Chapter 11

The Mako thundered down the skyway, Kaidan manning the cannon, blasting at armatures, while Shepard drove aggressively, crushing the smaller geth beneath the enormous tires. As they motored on, Tali caught Shepard's attention. "Shepard, I'm picking up radio transmissions. They're close."

"Put them on the speakers," Shepard ordered.

Tali pressed a button and the static-filled message flared to life. "Any sign of movement? Lizbeth could still be in there!" the response was unheard, but it clearly displeased her. "She's my daughter! I'll wait as long as I have to!"

"Sounds like it's ExoGeni staff," Shepard said. "Probably holed up somewhere outside the tower. If we're lucky, we'll encounter them."

Shortly thereafter, they entered a covered area, and the voice on the radio spoke up again. "We've got movement…some kind of vehicle. Not the geth."

"If they've got a visual, we must be close…ha! Got you!" Tali exclaimed. "Right over there, Shepard! That ramp down. That's where the signal's from."

The three got out of the Mako and headed cautiously down the ramp Tali had indicated. A number of human guards, the ExoGeni logo emblazoned on their armor, stood at barricades, but they made no effort to challenge them.

A thin man, Chinese like Fai Dan and dressed in a scientist's outfit, was less at ease, though. "That's close enough!" he squealed.

"Relax, Jeong," an older woman said, her voice familiar from the radio. "They're obviously not geth."

"Get back, Juliana!" he snapped before turning to Shepard. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Commander Shepard. We're here to remove your geth problem," Shepard said sarcastically.

"You see? You worry too much," the woman, Juliana, said.

"And you trust too easily, Juliana!" Jeong retorted, casting an uneasy glance at Tali.

"I'm just glad to see a friendly face. I thought we were the only humans left on this planet," Juliana said dryly.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Fai Dan and some of the members of Zhu's Hope are still alive. You didn't try to contact them?"

Juliana stared at Jeong, shock and anger on her face. "I thought you said they were all dead!"

"I said they were probably all dead," Jeong corrected.

"Not dead, but those geth haven't gone easy on them," Kaidan said quietly.

"We know what that's like," Juliana agreed.

"No you don't," Tali whispered, unheard by the ExoGeni scientists.

"Those damn synthetics are relentless," Juliana continued.

"I'll do whatever I can to keep them away from you. But I need some information," Shepard reassured her.

"What kind of information?" Jeong asked, instantly filled with suspicion.

Juliana rolled her eyes. "Ignore him. The geth are up in the ExoGeni headquarters. It's just a little further up the skyway."

"Those headquarters are private property, soldier! Remove the geth and nothing else!" Jeong stressed.

"We're not here to steal from you! We're here to get rid of the geth!" Tali exclaimed angrily. "We're helping you, you bosh'tet!"

Shepard nodded. "We're not interested in corporate secrets, so just calm down."

Juliana raised her hand. "Commander, before you go…my daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing…"

"They shouldn't waste time poking around," Jeong scolded callously. "We can do a proper accounting of our casualties after the geth are gone."

Juliana's eyes flared in anger, but Shepard beat her to the punch. "You'd best shut the hell up. You're starting to piss me off. Juliana, we'll do what we can. Where was your daughter last?"

"She was working in the ExoGeni building when the attacks hit."

Jeong looked like he wanted to say something, but he thought better of it after a glare from Shepard. "If she's in there, I'll get her out."

Juliana's thanks echoed as they headed back to the Mako and to the ExoGeni headquarters.

"Okay, so who here was creeped out by the crazy dude in the tunnels?" Ashley asked.

"He was…certainly unusual," Liara admitted.

Garrus nodded. "We'll definitely be asking Fai Dan about that. This colony is hiding something."

As they emerged from the tunnels, they stopped in their tracks. Every colonist in view had stopped and looked at them at exactly the same way, their eyes cold. Appraising them. Sizing them up.

"Well, I'm glad that wasn't creepy or anything…" Garrus sighed as the colonists turned mechanically back to what they were doing.

They headed over to Fai Dan. Wrex was the first to speak. "We killed some varren for you, got your water running, destroyed a geth transmitter—guarded by other krogan, I might add—and picked up power cells for you. What do we get in return?" he demanded, immediately slipping into his brusque mercenary role.

"I happen to have some credits lying around for situations that require hired help. You're welcome to that," Fai Dan responded, bringing up an omni-tool. "There, I've deposited it to the Alliance. They'll forward the money to the Normandy. I trust the commander will distribute it. Is that all you needed?"

"Actually, we were hoping you might be able to give us some information," Garrus said.

"I'm afraid I told your commander, I don't know what the geth want," Fai Dan said quickly.

"Well, see, there's some questions I have besides that. See, we found one of your people down in the tunnels. I believe he said his name was Ian Newstead?"

Fai Dan nodded. "Ian. He is very sick. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything for him. Believe me, we've tried."

"Really?" Garrus said skeptically. "He seemed insane, yes, but the pattern…urk!"

"Thank you, that will be all!" Ashley said as she dragged Garrus off.

"Ashley, what the hell?" Garrus exclaimed a short distance away.

"Okay, I know human body language is different than turians', but—"

"I know that!" Garrus interrupted angrily. "I was in C-Sec, remember? Fai Dan knows more than he's saying. It was obvious!"

"That's great. But he was also clearly not gonna talk," Ashley pointed out.

"I could've gotten him to!" Garrus retorted.

"You think the colonists would've let you pump their leader for info? Damn, turian, have you not seen the creepy hive-mind thing they're doing?!" Wrex chuckled.

"We should contact Shepard," Liara said. "Give him this information and ask for orders."

Garrus looked like he wanted to argue, but backed down. "Fine. Calling Shepard."

Shepard responded quickly. "Garrus?" his voice crackled through a disturbing amount of static. "Is something wrong?"

"You could say that, Shepard," he admitted. "You remember how…weird and creepy everyone was? It's getting worse."

There was a long pause from Shepard's end. "Worse how?"

"Nothing overt, but the creepy looks and stuff are more common. Plus…well, it's just a feeling. And all of us have it."

Shepard sighed. "Understood. Get back to the Normandy. Make sure the ship's secure. Just do your best not to hurt any colonists if they do something strange or resist. Oh, and we'll probably be out of communication. Looks like even military-grade short-range comms aren't going to be able to punch through this jamming if we get much closer to the source. And we'll be doing just that."

"Roger that, Commander," Garrus said, then closed the connection. "You heard him, people. Back to the Normandy."

Shepard shook his head as they pulled up to the ExoGeni building. "This just keeps getting better…I'm starting to think we need to hunt down all that information Jeong didn't want us to find."

"No argument here, Commander," Kaidan said as he climbed down from the turret.

They disembarked and headed inside, their tech powers clearing out the few geth left after Shepard had pulled the Mako all the way up to the door and Kaidan had blasted away with the cannon a few times. A barrier, not unlike the ones on Therum, stood in their way, with no convenient mining lasers to circumvent it. The curtain blocked access to the rest of the building.

All access except…

"That looks like a one-way trip, Shepard. Are you sure this will work?" Tali asked, concern evident in her voice as she looked at the hole in the floor.

"Nope," Shepard grinned. "But it looks like all we can do." He hopped down, closely followed by Kaidan, shaking his head. Tali paused at the edge of the fifteen-foot drop, but finally jumped down.

They moved through the rubble-strewn corridor and into a large room, almost like a hangar or garage of some kind. With no cover, they were cautious as they prepared to cross the wide-open floor. As they entered, though, a shot rang out and Shepard's shields flared. All three swung weapons around…and found themselves staring at a terrified young woman in a scientist's outfit, holding the pistol.

Her eyes widened as she realized her error. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were geth, or one of those varren!"

Shepard smiled to put her at ease. "No autopsy, no foul. You're safe now. But why were you here in the first place?"

The woman sighed. "It's my own fault. Everyone was running and I stayed to back up data. The next thing I knew, that geth ship latched onto the building and the power went out. I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."

"We'll get you out as soon as we find out what the geth are after," Shepard assured her.

"It's not the geth keeping me in here; it's the energy field they put up. They don't want anyone else getting access to the—" she suddenly cut off and looked down.

Given Jeong's earlier secrecy and the strange behavior of the colonists, Shepard was getting upset. He did his best to stay calm. "I'm here for the geth. It's very important I find out what they're after," he said through clenched teeth.

The woman was still looking down as she gulped. "I don't know for certain, but…I'm guessing they're here for the Thorian."

"Thorian?" Tali asked.

"Never heard of that. What the hell is it?" Kaidan followed up.

"It's an indigenous life-form. ExoGeni was…studying it," the woman explained.

"What else can you tell me?" Shepard asked intensely. "Do you know where I can find this Thorian?"

The woman was clearly unwilling to give a straight answer. "I…might be able to. But not with these geth crawling everywhere. Look, we need to get out of here, past that field!"

Shepard rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Fine. Do you know how we can shut it down?"

"No, not exactly, but I think the geth ship is powering it. I've noticed the geth laying power cables everywhere. You could follow those cables, but there's geth all over the place."

Shepard nodded. "Understood. By the way…you wouldn't happen to be named Lizbeth, would you?"

The woman looked shocked. "Yes…how did you know?"

"We ran into your mother. She's holed up with some others on the skyway," Shepard explained.

Lizbeth smiled, relieved. "She's alive? Thank God. I thought I was the only one left. Please, Commander. Just get that field down so I can see my mother again."

Shepard nodded. "Will do."

Lizbeth pulled something out of her pocket and held it out. "Here, take my ID. It should get you through any locked doors." Shepard took the proffered card.

They crossed the room and headed up some stairs. Partway up, they heard an unmistakably krogan voice. "Stupid machine! Access encrypted files!" They all drew shotguns and moved slowly and carefully up the stairs. Whatever the krogan was talking to responded too quietly for them to hear, but it was clearly not to the krogan's liking. "No, I don't want to review protocol!"

They rounded a corner on a landing and finally saw the hulking reptilian alien. He was speaking to a holographic VI interface shaped like a man. "I am unable to comply. Please contact your supervisor."

"Damn it! Tell me what I want or I'll blast your virtual ass into actual dust!"

"Please contact your supervisor for a level 4 security exemption or make an appointment with—"

"STUPID MACHINE!"

The krogan froze as the VI continued. "If there is nothing else, please step aside. There is a queue forming behind you for the use of this terminal."

The krogan turned slowly, dangerously, its glaring eyes falling on the squad. "Shit," Shepard hissed.

The krogan charged with a roar while all three of them opened fire. The krogan barely slowed as the shotgun rounds impacted. Kaidan and Shepard looked at each other and nodded before unleashing a pair of biotic projectiles. Their raw force was enough to stagger the krogan, and Shepard was quick to exploit the opening. "Kaidan! Lift!"

The human nodded and activated his biotics again, and the krogan looked confused as he floated into the air, struggling like a child who didn't know how to swim suddenly thrust into a pool. Tali and Shepard both ran up close to the krogan, unleashing a pair of vicious close-range blasts from their shotguns. Those were enough to reduce the krogan's head to pulp barely held together by his head plate, and the corpse fell out of the sky with a sickening thud.

Shepard put his shotgun away and approached the VI terminal. "ExoGeni Corporation reminds all staff that the discharging of weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden," it said with a calmness only a VI could manage. "Welcome back, research assistant Elizabeth Baynham. What can I do for you?"

"What information was the last user attempting to access?" Shepard asked, hoping that his obviously male voice wouldn't allow the system to recognize that he was not in fact Lizbeth.

"Fetching data. The previous user was attempting to access details on the study of Subject Species 37, the Thorian."

"Tell me everything you told the krogan," Shepard ordered, filing away the information that ExoGeni had lax security precautions in case of future needs.

"I was unable to provide the previous user with any relevant data," The VI replied. Shepard cursed the literal nature of the program. "Aside from lacking proper access, there has been no new data available on Species 37. All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu's Hope have been inactive for several cycles."

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "What does Zhu's Hope have to do with the Thorian?"

"Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu's Hope outpost," the VI answered with that disturbing calmness.

"Tell me everything you have about the Thorian," Shepard said urgently.

"The Thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control the behavior of other organisms, including humans." Shepard's jaw was slowly dropping in horror as the VI continued. "The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, nearly 85% of all test subjects were infected."

Shepard's fists clenched. "Are you saying ExoGeni knew its people were being infected?" he growled.

"It was deemed necessary to assess the true potential of Species 37." The VI's response, delivered without tones of defense or callousness, was damningly simple.

"That explains why the colonists were acting so strangely," Kaidan said with a sigh.

"We should probably warn the Normandy," Tali added.

"Glad we told Garrus and his team to head back to the ship," Shepard said as he activated his radio. "Joker." He paused, frowning. "Come in, Joker." Then he recalled the static during the earlier conversation. He'd been so focused on the geth and now the Thorian that he'd forgotten about the jamming they'd been encountering. "Damn it, the field's blocking it."

"We've got to find a way past that field. We need to get back to Zhu's Hope," Kaidan said, shaking his head.

Shepard nodded and turned back to the holographic man. "VI, what can you tell me about the geth ship and the field it's generating?"

"I have limited data on the geth. They have effectively blocked all sensors within the facility. I have detected unusual power fluctuations, but am unable to determine their source."

"We need to find that ship. Let's move out," Shepard ordered. "And when we find her, we're going to have quite a chat with Lizbeth…"