Garrus: Therum
Garrus stood in the briefing room, facing the massive Wrex, the slight Tali, Kaidan—whom he was beginning to like—and the stern-faced Ashley (whom he found… difficult… at best).
Tavia sat in the chair next to his, exuding ease and attentiveness.
"The mission is on a planet called Therum in the Caleston Rift," Garrus declared. "We're attempting to retrieve a researcher at a dig there, Liara T'Soni."
"Why?" Wrex asked.
Garrus drew his mandibles against his jaw before deciding to be up-front about this. If he had bridges to mend, secrets that didn't absolutely need to be secrets were out. "She's Matriarch Benezia's daughter and a person of interest. As you may or may not know, Matriarch Benezia is a supporter of our prime objective, Saren Arterius."
"So she's either in league with them or…" Kaidan waved.
"Exactly. And if it's 'or' I'd like to make sure it stays 'or'," Garrus responded. "Tavia."
Tavia got to her feet as he sat down, and turned on the main display screen. "This is Dr. T'Soni," she announced, the screen filling with the image of a pretty asari with big eyes and freckles. From the looks of it, it was a holo taken from some kind of graduation. "The dig site is for Prothean ruins. That's what Dr. T'Soni studies, the Protheans."
Garrus said nothing, but Lina's advice remained in his mind: get a Prothean expert, preferably an asari. He hadn't mentioned the topic to Tavia, but he couldn't help but think that this suddenly-revealed daughter was… fortuitous.
He also didn't like to think what Tavia would say if he suggested what Lina had suggested. She'd shot at him once because she hadn't liked his attitude. He would like to think their relationship had improved since then… but he had no desire to find himself on the opposite end of her right hook.
"So what if she turns out to be one of Saren's agents, like her mom?" Ashley asked. "Or worse, a sleeper?"
"We'll take the necessary precautions, Chief," Tavia answered simply. "But Councilor Tevos seemed to think that Dr. T'Soni was less of a security risk than her mother and might, since we're dealing with Prothean tech, be useful in unraveling some of the… intricacies… thereof."
So, she hadn't told them about her experiences with the beacons. He'd have to remember that, avoid letting anything slip. As it had been a sensitive subject with her previously, there was no reason it shouldn't remain so.
"Wait," Ashley frowned. "We're running the Council's—"
"This is a Spectre's mission. Chief," Kaidan put in blandly.
Ashley made a face at him, then turned to Tavia.
"As master-at-arms it is your responsibility to think in that direction, Williams. You've shared your view, and I accept it as valid. I have some concerns myself." Tavia declared with calm firmness.
Ashley settled back, not placated, not satisfied, but resigned.
"I understand your concerns about Dr. T'Soni, but I don't think we should write her off just yet. And if she is a liability, I want her where we can see her. I would not object to you keeping a watchful eye on our… guest."
That, at least, seemed to satisfy Ashley.
A prickly pair, Garrus thought blandly. Definitely.
"Aye-aye, Skipper," Ashley announced, possibly for the benefit of the room at large, as Tavia seemed to take it for granted that the matter was settled. "Except for Tali, everyone's going."
Garrus didn't miss the spasm that crossed Tavia's face as she reminded herself that she wasn't part of 'everyone.'
"I'll be in your ears again. There have been revisions to the team dynamic since our last operation, and I'm confident that this will go smoothly from the logistical end."
Nervousness from everyone in the room but Wrex, Tavia, and Garrus himself. "Our objective is to secure the doctor," he took over. "And to do so as safely as possible for all involved. As your humans say: ensure peace by preparing for war."
This made Ashley nod her approval.
"Hope for the best, expect the worst," Kaidan mused. "I like it."
"I don't," Wrex grunted.
"I'm sure you'll have plenty of chances to show off, Wrex. No need to rush into playing the hero," Tavia responded mildly.
"I'm already a hero, Shepard. That's the beauty of redundant organs," Wrex leered.
"I love having my own biotic bullet magnet," Tavia announced lightly, which caused Wrex to laugh, a sound that unsettled Garrus and, if he was at all accurate in judging such things, didn't do much for the others' sense of security.
Tavia alone seemed unaffected. "If you're done briefing them, Garrus, I'd like to send them to get armored and get set up in here."
"Agreed," Garrus nodded.
"Dismissed," Tavia declared.
Garrus waited until everyone but Tali, Tavia, and himself remained. "You're sure you have the krogan—Wrex—under control?" Garrus asked, hastily remembering to use the krogan's—Wrex's—name instead of species. He hadn't realized how common it was to refer to Wrex as 'the krogan' or Tali as 'the quarian', as if they weren't individual sapients. "He's not exactly a stabilizing element… and we don't have enough of those."
"I wouldn't worry about Wrex," Tavia answered. "He'll play ball."
"Your humanisms…" Garrus sighed.
"You should break out the turianisms sometime, see what kind of snarls of communication those cause," Tavia suggested lightly.
"You're in a good mood this afternoon," Garrus noted as Tavia pulled her box of gear out from behind her chair and began the process of setting up her command hub.
"I am. We got a lot squared away in the past few days, and I'm hopeful about this mission. I have a good feeling."
At least one of them did. He watched her hands, noted the absence of nervous tremors. Well, that was reassuring; he'd take what he could get.
"Commander, we just dropped out of FTL above Therum," Joker announced, "and we've got a problem."
"Problem?" Tavia asked, tensing. She exchanged a worried look with Garrus.
They hadn't even landed yet. So much for Tavia's 'good feeling.' He wanted to laugh, even though it wasn't really funny.
"Yeah. I'm registering a geth ship in low atmo. Lots of geth on the ground. Scans indicate there's some kind of refinery… and the dig site is near that. That's also where the geth are concentrating."
"That's bad no matter how you slice it," Tavia mused. "Better make sure the loadout is synthetic friendly."
"Very friendly," Garrus agreed, his innards tensing.
"Here's my eye in the sky." Tavia handed it over. "Be careful out there."
"Just keep us from walking into any ambushes and we'll be fine," Garrus responded, finding the whole conversation odd. It wasn't like the last pre-mission talk they'd had.
"Okay. Let's get this done." With that, Tavia and Tali went back to setting up, Tavia grim-faced, Tali silent but efficient.
Tavia: First Contact
"I have eyes on the doctor," Garrus declared. "She doesn't seem to be hurt… but I don't think that's a position she willingly climbed into."
"And those geth were definitely not friendly. Let me go down and take a look. If they start shooting, at least you'll know where to return fire." It was strange looking at a three dimensional world through a two-dimensional screen, but Tavia made the best of it, directing her drone to bob lightly down along the numerous catwalks.
Therum had gone smoothly so far. The heat was bad—even Garrus thought so—but the geth were worse. Especially the jumpy ones—though Kaidan and Wrex had quickly become the most adept at dealing with them, being able to do more than just point and shoot. Holding them still solved a lot of problems.
And Wrex was a heavy-hitter when it came to bigger varieties of geth. Tavia hadn't expected so many different forms, but when she thought about it, it shouldn't have surprised her. With the geth form clearly followed function.
Down, down, through the cavern system into which the ruins intruded, the red rock slowly gave way to architecture.
Architecture that, oddly enough, reminded her of public bathrooms: lots of white tile and blue-tinted light to make the space seem bigger (and cleaner) than it was.
Dr. Liara T'Soni was in one of these white-tiled, blue-lit nooks. More specifically, she was behind a barrier and seemed to be imprisoned in some sort of Prothean… thing. The doctor struggled, as if trying to bring the source of all the shooting into view, but without apparent luck. She kept biting her lip and wrinkling up her nose, then struggling again as if doing so could get her loose.
Suddenly, she saw the little drone. "Hello?" she called, her voice shaky. "Hello? Is anyone-anyone out there? I need assistance!"
That much was obvious.
"Shepard to team: I'm bringing the doctor into this conversation. She's on an open channel."
"Understood. I've got a line of sight on you both," Garrus responded.
"Same here, Skipper." Williams put in. "Wrex and Alenko are working their way down ahead of us."
Tavia cued her drone, felt the mobile holo-capture before which she stood activate. "I'm here," she said, in response to the doctor's question as the drone projected her image.
The asari's eyes grew very wide as Tavia moved her hologram close to the barrier.
"I'm Commander Tavia Shepard, mission coordinator."
"I-I'm Dr. Liara T'Soni."
She looked very young, Tavia thought blandly. It wasn't that her face was young, but something in her mannerisms and the way she spoke suggested youth and inexperience. "All right, Dr. Liara T'Soni. We're here to help you… so how exactly do we do that? I've never seen one of these before." She kept her tone friendly and level, as if she didn't know that this was the daughter of one of Saren's allies.
The way the geth had behaved so far suggested Dr. T'Soni was not part of Saren's big plan… not while alive, anyway. In fact, it looked like she was a liability. Did Benezia know? Or was the Matriarch in the dark on this point?
"Listen, this thing I am in? It's a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I-I need you to get me out of here. All right?"
"That is the plan," Tavia agreed. "How'd you get in there, if you don't mind my asking?"
The asari's cheeks suffused with purple. She answered promptly, with no hesitation, but it was not the jumped into response of someone who'd learned a part by heart. "I was exploring the ruins when the geth showed up, so I hid in here." Then, and Tavia could almost hear a 'squee' of delight, "Can you believe that? Geth! Beyond the Veil!"
"Ye-es, they're beginning to be a bit of a problem."
"You mean there have been more—" the girl began eagerly.
"Why don't we discuss the specifics later?" Tavia suggested, seeing that the aberration in behavior was suddenly far more interesting than the girl's current predicament.
"Ah, yes…" The asari shifted as best she could, which was not much. "I, ah, activated the tower's defenses. I knew the barrier curtain would keep geth and their handler out."
"Handler?" Tavia asked, frowning. "An organic handler? Turian?"
"It's too much to hope," Garrus rumbled in Tavia's ear.
"No," the asari responded, surprised, "a krogan. A particularly uncouth krogan."
"Hmph. That's all relative. He's probably just loud," Wrex put in.
"Excuse me a moment, Doctor," Tavia held up a finger. "Come on, Wrex, you're an acquired taste. Why should any other krogan be any different?"
"You didn't come alone…" the asari declared, surprised.
"Is that a problem?"
"Hardly, I was beginning to wonder how you'd do anything if you didn't have actual hands." The doctor's laugh was feeble, making Tavia wonder how long she'd been trapped there.
"Ask her if that barrier thing was supposed to trap her like that," Garrus declared.
"Was that device supposed to snatch you up like that?" Tavia asked obediently.
"No-o," the asari's whole face turned purple as she rolled her eyes upward, then to one side as she struggled not to look at Tavia's holographic projection. "I… must have hit something I wasn't supposed to."
"You know, if she's lying, and she's part of Saren's cadre… she's got a really convincing act,"Kaidan noted blandly.
"Hmph. I'm not buying in," Ashley grunted. "Little too heavy on the damsel in distress thing; she's working it too hard."
"I like you as a devil's advocate, Williams, and thank you Alenko, for your input. Let's just get her out and get her onto the ship… she's looking at me like I'm hearing multiple voices." Tavia wouldn't say so, but the crossfire between her team and her need to pay attention to Dr. T'Soni and her predicament was beginning to give her a headache.
She was out of practice, she thought sourly.
"You are," Garrus rumbled cheekily, the sentiment unknowingly corroborating with her mental aside.
Well, she was on both counts, and Tavia had to repress a smile. "I'll get you for this, Garrus," Tavia muttered under her breath before ignoring Garrus' unrepentant chuckle. It was a versatile sound, she decided, and Ashley would mistrust it immediately, it being equally sinister or reassuring, depending on the conditions. For her part, she rather liked it. "Sorry… the crew I'm with are real cut-ups."
"I… see."
Garrus: Bright Idea
By now, Garrus and his team had worked their way down to the cavern floor, without alerting or picking up signs of any geth presence. Or krogan presence, for that matter. He glanced at Wrex; for a split second he wondered if Wrex would have a problem fighting a fellow krogan… then realized that he, himself, had absolutely no problem in running down a fellow turian (which would probably end in said turian's ignominious death for purposes of operational prudence). He mothballed the question as being highly inappropriate.
"There is a control in here that should deactivate this… thing," the Matriarch's daughter continued, her voice distorted and a little faint since it came through Tavia's open channel. "You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain."
"Tavia, can you shut them down like you did with Fist's security?"
"Is there a control panel I can use to do that?" Tavia relayed to the doctor obediently.
"Yes, but it's in here. With me. The defenses cannot be shut off from the outside… I don't-I don't see how you'll get in here."
"Hey, we're good at getting into places we shouldn't be. Even better at getting out again," Tavia soothed.
"Tavia, there's a mining laser down here," Garrus began, regarding the machine thoughtfully.
"Geth!" Ashley barked, ducking behind the nearest outcrop and opening fire.
"Damn."
"What is it? What's happening?" The asari demanded, her voice spiking with fear.
"My team is doing their job. We need to keep this line quiet for a moment."
Garrus appreciated that—it would have been distracting to no end to have Tavia chatting with the asari while he was trying to pick off the most annoying of geth, their little drones. "We need to put a gun on that thing of yours, Tavia!" he declared, once the shooting stopped.
"I would love to have a gun on this thing. If you can manage it, feel free."
"There's a mining laser down here," Garrus resumed his train of thought from before the ambush. "What if we breech the wall and send you around to have a look at the security system? You take your look and we'll decide how to proceed once we catch up."
"That's reasonable. Inventive, too."
This was definitely better than the dry run.
Garrus hiked over to the laser. "I'm putting it down and to your right."
"Doctor, I'm going to have to leave you now, but this shouldn't take long." Tavia's projection vanished and the drone moved off to the right. "Looks like there was some kind of lift shaft behind the doctor. I'm not sure where the platform is."
"Lucky that drone has mobility," Garrus agreed. "Move out of the way. Firing in three, two, one…"
The laser hit the stone near the stack of niches and, after a few protracted moments, Tavia declared that they were through.
"See you on the other side."
Tavia: Dr. T'Soni
"Okay, the elevator's on the level above Dr. T'Soni. I'll see what I can do with the security fields and then send it down for you," Tavia declared as she cued the drone to project her image again. "See? No time at all, as promised," she declared to the doctor.
The girl struggled to turn around, but the effort was as futile as any other she'd made to date. "That's a relief," she answered, trying and failing to sound chipper.
"Garrus, I'm sending you the elevator first. This system is a little… complicated," Tavia declared after sending her drone to take it in from several different angles, before creating a remote uplink between the panel and one of her several interfaces. "This thing is… weird…"
"Oh!" the doctor squeaked, the sound followed by a dull thud as something solid hit the floor.
Tavia looked up from her prodding of the system, turning her drone's camera to see that the security bubble—or whatever it was, had suddenly deactivated. "Ah. There we go." She abandoned her fiddling and brought her hologram to stand near the doctor.
"And here we go," Garrus announced.
Tavia turned to watch him, with Wrex at the back, Kaidan and Ashley flanking him, prowl off the elevator's plate. "This Garrus Vakarian," Tavia announced, "he's the man with the plan."
"And… in that case who…?" the girl's blue face scrunched up as she climbed out of her undignified sprawl.
"Tavia handles tech and public relations," Garrus answered blandly as he gently helped the doctor to her feet. "Are you hurt at all, doctor?"
"No… no I'm fine…" the girl shuffled back from him, glancing at Tavia's hologram for reassurance.
"Tali, I'm sending you a bioscan. Confirm that for me?" Tavia asked, not looking away from her displays.
"She's a little dehydrated, probably needs some food and rest, but your scans show she's alright. As far as I can tell," Tali answered promptly.
"Garrus," Tavia switched to a private line. "Tali says bioscans read normal, but the doctor's under some physical stress—no need for a scan to tell us that. However, scans do say she needs some looking-after. We should bring her back here before we start asking her questions. Let Dr. Chakwas have a look at her."
Tavia withdrew her drone, satisfied that Garrus had Dr. T'Soni's undivided attention and would not miss her. Up the elevator shaft she went, finding that it let out into a large room. Beyond that, she could see the outside world… and geth. Lots of them. And, as she watched, the krogan battlemaster who seemed to be in a towering temper arrived.
"Doctor Chakwas?" Tali asked softly from behind Tavia. "Prepare for a patient—nothing critical, just for a precautionary checkup… Not at all. Tavia? Dr. Chakwas will be ready whenever they are."
"Thank you," Tavia responded, re-opening the public channel. "Our best way out is through—"
"Let's get you out of here," Garrus declared in what Tavia recognized as a soothing cop tone. Good. He was learning to play his strengths and not rely on dubious mystique. "Before more geth show up."
"I would greatly appreciate it," Dr. T'Soni answered devoutly.
"Tavia?" Garrus asked. From the way his helmet camera swung around, she could tell he was looking for her projection or the drone.
"I'm scouting you a way out. The elevator will take you to the surface, but there's about a dozen geth and the krogan the doctor mentioned swarming all over it. They're waiting for—what was that?" Tavia demanded as everyone's video feed shook.
Voices of distress mingled, and Dr. T'Soni stumbled, tripped, and landed on her backside, only to be helped up again, this time by Kaidan.
"Quake?" Ashley asked, her voice sharpening with fresh adrenaline.
"I think we broke something…" Kaidan said at almost the same time.
"Hmph. Nice one, turian."
"Might be me, but they'll blame you, Wrex. Your reputation as a sentient wrecking ball remains intact," Garrus shot back before seamlessly redirecting himself to the matter at hand. "Okay, though the geth, through the krogan. Tavia, get Joker down here for a hot pickup. I think we're going to need it."
Tavia switched to the helmsman's channel, cutting off Wrex's approving laugh. She was so happy he was happy… "Joker, lock onto the team's locators and swing as close as you can. We need to extract them immediately. Conditions might get dicey."
"Moving into position now, Commander. ETA: five minutes."
"Garrus, best time I can do is five minutes," Tavia relayed, her hands beginning to shake. "Hopefully we'll arrive before you do."
She hated watching combat without being able to help…
Tavia: Post-Operation
Tavia and Tali arrived in the cargo bay moments after Dr. Chakwas pronounced the ground team in good stead. "Anyone hurt?" Tavia demanded.
"Little singed," Garrus answered, his mandibles seeming to fall open in what might have been an 'I can't believe we did that' smile. "But we're okay."
"Too close, Vakarian," Joker drawled grimly, "a couple more minutes and we'd have been swimming in molten sulfur. Landing in exploding volcanos tends to do nasty things to starships, like melting our hulls."
Tavia caught Garrus' eye and discreetly jerked her head towards the intercom; it wouldn't do her any good to mouth 'say something' at him since they didn't use the same base language.
Joker lived up to his name in more ways than once, but the one thing he never joked about was the Normandy. His ship. The devotion to the hunk of metal bordered on fanatical, Tavia mused. Any more focused and he'd end up with some kind of ship-loving psychosis. She'd heard of object fixations.
But this was the perfect moment for Garrus to start—if not mending fences—at least interacting with his crew like a regular sapient.
"That's why the Alliance stationed you here, Joker," Garrus noted blandly. "Because people like me specialize in batshit crazy and it takes a pilot of your caliber to cope."
A moment of silence. Garrus never called Joker 'Joker'; it was always 'Flight Lieutenant' or 'Lieutenant Moreau.' "Well. There is that," the pilot allowed almost suspiciously, as though he mistrusted Garrus' humor and rather blatant compliment.
Discreetly, even more discreetly than with her nod, Tavia gave Garrus the thumbs up… then wondered if it was one of those things that differed in meaning between societies.
"We nearly die," Dr. T'Soni said shakily, looking from Tavia to Garrus to Kaidan and back. "And your pilot is making jokes?"
"Joker pulled our collective asses out of the fire," Garrus responded evenly. "I think he's entitled to a few bad jokes."
Joker chuckled at this, but said nothing. There was an ominous sound that suggested he had a couple… but they weren't for some portion or another of present company.
Tavia turned her head to hide her smirk. Better, Garrus, much better, she mused complacently.
"All right, let's get everyone armored down and debriefed. Dr. Chakwas?" Garrus asked as personnel began milling about.
"I'd like to take Dr. T'Soni to the medbay for a few routine diagnostics," Dr. Chakwas declared, more as if thinking out loud than answering Garrus' statement. "Once I'm satisfied, then you can ask her any questions you might have."
"Sounds good. Thank you, Doctor," Garrus announced, getting to his feet and stretching. "Alenko. Williams. Good job. Tavia, a word, please."
"Whatever you say, Spectre," Tavia answered, following Garrus to the elevators while Kaidan and Ashley moved for the gear lockers to armor down.
Garrus: Hard Request
Garrus led them behind the Mako and Tavia gave a discreet signal to the technicians locking it down: lock it down, then hang back for a minute.
"You're being strangely cryptic, Garrus," Tavia noted once Garrus stood there for several minutes, waving his mandibles and scowling. She crossed her arms. "Whatever it is, I think I can take it."
But take it how? "Shepard. Dr. T'Soni is an asari Prothean expert," Garrus began slowly, watching his fingers drumming on his arm rather than look at her.
"Yeah. I got that. Remember who pulled her data?"
Garrus looked up, his bright blue eyes meeting hers. "It is possible that she might be able to make sense of the… of the junk in your head."
The blood rushed out of Tavia's face, leaving her pale and pasty. "The last time we did that—"
"The last time we did that it was an interface with a Prothean artifact. This is… different," the turian argued lamely, aware of how lame his argument really was and hating himself for having brought it up without a better train of thought behind it.
"Go fuck yourself," Tavia answered shortly, her crossed arms becoming more of a protective gesture than simply somewhere for her arms to be besides hanging down. "With a cactus." The idea of having any of the crap in her head stirred up again clearly left her frightened and probably nauseous.
He didn't blame her.
"I'm not asking you to volunteer—although I am asking. I'm willing to make it a trade agreement. Something you need for something I need." He leaned forward to whisper near her ear a promise his bosses would probably kill him over. "Help me with this, this once, and anything I learn about Cerberus, retroactive from today until the day I can't use a terminal, is yours. I'll be your pipeline if anything turns up—during the mission of ex post facto."
Tavia's eyes widened, her mouth opening slightly as she weighed the promise and the favor. She had only begun sifting through the reports Garrus had assembled, sketchy as they were, and already she knew the name. Cerberus, an Alliance Black Ops team, had gone off the reservation. They were suspected in several high profile 'accidents' and several more highly unpleasant incidents. He could almost see the thoughts as if stamped on her face: he had her by the hair and he knew it, but she couldn't quite bring herself to call him a smug turian bastard.
"I don't really want to ask you to do this," Garrus admitted. "That's why I'm proposing a trade."
"You haven't misled me yet," Tavia said darkly.
"And I never will." Hesitantly, he took her arm in one three-fingered hand, squeezing gently. The muscle was firm, encasing strong bones. "I'm not asking you to do this alone, either. I'll be right there, and if anything goes wrong—anything—I'll put a stop to it and we'll just find another way. If there's no other way, then we'll just go with what we've got."
Tavia nodded, comforted but not reassured. To restore a sense of normalcy she cuffed him on the shoulder. "I like it when you wear your cop hat."
"I pulled it out just for you."
Special thanks to Mai-Danishgirl for catching an error in the narrative.