Chapter 12

A Glorious Chaos

Finn was lying on his back, working diligently beneath the storage bay's control console when Noir and Jake returned. He glanced up at them. "Hey, guys. How'd it go?"

"We're apparently off to recover the lost treasure of the League of One." Noir said as Jake ran over to Finn. "We don't know exactly where it is yet, though."

"Did they check under the doormat?"

"Did they ..." Noir's eyes narrowed. "Hardy har har."

"I try." Finn replied, grinning. He started to return his attention to the console components when something heavy landed on his stomach.

"Oof! Jake! What's the deal?"

Jake peered at the underside of the console from his seat on Finn's stomach. "Whatcha working on?"

"Well, I was trying to patch this console into some of the bridge controls. The Shadow Broker's going to be sending backup at some point, and I'd like to be able to coordinate with them when they arrive. Y'know, come up with some plan to capture the ship without hurting anyone."

"Neat! What's stopping you?"

"Someone decided my stomach was a pillow."

"Really? Who?"

Finn glared at Jake wordlessly for a few moments before returning his gaze to the underbelly of the console.

Noir approached, only his feet visible to Finn. "Do we really need to capture the rest of Siren's Call? I mean, if the Shadow Broker sends another ship, couldn't we just leave with them?"

"Well, we could, but I'm pretty sure half the damn galaxy thinks I stole the Creator's Tear. I've got enough notoriety without adding 'jewel thief' to the list, and I might need to go back to Ilium at some point. In the very least, we need the jewel."

Mannon sat up and swung her legs over the side of the crate on which she now sat. "I've been thinking about that. If the Creator's Tear was a fake, and it is part of the map to this treasure, doesn't that mean we are probably headed the wrong way?"

"Darkly; Doubtful. It wasn't a very good fake; if I figured it out, and Lady Scarlet's been analyzing the medallions she found in the other stones, she would've spotted a fake right away."

"We all saw it shatter when you dropped it." Finn said.

"Ominously; we saw the fake Creator's Tear shatter." Turning his eyes on Noir, Darsan continued, "Suspicious; which means someone on board created a fake."

Finn saw Noir's feet shuffle backwards a few steps. "Whoa! I wouldn't even begin to know how to do something like that!"

"Evenly; I didn't imply you made it; I implied that you brought it to us. We would've brought it back to Ilium, and would have certainly been caught."

"I would never-"

"Hey!" Mannon's feet joined the others, quickly stepping between Noir and Darsan. "Easy there, fellas! Let's not start throwing around random accusations."

"Accusingly; then who is responsible for the fake?"

The entire ship shuddered as the ship came out of FTL. Finn steadied himself against the console. "Damn. I thought we'd have a little more time before we reached the border. Noir, give me a hand with this, would you?"

"Sure thing." Noir lay down beside Finn.

While the days of the flotilla had long since passed, quarians still had a reputation for being good with technology; the Flotsam Academy on Rannoch was one of the leading engineering schools in the entire galaxy, and Noir was one of the few to make it through their Master's program. Still, what Finn lacked in proper training, he more than made up for in experience; working together, they managed to establish a connection to the bridge systems.

"It's on, guys!" Mannon called out.

Finn pulled himself out from under the console and said, "Good. See if you can access the sensors."

"I'll see if I can't get us fully patched in." Noir told Finn as he stood up. "We should be able to access everything now, though."

"Coolness." After dusting off his pants for a moment, Finn turned to Mannon, asking, "How's it look out there?"

"There's a lot of debris; mined out asteroids, derelict spaceships, that kinda thing." She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not detecting any ... no, wait, one ship just appeared on sensors."

"That would be the border patrol. See if you can bring up an external camera; I'd like to see what we're dealing with."

"Check." After poking at the controls for a few moments, she managed to bring up an image of the ship now approaching.

Darsan peered over Finn's shoulder. "Ominously; a krogan warship, no doubt."

Mannon shook her head. "Nah; it's just a scout ship."

"Incredulous; that's a scout ship? Maker's breath, I'd hate to see what they send to fight."

Darsan's confusion wasn't surprising; the krogan scout vessel was larger than an Alliance frigate. While it wasn't pretty (krogans typically stuck with a 'box with features' style of construction), there was no doubt that it was heavily armored, and likely equally as heavily armed.

As it bore down on the Meridia, Mannon started tapping at the controls again.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked.

"I hid a few audio bugs on the bridge while I was up there; I figured it hearing what the bridge crew was saying could come in handy."

"Good thinking." Finn said. In truth, he was a little surprised; Mannon was really buying into the whole 'agent of the Shadow Broker' thing. Then again, after deserting the Alliance, he supposed there wasn't much holding her back.

There was a crackle as the audio feeds came online. "-approaching, Lady Scarlett."

"Understood. Azure?"

"It's ready if we need it."

"Excellent. Amber, open up a communication channel."

There was a brief chime.

"I am Ambassador Jera Thanson vas Greegar of Rannoch; we have come here in hopes of renewing relations between our peoples."

There were a few moments of silence before a gruff voice replied, "Krogan space is off-limits to outsiders. Turn back, or I'll blast you into dust."

"Wow. That's friendly."

"Violet." Scarlet whispered chastisingly. Clearing her throat, she said, "Our peoples once enjoyed a healthy trade agreement beneficial to both of us. If you could let your superiors know that-"

Mannon glanced down in alarm as her console beeped. She barely had time to open her mouth before something impacted the Meridia's kinetic barriers hard enough to knock everyone without the presence of mind to grab something (or at two extra legs) off of their feet. Finn was not among those people.

Pulling himself out of the remains of one of Auren's wardrobes, he commented dazedly. "Cheap wood, that. Carpentry's a lost art."

"What is the meaning of this?" Lady Scarlet's voice demanded from the audio link. "We came in peace."

"We don't want what you're selling, quarian. We're under orders from the Primarch himself to Get out of here, or the next one won't be a warning shot."

There was an audible crack in the audio when the krogan cut the comm channel.

"Wow." Jake said in the ensuing silence. "Not much for negotiating, is he?"

Finn couldn't help but agree with Jake's sentiment. In terms of lies, Scarlet's attempt had been quite convincing to him. He wondered how many legitimate ambassadors had met a similar or worse fate. Still, he was pretty sure that Lady Scarlet wasn't just going to leave it at that.

Sure enough, Lady Scarlet said, "As I understand it, your people are extremely interested in securing large stockpiles of Element Zero, correct?"

There was a long pause. "You're carrying Eezo, huh?"

"That is correct. We have a sample recovered from a world recently annexed by the quarian people. There should be far more than we need, so it could be brought to the table, so to speak."

There was another long pause. "I'll need to clear this with Tuchanka; stay there and don't move."

As the communication channel closed, Scarlet breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that worked."

"Good thing we actually have some extra eezo." Azure sighed. "You know this isn't going to work for long."

"We don't need it to work for long." Scarlet replied. "Just long enough."

Mannon murmured, "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh?" Finn asked, "What uh-oh?"

She pointed to the sensor screen. "Look at the debris."

Finn looked at the various flotsam that made up the krogan border. After a few moments, he shook his head, saying, "I don't see anything."

"Look closer."

Squinting at the screen, Finn couldn't tell what Mannon was on about. It was just various space junk; there was a lot near them, but it was just junk.

Finn froze when he finally saw it. There was a large amount of junk around them, at least twice as much as the regular composition of the rest of the border, according to the Meridia's sensors. Many of the larger pieces were quite notably moving towards them; while there were no energy readings from them, it was clear they were not moving with the rest of the space junk.

"Uh-oh." said Darsan, apparently coming to the same realization.

Finn thought for a few long moments before sighing, and reaching for the inter-ship communication controls.

Noir caught his hand mere inches from the console. "Are you crazy? You're going to let the rest of the ship know you're here?"

"As opposed to just letting the krogans capture us or blow us up?" Finn shook off Noir's grip and activated the controls. "Check your sensors! We've got more scout ships incoming!"

"Who is this?" Scarlet asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Worry about that later. Worry about the krogan ships hiding in the debris now!"

"Violet?" Scarlet asked, sounding unsure.

There was a brief pause. "He's right; at least ten ships all around us!"

"What?" Azure said, sounding rightly surprised. "How did they sneak up on us so fast?"

"Energy as low as they could put it and controlled thrusters, I'd imagine. Look, turn the Meridia-"

The ships flared to life around them, their energy signatures lighting up the sensor screen like lights on a Christmas tree.

"Oh shit." Finn said, "Go! Just pick a direction and get outta here!"

The ship shot into motion instantly. Fortunately, Finn had the presence of mind to be holding on to the console this time.

The Meridia was originally a merchant ship. Given the somewhat perilous nature of space travel, particularly through the pirate-infested Terminous Systems, the original owner had taken great care to make the Asari transport vessel pack a surprisingly powerful engine and the shielding to both use it properly and avoid having its tail end blasted off. How he lost possession of his ship is a story for another day (involving a salarian prostitute, three cases of Ryncol, and a VI with a bit of an attitude), but needless to say, when the ship suddenly kicked into high-gear, it was almost like it spontaneously disappeared on the krogan scanners. Almost.

"We've got a bit of breathing room." Amber's voice said from the console. "They're chasing us, though."

Finn heard Scarlet sigh. "So much for the peaceful approach. Azure?"

"Just give the word."

"Not unless we just have to; the last thing we need is for Tuchanka to go to war with Rannoch. Are you still listening, mysterious stranger?"

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"Well, you've been resourceful enough to sneak aboard my ship and hack into my systems. Any suggestions on how we could escape without violence?"

Finn ran a hand through his hair. It was messy. "The Meridia's more maneuverable than those krogan clunkers; you might be able to lose them in the debris field."

"You heard him, Amber."

"But we don't even know who-"

"I think it's fair to say he's just as eager as we are to stay in the world of the living. We'll worry about the rest once we're safe; for now, head into the debris field."

The Merida flew through the floating junk with just as much grace and skill as her pilot showed on the stage, flipping, twisting, and spinning past debris. The krogan pilots weren't quite as skilled. They did, however, make up for their lack of grace with an abundance of weaponry and armor.

Nevertheless, in a matter of five minutes, there were only four ships chasing them.

"Glum; more incoming no doubt."

"But not here yet." Jake said, wagging his tail end.

Finn nodded in silent appreciation of Amber's piloting skills. "Then we'll have to make a point not to be here. Amber, you up for something a little reckless?"

"Who the hell are you?"

"Alan Smithee."

Finn could almost hear Violet smirk as she said, "Cute."

Grinning, Finn said, "Turn around and shoot straight through the remaining ships."

"What?! That's crazy!"

"I know. That's why they aren't expecting it."

"Do it." Scarlet told her. "Be ready with the Shalsom-et."

"Right." Azure replied as Finn's brow furrowed.

Almost in answer to his unasked question, Scarlet said, "It's a surprise, Mister Smithee."

Finn nearly lost his grasp on the console as the ship pulled up sharply and rocketed towards the krogan scouting vessels. They opened fire, but it was far too late; the Meridia was already past them. Two of the vessels made the fatal mistake of focusing on the quickly departing Merida and not on the debris, resulting in two less vessels to follow the Meridia. With two ships in pursuit, the Meridia pressed onward through the rapidly thinning debris.

"I think we can risk a sub-light jump. Amber?" Scarlet asked.

"Almost there!"

Finn's console beeped. He glanced at the scanners, and was startled to see two energy signatures rapidly chase after the krogan vessels until impacting, after which both vanished.

Finn raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything, the Meridia shot into sub-light speed.

"Violet?" Scarlet's voice asked.

"No sign of pursuit. Looks like we're in the clear." The relief in Scarlet's voice was almost palpable. "Now, as we've got about fifteen minutes before we reach Tuchanka, I think now would be a good time as any to go and have a word with our new friend, Mister Smithee."

Noir looked panicked. Thinking fast, Finn put his hand over Noir's mouth and said, "Hope to see you soon; there's nothing like a good conversation, is there? Jake?"

With a loud crackle, the terminal died. Jake trotted out from under the console a moment later, a satisfied look on his display.

"What are we gonna do?" Noir asked, desperation in his voice. "She's gonna come down here and find-"

Noir's body stiffened as electricity leapt onto him from Jake's display. Noir's eyes showed a look of shock and betrayal as his body fell to the ground, prone.

Jake had the good grace to look ashamed of himself. "Sorry, Noir."

As Finn dragged Noir over to one of the barrels that was still upright, Mannon asked, "What are you doing? I thought he-"

"I'm tying up the engineer who caught us in the cargo bay." Finn explained. "After he came back from the meeting, he spotted us messing around with the console and tried to stop us because he's very loyal to Siren's Call. Isn't that right, Noir?"

Noir couldn't respond, of course, but Finn liked to think he could see a bit of understanding in the quarian's wide eyes. Patting Noir on the shoulder, Finn said, "You're welcome. Now, I think it'd be a good idea for the rest of you to find somewhere to hide."

"Confused; what?"

"I'm the only one who spoke to her." Finn said. "I'm all for a peaceful resolution, but let's have you guys around as a plan B, just in case."

As the other former residents of J-27 scattered, Finn glanced around at the scattered crates and containers for a good place to wait.