AN: Sorry for the rapid fire chapters today, I've been feeling inspired quite a bit lately. I'll probably slow back down soon.
Chapter 66
Narek arrived on Earth much more quickly than she expected. She had a feeling Aria paid the pilot to step on it, she was so hard to pin down. One minute she's a domineering monster boss and the next she's bending over backwards for you. Narek couldn't dwell too long on that thought however, as she walked into the Earth hospital.
She had been expecting a giant, imposing, sterile looking medical dungeon given that Humanity were only a couple hundred years into space flight, but what she saw was positively futuristic. The hallways lacked the telltale scent of antiseptic common in Asari hospitals, and were reasonably lit withouit being overpoweringly so, and the waiting rooms paradoxically seemed immaculate and comfortable, homey and lived in at the same time. Surprisingly the refreshment kiosk had Asari tea blends, so she was able to calm her nerves a little. She was staring into her tea cup when two children walked up to her and politely asked for her attention
"Excuse me ma'am. Are you sorry?" One of the girls, a human, asked.
"I think you mean Asari." The Quarian girl corrected, giggling. The human giggled too.
"Yes, I am Asari. From Thessia." Narek said.
"Wow, you weren't kidding, Asari are beautiful!" the human girl said, staring at the young engineer in wonder. Narek smiled at this. It had been a very long time since someone had called her beautiful.
"Thank you young lady, that's very nice to say." Narek said.
"Why are you wearing the scarf though? I thought Asari had those awesome head crests." The young human asked. The Quarian girl pinched her and admonished her for being rude.
"Sorry, Gabby hasn't learned her manners yet." The Quarian said
"Bite me, Duural, I have all the manners!" Gabby said.
"OK if you say so." Duural said, then took Gabby's hand and gently bit it.
"Eww, gross!" Gabby said, laughing riotously reaching to wipe her hand on Duural's dress, but she was too quick and ran out of the way, Gabby chased after her.
"Ms. Narek?" A kind woman's voice asked from behind her, she stood and turned and was surprised to see one of the tallest humans she'd encountered, even taller than Shepard.
"I'm Narek." She replied.
"I'm Dr. Natalya Karinsky, it's a pleasure to meet you. Please follow me." The doctor said, turning and walking away. Narek struggled to keep pace with the long-legged woman, she was as tall as a Turian. They made their way back to a private room, and the Doctor closed the door behind them.
"How are you feeling today Ms. Narek?" The kindly doctor asked.
"I'm OK. Nervous, but Commander Shepard told me your doctors may be able to help with my scarring." Narek said.
"Ah yes, I read the file sent over from the medics on Omega. I know this will be difficult, but can I please see the damage?" Dr. Karinsky asked. Narek nodded and unwrapped the scarf from her head. She closed her eyes bracing for a shocked or disgusted reaction, but it never came. When she opened her eyes, Natalya was looking her in the eyes with a warm smile.
"Please tell me when you're ready dear." She said.
"I'm OK, go ahead." Narek said. The doctor walked around looking at the stumps marring the back of the Asari's head.
"Any pain?" Natalya asked
"Some, it gets really bad if I keep the scarf off for too long." Narek said.
"Believe it or not that's a good sign, it means the nerves are intact. I'm afraid this might hurt, hon but I need to check a couple of things. Please tell me if it gets to be too much and I'll stop." The doctor said. Narek nodded, and started at the sharp jab of pain. She gritted her teeth and clamped her eyes shit. Dr. Karinsky prodded a few more times, then squeezed Narek's shoulder.
"I'm done with the examination. Would it be alright for me to apply some medigel? It will keep the ends moist and kill the pain." She asked. Again, Narek nodded. The Doctor squeezed a measure of medigel into her hands and rubbed them into the back of her head. The wave of relief that washed over her brought tears to her eyes. For the first time since she was mutilated, she felt no pain from the back of her head. She struggled and failed to stifle a sob.
"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" dr. Karinsky asked.
"No, no this is the best it's felt since... since then." Narek said
"The Doctors on Thessia couldn't do anything for the pain?" Karinsky asked.
"I never went back to Thessia. The Asari tend to react... poorly... to different individuals. I'd have been avoided and reviled and I couldn't handle that." Narek explained.
"Ah, OK. Well I've got good news, better news, and bad news. Which do you want first?" Karinsky asked.
"Give me the bad first." Narek asked.
"You're going to have to clear your calendar for the next three or four days." Karinsky said.
"OK, the good?" Narek asked.
"I'm not letting you leave here without an ample supply of medigel, you should not have to suffer." Karinsky said. Narek steeled herself, terrified of letting herself hope.
"And the better news?" Narek asked.
"I can say with about 95 percent certainty that I can repair all of the damage." Karinsky said. Narek let out a choked sob, then subsequently fainted.
Shepard stepped off the Normandy, still aching from the work they'd done the day before but seeing all of the slaves that had been healthy enough to not need evacuation milling about freely helped her ignore it. She looked to a west and saw the new present the Alliance had provided her with. Three squadrons of new Inferno class fighters were sitting in formation on the dusty plain west of the outpost. The infernos had been a pet project of Xen and Chambers that now had a very valid and important use in their current campaign.
They were tiny, about a third the size of the standard Alliance fighter, and seated two soldiers, a pilot and a marine or infiltrator. Thanks to a design change in the last stage of development, the compartments were both enlarged to accommodate Krogan. Because of this they could deploy mixed units so that the infiltrators and snipers had infantry support. Furthermore the infernos were equipped with twin turbo cannons and a central hard point that supported either a particle cannon or a magazine of miniature antimatter bombs. The key feature of the Inferno fighters though was the extremely advanced stealth systems. Not only do they feature a smaller version of the Normandy class frigate's heat storage stealth system, but it also featured active camouflage adapted from the type worn by stealth infiltrator units. This meant that the infernos could sneak behind enemy lines, drop a fully staffed marine company and then distract the defenses by assaulting hardened positions.
The inferno fighters were extremely versatile, though short-ranged given the lack of surface area for heat sinks. One creative Krogan pilot however in the simulators managed to turn the heat problem into an advantage by feigning engine trouble, waiting for the enemy to approach to extract him, then venting the heat sinks causing instant third degree burns all over the offending simulated troopers. Shepard was only able to make it halfway through the specification document last night before passing out from exhaustion, however the half she'd read was extremely encouraging.
"Human!" A coarse, high-pitched voice screeched behind her. She turned and saw a group of five Vorcha standing before her.
"Hello, What can I do for you?" She asked.
"You free Vorcha, you no make Vorcha pay or work. Why?" The leader asked.
"We fight slavery because it is wrong. Making you pay for that would be wrong." Shepard said.
"Where you send us now?" The Vorcha asked.
"Wherever you want to go. Talk to Ensign Nguyen over there, She can send you anywhere except Batarian or Council territory." Shepard said
"We will go. You need Vorcha, you ask." the Vorcha said
"I will. Get something to eat first, Try the Dextro steak." Shepard said, pointing at the mess tent. The Vorcha nodded and went to go eat.
"Where'd you learn how to get through to the Vorcha? They're so argumentative usually." Tali asked, slinking up behind her.
"They're not really argumentative, but to them we use too many words. If you are clear and concise they get it faster. They're not stupid but their life spans are comparable to Salarians, so they don't waste time." Shepard said. She reached over and grabbed Tali kissing her passionately.
"Once we can I want to take some leave. We haven't had enough time to ourselves." Shepard said.
"Ooh it looks like you don't just know what the Vorcha want to hear." Tali said, leaning her head down on Shepard's chest.
"So did you check out the new toys?" Shepard asked.
"Yeah, Sargent Goto is going to love those." Tali said.
"I'm going to get her and her squad up to speed on their features asap. I have no idea when the order's gonna come down but we need to be ready for the next push." Shepard said.
"Come on. Take me out to breakfast." Tali said, hooking her arm around Shepard's. Shepard loved times like these.
"Before that though I have something I need to clear with you first." Shepard said stopping. Tali turned to face her.
"I met Vil's mother here, and she claims she's been trying to get in touch with her since she was abducted. Vil thinks her mother sold her to slavers to get rid of her. Vil asked me to meld with her mother to find out if I can see the truth." Shepard said.
"OK?" Tali said, confused.
"I wanted to make sure you were OK with that. You know, what some people think about Asari melding. What I used to think it meant." Shepard said
"Jane, I trust you completely, of course I'm OK with it. Besides Vil and I had a long talk about melding when she explained her condition to me, I already know there's a difference.
"OK. Awesome. I never want you to doubt it Tali, you're the only one that gets into my heart. And my pants." Shepard said Tali grinned and pulled Shepard down for a kiss.
Hours later Shepard knocked on the door of a prefab near one of the Asari shuttle pads.
"Ah. Commander, please come in. I'm afraid I don't have any food or drink for Humans." Tull D'inan said, her voice quaking with nerves.
"Thank you, I'll be fine. I had a chance to speak with Vil. She suggested I meld with you to verify your back story? I'm not sure how that works. I'll admit before yesterday I thought it was all about sex." Shepard said. Tull nodded, and gestured for Shepard to sit down.
"The meld is an integral part of Asari society. It can be sexual, but more often then not its a way of communicating feelings and thoughts more directly than words can allow. As my daughter suggests it's extremely difficult to lie in the meld. I wish I'd thought of this." Tull said.
"OK, what do we need to do?" Shepard asked.
"You need to do nothing, just sit and relax and try to clear your mind. Try not to let your mind wander to anything you don't want me to see." Tull said.
"OK, I'm ready." Shepard said after taking a moment to clear her thoughts. Tull closed her eyes and breathed deeply, when she reopened them Shepard was alarmed to see that her eyes had gone completely black.
"Embrace Eternity." Tull said and Shepard's world view dissolved into a multicolored vortex that drained into a seemingly infinite blackness. Tull appeared before her, though her mind-self was younger and healthier.
"Goddess..." Tull said upon gazing at Shepard's mental construct. In her mind's eye Shepard was a glowing beacon of light hovering half a foot off the ground adding to her already impressive height.
"What?" Shepard asked.
"In the meld we see an exaggeration of our true selves. Some say it's the ultimate representation of what we're capable of achieving." Tull gestured to her left and Shepard saw a reflection of herself.
"Holy crap does my butt really look that big?" Shepard asked, eliciting an involuntary giggle from Tull.
"Sorry, Right, gotta stick to the point. Tull, show me what happened the day you and Vil parted ways." Shepard said. The world dissolved yet again, this time resolving into a small but tastefully decorated house on Thessia. Vil was worriedly peering out the window, and Tull was putting up a valiant fight against the tears that refused to be denied.
"My dearest, he will be here shortly, You have everything right?" Tull asked.
"Yes, mother. Are you sure we can trust him?" Vil asked.
"Turians neither know nor care about your curse, and my credits are good, so I have no reason to believe he'd betray you to the Justicars. Just don't talk to him unless you have to, and don't mention your condition." Tull said
"Mother, that reminds me, where did you get the money for this?" Vil asked. Immediately the image of a beautiful Asari binding ceremony gown appeared behind Tull, out of Vil's sight.
"I took out a loan, don't worry about it dear. Look here he comes. Dearest, I love you so much. I beg you, please find happiness." Tull said, this time weeping freely. Vil joined her and embraced her tightly. They both started when they heard the knock on the door, and Tull watched her heart rip in two as Vil followed the Turian aboard his shuttle and take off. The scene dissolved back into the void where Tull was crying. Shepard wanted desperately to comfort the woman but she still had a job to do here.
"Vil thought you had sold her to the slavers, because she was a burden to you." Shepard said, not unkindly. The void around them took a purple hue and Tull collapsed onto the ground sobbing unreservedly.
"Never. I'd go to the Monastery in her stead before that! I tried to go there in her stead! The Justicars scanned me!" Tull said between sobs. Shepard perceived no deception, but she really didn't know what to expect it would manifest as.
"Tull, who is Vil's other parent?" Shepard asked. The purple hue shifted red and Tull looked decidedly nervous.
"My partner was a Turian man named Aurelius." Tull said. A lavender-skinned Asari faded into existence beside her, and when Tull saw it she began crying harder.
"That was a lie. Her other parent was an Asari named Lun Danara. We hid her parentage because we feared the stigma that comes with asari unions." Tull said. A sudden surge of warmth and a feeling of comfort and acceptance coarsed through her as she looked over and saw Shepard's glowing hand resting on her shoulder.
"Come on Tull, let's go back. I've seen what I need to." Shepard said. Tull nodded, reluctant to leave the feeling she was experiencing now, but slowly dragged them back to reality. Tull was barely able to reacclimate to her surroundings before she found herself in the strong arms of the larger Human woman.
"I'm sorry I had to make you go through that but we had to be sure. I'll talk to Vil and let her know what I saw. All of what I saw. She needs the whole story." Shepard said.
"Of course, of course. Thank you, Commander. Even the chance of seeing her again is enough for me." Tull said.