Sparatus

Shepard was exactly what Sparatus had feared when they appointed him Spectre: An aimless killer. Despite all of Nihlus' glowing assessments, Sparatus knew that there was more to a Spectre than just a list of skills and abilities, and certainly more than the ability to kill and survive. The other councillors didn't seem to understand that they needed to keep this new Spectre on a short leash, or else risk the Terminus systems getting antsy about the free-roaming Spectre routing every mercenary group which was even a single system within Citadel space borders.

If that is what the Council had wanted to do, did Shepard think they would not have done it? That they could not have done it? That other Spectres were somehow incapable? Sparatus knew not what excuses the newly-minted Spectre had dreamed up, which was, in fact, the entire problem.

They had not received so much as a single report, or even a casual summary, of anything Shepard had been doing. Shepard should have been delivering regular reports on his actions, but the other Councillors demurred when he sought to force the issue through Alliance channels. Fools. Allowing him this much freedom, this early in his career, was going to turn him into exactly the sort of problem Saren turned out to be. That the other two councillors remained unmoved was not exactly surprising. They had been playing politics from the start by allowing Shepard to become a Spectre. It itched under his scales that his favored Spectre prodigy, Saren, had turned traitor. But it wouldn't do them any good to forge another Spectre to kill the first, if the second would turn rogue just the same.

He glanced up as the asari in question strolled in to the room to sit beside him at the desk. She placed a mug of some steaming beverage, likely some sort of tea, on the table before her, and idly stirred it with a small spoon. Tevos, he could understand, a little. With the length of an asari life, perhaps several months seemed like nothing to her, her occasional protests to the contrary notwithstanding.

But Valern, also just now walking in, fiddling with his omnitool as he sat on the other side of the asari Councillor, surely he would know that for other races, these months were the time that they, the Council, should have been guiding this new Spectre into his position, and instructing him more directly, and reprimanding him when necessary? But they vetoed his suggestion for a Spectre mentor, a Spectre advisor, a Spectre observer, any observer at all, too afraid to offend the vindicated humans who had exposed their star Spectre. And only now had they finally conceded that they should ask for a report, at all.

Their lateness was just an additional contrivance, as he and they well knew that the humans had been left waiting for some time. Indeed, Sparatus, himself, had been waiting for some time. He had arranged to come early, and invited the other councillors, as well, in order to the discuss the issue before convening with the humans, but they had ignored his invitation, just as they had all of the previous ones. They thought they were clever, but Sparatus knew that this meant they had cooked up some ploy between them that he would be expected to agree to, here, as a matter of course, as though he had been aware of it from the beginning. Allowing the Council to appear fractured would only encourage the lesser races in their bids to join the Council, bids already inflamed by wild rumors that the humans were soon to join them.

But obvious as the ploy was, there was little Sparatus could do about it. He would have to accept their decision and leverage it for future concessions. With the political games they were playing, he had little doubt that the aim of this one was to further appease the humans, who were rapidly becoming a galactic power, despite their small numbers.

Only after a somewhat significant human colony, Feros, had fallen silent in the wake of Shepard's passing, did the rest of the Council dare ask the humans for their side of things. But Sparatus would take what he could get, at this point.

The two humans, the combative Ambassador Udina, and Shepard's former commanding officer, Captain Anderson, filed into the small meeting room shortly after Valern signalled the soors, inclined their heads in a human form of respect, and sat down in the seats across the desk. It irked Sparatus to see such casual familiarity from them, to be seated without invitation, but now was not the time to antagonize them needlessly, especially in front of the other Councillors. There were plenty of more legitimate grievances to air.

As usual, Sparatus and Valern let Tevos take the lead. The other races often favored asari, so why not use it to their advantage?

"Ambassador, Captain, welcome. As you know, we called this meeting to discuss the progress of our newest Spectre in his mission. It has been some time, and we would hear from you of his activities since then."

The two humans looked at each other warily, and Sparatus narrowed his eyes. Was there a plot afoot?

The Ambassador spoke slowly, as though to a child. Or perhaps confused? Humans and asari had similar facial expressions and similar tones of voice, but they weren't always identical. "Councillors, we thank you for this audience. But… We had thought this was so that you could brief us on Shepard's progress. He does, after all, report to you, now, not us."

A long silence grew as the Council and the two humans looked at each other.

Valern broke first. "No, no, no. It is obviously to you that he has been reporting. We have let this go on thus far in order to make it clear that we were not, in any way, obstructing your efforts, but it is time that we be informed of what has transpired. He is riling up the Terminus systems with his continual raids on any merc this side of the border, and is now somehow involved in whatever transpired upon Feros. We can hardly vouch for his actions if we don't know of them."

Udina smiled greatly, in a way that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Ah, how strange! Since you require that Spectre's relinquish all prior offices and positions among their governments and militaries, though, I am afraid I must inform you that we have received no official reports from Shepard. Indeed, to whom would he even report, if not you?"

Sparatus bit back his initial response about Shepard's presence on an Alliance vessel. There was something… yes, of course. The Ambassador had been angry about the fact that Spectres reported to the Council, and only the Council. Doubtlessly Udina had thought he would be able to leverage the new Spectre for inside information on the Council, to further advance his own interests. The long delay had made it seemingly apparent that Udina had persuaded Shepard to disregard the rules, but now it seemed he had been more cunning than that.

Tevos had obviously processed this more quickly than him, and she spoke in a calm, cadenced voice. "Are we to believe that you have heard nothing of Shepard's activities up to now? I would hope that you are not trying to deceive the Council, Ambassador. You serve here at our pleasure, and not the other way around."

Sparatus clenched his mandibles, and glanced over to see the similarly grimacing salarian Councillor. Tevos still hadn't gotten used to humans. The patient, heavy voice of an asari matriarch sounded imposing and authoritative to most Council races, but humans found it smothering and patronizing. Worse than that, she had missed Udina's qualification of his statement, falling into Udina's trap. The human Ambassador might be an abrasive blowhard, but he was a tricky one, too.

"Are we to believe that the Council has heard nothing of Spectre Shepard's activities up to now? And are we to believe that Council or STG agents have not been spying with all of their might on the first human Spectre? And as much as we know you have been keeping an eye on him, we also know that you know he hasn't sent a single official report to us in all this time."

Tevos gave no sign of her chagrin other than a slight tightening of the muscles around her eyes, but Valern was quick to insert himself into the exchange before the human could gain the diplomatic momentum.

"Very well, you have made your point, Ambassador. You would like to be informed on Shepard's activities, and can and will be as obstructive as legally possible, otherwise." Valern gave a pointed glance to Tevos and Sparatus.

Was this what Valern and Tevos had decided, beforehand? It seemed too trivial. Sparatus nodded his assent to the implied question, as did Tevos, a moment later.

"You will be kept informed of the activities of Spectre Shepard, assuming that that those are activities you are also cleared to know about. But more to the point, we will have to insist that Shepard begin submitting reports to us of his operations, whether or not he has been submitting any to you."

The Ambassador sat back in his seat, and glanced at the human Captain, Anderson.

"You'll have to take that up with the Specialist- I mean, Spectre. You all kept your communications with him separate from us, so we don't have any information on how or when you asked him to report to you."

Sparatus wasn't sure how to take that, but judging from the way Valern cursed under his breath, there was another problem. The salarian recovered quickly, though, speaking in a more comfortable rapid-fire pace that indicated how off balance he was. "Of course, we will see to that as soon as possible. In the mean time, there is actually a more important matter we need to discuss."

And without preamble Valern booted up a video holo and set it to play. "Audio is enabled, though Shepard's team speaks entirely over comms."

Sparatus widened his eyes with a sudden start. He hadn't been informed of any video, nor of any matter more important than the missing report from Spectre Shepard.

But the time for objections was later, in private.

The video was high-quality security cam footage, and after a moment the audio kicked in, as well. Several armored asaroids stood around a large room of stone floors and walls, littered with computers stations, and what appeared to be geth scrap, while one, larger than the others, in bulky armor - ah, Shepard! - manipulated a computer in the corner. Several of his crew sifted through the scrap, cutting something. The camera panned one way, revealing the other members of his ground team lounging near the entrance of the room, keeping an obvious lookout for trouble.

The video played for a few seconds before Shepard jerked back from the computer as though shocked with an electric prod, making the chair underneath him creak ominously. The others turned his way, but he waved them off, leaning in closer to examine something.

A minute passed in silence as they watched the video. The ground crew gestured occasionally as though speaking, but no sound was heard apart from the intermittent squealing of omni-saws as the quarian examined some geth scrap. As time passed, it became more and more obvious that Shepard was becoming agitated. His fist clenched, he twitched this way and that, and occasionally he even slapped the desk as though it had done him wrong, denting the flimsy, cheap metal desk.

Each time he reacted, he waved off the others, but eventually he finished whatever he was reading, and hooked up his omnitool to the computer with a wire for a few moments, before retracting the cord. After a moment of stillness, he then sprang to his feet, raised his arms, and smashed the table into a crashed metal pile with his heavily-armored fists. Picking up the computer, he raised it overheard, and even through the insulation of his armor, they could hear his voice, faintly, even as his eyes, visible now that he was looking up, contorted in rage.

"I'll kill them! Kill them!"

With a violent motion, Shepard crushed the computer with the sheer strength of his powered armor, and threw the pieces across the room, nearly hitting one of the female asaroids. It was impossible to tell which, as they were all in full armor with enclosed helmets, but the person in question motioned with her arms, obviously trying to calm the Spectre.

Whatever she said only enraged him further, and he backhanded another computer off a desk as he stalked over to her. They could hear nothing of what she said, but his reply was still faintly audible.

"Logically!? Logically!? They're all tainted with alien filth! And who could ever know for sure if they were cured?! A whole colony, dead, or worse!"

A quiet word from the female, and Shepard stormed over to a desk to pick up another computer and hurled it at her, though a quick flare of biotics deflected the computer away to the wall, where it shattered into pieces. This must be the asari, Liara. STG intelligence had determined that she was unlikely to be working with Saren, or Benezia, though Sparatus still wanted to hear Shepard justify her presence on the ship.

"You don't get to question me, alien!" Some amount of speaking too quiet to be heard through the armor. "... the worst possible way! As if I would ever risk anyone else getting their hands on this data!"

Liara held her hands out like she was coaxing a wild varren to food, obviously speaking further. Whatever she said, Shepard reacted as if stung, and then stalked closer, and grabbed her helmet between his gauntlets, reminding Sparatus uncomfortable of the earlier demonstration of how strong the servo motors in that armor were.

But after nearly a minute of further conversation, he jerked away again, his helmet shaking violently side to side. His gauntlets came up to cradle his head. "... no, no NO! Saren might have this already!?"

It was not clear if Liara was still speaking, but Shepard paced angrily, jerkily, quickly, back and forth across the center of the room, head still in his hands.

Another few minutes of video, and Shepard appeared to calm down, facing back to the group and Liara, and after some more discussion, too quiet to hear, they departed the room.

Valern swiped the video emitter of the table back into his cloak. "You can understand why this might concern us."

Sparatus knew, now, their ploy. They were setting up Shepard. They were going to express their concerns about his stability, allow him to continue, and then either hold this over his head, forever, or use it to justify his dismissal. But why keep their fellow Councillor in the dark about it?

A glance at the humans, however, told him two things. First, that they were not surprised. Second, that they were not concerned.

Tevos obviously saw it, too, though she said nothing. She was probably still cautious after having been caught out, earlier.

Sparatus said nothing, as well, though this was because his mind was racing. Feros had fallen silent in the wake of Shepard's passing, and they had just heard him speak of the colony as being tainted by aliens, and announcing his intention to kill 'them'. It didn't take much of a leap to see what had happened.

But still, Sparatus stayed silent, as did all of the others. Udina, with a calm smile. Anderson, with an annoyed scowl. Tevos, with patient expectation. Valern, with growing impatience.

What were Valern and Tevos playing at, here? The humans weren't worried, so either this wasn't what is seemed, or... were they were making some sort of play to justify Shepard's actions using the Council's previous stance of condoning Saren's behavior? Force the Council to admit they had been wrong for a long time, that Anderson had deserved to become a Spectre? Sparatus wanted to think so, but Saren had played on his belief in Anderson's vindictiveness, before, and Sparatus didn't want to fall into that trap, again.

What did Valern and Tevos hope to get out of this, from him? They hadn't told him about this, for a reason. Thinking about Saren, though… maybe he saw it. Just as Saren had gambled, and won, assuming the turian Councillor would be antagonistic toward the human Captain Anderson for his perceived persecution of Saren, the star Spectre, were the other Councillors betting on him acting aggressively toward the humans?

Yes, he could see how they might want that. With the humans reacting the way they were, obviously there was some plausible explanation for Shepard's activities, which the other two Councillors likely knew of, even now. But having delayed meeting him, they could reasonably keep him in the dark about it without having officially denied any request of his to see relevant data. And a blow-up here, now, would set the human Ambassador, and thus the humans, back at odds with the turians, through him. It would also use him to put pressure on the humans to work more with the Council, even without any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the humans. His righteous, ignorant anger would push the humans further toward the more reasonable asari and salarian Councillors, and thus Alliance could be subtly maneuvered into greater support of the enterprises of their respective species. In the same way, his misplaced anger could possibly cow the humans into being more cooperative, lest the Council act against them, while leaving the blame for any fallout squarely on Sparatus' shoulders.

Sparatus narrowed his eyes, and clenched his mandibles. He steadfastly refused to look at the other Councillors, even though he knew that even by that reaction, he was giving himself away in other ways.

Spirits damn it all, he knew he needed to work on his temper, but this was difficult. Even as he resolved to let this go with speaking, waiting to hear more, other details of the encounter began to bother him. Saren, with an asari advisor Benezia, went rogue and nearly wiped out an entire human colony. Shepard, with an asari advisor who was the daughter of Benezia… went rogue and wiped out a human colony? Was there a pattern there? It seemed trite to just assume that because Saren went rogue with a T'Soni advisor, that Shepard had, too.

Sparatus was broken from his thoughts when Valern couldn't stand the silence any longer. "Shepard showing signs of mental instability, extreme aggression, Threatens crew, other species with bodily harm. Announces intention to kill colony. The Council will require assurance that Shepard is still fit to serve, and we will need regular reports from you, also, on any 'unofficial' reports you receive from or about Spectre Shepard."

Sparatus could see where Valern was coming from, could hear the advice of Tevos in his words, but it was obvious that they were lacking a turian perspective on the matter. Despite the superficial similarities between humans and asari, the humans were more mentally similar to turians than asari, and this was especially true for humans in the military. Anderson wouldn't have recommended Shepard as a Spectre if he had thought Shepard would disgrace the Captain with his behavior, and Udina wasn't going to back down from anything short of a black psych eval, and maybe not even then, once his mind was made up. Though it might be logical, from a salarian perspective, to acquiesce to demands in the face of evidence of possible mental instability, and though it might be the wisest, from an asari perspective, to appease the Council in the face of concerns backed with some amount of evidence, Sparatus knew that wasn't enough for humans. It wouldn't have been enough for a turian, either.

If the humans had been concerned about Shepard acting disgracefully, they would have, themselves, recommended that something be done about him. Just as a turian would have done. As it was, bringing this up only made them defensive, only made them 'circle the carts', as the humans said, around Shepard.

Udina looked sharply left before his eyes made a disturbing roll around in their sockets. "I don't know why I would even dignify that with an answer. You know exactly what happened to those colonists, and pretending otherwise is beneath the Council. If you are quite done casting aspersions on Anderson's protege, in front of him, I think he and I have better things we could be doing with our time."

Sparatus would have been insulted on behalf of the Council if he weren't already so irritated with his fellow Councillors. As it was, he merely gestured for them to leave, not even waiting to see if the other Councillors were in agreement. If they had a problem with his decision, they could say so.

They didn't, and the humans left, leaving the Council in an awkward silence.

Sparatus didn't see any pointing in 'beating around the bush', and approached the topic directly.

"So… The plan was that I would be kept in the dark about the main topic of discussion, veiled accusations of Shepard's mental unfitness. Then, that evidence would be sprung upon me and humans as a surprise, but not the further evidence that such worry was unfounded. Is that about right?"

Tevos pursed her lips, as good of an admission of guilt as he was likely to get. It also meant that she was uncomfortable with the tactic, which meant that she had done it only at Valern's request.

Valern was unapologetic, not that Sparatus expected any different. "Simulations showed a seventy percent chance of getting more concessions from the humans if we could convince them that they were in danger of censure. Best chance was with an unprimed, angry outburst, uncolored by other information."

Sparatus stared him down. "Ignorant of exculpatory evidence, you mean. Perhaps, now that we are all together, you could enlighten me of all of these things I was conveniently, and, I am sure, inadvertently, left ignorant of?"

Valern pressed a few buttons on his omnitool, and Sparatus felt a slight vibration on his. "You will find everything there. Now, if you will excuse me." The salarian hurried out of the room.

Sparatus sighed, and turned a weary gaze to the asari, now staring mournfully into her cold tea. For a few seconds, she fiddled with the tiny spoon in her cup, before she visibly calmed herself, placed her hands in her lap, and turned her chair to face him.

"Sparatus, I apologize for my behavior. Valern was dead set on this, and would not be dissuaded. I allowed myself to be persuaded only because I was still worried about Shepard, and thought that any chance of getting the Alliance to cooperate more in regards to him would be beneficial."

Sparatus glanced over the high-level summaries of the documents Valern had sent, nodding as his suspicions were confirmed. The entire colony had been radio silent waiting for pickup from Alliance rescue ships before treatment for alien parasites and infections. Anyone might still be worried about the human, passing psych eval or not. But as this was an asari, not just anyone, and a matriarch at that… "Was it Shepard who worried you, or T'Soni?"

Tevos flinched and looked to the side. "Yes… I don't know how familiar you are with asari politics, but Benezia was once quite influential. I am… concerned, that with her turning traitor, her daughter might receive some measure of that influence, and some measure of the following that Benezia had. We both know Shepard's feelings on alien races, and to have the T'Soni scion under his thumb is… worrisome."

She ran a finger along one of her scalp ridges, idle fidgeting revealing the depth of her concern, given her normal serene demeanor. "Even though asari don't have hereditary allegiance, there is still a measure of tradition in such. And what is more, though I am not sure if Valern has noticed yet, is that some of the rescued colonists said there was an asari, Shiala, one of Benezia's disciples, present after Shepard destroyed this mind-influencing plant. It concerns us that Shepard might be trying, or might try, to gain influence in asari politics, and the more he appears to be allied with T'Soni and Benezia's former followers, the more likely he is to gain other asari followers. And unlike all the colonists, Shiala was not released to the rescue personnel. Shepard is keeping her aboard, though we don't yet know why."

Sparatus nodded, noting to himself that he definitely needed to read the reports in full. Mind-influencing plants? "We don't have any further information? I thought that the Normandy's near-constant radio silence was all that was preventing Valern's alleged agent from reporting."

Tevos shook her head. "We haven't heard from him because he died the day Shepard took over the ship. Apparently the vaunted STG missed that in the flurry of activity coinciding with Shepard taking over the Normandy and placing his ground team members aboard, and coordinating for supplies and everything."

"Someone died… wait, Chief Engineer Luddemann?"

Tevos jerked her head up. "What? Yes, but how did you know? Even Valern claimed not to know until the other day."

Sparatus resisted the urge to tell her that Valern was overly concerned with secrets, and often overlooked the obvious. "I wanted to know the capabilities of the officers aboard the ship, and it was in their records for Alliance personnel assigned to the ship."

"What? But… why?"

"Treason. Apparently Shepard caught him explaining engine specifications to the quarian girl, and executed him on the spot."

Her mouth gaped open for a moment, before Tevos recovered herself. "Treason? For just that? I mean, it could… I mean technically… no." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Of course, it was just an excuse."

"Of course."

They sat in tired silence, for a moment, Sparatus pushed himself up from his seat. "Well, good afternoon to you, Councillor. I think I shall retire for the day. Let me know once we receive any reports from Shepard. What was with Valern's glance, there?"

Tevos grinned sheepishly, looking, for a moment, much younger. "Did you know that this is humanity's first Spectre?"

Sparatus nodded slowly as he reached the door, though he refrained from pressing the pad just yet, looking at the asari curiously.

"And the first Spectre for a non-Council race?"

Sparatus knew that this was the significant clue, though he couldn't think of how that would matter. "Yes."

"And who gives a Spectre their orientation materials and sets up everything for them?"

"Their Councillor."

Tevos grinned, and when she began giggling, he finally got it. All this time…

Sparatus laughed, too.