AN:- All in one, all in one, all in one...

Chapter Two: The Doctor

The lower area she now found herself in was similar to the tunnels she had first entered, constructed from rough stone that was scuffed and marred with age and wear. Water dripped from a crack in the wall by the door and a pipe bellowed steam, heating the room until it was uncomfortably moist. She went through the door quickly and found a small office just off the corridor. There was another moving laser trap ahead but she could see the computer in the office that surely controlled it.

Also on the computer was a log from one of the prison guards. She activated it and listened while she worked on the laser trap. It sounded like any police report the galaxy over.

"Our comm buoy intercepts paid off. We picked up a message to the Alliance coming from somewhere in the asteroid belt. We listened to the feed until we discovered an operation run by a human named Kenson – smuggling engine parts and guidance systems into the system from Omega. We intercepted Kenson's vessel and took her and her people into custody. Interrogation has produced nothing but frenzied rambling so far."

She finished with the laser trap but stayed a moment to sort through the information she had just heard. Kenson and her crew had been rambling? That didn't sound right. Unless of course the batarian officer simply didn't understand what the scientist was saying to him. She had known some scientists who it seemed they spoke a whole other language when they got going on whatever topic was nearest and dearest to them.

But even discounting that the evidence was mounting up. What need would Kenson and her team have for smuggled engine parts and guidance systems? Especially when an Alliance requisitions drop would have been faster and more secure. It sounded almost as though they wanted the Alliance kept out of it. The only other option was that Hackett had lied to her, and Kenson and her team really were deep cover operatives who had to maintain plausible deniability. In that case sending her in to rescue them would help to maintain that cover.

But did she want to help them maintain the cover? If the guards' other assertions were true they had been planning an act of what could only be described as terrorism. She would just have to hope that when she found Kenson the doctor could explain everything.

Finished with her deliberations she headed into the hall and past the deactivated laser trap. Almost immediately she had to duck into cover behind a large crate as she heard two batarians talking. One of them she recognised as the officer from the report. The other she didn't know.

"This one's apparently the mastermind."

"If she doesn't talk, kill her."

She snuck round the edge of the crate until she could look into the small side room they were in. There was a large window that they were looking through, and just beyond it seemed to be an interrogation room. Computer monitors were hung from the ceiling relaying information about the prison and prisoners but she couldn't make out details.

She wouldn't be able to stage a frontal assault and maintain her cover, that was for sure. Instead she continued down the hallway, finding bloodstained cells. One of them had a sheet on the floor, covering a body. Her blood ran cold and she almost ran straight back to the batarians but then she realised that the blood on the wall formed an all too familiar shape. A handprint next to the image told her that the man dead on the floor had likely cut himself deliberately to use his blood to fashion the image of a Reaper on his cell.

She took a deep steadying breath and stepped back out of the cell, casting an eye to the body. What the hell were you doing?

She had to get answers, and for that she needed Kenson. Some of the batarians troubles were making a disturbing amount of sense now. Frenzied rambling, a plan to destroy the Mass Relay. Either the scientists had gone mad, or they had real evidence that a Reaper was going to come through, and had been trying to stop it. Neither was an appealing scenario.

The hallway went round to the left past the cells, and she found another open door at the end of it. Pressing up against the wall she triggered the door lock and it cycled open to reveal the interrogation room.

Alright. She thought as the batarian inside turned to looked at her. I guess stealth is done then.

There was a human in the room with him, strapped to a metal rack, her limbs bound and her head forced into place by a neck brace. As Shepard watched a device swung down from the ceiling and came down in front of the woman's head. Before it could do anything she walked into the room and slugged the batarian hard in the face. He went down like a sack of bricks and the machine stopped moving.

No alarms had started blaring yet so she could only assume that the two guards outside had stopped watching for some reason. She still had little time though, going up to the doctor and beginning to work on the bonds. As she worked Kenson began to stir.

"Who are you?" She groaned, trying to look back. "What are you doing?"

"I'm Commander Shepard. I'm here to get you out."

She was waking up fast. "Commander Shepard? I'd heard you were alive. Hackett must have received my message."

All of the bonds were unlocked but she still needed to open them. Shepard stepped in front of Kenson and met her eyes. "We're not safe here. Can you walk?"

For answer she reached up and grabbed hold of both sides of the neck brace. With a single wrench she pulled herself free and fell to the deck, steadying herself and remaining upright. Shepard raised an eyebrow at that. She had expected the doctor to be incapacitated by pain and exhaustion, not able to pull apart iron bars.

"Just give me a moment," she said.

Shepard bent down to collect the guard's pistol and handed it to her. "We have to go. Now."

She accepted the pistol and checking it, still talking. "If we can find a console, I can hack security. Make us an escape path."

The alarm began to sound. Shepard cocked her head to the door. "Then we'll find one. Go!"

Kenson took one more moment, going to the batarian on the floor and stamping down on his neck hard. When she turned back to Shepard her eyes were hard. "Ready."

Shepard went to the door and glanced down the hallway. A batarian guard was making his way towards them, his pistol out and ready. She stepped out and put a bullet right between his eyes, dropping him to the floor. The hallway beyond had been blocked by bars, cutting off the way she had come by. She turned back to see Kenson already hurrying down a flight of stairs just past the cell.

At the very bottom they found a cellblock. Most of the doors were sealed but there was a short set of stairs to their right which looked clear. Kenson headed for it, muttering to herself. "There should be a security console here somewhere."

Through the door at the bottom of the stairs they came to a wide open space, built from the same grimy rock as the tunnels. To their left was a drop off, a gigantic circular space with cells lining every inch of the wall. They were on a walkway that ran nearly the full way around the circle, and ahead of them Shepard could see a security terminal, shielded behind blast screens.

She ducked for cover as half a dozen guards ran out from the terminal and opened fire on them. Automatic fire blasted chips of stone all around her and she hunkered down further. She looked up and saw Kenson, her legs braced and the pistol held out before her. The fire on Shepard's position lessened and she glanced over the top of her cover to see four of the guards on the ground while the other two were retreating for cover.

Rapidly revising her opinion of the doctor Shepard stood and shot the last two batarians down as well. They waited a moment to see if there were more reinforcements incoming but they seemed to be alone in the cell block. Kenson led the way to the booth, hurrying inside and finding the computer console in seconds. "This shouldn't take long. Keep them off me."

Shaking her head at the doctor ordering her around Shepard went to bunker down by the entrance, checking her heat sinks and clearing her head. There were a lot of unanswered questions that she had to ask the doctor, but it wasn't the time for any of them. For one thing, she wanted to know quite how this scientist was able to take on so many mercenaries and guards without breaking a sweat.

Over the comm she could hear one of the guards issuing orders, and knew they were about to face resistance. Sure enough a moment later three batarians came running from the same door Kenson and Shepard had entered through. Three pistol bullets blasted their helmets apart and they dropped. She reloaded and scooped up a spare heat sink from a nearby body.

"We need to close the door we came in through. Keep them out."

Shepard ran for the door without bothering to answer, drawing her SMG on the run. Another three man team was coming through as she arrived and she opened fire in one long burst that sent them scattering for cover. One of them went down with a dozen holes through him as she slammed into the wall and triggered the door to close. She reloaded and emptied half of it into a second batarian on the floor. The third one made a run for it, limping badly, and she used the rest of the clip on his back.

No sooner had he dropped than Kenson was yelling at her again. "Other side, go!"

Sprinting across the room she saw them emerging from the opposite side door, another three man team. The one in the lead had a kinetic barrier up though, and was holding a shotgun rather than a rifle. She switched to draw her AM Rifle off her back and opened it up, not bothering with the scope as she put a bullet right into his head, overpowering the kinetic barrier with the force of the round. Blood and brain matter hit both of his teammates, who stopped and stared as the body crumpled. She took advantage of their surprise to put a pistol bullet to each of them.

It was much easier than any of the battles she had fought in a long time. They didn't seem to have equipped most of the guards with kinetic barriers, and their armour was basic light armour, suited for civilian use, not military-grade firepower. She slapped the lock on the other door and returned to her position in the middle.

Kenson shouted through from the console. "Unlocking all doors to the hanger. Still need more time."

Shepard didn't see any more insertion points but there was a whir of an elevator from nearby and she was surprised when a bullet sparked off her barrier. She ducked behind a column and triggered her motion tracker to see three blips behind and to the left. When she looked out again she saw an elevator with three more guards crouching behind cover. She switched to her rifle again and leaned out, finding the tops of their helmets in the scope almost at once. The meagre protection of the elevator guard rails was nothing as she shot the first one and took the entire top half off his head off.

The second tried to run but she caught him with a second bullet when he was a step away from cover. The third emptied an entire clip from his assault rifle at her but hit nothing in his panic. She drew her pistol one handed and shot him twice in the chest. Kenson appeared behind her, still wielding her pistol.

"I brought down their orbital tracking network. There's an elevator that leads right to the hanger bay." Even as she was speaking it locked into place in front of them. "That's it, let's move."

As they rose up to the upper levels the comm unit came on again.

"Get to the hanger, do not let them escape."

Kenson seemed completely unconcerned at this announcement. "One last thing. The hanger doors are hard-locked. We'll have to get those open the old fashioned way."

Shepard shook her head. Couldn't have told me before we got into the hanger? "Leave that to me," she said, drawing her SMG and sprinting forwards towards the shuttle.

Three men were in her way, all brought down easily and she was at the power cable for the right side door. A quick burst from her SMG severed it and the door creaked open, revealing the rain-soaked precipice beyond. She ducked round the side of the shuttle as another three men entered. From somewhere behind she could hear the steady crack of Kenson's pistol and the batarian leader shouting orders to his men to flank them.

Activating an incendiary charge she found a gap between the shuttle and the wall and slipped through, coming out right behind the guards. Only one of them had a shield, and she almost felt bad as she dropped it with a shot from her Carnifax. He spun to face his new foe and she shot the incendiary charge into his gut, shooting one of his men in the face as the leader burned up. The third man dropped as Kenson shot him from behind and she ran to the shuttle door.

"Time to get out of here," Shepard said, cutting the second power line. The hanger doors were fully open, letting the wind rush through, dousing the fires and tugging at Shepard's hair. She ran round to join Kenson boarding the shuttle just as another volley of bullets reached them.

She didn't bother to engage the enemies, running to the cockpit instead and powering up the ignition sequence. In the rear-view camera she could see the prison guards rushing to position, and with a grimace activated the engines. A torrent of fire engulfed the men and they began to rush about, trying to pat out the fire. She brought up the boost control and another gout of fire covered them. She didn't see any more as they powered out of the hanger and up into the sky.

"Thank you for the rescue Commander." She turned to see Kenson at her shoulder, watching the landscape rush past them.

"I think," Shepard said, engaging the autopilot and manoeuvring out of the seat, "it's time you gave me some answers."

/|\

"We should be well out of range before they get their security measures unscrambled."

They were sitting in the crew section of the shuttle now, Shepard watching Kenson carefully, her arms folded but one hand close to her pistol, just in case.

"Do you think they'll come after you?" She asked.

"I'm not taking any chances. Batarians don't take kindly to humans who plan to destroy their mass relays."

Shepard kept her face carefully neutral. "So the charges against you are true." It wasn't quite a question.

Kenson shrugged. "Well to be fair that's about half the story. My people and I were here investigating rumours of Reaper technology out in the fringes of this system."

"I guess you found something."

Kenson nodded. "We found proof that the Reapers will be arriving in this system. When they get here, they'll use its mass relay to travel throughout the galaxy." She gestured out of the shuttle window, where the relay was in sight beyond the horizon. "We call it the Alpha Relay. From here the Reapers can invade anywhere in the galaxy."

"So you decided to destroy it."

"Exactly. Doing that would stop the Reapers' invasion. Even at FTL speeds it'll be months or years before they get to the next relay. We came up with what we just called 'the Project'. A plan to launch a nearby asteroid into the relay and destroy it before the reapers could arrive. Of course the resulting explosion would probably wipe out the system."

It sounded simple enough in theory. She already knew from experience how little was required, relatively speaking, to move an asteroid. "I've always heard that mass relays are indestructible," she said.

"I've heard that too, but I think it's more that nobody's willing to find out what happens when one is destroyed. And, well… we planned to slam a small planet into the thing at very high speed. By our calculations, that's more than enough."

"Why do you think destroying the mass relay would destroy the entire system?"

"Mass relays are the most powerful mass effect engines in the known galaxy. The energy released from a relay's destruction would probably resemble a supernova. This is a remote system, but just over three hundred thousand batarians live on the colony where they held us. The explosion would undoubtedly kill them all."

Time for the million credit question then. "Is the Project still operational?"

"I… I imagine it is." She didn't seem too thrilled at that thought. But then it was a deeply troubling proposition. "We were one button press away from launch when the batarians arrested me."

"How were you caught?"

"We've been smuggling starship parts from Omega. Thrusters, guidance, an aftermarket eezo core. The batarians thought that looked suspicious. A few days ago I took a few of the men on a scouting trip, and the batarians pounced on us. They never found our actual base."

Shepard noted again that she mentioned smuggling parts. She still had yet to receive a decent explanation for why they hadn't just told someone. "I still don't see how you learned about this supposed invasion."

"The evidence came from what we call Object Rho. A Reaper artefact we discovered among the asteroids near the relay itself. When we get back to Arcturus station, I'll explain everything and provide copies of all our notes on the artefact."

Shepard shook her head. "The stakes are too high. If you were willing to destroy a whole system over this, I want to see your proof."

"I guess I can't argue with that." She stood and activated her omni-tool. "Give me a moment. Kenson to Project Base." Someone responded, but Shepard couldn't make out the words. "Affirmative, and I've got Commander Shepard with me." More talk, agitated. "Tidy up the lab. The Commander needs to confirm the artefact." She ended the transmission and turned back with a smile on her face. "All set, just sit back and relax, we'll be there in no time."

She proceeded to suit action to words, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes, her breathing easy and deep. Shepard watched her for several minutes, but she gave no indication that it wasn't an entirely genuine sleep.

Kenson was beginning to seriously bother her. Hackett had described her as a scientist and a doctor, but the way she had handled the gun, and seemed able to cope with the torture she had endured screamed commando. Then there were her easy explanations for what they had done, and been planning to do. Most ordinary people would experience a lot more existential questioning before making such a hard decision. And would show more angst over it afterwards.

But Kenson seemed to be quite genuinely at peace. And that set off every nerve Shepard had. She tried to send a shortwave message to the Normandy but they were still out of range. Another two hours sat least before they got back in contact with her. She sighed and tried to relax. Whatever happened next, she would just have to deal with it on her own.

AN:- Seriously did anyone trust Kenson?

Like she's just been tortured, but she can physical rip apart her restraints without any noticeable help, is a viable combatant and is running around and joking

that ain't normal.

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