Chapter 27: Third in Line
Jack flopped against the bed with a groan while Kal kicked the trash can over out of anger. Miranda had them right where she wanted them and there was nothing Jack could do to get out from under her thumb. He wasn't about to ask Kal to abandon Zero, not after seeing them communicate in the cargo hold. No, they were a family now, even if the girl didn't realize it yet. Unfortunately, knowing how Miranda operated made Jack very aware that she would milk the relationship for all it was worth. Anytime she needed something that The Illusive Man was unwilling to provide, they would have to do. None of this will matter after the Alliance makes it's move but until then, they had to play along.
Kal was pacing up and down the cabin, "Jack...I'm sorry I put us here, right now, at this moment. I should've just..let her go on an escape pod or let Garrus kill her. It's my fault Miranda even ha-"
He stood up from the bed and put a finger on Kal's mouthpiece, "Stop, I would've done the same thing. If Miranda didn't use Jack, she just would've used our marriage, she knows just how to get what she wants. We just have to play along until the Collectors die."
Kal wrapped an arm around Jack's waist to pull him closer, "Thank you for understanding that I...need to help her. I wouldn't be the man I am today if someone hadn't taken a chance on me. Showed me what a normal life is like."
Jack gave him a loving smirk, "I know you better than you give me credit for cyar'ika. For example, I know your sneezing under that cracked helmet and muting it to not worry me."
The Quarian sneezed aloud now, "Do you think she noticed it? I don't want her to think she gave me a cold when it was that bosh'tet assassin...and before you ask," Kal showed him his suit vital signs on his omni tool, "I'm fine, Purgatory just had more new germs. Yahg if I had to guess."
While it was nice to get visual confirmation that the cold was on the decline, Jack wasn't worried about it to begin with. Kal had plenty of similar tiny colds at the start of their relationship until his immune system adjusted to Human germs. He would be fine by the morning and could then be exposed to that particular germ again without any consequences. In theory, Kal could go into a room with all the germs he had ever been exposed to before that point without his suit on and be perfectly fine the next day. Jack personally didn't want to put that hypothesis to the test but, that was how Kal's immune system functioned.
He considered Kal's question for a few seconds, "I don't know, I didn't see a reaction from her when I thought you sneezed. You might want to do it in front of her though whenever you do get sick again. It would be a good way to show her all the experiments you went through actually mattered. Have you ordered a new helmet yet? I don't even know how you can see me under all that omni gel."
Kal chuckled gently keeping him close, "No, I don't exactly have credits growing under the suit Jack. I'll get lucky and someone will want to sell Commander Shepard's husband a helmet, and maybe a new suit all together."
Jack shook his head and rolled his eyes, "How about we skip the then obligatory fan meet and greet by asking Tali for one before she leaves? We have to see her anyways."
Kal gently let go of him and sat on the bed, "With Tali back on the flotila, I don't want to risk her exile by talking with her, tell her hi from me though."
Jack had a feeling she was going to want to at least wave at Kal regardless and so he stayed in the room, "Depending on Miranda's plans your going to have to bring Oriana to her. I think the fleet will have to make an exception, just this once."
He started scrolling through his old omni tool contacts looking for Tali. Hopefully she still had the same contact information, otherwise he was going to have to see Miranda about making other plans. If it was necessary they could probably ask EDI to find Tali on the extranet but, then The Illusive Man would be notified. Luckily, Tali's name was at the bottom of the list and he called it having no idea where she could be. It was a long nervous wait with the tool was beeping over and over again, was she gone? Maybe it was sleeping hours on the flotila.
Just as he was about to hang up, a muffled, synthetic, howl answered followed by Tali's familiar voice, "It's really good to hear from you Jack. I could use some advice right about now."
Jack let another pained, robotic, moan go through before asking, "You don't sound all that surprised to hear from me, what's going on where you are?"
Tali's helmet appeared on his omni tool and she was clearly upset, "No I'm not honestly... The fact we just lost Oriana Lawson to a fake Cerberus cell made me think the real deal was going to call. As for here," Another yelp of pain cut her off for a few seconds, "Gerrel has taken my fathers' research into his own hands. Things are getting a little desperate around the fleet. We've always endured but, I don't know if we can survive a wide spread panic like this."
Kal bolted from the bed and looked down at Jack's wrist, "Is he hurting an actual Quarian in there Tali? Please tell me your not letting that just happen."
Tali stared up at the partially repaired mask, "Keelah Kal, are you ok?"
They both noticed Tali had dodged the question when another synthetic scream greeted them. It didn't sound like any Quarian Jack had talked to before but, each ship had a different vocal accent so it was possible. Han'Gerrel had proven with Kal that he was willing to go to any length he deemed necessary to save his people. Jack couldn't really see a way that torturing someone could help the fleet's starvation problem but, Gerrel didn't do anything for the fun of it. The continued howling was hard to stomach though if he was honest.
Kal grabbed Jack's wrist gently and pulled it towards his face so he would be larger on her screen, "Let's just say I would feel a lot better if I knew my father wasn't killing a Quarian right now Tali."
She took a second to reply, "It's Legion... We've been slowly studying how he broke away from the consensus. With Oriana gone and our research going too slowly, Gerrel took over. Instead of having Legion cooperate with us, Gerrel is ripping out one program at a time to see which one was responsible for the separation. You could think of it as tearing each muscle out of your body until you find the heart. Dad thinks it won't be effective, I just think it's far more brutal then necessary."
Jack didn't know how to feel about that development, Legion was definitely a Geth. Each program removed from his unit would bring him a step closer to death or loosing his sentience. The machine hadn't tried to apologize to Kal or Tali for what happened on Rannoch, and yet the opposite was also true. Legion had ultimately been a key element to defeating Sovereign the first time around which made Jack feel conflicted. Did he deserve to get killed in such a slow fashion for the Quarian's benefit? Ultimately, it wasn't Jack's problem right now, he needed to focus on the Collectors and Miranda's request.
Jack did his best to ignore Legion's cries of pain and spoke, "I'm calling because Miranda wants the Quarians to take Oriana back permanently. How fast could you be on Illium?"
Tali looked down at her omni tool, "If I leave right now...a day and a half."
Kal let out a breath obviously relieved she was interested in helping them, "Then you should leave now, with any luck me and Miranda will be waiting with Oriana when you arrive."
She gave a tilt of her head considering them both, "Any reason why you two are actually helping Miranda? And I'll bring you a new suit Kal, it looks like that thing is barely staying together right now."
Jack gave a sad laugh speaking for Kal, "It's been through a lot these past two years. Miranda is blackmailing us because The Illusive Man won't help her anymore."
Without saying a word, Tali gave them a quick hand gesture and disconnected the call. Kal let go of his arm, "She said someone was coming so she'd see us soon."
Jack could tell from his tone that he was upset, "How are you doing? I'm sure it's not easy to know your dad's experimenting on something again."
Kal sat next to him and gently stroked his back, "I don't know how to feel about it really. You know I didn't trust Legion up until Virmire but, hearing those screams was just awful."
Jack leaned towards him and kissed his neck along his suit, "I know, we can't save everyone though. Legion was probably doomed to get scrapped the moment he left Rannoch. The question had only been who was going to do it." He let a second pass before saying, "Garrus was a little worried about you when we talked, said you were ignoring his messages."
The brief silence that followed made Jack understand why Kal hadn't talked with Garrus, Erash. Kal took responsibility for the destruction of Archangel as a group so, it was only natural he didn't want to talk with Garrus. He knew a lot had changed while he was gone but, Garrus was still Garrus. The Turian forgave his brother for attempting to commit mass genocide, he would forgive Kal for missing something with Erash. Garrus had been a detective in CSEC so, it wouldn't surprise Jack if he already suspected the truth. He was hoping he could convince Kal to talk to him about what happened, they were both in a unique position to help each other cope with Omega.
Kal drummed his fingers on Jack's thigh and spoke softly, "I'm scared he'll blame me for what happened. I don't want to lose yet another friend from that night because I couldn't see the writing on the wall."
They both jumped when the Turian's voice came from the cabin door, "I was afraid you were going to do this... Blamed yourself for every mistake on every damned mission forgetting the fact that I was supposed to be the boss." Garrus gave them both an innocent smile, "The door was open, and I was tired of waiting around."
Jack shook his head but grinned at the Turian, "You might want to knock next time Garrus. I wouldn't want to scare your eyes with anything inappropriate."
Kal looked up at Garrus, "We were supposed to be each others back up. I'm sorry I was just a stupid bosh'tet wrapped up in me."
Garrus gave a small shrug and revealed a bottle of Turian ale, "We both had blind spots that made it a disaster. What do you say we have some of this to..let go of our mistakes?"
Jack stood up and walked to the mini fridge, "I will get the glasses and my own alcohol. Plenty of mistakes to go around the room."
Garrus rubbed the back of his neck and coughed awkwardly, "Hey umm, would you mind if I invited Saren up? He wanted to talk to you both apparently."
Jack could definitely appreciate how foreign that question must sound to Garrus. Two years ago the three of them were hunting down Saren together before he started the apocalypse, now they were going to have a drink together. He personally didn't mind it, Saren was a different man without indoctrination controlling his actions. However, he doubted that the former SPECTRE would want to have a drink with them. Despite the fact he didn't want to destroy the universe anymore, Saren still didn't seem to want to be associated with any Human.
He was about to say sure when Kal took the Turian ale and nodded, "Sure, we'll split this three ways then so I won't be as drunk."
The next hour was an enlightening experience as Jack watched Kal get drunk for the first time. He had assumed Quarians were lightweights because the fleet didn't have access to alcohol but, actually seeing it was something else. After just a single glass of the ale, Kal was cuddling against him and sluring his words. Garrus and Jack were laughing at Kal's over exaggerated tales of defeating a Reaper with his bare hands. Jack noticed Saren had entered the cabin but, he was standing in the back watching the three of them.
Kal giggled while sitting sideways in Jack's lap, "Yessh, I'm telling you I killed a Reeeper. Kaboom it went, all sorts of synthetic goo everywhere!"
Garrus raised a browplate while sipping from the bottle, "When was this exactly? I mean, I don't remember any of the gangs taking a Reaper."
Kal tapped the top of his helmet, "I think it was a dreemsh actually, you know, when you sleep."
Jack kissed the side of his helmet gently, "So your telling us it didn't happen then?"
Saren interrupted the conversation with a cough, "How does sex work between you two?"
All eyes turned to him and Jack almost spit out his drink, "Excuse me?"
Saren took the empty seat next to Garrus and repeated matter of factly, "Sex, how does it work with you both? Your levo and he's dextro, most Humans would go into shock, so how does it work?"
Garrus' mandibles fluttered clearly embarrassed that was the first thing Saren asked, "No, I think they understood the question, it's just kind of offensive as a conversation opener."
Since Kal was drunk, he just snuggled into Jack and said, "It's pretty heavenly if you ashk me."
When Saren just stared at him expectantly, Jack answered, "I don't really know Saren, I have an immunity to dextro acids I suppose. Why do you ask?"
Saren muttered something to himself before speaking louder, "Around thirty five years ago, I was part of a team with your mother hunting down a mad Turian scientist. I'll spare you the insignificant details but, one of the Turian members of the team became close with your mother. He ended up killing a Human family accidentally save for their son, and Hannah became pregnant shortly after. To be blunt Shepard, I have a hunch your this team members son, and if so, your existence is a threat to the integrity of the Hierarchy."
Kal just started laughing while Jack tried to soak that all in for details. Even though it seemed outlandish beyond belief, things were making an uncomfortable sense. His mother had been part of a group species task force just before getting pregnant with him. She had avoided the topic like the plague up until the day she died but, Leng called him a mutt. Jack had to be careful though, Saren's connection with his mother hadn't come up two years ago. The Turian could be lying and going off information on the extranet but, why? What did Saren have to gain by lying about this? His mother was dead so, Saren wasn't trying to tear them apart.
Garrus filled the silence, "That's obviously hard for all of us to swallow, why bring it up now? How could it hurt our government exactly?"
Saren sounded impatient, "Shepard, there's no better way to say this. I think your third in line to become the Primarch. Could you imagine the scandal among my people if you took over the Turian Hierarchy? The result of a love affair only ten years after the Relay 314 Incident? It would be absolute chaos... With Kai Leng free, I want to warn Turian high command so they can prepare for the potential leak."
While Jack didn't know if he believed it himself, Saren was right, "Do what you have to, I certainly can't deal with the Hierarchy in crisis right now."
The party atmosphere had been ruined so they all went to bed. Tomorrow he could focus on Illium, and recruiting this other assassin that The Illusive Man wanted him to find.
