Summary:
Liara T'Soni is a successful eezo miner who has an unusual encounter...

Notes:
Challenge Yourself: A Month Of Fanfiction 2017
Thursday 8/10's prompt: An AU

Alas, this is a standalone, and therefore not part of my Cari'ssi'mi continuity

Liara's eyes opened at the soft chime of the traffic alarm.

She took a deep breath as she scanned her instruments. She was on course, with all systems functioning. Consumables were nominal at this point in her circuit, twelve days into the fourteen that her ship could support. That wasn't exactly true, of course. A soloship carried enough oxygen for a sixteen day journey, but the last two were mandated by regulation and tradition to be for emergencies only. She knew many prospectors who regularly dipped into their emergency reserves, but she never would. Benezia had become wealthy through her skill at finding eezo. She'd retired young and happy by not taking unnecessary risks, a pattern of behavior she'd instilled into her daughter.

Having verified that there was no immediate threat, Liara swept the area, looking for the ship that had interrupted her meditation. Proximity sensors hadn't been tripped, so her ship must have detected the other ship's squawk. Sensors took about fifteen seconds to lock onto the other ship's position while she pulled up the information sent from their beacon.

'Hmm,' she thought. Terran registration. That was good news. She was more maneuverable than a Terran ship. Humans were so new to civilization that her ship was probably older than the rival she faced. Also, her biotics were easily superior to those of any human she'd ever heard of. If it came down to a standoff over a particularly rich eezo nodule, she should be fine.

The bad news was that she definitely faced a rival. The other ship was also a soloship. That meant prospector. That meant her potential find was at risk.

Liara considered her options. She was certain that the knot of asteroids ahead contained eezo. She had the crest for it, as her mother used to say. The other ship was slightly further away, but going slightly faster. Depending on how long the other pilot waited until turnover, they very well might get to the deposit before she would. It might be better to move on instead of risk confrontation.

Then again, she reminded herself, there could be enough eezo for all. A soloship could only hold about half a ton of eezo in their containment hold. If there were more eezo then that present, then she wouldn't have to return to Lucen Station empty handed. If she did get there first, she might yet be able to claim the whole prize.

She was still nearly four hours from turnover herself, so she had plenty of time to observe her opponent. The other ship was a spherical design, with a flattened bottom. The cockpit was in the front of the ship, against all logic. Why on Thessia would one place the passenger compartment in a position where it would be the part of the ship damaged in an impact? Liara's own ship was cylindrical. Her cockpit was a blister amidships, as only made sense. She preferred to fly with her ship slowly spinning to port, providing her with a rotating perspective of her surroundings, allowing her to view the entire sky every fifteen minutes or so.

Turnover came and went, her ship now slowing as she decelerated towards the asteroids. She kept waiting for the other to slow. An hour passed. Then another. Eventually the other ship's engines did fire, but they blazed eye searingly white, reaction mass incompletely ionizing as it poured out of the thrusters. Liara turned up her viewport opacity. She'd never seen someone fire their engines so excessively that the thrust produced visible light. It was an extraordinary waste of fuel. She had to admit, while she would never do such an idiotic thing herself, that it would give her opponent the advantage of getting to the asteroids first.

Several hours passed as Liara closed to intercept. She calmly ran her checklist, just finishing as she matched course and speed. The other ship was already moored to an asteroid, but she saw no evidence of biotic activity. She hoped that didn't mean she'd been wrong, and that there was no eezo. She hadn't returned with an empty hold in over one hundred and fifty expeditions. It would happen again eventually she knew, but she didn't look forward to the hazing she'd get from the other miners on the day that Liara T'Soni docked at Lucen without eezo.

She was effectively motionless with respect to a large asteroid close to the human ship. She fired a pair of mooring lines to secure herself. "Never a single line," mother always said.

She unbuckled from her flight couch for the first time in over a day, stretching each muscle group individually as she prepared her biotics for use. Eezo couldn't come into contact with refined alloys, not without risking an enormous energy discharge. That meant handling with biotics, and storing in magnetic containment. There was eezo nearby too, and a great deal of it. Now she could feel it interacting with the dark energy conduits in her body. This was a huge find. She'd get twenty holds full at least.

She looked across at the other ship, and still saw no indication of biotic activity. Strange. She threw a magnification enhancement over her cockpit window and saw motion in the opposing vessel's cockpit. One occupant, as expected. Asarioid, which in this case probably meant human. The other pilot was wearing an envirosuit!

She may be competitive, but she wasn't callous. Out here space was the enemy, not your fellow prospectors.

Liara slapped her emergency transmitter. The other pilot jumped, hitting their head on the top of their cabin. Their artigrav system was offline as well! "Human ship," Liara began. "Do you require aid?"

A projection materialized over her viewport. 'Thank the goddess,' she thought. 'At least something's working over there.' A human face swam into view, slightly obscured by the envirosuit's helmet.

The human was female, with reddish hair and pale skin. She also had an annoyed look on her face. "What'd you do that for?" She yelled. "I almost cracked my head open." She was uselessly rubbing her hand across the top of her helmet.

"Are you all right? Have you lost pressure? I offer assistance. I can supply you from my atmosphere reserve if you are in an emergency status."

The human waved her hand in dismissal. "I'm fine. I just went on suit pressure when my tanks ran dry."

"You ran your tanks dry?" Liara was dumbfounded. "How long until your circuit is over?" Liara had heard of prospectors embarking on survey cycles with less than full consumables. The idea was that the soloship could go further into the outer system as it had less mass to transport. The tradeoff was that the ship could stay on station for fewer days, as it would have less reaction mass to shape an orbit back to the inner system. Liara would never do it herself, but again, she knew pilots who did.

"Dunno," the human responded. "What day is it?"

"22 Tamil," replied Liara.

"22…," the human murmured. "Soon, I guess. I launched on 3 Tamil."

"Nineteen days!" She shouted at the image. "How could you stay out that long?" She shook her head. This human was obviously dangerously insane. "How have you survived nineteen days?"

The human shrugged, an oddly asari-like gesture when coming from an alien. "I've done this before. I trade off reaction mass for extra oxygen. I have to drift longer, but it means Hammy can take wider orbits."

"Hammy?"

"My ship. Hammy. Short for Space Hamster."

Liara looked closer at the vessel facing her. It did look a little like a space hamster. It seemed there were even whiskers painted on the sensor dome at the nose of the ship. She shook her head in dismissal of the distraction. "That's a violation of every outsystem regulation I know of, Human!"

"Shepard," the human replied, seeming nonplussed at Liara's intensity.

"What?"

"Name's Shepard. And you don't have to worry, I do this all the time." She paused, as she put her hand behind her neck and looked off camera. "OK, nineteen days is a while even for me…"

"How are you even alive?" She asked again.

"Oh, Hammy's modified. Extra O2 tank here, higher pressure reaction tanks there. I'm about ten percent over standard. Let's me bring in heavier loads too."

"Until you kill yourself!"

"Well, I haven't yet."

Liara covered her face. "I have to ask. Do you even happen to have enough mass to get back to Lucen?"

Shepard looked down. "I might have cut my reserve a little close with that intercept. I can make it back though."

Liara crossed her arms. "In how long, Shepard?"

"Four days, looks like."

"With cargo?" Liara had a suspicion that this human wouldn't leave with an empty hold, not with so much eezo available.

"Maybe… five?"

There was no way the human had five days of O2 left. She probably didn't even have four.

"Fine. Open your docking collar."

That got the human's attention. "What? Why?"

"I should think it would be obvious, Shepard. I am coming aboard."

The human looked around her cabin in panic. "What for?"

Liara sighed in frustration. "Because I am not going to let you die out here. We are going to transfer reaction mass from the Little Wing to your ship, after which we will each take on a load of eezo. Then I am going to escort you to Lucen, to make sure that you don't decide to add any more days to your circuit."

Shepard was dumbfounded. "Why would you do that?"

Liara silently begged the goddess for patience. "Because you are in distress, no matter that you will admit it or not."

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Thirty minutes later saw Liara in the cockpit on the human ship. It was larger than her own, but still not designed for two occupants. She had decided to provide the human with her entire atmospheric reserve, as well as a third of her remaining reaction mass. That was enough to allow them each to travel a direct route to Lucen, and for them to do so with holds full of eezo.

While Liara transferred consumables to the Space Hamster, Shepard brought eezo aboard both ships. The human had actually impressed Liara. Given the condition of her cabin, and her seemingly poor familiarity with safety protocols, Liara had expected her biotic technique to be equally sloppy. Instead Shepard had captured enormous nodules of eezo, and packed each hold as completely as Liara might have been able to herself. Perhaps this human wasn't as ill suited for this career as she thought.

"What brought you here, Shepard?" She finally asked, while they waited for the consumables transfer to complete.

"To Parnitha? It's the best mining in the quadrant."

"No," Liara twirled her finger, "Here. To these asteroids."

Shepard tilted her head. "There was eezo in them?"

Liara sighed. "And how did you know there was eezo in these particular asteroids?"

Shepard looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "I guess I just know? Sometimes I can feel it, sometimes it's only a hunch. I'm not really sure." She smiled. "But I never come back empty. Just like that T'Soni chick."

Liara just looked at her, flabbergasted.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm 'that T'Soni chick'."

"Awesome!"

Liara found herself blushing.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

The human couldn't be trusted to look after herself, that much was obvious. Liara decided that it was up to her to see after Shepard's well being. She did so under the guise of suggesting they work in cooperation with each other. They could cover twice as much area, and Liara could ensure that Shepard's seeming intrinsic penchant for risk taking didn't cost her her life. The human seemed remarkably amenable to the idea.

It turned out that it was overly difficult to try to coordinate circuits with Shepard. The human was always another million k further out than she was supposed to be, or a day late for scheduled rendezvous. Liara had finally given up on trying to control Shepard's wandering tendencies. They always made it back with full holds, but Liara often found that approach to be more trouble than it was worth.

Liara's fortunes continued to improve. Her recent successes had impressed even her mother. She'd sold her soloship and purchased a light freighter. Now she was capable of thirty day cycles (with a four day reserve) and could carry three tons of eezo in her hold.

Liara settled into her flight couch, and looked over at the navigator's station in her new ship. Shepard was sitting petulantly at the nav terminal, tugging at her sleeves. She had originally complained that the shipsuits aboard were too tight, that they fit too closely. Liara merely countered that the asari style jumpsuits fit female humans the same way they fit asari, and Liara had never had any reason to complain. In fact, Shepard had regularly commented on how exquisitely they clung to Liara's curves. Liara had to admit that the opposite was also true, another reason she'd felt no strong desire to replace them.

Liara never expected she'd end up with a partner, but the human's abilities couldn't be denied. Their combined skills had allowed them to amass eezo at a velocity she'd never imagined. It was enough that she'd given up her beloved soloship for a vessel that, while compact, had an actual bridge, galley, and even a separate sleeping cabin.

There was still only one bed.