Oneshot, Nyreen and Aria

Who would have thought the sound of your own breathing could be so therapeutic.  Coupled with the lazily drifting view from outside one of Omega’s spires it could be a treatment for any stress.  At least thats what Nyreen thought as stood on the scuffed and dented surface of the pylon.  The crimson glow of the magellanic clouds made the industrial infrastructure of the station appear murky and foreboding.  In a sense it was a warning that should be heeded by all who entered the former mining station.

Looking down at the uncooperative hatch at her feet Nyreen sighed and disengadged her mag boots.  She brought up her Omni and annotated the blocked exit before giving her EVA pack a nudge and began drifting down the spire to another hatch, carried along by spurts of inert gas coming from her pack.  Her internal clock told her at this speed it would take 10 minutes to reach the next hatch so she spun onto her back and took in the random formations of gas and matter that would someday coalesce into stars and planets.  She envied the inert matter.  It had it’s place.  Granted a molecule of hydrogen wasnt aware of its destiny, but she envied the certainty with which the forces of nature acted on it.

She knew on a subconscious level that being out here was just a delaying tactic. That she would have to actually enter the station and talk to people and do things at some point. But for now she was content in letting the mushroom cloud shaped station slide by at her back while the depths of space overwhelmed her.  It was therapeutic.

Static crackled in her helmet as the EM shockwave of a ship coming out of FTL hit her invisibly.  It was a phenomenon similar to the old bunny eared televisions from human 20th century set to a blank channel.  Lightning would strike elsewhere on the planet effecting the ionosphere which the television set passively monitored.  Its screen would flicker and the speakers would emit a distinctive crackle annotating the strike.

3 ships inbound 4 have departed. She noted almost robotically.  Her Omni chimed and she flipped back over in time to arrest her motion and come to a stop above another hatch.  Her trajectory hadn’t been perfectly parallel to the surface of the spire so she had drifted away from the battered plating.  Guiding herself back down on small burps of gas her mag-boots connected hollowly, making a metallic *thonk* sound that she heard and felt through her suit as she connected beside the hatch. This time the hatch yawned open without protest, its surface pockmarked by years of abuse and impacts.  She floated in and closed it, cycling the airlock the moment it sealed.  

Nobody ever checked manual airlocks anymore.  Field technology had made them more or less obsolete making them a valuable tool to get around undetected. Nyreen shimmied down a narrow latter and out from a maintenance hatch in an alleyway.  She looked around to see if anyone had seen her emergence and smiled when the thoroughfare the alley connected to proved to be deserted.  She took out a paint pen and marked the maintenance hatch for later use before slipping out of the alley.

Wait, why is the thoroughfare empty?  Her question was answered as Mercs swung into view at the T junction at the end of the passage.  A glance over her shoulder confirmed what she had suspected, she was trapped. More Mercs piled in behind her.  Her hand instinctively hovered at the buttstock of her Pheaston Assault rifle.

I got complacent. She thought angrily.

"That won’t be necessary" One of the Mercs barked.  He was a Batarian judging by the helmet.

"I don’t have any money and I’ll die before you put me in a slave ring." She said calmly as her other hand slipped out of her cloak with a grenade already armed,  her thumb holding the thin metallic spoon was the only thing keeping everyone from from going up in flames.  The Mercs fidgeted nervously as they realized what she held.

"Our boss would just like to have a word with you.  I promise safe passage in and out."

"In and Out of where?"

"Afterlife"

-=-=-=-

She was a master of feigning disinterest that was for sure.  The bored look of amusement played along nicely with her relaxed posture as she slouched on a plush leather couch.  But her eyes gave her away, always searching and assessing everything and everyone around her for an advantage, for threats, for rivals.  Nyreen wondered if she was ever able to sleep.  She supposed if you had a lifespan of a few centuries you could afford to skimp on a few nights sleep.

The throbbing music from the upper levels of the club thudded dully as Nyreen took in her surroundings.  The Batarian, Anto she had learned, stood obediently a respectful distance away while other patrons gave their small corner booth a wide berth.  Nyreen had heard about the Asari crime boss.  Why she had taken an interest in the disenchanted Turian was still up for debate.

"I want you."  Aria said, cutting into Nyreen’s thoughts.  Her look was stern, her facial tattoos wrinkled as her brow furrowed.  "And I get what I want."

Nyreen leaned forward and picked up the neglected drink sitting on the low coffee table at her side.  This was an interesting developments she thought to herself as she sipped at the cocktail to buy some time.  Aria’s withering stare never wavered as Nyreen pointedly set the glass down beside the coaster the drink had rested on earlier.  Condensation dripped onto the table to further accentuate her passive act of defiance.

"For what?"  She said finally as she leaned back.  The drink left a tingling sensation at the back of her throat.

"You’re new here.  And from what I’ve learned about you, you don’t have any interest in cutting into my profits, just sneaking around my station, which tells me you don’t have any friends." Aria leaned forward and placed the glass on the coaster.  "Former Hierarchy right?  Judging by the armor you came from a Cabal.  And Cabalists don’t leave their units of their own accord typically" Nyreen shifted uncomfortably then grew annoyed with herself for being so transparent.   

"Whats in it for me?"

Aria smiled.  Nyreen saw something soften in her eyes and knew there was no going back.

=-=-=-

Many months passed with Nyreen doing to odd job here and there.  She avoided the purely wet work when she could but it would be a cold day in hell when someone on Omega wrote a check their ass couldn’t cash.  It was after a mission to eliminate the body guards for a Krogan warlord that Nyreen saw Aria’s true colors.  There she stood over the wounded Krogan gloating as Nyreen and Anto stood sentry at the front door of his grubby apartment.  The barrels of their weapons ticking with heat as the slain bodyguards pooled blood or various shades.

"Look at you, a king in ruins." Aria smirked as she waved her Carnifex pistol around the disheveled hovel.  The Krogan merely grunted as he covered a profusely bleeding gunshot wound in his leg.

"Just kill me and get it over with you whore."

Arias lip curled into a sneer.  It was far removed from the impassioned smile Nyreen had seen come from her as they had embraced one another so many times before.  There was a tender side to the Crime boss.  She had seen it in her touch, in her eyes.  Had laid beside her as she slept a peaceful sleep while Nyreen ran a finger down her supple skin. Nyreen realized she had been kidding herself when she thought that maybe she could change the Asari’s cruel habits.

"Oh no.  That that would be easy.  You will serve as a reminder to those who think they can defy my will.  You will be the Patriarch of a kingdom in ruins." She smiled before she kicked the Krogan in the head.  His head whipped back from the blow, sprawling him out as he fell unconscious.

"He’ll live." Aria said as if reading the concern on Nyreen’s mind.

=-=-=

Some time later Nyreen began to question if she could ever get out of this life that had happened upon her.  Her desperation to escape Aria’s clutches crystallized in her mind as her realization that she couldn’t be changed turned to dread.  She felt as though an invisible clock was ticking down the hours of her life.  The more solidly she cemented herself in Aria’s inner circle the faster the clock ticked.  

She was overseeing the offloading of live cargo from an Asari Pirates’ ship one day when it finally came to a head.  The huddled beings trudged down the boarding ramp of the ship in single file.  Their shoulders set in resignation of their fates.  A particularly tall Turian male, wearing nothing but a loincloth made from a torn t-shirt whimpered as the butt of a rifle connected solidly with his back.

"Keep moving!" One of the crewmen snarled at him.

"STOP!"  The Asari captain screeched from the bowels of the ship.  A human in full armor standing beside Nyreen turned his attention to his employer.

"This one stays with me." She said while pointing at the tall Turian.  

"That wasn’t the agreed upon deal."  Came Aria’s voice as she entered the hangar, Anto in tow.  Everyone grew tense as the Asari stared one another down.  The slaves tried to make themselves as small as possible as they hugged the grimy, bullet riddled wall of the hanger. The human beside her let loose a shuddering sigh as the Pirate captain approached the shackled Turian.  The male stooped and bowed his head to her as she rounded on him.  She gently reached up and placed her thumb on his chin, the rest of her fingers resting on his mandible.  Nyreen shook with rage as one of her kind was handled like a pet.

"I’ll give you the cost of this one at market value plus another ten percent."  The Pirate said softly as Aria looked on in bored disinterest.  The Turian closed his eyes as tears rolled down his face and over his purple colony markings.  His shackles clinked as he wrung his hands.

"Twenty percent and a discount for the next shipment" Aria sighed.  The human beside Nyreen cleared his throat as his rifles muzzle dipped fractionally.  Nyreen could tell this one didn’t want to be here anymore than she did.  He had met her at the hangar bay hatch the same time she did to oversee the ships landing and unloading of "cargo."  His scratched up armor had a small name placard on the chestplate that read "Geo."

"If you do this I’m gone."  The words surprised Nyreen.  She hadn’t realized she had spoken until the words had already left her.  Everyone turned to her as if she had grown a third limb.  The human beside her took a tentative step to her side.  The silence in the bay became deafening as all parties looked to their bosses for guidance.  Aria merely shrugged.

"You over value your position."  She nodded at the Pirate captain who was stroking the Turians chin with her thumb as she smiled wickedly.

"It’s done then." The Pirates smile hardened as she sized up her new toy.  She slipped her thumb in between his jaw and mandible and jerked hard as she turned and dragged him back onto the ship.  A high pitched whine escaped him as he scrambled to follow her.

Nyreen turned slowly from the ship and faced Aria who was staring lasers into her.

"I should have you shot for embarrassing me like that." She said icily.  Anto fidgeted at Aria’s side as he looked between the two.  The human beside Nyreen sighed again and stowed his rifle. The slaves and other pirates relaxed visibly.

"Fuck this shit dude.  I’m with you on this one." He grunted through his tinted helmet.  Nyreen nodded and stowed her weapon as well.

"This is goodbye then.  I can’t say it’s been a pleasure." She purred as she turned and left, following the human out of the hanger.  Nyreen fully expected to be shot in the back as she left.  When she reached the hatch without incident she looked over her shoulder curiously.  The indifference was there in Aria’s expression, but her eyes cried out in realization that she had lost something important.  Something deep in Nyreen’s chest twisted in agony as it hit her as well. But she could not go on like this.  It ate at her soul to bear witness to such cruelty, let alone be apart of it.   

=-=-=-

Some time later…

Nyreen floated above a spire outside of Omega, staring blankly at the twisted tendrils of gas and matter once again as her helmet crackled from the discharge of ships coming and going.  Her Omni chimed that her air reserves were getting low so she rolled over and kicked off towards an Airlock.  Aria should be getting back from another deal soon.  If she hurried she could be in place before the Crime Boss took up her usual station in Afterlife.