Chapter 14

"I thought we were heading into mines?" Holt asked as the group was stalking the prothean ruins.

"We were in some mines, now we're in a tower. It's not that complicated." Shepard told him as she peeked around a corner, looking for more geth ambushes which there seemed to be a lot of in here.

"That's the thing. A tower must be tall to be called a 'tower'. Why couldn't we just drop in on top of this tower to begin with?" Shepard was about to join the debate and correct Holt that this was hardly a tower any longer. Throughout the years it had been imbedded into the mountain. She decided not to get down to their level though.

"You have any idea how dangerous that would be?" Kaidan asked him as they continued down the halls.

"And making a drop in a mako isn't? That colossus seemed to be quite bad for your health as well."

"If there had been a closer drop-point we would have taken it." Kaidan said with a clearly frustrated voice. Shepard wished she had taken Wrex and Garrus with her instead. Just as good to have on the battlefield but less noisy and annoying than these two.

"And we're gonna have to walk all the way back once we're done here since the mako is just a pile of rubble now."

"Shut up you two. There's something up ahead." Shepard said as some sort of shimmering light could be seen in the room ahead. With their weapons ready they sneaked up towards it. They had not been expecting to see what they found though. An asari hovering in some of energy field.

"Hello? Is someone there?" The asari was turned away from them and sounded more than a bit scared. Shepard could hear Holt suppressing a laugh and shot him an angry glare.

"I'm Commander Shepard of th-... shut up Holt!" She yelled as the man started laughing.

"Hahah! This is like taken out of some sort of comedy vid!" He said between the laughs. Shepard punching him hard on the shoulder didn't even stop it. Sighing, she holstered her weapon and waited for his laughter to die down a bit before she continued.

"...Of the SSV Normandy. We're here looking for Liara T'Soni."

"Ah, that would be me." She said while desperately trying to turn around to face them. It must've looked funny cause Holt started cracking up again.

"How did you end up in... that?" Kaidan asked as he went up to touch it. Seemed to be a solid wall and there were no visible consoles around. This thing must've kept her away from the geth.

"It's some sort of trap, it triggered as I tried to escape the geth."

"So you're not on their side then?"

"What? No! Why would you think that?" She answered Kaidan's question.

"Your mother is working with Saren and the geth. There were suspicions that you were doing the same." She said even though after meeting the asari she didn't believe for a second that she was with the bad guys. Shepard noticed that the laughter had died down completely by now. And that was because Holt was no longer with them. She looked around and saw him standing next to some large machine.

"I haven't spoken with my mother for at least a few decades. Whatever she and this 'Saren' is up to I'm not part of it." The conviction in her voice was almost enough for Shepard to believe her right at the spot. But after what had happened with Holt she decided to hold off her opinion of the asari for now. Speaking off, was he still fiddling around with that machine?

"What are you doing, Holt?" Kaidan asked before she had a chance. Holt was now inside whatever it was.

"I dont see any console to bring that shield down and there doesn't seem to be any path around it." Oh no, Shepard could now see just what kind of machine that was.

"So you're gonna..." Was all she managed to get out.

"I'll make another entrance to the other side of that wall that doesn't involve ancient prothean traps." He said as he powered up the laser drill. Liara started squirming in her place inside the force field.

"What's happening!? What's that sound!?" The asari yelled. Before Shepard could intervene, Holt fired of the laser into the wall several meters away from them. The sound and heat was close to unbearable and Shepard was unable to approach Holt as she was busy shielding her eyes and ears. It only lasted for a few seconds but once the sound died down she could see another entrance was created. Furious she turned towards Holt as he was getting off the machine. Her second hard punch to his jaw for the day connected and she raised her voiced at him as he lightly stumbled backwards.

"If you could not be reckless for more than a minute I wouldn't have to punch you this often!"

"Reckless?" Holt asked as he raised himself to his full height, a head taller than Shepard. "No one is injured and now we access to the room that most likely holds the conso-"

"This time! No one got injured this time!" Shepard interrupted him while stretching her arms up towards the machine that could've been their deaths only moments earlier. "What would you've done if that thing had more power than you anticipated!? Or are our deaths something you're aiming for!?" Shepard refused to let the height difference have any impact and raised her chin even though being shorter managed to stare Holt down.

"If I had been uncertain about my plan I wouldn't have gone through with it. Understand one thing, Shepard." His voice was more serious than it had been throughout the whole mission so far. "I always think before I act. I always do whatever it takes to complete the mission."

"And what exactly is your mission?" She asked while still staring him down. She noticed that neither Kaidan nor Liara had spoken a word since this argument began. They were probably both too scared to get a word in. Shepard was surprised though. Normally by now the other person would've backed off and faced away from her.

"Find Liara T'Soni and get her off this planet." He motioned towards the force field that still held the asari in place. "Something that is very much still possible if we stop standing here bickering like children." Shepard lightly shook her head.

"We'll speak of this later." She said with suppressed rage as she acknowledged that he had a point. This fight could wait until they were back on The Normandy. She went through the newly created passage and quickly found what resembled a console. Holt quickly passed her and brought up his omni-tool and began work on breaking down the force field. While she hated him taking simply walking up and doing it she had to admit that neither she or Kaidan would get it done anytime soon. The lieutenant in question walked up to her and whispered in a low voice.

"What should we do about Holt, Commander?" Shepard shrugged. She honestly didn't know at this point. "First the thing with the mako and colossus and now this. He's a danger to the team if he's gonna act like this."

"It's not what he's doing that angers me, Kaidan. It's that he does it with little to no warning to the rest of us. It was the same back on Eden Prime." Back then she had given him the goal of reaching the beacon but he had paid little attention to any other orders she had given him back then. "I think he's simply reluctant to work as a team. And that is something, which you said, that could be a danger to the team." As she said that she heard the sudden yelp of an asari hitting the floor. She walked over the Liara and offered her a hand.

"Thank you...I'm guessing you have several questions to ask. I do as well but I'm hoping that can wait until we get away from any possible geth attacks." Liara said as she grasped Shepard's hand and stood up. Her legs was a bit wobbly from being in that force field for too long.

"That was my plan as well." Shepard said as she turned towards Holt and Kaidan. "Long walk back people, let's get moving." Holt seemed to at least obey that order as they started backtracking through the halls. This time there were a lot less geth prowling around. In fact, there were none to be found anywhere.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Kaidan asked as they all had their weapons up and ready to shoot anything that would pop out from the shadows.

"And you just jinxed us. Good going there, Lieutenant." Holt said with a chuckle to which Kaidan simply muttered a curse. They were moving quite slowly through the halls as Liara was still having difficulties walking.

"How long were you in that force field?" Shepard asked the asari.

"I lost track of time after a while. But if I had to guess I'd sa-"

"Guess I should thank you for saving me the trouble of getting the asari out of that field." A deep growling voice suddenly said, causing Shepard to flinch as she was focused on Liara. A krogan followed by several geth rounded a corner. the hallway they were in was quite wide but had little to no covers. They would be in trouble if a fight broke out but it seemed like the krogan wanted to talk for now. Shepard decided that she would stall for time while trying to figure out how to deal with them.

"Who are you?" She asked the krogan.

"My name doesn't matter. Hand over the bitch and I'll give you two a quick and clean death."

"What makes you think you can order us around?" Hold on, did he say two? Shepard threw a quick glance behind her and noticed that Liara and Kaidan were the only ones behind her. "Where the fuck is Holt?" She whispered to Kaidan as the krogan gave his answer that she ignored. He was obviously working for Saren and would be dealt with but the more important question right now was the whereabouts of her last squad member.

"I... I don't know. He was here a minute ago." Kaidan whispered back.

"I didn't see or hear him run off." Liara added.

"You dare ignore me, human?" The krogan's booming voice kicked her out of her conversation with the others. "Very well. I'll give you the slow, painful death instead." He said as he brought out his shotgun. 'God damn you, Holt.' Shepard thought as she too fixed her weapon on the enemy.