"15 stress fractures." Karin announced, obviously impressed.
"Well you never did strike me as a woman to do things half-way." Kaidan said looking over the scan cringing.
Plava sat on the cot looking at the readout with distain. She flexed her hand and Kaidan noticed the wince behind her green eyes that she had tried to hide.
"I also am ordering you to refrain from biotics for at least a few days. Your amp got well rattled by the feedback. That is a nasty bit of damage you took. Are you sure you are not going to tell me how it happened?"
" I told you Doctor I was skiing down the side of the mountain and hit a very large tree." Karin just chuckes and shakes her head.
"My dear, I have drank with Shepard. I have also been a doctor since the first contact war. In other words don't bullshit me."
"It's fine doc. I'll make sure she takes the time off. I know a thing or two about getting an amp rattled around in your skull. "
"I will not be relegated to a secretary! There is too much to do. If we cannot spare the medigel I shall just do without. I lived on Omega for decades I assure you I will survive."
"It's not the wrist I am worried about. It is the biotics. But what do I know obviously you have your own plans." Plava grumbled which made Kaidan chuckle. The death glare made him laugh even more. But now he was curious.
After thanking Karin they head down to the tunnels. It was well past meal time and biotics needed to keep their energy up. Besides they still had a few hours before Adlers would reveal her big project.
"So I have to admit my curiosity has gotten the better of me." He began.
"Oh this will be good." She gives a light smile as she makes them both some coffee.
"How does someone just decide not to become a Justicar. I mean I thought they were the ultimate honor in Asari culture."
Plava sighs and sits down with the two mugs between them.
"Of everything THAT is what you are most curious about?"
"Well Samara said she could be the last one. After all this is over maybe there could be two again."
Plava sighs looking into the cup without looking up.
" You are 1. Assuming I still want to live the life of a Justicar. 2. Assuming that I will survive this war. At present neither of those look very promising." She gives a smile that does not reach her eyes.
"So why didn't you? All that training. Everything you had to give up. Why did you just walk away?"
"Maybe I never planned on becoming one. Maybe I only wished to see if I could and simply walked away once I had."
"Bullcrap. I don't see you walking away from anything. Least of all making the universe more fair."
"Fair in whose eyes? Thessia? Illyum ? Planets who acted so superior but at heart were just as morally devoid as the outter systems. Did you ever wonder why Justicar's remain in motion, going from one mission to another without pause? It is because the powers that be feared what the Justicar's would uncover at home and what they would be compelled to do about it."
She looks away and wipes the emotion from her face. Kaidan reaches out and brushes her knuckles with his own. She was no Shepard but that didn't mean he hadn't come to respect this woman.
"Did you know you get this soulful look when you think about her?" She chuckles before taking a sip of coffee. He blinks suprised.
""What? I don't know what you are talking about?" He rubs his neck.
"How did the dear doctor say it. Don't bullshit me. I have been reading people's faces since before your species achieved flight."
"When you say it like that you really are a cradle robber."
She looked confused at the term and that made Kaidan laugh all the harder.
" When I was a child I had two elder sisters. When they left…well they never returned. By the time I was old enough my mothers were too old to want more daughters so they told me about my sisters, as a warning as grieving I don't know.
They had gotten involved in mercenary bands, Drug cartels, slave trading you name it. My father had fought in the Krogan wars went on and on about needing justice for my sisters. I was young, I could barely remember them but I wanted to avenge them. I dreamt of the day I would be old enough to sneak aboard a ship and hunt down the killers who had butchered my sisters.
"So I did. I tracked down what was left of the groups and ended them. But it did not feel like Justice, it felt like murder. Eventually I made my way back to Thessia and finished my training. By that point my biotics were fully developed and I had just to take my Oaths and finish my first mission. The drug Red Sand had just been introduced to humanity and Omega was making a killing with it. Literally. So I followed the trail there and found one of the Suns with it. A young arrogant Asari. At first she tried to fight but when I disarmed her she knew I would win so she begged. "Please I have a daughter. She will starve here I was just trying to find a way out of this place for us."
"Shar" Kaidan could see the troubled expression in the Asari's face as she nodded.
"By the code I should have killed the woman. The damn idiot brought her daughter to the warehouse with her. She was sniffling and looking at her mother. She couldn't have been older than I was when my sisters died. So if I was to kill this woman here as the Code demanded what would stop the girl when she was old enough from coming after me or my family all over again? The girl was innocent as far as I knew so I woudn't harm her. But there is no grey in the Code. No choice just submission to trust in an edict greater than ourselves." She paused and met Kaidan's eyes before continuing. "Isn't that right Samara?"
"We all have the choice to do what is right and just. We all follow the same path either in name or in spirt my friend." Samara steps out of the shadows and joins them.
"Regardless. It seems the cycle will continue regardless. I failed to save her mother and the daughter will try to find a way to pay me back for it."
"Well that is a bit morose even for you Plav. You said it yourself she is still a kid she will come around. There is a war going on after all."
"Yes but not before it may be to late. As you pointed out there is a war going on after all. But don't worry she will come out soon enough."
"Oh and why do you think that?"
"Because she already knows I can't use my biotics. I am sure she took records from the doctor since you were so insistent I go. I will be the bait." She smiles grimly.