[Book Four] Chapter 24: Little Arianna, ten years old, certified kickass

Chapter 24: Little Arianna, ten years old, certified kickass

Little Arianna Ashley Shepard, ten years old, was now in her third and last year at Celeste academy. That is if she didn’t want to further what she was studying or if she wanted to start studying a new course. She has been top of her class since her very first semester and while it could have earned her the jealousy of her classmates, her young age, kindness and desire to help anyone in need melted anyone’s heart. For the more reluctant and confrontational, she just kicked their asses with her biotics. She never regretted going to school as she made some friends or at the very least friendly acquaintances with a lot of people. In other words she was happy. Except for the past three months. Her father has been away to do ‘stupid tests that daddy will ace in his sleep’. She loved her mother a lot but she had a special connection with her father and she missed it more than anything. Fortunately for her, he would be back in a week.

Since it was summer break, Jane had plenty of time on her hands, outside of taking care of her young son, Matthew as Ashley was on leave and in consequence home to take care of her boys. Miranda and Tali needing a break had proposed to do girls night again, except this time it would be more of a girls trip which would last a week-end. Other than the members of the crew, Chloe, Kahlee and surprisingly Eve were also invited. As a result, the men were stuck on Celeste with the children to take care of. And by the men it was only Anderson and Garrus. To not be overwhelmed by the children, Garrus invited James, Joker, Kaidan, Steve and even Wrex. to have their own guys' time. All agreed. They all met on the Celeste who was currently floating on the sea of an Asari colony world.

Once the children were put to bed, with the exception of Arianna whose bedtime was later, they did what guys usually do. Play cards, drink alcohol and share stories.

“All in.” Arianna said as she pushed the mountain of chips in front of her forward.
“Ugh! You’re worse than your father!” Garus said as he folded, throwing his cards at the center of the table.
“Daddy taught me.” She answered with pride.
“Can’t believe a ten year old is kicking our asses.” James muttered.
“Well, she’s not the average ten years old.” Steve commented.
“With her parents being who they are? Not a chance.” said Joker.
“I’m surprised the Galaxy is still standing with you around, kid.”
“Don’t worry uncle Wrex, if I break it, I won’t touch Tuchanka. That’d be a billion credits though.” replied Arianna, making everyone laugh.
“AH! You little pyj…”

He was interrupted by the sound of the ship’s shield powering down followed by an Alarm blurting. Immediately everyone was on their feet.

“What’s happening?!” Kaidan asked.

“Someone took the Academy’s power source!” answered Anderson as he was checking things on his omni-tool.
“Oh, that’s not good. If someone gets his hands on the RED…” exclaimed Garrus.
“We need to get it back before they can leave. The RED is in the control room, one floor down.”
“Except we’re not armed. Our gear is on the ship.” reminded James to everyone.
“Speak for yourself. Always keep your weapon on you.” replied Wrex pulling out his shotgun from his back.
“Daddy’s armory!” Arianna exclaimed.
“What?”
“Daddy installed a secret armory in the penthouse, just in case.”

She ran towards a corridor leading to the room as she said that and they followed suit. Thanks to Rick soundproofing the bedroom of everyone, her siblings were not woken up, neither by the alarm, nor the sound of people running just outside their door. Arriving at the end of the corridor she put her hand on the wall and it lit up. After five seconds the wall slid to the side and revealed a room with any gun, gun aficionados’ dream of. All were models of the latest model of Rick weapon’s division and there was enough to armed twice the people present.

“Holy…”
“Language, uncle Garrus! You can take everything you need but you need to put it back afterwards.”

“I have apprehended the thieves.” came the voice of EDI from the coms.
“EDI?” Joker asked.

“That’s me.”
“Didn’t you leave for your girl trip?”
“I uploaded myself on the servers of the Academy a few months ago for… a personal project. So I left and didn’t. Since it's only temporary, I didn’t want to manifest myself.”
“Why didn’t you speak up when the alarm rang?” asked Anderson.
“The loss of power shut me down. It took me a while to reboot with the secondary power source. I have locked in the thieves in the control room. They can’t get out.”
“Who are they?” inquired the admiral.
“Three students, from fourth to eighth years. They say they are doing it against their will.”
“What do you mean?” asked Garrus.
“Someone kidnapped their families, they have proof of that. All they had to do was disabled the ship’s defenses.”
“Oh, so we’re going to get attacked then. Good.” Wrex commented. As he looked at his new shotgun in his hands.

“There is a 98.78% chance of it. Currently the scanners do not… Oh, here they are. Three small ships in battle formation. ETA is five minutes from North, North-East.”
“What about security?” Joker asked.
“It’s summer break so only a small team of five in each sector.”
“That’s not much.” said Kaidan.
“Security is here to help with the students, not to defend the Academy.”

Everyone was armed and went back to the living room when EDI warned them that the ships were decelerating to prepare a landing. The group went to the balcony to watch it happen.

“That’s not good. There are a lot of them and they are well armed.” Garrus said as he looked through his rifle’s scope. “If they spread, we’re toasted.”
“Excuse me, uncle Garrus. You’re in the way.”

Turning around he saw Arianna with some kind of toy rocket launcher in her hands.

“Arianna, you should go back inside where it’s safe.” Anderson said.
“But I can take them all out with my potator!” She said, raising her ‘weapon’ up.
“I’m sure you can but you’re too young and it’s past bedtime now.”
“But uncle!”
“Arianna, now.”
“Bah! Let her shoot and get it over with, she can go to bed after.” Wrex said and after a moment of thought, Anderson agreed.

Putting her ‘potator’ on her shoulder, she took a moment to aim then fired. There was no gun sound but instead the noise of muzzled air being released. A black projectile could be seen flying in a bell curve the four hundred meters distance between her position and the enemies. She had a good aim as the projectile hit one of the invaders right in the head, making him fall backward to the ground, and rolled to the side.

“HA! Not bad!” Wrex said.
“That was a very good…”

Anderson didn’t finish his sentence as an explosion made of what looked like blue fire happened, revealing a small black hole that sucked everything in a fifty feet radius before disappearing, shredding part of the to ship on the side of the one in the middle that had completely been obliterated.

Everyone present had their jaws hit the ground.

“Arianna, can I see your… ‘potator’?’ Garrus asked and took it in hands when she offered it. “What is it made of?”
“PVC and it uses compressed air to shoot potatoes. Fifty credits to make.” she replied proudly.
“I thought potatoes were human vegetables. You’re crazy to eat that.”
“Silly, uncle Wrex! I didn’t shoot a potato. I shoot one of daddy’s singularity grenades to which I added a BLUE as a power source…” Arianna said as she showed him a grenade in question by pulling one out from her satchel around her waist.
““““....””””
“Does your father know?” asked Steve.
“No! It’s a surprise for when he comes back.”
“Well… We still got the students to deal with. The RED to put back in place and… find out if there is any survivor to interrogate.” Anderson said. “Arianna, it’s still past bedtime.”
“But it’s the holidays.” she said pleadingly.
“And your mother comes back tomorrow, what are you going to do if you’re too tired to do something with her?”
“Okay…”

And with that, the little redhead wished everyone a goodnight and went to sleep.

“You were right, Wrex. It’s surprising that the galaxy is still standing with her around.” Joker commented.
“I told you! It’s like they put all the crazy smart and the destruction instinct they had and put it into that little one. It’s fucking scary!”

____________________________________________________________

A ship landed at N-school not far from Rio de Janeiro. Fleet Admiral Hackett was watching and waiting in anticipation for the men and women on board disembarking; he had so many words to share and not good ones. At the sight of his niece he suppressed the smile that was trying to take position on his face. While he was happy to see Helena he couldn’t let his emotions show when plenty of subordinates were around.

“Fleet Admiral.” she saluted.
“Captain Müller, welcome back.” he replied and signaled her to drop the formalities as most of the recruits were gone from the landing pad.
“How did it go?”
“Well… Of the twenty not counting him, four passed.”
“And him?” he asked, then his eyes caught Rick being transported on a stretcher carried by two marines. “He failed?! I didn’t expect that.”
“Failed? What makes you say that?” she asked, confused.

When Steven signaled to Rick behind her with his head she turned around to look then turned back.

“No, that’s our doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“We had to tranq him.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t want to leave.” she replied with a deadpan face and a flat tone.
“...”
“...”
“Pardon?”
“He didn’t want to leave.”
“He didn’t want… to leave.” he repeated to make sure he understood correctly and Helena nodded in affirmation. “I think I need a detailed explanation.”
“He was the last to give up. In fact he didn’t give up. The penultimate candidate had given up a week prior and he wasn’t answering our calls. So we went to check. We found him at the heart of the jungle. He had built a freaking house in the trees, domesticated two wild beasts the size of a wolf and was growing his own food. When we made contact he invited us up via a makeshift elevator. He had a table and multiple chairs inside. When we told him the test was over, he didn’t care and said to come back and pick him up later, that he liked the quiet and peace. Once he turned around I tranqued him and we dragged him back.” she explained still with her flat tone and deadpan face.
“...”
“...”
“You’re pulling my...” ‘leg’ was what he wanted to say when Helena flashed her omni-tool and showed him pictures of what she had said. That silenced him instantly.
“...”
“... Holy shit.”
“He beat Shepard’s record by four days and she wasn’t nearly as cozy as he was. She was at the end of her rope and he was like a tourist on vacation.”
“... What about the asteroid test?”
“He ranked first. He found a nice spot and sat there for three days doing nothing. Physically at least. At this point I’m pretty sure he was lost in his head and the three days felt like three hours to him. As if he was in a trance; his breathing was so slow…”
“I see. What about the rest?”
“He ranked first on pretty much everything. He exploded the scores on everything tech related; better grades in software than hardware but at that point that didn’t matter much. I’m not even going to speak about the test in biotics. He corrected the questions on the paper test and the drill sergeant in practice.”
“How does he compare in general? I mean ever since N-school was created.”
“Only one person got a better score and the difference is one point.”
“Shepard?”
“Yes. Though to be fair, if having a better score on everything theoretical was possible he would have got the max. Not sure Shepard would have.”
“What’s the point difference?”
“He scored a point less than her in driving.” Helena replied with a victorious and satisfied smile.
“So he got the minimum at the driving test… I guess being a bad driver runs in the family.”
“If that’s the only con of being a Shepard you can sign me in immediately.”
“You’d have Hannah and him to deal with.”
“...”
“...”
“... Yeah, I think I’m good, actually.”
“Glad to hear that. I don’t really need to ask about combat?”
“No. He beat them all the first day and asserted dominance. Those that tried again… he broke bones. They left him alone after that. On the field he quickly took the lead.”
“Oh? That’s not his typical behavior.”
“‘A leader was needed and none of them were good enough.’ was his words when I asked why he led the team. At least three were more than decent in leadership so I believe he has higher standards. Perhaps by fighting by her side.”
“It’s possible, yes.”
“He was giving his best and expected the others to do the same and no less. He was manipulative enough to get them motivated, balancing his lack of charisma. No, not his lack of charisma… his lack of positive charisma. The other candidates were feeling intimidated by his presence alone and unconsciously deferred to him.”
“It’s really a shame we…”
“I. know. No need to put salt on the wound.” Halenead warned bitterly. “We got enough data to change some tests and incorporate new and more effective training regimens. I’m of the mind to send him all our candidates with biotics to teach. We really missed a one in a billion opportunity.”
“Well… Maybe you’d have his daughter?”
“She’s ten.” she answered unamused.

Steven used his omni-tool and showed her the camera videos of the attack on the Celeste. When she saw Arianna fire a children's weapon, hit right in the face a hostile with it from a four hundred meters distance she was impressed. When everything turned to all and the attacking force was completely destroyed by her projectile exploding, Helena’s jaw hit the floor.

“It happened yesterday. A 400m shot with a weapon that cost fifty credits to make by herself. The grenade was a new prototype made by her father to which she modified to put a BLUE on it.”
“... I want her!”
“Well, good luck with that. For one, she’s ten, for two… her father.”
“Oh, I’m ready to wait a decade if it means I get my hands on her! The brain of her father and the gift of destruction of her mother. I’m going to make her the best N7 in history!”
“As I said good luck.”
“Who were those guys by the way?”
“Some mercs hired to steal some tech.”
“What tech?”
“The source of YELLOW.”
“..So it’s one of the eezo mining companies then.”
“Probably.”
“They’re fucked.”
“Certainly.”
“If I didn’t know he was a good guy, I’d be worried. He’s been awake for what… less than a decade? And he’s already in control of energy production, Eezo production, a good part of the economy with his tech and With Celeste Academy… It seems like a soft conquest to me.”
“You may be right on that but as you said, he’s a good guy though I’m not going to lie I’m always worried. I just hope he won’t change for the worse with time.”

____________________________________________________________

As Rick arrived very late in the evening back home, he saw the damaged part of the Celeste’s exterior along the destroyed shells of some ships. Wondering what it was about he walked into the penthouse in a hurry to find everyone doing alright.

“What happened?” he asked.
“We got attacked by a bunch of Mercenaries.” Anderson replied.
“What?! That’s imposs… “ he stopped there and thought for a moment. “An inside job?”
“How do you… Nevermind. Yes.”
“Some students' families were taken hostage, they had no choice but to do their bidding.” explained EDI.

“...What did they want? What tech?”
“From what we learned from the sole survivor of the merc group, we think they were searching for the GREEN.” the admiral answered.
“How do they even know it exists?”
“They don’t. But YELLOW comes from somewhere and they wanted to find the source. Either to appropriate it or destroy it.” replied EDI.
“Eezo mining companies then… What about the students and their families?”
“The students are locked inside their room, Kahlee has yet to decide their punishment for endangering everyone. Despite the fact that it could have turned really bad, no one was hurt and they had circumstantial attenuance. I think she will not come down that hard on them.” answered Anderson.
“As for the families, everyone went to rescue them minus Miranda and Chloe.”
“Okay. I got everything so far. The only thing I don’t is… What did that?” he said as he pointed outside to the destroyed ship area.

EDI played the recording of the night on the big screen in the room and Rick was dumbfounded at his daughter’s actions.

“She put a BLUE on… Oh my god! I don’t know if I should be proud of her flash of genius or worried to death. Those grenades were not meant to be used that way… Wait, how did she get them to begin with? They’re in… She hacked the door?! That’s my baby girl!”
“Really? She had access to a whole arsenal, at ten and you’re proud of her?” questioned Anderson.
“She’s ten but she understands it’s dangerous and to not mess with any of the stuff inside it. Jane and I were really clear about this kind of stuff from the beginning. What’s the stance of Kahlee on this. This is her Academy and ship…”
“She’s waiting for the team to come back with proof of the companies’ involvement to present them to the council.”

Rick nodded at EDI’s words and went to check on his children. When he saw the sleeping form on Arianna, he couldn’t help himself and simply laid down next to her and delicately pulled her in his embrace.

When the team came back home with the students’ family in the early morning, Jane and Ashley found him there and the sight was adorable. Father and daughter had shifted during the night. Rick was on his stomach sleeping soundly and so was Arianna but on his back drooling. Taking a picture for posterity they left them to sleep and went to their own room to get some rest.