"How are we doing?"
The engineering control room hummed with the buzzing of the drive core - a higher pitch than Tali was used to. That fact made her stomach twist up with a low thrumming anxiety. Any small difference in an old drive core could point to a catastrophic failure. The Normandy was far, far younger than the ships she'd worked on - back home, but she was usually quiet.
"We've shaved off ten percent," Gabby Daniels reported, "but we're still in the red."
Tali wrapped her fingers around the nearby railing and gripped tight, staring up into the soft, blue glow emanating from the drive core chamber. There was sometimes no substitute for sheer grunt work - and that was what the process of integrating this damned Reaper system had turned into. They were running each different configuration of their systems until they worked out the set up that wouldn't blow the ship up.
Tali had to begrudgingly admit EDI had lightened the load, running calculations in split seconds.
"We try again," she decided. With the parameters she was looking at now, they could make a known jump - but into the unknown of the Omega-4 Relay? No, she needed more of a margin.
"Roger that, boss," Donnelly agreed.
The door to the control room slid open with a hiss of pneumatics and the click of boots on the metal decking.
"Have a moment?"
At Shepard's voice, Tali's shoulders tightened and a stillness fell across the room. Daniels and Donnelly suddenly looked very involved in their work.
"Is it important?" she asked tightly, "I'm pretty busy."
"It is," Shepard said firmly and jerked her chin towards the door.
They stepped out into the corridor. Through the viewing window, Tali could see Garrus and a handful of the ground team - running through the simulators again, maybe.
"Can we jump yet?"
"We could make one, but I wouldn't advise it. Let alone attempting the Omega-4 Relay. Our margin is very slim. Best case scenario if the jump goes wrong is that we overload the core. And if that happens while we have the IES activated and cycling, the core might vent into the engineering deck."
Shepard stared at her. "The core might what?"
"Plasma. Engineering deck."
"Why." Shepard groaned.
"Cerberus and their safety record," she said with a shrug. For a moment it was easy to forget what Shepard had done. That Shepard didn't trust her.
"Tali," Shepard said, her expression turning grim, "Why didn't I know this before? Damnit - I ordered that test jump. If we'd overloaded the core, you could've died. You, Gabby, Donnelly, Jack."
"You didn't know-"
"Yes! Why didn't I?" Shepard demanded, her voice rising.
"I only recently found out myself," Tali admitted, "Cerberus is very tight-lipped about the ship designs."
"Fucking Cerberus," Shepard's jaw tightened, "anything like this - you tell me straight away. I'm not going to gamble with your life, Tali. You're too important."
"Of course, can't defeat the Collectors without an engineering crew," Tali said flatly. The affection creeping into Shepard's vice felt like a slap to the face.
Shepard frowned at her, wounded. "You know it's more than that. You and Garrus have kept me sane."
"Then why don't you trust me?" she burst out.
Shepard blinked at her. "Of course I trust you, Tali."
"You chose that thing over me," she turned away, wrapping her arms around herself.
"It's not about trust," Shepard said tiredly, "Legion has told me more about the geth than we've ever known before. If there's any chance at all for peace between the geth and the Alliance, if there's any chance they can be our allies against the Reapers instead of our enemies, than I have to try."
"And what if you're wrong?" Tali pressed, turning back to her.
"What if I'm right?" Shepard asked softly.
The silence hung between them.
"Boss, we're ready to run the next test whenever you're ready," Gabby's voice filtered out of the intercom.
"I should get back to work," Tali said quietly.
"Can we fix the problem with the venting?" Shepard hooked her thumbs into the loops of her belt.
"I can brainstorm with the engineering crew...and EDI, but we're still trying to install the IFF."
Shepard rubbed her face. "Can we make the jump safely?"
"If I can work on my calculations and we don't have the IES active while at max core capacity...yes."
"As soon as you have a solution to the issue, let me know. Whatever you need, I'll get it."
"Thank you."
Shepard hesitated for a split second, as if she wanted to say something more, before she nodded. "I'll let you get back to work."
"Shepard, wait," Tali called out.
Shepard paused. "Yeah?"
"I downloaded some vids last time we connected to a comm buoy. Would you like to watch one tonight?"
She couldn't agree with Shepard's decision regarding the geth, but their friendship was one of the last solid things Tali had now she was an exile.
Shepard smiled one of her small smiles. "I'd like that."
In the end Tali only got through another few cycles of testing shipboard systems before Shepard was back - with news that stretched the boundaries of believability.
"The geth wants you to go to an isolated space station to prevent 'the heretics' uploading a virus to the Consensus," Tali summarised dubiously, "and you want to go."
"I know that it could be a trap-"
"It has ambush written all over it!"
"You asked what if I was wrong," Shepard touched her shoulder, "That's why I want you to come with me. EDI can finish the installation. You're the best when it comes to fighting geth."
"I don't like leaving the Normandy here," Shepard laid her hands flat on the table.
"This is the best position to conceal our presence," EDI replied guilelessly, "while still having the range to launch the Kodiak."
The AI was right on that account. The Normandy was snuggled up to an asteroid in a field of them, concealing her signature with rock. It was the safest the ship could be outside of a guarded drydock.
"Yeah, I know. It just feels wrong putting so much distance between the Kodiak and the ship." They were stretching the Kodiak's capabilities as it was. The journey to 'Heretic Station' and back would be on the extreme side of the shuttle's range.
"I wouldn't leave my captain behind."
Shepard shot the blue orb sitting in the middle of the briefing room table a small was silly. She was fairly certain EDI's cameras were on the wall, not the table. "Thanks, EDI."
It was strange now, with EDI contrasted to Legion, how almost human she seemed.
Legion stood at the back of briefing room, completely still. The lack of movement, of breathing, of all the little movements organics made, was incredibly unnerving. Its headlight shone dimly, washed out by the ceiling lights. Every time she walked into the same room as the geth, she had to bite down the instinctual revulsion - and the urge to reach for a gun.
She'd never wondered too much about the geth back in the Eden Prime War, not beyond their tactics and their military-industrial capacity. She hadn't really thought of them as people. Just machines, tools for Saren and Sovereign. Scrap metal between her and her objectives.
Her conversations with Legion were confusing, sometimes circular and always fascinating. Legion didn't think like anyone she'd met and its honesty about the geth had drawn her in.
Deep down, she had to admit the geth still scared her - an industrial behemoth of a society without the constraints of fear, empathy or other emotions - but now they intrigued her as well.
She just had to hope Tali would forgive her for it.
"Shepard-Commander, did you have a query?"
It had noticed her eyes.
"No. Just thinking."
The door to the briefing room slid open and her ground team filed in. All of them clustered around the opposite end of the table from Legion. Tali wasn't the only one staring daggers or had a hand close to a weapon.
"Ma'am," Jacob said stiffly. He'd been particularly upset, cornering her after she'd broken the news.
Ma'am, sometimes I still have nightmares of watching geth put people on spikes. Sometimes I can still hear the screams.
Her retort that Legion wasn't like those geth hadn't soothed the other Marine much. How could it? Shepard had her own bad memories of spikes and dead civilians and Nick Ki-tae's pale face after he'd bled his life out.
But Legion wasn't like the geth on Eden Prime or the dozen worlds she'd fought her way across. It hadn't exactly expressed sympathy, but it had said the massacre was 'irretrievable data loss' and 'unnecessary waste', which she supposed was as close as a geth got.
"Thanks for coming, guys," she said.
Hell, they probably all thought she was going crazy.
"We're really doing this? On that thing's word?" Jacob crossed his arms, face grim.
"If you want to risk a full strength geth invasion of Alliance space, be my guest," Shepard's tone was sharper than she'd intended.
"It could be lying," he insisted.
"Geth do not lie," Legion interjected.
"...right."
Shepard cleared her throat. "We'll take the shuttle. Miranda, you Samara, Kasumi, Kal and Zaeed will guard the airlock. Rest of you, you're with me. Garrus is second in command of my team."
She didn't like putting Kasumi in the thick of combat if it could be avoided. And Kal - she liked the guy, but she had no illusions about the fact that his loyalty was to Tali more than it was to her.
"We're taking everyone?" Jacob asked.
"We're fighting the geth on home soil and the Normandy can't bring in reinforcements like usual. Yeah, we're bringing everyone." She glanced around the table at the wary faces of her crew. "I've sent the station schematics to your omnitools. Make sure you look at them. Our objective is the main core room onboard. Expect some environmental hazards - the geth don't require oxygen, and gravity will be less than you're used to. Make sure your suits are sealed."
"Okay, but as soon as we start cutting into the airlock, we'll bring them down on us," Jacob pointed out.
"Negative." Legion's electronic warble of a voice grated across the room. Shepard watched Jacob go tense, balling his fists at his side. "We will infiltrate their wireless network and degrade their sensors and data storage with junk data."
"Okay," Jacob drew out. "How does that help us?"
"The 'heretics' will have to partition themselves into local networks to scrub the data," Tali sounded reluctantly impressed.
"Creator-Tali'Zorah is correct. Accessing the main core will still trigger a station-wide alert, but any other alarms tripped will be contained to the local network."
"Alright. Get your gear ready and gather in the shuttle bay. We step off in an hour."
It was going to be a tight squeeze with all of them.
If Jack could describe this 'Heretic Station' in one word, it'd be 'fucking creepy'. Inside her breather helmet she could hear the rasp of her own breathing, the muffled sound of her boots on the deck. Sediment floated in the air in front of her and each movement felt - weird. Like if she moved too quickly she'd float off the ground.
The walls were blank and angular, without decoration, lighting, windows or any distinguishing features. Jack was suddenly glad for the map on her omnitool. This station was like a fucking maze already.
"Watch for sensors," Shepard called out as the team spread out. Their boarding had gone uncontested. Jack felt a little disappointed - and let the light of her biotic corona fade. She really felt like punching something.
"So," Vakarian shifted, fiddling with his rifle, "main core?"
"Yep. In and out," Shepard said decisively.
"Then boom," Jack grinned under her visor.
"Shepard-Commander," Legion interrupted, "We concluded that destruction of this station was the only resolution to the heretic question. There is now a second option."
"You want to talk to your 'friends'," Tali said grimly.
The geth seemed to ignore her. "The virus is complete. Our arrival at this time was timely. If we repurpose their virus and release it into this station's network, the heretics here will be rewritten to accept our truth. They will cease hostilities."
Shepard recoiled. "I wouldn't brainwash an organic race. Synthetic or not..."
"I'd rather get shot in the head than have my mind fucked with like that," Jack muttered, shifting from foot to foot.
Legion's headlight gleamed in the darkness. "You allow EDI to be shackled."
"That wasn't my idea."
A flap moved. "But you could have released her."
Shepard said nothing. Score one for the flashlight robot.
"The question is irrelevant. If we do not rewrite the heretics, we will destroy them. That is why we are here. Do not hesitate now. They will exterminate your species because their gods tell them to. You cannot negotiate with them. They do not share your pity, remorse or fear."
"Either way, we're dealing with them today," Shepard said grimly. "What do you want to do? They're your people."
"This is new data. We have not yet reached consensus."
"We have a job to do. Let's get to it."
"There you go," Gardner handed Kelly Chambers her plate, piled high with pasta.
"Thanks, Rupert," she said warmly, and got one of his pleased nods in return.
When she walked over to the mess hall tables, Gabby and Kenneth were deep in conversation. The engineers shifted over so she could join them, smiling in welcome. She'd tried gently encouraging them to bond with other members of the crew - and it seemed to have worked at least somewhat, but their tightest friendship remained the two of them. She'd heard Gardner joke they were each other's shadows.
"How're you two?"
Kenneth groaned. "My brain is bloody fried, that's what. I go to sleep and dream of bloody calculations."
"EDI has been a big help," Gabby said with an amused twist of her mouth, "but it's been a lot of work."
"Especialky since Shepard took the boss with her," Donnelly added.
"I think it might be good for them." Kelly speared a spiral of pasta. "This might give them a chance to work through their argument."
"I hope so," Gabby said pensively, "Tali has been pretty upset."
Kelly made a sympathetic noise. The geth coming aboard - and the subsequent disagreement between the chief engineer and their captain - had been alarming to the crew. She'd had to settle more than a few nerves.
She wished she knew what Shepard was thinking, but as ever the Commander refused to talk to her about anything below surface level. She was almost impressed with how good Shepard was at turning a question around on the asker.
"It's exciting though, isn't it? We're so close to accomplishing our mission."
The engineers exchanged glances.
"Exciting, terrifying...yeah." Gabby surmised.
"I'm ready for us to kick the Collectors into a black hole, but we were at the Battle of the Citadel. Battle ain't no bloody joke," Kenneth scratched at his jaw.
"You two don't talk too much about that," Kelly observed.
"Sovereign put a hole right through the compartment above the Perugia's engineering control room," Daniels said with a grim look on her face, "killed eight crewmembers. It's not a pleasant memory."
"That's an understatement."
"Anyway-"
Donnelly broke off when the entire ship shuddered - and then went oddly silent. Kelly realised the reason for the strange silence in a moment. The drive core's soft warble was absent.
"What the fuck-" Daniels was on her feet when she was cut off by another shake. It sent her staggering into the table.
Kelly's fork dropped from her hand to ring against the table.
"We need to get to engineering, Gabby," Donnelly said, Kelly all but forgotten, "somethin's wrong with your engine."
EDI's dulcet tones broke through the murmuring on the crew deck, clear over the intercom. "All hands, prepare to receive boarders. This is not a drill."
Chaos fell over the ship. Kelly lost sight of the engineers as they tried to make for the engineering deck. Other crewmembers were running to the nearest weapons locker - throwing on bulletproof vests and grabbing rifles. Kelly's mind churned.
"Collectors have entered the cargo bay. Prepare to defend the engineering deck."
She needed to -
A hand landed heavily on her shoulder and she yelped, jumping.
"Easy!" it was Burt, the security officer. He was sweating, beads rolling down his face, an assault rifle in his hands.
"Sorry, I-"
"It's okay," he cut her off and shoved something into her hands. It was his pistol, a square, angular thing that felt alien in her hands. "Go on, go to the medbay."
"But-"
"Go on!" he gave her a little shove.
So she went. The crew were assembling to defend the elevator, pale-faced but gripping weapons determinedly.
The medbay door slid shut behind her. Chakwas was sitting calmly at her desk - but there was a pistol sitting on her desk.
At Kelly's glance, the doctor smiled grimly. "Old Navy habit. Even medical personnel might need to defend themselves in a pinch. Get down, dear."
"What about them?" she glanced out the window. She felt utterly and completely useless.
"We'll just get in their way. I may need your help if any are wounded, since Operative Lawson and Professor Solus are absent. Can I rely on you to help?"
"I...yes."
She heard shouting and a loud thump and then the thunder of gunfire. Kelly jumped. There were tears rolling down her cheeks, she realised. Chakwas reached over and grabbed her hand. With her other hand the doctor closed the shutters to the medbay.
The gunfire cut off abruptly.
Someone banged frantically on the medbay door.
Chakwas released Kelly's hand and rose to her feet, picking up her pistol. "Who is it?"
"It's me!" Jenny Goldstein shouted, "let me in-"
She half fell into the medbay when Chakwas hastily opened it - and just as quickly shut it behind her. Goldstein had Vadim Rolston draped over her shoulder. The air stank of burnt meat. Kelly's eyes stuck on the black and blistered skin of Vadim's abdomen.
"Particle beam caught him," Goldstein panted, "cut through his vest like it wasn't there."
"Put him on the bed. Kelly, Goldstein is injured - can you put some pressure on her arm for me?"
"Right, of course."
Once Vadim was situated on the bed, his breathing rapid and his head flopping, Goldstein sat down on one of the others. She'd been grazed in the upper arm, blood soaking her uniform sleeve. Kelly grabbed some gloves and gauze and turned to her, swallowing.
Goldstein gave her a weak smile, "Looks worse than it is. Barely felt it."
She still hissed when Kelly pressed the gauze to her wound. She couldn't help but admire Goldstein's composure. She was one of the ship's gunners, former Alliance who'd joined up for the same reasons Daniels and Donnelly had cited.
Through the walls Kelly could hear a low buzzing. She shuddered. It had to be the Seekers, filling the Normandy's compartments and searching for its crew.
Goldstein plucked Kelly's pistol from beside them both and pointed it resolutely at the door. Her expression was grim but determined.
The door slid open and the seekers flooded in. Goldstein shot once, the pistol barking, and then Kelly shrieked in terror as she felt a pinch at the back of her neck. The floor came up to meet her but she couldn't move, couldn't arrest her fall. The impact was bruising.
In front of her she saw Goldstein hit the floor similarly, the pistol spinning across the floor.
A Collector stepped into the room. Its dull eyes glanced at Kelly once - and then moved on. it stepped over her prone form. Out of the corner of her eye she could see it looming over Vadim Ralston.
It chittered once, and then raised its rifle.
No, no, no-
The gun went off.
Shepard leant against the nearest console, catching her breath. They'd fought through each node of geth, blowing them up as they went. It'd brought back memories with every electronic chitter, every clunk of metal falling. But this wasn't two years ago, and she didn't have Ashley by her side.
"Control console located. Security protocols bypassed. Once we begin our intrusion, all platforms on this station will be alerted. Advise defensive posture."
"You heard them. Spread out and prepare for contact."
Tali shifted beside her, shotgun in hand. The quarian had been glued to her side all mission. Shepard wasn't complaining. She didn't have so many friends left, and she really didn't want to lose those she had.
"Shepard-Commander, it is time to choose. Do we rewrite the heretics or do we destroy them?"
Shepard blinked. "You're asking me?"
"Every sapient has the right to free will. To make their own decisions. The heretics chose a path that prohibits co-existence. They are no longer like us, but they are part of us." Legion's face plates moved. "We cannot reach consensus. 573 runtimes favour rewrite, 571 destruction. Shepard-Commander, you have fought the heretics. You have perspective we lack. The geth delegate their future to you."
For a moment, Shepard wanted to scream. Or shout, right in Legion's cold, metal face.
It wasn't her place. It wasn't her decision. It wasn't her burden.
"You entrust your future to an enemy?"
Legion's blue-white light fixed on her. "You are not an enemy of the geth."
Shepard wondered what it felt like, to have your mind altered. Indoctrination or a control chip or whatever. She wondered if it felt anything like the sharp, bitter bite of helplessness, of being trapped.
She wondered if the person she'd been before Alchera would recognise her now.
"Blow them up. They chose their side - they can die for it like anyone else."
Killing them would be a familiar weight.
"You are certain, Shepard-Commander?"
"You said it yourself. They've made co-existence impossible. Killing them is self-defence. Rewriting them...that's something different. I'm sure."
"Acknowledged. Bypassing nuclear fusion plant safety protocols. We will have approximately twenty-six minutes to vacate the station before detonation. Alert: heretics will resist."
"So we fight our way out. Everyone be ready."
"Grunt, Jack, you'll need to help punch through the geth," Garrus called, "we move fast and with force."
It was good to hear him speak to the others with calm confidence in his voice.
"Raptor Two, this is Raptor One, over."
"Raptor One, Raptor Two copies over."
She almost felt bad about leaving Miranda to guard the shuttle - but they needed a way out. And Miranda was the only pilot in their merry band. She'd left Patel on the ship so Joker would have his relief pilot.
"We're about to set the main core to explode. Have the shuttle standing by, over."
"Copy that. Be advised: fifteen minutes ago we lost contact with the Normandy, over."
There were a hundred and one reasons that comms might be impacted. She didn't like it, but it was something she couldn't fix right now, and something she couldn't afford to fixate on. They were running on a timer.
"Roger that. See what you can do from your end and we'll see you soon. Raptor One out."
"Accessing console," Legion announced.
At the far end of the room, the door rolled open and silvery-white figures darted through the doorway.
Shepard raised her rifle in the split second before the air filled with the thunder of gunfire.
The ship was uncomfortably silent now her crew was absent. The ground team huddled in the briefing room, dirty and smoke-streaked from the hard fight out of the geth station. Miranda wanted to have a shower - scrub off the battle. Pity there was a dead Collector in the women's bathroom.
"This is your fault," Tali said furiously, shattering the silence as she turned on Legion, "if we hadn't been on your mission..."
"Acknowledged," the geth said simply.
"No," Shepard cut her off, "it's not Legion or Joker's faults. It's on me."
"Shepard," Tali protested.
"I'm the captain. I made the call." Shepard laid her palms on the table. "Is the ship clean? If they can track us at will-"
"EDI and I purged the systems. The IFF is online."
Miranda crossed her arms, "Don't get me started on unshackling the damned AI."
EDI had control over the life support systems, the weapons, thrusters - everything. If she wanted to kill them all, it'd be over in seconds and there wasn't a bloody thing any of them could do.
Joker glared at her, "What was I supposed to do? Break my arm at the Collectors? EDI saved the ship, she'd alright."
"You are my crew," EDI said almost insistently, blue orb blinking.
"Joker made the decision he had to," Shepard broke in, "and if EDI wanted to kill us, we'd be dead already."
"So, what now?" asked Jacob.
"We need to take on supplies. Joker, put us on a course to the Citadel. The rest of you...get cleaned up, grab a bite to eat. We need to clean the ship up. Dismissed."
There were a few groans at that, but the ground team filed out of the room.
"Not you, Miranda."
Shepard leant forward, hunched over the table.
"You can't take this all on yourself," Lawson told her, "no one saw that coming."
"Sure. You got the reports?"
Miranda's first hour back on board, while the crew put Ralston's body in a capsule and piled all the Collector corpses on the hangar deck, had been spent determining what supplies had been lost and what damage the ship had taken.
"I do. We've lost 95% of the cargo that was stored on deck five. That includes most of our food, fabricator materials, shuttle parts and tools and medical supplies. The cargo bay door is damaged - I've made sure the kinetic barrier is up and the shuttle itself is tied down. We should be able to fix it, but we need to be docked."
"Okay."
"You intend to attack as soon as we're done at the Citadel?"
Shepard straightened and nodded. "Things aren't going to get any better, Miranda. The ground team is as good as we'll get, and the longer we wait the less chance our crew have."
"We can't afford to be reckless." They would get one shot at this.
"Noted."
"I know you're upset about Ralston. He knew what he was signing up for. We all did."
"I barely knew him," Shepard said, pushing a dark curl out of her face, "and now I'm sending him home to his family without a head."
Miranda floundered in the silence.
Shepard smiled grimly at her, "Don't worry. We'll destroy the Collectors and Ralston can rest easy."
"Shepard?"
"Yeah?"
"There's...there's something I need to tell you. Something I need to confess."
"Wait."
Miranda blinked at the sudden interruption. Shepard had her arms crossed over her chest, almost protectively. The seams carved along her jaw glowed a dull orange-red in the clean, white light of the briefing room.
"Is this..." Shepard grimaced, itched at one of the scars, "is what you're about to tell me - is it something that could impact our relationship?"
Given Shepard's feelings about the Lazarus Project and free will...
"Potentially, yes."
"Don't tell me. Not yet. I need to trust you. I need to focus on the mission. I can't...I can't do anything else right now."
"You don't need to apologise, Shepard." The Commander did look tired. Determined, but on edge. "We can talk about it later, after we've blown the Collectors straight to hell."
Codex Entry
Cerberus Cells:
From: Commanding Officer, Operational Detachment November (redacted)
To: Major Lee Riley ( .sa)
Subj: RE: Defence Council Briefing on Cerberus Activity
Good call.
—
From: Major Lee Riley ( .sa)
To: Commanding Officer, Operational Detachment November (redacted)
Subj: Defence Council Briefing on Cerberus Activity
Ma'am,
Please find attached the report as requested. I have highlighted 'Lazarus Cell' as it was my understanding that Admiral Hackett wished for this to be removed from the briefing. That is far above my pay-grade, so I'll leave that to your discretion.
-Riley
—
Known Cerberus Cells:
Pegasus Cell:
Project Status: destroyed
'Project Pegasus' consisted, at time of discovery of roughly ten personnel overseeing a lab facility on the colony of Trident. This project was testing biotic inhibiting drugs on at least a dozen biotic prisoners of various species other than human. Mentions of a 'Project Trapdoor' were found in Pegasus' database, implying that this work continued from previous study. Given the risk to civilian prisoners, a N7 team raided Project Pegasus. During this raid six Cerberus operatives were killed, two committed suicide and one was captured.
Lazarus Cell:
Project Status: active
Lazarus appears to be focused on combating the Collectors in the Traverse, and is led by former Alliance operative Emilia Shepard. Strength of the cell is estimated at seventy. This estimate is based on the presence of a full sized frigate.
Ophion Cell:
Project Status: destroyed
Project Ophion studied 'bio weapons' in the form of husks, 'Thorian thralls' and thresher maws. It appeared to be searching for a way to control such 'organic weapons'. Project Ophion was destroyed in 2183.
Project Phoenix:
Project Status: active
The location of Project Pheonix has yet to be ascertained. It appears to be focused on biotics research. Further investigation is recommended.
