Robocops and Robbers 4

It was with a large degree of trepidation that Robocop, Garrus, and Tali entered the elevator that would take them up to the Audience Hall. For Murphy and Garrus, it was an uncomfortable reminder of how they met, when the Council had determined that after six partners trying to order Robocop around like a drone or hack into him to see how he ticked, that the best option would be to place a rookie detective under him. Garrus hadn't been very gracious, or nice, when he'd heard the news and begrudgingly accepted. Thankfully things had cooled, and they were actually friends now.

For Tali, going up to see the Council was a lot like going to see a trio of dismissive gods. The Council had banished her people into the nether regions of space and doomed them to their suits, so the comparison was easy to make for her. She feared and hoped and a thousand other things as the elevator slowly rose.

Eventually, her fear was gone, and in its place was incredulity, "How slow are these elevators?"

"Very," Murphy supplies, "Garrus and me have been debating the reasons for years."

"Our current theory is that it's a calming tactic," Garrus tells her, "Get an angry ambassador in this elevator and make him ride it all the way up, and if he's still angry when he reaches the top, the situation is serious."

"Or he's a Batarian," Murphy adds

"Well, yeah, but have you ever seen a calm batarian?" Garrus asks

"I've seen less angry ones," The cyborg tells him

"Doesn't count, that's still angry.

"I've seen one," Tali pipes up

Both men turn to her, surprise visible on their faces. Tali smirks under her mask, and says no more.

"Awe, come on!" Garrus whines, which gets a smirk out of Murphy, "When?"

"Nope," Tali shakes her head

Garrus groans as Murphy chuckles, "I think she has your number."

"Oh, sure, pick on me," Garrus snarks back, "Let's see how well you can handle getting shot at on your own."

"I can handle it quite well," Murphy points out

"I can't!" Tali squeeks

"Oh don't worry. You, I'm keeping around," Garrus tells her as the elevator finally stops and the doors open, "I want to hear about that calm Batarian."

"Calm Batarian?" A female voice asks from their left. Turning, they see three humans, two men and a woman. The woman, adorned in pink armor, walks over, "You've met a calm Batarian?"

"That's like seeing a shooting star!" One of the men snorts, his face momentarily shifting from a perpetual frown to a disbelieving smile

"I have, and they don't believe me!" Tali moans, then sticks out her hand in the human gesture of greeting, "Hello, My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams," The woman smiles, taking the hand and shaking it once, "Call me Ash."

"Call me Tali," Tali tells her, then she smiles under her mask at the two men, "And.. uh.. Your friends?"

"Oh, right," The man who had spoken steps forward, "Commander John Shepard."

Tali shakes his hand and then the last man, who identifies himself as, "Major Kaidan Alenko."

"Well, I'm Tali, like I already said, and these are Detectives Garrus Vakarian and Alex Murphy."

Hands are shaken all around, and then Shepard tilts his head and asks, "Are you the ones with the additional evidence against Saren? Udina told us to wait for two C-Sec and a Quarian, so I'd put money on you being the ones we want."

"We are," Murphy nods, "I take it you are the witnesses?"

"We are," The Commander nods

"Then we should not keep the Council waiting," Murphy says, and sets off up the three flights of steps to the meeting room.

"Hang on," Ash mutters before looking over at Kaiden, "Is that Robocop?"

"I think so," the Major agrees in his usual breathy whisper of a voice

"He is," Garrus tells them, having been a few steps behind them, "He's also my partner."

"Huh, how's that working out for you?" Ash asks

"Pretty well," Garrus tells her, "He's a fun guy once you get to know him, and he's nowhere near as stiff as he is in the old vids."

"Good to hear," the Sergeant nods, and then falls silent when they see the Council and the twenty foot tall hologram of Saren glaring down at them, "Is that meant to be terrifying?"

"No idea," Garrus tells her, "The hologram thing is new."

"Power play?"

"Probably," Garrus shrugs, "Half the Council's job is making sure everyone thinks they're better than everyone else."

"So they don't actually believe that the Turians, Asari, and Salarians are better than everyone else?"

"Oh, no, they totally believe that," Garrus waves a hand, "They just think that everyone else needs to pick up the pace."

"Bit arrogant, isn't it?"

"If they don't act like it, they lose their jobs," Murphy tells her, having slowed and turned to address her, "The political stability of known space is at stake here. Rocking the boat could lead to disastrous consequences. Just look at the Krogan and their situation; they rocked the boat, and are still suffering for it."

"That's… terrifying," Ash gulps, not the least bit reassured by the smiles Murphy gives her before joining Ambassador Udina, Captain Anderson, and Commander Shepard up on the extended dias.

"This meeting of the Council is now in session," Councilor Tevos announces, before turning to Councilor Sparatus

The Turian Councilor takes up the speech and says, "Today, a troubling issue has been brought before the Council, an accusation against one of our Spectres."

"Spectre Saren Arterius has been accused of murdering a fellow Spectre, Nihlus Kryik," Councillor Demos takes up, "and an unprovoked attack on the Human Colony of Eden Prime with the assistance of the Geth."

"Spectre Arterius, how do you plead?" Tevos asks

"Not guilty," The Spectre sounds all kinds of angry, and there was something else in his voice, one that only Murphy and Garrus could really recognize, the sound of cybernetics whirring in tandem with the voice, "And I find them insulting as well, Nihlus was a friend."

"And you used that to shoot him in the back of the head!" Captain Anderson shouts

"Captain, restrain yourself," Detective Murphy tells the man, "An outburst of sufficient vitriol could have this case thrown out on insubstantial grounds."

Anderson looks Sharply at Robocop, swallows his anger, and nods.

"Ah, Anderson," Saren chuckles, "How have you been? It's been what, twenty years?"

Anderson looks like he wants to shout again, but Shepard grabs his shoulder and shakes his head, and the Captain nods.

"Councilors, we would like to advance to the submission of evidence," Murphy speaks, "The accused knows the crimes, and is now simply stalling in hopes of raising an emotional recourse in order to have the case thrown on grounds of a speciest case. The Prosecution denies this allegation, completely."

Tevos, Sparatus, and Demos exchange glances, glad that they had chosen to tell the Detective to come up and present the evidence himself. The Asari nods, "Please, Detective Murphy, Proceed."

"Very well," Murphy nods, then turns back to Shepard, "Commander Shepard, if you would please submit your evidence?"

"Of Course," Shepard nods, and opens his omnitool, "Myself and my team were split from Specter Kryik at the start of our mission, with the spectre deciding to act as forward scout. We advanced through the remains of the Prothean dig sight, losing one of our team members and rescuing Sergeant Williams from Geth attackers. When we reached the dig site, we found survivors of the attack that pointed us to the spaceport to find the beacon."

"They also told us that a Turian was leading the Geth. We were sceptical, but decided it would be best to warn Nihlus regardless. Before we could, he radioed that he thought he saw a friendly and was shutting off his coms. Approximately half a minute later we heard the sound of a Carnifax Heavy Pistol being discharged, a single time."

Shepard then taps a few more buttons on his omnitool, and the sound of a gunshot was heard, "Alliance forensics identified the weapon as such, we did not know it was a Carnifax at the time. All we knew was that there had been a single, loud shot, and we hadn't heard from Nihlus in too long."

"When we investigated, we located Spectre Kryik with a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. While Major Alenko was performing a quick analysis, myself and Sergeant Williams were alerted to a presence behind a pile of crates. The source of the noise turned out to be a man by the name of Powell, who had seen the incident and told us that a second Turian had shot Nihlus. When pressed, he told us that Nihlus referred to the other Turian as 'Saren' and let his guard down. They spoke, and when Nihlus turned his back to Saren, Saren drew his weapon and fired point blank into the base of Nihlus's skull."

Shepard lowered his omnitool and stood at attention.

"That's it?" Saren scoffs, "That's all you have? Hearsay from a terrified human who probably couldn't even tie his shoes?"

"That is incorrect," Murphy tells the Spectre, shutting the man up, "I and Detective Garrus Vakarian also have evidence to bring to bear. Tali, if you would please step up?"

Tali gulped behind her mask, but stepped forward as Robocop introduced her, "This is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, she is on her pilgrimage. Miss Zorah, if you would explain the purpose of a pilgrimage for those who do not know?"

Tali nods, and then explains, "When a Quarian reaches adulthood, they are sent out into the galaxy to try and find something useful for the Migrant Fleet, so that it can stay operational. You can bring back anything; goods, ships, parts, information."

"And it was information that you decided to bring back, correct?"

"It was," Tali nods, "My people have always kept close eye on the home system, watching for Geth, and every Quarian on Pilgrimage had received a warning that the Geth had gone beyond the veil. I thought that I could maybe find one of the Geth and pull some information from its datadrive."

"Did you succeed?"

"I did," Tali nods

"And if you recovered information from a Geth like you planned, why did you not bring it back to your people?"

"Because it did not involve my people," She tells Murphy, finding it so much easier if she imagined it was just him that was listening to her, and not every available ear in the galaxy that caught the Council on vid, "The information I recovered had the voice of Spectre Arterius on it, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring it to the Citadel, the Council."

"How did you know it was Saren's voice?"

"Before we are sent out on Pilgrimage, we are given a list of voices and audio recordings of people we should never, ever, trust. I think most of them are Spectres."

Murphy raises an eyebrow at that, "I think we'll save inquiry into why that is for a later date. Can you tell us what led you to come into contact with myself and Detective Vakarian?"

"Well, when I first got to the Citadel, I tried to go to C-Sec headquarters, but the Turian at the desk told me to go away, rudely. And then, when I was walking out, some other Turians tried to shoot me! I got shot and I ran and nobody helped me!" Tali shouted that last part, rubbing the phantom pain in her left arm from where she'd been show, she shakes her head, "I got help from a clinic, and I was pointed at Chora's Den and Mr. Fist. I met with him and he promised he could get me into the Shadow Broker's protection, but then The detectives showed up and arrested Fist and his goons."

Now Murphy jumps in, "When interrogating Mr. Fist's bouncer, it was revealed that not only was Fist an Agent for the Shadow Broker, but he had also sold his services to Spectre Saren. The terms under which his services were sold included selling Miss Zorah to him, rather than the Broker. This led both Detective Vakarian, and myself to the conclusion that the information that Miss Zorah had acquired was, in fact, genuine. Tali, if you would please play the recording?"

Tali opened her omnitool and Saren's voice blasted out, "Eden Prime was a great victory now we are one step closer to finding the Conduit." And then a female voice responds, "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

All eyes in the hall turn to Saren, who looks terrified, and enraged, and flustered all at once. He snarls and the hologram vanishes. Murphy smirks, "Lady and Gentlemen of the Council, it seems that Spectre Arterius has just confirmed his own guilt."

"Indeed he has," Sparatus nods, with a sad sigh, "And now it must be determined how we are to pursue him."

"Send the fleets!" Udina demands

"Unfortunately we cannot," Tevos shakes her head, "Saren has no doubt fled into the Terminus Systems, and to send a fleet in would incite a war with the pirate kingdoms of Omega and beyond."

"Send me," Shepard offers

Sparatus, true to the role he has to play, grinds out, "No, it's too soon!"

"You don't want to send a fleet, I can move quickly and quietly, get Saren and get the hell out of the Terminus before things go sideways," Shepard explains

"Perhaps it is time," Tevos mutters, trying to make herself sound hesitant, "But which do we chose?"

"Why not both?" Demos asks, having been elected to be the eager party in the political mess

"Both!?" Sparatus growls, "If we are getting both, I demand one of ours as well!"

"Of course you would," Tevos rolls her eyes, but glad to hear that her friend had managed to weasel their next favorite candidate into the deal.

Everyone else in the room was confused by what the Council were talking to themselves about. It was clear that they were debating Shepard's entry into the Spectres, but now it seemed like there were actually three potential Spectres being wheedled out of this transition. Finally, Sparatus, Tevos, and Demos are in agreement.

"Commander Shepard, Detective Murphy, Detective Vakarian, step forward," Tevos commands.

"Oh, great," Garrus groans, realizing that the Council had finally managed to snag him as he and the other two step up.

The rest of the Galaxy, or at least that part of it that was interested in politics, watched in awe, confusion, and a little anger as Humanity gained two Spectres and the Turians yet another one of their own.