I believe that everyone has it in them to kill another person. In desperation, or hatred, or at least to defend themselves. – Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire

• CARTAGENA STATION · SUB-LEVEL ONE, SECTION FOUR •

Their recovery target was in one of sixteen smaller containers scattered between the outer kinetic barrier and the group of five, three-stacked, standard containers on the far side from the office they had just vacated; of these, all but three were in plain view of that office. Griff would have to be her lookout while she located 002180084224 and 002180084346.

The plan was for Sam to hack the customs security seal and lock on the first one they located; if the relic was not inside the first, she'd have to locate the other container, hack the seal and lock on it, find and grab the relic from among the rest of the items inside and reseal the container. They had a limited amount of time, as workers would soon be arriving to begin the day shift.

The alarm that had sent them out of the office had been silenced. Sam sent a brief text to Buchanan. "Any sign of C-Pat?"

"In the office … stay down."

Traynor melted into the shadow of a stack as she sent a quick text to Xiùlán, telling her to go up top. The figure Buchanan had seen was still moving in the office—undoubtedly a C-Pat guard making his rounds. The office lights had not come on, which hopefully meant the shadowy figure would be leaving shortly.

While she waited for the guard to leave, she inspected each of the three containers out of sight of the office … as luck would have it, the second one was 084224. Upon a quick inspection, she was disappointed to discover the third container was not the one she was looking for. Moving back to the second one, she quickly hacked the customs seal and lock; activating a tiny spot of light at the end of her omni, she tilted the lid just a bit and inspected all 'round the edge. Found you! she thought. Disabling the alarm switch that would have activated a screamer, she carefully opened the hinged lid. Peeking around the corner of the container stack, she inspected the office carefully. Seeing no signs of movement, she looked up at the top of the container stack, and was rewarded with the view of a rippling shadow.

Motioning for Xiùlán to join her, she returned her attention to the open box in front of her. She searched though the contents for the asari artifact … no luck! Dammit, now she needed to find the other container and search it for this effing relic. Making sure all inside was as it had been, she set the lid in place, reconnected the alarm switch, then secured the lid. She re-enabled the electronic lock and carefully reset the customs seal as Xiùlán joined her.

"Not here, huh?"

"Nope," responded Sam. "You seen Buchanan? We separated when we left that office."

"He went back into the first storage area … something about the batarians coming in that way and through this other office. I'm beginning to get a bad feeling here …"

"Dammit Yuán, every time you say that all 'ell breaks loose," Traynor responded through gritted teeth. "Keep an eye on that office while I find the other container."

Samantha moved out onto the floor in a crouch, inspecting numbers on each container. Moving away from the office, she discovered 002180084346 sitting adjacent to the standard container stack furthest from the office. Whispering on her comm for Xiùlán to stay put, she unsealed and opened this container as had been done with the previous one. Staying low, she checked the items inside and … found the damned thing, in the middle of a shipment of synthetic down. It had the correct manifest number, and appeared to be the correct size.

Rearranging the remaining contents of the container to disguise the theft of the object, she reset the lid as she had done with 084224, placed the artifact in her backpack and slid back into hiding as she whispered on the comm for Xiùlán to join her. "Got it. We need to move, now! Griff! Get down to this end."

The pair had almost reached the office entrance when the lights inside came on, sending them each diving for the low wall on either side of the door. Samantha used her omnitool to remotely hack the terminal on the other side of the wall, then quickly disabled the computer's control of the ceiling lights in the warehouse and disconnected from the control panel; she looked at Yuán and motioned with her hands. Anyone coming through the door would meet a swift, untimely accident.

Being so close to Yuán, Sammy couldn't employ her butterfly knives for fear of clipping her lover with one of the razor sharp edges … they'd each have to use their hands or their omni-blades.

The door hissed open, allowing two C-Pat guards access to the still darkened warehouse. Each of the women stood as one, Xiùlán taking down the batarian on her side, Sam taking the one on hers … Neither guard would be getting back up again.

Traynor attached a mass reduction field generator to the collar of each guard; activating them negated their weight. The pair grabbed the weapons belts of the unfortunate batarians and carried them over to the closest 3-stack of containers.

Activating their own generators, they each grabbed a batarian by his belt and jumped straight up. As they cleared the edge of the uppermost container, the nearly weightless batarians were unceremoniously tossed onto the top; the cloaked women then caught the container's edge as they started back down. Hoisting themselves up, they quickly dragged the unfortunate guards towards the center, retrieved their ME generators and relieved them of their hardware, including pass cards for the restricted areas to which they would need access. The dead guards wouldn't be discovered until the crate needed to be pulled for shipment.

Running and jumping from stack to stack, the pair went back to the first warehouse after hacking through the intervening kinetic barrier. They each grabbed a shotgun from the previously stashed equipment pod before dropping lightly to the floor in the aisle between the stacks; they then made their way around the end back to the first office Xiùlán had originally come through.

"We should verify that figurine is what the asari are looking for. Let's take a look," Xiùlán whispered.

Traynor brought the wooden carving out of the backpack and handed it to her lover. "Ugliest little statue I've ever seen. If that represents an asari god or goddess, one has to wonder how the appearance of modern asari compare to their ancestors from 50,000 years ago."

Xiùlán handed the figurine back to Sammy after comparing its appearance to the reference picture she had on her omnitool. "Looks to be the real thing, despite its lack of pleasing facial features … I do wonder why it has four eyes. Probably better suited to the batarian pantheon of deities. Stash it away so it doesn't get broken."

Lights were on in this first office, but they could not see anyone through the windows. As she rearranged contents in her backpack to cushion the figurine from impacts, Traynor said, "Remember, even with our cloaks engaged our heat signatures will give us away to the four-eyed bastards."

Xiùlán said nothing as she took point, easing through the door in a crouch. No one inside, but she did see a smeared trail of blood leading back to the hall. Motioning to Traynor, she pointed to the blood trace, then out the door as she powered down her cloaking generator. "Looks like Griff ran into trouble," she observed.

Bringing up the 3-D station map on her omnitool, Sam punched in Buchanan's locator code … the result was not encouraging. Deleting his code and closing the tool, she whispered to Xiùlán, "He's on level five, C-Pat detention area. Still alive, so not too badly hurt."

"We need to get up there, Sam," Xiùlán hissed back. "We have got to get him away from the batarians before they kill him."

"Them killing Griff is the least of our worries. They'll pump him full of Rattazan first; he'll have no choice but to tell them about us." Traynor studied Xiùlán's eyes before continuing, "We will have to do this quickly and quietly. Once they're aware there are two more of us out here, we'll have one 'ell of a time getting to Griff …"

"And even more trouble getting off this station," Xiùlán finished for her. "How do we proceed? Going to be difficult for two human women to stay hidden on this station. These features, …" Yuán indicated her own face, "are not commonly seen in the abyss. I'd have an easier time blending in with your features, or Griff's scar … or both."

"Your features are just one of the many things I love about you, Xiùlán," came the solemn reply. After a bit more study of the station schematics, she said, "There's a 2-meter high utility tunnel between C-Pat and the level four comms center where I need to go … that's where we'll bunker down. I'll help you grab Griff out from under them, then hack their comm systems and call the Ionsaí for pickup while you two go to ground between levels. I'll keep 'em off you long enough for our lifeboat to arrive."

"Sounds like the body count is going to be up there." Xiùlán was uneasy. "Sure you're up for this?"

Samantha grabbed Xiùlán's hand, quickly brought it to her lips and kissed her knuckles. "Let's grab Buchanan so we can get the bloody 'ell outa this miserable shithole." She headed out the door and turned left.

The passage was 25-to-26 meters long, with inspection hatches on the left at regular intervals. Reaching the end of the hall without encountering anyone or setting off any alarms, Traynor hacked the locked-out elevator access , then pressed the CALL switch. Nodding to Xiùlán, Sam powered on her cloak and positioned herself beside the door with her back and left shoulder hard into the frame; Yuán positioned herself similarly on the other side and energized her cloak.

Time slowed to a crawl for Traynor … she could hear the faint sound of the car floating down the shaft, could sense the displaced air seeping past the edges of the segmented doors. As the car reached their level and slowed to a stop, the women crouched, ready to leap. They waited as the door segments slid into their receptacles, followed by two C-Pat guards sauntering out of the elevator.

Each was quickly on the floor as Yuán and Traynor simultaneously pounced like a pair of dragons … one guard was looking straight behind him as he fell, the only sound a slight gurgling from his twisted windpipe. The other one grabbed at his crushed larynx for a moment before falling to a hammer-fist strike that shattered his sternum and shoved the pieces into his heart. The women dragged their unfortunate victims back into the elevator and closed the doors.

"We need to find a trash ejector big enough for these two bodies, plus whatever else gets in our way," Xiùlán whispered. "Up in C-Pat, perhaps?"

Traynor powered up her omnitool and checked for ejectors. "None where we need to be. Have to stash 'em somewhere along the way. Can't leave 'em in here … or maybe …" Traynor looked at the ceiling of the car they were in. "Escape hatch!" She powered on her ME generator as she said, "Boost me up."

Xiùlán interlaced her fingers and held her hands down for a step, which Sammy used to reach the ceiling of the car. She opened the panel and quickly climbed through to the top of the elevator. Crouching by the opening, she reached down to grab each of the dead guards as Xiùlán shoved their ME lightened bodies up to her waiting partner; Traynor then laid them out alongside the power couplings that propelled the cars through the shafts. After making certain neither could accidentally roll into the power couplings, she eased herself back down through the access hatch, placed a boot in Xiùlán's waiting hands so she could close the hatch cover, then dropped lightly to the floor.

"Dammit Xiùlán, C-Pat is working for the bloody pirates. Found this on the second guard," she hissed through her teeth as she held up a crumpled piece of paper. Xiùlán was not surprised to see a promise of payment for the capture of any and all Alliance agents. "They've all been bought … the whole bloody station; even the dock workers have been warned to be on the lookout for all three of us."

"That must be why the little blue bitch in the bar tried to send me in the wrong direction," Xiùlán replied, almost to herself. "We're going to have the Mógui zìji de shíjiān [魔鬼自己的時間 – Devil's own time] getting our asses out of here."

"Let's get up to the C-Pat detention center … grab Griff before they force him to sell us out," Traynor replied. Looking at station specs on her omnitool, she grumped, "This car is locked out from accessing the utility tunnel between levels," Sam said. "Give me a couple …" Sam was vigorously entering code into her omnitool; finally, she had the solution. "Press and hold four and five simultaneously. It'll stop at the access door for that level." Xiùlán held both keys on the haptic interface until the car stopped moving.

Sam forced the inner doors open; they were now between levels with a locked security hatch barring their way forward. She terminated the station's control of this car, plunging them into darkness for a moment before the power cell operated emergency light switched on, casting a sickly blueish glow from above. Xiùlán activated the light on her omnitool so Sam could deal with the hatch.

"Looks like there's an alarm switch here … disconnected now. This lock might take a bit of finesse." She began entering commands into her omnitool; after twenty seconds it chirped. Sam's frown looked rather ghastly in the harsh light of Xiùlán's omnitool.

"Bring your arm over by mine," Sam said. "I need to link the processors if I'm going to get through this bloody thing."

With Xiùlán's omnitool linked in, Sam again entered commands on her own tool's interface; fifteen seconds later the hatch responded to Sam's hacking routine by unlocking and swinging inward. Sam said "Come on," as she unlinked their tools and carefully stepped across the gap into the utility tunnel. Xiùlán reached in and grabbed Sam's hand as she navigated the gap and stepped into the tunnel behind Sam. "There are no motion detectors or cameras in this compartment. We should be okay as long as we aren't seen coming or going."

"You'd better power up and release that car before they start sending maintenance techs to see why it's not responding," Xiùlán whispered.

Sending a series of commands to the station's server, she had it repower the car and send it back down to level one, then closed and latched the entrance hatch they had just come through. "I'm using a new code to lock this thing … won't have to spend so much time on it again, and the batarians will have to spend a helluva lot more time to override it. Oh, and the car won't remain stationary while they're stopped … soon as someone starts to hack that lock, down goes the car, even if its powered off," she finished with a smirk.

"That should really piss them off, Sammy," Xiùlán replied as she sent a quick command to the server to disable the overhead mounted work lights, then removed her electronic fingerprints from the server. "Now, let's find access to the level-5 detention block and grab Griff."

Xiùlán and Sam were in total darkness … with the work lights disabled in the tunnel, they could safely put on their night vision visors. Setting the lights in their omnitools to infrared, the tunnel and its contents now reflected eerie shades of grey … heat producing items appeared almost white to light grey, cold items almost black. Xiùlán took point, moving ahead of Sam as they silently crept deeper into the tunnel. "Dust on the deck is pretty thick," Sam whispered on the comm. "Doesn't look like anyone's been through here since the station was completed."

Xiùlán touched the switch on the comm-link in her ear and replied quietly, "Acknowledged." Their progress was hampered by having to go under, over and around electronics cabinets, conduits, transformers and ducting. After twenty minutes of carefully moving forward, Sam whispered, "Hold up a moment."

Turning around to look back, Xiùlán could see Traynor casting the light from her omnitool to her right. Checking the station map, she hissed, "This way," over the comm-link.

Turning to her left, Yuán paralleled Sam towards the target in her heads up display.

Arriving together, they extinguished their lights and removed their visors as they both examined the grill set in the overhead, from which a faint glow of light could just be seen filtering in from above. "Return air grill," Xiùlán observed. "Helps keep people's ears from popping every time a hatch is sealed or unsealed. Looks like half-a-meter square." Leering pointedly at Sam's chest, she snarked, "Bit tight for you with that rack on your chest! Want me to go first?"

Sam grinned as she grabbed her boobs through her armor and pressed them towards her body. "There's a bit of give available there," she said innocently, then looked down at Xiùlán's upper legs. "What about those hips?" she snarked back. "There's no way you can narrow those down far enough!" After a pause, she continued, "Okay, you go up first. How's the charge on your shield generator?"

Xiùlán checked the readout with her omnitool. "43 percent … yours?"

"39 percent. We're going to have to change out power cells pretty soon."

"Agreed. Boost me up." Xiùlán energized her ME generator as Sam interlaced her fingers and held her hands at knee level; with her mass mostly negated, Xiùlán was able to stand on her lover's joined hands without placing undue stress on them. With her head just under the grille, she found and released the retainers on the underside and pushed the grille up just enough to take a quick look around. It appeared she had come up inside a storage area … there were shelves on the walls, stacked full of small containers all labeled as to contents. Sliding the grille to one side, she leveraged herself up using her arms; receiving a push from below, she drew her legs up and crouched at the edge of the opening.

She quickly reversed her ME generator, effectively doubling her mass in order to better anchor herself as she reached back down for Traynor; a pair of gloved hands came up, which Xiùlán grabbed and pulled. As Sam's head came up through the opening, Xiùlán let go of her hands so Sam could place her arms on the edge of the opening. Xiùlán powered her ME generator down and moved to straddle Sam crossways; crouching, she placed her hands under Sam's armpits and started straightening her muscular legs as she pulled Sam upward.

Xiùlán grinned at her as she whispered, "Wo xiang tíxing ni …" [我想提醒你 … – I want to to remind you (literally, I told you so …)] when it became apparent Sam's chest was slightly hindering her as she twisted her body back and forth to squeeze through the 15cm thick opening. Finally clearing the edge as Xiùlán grabbed her belt and pulled, the whispered protest that followed was not unexpected. "I didn't have someone pushing my feet up from below."

Xiùlán set the grill back in the opening, then looked around. "Don't hear any voices," she whispered. "Did we just get lucky, or is all 'ell about to break loose?"

She watched as Sam brought the station map up on her omnitool, then studied the graphics alongside her for several moments. Sam remarked, "We got lucky," as she shut the tool down. "Buchanan is in an interrogation room just down the hall, probably singing like a canary. We need to replace the power cells in our shield generators."

"I only brought one spare with me," sighed Sam. "Wish these things didn't suck so much juice … their eezo cores pull more power than the cells can provide."

Xiùlán had been studying the labels on the containers all around them, when she stopped at one labeled ĉelo potenco. "Look at this," she whispered. Opening the container revealed several power cells neatly packed inside. She examined one and was delighted to see it was compatible with her own shield generator's power requirements. She grabbed another and tossed it to Sam, whispering, "Swap your power cell with this one." Swapping out her own depleted cell with this fresh one, she was thrilled to see it was at 98 percent. Tián! [甜！– Sweet!] she thought. Placing the nearly depleted cells in the container, she resealed it and placed it back on the shelf after pocketing the other two from the container, then joined Sam at the sealed hatch.

As she'd done on level three, Sam hacked the security cameras in the passageway outside the door. There were heavily armed guards at either end of the 10-meter passage; the room they needed to breech was down the right side and across, two-and-a-half meters or so. "We need a distraction at the other end, to the left. I have the server recording the video of this passage. Just before we send the guards off on a wild goose chase, I'll cut the recording, loop it and play it back for the security office."

"What happens when the guards return?"

"They'll have to either hack the incredibly complex algorithm I use to lock things, or blow the doors. Either way will take them a lot of time," Samantha said. "Breaking into or out of station security is not an easy thing to do. There'll also be cameras and mics in the interrogation room—the server in there is already recording what's going on, so I just need to loop the recording without audio. In all the confusion, we'll snag Griff and bring him back in here."

"Sounds like you got this all sorted. How do we get out?"

"We go to ground in the tunnel. They may figure it out in time, but I still have to get to the comm system on level four, hack it and call the Ionsaí to pick us up."

Xiùlán shook her head, a concerned look on her face. "You're bound to be seen down there, especially once we've poked the hornet's nest up here."

"First things first. We have to get Buchanan out before he spills his guts, 'cause as soon as they have what they need, they will spill his guts." Sam entered several commands on her omnitool, then looked at Xiùlán and asked, "Ready?"

"Women kāishi zuò ba!" [我們開始做吧！– Let's do it!]

• LEVEL FIVE, C-PAT DETENTION AREA •

Sam made one final entry; this caused an alarm to start singing outside the sealed end of the passage on her left. She closed her tool's interface, engaged her cloak, and began counting down from nine as she closed her eyes to visualize the batarian running towards them from the right. Reaching one, she swiftly opened the door and used the outer edge of her right hand to crush the guard's larynx as he ran past the door at full speed … his legs and body rose in an arc with his neck as the pivot point; momentum carried him a half-meter further before he fell like a discarded rag doll.

Xiùlán moved past Sam as she grabbed the dying guard and dragged him back into the compartment with assistance from her ME generator as Sam remotely sealed and locked every hatch along the length of the passage, including those at either end.

Xiùlán punched the call interface on the hatch to the interrogation room; the hatch opened to reveal one of the biggest, ugliest batarians she'd ever seen. As he started to reach for her, Xiùlán kicked him in the crotch with enough force to lift him off his feet.

As he reacted to this unexpected assault by hollering in pain and doubling over, his attacker slammed her elbow down on the back of his neck, dislocating two of his vertebrae far enough to sever his spinal cord in two places. This effectively stopped his pain and his hollering. She pushed him back into the compartment as he fell; following the carcass into the room revealed yet another C-Pat interrogator reaching for a sidearm.

A swift swinging motion of her forearm revealed an activated omnitool; this fabricated and let fly a shuriken, which hit the batarian full in the face, resulting in one of the five razor-sharp points burying itself in his left lower eye. The scream of pain quickly faded as the fast-acting poison coating the blades paralyzed his diaphragm and stopped his heart, killing him before he collapsed to the deck.

Samantha could not help herself as she entered behind Xiùlán. "Better not let Griff see that one, Luv!" she said with a snarky grin. "He already thinks we're too dependent on blades."

"Whatever gets the job done, Sammy." She looked at Buchanan, unconscious and stark naked, wrists tied together and hung from an overhead hook so his feet barely touched the deck. He was bleeding from multiple small cuts all over his torso, arms and legs; there were also numerous burns, as if applied with some kind of hot knife. Worse, a bare wire hooked through an electrical transformer and switch were wrapped around his genitals, and he was soaking wet.

"Dammit Griff, you're a gāisi de xuèxīng hunluàn!" [該死的血腥混亂！ – damn bloody mess!] Xiùlán said. Knowing they were running short of time, they went to work … Yuán wrapped her arms around his legs under his hips and lifted until Traynor could release his hands. Together they eased him down into one of the chairs his former interrogators had been using.

"Find his clothes, Sam," Xiùlán said as she gently removed the leather straps binding his wrists. Removing the electrical wire at this point was problematic. Voltage and amperage were the same things, no matter the race. It appeared enough amps had been applied to severely burn the skin the wiring was wrapped around.

There was no painless way for her to remove it, so she carefully cut the lead on either side of Griff's scrotum, then applied some disinfectant and medigel to the area; she left the wires that had burned into his flesh for the asari doctor to sort out once they were safely back on the Ionsaí.

Sam came back with what was left of Griff's pants and shirt. "Let's get 'im dressed before I puke … Fuckin' batarians! Glad you kicked that big bastard in his nuts, Xiùlán. Hope it still hurts him in 'ell!" They hurriedly pulled Griff's pants up his legs; Sam leaned him forward in the chair while Xiùlán put his shirt on and secured the remaining fasteners. Sam reached around Buchanan under his arms in order to stand him up from the chair; this allowed Xiùlán to finish pulling up and fastening his pants. "Boots?"

"Didn't find any … none of his gear either," came Traynor's reply. "Let's get back into the maintenance tunnel. I'll remotely set his shield and ME generators to explode soon as we're out of sight."

Sam opened the hatch and took a quick look in both directions. Passageway empty, hatches still closed and locked. "Come on," she hissed. Grabbing Griff's left arm, she helped Xiùlán guide his nearly weightless form back to the storage room. They were nearly safe inside when Xiùlán heard noises from behind.

She turned around to look as Sam pulled Griff inside; a shadowy figure, cloaked! Thinking, Wo lēi gè qù? [我勒個去？– What the hell?] Xiùlán grabbed the shadowy extended right arm and pushed down and to her left, but not nearly fast enough or far enough—she heard the explosive discharge and felt the specially designed round tear through her armor and travel straight into her thigh. The impact of a tiny grain of metal moving at hypersonic speed shattered her thigh bone, causing her to scream in shock and pain as she collapsed to the deck and curled into a fetal position.

She had barely finished falling when she heard an impact and the grunt of someone's wind getting knocked out of them as they fell heavily to the deck beyond, followed by the sickening crunch of someone's skull slamming into the deck plates hard and rapidly in succession … once … twice … three times. She felt Sam grab her shoulders, try to gently turn her.

"Dammit Xiùlán! How bad?" She heard her name through the rushing sound of her heart in her ears. "Xiùlán!" She couldn't open her eyes. There was only searing waves of pain.

"Líkāi wo, Sà mi!" [離開我，薩米！– Leave me, Sammy!] she hissed through clenched teeth. "Haidào húndàn … zidàn … da suìle wo de zuo tui, Sà mi! [海盜混蛋...子彈...打碎了我的大腿，薩米！– Pirate bastard ... bullet(s) ... broke my thigh, Sami!] Thinking was difficult … she was still in China, right? There was no way in hell she had left her home only to have this much pain inflicted on her! Now someone was shouting at her. Sammy? Gods! Why was she shouting?

"Xiùlán! You have to focus, please, Xiùlán! I can't understand you! Galactic! I need you to speak in Galactic!"

Yuán roused herself, attempted to answer her Siame. "The pain! Put … a bullet … in … my head, Sammy, please! My leg's busted! Getting sick … mustta … been polon … polonium coated."

Her memory of the next few minutes was hazy. She remembered Sam fiddling with her collar, then saying something about bloody hell, a piece of leather between her teeth … she screamed through the leather she was biting down on; there was pain, searing, burning pain. Her thigh was on fire as the shattered ends of the bone ground together. She just wanted it to stop. She tried to speak … could only sob in agony. She thought, Ni wèishéme bùzài wo de dànao li fàng yī kē zidàn? Sà mi, bàituō! Wo zhishì xiang si! [你為什麼不在我的大腦裡放一顆子彈？ 薩米，拜託！ 我只是想死！– Why don't you put a bullet in my brain? Sami, please! I just want to die!]

The pain began to subside. She was dimly aware of something, what? … cutting, ripping … her pants leg, at her hip, at her crotch. Her leg felt … exposed … cold. Someone was talking … Sammy again? What was she saying? Just before she blacked out, she thought she heard, "Fight, Xiùlán … not … going … to let you die! You … not ready … meet … ancestors!" She was tired, so fucking tired. Zuxiān! Qing dài wo! [祖先！ 請帶我！ – ancestor(s)! Please take me!] she implored in her mind. She felt a hand behind her head, a voice whispering in her ear, "Here Luv, have a bit of water." She took a sip, then another … tasted good. "Xièxie," [謝謝 – Thank you!] she gasped. She felt cool lips on her cheek … a kiss. She was slipping away … into darkness … into sweet oblivion. She had to rest … needed to sleep …

Samantha heard the explosive discharge of a sidearm immediately followed by a scream of pain from her Inamorata. Pushing Griff further into the storage area, she engaged her shield and went back out. Xiùlán was on the deck, curled into a fetal position, clutching her left leg and crying in agony as a shadowy figure stood over her, savoring the moment. Sam launched herself at the figure, tackling him and repeatedly bashing the back of his head on the metal deck as she dug her thumbs into his eyes. Once he was motionless, she looked around wildly and determined the assailant was alone. Patting him down, she found the control and deactivated the cloak as she cursed him, "Goddamned sonuva mutherfuckin' bitch!" Leaving him wearing Griff's stolen shield generator for the moment, she checked the unconscious batarian over, finding most of the rest of Griff's equipment, including his omnitool. Relieving the unconscious pirate of the stolen equipment and his M-3, she moved back to Xiùlán.

Sam was feeling a growing sense of utter helplessness, which she shoved into the back of her mind. "Dammit, Xiùlán! How bad?" No answer—her eyes were firmly shut, face drawn tight in pain. "Xiùlán!"

Hearing nothing but Mandarin from her lover, she cried, "Galactic, Xiùlán!" Nearly in tears, Sam was trying desperately not to panic … to stay calm. "You have to focus, please, Xiùlán" she pleaded. "I can't understand you! Galactic! I need you to speak in Galactic!"

When Xiùlán managed to say she was getting sick from a possible polonium coated round, Sam attempted to think logically. Okay, first things first … Traynor pulled her backpack off in order to dig a field kit from the bottom; pulling out a medigel container, she injected the entire dose in and around the entry wound. After re-shouldering her backpack, she activated Xiùlán's ME generator and set her mass down as low as it would go.

"Hold on, Luv … this is going to hurt worse than all bloody 'ell, but I've got to get us out of sight. Hold your leg as best you can so I'm not making things worse. Here, bite down on this!" Sam gave her a piece of the leather binding she'd cut off Griff in the torture chamber. Grabbing Xiùlán's heavy jacket by the shoulder seams on either side of her neck, she asked, "Ready?"

Xiùlán bit down on the leather strip and nodded her head once; Sam pulled, eliciting a gut wrenching wail from Xiùlán. Sam didn't stop pulling until she had Xiùlán around the corner in the storeroom; removing the shattered ceramic armor plate, then cutting away the pants leg and under-armor from her leg made things look even worse. Thinking Shit! Shit! Shit! This is not good! Sam tore open another medigel pack and applied the contents to slow the profuse bleeding. Gotta find some way to splint that leg … have to try to extract the poison bits of that bullet … Shit!

The pain killer from the additional application of medigel worked its magic almost immediately, even though Xiùlán was still moaning and probably going into shock. Sam felt sure Yuán would die without medical help, but her main focus right now had to be getting them off this station. "Fight, Xiùlán. I am not going to let you die! You are not ready to meet your ancestors, do you understand me?!" Sam grabbed a water ration and ripped off the top with her teeth as she tenderly lifted Xiùlán's head. "Here Luv, have a bit of water."

Xiùlán took a sip, then another. "Xièxie," she gasped.

Sam gently kissed her on the cheek. "I love you, Xiùlán. Fight!" Xiùlán's eyes fluttered closed as she passed out.

Sam grabbed an emergency blanket pack, unfolded it and covered her wounded friend, then went back out in the passage, clamped the ME generator on the batarian's shirt, lifted him and shoved him into the interrogation room. Here she hacked the local network, wiping the entire record of Griff's involuntary visit, then pocketed the OSD's. A final visual sweep turned up no more equipment; leaving, she closed and sealed the hatch, then ran back to the storage compartment.

Looking at all the containers stacked on the shelves, she discovered one labeled 'bantukoj—towels, and another down below labeled 'kloro lesivo—bleach. Grabbing both containers, she took the contents of each into the passage, where she hurriedly cleaned the blood spatter … Xiùlán's blood … from the deck and walls. She could hear noises at the far end of the passage—somebody was attempting to open that hatch.

Inspecting the grey metal deck, she felt it would stand up to a cursory inspection. A closer inspection would most likely reveal the blood stains she could not completely remove or had missed. She returned to the interrogation room and tossed the towels on the metal table, then returned the empty bleach bottle to its container and replaced it on the shelf. She went back to Xiùlán, who was mercifully still unconscious. Sam knew she couldn't leave her like that … she needed medical help, and she needed it now!

Checking on Buchanan, she was surprised to see he had regained consciousness. "Traynor! What happened? Where are we?"

Sam gave him a brief rundown on their situation. He looked at Xiùlán, unconscious on the deck, as he said, "Dammit Traynor, why'd you two bother? Why risk your lives to come back for me?"

"We couldn't leave you in their custody to answer all their questions," she calmly replied. "You were in pretty bad shape, and I expect you're still in a lot of pain, but I would really prefer saving the analgesics for Yuán." Noticing his surreptitious attempt to scratch or massage between his legs, she added, "I wouldn't do that, Griff. We weren't able to remove all the batarian installed hardware. You have a bare wire wrapped around your, uh … equipment. It's burned into your skin, enough so it didn't seem prudent for us to attempt to remove it. Circulation appeared to still be okay, but I'll take another look when we're somewhere that's not here. Need to apply medigel to your torso as well. They really worked your ass over!"

Buchanan considered her assessment for a few moments. "Batarians never could play nice. And C-Pat has sold their souls to the pirates? So, what's the plan for getting us out of this hell hole?"

"Now you're awake, you're going to help me get Xiùlán down a level, then we find a spot to bunker down for the wait. You can watch over her while I hack into the comm buoys from deck four. We have to stay out of sight until transport arrives. I'll need to find some way to immobilize her leg, or we won't be able to move her at all." Looking at Griff's hands, she observed, "Hands look better than when you were on that hook. How they feeling?"

"Better now all my weight ain't hanging from my wrists … got most of the feeling back, anyway," he replied. Nodding his head in Xiùlán's direction, he asked, "She really that bad?"

"You didn't see her, Griff … nearly ripped my heart out! Which reminds me…" She got up, placed her backpack next to Griff and removed her heavy grey duster. Pulling the M-3, she said, "Artifact is in that backpack, Griff … it's what we came for. I just hope it's worth all this fuckin' pain."

"What are you going to do, Traynor?"

"What I need to do … what I have to do … to keep us alive," came the grim response.

A/N: Traynor's turn to rescue Xiùlán. She needs to keep her lover and Buchanan alive and safe long enough for the Ionsaí to send a rescue shuttle to extract them. But why does she need an M-3 heavy pistol? Find the answer in Chapter 25! Thanks for reading!