[Book Four] Chapter 14: New year, New developments

Chapter 14: New year, New developments

Rick sighed as he put down a datapad on his desk. He was done reading for a hundred times the results of Mordin’s test with Arianna and the results were distressing. She had an intelligence above average that was for sure. How much however was impossible to tell for now as she was way too young to be properly tested. Everyday when he entered his workshop or left it, he read the results and hoped that they would be different to no avail. He knew it was irrational but couldn’t help himself.

The new year had started both the calendar one and the school year. This time at the welcoming of the students, Rick had prepared many games scattered around the Academy.  He remembered that week fondly.

“Hello dear students. Like Headmistress Anderson had said : Welcome back! Now, I’m looking at you and I see some who had the face of someone thinking ‘Gosh! I hope that madman won’t make us do anything this year’. I’m sorry to say… You’re going to be severely disappointed. I have prepared a game. This time you will have to find all the faculty professors whose names are listed on the list that you must have received on your academy account a minute ago. But that’s not all. Each professor will have a small test for you. It may be answering questions on multiple subjects or doing some physical exercises. Once again I advise you to group up with people from other fields of study. Each time you complete a test the teacher adds one point to the score that is displayed next to your updated map. If you get a collective score of one thousand before dinner time Mister Blablebilly that is by my side will be making his ten stars desserts he’s been famous for in the galaxy for the past forty years. Ah! I can see I have your attention now, good.

Just so you know, every time you find a professor their location will be added to the map in the form of a point, just like last year's consoles. Whether their challenge has been completed or not will be known by the point’s color. Red? No one succeeded. Yellow? The challenge had been completed once. Orange? Completed twice. Green? The challenge has been completed three times and can’t be completed again. Just in case you forget the rules they are available on the help icon on the map. Now here you go.”

The students that had heard of Mr. Blablebilly’s famous desserts or had the chance to eat one were the ones that began running and shared how good they were. Pretty quickly most students were into the game. All challenges were made to test what they had learned the year before. It was a way to see if they had spent all December vacation lazing around or if they had reviewed their notes a bit. The one that tried Javik’s test however, deeply regretted it. They didn’t get hurt at the very least though no one succeeded in passing it.

Kahlee had approved the idea and shared it to her professors. Most of them agreed for the fun of it, even Mordin. That would now be the standard for every returning year. For the new students it was still the map challenge.

Now, Six months later, the first year were well acquainted with how the school worked and everything was running smoothly. The difficulty had been for Kahlee to select those new students as she had received a list of names ten times as long as the number of spots available.

For Rick, life hadn’t changed that much. His children were growing up nicely. Arianna was gaining knowledge at an even faster pace, Adam had demonstrated that he was obedient and dutiful as so far he was the only one who never missed a session with EDI or Dorothea training Ebony and Raven and doing as he was told. It was something that his sisters couldn’t boast about. He was still a babbling machine though. Sandra was still her little quiet self but spent a lot of time with Laura (Garrus’ and Chloe’s adoptive daughter). JJ and Bladen were too young to do anything so they just ate, slept and pooped together.

A new addition had joined the children’s group. Tali had given birth to a healthy baby girl that she named Leeha’Zorah nar Celeste. She had the same skin color as her mother and only time would tell if she got her hair and eyes. Regardless, he thought of Leeha as his own and that was it.

That wasn’t the only news however as Ashley was pregnant again but with twins. They were made during Ashley’s break at christmas and Rick joked that Ashley spent more time pregnant than in the navy and that maybe they should not have sex ever again since each time it produced a child. His wife had laughed and promised that after this pregnancy she was done. With making babies, not sex. She was very clear on that part. Rick agreed because despite how much he loved his children they were too close in age in his opinion and too many at the same time. Thanks to EDI not needing sleep, she helped a lot but otherwise he was constantly tired. All his companions told him to relax and to stop doing so much for the children but he couldn’t. He wanted to make sure they would grow up right, missing nothing of importance.

On another note, Jane had finally cracked. She couldn’t stand being a full time stay at home mom, she needed action or would go crazy. She was still exercising physically to keep in shape but that was it. Rick, for the first time had clearly said no to Jane returning to active duty. Usually he let everyone do whatever he wanted but not this time and it shocked Jane greatly at the displeased tone he had when he put his foot down. Thankfully Jane didn’t want to go back to active duty, that was not in her plan though she didn’t have any plan. In the end, Kahlee took her in as an assistant teacher for the biotic course (where she would defer to Jennifer ) and Anderson’s assistant in his class, replacing him from time to time (allowing the man to spend more time with his wife).

Ebony and Raven were already eight months old and were the most affectionate dogs ever and big as hell. Jane took them with her in the morning  for a small run and the rest of the time were home either being trained, playing with the children or just lazing around. In all honesty, sometimes Rick envied them a bit.
Dorothea had surprised everyone when she said that she wanted to enroll as a student. All were supportive of her choice despite the fact that as an AI she could learn instantly everything. The problem for her was that she wanted to do too many things. In the end she chose to take the mathematics, the physics and tech courses. Kahlee had agreed of course and Dorothea Wald, 25 years old became a 5th year student at Celeste Academy. Rick almost pranked her by making her do the map challenge but refrained. It was a bit too mean for someone that had constantly had his back when he couldn’t take care of his children. Unbeknown to the AI he had asked his mother to create a real identity for Dorothea. Once she legally existed he opened a bank account in her name and was paying her a consequential amount of credits for babysitting. Dorothea was the most well paid nanny in the Galaxy and she didn’t even know it. It was a surprise that Rick had in the work in case she wanted to explore the galaxy alone and spread her wings. That way she wouldn’t start with nothing or by having to steal money.

Another reason for Rick being tired was the filming of season two of Mass Effect. They had finished ten months of work and everyone was exhausted beyond belief. The first season was done in two years and didn’t tire the crew much in comparison. As a result and depending on the season revenues, everyone’s pay would be increased (except Aria who already was paid enough). He knew that he wouldn’t be able to make the third season, which was longer than the first two combined, in ten months so he was thinking about what to do. Filming and airing one episode a month or simply split the third season in four, meaning the series would go for at least two more years to four. He would have to talk about this with the crew.

Right now the premiere of season two will be airing in a week, its trailer having been released a week before and already had eighty billions views. So with his work done, he was just enjoying his vacation time by doing something he had never done before. Sleeping in. Or at least tried because at 9am the gates of hell opened and the apocalypse fell upon him. Three very excited children with two imposing dogs broke into his bedroom loudly and attacked him in his sleep.

“Daddy! It’s late!” Arianna yelled.
“You promised we would go to the pool today! I want to play!”
“I want to swim!”

They all said as they jumped on the bed trying to wake their father up but he gave them no reaction. They jumped harder and Adam ordered Ebony and Raven to simply lick Rick’s face.

‘I’m going to kill their mothers’

He was tempted to do so but then he would be all alone to raise the little helions. That couldn’t happen in his opinion. Not wanting to take things lying down ( despite lying down on his own bed) he acted swiftly, sending a pull for each of his children and making them float smoothly above the bed.

“DADDY!”
“I’m flying!”
“Cool.”

Pushing away the dogs he got out of bed and looked at his helpless children. He grabbed some clothes from the closet, went to the bathroom, took a very quick shower, brushed his teeth and got dressed. Ignoring his children’s youthful screams. It took him seven minutes in total before coming back to the bedroom to indignant children.

“Hmm… Maybe I should just leave you here like that for a while.”

“““DADDY!!!”””
“You promise to behave if I put you back on the floor? No more jumping on the bed?”
““YESSS!”””
“... Alright.”

And with this he pulled them back down on the ground. Immediately they ran away from their father and went to complain to their mothers and Aunts. Rick followed them and confronted his wife and sister. They were both grinning from ear to ear and he understood they were the masterminds behind their children’s kamikaze assault.

“I’m going to get you for that.”
“Promises, promises.~~” a very pregnant Ashley answered.

He knew how he was going to go about it but he wanted to surprise them so said nothing of his plan. Gulping down two cups of coffee and helping the children put their swimsuit on, he prepared everything they would need for their time at the pool. Swimming rings, buddy float arms and the likes, everything regarding the security of the children was ready. What or rather who wasn’t ready was himself. Seeing his ladies in a swimsuit had given him a raging boner that wasn’t going to subside any time soon. Dorothea’s body in a bikini was down right sinful and Rick wanted nothing more than to use her like a two credits pain slut whore. What was worse was the playful smile she sported, indicating that her get up was done on purpose. The most normal one was surprisingly Jennifer's, who was answering questions about her tattoo from Arianna and Adam, who never had the occasion to see much of them. Being Sandra’s mother the little ravenette was used to it and didn’t ask anything. Once everyone was ready. Rick picked up JJ and everyone took the elevator down.

Once they reached the pool, Rick was shown some mercy and Jane and Jen took care of the children with some help from Liara. As he simply laid down on a deckchair Miranda plopped her bubble but on it, clearly wanting to talk.

“How are you doing?”
“...”
“That bad?”
“I… no. I mean, I’m tired as hell but I’ve been worse. I’m just surprised you asked.”
“Why?”
“Nobody else did.” he confessed.
“Really?!”
“Yeah. Between fatherhood, husbandhood, the filming of Mass Effect and the company…I barely have enough time to sleep. I’m seriously considering hiring you becoming the second best decision of my life. Had I been the actual CEO… I think I’d be dead. That nobody notices is bumming me out even more. I can’t really blame any of them. They have their own duties but… You asking me how I’m doing… it feels nice.”
“That’s one of the two things I wanted to talk to you about. You need a break.”
“Well, I’m on vacation.”
“I mean a break from everything, family life included.”
“...Perhaps, but it doesn’t really matter doesn’t it? I can’t just up and leave for a while.”
“You can and you should. I’m sure a week away will do you good. Jennifer and I are planning to go on Eden Prime for a small retreat without Sandra. You could come with us and do your own thing.”
“... With Ashley’s…”
“She’s in her seventh month, you’ll be back before the birth. The only thing you have to do is tell the others about it.”

“... I will think about it.”
“Make sure that you do.”
“What’s the second thing you wanted to talk about?”
“Jennifer. I think… She wants to have a child.”
“Is that why you…”
“No. I’m not inviting you with us for that. She’s not at that stage yet but I caught her glancing at Ashley’s pregnant belly and… I wonder.”
“I didn’t think she was the kind to go through pregnancy.”
“Me neither but… She had been so attentive when I was carrying Sandra and I remember her giving me furtive looks too…”
“You think she wants to go through the experience but is scared of it?”
“Yes. What do you think I should do?”
“Talk to her about it, duh.”
“I know but…I’m not sure I could support her the way she supported me.”
“Of course you could. If I, of all people, could do it…four times. You can certainly do it at least once.”
“...”
“Are you conflicted in having another child?”
“I’m not, why?”
“Well… Sandra is already four. Usually people who want children separate them by two years on average. You never talked to me about making another donation either so I thought that Sandra was enough.”
“She is but I never really thought about having more. I wouldn’t mind though as long as it’s not an entire brood like yours.” she replied with a laugh and that made Rick grunt. “I think Jennifer thought about it. Perhaps that’s why she’s looking at Ashley the way she does.”
“... You know, if the two of you weren’t that serious to each other, I’d throw her way my own lovers.”
“That’s what you get for being indecisive.” she admonished with a shrug.
“What were the chances that not one but five of them would agree to sharing me? Huh?”
“Not much I admit.”
“Thank god I had the bright idea to pair you with Jennifer.”
“You do have genius ideas sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“Not using protection with Ashley last Christmas was not one of your best ideas, especially when JJ is still so young and that she would be back on duty soon. With Leeha it’s four babies to take care of.”
“... Yeah, I’ve been stupid. Can’t get a refund though so I’m rolling with it.”
“... Just so you know, if Jennifer goes through with it, you’d be the father too. I won’t agree with anyone else.”
“I knew you loved me.” he answered with a bit of cheek.
“It just makes things easier for both our children to have the same father. Besides I don’t want Jen to sleep with anyone but me except you. And she’s not the type to go with artificial insemination.” she added at the end, noticing that he was about to talk about it. The look he still gave her made her crack a bit and with her thumb and index finger really close she simply admitted defeat. “That much. I love you that much.”
“I knew it!” he replied smugly.

Their talk stops there and they watch in silence the children playing in the shallow depths of the pool. Jennifer had used her biotics to make some water float then fall on their little heads making them scream in both laughter and indignation. They tried to swim away but Jane was on the other side using her own biotics to create a small current with swings of her arms, pushing the children back towards Jennifer. To everyone's shock Sandra had raised her hand to protect herself from the falling water and made it float. Her tiny appendage had a familiar deep blue aura around it. It didn’t last long; the water resumed its fall but the adults were stunned. Both Jane and Jennifer looked towards Miranda and Rick’s direction in silence.

“... How?” He asked aloud. More to himself than anything. “Did you get exposed to eezo while pregnant?”
“No, I did not. I don’t understand…” she whispered.

“Momma, I did it just like you and Mommy!” shouted Sandra, proud of herself.
“What the heck.” Jennifer commented in a whisper before speaking louder. “That’s great, baby!”
“I want to do it again!”
“Not yet. You’re a bit too young for that but Momma promised to train you, okay?”

Sandra nodded her head. She knew that if her momma said she couldn’t do it now then there was a good reason for it. So with using her biotics being off the table she swam back to her elder siblings who talked to her about it. The conversation was cut short when Jane made a big wave to distract them.

“We need to ask Mordin. That’s unheard of.” Rick said to Miranda.
“I’m sending him a message to prepare some tests.”
“For Adam and Arianna too. I don’t know about Arianna but I’m pretty sure Adam wasn’t exposed though just in case…. Seriously, what the hell?”
“I’d say she’s definitely your daughter. Always unpredictable.” Miranda joked as she sent the message to their Salarian friends.

"Wait! Tell him to prepare some tests for me too."

"You? Why?"

"Just in case… I’m the common link between the children…"

____________________________________________________________

The day of the airing of the first episode of the second season had finally come and the whole family living at Celeste was there. Even EDI who had relegated her self imposed nanny duties to Alana and Veli, the two synthetics VI from that Kahlee had presented to the donors a year earlier. They haven’t visited this time as it was unnecessary but they will at the end of the school year.

Once again everyone was in the company’s theater when the show aired. The first few moments were actually a scene between Act!Miranda and Act!TIM. Looking at the chat many viewers expressed their surprise at that. The most perverted of them talked about Act!Miranda’s bubble butt. The moderators did their jobs properly and quickly censored those messages and their authors got a writing ban for the whole episode. In the room though, Miranda was livid.

“My sister?! You asked Orianna to play ME?”
“The only one that could play you is you. Or Orianna. She was all in the moment I made a proposal.”
“The whole Galaxy is looking at my sister’s ass!”
“It is a perfect ass.” Jennifer said from Miranda’s side and got a murdering glare. She shrugged it off. “Come on babe, she knew what she was getting into when she accepted the role. She wanted to do this.”
“But…”
“You’ll chew her and dickhead later tonight, now let’s watch.”

Miranda begrudgingly quieted down and let her anger simmer as the scene changed for the destruction of the Normandy and Act!Jane’s heroic death saving Joker. When the scene changed for her resurrection at Act!Miranda’s hands, Jane snorted loudly.

“I know that music!”
“That’s a rearrangement of Robocop’s theme.” EDI said.
“Yes. I thought it was fitting since you were reconstructed to be better with cybernetics.”
“That really sounds epic.” noted Liara.
“It wasn’t nearly as glamorous in truth.” Miranda added.

Afterwards they watched the episode giving only a small comment here or there  but mostly in silence. It ended with the Normandy’s SR-2 reveal, the introduction of EDI and Joker acting like a child on Christmas with his leather seat and the departure for Omega. The preview for the second episode showed the station then cut to the back of an Asari looking down a room. It was very short.

“I’m surprised you didn’t forget Jacob this time.” Jane said to her brother.
“He did. I had to remind him.” snitched Miranda, snickering.
“I’m sorry but he’s so…forgettable. In comparison to everyone else in the team he comes very short.”

Rick wasn’t wrong and nobody contradicted him. Everyone took the time before the second episode started to take a small bathroom break. Rick was looking once again at the chat. Many were skeptical of Jane’s death and believed it to be just some drama to enhance her legend, some disagreed pointing out the possibility of such a thing with facts but admitted that the cost would be astronomical and that the four billions spent by Cerberus may not have been the total amount invested. Speaking of Cerberus many questions were asked. Most notably if Jane wasn’t indoctrinated by them and that started a small war on the chat that EDI put an immediate end to. Rick posted a single message to calm things down.

“Whether Gingerbread is controlled by Cerberus or not and whether she’s the real one or not will be answered. You just have to keep watching and be patient.”

Since he was the administrator, his message had a different appearance from the regular ones and the viewers took it as the truth, letting go of the subject.

When the second episode started the public was hooked five minutes in when Act!Rick made his explosive entrance. As usual his krogans fans were all over the chat cheering but the others as well. The intimate kiss he gave to Aria had inflamed the chat a second time with plenty of questions about the relationship between the two. One particular comment made him laugh internally.

“Effectively_Deffective: That guy must have a pair the size of Palaven moons to kiss THE Pirate Queen like that. He’s THE man, I tell you!”

The reunion between Act!Jane and Act!Rick was funny as expected. Mordin's appearance made lots of comments and to some people became immediately a favorite character. Some of his students who had found their way on the chat commented that it was him to a T and singing praises. The episode ended with Act!Jane coming back to the Normandy happy and with a dejected Act!Rick behind her. The very last scene was of Joker voicing internally his happiness at not having a woman on his back to annoy him when EDI talked to him prompting him to freeze with a ‘I’m done with this shit’ look while looking straight at the camera.

That made everyone laugh and in less than five minutes memes of it were already flooding the chat. The preview of the next episode simply pictured Archangel being cornered by a tone of mercs.

“I can’t believe you went with that, EDI.” Jane said laughing.
“I like messing with Jeff. I’m pretty sure he would complain and laugh about it at the same time.”

As everyone exited the room, Jane walked at Rick’s side, hand in hand. Her mind, thinking about what will be shown next.

“Did you… Did you put the time where you put the food dispenser in…”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, the camera angle is positioned so we only see the top of your back.”
“...Okay.” she said after a moment. “I wonder… how will the story play if you’re not revealing that we’re siblings?”
“... I changed my mind about this.”
“You did?” she said as she stopped walking and held him back. “Why?”
“It’s not… I’m not there yet in the script but… because… I put what I did on Eden Prime. Both times.”

At that Jane opened wide. She couldn’t believe what he had heard.

‘Is he really going to put his suicide attempt and Analysse and…’

“Why? Why put that in it? Why go through this again?”
“... It’s right. I don’t want the world to forget my actions, what I did with my own hands.”
“But…”
“I also want the world to know my pain, to understand why I did everything I did. To see that… I may not have moved on but I moved forward. Many people may be in my situation or a similar one. Stuck into a very precise moment when their lives shattered without the possibility or the ability to find a way out of it. I want the world to know that… It’s thanks to you that I grieved for the first time, years after it happened. That you can’t overcome that kind of tragedy alone. It only makes sense, it only works if the world knows that you are my sister and that our connection is deeper than just being teammates or friends.”
“...”
“...”
“You’re just putting back the knife in the wound and stirring like crazy.”
“I know.”
“And what about Arianna? People would know. The crew will know.”
“I thought you didn’t care if the world knew about us?”
“I didn’t at the time because we didn’t have her.”
“Then I will find a different connection between us. Mo… She will be spared the hateful comments.”
“Gosh I forgot about her and humanity’s image…”
“The only reason I cared was to lay as low as possible. I couldn’t care less now.”

They resumed walking towards the elevator for a bit when she asked another question.

“She told me you didn’t speak to her again. Why?”
“Why did she tell you that? I speak to her everytime she comes here.”
“You’re not writing to her. Ever.”
“What do you want me to say to her? What does she want me to say to her? That the students are doing well? That her grandchildren are growing up nicely? What kind of banal things you write to her in the first place?”
“Well… yeah.”
“I don’t see the point, Jane. We’re strangers and she can’t follow up any conversation I would have with her. Just like I wouldn’t listen to her boring talk about her military life. I’m not hostile towards her anymore, isn’t it enough?”
“... No. It will never be enough, not until we’re back to being a real family.”
“That’s not possible.”
“You don’t…”
“I remember, you know?”
“Remember what?
“Before she threw me away. I thought they were dreams at first…”
“Dreams?”
“Yeah. She used to sneak into the clinic when I was sleeping. Sometimes she sang that lullaby.”
“The spooky scary skeleton?” she asked, confused.
“That one. And I think that hearing it made me remember the time when she loved me.”
“She never stopped.”
“Not the point. Every time she would sing it I remembered a bit more. I… we were happy. We didn’t see her much but we were happy when she was there. Then one day I woke up and I saw her… Sitting on a chair next to my bed, singing. And do you know what I realized besides the fact that it wasn’t dreams but memories?”
“...No. What?”
“That her rejection hurt me so much that my own mind made me forget. My own brain locked those memories away because I couldn’t take it, because I couldn’t handle the emotional pain. I wish… that it never happened, that I wasn’t born a biotic or that she never discarded me… That we simply keep going the way we were. But it can’t happen because…”
“You’re scared of her. Just like you were scared of me.”
“It’s different. My own mind didn’t trick itself to forget how it was with you. “
“You were older… Does she know?”
“That I remember or that I forget in the first place?”
“I don’t know, both?”
“No.”
“Then maybe you should talk to her about it. Shout, yell, insult her, vent your grievances all you want and really start again. It’s been four years and while you’re cordial to her, you’re still not back to a fragment of what you were. There is no progress because there are still skeletons in your closet. That is if you really want to be a family again.”
“... I do. For you. For the children. And I guess for me… Because I really loved her, you know? Nearly as much as I love you. And that woman… I want her back. Her and her stupid lullaby.”
“I know, right?!” chuckled Jane. “Who sings a song about a skeleton to her children as a lullaby.”

The elevator stopped at their floor and in silence they went to their bedroom.