Chapter 29

The Normandy came in for an emergency landing at the capital city of Thessia not far from the planet's largest hospital, which just happened to be a part of the Counsel's local offices, it was mainly staffed by Asari but technically it was belonged to Counsel, the Asaris could not afford to build a hospital this large or complex, not after what the war had don to their home world.

Thessia was no longer the "Crown Jewel of the Galaxy" as it had been for thousands of years past. Barely anything remained of the old Thessia after the Reaper's attack back during the war. The buildings and streets no longer reached hundreds of feet into the sky, they had been reduced to rubble. Much had been rebuilt but it was now on the ground and on a much smaller scale then before. There were still piles of rubble from the old Thessia everywhere. They had been pushed into neat piles but there was no way to get rid of that much rubble. What could be used was being used in rebuilding Thessia, but the new Thessia was nothing like the old. Rebuilding was slow work since less then a third of the population had survived the Reapers. Aliens rarely came to Thessia any more since there wasn't much to see and no one who had seen the old Thessia could leave with out feeling sad. The Asari had survived but the Reapers had taken much of their way of life from was now only one government not the many that had spread across the planet before, that was how few people were left. Thessia was now a bitter sweet world as opposed to being the world of joy it had been before the war.

Once the Normandy landed and it's cargo bay doors had been opened emergency med techs that had been waiting rushed in with stretchers. They made sure Shepard and the Asari were stable and then put them onto the stretchers and raced out of the ship. Tali started to follow but Ashley Williams stepped in front and blocked her path.

"What are you doing?" Tali demanded.

"I am sorry but I don't have the manpower to keep you safe on this planet, I can't let you go." Ashley responded.

"I don't care, I will take the chance! I am going with John!" Tali yelled and she tried to push her way past Ashley but the human woman stood firm.

"I know you don't care right now." Ashley said looking Tali in the eyes and putting a hand on her shoulder. "But you need to think about them." Ashley then motioned to the children who were standing a few feet behind them. "I grew up in a military family and I know what it is like not to know if your father is going to live or die. Please listen to me when I say they need you now."

Tali seemed to calm down and she took a breath. "Yeah I understand. I don't know what I was thinking, thanks Ashley." Tali said at last. Ashley nodded her understanding and then Grunt walked up. "Don't worry Tali Shepard is my battle master and I will stand watch over him, he will not leave my sight. Once there is anything to know I will contact you." The Krogan said.

"Thanks Grunt." Was all Tali could say, to tell the truth at that moment she was feeling drained. Grunt then followed the Asari med techs off of the ship. Samara was following him. "I will make sure the prisoner does not escape." She explained and then the Justicare left. Tali then turned her attention to the kids behind her. She could tell that they were all scared and very tired after their long ordeal. She hoped John made it because for one thing she couldn't imagine working her way through the issues that were sure tom come up with out him. It just didn't bare thinking about.

"He is going to be okay." Tali said answering the question before it was asked. "Why don't we get something to eat?" She said bending down so she was eye level with the kids. She then noticed something was wrong, Rael seemed to be having trouble staying on his feet. "Rael are you okay?" she asked reaching for the child.

"I don't feel good." was all he said weakly. Then before Tali could reach him he fell on the floor.

"I need help over here!" Tali cried out her voice in near panic.

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Adril had spent the last day trying to find out what had happened to his employer. So far all he had been able to find out was that nobody had been recovered from the mansion. He had gone to bed that past evening with a heavy heart. He had been woken up by an information broker who claimed to have some news for him. So he had gotten up after just a few hours sleep and made his way to a small kiosk in the presidium.

It was early and there were only a few people around. The Citadel used artificial light but when it's orbit brought it in range, the light of the Earth's sun still poured in. The Citadel now mostly operated on earth time as a result. This took some time for aliens to get used to and Adril was no exception. It seemed odd to have a space station operating like a planet but Humans were mostly running it now and that was the way they liked it. Adril had to admit that there was something comforting about the natural light that did get in. He was thinking of this when a Volus walked up to him.

"Are you, Mr. Adril?" The Volus asked looking up at Adril.

"Informative, I am fine. I take you are Barla Von."

"I am. I understand you are looking for any information that could lead to a group of Humans that may have taken an Elcor prisoner." Barla Von said simply.

" Statement of fact, That is correct. Inquiry, Do you have any information?"

"I do. You must understand that this may not be a direct link but it could lead you to the people you are looking for. The fee for this information is 200 credits, are you able to pay?"

"I understand and I will transfer the credits to your account once I have seen the information." Adril replied.

"Very well, have a look at this data pad." Barla Von said holding out a small data pad. Adril looked at it, it was exactly the sort of thing he had been looking for.

"As you can see." Barla Von explained. "It details a shipment to a member of the Earth Clan for restraints and interrogation devices specially made for Elcor a day before the attack."

"Understanding, This will help me a great deal." Adril then used his Omni-Tool to pay Barla Von and copy the contents of the data pad. He then handed it back to the Volus and made his way to the nearest elevator. He had mixed emotions about this information. On the one hand he was glad to have a lead but on the other he now new that Leldo may have some information that the Humans were trying to extract from him. That meant that he was most likely in a lot of pain at that moment, and what if he didn't have the information the humans thought he had? All these facts seemed to point to Leldo not having much time. Adril got off the elevator and made his way to the small room he had rented. He knew he had to contact someone, but he was not sure who he could trust.

Finally he made is way over to the com unit on the far wall of his room.

"Computer I wish to send a message to Spectre Garrus Vatarian on the Normandy, please mark it urgent." It was a long shot if Garrus would be able to do anything from where he was, but the Turian was the only person Adril knew for sure he could trust.

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Aria had set up shop in her opulent apartment since her office had been destroyed when Jacob and Miranda had arrested her. Aria sat on a large couch and was talking to her assistant Tola. The younger Asari woman had a black eye and the whole right side of her face was swollen from when Jacob hit her with the butt of his shotgun.

"As long as I get rid of Taylor and Lawson before Shepard gets back, the rescue of those brats will not set my plans back at all." Aria said thinking to herself out loud.

"But now you have no way to control who replaces them." Tola pointed out.

"True, but that will not matter if Shepard returns it will be a long time from now and I will be able to use his rash actions to weaken him so that it will not matter who he appoints." Aria replied.

"But they are sure to expose why they went after you." Tola protested.

"Even if they do there is no way it can be linked directly back to me and by then Shepard will have died in such a way that it will bring the people of the galaxy over to support me." Aria answered with a smug smile.

"You are going to have him killed?" Tola asked shocked.

"Of course I am. He is on Thesia so he is in my power and now I know he has another one of those devices, so I will then have control of two of them and since it will look like my enemies killed him everyone will believe my story that he was there at my request to stop them. That together with the faked holo recordings of Taylor and Lawson should seal my victory and makes sure that the rest of the galaxy either stays out of our war or comes in on our side. Even if Shepard survives somehow he will be a broken man after what I am going to do to him and I will be ready for him when he comes after me."

"You seem to have thought of everything." Tola said in awe.

"Yes of course I have, now come on we have a lot of work to do." Aria said standing up.

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Rael was laying on a biobed in the Normandy's med bay. Tali was sitting in a chair beside him holding his hand and watching his vital signs. Jeff and Raan had eaten and fallen asleep a short time before. They were too scared to be parted from their mother so they were on two other biobeds. Dr. Chalkwas had gotten Rael stable and given him some medicine for the infection his body was fighting and retired to her quarters. All in all it had been a long couple of days for everyone, but Tali didn't want to go to sleep until Rael woke up and she had news about Shepard. Tali let out a yawn and then shook her head to keep herself awake. It was then that the boy stirred.

"I'm hot and thirsty." He said sleepily.

"Rael you are awake!" Tali said with relief showing in her voice, she then reached over and hugged Rael.

"Mom am I okay?" The boy asked weakly.

"Oh yes you are fine you just have an infection but you will get over it." Tali answered quickly.

"Is that why I feel so hot and thirsty, can I have some water?" The boy asked.

"Oh right, sure." Tali answered and she got up and walked to the small fridge at the other side of the room. She took out a plastic container of water that had been purified for Quarians and was designed to be drank through a small hole in the suit's mask with out letting germs in. She then returned and handed it to Rael, who took it gratefully and began gulping down the water.

Tali was really too tired to speak so she just sat there half way between being awake and asleep not speaking. Rael was the one who broke the silence. "I'm sorry." The boy said quietly not looking up at his mother.

"What for?" Tali asked puzzeled.

"For taking off my mask. You always told us not to take off our masks when we are not on the home world and I did it any way. I'm sorry I just didn't want to be taken by those people, but what I did didn't work. I'm sorry I disobeyed."

Tali hugged the boy and forced him to look at her as she spoke. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You did the right thing, do you understand. It's not your fault that you got taken and it's not your fault that you got sick."

"But I took my mask off and if I had done something else maybe we would not have been taken. It feels like my fault." The boy protested sadly.

"Well it is not and don't worry about getting sick ,you will be okay." Tali said forcefully.

"How can you be sure?" Rael asked.

"Because I got sick like you once, in fact a lot of Quarians have and I am alright."

"When and why would you take your mask off?" Rael asked sitting up a little, he seemed very interested.

"It was years ago." Tali began to explain. "Do you remember how I told you once that the Quarians didn't always have a world of our own and at that time we had to spend our whole lives in our suits?" Rael nodded. "Well your father and I were on a mission on this ship, the Normandy to take down an evil alien race known as The collectors."

"Who were they and why did they need to be stopped?" Rael asked excitedly. Tali had not intended to go into much detail but Rael had always loved stories full of action and adventure and this story seemed to be getting his mind off of the kidnapping and being sick. Tali was also glad of the distraction herself and taking about something like the suicide mission that she and Shepard came back alive from helped give her faith that Shepard would pull through the current problem fine. So Tali spent the next hour and a half or so telling Rael all about how The Collectors had been kidnapping Humans and how she had joined Shepard and he had helped her with her trial for treason. Rael had a hard time believing that part. In his life his mother had always been a respected hero so to hear she was once tried for treason was very hard for the boy to believe. She then went on to tell him about how they had gone to the space station in the galactic core that served as the Collectors' home world and had destroyed it and gotten out just in the nick of time. By the time she had finished telling the whole story Tali couldn't remember why she had started telling it in the first place.

Rael brought things back full to where they started. "But what does this have to do with you getting sick?" The boy asked.

"Well before went through the Omega 4 relay we didn't know if we were going to come back alive and I wanted your father to see my face. He had never seen it before so I took off my mask and let him see it." Tali explained. She didn't see the need to tell the child the rest of what happened that night. "Any way a day or so after that I got sick and it took me about two weeks to get better, so you see this is normal for Quarians and you are going to be fine."

"Okay." Rael said and then he began to fall asleep, Tali despite her best efforts joined him a few minutes latter.

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Kasumi Goto entered the main battery on the Normandy's third deck. This was where Garrus stayed most of the time when he was on the Normandy.

"Hello! Garrus are you here!" Kasumi called out to the seemingly empty room.

"Over here." she heard a voice call out. She followed it and found Garrus lying on a cot to the right of the main guns. He seemed to be working on them as best as he could from the cot.

"Garrus what are you doing?" Kasumi asked walking up to him.

"Well Chalkwas was not happy with what going on the mission did to my legs so she put me on bed rest for the next three days, so I figured I would calibrate the main guns. Every time I leave this ship someone seems to screw them up." Garrus explained.

"I am pretty sure when she said bed rest she didn't mean for you to be leaning halfway out of an army cot and working on a giant gun all day." Kasumi pointed out.

"Well I have to do something useful, besides since when do doctors know anything? If they had it their way we would all only eat fruit and walk around in bubble wrap all day. Someone has to stand up to them!" Garrus replied.

Kasumi laughed a little at this. "But what if you hurt your legs again. How useful of a Spectre can you be limping around?" Kasumi protested.

"You didn't see me on this last mission. I don't need to be able to run to be deadly, I'm the best shot in the galaxy as my contest with Shepard proved." Garrus said looking up at Kasumi with a smile on his face.

"But maybe there are people who worry about you and don't want to see you spend the rest of your life limping." Kasumi added crossly while giving Garrus a hard look and crossing her arms across her chest.

"Would you be one of those people?" Garrus asked looking up at her and stopping his work for the first time since they had started talking.

"I don't know...maybe." Kasumi answered timidly while uncrossing her arms, she didn't look Garrus in the eyes when she said it.

"Well those people should know me well enough by now to know that I have to live my life my own way and that is never going to change." Garrus said tersely.

This didn't make Kasumi any happier but she could see this conversation was going nowhere so she decide to change the subject. She reached into her pockets and pulled some things out. She handed them to Garrus.

"What are these?" Garrus asked puzzled.

"I went and did some shopping. I needed some new clothes and while I was out I got you some vids and this book to keep you from going crazy while stuck here." Kasumi explained. Garrus looked through the small pile. The vids were a mixture of classic and newer Human movies, but it was the book that interested him. The book was entitled Tactics: A complete history of Human warfare.

"Kasumi thanks a lot." Garrus said lamely he wasn't sure what else to say.

"Well I will get out of your hair now." Kasumi said and she turned to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" Garrus called out and she stopped. "I just want you to know that I was worried about you too."A small smile that Garrus couldn't see passed over Kasumi's lips. "And would you like to watch one of these vids with me? I think I have done enough calibrating for one day."

Kasumi turned around and answered him. "That sounds like it could be fun."

Well there you have chapter 29,thanks for reading.

Okay only minor edits needed in this chapter, thanks for reading and putting up with my delays and the fact that this story is taking me years to write. I am so sorry about that.