"A Better Place"

September 20th, 2089

Genfelthir

Onatheer moved with a purpose, a concerned Tim following on his heels. The dust had scarcely settled in the aftermath of the battle, and the liberation of the prisoners of Genfelthir remained unfinished. There was only one cell that Onatheer was concerned with, and it was the one he was currently making his way towards now.

A shuttle landed in the hangar of Genfelthir. Out of it stepped the form of a recently-disgraced batarian aristocrat. He was led through the labyrinth to his destination, his guide prattling on about the many tortures and nightmares that went on in the artificial hell, seeking to intimidate him, no doubt. The aristocrat paid little heed to what the guide said, he was too busy memorizing every detail of the building he was being led through. The Dinlat's ego had caused them to become sloppy, he'd already managed to get a good look at the navigational data, committing it to his exceptional memory. Now he had knowledge of Genfelthir's location and a partial floorplan of the complex. There was only one problem.

He couldn't possibly do anything with it.

"What are you trying to do, Onatheer?" Tim asked, still following after the batarian.

"I told you I had a vested interest in this raid. I am going to acquire that interest now." Onatheer said, not breaking stride.

"Would it kill you to be less cryptic?" Tim asked with a sigh.

The aristocrat stood in the gilded cage that would house the only thing left in the world that mattered to him. The Dinlat officer beside him gave a predatory grin.

"You've seen the accommodations for yourself. Now, run along to your new post, "commander". I don't have to tell you what happens if you step even one nanometer out of line."

The aristocrat glared at the man, but held his tongue. He'd come here for evidence. Evidence that they weren't lying. It was the price he demanded in exchange for his silence and compliance. That was just a ruse, however. His true objective was to gather intelligence. Intelligence for a plan he had yet to form. He was very far from stupid. He knew that somehow, someway, he'd meet his end. Whether it was from combat, treachery, or accident, he would die. Then the deal would be forfeit. He didn't have the faintest idea how, but he had to get her out of here.

Onatheer continued his march to a sectioned-off wing of the prison complex.

"Do you know what this place is?" Tim asked.

"Cells for prisoners from nobility. They're almost exclusively hostages, so they need to be kept separate from the general population. Having a high-ranking hostage die under your watch is a good way to get disappeared if you're a Dinlat officer." Onatheer responded.

He kept his steady pace, following a route he'd seared into his memory a year ago. He came to a stop in front of a cell door, and he stared at it for a long moment. Finally, he keyed it open with the unlock code stored in his omni tool. The door slid open, and a shriek so delighted it bordered on hysterical rose to greet him.

"DADDY!"

A small missile came burning out of the room and slammed into Onatheer, wrapping its arms around his waste. It was a young batarian girl, and she was sobbing uncontrollably as she clutched Onatheer like a drowning man might clutch a piece of driftwood. Onatheer had tears of his own, and he was whispering to her softly, picking her up and wrapping her in his arms. He turned to face his human companion.

Tim raised an eyebrow. "I take it you two know each other?"

Onatheer looked at him and gave the most genuine smile Tim had ever seen on the man's face.


Kynree, Onatheer's daughter, was asleep. Her head rested in her father's lap. Onatheer and Tim sat on a bench conversing.

"My wife's name was Styrna. We met in university. We shared a calculus class. She was beautiful, passionate, and studying botany. I was vapid, charming, and studying how to waste my family's money. It was just a fling, to me. I pretended to be interested when she talked, pretended to care about all of the borderline-treasonous opinions she had. I had my fun. Then, she became pregnant, much to my surprise. I would have cast her aside, another arrogant nobleman throwing away his toy when it stopped being amusing." Onatheer's face was bitter as he said this. Then it softened.

"When she came to tell me, she was nervous, as any woman would be. She was also scared half to death, and in this country?" He gave a bark of harsh laughter. "Who wouldn't be? But what I noticed above all else was how truly, genuinely happy she was. She believed that she had found the man of her dreams, and the thought of carrying that man's child made her happy. She loved that man, genuinely adored him. She couldn't have known that I wasn't that man. But, seeing her, the look on her face, the excited tone in her voice when she told me...My whole life up to that point had been nothing but the mindless drone of propaganda and social expectations. The way she felt about me, it was the first thing I'd ever seen in my life that was real."

He smiled. "I wanted to become the man she thought I was, so I returned her excitement. I started listening, really listening to those 'treasonous' ideas of hers. Before, it had always been things that were going to happen to other people. Now, she started putting it into a new perspective. We needed to make the Hegemony a better place, 'for our daughter'. Things needed to change, 'for our daughter'. I found myself agreeing with her, and then I found myself marrying her, much to my clan's fury. She was a commoner, you see. However, I'd long since stopped caring about what my family thought of me. We had both graduated, and were raising our daughter while she worked at botany and I became commissioned as a naval officer."

"We had this 'plan', you see. I would rise through the ranks in the military, and she would support me any way she could. One day, I would get to the top of the Hegemony, and then I'd finally bring the changes we'd dreamed of to life. It was the naïve dream of an idealistic young couple, but it made us happy. The dream faded from view over time, but we still stayed in contact with our many likeminded friends and social circles. One day, I learned of an intriguing book that was making the rounds through those social circles. 'The True History of the Batarian Hegemony'. I got my hands on it. It was...enlightening."

Onatheer's expression turned grim. "The Dinlat came in the middle of the night, dragging my wife and I from our bed and stuffing us into the back of a skycar. My status and clan meant they couldn't do what they wanted to do to me. So, instead, they did it to my wife. My family were willing to pull the strings necessary to keep me from embarrassing them, but they cared little what happened to my 'lowborn whore and her spawn', I believe was their exact wording."

Tears formed in Onatheer's eyes, and he looked down at his daughter to make sure she was still asleep. "They tortured Styrna, in ways I'd never have imagined in my worst nightmares. They made me watch. Then they executed her. It was...not quick. They made me watch that too. Then they put Kynree in this cell, and shipped me off to the middle of nowhere. If I made trouble, then Kynree would meet a similar fate to my wife. I lost all hope, only bothering to stay alive to prolong Kynree's life. Then I met you, and I believe you know what happened after that."

He turned to Tim and gave him a tearful smile. "I cannot possibly repay you for what you've done, but know that you will always have an ally in me."

Tim returned his smile. "What will you do now?"

"I'm going to get my daughter and my crew to safety. Then I will tear the Hegemony down, with my bare hands if I have to. When the last chain is broken, when the last tyrant lies dead, that is when my wife's shade can finally rest."

"You know, my people have a saying. 'The best revenge is living well.'" Tim glanced at the sleeping form of Kynree. "She'll need her father."

Onatheer grimaced at that. "She needs a galaxy where she can sleep safely in her bed. A galaxy where her species is not cursed as villains by every other being in civilized space."

His expression grew determined. "This is not about revenge, it's about making the galaxy a better place for her. For everyone."

Tim nodded slowly at that. "Well, us humans aren't in any position to turn down friends."

Onatheer smiled again. "Friends, huh? Yes, I think we can be friends."

He looked down at his daughter. "When she is a woman grown, I want to have helped create a galaxy where 'Batarian' is not synonymous with 'Evil.'" He looked back to his friend. "You and I? We can do this. One broken chain at a time."


"A Girl and Her...Whatever that is."

Izay cried out in fear as she watched the human ships soar overhead, lowering themselves down at the edge of town. The young girl was used to fear. Every slave was, especially the children. Still, the humans inspired a special kind of fear in her. She knew what everyone else did about them: They were monsters. They skinned their victims alive and wore the hides as trophies, feeding the meat to their beasts (if they didn't take a bite of it themselves). They fought without honor, skulking about in the shadows and carving open the throats of their victims. Their preferred victims were children, little girls in particular.

Now, the monsters were here, and she was terrified. She ran to the slums, where all of the slaves lived. "Safe", isn't a word one would use to describe the slums, but it was the closest thing to safety she'd be allowed. She ran down a very familiar alley, and hid in her usual spot. She brought her knees up to her chest and put her hands over her ears. These actions would end up saving her life (and her hearing) as the entire slum district was suddenly ripped apart by explosions.


A massive dog was bounding down a hill, and Senior Ranger Charles Brown ran after her.

"Slow down there, Luna!" he called. She immediately slowed her pace in response to the command, though she seemed decidedly impatient about it.

Outwardly, the dog bore a strong resemblance to an Irish Wolfhound, her shaggy grey coat being the most prominent of these similarities. However, Luna was no ordinary dog. Under the seemingly mundane coat was a sophisticated work of genetic engineering, the product of many years of research. The ultimate goal was simple: the creation of the perfect working dog.

While significant genetic modification of humans was still very much a taboo and generally illegal in the United Nations, there was a more lax attitude with regards to modifying animals. Dogs, in particular, were popular candidates. Humanity had already been shaping and molding the faithful canines for ten thousand years with selective breeding. Genetic engineering was merely a more sophisticated method of that, or so its advocates argued. Luna was a product of that genetic engineering.

While she physically resembled a Wolfhound (albeit a slightly smaller one), her actual genetics were taken from a wide spectrum encompassing almost every major breed in the massively diverse canus familiaris species. Any task that could conceivably be performed by a working dog, she would excel at. More importantly, she could do them all at once. While her normal dog characteristics were enhanced, it was her brain that made her special. She was about as intelligent as a dog could possibly be while still being a dog. She could remember thousands of complex commands, and perform them flawlessly even when months or even years out of practice. More remarkable than that was the way she seemed to regard her tasks. For most service dogs, their level of understanding of what exactly it is they're doing in their given tasks is rather muddled. If they understand at all. Luna was different

When the explosion had rang off, Luna had bolted in the direction of it. One of the many tasks she was trained for was disaster rescue work, and she had elected to do it under her own initiative. Watching Luna bolt off towards the explosion, heedless of his own commands, a sense of genuine fear and urgency in her gait, was all the proof Charles Brown needed to believe that Luna was aware in a way that few dogs had ever been before. She was still a dog, mind. She rolled over for belly rubs, licked herself (and others) and was occasionally befuddled by screen doors. But here, in her element? She was almost human.

Luna ran through the smoldering piles of rubble that had been the slave district, her pesky biped companion doing his best to follow. Charles cursed as he saw charred bodies. Small ones. He was grateful for his helmet, lest he have to smell them in addition to seeing them. The city was the only settlement of any significance on this tundra world in the backwater of the Hegemony. It was a farming colony, growing food in the freezing soil using space age technology. While most of the actual farming was done using machines, the myriad of manual labor that a colony like this demanded was done a with a decidedly more primitive technology: enslaved sapients. Most were batarians, but many were aliens. The colony had surrendered when the human raiding party had swatted aside their orbital defenses. However, when the humans had descended, whatever sick bastard was in charge of the place must have blown a fuel line in an act of sabotage. Predictably, the slaves would end up being the greatest victims of this explosion.

Charles' thoughts were abruptly halted when Luna stopped dead in her tracks. She turned her head, sniffing the air. Then she bolted off down a narrow lane between two piles of rubble.


Izay's voice was hoarse. She could cry for help no longer. She was trapped under a pile of rubble, and her lungs struggled to take in air through the pressure on her chest. She felt a burst of hope as she saw a beam of light break through the rubble, but that hope was dashed when a strange and terrible beast crawled through the hole. It stood to its great height and shook itself, sending a cloud of dust up. It began sniffing its way over to her, and Izay looked at it fearfully in the dim light. She had never seen anything like it. It was a massive beast, with a shaggy grey coat and two eyes instead of four. It looked like someone had taken a Varren and magically turned it into a mammal.

The beast sniffed its way to Izay, and eventually found her face. Izay was frozen in terror as she looked into its two big brown eyes. Its hot breath shot out of its nostrils and onto Izay's face as it inched closer and...licked her. Izay blinked several times as the massive beast licked her face, before finally coming to her senses.

"Stop that!" She said irritably.

The beast brought its head up suddenly, and looked at her while tilting its head to the side. Then it began digging through the rubble.


Luna dug through the rubble, trying to free the...thing buried under it. She pulled and pushed pieces of rubble aside with her paws and snout, until eventually the Thing was able to wiggle its way out, with a grunt of effort. It came shakily to its feet. It stood on its hind legs, the way Friends did, but it was wrong. Its face was wrong, and its smell was definitely wrong. Luna had never met a Friend that looked and smelled like the thing did. She would bring the thing to her Friend. Her Friend would know what to do. Her Friend always knew what to do.


The beast walked over to the hole it had dug in the rubble. It sat down on its haunches in front of it and stared at Izay. Izay stared back blankly. The creature barked once, and then started panting.

Well, it's been nice to me so far.

Reluctantly, Izay followed after the creature. When she crouched in front of the hole, the beast suddenly scrambled up and through the hole. It began barking again. Izay moved in front of the hole to follow it, when the sound of a voice froze her in her tracks.

"Luna? What'd you find, girl?"

Izay couldn't understand what was being said. Just as she was about to try and hide, a helmeted face popped in and peered at her from the top of the hole. Izay froze in place out of sheer terror.

The thing at the top of the hole took off its helmet, and the face that was revealed made Izay start screaming in terror. It was a human!

"Please don't eat me!" Izay screamed in terror.


The batarian child's scream startled Charles, and for a moment he just crouched there, mouth agape, not sure what to do. He started talking, doing his best to sound soothing.

"Easy there, love. I'm not going to hurt you." his voice was rough, his accent Northern English. He put as much gentleness into his voice as he could.

"Come on out of the hole, then. You'll be fine."

The child was startled into silence by the sound of him talking. He reached his hand out to her


Izay looked up at the human, her fear beginning to abate as a memory came back to her. Her father had spoken to her in a very similar tone of voice when he was still alive. She looked up at the human as he reached down toward her, and then almost smiled as the human's beast shoved its head into view, panting excitedly. Maybe she was delirious, maybe she missed her father, or maybe she just wanted out of this stupid hole. Whatever her reasons, she took the human's offered hand. He dragged her out of the hole, and brushed the dust off of her lightly. Somewhat to her surprise, he didn't kill her.

"There you go, good as new." the human said something in its own tongue. Then it smiled at her. In spite of herself, Izay gave a tentative smile back.

The human suddenly snatched her up and threw its body over her. Blue light flared as bullets impacted against its barriers. The human threw her bodily behind a pile of rubble, the same pile that its beast had scrambled to hide behind when the shooting had started. The human then whipped back around and, just as its barriers failed, sent some kind of projectile from its omnitool towards the source of the fire, along with a a spray of fire from its rifle. The shooting was silenced. The human stood there for a moment, and then it collapsed to the ground.

The beast bolted over to the human's downed form, and started sniffing. Izay was staring at the human in shock, and the beast startled her out of it with a bark. She came running over to the human, and knelt down next to it. He was breathing, albeit raggedly. The beast barked at her. It started moving in one direction before stopping and turning to stare at her, and barking once more. It wanted to lead her away, to people who could help the human. Izay looked down at the dying human, and then back at the beast. These two had helped her, now she would help them. She got to her feet and ran after the beast.


Luna ran back the way she had came, stopping only to make sure the Strange Friend was still following her. Luna knew that the Friends at the camp would be able to help her Friend, and keep the new Strange Friend safe. She just had to get there. As fast as she could.

Luna led the Strange Friend through the ruined city, impatiently waiting for her to catch up when she fell behind. Luna came upon the two massive yet familiar shapes that she was looking for, and she broke into a full on sprint. She barked incessantly, attracting attention. She didn't stop until a Friend with a very familiar smell greeted her.

"Hi Luna! How're you doing sweetheart?" the Friend said, bending down to pet the dog. She was very nice, and probably Luna's second favorite Friend. Still her task was more important than being pet. Luna shook the woman's hands off and barked. The uncharacteristic behavior startled the woman, and she stood up straight.

"What's wrong, girl?" she looked around, and then turned back to look at Luna. "Where's Charles?"

Luna began barking. The barking was interrupted by a high pitched scream.


Izay chased after the big, stupid beast. It had left her behind! She'd barely been keeping up as it was, and then the creature had suddenly bolted away. The thought of being alone in the rubble of the city terrified her, so she ran after it as fast as her short legs would carry her, barely looking where she was going. She continued like this until she slammed into a giant human and fell back on her behind. Blinking, she looked up at the human, and the sight of the massive man scared her witless.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" the man spoke in that strange tongue, crouching down in his best attempt at reaching her eye level. Izay looked into his horrible, piercing blue eyes, and she screamed in terror.

"What the hell did you do, Hansen?" a woman's voice rang out, she was jogging over to the two, a treacherous beast on her heels.

"I didn't do anything, I just asked if she was alright!" more babbling from the giant monster in front of her.

"Use your omnitool, dumbass! She can't understand a word you're saying."

"Shit, you're right. Still getting used to having a magic doohicky that can do anything strapped to my wrist." the giant activated an omni tool, and fiddled with it for a few moments.

"That's better." his voice was still foreign, but the speaker on his omnitool translated it into the Common Tongue. "Let's start over. Are you alright?"

Izay sat there, confused and frightened. The woman came over and knelt down beside the pair. "Where are your parents, honey?"

Izay stared back, until her eyes caught sight of the good for nothing beast behind her. "You! You left me behind!" she said, pointing accusingly at the shaggy animal. It whined, looking a her for a long moment that it punctuated with a bark. Oh, that's right!

Her need to help the man that had helped her overcame her fear. "The beast's master!" she said, pointing at the beast in question. "He's been shot!"

The woman cursed under her breath. "I knew it, no way Luna comes back alone and something isn't wrong."

She smacked her big companion on his armored shoulder. "C'mon, round up the rest of the squad. We're gonna go get him."

She turned to look at Izay. "You, young lady, are going to be staying here with Luna." The thought of staying by herself in a camp full of people who may or may not eat little girls was a frightening one, but all protest died on her lips as the giant scooped her up and carried her off.

"I'll take her to the Doc and round up the others, Chief." he said as he walked off, Luna following after him.


Izay sat on the floor of the med bay, Luna's massive head resting in her lap. She scratched the dog (she knew what to call her now) behind her ears. Doctor Ito had said that dogs liked that. She was a nice lady. She reminded Izay of the kindly old women that would sneak fruits to her and the other children at the market. Such thoughts kept her distracted from how much she was worried about Charlie (she'd learned his name too). She didn't really know him, but he had saved her life. If he died, it would mean he'd died because of h-

Her thoughts were interrupted by Luna licking her face. She giggled and pushed the huge dog's head away.

"Ha! Dogs always know when you're feeling sad. They want to see you happy instead." Doctor Ito said, smiling.

Izay smiled back. She wrapped the massive dog in a hug, stroking the fur on her back. Somehow, it made things feel better.


Izay sat outside the med bay as Doctor Ito fought to save Charlie's life. Luna sat on her haunches next to her, seeming for all the world to be just as nervous as Izay was. The dog's body felt tense as Izay pet her. Like a coiled spring. The tension increased as the doors to the med bay opened, and Doctor Ito walked out to greet the little girl, dog, and Charlie's nervous squad mates.

The doctor took off her surgical mask and had a tired smile on her face. "You got to him just in time. He's pulled through." Relieved sighs and pats on the back went around the squad mates.

Doctor Ito turned to face Izay. "He's asked to see you."

Izay followed Doctor Ito, Luna trailing behind her.

Lying on the medical bed, Charlie turned his head to the trio approaching him. His face had grown pale, but his smile was wide. "Hey! It's my favorite batarian and my favorite dog. Good to see you two are alright."

Izay smiled back at the man. "Thank you for saving me."

"Not a problem. Now," he held out a hand. "Let's be properly introduced. I'm Charlie."

Izay stared at the hand in confusion. Cautiously, she reached out and grabbed it. Charlie shook her hand up and down.

"I'm Izay." she said.

"So, Izay. Would you like to come with us?"

Izay thought about it, then looked down at her new furry companion. "Only if Luna is coming with too."

The two adults laughed, and the United Nations gained one more citizen.


"Steady Hands"

Doctor Cheung ran his hand roughly through his hair at the sight of all the pitiful creatures before him. One of the interceptor pairs had ambushed a slave transport on the way to the final rendezvous point, and they were now being herded into the huge makeshift passenger liner that was the centerpiece of Operation: Spartacus to receive medical care. Most of them were just exhausted and hungry. There was plenty of food to be had, and the dextros among the slaves were pleasantly surprised at how edible the dextro food was. The perks of having Quarian suppliers.

Others among the slaves had been injured in the brief skirmish in which their captor's ship was seized. The most serious cases had already been hauled away to surgery. The rest were left to personnel like Cheung. He found a spot to stand, and began beckoning to any of the freed slaves that caught sight of him. He did the very best he could, but treating half a dozen different species and jumping back and forth between their wildly different needs was an incredible challenge. He'd done his homework, read every vid and watched every book he possibly could about these aliens' physiology, but he was still green as grass when it came to treating nonhumans.

An asari approached him, a nasty-looking gash on her collarbone oozing purple blood. Doctor Cheung pulled a syringe of the asari-tuned regenerative serum out of his bag. There was a limited supply of the miracle-working stuff, but that was a nasty-looking gash that was near some very vulnerable arteries.

"There's no need to waste that on me, doctor. I've checked it myself, it's not as serious as it looks. Just a standard dressing will be more than enough." the asari said.

Doctor Cheung raised an eyebrow. "Are you a doctor?"

She frowned. "I am, actually. Have been since your people were shooting crossbows and amputating limbs, if the rumors I've been hearing about your species are true."

Doctor Cheung bowed his head. "Forgive me, I meant no disrespect."

Her expression cracked, and she looked stricken. "No, it's me who should ask for forgiveness. Your people rescue me from this...living hell, and how do I repay you? By insulting you. My mother would've turned my hide purple had she lived to see me behave like that. Goddess, some of you died taking that ship..." she put her face in her hands, and it was then that Cheung noticed. Her hands were shaking, and they hadn't stopped since he'd first seen her.

"It's fine, ma'am. Now, I have to ask, is there something wrong with your hands?"

The question seemed to surprise her. "Oh, it's nothing that you can help me with. When I was captured, the implant they initially stuck in my head was a cheap knockoff, fried my nervous system to hell and back. Were I any other species I'd probably have become a quadriplegic, and been.. disposed of. But we asari have a very unique and robust nervous system. I'll never perform surgery or use biotics again, but at least I can walk and wipe my own ass."

The Doctor Cheung who had started out this terrible journey would've been shocked and horrified at such a story. The Doctor Cheung of today was just filled with the same grim determination he always was when faced with one of the enemy's countless atrocities. It was a determination to do everything in his power to help bring an end to the nightmare state that had spawned such an abomination of medicine.

He reached out and put a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I can't imagine what you've been through. I promise, we'll do everything we can to bring the people responsible for this-" he gestured to the crowd of slaves behind her. "-all of this, to justice."

She gave him a genuine smile. "You people really are insane, you know that right?" She put a hand over her mouth. "Damn it! I did it again."

He returned her gaze. "You don't know the half of it, ma'am." She looked at him.

He wasn't smiling.


Doctor Cheung performed a brief physical, and it was conducted mostly in silence. As he finished looking at her throat, he reached out his hands towards the top of her head.

"May I?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Uhhh...sure." She bowed her head, and he began probing her crest with his fingers.

"Yep, everything seems fine." he said, sounding satisfied.

"What exactly were you looking for up there?" she asked, genuinely bewildered.

"Just making sure that they were rigid. I read all the time that the head crest goes soft when malnourished-...why are you smiling so wide?"

She burst out laughing for the first time in decades. "Oh, Goddess preserve me! That's an old wives' tale, doctor. I'm pretty sure that they were even saying that in my grandmother's time. It's not actually true."

"Oh God, I actually bought it. What other nonsense "facts" have I absorbed about aliens? I fear I may be compromised." he smiled back at her. "Would you mind sticking around to advise me?"

"Goddess, I thought you'd never ask."


Hey all, this chapter serves several purposes: To give a follow-up/epilogue for the previous chapter, and to give a home for some miscellaneous ideas that I wanted to write, but they just weren't substantial enough to warrant their own chapter. We may or may not see some of theses characters return. The final purpose of this chapter was to give a little more substance to Operation: Spartacus, and to bridge the gap between the previous chapter and the next, which will be the final chapter of this arc.

As always, thank you very much for reading, and please share your thoughts in the comments.