Citadel Stories, Book 0 "Warm ghosts"
Chapter 14: Assured Destruction
Death-blow. Pardon such behavior
Ashley was still looking out the habitat window at Normandy in Cerberus livery.
"Really good paint job, Joker."
"Even the hands cupping the world," agreed Miri. "Were you wielding the masking tape?"
"EDI did most of it. From memory. I reckon Shep might even have a quiet smile - after scolding me. Besides, it's not anodizing. We can clean it off when we're done."
Ash looked back from the window. "So this isn't intended to last?"
"No. It might have been, it's irritating how people forgot Cerberus actually made her."
EDI was right beside Joker at this point, and took his hand.
"But the fact is, that's only a paint job, and not even anti-flash paint. It won't last six months with the ultraviolet it'll get."
"Okay," said Ashley. "That's acceptable. Are we done?"
"No, we're not. You know, Miri," Joker said slowly, "there's a way around marooning for you."
"Moreau! Keep in mind the problem with Lazarus envy. What's the protocol?"
"It maroons people who get the treatments, so they're outside society. People would want to come after you, is that the problem?"
"Yes. In a nutshell. Something similar happened with the first anti-aging recipients."
"So scare the living bejeezus out of every human alive, Miri. You're good at that."
"Never mind humanity. What happens if other species, except for certain individuals, get wind of me? Krogan in particular have a problem with population."
"Well, I guess they wouldn't be happy with the Lawson legacy. Oh crap, I see. Us asking them to restrict their numbers would look like hypocrisy."
"If some of us can lead indefinitely long lives, yes," said Ash. "Fortunately, under Wrex and Bakara the Krogans have passed the demographic transition. It took a weird form, but they got there."
"Also, the envy's not so bad if there's just me."
Ash nodded. "I suppose. Wrex and Bakara have been pretty good about it so far."
"No, they're not anymore. There's something you should know."
"Say what?"
"It's why Tevos wants to talk so bad. I need to frighten some krogan!"
Suddenly he had the close attention of both Miri and Ash:
"Kelly did say something about you bluffing?"
"Why else do you think Normandy is in Cerberus colors?"
Warriors, victims
By the time Traynor's crew had returned from re-establishing QEC links down the rabbit-hole and to Overlord, they were hungry. Joker would have ground his teeth to see so much of his supplies disappearing down the gullets of Grunt and Vega, but in this instance they all had bigger problems – though only their officers knew about them, and they seemed to be keeping their own counsel.
Minerva took the watch duty that night. To his surprise, Joker slept well, perhaps subconsciously feeling better for adult supervision.
The 'adults' didn't get much sleep. But plans of a sort began to gel before bedtime finally arrived. The briefing next morning wasn't what the crew expected:
"We're not going back down the rabbit-hole – yet. Shepard's orders, as of now." Ashley then called on EDI to summarize the concerns of Tevos about trouble brewing among the krogan, and how this had provided leverage to get the Normandy back in business.
With Grunt, she had to use words of few syllables:
"The krogan demilitarized zone's been militarized after the Reaper war. There's no more CDEM to stop krogan constructing warships. Council options are few."
"The turians are going to use another planet-busting bomb?!"
"No, but if you think of it that way you will get some idea. There's more than one."
"And the salarians are going to use another genophage?!"
"Oh, much, much worse than the genophage."
"And we're going to let that happen?"
Grunt looked hunted. A bit pathetic, actually. Joker still couldn't resist:
"Only to the bad guys, Grunt."
"We're all bad guys!"
"Tell that to Bakara. Alternatively, remember Wreav?"
"A thresher maw got him. Wreav was a pain in the ass."
"Exactly my point! If you and Wrex think that, it must be true! Who cares, said Wrex! Totally replaceable, is the point."
Grunt glared at Joker, who felt somewhat vindicated. Grunt's demolishing of his bug-out line had not been a very good joke at all. Ashley had been sitting hunched forward, hands clasped on knees. Now, without looking up, she simply said, low:
"Moreau. That's not going to work." Joker became abruptly aware that no-one else seemed to think this was funny. Chambers in particular looked unhappy, which probably meant he'd gone too far.
"Sorry, Grunt. No, we're not going to let it happen. That's why the Normandy's done up in Cerberus colors. I'm just not sure how to avoid being genocidal."
Ways and means
Grunt relaxed. The room perceptibly relaxed. 'Miri', leaning oh-so-casually by the door, asked: "What was your plan, then?"
"To be honest, EDI and I never had time to discuss it before you lot turned up."
"But you did have a plan."
"It would have been somewhat contingent upon events," EDI remarked.
"What's that?" –asked Grunt.
"They didn't have a plan," translated Vega.
"Not quite true. None of the real hotheads quite dare to do anything so long as Wrex still lives. Tevos' best guess was, the ringleaders are a group matrilinearly descended–"
"Eh?" Grunt's autotranslator wasn't up to that. EDI scarcely missed a beat:
"–spawned from Clan Weyrlock, with martial traditions."
"I never heard of any Marshal Tradition, but he sounds like he was well hung."
"How much of a threat is this, really? The CDEM–"
"Ashley, only the salarian Special Tasks Group has traction on this. The Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission hasn't existed since the fleets were recalled to fight the Reapers, and ICA – that's N7 school, Grunt – was only re-activated recently."
"Gotcha. So the Krogan Demilitarized Zone is a dead letter too?"
"Formally wound up after Bakara negotiated the first new krogan colony."
This caused the crew present to sit straighter in their chairs. Miri voiced their fears:
"But that would mean not only that the krogan could purchase, build, or run armed starships; they could do so lawfully."
"Tech's hardly advanced since the Reapers. Moreover, everyone demilitarized except batarians, humans, turians. Even they are a shadow of what they were, barring some special projects Tevos wouldn't talk about."
Vega observed: "No-one wants to fund killing machines, huh?"
"Not when there's no military duty to be done, no. So now there's panic, planning–"
"But no actual ships yet?" – asked Cortez.
"Nor likely to be for some considerable time. The active research area is on advanced wormhole manipulation. There are border security units–"
"Basically police," Miri nodded. She had deep familiarity with smuggling.
Joker got up at this point: "Perhaps not. I asked about Pegasus. Lemaes hinted she normally runs interference for these, um, wormhole projects."
"Which are very highly classified?"
"All she would say was, Magellanic Clouds in three days. New colony worlds."
Monday, June 13, 2016