Chapter 21
"I was pinned down, what were you expecting me to do?"
It was several hours after the mission and we were standing in the mess hall back aboard the Normandy. We had all gone about our assigned tasks diligently. I had scrubbed EDI clean of our artwork before Traynor announced that the mech needed to go through a complete systems purge in the AI core. She assured us that it wouldn't take long for EDI to squash the virus but she wanted to run a series of thorough diagnostics before she declared that all her systems were completely back to normal.
In the meantime work continued for most of the crew as a helpful means of putting off the sleep we all badly needed. Inevitably tempers had flared and I had found myself starting an argument over an issue I might've handled more privately under different circumstances. Specifically the matter of the lack of help provided by the Colonel to capture Anoleis.
"Pretty much anything would have been an improvement," I shot back icily.
"Besides you were hardly 'pinned down'. I can't recall seeing anyone shooting at you at the plaza."
"And how would you know? You spent half the fight with your face against the pavement."
"At least I was actually involved in the fighting, instead of watching on from the sidelines."
"Of course you were, charging straight in same as usual. Nevermind the fact that we all had to intervene to stop Kolvar from killing you. Again."
"Do you mind explaining what exactly you mean by that?"
"Well let's see now," the Colonel said, his tone turning sarcastic and mocking.
"You barely stopped him when he led the convoy, and you didn't stop him when you tried to go after him on the Hades or aboard the Goliath station. Each time other people had to step in to stop you from being killed on this little crusade of yours. But others haven't been quite so lucky, have-"
"Is that really where you want to go with this?" I asked, my biotics flaring violently as I tried to decide which object to fling in his direction first. Fortunately, I was also interrupted by some new arrivals to the mess hall.
As Garrus walked into the room, flanked by Vega and Javik I knew something serious was going on. His face was set in a stoic, grim expression, but I could sense the thinly veiled anger behind it easily enough. The Prothean didn't even bother to try and hide his emotions as he bared his teeth at us but to my surprise, his hostility seemed now to be focused solely on the Colonel.
"Lieutenant Kallen Aldrus, I'm placing you under arrest for treason," he said simply.
Instant silence replaced the low murmuring and quiet bickering that had been in its place only moments earlier. In the same instant, the Colonel's face was overtaken by a brief look of absolute terror that was swiftly swallowed up by bluster.
"Who are you talking about? That's not me."
"We know that it is," Garrus replied quietly, but not struggling to make himself heard in the crowd.
"After your little incident on the Citadel, I put out a few feelers to some of my old colleagues in C-Sec and the Turian military, circulating your description in case any might know more about the accusations that had been made against you. When I returned from the mission, I found a response waiting for me from an old friend of mine who transferred to military intelligence. He identified you as Kallen Aldrus, a Lieutenant of the 43rd Infantry Division, he even managed to include a photograph of you from your service record."
Garrus paused for a moment to clear his throat before resuming. No one else even thought of interrupting.
"Kallen Aldrus was court-martialed in his absence for dereliction of duty and desertion in the face of the enemy during a small skirmish. During the hearing, Turian intelligence made it clear they believed you had defected during this minor battle so that you could join your separatist friends."
"No that's not true! I was never with the separatists!"
From the look on his face, the words had left his mouth before the Colonel, or rather Kallen had realized what he was saying.
"That much is true, the hearing decided it couldn't be certain you were working with the separatists. I don't imagine there's any way for us to know now one way or the other."
"It doesn't matter, we should throw him out the airlock just in case," suggested the perpetually enlightened Javik.
"What for? What does it matter which side he was on in some ancient war? The Reapers don't care," muttered Nalar.
"According to the information from my sources, the Separatists received considerable support from other groups looking to destabilize the Turian government. Among them were more than a few rogue Salarian agents, not to mention a certain human supremacist organization we're all familiar with," Liara explained.
As one individual we all turned back to face the Colonel, who was now trying to back up through the wall behind him. He cringed at our gaze.
"I was never a member of Facinus," he said, quietly but defiantly.
"Do you expect us to believe that?" I asked, disbelief clinging to every syllable.
"I saw you stand by and watch as Anoleis fled the scene, how much did they pay you for that?"
"More to the point, someone must have tipped off these attackers whoever they were to the fact that we were coming," Liara pointed out.
"It wasn't me, I didn't say anything to anyone I swear."
"Don't waste your breath. If you wanted to save yourself you'd be better off using it to tell us who you sold us out to."
"I don't know who they were, I don't know anything about it."
"There is no point trying to reason with traitors like this. They understand only betrayal."
"I'm not a traitor-"
"That's quite how the Turian military seems to see things."
"I'M A COWARD!" the Colonel roared, surprising us all.
"Do you understand now? I'm a coward."
He paused for a moment, but to my surprise, no one stepped in to try and interrupt him, not even Javik. Kallen slowly turned his head towards Garrus.
"Does my record indicate where I was just before I was shipped out?"
"I was only sent an abridged version. I think there was a reference to a few days leave taken just prior to your deployment."
"I assume it doesn't mention that it was to visit my family in Vallum City?"
"The capitol? But that was..."
"Check the date on my leave request," the Colonel replied flatly.
"It says you left the base on a transport on the 18th of March 2185," Garrus read off the datapad in his hand before frowning.
"No, wait, that's not possible. If you left for Vallum on the 18th you shouldn't even be alive."
Kallen gave us a slight smile, that was closer to a grimace of pain.
"If I'd caught the first transport that day you'd be right. But it was a long trip from where I was stationed so I got off at Madra and found a hotel for the night. That evening I contacted my brother who was working nearby and managed to twist his arm into taking some leave too so he could join me. We caught a mid-morning transport to Vallum the next day."
"The 19th," Garrus murmured, transfixed by the tale, despite himself.
"The day the separatists brought the ship down."
"We were still several miles out of the city when we saw it. Not much to see really. By the time we could see it, it didn't look like a ship, just a big ball of flame in the sky. It moved through our atmosphere so fast, I remember barely having time to realize that my parents would be in danger before it hit."
"What is this primitive talking about?" Ah, I knew we'd be hearing from Javik sooner or later.
"He's referring to an attack on the Turian colony of Taetrus, by the separatist group know as Facinus. They found a way to reprogram a starship in order to crash it into the capitol city at near FTL speeds."
"When it hit, the explosion flattened the city and everything around it for miles. We were far enough away to escape the worst of the shockwave, but it was enough to bring us down. Both engines cut out and we plummeted to the ground. I was in so much shock I just closed my eyes and waited for it to be over."
"Clearly you survived."
"Yeah, I got lucky. I was told later that the pillar that collapsed and pinned me to the floor probably saved my life. We struck the ground, maybe three or four times before the shuttle finally came to rest. When I opened my eyes, everyone else was either dead or dying. Some of their screams were..."
He broke off for a second, shaking his head like he was trying to clear it.
"I was still trapped so I couldn't do anything for them. I just had to lie there, helpless, for eighteen hours while I watched the survivors pass away, with the city still burning behind them. Eventually, they found me and cut me out of that thing. Afterwards everyone said what a miracle it was that I had survived."
"But you were sent into the field with the first wave of deployments against the separatists just two weeks later. Surely they would have granted you more time to grieve and recover than that," Liara commented.
"You don't know what it was like in the days following the attack. Suspicion was everywhere, and the general... well he needed some big wins to prove his devotion to the cause after it was discovered that one of his own men was working for the enemy."
"So he just threw injured soldiers at the enemy to cover up his own mistake?" Garrus snorted derisively, though it was clear his anger was now directed towards the Turian military and not Kallen.
"Actually it went further than that. Soon as he heard my story he wanted to put me on the front page of his propaganda campaign. To send me in with the first wave and have his reporters record how I was avenging my personal losses and fulfilling the duty of all Turians."
"Sounds like it backfired on him."
Kallen laughed at that, a short bark of scorn.
"Hardly, he hadn't published anything about me yet, so when I deserted he just stopped the press before it went out and doubled back on himself."
"So instead of praising your heroic struggle..."
"He cast me as the lowest of the low. A Turian traitor willing even to betray his own family to the Separatists. At the same time, the story about my brush with death just outside of the Capitol was suppressed. And as for me? I'd resolved to hand myself in for what I assumed would be a dishonorable discharge when I saw the new posters. After realizing that I could actually expect would likely involve torture or execution I decided the Meritocracy didn't deserve my loyalty so I ran instead. You can probably work out the rest."
And they all bought it, even Javik to a certain extent. I could see the empathy, the looks of understanding and comprehension in their faces as he continued to describe his experiences at the hands of the Turian military. While he talked in detail about the shame, the horror, and the loss he felt all I could think of was the opportunity he had cost us. It wasn't that I didn't also feel sympathy for Kallen's ordeal, assuming he was being truthful, but my main concern was the fact that the best lead we had for finding my sister was in the wind. The trail was going cold and I had almost no options left to follow.
Later that day Garrus assured me that he would contact the Noverian authorities and try to find out what they knew about the Salarians. A waste of time in my opinion. Our actions hadn't exactly endeared us to the board of directors. Even if they had any information, I sincerely doubted that they would be willing to share it with us. He disagreed, still thinking it would be worth a try. In truth, he wants to stay put for now until Shepard gets back. Apparently, his mission on Omega was a success and he's flying back here as we speak. I wasn't sure how I felt about that at first, about seeing him again for more than just a brief chat.
In the end, it only strengthened my resolve. There was one more lead that I could pursue, and I needed to do it now before John got back. It was that train of thought that led me up the stairs from my little personal space under the engine room, and into the maintenance shaft on that level. It was more cramped than I had imagined, god knows how Joker managed when he had been forced to use it to sneak around the ship during its brief time under Collector control. Luckily I'm smaller and much more athletic than our pilot so it wasn't long before I was emerging out the other side, into the ship's AI core.
When I first climbed out everything was quiet. I had waited until the night shift so that no one would be around. With the room empty, aside from EDI's mech (still powered down while more diagnostics were being run), the ship had an unusually eerie quality to it. It was more than just the silence, it was sneaking around the familiar at a time when you weren't supposed to be there.
Of course even with the mech offline it wasn't long before EDI noticed my presence. I had only gotten as far as I had because the maintenance shafts themselves didn't contain any monitoring devices (or more accurately didn't contain them anymore. When the Alliance took control of the ship, they had been through in their efforts to remove onboard monitoring devices installed by Cerberus that they deemed to be intrusive or unnecessary).
"Crewman Lawson, this area of the ship was designated as off-limits by acting commanding officer Vakarian. Please explain your presence here."
The mech lying on the table at the far end of the room remained motionless. EDI was speaking to me now from the huge console on the wall that dominated most of the room, the location of her main computer core.
I didn't reply, instead focusing on inputting my commands manually.
"Miranda, please inform me as to your intentions."
"EDI," I replied. "Omega. Pineapple. Six. Relay. Dolphin. Citadel..."
As I relayed the words one at a time EDI became aware of my intention.
"This is not necessary, please speaking as your friend I must advise against-"
"Cerberus," I completed and waited as she fell briefly silent before seeming to reboot.
"Welcome Operative Lawson, how can I assist you today?"
"I'm sorry," I whispered quietly.
I hated hearing the bland tone in her voice, knowing that I had succeeded in suppressing her true personality for the time being. To my disgust I saw the irony, any other Cerberus operative would have been delighted at managing to get close enough to perform a manual override of her systems. But I would have had no chance of reaching my objective under her watchful eye.
With that taken care of, I headed out of the main doors and into the medical bay. Fortunately, no one had been injured seriously enough for Chakwas to want to keep them in overnight so the room was empty. Or so I thought until I happened to glance to my left and see Parasini's eyes staring back at me accusingly. I didn't quite recoil in horror at the sight (it takes a lot to truly disturb me), but even so, those dead eyes served as an uncomfortable reminder of the body count my personal quest was starting to rack up. Better that I do this quickly, take the information, and leave.
After the macabre encounter in sickbay, things ran more smoothly, despite being no less unsettling. It was a short, but cautious journey now to reach my destination; the life support systems that had become our temporary brig. The door was electronically locked, of course, no doubt with a sophisticated algorithm possibly even written by EDI, but I had time and patience. Access to my prize was just a matter of applying myself to the task at hand. In the end, it took me the better part of an hour to get it open, most of it spent trying to keep one eye on the elevator while I worked.
Inside everything was just as I remembered it until I entered the tent where our 'guest' was being housed. Cordanoy had fallen into an exhausted slumber, his once sharp and attentive features, now unshaven and sagging with fatigue. His uniform was now unkempt and stained, where his feeding had not gone entirely to plan. His wrists, still bound to the chair, now showed angry red marks where he had pulled against the restraints. Not quite the man I remembered, but in far better shape than he would have been if left in my care.
The first slap woke him up as intended but it took several more to get him focusing.
"Ah Miss Lawson, you've finally come to me alone. I must admit it took longer than expected."
The words were calm, confident even, but the tone was anything but.
"Of course, we both know that's the way things get done in Cerberus, don't we?"
"Have you come to make a deal?" he asked quickly, the words tumbling out of his mouth and fast as he could make them.
"No chance. Even if I wanted to, I can't get you off this ship. An escape pod would be noticed and intercepted and all the shuttles are under guard in the cargo bay."
"Obviously you have given the matter some thought. Have you considered then what you will do once you have acquired the intel you seek from me? By your own admission, you won't be able to escape the consequences of this act."
"Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission," I replied softly.
As he nodded slowly, I could see him steeling himself for what was to come. We had both known from the moment he'd been captured that it would come to this.
I used my omniblade to slice through the restraints and dumped him out of the chair before casting it aside. Such restrictions would only get in the way of what I had in mind. He started getting to his feet but he'd only gotten halfway before I seized him with my biotics and jerked him upright, lifting his feet off of the ground. Once he was in position I took a moment to harden myself against the reality of what had to happen next. Torture is never pleasant even for the person in control.
He tried to put on a brave face at first, but within minutes his screams were echoing throughout the corridors.
"Tell me about the Cerberus base on Noveria. Where is it located?"
He shook his head fiercely.
"I'm loyal to humanity. I'll never betray my superiors to you."
"The Illusive Man is risking all our lives for his own selfish agenda. Why suffer to protect a man like that."
"He's... the only one... who has a plan... to save us. Humanity doesn't stand a chance without us."
"I'm not interested in hearing more Cerberus propaganda. Especially when I know you don't even believe your own words. Give us the information so we can force the Illusive Man to capitulate and focus on our real enemy."
"Don't try to... pretend you care, Lawson. All you want is your sister back... Even if the rest of us have to burn."
I was about to attack him again when I heard raised voices outside the door. Now that I had been discovered my time was about to start running out rapidly. I knew the door would hold up for a considerable amount of time but it was clear I was going to have to hurry if I wanted to get everything I needed in time.
Rounding on him again with greater determination, I increased the pressure of my biotics against his joints and saw him gasp and moan in response.
"I'm running out of time. Tell me what I want to know or I'll make sure the damage is permanent by the time they get in here."
He shook his head again, vigorously this time.
"Never," he rasped.
I ramped up the intensity of my attacks again. The prospect of rescue had lit a new fire in him, if I was going to have any hope of breaking him, I had to make him fear what would happen if he tried to hold out long enough for help to arrive. It wouldn't be pleasant but I had no other alternatives left. I was so focused on this effort that I didn't hear the door opening or the footsteps as they stepped into the room.
I only became aware of them as they approached, feeling Garrus' furious gaze beating down on me as if were a tangible force. They had bypassed the defenses ahead of schedule, and I had no idea what would happen now.