Taylor watched as Niusa wolfed down the meal. The sight was contradictory with the somewhat regal image of the average Asari she had built in her mind. Then again, the ones she had seen on the extranet were more than likely much older than Niusa. And Niusa herself was more than likely two or three times older than Taylor herself.
The Asari were space elves.
Space elves who used some kind of mind-fuck technique for reproduction.
Whoever had engineered that particular bit into their genome must have had some very strange ideas. It was probably better not to think about it too hard. Though she could mimic the effect with Plasmoid Empress if she wanted…
"Suits your taste?" She asked Niusa.
"Human rations are leagues better than the Batarian ones," she said with a grimace.
"No Asari cuisine on Omega?"
"No restaurants in the QZ," Niusa pointed out, "it's rations for everyone. But there are some nice places near the Afterlife. I've been there a few times before …
Taylor nodded. "About the Blue Suns …" She started.
"I'm done with them," Niusa simply said. "I've been thinking of leaving for a while. They probably think I'm dead anyway and I don't really care about correcting that assumption."
"Like that?"
"It was fun at first," the Asari looked at her empty plate. "The thrill of battle, the credits, it's a bit intoxicating. But the shine wears off after a while. Then it's just another mission. Protect that shipment. Go rescue that person. Or kill them. The Blue Suns like to sell themselves as the best mercenaries in the galaxy but they're still just that, mercenaries."
Niusa leaned back in her chair.
"When I was younger, I wanted to join the Asari exploration corps, see the galaxy, discover new planets, new species. I failed the exam, pretty badly too, and I came to Omega. I wasn't really interested in being a dancer at the Afterlife, too many weirdos for my tastes, so I joined the Suns."
"And what do you plan to do now?"
"Can I stay here and help?" She asked with a hopeful smile. "This clinic it's … the antithesis of Omega. People helping others for free. But now that I've seen it with my own eyes, I think it's worth doing. Better than what the Suns are doing, just killing any infected and burning the corpses."
Taylor wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Niusa seemed honest, both from her gut feeling and her Thinker analysis. She truly wanted to leave the mercenary life behind.
"That's quite the change pretty quickly," she prodded a bit.
"Almost dying does that to you," the Asari replied, "puts things into perspective."
"I feel there's also something else," she added. It was just a hunch but Niusa reacted differently to her than to other people.
"You're … different," Niusa said. WHAT? All six of her mental constructs screeched to a halt. "Through my biotic sense you feel … a bit like a small star," she explained. "I've never felt it before and it's … Mesmerizing? Comforting? Enticing? I'm curious about it."
"I see," Taylor said. How did she keep stumbling on people who could blow her cover? Did she have that bad luck? It wouldn't really surprise her. "Well, I don't think there will be problems if you want to help at the clinic. Doctor Solus has the final say, however."
"I understand." Niusa nodded. "Do you think he'll say yes?"
"Tell him what you told me," she said with an, hopefully, encouraging tone. "I'll vouch for you as well."
"I will! Thank you!" Niusa pumped herself up for her interview with Mordin.
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Niusa passed her interview with Mordin though it looked more like an interrogation from her point of view. Maybe there was little difference for him. Taylor gave her all of her gear back as well. The armor and its undersuit were so battered she opted to wear one of the spare clinic uniforms instead. She mostly helped the nurses with non-medical tasks and around the cafeteria during meal times.
There were suspicious looks from the residents and staff at first and it was obvious Niusa was feeling uncomfortable. They were somewhat justified. As far as they knew, she was part of the mercenary group that had been harassing them for several weeks. At the same time, it felt a bit too familiar to her.
When she asked Niusa, the Asari had an unexpected answer.
"It's … well … not fine, I don't like it, but I need to earn their trust. The Blue Suns hurt them and it's even possible I did. It wouldn't be fair to just tell them to forget about it now that I've had a change of heart."
"I'll stop things if they escalate past mean looks," Taylor said.
"I understand."
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On the second day after Niusa arrived, Taylor relocated her improvised workshop to the cafeteria. It was in part to give her more time to talk with the Asari as she wasn't allowed in Mordin's lab. It was primarily a precaution against contamination. If a test tube shattered, it was better if the least amount of people were exposed to the samples. Mordin had a respirator ready on his belt at all times and one of the safety systems would purge the room's atmosphere into space to prevent any spread of the virus inside the clinic. Since she had a sealed suit, and her plasmoid form was resistant to the vacuum anyway, it hadn't been a big concern.
With Niusa in the mix, and the Asari's desire to spend time with Taylor, she had simply relocated. Since her workshop was open to the rest of the residents and staff, she received the occasional request to fix some of their belongings as well. The knowledge that she had been the one to fix the life saving machines, and the coffee maker, in the clinic had generated a lot of goodwill.
She also learned a lot about Asari culture and Niusa's life during their talks. Taylor had used the excuse of not wanting to talk about her past too much to dodge most of the questions. Very few people with clean and happy pasts made their way to Omega after all. She felt bad about it but she still wasn't certain she could trust the Asari with her secret but if she stayed around, which Taylor felt pretty likely, then it was only a matter of time. She just hoped Niusa would forgive her for the deception.
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Her nightly expeditions into the Shire were very fruitful as well. She discovered fairly quickly that all of her forks could manifest a different body into the simulation. This meant seven different instances of Taylor running about. Taylor Prime was the mind controlling her body and Alpha to Zeta were the six auxiliaries. The system she had built ensured there could be no deviations between her forks, she was essentially a unified hive-mind. This meant each could fill any role at any time.
That being said, it was fun to play different personas while in the simulation. She could spar with herself, though most of the battles ended in a draw, or test powers and spells that required a target. They also collaborated on building said spells and powers.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
It wasn't limited to combat either. The initial library provided by her power had mostly consisted of spells meant for battle or to aid with it but she wanted to explore beyond that. One of her first forays had been the Everbloom spell. She had wanted to produce something that could create beauty. The spell grew a field of flowers wherever she cast it. The hill around the stone platform was covered in thousands of different species of flowers, from ones that were recognizable from earth, to ones with strange colors and shapes, likely from worlds her Shard had visited in the past.
Alpha, Delta, and Zetta had spent some time chasing each other in the field for fun. The morning after that, she had woken up particularly relaxed.
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The Millennium Falcon piloted by Zetta disappeared in the distance away from Delta, the faint blue glow of its ion engine barely visible against the backdrop of stars around her.
"Another failure," she sighed.
"I am still puzzled as to why it worked in the Shire in the first place," Beta chimed in.
"The Shire is a fixed reference frame simulation," Alpha replied. "The world is bounded and does not simulate the gravitational interactions of realspace."
"So everything we've developed is flawed?" Delta asked.
"No. Most of our spells and powers use caster-relative positioning," Beta countered, "which does not depend on the inertial reference frame."
"It seems flight is an edge case," Zetta said. "I'm pulling around for another pass."
Delta examined the power construct in her mind. It had grown from the small seed Prime had developed for her maiden flight into something that could almost be called completed. The only problem, that they knew of at least, was the reference frame anchoring. At the moment, if the power was used outside of the simulation, Taylor would, at best, slam against Omega's walls like a drunk fly or completely tear through the station walls at worst.
The issue stemmed from a fundamental design decision of the power. The movement did not happen relative to the subject's reference frame, using kinetic or gravitational manipulation for example, but by directly shifting positions through space. Which meant that without proper anchoring to a reference frame, Taylor would move according to the largest possible reference frame, usually it meant relative to the local star.
She pulled several modules away and swapped them with others from the power's library. Calling it hyper-dimensional LEGO had not been that bad of a metaphor. She slotted the different parts together again in another configuration and let go of the power.
Zetta stopped the Falcon right under her with unnerving precision. The accelerated skill acquisition module from Athena had been an excellent investment. Delta nudged herself down and landed on the ship's hull. The integrated flight display connected to the flight power immediately changed. The attitude indicator turned to point towards her feet.
"Alright, I think we've got it," Delta announced. "Zetta, fire it up!"
"Let's go!" The engines of the Falcon glowed brighter and the ship started to move.
On the flight display, Delta saw the other planets in the system move in relation to her. It was the moment of truth. She pushed herself up a few inches from the hull and … stayed in place.
"Victory!" She shouted.
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"Possible cure synthesized," Mordin announced. "Assistance required."
Taylor nodded and walked with him to the laboratory. He helpfully closed the door behind them and sealed the room. On a tray sat several test tubes with green labels.
"Sequence 13-delta-85," she looked at the tube. "I thought strain 13 was a dud."
"Initial assumptions incorrect. Strain 13 outperformed strains 14 to 19 after repeated tests." Mordin looked flustered. "Issue discovered in genome of production bacteria. Incorrect sequence copied from previous strain."
"Happens to the best of us," Taylor said. "So this is it?"
"Requires independent confirmation," he nodded.
"Let's see then," she pulled her helmet off and ingested the test tubes.
"Initial results look very promising at least," she monitored while Asteria ran effectiveness simulations on billions of simulated samples at the same time. "Looks like it will create a mild allergic reaction at worst. Batarians have a slightly elevated immune response but it's within tolerance. Allergy rates in Turians are also above baseline by zero point two percent but the reactions are below normal. Krogans will need a direct injection which is what I assume sequence 13-delta-85-k is?"
"Correct. Krogan natural immunity difficult to bypass."
"Then I think we have a cure." Taylor smiled. "Congratulations doctor."
"Credit, shared. Contributions from Taylor sped up project by multiple weeks."
"Now we need to spread it. I assume you planned to use the life support system for that since the primary variant is airborne?"
"Correct. But facing new problem. Life support systems in Blood Pack territory. Will require forceful intrusion. Unlikely to let any pass."
Taylor sighed. Nothing in her life was ever simple.
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Niusa entered doctor Mordin's laboratory for the second time since she had arrived at the clinic. Tay'Lor and the Salarian were around a table with a holographic projector between them. It showed a map of the Gozu district with various territories highlighted.
"You asked for me?" She said.
"Ah, Niusa," Tay'Lor beckoned her over. "We'd like your opinion. You probably know the place better than us."
"Is there a problem?" She asked. "Is the clinic going to be attacked?"
"No. Cure for virus synthesized." Her eyes widened when the doctor spoke. He had managed to build a cure in mere weeks? "Distribution method, life support system."
She realized why they wanted her opinion. The life support was under the control of the Blood Back, had been for a long time, and they needed to get there to cure the virus.
"Isn't there another way? This is … not even dangerous but nearly suicidal."
"Vaccine possible. Problem with slow adoption. Virus designers can create new strain. Spread it through life support system."
"This …" She almost took a step back. "It's a bioweapon?" There had only been rumors up to that point. Most were convinced it was the work of Humans since they were immune. Niusa had never been fully convinced. "Who?"
"That's the problem," Tay'Lor frowned. "We don't know. We haven't ruled out some Human splinter group like Cerberus but our best suspect at the moment is a third party working with the Vorcha. Their immunity is engineered in the virus, same as Humans. Their continual hold of the life support systems, even when they were heavily pressed by the Suns, makes us suspect this is how they are spreading the virus."
"If they release it everywhere …" Niusa said in horror.
"One of the reasons we want to operate as quietly as possible. There's a small chance they do have contingencies but …"
"Unlikely. Life support heavily guarded. Unlikely to be used as initial vector."
"Our idea is to strike fast and spread the cure in the Gozu district, it's designed to spread the immunity using the same mechanism as the virus. If the Vorcha release the original strain elsewhere it can quickly be taken care of."
"Why did you want my help?"
"We were hoping you knew a way to get there without having to go through the entire Blood Pack," Tay'Lor said.
"If there was, the Blue Suns would have already used it to encircle the Pack."
"There goes plan A …" Tay'Lor sighed.
"If only the shuttle bays were open …" Niusa mused.
"Wait!" Tay'Lor focused on her. "Can you repeat that? About the shuttles?"
"If the shuttle bays were open, it would be easier to go around the main force. Almost every habitation on the outside has a private dock. They couldn't be guarding all of them. At least not heavily."
Tay'Lor and doctor Solus looked at each other, the Salarian narrowed his eyes at the Quarian woman.
"Workable," he simply said. "Very dangerous."
"More dangerous than the alternative?" She asked.