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

With Rahilan nowhere to be seen, Arina assumed the pilot was already preparing their leave from the Citadel.

"Yes, if you are ready?" she turned towards the door and around the corner to the elevator. It was as if she had been on such a vessel before but she hasn't. Access to confidential plans was the key.

Upstairs they entered the bridge area. Freh'ya was sitting on one side, obviously observing scanners and tactical, while Rahilan was already in her pilot seat and was going through pre-launch procedures. Arina passed Freh'ya's station and put a hand on her shoulder to greet her. a
"Good morning, Freh. Are we ready to roll?"

She then continued to Rahi, fishing the data stick from her pocket.
"This is the new ID code for the Sala T'Era, it contains a diplomatic level 3 clearance. We have to authorize it both after you uploaded it. Once this is finished we can sign off and leave if everything is ready?"
She handed the small item to Rahi and looked around.

"Where do you want us to sit? I always like to observe approaching and leaving of the Citadel!"

Freh'ya was just sitting there, observing the short range scanner, a piece of equipment that was quite standard and something she could handle off the bat. All the dots with their ID tags moving back and forth, changing status as they signed in at Citadel control or when they left the controlled space. There was something that resembled a two lane highway down to earth with a constant stream of shuttles moving up and down in parallel.

A few larger points indicated the presence of units of the Citadel fleet, one was tagged as the Destiny Ascension, none of them was moving.

She turned around when Temria and Arina entered. of course she had seen the system acknowledging the arrival of the diplomat on board.
"Hello, Arina. I am merely looking out the virtual window. Not much I can help Rahi with at this point. I'm ready though."

Not wanting to intrude on Arina and Temria's meeting, Rahi had returned to the upper deck; Freh'ya, she found, had done likewise. She gave the commando a word of greeting then took her seat in the pilot's couch, resuming hands-on participation in the shuttle's preflight routine. She heard the elevator open behind them, and looked over her shoulder.

"Welcome to the bridge," she said, once Arina and Freh'ya had spoken. She reached up a hand to accept the offered data stick, and opening and moving a security screen up to where the diplomat was standing.

"Thank you. Accept new ID code," she requested, slotting the stick into a secure reader. "Diplomatic, three. Integrate for mission use."

"Politely," the VI replied, "New code requires authorisation from flight officer and embassy representative. Please enter authorisations now." On her and Arina's screens matching security readers appeared, alongside audio and biometric analysers.

"Rahilan Eleis, Epira," Rahi said, opening her omni-tool and holding her wrist through the holographic screen's reader, entering her security code while she spoke her phrase key of the moment: "'The Graces prefer those who are crowned with flowers.' Authorise."

"Grateful: Authorisation accepted." Rahi waited for Arina to deliver her authorisation and keys, then nodded as the new ID integrated into Sala's systems.

"It'll be a smooth ride," she promised, "so, anywhere you'd like. Freh'ya suggested though, and I'd agree, it would be proper - as leader of our mission - for you to take the chair, if you'd care to?" She glanced back to be sure nobody was in the way - Temria was off to one side, near the life support station which Rahi had deployed, as the most appropriate if she wished to take a seat - and triggered the command chair to reveal itself in the centre of the compact bridge.

"Informatively: preflight checklist complete," the VI informed them.

"Secure cargo-one for flight, retract airlock," Rahi instructed.

"Obediently: mech cargo-one secured. Exterior airlock frame retracted and secured."

"Funny you mention 'virtual windows'," Rahi said over her shoulder to Freh'ya. "This is one of my favourite features, as a pilot. Engage panoptics."

Tiny projector irises lit up, all over the front of the bridge - around the viewports, stretching up across the ceiling, along the walls to either side, even on the forward-most areas of the deck. Colours faded into view across all those surfaces, quickly resolving into a depth-enabled holographic view of the shuttle's surroundings - the docking bay, with its other vessels and cargo and workers, and the magnificent view of the Citadel beyond, the wards stretching out towards the stars, with the crescent of Earth half-hidden behind Zakera to one side, all visible as clearly as if the entire front of the ship were made of glass.

"They're building the system into all the Talith Programme vessels," Rahi went on, looking back into the more 'solid' confines of the bridge, where Freh'ya and Arina and Temria were - the pilot's couch appeared now to be jutting out into open space, supported only by a slender strip of visible deck, and all her control interfaces floating in mid-air around her, but she seemed quite unfazed by the illusion. "Word is the possibilities are provoking some pretty radical ideas in crew workspace design. It's not cleared for combat use yet," she went on, "not until a lot more proving has been done - any disruption of the system in those circumstances could be problematic - but for now," she turned and looked ahead again, "it makes for quite a view."

She busied herself with her controls for a moment, making last-minute adjustments and confirmations, then looked back again to Arina.

"Ma'am, we have clearance from CDC and an amber path out of the Citadel. If you'd care to give the word, to get us underway?" she invited.

“Arina Caenis, Citadel, ‘chapter of the nineteen”, authorize.” The code indicated the acceptance and the ship now had a diplomatic license plate.

When Rahilan mentioned ‘the chair’, Arina was confused for a moment, her study of the ship diagrams had not prepared her for the dramatic moment. He muffled a chuckle with one hand in front of her mouth.

“Really?” she nodded, still laughing. “Freh suggested? Well then.” after giving the commando an amused look, she took the seat, straightening her long dress. Her hand came to rest on the wide armrests, when the various control panels appeared. With a move of her wrist she arranged the holo projections the way she wanted it.
“I am no captain, so please excuse me if I keep out of vital ship systems!” But who could resist such an invitation?

Then Rahi activated the panoptics. Arina had not been aware that the Sala T’Era was equipped with that prototype. It took a moment to work off the surprise. It was an odd feeling to seemingly sit in open space, but she soon got used to it.
“Quite a view is an understatement. It proves that visual orientation is underrated.” She looked left and right to Freh’ya and Temria, before leaning back in the seat.

“Well, Rahilan, bring us out.” She could not resist making a forward gesture with her right.

The moment the panoramic interface engaged was punctuated by a surprised gasp and the sound of body hitting bulkhead as Temria backed up sharply into the wall!

Of course, she'd realized her error in the same instant. All the signs were there, she could have noticed the flicker between when the interface booted and when it began showing the world around them. She really had no reason to believe it was anything other than an innovative new interface, no matter how much it had looked to her, in that instant, as though the cockpit had been sheered off and its occupants exposed.

Blushing an intense violet shade, she stumbled toward the vacant station, the curvature of the 'transparent' walls throwing her off somewhat as their images were calibrated for those sitting front center, less so for the ones standing in the back of the room. Seating herself hard, she began to look over the readouts, hoping she could make up for lost dignity with attentiveness now.

Nifty toy, that. Much more important than the sheer optical effect was the fact that the virtual window could be layered with tactical information, such as the virtual flightpath. It was marked as a faint blinking outline, as if holographic lights were projected into space. Surrounding traffic was indicated with class and bearing.

So much were the essentials but from what Freh'ya saw indicated on her station, she could simply wave more information out there. Since it was not necessary to clutter the view, she didn't do anything but observe. The arms of the Citadel, the blue and white planet beneath them were taking up most of the picture.

For a moment Freh'ya thought about her time on earth and what experiences she had made there. It reminded her of the shoulder and she looked over at Temria, who were fascinated by the view as well. Once everyone had recovered from the surprise they were able to enjoy it and Freh'ya was imagining Rahilan smirking in her pilot's position.

Arina was taking almost royal posture in her chair when she exchanged a glance with the grinning commando. Then she finally gave the command to get under way.

"Yes ma'am!" Rahi said eagerly, raising her flight screens. "Docking control, Sala T'Era. Thank you for your hospitality. We are in the water in ten, for beacon embassy-five to Charon."

"Sala T'Era, docking control. Beacon embassy-five confirmed. Safe journey, and wheel turn in your favour."

"Secure for departure," Rahi said, more from habit than anything; Arina and Temria had nothing to do, and Freh'ya's station at Guns was simply a matter of going through the motions. "Cores synchronised and spinning up... Optimal mass attained. Docking thrusters firing."

The ventral thrusters gave a modest burst, lifting the lightened shuttle off the deck, then all but the four needed to keep her aloft in the dock's gravity cut out. Rahi nudged them into motion with the aft thrusters, cutting the ventrals at precisely the moment they passed out of the Presidium ring's gravity envelope. With a few conservative bursts from the manoeuvring clusters the shuttle spun slowly on its axis - the wards and space beyond seeming to spin, seen through the enhanced view - and drifted upwards into her departure lane.

"Main engines standing by... engaged," Rahi reported, as they reached their course, the green of their actual heading and the amber of the projected flight path lining up in the simulated view. There was the slightest sense of acceleration inside the bridge - far more gentle than the view would suggest, as the wards began to rush backwards around them. Tiny dots of silver and grey, and some more brightly-coloured, flitted past them, each catalogued and marked by the navigation system - magnified views appeared of each, revealing other shuttles, passenger liners, freighters, and patrol ships, as clear as models alongside them until the system deemed them out of range, and their zoomed views faded back into their navigation markers.

"Clearing Citadel," Rahi announced crisply, as the tips of the wards finally vanished. The shuttle turned and rolled slowly, Earth and its cloud of orbital traffic sliding out of view as she turned her nose outwards from the planet. With the bright orb of Sol off her starboard bow she engaged full cruising drive and shot ahead, distancing herself in moments from the clutter of trafffic about the Citadel. The panoptics created an enhanced view of a Hierarchy frigate not far off their course - invisible to the eye, at its true distance, but the sensors' zoomed-in recreation allowed those on the bridge to see the vessel flashing its running lights in a courtesy salute as the little shuttle sped across its patrol zone. Rahi smiled and returned the gesture, then looked ahead.

"Diplomatic travel certainly has its privileges," she noted with a grin. Ahead their path to the relay was clear, flashing a smooth silver, in contrast to the muted oranges and reds of the civilian traffic waiting its turn for passage. The sensors pared the impossible distances down, creating images of the system's features, the orbital path of the Mars colony a faint blue arc in space - the planet itself far off elsewhere in its orbit - the sparse expanse of the asteroid belt, with tiny flags denoting its mining stations and the automated tenders moving on slow, methodical circuits between them, then the great gas giant, only a little way to port, with its cluster of moons and resource stations about it. Two more vacant orbital paths, and ahead was the Charon relay, orbiting an unassuming rock of a planetoid, the pair's orbit skewing slightly outwards in contrast to the more orderly orbits of the closer worlds. The cold sentry on the edge of the system was lit up bright, though, as hundreds of virtual markers dotted Sala's enhanced view, defining inbound and outbound lanes, holding patterns, and the progress of dozens of vessels just in the immediate area; no doubt there were hundreds more, scattered further afield.

"Final approach to Charon relay," Rahi announced perfunctorily; the relay itself was visible now, without enhancement, its heart radiating like a miniature star. A toy suspended in space at first, it grew and grew as their path took them closer, becoming the behemoth it was.

"Jump speed attained," Rahi said quietly; haptic controls surrounded both her arms in gentle glows, responding to every deft motion. The ship, truly dwarfed by the relay now, shot in at an angle, centred between the four glowing trails in space the panoptics were creating for her, closer and closer to the interface point. Then the nexus reached out to them, bathing their mass field in incredible energies, space seemed to elongate as if the universe were inhaling, and the next instant they were on their way.

There was not much to do but watch as the Sala T’Era made her way through the sol system and entered the relay in a priority slot, making a couple of freighters wait the extra minute.

Now they were inside the familiar tunnel that was engulfing a ship in FTL transit. With the panoptics on this was a bit more spectacular than what Arina was familiar with.
“Excellent. Next stop Krogan DMZ.” Arina announced. “A bit of time to go about our own business. I’ll be down, stowing away my stuff in the quarters.” With that she stood and turned for the elevator. She hesitated for a moment as if she remembered something and then opened the door to the VIP cabin, peeking inside. “Very well.” She murmured, obviously satisfied with what she saw, before heading down to the main deck.

In the crew quarters, she opened an empty locker and started to unpack her stuff, the warm clothing she left folded and put them inside, her second dress she unfolded and shook it to get wrinkles out. The fabric was of the kind that fell into place easily, having removed the need for additional wrinkle care for many centuries. It always fell perfectly. She nonetheless put it inside the locker hanging straight. It was a habit derived from having clothing out of natural materials that weren’t so easy to handle.

She weighed her gun for a moment, then putting it into the special shed inside the locker after double-checking the safety. It was coded to her genetic print so almost useless to anyone else unless a time consuming reset was done.

Freh’ya observed the approach to the relay with fascination. It was still a miracle how exactly these structures worked. Well, the basic principles were known and understood of course but still no civilization was able to construct a similar device by themselves.

From what she saw on the flightplan, the passage of the Aralakh relay would take some time, for all the core venting and routine procedures. She planned on doing a bit of a defense system rehearsal there.
“Rahi, I’d like to use our time in Aralakh to get more familiar with the defense suite. Maybe you can add a loop through the asteroid belt so the sensors have things to pick up?”

She was connecting the ship’s sensors to her omnitool. The current status would be transmitted and also if the ship would request any input by a person, it would alarm her as well as Rahilan. There was not much more she could do besides sit and watch the lightshow outside.

She stood and approached the pilot, putting a hand on the younger asari’s shoulder.
“I’ll be back in a bit for watch, okay? If you need anything, give me a call!”

Then she stood and faced Temria.
“Doctor, do you have a bit of time to look at something? It’s nothing big, more of an annoyance. I took a … bump into my left shoulder recently and there is some basic pain that just won’t fade by itself.” It had been a pretty hard bump and her additionally rolling over that shoulder continuously in a combat situation but of course that seemed nothing to the commando. The purple spot had vanished almost completely already but the throbbing had been hampering her sleep since.

As the relay sent her yet again hurtling through space Temria realized with some trepidation that she'd been holding her breath through that final approach. It was silly, superstitious even, she hadn't done so since her maiden days, why now? Exhaling slowly, she turned to look, the stars still hung ahead, behind a veil of shifting energy, they now moved relative to one another, if barely perceptively, as the ship moved at speeds now cosmically significant...

She stepped forward, resting her hands on the back of the pilot's couch, "Skillfully done." she said in a low voice, genuinely complimentary "I do hope to see the same degree of mastery throughout the trip."

"Oh, yes. By all means, Freh'ya." she smiled, turning to face the commando as she approached. "We can check on it down below. How would you characterize this 'bump' which caused it? Would you mind if I tested your range of motion a bit?"

“Sure”, Freh’ya agreed and accompanied Temria to the elevator. “Make all the tests you think necessary.” That was nice, no hassle of getting appointments with specialists or even doctors at all, but having a first rate medbay and a doctor at personal disposal. Temria also had this maternal aura that made you trust her immediately.
As they rode down, Freh’ya sighed.

“I was on an assignment before that, down on earth, planetside. It was some military exchange with the Alliance but it turned out to be in zone of unrest and we had to fight. I was rolling to cover under enemy fire on very rocky ground. The conditions on site were very … makeshift so I could not have it looked after properly. I used gel on it but you know how it is, you reach some spots properly…” She thought about Camp Ozymandias and what kind of dusty dirthole it was.

“I was the only asari there so I did not want to overstress their medic either. It wasn’t that bad under the circumstances, it just stuck and is healing so slow. Maybe you can do something.” She chuckled. “I was about to go on a bit of a leave and give it some rest but then this assignment here came in.”

When they reached the medbay, Freh’ya was looking around. It really had all the nice toys and it seemed as if the doctor had already put her touch to it as well.

Without waiting for the doctor’s orders, she started to take off the shirt of her fatigues and the tight bustier underneath, leaving her only in her pants. On her left shoulder were a few well healed scratches and a mere shadow of what must have been an impressive purple spot. Her muscular triangular back looked a bit tense but otherwise not injured. Some old scars were well healed and only barely visible.

Temria nodded thoughtfully, it wasn't uncommon to see complications around the manual application of Medi-gel. It was worse in civilian circles, where it wasn't uncommon for people to try to forgo proper followup treatment as though it were some catch-all wonder medicine, but extenuating circumstances like the one Freh'ya was describing weren't out of the question either. "Given the circumstances I don't suppose you were able to give it a rest for any meaningful period of time either... How about repetitive motions, have you been steering clear of strenuous exercises? Are you right handed?"

As they arrived in the medical the doctor took the lead, activating the secondary interfaces she might have needed at a moments notice with a quick gesture with her ignited omni-tool. "I moved one of the small arms cabinets here by the door, in the future please stow your weapon there..." she said with a hint of distraction as she fished out a mobile seat from its cleverly concealed docks in one of the side-counters. "I can darken the walls if you prefer a bit of privacy- oh." Satisfied it was moving properly she turned it to present to the commando, but was visibly surprised for a brief second to see she was already removing her fatigues.

Damn it, she was blushing again. Temria rushed a bit, getting behind Freh'ya in the hopes she wouldn't notice. The commando was every bit the specimen her imposing figure had promised, muscle groups tense and easily defined beneath taunt violet skin, she looked in every way like the ideal warrior huntress of ancient myth.

"Ah yes, I see it..." she said thoughtfully, withdrawing a small set of round instruments from a pocket in her coat and slipping them onto the thumb, index, and middle fingers of each hand. "It looks like you hit it hard, whatever it was. But I can tell the Medi-gel did it's job, I can tell you for sure it isn't infected, actually it appears to be coming along just fine. That said..." She applied a fingertip to the center of the welt, gentle, but the instrument was ice-cold. "Lets take a quick look at where the pain sensation is coming from..."

With that, she drew a quick square frame around the visible mark with her freezing fingertips. Before them, a stark holo render of the commando's shoulder took shape, with the frame as its focus, though it drew a good deal beyond that periphery. Capturing a good portion of her arm on one side and about half of her head on the other, the image consisted of multiple false-colour layers highlighting the different muscle groups, bones, and the mesh of nerves running through it all.

"Lets start with a quick stretch. Sit up straight and lift your arm so that its parallel to your shoulder and take two deep breaths. Then, lift it as high as you can without rotating and take two more breaths. Afterwards, raise it as high as you can with rotating and do it again, please."

Arina was finished unpacking and looked around. With not much else to do her, she decided to look for company. Coming past the medbay, she could see a semi-nude Freh’ya being handled by Temria. A picture book image of a commando, that one… She sighed and with a smile on her lips entered the elevator.

A few seconds later she entered the bridge again, where Rahilan was lounging in her pilot couch, observing the lightshow outside and obviously browsed some control menus. She approached and leand towards the oprtator station where freh’ya had been sitting, to the side and slightly behind Rehilan. The colors of the FTL tunnel outside refelected on the young pilot’s face in interesting shades of blue.

“Hey. Can I bring the pilot some kaffe or something?” she said with a chuckle. “Do you have time for a bit of company?” It sure would be interesting to hear about Rahi’s adventures in the war or before that.

“Sorry about the gun” she excused herself, having totally forgotten about what Temria had said. She made a sad face over that, disappointing the doctor was stupid. “I’ll leave it there next time!” Or I should put it away until we are in Nimbus.

Goddess knows she had applied medigel on worse wounds. In fact it was more bugging her that something minor as this was nagging her so much. Was she getting old… or goddessbeware, soft?? After the slouching…. And heavy drinking… after the reaper war she had seriously picked up her routines so she thought of herself in top shape but still, in hindsight she did feel a sting of guilt for how she had been living for almost a year.

Freh’ya tensed a bit under the cold touch as it came unexpected, but relaxed right afterwards. The sensation as such didn’t bother her, she was used to endure extreme temperatures so she didn’t waste a thought.

She raised her arm and moved it as the doctor instructed her. “Yes, I am right handed mostly.” There was a constant underlying tension that developed into a pain in the extreme positions. Rotating made it slightly worse.
“So” , she began between breaths, “I guess you were used to more thrilling cases while serving the fleet, huh?” Doctors was something ground troops rarely had the luxury off. She remembered cases where mauled bodies of comrades could only be picked up dead by the ships picking them up from operations. And then there were those whose remains had to be left behind… A sadness washed over her that surprised her… she hadn’t thought about some face in a long time, sisters that had been dying on remote dirt balls for a greater good but unknown to the public.

In the glass window she could see a faint reflection of herself, rotating her arm, Temria behind her.

"Hello!" Rahi replied, smiling brightly. "You needn't go to any trouble, really - she flies herself at cruise, there's nothing keeping me from stretching my legs - but I'd be glad of the company." She quickly retracted her armrest on Arina's side, allowing her to far more easily face her from her position.

It was only the first leg of a long trip, but she was feeling very good about the mission thus far. Freh'ya's company earlier, as she had familiarised herself with the bridge stations, had been uplifting, to be respected by such an obviously accomplished commando, and Arina's and - unexpected - Temria's praise at her handling of the Sol outbound trip had been very welcome. Suddenly being tasked with a mission far outside her native Reach wasn't so daunting as all that.

"I've just been reviewing our planned course," she went on, pushing her raw-data displays aside and swiping up a galaxy map. The 'view' seemed to change perspective, lifting out of the real-time view of their FTL corridor to see the ship from the outside, and the corridor, for a brief moment before they zoomed too far out for such tiny objects to be visible on the galactic scale. Star systems and nebulae swept into view, until the end of the thin blue strand of their journey could be seen, the six-planet Aralakh system - rendered at unrealistic size, for clarity, with each world visible around the parent star. Other threads stretched from system to system, coloured variously for prime and secondary relays, FTL trade routes, and so on; beyond Aralakh, further off in the virtual distance, a rosy path showed their course on to Parnitha, and Pelion beyond.

"Is this sort of expedition routine for you?" she ventured.

Again Arina had to notice how cute the pilot was in her natural environment, a smile escaped her as she observed the maps changing through.

“Not really, at least as of late. We’re busy keeping everyone together on the Citadel. The embassies there are so much bigger than anything… except the Republican Halls on Thessia maybe. I used to travel much more when on duty throughout the Republics and with the Matriarchs there. Sitting at the hub of galactic decision making makes everyone come to you instead. It has its positive sides as well, mind you, I have much more free time for myself now, travelling diplomacy is eating you up. But then, once in a while, a break from the routine and the usual sights is very welcome! You can grow tired of diplomatic dinners and endless speeches.” She leaned back into the chair, rotating it more towards Rahilan.

“In this case they put my name forward since I have spent a considerable time on Trategos years back. I know the Republic and some there still know my name – I have no idea if the matriarch herself remembers me but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did her homework.” She crossed her legs casually.

“So, this is out of the routine for you, isn’t it? What have you been doing in the fleet so far?”

"Don't worry about the gun... you can make it up to me by helping me check mine." she joked, rotating the display slightly while maintaining contact with her fingertips as Freh'ya moved this way and that... it was important to maintain that contact as she did so, it was important to keep those fingers there so she could gauge the amount of activity being reported by the interface's depiction of the commando's nerves compared to a control.

"Oh yes, the fleet had its fair share of excitement." she looked thoughtful, rotating the display again. "Some of the most impressive injuries of my career I saw serving aboard a ship, my very best work too, if you don't mind my bragging." she smiled, winking at Freh'ya when she noticed her looking back at her through the reflection of the glass. "I've treated injured fighter pilots after emergency recoveries, combat injuries, I was even in a hot extraction once. More often then not though it's minor things. Cuts and bruises, broken arms- accidents, fights, you know how it is."

Sighing thoughtfully, Temria traced a line along the lower edge of the mark, closer to Freh'ya's spine. "No breaks or fractures, but of course you knew that... I see a tension on the ligaments but they're mostly healed, see the section here with the swelling on the one side? Any of that could be an irritant... could I get you to do a cross-arm stretch? Don't pull it further than you feel comfortable, and just hold it for a few seconds?"

The wink drew a smile from Freh’ya and she focused back on the examination and what the doctor showed her.
“Whatever you say…” she replied and performed the cross arm stretch, holding at a point where the feeling was making a considerable jump. Not really sharp pain but like a significant change in the irritating feeling.

“You must have a lot of people owing very much to you then.” How satisfying must that be? She must have saved the lives of… many as well, all the extracted from pirates, slavers, whatever. But you just never saw them again after missions were over and they returned home. But yes, just like for the doctor, most missions were routine, you too easily forgot about those, only dealing with the memory of the overwhelming ones.

The sensation of the finger moving across her back made Freh’ya aware of how good such a touch felt. It had been a long time, since… she was definitely getting mushy here. A simple finger, put to her skin in professional manner … but she just wanted to keep that moment. No matter what, after this mission I will go on vacation, she decided for herself.

“I know what you mean, I’ve been on the receiving end of such treatments before or had sisters treated after extractions… But sometimes you just can’t do anything, no matter how fast everything happens.” Like if you sit in cover while someone bleeds to death next to you and the shuttle can’t land because of the AA fire. Or if you had to find sisters that were tortured to death without you being able to help in time. Freh’ya swallowed hard as she tried to get the images of that out of her head… She realized that the events on Thessia had pushed back all these older horrors. Did that mean, she was slowly getting the events there sorted out in a greater context? Or was all of this just beginning to wash in like a tsunami again?

“Doctor… Temria, do you ever think about those you could not help?” She regretted that the question forced itself out. The doc was no therapist and she should respect that. Freh’ya realized how much she had missed being on a mission with so many other asari.

"The mission isn't entirely out of the ordinary," Rahilan admitted. "The passengers, on the other hand... I've never piloted for a matriarch before. Or a Citadel diplomat, come to that. Back home it's more often specialist crews, or aid workers, or huntress teams, but ultimately the mission is the same: Point A to Point B fast and with a minimum of fuss." She grinned slightly. "This could even be a quiet run by comparison - some of the Point Bs the huntresses get dropped off at can be pretty sharp. Not that I'm letting our guard down! But you probably know how the Reach is, with the frontier bordering on... let's be generous and call it 'unstable territory'."

By way of explanation she swiped across the galaxy map, bringing the Antumbra Reach into focus, specifically its edge, and the ill-organised cluster of systems beyond what space the Reach's Republics formally claimed and policed. In recognition of Arina's security clearances, the map was overlaid with a number of intelligence projections and deployment plans.

"It changes day to day almost which dirt-hole 'nation' is feuding with who - luckily they're most of them too sunk in economic mires to mount anything deserving being called a war against one another," Rahi said. "But it's all the disorder needed for any number of bottom-feeders to add 'pirate' to their resume, and the colonial powers-that-be to dip their hands into the pot too, and make a neat return for looking the other way and facilitating sales of prize cargo. 'Border reivers,' we call them - who funds them and what flag they nominally sail under changes, but once their hulls are in space, it's all much of a muchness. The war didn't do them any harm either," she added sourly. "Our fleets... well, you know how it was. The border pirate 'captains' just hid in their holes, and I suppose the Reapers imagined they'd be no trouble to leave for later, once the real work was done. Once they converted, all the reivers went right back to their old hobbies, and it's a job digging them out of their burrows, with so few ships to spare. Getting the Epira slips up and running again was a huge undertaking," she smiled, "but nobody begrudges the effort, now that we've got the new Talith Programme classes rolling out." She gave the arm of her chair an affectionate pat. "Trusty little girls like this, and the heavier types, too. A lot's still under wraps, but... well, you don't produce a shuttle like this, and then ignore all those advances when it comes to bigger fish. In between transport assignments I've been handed a few recon runs, gathering data on the reivers. Sala can get pretty close without being spotted, and get a nice good look at what they are, where they're from and where they're going - the intel our huntresses need to hit them where it hurts. Before they gave me this, I was helm on Daughter of Storms, one of refitted prewar frigates. The other end of the intel chain, you might say, acting on what our scouts dug up - I definitely appreciate the value of recon missions now, even if it does seem rather 'passive'."

She leaned back, and zoomed the display into the heart of the Reach, Epira.

"Storms was my first placement, after the war," she said, her voice a little quieter. "It felt good to have space around me again. During the fighting, nobody much was getting off the surface. The unit I ended up with, once the... first shockwave of hostile landings subsided, had me flying shuttles in-atmo, for rapid drop-offs and pick-ups. It can get oddly claustrophobic, in a way, you know? Even in the air. Always looking out for harvesters coming in from above, counting every second you're above the treeline." She lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

“I’ve spent most of the war under tree cover,” Arina replied after a bit. “I swas on Niacal, everyone was moving to the jungle when the Reapers attacked, we left them empty cities. It was a lot of hide and seek, the commandos keeping the Reaper troops occupied here and there while we established a settlement in caves and trees. Funny enough it worked pretty well, the Reapers weren’t quick in picking up our trails. I believe, their initial task was to destroy the technological centers and then wear the refugees in the wilderness down over time – well, they didn’t have that time.” She looked outside the ‘windows’ for a moment.

“Intel is important, mostly more important than sheer fighting power. Knowing yourself and knowing your enemy is the path to victory, as they say. It is our strongest point and it is good to see that this part of the fleet is getting back to work. As you can see…” Arina pointed to the cluttered map of the Reach. “…having a reliable picture of what is going on enables us to deploy our forces in the key locations. We don’t have to flush the area with military, only a few surgical operations here and there and we have everything in check. People like Freh’ya… I don’t envy them for sure! It is hard work and we still could use many more nowadays. She was actually assisting me in some recruitment events on the Citadel. I hope we could encourage few young Maidens to consider taking up the path of a huntress.” She looked at Rahilan, who, with another outfit maybe, would not look like military much. “One is most likely born for it ir isn’t but sometimes you need to get a nudge to think about it. a lot of the others species think of it as a weakness of the asari but sending out draft notes is not working for the time spans we are thinking in. It is one of those reminders how much the life span influences the perspective of thinking.” She was swaying left and right casually with her cair.

“You’re from elcor parentage? Then maybe you must experience this to the double. I think, the elcor are theones that understand us best though, even better then the krogans… they didn’t waste time thinking beyond tomorrow for many centuries now. They first will have to grow into the lifespan perspective again.”