"How're you, Doctor T'Soni?"
Though she answered the soldier's question with a simple, "I am well, Lieutenant Tompkins," the truth was far more complicated. Under ordinary circumstances, she would have been thrilled to be on Mars. The archives there were probably the best-preserved source of information on the protheans remaining in the galaxy, and to be granted access to them was an incredible privilege. These, however, were anything but ordinary circumstances.
The six months since Shepard turned herself in to the Alliance hadn't been agonizing in the way that the two years after her death were. Liara's intelligence sources have let her know that her love is safe and well treated, but also that she isn't being allowed to do anything useful. Ashara would be going crazy under those conditions, and to be unable to be with her, to provide whatever comfort she could, pained Liara deeply.
It hurt too how little time she and Shepard had had together since they rekindled their relationship. A night after Hagalaz, a night after the Collector base, a few brief calls, and then they were separated again. Those moments had been so good, their renewed love so powerful, but now she was worried again, concerned about the effects of another long separation after so brief a reunion.
She wanted to hold Ashara again so badly that it hurt sometimes. The heat of Ashara's skin under her fingers, the texture of her hair, the strength of her voice: those were the things that filled Liara's dreams, at least the good ones. But even though Ashara felt so close, Liara couldn't find a way to even speak to her. The Alliance wasn't allowing Shepard to receive calls from outside parties, and while Liara suspected she could bypass their security, it wouldn't be wise. Not only could it publicize her identity as the Shadow Broker, there was a risk it would further complicate her lover's precarious legal situation. Visiting would be even worse, costing Liara time she didn't have even if she could get the clearance.
Knowing that didn't make the urge go away. Every day she'd had to fight it, and as best she could, she'd buried herself in the work. She attempted to make herself busy enough to forget her loneliness and her fear that Shepard will be angry at her for abandoning the Specter in her captivity.
Nor was the political situation providing a balm for her anxiety. Shepard's surrender had been in vain. While there were exceptions such as Admiral Hackett, the Alliance had seemingly decided to ignore her warnings. Nor had the asari or salarians done much more; most of the galaxy lay utterly unready for what was coming.
There were bright spots. Garrus had made a little progress with the turians, and Wrex's work unifying the krogan was admirable. Despite that, Liara couldn't escape the feeling that they were grossly unprepared. Most ominous of all though was the silence coming from batarian space. None of her agents there had reported in for over a week and she dreaded the day that the reason for that became evident to everyone.
That fear had lent urgency to what might otherwise have been a pleasurable exploration of the archives. Rather than indulge her curiosity about the prothean economy or the effects of conquest on the art of their subject peoples, she and the other researchers had been searching tirelessly for something, anything, that could provide an edge when the Reapers came.
At least their search may not have been fruitless. In the last few days, they had started to recover the plans for a device, an energy weapon on a scale she'd never seen before. Liara wasn't sure quite what it was or how it worked, but it was a start. Indeed, she really should stop fretting and start applying herself to the problem of extracting the remaining data.
Turning over various prothean data storage protocols in her mind, she did not immediate register that none of her colleagues had spoken in minutes. It was only when, in the distance, she heard a voice coming from the vid screen in the longue that she realized something was wrong.
"…not sure what it is that I'm looking at, but it's clearly on a scale unlike anything…"
Chilly fingers of fear gripped her and she dashed into the room to find her co-workers gathered around a news program that looked as if it was being broadcast straight from her nightmares. The report was from Earth, but the images seemed more like the memories of the prothean extinction she had seen in Ashara's mind over two years ago. Massive black shapes were descending out of the sky, and a whole city was on fire, chaos and death saturating every frame.
The other researchers were in shock, some sobbing, others holding each other or babbling incoherent prayers and protests against the unfolding horror. One of them, a pretty young technician named Lisa was vomiting in a corner. Liara understood the impulse. Her legs felt weak, her stomach tying itself into a knot. She had been dreading this day, but the reality was even more nauseating than she could have expected. The target only made it worse: this was Ashara's people's homeworld, and her lover was down there somewhere right in the middle of the attack.
And that was one of the many reasons she couldn't curl up into a ball and hide. Taking a deep breath, her voice found a calm she didn't feel inside and she tried to think about what Shepard would say if she was there. "Listen to me." Her words seemed to break the spell in the room. "I know that all of you are frightened. I'm frightened as well. But we cannot give in to that now. Right here, we may have the key to stopping this atrocity and if we do not extract that information before this facility is attacked, then we will be responsible for what happens next."
Thankfully, the researchers began to come back to life. Pulling themselves together as best they could, they hurried back to their duties. Most of them were going to the archives, but Liara had a different destination in mind. Racing to her quarters, she began preparing her communications equipment for transport. With the Reapers here, the galaxy would need the Shadow Broker more than ever. Ashara would need… If she was even alive. The scenes from Earth… No, she couldn't think about that right now. Shepard was capable of taking care of herself and Liara had to be ready to help her.
She had left her room searching for a hand-cart to help move her things when the alarm sounded. Her first thought was that the Reapers had arrived on Mars already, and she started making her way towards the archives looking for the intruders. As she turned a corner however, she was confronted instead by a more mundane enemy, nearly running smack into two armored Cerberus troopers storming through the hallways.
The lead soldier leveled his Harrier at her, but she raised her hand, trapping him in a stasis field before he could pull the trigger. His partner tried to maneuver around the frozen man, but that gave her time to duck back behind the corner and draw the Predator she had slipped into her pocket minutes earlier. The trooper was evidently surprised to find her combat capable because he ran straight into her gun and before he knew what hit him, she pumped two bullets into his head, his corpse crumpling to the ground at her feet. Before the stasis field could expire, she returned to it's prisoner, emptying the rest of her clip into him.
In the distance, she heard the sounds of more Cerberus forces coming her way, drawn by the sounds of gunfire, and she dashed in the opposite direction. She didn't know how many there were and she had to get a handle on the situation. What happened to base security? How could Cerberus have gotten inside the facility so quickly? She started making her way towards the elevator leading to the outside. Maybe there were answers there.
She was perhaps halfway to the lift when she saw the Centurion. The Cerberus officer had his back to her, talking on his comm, and before he could turn around, she nailed him with a stasis field. He went down harder than the earlier troopers, his shields meaning that she required the entire clip before she was sure he was dead.
Even as she was reloading, a bullet impacted perhaps two feet above her head, ricocheting off of a pipe. Turning, she had only just seen the two Cerberus soldiers entering the room before was she staggering backwards, the follow-up burst slamming hard into her barriers. They held, but only barely, and she ran, diving into a vent before the troopers could get any more shots off.
The ventilation systems on the base were a maze, a narrow series of shafts twisting and turning confusingly; an excellent place to lose pursuit. She crawled through them rapidly, giving herself a chance to recover her biotic strength before she had to deal with her attackers. They had decided to follow her, climbing in after the asari, but in there they were at a disadvantage, their armor slowing them down. Bullets clanged off of walls as they tried compensating for their encumbrance with firepower, but she was too far ahead, the shots not coming close as she made her way to an exit.
When they finally caught up, she was waiting. A singularity flew from her hand, and the Cerberus troopers went straight from the vents into the air, floating helplessly, easy marks for her first shots. She let the singularity fade, and the two dropped to the ground, wounded but perhaps still alive. Calmly, she put two additional bullets into each of them, not willing to leave anything to chance. Despite the danger, she felt oddly calm. The entire galaxy was falling apart right then, and to be fighting instead of just waiting for doom to arrive gave her a small feeling of control.
And then she heard it. First, a sound of heavy footsteps, and even as Liara turned, a voice. Her voice. "Easy there, Lieutenant. She's with us."
She was telling a large marine to lower his rifle, but right then, neither the unknown soldier nor the familiar face of Ashley Williams held Liara's attention because standing between them was the woman she wanted to see more than anything else in the galaxy.
"Shepard! Thank the Goddess you're alive!"
"You too, Liara." Ashara's voice was gentle, but the relief in her voice was clear, a mirror of Liara's own. As the asari struggled to figure out how she should react, Shepard came up to her, clasping her hands. Even through their gloves, the gesture was comforting, physical pressure imparting a strength she badly needed under the circumstances.
"I was so worried when the reports came in. I'm… sorry about Earth." And she was a little bit sorry for how she felt as well, because as dark as things were right then, as perilous as life had become for all of them, she couldn't help but feel a little burst of happiness. However improbable it may have been, she believed that with Ashara by her side, they would make it.