The Thirty-Six Stratagems of Wáng Jìngzé
Chapter 11
Sacrifice the Plum Tree to Preserve the Peach Tree
"These fuckers are praetorians. They will kill you fucking dead. Unless you have a rocket launcher, you leave that shit to the krogans."
Shepard sat at the back of the lecture hall, wondering how exactly Jack had convinced Samara to let her give this lesson. The asari sat primly to the side of the podium surveying the assembled biotics, mostly commandos or Eclipse mercs. The strike teams had been divided by class, each consisting of two biotics, three krogans, a sniper, a tech specialist, a stealth expert and two suppressors. If the team could dock with a Reaper and get inside, it was an almost guaranteed kill.
Getting them inside was going to be the trick, but that was why they had an admiral taking care of the problem.
"Don't just stare at me, write that down," Jack said. "Praetorians. Will. Kill. You. Fucking. Dead. I don't want to see anyone trying to be a goddamn badass, warping their armour or charging them or whatever. You see one of these, you take cover and stay out of the krogans' way. That is your fucking job with these things."
Shepard snickered as the commando in front of her faithfully wrote down the notes. Praetorians will kill you fucking dead. Leave that shit to the krogans.
The ground forces were actually taking these informal lectures with admirable grace, the majority paying attention despite their unusual teachers. The crew of the Normandy had enough of a reputation to command respect even amongst the Matriarchs' commandos.
Shepard slipped out of the lecture hall, Jack's speech following.
"You would have to be retarded to get killed by a husk. If you're retarded, now is the time to leave."
Well, this could all be going a lot worse. Miranda was holed up on the Shepard splitting their forces into strike teams – a job that Shepard herself was thankfully excused from – and within the week they'd have a functioning army. Most of the ships had been provided by the geth, small strike cruisers and stealth vessels. The Shepard itself was becoming a mobile Reaper termination base, everything a person could want to kill a mechanical god.
She made for the elevator, pausing briefly outside the krogan lectures. Now there was a job she couldn't be paid to do.
"One charge will free you from a husk swarm. If you are killed by a husk, you're useless to me; better to die than pollute the galaxy with your presence," Grunt was saying. "Scions are slow moving. They use biotic attacks. A true krogan should not even stumble. If you get killed by a scion, you are useless to me, to Battlemaster Shepard and to clan Urdnot."
Ah, there was her baby boy. Krogan motivational speeches, they never grew old.
Unfortunately, it wasn't her baby boy that was the problem today. She'd be giving the suppressor lecture herself, except Thane had received a distressing message from Kolyat saying that he wanted to join the navy. Kids. She technically couldn't stop him, but she was sure as hell going to try. The last thing she needed was Kolyat on the front lines – neither she nor Thane would be able to concentrate, things would get confused, and God help her if he died.
So she had managed to arrange a meeting, see if she could talk sense into the kid. She'd spoken to the young drell once or twice since their first meeting; he seemed to accept her presence as his father's commanding officer as much as any teenager accepted an authority figure.
"It's perfectly alright to hide behind the geth in a harbinger situation," Tali's voice drifted out to her as she passed. "Machine gun fire will follow and the last thing you want is an exosuit puncture."
Legion cocked his head. "Hide behind a barrier instead, if possible."
The entire Exodus region had been cleaned up, and it was safe to walk the streets without a gun. The most important of the diplomats and ambassadors working on the Reaper operations were already on the station. Aria had stayed true to her word and the area was habitable. Shepard had stayed true to her word and the inhabitants were rather rich. The first of her crew's family were coming in, though most were putting it off until the last minute to avoid disrupting their lives more than necessary. She wasn't sure if she should be grateful that they had such faith in her or infuriated that they weren't taking the threat seriously. She'd wait another week before kidnapping them.
Kolyat had been situated in the middle of the area. His position as Bailey's aide was prestigious in this situation, affording him some of the better accommodations and, from what she'd heard, a hefty salary. Aria had made some snide remark about the step-child getting preferential treatment, which Shepard had promptly ignored. He was doing good work.
She knocked on the door to one of the apartments, hoping she'd remembered the number correctly. Everything on Omega looked the same.
Kolyat answered and let her inside without a greeting, dark eyes heavy with scepticism. She followed him into the darkened apartment, noting that he was looking like a real teenager, leathers abandoned in favour of a shirt and jeans. The same easy confidence as his father, minus the years of grief and battle sleep.
He gestured for her to sit down at a table and poured two cups of coffee, sliding one across to her – black, no sugar – then joined her.
They sat, nursing their drinks, for a long, silent moment.
"Do you visit all potential recruits personally?" he finally asked.
She shrugged, eyes on her coffee. "It's a tough job, but someone has to do it."
That earned her a soft laugh, a rumbling sound that she wished she could hear from Thane.
"You can't talk me out of this."
She laughed softly and without humour. "Despite what Thane thinks, I'm not here to talk you out of it. We're taking every recruit we can get, and my own son is fighting, so it would be pretty hypocritical of me to refuse to take you. I'm just here to talk to you, make sure you understand the situation."
"You're here because you're fucking my father," he said, just as she took a sip of her coffee.
Shepard choked, the coffee making its way into her nasal passage and causing her to splutter. She coughed, recovered, and laughed loudly. "Most people have at least some kind of rocket launcher handy before they mouth off to me like that."
"You're not going to kill me."
"Probably not. But the reworking of Omega's sewage system needs a field inspector, so don't tempt me."
Kolyat scowled. "Fine, give me whatever speech you have lined up. It's not going to make any difference."
She sipped at her coffee, letting the silence drag out a little. Bloody teenagers. She'd been just like him – queueing at the Alliance recruiter on her eighteenth birthday, ready to follow Anderson into the breach just to feel like she was fighting back against all the unfair things in the galaxy, to feel closer to the man who was like a father.
"Why do you want to join the navy?"
He clearly hadn't expected that question. "I... the Reapers are here. I can't just sit back and do nothing. Everyone who can carry a gun is fighting."
"And you feel like you're not doing enough here? Is Bailey underusing you?"
"No." Kolyat let out a frustrated sigh. "Do you know what it's like on Omega? People come in two types: refugees and killers. You're either a merc or a soldier, or you're a refugee, hiding behind a krogan so you don't get killed."
Ah, so he hadn't thought this through at all. No use upsetting him by trying to poke holes in his argument, he'd just get defensive and close down. Instead Shepard nodded, looking interested, as if she was conceding his point.
"Three types," she amended. "Refugees, killers, and krogans."
Kolyat scoffed, rolling his coffee mug between his hands. "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a krogan."
"That's what they said about me when I first landed on Tuchanka. Now I'm an Urdnot Battlemaster. Kill a thresher maw on foot and things change."
"Great, I'll go find one," Kolyat snarked, curling his upper lip in derision. "You don't understand. You're just like my father, trying to protect me when you know nothing about me."
"And you're just like my son, arguing the goddamn point with someone who knows better, only I'm being nice enough not to headbutt you for it."
"I'm not your son," he hissed.
Oops, hit a sore spot. She should have expected that. Still, it was time for him to harden up.
"No, you're not. My son would have the good sense to realise that my protection is not something to scoff at. You want to get out there, on the field, because it's glorious. You can turn to everyone you know and say 'I was there, I fought the Reapers, I laid down my life to defend the galaxy'. Well guess what? That isn't selfless, it's the very epitome of selfish."
"What the hell would you know?"
"I know that if Omega falls, then there is no armada, no number of soldiers that can make it right again. We're fighting out there to protect what is here. Everything that matters to me, to my crew, to everyone in that army, is right here, and you want to abandon it. That is not acting like a soldier."
Kolyat's eyes narrowed, his lip twitching in a snarl. Oh, she'd pissed him off but good now. She raised one eyebrow, challenging him, and took a long drink of her coffee. She had daily training in dealing with petulant teens, this one wouldn't break her.
"Who cares about this hellhole? The krogans will stop people getting killed, they don't need me here."
"I care about this hellhole. Look at me, Kolyat." She met his eyes, holding his gaze, boring into him. "A soldier's work isn't glorious. It's messy, it's underhanded and it's scary."
"I'm not afraid!"
"Well you should be. I'm scared shitless. So is everyone on the Normandy and the Shepard. Some of us have faced war for a decade, some for a millennium. We know what's coming and we're afraid. Not just for ourselves. We're scared because all the people we're fighting for, all the people we love, could die, or worse. We're scared so we put them in a place like this and pray that someone else will take care of them, because we can't. You're in a position to do something that none of us can, and you're pissing it against the wall. Thank whatever gods you pray to that you're not my son, because Thane is the only reason I am not pistol whipping you black and blue right now."
That seemed to shock a little sense into him. He jerked back at the table, his coffee sloshing over his hands, pout firmly etched onto his face. There was a hell of a lot of anger in this kid, and she couldn't blame him for that.
"Nice speech," he said, looking like he actually meant it.
"Thanks."
He contemplated his hands, than looked up at her. "Krogan, huh?"
"It's not a species, it's a state of mind. Standing between Omega and these refugees takes a quad, Krios."
He half smiled, the idea settling on him. "Like Aria."
"Exactly like Aria," she smiled back at him. "You're doing good work here. I appreciate it. My crew can keep their heads in the game because they're not worrying. We all have complete faith in you."
His smile grew and she knew she'd won. Kolyat Krios would live to see another day.
Some thought must have crossed his mind because he frowned, looking away again. She peered at him curiously but didn't ask; he's say what was on his mind when he was ready.
"How is he?" the drell asked.
Shepard's own smile fell. Thane had a coughing fit just that morning. The information blackout made it difficult for father and son to communicate. "Deteriorating. But stable, for now."
"How long does he have?"
"Another month, maybe two, before he's out of action. He's hoping to be able to see out the war, Doctor Chakwas thinks that's optimistic. I'm not sleeping with him, just so you know."
"Good. Mom wouldn't want... She wouldn't want to be forgotten."
Shepard bowed her head in respect for the dead. "You know that's not going to happen."
"Sometimes I don't know. I don't even know who he is sometimes." Kolyat cradled his head in his hands. This was hard for him, she'd been there.
"He loves you, and Irikah." Shepard tried, but Kolyat gave her a sceptical look. "Oh, come on. You know he does."
"Then why do I keep hearing rumours about him and you?"
Ah, dammit. She'd come here all primed up from an invigorating 'duty and faith' talk, not an 'I'm screwing around with your father' talk. She could sympathise, though. Survivor's guilt was hard, and she wrote the book on it.
"Kolyat... My parents died when I was a little younger than you are now. And my friends. And everyone else. But I found more people to love. And then they all died. But the third time... the third time I was the one who died. Alright, this isn't coming out how I wanted it to."
"No kidding."
She pressed a hand to her forehead, trying to think. He didn't look very amused by her inability to speak. "I loved my father more than any girl should. I was a complete daddy's girl. Commander Anderson rescued me from Mindoir and he looked after me until I was old enough to join the Alliance. I loved my father, but I knew that he wouldn't have wanted me to be without someone to guide me, to care for me. I never knew Irikah, and from what I understand that's my loss, but I don't think she would have wanted Thane to be lonely forever because she died. I don't think she'd want that for you, either."
Kolyat scrutinised her, eyes fluttering. She met his gaze evenly, not giving away the churning in her gut.
"I thought you said you weren't sleeping with him."
"I'm not. But I care for him, and he for me."
The teenager nodded. "Alright."
Shepard stood up, "So, I think that's everything. Thanks for the coffee, I have politicians to argue with. Nice seeing you again, Kolyat. I'll show myself out."
"Shepard," he nodded to her, obviously contemplating the many things she'd left him with.
She took the dark hallway to the door and headed out into the dank streets of Omega. The cool outside air hit her, creeping down under her suit and she sighed with relief. Hanging out with drell was an exercise in heat endurance.
To her surprise Thane was standing outside, awaiting her. He looked a nervous wreck, pacing, eyes fluttering, hand rubbing the back of his neck. She would have thought he was in a hospital waiting room rather than the middle of Omega. She was almost offended. He didn't think she could talk Kolyat out of joining the navy? She'd talked Saren into blowing his own brains out. He hadn't even noticed her yet. There was no sign quite like Thane losing track of his surroundings to tell her that he was out of sorts.
"Thane?" she asked.
"Siha," he breathed, taking the distance between them in two long strides.
"The lectures are finished already?"
"Please, siha, put me out of my misery," he begged. "Is Kolyat safe?"
She smiled, rolling her eyes playfully. "Who do you think you're talking to? I think I've made him a lifelong administrator."
Without warning he pulled her into a fierce hug, hands trembling with relief. She returned the hug, resting her cheek against the soft leather of his jacket and not particularly minding that he was crushing the air out of her. He smelled a lot nicer than Omega, anyway. A hand stroked her hair, she could almost feel his gratitude radiating through the touch.
"This is the second time you've saved my son," he whispered.
She opened her mouth to speak but all of a sudden he pulled back just enough to press his mouth to hers and her words turned into a decadent moan. Her eyes fluttered closed and she fell into the kiss, suddenly legless.
The kiss was amazing, hot, open, the kind of kiss that involved the swelling of orchestral music and an epic lens flare. He tasted like chilli chocolate, sweet and spicy, rough tongue leaving her mouth tingling like pop rocks. Her hands fisted in his jacket, she pulled his lower lip between her teeth, seeking more of him, before giving in once again to his demands, his jaw working, lips snagging hers, sucking, licking, loving.
Shepard faintly heard the distinctive click of a photo being taken, but she wouldn't have cared if al-Jilani and the entire news team had been standing right next to her. The whole world was spinning, Thane the only thing keeping her feet on the ground, an arm around her waist, pulling her close, one hand in her hair, cradling her. A groan that reverberated deep in his chest nearly buckled her knees, and he broke the kiss to wrap his other arm around her, keeping her from falling.
A whimper escaped Shepard's lips at the loss of contact and she stared into his eyes, their faces so close that she could see his irises. Their breath intermingled, coming in hard, short puffs, and she nearly forgot where they were until the murmur of onlookers broke the moment.
She looked around, stepping back as far as she could bear and readjusting her hair. They had attracted more than a few spectators, but what was far, far worse was that those spectators were purple. She might have forgotten about the hallucinogenic qualities of drell.
"Commander Shepard?" one asked.
Shepard looked at Thane, then back at the purple crowd they'd drawn, every last one of them wielding omni-tools.
"Motherfucker."
My heart is racing as you're moving closer
You take me higher with every breath I take
Would it be wrong to stay?
"Take Me On The Floor" - The Veronicas