Chapter 44: Ghost Ship

There are many types of ghosts
Those that haunt
Those that terrorize
And those that dwell in silence

The Illusive Man's call had been to inform Terra that a turian platoon had managed to cripple a Collector ship and the squad needed to go check out the ship for information on the Omega-4 relay. She didn't like it. She also didn't like the fact that he was withholding the turian response by feeding them false information. But they were in a precarious position and they needed everything they could find, so they had to take this chance while it was available.

Terra took Garrus and Thane with her to check the place out. As soon as they set foot on it, she knew something was wrong, but she wasn't sure if that was genuinely her instincts going off or if it was just because this ship was so unsettling. It was laid out like a giant insect hive and the very first corner they turned showed that pods were everywhere onboard. She tried very hard not to think about how horrible it must have been for the colonists trapped inside…or where they were now that the ship was powered down.

"Shepard," EDI informed them as they turned from inspecting the pods for vital signs, "I have finished preliminary examinations on the ship. It is the vessel you encountered on Horizon."

That made sense, Terra concluded. As she replied, the defense towers might even have softened up the ship for the turians, which would explain how one ship had managed to disable it. Now, though, the question that bothered her was if any of the captured colonists were still aboard and where they would be if they were.

A question that was forgotten completely when they found a mound of corpses tossed in a corner. Terra had seen a lot of terrible things, especially in the vision the Protheans left behind or during the raid on Mindoir, but this was definitely in the top five worst.

Thane was questioning what the purpose could be behind discarding the colonists they went to so much trouble to take, but Garrus only offered the cursory response about how they were probably doing experiments and found no worth in these as subjects before he turned all his attention to Terra. Horizon had triggered a rather intense reaction for her and seeing this wasn't going to help much, so he was in position to quietly console her at a moment's notice.

But she shook it off. They were on a mission, she couldn't afford to freeze up. Besides… "They're dead. There's nothing we can do about it." It was clear they had been through a lot before they died, but there was nothing they could do about that either. And death was probably a release after that.

She fought the encroaching thought of if death had been a release or would have been a release for all those taken on Mindoir, for Violet, and kept moving. Suddenly, she was desperately in need of killing some of these monsters.

So when the first one they came across was dead on what looked like an operating table, she wasn't sure how to feel besides confused. "EDI, what's going on here?" she asked as she sent scans to the ship.

"The Collectors were testing humans for genetic similarities to their own species," EDI answered.

Now Terra was even more confused. "Why?"

"I cannot see a reason, only preliminary results data. Data that reveals something remarkable. A quad-strand genetic structure identical to traces uncovered in ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this genetic structure…the Protheans."

Terra descended into pure shock as the truth settled in. This was impossible, unspeakable, and yet…irrefutable. "…spirits…the Protheans didn't vanish. They were enslaved by the Reapers!"

"These are no longer Protheans, Shepard. They are subjects of millennia of extensive genetic rewrites and cybernetic augmentations."

And indoctrination. This was the fate of an entire species, an entire culture wiped out. This was the horror behind the visions that so haunted her. …this was the nightmare that awaited every race in the galaxy if they failed. The husks on Eden Prime and Horizon were just the beginning. If the Reapers actually came to begin their harvest…spirits, she couldn't bear to think of it.

She also wouldn't let it happen. It was too late for the Protheans—killing the Collectors now would be a mercy—but it wasn't too late for the turians or the asari or humanity. The Reapers had just made a mistake. They'd ticked her off. And they were going to regret it before they ever set their sights on her galaxy. "Now we've got even more reason to end this. Let's go."

She moved with purpose through the ship, scanning every corner for signs of targets. If Garrus couldn't understand what had her so worked up, even he might have been intimidated.

"Uh, commander?" Joker cut in as they headed to the next level, "You're gonna wanna hear this. On a hunch, I had EDI run some scans."

"I have compared our sensor readings," EDI explained, "to data taken by the original Normandy two years ago. …they are an exact match."

Garrus and Terra both froze as the news sunk in. This was the same ship that had attacked the Normandy…the same ship that had killed Terra.

Just like that, they were both furious. This whole ship was going down if they had anything to say about it.

When they made their way to the central chamber of the ship, though, even that fury was overshadowed by what they found. This chamber was half the size of the ship and every wall was lined with pods.

"You could take every human in the Terminus Systems and it wouldn't be enough to fill these pods," Garrus surmised.

Thane was the one who realized what that meant: "They're going to target Earth next."

"Not if we can help it," Terra asserted, heading straight for the console at the end of the walkway and establishing the link with EDI.

Garrus, however, was still watching their surroundings. "Something's wrong. We should've seen Collectors by now, alive or dead."

Terra agreed, but there was nowhere else for them to go and EDI was already connected.

"Scanning…" EDI said.

Then the COMM signal cracked. Terra might have been imagining it, but she could just barely hear Joker saying "That can't be good." before the ship started moving, pipes shifting and locking in place all around them.

When her readings indicated the COMMs were back online, Terra quickly turned on hers. "Everyone's fine. What just happened?"

"We experienced a system overload," EDI explained, "I manage to divert most of it to non-critical systems. Shepard, this was not a malfunction. This was a trap."

As if she'd given off a signal, the platform started moving, raising the squad up from the walkway to the center of the chamber. Just as suddenly, more platforms emerged from the distance to connect and bring the Collectors right to them. Terra thought fast, pulling Garrus and Thane into cover behind the console until they could get clear shots at their assailants. She didn't like that the Collectors had gotten the jump on them or how difficult the fight wound up being or that EDI was actually tasked to capacity just trying to fight off hacking attempts. She would definitely be chewing out the Illusive Man when they got back, right after she avenged the Protheans and the SR-1. All three of them were snipers and the Collectors were closing in, but Thane was a biotic and was able to push them back. It was hard-won, more so than usual, but it was still won.

"Commander," EDI came over the COMM once they were clear, "you need to reestablish my link with the main console."

Terra quickly came out of cover to hit a few buttons. EDI took over from there, lowering the platform back to the main level of the ship. "Nice work, EDI."

"I have disabled the Collectors' virus and obtained all the necessary data I could find from the ship's computers. I also located the turian distress signal that served as the lure for this trap. It is unusual."

Terra shrugged it off at first. "Collectors probably planted it to draw us in."

"No, I mean it is unusual in that turian messages have a secondary encryption that is corrupted in this signal. There is no way the Illusive Man believed it was genuine."

Terra stopped dead in her tracks when she heard that. "What makes you say that?"

"I discovered the corruption with Cerberus detection algorithms. …he wrote them."

He'd actually done it. He'd turned on them and tried to get them killed after he said they were doing what was necessary to finish the mission. Maybe she'd skip the chewing him out over the holo-COMM after all. Maybe she'd just track him down and kill him. Surely Miranda knew where he was and would agree he'd gone too far.

Garrus certainly did, if the way he was groaning and shaking his head was anything to go by. "And here I thought I'd had my betrayal and attempted murder for this year…"

"Uh, commander?" Joker spoke up, "We've got another problem. That ship's weapons are coming online. You've gotta get out of there, I'm not losing another Normandy!"

Neither am I, Terra agreed, drawing her weapon and turning to lead the way to the exit. Cerberus she was done with, but the ship was hers.

Collectors barred their way at every turn, but even that couldn't stop them. They only stopped to take cover, all three of them sniping down targets every other second. It only got harder when the husks came out, not to mention those biotic abominations known as Scions or the flying monstrosity known as the Praetorian. Even their path through the ship grew more difficult when the Collectors started fighting back against EDI's attempts to seize control of the systems and started closing doors to cut them off. EDI was proving herself invaluable and perhaps even genuinely trustworthy in her efforts to keep them on-track. As it was, Terra would have been entirely out of breath by the time they got back to the shuttle if not for her cybernetics. That and she was careful to slow down every once in a while to make sure Garrus and Thane were still behind her. More and more husks kept swarming their path and Joker constantly came over the line to let them know they were running out of time before the weapons were active, so they couldn't afford to stop running until they were back at the shuttle.

Just getting onto the shuttle was a close call. Thane hopped on first and started sniping down the husks behind them to cover their retreat. Garrus jumped in and turned back for Terra so quickly that he didn't even think to pull his rifle back out. Terra was racing on, but just as she jumped in, a husk caught up to her and grabbed her by the leg. Garrus acted fast then, one hand taking hers and pulling her in as the other drew his gun and emptied the clip on the husk that was clawing into her armor. It finally fell, letting him bring his human onboard all the way and slam the button to close the shuttle so they could make their way back to the Normandy. Garrus immediately started checking her leg to make sure she wasn't injured, finding that her armor was scratched and it was possible the flesh beneath was as well. She was quick to assure him that she was fine and, even if she wasn't, Chakwas or Mordin could take care of it. He believed her, but that didn't calm him down. He'd already lost her once, he could only take so many close calls.

Just like she could only take so many close calls when it came to her ship and crew after having experienced that loss once already. She didn't know how she could influence that particular issue, but she still ran full speed up to the bridge the second the shuttle was docked. Joker, thankfully, was as skilled as ever and managed to, with EDI's help, FTL jump out of the entire system two seconds before the Collector ship could fire its first laser at where they'd been floating.

Once that was over, Terra took a moment to calm down before heading straight to the armory to put her gear away before the magnitude of what they just experienced could come upon her. Garrus and Thane met her there to drop off their weapons and helmets, giving her a chance to applaud their skills and cool-under-pressure resilience even as she also "discreetly" eyed Garrus to make sure he hadn't taken any hits in that mad dash for the door. Fair enough, since he was doing the same to her, as well as looking over her leg again to make sure there wasn't more than a flesh wound where the husk had grabbed her. They seemed to settle on an unspoken agreement to head to the med bay together later and maybe catch some alone time afterwards to put the whole incident behind them.

Speaking of which…

"Commander," Joker finally came over the PA, "the Illusive Man is trying to contact us. I figure you've got a few words for him, too."

Oh, did she just. She was already enraged when she entered the COMM room. When the connection was established and she actually saw the Cerberus founder sitting there, every cell in her body started fuming.

"Shepard," he spoke, not seeming to notice how the sound of his voice set her off even further, "EDI uncovered some useful intel from the Collector ship."

Terra scoffed. "That's not all she found. I knew you were going to betray us, but I didn't figure you'd go this far."

"Commander, before you—"

"What was the plan here? The ship kills us all right after you receive EDI's intel, so a Cerberus team can finish off the Collectors and get all the glory? Did you just bring me back to spread those rumors and overshadow me as the hero of the galaxy? I knew this organization had done some pretty despicable things, but this was low!"

"Shepard!" he finally stood up, "I knew it was a trap, yes, but I also had full confidence in you and your team to overcome it. It was a necessary risk."

"Oh, and you couldn't have warned me?!"

"If you knew it was a trap, you might have acted differently, tipped off the Collectors to what we were planning."

"What 'we'? I made myself clear when we started this deal. You lied to me, put my crew at risk, and that goes well beyond 'something I don't agree with.' We're done. And when the Collectors are taken care of, I'm coming after you."

"Do you at least want to hear what EDI discovered?" he said before she could disconnect.

"Pretty sure she can tell me herself."

"You also said you wouldn't turn down help as long as I was willing to offer it. I have more."

She was eying him with no small amount of suspicion, but he had a point. "You've got two minutes. Talk fast."

He nodded. "The Collectors navigate the Omega-4 relay with the use of a Reaper-coded IFF. As it happens, I recently sent a team to investigate the Great Rift on the planet Klendagon and they discovered it was the result of a very old mass accelerator being fired at a Reaper. A Reaper that is now long dead. I'm sending the coordinates now, but I should warn you that the team we dispatched to investigate the remains of the ship has stopped reporting in."

Terra didn't trust a word he said, but he wouldn't lie when he knew EDI could tell her otherwise, so this was probably their best lead. It was also the last lead she was taking from him. "Well, I appreciate the help. Wish I could also say it was nice working with you."

"Shepard, wait—"

"Save it for the next Lazarus. EDI, I'd appreciate it if you could block this channel." Before the Illusive Man could keep arguing, she stepped out of the holo-COMM.

"Commander," EDI responded, "my programming forbids me from—"

"Then do the best you can without me having Tali cross your wires." With that, she disabled the holo-COMM entirely. "And call the team. We need to make some changes to the plan."

Ten minutes later, the squad was gathered in the room with her, listening to what had just happened.

Miranda stared at her in astonishment. "Did you actually quit Cerberus?"

"No, 'quit' implies I was ever working for them. But, yes, that more or less describes what I did, in fact, do. That's not gonna be a problem, is it?"

Miranda sighed. "No. Cerberus may have set up Oriana's relocation, but they weren't there for me and my sister when it happened. You were."

Jacob shrugged. "I had some issues with action they'd taken in the past. I can't blame you for calling this a breaking point."

Terra barely kept herself from looking at them both in shock. She'd expected them to try changing her mind when the time finally came that she started pushing Cerberus away completely. But they were going along with it, understanding her choice. If they did, it was likely the rest of the Cerberus crew would, too. That was a true testament to how much everyone on this ship was willing to stand behind her. Maybe she didn't need Cerberus at all.

"So what are we doing now?" Zaeed finally asked.

Terra turned to the holo-table to go through the intel they'd received before she cut the COMM line to the Illusive Man. "The Collector ships have a Reaper IFF that helps them navigate the relay. We can't go through without installing one of our own. Luckily, there just so happens to be a dead Reaper in the Hawking Eta cluster."

"I have also determined," EDI came over the PA, "from the Collector data we retrieved navigational records that can pinpoint the location of the Collector home-world."

"Show us," Terra stepped back from the holo-display controls, "We need to know what we're going into."

So EDI connected to the display, changing it to a galaxy map and highlighting…the very center?

"That can't be right," Miranda said, confused.

"I hate to side with the AI," Tali countered, "but I've been working with her long enough to know she doesn't make mistakes."

"You mean the Collector base is in the core?!" Garrus asked.

"Can't be," Jacob shook his head, "The core's nothing but black holes and exploding suns. No way they could have a habitable world in there."

"In case you've forgotten, they're working for the Reapers," Terra pointed out, "As in the machines that built the mass relays and the Citadel. We shouldn't consider anything impossible."

Mordin nodded. "Yes, could be artificial construction. Shielded station in 'eye of storm.'"

"That would certainly explain why no other ships survived the jump."

"Exactly," EDI concurred, "drift of several thousand kilometers is common and would be fatal in the galactic core. It's likely the IFF has additional navigational programming the helps to adjust."

"Then let's go get the IFF," Jacob said.

"No," Terra immediately shot him down, "That IFF isn't going anywhere and is probably the point of no return as far as the mission's concerned—as soon as it's installed, we'll have to head in while we can. We need to make sure we're prepared, finish all those upgrades and anything else we can find that might give us an edge."

Jacob gave her a look. "Are you saying that because you actually think so or because the Illusive Man told you to head straight there and you want to spite him?"

Both. Or rather, as she put it when she answered, "No, I disconnected to spite him. This is a genuine concern. We're already putting our lives on the line just by taking the mission. We need to ensure we can still finish it no matter what happens."

He sighed. "Fair enough."

"We'll head back to prepping as best we can," Tali said, "We'll be ready whenever you decide it's time to make our move."

With that said, the team headed back to their stations except for Terra and Garrus. Once it was clear, Terra sighed and slumped against the table, burying her head between her arms.

Garrus leaned over beside her, placing his hand supportively on her back. "You didn't waste any time taking Cerberus out of the equation."

She smirked. "We've got enough to worry about without waiting for the next time they'll knife us in the back. Besides, I've been wanting to show them the door from day one, I just didn't want to turn away potential resources. Now we've had the time to accrue our own, we don't need them." After she'd said it, though, she sighed, unable to shake the feeling that she was only trying to convince herself. Unable to shake the fears that then came rushing in. "I'm just worried they'll try to pull me back in somehow. EDI's shackles were Cerberus programming, too, so what if they can use her against us from the other side of the galaxy? Or what if they have surveillance or kill switches on the ship? Or if they really did do something to me during the Lazarus Project and the scans didn't catch it—"

He quickly drew her to face him. "Hey. Miranda would know about all that, she'd warn you."

"Would she?"

"She was telling the truth when she said she was on your side. She might not cut ties with Cerberus completely just yet, but she won't let them go behind your back or put you at risk. She said it herself, she's put two years of her life into bringing you back and she wants to make sure you stay that way for as long as possible."

Terra smiled a little. It was true. Maybe she had misjudged Miranda just because of her allegiance. Maybe that could change.

"Besides, the Illusive Man wants the Collectors taken care of just as much as you do and he knows you're going to carry out the mission with or without him. Even if he wants to get back at you for turning your back on them, he's not going to risk doing it until after we've taken out that base."

She shrugged. "Or died trying and saved him the trouble."

"All the more reason not to die."

She laughed. She could always count on him to make her do that when things started getting dark.

He smiled. Hearing her laugh always made him happier. He took her hand, drawing closer. "So what do we do now?"

"Well, we still need to stop by the med bay and Mordin might want to check in with you about those upgrades and everything…" She smiled slyly as she drew closer to him in return. "…but then I think we have the rest of the day all to ourselves."

His sub-vocals hummed with enticement as he laid his head on hers. "That plan I'm looking forward to."

An hour later, they'd both received some light medical treatment and, after being cleared, Garrus had started putting some plans in motion for how to upgrade the weapons. Then they met in Terra's cabin and skipped straight past the conversation to the kissing. As she fell into her turian, Terra couldn't help but smile and think that they didn't need Cerberus at all. Whatever happened next, they could handle it.

Together.