Post by TerrorK on Sept 17, 2010 16:26:43 GMT 1
Chapter 16
As Yalo walked up to the main door of Karina, a meaty, three-fingered hand stretched down towards him. Yalo grabbed hold of Intarr's paw with one of his own, letting the krogan help hoist him up into the spacecraft.
"Thanks," Yalo said. "Lylanya may be a while, she's got a plan of some sorts. Beyond that we're stuck here for a couple of days anyway."
"Is that a fact?" Intarr rumbled. "Does that mean I can leave this tin can at some point and have a look around?"
"Sure, if you don't cause any trouble," Yalo shrugged. "Do whatever you want."
"So I can do anything I want so long as I don't cause any trouble," Intarr said, followed by a rough snort. "Seems to be a contradiction there."
"Haedian worked anything out yet?" Yalo asked, the slight jocosity of his voice indicating the humour of Intarr's prior comment wasn't lost on him.
"I think he did," Intarr said with a grin. "He's definitely got something he wanted to talk with you about."
"Guess I'd better go and talk with him then."
Yalo turned away from the krogan, the act itself seeming to wipe the smile from Intarr's face and cause his eyes to narrow at the departing quarian. Intarr glanced over his shoulder, his gaze traveling through the open hatch and beyond to observe an obvious security camera on the ceiling. Narrowing his eyes a little more he made a barely audible murmur of gravel before closing the main hatch again and stomping deeper within the ship.
Yalo found Dr. Haedian at the main console, sitting in the chair usually reserved for Lylanya. The salarian jumped a little at Yalo's voice.
"Found something yet, Doctor?"
Haedian looked over his shoulder, one eye appearing larger than the other. There seemed to be what might have been described as a diffident frown above them as he regarded the quarian, and his lips twitched a little before he responded.
"S-s-sort of," he stuttered, his voice sounding nervously unsettled. "I may... have something."
"Is something wrong?" Yalo asked. "Has Intarr been giving you trouble or something?"
Haedian's eyelids flickered, the focus of the eyes beyond them then moving past Yalo to the hulking form just a few feet behind him. As the krogan lifted his head to return a stare, the blue lights of the ship's main compartment that had initially shone off his analogously hued crest shifted to reflect wildly in his eyes, giving them an impression of power beyond their means. Haedian's eyes returned to Yalo's visor, his heading shaking in small, succinct jerks.
"No no no. Nothing like that," came the answer, followed by a deep breath and a more controlled, convincing answer. "I just always get a little nervous around krogan when there's nobody else around to keep an eye on them." A pause. "And to shoot them when get violent." Another pause. "Well, slightly more violent than usual."
"In that case, what might you have?"
"I said 'may' actually," the doctor corrected in his usual acerbic manner, accompanied by a flicker of frown. "And to your credit I actually got the idea from you... after you told me exactly how you came to track me down on Mannovai."
"I'm listening," Yalo responded, sounding genuinely interested.
"Well, initially I had considered trying to generate a massive electromagnetic pulse, but then realised that your ships would probably be shielded against such a tactic. On top of that there would be almost no way to create a single EMP field or wave large enough to reach the entire fleet. There's also the possibility that it could affect other electronic devices nearby crucial to the plan, including any ships you yourself may have in the area.
"So I came back the the idea of a virus, despite your profession that the concept was folly. While you are quite correct that planting a virus to spread through a fleet of quarian ships would likely result in it being caught and found before it could spread too far --let alone disabling all the ships for a decent period of time-- if one could come up with a dormant virus in a similar fashion to the one you used with me perhaps it could succeed. Particularly if said virus was, firstly, simultaneously brought to life across all ships at once, and, secondly, one that physically damaged the main ship's systems or engines in order to render the vessels harmless. Assuming your Migrant Fleet's course and heading is determined and governed by a mothership of some variety, the virus could be distributed via the communications network by which your course changes are relayed amongst the fleet. The virus itself wouldn't be triggered until you had reached your destination, whereby you could manually do so at a moment of your choosing."
"What about weapons? Even when maimed The Migrant Fleet would have a formidable arsenal at its disposal. And then there's any smaller, armed ships aboard the larger ones that wouldn't even be affected at all."
"If the virus could harm all the ship's systems... or even just the power systems, then it would cripple them in every way," Haedian pondered. "Weapons would be inoperable and your fighters wouldn't be able to leave their bays without power to the doors. The Flotilla would be forced to surrender or many ships and lives would be lost."
"That would be next to impossible though," Yalo said, shaking his head. "Quarian ships are not of a universal design. Don't forget that we're nomads of the galaxy, scrounging and cannibalising what we can to keep them floating through space at all. Even two ships of an identical class and type could have very different internal workings."
"It's a pity we can't take advantage of your biggest weakness," Haedian pondered. "If we could target your weak immune systems somehow --or at least threaten to-- then we might get a massive advantage."
"With rare exceptions we wear the suits constantly, even aboard our ships," Yalo noted. "The only way that would be possible is if each individual quarian was attacked. It's not like you can infect one suit and the disease would spread through all the others. There's no common air filtration system that's fleet wide or anything like that."
"You're wasting your time," Intarr rumbled from behind them both. "If it was gonna be that easy to take down the entire quarian fleet, somebody would'a done it long ago. There've probably been richer than norm merc groups who have been thinking of a way to seize the entire flotilla for decades now."
There was a long moment of silence, broken as Yalo looked up from his feet and spoke.
"The food," he said, his voice barren of feeling.
"Come again?" Haedian queried.
"We target the food," Yalo stated. "There are three Liveships at the centre of the fleet. They provide food to the entire Flotilla and are crucial to our survival. Destroying even one of them would be a crippling blow to the whole Migrant Fleet... millions of quarians would starve over the following weeks, even months. They are well defended, but could easily be infiltrated and have a dormant virus planted in their systems by a quarian. All three are identical in design, so if one could be taken down the same would apply to the others. I would still need to study the systems though, as I'm not familiar with them beyond the basics."
"What kind of damage are we talking about here?" Haedian asked.
"We could do several things," Yalo said, rubbing the lower portion of his helmet. "Contaminate the food supply for one. Destroy it. Turn off environmental conditions. Even overload its power generators or engines, though that would take time and could likely be stopped with the right quarians aboard. Attacking them directly won't work, they're too heavily guarded by our most powerful warships. Whatever we do, that's our fleet's weakest point. Taking down the entire Flotilla is next to impossible, especially with a lack of resources. But we don't need to... we just need to strike at a place that affects them the most."
"Depending on what you want to do I may be able to help you with this," Haedian said. "But I'd need schematics on the Liveships and their systems. If you're thinking of contaminating the food supply to render it inedible then a list of said food varieties would help. I could probably find an efficient way of facilitating in their destruction without the need of foreign substances, merely using your own ships' design to do it instead. Less suspicious and detectable that way."
"The only way I can get them is direct access," Yalo said. "I'll have to get that for you when we head to The Migrant Fleet. Depending on where it is when that happens, we'll have a limited time to study the systems and create the virus before we arrive at our destination. Thankfully the fleet must move only as fast as its slowest ship. That should give us some time."
"I don't suppose there's a chance of taking out the ships guarding it?" Intarr suggested. Yalo shook his head.
"Only if we crippled them too, which is unlikely. They won't be as easy to get rid of. Any direct assault on the Liveships will fail." There was a pause from Yalo. "And I want at least one of them taken out."
"As in destroyed?" asked Haedian. "Actually, physically blown asunder?"
"Taken out in some way," Yalo said. "Either the food or the ship itself. We have to show them we mean business. The threat won't be enough, they actually have to experience the loss and a firm blow must be dealt. Only then will they even consider following my demands."
Yalo slammed a fist into his palm, and his strength of resolve shattered cracked at the contact. The once rigid quarian sagged a little and leant on the back of Haedian's chair for support.
You see it now, don't you? a familiar voice echoed in his head. You realise what you sound like. You realise what this is doing to you... what you're becoming.
"I... I have to go," Yalo said. "I'm feeling a little off. I haven't slept much lately, so I think a rest is in order."
With the others regarding him with odd confusion, Yalo stumbled past Intarr and made his way out of the cockpit. Using his body weight to lean the cargo hold door open, he slid inside and heaved it closed again. With his arms dangling almost lifelessly at the shoulders, he trudged quickly to the nearest crate and sat upon it, clasping at his helmet with his hands and breathing deeply.
It's not too late, came Linna's voice, concerned but tinged with just a little hope. You realise it. You're aware of it. You haven't come so far that you can't turn back.
"I can't!" Yalo said, his voice strained as unseen tears welled beyond his ebony visor. "I won't commit our people to a long, slow death. I have to do this. It's the only way: life through death."
Then at least listen to her. Find an alternative. Give us the homeworld without the sacrifice.
"It can't be done," Yalo said, shaking his head.
How do you know when you won't even try? When you won't even look for another way?
"Because it doesn't work like that," Yalo said with frustration. "The suffering is necessary. More than that, it's the key. Sometimes it is."
You know that's not true. You know there's never a single way to do anything. You've always believed in alternatives.
"She reminds me of you," Yalo admitted, leaning back against the wall behind him with a sigh to stare up at the ceiling. "If she hadn't been alive for years before even mother and father were, I'd swear she was you in some other form."
Maybe you should at least believe her presence is merely more than a coincidence. You believed you had a purpose in life. Maybe she does too. Maybe both are linked. Maybe she is our people's salvation just as much as you are. Perhaps she's the one who stops it being our doom.
"All I know right now is that I need some sleep," Yalo sighed, hauling himself up and approaching one of the benches on the far wall.
The local time was 7:25pm when Lylanya ascended the small stairway leading into Telesto. The place wasn't hard to find, thanks to the large holographic orb situated above the main entrance. The striped yellow and tan coloured ball resembled a ringed planet, with two sets of letters spelling TELESTO rotating around it to represent the rings. This part of the city was vibrant and colourful overall at this time of night, but that didn't stop the dining facility from standing out. It sat at the bottom of a tall skyscraper, despite only actually incorporating the bottom two floors, with a glass elevator and directory just to the left of the entrance to transport and guide people to the other functions and services the structure otherwise provided.
While she noted that a salarian passed her coming down the staircase and she'd seen another asari talking to a human outside a building across the street, Lylanya couldn't help but notice that the place was mostly filled with humans. That was to be expected to a degree of course, with it being one of the major settlements on the human homeworld, but at the same time it still didn't tend to be as mixed and diverse as you'd find going to cities on places like Palaven, Sur'Kesh and even Thessia. Humans were relatively new to the galaxy and didn't seem to mind spreading out, but it seems either aliens were reluctant to come to the cities of Earth or humans were reluctant to have them. Perhaps even a little of both. After all, turians, salarians and asari had been dealing with each other and been allies for centuries, while humans had only been on the galactic scene for less than half of one.
The place came across as rather casual, which made sense given Talia's description of it. There was no need for a reservation and nobody to guide you to a table or anything, just a bar area as you entered to the left where a friendly employee greeted Lylanya and simply noted she could sit anywhere she liked and that somebody would be with her shortly with a menu. Lylanya politely thanked him and continued on, looking around. The place was fairly busy and popular at the moment, and while not completely bustling and crowded there were enough people in the place to make singling out an individual less than a simple process. The lights of many colours from the holograms snaking around the walls and streaming across the ceiling didn't help either, but despite this Lylanya managed to make out what she believed to be her target sitting at a booth table at the far end of the room, just past the edge of the bar. As she approached it was confirmed, though she wasn't alone and appeared to be having a drink with a human male. This made Lylanya a little concerned as to the success of her plan, but not enough to stop her. She'd adapt. She always did.
"Hello, Miss Ivanova," Lylanya smiled down at the redhead. "Good to see you here having a good time. That way I know it really is a good place and you weren't just saying so."
Even with the subdued lighting and swirling colours Lylanya noticed the red come to Talia's cheeks. Her once restrained hair was now free, framing her pretty face at about shoulder length, and her business attire had been switched to an elegant black dress that, while not overly short, didn't pass the knee, showing off her elegant legs.
"Mi... Miss Alanthios," Talia said with a slight stammer, and Lylanya couldn't tell if it was surprise or mild anxiety. "Hi. Won't you join us?"
"Aren't you going to introduce us?" the man sitting across from her said, an odd smirk on his face as he raised one eyebrow at Talia. He had light brown hair and a goatee beard, with a sharp, angular nose and green eyes, similar to that of Talia's. He wore a dress shirt and trousers.
"Of course," Talia smiled. "Gregory, this is Miss Alanthios. She's a potential business client I met earlier today."
"Lylanya," the asari said, extending her hand to shake his. "We're not discussing business at the moment after all."
"Gregory Ivanov," the man replied, accepting the handshake. "Or just Greg for short. A pleasure to meet you."
"You have rather similar last names," Lylanya noted. "Coincidence?"
"It’s a family name," Gregory explained. "It's slightly different if you’re male or female due to our ancestry."
"Oh... so you're Talia's husband then?"
"Brother, actually," Gregory answered. "We both live in the area. Have all our lives. This was always a favourite place of ours, so we quite often bump into each other here from time to time. It was just a coincidence we happened to meet up tonight." He smiled. "Here I am talking to somebody from another world and I haven't even left this city, let alone been beyond this planet."
"Please, have a seat," Talia said, sliding over in her own. Lylanya thanked her and sat down. Greg raised an arm and called out to a nearby waitress.
"Service, please." The request was answered as a young woman holding a datapad approached and smiled at Lylanya.
"What'll you be having, honey?"
"Just a drink for the moment I think," Lylanya answered. "I suppose I should try something local. Any recommendations?"
"Talia's drinking something called a 'pina colada' at the moment," Gregory answered. "It's an old fashioned Earth beverage. You could try that."
"Very well," Lylanya smiled, and she addressed the waitress. "One pina colada, please."
The waitress noted it down with a friendly nod and left.
"I did notice that there aren't many non-humans around," Lylanya commented. "Is that normal?"
"Yeah, this place has usually just got locals in it," Gregory responded. "Not many outside the area know about it. Most off-world visitors would probably prefer a higher-class place further up town."
"Well, Talia here recommended it to me, so I thought I'd pop in," Lylanya said, throwing the woman in question a glance. "I must admit, it's very nice. I prefer to see a place that's more natural and illustrates the local culture over a place that tries to be something it's not."
"That would explain why she's here tonight then," Gregory said, throwing his sister a wink. She stopped nursing her drink and returned a glare.
"Gregory!" she chided in a firm whisper. "Stop being so juvenile."
"I didn't say anything," Gregory defended, chuckling awkwardly as he raised his hands up. "I was just paying your new friend a compliment if anything. And you. It's nice to see you socialising a little more. Usually it's all business with you."
"You know I have an important job, Gregory," Talia said as if it were obvious. "I don't get much time to socialise, and when I do I can't talk about what I do. Mr. Levine's affairs don't leave the building. Beyond that all I can talk about is how my cats are doing and which of my plants is the closest to death this week." A pause as she twirled the straw around her glass. "The fern on the fridge is probably the front-runner at the moment, by the way."
"See. We're having a good conversation already," Gregory said. "You're not as boring as you think."
"I'm sure Miss Alanthios..."
"Lylanya," the asari insisted, interrupting Talia. She nodded and started again.
"I'm sure Lylanya has far more interesting things she could tell us about herself than I do."
"I'm sure she does," Gregory said, raising an eyebrow at Talia. His sister narrowed her eyes at him as he continued. "I mean, she's lived for... how long?"
"Over a hundred, I'll say that much," Lylanya evaded with a grin. "Under two."
"Well then, you must be a very wise and experienced individual," Gregory said, raising his glass to her. "I guess there would be upsides and downsides to an entire lifetime for us being the blink of an eye for you?"
"Very true," Lylanya nodded. "You see more wars and death than most others, but meet more friends and experience more amazing things. You can learn so much and do so many things when time is on your side. What human and salarian scientists would call their 'life's work' is sometimes just the beginning for us. And yet, in our youth, we sometimes squander our lives for decades. We'll waste an entire salarian lifetime just having fun."
The waitress returned with Lylanya's drink and the asari thanked her prior to Talia asking a question.
"Did you do that with your youth?"
Lylanya frowned at this slightly, postponing her lips' first contact with the straw to instead bite her lower one.
"My youth was... complicated," she answered. "Let's just say that I lacked focus and direction for the first half of my life."
"I sometimes wish I'd been able to lack focus in my youth," Talia said. Gregory rolled his eyes from across the table and crossed his arms across his chest.
"Here we go again..."
"You're still in your youth," Lylanya smiled at the young woman before taking her first taste of the drink before her.
"She's right, Talia," Gregory said. "And it's thanks to your hard work and diligence that you've got such a great career at such a young age."
"That's not the only reason, Greg," she said, and then her voice grew a little bitter. "It's not even the main one."
Gregory sighed, leaning his elbows on the table and shaking his head a little.
"I'm not going into this again, sis. I think I'll take off anyway." He checked his wrist. "I've got an early start tomorrow anyway. Besides... I'm sure you'd rather talk with your new friend alone."
Gregory's prominent smirk made a return, but Lylanya heard Talia mutter a curse as he slid out from the seat and stood up.
"You don't need to go, Greg," she said, almost pleading in a voice dripping with apology. "I didn't mean to..."
She trailed off, and while a few noises left her lips now and then none of them formed a complete word and she eventually just stopped. Gregory smiled down at her and Lylanya could see the love in his eyes, despite his sister obviously frustrating him now and then.
"It's okay, I understand," he said. "I'll see you later. If not sooner, then at mom and dad's in a couple of weeks." He turned to Lylanya, extending a hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Lylanya."
Lylanya stood up and accepted the handshake. "Nice to meet you too."
With a final silent wave and smile to his sister Gregory walked off, disappearing into a small crowd of humans clustered between his sister's table and the exit. Lylanya sat back down, this time in Gregory's former spot across from Talia. The redheaded woman sighed.
"Sorry about that," she apologised to Lylanya. "We just have somewhat of a... different view on how our parents went about raising us. Simply put, he thought it was good. I'm a little more sceptical."
"A lot of people say that parents know what's best for their offspring," Lylanya said. "But that depends on the parents."
"It's just that mom and dad were these successful business types and expected us to achieve as well, since before we could even walk it seemed," Talia said, twirling the straw in her drink around the rim with one finger. "When they were around our age --I mean Gregory and me-- humans suddenly discovered we weren't alone in the universe. For them it must have been a very different world than it was for us. We grew up with aliens as common knowledge, so to us it was no big deal. But I think our parents suddenly saw us competing not just with our own species on earth, but with an entire galaxy. So they pushed us to be the best that we could be. While other kids were out playing and having fun, Gregory and I were doing extra studies and attending extra classes in an attempt to make us the best."
"And you're not happy with your life because of it?" Lylanya asked.
"It's not that, it's just that..." She left the sentence pending and sighed. "I just can't help but wonder if I've wasted my youth. I have a great job that pays well and almost everything I could want when it comes to material possessions. But I just sometimes feel that I haven't actually lived, if you know what I mean. I've spent all my time learning and studying and working, and I haven't taken the time to just live. We've been able to sail through the stars since before I was born, and I haven't even visited another world."
Talia sighed, brushing a few locks of hair that had fallen over her eyes aside. She looked up at Lylanya and found herself blushing again as soon as her emerald eyes met the asari's sapphire ones.
"Sorry, I don't even know why I'm telling you this," Talia said with an awkward smile. "We barely even know each other."
"Maybe you just needed somebody to listen to you," Lylanya conjectured. Talia let out a small snort of laughter.
"Yeah. Somebody who wasn't my judgmental brother," she added, then leant forward to place her right elbow on the table and cup her chin in the hand branching up from it. "Still... I have to confess I find you really..."
She trailed off, biting her lower lip and narrowing her eyes slightly while searching for the right word.
"I find you easy to talk to," she finished, and then made a face that seemed to indicate she wasn't entirely happy with the phrasing in the end after all.
"Your brother seemed to be, how shall I put it... rather insinuating as to your recommending this place to me and then also being here," Lylanya said, cocking her brow at Talia. "I don't mean to be direct or anything, but..."
Talia blushed, then pulled herself up against the backrest of her seat so fast her hair flicked up horizontally before folding itself across her cheeks back into its standard vertical position. She seemed to sink into her chair a little.
"My brother isn't exactly subtle or tactful," she admitted. "Especially when it comes to me and my tastes in things. The truth is he just wants me to be happy, and his way of showing it is to tease me whenever an opportunity arises that he feels could make me, well... happy, as I said. And he always thinks that I need to find somebody in my life."
She paused, leaning forward again to look at Lylanya sideways.
"You remember when I said that my studying and hard work and the like wasn't the only reason I got my job?"
Lylanya simply nodded.
"Well, there were two other reasons basically. One was --and I don't want to sound vain or conceited here-- my looks. Yes, I'm pretty, I'll admit that. But I try not to make that go to my head or anything, even if I do kind of use it in my line of work to my advantage. It's no big deal, it's just a simple fact. It doesn't make me any better than anybody else or anything, but it's part of who I am and it helped me get the job. Mr. Levine wants a bit of eye candy on his main desk to deal with those who meet him, but I also have to be good at my job, otherwise I'd just be the eye candy on the bottom floor instead of also dealing with Mr. Levine's personal affairs and his most important clients and the like.
"The other reason is basically due to the fact that I'm sexually attracted to women. Or at least I'm pretty sure it is. It was never directly said, but just from a few comments from my boss I get the feeling it was a factor. Mr. Levine has an image to keep up, as you well know, and I think he wanted to make sure that even if he was tempted by the old 'boss and secretary affair cliché' that the secretary wasn't. That way he gets the attractive and competent secretary without the complications associated with it. I know some women would feel it was a little unfair and even insulting, but I was fine with it. It's not like it was a requirement or he outright asked me or anything, I just mentioned it casually in the interview and afterwards he would make the odd humourous comment about my sexuality keeping him honest and the like. He's a really nice guy, and it's not like it wholly defines me or anything. It's just part of who I am. Also, having Russian ancestry like him probably helped too.
"So... when Gregory saw you here and heard that I'd invited you, he jumped to a few conclusions and decided to tease me about it. You're sort of a woman after all. It's not that I'm embarrassed about my sexuality or anything, I just tend to try and take things slower and be a bit more tactful and subtle about it... unlike him. It's not the first time he's embarrassed me in front of somebody I may be interested in."
"Was he right?" Lylanya asked, her voice smooth with curious suggestion. Talia's face flushed again.
"I'll... I'll admit that I find you very attractive," Talia confessed. "Though whether I should even consider getting to know you on a personal level given our business relationship is probably something I should think about. I'm not sure Mr. Levine would be too happy to find me mingling with you outside of work."
"What, would he prefer us to mingle during work?" Lylanya joked with a playful wink. Talia's cheeks reddened more, but she couldn't help but chuckle a little as well.
"I'm sure he'd love to see that, actually. Even if he did fire me straight afterwards. It wouldn't exactly be something that fits in with his clean image."
"I must admit I'm curious," Lylanya said, her tone turning innocently inquisitive. "You will have no doubt dealt directly with Mr. Levine's business partners and clients and so forth over the time you've been there. I have to wonder, is it really an image he creates, or is he really as honest and straightforward as he appears?"
"You know I can't tell you that," Talia smiled, her crimson locks swinging gracefully as her head shook. "Who knows where that information could end up. I don't want to find myself out of a job because I said the wrong thing."
"So he really is hiding something after all," Lylanya said with mock accusation. "All kinds of dirty secrets, no doubt."
"I never said that," Talia defended, though she was still smiling. "I just said I can't tell you anything. Any and all business dealings are private, confidential information. But all in all he's a good man, and that's served him well."
"So he's not even a little dirty?"
"Would you stop it?" Talia said, giving Lylanya's left arm a playful slap as she laughed. "I already feel like I've told you too much as it is."
"You can't blame me for trying. I need every advantage I can get."
Talia chuckled again as she slurped the last of her beverage through the straw, then looked back over her shoulder towards a small dance floor located behind her at the far, back of the place.
"Do you dance?" she asked Lylanya.
"I've been known to."
"Care to?" Talia suggested, jerking her head in the direction of the open area and beams of light. Lylanya smiled.
Dr. Haedian stepped into the cockpit once again, stopping in the doorway as the hulking reptilian figure before him swung around to face him.
"Is it done?" Intarr rumbled.
"Yes," Haedian responded reluctantly. "All visual and audio systems have been disabled. It took a little while, but thankfully human electronics are primitive by salarian standards. I'd have been more prompt, but remember you're dealing with a biologist here, not a technical engineer. Ironically if you'd wanted it done faster and better you should have asked him to do it."
"Very good, Doctor," Intarr grinned. "You've extended your life just a little more."
"Uh-huh," Haedian said sceptically, his brow twisting. "Forgive me for being a little incredulous here, but I doubt you have my best interests in mind."
"You're worth far more to me alive, Doctor," Intarr said in a factual manner. "That's just the truth there. The means at which you earn your worth depend on you though. You can either be put on a similar path to the one you're on of gaining fame and credits for your little invention, with me getting a decent slice of the profits. Or I can turn you in to some authorities who would no doubt pay handsomely for you, your research and your little toy. Just remember that if you try and run, there's nowhere I won't find you."
"Why do you think I came back instead of just running away when you sent me to disable the security systems?" Haedian sighed.
"I've always said that you salarians are, if nothing else, smart," Intarr grinned.
"I still think you're overreacting," Haedian said. "Though given your species that's hardly surprising. Yalo simply did what he thought was best for him. You'd have probably done the same had your places been reversed."
"No, I wouldn't have," Intarr snorted. "There's no honour in betrayal. I wouldn't sell out those who had taken me in and trusted me just to get what I want. Now get out of my way! I have a quarian to deal with."
Intarr pushed Haedian roughly aside and stomped towards the rear of the ship. Haedian grunted, uprighting himself before he called out to the krogan's back.
"So are you going to try and kill Lylanya too then?"
Intarr stopped in his tracks, and his head twisted a little. Eventually he half-swung back around to regard the salarian.
"She didn't betray me," he stated. "She was just doing her job. I can't blame her for that."
Intarr stamped into the cargo hold and found his prey sleeping peacefully only a few steps away. Reaching around behind his back, Intarr retrieved his Avenger assault rifle. The weapon sent sharp echoing clicks throughout the hold as it unfolded, but Yalo still slumbered. Intarr pointed the weapon at the sleeping quarian's head and just stood there for a few seconds.
"No," he eventually said, and he raised the weapon up with his right arm. "That would be too easy and silent a death for you. You must know of your death, and the reasons for it."
Yalo found sensations and shock flooding to his senses in an instant, and it took him at least five seconds to even begin to register where he was and what was happening. His vision filled with the face of an angry krogan, framed by the edges of his own helmet. He tried to speak, only to realise that the pain he had noticed in his throat wasn't just a discomfort but extreme pressure too. He reached for his neck with both hands, only for them to find something thick and hard in the way, which he soon surmised to be one of Intarr's forearms. Intarr's face was so close that when he spoke Yalo's visor briefly steamed over on the outside before the haze dissipated from the built-in demisting system.
"You're coming with me," Intarr growled. "We've got some things to discuss."
Yalo didn't like that, but couldn't really respond as he felt himself being hoisted up and dragged away. Krogan had two definitions of the word 'discuss' and which was which was defined purely by tone. One form of 'discuss' was to have a conversation about things, which was the more commonly used one by most other species in Citadel Space, but was likely the rarer variant amongst the krogan. The other one was basically a way of saying that exchanges of violence and weapons fire were likely going to take place. Judging from the tone it was pretty clear that Intarr meant the latter definition.
Yalo could feel his heels dragging on the ground, and his vision was filled with Intarr's shoulder and the cargo hold gradually appearing to get smaller and smaller. Soon he recognised he was in the main entrance and decontamination chamber of Karina. Here he stopped, and he felt the backs of his feet leave the ground, then soon after that there was nothing touching him at all any more. All he could sense was momentum and a sinking feeling of both fear and sickness in the centre of his stomach. Time seemed to slow and a lot of thoughts raced through his mind before gravity finished its work. He saw Intarr standing on the precipice of Karina's docking port, just as he felt the hard impact he made with the ground send a deep shuddering pain into his shoulders, back and upper arms. Intarr was holding his assault rifle in his hands and bringing them to bear on him. Yalo lay there, frozen with fear, but luckily the krogan didn't shoot. At least not right away.
"I suppose you're wondering why I hauled you out here by the throat, threw you on the ground and have now got a gun pointed straight at you?"
Yalo was still trying to gain all his senses properly again, with the exception of the senses of pain that he was instead trying to block out. He attempted to focus his thoughts on the situation at hand, and it took him a few moments to do that and then actually answer.
"I'm guessing it's not because you want a larger cut," he said bitterly. Intarr grinned.
"That depends how many I can put in you in the next few moments," he retorted. "Being a quarian though, I doubt you'd need too many. I'm not a stranger to betrayal, Yalo. I've been a mercenary for decades and had to deal with all sorts. But I thought you were different. I trusted you because I thought we were the same. You were trying to save your people, and I was trying to save mine. And yet you still sold us out."
"Don't give me these lies of krogan honour and nobility," Yalo scoffed. "If it meant curing the genophage you'd betray everybody you knew. It's easy to say you won't do something when the situation hasn't even come up."
"That's not true," Intarr growled. "I wouldn't turn my back on those who have helped me just to further my own agenda."
"Everybody does what they need to do to achieve their goals," Yalo said. "That's the way the universe works."
"For you maybe. Some of us have principles. Some of us have places we won't go and boundaries we won't cross. No matter the temptation. And I don't know what's worse: the fact you betrayed me in the first place, or the fact you continued to drag me along and use me knowing the fact."
"I never wanted you to come with me at all," Yalo admitted. "I wanted you to leave and find your own path. You were the one that felt some kind of need to follow me. Like you had some kind of debt to pay."
"And yet you still accepted my offer. But I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise. After all, you're also betraying your own kind."
"That's not true! I'm helping them!"
"Tell me, Yalo... would you sacrifice your entire species to get what you want? Surely you have loved ones, otherwise you wouldn't even care about your people. Would you betray, use and give them up to attain your goals?"
"I... I never said I didn't feel guilty about what I did to you," Yalo said, followed by a sigh. "I was just given an opportunity and I took it. I never expected things to go so wrong for Gonamida, you and the others. It was just a load of credits to let Lylanya take Haedian away."
"Uh-huh. And when is it going to be their turn to be betrayed by you?" Intarr asked. "Or have you already done it and they simply haven't found out?"
A silence fell between them for a while, and then Yalo's tone grew frustrated.
"What do you want from me, Intarr? An apology? Do you want me to say that I'm sorry for what I did to you? That I regret it? Well... I can't. Yes... I feel guilty about it. I know I've done a morally reprehensible act. I know I've betrayed you, used you and hurt you. And I am sorry for that, and didn't mean to hurt you and didn't mean anything personal by it."
Yalo got to his feet, and Intarr's Avenger followed him, but did not fire.Yalo pointed at his would-be executioner.
"But I don't regret it, because of where it's got me. If I hadn't done what I did, I'd have likely still been stuck with you and the others on that dusty rock, trying in vain to cure something that probably never will be cured. That decision may have been wrong morally, but it was the right decision to make for me and the quarian race. And I'd do it again, even in hindsight. I've come further and faster than I'd thought possible, and all because of that choice. So I'm sorry how it affected you, but I'm not sorry that I made it. And if that means you're going to kill me, then I guess you might as well just go ahead and kill me."
Yalo opened his arms out wide to his sides in submission, and Intarr sighed deeply, his weapon lowering slightly and his head joining it. After about two seconds he faced Yalo again and the gun trained back on the quarian.
"Okay then," Intarr said a little too casually for Yalo's liking.
"Bosh'tet!" Yalo exclaimed, as his legs instinctively began to run.