A/N I own nothing. Mass Effect is owned by Bioware
Well, the response to that last chapter was much better than I feared it would be. Darker chapters are not for everyone so I was a little worried about how I did.
So, there might be a little break between this chapter and the next one. My laptop died and I am never buying a Lenovo again... That's the second one.
However, as I had emailed most of the story to my work email, it was backed up there. I did lose a little bit but it hopefully won't take me too long to be able to rewrite it. I had done this chapter in advance so at least I can post this.
Comments:
frankieu - Thank you.
deadtrooper - Thanks. Glad you liked the revelation. Also glad that the pacing was good. I wanted to cover everything and still make it feel like I wasn't going on too long.
jdude281 - Thanks. I didn't try to have her become like Liara but I can understand the comparison. I think they are similar but Aleria is generally more of an extravert, at least to the MC.
dekuton - Thanks. Nothing wrong with a good cry over something sad or tragic.
Artyom-Dreizehn - Thanks. Didn't mean to make anyone cry but I guess it's great that you are enjoying the story. Also, I had not actually read Psi Effect before. I started after you mentioned it. I can see the similarities but I don't think I am going to make Aleria quite that... way.
VODKA18 - Thank you. Hope you keep reading it.
zapper25 - Yeah I knew going in that this was going to be heavy, at least for the first ten chapters, give or take. Good to see you are enjoying it regardless.
Now, on with the story!
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CHAPTER 7 – DISCOVERY
I stared through the viewport of the cockpit, looking out at the streaky lines of FTL around us. I was feeling more than a little anxious as we were approaching the coordinates for the first eezo asteroid. In only a few minutes we would be coming out of FTL at the end of the long stretch. Once we had cleared the last relay there had been a hell of a long jump to get to our destination. At the slightly less than eight lights years a day that the Enterprise could manage, that meant that it was about twenty-five light years from the relay. As Council settlement policy tended to discourage any settlement further than twenty light years from a relay, the odds of the eezo asteroid being randomly discovered by anyone else was astronomically low. Still, it meant that there was nearly three days travelling at FTL, once the need to drop out of FTL to vent the engine heat sinks was taken into account.
The last three days were, to my extreme surprise, much better emotionally for me. After opening up to Aleria I had my first sleep without nightmares since I had arrived in the Mass Effect universe. Eight blissful hours of uninterrupted rest. My average for the last two weeks before that was three and a half hours of nightmare filled horror that left me feeling like I hadn't gone to sleep in the first place.
Not only that, but I felt like some of the dark heaviness that seemed to have hung over me since I was taken out of the dungeon was lifted from me. I felt lighter. Less numb. It was a relief.
Aleria had left my room before I woke up. Not a word had been spoken about what I had shared, other than her telling me that she was available if I ever wanted to talk more about it. I didn't, but the thought was appreciated. As it was, I felt a little better than before. Words cannot describe how valuable that is to someone who has gone through what I went through. Yet, we hadn't even covered more than the basics. Just a couple of things like the death of Jason, the butcher's hook in my shoulder and the burns. Nothing else was really talked about. Hopefully, nothing else needed to be talked about. Though if it continues to be an issue then I might take Aleria up on her offer to talk to her aunt.
A lot of my time on the ship had been spent in the cockpit with Aleria learning how to fly my ship. While this little tug boat wasn't all that impressive yet, the controls seemed to be surprisingly straight forward. A lot of the pitch was adjusted with micro controls in the ship that operated automatically unless they were manually turned off from the pilot's chair. This stopped the ship rolling on its axis any time the ship was turned around. Aleria explained that this was common in freighters as even with the inertia dampers that existed on star ships, unexpected jolts could knock about sensitive cargo.
Other than learning to fly, I had spent hours in the massive cargo bay exercising. The length of the bay made it perfect to use for a running track to improve my endurance. Once the hull and internal bulkheads were taken into account, the internal length of the cargo bay was three hundred meters long, wall to wall, and a hundred and twenty meters wide. That makes quite the running track. Thanks to having purposely walked long distances every day for the two weeks I was on the Citadel, except the three days I interviewed people when my walks were cut short, my legs had once again become accustomed to being used. So, no cramping, which I cannot even begin to explain my relief for. I wouldn't be completely happy until I could do at least three full laps around without stopping. Seeing as I was just starting, I was barely managing to get around once. And that was with the weird half jog that I was doing towards the end.
I also was increasing my weights exercises. Before I had been captured I was able to easily bench press 110kg. Even with me doing an increasing number of push ups every day, I was only back to being able to do about 60kg in sets. Not enough. But it was a starting place. Then there were all the other exercises. I made sure that I was stretching properly before and after; otherwise I would be in all kinds of hell.
I wasn't the only one using the gym. I saw Sel and Ely down there at different times. They had organised their own schedules for working in engineering, which included using Hectar for a few hours a day so that they could get a proper rest. I didn't mind so long as he finished getting the geological suite calibrated and organised to be run from the bridge.
"Transition out of FTL in thirty seconds," my asari pilot announced, her intercom on to let Ely and Sel in the engine room know. I had already brought Hectar up to the cockpit to sit at the sensor stations to be ready to use the new geological sensors. He had only finished updating the monitor for the sensor station a few hours ago. The little guy was a machine. That is, if machines could be nervous about every single thing they did. Unless he was lost in his work, my quarian tech was as jumpy as a cricket on a hot plate.
The streaks of FTL faded back into the stars of real space, marking the end point of our jump. For a long moment I sat there, almost expecting the asteroid to be right in front of the ship. It wasn't.
"It looks like we are at the outskirts of a solar system," Hectar said. "I am reading one red dwarf star, four planet sized bodies, one of which is a gas giant. None of them appear capable of supporting life. They are all either too close or too far away from the star."
Now, I didn't know much about red dwarf suns, other than they were usually pretty cold as far as suns go. That and Superman would lose all his powers if he was too close to one, though that didn't help me here. But red dwarfs, from memory, were usually unable to attract too many planet bodies, because of the reduced gravitational pull, but they were larger than brown dwarfs. Still, four planet bodies made for a fairly small solar system so hopefully it wouldn't take too long to find our target.
"Keep the sensors on full power," I ordered him. "Have them specifically search for traces of element zero, platinum, palladium and iridium. Also keep an eye out for asteroid bodies so we can scan them too. Miss N'Tavis, take us in-system. We are going hunting for minerals."
"Aye, Captain Neilson," Aleria said cheerfully. A micro FTL jump later and we were at the closest planet. It was the gas giant and distance-wise it was the third planet from the sun. No moons to speak of and the planet was an ugly brown colour. "Oh, just so you know, this system is completely unnamed. That means you get the honour."
Huh. I can now add explorer to my small list of accomplishments. Who would have thought?
"How about this," I said. "There are five of us on board. As leader I will name the system, the rest of you can name them planets."
"Oooh, my very own planet!" Aleria exclaimed playfully, bringing the ship into a high orbit. "You sure know how to treat a girl!"
"Scanning," Hectar said, nervously cutting into Aleria's banter. I thought he might collapse if the sensor failed. "I am reading a highly concentrated methane, nitrogen and argon. The core seems to be a form of condensed chrome alloy, bauxite and carbon. Nothing here really. Unless you think the volus are running out of methane."
I look at him for a long moment, a small amount of surprise running through me. "Hectar," I began slowly, "did you just make a joke? I'm not imagining that, am I Aleria?"
"No, I heard it too," the pilot chipped in cheerfully.
The quarian technician rubbed his hands coyly together not looking at either of us. "Well, maybe a little one."
I let out a small grunt of amusement. "Good," I said evenly. "We will bust you out of your shell yet."
He finally looked over at me and Aleria. I don't know why but I have the feeling that if I could see through his visor, I might have seen a small smile on his face.
"Any asteroids nearby?" I asked.
He turned back to his monitor. "Nothing in the vicinity of the planet," he said. "But there appears to be a small asteroid field on the far side of the system, about two thirds of the way between the projected orbits of the third and fourth planets. It's right at the edge of the sensor's range which is why I didn't pick it up before."
Something told me that was it. "Sounds hopeful," I said, my cautious optimism leaking through my voice. "You have a heading, Aleria."
"On our way, Cap."
Another micro FTL jump and one minute fourteen seconds later we were halfway between the asteroid field and the planet.
Aleria looked at me, the unspoken question obvious. I take a quick look at the sensor but I already know where we are going. "The asteroids first."
At thruster speed the trip to the asteroid field takes another ten minutes. In truth, 'asteroid field' is a bit generous for what we found. There were only about thirty or so space rocks total, ranging from a few kilometres long down to a couple no larger than a basketball.
"Scan away, Hectar," I order.
The quarian tapped away at the monitor. I knew it the moment that he froze completely; we had found what we were looking for.
"Captain," he said, sounding awed, "I have a large reading of element zero from the third largest asteroid." He pointed it out on his monitor as I moved to look over his shoulder. "The asteroid looks to be about one point four kilometres long, eight hundred and fifty meters at its widest and seven hundred meters depth."
"How much eezo is there?" I asked. "Be specific. Is it the whole asteroid or just a portion?"
He tapped away again. "It looks like…" he took a moment to read the data. "Almost two thirds of the asteroid appears to be pure unrefined element zero."
"Can the sensors give us a more exact number?" I ask.
"Uh… to get an exact number we need to go closer and do a complete circle of the asteroid."
I turned to Aleria. "You heard the man," I said, feeling some relief and excitement starting to push their way through my chest. "Do a lap."
"Yes, sir!" she beamed.
Five minutes later we had the data. I hit the intercom.
"Team meeting in ten minutes down in the mess," I called. "I want everyone there. We have news."
Ten minutes later and I was heading down to the meeting with Aleria. We had pulled away to a high orbit of the small ice rock that was the outermost planet. Hectar had gone down earlier to meet up with Sel and Ely. I figured by the time we got there it was likely that the rest of the crew would be up to date with the discovery. All that remained was to explain what the plan was.
I frowned at that as I realised something. There were three different species here. That meant that there would likely be at least three different ideas of what should happen, depending on what Aleria thought. That could lead to trouble. And as much as I hated to think it, considering the plan I had for this first eezo asteroid, that would likely be quarian trouble.
I held back for a second as we arrived at the closed door of the mess hall, letting Aleria pass. She stopped and looked back at me, curious.
"Go on in," I said, bringing up my omni-tool as if I was making a note. "I will be there in just a second."
She nodded and went inside, closing the door behind her. I immediately lowered my arm, dropping the charade.
"Holly," I called to the ceiling softly. I didn't want to be overheard through the door. "Did all the crew link their communicators through the ship as I requested when we set out?"
"Yes, Captain Neilson," Holly's voice came back smoothly.
"Good. From now on, capture all outgoing messages sent by the crew. Give them the 'message sent' signal but send the messages to me on a five minute delay. Do not send the message until I have given the approval for it."
"Acknowledged, Captain Neilson."
I heaved a sigh. "Also, save a copy of the navigation data to my omni-tool and delete all other copies from your files the moment we leave the system."
"Yes, Captain Neilson."
I felt a little bad about this. For some reason, it felt like I was acting like the Illusive Man, not trusting in the people I had working for me. The problem was I had only been working with them for less than a week. We had not been in a situation that told me I could trust them with something this big. Maybe Aleria, but I doubted she would object to this as much as the others anyway.
Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, I opened the door and went into the mess.
...
Aleria sat at the wooden mess table, rubbing her hands along its surface. Wooden tables were a novelty on star ships. Every ship she had been on so far had only ever had metallic tables, except for one cruise liner that her mother had taken her on for her thirty-fifth birthday. She wasn't entirely sure why ships didn't use wood furniture, but it was just seen as a luxury that only the wealthy would bother with.
Personally, she liked it. There was something about wood that gave a touch of class to a ship. Especially this wood. It had a beautiful reddish hue to it. Brock had said it was an old hardwood that was from near his home on Earth. He had found a supplier on the Citadel that had been shipping wooden furniture and he had somehow managed to reserve it first. She couldn't remember the name of it, something with a 'J', but the polished wooden table definitely made the room seem warmer and more welcoming somehow.
The three quarians seemed to have no interest in the table though. Hectar had just finished telling Ely and Sel about their discovery. Clearly, they were as excited about it as she was. It was the first time that Sel had been in the same room as her without making an advance. He was persistent, she had to give him that. It was getting tiring turning him down. Not that he wasn't a nice person; he seemed to be. She just wasn't interested in him physically.
It wasn't because he was a quarian. She had no issue with the quarians at all. Her own father had been a quarian. According to her mother, it was the whole reason why Aleria had been so interested in becoming a pilot in the first place; an innate desire to work on ships. No, it was because Sel was so obvious about it. There was no mystery to him. The galaxy had known about the quarian people for nearly a thousand years. She knew as much as she wanted to know about them right now.
The door opened and the latest source of mystery walked in. Brock Neilson. There was something about the human that was captivating. He was fairly good looking, for a human. He was slim and pale, the blonde hair kept short and he clearly removed his facial fur, like most humans. She had seen a few on the Citadel that had their facial hair grown out. Trimmed and well-groomed but grown out all the same. It was an unusual sight. Only the quarians had hair but their men didn't grow it on their face. A species that grew hair on their face was a new thing in the galaxy. She was an asari maiden that wanted to experience new things in the galaxy and humans were a new thing. Many maidens that she knew were travelling in the hopes of running into humans for a good new experience.
But it wasn't just the looks that were compelling to her. There was an air about him that was old and wise, something she had only ever seen in matriarchs. He had scars on his face that, when she had first met him, seemed to talk about a dangerous part of his character that lay hidden. He was mostly grim and even when he reciprocated some of her playful flirting with his banter, it was always with a serious tone, or with a grim face. She had only seen him smile a few times, but when he did it seemed to transform him into a different person. His features seemed to become alive and his pale blue eyes sparkled. At least, compared to the grim, focussed stare that he usually had when looking at people.
At first, she had thought him to be a former soldier or mercenary. He carried himself the same way and he always inspected every room in such a way that looked like he was evaluating risks and looking for entrances and exits. Much like he was doing now. It spoke to her of strength and control. It was exciting in its own way just to tease him, even if he never really rose to it other than with his words.
Then she had been woken up to the banging and screaming from his room. Then she had walked into the room to see the damage he had inflicted onto his own hands and the little bathroom in his quarters. The moment she had seen the scars on his hands, she had known that she hadn't been right in assuming that he was in control, not in the way that she had assumed. It was all an illusion that he had put up.
Because he was broken. He just didn't want anyone to know.
The talk that had followed had been more illuminating and terrifying than she could have imagined. She had kept her questions from being too penetrating and confronting because she hadn't wanted to make him lose complete control. He had only shared a few basic details, nothing specific, other than the comment about his son, which she still was trying to wrap her head around. Nothing in Mr Neilson… Brock's, demeanour had suggested he had ever been a father. She couldn't picture it. That must have meant that the pain of it was still too much to deal with properly, from what her aunt had told her.
Clearly the human was still haunted by the things he had seen and experienced. She couldn't blame him in the slightest when she thought how recent it had been. How the man had been able to do as much as he had done in the short time he had been free was a mystery to her. She had never seen it in any of the victims her aunt had introduced her to, nor even heard about from her aunt's stories. In the end, the short conversation led her to feel something else towards the human.
Respect.
To have gone through that type of Athame cursed hell and drag himself out of bed everyday would have been accomplishment enough. Yet here he was, leading an expedition. Obviously, he was driven to do something. She could see that clearly, even if she didn't know why. The only clue she had was when he had told her that 'there was too much to do'. He was somehow setting out to do something in the galaxy and it overrode his grief and pushed him forward. And he even managed to hide it fairly well from view, most of the time.
To her, that made him stronger than even the bravest asari commandos. As broken as he was, he was the strongest person she had met if he was out here, pushing forward to whatever goal he had in mind.
That didn't mean he didn't need healing. Or that he couldn't be healed.
After their talk he had actually shown a slight improvement in his mood. It was only a little bit but he was less grim and serious. He had even cracked a joke or two. Clearly he needed to talk about everything with someone. The moment that they started heading back she as going to bring up a chat with her aunt again. Aunt Selaen would surely meet up with him if she asked.
The quarians stopped talking and looked at Brock as he took his seat at the table.
"OK," he began, "I assume that Hectar and Aleria have caught you up on our little discovery?"
Ely nodded enthusiastically. Sel merely gave a single head bob. There was something about him that gave Aleria pause. She hadn't really had much to do with him other than rejecting his advances, but the way he was sitting right now… it was too stiff. The way he was normally sitting when she walked into the same room was open and loose limbed. Not at all like now. Maybe it was just his way of showing excitement but for some reason, a little alarm bell went off in her head.
"Good," he said. "Then as captain of this vessel, I name this newly discovered system the Argo system. What are you all going to name your planets?"
A ripple of surprise ran through her. She would have thought the first order of the meeting was the element zero. She recovered quickly.
"I am calling my planet Aleria," she said. She had been given the second planet from the sun to name. "Because how many asari maidens out there can claim that they have a planet named after them?"
"Erati," Ely said, referring to the closest planet to the sun. "After my mother."
"Setta," Sel grunted out, meaning the one furthest away from the red dwarf.
Hectar took a little moment longer before he finally gave the name for the third planet in the system. "Kullu. He was my grandfather. He basically raised me."
"Good choices everyone. Now," Brock continued, drawing her attention away from Sel. "We also happen to be sitting on a fortune here. On an asteroid in this system is about three hundred million cubic meters of element zero." He paused with an expression on his pale face that made him seem as if something had just come to him. "Why is it measured in cubic meters and not weight?"
"That's only for unrefined element zero," Ely piped up happily. "Eezo in an unrefined state has unusual qualities that make weighing it unreliable as it can increase or decrease its weight without warning."
"Ah," he said, his face returning to its neutral, grim state. "Thanks Ely. Now, according to the Citadel Stock Exchange before we lost contact with the extranet beacons, that puts us in wealth of about four hundred and eighty-five billion credits."
Aleria couldn't help a squeak of excitement. Hectar spread his hands out on the table as if supporting himself to stop passing out. Ely's raised her hands in a gesture of triumph and let out a crow of happiness. Sel didn't do anything other than sit up a little taller.
That warning bell in Aleria's mind went off a little louder.
"We could probably get a little more than that if we decided to auction it off on the open market," Brock said, apparently not seeing the crew's reactions. "But that isn't what I want to do."
Confusion pushed its way into Aleria's mind. He didn't want to sell it?
Apparently she wasn't the only one. "What do you mean?" Hectar asked nervously.
Brock paused for a moment as he appeared to consider what he said next.
"I want to sell it directly to the Asari Republics," he stated.
A very visible trickle of shock passed through the room. Aleria asked the obvious question. "Why?'
He sighed. "The galaxy currently exists in a certain status quo. The turians are the warmongers who believe in superiority through might, the salarians think they are the smartest and the asari are the most advanced and the longest living among the Council races. Only the krogan can match them. This gives the asari matriarchs the incorrect assumption that they are superior through the supposed wisdom of their matriarchs. No offence."
Aleria winced. The words themselves were blunt and harsh. At the same time, she wasn't completely sure she could disagree with them. Matriarchs in particular had a way of talking to people as if they were somehow beneath them, including other asari.
"Regardless, this status quo exists on the fact that the asari have the largest economy due to their own eezo mines on Thessia which the other races are reliant on, much as they wish otherwise. If I throw in our asteroid into the mix, what would that achieve? It would definitely damage the asari economy, potentially irreparably. I need the credits that the eezo would provide but I would rather not make all of the asari people suffer for it. However, if they choose not to buy, I think the salarians would be the next best option, genocidal maniacs that they are."
"Why not give it to the humans?" Sel finally asked, his tone suspicious. "Or the Migrant Fleet?"
Brock looked at him for a long moment. "I am not going to give it to anyone. I am going to sell it. The reason I am not selling it to the Systems Alliance is because I have some concerns about what would happen to it. There are many humans that are still not sold on the reality of alien civilisations being a good thing. Some very openly believe in human supremacy, which is ridiculous. It could lead to other problems. As for the quarians," he sighed again as he looked at his three suited employees, "I am sorry for the Fleet but I don't think that they would be able to give good trade for credits. They would benefit much more from me selling it to them than I would. At the moment, I need every credit I can get my hand on. There are a lot of plans that I have for that money and lots of things need to be bought. If you think that the quarians could both give me the credits I need and still be able to feed their people and fuel their ships, speak up now."
None of the quarians said anything immediately. Aleria couldn't help but agree with his assessment of the quarians. The ragtag label that was attached to their Fleet was legendary. If Brock needed money to be able to do whatever it was that he was planning to do, he wouldn't find it from the quarians.
"You could always cut it down into smaller parts?" Sel argued. "Sell off bits to the different races. The Fleet might not be able to pay for the whole thing but they could do with a few thousand square meters. That could keep the Fleet running for a while without being taken advantage of by either the Council or the Terminus systems."
"With what equipment do I cut it in portions?" Brock countered mildly. "Something like this doesn't just hold. I don't have the time to wait until we can bring equipment to cut this in portions. I need the credits fast because I have a lot of work to get on with. The fastest way for that to happen now is to sell it to the asari, who have both the money and the desperation to stay on top of the economic food chain. The Fleet will be helped, but at a later date."
Again with his need for quick work. There was something there. Something urgent. Whatever it was, it was bothering Aleria, like a tick on the back of her neck. What could be so important that he was running on a time limit?
Sel didn't say anything but he stayed stiff for a long moment. Finally, he gave a short nod and sat back, clearly not happy. Aleria had a feeling this wasn't over. Besides, Brock had a couple of very strong points. There might be a few arguments against his claims, arguments that might work towards having it sold to other people. But he was right about the asari having the credits and the desperation to stay on top of the eezo distribution ladder. Selling it to them would prevent a lot of economic instability meaning it would really have the least amount of impact on the galaxy while still giving him the most benefit.
Aleria looked back at Brock, a small feeling of awe passing through her. Even with everything that must be going through the human's mind, he had somehow thought out the best way to make this situation work, according to his needs. Truly impressive.
"Alright, well we have a plan," Brock announced. "Let's get to it. But first, does anyone have zero g experience? I need someone to go get a small sample of that eezo."
To Aleria's surprise, Hectar raised a hesitant hand.
"Good," Brock said firmly, a small hint of relief around his eyes. "There is a tether and a cutting tool in the rear port crew storage room. Grab that and head to the airlock. everyone else, back to stations."
Everyone stood up from the table, the quarians heading back to engineering, Hectar in tow. Aleria followed Brock back towards the cockpit. Once they were there alone, Aleria made sure to turn the security cameras in the engineering bay on. She had the feeling that Sel might try something and had no plan on letting him betray the rest of the team.
Brock saw what she was doing and raised an eyebrow. "You caught it too?" he asked.
Aleria bit her lip and nodded. Clearly she hadn't imagined it. "I don't intent to be caught unaware."
He gave a small, genuine smile that left a small pleasant swirl in her stomach. "Well done, my little violet pilot. Holly," he called to the ceiling. "Notify both of us the moment that we are in range of a comm beacon."
"Acknowledged, Captain."
"Now, let's hope we do this right, Miss N'Tavis," Brock said, looking back at her with a small tight smile as she brought the ship closer to the asteroid. "We are going to try and bargain with one of the most powerful people in the galaxy."
...
A/N Follow/Favourite/Review as you please. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Trolls are ignored.
