Meet the detective
Kaidan looked out into the mess, two crewmembers were having their breakfast. Josh and Aly. They sat there quite motionless, grinning, it was somehow a bit of a chilling sight. He slowly approached them, when suddenly they both turned their heads towards him, "Sir?". They said it in an odd, hollow way. "Carry on." His own words didn't even seem to make sense. He walked on acting unnerved, wondering, was it some kind of weird prank? He looked at there plates for a second, but only when his eyes faced forward again he realized what lay on his plate. A heart. Josh grabbed it at one end and lifted it with two fingers towards his mouth, blood dripped onto the table, running down one of the table's legs, creating a pool of red. Josh studied it with care and then turned to Kaidan and spoke: "A regrettable accident, but atleast it makes for a good dinner", his tong touched it softly and in a flash it looked like it pulsated, "Care for a bite?" Kaidan was horrified, what the hell was going on, his stomach felt like it twisted and turned inside his body, "What are you doing!" he screamed. Suddenly a Turian stood in front of him, "Kaidan?" Kaidan looked up and saw his face, "What? No…It can't be-", With giant force he was smacked against the wall, it felt like his spine broke. "Ahh! You're dead!".
"Oh…You don't break me with one biotic slam, kid." Kid, he said kid, how did he not notice all the kids around him before, crying. One lay seemingly lifeless, three kids helplessly tugging at him. "You'll pay!" He got grabbed by the neck. "No Kaidan! This time you will pay!" His hand glared up in a blue gaze and moved up to his chin with incredible speed. "Aaahh!" Kaidan's hand hit something hard. Eyes were wide open. He was breathing heavily, his palms sweaty. He took a deep breath and released the tension after about five seconds. "Relax. Relax, just a dream." He took another deep breath and sighed "I thought I was over this."
He stepped out of the sleeping capsule and only then noticed a sharp pain, like a high toned whistle was sounding through his head. "Great! Damn, this is a good start of the day." He looked out into the mess again, his heartbeat rose slightly, but it all seemed alright, no one was at the mess table. Infact it was eerily quiet. Kaidan walked up to the coffee machine, chose a double espresso and watched it poor into his cup, which reminded him of the blood dripping from the table. He sat down quietly.
"Heya Kaidan!" Someone's hand went through his hair.
"Hmm?" Kaidan replied, noticing it was Ashley, "Oh, mornin' Chief."
She walked up to the coffee machine as well looking a lot fresher than him, her hair neatly wrapped into a bun and no faint tint of blue beneath her eyes. "Have you had some sweet dreams, LT?" He noticed she picked a cappuccino, unusual for her, since usually she liked her coffee black.
"Sweet? Not particularly. The same old things still haunt me."
She sat down at the seat opposite of him and took a sip of the steaming hot coffee. "You know, you should see a shrink about that stuff. It's no life, living with such guilt on your mind. You have nothing to blame yourself for. Well you know all that."
"I hadn't thought it about it in weeks now, it was all going well and then suddenly. Bam! One nightmare throws you off again. It doesn't really hurt me that much anymore though. It's just…annoying."
"Hmm, well I could dangle a carrot in front of you and make you forget."
"A carrot? Is this some kind of hypnosis? If it is, since when does hypnosis work with a carrot?"
"Hey, I didn't say it'd work."
He sniggered a little, "I'll be fine, after all I do have an entire day to catch my breath. What's your schedule?"
"Citadel."
The Normandy elegantly swooped into the arms of the citadel and without any problems it smoothly landed in a docking area near the place the mysterious Turian Vaern wanted to meet. It had been a few days since Anderson had ordered Shepard to come to the Citadel. For the crew it was some more time to relax. Wrex had already almost completely recovered, the bruises Shepard and Ashley were covered in were starting to fade away again. It was as if the traces of them ever being on that one planet slowly faded away. Most of the crew would have a little more down-time, which they were free to spend at the Citadel. Shepard took Ashley along again, realising this might be considered strange by the rest of the crew since he didn't make a habit of bringing the same people along on consecutive missions. Kaidan would've been a more suited candidate Shepard figured, but his headache was a good excuse to keep him from doing the mission and to see how things would go between Ashley and himself. He wanted Ashley along to find out if they could still work together properly and professionally after all that had happened.
"So this is where we are meeting this Vaern? A dingy club in a shabby version of the Wards, perfect." Ashley sarcastically noted.
"Stop complaining! Honestly, I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to take you along." He walked up to the bar, observing the room. A group of Batarians, mixed with a few Turians. Seemed like a nasty bunch, people you'd try your hardest to steer clear of, at least if Vaern wasn't part of that little gang. A few Asari sat in the far corner and a lone Quarian sat at the bar, her head slightly tilting, making Shepard suspect she had a few too many.
"Well you insisted on learning me diplomacy skills. Like that's ever gonna happen."
"And you insist on underestimating yourself. Drink?"
Ashley looked around in an obvious manner, like she was observing her surroundings, and then looked at Shepard "Hmm, let's see…We're at a rough, underworld bar and look suspiciously human. They could poison us and then rob our lifeless corpses."
"Point taken."
Ashley smirked. "Good. I'll have a red wine."
Shepard raised a brow, his lips curling into a smile. "You know, I'm not quite sure when you're serious. That's no way to converse with your Commander. This is why I should really teach you some manners."
She slapped him on the shoulder, sending a message of amused disapproval. "Hey! No naughty thoughts, remember?"
He cracked a smile. "How did you even tell I had…thoughts? You're the one playing dirty tricks." They turned towards each other, their eyes made contact, sparking a laugh. Shepard, noticing they were about to fall into the same trap again, quciky turned to the bartender, to order a red wine and a small Scotch. Of which he was surprised they even had it, since it was only commonly sold on earth and not in crummy citadel bars.
The bartender looked at them with care, he noticed something on Shepard's chest. Shepard saw him staring and looked down towards his armour's chest plate aswell. "What are you looking at?"
The bartender seemed concerned and subtly waved his hand towards him, signalling Shepard to come closer. "N7…You Alliance?" He looked over Shepard's shoulder. His eyes widened, his odd behaviour made Shepard feel uneasy. He turned around slowly. The group he had been keeping his eye on was now standing right there in front of him. Shepard frowned. "What's going on here?"
The gang was murmuring until one of them, a Turian, spoke aloud. "You see? Alliance. I knew you two were trouble the moment you got in."
Ashley joined in: "Trouble? We're just sitting here having a drink. Now get lost."
"You think you can get away with this! You bring trouble human. And you-" He pointed at Shepard "You look familiar. Familiar humans are bad news."
Shepard stretched himself a little, to make him look taller, chest forward, in an attempt to look as intimidating as he could. "Are you Vaern?"
"Who? What are you on about! I asked you a question now answer!"
"I'm a Spectre. One who doesn't like your tone. Now walk away before you make more trouble than you bargained for."
"You're the human made Spectre?" He turned to the crew behind him, they expressed the same disgust as their Turian spokesman, "That disgusts me, you stand for everything wrong! Shanxi was not enough! We should've whipped you out when we had the chance."
"That's it you bastard!" Ashley's fist clenched, she threw her arm forward and hit the Turian with an uppercut. He fell on the ground head first.
They didn't speak anymore, that stage had now been passed. One of the Batarians threw himself at Ashley, whose hands wildly pushed and pulled at him, but he held her tight, his knee kicking her till she fell onto the ground, her hands barely holding her upper body up, whilst struggling to breath.
Shepard jumped in, grabbing the Batarian's neck from behind, setting his foot behind his leg and with a swift pull he threw the gasping guy onto the ground, hard. Immediately another Batarian flew around Shepard's neck, clenching on to him. Shepard seemingly remained calm, trying not to panic, turned his back, onto which the Batarian was hanging, to the bar and ran into it. The Batarian screamed as he felt his spine hit the bar's sharp edge, he let go of Shepard, who quickly threw his elbow backwards into the Batarian's face.
Meanwhile Ashley had gotten onto her feet again, still struggling with the Turian who had now grabbed a gun, when suddenly two words stopped them. Like time had stopped, everybody stood still.
"Stand down!" They looked at the gun another Turian that must have just entered the bar was holding. "You! Drop that gun.", the guy figured he had no choice but to do so. The grip of his hand loosened and the gun fell to the ground. Ashley let go of him, walked forward a few steps, undeterred by the gun that the other Turian was now specifically aiming at her.
She spoke bluntly: "I take it you're Vaern? Williams, under Commander Shepard's command. The guy just over there." She pointed at Shepard, who spontaneously let the Batarian he had skilfully worked down go.
The Turian lowered his gun, calmly assessing the situation. "So I had noticed. Well I think we are done fighting? Shepard, Williams, if you'd be so kind as to follow me."
The gang held back, it wasn't a fight they were willing to continue. They walked away slowly, yet again murmuring.
Thus Shepard and Ashley traced back through the area known as the slums of the citadel with Vaern. On the way Vaern explained C-sec's operations in the area, trying to clear the slums with the intention of making it a better looking place. Shepard, surprised he hadn't even heard anything about the slums until today, figured that to keep all of this as secret as possible from most people it had to be covered in endless layers of political red tape. Slums don't make for the best of advertising after all. After a solid fifteen minutes walking they arrived at a slightly shabby place, which Vaern referred to as his temporary home from home. He was always on the move, living where his jobs were. Once inside, they sat down, whilst the Turian was pouring the three of them some kind of alcoholic drink that neither Shepard nor Ashley knew. Whatever it was, it had the bitterness of beer, the fruitiness of a red wine and just the slightest hint of something that seemed to taste an awful lot like raw Varren. Vaern sat down as well and broke the silence:
"Undoubtedly there are certain things you want to know about me. Well. I'm not the typical pompous stuck-in-the-mud military career kind of Turian, although I came close. Neither am I your boisterous rebelling hothead. I am what you call unique, Shepard." He looked at Shepard in a gloating manner, proud of the way he differentiated himself from the rest of his kind.
"Indeed. You're clearly a proud, prudent, piece of garbage." Shepard didn't like him. He hated the guy already. The mannerisms and the self-esteem. By the looks of it he was just as much the proud Turian as the next. In his effort to separate himself from the rest, he only brought himself closer to the pack.
Ashley moved a little closer to the Commander, she whispered: "Is this what you call diplomacy…sir? If it is, maybe I'll be good at it after all."
"Now that's not very nice. For a Spectre you really have the manners of any regular scumbag, did they stop giving PR training, or what?" He smiled faintly, friendly, yet challenging. He wasn't easy to miss, with stripes of purple walking down his face. He wore combat armour, red and black. It reminded Shepard of Nihlus, the Spectre who was to guide him on Eden Prime, but received a bullet to the head by Saren instead. "But you aren't regular scumbag Shepard, are you? 'Cause if you were the chances you would've met me would've been much, much smaller."
"Oh I'm so impressed and honoured that we meet you here today, sir Vaern." Ashley said touting her lips. The sarcasm in the words she had uttered was hard to miss.
"Delighted miss Williams."
"That's Gunnery Chief Williams to you."
He grinned and spoke laughingly: "Oh no it isn't." it made her smile as well. A turian of all people. She didn't really like him, certainly didn't trust him, but she was drawn to him, somehow, somewhere they were alike. "We should really get down to business. As you both know, I know more than you feel comfortable with. So obviously you'd just love me to fill in the gaps for you. In that case, I'll state it immediately: I don't have all the answers just some clues."
It was no more than what Shepard was used too, plenty of personality, but nothing else. "Are you just gonna give it to us, or are we going to play some more games?" He never had high expectations from this Turian but he was different than most guys who requested his time. He had to give him that, he had confidence born out of more than just ignorance. It had given Shepard hope that he would've been more useful than others.
"That excavation team you were searching? Murdered in cold blood. Someone wanted that technology, somehow knew of its existence and recognised its potential."
"What kind of proof do you have to back that up?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Simple, I was after it aswell." He stated this with little care, like it was supposed to mean nothing.
Shepard looked quizzically. "After what exactly?"
"You mean you don't even know? Typical Alliance, likes to leave even the most trusted people in the dark. It's a prototype Assault unit, effective on the ground and in the air. Small, unmanned, big ships have no chance of hitting it and it can bury itself into the ground striking at ground troops from beneath. If it turns out to be as effective as predicted, it could well change the face of battle. That's all I've heard anyway."
"Yeah really little. Why the hell were you after an Alliance prototype?"
"Ashamed as I am to admit it, it's a job for Turian government." He saw how stunned Shepard looked, maybe he was more naïve than Vaern had anticipated. "Oh, why so surprised? That technology could be really valuable, Turians don't like getting behind when it comes to warfare. After all look at how they pride themselves in it. Imagine the newcomer getting ahead. Desperate situation. What to do? What to do? Panic! And then a solution: steal it, make schematics of it etcetera and then return it to the rightful owner. Technically, nothing wrong with that." He brought it with a lot of drama in his voice, like he was acting out a play, making his life seem like an act as well. Shepard could only wonder if the real Vaern was different from the one he saw.
Curious as he was, Shepard kept his focus on the matter at hand. "Sounds like you don't think it's right either."
Ashley frowned, she refrained herself from ranting about the way the Turians apparently stole Alliance material. "That's because stealing isn't Skipper." She turned to Vaern, "So why do it than?"
"Look I'm no rich guy. I need the money and they happen to pay me pretty well to keep it all hushed." Ashley noticed how he scratched the back of his head whilst talking, she figured it was a sensitive subject. Apparently, for all his boosting, he didn't have a lot to show for it.
Shepard smiled. "The irony. So what exactly do you have to offer?"
"A trail." He hesitated to say more, he looked down only to quickly face Shepard again. "Shepard, I want to ask you something."
"A trail sounds about as vague as can be. And please, stop wasting my time here and ask."
"I want to assist you, help you get it back and if you want it back too, you're going to need me on your ship."
Author's note: It's been longer than I thought, which is probably an indicator for the next few chapters as well. Can't keep a tight schedule at the moment. In case of this chapter, I'm afraid it might have suffered a little from my inspiration being drained by the schoolstuff I had to work on. It ended a little abruptly because I wanted to publish it, since I fear I might not get much done in the coming weeks and don't wan to keep delaying it all forever. I tried my hand at a bit of hand-to-hand combat and also a bit at the surreal the surreal. If you want to let me know how I'm doing, that's much appreciated! Hope you enjoyed the chapter
