Mass Effect
Digression

Written By Kenneth White

Chapter 11

While it had the appearance of a run-down warehouse on the outside, on the inside the facility more resembled a modern hospital. Not that Yalo had ever been inside a hospital before, with the closest thing being the medical bay aboard the Lerta he'd been to a few times for minor infections. The hallways seemed sleek and clean, with bright white floor covering and equally pearly walls and ceilings. Yalo took note of their reflective nature, knowing that while sneaking around it could give him away, even if he himself couldn't be seen directly. On the other hand this was something that worked both ways, and Yalo could use it to check around corners without the risk of physically poking his head around them. Thankfully the lighting wasn't particularly outstanding, probably mostly due to the lack of windows and the fact that any that did exist were covered up from the inside, so that gave Yalo at least some advantage.

Checking the second corner quickly, Yalo flashed his omni-tool active and waved it around for the few seconds. Like he had done when the truck entered the place from the outside, he made sure any security cameras in the immediate vicinity would be out of commission for at least the next minute or two. He hadn't been sure if it had worked from within the crate earlier, but he hadn't heard any alert yet, so assumed if there were any cameras he'd got to them or security was simply being ignored for the moment. With the area clear, Yalo quickly dashed down the corridor.

Fifth door on the right, Yalo remembered. But it's restricted from there, so I'll likely need to hack through.

Yalo had just passed the third door when he stopped in his tracks. He could hear footsteps; two sets of them. He turned around and the door behind him didn't appear to be locked, though at the same time he had no idea what would be on the other side. The steps were getting closer, so he had to risk it. He hit the green panel to the door's right and it whirred and hissed open, allowing him to whisk himself inside and close it again. Yalo didn't take much note of what was in the room, though it was hard to when it was completely dark in there. He could sense it was fairly small, but at the moment he was paying too much attention to the approaching sounds beyond the door. As they passed by he heard them speaking and recognised the voices.

"...problem with this whole thing is the lack of communication, that's the problem!" the salarian delivery supervisor ranted.

"I still think that asari was trying to pull something," Varinus responded. "She would have at least had a manifest or some..."

Their conversation muffled and trailed off again as he heard them round the corner at the end of the hall. Yalo sighed with relief, then switched on the light and took in his surroundings properly. It appeared to be some kind of preparation station, with lab coats hanging from hooks around the walls, long-sleeved salarian gloves in a pile atop a series of sinks, several lockers and a couple of large clothing bins. Most importantly there was nobody else in here at the moment.

At least if I get caught and have to take somebody out, I can hide the body in here, he thought, noting the laundry hampers.

He was about to turn back to the door but stopped, noticing something above the hampers on the far wall: a vent cover. And judging from its positioning, it looked like it was heading towards the restricted area he had to get to. If he could crawl in through there, he could avoid having to hack the security door entirely, and on top of that the option would be far stealthier. There would likely be only just enough room to move in there, but he was a quarian: he was used to small, cramped spaces. Perhaps not as much as some of his kin, but he'd done a few minor pieces of maintenance upon the Lerta along with his sister in vents, tubes and conduits.

Climbing atop the hampers, Yalo reached up and carefully eased the vent cover out of the wall; inching the left side out a little, then the right, then the left again, and then finally the right a second time as the fixture came free. He hung the object on a nearby coat-hook fixed to the wall nearby by jamming the hook in a gap between two of the louvers then peered inside the shaft itself. It went dark from about a metre in, so where it went was a mystery. Nonetheless, Yalo reached in and hauled himself inside the duct. Yalo powered up the light on his helmet, just enough to give him a small amount of vision about a foot ahead of himself so he didn't end up pulling himself face-first into a wall or corner or in case there was a sudden drop. After all, if anybody was out there he wouldn't want their attention to be drawn to a bright light shining out of the vent-holes he was passing by.

Yalo found himself at an intersection forcing him either left or right only a couple of metres in and made a turn left, hoping that it would take him where he wanted to go. He came across another passage leading left again fairly soon, and assumed that led to whatever was behind the fourth door in the last corridor he was in. Moving further down the shaft led him to a corner that forced him to either turn right or turn back, so right he went. After about a minute of crawling he found another vent cover on his left, so he stopped, dimmed his light and peered out through the metal slats.

The room beyond was larger than any of the others he'd seen in here thus far, and while still dark at least had some illumination from the many monitors, computer terminals and holographic displays in the place. Yalo could see three doors leading into the room: one from the direction he'd crawled from, one on the wall opposite that and another on the wall opposite the one he was in. There was likely a door beneath him too he guessed, given that the room seemed completely symmetrical. The various computers and terminals were all situated in the middle of the room and seemed rather clumped together, since the walls and the area around them were pretty sparse and wide, Yalo suspected so that objects could be easily moved through that area without anything getting in the way.

They'd be able to bring those crates through here without any problems, Yalo thought.

Beyond that there were some coloured lines along the floor that split off from each other to lead through the different doors, and there was a desk and some monitors near the door on the wall behind him. Behind this desk sat the only person in the room: a rather bored looking salarian with a dark-brown complexion -save for a red chin and throat- wearing light armour. Unlike the dark brown protective covering the turians who were part of The Terrestrial wore, his was a bright white with black trim and no logo on it, complete with the design feature Yalo liked to think of as 'The Salarian Handle' on the chest. Ever since meeting Intarr he imagined the large krogan picking two salarians up by them and then bashing their heads together over his own. The idea amused him, even though he knew it shouldn't. The problem now was getting into the room without the salarian noticing. Sure, he could keep going and see where the vents led him, but he was pretty sure there'd be at least something of use on the computers down below.

Find somewhere else, a voice in the back of his head said. It's not worth the risk, there's bound to be other terminals around here and if there isn't you can always come back. The voice was right, so Yalo sighed in temporary defeat and carefully crawled on.

The next room looked rather interesting. It was three times as tall as the previous ones, and consisted of a large tubular object in the centre with a console before it and several other terminals around two of the walls. There was a platform elevator on the left side that appeared to simply take a person up to the next two floors, which basically consisted of nothing more than walkways surrounding whatever the cylindrical object in the middle was. It looked like metal and/or ceramic at the bottom third, but the middle portion was transparent and there was some kind of protruding metal prongs poking down into it from the ceiling. The diameter of it had to at least be fifteen to twenty metres, and if there was anything inside it Yalo couldn't see it from his position. This place was well lit by bright lights on the ceiling and upper walls, but there was nobody in the room using the object. There were two doors, one that led back to a small corridor that linked it to the previous room Yalo had observed and one on the opposite wall in the direction the ventilation shaft continued. Yalo thought about investigating this room, but was first curious about where an intersection in the ducts just ahead and on his right might lead.

His curiosity paid off. The next room he found was a small, empty office, with a desk and chair and a terminal sitting upon the former. There were another couple of seats and a few filing cabinets, but beyond that the room was fairly simple and neat. Yalo waved his omni-tool to disable any cameras the office may have, then carefully removed the vent cover and lowered it softly to the ground as much as he could without falling out. Crawling out, Yalo approached the desk, taking in his surroundings properly. The only door in was locked judging from the red light on the panel to its right, but all the same Yalo took his gun and placed it on the desk facing the lone access, just in case anybody tried to come in while he was at work. Sneaking inside in the middle of the night was mostly a convenience due to the delivery, but it also had its other advantages.

Sure enough, activating the console revealed that it was password-locked, so Yalo's omni-tool joined the holographic interface in lighting up the otherwise darkened room. The security was fairly heavy in the system, but Yalo was an expert, and thanks to the enhancements on Linna's omni-tool he made short work of anything that got in his way. The information was good too, and he managed to get a complete layout of the facility as well as a list of the personnel and to which departments they were assigned. It seems Dr. Haedian was the head of a department called 'Biological Research and Analysis' and was, funnily enough, assigned to two areas called the 'Biological Research Laboratory' and 'Biological Testing Stations' that weren't too far away.

And what exactly is this research and analysis all for? Yalo wondered, as he began to dig deeper. With a little more effort, Yalo came across something that made him stop and take a step back. He leaned forward and read the information again, just to be sure.

"Keelah!" he exclaimed for behind his visor. "This is... perfect. This is beyond perfect."

Yalo realised he'd not only used an exclamation he tried not to since leaving The Flotilla, but that he'd spoken aloud. Shaking his head as if to dislodge his stupidity, he quickly downloaded some crucial information to his omni-tool, memorised the layout to make sure it was correct, then logged out of the system and shut it down. Now he had a choice: go directly there and hope to avoid being seen, or take the vents again and take a longer, more uncomfortable but less risky route. He regarded the opening in the wall and sighed -he really didn't want to have to go back in there. He only had to go down two corridors to a room about twenty metres away, and it was night and the place seemed virtually deserted. He thought he might as well risk it, even if the ducts had served him well so far.

Yalo unlocked the door with a tangerine flash from his arm, then peered out both ways. The coast was clear, so he carefully snuck out, reactivating his omni-tool and waving it around to disrupt any security cameras along the way and hoping nobody was around the corner who might wonder what the orange glow was. The quarian quickened his pace, seeing as the entire place seemed devoid of staff. He switched off his omni-tool as he approached the door he needed, having noticed it wasn't locked. Pressing the button, the panel bleep and the door clunked and whisked open.


Yalo stepped inside, finding himself in a large a room about thirty metres or so long and probably just over half that wide. It was filled with various pieces of laboratory equipment, with a few computer terminals and a rectangular bay in the middle surrounded by a glowing blue forcefield. There was also a desk with a computer terminal to the far right side of the wall, at which sat a tan-hued salarian with dark grey eyes; his face lit up by the holographic image before him. He looked up with a frown at Yalo.

"Who are you? What are you..."

Dr. Haedian trailed off, one eye seeming to get larger while the other shrunk as he twisted his head to the side slightly.

"Wait, I know you! You're that quarian who was with those krogan!"

"That's right," Yalo said, walking slowly towards the doctor as if approaching a cornered beast. "I've come in search of you. Lylanya's here too."

"The asari? What does she want? Something about that message I got a few days ago?" A pause. "How did you even get in here?"

"We snuck in. We hijacked a delivery truck and then I snuck in through the ventilation shaft past your security and into the restricted area."

"So that's why that redundantly verbose idiot came here asking me about some kind of outgoing package," Haedian realised. "But enough of that... why are you here? What do you want me for?"

"I know what you're working on," Yalo said straightforwardly. "I want you and I want the research and the prototype you have."

"Assuming you're telling the truth, what makes you possibly think that I'd be so willing to just go along with this?" A pause. "Or are you planning on holding me at gunpoint and forcing me into it?"

"Recognition and credits," Yalo responded with confidence. "You're working along with a bunch of other scientists on a top secret project for The Salarian Union. This isn't going to get you fame or money. You're not going to be considered up there amongst the best and brightest of the salarian science community, because you're just one of many working on something that'll always be under the rug your government keeps it under." A pause. "But if you take the data and come with me, we can use and sell this technology, and you'll be the one that gets all the credit and fame for it. Your name will be forever etched in history as the mind behind one of the greatest technological leaps the galaxy has seen in years."

"Except for three things, quarian. First, I'll be a traitor to The Salarian Union and thus considered a traitor to all salarians everywhere. Secondly, I'm not the project leader, just the head of the Biological Research division. My expertise only covers about a quarter of the total project... a third at the most. And finally, I've already hit the silent alarm. Armed guards will be here soon."

"Don't do this, doctor!" Yalo said urgently, expecting the main door to open and guns to be trained on him any moment. "The Salarian Union won't admit to what happened, since the project is secret and it would be too embarrassing to admit they lost it and you. I also know that this project is being kept secret from The Council."

Doctor Haedian narrowed his eyes, and Yalo nodded in response. "That's right. While you probably only intend to use this for colonisation, the potential for its use as a weapon is viable. The Council wouldn't approve of it, despite its intent. On top of that, they would likely want to share the knowledge with the other races, which would no longer give the salarians an edge out there."

"Stop right there!" Yalo heard from behind him, and he raised his hands after looking over his shoulder and observing two salarians with pistols pointed at him. One of them was the guard he had seen sitting at the desk only moments earlier.

"Put those guns down, it was a false alarm," Haedian said with vexation. "I'm tired from working all night and accidentally hit the wrong button. Go and shine your guns or something... I have work to do."

"Who is this then?" the closer one asked, flicking his head in Yalo's direction. Haedian let out a frustrated sigh.

"Are you new here, or just stupid? This is a quarian I brought in for biological studies related to the project. I can't do proper tests and research on how it will effect quarian physiology and genetics without a test subject. Now please leave... we have many important tests to still do."

The guards lowered their weapons slowly, looking at each other with puzzled expressions. Both simply said "yes Doctor" and left the room. As the door slid shut behind them, Yalo lowered his arms and cocked his head at Haedian.

"You seem to know quite a lot, quarian," Haedian sighed. "And a lot of what you say is right. But that still doesn't negate the fact that I'm only a small part of this overall project. That and its not even finished, there's still months of work left to go, despite the fact that we have a small working prototype. I am curious as to exactly what you plan to do with this knowledge though... assuming I did agree to go with you."

"That depends," Yalo said. "At first I was just planning on selling your services and whatever this was to somebody with a lot of credits. But after seeing for myself what you were working on, things started working in my mind and my plans changed. This is now something I can use myself for my own purposes and not just a means of gaining a lot of credits. Assuming it works how I think it does. It's basically a super fast terraformer, right?"

"Your analogy there is beyond inadequate," Haedian responded as if insulted. "It's much more than that. To put it in layman's terms, it contains a unique scanning device that analyses a planet in every possible manner that one would need to know in order to terraform it. Not only does it scan the planet itself for its composite of elements and minerals, it takes into account the size of the planet, its density and gravity, any satellites it may have, the topographical features, its distance from the star it orbits, its orbit itself, what type of star it is, other planets in its solar system, and so forth until it paints a complete picture of exactly what would be needed to terraform the planet in order to colonise it. It then calculates the perfect mathematical formulas automatically using the V.I. system within to do this the quickest and most efficient way possible. It technically does nothing that hasn't been done for years already for the purposes of terraforming and colonisation, it just does in mere months or only a couple of years what would otherwise take decades. If course, it could also be used for the opposite effect, by scanning and evaluating a planet and ascertaining the most subtle way of creating planet wide destruction with minimal effort. But for that to be a problem the device would still have to be in a planet's orbit for days without being detected, which would be highly unlikely."

"That's all I needed to know," Yalo said, and the salarian could hear the quarian's grin even if he couldn't see it.

"Wait a minute... I know what this is. You want the device for yourself. For the quarians. That's it, isn't it... you want to use it to help create a new homeworld for your people."

Yalo was silent for a few seconds, looking around as if to find help from somebody else, yet finding none. Eventually he just caved.

"That's part of it, yes." The quarian paused, his voice becoming emotionless. "There's more to it than that though."

"Oh?" Haedian asked curiously. Yalo abruptly became evasive and impatient.

"Look... I'll tell you later, once we're out of here and on the ship. I owe the others an explanation too. That is assuming you'll come with me?"

Haedian brought one hand up to his chin as he leant back against the wall behind him and his eyes narrowed in thought.

"I must admit, the prospect of actually getting credit for this is very appealing. For too long I've been overshadowed by lesser minds like Finnigus and Solus, merely because of the nature of my employment. To succeed we would need not only my data on the project, but the prototype itself and data from the other two departments and from the project lead. We would then want to wipe it all to ensure we had the only copies of all the data. Some may be backed up, but I can take all mine with me, which will put them back significantly even on the unlikely chance they manage to recover their own stuff." He looked up at Yalo. "Wait, you said 'others' before. Lylanya you mentioned, but who else is there with you?"

"One of..." Yalo sighed. "One of the krogan." A pause. "Intarr, to be exact."

"The krogan you hunted me down with?" Haedian exclaimed, his eyes seeming to want to burst out of their sockets. "The one who shot me, and then you later betrayed so I could escape?"

"It's complicated," Yalo answered, rubbing his arm awkwardly. "Let's just say he's not exactly familiar with some of the events that went on."

"So it seems," Haedian said, his brow raising as he said the last word. "So then how do I know you won't betray me if it conveniences you to do so?"

"You don't," Yalo admitted. "And if it came to that, I would. At least you know that. But keep in mind that I have no interest in fame or credits beyond the ones I need to save my people. And if this all works out, I won't even need them. I'll just use the information on the project itself. If you agree to this, of course. Think about it... you wouldn't even need to develop it fully, just sell the research and the prototype and offer your services to continue your work on it."

"Very well, I accept," Haedian nodded, and he sat down at his console and began running his hands across the glowing interface. "I haven't exactly been happy here, and it would be extremely interesting if I could manage to get it to make a suitable planet for your people to live on. But we must hurry if we want to get the data before the others wake up and begin their work."

"Good," Yalo said with a firm nod, clapping his hands together. "What do we need to do then?"

"I've already begun to download all the data from my own terminal into an optical storage device," he answered. "You'll need to do the same in the other departments and in the project lead's office. Do you know where they are?"

"I believe I found the lead's office and already hacked the terminal. That's how I found your location."

"Good," Haedian said as he handed Yalo some OSD's and the quarian slipped them into a pouch on his hip. "In the meantime, I'll get the prototype itself since I have access to it already."

"How big is this prototype?"

"One quarter the size of what the final design is intended to be. It was made for small scale direct testing in a controlled environment, while the real thing would need to be far larger in order to deal with the appropriate scale. Even then there would be a limit to the size of the planet this device would be feasible to function with, but its not far beyond that limit that a planet's mass becomes too big to realistically be properly colonised anyway. Needless to say, it's not so prodigious and ponderous that a mass-grav lift wouldn't be able to tow it."

"Okay. Where will we rendezvous, and how will we actually get out of here without drawing attention?" Yalo posed.

"When you're done, come back here. I'll bring the prototype here and we'll put it and you inside a container. I'll take it to the warehouse and say that this is the package that I had originally intended to be picked up, and that the previous altercation was a misunderstanding and I really did have a package, it just wasn't ready at the time."

"Uh-oh!" Yalo called out.

"Uh... oh?"

"Lylanya. I have no idea what happened to her after the others got back. Especially since she had to knock out two people so that I could get in here. I should contact her and make sure she's okay."

"Don't be a fool!" Haedian snapped reaching over to grab Yalo's arm before he could open communications. "If she isn't okay and they captured her, then they in all probability have her communications device. If you contact her they'll know something is up, especially since we don't use comms in this place ourselves for security reasons. The observation that no alarm has been raised yet means that all they've done is either tell her to vacate the premises or locked her away somewhere."

"Where would they put her if the latter was the case?" Yalo asked.

"We don't actually have any holding cells," Haedian admitted, rubbing his chin and tapping one foot. "They'd probably just lock her in a storage room or one of the old empty sleeping quarters nobody uses." The salarian frowned. "But this matters not... we have more important things to do now."

"That's true, but if we get to the warehouse and she's not there waiting, we're going to have to find her."

"I'm surprised given your previous track record that you wouldn't just leave her behind for 'the greater good' or something," Haedian answered snidely. "But very well, if you feel we must. But I suggest we get moving."


The two left the room in two separate directions; Yalo heading right and back towards the office he'd been in earlier, while Haedian took a left. It didn't take Yalo long to get back and reacquaint himself with the layout of the place again and find the other two major departments: Geological and Astronomical. He then downloaded the remaining project data from the main terminal onto the OSD, which thanks to his earlier hacking success was effortless. When that was done he deleted the data from the system, then as an additional measure transferred a nasty quarian computer virus to ensure any attempts to retrieve the data would be as difficult as possible. Astronomical was the next closest department, not that much farther than Haedian's had been, just down a few corridors to his right rather than his left. Waving his omni-tool all the way to take out surveillance cameras as usual, Yalo found the department he needed and unlocked the door.

Like most of the rooms he'd been in it was fairly dark, though there was some illumination from what appeared to be a giant holographic galaxy map rotating in the centre of the two-storey high room. This made it easy to find the main terminal, which was actually attached to and part of the controls of the star chart itself. There were lots of other computers and electronic devices around, but Yalo had no idea what they were for or what they did, but he could tell they were expensive.

I'm surprised he's agreed to come with me at all, Yalo thought. It'll be hard for anybody to beat this level of state of the art equipment.

Yalo hacked the computer as quickly as he could, which still took him a while. There was a lot of data in this terminal too, which only made things take even longer for it to download to the OSDs. As before Yalo deleted the data from the computer when he was done and put a virus in, which led to the galaxy map disappearing and leaving only Yalo's omni-tool to light the room. He quickly left and proceeded to the third and final department, which was unfortunately a fair distance away. Yalo had to navigate six long corridors, lighting the way and darkening the cameras with his omni-tool as usual. He encountered nobody the entire time, and he wasn't sure whether to think that was a good thing or a bad thing. It certainly made him feel uneasy, though at the same time with each passing second he was closer to success.

Yalo arrived to find the door unlocked, which made him wonder if anybody was in there working late like Haedian had been. He could see through the frosted glass that the lights were on inside, but it wasn't translucent enough for him to be able to tell whether there was anybody inside; everything beyond was a blurred mass of various colours. To be safe, he drew his pistol carefully, letting it unfold and snap to readiness as the door blooped open. Yalo's pistol entered the room first, with its bearer following and happy to see that there was nobody within. Like most of the rooms he'd been through, the walls had the same plain, reflective surfaces in bright white and the floors were smooth and yet not slippery to walk upon. Like Haedian's lab, this one also had a few terminals and lots of scientific equipment around, but it also had several large containers at one end of the room on a series of study shelves. In the centre were four large glass tanks filled with what just appeared to be dirt of slightly different shades and hues, each with a tube extending from the top of them to the ceiling where they all ran along it to meet another large machine at the back wall. This machine had a large console as part of it, and since it was the most prominent one in the room Yalo decided it was probably the one he was after.

Yalo interfaced with the terminal, hacked it and began downloading all the relevant data be could to the next OSD. He guessed he was about halfway through when he heard the door behind him open again and he spun around to see a large crate sitting on a mass-grav lift entering the room. Thinking it was Doctor Haedian having tracked him down with the prototype, Yalo raised the gun back up that he'd trained on the door, only to find that the two salarians that entered with it were ones he'd never seen before.

"What the-! Who are you?" the one pushing the grav-lift said.

Yalo didn't think he had much choice now, so he squared his pistol at the salarian and fired. There was a burst of dark green at his throat, and his scream of pain soon became a gurgle as he brought one hand up to the fatal wound and reached out towards a fictional saviour with the other. He stumbled forward against the handle of the grav-lift, hitting the forward control and sending it whizzing across the room into a table filled with various scientific equipment, a lot of which contained glass. There was a thud and then a ringing clatter and tinkling of breaking and falling metal and glass. In reaction the other salarian took a step back in horror, looked at Yalo for a moment and then fled, calling for help at the top of his lungs. Yalo took a shot at him, but he had already been standing in the doorway when he'd made the first shot, so it hadn't taken long for his intended target to disappear on him.

Yalo uttered a quarian curse into his chest and took off after the escapee as fast as he could. The salarian's yelling was a pretty clear indication of which direction he was heading, which was in the opposite direction that Yalo had entered the place from. Yalo thought he saw his target in the distance and fired again, only to notice his mistake when the shot struck the wall.

Just a reflection! he chastised himself mentally.

Yalo swung around the next corner and saw the salarian about to reach a door at the end of the hallway. Without taking too much care at aiming, Yalo fired his weapon and saw the material of his prey's clothing shred near the centre of his back shortly before he stumbled and fell forwards, his head hitting the door on the way down. His target was down, but Yalo knew the damage had likely already been done. Without wasting time to see if his target was actually dead, Yalo raced back to the main Geological Lab and quickly ejected the OSD from the console, despite knowing full well that he hadn't quite gotten all of the data. There wasn't time to implant the virus either, so Yalo simply flashed his omni-tool at terminal to overload it, summoning a spray of sparks and a small cloud of smoke from the piece of equipment.

Yalo took off for Haedian's lab again, hoping the doctor would be there waiting with the prototype and that he could get there before any more salarians were alerted to his presence. He still had another three hallways to traverse when he was forced to stop dead in his tracks and dart back around the last corner he'd taken, as he heard a door opening up ahead and some muffled voices. There were at least two salarians and they were talking about finding him and splitting up. He could see in the wall the reflection of one approaching his position, and he was hoping that his own reflection wouldn't be seen too. Unlike the two workers he'd dealt with earlier though, this one was armed and kitted out in armour. He had to take this guy out, but as quietly as possible. So for now, just around the corner, he waited.

The salarian reached the turning point and twisted with shock to see Yalo right there. The quarian lunged out with a fist and caught the guard across the jaw, sending him stumbling into the wall to his left. Acting fast before he could make too much noise, Yalo charged him and caught his throat in his hands, then squeezed it tight and pinned him against the wall. The salarian gurgled and tried to get out some words, but didn't manage to get out anything beyond some raspy, unintelligible and panicked noises before the gun fell from his fingers and his eyes rolled into the back of his skull. As he went limp, Yalo let go of his throat, and for good measure pulled his face forward before thrusting the back of his head into the wall behind and leaving him in an undignified heap on the floor. Checking both corridors at the intersection carefully, Yalo continued sneaking towards Haedian's lab.


Managing to avoid another patrol of two armed security personnel by ducking into a room he recalled as simply being a supply closet, Yalo made it back to Haedian's lab without any other problems. There the doctor was waiting with a large crate on a grav-lift as promised, but he looked more than a little irritated.

"About time you got here, quarian!" he muttered. "I assume all the guards up and about is your doing?"

"An unavoidable mishap," Yalo sighed. "But I at least managed to get most of the data before I had to run. I'm surprised this room wasn't under guard, especially with you in here."

"It was," Haedian responded, and he stepped aside and pointed to his right at the floor behind a large terminal. Yalo stepped closer and peeked around to see two unconscious guards lying there.

"They were sent to guard me," Haedian explained. "Terrible shame they had chosen to do so just as I was mixing some chemicals that happen to release several toxic gasses, including chlorine and carbon monoxide. Guess I forgot to mention that, along with the fact I only had one mask."

"We need to get out of here quickly," Yalo said. The salarian nodded, opening the crate.

"Crawl inside, I'll take you out along with it as we had planned. There's enough room for both you and the prototype. Just try not to touch it while you're in there."

"What if they stop you and want to take a look inside?" Yalo asked. Haedian sighed and rolled his eyes.

"They trust my judgment at this place and I outrank all the security personnel. They have to follow my orders, and if I tell them I'm taking something away for security reasons they'll just have to trust me. Now stop arguing and yet inside!"

Yalo held his hands up as if to say "I just asked, take it easy" and then stepped into the container. He didn't know what the salarian scientist was so concerned about when it came to him touching it, since the object was wrapped and packed in something that looked like foam rubber. It was a bit of the tight squeeze, but Yalo managed to curl up and fit inside, and soon all was dark as Haedian closed the lid on him. Yalo felt the initial jerk of movement as Haedian started the journey, but the ride itself was incredibly smooth to the point that Yalo couldn't even really tell if he was moving or not. Things seemed fine for the first couple of minutes, but then he heard a muffled voice in the distance call out and felt Haedian stop in his tracks with a jerk.

"Sorry Doctor, but the corridors are off-limits until we can catch the assailant," a voice said, getting slightly louder with each word. "Weren't two guards assigned to protect you anyway?"

"I told them to guard the equipment in the lab," Haedian responded in his usual miffed way. "I have a piece of important equipment that I need to get out of here. I'm armed, so can take care of myself."

"Sorry, but the whole place is on lockdown. Nobody gets in or out until we catch the intruder."

"All the more reason for me to get this out of here," Haedian retorted. "If I take this outside when the intruder is trapped in here, he can't get it now, can he? If it stays here, then there's a greater chance he'll get hold of it."

"I... suppose you're right," the voice answered sceptically.

"Of course I'm right!" Haedian muttered. "That's why I'm the brilliant scientist and you're just some gun-polishing toady doing the work usually reserved for braindead krogan who think 'argon' is the state you reach when you run out of things to shoot. Now move aside before this assailant of yours sneaks up on one or both of us because you were messing about."

"Yes, sir," the voice responded, and there was a slight bump as they went on their way again. It didn't take long before they made it to the exit where Yalo had come in, and the Doctor used his authorisation to open the door and push the crate outside. As he locked the door behind himself again, he was approached by the supervisor.

"You can't leave, this place is off-limits, Haedian!" he grumbled. "Don't you know that we're in lockdown until they find this intruder, that's why you can't leave."

"Oh, shove a krogan quad in your tedious, word-wasting mouth, Chortan!" Yalo heard Haedian snort. "I have a container to go out, and I don't have time for you to waste hours on end just saying 'hello' to me repeatedly. You take orders from me, and I say this container is going out."

"In this delivery truck?" Chortan asked, just as two salarian workers and Varinus approached to see what was going on. Haedian frowned.

"No, I was going to get you to carry it on your back and run all the way to Jaƫto. Of course in this truck!"

"The driver is a chief suspect with regards to the intruder," Varinus interjected. "Unless you can drive it yourself, this truck isn't going anywhere. Not that we'd be opening the back of it to load your container any time soon either."

"Why not?"

"Because that's where we put her," Varinus explained, cocking his head towards the vehicle. "Seemed the best option at the time. I think she tried using her biotics to get out, but so far all they've done is make the thing rock a bit."

"Can't you put her somewhere else?" Haedian muttered.

"Like where?" Varinus replied laconically.

"I dunno... throw her in an empty crate and seal it or something," Haedian said flippantly, one hand swishing the air in a gesture of indifference. The turian seemed to smile, or at least as close as a turian could get to one, looking across at Chortan.

"I wouldn't mind doing that. The bitch could use some time in a small, enclosed space after what she did to the others."

"Good, hurry up then," Haedian said. "Get your gun pointed at that door and I'll open it up."

Varinus gave a firm nod, raising his Banshee assault rifle to aim it directly at the door. Haedian pushed the mass-grav lift closer to the truck, then let go of it to unlock the rear doors, revealing a rather annoyed looking Lylanya standing there with her arms crossed. She looked down at Haedian who simply gave her a wink the others couldn't see. She didn't acknowledge it in any way.

"Okay, little miss infiltrator smuggler, out you come," Haedian ordered. "And if we see so much as a spark from you, Varinus here will empty his entire block into you."

Lylanya scowled, raising her arms and stepping out onto the dusty surface. Her eyes moved from Haedian to Varinus.

"That's it. Move that pretty blue ass of yours this way," the turian instructed with a flick of his gun. "We'll see if you still don't talk after you've spent a few hours in a space so small you'll barely have room to blink."

Lylanya slowly walked towards him and then passed by, heading towards the long crate that the two salarian workers were bringing over. As Varinus and Chortan turned to watch her, Haedian reached down and carefully unfastened the lid on his own crate. As soon as it hinged back, Yalo popped up like a Jack in the Box, his pistol clasped on one hand. He leapt out, grabbing the unsuspecting Chortan from behind, who squealed as he felt Yalo's left arm wrap around him and the point of the quarian's pistol pressed into the side of his right eye.

"Stop right there, Varinus!" Yalo yelled, and the turian's eyes were on him. "Let her go, or your loudmouthed boss gets it."

"Y-Y-Your loudmouthed boss wouldn't like that!" Chortan gulped.

"And let you lot get away?" the turian growled, his eyes narrowing. "I don't think so. Kill him... I don't care. But if he dies, your pretty blue friend here will join him soon after."

Varinus elevated the barrel of his rifle up at Lylanya's head, and his eyes challenged Yalo once again.

"You'll let your boss die just to stop us escaping?" Yalo asked.

"He's just one man on this project," Varinus responded matter-of-factly. "He dies and we stop you, the project goes on. You escape and the whole thing is completely written off." A pause. "I've heard reports on what's happened in there. Sabotage, possibly thievery as well. The reports are vague, but they still paint a dark picture."

"Your call," Yalo said. "Sorry, but it was the wrong one."

The arm Yalo had wrapped around Chortan's chest flashed saffron and Varinus' assault rifle bleeped loudly. He cursed, looking over with wide eyes at Yalo to see the quarian's pistol facing him and a flare from the muzzle. For a fraction of a second he was blind in one eye as the grain of metal perforated it, but that didn't really matter beyond that short moment once it had coursed through his head and out the other side. Varinus was dead before his body even began to topple, or before the two salarians behind him had even looked up to stare in shock at what had happened to their guardian. Lylanya side-stepped out of the way, looking back at Yalo as her quarian companion then pushed Chortan away; the salarian stumbling and falling to his knees. Yalo turned to Haedian.

"Get that on the truck quickly, there'll probably be more of them here soon."

Haedian nodded, while Lylanya directed her attention to the two workers who were still by the crate. Flashing blue light, she reached out with both hands and lifted them up into the air a few feet, just holding them there for a while. She turned to regard Yalo.

"What do you think I shou-"

Lylanya cut herself off as she witnessed Yalo with his gun trained on Chortan, who was sprawled on the ground, leaning back on his arms in an attempt to quickly back away from the quarian. Another shot flared from his pistol, Chortan's head spasming as one eye exploded in a mess of thick olive liquid. The back of his skull slammed onto the ground and he lay there motionless, dark green fluid squelching out of the moral wound. Yalo looked across at her and Lylanya was so shocked that she lost control of her own powers, sending the two salarian workers back to the ground.

"Dammit, Lylanya," Yalo muttered as they tried to scramble back to their feet. His gun-wielding right arm swung around, then the other joined it to grasp the wrist for support. Two more shots rang out in quick succession, and the two workers dropped to the ground with yells, leaving small clouds of dust where they landed. Lylanya just looked at him again, her large blue eyes even more immense than normal and all muscles in her jaw completely effete.

"Come on, we have to leave quickly" Yalo said, clipping his gun to his thigh again and heading for the passenger door of the vehicle.

As Haedian finished loading the crate, Lylanya took a look at the miniature battlefield around her. She glanced at each body carefully, biting her lower lip as the markings on her forehead distorted in a doleful wince. She cursed quietly to herself, blinking quickly to dismiss a few small tears that had tried to form, then ripped her head away from the scene and swiftly marched to the front of the truck.