Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  Xiùlán chopped power to the eezo core and thrusters, dropping the shuttle onto its belly. As pumps and converters spooled down to silence, Yuán took a look at the feeds from the six external cameras. The area looked deserted, which was exactly what she wanted to see. “Can you call for an air-taxi, Luv? I could really use something to eat… and I think I need you to take a look at my shield generator. Damned thing took some damage before I could drop turian number one.”

  Traynor input the request as she smirked at her lover. “Running for your life before breakfast is never recommended… tends to make you cranky. As for that generator, we should probably just exchange it for one of the spares we have stashed.”

  * * *

  It was several weeks of intensely exacting work for Xiùlán and Sammy, combing through lines and lines of data for the thousands of shipments arriving from Omega Station every day; these could be relegated to the computer program Samantha had created… the hard work started when the program kicked out several hundred suspect shipments each afternoon, keeping the women up late every night.

  During this time, they returned twice weekly to the Ionsaí in order to eat, bathe, and sleep in the relative luxury offered on board the asari corvette. Additionally, time they spent with the many asari on board furthered their cultural education; Xiùlán in particular felt a strong bond with the majority of the blue-skinned crew on the ship.

  They made sure to set aside needed time to perform their exercises, particularly those that kept their close-quarters combat skills sharp. A small audience of off-duty personnel was virtually guaranteed to appear anytime either of them appeared in the main exercise room on the ship. On the rare days both were on the mat sparring with each other, standing room only was a normal occurrence. For the most part, Sammy and Xiùlán ignored them, focused as they were on each other.

  Sammy continued to improve on her natural abilities, never failing to surprise Xiùlán with some newly honed, innovative way to execute an attack or defend herself against her lover. Being forced to adapt to Traynor’s relentlessly evolving style of Jing Quan Dao had proved to be a plus for Xiùlán’s education as well.

  The spectators were especially impressed with Sammy’s skill at using her húdié dāo [蝴蝶刀 – butterfly sword(s)] – she did not use these against Xiùlán; rather, she employed them as part of her exercise routine in slow-motion ‘shadow’ fights that emphasized precision movement at all times. After going through the movements once, she employed faster movements during the first repetition; by the time she started performing her second repetition of moves, the twin swords were moving nearly too fast to follow; each time she sliced the air with one or the other, an angry ‘woosh’ was produced, similar to that of her liǔyè dāo being swung through an arc.

  They both had been to see Dr Jakira T'Lana for treatment of various minor injuries so many times they could have been on a first-name basis with the Ionsaí’s head physician, if Sammy hadn’t felt it to be an improper sort of familiarity. “One doesn’t use a doctor’s first name unless they’re family, Xiùlán,” Traynor had told her. When asked why not, her answer was typical Traynor, betraying her upbringing on Horizon and the time she’d spent at Oxford. “It isn’t proper form, Xiùlán. It just… isn’t!”

  * * *

  “I found it, Xiùlán! I found the damned thing!” Traynor pointed to one line in the middle of a list of mind-numbingly similar numbers used for tracking the seemingly identical shipping containers used by the freight forwarding companies in the Traverse. “It looks like there are two containers we need to find… numbers are 002180084224 and 002180084346.”

  “How can that be, Sammy? The figurine would not take much space… they could have tucked it into a sock.” After a moment, she added, “It’s a small statue, Luv… 40 centimeters… no way it’d need two containers.”

  “Diversionary tactic, Luv. Containers were booked aboard two different freighters, dispatched on two different days.” Sam stood from her seat in the rear section of their shuttle and stretched hard enough that several vertebra in her upper back could be heard popping. “I’m guessing these will actually be in the same trans-shipment area… container manifest numbers are really close… less than 125.”

  Xiùlán’s skepticism could be heard in her question. “It’s really nice you know which numbers to look for, but how many containers do you suppose are on this one dock alone?”

  “Honestly? Several thousand.” Traynor rubbed her face with both hands and mumbled, “And before you say it, the answer is ‘NO’ – we’re not going to start randomly searching the warehouses around here for those two containers.”

  “Shouldn’t have to search the entire warehouse, Sammy – just need to know the order of arrival. The way this place is constructed? Freight comes in this end next to where we’re docked, and goes out the other end, right?” Sammy nodded her head, contradicting the puzzled look in her eyes. “First in, first out. These warehouses all have ‘live’ floors, so all these containers are constantly shifted as space becomes available for loadout at the other end.”

  Traynor finally understood what Xiùlán was trying to explain. “So, warehouses are quite wide, but not so deep. Freight handlers at the other end load the containers onto outbound freighters for shipment to their ultimate destination.”

  “Correct. Want to take a little walk?”

  Xiùlán and Sammy, having inspected the shipping labels on numerous containers in three warehouses, were – not surprisingly – no closer to finding the two they needed to inspect. Knowing they were here in Nos Astra was one thing – locating them before they were shipped off world again seemed to be quite another.

  Traynor kept watching for those two numbers to appear again in the query program she was running; it was as if the buyer was in no rush to take possession of the figurine, and they wondered if either the Blue Suns or the buyer had somehow been tipped off regarding the Alliance agents looking for the artifact. It really didn’t seem likely to Sammy, but neither was she counting on the anonymity of their little operation.

  Traynor had left the search program running while she slept at night – if either of those containers moved, it would alert her immediately. In the meantime, they had repositioned their UT-47 several times during their stay in Nos Astra in an attempt to keep their constant presence around the docks as unremarkable as possible.

  It was their last move that had drawn the notice of the Eclipse… a salarian, dressed in Eclipse armor and displaying a seriously suspicious attitude had approached as they were preparing to depart; Xiùlán told Sammy she would handle him peacefully.

  “Who are you? What are you doing on Eclipse property?” If the salarian had hoped to intimidate the humans with his Eclipse affiliation, he was quickly disappointed by his exchange with the tall, muscular woman from Shanghai.

  “Wǒ de míngzì shì Yuán Xiùlán,” [我的名字是袁秀蘭 – My name is Yuán Xiùlán] she responded in Mandarin, attempting to look innocent. “Wǒ méiyǒu yìshí dào zhège mǎtóu shǔyú shí.” [我沒有意識到這個碼頭屬於蝕。– I did not realize this pier (dock) belongs to Eclipse] Traynor gripped her nose and mouth with a hand as she looked down at her boots in an attempt to keep from laughing.

  The salarian’s expression was one of astonishment. “What language is that? My translator cannot process those… words, human. Can you not speak Galactic?”

  Xiùlán moved to stand right in front of this officious person, her 186 Cm. height forcing the salarian to tilt his head back in order to meet her eyes. “Nǐ bù dǒng pǔtōnghuà ma? Nǐ bùshì zài xuéxiào lǐ xué dào de?” [你不懂普通話嗎？ 你不是在學校裡學到的？- You do not understand Mandarin? You do not learn in school?] She looked around to Sammy for a moment, her expression betraying her contempt for the salarian’s lack of education… Traynor nearly doubled over in her attempt to keep from laughing at her lover’s subterfuge. Turning back to the salarian, she waited to see what the dumbfounded Eclipse offic
ial would do.

  “I cannot… that is… now see here! You should not be here, especially if you are unable to communicate in Galactic Standard.” This… human female… was seriously testing his patience. He checked his translator to be sure it was actually turned on, pressed the ‘test’ switch to make sure it was working – an orange light confirmed that it was – then addressed Traynor, still covering her nose and mouth. “You there… your appearance is different from this female. Can you tell me what you’re doing on this dock?”

  Sammy understood more Mandarin than she could speak, but decided to tell the salarian he was lucky; she schooled her expression as she removed her hand from her mouth and said one of the few phrases she felt confident in speaking, “Hǎoyùn yīzhí xiàozhe duì wǒmen liǎ!” [好運一直笑著對我們倆! – Luck has smiled on us both.] This caused Xiùlán to smile, both at Sammy as she stumbled slightly over the pronunciation and at the salarian as he stammered, “The translator… is working! I don’t understand why it cannot decipher those words…”

  Xiùlán spread her arms wide in dismissal as she concluded, “Cǐ shí yīng gēnghuàn nín de zìdòng fānyì shèbèi… Zhè xiǎnrán shì yǒu quēxiàn de.” [此時應更換您的自動翻譯設備… 這顯然是有缺陷的。– You should replace your automatic translation equipment… This is obviously flawed.] Placing her hands on her hips, Xiùlán looked down at the thoroughly chagrined salarian and waited.

  Defeated, the salarian finally managed to reply, “I will be reporting this to my superiors, humans. You would be wise to be gone from here when I return with my supervisor.”

  Xiùlán bowed as she responded, “Zhè shì wǒ de xīwàng, tā de shèbèi jiāng gōngzuò bǐ nǐ de hǎo.” [這是我的希望，他的設備將工作比你的好。– It is my hope that his equipment will work better than yours.]

  Traynor had to enter the shuttle and bury her face in a towel so her laughter would not be heard by the salarian as he retreated rapidly in the direction of the shipping offices. Xiùlán watched for a few moments, then entered the shuttle and hugged her lover. “Damn! I nearly fell over when you told him luck had smiled on both of you! That was really well done, Sammy!” Xiùlán kissed Sammy on the forehead as she gave her a little squeeze. “We need to work on your pronunciation a bit, but still… very well done!”

  “Thanks, Luv. Guess we need to pack up and go to our next docking area. I think I need to hack the cameras at our next stop – make them ‘think’ we’re not sitting there.”

  “Sounds good. Let’s finish loading up so we can move before that little toad returns with enforcement.”

  Traynor had been as good as her word, hacking into the network of cameras that were aimed at the small area in which she had parked the UT-47. The feed being viewed by whoever officially monitored the video showed an empty platform, even as the time and date displayed at the bottom continued to increment. The view that Traynor received was unedited, showing the shuttle and the various comings and goings of herself and Xiùlán.

  The two containers Traynor had been monitoring were finally going to be moved; they were going to be loaded onto a small, salarian owned freighter named Laedar Medicus.

  Surprisingly, the final destination was listed as Zorya, in the Faia system of the Ismar Frontier. After Xiùlán spoke to Haedi T'Gabri, the navigator aboard the Ionsaí, she discussed the transfer with Traynor. “Zorya is a garden world controlled by the Blue Suns,” Xiùlán explained, “so it does make a bit of sense the figurine would be shipped there. It’s still not going to the ultimate buyer, so it probably won’t be there for long, but… it may be less of a chore to retrieve it there than on this…” she waved her hands to indicate the docks around them, “… beehive of activity. On the other hand, if we do somehow find those containers before they’re loaded for shipment, can’t we just use our cloaks and take the figurine?” Xiùlán wasn’t ready to chase their quarry to a Blue Suns controlled planet; at least Illium was nominally an asari colony.

  Traynor sighed in response. “Wish it were that simple, Luv. All the perimeter guards are batarian… they can see our infrared emissions, even with active cloaks. One or the other of us would have to hack the container locks in full view of the guards, and I’d bet a month’s pay there are ‘screamers’ wired into the container lids ”

  “Damn. Those guys never make things easy,” responded glumly.

  Traynor studied the star charts used for plotting intra-system routes for freight vessels. “The Laedar Medicus hasn’t been loaded yet, and it’s scheduled to depart in six hours. Give me a minute… I’ll hack the camera feeds from that dock, take a look.” While studying the layout of the yard and guard positions, Sammy came across a copy of a bulletin posted at the main entry gate. “Look at this, Luv. Casual laborers are needed to help load that freighter,” Traynor said. “Feel like planting a bug or two?”

  “They’re not going to hire us on the spot, Sammy. We’d need applications, physicals, referrals, residency… we don’t…” Xiùlán’s protests faded away as Sammy held up a datapad.

  “It’s all right here, Luv. Get your grubbys on… we have a freighter to help load.”

  * * *

  Xiùlán and Sammy had both been hired to help load the salarian freighter Laedar Medicus, bound for Zorya with the two shipping containers they’d been watching almost since arriving on Illium. The sheer volume of freight being moved on a daily basis made it impossible to actually find either of the containers, even knowing the numbers assigned to them on Omega, but if either of the women handled them while loading was being done, it would be quick work to attach a tracker that would make reacquiring them on Zorya a lot easier.

  To that end, Sammy had put together four trackers – two of these she kept, two she gave to Xiùlán. “Don’t know if either of us will handle them, Luv. Maybe I’ll have to move both of them, maybe you will… we should be covered, either way. Place one on the lower side of the container if you load it on the ship.”

  Yuán wanted to know, “What happens if we only get to one of them?”

  Sammy sighed as she looked at the containers waiting for loading. “Then one will have to be enough… the other pod will not be far. Better to track one than none,” she finished with a smirk. “Let’s get to it.”

  They joined several asari and a pair of salarians in moving containers under the direction of the Laedar Medicus’ salarian cargo master, who stood just outside the ship’s cargo bay entrance and checked off container numbers from a shipping manifest loaded on his datapad; placement of the various sized pods was directed by several crew members inside, all with datapads that presumably had the manifest loaded for reference.

  Traynor took a chance once inside the ship, engaging her cloaking shield after moving several containers aboard. After performing a hasty inspection of a group on the port side, she de-cloaked, went back out to the dock and grabbed another container to load.

  Xiùlán touched the comlink in her ear while rubbing the side of her face and whispered, “I just loaded 0084346, Sà mǐ. 84224 is probably close by.” As she dropped her hand, a batarian crewman approached her, planted himself in her path and said, “What are you doing, human?”

  “Moving cargo. What are you doing?”

  The batarian made the mistake of grabbing Xiùlán’s left arm as he said, “I don’t like your looks, human. I think you should leave.”

  “Not until I get paid, you smelly bag of stropharia.” Xiùlán grabbed the wrist of the arm holding her and exerted a bit of pressure with her fingertips, causing his eyes to go wide. As the batarian’s hand went numb from the woman’s grip, she twisted his arm around, forcing him to turn away from her to ease the pain. With her free hand she grabbed the back of his neck, long fingers and thumb easily spanning a third of the circumference. The batarian tried to scream as she applied crushing pressure to his neck, but it was too late… arteries supplying blood to his brain ruptured from the combined force of his own blood pressure and the pinpoint cru
shing force of Xiùlán’s thumb and fingertips on opposite sides of his spine. She eased him to the decking as she hollered, “Man down over here! We need a medical tech!”

  A salarian dressed in an Eclipse themed uniform appeared with a first-aid kit; after scanning the fallen batarian with his omni-tool, he slowly stood and motioned for a couple of the ships’ crewmen to bring a stretcher, before looking at Xiùlán and asking, “What happened here, human?”

  Innocent expression firmly in place, she replied, “I really don’t know. One minute he was standing there telling me what a great job I was doing; next I know he’s turning away and… falling to the deck. I’ve never seen anything like it!” Xiùlán looked at the batarian on the deck with mock concern and asked, “Will he be okay?”

  The salarian didn’t appear totally convinced. “I didn’t see what happened here, human, but I sincerely doubt Dha’kerr just dropped dead.”

  Xiùlán managed to twist her facial expression up as if she was going to start crying. “He’s dead? How can that be? He was just standing here talking…” Xiùlán put her hands on either side of her face to cover eyes and mouth while surreptitiously using a thumb to key on her comlink. “Sà mǐ,” she whispered into her hand. “Cameras.”

  The salarian crewmen loaded the dead batarian onto the stretcher, activated the tiny mass effect core to lighten the load and hauled him off the ship. The salarian working for Eclipse looked at Yuán with a sour expression as he said, “People don’t just drop dead for no reason, human. Something must have happened here… something you’re not sharing with me.”

  “Are you implying I had something to do with that batarian’s death?” Xiùlán’s expression went from feigned sadness to innocence to righteous indignation in the blink of an eye. “You will want to be careful, salarian… very… careful, with your baseless accusations. You are not an officer on this ship, and I seriously doubt you have any real authority on these docks.”