Ripples in the Stream
A D&D / Shadowrun / Mass Effect crossover by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, derive any profit from the story. D&D, Shadowrun and Mass Effect are the property of their respective copyright holders. Jorukaia and other unfamiliar characters in this story, however, are mine.
The showers were, like everything on board Benezia's personal yacht, simple, but elegant. Smoothly curved corners, individual shower-areas marked out by slightly raised lips and faintly sloped floors down to the drain, and the narrow, slender rails that ran around the ceiling, to provide privacy curtains, should they be needed.
Since the commando squad wasn't prudish, they had remained unused for as long as anyone cared to remember.
The sounds of showering were mingled with the sounds of chatter between the various women of the squad. Cleaning up after a hard workout was a good way to relax and knit the group tight again, especially after the rivalries brought to the fore for spars in the ring. But there was a particular topic that dominated discussion this time around.
"So you hear about the new girl?" asked one of the commandos.
"Yeah, who is she?"
"Not sure, I heard that the matriarch hand-picked her though."
Soap was passed back and forth as various ladies used it, new bars pulled from dispensers as needed. "Hmmph. Well, if she wants to measure up to our standards, she'll have to train hard."
"I heard she already has her own training regimen."
"Really? Did you get a look at it?"
"I heard she's only a kid, less than fifty."
"What the hell was the matriarch thinking, pulling a kid like that?!"
The squad leader was older, and more experienced, and hadn't contributed as much to the discussion, "Ours is not to question the wisdom of the matriarchs."
"Well, if the matriarch did pick her out so young, and I'm not convinced of that, then she must be some sort of prodigy."
"As I said: she'll have to prove she can keep up with us, if she's going to join the matriarch's bodyguard."
"I heard that she spent a long time with the Matriarch when we left orbit, I wonder what they were doing?"
"Shut it, ladies. Five more minutes, then out to the armory for weapons drills." The older asari smirked as one cry of protest rose from further down the line.
"Awwww, but I wanted to get my scalp really clean this time!"
"You can do it in five minutes if you didn't take so long enjoying it, Lyris."
"Five minutes, ladies, then I shut off the hot water. Hop to it!"
The slender, petite asari who was already down at the range when Shava squad arrived surprised a few of them, but they were professional enough not to comment. More than a few of them took notice of her stance, and a few suppressed smiles as the girl popped off shots from a heavy pistol one handed. The ones that didn't smile were the ones that noticed that most of her shots were bulls-eyes.
The squad worked the ranges in rotation; pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles and shotguns. The petite asari stayed over at her end of the range, and seemed content to stick with just the heavy pistol, occasionally switching hands.
"You want some company?"
The girl looked up at the smiling, lithe commando beside her, and shrugged, "It's a free range."
Lyris pursed her lips and her smile turned faintly exasperated. She'd noticed the kid's shots going downrange fairly accurately, but her stance was all wrong for that sort of shooting. Still, it wasn't her job to instruct her, nor did the girl seem to want help, so...
"I'm Lyris. One of the Matriarch's personal guard."
The girl gave a faint nod, sighting with both eyes, Lyris noted with approval. "Jona Siberys."
So this was the youngster that the Matriarch had picked up. Lyris restrained her curiosity for a while, sighting her own weapon downrange and adding to the minor cacophony in the range for a while.
"Mind if I try a different weapon?"
The unexpected comment threw off her aim, but only so that she 'winged' the target instead of hitting center-mass, "Hmm?"
The girl tapped a different gun with a finger. It was on the counter in front of her, a huge, black-metal beast of a thing that would have looked more at home in a krogan's fist than on board an asari yacht. "I need to get in some practice, and see if the new mod I installed yesterday works as intended."
Lyris gave a blink of surprise, lowering her own pistol to glance at the youngster, "I'm not the range-mistress, you should take it up with Kaltia over there." She angled her head down the range towards the asari behind the desk.
The kid nodded and picked up the gun, making sure the slide was locked and the chamber was visible, before walking off towards the range-mistress. Lyris approved, the kid knew how to treat a gun with respect. She watched for a moment then returned to her own target-shooting.
The range was set up to either provide static targets, or a range of shifting ones, both high and low and left to right. Sometimes, to make things more difficult, one of them would loft targets with biotics and try her best to make it hard to hit while the rest of the squad took shots at it. There were even a few targets that had built-in shields, to test weapons with shield-piercing ammunition.
Lyris was so focused on her target shooting she didn't notice the kid return until she nudged a pair of ear-protectors at her. Technically, they were supposed to wear them at all times inside the range, but most guns didn't produce enough bang, even when every slot on the range was occupied, to make enough noise to be bothersome. Loud, sure, but no more-so than a someone shouting.
"What're these for?"
"Trust me, you'll want them." The girl hefted the gun, racked a slide on it with a heavy-sounding cha-chunk and sighted downrange with the gun held in both hands. "Going hot."
Lyris was fond of being able to hear, and she'd gotten a look at the muzzle of that thing as the girl fiddled with it. Not only was a big, it included two large holes on either side, drilled into the very end of the barrel. She had just put the earphones on when a belch of fire burst from the muzzle, shockingly bright, much brighter than the simulated muzzle-flashes of her own guns. Most weapons didn't use them for actual combat, being able to hide where you were shooting from was a very useful thing on the battlefield.
This gun, however, made absolutely no pretense to stealth at all. Aside from the tremendous burst of fire, a thunderous BOOM rolled around the range like one of those silly, elastic-rubber balls hurled into a glass case. Even through her ear-protectors Lyris cried out in surprise at the sheer volume of the retort. The target the girl was shooting at was knocked flat by the impact, but not before Lyris saw the massive, ugly hole the bullet tore through it.
"Goddess, girl, just what kind of gun is that?"
"An antique, I guess. It's something I found in the Terminus systems." She hefted it, flicked a switch. "Purely mechanical, no electronics. Nothing to hack."
Lyris could see how that could be useful. Disabling the enemy's weapons was a very viable tactic in the modern battlefield. But purely mechanical guns were a bitch to aim and shoot, and entirely abandoned for the convenience and accuracy of electronic-actuated weapons. Not to mention you couldn't build a mechanical weapon that utilized the mass effect. Mass effect weapons used a precisely modulated dark energy field to lighten the round as it sped down the barrel, accelerated by precisely timed magnetic fields generated along its length. All that took pretty delicate and precise control, and had to be managed by computer.
But every computer could be hacked, it was just a matter of gaining access, and time.
This time when the young girl fired, it wasn't a single thunderclap that echoed downrange, but a trio of them. Three mighty blasts that almost tore the metal target from its stand, even though one of them clipped the outside corner.
Lyris was neglecting her own shooting, she knew, but how the kid could keep going with that thing without more serious protection than the ear protectors was beyond her. It got worse when the kid started snapping off shots one-handed, each one savage enough to jerk her arm upwards slightly.
That level of recoil was all but unheard of for standardized arms around the galaxy. Every effort had been made to reduce felt-recoil of almost every weapon in the arsenal, for the simple fact that if they didn't, most weapons would be unusable. They accelerated their payloads towards the target with such speed that even with the mass effect reducing the round's mass to near non-existent, the recoil was still powerful. Most of that was bled off with mass effect fields, but more of it was handled with a recoiling barrel.
This ancient beast of a killing machine had none of that. It was solid, dark and forbidding, with surprisingly delicate and elegant scroll work worked into the barrel and hand-grip, more of it tracing up over the guts of the gun. Something glittered at the muzzle each time the flash of fire belched from it as well, and weirdly, part of the mechanism seemed to consist of some sort of transparent crystal. "Just what is that thing?"
Jona stopped firing and looked up at Lyris. Then over at the rest of the squad, who were at the far side of the range and staring over at her. She shrugged, flicked the switch and set the gun down. "Originally, I think it was a shotgun, but whoever the bastard was that I stole it from had modified it into that."
"That was a shotgun?" That was Shaiveris, the squad's resident weapons buff. Lyris rolled her eyes as the older asari stepped closer to take a look, "I've seen a few of the ancient chemical propellant designs, but that thing doesn't seem to be anything like them."
"I think it started life as a human weapon. 12-gauge shotgun, stock removed, shortened barrel, reworked mechanism. It's actually capable of surprisingly quick full-auto, but that'd break my grip, and I don't think we want a randomly-firing weapon stuck on fully automatic fire getting loose in here."
The entire squad shuddered as one, and Lyris nodded vehemently, praising the girl a bit for her restraint.
"So how does the action work? I've read up on these sorts of things, you said it was all mechanical?"
"Yeah." The girl started to go into detail, which was lost on Lyris, but she studied the girl's face all the same.
Something about her struck Lyris as both false and true. She was young, very young, but still of an age to move out of her parents' house. Maybe she had had a bad home-life, hence her interest in guns at such a young age. Maybe there was something about it that had drawn the Matriarch's attention.
Still, there was something about the way she talked, as if she were older than she should be, physically, that piqued Lyris's curiosity.
She'd have to watch this one.
The doctor's prim, firm lips pissed Jack off, as the slender asari carefully worked Jack's shoulder back into its socket with a soft, wet popping sound. Like most of the asari on this ship, she used her biotics for as many things as she could get away with, something that puzzled Jack, but she ignored the riddle as best she could. Focusing on the pain helped.
"There we go. I'm going to put your arm in a sling for the rest of the trip, I don't want you re-injuring it. Here, this should help with the pain."
Jack hated needles almost as much as she hated Cerberus, so she politely (for her) declined the offer of a painkiller. It clearly puzzled the doctor, and that made Jack grin inwardly. 'Turnabout is fair play, prissy blue bitch.'
"Alright, but if it starts hurting worse, or you feel it starting to swell up, come see me at once, and I want to see you in here in the morning regardless. A shoulder injury like that could turn nasty, and I don't have human-specific antibiotics handy."
"Right, right." Jack shifted up to her feet, wincing a bit as the sling tugged a bit on her shoulder.
The doc let her out without too much fanfare, most of that was being reserved for the commando at the other end of the small sickbay. Her left foot was already bandaged, the badly sprained ankle immobilized, and the sour look on the asari's face bespoke more annoyance than pain.
She hadn't meant for things to go that far, but Jack's temper had gotten the better of her when she had bumped into her third asari watchdog in an hour. It wasn't that they didn't trust her, she expected that, but that they were so damned blatant about it!
It also didn't help that she hasn't gotten laid in the last two weeks. Girl needed her privacy for that sorta shit, and the damn blue bitches didn't leave her alone!
So, she had snapped. It had started as an insult, graduated to shoving, and before the other commandos had pulled them apart, both of them had sustained serious, though not too major injuries. Apparently the asari had needed to blow off some steam too, though, Jack smiled, she had gotten the worst of it.
She gave a sigh as she slipped out of sickbay, making a face as she adjusted her sling. Probably not the best of impressions to make on her gracious hosts. But damn, did it feel good to get into a fight again.
Joru had been idle for most of the two-day crossing to Noveria. There wasn't much she could do on board the closed environment of the yacht that wouldn't give away her secret. She could open her Refuge for a nice mug of tea, Aethyta made sure there was a secure space for her to do so, but being absent from the ship for too long while in transit would be noticed. Joru had to have somewhere where she could be 'herself' for a few seconds each day, otherwise her Jona disguise would revert when the time limit ran out. Aethyta had gained her access to an unmonitored room for a few minutes a couple of times each day, which was more than ample to refresh her disguise. But sleeping wasn't really an option for her. Well, trancing at any rate. As part-elf, she enjoyed the benefits of blending dream with waking awareness, but it still relaxed her hold her conscious mind had on her power, and she reverted to her natural state. On board this ship, that would raise most of Hell.
And so, she trained. For more than forty hours, she trained, in various ways. It had been good at first, but in the last few of those hours she had realized that she had attracted more attention than was wise. Benezia had several dozen commandos with her at all times, her unseen security net that spread out and made sure she was safe while being invisible. A few of the more impressive ones, who were nonetheless still quite deadly, stayed with her, while the rest of them spread out and secured a wide radius around her at all times when she wasn't on board her own private yacht, or in her home, which was more like a fortified palace.
Joru had noticed them the fourth or fifth time she had gone through her workout routine, a few curious faces that glanced her way too often. She had sighed internally when she had realized she had set the weight machines almost up to max to get a good workout, and at least one of the girls had noticed. They hadn't talked to her about it, though a few had given her odd looks. Perhaps that was just as well, she didn't want to talk about her physical differences.
Joru kept calm the best she could. Inaction had always been a problem for her, ever since her blood first began to burn. Mediation helped, it calmed her mind and let her keep her focus, and working out was a way to meditate that didn't require the incense or ritual flame that were denied her for now. As always, the memory of the old human master who had first taught her to calm her mind brought back with it the old pain of loss, but by this time, she was well used to quelling that particular melancholy.
"Gemma, look, just because I like running the treadmill pattern doesn't mean I'm skimping on the weights!"
Joru glanced up at the pair of asari over at the leg press, pausing once she finished her set at the bench. Lyris was the one who complained, while the other, an older asari who was probably her squad leader, set the weights for her while Lyris sat on the edge of the padded rest.
"Don't care, Lyris. You get an extra set today."
"Alright, fine." Lyris lay back with a huff, and started with the press. Joru suppressed a grin, her asari features twitching a little, but noting the rather impressive weight that Gemma had set for her. Not up to Joru's own standards, but, well, few people short of a krogan could bench two hundred kilograms and still call it a light workout.
"And you, missy, have had quite enough. I've been watching the logs, and you've been in here more in the last two days than any three of my girls. Enough's enough."
Joru blinked up as the asari sergeant came over to her, "I like training, and I have the Matriarch's permission to be here." She just didn't say which matriarch.
"That's all fine and dandy, but I don't want you killing yourself, hear? Up."
With a grunt and a grumble, Joru got up, giving the asari a disgusted glare, then letting out a long, slow breath. "Fine. I'll do stretches for a while, that acceptable?"
"Sure, but I want you in sickbay at noon."
"What? Why?"
The older asari gave a soft sigh, "Look, you've been in here working out, or over at the range, almost since we left orbit around Illium. That's gonna leave a mark, and I want you checked out to make sure you didn't strain something. I've seen the weights you've been using, that's not normal, and I need to make sure you aren't doing yourself damage."
Her eyes were soft, concerned as she gazed down at Jona Siberys, unaware of the true nature of the asari youngster, "You're a good kid, and I can see you've got some issues you need to work out. Pushing yourself until you break isn't the answer, so talk with the doc, huh?"
"I'll be fine on my own." Joru slipped around the woman, the sudden intense urge to put her flat on her back fading as soon as it had come, smoothed out with a ritual thought, "But in case you have forgotten, I'm not one of your girls. I don't work for you, I didn't sign up for your training, I'm not a commando you can boss around."
The asari's eyes narrowed as she turned to follow her, but Joru's finger lightly rested on her lips, before she realized that the 'young asari' was staring at her with pale-yellow eyes, "I work for the Matriarch. She trusts my judgment in this matter. So should you."
Gemma hesitated, eyes narrow and jaw set as 'Jona' slipped off, joining a few of the asari on the large, circular mat that served as the stretching area. When necessary, a rail could be erected, to turn the area into a sparring ring, but for now the asari there just gave her friendly glances as she joined their exercise routine.
Joru heaved an internal sigh as she began with some light stretches. She needed to cool off, visit the Refuge for a while, get her temper under control before she let out too much to be ignored.
The sparring ring was up, a few of the girls just finishing off a little impromptu tournament when Joru arrived back from her inspection in sickbay. She'd seen Jack slip out with a sling not too long ago, and wondered initially why she had been in there, but dismissed it. Jack was Jack, she probably picked a fight.
Joru had better ideas about how to blow off steam constructively. The doctor's examination had been brief but thorough, doing a quick scan of her body and pursing her lips so hard they turned into a thin, pale gash in her face, as she noted the numerous scars marring the skin of the 'young asari'. No doubt Joru was going to have to deal with Benezia asking questions about that later, but for now, she focused on the three asari who had just finished their little bout. "Hey."
The three turned, and gave her a set of friendly smiles. The shorter one stepped forward, offering her hand, palm up in the traditional asari gesture of greeting, "Hey yourself. I'm Vyeris, and you must be the new girl, Jona, right?"
Joru let her fingertips lightly stroke over the asari's own, returning the gesture correctly. "Yes. I was wondering if any of you might be up for a friendly spar? It's been a while, and I don't want to loose my edge."
A quiet chuckle sounded between the two taller of the asari as they shared a glance. Vyeris just smiled, "Sure, I'd be up for a friendly little bout. Those two lunks just got done beating each other up, and I've been all on my own so far."
Joru gave a faint smile, gesturing for the other asari to lead the way into the ring, "I confess I haven't had much time to read up on the rules for this sort of thing, though. Most of my fighting has been of the life-or-death variety, so if there's any rules I should know, don't hesitate to point them out."
Vyeris shrugged as she slid gracefully between the cables stretched between the posts that defined the ring, "Not many rules. No biotics, no disabling injuries, no knockout blows. We both might wind up in combat tomorrow, so anything that takes us off the combat-roster is a no-no."
Joru nodded at that, slipping through with the same ease as the other two took up station on opposite sides of the ring, "Good to know. Any conventions I need to abide by? I assume tapping out is acceptable."
"That it is." The petite asari gave a faint smirk, "I'm my squad's ground-combat specialist, so you'll probably be tapping out a lot."
Joru gave a faint smirk, "Oh I don't know, I know a thing or two about joint-locks that might surprise you."
"Noveria Traffic Control, this is the private vessel Ray of Dawn, requesting a vector to dock at Rameus Station."
The voice on the comm channel was the usual mixture of bored, harassed and a bit angry, "Ray of Dawn, your arrival is not scheduled. Our defense grid is armed and tracking you, state your business."
The asari at the comm rolled her eyes, but remained polite and professional, "Corporate business. We carry Matriarch Benezia T'soni, one of the major shareholders in a number of Noverian corporations."
The large, bulbous station wasn't visible from this distance, but it was there. The response came back from Traffic Control, "Approach...granted, Ray of Dawn. Vector Aleph-three-three is clear. You are not authorized to dock until an inspection detail has cleared your ship."
"That could take days. We are a cruiser-weight vessel, and the Matriarch is in a hurry." The comm officer's expression wasn't exactly pleased at that bit of news.
"The Matriarch has to go through quarantine procedures like everyone else." The traffic controller's tone was bored, yet gleeful, "She can wait her turn in the queue."
The Matriarch herself had stepped down to the level of the Comm officer, and now reached past her to take a spare mic. "I am Matriarch T'soni, and I'm certain that the Executive Board would be interested to know that you've decided to keep a major shareholder of Synthetic Insights, Binary Helix, three other major corporations and an assortment of minor ones from attending a scheduled meeting. I am willing to wait to deal with the formalities, but time is money, and it's not my time you'd be wasting."
The traffic controller's tone changed from one of petty glee to a more concerned tone, "I have to obey the regulations, Matriarch. You are cleared for docking bay six. A shuttle will meet you on approach for a cursory inspection before you dock. Please maintain your assigned vector."
The matriarch gave a faint smile as she set the mic back, then patted the comm officer's shoulder, "Sometimes, you need to use a bit of alsha to coax the vehniss to you, before you take it, Shal'ri."
"Yes, Matriarch." The maiden gave the older asari an adoring look as Benezia turned away. She had other problems to deal with, such as a young guest who was hiding something from her.
Benezia paced slowly, her skirts swishing about her ankles. Aethyta was over on the couch, stony-faced as Benezia had ever seen her. Each time their eyes met, Benezia gave a soft huff.
Aethyta had been emphatic: there were certain secrets that were Jona's alone, and that it was up to her to divulge, not for Aethyta to spill as if Jona were a complete child. That particular confrontation was not one that Benezia cared to repeat, Aethyta had surprised her with her vehement insistence that if Benezia wanted the answers, she had to go to Jona for them.
Thus, this meeting. Benezia had heard a few things from her commandos, and the medical report from her nurse raised more questions than it answered. The girl was strong, far stronger than she should be. Her muscles were stronger, her bones were denser, her senses seemed heightened, and she acted like someone with far more experience than she could possibly have. One of her veterans had likened her to someone who had seen far too much combat in too short a time. How a 30-year-old girl had managed to do that was anyone's guess.
Benezia turned again as the door opened, and her eyes slashed across the young asari in the doorway. She gave a nod of acknowledgment and gestured to the chair near the two couches. "Sit."
To her consternation, Jona remained in the doorway a moment before stepping forward and letting it close. The youngster's gaze was direct and calm, despite Benezia's agitation, both real and feigned. "What is this about?"
"Sit. We shall discuss this in a civilized manner." Benezia waited until her 'guest' was seated before seating herself on the other couch. It made Aethyta, already seated in the other couch, seem on her side, which was what she wanted for the moment.
Jona sat oddly, at first on the edge of the chair, but when Benezia slid onto her divan, the girl relaxed and sank deeper into the chair, even lifting her legs to cross them. "So now what?"
"Now, you begin explaining yourself. You have been invited into my company, my home, given of my time and energy, used my facilities, and now I find that you've been hiding something from me."
The girl went still, absolutely still. It made Benezia falter slightly, but only someone with her ear for minutia would have noticed it. Then again, this girl was said to have much-heightened senses. "I realize that it might be nothing untoward, but the point is that I cannot have a potential security breach. Someone in my position is bound to have enemies, and it's best if I know your loyalties."
The girl was silent and still. Too still, she had to be hiding something. Benezia's eyes narrowed at her guest as Jona tilted her head to stare at Aethyta. Somewhat to Benezia's surprise, Aethyta winced, and shook her head.
"I didn't tell her, Jona. She figured it out on her own."
Jona gave a faint nod and turned her head the other way. Benezia met those cold, pale-gold eyes and found herself being studied with an intensity that rivaled her own. "Before I tell you anything, Benezia, I must ask this question. Please do not take it personally, nor as an insult, there are security concerns that prevent me from revealing my secrets unless you answer this question correctly."
Benezia felt her jaw clench, and consciously loosened it. This girl thought to bring her to task for breach of security? "Very well, ask."
"Have you ever spent any time at all in the presence of the Spectre Saren Arterius, or any time at all on his flagship, or been near any other similar technology?" The girl's eyes were deathly serious, "Answer to the best of your knowledge and in your own way. Until I have your answer, I cannot, not 'will not' but cannot reveal this information."
"Are you accusing-" Benezia bit off that sentence before it could do more damage. The girl had to be an agent of some sort, but for whom? Who wanted Saren watched? The council, now, and probably some of the Circle of Matriarchs, but this girl had been contacted by Aethyta days prior to that. Who might have had information about Saren prior to the official investigation?
"Before I answer, might I ask a different question?" At the girl's curt nod, she continued, "Whom do you serve? You're clearly an agent for someone, or you wouldn't be interested in my connection to Saren, and you wouldn't care about that if you didn't have covert intelligence on him."
"Correct, as far as it goes." The girl's lips quirk faintly, "As to my own loyalties, let's just say I serve a Higher Power in this."
Benezia heard the capitals click into place. 'Spectre, has to be. But who? Vasir? Possibly, she's always been a bit unorthodox. Possibly that salarian one, I forget his name. Possibly the council directly, but they would never induct someone so young as a Spectre.' She gave a soft sigh, "Very well. I have not, to the best of my memory, ever been in Saren's presence, nor been aboard his flagship. I cannot speak for other similar technology, as it might have been disguised."
The girl's reaction was interesting to read. She seemed to soften from her stillness, giving a thoughtful nod. "I understand. And now I have something of a dilemma. In all courtesy, I cannot keep this information from you, as you would be a valuable ally I should not turn away unnecessarily. On the other hand, the secret is too sensitive to release to the general public, so I must request that you give me your word that what I reveal here does not go beyond these walls. Moreover, I must ask that you seal the room and deactivate any monitoring equipment that might be watching or listening. This information is too sensitive to be allowed to pass beyond us three for now."
The older matriarch pursed her lips and shot Aethyta a glance. Her old lover had been remarkably tight-lipped about all this, but that was at least somewhat forgivable if there was a Spectre involved.
"I see. Well, give me a moment." Benezia flicked open her omnitool's interface. Long habit and practice meant that she could quickly riffle through the needed gestures to bring up a call to her security chief without need of the holographic interface, something she had practiced so often that it was almost muscle-memory by now.
"Matriarch?" The soft voice in her ear sounded politely attentive. As Shiuura always was.
"Until further notice, seal and disable all recording devices and monitoring equipment to my third receiving room, please. I shall contact you again when it is permitted to resume monitoring. Inform me when it is done."
"At once, Matriarch." No hesitation, no questions. A good woman, if possibly a bit slow. "Monitoring systems disabled and the room is sealed, Matriarch."
"Good." Benezia closed the connection and turned to face her young enigma, "We are secure. No monitoring or recording."
The girl gave a soft sigh, rising with a surprisingly weary expression, "Very well. Remember that you yourself demanded this information, so no matter what, your involvement was your decision."
Benezia opened her mouth to demand an explanation for that, but her jaw merely sagged a moment before snapping shut. Young Jona grew, gaining nearly half a meter in height as her already dark skin darkened and seemed to thicken. Two of her scalp tendrils lifted and lengthened, growing shiny and hard, while the rest split into countless fine filaments which quickly spread down past the woman's shoulders. And Jona was no child anymore, towering over Benezia, her features lean and almost hungry. A long, sinuous tail appeared from behind one of her legs, tipped with a wicked-looking sharp spike. Her eyes changed as well, flame-red filling them until only the pupils were still yellow, now a vibrant molten-gold.
The shock of the transformation made Benezia lean backwards unconsciously, almost huddling into her couch. She'd seen many holographic disguises before, but never something as total and complex as this one. It was as if the woman's very flesh had changed shape. She found Aethyta's hand taking her own and it was only then that she realized her hands were trembling.
The figure moved, her pace long and slow, but quickly shifting the distance to one of the sparsely-adorned walls. She turned there, not exactly at bay, but as nonthreatening as her almost brutish appearance would allow. She spoke then, her eyes firm, but not menacing, and her voice similar to Jona's, though deeper and more resonant. "I am Jorukaia, a darastrix. I am sent on a mission most urgent, one that I dare not speak aloud in this place. Come, let us adjourn to a place where none may eavesdrop, even accidentally."
Was there a door on that wall? No, Benezia knew this ship quite well, especially her reception areas. There was no door in that wall, behind it was a smaller, more intimate reception room, and yet, this door did not open into that space, but into somewhere else entirely.
Benezia's unbelieving eyes beheld a sky at evening, facing the rising of a moon over a mountain-rimmed valley. Some sort of free-standing torches provided illumination over a surprisingly peaceful stone-lined sand garden, a pair of small, almost sculpted trees just visible on either side, flanking the entrance to what looked like some sort of mountain aerie.
She turned, clasping Aethyta's hand tightly, her voice low and urgent, "What is this?"
"This is my Refuge. I grant you safe passage within, Matriarch Benezia T'soni. May you find peace and shelter here, for as long as you live." The words were intoned in an almost ritualistic manner as the tall, dark woman turned to face her at the entrance.
"It's alright, Nezzie, I've been inside myself." Aethyta gently coaxed the older woman to her feet as Jona, no, Jorukaia, stepped through the impossible doorway and into that other...place.
"I..think I am getting too old for these sorts of shocks, Aethyta." Benezia did not wobble, though her voice was faint. She swallowed and took a breath as she stepped forward, examining the door as she got close.
It seemed utterly unremarkable, a simple, plain door just like the thousands of others on her ship. If she didn't know without a shadow of doubt that it was not supposed to be there, then if it was closed, it would pass without remark. Open, the sight of what was clearly a planetary surface, accessible by stepping through a doorway on board a starship currently orbiting a planet itself, was utterly incomprehensible. She paused, examining the door, seeing where the stone floor of that other place met with, but did not merge, with the metal deck of her own starship.
"Just... what is this? Some sort of...I don't know, teleportation portal?"
The tall, scaled alien gave a faint smile, "Similar, but not exactly. It is an extradimensional space, its opening currently mapped to this location in real-space. It exists not within the three dimensions of reality as you know them, but within three of the other seven dimensions of this universe, normally not accessible. The portal maps matter and energy crossing through it to the other spacial coordinate system as it crosses through. Light you see here is actually being generated in what is essentially another dimension."
Jorukaia lifted a hand to beckon Benezia within, "Please, if you would, I would have you stay a while, and we can have the discussion I know you wish to have. I will provide tea, if you wish. Aethyta seemed to enjoy it."
Benezia gave a faint nod, stepping to the edge of the doorway, but hesitating there. Aethyta had no such hesitations, and stepped promptly through, despite Benezia trying to grasp her and hold her back. "See, Nezzie? Perfectly safe. I told you, I've been through here before."
"It's untested and unproven technology, Aethyta!"
"It's been in use, in one form or another, for more than ten millenia. I think that constitutes 'tested and proven', myself." Jorukaia's tone was faintly amused, but she bowed her head in conciliation. She turned to Aethyta, "I will go retrieve the tea. Once the portal is closed, we can have our conversation."
"Alright. Don't take too long, though."
The tall, horned woman nodded, turning and walking with a sure, confident stride to where Benezia could see the aerie ended in cliff, beside the small platform that jutted out over the edge. To her shock, Joru stepped off without a second glance, vanishing out of sight. "Is.. there some sort of platform beneath the cliff?"
Aethyta laughed, and gently drew the older asari across the line of the portal. Benezia expected to feel some sort of shock, tingle or at least a frisson of disquiet, but it was as unremarkable a step as any of the millions she had taken in her life. "Nah, she just likes doing that to show off. She'll be back in a few minutes with tea."
"N-no? There isn't a platform?" The aerie wasn't as barren and sterile as it had seemed from the far side of the portal. The two solid, rock walls weren't carved, being naturally craggy, but the floor of the canyon was smoothed stone, with a few beds of fine sand, sculpted into intricate designs with a few strategically placed rocks. Benezia had seen some of these before, and had even set up a small 'zen rock garden' in one of her apartments on Thessia, using Kavo Reach beach sand, for its lustrous glitter. The two trees that stood in front of the portal were mirrored by a pair in the back as well, and the back wall of the canyon was roughly hewn into flatness, with a simple wooden door set into it. A slender walkway extended from the portal, between the two carefully tended sand gardens to either side, out to a small platform that extended off the side of the cliff, and the rock walls of the canyon had small, stone benches along them.
The younger asari smirked slightly, gently drawing Benezia down on one of the benches, stepping away from the portal. From this side, it was a free-standing arch a good three meters tall and wide, made of some sort of gleaming, black stone, on which glowing sigils flickered, "Yup. Among her many talents, Joru can fly. I'll give you the news story later."
"Alright. Just who is she, Aethyta. What is she, and why have you dragged me along into...whatever this is?"
The younger asari winced slightly, taking a seat beside Benezia. "She actually approached me. I found her on Therum, where she was looking for Liara."
Benezia's back stiffened, "She knows what happened to Liara?"
"No, no, calm down, Nezzie." Aethyta waited and patted her former lover's hands gently, "No, she was looking for Liara there because that was her last known location. She has something she needs to talk to Liara about, and it just so happened that she went looking for her just when Liara got kidnapped. She's already pledged herself to help find her, don't worry about that."
Returning to the pair of asari, Joru carefully set the tray on one of the nearby stone benches. It was a simple thing, wood, trimmed with steel, but elegant in its simplicity. She had taken the better of the two teapots and the set of fine china, which she only used when she had guests. The teapot was full of water and a bit of loose tea was tucked into a small box.
She was aware of Benezia's eyes on her, but ignored the wide, astonished gaze with the ease of long practice. The two large, spectral wings of black, roiling shadow puffed away as she released the mental construct holding them intact, her bare feet touching down without a stumble and claws clicking on the smoothed stone. "The water will take a moment to boil, Matriarch."
"I...yes, I suppose."
"I know you have questions. In a moment I will answer them, to the best of my ability and your comprehension. A lot of what I will tell you will make no sense in your logical framework, so you will have to trust me that what I speak is the truth." The portal was still active, and Joru picked up the teapot as she moved over to it. A focused burst of will set her palm ablaze, beneath the teapot, a tight, furious heat that would quickly brought the water to a boil as her other hand quickly traced a series of sigils that did not move over the portal's surface. The rest of the glowing symbols faded, vanishing back into the black stone arch, and the vision of Benezia's reception room visible through the portal shimmered and vanished.
"H-Have you trapped us here?" Benezia's tone only shook a little, something which drew a faint smile from Joru.
"No. Merely touch the portal anywhere, and it will open again. You have permission to come and go as you will, the portal knows this and will open for you." The teapot expressed its indignation as Joru returned to the group at the bench, tucking a small amount of tea into each of the three cups she had bought. "Now, how do you prefer your tea, Matriarch? Plain, with sugar or milk?"
"Plain, please." The asari blinked at the teapot as Joru carefully poured, "How did-"
"I focused a bit of power and heated the water myself. More efficient than a fire, and it doesn't produce smoke." She handed a pair of teacups to her two guests before she took one of her own, "Now, you have questions for me."
Benezia seemed to be at a loss for words, so Aethyta spoke first, "How about you tell us a bit about why you're here."
Joru's lips quirked slightly, she liked Aethyta's directness. "Very well. Roughly thirteen years ago, I was on Earth, but not the Earth of this universe. I was attempting to return to my home universe from that other one, they were linked but I did not know how or what path to take. I...brute-forced a solution. Any encryption scheme can be broken if you have enough processing power to break it, the same is true of the laws of physics. We built a bridge to nowhere, into the astral space of that world, but something happened. Perhaps a miscalculation, possibly enemy activity, I don't know. I wasn't in a position where I got a good look, not until it was far too late."
"A-Astral space? Bridge to nowhere?" Benezia looked confused and gave a stern glance to Aethyta.
"The accepted, standard model of the universe has 11 dimensions. Three of which we know intimately, and a fourth that we have some experience with. The three dimensions of space, and one of time. The other seven dimensions are normally inaccessible, but they exist all the same. At least one of them is the 'emotional' dimension, and contains mystic residues of the mental processes of sapient beings that correspond to the three dimensions of space. Locations can become saturated with those traces, and mana flows through that dimension."
Benezia's eyes were angry now, "What sort of nonsense is this? More 'magic'?"
"Put bluntly, yes." Joru lifted her free hand, letting a spark of power flare and wrap her forearm with flames that rapidly spiraled up to pool in her cupped hand. Benezia's jaw clicked shut and she blinked widening eyes at the display.
"Magic is no more and no less than the application of raw willpower to the energies of higher-order dimensions. I siphon a minute spark of energy from those seven tightly-bound dimensions and allow it to express itself in our universe in whatever format I can imagine. To use an analogy with something you're more familiar with, it is comparable to how a biotic can use her own body's energy to energize the eezo nodules through her nervous system, producing a directed dark energy field that when it collapses, generates the desired gravitic effect."
After a moment to ponder that, Benezia nodded, "I...see how you could make that assumption, but it's far more complex than that. The nervous system must be properly attuned and triggered in precise sequence to produce each effect, it takes a great deal of concentration and knowledge."
"As does magic. Perhaps to a greater degree even than biotics, since we are not limited by the body's own energy. Mages, wizards, sorcerers, warlocks, we all touch other dimensions and use their inherent energies to our own ends. One wrong syllable, one missed gesture, one errant thought, and the energies you summon become uncontrolled. The best thing that happens in that circumstance is that they dissipate harmlessly. The worst.. there are places on my homeworld blasted clean of life, sterilized down to the molecules that make it up, and are still actively inimical to all forms of living things tens of thousands of years after the event that blighted them."
Aethyta gave a shiver, "That's... interesting and all, but not why we're here."
"Y-Yes... Why are you here, and what connection do you have to my daughter?" Benezia too a breath and nodded, calming herself.
Joru gave a faint smile, "My connection to your daughter is somewhat of a nebulous one. I know that she is important, vastly more so than you or Aethyta. Her actions influence the galaxy to an unprecedented degree. Her fate was disturbed, however, she was not supposed to be captured by Saren."
"S-Saren... Yes, he's working with the geth, and the geth kidnapped her, I could see the connection, but why? Why would he want my daughter?"
"I can't explain everything, the information I have is fragmented and unclear." Joru shifted and sat, her tail draping over the bench and idly carving new furrows in the sand. "Let's return to how I got here. I was...cast out of the universe I was in, similar to how something in a pressurized airlock is violently ejected when the outer door is opened. I found myself in a place where time and dimension had no meaning, or perhaps they had all meanings, including the contradictory ones. In any event it does not matter."
Benezia's face was pale, and Aethyta took her trembling hand as Joru continued. "There, I...felt something. I can't really describe it, it both took no time at all and it took an eternity. There was, for lack of a better term, time for whatever existed in that not-existence to express its surprise and consternation at my arrival."
She shifted and sighed, one hand stroking the wrist of the other, taking another sip of tea and warming the cooling dregs with a pulse of magic. "I don't know if the memory was repressed, or if I simply did not have time to make memories in that timeless place. What I do know is that I was given a choice. To cease, to be unmade, or to take the place of a woman with an unfulfilled destiny."
"You've spoken of that before, destiny and fate. Surely you believe that we shape our own lives?"
"Of course we do, don't be naive." Joru paused and sighed, "My apologies. Talking about this always brings up some uncomfortable truths, and I can get snappish, I did not mean to be rude."
Benezia had drawn herself up, but she gave a mollified nod, "Continue."
"Destiny, or fate if you prefer, is both mutable and immutable. Everyone's fate is set, we all die sometime, but the manner in which we shape our course until that moment is not set. Constrained, perhaps, but not written in stone. Everyone has the choice to make their own little decisions, but society as a whole is far less free. And that's before one considers the actions of those outside society. To make a very long story short, I was given a view of history from outside time."
Joru gave a faint smile, her eyes cloudy with reminiscence, "It was at once both more beautiful than I can possibly describe, and far more terrifying than anything I had ever seen. A tapestry, woven of threads of light, is the best that I can do to describe it. Each thread represented a lifespan, from the moment of its beginning to the moment of its end. I saw all life in the universe in a timeless instant, and it took my breath away."
She gave a soft snort, "Or it would have, had I a body at that time. But in any event, I was shown two potential futures. The first, a woman's actions, chivalrous and noble, touched the galaxy and changed the course of history itself. A threat from beyond was neutralized, but not without horrific cost. In the end, though it was lessened, the galaxy survived."
Her smile turned to a frown as she continued, "In the other, that woman died young. With no one to touch them, the threads remained unbent, their course unchanging. And in the end, they were all cut short, their lives ended as if a great shear had come down and severed the whole of the tapestry, leaving only remnant threads behind that quickly failed. All that was left were what I took to be isolated populations on undiscovered worlds, or possibly primitive races that had not yet discovered the Relays."
Benezia clutched Aethyta's hands in both of hers, a coldness touching her heart, "A-and Liara was important to this?"
"Yes," Joru nodded, "She was not the focus point, the woman who's life was cut short prematurely, but she was close to the focus, possibly even touching this woman's life intimately."
She turned, flame-red eyes gazing into Benezia's pale-blue ones. "Your daughter was...is... will be instrumental in saving the galaxy, Benezia. But she did not do it alone. The woman I mentioned was a girl on Mindoir, a human. She went by the name of Jordan Shepard, and she had just had the worst day of her life."
Joru sighed softly, "In the prime timeline, Jordan's entire extended family was massacred, her parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins, everyone she had ever known closely was murdered by a batarian slave-raid." Joru's voice turned harsh on that last phrase, and she looked away, sipping her tea to get herself under control again. 'These are not your memories, Joru, remember that.'
But they felt so very real. "In the prime timeline, she spent that night crying inconsolably as she buried her dead and burned the farm to the ground. She was found by an alliance patrol and later signed up. She had a distinguished career, became a special forces officer, and eventually, humanity's first SPECTRE."
Benezia blinked in surprise, but Joru overrode her interjection, "I don't know the woman's entire story, I had no time to see everything, only the highlights. Something she did, a series of events she was drawn into, led to the forestalling of the ending of all life, and eventually the destruction of the threat that was hanging over everything like a galaxy-wide Sword of Damocles. Shepard herself did not live to see the threat ended, but those she inspired, including your daughter, stepped up and did what had to be done."
There was a pause, before Aethyta prompted, "And in the other timeline?"
Joru gave a sigh, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and peering into the dregs at the bottom of her teacup. "In the other timeline, Jordan Shepard finished burying her dead, put a gun to her head, and joined them."
Benezia's convulsive shudder was steadied as Aethyta gently hugged the older woman, "Goddess... I...could see how that would change things."
"It was not a natural change or split in the timeline." Joru straightened and glanced meaningfully at Benezia, "Someone or something altered history. Possibly the threat, knowing itself for doomed, sent some sort of message to itself in the past. They have a very long reach, but it must be subtle until they can mass their forces, and it takes a great deal to rouse them from slumber. I think... I don't know this for certain, but I believe that they forced Shepard to commit suicide, to end the threat she posed to their plans before she could affect them."
"I...could see that logic, yes."
Joru's lips quirked, "That which exists outside the multiverse does not like it when someone tampers with history. I was in the right place at the right time, or perhaps my ejection from reality was engineered. I don't know, but I do know that I was given this gift of knowledge and a mandate to finish what Jordan Shepard began, to complete her destiny. To that end, I must find your daughter, find the threat that I know beyond all shadows of doubt to be coming, to stop it, and eliminate it."
"Just what is this threat?"
Joru set her teacup down, fiddling with her omnitool. It wasn't exactly like the AR gloves she had lost, but at least she still had her commlink itself. Omnitools were good, but they were still electronic, and didn't hold a candle to a fully optronic processor when it came to sheer processing speed. She brought up a hologram, part of the surveillance feed from Eden Prime, and searched through it until she found the shot she wanted.
Benezia peered at the image, then blinked up at Joru, "Is...that to scale? It must be the size of a dreadnought..."
Joru gave a faint nod, gazing at the image of her enemy, suspended between them, "You can not even begin to fight your enemy if you do not even know who he is. All the preparation for war in the galaxy will be meaningless if you don't know at least the bare bones of your enemy, especially one as alien and anathema as these. There is no surrender, no negotiation, no minimizing civilian casualties. The enemy is outside looking in, hating all that it sees and will settle for nothing less than the complete destruction of all civilization, down to the man, woman and child. Machines given thought with a malevolence that wishes to destroy. Asari or Vorcha, organic or machine, if it lives, it dies, and the Reapers are coming to harvest. Patience born from harvesting countless civilizations, no stone left unturned, no trick left unplayed, they will infiltrate society at all levels, turn politicians to their puppets, and our dead into their shock troops."
Benezia's horrified expression said it all, and even Aethyta looked queasy at that last, "How... what kind of beings are they?"
"This is one of them. I call them Reapers, because that is what they do. They reap the harvest, and we are their crops. Life is chaotic in all it's forms, and chaos is an aberration to them, a disease to be cured, an infection to be contained and eradicated. We do not negotiate with a plague, nor will they show us the least trace of mercy."
She gave a soft, mirthless snort, gazing at the image of Sovereign, hovering above Eden Prime in defiance of all natural laws, "'Our numbers will darken the skies of every world...' Be that as it may, they are physical, and thus mortal, no matter what they believe of themselves. All things physical will end one day, be it now, or when the particles that make up their matter begin to evaporate. Nothing escapes death, and this time, Death comes for the Reapers."
She switched off the hologram and sank to one knee before the startled asari. She gently took Benezia's hands in her own, the strong, clawed tips of her fingers covering the asari's own, "If it is within my power to return your daughter to you safe and sound, no matter the cost to me, I would do so. All I ask in return is that you keep my secret. I would brave the fires of Hell itself, would it return Liara to you." Her faint smile returned, "It would not be the first time."
It had been two days, the red tape was multiplying. There was a paperwork orgy going on somewhere, and the resultant progeny were being arrayed in defensive positions to obstruct and block her path. Benezia gave a disgusted sigh and pushed herself away from the terminal. This last one was going to be trouble. First, they had been solicitous and overly cautious, then they had been obsequious and simpering, and now they were getting stern.
They'd found out that Binary Helix hadn't called a shareholder's meeting like she had intimated and now they were threatening to give her the runaround for the next three weeks, until the next scheduled shareholder's meeting. She couldn't afford to wait that long, Saren, and any information he might have on her daughter's whereabouts, might already be leaving the system, and she had to find him, no matter what!
She startled a little as the petite figure of Jona Siberys shimmered into existence. "Merciful Goddess, don't do that!"
"My apologies, Matriarch." Jona's tone and manner were perfectly deferential, but something about her bearing held just a hint of smugness. Blasted girl enjoyed startling people.
Benezia shivered a little. "Have the courtesy to use the door like everyone else, and do stay visible, please?"
During the long hours of discussion in the Refuge, Joru had run down a list of various powers she held, everything from cloaking herself from sight to teleportation that could cover the length of Benezia's cruiser-weight ship with ease. In the spirit of experimentation, she had allowed Joru to teleport her across the courtyard of that space she called her Refuge. It was not an experience she craved to repeat, though the nausea had passed within a few seconds. It had.. She honestly still didn't know what it had felt like, she simply had no other frames of reference. Stepping across the threshold into the Refuge hadn't felt like anything at all, just stepping through any other doorway. Joru's teleportation had been much less smooth.
"Any luck?"
"Sadly, no. They're being obstructionist in the best bureaucratic way." Benezia suppressed her frustrated sigh, turning it into a slow, calming exhalation
The false asari gave a quiet snort as she paced, "Red tape tangling everything up?" At Benezia's resigned nod, Joru murmured, "I am reminded of the Gordian Knot from human mythology."
"Mmm?" Benezia could listen to Joru talk for hours, the woman had such fantastic stories, though she couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea that many of them were things that the tall, dark, tailed alien had actually done.
"It's a long tale and the beginnings of it doesn't really matter. Suffice it to say, there was a massive knot of great intricacy and convolution, and a prophecy stated that he who untangled the knot would become the next king. A man arrived, at the head of his army, and found himself confronted with the knot. Told that he would never be acknowledged king until he had unwoven the knot, no matter how great his army, he set about the task in his own tent."
The young asari girl shifted, starting to pace, "He spent days, trying to find an end, from which he could begin unraveling the knot. He could find no end, and in his frustration and impatience, he struck the knot with his sword, cleaving it in two."
Benezia blinked, but Joru continued, "He presented the unraveled halves of the knot to the high priest, and since none alive had seen the knot woven, none would know of the means with which the man unraveled it." Her smile was cunning as she turned, folding her arms across her chest, "Like Alexander, who went on to conquer most of that part of the world, I too posses a sword that can solve such problems."
"I... What do you mean?" Benezia frowned at her guest.
"Simple. A shuttle isn't the only way down to the surface. I can take myself, and four others with me to anywhere I have a clear picture of."
The matriarch frowned, "I thought your teleportation was limited to.. what did you say, just under a kilometer?"
Jona nodded, giving an impish smile, "True, the teleportation I manage myself. I have an artifact, however, that while it has a day-long cooldown, has no range limit. If you can obtain a recent image of the door to the facility you believe Saren has gone, I can get us there. Once we're there though, we're stuck there until the device has recharged, so I would recommend sending along supplies for a night in the open. I would also suggest a group composed of myself, Aethyta, Jack, and two others. While I would enjoy your company, and your presence might be invaluable, I believe you would better serve remaining here, to distract the Noverian authorities while our little commando raid goes forth. I would recommend you send your most trustworthy and loyal commandos, however. Between the five of us, I doubt that we would have any trouble finding Saren, and extracting the location of your daughter from him."
Benezia was breathless for a moment before she got slowly to her feet. She gazed intently into Jona's eyes, but saw nothing but frank honesty in those pale-yellow eyes. "...How does this thing work?"
"I don't know the exact mechanism, but teleportation is fairly straightforward. Reassign one's position in the universe from your current location to a location of your choosing. In this case, I can both specify a direction and distance, or use an image to provide the location. It has to be recent, mind. Any significant changes to the location and the image would no longer be viable, or even dangerous to use as a target."
Benezia thought for a long moment. On the one hand, if she went by standard channels, it could take weeks to get to where Saren was, and he would either get word of her arrival, if he hasn't yet, or would be long gone. On the other, this would limit the amount of people she could bring with her to a literal handful, and while it would be an avenue unlooked-for, it would be risky.
"...I'll see what I can find."
Joru knew when the portal activated. She was seated in the lotus position, but balanced on the column of her tail. It was meditation for mind and body, building both confidence in her own balance, strength in her extra appendage, and calming her mind at the same time. The meditation platform, hanging suspended over the cliff edge, was an excellent vantage, and a perfect place to greet the dawn, even if dawn here was several hours off.
"Joru?" Aethyta's voice, soft and curious.
"I am aware. Is it time?"
The matriarch gave a soft sigh, "Yes. Benezia's briefing the commandos now."
"Very well." She shifted, getting to her feet and turning to her guest. Meditation calmed her almost as much as trancing, and the two flowed naturally from one to the other. She was fully rested now, her mind calm, her beast soothed. "I shall return momentarily."
"A-alright... Look, Joru, in case I haven't said it enough, thank you for helping us."
Aethyta would have gone on, but she stopped the asari with an upraised hand, "It is my quest and duty to see this through to the end. Your endeavors intertwine with mine, to refuse to help you would cause my own task to be more difficult. That is not to say that I would not help you, even if your daughter's life was of no consequence to me. I know I'm not very good at saying it, but... I enjoy helping people in need. It is something I do not get to do very often, and the novelty intrigues me."
She quirked her lips, "But before this devolves into a maundering tale of an outcast, let us return. Do they know yet?"
The asari shook her head, "No. Benezia keeps your secrets, as do I."
"Very well. Go on, I will join you shortly." Joru turned as Aethyta returned to the portal and stepped through. The image through the obsidian-black arch shimmered and vanished as the door closed on the far side, but the portal remained active, signaling that the door was still visible.
The dragoness heaved a deep sigh, gathering her resolve. She could do this. She would do this. It was her duty and quest. She would not fail.
The only question in her mind was how many would survive.
The door opened and Benezia nodded to the young asari who stepped through, "Lyris, I think you know Jona. Elnaris, this is Jona Siberys, she's...a specialist, with certain esoteric abilities. She has my full confidence and trust, treat her voice as mine."
The youngster nodded to the two commandos, and Lyris pondered her a moment. She'd seen Jona several times during the two or three days of the trip and the subsequent stonewalling they got from Noveria Control. Fit, calm, focused. She handled herself like a battle-matron, but at such a young age that a kid would only just be moving out of her parents' house. And then there was the gossip floating around the ship, that Jona was some sort of super-biotic, or maybe some escaped convict from the Terminus Systems whom their Matriarch was reforming. Lyris didn't know, but it appeared she was going to find out.
Elnaris nodded formally as she brushed fingertips with the youngster. The older commando was a bit stiff, but was matched by equally formal phrases of greeting from the youngster.
"Jona will transport you two, Matriarch Aethyta, and our human friend down to the surface." Benezia was cut off by a brash voice off to the side.
"And just how is she going to do that, Matriarch?" Jack's dark-blue eyes glittered faintly, giving a scowl at the youngster, "She might be a good pilot, but Noveria Traffic Control would just shoot us out of the sky, then probably open fire on your ship."
"There are other ways of traversing distance than with one's own feet, Jack." The young, but firm voice cut across the human's sarcastic tone with a flat, almost toneless rebuke. Jack's eyes narrowed in response, but before she could reply, Jona turned to Benezia, "Is the room secure?"
"Of course."
"Very well." The youngster turned to the rest of them, Jack in particular. "You know me as Jona Siberys, but that is not truly my name. I am Jorukaia. Some of you might have heard of me. I am not asari, I am a darastrix. My people have many powers, among them is the art of changing one's shape."
"Just what the shit is this?" Jack was almost snarling, but cut off as the petite, young asari suddenly darkened, swelling and shifting shape. Lyris' breath caught in her throat and even the veteran Elnaris took a half step back as the figure towered over them, eyes gone flame-red and her entire aspect becoming that of a lean and deadly predator.
"I am a darastrix. In some languages, our race-name translates as Dragon. I trust that you at least would know of us, Jack." The girl's tone had shifted, becoming deeper, but still recognizable. Lyris found herself trembling faintly, and tried to still her nerves. Now was not the time to panic.
"I trust the Matriarch has briefed you on the duration of our trip?"
Jorukaia glanced at each of them in turn, and Aethyta nodded, "We'll be stuck down there for a full day, until your personal transport device can recharge itself."
Jack's face was sour, "What kind of technical mumbo-jumbo was that shit?"
"The truth, or near enough. The means I use to transport great distances has a rather lengthy recharge period. I hope you brought some cold-weather gear, as well as some rations. We'll be down there for a day at least, assuming we don't wind up on the wrong side of the mountain and have to trek across it."
"It's that inaccurate?" Benezia sounded almost nervous.
"Far from it, but it does have a tendency of going where I tell it to go, not necessarily where I wish to go." The tall, firmly-muscled woman stretched out her hands, and Lyris noticed that a long tail swayed behind her, "Take my hands, or touch me where you would. We can leave when you're ready."
Aethyta took her hand immediately, and the two shared a glance. After a moment, Jack stepped up and slapped her hand on Joru's bare shoulder. She blinked, "Damn, but you've got some muscles under there."
"My hide is scaled and armored, and yes, as a darastrix, my muscles are more dense than most races." She glanced over at the two commandos, and after a moment Elnaris stepped up and grasped her hand.
Lyris was conflicted. On the one hand, Jack and Aethyta obviously trusted her. Elnaris was good enough to be able to take care of herself in a fight regardless of the skill of her companions, but Lyris had been drilled with other commandos for most of her career. She didn't know Joru, didn't know how she'd react in a fight. This was going to be a sink-or-swim test for her. She would either adapt, or fail. And in combat, the consequences of failure were usually quick, and brutal.
She swallowed gently and reached out, gently placing a hand on the shoulder of the scaled woman. She had to reach upward to do so, but the darastrix gave her an almost kind look.
"Very well. We go. Brace yourselves, the transition can be... disorienting."
Benezia gave Aethyta a long, hard look, conveying something between the two matriarchs, but what it was, Lyris couldn't make out. She took a breath, to ask what it would be like, but she was gone before she finished drawing air.
AN: Thank you so much for putting up with the lengthy delays between postings. As a consolation, have a longer-than-usual chapter! Next chapter will probably be an interlude, but the next main chapter should be up soon after that.
As always, my thanks to Vipermagi for helping me with this. Without (his? her?) assistance, I wouldn't've gotten this out as fast as I did, nor would I have as much direction for how this fic is going to go. Thank you all for reading and please leave me a review if you have anything at all you want to discuss!