Liara glanced to Kolyat with a sigh; the younger drell was busy across the small room, typing into the keyboard of the computer hub that served as pretty much the only piece of equipment inside the otherwise bare chamber.
The asari noticed his hands were shaking, though his expression was grim and almost completely still, revealing nothing of his all too clear distress.
"How are you getting along?" she asked casually.
"Almost hacked in; their encryption is…ridiculous and there aren't as many cameras as one would expect a place like this would have," he replied a bit tersely.
"Kolyat…take a moment, if you need it," Liara said calmly, hoping not to sound too patronizing.
The young drell stopped with his work, turning to shoot her a dark look. "I can't; my father might be somewhere down there. We need to breach these bastards' network so we can look for him; Shepard might need the help too," he groaned, the last words clearly an afterthought-or an attempt to get her to back off, Liara was almost sure of the latter.
"And you wish you were down there, with one of the other teams, instead of up here, fretting over database hacks, huh?" she asked coolly.
Kolyat's frown merely deepened, though he didn't look up from his keyboard this time. "Yes," he said darkly, "but, as everyone says, I'd probably get in their way; being a 'kid' and all," he rolled his eyes.
Liara smiled at him, moving towards him so she could face him properly.
"They do not mean it like that; nor should you take offense," she said gently. "Feron is…just looking out for you, I think. Shepard was beside herself when she got the message, we were all worried she'd go and do something reckless and headstrong and…well, stupid, because of the way she feels. Hell, Javik even told her so," she continued with a smile. "It can't be any easier for you; I'd expect it to be worse, actually. And like it or not, Kolyat, you do not have the experience the rest of us have around, well, this kind of messes," she concluded with a sigh.
"I can defend myself well enough; the Hanar trained me, as well, I just never got round to using my skills as extensively as my father," Kolyat frowned back. "But my body knows what to do, how to handle itself. I am not a child to be kept safely out of the line of fire; not here, not when the stakes are this high!" He grunted, realizing he had raised his voice a bit too much; it echoed in the small room, reverberating in the ventilation duck Kasumi had kicked out.
Liara nodded, ignoring his outbreak-scolding him would serve no real purpose here, the asari thought nor was it really her place to do it, even if there was any use for it. "I know; and no one says you can't handle yourself. It's just…we can't protect Shepard in this one and if Thane is indeed alive and well and here, he'd probably want us to make sure neither you nor her got hurt on his account. Which is why we're going after the Commander; and why we're trying so hard to keep you out of trouble," she smiled, seeking to cheer him up.
"If it's any consolation, though, I think you might get your wish to get into a firefight before this is over," she added a few moments later with a sigh. "This operation is not going at all as planned," she huffed.
Kolyat had to nod at that, though he remained grave. "Yes, I noticed; everyone is groping blindly in the dark, we have no idea where in this labyrinth Shepard is and we still have no clue whether my father is here at all," he sighed in return, before the console in front of him beeped loudly, getting his attention.
"I think we're in," he said, sounding relieved. Liara glanced at the screens from over his shoulder. Multiple images alternated among them, a small virtual control panel blinking on the right-most screen.
"Yes, indeed," Liara grinned to him. "Excellent work, Kolyat," she nodded her approval. "Now, see if we can locate everyone we need to locate," she added smoothly, Kolyat's fingers already flying on the control panels.
"We've got access," Liara announced to their own communication channel.
"Good to hear," Garrus commended. "Our tunnel seems to be leading well…nowhere in particular so far, but someone had gone to a whole lot of trouble boobytrapping that locked door blocking it off," the Turian huffed.
"That probably means we're on the right track," Feron put in.
"Or the impossibly wrong one," Garrus snorted in response. "In any case, the way still leads downwards, so we may lose communications for a bit, if it runs too deep. I'm reading magnetic interference, either some of those volatile materials Feron mentioned might be stored down here or natural mineral pockets with electromagnetic properties".
"Just be careful; and very mindful," Liara advised coolly. "Team 2, status, if you can?"
"Oh, so we're team two now?" Vega asked, rather too suavely given the situation.
Liara all but groaned into her communicator. She heard Javik grumble something, though she couldn't quite catch his words, even if his tone was pretty much unmistakable.
"We encountered some people; civilians," the Prothean finally said, a lot more loudly than his muttering before. "They have been…dealt with; non-lethally, I might add"; he did not sound too happy about that.
"Kasumi's gone to scout ahead," Vega picked up, his tone official again. "There seems to be some mobility. The group of people we bumped into were all non-militant. I'd guess scientific or just civilian staff; some wore doctors' robes, but not all".
"The thief was right," Javik said grimly, "there are living quarters down this side of the tunnels; other facilities, as well, probably. We need to proceed with extreme caution, given it'll be very easy for someone to raise a full-scale alarm, if they see us".
"We have the cameras well in hand, though," Kolyat spoke up from where he still sat, keeping an eye on exactly those cameras mentioned. "I've got them looping footage from the previous few minutes, hopefully no one else watching will bother looking too closely".
"Yeah, but if someone see us with their own two eyes when we don't want them to, camera and alarm control will not do us much good. Not to mention, we'll be risking Shepard's life," Vega huffed.
"Shepard risked her life by coming down here on her own, against the plan," Javik huffed dismally. "Her judgement is impaired; letting her come here was a bad idea to begin with".
"So, you've said a few times already, but I'd love to see you try and stop her," Vega shook his head.
"Same here," Garrus interjected, his voice punching through some static.
"She wouldn't have listened; and she would have probably ended up coming down here alone, as well," Liara sighed evenly. "And this is a pointless conversation to be having right now, in any case," she added smoothly.
"We shall give the thief a couple more minutes, then go after her," Javik said coolly. "If she is as good as she says she is, she ought to be back before that".
"Keep us posted," Garrus said, as well, signing off without further comment.