MSV Fedele

standard orbit

Kepler Verge

Despite Shepard's concerns, the rest of the ship was silent and empty except for the lingering smell of blood and vomit that seemed to permeate the worn deckplates. No booby-traps, no zombies, no hostages. She felt like they were prowling through a spacegoing tomb. "There's nothing here."

"There's Saleon. He has to be here. He wouldn't have just abandoned his pet projects." Garrus' mandibles flared in agitation, and his talons tightened on the grip of his rifle. "We just haven't found him yet."

"Easy, Garrus. If he's here, we will find him. I need you to keep a level head, though."

Garrus looked down at her with a slight offside head tilt and a twitch of his right mandible - his species' equivalent of a raised eyebrow. "A turian is always level-headed, Shepard. Unless we receive orders to the contrary."

"I'm going to hold you to that, Vakarian." Shepard looked over her right shoulder at Kaidan, who actually did have a level head. "What have you got for me?"

She thought she saw his eyes darken, just a bit, and instantly regretted her choice of words. Apparently she wasn't the only one having trouble remembering the fraternization regs.

But if Kaidan's eyes registered attraction, his voice reflected only his usual professionalism. "Registering one signal, commander. On the bridge. But I recommend that we complete a thorough sweep and clear, just in case. Saleon may have adapted biological-based tech that doesn't show on a standard scan."

Shepard nodded approvingly. "I count three doors. We'll start left, then right, and save the bridge for last. Fast but thorough, team."

They went in, fast and thorough, Shepard going low, Garrus going high, Kaidan watching their six. The side rooms were clear of enemies, but not of carnage. Blood splatter was thick in some places, the smell cloying and obscenely sweet in the stale air, in a gruesome rainbow of colors that indicated that more than one species had been victimized by Dr. Saleon over the course of his flight.

"Last door," Garrus murmured, gesturing to the closed bridge.

Shepard raised her pistol, mouth held in a firm line. "Open it."

The bridge was in little better shape than the adjoining rooms, but the Normandy team didn't pay attention to anything other than the brown-complexioned Salarian who was cowering behind one of the flight chairs. "You're... you're not one of those creatures."

Shepard didn't lower her gun; neither did Garrus or Kaidan, who manipulating his omnitool with a speed that suggested he was sweeping for enemy signatures, scanning for security measures, or trying to hack the ship's databases. Possibly all three at once, knowing him. "No," she replied levelly. "We're from an Alliance vessel. We found your ship adrift."

"Yes, yes. The creatures, they... The ship was disabled." The salarian wrung his hands nervously, looking from the armed marines to the armed officer. "They would have killed me. Thank you. Thank you for saving me from those things!"

Garrus was very, very still, his blue eyes assessing the babbling scientist. "Commander, that's him. That's Dr. Saleon."

The salarian blinked, and his eyes gleamed more moistly. "What? My name is Heart. Doctor Heart." His long fingers fluttered nervously, picking at the cuffs of his dark suit. "Please, get me out of here."

Shepard sensed Kaidan's presence close behind her and to her right. She slid a brief glance at him, trusting Garrus to have Doctor "Heart" covered. She raised one eyebrow quizzically.

The lieutenant nodded, tapping his omnitool once before disengaging it and centering his pistol on the Salarian.

Shepard nearly smiled. Good work, LT. I owe you a drink for that one.

"Officer? Are you sure it's him?" She very deliberately didn't use Garrus' name.

The turian nodded at her. "Positive." He locked his attention on Saleon in a wholly predatory move. "There's no escape this time, Doctor. I'd harvest your organs first, but we don't have the time."

The salarian cowered back, inching away from the marines and toward a console. "You're crazy," he sputtered in a high, quick tone typical of his species. "He's crazy! Please, don't let him do this to me!"

Shepard fought the urge to roll her shoulders to relieve the tension gathering there, and made her decision. "We'll take him in, drop him off with the military."

Garrus' mandibles flared in shock, and he stared at her, but his rifle stayed trained on Saleon. "But we have him. We can't let him get away! Not again!"

And here it was, the conversation she hadn't wanted to have with him. "If he dies, we'll never know what he's been up to, or how he did it. Do you want revenge for those people we just had to gun down in the cargo hold, or justice?"

"I - " Garrus appeared frozen with indecision, his hands trembling slightly on his rifle. Shepard was sure that only she or Kaidan would ever have noticed that fine tremor. "I... want justice. That's what I swore to uphold." His multitoned voice darkened, subvocals vibrating too low for her to hear. "No matter how much I want revenge."

Shepard locked eyes with him, and put every ounce of command and empathy she had into her voice. "We'll take him in, interrogate him, and he'll serve his time. This atrocity won't happen again, Garrus."

"Garrus?" The salarian's high voice ratcheted up a pitch. "Garrus Vakarian?"

The turian turned his ice-blue gaze back to their captive, every line of his body shouting leashed predatory intent. "I told you I'd catch you some day."

"And I told you you'd never keep me." Saleon moved fast and slammed his fist onto the console.

Shepard waited, counting under her breath just loud enough for the salarian to hear, then looked around theatrically. "Fat lot of nothing happening there, Doc."

"I'm not going to prison!" Saleon pulled a pistol from a concealed holster and aimed it at Garrus.

There was a triple-note burst of gunfire, and Saleon's chest erupted with blood and bits of lung tissue. The salarian slumped to the stained decking, pistol falling from his limp hand.

"And so he dies, anyway." Garrus actually snarled in frustration. "What was the point of that?"

Shepard holstered her pistol. "You can't predict how people will act, Garrus," she said quietly. "You can control how you'll respond. In the end, that's what really matters."

"Yeah." Garrus reclipped his rifle to his weapons loadout, tension visibly sheeting off him. "I... I don't ever think I've met anyone like you before, Commander." The turian turned toward Kaidan. "That was nice work with the hacking, Alenko. What did Saleon have on that console, anyway?"

"A vapor distribution system with some more of that nerve toxin we got the chance to sample earlier." Kaidan grimaced. "Absorbable through inhalation or pores. It wouldn't have been a good feeling, for the few seconds we had to think about it."

"Very, very nice." Garrus made a duo-toned hum of approval. "Well, guess we're done here, eh, Commander?"

"Yeah." Shepard rolled her head on her neck, trying to dislodge the stiffness. "Decon is going to feel really good after all this."

"Decon and a shower." Kaidan agreed, looking down at his muck-encrusted armor.

"Decon, a shower, and a beer." Garrus corrected. "I'm buying."

"Now you're talking, Vakarian." Shepard led the way out of the bridge. "Since Alenko already swiped Saleon's data, we can pull back to the Normandy. A volley from the mass accelerator cannon will blow this abbatoir to hell."

"One helluva funeral pyre, ma'am." Kaidan grimaced, looking around once they reached the gore-splattered cargo hold. "These people deserved better than they got."

"We've done our best, Kaidan." Shepard put her hand on his shoulder, watching as Garrus moved ahead through the maze of crates. "That's all anyone can do." She bowed her head and said a brief prayer to the Maker for the people they hadn't been able to save. "That's all anyone can ever do," she murmured. Tired. She was suddenly so very tired.

"Aye-aye, ma'am." Kaidan hesitated, then held out a hand. "Come on, Shepard. Let's go home."

Shepard hesitated, staring at him. She told herself he was being kind. That he was acting as a field medic, noticing her exhaustion. She even blamed his Sentinel training for his apparently overactive need to protect her. But she remembered with perfect clarity the look he'd given her before they'd swept the rest of the Fedele - that hunter's patience - and she knew she was lying to herself.

Regs, Shepard. Regs. Court martial. Loss of two promising careers because of horomones. Alenko deserves better than you can give, the baggage you bring, and you know it.

She knew it. She'd known it from the moment she'd met him on the Normandy.

Ignore him. Leave him.

It would have been the sensible thing to do. Practical. Correct. She was the ranking officer. It was her job to protect her people from their own mistakes.

Shepard closed her eyes and swore in Greek for a long, sizzling moment. When she opened her eyes again, she met Kaidan's slightly concerned gaze. And she took his hand.