*** Ash and Garrus ***

Ash found Garrus in the Main Mess, eating from a tray covered with unfamiliar shapes and colours. She stopped at the bench opposite the turian. "Hey. You busy?"

"Never too busy to talk." Garrus gestured at the bench, inviting her to sit. "Are you here for food?"

"Nah. Just ate." She stepped over the bench, lighting her omnitool as she sat. "Talked with the Cap…uh…Commander. He said you were doing us quite the honour of technical help." She looked away from the beady turian eyes for a second. "I shouldn't have shot my mouth off, and I wanted to apologize to you myself."

Garrus wondered if this was as meaningful to a human as it was to a turian. "Did he chew you out? I am sorry."

Ash looked at him again. "No, not like that. He was really…uh…friendly about it, actually. But he said you'd be happy about it if…um…"

"If I heard he had?" Garrus chuckled. "Well, maybe in years past. But I've had officers sharpen their talons on my plates, and didn't much care for it. It was something I promised myself I would never do to anyone under my command." He glanced down at his tray, gestured with one of his utensils. "I'd offer you some trindis, but it'd probably put you in the medical bay…which is a shame, really; this is better than I got when deployed with the Fleet.

"So how about this instead…?" He reached down to his right foot and drew his new knife, raised it above the table so the Chief could see, and offered its handle to her.

Ash looked at the knife, and then back up at the turian.

"It's a gift," he explained.

"But I don't have one for you."

"That's how you know it's a gift, and not a transaction."

Ash smiled and looked aside. "Yep. Got me there." She reached out and took the weapon.

Garrus continued, "It's traditional to offer a new ally the best blade you have…which hopefully will be superior to theirs. I know humans don't usually carry blades, but you…ahm…so this could be your first. If you don't want it, you could give it to another turian and be assured of making a friend."

Ash studied it professionally. Her headband VI scrolled its analysis down one side of her visual field. "Hm. That's righteous blade design. Magnesium carbon composite with tungsten…and internal Alritresigon scaffold over titanium." She passed it blade-first to her other hand, tossed it in the air and caught it by the handle. "Damn, it auto-rebalances for throwing, too. Did Gomez make this for you?"

"No. I made that myself. The structure requires four iterations, so it takes forever because I have a small omnitool microfacture protocol. Still, you can pause it mid-build, and it's really versatile. That," he pointed with a talon, "took two days and a night."

"Um…" Ash looked from the knife to the turian and back. "Thanks. I don't know what else to say. This is…uh…well, it's art. Is it designed for three-fingered hands?"

Garrus flicked his cranial spines, signaling amusement. "Ahem, yes," he chuckled, "because on Palaven, we have sticks and rocks that were designed for three-fingered claws." He glanced at Ash, "Sorry, I couldn't resist. But it always cheers me up that your species understands that sarcasm can be humorous."

He held up his left claw, flexed it. "You have more fingers, but we have stronger ones. I can break your arm with the right grip, but you can lose a few fingers and still grip effectively." He looked from his claw to the human, "Which is kind of creepy, but…I find I like you anyway."

He pointed at the handle with a talon. "This particular design is opimised for a turian claw, and one of the moves it would allow you to use involves this hole in the handle."

Holding the knife by its blade, Ash studied the 35mm opening; it was perpendicular to the thrust axis of the blade. "Yeah…what would you do with that?"

"May I demonstrate?"

She extended the handle toward him; the turian reached for it, inserting his gripping-talon through the hole as he stood from the table and took a step back. "It's called a galin-fenda. The galin is a staff-like weapon with blades on both ends." He moved slowly and deliberately so she could see what he was doing: First, an up-thrust with the blade, a flick of the wrist that reversed his grip without ever releasing the knife, and then a down-thrust.

He did it again, but faster; it was interesting to watch the blade seem to flip to the other side of the handle as if by magic. "You won't use it often, but it's a trick move that you can use against two enemies. Above-below, side-to-side, or front and back." He did the move again, slightly faster. "It works best if they're coming at you from opposing sides, but with practice, you can even do it at right angles. Up-to-right is one of the best, you get power and speed in both directions if you do it right." He demonstrated in relatively slow motion. "But it takes some practice."

Ash was impressed as she watched him do it again. "That's pretty slick. You have to have your thumb in the hole at the beginning though, don't you?"

"Yeah," Garrus shrugged, handed the knife back to her. "I can do it more easily with claws, but I've seen a human do it almost as fast."

"Even without the fancy moves, it's still a hell of a knife." She looked up at him. "Thanks…um…thanks a lot, Garrus."

"You're entirely welcome." The turian had removed the bootsheath and slid it across the table. "I'm honoured to be here."

# # #

Therum task group status:
No network presence.
No contact with Grodis-contractor.
No telemetry relay packets for 10^12 cycles.
No combat data collected.
All platforms presumed lost.
Intelligences being restored from backups
Final data indicates contact with multi-species force using human-Alliance hardware
Ship-to-ship engagement with human-Alliance vessel Normandy
Benezia-offspring T'Soni location unknown: 92% aboard Normandy, 7% non-functional, 1% on Therum
Update platforms on Noveria and relay mission outcome to Benezia-asari
Delivery of combat platforms to Benezia-asari at Noveria en route, ETA: 17360467799764 cycles

# # #

As Shepard rounded the corner, the door to the MedBay grumbled aside, and distinctive smells washed over him. Antiseptic gel, smartsteel, bandages, and a hint of burned electronic insulation. How does a medical center that hardly uses bandages still manage to smell mostly of them?

Doctor Chakwas looked over her shoulder at him. "Commander."

Shepard thought he could see all of the Medical Bay from where he was standing, and he saw no asari. "How are you, Doctor?"

Karin stood and turned to face him. "Oh, quite well today. It's always nice when a ground team comes back with nothing worse than a few armour bites and badly swollen egoes."

Shepard was still looking around the medbay. "And our uh...guest?"

"Liara? Oh, she's fine. And in fairly good condition, too…considering she's been locked in a Prothean containment field for over a week." She tilted her head toward the door behind her. "I told her she could probably get more rest in the Clean Room; it's quieter." Karin twinkled an amused smile, "But I noticed she sat right down at the GPC station in there, so she might not be resting quite yet."

"Did you give her extranet guest access?"

"Apparently the ship is smart enough to have done so on its own."

Shepard folded his arms. "Why didn't I hear about this?"

"You do, of course, but the notification went to the XO."

Embarrassed frown. "Which isn't me anymore." He shook his head at himself. "Right, then. Thank you, Doctor." Shepard nodded, took a single step forward, then stopped, looked to his right. "Is there a way for me to know what's happening in there without being a disturbance? I don't want to wake her."

"Now that you ask, I suppose there is." Karin waved her hand through a sensor, manipulated the controls on her desk. She pointed at the display. "There she is, sitting and working."

Shepard nodded. "Thank you, Doctor." As he stepped up to the door to knock, it hissed aside automatically.

The blue alien looked over a shoulder at him. "Commander, are you coming to check up on me?"

"Yes, actually. May I come in?"

T'Soni rose from the chair, turned to face him. "Of course. This is your ship, Commander."

"And these are your private quarters, at least until we can get you someplace you actually want to go. Doctor Chakwas can help you configure the door for more privacy if you'd prefer." As he stepped in, he smelled something out of context. Vanilla…bubblegum? It was a delicious smell, but one that simply didn't belong in a medical office; at least, not in the medical offices of his experience. He realized his mouth had opened, as if he were unconsciously trying to ingest the smell; he closed his mouth, unsure of how the alien would interpret anything he did. Keep it professional, but friendly, he thought. "You look much better. How are you feeling?"

"Doctor Chakwas assures me I am going to be fine. I am impressed with her knowledge of asari physiology."

After years of watching Anderson, Shepard had learned the value of being generous with praise, stingy with criticism. "You're in good hands. Dr. Chakwas knows what she's doing. As I recall, she's certified to provide assistance to all three Council Races...and even humans."

The joke seemed to have gone unnoticed; the alien glanced briefly at the door. "I know you took a chance, bringing me aboard your ship. I have seen the way your crew looks at me; they do not trust me. But I am not like Benezia. I will do whatever I can to help you stop Saren. I promise."

"Don't worry, Doctor. I trust you. As for the crew…" he shrugged, "you did just arrive, and after a running gun battle through a collapsing cavern. Give 'em a chance to get to know you. I had hoped you would be willing to work with us at least long enough to help us find your mother, but it sounds like you…don't get along."

The asari's pupils dilated, looked quickly away and down. "It was not always so."

Shepard's ARO highlighted the large, alien eyes and added a tag: Sadness, grief. He waited for a moment, hoping there was more to hear. "What do you mean?"

"My mother grew me very late in life, later than most do. Most asari, that is. I spent my childhood high in Armali's Trinsom Spire, in the company of my mother's peers...other Matriarchs...and few others my age. When I interacted with people my own age, I found them interested only in childish things; silly and vacuous. It made bonding out...ahm...that is the practice of melding with other species...even more appealing. After watching my peers interact, I suppose my reaction was already something like, 'Why would I want to join with one of them?'"

Shepard watched closely; his implant noticed the behavior and switched the ARO to Analysis Mode; highlights called out the asari's exterior anatomical features: self-adjusting pupils, sclera and iris analogues, internal tear ducts. Faintly iridescent blue eyes wandered slowly around the room, as if seeing only memories. "But now I am paying the price...most of those I grew up with are with the goddess," a glance at Shepard, "Ah...that means they are dead."

Shepard felt like he'd intruded. "Yeah." He swallowed. "I'm sorry."

"Every time a friend or acquaintance would expire, I would go home and be present with my mother; remembering all the things we could about them into the temple. The priestesses said we made wonderful rememberings because our experiences were so closely matched in time, yet from such different perspectives. They said it added an unusual clarity and depth to the knowledge. And every time we did, it brought us closer together, too."

Shepard canted his head slightly; T'Soni paused, and frowned. "When tell you that I have not seen Benezia in years, I mean it in the sense that, while I was away on the Garvug dig – one of my expeditions – she had sent a message about meeting a Spectre, and she was very concerned for him. But she had become…profoundly different, almost reclusive, by the time I got home, and...we stopped communicating."

The asari continued to look around the room as if in search of something. "I still have memories to impart about…our dead, and I have been doing so in my spare time with a temple VI running locally. But it is a hollow experience in comparison. There was no one to…laugh with…or cry with. No synergy at all. It made me miss my mother even more, and this emotional distance between us…has only increased over the intervening years. It upsets me to think that it was Saren who changed her."

There was something disconcerting about the asari making eye contact again. Shepard's ARO displayed a callout that asari irises rotated through at least five complete revolutions, stretching the lenses to focus as they did. That explains the visual strangeness, but what's causing this vertigo and slight unease?

"I know it is foolish, but I find it difficult to remember that it was not Saren who changed her...she has chosen her own Way." Liara looked briefly resigned. "And yet foolish I remain: He took my mother from me." Though looking down and left, her expression became steely, "But now you want to find Saren...and end him." She nodded agreement and looked up and directly at him, and yet somehow into the future, "'So it is, and I am with you.'"

Shepard's ARO winked a contextual reference where he could see it without looking away:

Asari scriptural reference – Athame is comforted by Lucen after her bondmate is killed.
Implication: Extravagant fealty and encouragement.
Human analogue: Judaism: Ruth to Naomi: "Your people shall be my people; your gods shall be my gods."

After he read the vignette, Shepard noted that the asari had looked away again, and now seemed to have a 100-meter stare. The same lost-in-thought look he had seen on a lot of people during the siege of the Blitz: An uncomfortable mélange of helplessness and anger, grief and determination.

Suddenly, the anger seemed to win. Still focused on whatever that memory entailed, T'Soni straightened to full height, and a fist clenched and unclenched, "But before you do...by the goddess...I will know why he did." A blue nimbus erupted around the alien's head and shoulders, arcs of energy merging and waving.

171 kLn peaking read an ARO tag, Warning.

Strong enough to kill, and even after today's adventures. Shepard flexed a knee, ready to jump aside. There was a whiff of…ozone?

Never mind, he caught himself, Stay on task.

The glow had subsided, and the asari had taken a step back, looking apologetic and sorrowful. Lifting the glass from the desk and taking a sip, the strangely attractive alien lowered itself back into the chair, looking exhausted again. Shepard nodded in acknowledgement, trying to think of what to say. An encouragement he usually offered to junior officers sprang to mind, "Don't worry…I know you won't let me down, Doctor." In the pause that followed, he wondered, Do the emotional cues I'm seeing actually mean what I think they do?

T'Soni smiled faintly. "It means a lot to hear you say that, Commander. Thank you." She glanced left and right; Shepard assumed to check her own ARA. "And you do not need to call me 'Doctor T'Soni;' my credential is merely academic...I would be happy if you just called me Liara."

Shepard noticed that, even though asari looked so much more human than batarians or turians, it was unexpectedly difficult not to think of this alien as an it. Still, this is almost a First Contact experience for me.

"Okay…would you tell me about yourself, Liara?"

"Me? I am afraid I am not very interesting, Commander. I am an archaeologist. When I am not compiling class material, or updating syllabi, I spend most of my time on remote digs…scanning for, and occasionally unearthing mundane items buried in long-forgotten Prothean ruins."

"Archaeologists from Earth usually work in teams...funded by museums or universities."

"Of course, and most of my early work was also as part of a team. But I already have decades of experience, and the VI suite I have built up has been well received within the community. With it, a single, conscientious researcher or two can get in and out of a dig much faster and for less investment than a whole team...and disturb the site less."

Shepard blinked, and glanced away, squinting faintly as he considered the day's events.

His expression must have given the thought away; the asari look briefly pained. "Well, normally."

Shepard recalled his own encounter with a Prothean artifact. "Working mostly by yourself? Sounds dangerous…and lonely."

T'Soni nodded, "Until recently, Doctor Hannell and I were codeveloping our 'Dig Assistant' VI, so I was never truly alone. Sometimes I would run afoul of indigenous life forms, or stumble across a small band of mercenaries, privateers, or other opportunists. But I was always careful. Until the geth followed me to AT/KT-121, I never found myself in any situation I could not handle. As for the solitude…well…that is one aspect that quite appealed to me. Sometimes, I just need to get away from other people."

"You don't like other people?"

"No, I mean…ah…I should explain. Asari are descended from aquatic organisms with..." She balked, seeming surprised at the information her VI was giving her. "...with schooling tendencies." She stopped, glanced down at the omnitool as if it had malfunctioned, then back at Shepard. "Is that really your word for a group of sea animals? A 'school'?"

He shrugged. "Yes…well, for fish in particular. Cetaceans travel in 'pods'—"

"But the use of that word in academia arose long after," she interrupted, eyes still moving, reading datastreams from her own neurotech. "How apropos. And you are also descended from marine life, though you did not return to water for as long as we did." Shepard's ARO identified and tagged nanotech inside the asari's left eye. Not a neural ARA in the visual cortex? That meant he might be able to see what data was being shown, but he'd have to manually operate his omnitool to do so. And then translate it…he thought it unlikely his VI could do it fast enough.

T'Soni appeared to be reading something written on Shepard's fatigues. How quickly do they ingest data, and how do they do it in such a non-linear fashion? He wondered. It looked impressively fast.

The asari's attention was still very focused on the nanotech's information. "What an interesting development path. It explains much I had not understood until now." Her eyes found his again, and Shepard's ARO called attention to the fact that the asari irises and cornea not only rotated in opposite directions, but did so in order to focus.

"I am sorry, my time in academia has gotten the better of me once again. I do not actually dislike people. I suppose it comes from being a Matriarch's daughter. As I said, I grew up in the company of Matriarchs. I suspect it was hoped I would follow in Benezia's footsteps: They wanted me to become a leader of our people, and hoped to assist me in doing so from an early age, when I could be trained for centuries in diplomacy, law, philosophy, macroethics, empathy, and other aspects of statecraft.

"Matriarchs are expected to guide their followers into the future…seek the truth of the Ways ahead. Maybe that is why I became so interested in the secrets of the past." She looked away, smiled in embarrassment and shrugged faintly. "It sounds so foolish when I say it aloud. It sounds like I became an archaeologist to spite my mother."

"Yeah," Shepard nodded, smiled without showing teeth. "At some point in their development, children usually rebel against their parents. It's a natural part of growing up." He shrugged wistfully, recalling his own rebellious phase. "Sometimes they come back, too."

Liara nodded in reply. "You share the wisdom of the Matriarchs, Shepard. That is exactly what my mother said when I told her my decision. But there was more to it than that. I felt drawn to the past. The Protheans were these wondrous, mysterious figures; I wanted to know everything about them."

With an intense look at Shepard, the asari began speaking more quickly, "I would give a century of my life to find a beacon like the one you discovered. I suppose that is why I find you so fascinating. You were marked by the beacon on Eden Prime." Shepard's optics VI noticed the asari's fingers twitching commands to the omnitool's VI; his ARO scrolled its own findings into place on highlights pointing at relevant anatomical features of the alien before him:

+4% neurotronic power draw
+8% fingerpad bloodflow
+11% cerebral bloodflow
+5 Ln/sec to emitters

"You were touched by actual, working Prothean technology." Liara wore an expression Shepard couldn't quite read. Awe? Envy? "And it tried to tell you something. Think of it! An actual message from the Protheans - a civilization dead almost 60 lifetimes!" The flurry of information continued to scroll past on Shepard's ARO.

Iris rotodilation dx/dy (angular): +0.2sec/sec.
Capillary interconnection: +6%
Bedna klade expansion (averaged): X: +4.2% Y: +2.7% Z: +5.3%
Pulse: 34 bpm (+9% over 60 sec.)
Le'ku [crest] bloodflow: +2.9 ml/sec

One side of Shepard's mouth turned up in a half-grin. "It sounds like you want to dissect me in a lab somewhere."

She recoiled. "What? No…I did not mean to insinuate…ah…I never meant to offend you, Shepard. I only meant that you would be an interesting specimen for an in-depth study…ah…to measure the effects on your brain and cognition…eh, nooo, that's even worse." Liara looked quickly to the door, as if considering how to escape.

"No worries, Liara; I'm not offended, I was only joking." Shepard's ARO switched automatically to Deep Analysis mode as a surge of new information flooded in, trying to track all the changes detected in the asari's body: a rise in thermal signature of its "hair tentacles" was followed by a biotic surge (a taglet read +30-75 Ln/sec,) the faintly scaly skin texture seemed to smooth out as blood flowed outward. Blush analogue, added his ARO. As indicators updated in realtime, the detail was almost voyeuristic; he was tempted to turn the analysis mode off, but that would require actually gesturing at it.

The asari looked horrified. "Joking? Oh, by the goddess, how could I be so dense? You must think I am a complete and utter fool. Now you know why I prefer to spend my time in the field with VIs and automation. I always seem to say something embarrassing around other people. Please, just pretend this conversation never happened." Putting a hand on the chair, Liara looked away.

"Wait...give a guy a chance." With Liara's gaze elsewhere, Shepard gestured to deactivate the VI's analysis, and the ARO switched back to its minimal mode. "I must say I'm very interested to meet you, Doctor...I mean, Liara. On a fleet assignment, I've never had the opportunity to properly meet an asari before. If I'm going to truly earn the Spectre position, to really excel at it, I'm going to need to learn a lot, and very quickly, about the galaxy and everyone in it.

"In fact, until last week, I had only ever fought batarians and fought alongside some turians."

"You can add geth and krogan to that list now," Liara said, "And on my behalf." She looked slightly embarrassed, "Which reminds me: I never properly thanked you for saving me from the geth, Commander. I am…ah…I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't shown up…"

"I suspect that if Tali hadn't been able to crack that mining laser, the geth would have made short work of it. I'm just glad we got there in time."

"So am I." The asari seemed embarrassed, uncomfortable.

Don't leave, Shepard thought. He changed the subject quickly, "And I have not thanked you for stopping that krogan. Quite a change of pace from being locked in a Prothean stasis bubble. How long were you in there? Do you know?"

The asari seemed to look around the room at the various information gathered by omnitool VI. "Hm. It seems that I was in that bubble for…over nine days. I always wear SurvivIt in the field, so even though I was almost completely immobilized, it would have kept releasing nutrients and recycling water for at least another five." A shrug. "Assuming the Prothean stasis bubble hadn't disabled every cell of bloodstream tech I had."

"If it had, you'd have felt a lot hungrier than you did, after that long."

"Yes, your Doctor…Chakwas said so as well. She must be highly trained to know what trace elements I was likely to have lost." The asari took another swig from the slender glass. "But I think I was more bored than starving…at least I would have been until Saren's hired guns got in there." She briefly looked distant and concerned, as if imagining what would have happened. She looked up at him, lifted the glass, inclined it slightly toward him. "But they didn't, and I have you to thank for it."

He half-smiled, waved a hand dismissively. "I was just part of the team. I couldn't have gotten you out of there by myself."

She continued to hold the glass toward him. "Are you…oh, I am sorry." She took a quick drink, and carefully offered the glass to him again in a sort of salute. "We have a custom, when we make a new friend or ally, of sharing a drink with them. It's a greeting…a welcome. The closest human analogue seems to be a handshake, but this is less formal. It's also a way for me to…ah…express my thanks."

As he reached for the glass, Shepard got another whiff of that sweet vanilla smell. What is it that's making that smell, he wondered, Pheromones...? Or do all asari emit some other kind of emotion-inducing chemicals? Do they do it on purpose?

His ARO answered, Tiprozene (Pitocin-F) 0.002μg/cm3 Pheromone analogue to airborne Pitocin, but capable of crossing blood-brain barrier. Regular concentrations 0.01μg/cm3 may have cumulative effects over time.

Shepard held the glass to his nose and inhaled. The liquid smelled like grape punch. "Should I be drinking this? Isn't it a medicine?"

"I think Doctor Chakwas had called it…glorified gate-raid? My omnitool was off when she said it, and I do not know what that is, but she assured me that this would replenish critical salts."

Shepard smiled as he realized what it was, bowed slightly, raising the glass in a toast, then took a swallow. "Mm," he regarded the glass, "Got it. I probably needed some of that after the fight, too. May I finish this?"

Liara indicated a large beaker, "She said I should drink until I felt satisfied, but that more was available if I wished it. Please, have as much as you like."

He drained the mostly empty glass, and then lifted it toward her again, "Thank you, Doctor. It's a pleasure to meet you. I mean, Liara."

Without looking away from Shepard, the asari took the glass, refilled only a centimeter of it from the beaker. "Thank you. It is...a pleasure to meet you, Commander." The liquid swirled with a subtle wrist flick, and then Liara quickly tossed back the contents without looking away from him. "Among my people, I would say, 'I greet the Goddess in you. May we together become greater than our sum.'" She tilted her head, glanced down at her omnitool. "It is a much shorter thing to say in Thesserit…"

Shepard's ARO explained: Tevuran kiss. Among asari, the exchange of a liquid when making a new acquaintance facilitates examination both of immunological fitness and against genetic convergence; thus, the behavior is thought to be as old as the species, though most asari perform the kiss without even being aware of its origins or unconscious function.

*** Glossary ***

Alritresigon: originally fabricated in 2148 from an alloy of aluminium, magnesium, and titanium, the patented material's hexagonal matrix was found to be supremely robust, and readily used in other alloys to great effect; though the name refers specifically to that product, almost any microfactured product which incorporates that material's scaffold matrix will find itself referred to colloquially with the name of the Alliance's last patented metamaterial, "Alritresigon."

ARA: Augmented Reality Appliance

armour bites: When armour absorbs the impact of a kinetic round, it still transfers some of the force of impact to the wearer, occasionally resulting in a bruise or other similar minor injury; also, when not "wear-fitted" (the process of cinching, stretching and flexing after donning armor,) misaligned joints may pinch

GPC: General Purpose Computer

Lucen: Lucen is the name of the asari mythological character most similar to Enkidu of the Gilgamesh cycle. It is largely through his efforts that the asari, under the leadership of Athame, were encouraged to take the power of biotics from the Universe and incorporate it into themselves. (Dates for this event range from 800 to 3300 centuries previous, depending on which city is reporting.) Lucen (abbreviated Ln,) is also the unit of biotic potential, 1 Ln approximately equal to 4.32 Watts. (Normally this power is further amplified and more finely controlled by technological means, a biotic "amp.")

Tevuran Kiss (as practiced among humans): livescience dot aschoonerofscience dot com/how-things-work/chemistry-of-kissing/britishcouncil dot org/voices-magazine/kiss-science-smooching

XO: Executive Officer