Chapter 12: Damsel in Distress
Alexis lowered the assault rifle as she surveyed the hall in front of her. The three human guards that had been at the south end of the hall were dead, as were the two salarian assassins and their turian boss. Several feet away from their bodies was the body of an asari that had been working with the turian. The actual fight itself had been relatively short, and largely disappointing. The marines and assorted guests had both skill and flanking advantage on the assassins hired to take down the single quarian girl. The asari had proved to be the most challenging, and she had barely managed to throw Ella across the hall into Alenko before the asari too fell in the fire fight.
A furtive glance to the side showed her fellow Shepard and the lieutenant firmly pressed against the wall, one of his arms wrapped about her waist. Ella looked far too comfortable in her current predicament. The lieutenant noticed his CO looking in his direction and turned red under her regard. "Are you okay, ma'am?" he asked Ella quietly as he released his grip on her.
"Course, LT. Just appreciating the LZ." She grinned at the uncomfortable marine next to her. "Wish you'd been there when I got trained on my first amp. Might've cracked fewer bones if you'd helped me avoid the walls then, too."
Probably not the only things she'd have wanted help with. Alexis quickly squashed the catty thought, wondering what the hell was wrong with her lately. Returning her focus back towards the quarian girl, she saw Meghan and the cop that had apparently attached himself to her (an idea that would greatly amuse Alexis later when she had time to think about it) approach the girl, who seemed to be doing okay all things considered. "Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!"
"Were you hurt in the fight?" Meghan asked, looking the girl over with her bright green eyes.
"I know how to look after myself," the girl snapped. Meghan immediately raised one eyebrow at the comment. "Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you all?"
"I'm Commander Meghan Shepard. That's Commander Alexis Shepard, and Commander Ella Shepard," she said, indicating to each in turn. "We've been looking for evidence against Saren Arterius."
The quarian glanced around a bit nervously, or as nervous as her masked face would let her appear. "Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But not here. We need to go somewhere safe."
"The ambassador's office," the lieutenant piped up from behind Alexis. "It's safe there. Besides, he'll want to see this anyway."
"Alright, people, move out," Alexis called, putting her assault rifle away. They were going to have to go up the nearby elevator in shifts as it was. She looked to Ella, "Take point with our new-found friend here."
"Aye, ma'am," Ella started leading the quarian towards the nearest Presidium access point, Meg and Garrus following close enough to block Alexis' view of the two in the lead. She could still hear Ella's voice drifting back, however, complimenting the younger woman on her shotgun.
"We'll be up as soon as we can," Alexis told Meghan as she passed by. "If you can, wait for us, so we don't ruffle too many of Udina's feathers."
Meghan snorted, her voice trailing behind her, "Then you should probably go in alone when we get back."
"Are the rest of you ready?" Alexis asked focusing back on the people remaining in the hall. The krogan Wrex was currently walking amongst the dead, nudging them with his foot while her remaining marines were standing off to the side, awaiting their orders.
"Yes, ma'am," Alenko responded as Williams finished securing her weapons back in place.
Wrex lumbered his way over to them, smiling that grim toothy grin of his. "Wouldn't have expected humans to fight that well."
"Wouldn't have expected a krogan to fight that smart." At the merc's hearty laugh, she then turned and led the marines down to the elevator leading back out of the Wards. The elevator was still in route to the top access with the first of her crew, which meant that they had time to kill. She motioned for the two marines and the krogan to wait at the elevator as she stepped off to the side. I should at least get C-Sec here to start containing the mess.
She pressed a few buttons on her Omni-tool, and she was connected back with C-Sec, as she was earlier. "Dispatch Unit 1138, Officer Wedge responding. How can we assist?"
"This is Commander Alexis Shepard, of the Alliance Navy. We've run into some trouble at Chora's Den and in a nearby maintenance hallway..."
"Yes, yes, Officer Vakarian has already radioed us. We have a team already dispatched to investigate the trouble. We'll be sending someone by your ambassador's office to collect your group's official statement," the C-Sec rep said curtly before ending the transmission. Fuck. Udina is going to be in an even fouler mood than normal. But at least that cop had sense to call things in already.
She moved back to the group just as the elevator arrived back to their level. The door slid open and the marines filed in and stood off to one side as Wrex took residence on the other. Alexis stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind her, beginning its quick ascent back up. I hope that quarian has something good on Saren. If she doesn't, the fucking brass is going to be pissed about everything that just went down. And we don't have much to back up what we did without something substantial against that guy.
The ride itself was oddly quiet. Alexis glanced briefly to her marines to see Williams coolly watching the massive krogan while the lieutenant fiddled with his omni-tool.
"What kind of guns do you Shepards like?" Wrex suddenly asked breaking the silence.
"Excuse me?" Alexis responded, turning to face the krogan in the elevator.
"What kinds of guns do you and your clanmate Shepards like? You seem fond of them," Wrex continued.
Alexis couldn't figure out if he was talking about weapons or Ella and Meghan. She took a shot in the dark, "Uh, we each prefer different ones."
"Heh, nothing beats a good shotgun. Get up in your enemies' face and see their fear." His bass rumble sounded entirely too pleased with the memory of the carnage he could wreak. He would probably get along well with Meghan. Alexis exchanged a concerned glance with Alenko, who had looked up finally from his 'tool. Wrex, however, appeared content with the extent of his questioning and did not say anything else.
The rest of the ride was almost awkwardly quiet. The elevator came to a stop, and the door opened. The marines and krogan marched through the small hallway to the next elevator, just in time for it to be returning from depositing the other team up on the Presidium level. Another short, and quiet, ride in this elevator allowed them to rejoin the team that was waiting for them. The group filed out of the elevator, and Alexis took point as she led the rather large group through the crowd on the Presidium level towards the Embassy building.
From behind her, she heard Meghan speak, "Thanks for breaking Ella's fall, Alenko."
"Yeah, thanks again. You were much more fun to get thrown into than a wall," Ella added, grinning widely at Alenko.
"Glad I could help?" the lieutenant replied, sounding a bit confused. Or maybe embarrassed at the attention.
Alexis rolled her eyes and called back to Ella. "How'd she manage to hit you with that throw anyway?"
Ella's sheepish voice rolled forward, "Her mnemonic was different than any I'd seen before. Didn't think it was gonna be a throw. So I sorta forgot to dodge..."
"Little miss asari-trained biotic forgot to dodge?" Meghan laughed.
"Speaks the hundredth degree black belt that got a black eye from a chick who could barely throw a punch."
"Hey, sucker punches work even on me sometimes. Besides, I taught her a lesson. And it's fourth degree, thank you very much."
"So, we're both suckers. Occasionally."
"Yeah... but I'm better-looking."
"If you like the pale, scrawny blonde type." Ella paused and snorted. "Which is pretty much every male ever, so perhaps you have a point."
Meghan grinned and winked at Williams who hid a laugh behind her hand, "Blondes have more fun. And diamonds are a girl's best friend."
"You're quoting one of those old vids you always try to make me watch, aren't you?"
"One of these days, Ella, I'll teach you to be classy if its the last thing I do."
"Really? Someone's gotta teach you first. And if Lex hasn't managed it in the past thirteen years, I think you're a lost cause." It was Alenko's turn to stifle a laugh behind a cough.
Alexis heard a soft voiced comment behind her from the turian, "Are they always like this?"
Equally softly, the lieutenant replied, "I think this is actually tame for them."
"Ok, people, that's enough," Alexis called back as they finally got to the ambassador's office. She paused briefly at the door. There was no denying that he was likely to be livid over the course of events. She just wasn't altogether sure how they were going to stifle his ire long enough to find out exactly what kind of evidence this quarian even had. Silently pressing the button to enter, the door slid open and Alexis stepped inside.
The ambassador was waiting for them, pacing a bit behind his desk with Captain Anderson looking rather miserable. Old Man has probably been forced to listen to the tirades this entire time. Udina shifted his gaze to Alexis, sneering slightly. "You're not making my life easy. Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Choara's Den? Charging through the markets with weapons drawn? Do you know how many..."
Udina's voice trailed off as he watched the rest of the crew file in behind Alexis, his eyes lingering on the quarian. "Who's this? A quarian? What are you up to Shepard?" he asked, directing his gaze back at Alexis. The sneer had given way to an openly suspicious look.
Despite feeling a bit smug, Alexis kept her face neutral. "Making your day, Ambassador. She says she has some information that can help us expose Saren."
Udina quirked an eyebrow. "Really? Maybe you better start at the beginning, Miss...?"
The quarian stepped forward slightly. "My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
"We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?" Udina asked. The question, where innocent enough, sounded more like the start of an interrogation from the ambassador.
"I was on my Pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood," Tali explained.
"Would you be willing to explain that to us later?" Meghan asked. "I think right now we'd like to know what you found out about Saren."
"Of course," Tali said, sounding a bit excited. Although, Alexis wasn't sure if it was the prospect of telling her story on how she got the evidence or the ability to talk about her people that made her excited. "During my travels, I began hearing reports of geth. Since they drove my people into exile, the geth have never ventured beyond the veil. I was curious." The quarian girl continued to expound on her travels and how she had managed to track down and eventually isolate a lone geth trooper.
Alexis listened with half an ear as she explained how she got what she got, but not what she had in fact found. It was mostly techno-babble, and completely over her head. She glanced briefly around to see Ella and Meg with what she knew to be their feigned interest expressions. Tech wasn't the Shepards strong suit after all. The krogan looked as bored as the commanders. However, both Vakarian and Alenko seemed to be intensely focused on Tali's tale, Almost like little kids at Christmas. Damn, that's adorable too.
Anderson's voice brought Alexis back to the present conversation. "I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense mechanism."
"How did you manage to preserve the memory core?" Ella interjected. The Old Man's voice must have brought her out of her bored daze as well.
"My people created the geth. If you're quick, careful, and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean," Tali explained. "But I salvaged something from its audio bank." The quarian brought up her omni-tool and pressed a few voices.
A rather familiar turian voice filled the room. "Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."
"That's Saren's voice. This proves he was involved in the attack." Anderson appeared particularly incensed over this. Wonder if his anger has anything to do with what Saren intimated at earlier.
"He said Eden Prime brought him one step closer to finding the Conduit. Any idea what that means?" Meghan asked.
"The Conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it's some kind of technology... like a weapon," Anderson guessed.
"Wait... there's more! Saren wasn't working alone." Tali then replayed the audio from the geth memory core, Saren's voice filling the room once more. Then a more distinguished voice spoke, very feminine. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."
"I don't recognize the other voice. The one talking about Reapers," Udina stated, tapping one of his long bony fingers against his lips.
Something about the word Reapers bothered Alexis. She just wasn't sure what. Obviously she wasn't the only one. "I feel like I've heard that name before..." Ella said.
"According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction and then they vanished. At least, that's what the geth believe," Tali explained.
The sneer had returned to Udina's face. "Sounds a little far-fetched to me."
"The vision on Eden Prime," Meghan stated suddenly. "I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers." Certainly makes sense. And why there was all the cybernetics...
"The geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring the Reapers back," Tali added.
A sinister grin spread across Udina's face, as he began to see a way to use this new information to his advantage. "The Council is just going to love this!"
Alexis frowned. This suddenly seemed far larger than just stopping Saren. "The Reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space. We have to tell them."
"No matter what they think about the rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor," Anderson said. The Old Man's right. We have to focus on one thing at a time, she reminded herself.
Udina moved back to his desk and began typing away at his station, mumbling something about presenting the evidence straight away.
"What about her? The quarian?" Wrex asked, his voice booming in the small room.
The quarian placed her hands on her hips. "My name is Tali!" she exclaimed indignantly. "You saw me in the alley, Commander. You know what I can do. Let me come with you!" She then turned and looked to each of the Shepards, seemingly unsure which she should make her appeal to.
Alexis gave a slight nod to her fellow Shepards, letting them know it was fine with her. She'd let them settle up with the girl though. She stepped up to the ambassador's desk as he gathered together some datapads. "Is there anything else, Ambassador?"
He shook his head. "Anderson and I will go ahead to get things ready with the Council. Take a few minutes to collect yourself," he paused as he glanced behind her, "and your crew. Then meet us in the Tower." With that he bustled past the crowd in his office, Anderson on his heels.
Alexis felt a sharp pulse of pain behind her left temple, and she fought the urge to rub it. More bureaucratic bullshit to sit through. Oh, fucking, joy. She turned and looked at the group assembled. "Alright folks, let's go ahead and get moving. It's going to take us a long time to get us all up to the top of the Tower..."
And she was right. They weren't able to squeeze everyone into the elevator for one trip, so they split back into two groups to make it quicker. After several minutes, the eight were reunited at the top of the Tower, and Alexis hurried them towards the same area where they had spoken to the Council the first time.
Anderson was again waiting on them. "Come on. Udina's presenting the quarian's evidence to the Council," he said as he led them to the dais where Udina was currently standing. The sound of Saren's voice, and the unknown woman, resounded through the antechamber as Udina played the recording provided by Tali.
"You wanted proof. There it is," Udina told the three alien Council members.
The turian council member looked perturbed. "This evidence is irrefutable, Ambasador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes."
The asari council member appears as disturbed as her turian colleague. "I recognize the other voice, the one speaking with Saren. Matriarch Benezia."
"Who's she?" Meghan asked as she stepped a bit closer.
"Matriarchs are powerful asari who have entered the final stage of their lives. Revered for their wisdom and experience, they serve as guides and mentors to my people. Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic, and she had many followers. She will make a formidable ally for Saren," the asari explained.
"I'm more interested in the Reapers," the salarian member interjected. "What do you know about them?"
"Only what was extracted from the geth's memory core. The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished," Anderson offered forward.
"The geth believe the Reapers are gods. And Saren is the prophet for their return," Ella added.
Anderson nodded briefly. "We think the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Saren's searching for it. That's why he attacked Eden Prime."
The salarian seemed intrigued. "Do we even know what this Conduit is?"
"Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers. That's bad enough," Meghan snapped. The pulse of pain in Lex's head throbbed a bit more. Things weren't going well.
"Listen to what you're saying!" the turian councilor exclaimed. "Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible. It has to be. Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? If they were real, we'd have found something!"
Unfortunately, the damned turian was making sense. There was no proof. Except for whatever got crammed into our heads on Eden Prime. "I tried to warn you about Saren," Alexis said, finally speaking up. "And you refused to face the truth. Don't make the same mistake again." Please let some semblance of sense prevail here for once.
"This is different," the asari countered. "You proved Saren betrayed the Council. We all agree he's using the geth to search for the Conduit, but we don't really know why."
"The Reapers are obviously just a myth, Commander. A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the geth to his will," the salarian added.
The gathered group quickly descended into a shouting match that made Alexis's head hurt even worse. For every point one of her crew pushed forward, the Council matched it back with a precautionary reason as to why it didn't make sense. It became the worst when the Council reared its head against the prospect of accidentally triggering a war with the Terminus. Not for a few dozen human colonies.
"Every time humanity asks for help you ignore us!" Alexis snapped at the Council, feeling rapid trails of ice coursing through her arms. Fuck, get it under control, Lex.
Udina huffed and crossed his arms across his chest. "Shepard's right. I'm sick of this Council, and it's anti-human bull..."
A large gasp could be heard in the room, and the asari quickly cut him off. "Ambassador!" she chided strongly, reminding him of where they were. She waited a moment for the commotion to die down. "There is another solution. A way to stop Saren that does not requires fleets or armies..."