[Logasiri] One born every minute

Jil'Korah was silent for a moment before answering, and blessedly so was his suit.

"I'm not sure how much help I can be with this. Most of my recent contacts have been quarian, and so far as I know they're all either on Rannoch or helping other races with their reconstruction. I'm ah... I'm a bit of an anomaly, not wanting to stick around."

'A bit of an anomaly' was probably an understatement, but it had the benefit of being true.

"Basically all of my other contacts are pre-war, and I don't know how many of them survived. There was an Eclipse officer I spent some time with on Illium back during my pilgrimage, she was tough as anything and she's probably still out there somewhere..."

I may be able to interest other geth in these activities.
What, seriously?
There are many geth and each wishes to explore individuality. This is one approach.
Thanks, but one Beast is enough for now. I'll mention it, but I doubt it's our best option.
Your consideration is appreciated.

After the strangely-timed pause, Jil'Korah resumed speaking "...and my suit thinks it could recruit some geth for us. I uh, I'm not sure that would be such a good idea since we need to keep a low profile and becoming the second Beast would not be a good way to do that, but I said I'd pass it along so here we are."

Both of those had potential, but were...problematic, to say the least.

On principle, Shirin had no issues with mercenaries, but going out and looking for them would set the wrong kind of precedent about their operation. They weren't mercs - company-affiliated or freelancers - because that implied they were working for someone other than themselves. The geth, on the other hand...that was tempting. They were low-maintenance, could work steadily, and had shown multiple times that they could handle themselves in a fight. On the other hand, there was a certain amount of subtlety to the job that a geth probably wouldn't be able to grasp, and they had the downside of being extremely memorable.

"Those are potential options," she said, carefully choosing her words - there was no reason to alienate the quarian just because his suggestions weren't perfectly ideal. "Let's keep them both in mind as we work on this. There's a lot that a geth could bring to the operation, but like you said, we'd draw a lot of attention with them, and the less of that the better. Still, it's an option. No reason to take anything off the table until we've considered all the possibilities yet."

The last dregs of the Tira Leya were the most biting. The drell tilted her head back, draining the last painful drops from the snifter, and then set it down on the bench. Perfect. Any more than that one glass would be unbearable, but that had been just enough.

"We'll be at Omega soon enough. I'll call Kang's men and have them come pick up the eezo; you two can deal with your cover, personal things, whatever. After that...interviews? Can you both fit that in?"

"That ain't no problem. Need t'go visit Sil ennyhow - pick up some new varren pups fer trainin' an' get me on as a part-time bouncer or some shit. Cover, right? Heh. Innerviewin' won't be a problem, neither. I'm 'sumin' this ain't gonna be some boring hour of lookin' over resumes an' the like, right?"

There was a hopeful lilt in Kirok's voice. Piloting ships was fun, but a little of the old violence? That was more entertaining by far.

"In enny case, where we gonna do this innerviewin', ennyways? I know it's Omega, but it ain't like we got ourselves a bolthole in there or ennythin' yet."

"You don't have a hideout on Omega, maybe."

Left unsaid, as Shirin crossed the cabin to put away the scarlet bottle, was the assurance that if Kirok brought any more varren onto their ship there would be a reckoning of biblical proportions.

"That's perfect. I've got a quick private salvage job to do, shouldn't be gone long and it'll keep my credentials up to date. Who knows, I might even make a decent contact or two while I'm at it. Just let me know once the interview is set and I'll be here."

Jil'Korah didn't have an Omega hideout, as such - just his small, aging shuttle that he left parked here whenever he was out on a job that didn't require it. Come to think of it, he didn't know Sorin had anything better.

"This secret base of yours must be pretty great," he said to the drell woman, "the suit tells me it's damn near palatial."

I have no record of that conversation.
Shhh.

One of the advantages of the mask was that the person Jil'Korah was talking to couldn't tell how closely he was watching their facial expressions.

Shirin paused to stare over her shoulder at the quarian, unwavering suspicion in her eyes. The silence that followed seemed nearly eternal.

At last, though, there was a glimmer of teeth. "Okay, you got me, I don't have one either. Gods, that suit's making you formidable; pretty soon I won't be able to deadpan at you anymore, and then where will we get our fun?"

The answer was 'stealing valuable things from dangerous people', and always had been.

"All right." She turned and headed for the cargo hold. "I'm gonna find a quiet spot and figure out how to launder money, just in case we do anything in C-Space. Yell at me once we're at the docks."

"Got it," Kirok said, lumbering back to the controls and checking the readouts. "Gonna be a bit. Gitcherselves comfortable, have a beer, take a nap, whatever. I'll let ya'll know when we dock."

A short time later, the Locust fell out of the relay and into orbit around Omega. The station was pretty much the same as it had always been - a rotting hulk of steel and stone floating out in space like the universe's ugliest tie pin.



Ships floated around the outside of the massive steel obelisk, making repairs or putting on new additions as Aria commanded, slowly turning the station from an abandoned hunk of rock into a fortress. Had to look good to the investors, after wall. Still, there was that palpable feel of dread here, like wandering into a bad neighborhood at three a.m. when all you had to defend yourself was a cheap knife and a huge pair of brass balls.

Kirok smiled as he gunned for one of the docking platforms. Man, it was good to be home.

"Awright, dockin' in three... two... one. We're clear, folk. Grab yer gear an' hustle off mah ship."