"How in the hell did you get in here?!"
When. I knew what she really wanted to ask was when, not how. The how was less complicated than you might imagine; I had simply walked in. When I reached the bottom of the staircase that lead to the mess hall, Caesar had informed me that Dr. Chakwas was mere seconds away from entering Shepard's chambers. I had hoped I would be able to beat her there, to pre-empt the Doctor's revelations and affirmation of her Commander's suspicions against me. I understood then that this would not be possible. I cloaked and hurried up behind the Doctor to follow her into Shepard's office, and simply sat down to listen and observe. In hindsight, this had been the better course of action. The exchange, and the extra time it afforded me, allowed me to review my own biases and now-obsolete analyses.
Commander Alina Shepard was not who I thought she would be. What little I had been able to gather of information on her before meeting her told me she was the Lion of Elysium, a war hero to the Alliance. In my gamer's mind, that meant she was a true Paragon, a beacon of justice and fairness. I knew, instinctively, that she would be the hero portrayed in the games I had played and obsessed over as a young man. The few personnel reports we had been able to procure had described her as highly skilled and extremely intelligent, but also as manipulative, impulsive and a well-known prankster. A somewhat well-publicised incident involving herself and a certain Ambassador should have hinted that this Shepard was not the calm and collected Shepard I knew from the games, but somehow the image of violent confrontation between the Commander and Udina the Asshole didn't quite shake my view.
Caesar had warned me. 'This is not a game', he had told me, and while at the time I thought myself above such simple biases, hindsight told me that he had been right and I had been wrong. It was time to get over that. What did I know now? Shepard, at her core, is a master manipulator. That is perhaps her key advantage as a person, as an operative, as a soldier. According to her classified N7 psych profiles, she reads people like open books regardless of their species, and is able to reliably predict their actions possibly even before they themselves know what they will do. One of her key methods for making this simpler, the report says, is 'put her opponents off-balance'. This, I gathered, was the reason behind her reported mischievous nature and numerous pranks. They were a form of manipulation; they allowed her to glimpse people as they were when they could not fully control their own actions. The report also mentioned she had very few people she trusted implicitly, and listed three in particular; Captain David Anderson, Admiral Stephen Hackett, and one former Lieutenant Commander Henry Weaver. I knew all three men, and I knew the one trait they shared in common: Absolute integrity. These were men she would be unable to put off-balance, simply because of their unflinching honesty and integrity. Udina, on the other hand, she loathed. And considering her personality profile, this now made perfect sense in the same way it made sense that she did not trust me; Udina and myself both portray ourselves in a very carefully crafted manner. We are both actors.
I had seen how Shepard interacted with the rest of her crew. It was like night and day compared to how she treated me. And I was beginning to understand why. My entire approach had been wrong, and I was not sure I could correct it at this point. My act, the Messenger persona and everything that came with it, it was instinct now. I had been the Messenger for over eight years, and Aaron Close, media-shy CEO, for nearly ten. My real self, the real Aaron Close, was at this point a security risk. He held secrets that he could not be trusted to keep secret if faced with a master manipulator like Shepard, and some of those secrets she simply could not be allowed to know yet. It is a fine line to walk, preparing for a future that is yet to come without utterly changing everything about it so as to make your preparations both obsolete and irrelevant.
"I walked in, Commander. And to pre-empt further questions, yes, I was here for the whole conversation. I actually came here to make it irrelevant. If you will sit down…"
"The hell I will," Shepard moved her hand to her communicator, "Shepard to Alenko, please come to my quarters to detain Mr. Close and bring him to the holding cell."
Just a few hours ago, I would have chalked up her response to an unbelievable level of bratty childishness on the part of the Commander. Now, I saw it for what it was; it was merely another attempt at unbalancing me, giving her an advantage in the ongoing psychological battle. Shepard lived that battlefield. Perhaps she had to, simply to cope with what had happened to her and her family on Mindoir. Two seconds passed as I sat there in silence, before a half-smirk crossed my face. Shepard, her glare never wavering from my direction, scowled in response.
"Kaidan, acknowledge!"
"A Technopath," I interjected, "Is an augmented operative capable of directly interfacing with technology using implanted wireless mind-to-machine interfaces. One of our basic capabilities is blocking enemy communications at a whim…"
The Commander sneered furiously as she realised what I was doing. I could tell she was attempting to activate her biotics, yet again.
"We can also deactivate most biotic amps and implants temporarily, if we know the model." I continued, "I deactivated yours when I decloaked. A biotic explosion in here could rupture the hull, Commander."
Her facial expression changed. Maybe she realised just what she was up against here. I could take her tools away one by one, even turn them against her should I wish to do so. On the other hand, maybe she just realised how stupid it would have been of her to actually let loose with her biotics this close to the outer hull of her own ship. Maybe both. Either way, the scowl disappeared from her face only to be replaced by the frown of a military professional. It was a sight I had seen many times in the past. Shepard sat down at the table, next to Chakwas and opposite me, and crossed her arms in front of her.
"Very well, Close. You clearly have me at a disadvantage. State your case."
Where to begin? There was a lot I needed to tell the Commander, and there was also much that I needed not to tell her. My primary goal remained the same as it had always been; gain her trust enough that I would become a full member of her crew and squad. Knowing this, it wasn't all that hard to see where I should start.
"First of all, I want to say that you've been right all along. The Messenger is an act. The persona that I put on to the world is an act. Everything I do and say is a carefully constructed theatrical performance. At this point, it is all I know, it is as much who I am as it is who I am not."
I could see something moving across Shepard's features. Her frown remained in place, her glare still locked on me, but there was something. I would have expected evidence of self-affirmation, an I-told-you-so expression, but that wasn't quite it. I hoped, sincerely, that it was understanding.
"I already told you some of the origin of Close Corporation, that we exist to prepare for the Reapers. From the moment we confirmed their existence, that is all I have been dedicated to." I looked down at the table and folded my hands in front of me as I continued, "The Aaron Close that existed before that moment is now well and truly buried beneath and behind the mask of the Messenger, simply because that Aaron Close is not who is needed for what is coming. I need to be the Messenger, not a nervous scientist and engineer. I have spent years being trained by the best to be the best at what I do, what I have to do."
I looked back up to meet Shepard's eyes. There was curiosity in them now. I smiled as I kept talking.
"I know you've seen through the lie that is me. I apologise that this lie has been, and still is, necessary. Shepard, I am the lie. I know that the few people you respect have all been of honest conviction and integrity. All I can say is that my own integrity, I hope, comes from the fact that I gave up myself to become the lie that I believe is absolutely necessary in the coming fight against the Reapers."
I sat back, and put my hands flat on the table as I waited for my Commander's judgment. Shepard just stared at me for nearly half a minute. Then she bowed her head into her hands.
"Gods, even your monologues are like they were ripped out of a bad vid…"
I could only smile in response. "The Messenger persona was designed specifically to play off some universal stereotypes. You'd be surprised how well it works."
…
Okay. I guess this is progress. Shepard wasn't quite sure what to think. She hated to admit it, but Close's actions made perfect sense with what he had just told her, and he had her pegged exactly. She hated people who acted out their lives rather than simply live them. She still remembered the scowl on her father's face after a particularly heated visit from an arrogant colonial administrator on Mindoir. He loathed the man. 'Janey', he had told her, 'never trust an actor who lives his role'. It hadn't taken her long to understand what he meant. It was something she had always seen in many of the colony's powerful people, a disconnect between what they said, how they said it, and their body language. Her dad's words had been the key to understanding her observation, and she had taken his words to heart.
And now, she finally understood what Close was, why he came across so… wrong, to her. 'I am the lie,' he said. At least he is aware of it. In an unexpected way, she could sympathise. Mindoir… it had changed her, too. She had even taken a new name just to keep that Shepard fully locked up in the past. To her, Jane had died in the slaver raid. Her mother had been pregnant when the Batarians hit, and was nearly at term. She was expecting a girl, and had already decided on a name. Alina Shepard. This was who the Commander was now. Her old self had died at Mindoir. Alina was the child her parents had wanted to be born into freedom, strong and self-sufficient, able to fend for herself. Jane had been the one who ran.
This Aaron Close hit close to home for her. He had taken a slightly different path. His old self was still alive. He was just hiding. The Messenger was his Alina, but where she was Alina, Close merely hid behind his new persona. He had called himself a lie. Shepard did not even want to ponder what that might imply about her own identity.
Shaking her head, she dragged her hands down across her face and once more locked eyes on the man opposite her. Let's see how deep his rabbit hole goes.
"Alright. Fine. Then start talking," she took a breath before continuing, "I want to know everything. What is a 'technopath', what exactly does Close Corporation do, what sort of resources are you offering – besides yourself, of course – and, finally, beyond and including what you've already demonstrated, what are the skills and abilities you bring to this crew?"
"I think I should take my leave, Commander…" Chakwas interrupted, as she shifted to get up from her chair next to Shepard. Close interrupted her by lifting a hand to gently grab her arm.
"Please remain, Doctor. The information I am about to disclose should not leave this room, but I trust you, and you may need at least some of it should I ever find myself requiring your services."
Chakwas gave Close a confused look. Shepard understood why. She had just unknowingly revealed to this man that she had deceived him, and even if that particular favour had been more than repaid by Close's mere presence, it wasn't difficult to see why it would make her uncomfortable to hear him confess his trust in her. Also…
"Mr. Close, I am just a Navy doctor. It sounds like you are about to reveal some very classified information here…"
…there's that.
"I insist," Close replied simply. He did not remove his hand from her arm until she sat down. "Well, then. Where to begin… ah, the Technopaths. They are illegal in Council space, despite being considered a myth." His lips curled upward in a smirk as he continued, "My doing. No better way of ensuring investment into a technology than to ban it before it exists."
Hold on, what? "Investment? What do you mean?"
Close folded his hands on the table in front of him and took a breath, seeming to collect his thoughts. "Technopath technology is incredibly powerful. If the wrong person was to receive Technopath augmentation and training, that person could do a lot of damage on their own. Fortunately, the processes involved – the development of the technology, the augmentation process itself, and the training – involves immense investments of credits and other resources, far beyond what even the wealthiest individual or non-governmental organisation can muster. Particularly the development is prohibitively expensive, but I want at least some of the different governments to have the technology!"
This wasn't really telling her much. She needed specifics, the corner pieces from which to arrange the puzzle pieces of information she was given. "Close, specifics, please. You are talking about this as if you're talking about multiple things, it's all very confusing."
"Right. I am talking about multiple things," he answered, and Shepard sighed in response before he continued. "The Technopath Corps is the military and intelligence arm of Close Corporation. It comprises a sizeable naval force, the best-equipped and trained cross-species army in the galaxy."
Close kept his gaze locked on the middle of the table surface as he kept going. "It further comprises an R&D unit rivalling, if not surpassing, the STG, and a special operations and intelligence division. This is where my Technopath operatives come in. They are my spec-ops and spies."
Shepard was shocked at the implications of what he was telling her. The man in front of her claimed to be in command of a force to rival both the STG and any mercenary group in the Terminus, and that was before even considering whatever the hell his Technopaths actually were. There was no way this was true, but she could not find any hints that he was lying. Saying that, it had already been established that the man was such an experienced actor that he lived his role. She couldn't read him, and she knew it. Even if she knew the why – or at least what he had told her of why – it was still infuriating to her. Her ability to read people was the primary way in which she interacted with anyone, and without it, she could not help but feel she was being misled.
"You don't believe me."
Alina Shepard blinked and opened her eyes again to stare right into the eyes of the man across from her. "No," she said, "I don't."
…
It was to be expected. I had practically just claimed to be one of the most powerful people in the galaxy, and to a person who I knew did not trust me. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Caesar, prepare our budgets and personnel manifests for a review report to Shepard. Make sure to scrub them of traces of our more… sensitive programs, yourself included. And keep track of it. That information does not leave this room.
[Already on it, Aaron. Give me a couple of seconds, I'll transfer it to her omni-tool.]
I knew it wouldn't be enough to convince her, but it would help her come around. Some of the names in those manifests should help her on the way, too.
"You should be receiving a file containing the Technopath Corps' budgets and personnel manifests. Review them. The information will scrub itself if you try to pass it on beyond these walls, however."
"You're not gonna get away with just throwing a few files at me, Close." There was clear threat in her voice, and I couldn't resist a small smirk tugging at the edge of my mouth.
"I did not expect to. I'm not done explaining. But the information should help you realise the truth and scope of what I am saying. Now," I changed tracks again, back to my explanations, "Where was I… ah, yes, the Technopath programme."'
"Really? Are you unable to come up with names other than 'technopath' for your secret projects?"
Predictable. "I am just now getting to the important bits. The programme is the backbone of the Corps, it is where it all started. With me."
I turned toward Chakwas. "Doctor, would you be so kind as to perform a medical scan on me again, please?"
The Doctor seemed a bit surprised at her sudden inclusion in the scene playing out before her, but her part in it would be crucial. With the flick of a mental switch, I turned off the automatic signal interface modules, the augmentations that made me impervious to most any scanning technology by spoofing their data. It felt like I was undressing in front of two strange women. I had not been lying when I told Shepard that the act, the Messenger, at this point was who I was. Turning off that scan protection felt like I was revealing my true self to the world again, for the first time in years. I actually felt nervous as Chakwas brought her omni-tool to life and started her scan.
"Oh…my."
She looked in disbelief at the read-outs as they appeared on the screen around her wrist. Several seconds went by in silence as she completed her scan. I noticed Shepard across me, wide-eyed, eyes moving slowly back and forth between the Doctor, the active omni-tool, and myself. She had not even opened her own to look at the files yet. I did not expect her to. In fact, I had hoped she wouldn't. There is one particular name in those files I hoped she would read, and act on, and I didn't want to be around when she did so. That was something she needed to do herself.
"What… what are you?" Chakwas sounded utterly shocked at the information she had in front of her.
"What did you find, Karin?" Shepard narrowed her eyes again, suspicion once again colouring her features.
"I… I am… This man, he is…" She took a deep breath to calm herself, then manipulated her omni-tool to bring up a full-body representation of me, with anomalies highlighted. They were not few.
"I honestly don't know if you are more man or machine, Mr. Close."
I must admit that I was surprised at her blunt assessment, but I could only really nod in response. She was right, of course. Were I to strip naked, I would appear completely human to the naked eye. Nevertheless, like most everything else about me, my appearance was a carefully crafted deception that was literally just skin-deep. My skin itself hid the first layer of my augmentations, a combination of hardened skin weave and a sensory suit that enhanced me with several new senses such as the ability to 'feel' electromagnetic and mass effect fields up to twenty meters around me. And beyond my skin, the augmentations kept coming. Muscle weave and artificial muscle fibres. Bone weave and nanobot clusters in my bone marrow. At my core, I was still very much an organic being, but my recurring nightmares often drew a comparison to the abominations that were the Cerberus troopers from the last game in the original trilogy.
"I meant what I said. I gave myself up for the mission."
Shepard chose this time to re-join the conversation. "And you're saying there are more…people, like you, out there?"
I grimaced at her hesitation at the word 'people'. Regardless of how much I had changed, I never lost track of my humanity. Caesar had made sure of that. I had suggested many procedures that would have greatly enhanced my capabilities, only to have them rejected by him on the grounds that I would lose myself completely if I went through with them. In his own words, he had brought me back because of who I was, not who or what I could become. In the end, I deferred to his judgment on the matter. There were no scholars with a better understanding of the nature of organic and synthetic life. Until he brought me back, his life had been one of self-discovery, and observation of and covert interaction with unsuspecting organics. A century is a long time, and to a computer it is an eternity. An eternity spent, in his case, on understanding the very creatures that gave him life.
"Not quite like me, no," I answered her after a couple of seconds, "I really should explain what all of this," I gestured between Chakwas' omni-tool and myself, "is and means. The programme is modular. The base technology that all Technopaths share is the skin sensory suit, the advanced VI host, the cognitive dump processor, the POV processor and various brain-to-machine wireless neural interfaces that allow us all to, essentially, control tech with thought. Basically, what you biotics are to mass effect fields, Technopaths are to electromagnetic fields."
From the look on Shepard's face, I could see she struggled to process that last bit of information.
"It's… not a very precise or accurate way of stating it, but it tends to get the point across. Now, beyond those standard augmentations, and the set of armour that is customised to the operative's specialities, there are a host of other modules available to our operatives. Most of them only get a few, tailored to their particular strengths. As the first Technopath, I am essentially a living testbed for new technologies. I have nearly all of the available modules installed. Everything from modules that give me extra strength and stamina to one that eliminates the need for, eh… bowel movements."
"…you have an implant that eliminates your shit."
The delivery was straight deadpan. I just sat there for several seconds, looking her straight in the eye, before we both just burst out laughing. Chakwas still sat next to us, seemingly in shock, as she shook her head. It just made me laugh harder. It felt good, it really did, the laughter somehow lifting the immense pressure I had felt ever since coming aboard the Normandy.
…
I did not see that coming. She really hadn't. The unexpected meeting between herself, Chakwas and Close had gone on for another half hour after they had broken down in laughter. That moment had been the first time Shepard had felt like she could actually like the man. Strangely, it had happened mere seconds after she had found herself questioning whether he was a man at all.
She was still sitting in her office, going over the files Close had sent her during their meeting. He had made it very clear that there was no way that information was leaving that office, so she had made a point of transferring it to her extranet-isolated systems for review. It would prove much easier than going through it all on an omni-tool, anyway. There was just so much information! POV processors, 'cognitive dump' processors, SKIN and SAFE and a ton of other four-letter acronyms. She wasn't entirely sure where to begin, at first, but eventually decided to start with what she knew.
Personnel rosters. She was a Commander, she knew how to read people, whether they were standing in front of her or just written down on the figurative piece of paper. In what she agreed to be a prudent security precaution, Close had made sure to not include any names or identities of his actual Technopath operatives, though he did include a number. Apparently, he had no fewer than five dozen operatives under his command. Each one operating as an independent unit, and each one – apparently – flying their own large fighter-sized ship. When that particular detail had come up, Shepard had been quick to ask where Close's ship was. 'One jump away', he had answered, and something about the way he said it told Shepard there would be no point in digging further into that particular point.
Close had made a point of stating that he had operatives on both Noveria and Feros, currently, and that they were investigating events there independently and relaying information back to him. Based on that information, he said, Feros should be their next port of call. Shepard had agreed, of course, since that had been her inclination before Close had originally brought up Therum, so Joker had been told to lay a course for the ExoGeni colony.
Looking back over the personnel files in front of her, Shepard glanced over the command structure of the military part of the Corps. The level of competence was impressive. The leadership hierarchy comprised former officers from the Alliance, Turian Hierarchy, former STG operatives and Asari Huntresses, and even some Quarian Marines. The diversity itself was impressive, not even the biggest mercenary bands in the Terminus could boast interspecies cooperation of that level. There was even a single Batarian officer in the Corps, one Rane'li Ben'mass. A female, of all things, and according to her file she was even a high-born in the military caste. Exiled for 'immoral conduct', which – this being the Batarians, after all – probably meant that she was actually of good moral character. In the Technopath Corps, she held the rank of Major, a field commission that put her in charge of her own small battalion of shock troops.
But the names that garnered most interest for her was the list of former N7 soldiers in his ranks. She had heard of all of them, these were not by any stretch of the imagination failed soldiers. Some of them were legends among the N7. One of them in particular shocked her. One Major General Henry Weaver.
When she had last spoke with him, he was a Lieutenant Commander N7. They had been close, once, and fought their way through Base Camp all the way through the N-School. They became N7 on the same day, and he fought alongside her on Elysium during the Blitz. They had both received promotions after that, and were separated and put in charge of their own teams. A year later, the tragedy at Akuze happened, and Weaver had never been the same since. Shepard had not spoken to him in nearly three years, since he was discharged from the Alliance for reasons of mental instability. Apparently, he had not been out of work for long, being hired by the Close Corporation only days later. And now he was one of the highest-ranking officers in their secret military operation.
Where she had only skimmed the files of the other officers she looked at, Shepard took her time with Weaver's. She owed him that much, and she was pleased to see that he had distinguished himself in his new job. Not just as a paper pusher behind a desk, which was what she had feared would become of him after Akuze, but as a soldier and commander in the field. One thing she had learned from looking through the Corps' roster was that all officers held a field position; there were no mere paper pushers, everyone contributed in combat. She was glad that he had recovered as well as he seemed to have done. The file even made mention of a wife and child, and she could not help but smile as she saw that.
Turning away from the file, Shepard went to sit down on her bed as she brought her omni-tool to life. Looking through her contacts, she searched out one that she had not used in years and made the call. She lay down on her bed to wait for the no-doubt busy soldier and officer to find time to respond, but her back had barely hit the mattress before her omni-tool chimed with an incoming call. She sat back up, and after a moment of hesitation accepted it.
"Alina," the man on the other end said through a muted smile, his eyes as kind as she remembered. "It has been far too long."
...
Author's notes: I don't own Mass Effect bla bla.
Apologies for all the exposition. It had to come; Shepard is a military commander, simply drip-feeding her crucial information just wouldn't do.
Quite a few revelations in this chapter, though. Mentions of some original characters, one of which is a canon reference and the other is a not-so-subtle reference to another fic I'm reading. Some more psychological background on Shepard, and just why she acts the way she does, particularly around Aaron. Finally some more information about what Aaron actually is! The line about technopaths being to tech what biotics are to mass effect fields is basically where this entire story concept started for me, where it all spun out from.
I have stayed very close to canon so far. I am not going to deviate too much, yet. Half the point of what Aaron has been doing has been to preserve the timeline until he can change it on his terms. Whether he'll succeed in that is another matter entirely :)
Finally, let's answer some reviews:
I think this chapter answers at least some of Tourmaline82's questions about what close is and his abilities, but I gave him a couple of specific answers in PM that bears repeating here: "When it comes to hacking, he is quite capable of managing himself but there is little point in doing so when his body is host to one of Caesar's main terminals. There are some further details that will be revealed as the story goes forward.
And yes, some cybernetic would show if he got sufficiently injured. Under microscopic analysis, you could see his skin and muscle weave even with superficial injury. This all might become a plot point in the relatively near future, actually, so I don't want to say too much about it at this point ;)"
Darkcloudt disagrees with me about how the Alliance can just abuse copyright and patents. Well... that's his prerogative :P He raises a couple of specific points I can answer, though. Close Corporation doesn't get much public favour for their L2E programme. Biotics are viewed with suspicion and prejudice, still, by the Alliance public, and the programme is viewed as just one of the reasons the Corporation managed to keep their Alliance contract after buying Hahne-Kedar. The Alliance holds the greater leverage here, simply because of the immense value of the contract between them and their supplier. Finally, everything related to the Alliance's N-program is classified top-secret, and the alliance has no reason to believe their suppliers would be able to tell that they've reverse engineered their technology, particularly as aftermarket customisation is explicitly legal in Council law.
Another user sent me a PM rather than leave a review, which I also appreciate. They point out that there are some grammar mistakes here and there, something I am very much aware of. It annoys me to no end, really, and are the kinds of mistakes I normally don't make. But then, I normally don't write at such length and I have suspected for a long time that the quality of my writing deteriorates with length. Honestly, if the editing functionality of FFnet was simpler I would be going through and correcting all of these things (I have done so for the first two chapters I think). Please, if you find any errors, point them out to me so that I can correct them where necessary. The user also asked me about my intentions for the romantic options further down the line, to which I don't really want to add much. I think it's fairly obvious that there's an attraction between Shep and Liara, but we'll see how that goes.
Saved the funniest for last. User 'NoOneInParticular17' felt it prudent to inform me that 'Aaron's nothin' but Shep's little whipping boy', and that 'she's a bitch and that's not fun to read about', before bidding us all a sad goodbye. I must say, it breaks my heart to lost him as a reader. Clearly, he is exactly the audience I have been yearning for. I informed him of this via PM, which lead to an amusing conversation which included lines such as 'have fun writing about a main character that nothin' but a b*** boy that has a female constantly slapping him around' (censoring by him, not me). This is clearly a class act, here, who truly knows how to appreciate character complexities. The conversation ended with him telling me that 'only' having 72 favs suggests 'a lot of people find something wrong with [the story]'. Yup. Considering how I didn't expect to get even a single reader out of my ramblings, I have to say I'm chuffed beyond measure by the numbers I'm seeing. And the fact that even my hecklers are this much fun just brings a smile to my face :)
