(Continued From Government Drydock)
Simeon slumped down into a seat next to Heather's Bed. He reached for her hand insticntively. "Thankyou Heather. I... I need to ask you something." He looked up at her, more gaunt than before, and... his eyes were strange. He didn't realize it, but one eye was a dull blue, the other, vibrant and dancing. Chaos and Order are watching

"Do you think I... I Killed him? Please, tell me the truth. What do you think happened?"
He was desperate, confused. He was no longer the charming joker from that very morning, now, he was a shell, simply a carrier for his personalities. He knows

Zhanna was smiling and blushing after the kiss to her hand and the acceptance speech. It also gave her a bit of courage, enough to tell Sha'ran what she needed to hear.

"...I'm... I'm new to the whole... um... date and relationship thing..." she began as her nerves seeped through "...I've never been on a date... or had a girlfriend... or..."

The last part would require Sha'ran to be able to read lips, in which case she'd be able to read 'kissed anyone'.

"...I'm... can we just go somewhere quiet and private? I just... you seem to like it when you can see me..." Zhanna began, then realized how it might have come across "I-I-I'm not expect-expecting anything to happen or anything! I mean, we only just met and hell I've nev-"

Realizing that she had shot off at the mouth again, she decided to hit her head against the table and leave it there.

"...that hurt worse than I thought it would..." she muttered to the table, trying to alleviate some of her embarrassment.

Keeping true to her words, Sha'ran didn't laugh at Zhanna's actions.

"Oh, you poor dear." She let go of Zhanna's hands and slipped round to next to the quarian. Lifting the girl's head off the table, she cradled it and rubbed the spot where she hit it.

"It's perfectly fine. We can just go somewhere quiet and you can take your time in thinking things through. C'mon."

She stood up and waited for Zhanna to follow.

Grabbing her helmet, and then restoring her hood and cloak to their proper positions, she stood up and opened the entrance to the Quarian booth. Once out, they made their way to the entrance to the mess hall, and Zhanna turned to her compadre.

"So... are we heading to your room? It might be small, but at least it's quiet and private." Zhanna said and asked "But we could head to my room if you want... or, well, you can decide."

The quarian's indecisiveness was a bit worrying to Sha'ran. Perhaps a bit of teaching was required.

"Zhanna, you may be young but you have to learn that if there is something you want, you shouldn't hesitate to try to get it." she said, not unkindly. "But for today, let us head back to my room."

They walked to Sha'ran's room, hand in hand. Sha'ran paused before entering.

"No looking back now, I'll be waiting." she whispered huskily before entering her room.

Zhanna almost didn't move when she hurd the low, husky tone of the significantly older woman, but luckily Sha'ran was able to drag her inside. After the door shut, and Zhanna saw that it locked itself, she nervously went about removing her cloak, hood, and helmet again. She was clearly nervous; a blind man could have probably seen that at this point. After all, this was completely new territory for her, and she was a bit confused as to what was actually going on.

"Um..." was all Zhanna could manage before her voice caught in her throat, her hands knit together in a rather nervous fashion, and her body was standing straighter than a Marine's at attention.

((Couldn't come up with anything else :P))

With Zhanna's nervousness, Sha'ran decided to take tings easy. She aligned her mind to allow the two of them to join mentally.

"Relax," she soothed, "I'll be gentle. Open your mind and concentrate on peace."

Sha'ran stripped off her clothes expertly and embraced the shaking quarian, letting the peace of her own mind envelope Zhanna's.

"Just look into my eyes and let your mind fall in..." and she let their minds join as one.

(After hours of various enjoyable activities of a mature nature... (lol))

Zhanna found herself waking up in a rather warm bed. She felt a bit... off though, but in a very, very good way. First off, she noticed that she was not wearing her environment suit, which she couldn't remember the last time she had actually been out of it; it was a self-sustaining, self-cleansing unit after all, so she could wear it for years nonstop and still step out of it perfectly clean and without odors or the like.

The next thing she noticed was the fact that certain parts of her body ached a bit, which somewhat embarrassed Zhanna when she remembered what had gone on between herself and Sha'ran in the last... she didn't know how long ago it was. That train of thought begot the next realization: her pillow was moving. Finally opening up her eyes, Zhanna saw that the 'pillow' she was lying on and had her arms wrapped around was composed of a blue fleshtone, and though she could not see her 'pillow's' face, she knew exactly who it was.

Zhanna smiled contently, tightening her grip around Sha'ran as she snuggled herself closer to the woman, for once not embarrassed at the intimacy between them. After all, if Sha'ran was awake, she would have said something.

((I hope that was 'safe' enough :P))

(It was safe enough. It is an M rated game so it should be an M rated site.)

Zack loved his job at the pool. He had already enjoyed three different girl's company and was currently flirting with another. Zack had yet to run into any trouble at the pool. The most that would happen is a pervert feeling up some of the girls or boys. Zack usually dealt with it by arresting them.

He figured that only the most civilized of people would be on this trip, but that was not the case. There were plenty of shady characters running around. The incident with the two doctors was still fresh in his head.

"Firing starboard yaw thrusters." Chase announced casually. Captain Cromwell stood behind him, leaning in over him, a concerned look on his face."Well lad," Cromwell said, "How bad is it?"

Chase checked over the navigation and instrument data one more time. "Well Skipper, the starboard yaw is off by about 15 degrees. I'll just have to make do and adjust the way I fly her."

"Every ship has her quirks." "You do fly, right?"

Chase turned around, an almost indignant expression on his face, "I've been flyin for 18 years. Made myself a business out of it."

"I know," Cromwell said as a slight smile grew across his face, "That's why I hired you. Now get back to work before I shove you out an airlock."

"Aye."

Sha'ran woke up feeling a warm presence right up against her body. It pressed in tight and the feeling was quite enjoyable. She turned her head to look down at Zhanna.

"My, my, someone is feeling good this morning." she said softly. The past hours had been something quite special and Sha'ran intended to keep it that way for the quarian.

Zhanna's eyes snapped open, but she couldn't move due to the woman laying on her arms. Sighing, she smiled as she attempted to burrow into the woman further, relishing in the softness and warmth.

"Good morning... Sha'ran." she said "and yes... I feel great... a bit achy and sore... but better than I've felt in a long time."

"That's good to hear." Sha'ran replied, smiling. "I like you better like this, more confident and sure of yourself."

She stretched languidly, taking care not to shift Zhanna off her. "This is nice. It reminds me of that time when the meteors streaked across the the atmosphere of Gremar in the Dis system. The planet's fungi and lichen was glowing, lighting up the whole planet. It was beautiful..."

"...is that directed at me?" Zhanna asked with a smile "...to be honest... you're the first person to tell me I'm beautiful from since before I was exiled... but I guess you know that from the mind meld... right? You should know a lot about me now... about all the firsts you are for me..."

'...my arms are falling asleep... but I don't want to move...' she thought to herself as she tried to subtly shift her arms.

"...you're... very beautiful too Sha'ran... and this is really nice too... I wish I could stay here forever..."

"Aww... that's so sweet." Sha'ran sighed. It really was quite nice to sit around and do nothing but sooner or later the demands of life will come calling.

"Let's lay here for a little while longer. But after that, I need to do my rounds. We do have jobs, you know."

"...true..." Zhanna responded, her arms finally succumbing to numbness "...do you mind if I come with you to your job? My job is to come when I'm called; but I don't think they'll need me too much... I promise not to be a hindrance."

She was going to have to head to her room first... or, if she finally grew a spine, she'd borrow one of Sha'ran's non-armor outfits. She felt different afterall... and whether it was the mind meld or the rest of it, she wasn't sure.

"Sure. I'm checking over the surveying equipment in the loading bay. It's hard work so don't complain if someone gives you something to do." Sha'ran replied. "But first, I need to get up and get ready. Come on lazy."

Sha'ran disentangled herself from Zhanna's embrace and sat up off the bed. She opened the door to the bathroom and paused. "I'm taking a shower. You can join me if you want." she suggested with a wink and walked in.

"Su-umf!" she tried to say as she tried to get up from the bed, but her numb arms forced her to fall flat on her face in the actual pillow of the bed.

After a moment or two.. or three... she stood up with the covers around her for modesty's sake. However, she didn't want to risk getting the covers wet, so she sighed and dropped them to head to the bathroom naked as her lover had.

"I'd... love to join you." Zhanna said with a smile, though she was still a bit nervous "Will it hold both of us though?"

"Only one way to find out!" Sha'ran called out as she turned on the shower. This time, she just let her body soak in the stream of water, content to take it easy instead of her normally quick bathing.

She started humming a tuneless song, thinking about her imediate job and daydreaming about the far-future.

Zhanna followed Sha'ran into the shower, feeling oddly soothed by the closeness between them and by the warm water running over them. It was an odd feeling; she rarely had showers because of the environment suit she wore most of the time. If it were physically possible for her to smile ear-to-ear, she would have been.

"Hey... how long do we have before your job needs you?" Zhanna asked softly to Sha'ran, her smile hinting at something a little less than 'pure'.

'Wait... did I really just...?' she thought to herself, realizing that that was not something she'd normally do or say.

"Oh my, someone has developed an appetite!" Sha'ran laughed throatily. "Unfortunately, we have spent enough time playing around. I'll have to make it up to you later."

She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off. Heading back into the bedroom, Sha'ran grabbed her work clothes and donned them. Rummaging through her bags, she found her tool belt and omnitool.

"C'mon! I'm all set to go!" she called to Zhanna.

"He had a gun, he shot me, he could have done alot more damage if you had not stopped him Dr. Juniper" she told him, trying to comfort the man.

She was surprised at how he was taking this, killing someone was hard, but she couldnt believe the change he went though since the last time she saw him. Worse yet, she didnt even know what happened yet, seieng as her mind had not allowed her to remember for somereason.

Zhanna was a bit disappointed, and finished her shower up along with the Asari. After following Sha'ran back into the main room, after stopping do dry her hair of course, she decided to suit up in her environment suit, as she technically would be 'on duty' and had to be ready at the drop of a hat.

'Maybe when I get planetside... then I can wear normal clothing for her.' she mused in her head, as she was technically only signed on for a job on the ship, and the rest was negotiable.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go." Zhanna said aloud as she finished putting on her hood and cloak "After you."

Simeon forced a smile, squeezing Heather's hand. "Thanks Heather. That... Means a lot." He rose, gently placing her hand back by her side. "Well, cheri, I'm afraid I must leave you. Duty and adventure await!" He smiled, his attempt at making Heather smile quite obvious. With a massively flamboyant bow, he turned and walked away, feeling slightly better. His springy step was gone, however, and he punched his card quickly, quietly, and solemnly. He moved like a ghost through the crowds of sentients, eventually arriving on the rec deck, more importantly, the gym.

As Simeon finished his last rep on the weight machine, he sighed, slipping off the bench and standing up. Beads of perspiration clung to him, his shirt stuck to his torso. He was, unlike many doctors, well muscled, and with a dedication to his gym visits. He ran through some quick cooldown exercises before making his way into a small room off the main gym. It was almost silent, and near empty, containing only an Asari and a Turian, engaged in what appeared to be some... interesting poses. Simeon quickly excused himself, returning to the main gym and its Dojo. While he was engaged in the physician's area of the navy, Simeon was still a marine, and therefore ordered to keep his combat skills in shape. To this end, he picked up a long, slender wooden pole, and proceeded to run through several sequences against himself, focusing until it was automatic.

All through this, his thoughts were racing. His main thoughts revolved around what had happened. His memory was slowly returning, bringing red msited images, all of which he subconsciously knew... Then, he saw himself swing the knife. He dropped the pole, and fell to his knees.

The mercenary, Adrian King, walked through the halls, a plate in his left hand bearing a tray stacked with assorted foods, cuisines of alien origin from the nearest buffet. He wasn't certain if he was allowed to take the tray, but honestly, he didn't care.

He looked with interest at the many assorted snacks on the metal plate. It certainly would be easier to eat some of the alien foods if they didn't look like they were in the process of decomposing. He picked up a fruit that looked vaguely like a green human heart. He cautiously drew it close for a taste.

Mere moments later, King was doubled over the nearest trash bin spitting out the contents of his mouth. The green human heart tasted like mold on a sugar mint wrapped in beef.

The mercenary looked on the tray he had left on the floor. He was certainly not going to chance any of those foods. In disgust, he lifted up the tray and deposited it and it's contents into the trash bin.

He now needed something to take his mind off his mouth. He looked up. A gym? Perfect.

He opened the door and slid into the room. There was another person already there, swinging a pole. The man was very focused on his form, so didn't notice King deposit all his gear in a nearby corner, put on his gloves and made his way to a punching bag.

Beating the bag with strong, quick jabs, he quickly moved into a rhythm. He reflected on the past few weeks. He needed some time away from all the firefights. He had decided that some hard labor on this ship would get him refreshed for more missions in later months. He didn't do as much research on The Council's Gambit as he would have liked, but he didn't really care.

He heard a thump from behind him. Spinning around quickly he found the other person in the room had collapsed onto his knees. He tightened his gloves, always cautious.

"Hey, buddy," King said, walking slowly to the collapsed human. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm ready to go." Zhanna said aloud as she finished putting on her hood and cloak "After you."

Sha'ran and Zhanna took the lift/shuttle to the loading bay where most of the colony's equipment was being stored. Down one end contained the land transports for exploring, another held the deployable monitoring stations. More equipment was stacked behind them piled high up to the gantries.

"Okay, we have to check through all this before we get to the colony." Sha'ran said. "Where do you want to start?"

Zhanna was in awe; Sha'ran was supposed to go through all of this? Zhanna finally found something to do during the day... but at least it was with Sha'ran.

"Um... how about the far end, then work our way back?" Zhanna proposed "It would mean that, every day, we had a shorter trip back."

It was a poor reason, but it was one nonetheless.

"Good idea, but instead of walking, how about we use one of these." Sha'ran pointed to a nearby container, walked over and opened it up. Inside contained a small 4-wheel transport, similar to a human quad-bike.

"Picked these up from an Earth company. Low-tech fuel-cells so it runs off nearly everything that can produce a charge. Good for surveying and what-not and they fixed the problem with the thing rolling on you."

She straddled the bike and switched on the motor. A faint whine of its capacitors could be heard charging.

"Well, you getting on the back?" She asked Zhanna.

"Hm... humans have some interesting inventions." Zhanna mused aloud as she jumped on the back of the quad bike, wrapping her arms around Sha'ran's waist in case the woman drove much like she acted... for an Asari anyway.

"Just don't throw me off, okay?" Zhanna asked as she pressed up against Sha'ran's back.

Sa'ran smiled as Zhanna pressed up behind her.

"Hang on tight!" she called back as she twisted the throttle. The quad-bike shot forward, gaining some considerable speed before Sha'ran cut back the throttle. They were now at the other end, having crossed roughly six hundred metres in less than half a minute.

"Whee! That was fun! You okay?" Sha'ran asked Zhanna.

Zhanna was a bit frightened, and she clung to Sha'ran as if she was hanging over a bottomless pit and couldn't allow herself to fall.

"I'm... fine." Zhanna managed finally, still not letting go of Sha'ran "That was very fast... very fast..."

"You get used to it." Sha'ran remarked with a smile. She slid out from the trembling quarian's grasp and walked over to the end container. On the side was a label denoting "Surveillance Station: 1 of 20". She slapped a hand on the metallic casing.

"Right, this thing here is a Mk.IV colony monitor. It's a beacon, a weather station, a radar unit, a supply depot and more in one neat package." Sha'ran explained. "What we have to do is check that all its functions work and fix them if they don't. We'll start by opening the containers. Here."

Sha'ran had pulled out tool which vaguely resembled a crowbar, if a crowbar had mated with a sledgehammer.

"Wedge the pointy end in the gap and yank. If it doesn't open, give it a whack with the blunt end then try again." She suggested as she handed the tool over.

Zhanna grasped the crowbar somewhat dubiously. "O-okay, I'll give it a shot." she stuttered out.

*******

3 hours later and Zhanna was tired. So far they had managed to test all the monitoring stations and had now moved onto civilian Makos (these lacked the guns and turret of the Alliance one) and the other transports.

She sat down against the wheel of the Mako and took her helmet off. Her face was slick with sweat and her suit was working at full capacity to keep her cool.

Sha'ran slid out from under Mako after fixing the transmission. She had pretty much stripped down to her tank top and shorts and was absolutely covered in grease. Zhanna took the time to appreciate the view.

"So... how many more do we have to do?" she panted.

Sha'ran gave a small shrug. "About another half-dozen then we're half way done."

Zhanna groaned. This was just to tiring. She wondered how her asari companion could keep up the pace.

"You poor thing, here." Sha'ran tipped her water bottle over Zhanna's head. The quarian yelped as the cold water slid down over her, dropping her temperature.

"Ooh, you'll pay for that!" she promised.

"I look forward to it." Sha'ran winked mischievously. She looked down at the remaining equipment.

"Hmm... we might need some more help. I'll post a message on the ship's notice board, how about it?" she asked Zhanna, typing on her omnitool.

"Sounds wonderful." Zhanna agreed. With a nod, Sha'ran uploaded he message to the ship's bulletin.

((Anyone is welcome to help out sorting the equipment. Just introduce yourself and we'll roll from there.))

Simeon looked up into another face, covered in blood. Blood spilled by his own two No, This Is Not Him!

Simeon shook his head, and now he saw Zhanna, that quarian girl, the security... Noo YOu FooLIsh ONE!

Another shake, and now... now it was Heather... dear Heather, lying in a hospital bed, badly wounded... No Simeon, focus.

He rubbed his temples, and looked up at
"Adrian King, Mercenary, 26 years of age, many biotic implants, excellent skills. Brought on as extra security." He stood up slowly, shaking gently. "I... I'm fine Mr. King. I just... I just killed a man..." He whispered the last part barely loud enough to hear himself. "I... I'm Simeon Juniper, Chief Medical officer aboard this ship..." He said slowly, as if reassuring himself. "I... I'm sorry. I, I have a lot on my mind at the moment."

Rob awoke to the sound of his alarm piercing the darkness of his cabin. Stumbling to his feet he felt for a light switch. Finfing it, the lights suddenly sparked to life, giving the room an artificial gow that only electric lighting could do.

After spending about 20 minutes getting ready for the day he went to his computer, which he had connected to the network of the ship in order to avoid using the busy public terminals.

Checking his mail, he had nothing of note, but the lack of any correspondence from his brother was slightly disturbing to him, it had already been awhile since he left after all. "I'll have to bug him about it when I hear from him," Rob thought.

Still checking though private mail, Rob unexpectedly got a message from one of the ship's engineers down in the engine room. "Mr. Warren, we need your assistance in the eingine room." "You know sir that I'm only a civil engineer." "Yes Mr. Warren, but you are the most competent engineer on the ship probably, we'd still appreciate it if you could come." "All right, I'll be down there in a second, and call me Rob next time." "Yes Mr. Warren." As Rob left for the engine room he said to himself, "They just do that to annoy me..."

About an hour later Rob left the engine room, nearly at the opposite end of the ship from his cabin. After listening to the engineer in the engine room, Rob had given them some very limited advice for a solution, but nothing substantial. "I am just a CIVIL engineer, after all," he grumbled as he left. "My job is to design structures and infrastructure, not much more than that. Why can't..."

Rob didn't finish his annoyed rant as he stopped to look at a shipwide notice board, curious at what was posted. He skimmed though the posts. Various objects for sale, properties, services for rent, advertisements, nothing caught his eye really. As he turned to leave though, another post suddenly appeared. It was something about assisting in the sorting of the colony's equipment.

"Sounds like a good way to kill time," he thought.

Looking more at the new post, it said that the assistance was requested from the loading bay of the ship. Looking at a small map of the ship nearby, Rob figued he was not very far from there already. Not even hesitating made his way to the loading bay to help out.

Arriving at the door to the loading bay he made his way in, not expecting to see a room large enough to dawrf the office complex that made up his company headquarters, let alone maybe even a few city blocks back on Earth. "Great," he muttered, before continuing into the vast room.

Walking down the aisles of high-stacked equipment, Rob was surprised to not see many people working in there, in fact the only noticeable movement were two dots in the distance.

After a few more minutes Rob finally was walking up to an Asari and Quarian, and he falt more confused by the second. "Excuse me," he said. "Is this where the help was needed sorting equipment?"

Sha'ran noticed the man walk up to her and Zhanna.

"Excuse me," he said. "Is this where the help was needed sorting equipment?"

"Yep," Sha'ran replied. "Glad you could come down, we're running ourselves a bit tired here. Just taking a break for the moment" She nodded over to Zhanna who was still lying against the colony transports. Zhanna gave a weak wave back and continued to drain her water bottle.

"That's Zhanna over there and I'm Sha'ran. Um, I'd shake your hand but mine's somewhat greasy." She gave a guilty shrug and showed the man her black-coated palms.

"So do you have a name and where do you want to start?" Sha'ran asked.

Chase walked the halls of the ships, inspecting some exposed wiring that ran along the celing. It was marked with some odd barcodes, but he was used so used to the data network of the ship he could read it from memory. If one read it with a scanner it would read DATA 981032, one of the main lines for the shipwide network.

Latency had been overtly high for some messages, and he had determined this line may be responsible. This was confirmed when he spotted a crack in the insulation around the wiring. Most likely one of the construction crew had hit the wire and now it was exposed to interference with the amount of electronics were onboard.

He reported it, filing a time for it to be fixed by maintanince. With that he turned and left, having finished his job. He was in charge of getting the colonies data and communication infrastructure running smoothly, and as of now he was toying with the ships to kill time.

He checked the message board, finding a request for some extra hands sorting equipment. He decided it might be worthwhile, me might even get a look at some of the equipment he would be dealing with, seeing as he was brought on too late to test with it.

He headed to the storage bays stopping at a table, he pulled up the thermal secuirty cams to find where he was going. Being a hacker had some advantages, even if you have pass words to the network. He spotted some people, then confirmed the message was from them.

He made his way over, observing them for a second.

"Need some help?" He asked, trying to get their attention.

"So do you have a name and where do you want to start?"

"The name's Robert Warren, but I prefer to be just called Rob." He looked at the stacks of equipment and said, "As for where I would like to start... ...I don't really have a preference, so where would I be most needed right now?"

"Alright then. Rob it is." Sha'ran noticed another man trying to get their attention.

"Ah, we have another helper. Great! C'mon, we'll move onto the prefab units." Stretching out a hand, she pulled Zhanna to her feet and the three walked over to the new guy.

"Hello there." Zhanna greeted with a wave.

"Right, so now we're here," began Sha'ran, "We have enough hands to test assembling one of the temporary housing units. Now the instruction manual says it takes 15 minutes to set up, but from my experience, it can be anything from ten minutes to an hour."

Zhanna nodded her head. "I know. One time out in the field, two turians managed to spend an hour destroying theirs by just trying to build it."

"Exactly. So what we'll do is divide up the tasks. Rob, you can help Zhanna assemble the base while I'll get the walls up with, um... what's your name?" Sha'ran asked the newcomer.