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Post by Ruinus on Jun 30, 2016 20:20:04 GMT
Finding someone willing to sell was easy. Rela, one of her mother’s oldest friends, often complained about the lack of space, about the accumulating junk, about the lack of buying offers, about the lack of money. Riah knew most quarians, most stupid quarians, kept every single piece of junk they ever got their hands on. It was a habit bred into their minds by the Migrant Fleet, a collection of junkyards strapped with engines floating out in space, to keep every piece of equipment in storage, waiting to be fixed and put back into use. A fine practice often taken to absurd extremes. This was one of those extremes. Riah looked over Rela’s apartment, her eyes wandering all over the accumulated hardware her mother’s friend had hoarded over the years. Much of it was useless, but here and there she spotted somethings that could fetch a loaded credit chit to the right buyers. Like the old Boro Fabrication units before her. An old C-9200 model. If Riah remembered correctly these were collector’s items, sought after by fans of the famous volus engineer Han Kolklan who designed them before passing away. It was damaged and Rela had admitted it didn’t work, but Riah guessed that this machine would easily sell for a couple thousand credits on a collector’s market.
Santi was going to buy it for less than a thousand.
Technically, they were buying everything in here for around a thousand, which meant they were buying that valuable collector’s item for around 24 credits.
Riah honestly didn’t feel bad about this. While 24 credits for an old C-9200 was a complete steal, Rela could never realistically count on selling it for the hundred or so credits it was worth, much less the thousands of credits some collectors were willing to pay. It was the same story with the other junk here. Maybe someone on station would offer reasonable prices for an individual piece of garbage here, or maybe Rela would finally buy a replacement part, or buy a patent-breaker to micro-fab a replacement out of omni-gel. But all of that took time, hunting for deals and haggling. Riah and Santi were offering 1,000 credits here and now. Rela’s apartment would look so much nicer without all this junk taking up most of the space.
“I’ll take it.” Rela declared.
Ah, there it is. She thought. A sale based on desperation.
Still, she didn’t feel bad. Now they had material for the golem and Rela had money. Everyone wins.
We just win more, Riah thought as Santi handed over a credit chit.
“Riah,” the woman spoke up as Santi started loading things up into his cart, “Could we talk in Khelish for a bit?”
Riah nodded, switching on her omni-tool’s translator’s privacy setting.
“What is it?” she asked, noticing Santi look over his shoulder at them.
“He’s the human who made that robot for the volus fellow up on 8th?” she asked in a voice that sounded much more wonderful than the machine translated basic. “Are you sure he’s not doing anything dangerous?”
“I’m making sure he isn’t. Don’t worry Rela, our Ancestor’s shame won’t be repeated by this ignorant child.” Riah knew she had to really sell the safety of their operation. If a single quarian started a rumor that Santi was building AIs… well, Varlus was right to fear the boot the top floors would bring down on the two of them. “He is only using old security drone VI software and the only modifications he makes to their software falls under the Citadel’s VI Modification Laws.” Of course this is all a lie. Riah had no clue how Santi was actually programming the golems, this is just what she assumed he was doing.
Rela scoffed. “The Citadel’s VI laws, what would they know?”
“Well,” Riah began, “He claims to come from a long line of human drone makers.” Another lie. “And humans have several millennia of experience on robot VIs.” Santi had told her so, but she wasn’t sure if she believed it. Didn’t matter though, Rela had to believe it.
“Mmmh,” her mother’s friend murmured, “I suppose that will have to do.” She hummed as she uploaded the credit chit’s contents to her bank account. “What are those humans like? You’ve spent time with them; you must know the boy since you are business partners.”
Riah fidgeted in her spot, finding the question odd and disliking the implication that she is close to the boy. “They are poor and have odd beliefs. Their homeworld is nothing but rubble. Like krogan.”
Rela nodded. “Like us you mean.”
***
“Alright, you’re installing the ERCS into the head…” Riah narrated into her omni-tool, recording the entire procedure.
“Why are you recording me?” Santi shot a dirty look over his shoulder.
“Because I need to know our product,” Riah shot back, “How can I convince my people that you aren’t building AIs if I can’t answer basic questions about these things? Also… maybe I’ll learn enough to help you build these things. And renegotiate my cut.”
“Ha! Ghouls will sooner rebuild their nation.” Santi laughed as he went back to his tinkering.
Riah scowled at the human, insulted that he’d claimed she couldn’t understand his craft. “Just keep working,” she said as she aimed her omni-tool at his work, recording everything she saw. They sat in something approaching non-awkward silence as Santi continued working, though as the minutes turned into hours Riah noticed that Santi’s work was making less and less sense. It had started logical enough, working with the skeletal frame he had already started when she’d returned from Varlus’ shop, but then he began adding parts in a haphazard manner, connecting parts to other parts for no logical reason.
“Why are you putting that part there?” she asked, unable to hold back her curiosity any longer.
“Because it’s heavy.” He answered flatly.
“That’s a temperature controller for cars, what does it have to do with the arm assembly of a robot?”
“It’s heavy,” Santi said, “That means it’ll make this guy punch harder.”
That makes perfect sense. Riah thought. “Are you telling me that you are just using these parts as filler?”
The boy shrugged, “I’m working with what I have. You could make a much higher quality golem with a body that makes physical sense, if I had an old security droid this thing could be of much higher quality.” He made a face as he seemed to think of something. “Even a skeleton would be better than this. But!” he exclaimed, temporarily drawing Riah’s attention away from his skeleton comment, “this’ll do. And yes, I am just using the parts as filler. Anything to make this heavy and durable before we wrap it up in armor casings. Wards and kinetic barriers will give it the extra protection it needs.”
“I’ll pretend I understood any of that and I’ll pretend that you know what you’re doing so that this doesn’t turn out to be a huge waste of time.” Riah sighed, leaning back in her chair before carefully taking out one of her favorite sweets and attaching it to her helmet’s port, a small straw extending to her lips. She spent the next few minutes absentmindedly going through several sweets, occasionally moving her arm to adjust her omni-tool’s camera of Santi and his work.
“Are you overweight for a quarian?”
“What?” Riah hissed.
Santi pointed to all her discarded sweets in her lap. “Your mom mentioned that you’re watching your weight, and that those aren’t doing you any favors. But…” Santi made a face as he put down the blowtorch he was working with. “I really hate to say this, but you look fine. You aren’t any bigger than Katja, my mother. And she’s a nice looking lady too.”
Riah wasn’t sure where he was trying to steer this conversation. “See I see your perversion extends to your “mother”, tell me if all humans are incestuous perverts?”
“What?!” Santi yelled, his face contorting in anger, “It’s not-“
“What’s your point?” Riah cut him off, “Why do you care? I thought you didn’t want to talk to me, you called me a bitch.”
“I was just trying to make some conversation.” Santi ground out, his grip tightening on the blowtorch. He turned away from her and continued working. Riah noticed he seemed to be taking out his anger on the piece of metal he was carving symbols into.
“So your idea of conversation is insulting a woman about her weight?” Riah jabbed back, happy that she was able to upset him so easily. “And whatever thoughts you think about your mother’s figure, if she were a quarian she’d be a bit on the thicker side. Same as me. But that’s not the same as being overweight.”
They sat in silence again, the only sounds coming from the blowtorch in Santi’s hand.
“You’re right.” The human said, drawing Riah’s attention to him again. “Your mother is very slim and hippy.”
Riah wasn’t sure she appreciated his comments. “I’d prefer if you weren’t looking at my mother like that,” she began, “though yes, my mother is admired among our little quarian community on station.”
Another long stretch of silence.
“Christ, I expected you to be a lot friendlier after I paid back your mother. I thought the only reason you were this much of a bitch to me and my mother was because we were living off of your generosity. But you still haven’t changed. I have no clue how you’re your mother’s daughter. She’s so nice and you… Christ, I’ve met nicer succubae.”
“Yeah,” Riah agreed, finding his anger enjoyable, “but at the moment you need me and unfortunately I need you. Why? Money. Lots of it.”
“I have half a mind to give up on this deal of yours and try to strike it out on my own. Varlus didn’t seem to be worried about any potential AI scare once I explained how it works to him. But our mothers are friends with each other, hell I’m friends with your mother too! We’d rather not lose that friendship.” He finished with carving the symbols into the plates scattered around him, and pointed off to another tool beside Riah. “Hand me that.”
“No please?” Riah asked, grabbing the tool in question and handing it to him.
“No.” Santi shrugged as he began to attack the carved pieces of plating, tiles and other pieces to the body of the machine, forming a salvaged armor of sorts.
“Why my mother likes you so much is beyond me,” Riah muttered. “A boy who doesn’t even say please and thank you when a lady hands him something.”
“When you stop being a bitch and turn into a lady I’ll give niceties.”
“Ah, I see you two are getting along wonderfully.” Katja called from the door, neither of them having heard her come in. Riah straightened up as the woman walked in with that elegant walk of hers, she didn’t care what the boy thought of her, but it was true that his so-called mother and her own were good friends. “Almost done with this one?”
“Yeah.” Santi replied, stepping away from the golem and admiring his work. Riah thought it didn’t look as impressive as the one Varlus had. In fact, it seemed quite flimsy. “It just needs some Anima and boom, we’re ready to sell.”
They both turned to Riah, who raised an eyebrow at them, “Alright!” she cheered, eager to finally be done for the day. Work was exhausting. “So let’s do this thing and let’s get to making money.”
Santi shrugged, while Katja turned to talk to her. “Dear,” she began with her infuriating nickname, “It’s just that an Anima infusion is… well, it involves blood. Are you sure you want to stay around for this?”
Riah considered the woman’s words. It was true that the so-called “blood magic” had startled her when she first saw it and she’d rather avoid any further experiences with the Gaian magic, but what if they were lying to her? She checked her recording on her omni-tool, 4 hours of recording. Riah admitted that most of it seemed useless since Santi’s construction of the golem had seemed to be without any logic but she did want to keep it fully intact. Maybe she could sell the information one day? More importantly it was true that she needed to know her product to sell it properly, that wasn’t a lie that she told Santi. No matter how much distaste she held for the two humans, she was taking this seriously and wanted to make money.
And Gaian magic was interesting.
She could admit to that. Getting past all the Gaian pseudo-religious nonsense that permeated all of the scant information found on them in the extra-net, it was clear that Gaian magic actually had some power behind it. It wasn’t biotics, or so the speculation was starting to suggest.
And she didn’t want to seem like a scared little girl running at the first sight of blood.
“I can handle a little bit of blood,” Riah stated.
Katja looked to Santi, who shrugged and began to take off his shirt. Riah refrained some asking what he was doing and instead noted how Katja stood behind him and held on to him and lowered her head to whisper something into his ear. Sant grabbed one of Katja’s hands and replied something in a hushed voice. The scene before her caused Riah to look away, her helmet heating up. She was sure that they were lying about their relationship unless human culture really was as perverted as she’d suggested to Santi.
“Alright,” Santi’s voice drew her eyes back to him, still held by Katja. “This will get bloody, try not to freak out. In fact, go stand over there,” he pointed off to the far end of the room,” if you have to stay. Everyone ready?”
“Of course dear,” Katja answered.
“Yes, let’s get this over with,” Riah said once she’d reached the spot where Santi had pointed to.
Then Santi’s wrists exploded.
Riah jumped in terror, quarian curses leaving her tongue as a torrent of blood sprayed all over the prone golem, Santi’s face contorting in pain as Katja held on to him, her own hands glowing where they touched Santi’s skin. Riah asked what was going on several times, though when neither of them answered she gave up trying to find answers. She tried to calm down but the sight of so much blood shooting out of the boy’s two wrists was making her head spin and stomach churn, she felt the sweets she had earlier rise up in her throat. She could hear the blood spraying out of his body. She saw the holes in his hand widen and widen, slivers of skin being shredded off by the force of the torrent and hitting the golem. Just when Riah thought the boy would die from blood loss the stream of red liquid stopped abruptly. Before she could stop herself she ran over to the two humans, spurts of blood still falling from Santi’s hands.
“Keelah! What was that? Is he alright?!” she asked, real terror in her voice, her eyes drawn to the wounds on Santi’s arms, to the skin knitting itself back together.
“Shhhhh,” Katja whispered, cradling a pale Santi in her arms. “Let me concentrate dear.” Her hands glowed as she gently rocked Santi back and forth.
Riah jumped again, another curse from her mouth as the golem next to her growled. A low rumble coming from its chest as it stood up to its full height. Blood dripped from its body; small scraps of flesh fell off of its chassis. Riah looked down and saw a giant puddle of blood and gore on the ground; it was warm against her feet. She yelped, all pretense of looking brave before the humans failing. and jumped backwards, landing on the couch she had been sitting on and lifting her feet off of the ground.
When she looked back over to Santi she saw his eyes flutter open, the color returning to his body and his wounds nearly sealed up. “Oh, you got some on your feet,” he whispered and gestured with his hands, all the blood that clung to Riah’s feet flying off of her and splashing back into the pool of blood around Santi and Katja.
“Are you ok dear?” Katja asked, a second passing before Riah noticed she was talking to her.
“Me? What about him!?” she pointed where his wounds should be.
“He’ll be fine,” Katja said, playing with Santi’s hair, “He’s just exhausted, just needs to sleep for a bit. But are you fine? Do you need to lay down?”
“No, no, no.” Riah shook her head. “No, I’m fine.” She finished the recording program on her omni-tool, “I’m alright. Ha! Keelah, I'm so alright. But if you don’t mind,” she gestured to the couch she was on. “All this hard work is exhausting, can I just nap here for a bit?” she asked.
Katja smiled warmly at her, “Go ahead dear.”
Riah fainted.
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Post by Ruinus on Jun 30, 2016 20:21:17 GMT
Riah hummed happily as her favorite musical album played over her internal helmet speakers, her favorite blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she lovingly gazed at her bank account statement. Whatever else could be said about Santi, her relationship with him had resulted in amazing new heights of financial success. They’d made in a few sales what her mother would make in two years of work, and even after she’d shared her credits with her mother and paid off any of her remaining debt Riah still had a few thousand left for herself. Of that money Riah set aside most of those credits for tickets off of this station for her and her mother and a bit of cushion money to start a new life with.
After all that she still had a bit of spending money.
She idly thought about completely overhauling her omni-tool or even stocking up on the previous games she’d missed out on, but pushed those thoughts from her minds when she saw what time it was.
“I’m going out,” she called to her mother as she got up and stretched, wiggling her toes as she did so.
“Mmh?” her mother seemed distracted, absentmindedly stirring her pot. “Be careful dear,” she added. “Say hello to Santi for me.”
“Sure,” Riah responded, rolling her eyes at the affection her mother showed to the human. While she had begun to view him as tolerable, her mother showered much more affection on the two humans than was necessary. “Do you want me to pick up anything on the way back?” she asked before heading out the door.
She heard her mother’s ladle continue clinking around the edges. “Get me some vanis root, Volera sells some, and it’s on the way. Get around three bundles, Volera shouldn’t charge you since I did a favor for her a few days ago.”
“Vanis root, three bundles.” Riah nodded, opening up her omni-tool and writing in a reminder for later. “Ok, I’m off to make us some money!”
Outside she saw Katja, who caught the tail end of her sentence and smiled at her. “Hello dearie,” she said in her sweetly lyrical voice. “Santi already went up ahead, you could catch him on the way there.”
As if I would. Riah thought while smiling, no reason to alienate her eezo mine’s mother and potentially cause troubles with him.
“Is your mother in?” The woman asked as she opened her front door and set some bags directly inside her living unit, Riah nodded. “Oh good… by the way is this vanis root?” she asked, opening one of the several bags she had been carrying and revealing the slightly blue herbs.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Riah answered before frowning. If Kantja already had some vanis root then why had her mother asked her to pick up some? She debated going back in and asking her mother, but that would mean spending more time near the human woman, so decided against it. Instead she simply left the door open, the human woman smiling, saying something and taking a few of her bags with her as she walked past Riah and greeted her mother, their conversation becoming muffled as the front door closed behind her.
As she walked through the hallway she saw Saestzea, the bitch, hanging out in front of her apartment. They both made eye contact, but the asari went back to playing with some children that ran around her. Riah glanced down at them as she passed by, stepping away from one of the dirty looking turian children when started running around her, yelping when one of them poked her rear with an old stick. She turned and slapped the stick away, glaring at the child. She had to pick up the pace as the damn kids kept following her and chanted “Big butt! Big butt!’ More stick pokes.
She glared at them as the elevator doors closed, rescuing her from the little ankle biters and put a hand over her rear, checking to see that they hadn’t damaged the suit. Luckily only her pride has been injured.
The rest of the elevator ride was pretty uneventful, a turian couple boarded the elevator for a few floors, and once a volus family waddled in. She spent most of the ride thinking about her shop.
She’d managed to convince Santi, Katja and her mother that it’d be a great idea to rent one of the empty stores up on the market floors. They’d been very wary about the entire idea at first, mostly concerned about the costs of running a business, but Riah had managed to run some numbers through a financial program that Varlus had suggested and convinced them that there was really no way they could lose money. And so a quick trip to the upper floors, quick paper work and now she was owner of half of Santi and Riah’s Robots. Santi insisted that his name be first, since he argued that he was the most important part of their partnership, Riah didn’t insult him by arguing otherwise and denying something they both knew to be true.
The elevator came to a halt and the doors jolted open, opening up to the market sections of the station. Riah saw various neon signs, some of them flickering on and off, crowds of people passing through the streets and old vents spewing steam from several of the restaurants around. And there in the distance, she saw the sign for her shop.
Riah grinned as she jump out of her seat and pushed her way through the group of people who were boarding the elevator.
Time to make money.
***
“Bitch.”
“Bitch.”
Riah frowned at the two drones Santi had guarding the store, they had the odd habit of referring to her as “bitch”, which Santi claimed was just a side effect of their customized construction and couldn’t be changed. Riah knew otherwise but said nothing.
She looked over at the front desk where Santi was talking to an elderly turian, probably Old Erasnirus, who had been in here for a few days as he investigated which of Santi’s drones would be best for his price range and needs. He caught her gaze and waved her over.
“Old Erasnirus,” Riah addressed their customer, “Are you asking about guns again?” He nodded. “We’ve told you several times now, guns aren’t allowed by the top floors.”
“Those vorcha thugs that robbed my store a few days ago had guns!” he replied, as angry as ever, his cane shaking in his hand.
“That’s because they are criminals,” Riah replied, not unsympathetically, “We are a respectable business, and we barely managed to convince the top floors to allow us to open up. They wouldn’t give us permission to sell guns here,” Santi nodded beside her, remembering one of the so-called “investigators” that the top floors had sent to check over their merchandise for illegal AI usage. “So we can’t put guns on our drones without them coming after us for breaking the rules.”
“Plus,” Santi stepped in, “I’ve already mentioned that my golems aren’t really built to handle guns. Even if I did give one a rifle or a pistol or something, and I’m not saying I would, I can’t guarantee they’ll hit anything with it. Or that they won’t accidentally hit an innocent person.”
Old Erasnirus pointed at one of Santi’s custom drones, the red one he had named Tila. “That ones’ got a gun for a head!”
Riah glanced at the red machine, narrowing her eyes at it when it seemed to rev its internal engine in a low growl.
That’s sounded like it was angry.
“The gun doesn’t work,” Santi explained as he walked over to Tila and patted her arm, “Lemme see.” Again Riah glanced warily at the thing when it seemed to purr at his touch. “See? The investigator made sure of it, the metal ammo block is removed, along with all the firing components. I’m just using the gun because it has a bunch of sensors I used for Tila to see.” He sighed as Old Erasnirus’ shoulders slumped, “Sorry sir, but we just can’t put guns on it.”
“But look here,” Riah stepped over to another one of the drones on display, a huge mean looking thing painted all black, with a human skull painted in white over its face. “This one’s got a chainsaw that could cut through body armor, and it’s got a jackhammer on the other arm that could crack a krogan’s hide!”
“And we’ll give you a discount.” Santi added before Riah glared his way. Discounts were not allowed!
What the hell is he saying? Riah fumed before the old turian perked up. She bit her tongue, realizing that they could either let a drone go for less than their asking price or lose a potential sale. Ancestors, this boy has no business sense at all.
The turian appreciatively looked over the drone, eyeing the mean looking weapons on each arm. “Crack open a krogan you say? Shame there aren’t many of those criminal thugs on these floors… I’d pay to see that.”
“Well, for the low, low price of 8,000 credits you just might!” Riah chirped happily.
“6,000.” Santi added, hitting her in the shoulder behind the turian’s back, angrily muttering at her and gesturing at the turian’s cane. “That’s the discount price.” He winced as Riah returned his punch, making a crying gesture and then putting her hands over his breast in a crying gesture. He scowled and raised his fist to give her another punch before she raised her own, her luminescent eyes burning with defiance. They both flinched as the turian turned around and nodded.
“I’m sold,” he said before opening his omni-tool and stepping over to Riah.
“Great,” Riah forced her smile as she thought about that lost 2,000. “Now, I’ll charge you while my partner activates the drone, it’ll only take a few minutes.”
“This’ll make those vorcha think twice about robbing me.” Old Erasnirus said happily, looking over at the drone as Santi began “waking” it.
“Mmhmmh,” Riah agreed as she set up the transaction, “A few of our customers have already come in and told us about their drones stopping or preventing robberies or assaults in their stores. The Beturil sisters’ drone broke some salarian’s arm when the damn lizard tried to lift some lingerie from their store.”
“Lingerie? Asari sisters?” Santi said as he inspected the now “live” drone, before shaking his head, “Uh, nevermind.” He stepped back as the machine followed him off of its podium before opening his own omni-tool. “So, I’m sending you the instruction manual for your golem… there, uh, really shouldn’t be any major problems that’ll ever arise. When you take it to your shop just make sure to point out any friends or family members, people you aren’t worried about stealing, or who take things from your shop and pay you later or something like that. Basically anyone you don’t want getting attacked understand?”
“I understand kid,” the old turian agreed, “What do I gotta do to maintain this thing? Does it need fuel or something?”
Riah tuned them out as the payment went through, a little squeal of happiness escaping her lips as those credits came rolling in. “Thank you for shopping with us,” she began before walking away, leaving the human to talk to the old angry turian. As far as she was concerned the sale had already gone through and therefore, as the main salesgirl, didn’t need to continue talking to him. Santi could buy the “old and crippled” sob story all he wanted; if rumors were true Old Erasnirus was a C-Sec reject that shot a few civilians during some incident on the Citadel and needed the cane when someone fought back in self-defense and shot off his kneecap.
So not only was he an insufferable old man, he was a dirty cop too.
And we let him go with a damn discount! A 25% one at that!
“You,” she pointed as Santi came back, the turian and his new drone having left the store, “Are you going to cut into our profits every single time someone gives you an old sob story? What next, going to give discounts to pretty girls is flash you a nice smile?”
“Fuck off Riah,” Santi had significantly less patience with her as time went on, something she secretly preferred over his previously shy attitude, “I’ll give discounts to whoever I want. What are you going to do about it?”
He’s got me there. She fumed, realizing once again that this entire partnership hinged on staying in his good graces. Nothing really stopped him from taking half of his money and leaving, starting a new business by himself except his relationship to her mother.
“You’re costing us money.” She said, turning away from him.
They stayed that way for around half an hour, their silent argument broken up only when a few people walked in and asked some questions, one of them promising to return tomorrow after he talked with his wife about buying one of their drones. After that, it was another long stretch of silence.
It was irritating, so Riah decided to speak up.
“So can all Gaians do that blood magic crap?”
Santi didn’t answer, just tinkered away on some mechanical arm he had been working on all day.
“Huh?” she asked again.
“No,” he answered gruffly, “Well, if the Gaian has blood they could use blood magic. Otherwise no.”
“What?” Riah asked, “What in Rannoch’s name does that even mean? If it the Gaian has blood,” she repeated in a bad imitation of Santi. “Everything has blood in it.”
She heard him sigh heavily, “Not everything on Gaia has blood. Faeries and other spirits don’t have blood, natural golems don’t have blood either… well, depending on the type. I’d guess flesh golems-”
Riah saw Santi look at her face, before shrugging.
“Yes. Gaians can. You just have to learn how to use it, like any other skills.”
“Does it hurt?” she asked, remembering the sight of Santi’s wrists exploding in violent gore.
“At first it did. When I was first learning I mean. That’s the sign that you’re learning it wrong, it’s not supposed to hurt. Actually, like all Anima use, it feels good.”
Riah scoffed, looking at his arms as she did so. “Are you telling me something that makes you feel good leave you exhaust-Oh, nevermind. I should have known. Typical of men.”
An old rag hit her face, oil smearing across her visor.
“From what I hear from Saestzea you wouldn’t know.” Santi shot back.
“Are you hanging around with that slut?” Riah asked, worried that he was. She was trouble, sexual escapades aside, and could lead Santi into some bad roads through the men and women she sometimes associated herself with. One of the Turians she hung out with, Knives, was very territorial about her and since Saestzea lived near the two of them it could spell trouble for them if he decided to flex his territorial brute muscle.
“I notice that’s not a denial.”
“You didn’t deny it either,” she responded. “Didn’t your mother teach you not to associate with those types of girls?”
“I agree, girls like Saestzea are nothing but trouble.”
They both jumped at the new voice in the room, turning to see a very well dressed attractive young asari standing in their store, flanked by two other asari that scanned the room.
“Hello miss.” Santi said in that tone of his that told Riah he wasn’t thinking with his head. Riah went back to looking at the three women before she noticed that the two other asari had their hands in their pocket. Guns. She reached behind the counter and grabbed Santi’s hand, causing him to momentarily glance her way. Luckily he wasn’t as dense as he looked and immediately noticed something was off about the girls. Riah retracted her hand from his when she felt a trickle of blood touch her hands, sparing a quick look down showed a thin stream of blood floating around his hand. She also noticed that Tila and Fila were focused on the two asari. She suddenly wished she had a gun of her own. Damn mother wouldn’t let her buy one.
“I’d listen to Riah if I were you Santi.” The pretty asari said, slowly walking over to their counter in the most seductive way possible. Riah could smell her perfume and see her perfectly applied makeup, and up close Riah noticed a tattoo along her neck that marked her as one of the Upper Families. “In fact, it is quite fortuitous that you chose to associate yourself with Miss nar Moreh instead of Miss Edoix. Your mutual asari neighbor’s known associates include several members of the Sylgatus Revelers.”
Santi glanced at Riah. “They’re a pro-turian speciests.”
“Miss nar Moreh, on the other hand…” the asari trailed off as she walked over near Santi, her slender fingers gliding across the counter before coming to rest over the machine parts that Santi had been working on. She smiled, “Well, Miss nar Moreh is selfish and greedy, she sees you as a resource to exploit. And that’s good and safe for you,” she added. “That means she’ll try to keep you as safe as possible so she can get as much money as she can out of you.”
“What do you want?” Riah asked much more forcefully than she should from someone she was terrified of.
The asari locked eyes with Santi, “There are many things that I want, Miss nar Moreh, and many things that I’ll get to enjoy… not today however. Today is all business.” She reached into her coat, exposing more of her breasts than needed as she pulled out an old fashioned business card and handed it to Santi. “I’m here on behalf of the Upper Families, all of the Upper Families. I’m just here to deliver a message to you, Mister Santiago.”
Riah saw Santi tense up beside her.
The asari held up a hand, “The Upper Families know who you are, or at least we know enough. But we’ve built up a reputation on this station; people come here when they want to disappear. When they want to hide from the outside world. We respect this. We wouldn’t dream of ruining our hard earned reputation by selling you out. However, we do ask something of you in return. We want you to please refrain from selling your machines to certain unsavory elements aboard this station.”
There was a silence after she spoke, Santi nodded and was about to open his mouth when Riah squeezed his hand again. “We weren’t planning on selling anything to gangs, if that’s what you mean. Or you.”
“I’m both pleased and disappointed,” she asari said. “Pleased that you won’t sell to the undesirables aboard the station. The Upper Families have a hard enough time keeping them to manageable levels, and we’ve noticed sharp decreases in crime in shops that sport your mechanical sentinels. Disappointed that you’ve bought into the… misguided ideas Miss nar Moreh has about the Upper Families.”
Riah’s hands formed into fists, uncaring that she was hurting Santi in the process.
“Despite what you may have heard,” she continued, “We are not monsters; we are not shadowy oppressors unsympathetic to those who live onboard our little home. We simply have a larger view; we see the bigger picture so that everyone on the lower floors doesn’t have to.” The asari looked Riah dead in the eyes as she spoke. “We worry so that they don’t have to.”
“I’ve heard similar stories,” Santi surprised her with his harsh voice. “It didn’t turn up good.”
“As I said, I am disappointed. Hopefully you will grow to trust us in the future and we’ll be able to negotiate a more intimate relationship.” The asari replied smoothly before turning to leave. Riah felt her body relax before tensing up again as the asari abruptly turned around. “I forgot to mention… Miss nar Moreh. We are aware that you’ve been searching for a ticket away from our humble abode and would be sad to see you go. You are, after all, half the reason Mister Santiago and Miss Katja stay aboard the station. We’ll remind you that many on the upper floors reached the heights they did due to… service to our community. You two, and your families, are always welcomed to join us. You have my card, Mister Santiago, you can call me if you have any problems that arise or if you simply want some company that truly appreciates you.”
She turned away and walked out of the store, her hips swaying with each step. Her two asari bodyguards followed her out, their gazes locked with the large machines looming over the entrance. The only thing that they left behind was the smell of expensive perfume and danger.
Santi let out the breath he’d been holding, falling backwards into a nearby couch they’d dragged behind the counter, Riah followed him, collapsing in exhausting alongside him.
“Oh sweet Jesus,” Santi muttered. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as terrified without being threatened before.”
Riah brought a hand up to her head as she tried to massage the headache away. “Keelah, believe me, we were threatened even if she didn’t say it. I’m glad I’m wearing a portable restroom with me.” She muttered.
Santi must have heard her, because he snorted and began laughing and making sounds of disgust. “Awww, you’re right. You shit and piss in your clothing all day long don’t you? Fuck.” He stood up and made his way to the restroom.
Riah laughed at him.
Santi laughed through the closed door.
Riah waved her hand over the store, her omni-tool lighting up and shutting off the store’s lights and switching the sign outside to read “Closed”. Tila and Fila’s eyes glowed in the darkness, the rumble of their engines calming her slightly.
“How fucked are we?” Santi said from behind the restroom door.
“Very.” Riah said with no humor. “We’re in deep now.”
Riah shuddered, sinking into the couch and reaching for one of the blankets she’d brought from home, wrapping it around herself.
Fuck.
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Post by Ruinus on Jun 30, 2016 20:21:35 GMT
“Ok, let’s just think this through-” Riah began.
“No, there’s nothing to think through!” Santi growled, “I saw we just close up shop for good and leave. You yourself said it, they were threatening us!”
“They didn’t!” Riah said, realizing she was contradicting her earlier statements. “Well, they didn’t threaten us themselves, that is to say, I doubt the Upper Families themselves will actually kill us or do anything to us…”
“Fuck that!” Santi yelled, “You and I both know they don’t want us to get out of here!” He sighed and sat down, setting the store lights to dim, the holographic sign switching to CLOSED. “Look, we ran away from Gaia, I’m sure you knew that already,” Riah nodded, “And these Upper Family goons know we ran away…”
“Well anyone would know that,” Riah interrupted, “This system isn’t one of the few that has opened up to Gaian immigration, the very fact that you two are out here implies criminal behavior. Maybe they don’t even know who you are or who you are running from and…”
“What, they guessed?” Santi snapped, “They walked in here and gave us their speech on a bluff?”
“It’s just an idea,” Riah stressed, “Look, even if they did know who you are and who is looking for you, why would they turn you over? As it is, you two are the only humans in this part of space and you are making cheap, easily built security mechs that can stand up to some small arms fire. The only one. And that means you are a valuable commodity, so until your government decides to open up the robot trade to Citadel space there’s no reason at all why they’d let you go. Who are you even running from, the government?”
Santi ground his teeth, “No.”
“Some gang?”
Santi said nothing.
“If it’s no one with legal power, there’s no guarantee the Upper Families will get anything valuable out of extraditing you,” Riah began, hoping what she was saying sounded good enough to Santi. “And if it’s some shady group, there’s even less of a guarantee that they’ll give the Upper Families something as equally valuable as you. Face it, you’re too valuable for them to trade away!”
“Oh please, just stop it already!” Santi roared, standing up and slamming his hands down on the counter. “You only want to stay here because they promised a spot on the upper floors if you cooperated with them!”
“I’m terrified!” Riah yelled back, standing up from her seat, “What happens if you and your mother just up and leave huh?” she poked Santi in the chest before he slapped her hand away. “What’ll the Upper Families do to me, who let you slip right out of their grasp? I’m just another suitrat quarian to them; any other quarian could replace me! No one will notice or care if they decide to take out their anger on me! And if that doesn’t matter to you, what happens if you make yourself worthless?” she asked, Santi’s eyes widening a fraction. “What happens if you stop being worth the secrecy to them? Do you think that card in your pocket will protect you then?”
Santi sighed, eying the drink that had spilled across the counter and moving his hand out of the way of it the growing puddle. “So what? We play their game?”
Riah glanced at the counter and pulled out a rag from one of her suit pockets. “Are we building golems for them?” she asked, handing him the item, “And aren’t we helping out the people on the station? Varlus already came in here and thanked us, one of your drones stopped another shoplifter. Old Fali’s drone stopped a burglar from stealing from her house. They haven’t asked us to do anything… unsavory.”
“Yet.” Santi added.
Riah didn’t have an answer to that.
The human boy sighed, and slumped in his chair, and gave Riah a look that made her ashamed of herself. “You know Riah, I hate that you know how to think like them.”
“I do too.”
***
“Are you serious? You’re actually ok with this?”
Riah was surprised at Santi’s tone; she had never seen the boy talk to his mother that way.
“You know I’m not,” Katja replied evenly, “But we have to be smart about this-”
“Not you too!” Santi cried out, flinching when Yili laid a hand on his own, a momentary look of anger on his face before he realized who had touched him.
“We have to be smart Santi,” Katja replied, unaffected by his outburst. “We have been in similar situations before.” Riah caught the woman’s nearly unnoticeable shudder, “And we can do it again.”
Riah saw the boy grind his teeth, “I don’t want to go through that again.”
“I know you don’t,” Katja said softly, “But the situation is different, this isn’t the Arkhangelsk Svalka and these aren’t the Poglotiteli. We can get through this.”
Riah shifted uncomfortably and looked over at her mother, who gave a small cough in an awkward attempt to move the conversation away from their private history. “So what should they do?” her mother asked, “Maybe Santi is right, they should just close up the store and leave?” Riah jealously noted how her mother kept her hand on Santi’s. “I don’t want our kids to be in danger.”
“No, Riah is right,” Katja responded, “If Riah and Santi stop selling their golems they lose their value to the Upper Families and hence we lose their protection…“ Riah yawned, despite the circumstances she couldn’t help but start feeling the effects of sleep. “Listen, why don’t we talk about this tomorrow morning, it’s late and we’re in no condition to make big decisions if we’re all falling asleep.”
Riah looked to Santi and then to her mother, who nodded and began to stand up, “Riah, get some spare blankets.”
Riah raised an eyebrow, though she quickly caught on to her mother’s plan. “Santi and Katja are staying?” she asked, already knowing the answer. Seemed like her mother was worried about the two humans and thought there’d be safety in numbers. Not an unreasonable suggestion, especially since she knew Santi would bring the spare golem he had in his workshop for extra security. Katja, the human woman, seemed to have caught on just as quickly and didn’t put up any token struggle, instead the two mothers simply nodded to each other.
“Santi,” Katja began, “let’s go and get some things from our place too, I’ll help you activate that golem you’ve been working on, we could use it tonight.” She led him out of their living unit and across the hall, their conversation in an untranslated language muted by their front door closing behind them.
“I’m surprised,” Riah turned at her mother’s voice, “That you aren’t kicking up a fuss tonight.”
“No, not tonight,” Riah responded simply. Frankly, she was glad her mother hadn’t asked that’s she go and help Santi ready the golem, she wasn’t sure if she could deal with that tonight. “They’ll be gone for a bit,” she explained, “The golems take a while to startup,” she hadn’t yet told her mother about all the blood, “So… they’ll be gone for a bit.”
There was a moment of silence as Riah was regarded by her mother.
“Come,” her mother ordered as she headed into their room; Riah followed as her mother bent over and fiddled with the electronic lock on her safe; the one she rarely opened, the one that had old mementos of her husband. Riah had, on accident, wandered into the bedroom and caught sight of her mother crying over photos, or smiling over the old presents her father had given her mother when they were young. But she’d never see everything that was in the safe. Like the old, cracked visor, or the beautifully patterned shawl, or an old piece of jewelry that still shone in the dim light.
Or the guns.
“Mother, are those…?” she asked, shocked that her mother had kept several weapons in their home without her knowledge.
“An Elkoss Combine A-II rifle, two ERCS Firethorn SMGs and...” she trailed off as she picked up an old pistol. “This one was your father’s.” The weapons lit up to life in her hands, extending out of their compact carrying modes into their combat forms. Riah watched as her mother lovingly touched the old pistol before reaching further into the safe and retrieving several magnetic clamps which she fixed to her left. She stood up, holstered the gun and made a few quick draws before Riah’s eyes, which bulged in surprise at her mother’s movements. “I’m very out of practice.”
“I didn’t know you were into guns,” Riah asked, never once thinking she’d have to utter that sentence. All her life she had imagined her mother as the very vision of femininity, weak, fragile, averse to violence. But here she was, with a small armory hidden beneath sentimental love gifts.
“I’m not.” Her mother laughed warmly, “But your father was. Here,” she handed Riah one of the submachine guns. “You should be able to handle the SMG since the rifle has too much kick for you.”
Riah accepted the weapon, careful to keep her fingers as far away from the trigger as she possibly could, the weight of the weapon shifting in her hand as it extended out. She turned it over in her hands, getting herself accustomed to it. “This one has my name on it.” She said.
“No,” her mother said as she faced away from her, retrieving the other weapons from the safe and laying them out in the bed, inspecting them one at a time for faulty components. “Riah is also the name of my best friend when I was your age; she met your father while out on her Pilgrimage. The two of them wiped out a merc base out in the Systems; hauled back several tons of weapons, one small corvette and two dropships. They both got accepted into the Fleet Marines for that. They got married shortly afterwards, I’d never seen Riah so happy.” She laughed at some old memory.
“Why did you never tell me that I was named after someone?” Riah asked numbly, looking back down at the weapon in her hands.
“You never asked Riah.” Her mother replied back, “You never asked who I was back on the Fleet, or what I did or anything. You were always too busy resenting me for taking you away from our people.”
Riah recoiled, stung by her mother’s words. It was true. “Well… why did you leave?”
“I never told you because I didn’t want to validate that resentment.”
“Oh.”
“Can you use a gun?” her mother continued as she handed her one of the magnetic holsters. “Let’s see how you look with it on, you have your coat with you? Wear it to hide the gun, we don’t want one of the enforcers catching you with an unregistered gun.”
Riah felt awkward despite her mother’s attempts to steer the conversation away from her father and past, but followed her mother’s instructions and checked herself in a nearby mirror. The SMG hidden beneath its heavy layers. “This should be fine,” Riah said before practicing her quickest draw possible, though she wasn’t anywhere as quick as her mother was.
“Here,” her mother said as she handed her the assault rifle, “We’ll keep this one in the living room, somewhere within reach. When Santi and Katja come back, we’ll ask them how they are with weapons and we can give them the spare SMG.”
Riah briefly wondered about that. A few weeks ago a video had been released about the so-called Lluvia Incident; some turian mercenary band from an infamous slaver ring had landed on one of the Gaian-Citadel joint worlds and gone on a rampage before being killed by some old Golden War vets alongside some asari locals. Caused a big stink; made some of the Gaians second guess allowing aliens on their world if it also means pirates are going to shoot up their cities, made the Citadel species second guess living near nigh-unkillable elderly that could blow up krogan with their magic. Captured video had sprung up on the extranet, uncensored. She also remembered Santi’s blood magic. She assumed Katja had her own tricks. “Yeah, good idea,” she agreed with her mother. Magic or no, it’s probably always a good idea to have a backup plan. Those old folks on Lluvia were famous vets, so it was unlikely every Gaian could turn krogan into smears.
She also doubted the whole “unkillable” angle that some people had put forth.
The door chimed and they heard Katja calling through the door. Soon her mother had allowed them in, a pale Santi shuffling in before his mother who carried a bag full of personal belongings with them. Then the new golem, which hunched over to fit through the door, followed them in. Motor humming and chainsaw occasionally revving up. Soon the sounds of Katja and Yili talking and cooking in the kitchen filled the small room, and Riah could momentarily forget that their two little families were being watched by powerful people.
“What’s this one called?” Riah asked Santi as he flopped down on the couch. She thought back on the store golems and their similar names. “Kila? Sila?”
“Mila,” Santi said weakly. “Triplets.”
“I should have known,” Riah scoffed, “More of these human perversions. Just remember to control yourself tonight.”
“I don’t think I can,” Santi joked, “Knowing your mother is nearby. I have a thing for hot moms.” He pointed at a nearby container, “Could you hand me that? I really need some water.”
Riah did so.
“I’m a little disappointed,” Santi said after taking several gulps of water, “that you didn’t berate me for that last comment. Honestly, I’d prefer if you did. It would make this entire situation feel a little further away than it actually is.”
“You pervert,” Riah said simply, “Stay away from my mother. Keep your filthy eyes to yourself.” She sighed, sitting down across from Santi and taking off her coat, she noticed Santi’s eyes land on her newly acquired weapon as she did so. “Can’t do it.” She growled, “Can’t pretend things are fine, and I’m not in the mood to make little jokes.”
Santi struggled to sit up, “Well… at least you tried. And you are right, I don’t feel like joking either, I’d have never joked like that with you before. Guess I’m trying to be too relaxed right now.”
“And it’s not working.” Riah stated.
“And it’s not working.” Santi agreed.
***
They sat in silence, Santi mostly out of exhaustion and Riah out of anxiety. Dinner went by quietly too, Katja and Yili making small talk in a vain effort to keep some sense of normalcy going, the golem still looming in the living room by the front door. It soon grew late and Riah’s mother convinced Santi and Katja that it’d be much better if Santi slept in her bed with Riah.
“The couch is no place for someone in your condition dear,” she had said sweetly, “He’ll sleep much better on a bed.”
Katja stood by silently while Riah protested. Unfortunately, she realized what game the two adults were playing. Her mother and Katja were the only two who had any experience with guns and fighting. Santi would be a liability in the living room if, Ancestors forbid, the Upper Families sent someone to pay them a visit in the night. In the end Katja agreed, and the two adults decided that they’d take shifts to keep watch at night.
So Riah found herself laying uncomfortably close to Santi on a bed. Occasionally their bodies would touch and she’d recoil away from him, a difficult task on the small bed. They laid that way for at least an hour, uncomfortable, restless, and worried about their mothers in the living room and about the turn their lives had so abruptly taken. Riah noticed that Santi’s breathing had started becoming steadier as time went over, and turned over to look at him. He seemed peaceful, though she understood that he was physically exhausted. Still, she was jealous of his ability to rest. His eyes fluttered open and he caught her staring at him.
“It’s pretty nice being in your mother’s bed,” he whispered.
“You’re disgusting,” Riah replied honestly, “Stop thinking about my mother, a scrawny little human boy shouldn’t be thinking about her. Stick to your own species.”
Santi lay still for a long time.
“That’s the venom I wanted.” He whispered before falling asleep.
Riah decided that she didn’t like Santi much.
She slowly got off of her side of the bed and went to the bedroom door. The human woman’s head snapped up at the movement of the door sliding open. Riah looked past her, at her mother sleeping on the couch, rifle within easy reach, then back at Katja, SMG in hand.
“Can’t go to sleep dearie?” she asked, Riah noticed she didn’t look tired at all. “What’s wrong?” Riah pointed out her appearance. “Oh. I’ve done this before, so I don’t really need to sleep.”
Riah asked if she planned to let her mother sleep the entire night.
“Of course… now get to sleep yourself. Your mother would be upset if she found out you were still awake.”
Riah nodded.
“Lock the door too.”
Riah did. Then she pulled up a chair by the bed, wrapped herself up in blankets, drew her SMG, and sat and waited. She wondered if, perhaps, they were making a big deal out of nothing. If the Upper Families only wanted them to freak out, wanted to be unbalanced by a single visit, wanted them to be in a state of mind where they’d be more likely to break and accept anything the Upper Families offered. For certain they’ve ruined her night. She doubted her mother and Santi were sleeping peacefully and she doubted Katja’s idea of a fun night included all-night stakeouts.
Tonight is fine, Riah thought, but how long can we keep this up?
So Riah sat there, throughout the night, trying to think of a way to get out of this mess.
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Post by Ruinus on Jun 30, 2016 20:21:47 GMT
“Stop glaring at them,” Riah growled, taking Santi’s face in her hands and turning him to face her, the human responding by slapping her hands away.
“Do they have to stay out there all the time?,” he retorted angrily, pointing at a couple of Upper Family enforcers that were watching them from a few stores over before Riah grabbed his hand and pointed it away. “I don’t like it; they’re watching us like they own us.”
“I don’t like it either,” she hissed, “but aggravating them won’t do us any favors!” Luckily their door chimed as a customer walked in, sparing the two of them from another one of their arguments and forcing Santi to put on his friendliest face as he walked away. Riah sighed; she could just feel the headache coming along. She looked up two see the two asari Upper Family whores smirking at their anger before she threw up two middle fingers, a hand gesture Santi had taught her. Unfortunately the asari didn’t understand the insult, but it was the thought that counted.
She turned away from the window and saw Old Erasnirus waddling in on his old cane, frowning at the sight of the old racist cop.
“Old Erasnirus,” Santi said, barely stumbling over the alien name after so long on station, “What can we do for you? Is your golem fine?”
“Oh yes!” the old turian grinned, his old decayed teeth bothering Riah, “It’s working just fine, broke a humpback’s jaw when he tried robbing me! I left the vermin stomper at home to take care of my son’s little cadets while he and his woman are attending a social function…” the old turian let out a wheezing laugh, Santi giving Riah a sidelong glance. “Say, my son is interested in buying one of your robots for himself and so is my brother.”
“Oh?” Riah cheered up, the prospect of two sales being brought up. “I didn’t know you had a brother here.”
“I don’t, not here. He lives on Tarnas, one of the border worlds as a prospector. These golems of yours could help keep the humpbacks pirates and their vermin off of him and his boys while they work the mines. I’d appreciate it if you could give them the same discount you gave me.”
“Sorry,” Riah immediate began, cutting off Santi before he could fall for the turian’s spiel. “We can’t do that.”
Old Erasnirus scowled at her, probably as displeased at having to talk to a suitrat. “Why not?” he asked, “There’s a freighter convoy coming in in a few weeks, you can ship it out then.”
“The Upper Families won’t allow it.” Riah said, crossing her arms. “They don’t let us sell anywhere off-station. Just like they wouldn’t let us sell guns.”
The retired C-sec cop pointed his cane at Riah, who stepped back from the offending stick, “You sell gun parts don’t you? Can’t you just ship all the parts and my brother can assemble it on his end. These robots are all made out of junk parts, the Upper Families won’t notice.”
“It wouldn’t work,” Riah said, before sighing and motioning to Santi. “Tell him it wouldn’t work.”
Like always, the boy was reluctant to say no. Riah motivated him by sending another glare and readying a fist. As always, Santi flinched.
“No, it wouldn’t work,” the boy began, “Golems require human Anima to animate, and unless some other humans ran off to Tarnas or wherever your brother is and they also happened to know golemancy… well, if that were the case, you wouldn’t need me to send them a disassembled golem. Sorry Old Erasnirus, but there’s no way for me to sell a golem anywhere not inside this wonderful space station.”
Riah nodded along with him, agreeing with Santi if only to disagree with the old turian. She immediately went into her sales pitch, trying to upsell him on one of their most expensive models. Normally Santi would step in and try to put a stop to her so-called “monumental greed”, but he seemed to be lost in thought. Riah smiled, credits flashing before her eyes. She haggled with the old C-sec bastard for about half an hour, selling their priciest model by playing to his interests; namely by pointing out how easily this golem could crush a krogan’s skull with a single hand, and chop a mob of vorcha in half with a swing of its sword. It was easy to get him to buy after that. After all, Riah didn’t really disagree with Old Erasnirus; krogans really were dirty humpbacks living in dirt hovels, vorcha really were disease-ridden vermin too poor and stupid to control their numbers and asari were the galactic dumpsters for all sexual disease. She almost forgot why she hated the old bastard so much, she’d even learned a few novel insults from him in that short half-hour. But then remembered why he’d been let go from C-Sec. She may hate everyone else, but she hated murderers more. Still, she felt better once the sale was over and his credits were transferred into her bank account.
She vaguely wondered what sort of problems they’d get into once people realized their cheapest golems were being sold on a 500% markup.
But that was a problem for future Riah to handle. Future, rich Riah. And being rich solved almost all problems.
She wasn’t worried.
What she was worried about was Santi; he’d taken to sulking over by the window, scowling at the two asari who were still keeping them under surveillance. She swiped a button on her omni-tool and temporarily closed the shop, the lights dimming automatically.
“I’m surprised you didn’t stop me,” she said as she walked over to their backroom and retrieved a few of her favorite sweets, her voice still carrying over to the front of the shop. “I just made us 9,000 credits in profit. Sold Pricey over to the old turian.” She said with a little song, She waited a moment before frowning, upset at his lack of response. “Hey human, pay attention to me.”
“Uh?” Santi said, looking over to her and noticing the food in her hands. “Breaking your diet again? Anyway, shut up for a moment. I’m thinking.”
“Fuck you,” Riah snapped back, “I earned these today. And you, thinking? Don’t overexert yourself.” She began drinking her sweets and waited for Santi’s retort. It never came. Riah realized that Santi wasn’t as much fun when he was ignoring her. “Ok,” she began, “What are you thinking about? It’s obviously important since you’ve been thinking about it for about an hour now. Are you dreaming up a more expensive golem?” she asked hopefully.
“What? No. Fuck the golems, I think I’ve figured out a way to get us out of here.” He turned to her, a triumphant grin on his face. “See, all we have to do is kill ourselves...”
“Yes, suicide is one way to escape from your troubles, but I’m too young and beautiful to die. Your plan is trash.”
“No, listen!’ Santi began as he led Riah to their couch, “Humans don’t die when we’re killed, all that happens is that our soul is kicked out of our bodies, then we can either reconstruct a new body or we can jump back into our bodies and fix them. Basically, we become ghosts. Quarians believe in ghosts right?” He didn’t wait for Riah to answer, “Well, even if you don’t it doesn’t matter. The point is that I know how to get us off of this station. We deal with any loose ends here, finish any orders, close up shop, buy any supplies that we’ll need to make our getaway and hold us over until we reach some new place. You and your mother then buy a ticket on one of the freighters that are coming by soon okay? You’ve said that the Upper Families are mainly interested in me right? They won’t mind if they see you trying to leave right? So we use that to our advantage. You and your mom get aboard a ship while me and my mom stay here, then right before the ships leave me and my mom kill ourselves, turn into ghosts, and just go straight to the ship to meet you and your mom. Boom! We all escape and these Upper Families wouldn’t be able to stop us at all!”
“Except that you’ll be dead!” Riah growled, “Look Santi, nothing you’ve shown me makes me believe that there is an afterlife-”
“I’m not saying that there is an afterlife for quarians,” Santi interrupted, “or even that there’s an afterlife for humans. I’m just saying that there are human ghosts and that we can come back from the dead.”
Riah just stared at him.
“Look, let’s get home first and then I’ll prove it to you.”
***
Riah found out that her mother had stepped out to visit some friends, which only meant that Santi had gotten it into his fool head to kill himself to prove his idiot plan. He barged into his living unit, Katja cooking some human food over in the kitchen.
“Mom, me and Riah need privacy so don’t bother us.” Santi announced as he dragged Riah along to his workshop.
“Have fun you two.”
“Katja, your son is about to do something stupid!” Riah called out, struggling against Santi’s grip.
“Part of growing up dear.”
“Fuck.” Riah cursed, the workshop door closing behind her.
“Look, listen,” Santi began as he began searching through his tools or something. “Here’s how I’ll prove it. I’m going to slit my throat and kill myself,” he barreled on at her horrified look, putting a hand over her mask’s speakers to prevent her interruptions, “then you are going to go into your room and do something that I wouldn’t know about. Make up a long number, or an odd sentence, or hide something somewhere, I don’t know. Just make sure it’s something that I have no clue about. As a ghost, I’ll follow you into the room and see or hear what you are doing. Then come back here, I’ll resurrect myself and tell you what you did. That’ll prove I’m right!”
“You are fucking cra-no!” Riah lunged forward as Santi retrieved a screwdriver from one of his tool boxes and drove it into his neck, her hands slapped away by a dome of blood that suddenly sprung up around the suicidal teen. Riah gasped in terror before pounding on the red liquid shield, frantic to get to Santi. She tried to force herself through the shield, bashing against it with her shoulder as she readied a first aid app on her omni-tool. “Santi you damn pervert trash, you stop this right now!” she yelled, terrified as she saw more and more blood gushing out of Santi’s neck as he continued to stab himself over and over.
“Stick,” he stabbed himself, “to,” another stab, his voice a gurgle through the blood choking his throat, “the plan!’ he then fell limp to the floor, the dome of blood splashing down around the two of them, covering both of them in blood.
“Keelah! Keelah!’
“Caution!” Riah jumped at her omni-tool’s voice, “Pocket Medic v.3.1 is detecting a -HUMAN- in critical condition. Apply pressure to-” Riah didn’t bother for instructions, putting her hands up to Santi’s neck, blood gushing from between her fingers. She could feel his neck torn and shredded beneath her hands. “Pocket Medic v.3.1 does not contain HUMAN anatomy. Contact medical authorities.”
Riah felt Santi go deathly still beneath her hands, and panicked.
“Katja! Katja help!” she screamed out, the short second that it took for the human woman to barge through the door feeling like an eternity for her.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Katja asked as she burst into the room, a pistol in her hand. “I-oh, what’s going on here?”
“Santi! H-he, he,” Riah doubled over, the contents of her stomach coming up as she dry heaved inside of her visor. “Keelah…” she groaned, Katja putting her arms around her and pulling her to her feet.
“Dear, Riah dear,” she wiped some of the blood off of Riah’s visor, “I’ll take care of Santi, you go and clean yourself up ok? Ok? I can handle this, it’ll be alright. Ok?”
Riah nodded dumbly, stood up and walked out of the room where he only friend had just killed himself, blood staining her suit. She walked back to her own living unit in a daze, and headed for her restroom. The blood clung to her suit, and she noted tiny pieces of flesh stuck between her fingers. She raised her hand and plucked out a piece of neck from between her fingers and watched it wash down the drain. Then she threw up.
She was in the process of cleaning out her mask, a tough process that involved flooding her helmet with cleaning fluid and releasing a cleaning valve near her mouth, when the entire room shook, the mirror rattling against the wall.
“Stick to the plan.”
Riah yelled and ran screaming into her bedroom, throwing her covers over herself and hiding under them, shivering as something followed her. She could feel it! Someone was there with her! She peeked out from under the covers as everything in her room began to rattle and shake, something tugging at her bedsheets and touching her feet. Her heart yammered in her chest as she felt something looming over her, an oppressive weight on top of the covers that seemed to crush her in. Then it left. Riah shivered in fear underneath her covers for what felt like an eternity, crying. She wished her mother was here.
Her skeleton nearly jumped out of her skin and through her suit when her omni-tool rang, a call from Katja. In Riah’s frantic state of mind, she released its’ clamps from around her wrist and flung it over her dresser. It kept ringing for several seconds.
“Riah dear,” it was Katja’s voice that suddenly washed over the room, “Santi’s better now he says-what?-here, take it then.”
Riah looked over at her dresser, the soft glow of the omn-tool coming out from behind it, her heart in her throat.
“You crybaby,” it was Santi! His voice was weak and hoarse, but she knew that voice anywhere! “You threw up, then cried in your bathroom… still hiding under your covers?” She heard him laugh, a choking wheezing laugh that ended in a few grunts of pain before Katja’s voice came over the call again.
“Dear, why don’t you come over and we can explain?”
“Ok.” Riah called out as she scrambled out from under her covers and picked up her omni-tool, relief flooding her voice. “I’ll be right there,” she replied, already running towards Santi and Katja’s living unit. She passed her mother, who was startled to see her dart out of their home, past Katja who was walking out of the workshop with a smile on her face and finally reached Santi, sitting on a couch, pale as can be.
Then she punched him as hard as she could.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?” she yelled as he slumped over, “Fuck you for scaring me like that you trash! Bosh’tet! Don’t you dare do that to me again, or I’ll kill you again when you come back!”
Santi rubbed his jaw and spit out a tooth, groaning all the while. “I needed to convince you!” he said before she readied another punch, “Fine! Fine! I’ll stop. Fuck, did you have to hit me so hard?”
“Idiot! Bosh’tet!” Riah growled before storming out of the workshop. In the living room she could see her mother peeking her head in and Katja at the kitchen.
“What happened?” her mother asked, Katja waving her in. “Where you picking on Santi again Riah?”
Riah bunched up her hands into fists, her knuckles pulsing in pain after having collided with Santi’s jaw. Her whole body tensed up, she wanted to scream. The entire situation with the Upper Families and now this stunt with Santi killing himself and resurrecting himself was too much on her today. Suddenly she relaxed, noticing the grocery bags her mother carried.
“Mom, do you have any of my favorite sweets in there?” she asked innocently.
“Yes,”’ her mother was thrown off by the question. “I keep buying them for you, even though I know I shouldn’t.”
“Good,” Riah said, taking the bags from her mother and walking over to her door. “Ask Katja to fill you in. I’m eating my sweets and then going to bed.”
“Sorry for scaring you.”
She turned to see Santi come out of his workshop, his lip bleeding.
Riah scowled and turned her nose up at him, turning away and heading to her room.
“Bosh’tet trash,” she muttered.
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Post by Ruinus on Sept 25, 2016 1:17:26 GMT
“So what’s it like?” Riah asked Katja, who was laying down on the couch across from her and running a glowing hand across the scar on her neck, the remnant of her resurrection demonstration to Yili.
“How does what feel like?” the woman responded as she withdrew her hand, the scar completely gone. “Being a ghost you mean? Well, it’s sort of like… being asleep and being awake at the same time”
“Huh?” Riah responded smartly, “Well, that didn’t really answer my question.”
“Sorry dear, it’s just something that’s hard to put into words for someone who is so… limited.”
Riah frowned at the woman’s words, “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing offensive dear,” the woman replied, projecting her omni-tool’s browser into the living room’s display emitter and flipping through various videos on an extranet site, “You all don’t have Anima, so there’s really no way to describe it, it’d be like describing music to a deaf person, colors to a blind man, emotions to a rock. Honesty to an Illuminati spook.”
“Mmhhh,” Riah hummed, thinking of more questions to ask the woman. “So, all Gaians can do this?”
“No, well… heh, this looks fun,” the woman said, finally deciding on that idiotic turian obstacle course show. “There are several other Gaian species that can become ghosts like we can, but only humans can resurrect themselves like we do. After the Golden War when we all got these “special privileges” it’s become second nature for humans to die, go ghost, and resurrect ourselves. Hell, they teach elementary kids all about safe resurrection techniques.” Riah shuddered at the mental image of several little children cutting their throats and overcoming their fear of ghosts through firsthand experience. “But yeah, we can go ghost whenever we want to.”
“Why don’t you just do it all the time?” Riah asked, “Wouldn’t that be the safest way to hide? No one else in the galaxy would be able to find you.”
Katja let out a dry laugh, “It’s not that easy. It has risks, too much time as a ghost and we risk turning into one of the nasty ones. Specters, poltergeists, all those other ones.” She laughed at something on screen before turning back to Riah. “Bad ghosts. Crazy ones. Staying in the spectral realm for too long can cause people to go insane, latch on to their emotional extremes, lose their sense of self. Usually, you find an Anima well to reconstruct your body and avoid that problem or find your body again and jump back into it after patching it up. That also avoids the problem. Problem is, I haven’t seen an Anima well anywhere outside of Gaia, natural or artificial.”
Riah understood much of that even if some of the details seemed to elude her. Immediately though, her mind caught on to a comment the woman had made. “Wait, you need these Anima things to not go crazy? You said none of these Anima things exist around here, so doesn’t that completely destroy our escape plan? It’s no use escaping if you and Santi will just go crazy while we’re on the run.”
“Awww, is that some concern I hear? Getting a soft spot for my Santi?”
“Oh fuck off-”
Riah briefly saw her mother’s open palm before her visor’s mouth piece slammed into her lips, stinging terribly. She muffled her cry of pain under her mother’s glare.
“Young lady if I tell you once I’ve told you a thousand times, watch your tongue around our friends! Excuse her Katja, I don’t know where I went wrong with her. Here, something to drink.”
Katja smiled as she sat up and took the offered drink before waving off Yili’s apology. “Don’t worry about it Yili. I have a teenager of my own remember? I know they can be a bit much sometimes.”
Riah rolled her eyes, cursing the insufferable friendship the two women shared.
“Yes, but your boy isn’t rude.” Yili countered as she sat down and attached her own drink to her helmet.
“No, but I’ve caught Santi ghosting and sneaking into strip bars.”
“Oh. Well, he is a healthy boy…” Yili replied.
Riah buried her head in her blanket, muffling her scream. This is who we are trusting our lives to?
“Riah does bring up a good point,” her mother began, “this escape is worthless if you two will go insane in the process.”
“No, we’ll only go crazy if we can’t find an Anima well or if we can’t return to our bodies. So, what we are going to have to do, well… what you two are going to have to do is carry a part of ou-“
Riah put up a hand, interrupting the older woman. “Wait,” she demanded, “You’re going to tell us to pack your corpses in our luggage aren’t you?”
Yili gasped.
“No,” Katja responded, “Just pieces of us.”
***
Everyone ate breakfast in silence, Yili and Katja sitting at the table and discussing which belongings to pack and which to leave behind. Luckily neither family had much in the way of possessions, what little they did have is easily replaceable. They’d be traveling light. Riah and Santi were enjoying breakfast while playing a video game together on the couch.
“It’s unfair that you get to mutilate me but I can’t mutilate you.”
Riah didn’t respond immediately, instead she focused on destroying Santi’s aircar and taking first place. Fourth win in a row. “You’re not good at games are you?”
Santi gave a frustrated sigh, before taking a bite of his breakfast. “All the language is in quarian, I can’t read most of what’s going on!” He grumbled something between more mouthfuls of his breakfast, Riah recoiling in disgust as he did so.
“Chew your food you damn animal. Listen, so are we really going to have to carry your heads around? I’m not really sure I’m looking forward to any of that.”
“Doesn’t have to be our heads, it’s just that brains are harder to recreate for us. But really it could be any part of us. The bigger the better. And it’ll just be for a while, long enough for you and your beautiful mom,” Santi didn’t mind the punch to his arm, “to get aboard a freighter. Then you just find a private place for us to rebuild ourselves and bam! We just ride that freighter to… wherever it’s going and…” Santi shrugged, “I dunno, I haven’t about what we’ll do after that. Start somewhere else maybe.” He paused for a second, “Or go back to Gaia.”
“I thought you couldn’t go back?” Riah said.
Santi glanced backwards at his mother, causing Riah to turn and look. Katja was at the stove, probably cooking more human food while her mother was using her omni-tool. “Well, it’s not like… when we left it wasn’t because there wasn’t anywhere we could run to. We just left because the opportunity suddenly presented itself. After that it was a good few months of evading the bastards that came after us.” He glanced back to the kitchen before adding in a whisper. “More than me, I think they want Katja back. She was one of their favorites.” Given the look of disgust on his face Riah could take a guess at what he meant. “And with all the shit that is going on here I’m thinking it might just be safer on Gaia, or on any of our colonies. We could turn to the cops and ask them for help, maybe give them some info on the Svalka and help them put the bastards away for good.”
“I guess I’d like to visit the Flotilla,” Riah answered as she set up another race, “But that might still be a while off. I think the Flotilla accepts quarians born on the outside as long as they still come back with a gift, but I think my mother was kicked out or has been gone so long that they wouldn’t accept her back. Or maybe they would if she also brought back another gift to get in their good graces. But that’s still far off in the future. Press start you idiot.”
Santi suppressed a growl, joining the game and almost immediately falling behind Riah and all the NPC racers. They played in silence for a while, the only sounds around them being those of the game and their mothers’ conversation in the kitchen area.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“What a surprise.”
“Shut up for a second.” Santi shot back, “How do you think we should off ourselves? We need to make it look believable so that the Upper Families don’t think it’s suspicious.”
“Why wouldn’t they believe it?” Riah asked, “You guys are going to kill yourselves.”
Santi paused their game, leaning in as Riah leaned away from him. “But what I mean is if we all book a passage off of the station before we’re dead it’ll look suspicious to the Upper Families. They might hold you up and make us all miss our flight.”
Riah pushed him away, unpausing their game and taking the lead. “Sure. But wouldn’t that mean that we’d have to wait until the last minute to book our passage?”
“Probably. But I’m sure you could convince the captain to let us onboard if you wave around enough money. Now we just need to figure out how to kill ourselves in a way that looks accidental.”
Riah grinned.
“I’ve been thinking about that, and I have just the perfect way.”
***
The four of them sat around the kitchen table as Riah searched the extranet for some old news story she said would help them in their plan. At one point her mother gave her a stern glare while Riah seemed to shrink in fear or shame. Santi stifled a laugh as he guessed at what had happened, presumably Yili saw something in Riah’s search history that she didn’t approve of. A few awkward moments later and Riah beamed in happiness.
“Here, read thi-I mean look at this,” she said as she projected the extranet site onto the living room’s display. Despite not being able to read quarian, Santi could piece together the story from the various pictures. Something about some sort of device that blew up a house. “See, gangs have been refining their own rocket propellants for a long time now. They use it for homemade weapons like rocket launchers, explosives, they strap small rockets to their aircars for extra speed in gang races or getaway vehicles.”
“Alright,” Santi said, remembering some of the ingenious weaponry that people made back home during the Golden War. “But that helps us how?”
Yili answered before her daughter could. “Many of the necessary components can be found in commercially available machinery like generators, batteries, capacitors, cooling systems, heavy machinery and the like. Back on the Flotilla this was done all the time since we couldn’t always afford actual propellants. It is incredibly dangerous however; lots of things can go wrong.”
“Right, like these turians here,” Riah pointed to the screen, “Blew up their house when they made a mistake. Santi we own a lot of pieces of equipment that could be broken down and used in this homebrew propellant business…”
“… so it wouldn’t be out of the question for an accident to occur.” Santi muttered. “Alright, it could work. So we just make up some bullshit excuse as to why I was trying to refine my own rocket fuel-”
“Like for a new golem weapon,” Riah offered.
“-right like that and then,” he gestured to the screen, “I blow myself up.”
“Us up,” Katja interjected, “I have to be there too. I have visited the shop a few times, so it wouldn’t be out of the question for me to be there. Riah will step out for whatever reason and that’s when we have our little accident.”
Riah nodded, “And then I’m so devastated that my friend died that I just have to buy a ticket away from this station.”
Santi looked at Riah, before turning to look at Yili and Katja. “Well, it’s all believable up to there.”
***
It was decided that they’d enact the plan by the end of the week, giving everyone enough time to prepare. Unfortunately Yili never actually made propellant while on the Flotilla, so she couldn’t exactly offer the most help to that particular part of their plan. Instead Riah searched through the depths of the extranet for information about these so-called “rocket scientists” including some of the basic setups people “fueled” with. Much of the chemistry of the entire refining process was beyond her and Santi, but that was mostly irrelevant. They didn’t have to know how to refine fuel properly; they had to know how to refine fuel improperly. “Really,” Riah told Santi during one of their research sessions, “we just need to know enough to blow up our store.” Most of the things they either already owned in their junk pile or could easily buy from some of the nearby hardware stores and the process of setting up the machinery wasn’t difficult especially since Santi could just order one of his golems to do any heavy lifting that was beyond them.
Riah found that the hardest part was acting natural. Katja had to remind her and her mother to keep their normal expenses, continue making arrangements for outings with friends. Pretend as if they weren’t going to completely disappear in a few weeks.
In spite of all of that, Riah found herself being happier than she’d been in a long time. Threats to her life or no, she was finally going to leave this station and maybe, if she was lucky, go back to her people.
“Alright,” Santi said as they finished setting up their equipment, a generator humming with power in a corner of the room,. “Alright!” he clapped his hands together and pointed to Mila, his “youngest” robot and designated lab assistant, who lumbered over and stood beside him.
Riah got comfortable behind the makeshift barrier they had built for her, peering through the reinforced glass they had used to give her a window into Santi’s section of the lab. “Are you ready?” she asked, “You better not fuck up and blow yourself up before we’re ready!”
Santi shrugged and threw her a nasty look, “Nag, nag, nag! Just let me concentrate, I’m the one holding the explosives! Fuck.”
Riah huffed, sitting back in her chair and finding the sites she would use to walk Santi through the process. “Why don’t we start small, that way if you do blow something up it’ll be a small controlled explosion. Give us an idea of how dangerous this is.”
“Fine.”
“Ok, you’ll need a screw driver,” Santi held up their electric version, “some pliers,” he held up those too, “gloves so you don’t get skin burns,” Riah already knew he was wearing those, “OK, you’ll also-“
“We have all the tools Riah. No need to check off every single one.”
“Tools check. Safety,” she kicked the barrier in front of her, flinching in pain as it proved as sturdy as Santi claimed it was. She looked over at Santi, whose safety didn’t really matter. “Check. Ok, now… let’s start making some bootleg rocket fuel.”
***
The next few days went about as well as they could; the two of them found that they were enjoying themselves a bit more than they should. Aside from the fear that they would cause a pre-mature explosion and ruin their plan, or kill Riah, it was admittedly fun to play with explosives and Santi did legitimately think he could build some sort of weapon for his golems.
“Rocket fists!” he said during one of their lunch breaks. “It’ll make my golems twice as powerful, twice as deadly!”
Their experiments did attract some attention.
A few days away from their planned “Bomb Day” something went wrong and one of their containers suddenly exploded, sending a piece of shrapnel through Santi’s arm. Not enough to be serious, but enough to spook the two asari “body guards” the upper Families had posted outside. They tried to get Santi to go to visit an Upper Family doctor, but Santi refused. When the asari asked the two of them what had caused the explosion and learned about the proposed rocket weaponry they suggested sending someone experienced in that field of work to assist Santi in his work, to avoid any future problems. Riah refused, telling Santi that they’d probably try to steal his golemnetry secrets. They both started cussing out the asari, telling them to get out of their store. Santi even threatened to call their boss on them.
Then Bomb Day Came.
***
“What?”
Riah realized she was staring at Santi and Katja.
“It’s just-I guess it just hit me, you guys are going to blow yourselves up in a few minutes.”
“So?”
Riah really didn’t have an answer to that. Instead she just shrugged. Maybe it wasn’t so odd. She’d already seen Santi kill himself a few times. Katja slit her neck when she demonstrated her abilities to her mother. This had been the plan for days. “It’s just odd.” She replied dumbly, feeling Katja put a hand on her shoulder.
“Do you have some baggies dear?”
“Yeah,” Riah answered as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a few pouches. “How much of you do I need?”
“Well, if you can try to get some of our brain matter.”
“Brain matter takes a while to rebuild, especially without an Anima well.” Santi offered.
“Yes, even just a small handful will do. Ideally the more that is left over means less work for us when we do plan on coming back but even small amounts work. So if you can dear, try to get back in here and find an arm or a leg. Brains or hearts would be best.”
“Right,” Riah said.
“Well, just don’t mess this up.” Santi said, pointing a wrench at her that she immediately slapped away. “We’re counting on you to get pieces of us and get a way aboard the freighter. We’ll still be around of course, but we won’t be able to affect much of the real world while we’re dead.” He crossed his arms and frowned, “And for our own sakes we have to stay near our corpses or risk going mad. So we are going to be stuck haunting your house for a while.”
Riah scowled, glancing at Katja. “You’ll keep him from spying on me or my mom won’t you?”
“Of course dear,” the woman smiled.
“Get going.” Santi said, gesturing for her to get out of the room.
“Just hold on,” Riah stopped as she looked around the room. This would be the last time she’d see the store like this. Normal. She felt a small pang of something in her chest.
Odd.
She looked over at Santi and Katja one last time. “Well, this is it then. Just give me a minute or so to get out to a safe distance and… this is it huh? Good luck.”
Katja smiled, before pulling Riah into a hug. “Good luck dear.”
Riah glanced at Santi, who just stared blandly before giving her a small smile.
Riah smiled, before putting on her game face. “Alright, I’ll get you your damn food!’ she began in a shout, walking out of Santi’s lab and heading to the store proper and slamming the door behind her, “Fucking humans….”
“GREETINGS RIAH-”
“Yeah, yeah. Shoplifters will not be tolerated, I know.”
She put up the closed sign out front, hopefully keeping any poor bastard from trying to enter the place just as Santi planned to blow up several containers of low-grade rocket fuel.
“Hey,” one of the two asari called out to her. “Where are you going?”
“What’s it matter to you?” Riah replied, still headed towards the fast food place further up the hall.
“It matters to the Upper Families,” the blue bitch replied smugly, “Upstairs wants to know where both of you are at all times. So I’ll ask again, where are you going?”
Riah didn’t have to pretend to hate these people. “Well if you must know, mother,” Riah spat out, “your little robot factory is hungry and busy with some tinkering. Since he’s so busy I get the privilege of being the idiot who picks up the fast food, so if you don-”
Suddenly Riah was picking herself up off of the floor, a deafening ringing in her ears as she struggled to stand up. When she fell down flat on her face for the second time she gave up on standing, her hands immediately and instinctively went to her visor while another reached into one of her pouches. Planned or not, the blast took her off guard and really shock her up. She groaned in pain and felt blood steam down her face, shards of glass embedded in her forehead.
Shit, shit!
Riah fumbled around in her pockets, finally retrieving her emergency kit and applying a disinfectant directly to her face, a sealant across her visor and injected herself with an emergency cocktail of immune-boosters and antibiotics. The plan is shit if I die due to an infection! Ok, calm down, calm down, calm down. Riah, you’re fine, you’re fine. I sealed the visor as quick as I could, I’ve had suit tears that lasted longer. I’ll be fine. Keelah!
The store was an inferno, flames and smoke spewing out through the shattered windows.
Riah stood up and steeled herself through the pain. Santi and Katja had done their part.
It was up to her now.
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Post by Ruinus on Sept 25, 2016 1:18:03 GMT
Except for the fact that the bedroom was empty, Riah knew someone else was with her. She tried to sit up, the effort immediately knocking her on her back, a cough filled with phlegm racking her body before subsiding into a struggling wheeze. Pain shot up throughout her face, which she realized was going through the process of swelling as her body reacted negatively with the filthy bacteria of the station. She laid back, staring up at her familiar ceiling, the hum of her mother’s old air purifier struggling to work in the corner of the room.
She stared dumbly up at that ceiling, wondering how she’d made it back home after the explosion.
Through her ill mind she vaguely recalls stumbling through the streets, her cracked visor’s makeshift repairs barely keeping out the contaminants of the world outside her suit. She painfully remembers falling headfirst into the ground and someone coming to her aid and calling out to her, but doesn’t remember how she ended up home.
“Mom?” she calls out, her throat burning and her voice low and weak.
The room shakes, causing her to startle before she remembers the life she’d walked into. Golems, magic, ghosts, Santi. In her fever she thinks she can see him out of the corner of her eyes, hazy and clear and distant and near. Whenever she turns to look at him he seems to disappear from her view. The room shakes again as she struggles to turn to see him, the concerned sound the rattling of her mirror makes giving her the impression that Santi is telling her to lay down and rest.
“Is that you, dead boy?” she calls out.
The room shakes in response.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She keeps seeing him out of the corner of her eye, though he looks different. Terrifying. “We need to find a way to talk to each other,” she whispers. “I need some sleep.”
The room shakes in response and Riah doesn’t mind that she’ll have the human beside her this time.
***
“Ugh.”
Riah opens her eyes, the sound of someone rummaging around waking her up.
“Shhhh, shhhh,” she hears a voice she instantly recognizes as her mother’s and feels her gentle hands atop her head, caressing her. “You need to rest.”
Riah reached up and held her mother’s hand, “What about-“
“Shhh, calm down, everything is alright.” The room shook in agreement. “Just rest.”
“-out of my house!’
Riah opened her eyes, seeing several asari standing over her, her mother struggling against one of them as they shouted over each other. Had her face not felt like it was splitting open Riah would have smirked when she saw her mother punch the asari, laying her flat on her blue ass. The room shook, though the asari didn’t seem to notice.
“-lies have questions!” the asari who was fighting against her mother shouted, while an older asari stared at her face and shined a light into her eyes.
“Jinme, enough!” she yelled before standing up, looking down at Riah. The quarian girl couldn’t make out the look on the older asari’s face, but it looked like it was something approaching pity. “We are leaving. Miss nar Moreh, if you nee-“
“Out.” Her mother growled.
She was sitting up before she was even conscious of her actions, dizziness catching up to her as she sat upright, causing her to sway on her bed. The room shook and she felt alone and scared. Then her mother came into the room.
“Lay back down sweetie, you’re still sick,” she began as she tried to put Riah back onto the bed.
“Mom, how long… what?” Riah began, finding her mouth dry. Her mother noticed her distress and pressed a canister of water against her mask’s seals, Riah greedily drinking as much as she could.
“It’s been four days,” Yili answered, “since Santi and Katja…” she knelt down and touched her visor to Riah’s, “I knew you would be in danger, but we planned for that...” she gave out a heavy sigh, her shoulders sagging notably.
“Oh, but I’m fine now,” she answered weakly, not at all feeling fine as she did so. She raised a fist, “Go me.” She went back to her water, her throat feeling much better as she did. “Was… there anything left?” she asked, hoping her mother would understand.
“Yes,” Yili answered while glancing over at two bags, one labeled Santi and the other Katja. Riah could tell there were filled with something heavy and wet, bloody stains smattered around the zipper. “That’s all that’s left.” Riah and her mother shared a look.
Their friends were shredded pieces of meat inside carrying bags. All according to plan.
“Ok,” Riah said as she slowly moved her legs to the side of the bed, her mother standing up and offering both her hands. Riah gladly took them and together they pulled her up to her unsteady feet. “Ok,” she whispered, “Ok, I’m fine,” she began, dropping her mother’s hands and taking a single unaided step, her legs feeble after days of illness. “I feel terrible.”
“You were lucky,” Yili whispered, “Saestzea found you in the street, after the blast. She brought you back here.”
“Sae?” Riah choked out, amazed that the slut would ever lift a finger to do something other than fondle a man’s genitals. “She brought me back here? You’re joking.”
Her mother sighed, she looked incredibly tired. “No, I’m not. She even came by the next day and asked how you were doing.” The next moment Riah found herself in her mother’s arms, warm and safe. “You… well, I suppose it doesn’t matter now. Do you want something to eat dear? I’ll make you your favorite dish.” She didn’t wait for a response before putting her visor to Riah’s cheek and looking her dead in the eye. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, mommy loves you.”
“Right,” Riah said dumbly, her mind still slightly disoriented. Then she smiled at her mother, “I love you too mom.”
As her mother left the room Riah walked over to her mirror, looking at herself for the first time in days. The first thing that she noticed was her lack of clothing, her suit looking bare without her usual bright red hood, suit-shirt and suit-leggings. She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling naked without the coverings. Riah scoffed at the idea, she wasn’t actually naked with her enviro-suit on… but the feeling was still there. Unable to fight the odd shame, she briefly looked over her bare enviro-suit for any damage. She stretched and turned in front of her mirror and happily noted that, aside from a few extra scratches here and there, her suit seemed to have held together just fine. She walked over to her small dresser and retrieved a spare set of clothes, dressing herself in her favorite red and white pattern. She smoothed the new clothing out, noting it was a little smaller in size than her usual outfit, but not uncomfortably so.
“You can’t talk to me, can you?” she asked, knowing Santi was with her in the room. In response her mirror shook slightly, “That’s odd… I could swear I heard you talk as a ghost once…” she trailed off, unsure if she was just remembering a fever dream. “We really need some way to communicate.” She cursed herself for not having hashed out even a basic communication system.
She was startled, or she would have been if she hadn’t met Santi and Katja, when her mirror began to fog up and she felt a heavy cold presence fill the room. She wasn’t scared; this was probably another one of Santi’s magical abilities. If anything, this was the only thing she’d seen so far that caught her attention in a good way. Forming ice was a rather peculiar and fun magic trick.
No bloody magic and suicide pacts.
She watched in anticipation as the frost spread over the bottom right corner of her mirror before stopping,
HI
“Hmmm,” Riah hummed, “That’s a start. But I don’t think it would be very practical to carry around a mirror that you’ll constantly be freezing just to write me little messages.” She sighed, propping up her head with a hand on her chin, absentmindedly tracing her own patterns around Santi’s message. “You could fog up my visor… but then I couldn’t see. It’s also not very inconspicuous if my visor starts freezing and words just happen to form.”
She watched as another section of her mirror began to frost. She hummed and rested her head along her arm, just the effort of the last few minutes leaving her tired. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she noticed the frost spread much more slowly than before. “Is it difficult to do that?” she asked, “The ice thing I mean.” He never seemed to have problems shaking the room or her mirror. She tried to remember the particulars of a conversation she had with Katja about ghosts… she noticed Santi writing something in the frost.
YES
“Is it because of the ice, does it take more magic to freeze things than shake them?” she asked, before an idea sprung to mind. “Wait, wait. I’ve got an idea. Shake the mirror if it’s easier for you to shake things instead of freezing them.”
The mirror shook.
“Ok,” she stood up, excitement coursing through her body. “Can you shake me?” she asked as she held her hand out, smiling as it suddenly moved to the side as if it had been slapped away. “So… it is easier to move things…” she hummed, “That makes sense.” At least it made sense to her, it would probably be easier for her to move a mirror than freeze it, that was probably true for Santi too, magic or not. She snapped her fingers, another idea springing to mind. “Can you hold my hand?” she asked, an invisible force griping her hand in response.
“I got it!” she cheered, “I know how we’ll do this! I’ll ask yes or no questions, for yes you’ll put your hand on my left shoulder,” she pointed to her shoulder, “And for no, you’ll put your hand on my right shoulder. If it’s neither, put your hands on both shoulder got it?” A hand on her left shoulder.
“Great,” she cheered. “We can do this.”
A hand on her left shoulder.
“Now, let’s get something to eat.”
***
“Uuuugh…” Riah groaned, “Eating was a terrible idea.” A hand on her left shoulder. “Fuck off Santi,” she snapped as the mirror in the bathroom shook, which she realized was Santi’s way of expressing laughter. How wonderful, she thought, he’s dead and he’s still making fun of me. Her mother had warned her to slow down, that eating so fast and in her condition would not be agreeable to her body. It also didn’t help her stomach when she stepped on what she thinks was part of Katja’s brains. “I shouldn’t have come back here so soon,” Riah lamented, her mouth filled with the disgusting taste of half-digested food and bile. Flushing her visor again and spewing the contents down the sink, she once again flooded her visor with a disinfectant and deodorizing liquid, the smell and taste of vomit finally leaving her enclosed mask.
“Are you ok dear?” she heard her mother ask through the half-destroyed door, the sink making a terrible rattling noise before one of the pipes burst open, showering Riah’s feet with filthy water. She stepped back in anger, kicking the ruptured pipe and hurting her foot in the process before her mother pulled her out of the small ruined room and into the much larger ruined room. The blast had completely leveled the backroom, only the reinforced back wall surviving and even that with huge gashes in the wall, one of the various skyways visible just beyond it, a terrible draft coming in punctured by the occasional sound of a speeding car passing by. The front of the store had been completely burst open, damaging some most of the stores on the other side of the hall. Most of their golems were smashed or fused together by the chemical fires that sprung up after the blast, Santi’s two “triplet” golems still standing in their guard positions. One of them, she couldn’t tell which one, had noticed their approach and taken a few steps in their direction before falling apart into scrap and slag. Riah went over and patting the thing’s head in a gesture of affection before moving on to its’ “sisters”, because she was positive Santi would have done that.
Truth be told, she felt a small pang of pain at the sight of the three triplet robots still standing guard, and wondered if they had somehow been able to sense their creator even in death.
“At least no one else was hurt,” Riah heard her mother mutter, “A few people were nearby and got hit by the blast and the store across the way had their windows smashed. The fright took years off of poor Pulue’s life and salarians don’t live long.” She lifted up her foot and cleaned a smear off of the sole of her foot, Riah wondered why she seemed so nonplussed at all the scraps of human gore that were littered here and there. “Except for these two.”
Riah nodded as she shifted through the rest of the rubble, picking up pieces of debris here and there that caught her eye. An old car engine that was going to be used as the main core of a golem before it was warped and melted by the blast. Something that looked like the main processor for an omni-tool, one of Santi’s wrenches, a golem that would have sold for 10,000 credits; Riah wondered if they couldn’t have waited until that golem had been sold; having that extra 10k could have helped their upcoming escape off of this junk heap.
She dropped a piece of debris that she was looking over and made her way to her mother, who was sitting down on an overturned golem, her hands playing with an old wrench.
“Mom,” she whispered, aware of the two asari guards that were still posted across the way, one of which she recognized while the other seemed a new hire. She had asked Katja and Santi about the privacy wards that they had placed all around the store. Through a long series of yes no questions, she’d learned that the wards should still work to a certain extent. “Let’s go, we’ve got things to talk about.”
“Is there anything here you need?” her mother asked.
“No,” Riah answered, feeling Santi’s hand on her right shoulder and she assumed Katja did the same to her mother, “There’s nothing here that is worth anything anymore. Let’s just go,” she said before taking out one of her water canisters, “I think I need more rest,” she added.
Her mother offered her shoulder and while Riah would normally not have been caught dead limping along the halls with her mother, she realized she was in no real position to act tough in front of the other teens. It also helped their act when the two asari guards saw the two of them leave the ruins of their once prosperous business.
The walk back home was long, Riah working up a sweat as she worked up a slight wheeze, her mother chiding her for wanting to get out and walk around so soon after waking up. On the way back they passed by a few of her mother’s friends, who waved or greeted them or offered their condolences. Quite a few people gave them some nice words about the Katja and Santi, even Varlus waddled out of his shop and offered a very brief Volus prayer for the two humans.
Saestzea surprised her too. She was talking to some turian while a couple of kids played around them. Yili waved at the girl, who stopped her conversation and stepped forward and offered a small smile.
“I’m sorry about your friend.” She offered, the turian beside her looking between the two of them as the kids crowded around them. Saestzea gestured to Riah, “This is my friend RIah and her mother. She’s the quarian that ran that robot shop-“
“Oh, with the human!” the turian interjected before a somber look crossed his face. “Oh. I’m sorry, I heard what happened. That kid was alright, he sold a robot to my uncle. Big Mean Metal fought off some 120th Floor boys who tried mugging him on the way to work.” Riah thought back on all the turians they’d sold to and vaguely remembered a turian with an amputated leg. She yelped when one of the kids scampered over to her and gave her a hug, the little turian girl only reaching up to her knees and muttering something in her broken childish basic.
“Will there be a funeral or…” Saestzea began, “Or whatever humans do?”
Riah searched the asari teen’s face, trying to see what her angle was. As she was trying to puzzle her behavior out, her mother answered.
“No,” she began as she patted the child that clung onto Riah, “I once spoke to Katja about their beliefs and she said they were something called New Catholics. Their funerals require the body to be buried…”
The turian boy scowled, “And that can’t happen now because of the incinerator policy. Damn Uppers! Ma couldn’t get a proper burial because of that.”
Yili and Riah both nodded, though Riah had to admit that for once the Upper Families weren’t to blame. The incinerators were necessary, most space stations can’t afford space for something as frivolous as a cemetery. Lots of different cultures had to forgo traditional funerals when living spaceside.
“Also,” Yili continued. “Even if we did have somewhere to bury them, there aren’t any Gaian priests for light years…”
“I think they’d understand,” Saestzea said.
Riah felt Santi put a hand on her left shoulder, taking this as her cue to join the conversation. “I’m sure they would. Thanks,” she added, “for…” she didn’t really know what she was thanking her for, so she just let her words trail off.
“Sure. I hope you feel better.”
Her mother took the lull in the conversation as her chance to excuse the two of them, correctly noting that her daughter was at a loss for words. Saestzea and the turian boy said their goodbyes, the asari teen asking them to inform her if they decide to hold some sort of memorial service, the little kids they were looking after also sending a chorus of byes.
Once inside their apartment, Yili set Riah down on the couch, drawing a blanket over her and asking if she wanted a hot drink. Riah turned on the main holo-display and began looking for something to watch.
“Why weren’t you ever friends with Saestzea?” she heard her mother ask her from the kitchen area.
“What?” Riah responded, her mind catching up to the question. She would have answered normally, telling her mother that she didn’t want to hang around with a disease ridden slut… but just couldn’t find the energy to insult the woman. “I don’t know,” she answered, unsure of herself.
Her mother huffed as she walked over to her, a canister of warm tiliv broth in her hands. “Don’t think I haven’t heard the insults you’ve traded with each other out in the hall and don’t think I’m deaf to the rumors about her… free spirited… attitude about sex.” Riah cringed, the automatic response all children have whenever their parents talk about sex. “But she’s a nice girl if you don’t greet her with an insult.”
Riah mulled over her mother’s words, “But she’s got no respect for herself.”
“Oh?” her mother countered, sitting across from her and attaching her own canister to her helmet, “How so?”
“How could she?” Riah asked, “Asari don’t know the first thing about sexual restraint.”
“On the Flotilla, there are records. We uploaded all sorts of information into our computers when we left Rannoch. Art, music, movies.” Riah nodded, not sure where her mother was going with this. “We made sure we took everything that would preserve who we are. We also brought academic research papers, census data, government reports, other statistics. I know, because I worked as a curator on the Flotilla for a while. Do you know how many sexual partners quarians had in 2483, a few years before the Morning War? Six to eight.”
Riah was shocked. No self-respecting quarian would sleep around like that. It was absurd. “Nonsense,” she replied. “There’s no way-”
“There’s no way we’d do that now, because of the suits.” Her mother cut her off in a gentle tone. “The average is now one to two. We’re sex starved. All of us are.” Riah squirmed in her seat, hoping that Katja and Santi had decided to get their ghost selves out of the room. “That’s why so many quarians look down on the asari… among other reasons. We think we’re somehow better than them. But it’s mostly the suits and the high risk of death that comes with every sexual encounter for us.”
Riah felt pretty uncomfortable with the conversation, “Ok… but what does this have to do with Saestzea or asari? Six to eight sexual partners is probably low for asari, certainly if the rumors are true-“
“If the rumors are true.”
“-and there’d be no reason why they wouldn’t,” Riah continued, “Sae has had more than eight partners.”
“Well, you’re judging her based on our current quarian sexual morality,” her mother continued after taking a few sips from her drink, “which isn’t even ours by choice. Sex isn’t the same for asari as it is for us. They don’t run the risk of dying just to get a kiss. Sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented with the proper medication. Asari don’t get pregnant if they don’t want to.” There was a long pause as her mother drank the remainder of her drink, unplugging the canister from her visor. “I’ve never seen her use drugs. I’ve never seen her do anything while out in public, not even a kiss. She’s not in any gangs. I think she has plenty of respect for herself.”
Riah’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Ok… so what? Why the sudden lesson in friendship and happiness? Why now?”
Yili sighed, “Your mother reserves the right to feel sentimental whenever she feels like it,” she laughed airily, “I guess I’m feeling a little sentimental because we’re going to be leaving soon. It’s something that I’ve been putting off for so long.” She stretched before lying down on her couch. “And I’m worried about you Riah. You’re my baby daughter… but I have to admit this station made you pick up terrible habits. You had to, to survive. But out there in civilized space your racism won’t endear you to anyone. It didn’t endear you to anyone here.”
Riah didn’t have any response to that.
Her mother yawned from her couch, taking one of the couch’s blankets and covering herself as she did so. “I’m exhausted. Set alarm, 1 hour,” she spoke into her omni-tool. “Keep the volume down dear, we’ll figure out what we’ll do about the convoy tomorrow. Today let’s just rest.”
Riah sighed, opening her omni-tool and accessing the station’s local net, whoever was managing it should be killed for the garish design and searched through the news bulletin, looking for information about the incoming convoy. There it was, nestled between an advertisement for the Blue Booty Bitches strip club on the 57th floor, no doubt one of the clubs ghost Santi had visited on his nightly jaunts, and a bulletin reminding everyone that varren weren’t allowed on the station and would be shot on sight by the enforcers. Santi and Katja had managed to make the news, a forum thread detailing their meteoric rise to celebrity status with their robot shop. Riah was barely mentioned.
The convoy would be arriving in two days from now and would be departing for one of the more semi-official Citadel systems. Riah did some quick mental math and tried to plot a course using some stellar maps she’d found online; their business had been lucrative enough in such a small time that they could eat a few expenses on the way back to…
“Shit,” Riah muttered, realizing that their four-man party would soon meet its’ end. Santi and his mother had to head back to Gaian systems… but they’d probably be arrested first. Illegal immigration was treated seriously by the Immigration Authority. “They’ll be fine,” Riah added to her thoughts, “The Citadel will probably ship them back to the Gaian authorities. And they might cut a deal in exchange for into on those people they were running from…” Riah settled on an old movie, turning the volume on low so as to not wake her mother who was still sleeping peacefully. “And I guess me and mom go back to the Flotilla.”
***
Riah looked at her mother, who nodded. “Ok,” she whispered, “Everyone agrees?” she felt something touch her left shoulder twice, Santi and Katja’s consent. “Ok, let’s get a ticket.” Her fingers flew over her holographic keyboard as she accessed the station extra-net and began typing a message to the merchant convoy, their contact information having been put up into the station’s bulletin board.
“Subject…” she began filling out the message, wondering what would catch the attention of a merchant convoy. “Will pay big money for room.”
She felt a hand on her right shoulder just as her mother spoke up, “No, don’t say that. Ask them what their prices are, we don’t want to over pay.”
“Will pay for room,” Riah quickly changed the She then switched to the body of the message, “Hello, I live on Vanidia Station and want to lea-“
“No, say you are thinking of leaving,” Yili interrupted, “The Upper Families look at all outgoing messages and we can be sure they’ll notice ours. We don’t want to look like we planned this.”
“Right,” Riah edited her message, “Hello, I live on Vanidia Station and am thinking of leaving. How much do you charge for passage?” She nodded to herself, “Is it possible to book a private room? Thank you.” She looked over to her mother, who was reading the short message back to herself. “This look fine?”
She felt Katja and Santi say yes, her mother agreeing that it was best to keep the message simple. “Send it,” she said, the computer chiming as the message was sent on its way. “And now we wait.” She sighed, leaning back into the couch.
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Riah asked, wondering how long their wait would be.
Her mother shrugged, resting her elbows on her knees and propping her head up with her hands. “I don’t know, the convoy is supposed to arrive tomorrow? They might be ten light years out… it really just depends on whether or not they have someone on comms; they should. The closer a convoy gets to a station the more and more people who start offering deals for shipments or transport.”
They only had to wait a few minutes before receiving a reply.
Riah followed the link and was led to a rather well-made website for the merchant ship Viga, which was a cargo/passenger ferry. There was a short crew bio, lists on the costs of extra services and even some safety policies. It was quite a bit of effort for a ship that probably picked up quite a few criminals at every station; ships don’t come anywhere near this sector of space if they were 100% clean.
“Get two rooms,” her mother said as Riah set up the payment process, “We can say we’re using it to hold our things, or that we want separate rooms. Also,” she added, “I don’t think we want to be in such a cramped space when Santi and Katja bring themselves back to the land of the living. We’d be packed in such a small space.”
Riah knew that Santi wouldn’t mind being in such close quarters to her mother.
To protect her mother from his lascivious desires, she went ahead and booked two rooms.
“Me and my mom take one room,” she said as the payment went through, internally saying goodbye to four thousand credits, “and Santi and Katja take the other room. They didn’t ask me how many people were coming, so we should be fine.”
Riah felt a hand on her left shoulder.
For once, he agrees with me.
***
“Come on mom,” Riah said impatiently, adjusting her heavy backpack. Today was the day, they were on a clock and the sooner they could get aboard their ship out of here the less time the Upper Families had to stop them. And now her mother chooses to get sentimental again. She had been standing at their doorway, looking into their home of nearly seventeen years. She muttered something in Khelish that Riah didn’t quite catch before shutting off the lights and locking the door. Riah pretended that she couldn’t see the tears in her mother’s eyes. “Let’s get going mom, we don’t have much time.”
Her mother nodded and turned around and shouldered her own heavy backpack and activating their hover-cart which carried a few other supplies. She began to pat herself down before Riah rolled her eyes.
“Mom, we have everything. We’ve already triple checked. Let’s go.” And with that she turned around and locked eyes with Saestzea.
Riah had never seen Sae this late at night, the convoy ships had arrived slightly past midnight. She was usually in bed by now or getting in some late night gaming or, more recently, staying up while Santi and Katja spent a late night at their place. On the rare occasions that she was out in the hall she’d never seen Saestzea; Riah imagined that nighttime was her working hours doing heavy lifting on her back or on her knees. The asari girl looked so normal without her heavy makeup on. Her pajamas looked so conservative. The only reason Riah recognized her was because of the two distinctive moles Sae had under her right eye. The blue girl’s eyes moved from Riah’s to her mothers, then glanced at their backpacks and over to the hover-cart, then back to Riah’s. Then she smiled warmly and gave the two of them a wave goodbye.
Riah returned the wave, the two girls continuing to wave to each other until the elevator doors closed them off from each other’s view.
Riah sat down in the elevator seats as they sped downwards to the docks, the pack that held Santi and Katja’s remains sitting in her lap. She realized she didn’t have Sae’s extra-net address and would now never know what would become of her.
The rest of the ride down was passed in silence, Riah feeling a soft patting motion on her shoulder. It wasn’t her mother, which left Santi or Katja as the culprit. She wasn’t in the mood to argue and instead put her hand up where she felt the comforting gesture.
Soon the elevator reached the docs, the doors hissing open and revealing the loud clamoring of maneuvering thrusters, dock workers giving out orders, machinery of all sorts moving to and fro and the cautionary beeps of cargo-loaders. There were even a few other people milling about, she assumed the other passengers of the Viga. Riah had never been down here and her eyes were immediately drawn to all the new sights and sounds. Despite being a quarian and living in space her entire life she’d never once seen a spaceship.
She caught sight of the Viga, smoothly approaching her berth. There was something beautiful about the sight that Riah couldn’t quite identify. The ship itself was crap, she knew that much. She could tell it was an aging piece of junk. But it was still beautiful.
“Hey!”
She wondered how much it would cost to-
“Hey you, robot girl!”
Riah froze. Turning, she saw an asari come up to her, scars and burns littering her face. She was one of the Upper Family guards that had been placed outside her shop. She greeted Riah and Yili with a sneer.
“Where are you going?” she asked, looking between the two of them, their packs and their luggage. She glanced over at the Viga as it completed its docking procedures. “Off station?” she smirked as she began to circle around them, two other asari coming to join them. “Do the Families know about this?”
Riah glanced at her mother and caught sight of her hand hovering near a bag on her hip, the hold-out pistol nestled beneath some random luggage; the SMG hidden underneath Riah’s backpack suddenly felt incredibly out of reach. Riah saw frost form at the edges of her visor.
“Of course they do,” Riah’s mother answered, “They haven’t stopped us have they?” The three asari looked at each other and she pressed on. “The Upper Families read every extra-net message to and from this station don’t they? We booked our flight out yesterday morning,” she stated, never taking her eyes off of the lead asari, “That’s been long enough for your masters to have noticed. It’s been long enough for them to have said no if they wanted to.”
The injured asari scowled, her face looking even more malicious with her injuries. “You know your little girl has caused me a lot of trouble,” she spat before turning to Riah, “Long boring hours of nothing but damn watch duty looking after a spoiled brat.” She traced a finger along a large scar on her cheek, staring at Riah the entire time. “You know I had to read up on humans for my assignment,” she frowned, “you hear interesting things about humans on the extra-net.” She leaned forward, her hostile face violating Riah’s space. “Did you know that no humans died on Lluvia when those mercs shot up several city blocks?”
“So?” Riah asked, wondering how many people knew about the reality of human resurrection.
“Don’t play stupid suit-rat. You think it’s a coincidence that the human golemetrist and his mother suddenly try to make homebrew fuel and happen to die just as a convoy ship fly in? Watch them,” she ordered her accomplice before turning and activating her omni-tool.
Riah moved closer to her mother, who put a comforting hand on her own. She also felt someone touch her other hand and imagined it was Santi. It may have been Katja. But she knew it was Santi.
The asari woman was having a heated discussion with whoever was on the other end of that call if her wild gestures were anything to go by.
Over in the distance she saw people disembarking from the Viga while groups of people carrying luggage began to gather around a female turian, someone Riah recognized from the crew bio for the ship. She heard the crew member call out the names, travelers stepping forward to verify their IDs. The asari was still on her call as Riah strained to overhear more conversation from the area near the passenger ship.
“Let them go.”
Riah’s head snapped back to the asari, an incredibly sour look on her face. She almost looked pained to release the two quarians before her. The two asari at her flanks gave her puzzled looks.
“The Upper Families,” she slowly released the hurtful words from her blue mouth, “have decided that they don’t believe in ghost stories. They have also decided that you aren’t worth anything to them; that resources could be spent elsewhere in a more productive fashion.”
Riah felt her mother grip her hand.
“So,” she asari enforcer continued, “I was ordered to spend my time in a more productive manner, guarding the shipment of goods being unloaded from the merchant fleet.” Mother and daughter and son and mother hesitated. “Get the fuck out of here suit-rats.”
Riah and her mother had never walked so fast without breaking out into a run, the asari glaring at them the entire way.
“You Riah?” the female turian asked as she saw them approach.
“Yes, that’s me, that’s me!” Riah replied, fumbling with her omni-tool to bring up the purchase verification codes. “Two rooms, right next to each other. We’ve got two friends coming with us.”
The turian looked up from her omni-tool and scanned the docking area. “I don’t see anyone else here. They better get here fast.”
“They’ll be here.”
The turian sighed, rubbing the exoskeleton ridges on her nose. “I can’t stay and guard the bay all day-”
“Then don’t,” Riah jumped, “You go and do whatever you need to do. I’ll wait here for them and let them in. It’s just two extras.” The turian girl just looked at her.
“Don’t worry,” Yili added, “After this, they won’t cause any more problems. They’re just running a little late.”
The turian looked down, and a groaning sound came from her stomach, causing her to wince in embracement. “Alright kid, stay here and let your friends in. Your ma can go in and set your rooms up. I’ve got places to be and things to eat.” She walked off in the direction of the dock eatery, chatting into her earpiece about two more passengers that would arrive soon.
Yili hugged her daughter as soon as the turian walked off, her body shaking in excitement. “We did it!” she whispered in her ear. “Katja is with me, we’ll go up to our rooms and get started on her resurrection. Get aboard fast ok?” Riah agreed and watched as her mother left with most of their luggage, climbing the ramp up to the ship and casting one last glance at Riah before disappearing into the illuminated interior of the ship.
Riah turned around and looked back at the docks one last time.
“Santi?” she whispered and felt his hand on hers. “Let’s get the fuck off this station.”
The quarian and the ghost both boarded the ship.
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Post by burenokUrist on Dec 20, 2021 6:52:15 GMT
Фото: главное - Никита Кузин, остальные - фейсбук Елены Овраменко.Спортивный снаряд в квартире или на даче – отличное место для полезного времяпровождения ребенка. Он сможет развивать мускулатуру, тренировать выносливость и ловкость, выполнять профилактику болезней позвоночника и просто находить выход своей неумной энергии. Оптимальное решение для ребенка – деревянные спортивные комплексы , которые помогут привить любовь к занятиям спортом с раннего возраста. спортивные уличные тренажеры лучшие скидки от знаменитого завода из дерева для дома профессиональные тренажеры для улицы . Наш интернет магазин Happykiddi.com.ua доставку осуществляет к Вам домой по всей Украине : Винница , Киев , Кропивницкий , Полтава , Сумы , Херсон, Черновцы курьерской компанией САТ или транспортом завода без предоплаты в течении 1-4 дней после заказа. Стоимость доставки 1400 гривень. |
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Post by burenokUrist on Dec 20, 2021 6:54:16 GMT
Фото: главное - Никита Кузин, остальные - фейсбук Елены Овраменко.Спортивный снаряд в квартире или на даче – отличное место для полезного времяпровождения ребенка. Он сможет развивать мускулатуру, тренировать выносливость и ловкость, выполнять профилактику болезней позвоночника и просто находить выход своей неумной энергии. Оптимальное решение для ребенка – деревянные спортивные комплексы , которые помогут привить любовь к занятиям спортом с раннего возраста. спортивные уличные тренажеры лучшие скидки от знаменитого завода из дерева для дома профессиональные тренажеры для улицы . Наш интернет магазин Happykiddi.com.ua доставку осуществляет к Вам домой по всей Украине : Винница , Киев , Кропивницкий , Полтава , Сумы , Херсон, Черновцы курьерской компанией САТ или транспортом завода без предоплаты в течении 1-4 дней после заказа. Стоимость доставки 1400 гривень. |
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Post by napilim.pro on Dec 30, 2021 2:56:12 GMT
Профессиональный монтаж напольных покрытий.Обращайтесь всегда рады вам помочь.
Мы делаем следующие работы
Монтаж напольного плинтуса из массива
Монтаж напольного плинтуса МДФ
Монтаж напольного плинтуса дюрополимер
Монтаж напольного плинтуса ПВХ
Монтаж напольного плинтуса ЛДФ
Монтаж потолочного плинтуса.
Монтаж напольного плинтуса из металла и т.д кроме камня.
Покраска плинтуса.
Монтаж напольных покрытий
Монтаж паркетной доски на подложку.
Монтаж ламината.
Монтаж винилового ламината
Монтаж инжинерной доски
Монтаж моссивной доски (с готовым покрытием)
Монтаж фанеры.
Монтаж галтелий и наличников.
По другим работам уточняйте!
гарантия на все виды работ.
Напилим.про
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Post by napilim.pro on Dec 30, 2021 2:57:16 GMT
Профессиональный монтаж напольных покрытий.Обращайтесь всегда рады вам помочь.
Мы делаем следующие работы
Монтаж напольного плинтуса из массива
Монтаж напольного плинтуса МДФ
Монтаж напольного плинтуса дюрополимер
Монтаж напольного плинтуса ПВХ
Монтаж напольного плинтуса ЛДФ
Монтаж потолочного плинтуса.
Монтаж напольного плинтуса из металла и т.д кроме камня.
Покраска плинтуса.
Монтаж напольных покрытий
Монтаж паркетной доски на подложку.
Монтаж ламината.
Монтаж винилового ламината
Монтаж инжинерной доски
Монтаж моссивной доски (с готовым покрытием)
Монтаж фанеры.
Монтаж галтелий и наличников.
По другим работам уточняйте!
гарантия на все виды работ.
Напилим.про
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Post by napilim.pro on Dec 30, 2021 2:59:39 GMT
Профессиональный монтаж напольных покрытий.Обращайтесь всегда рады вам помочь.
Мы делаем следующие работы
Монтаж напольного плинтуса из массива
Монтаж напольного плинтуса МДФ
Монтаж напольного плинтуса дюрополимер
Монтаж напольного плинтуса ПВХ
Монтаж напольного плинтуса ЛДФ
Монтаж потолочного плинтуса.
Монтаж напольного плинтуса из металла и т.д кроме камня.
Покраска плинтуса.
Монтаж напольных покрытий
Монтаж паркетной доски на подложку.
Монтаж ламината.
Монтаж винилового ламината
Монтаж инжинерной доски
Монтаж моссивной доски (с готовым покрытием)
Монтаж фанеры.
Монтаж галтелий и наличников.
По другим работам уточняйте!
гарантия на все виды работ.
Напилим.про
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Post by NathanSek on Mar 27, 2022 4:04:20 GMT
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Post by NathanSek on Mar 27, 2022 4:07:15 GMT
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Post by NathanSek on Mar 27, 2022 4:08:59 GMT
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