Liara

We heard the faint sound of curses as we walked up the stairs of what might have been an entrance to an underground level. It evened out into a long hallway that led towards a lobby. Shepard raised her hand and curled it into a fist. We stopped at her cue and leaned against the wall, still cloaked in the shadows.

A huge krogan in battle armor paced in front of a flickering VI.

"Damn machines!" he raged in a guttural voice. "Tell me what I need to know."

"I am sorry." the VI spoke in the monotone peculiar to their design. "I am not able to relinquish information to non-employees of ExoGeni. Please provide your employment credentials and reiterate your inquiry."

The krogan pulled his weapon and pointed it at the console. "Talk." he growled. "Or I'll shut you down."

"I believe this solidifies my earlier point." Garrus' hushed voice came over the comm and I stifled my laughter as I watched the krogan posturing against a VI.

"I cannot be swayed by threats." the VI replied. "My code has not been written to include fearful responses to threatening stimuli. Please holster your weapon and provide your employment credentials."

The krogan's arm extended and Shepard moved in a blur of action, launching herself off of the wall and firing a line of bullets that pinged off of the krogan's shield's, whose inertial dampeners were apparently in working order.

The krogan spun around and threw a biotic slam. Shepard moved again, as did I. I pushed the commander back against the wall and erected a shield across the tunnel tunnel. Sweat broke out on my forehead as I kept the shield in place, holding it against the krogan's considerable biotic force.

"Krogan biotics?" Shepard asked, firing as I dropped the shield and returned to cover. "Never heard of it."

"It's rare." Garrus' fire joined the commanders as the krogan began to stomp into the tunnel. "But not unheard of."

"Liara, down!" Shepard shouted as the krogan's shotgun fired, scattering shot all across the raw rock of the walls.

I ducked as little pieces of rock and dust rained down. I looked at the approaching enemy, knowing that the quarters were too close and confined to fully utilize biotics. Unfortunately, the krogan had no such reservations.

He lifted Garrus in the air and slammed the turian to the ground. I was grateful for the confined tunnel, as the fall was short, and likely did no grave damage. Shepard took the moment to emerge from the shadows, a wicked knife in her hand.

She jammed it into the krogan's neck and blood fountained out as she sawed through the thick skin across his throat, severing his esophagus. I flinched as I heard the blood spatter on the floor, and the howl of pain that became a gurgling rasp as the krogan crumpled to the ground.

"Vakarian!" Shepard snapped as she sheathed her blade, not even bothering to clean it. "Talk to me, Garrus."

"That…" Garrus heaved himself up from the ground. "…was a singularly unpleasant experience."

"You hurt?" Shepard questioned.

"I'm fine, Shepard." Garrus got to his feet and examined his weapon. "Let's move out."

"Liara?" Shepard turned to me. "Everything all right?"

I stared at the krogan on the ground, the blood surrounding him. Somehow it did not affect me as severely as the dead man in the docking bay. It was not because I valued the life of one species over the other, but it seemed somehow different. Shepard had killed the krogan to preserve our lives…but the man had died without sense and without purpose, simply an annoyance in the way as the geth killed without discrimination.

"I…yes." I answered as we moved past the dead body and towards the VI.

As we approached, the interface lit up and the shaky hologram came once more into view. A red laser streamed out from the deck and scanned the ID card attached to Shepard's holster strap.

"Welcome to ExoGeni industries, Lizbeth Baynham." it spoke. "How may I assist you today?"

"I need to know what he was asking." Shepard moved her head in the direction of the tunnels.

"The krogan was inquiring about Subject 37." the VI stated, confusing us all the more.

"Who or what is subject 37?" Shepard asked.

"Subject 37, or, the Thorian, as named by the researchers here." the VI replied and I felt a touch of the krogan's rage.

While helpful and necessary, VIs were, on occasion, annoying constructs. Especially when pressed for information better gleaned from a sentient life form.

Shepard, however, did not seem to be perturbed. "Can you tell me more about the Thorian?" she asked.

"It is an organic life form, a species indigenous to Feros alone. It resides beneath the colony of Zhu's Hope."

"Then why is the research station here?" Shepard asked. "Why is not located in the colony?"

"In order to preserve the researchers from the adverse effects of unlimited exposure to subject 37." the VI answered.

I frowned. As an archaeologist and scientist, being separated from the object being studied served only to hamper the process. I did not understand why a research facility would not be located closer to its object of study. But if there were dangers of exposure…

"What would happen if they were exposed?" Shepard inquired.

"Research indicates that the Thorian's organic emissions enable a sort of mind control linked to the entity itself. The researchers remain here, testing the compound and observing the test subjects."

Shepard pulled off her helmet and it fell to the ground. Her face was set in hard lines, her eyes shining. "Test subjects?" she asked, iron in her voice.

"Necessary to scientific inquiry, Ms. Bayhnam." the VI answered. "The colonists of Zhu's Hope are employed by ExoGeni, not only as workers, but to test the limits of the Thorian's capabilities and its potential."

"They're goddamn guinea pigs." the commander muttered. "For mind control."

"That would explain the rather strange reception we received." I calculated, not certain if my words would make what seemed to be a volatile situation worse. "And why they colonists were almost…nonplussed about the geth attack."

"And why they were weird." Garrus chimed in. "I've never seen humans under attack behave so strangely in my life."

Shepard said nothing, simply aimed her rifle at the VI console and fired several shots. The hologram dissipated, and sparks flew and the sound nearly deafened us. I threw a biotic shield around the squad to protect us from the chance of ricochet. When the racket ended, I dropped the shield and stared at Shepard.

"Permission to speak freely, commander?" Garrus asked, but I interrupted.

"What was that, Shepard?" I asked, overstepping the bounds that her rank and my position had put in place. "There was more information to be gained."

"I've heard enough." Shepard spoke, her voice a dangerous calm, her eyes a placid sea of silver wrath. "All this talk about evolution and betterment and taking our place in the galaxy…fucking lies, all of it. We're no better than we ever were."

I felt that she spoke of her own species, and I flinched at the controlled fury in her tone. I had never heard one speak with such vitriol against their own kind, and I wondered at her reasoning.

"Shepard, I don't understand…" I entreated.

"Of course you don't." Shepard reached up and squeezed the back of her neck. "Since the beginning of history, humanity has always had this obsession with making ourselves 'better'. You know what it led to? Ghastly experiments that resulted in countless innocent deaths. Genocide. When we discovered the galaxy and biotic energy, things like Kaidan happened. He's suffered every day for our ignorance and obsession with superiority. And now this! Human researchers, infecting their own people in attempt to research mind control. It's a sick fantasy that should never be indulged."

"Then what do we do, commander?" Garrus asked, and the mention of Shepard's title seemed to calm her somewhat.

She replaced her helmet and spoke over the comms. "We blow the geth to holy hell." she replied. "And then we do something about the real evil on this planet."