Commander Shepard Citadel Docking
I woke up just as the ship made it into citadel space, the blue beauty now gone from my bed. I picked myself up, feeling lighter than I had in years; the meld from the previous night still echoing soothing healing in my mind. Making my way to the galley, and a fresh cup of coffee, I spotted Liara and Tali sitting at a table near each other. They were in a deep conversation, and Liara was blushing, likely from whatever Tali's line of questioning was. I took my coffee down in gulps, smiling when they looked up to catch a glimpse of me, Liara's shade growing a deeper purple when our eyes met. Somewhere off to the side, I caught a glimpse of Kaiden and Ashley, who was visibly disgruntled and obviously avoiding my direct eye contact. I shrugged it off, heading for the stairs up to the CIC. I finally made my way next to Joker, planting a hand firmly on the back of his chair, while swinging the other one behind my back in military fashion.
"Approaching Citadel docking, should I patch you in to control Commander Shepard?" He said it in his usual lively voice which I paid no mind to. "Do it." The display on the pilot HUD lit up and a holo video pulled up. Welcome back Commander, do you need travel arrangements to a specific location?"
"I need to get to the councilor offices in the embassies." She tapped away at the omniboard, calling up a vehicle as I headed for the airlock. I hopped in to the sky car and watched as it zipped through the lanes of traffic, bypassing all of them. I reminisced on previous experiences of being constantly traded from unit to unit, the council embassy holders and high brass military individuals had access to a priority lane made just for them. The sky car descended on top of the embassies building. I met the ground, not quite waiting for it to land fully; I always enjoyed the dropping feeling it gave me in my stomach. As I walked to the doors, I thought about the cryptic call I had with the councilor beforehand, and focused myself on the situation at hand. I rounded the corner, taking the stairs up and was met by a concierge woman, standing at her desk with a smile plastered on her face.
"Councilor Tevos is expecting you Spectre Shepard." I looked at her for a moment, debating if her changing my title was something the councilor's told her to do or if she had decided it the right move on her own. Either way, I refuse to let the council feel like they had any power over me than they already did. "It's Commander."
"Of course, my apologies Commander, right this way." She escorted me down a long hallway before stopping at a door, bringing her omnitool display up to make a call. "Councilor Tevos, the commander is here." Their was a electronic click and the conierge opened the door, allowing me to walk in and closing it behind me. I surveyed the room. A circular arched structure, outlooking onto the presidium. Their was shelves of holopads and asari texts neatly positioned. A small lounging area, consisting of a cream couch and cream ottomans placed conveniently close to the shelf. Tevos sat across a ways at her desk, reviewing some kind of documents on her private terminal. A neatly placed bar area sat across from that, shelved with top asari wines and spirits, along with what appeared to be a bottle of human brandy. 'Well played Tevos.' She looked up at me, giving me a small smile and nod before motioning me to the small bar. "Commander, allow me to fix you a drink, Anderson told me you preferred this brand." I played along, no sense in being an ass, she had already agreed with speaking to me, and I didn't need to come off as brash at a time like this. whatever she needed to tell me, I sensed it was pretty critical, and might even require the drink. She withdrew two glass and filled them with ice, pouring my drink, and then her wine.
"So I take it we can skip the rest of the pleasantries, yes?" She headed for the cream couch and I followed suit, grabbing the brandy before sitting down. "That's fine with me ma'am. You said you couldn't talk over comms about this, why not?"
"Well to put it simply Shepard, we are fully aware of the reaper threat. In fact, asari high command has known for centuries." I felt the anger rise in me, and my hand tensed on the glass reminding me of the drink. 'Very well played Tevos.' I took the drink down in one gulp and poured another one, from the way Tevos drank I could tell that was the least of the information she had to give me. She took her drink down in one elegant sip as I tried my hardest not to berate her. "You what? Why have their been no plans put in place, no formal committee made?" I wanted to throw the glass at her out of sheer frustration, how could the asari know for so long and still not tell anyone. "Their is Shepard. We call it the shadow council for reasons that are about to become obvious." She looked off for a moment, protesting my words away from me with a gesture before pouring the brandy into her cup. "As you know, the reapers are immeasurably more powerful than us or any of our forces combined, with the help of indoctrination, it is nearly impossible to defeat them conventionally. As we speak, they are turning our own people on us at the highest level, preparing them to sabotage any efforts or breakthroughs we may make on taking them down. We have found ways to make progress in spite of this. A very small group of the most powerful people on the planet have been recruited and have agreed that we can not ignore this threat and that anything must be done to stop this." I looked in awe for a moment, still not processing it all. "So why did you act as if the reapers were just speculation when I brought it up to the council. How do you even know that the people in this shadow council aren't indoctrinated? It seems like they have gotten to Benezia, what's to say she hasn't already told Saren everything?" I grabbed the bottle of jack pouring another glass. " We have failsafes in place. We were able to develop a technology, a scanner of sorts, to monitor indoctrination level. The shadow council are tested before every meeting, before we discuss new developments. Lady Benezia volunteered to be a martyre, but she is not indoctrinated as you think. She goes willingly with Saren, and as long as she doesn't protest anything that Saren does, or show too much empathy, she goes unnoticed by Saren and the reapers. When he sent for Liara it took a great deal for her to not protest, and as such the touch of indoctrination has now began. That is where the failsafe comes in, we all have it. Based off of some of the technology that created the greyboxes that are now illegal, our memories of the shadow council and everything pertaining to it are encoded and locked by a memory implant. If the implant determines that the memories are being breached by another presence, it sends out a pulse of neural shocks that disconnect the users consciousness while backing it up to a drive we have set up containing all of the data we have about the reapers."
If my mind wasn't spinning before, it was now. "So in other words, it fries the user's brain, killing them but saving the data to a drive i'm assuming is in your possession?" She nodded before letting me continue. "Well, who are all the members of the council and how was all of this technology created without too many people knowing?"
"All of our technology is made by the salarian STG science group. They have no idea what it's for. They just know that is important. Its existence is even then still only know to less than a handful of them. As far as for who is in the group, as you know me and Lady Benezia are the starting members. She was the first to alert me to the existence of the reapers. Along with Benezia's apprentice Shiala, the salarian councilor is also a member. We are considering Ambassador Udina or Captain Anderson, but wanted to wait on your approval." I looked on at her completely confused. "Mine? Why me?"
"You are our best hope commander. After you came to the Council about the beacon, we started looking into the information that was transferred to you. You have the knowledge of the protheans, but not just that you have part of the catalyst for beating the reapers. The beacon and the cipher have made you the key to defeating the reapers. It all rests on you and the creation of an ancient prothean artifact called the crucible. You are the only one that can fully interface with the device once it is fully built. One in which we can't build at the moment." That was it. I took the rest of the drink down and poured another glass gulping it down just as quick. "I know this is a lot Shepard, but it is our best and only hope, and yet it is still a long shot. That is why... contingencies have been put into place." My attention was back centered from its awe struck phase. "What kind of contingencies Councilor?"
"If we fail, it would mean the end of all of our way of life. We must ensure that life goes on no matter what happens. That is why we are sending ships through deep space to another galaxy to cultivate late and progess in the event that we do not achieve success. It is still in the preliminary stage, and we are hiding the true intentions of it all. In the event that we do achieve success, there is no doubt that the galactic government will be in shambles, we are creating a plan to make sure it doesn't completely fall. In the event that we win this inevitable war, other groups will form and attempt to take control, we must not let them. So their you have it Shepard, that is our true eventuality."
"This... is a lot to take in councilor. But I am willing to do whatever it takes, even if that means doing all the hard work myself." I felt a renewed sense of energy and power at the revelation. Instead of fear, a flood of excitement rushed through my body. Maybe this would be a fight, a battle that would satiate my hunger and thirst for the fight. "I understand that this is a lot to take in. This is our best chance at stopping reaper forces from becoming too powerful. If you are to accept, you will receive benefits even higher than that of a spectres, and my personal correspondence along with private channels and an upgrade to your private terminal so that you are properly encrypted." I thought for a moment even with knowing my answer already, I was still cautious with jumping into this. "Of course I'll accept, what is the first thing I need to do Councilor?" I saw the silent breath of relief she was unconsciously holding in as if there was a question of me joining. "We need to retrieve Lady Benezia from Noveria... alive."
"Next thing you're gonna tell me is you want me to interface with a reaper." I made the joke to lighten the mood a bit, but the look on her face let me know if it was necessary she would fully expect it. "Just one thing councilor, I'm not getting any of those weird implants or anything. You're just going to have to trust me that a reaper would have to kill me before they indoctrinated me." She nodded her silent approval almost as if she expected me to protest undergoing that particular procedure. "Very well Commander. One more thing, you can't let any of your crew in on this. Especially not Liara, her mother is already more than upset at how much she has been put through." I only shook my head, taking down the last glass of brandy, leaving the bottle behind. I knew their would be no way of hiding all of this from Liara considering she was the reason I could understand the information given to me from the beacon in the first place.
Ashley Citadel
"Are you sure this fits accurately Chief Williams? It feels rather loose around my neck." The blue woman twisted and turned awkwardly in front of me, unintentionally torturing me with this display. I couldn't believe Shepard was making me babysit her girlfriend or whatever theywere while she tried on armor. She had used the excuse that she had important business and being in charge of armor meant that I had to make sure everyone was goes correct. However their was two things wrong with her logic; she always thought everything she did was important on the Citadel, including getting drinks from Chora's Den, and I wasn't even in charge of armor, Wrex was. I sighed as the 'young' asari turned about again. "Well then I suppose I shall purchase this one then." Good. I was glad that this was over. It didn't take me long to realize where my resentment came from. And if I had to be honest, I knew from the beginning but I just couldn't admit to myself. It was the same reason I had blushed and flooded with red when the Commander had come down to the cargo bay and chewed me out in front of everyone. Now, it seemed that the commander's attention only went to the young asari, and their blossoming relationship was being flaunted in my face, the conversation I had overheard earlier let me know exactly how things were going.
"So Liara, I couldn't help but see you wander off into the Commander's room last night." The young quarian sat across from Liara making purring noises with her mouth. Liara tried fighting off the onslaught of purple and blues rising to her face, to no avail. "It is not as it seems, I mean, I heard a noise and, well the Commander had fallen over and I ran in to check and see if she was okay."
"Yea and that explains why I had time to sit their and eat an entire late night snack? So did you guys go all the way?" I saw the asari's head fall as she shook Tali's invading line of questioning. Kaidan looked at me as I listened in, waiting for me to catch a glimpse of his stares. When I finally did, I shut him down before he could speak. "Can it Alenko, I don't care and it wouldn't matter if I did anyways. Its already been decided for me."
"See that right their, why would you say that if it means nothing to you?" I rolled my eyes at him as I listened in on the conversation behind, turning my head on a swivel when I heard Shepard's door open. She looked more well rested than she had ever looked and whatever Liara's protestations were, I knew that something had happened from the wobbly, goofy grin the commander shot her way. I turned my head quickly before she could see me staring at her, facing right back at Kaidan. "You know, it's not too late to tell her. Just open up to someone for once."
"Well I opened up to you slightly and look where that got me." I shook his words off as I bit into my cold food, still listening to the now whispering Tali.
I came back to reality, looking at the confused asari woman in front of me. My misplaced affection for the Commander, becoming misplaces jealousy to her. We walked to the counter after shooing Liara off. She pulled out a credit chit card and handed it to the merchant. "Hmm their seems to be an issue this card is saying it belongs to Commander Shepard." My eyes shot open and squinted into slits as I looked between the merchant, the chit card, and the asari flimsily holding on to the armor. "Oh no she told me to put it on her tab, and to give you this code?" Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore. Shepard never gave out anything to anyone with any personal connection to her ever, unless it was absolutely necessary. I rolled my eyes as the merchant boxed up the armor to be shipped back to the Normandy. I let out a sigh of discontent that stopped Liara in her tracks. "Ashley, may I ask you something?" The use of my name stopped me in my tracks. Their was a confidence to the asari's voice I didn't know she had.
"Sure what is it?" She stared into me for a second before speaking, causing me to shift my weight to my other foot nervously. "Why do you pretend that you do not have an attraction to the Commander when it is so painfully obvious that you do?" My eyes shot open and my face turned a red I didn't know it was capable of. "I- what do you mean?" She let out a menacing laugh, uncharacteristic of her. I was fully taken back. "Cut it Ashley. I see how you look at her. The way you waltz around like this poetic solider, fighting for the commander's affection. If their was any chance that she was even interested in you and not just your body, that is over. Whatever issues you have at resolving that are yours alone, do not take out your misplaced anger and jealousy on me. I have done nothing to wrong you." I was completely shocked now, and all I could do was laugh to keep from losing my shit. "You're a delusional spoiled brat if you think the Commander wants more than just a quick fuck from you, which is what i'm guessing all you were good for last night." It was her turn to be surprised. She laughed and I couldn't take the rage building inside me and before I could think my hand was in the air and across the blue woman's face, sending a spurt of blood from her mouth as she fell. A group of bystanders gasped as Liara force herself back up from the ground. "You have just made things considerably worse for yourself Chief Williams. The young asari smiled as she walked away, the anger still palpable in my mind, although now a layer of panic began to set in. "Fuck me."