Chapter 12: Hostage Situation

We arrived at our destination and took an elevator to the detention center. The elevator opened to a large area, with a control console off to the side. Inside were 3 people, on their knees, bound at the wrists. In front of them were a human and a Turian pirate, holding them at gunpoint. "Come on doctor" The human said "You'll make a good ransom after we blow this Popsicle stand."

"What's a 'Popsicle stand'?" The Turian asked.

"Shut up!" The human said "Now come on doc, we- Shit!" He has seen us, so we trained our weapons on them. "Hold your fire!" I said "Don't hit the hostages!"

The two pirates quickly moved around to put the hostages between us and them, raising the hostages off their knees to use as shields. "Easy Spectre" The human, clearly the leader of the pair said "No need for anyone to get hurt"

"Oh, someone's going to get hurt" Garrus snarled "But it's not going to be us"

"Don't be stupid!" The other Turian spat back "We have the hostages! You guys haven't got anything!"

"Drop your weapons and you can come with us" I said coolly "Time's not on our side, but I'm going to give you three seconds. After that" I shook my head "You're toast."

"You're bluffing!" The human pirate cried.

"One!"

"Please!" One of the hostages cried "You'll kill us!"

"Two!"

"We're getting out of here, Spectre!" The human pirate spat "And there's nothing you can-!" Before he could finish, Kaiden stepped forward. While they'd been distracted talking to me, I'd been secretly giving hand signal instructions to Kaiden. The Lieutenant's arms glowed blue and he used his Lift, not on the pirates, but the hostages. They sailed up towards the ceiling, no longer cover for the pirates, who were too surprised to react immediately. I trained my pistols on them, followed by a chorus of clicks as my squad pointed our weapons. "Three" I stated grimly. The pirates raised their weapons, but they didn't really have a chance. We cut them down before they could even cry out. Then we ran forward and Ashley, Wrex and I all caught the three hostages, and then started to work on getting them free. "Are you alright?" I asked one of the hostages as I undid his bonds. "You almost killed me!" The man cried indignantly "I could have been shot! Just who the hell do you think you are!?" The man had short grey hair, stress wrinkles on his face, and was wearing the remains of a once excellent scientist's lab coat. The other two hostages were in similar outfits, though they were noticeably younger. There was a young, white male with freckles, and hair and eyes of the same light brown. The other was an Asian female with black hair held in a tight bun and bright green eyes. They all appeared to be thin, injured and very dirty.

"I'm Commander Shepard" I said to the elder hostage "I'm here to rescue you."

As soon as the man was free, he whirled around and grabbed my shoulders, a look of hope and desperation in his eyes "I'm Dr. Hanscom! If you get me out of here, I'll get you whatever you want! Just don't let these savages kill me! Please!" I could tell in that instant that the man was the spineless type. The other male identified himself as Gilardi and the female identified herself as Shun; they were both Dr.Hanscom's assistants. 'Ok' I thought 'Now all we need is a way to exfiltrate in 15 minutes, or we'll all be vaporized.'

"Tali" I called.

"Yes Shepard?"

"While you were in the system did you see any more shuttles?"

"There were shuttles in hangers C-7, C-14, C-18 and C-23"

"We wrecked the one in C-18" Wrex said.

"Which one's closest?" I asked the Quarian

She consulted her map "2 levels down"

"Lead on!"