Chapter 7
"…Of course, we can have ships there within 36 hours. Do you need any medical supplies?"
"No thank you ambassador, evacuating the colony is enough."
Shepard didn't hear the entire conversation, but that one word 'ambassador' caught his attention. Tali was talking to some turian, who had started to walk away. Seeing as how he didn't hear any raised voices, he guessed that it wasn't a problem.
"Ambassador?" he asked her, much to her own surprise.
"I'm negotiating for the Fleet while we are here. Huh. I think it was right here. Three years to the day," her voice sounding somewhat shocked if not saddened.
"What is it?"
"This is where Saren's assassins attacked me. Got me in the arm using polonium rounds. Worst fever I've ever had," Tali said with a slight chuckle.
"You never told me that. Who was that turian?"
"A colony representative. He was actually a clerk a few years ago."
Shepard had to arch an eyebrow at that, "How do you know that?"
Her head lowered a bit. He realized that this might be a bit touchy.
"I brought the evidence to him, asking to see the council. He…called me a suitrat and threatened to have me tossed off the station. I don't think he recognized me though."
Just the thought of someone insulting Tali pissed him off. There has been more than one instance where someone saw how protective he was of her. He was ready to storm off and find that turian, but Tali held up her hand to stop him.
"Liam I know that look. Please let it go."
He took a quick breath. She was right, always is. Hm, what would he do without her? "Alright, come on. Hackett said he wanted me to see someone."
"Ok."
…
The skycar landed at the office just down the presidium. It was fairly out of the way, not many people would probably notice it anyway. But inside was something else. Computers, vid screens, and other consoles or machinery were all throughout. Datapads and even paper copies of research strewn about. It seemed like every time they deal with scientists, their labs are always a mess. A tall, skinny, elderly man was standing there, talking to who seemed like his assistant.
"Ah, Commander Shepard. Admiral Hackett told me to expect you. I'm Dr. Garret Bryson," the man said, extending his hand. He grasped the man's hand for a firm shake, and he gestured for him and Tali to follow.
"I must say Miss Zorah I am surprised to see you here, but it will makes no difference. Hadley! Please gather the Leviathan data for us."
"Hackett said you had something important for me," Shepard said following him into the next room.
"This is task force Aurora, and we have been charged with finding evidence about the Reapers past."
"Easier said than done doc," he said with a slight smirk.
"Ha, that's true, but ever since their arrival, it has been easier to put all the pieces together. My team has been all over the galaxy following clues. As you can see, that piece of Sovereign along with all these different artifacts have been a big help. I would like you to help follow up on some of the bigger leads. Hadley where's that dat- Gah!
The shot came from right next to Shepard, and his assistant started to turn the gun on him. He tackled and pinned him to the floor before he could get a shot off. Holding him to the floor, he motioned for Tali to check on Bryson.
"This is Commander Shepard; I need C-Sec at my location now."
"The darkness must not be breached; the darkness must not be breached…"
…
"Wh-What? What's happening?"
Shepard's team was all standing there in a half circle, while two C-Sec agents were holding Hadley by the shoulders. And none of them looked happy.
"You tell me," Shepard almost growled.
"I don't know. One moment I was at the console and then the next it was…cold, dark… and there was a loud bang. Dr. Bryson…"
"That was you! You shot him and then you tried to shoot us."
"But I would never do that!" Hadley exclaimed. He wouldn't. He was always the good kid. Never fought, never drank, nothing. Why now?
"So someone else pulled that trigger, bunch of bull to me Commander," James huffed
"Commander, this does resemble indoctrination," EDI chimed in from a console across the room.
"Yeah maybe. He kept saying something about the darkness, I don-"
"The darkness. The darkness must not be breached. Turn back now." Hadley's eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed onto the floor.
"Damn it. Get him to the clinic, see if they can figure out what's wrong. Everyone else spread out. See if you can find any clues."
The crew went about their search. Dr. Bryson hadn't even been able to set them on a path yet. It wasn't even noon yet and he was tired. Tired from the war, the deaths. They had three years to prepare. THREE YEARS! And nobody even listened. Sure he had people like Wrex, Anderson, and Hackett, but even they were caught up in plenty of other ordeals. And so it was placed on his shoulders. To hold the galaxy's hand while they fought for survival.
A datapad on the table over by the large glass wall, caught his attention. Somethings behind the wall just looked like junk except for the piece of prothean tech, which Liara and Javik studied closely, and another artifact like sphere, that glowed ominously. It appeared that the pad he was now holding contained a message for Bryson.
Bryson, its Garneu. I found another one of those artifacts. Something's odd though. I'm going to crunch some numbers and burn up the rest of this travel budget, I'll be in contact soon.
"EDI" Shepard called out.
"Yes, Shepard," she casually said while making her way over to him.
"Is there any way to trace where this message came from?"
"Unfortunately no, though it seems that Dr. Bryson and his team was using a Galaxy Map search program to follow leads. Perhaps we could use it in a similar fashion."
"Do it. Gather whatever intel the team has found and use it to create some sort search pattern."
…
At first the search going irritatingly slow, as each new combination of search filters only came up with multiple systems. A few of the team had left the lab, either to return to whatever they were doing or back to the ship. Shepard was currently sitting on a crate he'd found, rubbing his eyes in growing frustration. The Citadel had entered its evening cycle, the lights all around the presidium ring dimming a bit and the fake sky shaded orange. A faint chime sounded success from the map, and he could see only one system had been highlighted.
"It seems we have found the system locating Garneu," EDI said.
"Finally. Let's get back to the ship and get underway, I want to get there as fast as possible."
Everyone left piled into the cars and sped off toward the docks. For most of the ride it was quiet, murmurs of what they were going to find or who exactly even. John broke that lasting silence in their car, simply by talking to himself.
"Can't remember the last time I was sent to extract someone out alive. I'm pretty sure it was to retrieve Captain Keyes from the Truth and Reconciliation."
Kelly punched his shoulder slightly, smirking as she did. "That because we were better for killing Covies, than babysitting."
"What kind of missions were Spartans sent on?" Tali inquired. She had been reading more of that info they found. It wasn't very complete, but that's were the two behind her came in.
"Search and Destroy mostly. Unless we were deployed to hold colonies against invasion," Kelly stated matter-of-factly.
"Hmph, holding colonies against invasion. Brings me back," Shepard said his eyes forward but not really focusing on anything on front of him. His squad had all but been slaughtered or deserted, while he alone had to face down ten thousand pirates on Elysium. Because of the damn Blitz, lots of good men died, while he walked away with a medal. The Lion of Elysium he was called, a hero. Sure as hell didn't feel like one.
"Liam! Watch where you are going!"
He snapped back to reality and quickly swerved away from the oncoming truck.
"And here I thought your driving was improving." Tali said, arms crossed and she was looking out the window.
"My driving isn't bad!"
"Do you want me to show Kelly and John the footage from all the times we were in the Mako, or when chasing Vasir through Illium."
He grumbled something to himself, finding it futile to continue the argument. Pleased with herself, Tali turned to give a quick smile to Kelly and John. She was pleased to see Kelly looking at least slightly amused, but John seemed to give her an almost stern look.
"Did you just use my first name?" he said, eyes unblinking.
"Uh, yes. Why wouldn't I, you're part of the crew."
His expression softened, even just a little, and he looked away from her. Tali turned to Kelly with a worried look in her eye. The super soldier just mouthed later to her. She was able to pick up on a lot of human gestures in her time aboard both Normandy's, so this wasn't exactly too difficult to understand. Kelly had also spoken to her a few times while on Engineering. Not that the other engineers were boring to talk to, just that it was nice to have someone new.
The car finally stopped back at the docks, and it seemed that they were the last to arrive. Once inside the ship and past the airlock Shepard turned left towards the cockpit, while the others left for the elevator.
"Joker, how fast can we be in that system?"
"About 19 hours Commander, not including time to search through the different clusters in that system."
"Then let's get there ASAP. I don't want the Reapers catching on."
"Aye, aye."
…
"So James, what's it like working down there with mister 'talks to no one'? Has he beaten your pull up record yet?"
"More like destroyed. He did almost 300 without breaking a sweat, Scars! I still haven't thought of a nickname for him yet," he replied through his omni-tool, while focusing on cleaning his shotgun. Garrus let out a small chuckle.
"Word of advice; don't bother. He doesn't really seem like one to go for nicknames. Hell Tali told me he looked like he was about to beat her senseless when she used his first name."
"Shit man. I don't think the Commander would he let him even try it, you know with him and Tali being together and all." Garrus chuckled a little, feeling a story about to come up. And he knew just which one.
"You should have been there when we recruited her on Haestrom. Zaeed, Grunt, and I went with him on that one. I swear the shuttle hadn't even touched down when Shepard bolted out of it and started to fully sprint. We barely even fought any geth other than clean up. Most were either ripped to shreds by biotics, filled with bullet holes, or were overloaded with tech. We finally caught up to him and another quarian, Kal'Reegar. Shepard just looked back at us and told us to cover him. I got on a sniper perch while the other two flanked to the left, and Shepard ran down the center. I don't remember seeing much, it was way too fast, but I swear he ripped the Colossus that was standing guard apart with his bare hands, and then proceeded to completely knock the door down to get Tali. Both Zaeed and I called him crazy, whilst Grunt roared in awe at his battlemasters prowess."
"Damn man that certainly puts into perspective what he would do to keep her safe."
"You have no idea."
"Sorry Garrus, but Mr. Vega here has to help me with the shuttle. I'm sure you can talk another time," Cortez called out while approaching the bench. James held the look of disappointment while Garrus simply chuckled.
"Sure Cortez, these damn guns still need calibrating anyway."
James shut off his omni-tool with a huff. "So what is it this time Esteban."
"You know you shouldn't talk about Chief behind his back."
"We're not saying anything bad, just pointing out that he is odd. Kelly at least tries to be social around us."
Cortez just shook his head. "They're soldiers too James. Maybe it's something like PTSD."
"We could always try to get him drunk, just to see if he talks."
They both let out a short laugh before heading off to the shuttle. There was always something.
…
Shepard may have grown up on ships, but the blue aura around ships in FTL always seemed beautiful. Though there were some benefits for those planet side. The stars always seemed prettier, actual fresh air, breathtaking landscapes. That's what he wanted to give Tali. Just had to defeat the Reapers to do it. It was the middle of third shift, when most crew were asleep and all seemed calm. Tali was out right next to him, but he couldn't sleep if he tried. Another nightmare.
"I swear they will be the death of me." He mumbled to himself. His omni-tool chimed quietly with a message, which seemed to be from Kelly, asking to meet him on deck 4. He slowly moved from the bed, as not to disturb Tali, and walked toward the door. He ran a hand through his hair quickly and hit the button for deck 4. If would take his mind of things for a bit he was fine.
…
20 minutes earlier.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, reload, repeat.
John aimed down the pistol and fired away. Six holographic enemies appeared, six disappeared. He had been doing this for the past few nights. He was getting more than enough sleep before, so now he felt right. Though this holographic training system was little challenge.
"Reset." He called out to EDI.
"May I recommend rest Spartan-117? Most organics require anywhere from six to ten hours of sleep."
"No. Reset."
"Very well, resetting Alliance ground troop hardcore training."
Six more shots reload and repeat and the simulation was once again over.
"Before you tell EDI to reset, maybe you should listen to her."
John spun quickly and raised the pistol once more. All he found was Kelly sitting atop a crate looking at held the same smirk that she always did. He lowered the weapon, before speaking.
"I'm fine Kelly."
Her smirk disappeared before she hopped off the crate, and spoke in a low voice, like she was trying to keep quiet. "No you're not. You're more jumpy and hostile than before. It's not like you."
"I'm fine." At this point he wasn't even looking at her. He had turned back around to clean the pistol before putting it away.
"You're so dense. John, look at me!"
He turned and was fixed with her dagger like stare. When she meant business, there was no other emotion.
"It's like you aren't even trying, that nothing matters. When I look at Shepard and his crew, I see a tight knit family that would gladly die for each other, mission or not. That's something we never had."
"Kelly, how would we know what that is like? We didn't spend our time talking and joking, like normal people. We were trained into killers. Into soldiers to protect humanity."
"There you go again about how we are just soldiers, and we have to do anything and everything to complete the mission, like we are expendable. Like we are machines not people."
Cortana's voice immediately filled his head, and he shut his eye's, trying to forget her, and what happened. Kelly didn't let up.
"You want to know why you were Halsey's favorite. Because they didn't just break you like the rest of us. They destroyed whatever sliver of humanity you had left." And with that she stormed off back to their room.
John was speechless; he didn't even try to go after her. He simply picked up the weapon and fired again and again. No target this time.
…
Present time
The elevator doors opened onto Deck 4. The lights in the shuttle bay were dark, except for a few. Kelly had her back turned to him and was looking out into the bay.
"Everything alright Kelly?"
She turned her head to look at him. He couldn't tell if she was sad, or tired, but it was definitely one of the two.
"Oh Commander, yes I-I don't know. John and I got into an argument and I stormed off. I thought you could talk some sense into him."
He raised an eyebrow, confused at how she thought that he could resolve this. "Okay. Where is he?"
She nodded towards the shuttle bay, where he could swear he heard gunshots. Shepard turned around and headed back into the elevator for the quick ride down to the bay. His suspicions were correct when he saw chief standing there with a smoking gun in hand. And a few new bullet holes in the bay doors.
"Everything okay Chief?"
He just stood there, looking out at nothing in particular. "She's right. I'm not human any more."
"Chief?"
"What they did to us, what we became. It's inhuman."
"Who did what to you?"
"ONI. They took all of us, the Spartan-II's, when we were six years old. Taught us, pushed us, beat us sometimes. When we were ten they augmented us, and pushed us even further. Only about seventy five of us made it. I went on my first high risk mission when I was twelve. They had broken us."
"And because of all that you feel that you aren't human anymore?"
Chief finally looked away, but still didn't bother to look at him. "There more to it, but that's how it started."
"I know how you feel, Chief. It's not easy." Shepard said solemnly.
"And just how would you know, Shepard." John finally looked back at him with a hard stare, almost daring him to answer. Shepard didn't even falter.
"Because when I died, I spent two years on a lab table, being put back from scratch. I probably have more tech inside me than there is in this ship. And now I'm forced to make decisions that effect millions if not billions of lives. How could I go through all that, all this without thinking that I'm barely human anymore. The reason I don't is because I have friends, family that dust me off and give me hope and strength."
John looked away once more, thinking about what had just been said. Shepard eased up a bit.
"You obviously care for Kelly, John. Don't push away her, friends, because you think it might make you weak. There are always those on the ship for you to talk to."
Shepard left without another would and went back to the elevator. John pondered what had just been said. And there was a lot to think about.
