Saturday, August 18th, 2187 (late morning) — 19:33 Daleri local time

Kaidan and Samara were walking down the street in the downtown district, returning to the homeless encampments. "Tell me about this 'Nira'," Samara said.

"We met her in a pardim shop," Kaidan said. "She was begging for nitrogen money."

"A grave offense," Samara replied. "She is lucky that I was not present."

Kaidan stopped cold. "What?" he asked, more bewildered than anything.

Samara stopped a few paces ahead and turned around to face him. "The Justicar Code is quite clear: beggars must respect all local laws pertaining to begging. Daleri municipal law forbids entering any privately owned establishment for the purpose of panhandling. Ergo, if what you say is true, then this Nira was breaking the law. If I were to directly observe her doing so, or to obtain sufficient evidence that she had done so, the code would compel me to demand she make restitution to the business in question. If she failed to make restitution, her life would be forfeit."

On Kaidan's face, fury warred with gobsmacked disbelief. "Her life would be forfeit? For trying to avoid a slow, painful death by oxygen poisoning? And what the hell do you mean by 'restitution'?"

"Yes, her life. The Code is quite clear on this matter," Samara replied. "As you have not told me the name of the pardim shop, I am not obligated to force the issue, but if I were to learn it and an additional eyewitness were to corroborate your account, I would be required to detain Nira, force her to apologise to the owners of the establishment, and convince her to pay to them a fine of 1,000 credits. If she would not or could not pay, I would execute her. The Code would demand it."

Fury won over disbelief. "Lady, I don't know where you get off…" Kaidan began in a low, cold growl.

"Peace, Major Alenko. I do not expect you to agree, or to understand. However, we are in asari space, under the jurisdiction of asari law, and the Justicar Order is the only form of law enforcement with supranational authority recognised by all the myriad asari republics. The Code was not agreed upon lightly. It was a compromise which took our ancestors nearly a millennium to develop, but in the end it was unanimously approved by all asari nations and it received the blessing of the Goddess."

"And by the Goddess, you mean Athame?" Kaidan asked, a hint of contempt building in his voice.

"The same," Samara answered, her tone questioning his.

Kaidan shook his head. "Figures a Prothean would approve of something like this," he said, the contempt spilling over onto the word 'Prothean'.

"I'm… sorry? A Prothean?" she asked in confusion.

"Shepard might've forgotten to mention it, but Athame was a Prothean," Kaidan said. "During the war he, Liara, and Javik visited the Temple of Athame to retrieve some intel that Councilor Tevos promised us. It turned out that the temple was built around a Prothean beacon. And the statues of Athame, Janiri, and Lucen were clearly depicting Protheans. The resemblance to Javik was undeniable, even for Liara." As he watched her reaction to his words, the initial smugness in his voice crumbled to dust and was washed away with sympathy.

"By the… no, you must be mistaken. The Goddess is holy, she can't be a Prothean."

Kaidan sighed. "Fifty thousand years ago, the Protheans were manipulating your people, grooming them to be the next loyal subjects to be annexed by the Prothean Empire," he said. "And frankly, it's entirely possible that this Code of yours fit into their plan. But then the Reapers invaded, and the Protheans did everything they could to hide their involvement, so the asari would be deemed too 'primitive' to destroy."

She looked down at the ground. "That's… that's just not possible…"

"I… I'm sorry, Samara, I know it's a lot to take in. You should probably speak with Javik. Uh… scratch that, you should speak with Liara first, and work your way up to Javik later."

"But if this is true…" she continued, now looking up at the clouds.

Kaidan stepped forward and reached out a hand, touching Samara on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have sprung this on you in the middle of a mission. It might do you some good to push this to the background, let it simmer, while we worry about the task at hand."

Samara looked into Kaidan's eyes and stared for long, painful seconds. "Right," she said with a little huff. "Where were we?"

"I was telling you about Nira."


The Goddess? A Prothean? Nira wandered the back alleys, lost in thought and not paying attention to where she was going. No, that was… well, that would explain… no, NO! Athame being a Prothean doesn't make any sense. And besides, I don't really believe in that 'Goddess' mumbo-jumbo anyway… right?

She sighed. She'd heard Mr. Alenko's voice and come running, only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw that he was talking to a justicar. At first she just hid, and hoped he hadn't mentioned the thing at Alessa's the other day. Then she overheard arguing voices — not shouting, exactly, but a heated conversation. And then she'd listened in on the words.

She'd snuck off once she'd heard enough. Now that she'd put some distance in, she hid behind a trash receptacle and let the tears come.

Mom, she sniffled. I wish you could be here. She decided she could really use some mothering right now. But Mom was dead. Nira was 90, way too old for an orphanage, so she'd been trying her best to put her vocational degree to work and pull off this adult thing. She'd had a stable, good-paying job, she'd had a home… it'd almost been enough to buy this whole 'religion' thing and start thanking goddesses and universal onenesses. And then the damned Reapers came.

"Are you okay?" came a voice.

The voice shook her out of her despondence. She sighed and shook her head. "No, not really."

"Would you like to talk about it?" the voice asked.

She closed her eyes. I don't even know where I'd start, she thought to herself. She shook her head 'no'.

The owner of the voice gently touched her forehead. Nira felt a wave of compassion and calm wash over her. "Does that feel better?" the voice asked.

"Y- yeah, a little," Nira said. She sniffed and wiped her tears, then looked up at the source of the voice. She was asari, and though her clothes didn't show it, her face said she was probably a matriarch. She had such sympathy in her eyes. Nira shivered, not quite sure why.

"I am Mirala. What's your name, little one?"

"N- Nira," she said.

"Do you have somewhere to stay, Nira?" Mirala asked.

"I have… uh, I have my tent."

"A tent? My dear, one as lovely as you is reduced to living in a tent? Where is your mother?"

The tears returned. "Dead," Nira finally blurted out with a sob.

"By the Goddess, you poor child."

Nira flinched at the familiar invocation of the Goddess.

"Ah, I see," Mirala said. "Are you having a crisis of faith, little one?"

Nira closed her eyes and nodded in guilty admission.

"Well, now. You may not believe me but I have just the remedy. I have some errands to run this afternoon, but I would love to see you join me and my acolytes in contemplation of the universe this evening. If you join us, I can offer you food, soft bedding, clean clothes, a shower…"

A shower. That sounded decadent. Nira's resolve was wearing down fast.

It must've shown on Nira's face, because Mirala smiled. "I'll give you directions to my home."

At that, Nira's gut shouted that something wasn't quite right about the situation. She wiped away her tears, looked straight into Mirala's eyes, and asked, "But… why do this for me?"

"Can't you just humor an eccentric old woman?" Mirala asked with a smile, then shook her head. "Very well. I would like to groom you to become one of my acolytes. I think you are an excellent candidate. But my offer entails no commitment on your part, beyond what I said about joining us tonight in contemplation."

The last of Nira's resolve crumbled. "Okay. Give me the address."


Saturday, August 18th, 2187 (late morning) — 19:45 Daleri local time

Kaidan looked up from his omnitool to the street signs at the intersection, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Alright, this next alley is where we met Kalla. She was the first Ardat-Yakshi eyewitness we interviewed."

"Good," Samara said quietly.

They approached the alleyway, which like so many in the area was lined with tents. The occupants would be inside, sealed away from the overly-oxygenated atmosphere and ensconced in the alley's shade so that they could nap through the worst of the midday heat.

Finding the appropriate tent was not too difficult, as Kaidan's omnitool had recorded the coordinates. Kaidan pressed a finger against the tent's synthetic fabric and scratched twice with his fingernail as Nira had taught him — the local equivalent of a polite knock.

Groaning came from within, followed by a voice. "Who is it?"

"I'm Kaidan Alenko, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. I was here two standard days ago with Nira. I'm here to speak with Kalla again."

One of the tent's occupants unzipped the opaque inner flap, leaving only the transparent plastic of the atmosphere seal. She looked up through the plastic at Kaidan. "Right, I remember you. Kalla's not here, haven't seen her since yesterday."

"Did she say where she was going?" Kaidan asked.

"No. No, she didn't," her tent-mate said, shaking her head and sounding just a little bit scared. "I thought she was just going to the bathroom, but she never came back. I'm worried about her."

"Okay. I'll keep an eye out for her," Kaidan said.

"Thanks." She zipped the inner flap closed.

"This is troubling," Samara said to Kaidan. "It seems an unlikely coincidence that Kalla would vanish so soon after you spoke with her. We should proceed to the second eyewitness posthaste."

"You think someone was spying on us," Kaidan said, more a statement than a question.

"Yes."

"Okay. Follow me, the next witness is this way."


Saturday, August 18th, 2187 (late morning) — 19:51 Daleri local time

Javik reached out with his senses. An asari, barely able to stand, too slow removing her breather when her body rejected the alcohol, late last night. Another asari celebrating a promotion, accompanied by three coworkers, one with a crush on the celebrant, two days ago. An elcor, amused by the antics of an asari-volus couple, less than a day ago.

He still wasn't sure how he would perceive an Ardat-Yakshi if he came across her, though he remained confident that he would recognize her scent once he found it. A predator addicted to killing. A powerful instinct driving her to meld. A loneliness that could never be filled. Such traits would leave their mark, he was sure of that.

"Not here," Javik finally said.

"Damn," James said. "Let's move on."

Javik grumbled.

"¿Qué tal?" James asked.

"I doubt that we will locate the Ardat-Yakshi in this district," Javik said. "From what was described to me, an Ardat-Yakshi should be obvious to my senses, even if the 'trail' is not fresh. Yet I cannot sense one at all in these places. I believe we are on what you humans would call a 'wild goose chase'."

"Alright, amigo. We'll keep investigating for now, but when we meet back up with Blue, I'll back you up on a changeup. In the meantime… how're things going with the… uh… you know?"

"I have had one remote session with my assigned counselor. He is an idiot."

"Harsh," James said with a chuckle. "But you can't expect to hit it off on your first try. When I was dealing with Fehl Prime, it wasn't until my third that I found someone who worked well with me."

"Yes, I was warned as much. In the meantime I have been reading literature on the topic," Javik said. "It is… revealing."

"Oh yeah?"

Javik approached James and switched to a quiet voice. "The… flashbacks and nightmares… those I had connected to my past. But I had not considered that being easily startled, or getting angry at other people, could be tied to my experiences," he admitted.

"Yeah, those hyperarousal symptoms are a killer," James said knowingly. "My advice is, don't rush the process. For now, just listen to your own body. Learn what riles you up, what calms you down, that kind of thing. Observe without judging. There's no control without knowledge."

"You speak from experience?"

"Yeah. A lot of what I just told you originally came from my therapist."

Javik sighed and nodded. "Let us move on. I will consider what you have said."


Saturday, August 18th, 2187 (late morning) — 19:53 Daleri local time

Liara and EDI stood outside the Daleri Hall of Records. The building was stonework done in an ancient asari style of architecture, one which EDI found aesthetically pleasing. It posessed many points of comparison with the architecture of ancient Greece on Earth, notably columns and a frieze adorned with relief sculptures. However, it was subtly different in key ways, in particular that the columns were adorned with curves that helixed to the top and the roof was arched, not column and lintel.

Liara let out a noise of frustration. "There is no way that that was the real sensor data. I can't believe this! They lied to us, right to our faces!"

"That is the most likely hypothesis," EDI said. "This suggests that the Reapers have at least one insider, either in Daleri Aerospace Traffic Control or in the Hall of Records."

Liara activated her omnitool's holo interface. "It's time we took matters into our own hands. EDI, are you ready to do some hacking?"

EDI made a show of 'cracking' her mechanical knuckles. "I am always ready."

"Okay, I need you to penetrate the firewall and defend, while I set my hacking VIs loose," Liara said. "If it's at all possible, I don't want them to even notice that they're being hacked; if they do, we're the prime suspects."

"Acknowledged," EDI said. "I will begin on your command."

"Let me prep my VIs first," Liara said. She tapped at her omnitool, providing her VIs with instructions on which data to retrieve. After about 30 seconds of this, she spoke up. "Okay, my VIs are prepped. Begin penetration."

"I have access," EDI said with no organic-perceptible delay. "Ready for VI upload."

"Uploading VI runtimes," Liara said with a tap on her omni-tool. "Data mine in progress."

"No opposition detected," EDI noted. "I believe we are unnoticed."

"Data mine complete. All results received. Uploaded runtimes are self-deleting."

"Erasing intrusion footprint. Repairing firewall. Penetration complete."

"Amateurs," Liara said with a shake of her head. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get out of this heat. Follow me; there's a café just down the street."

As they started walking together, EDI spoke up. "Liara, I have started a preliminary analysis. The data we recovered is the same faked data that we were shown by the Hall of Records clerk. However, I have detected 'seams' where fake meets real: in these places, the data is continuous but only twice differentiable."

"Good find, EDI," Liara said. "Can we use this to recover their flight plan?"

"I believe that is possible," EDI replied. "I will require time to process all the data. I should have a full report ready by the time we rendezvous with the other teams."


Saturday, August 18th, 2187 (late morning) — 20:12 Daleri local time

"Tayna? She was here ten minutes ago," the tent's occupant said.

Kaidan gritted his teeth. "Did she say where she was going?" he asked.

"No, but it's mid-day. She couldn't have gone very far in the heat."

"Alright, miss," Kaidan said. "Thank you for your time. And stay safe."

The witness's tent-mate zipped the tent closed. Kaidan stood up and faced Samara.

"This bodes ill for Tayna," Samara said.

"I'm going to call Cortez for a pick-up," he said. "If she's on foot, we can cover more ground looking for her from above."

"A sound plan," she agreed.

As Kaidan activated his omnitool and contacted Cortez, Samara looked around the alleyway for a way to access the roof of one of the buildings. The buildings on either side of the alley were of a relatively modern asari construction, no more than 500 years old, and made of the usual carbon nanoweave ceramic — far too smooth to offer handholds of any sort. There would be a roof access stairway somewhere in either building, as the environmental systems would certainly have condenser coil units on the roof which would require periodic maintenance. She considered breaking in, as the situation was urgent enough that the Code permitted it, but decided against it.

"Shuttle's on its way," Kaidan said.

"I am going to search for Tayna," Samara said. "Right now, every minute counts. When the shuttle arrives, you can track me by my omnitool."

Kaidan nodded. "Alright. Don't overexert yourself in the heat."

"I have been on Niacal for many months," she chided. "I am well aware of my body's limits."

And with that, Samara left Kaidan behind. She jogged out of the alleyway onto the nearest street. Orisoni, the Prayer, blazed overhead. As she expected, the streets were empty. She darted down the pavement, looking side to side as she passed each alleyway.

The chances of finding the witness on foot were slim, but better than those of the alternative.