Chapter 85
Jane stood there with a stupid look on her face after having had her promotion explained to her for the third time. She discovered that it had been a premeditated thing when Admiral Anderson approached her, and as was his custom requested and received permission to update the rank insignia above her breast. Gone were the four 1cm silver captain bars she'd been so proud of and in their place were five 3cm black bars. She was now for all intents and purposes, the highest ranked soldier in Alliance history.
In the time it took him to affix the bars to her uniform and smile up at her with tears streaming down his eyes, instead of the customary handshake she'd come to expect he instead snapped off a crisp salute, the kind they'd been trained to give to superior officers. Shepard's own eyes teared up as she returned the salute and saw that everyone else in the room, including Rothschild was similarly saluting her. She returned the salute with a shaking hand, then immediately fainted.
"Ok I got some good news and bad news for you worthless fucking maggots. The good news is you just barely squeaked by and have officially finished basic training. The bad news is, not only are you shitstains too fucking young to deploy now except Nar, I'm going to be stuck with your worthless asses again next summer to finish up weapons training. Speaking of which, Nar, Front and center!" Dunn said, waiting as the young Krogan limped up to her. Nar was not at all clumsy but tended to rely too heavily on his ability to regenerate injuries as well as his bizarrely high even for a Krogan pain tolerance. She was convinced this would get hammered out of him by his first commander.
"Yes Ma'am!" Nar said as he stood at attention.
"Congratulations Private Urdnot Nar. Your orders." She said, handing him an envelope. He went to open it when she interrupted him
"Don't worry pantywaste, you got Infantry." Dunn said.
"Krogan women don't wear panties." Nar, said, finally after weeks of hell getting one tiny dig in on the overbearing drill instructor.
"Oh you're gonna know all about different kinds of underwear because you're on laundry detail until you're deployed, smartass." Dunn said, grinning. Nar shrugged and grinned, and saluted the instructor.
"Lawsons, hang back. The rest of you are free to go. See you here next year right after graduation. A word of warning, do NOT go soft. Keep up with your PT or I will make you repeat basic. That is a promise." Dunn said, the Humans and Quarians appeared to go green before scrambling to leave.
"You two, I've already cleared this with Mr. Bailey, Alliance Intel would like a word with you." Dunn said. Jack looked at Oriana, who shrugged nervously.
"Yes Ma'am" Jack said, saluting. Oriana followed immediately after, and they were lead into an empty room with four chairs around a square table. There were two figures seated, one a human woman wearing form-fitting black armor and a hood obscuring her face, the other a Quarian man in the same kind of armor but with his face bare, wearing a friendly expression. Dunn left without a word and the Quarian man gestured for them to take a seat.
"Good afternoon, Recruits Lawson. My name is not important right now. I'm here to ask a few questions about your performance with the power suits." The Quarian asked.
"Of course, Sir." Oriana said, her voice quaking. She was thankful when she felt her sister grasping her hand under the table.
"No need to be nervous, Recruit, you've done nothing wrong. We at R&D were impressed with your command of the power suits. Most of us stumble around like drunken Krogan the first time we step inside them." The Quarian said. Jack chortled. She then looked mortified and sat up straight.
"Sorry, sir." She said.
"Not at all, Lawson I did make a joke. Not going to bust you for laughing at it. So do either of you have experience piloting mechanical cargo loaders, shuttles, other smaller craft?" the Quarian asked.
"No sir. We don't even have driver's licenses yet. We live on Rannoch and the Geth transport everyone everywhere there." Jack said.
"I couldn't even walk until last year." Oriana said.
"Yes, I read your file. Impressive how quickly you recovered and learned to walk." The Quarian said.
"My older sister Miranda helped with the surgery, and Jack helped with the rehab. With those two I couldn't fail." Oriana said. Jack smiled, her eyes misting. The cloaked figure shifted in her seat but said nothing.
"Of course, of course. So do either of you have any ideas as to why you had so little trouble with the suits?" the Quarian asked.
"You're aware of our... lineage?" Oriana asked. Jack scowled at this.
"Yes, I've examined your medical records in great detail. Henry Lawson is a monster but he is a meticulous one. We sequenced your genes, aside from enhancements to your physical and cognitive attributes very little was meddled with, definitely nothing that would explain intuitive understanding of fifty thousand year old technology." The quarian said.
"I have a theory but I'm not positive. Like I said earlier, I only just learned to walk a year ago, maybe it was so recent that my brain is still acting like it is still learning. Each time I fell when I got up I felt more confident about the balance mechanics." Oriana said.
"Interesting. That doesn't explain your sister however." The Quarian said.
"Oh with Jack it's easy. She's afraid of nothing. She looked like every time she would stumble instead of falling she'd just commit to the movement and find a way to turn it into a dodge, or a feint. She did the same thing in Krav Maga last year, not even our teachers could land the same throw twice." Oriana said. Jack looked pensive, she had never considered that. The cloaked figure chortled quietly, in an electronically distorted voice.
"Very interesting indeed. With your permission, Recruits, I'd like to have a team observe you in the power suits and examine your techniques for themselves. One can only gather so much from your drill instructor's omnitool video clips." The Quarian said.
"Of course, sir. We will need to clear it with Mr. and Mrs. Bailey first though." Jack said.
"Of course. In the meantime, I have a matter that's of a slightly more personal nature. For this I'll defer to my colleague." The Quarian said. The Human woman stood up and removed her hood.
"Hello Ladies." Miranda said. Jack and Oriana squealed and leapt over the table to tackle her, the Quarian agent laughing as he dodged out of their way.
Liara was sitting at a desk on Thessia awaiting a transport to bring her back to the Normandy. She had requested to stay aboard since it tended to always be there when new discoveries about the Reapers and Protheans were produced. She heard a couple of voices approaching from the hallway adjacent to her, they were doing a terrible job of trying to be quiet. As they stopped Liara heard a soft knock on the door. She stood and opened the door, looking at the two Asari who had interrupted her work.
"Little Wing, is now a good time or are you busy?" Benezia asked.
"Of course mother, I was just finishing up. Are you accompanying me to Earth?" Liara asked.
"Yes, along with my... compatriot here. She's been requested as an Asari military advisor by the Alliance.
"Ah yes, Matriarch Aethyta, I presume?" Liara said, bowing slightly to the very awkward looking older woman.
"Yeah, uh hi there Liara, I uh, mean, Dr. T'soni." Aethyta said Benezia, standing behind Liara held up a hand with all four fingers outstretched, then lowered her pinkie. Next her ring finger and then the middle.
"Oh please, There's no need to be so formal. " Liara said. Benezia lowered her index finger.
"Um, ok." Aethyta said. Benezia lowered her thumb.
"After all, you're my mother." Liara said. Benezia grinned and Aethyta's expression fell.
"You told her?" Aethyta accused Benezia
"Oh no, you know how smart she is. She figured this out all by herself." Benezia said, barely stifling her laughter. Liara smiled patiently.
"Listen, Liara, I'm so..." Aethyta said but stopped when Liara pressed her index finger onto the older woman's lips
"Aethyta, I know why you guys kept it a secret. I understand, the stigma. I've known for years. The pictures of the two of you at the Janiris festival a hundred and ten years ago, attached at the hip that I found in the Archives was a dead giveaway." Liara said. Benezia sobbed and averted her gaze to the floor
"I'm so sor..." Liara stopped her again
"There's nothing to be sorry about. I regret missing out on more than a century of getting to know you but you were protecting me. Our people are so slow to evolve, I'd have been an outcast, I'd have never gone to Serrice, I really do understand. I don't feel a need to but if you need to hear it, I forgive you." Liara said, a tear tracking down from her eye. Aethyta sobbed and launched herself into the maiden's arms. Benezia smiled and took her leave, walking into an adjacent room to read a message on her omnitool. Her smile evaporated as she read the message she'd received.
'Benezia. We need a meeting with the Alliance leadership ASAP. I've already alerted them, but we've been receiving reports about sporadic Collector activity on the edge of the terminus systems. We have no idea where they came from, Aria T'Loak's people are monitoring the Omega 4 relay constantly and there has been no transit through it.
It's possible they're aware of this and coming in the long way from wherever it is that relay goes. What's alarming is they are exclusively going after Humans. Five civilian vessels this month have been attacked, and were found floating adrift filled with Quarian and Krogan corpses, the human compliment is unaccounted for. To conserve computational power while the push towards you know what is being planned the Geth have not been accompanying civilian vessels for a while now.
Let me know when you're back on Earth, I am already here. I'll send more information as I receive it. -Castis'
A cold chill traveled up Benezia's spine. Her grandmother had horror stories to tell about the Collectors, how they were bizarre, insectoid creatures that acted like a hive mind, they had these flying insect creatures that could freeze people in place so they could be abducted and taken Goddess knows where. She manipulated her omnitool and checked to see if moving up their travel schedule as an option. When she walked back into the room she saw a sight she'd ached to see for more thana century. Aethyta was doubled over laughing and Liara was covering her mouth stifling her giggles.
"So then the Batarian said 'Yeah, you and what army?' and I pointed to my dad and said 'That one.' And he charged him into a wall!" Benezia said
"Goddess, that explains so much." Liara said. Aethyta tried valiantly to look offended but she was too amused
"So yeah, if you ever have the urge to headbutt something, Krogan Grandfather" Aethyta said.
"I'm sure Kurg and Grak will love to hear that story." Liara said. She looked worried as she saw her mother walk into the room.
"Mother, what's wrong?" Liara said
"We need to move up our travel plans. I just got a disturbing letter from my Turian counterpart, the collectors have been spotted attacking Alliance civilian ships in the terminus systems. They're killing the Quarians and Krogan and abducting the Humans." Benezia said
"Goddess, I'll get my things. Mother can you arrange earlier transport?" Liara asked.
"Already on it." Benezia said bringing up her omnitool.
"uh, Well I can't keep calling you Aethyta. I'll borrow a Human term for now, Mom, can you get your things together fast?" Liara asked Aethyta. Her heart swelled at the affectionate term.
"I travel light, I'll pack a couple of dresses and my combat armor and rifle and meet you here in five minutes." Aethyta said.
"You're a commando?" Liara asked?
"Half Krogan." Aethyta said, grinning.
AN: Putting this at the end to avoid spoilers. So I struggled for a minute with whether to call Aethyta Liara's "father" or "other mother" or whatever, I've read in other fics them refer female non-birth parents as fathers and it always feels weird. In my world the majority of Asari identify as female, despite their being monogendered so it seemed appropriate for Benezia to be Mother and Aethyta to be Mom. Also regarding the Lawson sisters, I had considered having their father's meddling be responsible for awakening some dormant armor control gene the Protheans inserted into humanity by accident, but felt that was a little convoluted, plus I don't know jack shit about how genetics works (I'm sure that is obvious)