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Captain's Personal Log: The Krogan
The newborn gigantic alien hit me with the force of a Mako on full speed, slamming me into the bulkhead. I grunted at the impact, but while the inexperienced krogan was threatening me, I was silently unholstering my pistol.
It pays to be prepared.
When he'd gotten done with his threats and decided his name was Grunt, I felt oddly like I'd just adopted a teenager. I amused myself with wondering if he was going to get acne and need braces. I left the teenager feeling very smug about his place on my crew. Since he was a "pure" krogan and all. (I wasn't aware krogan could successfully interbreed with any other species so the "pure" part made no sense to me, but hey, whatever helped him curl up in his tank at night.)
I stepped out of the cargo hold and directly into Garrus, nearly stepping on his booted foot. I knew he'd been waiting just outside the door in case I couldn't control the young krogan, but he didn't have to stand that close to the door. He grabbed me to keep me from bouncing off him and onto my ass, his hands on my shoulders. "Everything all right in there?"
"Sure." I shrugged, "He'll have to kill me if our enemies aren't worthy, but other than that, we're fine."
Garrus snorted and let go of my shoulders, "Good to know we're in the clear, then. Wonder what he considers 'worthy'?"
I shook my head, "No idea."
Miranda stood up from where she'd been leaning on the wall, her white quilted suit standing out against the grey metal wall. "If you're done, Commander?"
I waved her off, "Go ahead, Miranda. I think the paperweight is settled now."
The imperious woman simply looked at me, "I would like to speak with you when you get the chance?"
I nodded, "I'll be there in a few, Miranda." She nodded and her way too perky ass disappeared into the elevator.
I turned to find Garrus looking at me with his arms crossed. "A baby krogan? Really, Shepard?"
"What? He followed me home!"
He seemed to have gotten my joke since he laughed and shook his head at me, "You've got to be kidding me." He cleared his throat. "So, Rana Thanoptis."
I sighed, my humor gone at his change of subject, "Yeah. . . Igor to the galaxy's mad scientists. Should have hired her to be Mordin's lab assistant. But I'm pretty sure even he would be appalled at her morals."
"Igor?"
I chuckled, humorlessly, "Never mind. I wonder what we'll find her doing next?"
He gave a theatrical shudder, "I don't even want to think about it."
I grinned and changed the subject again, "Jacob's got a new gun for me to look at. He built it from those plans we found."
Garrus grinned back at me, "You know me, Shepard. I'm always up for new weapons." I stared at him, my grin wider until he finally realized what he'd said. He put his hand to his forehead, "Don't start."
I hit the call button for the elevator, "All right, Archangel." He groaned.
He followed me to the armory, though, riding up in our insanely slow elevator. For God's sake, we could zip across the galaxy in the blink of an eye, but can't design elevators that take less than ten minutes between floors?
He leaned against the back wall next to me and I remembered, suddenly, him asking me about whether I still had feelings for Kaidan. God. Kaidan. I wanted nothing more than to find him; it was frustrating that either all my emails and messages were returned or they simply vanished into thin air. Had he moved on and that's why he wasn't returning them? I could even understand a scathing return email, dismissing mine as a joke. The absolute silence was troubling. But what made Garrus ask me that question?
Aloud, I said, "I wasn't too excited about getting a krogan warlord as a teammate anyway. Especially if his dossier and psych profile were to be believed. The guy was nuts. As in take-over-the-galaxy-and-make-everyone-wear-bad-uniforms-nuts."
Garrus shook his head at me, "It's only because you made me watch those awful movies of yours that I even know what you mean."
I stuck my tongue out at him, "I didn't make you watch anything. You were bored."
He snorted as the elevator doors opened. "Come on, Shepard. No one tries to take over the galaxy!"
I turned to look at him, a smirk on my lips and my arms crossed, "Really?"
"All right, all right! No one except Saren." He walked ahead of me through the armory doors, "But your species' concept of aliens was just . . . bizarre."
"Hey, Chewbacca was one of the greatest wingmen of all time!"
He let me past him into the room, "I still don't know how he managed to fly that impossible ship with all that fur on his 'hands.'"
"Don't quibble over details! That's classic cinema!"
He grinned at me as I walked by and continued, "I did like the whole Princess and the Pirate thing, though."
I chuckled, "You would."
"I also wanted to shoot that whiny yellow mech, er, droid?"
"Most people do," I told him, sagely.
He hitched a hip on the table and crossed his arms again, "So, are you one of those Knights?"
Jacob chose that moment to join us from the hall leading to the briefing room, "Knights? You finally got him to watch it with you?"
I smiled at Garrus, "All three of the original Episodes."
Jacob grinned, "How'd you like it?"
Garrus shook his head, "Just show her her gun."
After I got to pet and admire my new toy, a giant nuclear canon named the M-90 Cain that I was excited to be able to carry on my back, I walked with Garrus to the crew deck so I could see what Miranda wanted. I hesitated in front of the medbay, and Garrus stopped with me.
He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned down to tell me quietly, "You don't have to talk to her right now, you know." A violent tingle went from my neck down through my spine and made my knees buckle.
"Don't do that!"
"Don't do what?" His mouth was still in the vicinity of my ear. I shuddered and clutched his armored arm. He straightened up to look at me, his eyebrow ridges drawing down in concern. "What happened? Do I need to get Dr. Chakwas?"
I shuddered again and released him; finally feeling like my nervous system was back in working order, "Just don't do that again."
He stared at me, "If you tell me what the hell I did, sure."
I sighed. It was actually kind of embarrassing. The hypersensitivity I'd always had behind my ears and the back of my neck served me well in a combat situation, but no one could get near me to talk to me like he'd just done without me collapsing in a pile of twitching Shepard parts outside of a battlefield. It was the first time since my resurrection I'd felt that particular overloaded sensation. Good to know the "eyes" I had in the back of my head worked well. "Some humans are really sensitive in their nerves behind the back of their ears and on their necks. I'm one of them."
He tilted his head at me, curious, "Did it hurt?"
"Just . . . overload." That was the only word I could find to explain the sensation. It wasn't pain and it wasn't pleasure. It was just, "overload."
I couldn't read the expression on his face, but he nodded and with a very strange glance over his shoulder at me, he headed for the Main Battery, "I'll be here if you need me."
I steeled myself for Miranda's discussion and filed Garrus' behavior away for later consideration. I really needed to learn to read turians better.
When Miranda finished telling me about her genetic perfection, I wanted to throw up. My god. And I thought my father was evil. At least I'd known what he was. I also had no sister to protect. Though if she was Miranda's twin, shouldn't she be allowed to protect herself at this point? Miranda had to be pushing thirty, after all. Hell, maybe her sister had young children that needed protection, too.
I turned to leave, but I didn't really feel like the conversation was over. Especially since my XO was sitting behind her desk looking like a lost little girl. "Look, I meant what I said. Genetics are what you make of them. We'll help your sister."
"Thank you, Shepard. I'm not used to being at a loss for what to do. I'm really not used to feeling helpless." I really wanted to hate her. I truly did. She'd resurrected me against my will and, hand-in-hand with The Illusive Man, she'd manipulated me since then, or tried to. But right now, she was cornered and lost.
I was also very unused to feeling sympathy for anyone like her. "Look, Miranda. It's tough, I know. But we'll protect your sister as soon as we can." Someone pinged my Omni-Tool and I activated it. Kelly Chambers was letting me know The Illusive Man needed to speak with me. "Look like our boss wants to chat, though."
An odd look passed across her perfect features, "He's really not a bad person, Shepard."
I closed my 'Tool and just looked at her, "If you really believe that, Miranda, I've got some ocean-front property in Arizona for sale. Cheap." I turned and left, heading for the briefing room.
The conversation with The Illusive Man was mercifully short. And full of bullshit. But I did learn one thing, Kaidan was on Horizon and the Collectors were headed straight for him. I'd save him and worry about who put him there when I got done. Hell, he could help me figure out who set him up as bait. I could use his level head in unraveling the Gordian Knot that was Cerberus' connection to the Alliance. I knew how the original Knot was actually taken care of, but I wasn't sure Operation Denmark was a sharp enough sword with only three anti-conspirators. Garrus was a brilliant detective, but Jack and I were fighters, not really used to research; I doubted our ability to help him wade through the twisty strands of almost- and not-quite-evidence. I needed Kaidan at my back and not just because the damned bed in my quarters was cold. I had very little hope after getting zero replies from my many emails, that he'd never found anyone else in two years. He was an attractive man, after all. As a matter of fact, I hoped he'd found comfort from someone to help him move on if he needed it. I certainly didn't want him miserable and pining for me. Personal feelings aside, though, I desperately needed his talents on this mission. I now had every intention of surviving it and bringing every one I could through alive and Kaidan would be perfect in that regard. We could deal with our personal issues, later.
And if the Collectors beat us there and harmed him, or worse, there wasn't a force in the universe that would stop me from going after them even harder than I was. After all, I now had a hand-held nuclear device.
