Thane sighed and opened his eyes. Only a few hours had passed since Commander Shepard had swept in and out of his room on a whirlwind of confusion. After her departure, he'd fully intended on continuing to relive his memories of the time he'd spent with Irikah. Instead of sunset eyes, however, he saw a pair that was the deep green of the sea.
Commander Shepard's actions disturbed him more than he'd thought. He found himself reviewing all of the information he knew about her, all the extraneous facts he'd learned about her life and history. He even pulled up the first memory he had of her, the interview he'd seen when she'd first been made a spectre.
None of it had served to explain her actions to him any better.
He'd given up for now, pulling himself from his circular train of thoughts to stare bleakly at the Normandy's core. Boredom drove him to his feet; restlessness took him out of his room to prowl the rest of the ship, hungry for a distraction.
They were headed for Capek, where a factory was putting out mechs with tainted programming. Shepard had decided that they would have the time to shut down the factory. Miranda had objected to, yet another, detour from the main objective, but Shepard had countered with an interesting argument.
She'd waited patiently for Miranda to finish speaking, and then asked one simple question. "Why did you bring me back?" One hand on her hip, the other dangling at her side with her head cocked ever so slightly, she began with the first step that would tear Miranda's argument apart. As if she didn't know her accomplishments. As if her qualifications were less than stellar.
As if she had no clue.
Miranda had blinked, then blustered. "You're Commander Shepard!"
"Yes, I am." Said with calm confidence. Everyone in the room knew that, with those three words, she had acknowledged every trait Cerberus thought deserving of salvage – and dismissed it. "So what?"
"Wha-?" Miranda had been taken aback. "You're the first human spectre! The Hero of the Citadel! You've done things others have only dreamed of!"
"So has Garrus," Shepard had said quietly. "He did more for the people of Omega in the two years I was dead than I've ever done for any of the crews I served with for years. Jack has survived horrors I can only imagine. Grunt has a physiology and a biological history far outstripping us all. Tali's skill with tech is unmatched, even amongst the flotilla." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Do I need to continue?"
"I get the point, Shepard." Miranda growled.
"No, you don't. Or you wouldn't still be angry." She uncrossed her arms and began to talk, her hands waving about, punctuating her words. "It's my vision, Miranda. I've always seen things just a little differently, and that's what gives me an edge. Want to know what I see right now? A faulty factory putting out flawed mechs that see anything biological as an automatic threat. I see a factory with dead workers, endlessly pumping out death machines the longer it is active. I see computerized shipping manifests and unsuspecting buyers placing orders online. I see us going through the relay right now and coming back to find the galaxy decimated by a different set of death machines. An extremist view, I know." She held up a hand to forestall Miranda's argument. "But you didn't bring me back for my tactical abilities, or my history, or my physiology, or my skills. You brought me back for my vision, and it has been dialed straight into 'paranoid' since Akuze." She lowered her hand, giving Miranda leave to speak.
"I understand, Commander. We must care for the troubles at home before we go away, or there might not be a home to come back to."
Shepard nodded, "Exactly."
They left for Capek.
They would be almost halfway there now, still too early for Shepard to have decided whom she would be taking with her. Perhaps, if he asked, she would allow him to travel with her. Taking out a few hundred mechs sounded like a good idea right now.
"EDI?" Thane called, approaching the nearest holographic image.
"Yes, Sere Krios?"
"Would you be so kind as to tell me the location of Commander Shepard? I wish to speak with her."
"Commander Shepard is currently in her personal quarters" A pause. "She indicates that you may visit her. Voice patterns suggest she is curious about your visit."
"You have my thanks." Thane bowed respectfully to EDI's avatar and headed for the elevator. Behind him, it remained lit for a long moment before finally shutting off.
Thane knocked respectfully on the door once before waving his hand in front of the palm lock and entering the room. He paused just across the threshold, allowing his eyes to adjust. After the bright, sterile lights of the hallway, the relative gloom of Shepard's personal quarters came as a surprise.
Soft music played in the background, while the Commander sat at her desk to his right, working on her personal terminal. A picture of a dark-haired human male sat at her elbow, the wall beyond was decorated with medals acknowledging her achievements. Every spare inch of her desk not actively being used for work was covered in little paper animals. A few sat on the floor, and as Shepard turned to face him, her elbow knocked a few more off to join their brethren in the dust. She appeared not to notice.
"Thane," she said, lowering a datapad, "how can I help you?"
Thane folded his hands behind his back, glancing down briefly at the delicate creations littering her workspace. With every other area in her quarters so sterile, why was it that these crafts were allowed to spill unchecked across her desk? "We will be arriving at the factory tomorrow. If you have not already picked your crew, I would like to offer my services."
She blinked, "You want to help me shut down the factory?"
"Yes."
"Why?" The hand not resting on the desk flexed, her fingers spreading unnaturally wide in what Thane was coming to believe was an unconscious gesture.
He was taken aback. She wanted his reasons? None of his previous clients wished to know why he had accepted their commission, they were simply glad that he had.
"I was impressed with your desire to 'care for things at home' before we depart. It meshes well with my desire to make the galaxy brighter." He finally said, avoiding the truth of his death in her gaze.
She smiled slightly, cocking her head to the side. He'd never seen a human make that combination of gestures before.
"Really? That's good to hear. I don't want to spend this whole trip validating myself to everyone. For all that Miranda keeps claiming that Cerberus brought me back because I'm the only one that can do this, she spends a lot of time arguing with me about the how's and why's of my decisions." She pursed her lips. "Maybe she's testing me? She seemed really dissatisfied with the 'field test' they did after I woke up."
Why was she telling him this? It was the wrong sort of conversation to have with a subordinate. Still, it seemed like something that she had put a lot of thought behind. He knew that her assessment of Operative Lawson was incorrect. Should he say something? He did not want to overstep his bounds. Perhaps he should…he shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts. Irikah would have chastised him for not stepping in to help when he had the ability to do so.
"Operative Lawson is not attempting to undermine your authority, Commander," he said quietly. "Nor is she attempting to test you."
Shepard drummed her fingers on the table absently as she considered his words, the fingers of her other hand relaxed. "Then what is she trying to do?"
"She has no goal, Shepard. She is merely unaccustomed to not being in charge of whatever organization she is a part of. She had been trained to lead, probably from a young age, and cannot quite relinquish that power. She truly does believe that you are the only one who can have a hope of accomplishing this." Thane cast his eyes to the side, studying the shadows under her desk. Her eyes, lit by the blue light from the empty fish tank looked the exact shade the sea had been the day Irikah had been given to it. He hid from her eyes, unable to handle the truth he would see there, and he hid from the memories they evoked. He was good at hiding.
The drumming of her fingers stopped. "You think she is unhappy because she has been relegated to the role of follower?"
Thane shifted his eyes again, turning his head to the left to look out over her bedroom. She had a large bed for such a small woman, the benefits of being the Commander. "Not unhappy, merely unable to cope. For two years, she was in charge of you, now the reverse is true. She is unaccustomed to being wrong. Every time you make a decision contrary to what she would have done, she feels you are telling her she is incorrect."
It was Shepard's turn to be taken aback. "That's a lot of information, Krios. She told you all that?"
Thane felt his eyes drawn back to her against his will. She thought Operative Lawson spoke to him of her troubles? "Of course not, Commander. Operative Lawson is a highly private individual and mixes with the crew even less often than you do."
"If she is so private, how do you know what she is thinking?" She leaned back in her chair, adopting a teasing tone, one of her elbows flaring out to the side expressively. "Making friends, Krios? Just keep the gymnastics behind doors. And I don't want to catch you sucking face in the hallway."
Thane rumbled his amusement, though he kept his face bland, " 'Sucking face', Shepard? How crude. I assure you, I would never be so clumsy in my affections."
She chuckled, apparently delighted with his response. "I can't imagine that you would," she mumbled under her breath, perhaps hoping that he wouldn't hear her.
Too bad for her drell had better hearing than she thought, coupled with his training, and he rarely missed anything. "I am sorry, Commander, what did you say?" Let her keep some illusions.
"Nothing, nothing." She said hurriedly, waving a hand in the air. "So, you want to come with me for the factory run? You're welcome to. Any preference for our third?"
Thane wondered if she allowed all her squad mates to choose her team. "I'm sure whomever you pick would be appropriate," he demurred.
"Hmm, I'm sure." She echoed, a smile on her face. "Was there anything else?"
He got the feeling that his was a genuine inquiry and not a dismissal. "No, thank you, Shepard. I look forward to serving with you tomorrow." He bowed quietly to her, and left.
ooOO00OOoo
Thane held his breath as he lined up the shot, slowly exhaling as he pulled the trigger, the rifle-rock steady in his hands. A soft hiss of displaced air, the clang of metal on metal, and one of the mechs was down, sparks arching from the hole he had punched in its 'face' with the bullet.
He withdrew to reload, shots ricocheting off the edge of the container he was perched on. A flurry of shots, and the crackle of Shepard's incinerate, and the mechs redirected their attention to the two squat mates he had left below.
He emerged again with his rifle. Hold, track, squeeze, release, and another mech was down. As there was a pause in the flood of mechs, Shepard sent Grunt ahead, nodding at Thane in a gesture he took to mean 'back Grunt up'. He followed in the young krogan's wake, clearing out the mechs he failed to disable in his headlong charges.
The stream of oncoming mechs began to thicken again, and Shepard reeled Grunt in before they became separated. Grunt wasn't happy, but it was obvious to Thane that Shepard was a more than competent battlefield commander. She let Grunt lead, allowing the tank-like krogan to take the brunt of the fire, while she and Thane took out mechs with pinpoint accuracy. When he tired, his regeneration tasked almost to the max, she planted him behind a crate to recover, pinning him there with a single look.
In mere minutes Grunt was up again, pushing forward with a cry of rage. They never gained ground unless Grunt was leading, a move that was calculated to boost his morale and confidence. Grunt responded positively to the gesture, falling back willingly when she called, sure in the knowledge that he would soon be back in the thick of things.
Thane for his part would scout ahead, peering as far down the crates as he could. Often, he would clear out enemies on the far side of a blind corner by simply leaping atop the stack in question and pointing his gun down. Mechs looked up even less than sapient species.
Half an hour later, and they were through. A simple press of a button, and the mission was complete.
"Well done, gents!" Shepard said cheerfully, stepping back out of the room. "Now all we have to do is get out of here."
The walk back took almost as long as the fight forward had. Shepard and Grunt stopped by each destroyed mech, stripping it of weapons and valuable parts. Shepard pulled out an oversized mesh bag from her pocket, and the two of them gleefully stuffed it full of the salvaged parts. Thane watched for a while, bemused, before heading off on his own. At one point the path had diverged, and he'd seen a package of Element Zero. Retrieving it, he approached Shepard and solemnly passed it over.
"Eezo!" She said, all but pouncing on him. "Now I can upgrade Jack's biotic amp!" She looked at him with a genuine smile, and he felt his neck ridges flush. She was too busy cooing over the eezo to notice, however. "Thanks, Krios."
Thane merely nodded and followed the other two back to the Normandy. Bad enough that she did things he couldn't predict, but now she was eliciting responses from him that he didn't understand.
ooOO00OOoo
Shepard was still gloating over the spoils they'd acquired when Kelly caught her attention from across the CIC.
"Commander Shepard?"
"Yes, Kelly?" Shepard looked up from where she was rooting around in the bag.
"You have unread messages at your private terminal."
Shepard resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She always had unread messages. For a dead woman, she sure got a lot of mail. "Who is it from?" she asked, still moving towards the Armory. Jacob would help her sort through it all.
"Councilor Anderson." Kelly told her sympathetically. Since her return two months ago, he'd sent Shepard half a dozen messages, each more demanding than the last. He wanted her to answer some questions as to where she'd been the last two years.
"Alright." Shepard said, sighting gustily, before she disappeared into the Armory. She was back in a few moments, approaching the galaxy map with a rueful smile on her face. "I suppose I can't run anymore."
"No, ma'am," Kelly said, smothering a laugh. For all her courage in battle, Commander Shepard was a bit of a wuss when it came to dealing with interpersonal issues.
She set a course for the Citadel and disappeared back into the armory, purposefully forgetting to read Councilor Anderson's latest message.
ooOO00OOoo
Author's Note: I figured we could all use a little bit of Thane goodness by now.