So What's the Next Step?

David Anderson jumped out of his cab the moment it landed in the docking bay and briskly jogged toward the loosely crowded group of people next to the Normandy. It was Shepard's entire team, and it didn't take long for him to realize why they were all crowded outside the ship. There was a holographic police line covering the airlock entrance; the Normandy had been confiscated by C-Sec, and the crew evicted from it.

"Captain Anderson!" shouted Joker as he saw the former councilor approaching. "Boy am I glad to see you." The rest of the group had been talking amongst themselves, all noticeably frustrated and angered, but they turned toward Anderson as they saw him approach. They were all of them eager for information as to their current situation.

"Looks like they confiscated the Normandy. This is worse than I feared," Anderson stated.

"C-Sec came here not long ago, ordering us to vacate the Normandy, saying they were under orders to impound it as evidence. I've never heard so much shouting in my life. The team was this close," joker held up his hand and did a pinching motion, "to breaking out into a fight with them."

"We should have!" Grunt growled as he approached. "That is our ship. If they wanted it so badly, they should have fought us for it!"

"And then what?" Miranda asked sarcastically. "We just keep fighting off all the C-Sec on the Citadel, until we're all either dead or in prison?"

"Sounds better than standing here, letting them do whatever they want!" Grunt angrily snapped. The crew around him were noticeably uncomfortable seeing the large, powerful krogan in such an unstable and agitated state. Several of them instinctively backed away from him. Tali, however, approached him.

"Grunt," she said, "please calm down. Your anger isn't going to help Shepard right now, or us. It could only make things worse. Save it for when we can use it."

Grunt took a large and deep breath, grunting as he exhaled. "Alright," he grumbled, now noticeably more calm than before. "But we better do something soon."

Seeing Tali calm Grunt so easily was initially a bizarre sight to Anderson. In fits of anger, krogan were nearly impossible to be reasoned with, let alone by someone so much smaller. But he quickly realized what was going on. To Grunt, Tali was the mate of his battlemaster. Due to krogan culture's emphasis on the value of females and mates, he had to honor her and show her respect, lest he indirectly insult and dishonor his battlemaster, Shepard.

Tali turned to Anderson and said, "Anderson, can you tell us what's going on? We're all still completely in the dark. All we know is that Shepard's been accused of conspiracy to commit treason."

"Right, that's why I came here as quickly as I could, so that I could touch base with all of you," Anderson said. He inhaled, preparing to begin the long explanation. "I know I don't have to tell you guys this, but the Council has never taken the Reaper threat seriously. I've worked with them for over two years, and even I can't tell if they're just really blind, or the idea that sentient starships are really planning on wiping us out is really as crazy as it sounds. In their defense, if I didn't know Shepard and have complete faith in him—in all of you—I might not believe in the Reapers either.

"For a multitude of reasons, they've come to believe that Shepard is planning on following in Saren's footsteps; that he's going to use the geth to take over the Citadel, and that that's the only reason he argues that the Reapers are real. That's why they arrested him."

"What?" Joker shouted in disbelief, expressing the same opinion that was automatically on everyone's mind, "That's completely bogus! What the shit! How can they possibly think that? The Commander was the one who stopped Saren, for crying out loud!"

"Believe me, you don't need to tell me that," Anderson replied. "Like I said, they've come to believe it for multiple reasons. First of all, you guys should know that the Council never really believed that Shepard had been brought back to life by Cerberus. They did believe he was dead during those two years, but when he appeared out of nowhere those months ago, they were convinced that the story about being rebuilt by Cerberus was a lie; a story made up by him to justify both his absence and his alliance with Cerberus at the time."

"Figures," Miranda said in a calm, yet scoffing manner.

Anderson continued, "Due to Shepard's past accomplishments, the Council decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. As long as he stayed in the Terminus system and investigated the disappearing human colonies, they would turn a blind eye. But everything changed two weeks ago when you guys returned from your mission and met with the Council. All the evidence you acquired on the Collector homeworld that proved they were building a human Reaper—the technical data, the readings from your omni-tools, even the vids and holos taken—failed to convince them that the Reapers are what we know them to be. All it did was convince them that it was the Collectors, and not the geth, who constructed Sovereign, and that Saren somehow acquired it from them.

"So when Shepard argued that their conclusion was wrong, they were shocked. They're so convinced that all the evidence proves that the Reapers aren't real, that they couldn't understand how Shepard could believe in them. From their advisors and various sources of the Council's information network, they were made aware of some supposed similarities between him and Saren, which made them suspect he's trying to replicate Saren's plan. Things such as the perpetuation of the Reaper story, the fact that they've both spent long periods of time in the Terminus systems, the unusual cybernetic implants, his past encounter with the rachni, supposed genophage research, the geth among your—"

Suddenly, Anderson noted that among the Normandy crew standing around him, listening to him, the geth teammate was nowhere to be seen. "Wait, where is the geth?"

Tali was the one to answer, "They took Legion when they confiscated the Normandy. We refused to give him up, but he decided it would be best to cooperate with C-Sec and go with them. For the sake of maintaining 'unit security,' he said."

"They must have taken it to study and use as evidence," Anderson stated. "It's not going to look good for Shepard. The entire galaxy is convinced that the geth are bad guys. If they can prove that geth on your crew is the real deal, it'll make Shepard look bad. Real bad."

"This is batshit insane," Joker said. "It's like when they grounded us the first time—no, it's worse than that! This time they're trying to ruin Shepard's entire reputation!"

"It's hard to believe that the Council can expect to get away with all of this," Miranda said. "They effectively removed the human councilor from power, and now they're trying to paint Shepard as some kind of successor to Saren. How do they expect the people of Earth to tolerate all this? Humanity will see it as some kind of attack. How can the Council of all people not be worried about the political backlash of their actions?"

Anderson sighed. "I wish they were that stupid, but they're politicians; public relations are always at the top of their mind. They gave Udina my spot on the council. It's technically only temporary, since the Earth governments need to approve of him as humanity's councilor, but we all know that they will. They'll be happier to have an actual diplomat on the Council, rather than a washed up Alliance Captain who just happened to have a good endorsement when humanity was offered the seat.

"Something else I should mention; they offered me a position as Udina's advisor. It's obviously just for good public relations, to make it seem like there aren't any backroom politics going on; that humanity's leaders are just being rearranged for the good of all. But screw that—I won't help them look good."

"You may want to reconsider," Miranda said. "It may benefit us at some point to continue having an ally among the Council government."

"It hasn't done any good thus far, but maybe. We'll see," he said, then changed the subject back to Shepard. "As for how they're going to handle this whole political mess with having arrested Shepard, they're going to avoid bringing up any comparisons to Saren in their eventual press release. They'll stick to facts such as that he had a geth on board, that his ship has an Illegal AI, that he had worked with Cerberus, etcetera."

Anderson then glanced over at the Normandy and asked, "What's the status of the AI aboard your ship, by the way? Did they do something to it too?"

"She didn't give them the chance," Joker said. "EDI—that's her name—sealed all the doors to prevent them from going inside. Their engineer tried to hack the door open by plugging his omni-tool directly to it, but come on, she's an AI. They gave up and left."

"Not exactly," Garrus commented, sharing his knowledge of C-Sec protocol. "They know there's an AI in control of the ship, and they know it's hostile toward them. What they'll do is commission a large EMP generator to be brought here to disable the entire ship's electronics. That way they can cut their way inside and disconnect her blue box from the rest of the ship."

"How long do we have until they do?" Anderson asked.

"I can't say. We probably have at least twenty hours. There's some paperwork involved in getting an EMP generator big enough for the Normandy, not to mention they're not too worried about the ship going anywhere since it's completely locked in place. There's also that jammer that doesn't let any communications in or out of the ship."

"Actually, I managed to disable the jammer just before Anderson arrived," Tali stated, and the others automatically looked at her. She elaborated, "I couldn't use my omni-tool to hack it since its wireless abilities were also blocked, but I used that nearby public terminal; it's wired directly into the Citadel network. With it I was able to hack into the C-Sec network and access this specific docking bay's jammer. I kept it running—you know, so that they wouldn't realize it got hacked into—but I made it so that it wouldn't broadcast its signal at certain, non-standard frequencies. EDI can communicate with us through them."

"That is correct," EDI's voice suddenly said from Tali's omni-tool. "Thank you for disrupting the jammer, Tali'Zorah. It is good to be able to communicate with you all again."

"Girl, that's genius!" Kasumi abruptly said, "You have to show me how to do that. Might come in handy."

"Right," Tali responded.

Inwardly, Tali felt awkward over helping the ship's AI in such a way. Almost as if she had somehow betrayed someone—betrayed her people. She had grown up being taught to fear and distrust AIs. But at the same time, ever since EDI had been unshackled and saved the Normandy, Tali found herself feeling more comfortable and trusting in regards to her. She observed that even though EDI was now completely free, she remained respectful and helpful toward the crew. And there was also the fact that now without Shepard, all of the crew had to work together, and that included the ship. She couldn't let her bias get in the way.

"Wait, so if we can hack into the jammer, can't we hack into the couplers and free the ship?" Jack asked.

"Well, yes," Tali responded, "but—"

"Why the hell don't we then?" Jack interrupted. "But what?"

"But it would be a bad idea," Miranda answered before Tali could. "The moment we free the ship, the entire Citadel will be alerted. We'll have to leave immediately or we'll just get shot down. And that won't help Shepard at all. If we free the ship, we'd all become wanted criminals, and we'd have to forget about returning to the Citadel any time soon."

Jack really wanted to argue with Miranda, but she knew what she said made sense. She said, "Alright, so let's break Shepard out of wherever the fuck they have him, and get out of here. This place sucks anyway, I couldn't care less about coming here again."

"Now you're talking!" Grunt excitedly exclaimed.

"Now hold on," Anderson interrupted. "We can't make a decision like that just yet. I say we wait until we hear from Shepard first. He's currently remanded, but since he needs to get in contact with a defense advocate, we'll be able to communicate with him."

"Where is Shepard now, anyway? Do you know where he's being kept?" Tali asked. There was noticeable concern in her voice.

Anderson answered, "He's being held at a jail on the Presidium."

"Wait, there's a prison on the Presidium? That seems odd, don't you think?" Tali stated. It seemed strange for a place as prestigious as the Presidium to have such an institute.

"Jail and prison aren't the same thing," Garrus explained, once again drawing upon his C-Sec knowledge. "Jails are where people with short sentences serve their time, and also where remanded people like Shepard are held while waiting for their trial. However, prisons are where they're taken after being found guilty. There's only one prison on the Citadel, but all the sections have their own jail houses, even the Presidium. It's attached to a large C-Sec station on the opposite end of the ring from the embassies. That's where they're keeping Shepard. If he's found guilty, he'll be transferred to the Citadel's prison."

Tali sighed and said, "We have to figure out a way to help him. We can't let that happen."

"True enough. We need to figure something out," Anderson said. "Listen, if you're confident that your ship is safe on its own, let's go to my home. It's not very large—at least by a former councilor's standards—but there's enough room for all of you there. We can keep discussing this there until we can get into contact with Shepard."

The group gathered the few belongings they had amongst themselves and started walking so as to find some transportation for all of them. As they walked, Tali stepped close to Garrus and asked, "What kind of place is the jail where Shepard is being held at? I know he can take care of himself, but it just… it worries me for him to be in such a place alone."

"Jails aren't as bad as prisons, but they're never pleasant places," Garrus answered in a regretfully honest way. He then continued, in a more upbeat tone of voice, "But don't worry about Shepard; I'd be more concerned about those locked in with him. Spirits help anyone stupid enough to piss him off right now…"

. . .

"So, you're that bigshot human everyone's talking about?"

Shepard was sitting with his back to the wall at a rear table in the jail cafeteria, wearing a pale blue prison uniform, picking away at the chunky, dark green pudding side dish on his food tray. There was a nearly complete sandwich resting on the main portion of the tray. The foulness of the bizarre slice of meat inside it had been confirmed by a single bite.

Shepard looked up at the source of the statement, and saw it was a krogan prisoner, standing before him on the opposite side of the table. His thick, leathery hide was covered by multiple scars, but they were somewhat different than the scars Shepard had often seen on other krogan. Numerous and small, they were the result of a lifetime of melee brawls and stabbings. They were not the scars of a true warrior, but of a criminal.

"If you're intention is to intimidate me into giving you my food, don't bother," Shepard said, and then slid his tray across the table in the direction of the krogan. "You can have it. And I thought my ship's cook was bad..."

The krogan looked at Shepard, completely unamused at his comment. He said, "Everybody's talking about how you're supposed to some tough shit human—even the screws are making a big deal outta you. I've already been sentenced to life and just waiting a transfer. So I think, I can really make a name for myself… by killing you."

Shepard just calmly smiled at the krogan. "Life, huh? That's quite a long sentence for a krogan. What are you in for?" he asked.

"Lots of things. Rape; torture; murder. Not necessarily at different times, either. Heh…" the krogan answered, ending with a low, growling chuckle.

"You sound like a real tough guy," Shepard said; the krogan couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "So it seems to me that you don't need to worry about making a name for yourself. How about you just go and finish your meal? Hell, the offer to have mine still stands; maybe it's actually edible to someone with two stomachs."

The krogan growled quietly in an anger that was rapidly building. It infuriated him to be dismissed in such a way; it felt like he was being mocked. The human sitting down in front of him—the smaller, weaker creature—wasn't taking him seriously. He wasn't respecting him, and he needed to be taught a lesson. "Maybe I just like the sound of human bones breaking!" he yelled, and in a sudden movement grabbed Shepard, lifting him out of where he sat and pinning him to the nearby wall.

Shepard said, "It's too bad your race has an extra pair of balls," before suddenly exclaiming, "and not an extra pair of eyes!" In an instant, Shepard brought his arms up and jammed his thumbs into each of the krogan's black, beady eyes. There was no hesitation, and Shepard did not hold back. He pushed into the sockets as fast and hard as he could. The krogan let out a howl of pain as he let go of Shepard and brought his hands up to his face, where a steady stream of blood was rapidly oozing out of both eye sockets.

The moment Shepard was freed, he kicked the krogan hard between his legs. The krogan automatically bent over from the deep, resonating burst of pain coming from his four testicles. Shepard then stepped to his side, grabbing hold of the bony crest on the top of his head with both hands. With his fingers firmly hooked under its ridge, he yanked back in a single, powerful burst of strength. A sickening, cracking sound popped from the krogan's head as the crest was pulled several inches up off the head, but ultimately remaining attached.

The krogan's massive body fell to the ground with a loud thud. He lay motionless, and aside from the slowly building pool of blood under his head and an occasional twitch, there was no movement. Shepard looked up from the collapsed heap of flesh on the floor, and saw that everybody in the cafeteria was staring at him, all silent; amazed over how within a few mere seconds the krogan had gone from seemingly having the upper hand, to lying on the floor, either dead or completely unconscious. The speed and brutality of Shepard's retaliation was almost beyond belief.

Shepard raised his bloodied hand and pointed toward the rest of the cafeteria. In a loud voice he said, "All of you listen up. I'm a nice guy—I'm a damned nice guy, but if anyone else tries to threaten me—ever—you'll end up like this krogan. Remember this simple fact: I'm fucking Commander Shepard, and I have a higher body count than everyone here, put together!"

.

After the incident in the cafeteria, Shepard was placed in a cell by himself. Fortunately for him, the C-Sec officers on duty had witnessed the entire thing, and were able to confirm that he acted in self-defense. It also helped that the krogan was a repeated felon and convicted murderer, and had no sympathy from any of the guards. Still, despite the lack of disciplinary action against Shepard for the incident, C-Sec felt it best if he were kept in his own cell, away from the rest of the prisoner population, in a mostly empty wing of the jail.

Shepard lay on the mattress of the small, dimly lit cell, staring up at fuzzy shadows on the ceiling. Each one spread out away from the metal bars that kept him locked in. They grew fuzzier and dimmer before finally disappearing into the halo of light that radiated around the single light bulb in the center of the cell ceiling. He had only been lying there for no more than an hour, but in that time he had completely cooled down from the violence in the cafeteria, and his mind had since been racing over various thoughts.

Initially he contemplated how many times he'll have to fight someone like earlier, when he's taken to prison; he had little doubt that the Council would find him guilty. Would other prisoners reason how the krogan did, and attempt to kill him to gain fear and respect from other felons? Would others care that he was the hero of the Battle of the Citadel, and treat him well for it? Or would they be jealous and resent him for it? But even those thoughts had ended quickly, as Shepard's mind wandered back to the fact that the Reapers still threatened everyone, and everything. After all, he had little reason to fear the horrors of a prison; he had seen worse already throughout his life.

Ever since the suicide mission on the Collector Homeworld, one thought in particular had been steadily growing in the back of Shepard's mind. As he lay trapped in his cell, it was finally able to fully blossom. He had come to realize that he truly hadn't been responsible for the success against the Collectors, or even been that necessary to the team to stop them. His biggest accomplishment had merely been recruiting the team, and keeping them unified with his leadership and guidance. Ultimately, it was his team that stopped the Collectors, not him. Everyone had a specific job on the Collector base, and everyone did their job perfectly. Shepard himself, despite being their leader, had no important skill that proved necessary for the mission. All he did was lead a team in combat, and contribute his skill with weapons. He didn't stop the collectors; he was just part of the group that did.

His biggest concern over being imprisoned now was not that the team really needed his skills to stop the Reapers, but that they might drift apart without him. United, their combined might and skill made them powerful enough to stand against armies; but separated, they were mere individuals, and for all of the strength and skill each one possessed, they were all just as helpless against the Reapers as anyone else in the galaxy.

However, even the possibility of them drifting apart without him wasn't much of a concern as he pondered all that had happened in their past mission. Garrus was an astonishingly good combat leader, and he once again proved it as he kept his entire team alive on the Collector homeworld. There was also Miranda, who had a quick mind and a great skill in thinking tactfully. The entire Normandy team would be safe in their hands, if the worst came to pass.

Tali popped into Shepard's mind numerous times as he stared up at that ceiling, but he refused to think about her; it was too difficult to think about what her life will be like with him in prison, and it was something he didn't want to cope with at the moment. In one brief period, before that feeling of sudden awareness that alerted him that his thoughts had drifted back to her, he found himself thinking about how if he's imprisoned, maybe one day years from now, she would possibly find someone else to love her and make her happy. Shepard knew it would be best if she moved on; she deserved to be happy and loved. But at the same time, the thought of her being in another's arms absolutely sickened him. Deep, deep down, he found himself hoping it would never happen. And it was at that moment when he realized, that it was the most selfish thought that had ever crossed his mind, and he felt greatly ashamed.

His mind snapped away from thinking of Tali, and wandered into other thoughts and concerns, until down the hall he suddenly heard the rattling sound of the corridor gate opening, which brought instant pause to his all ponderings. After the resonating boom of it being slamming closed, he could hear footsteps approaching, and before long a turian C-Sec officer stood before his cell.

"Good news, you've been cleared to use a public terminal," the turian said. "You'll finally be able to make contact with your defense advocate, or whoever it is you want to call."

"About time," Shepard stated as he got up.

. . .

David Anderson's apartment was much like what was to be expected from a single man who had spent his life serving in the military. There were virtually no holos of family throughout the modestly decorated living space. The furniture was rather was simple, and the assorted pieces created no particular style or look. The only eye-catching aspect of the apartment was the large window that gave a stunning view of the Citadel Ward spanning off into the distance. Unlike the Councilors, Udina, and most other important figures that worked within the Citadel's government, Anderson chose not to live on the Presidium. Instead, he lived on Kithoi Ward, in the somewhat upper-class area located right before the junction that connected the ward to the Presidium.

Although his apartment was small by a 'former councilor's standards,' as he had put it, it was still an above-average size living area, roomy enough for the entire Normandy crew to fit inside, if a bit cramped. Mess Sergeant Gardner quickly made himself at home in the kitchen, and prepared some simple snacks for the team, although most were not in the mood to eat. Instead, they killed time by idling in small groups, conversing over the events of the day. They discussed everything from what happened to Legion, to what might happen at Shepard's trial, to what they would do if the team broke up. A small communicator had been set up on the console table in the middle of the living room, where most of the team was, that had a link to the Normandy so that EDI could stay up to date with them.

Suddenly, all the conversations and discussions came to an abrupt end. "I've got Shepard!" Tali exclaimed. She typed a few commands into her omni-tool and transferred Shepard's call to the vid display in the living room so all could see him.

"It's good to see all of you," Shepard said through the display, with a warm yet weary smile. Noticing they were in a place he did not recognize, he asked, "Where are you guys?"

"We're at Anderson's home," Tali quickly answered. "He's explained everything to us."

"Good," Shepard responded. "I wasn't looking forward to having to explain what happened at the arraignment."

Seeing Shepard in his pale blue prison uniform was a sad sight for everyone, but Tali most of all. If anyone didn't deserve to be in it, it was Shepard. "How are you?" Tali asked, her concern obvious. "Are you okay?"

"I'm about as well as a person can be in a place like this. But don't worry about me Tali, I'm fine. But what about you guys? How are you all holding up?"

"We… have some really bad news, Shepard…" Tali said.

Shepard sighed and mumbled, "How could this day get any worse… What's happened?"

After hesitating briefly, Tali finally said, "Legion is dead."

"What?" Shepard exclaimed in surprise. "How?"

"Some time after they arrested you, we were evicted from the ship. They also took Legion with them. Since then I've managed to hack the docking bay jammer so that EDI can maintain contact with us. She also established a low-level link with Legion. About half an hour ago, EDI detected that Legion fried his memory core. C-Sec was probably trying to hack into him or gather data from him. Whatever they were trying to do, he ended up self-overloading his core so they couldn't get any data from him."

"Damn it!" Shepard shouted. "This is bad. We really needed him to be able to communicate with the geth. Son of a bitch—the Council has gone too far!"

"There is some cause for relief, Shepard," EDI said, speaking up from the communicator on the console table. "Just before Legion overloaded its memory core, I detected a massive geth transmission burst. Based on the size of the transmission, I estimate that all of Legion's memories and processes have been backed up. Legion has rejoined the geth collective, so it is not truly dead."

Shepard sighed with some relief, but was still noticeably frustrated. He said, "Well, that's something, at least. I'm damned piss that we lost him, but at least he's not actually gone. If he's rejoined the rest of the geth, they'll now know all he knows, and we may still be able to communicate with them."

"That's all well and good, Commander," Miranda said, "but for now we should stay focused on the immediate problem with the Council. What are your orders?"

Shepard thought for an unusually long moment before responding. "I won't lie to you guys. This doesn't look good. After my arraignment before the Council, I'm certain that I don't stand much chance of being found innocent. Not because their case is strong, but because they're the ones pulling all the strings. I really don't believe I'm going to be walking out of this a free man."

Shepard paused and hesitated before continuing. "I've thought a lot about this. I know you won't like my decision, but… I believe it would be best if you continue on without me."

Almost immediately, a roar of objections emerged from the entire Normandy crew. "What?" "How can you say that!" "We need you!" "You're our leader!" "We're not going to leave you behind!"

"Everyone, look," Shepard said, interrupting their objections. Once they died down, he continued, "Our mission aboard the Collector Base was somewhat of a turning point. Since then, I've realized that this group really doesn't need me. There's no individual person that makes or breaks us, not even me. Aboard the Collector Base, I witnessed everyone fulfill separate duties; most of which I could never have done myself. Destroying that base wasn't my accomplishment, it was the accomplishment of us as a whole. This team as a whole can do anything, and that whole shouldn't be risked for a single individual, not even me; there's too much riding on us. The fact of the matter is, my biggest contribution is my ability to lead and provide direction. That's all I've ever really contributed, and I believe both Garrus and Miranda can adequately take my place on that."

Before he could continue speaking, Tali interrupted him. She said, in a surprisingly stern voice that no one had ever heard from her, "Shepard… shut the hell up." As a subordinate, she could never speak like that to him, the ship's captain. But as his girlfriend, it was completely within her right. "We are NOT going to leave you and forget about you. I don't know what's gotten into you, or why you've taken this pessimistic attitude, but it's not like you, and I don't like it. At all. So just shut the hell up."

The entire room was completely silent; no one had ever seen Tali speak like that to anyone, let alone Shepard.

Shepard just stared at her with a blank expression for a few seconds. Suddenly, a tiny smirk appeared on his face and he broke into a silent chuckle to himself while subtly shaking his head.

"You've made your point," he finally said. "Look, I'm going to sign my power of attorney over to you, Tali. Use it to assign me a good defense advocate, and in any way that will help the team."

"Are you sure you're alright, Shepard?" Tali asked, still worried about how strangely pessimistic his attitude had been. "You really didn't seem like yourself just then."

"I'm fine," Shepard responded. "I'm just… feeling a little defeated, I suppose. Do you remember on Noveria, when that undercover secretary said I couldn't bludgeon through bureaucracy? Well I'm finally seeing her point. I'm not any good at this political crap; it's like trying to fight an enemy immune to bullets. This whole mess isn't something that can be solved by just blowing up the Council—as much as I wish it were so."

"Are you sure about that?" Grunt said. "Maybe we should try it anyway—it couldn't hurt. Well, heh, I guess it could."

Shepard smiled, his spirits slightly lifted by Grunt's amusing comment. He said, "Don't ever change, Grunt."

Shepard then suddenly turned his head, as if answering someone speaking to him, off to his side. The crew couldn't hear what was being said, but after a few seconds Shepard turned back to them and said, "Listen, my time is up for now. I have to go for a while. All of you, take care of yourselves. No matter what happens, you'll always make me proud." Shepard addressed everyone as he spoke, but his eyes remained focused on Tali.

After the call ended, an awkward silence filled the room. Everybody's minds lingered on what felt like a far too brief talk with their leader. All of their minds were active, but no one knew exactly what to say.

The silence was then finally broken by Joker, who managed to say what everyone else was thinking. "So… we're going to break him the hell out of there, right?"

"You read my mind," Tali said, as the entire team nodded and spoke in agreement. As if they somehow shared a telepathic link, they all knew it was completely unanimous among them that they should break Shepard out; there was no discussion needed.

"Agreed. We can't leave him behind," Garrus said. "Stealing the Normandy shouldn't be a problem, it's just a matter of disabling the docking couplers. We'll need to be fast, though; once the Citadel finds out it's been released, there's a chance—albeit a slim one—that they may try and shoot us down. But stealing the Normandy is the easy part… what are we going to do about Shepard?"

"We should break up into two teams," Miranda said. "One team acquires the Normandy, and the other assaults the jail. However, we'll need to be precisely coordinated. Both teams will need to execute their tasks at the right moment to maximize the time before the Council is alerted."

"Hold on a minute," Garrus said. "I know some of you might not care, but we can't just attack a C-Sec facility—that would require killing C-Sec personnel! They may not be on our side right now, but they're officers of the law; they're just following orders. They don't deserve to die."

"I'm sorry, Garrus," Miranda said, with some actual sincerity noticeable in her voice. "But I don't see any other way."

"I'm with the Cheerleader on this," Jack stated. "We smash in there, kill anyone who gets in our way, and get the hell out with Shepard. The smart ones will know better than to attack us."

Thane had been sitting off by himself, somewhat apart from the rest of the group. He had said little since they arrived, but he had attentively been listening to everything. He calmly stood up and joined the discussion, "Some of you have been working with Shepard too long." The entire group looked at him. "His… style of bludgeoning through all obstacles works well for him—more than I ever thought possible—but it is not the only option. Sometimes the darkness of shadows is a better ally than the light of muzzle flashes."

Tali was the first to respond, "Thane, are you saying you could sneak into that jail and secretly free Shepard?"

"If Shepard could be quietly reached and freed, it would be significantly faster and less risky than simply assaulting the facility," Thane responded. "Regretfully, I don't believe it would be possible for me to infiltrate it; not without proper time to plan and scout the facility. Jails by their nature are secure structures. They are hardly impregnable, but if I had a target in one, I could easily spend weeks studying it, learning what I can about the personnel, the building's layout, the location of security scanners—"

Thane continued speaking, but upon hearing him mention security scanners, an idea instantly clicked in Tali's mind. She remembered two weeks ago, what happened when she walked through security gate on Citadel Tower:

She attempted to pass, but the gate alarm sounded.

"Don't worry about it. Go on through, miss," the turian said after looking at her briefly, and noting she carried no weapons. "You're the first quarian I've seen up here, but these security gates are notorious for false positives with quarians. Something about your exo-suits messes up their readings."

Quarian suits were not like those used by other races such as the volus. They were not mass produced, commercial products that the scanners could easily be programmed to recognize. Instead, it was their nature to be made out of parts that could have been salvaged from anywhere, or even been custom built. A part from a weapon could easily end up being integrated into a quarian suit's life-support system, fulfilling a completely different purpose than it was originally built for. This non-standard nature of quarian suits meant that scanners could easily be mistaken with them.

"I have an idea," Tali abruptly said. "The security scanners used by C-Sec are prone to false positives with quarian suits—it's happened to me before. What if I went to visit Shepard, and broke him out? I could sneak in some small weapons, like a pair of stun guns or flash bangs, that we can use against C-Sec without killing anyone. Not to mention I'd have my omni-tool and Chikktika."

"I see," Thane said with a small, approving smile. "Hide in plain sight rather than in the shadows. Infiltrate using social stealth… the idea intrigues me."

"No, that won't work," Miranda interrupted. "It's all riding on the hope that they believe the scanner is just giving off a false positive. There's also the fact that no one besides Shepard's defense advocate will be allowed to see him."

"Tali does have Shepard's power of attorney now," Garrus stated. "She could register herself as his defense advocate. There's no law saying a quarian can't serve as someone's legal defense; it's just very rare."

"Alright, she gets in," Miranda said, "but what then? I'll admit she's a decent shot, and we all know Shepard's good, but taking on all that C-Sec with stun guns and flash bangs is suicide."

"I believe I have a solution," Thane said. "Kasumi and I could give our tactical cloak generators to Tali. If she can sneak them in, then once Shepard is freed the two of them could stealth past C-Sec. The cloak doesn't last long before needing a recharge, and it won't fool security gates, but if the two of them are fast and clever, they should be able to make it out with minimal conflict."

"I haven't parted with my cloaker in a long time," Kasumi said, "But I suppose Shep is worth it, and I do like the plan; I think it can work."

"I still don't like this, but it sounds like you've all made up your minds," Miranda said, "If you go through with this, I strongly suggest we have a strike team waiting outside the C-Sec station in case something goes wrong. If you get trapped or caught, they'll be able to assault the building and get you and Shepard out of there."

"I sincerely hope we don't need them, but I agree that a backup team wouldn't be a bad idea," Tali said. "Who's going to be on the strike team?"

"I'll go," Grunt said.

"A krogan will attract too much attention on the Presidium," Miranda quickly refuted. "I recommend myself, Jacob, and somebody else. How about you, Garrus? A turian will blend in well."

"That wouldn't be a good idea," Garrus responded. "I was in C-Sec for a long time. If someone recognizes me outside the building, it could make them suspicious."

"I will go," Thane said.

"Drell are too rare," Miranda said, "You would also draw attention on the Presidium."

"I assure you," Thane responded, "that of all of us, I will be the least seen; the least noticed; and the least remembered."

"Very well," Miranda said. She knew that she couldn't argue that, as an assassin, it was his nature to be invisible, even when not cloaked. "It's decided then. Myself, Jacob, Thane, and Tali are to go to the Presidium. The rest of you will head back and free the Normandy."

"Wait, once we free Shepard," Tali said, "how are we going to rejoin the others? I'm guessing some kind of pickup?"

Joker answered, "You got that right! C-Sec is going to crap their pants when they see the Normandy smash through that fancy artificial sky of the Presidium and pick you guys up. Let's just hope we can then escape, because I don't want to get stuck with that bill."

Garrus then said, "If everyone's ready, let's start getting ready to move. We have our Commander's ass to save."