Where we've been so far: Ambassador Udina has just threatened to end the careers of the Eden Prime ground team, much to Captain Anderson's indignation.
"Wow," Ashley Williams whispered under her breath as she and Alenko approached the balcony in Udina's office. "What a dingface. He sure does have a nice view, though." From the railing, she could just discern the ring of the Presidium. Ashley had spent most of her service time boots on the ground, so when Joker had announced the Normandy's docking approach, she'd hurried to the cockpit. The pilot's smile, show of stretching his fingers for the haptic maneuvering controls, and "Watch this, sister..." convinced her that he liked having an audience. What drew Ashley's eye was not the graceful arc of the ship's approach, carefully calibrated to the Citadel's rotation, but station's sheer size.
From space, the Citadel looked like an immense satellite, with five arrays slightly curved in a broken cylinder attached to this torus. With a burst of vertigo, she saw the central lake of the Presidium glistening below, surrounded with evenly spaced trees and elevated walkways crisscrossing to either side. Shops and offices peeked out of the opposite wall, and a fake blue sky beamed above. Maybe, she thought, Eden Prime's sky had been just that shade, before. All she could remember of the planet now was the red mud she'd spent the last day prying out of every crevice of the squad's armor-still faintly visible in her fingernails, she now noticed-and that everyone she had danced with, laughed with, drunk with, and done endless perimeter sweeps with was dead, some of them as husks dead twice over. Donkey was an actual ass sometimes, especially at the bar, but he when he wasn't drunk he saw her skills as a solider first and her family legacy second. He'd died covering her retreat so she and the comm man, Rasputin, could call for help.
Williams felt a moment of sinking dread when she realized a minute had passed without Alenko replying to her colorful assessment of the jerk Udina. Her sisters would be wide-eyed and curious about working with a biotic. She could hear their questions in the weekly family call now: is he blue tinged like an Asari? Can he lift things with his mind? Can you tell if you kiss him? Observing him, she realized she didn't know much about the man off the battlefield except that he had long sideburns and an extraordinary posterior whose firmness she was currently resisting the urge to test. And he clearly hadn't heard a word she said; Alenko was raptly watching the Commander, who had staked out her own position away from them to gaze into the distance.
"You, uh, think the Commander's ok?" she asked, following what she guessed were Alenko's thoughts. "Lieutenant?" she wasn't sure he had heard her this time, either.
"Um," Alenko was flustered and hastily added, "Honestly, Chief, I don't know. I thought maybe at the docks-" he trailed off. "But if Udina raked me over the coals like that, especially that bit about Mindoir-" he shook his head. A rule follower, Ashley realized: justice, honor, and all that. She'd learned that you don't get what you deserve, but in rare cases, you can try to make sure others do. It was just too bad that sander at the docks had survived. Shepard had the right idea there.
"That was bait. And Shepard's too smart to take it. I bet Udina'd like nothing more than to have her sock him and get dumped from the Alliance on dishonorable discharge." Williams had tried to sound casual, but an edge of bitterness escaped her. She hated politicians as a rule, and meeting Udina certainly cemented she was right.
"Huh. You sound like, well," Alenko paused and studied her, "like you've dealt with that before."
Williams returned the favor and took a good look at Alenko, whose open face and brown eyes revealed only concern and quiet intensity. He obviously didn't know about her family. She tucked a loose bang behind her ear. Given the years of dead-end assignments she'd faced, Williams forgot sometimes that her Grandfather's name wasn't branded on her forehead or in her service record. She frowned, "Something like that, yeah." The question she saw forming on Alenko's lips mercifully died away as Shepard joined them, her face impassive. Williams let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding.
"Unless either of you fancies waiting around for Udina to notice we're still here," Shepard glanced up at them both, and Williams mouthed a *hell, no,* "we have orders to do basic diplomatic liaising with the species here on the Citadel."
"You are effing kidding me, right, Commander? We have to go chat up more politicians like that one?" Williams used a select finger to indicate Udina. "I'd rather jump in the lake and get wet 'n' sandy."
Alenko put his hand to his chin like a damn professor. "What's the objective of these orders, Commander?"
Williams watched Shepard calculating her response. They had fought together, though, and honesty won out. "Partly Anderson running interference, so we don't get shipped out today. But unofficially, the Captain believes if Saren was involved in Eden Prime, some of the officials around here have to have intel on it. And he also thinks they might be more sympathetic to the ground team, personally affected by the fight, than they would be to Udina, or, for reasons he won't tell me, to himself."
"At least some of those reasons seem pretty obvious, Commander," Alenko said.
"Like being a dumbass, just say it, Lieutenant," Williams didn't have time for pansy footing around. Alenko sighed. "You can give me orders, ma'am, but I don't know anything about protocol. I'm not an officer like your fancy selves, in case you haven't noticed," Williams protested with a mock salute. The last thing she wanted to do today was play nice with a bunch of aliens. A drink, a dance, and a gun to shoot and clean were all she needed, though she wouldn't say no to a little more than a dance, either.
"Just don't blow anything up, and you'll be fine. But, since you don't have the training, let's divvy things up this way. Williams, you take..." Shepard gestured to a small map on her omni-tool interface, "the head of C-Sec and Barla Von's information brokerage."
"Aye-aye, Commander. Spikes and 'mallows coming up." Williams regretted her quip under Shepard's uncomfortably long stare. The guys and gals on Eden Prime would have roared-impromptu nicknames for aliens like Turians and Volus was a grunt specialty.
"Alenko," Shepard continued, "You do have basic diplomatic training," she had turned the phrase up into a question, and he nodded, "so I want you to take the Elcor and Volus office and the Salarians. That leaves me with the Turians, Asari, and," she heaved a long sigh, "the Hanar."
"This one is glad not to be of service there," Williams sympathized with her best false officiousness. Again Shepard's stare was heavy. "Okay, okay. But don't tell me that sigh was because you're looking forward to it."
"No Chief, I can't say I am. Shooting, dodging, watching friends die, that's what I'm good at." Williams winced to hear Shepard again so matter of factly summarize their last mission. "But orders are orders. Meet and greet, introduce yourselves, see if you can pick up on interests or needs. We'll rendezvous to debrief and hit the second half of our orders in the embassy lobby at 1800."
Williams was headed over to Executor Pallin's C-Sec office on the side of the non-Council races, and Alenko and Shepard had decided to start in the other wing. Walking beside her was like fighting beside her; Her movements were powerful but acrobatic, as when she'd take three steps on a one legged spring. She felt dangerous, efficient, and as they silently progressed, cold, too cold. Kaidan was still embarrassed from their first conversation, not to mention the nickname she had let slip. He rubbed a side burn. He had to apologize for being unprofessional, but she had made an art of not giving him an opening, keeping her face set forward and avoiding conversation. "Commander, is-" he tried, and without thinking about it, lightly laid a hand on her forearm.
She froze instantly, and he immediately feared she might break his hand or, from the charge he felt building, biotically slam him through the wall. "Yes, Lieutenant?" she spoke with the same quiet voice she had given Udina. It twisted his insides. Her green eyes were hard, brows furrowed.
"I, uh," he retreated quickly from his plan, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to trade the Asari for the Salarians?" He finished with a weak smile.
As her eyes bored into his, his feet rooted to the floor. A bead of sweat trickled down the back of his neck.
Finally she bristled in a voice so low only he could hear, "Lieutenant Commander Alenko," the formality hit him squarely, "No. I will not." Her words hung in the air between them. "Salarian females are statistically rare; aside from the Dalatrass, you won't find many here. The males in the delegation will respond better to you. Just as I will do better than you with the Asari."
Kaidan found that last phrase devastatingly ambiguous. They carried on in silence. The biotic strength she kept in reserve, that could faintly detect even walking at her side, and that he had felt ready to course through her arm, that he had watched flow around her in action intoxicated him. He hadn't felt a woman's aura next to him like that, well, since Rahna. Oppressed by the weight of memories and Shepard's ire, it was a relief to enter the Elcor and Volus office.
He just caught a strange garble from the Elcor, a sturdy quadruped species, before his earpiece translator kicked in. "Pleasant greeting," the Elcor seated at a desk said, "It is always good to meet one of your species, Human. I am Calyn, Elcor Ambassador. What can I do for you today?"
"Good to meet you, too, Calyn. Lieutenant Commander Alenko of the Alliance Military." Kaidan was so preoccupied with Shepard he had forgotten to rehearse to himself a reasonable line for the strange mission he'd been given. When in doubt, he thought, people like to talk about themselves. "We humans are a curious species. Can you tell me about your history and culture?"
The Volus broke in, "I don't *breath* know why you bother, *breath* Calyn. Like all ther humans, *breath* this one clearly doesn't care *breath* about us."
"Disappointed rebuke: You don't really believe that, and if you do, I feel bad for you. Genuine enthusiasm: I always enjoy telling about the Elcor."
As the Elcor droned on in a monotone and with scents his Human nose couldn't appreciate, Kaidan drifted to Shepard. He needed to screw his head on straight and, what was it she had said? He needed to do his job. Kaidan was about to ask about Saren directly when his boots vibrated with the footfalls of another Elcor behind him.
"Great despair: Ambassador Calyn, I need your help."
"Ambassador," Kaidan inserted and remembered to bow, "Thank you for sharing with me. Unless I can be of assistance, I'll let you return to your duties." The Elcor dipped a massive head in return.
The second Elcor considered Kaidan. "Hopeful request: Human, you are unknown to the Citadel, yes? Would you help me? Bashful admission: I have been betrayed and need someone to speak with Sha'ira. Enraged statement: She has banned me from her premises and won't return my messages."
"Well, maybe I can talk to, uh, this Sha'ira if I run across her," Kaidan had offered before he really had thought through the consequences.
"Brightened response: Thank you, Human. I hope you do. Fallen consideration: Though not much can help now."