CHAPTER 21

Councillor Tevos called Alex to her chambers the next morning. All she wanted was an update, something that could have been done over a secure link. Liara must have told her aunt about their ruse. It also testified to the asari's trust in the councillor. In fact the spectre came away with written orders to keep one S. Lewis safe.

Alex picked up coffee for everyone and two green asari teas. She personally hated the stuff even though she'd got used to it when she'd been training with the Commando's. The scene she was greeted with made her laugh. Jack was teaching Oriana to hustle people at pool and the scowl on Miranda's face!

"What am I missing?"

Ash chuckled, "It seems like Ori...Sandy has a thing for bad girls."

"Her and Jack?" No wonder the older Lawson was not happy.

"Alex?" Miranda took her tea.

"Can I help?"

Miranda waved in the direction of the pool table.

"She's legally an adult," said Alex, quietly, "And think of it as a lesson in how to read people."

"But she's..."

"A teenager." interrupted Alex, "Your job as a big sister is to be there for here when things don't go as planned. And to be happy when they do."

Miranda was about to argue when she remembered Alex had been extremely close to her twin sister so she nodded.

"Besides she might be good for Jack," added Ash, grinning at Miranda's death glare.

Privately Alex agreed, Jack was no longer the woman who they had taken from prison. She excused herself to call Tali and check on the upgrades.

Cassidy spent the next four days getting Oriana up to speed on the Normandy's technical systems and basic Alliance protocols. Abby watched with an amused smile, her wife had a knack with younger people.

Alex was keeping an eye on Jack, but unlike Miranda she was as worried about the convict being hurt as Oriana. Jack was only just beginning to trust other people and drop her defences. The spectre did have a quiet word with Jack about respect.

Their last night of freedom Alex and Ash went to see Councillor Anderson. He gave them both a huge hug.

"It is so good to see you." He had been so busy that this was the first time he'd had time to see them. The Phoenix Firebase was doing well, most of the N7's had been rotated through it so had a large numbers of asari Commando's. Hidden shipyards were cranking up production of Frigates and fighters.

"We got this up and running after you..." Anderson coughed into his fist.

"Died," Alex finished for him with a shrug, she felt Ash squeeze her hand.

Anderson nodded, "But you're here...together. That warms an old man's heart."

"You are not old," chuckled Alex.

"True, but I think we're going to all feel a lot older by the time this is over."

"How's Kahlee?" asked Alex, hoping to distract her friend and mentor.

David Anderson grinned, "She's fine..."

As they were leaving Anderson got a call from Admiral Hackett, one of their deep space exploration vessels had detected an automated S.O.S beacons. The Rosetta Nebula had two systems, the signal was coming from Alpha Draconis. With the Collectors hitting human colonies, Hackett couldn't spare any ships to go and investigate.

"We can go," offered Alex, "We can use it as a training run to test our new systems."

"Thank you. I'll send the details to your ship."

"We'll leave tomorrow."

MEMEMEMEMEMEME

Alex dropped her bag on her bed. Then went to say hello to Socks, Tali had fed him for the duration. Joker was finishing his flight checks. Everyone was on board including one Sandy Lewis who was being given a tour by Cassidy.

Miranda had to be careful, she couldn't be seen to spend a lot of time with the newbie. For the next two weeks Oriana had a schedule of intensive training, which served two purposes. The first was to turn a university student into a productive member of the crew and the second was a reason to keep her interaction with the crew to a minimum.

"Pre-flight complete, Commander." announced Joker. "Course set. Just waiting for your order."

"Lets go Joker."

"Aye aye ma'am."

The spectre joined her pilot as they approached the Relay. The sight never got old.

As Alex did her walk-around she noticed how relaxed everyone was after their shore leave. She had contacted Kelly and told her about Councillor Tevos request. And EDI had added a copy to the latest data packet sent to the Illusive Man. There was absolutely no evidence to link Alex or any of the Normandy's crew to Oriana's disappearance.

For now Miranda's sister was safe.

Jacob came to see her when EDI played the distress beacon's message, his father had been first mate on that ship.

"I don't expect anything but dusty old bones, Commander," he said, "But the Hugo Gernsback went missing ten years ago."

"Get your gear together." said Alex wondering why he wasn't more excited about the fact his father might still be alive.

"Yes ma'am."

Miranda was going to stay on board. The spectre had decided that one of them would always be on board. Alex had told her about EDI. After a rant about rogue AI's she had apologised to EDI.

Tali was keeping Oriana with her while they were planet side.

Alex took Ash, Abby, Cassidy, Jack and Jacob with her. The shuttle dropped them in a clearing on a cliff above the wreck of the Hugo Gernsback. The ship was huge and not that badly damaged. It was conceivable that there would have been survivors, but ten years to activate a beacon? Something was definitely hinky.

Alex took point EDI's scans had a lot of life signs in a concentrated area two klicks away from the crash site. There was a rickety bridge between the shore and the ship.

Inside the ship they split into teams, to cover more ground. The spectre sent Cassidy and Jack to the bridge to download the ship's logs while the rest of them did a sweep.

Abby and Jacob took the bow. Alex and her wife the stern.

"I would have thought the survivors would have stayed closer to the ship," said Ash, as the checked the cargo hold, All the food stores had been removed.

"Maybe they found somewhere with natural shelter?" suggested Alex with a shrug. "Let's finish our sweep."

They found all the bodies of the crew who had been killed in the crash in a rec hall, lined up in body bags.

"How many?" asked Ash, the entire floor floor was filled with line after line of bodies.

"I don't know. This probably isn't the only room like this." replied Alex, flipping through a data pad hanging on the wall. "Good someone listed the KIA." She was looking for Jacob's dad Ronald..His name wasn't on the list, but the captain was. There were also more names than bodies so it looked like Ronald Taylor had survived impact. It took another three hours to check the entire ship, once Cassidy had downloaded the logs, she and Jack helped. Back outside it was approaching midday. A few hundred yards away the found the beacon.

Cassidy activated the VI interface. "Toxicology Alert. Danger of rapid neural decay. Local flora chemically incompatible with human physiology. Impact on cognitive abilities significant within a standard month. Affects on long term memory unknown."

"Anything about the crash itself?" asked Alex. Cassidy found the relevant data.

"They were hit by something that caused enough damage to force them down.."
"Anything about my father?" asked Jacob.

" Beacon override by order of acting Captain Ronald Taylor."

Alex frowned, "Cass?"

"Okay the beacon was finished after 358 days and twelve hours. But never turned on until a few days ago. There are no delay orders. Someone remote activated it."

"Why now after all this time?" muttered Jacob to himself just loud enough for them to hear.

"There's something else. This beacon shouldn't have taken this long to get up and running."

"If the local food is toxic." mused Abby, "They will have had a limited amount of MRI's, if they reserved them for the engineers and medical staff that might account for it taking nearly a year. What it doesn't explain is how anyone would be in a fit state of mind to turn it on."

"It was activated after 8 years, 237 days and 7 hours." said Cassidy.

"That's crazy," said Jack, "Why would he not want his ass saved?"

That was the question.

"Let's go find out." Alex left the beacon behind and headed for the location that EDI had given them. On the way they found parts of some LOKI mechs.

"Tech's wearing out," commented Cassidy, "They must have been stripped for parts."

"I got movement." called Ash, raising her rifle to her shoulder as a thin woman walked towards them. Her clothes were ripped and dirty.

"You came from the sky...you came from the sky...you came from the sky..."

Abby went to her she was obviously harmless. "Hi, my name's Abby," she scanned her, "What's yours?"

The woman stopped talking and squinted at Abby, "Name?...Do I have a name...?"

"The toxic food really did a number on her." whispered Ash into Alex's ear.

"She's malnourished," Abby informed them, "But otherwise alright, I have no idea if the neurological damage is reversible." She sat the woman down. She waved the others past her then put a chocolate bar on the grass in front of her. Figuring out how to open it would occupy her until they were out of sight. Without knowing what was happening they couldn't afford to take her with then and knowing nothing about the ecosystem, cuffing or sedating her was not an option.

Abby caught up to the spectre. The path between the ship and their destination was well travelled. Which begged the question why hadn't they unloaded more stuff.

The path veered away from the shore and cut into the large trees. It was more than a forest but not quite a jungle.

They saw the statue first towering above the rough camp. The second thing Alex saw as she zoomed her vision was that all the people milling around in groups were female. It would've been totally old fashioned for only the men to be on guard, besides they hadn't met any.

"They don't look hostile," said Ash, using her sniper scope.

The hair on the back of Alex's neck was up as she walked slowly towards the closest group. She took her helmet off and handed all her weapons to her wife, "Stay back."

Alex held up her hands she stopped the instant an older woman turned towards her a stout stick in her left hand.

"I'm not going to hurt you. We picked up your distress beacon. We're here to help."

"You came from the sky?"

"Yes. We can take you away from here. You can go back home."

"Home." The woman's voice was full of longing but she didn't elaborate.

Alex waved the rest closer, "What are you doing here?"

"There aren't any men here," said Cassidy, "Why not?"

"Maybe that neural decay affects genders differently?" suggested Abby.

"The usual make up of most crews is more men," added Ash, "Did they just all go Tarzan and run off into the jungle?"

"That would be a couple of hundred people." Alex had easily heard their quite conversation.

Jacob was staring at the statue in the middle, "That's borderline worship. Someone had to of forced them to make that."

"You have his face!"

Alex turned to look at the older woman who was still stood between them and the camp.

"You know my father?"

"He promised us the sky..." The woman finally moved allowing them entrance to the camp.

"Split up and see if there's any information here on the local food or the reason the men are gone," said Alex, "We're not going to get anything out of them...Be careful not to spook them. Jack, with me." Ash followed.

There were lots of makeshift tents and the spectre saw some woman removing rubbish and others bringing in water.

In a box full of circuit boards Ash found a data pad. She started reading as she did she began to frown.

Alex attuned to her wife knew something was wrong, "Ash?"

Without a word Ash handed her the data pad and walked away.

"It's gotta be bad if it gets to the Lt," commented Jack, reading over the spectres shoulder.

Ash's actions were understood as Alex read about Ronald Taylor's use of the mechs to control the crew, how he killed the other officers when one of them grew a conscience. When she got to the part where he separated the woman between the officers she snarled. Jack jumped not expecting it.

"That guy is so dead." Jack didn't like her own memories it was dragging to the surface from the deep recesses in her mind.

Alex met the others and gave the data pad to Jacob who looked shocked the furious. "I can't believe he did that to his own crew!"

Abby took it, "I don't see any kids...I doubt they would have thought of protection...Maybe another side effect?" she added to herself, but this one at least was good.

"I need to find this man," Jacob clenched his fists.

"Hell yeah," snapped Jack.

"You think they remember?" asked Cassidy, softly.

"Lord, I hope not," returned Abby squeezing the combat engineers arm. She glanced at the spectre. Alex's eyes were glowing even without that she could read it in the spectre's body language.

Alex sought out the old woman she had spoken to first. "Do you know Ronald Taylor?"

The woman looked blank.

"Acting Captain Taylor?" amended Alex, she knew she looked scary, but Ronald Taylor was no better than a slaver or a pirate.

"The Captain?"

"Yeah. Where is he?"

The old woman pointed further up the trail. "No one comes back." The spectre glanced from the trail to the woman.

"Oh, believe me ma'am, we will." Alex took a deep breath as she led the way, she really needed to calm down.

The next ten minutes were completely uneventful until the spectre heard buzzing. Alex held up her hand and then diverted, buzzing in itself didn't mean anything but Alex had been on enough slaver busts to have found their disposal pits. Her fears were confirmed when she stopped on the lip of a ravine full of bodies, one or two of the top ones were pretty new the others were in various states of decomposition. They were all male.

"Oh my God," said ash bringing her hand to her mouth and turning away before she threw up.

Abby directed her omni tool towards the pile, "I'm guessing this is all the men. Looks like Taylor didn't want any rivals for his throne."

"How has he not succumbed to the neural decay?" asked Cassidy with a shake of her head.

"If he was the only eating the MRI's they might last this long," replied Abby, "I guess he's running out that's why he activated the beacon. And with none of the surviving crew able to tell anyone that happened, he could make up any story he liked."

"Son of a..." growled Jacob bitterly.

"Mark the location," said Alex, her voice shaking with rage, "These people deserve to be returned to their families."

"Done." Alex nodded.

They returned to the path which opened up ahead of them.

Taylor had a lot of mechs between them and him, but Alex used her anger to focus and fuel her biotics and tore through them. He also had two heavy YMIR mechs.

Cassidy sent Rainbow to keep one of them busy while they concentrated on the other. They still had to dive for cover when they moved to new positions. There had to be fifty or sixty LOKI mechs, granted not all of them worked. The two big ones were in tip top shape and had probably been powered down.

"This guy really doesn't like visitors," said Jack, she had been very quiet. At last only one of the heavy mechs were left. They were exhausted.

Another rocket exploded nearby, showering Ash with dirt and her shields failed. That got her wife's attention.

Alex stood, glowed blue then hurled a ball of energy at the mech that toppled it backwards. A YMIR mech on its back was a turtle.

The spectre immediately went to her wife to make sure she was okay. Ash was fine.

Cassidy deactivated the mech as they moved past it. The gate behind it was a piece of cake.

Jacob's father came forward. "Thank you. My crew went insane. I've been hold up here waiting for rescue."

Alex pulled out the data pad and tapped it against her opposite palm. Jacob got there first, "What did you do to your crew?!" he yelled.

"I didn't..."

"No, you didn't," snapped Jacob, "You let your mechs do it for you!" He pointed to the data pad the spectre was holding. "We know! We also found your mass grave."

Ronald crossed his arms across his chest, "I had no choice, the only way to fix the beacon was to restrict the food stores to the officers. The toxic food meant we had to keep a hard line. Who are you people?"

"Commander Shepard," replied Alex, "And you already know Jacob."

"Jacob. No."

"Why not me? Would this be better to anyone else."

"And the woman?" asked Ash.

Ronald shut his mouth.

Alex walked away, Jack followed.

Jacob pulled his weapon. "You're lucky I don't think your worth it."

"Alex he can't get away with this," said Jack her eyes blazing, "You have any idea what living through that is like?!"

Alex turned and caught the convict, "I know exactly what its like."

"AND YOU'RE DOING NOTHING!"

The spectre ground her teeth, released Jack and stalked back towards Taylor, "Do you have any excuse?"

"We had to assume dominance, then it didn't seem like a good idea to..."

The man didn't even seem remorseful.

"Ronald Taylor..."

"I want a lawyer."

"NO...Did I forget to mention that I'm a spectre?" Finally a reaction, the senior Taylor's eyes widened in fear.

Jacob holstered his weapon, "Do it. My father died ten years ago."

"No...you can't..."

A single shot right between his eyes shut him up.

Jacob never looked back.

"Call Anderson tell him we need ships here ASAP...and get Karin down here. Lets see what we can do to help until then." ordered Alex. The rest headed back to the camp, only Ash and Jack remained. Alex nodded to her wife who acknowledged it before following her sister.

Jack stared at Ronald's body, "You really know?"

"Yeah, I do." And Alex told Jack a basic version of what had happened to her.

"Is that why you killed him?"

"No. Revenge is never a good reason." replied Alex slowly, "This was justice for all the people who died here or were used here."

"How will I know the difference?"

"I'll tell you," replied the spectre, slapping the convict on the back, "Come on let's do some good."

Karin came down on the shuttle with as many volunteers as it could carry. Anderson sent a medical transport two days later. As the Alliance took over the rescue efforts the Normandy's crew shuttled back to their ship and their own mission.

TBC...

A/N. Hi guys. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for the follows and favs. Also love the reviews. Keep happy and keep reading. Stay tuned lol Have fun. T-Rex :)