Chapter 16

Back on the Citadel, the Normandy was being resupplied for its next foray of missions. Since that meant it would be crawling with Alliance servicemen, taking the opportunity to do a few quick repairs before we left, I decided to accompany Garrus down to the refugee docks rather than hang around.

Officially after returning from his second mission with Shepard, Garrus Vakarian had been made special adviser for the Turian Hierarchy Reaper contingency planning task force. Not that many in the hierarchy took the idea very seriously at first. As he himself was more than willing to admit, in the beginning the group had been little more than a joke. Little more than symbolic gesture, granted in the hope his protests might cease. But now, vindicated by recent events, Garrus had been granted authority to oversee pretty much any aspect of the war as he saw fit.

During the Normandy's pit stops to the Citadel this meant coordinating the relief efforts for wounded soldiers and civilian refugees fleeing from Palaven. The sheer scale of this task was staggering. Despite the dangers inherent in attempting to leave the Trebia system, two million Turians had relocated themselves here. The weight of so many new arrivals (coupled with countless more from the other races) was already causing the Citadel's resources to buckle and in the rising desperation, war profiteering was rising rapidly.

Of course, as a manager, Garrus would naturally feel the need to be completely hands on at all times. Which is how I found myself standing on the docks, surrounded by more Turians than I had ever seen alive, let alone in one place. It's a maze of empty cargo containers down here, all of them converted to be occupied by groups of survivors. There's just not enough rooms available on the Citadel to give people the privacy they need any other way.

We proceeded along one of the main walkways in the labyrinth, with Liara, Vega, and the Colonel in tow. Every so often we'd be approached with a complaint, or something to be signed, or another desperate request for aid or reassurance. Garrus took it all in his stride, seeming more and more like Commander Shepard with every step.

"...appreciate you bringing this to my attention. I'll look into it as soon as possible," he promised a young Turian woman that was worried about the proliferation of fake ration cards across the docks. After she thanked him and left, he sighed the stress visibly returning to his face as he let his confident facade fade for a moment.

"At this rate we're going to need to start raising militias, just to free up enough C-Sec officers to investigate all the real crimes going on here. Ration cards are just the tip of the iceberg. Black market trade has dropped significantly thanks to the war, but a lot of the products still being sold are even more lethal than ever. We're talking tainted food and water, and counterfeit medical supplies being bulked up using anything the dealers can get their hands on. The stuff they're producing now, it's like the criminals have stopped even caring about being caught."

He wasn't joking, having seen some of the reports I knew there was food being pedaled out there that was toxic enough to kill a dozen Krogan. Still, I wasn't sure about raising militias to keep the crowds in line, it sounded like something that could escalate our problems not resolve them. Clearly the others felt the same as Vega asked if C-Sec couldn't spare a few more officers themselves. But Garrus was shaking his head before he'd even finished speaking.

"The truth is they're already overstretched. They had to double the size of the force patrolling the Volus districts two days ago. There were reports of Batarians and Humans from the neighboring districts trying to shake them down for protection money."

It made a cruel kind of sense, the Volus' economic skills had won them a reputation as rich, easy targets but I could see from Garrus' face how much it pained him. We were fighting to hold the galaxy together but there were still common criminals trying to tear it apart from within.

"You'll figure something out Garrus, you just need to give it some more time."

"Thanks Liara, I appreciate the vote of confidence. In the meantime, our next stop is in Section D-65."

"Why, what's there?" I asked with interest.

"You'll see," he replied somberly.

What was there appeared to be more walking wounded. All soldiers, I would guess from the way they carried themselves, but being carefully tended to by a small handful of Asari nurses. Most of them didn't look too badly injured, so I assumed these were troops Garrus wanted to get back into the fight. But when I asked him about it I realized that appearances could be deceiving.

"We won't be sending anyone from this section back into combat any time soon, if ever."

"What's wrong with them?"

"Mental health issues, combat stress mainly but, there's a few here we're worried may have been indoctrinated. In some cases symptoms are so similar, it can be hard to see the difference."

"I thought cases of PTSD were considered to be incredibly rare among Turians? "

"Every mind has its breaking point," he replied quietly.

"To be honest Miranda I used to think exactly the same as you when I was younger. From the outside the Turian military always looked invincible, awe inspiring even. Getting into the inside, at the top level? It's been a bit of a wake up call. Maybe we are more resilient than other races but I think a lot of it just comes down to expectations. To most Turians the idea of even questioning if a fellow soldier is coping would be unthinkable."

"But that doesn't apply to you?"

"What can I say? I'm not a very good Turian; at least not by traditional standards. Maybe back when I was younger I would have cursed them all as cowards, but now? Now I just think there's more than enough misery in the galaxy already without us adding more. And since I'm one of the few Turians that actually cares about them, it's on me to make sure they get looked after properly."

"What about the programs the Citadel already has in place for helping war veterans?"

He pulled a face.

"The system was never really adequate even before all this started, but now? The reality is that those programs you mentioned have been swamped to the point of total collapse. So the Citadel council passed an emergency decree stating that it's up to what's left of each race's government to provide resources for the overflow. Unfortunately getting the more senior members of the meritocracy to provide aid to soldiers who'll never see a battlefield again has been a challenge in itself. I'm sorry to say they just don't see it as a priority right now."

He walked away and began speaking to each of the patients, asking if there was anything else he could do to help their situation. As he left I noticed the Colonel had been watching our conversation carefully, but it was hard to say from his expression if he approved or not. When he caught me looking he hurried away to make himself busy, though he seemed reluctant to interact with the patients.

Still, I followed suit and focused on helping where I could and offering sympathy where I couldn't. Often there was nothing more we could do than giving them some company and listening to their stories.

"...like a son to me that boy. It couldn't have been him that was taking shots at us. The lads must just have got it wrong..."

"...dragged him two miles through the mud before I realized he wasn't breathing anymore..."

"...fell the day before last. Then of course the base camp went silent when that Reaper landed right on top of it and Tycho camp just stopped transmitting after that last wave of husks, so we were surrounded..."

"...goddamn massacre is what it was. I just lay there in that creator praying for it to end and after every flash of light I knew I'd lost a few more friends..."

Story after story after story all telling the same tale. We were losing the war, we were losing fast and we were all just lucky not to find ourselves sitting in the trenches waiting to die. It was the first moment I felt true shame for spending my days trying to find my sister. Yes, she was an innocent, in genuine danger who absolutely deserved to be rescued, but those were the same stakes these people dealt with every day. How many lives could I save if I joined the fight on the front line? I wouldn't say the thought altered my plans but it didn't sit well with me either.

"...traitor. You filthy traitor!"

Woah, what the hell was that one about? I turned round to see a Turian woman yelling furiously at the Colonel while Vega did his best to hold her back from him. Unable to quite reach him, she jabbed a finger at his face while screaming incoherent abuse at him. For his part the Colonel barely seemed to know how to react, he just stood there, his face twisted into an expression of shock and utter bewilderment. They stayed like that for about a minute, still struggling until Garrus arrived, grabbed the woman, and frogmarched her away.

He led her into one of the cargo containers where we wouldn't be able to see or hear their conversation, but none of us were particularly keen on trying to follow them in. We exchanged surprised and concerned glances with each other for a few minutes until they finally emerged. He handed her over to the nearest nurse who lead her away quietly and then without saying a word, collected the Colonel (who was still recovering from the shock) and lead him into the cargo container.

This time the conversation lasted much longer. Long enough that we felt an obligation to get back to our assigned tasks and act as if nothing strange was going on. We continued on our rounds, passing around supplies and listening to the horrific stories our patients brought back from the front until Garrus grabbed me by the arm and led me to one side.

"How much do you know about your new Turian friend?"

I frowned as I considered the best response to the question.

"To be perfectly honest, not as much as I'd like. From what I understand he showed up at Vorlak's little hideout on Korlus about a month or two before I did, looking for somewhere to hide. The place was full of cases like him. Why?"

"The woman that tried to attack him swore to me that this colonel of yours is a traitor."

"What do you mean traitor? She thinks he's indoctrinated?"

"Actually we believe she might be indoctrinated. That's why she's here to be... looked after, as best as we can manage."

"Is that safe?"

"Everyone here has been evaluated as a low risk case for the moment. Obviously we do have guards keeping an eye on them just in case, but we don't think they can do much harm, they're just too far gone."

"Even so we clearly can't consider anything she says to be reliable intel," I pointed out.

"You're right of course, but I'm still not convinced that we should ignore her claims entirely."

"Which were?"

"That's a little more tricky. Not the most coherent witness I've ever interviewed, to say the least. Hopefully, we'll learn more once she calms down, but in the meantime, she did manage to give me a list of names to look into in connection with your friend."

"Do you know who any of them are?"

"Quite a few actually. Most of them are Turian career military types. Mainly involved in the First Contact War, the Unification War, that kind of thing. Hell, I think one of them may even have known Saren."

"They sound like charming people."

Garrus scowled at me for a moment and I realized that most of them were probably still respected military figures in Turian culture. Still, he grudgingly relented.

"To be fair there have been some pretty ugly rumors in the meritocracy about one or two of the names here. I even tried nailing one of them myself back in my C-Sec days but I could never make anything stick."

Even so, I opened my mouth in order to backtrack on my earlier words when I was distracted by yet another bout of screaming coming from behind me.

I turned around expecting to see the Turian lady trying to jump at the colonel again but instead I was confronted by an Asari charging onto the scene with fury on her face. Instinct kicked in immediately as I seized her up as a threat. She was unarmed, unarmored, but a powerful biotic. Supplies and chairs and patients were all knocked aside by her wild, unrestrained attacks. Possibly indoctrinated or possibly...

Without wasting any more time speculating I jumped into, relishing the buzz of my biotics as they activated and slammed her backwards with my first strike. But she was more powerful than me and I'd lost the element of surprise. When she recovered and got back up she returned fire with everything she had. We clashed in the center of the room, her: inexperienced but strong, myself: skilled but rapidly realizing it had been a long time since I had last flexed these muscles. I was able to hold on but only just.

"Get out of my way! They should have stopped them, they should have saved her!"

"Who was she?" I called out, hoping to talk her down, or at least distract her from fighting me.

"My sister, Helena, she-"

Unfortunately, she was distracted at that moment by one of the orderlies getting too close as he tried to Shepherd a group of patients away from the scene. She reacted by lobbing a chair at his head, forcing him to dive for cover. Vega evidently thought this opened up an opportunity to get closer and he stormed in, clearly hoping to bring a decisive end to this debacle. He might have made it if the noise of his heavy footsteps had not caught the Asari's attention.

Her biotic attack sent him sprawling through a row of chairs, but this time she really had overextended herself. Ducking low under her undisciplined response to my charge I tackled her to the ground. We rolled over three times before coming to rest and it wasn't until I was about to complete the takedown with a swift blow to the head that I realized she had started sobbing.

"Why is this happening to us?" she asked so softly that I think I was the only one who heard.

Without an answer to give her, all I could do was hold her, and stroke the smooth crest on her head, until a nurse came along to take her off my hands. As they lead her away I wondered how many more like her there were on the Citadel right now. The way things are going it won't be long until half the galaxy goes mad with fear and grief.