Mirror
With the course of recent events, Liara could only think about how wonderful it was to see the Citadel again, even if some of the company made her slightly uncomfortable.
The source of Chief Williams' antagonism was clear enough; mistrust, both of Liara as the daughter of Benezia and of non-humans in general. Liara had come to learn that humans had a hard time understanding how a person could be so separate from their parent- in their short lives, family was more often than not nearly omni-present. Lieutenant Alenko was harder to figure out. He was quite affable most of the time, but on a few occasions she'd sensed an undercurrent of dislike. Perhaps she had accidentally offended some uniquely male ethic?
To Liara, human gender politics was an impenetrable morass, something humans themselves only seemed to be aware of on a subconscious level. Since coming aboard the Normandy she'd uploaded some papers from the university to read about it, and while she'd come to understand the broad strokes, the subtleties were numerous and quite beyond her. It was horrifying enough to read about the various injustices visited upon one gender by the other throughout their history, and to realize that the ghosts of those crimes still haunted their everyday interactions. How sad, how tragic, to have a whole species divided against itself.
But then, humans were adaptable and eager to learn, able to change startlingly fast. A species in their maiden stage? This thought made Liara smile, and she spent some time reflecting on its permutations. It brought a certain optimism, knowing that given positive influences they could possibly grow out of their less productive habits. It was dizzying to know some of these changes might even take place within her lifetime.
Humans. What a strange and fascinating lot they were. It was oddly refreshing to be among people for whom the stigma of her pureblood birth was an utterly meaningless distinction, and a peerless intellectual challenge to try and begin to understand the nuances of their culture and interactions. And Shepard... how compelling she was. Liara couldn't help but feel a thrill every time the commander came to speak to her. Even after the terrible events on Novaria, the hours of biting cold, the monstrous Rachni, and the confrontation with her tormented mother, Shepard's mere presence seemed to make all the horror fade away into nothingness.
And so here in an airy docking bay of the Citadel, it was all that much harder to watch Shepard hand her sidearm over to the lieutenant, then walk unarmed and unarmored toward someone with a gun. Liara wished she could hear what was being said, but the words that passed between the two women were swallowed by the vast open space all around them. It was all Liara could do to keep from intervening when the crazed woman yelled something and pointed the pistol at Shepard's head not once but three times.
There was a small measure of comfort in realizing the two human marines at her side didn't seem to like having to stay back any more than Liara herself. Even from a few feet away from them she could feel the nervous burn of tension rolling off them. Alenko had a white-knuckled grip on Shepard's pistol and Williams fingered her own sidearm, watching the spectacle with narrow eyes.
It only really hit home what Liara had just witnessed when the woman finally relented, tears running down her face as Shepard carefully put her arms around her and eased the gun out of her hand. Thank the Goddess, such perfect calm! How I would have ruined things if I'd blundered in...
There was a murmur of relief from the trio of human soldiers, and Liara glanced again at her companions. Williams still watched Shepard, arms folded, a distant expression on her face. The lieutenant stared studiously down at the commander's sidearm, frowning slightly as he turned it over in his hands.
Back up the gangway, Shepard lowered the now-sedated woman gently to the ground, lingering a few seconds to make sure she was comfortable, then stood up and walked back toward them. She stopped to exchange a few words with the grateful soldiers, who saluted her and took back the stolen gun before hurrying off to look after the woman. Shepard watched them go, then strode back to her crew wearing an expression that bordered on beatific. "Thank you, Lieutenant," she said, accepting her gun back from Alenko and clipping it to her belt.
"Ma'am," he replied, his voice strange.
"Let's go, Udina doesn't like to be kept waiting," the commander said, starting toward the elevator.
"He can damn well wait for this," the chief said hotly as they fell into step behind Shepard.
"Agreed, but it doesn't mean he won't complain about it," the commander answered.
Williams rolled her eyes. "I can't believe that jerk represents all of us."
"That jerk plays politics so we don't have to," Shepard said as she touched the elevator panel. "I sure as hell wouldn't want his job."
Liara was somewhat appalled to hear an ambassador referred to with such casual disregard. It was jarring, considering how the marines normally acted around authority figures. But then, Liara was learning that respect among humans was a many-layered thing, and just because they saluted someone didn't mean that person had earned it.
"That girl... was from Mindoir, right ma'am?" Williams asked as the elevator hummed to life, heading down toward the ring where the Presidium met the Wards.
"Yes. Taken during the same raid that killed my parents."
"Crazy. There but for the grace of God go I, huh?"
"A mirror darkly," Shepard said simply.
Liara frowned. She understood the obvious subtext of these statements, but they were so unlike the normal human language that she knew they must be cultural references of some kind. Unable to place them herself, she was on the verge of asking when the chief spoke again.
"How did she get away?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Shepard answered, brow creased in thought. "It wasn't easy to understand her... She kept talking in weird metaphors and referring to herself as 'it'. I think she had a fairly strong case of Stockholm syndrome..."
"What's that?" Liara asked, still trying to keep up with these human phrases.
"It's a term for a psychological condition," Alenko explained. "When someone is captive long enough, they can start to sympathize with their captors, even to the point of helping them. A survival instinct, basically."
"Goddamn slaver scum, doing that to a little kid...," the chief growled.
"The kids are the best takes, Chief," Shepard said grimly. "Easiest to break and train. They were spoiled for choice on Mindoir... anyone who didn't fit their specifications got shot. And anyone who fought back..."
"Is that... where that came from?" Liara asked on impulse, pointing at the mysterious mark on Shepard's arm.
There was a heartbeat of silence, filled only by the hum of the elevator. Liara could see the muscles on the lieutenant's jaw standing out.
"I didn't fight that day, Liara," Shepard said, her head cocked slightly to one side as she looked the asari in the eye. "I was sixteen, a teenager, unarmed and untrained. I didn't fight, I hid." There was no anger in her voice as she spoke, no resentment toward Liara for asking, but an unmistakable thread of bitterness hung around the edge of her words.
Before Liara had the chance to say anything more, the elevator door cycled open and Shepard strode out into the C-Sec lobby, headed for the mass transit terminal. Liara found herself momentarily overcome, absorbing the horror of it all. Sixteen! Unimaginably young to suffer such a thing. It made the recent events beneath the glacier of Novaria seem pale and distant. At least Liara herself had been able to decide when she wanted to leave her mother's side, had a chance to become her own person before loosing Benezia to Saren's will. These humans, so close to their families... to have all of that wrenched away before even learning to step out into the world on one's own, to loose all connections, all community in one stroke, and be left alone in all the galaxy...
"Hey, you coming?"
Liara snapped out of her thoughts to look up to the chief, standing in the doorway of the elevator.
"I... yes," Liara said hastily, ignoring the marine's narrow-eyed look and trotting out after the commander.
I don't care what you think, Gunnery Chief Williams. Shepard told me plainly I could ask, and so I did.
And I will again.
