Barriers
Planting a gloved hand on a hip-high rock, Liara vaulted it, her booted foot slipping on a loose rock and she went down hard.
Goddess, no.
Scrambling back to her feet, the asari maiden tore away from the krogan and the geth in pursuit, doing her best to avoid the slugs that rebounded against her biotic shield and around her. A volley of fire sounded to her left and reflexively ducked away and increased her biotic shield as she ran. Her ankle, not broken, but tender from the incorrect landing, protested as she surged around the large mining laser, slugs impacting all around her.
Gasping for breath, eyes darting around the dig site, her mind whirled as she thought of what to do. How was she going to get out of this one? At least with litigation, someone else did the talking for her. And why was she still breathing? These were sentient machines and a krogan. Surely, their aim was better.
Leading—no, herding me somewhere. The thought disgusted her. Her blue eyes fell on the archway two stories up even as she panted, her chest aching from the exertion of running.
Prothean barrier curtains.
She'd studied them. Liara knew how to operate them. Would they withstand mass accelerated weapons, though? The geth were closing in. No time to think. She pushed herself off the mining laser and sprinted towards the scaffold ramp. At least it's not stairs, she thought as she gasped for breath and rock particles rained down on her. Her ankle throbbed, but she had little inclination to pay attention to it. They were shooting around her, not at her now. Goddess, give me strength.
Her luck ran out when the krogan got impulsive and lobed a concussion grenade near the platform. Liara bolted, rolled and landed with a thump near the barrier curtain controls, smacking her head against the unyielding marmoreal surface of the Prothean construct. Her vision blurred momentarily as she fought to push herself up, remind herself what was happening.
She had time to think one word—grenade—before the object in question exploded. The sound was deafening and she cradled her head against the shock of it, curling behind the control booth. Choking on the clouds of smoke and dirt, she latched onto the controls, heaving herself up and activating them. A blue force field erected itself against the entrance of the ruins in a split second after activation, blocking her pursuers. The krogan cursed in his guttural language. Her translator picked up a few words that made her blush just as her vision blurred again, her lids heavy.
Her body trembled with fatigue. She wanted nothing more than to simply sleep, but she wasn't safe. She had to…had to get out, to get to safety. Had to…
With the last of her strength, she crawled away from the controls that were now emitting a loud whining noise. The krogan was pounding on the blue filmy shield. A geth troop fired a shot at the barrier and Liara cringed away. The mass accelerated round ricocheted off and hit one its fellow troops. Liara felt a grin forming on her lips, but was suddenly jerked up by another field. The whining noise stopped.
Oh, terrif—
Liara passed out before the thought was complete.
"What's wrong, Doll?"
Ash looked up from her data pad, sending a glare across the barracks to the irritation on crutches. Doll? Just because she indulged him earlier while he was hooked up to that weird machine— Never again was she going to give into magical girly whims. Bastard.
"Do you want your legs broken?" she asked sweetly. Belatedly she added, "Sir."
Joker studied her a moment, his face a mask of calm. "I have a gun, and I'm not afraid to use it, Williams," he said flatly, his eyes bits of green stone. He lifted his hand away from a crutch to quickly point to her white-knuckled hands and then latch back on before the low-gravity took hold. It was a fluid movement. She couldn't help but marvel at his dexterity. "You're choking the life out of your data pad."
Ash's dark eyes dropped to her hands, and she loosened the death grip on her data pad. Who would have thought the damn man was so observant? She watched him move across the room, his eyes searching for a rack of his liking that wasn't already taken. It struck her as strange that he had a certain degree of grace as he moved with perfect ease on his crutches and braces.
His words spoken earlier came unbidden to her brain. No mass, no muscles. How could he stand it? What made him get up in the mornings? She gave herself a mental shake. Those were dangerous questions. Those types of questions were reserved for—well, not him. Joker was a pain in the ass.
To her dismay, he chose the rack right next to hers, a grin on his face. Was Joker trying to piss her off? She was already angry with the MP from the Hawksmoor entrance. The idiot's derisive remark about her grandfather had sent her blood boiling, and she was still seething over it.
"You didn't answer my question." Joker slung his sea bag off his shoulder and onto the bunk.
She studied her data pad without seeing the email birthday card from her mother. "My prerogative."
He snorted, sitting on the thin mattress, rubbing his thighs. "Indulge me. We're about to get piss-faced anyway." Ash watched his hands move then bit her lip and looked away as she recalled his bare chest and shoulders and the electro-patches attached to his thin legs. Fucking girly whims. Just because she'd seen him half naked her hormones decided to react. If she'd had her choice, it would be Alenko. Gah! Where'd that come from?
"Jerk at the door." She shrugged at his questioning eyebrow and steered the conversation away, her face never giving away her inner turmoil. "The Commander and the Lieutenant were called into a meeting with Ambassador Udina. They'll be joining us later."
He grinned at her and Ash braced herself for another derisive remark. "How much do you want to bet that the Commander was called into a meeting and Alenko invited himself along?"
It was Ash's turn to snort at him. "Who on the ship is going to bet against that?"
"Jealous?"
She glared at him. "You really do want your legs broken, don't you?"
Joker only laughed at her. "All the confirmation I needed, Doll."