A Child's Dream - Part 5

Emi woke up, but did not open her eyes. Pain filled her head and coloured lights were flashing in front of her blackened vision. It felt as if her entire body was hurting, being stabbed by a thousand boiling hot needles.
She rolled over, but the pain did not stop. So she obviously had not fallen asleep on a bed of spikes or something similar.
Emi slowly opened her eyes, "... Keelah..." she grumbled as her eyes started aching. There was not a part of her that didn't feel as if she had been dragged backwards through the stomach of a Thresher Maw.
She groaned in pain and wondered what on Earth had caused her to be hurting so much. Last night she had... talked to the people in the ambassadorial group then they had gone out... somewhere. But she couldn't for the life of her remember where she had been or what she had done.
Her mouth tasted foul. Bitter, even.
She quickly closed her eyes again due to the pain, but it didn't stop. She was hurting all over, with a massive fuzzy mess where the memories from last night should have been.
... Where was she?
She grimaced at the pain but forced herself to open her eyes again and sat up in bed. Despite the pain her body felt, the emotional hurt felt a lot more powerful. As it always did.
Emi was laying in a bed in a room. She had no idea where it was. It looked reasonable, though. The colours were nice - a gentle cream colour for the walls and the carpet had a slight tint of green. The bed seemed comfy, too. She could feel the springs in the mattress through her suit.
Her environment suit recognised that the air in the apartment contained not a single germ. Literally nothing. The only thing that was alive in the room was her.
Emi's Omni-tool was flashing so she activated it. The orange hologram flared into life and it nearly blinded her. She yelped and waited for her eyes to adjust.
Even though Quarian eyes were luminous - they created a chemical that made them glow - her eyes were still sensitive to other sources of light. Even more so as her eyes were hurting already.
It was a message from Rachel.
"Good morning! If you come across to the road back to the Meeting Room we'll see you there. It was awesome last night. You were great! - Rachel"
... Oh keelah. What had she done? Why couldn't she remember? Had she had her mind wiped? How did she get in the apartment?
She hoped to her ancestors that she had not done anything stupid. She did love humans, after all... Maybe she herself was blocking it out, subconsciously.
... wait.
Rachel had said the night had been 'awesome'... oh keelah what had she done? Please don't say she... with...
She swallowed.
"Please..." she begged herself, "... Please don't say you slept with Rachel..."
She would never forgive herself if she had. She loved humans, yes... But she promised herself not to do anything of the sort until she found someone who she loved...
It would have certainly explained why the room had no germs in, if it had already been decontaminated... But there was only one way to find out what had happened... She'd have to go and ask... But what if she was wrong? What if she made a fool of herself by asking whether she and Rachel had...
No. She'd walk in the Meeting Room and just ask everyone what had happened. It would be the safest thing to do and she'd find out what actually happened... no matter how embarrassing.
Why would she have slept with another girl, anyway? She, for sure, preferred the male of the species... But maybe if she had been drunk... Or maybe she had been drugged...
Fear overwhelmed her.
She climbed out of bed, groaning in pain from her fragile joints as they felt as if they were twice as heavy as normal, and had been hit several time by a hammer. Or something similar.
She disliked all the pain... It was like a war raging within her. Her blood felt to be on fire as it pumped around her body. The emotional pain of being without a lover, the physical pain from her... whatever had happened the night before, and the stab of guilt she felt for if she had done something actually bad.
She climbed to her feet, grimacing at the effort. Emi felt her suit's cleaning system activate and her skin was blasted by wave after wave of warm water. She giggled, as she always did. The warmth helped her physical pain. Almost soothing it. The sensation relaxed her and a few moments later, her suit's heating application activated. Not only did it dry her skin, but it also dissipated the water into the air as vapour.
Unfortunately, however, it didn't stop her heart aching. Nor her doubts and worries about what she could not remember.
She figured she had been drunk. The bad taste would fit, as would the fact she couldn't remember a thing. And her pain? A hangover. But as for what had happened...
She tried not to think about it until she'd know for sure.
After she was sure all the water had gone from inside her suit, Emi quickly used a cloth to wipe down the outside of it. Despite how she was feeling, she still smiled at the sensation of something running over her suit.
When she was finished, and her black and purple environment suit was almost shining, she pressed the circular hologram in the middle of the locking mechanism. She waited for a moment before it hissed open.
The light outside was almost blinding. She let out a string of Quarian curses and used her hand to try and filter the light away from her helmet.
The door slid shut behind her and she stepped out, grimacing more with every step she took.
She never realised it was so noisy. The birdsong in the trees hurt her ears, the shuttles that passed overhead almost deafened her and she couldn't help but yelping in pain as someone said good morning to her.
She crossed the road to the building that Gerald had taken her to. The one where she had met the ones of the ambassadorial club.
She pushed the door open slowly and managed to navigate herself back to the Meeting Room.
"Hello Emi," said Amy, "It's so nice of you to finally join us."
Emi squealed, "... Please not so loud... And I'm sorry I was... What happened last night?"
Rachel laughed, "You don't remember?"
Oh keelah oh keelah...
She shook her head, "... No..."
"We all got drunk," Tara pointed out, "But you had a glass of Turian wine and was absolutely pissed. You said some random things, fell off your chair, then Rachel and Rebecca took you home."
There were two? Keelah, keelah, keelah, keelah...
 "We managed to get you into your apartment then left," Rebecca shrugged, "Then I went to sleep."
"... That was it?"
Rachel nodded, "Of course. We weren't going to read you a bed time story."
Phew.
She blushed. She had been very stupid. Emi kind of knew, even when drunk, she wouldn't do anything like... that.
Or at least she hoped so.
Luckily her helmet hid her face, so she sat down and the discussions began.
"Today will be the first day of our discussions," Amy said, "I will propose a hypothesis and you will have to discuss it. That is how it normally works," she added for Emi's benefit, "Today we will be discussing the military power that the combined forces of the Alliance and the Migrant Fleet would have if they worked together. Gerald, start us off."
Gerald cleared his throat, "The Alliance is already one of the most powerful military assets in the galaxy. But the Quarians, however, have the largest fleet. They could be... almost unstoppable. But they choose not to be. Why?"
Emi shrugged, "... We're not like that... Everyone thinks we are after what happened with the Geth... To be honest, we're more bothered about trying to make the Flotilla continue rather than fighting. Yes, there is still a war, but we're only pumping a small amount of ships into it... I think. Or at least that's what I heard..."
"But if the Alliance and the Quarians were to work together, we could provide great help in the fight against the Reapers, which are due to return any day now."
"... Come on," said Rachel, "Everyone knows they don't exist."
"So tell me why the Normandy SR-2 just crossed into Collector space, hm? Something had been abducting human colonies."
"The Normandy was flying Cerberus colours. And no one ever knows what Cerberus are up to," argued Rebecca.
"... What's the 'Normandy'?" Emi asked.
"The Normandy SR-2? One of the most legendary frigates of all time?" Gerald questioned.
"... I've never heard of it..."
"It's captain is Commander Shepard. Heard of him?"
"... No..."
Gerald sighed, "Commander Shepard is one of the greatest Alliance heroes of all time. He saved the Citadel from the Geth, destroyed the Reaper called Sovereign, then the Normandy SR-1 was taken out by a Collector ship. He was rebuilt by Cerberus and then started working with them. But I'm sure he'll come back to the Alliance. Eventually."

The conversation drifted in and out of topic. The point, she realised, to politics, was that it didn't matter what you said, as long as you had something to say. She had heard lies about the Geth being thrown around. She corrected them, of course, but the majority of the things the humans were saying weren't true.
She didn't understand the philosophy behind it. They were discussing things that weren't true for no reason... but she was enjoying it. It wasn't all work. She enjoyed discussing things with the human ambassadorial people.
Soon after an hour of discussion had passed, the conversation had swapped to what happened the night before.
"You were hilarious," Rachel pointed out, "But a bit of advice, never have any wine again."
"... I honestly never will... I felt horrible... Still do..."
"Happens to everyone the first time," said Tara, "Don't worry you'll get used to it."
"... I'm not sure I want to... Next time we go out, could I have a glass of water or something?"
"Sure."
"... Though I might make the night exciting with a biscuit every now and then..."
"You don't have a good idea of how to have fun, do you?" Gerald grinned.
"... It's not that, it's just..."
"What do you find fun, Emi?" Rachel asked. She was frowning slightly, perhaps at her dislike of alcohol. Her forehead was creased, in any case.
"... I like reading."
"Favourite book?"
"... A Child's Dream by C.J. Harriet... It's so good..."
"... If I'm not mistaken," Amy said, "Isn't that the one with... Keli'Ria? With the Commander too?"
Emi nodded, "... That's the one... Have you read it?"
"Read it? The author is my best friend!"
"... Seriously?"
"Yeah! Catherine Jennifer Harriet. We used to go to school together and have been friends for about twenty years now."
"... Oh keelah... Does that mean...? You could...?"
"You want to meet her?"
Emi nodded.
"I'll message her when we're done. I did actually like the story. What was your favourite chapter?"
Emi smiled in her helmet. A lot. She was going to meet the author of her favourite book! On Earth! Her two favourite things at the same time... It was amazing.
Then Amy's question clicked in her mind and she couldn't help but blushing. "... Chapter thirty five..." she said, embarrassed, "... It's a good chapter..."
"Now if you're quite done talking about a romantic book," Toby sighed, "I'd like to crack on."
"But... The official starting date isn't until next week," said Rebecca, "We don't even have to be here... I say we go out. Take Emi on her first shopping trip!"
Gerald nodded, slowly, "We'll go finish playing Golf then. Come on Toby, see if you can get a par."

"... What are we doing here?" asked Emi as she looked into the shop window. Mannequins based on Quarian anatomy were stood completely still behind the glass, wearing different accessories for their environment suits.
"Hey," Tara responded, "This is the only Quarian shop in the northern hemisphere. You should be glad it's only up our road."
"... What does it sell?" Emi questioned nervously.
"Style items for Quarians," grinned Amy, "Come on."

The shop was full, seriously full, of different attachments to environment suits and other accessories. Transfers to make an environment suit look colourful, bracelets, necklaces... the list was nearly endless.
She decided to buy a beautiful gold ring with a small, but pretty, blue gemstone on. The stone reflected the light and cast rainbow colours all over the room. It was great. The gem felt smooth and yet angled as she gently stroked it with her thumb. It fit perfectly on her finger.
It would only cost her... three thousand credits. Keelah... that was a lot... but it was so beautiful. She couldn't resist... how much money did she have? Her account on Migrant Fleet said... twelve thousand credits? But she was being paid for being an ambassador so maybe a little bit more had been added. So she had more than enough to buy the lovely jewel.
But what else should she buy? There was so many things to choose from... skirts to fit on the lower half of her environment suit, patterned visors, a few suit programmes that sounded interesting...
Her first time shopping and she felt like she could spend all of her credits in a single place. There was so much choice.
She bought a replacement skirt - patterned with the colours dark purple and black, alike to the one she currently wore. It would work as a spare.
"... What kind of shops do you normally go in?" Emi asked Rachel, "I doubt you go shopping for Quarians..."
Rachel shrugged, "No specific shops, actually. Lots of different ones."
"... Would you like to go to some? I mean... I love it here but it isn't Earth fashion... I want to find out what humans wear..."
"Sure. Once you pay for your ring and skirt we'll go to Savannah, one of my favourite clothes shops. It's just across the road."
Emi nodded enthusiastically and went to the terminal to pay for her ring and her skirt. It came to a grand total of three thousand, two hundred credits. It was expensive, but nice. As soon as she had paid, she fitted the ring on to her finger. A bag was automatically dispatched from the terminal for her skirt. She put the item of clothing into the bag, the handles of which fit very nicely in the palm of her hand.
"Let's go," Rachel said, then called to the rest of the group, "Come on!"