All in all, Nash thought she did a reasonably good job of keeping her temper during the interrogation. She had not pulled her gun once. She walked straight backed out of the room.
Alenko was shaking his head. "I forgot what that was like."
"What?"
"Watching you yell at someone until they give you what you want."
"He didn't give me what I want, though." Henderson was surprisingly strong willed. He admitted a link between the disappearances and the scientific base Nash had raided. He also admitted "Henderson" was not his real name.
Both of which Nash had assumed before the interrogation.
And now Alenko was looking at her, a puppy-like expression in his stupid eyes. "You are about to ask me a bunch of questions I don't want to answer," said Nash.
"Yep. And you have to answer them."
"Lets at least go somewhere nobody can eavesdrop on us…"
Nash liked high places. Given a 360-degree view of her surroundings, and enough elevation, she could hold out against enemy assault with only her repeating rifle for several hours.
Heights made her feel secure, usually. Unfortunately, Alenko's assault was not one she could hold off with a rifle. So conducting this interview on top of the highest condominium in Nos Astra was fairly irrational. At least the view was nice. Her vantage towered above both the clouds and the transit lanes. The red Illium sunset cast the silhouettes of skyscrapers across the rooftop.
"I'm scanning for listening devices. We're clear," said Alenko.
"Fire away, then."
"Why did you let us think you were dead? Why did you do that to me? I loved you! What sort of person does that to someone they love?"
"A bad person, Kaidan. A person who couldn't live with the decisions war pressed on her during peacetime."
"You saved all of us. You were a hero. What decisions are you talking about?"
"I led so many people to their deaths. Garrus, Ash, Thane, the Geth, and EDI. That wall on the Normandy is full. As Shepard, I would have become a walking war memorial. People would mistake me for a hero when the true heroes are the dead – the victorious dead."
He looked confused. "How are EDI and the Geth your fault?"
"I chose it. I was given a choice between three options by the Catalyst, and the one I selected killed of an entire race of beings. I'm practically an organic Reaper."
"What? That's not even close to being a Reaper…" Alenko appeared even more confused. His face was too damn honest sometimes. He could never hide a thing.
"I'm done talking about this," said Nash. "That's the reason I let Shepard die. I made my peace with that decision a long time ago."
"Fine. That doesn't explain why you let me, and everyone you called a friend, think you were dead."
"I didn't want everyone to know what a coward I am. I didn't plan on hiding from you, though. Not till I caught the televised wedding between you and Allers two weeks after I woke up from my coma."
"How was I supposed to know you weren't dead? Did you expect me to mourn my whole life?"
"No." Yes. Nash had thought they were counterparts. Meaning that if one went down, the other would stay unattached, and incomplete, like a machine missing an essential cog… "Well, you could have waited a little longer. When did you start sleeping with her? Was my hypothetical corpse even cold?"
"How dare you." He paced back and forth across the steel rooftop. "I died the day they gave up looking for survivors… for you. We were in deep space, using FTL travel to return the Normandy and crew to Earth. The QEC was functional, so communications to and from Earth worked… When Hackett told me they were calling off the search the first thing I wanted to do was punch him through the cosmos. The second thing I wanted to do was tear through the wreckage of the Citadel till I found you."
Nash sat herself crosswise on the skyscraper's environmental unit. "But instead you married Allers."
"It wasn't like that... I didn't behave properly, like an officer. One resource the ship had plenty of was alcohol. I tried to forget everything that night, and Diana comforted me…"
She pushed down a gag. "Please spare me the details. Look, it really doesn't matter. Whatever happened, it happened so long ago it doesn't matter. We just have to be able to work together for a short period of time, and then we go back to mutual ignorance of the other. Deal?"
"I still think I owe you an explanation. Once Diana found out she was pregnant, well I thought I owed it to her to try and make it work..."
"What? You knocked up Battletits?"
"Please don't call her that. And yes, I have a son. Sam. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me."
Nash was very jealous all of a sudden. Alenko got to finally have a family, while all she had was a broken ship, an unruly crew, and new scars… She wanted to kick something. Preferably something with huge, fake boobs and collagen injected lips.
But Alenko kept talking. "It took very little time for Diana and I to realize we didn't love each other. My heart was never whole, and Allers was never meant for monogamy… But we stayed together for Sam's sake, till everything fell apart once he grew up and moved away."
"What does he do now? Is he an Alliance man?"
"No, he is so different from me! He is just so normal." Alenko smiled. "He doesn't have a reckless bone in his body - or any biotics. He's an accountant on Terra Nova."
"Nash, come in. Nash, where the hell are you?"
That must be the emergency transmission, since all other channels were off… Nash tapped into the line. "I read you Tiny, what's wrong?"
"Trouble! Someone's assaulting the ship. Defenses are active but I can't do much on my own…"
Nash pictured her pilot trying to shoot at intruders from his chair, then winced. "Where's the rest of the crew?"
"Tinea and Sidonis are still out. Murphy is below deck somewhere."
"Recall everyone. I'm coming as fast as I can. Try and hold out."
"Gotcha."
Nash faced Alenko. "We've got trouble. Got any speed left in those aged feet of yours?"
"You'll just have to see!"
