A/N: Many thanks to a couple of readers who offered their opinions and advice on this chapter. It's a long one (Just over 12k words) so you might want to find a comfy chair if you're reading this on your mobile.
There are a lot of moving pieces in this chapter - I'm sort of compressing the pre-BDTS events as much as possible in terms of number of chapters, but that leads to longer ones. This chapter answers a lot of 'motivational' questions as well as introduce some other characters.
As usual, I like repurposing minor canon characters when I can - bonus points if you can identify Captain Toni or Chief Dah from the canon without using the ME Wiki.
' I think the scariest moment in my life was when Liara figured out I was the one who breached security at Arcturus. Oh, and since Shep didn't know, here's hoping she doesn't read this. If she does...um, taicho, it was an oopsie?'
- Kasumi Goto, 'Nihilistic, Voyeuristic, and Fantastic : a History of the Secret Wars (co-written by Jacob Taylor)
The tramp freighter Vindicus Area was little more than an old, worn out cargo barge, converted from a FCW troop carrier and patched with bits of technology from an assortment of races and places. Its cargo of plascrete beam supports, power conduits, and sacks of flash-fill cement were easily scanned and raised no eyebrows, and the crew were all human with papers perfectly in order.
The customs officials did their usual checks, of course, but they were hardly expecting trouble. The fact this was Arcturus – very nearly the heart of Alliance space – had something to do with such confidence, but it had more to with the fact that the docks were overloaded with travel. Media ships were flitting in all directions in a frenzy to get hard information on Shepard's mysterious wedding gala, and one more tramp freighter simply wasn't that important to the overworked customs officials.
After all, the exits from the docks were secured with top of the line scanners, the Commissars prowled everywhere, and getting into the Sphere itself was nearly impossible without proper clearance. If a little illicit cargo got shifted about on the docks, no one really paid much attention to that.
The heavily shielded and isolated compartment in the belly of the ship wasn't even known to the crew of the freighter, and was missed the customs team. When the ship docked in the tertiary cargo area of Arcturus, there were few people out and about to see three black-armored figures exit the ship. Using magboots and traction gloves, they carefully snuck under the mooring and fueling hose junction arm, crawling along until they were able to enter the maintenance hatch at the end of the arm.
The three stopped in the tiny maintenance access room, double checking their gear. Two of them were females – one slender, in lighter armor and with a hood-like armored cowl over her helmet. The other woman was taller and much bulkier, the black-painted surface of her armor nicked and pitted. The man towered over even the big woman, pausing to tap at the throat-mike he wore.
"Phase one completed. Status check." His voice was distorted by the voder in his battle mask, coming out raspy and flat.
Over the comm-link in their helmets, a voice sounded, cool and dispassionate. "We're inside as well. Moving on your order. Clear."
He nodded to himself, glancing at the two females. The slender one went to work immediately, pulling up her omni-tool and kicking off several programs at once, tiny lines of cryptic code scrolling past faster than the eye could follow on the floating haptic display. The red light set above the heavy-set armored hatchway in the room flickered and turned a solid green, and then slid open with a hiss of released air.
Making their way into the narrow tunnel, they literally walked right past the customs officials overhead. After almost a hundred feet of walking as quietly as possible, they came to a thickly armored intersection of tunnels, framed with braced with heavy support beams. Bright white stencils on the walls warned of decompression hazards.
The man pulled out a thin roll of plastic, unfurling it to reveal a glowing haptic map of various tunnels and passageways of Arcturus. He examined it minutely before tapping a segment of tunnel. "This is where we cut, right?"
The smaller woman peered over the h-sheet and then nodded. "Hai, that's the place. But the whole tunnel is sealed – an atmospheric breach will set off alarms."
He grunted. "Got that one covered, actually. Set these up to either side of the junction here – airtight kinetic screens. Designed to keep out riot and suppression gas, but it will hold back an atmosphere as well."
The two women nodded, each taking one of the devices, as the big man turned to the left wall, typing rapidly into his omni-tool After a moment, the dull whump of kinetic barriers kicking off echoed through the tunnel, and he paused to make sure they were set before performing a final adjustment to his omni.
The glowing tip of a projected omni-field turned into a cutting torch, and he began slicing into the thick walls of the tunnel. Sparks jumped out as some of the metal crumbled, and he hissed before adjusting the flow. "Make sure there's no atmo leakage, not sure how good those shields are."
The slender woman checked a reading on her own omni-tool before nodding. "Hai, clear." She tilted her head. "Do you know the target yet? The Broker didn't give me many details."
The man on the cutting tool shook his head. "No. Don't give as shit, neither. For six million credits it could be fucking anybody, but given our destination – probably someone at that wedding. We'll get a brief once we get in the Sphere."
The other, larger woman sighed. "If we get in the Sphere." She swore softly. "Just great. There's two entire fucking divisions of N7's there on top of God knows who else. This had better involve explosives or something besides going in straight."
With a grunt, the man finished his work on the tunnel, having scored a large circular hole in the thick walls. He braced himself and kicked the section of wall, sending it tumbling out into the inky blackness beyond.
He turned to the two women."Keep it tight – if we alarm now, we're beyond fucked. Dah, take point, and keep an eye out for motion sensors. I'll take the middle. Goto, you're in the rear."
The woman named Dah put her hands on her hips."I'm point, Toni?"
Toni shrugged, gesturing to his weapon, a sniper rifle. "Hard to snap target with a giant sniper rifle. Get moving."
The three clambered out of the narrow service tunnel onto the surface of Arcturus, hidden by the overhang of the dock under-works. Crawling along the curving surface, they paused every time passing fighters or shuttles sped beneath them, hidden in darkness.
It took fifteen long, silent minutes to reach another access hatch, this one rusted and pitted with age and disuse. Toni looked it over carefully, before folding his arms. "You sure this hatch is not connected to any alarm systems?"
Goto laughed. "Please. I'm a professional, and it's not the first time I've had to play peek-a-boo with Arcturus Security. Child's play." She slipped ahead, pulling a slender gray cord from her omni-tool and tried to connect it to an ancient access panel next to the hatch.
The cord plugged in, but her omni-tool bleeped angrily. "Corrosion on the leads. Gimme a second." She reached down to her belt, pulling up a small bottle and spraying something silvery and faintly glowing on the port. "Omnidust suspension."
Dah chuckled. "Slick."
When Goto tried to plug her cord in the second time, it slid in smoothly, and the omni-tool on her wrist beeped and displayed a haptic numeric pad. Tapping in a five digit code, she waited several seconds as a program on her omni-tool went to work. After a few seconds, a new series of numbers popped up.
She typed those in, and the hatch shuddered before grinding open slowly, a waft of frozen vapor rushing out. Goto gestured. "Ta-da!"
Toni shook his head at her, and the three climbed in, the hatch sealing behind them.
Dah struck a chem-light, holding it up. The walls were old metal, with a thick red line painted about waist high. In the dim light they could barely make out words – 'Solar Systems Alliance Station Arcturus'.
Scattered here and there along the floor were piles of trash, yellowing paper and other hardly recognizable detritus, along with a rusted toolkit. Dah swung the chem-light around, revealing the tunnel ran both directions. Her voice was a whisper as she spoke. "The fuck is this place? Briefing said we'd go through tunnels, but this is ... ancient."
Goto shrugged. "Old Arcturus under-works Most people have forgotten it even exists, but this was the foundation of the older base sections before the place got wrecked in the FCW. When the Alliance rebuilt, they used this as a foundation, but it runs straight past all the high-priced scan-systems and direct into the Sphere."
Toni nodded. "Alright. You've done your part. Go ahead and let the Broker know we appreciate his assistance in this. You have your own way out?"
Goto nodded. "Yeah. Listen up, this is important. This tunnel heads straight into the Sphere, comes out near the medical district in a sewage dump. The von Grath manor is about five hundred yards south of there, with 'north' being the Alliance Command Tower. If you come back this way, this tunnel also runs into a secondary berthing area for in-system shuttles.
She paused. "According to P,. there's two shuttles there now – the one I'm getting on, and one for you. The shuttle is stealthed and will take you to the pickup ship in orbit around the third gas giant. After that, I never saw you, right?"
Toni nodded. "Got it. Good work."
With that, Goto turned away, walking down the hallway almost silently. The man traded glances with Dah, and when he looked back in the direction Goto had left in, she was gone.
"...the fuck? She was just there!"
Dah merely shrugged. "Who cares? Come on, let's get moving."
The two remaining figures walked steadily along the tunnel for a good six or seven hundred feet before it sloped upwards, finally terminating in a large sewage flash pool. A heavy secure airlock hatch let the waste vent out to the system – their tunnel ended in a vent overlooking the pool itself.
"Always goddamned sewers." Dah sighed and pulled a spool of rope from the small backpack she wore, while the big man nodded sourly.
'"Quicker we're done, quicker we get a shower. Hit the omni and see if we have our target yet."
Securing the rope first, the woman did so, waiting for the onboard package to decrypt. Shapes crept across the surface of the omni-tool as it made a connection. A moment later the faint haptic image of a turian in black and pink face-paint spoke, his voice a solemn whisper.
"The P's Truth has been commissioned to deal with an irritant. Normally I don't take jobs against your people – but this one is simply too delicious to pass up. As you no doubt have heard, Major Shepard, the killer of Saren, is getting married."
"There are three primary targets. First is Human Councilor Donnel Udina. Second is Shepard's new wife, Doctor Liara T'Soni. If you have a shot of opportunity at Shepard herself, take it – the bonus is double what you'll get for the other two."
"I told you to pack a spare omni for a reason, Dah – in four seconds this one is going to fry. If you get caught, well, at least your deaths will be quick. Don't get caught."
With a curse, she unslotted the omni and hurled it away into the filthy water below, a second before it flared into a spurt of plasma. "P's a goddamned lunatic. Crashing a wedding...the fuck is this, Pulp Fiction?"
Toni grimaced, the expression unseen behind his helmet. "This isn't good. Even if we engage successfully, the whole system will go on lockdown. The fact that he sent two teams... he expects one to fail."
Dah snorted. "Or one team to chicken out and quit."
Toni merely shook his head. "I don't know about you, but I can't back out on this. The Commissariat is looking for me – the only chance I've got for survival is to get records hacked and some facial surgery done."
Dah nodded. "Yeah. Pretty much the same for me. If I don't pay off the shit I owe Aria, her people will find me and make me into a goddamned bloody stain." She exhaled deeply. "Let's do it."
Toni only lifted his weapon from his back in response, a heavily customized THUNDERBOLT sniper rifle. "Yeah. It's going to be messy getting out of here, but if we can come back this way, we might actually have a shot."
They slipped out of the tunnel, sliding down the rope to the muck below, and Toni took the lead. Covering the area with his sniper, he gestured forward. "Clear."
Dah unholstered a hot-shotted volus laser burster – a rapid firing shotgun that discharged x-ray lasers, invisible to the naked eye – and followed him cautiously, splashing through shallow, filthy water. It only took a few minutes for them to reach the end of the sewer tunnel itself, pushing open a door.
The sewer entrance sat in the middle of a low concrete culvert, where several other pipes emptied out at. A narrow metal ladder running up the side of the culvert lead to an elevated catwalk, overlooking the estates of the von Graths. Directly to their right, the bulk of Manswell Memorial Hospital blocked the view of the rest of the Sphere's interior.
Dah gestured to the open catwalk, and the two of them ducked down, running towards it. Toni checked his omni and pointed to the right. "Once we get up on the catwalk, rappel down the other side of the and we'll be in sight of the estate. The walls are alarmed, but there's enough cover from the stupid trees they planted that we can simply snipe from there."
Dah shook her head, pulling out her own h-sheet, with a map of the immediate area on it. "Maybe, but that leads them right this way." The pointed to the map. "If we just slip around the back of the hospital, that we can slip towards those buildings across the way. Warehouses of some kind. From there, you'd have an elevated shot, and they'd end up heading away from our exit point."
Toni thought about it, then nodded. "Not a bad idea." He glanced around. "I figure sooner or later the party will break up. Our best shot is to hit them as they exit, then fall back here. We'll seal suits and just stand around outside that sewage chute we saw till shit cools, then head for the shuttle. Straight?"
Dah nodded. "Piece of cake." She stood up, reaching for the ladder to the catwalk and began clambering up
She reached the top, and glanced around. A second later, a faintly glowing blade exploded through her chest, spraying chips of black armor and a spray of hot blood all over Toni's faceplate. She fell backwards bonelessly, her body falling into two cleanly bisected pieces to slam hard on the ground with a splatter of vividly red blood.
Something black flickered in his obscured vision. He tried to wipe his visor clear of the gore with his free hand, but it only smeared the vision port. Before he could pull his helmet off, a line of fire tore through his shoulder.
He staggered back, and then the pain hit him as he realized his right arm – the one holding his rifle – had been sliced clean off. Before he could do more than that, someone kicked his knee hard enough to shatter the kneecap, crumpling his armor and bending the limb back at a horribly incorrect angle.
He fell to the ground, landing on top of his own severed arm. He tried to reach for his rifle, and saw it kicked away. The last thing he saw, through smears of red, was a black cybernetic mask and two glowing white eyes, and a razor-sharp blade diving for his throat.
With a sigh, Kai Leng wiped his mono-molecular blade off, sheathing it a moment later. He tapped his omni, voice a dull whisper. "Leng here. Two-man team down at the sewer entrance. No sign of a third. Over."
A faintly exasperated, rough voice answered back. "This is Pel. Just bagged me two more at the power-station. Fuckers must think no one is old enough to remember the goddamned under-works...kids these days. They're down."
A third voice spoke on the commlink. "Lawson here. Only one showed up at customs, and our tip got that one arrested. We still do not know how the others got access to the Underworks in the first place – there are no atmospheric breach alarms in any of the connecting service corridors. There may be more of them. Remain alert."
Leng just sighed again, this time at Miranda's curt tones, before glancing at the two dead thugs. He thought about dragging the bodies out of sight, but his orders for this job were explicit – kill them and get clear.
Besides, they are already in the sewer, where sewage belonged.
He settled for kicking both of the bodies into the muck of the culvert, before checking himself one final time for any bloodstains. With that he triggered his cloaking field and began climbing up the ladder to the catwalk.
O-ATTWN-O
Some distance away, Kasumi Goto examined the black-painted shuttle she was supposed to ride to safety carefully. She checked the controls, finding them codelocked – remotely controlled – and almost laughed. "I was born at night, but not last night, P. I don't think so."
Stripping out of the black-armored suit she had on, she tossed everything into the shuttle, leaving her wearing a set of nondescript civilian clothing. She paused to recover her hood, draping it over her shoulders and pulling it down around her face, before stepping off. She shut the shuttle door and sent it on its way, and was in the process of making her way back up to the docks when the tracer she left on the armor stopped transmitting.
It took her another four minutes to get up to the docks, and she found a few people still staring outside, where a shuttle had mysteriously exploded for no reason at all. She shrugged.
"Don't take candy from strangers and never get into strange shuttles with codelocked destinations." She whistled a merry tune as she handed the customs man another forged passport, breezing through towards the public transport concourses, where she quietly engaged a third-class seat to the Citadel.
O-ATTWN-O
In the study of the von Grath mansion, Shepard and Liara both stared at the Illusive Man for a long second before Shepard finally spoke. "There are assassins going to crash my wedding?"
The entire long string of ridiculous things she'd been subjected to for the past few weeks just caught up with her all at once, and Liara gave a small start of surprise when Shepard burst out laughing.
The Illusive Man arched an eyebrow, leaning back a bit more and sipping his drink. "Not the usual reaction people have to learning such news."
She shrugged. "There's a long list of people who want me dead. All I know about P. is that he's some turian fuck who hates the Citadel races – another terrorist. Like you. Why would you act to stop him?"
Harper gave a sigh. "Given your relative importance, I do wish the Alliance would have expended more resources on improving your elocution and awareness of events beyond the battlefield. Then again..."
The glowing blue eyes narrowed, and he puffed on the cigarette again. "Such a lack is to be expected from those with poor foresight. To answer your question, P. is the only known name of a turian anarchist. A criminal, slaver, and indeed a terrorist – he acts in a nearly random fashion, often turning against his own people when they have nothing more to offer. He hates the turians, the salarians, and the asari – perhaps now that the humans and quarians have joined the Council he has decided to turn on us."
Liara glanced uncertainly at Shepard. "I have only heard a few stories of P. But they are much as you described him." Shepard glowed with pride as the asari's voice hardened. "That does not tell us why you would warn us of his attacks – or how you came to know about them."
Harper inclined his head. "A pertinent question, Doctor T'Soni. Suffice it to say that my organization has a very long arm and good ears. The issue of why I'm doing this will be explained in good time. The larger issue – that you have people who want you both dead – and the reach to get it done is what should be concerning you."
Shepard snorted. "More than the assassins on the way?"
Sipping his drink, Harper merely gave the thinnest hint of a smile. "Well, they were. I suspect a few minutes ago all such parties met a rather abrupt, messy end – courtesy of Cerberus. I'm here, above all else, to make sure that you, Doctor T'Soni, and their third target, Councilor Udina, stay alive."
Shepard almost went to fold her arms before remembering Liara. She settled for rubbing her face. "Udina? They wanted to kill Udina?" Her eyes narrowed. "Who exactly was behind this?"
Harper spread his hands. "I'm afraid my people haven't figured that out yet. I had a very narrow of opportunity to get assets aboard Arcturus without detection before any hostile parties got here – a task, I assure you, that was not simple nor done on a whim. Everything I have worked for, my own life, and those of many of my top operatives could be lost if this ends poorly."
He took a hit from the cigarette in his hands. "However, some things are worth any risk. Humanity's future – and your importance to it – is one of them."
Shepard tilted her head. "I have your say-so on this – not that I'm buying a word of it – but if you aren't lying … why the fuck do you care? I'd think your pack of retreaded KKK members would be happy if me and Liara bought it."
Harper shook his head. "Not at all. To me, you are a valuable asset – destroying you would only be to the detriment of the Alliance, of humanity. Right now, you are an incredibly powerful symbol of what our species can achieve." He puffed at his cigarette. "Those who wish you silenced are those who fear that power."
Liara shook her own head. "You talk about people as if they were pieces in a game of rithai, but neither Sara or I are your 'assets'."
Shepard smirked, but the Illusive Man merely waved his hand. "Doctor T'Soni, I fear you will find that in life we are all but pieces on the chessboard. Until now, you have been moved by those who were willing to sacrifice you as pawns. I merely offer the chance to determine your own next moves, as it were."
Shepard shook her head. "I don't think so. Again, you being here, talking to me, makes no sense. You could have sent your goons to stop the assassins without risking yourself. I'm not stupid, even if I don't talk all smooth – what do you want?"
The expression on the Illusive Man's face was extremely hard to read – then again, Shepard keenly knew she was bad at that anyway. He spoke a moment later, calmly. "Several things, Major. The first actually had nothing at all to do with you. Cerberus, as I said, has been cleansed – and there are tasks I needed to attend to on Arcturus."
He tilted his head. "I won't bore you with the details of how I got here, except to say that I obviously knew about your marriage plans long before last night's interview."
Liara's eyes suddenly narrowed. "And so did others, if the Broker and P. were both involved in sending assassins against us."
This time, Harper did smile, a flash of amused respect on his features. "Good to see you are paying attention to the little things, Doctor. Then again, it is very difficult to ascertain who exactly the leak to P. could be, given that Ahern summoned every single active N7 to this ceremony."
Shepard winced. She didn't want to think a fellow N would turn on her for some alien, but Torfan had already robbed her of that bit of innocence.
Sipping his drink again, Harper continued. "The second reason was more important – to remind P. and the Broker that this is my domain, not theirs – and that I live." There was a touch of pride in that statement, and Liara filed that fact away for future reference.
He extinguished his cigarette, and continued on."You do not have to like me or think my intentions are good, Major. But I am not, as you claim, a terrorist. I am a patriot – and I do what I do in order to prevent the Systems Alliance from turning into yet another nightmare stranglehold on the lives of humans the way the asari and salarian governments have."
Shepard gritted her teeth. "Bit late with that effort, don't you think? And I don't buy that either, given that your organization was involved with the shit."
Harper lit a fresh cigarette. "Have I lied to you so far, Major? Keep in mind – if it had not been for my interference – "
She cut him off. "Yeah, I heard that. But you also admitted you were cutting out. Like you said yourself, I was just a playing piece there. I don't buy your bullshit about the motivations, and I'm more convinced you were here for some other reason and decided to stop this hit on me just so you can try to use me later on." She waved her free hand at the door. "And the only reason I haven't screamed for the Commissars yet is I'm not a hundred percent sure that I may not need you."
She lifted her chin. "But don't think for a second that I'm going to trust you."
Harper stood, draining his glass. "Fair enough. The final reason I'm here – and talking to you – is to offer you a simple proposition. I'm more aware of what is transpiring in the SA than most. Very soon, you'll be exposed to information that will make you question your loyalties even more than you already are. There are elements in the SA who have very dark designs for humanity's future, and they are very powerful."
She snorted. "The President will take care of those assholes."
Harper smiled. "I have my doubts about that, Shepard. All I ask is that when you realize you are being played, you give me a call. I can answer many of the questions your superiors can't...or won't. Kyle trusted me. So should you."
He tossed a TTG snap-card down on the table between them. "I'd stay a bit longer, but I think I've disrupted your nuptials enough...and in a few more minutes, security will become very tightly uncomfortable. I'll be in touch, Shepard."
She sneered. "Kyle was cracking up under the pressure of what he found out. I'd rather be dead than work with you."
He shook his head, scrubbing out his cigarette. "Let's hope that doesn't happen, Major. Congratulations on your wedding." He turned, walking through a door in the south wall, and Shepard let out a long breath.
Liara glanced at her, features concerned. "Should we have stopped him?"
She shook her head. "An asshole like that never would pull a stunt like this without a fail-safe, Li. Besides, the bastard was packing, and we're unarmed. Probably had a biotic suppressor on him too."
She stood, levering Liara up with her, and glanced down at the TTG card.
Liara tilted her head. "We could let the Commissars know he was here."
Shepard felt torn. One the one hand, she hated people like the Illusive Man. On the other, if he wasn't lying...he'd been responsible for making sure they could catch Saren and Benezia – and possibly just stopped assassins.
"I...I don't know. He's a goddamned criminal, but the ugly reality is that he may have been telling the truth. If that's the case, I'd be stupid to turn him in. Like I said – I may need the fucker one day, given the other shit I've found out about the SA."
She picked it up the TTG card, staring at it a long, hesitant moment, before sighing. She crumpled it and threw it in the trash. "But I won't play his silly little games and I won't compromise who I am for goddamned 'answers'. Besides, this whole thing could be a stunt."
Liara nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps. Although I find it strange he wanted to talk to us so directly. It seems almost out of character for him to take such a risk."
Shepard thought about that, glancing back at the table, and then with a shrug took the man's left-behind back of expensive cigarettes. "I think maybe the point was to show he could get inside my goddamned wedding on the most secure station in Alliance space. He's good with the psychological shit."
She tucked the cigarettes into her uniform pocket. "At least the fucker has taste. Let's get out of here, marazul."
They wandered back outside, only to find Duke von Grath standing not far away, talking to a Commissar and two very heavily armed commissariat troopers. He glanced up as she exited.
"Major...there's been an incident."
She arched an eyebrow, glancing at the Commissar, who bowed. "Commissar-Colonel Quentin Rycek, milady."
Shepard turned to the Commissar more fully. "What kind of incident? One of the guests?" Her voice lowered. "Did Dunn do something stupid?"
Liara could not quiet muffle her snicker at that, but the Commissar only shook his head. "No, milady. We're here to secure the grounds – two teams of what appear to be assassins were killed about fifteen minutes ago in two separate locations. No one even knew they were aboard until the acoustic sensors picked up gunfire. By the time we got to the locations, we found two dead bodies. The initial security sweep found two more barely a quarter mile from here, also dead."
She glanced at Liara, who managed to keep her face still. "Assassins?"
Rycek nodded. "We picked up one of the hackers they used to get access to the station – he said he was hired by the Broker. Supposedly, the terrorist P. sent them on a mission – get inside the Sphere and kill Udina, your wife, and you."
Von Grath grimaced. "Disgusting." He stepped back a pace, talking quietly into his omni and putting his own knights irregular on alert.
Shepard sighed. "I don't want to be a bother, Commissar-Colonel, but do you have any other information? Are you sure it was P. behind this?"
Rycek shrugged. "It's hard to be one hundred percent sure, milady. We're still running traces and forensics on the bodies. But we definitely ID'd two of them – a marine captain, Jerrald Toni, dishonorably discharged from the DACT's Delta Squad, and another marine, Chief Jill Dah, FCW vet. Both were wanted for Commissariat questioning and are known associates of P's mercenary forces, and Toni was wanted for the murder of a Commissar. The other two are still unclear, but one of them had a Penal Legion tattoo."
She sighed. The name Dah sounded vaguely familiar, but she had no time to check it now. "So what do we do now?"
Rycek touched his hat. "For the moment, we're doing a tertiary security sweep – nothing has turned up so far...including who ever killed the assassins in the first place. We've stationed snipers and troopers around the perimeter of the estate – we ask that everyone stay here until we have cleared the area."
She nodded numbly. So, the Illusive Bastard wasn't lying about the assassins at least. Shit.
Aloud, she merely wondered. "I thought that getting aboard Arcturus Station without authorization was impossible. I had to go through a complete dog-and-pony show, and some of my non-human and non-asari guests were very nearly strip-searched."
The Commissar sighed. "We are...investigating the issue, milady."
Von Grath bristled, finishing his call. "As well you should, young man. Keep your men outside the estate if you please – my own knights will secure the interior."
The Duke glanced at Shepard before looking back at Rycek. "The High Commandant is inside, I think I'll have a few words with him regarding the laxity of security. You may go."
The Commissar almost wilted at that, turning to go, and von Grath chuckled after he walked out of hearing range. "Can't help put take the piss out of those creeps. Have no fear, milady – no one will disturb your one day of happiness if I can do anything to stop it." His rakish smile reminded her of General von Grath's own smirk, and she nodded.
His voice dropped to a more serious tone, and he turned fully to face Shepard and Liara. "I trust our mutual associate is gone?"
Her expression darkened. "Yeah. Why in fuck would you deal with someone like that, Your Grace?"
Von Grath sighed. "My son has told me you were blunt. So I will be equally blunt. Our family has lost a great deal of money and power over the years, in no small part due to fallout from our clashes with other noble houses. He's offered us a method to recover from this. I don't like him very much myself, but I am not fool enough to toss away salvation over scruples. Besides, these are … dark times." He tugged at his beard. "I cannot afford to make enemies of a man such as he."
Liara gave a small sigh. "It seems unwise to engage in business with such a man, Duke von Grath. You did not see the horrors of Cerberus first hand as we did, nor his cold-blooded betrayals of his own associates."
He grimaced. "That is true. Then again, the people he betrayed were monsters – perhaps the man found his moral center at long last."
Shepard grunted. "Yeah, and maybe the Red Sox will win next year's World Series."
The Duke gave a rueful smile. "Quite. In any event, I'm sad to say the amounts he offered for merely a chance to speak with you were too appealing given our Family situation – I could not turn that kind of money down. I know that sounds less than honorable, verging on mercenary, but as I've said before – one cannot eat honor."
She sighed, rubbing her temple with her free hand. "I won't argue with that. I don't like it, but it's your choice. And I didn't call for someone to arrest the bastard either – he could be useful, even if I want to put a hole in his head." She paused. "He said he had the assassins killed. That means he knew about the wedding in advance."
The Duke nodded, even as his son, Jason, approached. "Unsurprising. Then again, given who we are dealing with, he may have known for some time, milady."
The old man turned to General von Grath."Is the place secure, my boy? The Commissars said there was trouble – assassins and whatnot."
Jason von Grath tugged on his handlebar mustache almost nervously with his cybernetic hand. "Yes, a quartet of spectacularly dead cretins. One of them was cut in half, another shot sixteen times in the chest and head. Appallingly sloppy. As for the security situation...the Commissariat has things well in hand, as usual, and our knights are changing into battle armor from their formal wear."
The younger von Grath sighed. "It's almost disappointing, all this eating has given me the urge for a nice scrap." He glanced at Shepard. "I trust the festivities were not disturbed? You've been gone from the main hall for some time."
She shook her head. "No, I was busy talking with ..someone." She glanced at the older Duke. "And does he know?"
Duke von Grath sighed, taking in his son's look of perplexity. "No." He turned to Jason. "She was just meeting with..." He glanced around, then spoke lower. "Jack Harper."
General von Grath's features twisted in outraged distaste. "And why, precisely, is a filthy terrorist cockbag in our estates, father? I don't even think I want to know why he would want to talk to the Major and Lady Liara."
Shepard nudged Liara. "I think this is a, uh, family conversation. We should go."
Both von Graths frowned, then Jason shook his head. "I was looking for you, actually, Shepard. People were asking about you and Lady Liara in the main hall. Your fool of a team-mate is attempting to out-drink a krogan, I figured you could use a good laugh at watching Dunn poison himself."
She nodded, grateful for a reason to leave. "Yeah. We'll be there." She and Liara walked off, tied together, before Jason von Grath turned to his father, expression thunderous.
"That man is directly responsible for the shit that happened on Akuze, the destruction of an entire asari colony, thousands of human and alien deaths, and God Almighty only knows what else. I knew you were getting a bit daft in the head but I didn't think you'd consort with trash!"
The Duke bristled, his ancient features hardening. "And while you were off gallivanting around, sleeping with all sorts of women and mugging for the ANN – and getting your units shot to pieces – I was the one having to hold the Family together so you'd have something to rule over, boy."
The younger man shook his head stubbornly. "I am neither so naive or so stupid that I won't admit our situation is poor – nor am I going to wax eloquent about the morality of taking money from the likes of him. But his vileness is not merely in his acts, but his ability to worm into positions of power. His interest in us means nothing good."
The Duke shrugged. "I know the man is vile – he's also the only one with the ability to help us recover financially, given that the Colemans have it out for us and none of the rest of the High Lords are willing to aid us."
He folded his arms, scowl fixed on his features. "We cannot afford to turn aside help, Jason. Especially not now. The President is going to get his fool head blown off trying to rein in the Manswells and we are no longer the force we used to be as a Family. The Navy is shot to pieces, the commoners are upset with rising prices and unemployment. This is no time for us to stand on being lily-white and pure."
General von Grath exhaled sharply. "I was already contaminated by Cerberus indirectly when they deceived me into running on the Northstar platform – I don't want anything else to do with them. If you choose to do this, father, it will eventually come back to haunt us. Nothing that man does is free or safe."
The Duke shrugged. "Nothing is in life, son." He let his expression ease. "Go back to the party. Dance with your doctor, drink and celebrate. Let me handle the distasteful things – you can always rebuke my actions after I'm dead."
Jason's expression flickered. "I'd rather not have to dishonor your name in such a fashion."
With a shrug, the Duke turned away. "You can't eat honor, boy."
O-ATTWN-O
Darkness was, among the yahg, often seen as the highest test of skill and cunning. The thick jungle canopy of Parnack filtered the hard white light of their star, but could never fully muffle it.
When the planet dipped behind the thick band of gasses and asteroids the yahg called Death's Veil, however, all sunlight was blocked for nineteen days. True night fell, bringing searing cold, and the native wildlife exploded into unrelenting violence.
Yahg in the olden days had huddled beside vast bonfires inside thick palisades, clutching weapons and gazing at the screams from the dark jungles – but occasionally, a hunter did not make it back to the fireside in time, and had survive on his own.
In modern times, with electrical lighting and thick walls, only a fool would go into the jungles during True Night. A fool, or someone seeking a Name. The Shadow Broker, before being plucked from his world by meddling salarians, had done so twice, giving him a reputation so fearsome that he was one of the few yahg boasting three Names.
As he sat in the shrouded darkness of his office, lit only by the constellation of status screens and haptic updates, he felt at ease. The darkness did not scare him, nor death itself. The Broker feared only two things – loss of control, and inability to react.
The reports on his desk bespoke of both.
Tetrimus had been shaken the most by the discoveries of his various teams regarding the Reaper threat, and as a result had expended the efforts of most of his own teams to find out more information. The most recent discoveries were gruesome in the extreme – just based on the digs his tech teams had done in haste, the Reapers had obliterated at least two hundred sentient races, with many more probably lost to time.
The repeated decimation of some but not all intelligent life simply made no sense, and Tetrimus was unable to find much of a rationale for why it happened, only the pattern – fifty to fifty-five thousand years, except in cases where the races exterminated were possessed of particularly high levels of technology, which seemed to shorten the time until the Reapers struck.
The Citadel seemed oblivious to the threat – their reactions so far were more along the lines of building a handful of new dreadnoughts, not looking for answers. Given the attitude of most of the galaxy towards archaeology – tomb-looting was too kind – it didn't surprise the Broker that the Citadel had not yet tumbled to the threat they faced. It was only serendipity that allowed a Broker team to find the scattered information that indicated the Reapers would not take the destruction of one of their own lightly.
Then again, based on what the Collectors were doing, there was a very good chance that the Reapers didn't know Nazara had been destroyed yet. His communications with the Collectors were often terse, almost mechanical, but they were poor at dissembling and almost brainless when it came to subtle intrigue. Sometimes they acted with more intellect and even a hint of malicious cunning – but most of the time they simply did one thing.
They collected.
They collected a maddening number of things, only one of which was genetic samples. They observed cultural trends, watched programming and artificially intelligence development, and were keenly interested in obscure mathematical research – especially higher-order math and hard dimensional physics. They kidnapped the occasional scientist and did obscure hunts for various pieces of recovered Inusannon technology. And they mapped and scouted systems far off the Relay network extensively.
These patterns made no coherent sense, but the Broker was hardly unfamiliar with that. Seemingly random and unrelated things could quite often form a larger pattern that could illuminate the information he needed. He was sure the answers lay within finding the common link between their collections and whatever it was the Collectors were designed for.
In essence, if he could understand the patterns, he could identify the tripwire – and possibly even bypass it. The first step was understanding, which was why he was now working for the Collectors directly.
In return for technology beyond the Broker's wildest dreams, the Collectors had asked him to conduct a series of tasks, the nature of which was ultimately very enlightening – and when the Broker connected the dots, equally frightening.
The Collectors were a trip-wire, a fail-safe.
He had reached this conclusion only slowly, and after thinking deeply on what information he had gathered – snippets of conversations the Council managed to have with the Inusannon AI called Vigil, the evidence he had that the Collectors themselves were obviously Reaper agents, and the fact that the Collectors were looking for things for a reason.
Reapers did not merely appear at set intervals, although there was a rough cadence to their arrivals. Over a third of the attacks Tetrimus had pieced together over the last million years had been in spans of far less than fifty thousand years. That meant something inside the galaxy was signaling them to arrive whenever conditions of some kind were met.
If the Reapers only invaded when something went beyond a condition, and the Collectors evaluated said condition, and the condition had something to do with the arcane mix of math, science and technology he'd pieced together so far, then it might mean pursuit of those fields was a Reaper weakness. Tetrimus had several tech teams working on that angle now, but there was hardly enough time for such efforts to pay off in the short term.
In the interim, the Broker had reached several conclusions based on the facts he had at hand.
Fact: the Reapers did not want all life exterminated, or even life that achieved spaceflight. They were only interested once a race – organic or artificial – began either demonstrating certain traits or mastered certain technologies, something to do with artificial intelligence, dimensional mathematics, physics, and biotics. Not all of these things were in conjunction – there was no link in their exterminations of races possessed solely of strong biotics, for example – instead, the combination of things seemed to be a large trigger.
Fact: the Collectors were not numerous. They had one powerful command ship and a host of smaller, nondescript vessels, but they were hardly a lethal army. There was fragmentary evidence they were at one time much more numerous, but his scientists clandestine sampling of fragments of the Collector DNA – painstakingly gathered by skin scrapings from carefully staged events – showed the strange Prothean DNA the Collectors were based on was unstable and the beings themselves mutated.
Fact: the Collectors were attempting to repair something. He had already ascertained whatever it was, this Beacon, was a communications device of some kind, one that Nazara had inadvertently damaged in its death throes. But if such a device allowed communication with the Reapers, why did Nazara simply not call for help instead of storming the Citadel?
His best theories were that the Beacon was just that – some sort of navigational aid, to allow the Reapers to return. Travel at FTL speeds from beyond the galactic edge would take centuries, and if the Collectors were concerned about the next two years, they wouldn't be using such a mundane methodology.
Fact: These repairs to this Beacon required both time and a great deal of rather arcane and rare materials and biotechnology, which he supplied at a stiff markup. The fact that they were willing to pay him in devastating weapons systems and suspiciously new-looking Inusannon power stars was not lost on his agile mind – whatever they gave him was hardly their best, which was worrisome if their technology level was that high.
The most concerning fact, of course, was the stilted conversation he'd just had with his 'contact' in the Collectors – they had instructed him to convince the Council that any Reaper threat would be decades if not centuries away, but that in no cases could he allow the Council to start building up forces over the next two years.
That was far too soon for his tastes, and limited his ability to react.
He pulled down another report on his desk, one from Tetrimus' tech team. Preparations to flee the galaxy were underway, but moving slowly. The sheer size of the required project was daunting, already running into the low hundreds of millions, and the task of snatching up valuable genetic material was proving time-consuming.
The current timeframe was four years. He'd demanded two and been told that was simply not possible. Four was cutting it very fine, with no backups if something went wrong. Six years would be better, eight better still.
By his current estimates, given that the Collectors were mostly concerned that the Council not build up its forces over the next two years, he would run out of time before that point.
He could, he supposed, simply act against them – inform the Council, show them evidence, and all of that. But he strongly suspected the political machinations of the asari and salarians would get in the way of any meaningful action on their part, and the geth alone had broken their strength.
Worse, not a single simulation showed the Council races – or even the entire united galaxy – being able to stop the Reapers. With no match for their horrific weapons, even if the entire galaxy united and devoted full strength to preparations, the best they could hope for was an ugly drawn out series of battles ending in defeat ten to twelve years into the fight. The technology gap was simply too vast.
No, best to simply go along with the Collector requests, to be assured that when the Reapers arrived, his organization would not be taken out in the first wave. It would take, at a minimum, a decade or more to obliterate all of the forces in the galaxy, after all – enough time for him to get out, as long as he kept his shipyard where the escape vessels were being built a secret.
The Collector request for the destruction of Shepard, on the other hand, made little sense to him. She was one human – a formidable foe on a battlefield, but inept in the ways that the Broker dealt in. The death of Tyriun No Kage had shown that no matter how powerful a foe, an anti-material rifle from a mile away is a threat hard to defend against.
The request implied there were things going on he did not yet understand, which he hated.
Taking Shepard out would be simple enough if he was fool enough to do so directly. Tazzik could certainly kill her in short order, as could Tetrimus. But that would simply announce to any fool with eyes that something was off – as a rule, he did not send his most powerful operatives out except in dire emergencies.
A more subtle approach was needed. And killing Shepard without it linking back to him would be the tricky part. The good news was that there were others who wanted her dead, either to stymie elements of the SA or to stop her from interfering in ongoing operations. He could use said elements as cover, and then turn right around and sell them out to the SA or the Council, profiting twice.
Along those lines, he had agreed to send a few of his specialized freelancers along with a strike force of P's operatives for an operation on Arcturus, but only under the proviso that his own people would not get directly involved. The internal chronometer in his vision blinked as it was time for those operatives to check in.
He strode to his command plinth, overlooking sixty-odd status windows of ongoing operations, carefully arranged in a hanging display. Some were merely intelligence summaries, others were financial exchanges, banks, clandestine mercenary bands, research companies – the Broker Network spanned the known galaxy and indirectly numbered in the low thousands.
He tapped a control on the 'deniable operations' board, bringing up the coordinator. "Report on the Arcturus situation, sub-file three."
The glowing sphere of light that acted as his information coordinator swam into view. "At once, Shadow Broker. Accessing communications relays. Establishing link."
A moment later, a cheery voice sounded across the room. "Kasumi here."
The Broker almost sighed – this one was a very talented thief, hacker, assassin and her discretion was legendary, but her attitude grated. "Report."
Her voice dropped a few octaves. "I'm afraid the order fell through. The delivery was made on time and without complications...but let's just say the package never actually got to the front door." She must be someplace public for to use such euphemisms, he figured.
His many eyes blinked in rapid succession. "And your partner?"
She sighed. "Got away from the scene, but picked up at customs. Oh, and the shuttles that were supposed to relay the return merchandise back were … not optimal."
The Broker nodded sourly at this last bit of news. P, unlike himself, was notorious for covering his tracks by the simple expedient of murdering his tools when they were likely to get caught. Given that he recruited mostly among the desperate and the outcast, it was a working strategy, yet one that meant his people were not as good as the Broker's own.
Goto had been partnered with a tech-hacker known as Ghast for this particular operation – get P's assassins inside Arcturus close enough for the hit on Udina and T'Soni, and take out Shepard if possible – but he had expected the effort to fail in one way or the other. To hear that neither party of killers had even gotten close...
"And what was the root cause of the complications with the operation?"
Goto's voice dropped to a near whisper. "Based on the way they were handled? Dogs."
Cerberus.
The Broker very nearly hissed. Harper's interference over the years had become intolerable, and when Shepard had assaulted Cerberus and destroyed its headquarters he had thought the issue finally over and done with. But his operatives reported far too many baffling transactions in the financial networks in the aftermath of the fall, and his attempt to access a secure Cerberus data-store had turned into a nightmare, with sixteen dead agents and Tazzik nearly killed fighting off a pair of extremely deadly assassins – heavily cyber-modified agents that corresponded to the so-called Odd Couple, Kai Leng and Theo Pellham.
Cerberus was far from dead. And if Cerberus had acted to stop P's people, then either P's organization had a security breach, or his own did. "Who knew about this assignment?"
"On our side?" Goto's voice was thoughtful. "Well, my buddy – but then again, he's … well. You know. black hats probably have him, and that isn't the sort of thing anyone with a brain would want to get involved in."
He nodded to himself. An illegal hacker on Arcturus with no proper ID would be unlikely to live out the hour in Commissariat hands, and if that was indeed the source of their leak the problem had neatly handled itself. While connected to him tangentially, the Broker would simply claim the man was working independently.
He could also attempt to sell the task of finding who sent the assassins, something he would bring up with Shields later.
"And you were given the orders by me personally. Our business associate must have a leak, then."
Her voice rose to its usual cheerful register. "Yup."
He paused, thoughtfully. "Is it possible to complete the operation solo?"
She actually laughed. "Ha ha ha hya...oh. You're serious? Umm...let's go with no? The place is full of N7's, a krogan warlord, a pack of war priestesses, Admiral Ahern, and, you know, Shepard." She made a trilling sound. "Killing her brand-new wifey sure sounds like a way to get reduced to a smear. No thanks."
He rumbled, knowing his voice-edit software would edit that out. "Very well. Do you require extraction?"
"Nope. Picked out a ride to the Citadel already."
"Convenient. Once you arrive, proceed to Barla Von Financial. Ask to see the Security Director and inform her that the operation she was informed of is a go. Go with her and ensure that no dogs disrupt the event."
Her voice hardened. "And the pay?"
The Broker tapped some controls on the console. "I have determined the person responsible for Mr. Okuda's death. And an additional piece of information you might find interesting. Complete this task and I will inform you."
All the warmth and levity fled her voice, leaving it iron-hard and almost icy. "Very well. I'll be there soon. Goto out."
He clicked off, and returned to his chair to think. Cerberus interference could imply many things, but if they were acting to protect Udina, then that implied Harper had much higher access to the SA government than he had previously thought.
Then again, given the number of Cerberus figures in Shepard's life, perhaps he was protecting her and Dr. T'Soni. No matter. Such inelegant methods of dealing with issues were P's crass trademark, his own methods were more subtle.
He tapped another control, this one for his agent at the Bekenstein Refit Facility, Fifth Fleet. It took almost five minutes to get a response, and once he did he gave one simple order.
"Get aboard the Normandy and reactive the LINK components installed in the ship's cargo bay, remote activation and location beacon functionality only."
O-ATTWN-O
Shepard didn't have any further weirdness happen to her or Liara for the rest of the day, although she certainly engaged in some weird conversations.
The security lockdown had forced all the guests to remain on the estate, so everyone had eaten and then mingled. Shepard had been introduced to more than a few nobles and figures of note, then had spent time talking with Garrus and Telanya about their recent activities. She was happy to learn they were getting bonded soon as well,
She'd also spoken at length with Wrex, learning of what he found out about the situation on Tuchanka, and shared what she knew about Okeer. The big krogan frowned when he learned of the Broker's involvement. "I'm going to call Tetrimus and figure out what is going on. Broker doesn't usually go in that hard without a good reason."
She nodded. "Kinda what I figured. If I find out more – or get a fix on Okeer – I will let you know, big guy."
The krogan nodded, glancing around. "These people are soft, Shepard – but dangerous. Even the soft ones look like a warlord figuring out how many of his warriors will have to die on a long march to make the rations stretch. Watch yourself."
She wholeheartedly agreed with that – the entire situation was a little nerve-wracking. She and Liara passed some of the time talking with Liara's old professor, Professor Ranya of Clan Skywatch. The asari was an older matron on the verge of matriarchy, accompanied by an extremely young asari woman named Treeya.
"I am delighted that you were able to get access to the human Mars Archives, even if only haptic images. They are so dreadfully stiff about sharing such with us at the University." Professor Ranya smiled at Liara, who ducked her head a little before replying.
"If you like, I do have permission to share them with others to help in translation. Shepard can actually read Prothean – we are going to work on a translation template in our time off."
Shepard arched an eyebrow at this. "We are?" Liara gave her a look, and she coughed. "I mean, yes, we are."
The professor smiled gently. "That would be very useful, Lady Liara, but do remember you are supposed to be relaxing." She sighed. "I cannot imagine the horrors you have had to endure the past year."
Liara gave a half shrug, the best she could do still tied to Shepard. "I have learned a great deal as well, Professor. And I am thankful you taught me so much – I know it could not have been easy, dealing with the disapproval of the faculty in taking on someone like me as a student."
Shepard could remember, vivid snatches of Liara's memories with the Professor – one of the only kindly and encouraging people in her life. She smiled at the asari herself, making her voice as gentle as possible. "I'd have to say the same, Professor. I haven't met a lot of people in Liara's life I like, but if you ever need anything at all from me, I'll be happy to provide it. You are one of the few people who cared about her."
Ranya sadly shook her head, patting Liara's knee almost awkwardly. "I'm just an old fool, Lady Sara. And as much as I am saddened to know that Lady Liara will not be returning to teach a new generation at Serrice...I think she will be happier her, among our cousins."
The young asari, Treeya, looked eagerly at Liara. "Lady Liara, they said you actually visited Ilos – what was it like?"
Liara's smile flickered. "It was...sad. I was barely there an hour before the entire planet was destroyed. So much history lost – and who knows what else. There was a vast city that we landed in, and the bits of technology we saw were mostly Inusannon in make, not Prothean. We were..." She trailed off, not sure how to describe Vigil, then shrugged. "We discovered it was likely the Inusannon home world. The Protheans were there to harness Inusannon technology."
Shepard leaned back a bit, thinking. She should probably go back to the Citadel at some point and see if Vigil was still willing to talk to her – she had questions she'd had no time to ask back on Ilos.
Their conversation with the Professor lasted some time, until von Grath told her and Liara it was time for the bond-ceremony to complete.
By that time, Shepard was a bit shaky. Something about the cords caused a weird resonance between her and Liara, not a meld but more than a simple connection, and the emotions bouncing between them back and forth all day had her feeling exhausted.
She was alternatively happy and weepy, excited and nervous, and entirely emotionally worn out. Liara felt and looked much the same, subtle signs of stress visible to Shepard if no one else, and when von Grath cut the cords connecting them and handed them to Riala to place into the bracelets, she was relieved to have the use of both hands again.
Riala did something with warpfire, and a moment later dipped the bracelets into a bucket of water set by her side for the purpose of cooling them off. "On Thessia, this would all be done in the ocean, but … circumstances change."
She pulled out two golden bracelets, simply but beautifully wrought, deeply set with the cords of their binding fused to and inside the metal. "Among our people, one never removes a bonding bracelet except in times of dire need."
Shepard slipped hers on, as did Liara, and nodded. At that, a slightly drunken Dunn stood up. "You gotta give a speech, Sheppy."
She sighed. "Please, someone hit him." She burst out laughing when Wrex, Jackson, Ashley, and Tali – standing nearby – all complied, and more laughter rang out as he was knocked to his knees.
General von Grath glared at Dunn before clearing his throat. "Lords and Ladies, beloved cousins from the Asari Republic, honored guests, valiant warriors of Terra, Palaven, Thessia and Tuchanka." He paused. "And Mr. Dunn."
On the floor, Dunn sighed.
Von Grath continued. "I wish to thank you all for coming to this little event. It is not the usual noble wedding, granted, full of political intrigue and badly cooked hors d'oeuvres. Nor, much to my eternal chagrin, is it a traditional asari wedding."
He made a face of exaggerated sorrow, and many of the asari laughed.
He turned to Shepard and Liara, both standing a bit awkwardly. "But it is a celebration of what we have all achieved. I remember when Shepard saved my life after my cruiser crash-landed on Horizon. She went toe-to-toe with a Glorious batarian, screaming bloody murder the entire time. I'd never seen anything like it, and I never have since then."
He paused. "I owe her my life. As do, I suspect, more than a few of you. Some of you have served with her, or fought alongside her. Others only know her tangentially. I am here to tell you that she is the finest example of a Marine I know, and that I am proud to see her being recognized as she deserves."
He straightened. "With that, I'd like her to say a few words before we all depart – this soiree has run on rather longer than originally expected, and the media is probably outnumbering the police by now." He turned to her as the crowd gently laughed again, and she nervously looked around the vast hall.
"I'm not very good with speeches. Maybe it's because of how I grew up – not exactly the background anyone would want. All of my life, up until now, I've mostly been on my own. There have been a few people to have my back – Captain Anderson, General von Grath. My old CO, Major Kyle. My friend, Urdnot Wrex."
The krogan gave a flicker of a smile.
She exhaled. "But until about just over a year ago, I was … not the finest example of a marine, no matter what my old boss may think. I was out-of-control. I was angry. I was … lost. It doesn't really matter if I had good reasons for that or not. If I had continued on that way..."
She met the gaze of Jason Delacor, and she grimaced. "Well, it wouldn't have ended well." She looked up again, smiling a little. "The reason I'm where I stand today – why we're all here, instead of many of us lying dead on the Citadel – is the person next to me."
She took Liara's hand.
"I am really, really bad at saying what I feel. A lot of times, I don't understand it fully, or know how to get the words out right." She looked at Liara, the rest of the room seeming to fall away.
"But I know how to say this: Without her, I was lost. She is my life."
She could feel the emotions burning off of Liara, but shoved them down. "Since then, I've changed. I have a lot more people to support me now. I have people who have encouraged me, and are still encouraging me. I have been elevated to a station I'm not sure I deserve...but that I will try my best to uphold."
She glanced around the room. "And each of you – Ash, Garrus, Tali, Tel, Joker, and even my Commissar Jiong – played a role in that." She paused. "I owe Admiral Ahern a huge debt as well, for opening my eyes fully to the way I was acting. I owe Councilor Donnel Udina a huge debt, for taking the time to try to teach me what I didn't learn in manuals or classes."
The two men glanced at each other, Ahern merely nodding. Udina looked vaguely pleased, the woman beside him moreso.
"I don't have a whole lot else to say – except that I won't let any of you down." She paused, and then glanced at Liara. "Liara?"
The asari gave a little start, then worriedly looked out over the assembled people. When she spoke, her voice was soft, but distinct. "I am, I fear, little better than Sara at public speaking, nor was I prepared to do so. However, I do wish to say something."
Her voice grew in strength and hardened. "An asari bonding is a connection between two people, on every possible level. I have seen things my Sara has suffered through – the travails of her youth, the horror of war, the ugliness of watching those under her command die. There are those – bitter, hateful souls – who have condemned her for what she has done in her past, without understanding the pain, the agony and the self-hatred it cost her."
Liara's eyes blinked back tears. "She has suffered and bled to protect those who could not protect themselves. She was ruthless only to those who have demonstrated a lack of any decency, any respect for life – slavers, cruel pirates, and those who would destroy and use the weak. I do not think any of you understand the pressure she has always felt – and feels more of now – to simply do what is right."
Her voice rang out. "She is more than a soldier. I say this not out of some infatuated love, but out of what I have seen and experienced. I love her because she is selfless. I love her because she does not turn away from taking responsibility for her actions. And most of all, I love her because for far too long, she had no one to really support her."
Her eyes found David Anderson, and he flinched, and they sought out both Dunn and Jackson, both of whom could not meet her gaze. "To my relatives from Thessia, I thank you from my soul's depths for coming to see this ceremony, but if you want to truly honor me – then honor her."
Her confidence faltered, and she stepped back a bit. "I am happy this day, and happy those of you who came to join were able to share in it."
Von Grath nodded slowly, an unreadable expression on his face. "Very well said, Lady Liara." He turned to the crowd. "I thank you again for gracing us with your time and presence. As you may be aware, there was a security breach earlier today. The police and Commissariat are out in force – as you leave, my knights will provide you with a pass validating that you were here, which should allow you to get past the security cordons they have set up with no issues. A number of you are going to be staying here tonight – your rooms are already ready, and we'll have a short dinner in a few hours, assuming you aren't stuffed already."
He bowed formally. "The House of Von Grath has discharged its duty this day. Go forth in safety and honor."
The crowd began to fray, and Shepard took a shaky breath as she grabbed Liara's hand and looked up at the General."I didn't even think about where to stay, but the Kazan is in overhaul..."
Before the General could answer, the slender form of Commissar Jiong cut through the front ranks of the crowd, in a long red dress coat. "Milady Shepard, given the security concerns tonight, I took the liberty of once again securing lodgings for you – this time the penthouse of the Alxis Hotel. There is a vehicle outside waiting for you and Lady Liara."
Liara gestured to one of the side tables, laden with various gifts they had not gotten around to opening. "Will you also be handling this, Mr. Jiong?"
He sketched a shallow bow. "After checking for poisons, explosives, that sort of thing...yes."
Shepard rolled her eyes. "Dammit, Jiong, no one is going to bomb me."
The Commissar folded his arms. "I would prefer to not take chances. Commissar D'Alte is waiting for you in the car, as is the High Commandant, who wanted a few private words."
Shepard nodded slowly. She'd known de la Muerte was here, but hadn't seen him all day. She turned to von Grath. "...thank you."
Von Grath merely smiled. "Payback for, as you put it, stealing your doctor." His smile widened. "I am truly aggrieved that you managed to escape this day without being forced onto the dance floor, Shepard. I was very much looking forward to seeing if the asari could look upon such horror without bursting into laughter."
She gave him a glare, before turning to Liara. "See? I told you he was ungrateful."
Liara merely laughed, taking Shepard by the arm. "I am very tired and honestly an emotional wreck right now, General. Sara and I will need to rest and recover, but thank you for hosting this for us."
The general bowed. "The pleasure is mine – I would have never had such a fascinating discussion of Prothean relics with your old teacher otherwise. A very formidable woman."
Shepard narrowed her eyes and grinned. "Do I need to tell Chakwas you have a wandering eye?"
Von Grath gave her a sly look. "I don't know. Do I need to tell Lady Liara about the celebration after Dirth?" Liara suddenly flushed deeply as Shepard muttered, and the man chuckled. "Ah, yes, asari bonding. Takes all the fun out of ratting you out, but I could still tell the media about the salarian..."
Shepard hissed. "Why you – "
At this point, a clearly amused Jiong took Shepard by her free arm. "Come along, milady. The High Commandant is hardly patient, and if we delay any longer the media is likely to assault the grounds."
Shepard sighed. "Ugh, media."