Chapter 12

Garrus watched as the Normandy left, carrying with it memories of his past exploits.

He laughed, "you could have just told him Ashley was the other SPECTRE."

"And spoil the surprise?" demanded Vega, "not on your life Scars."

Tali shook her head, leaning against Garrus, "I see you haven't lost your funny way with names. Why am I 'Sparks' again?"

"Er," blushed Vega, "uhm, because you're jumpy, and your helmet's shiny…right?"

"Are you discriminating against a quarian Admiral, Officer Vega?"

"Uhm, NO!" foundered the poor man, "you know it's not like that Tali…I mean Admiral…I…uhm…"

Garrus chuckled, "huh, you actually put him at a loss for words. He can usually bullshit his way out of anything."

Tali patted Vega on the shoulder, "it's alright James, I'm kidding."

"Oh, right," spattered the large man, "haha…"

Before Garrus could embarrass the poor human any further, a chime rang out on the turian's omnitool.

He tapped the button on his wrist, and his right arm was surrounded in a yellow holographic interface. A screen resolved above his arm, showing him the face of an attractive young brunette.

"Orianna Lawson," said the turian, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

The woman nodded, "glad to see you Major Vakarian, sorry it's on short notice, but I've got something urgent. My sister just received an incomplete transmission from one of our agents out past the Terminus Systems."

"Did it get garbled during FTL communications?" asked Tali, "usually the Mass Relay networks are more reliable."

"I don't know Admiral Zorah," answered the woman, "someone may have tried to jam the signal. What I DO know is that the entire squad we sent out died trying to broadcast the transmission."

"Where the hell were they?" demanded Vega.

"Don't know," said Orianna, "the message was encoded within a data packet. One of our communications hubs, a few Relay Jumps from here, should have saved a backup before sending it out."

"Did you send someone out to get the package?" continued Garrus.

Orianna nodded, "My sister sent our chief technical advisor, Kasumi Goto. She gave us what little knowledge she had, before her feed was cut. She said she needed backup."

"Damn it," spat Garrus, "Kasumi doesn't spook easily, how soon until the Dover is ready?"

"Miranda and Zaeed Massani are currently loading the crew onto the ship," said Orianna, "and the turian Officer helping us with the weapons systems is already there as well."

"So, you're just waiting for us," said Garrus, "we're on our way."

"Is Miranda sure she wants to come?" asked Tali, "doesn't she have work here?"

The Quarian didn't HATE the head of Orthos, she just didn't know if the woman would see eye to eye with her, considering past history between Cerberus and the Quarian Flotilla.

"Jacob Taylor and I have things well in hand," answered Orianna.

"Besides," issued Miranda's voice, "I didn't trust anybody else but Kasumi with the Orthos ciphers…"

"So we may need on-the-spot decrypting," reasoned the quarian, "I'll make sure to start working on a translation algorithm as soon as I'm on board, if you're ready for me."

"I'd be grateful, Tali," replied Miranda, "see you when you get here…"

"Well," laughed Garrus, "it's just like old times again."

"Keelah," swore Tali, "I hope not…"