking her dead in the eye. "I'm glad you're feeling better, mommy loves you."
"Right," Riah said dumbly, her mind still slightly disoriented. Then she smiled at her mother, "I love you too mom."
As her mother left the room Riah walked over to her mirror, looking at herself for the first time in days. The first thing that she noticed was her lack of clothing, her suit looking bare without her usual bright red hood, suit-shirt and suit-leggings. She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling naked without the coverings. Riah scoffed at the idea, she wasn't actually naked with her enviro-suit on… but the feeling was still there. Unable to fight the odd shame, she briefly looked over her bare enviro-suit for any damage. She stretched and turned in front of her mirror and happily noted that, aside from a few extra scratches here and there, her suit seemed to have held together just fine. She walked over to her small dresser and retrieved a spare set of clothes, dressing herself in her favorite red and white pattern. She smoothed the new clothing out, noting it was a little smaller in size than her usual outfit, but not uncomfortably so.
"You can't talk to me, can you?" she asked, knowing Santi was with her in the room. In response her mirror shook slightly, "That's odd… I could swear I heard you talk as a ghost once…" she trailed off, unsure if she was just remembering a fever dream. "We really need some way to communicate." She cursed herself for not having hashed out even a basic communication system.
She was startled, or she would have been if she hadn't met Santi and Katja, when her mirror began to fog up and she felt a heavy cold presence fill the room. She wasn't scared; this was probably another one of Santi's magical abilities. If anything, this was the only thing she'd seen so far that caught her attention in a good way. Forming ice was a rather peculiar and fun magic trick.
No bloody magic and suicide pacts.
She watched in anticipation as the frost spread over the bottom right corner of her mirror before stopping,
HI
"Hmmm," Riah hummed, "That's a start. But I don't think it would be very practical to carry around a mirror that you'll constantly be freezing just to write me little messages." She sighed, propping up her head with a hand on her chin, absentmindedly tracing her own patterns around Santi's message. "You could fog up my visor… but then I couldn't see. It's also not very inconspicuous if my visor starts freezing and words just happen to form."
She watched as another section of her mirror began to frost. She hummed and rested her head along her arm, just the effort of the last few minutes leaving her tired. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she noticed the frost spread much more slowly than before. "Is it difficult to do that?" she asked, "The ice thing I mean." He never seemed to have problems shaking the room or her mirror. She tried to remember the particulars of a conversation she had with Katja about ghosts… she noticed Santi writing something in the frost.
YES
"Is it because of the ice, does it take more magic to freeze things than shake them?" she asked, before an idea sprung to mind. "Wait, wait. I've got an idea. Shake the mirror if it's easier for you to shake things instead of freezing them."
The mirror shook.
"Ok," she stood up, excitement coursing through her body. "Can you shake me?" she asked as she held her hand out, smiling as it suddenly moved to the side as if it had been slapped away. "So… it is easier to move things…" she hummed, "That makes sense." At least it made sense to her, it would probably be easier for her to move a mirror than freeze it, that was probably true for Santi too, magic or not. She snapped her fingers, another idea springing to mind. "Can you hold my hand?" she asked, an invisible force griping her hand in response.
"I got it!" she cheered, "I know how we'll do this! I'll ask yes or no questions, for yes you'll put your hand on my left shoulder," she pointed to her shoulder, "And for no, you'll put your hand on my right shoulder. If it's neither, put your hands on both shoulder got it?" A hand on her left shoulder.
"Great," she cheered. "We can do this."
A hand on her left shoulder.
"Now, let's get something to eat."
"Uuuugh…" Riah groaned, "Eating was a terrible idea." A hand on her left shoulder. "Fuck off Santi," she snapped as the mirror in the bathroom shook, which she realized was Santi's way of expressing laughter. How wonderful, she thought, he's dead and he's still making fun of me. Her mother had warned her to slow down, that eating so fast and in her condition would not be agreeable to her body. It also didn't help her stomach when she stepped on what she thinks was part of Katja's brains. "I shouldn't have come back here so soon," Riah lamented, her mouth filled with the disgusting taste of half-digested food and bile. Flushing her visor again and spewing the contents down the sink, she once again flooded her visor with a disinfectant and deodorizing liquid, the smell and taste of vomit finally leaving her enclosed mask.
"Are you ok dear?" she heard her mother ask through the half-destroyed door, the sink making a terrible rattling noise before one of the pipes burst open, showering Riah's feet with filthy water. She stepped back in anger, kicking the ruptured pipe and hurting her foot in the process before her mother pulled her out of the small ruined room and into the much larger ruined room. The blast had completely leveled the backroom, only the reinforced back wall surviving and even that with huge gashes in the wall, one of the various skyways visible just beyond it, a terrible draft coming in punctured by the occasional sound of a speeding car passing by. The front of the store had been completely burst open, damaging some most of the stores on the other side of the hall. Most of their golems were smashed or fused together by the chemical fires that sprung up after the blast, Santi's two "triplet" golems still standing in their guard positions. One of them, she couldn't tell which one, had noticed their approach and taken a few steps in their direction before falling apart into scrap and slag. Riah went over and patting the thing's head in a gesture of affection before moving on to its' "sisters", because she was positive Santi would have done that.
Truth be told, she felt a small pang of pain at the sight of the three triplet robots still standing guard, and wondered if they had somehow been able to sense their creator even in death.
"At least no one else was hurt," Riah heard her mother mutter, "A few people were nearby and got hit by the blast and the store across the way had their windows smashed. The fright took years off of poor Pulue's life and salarians don't live long." She lifted up her foot and cleaned a smear off of the sole of her foot, Riah wondered why she seemed so nonplussed at all the scraps of human gore that were littered here and there. "Except for these two."
Riah nodded as she shifted through the rest of the rubble, picking up pieces of debris here and there that caught her eye. An old car engine that was going to be used as the main core of a golem before it was warped and melted by the blast. Something that looked like the main processor for an omni-tool, one of Santi's wrenches, a golem that would have sold for 10,000 credits; Riah wondered if they couldn't have waited until that golem had been sold; having that extra 10k could have helped their upcoming escape off of this junk heap.
She dropped a piece of debris that she was looking over and made her way to her mother, who was sitting down on an overturned golem, her hands playing with an old wrench.
"Mom," she whispered, aware of the two asari guards that were still posted across the way, one of which she recognized while the other seemed a new hire. She had asked Katja and Santi about the privacy wards that they had placed all around the store. Through a long series of yes no questions, she'd learned that the wards should still work to a certain extent. "Let's go, we've got things to talk about."
"Is there anything here you need?" her mother asked.
"No," Riah answered, feeling Santi's hand on her right shoulder and she assumed Katja did the same to her mother, "There's nothing here that is worth anything anymore. Let's just go," she said before taking out one of her water canisters, "I think I need more rest," she added.
Her mother offered her shoulder and while Riah would normally not have been caught dead limping along the halls with her mother, she realized she was in no real position to act tough in front of the other teens. It also helped their act when the two asari guards saw the two of them leave the ruins of their once prosperous business.
The walk back home was long, Riah working up a sweat as she worked up a slight wheeze, her mother chiding her for wanting to get out and walk around so soon after waking up. On the way back they passed by a few of her mother's friends, who waved or greeted them or offered their condolences. Quite a few people gave them some nice words about the Katja and Santi, even Varlus waddled out of his shop and offered a very brief Volus prayer for the two humans.
Saestzea surprised her too. She was talking to some turian while a couple of kids played around them. Yili waved at the girl, who stopped her conversation and stepped forward and offered a small smile.
"I'm sorry about your friend." She offered, the turian beside her looking between the two of them as the kids crowded around them. Saestzea gestured to Riah, "This is my friend RIah and her mother. She's the quarian that ran that robot shop-"
"Oh, with the human!" the turian interjected before a somber look crossed his face. "Oh. I'm sorry, I heard what happened. That kid was alright, he sold a robot to my uncle. Big Mean Metal fought off some 120th Floor boys who tried mugging him on the way to work." Riah thought back on all the turians they'd sold to and vaguely remembered a turian with an amputated leg. She yelped when one of the kids scampered over to her and gave her a hug, the little turian girl only reaching up to her knees and muttering something in her broken childish basic.
"Will there be a funeral or…" Saestzea began, "Or whatever humans do?"
Riah searched the asari teen's face, trying to see what her angle was. As she was trying to puzzle her behavior out, her mother answered.
"No," she began as she patted the child that clung onto Riah, "I once spoke to Katja about their beliefs and she said they were something called New Catholics. Their funerals require the body to be buried…"
The turian boy scowled, "And that can't happen now because of the incinerator policy. Damn Uppers! Ma couldn't get a proper burial because of that."
Yili and Riah both nodded, though Riah had to admit that for once the Upper Families weren't to blame. The incinerators were necessary, most space stations can't afford space for something as frivolous as a cemetery. Lots of different cultures had to forgo traditional funerals when living spaceside.
"Also," Yili continued. "Even if we did have somewhere to bury them, there aren't any Gaian priests for light years…"
"I think they'd understand," Saestzea said.
Riah felt Santi put a hand on her left shoulder, taking this as her cue to join the conversation. "I'm sure they would. Thanks," she added, "for…" she didn't really know what she was thanking her for, so she just let her words trail off.
"Sure. I hope you feel better."
Her mother took the lull in the conversation as her chance to excuse the two of them, correctly noting that her daughter was at a loss for words. Saestzea and the turian boy said their goodbyes, the asari teen asking them to inform her if they decide to hold some sort of memorial service, the little kids they were looking after also sending a chorus of byes.
Once inside their apartment, Yili set Riah down on the couch, drawing a blanket over her and asking if she wanted a hot drink. Riah turned on the main holo-display and began looking for something to watch.
"Why weren't you ever friends with Saestzea?" she heard her mother ask her from the kitchen area.
"What?" Riah responded, her mind catching up to the question. She would have answered normally, telling her mother that she didn't want to hang around with a disease ridden slut… but just couldn't find the energy to insult the woman. "I don't know," she answered, unsure of herself.
Her mother huffed as she walked over to her, a canister of warm tiliv broth in her hands. "Don't think I haven't heard the insults you've traded with each other out in the hall and don't think I'm deaf to the rumors about her… free spirited… attitude about sex." Riah cringed, the automatic response all children have whenever their parents talk about sex. "But she's a nice girl if you don't greet her with an insult."
Riah mulled over her mother's words, "But she's got no respect for herself."
"Oh?" her mother countered, sitting across from her and attaching her own canister to her helmet, "How so?"
"How could she?" Riah asked, "Asari don't know the first thing about sexual restraint."
"On the Flotilla, there are records. We uploaded all sorts of information into our computers when we left Rannoch. Art, music, movies." Riah nodded, not sure where her mother was going with this. "We made sure we took everything that would preserve who we are. We also brought academic research papers, census data, government reports, other statistics. I know, because I worked as a curator on the Flotilla for a while. Do you know how many sexual partners quarians had in 2483, a few years before the Morning War? Six to eight."
Riah was shocked. No self-respecting quarian would sleep around like that. It was absurd. "Nonsense," she replied. "There's no way-"
"There's no way we'd do that now, because of the suits." Her mother cut her off in a gentle tone. "The average is now one to two. We're sex starved. All of us are." Riah squirmed in her seat, hoping that Katja and Santi had decided to get their ghost selves out of the room. "That's why so many quarians look down on the asari… among other reasons. We think we're somehow better than them. But it's mostly the suits and the high risk of death that comes with every sexual encounter for us."
Riah felt pretty uncomfortable with the conversation, "Ok… but what does this have to do with Saestzea or asari? Six to eight sexual partners is probably low for asari, certainly if the rumors are true-"
"If the rumors are true."
"-and there'd be no reason why they wouldn't," Riah continued, "Sae has had more than eight partners."
"Well, you're judging her based on our current quarian sexual morality," her mother continued after taking a few sips from her drink, "which isn't even ours by choice. Sex isn't the same for asari as it is for us. They don't run the risk of dying just to get a kiss. Sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented with the proper medication. Asari don't get pregnant if they don't want to." There was a long pause as her mother drank the remainder of her drink, unplugging the canister from her visor. "I've never seen her use drugs. I've never seen her do anything while out in public, not even a kiss. She's not in any gangs. I think she has plenty of respect for herself."
Riah's face scrunched up in confusion. "Ok… so what? Why the sudden lesson in friendship and happiness? Why now?"
Yili sighed, "Your mother reserves the right to feel sentimental whenever she feels like it," she laughed airily, "I guess I'm feeling a little sentimental because we're going to be leaving soon. It's something that I've been putting off for so long." She stretched before lying down on her couch. "And I'm worried about you Riah. You're my baby daughter… but I have to admit this station made you pick up terrible habits. You had to, to survive. But out there in civilized space your racism won't endear you to anyone. It didn't endear you to anyone here."
Riah didn't have any response to that.
Her mother yawned from her couch, taking one of the couch's blankets and covering herself as she did so. "I'm exhausted. Set alarm, 1 hour," she spoke into her omni-tool. "Keep the volume down dear, we'll figure out what we'll do about the convoy tomorrow. Today let's just rest."
Riah sighed, opening her omni-tool and accessing the station's local net, whoever was managing it should be killed for the garish design and searched through the news bulletin, looking for information about the incoming convoy. There it was, nestled between an advertisement for the Blue Booty Bitches strip club on the 57th floor, no doubt one of the clubs ghost Santi had visited on his nightly jaunts, and a bulletin reminding everyone that varren weren't allowed on the station and would be shot on sight by the enforcers. Santi and Katja had managed to make the news, a forum thread detailing their meteoric rise to celebrity status with their robot shop. Riah was barely mentioned.
The convoy would be arriving in two days from now and would be departing for one of the more semi-official Citadel systems. Riah did some quick mental math and tried to plot a course using some stellar maps she'd found online; their business had been lucrative enough in such a small time that they could eat a few expenses on the way back to…
"Shit," Riah muttered, realizing that their four-man party would soon meet its' end. Santi and his mother had to head back to Gaian systems… but they'd probably be arrested first. Illegal immigration was treated seriously by the Immigration Authority. "They'll be fine," Riah added to her thoughts, "The Citadel will probably ship them back to the Gaian authorities. And they might cut a deal in exchange for into on those people they were running from…" Riah settled on an old movie, turning the volume on low so as to not wake her mother who was still sleeping peacefully. "And I guess me and mom go back to the Flotilla."
Riah looked at her mother, who nodded. "Ok," she whispered, "Everyone agrees?" she felt something touch her left shoulder twice, Santi and Katja's consent. "Ok, let's get a ticket." Her fingers flew over her holographic keyboard as she accessed the station extra-net and began typing a message to the merchant convoy, their contact information having been put up into the station's bulletin board.
"Subject…" she began filling out the message, wondering what would catch the attention of a merchant convoy. "Will pay big money for room."
She felt a hand on her right shoulder just as her mother spoke up, "No, don't say that. Ask them what their prices are, we don't want to over pay."
"Will pay for room," Riah quickly changed the She then switched to the body of the message, "Hello, I live on Vanidia Station and want to lea-"
"No, say you are thinking of leaving," Yili interrupted, "The Upper Families look at all outgoing messages and we can be sure they'll notice ours. We don't want to look like we planned this."
"Right," Riah edited her message, "Hello, I live on Vanidia Station and am thinking of leaving. How much do you charge for passage?" She nodded to herself, "Is it possible to book a private room? Thank you." She looked over to her mother, who was reading the short message back to herself. "This look fine?"
She felt Katja and Santi say yes, her mother agreeing that it was best to keep the message simple. "Send it," she said, the computer chiming as the message was sent on its way. "And now we wait." She sighed, leaning back into the couch.
"How long do you think it'll take?" Riah asked, wondering how long their wait would be.
Her mother shrugged, resting her elbows on her knees and propping her head up with her hands. "I don't know, the convoy is supposed to arrive tomorrow? They might be ten light years out… it really just depends on whether or not they have someone on comms; they should. The closer a convoy gets to a station the more and more people who start offering deals for shipments or transport."
They only had to wait a few minutes before receiving a reply.
pinnyE on 3158.03.29 said:
Hello quariangamerprinces3640 ,
We've got a couple of rooms left on the Viga. We charge a flat fee of 2k per room. Each room is 10 square meters, with two bunks and a small restroom, fee pays for a single meal once a day, if you want to eat after that you either pack your own supplies or you pay for every extra meal. Gotta warn you, we're booked on cargo space for shipments to other stations. So if you are using our services to move off the station, the room will be packed. Either pack lightly or rent an extra room for your personal belongings.
Click here to pay.
Riah followed the link and was led to a rather well-made website for the merchant ship Viga, which was a cargo/passenger ferry. There was a short crew bio, lists on the costs of extra services and even some safety policies. It was quite a bit of effort for a ship that probably picked up quite a few criminals at every station; ships don't come anywhere near this sector of space if they were 100% clean.
"Get two rooms," her mother said as Riah set up the payment process, "We can say we're using it to hold our things, or that we want separate rooms. Also," she added, "I don't think we want to be in such a cramped space when Santi and Katja bring themselves back to the land of the living. We'd be packed in such a small space."
Riah knew that Santi wouldn't mind being in such close quarters to her mother.
To protect her mother from his lascivious desires, she went ahead and booked two rooms.
"Me and my mom take one room," she said as the payment went through, internally saying goodbye to four thousand credits, "and Santi and Katja take the other room. They didn't ask me how many people were coming, so we should be fine."
Riah felt a hand on her left shoulder.
For once, he agrees with me.
"Come on mom," Riah said impatiently, adjusting her heavy backpack. Today was the day, they were on a clock and the sooner they could get aboard their ship out of here the less time the Upper Families had to stop them. And now her mother chooses to get sentimental again. She had been standing at their doorway, looking into their home of nearly seventeen years. She muttered something in Khelish that Riah didn't quite catch before shutting off the lights and locking the door. Riah pretended that she couldn't see the tears in her mother's eyes. "Let's get going mom, we don't have much time."
Her mother nodded and turned around and shouldered her own heavy backpack and activating their hover-cart which carried a few other supplies. She began to pat herself down before Riah rolled her eyes.
"Mom, we have everything. We've already triple checked. Let's go." And with that she turned around and locked eyes with Saestzea.
Riah had never seen Sae this late at night, the convoy ships had arrived slightly past midnight. She was usually in bed by now or getting in some late night gaming or, more recently, staying up while Santi and Katja spent a late night at their place. On the rare occasions that she was out in the hall she'd never seen Saestzea; Riah imagined that nighttime was her working hours doing heavy lifting on her back or on her knees. The asari girl looked so normal without her heavy makeup on. Her pajamas looked so conservative. The only reason Riah recognized her was because of the two distinctive moles Sae had under her right eye. The blue girl's eyes moved from Riah's to her mothers, then glanced at their backpacks and over to the hover-cart, then back to Riah's. Then she smiled warmly and gave the two of them a wave goodbye.
Riah returned the wave, the two girls continuing to wave to each other until the elevator doors closed them off from each other's view.
Riah sat down in the elevator seats as they sped downwards to the docks, the pack that held Santi and Katja's remains sitting in her lap. She realized she didn't have Sae's extra-net address and would now never know what would become of her.
The rest of the ride down was passed in silence, Riah feeling a soft patting motion on her shoulder. It wasn't her mother, which left Santi or Katja as the culprit. She wasn't in the mood to argue and instead put her hand up where she felt the comforting gesture.
Soon the elevator reached the docs, the doors hissing open and revealing the loud clamoring of maneuvering thrusters, dock workers giving out orders, machinery of all sorts moving to and fro and the cautionary beeps of cargo-loaders. There were even a few other people milling about, she assumed the other passengers of the Viga.Riah had never been down here and her eyes were immediately drawn to all the new sights and sounds. Despite being a quarian and living in space her entire life she'd never once seen a spaceship.
She caught sight of the Viga, smoothly approaching her berth. There was something beautiful about the sight that Riah couldn't quite identify. The ship itself was crap, she knew that much. She could tell it was an aging piece of junk. But it was still beautiful.
"Hey!"
She wondered how much it would cost to-
"Hey you, robot girl!"
Riah froze. Turning, she saw an asari come up to her, scars and burns littering her face. She was one of the Upper Family guards that had been placed outside her shop. She greeted Riah and Yili with a sneer.
"Where are you going?" she asked, looking between the two of them, their packs and their luggage. She glanced over at the Viga as it completed its docking procedures. "Off station?" she smirked as she began to circle around them, two other asari coming to join them. "Do the Families know about this?"
Riah glanced at her mother and caught sight of her hand hovering near a bag on her hip, the hold-out pistol nestled beneath some random luggage; the SMG hidden underneath Riah's backpack suddenly felt incredibly out of reach. Riah saw frost form at the edges of her visor.
"Of course they do," Riah's mother answered, "They haven't stopped us have they?" The three asari looked at each other and she pressed on. "The Upper Families read every extra-net message to and from this station don't they? We booked our flight out yesterday morning," she stated, never taking her eyes off of the lead asari, "That's been long enough for your masters to have noticed. It's been long enough for them to have said no if they wanted to."
The injured asari scowled, her face looking even more malicious with her injuries. "You know your little girl has caused me a lot of trouble," she spat before turning to Riah, "Long boring hours of nothing but damn watch duty looking after a spoiled brat." She traced a finger along a large scar on her cheek, staring at Riah the entire time. "You know I had to read up on humans for my assignment," she frowned, "you hear interesting things about humans on the extra-net." She leaned forward, her hostile face violating Riah's space. "Did you know that no humans died on Lluvia when those mercs shot up several city blocks?"
"So?" Riah asked, wondering how many people knew about the reality of human resurrection.
"Don't play stupid suit-rat. You think it's a coincidence that the human golemetrist and his mother suddenly try to make homebrew fuel and happen to die just as a convoy ship fly in? Watch them," she ordered her accomplice before turning and activating her omni-tool.
Riah moved closer to her mother, who put a comforting hand on her own. She also felt someone touch her other hand and imagined it was Santi. It may have been Katja. But she knew it was Santi.
The asari woman was having a heated discussion with whoever was on the other end of that call if her wild gestures were anything to go by.
Over in the distance she saw people disembarking from the Viga while groups of people carrying luggage began to gather around a female turian, someone Riah recognized from the crew bio for the ship. She heard the crew member call out the names, travelers stepping forward to verify their IDs. The asari was still on her call as Riah strained to overhear more conversation from the area near the passenger ship.
"Let them go."
Riah's head snapped back to the asari, an incredibly sour look on her face. She almost looked pained to release the two quarians before her. The two asari at her flanks gave her puzzled looks.
"The Upper Families," she slowly released the hurtful words from her blue mouth, "have decided that they don't believe in ghost stories. They have also decided that you aren't worth anything to them; that resources could be spent elsewhere in a more productive fashion."
Riah felt her mother grip her hand.
"So," she asari enforcer continued, "I was ordered to spend my time in a more productive manner, guarding the shipment of goods being unloaded from the merchant fleet." Mother and daughter and son and mother hesitated. "Get the fuck out of here suit-rats."
Riah and her mother had never walked so fast without breaking out into a run, the asari glaring at them the entire way.
"You Riah?" the female turian asked as she saw them approach.
"Yes, that's me, that's me!" Riah replied, fumbling with her omni-tool to bring up the purchase verification codes. "Two rooms, right next to each other. We've got two friends coming with us."
The turian looked up from her omni-tool and scanned the docking area. "I don't see anyone else here. They better get here fast."
"They'll be here."
The turian sighed, rubbing the exoskeleton ridges on her nose. "I can't stay and guard the bay all day-"
"Then don't," Riah jumped, "You go and do whatever you need to do. I'll wait here for them and let them in. It's just two extras." The turian girl just looked at her.
"Don't worry," Yili added, "After this, they won't cause any more problems. They're just running a little late."
The turian looked down, and a groaning sound came from her stomach, causing her to wince in embracement. "Alright kid, stay here and let your friends in. Your ma can go in and set your rooms up. I've got places to be and things to eat." She walked off in the direction of the dock eatery, chatting into her earpiece about two more passengers that would arrive soon.
Yili hugged her daughter as soon as the turian walked off, her body shaking in excitement. "We did it!" she whispered in her ear. "Katja is with me, we'll go up to our rooms and get started on her resurrection. Get aboard fast ok?" Riah agreed and watched as her mother left with most of their luggage, climbing the ramp up to the ship and casting one last glance at Riah before disappearing into the illuminated interior of the ship.
Riah turned around and looked back at the docks one last time.
"Santi?" she whispered and felt his hand on hers. "Let's get the fuck off this station."
The quarian and the ghost both boarded the ship.