The pipe system overhead lurched, and then extended from their housings toward the corresponding ports on Armchair’s surface. Starlight watched, ensuring that they moved correctly as she had been instructed. There was not really much to watch, though; she assumed that this process was normally automatic. The pipes slid into their ports, and there was a metallic clunking sound as the pipes meshed to Armchair’s surface, locking them into place. Within seconds, the fuel began to pour in.

Starlight understood that this was a terribly mundane task. Still, she felt slightly proud of herself. She had been the one to take the money to the fuel dealer- -an unpleasant creature called a volus- -stored on a datapad. She suspected that Jack had been watching her, somehow, form a distance, but otherwise she had for the first time in her life performed a task on her own. Now, fuel was pouring into their ship, and she was actually helping.

“Hey, Armchair?” she said, after a moment.

“Yes?” said Armchair, his voice projecting into the small loading bay that surrounded the docking port.

“Weird question…does fuel have a taste?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Grape.”

Starlight blinked. “Really?”

“Yes. We are a machine. We do not have a true sense of taste. As such, we ‘taste’ in response to our program. We possess a subroutine that allows us to taste artificial grape.”

“Just artificial grape?”

“Yes. Everything tastes like grape to us. Fuel. Water. Air. In fact, you even taste like grape. You all taste like grape to us.”

“That’s kind of weird. You know that, right?”

“We do. We are fortunate, however, to have you. You are the first organic we have encountered who actually looks mildly grape flavored.”

“Oh. I guess I kind of do.” Starlight paused. “If I look grape flavored, what flavor does Sjdath look like?”

Before Armchair could answer, his door hissed open. The platform vibrated heavily, and then Fenok stepped out.

“Doctor Fenok!” called Starlight.

“Ah, Starlight,” he said, smiling- -or grimacing; it was difficult to tell.

“How is Sjdath doing?”

“Sjdath? Better, really. Of course, she’sa vorcha. Their bodies regenerate pretty fast. But her lungs were pretty bad, and she’s not nearly as young as she used to be. It’ll take a few days for her to be one hundred percent.”

“Just by…just by breathing air?”

“Oxygen actually pretty toxic. Her body doesn’t have the enzymes necessary to handle it.”

“Oh.” Starlight’s face fell. She knew that, logically, there was nothing she could have done. She was not a powerful mage like Jack, or a fighter, despite what Jack told her. Still, she could not help but blame herself.

Fenok looked down at a number of crates that were sitting outside the ship and sighed. “Great. I suppose since I’m the krogan, I’ll have to load these.”

“Do you need help?”

“No,” sighed Fenok, picking up one of the boxes. “I’m krogan, so I’m strong. I’m just not as young as I used to be.”

“How old are you? Or- -is that rude?”

“It would be if I was human. Krogan don’t age, really. We just get, well, jaded I guess. I’m…oh, great, how long has it been…two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty? You kind of lose track after the first century.”

Starlight’s eyes widened. “So you’re younger than Aria?”

“Aria isn’t THAT old. Asari are like trees. Except instead of rings, they’ve got…well, you know…bust sizes.”

“I could summon Arachne to help you,” suggested Armchair.

“What, you think he’s stronger than me?” said Fenok, setting the first crate into the atrium and going for the second.

“He is stronger than you. By muscle mass and density, Arachne is at least four times stronger. And triple your size.”

“Yeah, and some ignorant baterian walks in and sees him…what do you think he’s going to think?”

“We cannot extrapolate that information. We operate under the assumption that organics lack the capacity to think.”

“Sometimes, I’d believe that,” muttered Fenok.

“Hey!” called a voice from the hallway leading to the docking area. It was followed by running footsteps, and Zedok appeared.

“There you are,” said Fenok. “Just in time to help me move the last set.”

“Crap,” swore Zedok.

“Language!”

“Come on, dad!”

“I see you got the supplies,” said Fenok. “Did you have the chocolates sent, too?”

Zedok rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I did.”

“The ones with raspberry filling? And with the chocolate made just how I told you?”

“Yes, exactly like you wrote down.”

“Chocolates?” said Starlight, confused.

“Oh, hey Starlight,” said Zedok.

“Yes. The key is in the milk. Ninety percent earth-milk, whatever that comes from, and ten percent turian milk.”

Starlight paused, thinking. “Wait a minute. Aren’t turians the bird people? How exactly do you milk one?”

Zedok’s eyes widened and she shuddered. “Eew eew eew! Please tell me that’s not what turian milk actually IS!”

“Of course not,” said Fenok, loading another crate. “Milk from turians tastes terrible. They make it from the pupal secretions of a large maggot.”

Zedok looked extremely nauseous. Starlight just felt hungry. She realized that she had never eaten. Ever.

They spent the next several minutes loading the remaining crates. Zedok was surprisingly strong for her size, but Starlight discovered that she herself was terribly weak. The best she could do was push the crates along the floor, and only then with a great deal of effort that resulted in rapid fatigue. According to Fenok, it was because she had lost a great deal of muscle tone while she had been in containment.

Once they had finally loaded the crates into Armchair, they sat down, waiting for the others. They talked a little, mostly about either complex medical stories from Fenok that usually involved disembowelment, or Zedok talking endlessly about the armor and weapons she had seen in the upper levels that she wished she was able to afford. Starlight would sometimes chime in, mostly with questions. The world was so new and strange to her, but they both did their best to try to explain what everything meant.

In time, Jack appeared from the shadows of one of the feeder hallways. She looked as unperturbed as ever.

“Jack!” said Zedok, standing up. “You’ll never guess who I saw today!”

“Jeff Moreu?”

“I don’t know who that is. But no! I saw Aria!”

“Wait, what?!” said Fenok. “You didn’t tell me that!”

“Yeah, and she totally threw a biotic charge at my head, but I managed to dodge it! You should have seen it. I mean, wow, she’s got to be the most powerful biotic asari I’ve ever seen- -she’s got nothing on you, of course. I mean, in a fight, you would totally win- -”

“Zedok,” said Jack, calmly. “Don’t mess with Aria. She’s not a nice person.”

“She really isn’t,” said Starlight. “I don’t like her.”

“Where’s the jellyfish?” asked Jack.

Zedok checked her omnitool. “Well, the Blasto movie should have just ended. Of course, knowing him, he’s probably sitting through the credits. Cheering. Maybe a few more minutes?”

Jack looked over her shoulder, almost ignoring Zedok.

“What’s wrong?” asked Starlight.

“Nothing,” replied Jack. She turned around and began to walk toward the main exit hallway.

“Jack?” said Zedok. She jumped down off the stack of crate that she was sitting on and started to follow Jack. Starlight did the same, concerned. Something was wrong.

Jack ignored them, instead walking slowly into the long hallway, peering down each intersection. Starlight realized that there was far less light than there should have been; someone had deactivated most of the lights.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Starlight.

Jack did not answer. Instead, she lifted her goggles and revealed her almost luminescent eyes. For a moment, she peered into the darkness. Then she sighed.

“Aw, shit.”

Before Starlight knew what was happening, she felt a hand grab her by the scruff of her neck. Jack pulled her down a side alley, pushing Zedok along with her. Starlight was about to protest- -being pulled like that hurt- -but even as she cried out in surprise, she felt the air distort beside her as the bullets blew past.

In what felt like an instant, Starlight found herself thrown onto the dirty floor.

“Hey!” cried Zedok, who had nearly been pushed off balance. Then she, too, heard the sound of the automatic weapons spraying bullets toward them and her eyes widened. “What- -what’s happening?!”

“Aria’s soldiers,” said Jack, pulling her goggles down to her neck.

“Aria- -but you said we could trust her!” cried Starlight.

“Oh, we can. The soldiers, not so much. Somebody’s breaking Omega’s one rule right now.”

“Don’t worry,” said Zedok, stepping forward. “I’ve got this.”

She put her hands together and grimaced, grunting with strain as blue energy began to flow out of her palms. With a great deal of effort, Zedok forced the blue energy into a single point which resolved into a tiny dark sphere. Then, with a loud scream, she threw it around the corner.

There were shouts of surprise from the other side of the hallway, and Zedok stepped out.

“Zedok!” cried Starlight.

“Don’t worry. It’s not a problem now.”

Jack followed her, and Starlight more hesitantly. Ahead of them, they could now see the group of soldiers- - mostly krogan, but with several baterians and vorcha- -most of whom who were now floating helplessly around the black sphere.

“A singularity?” said Jack. “Impressive.”

“Thanks.” Zedok smiled for a moment, proud of herself- -until the krogan in the group began to break free of the sphere’s influence and pull their way back down to the floor. “Oh crap…”

“The thing about a singularity is that it’s all about concentration,” said Jack. She extended her right hand and it flashed blue. There was an explosion of energy and sound as the metal of the hall distorted and began to rend from the gravitational force. Jack’s singularity was so powerful that even digging her heels into the floor, Starlight felt herself being pulled toward the swirling black vortex.

The krogan soldiers, now free of Zedok’s singularity, began to fire. Zedok grabbed Starlight and ducked, but Jack did not react. Their bullets never reached her; instead, they curved into her gravitational disturbance.

Then, with a swift and fluid motion, Jack tossed the singularity. The soldiers it hit first imploded, their bodies pulled apart by the gravitational strain. The remainder were lifted into the air, their armor visibly being corroded by the biotic energy.

“You might want to get to cover,” said Jack, walking back behind the intersection wall that they had been hiding behind before. Starlight followed, dragging the wide-eyed Zedok with her.

Almost as soon as they were in cover, the singularity detonated. The force was enough to knock Starlight to her knees, and she cried out as she fell, covering her head. As she did, she looked to Jack- -and saw for the woman smiling for the first time. Starlight had never seen anything so terrifying.

“Do you still have that gun?” said Jack.

“Y…yeah,” said Zedok, still awestruck. She pulled it out and tried to give it to Jack.

“No. You use that one. Protect Starlight. They’re going to come in in three directions. I’ll take the front.”

“I have a shield generator,” said Zedok, pointing to a device on her belt. “I can- -A”

“Take. The. REAR.”

“You can’t fight them alone!”

“Do you know who I am? Even then, I’m not going to have to. Si’y is inbound.”

“What?”

The question answered itself in the form of a hail of bullets- -not suppression fire toward Jack, but from the far end of the hallway where Armchair was still refueling.

“Did it fire five shots or six?!” cried an overly excited voice. “This one does not know! It depleted its funds on a self-cooling thermal dissipation coil anyway!”

Si’y floated into view. He was not even trying to dodge the incoming bullets; instead, they were repelled off the force field that surrounded his body. He simply floated forward, two of his tentacles on an assault rifle, two on a shotgun, and a pistol in each of the remaining two.

“Si’y, what took so long?” cried Jack as he floated past.

“The merchant outside the movie was selling working replicas of Blasto’s actual pistol!” said Si’y, shouting over the sound of his nearly continuous fire. He held up one of the pistols. “This one had no money, though, and had to…get her to lower the price.”

“It’s probably volus knockoff crap,” said Jack, stepping out into the fire and igniting her entire body with biotic shielding. “Let’s see if it holds up.”

“Cover the rear,” said Zedok under her breath. “Yeah right. I’ll cover your rear.” Ignoring Jack’s orders, she leaned over the edge of the hallway and fired several shots at the group before hurling another biotic charge at her enemies.

Starlight was left with nothing to do except cower, terrified. Everything was loud and terrifying, and she felt so powerless. She was not like the others; she did not have their power. She was far less than they were, and it felt terrible.

Then she heard a sound. She looked up into the darkness of the feeder hallway and, on the far end, saw an elevator land into the platform. The door opened, and a number of faceless, armored krogan and baterian soldiers rushed out.

“Zedok!” cried Starlight. It was too late, though. They had already drawn their rifles, and they were pointing them not at Starlight but at Zedok, whose back was still turned. “NO!”

Starlight panicked. She felt her horn tingle with energy, and without even thinking she fired a beam of energy at the soldiers. It narrowed and slashed across them, and all at once they stopped. For just a moment, Starlight saw how confused they looked- -and then watched as they fell, their bodies splitting in half from Starlight’s cut, their innards falling out of their bisected bodies in a rush of yellow and red fluid.

“What the- -” Zedok turned, and her eyes widened. She immediately vomited on the floor at the sight of the mutilated corpses, some still twitching and struggling, not yet realizing that they were dead.

“I…I didn’t mean to,” said Starlight, backing away from the blood that was creeping across the floor. “I just…they were going…they were going to hurt you and…and…”

She could not continue speaking. She felt herself on the verge of tears. All she could do was collapse and shiver.

From Armchair’s direction, a pair of floating holographic spheres rushed forward, attacking the various enemies that were still alive.

“Do I have to do everything?” called Sjdath. “Get back to the ship, you idiots!”

Jack and Si’y began to fall back, taking advantage of the cover provided by the spheres.

“Come on,” said Jack. “You need to…oh…” she paused for a moment, looking at the carnage that Starlight had created.

By this time, everything seemed distant to Starlight. The world seemed to be fading, to be drifting away into a blurry, muted mess. She could hear yelling, gunfire, and explosions, but all she wanted was to go back to what she had been, to cease to exist. She just could not imagine living with what she had done.

Eventually, she felt herself being pulled. Distantly, she saw the explosion of biotic energy and armored soldiers bursting into flame from a beam of orange light. She heard screaming and yelling, but all of it just seemed so irrelevant.

Then the door closed, and the ground hummed as Armchair disconnected from Omega and into the cold of space.