Landfall on Illium

Illium’s warm, crisp evening air wafted against my skin. It was so different from the cool, recycled air I’d lived with during my time on ships. People who were born and lived their whole lives on planets couldn’t understand just how freeing it was to have the light of a sun and the other stars in the sky shine upon them through something that wasn’t a window or a video screen.

“Welcome to Illium, Admiral Shepard.”

A tall, serene Asari greeted my mother. She was dressed in a smart, elegant business suit that the professionals of her species were so fond of. Asari were far more open with sex than other species, and so it was no surprise to me that the woman showed her ample blue cleavage, almost down to her nipples.

A few of the marines assigned to my mother’s security detail gawked openly before Ashley reprimanded them. She was in charge of the marine detachment of eight. I was glad she was with us.

The dark-haired marine and I hadn’t spoken since she’d given me Jane’s final gift. The pen-like object rested comfortably in my pocket. Something about its presence was reassuring.

Ashley caught my eye. The beautiful brunette looked absolutely ravishing even decked out in her hardsuit. A large **** rifle and a shotgun adorned her suit, held on her back by magnetic strips. She gave me a smile that seemed almost too familiar. One of the marines under her command glanced at me questioningly.

"Telford, eyes front!" Ashley barked.

The curious marine immediately looked away from me.

I chuckled. Ashley winked at me.

“Thank you,” my mother began. She’d ditched her form-fitting jumpsuit for a more formal dress. It hugged her soft curves instead of wrapping around them like a tight glove as the jumpsuit had. I couldn’t help but stare at her for a few moments. Her big, fat ass enthralled me as it swayed and jiggled. I made sure to stay right behind her. “I assume all of our arrangements have been taken care of?”

The Asari nodded. Her large breasts jiggled slightly with the movement.

“Yes, ma’am. Your rooms have been prepared for you and all of your belongings are being transferred there as we speak. I’ve been instructed by my mistress to offer you a tour of the area if it strikes your fancy, but we can postpone it if you would rather rest. I’ve heard you had a long journey.”

Hannah Shepard nodded.

“That’s true. We’ll stop at the hotel for the time being while we figure out what to do for the rest of the night.”

“Very good, ma’am,” the Asari gestured to a large walkway beyond the security perimeter that served as the edge of the docks. People of various species walked there. It reminded me a little of the Citadel. “The hotel is but a block away from here by foot.”

My mother nodded.

“Thank you. What’s your name, miss?”

“Oh, I’m Careena. I work as a concierge for Liara T'Soni, as you probably know,” the alien woman said, looking somewhat surprised. Maybe she wasn’t used to important people asking for her name. I’d seen her reaction a few times on the faces of people my mother spoke to. She always liked to know who was helping her, even if it was just a waiter in a restaurant on a world she’d never visit again. Jane had gotten that from her.

Wait a minute, did she say Liara T'Soni? That name sounded very familiar.

“Well, Careena. I think we’re all about ready to see our rooms, so lead the way.”

Careena nodded. "Yes ma'am. Follow me. We will be there shortly."

Our walk to the hotel didn’t take long. I wished it had. It wasn’t every day that I got to relax and just stare at my mother’s rear as she walked. I hated myself for doing it. There was something wrong with me, obviously, but the wrongness of what I was doing somehow made it harder for me to stop doing it. It didn't make sense at all.

On the plus side, I managed to get a few words in with Ashley. She was very friendly towards me. I knew she must have been missing my sister, but it still felt a little strange. She looked at me as if we'd known each other for a long time instead of an hour. It was like there was something deeply intimate she knew about me, but wouldn’t share. I wasn’t going to complain, though. Maybe there was a chance she liked Jane Shepard’s younger brother enough to throw a little sex his way. A guy could dream, right?

I chuckled. Yeah, the odds of that happening were pretty slim. I did like that she was simultaneously strict with her marines and friendly and open with me. For some reason, that turned me on. Maybe I had a thing for women in uniform.

An hour or so later, my mother and I sat at one of the tables in the hotel’s built-in restaurant. The marines had been lead to their rooms and were settling in. I noticed that there were more humans in here than Asari. Even the restaurant’s name was human: “Shanxi Sunrise.” I wondered if this hotel had any Turian customers and what they felt about that. From what Jane had told me, the First Contact War was as much a touchy subject for the Turians as it was for us.

“Yeah, Illium really is beautiful,” I said. “I think I’m gonna like it here.”

My mother smirked at me.

“Hm. I’m sure that has nothing to with all the beautiful blue women everywhere,” she said. She cut a piece of her juicy steak. We’d been told it was from a mammal native to Illium. The kesponia. I found pictures of it on the extranet with my omni-tool while we were waiting for our meals. A kesponia looked like a cross between a horse and cow, but with dark green fur. A lot of humans forgot in their realization of other intelligent species in the galaxy that there was multitudes more, non-sapient animals that people had never seen before. Or eaten, apparently.

Mom plopped the bit of meat into her mouth. She chewed for a few moments before swallowing. I followed the bulge in her smooth, pale throat as it made its way down.

“Well, that’s one of the benefits to be sure. I’ve never seen so many beautiful women in one place. Not even the Citadel had this many Asari so close together.”

Mom raised a red eyebrow at me.

“Should I be expecting you to bring a girlfriend to the hotel at some point this month?” she asked.

I chuckled.

“Mom, that was one time. And she wasn’t my girlfriend or anything.”

She smirked again. Her emerald eyes glimmered with amusement. She took a sip of her red Thessian wine. It was her third glass.

“That’s not what she said. John, how many girls’ hearts are you going to break before you start actually dating people?”

I rolled my eyes at her. Amiri and I had just happened. It wasn’t my fault we were both drunk and wanted to have a good time. She stayed the night at our hotel and decided she wanted to mess with me a little and pose as my girlfriend. Mom hadn’t been happy when I denied that we were together. I wondered if she’d ever been with a man since Dad had died. I certainly hadn’t met any suitors of hers, if they existed.

“It's kinda hard to date when I'm constantly moving all over the galaxy. Besides, I’m only twenty,” I said.

That only seemed to make her more determined to press the issue.

“So? That’s no excuse for you to just have casual flings with women. Your father and I were both military and we managed to make it work," she pressed further. "Don’t you want something more serious, like your father and I had? Hell, are you ever going to give me grandkids?”

“Oh, so that’s what this is about. You just want grandkids,” I said. I took a sip of my wine. It was nice and sweet. I didn’t feel a buzz yet, but Mom seemed to be having a reaction.

“Exactly. Why else would I give birth to you if not so you’d give me cute little grandkids one day?” she raised her fork threateningly, like an ultimatum. I wondered if other people’s moms were so casually violent. Then again, my mother destroyed humanity’s enemies for a living, so a fork must have seemed the more peaceful option when compared with the main guns of the SSV Everest.

I sighed.

“Okay. I promise I’ll settle down and give you grandkids,” I said.

Her lips twitched into a self-satisfied grin.

“Eventually.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. She leaned towards me, exposing her deep white cleavage. Damn, it was so hard not to look down at her huge breasts. I was tempted to surreptitiously engage the vid recording program on my omni-tool.

“Wise ass,” she muttered. She sank back into her seat after a few moments of giving me one of the best peep shows she ever had.

There was really something wrong with me to be checking out my own mother’s body.

She stared at me for a long moment. Her smile disappeared from her face. Her eyes grew hard and cold.

“I’ve made plans for tomorrow morning, so you probably won’t see me until late afternoon at the earliest. Try not to get yourself into any trouble while I’m gone,” she put her fork down, apparently finished with her meal. She raised her hand for the check.

“What’s going on tomorrow?” I said.

Mom raised her eyebrows at me. I recognized the gesture. It was the sort of thing she’d do whenever she had military matters to attend to. But what could she possibly have to do on Illium that would warrant that, especially while she was on leave?

“Just a few matters I have to attend to. Nothing serious,” she lied.

I shook my head. I didn’t know why I ever thought this trip would have been different from any of the others. I buried the hurt that threatened to show on my face.

As I watched my mother pay for our meals, I decided that I was going to try to find out what was going on. I was sick of my mother putting her job before spending time with me, even if I knew intellectually just how important her job was. Jane and Dad were dead, and she was the only person I had left. I didn't want to lose her, too.

Jane’s gift pulsed warmly in my pocket.

The door to my hotel room closed with a swish. The first area of my “room” was actually a rather spacious lounge. Couches and chairs adorned the room, surrounding a large vid screen that adorned the far wall. My luggage sat in the corner, near a another closed door. My bedroom, maybe?

"Way too many furnishings for one person," I muttered, trying to grasp exactly how expensive this room might have been. Mom certainly wasn't hurting for money, but she was never one to spend it frivolously. What had been going through her mind when she booked my room?

A kitchen hung in the back, complete with a bar with cushioned stools sitting in front of it. Large windows in the back of the kitchen showed the glittering Illium cityscape. It looked so much more massive and beautiful than it had from the viewport on the Saratoga. The sapphire-white glow of the distant buildings and fast skycars illuminated my living space.

Well, if I was going to get an expensive room, or set of rooms, then I was going to take full advantage of it. I kicked off my shoes and walked over to the couch. I let myself fall ass-first into the cushions and laid down. I let out a comforted sigh as I sank into the cushions, which conformed around me in just the right way. I was glad to finally be able to rest. Even though it was technically morning for me, it'd been a while since I'd last slept.

My eyes were starting to drift shut before a low chime sounded from my door.

“Hm?” I blinked.

The door chimed again. Who could that have been? Maybe Mom wanted to get in a few more words before she went to sleep? If so, then I couldn't just ignore her.

I sighed and got up. I headed for the door.

A holographic vid screen winked on in front of me, showing me the feed from the door’s exterior camera.

“Ashley?”

Ashley Williams had ditched her hardsuit for a form-fitting blue Alliance jumpsuit like the one my mother had worn earlier. Her perky breasts strained the thin material of the outfit.

“She’s not even wearing a bra.”

I could see her nipples poking at the jumpsuit. They were hard. Holy fuck.

My manhood hardened. I knew there was no way she'd come here for a booty call and that there had to be some other explanation for why she was here dressed the way she was. She had to have known how she looked, right? How all of this looked?

I swallowed nervously and opened the door.

"Ashley. It's uh, nice to see you."

Don't look down. Don't look down. Shit, I looked down. Did she notice?

“Hey John,” Ashley smiled. Damn, she was beautiful. She glanced behind me meaningfully. “Can I come in for a minute?”