Loyalties:
I don't own "Mass Effect" or its characters, all trademarks and characters are the properties of their legal owners. The tribute "Blue Heart" is the fruit of my imagination. For any total or partial use, please ask permission.
Author's Note - This story is my way of saying thank you to a greatly appreciated "travel mate", for the support and valuable help I am receiving since the beginning, and step by step, in this pleasant adventure.
Thank you, Faith for everything! :))
Well, few words about the story. The main character is Liara. However, many of the ME Trilogy's characters will take part in more or less extent way. Of course, the plot is inspired by the game, but events can be pretty out of canon, and with some original characters.
Occasional references to my story, "At dawn again!" will be present, but it is not strictly necessary you have read it. However, I am planning a future update for "At dawn again" to make the two stories as integrated as possible.
Unless at your request to the Italian version, the "Blue Heart" is only in English.
English is actually not my first language. So, please, be patient with me for mistakes :)
Many thanks everybody for reading. Enjoy! :D
Blue Heart
Chapter 1
The paralysis of the heart
… "If I knew it would be the last time... I would've broke my heart in two, tryin' to save a part of you..." (Lady Gaga – I'll never love again – From A Star is Born)
Liara's eyelids move, vibrate, reluctantly rise, and all that was dark before, suddenly lights. The sunlight is clear, warm, and nicely softened thanks to the darkened window panes.
The large window, overlooking the Meridian Place balcony, is disproportionately large for the size of the room. Just as the eyes of the young Asari are disproportionately sad for the beauty of her face. Liara blinks, absently. Her eyes mechanically provide her with a lot of unsolicited information.
From this perspective, everything seems quiet on the Station, usual. There is no sign of the damage caused by the recent fighting against Saren and the Sovereign. However, things can radically change their appearance, depending on one's perspective, or depending on the eye of the beholder.
Liara's ears are awakened by the muffled sound of busy footsteps. Metallic sounds and distant voices come from behind the closed door of the small room and unadorned. The mind of the girl, however, is inert, passive, as if stranded in the mud. She realizes she is at the Huerta Memorial. It is not a real thought, but rather a sort of mental reflex. The only tangible things, certain and identifiable, are the signals she is receiving from her own body, right here and now.
The feeling of being motionless, and lying in an uncomfortable bed is the first information. Then, the exhaustion, inner silence and a great void where she feels herself drop. It is like an abyss, dark and deep, embedded in the soul, in which Liara is going down in free-fall, never ending. She can perceive her internal organs to be shrunk and deformed in the fall, and the unmistakable urge to crash into the ground. She just wants to close her eyes and stop from falling.
Two days have passed since the attack. Two days, which seems a century long. Two days as fast as the beating of a wing, started and finished in a heartbeat of a broken heart. However, time is still passing, useless and silent. The hiss of the door hits Liara's indolent ears, and calls her attention, listlessly. The heavy slab steel slides away with a dull sound, showing a figure waiting on the doorstep.
Councilor Anderson's face is tired, tensed. Dark and deep circles furrow his intense dark eyes. His expression is worn out, mournful. He looks very aged in a few days. Perhaps is the beard too long that makes rough his droopy cheeks. Or is because of his back, slightly bent under the weight of despair. Maybe, for a combination of both reasons, actually, it sounds clear he is suffering and probably has not slept in days.
Silence. Anderson's heart speeds up, then winces painfully, in a burst of affectionate compassion, and sincere. The former Alliance Captain is determined to win his most arduous battle. He tries to gather every fiber of his proverbial courage, as ignores the pit in his stomach. He does not care about the extreme heaviness, which has actually turned his legs into pieces of stone. He imposes himself to move the first step with every beating of energy he can find. Thanks the very last shred of strength remained in his body, he enters the room.
The young Asari is still, in the whiteness of the sheets. The clear eyes of hers are big, and sadly wide open in David's desolate eyes. Liara stares at him, but she does not watch him. She looks like a goddess. Pale, detached from reality, and incredibly sad. Her mind flees from time, hovers ethereal, light years away from everything, like wrapped in another dimension. Her consciousness has been trapped, like imprisoned in an obscure dome of desolation from which it does not want to escape.
Anderson approaches slowly. He carefully takes the chair against the wall and places it close to the bed, shyly. He sits down. The words trudge in his throat, struggling to find the way of the voice. He has a great deal of respect for Liara, and feels endless solidarity for her pain. Moreover, due to the great affection he has for Shepard, he feels obliged to do something for Liara. He would like to bring her a shred of solace, help, relief, but... inside himself is more than aware that, the only thing able to lift Liara would be to bring Shepard back... alive!
David clears his throat, "Hallo, Liara, I've a message for you from Tali'Zorah." He says, cautiously. Then, he smiles, trying to sound positive."You know, she was anxious to let you know she's missing you, and she's sorry not to be here!" He adds, gently. "Tali's got a leg injury, but don't worry, nothing to write home about."
David pauses, carefully observing Liara's reaction, who continues to seem completely away. He does his best to hold back a sigh of frustration, as returns talking, calmly. "However, Tali's suit was badly damaged. The doctors urged her to reach the Flotilla as soon as possible. She is going to get all the care needed for her full recovery. You know, a Quarian medical shuttle picked Tali up, earlier this morning. She will be fine!" he nods, confidently.
Liara's eyes have never stopped staring at him, exactly the same way. No emotion, no reaction. David is really shaken up. Shepard's terrible fate is tearing his heart apart. In addition, Liara's behavior, and David's own unbearable feeling of helplessness, causes him a sort of interior desolation. That's making him feel completely ill at ease. Nonetheless, he desperately tries to get any reaction from the girl. To finally force her out of her stubborn refusal to see the truth.
"You know, I wish I could tell you that we found her, but... unfortunately, there's nothing yet!" David sighs wearily, letting himself drop softly on the chair, before continuing, seriously. The furrowed brows in the soft morning light. "I don't hide from you that the Council's been using its clout because we stop looking for her!"
Truth be told, no one would be able to guess the pain in his voice, nor anger. However, his tone does not sound like an Alliance Captain, who is trying to bring his best soldier back. It seems rather the hope of a father, who fights against the obvious, and desperately imposes himself to continue to hope that one day, he will see his daughter return home.
"They're idiots! They firmly refuse to accept anything to do with the Reapers! Ha, they say a lot of bullshit!" He suddenly goes off, as quickly passes a hand over his face. The man tries immediately to calm himself down, lowering his tone.
"They want public opinion to be convinced that the Reapers don't exist!" He sighs, bitterly. "The Council says there's no invincible threat hanging over our Galaxy. So, they're going to bury their heads in the fucking sand!" He huffs in disappointment, trying to explain to Liara the paradoxical situation.
"The Council is trying to make all the responsibility for the attack back on the Citadel on Saren betrayal and the Geth. Probably, without hard evidence, and without..." Anderson wavers a bit around a name too hard even to say, "without the intervention of Shepard... they'll succeed!" He admits tiredly, with a long sigh of resignation.
The Councilor cannot tell if Liara is listening. The girl does not speak nor move. The eyes of hers still wide open have not changed. No emotion, no reaction. David feels oppressed by his own inadequacy. He is tired, frustrated, but grits his teeth and straightens up in the chair, with renewed vigor. Then, he looks at Liara again, sweetly.
"Of course, I'll continue to oppose the Council decision!" He assures, vehemently. "But, in spite of my position as a Councilor, I fear my opinion on this matter counts less than nothing!" he adds, shrugging.
"But, you needn't worry because, I won't stop fighting with all my strength, until Shepard is found and brought home!" He said with fierce determination.
Then he smiles again, softening his gaze. "You know, maybe there's good news! I spoke to Admiral Hackett, he's a good man, and a friend. He promised me to keep looking for Shepard for another three days, despite the Council's veto! Well, I know it's not much, but that's all he can offer us, if we're hoping to avoid a diplomatic incident."
The man watches again in the extra bright and extra blue gaze of Liara. No emotion, no reaction. Then, the eyes of the Councilor become even more intense, the resolve in his vibrant voice grows, increasingly.
"Don't be afraid, Liara, if these three days were not enough, I'll ask Udina to replace me on the Council. Ha, I'm sure he would jump for joy at the opportunity!" He grins, before his face comes serious again.
"Anyway, I'm going to take a leave of absence, and I'll personally look for her." Anderson's voice is warm, eyes are shining in steadfastness. "You know, I've two sons I love, but... Shepard..." He sighs.
The man pauses for a moment. A slight smile softens his cheeks, and reflects in his eyes moist with emotion. "Well, she has always been like a daughter to me, the most special I could wish for! I won't stop until I find her!" David ensures, nodding to Liara his belief. The right hand clenched in a fist of willpower and deep feeling.
The moment the silence wraps the room back, Anderson gets up. His hand lands instinctively on Liara's hand, abandoned between the sheets. That's a small, comforting act of kindness, highlighted by the touching sound of his words.
"You know, I can understand your feelings. I really mean! This whole situation is breaking my heart! Please, you dear girl, take heart! I don't know what happened to Shepard! I have no idea if she's still alive, but with all my heart, I hope she is! However, there's one thing I know for sure... she would never bear to see you like this!" David's voice is soft, encouraging. He gently looks at Liara, ignoring the penetrating pain in his stomach, and the wild attempt of his heart to run away.
"I have to go, now. Try to get some rest. I see you tomorrow." The Counselor Anderson smiles again, while the door closes.
Liara is left alone, in the silence of her small room. She lies still, in the whiteness of the sheets. The soft light caresses her face, pale and dull. However, while she stares an indefinite point, light years away from reality, warm tears fill with dew her wide, windy eyes.
Minutes chase each other, by day, by night. All looking alike. Seconds overlap, and accumulate, silently. There is a hedge of mist high up to the sky, which surrounds Liara's mind to get every thought hidden. The time before stands still, and then expands itself, as projected in a single instant, which stretches, endlessly. Every second so short and yet so interminable as to seem eternal.
Another week goes away. Liara has no track of the actual amount of time already passed. Only a reflection of awareness in her mind that time is still flowing, and it will always do. Liara's consciousness is frozen in a desperate attempt at self-preservation. However, her body is starting to move again, forced to respond to basic physiological needs. Sleep alternates with wakefulness in a constant cycle with no beginning, and with no end.
They say that thoughts cannot be hidden forever, but Liara won't admit it. However, she is very tired, her eyelids are getting heavier and heavier, the eyes are about to surrender to sleep. Before she can prevent it, darkness picks up each memory, and gives her back every pain.
Sometimes it happens that, right before sleeping, dreams and reality come together in a breath of the soul, which just for a moment, finds its voice...
"Shepard... Shepard... forgive me! … Oh Love, oh please... you don't leave me here alone!"...
Then, everything gets confused, mixes and falls under the embrace of sleep.
So, it happens that sometimes what is forbidden to memories is going to become a dream...
"All hands on the battle stations! ... Armors and helmets on, this is NOT a drill! ... Joker, evasive maneuvers, right now! Go, go, move! Liara, to the CIC. Hurry up!"
Your command voice, at alarm top level, still resonates in my ears, while I do my best to put my armor on. My fingers tremble. I struggle to hold back the pieces, which keep falling. I get the feeling of floating, like in the grip of a strange illness. My arms and legs no longer respond to my commands, as under the influence of a strong liqueur.
The echo of your lucid steadfastness is the only thing that still keeps me together. A multitude of thoughts bounces randomly in my head. They tangle painfully inside my stomach, like a thorn bush. I feel my heart booming within the neck. The untamable beat sounds in my chest as strong as a wild drum of death.
Fear is something deafening. Every breath I take is punctuated by the screams of the alarm system, which shakes my body right down to my soul. A tide of panic swells, menacing like a storm. It grips my throat, more than the thick black smoke, in which the Normandy is suffocating.
Fires burn everywhere, and consume everything with quick precision. Flames rage ravenously through the bulkheads. They blaze on the crew deck, whip in all directions, like a wicked storm, which devours the bodies of our fallen comrades.
Explosions brutally shake the ship to its own core, and open gigantic chasms that never stop torturing the hull. The flames are not going to subside. Little by little they break hope, scratching it away from the soul, like a last remnant of flesh is scraped off from a bone.
Oh no! I can't believe it's real! I just want to wake up in your arms, and sink in your warm embrace, so sweet and comforting. Instead, the more seconds pass, and the more I realize that's not a dream. "Oh, Goddess, please... bring me back on her lips, where I was caressing the paradise, a moment before falling down into this hell!"
When I finally reach you on the deck, the Normandy is already lost! "Joker doesn't want to leave, and I'm not leaving too!" I tell you with conviction, trying to turn my fear into courage. Your gaze shines through your helmet visor. A mixture of strength and pain, immediately turned into an impetus of deep love, as soon as your eyes fall into mine.
I stare at you, motionless, as tears rise up to my eyes. My throat clenches, the heart angrily digs a cave in my chest. I impose myself to react, chasing away the tears with all the strength I have. I must fight! I wanna stay with you. I'll do anything you ask me for helping you save our ship... our crew... our lives!
"I need your help with evac!" You firmly say, holding a fire extinguisher in your hands. No uncertainty in your voice, nor fear. You look very calm and exactly know what to do. All your efforts are aimed at saving the crew, at any price. No doubt you will! I know you are going to do what you need to do. No one is left behind! The last thing I want is to leave you alone. "Shepard!" I sigh under my breath, hoping with all my heart that you can feel how much love I'm feeling for you.
"Liara, go. Now!" You retort abruptly, as you give me a dry look. My legs can't move, like roots planted into the floor. For the first time I read a shiver of worry in your eyes. I realize that you desperately need to know me safe in one of the rescue pods.
Nevertheless, one single thought resounds in my mind. It explodes wildly in every painful beating of my heart, - I love you, Shepard! And, I don't wanna lose you! My place is here by your side, whatever happens! - But, the words of my soul are frozen at the bottom of my throat, like beautiful fishes swimming under the surface of a frozen lake.
I'll do anything you want me to. I can't argue with you, no more time is left. If I want help you... I have to go! - No, my Love... I can't! I'm not going to tell you goodbye, Love... - "Aye, aye!"
I watch you floating through the air. You're so far away, unreachable, and completely alone. I'm fixed, my fingers painfully tight around the metallic roll-bar of my rescue pod.
My heart has stopped for an indefinable time. I get the feeling that something irreplaceable slink away from deep inside me. A great cold in its place, and painful emptiness and dark.
That's like if my soul was slipping away forever. Soon, I realize that instead... it is yours! I see you to get inside my rescue pod. You're right there, in front of my eyes. Bright, like an angel, you smile in silence, gently. Your look of love shines in my eyes wide with terror. Then, your face begins to crumble, slowly, to dissolve, gradually. Finally, dust, fog and silence are all that's left in my eyes!
A cry of terror, immediately stifled in a moan, breaks the silence of the small hospital room. Liara's universe falls apart, as the light eyes of hers widen on the sad reality.
"Hey, take it easy, it was just a dream!" A young Asari is standing next to the bed. She has a sweet voice and comforting, but her eyes peer at Liara with a hint of apprehension.
Liara is looking around in disbelief, gasping breath. The lungs in flames are eager for oxygen, the heart broken by love. The small room at the Huerta Memorial is familiar. Liara hides her face with her hands. She closes her eyes, as sighs, disconsolately. "No, it wasn't!" A tear escaped from the cliff in her eyes falls down to her cheek, impetuously. The silence immediately interrupted by a gentle sound.
"I'm Dr. D'Lani, but you can call me Careena. I'm your therapist, and I'm here because I want to help you feel better."
Liara looks up, wearily. "Are you a shrink?" She asks, apathetically.
The young doctor blinks in amazement, "a... what?!"
Liara's face is serious, as if in a hundred years she had never known a smile. "Sorry, humans use pretty odd terms to describe things sometimes. A friend of mine used to call psychiatrists that way." She replies, wistfully.
Careena gives her a spontaneous smile. Admiration sparkles in her eyes, as she speaks in a warm voice. "Oh, you know, I find humans to be a really fascinating species. Sometimes they are so bright, and are capable of extraordinary acts!"
Liara looks down. Fingers unconsciously clung to the sheets, in a reflection of unease. She tries to handle the sudden tide of melancholy. Although she can barely keep from crying, she cannot avoid a quiver of pain in her voice. "You don't need to please me, doctor. I prefer you to be sincere."
A state of mind that does not escape Careena's watchful eye, who sits on the bed, casually. Their eyes meet as the latter smiles, dimly. Her manners are friendly, reassuring, but not overly kind. "Oh, I am!" She confirms with a nod.
A spark of excitement is still burning in the eyes of the young doctor. "The truth is that I'm very intrigued by the mind of this species. I've begun to study its dynamics since their First Contact War against the Turians. You know, I wrote a short treatise, about ten years ago, but... "
The girl shrugs, meeting the gaze of Liara back. A slight trace of discomfort barely stains her cheeks of shyness, as she is confessing in a low voice. "Well, I was just a hundred years old, and nobody took me seriously!"
Liara discerns a fervent professional passion, instinctively. In the doctor's attitude she recognizes her own scientific curiosity, self-denial. All things that once made her own profession exciting, and made her heart beat faster. That feeling establishes some sort of silent contact between the two young Asari.
Nonetheless, Liara cannot help but feel uncomfortable, examined in her secret soul, like the pages of a diary when flipped by the wind. She would like to hide herself from the universe, pretending nothing has happened. The courage to think still lacks. All her strength has gone. There is no light in Liara's heart, just darkness. She refuses to remember, would wish her pain to get invisible. To feel anesthetized. However, Careena's careful voice manages to distract her from her own never-ending agony, just for a while.
"I'm not a shrink, I'm a psychologist, and I specialize in emotional trauma." She says with satisfaction, carefully arranging the cuffs of the elegant salmon and turquoise tunic of hers, under the edges of the clean white coat.
"I have a high-level of empathy toward people, through which I can get a deeper mental understanding with my patients. So that, it was a natural consequence for me, to specialize in mental supportive therapies."
"M-Mental supportive therapies?" Liara winces, as she hears herself to ask, hesitantly.
The doctor nods, reassuringly, "Well, it's a very effective system. Basically, the method consists in a path of acceptance of a traumatic event by sharing pain and emotions, to learn how to accept the situation and move on. This can come through the dialogue, the hypnotism, with various levels of mental fusion, or even in any combination."
Liara's heart jumps painfully, as if it tumbled down the stairs. "Oh, no... I don't... I can't do that!" She stammers terrified. "I don't wanna do that. No, no... nothing to see!" She gasps with growing concern. "I... I'll be fine... fine. She's... is safe and sound! I just need to wait... I... I'm just waiting!" Liara desperately tries to convince herself. Her eyes swollen with tears are glittering like diamonds in the sympathetic gaze of Dr. D'Lani.
"Hey, it's OK. Calm down now. You aren't forced into anything, all right?" Liara feels Careena's gentle hand tighten around her arm. The soothing eyes of hers give Liara a feeling of warmth. She is in desperate need for peace, and is terrified by her own despair. "OK!" She sighs, as lets herself to be reassured. "OK!"
The psychologist struggles not to be moved. The doctor inside Careena is meticulous, clinical and accurate. She always stays steel in her professional lucidity through anything. Nevertheless, the young woman inside her, is sweet and sensitive, and cannot help feeling sad in the face of all that pain. Besides, she is more than familiar with that particular kind of inner drama herself because, she is experiencing it on her own skin. Seryna, the love of her life, passed away last month, and Careena is still suffering with. It is a very recent pain, for this reason not completely processed yet. So, it gets copiously bleeding in her heart.
Fortunately, work is her best medicine. Helping someone else, gives her strength, a purpose to go on. However, the pain in her young patient's eyes upsets her. It is something non quantifiable, and it scares the hell out of her.
"I know how you feel, believe me!" Careena's sweet and sensitive side says, gently. "Everything seems horrible and meaningless to you. You don't see any future ahead of you. Everything worthwhile is behind. The here and now is nothing but darkness and silence. You feel surrounded by shadows, and are afraid that what happened is real! The great emptiness inside you is continuing to grow. While you sit around here quietly, waiting for it to devour you!"
Careena's clean eyes cast upon Liara's stale gaze, gently. Her soft voice softens the silence around Liara's pain, but in doing so, she let it free. The doctor's words echo in the room. They reach Liara with muffled sounds, like useless reassurances that slip against the ears of a deaf.
"Unfortunately, you have suffered a major emotional trauma. I heard that your love-mate is still missing in action, and... I'm sorry!" She says, softly. "Your mind and body are under a great deal of stress as they try not to be completely overwhelmed by grief. It is called 'Separation stress with the emotional trauma syndrome', but it doesn't even begin to describe it. So, I prefer to call it 'The paralysis of the heart'."
The therapist pauses, giving Liara time to process her words, then she speaks again with empathy and respect. "It is nothing but a desperate mental refuge, which we use to keep reality hidden from ourselves, when we think not to be able to survive the pain." The young doctor's eyes sparkle with compassion, in the same color as the autumn leaves warmed by the sun. "Something terrible, I know! But, I can tell you it's an absolutely temporary phase. It's going to pass, I promise, and I'm just here to help you." Careena smiles faintly, putting a reassuring hand on Liara's shoulder.
Liara closes her eyes, and all she sees around is the loving Shepard's smile, the eyes of hers on her own skin, like a caress of a sunbeam, so sweet and warm. She feels love engraved on her soul, carved on her heart like a promise, which takes her breath away. Just one name on her lips that she dares not even utter. Just a prayer in her heart that she dares not even say. 'Goddess, please keep her safe... or take me too!' Every single word silently screamed by her soul with no other voice but despair. All that's left is irrational hope, and a little breath of faith.
Eventually, the damp gaze of Liara meet Careena's eyes, and she just whispers under her breath, "thank you!"
The Council meeting is about to end in the worst way. Anderson is standing in front of Sparatus head to head. His face is red with rage, and the jugular popping out his neck, dangerously close to the breaking point. No extension anymore! David had submitted a regular request, and therefore convinced the Council to meet in extraordinary session. However, the Counselors had been vocal in their determination. Shepard's research must be deemed to be completed.
The Asari Councilor puts herself between the two disputants the instant before David's wrath goes off. "I'm sorry, Counselor Anderson, but your request was rejected by a single vote in favor and three votes cast against the motion. Therefore, any further operation aimed at finding the Commander Shepard will have to be considered illegal and actionable." The eyes of Councilor Tevos are glowing secure, through the squall of darkness that rages in David's. The charming Asari speaks with respect, in a low voice, and in her usual polite composure. However, that does not prevent every single word to be stuck into Anderson's heart like a dagger.
The Human Counselor bursts out in a stifled cry, as he struggles to dominate the growing fury. "You can't do that! Have you already forgotten what she did? It's because of Shepard you all are here today! She could have left all of you to your fate, but chose not to! Is that how you thanked her for saving your lives?"
"It's not a matter of gratitude, Counselor." Valern's dark eyes are moving fast on David's face, and cautiously study him, from under the large hood. "Terminus Systems are infested with Geth, Counselor Anderson, and are outside the Council space. Indulging in their territory could lead them to attack us again." He hastens to underline with stinging impertinence.
Sparatus is holding off the vehemence of his blood, by exploring the Salarians coworker thought. Scornful eyes pierce David's, the rough voice resonates, like a messenger of tragic predictions. "It's quite possible they mean to finish what they started with Saren! The attack on the Citadel could happen again. You know as well as I do that our forces have been severely cut back because of the fighting with the Geth. This Station has suffered considerable damage, and considering what has just happened to the best human frigate, we're certainly not going to last long in the event of a new direct assault!"
Anderson hates the arrogant war genius attitude of Sparatus! The Turian's irritating presumption is able to awaken in him the wildest of homicidal instincts. However, he has to admit the obvious. They are afraid! Therefore, the Council decision will not be revoked.
"The Commander Shepard may still be alive!" David sighs bitterly, in a last desperate attempt. The suffering voice of him moves in depth through the emotional space of the Asari representative, like a shiver of grieving.
"Tevos, please... you've always been so sharp and reasonable... there must be a diplomatic way to keep me looking for Shepard! I don't wanna risk a war, nor jeopardize the Station security, but... I have to find her!" David sighs, painfully. "Many of us are suffering in the disappearance of Shepard..." he says, sadly. "The Dr. T'Soni... her friends. Our people need to know. Some of them, to honor her memory, some others... to have at least a grave to mourn her!"
The green, in Tevos eyes, shines its own light in the aching gaze of Councilor Anderson with the strength of a hope not yet died down. The Matron quickly touches David's shoulder as she approaches, in a genuine gesture of togetherness. "I understand you David, believe me. I'm genuinely sorry for what happened. Unfortunately, I don't even have the authority to amend Council decisions. However... I've the fate of Shepard to heart, and I'm not going to stop looking for a solution, I promise. I'm sorry, but that's all I can tell you right now."
David walks slowly, his head down, his mind spinning in a maelstrom of thoughts. 'What did Tevos mean?' He is wondering. 'Maybe she's already up to something, and she was sending me some sort of unspoken message. Or perhaps it was just a damn diplomatic pretext to finish up that conversation!' David thinks to himself, and hopes for the first option, fervently.
In any case, he has already made his decision. He is planning on looking for Shepard despite the Council veto. David promised himself doing it, as he was looking into Liara's desperate eyes, with no intention of giving up. 'I won't stop!' He speaks to himself, before sneering. 'The Council can kiss my ass!' A glance at his watch as he keeps walking, distractedly. It's getting late. David needs to meet Udina for asking to replace him in any Counselor duty while he is away. Then, rushing home to organize a search party.
Lieutenant Alenko is at the top of his list. Furthermore, Kahlee offered to give him a hand of help, and David is conflicted. She is not a young thing any longer, and the Terminus System is a damn dangerous place. But, she is stubborn as a mule, and David already knows that she is not letting him go alone. On the other hand, Kahlee's skills as systems technician, and any deep knowing of synthetic intelligences would be priceless in the case of a real clash against Geth. David smiles, thinking back about last night, and his mood gets improved.
Finally, the elevator opens in front of him with a hiss. A deep voice, from behind his back, stops his steps in the doorway. "Councilor Anderson, you got a sec?" It asks, kindly.
David rolls his eyes, and reluctantly turns in the direction of the voice, cursing to himself his recent notoriety. "Sorry, I'm very busy." He replies, politely. "Sure. I guess organizing a secret expedition to the Terminus System requires a lot of time and resources..."
The Salarian in front of David seems to know his subject. He is wearing a special sort of heavy armor not available in any stores, which looks particularly comfortable and expensive. The Alliance Captain still inside David cannot fail to notice the heavy pistol at his belt. It is a very secretive semi automatic Scorpion model, of which he heard fantasize about the existence.
An aura of seasoned craftiness makes the expression on the stranger's face magnetical. The fellow is staring right at him, as he smiles, peacefully. Like all Salarian he has an enigmatic and sparkling gaze, but this particular one has benevolent, and decidedly reassuring eyes. In addition, he tends his hand to introduce himself, following the human habit, as for a form of respect.
Anderson blinks at him in wonder, but his interlocutor does not give him time to react. "Let me introduce myself. Jondum Bau, I'm with Special Tactics & Recon. I'm a big fan of Commander Shepard, and I see the Reapers like a real threat. If, as I can assume, you're actually looking for her... there's something you should know... "
To be continued...