When Garrus made his way back down to Chora's Den once again, he noticed something peculiar. This time, the bass of the music was not playing and the Krogan bouncer was standing outside the club entrance. The door to the club was shut tight. The burly Krogan eyed him as he approached cautiously. So much for talking with Jenna. He figured she of all people would know where Andromeda disappeared to. "Do I need an appointment?" Garrus asked sarcastically as he stopped a few feet away.
"Sorry, club's closed." The bouncer grunted. "Come back later. Fist doesn't want to be disturbed."
"That's odd…Fist never closes the club even for his 'special' guests. He would hate to lose money." Garrus hoped if he stayed around long enough making small talk, someone else may come out and he could at least get a peek inside.
"Get lost, C-Sec." The Krogan barked at him again.
"Technically, I quit C-Sec and joined Commander Shepard. I heard he was just promoted by the Council to Spectre status. That should give me a VIP tour." The Turian casually grinned.
"I'm not going to tell you again…" The bouncer growled. Garrus knew he pushed enough buttons and he would have to redirect his investigation somewhere else. He made a mental note to follow up on the club's unannounced closure. Waving in defeat, he turned and made his way back to the way he came. He had to find Andromeda…before he left the station.
After a quick elevator ride to the C-Sec Headquarters, Garrus walked to the Traffic Control Unit. Luckily, he still had one more day of access even though he sent his resignation over to Pallin. The Traffic Control Unit was located in a centralized unit that overlooked the docking station. They were responsible in tracking daily arrivals and departures. All landings and take offs had to be cleared through them and all manifests sent over. A gray skinned Turian officer saw Garrus approach and got up from his desk to greet him. "What can I do for you?"
"Hey, Haron. I need to see if you can track down a suspect I'm looking into. Rumor is that she may have jumped ship." Garrus followed him back to his terminal.
"Anything for you, Garrus. I haven't seen you in years since you were promoted to the Investigations Unit." Haron sat back down at his desk and brought up the display screen. "Ok what's the suspect's name, race and estimated time of departure?"
"Andromeda Kryik, human, a few days I'm assuming."
Haron typed in the data and waited for a seconds for the results to come back. "Nothing...you think she went by an alias?"
"Maybe," Garrus silently cursed to himself. Another dead lead. His gazed peered over the vessels that were still docked in port. "I'm going to go down there to see what I can turn up."
"May I ask what this human is in for?" Haron called back to him.
"Classified," Garrus replied back quickly as he hurried down the steps and took another elevator that led down to the docking station. He wouldn't have time to search every vessel that was still there. With Citadel security, it would be hard for her to be a stowaway. There was a possibility that she would still be stupid enough to hide down there until she found something. Rounding the corner, he bumped into someone so hard that it caused that person to fall. He glanced down and recognized the person instantly…Jenna! Just the person he wanted to talk to. Now what was she doing down at the docks for? "Jenna?"
Jenna's green eyes became wide as she saw them, but then quickly regained her composure. "Garrus? Just my frickin' luck," She grumbled as she rejected his hand to help her up and she stood up on her own, rubbing her tailbone.
"Chellick moved you from Chora's Den?" Garrus asked as he stood there watching her.
"What the hell are you doing down here?" Jenna demanded.
With his time run out, Garrus defeatedly made his way towards the elevator that led to the upper docking station. That area was mostly for higher class vessels such as military. He didn't leave the station empty handed. The dead body he found at the docks with Jenna gave him a big clue on where Andromeda was hiding at. The man was linked to a transporter that routed back and forth to Feros, the new developed ExoGeni human colony. Jenna maintained that she had no idea on where Andromeda went or why. He could tell by the expression on her face that she was telling the truth…well at least about the latter. Most likely, Feros was the place Andromeda was going to. Ironically, the same place that Commander Shepard planned his first assignment at. What concerned him was the fact that Andromeda may be on the colony and now it was under attack by the Geth. If she was killed before he got to her, then he may never discover the secret she was hiding for Nihlus.
His thoughts distracted him from seeing the massive Krogan, Wrex, at the elevator and he bumped into him with a hard thud. "What's the matter, Turian?" Wrex didn't even flinch from the hit. "Too much dextro-crap?," He chuckled.
The elevator door opened and Garrus was the first to step in, Wrex followed suit. How amusing, Garrus thought, in the same elevator with a Krogan and probably to the same place. "So, uh, I guess Shepard talked to you too?" Garrus started off the conversation as he felt the elevator's hydraulic lift begin to lift them both towards their destination.
"About saving the galaxy from Saren…blah blah. I just want to fight something. This place is boring." Wrex grumbled. "So, how about it, Garrus? Is this better than C-Sec?"
Garrus wasn't surprised that the Krogan remembered his name. He met up with the mercenary a few times whenever he decided to "visit" the station. Not on good terms, but usually their conversations were quick and brief. "Fighting a rogue Spectre with countless lives at stake and no regulations to get in the way? I'd say that beats C-Sec."
The Krogan chortled, "There may just be hope for you, yet, Turian." The last word came out distastefully. It didn't surprise Vakarian. Relations were never good between Turian and the Krogan..Well not since the Krogan Rebellion and the Genophage. Each side blamed the other for their misfortune.
"This is going to be a very interesting ride together," Garrus thought to himself as he exited the elevator and walked over to the gleaming craft that was in front of them. The Normandy had a sleek design with a stealth drive system. It was engineered by both the Turians and Humans. Apparently it was a testament to what they can achieve if they work together following the Relay Incident.
Wrex whistled as he followed Garrus' lead. "Nice ride. Probably the coziest I have been in."
"I wonder what's on the menu for this evening." Garrus playfully joked as he walked towards the docking access.
"Pfft..nothin good I bet."
Near the docking entrance, the same man that Garrus recognized that accompanied Shepard at the med clinic was waiting for them. "You must be Garrus Vakarian and Urdnot Wrex. I'm Kaidan Alenko, Alliance military. Shepard asked me to get you two situated until he returned."
Kaidan led the pair through the Normandy's entranceway after the decontamination scan. "So behind the pilot seat is Joker." Garrus and Wrex looked over to see a hand rise up from the pilot's chair.
"What's up," Joker called to them as he was going over the take off diagnostics.
Garrus observed as Kaidan led them down the pathway bypassing numerous stations, that he and Wrex were getting a lot of strange looks from the crew. Apparently, they were the first non-humans on board. An older gentleman with a white beard glanced over from the ship's galaxy map with a surprised look and then glared angrily. "I take it the crew was not informed of their new crewmates," Garrus commented as he paused at the elevator door while Kaidan summoned it.
Kaidan also caught XO Pressly's glare and chuckled a little bit under his breath. "They will get use to you. Besides, it will be nice to have a non human on board..to have a different opinion on the missions." The Alliance officer replied in a smooth diplomatic tone.
"So, where are we stayin' at if we are not too 'welcomed'"? Wrex pondered out loud. He and Vakarian were both thinking the same thing.
"Shepard thought that you may be better suited down in the cargo hold on the engineering level." Kaidan answered quickly as he got into the elevator first, his visitors followed suit.
"Figures…" Garrus thought to himself.
"What? No window seat?" The Krogan asked.
"It's not that bad..Chief Gunnery Ashley Williams is positioned down here too plus the Mako is down here. Just don't get it for a joy ride around the ship." Kaidan teased as the doors opened.
The large area space was empty with lockers on one side, a desk and then the Mako. The Alliance's military all terrain rover. Garrus was impressed by the rover's design. He never seen one like this up front. He instantly walked over to examine it. Wrex huffed, "I'd rather blow up something myself."
"With the M35's turreted 155mm mass accelerator cannon, you can take down about anything," Kaidan pointed out.
This interested Wrex; he paused for a moment and then asked, "When can I shoot it?"
"Plus it has a coaxial-mounted machine gun, "Alenko went on.
"When can I shoot it?"
"The vehicle's armor is tough enough to withstand high drops, extreme heat, and rough terrain." Kaidan continued on explaining the vehicle, clearly oblivious to the Krogan's request or just simply ignoring it.
Becoming impatient, Wrex pushed Kaidan and Garrus out of the way and walked over to the vehicle. "Let me see."
Shocked, Kaidan looked over at the turian. "Just ignore him," Garrus smiled. "He's like that. So, this place we are going to Feros. You know anything about it?"
"Nope," Wrex called back to him.
"I wasn't asking you," The Turian snapped back playfully.
"I know there's a human colony there funded by ExoGeni. It seems like lately a lot of the major industrial companies are paying for colonies. I'm not sure if I like that idea or not…then you sort of play by their rules," Alenko speculated.
Garrus heard of ExoGeni before. They funded a lot of medicine research, planetary exploration including colonization. With the Geth attacking the colony, that meant that Saren was interested in whatever was on the planet. If Andromeda was part of the reason, how did he find her so fast? It had to be a coincidence…"What do you think, Garrus?" Kaidan's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"About?" The question threw him off guard and he didn't know if his new crewmate was still talking to him while he was pondering or not.
"ExoGeni."
"They are all crooked," Wrex jumped in as he walked over to the line of lockers.
"I would want to know more about the planet I was going to live on and not go by what they are telling me," Garrus watched the Krogan. "Now, I believe the first one is mine." He called out to him.
"Nope," Wrex called back. "That's for someone named…'Tali.' Pretty weird name."
"She's a Quarian I believe. She was talking to the Council with Shepard. Hard to imagine that I'm working with a Spectre now." Kaidan replied.
"Quarian?" The Krogan was baffled. "What's a Quarian doing on the Citadel?"
"Dr. Michel told me that she had information regarding Saren and the Geth. Apparently Saren's men were hunting her down. Fist almost got to her first before we did." Garrus answered.
"Well, Garrus, at least we won't be the only ones the humans don't really care for." Wrex casually leaned up against the ship's wall and crossed his arms.
"I'll just leave you, two." The black haired man made his way back over to the ship's elevator. Garrus looked on and then caught the Krogan's beady eyes looking across at him from where he was. He almost wanted to pay a few creds to see what exactly was going on in that thick skinned head of his. Refocusing his attention back on the Mako, he brought up the diagnostics panel to check more on the specs. His mind was flooding about the Geth attack on Feros and the colony itself. He was worried about what he may find and more importantly what Saren may find.
