The Candidate – 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or its universe. All that belongs to Drew Karpyshyn and Bioware. I am merely playing in their world.

Grim Defeat

Staff Lt. Alenko, Navigator Pressly, Dr. Chakwas and Corporal Jenkins were all seated in the crew quarters of the Normandy, sipping coffee, talking quietly amongst themselves. A few paces away, sat the new Executive Officer of the frigate, Lt. CommanderJohann Shepard, with his nose buried in a glowing terminal in front of him, reading a research paper on the mathematics of a novel cryptographic algorithm, making notes in his datapad that lay on his lap. At this moment, the door of the crew quarters opened and Captain Anderson swept into the room, with a tall and well armoured turian close on his heels. All five inhabitants of the room rose to their feet to greet the newcomers and smartly saluted their captain.

"At ease," spoke Anderson, as he returned their salutes. He introduced the turian behind him to the crew, "This is Nihlus Kryik. He is a spectre."

If Captain Anderson had expected to startle his audience with his sudden announcement, he succeeded only partially. Kaidan Alenko lifted an inquiring eyebrow, while Shepard merely looked thoughtful. Apparently, the two were little given to exhibiting their emotions. However, their seeming indifference was more than compensated for by the other three, on whom the announcement had a far more dramatic effect. Navigator Pressly, and Corporal Jenkins both gasped in astonishment, and Dr. Chakwas gave a surprised start.

Captain Anderson continued with a terse explanation. "As you know, we're on a shakedown run, and our first destination is Eden Prime. You'll all receive further orders there. Are we ready to leave, Shepard?"

"Ready, sir."

"Good. Tell Joker to prepare immediately, then!"

Shepard saluted, and left the room. The Captain and the spectre also left behind the new XO.

"Well," muttered Pressly. "That's interesting."

"What's interesting?" asked Dr. Chakwas.

"This mission. With our new not-so-friendly-XO and that turian spectre, we couldn't ask for more on a voyage!"

Alenko was intrigued, "Not so friendly? What's he like?" The staff lieutenant had only seen the new Executive Officer greet his colleagues in the crew quarters with a polite sweeping bow, before settling down to reading something that interested him in the terminal.

"Brisk and businesslike," returned Pressly. "He came down to my desk, checked that all the communication equipment was working properly, and then left without a single word after his inspection."

"So now we're off to Eden Prime," murmured Jenkins. "It's a quiet colonial world, not a place where spectres would want to go."

"Exactly," returned Pressly, lacing his hands behind his head. "So this mission is anything but a shakedown run. I wonder what's cooking in Eden Prime that interests a spectre."

-(Scene Break)-

The first part of their journey with the turian spectre was uneventful, and with about half an hour to touchdown on Eden Prime, Shepard and Alenko were invited to a briefing with the Captain. Shepard and Alenko, who arrived first, found the turian spectre waiting for them.

"Commander Shepard, Lt. Alenko" nodded the tall turian. "I was hoping we would have a chance to speak."

Shepard simply stared quizzically at the turian, saying nothing, while Alenko queried, "About what?"

"This Eden Prime. I have heard it is beautiful."

"They say it is paradise," shrugged Alenko.

"Paradise, yes. It has become something of a symbol to humanity. But how secure is it really?"

Shepard stirred for the first time in the conversation, "Are we expecting any trouble?" Shepard's midnight black eyes were piercing in their intensity.

"I am always expecting trouble," returned the turian seriously.

At this point, Captain Anderson arrived and explained to the two junior officers that they were both being considered as possible Alliance candidates for the post of a spectre, that after the mission, one of them would qualify to be evaluated for recruitment as spectres, that Nihlus Kryik was going to evaluate them, and make his recommendations to the Council. Their mission was to go down, secure a Prothean beacon that a group of scientists had unearthed, and bring it safely to the Citadel. At this point, the pilot, Flt. Lt. Moreau intervened and displayed a distress signal from Eden Prime. The four viewed a transmission of Alliance soldiers being slaughtered by bunch of geth, as well as a clear shot of an enormous ship that had landed on the colony. The four men watched the decimation of the Alliance soldiers in hard lipped silence, none of them as much as saying a word, nor batting an eyelid. They had seen the like before. When it was finished, the captain turned to the others. Quietly, efficiently, Anderson outlined his plan. "Nihlus, you will go ahead and scout out the path. Alenko, take Pvt. Sanders along this path to the beacon" The captain's pointer highlighted a path from the first of the drop points to where the beacon was supposed to be. "Shepard, you'll take Corporal Jenkins along this route" His pointer now highlighted a second route to the beacon from the other drop point. "Except for Nihlus who'll feed you status reports, I want full radio silence. Securing the beacon is top priority!"

Both his juniors saluted the captain in token of their understanding, while Nihlus smiled appreciatively at the human's plan.

-(Scene Break)-

Shepard and Jenkins had landed on a rough, sandy outcrop, and they made their way towards the beacon, thanks to the directions they had obtained. Shepard and Jenkins moved with Jenkins leading the way forward, since he was from Eden Prime and he knew his way around. Initially, they faced little resistance. A few isolated geth were easily dispatched, thanks to Shepard's knowledge of the geth and how to sabotage their circuits.

The reached the top of a knoll, and Jenkins cried, "Commander!"

"Yes?"

The young soldier was pointing to a group of bodies, an eclectic mix of civilians and a few soldiers, all of whom had been shot down brutally. It looked as if the soldiers had retreated to high ground, where they had desperately defended themselves and the civilians, until they had been overwhelmed by the enemy. Shepard knelt down to examine the bodies. After a couple of minutes, he rose to his feet, remarking calmly, "Geth, for sure. All were shot by standard geth bullets and pulsers."

Jenkins was staring at Shepard and the bodies in a stupefied terror, not only at what the geth had done, but also the callous indifference of his commander towards dead humans. Shepard caught that look. He tapped the young soldier on his shoulder, speaking quietly, and for the first time since the mission began, his voice was surprisingly gentle, "Are you alright, Richard?"

The soldier started, and answered, his voice high, almost shrill, "Yes! Yes, of course, sir!"

Shepard continued in the same gentle voice, "Richard, coming home to find it devastated is one of the hardest things to bear. But you need to focus now! There will be time for grieving later. Let us avenge these people first!"

"Yes, sir! Let us give these synthetic bastards hell!" said Jenkins in the same shrill voice.

Shepard looked uncertainly at Jenkins, but did not say anything, and the young soldier continued to lead his superior officer to their destination. Until the duo came across three bodies that had been impaled on spikes. Jenkins gave an inarticulate shout of fury and darted towards the bodies. Shepard had seen many barbaric things in his time in the Traverse, but was, for once, even he was shocked by the brutality of the geth. He stood paralysed, staring the grotesque scene in horrified fascination, oblivious to what his subordinate was doing. It was only when the spikes began to lower and the `bodies' jumped off, that he realised what was happening.

"Jenkins! Get back!"

But the warning was already too late. The young soldier had almost reached the spikes with the intention of getting down the bodies of his compatriots from their impalement. He was completely taken by surprise, therefore, when the spikes came down and the bodies sprang upon him. The three erstwhile impaled bodies now sprang on the young corporal, wrestling him to the ground, blue arcs of electricity sparking from electrodes on their bodies, and burning and electrocuting their victim. The young soldier's scream of terror turned midway into one in which pain and shock were mixed with the original horror.

Even as the bodies had sprung on Jenkins, Shepard's mind had evaluated possibilities and selected the best one. He could not shoot at them for fear of hitting his own soldier. The three bodies were locked too closely with Jenkins, all of them thrashing on the ground, for Shepard to risk that. Given that he knew next to nothing about how these bodies worked, it was uncertain if he could overload or sabotage their circuits with his omni-tool. Besides, with electricity already sparking from them, he might end up electrocuting Jenkins worse, if he tried either of those options against the circuits in those bodies. However, one last option was open to him. Shepard's biotics flared into action – the first `body' that had sprung on Jenkins was held in a swirling mass of blue energy and propelled, head first, into a rocky outcrop close by. There was a sickening crack as its vertebrae snapped at the impact. However, even with its neck broken and head lolling grotesquely, the thing rose once more, and tottered towards its prey, but Shepard was already working on prying the others off Jenkins, which were clinging to the madly thrashing corporal like some foul apparitions from beyond the grave, intent on dragging their victim to his doom. Had Shepard been a stronger biotic, he might well have saved the young corporal by ripping both the remaining attackers off Jenkins at the same time, However, the commander was not, and that told heavily against him. His second attack once more caught only one of the two, and tearing it off Jenkins, sent it careering backwards to land heavily on the ground, a dozen paces from the wounded corporal. By this time, the first one he had flung off was almost on Jenkins once more, but Shepard dispatched it with a pair of tungsten coated rounds in the head. Jenkins' struggles had subsided into token gestures, his cries died down to feeble moans, by now, and Shepard once more used his biotics to fling the last one off its victim, his biotics lashing out, and pistol yapping viciously at the two remaining fiends that had attacked him and his colleague.

Two minutes later, there was utter silence, all three bodies utterly destroyed by a combination of Shepard's biotics, and pistol, and Jenkins had gone completely silent. With the attackers dead, Shepard hurried down to the fallen corporal, but the commander was too late to help the young soldier. The boy was dead, his armour ripped, his body roasted, and electrocuted, his eyes staring vacuously into the clear cloudless sky. Shepard paid his fallen comrade the tribute of a deep sigh, and gently closed the eyes.

-(Scene Break)-

Kaidan Alenko was speaking into his communications headset. "Yes, Captain. The beacon is secure. We also disarmed bombs to destroy the colony. There are no other charges around, sir!" Two soldiers, Pvt. Sanders, and another woman stood by him, looking with some curiosity and interest at the beacon.

There was a momentary silence as Alenko listened to some questions from the other side, and then Alenko spoke again, "No, sir, I don't know where Nihlus or Shepard and his team are. They've not come here. Hold on, though. Here comes Shepard."

Shepard strode into the spaceport, quiet and composed as ever. "Shepard, what happened?" inquired Kaidan Alenko. "Where is Jenkins? And Nihlus?"

Shepard replied, "Both of them are dead."

"What? What happened, Shepard?"

"I'll explain everything, lieutenant. But let's get this thing on the Normandy first." He gestured towards the Prothean beacon. Alenko looked at his superior officer for a long moment, nodded and began speaking into his headset.

Shepard looked at the beacon, which was glowing a brilliant, ghostly green, "Interesting. Actually working Prothean technology. It's incredibly rare."

A woman soldier – Shepard would later find out that her name was Ashley Williams, and she was one of the garrison on Eden Prime who had been rescued by Alenko – who had been standing near Alenko moved towards the beacon, "It wasn't doing anything like that. Something must have activated it."

Shepard strolled around the perimeter, while the woman moved further towards the beacon. Suddenly, the aura of the beacon magnified, and the woman was caught in its glowing green field, and inexorably dragged towards it. Shepard, who had seen the increase in luminescence, and whipped around to discover the cause, was shocked to see the woman caught in the field. Recking naught of his own safety, he sprinted towards her, caught her across the middle and flung her aside, and out of the field. However, in doing so, he had stepped into the field himself, and was now, in his turn, dragged towards it. His last recollection before he lost consciousness was his mind being assaulted by strange visions of war and bloodshed, while in the background, he faintly heard someone scream, "No! Don't touch him! It's too dangerous!"

-(Scene Break)-

When Shepard woke up next, he was lying in a warm bed in the medical bay of the Normandy. His head still throbbed dully, but he insisted that he was fine, and was released from the care of Dr. Chakwas. He was soon brought for a debriefing to Captain Anderson, who was with Lt. Alenko.

In a cold, passionless voice, Shepard related how after landing, he and Jenkins had run into isolated pockets of geth, how they were taken by surprise by the impaled bodies, and Jenkins had been killed.

"What were those things, Shepard?" questioned Captain Anderson.

"Afraid I don't know, sir." Shepard returned in his dead monotone. "They were – or used to be – colonists, before the geth did something to them to turn them into synthetic creatures. They had been turned into mere shells of what they once were, husks, if you like, with a considerable amount of nano-circuitry. The carried no weapons, but used electric fields to shock us, and grappled us with bare hands."

"And what happened after you lost Jenkins?" inquired the captain.

"I continued on my own. Ran into some more geth, but they were just rearguards sent to delay us, rather than stop us. Then I ran into the corpse of Nihlus."

"Nihlus was dead when you got to him?" There was surprise in the Captain's voice.

"Yes, sir."

"How?"

"A nearby dockhand named Powell, who witnessed Nihlus' death, says he was killed by another turian whom Nihlus called Saren."

"Saren? Are you certain?" There was considerable apprehension and excitement in Capt. Anderson's voice.

"That is what the dockhand averred, sir."

"Do you have doubts about that, Commander?" The captain had picked up the disavowal from the Commander.

"Nihlus was certainly shot by someone who carried regulation turian military grade pistol and ammunition. He was shot in the back of the head, from a distance of about two yards – I gathered as much from the trajectory of the bullet which had lodged at the base of his skull. It is almost as if he was taken completely by surprise, and was not expecting it to happen. It also agrees with what that dockhand says – that Nihlus was surprised to see Saren, and let down his guard, whereupon Saren shot him down from behind in cold blood. However, apart from Powell, there is no evidence it was Saren."

"Did you find anything else about Nihlus, Shepard?"

"Yes, sir. His hard suit computer and omni tool were both gone." Shepard spoke tonelessly.

"I see. What about Nihlus weapons?" questioned the captain.

"Lay near him. He had not fired in the area. I made a quick search, and I found no titanium plated bullet – which is the kind of bullets Nihlus used. No reason to believe he fired at his assassins. There are no traces of any blood other than his own. Nor were there any geth in the area."

"I see, indeed," answered Captain Anderson slowly. "Okay, what happened after that?"

"I fought my way towards the spaceport where Alenko was, through some light geth resistance. I found that Alenko had already disarmed the bombs set to destroy the colony and secured the beacon. Then when Alenko was talking to the Normandy, that woman moved into the beacon's field and was getting dragged towards the beacon. I pulled her out of the way, but got dragged in in my turn. I saw a few weird images, and was then knocked out."

"What did you see?"

For the first time, Shepard showed some hesitation, "Well – I may not have gotten them right. Remember, I was knocked out just afterwards."

"What did they seem like to you?" Captain Anderson's voice was gentle and encouraging.

"They were visions of war. Of monstrous machines massacring everything in their path. The ones being massacred had no chance – they were just desperate and helpless."

"What does all that mean?" wondered Anderson

Shepard spread his hands helplessly, "I've no idea at all."

"Well, Shepard, the Prothean beacon exploded after you got caught in its field. It's gone. We need to inform the Council about this." He continued unhappily, "This mission is a mess. We were supposed to have a simple job of retrieving a Prothean beacon. Instead, Eden Prime was almost destroyed by the geth. Nihlus is dead and the beacon is gone. God above, do we have a problem?"

He turned to Shepard and commanded, "Tell Joker to set a course to the Citadel." Shepard bowed and exited. After giving the instructions to Joker, he had returned to his cabin, and shut himself in. If anyone could have noticed him, they would have seen him seated cross-legged on his bed, deep in meditation, a swirling mass of blue energy surrounding his spare, active frame, his eyes focussed on something a million miles away.

-(Scene Break)-

Anderson and his crew were first brought before the human Ambassador, Donnell Udina, who berated Shepard for losing the beacon, and getting Nihlus killed. Shepard spoke nothing, not even in his defence, a job at which Anderson was more active than the commander himself. After that unpleasant episode, Alenko, Anderson and Shepard had been brought before the Council to testify to what they knew. In the meantime, the Council had investigated the charges against Saren via Citadel Security (C-Sec). Or at least, they claimed to have investigated him. In reality, there was nothing that anyone could have done to bring Saren to trial on the evidence that they had. While a solitary dockhand had claimed to have seen Nihlus recognise Saren before the latter had shot the former in cold blood, an asari matriarch, Benezia, had sworn that Saren was with her in Noveria during the time he was supposed to be raiding Eden Prime. With such an impeccable alibi, there was nothing they could do. Shepard had evinced no reaction during the entire trial, except on one occasion. His head had snapped up when he heard that Matriarch Benezia had vouched for Saren. But apart from that, the end of the inquiry was a foregone certainty. All allegations against Saren were dismissed, and the turian councillor had implied an censure against the Alliance for making false charges against a respected spectre.

They were all assembled in ambassador Udina's office, and the ambassador raved at Anderson and Shepard, "It was a mistake bringing you two into the Council. You, Anderson, have too much history with Saren. It made the Council question our motives. And you, Shepard, lost us the Prothean beacon you were sent to retrieve. The Council wouldn't be impressed with your incompetence!"

Shepard looked at the bureaucrat expressionlessly, but Alenko intervened diplomatically, "The Council won't help us. We need to find evidence against Saren ourselves."

"Right," said Udina. "So where do we start?"

"I would talk with Barla Von," answered Captain Anderson. "Rumour has it that he's a contact for the Shadow Broker. He might have some information on Saren."

"What about the C-Sec?" questioned Alenko. "They investigated our charges against Saren. Can we have their report or talk to the people who investigated Saren?"

"I've got a contact in C-Sec who can find out who was investigating Saren. His name's Harkin," returned Udina.

Anderson snorted, "Harkin's a loser, who got suspended for drinking on the job last month. I wouldn't waste my time with that loser!"

"You won't have to," returned Udina smoothly. "Anderson, I don't want the Council using your history with Saren to disregard everything we turn up. You're to stay out of this investigation entirely. Admiral Hackett's orders! Shepard, you're no longer one of the Alliance candidates for spectres. I had a talk with Admiral Hackett about this matter, and he agreed with me. You're being posted back to your old intelligence job, effective immediately. Alenko is the sole candidate now, and he will handle this matter about Saren completely from now on."

Anderson's face whitened in anger, but Shepard said nothing, his face expressionless. He spoke with no inflection, "Very well, Ambassador. In that case, I will leave you to your investigations. Good luck, Alenko" He included everyone in a sweeping bow, and stalked out of the room.

Half an hour later, Shepard had commandeered one of the secure channels in the human embassy on the Citadel and explained everything to his superior, Yehoshua Barzilai. The older man listened quietly to Shepard's narrative, and when Shepard had finished, queried, "So what do you plan to do now?"

"I plan to investigate on my own, sir," returned Shepard. "For that, I need two weeks leave of absence.:

"You have your leave," replied Yehoshua Barzilai. "But does that mean that you're going to go ahead, despite what Udina says?"

"Of course!"

The older man looked concerned, "Be careful, Shepard. Udina is a crafty and vindictive bastard. He can turn really nasty if he finds out what you're doing."

"I'll be careful, sir," returned Shepard calmly.

"Good luck, Shepard. And keep me informed of your progress."

"I will, sir!"

-(Scene Break)-

When Ashley Williams came out of the meeting with Ambassador Udina and Kaidan Alenko, she found Lt. Commander Shepard seated at a terminal, quietly typing messages.

She walked up to him, "Commander, I know it's my fault. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get the beacon destroyed."

Shepard replied quietly, not taking his eyes off the display, "Don't worry. I know. You had no way of knowing what would happen near the beacon."

She inquired rather timidly, "So – what're you going to do now?"

He looked up at her and smiled for the first time. It was a cold, mirthless smile, and it sent shivers all over Ashley's body. However, his voice was quiet as ever when he answered, "Call in some favours!"

Author's Note:

Okay – so, there you have the first of my changes. The change was that Kaidan runs into Ashley and rescues her, while Shepard gets Jenkins killed and stumbles into Nihlus' body. Also, Kaidan saved the colony, while Shepard ended up with the beacon blowing up in his face (even if he did so to save Ashley and he had no way of knowing that the beacon would blow up). This is going to lead to complications for Shepard, as you just saw. The thing I wanted to emphasise is that Shepard is just human and he can make mistakes as easily as the others. He should have been more cautious about those husks, and he definitely should not have let Jenkins lead, after the boy was in shock seeing his compatriots killed by the geth. Shepard made a mistake as a commander and Jenkins paid for it.

I deliberately did not use the word `husks' because it was the first time Shepard saw them and he had no idea what they were.

One of my reviewers remarked that Pvt. Sanders vanishes in the latter half of the chapter. He is not of much consequence, so he was not mentioned. He came out safe and sound, and his status is updated in the latest revision.