Garrus Vakarian walked into the Citadel Security Services and sat at his desk. The turian had just come from Executor Pallin's office with his report on suspended Officer Thomas Harkin. His report recommended that the suspension become permanent. Harkin had accumulated many complaints in his short tenure with C-Sec. Reports of drinking on duty, accepting bribes, roughing up suspects, abuse of power, racism, and being an all around ass. Not humanity's best representative.

Harkin was the first human to be accepted into C-Sec. He was pushed through fast and was not vetted very well. After these complaints came across his desk, Garrus looked into his service records with the Alliance Navy. Surprise, surprise, the same type of complaints there.

Garrus was thinking how the Alliance screwed up tapping this guy for C-Sec when his terminal pinged. A C-Sec wide alert came across the screen.

"SPECTRE Nihlus Kryik Killed in Failed Mission on Human Colony Eden Prime."

Titans of Palaven! No! Garrus stared at the screen in disbelief. He and Nihlus had grown up together in the same colony on their homeworld of Palaven. Nihlus had been a bit of a rebel and got into trouble a lot. Garrus, on a mission to change the world, befriended Nihlus and they had been inseparable throughout their military training. Both he and Nihlus wanted to become SPECTREs, but Garrus's father blocked his candidacy. He supported Nihlus's bid and was thrilled when his friend was granted SPECTRE status.

It was then that Nihlus met Saren Arterius. Saren mentored Nihlus in the ways of the SPECTREs. Garrus hated him from the start. Saren was cold and ruthless. He was condescending to Garrus and treated him like a pathetic lapdog when he was around. Saren's influence drove a wedge between Garrus and Nihlus. Garrus went into C-Sec, using his tech skills and natural curiosity to become one of the best investigators in the force. He and Nihlus kept in touch but were not as close as they once were.

Garrus read through the news piece and was shocked to hear that the Geth were on Eden Prime. The Geth hadn't been seen in over 200 years, ever since they drove the Quarians off Rannoch. A human Alliance commander Ruby Shepard was on the same mission. She was reported as saying that Nihlus was murdered by a rogue SPECTRE, not killed by enemy fire from the Geth. Another shock was that this rogue SPECTRE was Saren Arterius.

"What the hell were you doing there, Arterius?" Garrus wondered out loud.

"That's what you are going to find out, Vakarian." boomed Executor Pallin. "We need to know if these allegations are true. Find out everything you can about the connection between Kryik and Arterius. And find everything on this Commander Shepard. Her background, family, service records, ex-lovers, everything. Figure out if she's some nut job or just your typical hot headed flesh-bag."

"Sir, why are we concentrating on Shepard?" Garrus asked. "Why not go where the evidence leads us?"

"Vakarian, do what you're told. Investigate this the way C-Sec dictates. No going off the reservation on this one, Garrus. I mean it." Pallin shouted as he stomped back to his office.

Garrus nervously clicked his mandibles and rubbed his crest horns. "Why did I even get out of bed this morning?"

"Dammit! Access Denied? Again?"

Garrus had spent hours looking at Saren's service records and ran into more red tape than the Volus financial district. Time was running out. The Alliance ambassador's meeting with the Citadel Council was in three hours.

Shepard's military records were pretty cut and dry. Military "brat" as the humans say, lived from ship to ship, outpost to outpost following her parents through their military career. Enlisted as soon as she was able, stellar record, received many commendations. A war hero, almost single-handedly fought off an entire army of Batarian slavers on Elysium. Now serving as the XO on the Alliance vessel SSV Normandy. No sign of grand standing or the usual backstabbing for power you would find in a "hot headed flesh-bag" as Pallin would put it.

Now her personal records were a different story. Not much there. Besides her upbringing, her personal life was minimal. Reportedly she did not socialize with her shipmates very often at all. The times that she did, the story was that she cannot dance. Weird thing to be known for, but there it was. One hot and heavy love affair with a serviceman named Vega, that ended years ago. And a brother, Jeff Moreau, who also happened to be the pilot of the Normandy. Other than those tidbits, again nothing to suggest that she would be lying about Saren.

Garrus knew why Pallin wanted him to look so heavily into Shepard. He didn't trust humans. Ever since the First Contact War, there was a lot of mistrust between humans and turians. What he didn't understand was why Pallin wanted him to completely dismiss Saren's possible involvement. Despite what he said, Garrus did "go off the reservation" and started looking for anything that would suggest Saren working with the Geth. But every time he came close to maybe finding something, he was blocked from the information. It was as if someone didn't want Garrus to get any information, which he suspected was the case.

After beating the hell out of his screen for the hundredth time, Garrus looked at the time. "SHIT!" The meeting was scheduled to start in thirty minutes. He would barely have enough time to get to the Tower and present his findings to the Executor. He wished he had more time to expand his investigation into Saren. Maybe he could convince Pallin to...hell, it wasn't going to work. But he had to try.

Garrus ran out of the lift as soon as the doors opened and almost knocked Pallin down.

"Vakarian! What the hell?"

"Sorry sir, I thought I would have been late for the hearing."

"Almost, but what did you find on Shepard?"

"Um, nothing, sir. Shepard's clean. Saren, however..."

"Nothing? You found nothing? I told you to dig into everything."

"I did sir, there's nothing in her records that seemed suspicious. Saren on the other hand, his records are sealed and I can't get access to them."

Pallin scoffed, "Of course you can't. He's a SPECTRE."

"Saren's hiding something. Give me more time. Stall them."

"Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Garrus." Grabbing his report and walking away, Pallin dismissively waved Garrus off.

"Damn him, that stubborn son of a..." Garrus thought as he turned and saw her.

He was momentarily struck by her presence, then regained his composure.

"Commander Shepard, Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren."

"Sounds like you really want to bring him down."

"I don't trust him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. But he's a SPECTRE, everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence."

"I think the Council is ready for us, Commander." The soldier standing behind Shepard said. This must be Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, according to the reports of the Eden Prime incident.

"Good Luck, Shepard. Maybe they'll listen to you." Garrus said as the three humans walked away.

Garrus watched as Shepard walked away. He had watched the vids and seen the pictures, but seeing her in person was different. There was an aura about her. A larger than life quality to her. Her entire being screamed warrior. He had never really been attracted to humans, but this one was... Hell, he didn't know what it was. Maybe it was the red hair. Maybe it was the way the armor hugged her curves. Or maybe it was the scar above her eye and the way it cut into that thin line of hair there.

"Pull yourself together, Vakarian." Garrus admonished himself. He couldn't be thinking about this. Not when the Galaxy was on the verge of war, again. The Geth returning was a major concern. Especially if Saren had turned rogue and was working with them. Besides he was horrible with women. He hadn't had a relationship since Nyreen left him to go to Omega.

Garrus turned and watched Shepard ascend the stairs to meet with the Council. He shook his head and muttered to himself.

"Dammit. What's wrong with me?"