Chapter 35
"Ori, put that down, you're going to tire yourself out again." Miranda said.
"Yes, mom!" Oriana groaned sarcastically earning herself a stuck out tongue from Miranda. She was right though, moving heavy objects in a wheelchair was exhausting. Miranda dragged in a box labeled "Clothes" and cut it open with a box.
"I still can't believe this is actually real." Oriana said.
"I know I keep expecting to wake up and find out it was all a dream. I expected them to renege on their deal when you tested out of your high school courses and got accepted to MIT early." Miranda said.
"I'm so glad to be out of there. The people here have been so nice so far, even if they talk funny." Ori said.
"They're American, of course they talk funny." Miranda said smiling a soft knock was heard at their door, and out of reflex Ori hid behind a door and Miranda reached for a gun.
"Ms. Lawson are you here?" A baritone voice said from the other side of the door.
"Who is there?" Miranda said, disengaging the safety.
"Lieutenant Mark Rollins, Alliance intelligence." He said, flashing his credentials at the peep hole. Miranda re-engaged the safety and stowed the gun, then opened the door.
"Good morning, I was hoping to check in and see how you are settling in." He said, offering his hand, which she shook.
"Please, come on in. Forgive me we're still moving in and it's quite messy." she explained, leading him to a chair.
"Would you like tea or water?" She asked.
"Tea would be lovely, thanks." He said, looking around.
"You must be Oriana, am I correct?" He asked, smiling at Oriana. She smiled and nodded, but didn't say anything. This alarmed Miranda, Oriana was never shy around new people, unless she had a crush and she doubted the middle-aged man was her type.
"I wanted to deliver these." He said handing data pads to both women.
"These have your meal vouchers and information about the city. Cambridge can be confusing to navigate so there is an interactive map that will lead you to your destinations, you just need to punch it in. Of course if all else fails, feel free to ask a local, they'll probably have ten different shortcuts to offer." He said, grinning. At this Miranda received a quick message that she checked on her omni-tool that caused her to feel as though ice water had been injected into her spinal cord.
"Thank you very much Lieutenant." She said, barely containing the quake in her voice. He nodded and looked around again
"Well I'm glad to see you made it ok. Is there anything you need?" He asked.
"No, I think we are all set. We're going to finish unpacking then I think we'll call it an early night." Miranda said.
"Of Course, don't let me get in your way. Any questions, call the number on your datapads and ask for Lieutenant Rollins."
"Of course, thank you so much." She said, then led him through the door. After he was through, she watched him enter his transport and drive off, then she locked and dead bolted the door, then began furiously sweeping the room with her omnitool.
"That guy gave me the creeps." Oriana said. Miranda had long ago learned to trust her intuition.
"That's because he was lying." she said, grimacing as her omnitool beeped. She flash forged a sharp blade and cut into the wall, extracting a small plastic box with a wire coming out of it. She then crushed it under her foot.
"What was that?!" Oriana exclaimed.
"Listening device. Don't say anything else until I scan the rest of the rooms." She said, and Oriana nodded. Ten minutes later, Miranda came back to the living room to see Oriana looking out the window through the blinds. When she heard Miranda enter the room she turned and looked at her.
"There were four more, they've been dealt with." Miranda said
"Jesus Miri, is the alliance fucking with us now?" Oriana asked.
"I don't think so. That message I got when the creep was here, it was from Colonel Hastings. He was letting him know one of his staffers was going to come by and handle some final paperwork." Miranda said
"And that wasn't' Rollins?" She asked.
"He said he was sending a Quarian woman named Lieutenant Tek'Noonar Vas Earth. That's when I started working on getting him out." Miranda said, massaging her temples.
"Christ, Miri what should we do?" Oriana said.
"I'm going to call Hastings, let him know, we can move forward from there. I don't know who Rollins was but there's no doubt he's working for Cerberus. There was a knock that caused them both to jump and Oriana to shriek.
"Who is it?" Miranda asked.
"Lieutenant Tek'Noonar vas Earth, Alliance Security, are you ok?" She asked, Miranda rushed over to the door and peered out the peephole, only to see the top half of a Quarian head looking at the door with a worried expression. She opened the door and ushered her in.
"What's going on, is everyone ok? Why did someone scream?" Tek asked them.
"We were visited earlier by someone claiming to be from Alliance intelligence. An older man, a head over me in height probably 90kg, thinning gray hair." She said.
"The only one that fits that description in my department is Colonel Hastings himself." Tek said, typing furiously on her omnitool.
"What did he say to you?" Tek asked.
"He checked to see if we were all set, let us know the city was tricky to get around, he gave us these datapads with meal vouchers and maps." Oriana said, handing them over.
"I need to take these, they might be bugged." Tek said,.
"I was going to suggest that, I already ripped four bugs out of the walls." Miranda said.
"Bosh'Tet! Do you still have them?" She asked. Miranda produced the crushed remains of the last one she took care of. The Quarian produced a small probe from her omnitool and began poking through the remnants. After a while she pulled a small black microchip with no serial number or manufacturer marking.
"That's what I was afraid of. This is a prototype for new microprocessor, state of the art fusion of Quarian, Human and Geth designs with a little bit of Rothschild mixed in. Thousands were produced then stolen from a shuttle bringing them to Earth from Rannoch by Cerberus." Tek explained.
"Fuck." Oriana eloquently said.
"Indeed. I can't leave you two here any longer, I'm sorry to disrupt your lives like this but I refuse to believe they're going to stop at spying on you. Gather anything you can't live without and be ready to leave, I'm going to order a transport to come and get us." She said.
"Thank you, Tek, I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come when you did." Miranda said.
"Not at all I'm glad I was assigned. The transport should be here in ten minutes. Go get your things." Tek said, and then walked back to the door to look through the peep hole. Miranda and Oriana grabbed a duffel bag each and stuffed comfortable clothing and undergarments as well as toiletries, and other personal items, then Miranda with drew the gun from the hiding place and handed it to Tek.
"I'd appreciate it greatly if you could keep this safe. It belonged to a friend who helped Ori and I when my father was apprehended, it's all we have left from him." she said.
"Keep it on you, we don't know if they're waiting out there for us to get to the transport." Tek said.
"It's not exactly... legal." She explained.
"I don't exactly care, your lives are more important than adherence to gun registration laws, I'll take the heat if you get in trouble just load it and get ready to move. Oriana, the transport is not wheelchair accessible, I'm going to have to carry you, so be prepared for that." She said.
"No offense, but will you be able to? I'm not huge, but neither are you." Oriana said. Tek grinned.
"In basic training we ran drills with packs the equivalent of our body weight. I can handle it, just hold on tight." She said. Oriana nodded. Soon enough the transport arrived, and the side door opened as two marines burst out fully geared up in armor and wielding assault rifles. They scanned the area and took up defensive positions between the transport and the front door.
"Clear!" one of them bellowed, and Tek leapt into action, scooping Oriana up in a fireman's carry and instructing Miranda to open the door. Tek ran far faster than she should have been able to carrying the woman who was considerably heavier than herself the short distance to the Transport, but as she did the telltale ping of bullets ricocheting off of metal could be heard as a small puff and sparks popped up from the open door. She shoved Oriana into the open space, then retrieved a sniper rifle from a gun rack mounted on the wall, and leapt back out. She loaded a heat sink, and brought the rifle up in the general direction of where she estimated the fire was coming from.
"Miranda, get in there now!" she screamed, Miranda was already running towards the open door on the transport by then, when she saw a minute flash in the distance and heard one of the marines grunt In pain. She returned fire several times but couldn't tell whether she'd hit her target.
"Get in there Lieutenant, I'll grab him." The other marine said hauling the bleeding man up into the transport. Tek jumped in and shut the door, and the driver immediately took off.
"Shit are you ok?" Miranda asked the fallen marine, as she ripped her sleeve off and began bunching it up and pressing it against his wounded shoulder.
"Well, I'm a whole lot better now. How are you doing ma'am?" He said smiling and winking at Miranda.
"Christ Jimmy turn it off for five minutes will you?" The smaller marine said as he rummaged through the storage compartment looking for a first-aid kit.
"Need I remind you again about the importance of not sexually harassing civilians, Sargent Vega?" Tek said, grinning.
"Uh, it's the Morphine." He said.
"We haven't given you any yet, and if you can't keep your mouth shut I won't." Miranda said, taking the offered medkit from the other marine and opening it up, removing bandages, gauze and medigel.
"Sorry, ma'am, I'm a flirt but I'm harmless. Ouch!" He said.
"He's not wrong, Ma'am. Jimmy flirts with everyone, that's just how he is but usually he knows when to quit." His colleague said.
"Do you have any clean water, um, I'm sorry I don't know your name." Miranda asked the other marine.
"Corporal Steve Cortez. The wounded oxen you're saving is Sargent James Vega." Cortez introduced them.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Corporal." She said smiling at him.
"Jeez I'm the one who got shot here, can't a man get a little sympathy?" Vega said.
"I'm saving your arm, if you'd prefer I can just let it get infected." She said. James was silent, knowing when he was beat.
"Seriously though thank you all so much. It seems like Ori and I will never stop paying for our father's sins." Miranda said, tying off the bandage on James' arm.
"Wiggle your fingers please." She asked, and he did.
"Ok, any tingling or numbness?" She asked. He shook his head.
"Ok probably no nerve damage." She said.
"That's some good work, Miranda. Where'd you go to medschool?" Tek asked.
"I haven't. I was hoping to study bio-science at MIT, but it looks like that's not going to happen now." She said.
"Keelah you're not a doctor and you did that?" Tek asked.
"I've always been fascinated with biology, medicine, genetics etcetera. It's one of the reasons Colonel Hastings reached out to us." She said.
"Well there's no way we're wasting potential like that. I'll ask around and see what we can do about setting up correspondence or remote learning courses in the meantime, you to Oriana, graduating high school at 16? You girls are quite gifted." Tek said.
"Yeah, all the best our father could buy." Miranda said bitterly.
"Excuse me, Miranda but that's bullshit." Tek said.
"What?" She asked, flabbergasted.
"So what if your father had you genetically engineered to have better memory retention and reading speed than an average human? Did he sit you down with anatomy and physiology books and quiz you on them? If your achievements are invalid because you were genetically engineered by a narcissistic asshole, then none of my people's achievements have meant anything for 300 years. Every Quarian alive today is engineered to survive the rigors of long term space flight, plus do you think without some tinkering I'd have been able to haul Oriana like that?" She asked.
"Probably not, but." Miranda said.
"So are you saying that me getting her into the transport without being shot is not a worthy accomplishment?" Tek interrupted.
"Not at all, but." She said, but was once again interrupted.
"Then we're in agreement. The tools we're born with mean nothing compared to what we choose to do with them. You are special, Miranda and your engineered genes have nothing to do with that." Tek said.
"Thank you." Miranda said, her eyes misting. She didn't realize how badly she'd needed to hear that.
"So, change of subject. How's Robert, Steve?" Tek asked.
"Good, he uh... We're getting married!" He said.
"WHAT?!" Tek and James both shouted at the same time.
"Yeah, he brought me out to Martha's Vineyard, and after dinner and a walk around town he proposed." He said
"Oh Keelah that's awesome! Do you guys have a date yet?" Tek asked.
"Not yet, we're looking at next Autumn though, it's gorgeous here in New England during the autumn.
"Awesome, man! Once I'm healed up I'm buying you some drinks! Tell Robert I said congratulations!" James said
"Thanks, I can't wait." Cortez said. They spent the remainder of the car ride talking about the wedding, except for James who had finally succumbed to the combination of medigel and morphine, and was noisily snoring. They soon made it to Headquarters, which was an old office building in Downtown Boston.
"Jimmy got winged, but Ms. Lawson here patched him up really well." Cortez reported to Colonel Hastings when he arrived.
"Damn we're going to have to lock that whole block down. I'm sorry, girls I wanted you guys to be able to just settle in and get through college without any hassle." Hastings said.
"Not your fault, sir, you and everyone have been trying to help us." Miranda said.
"What are we going to do now though?" Oriana asked, shifting awkwardly in the wheelchair they had found for her. It was perfectly suitable, but not as comfortable as the one she'd had to leave at home.
"Lieutenant Noonar actually came up with a great idea there. What do you guys think about the Geth?" Hastings asked.