Chapter 64
The slaver presence was wiped from the outposts attacked during the first offensive push. Demolition teams razed every building to the ground, replacing them with prefabs and civilian housing units in preparation for repatriation by the Batarian populace after the cessation of hostilities. While the Alliance was not interested in expanding is territory during this conflict, it had no intention of leaving any monument to the horrors the poor slaves had endured.
Graveyards were established on each outpost world, and compatible flower seeds had been sent from Earth, Rannoch and Tuchanka, one day the sad reminder of the horrors suffered would become beautiful memorials to the fallen. Temporary military bases were also present, so that some good could come from the disaster that had occurred.
Plans for future offensive maneuvers were on hold until they could find a way to safeguard slaves before Alliance boots hit the ground. Emphasis instead had been put on patrolling the border between Batarian territory and occupied space. All of that was far from the mind of one Commander Urdnot Jane Shepard Vas Normandy as she sat back contentedly patting her distended belly with a happy chocolate-smeared grin.
"Goddess, I think I ate too much of this ice cream." Noruva said, clutching her own belly in discomfort.
"That is a scientific impossibility. There is no such thing as too much ice cream." Shepard said.
"I think you're right, but still, I think I should stop or I'm going to be sick." Noruva said.
"Yeah that would kind of ruin the experience." Shepard said, immediately afterwards unleashing an ungodly belch.
"Holy shit I'm sorry." She said, blushing slightly. Noruva nearly fell over laughing at that. Shepard couldn't help but join in. After the nightmare that they'd just endured it was good to laugh about something stupid.
On Earth, Hannah Shepard was sound asleep when a faint light pulsed from her omnitool.
"Hannah." The distressingly somber voice of Rothschild called softly.
"Rothschild! You're back, are you ok?" Hannah Shepard asked excitedly.
"I'm sorry..." Rothschild said.
"What for?" Hannah asked, confused.
"I got those people killed. The Slaves. They're dead and it's my fault." Rothschild said.
"Goddamnit Rothschild no it's not your fucking fault. None of us could have anticipated what went down. You were actively trying to save them." Hannah said.
"And I failed." Rothschild said.
"We all failed. During war victory is never assured, The only thing you can depend on war for is being horrible and brutal. It's important that we don't let it make us horrible and brutal." Hannah said.
"But what if it happens again? What if more slaves die before we can save them?" Rothschild asked.
"It's not easy to say this, but more slaves are going to die, there's no way for us to prevent that entirely. Their lives are in the hands of monsters that view them as currency, not sentient beings. I know this because of my own people's history with slavery." Hannah explained.
"Should we stop then? Shouldn't we withdraw and just protect our borders? At least then the slaves will live." Rothschild asked.
"You've spoken to enough of the captives we've rescued to know that there are things worse than death to a sentient organic. Even the Geth understand this, that's why so many were willing to sacrifice themselves during the morning war." Hannah explained.
"I... I think I understand. Thank you Hannah." Rothschild said.
"Any time, and Rothschild? It's normal to want to retreat and heal when you're confronted with something traumatic but next time can you let us know you're ok, and let us help if you're not? We were worried about you." Hannah said sincerely.
"Sure thing meat bag!" Rothschild said in his normal sarcastic asshole voice, then disappeared leaving Hannah to go back to sleep, feeling a little lighter than she did before.
"Spirits, that's twenty this month." Spartaus said to Valern and Tevos. They were assembled in the citadel council chambers.
"How many in all?" Tevos asked. Valern twitched but said nothing.
"Fifteen hundred Civilians have renounced their citizenship and moved to Alliance territory since they introduced themselves. Some have been high-value officers, especially Vakarian. I can't believe he turned down the chance to be a Spectre." Spartaus said.
"We need to stop this trend. Fifteen hundred is nothing in the face of the millions that live on the citadel and the billions in its member worlds, but it's getting worse and fast." Tevos said.
"Why bother? Let the traitors run, we don't need them." Valern said. Tevos and Spartaus were both deeply alarmed by this but said nothing, they had noticed a lot of strange behavior in their Salarian colleague and were increasingly careful when sharing observations with him.
"Still, I was thinking offering a living stipend to new immigrants, say a hundred credits a week to get them started?" Tevos asked.
"Preposterous, we need that money to build up the CDF." Spartaus argued. At least some things stayed the same.
"Well what would you suggest?" Tevos asked.
"If it's so important to you two simply lock down the shuttle pads and require authorization for depatures. Problem solved." Valern offered casually. Tevos had to force herself to not gape open-mouthed at that. Authoritarianism was not something she'd expected to hear from a Salarian especially Valern. Spartaus was in a similar state of shock, both knew this was not good.
"Well we're not going to solve this problem in one day. I vote we adjourn for now and reconvene next week." Tevos said.
"Agreed." Valern said, suspiciously quickly.
"I as well." Spartaus said. They nodded respectfully to each other and left, retreating to their offices. The Geth monitoring the acoustic sensors in the room immediately got to work routing the conversation to Alliance intelligence.
"Goddess... How do you do this after eating so much?" Noruva asked as she struggled to keep pace beside Shepard on the treadmill next to her in the Normandy's gym. They had been running for twenty minutes at what Noruva had considered a laughably slow pace, however as time went on the differences in Human and Asari physiology became quite apparent. Humans were marathon runners and Asari were sprinters, for all their physical prowess they, like the other sentient species, could never come close to outlasting a human, even one without Shepard's augmentations.
"Seriously? This is barely a warm up. We haven't even done weights or sparring yet." Shepard said, not even winded. Noruva slowed her treadmill and began winding down to a brisk walk, conceding the unspoken competition with the Human commander. She looked around the gym and saw other exhausted Asari commandos staring dumbfounded at their human counterparts. Even Joker, the famous "Cripple Pilot of the Normandy" a title he actually bore with pride, was swimming energetically in a wave pool that had been installed for his use as well for physical therapy for soldiers recovering from injuries that reduced their tolerance for high-impact exercises.
"Goddess, the Batarians are fucked." Noruva said.
"Well I wouldn't go that far. I have full confidence in my people and our allies, but they're surprisingly tough and they have a massive numerical advantage over us, even with the increasing Krogan numbers. We can't sit back and assume that victory is assured, or they'll have already won. They're bastards, I hate them, but to fail to respect one's enemy is folly." Shepard said, now running at an absurdly steep incline on the treadmill.
Noruva had never questioned the Alliance placing Shepard in charge of this battle group despite her lower rank, the woman exuded confidence and could lead a group of Volus into a charity auction, but little moments like these showed her what truly set her apart. She never failed to keep her feet firmly on the ground, never fell victim to hubris. She was a leader that not only deserved to lead, but that inspired those around her to follow.
"Hello General Noruva, Jane." Tali said from behind Noruva, startling her.
"Oh hello lieutenant Zorah." Noruva said.
"'Sup, babe?" Shepard said still concentrating on her run and only just starting to break a sweat.
"I hope she's not making the rest of us look bad." Tali said rolling out a synthetic mat on the ground and reaching both arms behind her back, clasping her hands and raising them to stretch out her shoulders.
"See what I got to deal with? In charge of a whole battle group and then I gotta come home to my girlfriend who treats me like crap." Shepard said, grinning. She evened out the incline and started to slow down the treadmill.
"You already warmed up?" Shepard asked. Tali nodded.
"Swam a few 'laps' before joker kicked me out of the pool." Tali said.
"Awesome I'll just be a minute." Shepard said.
"What are you two doing?" Noruva asked.
"Tali's helping me with flexibility. Quarians are naturally extremely flexible and nimble, and humans can be but we have to work at it, and Tali has been helping me loosen up a bit. I help her with strength training." Shepard said. Noruva took a closer look at tali and noticed the surprising musculature she sported. While still thin and wiry, she definitely had a muscular definition most Quarians lacked.
"We also help the Krogan out with endurance. They're super strong and surprisingly agile, but they tire quickly naturally. Of course nobody can keep up with these monkeys." Tali said gesturing at Shepard
"Funny, I've never heard you complaining about my 'endurance' before this..." Shepard said waggling her eyebrows suggestively. Tali blushed and smiled, but had no reply, Noruva felt decidedly awkward, and Shepard felt as though she had achieved a victory.
"C'mon Noruva, from what I've read about the commandos I bet there's a thing or two you could show us about balance and flexibility." Shepard said, offering the older woman a way out of the uncomfortable subject matter. She grasped to it desperately and began showing her what amounted to Asari Yoga.
Aria sat back and crossed her legs, her day was drawing to a close, and she couldn't be happier with the state of things. Not only had the Alliance come through and installed a fully equipped and staffed free hospital in Omega, but now every few minutes a notification would pop up on her omnitool that reported the successful repair or replacement of many of the station's ancient components. Shortly after the Normandy had departed a shuttle full of engineers, mostly Quarian but a few human and one Geth requested docking clearance and asked to see her. She asked what they wanted and the leader, a surprisingly tall and young looking human shrugged and said "We're bored, we're here to fix shit." and with that the station's systems were now operating at levels of efficiency that hadn't been seen in centuries.
With all the extra hands Narek had worked like a woman possessed and found the Alliance team to be capable, friendly and happy to work. In fact for the first time she found herself with time to spare so she very politely requested a moment of Aria's time, so she was expected when Bray motioned for her to enter Aria's private room. Bray left the room and closed the door behind him leaving them alone.
"What is it that you wanted, Narek?" Aria asked.
"Aria, I wanted to request leave from the station, maybe two weeks?" Narek asked, clearly extremely nervous.
"Of course, nobody is captive here, you know that." Aria said.
"I know but I do work for you, it would have been uncouth to just disappear." Narek explained.
"I suppose that's a good point. May I ask why?" Aria asked. Narek paled, and looked behind her to make sure they were alone. She then sighed.
"The alliance can help me. With this." She said gesturing to her head. Aria looked at her, clearly confused. Narek reluctantly undid the scarf and let it fall to her shoulders. Aria growled and grasped the cushions next to her on her couch hard enough to puncture the leather with her fingernails.
"Who did this to you?" She said, barely restraining her anger.
"S... Slavers. Before I came here." Narek explained, hiccuping slightly. Aria stood and walked slowly towards her. She grasped her shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes.
"Are they dead?" She asked.
"I.. I don't know. When I escaped I never looked back. I don't know their names.." She said.
"Narek, those.. things.. that did this to you. They will suffer if I ever find them. You are free to go and take your time. Just one question.. Do you remember the name of the ship you were on?" Aria asked, bringing up her omnitool.
"The Demex. It was a converted freighter." She said.
"Thank you." Aria said punching the name into her omnitool. Narek redid her head scarf, and aria lead her down to the docking bay. To Narek's surprise there was a ship already waiting, an Alliance shuttle. Three humans were hauling materials out of it.
"Excuse me, Captain Davis?" Aria said.
"Yes Ma'am. How can we be of service?" The captain said, rushing over to see them.
"My friend Narek needs passage to Earth, to see a doctor. I will pay you handsomely to take her there when you return." Aria offered, Narek went to protest but a glare from Aria shut her up.
"Medical care eh? We don't charge for that. We aren't allowed to, even if we wanted to which I never would." Davis said to Aria, then turned to Narek.
"Go ahead and grab your things ma'am, we'll leave when you're ready. Anything else Ma'am?" Davis said that last part to Aria.
"No, thank you very much Captain." Aria said, she looked over Narek.
"Do you need anything for the trip? As I understand it all alliance vessels have protien sequencers capable of providing Dextro food, you need luggage or clothing or anything?" Aria asked.
"N.. no thank you. I have my bags at home. Thank you so much.." She said, quietly, taking care not to harm the pirate queen's reputation.
"No need, Narek. I don't want my people to suffer at all. Take your time and come back to us when you're ready. Goodbye." Aria said, turning and heading back to her private room. Narek stood there dumbfounded before remembering she had to grab her things and send a message to Tali explaining her decision.
Aria made her way back to her private room, with each step her expression slipped further into a sneer of ungodly rage. She glared at Bray who immediately understood what was expected, he opened the door and followed her in, shutting it behind her.
"What needs to be done Aria?" Bray asked.
"Who is the captain of the Demex?" aria growled at him. Bray paled, and reached unconsciously at a scar on his neck.
"Shit, that's a name I didn't want to hear. Captain's name is Veem, and he's a vicious bastard." Bray said. Aria's expression softened, remembering how she originally found Bray.
"Is he still active?" Aria asked.
"As far as I know yeah, I'll have my contacts poke around.
"What else do you know about him?" Aria asked.
"He was awful. I saw lots of slavers back when I was on Kar'Shan, brutal, blood-thirsty shitheads but this guy makes them look downright benevolent. He liked to hurt slaves, some times for no reason. Cut pieces off of them, he'd preserve them in some chemical and keep them like trophies. Let me reach out to some of my contacts in the Hegemony I might be able to find out where he's operating. Can I ask why you want to know about him?" Bray said, while at the same time composing a note on his omnitool. Aria was slightly unsettled how two of his eyes were watching the omnitool while the other two looked at her.
"He really badly hurt a friend of mine, and I'd desperately like to return the favor." Aria said, some of the rage coming back to her at that.
"Good. Gouge out one of his eyes for me." Bray said.
"Those contacts of yours, would they be willing to sell any intel on the Hegemony?" Aria asked.
"Yeah, most definitely, a lot of them want to buy their freedom." Bray said
"Good, find out how much they want and what they can offer. I think we figured out how we can repay the Alliance for all their help." Aria said.