A/N Auto disclaimer
Hi everybody! So, I know that I said that this would be the action chapter but it is taking longer than I expected to complete for a few reasons, one being that my other half had a kid after I posted the last chapter and I have been given primary carer responsibility. That and this chapter was going to be way too long, so I decided to cut it half. This was ready to go earlier so I decided to put it in so that you had something to read before New Year. However, I put a little something in at the end to make up for it. Hope you enjoy it when you see it.
Comments:
Thank you to all who commented. All reviews, including constructive criticism, are read and appreciated. It means a lot that you take the time to comment on this story.
Seems like the vast majority were fans of the redesign of the AA-12. Glad that so many people agree that it would be a good addition to the ME universe.
DahakStaz – not really sure about the Gungan shield from Star Wars. I don't honestly find that particularly practical when every individual person and vehicle has their own shields or barriers. The other stuff is still being considered.
Jotun – don't worry, there are plans for other things, not just firearms. Can't put it all in at once though, some things need to be spaced out.
Guest – thanks for the advice. I passed all my units this semester so that's something.
On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 20 - MEANWHILE
Tevos sat at her spot on the Council table, waiting for the meeting to start. Uncharacteristically, Valern was the last one to this meeting. Sparatus had been waiting longer than she had. They hadn't spoken other than greeting each other, looking down at their individual data slates as they were each trying to get more work done. Tevos was in the middle of a report on the resocialisation of slaves freed from captivity that she was far more interested in than usual when Valern finally walked into the room.
"Sorry for being tardy," he said, quickly moving over to his chair and sitting down. "I had to verify a few reports before I came."
"Perfectly understandable," Tevos assured him. And it was. Valern was never late without a good reason.
"Well, now that you're here we can begin," Sparatus declared. He tapped a few buttons on his terminal and the lights of the chamber flashed. "The room is now sealed. This Council is now in session. All are in attendance. The first item on the agenda has been requested by Valern. Valern, you have the room."
"Thank you," the salarian nodded at the turian in acknowledgement. "I have received a… rather unusual report from one of our STG bases on Tuchanka."
That had Tevos sitting up. Rarely was a report from Tuchanka received with good news. Usually it meant that the clans were uniting under a leader who needed to be put down for assassination, distasteful as it was. They couldn't risk the krogan having a chance of uprising again.
Sparatus was apparently of the same mind. "Which clans are involved this time?" he said, his tone bored. Tevos couldn't help but frown slightly. Killing may necessary, but that didn't mean that they should be so blasé about it.
"There are thirteen clans involved, the largest of which is Hailot, but it is not what you think," Valern replied. "The clans sent representatives to the STG base with a request."
Tevos' frown deepened. STG bases were supposed to be secret and hidden. If the salarians were doing their job properly then they would never have been found. "They approached the base directly?" she asked, worried. "Were there any casualties?"
"No," Valern denied. "If you will both allow me to finish then I can get through my presentation."
Tevos sat back, feeling sheepish. Sparatus merely clenched his mandibles.
"As I was saying," Valern continued, "the STG agents were approached by the representatives of the clans who submitted a written proposal, asking for the STG to work with human scientists to clone dinosaurs from Earth. They further requested that there be a release of these animals on Tuchanka or another garden world for the purpose of cultivation until the krogan could use them as a test of sorts to prove themselves as warriors."
Tevos felt flabbergasted. There were too many unexpected revelations in this one report. If there was anything that the krogan would have requested from anyone, the salarians would be the last race that the krogan would go to, blaming them as they did for the genophage. Requesting a scientific research project was another step too far. Seeking the resurrection of an extinct species, and the placement of said species on Tuchanka or another garden world for the purposes of having a predator to hunt them was just the cream of the platter.
"Please tell me that this is a joke," Sparatus said flatly.
"It would appear to be completely genuine," Valern said.
Sparatus groaned. "Where would they even have found out about a species that was extinct on the human home world who knows how long ago?"
"Sixty-five million years, give or take," Valern supplied, probably for the sake of accuracy. "It appears that the recent influx of old human vids onto the mainstream market introduce the krogan to them. Jurassic Park, the vid where the concept came from, has consistently been the top vid for krogan viewers for the last two months."
Sparatus groaned again. "Of course, the humans had something to do with it," he moaned. "They have been nothing but a pushy upstart race since the Spirits-damned day we met them."
Tevos frowned again. Sparatus' distaste for anything human was well known and he took any opportunity to air his dislike of them that he found. The clown ambassador, Udina, hadn't done humanity any favours in improving that opinion with his overbearing braying on any issue that was brought up. Sparatus seemed to take it as a personal challenge to shoot the human down, which he usually managed to do purely because the turian was a councillor and the human was an ambassador, whether any argument or complete was valid or not. The human was able to claim enough wins though that Sparatus continued to be annoyed by their races' mere presence on the Citadel and the humans couldn't claim that they were being unfairly treated. Even if some of their better claims were pushed aside.
In those instances Valern typically voted along with Sparatus, not because he necessarily agreed with his turian counterpart, but mostly for the sake of appearing united. Tevos outwardly continued to do the same, but recently she started to wonder whether they were serving the cause of justice by doing so. She didn't air her concerns though because Sparatus was stubborn enough that all it would do would be to cause animosity among the Council.
"The humans are involved but only peripherally," Valern stated, throwing Sparatus a sidelong glance that could have meant anything. "This proposal is completely krogan. Incidentally, the STG commander was unnerved that a krogan could be so polite when asking for something. It served to highlight how much they want this."
Tevos digested that information slowly. The krogan were never polite, unless they were trying to persuade someone to become their mate, a persuasion she had been on the receiving end numerous times over the centuries, unsuccessfully for the krogan involved. Any other time they just demanded and expected people to follow. That was how they worked. Anything else was considered an ulterior motive. But asking for extinct apex predators to be cloned and used for hunting purposes didn't seem to be outside the realm of possibility. "So, what is going to happen?"
"At this stage, nothing official," Valern said. "No doubt, some sympathetic STG operative will look into the possibility to determine its feasibility, but it may be years before anything more happens. The dalatrasses will debate it first. Many of them will likely vote against it automatically just because it is krogan but they will spend a few minutes discussing merits at least. There are not many planets with such a predator having gone extinct. I expect that some scientist out there will attempt it just to see if it can be done. If there are any updates then I will inform this Council."
Tevos nodded and saw Sparatus just shake his head slightly in exasperation. Oh well, nothing that can be done about that now. "You also have the second item on our agenda," she said, looking at her data slate.
"Yes," Valern nodded. "As touched upon earlier, there has been an influx of human vids on the market. None of these vids are less than a hundred and fifty years old yet many of them are far more successful at drawing crowds than even the most popular current vids by any other race. That includes the asari Fornax issue."
Tevos closed her eyes and huffed a sigh at hearing that. She could understand and tolerate quite a few things that pornography producers made but, for some reason, Fornax seemed to bring asari to a new level of debauchery. It often led to issues of harassment from young men and women of other races who didn't know anything about them other than what they saw in the magazines.
"We seem to be spending a lot of time talking about humans today," Sparatus grumbled. "And that fool Udina isn't even here."
"We are talking about them for good reason," Valern shot back. "I have here reports indicating that sympathy and positive feeling towards the humans has risen across all races. The public are seeing these vids and they are starting to side with them over issues such as the territorial disputes in the Traverse, the first contact issues at their colony of Shanxi and nearly every other social and socio-political point that the humans are a part of."
"What?" Sparatus cried. "How could vids create such a sympathetic view of humans in such a short time?"
"Easily," Valern said casually. "The media industry has long sought ways to effectively provoke thought in their target audience. Fleet and Flotilla was supposed to be a way to inspire positive emotions in quarians. Our media industry has rarely hit such a note as the humans have been able to achieve though, except through the discussion of facts. For example, the whole issue of turian action over Shanxi has been re-evaluated by the top salarian sociologists to coincide with similarities between human media depictions of negative first contact scenarios. A copy of this report has been forwarded to each of you."
"Turian intervention was justified, the Council at the time agreed!" Sparatus interrupted. "Opening relays is a violation of Council law."
"Which the Alliance was both not aware of nor signatory to," Valern countered. "Nor does the law allow for the invasion of a races territory with the intention of making them a client race as retaliation."
Tevos gaped at what she was witnessing. Valern never fought against Sparatus on issues regarding humanity. And while he had not been on the Council at the time, he had generally been in favour of the consequences of checking humanities expansion throughout the galaxy in the past. This was completely out of character towards him.
"But let's look at the actions taken over Shanxi," Valern continued, ignoring Sparatus' spluttering. "In human media over the last two hundred and fifty years, across all mediums, there have been dozens of portrayals of first contact situations with other races and humans based from Earth. Note that I distinguish humans from Earth and humans from other worlds. If humans were not depicted as having originated from Earth then they were well integrated into a multi-race society. In media where Earth-origin humans were the humans involved, then more than half of the first contact scenarios ended with violence, including up to the entire extinction of all human kind."
"Trust a race as paranoid as the humans to think that all first contact situations with aliens would involve violence," Sparatus grunted mulishly.
"It's not simple paranoia if it actually happened," Valern snapped back. "Then it might almost be considered prophetic."
Cold realisation settled on Tevos as she heard that. "So, when they met the turians and their first ships were destroyed before any communication was attempted…"
"Their minds would have immediately put them into an aggressive state of being, thinking that it was a valid possibility that their race was going to be destroyed," Valern finished. "This was exacerbated by the subsequent invasion of Shanxi by the turian navy." He shot a dirty look towards Sparatus. "They may well have thought that their worst nightmares were coming true and the continued social aggression aimed at them by this Council and other subsidiary governments have shown them nothing to prevent any negative opinion forming against Citadel Society. The conclusion drawn from the reports was that humans may well have only signed on to become part of the Citadel due to their fear that if they did not the turians would have been given carte blanche to continue their invasion into human space."
"We wouldn't have done that!" Sparatus objected.
"But they wouldn't have known that!" Valern rebutted. "And at that time there was no assurances that could be given to them to convince them otherwise. Centuries of mental conditioning through the media had made such actions a plausible possibility. And ever since they have joined, they have been looked at unfavourably by not only this Council, but the Hierarchy, Republics, Union, Hegemony and the Vol Protectorate governments individually. Only the elcor, hanar and drell have impartial dealings with them. And that is reflected in the actions made by this Council in all decisions regarding the Alliance."
Tevos couldn't help squirming in her seat at the implied accusation. While she hadn't been actively negative towards the humans, she was more than willing to hold off on giving them some of the benefits that would normally have been given. Even though she had argued for them being given an embassy early as compensation for the Shanxi incident. She looked through the report to trying and hide her misgivings.
"And now that the public is looking more favourably towards humans, what happens if people start asking questions about the decisions this Council has made regarding the Alliance? When they decide that we are being prejudice against the humans? Do they just let it go? Many would but not all of them. People would lose faith in the decisions that this Council reaches. We would not be seen as the body of justice we proclaim to be, but as a biased group looking out to settle petty grudges any way we can."
"Petty grudges?" Sparatus barked in outrage. "You call the lives of hundreds of turians 'pretty'?"
"Stop trying to twist my words here Sparatus," Valern growled. "You forget that I am not Jath'Amon or Udina who would rise to such low tactics. You're attempts to undermine every human grievance is indeed petty and reflects poorly on this Council."
Ah, that was it. Valern truly didn't care about disadvantaging the humans, his sole concern was how the Council might undermine themselves by acting out inappropriately. In the past that hadn't mattered but with this increasing popularity of humans and their cultural history, it might be different and Valern was trying to pre-empt the negative image.
"Gentlemen," Tevos finally interrupted. "Calm yourselves! Don't devolve into this crass and accusatory bickering that leads to unnecessary division. We are the Council. We work together to try and make the entire galaxy better."
She turned to Sparatus. "Valern is right, Sparatus. You know that I of all people get tired of Ambassador Udina and his braying nonsensical arguments but even still your attempts to demean the humans at every opportunity are small minded and at the least serve to undermine the position of a councillor. If such actions as you have repeatedly taken do make the greater public, and not just humans, question whether or not they can turn to the Council for mediation and deliberation then we will have completely failed our purpose and many would be justified to call for a vote of no-confidence in us. Do you want that to happen, just so you can still take your little personal joys of belittling the humans?"
Sparatus sat rigidly in his chair, his mandible clenched tightly as he looked as if he would stubbornly go against the joint argument of both Tevos and Valern. Finally, after a long moment, he wilted and let out a whistling sigh.
"I never thought the day would come again when this Council would have to pander to the humans," he said dejectedly. "Giving them an embassy was enough, they still should have decades before they earn that."
"I never said you had to pander to the humans," Valern countered, his voice much calmer. "Just be as unbiased against them as you are to the other races. If the humans are to be denied then an actual proper reason needs to be given, and not the rather flimsy excuses that you have been using."
Tevos ignored their reconciliation as she went through the report. She stopped as she came across a certain name that had been making her life far more interesting than she had wished it would. Brock Neilson. He was the one that had purchased the rights to these old human vids and had organised screenings for them. He certainly was getting involved in a lot of different things.
"Now that I think we have covered the humans sufficiently," Valern's voice cut into her thoughts, "Sparatus, you have an item for this meeting?"
"Yes and, coming on top of this business with the humans, it is a strange one," Sparatus sighed. "I received reports from the Vol Protectorate. They are seeking aid in an increase of their military."
"Curious," Valern mused, looking at the report that Sparatus had sent them. "Is this accurate?"
"That's what the ambassador sent me," Sparatus confirmed.
"This will more than double their current military capacity," Valern noted. "And this request was made… oh there it is. Curious."
Tevos frowned as the skimmed over the report. The vol had always been rather complacent when it came to military matters, being willing to rely on the turians for their defence with only a token bombing fleet to be used for whatever protection their scouting parties would require. The entire Protectorate Navy was barely a hundred and fifty vessels, including supply freighters, hospital ships and scout corvettes. It was smaller than single turian fleet. Now they were looking at an extreme upgrade in military capability.
She frowned as she read further. "Am I reading this right? They wish to have two retired dreadnoughts for retrofitting, or a brand new one?"
"That's what was in the report," Sparatus shrugged.
Something else flashed into Tevos' mind and she brought up a report from Matriarch Malitae. There it was, the vol ambassador had a meeting with Brock Neilson just over a month ago. Could he have been related to this unexpected request? Or was it a coincidence that he was attached to both the items on the meeting agenda?
"How are the primarchs taking the request?" Valern asked
"Not like we can really say 'no'," Sparatus grumbled. "But they are both happy and cautious. If they build their forces up enough then we can spare some of our troops that would normally be used to patrol their space and we can move those ships to the border systems. The slavers have started to get busy again."
And just like that, her mind was back on Brock Neilson and the report she had been reading before the meeting started. The call that Aria had casually dropped the fact that the human was off to buy slaves at a batarian market had shocked her to the core. She had thought that any of those tiny treacherous emotions that had begun to grow had been shattered. Then had come the report from Spectre Bau that the human had organised a group of asari counsellors that specialised in slave repatriation. Then the personal call from the man himself asking for help to get in contact with the salarian and human ambassador and a way to find the quarian fleet. She had almost been ready to send the Spectre after him to stop him. After those calls, she realised how much she had misjudged him. He hadn't been a slaver, he had been there to free as many as he could. She just couldn't understand why.
Then the photos that Aria had sent along had had cleared that up. They had been… disturbing, to say the least. The thing was, she would never have known the extent of his injuries without those photos. Sure, there were a couple of visible scars but nothing in human's behaviour would have led her to think that he had anything worse.
"Tevos?" a flanged voice cut into her thoughts. "You still with us?"
"My apologies," she said smoothly. "You comment about slavers made me think of a report I had received. Apparently, a small number of slaves had been freed and were being repatriated. My office was asked to coordinate with Ambassador Linron and Ambassador Udina to allow the freed salarians and humans to return home."
Sparatus grunted. "At least that's some good news," he muttered. "About time somebody did something about that."
A little hypocritical, Tevos thought with a mental wince. As the Council, they could do something to try free slaves. Unfortunately, that most likely meant going to war which would kill more than they would be able to save. "Yes," she agreed out loud. "The thing that got my interest in the report was that the person had actually spent a lot of credits buying them and then setting them free. After they paid for counselling services."
"I must have missed that report," Valern said, his tone tinged with annoyance. Tevos couldn't help feeling a little smug. Valern hated not knowing anything.
Idly, she wondered if this was how Brock Neilson felt after meeting with her.
"I can forward what I have on to you after this meeting," she said, even as she made mental plans to edit the report. If Mr Neilson was doing something good then she wasn't going to help the STG in curtailing his activities. "Though, there was no name attached to the person responsible, reports suggest that the one doing it may have been human." She couldn't help a sidelong glance at Sparatus.
He just scowled unhappily. "Let us move on," he muttered. "Who's next?"
"Very well," Valern consented. The turian had obviously been pushed too far on humans as it was. "I have the next item."
And the meeting went on.
…
Horaxes adjusted his collar nervously for the last time. He had never thought that he would be in this position. But now that he was, he was just terrified that he would mess it up.
"Relax," Brock said from beside him. "Just remember what we talked about and you will do fine."
"Easy for you to say," Horaxes grunted. "You've done your role before. I have never had to play as a slave owner. The very idea is detestable to a respectable turian."
Over the last few weeks, Brock had been attempting to find a way to locate a particular slave that, Horaxes heard, was actually Jurt's asari mate. There had been talk about letting Jurt organise a raid to go get her back. Admittedly, it was mostly Jurt doing the talking of that but still. Brock, thankfully, had led the idea of trying the less suicidal options first before they went on the attack. Beau had said, and Brock agreed, that the newly assembled ground crews were not yet skilled enough to try a raid on a planet as well defended as Camala. So, Brock had decided that the logical first step was to try and buy the poor matron from her current owner. Which is where Horaxes came in.
When Brock and Jurt went to the slave auction, they had said that Brock's slave owner was a turian. There were only two turians on his current crew that had a possibility of fitting the bill and Liserias would never have been taken seriously by the extreme patriarchal batarian society. Which left Horaxes to play the role of slave owner. While Brock would have been able to act as a representative at a slave market, when dealing with a 'fellow' slave owner, sending a slave to negotiate would be a direct insult.
So for the last week solid, Brock had insisted on helping Horaxes learn how to act the part of a slightly sadistic slave owner. It had to be done to explain the unfortunate young human's extensive scars. They ran scenario after scenario, making up questions that might be asked and chose topics of conversation that they would have to run through in-character. It had been mentally draining to an old craftsman like Horaxes but hopefully it would be worth it. Anything to rescue a poor soul from the batarians.
"Good thing for us that you are not playing a respectable turian today," Brock replied cheekily. "Now, Aria has been kind enough to let us use a room here in her club on Omega to facilitate this meeting." There was a small amount of sarcasm there. Good. The kid obviously knew that any 'favour' from Aria T'Loak was a two-ended varren.
"What did you have to pay her for the privilege of the office?" Horaxes asked warily.
The human chuckled. "Nothing actually. It was payment for some information that I gave her. Though I have no doubt that our illustrious pirate queen will try find a way to extort other favours from me in the future. Luckily, the information that I provided for her outweighs nearly anything that could persuade her to end me if I decided not to cooperate."
"Smart lad," Horaxes replied. At least the human knew how the game was played. Too many people who tried to do anything quickly got in over their heads and were lost in the quagmire of dealing with the less-than-reputables. "Now, I am dressed up, you are dressed down," he looked at Brock's scarred body, with only a few extra fake scars to mar his face, "and we have an appointment here on Omega with a batarian who fancies himself a noble. Shall we?"
Brock nodded and they departed the ship, making their way to the nearest aircar station. They stayed silent for the whole journey, mercifully in Horaxes' opinion. He was nervous, of that there was no doubt, and he used the extra time to silence his nerves. He had only even been as jittery as this on a few occasions in his life. The last time was when his dearly departed wife had told him she was pregnant with their daughter. Spirits, that felt like a lifetime ago now. How he wished that this was as easy as that time had been.
They arrived at Afterlife and made their way through the doors, unquestioned by the bouncers. It was a testament to Horaxes that Brock really had a high standing with Aria that her people didn't even look at him twice as they walked through the doors. Moving through the belly of the club was unpleasant. The music was different to that which he remembered from his younger days but the loudness was the same. For some reason, that he refused to attribute to the fact that he was much older, the volume of the music was no longer enjoyable, but instead was just plain oppressive to his ears. He gave a little sigh as he continued moving through the crowd of ravers. When did I stop being young? he thought mournfully.
They finally passed the guard at the stairway at the back of the club leading to Aria T'Loak's offices. Horaxes didn't fail to notice the turian guard staring openly at Brock's scars. They made it to the top of the stairs and passed into the lower office area where the famed pirate queen was waiting for them. She stared for a long moment at the scars on Brock's chest, especially the large one on his shoulder. She took a step closer and grabbed his arm, causing Brock to flinch.
"Please, Miss," Brock gasped in pain, clearly in character. "This one is not yours to grab."
"Hmmm," Aria hummed thoughtfully. She turned and faced Horaxes. It was all he could do to not flinch away from her hard stare. "You're right on time, Mr Arcemedes. Your other party has arrived and is waiting in my conference room. Just follow Aldo here." She gestured to a batarian guard off to the side. "He will take you there."
Horaxes nodded and started to follow but stopped when he noticed Aria grab Brock by his arm and whisper in his ear. The human didn't visibly react other than the very slight twitch in his left eye. Aria let him go with the hint of a smirk that was nearly hidden by her hard facial expression and together the human and turian followed the batarian guard towards the meeting room.
They entered a small conference room at the back of the club that was obviously where Aria did her business dealings away from the thumping bass the music put out. Already waiting were two batarians, one who was well made up in fine clothing that had taken a sea, and another who was clearly a guard standing right behind him. Not that the guard was really needed; after all, Aria's people were staying in the room to make sure that there were no violent outbursts.
The well-dressed batarian stood up as Horaxes and Brock entered. "Greetings," the batarian said, tilting his head slightly to the left in a sign of respect. "I take it you are Mr Nixus Arcemedes?"
"I am indeed," Horaxes confirmed, making his voice more reedy than usual to play his role. "And you must be nobleman Krashki Ak'kans."
"That's correct," the batarian confirmed. "I must say, it is refreshing to meet a turian with your," he took a brief look at where Brock was standing in his hunched over state, "reputation. Most of your people are not so open when it comes to our cultural practices."
Horaxes held back his snarl and instead plastered on an insincere smile that probably came out as a sneer. "Well, that would be their loss now, wouldn't it?"
The batarian grunted in agreement. "Now, as much as I enjoy my time on Omega, business must come first, and I shudder to think what price you must have paid to hire out her business rooms. Let's get to the reason we are here."
They both sat down at the table, with the batarian's guard taking up a position standing behind the noble and Brock standing right behind his own chair, still in his hunched over pose.
"It has been brought to my attention that you have, among your chattel, a certain asari by the name of Polisa. Is this still true?" Horaxes said, going right to the heart of the matter.
Krashki tilted his head back thoughtfully for a moment. "Yes, I believe that I do have such a slave among my possessions. Though how that would be any business of yours, or how you found out about that one specific slave, escapes me."
Horaxes gave a single nod and deliberately frowned. "There is a krogan by the name of Ravanor Jurt. He… provided me with a service that has left me in the rather awkward position of owing him a debt. Apparently your asari means something to him. He requested her as payment." He gave a negligent shrug. "I told him I would make enquiries on whether you would be open to selling her. Hence, our meeting."
Krashki rub a hand thoughtfully along his jaw. "It must be a rather substantial service that he provided to you for you to buy him a slave. What did he do?"
Horaxes gave a practiced grimace. "Without going into the details, he was in the fortunate position of saving my life."
"So why not just blow him off and get him another slave?"
Horaxes gave a disinterested shrug. "As I said, apparently that particular slave is of some worth to him. And I have my own honour to think about in these matters. I would be far less likely to find willing business associates if I did not repay debts appropriately. While I am not here to threaten you or steal your property," he had to hold down a small amount of bile at the thought of considering a living being as property, "I am willing to see if you would accept payment above market value for her."
The batarian narrowed all four of his eyes in a thoughtful expression. "How much above market value?" he asked.
"Well, going by the information I received from the krogan, for an asari bordering on her matriarch years that has spent several decades in slavery, the going rate would be about three hundred and fifty thousand. I am will to pay double that, and up to a million if it can be done in less than a week and she is undamaged."
Krashki turned his head slowly and looked at Brock's scars openly. "Undamaged huh?"
Horaxes forced himself to leer. "This one is my property and I am not getting rid of him. He is far too useful as a message to all who see him that I will not let the least amount of rebellion among my slaves. But the asari will not remain mine and I will not have it said that I am ungrateful for those who properly provide me a service by halving the rewards to those who keep me safe by damaging their rewards."
The batarian gave me a slow nod. "And if I don't sell?"
Horaxes felt a little uncomfortable as he tried to not think about the poor girl if they failed today. "She is your property and you are within your rights to not sell if you so choose. But I trust that if you have no pressing reason to keep her then you will see the financial position that accepting my offer would put you in. you would have more than enough money to pay for two matron slaves and have some left over to get a few humans to join your number. All for the price that I am willing to pay for one matron."
"Huh, this krogan really impressed you, didn't he? I can't think of any other reason why a fellow slave owner would go to this effort for one particular slave that he isn't even going to keep."
Horaxes carefully tilted his head to the left while he nodded in agreement to the batarian's statement. "Despite what damage I do to my chattel, and the reputation that I have gained from those who I deal with and make no mistake I don't directly deal with many but those I do deal with know my personal tastes, I am quite fond of my life. It is my most important possession and I value it much more than any slave. Even so, I am not going to throw unlimited amounts of money at a krogan to return the debt. So, I will pay you up to a million credits if you will accept the offer for the asari, Polisa."
Krashki stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It is a very enticing offer," he eventually said. "But I hope you will understand if I need a few days to consider it. I don't usually sell my slaves without a damn good reason so I want to think this through before I decide."
"Of course," Horaxes agreed smoothly. "Perhaps I can give a small token as consideration for this negotiation." He gestured to Brock.
His 'slave' raised an arm and activated his omni-tool, linking with the batarian and transferring fifty thousand credits across. Included in the transfer was that specially designed tracing bug that Hectar had so brilliantly created.
The batarian's eyes widen with greed as he saw the received amount enter his own accounts. "Yes, I can definitely consider this… small gift and I shall get back to you within the week."
Horaxes stood, feeling relieved that it was almost over and he could go back to his normal, relatively boring life as a weapons designer…
"On one condition."
Horaxes froze and turned back to face the sneering visage of the batarian noble. "And what condition would that be?" he asked, dread starting fill his stomachs.
Krashki pointed at Brock. "I want to see him hurt."
Horaxes looked at Brock, feeling despaired. He knew that the human hadn't hesitated to shoot himself in the hand to make sure that a mission was successful. Still, that didn't mean that Horaxes wanted to be the one to make him go through more pain. The poor boy had been through enough of that. Still, if anyone was willing to go through pain to get the job done, it was Brock Neilson.
"Unfortunately, the only thing that I have to give such a demonstration," Horaxes said, "is my old combat knife. I trust that this will be sufficient?" He pulled out the wickedly sharp, curved blade that was standard issue to all turian military personnel.
At the nod from the batarian, Horaxes handed the blade handle first to Brock, who looked up at him with a pathetic expression. "Give yourself two, Worm," he sneered outwardly, inwardly hating what he was doing.
To his credit, Brock didn't even blink. "Yes, Master," he mewled, grabbing the offered knife. Without a pause, he reached up and gave two slashed across his left arm in a relatively scar free spot, leave parallel lines of red six inches long on his left triceps. Blood immediately started to run freely along his elbow, across his forearm and dripped off his fingers onto the steel floor. The human cleaned the blade on his pants and returned it to Horaxes.
"Good, now use that medigel and clean yourself up. I won't have you making a mess on the floor," Horaxes barked. The human scurried away to comply and Horaxes turned back to the now amused batarian. "Satisfactory?" he asked, fighting to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
The batarian smiled. "Yes, for now. I will get back to you within the week." With that he bowed and the two batarians left.
Brock took another minute to clean up the spilled blood and they returned to the Aria's main entrance. The first thing that Horaxes noticed was that the pirate queen was staring at Brock with laser-like intensity."
"I take it your business today has concluded?" Aria asked, not looking away from the human.
"Indeed it is, Madam T'Loak," Horaxes confirmed in his still sleazy voice.
"All right, tone it down," she said, finally sending a deadpan look at Horaxes. "The other party has gone, and they took all their minders with them." She turned back to Brock. "Though you do seem accustomed to the role of a slave, Mr Neilson. Are you this submissive in all aspects of your life?"
"You would have to ask the ones that gave me the scars to find that out," he said, cocking on of those weirdly mobile eyebrows. "Not sure if you can though. It might take a while for you to find all the pieces and put them back together. I did rip out their tongues. And eyes. And flay them alive. And cut off their ears, then their limbs. Then killed them all. So yeah, you get on that."
The asari rolled her eyes but Horaxes watched with interest as he saw the slight curve of her lips in the slightest shadow of a smile. "Or maybe you are just too stupid to think of a way to get out of a situation without having to hurt yourself."
The human shrugged. "Work with the tools you have, not the ones you wish for. My tools tell me that you watched the whole thing on your security cameras and heard him demand my injury."
Her face twisted slightly in irritation. "You could have said no."
"Not if we wanted this deal to go through," Brock countered. "I do what's necessary, whether it means I kill, save or even self-harm to get the job done. As long as there is a legitimate purpose for such activity then I will do it. Anyway, milady," he punctuated his words with a deep bow, "we need to get back to our ship and I have an appointment with an angry nurse who will more than likely resort to smacking me in the head again. I thank you for the use of your rooms and as promised I will keep you informed."
"Sure." With that, Aria T'Loak gave one lingering look at Brock and then turned away, leaving both the human and turian to leave the club without interference.
As the finally made it to an aircar that they could take back to their landing dock, Horaxes finally brought up something that he had been wondering about.
"So, what did she say to you?" he asked.
"Hmmm?" Brock grunted in confusion, brought out of whatever thoughts he had. "Who?"
"Aria, when she spoke to you before meeting," Horaxes clarified. "What did she say?"
"Oh that," Brock exclaimed in understanding. "Not much, just that she had made sure that her guards would step in if the batarians went too far."
"Ah, I see. I thought she might have said that she was half krogan, going by the way she was staring at your body the whole time."
Brock chuckled. "Yikes, drawing the interest of the pirate queen of Omega? That would likely end up with me being shackled in a dark dungeon somewhere."
"Oh, I think it is probably, seeing how she was clearly showing that interest."
"Well, if I mysteriously disappear anywhere near her club make sure that Jurt finds me before Liserias does, because if I am still alive, the doc will tear strips off me."
Horaxes couldn't help laughing at that. "Oh, trust me, after the way she grumbled over that gunshot wound in your hand, those strips are about to torn off you for cutting yourself."
Brock swore with feeling. Horaxes laughed. All in all, not a bad day.
…
Excerpts from the Krogan Word Vid Reviews by Ognut Grax
The Rocky series
Sometimes the best thing a person can do is just duke it out. The humans seem to have picked that up in the Rocky series. If you want to see people trying to knock the hell out of each other in what would only be legal on Tuchanka now, go see this vid series. There are different stories in each vid, but the overlying message is the same: no matter what your problem is, it can be solved by punching it in the face.
…
Starship Troopers
You know, my first clan leader used to tell me stories about the Rachni Wars. This is probably how I could imagine those stories taking place. Though it disturbs me a little how some of the tactics the bugs used were the same tactics that we used during the Krogan Rebellion. Just because we and they both threw asteroids at planets doesn't make us as bad as them!
Still, as they say in the vid, a good bug is a dead bug. And we killed all ours! Oh, and the vid is nice and explosiony.
…
Dredd
This. This is how law enforcement should be. None of that wussy CSEC ask nicely crap. Just tell people 'do it or get shot'. If that was how law enforcement on the Citadel was, there wouldn't be any need for the turians. Us krogan would have fought for every single one of those jobs. Hell, some of us mighta done it for free.
Also, anyone out there think they can make one of those guns he uses? If so, I'm putting an order in for thirty.
…
The Human Centipede
What. The. F***?! This is what happens when a vid production studio gives a crazy person too much money. No one had better tell the salarians about this. One of those stupid squishies might think they should give it a try.
…
Battle Royale
You know what? I think that if we pitched this to the salarians as a way to prevent krogan overpopulation, they might consider curing the genophage. It would also let us know who the best warriors from among the children would be. We should probably get on that.
…
Jurassic World
To the salarian STG agents who go through my mail: here's an idea. Stop wasting your time reading about how someone wants to mail me the recipe for pure ryncol and get on this. Those V-raptors and that I-Rex (dunno how to spell it) would be the perfect predator to help control the krogan population that you all fear so much. You don't even have to put it on Tuchanka! Just make it and we will go find it! it would be the greatest pilgrimage of our people. So start working on it!
Please?
…
The Patriot
**In lieu of a review, the writer has merely supplied a list of places where the reader can purchase a tomahawk. He further said that he has bought three.
…
A/N So that was it for this time. Review/Follow/Favourite as you please.
Hope you enjoyed the extra krogan film reviews. I realise that I haven't edited this as thoroughly as I usually do so there are probably heaps of mistakes. Sorry if there is. Hope you all had a good Christmas and have a great New Year. Until next time!
