Drew Karpyshyn - Ascension

The quarians allowed themselves to be bought off with such gifts, with the understanding the flotilla would quickly move on to become a thorn in someone else's side. Kahlee hated to pass judgment, but she couldn't help but see it as the interstellar equivalent of panhandling.

And in another forty hours we'll be hoping to join up with them, she thought, shaking her head in disbelief at the course of events over the last few days.

Lemm had plotted their course into the navigation, then gone to lay down in the sleeper cabin in the back once they'd made the jump to FTL flight. Kahlee still had plenty of questions for him — like how he knew who she was — but in light of all he had done for them, she could afford to be patient. She'd give him a few hours to rest and start recovering from his injury before she began peppering him with questions. Besides, she was anxious to check on Gillian now that the girl had woken up.

The first words out of her mouth upon gaining consciousness had been, "I'm hungry." Hendel had easily solved that problem by preparing a double-portioned serving for her from the ship's rations.

With the ship's navigation following the preprogrammed course, there was no need for anyone to keep an eye on the helm. So the three of them— Kahlee, Gillian, and Hendel — had gathered in the passenger cabin, the two adults seated side by side facing her, while the girl ate from the hard plastic tray of food on her lap.

She was just now finishing the last of her meal. As she had done back at the Academy, she chewed with focused determination, never pausing or breaking rhythm as she steadily consumed her food one methodical bite at a time. Kahlee, however, noticed she didn't stick to her normal pattern of taking only one single mouthful from a dish before moving on to the next item on her plate. In fact, she didn't even touch the apple crumble dessert until everything else was gone.

Once she was done she carefully set the tray on the seat beside her and spoke for the second time since regaining consciousness.

"Where's my dad?" There was no emotion in her voice; it was flat and monotone, like the primitive speech synthesizers from the twentieth century.

There was no simple answer to this question. Fortunately, she and Hendel had discussed what to say while Gillian was still sleeping off the drugs their captors had given her.

"He had some business to take care of," Kahlee lied, figuring the truth would be too much for the girl to handle right now. "He's going to catch up with us later, but for now it's just you, me, and Hendel, okay?"

"How will he find us if we took his ship?"

"He'll find another ship," she assured the girl.

Gillian stared at her and squinted her eyes slightly, as if she suspected deception and was trying to peer through her to the truth. After a few seconds of this shenodded, accepting the situation.

"Are we going back to the school?"

"Not yet," Hendel told her. "We're going to meet up with some other ships. Quarian. Do you remember when you studied the quarians last year in history class?"

"They made the geth," she said simply.

"Yes," Kahlee admitted, hoping this wasn't the sole fact she associated with the species of their rescuer. "Do you remember anything else about them?"

"Driven from their home system by the geth nearly three centuries ago, most quarians now live aboard the Migrant Fleet, a flotilla of fifty thousand vessels ranging in size from passenger shuttles to mobilespace stations," she answered, and Kahlee realized she was reciting the entry verbatim from her history e-book.

"Home to seventeen million quarians, the flotilla understandably has scarce resources," the girl continued. "Because of this, each quarian must go on a rite of passage known as the Pilgrimage when they come of age. They leave the Fleet and only return once they have found something of value—"

"That's okay, Gillian," Hendel said gently, cutting her off before she gave them the entire chapter.

"Why are we meeting a quarian ship?"

Kahlee wasn't sure how much Gillian remembered about the violent greeting they had received upon landing at Omega, so she was intentionally vague in her answer. "We met a quarian named Lemm while you were sleeping. He's going to help us hide from some people who are trying to find us."

"Cerberus," she said, and the adults cast a nervous glance at each other, uncertain where she had picked up the name.

"That's right," Hendel said after a moment. "Theywant to hurt you, and we won't let that happen."

Gillian frowned and bit her lip. Shewas silent for several long seconds before she asked the same question that had been bothering Kahlee. "Why is Lemm helping us?"

Neither of them had a ready answer for that one.

"I guess we'll have to ask him when he wakes up," Kahlee finally admitted.

Fortunately, they didn't have long to wait. Less than an hour later she heard the uneven, clumping steps of Lemm coming down the hall. His leg was covered by a hermetically sealed, hard-shelled boot that protected and supported everything from the tips of his toes up to the joint of his knee. He was still wearing his mask and enviro-suit, of course; Kahlee suspected he wouldn't take them off again until they reached the flotilla.

"Lemm," she said as he entered the passenger cabin and stopped. "This is Gillian. Gillian, this is Lemm."

Thequarian stepped forward and bowed slightly, extending his gloved hand in a gesture of greeting common to both species. To Kahlee's amazement Gillian reached out and shook it.

"Nice to meet you," she said.

"Nice to meet you, too. I'm glad to see you up and about," he replied, releasing her hand and sitting gingerly down in the seat beside her, facing Kahlee and Hendel.

"Why are you helping us?" Gillian asked him.

Kahlee winced. They hadn't been able to warn the quarian about Gillian's condition, and she hoped Lemm wouldn't take offense at the girl's lack of tact.

Fortunately, he took her question in stride. "You get right to the point, don't you?" he said with a laugh from behind his mask.

"I'm autistic," Gillian replied, again with absolutely no hint of emotion.

It wasn't clear if Lemm fully understood the meaning of the word, but Kahlee figured he was smart enough to grasp the basic concept. Before he could formulate a response, Gillian repeated her earlier question.

"Why are you helping us?"

"I'm a little curious about that myself," Hendel added, leaning back in his chair and bringing his right leg up so he could rest it on his left knee.

"I'm on my Pilgrimage," the quarian began. "I was on the world of Kenuk when I met two crew members from the Bavea, a scout ship for the cruiser Idenna. They told me another scout ship, the Cyniad, had gone to Omega to broker a deal and not returned.

"I came to Omega in search of the Cyniad crew. I hoped I could rescue them, or at least discover their fate. On Omega another quarian, a man named Golo, told me the Cyniad had arranged a deal with a small group of humans.

"I broke into theirwarehouse hoping to find the crew. Instead, I found you."

"But why risk your life to save us?" Hendel asked.

"I suspected your captors were slavers. No species deserves to be bought and sold. It was my moral obligation to free you."

Kahlee had no doubt he was being sincere, but she also knew there was more to the story.

"You recognized me," she said. "You knew my name."

"The name Kahlee Sanders has become very well known among my people in the past few months," he admitted. "And I recognized your appearance from an old image we picked up off the Extranet. You have hardly changed in eighteen years."