A/N I don't own… well, you know by now
Well, I am not dead! So, I know that I had thought this was going to be out before the end of January and yet here we are in mid-April. The reason for the delay was that I was working crazy 60 -80 hours a week and between that, life and school (I just handed in a 69-page assignment, not kidding), I ended up being burnt out. I had to reorganise my life and time. I have not given up the stories, no fear, but I am not going to be delivering chapters to a schedule anymore. They will come out when I finish writing them. I know that this will disappoint a few people but the options that I have are these: take my time and do it as I am able and get the story out slower; or go ahead, try to keep the stories going at the same pace, burn out and end up discontinuing any and all current and future stories that I was planning on doing. I actually like these stories and want to finish them so I am going to be working on them, but the chapters will come out when they are ready. I hope you can understand and that you choose to stick with me as I do this.
Comments:
A massive thank you to all who thanked me. Your support means a lot. And I am glad that so many of you seemed to enjoy the little reviews that I put at the end of last chapter. Believe it or not, they were all thought of at the last second. I didn't even think of the doing the krogan review until the day I uploaded it and that was everyone's favourite. More on that in 2 chapters time.
Thisguyyouknow – hmm interesting idea. Might be able to do something like that later on.
Necromancy94 – funny that you say that. This was actually supposed to be my main story. I only thought about doing the other one as a bit of fun and didn't expect either of them to be as popular as they are. But they will both be written.
Guests – no not slash. And as far as the Tevos relationship goes… well, I don't want to ruin anything in that regard. Not saying you any relationships will be with.
MagicznyGosc – yeah 8. And as for pokemon… things are beginning!
Madman123456 – yeah, I get your point about Titanic. And the less said about the Matrix sequels the better. As they had Blasto as their action hero though I think they would be familiar with horrible bad guy shooting.
BJ Hanssen – now that is a majestic mental image!
DahakStaz – well let's see, medigel is already invented but that doesn't mean it couldn't use an investor. The rachni will be addressed later on. The reaper corpse will be brought up. Therum will be looked at later but I have not yet completely settled on how because that is a solid number of chapters between now and then. Virmire… is going to be part of a bigger plan for the OC.
On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 17 - OMEGA
The last few weeks had been rather eventful. I had managed to have successful talks with the elcor about buying some of their heavy metals, such as tungsten, which I was going to use for weapons, as well as regular steel and other components which I would be using for orbital platforms. The purchasing of the materials had taken a large chunk of my considerable wealth but not enough to cut me down to half yet. I was pleased with this because I would rather have spare credits in the bank for any unexpected issues that arose. As it was I had already received a 'courtesy call' from Citadel Tax Division asking me to pay the money that I owed them in accordance with Citadel law. I told them that they would have to wait until I had spoken to my accounting firm before I paid so much as a single credit. They had tried to argue the point but all it did was give me a headache and reinforce something that I had had felt living back in my original time.
I hate tax bureaucrats. With a passion.
I had visited a few and settled on one recommended by the president of my bank. It was a volus run accounting firm and I met with their director, which was apparently an unexpected event according to the secretary. It made sense about thirty seconds into my meeting when the director told me that he was a friend of the volus ambassador. Apparently after I had booked my appointment the director had received a call from the ambassador which apparently went in my favour and I had received a recommendation that all work was to be done at volus government discount. What that meant was not what humans would call a discount. It meant that they were going to funnel my money around all of the legal loopholes so that I was able to get the best tax deductions possible. Seeing as the volus had been a major part of organising those loopholes, they were basically unrivalled in navigating them. All in all, it dropped my tax rate from about twelve percent to less than one percent. I promised that they would be able to round the take it up to a whole number and they would be able to keep the difference as a bonus. So if I paid 0.56% in tax, they would be able to claim 0.44% as a bonus to bring the money taken out as one percent.
One of the more enjoyable things I had been able to do was meet with a Japanese games company that I paid for to come to the Citadel so that I could hire them to do pokemon for me. Call me nostalgic but it just would have felt wrong getting anyone else other than Japanese animators and programmers working on the games. I had taken a good couple of days writing out and drawing, maybe a little poorly but still reasonably clear, the first generation pokemon except for porygon. Somehow I don't think the Citadel community could handle having an AI pokemon thrown into the mix. Still, it left me with a good number to work with and the gaming company, Hashiji Gaming because Nintendo didn't want to bother with an unknown, were very keen to get the battle game simulators working on this 'inspirational use of imagination'. I felt a little guilty about basically stealing this for myself but seeing as there was no one to complain against me for doing it, I figured that I needed to make sure I had a steady stream on income and this was one of the best ways to do it.
We haggled for a while and came to an agreement that I would provide the funding for the initial production, release and marketing while they would provide the avenues for the galactic market for the necessary exposure. I gave them all the pokemon for the first two generations then would give them creative licence to keep going from there and would only throw in occasional pokemon that they could use for the game. That worked out for me because I could really only remember the first two generations worth of pokemon and then saw random ones after that. I kinda got out of it in my later teens and just didn't keep up with what pokemon they brought out. Still, I had two generations worth to give a few years of work to play with.
After all was said and done, I would own seventy percent of the licence and had overall veto power as to creative decisions but would basically leave day to day running to Hashiji Games and their director for the pokemon product. I only owned that much because of all the initial work that I had put in and the fact that I was providing one hundred percent of the initial finance. Hashiji would be providing an almost completely lifelike simulator that would make it feel like you were actually living in the pokemon world. It was fully immersive and interactive to a scale that I could only have dreamed of as a kid. It was one of the things that I loved about living in this universe.
Something that we both agreed on was having a cartoon to go along with the release, just like we had in my universe. Luckily, I remembered the basics of the first season of pokemon and was able to provide the details in short order of how the season would go along and gave over creative licence to the animation company for anything beyond that.
All in all, I hoped to introduce the world of pokemon to the galaxy in a big way and I was prepared to spend a few million credits to do it. Hashiji were happy to do their part. I had a god suspicion that it would be a decent source of income.
"Cap, we're coming up on Omega now," Aleria cut into my reflective thoughts. I look over to her and couldn't help but notice she was a little nervous. "We are being hailed."
"Thanks Aleria," I replied evenly. "Send a request to dock. Tell them we have an appointment with Aria. That should get us in faster. I need to finish getting armoured up."
"Ok, just… be careful down there." Ever since she had come back from finding all of the five remaining asteroids that I had been given from Manuel, she had been happier and more flirty with me. I had to admit, the attention was good for the ego but I was still trying to work out my feelings after everything my ex-wife had done to me.
I gave her a small smile at her concern then turned and headed down towards the armoury. This should be interesting. As long as Jurt didn't start a fight before we got there. Or when we got there. Or after…
Fifteen minutes later I finished clamping the Thunder assault rifle to the magnetic plate on my back, just above the Tornado shotgun that was in its place across my lower back. I had already put my custom Foehammer heavy pistol on my right side, slightly lower than standard where I would be able to draw it fast while standing casually. I had thought about bring the newly dubbed Thanatos shotgun, the renamed version of the AA-12 that Horaxes had been working to convert to eezo technology, but I didn't want to draw attention to it yet. You never know who was watching and something as valuable as a brand new shotgun that was going to be a signature of Shieldstar Armouries would definitely draw attention. That and it still needed tweaking.
I realised that while I wasn't going to be the best out there in a firefight but with my training with Beau, I should at least be competent. I had worked damn hard to get that way going through the simulators on the Citadel, making sure that I was always put on higher levels than I was ready for in an attempt to push me further.
Beau had called it obsessive once but never once did he try and prevent me from doing what I was after. Easy firefights don't really exist, he said, and easy training for them left people dead. I think that was his personal way of saying that he was happy with my commitment to training but I might have just been slightly optimistic. Either way, I had been able to improve drastically in a short amount of time thanks to the training from Beau and the tips from Jurt. They had run me and Torrin for hours on end and done their best to mould us into soldiers. According to Beau, I had already well surpassed any standard soldier having completed basic training, most likely at a level with the commandoes and would keep improving as long as I worked hard and kept taking it seriously.
Jurt had just said that I wasn't likely to be the first one dead on the battlefield. He was encouraging that way.
Torrin had also improved but not to my level. He had the natural turian physical abilities but he didn't have the mind for combat yet. My time in guarding and fighting prisoners had given me a better mindset for situational awareness that being a duct rat had not. Oh, he had been aware of surroundings but it wasn't the same; both Beau and Jurt agreed on that. In the Citadel combat simulators I had managed to get up to the top levels with Beau before I got tagged. Torrin kept losing his shields a little below midway which Jurt kept growling at him over.
Of course, the training and the simulators weren't real combat. That was hammered into us both time and time again. The lack of life and death meant that there wasn't the adrenaline rush, the hypersensitivity that combat gives you until your nerves settle. The first few times are always the jumpiest for any soldier. I had to be aware that what I was going into wasn't something that I can just hit the reset switch on.
It had made me wonder if Manuel would let me do that. I thought I was probably better if I didn't find out.
I headed up to the airlock where my resident krogan was already waiting. I gave him a stare that didn't intimidate him in the slightest.
"You sure that you aren't going to fly off the handle if you see any Blood Pack?" I demanded.
His mouth twitched. "Like I told you before, I can hold back," he growled. "At least for a while. As long as none of them speak to me I will be good."
"Then wear your helmet so they won't know that it's you and won't care," I argued. "You got it painted now so that it won't show that it's you for a reason."
He just made a rumbling in his throat and turned away as armoured footsteps behind me announced the arrival of Beau. Torrin had wanted to come but I told him that I wanted him to stay on guard inside the ship near the airlock in full armour, just in case someone was stupid enough to try and break in. He had complained for a little while but gave in eventually.
"Torrin's just coming up elevator three now," Beau said on arrival as he tucked away his own shotgun. A katana series, heavily modified, if I wasn't mistaken. "Kid's still grumbling about being left on rear guard but he'll get over it."
I nodded and took a deep breath to steel myself. "Alright then, we have an asari warlord to meet," I said drily. "Who brought the flowers?"
That earned a grunt from Jurt and a small smirk from Beau. "Somehow, I don't think that Aria is one who appreciates the usual forms of seduction," the old human soldier replied. "A better gift would probably be the dismembered heads of her enemies."
"That's what I would probably get her," Jurt agreed as he hit the airlock door release. "But then, I am a bit of a romantic that way."
"Captain is ashore, Aleria has command," Holly's voice came over the intercom.
A quick cycle of decontamination and we found ourselves in the docking bay of Omega. There were dozens of people milling around doing odd jobs. None of them ever looked over, which was more than enough to make me feel a little on edge. Normally anything out of the ordinary made a normal person at least look over at it. Then again, this was Omega so people had probably become used to ignoring anything that didn't involve them directly.
"You notice it to?" Jurt said, his voice slightly tinny coming through his helmet's speakers.
"The complete lack of attention people gave us?" I asked. "Yeah. I was just wondering if it was because they were doing it on purpose or if it was because this is Omega."
"Oh, they're doing it on purpose," Jurt said. "Never seen people here collectively ignore us the way that this lot is."
"Maybe it has something to do with the batarian standing over there watching us," Beau said drily, nodding to the exit where an armoured batarian was watching them closely.
I took a look at him. There were no identifying marks on his armour that I could see so I thought it might be Aldo, a batarian that worked for Aria.
"Most like," I agreed. I put a finger to my ear and activated my comm. "Aleria, lock the ship down tight. Things are looking a little murky out here. Make sure that Torrin stays alert and maybe get Hectar up with him too. Can't be too careful in a place like this."
"Sure thing, Boss," Aleria chirped back. I clicked the line off.
"Well," I said to my entourage, "might as well get this over with."
We marched towards the batarian standing in middle of the road at the exit, not caring about the carefully unobservant crowds. Though a heavily armed krogan may have been an added incentive for people to hurry out of our way as we approached.
"Brock Nielson from Shieldstar," the batarian grunted in a neutral tone when we reached him. "Aria's been expecting you. Make your way to Afterlife now. She's waiting in her private booth at the back. Head there; the guards know to let you in."
I just nodded casually and he turned around and left. "Well, you know this place best, Jurt," I said conversationally. "Lead the way. Heads on a swivel though. We probably don't have any friends here."
A pair of acknowledging grunts met that and we made our way through the streets. The game made it look like the docking bay was only a short walk from the nightclub. What the game obviously didn't put into account for the player though was that Omega was huge. The damn thing was nearly as big as the Citadel and looked kinda like a giant ice cream cone with the eezo asteroid sitting on top. Afterlife was almost in the dead centre of the station itself and we were more than five kilometres away.
Thankfully, Jurt knew a public transit car place that the Blue Suns operated near the docking bay that we could use to rent one and park it at another rental space right near the entrance of Omega. When we landed, I realised that it was the same one transit car place that you use in ME2 when you do the Archangel recruitment mission. The mercs that waited us when we landed didn't say anything other than to acknowledge our arrival and then left us alone.
We marched towards where the nightclub was, led by the bright lights, the thumping of the bass and the line of people coming back a long way into the street. The neon lights above the entrance were the exact same as I remember from the game. The only difference was that there was no elcor standing at the door as a guard. But then, seeing as there is still going to be nearly four years until Shepard comes here and we see the elcor guard in the game, there is plenty of time for the large quadruped to get the job. Instead, there was a turian holding an old assault rifle that I didn't recognise and a pair of krogan on each side of the doorway. An older looking salarian was standing in front of the line holding a datapad that I guess meant that there was a list of official queue jumpers. Well, at least as official as a place like Omega got.
We skipped the line and straight into the club, pausing only just long enough for the salarian to confirm that we were on the 'approved entry' list. The cries of protest and people saying that it was 'unfair that they had been there for more than an hour' were quickly overridden by the heavy beats of the dance music as we moved inside.
Strangely, no one had even questioned us about our weapons.
We pushed our way through the dancing crowd. The loud pumping beat was grinding on my nerves a little and found myself unconsciously clenching my fists at the deafening cacophony that made the air feel like it was pulsing. My eye twitched little and my jaw clenched as I fought against the old reflex to panic. I took a few long and deep breaths, more grateful than ever that I had forced myself to get used to music again. If this had been the first time that I was listening to music after I came to this universe, I would be less than useless right now.
I fought hard and squashed the impulses until I felt like I was mostly back to normal before I cursed myself. This whole situation was putting Aria in a position of power before I even had my meeting. I had to get hold of myself before I started talking to her or I had already lost. I refused to let that happen without a fight.
Clamping it down tightly, I took another long, soothing breath which almost fully settled me and, doing my best to ignore the cautious stare that Beau was giving me, continued through the crowd of sweaty dancers and booze soaked partiers and made my way to the stairs at the back of the cavernous room.
The lone turian guard holding his assault rifle in his talons was kinda the big clue that I had found where I needed to go. He did a quick ID check and let us past him. At the top of the stairs was a landing that I didn't remember from the game. There were five guards, made up from a krogan, three turians and a salarian, standing next to a large table that went along the back wall. Behind them was another door that I assume led to Aria's office overlooking the club floor.
"Weapons on the table," one of the turians said. "All of them. Your guards too."
I raised an eyebrow. I didn't remember this from the game. They were very specific with that line about not checking for weapons when Shepard got scanned. Still, I guess she was considered a known quantity and despite whatever intelligence Tevos would have passed on about me, I was unknown.
"I trust that nothing will be touched while we are out of sight?" I asked without moving.
"That depends on what Aria decides," the snappy retort came. "If she is happy with whatever business deal you have then you'll get everything back just fine. If you annoy her too much, well, you won't need to worry about anything ever again."
I snorted slightly at the threat. "Well, you heard him lads," I said, cheerfully. "Disarm."
I moved over to the table and started taking my weapons off my back. Then I took the knives off my belt. Then the one off my boot. Then I looked at the guards stared directly into the eyes of the turian, wondering if I should take the chance, of having my hidden weapons come through with me. This was Omega after all. That being said, this was Aria that I was going to be meeting with. She had a personal relationship with Tevos, who would have already told her about this meeting. The odds were that I would be able to get out of here without any issue. Going from the games and from what I had heard since I got here, Aria was a person who had at least a small amount of honour when it came to deals. She kept her end of the bargain so long as it gained her something. There wasn't much that I had to gain by sneaking weapons into a meeting where I was hoping that she would be able to help out with something. Plus, I had a small token gift, though that wasn't really worth all that much. Just something that might help liven up the club.
I turned back to the table and took the shockers that had hidden in my bracers off that I had added to give me a boost in a melee attack and dropped them on the table with a heavy clunk, making sure that my omni-tool was still firmly attached. I looked over at Beau and Jurt who had likewise finished putting their weapons on the bench and were looking at me with amused stares. I shrugged and moved over to the turian who was staring at the weapons on the bench with a nonplussed look on his face.
"Uh, right," he said, shaking himself out of his little surprised stupor. "Hold still." He brought up his omni-tool and ran a scan over me, then quickly followed through with the other two. "Right, you're clean. Head on through the door and watch your mouth or you might find it getting shot off."
I didn't even deign to give that a reply just walked through the door. Inside was the little room overlooking the club that had been taken straight from the game. The tables and padded lunges on one side on the lower level with a human guy and an asari sitting down surreptitiously in the corner talking to each other. They were not any concern of mine; probably just hidden bodyguards that were to stay far enough away to not hear but close enough to see and respond. On the other side were the stairs to the higher landing with a couch backing up to the large window overlooking the club. The sound up here was actually a lot quieter than it was down below. I guess that the speakers were a bit more directional than most clubs I had ever been to.
I headed up the stairs to where the lone asari stood looking out over the club, wearing a familiar white jacket and black pants of unknown material. I had to say that her stance was impressive. Without even looking anywhere near us she gave off a 'don't mess with me' vibe just from the way she stood. There were a few prison guards I had known from home that could pull that off but not many of them would have been as intimidating as the tall asari woman was.
The fact that she had a little foursome of batarian guards standing around her didn't bother me. After all, they already know that I am free of anything that can harm her. Not like my fists can do much against her biotics.
I lead the way up the stairs at a casual pace, doing my best to look confident but non-threatening. Not that she was likely to feel threatened but I had an image I was trying to portray.
"That's close enough, Mr Neilson," Aria called out when I was about five metres away, barely on top of the landing.
Her guards immediately responded and aimed their weapons at us as we stopped and stood easily. I looked at the batarian closest to me and gave him a little smirk.
"I have to admit, Ms T'Loak," I said, staring the guard right in the face, "I am a little disappointed. Willing to have blood shed so close to such a fine couch when you had dozens of places you could have done the job on the way up here. Such an unnecessary risk."
She finally turned around and looked me hard in the face. Something I had noticed with all the asari that I had come across here is that their faces all had at least a small level of softness, even the most business-like asari, hell even Malitae, had a face that looked like it had some softness to it. Aria's had none of that softness. It's like she had resting angry face.
Or maybe she was just angry with me for my smartass comment. It was a legitimate possibility.
She fixed me with a calculating glare for a long moment before gesturing to her guards and they lowered their guns. The one I had been looking at stepped forward and ran another scan.
"They're clean," he announced and stepped back, switching off his omni-tool.
I raised an eyebrow. "Don't trust your guys outside to do it right the first time?" I asked curiously.
She eyeballed me again. "Some people think they are smart enough to try," she said, her voice frosty. "Some are smart enough to get past the first one. No one is ever smart enough to get past the second."
I tilted my head in acknowledgement but didn't say anything. She looked at me for another long moment before she moved back to the centre of the couch and sat down. She indicated to the couch with a tilt of her head and I moved over and sat a couple of cushions away from her.
"Stand easy, fellas," I said to Jurt and Beau. "We aren't here to cause trouble. Jurt, go get yourself a drink. Beau, do whatever."
They both nodded and moved back down the stairs. Jurt disappeared through the doorway and Beau stood right next to it, clearly on guard mode.
"Smart," Aria said, leaning back into the cushions behind her. In contrast, I kept myself upright. I wasn't going to look sloppy in a first meeting. "Looks like you aren't just an annoyingly cheerful moron."
I gave her a small smile. "Well, not only."
She gave a smirk and looked over the room. "So, I am a busy person, Mr Neilson and don't have unlimited leisure time," she said, tone all business. "So why don't you tell me why the leader of Shieldstar has decided to grace me with his presence. And why," her face took on a new level of hardness, "someone would risk so much as to demand that I see them straight away. People who make demands of me rarely live long enough to see a result that they were hoping for." Her tone carried the threat clearly.
I gave her a friendly smile and sat back a little, trying to look relaxed. "Ms T'Loak, I believe that there has been an unintentional miscommunication," I said calmly. "I had no intention of forcing a meeting on you and merely hoped to be able to talk to you when you had the time to fit me in. So, thank you for clearing what must be an exhausting schedule to make room to meet with me."
Her expression went from threatening to evaluating before she gave a single nod.
"As to why I am here, there are three things that I was hoping to gain your assistance with," I continued, letting my tone become more business-like. "The first is that I am hoping to conduct some business here on Omega and I would prefer to do so with your acceptance, rather than creating any unnecessary conflict between us."
She tilted her head ever so slightly. "What kind of business?"
"Well, as you may have heard, I recently had a very successful showing of old human vids that were very well received among the Citadel races. I was hoping to be able to do something here on Omega for a short time."
"Yes I heard about that," she said, non-committally. "Some of the turians and krogan mercs had made some noise about some of the old war vids you humans made. And there were plenty of batarians who were rather upset about some of the anti-slave slant on some of the films."
"Yes, I received formal complaints from the batarian ambassador over old vids such as Jango Unchained and Spartacus," I acknowledged easily. "They were baseless of course. The vids were initially only open to critics and any further viewing was done by request. I certainly never forced anyone to watch anything."
"Regardless," she cut in, "this is Omega. There are a lot of people here that would likely object to such controversial vids. I am not going to do anything that makes the people go wild. I don't need the headache."
"You, or someone you trust would have the final say on what vids were shown," I said breezily. "Though, I would hope that I am smart enough to not put on something that would be stupidly antagonistic of any of your residents. Plus a little hired security from the blue suns, or your own forces if you are willing, and any such screenings would hopefully be rather tame, by Omega's standards."
She thought about it for a long moment and nodded. "Send me a list of what vids you want to show here and I will have someone vet it."
I nodded. "And of course, if you were to wish to see any of them, you would be more than welcome to have a private and empty viewing for any vid of your choice." Might as well butter it up for her while I am here.
She snorted and looked away over her office space. "Whatever. Next thing you wanted to talk about?"
I took a deep breath. "I want your help to buy slaves from a batarian slave auction."
That got a reaction. Aria's head jerked back towards me so fast that I was sure I heard a crack and her guards, all of them being batarian, were not much better. She stared at me searchingly for a long moment.
"You would never get in," she said bluntly. "The only humans that see the inside of a slave auction all tend to have a nice shiny collar. Even the Blue Suns and Eclipse aren't allowed to have their human members set foot on those planets."
I nodded. "I am well aware of the difficulties involved," I said evenly. "But that wouldn't be your concern at this stage. There is an auction in nine days on the planet Camala in Hegemony space. I know the detail of where and when. What I would need is a recommendation of someone of repute who would be able to let my people go in and buy the slaves for me I would just need you to tell me when such an auction would take place on a world controlled by the Hegemony…"
"So call an information broker," she interrupted. "There is no need for you to waste my time when you could have got a fake commendation somewhere else."
"True," I agreed. "I could have got the information from any old broker or an old spy from who knows where. But why would I trust them? They all sell secrets for money. I would have no guarantee that they would have any discretion at all, whereas you have somewhat of a reputation of being true to your word when you give it. You know as much on this matter as most information brokers are going to have and if we make a deal and you agree to not tell anyone about it, I know from your reputation that you would keep your word. But the information is only part of the problem. Knowing isn't the hard part and is definitely the only part that an information broker could organise. What I need is far more complicated and is why I came to you. You can't buy your credibility through any random broker."
I had at least a sliver of her attention now as she was no longer staring straight ahead but peering at me out of the corner of her eye. There was a long pause that was only broken by the muted thumping of the bass that came through the speakers out in the club proper. The four batarian guards all exchanged a quick look.
"And what proof do you have that this isn't all just some creative Alliance plot to sabotage the batarians and get out clean by making things more difficult for me?" she asked sceptically, looking at me directly again, her face hard and challenging.
I raised an eyebrow of my own and looked at her drily. "Considering how much resources that you have at hand, I would think that even the idiots in the Alliance would have more than enough sense to try and hurt you that way. I could wax lyrical about how I am not a member of the Alliance, that I am a private individual with more money than most and how I am trying to build a galactic organisation. But even that would be a waste of both of our time because I know that Tevos has already told you everything about me that she knows."
Aria's face tightened ever so slightly. All the proof that I needed to know that I was right on that idea. Of course, from the games I already knew that Aria had a direct line to Tevos, and the research from before had indicated that there had been a pre-existing relationship between the two. I even had suspicions that Liselle, Aria's daughter, was actually Tevos' daughter too but I had no way to confirm that without going to the Shadow Broker. Seeing as I wasn't ready to kill him yet I wasn't planning on doing too much with him directly until I had my cards all together.
"And what makes you think I would have such a friendly relationship with the illustrious councillor?" Aria said, her tone mostly neutral but with a dangerous undertone.
I tilted my head and looked at her dispassionately. "Because her contact information is in your list of priority contacts," I said bluntly. "Because the information brokers who gave me the information showed me the proof of such a relationship. But that actually works in my favour for the purposes of our little chat here."
Aria sat back, her muscles still tense. "And why is that?" she said softly, her voice barely audible above the muted dance music.
I gave her my best winning smile. "Because it means you can check on my dealings and know that I am being honest with you. I am doing a lot of work to build something and it mostly happens in Council space. For the small bits of business I need to conduct here on Omega, you are able to know before I get here that I have no history or deception or threatening. Strong-arming, maybe, but certainly nothing that would threaten your position or that of the councillor. I rather like Tevos and am very happy where she is. I have no reason to want her to lose her job and in all honesty think she is doing pretty well. She is, for the most part, a decent person."
Aria's eyebrow twitched slightly. "'For the most part'?"
I gave a small lopsided smile. "Well, she is a politician. That kinda speaks against her." I sat back, forcing my posture to relax a little despite my hosts aggressive attitude. "But in answer to your earlier question: there will be no deaths attributed to me. I only intend to go to the market, buy slaves with real credits and leave. I won't be attacking anyone or starting other fights. If there is any such action it won't be because I did anything."
The hard expression on the asari's face as she glared at me made me wonder if I had pushed too hard. That… was likely unhealthy for my plans of living.
"What payment do I get out of this?" she snapped. "I don't run a charity."
I nodded. "How about I upgrade some of the defences that you have here as payment? How would you like a pair of GUARDIAN lasers to go with you external defences?"
She leaned back in her chair, her hard face now looking at me with an evaluating expression. "I want five."
I immediately shook my head. "Two. But I will make one of them ultraviolet. That is worth at least three. And it guarantees an introduction to the coordinators of the auction so that I can go to others without you being there."
She narrowed her eyes as she glared at me. "Both of them are ultraviolet."
I shook my head again. "Three, but only one ultraviolet. Final offer. Otherwise I just follow your suggestion and go to a broker. And I let Tevos know how… helpful you were after her recommendation."
If looks alone could kill I doubt I would be more than a smear on the wall after that last Tevos crack. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the batarians shifting a little, clearly reaching for weapons but I don't take my eyes of the asari warlord. I know for a fact that she won't accept weakness and flinching or cowing down would work against me more than I would be able to come back from.
"Deal," Aria finally declared. "But you are going to be taking one of my people with you to make sure you behave. You step a foot out of line, you deal with me." She gave me a vicious grin. "And you don't want me to be the one coming to take you down."
I nod my head in concession, ignoring the threat. "Agreed. Send as many of your people as you want. I will be on my best behaviour. I actually don't want to ruin your reputation with the batarians. After we get back from the slave auction, you will get your GUARDIAN lasers."
She tilted her head in agreement. "And the last thing you wanted?"
I gave her a small smile, putting as much charm into it as I dared. "A gift." I reached into a pouch at my waist and pulled out an OSD as I stood up. A held it aloft so could see what it was.
Her brow ridged furrowed slightly in confusion. "What is it?"
I let my smile grow slightly wider. "As I said, it's a gift. For your DJ." I threw it to one of the batarian guards who snatched it out of the air and inspected it. "After all, I think your music could be a little better."
She stared at me with a flat look that still managed to convey threatening insinuations. "My attendance levels would disagree," she said snippily.
"Maybe, but the gift is yours regardless."
She gave a slow nod, not taking her eyes off me. "If that's all, then I need to get around to calling the auctioneers. I will contact you when I have things in place."
I nodded, recognising the dismissal and headed down the stairs. I felt drained, like I had gone three rounds with a saltwater croc. At the same time, I felt a little relieved that Aria had been willing to give in as much as she had. I must have made more of an impression on Tevos than I realised. That was the only thing that I could think of to work in my favour. I just couldn't see Aria sticking her neck out for me otherwise. I wasn't all that fussed with having to pay for new defences for the station but at least it was something that was hopefully going to give Cerberus some trouble whenever they decided to attack the place. Beau fell into step beside me as I walked out the door to the greeting area where my weapons were still waiting on the table.
Now I just had to hope that Jurt hadn't done anything stupid before we went back to the ship.
…
Aria stared after the human and his little hired muscle as they left trough the front doors, collecting their pet krogan on the way out. She was taking a risk here, she knew, but a calculated one. The human had been right though; if it hadn't been for Tevos calling up and letting her know that the human was coming, this conversation would have been a lot shorter, and he wouldn't have been walking out.
Still, she couldn't deny the human had courage. Misguided, irrational and probably straight-up stupid, but the courage was there.
"Bray," she said, looking to her guard. "Wait an hour and give him the details for what you are going to do for the auction. Then let our contacts know that we have a reliable independent buyer who is going to be sending a representative to this auction. You're going to be with them at the auction to ensure that he doesn't do anything that would risk our goodwill."
"Sure thing, Aria."
He moved off and her guards headed to the bottom of the stairs to give her some privacy. She turned to the table and hit a few buttons on the console. Almost immediately, a familiar face popped up.
"So, how'd it go?" Tevos asked, her voice curious.
Aria smirked slightly. "Well, you were not wrong," she said. "Neilson certainly has a quad on him. Either that or he is too stupid to know that his life is going to end prematurely and violently."
Tevos gave a smirk of her own in return. "Sounds like he made an impression on you too," she said, slyly.
"Only enough to know that you want to meld his brains out," Aria countered, her smirk growing wider.
Tevos immediately flushed. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she objected far too quickly.
Aria's smirk grew to a triumphant grin. "Oh wow, you want him bad!" she crowed. "You only deny knowledge and blush like that when you really like someone. I am surprised that you haven't jumped him already."
Tevos visibly fought against the blush and regained her composure. "I wouldn't have had the option, even if I was interested," Tevos said in a stiff voice. "We have only ever had meetings in my office. Besides," she gave her own sly grin, "if I remember you correctly, he has traits that would find you ready and willing to take him and meld with him until the galaxy could swear you are an Ardat Yakshi in disguise."
Aria gave her own grin of amusement. "Yes, I do remember I had that effect on you," she agreed, remembering their days from decades earlier. "You had the cutest little goofy smile for hours after your legs regained their strength."
"So did you!" Tevos injected indignantly.
"Oh, I know, but I have the reputation of being able to have who I want, when I want. You on the other hand, are the respectful prude of a councillor that hasn't had a public partner in more than a century. Even if we both know that isn't true." She paused for a moment. "Have you been with anyone since we were together?"
Tevos gave a slight smile. "That would be telling," she said playfully. Her smile turned rueful. "But sadly, no. Not since our last tryst sixty or so years ago." She hesitated. "How's Liselle?"
"She's good. It's still hard work making sure that people don't know she is mine but no one has guessed that she is yours too. But she is working hard and people know not to mess with her."
"Good." A chime sounded in the background of the call and Tevos sighed. "I have to go have another meeting with the batarians. Keep me updated on Neilson."
"Sure, I'll let you know how he goes at the slave auction."
Tevos froze. "Wait, what?!"
…
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