Chapter Text
Donkey and Donna
“What was that sound?” Donna paused as she heard a loud roar from behind the door of the room the couple were hiding in followed by a crash.
“It sounded krogan.” Donkey replied in a low whisper as he motioned for the woman crouching in cover next to him to remain quiet. “Listen.”
“He’s in a lot of pain!” The pair listened as a woman’s voice called out in anguish.
“I know it’s difficult…it’s hard for me too, siha…but you need to try to block those emotions. Please!” Another voice, this one seemingly worried and comforting spoke, both surprising and lifting up the Alliance marine.
“One of those voices belonged to an asari.” Donkey whispered as the footsteps and voices grew louder.
“How do you know?” Donna asked.
“That word she used…siha. Asari only call people they’re very close to that.” The Alliance gunnery chief explained.
“And how do you know that?” Donna asked in an accusatory tone.
“Old friend.” Donkey replied, “I’ll tell you about Tyria later—assuming we get out of here. Promise.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise.” Donna vowed as the couple heard more shouting from the other side of the door.
“That door.” Another voice exclaimed, “Maybe we can use what’s behind there.”
At the sound of another loud roar, a third voice remarked in response, “We don’t have much choice. Move!”
“Hope so.” A voice that sounded like it might have come from the American south said. “For this to work though…I’m gonna need some help.”
“They sound human.” Donna whispered, “Do you think they might be Alliance?”
“Maybe…” Donkey murmured in response, “Or they could be part of the same group as the man we killed. I’m not taking any chances. Like I said, if they’re not wearing Alliance blue—shoot first…ask questions later.”
Another voice…one that sounded very familiar to the Alliance marine…then spoke as the sound of rampaging footsteps grew louder.
“We don’t have much choice. Salome? Life signs?”
“That sounds like…” the gunnery chief shook his head, “No…that’s impossible.”
“What?”
“That voice!” Donkey whispered, “Can’t be.” He shook his head in disbelief. “She’s dead. This has to be a con. The moment that door opens, shoot.”
“I’m picking up on two lifesigns behind the door.” A female voice declared. “Human.”
“Shit.” Donkey swore. “Whoever it is has got some sort of scanner. They’ve made us.”
“They’re frightened.” One of the earlier voices sounded a cautionary tone, “Be careful.”
“Phasers on stun. We don’t want innocent casualties. Rana…think you can throw up a barrier, then follow it up with a stasis field?”
“I’ll try.” The voice apparently belonging to the asari replied.
“Shit.” Donkey cursed in a low voice, “They’ve got a biotic.”
“Could they be asari commandoes?” Donna suggested.
“Maybe.” Donkey replied, “But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re on our side. They might be Eclipse or some other merc group.”
“You can do it, imzadi. I have faith in you.”
“Have I told you how much I love you, siha?”
The voice coming from the other woman sounding both surprised and pleased responded, “Wow! Didn’t see that one coming.”
“Too soon?” The asari asked, her voice carrying a fretting tone.
“No. Not too soon. You just took me by surprise—that’s all. I feel the same way about you, imzadi.”
“Okay…you two love each other…great…I’m happy for you. Fuck each other silly later. Right now, we’ve got work to do.”
“Yes, Boss.” A female voice responded with a laugh.
“Doesn’t sound like they’re out to kill us.” Donna said sounding a hopeful note. “Maybe they’re on our side.”
“Maybe…” Still skeptical, Donkey conceded reluctantly, “Maybe not.”
“Shouldn’t we at least listen to them?” Donna urged as a voice the pair associated with that of the leader called out to them.
“Whoever’s in the room…we’re from Starfleet and we’re here to help you.”
“There’s that voice again.” Donkey growled. Raising his voice, the Alliance marine warned, “Whoever you are—using the voice of an old friend of mine isn’t going to work. We’re gonna open up a ton of whoop ass on you the moment that door opens.”
Immediately recognizing the angry and frightened voice coming from the other side of the door, Ashley called out, “Donkey? Can’t be! I saw you go down on Eden Prime! If this is some Impie’s or Tal ’Shiar’s idea of a sick joke…”
“I got better!” Donkey sarcastically responded, “And whoever you are, I know you’re lying. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams died on Virmire.”
“Twes?”
“He’s telling the truth. He really is your old friend.”
“Donkey? We don’t have much time. There’s a pissed off krogan coming this way. I’m going to tell you something only the two of us know. Then we’re coming through that door and if we have to, we’ll come in phasers blasting, stun you, and talk later.”
“All right…If you’re really who you say you are, then you’ll know the answer to this question.” Donkey challenged, “What were our primary and secondary missions and what did you say to me about the lieutenant who commanded us on Eden Prime and what did I say about how the squad felt about you?”
“We were assigned to patrol the area from the colony to the beacon.” Ashley responded promptly. “Besides our primary mission of guarding the Prothean beacon, our secondary task was to keep an eye out for any weapons smuggling going on in the vicinity of the spaceport.”
“Okay. You got that part right.” Donkey reluctantly confirmed, “But you could have gotten that by just digging through the records. Go on.”
“You told me that you’d rather have me leading the squad…” Ashley recollected, “…and that the lieutenant was an ass…which I told you he was. I also told you that he was holding the Williams name against me. Then you told me that the squad thought that I had the biggest balls in the whole platoon. That I could keep my cool when things got crazy. And that I should stick around because sooner or later someone was going to recognize that.”
Taken aback, Donkey gasped in surprise, “Ash. It really is you.”
“Yeah, it’s me. Now let us in. We’ve got to get ready for that crazy krogan.”
“Okay…come in.”
“What the hell are you wearing, Gunny?” Donkey gasped in surprise as he gazed in shock at the woman he had thought dead wearing a red miniskirt with her hair done up in a beehive.
“Work now…talk later.” Ashley commanded as she signaled the rest of her team, commanding them to enter. “Everyone inside. Dixie…what are you going to need?”
“Ah’m gonna need one one of them photon grenades, then I’m gonna need to ask one of you girls in blue to set up a…what do you call that thing…that device that can slow someone up or freeze ‘em where they stand?”
“An electro-gravitic field?” The woman scandalously clad in a blue midriff top and short skirt responded as she began to work alongside the southern-born woman wearing a red miniskirt like his old squadmate.
“That’s right, Sugar. All I gotta do is rig that device with the photon grenade and lay down a chroniton mine barrier at the door. Then if he comes burstin’ through…”
“He gets hit so hard that by the time he recovers, we’ll have him stunned and in a confinement field.” Ashley exclaimed, “Dixie…we pull this off…all of us are gonna treat you to an all-expenses paid weekend on Risa.”
The blonde engineer responded with a chuckle, “From all I heard about the place, I think I’ll take ya’ll up on that.”
“Where do you want me?” Donkey asked as he hefted the weapon in his hands.
“Stay back.” Ashley commanded, “You’re not armored or shielded and you’re not familiar with our weapons.”
“And you’re armored?” The Alliance mariner laughed, “With what you’re wearing, a stiff breeze would put you out of action.”
Tapping a button on her belt, Ashley revealed the skin-tight armor she wore beneath her uniform. “Transparent. And don’t let the fact that it matches my curves fool you. It’s more resistant to damage than Alliance issue armor.”
“You’re not keeping me out of this fight, Ash.” Donkey protested passionately. “Not after what they did to our people and what they were gonna do to us. I’m gonna make those sons of bitches pay.”
“Then keep your friend safe.” Ashley chided, “I’m willing to bet she’s never seen a pissed off krogan and this krogan has had some modifications done on him making him even more dangerous and pissed off than usual.”
“Donkey…” Donna pleaded as the footsteps and bellows from the angry krogan grew louder, “She’s right. I’m scared. Real scared.”
“All right. You win, Ash. But I want to help. I’ll stay in the back but there has to be something I can do.”
“Maybe there is.” Salome interjected as she took a remote control device from her kit. “I’m going to set up a self-cloaking anethezine gas bomb by the entrance. When that light shines green, push the button. It’ll activate the mine and—if all goes well—will, along with what Dixie has planned, slow him down at a minimum and if we’re really lucky, stun him long enough for us to activate the containment field.”
“Heh…so I’m just a glorified button pusher now.” Donkey remarked with a mocking sneer.
“No.” Ashley declared, “You’re our reserve. If everything goes fubar we're going to need you to pitch in.”
“Fine.” Donkey reluctantly agreed as the krogan, yelling in pain and range, began pounding on the door.
“Even though that door’s made of duranium, it’s not going to take him long to break through.” Nealo commented as he set up in the rear where his sniper rifle would have the greatest effect.
“The big guy’s right. He’s going to come through any minute now.” Rana echoed as she mustered her reserves of strength.
“All right, everyone.” Ashley ordered as the door began to cave in, the bellowing getting even louder, “Take your positions. If you know any prayers…now would be a good time to say them.”
“Goddess…” Rana ironically prayed aloud, “Get us out of this mess and I’ll take back every insult I said about Athame until the next insult.”
“Easy…” Ashley said in a calm, even voice. “Wait until he gets in the kill zone.”
The door giving way with a crash, the beast rushed into the room tripping the mines as he entered. With a scream of rage, he ripped a console off its stand and threw it at one of the Belladonna security officers, sending the poor man flying across the room, his skull impacting hard against the wall.
“Now Dixie…Salome!” Ashley yelled as the blonde engineer’s prefabricated phaser turrets began to fire, causing even louder shouts of rage from the pain-wracked augmented krogan as she pressed the button setting off the photon grenade.
Screaming at the concentrated phaser fire, the krogan charged one of the turrets as the grenade went off.
“Shit!” Twesata cursed as her phaser fire deflected off the krogan. “It’s adapting like a Borg.”
“Frequency modulators! Now, Dixie!”
“On it!” Quickly going to work, the young engineer tossed one to Ashley and a second to Nealo. However, before she could get a third one completed, she looked up to see the krogan charging at her. “Fuck me!” she screamed as she barely dodged the screaming monster’s charge, diving quickly behind a console as the krogan crashed into the far wall, denting it.
“That was duranium!” Salome exclaimed disbelievingly as Rana quickly threw a barrier around Dixie. “You telling me you took on those assholes on a regular basis?”
“Yeah.” Ashley grinned, “Sometimes two at once.”
“Fuck me dead.” The Terran gasped before yelling at Donkey. “Now…Jackass! Push the button!”
“My name’s Donkey!” The Alliance marine hollered back as he pushed the button and detonated the mine while Salome activated the electro-magnetic field, momentarily stunning the raging monster.
Seeing that now was the moment to strike, Ashley shouted out commands rapid fire as she tossed a stun grenade. “Nealo…aim for the hump!” Ashley shouted as she tossed a second grenade. “Rana! Now would be a good time for a warp.”
Taking a deep breath and gathering her strength, the asari biotic launched her warp, striking at the same time as the Zulu sniper’s phaser and Ashley’s grenade, staggering the giant.
“Your turn, Twes! Put him down for the count!”
Tossing a cryogenic grenade, the Betazoid science officer shouted out a warning, “Gonna get a little chilly in here!”
The cold released by the grenade, on top of the disruptive effects of the electromagnetic field in combination with the sustained phaser fire finally had their effect on the rampaging krogan as, with a final bellow of rage and pain, he collapsed to the floor.
“Set up that confinement field—fast!” Ashley commanded as Salome and Twesata moved quickly to comply.
“Level ten containment.” Salome explained to Donkey and his companion. “It’ll hold him until we can beam him up to more secure confinement.”
Rushing to the downed security officer and kneeling down next to him, Rana quickly ran her medical diagnostic over him, shaking her head at the results. “Sorry, Salome…Nealo…” she consoled the fallen man’s shipmates, “His injuries were too severe.”
“Pappas was a good man.” Nealo declared. “He saved my life on Prius III.”
“Sorry, Sugar.” Dixie consoled, placing her hand on the Zulu's shoulder.
“Shit…what the fuck did they do to him?” Donkey scowled, looking down at the once-proud krogan warrior now disfigured by implants and circuitry, his skin a dark shade of green.
“Me and Edi saw somethin’ like this when we hacked into those Cerberus files.” Doris commented in a somber voice. “We found out that Cerberus had a secret research lab on Tuchanka that was conducting experiments on humans and krogans. It’s part o’ that ETAP program—the one that turned my friend into a monster and that they were gonna send me to.”
“What about the others? Donna pleaded, “Captain Forrester, the children, and the other passengers. Are they all right.”
“I’ll check.” Ashley replied as she tapped her comm badge. “Team Red to Team Blue. What’s your status?
“Team Blue to Team Red. We’re okay. The kids are a little scared, but they’ve calmed down. The ship’s doctor and a quarian…her name’s Zara…have been watching over them. The turian woman, Orinia, is worried about her husband though. Any updates on his status?”
Speaking the few words of Andorian that her friend had taught her, haltingly and with a thick accent, Ashley replied somberly, “Not open comm. Bad. Very bad. Will explain soon.”
“Understood.” Shelana acknowledged, also in Andorian. Switching to Federation Standard, she asked, “What about the krogan?”
“We ran into the krogan—it’s worse than we thought.” Ashley responded glumly. “We’ve got him in a level ten confinement field and we’ve doped him up with so much sedative that it should keep him out for a little while at least—but I’d suggest we get him into more secure confinement soon given how fast krogans can regenerate.”
“Did you get the intel?”
“We got it. We’re stuck here until we can transport that krogan though.”
“Do you want us to make our way to you?”
“Negative.” Ashley responded as she once again switched to Andorian. “Bond mate see bond mate…bad…very bad.”
“Understood.” Shelana replied, “We’ll stay dug in here until they finish up in space. Team Blue out.”
“Team Red out.” Tapping her comm. badge again, Ashley spoke, “Team Red to Team Yay. Status?
“Team Yay to Team Red. Area secured. The pet’aQ weren’t even worth our time.”
Then another voice.
“Team Ecurai to team Red. Objective is under our control. Opposition neutralized.”
“Acknowledged.” Ashley responded, “Hold position. Good job, everyone. It’s all up to our people upstairs now.”