/* Big Country "Far From Me to You" _Why the Long Face?_ (1995) */ Eyrie Productions, Unlimited presents UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES EXILE STAR-CROSSED Part IX: Defeat Never Permanent Benjamin D. Hutchins (c) 2010 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2356 QNV ARCHANGEL QUARIAN MIGRANT FLEET_ The bridge of the Archangel was a cavernous space, but its quarian owners had made such major changes to it in however long it'd been since they acquired the vessel that Miranda almost didn't realize they'd arrived. Only the huge, panoramic windows gave it away, until she looked more closely and saw that the room was still a standard GENOM "mission control"-style bridge, with the flight dynamics consoles closest to the windows and the captain's station up at the back. It was just so beautifully ornamented, and so heavily festooned with hanging plants and what looked like creeper vines, that Miranda, who had been expecting the sterile whiteness of a GENOM command deck, hadn't realized it at first. The rest of the ship was the same, with the exception of the very businesslike Conclave Chamber, but still, plants on the bridge? These were a deeply peculiar people. They did seem to know their trade, though. A quick glance at the tactical plot up on one of the main holodisplays showed that the Archangel and her escorts, a dozen vessels strong, had nearly finished maneuvering to break away from the rest of the Flotilla. At all the stations, encounter-suited quarians worked briskly, many of them seeming to do as much of their work with those holographic hand computers as their actual ship controls. Up on his little dais at the back of the room, the ship's apparent captain - a man not quite as tall as, but a little broader than, Admiral Zorah, his suit mostly silvery-grey with red accents - turned and saluted the admiral. "Alpha group has nearly cleared the fleet perimeter, Admiral," he reported. "Estimate time to spacefold, two minutes." "Excellent," Kevirin'Zorah replied. "Tali, you'd better help the navigators. You've got the best data as to where Halo actually is. It'd be a hell of a note for us to fold in on the wrong side of the system," he added with a laugh. "Right," said Tali, who didn't seem to think it was funny. She powered up her omni-tool and went down to the front row, the area called the Trench, where the navigation and guidance operators' stations were. "This must be Tali'Shukra's mysterious benefactor," said the captain, and then, with a short bow, "Captain Rael'Dakka vas Archangel." "Miranda Lawson," Miranda replied. "Can you give me a better idea of what we're likely to be up against?" Captain Dakka asked. "All I got from listening to the Conclave discussion was 'a small fleet', which can mean a lot of different things." "Sixteen ships, we believe, but we don't know what kinds," Miranda replied. "The Blue Suns are a major mercenary organization and crime syndicate, but their strength mainly lies in tactical manpower. They provide muscle for industrial takeovers, corporate wars, and the like. I doubt their starships are particularly advanced or capable. For most of their purposes, they don't need to be. The Suns prefer to prey on people who are already helpless." Dakka nodded. "Well, we have a lot of experience dealing with people like that." He returned his attention to the tactical plot, and then, in a conversational sort of voice, asked, "Why'd you do it?" "Pardon?" "Give such a find away to Tali'Shukra. I mean, don't get me wrong, she's a good kid, I've had my eye on her for my crew since she started secondary tutoring, but... " He shrugged and glanced at Miranda for a moment before turning back to the display. "Most humans wouldn't give one of us a spent D-cell, much less a major celestial discovery." "This seems like a strange time to discuss my motivations," Miranda said diplomatically. "Just making conversation," Dakka said. "Nothing to do for the next 30 seconds or so but wait." Miranda smiled. "Fair enough. I think the only answer that'll fit into that amount of time is... I didn't need it any more." Dakka laughed. "Nice. Well, it doesn't really matter why you did it, I guess. It was a hell of a neighborly thing to do. And I'll do everything I can to keep your people alive." "Thank you, Captain." "Don't mention it, Captain." One of the technicians working in the first row of stations, where communications and tactical plotting lived, turned around and said, "Sir, the group is in position." "Excellent. Thank you." Dakka keyed his omni-tool into comm mode. "What do you say, Dalra? Think that old fold drive'll work one more time?" "Long as I'm not paying for the neutrons it's gonna burn to do it," a woman's voice replied. "Ready when you are." "Okay. Alpha group, stand by. When this spacefold is complete we're going to drop straight into a combat situation, so I want everybody's weapons hot and the fighters in the tubes before we jump." "All stations report ready for action, Captain," the tech who'd reported before said. "Navigation, how's our curve look?" "A-okay, sir," the chief navigator - his station was the one at the very end of the Trench, the only one down there with a direct line- of-sight back up to the captain's perch - replied, giving a thumbs-up. "Here we go, then." Dakka pointed at the front window. "Execute!" BSS INCINERATOR SCANDIA-CN38 SYSTEM_ "I gotta hand it to this guy," said Relkan. "He is one hell of a pilot. Maybe -two- hells." "He's makin' us look like -fools- out there," Vido growled. Standing up, he yelled to the bridge at large, "For fuck's sake, isn't there ANYBODY who can kill that guy?!" "That's the last of our fighters," the comm operator dragooned into playing the impromptu task force's airboss reported. "He's taken a beating, but he's still flyin'." "I want that guy dead!" Vido roared. Turning to Captain Kronfeld, he added, "Hear that? I don't care what else happens. Abort the rest of the op if you have to. But KILL THAT MOTHERFUCKER! Him being dead is now the number-one priority of MY LIFE!" "What about Zaeed?" Relkan asked. "Fuck Zaeed! He isn't going anywhere." Kronfeld turned to his bridge crew. "You heard the man," he said with a faint sigh of resignation. "All gun crews, target the Valkyrie." "Whoa! I think we pissed them off," Gryphon said as a bolt from a heavy turbolaser flashed past. "Before you do what I know you're thinking of doing," Vision said, "keep in mind that we've got four tiny lasers left - make that three, the beam condenser on number two isn't going to last more than another five or six shots - and our deflector shields are totally fried. This is not the time to demonstrate what a stud you are by making a frontal attack on a warship." "I haven't got a lot of options, Viz," said Gryphon as he belted the Valkyrie through a pinwheel turn and made for the Incinerator. "Got to keep them distracted somehow." "... I don't think that's going to be a problem much longer," Vision said. "Subspace anomaly detected bearing 203 mark 12, range three thousand. Probable incoming spacefold." "You watch, with my luck it'll be a goddamn Star Destroyer." /* Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori "Reclaimer" _Halo 2: Original Soundtrack_ (2006) */ It was. For a second Gryphon couldn't believe his eyes - he had meant the remark as a dark joke, figuring there was no conceivable way that GENOM would be taking an interest in this system at this moment, but there it was, the unmistakable arrowhead shape of one of the most lethal starships in the galaxy. To spacers everywhere since the fall of the Wedge Defense Force, the profile of an Imperator-class Star Destroyer was something very like the living embodiment of fear itself. Then he looked more closely and saw the curlicued markings and elaborate striped patterns that adorned its hull instead of the usual dull grey armor. And the smaller ships that had ridden its spacefold wake into the system were unmistakably quarian-built, with their vaguely piscine profiles and vertical-ring prows. This was the Migrant Fleet. An arm of it, anyway. Or at least its fist. The quarian warships numbered about a dozen in total, fewer than the Blue Suns had brought, but they were all those sleek and deadly- looking cruisers apart from the Star Destroyer, which outmassed the Suns fleet all by itself. As they maneuvered to intercept the Suns, it was obvious they meant business. Obvious enough for some of the Suns captains, anyway. The mercenary fleet instantly lost all semblance of cohesion, the smaller ships breaking and running without any evident plan. Because of the relative positions of the two fleets when the quarians defolded, the Blue Suns' most direct escape vectors lay straight through the middle of the quarian formation, and a couple of the merc ships, apparently helmed by people in the grip of blind panic, went that way. The quarians let them go, apparently indifferent as long as they left. Other Blue Suns vessels completed hard-about turns, fleeing at impulse speeds until they could finish calculating their routes and bolt to hyperspace. Vido Santiago stared in goggle-eyed astonishment at the main viewer, too stunned by the sudden appearance of the Star Destroyer to even be angry at his captains for fleeing in such a haphazard, amateurish, and above all -uncommanded- way. "Son of a BITCH, it's GENOM," Relkan said. "I don't know how they found out about this place, but if they want it, I don't think we're gonna stop 'em having it." "Fuck. FUCK!" Vido snarled, looking for something to throw. Not finding anything, he just stood there boiling for a couple of seconds, then said, "Kronfeld, get us outta here." "Aye aye, sir," said Kronfeld, not bothering to conceal his relief. "That's it, run, you bosh'tets," Captain Dakka declared with evident satisfaction. "Don't make us waste our photon charges on your worthless hulls." When the last Blue Suns ship had vanished into hyperspace, Dakka ordered, "All ships, downgrade to standby alert. Establish a perimeter and quarantine the area. Signal the Flotilla that our mission is accomplished." Admiral Zorah turned to Tali as she climbed back up from the Trench and said, "Well, Tali'Shukra, they're your friends down there. You'd better go down and let them know that we're here to help. Prevent any unfortunate misunderstandings when our dropships start arriving to help them evacuate." "Thank you, Admiral. For everything." As they rode the turbocar back to the hangar deck, Miranda turned to Tali and said, "I can't believe it, we actually pulled it off." She put a hand on Tali's shoulder. "You did a fantastic job dealing with the Admiralty." "I almost lost them," Tali replied. "If I'd thought of the distress angle, the unwritten spacers' code, sooner... " "Don't start, now," Miranda chided her. "You -didn't- lose them. Almost doesn't count for anything in this life. You got the job done... and done with style, too," she added with a smile. "I wish Dan could've been there to see it." Tali glanced at her, puzzled, until she remembered where they were and why it was important not to speak openly. Then she nodded. "Yeah. Me too." They arrived at the hangar bay containing the Kodiak to find Vedik and his squad waiting. "So you're leaving us again, eh, Tali'Shukra?" Vedik asked, half-joking. "Admiral Zorah's orders," Tali told him. "I have to coordinate the evacuation of Goodyear. Make sure the situation on the ground is secure." Vedik nodded. "Well, pass my greetings to your friends down there. Particularly the one who makes you get that faraway distracted air," he added cheerfully. Tali paused, looking at him in surprise, but said nothing. After a moment, Vedik added with a hint of gentle mockery, "I'm not as dumb as I look, Tali. Keelah se'lai." "Ooooo," Miranda remarked as they flew away from the Archangel. "-You- be quiet," Tali replied. "I didn't say anything," Miranda protested. Then, after a few seconds, "But I feel a little sorry for him. He's a nice boy." Tali shook her head. "Just... shut up." GOODYEAR_ Though she had known the plan when she left, Tali was shocked to see how much of Goodyear had been torn down in the day she'd been gone. All that remained was the grid of streets, the town hall, Charley's (which the colonists were using as a temporary bunkhouse with their homes and possessions packed), and - standing forlorn and alone at the end of the street - Spare 14 and its garage. Gryphon's Valkyrie was standing in GERWALK mode next to the house, its armor pitted and scarred from its long day's combat. Tali flew past and landed in the square. As the 25 or 6 to 4's thrusters spooled down, the colonists thronged joyfully out of Charley's. Gryphon was in the lead, his flightsuit swapped for a regular old Goodyear coverall. He and Tali met halfway, colliding in a fierce hug that, as usual, ignored inconvenient edges and fittings. "I wasn't sure you'd still be here," Tali admitted softly. "Of course I'm still here," Gryphon replied, then added, "I haven't told you I love you yet. Have I? Remiss of me, if not. 'Cause I love you." She leaned back, looking at him in surprise, and then all but crushed him in her arms. "I love you, too." The crowd gave them a couple of seconds to themselves, but only a couple, before gathering around the two and Miranda, slapping shoulders and cheering. "You did it!" Sheriff Chen declared, jubilantly throwing his hat in the air. "We saw the fleet fold in on Vision's downlink. What an incredible sight!" "And did you see the way those Blue Suns assholes cut and ran?" Alice Hernandez put in gleefully, her lucky card restored to her hat with much thanks. "Only time in my life I've been happy to see the game get spooked." "Knew you could do it," said Mordin firmly. "Miss Tali! You got your, uh, your face back!" Garrett Redding said, causing Tali to laugh. "Yes, Garrett, I did. We have spares for -everything- on the Flotilla," she said. "Did they accept your gift?" he asked. "I don't know yet," Tali said. "They're going to want to argue about it for a while. But you know what? Right now I don't really care." Holding onto Gryphon's arm, surrounded by her friends and neighbors from Goodyear, she added, "I've got everything I want right here." To celebrate their deliverance, the people of the soon-to-be- former town of Goodyear cleared their bunkrolls and baggage out of Charley's, set up Mordin's DJ deck, and opened the taps for one last bash. Shame to let all that good beer go to waste anyway. While they were setting all that up, though, Gryphon and Tali went down to Spare 14 and packed up what little they had there. It didn't amount to much, one small carton for each of them; Gryphon stuffed his into his Valkyrie's little cargo compartment in front of the hard parts of his armor, and Tali stashed hers, along with her scattergun (which he insisted she keep) and Cyclone, in the 25 or 6 to 4. Then, as night was beginning to fall, they went to the garage, sorted out the tools (most of which belonged to the colony anyway), and stood side by side for a moment regarding the mostly-completed rocketship shape of the Diogenes. "Guess we didn't need it after all," Tali mused. "What should we do with it?" Gryphon shrugged. "Give it to the Flotilla? Somebody'd probably have a use for it. Parts is parts." "Maybe. I hate to see it broken up after all the work we put into it, even if there's no really practical use for it." She shook her head. "What an un-quarian thing to say. You're a terrible influence," she joked. "And speaking of terrible influences... " "Mm?" "I think Mordin's... work is finished. Working." Gryphon raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Oh!" "That is... if you're still... interested," Tali said, glancing away. Turning to face her fully, Gryphon took her slim shoulders in his hands and smiled, trying to banish the worry he saw in the ghosts of her eyes. "Tali'Shukra nar Kythera," he said, "I'm interested in anything you want to share with me." "Oh. Well. Uh." She glanced slyly away. "That's a pretty wide range of interests." Then, backing up slightly to get her arms free, she went on, "Let's start with this." Consciously overriding years of deeply-drilled training, she lifted her decorative hood away from her helmet and let it fall behind her shoulders, worked a couple of hidden fasteners, and gently pulled the helmet off, then set it on the workbench and just stood there, unmasked in the open air. She looked pensive, and a little bit scared. Her silver eyes darted around the room, looking anywhere but at him, until she seemed to chide herself internally and make herself look him in the eye. Gryphon grinned. "I was right," he said. "About what?" she asked hesitantly. "You -are- beautiful." Tali's response to that was to all but leap at him, throwing her arms around his neck, and crush her lips to his. It was an inexpert kiss, all enthusiasm and no technique, but to judge by the pressure of his arms around her and his hands on her back, he didn't seem to mind. They stayed there like that for a span of time neither cared to record, her technique improving by leaps and bounds as she applied her natural talent for improvisation to the problem, until the metallic sound of someone banging on the door of Spare 14 next door jolted them from their mutual reverie. "Dan? Miss Tali? Are you in there?" the voice of Garrett Redding filtered through the garage walls. "You're missing the party!" Gryphon palmed his face, though it was over a huge grin. "That kid," he said. "Well, how is he to know?" Tali replied, laughing. She picked up her helmet. "He thinks I can't ever take this off, so... what could we be doing anyway? I'm wearing a space suit." "Maybe if we're really quiet he'll go away," Gryphon suggested. "Tch." Tali fitted her helmet back in place and re-engaged her neck seals. "Don't be like that. It's the last party ever to be held in Goodyear. We can't skip out on it. Besides," she added with a phantom wink, "we have plenty of time." She held out her hand. "Shall we?" Laughing, he took it. "Yeah, all right. Let's go." "Tell you what," Tali told him as they left the garage. "To tide you over, you can help me put -on- my dress." /* Bryan Adams "One Night Love Affair" _Reckless_ (1984) */ Except for the beer, the "Operation Desperate Gamble Victory Par", as the banner strung behind the stage declared it (the makers having run out of banner before running out of letters), was even more like a high school dance than the one after the canyon fight. For Gryphon, the tone was set by the song that Mordin happened (hah!, he thought) to be playing just as he and Tali entered the hall, which instantly and absolutely teleported him back to the Stearns High School gym in the winter of 1990. He found himself wishing he still had his letterman's jacket. It would have added a weird but somehow fitting counterpoint to Tali's dress, even if his letter had only been for marching band. "I could give you my class ring," he said during one of the brief pauses between songs when anyone's voice could be heard. "What?" she replied. "Never mind." After many, many dances, with each other and various neighbors, they made their way to the bar, where a beaming Charley served up a schooner of his private reserve. Here, where it was quieter, Tali leaned over to Gryphon as he drank and said, "I've been thinking. You're going to have to get clear in the next couple of days, before the Federation survey teams get here. And the Flotilla, if they decide to accept Halo. Either way, I'm afraid the Admiralty will want me to stick around for at least a week - longer if my gift is accepted and my pilgrimage ends. We should set up some kind of rendezvous. Someplace where we can find each other again." Gryphon nodded. "You're right," he said. "Let's get on that first thing in the morning." Stifling a yawn, he eyed his wristwatch and did a quick mental calculation. "Afternoon." He regarded his glass, then the row of its comrades that had built up over the course of the evening. "I think I might be a little drunk," he said thoughtfully. Tali giggled. "Perhaps a little." At the end of the current song, Mordin leaned to the little mic on his DJ deck and announced, "Last call! After this song, don't have to stay here, but can't go home." Tali tilted her head toward the dance floor; Gryphon grinned. "Last dance in Goodyear? I'll drink to that," he said. Then he knocked back the rest of his beer, put down the glass, and threaded after her to the middle of the crowded floor. Mordin craftily waited until they were in position before touching the controls to start the last song of the night. If the first song Gryphon had heard when he arrived was a blast from the past, this one was like a shotgun of nostalgia to the face, because not only was it a fixture of his high school's dances, it was always, -always- the last song they played before throwing everyone out. /* Def Leppard "Hysteria" _Hysteria_ (1987) */ He was so surprised by the opening notes that he forgot to dance, but Tali took care of that in short order, and time seemed to melt away as they moved together around the floor, seemingly unaware that they were sharing it with anyone else, but never bumping into the other dancers. Over by the bar, Harriet Mitchell watched them together and sighed wistfully. "Jealous, sis?" Herrick asked, but she shook her head. "Just a little envious," she said. "You should apologize to him before he leaves tomorrow. He did everything he said he would." "Ah, he don't need my apology," said Herrick. "He's done all right. Still," he admitted, "gonna be a lot duller wherever we end up without him around." The party broke up shortly thereafter, though of those attending, only Gryphon, Tali, and Miranda still had homes to go back to; so after flowing out into the square to say their goodnights, most ended up going back into Charley's to set up their bunks and catch a few hours' sleep before continuing with the evacuation prep in the morning. Miranda bade them good night and went into the nearly-empty town hall to finish what little administrative paperwork remained to be done. Alone at last, Gryphon and Tali walked slowly down the shallow hill toward Spare 14, marveling at how much further it seemed from the town hall with all the other houses gone. Zaeed followed at a discreet distance, intending, as he had the night before, to pitch his bedroll under the Valkyrie; Gryphon and Tali paused there to wish him good night. As such, they were the only three who saw the new ship arrive. "What the hell?" Tali muttered as she watched the landing lights wink on over in the field at what had been the end of Main Street, next to where she'd parked the 25 or 6 to 4. The new arrival was larger, with big, upward-canted wings: a Predator-class scoutship, most likely. She rezzed up her omni-tool. "Archangel Control, this is Goodyear." "Go ahead, Goodyear," replied whichever Archangel comm officer was on duty. "There's a Predator-class ship arriving down here. I thought you guys were maintaining a quarantine. What's going on?" "Wait one, Goodyear," the operator replied. Then, a moment later, he said, "That ship's 3WA, Tali'Shukra. Codename Lovely Angel. They can go anywhere they like." Tali regarded the holographic tool with puzzlement for a moment, then blinked and turned to Gryphon. He stood staring off into the distance, his face unreadable, as the Predator's ramp ground down and a single figure, silhouetted by the light from inside the ship, started to descend. "Oh, no," said Tali in a small voice. Gryphon gritted his teeth. A single syllable emerged from between his tightly compressed lips, saturated with a potent mix of despair, disbelief, and fury: "... Kei." Then he seemed to become aware of his surroundings again. Kei was more than a hundred yards away, and there were no lights where he, Tali, and Zaeed were standing. She probably hadn't seen them yet, and even if she had she wouldn't have recognized him. "Tali," he said. "Go and warn the others to stay out of sight. Whatever happens, I don't want anyone else getting involved. Remember what I told you about her." "But what are you going to - " "Go now, Tali. She hasn't seen us yet. There's not much time." He took her shoulder and locked eyes with her for a second. "Go!" "I... " Tali's fists clenched. She'd stowed all her weapons aboard the shuttle. The Lovely Angel was now between her and them. Unarmed, there was very little else she could do - and if he was even slightly right about how crazy Kei was, the others did need to be warned that they were in danger. Again. "... Be careful," she said, almost inaudibly, and then turned and ran back toward Charley's. Gryphon watched her go for a moment, glanced back to check Kei's progress - she was walking up what used to be Main Street, obviously ready for trouble, and if she hadn't seen him and Zaeed, she'd certainly seen the Valkyrie by now. Snarling, he jumped up onto the VF's arm, opened the cargo hatch, and hauled out his gunbelt, then jumped down and started strapping it on. Zaeed put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, else he'd have marched right past, and asked, "Wait a second, where the hell d'you think you're going?" Gryphon rounded on the mercenary, his face flushed dark with fury (and beer) in the Substance-light. "I'm going to go OVER there, and I'm going to tell that red-headed bitch that I am SICK of her FUCKING UP MY LIFE!" he roared. "I've had ENOUGH of running away. Every time I find something that makes me happy, SHE shows up and RUINS it." Raising a finger under Zaeed's nose, he added, "Not this time, my friend!" He jerked his Gallant from its holster. "This time ONE of us is gonna DIE. Now either get outta my way or grab your iron and come help me show her what the fuck is what." Zaeed gazed at Gryphon with his mismatched eyes for a couple of seconds, looked over his shoulder to see that Kei had started running toward them and shouting, and nodded. "All right," he said, turning to pick up his rifle from where it leaned against Vision's HW antenna, and Gryphon relaxed very slightly. "That's what I'm talking - " he said, and then Zaeed turned back and punched him very, very hard, sending him to the ground like a dropped rock. Up at the top of the hill, Tali heard the blow and turned to see Gryphon go down. Over at what had been the corner of 10th and Main, Kei drew up in puzzlement, then seemed to gather what was happening and set off running again at an even more furious pace. Hefting Gryphon like a sack of oats, Zaeed climbed up the side of the Valkyrie and dumped him into the cockpit, strapped him in, and flicked the switch that gave Vision control of the fighter's autopilot. The way the system was wired, she didn't have direct authority over the flight controls, so there was no useful way for her to take the ship into combat - that had been one of his jobs, one of the reasons she'd hired him for his hands, as her joke had gone - but it would be enough to ensure their escape. She blipped up on the main VDU, looking somber. "Thanks, Zaeed. Will you be okay?" "Ah, I'll be fine." A blaster bolt whined off the Valkyrie's scored armor near his perch on the GERWALK arm. "You better get moving." "Okay. And... thanks for all your help." Zaeed smiled with a warmth that would have shocked pretty much anyone else who'd ever met him and replied, "Thanks for yours. Now get gone. I'll hold her 'til you're clear." Vision's image waved goodbye as the canopy closed; Zaeed slapped the boarding ladder up into place, then jumped down from the Valkyrie's arm as the turbines spooled up with a piercing whine. He snatched his rifle from the side of the HW antenna and used its butt to knock the cable connectors free from the side of the fighter as it lifted off, then dove for cover before he could be roasted by the exhaust heat as Vision punched the throttles open and the Valkyrie leaped into the sky. In seconds, the fighter was out of sight, vanishing over the upspin mountains; a moment later the sonic boom rolled back up the valley and over the town. Kei skidded to a halt a half-dozen yards from where the Valkyrie had been parked, turned to face the sky it had vanished into, and unleashed a spine-chilling shriek of primal rage, pumping round after round into the sky in that general direction. Tali would have launched herself down the slope like a missile, unarmed but intent on ending both Kei's life -and- Zaeed's for what, between them, they had just done. She wasn't sure how she would have accomplished that; possibly with the concentrated force of her fury alone. It was easily the equal of Kei's right now, arguably even greater, focused as it was through the lens of her anguish. Would have, but for an arm that suddenly encircled her waist like a hoop of steel, and another that did the same to her shoulders, holding her firmly in place. Her arms still free, she reached forward, straining, as if by wanting it hard enough she could reach down the hill and crush the life from both humans. "Let me -go,-" she snarled, throwing an elbow back. She connected with something, connected hard, drawing a grunt of pain from whoever had pinned her; looking down, she saw that the arms holding her felt like steel because they -were-, or at least some advanced composite. The person who had seized her was Mordin Solus. "No, no no," the old salarian said urgently. "Stop, Tali'Shukra, stop. This fight you can't possibly win. Throwing away your life stupid. Wasteful. Serves no purpose." He held her a little tighter as she struggled against his grip and said, with more intensity than she'd ever heard in his voice before, "-Defeat never permanent while you still live.-" That seemed to penetrate the veil of rage that had blanketed her mind. After a moment, she stopped fighting and just sagged in Mordin's embrace, as if she would have fallen without him to support her. Then she got her feet back under her and raised a hand to grip his mechanical wrist where it crossed her shoulder, bowed her head, and began to sob. Gently, he turned her around so that she could put her head on his shoulder, patted her back, and let her get it all out. Below, while this was happening, Kei stopped shooting into the sky and whirled with a bestial snarl. The muzzles of her weapons were glowing red and pinging softly as she swung them toward Zaeed. Even in the dim blue planetlight, the pupils of her eyes were the size of purely theoretical particles. Foam flecked the corners of her mouth as she panted for breath. When she could speak again at all, what came out, in a voice not far removed from the one she'd uttered that scream in, was "YOU JUST COST ME _SIXTY YEARS_ OF MY _LIFE!_" If Zaeed was in any way intimidated, he had an odd way of showing it. He spat on the ground between her feet and said flatly, "Cry me a goddam river. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." Stepping closer, completely ignoring the weapons, he went on, "Call yourself a professional? Professionals don't shoot first and make positive IDs later. Professionals don't put innocent lives in harm's way to reach their targets. Professionals have -standards.-" He pointed an accusing finger in her face, his mismatched eyes boring into hers. "-You're- just a psycho with a badge. Sixty years of your life? -You- wasted those, honey, not me." He pointed up the hill to Tali, sobbing in Mordin's arms. "See that girl over there? You just cost -her- a -whole lot more.-" Kei kept glaring at him, but most of the mad fury in her face had ebbed into something like miffed astonishment as his little speech went on. By the end she looked more baffled than angry. She lowered her E-Mags and put them away. "Shit," she said. "GodDAMmit. -Shit.-" She looked up the hill. "Who is she?" Zaeed shook his head. "What do you care?" he said. "Just another piece of wreckage in your wake. Nobody important. Nobody who matters to you. The only person who matters to you is inside that tinfoil bikini." Kei shook her head disgustedly. "Fuck. I was -so- close." She looked up the hill at Tali and Mordin again, then back to Zaeed. "If I find out you people knowingly helped him - " "You won't do a goddam thing about it," Zaeed finished for her. "Because you haven't got the jurisdiction and you'll be too busy chasing the next lead anyway. Making sure he can never rest. Hounding him until the fight he wanted to have with you tonight actually happens. And then you'll -both- be able to rest. Permanently." "Don't get all high and mighty with me," Kei snapped. "Do you know what he did?" "I know what he's accused of. Last time I checked, though, this wasn't Zardon and you're not a Judge." He shook his head. "Get the hell out of here. I'm not getting paid to care what's wrong with your head, much less fix it. Maybe you should get a life." Kei gave the old mercenary a hard stare. It didn't seem to interest him. After a few seconds, she pivoted on her heel and walked back to the Lovely Angel, knowing as she went that the trail would already be cold. She had never been able to track the actual movements of that Valkyrie. No one ever had. Its mix of warp and hyperdrive propulsion meant that it was the work of mere minutes to be light-hours away in any direction and leave no useful vector traces at all - just a tangle of mutually exclusive red herrings. Tracking him that way was a waste of time. Always had been. She'd just have to go back to Meizuri and wait for him to cause another ripple in the Net. Could happen next month. Could be a couple of years. But it'd happen. It always happened. And she'd be there to start the chase all over again. She paused at the base of the ramp and looked back up toward what had been the town. There were two figures standing at the top of the ridge now, conferring - the bulky form of the merc she'd just had the argument with, and a skinnier silhouette with an oddly shaped head, maybe a salarian. Partway down the hill was a third figure, indistinct at this distance, but walking slowly, robotically, as a person walked who was plunged into a deep and dark reverie. Shaking her head, Kei walked up the ramp into the belly of the Lovely Angel in, had she but known, the very same way. Tali let herself into Spare 14. The house was dark, silent, empty - as empty as it had been when she and Gryphon had first arrived in Goodyear, with just the prefab furniture and fittings, no personal effects of any kind to be seen. None of the touches that had made it a home, for all that it was a characterless, factory-built tin shack. She went into the bedroom, worked her way out of her dress, and hung it up. She'd pack it in her duffel bag tomorrow, when she'd leave for good so Spare 14 could be torn down. She'd live aboard the 25 or 6 to 4 for however long it took to oversee the evacuation. Or shuttle back and forth from the Archangel, depending on how things developed. Either way, this would be her last night here. And her only one alone. Because she could, she took off her helmet. Because she could, she took off everything else. The covers felt exquisitely strange against her bare skin as she climbed into bed. Without the filters of her helmet and the incomplete and processed coverage of her suit's tactile relays, everything was so... -immediate-, as if she'd been operating the world from a safe distance with a pair of tongs and now she was right inside the reactor core. She could feel the weave of the textiles in the bedclothes, smell... she didn't know what, it wasn't unpleasant, but it had never made it through her atmosphere processor, whatever it was. She wondered how humans could possibly live like this, decided she would find out, if only just for tonight. The tears came again, and this time there was no helmet housekeeping system to whisk them away. They just flowed, wetting the pillowcase. It seemed more honest somehow. Tali reached to the bedside stand and pressed the power key on the one item, besides herself and her clothes, that hadn't been in the house when she and Gryphon arrived. "There are warnings of gales in Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth, Biscay, Fitzroy, Sole, Shannon, Bailey, Faeroes, and Southeast Iceland. The general synopsis at midnight: High, central North Sea, one zero three five... " /* Jackson Browne "Running on Empty" _Running on Empty_ (1977) */ Eyrie Productions, Unlimited Looking out at the road rushing under presented my wheels UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES EXILE Looking back at the years going by like so many summer fields Star-Crossed In '65 I was 17 and running up 101 I don't know where I'm running now, written by I'm just running on Benjamin D. Hutchins Running on empty plotting assist Running blind Philip J. Moyer Running into the sun but I'm running behind Ms. Morgan's dialogue coach Martin F. Rose Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive with the perennial aid of Try not to do confuse it with what The EPU Usual Suspects you do to survive In '69 I was twenty-one and I called derived from the road my own Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 by BioWare I don't know when that road turned Halo and sequels by Bungie Sofware out to be the road I'm on Borderlands by Gearbox Software Running on empty and all the usual sources Running blind Running into the sun but I'm running starring behind Benjamin D. Hutchins Tali'Shukra nar Kythera Everyone I know Scott Chen Everywhere I go Miranda Lawson People need some reason to believe Mordin Solus I don't know about anyone but me Vision If it takes all night Zaeed Massani That'll be all right Vido Santiago If I can get you to smile before I Kevirin'Zorah vas Archangel leave and Looking out at the road rushing under Kei Morgan my wheels I don't know how to tell you all just featuring how crazy this life feels Garrett Redding Look around for the friends that I Alice Hernandez used to turn to to pull me through Brejik Pak Looking into their eyes I see them Harriet Mitchell running too Herrick Mitchell Aria T'Loak Running on empty Rodek Garvex Running blind Varenn Running into the sun but I'm running Crazy Zardoz behind Boris Fredriksen Vedik'Zorah vas Archangel Honey you really tempt me Rol'Daroth vas Kradov You know the way you look so kind Rael'Dakka vas Archangel I'd love to stick around but I'm running behind with You know I don't even know what I'm The Blue Suns hoping to find The Migrant Fleet Conclave Running blind The Quarian Admiralty Board Running into the sun but I'm running and the good people of Goodyear behind astronautics researcher Rob Shannon quotations from "If", "The Explorer", and "With Drake in the Tropics" by Rudyard Kipling with special thanks to the BBC, the Met Office of H.M. Ministry of Defence, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency for the Shipping Forecast UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES EXILE Star-Crossed Part IX: Defeat Never Permanent To be extended in Appendix: Happily Ever After E P U (colour) 2010