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Into the Unknown	By : Spiritwolf71 Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 6761 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I own none of this universe the concept all belongs to Bioware, and Mass Effect I am in no way making a profit from this.

Chapter List
- 5
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They all stood around the shuttle where Elysia had disappeared with the native girl. It seemed as though the little green woman had taken a liking to the Asari and refused to go with any of the others. Tanith figured that was because the Commando had cut her down without even giving it a thought, a move that really had Tanith worried.
She had thought Remes tale about the swimming and the giant creature were humorous at the time, now she found herself worried about the Asari’s impulses. The girl had not even considered what kind of a threat the native would have been before cutting her down. What if it had been a trap? What if the girl had been some sort of super warrior? Maybe Elysia figured she would have been able to handle it either way, who knew.
She would have to keep a closer eye on the girl. For now though they waited, the little native had been pretty beaten up and Tanith could only imagine she fought with her people about being the “sacrifice”. Not that she could blame her; it must be terrifying to be given to not only stranger, but ones that could possibly look like monsters to these people. She could only wonder what would happen if they returned her.
“This is stupid,” this came from Keith, “why are we entertaining the idea of taking care of this native. I mean are we not supposed to preserve and not interfere, well this is clearly interference.”
“We really did not have much choice in the matter, we did not purposely crash on this planet,” Dharti defended. “I am sure a lot of natives were likely to have seen our shuttle crash.”
“Besides having her with us could have its advantages,” Remes said, “We don’t know anything of this planet except that it’s hot, had long days and shorter nights. Could this just be a season, do we need to prepare for a winter? What kind of creature is there that could swallow us whole, which are good to eat, how to kill them. Not to mention that her people are obviously afraid of us. We can learn about them before we try to contact them, that way we won’t accidentally do something we regret.”
“You all noticed she already has Elysia enthralled, she found our weak link pretty quickly,” Keith pointed out.
“Just because she’s impulsive does not make her our weak link.” Dharti argued.
“She’s supposed to be a Commando, are they not supposed to be well trained?” Tanith asked. “She should have known better then to just cut the woman down.”
Dharti looked to the Krogan, “Elysia saw a battered and beaten woman, terrified, tied to a tree. Commandos are not impassionate. While I agree she is young, and maybe even too young for the role, I can see why she did what she did. I am actually ashamed that I did not.”
“Are you kidding?” Keith looked to her, “It could have been a trap. She could have been some ninja commando warrior for all we knew.”
“She wasn’t, she was a hurt and terrified woman and now she is getting treatment.” Dharti said simply looking back to Keith. “Just because we are afraid does not give us the right not to be compassionate. Maybe Elysia should have asked a few more questions, or maybe we should have asked a few less. It doesn’t matter now. The girl is untied and in the shuttle getting the medical help she needs.”
“Yeah with our medigel,” Keith commented. Dharti ignored him; he huffed when she did so. Tanith simply rolled her eyes.
Not for the first time, Tanith wondered if everything would work out. The Asari and the Turians were used to working together and as long as they pulled their weight Tanith would have no problem with them. The human on the other hand, he was sleazy and hiding a few things. Tanith had no doubt he was a soldier, he stood and held himself like one. However there was something about him that screamed distrust.
The problem was Tanith was convinced he probably had the ability to take out every single one of them. She could sense that he was good at being a soldier and that he had probably seen more war then all of them put together. She would guess he was special ops, but from where she didn’t know.
That was the thing with Humans, they were probably the better then most races for sneaking and sabotage and assassinations. The only ones he could think of that were better were the Drell. The Krogan were big and clunky and preferred a stand up kill. They liked it better if the kill fought back. They did not hide anything. The Turians were talented at assassinations but they rarely hide their intentions. If they killed someone you knew about it and you knew why. The Asari simply didn’t just assassinate people. They considered themselves diplomats and the Vorcha well; they couldn’t really sneak up on anything. They had no patients for it.
“She’s is just a girl, not much older, physically, then Elysia herself. She was hurt and terrified and I commend the Asari for doing what she should to help her. Apparently she is better than the rest of us, who would have left the poor girl there,” Laius spoke up calmly.
“Well I don’t know about leaving, I mean if she is a tribute and she does want to please,” Keith started, which won him four pair of glaring eyes. “Jesus you guys are an uptight bunch.”
“They certainly are taking a long time,” Remes said looking back to the door. Keith obviously had a retort for that but stopped himself.
“I think, ”Dharti conceded, “that if the young Commando was in trouble we would certainly know about it. Let’s just give her some more time before we go barging in and demanding answers.”
***
Elysia had started by cleaning the dry blood away from some of the cuts the native had. She had obviously put up one hell of a fight, but then the Asari could not blame her. What kind of people would sacrifice a woman to appease something they are afraid of? Not only that but the woman was beautiful, why would they want to destroy her. Did she have parents that were worried about her, or a husband and children? Was she alone?
Elysia knew nothing of these people obviously, except the fact that they believe in the needs of the many outweighing the one, but she didn’t like them. She looked to Varra, with her head hung low and the sad look in those blue eyes. They were a beautiful people and artistic, judging by the many tattoo that were about her body.
She had used the medi-gel sparingly and only on the cuts, she wished she could have done more for the bruises but they were limited on their supply and knew not, what dangers the planet would bring. When she was done she looked to the woman.
“You are not our prisoner,” she stated.
“I please,” Varra stated looking up and placing her hands on Elysia’s thighs.
“No, you do not need to,” Elysia took her hands in hers. “Where ever you come from, you are free now. If you want to return to your people, you can.”
Varra jerked away and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. “No, I no go back.”
At least the translator was getting much better. “I am sure they worry about you, they only did what they thought was best for everyone,” Elysia said not believing a word of it. No one should have to go through what this young native was going through. Being made a tribute, sacrificed by her people, it must be a terrible feeling.
“No,” Varra said has her eyes brimmed with tears, Elysia’s eyes widened.
“You don’t have to go back, honest, I mean we could always use someone with knowledge of this area, to help us with the layout of the land and what to look out for,” she said and smiled slightly, “I was almost swallowed whole by a creature in the river yesterday.”
“Iauntu,” Varra said with her eyes wide, “very dangerous, but very rare.”
“Figures,” Elysia said rolling her own eyes. “Does it live by the waterfall?”
Varra made a face, “You swam in the water pool?”
“Yes, is there something bad?”
“Only men are allowed to swim there, that was why Iauntu attacked you.”
Male dominated society, Elysia thought to herself, no wonder they were still primitive. She could only think of Keith at this point and wondered if Varra’s whole society were like him. Elysia did not really know better, she had never met a human and only heard what people spoke of them and it wasn’t always nice.
Before the war most people hated the humans, saying they were arrogant and obnoxious thinking the galaxy owed them when they had not deserved anything. During the war, they led the charge, they brought the Galaxy together to face the Reaper and united they won. After the war things returned to normal, although there was a little bit more respect for the humans but a lot of races still did not like them.
Elysia had read most of the stories of Captain Shepard, the first Human Spectre, saviour of the Citadel and the Council, the destroyer of the Collectors and then Saviour of everyone. From what she had heard Captain Shepard was different from most humans. She did not see in color or race. She did not believe one society was better than any other. To her they were all as one and as one she led them to victory. Just recently she married an Asari. But through all that she had heard that Shepard was not the norm for Human behaviour, she was just the best of them.
Not that any race was free from fanatics, even the Asari had a secret branch of the government that was tasked with protecting the Asari culture, hiding secrets and playing back room politics. The Turian also had their version of Cerberus. The only reason Cerberus was well known was because of their exposure and then the siding with the Reapers. The other groups were able to camouflage much better, they had been doing it longer.
“Why did they pick you?” Elysia asked finally.
Varra looked to the floor, “I have no family, I am Ha’drol.”
The translator failed on that last word. “Ha’drol?”
“A burden to my people, one who leaches off others, I have no parents so other have had to take on my burden. In return I do the things that no one else wants to. I am what they make me.”
“What happened to your parents?”
“I do not know, I was very young when they disappeared. My people usually left me alone while I was growing up. I stayed outside of them, except when they needed me to do things they did not want to do.”
“Like?”
“Sometimes I was used to bring creatures to a trap.”
“They used you as bait?” Elysia was beside herself.
“No, it’s ok, I always got the first meal though, and I am fast and a great hunter, better than they know,” the green woman whispered and looked around as if her people could hear, “Females are not supposed to hunt but I taught myself.”
The Asari took a deep breath and had to remind herself that this was a different culture and did things differently. She was not a history major and she knew her people’s past was not perfect, but now they had evolved and this behaviour was, to her, horrifying. She could not imagine living in a society that didn’t take care of their own. That used those that needed the most help as bait and slaves.
Elysia studied the girls face, her light blue eyes, bluish lips. She was very pretty, even though her nose was flatter and wider than most, she wasn’t even sure there was a lot of cartilage in it. It almost looked like a flap with two slits under in but the flap did not move. The markings on her body were mostly in light blue and in certain light would never be noticeable. Wearing so little clothes Elysia could see that they started at her feet and went all the way to her forehead.
“Well, you’re with us now and we will not use you a bait,” she said finally. Varra smiled to her and Elysia could not help but smile back.
“What do these mean?” She said asking about the markings, her curiosity got the better of her.
Varra smiled and looked down to her legs. “It is my history,” she said and pointed to a spot on the top of each of her feet. She lifted her left foot. “This is my mother and her history,” she indicated her foot and leg up to her knee. She patted her right foot, “This is my father and his history. It ends when I was four and they disappeared.”
“I’m sorry,” Elysia said. “I never knew my father.” She said, which was funny in the fact that her father was human and she had never talked to one before. “But my mother and I were close.”
Elysia pointed to a marking on her side that looked like a tree, “and that?”
“That is my clan,” she pointed to a much darker marking, one that almost stood out amongst the rest. “Ha’dral,”
“I’m sorry,” Elysia said.
“It is, what it is,” the native said back.
“But you didn’t want to come to us?”
“I only saw the big creature, he was frightening.”
Elysia smiled, “That is Tanith, he is called Krogan, they are a strong and powerful race, but he will not harm you. I promise,” Elysia placed a hand on Varra’s cheek, “No one will hurt you.”
“Thank you Elysia,” Varra said with a smile.
“Well, you’re all fixed now; we should go out before the others start to make up stories.”
Elysia stood first and moved out into the sunlight.
“Well, not quite as good a new, but we fixed up all of her cuts,” Elysia said.
The others simply looked at her for a few minutes, “So why is she here?” Tanith finally asked.
“As a tribute, probably more for you Tanith cause you frighten them,” Elysia smiled but Varra nodded in agreement. “They chose her because she has no family, they seem to be,” she paused and looked to Keith as if it was his fault, “a male dominated society.”
Keith raised a brow, “And this is my fault?” he asked taking in her glare.
“Do we take her home?” Tanith asked. Elysia looked to Varra. Varra shook her head slightly.
“I don’t know, she is not treated well there.”
“Jesus, she is not a pet, we can’t keep her,” Keith said. “We barely even know how we are going to take care of the Turian family we have, we don’t need another concern.”
“You don’t even care anyway,” Elysia shot back, “Besides this is her planet, she knows the lay of the land, and she could be invaluable to us. She knows where and what to hunt, what dangers there are to avoid. She can be a liaison to her people.”
“Well, points to the kid,” Laius conceded, “her information can be invaluable.”
“Yeah and she can be playing possum and lead her people right to our supplies or she can cut our throats open while we are sleeping. We do not know these people, what we are listening to “tribute” and a little girl that wants a pet. Well what if the pet bites back. We know nothing about her except what she wants to tell us,” Keith countered. “On Earth there was this myth that sailors used to believe in. There was this area of ocean that was infested with what they called Sirens, they were beautiful and they sang to the sailor with seductive voices and when the sailors went to them they killed them, took their boots and their treasures.”
“He’s got a point,” Remes said and Elysia glared at him. She thought he would back her up of all people. “No really, what if she is just playing you, saying what you want to hear. I mean, and no offence, but you are the most impulsive of all of us. She targeted you; she could just see you as an opening to get to us.”
“What is that supposed to mean, are you calling me incompetent?”
“No, I just mean that,”
“I’m the weakest link,” she filled in the blank for herself.
“Yes,” Keith answered, “You jumped into that lake yesterday without a second thought, you cut her off the tree without even considering that she could possibly harm us. She could have some sort of whammy on you right now.”
“I don’t think she means us harm,” Dharti spoke up, “I consider myself a great judge of character she was terrified when we found her.”
“Oh and that makes me feel that much better,” Keith said. “Two Asari siding with a green hairless native.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Dharti said turning to the human.
“Was that racist?” Elysia added.
“Well I don’t know but you seem to share the half-dressed culture with them.”
“ENOUGH!” Tanith shouted. “Now really I don’t know anything about any of you. Who’s to say one of you won’t slit my throat while I am sleeping at night.” The Krogan glared at the Human, “You concern me far more than Varra does any way but I’m not going to kick you out of the camp either. We will find out in time if she is going to harm us. Until then we have a guide, someone to help us on this planet so we will not be so blind. Now get over it all of you.”
It was quiet for a long time. Keith simply turned and walked away, Dharti went in the opposite direction and Remes and his father went off on their own. Elysia looked to Tanith, “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, Keith is correct, you are impulsive and that is a dangerous trait,” Tanith huffed, “But you are technically young and you will learn. In the mean time Varra is your responsibility, take her on your outing with Remes; maybe she can give you some insights on where to hunt.”
Elysia nodded not sure if she should be happy or offended. Impulsive, it was not the first time she had heard that, but for some reason it still stung slightly. She turned to Varra, “Well you get to stay,” she said with a slight smile, hoping that this time her instincts were correct and they had nothing to fear from the green Native.
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Into the Unknown