A/N - We're headed into Leviathan DLC here (to no one's surprise)... A few words about this DLC...
First, I love to play it because it's generally fun and there's lots of Shenko feels (thank you, Bioware, for giving us DLC that doesn't ignore our LIs), but it was NOT fun to write... turns out, Leviathan is VERY talky and, aside from perhaps 2181 Despoina, not very interesting from an action standpoint. Those two factors combine into a headache for a fanfic writer :-( However, I prevailed eventually! and it turned into 16581 words total. I broke it into three chapters based on how the missions play out, but Despoina is a ridiculously lopsided 8478 words on its own, and the Namakli mission was barely a chapter, so I'm posting the first two today, the third by itself next Friday... hope that makes sense.
Second, to a certain extent throughout all ME3 and particularly in this DLC, Shepard (and her crew) seem to have moments of utter forehead-smacking stupidity. I understand why it's that way in the game, but not gonna happen in my fanfic. In general, and specifically in these coming chapters, I have tried to give Shepard more brains and more agency. So dialog and story events have been twisted a bit as a result.
Finally, those who have read all my fanfic know that I have strong opinions on Leviathan and the lore presented, and Shepard and Kaidan in this world aren't going to disagree... While it's fascinating to see the origin of the Reapers and get their backstory so to speak, Leviathan themselves are crazy scary and its a bear that shouldn't be poked... there may not be many left, and they may be in hiding, but they could potentially be worse than the Reapers themselves. *shiver*
As always, all credit for the characters, plot, and universe within is Bioware's ... no copyright infringement intended!
Hello to my new followers and reviewers! Thanks for joining the party, very nice to have you, hope you'll stay and look around! Also remember to check my wordpress (address in profile) for faster updates and unique content!
After a harried morning running errands on the Citadel that ranged from delivering various found items to meeting with Miranda and standing for an interview with Diana Allers, Shepard gathered EDI and Kaidan and headed to the NavPoint for Dr. Bryson's lab, as Hackett had requested. As they landed, Kaidan turned to Shepard with a questioning look.
"I know Hackett said that this Bryson guy has important new information on the Reapers, but it's odd to send you to collect it, isn't it? Seems like something he could have coordinated from afar."
"Yeah, it must be huge for him to take me off the front lines like this, but all the more reason for us to check it out, asap," Shepard replied as she climbed out of the skycar.
"Well, let's hope it comes to more than flattering some geek scientist and making his day with a personal visit from the Commander Shepard," Kaidan added as he, too, disembarked and fell into formation behind her.
Shepard laughed a bit and moved toward the door. As they approached, snippets of a conversation between two men reached them.
"... I want you to match this against all known locations and update the map. Then contact the field teams for a progress report."
"Yes, sir."
Shepard walked through the lab entrance and quietly cleared her throat to make her presence known.
"Commander Shepard," the first – and older – man said, who Shepard assumed was Dr. Bryson broke off his conversation and turned to her. "We've been expecting you. Just a moment."
He turned back to his console and spoke to the other man again.
"And Hadley, could you gather the Leviathan data for us?"
The other man nodded and went to work at his terminal.
Bryson moved toward them in welcome.
"Apologies, Commander; the rest of my team is out investigating leads right now. I'm Dr. Garret Bryson and this is Task Force Aurora," he said, holding out his hand to shake.
Shepard took it with a smile and introduced the rest of the team.
"What's your assignment?" she asked curiously.
"Our mandate is to investigate legends, rumors... old stories about the Reapers before anyone knew they existed," Bryson replied.
"That's an interesting goal," Kaidan piped in, his earlier skepticism taking front and center, "But is anyone doubting the Reapers exist these days?"
"The Alliance is still desperate for intelligence," Bryson answered patiently. "Reaper motives, their operational tactics... anything that can give us an edge."
Kaidan nodded and fell silent again, deciding that keeping his opinion that they were wasting time talking theory when they could be out fighting against the real thing to himself was the best plan at the moment. He prepared to spend the rest of the day if not bored, exactly, at least impatient.
"How did you wind up in charge?" Shepard asked Bryson.
"When the rest of the galaxy says something doesn't exist, I take that as a chance to prove that it does," Bryson responded.
"Where were you three years ago?" Shepard asked with a laugh. "I could have used you then."
"You led the way to make it possible for my work to start."
"So you're in this for the challenge, then?" she pressed.
"For the truth," Bryson corrected. "Even as late as 2148, humanity still thought aliens were a myth. That was within my lifetime. Once that myth was proven to be a reality, our entire history changed."
"Reapers were part of that reality, too."
"But even they have a history, Commander. If we can just uncover it, there may be a weakness we can exploit."
Shepard could feel Kaidan's 'I told you so' smirk on the back of her neck and sighed. She had really hoped to walk away from this meeting with something tangible - a new weapon or tech – or at least solid intel. She didn't much care for the history lesson. Although she was sure Bryson's work would be invaluable someday, she didn't see how the Reaper's history could help her in her war now. And she was starting to think she should have sent Liara on this goose chase. At least she would have enjoyed it.
"Think of it this way, Commander," Bryson persisted, sensing that he had lost his audience. "If people had paid more attention to your Prothean beacon, we might not be in this war. I have new information and a breakthrough is near."
Shepard perked up at that piece of news, and mentally thought that had she been in Bryson's shoes, she would have led with that part. She watched as Bryson moved to a terminal in front of a galaxy map similar to the one in Normandy's CIC and began to enter data. She was so focused on the scientist and her sudden eagerness that she didn't notice his assistant approaching until Bryson turned his head to speak to him.
"Hadley, do you have the data?" Bryson asked.
"No..." Hadley replied, though the turmoil in his voice didn't seem to fit the question.
Before anyone could react, Hadley drew a pistol and fired, shooting Bryson directly in the heart. Hadley turned slowly and trained the pistol on Shepard, but Kaidan moved like a blur, knocking the pistol aside and the man to the ground. Shepard checked Bryson's vitals and found none, and then moved to Kaidan's side.
"Call C-Sec," she ordered EDI as she crouched.
Kaidan still had Hadley subdued with an arm over the man's chest, but the gesture seemed more a formality than anything since the man was not resisting, but lay passively and staring blankly over Kaidan's shoulder. He turned his head slowly and although his blank gaze seemed to meet Shepard's, she sensed no actual connection behind it.
"You shouldn't be here... the darkness cannot be breached..." Hadley said in a slow and emotionless voice.
Shepard felt a chill go down her spine but she shook it off as the sound of C-Sec approaching reached her. She stood and nodded to Kaidan, who pulled the still-subdued Hadley to his feet and handed him off to the C-Sec officers.
Shepard gathered her team in the corner of the room while C-Sec processed the scene and questioned the suspect.
"We need to figure out what this task force was up to," Shepard told her team. "Let's look through the files and the lab."
"Shepard..." Kaidan began a soft protest.
Shepard waved him off impatiently.
"I know what you're going to say, and you're not wrong, but the bottom line is Hackett sent me here to talk to this guy about the Reapers and now he's dead. I can't take a chance that we might miss something helpful. So we'll look."
Kaidan acknowledged her words with a slight nod, and joined EDI digging through datapads and screens.
Shepard wandered back over to where C-Sec was still questioning Hadley.
The officer in charge turned to her and nodded.
"According to transit records, his name is Derek Hadley, employed by Dr. Garret Bryson, the DOA, here in this lab for the past couple months."
"DOA? What? No... why?What's happening?" Hadley asked, looking and sounding scared and confused.
"You tell me," Shepard replied, crossing her arms over her chest and giving the man Commander Shepard stare.
"I... I was gathering our data when you arrived, and then..." Hadley was visibly shaken and his voice quavered during his retelling. "It was dark... cold... like I was someplace else..."
"And then?" Shepard asked, her tone curt and unsympathetic.
"I don't know!" Hadley replied, his voice rising in frustration. "A... gun was in my hand. Dr. Bryson. There was... a loud noise."
"That was you, shooting him," Shepard said, pointing an accusatory finger at the man.
"I didn't do it! It wasn't me! You have to believe that!" Hadley pleaded.
"So someone else pulled that trigger?"
"But I would never do that!" Hadley continued to protest.
Shepard felt her anger and frustration rising, and went to move closer to the source of both, only to be gently restrained by Kaidan.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," he said quietly in her ear. "It's like he's been brainwashed or, I don't know, indoctrinated."
Despite the low pitch of Kaidan's voice, Hadley overheard.
"Indoctrination? Me?" he echoed in confusion.
"What about that 'Leviathan' Dr. Bryson mentioned," Shepard asked him. "How does that tie in?"
"It's some kind of creature. Our field teams have been tracking it," Hadley answered. "That artifact," he added with a nod of his head towards an object behind them, "came in from our researcher, Garneau. He sent an audio log if you want to-"
Hadley broke off with a scream and lowered his head. He hunched his shoulders and it appeared as if he was trying to bring his restrained limbs up to clutch his head. He grunted and struggled for several seconds. His C-Sec guards held each of his shoulders to keep him still and Kaidan began assessing him with his omni-tool.
"What's wrong?" Shepard asked, trying to keep her tone soft out of deference to his obvious pain and to mask her continually rising frustration.
Hadley raised his head again, and once again, he met Shepard's gaze with one that was blank and cold.
"Turn back," he said in a low, slow tone.
"What are you talking about?"
"The darkness cannot be breached," Hadley continued, slowly, inexorably. The next instant, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he slouched over, silent and still.
"He's unconscious," Kaidan reported. "Maybe comatose. There's no brain activity."
"Damn it," Shepard cursed, giving in to the frustration. She turned to the C-Sec officers. "Get him to Huerta, and ask Dr. Michel to take his case. Ask her to contact me if anything changes."
The officers nodded and moved to follow her orders.
"Commanders," EDI called from a terminal across the room. When Shepard and Kaidan turned their attention to her, she continued, "You'll want to see this. It's an outgoing message, from Dr. Bryson to Admiral Hackett."
EDI played the recording, which turned out to be a briefing from the scientist about the Leviathan of Dis, a Reaper corpse that the Hegemony had recovered and then covered up and denied. The two men had decided that whatever had killed the Reaper in the first place was the real Leviathan. A second recording detailed Bryson's concern that the Reapers seemed to be following his investigation and hunting the Leviathan as well. It was that message that apparently prompted Hackett to send them to the lab today.
"So now we know why we're here," Shepard said. "And I have to agree that finding anything that can kill a Reaper is worth our time."
"Anything capable of killing a Reaper could do a lot of collateral damage," Kaidan cautioned.
"Given the state of this conflict, I believe the saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' may be relevant," EDI replied.
"We won't know for sure until we find it," Shepard said. "Let's locate the audio log from the field researcher Hadley mentioned."
"I think its in that stack of datapads there on desk," Kaidan said, pointing. "Garneau was his name."
"Right," Shepard replied with a snap of her fingers. She located the datapad Kaidan had mentioned fairly quickly. She pressed play.
"Dr. Bryson, it's Garneau. I'm sending you an artifact I found. About the only thing I found here, in fact. Maybe it's nothing, but I'd swear Leviathan came through here. I'm going to crunch some numbers, burn up the rest of this project travel allowance. Maybe I can project our Reaper-killer's movements. I'll check in when I get to the next site."
Shepard walked over to the artifact that Hadley had pointed out earlier. She studied the object, a perfect sphere about the size of an old-fashioned earth globe, it was solid black but its surface seemed to shimmer with iridescence.
"This must be the artifact Garneau mentioned," she said to the team.
"Looks like the biggest and most expensive black pearl in existence," Kaidan replied.
"Garneau appears to be our best lead to Leviathan, but he does not state a destination," EDI pointed out, bringing them both back to the mission at hand.
"Let's focus on what he does say then," Shepard suggested.
"He mentioned extrapolating Leviathan's path," EDI replied.
"And crunching numbers," Kaidan added. "He wasn't flying blind – he had data."
"A significant amount of data, judging by this office," EDI added, indicating the chaotic clutter all around them. "But I believe I can modify the galaxy map program they were using to pinpoint if not an exact location, at least a system to search."
"Good idea, EDI," Shepard praised. "Let's see what we can find."
They spent the next several hours searching Bryson's lab for any clues and plugging them into EDI's modified galaxy map. It was a frustrating process of trial and error that reminded Shepard of the old adage about a needle in a haystack, but eventually they discovered Garneau should be somewhere in the Aysur system.
"Let's go find him," Shepard said with relief and led her team out the lab and back to the Normandy.
#-#-#
The Normandy spent the next several days traveling to and scanning the Aysur system until EDI located Garneau on the Mahavid asteroid. The asteroid appeared to house a small mining colony and little else. Shepard found herself fighting rising impatience over the task at hand – although she had certainly understood from the beginning how important finding a Reaper-killer might be, the reality of the war she was fighting struck her anew every time they entered another Reaper-controlled system and had to outrun their destroyers. It was hard to pit that fact against even the most promising hypothesis and come down on the theoretical side. She found herself agreeing with Kaidan's original assertion that surely the Alliance had someone else that could be chasing Bryson's Leviathan. In the next moment, she reminded herself that she was the most qualified, had the best and safest ship to explore Reaper-controlled space, and she was ultimately Alliance through and through and had orders to follow. It didn't hurt that her husband had relented and was now utterly fascinated by the mystery of it, adorable geek that he was. With that in mind, and just out of pure selfish desire to have him at her side, she tapped him for her squad. She added EDI because it just seemed more efficient to have her on hand to help search rather than relay the information back to the Normandy, and she figured she'd give Garrus a break... and more time to flirt with Tali.
They boarded the shuttle and fell silent, each to their own tasks, until Cortez's voice rang out and startled Shepard, who was reviewing the latest Alliance reports on the Crucible project.
"We're about five minutes out, Commander."
Shepard set aside her datapads and stood to stretch her muscles. She watched her squad follow suit. They spent the remainder of the trip reviewing the little information they had and speculating about the mission ahead, until Cortez interrupted them once again.
"I'm reading Reaper enemy signatures in the asteroid field."
"Bryson said they were shadowing his field teams. If they're after Leviathan, too, Reapers are a good sign," Shepard replied.
"That's not something you hear every day," Cortez muttered. He turned his attention back to piloting the shuttle and missed Shepard's wry grin.
#-#-#
After a short skirmish with a Reaper scouting party that the squad dispatched without incident, they reached the front door of the mining facility.
"Welcome to T-GES Mineral Works. All guests need to sign in at Reception," a cheerful male VI greeted them as they entered.
The doors swooshed open to reveal a medium-sized waiting room 'decorated' sparingly in what could be euphemistically referred to as industrial chic. Several uniformed employees milled around in quiet conversation groups, showing no signs that they had noticed or were affected by the Reaper attack outside. The back corner of the room was dominated by a glass enclosure surrounded by security monitors. Other than the main entrance they had come through, there were two other exits, one labeled 'Mine Entrance B' and another 'Sectors 1-4' that appeared to house an elevator. That door's electronic lock was sparking, a clear indication of disrepair to even Shepard's untrained eye. In the seconds that she spent perusing and cataloging her surroundings, the instinct that made her as successful a soldier as she was raised the hair on the back of her neck and alerted her on a deep primitive level that things here weren't as they seemed.
They approached the reception enclosure and she noted the blank, vacant stares of the T-GES employees they passed along the way. Behind the glass, two uniformed men hunched over a computer terminal and barely spared a glance at the heavily armed visitors.
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance," she announced. "You just had Reaper troops attacking your front door."
The man behind the glass did not blink, and his expression did not change.
"Are they still there?" he asked in a flat monotone.
"I've taken care of them for now," Shepard informed him, and again, he did not react.
"I see. That will be all," the second man replied.
"That will be...?" Shepard echoed incredulously. The men acted as if she hadn't spoken, and Shepard felt the hair on her arms stand up and join the hair on her neck. Something was very wrong here. She shared a glance with Kaidan and saw that he was on the same page. She leaned closer to the glass and barely resisted knocking on it just to see if the guards would jump.
"Hello?" she said, and sighed when the men did not even seem to hear her. A movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention and she turned her head to see EDI push the green button labeled 'Assistance' displayed prominently on the wall beside the enclosure. Seconds later, a chirp sounded and the men behind the glass looked up as if just noticing Shepard and her squad were there.
"Yes, welcome to T-GES Mineral Works. How can we help you?" the first guard said.
"Yes. For the tour, please sign in," the second added. Both men continued to speak with no inflection in their voice and their faces held no expression.
"You don't seem worried about the Reapers," Shepard said behind teeth gritted in frustration. "You know something I don't?" She could feel her legendary temper rising.
"T-GES mineral works is a small- to mid-level supplier of tungsten to the galaxy," the guard answered.
"That's not what I meant," Shepard growled.
"Are you familiar with the applications of tungsten?" the guard continued as if she hadn't spoken.
"I'm looking for a researcher named Dr. Garneau," Shepard said, and this time her voice was low and soft and Kaidan stepped closer to her, recognizing the warning in that tone, even if the guards didn't seem to note any difference. He placed a hand on her arm, briefly and just once, and then moved to stand beside her.
Shepard easily read Kaidan's silent communication with her and took a deep breath, trying to draw the tattered remnants of her shattered temper back together. She blew the breath back out slowly and gave Kaidan a nearly imperceptible nod that he read as easily as she had his signal. He took over the questioning.
"He would have arrived within the last couple weeks," Kaidan said patiently. "If he's still here, the Commander needs to speak with him."
The first guard paused for a moment, typing on his terminal.
"We have no Dr. Garneau," he said flatly.
"Do you need to see a doctor?" the second guard asked.
"How about I just go in and look around?" Shepard growled, unable to restrain herself any further.
"No. The access elevator is broken," the second guard replied.
"And now... we're done. Step away," the first guard added.
"Step away," the second guard echoed. "You don't belong here."
This time, Kaidan placed a hand firmly on Shepard's shoulder to restrain and calm her.
"This doesn't seem right, come on," he said softly. He doubted she had missed the similarity in the last phrase the guard had uttered and the things Hadley had said right before collapsing, and he hadn't either. He wasn't willing to risk this turning into another incident of brain death.
"We need to get the elevator fixed," Kaidan told Shepard, watching as she visibly calmed herself. He knew her stress level was through the roof and this mission wasn't helping. He made a mental note to himself to step up his efforts to take things off her plate (when she'd let him) and shield her from anything he could.
"Commander, I can interface with the repair drone set up in that corner and have the elevator functional in .43 seconds," EDI informed them. At Shepard's nod, EDI accessed her omni-tool and it glowed for a split second. "Done," she stated.
"Wait, they had a way to fix the elevator the whole time?" Shepard asked incredulously.
"It would have taken them longer," EDI replied, "But, yes."
"What the fuck is going on in this place?" Shepard growled. She motioned the squad toward the now-functioning elevator.
Once the doors swept shut behind them, Kaidan reached for the datapad beside the console.
"Security log says Garneau took this elevator within the last week. Why lie about that?" he wondered aloud.
"No idea. Let's hope we don't have to look too far," Shepard replied. She spent the rest of the elevator's short ascent checking her weapons. Instinct born of long experience told her she would need them before they were done.
#-#-#
They spent the next half hour searching for Garneau in the low security mineral lab, finding only more questions than answers and zombie-like miners who seemed to have no interest in actually mining, but rather in telling them they 'shouldn't be here'. Finally, they located Garneau's security access codes and were able to hack the security terminal. They discovered that Garneau had been involved in an incident with another miner and was taken to the med bay. They found a patient number to give them access to that area. Information in hand, they headed to the med bay, and Shepard hoped, the end of this mission.
#-#-#
The med bay was eerily deserted and cold, although more brightly lit than the rest of the facility, which was a welcome change. The area contained two darkened and locked treatment rooms with half height observation windows forming one of the walls. Through the window in the first room, they were able to make out the shape of a dead body shrouded in a bag.
"Is that Garneau?" Kaidan wondered aloud.
"Sure as hell hope not," Shepard replied in a growl. A sound behind her had her whirling, her hand on her shotgun. She saw a figure standing at the other observation window, shrouded in darkness.
"If you're looking for Garneau, you have found him. I am Dr. Garneau," the man said.
Shepard felt relief and hope flooding her and she lowered her hand from her weapon and turned to the man, end of the mission in sight.
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance. Are you all right?" she asked.
"Yes," he replied. "Only I'm trapped in here."
Shepard peered through the darkness veiling the man, but she couldn't make out any features, and Garneau kept his head lowered.
"What's been going on in this place?" she asked, the frustration of the day coloring her voice.
"I was doing my research – until the incident," Garneau answered.
"They attacked you?" Shepard prompted.
"It's true. But, aside from my confinement, I'm fine."
Shepard felt the hair on the back of her head rising again, and the hope she had welcomed so readily fading away. Something wasn't reading right here. She wasn't sure what, but something was off. She glanced at Kaidan and saw her suspicions confirmed... Kaidan had his hand on his pistol. She turned back to Garneau to continue questioning him.
"Bryson's research led me to you," she told him.
"Bryson sent you?" he asked.
"He's dead, Doctor. Killed by his assistant."
"I see," Garneau replied.
"I need you to tell me everything you've found on Leviathan," she pressed. "Bryson seemed to think it killed a Reaper."
"It's a myth. A dead end," Garneau said after a pause.
"Doctor, you mentioned an artifact in a vid call we found," Kaidan prompted.
"I did?" he replied. "No."
"Yes, Doctor, you did," Shepard countered. She brought her hand to her shotgun again. "But now we've got Reaper forces attacking, so I need to break you out. We'll grab the artifact and go."
"Reapers," Garneau echoed, "The darkness must not be breached."
"The darkness?" Shepard echoed, and the memory of questioning Hadley played through her head. Hadn't he said the same thing?
Garneau pounded his fists against the glass, startling the entire squad and causing them to raise readied weapons.
"Why do you pursue me?" he asked, but the voice wasn't his. It was deep, sinister, and chilling. "Leave the artifact. You will not take what is mine."
"I don't think that's Garneau we're talking to," Kaidan said in a low tone, confirming the conclusion Shepard had already reached.
"You," Shepard snarled. "You killed a Reaper. I need your help."
"You bring only death," the creature snarled back.
Whether from the vibration of the voice or some unseen force, the window shattered outward, forcing the squad to duck for cover against the flying shards of glass. When the dust had settled, the man had taken off and Shepard growled in frustration.
"Fuck me," she snarled to no one in particular, then set off at a run after him. She almost missed Kaidan's laconic response, but she was glad she caught it – it lifted her spirits just enough.
"Aye, aye ma'am."
#-#-#
A harried footrace, a Reaper attack while rewiring a blown power coupling, and an artifact-destroying and fatal explosion later, Shepard stood facing a group of confused miners.
"Shepard, over here. You won't believe this," Kaidan called, drawing her attention to the side, where he was examining a datapad.
"What've you got?"
"That wasn't Garneau - this is," he told her, referring to the body of a dead miner at his feet. "Looks like he's been dead for a while."
"So Leviathan can have Bryson killed, can take over this colony, and he can use them as puppets," Shepard summarized, thinking that Leviathan sounded equally as dangerous as a Reaper, if not more so. "Anything else useful?" she asked, referring to the datapad he still held.
"Encrypted data, and a personal log with eight missed calls from a Dr. Ann Bryson," Kaidan replied.
"Must be the daughter," Shepard said.
"Who...who are you? What are you doing here?" one of the miners asked her. She turned her attention back to the small group huddled around her. She noted that these miners did not bear much resemblance to the ones they had been meeting all day, other than in uniform. They seemed confused and upset and were actually making sense.
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy," Shepard said formally. "Are you all right?"
"I think so. I feel like...I feel strange but...all right," the woman answered.
"Do you recognize this man?" Shepard asked, waving at the body behind them.
"I've never seen him before in my life," another miner – an asari – answered.
"Someone here killed him," Shepard pressed.
"Someone here?" the asari echoed slowly. "How is that possible? I'm so sorry..."
Shepard continued to question the miners, receiving no helpful information other than the miners remembered a feeling of cold and dark. Finally, she gave up with a sigh.
"Cortez, what's your situation?" she asked over the com. "Can you bring the shuttle?"
"Affirmative. Strangest thing. A couple of minutes ago, the Reaper forces broke off and left," he replied.
"Reaper...," a human male miner repeated. "What's a Reaper?"
Shepard met Kaidan's eyes and saw the concern she felt reflected in them.
"What year do you think this is?" she asked, suspicion gnawing at her gut.
"2176," the asari replied matter-of-factly.
Shepard sucked in a breath in surprise. She met Kaidan's eyes again and shook her head.
"2176 was ten years ago," Kaidan told the miners gently.
"What?" the asari replied, shock coloring her tone.
Kaidan moved the miners to the side and huddled with them, trying to offer whatever comfort and support he could.
Shepard watched for a moment, then turned to EDI.
"Let's arrange for these people to be evacuated into temporary quarantine."
"Good idea," EDI replied. "They will likely need help recovering from this trauma."
#-#-#
Safely back aboard the Normandy, after overseeing the arrangements to transfer the T-GES miners to an Alliance facility, updating Admiral Hackett on the mission progress, and setting a course back to Dr. Bryson's lab on the Citadel so that she could search for clues on Ann Bryson's location, Shepard went looking for Kaidan, expecting to find him in their cabin. When he wasn't there, she backtracked to the crew deck and headed to Starboard Obs. As usual - out of respect for his private space - she requested, and was granted, entry.
Kaidan was hunched over on one of the couches, staring simultaneously out at the stars and at his open omni-tool. He didn't acknowledge her presence.
"Hey, I thought you'd be up getting ready for bed," she said softly, studying him for clues. She seated herself beside him and turned to face him. "What gives?"
"Those miners lost a lot of time," Kaidan said, "They're going to be in for a huge shock."
"Yeah," she agreed softly. "I've arranged for them to get help." She continued to study his face lit by the glow of his omni-tool, but it was inscrutable, a mask. It worried her, he usually didn't keep secrets, that was more her game than his. She also couldn't see the omni-tool display, he had it turned from her.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, pointing to the 'tool.
He started a bit, as if he had just noticed her demeanor of concern and smiled a little sadly. He turned the display so she could see it, and she smiled a bit at the image it showed. It was a picture his mother had taken (and obviously shared with him). It depicted her image – albeit a very tired, sweaty and mussed version – wearing a soft smile and cuddling their son for the first time. It was captured just moments after Caleb's birth.
"Do you know how much I wish I had been there?" he asked her softly. "I only lost two years, but in that time, you were pregnant, gave birth, and began to raise our son. And the world marched on. That's only a small fraction of what happened to those people."
"Do you know how much I love you?" she asked softly. Trust Kaidan to find the heart of the matter, the real tragedies of the war. And to suffer for, and with, the people they had helped today. There wasn't anything more she could do for the miners, but Kaidan, she could help.
"I know you missed out on it, and I regret that so much. I wish like hell that I could give it all back to you," she said softly, slowly, meeting and holding his eyes so that he could see the truth shining in hers. "But, Kaidan, you have to know that you were there, every moment. Your parents and I - we never let go, never forgot, and we made sure Caleb knew you, too. Every moment of every day - you were there. You lived on because we loved you. I couldn't have made it through otherwise."
Kaidan shook himself out of the fugue he had been in since they returned from the asteroid and reached for his wife. He drew her against him and wiped away the tears that had pooled below her lashes, then kissed her gently.
"Thank you," he said to her with a long sigh. "And I love you, too. Thank you for knowing me and loving me that much."
"My pleasure," she said softly. She stood and drew him to his feet. "Now let's go to bed. It's been a long day."
"Aye, aye, ma'am," Kaidan replied deeply and with a chuckle, deliberately echoing his joke earlier. He followed her out of the room.
Shepard heard the change in his voice and her heart lifted. She didn't even mind that it meant that their sleep would be delayed a bit tonight. She'd sleep when she was dead.