Shepard was waiting when the shuttle from Tuchanka docked. She couldn't help her smile when Wrex climbed out of it. He greeted her with the usual grunted "Shepard", then poked his head back into the shuttle. "I don't care what you think. This is the Normandy. I'm safer here than I am on Tuchanka. Get out of here and go do what I told you."
He shook his head as he joined Shepard, the krogan shuttle roaring its way back out of the docking bay. "You ever have backtalk from people in your command, Shepard?"
"A lot less of it since you aren't one of them, Wrex."
Wrex slapped her on the back, roaring with laughter. "Good point. You miss me, don't you?"
"You have no idea," she told him, meaning it.
He stopped walking and looked at her seriously. "You're on my side here, right, Shepard?"
"It's the Reapers, Wrex. We all have to focus on what matters, which is getting those things the hell out of our galaxy. If being on your side means that happens sooner, then I am. But if what you want is going to distract from that …"
"It's my people, Shepard. I have to do what's best for them."
"And that's not getting rid of the Reapers?"
"No one's getting rid of the Reapers without the krogan, and you know that as well as I do," he said, without a trace of his usual braggadocio. "But if the krogan are going to save the galaxy's collective asses—again—we have to come out of it with something for ourselves."
Shepard sighed, knowing he was right and knowing the salarians and the turians were never going to agree to what she was certain he wanted. "Well, let's go get the fireworks over with."
"After you, Shepard."
The salarian dalatrass and Primarch Victus watched Wrex arrive in the war room with wary eyes. They probably knew as well as Shepard did what Wrex's terms would be, but were hoping he wouldn't go to the extreme. They didn't know Wrex as well as Shepard did.
"Dalatrass, Primarch, this is Urdnot Wrex."
"I assume the krogan are ready to come on board an alliance," the dalatrass said stiffly.
"If you're ready to negotiate, we are. And the krogan has a name—Urdnot Wrex. I'm not just some junkyard varren you unleash when you're in trouble. In case you're not aware, my people have their own problems. Among other things, Reaper scouts have arrived on Tuchanka."
Shepard hadn't known that, and she didn't like it. The Reapers were spreading through the galaxy faster than she'd hoped they would.
"So," Wrex said, looking at Primarch Victus. "Tell me why I should care if a few turians go extinct."
Victus sighed. "Just … out with it. Don't pussyfoot around."
Shepard smothered a smile. No one had ever accused Wrex of pussyfooting before.
"I like you, Primarch. Right to the point. All right, then—you want the krogan, you cure the genophage. Non-negotiable."
Victus and Shepard didn't react, but the dalatrass jumped as though she'd been shot. "Absolutely not! We won't even consider it."
Wrex responded in a remarkably calm tone, especially for him. "You want us to fight another war you can't win—you want krogan blood to turn the tide against the Reapers, just the way we did against the rachni. Well, you can fix what you did to us first or you can go down under the Reapers, for all I care."
"We uplifted the krogan to do one thing: wage war. It's all they know because it's all we wanted them to know," the dalatrass sneered. "It's all they're good for."
"They're people," Shepard protested, aghast at the open disdain. "Just like you, or me. And the genophage has gone on long enough." She turned to Victus. "Primarch?"
He sighed. "Whether or not they deserve a cure is academic. It would take years to formulate one."
"Maybe not."
They all turned to Wrex, who was grinning victoriously. He had planned for this.
"A salarian scientist named Maelon grew a conscience and developed a cure."
"Maelon's experiments were barbaric! He tortured those women," Shepard protested.
"Yeah, he got a little carried away. But some of the females lived." Wrex punched a few buttons on the war table's vid screen and they were treated to a grainy video of a salarian research facility, with several krogan females in separate pods.
"Where did you get this?" the dalatrass asked sharply.
Wrex leaned across the table toward her and she flinched. "I'm not telling you that. You tell me where you have my people. They're immune to the genophage, and you are going to give them back."
"Dalatrass, is this true?" Victus asked.
Her silence and her obvious distress confirmed it. Clearing her thoat, she said, "How does curing the genophage benefit my people?"
"How long do you think you'll last alone against the Reapers?" Shepard asked her. "Because if you won't help, that's how it'll end up."
"And I'll be the last friendly turian you ever see," Victus agreed.
Wrex looked from Shepard to Victus and back, unable for the moment to hide his surprise. He clearly had expected to do a lot more arguing.
"Well, dalatrass, what's it going to be?"
Unwillingly, the dalatrass said, "The females are being kept at an STG base on Sur'kesh."
Shepard hit the comm button in her collar. "Joker. Sur'kesh. And step on it."
"On it, Commander."
The dalatrass shook her head. "You'll all regret this."
"If we're still alive to regret it, it will be because the krogan helped us take out the Reapers," Shepard told her. "I'll take those odds."
She and Wrex left the war room, leaving the Primarch to talk the dalatrass down. They walked in silence through the security checkpoint. Outside, Wrex turned to Shepard. "You're a good friend, Shepard. My people won't forget this."
"Mine won't forget how you saved our asses, Wrex. That's a promise."
They shook hands solemnly.