Chapter 38: The distress signal
"It turns out," commented Shepard, frustrated, "that you can't learn an alien language in twelve days." She was sitting on one of the recliners in the Starboard Observation Deck, next to the bookshelves. The Commander was holding a datapad with her hand, and had more forming a small pile on the floor next to her.
"You really didn't think you could," said Sarah Williams from the other recliner. She was holding a 'real' book, that she put on her lap to reply to Shepard.
"Well..." said Melody letting the word trail off, "I was good with languages when I was training in the N7 program. But this is ridiculous, many words mean different things but just sound the same."
"Yeah, but people don't learn languages in days," insisted Sarah shaking her head slowly and smiling. She seemed to be comfortable in the position she was sitting on.
"No, but I hoped to at least get a feel of it," said Shepard. She put the datapad she was holding right on top of the pile she had next to her, and adopted a more straight position on her recliner.
"You're not giving up, are you?" Sarah said pointing at the pile with her finger. "I mean, just imagine how surprised he'll be. He'll drop his jaw..." she shook her head as if she was embarrassed, "mandible... Sorry, Shepard. I don't mean to be offensive."
"Don't worry," the Commander said smiling. "Mandible is fine, and if I know the guy, he'll make fun of my accent. But Commander Shepard doesn't give up," she paused and added, "I'll just take a break for today."
"Then... permission to ask a personal question," said the young Chief, also smiling.
"Granted," Shepard said nodding, her body language revealing a relaxed attitude, "but I don't promise a reply. I'll depend on what it is."
"Fair enough," Sarah sat a little forward on the recliner. "How did you fall in love with an alien? I mean, a lot of people think asari look a lot like us, only blue. I might not agree but I can see where they're coming from. But... a turian?"
"I guess I fell for him," the Commander started to explain gesturing with her hands, "because I already knew who he was. I trusted him, but I wouldn't have thought of being with him like that on the first Normandy. You could say that, with time, one thing led to the next... although I'm guilty of thinking that he has a sexy voice."
"Permission to disagree, Commander," said the younger woman chuckling. "I mean, I think it's great that you're happy, but I could never consider sexy anything in a man that's not human..." she interrupted herself. She lowered her head, and her eyes shone with deep sadness. "Look at me, talking about men as if I wasn't a widow."
"Sarah," said Melody in a soft voice, sitting a little forward, "I know you're in pain. I can't even imagine how I'd feel if I lost Garrus. But I'm sure that Thomas loved you and would have wanted you to find happiness..."
"One of the last things he told me was: 'If I never come back remember me with a smile'," the young Williams quoted. She grabbed the edges of her book with strength, as if holding to it. "He even added, 'Find a man who can give you the life I wanted you to have'. I told him to stop speaking nonsense, I didn't want to hear anything about it. I couldn't – I still can't – imagine a life with someone else."
"It's too soon," said Shepard softly.
"Does time really heal everything?" asked the young soldier, shaping her lips in a grim smile. Her eyes fixed directly on the eyes of Shepard. "Or it just makes us numb?"
"I can't imagine you being numb," said Melody reassuring. She was about to add something else, but she was interrupted by the voice of the pilot coming from the internal comm system of the ship.
"Commander, you should come here," Joker sounded serious.
"On my way," said Shepard in reply to Moreau, and then in a lower voice she addressed Sarah. "Coming?"
"Sure, I'll join you in a minute," replied the Chief. As Shepard was leaving the Starboard Observation Deck, she noticed from the corner of her eye that Sarah was putting away the datapads. The Commander had totally forgotten about not leaving that material on sight. She thought it was very considerate of Sarah to help her keep the surprise for Garrus.
Shepard joined Joker and EDI in the cockpit seconds later.
"What is it, Joker?" the Commander asked the pilot, standing behind his chair.
"We're picking a distress signal," informed Joker as he piloted the ship.
"It comes from the outer regions of our system of destination," completed EDI in her neutral, practical voice. "Scanners indicate that there is a dense asteroid field around the system. The signal comes from there."
"Stealth systems engaged, Commander," said Joker swiveling a little to face Shepard.
"How far are we?" asked Melody in a professional tone.
"Five hours to the origin of the signal," said the pilot. "It's not in our direct route."
"But we can't ignore it," she said shaking her head. Sarah was entering the cockpit at that moment. "It could be a trap, but we have to investigate. Joker, don't disengage the stealth systems. Approach all you can without endangering the Normandy in the asteroid field."
"I don't know who do you think you're talking to," Joker muttered in protest.
"I know," the Commander said patting his shoulder, "the best pilot in the entire Alliance Navy. But still, it could be a trap as I said, and I won't risk the Normandy. We'll go with the shuttle the rest of the way. Sarah," she said to the young soldier, "be ready to gear up, and tell Grunt."
Shepard left immediately after giving her orders. Four and a half hours later, she was standing in the cockpit, wearing her armor. Garrus, Grunt and Sarah were also there, looking out the window.
"I have a visual scan of the signal's origin, Shepard," said EDI, and without waiting for reply, she proceeded to display her results.
They could see what originated the signal. It was hard to understand at first, but a closer look revealed a large cruiser with an asteroid embedded in the middle. The cruiser looked severely damaged, but most pieces still held together somehow.
"It's a standard batarian cruiser model," said the AI. "The front part is still shielded and emitting energy."
"Amazing," commented Garrus in awe. "I don't think they'd want to waste the fuel to move something that big these days, so it must be there since the war."
"It seems plausible, given it's location," said EDI agreeing. "The debris of the mass relay are not too far away from the ship."
"Wait," said the Commander, sounding a little surprised. "This system used to have a relay?"
"Indeed, Shepard," replied EDI, and displayed an image of the bleak pieces that once used to shape a magnificent mass relay. Although broken, it was still recognizable, with its beautiful arms dangling from the circular end as if it had been beaten with a really large bat. The rings were missing. The debris were dark, reflecting only the light of the star that came dimmed and ghostly.
"That is... amazing," commented Sarah Williams in a voice just above a whisper. "And scary. What kind of force in the universe can just destroy all the mass relays and the Reapers at once?"
"What I'd care about right now," said Garrus Vakarian with his characteristic pragmatism, effectively breaking the mood of reverence that could be breathed inside the cockpit, "is how that ship still have shields after colliding with a huge asteroid, and if there are some nasty surprises waiting inside."
"If it's nasty, it dies," said Grunt matter-of-factly, punching his own hand.
"I don't like how close those asteroids look," said the Commander pointing out the window. "To the shuttle," she ordered Sarah and Grunt.
Shepard left the cockpit after the krogan and the young human. When she was almost in front of the airlock, she felt her turian grabbing her arm.
"I want to go too," said Garrus with his eyes fixed on the Commander. "I don't like this at all, and I want to make sure that..."
"Garrus, I need you here," Shepard said interrupting him, lightly putting a hand over his mouth. "If something endangers the ship, there's no one else I'd trust more with the main cannon."
"We won't fire with you out there," he said sounding angry, shaking his head.
"You will if you have to, that's an order," she said firmly, her commanding tone admitting no reply. "Try not to aim at my position, but even if you have no choice, I'll find a way to stay alive, I promise. I need to trust that you'll protect the Normandy. Promise me, Garrus Vakarian."
"I..." he started hesitantly, lowering his head. He took both her hands into his. "I promise, Melody," he finally said in a whisper.
She squeezed his hands for a second, and then left without adding another word or looking back.
The trip inside the shuttle was silent and plagued with memories for Commander Shepard. All the derelict ships she had explored came back to her mind. The fear of the unknown rushed through her veins, the adrenaline making her feel anxious and alive at the same time. Once more she felt forced to ask herself if she could ever live without it.
It couldn't be said that Steve Cortez wasn't a skilled pilot. He drove through a small hull opening, only big enough to let the shuttle cross, and landed on a narrow platform. Shepard ordered the pilot to wait for them outside the ship. They were in the unshielded part of the cruiser, and as soon as their feet made contact with the cold metal, they could hear the cracks of the plates through their bones.
Shepard signaled her squad to advance. They had made two steps when the shuttle took off, leaving them in the silence of the dead ship. They could speak through the comm in their helmets, but the Commander decided it was better to save the air. She pointed to a door that glowed unnaturally ahead of them, from the shield protecting it. There was no gravity and they couldn't count with the mass effect field generated by the shuttle, so they had to advance pushing themselves against nearby surfaces. It was a slow way to move. They had to be careful of not using too much force, otherwise they could find themselves floating just below the roof.
After what it seemed like an hour of crawling inside the ship, the group finally reached the door. Shepard signaled positions to each of them at the sides of the door, and started hacking it with her omni-tool. The mechanism turned from orange to green seconds later, and the glowing produced by the shield went out. She opened the door.
A strong gust came out of the opening, taking the Commander by surprise. If it hadn't been for the fast reaction of her squad mates, she could have been expelled to the opposite end of the large room they were in, near the point where they landed. Grunt and Sarah vigorously held themselves to the edges of the door with one hand, and with the other they pulled Shepard until she was safely at the other side. Melody pressed herself against the wall inside the shielded part of the ship, and helped her squad mates to cross. She punched the mechanism at one side of the door and it closed itself behind them, stopping the air flow. The shield was also restored. Tired, they paused for a minute to catch their breath and inspect their surroundings.
They were inside a large area, very dark and full of crates. The only lights came from some nearby consoles, and they were green. It all screamed hostility to the Commander, but she didn't know why she felt that way. She could see Grunt taking his hands to his head from the corner of her eye.
"Keep the helmet on," she ordered the krogan, and he swiftly complied. There was air inside the room, and they could feel the artificial gravity holding their feet to the ground, but she wasn't going to take any risks until she knew what was wrong.
She was about to turn on the light in her omni-tool, when a strange noise came from behind a pile of crates. Something moved. Something rushed towards them, something gray and that moved like... a thorian creeper?
The creature jumped in their direction, and its head blew in mid air. The Commander pointed her N7 Valkyrie to the next creature, and sent it screaming to the floor in two shots. Behind her, Sarah and Grunt also opened fire to the wave of creepers running to them. The things attacking them were naked, but they couldn't clearly distinguish their shape in the dim light.
When the silence finally set in, they noticed they had killed about twenty creatures. Shepard turned her flashlight on, and pushed a creature with her foot in order to twist it and see its face. The skin was definitely gray, just like the thorian creepers. But the face, although deformed, had once been unmistakably batarian.
"What the...?" she started saying but she interrupted herself when she heard another noise. She pointed her assault rifle and her light in that direction. Five more creatures were approaching, but they weren't running. Shepard decided not to shoot, and indicated her squad to wait, with a movement of her hand.
The five nude, disfigured, confused gray batarians came closer, twenty eyes fixed on the corpses of their companions on the floor.
"What happened here?" asked Shepard to the group of creatures, still holding her Valkyrie with her hands, ready to fire if needed.
The creatures did not reply. Instead, they knelt on the floor and started... eating. They made noises of satisfaction, as if they were having the most delicious food that could be found in the entire galaxy.
"Shall we put them out of their misery?" asked Sarah with a tone that mixed disgust and pity in equal parts.
"Yeah..." said the Commander looking away from the grim spectacle.
Five sounds of gunshot later, the small group started moving. They had to walk over the corpses of the strange creatures. Shepard pulled out the scanner Ysel'Voon had prepared for her, and turned it on. The device revealed biological contaminants all over the place, but specially inside the heads of the unfortunate gray beings on the floor that still had one over their shoulders.
"Something is affecting their brains," informed Shepard walking slowly ahead, all her senses focused in any threats they might encounter.
"Something like what?" asked Sarah, walking behind her Commander, gun in hand.
"If I knew that..." said Melody pressing her back against a pile of crates and peeking ahead with her weapon in front of her. It was clear, so she kept moving.
"Think they just triggered the distress signal believing it was something to eat?" asked Grunt. He seemed relaxed when compared to the two human soldiers. His hands firmly held his shotgun, but he walked as if he was just strolling through a park.
"That's a good question, Grunt," said the Commander appraisingly, "Let's move ahead and find the source."
"Now I'm hungry," commented the krogan, but his remark met no reply.
They reached at last the end of the large room, and found a door. The corridor behind it was clear. It had a lateral door, and another at the end. Shepard pointed at the lateral door, and Sarah stepped forward and opened it. Two creepers jumped at her, but they didn't last long.
The door led to a small room, where they could find other creepers on the floor. A few were almost skeletons, and what they had left of flesh was in an advanced state of decomposition. Shepard mentally thanked herself for giving the order to keep their helmets on, because she estimated the smell had to be intolerable. Closer inspection revealed however that one of the creepers was still alive. It moved slightly on the floor, half eaten. The thing was trying to patch with its hands the holes left in its stomach by the teeth of the other creepers. Overwhelmed by horror and pity, the Commander shot, blowing its head off.
"That was..." started Sarah, pointing at the now dead creature.
"Yeah, don't think about it," said Shepard shaking her head softly. She started inspecting the room, mostly to clear her head from what she just had seen.
There were other consoles emitting green light, and a few crates. Shepard opened them, and found parts of weapons and a couple of mods she had never seen before. The scanner revealed they were contaminated, but she knew the Normandy's airlock was equipped with a very strong decontamination system. The small device showed that whatever was invading the inside of the ship was already settling outside of their armors anyway, and the mods seemed useful. She took them.
She walked to the consoles at the end of the room, and activated them. The systems were in an estate of emergency because of the distress signal, but that worked in their advantage. On one of the screens, they could see a map of the ship, displaying the origin of the signal. It was on the lowest deck, the cargo bay.
"It seems we are here," said Shepard pointing at a small square on the map. "The elevator is there, next room," the Commander indicated with her finger. "It should take us straight to the origin of the signal. Let's go."
The three of them exited the room and headed back to the corridor, in the direction of the door at the end. They opened it, alert and with their weapons ready.
There was again the sound of the creatures eating. They couldn't count how many there were, but they weren't paying attention to the intruders.
"Easy, people," whispered Shepard, pointing with her head to the left, "go to the elevator."
Somehow they managed to sneak past a few consoles, and reached the elevator's door. The elevator itself didn't work. Alerted by the noise they had made when trying to call the lift, the creepers started getting up slowly and looked around.
"Of course," mumbled Shepard, getting ready to fight.
"There was a ventilation shaft on the map," said Sarah while she moved two steps away. Effortlessly she removed a panel from the wall, revealing a narrow passage that would barely allow the two female humans to get through.
"Grunt won't fit," observed Shepard when she reached the hole on the wall.
"Ha!" said the krogan holding his shotgun with both hands. "You go ahead, I'll meet you there. This will be fun!"
Shepard couldn't count how many creatures jumped to attack them. The two human soldiers covered each other to pass through the ventilation shaft. Meanwhile the krogan took a creeper from its feet, and beat its head to the floor until he smashed it. Then he started using the headless corpse as a blunt weapon.
"Wow," commented Sarah once they were inside the shaft. The Commander had placed the lid back in its position after they passed, and just as she thought, she noticed the creepers were too stupid to remove it and follow them through the ventilation system. "You have to admire krogan brutality."
"I didn't know you were so fond of violence, Sarah," said the Commander. They were both climbing down a ladder adjusted to the wall inside the ventilation shaft. Williams was a few steps below.
"Me neither," admitted the young Chief. "I guess war has a way of teaching stuff about yourself that you didn't know. But still, don't you wish you were strong enough to do what he just did?"
"I am strong enough to do that," protested the Commander, sounding sure of herself, "but in the time he killed one, I could have taken down five of them with my gun."
"You're right," said the young woman chuckling.
They reached the bottom of the tunnel and opened the lid to exit it. They found themselves in a large storage area, well lit and full of crates and boxes. The scanner indicated two living beings ahead, behind a large pile of crates. They weren't marked as biological contaminants. They walked ahead.
"Hello?" said Shepard before going around the pile of crates. A second later she emerged, with her weapon ready in her hands, to a large area that was mostly clear. She could see two batarians inside a large blue semi-sphere. It looked like a biotic field, but was probably being generated by a rectangular device on the center. Near the device there was a batarian sitting on the floor. The other batarian was standing to the other side of the box, holding a weapon. He was clearly terrified. "Did you send the distress signal?" the Commander asked lowering her weapon, but not putting it on her back yet.
"Yes... yes..." said the batarian seeming to relax a little. "But that was months ago. We didn't think... I didn't believe we would... that humans would..."
"What happened?" asked Shepard taking a few steps forward, stopping right outside the blue sphere of light. Sarah followed her.
The batarian that was speaking put his gun in its holster. Shepard also put her assault rifle on her back. She noticed Sarah behind her doing the same, but she was still alert, ready to attack if something happened.
"I am Captain Morguth Jarhad, X.O. of the Gorzidas," said the man regaining his composure. "That would be the cruiser you're standing on."
Shepard nodded and glanced around briefly before turning her gaze again to Captain Jarhad.
"Commander Melody Shepard," she introduced herself, "Alliance Navy."
Before she mentioned her name, the batarian had seemed ready to talk further and explain their situation. However, when he heard who was his rescuer, all his four eyes opened wide.
"Sh... Shepard?" he asked, unable to hide his surprise and a little fear in his voice. "But Balak said..." he shut his mouth without explaining what he meant.
"Balak is dead," informed the Commander with just a tint of irritation in her tone. "What did he say?"
"She knows," said the batarian from the floor, and for the first time Shepard noticed she was indeed a female. "She knows but she mustn't say, 903 mustn't speak..."
"Shut up, 903," said Jarhad looking at the woman on the floor.
"Yes, master," replied the batarian female lowering her head.
"903?" asked the Commander raising an elbow behind her helmet.
"We don't name our slaves," explained Jarhad looking at the Commander. "She was bought by Colonel Rod'boah, my C.O.. He didn't bother to change the number she already had on Krussa."
Shepard was familiar with the word Krussa, but it took her two seconds to place it. She had seen it written on a corner of the map that Grothan Pazness had sent her a couple of week ago. Her mind started working at full speed.
"You mean he bought this woman on a moon in this system called Krussa?" asked Shepard with her arms crossed over her chest. "And she had the number 903 there? Does that mean there were at least another 902 slaves on that moon?"
Jarhad was about to reply, but in that moment they heard a noise coming from the elevator's door. Sarah, Shepard and the batarian Captain all reached for their weapons while they watched the doors being forced open.
The metal shrieked, and a large krogan figure emerged from the opening. The two humans lowered their weapons.
"More are coming," informed Grunt, joining his Commander. "I think I got a little carried away, and..."
"Are there more survivors?" Shepard asked Jarhad, urgency becoming apparent in her voice.
"No, just the two of us," said the batarian, "but if you come inside our field, it will kill the parasites that you probably have over your armor right now."
Shepard signaled the krogan and the Service Chief to go inside the blue sphere, while she covered their retreat. Gray creatures were already emerging from the hole left on the metal doors by Grunt. The Commander stepped back inside the sphere. Jarhad took the rectangular device - that turned to have little wheels on the bottom - and started moving it towards a console. The protective spherical field moved with them.
"Can you open the cargo bay, Jarhad?" asked Shepard while shooting at the creatures gaining entrance to the room they were in.
"Yes," replied the batarian without stopping. The other batarian was holding herself to the field generator with her arms, and was being transported that way. In that moment Shepard noticed that one of her legs was badly hurt. "I assumed you might want just that, Commander. That's why we're walking to the console."
"Good," said Melody with one curt nod. "Cortez, cargo bay," she said contacting her pilot through the comm. "Pick us up."
"Roger that," said the voice of Steve over the comm.
More and more creatures emerged through the broken door. Shepard's squad kept firing, and Jarhad joined them when he was done operating the console. A large panel opened, revealing the space and the asteroid field outside. The shield was strong enough to prevent the air going out of the cargo bay. The human Commander pointed to the exit, and they advanced. The batarian Captain kept firing with one hand and moving the generator with the other.
Finally, they could see the shuttle arriving and going through the shield, protected by its own mass effect field. The group started walking in that direction.
"Wait," ordered Shepard, and they all stopped. She scanned each of them with the stick provided by Ysel. She checked the mods she had picked up, and then satisfied with the result she gave the scanner to Sarah to check on her.
"Clear, Shepard," informed Williams over the sounds of gunshot being produced by Grunt and Jarhad.
"Good," said Melody taking the scanner. "Get her inside the shuttle," she ordered pointing at 903 with her thumb.
Grunt took the wounded batarian effortlessly in his arms and got into the shuttle with her. Then Sarah got in, and finally Jarhad, while Shepard covered them. Once they were safely inside, the Commander jumped in and punched the wall to one side of the entrance, to signal Cortez that they were ready to go. The door closed, and the shuttle took off, leaving that ship of terror behind them.
As Steve Cortez was driving them back to the safety of the Normandy, Shepard sat in front of the male batarian, that had collapsed on a seat.
"You have a lot of things to explain, Captain Jarhad," she simply told him.