[Citadel - Metroplaza Apartment Complex] The Emperor's New Guest

"I.. Err. Right- I suppose you both know a bit more on certain aspects of .." She turned a shade pink and clearly tried to navigate a verbal minefield. "I mean, with your lines of work, I understand." she shook her head and regained her composure. "How hard is it to maintain your private lives in your lines of work? Mine's.. Well, I keep most private aspects of my life strictly private. Only with the most trusted of friends and random extranet posts for the whole world to see."

The blond pushed a hand through her hair with mild frustration. The look in her eyes was that of pain, emotional rather than physical. She flattened her hair again and spoke. " I've been lonely, is all. I've been used to sharing a bed for so long- I find myself expecting her there when I wake up at night or when I get home from work. I know it can raise Albie alone but what if I'm at work and he needs me? Or what if I'm off the Citadel? Baby needs another mommy or a daddy. A parent, I need- I want someone to help me. I want what's best for my son and I can't drop what I'm doing to raise him, even though it's an enticing option. "

"Daia, Ana, you both mean the world to me. I'm sorry this got "Sarah bitches and bitches" again." She seemed to relax. "I know what I need to do. First thing tomorrow, I call my therapist. I sign up for a gym and hire a nanny." She gave an affirming nod. "Sound good?"

"Won't lie, it tosses up the occasional mental spinball," Ana admitted; Daia nodded agreement. "But," the quarian tilted her helmet, a gesture that somehow conveyed a sense of sympathy to Sarah, "it's not the only kind of life that happens in. In a way though, it lends itself to privacy. There's an element of theatricality - especially in my case, since there's no... you know," she shrugged. "It's all character."

"True," Daia added. "Even for me - I'm quite open with my personality in general, and I don't behave that differently, but even so, the escort/client dynamic... It's not that difficult, with experience, to generate an understanding of that, from both sides."

Both listened to Sarah's admission of loneliness, and her apology, and Ana nodded without hesitation at its conclusion, unaware she had mirrored Sarah's nod.

"Sounds good," she said.

"It's a plan," Daia agreed, smiling encouragingly.

Sarah turned her head over her shoulder at the sound of a whimpering baby in the next room. With an apologetic smile, she slowly stood, stepping out to pick her son up out of his crib. "I didn't forget you, baby!" She spoke with a cheery tone. "Hi there!" She blew raspberries at his face, trying to amuse him- and it seemingly worked. She wandered back to her guests, hugging the boy to her shoulder. "Sorry, he's cranky like I was. How's about we all meet before you two leave the station? I can forward you more baby pictures than you know what to do with, and you two can try genuine beef barbecue?"

"Also, i need to thank you both for letting me get that weight off my chest. I'm going to talk to Doctor Wolfe again and spare you the details. Care to hold the Future Conquerer of Rannoch, Illium and all spaces in between, Ana?"

"I wish we could," Daia said, with a rueful smile. "But we're booked on a liner back home early tomorrow morning, so unless Sirta set a speed record for talks... Sorry," she shrugged apologetically.

"I... really?" Ana said, seeming surprised to be offered the baby. "Uh okay, sure, if you... okay." Daia guided her with a subtle touch on her elbow, and her hands found Albert quite easily.

"Rannoch and Illium too?" Daia asked, glancing at Sarah. "I thought it was just Alliance space - his ambitions grow quick." She giggled, and put a hand on Ana's shoulder.

"Hey, you," she said softly to the baby in her arms. "Am I holding him right?"

"Yes," Daia murmured.

"So uh... welcome to the galaxy, and so forth. Eheh." She tilted her head this way and that, seemingly an unconscious motion, while Albert peered quizzically at his blue-tinted reflection in her faceplate. "This is so strange," she said, half to herself. "I uh, not in regard to him, just... Even with most of my adult life off the Flotilla, it's kind of hard to shake the instinctive 'baby - bubble' connection."

"The only way he'll stop is when he runs out of planets to conquer. I'm expecting Palavdn to surrender by age three." She planted her hands on her hips , looking over her son in the quarian woman's arms. "Bubble babies have existed in human history, before genetic modification. I think, however, soon enough your people will be over the " suit " hurdle, no offense."

Albert stared wide-eyed at Ana's visor, as the entirely new collection of experiences overwhelmed him. He began to wriggle and wave his tiny arms.
"Imagine if the first of your people she met was Pariah. You've heard- seen her posts, right ?" Sarah adopted a rigid posture with crossed arms. An attempt at a quarian accent, "He will grow up with disappointment."

The woman mussed her hair and smiled, reaching for her son. "Have you two considered having kids down the line? Chris twisted my arm but I warmed up to the idea. Seven years together was enough time to start a family. I- I'm sorry if the question is crazy talk."

Ana 'glanced' at Daia when Albert started wriggling, and seemed somewhat relieved to surrender him back to his mother.

"Uh, 'down the line'," she replied. "It's not something we've not talked about, but... no firm plans, no firm opposition to the notion of said plans at some undetermined point in the future..."

"It'd be a bit of a mental adjustment," Daia admitted, smiling. "For the most part around children I default to 'big sister' mode. Or 'auntie Daia', once they're old enough to grasp the centuries-old thing."

"Well, I've been an "Aunt Sarah" for a while." She took her seat again, bundling up her son in a nearby blanket. " Mommy- on the other hand- is a title that I know will terrify me. I mean, my sole example was my mother. This boy is doomed." She held her son at eye level, giving him a goofy smile before resting him in her arms. "So- you're both not hungry and I've spent a good thirty minutes turning you both deaf.." She murmured.

"You're here for Sirta? What's going on? I'm sure it's more interesting than my ususal weirdness."

"We've been talking with their representatives on Illium," Daia explained. "Besides clean-rooms, we have a few sidelines in various other kinds of environmental control and medical technology - the kind of tech that can make a space safe for an unsuited quarian can be put to lots of other uses, so it doesn't tax our resources much to diversify. We supply all the sensors and monitoring systems for the suites in the Oasis - Eafina's escort agency - back home, for instance... which admittedly had a lot to do with being friends with the owner, but it's a good example. Now we don't ship beyond Illium, aside from a few limited arrangements, but software doesn't need a freighter to carry it, so what we're hoping with Sirta is to get the program component of our medical monitors - compatible with all the standard sensor hardware suites - into their catalogue, which will be an enormous jump in the potential market for us."

Ana 'watched' her fondly, as she got quite lost in her description, speaking and gesturing animatedly.

"Obviously they don't do business with just anyone," the asari went on, "even just in terms of placement in the third-party options they offer as a sideline to their own products. I like to think we'd make it on merit - after all, our home clean-tech naturally comes from the company, so there couldn't possibly be more incentive to make it the best of the best - but we're not a big name; what's attractive to Sirta is that, through a few contacts of Ana's, our R&D section has been in collaboration with a couple of hardware and software studios on Rannoch, including one that has a partnership with the Consensus. It's nothing as fancy as 'geth software' - although a little while back," she chuckled, "we went through a bit of a trial with customs at home, when somebody interpreted geth participation in our code development as meaning we were proposing to import a sapient geth program... it got sorted out in the end - but everybody wants geth code at the moment." She quirked an eyebrow. "Unless they're avoiding it under the assumption that it's all some kind of elaborate ruse to take over the galaxy. But most companies, Sirta included, aren't that paranoid, what they see is levels of software efficiency in multiple dimensions light-years beyond the current 'industry standard'. What we're using in our products isn't really that different, but the Consensus is understandably keeping a very tight rein on true 'geth code', so even the little odds and ends they've shared with us, and agreed we have the right to share in turn, are worth a company's time, especially since from the point of view of somebody Sirta's size, we're not asking terribly much in return. And so, here we are."

She took a breath, then glanced sheepishly at Ana and then Sarah.

"I went on a bit there, didn't I?"

Sarah shook her head, following her friend's animated gestures and explanation. "Absolutely not! You've got your hands on a real opportunity! Geth code- I could imagine what my colleagues would do with and for that. Congratulations! So- what are you going to do with all the money you're going to get out of this?" She crossed a leg over her knee, and readjusted her grip on her child. "If I may suggest a few.. a subaquatic apartment.. A mag-lift bed and luxury two-person bathtub. The high life. A house that's literally inside of a frigate plated with gold. A team of house worker supermodels that bring you caviar and wine breakfast in bed.." She sighed wistfully. "If I had that kind of money again .." She wrung her hands.

"Could you loan me a fortune? I'm good for it, as soon as my home world is rebuilt in a few decades. Now to be serious, trad carefully. You have something they'll want and you must act on this opportunity like a striking hawk. I know you've got financiers and legal advice better than mine, but- it's still Sirta. It's akin to me stumbling on the Illusive Man in a local commissary. Payday. Name in lights. I know you're smart, and I'm happy for you both. I wish I knew how to network like you, I've been awfully scatterbrained."

"I've already got a house worker supermodel," Ana protested. "What would I do with extras? Although," she turned to Daia, "be a dear and look into that caviar and wine suggestion, would you? Maybe someone on Rannoch's managed to tube caviar by now without it tasting like sealant gel."

"One can hope," Daia nodded, smiling, before turning back to Sarah. "We've got what we think is a good deal, for both parties, planned out - a friend of ours back home has gone over it from top to bottom from the legal angle. So far as business acumen goes, that's why I had to drag Ana onto the overnight flights here and back." She gave a little shrug. "I make a good corporate figurehead... so long as the other side aren't intensely stuffy... but I'm no administrator."

"It's a joint effort," Ana said mildly.

"Usually when people see me, they forget that I'm very educated and I worked as an assassin and retrieval expert for nearly a decade of my life. They see the friendly smile and the stupid posts I make on the extranet and pass me off as a moron with no mental filter. Maybe I don't have one, maybe it was gone when I got shot in the head-" She shook her head. "But I am not a moron."

"That forum irritates the hell out of me. Chris hated I was on it all the time, and it caused fights. I guess -" She fell quiet, her blue eyes darting across an invisible board- Trying to find the right words to say. "If I could do anything, I'd go back and try to spend time with her more often, try to mend that gap before it spread too far. I don't think that's possible now. We fought on Illium- and not within three hours, I had armed men break into my hotel room that I booked to get away from her in."

"It seems rather fishy. She claims she was under duress but was she? How much did she lose because of me? She lost- Indirectly- almost everything. And maybe she's furious because of that? I .. Maybe I'm just thinking crazy. I don't think someone I loved that much would resent me to the point she'd throw me to the wolves. I- Fuck. I am crazy." She leaned back, reclining her head on the top of her chair's cushion, her eyes staring at the high-speed fan on the ceiling.

"I- You're a good figurehead leader for a company. You've got a marketable look- Friendly smile and all that sort." She refocused on the asari woman- "Maybe- If and when you get out of your current line of work, you can fall back on that? Modeling products and cars and other sorts of things? I don't have much to fall back on. I could write a book or teach about the dangers of falling into groups like I did, help the next generation, perhaps.."

"For what it's worth," Ana suggested, "if and when you meet her, try to have it be in a controlled environment. Therapy, or... Somewhere emotions won't flare, or can be calmed if they do."

"Mending the gap may not be possible," Daia admitted sadly. "Sometimes things happen and... you just have to make the best you can of where you are. But even if in the end you and she walk away from one another entirely, best to do it with a clear head, not out of anger."

"Okay." She slowly stood and shifted the baby to her other shoulder. "Girls, I'm not going to keep you any longer. I greatly appreciate your visit, and I hope I was an okayish host. It's always a pleasure to see the two of you!" She put emphasis into her tone. "I know how busy you are, maybe you can make his first birthday?" She stepped over towards the door.

"I mean, if you can't find it in your schedule before then. I'm going to keep you updated on the Chris situation, Daia- If you're interested.."

"Hopefully sooner," Daia replied with a smile.

"Thank you for having us over," Ana said, standing, while Daia picked up the vase.

"And the little Emperor, for granting us an audience." The asari offered an elbow, which her bondmate's hand slipped into with practiced ease. She gave Sarah a one-armed hug at the door, and placed a kiss on Albert's head.

"Au revoir, little one," she murmured.