Chapter 3

Damien and Ravi sat, uncommunicative, in the mess hall as Doctor Roberts looked Liara over. Finally, he broke the silence. "Not the way I envisioned my first mission ending." He stated simply, somewhat guiltily. "Lead scientist nearly dies on peaceful archeology mission."

"Don't blame yourself," Ravi answered, somewhat too quickly. "You did all you could."

"Yeah," Damien answered. He thrummed his fingers on the large table absentmindedly. "Before today it was pretty boring. I caught myself wishing for some action a couple of times there. Kinda seems stupid now."

Ravi didn't answer. She wasn't really certain what to say. Finally, Damien tapped the computer's controls harshly, booting up the extranet. He began working on Ravi's papers to distract himself. Several hours later, Alyssa and her team came to the mess hall, chatting nonchalant. Elizabeth Yates noticed the intense look Damien gave the computer screen. "What's eating you, Civvy?" She asked.

Damien looked up, annoyed at her for ruining his distraction. "Liara." He said simply.

"No one told you?" Alyssa joined in, and chuckled to herself. "She's fine, Civvy. Just a bump on the head. Roberts finished his exam hours ago. Nobody told you?"

"Uh, er, no." He admitted. "I was thrown out of the infirmary so I just came here to wait."

"You can go see her in the infirmary if you want," Alyssa continued, an evil smirk playing at the corner of her mouth.

Damien shot her a retaliatory look. "Maybe I will."

"Maybe you should," She pressed.

Damien didn't answer, returning to his console, and again giving it a fierce look. Morgan and squad laughed at his expense then, but soon steered into their own conversations and mostly left him alone. Since he'd yet to do any meaningful work with the extranet link, Damien decided to slip away to the infirmary. Unfortunately it was in plain view of the mess hall from where the three sat together, and he could have sworn he heard another swell of laughter behind his back as he entered. He sighed, forcing himself to let go of his anger before it caused his biotics to flare. That would be what they would want, after all, to know he let them under his skin.

He noticed Liara, lying supine on a bed, sheets covering her. As he walked up quietly, he saw she was asleep. He looked questioningly over at Doctor Roberts, who came up beside him and spoke in hushed tones. "You here to check on her?" She asked.

"Yeah," He answered almost wordlessly.

"She's fine. Her body's healing the damage, there's a very low risk of her slipping into a coma, so I decided let her catch a few winks. It's better for her healing process anyway."

"Thought concussions you had to stay awake," Damien pointed out, "At least, all the extranet shows seem to agree on that."

"Heh," came a quiet, disparaging laugh. "First of all, extranet shows are a horrible place to do medical research. Secondly, they're right, but only if you're worried about a coma. I'm not. She'll wake up just fine."

"Ok." Damien deferred to the woman's judgment. "Thanks Doctor."

Liara shifted, suddenly awake, and the Doctor excused herself politely, heading for her desk. Damien felt Liara's gaze on him, and willed himself to not get embarrassed at being caught watching her sleep. "Damien." She said simply.

Damien cleared his throat. "Uh, hi Liara. Sorry for waking you up, I was just asking the doctor how you were."

"I am fine." She declared.

"Yes, that's what I'm told." Damien answered. "Well, I'll be going now. Glad to see you're ok." He turned, walking swiftly towards the door.

"Damien," Liara called out after him. He stopped in place, turned and looked at her levelly. "Thanks," She added. "You saved my life."

"No problem, Doctor." Damien replied, smiling. "Really glad you're ok." With that, he turned again and left. Liara laid back down, resting contentedly in the soft pillow. Doctor Roberts came up, then, taking a look at the readings registered on Liara's bedside console.

"Sleep ok, Liara?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, thank you." Liara replied. "How much longer must I stay for observation?"

"Another six hours and you are officially out of the danger zone." she replied. The Doctor turned to go, but Liara called her back. "Doctor, uh, I'm not quite sure how to phrase this—but—is it possible he is attracted to me?"

"Who? Damien Cross? I'd say more than a chance." She smirked, giving Liara a wink. Liara did not seem to be put at ease. Roberts noticed and questioned, "Why?"

"Well, I'm not exactly—interested—in him," She admitted. "He makes me a little—uncomfortable."

"You don't have to see him if you do not wish to." Roberts told her. "Never underestimate the power of a doctor's order aboard a Systems Alliance vessel."

"No, that's quite alright." Liara answered. "I shall find my own way to tell him. Thank you again, Doctor Roberts."

"Certainly, Liara. And call me Gazelle!" She smiled, again leaving Liara's side to work on her reports.

Soon as Liara was discharged, she headed directly for the CIC one deck up. She entered upon a flurry of activity the level of which disoriented her slightly at first, but she quickly recovered, spying a man who seemed to be giving a lot more orders than implementing himself. "Excuse me, but I need to speak with the Captain," She asked.

Corman Wells studied the blue skinned asari standing in front of him. He'd heard about the doctor in the infirmary, but now that she was up and about, he thought they'd be transferring her back to Therum proper and be on their way. "May I inquire as to why?" He asked, slightly put off by her presumptive attitude.

"It's a matter of some delicacy," Liara replied. "And I simply must speak with him in private."

"It's her, actually." Wells replied. "And seeing as I'm second in command here, I think you'd better tell me what this is about."

Liara seemed distraught, but she quickly recovered. "Ok, well, I received a message through the Prothean beacon in the ruins. It told me of a probe sent by the ancient inhabitants of Therum during the extinction of the Protheans. They wanted to learn why the mass relay network was suddenly offline, so they built a special probe to utilize their best FTL technology. The probe sent a message back to the beacon I found, telling it mission complete. Since the Protheans were wiped out by the Reapers, it is conceivable that the probe was never recovered. That means that somewhere in the traverse is a probe with potential scans of Reaper ships and technology."

"You don't know where, though?" Cormon asked for clarification. "Space is big—"

"I have some inklings to where it is from the beacon." Liara answered. "I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I have a good idea."

"Alright, I'll tell the Captain and give you a chance to make your case to her," Wells replied. "Now, if you don't mind, we're trying to work here."

"Of course, Commander." Liara replied, guessing his rank when she recognized markings identical to those she'd observed on Commander Shepard. Cormon nodded and Liara returned to the infirmary to wait. Within a half hour, she was given a chance to make her case to the captain, a woman referred only to as "Captain Reed."

Reed examined Liara's makeshift drawing of a star chart, recognizing the system immediately. "This is in the traverse," Reed stated unhappily. "Alliance ships are not welcome there, and it's going to be hard to find our probe without drawing attention to ourselves in the process. I'm afraid they'll never go for it."

"Forgive me, I am not aware how this ship compares to the Normandy, but that ship possessed a stealth system which allowed it to get all the way to Ilos and back undetected. Certainly there's some way—"

Wells interrupted, "We don't have the bloody stealth system. That's cutting edge technology on the Normandy. The Bunker Hill was constructed before that technology was fully developed. If you want to use stealth, you need to convince Shepard to take you there."

"That should not be difficult for me," Liara replied. "I worked with him before, and we became close friends."

"I saw the Normandy at Elysium on our way to you." Reed recalled. "It's possible they're still nearby. If so, we can contact Shepard and arrange a rendezvous."

"I'll set up a call in the comm room," Wells offered. "We can find out soon enough."

"Let's do it." Reed decided. "Follow me, Doctor T'Soni."

The three returned to deck one and entered the comm room, where Wells immediately worked to set up a communication link with the buoys responsible for FTL communications. Soon, a red hologram appeared, with Commander Shepard standing resolute, still wearing some kind of body armor that lent further to his authoritative presence. "Captain Reed," He acknowledged, visibly surprised to see Liara T'Soni. "Liara?"

"It is good to see you again, Shepard." Liara answered, smiling widely.

"Commander, Liara's come into some information about the Reapers. She needs your help to trace down her lead. I'll let her fill you in on the details. Most of it flew over my head, anyway."

- - - - -

Normandy came out of FTL at Liara's behest. Her sensors began scanning the system, spying an anomalous signal from the asteroid field. Carefully, Joker took the ship into the field and brought the signal into visual range.

"That's it!" Liara cried, happily. "The probe!"

"Lock up everything in the mako bay and prepare to depressurize it." Shepard ordered. "We're going to pick that up without an EVA if possible. Joker, keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Don't let them surprise us."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Commander." Joker replied cockily. "Screen's are free and clear, except for the million metric tons of rock floating around here."

"Keep her steady until the mako bay is prepared." Shepard added. "Pressley, oversee the depressurization. I don't want anything overlooked or missed."

"Aye, aye, Commander." Pressley replied. He quickly left the CIC, heading down the steps to the elevator. Under his direction, everything was secured and double-checked. A few crew remained in the bay with him in space suits, and the air was slowly vented. Soon the large door was opened and Pressley was looking at the dark hulks of massive asteroids and one shiny metallic surface—the probe.

On the bridge, Joker closed range on the probe, carefully using his sensors to bring the probe in line with the Normandy's bay opening. As the range closed, the probe began transmitting signals that momentarily overwhelmed his sensors. He quickly recovered, bringing the Normandy to a stop as it surrounded the probe. Over the radio, Pressley reported, "Got it, bringing it to the ground. Careful. There. Strap it in. Commander, we are good for gravity and closing the bay door."

"Do it," Shepard ordered. "Good job, Joker."

Joker bit his tongue slightly. "Yes, Sir." He was distracted by the probe's strange behavior a moment ago, trying to puzzle out what it could mean, and if it might be harmful to the ship. He didn't have time to contemplate it, however, as his sensors registered the flare-like signal of an FTL drive as a ship reentered normal spacetime. "Captain, new ship on radar. Intercept course. Will be here in one minute."

"Pressley, status?"

"Probe is secure, gravity's coming on nice and slow. We should have the gravity to normal in thirty seconds, then it's going to take several minutes to repressurize the bay."

"Hurry it along, we've got a bogey on intercept. Two minutes."

"Yes, Sir." Pressley replied, cutting the channel and beginning to bark orders to the two crewman in the bay with him. "You heard the man, let's get a move on!" Despite his best efforts, there was no hurrying the reapplication of gravity without injuring all three of them. Joker set a slow acceleration to get the Normandy moving off from the bogey without moving quickly enough to throw the three men into the back wall of the mako bay.

The other ship accelerated to full sublight cruising speed to intercept, and judging by its speed, Joker made the informed decision the bogey was a frigate class, designed for speed and recon over brute strength. However he was not familiar with the design, and couldn't testify to its combat potential.

"The bogey's almost on us, Commander." Joker warned. "Moving fast—frigate class."

"Full power to the kinetic barriers. Fire control, lock on target and warm up GARDIAN." The 2nd Lieutenant at fire control began powering up Normandy's point-defense system, an interconnected, computer-driven array of small lasers, designed to shoot down missiles, torpedoes, or small one-man fighter craft. "Hail the vessel," Shepard commanded. After complying, the comm officer reported no joy.

"Commander, they've accelerated to full burn—attack run imminent!" reported one crewman working at the CIC. "Incoming projectile!" Before he could even finish his warning, the projectile had already impacted the Normandy's kinetic barriers, which absorbed its kinetic energy masterfully, but lost some integrity in the process.

"Full gravity and acceleration compensation restored!" Bellowed Pressley over the comm. "Ready for evasive maneuvers!" Joker didn't waste a moment, immediately calling on the massive power from his military thrusters. The crew were pressed backwards only slightly thanks to the compensators, and Normandy began moving off at a more respectable pace for a ship of her class. The attacker pressed his momentary advantage, however, firing off several more mass accelerator rounds which Joker was unable to avoid. The attacker attempted to maintain his advantage, remaining in the blind spot to Normandy's aft, pressing its shots home. Joker deftly piloted the ship, bringing it about in a tight 180-degree inversion, facing his enemy in seconds flat, and firing the sublight engines for all they were worth. The sudden redirection scheme paid off, forcing the attacker to shoot past Normandy. Joker spun again, giving Normandy an advantageous firing position, if only briefly.

"Get us out of here," Shepard ordered, watching the battle on the CIC holographics. "That ship's just a pirate looking for a cheap kill. We've got a mission objective to protect. Joker—spin up the FTL and set course for the relay out of here."

With slight chagrin at not being complimented for his expert maneuver, nor pressing the attack in retribution, Joker began calling up the FTL systems and setting course for relay through which they'd entered the system. The attacker swung around, belatedly firing more rounds at the ship. One struck home by chance, and the kinetic barriers wavered and failed. The remainder of the energy went straight up Normandy's tailpipe, striking a thruster and causing moderate damage. A moment later, the ship entered FTL and escaped, hurt.

Shepard and the rest of the crew felt the noticeable impact of a round against the hull. "Report!" he bellowed out. Everyone at the CIC checked their consoles, but reported no damage. However, Engineer Adams' voice came over the comm with a foreboding tone.

"Commander, we've got bad diagnostic data spitting out from one of the thrusters. Recommend we leave FTL immediately and check the thrusters for damage."

"We're still well in range of the other vessel," Shepard reasoned. "If the others can handle it, we need to keep moving."

"I'll disable the damaged thruster immediately," Adams reported. "Helm, you better be ready for this."

Joker huffed in contempt. "Whenever you're ready, engineering. Don't worry about me."

"Shutting down in five seconds... Four... Three... Two... One... Now!" With that, Adams cut off the power to the thruster and Joker adjusted the forces exerted by the other three to compensate. His FTL destination drift calculation rose significantly, but he bit his lip. It would have to do, and he could still make it by sublight to the relay in short order.

"Pressley, I want a full ship status when you get back here." Shepard ordered, walking down from the galaxy map platform. "Engineering, we'll take a full accounting of the damage once we're back in safe space."

"Acknowledged," Adams replied unhappily. "I'll keep my eye out we may have other things start to fail if the damage made it beyond the thruster assembly proper."

"Good." Shepard replied, closing his radio link to engineering, and walking up to the banks of heat management stations, inspecting them to get a rough assessment of burn time before he'd have to let the ship sit and radiate its heat buildup.

- - - - -

Liara shut down her omni-tool in frustration. The probe was entirely self-sealed and apparently had no desire to link up to her technology via any form of radiation transmission. It seemed to be built purposely to interface only with the Prothean console she had been studying in the war room before the earthquake struck. All her attempts to emulate the device were unsuccessful, owing to her lack of real information on how that console was designed to work as it was a very recent find and not yet well researched.

Shepard came up behind her, but she could feel him coming down the elevator long before she could hear or see him. She stood, radiating frustration at the probe's insolence, helpless to hide it from him. She turned and looked him in the eyes, and he faltered in his steps, but recovered quickly. "No luck, huh?"

Liara shook her head, rather depressed she hadn't had a chance to examine its potential wealth of information on the last Reaper invasion. "I am now of the opinion that it cannot be examined until we bring it to the console my colleague found on Therum."

"Colleague?"

Liara's blue cheeks changed shades almost imperceptibly, a slight blush. "Technically no, I only met him a few days ago." She faltered. "I do not wish to cause you concern, it is my problem and I will handle it."

Shepard looked unconvinced and more than a little curious now. "Let's go to my quarters. I want to hear all about this problem colleague of yours."

Liara did not want to comply, but when Shepard used that commanding tone of his, it brooked no disagreement and she found herself walking alongside him. Soon as they were safely sequestered in privacy, he sat in a chair, motioning her to use the bed, and gave Liara his undivided attention.

"So what's up? You met this guy, gal, whatever, a couple days ago and already you're embarrassed by it? Let me tell you Liara, this doesn't exactly make me feel confident about us or what's coming next."

Liara struggled to put everything into perspective so she could explain it and put Shepard at ease. "Well, the Bunker Hill brought a biotic to help me unearth the war room where I found the beacon that lead us here. His name is Damien. Don't give me that look, it's not like that," She chastised him then, and he begrudgingly returned to a more neutral poker face. "There was an earthquake, and I hurriedly used the beacon in case we were about to lose it forever. I decided since I'd already received the Cipher and your vision I might be able to process it. Thankfully, I was."

"Get to the part about this Damien guy." Shepard commanded. "Hurry up before I drive myself mad."

"I said it isn't like that, Shepard, you must know I am committed to our relationship. Asari do not take unions lightly, I've explained that numerous times before. But—that doesn't stop him from—being interested in me, apparently."

"Oh," Shepard mouthed, finally getting some idea what had her so embarrassed. "Well, don't take it personally, Liara, I'm sure he's not all that up and familiar on asari customs, hell, do we even know if he knows we're bonded?"

"I suppose we don't," Liara admitted. "I found out about his feelings rather suddenly, just before coming to the Normandy for this mission. He visited me in sickbay, I could tell he was deeply concerned for me." Liara looked down at her hands, which were writhing together for no particular reason other than a vain attempt to discharge some of her nervous energy about the conversation.

"It's ok, Liara, I'll talk to him," Shepard decided. He had some dark thoughts about what he might say or do during this talk, but he fought them off. Be reasonable, he scolded himself, it's not like he's done anything particularly wrong—he just picked the wrong girl on which to crush. He'll be reasonable when he finds out about us.

"I can handle it, Shepard," Liara retorted, "Like I said I would. I should get used to all this, I made the decision to bond with a human, and I must accept that not all humans understand what bonding means to us as a people. After all, asari are very accepting of their sexuality—"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember." Shepard waved her off. "Please, the less I think about the Consort and Chora's Den, the better. Look, Liara, I don't know if I should apologize for him or beat him senseless, but you're absolutely right, humanity in general has a lot of funny ideas about our galactic neighbors because we just haven't been exposed to them that long. Our connection—it goes beyond sex, it's a spiritual oneness like I never could have imagined. Not a day goes by that I don't think of you," His voice gave out as he stared into her eyes. She blushed, smiling happily in return.

"I forgot what I was saying." Shepard admitted. "Um, let's just assume it was brilliant. Don't worry about his advances, just tell him 'no.' You don't have to explain it if you don't want to, but it might help your chances of making him cease and desist." A tone of concern embellished his next question. "Ok?"

"Alright," Liara stated, much more confident. "I must admit, it is hard to get used to your culture at times. It is so chaotic, and the 'rules' so... muddled. I have to say it confounds me some times that you can even navigate it so successfully yourself."

Shepard smiled a big, warm grin. "Yeah, we're pretty messed up like that." He stood up from his chair and walked over to her, leaning in to kiss her. "Don't even worry about it. Offending a human is pretty damn easy so it doesn't mean much in the long term anyway."

Liara tilted up to capture his lips with her own. "Thank you." She breathed into him. He sighed, leaning them back against the bed.

"It's what I'm here for," He answered.

- - - - -

Normandy reached the destination mass relay that decelerated them back into normal space-time from the hyper velocities only mass relays were capable of creating. The ship groaned in protest, uncharacteristic for such a quiet ship. She'd been getting louder as they'd arrived at the departing relay, and Adams was concerned. Shepard was as well, and as the ship sat discharging its core charge buildup and heat buildup both, the Bunker Hill came alongside.

Shepard entered the comm room flanked by his better half, who seemed a lot more at peace with herself today than she had been last night. The Normandy's damage was more consequential than Adams had prognosticated, and running on damaged equipment had caused Normandy to break herself further, ruling out conventional FTL travel until repairs were completed. Using the holographic comm system, he explained the situation to Captain Reed. She agreed that the probe should be taken to Therum without delay and offered her ship before he could even suggest it.

"I'll stay here and work on repairing Normandy." Shepard told them both. "Ship needs her commanding officer. But Liara here is the expert on theProtheans and the probe itself, or at least as close as we have to an expert. She should go with the probe."

"Certainly." Reed replied. "We've got the room for her too. How do you want to transfer the probe?"

"It's too big for the airlock even if we could get it up to deck one," Shepard noted. "How about an EVA transfer, direct from my mako bay to your's."

"I'll get my best people suited up and in the bay in fifteen minutes." Reed told him. "Does Liara have an EVA suit to fit her over there?"

"Yeah, no problem." Shepard answered for her. "Liara, I know you've never done this before, but I'll be right there with you. It's perfectly safe."

Liara put her momentary fear at the prospect to rest. "Actually I'm quite curious to experience it myself," She stated, not sure if she was being completely honest or completely dishonest. Deciding it was a mix of the two at best, she merely left it at that and waited for the ship commanders to say goodbye and close the channel.

The switch took nearly an hour to coordinate, but once the affair was finally in motion, the actual transfer took less time. Reed's crewman, or crewwoman, more precisely, was apparently very experienced and talented at EVAs.

Once the bay was repressurized aboard the Bunker Hill, helmets were removed and Liara recognized the face of the female soldier who'd held her when she awoke. "Lieutenant Morgan, I did not realize it was you," She stated, surprised. "I was expecting to thank a total stranger."

"Sorry to disappoint," Morgan quipped ruefully. "But yeah, no problem. You're welcome." They shared a brief smile before picking themselves up off the floor and removing the rest of their EVA suits. Once they finished, the elevator opened to reveal none other than Damien Cross and Captain Reed. The two walked up to the probe, inspecting it.

"Cool." Damien stated, hands at his side pockets in a nonchalant pose. "What's it do again?"

"It's a probe from the last invasion," Reed answered on Liara's behalf. "Supposed to have oodles of information on the Reapers inside. You made any headway with it?"

Liara recalled the events of the evening before and secretly smiled to herself. "Not much, I'm afraid. I believe further progress will be out of our reach until we bring the probe to Therum."

"What's on Therum that's going to help?" Damien asked.

"Well, the console you found may be capable of linking to the probe somehow. It's my theory that the probe was made to escape detection by passing ships and to encode its information. A good surveillance probe would keep its secrets for its creators only."

"Makes sense," he answered. "So, Captain, we on our way back to Therum again?"

"You bet," Reed replied. "Lieutenant Morgan, Damien, Liara, you're all familiar with the ruins from last time. Given the instability of the region, I'd like to make this as quick and painless as possible, so I want you to go together when we get there. Liara, if there's anyway they or anyone else can help you complete the download faster, don't hesitate to ask. I want all of you out of there before we have another quake like last time—or worse."

"Understood." Alyssa replied, gathering her suit off the floor. "May I be dismissed to stow this gear, Ma'am?"

Reed nodded. "Yes, and good work out there, Lieutenant. Perfect job as always."

"Always?" Damien prodded quietly. No one answered. Morgan left the rest of the group for the elevator, and Ashley Reed decided to catch a ride in the same car on her way to the bridge to change course. This left some other crewmen working a rather ways off, out of earshot of the human and asari.

"Well, that had to be pretty frightening," Damien motioned with outstretched arm at the big exterior door of the mako bay.

Liara gave him a look, sizing him up, he assumed, before answering. "Damien, I am grateful that you saved my life." She wanted to establish that clearly. She was in his debt. "But I think it is only fair to warn you that I already have a spiritual partner, a 'mate'."

"Oh, right, of course," He stammered. "Well, that's," he closed his eyes with mental chagrin at his choice of words, "that's ok." Like she needs my permission to already be involved, you ass. "Well, uh, not that this hasn't been fun, but I've got work I'm supposed to be doing." Damien walked over to the elevator, but noticed the door was closed as it was already busy lifting the last two up a floor. "Kay, talk later!" He shouted over his shoulder a little louder than he intended, and quickly redirected himself to engineering. He didn't have any way to work from there, but staying in the room with her piercing gaze discomforted him fiercely.

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Huh?" Damien asked, distracted.

"I said you look like you've just seen a ghost."

Damien looked around wildly for the source of the voice before spying Gabrielle Allshouse, halfway up a ladder on one wall, holding a tool and perched next to an open panel. "What are you doing up there?" He asked, redirecting.

"I think I asked first." She answered, turning and returning to work inside the panel. Unable to simply leave, Damien decided to keep avoiding her by arguing semantics.

"Don't know where you learned English, but to ask a question you need to ask a question. All you did was make a statement. So I asked first."

"Whatever," Gabrielle's trivial dismissal proved she was only half interested anyway. "I'm fixing a relay that blew out—old age."

"Oh," He answered. "Yeah, no, it's nothing personal or anything like that, but watching that whole EVA thing kinda got to my stomach, is all." Damien noticed he overemphasized 'personal' but hoped Gabrielle would be too busy to notice.

"Uh huh." There was disbelief, but an overriding tone of disinterest in the topic. "So what are you doing here then?"

A good question, one for which he had no real answer. Damien chose to ignore it and simply shut up. There was a good chance the elevator would be ready for him by now, so he could probably just leave and be done with it. "No reason. Got to go, work and all." Damien hurried out of engineering.

- - - - -

"It's done." Damien announced. Ravi-Korian Nar Scyian sauntered over to look at his work.

"It's... exhaustive." She stated after reading the first several parts.

"Yeah, no worries. You've got enough credentials here to basically start a whole new life permanently, if you wanted." Damien got up, moving aside for Ravi to approach and sit at his console, then stretched. He gave a slight yawn but stifled it with his fist.

"You shouldn't have pressed yourself so hard." Ravi told him. "You're leaving for the surface in less than four hours. I could have waited for your return."

"This is better," Damien answered, "Gives you a chance to review it all while I'm gone, and ask me questions when I get back. Plus, I couldn't sleep."

"Why not?"

Why not? How about being shot down at the starting gate. Seriously, you take this too hard. Just forget about her and move on. This is no big deal if you don't make it into one. "The—ruins. Don't exactly relish the thought of getting crushed inside them, so this whole mission's got me on edge."

"I can understand that," Ravi empathized. "So is this really it? I leave the Bunker Hill and we never see each other again?"

"Yeah, it's for your safety." Damien answered. "Normally I would put you in contact with a case worker, he or she'd check in with you on a semi-regular basis make sure everything's kosher. Unfortunately, I don't think that's an option what with the conspirators in my department after us, so I'm afraid I basically have to let you go and trust you'll handle your new life yourself. Just remember, follow the rules, no contact with the familiar until you go back to the migrant fleet."

"I know," Ravi replied. "Thank you for your diligent work."

"Yeah," Damien shrugged, "I'm just sorry we couldn't catch them, get us both clear of it. But I've done what I can. You follow the rules, you won't have any problems. In the history of the agency, we've never lost a witness who's followed our guidelines. And I know what they'll be looking for to try to find you, so I've built more than one or two false leads for them to chase their tails." Damien smirked at the mental image. "Study up," He ordered, leaving the mess hall.

Lieutenant Morgan and her team were still using their rack time to their best benefit, along with Liara. Damien wandered the deck, trying to release the tension building in his shoulders, pinwheeling his arms and stretching even further than before. It didn't seem to solve his issues much, but made him feel a bit better.

He wandered up to the bridge, but not knowing anyone standing at the CIC, headed fore towards the pilot. He didn't really know this woman either, but figured he should try to become more familiar with his crewmates if he wanted to assimilate himself into their little society. "Hi." He offered. "Damien Cross."

"Lieutenant Larissa Knight," came her reply.

"Working the night shift, eh?" He asked.

"Yeah, doing a favor for the other pilot." She stated. "Normally I'm first shift. In fact, I'm back on duty in—" she checked a chronometer. "only an hour. Shoot, time flies."

"Yeah," Damien answered. "I couldn't sleep. Not sure why. Maybe it's this mission on Therum."

"You were down there before, the last time, right?"

"Yup." He answered. "Nearly died sounds overly dramatic, but don't know how else to put it, surviving an earthquake."

"Heh, I'll bet." Larissa replied. "So you're a civilian, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I worked in witness protection on Elysium." Cross explained. "I've never been able to see eye to eye with the military, taking lives just because some politician or Admiral says they want me to. It doesn't seem right to me, so I went into a different kind of service, where I can save lives instead of taking them."

"Sounds noble or really really pacifistic." Knight proposed. "I'm not sure which just yet."

"I didn't mean to sound patronizing," Damien apologized. "Killing just isn't for me, that's all."

"Sure." Knight seemed to be ignoring her controls, making Damien more than a little nervous with her intense gaze. "I hope some alien asks you politely if you believe in defending humanity before it guts you."

"Military is important,"

"Bet your damn ass it is." Knight interjected, turning back to work her console. "The turians at Shanxi proved that. We can't forget Shanxi. Besides, if you're only holding back because of some misguided notion about the sanctity of life, get a job on a ship. Pilots like myself, we never have need or cause to pull the trigger. Not up here. No, that's what the marines are for, and the Fire Control officers."

"I suppose not," Damien seceded in the interests of letting the topic die before it became a larger argument. "Perhaps I will do that. But, on the other hand, everybody in the Systems Alliance is going to be pushing me to be a marine, you know? Biotic marines are pretty tough in combat, I hear. If I take a job as assistant chef, well, it's a lot of untapped potential in their eyes. Part of me says if I just stay out of the military entirely I can avoid the hassle and harassment."

"Heh, who cares?" Knight asked. "Grow a pair and tell 'um to stuff themselves... with your cooking."

Despite himself, Damien chuckled at the image. "You don't care what anyone thinks about you, do you?"

"Life's too short to worry about protecting fragile ego's. You gotta live while you still can."

Damien made an indecipherable grunt as reply. "Good talking with you, Lieutenant Knight. Think I'm going to go try to catch a few winks, if I can."

"Cya," Knight replied. Damien retreated immediately for the sleeper pods on deck two. Sleep was light and flitted about quickly, so he didn't exactly feel his best as he reported for duty. However, he did his best to stifle his yawns and remain alert while anyone could be watching.

The Bunker Hill rocketed into Therum's atmosphere and came to a stop hovering near the ruins. Again, the drop was done using rope rappelling, but this time Damien was allowed to give it a try on his own. It took him a while, and his landing seemed unduly hard, but he made it to the ground on his own rope. Detaching, he smiled triumphantly in Morgan's direction, who seemed mildly appreciative of his feat. He supposed that was about the most you could expect to get out of her, she seemed so withdrawn.

Liara waited for the probe to be lowered by the gurney and joined it on its way down. Once safely to ground, she got off the probe and allowed Victor Stall and Elizabeth Yates to move it off the gurney and onto a four-wheeled equipment wagon. Victor took the first turn at the wheel, using a remote control function to drive it forward over the rocky surface.

The team passed the campsite on their way, the scientists working on packing their things. A few odd glances, but no one approached the newcomers to ask what they were doing back again. Instead, they continued packing up the pieces they'd accumulated over the course of the dig and getting prepared to be airlifted out.

Upon arriving at the ruins, Victor and Elizabeth we forced to carry the probe between them in order to fit in the narrower passages. They proceeded single-file, taking their time to avoid injury. It'd been a half hour when the sound of thrusters penetrated our depth into the ruins as a dull whir. Finally, we arrived at the war room and placed the probe near the console Damien had activated on accident once before. Liara got it working again, and studied its screen, glancing at the probe occasionally.

"As I thought, there's been some degradation in the subroutines. I can rebuild them, but it will extend our time down here."

"Anything we can do to help?" Alyssa asked.

"No, but trust me, it shouldn't take me too long to rebuild the damaged portions." She grew quiet as she worked, wholly neglecting the rest of us, as we shared glances and confirmed to each of us that none of the others had any idea what to do next.

Liara finished her patch in short order and the probe seemed to hum in agreement. Soon, data began spewing forth and with a triumphant shriek, she brought up her omni-tool, using it to intercept the transmissions and save them for future deciphering and use. As the download was progressing, everyone was caught off guard by the sound of footfalls descending into the ruins towards them.

Morgan held up a hand and everyone grew deathly silent. They heard some mechanical whirs once again, and some kind of auditory signal that defied quantification. Morgan ordered everyone to huddle up around her. In whispers, she explained, "Sounds like geth troopers. Yates, Stall, you're with me. We're going to head them off while they're bottlenecked in the tightest passages, try to thin them out. Damien, you stay here, protect Liara, and keep your eyes and ears open!"

Damien gulped down with some difficulty whatever had tried to come back up his esophagus. Hesitantly, he reached down, activating the combat armor's kinetic barriers. He hadn't received a weapon nor training for one, so he had only his biotics to assist him. Recalling the dampening field at his Elysium apartment, he briefly wondered if that would be sufficient.

Yates pushed her pistol into his hands, he looked down at it and took it gratefully. With a flash, the three marines quietly left the war room, heading up the way they'd come only a short time before. Damien moved to the doorway and cautiously peered around, but saw nothing, just an empty antechamber.

Liara spoke quietly. "I am amazed the geth have returned to Therum. They nearly captured me here once prior, when they came under Saren's behest."

"What do you know about them?" Damien whispered back.

"They are synthetic life forms. True artificial intelligence. They hate organic life and seek to isolate themselves from creatures such as ourselves. They do not usually attack without provocation. We had clearly defined borders for nearly 300 years, before Saren convinced them to attempt an attack on the Citadel."

Suddenly a shout came from far away, and the entire area erupted into a cacophony of loud crashes as weapons fire began to be exchanged. The sound seemed to drive Damien deaf, but no matter how close he was driven to that point, he could still hear the gunfire. There was a lot of automatic fire—assault rifles, probably. He heard the distinct rapport of a weapon that fired a lot slower—potentially something like a shotgun. He remembered Elizabeth had one in her hands when she gave him her pistol.

He looked down and quickly disengaged the safety, trying to breathe evenly, control his raging adrenal response. It seemed a losing battle as he shakily pointed it in the general location from which geth might soon be emerging. After a while, the firefight seemed to die down, and Damien took a deep breath in appreciation. Suddenly the ground shook all around him and he looked wildly to Liara—she also recognized the experience and seemed equally concerned. "How long?" He asked. Just that quickly, however, the ground shudders stopped again.

"It's done, let's go!" Liara answered. Damien was ever so thankful to hear that, he turned back to the antechamber—

Everything that followed seemed like slow motion. He spotted movement, something white and shiny, not anything like the armor color of Morgan's squad. In a panicked knee-jerk response, he pushed back with his feet, leaning backwards, away from the opening that gave the geth shock trooper a straight line of sight on him. He felt something hit him full-force in his gut, and looked down as he fell backwards, expecting to see his torso ripped a bloody hole. Instead, he saw the kinetic barriers alight, defending him. As he fell back, Liara also dove away from the doorway, both of them hitting the ground within a second of each other. Damien scrambled back to his feet, recovering his position just to one side of the doorway and carefully peaked around the corner, spying the trooper standing mostly in plain view. The trooper quickly brought up his weapon again, but Damien pulled back before the trooper could hit him. As Damien waited for his automatic weapon to stop peppering the doorway with bullets, he considered the fact that his small pistol was no match for a full-auto assault rifle when it came to suppressing fire. Biotics, then, will have to save us, because this geth has us effectively trapped in here.