Liara runs, weapons fire pinging around her feet and past her body. There's no way back up to the lifts due to the broken walkways and the geth are supported by a Krogan warlord. Liara runs into an area with a prothean console and quickly begins trying to understand it. She recognises a few commands and activates the barrier curtain. With a satisfying whoosh, the barrier raises. A moment later, Liara feels herself raise off the floor slightly as a blue haze picks her up. She tries to struggle but the aura holds her fast.
"Well done, Liara." she congratulates herself.
The Krogan walks up to the barrier and tries a shot at it. The shot just causes the barrier to ripple with little impact. Despite being suspended in the ancient trap, Liara is glad that the Krogan and his geth army are the other side of this barrier. This isn't like fending off disorganised bands of pirates. The geth will continue to bear down regardless of the fallen, they are remorseless, and a Krogan warlord is enough to strike fear in the hardiest of combatants. Liara is not even a combatant. She's had some training from Aria, and had to learn to defend herself on digs, but nothing like this.
"We'll find a way in there, don't you worry." the Krogan taunts.
Liara ignores him, looking around for any kind of way to get out of this prothean device. She's glad they leave, she wouldn't want to de-activate the trap only to release the barrier curtain. When they first found her, the Krogan had shouted about her mother, saying that she was with them and that Liara should come. He'd said something about her joining Saren's cause, but she assumed these were just tricks to lure her out and so she ran. She was right to run, but now she fears that she might starve here.
"There has to be some kind of release here."
But no matter how she tries, the aura keeps her fixed in place. After a few minutes struggling, Liara finally relaxes and lets the aura just support her weight. She needs to save her energy, who knows how long she might be here for. After a while, she begins to feel hungry and light headed. Since arriving here, she's not been able to eat and after all the running she has drained her resources. Liara feels herself drifting off.
As she reaches a state between consciousness and sleep, she thinks she hears shots from above. She wonders whether she actually heard it or if it was just her half dreams. She's not sure how long she's been dozing for. There are a further few shots. They don't sound like the weapons of the geth, nor the heavy shotgun of the Krogan. Liara hopes that the owners of these other weapons are friendly and not just more pirates.
She begins to hear voices drifting down from the levels above. Are those human voices? While not geth, humans may or may not be a good thing in her experience. Most have previously tried to kill her on her expeditions.
She hears the elevator coming down, then footsteps and several jumping down the broken walkway to her level. She risks calling out.
"Er... Hello? Can somebody help me? Please?"
Finally the unknown humans walk into her sight. Alliance soldiers, thank the goddess. One has striking yellow-blonde cropped hair, a hair colour that Liara hasn't seen before. She thinks it looks quite cute, all bright, short and wild on top of the evidently experienced Alliance officer. She's not sure if they've actually seen or heard her as they survey the area.
"Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped. I need help!"
Shepard turns to see Liara, shimmering behind the barrier and trap. Are those pink freckles? They're about the cutest thing that Shepard has ever seen. She tries not dwell on this; they are there to bring her in if necessary and find out what she knows about Benezia's connections with Saren. But she is beautiful. Shepard feels straight away that this isn't the same way that she usually thinks asari are beautiful. Most would agree that they have yet to meet an asari who isn't so. But this asari, Dr Liara T'Soni, excites Shepard. She reassures Liara.
Liara is a little taken aback that they know her, the blonde one calls her by name and announces herself as Commander Shepard. Liara wonders what this is about but right now she needs to get out of the trap and explain her plight. Shepard quickly questions her about her mother and their involvement with the Spectre, Saren. This explains the Krogan's shouts earlier but she tells Shepard that she doesn't know why Benezia would have joined Saren. She hasn't seen her mother in person for nearly thirty years. She is too light headed to take all this in. The group of humans leaves to attempt to find a route to her.
She watches helplessly as they engage the geth below among the mining equipment. As a unit, they take down the geth with precision. Liara is quite impressed by the officer's biotic powers as Shepard throws out warps to weaken them, intermittently firing her pistol. The male human also has powerful biotic attacks. The dark haired female uses her sniper rifle to attack the geth and has precision aiming. Indeed, this blonde human and her squad would be a force to be reckoned with and Liara is glad that they are Alliance and not pirates.
The sound of gunfire dies down for a few minutes followed by a huge rumbling and the sound of heavy mining equipment. A few moments more and the group of humans appear behind her on a still working prothean elevator. Liara directs them to the panel that she is sure will release her. Shepard hits the switch and Liara falls to the ground, the trap now defeated. They return to the elevator to make their escape. Upon asking if the humans know why the geth are chasing her, the dark haired female makes a sarcastic comment about Liara, calling her 'Miss Prothean Expert'. She wants to confront her but without knowing human behaviour well, decides to let it pass.
Suddenly the whole facility shakes amongst deep grinding booms. The Commander contacts the ship's pilot to request immediate pick up and the group begin to ascend on the large elevator. Upon reaching the top, the Krogan warlord and his geth are waiting for them, demanding the asari doctor. Liara is surprised that Shepard fiercely defends her, she likes it. She doesn't like the ensuing skirmish as she cowers. Shepard and her squad make short work of these enemies and they rush towards the exit, as the facility begins to shake itself apart. They barely make it out in time.
Once aboard the Normandy, Liara gets the impression that not everyone aboard is happy with her appearance, particularly Ashley. As she tries to explain the mysteries of the protheans, some of the humans roll their eyes in boredom. They don't even try to hide it. The news of the protheans ultimate demise shocks her. She'd discovered the cycle in clues left by the protheans, but discovering that the Reapers had been the cause, wiping out sentient life every fifty thousand years, is overwhelming. The male human, Kaidan, recognises that she is tired and hungry, so they can't be all bad, she thinks. Shepard advises her to see Doctor Chakwas, just as a precaution.
Liara is slapping her forehead as she does when embarrassed.
"What are you doing, Liara? Most humans you have met so far tried to shoot your head off. You do not know anything about them."
Liara doesn't know quite why she has become so close to the Commander so quickly. While the rest of the crew seem either to not trust her or are only interested in her biotics, the Commander had come to see her and shown a real concern and interest in her. After working alone at dig sites for so long, it was nice to have someone to chat with who showed such attentiveness.
Fifty years of study at university and searching the galaxy for prothean clues, now this human has untold secrets from the prothean beacon locked in her mind. Liara internally debates whether this is her interest, rather than romantically. She is still new to this, but she thinks she feels a lot more than purely scientific intrigue. Perhaps the Commander is indeed correct, that these things do sometimes just happen when you least expect it. She hopes so, it feels nice.
It also feels terrifying. Liara is still quite young and inexperienced in matters of love, and tries not to think about the physical aspects. Her experience of sexuality so far entailed swinging her hips, teasing the crowd of the Afterlife club on Omega. She'd rather forget that experience anyway.
"One hundred and six, hmmm, one hundred and six." Verity says to herself in her quarters, pondering if there is any significance to the age difference.
Liara seems mature and intelligent, though a little reserved. When the asari had previously stated she was interested in studying the Commander, Verity couldn't resist the joke, and Liara's flustered reaction was priceless and endearing.
Shepard is still in elation that the beautiful young doctor has expressed an interest in her. She played it pretty cool at the time, saying sometimes these things just happen between two people. Despite only knowing Liara for a short time, Verity feels a warmth over herself unlike any she's felt before. It is all very overwhelming. Added to that the haste with which events have taken place, she is feeling quite confused. The attack on Eden Prime by the massive unknown ship, skirmishes on the Citadel investigating Saren, joining the ranks of the Spectres, and now finding Liara, it has been quite a week.
Verity has cautioned herself, to be certain that she is not just diving into the first asari relationship that presents itself for the wrong reasons. But there is a charm about Liara, she's sure that she does like that for the right reasons. More than that, she is attracted to the young asari. Her hurt about Benezia's alliance with Saren was evident in their conversations, and the Commander felt she wanted to comfort her and protect Liara from harm.
Is this the time to be looking for love, while Saren seeks to enable the Reapers to destroy all life in the galaxy? Would it be selfish to pursue this?
For now they both agreed that this would not be the time to allow themselves to give in to their urges, but both wish that circumstances were different, that they could discover so much more about each other with abandon.