- Chapter 1: A Scholar in Stasis -


A/N: I thought it would be real neat to recall the events of Mass Effect from Liara's point of view. Adding things in between and all that jazz. It's more for fun.

I'll try my best to stick with the canon (dialog and stuff) pertaining to Shepard being primarily Paragon with the Colonist/war hero background. And... yeah...

Ps: I don't own Mass effect or any of that stuff cuz if I did I wouldn't have the end of ME3 be a (spoiler) steaming turd (even with my shit writing lol).
I'm writing this more cuz it seems like a fun exercise to see how things played out from another characters POV.
I don't know. I don't know how long I'll go with this. I'll update every now and again.

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think.


It took a significant amount of time, research, and persuasion on Dr. Liara T'Soni's part, but it finally happened.

Her research grant request was approved. Liara finally obtained the required permissions and funding to lead her very first archeological expedition - in the prothean ruins on Therum no less.

This grant approval came as a pleasant surprise to Dr. T'soni. She suspected that her work wasn't being taken as seriously for someone of her age and for someone who only graduated recently. For an asasi, she was pretty young to already have a doctorate degree and to be requesting funding for such a large and costly expedition. It took long enough, but the board of directors must have finally taken into account her level of perseverance, and hard work throughout her studies as a student at the University of Serrice, as well as her enthusiasm and combined effort with Professor Henell during her time in the prothean dig on Dretirop.

This was all incredibly exciting, for the young doctor. After all, this expedition on Therum was her chance to further her investigation on her theory surrounding the cycle of extinction that he protheans found themselves to be part of. This expedition was to be a major opportunity to demonstrate to the academic community that her theories had plenty of merit and deserved further investigation.

She packed everything she thought she needed for the endeavor. She was ready for whatever discoveries she would make regarding the protheans.

What Liara didn't expect to find, however, were geth. A whole lot of them.

"Geth?", she questioned to herself, "What are they doing beyond the veil?"

Something in her gut was telling her that they were up to no good. Following her instinct to not reveal her presence to the unexpected intruders, she crouched behind the mining laser she had brought in for her excavation. The geth look as though they were on the hunt for something, or someone. Frozen in place out of fear of being spotted, Liara watched anxiously as the mechanical beings ransacked the dig site. She winced at the sight of the geth's indifference towards the wellbeing of the supplies she brought in, as they broke crates and marched over marked off areas of the cavern. They acted as though they had tunnel vision as narrow as the light on the center of their head. They had one goal.

Whatever they were looking for, they seemed determined to find it.

Suddenly, a yellow, brutish looking krogan stormed his way into the dig site. The geth turned to face him.

"Goddess, this can't be good...", she muttered to herself as she ducked further behind the deactivated mining laser.

"Alright, listen up", he barked with a thunderous tone that sent a pang of fear through Liara's spine, "I don't care what you have to do, but we need to find Benezia's daughter."

The krogan slammed his fist down on the railing ledge for emphasis.

"Saren's leads said that she'd be here," he continued, "and we are not leaving this shit hole until we find that doctor."

Liara gulped, wide eyed.

"Benezia? But... It's been years! And Saren? What could they want with me?", Liara thought to herself, equally bewildered and worried and what all of this could mean.

"Tear the place apart if you have to!", the battlemaster bellowed "find Dr. T'soni!"

The geth resumed their thorough search of the excavation site as Liara hid behind the mining equipment. She couldn't stay there for long undiscovered, and the only way out she could recall was now being blocked by a angry looking krogan. Eventually they would find her, and she had no idea what their intentions were.

She hasn't spoken to her mother in many years. The reasoning behind her sudden interest in her daughter's whereabouts, and the part in which the geth played in it were completely unknown to her. Whatever it was they wanted from her, she wouldn't do it. Not without a fight.

Liara knew very well that she was outnumbered 100 to 1, and she still wasn't sure if the krogan and his squadron of geth intended on apprehending her dead or alive or even if that mattered at all to Benezia. Despite being well trained with her biotic abilities, she knew that plowing her way through the geth and the krogan blocking the stairway would be suicide all on her own. She had to look for another way, and fast.

Looking around frantically, she set her eyes on the prothean tech she was examining not long before the geth made their appearance. It was a small chamber that lead to a larger structure on the other side. It looked like an elevator. As far as she could tell, if she switched on the old barrier curtains leading towards that entrance, she could find another way out up through there.

It wasn't a perfect plan, and it was a major risk. She would hope that the barriers would switch up in time without a hitch, or it would be a race to the top otherwise.

Still, it beats being a sitting duck; cowering behind mining equipment while awaiting a seemingly inevitable capture.. or death.

"Here goes nothing," she whispered aloud before making a b-line towards the barrier switch.

Alerted by her presence, the geth turned and ran towards the fleeing asari, shooting in her direction. Liara was quick to dodge the barrage of bullets, and strengthened her biotic shield for good measure. It would last her the short sprint towards the control panel of the prothean device.

"GET HER!", the battle master commanded as he charged down the stairs.

In a panic, and breathing heavily from adrenaline, Liara punched in a sequence of codes into the control pad, hoping for the best. Thanks to the many years she spent studying the protheans, she was vaguely familiar with the mechanics of their technology. Still, there was not much time for trial and error. Getting the alien barrier curtains up properly was difficult enough, but doing so while keeping the charging geth and angry krogan at bay was a whole other story.

With the final flip of a switch, an impenetrable blue force field appeared almost instantaneously in the entrance of the small enclosure; effectively sealing off the invaders on the other side. Liara took a step back from the control panel, and turned towards the blue barrier curtain and the sea of enemies behind it. A few geth on the front lines shot towards the force field, and a few more tried slamming into it with their entire body weight. Everything ricocheted off of the barrier curtain.

They're not getting through that any time soon. So far so good.

Unwilling to risk wasting time in that room under the assumption that the now sealed off entrance was - in fact - the only way into this area of the ruin from that side, Liara turned her attention back towards the control panel. In her frantic efforts to get the barrier curtains up in the first place, she effectively sealed off both sides of the small enclosure. In order to get out, she had to turn off the barrier curtain leading towards the elevator looking structure on the other side of the ruin. She had to do so, ideally, while leaving on the barrier which prevented the geth and krogan on the other side from coming in after her.

"Don't just stand there! Find another way in!", the krogan demanded as the geth began to disperse throughout that side of the excavation site.

Liara heard the semi-distorted screaming of the angry krogan behind the barrier, but did her best to tune it out. She didn't have time to worry about the potential damage the intruders may have caused on the ruins. That would be a problem for later. Right now she needed to find a way out.

"Ok let's see here...", Dr. T'soni pondered to herself as she examined the barrier's controls. "Maybe this is it…"

She flipped another switch, hoping that it was the right one.

Without warning, her body rose up from the ground in near complete stasis. Facing the still active barrier curtain and entrance she came from. She heard the sound of the barrier curtain behind her shut off. She couldn't move.

She got the barrier she wanted down, but now she's stuck.

Frustrated at her partial success and her predicament of being stuck in stasis, the doctor hung her head slightly.

"Goddess... I shouldn't have done that...", the doctor muttered angrily to herself.

The krogan leader took notice of the doctor's misstep and grinned. He approached the barrier curtain with his arms crossed.

"Well well... It looks like you're little escape plan didn't work out as well as you hoped", he mocked with a crooked grin.

Liara glared back at the krogan, wordlessly telling him to shove off.

"But don't worry, we will find another way in," the krogan continued in a tone that combined threats and feigned reassurance, "You'll be out of there in no time."

The krogan turned away from the suspended doctor and marched back out into the dimly lit corridors. All Liara could do now is hang there and wait.

She heard the muffled sounds of boxes being toppled over, and machinery being moved in the distance. With very little options left, she hung her head down slightly in defeat. She was stuck. He was right.

The only hope she had left was the knowledge that the members of the University of Serrice knew that she would be here during this time. That way, if and when she gets taken away or eliminated in these ruins, at least someone else out there would know of her whereabouts. She held onto the sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, there would be others on the way to check on her status if enough time went by without her usual scheduled report to the academic administration. Another thought crept its way into Liara's mind which entertained the idea that Benezia received her coordinates from the very university that granted her access to Therum in the first place. She dismissed it. However all of this happened, didn't matter. It wouldn't matter unless she finds a way out of this mess.

"Well... That could have gone better," she grumbled in defeat.