Chapter 6: Slavers – part 2
The minutes pass as Jane and Juvetana both watch intently out the window for any sign of trouble. While she's watching from the window, Jane finds the sound of the low clicks and whistles, that make up turian hunting chatter, soothing. Even though she can still only understand around a quarter of it.
Suddenly, there are sounds of gunfire in the distance somewhere away from the landing pad. A few minutes later, the faint sounds of screams are added to the retort of gunfire.
Straining to see what's going on, Jane pushes her head against the glass of the window trying to get a better view. She's barely got into the best position before Juvetana pulls her down, away from the window.
Juvetana hisses into Jane's ear, "Eyes only, not your whole head. Unless you want them to shoot you."
Both of them watch tensely through the windows as the sounds of screaming come closer and closer. Despite what they're hearing, it's an abrupt transition between hearing the screams and the stream of humans that start running down the main street into the square. Jane almost sights her rifle as the first human runs into view, with only the fact that Juvetana hasn't moved holding her movement. It takes less than a minute for the individual humans to turn into a steady stream.
Then one of the running humans falls forward with no indication of tripping. It take's Jane a few second to recognise the silvery glitter as the threads of a net binding the human tightly.
A few seconds later Juvetana lets out a keening sound as Numecus staggers backwards into the square holding his leg with one hand while his pistol fires off measured shots down the street.
As the first four-eyed batarian comes into view Jane freezes for a long moment, even as Juvetana smoothly lifts her window up enough to poke her rifle through, and pulls the trigger.
When the batarian's head explodes like an overripe melon, and its body drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes, Jane drops her rifle as she doubles over and vomits all over the floor.
On her hands and knees, Jane tries to regain her composure by praying, "Selene, Goddess of the Moon, please help me. We're under attack by batarians, and I just saw one's head explode. Please show me the path to get out of this safely."
As she gets herself back under control something niggles in the back of her mind about the door downstairs. As she reaches down for her fallen rifle, her other hand brushes her expanded pouch, and she freezes in place, "Juve, can you read English?"
Rather than waiting for an answer, Jane pushes the window open and lifts the rifle onto the edge. While she's trying to bring herself to pull the trigger, Juvetana pulls her own trigger, killing another batarians. "What sort of question is that? Especially at a time like this?"
"I've just remembered something about your spare house, but you or Numecus would need to do it. It's on my Alliance datapad though."
Closing her eyes, Jane finally pulls the trigger on her rifle. As she opens her eyes, her hand shakes as she realises she shot the batarian in the leg. A second later that batarian's head explodes as Juvetana nails it between the eyes, "Fledgling, go for the kill, as they can kill you or others if you leave them alive. Now take a breath and find those instructions."
Jane slumps to the floor below the window as she hyperventilates slightly. Reaching for her pouch, it takes her three attempts to open it enough to pull her magitech datapad out. As soon as it's in hand, the screen comes to life and she tries to poke at the icon for the book reader. With her shaking hands, and the sounds coming from outside, what would have normally taken her a matter of seconds, instead takes a long minute. All the while, Juvetana smoothly fires shot after shot into the square.
As Jane finds the right section of the manual, a section that doesn't exist in the Citadel versions, Juvetana's tempo increases suddenly. Tapping the button on the side that prevents the tablet from turning off if she's not holding it, Jane slides the tablet to Juvetana before taking her own place at the window.
As she sights the square, she can't help seeing her nest father lying motionless on the floor, a gaping wound on his side pouring blue blood onto the packed earth.
Suddenly her fear is quenched in an icy cold feeling as her eyes and fingers find target after target with no heat discipline.
She's barely aware of the fact that Juvetana hands her the last rifle when her own rifle overheats, or that Juvetana is reading the instructions intently.
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Something in the way the sounds from outside the building changes makes Juve look up at the window, and Jane. Less than a second later, she's pulling Jane to the floor just as the rapid retort of gunfire shatters the glass in the windows.
Slipping an arm through the straps on the two nearby rifles, Juve scoops up the datapad in one hand, and grabs Jane's belt in the other. With both secured, she drags herself and Jane out of the bedroom to the stairs and kitchen diner.
"Jane, Jane! You need to go down the stairs."
Sluggishly, Jane starts to stumble down the stairs, her head still muddled from the abrupt change in her situation. The loud retort of a mass driver blowing out the wall of the bedroom shocks her out of her stupor enough to quickly reach the ground floor.
Juve follows swiftly and shoves a rifle in Jane's hands, "Jane, listen to me." Juve points at the door to the shop, "You need to shoot anything that comes through that door while I follow these instructions. Do you understand?" Jane nods numbly, "Once we're inside you can stop, but not until then. Put the strap for both rifles over your shoulder, and switch when they overheat."
The sound of shattering glass from the front of the shop signals the end of their brief reprieve, and Juve hurries through the door to the spare house.
Walking through the first room into the lounge, Juve looks around for the symbol that the document says should be near the fireplace. As she spots it, she grabs a knife from her belt and stabs her finger as she's walking over. Smearing her blue blood over the symbol causes it to pulse with light. Knowing that she only has a couple of seconds, she reaches her arm up into the flue of the fire and feels around until she finds the brick that has a different texture to the rest.
Pushing that brick in causes the panel with the symbol on it to slide to one side, into the wall revealing a granite stone with symbols engraved all over it. In the centre of the stone is small greenish flake that she smears with her blood.
As her blood is seeping into the stone, she carefully reads out of the manual, "Accipe sanguinem meum et hanc domum ad familiam meam liga."
When the last word leaves the air, the whole house rings like a bell, and the cover over the stone returns to its original location. Except the symbol is now that of her clan and family line.
After double checking the instructions, Juve turns to get Jane.
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Outside the house Jane lifts her rifle and numbly looks down the sights at the door. When the door opens, and a gun pokes through, Jane pulls the trigger and sprays the edge of the door and the wall next to it, only releasing the trigger when a batarian falls forward across the doorway.
As her rifle starts to beep an overheat warning, Jane stares at it stupidly before letting it fall to her side and grabbing the second rifle just in time to nail a second batarian who is more casually walking through the doorway. This time, Jane doesn't just hold the trigger down, as some of the ice from upstairs starts to come back.
A few seconds later, after some harsh conversation on the other side of the counter, a silvery object is thrown over the counter through the back door. As it bounces near her feet, Jane catches it in midair with a kick, and it sails back over the counter before exploding in a massive flash and a loud roar.
Even with the counter between her and the explosion, Jane still drops to one knee as her ears ring painfully and she is forced to blink spots out of her eyes. As she's recovering, a shadow appears over the top of the counter, and Jane lifts her rifle and pulls the trigger until it starts beeping at her.
Switching rifles again, she suddenly cries out in pain as her leg is peppered with shrapnel from a shotgun blast through the counter. The sound of thumping is quickly accompanied by an increasing circle of light visible through the counter.
Jane fires off a burst from her rifle, only for the rounds to impact harmlessly against the backside of the counter. The flechettes that the rifle uses lacking the energy needed to break through.
A sharp pain travels through her off hand shoulder, as talons tear through her soft skin and yank her backwards. Panicking, she raises her rifle and tries to turn around to shoot whoever grabbed her.
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Juvetana looks down at the human fledgling, she's holding down, as she slowly comes down off of the adrenaline and endorphin fuelled high. Once the fledgling starts to shiver, and recognition shows in Jane's eyes, Juve lets go and stands up.
Jane turns over onto her good shoulder, and curls up into a ball as she starts to cry.
At a loss of what to do, Juve looks down at the fledgling and briefly wishes she was more familiar with human child rearing practices. After a moment of indecision, Juve decides to go with what she knows, and pulls Jane to her feet.
"You did well fledgling hunter, the nest is safe, and we are alive."
Dipping one of her talons into Jane's blood, she runs the back of the talon down Jane's cheek, leaving a thin red line.
"You have face your fear and come out of it alive and stronger than you were. Because of your bravery our nest will continue into the future."
Jane looks up at her, and in a shaky voice says, "But I froze up, if I didn't Nume would still be alive."
Juve takes Janes face in her hands, "Fledgling, listen to me. You can't play games with the past. It's equally likely that you'd have never remembered your reading device, and we'd have all died or, worse, been captured. All that matters is that we are alive now, and you didn't kneel to accept your defeat. Come, let us treat your wounds, and you can wear the scars with pride; knowing that you got them because you succeeded in defending our nest."
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With Jane now more coherent, it doesn't take long for Juvetana to retrieve the medical supplies from the kitchen. At the same time, Jane digs through her mokeskin pouch to see if there's any medical supplies that her mother left her.
While she doesn't find medical supplies, she does find a single blood replenishing potion in a survival pack that also contains a weeks' worth of dried food, and a few packs of beef jerky, as well as a self-filling, self-heating mug.
Fortunately for both of them, none of the bullet wounds they've taken were high velocity impacts, their energy bled off by intervening walls or cabinets. It still takes long enough for the adrenaline to leave Jane's system, causing her to start shivering and crying.
With someone she considers a mother nearby, Jane does something she's wanted to do with her own mother for years, and sits in Juvetana's lap to cry while hugging, and being hugged, by her nest mother.
Once Jane is cried out, both of them finish tending to each others wounds.
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As they both watch through the house windows, more and more humans start arriving in the square, only to be caught in a net and hurried into the hotel. Over the next few hours, the number of humans slows first to a trickle, and then to nothing as the nearby farmers and miners have all either hunkered down, or have been captured while seeking shelter.
That's when the batarians land a ship and drag a large crate from inside. As they take the top of it off, Juvetana let's out a distressed warble, and Jane looks over at her, "What is it?"
Juvetana looks at Jane evenly, "Fledgling, you should leave. This is not for the eyes of fledglings. It's not even for the eyes of seasoned hunters."
Jane shakes her head, "I need to know. Is my father safe."
Juvetana puts the back of her hand on the back of Jane's hand, "You may watch if you wish, as you are almost ready for adulthood. But you should pray to your goddesses that your father is already dead. If he still lives... If he still lives he might be lucky to be given a collar in a few years."
Juvetana falls silent as the first human is pulled from the hotel, clearly screaming and struggling. The batarians drag him over to the lid of the crate, and bend him over. As they force his body flat on the top, magnetic clamps spin out of the surface to cover the arm and then pull back down into surface of the case.
Jane purposely looks away and then back so that she can't recognise who the person is. At the same time she puts her arm around Juvetana and ensures that the back of her hand it touching her nest mothers arm. Swallowing hard, she hides herself as Juvetana's fledgling.
Outside, the human has had their legs secured so they can no longer struggle, and Jane watches dispassionately as the one of the batarians takes something from the base of the crate and loads it into a gun. Walking to the side of the human, he places the gun against the base of the humans skull and pulls the trigger.
On the crate, the human jumps, and then renews their attempts to pull themselves free. At the same time, the batarian negligently returns to the open crate and picks out a strip of seven devices. And holds them up to an omni-tool. When they each flash different colours, the batarian carries them back to the crate lid and lays the strip down on the humans back. Carefully, the batarian feels down the centre of the spine before using their other hand to carefully take one of the devices, and place it at the spot they just found.
Jane looks up at Juvetana, "What are they doing?"
Juvetana looks down at the fledgling before letting out an exasperated whistle, "The first device was an explosive, so that if their new slave causes any trouble they can terminate them easily. The other devices... They are spinal control nodes, and reportedly, a skilled user can use them to make the body move as smoothly as the person they're attached to. More normally, they're used for punishment and training."
As she finishes speaking, the batarian finishes the installation and walks away from the crate towards the omni-tool. Slipping it on their wrist, they press a button and watch as the restraints retract. The spectating batarians all seem to be anticipating something, and Jane holds her breath as the human tries to run.
As he... As the human gets half way across the square, Jane tries very hard not to recognise the expression on their face. But, she doesn't look away when the man's arms and legs just stop working and he crashes to the floor.
Jane cries freely, and this time Juvetana joins her as she prays to Selene and Hela.
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On the SAAS Ocelot, Hannah Shepherd paces the bridge as it travels through the aether sea on a direct course for Mindor under emergency orders directly from the council.
Picking up her pad on one of her round trips she opens up her orders to read them again.
Direct from Selene via her mother, Hela. The planet Mindor is under attack by batarian slavers, and someone on the planet prayed directly to Selene for aid. You are to proceed at full speed to the planet to render emergency aid. The Goddess Selene is already on route, but is expected to arrive after you.
Taking her seat in the captains chair, Hannah places a call down to the Quartermaster.
"Quartermaster, this is the captain. I'm just calling to check our supply of level 5 isolation suits."
"Captain, the answer hasn't changed since the first time you asked. We have plenty, we wouldn't have been allowed to leave for Mindor on a relief mission if we hadn't. I am officially recommending that you make your way to the healer for a calming draft. Next time, I'll just let the healers know."
Hannah winces at the threat, and looks up at her first mate, to see a sympathetic look on his face.
"Better you than me Sir, Ma'am."
Hannah barks a laugh, "I wouldn't mind, but they always seem personally offended whenever someone enters their domain."
Her first mate laughs, "That's because none of us will willingly go and see them, so they always assume we're hiding something they should be treating."
Hannah shakes her head, "You could be right, at least the normal docs can get their diagnostic results from the healers. I remember when that wasn't true. Anderson, you have the bridge. I'm going to get a fucking calming draft before someone actually calls a healer on me."
Her first mate, Anderson, smirks at her, "Good luck Ma'am."