Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  Fall in love with someone who tastes like adventure but looks like the calm, beautiful morning after a terrible storm – Nikita Gill

  * * *

  Inamorata – A woman with whom one is in love; a female lover (Italian)

  Nángùn – literally, a ‘southern staff’ – a polished, two-meter long white wax wooden staff

  * * *

  * SOL SYSTEM • EARTH • VANCOUVER, BC *

  That evening, Buchanan and Traynor left the base for the city, intent on having a few drinks together before they were split up and re-assigned to other jobs within the Alliance. It was only a short flight by aircar to The Smiling Tiger Tavern, the one relatively bright spot on the corner of an otherwise quiet, darkened street.

  Traynor led the way into the bar, finding a table in an area lit less by overhead lights than by small, tabletop candles. She wanted to disappear into the darkness, a place she felt fit her current mood. Despite all the work the pair had done, despite putting their lives in danger, General RaeLee Park had been unable (or unwilling) to persuade the higher ups that the turian transport MSV Anixara, along with its passengers and crew, didn’t need to be destroyed in order to achieve the demise of turian Hierarchy hawk Raherix Ursivus.

  The conspiracy theories were many; because the ship had disappeared during FTL travel between relays, there was no debris… no bodies… no evidence to prove what became the final, official verdict – an explosion, most likely caused by faulty engineering. The turians had been swift to react, grounding the Anixara’s sister ship MSV Arcus Pluvius in order to thoroughly, methodically inspect every aspect of the ship for anything that could possibly trigger a similar event. There was a lot at stake – the reputation of the turian shipyard that had designed and constructed both vessels had been called into question – no stone would be left unturned in their search for answers.

  Traynor tried her best to put the entire mission out of her mind as she ordered a whiskey with a splash of lime juice – Buchanan ordered Elasa, prompting Traynor to ask, “When did you develop a taste for asari drinks, Griff?”

  Buchanan offered a self-conscious grin as he replied, “On Thessia. Blue people really know how to make a good beverage.” After pausing to take a sip from the glass brought by the waitress, he added, “Stuff is really tasty, enough so you don’t know you’re getting blasted until you’re face down on the floor.” Another sip was followed by a contented sigh.

  Traynor was sipping her own drink as well. Looking at Griff across the top edge of the glass, she commented, “This actually tastes like it has some booze in it.”

  Griff grinned at her as he lifted his glass and tipped the rim towards her. “To what shall we drink, Sammy?”

  Touching the rim of her glass to his, she replied, “Friendship, camaraderie, having each other’s back… and being alive to enjoy it.”

  Buchanan echoed, “… being alive to enjoy it,” before taking a large swallow of the pale green drink. As he sat his glass back down in front of him, a dark figure approached their table and asked, “Private party, or is there room for one more?”

  Sammy stared hard at the person in an attempt to identify the owner of the familiar sounding voice before answering, “Depends on the identity of the ‘one more’, I suppose.”

  The figure pulled up a chair and sat down, pulling back the hood of her cloak as she did so. She quickly raised a hand, palm outwards with fingers up in a motion indicating ‘stop’ as she pressed the back of the index finger of her other hand vertically across her pursed lips. “Name’s RaeLee,” the quiet voice announced. “Can I buy the next round?”

  General RaeLee Park, dressed similarly to Traynor down to her hooded, dark leather cloak, had searched them out in order to have a quiet, ‘no ranks, no bullshit’ conversation with the pair of special operatives. Sipping her scotch and soda, she said, “You’re not the only person on this team that excels at tracking people down, Sammy. I needed to meet with you and Griff on a first-name basis, to explain the why of what happened yesterday.”

  Sam was more than a little surprised; the woman sitting in front of her looked nothing like the Alliance General she knew. Her hair was down in a loosely secured ponytail, and she was wearing makeup. “I don’t think there’s anything you can say that will adequately explain to me why innocents are dead, RaeLee, but I’m willing to listen,” Traynor said.

  Griff placed a hand on Sammy’s shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze before adding in a much calmer voice, “I’m sure there must have been what seemed to be valid reasons for allowing the event to take place, RaeLee, but damned if I can see it either.”

  General Park’s mouth was set in a firm, straight line, with just the corners tipped up ever so slightly. “Both of you did an exemplary job ferreting out the method and timing of what happened, but the plan I envisioned for preventing the event was very quickly changed to a plan to allow it by my superiors. On several levels, the group responsible needed their assassin to succeed in order to assuage their suspicions.” Park grimaced slightly as she added, “Lang was good, but he got complacent. Setting containers of deuterium in plain sight was just asking to be discovered, by us or by C-Sec.”

  “What about Ursivus,” Griff murmured? “He was a damned anti-human agitator… believed the Relay 314 incident didn’t end well for Palaven. He was the most vocal of them all, but there are still plenty of turians that would just as soon kill us as not.”

  “His disappearance won’t completely quash the anti-human rhetoric from their home world, and our standing with the turian councilor on the Citadel won’t improve either.” Park looked down at her now empty glass, then looked at Traynor. “Refill?”

  Traynor raised her glass over her head, catching the eye of the waitress; laying out several credit chits, Sammy requested refills all around. “Dammit, Sammy… I’m supposed to be buying,” Park protested.

  “Don’t worry about it… it’s not often we get to drink with or talk to an Alliance general as if she’s a real human being,” Traynor smirked, concluding with, “Kinda nice.” When their drinks arrived, Sammy took a swallow of whisky, placed her upper teeth on her lower lip as she sucked air through them, cleared her throat and asked, “What of the bodies we left in and around that warehouse? C-Sec must have investigated.”

  “C-Sec had their hands full,” RaeLee replied somberly. “Seems a datapad left under a desk triggered an explosion when an attempt was made to retrieve it…” Sammy raised an eyebrow as she glanced at Griff, mouthing a silent but sincere ‘thank you’ when he looked at her. “… killed two turian officers,” Park continued, “injured several others and collapsed that side of the warehouse. After all that, C-Sec didn’t give a rat’s ass about the dead humans they found there.”

  Griff wanted to know, “Were they Cerberus, RaeLee?”

  “That’s the theory, but we haven’t asked, at least not officially. Those men knew what they were getting into when they signed up. My feeling is they were expendable to Lang.”

  “So, you’re reassigning us,” Griff stated. “Will the program continue?”

  Park heaved a heavy sigh at the question; she knocked back the balance of the liquid in her glass and set it on the table with a heavier hand than intended before reluctantly answering. “Due to our prior knowledge of the sabotage and destruction of the Anixara, the higher ups have decided to terminate the entire program…” after pausing at Traynor’s whispered ‘Bullshit!’, Park continued, “…and wipe all the data you collected concerning that ship and Cerberus, along with Lang’s connection to it all.”

  As Traynor started to speak, Park held up her hand for silence. “Sammy, if the turians or the council were to discover the Alliance had prior knowledge of Lang’s plot to kill that fucking agitator by destroying a passenger vessel on which he was traveling, it would set our relations back to… well, worse than they were during the First Contact War. We cannot afford to let that happen.

  “It would have been so damn much simpler if your superiors
had allowed us to stop Lang and save that ship,” Traynor whispered heatedly. “Now, it’s too goddamn late to do anything but cover our asses and hope nothing leaks!” Sammy drained her glass in a swallow and held it over her head for the waitress to see. “I’m glad Xiùlán wasn’t with us! She’d be ashamed to wear the uniform after what they’ve done to us, RaeLee.”

  The general had the decency, or at least the good sense, to look embarrassed. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Samantha. If it had been my decision to make, you and Buchanan would have been assigned to stop Lang’s plot from succeeding, and Cerberus would have had to find some other way to assassinate Ursivus.”

  The waitress brought Traynor another whisky, asked Griff and RaeLee if they needed refills (they didn’t), cleared the empty glasses and left. Buchanan could see that Traynor didn’t need a third drink either, but couldn’t think of a way to stop her that wouldn’t end up with him receiving a broken arm.

  Sammy downed the drink in a single gulp before slamming the empty glass upside down onto the table, startling Park and Buchanan. “RaeLee, I have come to the conclusion that the Alliance couldn’t exist in its present form if it didn’t simply discard people when they were of no further use to them.”

  Park started to protest, but Traynor got to her feet and motioned for the general to do the same. Moving to stand right in front of her, Traynor reached around the smaller woman and hugged her as she whispered in her ear, “You have my sympathy, Ma’am. You’re stuck in an impossible place, doing an impossible job... all while answering to people that have their heads stuck so far up their arses they’ll never see daylight again. You’re a good person, RaeLee Park; I consider you a friend, but I think we’re done here for the night.”

  Sammy kissed RaeLee on the cheek, released her and casually retook her chair. Park was stunned by Sammy’s passionate dismissal; it took her several moments to think of what to say. Finally, she looked at both of them, said ‘good night’, then pulled her hood over her head as she turned and left.

  Buchanan laid a gentle hand on Traynor’s shoulder and said, “I think we should leave as well, Sammy – you have to fly to Thessia tomorrow… I don’t envy you the headache you’re going to have.”

  Sam looked at Griff for a moment before nodding in agreement. “I guess you’re right. Come on… let’s find a taxi, head back to our quarters.”

  * * *

  * UNKNOWN SYSTEM *

  Michael Moser Lang paced impatiently back and forth in front of the display pad as he waited for the secure connection to be completed with Cerberus headquarters. He had received a summons from the Illusive Man for this meeting; coming from anyone else within Cerberus, Lang would have simply ignored it. Thinking back a few hours, the thought came unbidden, ‘One simply does not ignore a request from the Illusive Man… it’s a good way to end up dead.’ The trill of the quantum entanglement comm system coming online interrupted his thoughts; he stopped pacing to stand in the middle of the display pad.

  The pixelated image in front of him resolved itself into a vision of a man sitting in a chair, legs crossed, drink in one hand and half-smoked cigarette between two fingers of the other, an unknown red sun filling the space behind him. “Mr Lang… It would appear you managed to complete your assignment of eliminating Raherix Ursivus.” Taking a drag from the cigarette, the enigmatic head of Cerberus blew a cloud of smoke into the air above him before continuing. “Unfortunately, you were sloppy. A special unit within the Systems Alliance learned of your target and your plan… a pair of operatives was within days of saving Ursivus by preventing the destruction of the MSV Anixara; it’s fortunate we have a highly-placed general that was able to override his subordinate’s crusade to make the galaxy a better place for the other races… particularly the turians.”

  The hand holding the glass absentmindedly swirled the liquid and ice around for a moment; after taking a swallow of bourbon, the Illusive Man added, “Your carelessness has tied your actions to Cerberus, an unexpected, and most troubling development… you were paid to be discrete.”

  “I got the job done, despite the mercs that showed up at the warehouse.”

  “I had to intervene in the affairs of Alliance High Command, and that’s the only reason your assignment was completed.” Stubbing the cigarette out in the ashtray on the arm of the chair, the man took another sip from his glass before concluding, “The favor I was granted was not inexpensive… it is a payment that will be deducted from your completion bonus.”

  Lang was furious. “You can’t do that! We had a deal…” he sputtered.

  “… A deal contingent on your unaided completion of the assignment, Mr Lang.” The Illusive Man’s eyes seemed to bore all the way through his head to the back of Lang’s skull. “Be glad I don’t feel it necessary to permanently take care of you, Mr Lang.” His image faded away, leaving Lang standing on the display pad in an impotent rage. ‘Son of a bitch! I need to disappear for a while, see if I can discover who the hell screwed me out of my payday.’ The angry assassin finally calmed down enough to turn and leave the QEC chamber, knowing as soon as he stepped off the pad its connection to the Illusive Man would be permanently severed. ‘Cerberus doesn’t realize who they’re fucking with.’

  * * *

  * THESSIA • SERRICE HOSPITAL *

  Xiùlán had just returned from taking a warm bath; she’d been assisted by her therapist, Corrina Sidhu, who had carefully washed Xiùlán’s left leg, propped up high and dry above the very shallow bath water. Xiùlán still blushed at having to be bathed by another – her only bathing companion up until this hospital stay had been Sammy.

  Corrina was helping her get her underwear and socks on, over which she put on a clean set of ‘sweats’. Xiùlán had just taken a seat on the edge of a chair, keeping her healing leg as straight as possible, when the door opened to admit a beaming Traynor.

  “Sà mǐ! I wasn’t expecting you until later in the day! It’s so good to see you…” Her last words were muffled by Sam’s shoulder as the woman reached around her inamorata to embrace her and plant kisses on her brow, eyelids, bridge of her nose, cheeks, chin and neck before ending up by placing her lips on those of her lover, using them to caress Xiùlán’s mouth as softly as a rare January snow falling on Hangzhou Bay.

  After several moments of simply enjoying Traynor’s soft kisses, Xiùlán moved her head enough to take a breath and said, “You don’t know how much I’ve missed that, my love.”

  Indicating the asari therapist, Sam snarked, “And yet, you have poor Corrina here putting your clothes on for you…”

  “It’s no trouble, Ms Traynor… it’s my job to assist her in any way possible,” Corrina protested.

  Xiùlán smirked as she looked at the discomfited asari and said, “Don’t take what she says about me so seriously, Corrina… She’s teasing me.” Her expression softened as she looked at her lover and concluded, “It’s how she shows how much she loves me.”

  Sammy’s smile was radiant as she announced, “We’ve got several weeks to get reacquainted, Luv. Have you talked to your parents, asked them about a visit?”

  “Not yet… I thought I’d wait until I have a solid date for my discharge from physical therapy so they know when we’re coming home.” Xiùlán stood up, grabbed her cane and said to Corrina, “I’m ready to leave… Sà mǐ will walk with me over to the rehab center. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

  Corrina smiled. “She’s good therapy for you, Ma’am. I’ll pack up here, get everything moved for you. Just be careful going up or down stairs… you’ve lost a bit of strength in that knee.”

  “Thanks, Corrina… I’ll be careful.”

  Traynor spent the rest of the morning filling Xiùlán in on her assignment to find and stop Michael Moser Lang’s assassination of Raherix Ursivus, only to have Alliance High Command allow Lang’s sabotage to succeed. Yuán had expressed amazement at General Park’s complicity in the destruction of the MSV Anixara until Sammy assured her that Park had her ha
nds tied. “Her bosses are to blame for the outcome, not Park… She’s still a friend, Xiùlán. I’m sure she’s still in our corner, even if we’ll be in completely opposite jobs.”

  “Is that why you’re here now? Your thirty-day leave doesn’t start until I’m discharged from the rehab center here?”

  “Countdown begins when we leave here… When it’s all over, you’ll be assigned to the Tokyo, and I’ll return to Arcturus Station,” Sam replied sadly. “Won’t be the same without you there.”

  “We both knew this time was coming, Sà mǐ. I had hoped we’d get a few more special assignments together, but…” she left the thought unfinished, then brightened as she changed the subject. “There’s still our annual leave – we’ll just make it a point to get together whenever and wherever we can manage it.”

  Traynor’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Lots of lonely nights in between, Luv.”

  Xiùlán attempted to change the subject again. “Will I be able to see Buchanan before we go home? I need to thank him for keeping you safe.” Traynor looked away in an attempt to hide her embarrassment; Xiùlán reached around and gently turned Sam back towards her. “Come on, Sà mǐ… There’s no shame in having had a helping hand and another set of eyes keep you from harm. I’m sorry those C-Sec officers died in the blast, but I’d have been devastated if it had been you and Griff instead. He may not realize it, but I owe him a great debt, one I will probably never be able to repay… least I can do is thank him for keeping watch on your six.”

  Sam nodded and said, “He may still be in Vancouver when we return, but if not, I’m sure he’ll let me… us… know where his new duty station will be.”

  “That’s good.” The pair had been walking in a large park between the main hospital and the rehab center; Xiùlán was enjoying Sam’s company so much she hadn’t paid much attention as the morning passed into the noon hour. An alarm trilled on her omni-tool, indicating she had an hour before her afternoon session with Corina was to begin. “Sà mǐ, we need to eat lunch… I’ve worked up quite an appetite and I expect you have as well. Come on… The cafeteria in the rehab center has some delicious food.”