A/N I own nothing
Hello loyal readers! Yes I am back. Thank you for your patience. Exams are over and this chapter took a little while to write. I had a little writer's block as I figured out how I want to proceed to the next part. I got this to where I was happy enough with it, now I just hope that it is enough to wet your appetites for the next chapter, which I have already started writing. So stay tuned for that!
Comments:
Sornosquinfallen, Archangel319, scorpin17, MajorKO, Xenozip, Guest 2 – thank you all. Every review makes it easier to keep writing.
Jdude281, frankieu – haha no I don't think that we will get to see a krogan/great white shark deathmatch in this story. But we can dream!
DahakStaz, dekuton, Artyom-Dreizehn – yeah I tried to factor in the weight of body armour as it currently exists, put that into a full body suits and make room for bonus accessories and come up with a figure for the hardsuits. I admit that I took a few liberties, seeing as I allowed for the change in perceived weight once gene mods were given to the wearer. So the final number was partially pulled out of my head. And A-D, the suits are a little like power armour but not much. It is certainly no Halo armour. As for the guns, there are a couple of ways that I have thought of for how it would work. We will see which way ends up supreme.
Kivdon – thank you for your correction. I will try to avoid that mistake in the future.
Jotun – sounds interesting. I took a look and might incorporate that but for now I will stick to what I have in mind.
MagicznyGosc – thank you for your input there. I don't want to go too much into detail but there are some things that you put out that will factor into the story while other won't. And some will but slightly different for how you suggested. As for the Raloi, I thought about them but from what I read, they approached the asari first and there is no information given on the location of their homeworld, only that they retreated there when the reapers attacked. As for the Virtual race, they just rocked up in salarian space. No idea how to find them.
Guest 1 – ok, I will accept that. I have actually been a little concerned for a couple of chapters now that I might be going back to the torture of the MC too much and it prevents the story from moving forward. Looks like I was at least a little right. Now I won't feel bad for skipping it.
Now, on to the story!
…
CHAPTER 15 - PROGRESSION
I looked around the bright white space I found myself in. there was nothing here at all. I was almost like I was in a white room without walls, windows or a visible floor. Seeing as the last thing I remembered was falling asleep, I had the feeling that I was about to get a visit from an old… well friend might be pushing it, but acquaintance might not be too far a stretch.
"Hello Brock," a familiar voice said behind me. I turned casually and saw that I was right. Manuel was standing there in his glowing white robes. "You're looking well."
I shrugged. "I've been worse," I replied.
He gave a knowing smile that still maintained the kindness that I remembered from our last face-to-face conversation. "That you have," he agreed.
I looked around at the blank white space I found myself in. if it wasn't for the fact that I could feel the floor beneath feet I wouldn't have even known that there was one. "So to what do I owe the pleasure?" I asked, looking back at him. "I take it this isn't merely a social call."
He gave a vague smile and nodded once again. "Indeed. I came to tell you that time is starting to work against you."
I looked at him, feeling a tightness in my chest. "Are you saying that I am not going to be able to accomplish the things I intended to achieve?"
"No, I am not saying that at all," he reassured me. "Just that you need to think about putting some of your plans in to place earlier than you are currently going to."
I sat and thought about it. He was right. I need to get things done quicker. I cursed myself in that moment as I realised that I could have gone out and discovered every single asteroid before I planned to sell them. It would have saved a lot of time that I am now going to be dragging my feet with unless I start trusting other people to do things for me. That was where I was going to have trouble. I don't know anyone here. I don't trust anyone here. Maybe if I had more time then I could have worked things faster.
"I'm guessing that sending me back to the start and having me do this from a year earlier would be out of the question?" I said sarcastically.
He gave me a wry smile. "Afraid so. I can give you a little help but it will mostly be in the way of providing information. Even doing something as simple as helping protect your mind from a forced meld was considered borderline too much. They are going to let it stay but that is likely the extent of physical assistance."
I huffed a sigh. "Well, it's better than nothing I guess," I grumbled. I thought of some of the questions that had come to mind that I had wanted to ask. "I do want to know, how much of the DLC missions are actually here?"
"Oh, all of it happens," he replied.
Hmmm… that was only slightly problematic. I had done some of the DLC missions but not all of them. I had read about them during my research for ideas but I had never actually done the Project Overlord mission, nor the Shadow Broker mission. I knew about them when I thought about what I wanted to do so I knew where to find the Shadow Broker's ship in Hagalaz but knowing it and playing it are different things. Likewise, I knew the end of the Overlord DLC but not all the steps in between. Still, seeing as I wasn't planning on going with Shepard at that point, it meant that I didn't really need to know anything other than the ending anyway. I only knew about the mission to save Javik from Cerberus from YouTube videos and the ME wikia. I didn't see him as a key player in my plans so I hadn't actually worried about it very much though I do suppose he could be useful, if only to prove my point of the reapers actually existing.
"Ok," I said slowly. "What about these asteroids? Are there going to be any 'surprises' at any of their locations?"
He gave me a little smile. "There will be at one of them," he replied.
"Which one?"
He clicked his fingers. "That one." The information suddenly sprouted in my mind. I nodded.
"Great. Now, do you know of a space dock that I could nab for my own personal use? I don't want the various governments to be involved too much."
"Don't trust the governments?" he asked innocently.
I snorted. "You know I don't," I said.
"Fair enough," he said, his face turning thoughtful. "There are a few options. You could buy one second hand from a corporation for a lot of money, the volus are selling. You could grab one from the Terminus, though you aren't really geared up for ship to ship combat yet. There is also the elcor who are shutting down some of their local ship productions but you need to be quick. Other people are hunting that one and you might need some help with moving controls but that might be your cheapest option."
"Ok so I have a few options, is what you are saying," I said evenly. Good to know. I was gonna need it.
"Yes you do," he confirmed. "So, unless there are any other questions, you need to get back out there. Do you know where you are headed first?"
I nodded.
"Good. Back to it then."
And the white faded away back to reality.
…
Aleria stood on the catwalk high above the cargo bay, staring down as she waited for her call up. Below her, Beau was yelling out instructions and a small group consisting of Brock, Torrin, and surprisingly Hectar, ran about to follow them. Torrin was the fastest of the three, using his natural turian physical prowess to move faster than the others. Brock, who had several gene mods finally put in a few weeks ago, was only a few steps behind the young turian with Hectar bringing up the rear. They had been going for the last two hours together with Beau, with Brock and Torrin starting about two hours before that. The previous four weeks had been consistent fifteen hour days of running, drills, obstacle courses and weapon maintenance as Beau took his recruits and pushed them for all they were worth. Every single employee, Aleria included, had taken part in some of the training to measure their fitness levels and give them the option to participate in future ground work. Most of the crew only went a few times, like Chop, Carlos and the three new members, before deciding that ground work was not their calling and they were happy to stay on the ship. Jurt went irregularly on a 'when he felt like it' basis and Liserias would go for a few hours exercise in the morning before returning to the medical centre to get things ready for dealing with mostly quarian needs. She didn't really have a whole lot to do, though judging by how hard these four were training, that was liable to change in the near future.
Aleria had also been down several times to 'assist' in their training. Such assistance always came in the form of her throwing biotic lifts at the participants as they ran through obstacle courses. Apparently Beau thought it was a great way for them to experience dodging biotic attacks and explosive obstacles in a simulated environment. She grudgingly had to admit that Beau probably knew what he was talking about. During the first couples of times she had been doing it all three of the men, and even Ely who had joined in for an hour, had been caught nearly every time she threw a biotic lift at them. It had given the spectators a few laughs few a while. Ever since then though there had been steady consistent improvement. Now Brock was able to avoid nearly every single attack. Hectar, probably due to his typical skittish nature, was also able to dodge most of the biotic spheres. For some reason, Torrin was having more difficulty being aware of his surroundings; surprising for a former duct rat. As a result he was only able to get out of the way about half the time.
She wasn't the only watching, she knew. Brock had picked up a few new employees since they had left Earth. An asari named Nelathie who was a weapons designer on the capital ship side, and an old turian who was named Horaxes who had taken over the role of armourer and weapon smith with a zeal that was endearing. Weapons to him was not so much a tool but an art form that he took pride in. Brock had immediately stationed them on the lower crew deck at the front of the ship and had made their living and work areas restricted access to any except for himself, the new crew members and Hectar and Ely. He had offered Aleria access too but she had politely refused, saying that there was no reason for her to have access to those areas while the quarians would be good to run numbers with them.
He had also taken on another quarian pilgrim by the name of Misol'Tola nar Blopot that had been searching for work on the Citadel but was unsuccessful until Brock came along. Aleria had been keeping an eye on her to make sure that she didn't try anything like Sel'Hara had but so far she had checked out. Currently she could see Misol and Horaxes in the cargo bay below her watching the exercises.
Footsteps on the metal catwalk broke her out of her thoughts and she turned to see Ely walking towards her. She gave a small smile as a hello and received a nod in return. Aleria had become friends with the quarian girl over the last few weeks. It turned out that she had a playful sense of humour and seemed to take great job in playing pranks on Carlos as retaliation for his… unappreciated staring. The girl had come a long way from the shy pilgrim that had been picked up at the start of their journey. Now she was a confident worker on a spaceship with the best luck in the galaxy.
"Hey Aleria," Ely said casually. "I thought I might find you here."
Aleria nodded. "I am expecting to be called back to go and assist with their training, or to help Torrin with his biotics again."
Ely nodded and turned back to look at the activities below. The shared a companionable silence for a few minutes.
"Keelah," Ely said breaking the silence. "Don't you think that Brock is pushing himself too hard?"
Aleria frowned. She had noticed that no matter how exhausted Brock seemed or how long he had been training with Beau, he never stopped throwing everything he had into the physical activities, or stripping a weapon over and over again. The man was almost overzealous in his efforts to improve both his physical state and his ability to soldier on. It was clear that he was obsessive but he never once complained about it. She had been worried for a little while with how serious he was taking this but thought that she might be the only one. Not even Torrin pushed himself as hard as Brock did. It made her feel privately concerned.
"Maybe," she replied after a few moments. "But he hasn't said anything against it and he gets checked out by Liserias after every training session to make sure that he didn't damage anything so I am sure that if he went too far he would know he had to stop." It wouldn't do to have the young quarian worrying about it, even if Aleria wasn't entirely convinced herself.
Ely didn't say anything for a moment as she cocked her head and thought about it. "I just don't know why he is pushing himself so hard."
Aleria couldn't help giving her friend a sly smile. "Why so concerned Ely?" she teased. "Do you feel like he might be someone you have feeling for? Should I be worried?"
Ely jerked upright. "Wha… No! I mean he is a nice… but I don't…" she stopped when she saw Aleria was giggling. "Aleria, don't do that!" she cried. "Keelah! If I wanted to be around bosh'tets I would go back to work with Carlos."
"I know, I am sorry," Aleria couldn't help grinning. "I was only playing around."
"I know but still, it was mean," Ely said, he voice sounding like she was pouting. "And no, I don't feel that way towards him." She fidgeted slightly. "I don't really find humans attractive."
"Your loss," Aleria said lightly.
A bang from below them made them both look down, feeling startled. Aleria's alarm passed quickly as it seemed that the four of them, trainer and trainees, were now throwing cargo crates and doing sprints as part of their training.
"Maybe you would be more interested in Torrin?" Aleria suggested playfully, look back at Ely.
"Aleria, don't do that!" Ely whined, rubbing her arm in embarrassment. "Besides, he is too young!"
"Maybe he is now but he won't be later on," Aleria replied slyly.
The two girls continued their playful banter, the group below them oblivious to their presence.
…
I took a deep breath and looked around the room. This was going to be one hell of an interesting meeting to begin with; I knew that straight away.
It had been five weeks since I had left Earth. Quite a few things had happened since we had left there as I tried to follow Manuel's advice and push through some of the plans a bit faster. Ely had finally found another kirik-class freighter and an asari matriarch-class heavy freight transport that would suit our needs. They had been in the Citadel public dock in the Widow system when we arrived back at the Citadel so I had been able to go see them straight away. Both had been in excellent condition and I had purchased them straight away, getting a discount for fast purchase. I had immediately sent the asari ship to long term docking as I had no idea how long it would be before I had the crew to man the ship. The kirik-class ship I had sent to the salarian shipyards at Mannovai to have two ultra-violet GARDIAN lasers installed, one on the top and another on the bottom. The salarians were not overly fond of selling highly advanced technology like that cheaply and it had been a cool two and a half billion credits apiece for the lasers. The ship would be back in a month, escorted by the salarian defence company that were installing it. I doubted that it would really take that long but I had the feeling that despite the money I had spent, my importance was somewhat near the bottom.
While on the Citadel I had also picked up my three new crew members. Ely and Hectar, mostly Hectar, had taken a new zeal in their background checks after Tevos had tried installing a plant. The three crew members, unknowingly, had had their entire lives dissected in an attempt to find out if they were genuine or if they would betray the team.
Horaxes had been an interesting find. I think it more likely that I had poached him from a company that he had become unhappy with. I had seen some of his work in a rather curious interview. He had actually brought in weapons cases to the interview to show me some of the prototypes that he had created that he had decided to not pass on to his former employer. On hiring him, the old turian had exclaimed 'bless your plates my boy' and gifted me a heavy pistol that he had made that he dubbed 'Foehammer'. It was almost like a mix between a quarian arc pistol and an M-6 Carnifex in appearance which I had taken the liberty of testing out in a firing range on the Citadel. It could fire up to twenty three heavy shots before it overheated or I could hold down the trigger for a charged shot that was almost a smaller version of a shotgun blast, with recoil to match. It could fire four charged blasts consecutively before I needed to let it cool. The grip had been made with three fingers in mind but he promised that he would have it remoulded to my five fingered hand before I knew it. I had already started having him look at what he could do to convert the AA12 to mass effect tech. Horaxes had virtually lit up at the idea of a ultra-low recoil automatic shotgun. It was like seeing a turian version of Trey. We hadn't even started on the minigun or the M-79 yet but I was already looking forward to see what he could do to make them weaponised monsters. He was willing to talk it through with me and take a few of my suggestions on board as we thought of a way to make the weapons work to an acceptable standard. Watching him work was amazing; he seemed to come alive with energy in a way that made him seem as young as Torrin.
Nelathie was a very good find. She had been working for a private defence company that contracted out to the asari military for nearly thirty years; not Armali but a smaller one. I had been very careful with her, making sure that she wasn't a plant from Tevos, the shadow broker, another information broker, asari intelligence or any other interfering parties but she had come through with flying colours. Once I had hired her I had taken her into her new office on the Hidden Enterprise and sat her down for a chat for what I wanted her to work on.
"I want you to work on a large scale orbital platform," I told the asari matron, looking directly into her dark blue face.
She had nodded, looking thoughtful. "How large are we talking?"
"What's the largest you think a MAC cannon can reasonably be made?" I responded.
She thought for a long minute. "I think it would easily be feasible to make an orbital platform with a firing yield of forty eight kilograms without too much difficulty. That's about what we hear the turians managed for their platforms over Palaven. Dreadnoughts only get about twenty five kilograms"
I nodded. "And what is the average speed of a MAC projectile?"
"About 13.5% the speed of light."
I nodded again, looking thoughtful but anticipating her reaction. "Thank you. To answer your earlier question, I want the orbital platforms to be able to launch a minimum of… oh, say… five hundred tons."
Her mouth dropped open and she stared at me in dumbfounded shock.
"Oh, and I want it to go at least at light speed," I finished, as casually as if I was talking about the weather. "Though faster would be better."
She continued to stare at me with a stupefied expression on her face, clearly unable to speak for a long moment.
Finally, I spoke up again, breaking the silence. "Come now, dear Nelathie, as much as I enjoy staring into the contents of your open mouth, I would prefer it if you were speaking first," I chided her mock playfully.
Her mouth finally snapped shut as she blushed in embarrassment. "What you want is not possible," she declared with blunt certainty.
I shrugged non-committally. "Do you know how much this ship weighs when the eezo engines are not activated?" I asked rhetorically. "One hundred and three thousand tons. It travels at more than eight light years per day." I raised an eyebrow at her. "Just because no one else has done it, does that mean it can't be done, or just that no one thinks it is worth doing?"
Her face lost most of its disbelief and instead got a faraway look as she started to think things through.
"It may be possible," she murmured as she started to tap her chin. "With enough eezo, maybe a dedicated supply, separated from the other systems… expensive, certainly, but maybe possible… would need to alter power flow through reactive coils and change it to run through the firing chamber instead of an engine." Her eyes refocussed as looked back at me. "Yes, I think it should be possible to run the numbers. I could even create a simulator but the price to build one would probably be worth buying four or five of the turian platforms, at a conservative guess, as well as being grossly overpowered."
"And how long would it be before you could get the numbers crunched and completed on a project like this?" I asked.
She thought for a moment. "As a completely new design with unknown numbers instead of starting with a known base figure… maybe ten weeks to get everything done and have the simulator programmed too."
"Wonderful!" I exclaimed cheerfully. "I want you to work out the calculations within the next three weeks and have the simulator ready two weeks after that."
Her eyes bulged out. "You want that in five weeks?" she almost yelled at me. "That sort of calculation and engineering is three or four days of checks just for safety. A project like this would be a minimum of eight weeks with a small team."
I waved a hand dismissively. "Ask Ely or Hectar to help you run the numbers if you need it. But I want the completed calculations set done with in five weeks at the very latest. If you get it done faster than that I will give you a bonus of a hundred thousand credits for every day short of that five week time."
Her eyes widened at that and she basically forced me out of her room to start working immediately. Good thing too, she had got it all done in just four weeks and one day, happily accepting the six hundred thousand credit bonus. She was already working on the engine systems such a platform would need to stay in orbit. She assured me that this part wouldn't take anywhere near as long as there was already existing schematics that she could basically copy from the existing orbital weapons platforms in use by the various races out there. The most work would come from trying to calculate shot compensation so that firing the orbital MAC wouldn't knock it out of orbit.
Hiring Misol had been much more straightforward. She had been on her Pilgrimage for three months and had been unable to find decent paying work as a maintenance technician that wasn't likely to be a suicidal job. I had Hectar and Ely run the usual background checks, not wanting a repeat of Sel, but everything had checked out. Still, no harm in being cautious.
It's not like I had been idle in my personal efforts either. When I had been on the Citadel the first time I had met directly with the elcorian ambassador Calyn. He was the same guy that shared an office with the grumpy volus ambassador. I guess not too many people made direct appointments to see either of them because I got one the same day that I called to ask. I had confidently walked into the office and asked how much the elcor were asking for the space dock. He had wanted a cool three hundred billion credits, which was about two thirds of my remaining credits, meaning it was lucky for me that I was in the process of getting more asteroids to sell. I told him that I would pay for that on the spot as long as they were the ones to reconfigure the controls and terminals for standard use so that any three or five fingered hands could use it. I left there not an hour later as the satisfied owner of a space dock and a promise to move it to a location of my choice once it had finished being retrofitted. Apparently, there had been quite a bit of practice in altering elcor controls for standard use so that meant that the whole process could be finished in a little over a month. Seeing as the facility was large enough to fully house ten cruiser sized freighters as well as complete repairs and even be use for construction work on it without remodelling, I was highly impressed. The thing was in all reality a small shipyard. It looked like a giant donut with foldable prong arms that would stick out for ships to dock in. The centre hole was half a kilometre in diameter and was where the construction equipment could be utilised, which was good. I hoped to start construction as soon as I found a hidden place to park it. The elcor ambassador agreed to hold it until I took physical possession of it. He did mention that both Elkoss Combine and Armali Industries were likely to not be overly happy as they had approached him seeking the dock but neither had made noises about an offer, most likely in an attempt to drop the price. Well, snooze you lose because that little shipyard was mine now.
The orphanage was now up and running too. Malaea had taken to organising it with gusto and had made sure that the kids were able to move into it the moment it was ready. I was already hearing how Klara had started learning English from one of the tutors that had been hired to help the kids with their education and she was extremely dedicated, which made me feel a little proud. It was still early days so there were only about twelve kids who were staying at the orphanage all the time but there were another eight that would rock up randomly for meals before scurrying back out to the ducts where they obviously felt safe. I wasn't too worried though; I believed that the longer the orphanage went on, the more the word would spread and then more kids that would choose to live there instead of the gutter.
I had also decided to try and take on some of my personal problems head on. The memory of my freak out when I had played music to myself was stuck in my mind and I realised that it could be potentially damaging to me if I was to have another episode at a crucial time. Because of that, after I finished my work every day I would lock myself in my room and put music on, forcing myself to listen to it. At the beginning I was sitting there with my jaw clenched at the mildest music while I was gripping my bedding with white knuckles. I felt like I had lockjaw after that first night. I was only taking it easy too, listening to classical music at low volumes. Night after night I would repeat this and over the next few weeks things slowly improved as I got accustomed to listening music again. I got better with classical music and moved up to jazz, then modern 'pop' music, then rock 'n' roll, then heavy metal and finally RNB and hip-hop. As I went through each stage I would always start with low volume and move it up until I no longer felt comfortable. Then I waited until I slowly adjusted and increased the volume again until it was at nightclub volumes. After I got used to doing that with the lights on I switched the lights off and did it over again. It wasn't a pleasant experience but finally, after training myself that way for a month, I was no longer having reactions to music or the dark. They were not pleasant things for me but I could bare it without, in my own humble opinion, having any reaction at all, other than a twinge of annoyance. Considering that I was likely to need to go to places with loud music, it was unacceptable for me to be at a major disadvantage before we even began. I doubted that I would get back to the stage where I would enjoy music again but neutral feelings and reactions was better than having a freak out.
I was also doing some serious physical training, pushing myself hard to be combat ready for some of the missions I had planned coming. Once we left the Citadel three days after we arrived I had made Aleria pilot the ship through a serious of seemingly random locations that had happened to include two more of the eezo asteroids that I had been given by Manuel. I had kept that a secret from the majority of the crew, only letting the knowledge of those locations be known to the three remaining original crew members as I knew they could be trusted. I didn't even let them know that we were hunting for resources. As before, I had made sure that Holly deleted all navigation data from our trip except for a copy on my personal omni-tool.
Probably a good thing too. That third location had held Manuel's surprise that I would need to talk about with Tevos. Dammit Manuel! I wasn't knowledgeable enough on my own to deal with this.
The training I had been doing with Beau had been brutal. He had admitted at one point that he had actually forgone standard marine basic and was using the fitness regime of N-school. I wasn't up to scratch with it but I was getting better fast. I had already gone far beyond my previous levels of strength and fitness before I took a three day break to get my gene mods. I had gone with a specialist package that had boosted my strength, stamina, speed and reflexes and had also included a hardened skin weave and bone weave. A side effect was to improve hand stability which would make long distance shooting easier. I had been concerned that I would lose nerve sensitivity but had been assured by Liserias that no sensation would be lost, but actually enhanced in concentrated clusters such as those in my fingers. It was another way of boosting the body's ability to detect danger that the mods had been able to improve. Needless to say, I was happy with that. Now I was stronger, faster and more durable than before.
It had also had the side effect of Beau kicking the training up three notches.
But therein lay another problem. I had made some rather important plans and me looking too muscular and healthy was actually problematic and counterproductive to some of them. So it was time to get to the next mission.
Which brings me to this meeting. I looked around the room as the last of the crew walked in. Holly was currently overseeing our travel back to the Citadel, where I would be having a meeting with Tevos about the eezo we had 'found' and the extra discovery at the third eezo sight. Not to mention the little bonus discovery that would be found at the third site.
"All right, thanks for coming so quickly," I called out, gaining the attention of everyone and stopping all little conversations immediately. "Ok, so the reason that I called this little group therapy session is to give you an update on what's going to happen over the next couple of weeks.
"Firstly, we are on the way to the Citadel. I have some business there with Councillor Tevos that needs to be dealt with which should not take any longer than a week or two. You will all be able to have shore leave until we head back out but I may call on you all at random times to help me out with something. If you want to pay to stay somewhere other than the ship but you can pay for it yourselves. Beau," I said, looking at the military man, "I want to continue with my training on every second day. You don't need to be there in person, just give me some exercises to do and I will do them myself. I am going to mix things up so that I improve on the weapons simulators." I wasn't that bad actually. Having had a gun in my old life had given me some much needed practice. Apparently I was now a little above the average marine in shooting at short and mid-range targets. The only thing that I needed was the live-fire experience that I was unlikely to get in a spaceship for the obvious reasons.
Beau just nodded.
"After we get done at the Citadel, we are going to be making a trip to Omega," I continued. I braced myself for the next part, prepared for loud, angry comments. "I want to buy slaves."
Dead silence greeted that statement as it sunk in. I looked around, enjoying the expressions of the crew which ranged from shocked on Aleria, to frosty curiosity on Liserias all the way to the beginnings of rage on Torrin and Jurt.
"You want to explain that?" Jurt rumbled, his voice dangerous.
I nodded. "Aleria," I said, looking at her. "We are going to need your aunt Selaen and maybe a couple of her friends."
Her face cleared up immediately as she understood where I was going with this. "Of course," she said, giving me a bright smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Torrin demanded. The young turian was looking furious now. "I thought that you were going to be killing slavers, not giving them work to do!"
I looked at him calmly. "Torrin, I can't believe that you would think so little of me," I said mock sadly. "Selaen is a therapist that specialises in helping former slaves reintegrate back into society."
Understanding came quickly to the whole group, judging by how their faces shifted.
"Buying slaves to free them?" Chop cut in, earning a glare from Jurt. "Not cheap. Also, problematic for a human. Unlikely to trust you."
I gave him a broad smile. "You let me worry about that part," I assured him. "Buying slaves is just the first step in a larger chaotic, time sensitive plan. Though I am going to need your help, Jurt, in getting some background information on how a slave market works. Not to mention likely key players and so on."
He gave a grunt that I assumed was a positive affirmation.
"Hectar, I am going to need your help too," I continued. "I am going to need you to work on a specialised tracing program. I will let you know the details as we work on it."
He tilted his head a little and nodded.
"Good," I said. "Everyone else that is planning on taking part in any ground work will need to step up their training; we are going to need it."
"Good," Beau cut in with an evil grin. "Now I can stop taking it easy on you lot."
Hectar let out a groan and even Torrin looked at the older human a little uncertainly.
"Now, we, as the noble company of Shieldstar Corp, are going to be selling a couple of things once we land at the Citadel so when we arrive there, each of you will be going with a little bonus from me. Well, that's if you call a million credits apiece 'little'."
Enthusiastic cheering immediately replaced the serious atmosphere of the common room, blasting the tense air into non-existence.
…
A/N Not going to lie, this felt a little rougher than my previous chapters, which I am going to attribute to the fact that I took a break and need to get back into writing. Admittedly, mostly a filler chapter though it does set up a few things that are to come in the next couple of chapters. It was going to be longer but I ended up splitting it and am going to use the extra stuff for next chapter.
Anyway, please leave a review to help motivate me to get the next chapter out faster and as always Follow/Favourite as you please!
