Chapter 31
Liselle T'Loak felt for the first time in a very long time, comfortable. The humans went out of their way to make her feel welcome, even asking her to assist with shipboard tasks from time to time. The one place she seemed to excel beyond all others onboard the Normandy was during physical training sessions held in the cargo bay. Alliance soldiers had all but begged her to teach Asari yoga stretching techniques after she displayed her grace and agility during their sparring sessions. Even Shepard had trouble landng a hit on her, so every morning before breakfast many of the ship's crew including all of Shepard's marine detachment gathered in the docking bay in workout gear, gleefully waiting for Liselle to torture their muscles and ligaments.
Doctor Chakwas participated as well, secretly beaming at the Maiden, thoroughly happy to see she had not withdrawn into herself permanently. She hadn't pushed the Asari for more details on her trauma, but had made herself available if she wished to discuss it, even just to get it off her chest. Liselle was deeply grateful and sorely tempted to take her up, but she simply wasn't ready. For now, the warmth and safety she experienced onboard the Normandy was enough.
One day Liselle received a letter while visiting with Doctor Chakwas in the infirmary.
"Dear, is everything alright?" Chakwas asked.
"Did I ever tell you about my mother?" Liselle responded.
"A little. Something about the pirate queen of Omega?" Chakwas asked.
"Yes, she runs the station. Goddess she is the station. It's a haven for criminals of all types except slavers, rapists and child abusers. She can be... ruthless to her enemies." She said.
"Oh dear." Chakwas said.
"My father took me off Omega as soon as he realized who she could truly be, and I grew up with his side of the family on Sur'Kesh. By the time mother found me, he'd been gone for decades. At first I was angry with her, but I didn't know she'd been looking for me ever since. My father had raised me to think she'd abandoned me." She said
"That sounds awful, what happened when you met?" She said.
"I showed up on Omega to confront her, and when I arrived, she froze. She had been sitting on that couch of hers, one of her employees, a Turian, had just handed her an OSD with a status report on it, and she dropped it. Kicked everyone out of the room and locked the door, then she turned to me, and fell to her knees, crying." Liselle said
"What did she say?" Chakwas asked.
"She apologized, begged me to forgive her, told me that she had spent the last fifty years looking for me. That threw me for a loop because Father had said she knew I was on Sur'Kesh and she just didn't want to see me. We spent days there talking and crying and shouting. Eventually she explained what she did and why father had left. I was so angry at him, but she told me not to be. As awful as growing up thinking my mother hated me was, he had done it to protect me. She had the same instinct too, after a couple of weeks visiting she shipped me off to Thessia because she didn't want me getting involved in the crime on Omega."
"Do you at least keep in touch now?" Karin asked.
"Oh yes, vid calls every day. It was embarrassing when I went back to finish my education at Serrice, that's a university on Thessia, but I always looked forward to it even if my friends made fun of me. The only time we ever missed ac all was when... well you know." Liselle said, not wanting to discuss her stay with the Batarians.
"Well, is she planning on visiting now that you're safe again?" Karin asked.
"Yes, originally I was planning on meeting her at Omega but she doesn't think it's safe. She's worried the Batarians are going to make a second attempt. The Turian, I was with, Castis Vakarian, he's a high ranking member of the Turian Hierarchy, and we were probably going to ransomed or use as leverage." She said.
"Castis Vakarian? He's the new Turian Ambassador on Earth." Chakwas said.
"Really? That's great! Castis was so kind to me, he got really hurt trying to protect me from the Batarians." She said.
"So is everything ok with your mother?" Karin asked.
"Yes. She's extremely happy that I'm safe, she wants to visit me. I'm going to see if I can find a flight to Thessia after we return from this diplomatic mission." Liselle said
"Well I do ask that when you leave us, please keep in touch. You have my personal extranet address, right?" She asked. Liselle's heart swelled. These humans had been amazing to her, she'd never be able to replay their kindness, even if they did allow her to try.
"Yes, Dr. Chakwas, thank you so much for all of your kindness." She replied.
"Please call me Karin, Liselle we've been over this." Chakwas said with a smile.
Outside the ship, Wrex was giving the Humans and Quarians a tour of their stronghold. It looked as though it had been impressive at one time, but thousands of years of devoting all of your resources on destruction instead of rebuilding took its toll on a place. Though she knew why, Shepard was struck by the lack of children running around. She hadn't had thoughts of having children yet, she was still pretty early in her career, but she hoped one day to adopt. Seeing the female Krogan walking around and knowing that many of them would one day birth a corpse, it introduced her to a new level of combined sorrow and rage. These were good, hard working people who fucked up severely in the past and had been denied any chances of making up for it. She wondered if Humanity would have suffered the same fate had they first met the Council.
"And this is the Arena. Krogan come here to 'work out their differences.'" Wrex explained as they entered a wide open space exposed to the outside. There were old blood stains adorning the floor and some of the walls, and a number of discarded weapons and pieces of armor.
"I'm sure it seems barbaric, but we're a warrior race, and this is a better solution than whole clans going to war over some irradiated chunk of shit out in the wastes." Wrex explained.
"Wrex, you're talking to a member of a race that tried to nuke itself out of existence a couple hundred years ago, you're not gonna get a lot of judgment from us on that one." Shepard said. He grinned. He was liking these humans more and more.
"We also use it for training, anyone can fire a gun and have a good chance at killing something, but we expect our warriors to be deadly without one." Wrex continued, gesturing over towards an open door where two young Krogan came out, greeted each other with a bow, then began wrestling. One was much larger than the other, but the smaller one was smart as well as agile, and he managed to use his opponent's size against him for a while. Unfortunately, the large one was smart too, and after circling each other they clashed, this time the larger one managed to get a good grip on the smaller, then picked him up and tossed him to the ground hard, upon impact the smaller Krogan spat blood into the air, then rolled over and gingerly got up.
"That doesn't look good, where's your medic?" Captain Anderson asked.
"He's in the back tending to some wounded, but that one is fine. Look." Wrex said, as the smaller one got up and embraced the larger one.
"I'll get you next time, Kurg." The smaller Krogan said.
"Keep dreaming, Grak." He smiled, patting the smaller one on the back. Kurg walked over to them and introduced himself.
"Battlemaster, Wrex. May I presume these are the Alliance people you told us about?" He asked.
"Yes, you just put on a good show for them, whelp." Wrex said with no small amount of pride in his voice.
"Thanks, it was a lot closer than it looked though. Grak improves with every fight, soon I won't be able to best him so easily." Kurg said.
"That's good, he'll keep you sharp." Wrex said.
"So, you're a Human, right? Kurg asked Shepard. Though he easily outweighed her by 200 pounds, Shepard was a few inches taller than the young Krogan
"Yes, I am, Kurg was it?" She said, offering a hand. He shook it, having been briefed by Wrex beforehand on human greetings.
"Yes, Kurg. One day I will be Urdnot Kurg, but I haven't faced the rite yet. Do you fight?" He asked.
"Oh, I've been known to throw hands on the odd occasion." Shepard said, grinning savagely.
"Care to see how you hold up against a Krogan?" He challenged. Wrex looked wary, he didn't want to ruin his chances with this Alliance, but he also respected the young Krogan's boldness.
"Oh, can I please please please?" She said, turning to Anderson who laughed
"I assume this is ok with you, Wrex? I'm ok with these two sparring but I don't want to start a war because my XO can't pass up a good fight." HE asked Wrex.
"Fine by me, I'm interested in seeing how you guys fight anyway. Kurg, nothing fatal, you understand? She dies, you die." Wrex said seriously. Kurg nodded, he was smart enough to heed that warning.
Shepard asked tali to hold her things, and began unlatching the clasps on her armor, stripping each piece off and placing it carefully on the ground.
"No armor? Bold decision." Wrex said.
"I'm never gonna match him for strength, I'm gonna have to be fast and agile." She said, stretching out her legs. Tali was enjoying the view of her love in a skin-tight compression suit, but couldn't help but be worried.
"Shepard, please be careful." Tali said, worry apparent on her face.
"I promise, love." She said, kissing her. Then walking over to Kurg. Neither of them noticed the stands filling with Krogan eager to witness a fight.
"Rules?" She said.
"Nothing fatal. First to give up or fall unconscious loses. Remember, there is no dishonor in losing to a worthy foe." Kurg said
"Agreed, so remember that for when you wake up on the ground." Shepard said, grinning.
"Oh I like you already." Kurg said, rushing forward with a punch that missed Shepard by a mile. She responded by swinging around and attempting to sweep the Krogan's leg out from under him, but he was too sturdy for that to work, and soon she found herself on the ground underneath four hundred pounds of riled up Krogan. He landed a solid kick to her abdomen that sent her rolling several feet, but she managed to use the momentum to spring to her feet and began bouncing from foot to foot in a fighting stance. Kurg smiled, and rushed forward again. Shepard was ready again but this time instead of dodging, she feinted out of the way and swung around behind Kurg, landing a solid punch to the back of his head. Kurg fell to a knee, as Shepard stood behind him shaking her her hand in pain. She made a note to avoid any punches to his head again.
Kurg stood and spun around way faster than a creature of his size should be able to move, and grabbed shepard hoisting her into the air, pinning her arms to her side. She kicked wildly at him but couldn't connect hard enough to make a difference. He grinned and began squeezing, Shepard realized immediately that this was going to be a problem as the corners of her vision started darkening. Panicking and out of options, Shepard did the only thing she could. She reared her head back as far as she could and brought it down slamming her frontal skull bone into the juvenile Krogan's still- forming plates. A loud "ohhhh" was heard from the audience at this. Kurg dropped her and staggered backwards holding his head, obviously in pain.
"Shit, are you ok?" She asked.
"Shepard, are you sure you're not a Krogan?" He asked, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs.
"Not the last time I checked at least." She said. He grinned, then rushed at her again, but this time he neglected to pin both arms leaving her right one free, which she used to repeatedly bash his already sore head with her elbow until he dropped her again. Not giving him time to recover, she spun around and landed a spinning back kick to the side of her head, crashing into his temple with her heel. That was too much for the young Krogan, who fell over unconscious.
"SHEPARD WINS!" Wrex bellowed, and the crowd cheered for her, but she barely noticed it, as she ran over to the felled Krogan and looked for life signs.
"Shit shit shit shit shit, are you ok? Please be ok Kid." She said, finally collapsing in releif as his eyes opened and he smiled at her.
"Not bad Human. Pretty sure you're lying about not being Krogan." He said as he got up, and offered his hand. She shook it happily.
"I'm glad you're ok, now I'll be able to kick your ass again later." she said, grinning. He barked with laughter and patted her on the back hard enough to stagger her.
"I'm gonna go get checked out, it was a pleasure meeting you Shepard." He said, walking out of the arena.
"Nice one Shepard. Been a while since that one had a good challenge." Wrex said, shaking her hand.
"Were you serious, about what would have happened if he'd killed me?" She asked him
"Yes. The Krogan can ill afford a war at all now, let alone with your people." He said.
"Never again. Never threaten the life of a child for my sake. I'm not worth it. Do you understand me Wrex?" She said, her emerald eyes burning into his as she spoke with a great deal more authority than she truly commanded.
"You presume to make demands of me, human?" Wrex asked, returning her gaze.
"I presume to stop you from harming a fucking child for any reason." She said, not yielding an inch. Wrex barked with laughter.
"Finally a race worth cooperating with! I swear it here human, I won't through direct action or inaction allow a child to come to harm when it is in my power to intervene, unless they are trying to harm someone else." He said. The child was never in any danger, Krogans could not afford to kill their own young, accidental murder or no, but he wanted to test these people and they had exceeded his expectations spectacularly. It would almost be worth the tounge lashing he'd get from the female shaman later.
"You ok there, Lieutenant Commander?" Anderson asked him, beaming with pride in his XO not only for the win but also in her confrontation of the Krogan leader.
"Yeah, I'll be sore tomorrow but otherwise I'm ok." Any further discussion was interrupted by Tali who rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Shepard's sore torso.
"Keelah I was so worried, he had you in his arms, and you headbutted him? I thought he was going to stomp on you and then you knocked him out with a kick! YOU COULD HAVE DIED! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! Keelah I'm so turned on right now." Tali spouted rapidly at Shepard, who blushed at that last admission.
"Um I'm still standing right here, Lieutenant." Anderson said, stifling the urge to laugh.
"Oh! Oh... Sir. I'm sorry Sir." She said, her normally pale face now glowing a deep purple.
"As you were." Anderson said, shaking his head and chuckling. He wondered if he'd be able to pick a fight with a Krogan the next time Raan was with him.