ME: Dahlia Stark - Episode 12 - Departure

    Despite the pirate dragging her along by a cord wrapped around her wrists, for just an instant Dahlia felt nostalgic. The narrow hallway, running from the helm at the bow to the rest of the ship, reminded her of the crowded life aboard the Helash. She also reflected on how Imani'Barael would’ve thrown a fit to see how poorly kept this dirty, messy ship was.

    The batarian pirate led Dahlia and her friends into what served as a living area: a wider space at the center of the ship furnished with a stained, worn table, a ratty couch set in front of a communal computer console and viewing screen, and some bunks set against the port and starboard walls. Only one other pirate, a drell woman with teal skin highlighted by the dim lighting, sat in the common room. She sat on the floor, propped against a bunk, thoroughly engrossed by the contents of a datapad. She didn’t even take notice of the new arrivals.

    Seeing that all the bunks were empty, Dahlia surmised that most of the crew was carousing on the station. With only three crew members to oppose them - Forlak and the drell inside the ship, and the watchman on the docks - Dahlia bit her lip and accepted that she would probably never get a better opportunity.

    She effortlessly slipped her hands out of the fake knots Hann had tied in the cord. Before the pirate Forlak even realized anything was amiss, a full-strength repulsor blast drove him face-first into a bulkhead. The drell leapt to her feet, fishing a gun from under the bunk’s pillow. She vaulted over the table, dodging a second repulsor shot from Dahlia.

    Hann, Elsai, and Jin had also escaped their deceptive bonds, but they were still unarmed. David, caught outside the ship, had their weapons. Jin ran for the helm; his role in the plan was to secure the controls and prepare the ship for immediate departure. Hann dove for the downed Forlak, intending to steal a weapon from him - hopefully one he was strong enough to use. Elsai took cover behind a bulkhead corner and used her suit’s radio to contact David.

    Dahlia maneuvered around the cabin using quick boosts, but she was hampered by the very cramped quarters. She desperately darted about to evade bursts of fire from the drell’s automatic, handheld weapon. With no kinetic barriers and only very limited armor, Dahlia had to rely on quick movement and the cabin’s clutter to protect her. After more rounds than Dahlia cared to count, the drell stopped to eject her Locust’s thermal clip. Dahlia lined up a barrage of repulsor shots, but each burst missed the surprisingly nimble drell. In the scant time they had to prepare, Dahlia practiced her aim in a makeshift target range using scraps of metal and plastic, but a moving target was worlds apart from her limited experience.

    The drell was about to insert another thermal clip and open a new hail of torturous fire on Dahlia when Elsai blindsided her, tackling the pirate to the cabin floor. Elsai grabbed the drell’s wrist and slammed her hand into the deck plating over and over again, trying to force the gun from her grip. The drell unbalanced Elsai by snaking a leg behind her and forcing the quarian to her knees. She drew a knife from her ankle, aiming for Elsai’s throat, but another shot rang out.

    David stood at the mouth of the hallway, wielding the Scimitar shotgun from the clinic's stash of confiscated weapons. He'd purposefully aimed his shot wide. He dared not risk hitting Elsai, so he intended to scare off the drell. It worked. The drell pirate, discovering another, better armed attacker and seeing that her only other crewmate was being flailed by Hann's wildly pounding fists, tried to make a break for freedom. Dahlia froze, her adrenaline rush running dry. David reacted too slowly. The pirate shoved him into the wall and she forced an escape off the ship.

    “Let that one go,” David shouted, re-steadying his footing and not wanting to chase the drell. “Check for any more crew and get ready for launch.”

    Dahlia’s mind went on autopilot. She moved towards the rear of the ship, naturally gravitating towards engineering. She passed Elsai and Hann, using the cord to restrain the pirate Forlak. David disappeared down the hatch into the cargo hold beneath the main crew deck. Drawing upon everything she learned working with Imani and the other crew aboard the Helash, Dahlia fervently strived to get the helium-3 fuel running to the fusion torch maneuvering thrusters. Having much more experience maintaining ship’s systems than operating them, she relied on Pepper’s assistance. Over her communicator, she heard chatter from the rest of her erstwhile team.

    “No pirates in the hold,” David announced. “I’m freeing the prisoners. Are we ready for launch yet?”

    “Not yet,” Jin panted, stress taking a toll on his nerves, “but Dahlia’s getting...the engines fired up quickly.”

    “Elsai and I just kicked that batarian...er, the bad one, off the ship and we’ve got the airlock hatch sealed.”

    “Okay,” Dahlia said, catching her short breath while staring at the red, orange, and green lights blinking or holding steady across the readouts and consoles, “Let’s go.”

    Once the ship was free of its moorings and had cleared the docks, and once the cyclopean spires of Omega station no longer pressed close around her and the ship, Dahlia could think and breathe clearly. She plugged Pepper into the ship’s computers, commanding her to sweep the systems and disable any tracking beacons or transponders. Her survival instincts had reemerged, fed by her need to keep ahead of her hunters, real or imagined.

    David called the quarians down to the cargo hold to start treating the prisoners’ injuries, physical and psychological. Although Hann and Elsai only had a couple weeks of amatuer experience at the clinic, David reasoned that their aid was far more help than the prisoners had received in quite a while. Jin stayed at the helm. Although most of his flight experience was with cargo transports on the station, that still put him ahead of the others.

    “So...where are we going?” Jin called from the bow.

    “There’s about two dozen humans in the hold, including my uncle and his family,” David assessed. “We don’t have enough supplies to take care of them for long. We need to take them to a human colony right away so they can get medical attention.”

    “Pepper, what’s nearby?” Dahlia asked.

    “According to star charts downloaded from the quarian databases, a single mass relay jump would bring us from the Omega Nebula to the human colony on Horizon in the Iera System within the Shadow Sea.”

    “Everyone hear that?” Dahlia called.

    “Roger,” Jin replied via comms at the helm. “Heading for the mass relay. Um...can your V.I. help me...plot a course through the relay?...I’ve never done that before.”

    “Affirmative,” Pepper confirmed.

    “I really hope the prisoners in the hold can’t hear us,” Dahlia said to herself. “They’d probably feel safer with the pirates.”

    The ship’s new crew performed their newfound roles to the best of their abilities. The small vessel crawled awkwardly towards the system’s mass relay. With more than a few gritted teeth and crossed fingers, they flared through the relay like a brilliant, blue-shifted bullet.