Chapter 15. Trouble again

"Liara, keep it smooth," he made a remark to the sister sitting in front, while simultaneously straightening the steering wheel of the aerocycle that I assembled and gave to my sister for her birthday, although asari do not have such a tradition.

True, apparently they didn't hear me, because Liara continued to squeal joyfully and fearfully into her helmet speaker due to the speed of the highway traffic. I myself would gladly surrender to the sensations, but someone besides the VI should make sure that we don't get killed? However, even so I continued to enjoy it.

Over the past three years, the situation with biotics has more or less improved. I now use telekinesis as naturally as I walk, at least with small things. But to move larger things, like furniture, you have to strain. The deformation is also tolerable, according to Shiala, so I am no longer defenseless, but I decided not to give up my homemade bracers for self-defense. Yes, and physically trained, Shiala gave me a blow and teaches me the asari commando program. True, their close combat takes place with the participation of biotics, and in order to concentrate dark energy in my hands to strengthen the blow, I have to concentrate, transfer my attention from the environment to internal sensations, which is like death in battle, but what age are I?

Although Liara was behind me, she was also making significant progress, although in addition to the diet she had put together to increase the zero element in the body, she also likes to indulge in sweets, which is why she became rounder in some places. Or is it because of growing up?

But with visions everything is more complicated. In order to somehow curb them, I found several methods for immersing myself in the depths of consciousness and... I could not understand them, but constant meditation allowed me to control the attacks and in reality I no longer plunge into visions. But in dreams, strange events appear every now and then, and in reality, every now and then the engineering itch creeps in, forcing me to tinker with... something. Sometimes nothing works out for me due to a lack of basic knowledge, sometimes something works out, but for what purpose it is not clear, but sometimes interesting things turn out. For example, I recently came up with a design for improved ion engines that I installed on a homemade aerocycle. The energy consumption with them is minimal, the speed is exorbitant, and safety is higher than chemical engines. I called these engines repulsors, but have not yet shown them to anyone other than my sister, because it seems to me that I have not fully revealed the potential of my invention, but I want to bring it to the ideal.

In general, the years were busy, but sometimes you need to rest, as Shiala told us, so after calling our friends and riding the bike, we rushed to the shopping and entertainment center. Of course, mom doesn't approve of our walks without supervision (she doesn't know about the bike yet, fortunately Shiala will cover us, and I hacked the home VI a long time ago and it only transmits to mom the information that I approve), but who can really threaten the children of the matriarch on Tessia?

Having flown up to the parking area of ​​a large building, full of very organically hung advertising projectors, we finally allowed the on-board VI to smoothly lower us into a free space and, having paid for parking, we went inside.

"It seems to me that it's a little early, I gave you an aerocycle," he grinned at his sister, who was clinging to her hand.

-No! It's just..." Liara was embarrassed by her violent reaction during the flight. - Let's go, they're already waiting for us.

And they really were waiting for us inside. It was not difficult to find two identical asari in a cafe eating fruit salads, as well as a third asari hanging around nearby in protective gear and with a helmet attached to his hip. Well, yes, Rana also has her own aerocycle.

-Lara! Ivon!" Rana called out to us as soon as she noticed our couple.

It turned out surprisingly, but as soon as Rana got hit back once, she and the twins calmed down and even apologized for her behavior earlier. And over time we became friends.

"Hello Rana, I see you're still flat as a plain." He grinned as soon as the girls opened their arms.

"They will still grow for me, but I don't think so for you," she answered as she thought with a caustic asari as we moved towards Lantei and Fantei, who were finishing their salads.

-And thank the goddess if they don't grow up! Males should have flat chests, but I'm not an asari. Your large breasts are a pronounced secondary sexual characteristic, while in a man they are only a rudiment.—.

"That's it, shut up, smart guy," the girl hastened to turn off such an embarrassing topic.

In general, meeting with friends was really beneficial. The early unfelt constant stress of a frantic pace of life, filled with study, training, both physical and biotic, and attempts to scratch the engineering itch by inventing mechanisms of varying degrees of usefulness, began to let go. We need to take breaks like this more often.

"I'm telling you, FreeMan Inc. makes such machines!" I was distracted by Rana's animated speech.

"Do you want to work at FreeMen Inc?" Liara asked, finishing her berries with crushed ice as she walked.

-No, I prefer to drive cars. Aerocars, spaceships, that's what I like. Ideally, fly a fighter." Rana waved it off carefree.

"You can't earn much by working in the army, but if you are a free trader or join a PMC in the Termina systems, there is a very high chance of dying," Lantea noted.

"Well, you know how to spoil the mood." Rana frowned, but quickly calmed down and turned her gaze to Liara and grinned. -And you? Still want to be a justiciar? Or how will your mother go into politics?—.

—Actually, I wanted to become an archaeologist. "I want to unravel the secret of the disappearance of the Protheans." Liara frowned slightly when the topic of Benezia came up.

Alas, everyone around is confident that Liara will follow in her mother's footsteps, and her good management skills only further convince others of this conclusion. However, such annoying attention and pressure only turns her little sister away from such a fate, so most likely she will become an archaeologist. Well, or someone else, but definitely not a politician.

***

Having reached the parking lot where Lantea and Fantea were picked up by a taxi car, we mounted our bikes (this time I was in front), took off and, joining the flow of aircars, headed towards the house. By the way, Rana's bike turned out to be, although not the latest model, but clearly a brand new Sijn P8+ from the Sijn Motors company.

While the warm evening gave a pleasant coolness, and Liara's soft body pressed against me from freezing due to the cool wind, I had time to think. More precisely, think about your future. This is what I can and want to do? Well, let's say I can do a lot, a lot, and I have plenty of opportunities to implement this much, the controlling stakes in as many as two large companies belong to me, and in bank accounts there are a total of about ten billion loans. This is a lot, a lot, but what do I really want?

I was distracted from my soul-searching by Rana, who stood on the right and nodded to the side and directed her bike higher out of the main stream, thereby breaking several laws at once.

"Ivon, you don't..." Liara tried to speak as the voice of reason, but she could only squeal when our aerocycle soared sharply up and, having caught up with Rana, increased speed, starting a spontaneous race.

True, the sounds of signals from behind after a couple of minutes of flight cooled the ardor considerably and Rana and I even began to descend in order to get lost in the general flow, but even earlier I was deafened by Liara's scream and the sight of a taxi car flying from behind directly at Rana.

There was no time to think, so purely on instinct, I extended my hand and, using biotics, pulled out the asari a second before the collision. Catching the screaming Rana and maintaining control was a real miracle and I could not perform it, so our bike was noticeably sideways to a passing cargo truck, knocked down one of the engines, and a second later the explosion of Rana's bike, caused by the collision and possibly damage to the fuel tank, damaged the repulsor engines on the right and again forced him to hit the cargo truck, damaging the Mass Effect emitters. The aerocycle could not withstand such mockery and began to rapidly descend, and I was left to maneuver, trying not to collide with anyone, and try to make the softest possible landing with the help of the remaining engines and junk emitters of the EM.

No matter how hard I tried, the landing turned out to be hard, fortunately they didn't break anything.

"Mom will kill me." Rana giggled nervously as soon as she came to her senses.

True, the troubles did not end there, and a taxi aircar crashed nearby, having recently hit Rana's bike, from which a groaning and bleeding asari with red tattoos on her face in an army-style armored suit without identification insignia got out.

"Children of bitches..." the asri hissed, touching the wound on her side, after which she looked up and noticed us. -Come here...quickly!—.

Of course, no one began to go to her, and when we were surrounded by security service aircars and even more armed asari in uniform poured out of them, the wounded woman completely raised the shotgun in her hand in our direction.

"Don't twitch, otherwise the kids will be dead," the wounded woman threatened, causing law enforcement officials to freeze in indecision.

But I didn't hesitate and, activating the bracer with a shield, stepped forward, covering my friends and covering myself.

Seeing such disgrace, the asari shot at the shield, but it calmly withstood the charge of shot, after which the SB officers pulled the triggers, smashing the shotgun and wounding the criminal, after which they quickly tied her up.

"It's all over, are you okay?" Apparently the head of this group came up to us and drew attention to the broken transport and continued. - Shall I let you down? Who are your parents?—.

"Benesia T'Soni," Liara said quietly, causing the asari who approached us to curse in a very provocative and extremely florid manner.

Well, yes, if the matriarch finds out that her children were shot, no one will think much.

***

After such an attack, my mother strengthened her control over us, hired a specialist to service the home VI, which made it impossible to hack it secretly, and every meeting with friends is now allowed only under the watchful eye of a nanny in the form of a trained and experienced asari commando.

By the way, Shiale Benezia gave a thorough dressing down. I almost kicked her out of the service, but Liara and I stood up for our nanny and teacher, who has been looking after us since childhood, and they left her.

Well, there was good in everything that happened: Benezia began to spend more time at home, delegating some of her powers to trusted asari and preferring to conduct some of her business from home.

"Wow, I was so hoping that she would choose Dana!" Liara moaned, watching the asari couple kiss on the screen.

"What I can't understand is that they are asari." That is, of the same sex, all three are attracted to each other, so why don't they hook up for the three of them?" he turned a questioning glance from the screen to Liara, catching in response a light biotic wave that threw her back onto the back of the sofa.

-Ugh, Ivon. This is so vulgar!" Liara was indignant. —It's like...like a pair of hearts beating in unison.—.

- Well, there would be three hearts. What is the problem?-.

"You don't understand anything," the sister pouted, but instantly forgot about the playful insult. —Did you know that the final scene was filmed on the Citadel? I wonder what she is like?—.

-We'll see, don't worry Liara. Judging by what is written on the extranet, it is truly huge.—.

Yes, the fact that my mother began to spend more time with us means not only that she now works from home, but also that we sometimes accompany my mother on business trips. Usually this is traveling around the planets of the Azari Republic sector, but this time we are heading to the Citadel. Or rather, soon, in a month, we will go to this huge Prothean station.

True, due to traveling with Rana and the twins, we began to see each other much less often, and we switched from in-person learning to remote learning. Well, the coolest thing is that they finally bought us some instruments! Of course, in the most basic configuration, without a microassembler that could repair simple things, or assemble a red-hot blade for a fatal blow in close combat, or capable of creating a flammable chemical mixture capable of killing a sentient being without special protective equipment in a matter of moments, but... But nothing prevented me from creating a microassembler myself, getting the necessary software for it, including military modifications, and supplementing them with my own programs.

With the tooltron, I no longer needed a bracer with a blade, so I got rid of it. But I left the shield, it showed itself excellently.

In general, I could have assembled my own instrument a long time ago, but my mother would have quickly discovered my handicraft and then a headache would have been inevitable. Well, or Shiala would have discovered it, and then even Shiala believed that the instrumentron was a dangerous thing, especially for a child with "crazy hands" and the skills of an excellent engineer. Apparently I was able to personally assess how dangerous an instrumentron can be.

And they were forced to buy us tools so that we could use personal translators without any problems. After all, here's the thing: in Thessia alone there are several hundred languages ​​and dialects, and many of the oldest colonies managed to have their own dialects. And don't forget about other races, whose situation differs little from that of the asari, and some do not communicate with sounds at all, but, like the hanar, with bioluminescent signals. For the Elcors, the emotional coloring will come from smells, light body movements and infrasound, which a personal translator is simply not able to catch, and therefore the translated speech of the Elcors seems unemotional and monotonous to outside races. Well, at least that's what they say on the extranet.

And although Liara and I are taught four languages ​​(Asari, Salarian, Turian and General Trade), we have not yet graduated from school, which means we don't know these languages ​​yet as well as we should, and in principle we cannot know all languages ​​at all . A personal translator perfectly solves this problem by automatically translating the speech of sentient beings according to available databases using a neural interface. The software for the translator is updated on the fly, you just need to be near the customs terminal or near direct access to the extranet.

Governments of all races spend enormous amounts of money studying both known and forgotten or previously unknown languages ​​and regularly updating databases. In general, it's extremely convenient, although it's not worth worrying about learning languages. I placed my personal translator on my back, integrating it into the design of my personal kinetic shield. And the shield itself was redesigned and connected to the instrumentron and now I can activate a manual kinetic shield of increased power by concentrating it on the back of the forearm. In this mode, it is illuminated for convenience and is not much inferior in strength to my hand shield. But it is much easier and more convenient.

In general, we are ready for travel, and although we have already been to different planets of the Azari Republics, we have not gone beyond the Azari sector of the galaxy, so the flight to the Citadel should be something special.

***

Milky Way, Serpentine Nebula.

Liara and I saw the end of the jump through the relay at the portholes. Watching a huge station jump out of space (although in fact it was us who jumped out in front of it) is simply incredible. The huge five-ray station, almost forty-five kilometers in length and thirteen kilometers in diameter, surrounded by a nebula glowing from within, left an indescribable impression.

The Prothean heritage, discovered first by the asari and then by the salarians and other races, quickly became the center of galactic community. This is primarily due to the location. Near the Citadel there is a whole group of repeaters, with the help of which you can quickly reach any point in the known galaxy. This allows you to set up patrols at the main relays leading to the Citadel, completely securing it, because there is no other way to get to the station than through the relays due to the Snake Nebula surrounding it.

This nebula, in addition to its beautiful appearance due to the reflected light of the Citadel, provides excellent protection in the form of a very dense gas and dust cloud with high reflectivity. This cloud interferes with navigation and can strike ships flying through it with static electricity, ignoring kinetic shields. If you still fly into the nebula and do not encounter an electric shock, then accumulations of dust can penetrate the kinetic shields of small ships and batter their larger counterparts, so traveling to the Citadel bypassing the relays is extremely dangerous.

Well, if someone passes all the obstacles, the Citadel can simply "fold", completely joining the petals and covering the ring at the base of the station, and in this state wait for help. There is still no weapon known that can penetrate the station's casing, which makes it practically invulnerable.

The population of the Citadel numbers about eleven million intelligent representatives of all known races. The very base of the Citadel, the central ring, is called the Presidium and is the center of political life in the galaxy. The offices of the largest companies, embassies of all races represented in the Citadel, and the Citadel Council headed by asari, salarians and turians are located here.

The petals, or arms of the station, are called districts. The areas are residential and commercial sectors with a high level of population. The station areas, unlike the Presidium located inside the ring, have an open structure and from them the location of the remaining petals and the nebula surrounding the station are clearly visible. Since the thickness of the atmospheric layer on the arms does not exceed seven meters, residential buildings and commercial buildings, as a rule, have a sealed structure, with a closed life support system. The atmosphere is held in place by centrifugal force (the rotation of the station also creates gravity).

The station's spaceport is also located on the ring, but outside and here the atmosphere is held by mass fields. In fact, it was to the station's spaceport that my mother's corvette was now heading.

—Call of Freedom, the corridor is open to you. Head to the fourth dock of the asari sector," came the dispatcher's response, after which the pilot increased speed and steered the ship along the assigned route.

-Well, Liara, Ivon. Do you want to see the Citadel from the inside? Mom smiled, noticing our excited faces.

We just nodded in response. Synchronously, from which Shiala only snorted cheerfully.

- Okay, but I'm warning you right away. Ivon, no tricks.—.

"Why me right away?" Benezia was indignant at such a remark.

- Well, who hacked our home VI? Who collected unregistered vehicles and didn't tell me about it? Who started a race in the middle of the city and in the end who managed to run into an armed criminal and get involved in a shootout? - Benezia raised her brow, causing most of the asari unfamiliar with my tricks to at least look at my person in surprise and appraisingly, and the pilot to whistle respectfully . —Did we understand each other?—.

"Okay, no tricks," he agreed tiredly, causing the smile to return to Benezia's face.