Author's Note: Alright, everyone, I'm sorry that this took so long. Life and work got in the way and I started three new stories that consumed my life. Thank you to all the favorites and follows and I do hope you are all still enjoying this. This chapter was a bit of bear to finish as I tried my best not the transcribe the game. Let me know what ya'll think.

I give you Chapter 10: Interstellar Bug Hunt

Mass Effect
"Foreign Relations"

Chapter Ten: Interstellar Bug Hunt

It had been an eventful week already once Sidda made the decision to head to Noveria to chase down a lead. Two people so far had told her to check out Noveria for a Saren connection so it was high time she went to see what all the fuss was about.

Right now, however, she was in a gun battle. Another one. She dove to the left for cover behind a stand of boulders and grumbled with Cerrus on her left and Garrus on her right.

"Remind me again why we're down here?" Cerrus asked, his tone more than annoyed but not angry. His question was nearly drowned out by a burst from his Crossfire as he crouched down the same as her.

Sidda's glower deepened but it was hidden behind her helmet. Of all the times Cerrus could choose to become Nov he picked now. He knew why they were there on this hot volcanic world in the middle of a firefight. "Because I answered a distress call," she grumbled loudly.

"Uh huh," he responded. He was irritated with the situation. He'd told her the call was bogus but she went anyway. Cerrus dropped quickly as a round skipped off the rocks barely missing his face. That was the reason Sidda had dove into cover in the first place.

Sidda felt sweat pouring out of her skin, to the point she could almost hear her boots squelching from all the moisture pooling at her feet. This planet was hot. A Level 1 heat hazard that left her feeling like she was lasagna in an oven but the Turians were fine. Of course they were fine; they'd evolved on a planet that spent a couple billion years trying to kill them with heat and radiation. Needless to say she was irritated, hot, sweaty, on foot, and under attack…again. The more rounds that whizzed over her head the more irritated she got. "Hey, Vakarian, why don't you use that sniper rifle for something and ping that bastard," she snipped.

A simple request would have sufficed but given the situation he complied with the demand without a fuss. As Garrus readied the Spectre sniper rifle given to him by Sidda, Cerrus readied his Punisher. Sidda snorted as she watched the boys compete for marksmanship superiority.

"Left," Cerrus announced and Garrus announced that he was taking the right in the same tone.

"Kaidan, where the hell are you guys?" Sidda barked into the radio wondering where the Mako was that she'd left in their care.

"We're on our way, Commander." Kaidan responded in her ear and Sidda sighed over the bark of the two sniper rifles going off simultaneously.

"Well, step on it, huh…" she said as Cerrus fired again a cursed. He missed. "It's getting hot out here."

"Hang on, Commander, we're coming." She heard him say.

"Fuck." She heard from Cerrus again as Garrus fire two more times rapidly taking out his target and the one Cerrus missed. He'd gotten rusty the Sniper Rifle apparently or Garrus was just way better than him.

True to his word, the Mako vaulted over the embankment in grand fashion with Kaidan at the helm and parked right in front of them blocking the enemy fire. It also put the main gun in perfect position to render the mercenary base into rubble with a few well-placed shots as well. Sidda noticed movement on the other side of Cerrus through the borderline heat delirium she was experiencing. She cleared her head, aimed, and fired twice putting her first round through her targets head. She was good with a rifle but put a pistol in her hand and she was lethal in every sense of the word. She fired a second time at the next one and put a round through his head too. While she was focused on the enemy in her sights, no one saw the soldier that flanked them on the other side.

Garrus yelped as a round burned through his abdomen from right to left and ricocheted off Sidda's armor into the rocks bringing her shields down. "Garrus!" Sidda shouted spinning in place as the Turian crumpled where he stood. Sidda aimed and fired another headshot with perfect clarity despite the sweat in her eyes. "Cerrus, cover," she ordered loudly as the hatch for the Mako opened releasing Tali and Ashley.

Garrus did nothing but growl like any male Turian she'd ever met. It hurt; he was big enough to admit that but used his rifle to stay standing, somewhat. "I'm alright," he growled out quickly. "I'll be alright."

"Cerrus, Ash, cover! Tali help me with him," Sidda barked and Tali snaked under his left arm as Sidda took his rifle and got under his right heading to the Mako as quickly as possible.

Cerrus and Ashely piled in behind and Kaidan didn't need the order to speed away from the hot zone. "Normandy, this is ground team, we need immediate pick up and have Dr. Chakwas standing by…Garrus has been hit," Kaidan stated and felt awkward, as the team medic, and he was driving. "Ash, take over."

He and Ashley switched places and he dove into the back pulling various things from his med kit. He wasn't an expert in Turian medicine but he could pass until they got him to Chakwas.

The Mako landed hard on the Bay ramp bouncing its occupants a little more than Ashley wanted to. Aside from Garrus she was the best driver of that god forsaken tank, no matter how good she thought she was she couldn't compete with the eyesight and reflexes of a Turian. Garrus was a precise driver…if not a little insane. Ashley was not as precise but she was aggressive, though she didn't perform the retina detaching moves that Garrus liked to perform while giggling like a maniac.

Wrex and Liara waited on the deck as the hatch opened watching the occupants file out quickly. Sidda was first followed by Tali then the obviously injured Garrus. Cerrus, Kaidan, and Ashley were the last out respectively. Liara immediately went to Garrus to try to help as Wrex took in the situation. Blood seeped from Garrus' wound and Tali's suit was stained with blue. As bad as it looked Garrus assured everyone that it looked worse than it was.

"Get him to Medical, now," Sidda barked stripping off her helmet after the bay door closed feeling the cool blast of air on her face.

"Looks like you had fun," Wrex commented.

"Oh yeah…" she grumbled sarcastically as Garrus headed out with Liara and Kaidan. The Turian was more irritated with all the fuss then the fact that he'd been shot. "I love answering false distress calls and walking into a damned ambush," she snapped then looked up at the ceiling. "Joker, get us the hell out of here and set a course for Noveria but don't execute it yet. Need to regroup and make sure Garrus is okay."

"And if you receive another distress call, ignore it," Cerrus piped up and Sidda scoffed in agreement.

"Sorry, Cap, I don't take orders from you," Joker replied with a chuckle.

Sidda had to agree with her nemesis. "This time, Joker, you do…I'm tired of this. Next time you get a distress call, send it to the Alliance," she stated as irritated as she could be.

"Copy that, Commander."

Getting ambushed again made Sidda grumble like a pissed off Turian, this time it was a slaver and pirate tactic to lure their prey. Military or not, Sidda stumbled into it with gusto. She needed to start listening to Garrus and Ashley and Wrex, and especially Cerrus. Saren is the target. Chase him.

She cleaned herself up and cut over to the Medical Bay to check on Garrus. He was actually sitting up letting Chakwas tend to the two wounds that transected his abdomen. Turians didn't have the fleshy parts that Humans hand so it was really hard to miss anything vital with a gunshot. Garrus looked like any other Turian with his shirt off…odd. To a Human the way they looked was odd; to her it was familiar but still odd, skinny arms, a skinny waist and legs but a big chest. The Greyhound look.

"Doctor," Sidda announced as she leaned over tending to the exit wound on Garrus' left side. "how is he?"

Garrus glanced over his shoulder to Sidda as she came into his field of vision. "I'd have to say that Garrus is the luckiest Turian in the galaxy, Commander," Chakwas stated as she applied another coat of the dextro medigel before covering the wound with a bandage. "One round, straight through, missed his spine by a half an inch and his large intestines by an even closer margin."

Sidda raised her eyebrows with a smile. "Damn, feel like buying me a lottery ticket?" she asked and Garrus scoffed.

"I'm not that lucky, Commander, I did get shot," He responded and Sidda snorted.

"Are you kidding me?" Sidda asked rhetorically. "You're like a walking Rabbit's Foot."

The Turians brow furrowed, confused. "A what?"

"Old human superstition," she stated. "Carry the back foot of an animal called a Rabbit with you for luck." She explained quickly admitting it sounded ridiculous even to most humans.

"For you or the rest of the Rabbit?" he asked and Sidda chuckled and also had to admit she wasn't sure how the whole thing got started.

"I don't know," she chuckled.

"Couple of days of taking it easy and you should be back to 100%, Garrus," Chakwas finished as she tapped a few things on the pad that was apparently Garrus' medical file.

The benefit to being in the military on either side was all the extra shots, implants, and various other things to expedite recovery time after an injury. Garrus knew he would heal but it was going to take longer than a few hours. He was sore and discovered that squatting was far less painful and bending at the waist was a mistake. He only did that once. He was ordered to rest but he didn't like being idle, he preferred to move around. Things need worked on, rifles needed calibrated, the Mako needed to stay maintained.

Chakwas referred to him as overly stubborn until Sidda kindly reminded her that ALL Turians were stubborn as hell when it came to injuries, emotions, and pretty much life in general. By the next morning Garrus felt better, still sore and tender but he wasn't going to let that keep him down. He had to work on his armor that now had a new hole in it, two in fact, so he made his way down to the cargo bay where all his gear was stored. Just because he was up and at em didn't mean he felt 100%. He groaned and he covered the right wound as he walked. Gunshots never felt good.

"Hey, C-Sec," Cerrus greeted seeing him approach them. Cerrus had warmed to the C-Sec officer but that didn't mean they got along. "how you feeling?"

"Like I've been shot," Garrus replied dryly and nodded to Tali politely.

Cerrus had already offered an alternative to Garrus' C-Sec blue armor but Garrus had declined, maybe now the stubborn Combat Engineer would see reason. "Put this on. Round won't penetrate next time."

Garrus shook his head. "I don't need it, Captain," he said firmly and Cerrus' head cant was one of disbelief and frustrated irritation.

"Seriously?" he questioned. "Garrus, you were shot yesterday, Shepard's shields deflected the round after it went through you, now what's that say about your armor?"

Garrus shook his head and turned from him to find his armor and work on repairing it. "Cerrus, I told you I don't need it."

Sidda entered the Cargo Bay only to be greeted by sounds of an argument between their resident Turians. She was pleased with how comfortable Cerrus had become with his current TAD. She'd observed him warming up to Tali and more shockingly Kaidan.

"I told you that C-Sec crap was going to get you killed," Cerrus stated firmly as Garrus stubbornly ignored him.

"My armor is fin,." Garrus replied. "I don't need your 'hand me down' armor."

Cerrus blinked, nearly offended by something a bit trivial in most people's eyes. "Hand…Hand me down? This is top of the line heavy armor. Serrice Council Phantom armor…you can't get armor better than this without raiding the Primarch's closet," he defended sounding a bit shocked about Garrus calling his armor 'hand me down'. The only thing he spent more time on than his weapons was his armor. "If you'd have been wearing this instead of that crap like I told you to that round wouldn't have penetrated.

"I do not need your armor, Cerrus, mine is fine." Cerrus didn't even try to hide the frustrated growl.

"Spirits, you are more stubborn than me," he grumbled. That was hard to do, that was really hard to do. Cerrus had the galactic market cornered on stubbornness. "That is medium armor and fine for fighting crooks on the Citadel but that outdated ablative coating is gonna get you killed. Use the fucking armor."

Sidda narrowed her eyes to the trivial bickering that was getting louder and louder as it drug on. The squabbling escalated further as they reverted to teenagers about whom was more stubborn. It honestly reminded her of the boys on the Lante.

"Hey! Hey!" Sidda shouted trying to get over their voices. When that didn't work she whistled loudly and at a pitch that would hurt their ears. It worked, they fell silent. "Enough!" The two Turians went silent and looked down at the shrimp between them but she had a commanding presence. "Garrus, put the damn armor on, you're too damn valuable to me to lose because of shitty armor."

It wasn't that Garrus didn't want to wear the armor; heavy armor was nice but also, unfortunately, heavy. At least medium armor afforded him a little better mobility. This was more pride talking than anything else. He wanted to protest…he really did but hearing Sidda say that he was valuable to her 'too valuable to lose'. That put things into perspective. "Alright, fine, give me the damn armor."

Satisfied, she gave a single sharp nod as Cerrus actually nodded to her in gratitude. "Now gear up. We'll be at Noveria in a few hours," she stated and shook her head at the bickering boys as she walked away.

Noveria was cold…or rather…frozen, and not just frozen, its average high was barely in the 30s and that was a damn heatwave. The occupants of Port Hanshan were even chillier than the weather. A corporate capital filled with shadier characters than any Batarian Slaver ship could've ever dream for.

Everyone hated Port Hanshan, the Turian's despised it because it was snowy and cold and everyone else hated it because its hospitality was as warm as the weather.

With Garrus grudgingly laid up under Chakwas' orders he was convinced to stay on the Normandy and keep an eye on it along with Liara. The rest stretched their legs in Port Hanshan. The Council Spectre and her contingent of armed associates unnerved Port Hanshan's security and ordered Sidda and company to disarm. Sidda flatly refused citing her Spectre clearance and her Turian and Krogan 'bodyguards' cackled in unison a gleeful "fuck you".

The one hassling them was a tall blonde Sergeant named Sterling; apparently, she hadn't gotten the memo that there was a human Spectre in the ranks now. She threatened to shoot Sid if she refused to disarm and things escalated from there when the Sergeant made a threatening move toward her prompting Cerrus to pull his Brawler at lightning speed. Before she knew it, it was them versus security…guns drawn, all of them, fierce gazes and a few harsh words. Sidda wasn't going to back off and had every right to run right over Sterling and her people thanks to the Spectre rank. She didn't really want to leave a body count 10 seconds after arriving though. Fortunately, it didn't come to that as Port Hanshan's security chief, Capt. Matsuo, cleared things up before it became messy.

After that it was semi smooth sailing of blackmailing and strong arming to get what she wanted, nothing was easy. Just to get in the door she had to blackmail and jump through countless hoops, it was annoying. She didn't care about the trade secrets of companies cutting corners, though Binary Helix was an appealing target given its connections to Saren, all she wanted was access to where she needed to get. After squabbling with Anoleis and dealing with Parasini, Sidda seriously considered Wrex's plan of "just start shooting…none of this bullshit will matter and we can get on with it". The funny part was that the three people who couldn't stand each other, Wrex, Cerrus, and Ashley all agreed on the same thing.

The slow progression of getting what she wanted sped up rapidly when they learned that Benezia was on campus. Somewhere called Peak 15. Sidda grouched that anything that went by a location and a number was usually a crappy place to go. So far Hanshan hadn't been a fun place to be so she fully expected somewhere called 'Peak 15' to be a circle of hell…if she could get there.

"Jesus," she growled annoyed. "all the security in the galaxy should take notes from these guys." She grumbled as she was blocked from getting to the garage due to a lack of a clearance card. She was seconds from ripping someone in half with a warp or simply shooting them.

"People are easy to search when they're dead." Wrex agreed.

"Well, you're the Turian whisperer…" Kaidan began and Cerrus looked at him unsure if he should be offended by the strange phrase. "Go talk to Lorik Qui'in and charm his pass from him."

Ashley scoffed; the soldier had been relatively quiet so far not willing to risk anymore disciplinary action because of her ongoing feud with Cerrus. "Yeah, that's just what we need…you knocking boots with another one of them.

Cerrus' mandibles clicked to the thinly veiled racist remark but let it go since her view on Turian and Human romances mirrored his own.

Sidda shrugged to the remark; if it got her to Saren she'd sleep with Cerrus to be perfectly honest. "If it gets me what I want, what does it matter?" she replied honestly, not that she'd risk Victus in the process but she'd do what she had to.

Cerrus patted her shoulder but it felt more like a slap to the back from his monstrous clawed left hand. "Spoken like a Turian, Shep."

Damn Cerrus had come a long way, being friends with Kaidan seemed to have loosened him up a bit. He still didn't call her by her first name and probably never would, too informal, but he'd heard various people call her 'Shep' so once in a while he let it slip.

She huffed heavily. "Alright, I'm gonna go talk to Qui'in…I'll be back."

As Sidda embarked on yet another mission Cerrus looked to Kaidan. " 'Turian whisperer'? What the hell is that supposed to be?" Kaidan simply chuckled and shook his head.

Sidda didn't have to sleep with Qui'in to get his access card…no…he settled for good old fashion espionage. A simple plan of breaking and entering, considering she had a key to his office technically she wasn't breaking in, that's what she told herself anyway. Getting what Qui'in wanted was fairly simple, it was right where he said it would be and thanks to Kaidan the information transferred to the OSD without any fuss. She didn't take the whole entourage; with Tali off collecting Liara to meet them at the Garage, Sidda left Wrex and Ashley to mill about on the Mezzanine while she, Cerrus, and Kaidan conducted the clandestine raid. Qui'in wasn't kidding when he said half of the ESRG teams were on Anoleis' payroll and that included Sterling. They tried to be quiet but when the dirty cops started shooting all bets were off.

After the dust settled and everything was sorted out with Matsuo, Qui'in kept his word and gave her the pass while he spent his time shutting down Anoleis. All in all Sidda spent nearly six hours being Port Hanshan's handyman, fixing every ones problems and putting crooked businessmen out of business.

Irritated and a little insulted by the random comments, she made her way to the garage where Li was chatting with Garrus of all people. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Going with you," he replied as he shifted a bit in the jet black armor that Cerrus finally got him into. He wasn't used to heavy armor…damn it was heavy and a little big. Cerrus was a little broader than he.

"Oh like hell you are…you're still on the injured list," she stated as Cerrus looked the shorter Turian up and down assessing how he looked in his back up armor.

"If there's a chance Saren's here you need me, Sidda," he pressed and Sidda sighed. She didn't have the time or energy to argue with him.

"Fine," she huffed with a grumble. "Stubborn ass, Blue Jay" she cursed and both Garrus and Cerrus were confused by the translation but the two humans laughed. "Kaidan, Ash, Tali, keep an eye on things out here…I'm not sure I trust the Elanus Risk Guards or anyone else here for that matter."

The trio nodded and Sidda turned her attention to the rest. "Everyone else…lets go hunting."

In the bustle of everyone filing onto the elevator Tali lightly grabbed at Cerrus' left hand catching it with her right. He paused and looked down at his hand then to her. "Be careful, Tyr."

The Turians face relaxed a bit as he smiled then gave her a small respectful bow of his head. "I will," he replied quietly and squeezed her fingers lightly before following the party into the elevator. Tali blushed wildly and smiled under her mask, Cerrus talked a big game but under all that irritation and bad attitude he was a sweet heart.

All the fuss Garrus put up about coming along quickly vanished. Noveria was a giant ice ball and though neither Turian complained outright Sidda heard the distinct grumbling from both of them. The same type heard from Nihlus and Nov on Terra Nova during its winter. It was one of those things that just made her chuckle. Wrex wasn't exactly relishing the biting cold either but luckily they got to stay in the Mako for the most part.

Just as Sidda figured Peak 15 was anything but good, already knowing they were on the right track as they had to step over or run over, Geth every step of the way. Peak 15 was an isolated Research Lab contracted by Binary Helix, the company Saren had ties too. It was peculiar that Hanshan hadn't heard from Peak 15 since Benezia passed through. That couldn't be anything but bad which was why she brought 'heavy hitters' with her. Even if one of them was still mending.

It was eerily quiet, she hated quiet…Cerrus did too. If there was one thing they agreed on it was their mutual attraction of disaster. "I don't like this place," Sidda said quietly.

The group agreed in various ways but the two Turians remained on high alert. "This place smells wrong," Wrex said as they entered the mess hall.

"When a Krogan gets the wiggins, we're screwed," Sidda muttered as they moved forward and were attacked by those god forsaken Stalkers. The initial skirmish with the Geth was quick but that wasn't the end of it.

"What happened here?" she asked noticing that it was a mess hall, food was frozen to the plates and the room was a wreck. Someone came in right in the middle of a meal and made a mess, the funny thing was there were no bodies.

"No bodies," Liara noted voicing her thought.

The silence was shattered with the shrill of something completely inhuman drawing their attention to the far wall that was the exit. The bug like creature leapt at them but they all fired their various weapons and were able to drop it before it got too close them. The amount of gunfire actually made Sidda's ears hurt.

Cerrus moved forward and tapped the thing with his toe pointing his rifle at it. "What the hell is that?!" Sidda exclaimed seeing the carcass of the oversized mutant roach.

"Spirits…" Garrus began. "I think that's a Rachni."

Sidda's eyes narrowed. "Rachni?" she asked. "As in Rachni, Rachni?"

"As in the ancient enemy?" Wrex added looking at the giant bug. "Excellent."

Cerrus decided right then and there that he hated missions with Sidda. Only she could find the one damn planet in the galaxy that had fucking Rachni. "You gotta be kidding me?"

The five of them heard the same shrieking, shrilling noise they heard before they were attacked but this time it was louder and everywhere. "We are in serious trouble," Sidda stated and Garrus, Liara, and Cerrus had to agree. Wrex, however, laughed.

"Hahaha! Let them come!" Wrex shouted readying his shotgun.

Sidda had to admit Wrex's enthusiasm certainly made life enjoyable. On the far side of the room the grates along the wall were shoved up hard enough to send them clattering across the deck. Rachni poured out of the openings first one, then two, then several. "We are in very serious trouble!" she announced, seeing the horde of giant bugs flooding the ground before them. Nothing else needed to be said as nothing could be heard over the gunfire that ensued.

Sidda was still in her armor when she stood before the Council in the Comm Room on the Normandy. Noveria gave a whole new meaning to the term 'Corporate Warriors'; she handled espionage, insider trading, blackmail, run away science experiments, giant intelligent interstellar bugs, and managed to cure an illness…all in a day's work but now she wanted to crawl into her bunk and sleep for a week. She rubbed her face with an exhausted sigh.

"You let a Rachni Queen go?" Sparatus barked his tone one of shock and anger. "Commander, are you out of your mind?!"

"She was no threat to us so I made a deal. I'm not in the business of exterminating entire races on a whim," Sidda replied, honestly she could understand their worry. The Rachni damn near wiped out the Salarians and the Asari at once, now Sidda allowed a Queen to go free.

"How can you be so sure the Queen poses no threat?" Valern asked, the Salarian was by far the most nervous about the Rachni back on the loose; they turned to the Krogan 2,000 year ago when their war went to hell in a handbasket. She expected the reaction from Sparatus and Valern but couldn't' get a read on Tevos.

"Here we go." Sidda thought, this next statement was going to get a reaction from all three of them and she knew damn well none of them were going to be favorable. "She promised to disappear and live in peace if I let her go." Sure enough all three councilors spoke at once.

"What?!" was heard first from Tevos as Sparatus' bark of 'Commander' was run over by Valern's 'Are you insane?'

Sidda's sigh reflected her mood. "I made a call," she defended. "Saren lost his research and his Lieutenant today. I call that a win in my book."

"Commander, the Rachni cannot be trusted," Valern snapped obviously not satisfied with her judgement call. "This is reckless and irresponsible."

"I will have to agree, Commander, you should not have made this deal without considering the long term consequences. This goes far beyond Saren and the Geth," Tevos stated and was prepared to continue but Sidda held up a hand.

"Enough," she snipped growing annoyed. "You weren't there so you don't get to judge my decisions."

"That's not how it works, Commander, and you know that," Sparatus scolded.

"I am asking you to trust me," Sidda stated firmly. "I was right about Saren, I was right about the Reapers, you need to trust me."

Sparatus was irritated. Very irritated. "Commander, your people have a saying 'Even a broken clock is right twice a day'," he stated and Sidda nearly ordered Joker to the Citadel so she could kick that Turian's ass.

"We have another saying, Councilor, 'go to hell'," She spat back.

Hologram or no Sidda could feel the Turian's glare as his eyes narrowed fiercely.

"This is not helping," Tevos intervened, stopping the ensuing argument. "Commander, we do trust you we only ask that you take long term consequences into account when making your decisions. The Rachni were a threat long before your people joined the Galactic community. Please bear out concerns in mind in the future," Tevos stated and though she was trying to be neutral and diplomatic she came across as condescending.

Sidda understood and nodded but didn't submit. "I will do what is necessary to find Saren and stop the Reapers and I don't much care who I piss off to get there," she said and watched the members squirm before her. "You have my report so what's done is done. Benezia is dead and the next stop is Saren himself."

"Yes, Matriarch Benezia, how is Dr. T'Soni?" Tevos asked and Sidda gave her a shrug.

Sidda's sigh was evident; she was frustrated and troubled about what Benezia had said about the ship and this 'indoctrination' that could turn an Asari matriarch against the galaxy. "She watched her mother die…how do you think she's doing?"

Her snappy tone put the three of them in their place. "Please give out condolences, Commander, and thank you for your report," Tevos said politely leaving the briefing at that.

The unit went blank and Sidda sighed heavily. She'd rather fight a horde of bad guys then deal with them. Sparatus was fairly simple to handle but he treated her like most Turians outside the Lante did, with distain. Tevos was a typical condescending Asari and Valern was a nervous wreck like any other Salarian she'd ever met.

Kaidan entered the room and noticed Sidda braced on the communications terminal. "You alright, Sidda?" he asked and she simply cocked her head to the right to acknowledge his presence.

"How's Liara?" she asked and he walked toward her.

"She's hanging in there," he said and she stood up straight rubbing her face with her right hand. "How are you?"

Taking out Benezia was a victory but it didn't feel like a win. More questions were asked than answered and Sidda now had something called Sovereign to deal with, a ship with the power to warp peoples' minds. She sighed heavily and turned toward him with a smile patting his chest. "I'm good, Kaidan." She said quietly but he didn't believe her.

Hours passed and Sidda sat at the desk in the quarters pouring over all the information they'd been able to gather from Peak 15. The Rachni, the Geth, Benezia…the puzzle pieces were falling into place but it was still clear as mud. It troubled her to realize that Benezia was almost an unwilling participant in all this, this indoctrination that the ship could perform was unnerving. It was a damn ship how was that possible? This was the time she started to second guess herself. The Council was right, how could she let a Rachni Queen go on its word that it would live in peace?

Fiddling with the Turian pendant on her tags she decided she wanted to talk, but not to anyone onboard. Victus' face appeared on the screen and she smiled instantly feeling better. "Hey," she greeted with a broad smile. "how're the repairs coming?" she asked.

"We're at the Apheus shipyards…it's going to take some time but we'll be back on our feet in a day or two," he answered directly and observed what he could of her through the monitor. "Everything okay, Sid?"

She gave a halfhearted smile and scoff. "Really, really long day…and an even longer week," she replied tiredly.

Victus tossed something away from him and she heard it land somewhere in his quarters. "Okay, talk to me," he said and found a comfortable place to listen.

"Well…I walked my team into an ambush yesterday, I nearly boiled alive in my suit, Garrus got shot…then I followed a lead on Saren to a frozen hellhole where I had to deal with everything from insider trading to giant bugs," she summed up and heard Victus snort in amusement.

"It's not easy being the boss is it?" he said and she scoffed.

"Even less so when you're chasing a traitor without all the pieces," she added and Victus had to admit that made things a whole lot trickier. "I also realized just how screwed we truly might be."

"How do you mean?" he asked and leaned in on the desk.

Sidda still didn't know but Benezia's explanation of what happened to her and the ship called Sovereign made her nervous. "I'm not sure yet, but I'm pretty sure whatever it is won't end well unless I get out in front of this and nail Saren's ass to the wall."

"Sid, if you need me you call me…I don't give a damn what it is," he said not really sure what was troubling her beyond the lingering guilt of Nihlus' death. The best he could do was offering his support. After Saren attacked the Lante he had no problem stepping up to knock the shit out of the fellow Turian.

He saw a small smile grace her face and she leaned closer to the monitor on her desk. "Thank you, Adrien."

"You should sleep, Sid, you look tired," he advised and she nodded in agreement.

"I think I'll do that," she replied. "I just wanted to talk to you."

"Any time," he said with a nod. "And when this is over, you, me, and however many weeks of leave we can get on the Citadel," he added and she giggled loving the sound of that idea.

"Now that's a deal, General," she giggled, the idea of R&R on the Citadel with him something she could get used to. They weren't married and probably never would be but Garrus was right, they were close enough.

"Now, you rest and watch your back out there," he said sounding more like an order. "I love you."

Sidda nodded to his standing order for her to stay out of trouble. "I love you too," she replied and the screen went black.

Cerrus thought that he was the only insomniac on ship; he really didn't expect Tali to be up at 03:30. "What are you still doing up?" he asked looking down at her as she sat leaning against the wall. Noveria took a lot out of everyone, it was a damn nightmare. When he was forced into this assignment he never thought that he'd be fighting the Rachni.

"Oh…I can't sleep on this ship…it's too quiet," she answered sounding tired and Cerrus looked down at her with a furrowed expression.

"I would think that quiet is conducive to sleep," he stated and shrugged. "Of course I'd have to defer to you on that seeing as how I don't do it much."

Tali giggled slightly. "Not for a Quarian," he replied as he actually sat down on the floor beside her. She was surprised when he pulled her over to lean on him. Pulling her back to his chest, Tali adjusted her position and settled into his arms as he wrapped them around her. "I'm used to the sound of engine noise and air processors and power conduits…when it's quiet I get worried."

"Don't worry," he soothed and stopped himself before he sounded like a total idiot 'I'm here' would be way too much.

"I don't worry when you're around," she said softly with a sweet giggle and Cerrus blinked. It sounded by far better coming from her. He blushed and thanked the Spirits that she didn't see that. "So…what happened to your wife?"

Cerrus tensed slightly and she could feel that before he forced himself to relax. It hurt…it really did. "She died," he replied quietly going with the most vague and easiest answer he could find.

"How?" she asked chancing that she could talk to him about this and not make him upset or angry. She took his right hand with hers and fiddled with lacing her fingers with his.

Cerrus sighed a little. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "She was on an op…I don't have clearance to know what it was."

"What was she like?" Tali asked and Cerrus, for the first time ever, answered freely.

"Her name was Anara," he stated, his voice sounding a little shaky at first. "she loved shotguns…just like you." Tali giggled and Cerrus found it strange that he was comfortable enough to talk about this with another female he liked as much as Anara. "She wanted nothing to do with me when I met her. I had to track her down and beg her to go out with me."

Tali couldn't picture Cerrus begging for anything. "You begged? Be serious," she laughed and Cerrus chuckled.

"I am," he replied as a chuckle rumbled through his throat. "I finally got her to go dinner with me and I married her not long after that." Tali could feel his right cheek on the side of her head. "On a mission she was all business…but at home...she was the best cook I'd ever met."

Tali was happy with the information he was sharing, but sensed his unease about the topic. "You miss her don't you?" she asked and Cerrus took in a deep breath.

"Every day," he answered honestly but didn't want to make this conversation turn into him wallowing in his own misery. He still loved Anara and always would but Tali was different than any other woman he'd met in a while. He decided to shift the topic away from the way it was going. "What about you? I know you're on your pilgrimage and you got wrapped up in this mess. What else? Tell me about your family."

Tali shrugged in his arms. "My mother died a few years ago and my father's an Admiral, serves on the admiralty board."

"Your fathers an Admiral?" he questioned, he wasn't an expert on the Quarians but he knew a few names.

Tali nodded. "Rael'Zorah."

Cerrus watched as she fiddled with his talons enjoying the feeling of her fingertips caressing his hand. "I don't know him," he said letting her do what she wanted with his hands. "Han'Gerrel we know, he's good in a fight," he stated and Tali wasn't surprised to learn the Turians were familiar with the heavy fleets commander. "What's your father like?"

"Duty oriented," she answered quickly then was quiet for a moment, she loved her father but he was more like a Commanding officer than he was a father to her. "He would hate you," she said and Cerrus laughed.

"I'm used to that. Anara's father hated me too," he stated and remembered the old Turian's glower when they first met. "Shepard calls me an 'acquired taste' and I'm inclined to agree."

"I don't think you are," she said simply. "You just don't make it easy for people to understand you, that's all." He didn't know what to say to that, he knew he was hard to read, nearly everyone told him that. Tali settled into him and closed her eyes. The floor wasn't terribly comfortable but he was.