by HR Ringer
Traynor stared hard into a pair of emerald green eyes. “I do remember… Farnia was kind enough to show me an exquisite bracelet I wanted to give to Xiùlán.” Sam was beginning to realize what Maracela was speaking about. “Oh, Mara… What did you…?”
With her free hand, Mara brought out a small, gaily wrapped box in the shape of a cube. “I want you to have this, Sammy, to give to Xiùlán. You don’t have to tell her it’s from me and my sister… simply tell her you bought it for her.”
“Mara!” Sam was totally taken aback. “I cannot lie to Xiùlán… Even for the best of reasons! And this is really too much… it’s too expensive!” Sam was going to refuse to take the box until she saw the hurt in Mara’s eyes.
“I am sorry, Samantha. I have offended you. Please, forgive my… lack of understanding concerning humans. I did not know…” Mara closed her eyes as she clutched the box to her chest.
Sam reached up with her free hand and placed a finger on Mara’s lips to quiet her. When she opened her eyes to look at the human, Sammy said softly, “Mara, it is I who must beg your pardon. I have misjudged you… badly.” Removing her finger, she continued, “A gift, freely given in friendship, is not to be taken lightly. But if you truly wish to do this, it must be you that presents it to Xiùlán, not me. You do realize I cannot give this to her as if it was purchased by me?”
Mara brushed a tear from her eye as she grinned at Sammy, her good spirits restored. “You are an exceptional person, Samantha Traynor… a credit to your race. I can see why Xiùlán looks upon you with such devotion in her eyes. Few are those that can earn a love that intense. Cherish every moment you have with her.”
With a smile that lit her entire face, Sammy replied, “I do, Mara… every day of my life.” She reached around the asari, embracing her in a heartfelt hug of friendship and sisterhood. Releasing her, she took a step back and said, “Now, let’s go find Xiùlán. I want to see her face when she opens her gift from the sisters T'Rhyn.”
Chapter 32: Thirty Days of Shanghai
You are a dangerous collection of all my favorite things. An old soul, a heart of gold and hands that make my body sing. – Nikita Gill
* * *
Ai’a me – a trusted friend and unquestioned ally (Thessian)
Inamorata – A woman with whom one is in love; a female lover (Italian)
Nángùn – literally, a ‘southern staff’, polished, two-meter long white wax wooden staff
* * *
* SOL SYSTEM • EARTH • SHANGHAI, CHINA *
Xiùlán and Sammy’s transport from the Alliance base in Vancouver BC had finally arrived at the Alliance dominated shuttle parking area on the edge of Shanghai’s huge Pudong International Airport; from there they had loaded their gear bags into a large aircar for the ride to Yuán’s parents home just north of the city center.
Xiùlán had been rather quiet all during their flight across the ocean; she was still quiet, with her head against the small viewport beside their seats. As she gazed out the window at the city spread out below her, she idly toyed with the gold and platinum wrist-cuff presented to her by Matriarch Elesia’s aide, Maracela T’Rhyn.
Xiùlán smiled at the memory of Mara’s flustered look of dismay when the human started to protest such an expensive gift. Sam had been standing to the side and behind Mara, and had managed to gain Xiùlán’s attention, firmly shaking her head ‘NO’ without being seen by the asari. After reluctantly accepting the gift – “… your people have restored my injured leg, Mara! No other gift is necessary!” – and allowing Mara to place it on her off-hand wrist, Xiùlán had surprised Maracela with a heartfelt hug, every bit as intense as the one Mara had received earlier from Traynor.
The asari had groaned slightly just before Xiùlán released her; she had been further surprised when the human turned and kissed her on the cheek. Looking from Xiùlán to Sammy and back, she had exclaimed, “Goddess! Are all human females so… passionate as you two?”
Xiùlán replied with a chuckle as Sammy attempted to explain. “We usually don’t display our affection for someone, at least not publicly. But this is different… we’re getting ready to leave for home.” Sammy reached out to place a hand on Mara’s upper arm. “We may never see you again, Maracela T’Rhyn. Hugging you before we depart is our attempt to make sure you understand how much we care about you… and so you will have pleasant memories of our parting after we are gone.”
“How could I not?” exclaimed Maracela. “I feel as if we have been acquainted for a very long time… certainly much longer than the few months since the Goddess chose to grace us with your presence!” The asari assured them both she would never forget them. “You are ai'a me… trusted friends and allies… and being able to view the recovered carving of Janiri in the museum will ensure I always remember my human sisters,” she had concluded.
* * *
When Yuán Chaoxiang opened the entry door in response to Xiùlán’s activation of the door chime, he first bowed graciously towards Sammy, before enveloping his daughter in a heartfelt hug. Sammy was surprised to be the next recipient of a hug from Xiùlán’s father, along with one from her mother, Lì húa, and her grandmother, Xiuying. Of course, Xiùlán had told her family of her injury, subsequent rescue and extensive treatment; Sammy was unaware of how extensively she had figured into Xiùlán’s telling of their adventure.
Before dinner that evening, three people sat in rapt awe as Xiùlán told them an abbreviated version of their mission on Cartagena Station. Lì húa was extremely impressed when Xiùlán explained how Sammy had single-handedly taken on over a dozen batarians as Griff and Xiùlán had waited for the asari evacuation shuttle to arrive. Traynor did her best to follow along with Xiùlán’s narrative, catching only every eighth or twelfth word – if she was lucky; her lover was speaking excitedly, waving her arms to emphasize salient points of the story. Her parents and grandmother couldn’t help but notice that whenever Xiùlán glanced in Traynor’s direction, her eyes shone with utter love and devotion.
Sammy knew Xiùlán had reached the part concerning their escape when she heard the sound of asari names intermingled with the words spoken in Mandarin. As Xiùlán’s telling of their mission slowed and finally came to an end, Sammy gave her a worried look and asked, “You didn’t tell them how badly I treated the batarian that shot you, I hope.”
Xiùlán smiled as she replied, “No… I thought it best to simply say you killed him.”
As Xiùlán finished answering, her mom rose from her chair and stepped right in front of Traynor; gently taking her hands, Lì húa said in halting English, “Thank you, Sà mǐ, for saving… my daughter… my graceful orchid, and for killing the…” here she paused, as the English word eluded her. Saying “Hùn zhàng!” [ 混帳 – bastard ] she continued “… that so terribly hurt her.” She gave Sammy’s hands a gentle squeeze before releasing them to turn and return to her chair.
Xiùlán looked at Sam and said, “I also told them we planned to go out for dinner, and invited them to accompany us.”
Sammy smiled as she replied, “I’m ready, Luv… was beginning to wonder when we were going to eat.”
* * *
As Xiùlán relaxed and reconnected with her parents and grandmother, Sammy had taken to exploring the area near the Yuán home. It only took her a day to discover a small shop, sandwiched between a pair of larger businesses, which turned out to be a tattoo parlor, its exceedingly sparkling interior in shining contrast to the somewhat dingy exterior.
She had been toying with an idea since returning to Earth with Buchanan, before their assignment to ferret out an assassin employed by the terrorist group known as Cerberus. Meeting the proprietor of the tattoo shop solidified the notion in her head – she wanted a tattoo on her back – something to visibly tie her to Xiùlán; she planned to convince her inamorata that she needed a matching design mirror imaged on her back. But what image should she commit to having permanently inked into her skin?
Jiang
Mingli was an artist by trade; he had become a tattooist in order to make a living. What had drawn Sammy into his shop was the large number of colorful drawings depicting dragons of every style, from the Chinese to the European; there were even depictions of what she learned were wyverns – dragon-like creatures with a single pair of legs and a pair of wings that were analogous to those of a bat.
What she had in mind for herself was less a true depiction of a mythological creature and more an abstract idea of a dragon – shapes in curves, triangles and rectangular blocks depicting the beast’s body and tail on the right side of her torso, with a horned head on her shoulder blade looking to the right, the body down to the lower area of her rib cage and broad, sail-like wings reaching just past the center of her back.
She worked with Ming, as he insisted she refer to him, to create the shapes in brilliant shades of red, with deep red shadowing along certain edges to depict shadows. Ming assured her the creature would appear to be three-dimensional when he was finished. When the design was drawn to her satisfaction, she asked the artist to create a mirror-image of the design in vivid greens and gold. When he had finished, she paid him for the designs and requested that they be for the exclusive use of her and Xiùlán. Setting up a three-hour appointment for the next day, she sent a message to Xiùlán’s omni-tool asking her to meet for lunch.
* * *
Xiùlán entered the cozy café that Sammy had discovered; spotting her lover at a table near the back, she strode up to her lover and asked, “May I join you?”
Traynor smirked as she replied, “Only if you’re buying.”
As Xiùlán sat across the table from Sam, a waiter appeared as if from thin air and asked, “What would be your pleasure today, ladies?”
Sammy looked up at him with an expression of amazement. “Your English is very good.”
“Thank you,” he replied. “I wasn’t sure if I should ask in Mandarin or not. Your companion appears to be from this area, but the way people travel these days…” he finished by shrugging his shoulders before asking again, “What may I bring you?”
Xiùlán smiled as she ordered Shanghainese wonton soup with chicken for them both, along with two glasses of Huiquan Beer. The waiter smiled and replied, “Very good, Ma’am. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
Sammy smiled at Xiùlán as the waiter left to place their orders and pour their beer. “Ma’am? My gosh, Luv, do we really look like matrons?”
Xiùlán chuckled at the snarky question. “Don’t take it personally Sà mǐ… I expect he treats every woman customer in the same fashion.”
“Maybe I should try a bit of my Mandarin on him when her returns.”
Xiùlán grinned and said, “Think about it quick, then… here he comes with our drinks.”
The young man set a filled glass in front of each of them, followed by the opened bottles with the remainder of their beverage. As he started to leave, Traynor said, “Fēicháng gǎnxiè nǐ. [非常感謝你。- Thank you very much.]
This startled him so much he nearly dropped his serving tray as he spun around. Not having seen which of them had spoken, he turned towards Xiùlán to tell her she was welcome; when she pointed to Traynor, the man’s eyes grew wide in amazement. “Forgive me… I had no idea you knew how to speak Mandarin.”
Traynor smiled. “Truthfully, you just heard the majority of what I know… I always thought being able to offer thanks to someone in their own language was the polite thing to do.”
With a smile and a small bow in appreciation, the man turned to go check on their orders.
After taking a sip of beer, Sammy smacked her lips and said, “That’s a nice brew, Luv. I may have to have a second one of those.”
Xiùlán took a sip from her glass and agreed with Traynor’s opinion before saying, “Okay, wǒ de ài [我的愛 – my love], why did you have me meet you here?”
Traynor attempted and failed to look innocent. “I’ve been thinking about this for some time now – ever since I returned from Thessia to work with Buchanan.” She pulled a small, rolled piece of paper from her pack and handed it to Xiùlán. “Take a look at these dragons, darling. They’re custom designs, done for each of us,” she explained as her lover unrolled the paper to reveal the mirror image designs. “What do you think of them?”
“Truthfully? They’re beautiful… like fine art! But, why are they mirror imaged, and different colors?”
Sam responded in a quiet voice. “They’re designs for tattoos, my love… I intend to have the red one applied to my own back, and… I had hoped you might like the design enough to have the green applied to your back.” Before Xiùlán could answer, Sammy added, “If you don’t wish to join with me in this fashion, I understand… A tattoo’s permanent, and the application will hurt like all bloody ‘ell… you’ve been through more than your share of pain these past months.”
Xiùlán studied the designs on the rolled out rice paper; Jiang Mingli had super-imposed each design on an outline of a woman’s back on a second piece of paper so Sammy could show Xiùlán how the results would appear. Spotting the waiter bearing their lunch, Xiùlán quickly re-rolled the papers and handed them to her inamorata while saying, “Let me think about it, Sà mǐ. I’ll look at the designs again, study them this evening before I turn in.” Leaning back in her chair to give their waiter a bit of extra room, she finished with, “Now, let’s enjoy our lunch.”
* * *
After lunch, Sammy and Xiùlán walked the neighborhood near the restaurant, looking in the windows of the many small crafts shops. They came upon a large park, where they strolled and sat on benches by turns, enjoying the dappled shade and brilliant sunshine. Sammy quickly discovered she was the subject of mostly covert scrutiny by many of the other people out for a walk in the sun. When she mentioned this to Xiùlán, her lover smiled and said, “Your features and skin color mark you as a foreigner, even in this city… people are simply curious.”
“Makes me realize how you must feel on the Citadel,” Traynor replied. “Humans are plentiful there, but Chinese people among that population are still a rare sight.” As she looked directly at a man who was obviously staring, she added, “Almost wish I was wearing a helmet with a tinted visor.” The man hurriedly looked away from Traynor’s direct gaze and quickened his pace to put some distance between them.
Xiùlán laughed at this. “Oh Sà mǐ, that would only add to their curiosity. Just ignore them… they mean you no harm.”
Sammy huffed as she answered. “Hard to ignore, Luv… Goes against my training.”
Xiùlán moved close to place an arm around her back as they walked. “You have a valid point, but…” she made a show of checking their surroundings. “… I can’t see any batarians hiding behind the trees or lying in wait in the bushes.”
Traynor looked at her friend and said with a smirk, “What about Cerberus? You don’t think there could be a Chinese branch of that group?”
Xiùlán’s expression went cold for a moment before she answered.
“You’ve come up against them more than I have, but… from what little I have seen, I believe their xenophobia has no bounds… certainly not along racial lines! For Cerberus, it’s humans first and foremost! I’d not be surprised to find lots of Chinese people among them.”
“What about assassins?”
Xiùlán’s expression hardened slightly. “Professional assassins have existed in this country for thousands of years, Sà mǐ, mostly associated with the ruling families of the ancient dynasties, but such can still be found to this day. I certainly wouldn’t rule out Chinese assassins being employed by Cerberus. Perhaps one was employed to end the lives of Darius Holden and Marianna Walsh in their cells on Mars… would maybe explain why the video footage was scrubbed to eliminate any visual clues.”
They continued walking as Traynor thought about what Xiùlán had said. “Makes sense, I suppose. We never did hear of anything Corporal Phillips may have discovered after she shared photos of the murder
ed agents with us. Makes me wonder if Alliance Command shut her down before she could dig deep enough to expose shit they didn’t want out in the open.”
“Ah, Sà mǐ… still looking for conspiracies?” Yuán shook her head in mock annoyance. “We’re on vacation, wǒ de bǎobèi… [我的寶貝… – my darling…] we’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves. You look different from almost everyone that lives in this city… it’s to be expected that people are going to look at you. When you catch someone and they’re close enough, just say, ‘Nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo ma?’ [你好你好嗎？]’ – means ‘Hi, how are you?’ Should embarrass them enough they’ll quit staring.”
Traynor grinned. “That’ll work just fine, unless they choose to tell me how they’re doing.”
Yuán laughed as she pulled Sam close and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I can see I need to get you into a school teaching conversational Mandarin. Can’t imagine the trouble you’ll get into without some way to communicate with the natives here.”
Sammy chuckled. “I think I can talk my way out of any trouble that finds me… if I cannot, I’ll just have to use a bit of what I learned from hanging around you so long.”
They had reached the far edge of the park, so Yuán called an automated taxi to transport them back to her home. “Mom’s fixing a nice dinner for us… wouldn’t want to be late.”
* * *
After a sumptuous dinner, Sammy wandered into the small exercise area behind Yuán’s apartment building; in actuality, a courtyard shared by the other buildings surrounding the small rectangle of hard clay soil. She was still too full of food and drink to even think of doing her more vigorous exercises, but felt the slow movements of the Neigong form of Tai Chi she practiced would help her digestion as she thought about her earlier conversation with Xiùlán.