[Citadel/Nimbus] A Party On The Rocks (closed)

Rahilan jerked at Temria's exclamation, worried she was giving some overt sign of discomfort - venting steam from the aurals, perhaps - and relaxed when she offered to fetch the wedges.

"'nk 'oo," she managed gratefully. How did the doctor look so calm? Rahi had wondered briefly if the supply station had gotten an ingredient mixed up - sea salt accidentally replaced by Batarian Insanity Powder, perhaps - but Temria seemed quite content with the results of her handiwork; evidently she had done this on purpose. She caught sight of Arina's silent protest, and felt ashamed at how glad she was that she was the most junior of the party, and could reasonably let the diplomat do all the talking to save them.

She scooped a generous portion of wedges onto her plate when the doctor returned, and bit into one absurdly grateful for the minor relief they offered. The fish continued to lurk on her plate. She made a quick calculation of how much she absolutely had to eat - Freh'ya's comment gave her an out from finishing the lot, so she only had a couple more bites to tackle before her plate was reasonably depleted, so long as she moved a little bit over here behind a wedge, and split this piece off so it looked smaller... Possibly Temria would package up the leftovers for storage, but she could always contrive to accidentally jettison a stasis container or two into space, where FTL shear should safely dispose of it.

A very sinister thought crossed her mind. Maybe it was the spices bringing disarray to her synapses. “I do think we should save all the hard work that went into it though! It is overall still enough for another meal. We could dryfreeze the fish meat and save it for the Matriarch. She sure will appreciate a handcrafted meal. Let’s just finish the wedges, they don’t freeze very well. We can prepare a new side dish for the Matriarch then.”

She was right in fact, the marinated and cooked fish meat was something that was often prepared in larger quantities (you had to take care of a large fish at once after all) and stored in the freezer in smaller portions to be used later. The marinated meat would still be good then.

The Goddess would probably punish her for this, very, very hard.

"Thank you for putting so much effort into this, Temria." Freh'ya managed a smile and an appreciative nod towards the Matron.

Arina could only as much as cough a little (with a certain hint of desperation) and blink her gaping eyes at the proposal of Freh'ya. A nod escaped her.

Temria laughed softly as the others rushed to snatch up the still warm wedges so rapidly, in fact she had to rush just to get a couple for herself, for an instant it was like being back home.

"Hnn? Too rich?" she asked curiously, taking another bite and savoring the layers upon layers of uniquely pungent spices without so much as flinching. "... you all certainly seem hungry..." she said to Freh'ya skeptically, noting the rate at which they attacked the sides...

Speaking of which. "These are fantastic, Rahi." she nodded gratefully, taking a second bite out of the wedge she'd managed to secure for herself.

---

"Hmm? The Matriarch?" the doctor hesitated, looking to Freh'ya, then to Arina, then back, "You think we should save some for the... the Matriarch? You think it's... it's good enough?"

Arina put back the wedge she just had picked up. “Ugh, yeah, I am also full. Thanks to the kitchen team!” Curse you, yakshi-doctor!

The wicked idea of Freh’ya gave her an angle after a few seconds of recovery.
“Yes, that’s a good idea! Why not make it a sort of ‘welcome from beyond the relay’ meal? Of course we should not waste any food.” It would buy them time to dispose of the problem…

Arina took a long sip from her juice and water, her body functions coming back to normal slowly. “Okay, I’ll remove the dishes, Temria, you are released from further kitchen duty, you’ve done enough today.” Yeah right.

She started collecting the plates, singling out the meat pieces. While carrying them to the kitchen she raised an eyebrow and shook her head over what just had happened. Why was nobody speaking up openly? Well.

When she stood next to the waste disposal unit, she felt tempted…

A hand touched her arm “Don’t” Freh’ya whispered. At least not yet. She had brought the remaining bowls and silverware. In one of the cabinets there were containers for freezing rations. They put the remaining meat in one of them and put it in the freezer. A few buttons on the interface were pressed and icy fog and a hiss indicated the process was done in the blink of an eye.

Freh’ya was browsing the drinks available. She needed something to dampen her metabolism, beer would be preferred. But it seemed, there was not much of a selection on this vessel. Maybe because this was a diplomatic mission and nobody wanted to have the crew drunk. She picked a can of Solo Light. Not much more than water that has been stored next to real beer for some time but hey, you take what you get. Speaking of which…

Opening another cabinet, she smiled. Bags with dry-stored nuts. Perfect, at least some proteins and not suspicious.

She returned to the common room. “So, movie time?”

Rahi choked quietly on her current bite on hearing Freh'ya's suggestion, and swallowed with difficulty, reaching for her rapidly-vanishing water.

Nonononono, don't give it to the Matriarch, I don't want the Matriarch to die of exploded head on my ship!

...on the other hand, I could stop eating...

She looked guiltily over at Arina, and breathed a sigh of relief as she took charge of the situation. Maybe we'll work something out. The Matriarch could be on a restricted diet. No, Temria would know... Ooh, maybe her attendant prepares all her meals personally, that could happen? Let's hope for that...

"Um, ye-" She paused to cough quietly, clearing her throat. Goddess, that was going to smart for hours. "Yes, movie, sure."

Temria smiled politely as Arina insisted on clearing the table. For what it's worth, the doctor was keen to help, but wouldn't dream of refusing her hospitality. She noticed Arina giving her a second look as she passed, just out of the corner of her eye, and Temria returned it with a cordial nod.

"Yes, I'm quite ready." she thought aloud, stretching her arms above her head before climbing out of her seat, "Which one did we end up picking?"

"Some old school Citadel Fear thriller," Arina announced when coming back. "There have been a few great new releases lately, it seems the genre is getting revived. Maybe because the fact that the place still holds mysteries was brought to our attention. Anyway, it is set at the time of the initial discoveries ...."

Everyone had settled in a comfortable position in one of the spacious lounging chairs when the opening credits of the vid flashed over the screen… some munching away on the nuts, to fill their grumbling stomachs.



Meanwhile the ship shot along the corridor out of spacetime that connected the Aralakh relay and the Pelion relay. Only a couple of hours…..

~~~~~

While the vid had been great, some of the crew must have had a night without much rest, when the Sala T’era was passing into the Pelion system, shot through the relay back into normal space again. Rahilan was at the controls, Freh’ya at the observation post, both carrying their side arms as it was the regulation currently for the Nimbus cluster. Arina was still lounging in her bunk, having a slight headache and uneasy stomach from the restless night and the food! She had advised Rahi to call her up when they came into Trategos’ control sector. She was watching the ceiling, listening to the rummaging of Temria next door. She should ask her for something against the headache….

With a sigh she got up and after resting a few seconds sitting on the bed, she straightened her dress. It was an elegant classic asari dress in dark blue and white. It did not exactly fit her exhausted facial expression, as she looked through the door into the medbay.

“Hey, Temria. I am not feeling too well, would you happen to a something against headaches? It must have been the movie that kept me a bit restless tonight….”

Freh'ya lounged in her chair, watching the heavy traffic around the relay, visible as blips and callsigns on her interface. She had enjoyed the movie night very much and she was sure everyone had. The vid had been very creepy and the lead actress had been one of her favorites. The food had not caused any permanent effects on her, she really had seen worse.

"There's a lot of ships! Good thing we have this diplomatic license." as demanded by protocol for any armed ship, Freh'ya switched the armament controls from off to standby. From traffic control there were incoming automated security reports throughout the cluster, it looked like a gigantic weather map with lots of numbers and alert status lights. Since they didn't want to go beyond the system, she only looked at them out of curiosity, many green sectors, a few yellow and two red. Somewhere out there the fleet must have encountered pirate ships or be involved in some other operation. The huntress suddenly felt this itching... what would be like for those sisters out there weeding out this pirate scum? She had taken part in quite many space drops in her career to imagine the thrill when the doors opened and a dozen or so biotic bubbles burned through an atmosphere, for show mostly. But there wasn't much else that was a bigger thrill than atmo-dropping in a biotic bubble.

It had been a tactic to have a show-off drop after another recon guard was already operating groundside in secrecy, disabling AA capability. Many slaving and pirating outposts had been taken in a surprise coup. When this mission was over she should see if she could get an assignment with a guard of her own in the cluster.

"Yes ma'am," Rahilan agreed, taking in the array of shipping dotted about the system - light transports and bulk freighters going to and from Trategos, or on least-time vectors for FTL to the other systems in the cluster, a pair of refinery runners nearing Sthenia, and patrol vessels flitting here and there, keeping up a steady schedule of scans and inspections on all the commercial traffic. Rahi isolated the largest warship in the system - the dreadnought Daughter of Storms, serving as C&C for the local fleet - and enhanced its image on the surround view to get a good look at the leviathan.

"Relay Inbound zero-two-zero, please confirm beacon and course," the expected challenge came over the comm; the transmitting vessel, a cruiser maintaining relay watch, was automatically brought to enhanced view.

"Niradi, this is Sala T'Era out of Sol," Rahi replied promptly - Niradi's flight controllers would already have had all the relevant details of the ship and its mission courtesy of the automated fleet transmissions, but it was protocol to verbally confirm. "Diplomatic three for beacon Trategos Fleet Two, elliptical for zero-zero and orbit."

"Sala T'Era, Niradi. Confirming Trategos Fleet Two is open. You are logged and cleared through Aitis perimeter at interval five. Swift journey."

"Thank you Niradi," Rahi responded, smiling slightly at the comforting routines. She hadn't spoken much this morning, but her throat was starting to feel normal again after the previous evening's adventure. She swiped away the enhanced view of the cruiser and brought up a system map, surveying their course as they accelerated away from the relay, building velocity after the deceleration kick coming out of the corridor. The perimeter was ahead, and then - given priority over civilian traffic - their course was a leisurely curve, sweeping around the edge of the star's safe zone to reach Trategos on its far side.

"Intercept for orbit plotted," she reported out lout - Freh'ya wasn't exactly keeping tabs on her, but Rahi liked to make the standard reports regardless. "Turnover designated Point Tara, accelerating."

"Oh, Arina. Yes, by all means." Temria smiled as she came around the bio-bed, subtly checking the younger asari's complexion but seeing no cause for concern.

For her part, the doctor had cleaned up nicely. Her uniform was clean and done up though mostly obscured by the more billowy doctor's coat in the more traditional Thessian style. It lent her an air of etherealness that she was doing her best to practice and cultivate before meeting the matriarch in person, you'd hardly think this was the same woman who was subtly cowering behind Arina during the particularly tense moments of last night's vid night.

Crossing the medical bay with that same practiced look, she fingered through some of the cabinets on the far wall, "Trouble sleeping? Or sinus related? Would you say it's centered more towards the front or the back of your head?"

It’s more everywhere related. That’s what Arina wanted to say. Also, it’s actually originating in my stomach! But she could not say that.
“It’s behind the temples, so probably sinus. I usually don’t get headaches so I am not very familiar with describing that.” That was true and a good thing in her line of work where you often had to face difficult negotiations at the oddest times and durations.

Arina noted that Temria had dressed a bit more elaborate today, still all doctor but fitting the occasion that they would take on a high representative of Trategos. Arina tried to remember what little she knew about the Matriarch. She could not remember any specific traits beyond the typical Trategos attitude. She could not imagine how much the recent time without medication might have changed her though. There had not been any recent picture in the file, all had predated the war and relay lock. Well, they had done what was possible.

Arina sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed, propping her arm to either side, while she watched Temria search for a medication.
“I enjoyed the movie yesterday. Maybe we could do that… you know, more often, back on the Ciadel? Go to the movies, I mean. Dunno how you spend your evenings besides hanging out at the ‘Forrest’. Did you like the vid?” She chuckled. She did know surprisingly little about the Matron’s personal life. Of course Arina had noted the slight scare on Temria last night but see still seemed to have enjoyed it.

She could need someone to go out with from time to time that was no potential romantic interest. She had not dated anyone since … Sulla. If only he would have more time to spend on the extranet. She hoped for him to have some shoreleave soon.

While watching the ship parade, Freh’ya tried to remember when she had worn her ‘guard duty combat suit’ the last time. It had been way before the war, not much need for it since then. She commanded the guard and nowadays only the recruits took turn with the honorary guard for the Rings Of Alune. There were too little experienced commandos to spare for that. At official events back home she had mostly worn her formal suit, not a combat outfit. The fit was still excellent though, dark grey fabric and platings with fine dark red trims, the emblem of her Guard on her arms and the rank on her chest.

She pulled up a map of the system, all the patrol vessels and assembly areas for the convoys were marked, There was light individual travel to and from Trategos on the same route Rahi took now. The pilot was visibly in her element. “No need to be so formal here. Just follow all the protocols, We don’t want anyone start target practice on us.” She said with a smile.

“It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like, hidden behind a closed relay, not knowing if you’re going to be reconnected. It’s amazing to see all the convoys pouring in though… actually, I read that mining colonies in Nimbus are sitting on huge mountains of ore they produced in that year and a half. The convoys are also needed to bring that out again for barter trade in some cases. I wonder if the volus will like that in a longer run.”
Not that this was going to be a status quo for long hopefully anyway.

She turned towards the elevator o check if someone was coming, then rotated her chair back.
"Say, how are you feeling today? Ready to meet a Matriach, Commando?" Freh'ya asked playfully.

"I'd like that..." Temria replied with the sort of half-recognition as to be clear she was reading labels as she did so. Though when she turned at last with a small bottle of pills in hand her smile was genuine. "I whould like that, actually. Last night's was certainly... interesting, to be sure."

Returning to Arina's side, the doctor leaned against the bed and held the bottle for her to review. "Your average OTC headache medicine, separated in two halves. The white ones are mildly cafinated to combat drowsyness and the blue ones are meant to be taken before bed." She removed one to demonstrate, both colours were reflected in one pill, meant to be broken in half before taking. "Take them one at a time, with a minimum of two hours between them, no more than six in a fourteen hour period."

"Yes ma'am," Rahi said again, but there was a smile in her voice this time. "The commando mentoring me back in the Reach is a great advocate of protocol, I don't doubt her views have rubbed off quite a bit." She glanced down at her suit, deep navy blue with white-gold buckles and seals polished to shine - she imagined she looked a little like a storybook naval officer, but even if it had come to her from her mentor, it was the way she had allowed to become hers, and she was proud of it.

She followed Freh'ya's gaze across the clutter of shipping moving about the system, enhancing one after the other to study their signatures as their VI-generated images zoomed into view and receded.

"I hear there's a lot of work to be done here," she agreed, remembering the out-system reports Freh'ya had surveyed when they arrived through the relay. "There were rumours around Epira that the Union was considering deploying operatives pretty deeply to help root out the pirate element here... I suppose that's not likely to go ahead now."

She noticed a familiar energy signature on a frigate pack, skimming quietly along the periphery of the system, evidently boosting for a trip to another of the Cluster's systems. I've seen your kind before. First generation Talith programme frigates, running quiet with only their black transponders broadcasting - she hadn't heard any talk of the newly-built warships, big sisters to her own little transport, being put into action so quickly, but she imagined the Nimbus Cluster's need had been judged greater than any secrecy concerns. She felt Freh'ya's presence behind her, but remained silent - what little she knew of the programme wasn't any kind of official secret, but it was for the commando to ask if she wished, not a mere pilot to start running her mouth at the first opportunity.

"Um?" she asked, a little started as the question brought her thoughts back to the present. "Uh, yes ma'am, as much as I'll ever be, I suppose. Fighting the urge to go below with a vacuum and do last-minute checks for stray crumbs on the floor." She chuckled quietly. "I don't imagine the'll be mistaking me for a commando though." Not with you standing beside me, looking all indomitable.

-----

A short while later, a signal chime preceded Rahilan's voice over the internal comms.

"Madam Caenis to the bridge, please. We're on approach to Trategos control space, amber zone."

Arina took the bottle and looked closely at the content. Easy enough. She took one half of the pill that got broken by Temria right away.

“Great, let’s see what comes up then!” she said cheerfully. It was interesting, how little Temria let slide about her private life. But ever since Arina had learned that the doctor was a… ‘pureblood’ ….the word sounded hollow suddenly, given the times she had used it without thinking. Not in direct conversation of course but still… anyway, ever since she had found out about that, she thought that might be a source of self protection for Temria. She had picked up snippets here and there about someone in her life but she never really talked about it, even in socializing situations. Arina respected that and didn’t want to sound intrusive….

The headache was letting go a bit immediately. The queasy stomach stayed though.
“Thanks, I think it’s working already!” she said.

Rahilan's voice over intercom made her shrug. She hopped off the bed and put the bottle in her pocket.


"That's a short hop, isn't it? So let's find out how we are going to pick the Lady up." She headed out but before she entered the elvator remembered Freh'ya's concern about the sidarm regulation and picked up her Predator from the locker in the quarters...

~~~~

Upstairs on the bridge Arina took a seat in the captains chair and activated the com console.

“Sunda control, this is the diplomatic vessel Sala T’Era. We are here to pick up Matriarch T’Veda. Requesting priority platform access.” She transmitted their diplomatic ID with that message.

The asari from ground control became visible in the small cam window of the communications console.
“This is Sunda control. Welcome to Trategos, Sala T’Era. My superior wants to have a word with you, please stand by.” The operator spoke with a distinct accent. Why was it that such com officers often were accent prone? Maybe it had to do with emphasizing where you were heading. Arina liked the slang and did not mind.

Arina raised an eyebrow. After a second the picture switched to another asari.
“Welcome Sala T’Era, we’ve been expecting you. My name is Jena, I am head of traffic control.” She hesitated for a split second. “There has been a small change of plans, Madam. You have to pick up the Matriarch directly at her private retreat in the Silent Mountains. She went there with her acolytes several weeks ago to rest and seems not inclined to travel back to Sunda. It’s not a big problem though, the location has a landing pad large enough for a mid sized freighter. It’s built on a given up mining facility.” Another pause, as Jena was typing on her console. Arina received a transmission of data. “Here is the location and a map. There is a slight inconvenience though, the Silent Mountains’ are a Metozite* deposit, which means heavy interferences, you will best approach the coordinates on visual. You can see the classification of the airspace on the map. Sorry ‘bout that. You may experience temporary radio interruption and sensor interferences, so don’t be alarmed. The facility is huge and has an optical signal beacon though; you can’t miss it if you just follow the monorail. We’ll announce your arrival via landline immediately. Again, I’m sorry ‘bout the inconvenience Ma’am.”

Arina knew the region from her tour of duty. It was one of those rare deposits where Metozite was spread out all on the surface and therefore caused something like a dome of interferences all over the Silent Mountains near the northern polar circle. It had proven an ideal hideout during the Reaper war from what she had heard and was a region mostly left untouched anyway so nobody cared much usually… unless some VIP Matriarch decided to have her residence there.

There had been mining attempts in past centuries but the density of the Metozite in the rocks proved too thin to be profitable so the region had been given up after a while. The old mining locations were connected to Sunda by a monorail landline and a hard wired communication so some facilities had been repurposed into retreats in a wild and a goddessforsaken landscape of snow, glaciers and rocks. It seemed the Matriarch was living in one of those these days.

Arina sighed.
“All right, got that. I know the Silent Mountains from a past visit. Thank you for the coordinates. Sala T’Era out.”

She turned to Rahilan and transmitted the map to the station of the pilot.
“You heard it. It’s a bit more complicated but maybe you enjoy the chance to fly the T’Era on visual and manually? You can see the Monorail on the map. Its second stop is our destination. Just try and keep away from the rocky things. I don’t mind if you put up this omni window thing again, the landscape is gorgeous.” With a chuckle she turned to the doctor.

“It seems like the Matriarch is not keen on large crowds and travelling these days. Well, that way you’ll all get to see a bit of beautiful and fearsome Trategos.….”

Great, a total blackout zone. Of all things…. That Matriach seemed a bit like an old hermite. Or on the other hand the perfect place to get some rest if you were dealing with Nemruna’s and wanted to retreat from the public a bit.

Freh’ya now also had the map on her tactical station. The whole mountain range was marked in red, the railway winding through valleys, the mining posts indicated alongside. One was blinking green, their destination. Freh’ya guessed that, given the low speed they would have to restrict themselves to, it would take a bit. But then, Arina had a point, for a pilot it would be a great opportunity to fly a ship like this though the valleys and between the icy peaks. It could be a fun ride actually with a great view from the cockpit window.

She shrugged, looking at Rahilan. “Let’s pick her up then. Nothing like a cozy cabin in the mountains, eh?”

"Yes ma'am, heard and understood," Rahilan nodded; she had been reviewing the maps sent by Sunda control, as well as an infobox on Metozite. "Recalculating deorbit burn for Silent Mountain, navpoint gold for monorail rendezvous. I wouldn't mind the flying," she admitted to Arina, while the VI quietly repeated her instructions and displayed the results on her screens. "Space does get a bit same-y after a while." She selected a screen to watch their course change, and a moment later triggered a set of controls. "Prepare for deorbit. Projected eight-second entry blackout in... five."

She kept the view confined to regular screens for the moment - the change in orbital path they had just undertaken was, technically speaking, a far more ambitious manoeuvre, but the 'routine' insertion, with the thunderous plasma storm around the ship as it roared belly-first through the upper atmosphere to decelerate, was often a far more unsettling experience visually. Pleasure cruisers and recon missions often slowed themselves on engine power alone, slipping into the air as smoothly as a leaf on the breeze, but the sensibilities of high-paying passengers, and whether anyone on the ground could detect them, not being a priority, that was considered a waste of fuel for routine flights. Rahi made a mental note to ask the Matriarch's assistant whether she had a preference, when they came to arrive at Hyetiana. A Matriarch's comfort would, of course, be considered ahead of a minor expenditure of fuel.

"Clearing deorbit blackout," she reported, as they slowed enough for the firestorm to dissipate into mere rushing air. "On course for the Silent Mountains. Engaging panoptics," she added, for the benefit of the others, not wanting to startle them even with Arina's permission earlier. The cockpit surrounds vanished, revealing Trategos below, a brilliantly bright panorama of white, beneath a clear sky rapidly fading into colour as they left the dark of space behind. Rahi tilted the ship's nose down a fraction, moderating the flight controls to let gravity do its share of the work as they descended - seemingly by inches, looking at the slow motion of the ground below, but their speed became more apparent as they neared the surface, and she strengthened the flight fields again to level out their descent.

"On target, drift negligible," she announced, with a hint of pride. "Navpoint gold ahead, and... there's our guide. Highlight that please, and prepare for passive sensor reliance."

"Affirmatively: Landmark recognised and marked," the VI droned, as the holographic strip Rahi had 'drawn' over the monorail track, ahead and below, was replaced by a far more precise wireframe highlight. "Informative: Passive sensor mode prepared. Local survey information integrated."

"Now we do it by eyes," Rahi smiled, bringing Sala swooping in to follow the monorail track's course. The icy peaks reaches up around them, looming on either side as they entered the range; virtual representations of the terrain ahead, and airflows, appeared to guide them, although with only computer extrapolation from passive sensors to guide them, they were paler and less obtrusive than a true real-time mapping display would have been, leaving it to the pilot to make her own observations first and foremost. The sky remained mostly clear, and but for a few sporadic gusts of wind and snow, visibility was good.

"That'd be some amazing para-skiing down there," Rahi mused, as they passed a colossal slope on their port side. "Not the most accessible leisure location, but still..." She made a minor adjustment to their course, lifting them up over a rocky outcrop that the monorail had tunneled through, then dropping back down to follow the rail as it reached out across the glacier field beyond.

"Informative: Optical beacon acquired," the VI announced a short while later, as they began to enter another winding set of valleys. A crosshair appeared on the view, indicating a barely-visible patch of light in the distance - as they sped on, it became a pulsing green light atop a tall, elegantly curved tower, reaching into the sky beyond the icy passes ahead of them.

"Good eyes," Rahi said, giving the holographic elcor a quick smile. "That's our landing point, and according to our maps... five point four distant, not long to go now."

Temria smiled weakly at Arina's comment, shrinking back a bit at mention of using the massive virtualized window again. Trategos was beautiful to be sure, but the doctor clearly didn't relish the idea of being reminded of just how fast they were being flung over the ranges. If there was any question of that, the way she stepped back rapidly towards the door when Rahi activated the panoptic screen would leave no question.

"I'd prefer the retreat..." she admitted to Rahilan, "Nothing but mountain air and hot tubs, you can keep your para-skiing."

The Matriarch's retreat was a welcome sight on the horizon, Temria at least, could focus directly on it, and not the jagged rocks below. She made a note of the fluid curve of it's construction, and tried to make a game of guessing what materials it must have been build upon given its angle and what she knew of Trategos' gravity. That kept her occupied at least until Rahi came around for a landing...