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

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





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.