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Marked Effect (AFF Edition)	By : unrealuniverse Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 22185 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Mass Effect characters, species, locations and the universal setting are owned by Bioware and not myself. Any other brand names mentioned are property of their respective owners. This work is and always will be free for anyone to read.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Chapter 14 - Approach
28th December 2016
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Fosanta, Shiala and Adastra had got up early to prepare the ship to travel to the nearest known mass relay. The preliminary estimates put the travel time at about seventeen days with a stop for additional water at a previously mapped system. All they were waiting for was Kriana to wake up and give the order to leave.
"Has anyone else thought what is going to happen when we get back?" Fosanta voicing her thoughts as she finished the very basic scan of the solar system they were in, with what sensors were working, for future reference.
"I will return to Matriarch Benezia." Shiala stating as if there was no way she could get away, nor did she wish to do so.
"I personally have not thought about it, these last nearly five years have been good to me." Adastra thinking how this mission has been so much better than having to get odd jobs. "What about you Fosanta?"
"I was thinking of getting a job that involved a little less travelling."
"Sounds like a good idea" A voice from behind the three of them said. They all turned around to see Kriana who still seemed half asleep and Emala who took co-pilots seat.
"Are we ready to leave?"
"Yes. Emala do you want to take us to FTL?" Emala nods enthusiastically waiting for Kriana to give the go.
"Take us to the mass relay and the Citadel." Kriana turned away and headed towards the lift as Emala pressed a few buttons on the console. After a couple of minutes the ship gave a small jolt as the light barrier was broken and the ship started its ten day journey to the water source then onto the mass relay. With that Fosanta departed.
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"Huh?" Kate being awoken by the small jolt but not knowing what is going on. She looks out of the window to see a blue/violet glow towards the front of the ship and blackness behind. "Thats weird," she mused to herself, before deciding that a shower and breakfast might be an idea. Kate had been using the communal showers that were on the opposite side of the ship to the toilets. It wasn't like there was ever a queue as only herself, Fosanta and Shiala ever used them and there were three showers.
On her way to the showers she saw Sam having his breakfast looking fairly red. "Morning Sam, Why are you red?"
"Oh, Hello Kate. It is probably the hot shower I had this morning. Are you going to have one?" With that Kate laughed a little.
"Yes, I will be careful as it seems to be hot." With that Sam restarted shovelling his breakfast into his mouth as Kate walked into the shower area. Fosanta had just stepped into a shower when she heard the door close and stuck her head out to see Kate with a towel over her shoulder.
"Morning Kate." Kate wasn't expecting to see anyone in the shower room and so was a little surprised when a smiling blue face had appeared from between two curtains.
"Fosanta. Morning. I was not expecting anyone to be in here to be fair."
"We started our journey to the Citadel this morning. Since there is nothing now for me to do I decided to try out these hot showers." With that Fosanta pulled her head back into the shower and turned on the water. Kate putting her towel on the small bench opposite the showers and starting to get undressed.
"Did we set off about thirty minutes ago?"
"Yes why?" Fosanta's shower spouting plumes of steam out of the top of the curtained area as Kate goes to the shower in the corner.
"I think it woke me up." Kate pulled the curtain around her shower and turned it on to be greeted with a burst of hot water.
"It is possible. The ship jumps a little when we pass the speed of light." Kate hears Fosanta's shower turn off.
"Wait, so we are travelling faster than light now?"
"Yes, Adastra told me we will be doing nearly a thousand two hundred times light speed shortly." She said as she began towelling herself down.
"This ship must be really fast then?" Kate still washing her gingery red hair thinking that would be the distance from Earth to the sun in less than half a second.
"To light speed it was before we lost the four smaller thrusters Kate. Above the speed of light not so much due to the budget restrictions on the design."
"So you mean this ship was built cheaply?" Kate not particularly liking the sound of floating around in a cheaply built ship.
"Not exactly Kate. It was designed for being able to quickly manoeuvre between planets rather than quick traversal between systems. While we would have preferred a faster top speed, it is a well built ship as evidenced by it still working, to a point."
"To a point?"
"The loss of the smaller thrusters means that we only have the mass effect cores left for steering, which are not particularly easy to control. As you know some of the sensors and the FTL communications array do not work and there are probably plenty of trivial things that do not work like lights in some of the bedrooms."
"It does not sound too good." Kate thinking it sounds like a scrapheap and yet it is going faster than the speed of light.
"We will be fine Kate. Do not worry and I will speak to you shortly." With that she left Kate in the shower.
Some fifteen minutes after Fosanta, Kate emerged from the showers looking no redder than when she went in. "I was careful with the hot water." Kate having a joke at Sam who was still looking red. "It was much better than the frostbite I nearly got last time."
"The nearest I got to a cold shower was putting my foot in, I got cold feet after that." Sam smirking knowing that was the first decent pun he's had the opportunity to use.
"That was awful Sam." Kate shaking her head with a smile as she turns to walk to her room.
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Friday 6th January 2017
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The Enlighten drops out of FTL near a dwarf planet which has a thick ice crust. "Everyone we have arrived at our planet for more water." Fosanta announces over the intercom as Adastra pilots the ship carefully closer to the dwarf planet before hovering it a hundred or so metres above the icy surface. "You do know the ice extraction equipment has not been tested after the core discharge Adastra?"
"I know Kriana but we need this water one way or another. Fortunately it is just a heating element so even if parts of it are shorted, it may still work if the fusion core can handle the extra load. Fosanta the gravity is a little uneven on this planet so just be careful while keeping the Enlighten level." Fosanta nods as Adastra leaves to head down to deck three.
"I really hope this works." Kriana seemingly trying to comfort herself that it will all be fine.
"Well we should get a bit of a core discharge as well which is handy as we would have been cutting it close to get to the Citadel without one." Fosanta trying to keep the ship level with the crusty surface.
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Adastra walks out of the lift to see Sam and Kate attaching the heating plate to the shuttle. "Are we ready to go as it is not easy keeping this ship stable having to juggle three mass effect cores."
"Yes Adastra. We were just checking everything." Kate wanting to make sure this works.
"Is there any reason you are wearing that Adastra?" Sam noting her wearing a suit of some kind which has two thin tanks on its back. A helmet under her right arm.
"The shuttle has a breach in its vacuum seal hence why we had to dock with the Enlighten in Earth's atmosphere. Do you not remember Sam?"
"My apologies, I had forgotten about that. Anyway you should be good to go Adastra." Adastra nods before putting her helmet on and climbing into the shuttle. Kate and Sam exit the deck and head up to the cockpit in the slow lift.
"If someone had told me I would be on a space ship light years from Earth next year, before Christmas, I would have asked them which nut house they had escaped from." Sam switching to English to get his point across better.
"I am still wondering whether this is all a dream. It is so surreal to be floating above a small planet to extract water from it, in the middle of nowhere, on a half broken ship, with five aliens. If we even went back to Earth now no one would believe us."
"I know you are struggling to accept this quite as well as I am." The lift doors open and the two of them walk out. "Do you feel like you are going insane though?" Kate nods.
"It is not that bad is it?" Fosanta overhearing their discussion.
"Adastra you are clear to disembark when you are ready." Shiala keeping their current activities going.
"It is still very weird to be floating above an ice planet Fosanta. Let alone with five individuals from a previously unknown species." Sam finishing off the rest of the discussion in Asari.
Adastra gently drags the heating plate and its two tubes out of the docking bay door with the shuttle. As the plate drops off the docking bay floor and heading towards the surface the wires connecting it to the shuttle bring it underneath the shuttle so it is hanging. Adastra lowers the shuttle so the plate is resting on the icy surface as the shuttle hovers above, the wires having slack in them. "Anyone up there, the plate is ready to go."
"Just hope that this works." Fosanta disconnects the electrolysis unit from the fusion core and redirects the power to the plate.
"I can see steam which is a good sign. I just hope this does not take too long as the temperature is really starting to drop in here."
"Tell us when we can start pumping Adastra." Fosanta sitting back in her chair, waiting for the signal.
"How long will this take?"
"It has taken us four hours to fill the tank before Kate but the ice on that planet was at twenty five Kelvin and we had no reserve water. This ice is at one hundred and," Fosanta checks on the console "nineteen Kelvin and we have some water in the tank but not enough to get us to the Citadel." Sam nods.
"What is that minus a hundred or something?"
"Minus a hundred and fifty four Kate." Kate nods forgoing a comment about it being cold as it would sound silly. "So how long are we expecting to be here?" Sam asking no one in particular.
"It depends on how well Adastra and the Shuttle hold, but if we can it will take an hour and fifty minutes to fully fill the tank."
"I can hear you all you know." Adastra announcing over the communications system. "Shiala does have a valid point though as the shuttles electronics are not shielded from the cold inside. I am ok for four hours as I have heating in here but the shuttle may start to give up fairly soon."
"We would have enough to get to the Citadel after thirty minutes Adastra."
"You can start pumping now Fosanta." Fosanta leans over to the console and turns on the pumps.
"Done Adastra. I must as though, why did you want to do this anyway as you can control the Enlighten better than I can?"
"It is the last time we will ever need to refill this ship from a block of ice. Also if this shuttle fails it might do so rather rapidly given it has already endured a solar flare which caused a bit of damage."
"I am guessing the other shuttles were used to evacuate everyone else?"
"Yes Sam, to be honest twenty four could have evacuated in at most three shuttles as each can seat eight but carry many more standing. As you may appreciate, when people are panicking it does not always work like that." Shiala making a point while everyone waits.
------
"Err everyone. I would like to recommend shuttles be insulated on the inside for jobs like this next time."
"Why Adastra? Have you got problems?"
"I now only have the console for lighting and the haptic interface is getting very unresponsive." Fosanta looks at the time noting the ship has been pumping for twenty six minutes.
"We might have a bit of a dry tank when we get to the Citadel but we should have enough Adastra. Come back while you still have some control."
"I will take a dry tank over crashing this shuttle. We can just travel a little slower if we need to save." Adastra finding the controls seem to only react after having her finger on the button for half a second. "You would have liked flying this Fosanta. It is awful." Adastra joking as she pulls the heating plate and the tubing so the plate is level with the docking bay door. Swinging the plate towards the ship she lowers the shuttle to drop the plate onto the docking bay floor. She proceeds to then carefully put the shuttle inside. "Oh great, the plate has landed right where the shuttle sits."
"If you have to run into the plate then do so Adastra." Kriana putting her captain's angle on it knowing full well it would not be doing any more work once they get back to the Citadel.
"That makes life easier. I do not need any help down here to pull the tubing in then." Adastra pushes the plate with the shuttle from shuttle bay one to the back of the ship at shuttle bay five near the rear of the ship. The tubing just about curling in to the Enlighten. Adastra parks the shuttle on the tubing that is under the ship and gets out. Jumping down from the shuttle she walks over to nudge one of the pipes a bit further in. "Fosanta. The docking bay door is clear."
"Closing now." Fosanta typing a few commands into the console. The docking bay shuts causing a slight shake of the ship. Fosanta repressurises the shuttle bay so the lift will stop at that deck to allow Adastra back up. "You are good to leave Adastra."
"Is it always this much fun ice mining?"
"No Sam. We usually had enough people so we could pull the plate in using the tubes but that needs four people per tube and we do not even have eight people on-board."
"When you have the co-ordinates begin to make our way to the Citadel Fosanta." Fosanta turns in her seat to nod to Kriana who seems satisfied enough to leave.
"Fosanta you have to co-ordinates to the mass relay." Fosanta looks to the screen and double checks Shiala's calculations before setting off.
"Mass relay?" Sam about to ask the same question but Kate getting there first.
"They are transportation routes Kate. They allow things to travel immense distances in very short periods of time. Without them getting anywhere would take months."
"Are we on our way now Fosanta?" Adastra's voice appears from behind them. Sam and Kate turn around to see Adastra walking towards them, helmet under her arm again.
"Yes Adastra. We have nothing to do for another seven days now."
"I have had enough today to last me a week. Also we could do with tidying the shuttle bay as it is a mess."
"Why would we need to tidy it?"
"It seems you do not know I get bored very quickly if I do not have something to do Sam."
"Adastra has made some interesting entertainment over the years. Putting a microphone in the showers and then broadcasting it over the intercom to everyone was one of the worst. I am sure she deliberately did it because she knew we got up earlier than most of the other crewmembers. We did so thinking we could have a shower in peace." Adastra showing a face of fake innocence when everyone looked towards her.
"What we say to each other after sleeping together for three years did not need to be broadcast to all twenty seven other crewmembers." Kate raises her eyebrows to Shiala's comment.
"Have either of you thought that Adastra might just be interested in trying to understand how relationships work?" All three Asari look confused at Sam. Kate smiles a little. "I am guessing because of the markings people avoid you Adastra?"
"That, the reputation and the fact I do not trust people to be nice."
"You trust no one Adastra? I find that hard to believe as everyone here seems pleasant and kind."
"Ok the markings and the reputation then Sam." Adastra conceding the point.
"Still my point stands, more so given you are over three hundred and fifty. Oh and Kate, no this is in no way a hint so there is no need for the smile. I just think people are missing the obvious about Adastra. Although Adastra, giving people a little trust would be good. I mean even showing a small amount of markings to get someone's opinion would not be too much to ask surely?"
"Maybe not Sam but I will need to think about that." Sam nods and leaves to head back to his room.
"Well that was unexpectedly insightful. I am however not sure whether it was necessarily insightful about the incidents."
"Shiala, just because Sam seems to understand does not mean we are going to be together happily ever after. Think yourself and Fosanta as an idea." Adastra leaves the three of them with that point to get out of the suit which was becoming rather warm.
"Do you think Shiala?"
"As I have mentioned to you before Fosanta I think Adastra likes the novelty of someone new. I think it will eventually settle into a strong friendship but nothing more."
"It does make sense but they are getting on awfully well together."
"I wonder where Emala is?" Kate suddenly realising there is an individual less today.
"She felt a little unwell this morning Kate. I am sure she will be ok tomorrow."
"I might see if she wants someone to talk to." Fosanta and Shiala nod to Kate before she leaves the deck to see if Emala was around. When she got to her door she finds it locked and knowing she is a little unwell she decides not to disturb her and goes to her own room.
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Friday 13th January 2017
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"Everyone on-board we are now approaching the mass relay." Fosanta sat back from the console and waited for Adastra and Shiala to appear from the lift. She wasn't quite expecting everyone to turn up but it was only this small jump to a main relay and then immediately to the citadel.
"Oh wow," was all Sam and Kate could get out nearly in synchronisation after looking out of the cockpit windows.
"Fosanta, could you transmit our mass and destination to the relay." Fosanta puts a few commands into her console and with that the relay comes to life.
"Kate, Sam. This relay will make us cover ten times the distance we have just travelled from your planet in a few hundredth of a second." Shiala now sitting back as there's no longer any co-ordinates to calculate.
"It is an odd feeling..." Kriana added from next to them "You get used to it though."
"On approach now, Emala you have the timing on your screen." Adastra manages to steer the Enlighten on a path, taking the Enlighten past the core and along the length of the relay.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1." The ship seems to lurch a tiny amount forward and they could no longer see the relay out of the window. Frantic activity suddenly started on the cockpit consoles as there was now a new destination to be plotted.
"It almost feels like being in freefall for half a second." Kate looked at Sam who adjusted his footing. "It is a strange feeling though."
"We will be at the main relay in five hours if my estimate is right." Emala trying her best to be helpful but using the ships nominal ratings rather than maximums.
"We have enough water and reserve mass effect core charge to push it Emala. We can discharge and refuel at the Citadel if we need to. Four and a half hours is my estimate." Adastra clearly sensing home now and doing everything she can to get there faster. "Oh and Kate it is strange and you may not get used to it. Tahomi our co-pilot hated it."
"Why would you become a pilot then?" Sam confused.
"I asked the same question Sam. She liked travelling but not using mass relays." Sam nods to Fosanta thinking that about makes sense on an exploration mission where they would not be using mass relays much.
"Fosanta can we get a message to the Citadel now or are the data communications still out?" Kriana wondering if she can arrange everything with the Citadel before they arrive.
"We have two minutes of low bit rate voice communication before we go to FTL that you could use Kriana."
"Set up communication to Citadel control." Fosanta gives Kriana a nod when its setup.
"Citadel control this is the ASL Enlighten. We are on approach to the Citadel from the Exodus Cluster. ETA five hours."
"ASL Enlighten you have been marked as disappeared, presumed destroyed. Please can you confirm the number of crew that evacuated."
"There were twenty four crew members that evacuated on-board four shuttles, twenty two Asari and two Salarians." Kriana wondering quite why they needed that confirmation she didn't know but she complied.
"ASL Enlighten, you are given priority access to dock seventy one. Upon arrival further checks and a security detail will await you. It will be good to see you back."
"Thank you Citadel control, ASL Enlighten out." There was only forty seconds of comm time left before the ship jolted into FTL travel heading towards the final mass relay before the Citadel.
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Notes.
Well a rather shortened journey where we find out not much other than the Enlighten could have done with a larger tank.
Next update is the first chapter on the Citadel which should be fun given the two humans on-board.
- 13
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- 15
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Marked Effect (AFF Edition)