"The fucks did what?" Shepard asked very, very evenly.

Miranda could see the muscles in the woman's jaw clench, and the heaving of her shoulders with the breaths she was taking to try to contain herself. The monitor readings belied the success of that effort. Truthfully, Miranda was relieved; she understood Liara's hope that Shepard remain ignorant of events outside, however briefly it might be, but the asari was deluding herself if she thought they'd had even the ghost of a chance. She probably didn't, not really. Sheltering Shepard from the outside world might have succeeded. Sheltering the outside world from Shepard, on the other hand…

Besides, as nice as it was to see a happy, unburdened Shepard, it had also been very disconcerting. As if there was something wrong with the universe, almost. Even back when she'd first reunited with Liara—god, has it been two years already?—there was always something weighing on her.

"It seems that the salarians—and what remains of Cerberus—have invaded the demilitarized zone," Liara said carefully, her finger joints paling to a pastel as she tightened her grip on Shepard's thigh. "We do not believe they are engaging in exter… In an all-out war."

Miranda had to hand it to the salarians—it was exactly the right time to make their move. Even if Charon had only gone down temporarily, they might well have had enough time to solidify their position before any serious countermeasures could be taken. It was a bold move, especially if they were intending to use the krogan females as bargaining chips.

A beep signaled the crossing of another threshold. The monitors showed ever-climbing adrenaline and cortisol levels in addition to the more direct markers of heart rate, oxygen burn rate, core and extremity temperature… "Settle down, Shepard, you'll tear something open."

"No. Seriously, they did… After all this, they did what?" Shepard growled, sparing only a furious glance at Miranda for her suggestion. It was remarkable how much emotion the cybernetics could convey in the right sockets. The manufacturer should hire Shepard for its ads…if it still existed, that is. Probably not. Probably ashes. It was a shame, they'd had such a nice office, too. Wonderful views.

Grunt had remained unexpectedly quiet since imparting these most recent news to the foursome. The young krogan vexingly continued to defy Miranda's expectations almost at every turn. In this case, his calm might be due to a detachment from the krogan homeworld and culture…but on the other hand, he actually seemed to be far more knowledgeable about it than…well, any krogan she knew, at least. Interestingly enough, she saw a glint return into his eyes—or eye, to be precise, since he was turned slightly toward Shepard and Liara—and a little rocking motion emerge as Shepard's agitation grew. Living vicariously?

"None of you thought I needed to know this?" Shepard demanded of no-one in particular, waving her hand angrily.

"You know that is not true, Shepard," Liara said softly, ducking her head down and leaning in a little bit to catch the Commander's eye. "There is simply nothing that you can do about it here, now. It could wait."

The asari's directness seemed to take Shepard by surprise, and she faltered mid-objection, her fury visibly losing steam. She opened her mouth to say something, but apparently whatever Liara's eyes were telling her was enough to silence that thought as well. "Isn't there—"

"There is nothing you can do," Liara said again, patiently, her posture relaxing in synchrony with Shepard as the woman leaned back against the bed, heels of her hands covering her eyes. "We cannot get there, we have no communications, no contact…"

"Couldn't we send a broadcast or something?" Shepard asked, kneading her eyes with her palms.

"It probably wouldn't help," Miranda ventured into the conversation, running through the scenario in her head. It was, admittedly, a bit worse than she would've liked from their point of view. Would certainly have been easier to play on the other side. "The forces in the DMZ know the risks. They probably won't listen even to you if you can't back it up in any way. Sur'kesh…maybe. I doubt you would find much support there, either."

Liara agreed with a sharp nod and looked up to Grunt. "Something is already being done with communications, I am sure?"

"Yes," the krogan barked, "the asari are supposed to send in some drones to broadcast a message to anyone left on Tuchanka—"

"…Why the asari?" Miranda asked, puzzled. "Wouldn't it be better coming from you? Or Wrex?"

"Some nonsense about displaying solidarity, Lidanya says. And we're not sure if it might be best to hide the strength and united resolve of the remaining krogan. So the asari it is. The salarian—yes, Kirrahe," Grunt clarified at Liara's prompting, "he thinks he might be able to get someone in Sur'kesh or…or the system to listen to him."

"Really? That is good news, if he really does succeed in finding some allies there. Then, perhaps, you could be of help," Liara said, turning back toward Shepard and receiving a dubious look in return.

"God-fucking-damnit. Are there any other crises I don't need to know about right now?" Shepard asked, pushing herself back up into a sit, the skin around the eyes reddened from friction. The woman seemed satisfied with the chorus of 'no's and whatever sincerity her gaze found when she looked at each of them in turn. "Why? Because of the genophage cure?"

"That seems likely," Liara said, looking for confirmation from Grunt. The krogan merely nodded.

Shepard frowned, bit her lip contemplatively, the familiar, almost seamless transition from rage into strategic planning drawing a brief smile on Miranda's lips. "What's their plan? They're not just killing everybody as far as you can tell…do they have another genophage prepared for use? Another contingency bomb?"

"I…do not know," Liara replied with a curiously emphatically, eyes intent on Shepard's…probably meaning that her other sources had not gleaned much more information than what had already been fed to the admiralty.

Miranda idly wondered whether Liara knew that she knew…the asari had still gone around the issue when they'd spoken about Ori, but she wasn't certain if it was out of genuine ignorance, or merely a charade to keep up for the benefit of any potential observers. They had kept it under wraps admirably well—Miranda wasn't sure if anyone else beyond Garrus knew.

"Don't know," Grunt said evenly. "Doesn't look like a kill mission, they're not bombarding—at least from what the drones could tell—but there's a huge fleet there. It's unlikely that they've got a new genophage. The salarian assumes they were either planning on keeping Tuchanka hostage to begin with, or changed their plan when found out."

"And Cerberus?" Shepard continued, looking over to Miranda.

"I doubt I can answer with much confidence. I don't even know who's in charge," Miranda said after a pause. "The Illusive Man is dead, but you probably already knew that."

"Yeah, I put that asshole down," Shepard said with a solemn nod, "but not before he got Anderson."

Anderson…? Miranda raised her brow, noting that the asari had apparently been caught off-guard by the same—and even Kasumi's ears had perked. Something to return to later, perhaps. "Yes, well, in any case… It's hard to say what their objective may be. Depending on how smart the people running the show are, it's either to try to destroy the krogan," she noted with an apologetic look at Grunt, "or to sow discord between the other species."

"So hostages…for what? The solution to this problem is fucking trivial!" Shepard shouted, growing more animated again.

Liara looked surprised at that, stealing a glance at Miranda before turning back to Shepard. "I am sure it is solvable, but is it really triv—"

"Birth. Control."

"What?" the asari asked, momentarily puzzled. Grunt, too, seemed nonplussed.

"Remember that tinfoil hat Jack gave you?"

"…Oh. Oh!"

Liara's brief, purplish pause allowed the krogan to express his confusion about the issue.

"Yes, Grunt, birth control," Shepard reiterated, pinching an eyebrow between thumb and forefinger. "A means of not ending up with a baby every f— …every single time you—what do you call it—have sex."

"Oh."

"That would be fine in theory," Miranda mused out loud, question after another surfacing as she explored the possibilities further. "But isn't it clear that it hasn't worked? Why would it work now?"

"It's never been tried, Miranda," Shepard said tiredly. "Not at scale, anyway."

"What?" Miranda asked, as much out of surprise as to ask. It seemed like such an obvious solution, at least in retrospect, that it was nearly unimaginable that—

"It was never an issue until they started colonizing other worlds. The population was constantly eroded by violence. For the rebellion, huge numbers were desirable…and then, the genophage. The colonization was like all infant deaths had suddenly ended in the middle of the industrial revolution, or whenever the fuck it was that people still had a dozen kids."

"Where did you learn all this?" Miranda asked, genuinely curious. Shepard wasn't a bookish type, but somehow she always managed to pick up the strangest things.

"I talked to a krogan."

"Oh."

Liara, now recovered, seemed to find the logistics of the thing interesting. "I wish I had had more time to converse with Eve, now. How would it work, then? Do they…is there something that already works?"

"As I understand it from Eve, there are some…crude methods that would work as—is. Still, though, that part's easy. It's not fucking rocket science, surely we can figure something out," Shepard said quickly, starting to draw her knees up again but thinking better of it as some discomfort made her wince. She waved away Liara's look of concern and continued with a tiny grimace. "The real problem are the expectations. That's why this was supposed to be a perfect time—if we were to win, anyway."

"Perfect time for what?"

"To actually agree to go that route. Eve and some other…I dunno what you'd call them, female clan leaders?" Shepard replied, receiving only a shrug from Grunt on the issue of nomenclature. "Anyway, they were supposed to have the summits, as you know, about defenses and so on—but also to discuss the idea and maybe agree at least in principle."

"Because all the males would be away," Grunt stated, not as a question.

"Exactly. The population isn't going to be an issue for a couple years, anyway, so not having methods in place immediately isn't going to cause problems, but everyone's got to agree to only having a couple kids, only having them when they're a little older because of their lifespans…and so on. All the clans gotta agree, they have to teach their daughters the same…"

"Isn't that basically exactly what the genophage was doing?" Miranda asked. "It wasn't actually reducing your numbers, Grunt, it was designed to keep them stable. You killing eachother caused the decline," she added as she noticed the krogan's look of suspicion.

"Yes, but at the same time not at all," Shepard said after glancing at Grunt to confirm the krogan had understood Miranda's clarification. "Forced sterilization isn't the same as opting not to have children, Miranda, even if the immediate effect is the same. I hate the idea that they're having to do this under coercion, more or less," she continued after a heavy breath, "but at the same time, it doesn't really seem that huge a burden to only limit to a couple kids if that guarantees peace. The asari live long, too, but they're not crowding out the galaxy."

"Will the salarians believe that to solve the issue?" Liara asked, what passed for a brow furrowed in deep thought.

"Will anyone?" Kasumi piped up, all but forgotten until now. The girl had the uncanny ability to disappear even in plain sight. It was quite a remarkable talent for someone that…bombastic. "That's an awful lot of trust placed in them."

"Yes," Shepard agreed, back to gnawing her bottom lip. "But what else is there? Fuck, I don't know if it'd work, but it's a hell of a lot better than…than wiping them out because of what might happen. I dunno. You're right, though," she continued grudgingly, "we need some kind of a solid contact before this can go anywhere. Fuck."

"Yes," Liara said visibly relieved. "I am sorry we— I thought you might—"

Shepard dismissed the apology by kindly tut-tutting the asari, probably more than well aware of her tendencies. The look of concentration returned almost immediately, though. "This could be a problem with the relays."

"What do you mean?" Liara and Miranda asked almost in unison, just before Miranda realized that—

"The ones Kaidan is going to. We don't know where they'll lead," Shepard mused, eyes turned up to the ceiling for a change, almost as if she was visualizing the galaxy. "That's what they're supposed to find out. But once they do know that they'll work or not, the destination needs to be kept secret."

Liara nodded as she, too, caught on.

"It's doubtful that the salarians would use them to attack," Shepard continued, "but I wouldn't put it past them—now, anyway—to try to shut them down or embargo them to keep us trapped, if the situation is still unresolved."

"I cannot imagine that they would do something like that…" Liara said uncertainly, not able to convince even herself. "Would they not try to negotiate instead?"

"Negotiate with what?" Shepard asked a little pointedly, softening her tone as she continued. "At that point, I'm not sure what they'd have left to negotiate with.

"Anyway, I'm sure Command has already thought about all this, but if the situation doesn't improve at all, it's going to be crucial to maintain secrecy. I mean, fuck, they shouldn't even broadcast success over FTL arrays…they're gonna have to get to a QEC first, to prevent the salarians eavesdropping… And if it's looking dicey, we need to minimize the time delay between the discovery of the relay endpoints and actually securing them. Maybe we can triangulate a point where an attack fleet can follow the probe ships to minimize the…no, that wouldn't work. They'd have to go with them and have the probe come back through the relay. Goddamnit, I wish I'd paid more attention in fleet strategy class."

Miranda scoffed, but Liara was a little more polite in her wording. "It may be that they have already considered these implications, but with the chaos it has been to regroup and reorganize everything, I believe it wise to ensure that they have. Grunt," the asari said, looking over to the krogan, "can surely bring these issues up in the next meeting?"

Grunt nodded confidently. "We have another stupid meeting in a few hours."

"I want to talk to Wrex," Shepard said suddenly.

Liara turned back toward the woman, leaning in inquisitively. "What good will that do? Grunt will—"

"I just…need to."

"It is not your fault, Shepard."

"Yeah?"

"No-one could have—"

"We should've seen it coming."

Liara frowned, and paused for a moment. "Fine. I disagree with that, but Grunt can have Wrex make contact through me when he is secure," she finally said with a sharp nod once again echoed by the krogan.

Miranda—suspecting that the asari had been right about gradually easing the Commander back into action being for the best, and thinking that some alone-time might be more conducive to her recovery—cleared her throat as she stood up and neatly positioned her chair back against the wall. "I have a few things I need to attend to. I could actually use your help, Kasumi, if you have a moment?" she asked, giving the thief a meaningful look. Grunt already had a task to complete, so he should be easy enough to drag out in tow.

Kasumi, to her credit, nodded and hopped off the bed—a little more awkwardly than she'd gotten on. "Sure. I've got something for you, Li, but it can wait."

Clever. Miranda walked around the corner of the bed and turned to her patient. "Everything checks out fine, Shepard. The proper doctors will be around at some point, and," she continued, checking her omni for the agenda, "the nurse will be over in a half hour or so. We can talk about eating and all that when I get back."

Shepard nodded curtly and muttered something inaudible. Liara, on the other hand, stood up beside the bed after a last look at Shepard. The asari took Miranda by the elbow and walked her the two steps toward the door there was room for, more of a symbolic gesture than a sensible one. "I have some news for you, Miranda. Her ship was logged by Joab control entering through the Rosetta Nebula relay approximately 38 hours ago."

Joy, anxiety, and anticipation fluttered around Miranda's stomach as she looked up into the asari's eyes. "Are you sure it's her?"

"I am not sure, no," Liara replied softly, "but the manifest did not indicate any significant damage to the ship, and declared seventeen occupants."

"Seventeen?" Miranda exclaimed before she got a hold of herself. "It's only designed for five."

"Oh…they must be refugees then, perhaps?" Liara suggested uncertainly.

"Maybe, it could be they've picked up some. That's something at least," Miranda continued, trying to offer Liara a slightly more confident a smile than she felt. "Are her parents there?"

"I do not know, I am sorry," the asari replied quietly. "Do you think she is in danger? We could try to get her to someone we can trust on the outside. I am certain I could find someone in asari space to help—"

"I don't think there's anyone looking for her," Miranda said with an unexpectedly relieved shake of her head. They were all dead. "I just want to make sure she's made it."

Liara nodded sharply, squeezing Miranda's arm gently. "I understand. I will try to get some more information, and deliver your message."