Ascension

as their guards. Ugho, the older of the two, was polite, but somewhat cold. He responded to her questions with short, almost clipped, answers, and she soon gave up bothering to speak with him while he was on duty.

Seeto, however, was the exact opposite. Kahlee guessed he was about Lemm's age, though hidden behind his mask and enviro-suit her only clue was the 'nar' identifier in his name. But for some reason Seeto seemed more naive and youthful than their rescuer. Lemm spending several months away from the flotilla on his Pilgrimage no doubt had something to do with that, but Seeto also struck her as having a childlike exuberance about him that she simply chalked up to an excitable, outgoing personality.

She learned very quickly that he was a talker. One or two questions from her were all it would take to get the words flowing, and then they came out in a gushing river. Kahlee didn't mind, however. It helped pass the time, and she had learned a lot about the quarians in general, and the Idenna in particular, from Seeto.

At only thirty years old, he had explained, the Idenna was still considered a new ship. Understandable, considering some of the ships in the flotilla were manufactured over three centuries ago, before the quarians' defeat and exile at the hands of the geth. Over time they had been upgraded, repaired, and retrofitted to the point they hardly resembled the original vessel anymore, but they were still seen as less reliable than newer ships.

Seeto also told her that the Idenna was a medium-sized cruiser, large enough to have a seat on the Conclave, the civilian board that advised the Admiralty on setting Fleet policy and passed rulings on specific disputes and decisions within the flotilla. She learned that there were 693 men, women, and children who called Idenna home—694 if Lemm's proposed gift from his Pilgrimage was ultimately accepted by the captain and he joined their crew. Kahlee was astonished by that number; in the Alliance, a medium-sized cruiser would have a crew of 70 or 80 at the most. In her mind's eye she envisioned the inhabitants of the Idenna living in squalid, overcrowded misery.

The more she had talked with Seeto, the more comfortable he'd become. He'd told her about Ysin'Mal vas Idenna, the ship's captain. Ship captains tended to be men and women bound by tradition; Mai, however, was generally regarded as an aggressive proponent of change and progress. He'd even, Seeto had confided in a low whisper, put forth a proposal for the flotilla to start sending out cruisers on long-term exploratory missions to uncharted regions of space, in the hopes of discovering uninhabited, life-bearing worlds the quarians could settle as their own.

This particular view had often brought him into conflict with the other ship captains and the Conclave, who believed the quarians needed to remain united in the Migrant Fleet if they were to ensure their survival. However, from the way the young quarian spoke, it was clear to Kahlee that Seeto supported his captain's position, rather than common convention.

As she passed through the passenger cabin on her way to the airlock, she hoped it would be the more interesting Seeto, and not the stoic Ugho, who was standing on duty outside. Still forbidden to leave the ship, she was about to use the airlock's intercom to contact the guard outside and ask him to come aboard when the seals on the door suddenly released on their own.

Surprised, she stumbled back from the door as it opened and a group of seven quarians entered.

Kahlee felt a brief moment of alarm as they marched onto the shuttle, but when she realized none of them had their weapons drawn she relaxed.

She recognized both Seeto and Ugho among them. And she thought the one standing at the head of the group was Isli, the leader of the security patrol that had first greeted them. The other four she didn't know.

'The captain has agreed to meet with you,' Isli said by way of greeting, confirming her identity.

About damn time, Kahlee thought. Out loud she only asked, 'When?'

'Now,' Isli told her. 'We will escort you to the bridge to see him. You will need to wear your enviro-suit, of course.'

'Okay. Let me tell Hendel and Gillian where I'm going.'

'They need to come, too,' Isli insisted. 'The captain wants to meet with all of you. Lemm is already there waiting.'

Kahlee didn't like the idea of forcing Gillian to leave the shuttle and dragging her through the crowded decks of the Idenna, but given the circumstances she didn't see how she could refuse.

Hendel shared her concern when she told him, but Gillian didn't seem bothered by the idea. Five minutes later, once they had all donned their enviro-suits, they were off. Isli, Ugho, and Seeto went with them as their escorts, while the other four quarians stayed behind.

'They need to sterilize your shuttle,' Isli told them. 'It's better if you aren't on the vessel while they're working.'

Kahlee wondered if they were really decontaminating the vessel, or if this was just an opportunity for the quarians to thoroughly search the shuttle from top to bottom without offending them. Not that it made a difference; they had nothing to hide.

Isli led them through the ship while Ugho marched silently along beside her. Seeto fell back with the humans so he could provide the occasional comment or explanation on what they were seeing during the journey.

'This is the Idenna's trading deck,' he said as they passed from the docking bays into what would have served as the cargo hold on an Alliance vessel.

The room was packed with quarians, all in their enviro-suits, milling about. Each one carried a bag or backpack. Storage lockers lined the walls. Most of them were open, revealing the contents to be a mishmash of mundane items, from clothes to cooking utensils. Similar piles of goods were loaded into large, open-topped steel crates and oversized metal storage containers scattered haphazardly about the floor, filling the room except for the narrow aisles that ran back and forth between them.

The quarians were moving from container to container and locker to locker. They would rummage through them, occasionally picking up an item and examining it before either keeping their find or putting the item back and resuming their search.

'Anyone who has unneeded goods and items stores them here,' Seeto explained, 'so others can come and take what they need.'

'You mean you just let anyone take anything from anyone else?' Hendel asked in surprise.

'Not if someone else is using it,' Seeto said, his voice making it clear that, to him, the answer was blatantly obvious.

'But if you're not using it, you're just supposed to bring it here and give it away for free to someone else?'

'What else would you do with it?' the young quar-ian asked, the question making it clear that the concept of selling surplus merchandise to your neighbor was completely foreign to him.

'What if somebody hoards their possessions?' Hendel asked. 'You know, keeping everything for himself?'

Seeto laughed. 'Who would do such a thing? Your living space would become so crowded you'd have to sleep standing up, just for the sake of having items you don't even use.' He shook his head and chuckled softly at Hendel's foolishness.

As they passed through the trading deck, Kahlee cast a quick glance over at Gillian. It was hard to read her emotional state behind her mask, but she seemed to be okay.

Satisfied, Kahlee turned her attention back to the quarians hunting through the merchandise. At first glance the scene resembled the crowded market square of any colony world. A closer look, however, showed it was very, very different. It lacked the aggressive, bustling energy of a typical bazaar. Despite the crowd — forty or fifty people by her guess— nobody was pushing, shoving, or fighting over items. Often, two or three people would stop and talk, though they were always careful to move aside so they didn't block the aisles when they did so.

It took her a moment to realize what else was missing: the noise. There were no merchants loudly hawking their wares, and no angry shouting of customers and proprietors haggling over prices. Only the soft sounds of people searching through the lockers and bins, and the low, good-natured conversation of neighbors and friends.

They were nearing the large freight elevator that would take them up to the next level of the ship when Kahlee noticed something else. A small desk fashioned from an unidentifiable alien hardwood had been set up in front of a door leading to a supply room off to the side of the cargo hold. A female quar-ian sat at the desk behind