Third chapter is here. Please review. Like it? Hate it? Any sort of feedback is better than nothing!

The Alusa was cruising through open space at FTL, the surrounding cosmic bodies reduced to mere blurs as Estum looked on from the cockpit. Hugo was in the captain's chair, flicking through information on his omnitool with his usual blank expression; it was the one he wore almost constantly. The human had many questions after the explosive ending to the investigation that he had conducted at the research facility. His thoughts were interrupted when his omnitool notified him of an incoming comms request from an unidentified caller.

"Fil, anything you can tell me about the caller?" Hugo asked the on board VI.

"Caller location cannot be found. Ping delay has been artificially masked; distance to caller cannot be calculated either. Caller ID protected using measures beyond my cyber warfare capabilities," the synthetic voice replied.

"Alright. Open the call."

The call started and a deep, masked voice echoed through the room, "Hugo Collins."

The voice was unmistakeable, sounding fierce, threatening and seemingly omniscient.

"Shadow Broker," Hugo returned the greeting.

"It has come to my attention that you are investigating the disappearance of the genophage cure."

"You are correct."

"You have been given minimal resources to complete the task at hand. I will be providing resources to assist you in your mission."

"All-out war with the cured krogans wouldn't be too bad for business, surely? Information plays a great role in conflicts."

"True, but if the krogans win, my services may be deemed redundant forever in a galaxy dominated by hulking beasts drowned by their own rage."

"So, what assistance will you provide?" Hugo inquired, quickly accepting the Broker's offer. He had dealt with the Broker in the past on a handful of occasions and had learnt that it was best to stay cautious. However, the Shadow Broker was very powerful and capable, help from the likes of which Hugo simply could not decline. The human was sure that it was the real Broker; the information of the newly formulated genophage cure had been kept as a top secret by the STG. The level of secrecy indicated that there were very few individuals who knew of the cure; some high ranking STG officers, Hugo himself and his STG crew and the one they were trying to catch. Hugo found it unlikely that the Shadow Broker was any of them, which convinced him that it was not an imposter who was contacting them. Although the possibility of a trap was risky, the potential benefits the information broker could provide outweighed the costs.

"I will provide a variety of resources, including one of my most trusted and capable agents. You will meet him on Omega, where you will head immediately," the Broker spoke as if the human had no say in the matter, which was probably indeed the case.

"Rou, plot a course for Omega," Hugo called over to the salarian sitting in the cockpit who had already finished finding the fastest possible route to the space station.

"Estimated time of arrival is 50 hours, Collins," the pilot called back to the human.

"Well, we will be seeing your agent in a little over two standard days."

"Very well. Shadow Broker out."

The transmission ended abruptly and silence filled the room, other than the quiet hum of the Alusa, as Hugo noticed that Vurwin was looking tense; the salarian was aware of the risks involved in dealing with the Broker and he had not yet come to completely trust Hugo's judgement. Although the human had proven to be extremely capable, he was not even a part of any military and by definition was closer to a mercenary, except that Hugo was closer to hired brains than hired muscle. Still, Admiral Paesin, someone who Vurwin had respected greatly throughout his career, had trusted the 'grey area' human with completing the mission, so he decided to do the same, but that did not stop the salarian from being unsure about some of Hugo's decisions, his STG instincts kicking in. The lieutenant had become proficient at hiding his emotions and feelings, but Hugo was an expert at reading people; a skill he had learned and mastered over the years. He had found that people were just like any other object and could be broken down and analysed; small pieces such as various micro-expressions and body language could be put together to form a holistic picture.

Hugo turned to make eye contact with the anxious salarian, "Anything you'd like to say, lieutenant?"

Vurwin's eyes shifted rapidly before he spoke, "I find it difficult to trust the Shadow Broker?"

Hugo showed a confident grin upon hearing the salarian's question, "You don't need to; just trust in me."

A bright, bluish light filled the room, reflecting off of the metallic walls; they were shining with cleanliness close to sterility. Within was a bench upon which a full set of unused heavy armour lay, along with several weapon racks containing a variety of hi tech tools and weapons, both lethal and non-lethal. At the back of the room, a coffin like object, made to stand vertically, could be found next to a lone terminal; inside laid an aged man, his body battered from the countless battles it had been put through, the right side of his face showing signs of reconstruction and his slicked back hair was almost completely a greyish silver. The man looked lifeless, along with the rest of the stoic room; only the dull vibrations of the active cryotube could be heard.

The terminal activated and initiated the defrosting process, the whirring noise of the machine intensifying as it prepared to bring the man, who was wearing an uncharacteristically peaceful expression, back to the harsh and rigid world of the physical realm. The door of the cryotube slid open after the various processes had been taken care of with great precision; defrosting an organic was a delicate process, especially for humans, who were physiologically weaker than some other races.

Zaeed's eyes opened for the first time in years as the warmth of reality washed over him along with a splitting headache. Squinting from the light which was too bright for his functioning left eye, which had not been used for a long period of time, the gruff looking human almost fell to his knees as he stepped out of the tube before quickly steadying his stance and regaining balance. He was wearing a black body suit, which he had donned before his years long sleep. Not recognising the room he was in, he scanned over it quickly and cautiously; to his left, he found the equipment prepared for him by the bench and racks, amongst which he spotted an omnitool.

Zaeed walked over to the bench slowly while overcoming the stiffness in his body and placed the omnitool on his left arm as he observed the scars, from both battles and operations, including one he had undergone recently, from his perception of time. Zaeed understood the cryo process and hence was fully aware of what had happened to him, but he found it hard to accept that it really was 2194 CE, as he had confirmed on his omnitool; it had been 2190 CE when he had stepped inside the freezing tube. As he was about to start browsing the extranet to catch up on any important changes that had occurred in the past few years he had been asleep, Zaeed received a call from the Shadow Broker, or as he knew her, Liara T'Soni, through the terminal beside the cryotube.

"Zaeed. It's good to see you," the young asari greeted in her trade mark manner, smiling.

"It was a comfortable nap I was havin' but it's good to be back. Where am I?"

"A hidden room I prepared for you on Omega. I had the cryotube relocated."

Turning to the terminal display, Zaeed let out a grunt, "I feel like shit, Liara."

"That's to be expected, my diagnostics are giving me healthy readings. It's probably just a side effect of the cryo; the discomfort should subside in a few hours."

"They better or I won't be of much use to you. Speakin' of which, what do you need me for?"

The Reaper War, his subsequent work for Liara in keeping the peace and the Second Krogan Rebellion had taken its toll on the silver haired human; the former Blue Suns leader was getting old and his ferocious willpower could only carry him on so far. Eventually time would get the better of him; a moment which Zaeed felt was fast approaching.

The ex-mercenary knew there was a crisis at hand; he had asked Liara to freeze him until she needed him. By doing so, he could spend his remaining time most efficiently.

"Relations between the krogans and the other species have not improved since the end of the Second Rebellion. Recently they attacked the quarians on Rannoch, who were rendered practically extinct as a result."

"Bloody hell," Zaeed muttered; in the past, this news would not have bothered the ruthless fighter, but Shepard had changed him, "It was Wreave, wasn't it?"

Liara gave a solemn nod.

"That fucker. He'll pay for that."

"All in due time, Zaeed. On top of the krogans taking over Rannoch, a genophage cure was formulated by a team of rogue STG agents. However, the agents were killed and their research facility was ransacked; the cure is now lost."

"So for now we have to find the cure?"

"Exactly."

Zaeed let out a tired sigh before turning back to the armour and weapons, "These are my welcome back presents?"

"Of sorts," the young asari grinned, "You're one of my most valuable assets, Zaeed, and a friend."

The aging human and the older yet more youthful asari were never close during their respective times with Shepard; they had never been a part of the commander's crew at the same time. However, upon meeting at the party on the Citadel in Shepard's apartment, Liara had felt that perhaps there was a caring individual hidden under the tough and cold exterior built over years and years of merciless killing. Maybe Shepard would bring that part of the mercenary out; the commander had a tendency to change people, intentionally or not.

Liara's suspicions were proven to be correct when she had found that had been doing volunteering work after donating all of his money earned as a mercenary, including that from the Collector mission, to the post-war recovery efforts, keeping only just enough credits to survive. The young asari continued to observe the ex-mercenary throughout the years, as he helped others free of charge, something he never would have even considered before meeting Shepard. As the Second Krogan Rebellion started, Liara revealed her alter ego as the Shadow Broker and offered Zaeed a position as one of her agents, which he gladly accepted.

Zaeed worked with Liara, working from the shadows to minimise damage and help resolve the conflict and over the years, they had come to respect and even care for each other, although Zaeed would never openly admit the latter.

"You're starting to become a helluva soft one, Liara." Zaeed guffawed, feigning disapproval to hide his appreciation for the asari's concern, "There's a job to be done."

Liara gave a soft smile, one Zaeed rarely saw on the young asari carrying heavy burdens, "Indeed. You will be working with a male human, Hugo Collins, along with some STG agents. They will be arriving here on Omega in approximately two standard days, time which you may use to get back into shape and become accustomed to your new equipment."

"Let's get the fun started then."

Hugo stepped out of the docking bay, donning the blue Alliance amour he had collected back on the research station. Ferkal and Vurwin were following closely, taking in the views of the scummy kingdom of criminals.

"Putrid," Vurwin remarked between loud sniffs as they walked through the blocks.

"Indeed. Something I've missed about this place," Hugo sighed in reminiscence, "Although mostly petty, there is so much adventure here."

Vurwin gave the human a look of surprise, "Sentimental attachment to Omega is rare, Collins."

"Can't help it," Hugo shrugged as they arrived at an apartment building, "I spent some of my adolescent years here. Great fun."

The message from the Shadow Broker that Hugo had received as they docked at Omega had said that their 'help' would be located within the building in front of them. As Hugo reached out to open the door, he heard the sound of breaking glass overhead.

Looking up, slightly to the right, a turian was falling out of the now broken glass window. From that height, there was no chance of survival. Hugo watched as the turian hit the ground and his plates crushed and mashed together with his flesh before being showered with glass shards. Ferkal was already pointing his weapon at the broken window while Vurwin was still taking out his assault rifle.

"It's about time you got here," a voice echoed from above, "You must be the lot that I'm helping."

A helmet could be seen peering over the edge of the building.

"And you must be the new addition to the team," Hugo called back from below.

"I'll be down in a sec," then the helmet retreated back into the building.

A minute or so passed before the front door opened, when Hugo and the two salarians were greeted by a male human wearing yellow and black armour; it was bulky and looked heavy. The dark helmet visor turned clear to reveal Zaeed's face, old and tired yet fierce and intimidating.

"Sorry 'bout that," Zaeed motioned towards the pile of bones and carapace, "Just taking care of some errands for the Broker, passing the time til you got here."

"No problem at all. Hugo Collins," the human gave his best smile emulated from the vids he had watched as a form of practice for social encounters and extended his hand out to the armoured Broker agent.

The ex-mercenary took Hugo's hand and shook roughly, "Zaeed Massani."

Upon returning to the Alusa, Fil's synthetic voice echoed through the CIC, "Collins, the Shadow Broker has identified the most probable former owner of the Alliance armour."

Hugo had conducted a DNA analysis of the insides of the armour and sent the data to the Broker before leaving the ship to collect Zaeed; the information he had was meaningless without a reference list of individuals to compare it to.

"Go on."

"The most probable former owner of the armour is Systems Alliance Major Kaiden Alenko."

In a split second upon hearing that name, Hugo's mind was working in overdrive. The second human Spectre? Why was his armour in the research station? Undercover work or a personal motive? Development of a genophage cure is beneficial to the Alliance? They could use it as a threat but actually using it is a completely different story; countermeasures would be required. Was he captured? There wouldn't be much benefit for the rogue researchers in doing so. If willing cooperation by Alenko with the researchers is assumed, why was the armour left behind? Was he aware of the attack beforehand?

"Anything more than just a name? Other than the obvious of course."

"Incoming call from the Shadow Broker."

"Patch it through."

After a brief pause, the VI opened the call from the Broker.

"Collins," the distorted voice greeted.

"Broker," Hugo returned the greeting, still standing.

"The armour was most likely owned by Kaiden Alenko. I'm sure you are already aware of who he is, to an extent."

"I am."

"I will transfer to you the relevant data that I am in possession of. You should receive it shortly."

The terminal by the captain's chair beeped upon receiving the data. Hugo walked over briskly and looked over the information, taking note of the severe gaps in knowledge expected to exist for the activities of a Spectre; almost all of their missions and assignments were top secret, information difficult to gather even for the Shadow Broker.

"Much appreciated."

The call ended, a heavy silence filling the room; what were they to do now?

A few moments passed before Zaeed spoke up, "So where the hell are we off to now?"

Considering the potential answers to the question Hugo had been wondering about himself, Hugo took a seat in the captain's chair, remembering when he caught a glimpse of the Krogan cruiser that had attacked them back in the base and noticing the Urdnot clan markings painted on different parts of the ship.

Why was clan Urdnot attacking the research station? The likelihood of their involvement in the initial infiltration is very low, considering the nature of the traces left behind. Perhaps there is a connection between their hostile actions towards us and their attack on the quarians on Rannoch? Wreave may have sent his clan and allies on an aimless rampage across the galaxy, but it is highly unlikely; the research station was well hidden and the surrounding colonies were ignored by the krogan, implying an intentional and direct attack. Additional data regarding the events which transpired during the krogan invasion of Rannoch is required.

"We're about to find out," gripping the armrests on either side of this chair, Hugo called out to the VI, "Fil, get me a secure line to admiral Paesin."

"Of course. One moment."

Vurwin and Ferkal were giving each other confused looks as they tried to figure out what Hugo was calling their superior for when they were interrupted by the older salarian woman connecting to the Alusa's communications.

"Any progress, Collins?" Paesin greeted with her textbook smile.

"I know you're hiding something about what happened on Rannoch when the krogans attacked," Hugo ignored the question and dove straight to the point.

Paesin's soft expression was immediately replaced by one of shock and confusion at the man's words, "How? That information is top secret! "

Hugo grinned internally while maintaining a cold gaze on his face.

A lucky guess.

"The 'how' is irrelevant for now, Paesin. What is important is that you give me the whole story if you want me working at full capacity."

"I can't possibly do that. I must consult with the other admirals –"

"Fine by me. If you want to waste time while a genophage cure is in the hands of an unknown group, be my guest, but we both know you don't want that. A waste of your time is a waste of my time, and my time is wasted at the expense of galactic stability."

The salarian admiral stared into Hugo's near expressionless face through the comms systems with wide, blank eyes before sighing deeply, her head hung and shaking slowly from side to side.

"Fine. The current predicament calls for," Paesin paused, "drastic measures."

"Glad you saw reason," Hugo gave a wide, glaringly fake smile.

After overcoming a slight pause of hesitation, Paesin started to speak again, "As it turns out, the quarians may have repeated their mistake."

The Alusa was heading towards the Tikkun system, in which Rannoch is found; it would take approximately 50 standard hours. In the meantime Hugo had remained in his chair, contemplating and re-watching the footage of the disappearing blue box of the RANNOCH-1000, gathered by the STG, for the tenth time, struggling to find any clues as to what had happened to the supercomputer after it had been swallowed up by the mass effect field emanating from within itself. Biotic teleportation was not yet possible on a practical scale and even if it were, Hugo doubted that the quarians would have been able to design and build a machine capable of the feat using the scraps and spare parts they had available to them.

He tapped on the terminals in front of him to bring up some modelling modules. From the human's understanding of the theory, the RANNOCH-1000 would have had to interact internally with an object capable of producing strong mass effect fields. The implications of a successful teleportation by the supercomputer were potentially dangerous; a supercomputer which evolved by itself into an AI capable of manipulating mass effect fields to a sufficient degree to even attempt the teleportation may be on the loose.

The energy required to teleport an object of that size would be immense enough to only allow one instance before a standard drive core would be rendered non-functional, which Hugo assumed was the part used as the energy supply when building the supercomputer.

After pondering for a moment, Hugo started to model the most likely range of the teleportation based on the assumption that the supercomputer was powered by an internal drive core which could fit inside the 3 meter by 3 meter by 3 meter blue box. The calculations were complex, even for the hyper intelligent prodigy, to the point of near frustration, a rarity for his detached nature. It reminded him of how he felt when he had competed with the one person who would always beat him, who would always be at least one step ahead; usually it was around 20 steps.

Competitive frustration, along with curiosity and excitement, were one of the very few feelings Hugo could recognise. Companionship, romance and friends were foreign concepts to him, known only in theory and recognised as weaknesses, but a lack of interpersonal relationships had left Hugo somewhat empty throughout his life, something he recognised as 'loneliness'. Although he was not in any rush, with the raging instability of the galaxy beckoning him towards new mysteries and curiosities, ever since he had acknowledged that human relations were a vital part of mental health, even for a man as detached as he was, Hugo had been attempting to form connections with other people, but to no avail. The woman whom Hugo had been stood up by at the restaurant back on Illium before he was called in by Helia was a prime example; he thought he had been making good progress in learning and understanding human behavioural dynamics, but the woman had been somehow offended by Hugo, as were many others in the past, something that the clueless genius could never completely figure out, leading him to the conclusion that personal relationships were one of the hardest puzzles to solve that the galaxy had to offer.

A few hours had passed before Hugo had finished his model and had started to run simulations with it, the results of which had confirmed his initial suspicions; assuming that the supercomputer was indeed able to successfully teleport out of Rannoch, it only would have been able to reach a position in space located within the Tikkun system. He sent a secure, audio-only communications request through his terminal, answered in a matter of seconds.

"It has been a while, Collins," the voice on the other side was that of a male drell.

"Indeed, Kais," Hugo greeted back quickly and got straight to the point, "I need to ask you for a favour."

"What kind?" the drell sounded curious yet authoritative and in control.

"I'm just after some information."

"I'm listening."

"Did you and your people notice anything strange within the Tikkun system around eight days ago?"

"You mean when the krogans invaded Rannoch?"

"Well, I mean anything strange other than that."

"One incident has been recorded."

"What happened?" Hugo questioned, to which he was met with a pause of hesitation, "Kais, you owe me at least this."

He received no reply for a while longer as the drell contemplated his options.

"Alright, Collins. Only this time."

"Of course."

The voice's tone shifted to one which was darker, "A space station modified and used as a rogue research facility by a few salarian scientists was found by one of our reconnaissance drones to be destroyed as a result of a mass effect field explosively emanating outwards from within the structure."

"The researchers and the nature of their work?"

"Salarians involved in synthetic body modifications."

"That's all you can give me?"

"That's all we have for ourselves, Collins. We haven't been able to commit resources to investigate an abandoned wreck."

Preparing countermeasures against the krogans. Hugo read between the lines.

"With only that level of information, I can't exactly say that your debt has been repaid," Hugo spoke with a smirk that could be heard in this voice, "Let me investigate the facility before you lot do."

Hugo knew he was asking for a lot; Kais' superiors would give him severe reprimand if they were to find out that he authorised a civilian to investigate an area of interest before their people could, opening up the risk for intentional and accidental contamination and tampering of evidence. However, Hugo also knew that Kais owed him a lot.

The drell gave a heavy sigh before speaking in resignation, "As you say."

As they approached the broken down research facility floating in space, Hugo peered out through the cockpit window and noticed severe structural damage which appeared to have been caused by an explosion originating from a point within the station. Gaping holes could be seen scattered throughout the walls. Using the docking platform that had remained intact, Hugo and his shore party, which now included Zaeed, entered the deteriorating structure.

With the artificial gravity systems destroyed, the team used their mag boots to keep themselves stuck to the floor surface as they moved through the floating debris. Eventually they arrived in a room in the shape of a long hall way with damaged cryo tubes and terminals that were no longer functional along each side; Hugo guessed that, from the length of the room and the layout of the remaining equipment, there would have been at least 80 cryo tubes originally present. While most of the inhabitants had been blown away into space along with their cryo tubes during the blast, 21 of them, Hugo counted, had remained, although they were now lifeless, supposedly killed by the malfunctioning tube or from exposure to a vacuum without a suit. 11 of the remaining bodies were still trapped within their cryo tubes, while the other 10 floated around freely. There was at least one individual from every known sentient race, indicating a wide variety of experiments. While differing in race, one aspect the bodies shared in common was that all of them seemed to have undergone heavy synthetic modifications; large scars were visible and physical damage the bodies had sustained from the blast revealed synthetic organs within.

"This shit makes me sick," muttered Zaeed.

Hugo approached a drell body which he noticed had scars over its closed eyelids, which he lifted gently with his thumb to reveal synthetic, metallic eyeballs, which impressed Hugo.

Technology capable of mimicking an organic eyeball had been developed? He thought as he let go of the eyelids and continued to move through the hall way of floating bodies, leaving the lifeless drell body with its eyes still opened, which the others in the team also ignored as they followed Hugo.

As they progressed through the rest of the facility, Hugo tried to gather as much information as possible. However, he failed to collect much meaningful data; all of the terminals were made inoperable and rendered useless and much of the physical evidence had been blown away into space. Despite this, Hugo had managed to gain some insights into the events which occurred during the krogan invasion of Rannoch; reading between the lines was a skill he had learned throughout the years. He had always found that the utilisation of flexible thinking was more effective and efficient when compared to submission as a slave of deduction.

There were no components of the structure of the research facility that the RANNOCH-1000 may have manipulated to create a biotic explosion capable of doing damage to the degree he had observed, suggesting that the supercomputer used its internal power source, the one which it had supposedly used to teleport away from Rannoch, in order to produce a powerful surge of mass effect fields. However, a biotic explosion originating from within the supercomputer would have destroyed it completely, suggesting that the supercomputer either transferred itself from its blue box to another storage device or it had merely self-terminated. Hugo doubted that the supercomputer had malfunctioned or that it had been manipulated by a separate party; it was unlikely that it would have been able to teleport to the research facility if it had, implying that the RANNOCH-1000's actions were intentional. Transferring itself to another device before causing its blue box to explode is a form of self-preservation, while destroying the facility along with simultaneous self-termination is an illogical act. Both possibilities indicated sentience.

If the RANNOCH-1000 had indeed self-terminated without transferring itself elsewhere, the research facility was a dead end, but Hugo remembered the facility in which the genophage cure was created. Clean and efficient kills. Calm and controlled. Capable in technological manipulation. Incredible physical abilities. One individual.

Things were getting interesting for the curious genius.