"Mark."

One of Legion's 1,183 processes began a countdown.

30... 29... 28...

The geth had already bypassed most of the door's defenses. It would be a simple procedure to open the door and close it again.

27... 26... 25...

Thane's warp slammed into the praetorian, detonating the reave as planned. It staggered, but did not fall. The group rushed past it, with Thane and Samara trailing.

24... 23... 22...

The praetorian shook itself off. Miranda knocked it back with another warp. The group continued its push.

21... 20... 19...

Are we gonna make this? thought Shepard. She looked back in spite of herself. The group had a good lead, but it wasn't going to last.

18... 17... 16...

Hell with it. With a cry of "keep going!" she turned on the monster and charged.

15... 14... 13...

"Commander?" asked Kira, slowing down. Grunt grabbed her arm and pulled her back up to speed.

12... 11... 10...

Shepard rolled away from the praetorian and did a rapid about-face. It was once again disoriented.

9... 8... 7...

The door was less than 10 meters away, Mordin estimated.

6... 5... 4...

7 meters. Shepard caught up with the group. The praetorian launched itself into the air.

3... 2... 1...

3 meters. It began charging its twin particle beams. Thane turned and reached for his sniper rifle.

Zero.

Legion opened the door. They crossed the threshold. The praetorian fired.

"Error: The door has malfunctioned," announced Legion, fiddling with the controls.

"Scatter and take cover!" ordered Shepard. Suppressing fire is ineffective against living, flying tanks.

Not expecting this order, the group reacted instinctively. The squad members in the front quickly filled the closest available spaces, forcing those behind to move farther. Thane, at the rear, felt his barriers give way. Then he felt a strange numbness in his left arm.

"We have it," said Legion as the doors closed.

"Too... late," said Thane. Shepard looked over. He was clutching his arm, gone below the elbow and gushing blood. He collapsed on the floor.

"Mordin!" shouted Shepard.

The salarian doctor hurried over, closely followed by Dr. Chakwas. He applied medigel liberally to Thane's arm, stopping the bleeding. She began analyzing Thane's vitals with her omnitool. Dax pulled out a tricorder and did the same.

"He's lost a lot of blood," assessed Chakwas. "He needs hospitalization." Mordin nodded without looking up.

Shepard and Garrus exchanged a glance.

"I don't think we can do that right now, doc," said Shepard.

Mordin injected something into Thane's chest with one hand, running medical tests with his omnitool on the other. "Patient stable, but not for long. First aid insufficient."

She reached for her temple. "Joker, can you do a pickup?"

"Some of the Normandy's systems are back online," said Joker over the comm. "We could, but we'd have to land back from your position."

"Do it. I'm sending Mordin, Chakwas, and the rest of the crew back. They've also got Thane with them. He lost half an arm."

"Ouch. Is he OK?"

"Hopefully. Shepard out."

"You should probably also take another look at Donnelly's concussion, just in case," added Dax.

"He was concussed? Yes, I'd best examine him," replied Chakwas.

Mordin and Dr. Chakwas carefully lifted Thane and joined the rest of the crew.

"Commander," said EDI. "I have found information about Dr. Bashir in the collector data banks."

"Let's hear it."

"They discovered some quantum anomaly in Dr. Bashir, but this material references concepts unknown to modern science."

"His quantum signature?" asked Dax.

"Yes," replied EDI. "Do you know what that is?"

"It means they know he's not from this world."

"That's not good," said Garrus.

"They were attempting to bring an indoctrinated asari scientist to extract intelligence from him, but there was insufficient time," noted EDI.

"Forcibly extracting knowledge is no mean feat. The average asari would not be capable of it, though perhaps she could be aided by indoctrination," mused Samara. "My people regard it as a fundamental violation of the victim. The code demands the death of any asari who commits such an act. Has this scientist done this before? What is her name?"

"Rana Thanoptis, and the records don't show whether she's done it before."

Shepard swore.

"Should I remember that name?" asked Tali.

"She was that random asari Shepard spared on Virmire," replied Garrus. "We ran into her right before we met Okeer."

"How powerful is she?" asked Samara.

"She wasn't capable of defending herself two years ago," replied Shepard. "But she's a neurologist who studied indoctrination in some detail, for whatever that's worth."

Samara nodded. "I see. I shall have to look into this when our business here is concluded."

"EDI, do we know where he's being held?" asked Shepard.

"Yes. In a lab several hundred meters below you."