Chapter 31: Back to School
Rah shifted uncomfortably in his Alliance uniform. He'd never really felt like the stiff set of clothing fit him, and even more so when it became an officer's uniform over the one he wore as a simple grunt. The feeling of all the other Alliance officers staring at him while he purposefully strode through Arcturus Station was starting to get under his skin.
Rah could see that it wasn't every day that a large man standing just over six feet tall, with the body of nothing more than a grunt strode through the station like he owned it. It was probably even more strange that Rah's uniform was onyx black with only two markings on it, the N7 etched into the chest and the bars of a major on his arm. There were no other markings, no medals, no battalion or outfit symbols, not even any markings to show if he was a specialist or not. If he had to guess, adding up all his medals and ribbons, his entire front would be decorated to the point of wearing several pounds of metal and his Teran Star would be around his neck.
Rah let an unnerving smile come to his face. He could feel all of their curious stares, and he knew that he'd seen more in his short ten years in the Alliance than all of them had combined. He could only imaging that his sunglasses and onyx barrett added to his unnerving look.
Wonder what Jack would think? Rah thought, letting his mind wander to the woman.
When Rah's feet carried him to Hackett's office, he didn't even stop to glance at his secretary.
"HEY! You can't go in there!" The woman yelled after him, breaking out of her shock.
Rah said nothing but placed his palm to the scanning pad next to Hackett's door. The door hissed open and Rah strode inside, smirking at the stunned secretary as he did so. There were only a few in the Alliance that had the access that he did, officially, only Shepard existed among them.
"Hackett." Rah addressed the older Fleet Admiral when he was inside the man's office. Rah gave the man a crisp salute, relishing in how it would likely be the last one to give to the old bag of bones that was his superior.
"Major Carmine." Hackett replied, standing up from his deck. The grizzled man looked irritated, but he composed his face into one of calm and control. "Did you forget that even you need to call ahead?"
Rah smirked at the admiral. "Sir, I'm a Ghost for a reason. Part of that is my unexpected entries."
"Yes, General Jellail told me as much." Hackett replied, his voice giving nothing away as to what he was thinking.
"I am reporting as ordered Sir." Rah spoke smoothly. He knew that Hackett didn't like him, the only reason he was promoting him and not Shepard was due to Shepard being a public figure now.
"At ease Major." Hackett replied, giving a salute as well. Rah fell into an easy rest, but to an N7 that wasn't much more than relaxing muscles.
"Due to circumstances that are out of both my and your control, I am hereby promoting you to the rank of General." Hackett told him smoothly.
Rah was glad that he was wearing sunglasses still, else his eyes would have given away his astonishment. Hackett was in effect promoting him to directly under him and commander of the Alliance Marines. Rah had assumed that his orders were just shortened so as to be easier to read, but it was clearly not the case. Hackett was skipping him past Brigadier, Major, and Lieutenant General ranks. In the span of a few seconds, Rah's pay grade shot up four levels, not the one he'd been expecting.
"Thank you Sir." Rah replied, keeping his voice cool and formal. If Hackett was doing this, the orders must have come from not only Jelly, but also every single other general in the marines, maybe even with pull from the Prime Minister. Rah was floored and couldn't understand why him.
"You are being put in charge of both the Alliance Marines as a whole, but also a special division of the Alliance Armed Forces. You are to be in charge of research and development into both ways of fighting the Reapers, but also in training the other races to do so." Hackett told him smoothly, pulling out a small box from his desk.
"I assume that it will not be solely me Sir." Rah replied, his voice barely keeping the cool he wanted.
"No, you are going to be assigned a group of technicians that will be handling the research. You are also going to be accompanied by the Ghosts of the Past for the part of fighting and training others to fight the Reapers." Hackett told him coldly, stepping around his desk, the box held out to him.
"Am I being assigned a post?" Rah asked. For all he knew, there had to be some sort of catch. Hackett was likely going to be sending him to some remote planet to keep him out of his hair, and out of mid.
"The facilities are being built as we speak on Elysium." Hackett told him smoothly. "Until they are complete, you are to be stationed at Grissom Academy with the technicians."
Rah could barely contain his joy at the man's words. Elysium was out of the way for Hackett, but at the same time it was a colony that was able to easily reach most of the other races by only a few relay jumps. For Rah however, it meant he could do something he had thought impossible.
"Understood sir." Rah replied, finally taking the box from Hackett's hands. Inside the box were his general's stars. Hackett reached over and tore the Major patch from his arm.
"Will that be all Steven?' Rah asked, eager to leave already. He couldn't help however being able to abuse his power already. Only other Admirals were allowed to call Hackett by his first name. Now however, Rah was almost on equal footing with the man, and planned to make sure that the other man knew it.
"That will be all Robert." Hackett replied, using the N7s given name as well.
Rah offered his hand in parting. Hackett took it and the shook, both understanding now how the power in the Alliance was distributed. While Hackett's orders were final, Rah had complete control of the marines.
"If you wish to use it, your office is two doors down on your left." Hackett told him. Rah nodded and left the older man be.
Rah made his way to the office that was now his. He found a pretty secretary waiting outside. She was both nervous and also looking like she couldn't be any happier as to where she'd landed herself.
Just as with everyone, Rah took note of every detail of the woman. She stood at roughly five foot seven, her heels adding another two inches to that. She had long and flowing blonde hair, by the look of it she'd had it done only a few days ago. She wore far too much makeup than anyone should, making her look like she was little less than a doll. Her figure was curved in all the right places however and her knee length skirt and white blouse showed her curves off nicely. Rah had to admit that the woman, while younger than most others in her position (probably only early twenties), was an attractive woman. She didn't have anything on Jack as far as he was concerned however. The woman looked up at hearing his approach and seemed to shake in the heels that were too high to be practical.
"Excuse me?" The woman asked. Rah had to admit that he liked the musical quality to the woman's voice, he pegged her for a singer likely having been one in high school. "Do you know where I could find someone?"
"Depends." Rah replied, coming to a stop mere feet away. Rah crossed his arms over his chest, letting his appearance scare the woman more than he really should have. "Who are you looking for?"
"I'm supposed to be starting employment under a General Carmine." The woman replied, swallowing. Rah had to give the woman credit for not shutting up like most would have. "I've been here for the last twenty minutes, but the office is locked and no one else has come here."
"You've found him." Rah grunted to her. The woman's eyes widened. "Name?"
"Jennifer Clarence." The woman replied, tripping over her words. She clearly hadn't expected Rah to look like, well him.
"Pleasure to meet you Jenny." Rah smiled to the woman, easing up on his stance and his demeanor. Jennifer looked confused as to way he'd called her by a nick name already. "General Robert Carmine. Unless told otherwise, call me Sir, Boss, or General Carmine." Rah held out his hand to the woman.
"Ye-yes Sir." Jennifer replied, taking his hand and shaking it.
"Come in, sit down and stay quite. We'll be here for an hour at most, but then we're leaving." Rah told her, palming open the door to his office. Rah quickly sat behind the unnecessarily large desk and pulled up his terminal.
Ready Fox? Rah asked the AI, pulling up his omni-tool and linking it to the terminal. As he expected, Hackett had someone set up all of his "important general related" messages to go to this terminal in place of his regular N7 account. With Fox, he'd fix that.
"You're really asking me that?" Fox smirked back at him. If she had a body, Rah imagined that Fox would have cracked her knuckles.
While Fox worked, Rah sifted through the dozens of messages he'd had already. Most of them were congratulatory and from the Ghosts. Others were updates on all active missions and operations by the various generals that were now under him.
Rah sent a message to all the generals. In short, he told them that he expected all units to be self sufficient, no one to try and suck up to him, and that he would dole out assignments as he saw fit. Otherwise, Rah was content to let what was already going on happen, no point fucking up a good thing.
While he and Fox worked, Rah could still feel the nervousness that radiated off his assistant. He could tell this was far from what she'd expected.
"Anything I should know about you Jenny?" Rah asked, once he was finished with his message to the other generals. Jennifer looked up in surprise, she seemed to be still startled at the warm tone of his voice.
"What do you mean Sir?" Jennifer asked in reply. Rah asked the question to be as open ended as possible. He could get a good feel for someone just by how they responded to things. Right now, he wasn't sure if Jennifer was asking to get a feel of him as well, or if she didn't want to start rambling.
"Anything important." Rah replied in a shrug. "Family? Job before this? Taste in food and music? Anything that you think I should know before I dig into your background." Jennifer visibly paled at this.
"Well." Jennifer replied, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. "I'm the oldest of four and the only girl. My parents are civilians and didn't much approve of my choice of work." Rah could see that she seemed to loosen up with talking.
"Before this, I was an aide to Admiral Shepard. She didn't need me however, so Admiral Hackett pulled me here." Jennifer told him and he held up a hand.
"Admiral Shepard?" Rah questioned, this was the first he'd heard of this at all.
"She was only promoted a few months ago." Jennifer nodded, a bit of her nervousness back in her shoulders.
"Fair enough." Rah smiled, leaning back in his chair. The large leather chair was over stuffed and more comfortable than he'd ever felt before. The urge to get up and sit on the floor was hard to resist. "Go on."
"I graduated top of my class from Harvard." Jennifer told him, playing with the ends of her skirt.
"Enough of the bullshit that other officers care about." Rah told her, keeping his voice gentle. "I don't give a rat's ass if you have every qualification under the sun, I want to know about you, stuff that I couldn't get from public record."
"N-none of my work has been on public record Sir." Jennifer replied, blinking rapidly.
"Not for me." He smiled cryptically.
"I'm not much into music, I haven't found anything that really interests me. Club music and the music from movies are a bit much for me." Jennifer told him and Rah could feel his grin widening. "As for food, I've yet to taste anything that I haven't liked."
Rah could see almost a hint of a suggestion to her look, but he dismissed it. He wouldn't have been surprised if this woman had given the various officers here blow-jobs on occasion just to bolster her career. It was almost unheard of for someone in her position not to have done so.
"Done." Fox told him, and the terminal powered off. "Keep her talking, I kinda like her."
"You would." Rah huffed under his breath.
"I'm sorry?' Jennifer asked, hearing Rah even though he wasn't talking to her. "Did I say something off?"
"Not you." Rah replied with a smirk.
"Then who?" Jennifer asked, looking around the otherwise empty room. Rah only smiled but didn't answer the question.
On the HUD that were in his sunglasses, Fox pulled up a message. It told him that the frigate SSV Forward Unto Dawn was stationed at the station and would take him and everything both he and his aide owned to Grissom.
"Jenny." Rah spoke, standing. "You and I will never see this place again. Pack your bags, bring everything you own, and meet me here at 2200."
"Yes Sir." Jennifer replied, standing up as well. "If you don't mind me asking, where are we going?"
"Back to school." Rah replied with a grin. He left the woman and his office behind. She would have that to think about for a while.
It had only been a week since Jack had officially started as a teacher at Grissom, but in that week she had run her students into the ground. All of the students knew it was a completely optional class, they could drop out if they wanted to at anytime, yet they kept coming back every day.
After a particularly brutal class, one where Jack had them training and working on their biotic endurance, Jack caught two of her students hanging back and gossiping. Jack normally would have scoffed at the thought of listening in, but it was her job now to know if the two girls were talking about someone and if it was harmful to the person.
"Did you see him yet Ginny?" One of the girls asked, Jack recognized it as Rodriguez, one of the more promising students if she could learn to keep her mouth shut. Rodriguez was talking to the other chatter box, Ginny Haile.
"I did!" Haile exclaimed. "He was passing by me on the way to one of the other gyms."
"Oh my God, do you think he's still there?' Rodriguez asked, amusement in her voice.
"Who the f-." Jack began butting in. "Who are you talking about?" She had to bite in her usual vulgar tone around students and she hated it. Both girls clammed up.
"Spit it out, you won't like what I have planned if you don't." Jack told them, cracking her proverbial whip.
"There's a new guy on the station." Haile told her hesitantly. "He's from the Alliance area, he's only been here a day, but he's in the gym a few doors over."
"What new guy?" Jack asked, narrowing her eyes at the girls. Sanders had told her that there was an Alliance project going on in one of the wings on the station, but neither of them knew what was going on. Only a day ago an Alliance frigate had stopped by the station and dropped off a couple of passengers, other than that, Jack had no clue as to what was going on.
"Probably me." A smirking voice sounded from behind her. To Jack, the voice was like music to her ears.
Jack spun around and clenched her fists. To anyone else, it would be seen as hate and anger, but she knew that if she didn't she'd have a major problem on her hands with the two gossips behind her.
Standing before her was none other than Rah. Just as he would be on the Normandy he wore nothing but a pair of loose shorts, not even anything on his feet. Jack could have lost herself in his stunning eyes right there, or even collapsed into him yearning to feel his touch.
"Yeah, him." Rodriguez answered, her voice with a dreamy quality to it.
"Haile, Rodriguez, leave." Jack growled, thankful that the girls couldn't see her face. The massive smirk on Rah's face showed that he knew what he was doing to her right now.
"But Miss….." Haile began. Rah looked over Jack's shoulder at the two girls.
"You'd best do as the woman says young ones." Rah told them. Jack was surprised that he had morphed his face and tone into one of cold anger.
Jack heard both girls run away and out of the gym. When the door closed, Jack pounced on Rah. She forced their lips together in a passionate kiss of hunger and demand.
"Why didn't you tell me you were here?" Jack asked, her voice soft when they parted. Rah pulled her into a tight hug before responding.
"This is the first time I've had any time to myself. For the last hour I was busy testing out the equipment here and finding out what I'd need." Rah told her, running his hands over her back. Jack shivered in response and leaned into him.
"How are you here?" Jack asked. It wasn't that she wasn't glad he was, she was ecstatic, but it seemed too good to be true.
"I'm in charge of not only the all the marines now, but I'm here for an anti-Reaper project." Rah told her, bringing them together for another kiss.
"So you'll be here for a while?" Jack asked, a gleam in her eye.
"You could say that." Rah replied, a grin on his face. "If you want it, I have a room and access for you to come and go to it as you want."
"Shouldn't you buy me dinner first?" Jack smirked to him.
"Didn't know you were that kind of girl." Rah chuckled, kissing her again.
With every touch she felt from him, Jack could feel her insides light on fire. She would definitely be taking him up on his offer, sooner rather than later.
Both of them stiffened and then quickly separated when they heard the hiss of the door behind Jack opening. Rah and Jack both looked to the woman that entered the gym. Jack could see that she was cute, even by her tastes, but the heels and business like attire was kind of off putting.
"Jenny?" Rah asked the woman. Jack looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "The irony wasn't lost on me." Rah told her in a low groan.
"Sir, Major Summers was looking for you earlier." The woman, Jenny, replied not even giving Jack a glance. "She said it was important."
"Everything's important to her." Rah groaned. "Anything else?"
"Kahlee Sanders is asking to have a word with you when you have time." Jenny replied, looking at Jack for the first time. The woman seemed to dismiss her altogether, which pushed the wrong buttons on Jack. Rah could feel this and put a soothing hand on her arm.
"Why are you here Jenny?" Rah asked the woman coolly.
"I was told to inform you immediately." Jenny replied, a nervous note to her voice.
"Why did you not contact me via omni-tool?" Rah asked, almost as if he was dealing with a child.
"You left it in your room." Jenny replied, her nervousness showing in her body language. Jack smiled at knowing that Rah was deliberately being an ass to her. This only served to make her want him more.
"I figured you would understand that meant I did not want to be contacted." Rah told Jenny, his voice cool and holding no note of anger. "And I also was under the impression that you work for me Miss Clarence."
"I do Sir." Jenny replied, nearly shaking now.
"Then remember that. You are to follow only my orders, no one else's. If someone needs to get in touch with me, they can do it themselves or bloody wait until I am willing to talk to them." Rah told her, his voice not changing at all. "Am I clear?"
"Y-yes Sir." Jenny replied, visibly quaking now.
"Good. Take the rest of the day off, I'll see you in the morning." Rah told her with a smile and warmth in his voice.
Jack had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from bursting out laughing. Jenny looked so bewildered at the change of tone that she looked as if she were about to collapse. After a few moments, Jenny put her composure back together and left them alone.
"I need to go and see what Sanders wants." Rah sighed after Jenny left. "But I should have a few hours to kill until I'm needed elsewhere after that." The grin on Rah's face was echoed on Jack's.
"I'll see you at my place then." Jack replied, turning to leave the gym as well. "Don't keep me waiting Boyscout."
"I won't Princess." Rah replied in a chuckle.
Jack left the gym, but found it somewhere deep inside to add a slight swing to her hips. She could feel Rah's hot and hungry gaze on her all the way until she left. She wouldn't have believed that she could have done that, much less have the effect that she wanted.
A/N: Sorry about the lack of anyone else in this chapter, but I didn't feel like this chapter would have fit in with anything else in either the last or next chapters. Going to be moving on very soon to ME3, but there are still a few things that I'm going to touch on before I do.
Anyways, Hope you all like it! Massive massive thanks to everyone that's supported me and this story! Bigger thanks to Mordinette for her support and help on a few matters.
Until next time!
