The Diomedian Chronicles: Internal Maintenance

The Diomedan Chronicles: Internal Maintenance is a short Mass Effect fanfiction story written by Gnostic, and featuring Gwendolyn Diomedes, the character created by Cookiegobbler.

Part 1
There's only one real law on Omega: Don't fuck with Aria. It was easy to remember, and for most of the space station's residents, easy to follow.

Of course, there's not much else in the way of law and order on the station. If one of the many factions decided that they wanted someone imprisoned, that person had very little recourse. The notion of habeas corpus had never really caught on. There was no recitation of one's rights, no free phone call. And strip searches were pretty much a given.

And so it was that Gwendolyn Diomedes, the lost apostle of Archangel, found herself in a Blue Suns holding cell, with not even the clothes on her back.

Not long ago, she'd been one of the followers of Archangel, a turian who had set himself up as a vigilante on Omega. His career had been brief but alarmingly successful, so much so that the three major factions of Omega - the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and the Blood Pack - had put aside their ancient rivalries to work together at destroying him and his gang. But then he was betrayed by one of his own. His followers had been slaughtered, and only Gwen and Archangel himself had survived.

Gwen had sought revenge, naturally. She had spent several weeks trying to figure out ways to destroy the gangs, to finish up Archangel's work. But she was only one girl, and crime was so deeply ingrained in Omega. She wasn't even able to kill one Blue Suns mercenary before getting caught.

"You ever been in jail before, hon?" Thankfully, the Suns saw themselves as being somewhat above the other gangs, so Gwen's interrogator was not some leering creep, but rather a bored-looking woman who appeared to be in her early forties.

"No," Gwen replied.

The woman sighed. "I have to check you for any hidden weapons. Spread your legs..."

The cavity search was mercifully brief, but still unpleasant. The woman seemed not the least bit interested in exploiting Gwen, but a few male Suns showed up and decided to loudly speculate on Gwen's lack of pubic hair. Making matters worse, when one of the men suggested that Gwen must be a prostitute, and must have shaved down there in order to attract clients, the woman noted that Gwen appeared to be a virgin, which only seemed to encourage the men to make even cruder remarks.

By the time the ordeal came to an end, and Gwen was led to a cell, dressed only in a tunic that barely came down to her hips, she was on the verge of tears. She curled into a ball, vowing repeatedly that she would never give herself to any man unless she was reunited with her beloved Archangel, until exhaustion overcame her.

Part 2
"Poor thing. She's feverish..."

"So who do you suppose she is?"

In the strange corridor between sleep and awakening, the voices seemed to swirl about Gwen, sounding eerie and threatening. Feeling someone touching her forehead, she wrenched herself awake. Two hands grasped her arms, and she instinctively fought, thrashing about like a fish.

"Easy, babe. We're not going to hurt you..." The voice was feminine, but husky, with an accent that somehow reminded Gwen of her childhood, when her parents took her to Mindoir. When her vision finally cleared, Gwen saw that she was being held down by an older woman, lean but muscular, with black eyes and black hair tied in a bun.

"Where am I?" Gwen asked. Her throat felt dry.

"Prison." Gwen turned towards the source of this new voice, and saw a slender, pale blonde girl who looked only slightly older than Gwen herself.

The memories of the day before came back, unbidden. "Oh. Right." She looked around. "This doesn't look like the cell I was in..."

"You're in the hospital wing," a third woman said. Blonde and well-groomed, she had obviously been a doctor before events had landed her here. "You fell ill just after being inspected. I'm guessing you picked up some minor infection out there on the streets and it finally caught up to you. But you seem to be through the worst of it."

"How long was I out?"

"A day or two."

"Well, thanks for the help, Doctor...?"

"Mobious. Lorelei Mobious. Though I'm not actually licensed to practice medicine on Omega, so I don't know if the title actually applies..."

"Let's just pretend that it does, Doc," the strong woman said. She turned to Gwen. "Do you have a name, babe?"

"Gwen."

The woman smiled and extended her hand. "Well, pleased to meet you. I'm Emmanuelle-"

"Segonia," Gwen blurted out.

The woman looked slightly alarmed. "Excuse me?"

"I was trying to think of where I'd heard your accent before. It just came to me - you're from Segonia, aren't you? On Mindoir."

There was a long, awkward pause. "How did you know that?" the woman demanded.

"I was there... years ago."

"No one has visited there in years. The batarians destroyed it."

Gwen realized that she'd said something she shouldn't have. It also occurred to her that Emmanuelle did not look like the type who enjoyed coincidences.

Thankfully, the young blonde intervened. "Boss, if she's up, we need to take her back to the cell."

"Hrrm. Yes." She looked at Gwen. "Come on."

As they left the hospital wing, the blonde girl slipped in behind Gwen. "For future reference, never suprise the big girls," she said.

"Thanks for the save," Gwen murmured sheepishly. "I don't believe I caught your name."

"It's Alvy."

"Well, I owe you one."

"I'd be careful about saying that. Some girls might take you up on an offer like that. Besides, the Man wouldn't really have harmed you. She's one of the good ones."

"What's she in for?"

"Few weeks ago, some psycho tore through the Bhut - that's one of Omega's worst slums - and killed a bunch of pimps and johns. Now, I'm all for killing assholes who prey on women, but then the psycho started going overboard and started bombing the brothels. The Man showed up and fought the psycho bitch, finally convincing her that it was time to go."

"Doesn't sound like she belongs in a prison, then."

"If there were any justice on this world, they'd throw her a parade. But this is Omega, and she happens to have a rich asari girlfriend, so the Suns are claiming that she ought to pay to repair the damage caused by her fight with the psycho bitch. Assholes."

"What about the Doc?"

"Mobious? She committed the grave crime of working for a free clinic. One of the Suns tried to convince her to do some, erm, 'private practice' work, and she refused."

"They throw you in jail for that?" Gwen was appalled.

"Normally, no. But two days later, he just stopped breathing. When the Suns put two and two together, they rounded her up. She didn't even deny it."

Gwen looked at Mobious. She didn't look like the type who could kill someone so coldly, but then, Gwen was admittedly unsure of what a cold-blooded killer should look like.

"So what are you in for, red?" Alvy asked.

"The Blue Suns killed all my friends. I tried to kill them back. I missed. What about you?"

"I was young and stupid, and hooked up with a mechanic from the Suns. The idiot developed a red sand problem, and started selling Blue Suns equipment on the black market. I was supposed to stay here till he paid the Suns back for the equipment, but then the stupid bastard OD'd. So I've been here for two years, and I have no idea when they plan to let me out."

"That's horrible!" Gwen said.

"No, honey. it's just Omega."

They arrived back at the cell they shared with Doc and the Man. Gwen wondered how quickly she'd get used to it.

Part 3
Days passed, and the terrors of the Blue Suns' prison became mere annoyances.

Part X
It was late one night when Alvy decided to raise the stakes. She dropped down from her bunk and deftly slipped behind Gwen on her bunk.

Gwen awoke feeling arms around her waist and someone's cheek against her own. She found the experience surprisingly pleasant. "Hey," she said.

"You looked cold," Alvy whispered in her ear, "I thought I might warm you up."

Gwen snorted. "I would have thought you could come up with a better excuse to spoon me."

From the other end of the cell, Emmanuelle stirred and looked at the two girls suspiciously. Lorelei followed, though her expression was more quizzical.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Emmanuelle asked, smirking.

"Erm..."

"Need any help, Gwen?"

Gwen blushed. "No, ma'am."

Emmanuelle rolled over to go back to sleep. "Carry on, then." She paused. "Stop staring at them, Doc." Lorelei soon returned to her own sleep, or at least appeared to.

Their privacy thus vouchsafed for the moment, Gwen turned herself around in Alvy's embrace so that they were now facing each other. "Alvy... look. I'm not..."

"A lesbian?"

"... Actually, I was going to say that I'm not sure..."

"Not sure about what?"

"About anything." Gwen sighed and looked away. "My memories only go back a couple of months. Past that, it's a whole lot of black, and then, somewhere in the distance, Mindoir." She felt a sudden pain in her chest. "I'm not even sure I'm human." It was only after she said the words that she realized how much pain had underlied those suspicions.

Alvy gently brushed Gwen's cheek with her hand. "Well, whatever you are, I like you."

It took a second for the words to sink in, but when they did, Gwen started to cry. It would later occur to her that in that moment, she'd reached back into her memory to find some precedent of being told that she was loved simply for who she was, to try and figure out how she should react, but found nothing. Not even her beloved Archangel had said those words to her.

Sensing her distress, Alvy pulled her into a tighter embrace. She clung to Alvy for dear life.

Finally, she broke the embrace, backing up against a wall. "Fuck," she cursed.

"You alright, baby?"

"I hate myself."

Alvy kissed her just then. At first, the feeling of someone else's lips pressed to hers alarmed her, and she thought to resist. But it felt good. Her heart raced, and her pulse quickened. If she were honest with herself, she would have been obligated to concede that her life to date had few pleasures.

After what seemed like a long time, Alvy broke the kiss, punctuating it with a shorter, smaller kiss. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I probably should have asked."

"That was my first kiss, I think."

"Hopefully not the last?"

Gwen looked into Alvy's eyes, but she wasn't sure what she was looking for within them. She felt afraid and overwhelmed, but she also realized that she didn't want to face those fears alone. Finally, she made a decision.

She grabbed Alvy's collar, reeled her in, and kissed her lips. Alvy took the initiative and pinned her against the wall with one hand. Her lips strayed from Gwen's and started travelling across Gwen's cheek and down her neck. Her free hand caressed the underside of Gwen's breast through her shirt. Gwen grabbed the hand and held it against her breast. Her heart was a mad rabbit struggling against its cage. ''Oh God. Sweet, merciful God...'' She moaned.

Alvy kissed her way back up Gwen's neck until her lips were perched at her ear. "We only have a few minutes till the guards come back."