CHAPTER 10

CITADEL

THE CITADEL TOWER

The hearing had just wrapped up and the human dignitaries were not pleased with the results. Saren wasn't charged and the Council didn't believe the testimony by Shepard and Neo.

Now Shepard, Neo, Kaiden, Ashley, Anderson, and Udina formed a circle talking about their next plans, because nobody said that they were giving up. Part of the agreement was to find a new strategy to taking down Saren and exposing whatever plans he has with the geth. They also agreed to find that C-Sec officer, Garrus. It would seem he had something and that was going to be their obvious first lead.

Anderson and Udina left to go back to the human Embassy while Shepard, Neo, Kaiden, and Ashley walked into the elevator. Neo tells Shepard. "Commander. I need to get back to the Normandy. Remember those visions when I tuned into your dreams when you were out cold?"

Shepard responds. "I remember the visions not making sense. What about it?"

"Well, I need to locate someone who could decipher what the visions mean." Neo said. "Not to mention that I have some items coming here from Earth."

"All right." Shepard said. "See you back on the Normandy, but how much longer do you plan on staying with us?"

Neo just smirked and answered. "Trying to get rid of me so quickly? Actually, that will be determined once I report back to headquarters." After he finished what he had to say, he walks away.

"Now we look for Harken." Kaiden said. "Where did Udina say he was?"

"He said some place called Chora's Den." Ashley answered. "This should be interesting."

Urdnot Wrex arrived at Chora's Den. It was strange, because at first he saw two turians standing over at the other side of the catwalk. They were checking out each person that entered the pathway and for some reason they didn't bat an eye when they saw the battle harden krogan. Wrex knew what these turians were up to. He thought to himself they weren't guards, looks like hired muscle waiting for someone. He was relieved that he wasn't the one they were after, but disappointed that there was no chance for a fight.

Before coming to Chora's Den, Wrex did a little research. He already knew about Saren swaying Fist away from the Shadow Broker, but what he learned was that a quarian female arrived on the Citadel a few hours ago and she had information on Saren. She was also in some sort of trouble and she wanted protection, she was willing to trade the information for a safe place to hide so she went to see Fist. The only problem was that she didn't know that Fist now worked for Saren. Wrex wondered how he was going to use this information.

Wrex walked inside and what he got was an eyeful of asari and a few human women dancing on a circular stage above the bar, dressed in almost revealing clothing. All the paying customers were male, of course. The dancers catered to the men with private dances and in some cases, companionship. He wasn't interested in at the moment; he wanted to check the place out. There was no way he was going to just take Fist out in the open so the only thing he can do right now is survey the building.

Before Wrex could sit down, another krogan tapped him on the back. The other krogan was a bouncer. "I want to let you know that you are being asked to leave."

Wrex just turned around and stared coldly at the krogan bouncer. "For what?"

"My boss knows who you are, Urdnot Wrex." The bouncer said. "Bounty hunters are not welcome here."

"Oh, I see." Wrex said. "Fist doesn't have the quad to tell me himself so he lets his pet krogan lose on me!" Wrex shouted. "Where's Fist! I'll smash him!"

"You better go before C-Sec gets here." The human redhead female bartender said and gave Wrex a certain look as if she knew they were coming by second nature. Wrex just shrugged to the suggestion and calmly states. "Fine, but this ain't over yet." He walks out of the bar nearly knocking over a couple of humans coming in. He wanted to shout at them, but the one human male he looks familiar he thought to himself. As soon as he leaves, the two turians that were standing there were gone. When he looked around the corner, there were two turian bodies soaking in a pool of blue blood.

Before Wrex could acknowledged who did the killing, two C-Sec officers came around the corner and told him to freeze. Wrex knew he didn't kill the turians, but since he was at the scene of a crime he knew he was going to have to go to C-Sec offices for questioning.

Two hours earlier.

Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya entered the Presidium wards, hoping to get an audience with the human Ambassador and hopefully talk to the humans that had a lot to do with the beacon. She didn't want to attract more attention to herself than she already did since quarians rarely ventured out into Citadel space and she stuck out. Not to mention that the only times when quarians and even krogan we're on the Citadel was during the acceptance of the Systems Alliance into Citadel space. Now when a quarian visits the Citadel, it's usually for buying new equipment or sheer curiosity.

Tali also had to wait for the human delegates to get back, because she also found out that they had already left for Saren's hearing. Keelah. If I were only faster this could've been useful. She thinks about her current situation.

Tali must've been on the right path, because she was spotted by a turian. The turian drew its sidearm and open fired on the girl. She quickly dodged out of the way and ducked for cover behind a large square holding trees. She pulls out her newly acquired shotgun, which was given to her by a friendly soldier back on Eden Prime.

"Come on out, suit rat!" The turian yelled approaching her cover while aiming his pistol at his intended target. "Your humans can't help you now!" The turian swung around to catch the quarian, but she wasn't there.

Then Tali's voice came from behind the turian. "A gift from the suit rat!" The turian attempts to spin around, but Tali pumps a round into the turian's chest. However, the turian manages to squeeze off a round before he hits the floor, dead.

Tali knew she had to leave, so she ran across the presidium. She couldn't get to the embassy from there because of those agents blocking her path so she explores new options to get into the human Embassy. As she pondered ideas after another, she realized the sharp pain on her thigh. That turian managed to put a round in her body and time is of the essence, because she was hit and needed medical aid. She didn't know where the nearest hospital is located and she was on the run so calling an ambulance is out of the question. She thinks to herself what if whoever is after me got here first.

Tali used a clamp seal stop the bleeding, but she knew she can't just simply apply medi-gel and just walk it off, especially due to her immune system. She activated her Omni-tool and asked for the nearest location of a medical facility. She found a clinic up in the wards, ran by a Dr. Chloe Michel, and Tali will have to risk the trip and hopefully nobody follows her again.

Dr. Chloe Michel hoped that Garrus would show up, but only three humans showed when she was being threatened by some thugs. When the thugs saw the two men and the one woman, it became a hostage situation. She was greatly relieved when out of the corner, Garrus pulled out his pistol and shot the lead thug in the head. Dr. Michel ran away towards Garrus and he protected her from the remaining thugs.

After the thugs were properly dealt with, Garrus approached the humans wearing armor. Garrus recognize the one human and said. "Perfect timing, Shepard. Gave me a clear shot at that bastard."

"What were you thinking?" Shepard responds. "You could've hit the hostage."

"There wasn't time to think." Garrus defended himself. "I just reacted. I didn't mean to… Dr. Michel? Are you hurt?"

Dr. Michel took a deep breath. "No. I'm okay. Thanks to you. All of you."

"I know those men threatened you." Shepard said. "But if you tell us who they work for, we can protect you."

"They worked for Fist." Dr. Michel confessed, crossing her hands. "They wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the quarian."

Garrus perked up and said. "She must be able to link Saren and the geth. There's no way the Council can ignore this."

Then Shepard states. "I also saw a krogan bounty hunter earlier at Chora's Den. He was insisting on finding Fist. Where can we find him?"

"He was taken into custody, for making threats at Chora's Den." Garrus said.

"Let's go pick him up." Shepard said.

Neo examined the five 'packages' that came from Earth with satisfaction. He opens the first three crates, each contained a large tank-like pod. He ordered the crewmen to assemble the three pods. He wanted to break out the other two crates, but he wanted to wait…especially when he wanted Shepard and the other crew to see what he ordered.

Neo proceeded to sit in front of a console in the Normandy's cargo hold. He was compiling a large list of experts, professors, and doctors. All are experts on protheans, but only would have that special touch they need for the upcoming mission.

Ashley Williams walked in and asked. "What are you doing?

"Remember when I said we needed a prothean expert?" Neo asked and Ashley nodded. "Well, this is a list of all specialists in the field of archeology. What brings you back here?"

"Shepard recruited the turian, Garrus." Ashley said. "I'm going to hang back here until they get back."

Neo looks at his Omni-tool and said. "I thought I'd let you know that Shepard just added a new team player. A krogan named Urdnot Wrex, so I think the Lieutenant will be returning as well." Neo noticed the slight disgust in Ashley's face. "It seems you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder when it comes to aliens. Is there a problem?"

"No…I mean, I guess." Ashley said.

"Care to talk about it?" Neo asked.

"I could." Ashley replied. "But it would be anything that you wouldn't know already."

"Fine." Neo said. "Can you help me out?"

"With one thing." Neo said. "Can you run a message to Ambassador Udina when I pull up a file?"

Ashley hesitated, but then said. "Alright."

Neo composed the list and ran it through the program. Then he leans back and allows the chair's wire to slither up behind him. The wire connected to his node on the back of his head.

Neo opens his eyes and he's in a solid white room with only a pane of glass in front of him. The glass had computerized words saying: BEGIN SEARCH. Neo touched the glass and a large list of profiles showed before him. He typed in the key words of prothean experts. One name showed up as highly qualified expert he picked the name on the top of the list and he can only look and nod approvingly.

Neo presses his two fingers to his neck and talks. "Williams. I found an expert. I'll send the dossier in a minute." He hangs up and looks at the image of an asari with the name below, Dr. Liara T'Soni

It had been a full day for Shepard's squad. They successfully recruited Urdnot Wrex, but then his memory was jogged when he remembered Shepard from the battle of Torfan. He showed Shepard the armor he was paid in and they briefly talked about the battle like old comrades. They all agreed to take Fist out and after the deed was done, they had to rescue the female quarian. She didn't realize that she walked right into a trap.

The quarian female met some random turian in the alleyway behind Chora's Den. She wanted to speak to the Shadow Broker himself, but she didn't realize the Broker never showed his face in public. When the turian thug turned on her, that's when Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex jumped in to her rescue. She told Shepard that her name was Tali'Zorah and she explained about the geth memory core she had on her and she originally tried to go to the human Embassy, but she kept getting delayed by unknown number of hired muscle.

The four came to the human Embassy, this time without harm. When they stood while Ambassador Udina back was turned, he just ranted on as usual. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many…" Udina turns around and saw Tali. "Oh, a quarian. What brings her here? Is she in trouble?" It was an open secret that Udina was part of a xenophobic community of humans that did not like the quarians present in Alliance space and he made it clear since his days as a senator.

"Making your day, Ambassador." Shepard said. "She has information linking Saren to the geth.

"Really?" Udina said. "Maybe you better start at the beginning, Miss…?"

"My name is Tali." She said. "Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"We don't see many quarians venture here on the Citadel during their pilgrimage." Udina said. "Why did you leave Alliance space?"

"I was on pilgrimage on Eden Prime." Tali said. "I was working for a mining company, when the geth attacked. Naturally I had been curious about the geth activity since they drove our people off our homeworld and haven't been seen venturing beyond the Veil. I was scared, but curious. I was hiding in Apache Hills after my ship was shot down. When a small patrol of geth came around, I hid and waited till one was separated from the group. Then I disabled the unit and took its memory core. Then an Alliance patrol came and they helped me back to a nearest settlement. There I booked passage on a shuttle and came here to the Citadel since I found out about you, Shepard and the team that tried to link Saren to the geth."

"I thought the geth fried their core when damaged." Anderson also added. "Some kind of defense mechanism."

"How did you preserve the memory core?" Shepard asked.

"My people created the geth." Tali said. "If you're quick, careful, and lucky small caches of data can be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged something from its audio banks."

Tali played the audio recording and the voice sounded familiar. "Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

Anderson eyes widened. "That's Saren's voice. This proves he was involved in the attack."

Tali interrupted. "Wait there's more. Saren wasn't working alone."

Tali played Saren's recorded voice again and the other voice said. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." The last voice was feminine, yet sinister.

"I don't recognize that voice." Udina said. "The one talking about the Reapers."

They all continue discussing about what they had just heard and came to conclusion that this recording from Tali must be heard by the Council. Tali insisted on coming along with Shepard and his crew, so he eventually agreed since he did see her take care of herself. Not to mention that she was tech expert and engineer. It couldn't hurt to have another on board the Normandy.

Tali was about to leave with Shepard, when she was stopped by Udina. "Excuse me, Miss Zorah. I just want to thank you for this piece of information."

"No problem." Tali said. "Considering that who helped you out was an interstellar species of hobos."

Tali walk off and Udina was a little stunned, but remembered referring to the quarians as such a people. He just shrugs off the subtle reminder and prepares for another meeting with the Council.

A/N: This was a tough chapter for some reason, but important to the plot. I'll do my best to keep up the work.