Chapter 52

Cadet Ian "Smoke" Takei had never seen his roommate visibly emotional in the roughly five months since they had been bunked together at Seattle Academy. Cadet Marshall Brasser had two settings; stoic and grumpy. So to see him visibly frustrated and flustered was a new one.

"I am bigger than you. I am stronger than you. I am faster than you." Marshall stated gruffly. "Yet you manage to dodge every blow I attempt."

Smoke didn't even realize that there was a witness to the sparring match until said witness spoke, "I told ya, Cadet. It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog."

Smoke followed the sound to it's source; Chair Admiral Jonas Moss. The Admiral had been hovering around Marshall since he had been recovered from a Sedin hive half a year ago... and even more so lately. It seemed odd that someone so high up the chain of command would have interest in a group of outcast cadets, but Marshall was indeed a unique individual, at least in terms of physical prowess. NMS had invested quite a lot of resources prying Marshall away from Sedin, no doubt... he was likely being closely watched by several brass.

His thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the final person in the hall. "He's used to winning, and can't understand how he could lose." Cadet Alice Meredy said with a playful tease, pulling off her helmet and swishing her shoulder length blonde hair free.

"I haven't lost anything." Marshal insisted. "And once I figure out your trick, you will in short order."

"God, are you always so serious?" Alice said with a heavy sigh. "Always about 'winning' or 'losing'... never about having 'fun' or 'enjoying yourself.' You really want to know how I'm doing this?"

"Yes."

Alice smiled again, "I can see the future."

Smoke rolled his eyes. Not this shit again...

"The future." Marshall deadpanned.

"Yep." Alice said, throwing her arms around Marshall's neck, who reacted to the contact as much as a support column would. "I know exactly where you're going to attack, and I make sure I'm not there when it happens. It's also how I know that we're going to be married one day, and our first child will be a girl. We're gonna name her Kelsey."

Marshall considered this information with nothing short of cold dismissal. "Is that right?"

"Yep. Which is why you should just give up now and take me to dinner tonight."

"Or, it's become obvious to me that you have an extra sensory perception that allows your subconscious mind to process details about the world around you that your conscious mind misses." Marshall surmised, "It manifests as an instinctual response that allows you to anticipate events as they unfold. The rest is pure unmitigated bullshit."

Alice exaggerated a sigh, "It takes the fun out of it when you make it so scientific and logical." She then used the index finger of her right hand, tapping him on the shoulder, and said, "Now, about that dinner..."

Smoke finally interjected, yanking Alice away from her quarry; perhaps more roughly than he should have. But he honestly was about as tired of his childhood friend's behavior as Marshall was at this point. "Alice, knock it off. You know he doesn't like it when you act like that."

She had spent damn near from the moment she and Marshall had met plastered all over the Sedin orphan. It was peculiar in ways that Smoke couldn't wrap his mind around. Maybe it was the consequence of puberty, but he had never pictured Alice as been so brashly wanton. It was disturbing.

Alice scoffed as she shrugged out of Smoke's grasp, glaring at him. "Oh, come off it, Smoke. I'm just playing, and Brasser knows it, right Ma-"

She had turned back to discover that Marshall had taken that moment where the attention was off him to make a disappearance, so subtly that not even Smoke had realized that he had retreated. "Where'd that little bugger go?" Alice muttered. "I swear, that guy's like a ghost." She then snapped her fingers, and chirped. "That's it! That's his name. Ghost."

Alice had that habit of giving nicknames to every person she knew for as long as she could talk. It's why everyone called him "Smoke" now, after Alice had saw him smoking a joint with his father when he was twelve in Nirvana, and eventually shared that nickname with the entire year's class.

That had actually been a step up from the first nickname Alice had given him. "Dog-breath."

"I'm just... can you please cool it? He doesn't think you're joking around. It annoys him." Smoke advised.

At the time, Smoke had thought Alice was just looking over his shoulder into space, contemplating his advice. Now... he suspected something different; because in retrospect, something, or more accurately someone, else had been in that general direction.

Chair Admiral Jonas Moss.


Smoke threw himself down at the chair at his desk, and slammed the comm command through heavy drops of his fingers.

Kelsey VI informed sweetly, "I am sorry, Commander Takei, but Councilor Moss is currently unavailable."

"Make him available." Smoke said. "Inform him it's urgent."

"High-Priority request sent, Commander."

It took slightly more than a minute, but Jonas eventually did flash onto Smoke's comm. "Ah, Ian. Sorry about the block there... turns out all this political stuff gets tiring. Every so often I unplug from it all and pretend I'm doing something important. You... look troubled. Is something the matter?"

"Just bear with me for a moment, because I need to go a long way back. About twenty years. When Sedin hit the Nirvana Collective."

Smoke wasn't one for trips down memory lane all too often. He had a general policy of live, learn, and don't look back. So it was understandable that Jonas didn't know what to make of the line of conversation. "You called me to... reminisce?"

"As I said, bear with me." Smoke replied, holding up a hand in warding as he gathered his thoughts again. "Ya know, I had always heard the explanation, and it made sense, but now... as I think back on it... it sure seems like the Black Ops team you sent there got more than a 'tip.' You knew exactly where Sedin was going to hit, and you knew exactly who they were targeting, didn't you? Like... a thirteen-year-old girl who had shown signs of pre-cognition."

It was a bit hard to tell due to the holographic projection, but Smoke was certain Jonas had blanched. His reply was also a shade bit on the guilty side. "Oh. That."

"That's all you have to say?" Smoke growled.

Jonas now understood the gravity of this discussion. "Yes, you are correct, Smoke. We had known that Alice specifically was one of the Sedin Ops team's targets. One of three within the collective to be exact. When Andrei Farha escaped Sedin with his daughter, he carried with him information that his deceased wife had collected about Heimer Sedin's 'special project.'"

"Marshall." Smoke interjected.

Jonas took a heavy, reluctant breath. "Yes. Heimer had become extraordinarily interested in introducing 'natural' biotics into the human genome, humans that could develop biotic talent without dangerous eezo exposure, and with that creating a line of 'perfect soldiers' that could pass their latent gifts over generations. Marshall was the first generation of the culmination of that project that he started after the Second Civil War."

"Alice had that precursor ability that Heimer desired, and sought her out to be a potential mate for Marshall."

"Yes." Jonas admitted. "For what it's worth, Smoke... the official explanation wasn't exactly a lie. We did get rather lucky. Between Gretchen Farha's stolen notes, and our own counter-intelligence, we had several prospects, and Heimer's goons happened to hit one we had been watching. But, yes, our intel was much stronger than we've let even NMS brass believe."

Now it was time to get into the meat of the matter that really hurt. "Well, since you're being so open and honest, let's test that, shall we? It wasn't coincidence that Marshall and I were bunked together at Seattle, was it?"

"No." Jonas acknowledged.

"Because you knew that with the two of us in the same barracks it gave Alice convenient reason to throw herself at Marshall at every available opportunity." Smoke surmised.

Jonas held up a warning hand. "I think I can see where you're going with this, Smoke. And hold up. If you're worried, no one in NMS forced Alice to join the Marines, and none of us forced her to try and get smarmy with Marshall. It was a confluence of events that the O-9 Board thought we could... mold to our favor."

"Did you order Alice to seduce Marshall?" Smoke finally accused.

Jonas stumbled over his next words, nervousness that the former Admiral rarely ever displayed. "Well... not so much my order, Smoke. There really wasn't any official orders made..."

"Don't bullshit me anymore!" Smoke bellowed. "You were the Chair Admiral, Jonas. The buck stopped with you! You were the one hanging around us as cadets like some perverted old man! You were the one that was so damn happy when they got married! You were the one that damn near drowned the pair in gifts and bonuses when Alice revealed she was pregnant!"

Smoke reigned in his fury long enough to grind out in a softer volume. "One last time. Did you order Alice to seduce Marshall?"

Jonas dropped his head, and said with guilt. "In short? Yes. In more specifics, I and the O-9 Board approached Alice with the information we had found, and asked her if she would be willing to follow the course of action we had laid out. It wasn't officially an order... but I suppose for a young cadet fresh to the corps, it might as well have been."

Smoke dropped his head into his hands, more so that Jonas couldn't see the moisture building in his eyes. "Does Marshall know?"

Jonas shrugged, "If he does, he hasn't said anything about it."

"And what about Kelsey?" Smoke accused. "I have to say, it seems awfully convenient that he happened to go off-planet into deep space the very year his daughter was set to enroll for secondary academy in Seattle."

That rose Jonas's dander, and replaced the guilt with defensive anger, "Now you wait just one minute, Smoke..."

"No! I'm done waiting." Smoke retorted. "How much should I bet that if Marshall were to look up Kelsey's enrollment data that he'd discover her to be on the fast track to Spec Ops?"

"Yes!" Jonas shouted back, "Because that's where her talents would be best utilized!"

Smoke's sarcastic sneer replied, "How very... convenient... for you and NMS."

"You drop that tone this instant, Commander!" Jonas replied with a warning finger. "I am not Heimer Sedin, and this is not the Sedin Republican Guard!"

"I'm not sure I believe that anymore, to be quite honest." Smoke said darkly before raising his voice. "I defended you! For years, whenever Marshall would get down and accuse you and NMS as being no better than Sedin, I defended you! And now, I've finally realized he was right all fucking along! You were just as driven to get your next generation of super soldiers as Heimer was... you just happened to get all the coincidences in your favor so that you didn't have to be overt about your schemes!"

Again, the guilt appeared on Jonas's face. "Smoke-"

"Don't call me that again." Smoke interrupted crossly. "From now on, it's Commander Takei."

He stood up, finger on the disconnect button. "And you can tell the O-9 Board that if I get back to Reticuli Prime, that they can consider my resignation on their desk the moment my feet touch down... Councilor."

With that, Smoke killed the comm, and prepared to leave his cabin, intentionally ignoring the trill of Jonas's call-back. He had somewhere else he needed to be.


Marshall answered his cabin door before Smoke could even request entry. "Ghost... how did you...?"

"Jonas just commed me. Told me you would probably be coming, and that you were 'incensed' as he put it. Get it here."

As Smoke complied, he said, "I don't know how you can still talk to that man."

"Oh dear. How deep did he drive his foot into his throat this time?" Marshall quipped.

The captain was in an astonishingly bright mood, which made it really hard for Smoke to broach the topic he knew he had to say. "Listen... Ghost... I learned something tonight. Something about Alice... that I think you really need to know."

Marshall's eyes narrowed warily and he took a seat on his bed. "Go on."

Smoke joined him at the edge of the bed, looking down at his hands nervously. "Did you know that when we all met as cadets... that Alice... well..."

"Was ordered to get in my pants?" Marshall finished.

Smoke looked up, surprised. "You... knew?"

Marshall shrugged, "A... she came clean about six months after we met. You mean to tell me you didn't notice that I refused to be within twenty meters of her for the rest of the year unless I was forced to?"

Smoke chortled, "Yeah, no offense, but you pretty much described your attitude around anyone for that first year. Sorry I didn't catch the subtle difference."

Marshall laughed, "That's... probably true, come to think of it."

The sound was a stark reminder of how far Marshall had come over the years. Smoke's little memory jaunt had reminded him how Marshall used to never laugh. "So... then what did you and Alice mean to each other? And why didn't you tell me about NMS's whole scheme?"

Marshall was not nearly as bothered by this as Smoke was. Although if that was legitimate unconcern or simply a matter of years of coming to terms with it all was unclear. "What? Afraid I was in some sort of loveless marriage with the sole purpose of breeding a small regiment of wonder kids?"

"Kinda." Smoke admitted sheepishly.

Marshall now looked amused by this entire discussion. "No... she... was being used by authority just as much as I was. That tends to breed a common ground, and from there came genuine affection. I could feel for her... being valued not because of anything you particularly accomplished, but because of some latent gift. Our feelings were genuine... it's really hard to disguise such things between people that have an empathic sense."

"As for why we didn't tell you..." Now Marshall looked uncomfortable, "You... well... you had this image in your head of NMS being this noble organization that stood for something more than its own self interests. We didn't want to ruin that for you."

"And what about Kelsey? Aren't you worried about what they'd do to her?"

Marshall nodded, "Just about every damn day. But right now, NMS would have to conspire to keep her out of the marine corps. If Kelsey ever changes her mind, then yeah, I'll fight the whole damn world if I need to. But right now, her desires match with what NMS wants. I guess it could be worse, right? She wants to do what... her mom did."

Smoke prodded Marshall, both verbally and with a poke to his shoulder, "Ya know, Ghost... it could probably help if you'd be able to say Alice's name, for chrissake."

Marshall shook his head. "I can't. I... when I try, I start thinking. And when I start thinking I... damn it." The captain shook his head rapidly, as if doing so would jar the memories out of his brain. This time, however, Marshall let something out. "She... she should have known what was going to happen. She could predict those sort of things. She had that sense. Why didn't she... why did she let that happen?"

To be honest, it was something Smoke had wondered himself. It didn't help that he had only seen the aftermath, and none of the actual events that had transpired. "Well, I had thought that perhaps the Oni was so unpredictable that... she couldn't?"

Marshall shook his head. "The Oni is in fact distressingly predictable. It's based on instinctual reaction, after all. Anyone who could process what I was doing quickly enough could break down what I was about to do very easily. Someone like... her."

At that point, Smoke stayed quiet. This was the most Marshall had ever opened up about the Day After Affair. He didn't want to ruin it.

With a nimble movement of his left boot, Marshall kicked a case out from under his bed near the foot. It drew Smoke's attention, remarkable in that it was entirely unremarkable. A simple black firearm case, pistol sized, with "Commander Alice Brasser" etched in gold on the front cover.

Smoke leaned down to pick it up. "Is this...?"

"Grace." Marshall confirmed. "Her favorite sidearm. A modified Retinizer-4 heavy pistol. She... had it willed to me, apparently with instructions to have it customized to me... upon her death."

Smoke popped open the clasps, and opened the case, confirming that it was indeed the pistol that Alice had nicknamed and considered her lucky gun. "Alice loved her Ret-4, man. I sometimes thought she married it and not you." Smoke then noticed a small layer of dust just inside the formed grooves where the weapon laid. "You've... never touched it, have you?"

Marshall shook his head, and Smoke quickly understood why. Alice would have carried that sidearm into her last mission. It's connection to her would carry her last memories, something that Marshall's contact memory would lock into... forcing him to relieve that entire tragedy from her eyes.

"I brought it with me... because I promised myself once this mission was over, that I'd confront what she saw. And that I'd finally be able to put it behind me. Jonas was right about one thing before we left. I've been stuck in this... stasis. I have to gain the courage to move on."

Smoke closed the case again, and slapped Marshall on the back. "You will. In your own time." Smoke froze, remembering that Jonas had said that as well. "I was... pretty unnecessarily harsh to him, wasn't I?"

"No." Marshall replied simply. "He was a manipulative, scheming fiend. In many way he still is. But I think his heart is in the right place. Maybe."

"Then I probably shouldn't have told him that I was resigning my commission after this mission, huh?"

Marshall's soft expression turned into a glare. "What?"

Smoke cringed. "I was angry." He said, adding a nervous grin.

"Are you trying to destroy your potential Spectre nomination? I swear, you are so self-destructive that I think you do it on purpose."

Smoke boggled. "Wait. What? Me?"

"With the division re-opened, I had been tasked with assessing potential candidates to expand the roster." Marshall explained. "Obviously, you were the first person I thought of."

Smoke wasn't sure what to think of that. He honestly hadn't even considered the possibility. Marshall was unique. A prodigy. Smoke, well... wasn't. He started to say something, then decided to try and deflect the conversation away from himself. "I... well... wow. Anyone else stand out? Or are you not allowed to say?"

Marshall shrugged. "You. Dani. Khull. Seven, if I felt the Council would be able to consider a geth spectre."

Smoke had to laugh at that. "That... would be pretty damn epic." Smoke held out his hands like he was holding a pistol and said, "My calculations assess there is a 17.3% probability that I have expended the battery within my armament. Do you suspect you will be fortunate, miscreant?"

Marshall shook his head, chuckling, "I shouldn't be laughing at this."

The humor faded swiftly, and Smoke figured that was as good of a time as any to make his leave. He did have some things to smooth over. Returning Alice's pistol back under Marshall's bed, he pushed himself up. "Night, Ghost."

"Night, Smoke. Make nice with Jonas, then hit the sack."

"Aye aye, sir."