Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)
A/N: WARNING! Mentions of rape in this chapter. Nothing descriptive, being part of a characters history, but it is mentioned.
Buffy eyed the shackled Turian as she entered into the interrogation room, the two others slightly behind her.
It had been two weeks since the former Spectre had surrendered herself at Gateway Station, and she had been transported to Tycho. Artus had been confined to a small Officer's room with sanitary facilities and a replicator that had been locked to Dextro-amino Acid based food and a few other simple items, with two MACO Troopers on guard at the door at all times. Turians and Quarians were the only sentient Dexto-amino Acid based lifeforms, with all the other races, Humans included, being Levo-amino Acid based.
"Vertis Artus?" Buffy said as she sat down on the opposite side of the table to the Turian. "I am Captain Buffy Summers. This is Ambassador Jenny Calendar and Assistant Ambassador Kemi'Zorah Vas Tycho."
Jenny had taken a seat next to Buffy while Kemi had taken up a position by the door, with her Suit recording everything.
"Captain. Ambassador." Vertis said, and then after a half second's pause. "Assistant Ambassador."
"So, I understand you wish to claim political asylum at the least, if not full defection." Buffy began. "That must be a big step for a former Spectre, going from having absolute, unfettered authority to seeking to hide behind Section 31's skirts."
Buffy could see that comment had offended the Turian, which had naturally been her intention.
"If it wasn't for me, every race in Citadel Space would be coming after you." Vertis retorted.
"Oh yes, the plan to plant evidence that Section 31 was destroying civilian craft." Buffy replied. "I read the report. Never would have worked."
That got a glare from Vetris but Buffy just rolled her eyes and Jenny smiled slightly.
"Captain Summers has a point." Jenny said. "Most individuals are not stupid and the plan was extremely sloppy. The location of the supposed ambush was illogical, the methods you were going to use are nothing like Section 31 weapons or methods and frankly the idea we would kill civilians would never gain traction in the demographics who are most likely to come to Section 31."
"I did not ask to become a political tool." Vetris retorted. "I joined the Military as it was my duty but I accepted being a Spectre so I could cut through the red tape and get things done."
"Understandable desire given your background. Raped at 16 and forced to watch your mother and brother brutally murdered by Pirates and left in an escape pod floating in space. Rescued four weeks later, out of food and with only four hours of oxygen remaining. Interrogated and treated like a criminal by the Salarian and Asari Investigation teams. Released with a perfunctory apology. Spent four years living on the street until you joined the Turian Military, and only after enlisting finding out the investigation into your… case had been quietly dropped for political reasons." Jenny continued, reading off a datapad. "Promoted to the equivalent of Sergeant and then busted back to Private, twice. Once for questioning orders, which were frankly stupid and more than a little suicidal, and once for… inserting something into the rectum of another Sergeant. The other Sergeant was executed for negligence and cowardice two months later. You were moved to a punishment unit. Took out an entire 15 member Drell patrol on a contested moon alone after the rest of your unit was killed in an arial strike. Transferred to what the Turian Government calls 'Spectre Candidacy School'. Not an official school for Spectre Candidates, just those the Turian Military see as having the potential to be Spectres, or are potential threats to the Military as disruptive elements that are too good at combat to simply kill out of hand. You, on the other hand, had actually already been flagged as a Spectre Candidate. Had a spotless record as a Spectre, successfully completing sixteen missions without any unnecessary Civilian casualties. Currently considered AWOL, have had your Spectre status revoked and have two Spectres assigned independently to track you down and kill you on sight."
Vetris was simply staring in shock by this point. Their file was more detailed than her classified Spectre File had been.
"Out of curiosity, what did he do?" Buffy asked.
"Sorry, what?" Vetris asked in confusion.
"The Sergeant you introduced to the… I believe it is similar to a socket wrench." Buffy clarified.
"Oh, him." Vetris mused. "He was giving unfair punishment details to female Privates for things he or his male subordinates did. Got one female Private kicked out for his own blunder. Being kicked out of the Military is very bad for a Turian. I heard she was disowned by her family and had to beg her way offworld working as a pleasure girl for a trader Captain."
Buffy simply looked into Vetris' eyes for a few moments and then nodded. Jenny flashed a signal with her hand and Kemi turned and left the room, her hand flashing quickly over a data slate.
"Your request for political asylum is granted." Buffy said. "The issue of full citizenship within Section 31 space will be addressed at a future date. In the mean time there will be a series of debriefs relating to the structure of the Council, the Spectres and a few other topics."
Both Buffy and Jenny stood, walking out of the room, leaving a shocked Vetris behind.
Tara sighed as she stretched and rolled over to see the empty sheets. Sliding a hand under the covers she felt that they were still warm. Sitting up she looked around and saw the light on under the door to her bathroom indicating that her guest was still present. As the second most senior Medical Staff on Tycho, she had one of the larger private accommodations on the base, smaller only than Commodore Harris, the two Section 31 Captains and Doctor Tinsa, one of the first Asari Medical Doctors rescued by Section 31 and now was the Chief Medical Officer assigned to Tycho. While Doctor Tinsa was still not quite as proficient with Section 31 Medical Technology as Tara was, the Asari Doctor had over three centuries of experience, including thirty years as a field Medic with the Asari Huntresses, so Tara had no objections to the Asari getting the CMO billet.
The door to the bathroom opened and for a moment her guest was silhouetted by the light from the bathroom behind them, before they stepped forward. Dressed in her uniform, with Captain insignia and a red trim, Tara's guest walked forward before dropping down on the bed and putting her head in Tara's lap.
Tara absently played with the soft blonde hair as Buffy closed her eyes and sighed. There was still a haunting pain in Buffy's eyes when she was alone with Tara, something that the Captain hid in public, stemming from the fact that their relationship had grown out of counselling sessions to help her deal with what had happened to Mira, Buffy's Trill Fiancée that Buffy had been forced to kill during the Beta Eridanus Six incident. It had started with the counselling sessions, then there had been coffee and a chat once a week when the Athena was not deployed. That had moved into Coffee several times a week, then lunch one a week had been added, followed by the occasional dinner. Things had only really started getting serious about a month before the Nightmare Construct incident, and last night had been the first time Buffy had spent the night.
The pair stayed like that, Tara helping to sooth Buffy, until Tara's alarm went off.
"I better start getting ready." Tara said. "I am due in the Infirmary in twenty minutes. I have some medicals to do on some of your crew and another batch of Quarians getting the immune booster."
"We're still doing those?" Buffy asked. "I thought we would have been finished by now."
"It takes a long time to inoculate an entire species, especially when we lose up to half the trained Medical Personnel when the Gods of War are deployed. We are almost done now, though. Only two batches of civilians left to go and whatever Pilgrims that return who left before they got the shot." Tara explained. "We had prioritised the military ships and the Fleet Marines."
"I still have five days left before I have to take The Athena out." Buffy said. "Is your schedule clear at noon? I want to take you to lunch."
Tara smiled, leaned down and kissed Buffy.
"I'll make sure I am free." Tara replied.
Buffy could not help but grin.
TBC….
A/N: I had considered it being Willow spending the night with Tara in the last scene, but Buffy seemed more fitting. I had mentioned very briefly in an earlier chapter, Chapter 6, that Willow was thinking about Tara and the possibility of their dating. In the end it seemed unsuited to the new narratives of the Characters to put Willow and Tara together, as in this story they have very little in common to initially bring them together. In Sunnydale it was them being the only two real Witches in a group of Want-to-be-but-aren't witches. I thought the slow growth over a longer period between Tara and Buffy, starting with working through the trauma of what happened with Mira, would work better. Even after more than a year, Buffy and Tara's relationship is still in the very early stages.
