Therum
Walking back onto the Normandy again felt different to the times I had boarded the ship before. It was like I was seeing it for the first time again, everything seemed new and exciting. The ship was mine now, the men and women serving on board, and I felt a great sense of duty towards them. They were my people now and I had to protect them, I had to bring them home again. As for my newest recruits, I made sure to give them a tour of the ship myself and find them suitable areas of work depending on their skills.
Wrex, being a big fan of weapons and firepower as any other Krogan was, I sent to the armoury down in the hanger to keep the ground team's guns in order with Ashley. Garrus decided that he would be best working on our M35 Mako Infantry Fighting Vehicle that was also kept in the hanger. When he was not doing that, he would work on the calibration of the Normandy's main and secondary armaments. I had a feeling that Tali would be right at home in the engineering sector, being a Quarian and all, but I did not want her to think I was stereotyping her species and so gave her a choice. However, as soon as we walked into the engine room, I could tell that we had found her rightful place on the Normandy.
As soon as the immensely powerful but compact element zero core filled her vision she raced straight over to the nearest console and started skimming through the readings,
"This is amazing! How did you get such a powerful engine on a small ship like this? The Migrant Fleet could really benefit from this knowledge."
"The Normandy's the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy. Actually, it's still officially a prototype. So everything you see here is to be kept hush hush. What's it like living in the fleet?"
She turned to me,
"Our lives are hard. If all of us don't pull our weight then the Migrant Fleet would suffer. Our ships are noisy, crowded and there's always a lot to be done. But we like it that way, everyone on each ship considers themselves as one big family. We need to if we're going to survive."
"It must be hard for your people, not having a planet to call your own. If it breeds that kind of camaraderie and closeness though, maybe it's not all bad."
"It is difficult; our Admirals are always quarrelling amongst themselves whether we should prepare for war with the Geth and try to retake Rannoch or try to colonise another planet. But our immune systems would make it impossible to live without our suits, and we don't want to live in them forever. Rannoch was the perfect world for the Quarian race."
"Well, if the Geth are all off of Rannoch following Saren maybe you'll be in luck," I said light-heartedly. Tali giggled,
"Maybe."
I smiled at her and made to leave,
"Anyway, I hope you'll feel right at home here, bye Tali."
"Bye Commander. And… thanks, again for saving me from Saren's men. I'll remember that."
"You don't need to thank me," I said softly.
All systems were showing the green light. The crew all had their assignments and everyone was rearing to go. I stood next to Joker in his pilot seat and waited for the all-clear from Citadel traffic control.
"You think we'll get Saren, Sir?"
"Damn right we will. We can't let his crimes on Eden Prime go unanswered. Still… I feel wrong without Captain Anderson here. I feel like I'm stealing his ship."
"He gave you his ship Commander, because he knows how important this mission is and that you can get it done! Everyone on this ship is behind you, one hundred percent."
"I know, I trust them."
"What about the alien crew members?"
"I've seen all of them in action and they know what's at stake here. Along with Sergeant Williams and Lieutenant Alenko they're going to be my ground team."
"Roger that, Sir. The intercom's open if you want to say anything to the crew."
I paused. I needed to choose my words carefully, I needed my people to believe that we could do this.
"Listen up everyone. This is Commander Gardner. We've been chosen to track down Saren and bring him either to justice, or to an end. You all know what Saren is capable of, well saw what happened on Eden Prime. We need to stop him before he's able to commit even greater atrocities. He knows we're coming for him, he'll be prepared. But we have the best damn ship in the Alliance, the best crewmen and women on board, and with the knowledge and experience of our new allies, there's nothing that can stop us! We will stop Saren, we will succeed."
As if they were waiting for me to finish my speech, Citadel control gave us the green light to leave the dock and begin our mission. Joker guided the ship skilfully around and when he was clear of the docking area, he gunned the engines.
"Set a course for Therum Joker."
"Yes Sir. Setting course now, after we clear the relay we'll be there in approximately 23 hours. Sit back and enjoy the ride."
"If you can get us there faster, I'll give you a bonus," I said heartily.
"I'm holding you to that Commander!" Joker laughed.
After Joker made contact with the first Mass Relay, I began making my rounds of the ship. I made a point of getting to know the crew and making sure that they were ok and understood their missions clearly. I preferred to keep a casual atmosphere on board and I let the men and women under me know that, as long as I could trust them not to fail me when it counted most. If there was one thing that could fail a commanding officer in any military scenario, it was an exhausted and stressed-out crew. Not while I was in command. I ate meals with them, except for dinner as it was still a tradition for CO's to have that meal alone in the Human Alliance.
If I had spare time, I always made sure that I spent some of it helping out my crew of they needed an extra pair of hands on a job, such as in the engineering or in the armoury. One corner of the hanger had been turned into a small gym and I dedicated some time to keeping my physical self in good order. All in all, I did the best to bring my entire crew close together, Tali's description of life in the Migrant Fleet always in the back of my mind.
"One big family."
10 hours until arrival at Therum and I had been around the ship three times; checked in with everyone, made sure that the Alliance crew were making the aliens welcome and that the aliens were getting along with the Alliance crew. Dr Chakwas had met with Garrus, Wrex and Tali individually to give them any help they needed. Tali obviously needed the most taking care of given her lack of immune system, if something went wrong with her envirosuit then she could come down with a fever in minutes and if left untreated she could die in a scarily short space of time. Garrus was easy going and he and I had a lot in common. In fact, both of us were considered among the best snipers in our own respective militaries.
"Just as well neither of us had been born twenty years earlier Gardner, we might have been sent out to hunt each other in the First Contact War." He was making a joke of course, but he was also telling the truth.
When Humans had met their first alien race, the Turians, it had resulted in a short but fierce war that lasted over four months until the Citadel Council stepped in to stop the war from escalating out of control. If Garrus and I had been serving in our species' militaries then we may have been looking at each other through the lenses of our sniper scopes. Wrex, I found, was a bit of a recluse when it came to any down time. His idea of relaxing was tinkering with the guns and standing quietly in a corner observing other members of the crew as they went about their business. When I did try to get a conversation going with him, he told me to go to Tali if I wanted an alien friend; he was just here for Saren. I had helped him get to Fist, and now he was simply helping me reach my own target.
I went to my own personal cabin on the crew deck and sat on my bed. I should have gone to sleep, but the anticipation of getting to Therum had me hyped up and so I set about filing a few mission reports, then I reached for my guitar. I kept it in the back of my clothes locker; for some reason I felt like I needed to keep the fact that I could play guitar a secret from my crew, as if they would take me less seriously if they knew I liked to play along to my favourite metal songs from the early 21st century. I strummed a calming song for a little while before I finally felt I could get some rest. While I drifted off, I thought over the mission and my crew: I did not know exactly what I was in for, but I felt confident in the people I had on board the Normandy with me. We really could do this.
With two hours to go until we reached Therum I got up and did a fast and intense workout for half an hour before getting myself ready to go to ground if I needed to. I called Kaidan, Ashley, Wrex, Garrus and Tali to the comm room and went over what information we had on our current assignment.
"This is Dr Liara T'Soni. Daughter of Matriarch Benezia," a picture of the young Asari was displayed on the holo-screen next to a scan of the Prothean dig site she had last been reported to be at.
"She's an expert on the Protheans, having studied them for almost half of her life, but that's still over 50 years of knowledge. We don't know if she is working with Saren and her mother, but there's no evidence to say she is not. The only way to find out is to ask her ourselves. Joker's scanned the area and there are definitely Geth signatures in the area, we know they are moving around in a search pattern. Just to add to the excitement, this mission will be taking place in an area with a lot of volcanic activity."
I paused to make sure they were all listening in and focused,
"Dropping straight on top of the dig site entrance would be too risky; so we'll drop in the Mako and drive there. If we meet any resistance on the way, the Mako's cannon can deal with it. It'll be a squeeze with all of us in there, no offense Wrex," the Krogan laughed dryly, "but we'll punch through Geth lines and enter the excavation site here at this tunnel entrance. Your orders are to eliminate all Geth but to bring Liara back onto the Normandy, whether she's willing or not."
"Is everyone clear?" I asked.
They were all ready to go and knew what was expected of them. Within fifteen minutes the six of us were suited up for combat and were formed up in the hanger. I took the Commander's position in the Mako while Kaidan took the wheel and Ashley took the guns. Garrus and Tali secured themselves in the small passenger area while Wrex, much to his distaste, had to secure his large bulk in the frame of the hatch that joined the main section and the passenger section.
"Just as well it isn't the woman driving, or I'd be in for a few bumps and bruises!" Wrex teased Ashley who gave him a whack on the shoulder.
Joker's voice came over the comm,
"Ten seconds till drop Commander."
"Brace yourselves," I told my crew.
The Mako was suddenly jettisoned forward out of the hanger bay into the empty air. Once we were clear, the Normandy soared away back to higher altitudes and we were on our own. The Mako fell through the air for a few seconds before Kaidan deployed the Mako's own booster jets on the underside to slow our rapid descent. With a heavy thud we hit the ground, the tank's dampeners doing much to reduce the impact and prevent any of us from getting hurt. We were on Therum.
Therum was a planet of volcanoes and running rivers of lava for the most part. Its atmosphere was highly toxic and any wrong step could have you slipping to a fiery and excruciatingly painful death. The air and sky were choked with smoke and sulphurous fumes.
"The entrance to the dig site is located two clicks to our south. We'll have to follow this ravine to get there. Normandy's scans show that the Geth have set up a base on the main access route, we'll have to go right through it."
"Good," Wrex shouted, "chance to see how this little squad of yours copes in a real fight, Gardner"
He had a point; I had seen them perform in Chora's Den and in the alley when we rescued Tali, but this was going to be the real test.
"Just watch each other's' backs and follow my orders and we'll survive anything we come up against," I said strongly.
Kaidan skilfully drove the Mako over the rugged and unforgiving terrain. The suspension system on our tank was the best model that existed for Human vehicles, but the bigger bumps and dips could still be felt.
The radar began to pick up Geth signatures in up ahead of us and even as a spout of lava went up from the river beside us Ashley activated fire mode at my beckoning. The first to fall to the Mako's main gun was a watch post with Geth rocket soldiers and snipers positioned at it. The first shot took out half of them and knocked the rest to the ground and Ashley finished them off with the machine gun. The Geth were now alerted and every pocket we met were better entrenched and more spread out to minimise their casualties with each shot of our cannon. However, with Ashley's impressive skill and Kaidan's superb positioning and manoeuvring we overcame everything until we began to approach the base.
"I don't recommend charging into a Geth base all guns blazing Commander. It might not… end well," Garrus said over my headset.
"Agreed," I answered, "we dismount and investigate on foot."
Around a bend in the ravine lay the Geth base, watchtowers set around the perimeter with large barrier walls blocking most approaches. I left Kaidan and Ashley in the Mako to support us once the inevitable fight began while Garrus and I took point with our rifles ready, Tali and Wrex following close behind. We had already come up with the basics of a plan for the base while on the Normandy, and now I knew how to execute it perfectly. The terrain really lent itself to us for our scheme, it would funnel the Geth towards us into the kill-zone, primed for the killer blow.
Garrus and I fired the first shots simultaneously, picking off the Geth in the towers as quickly as we could. Many were killed, but some managed to get out of their positions and join their troops on the ground. Phaser shots started hurtling towards us but we held our position and kept on firing. The Geth were advancing under heavy covering fire and closing in quickly. I aimed my Widow rifle and fired, tearing a Geth's chest section apart and taking the arm off of the one behind it. The one who had lost the arm did not even flinch however, synthetics did not feel pain, and with its one good arm it continued firing at us.
"Time to fall back. Cover!"
Wrex and Tali rose from their cover and put down as much firepower as they could. To back up Wrex's assault rifle and Tali's submachine gun Kaidan powered the Mako forward and Ashley had the gun spewing bullets at our enemy.
The Geth split to take cover amongst the rocks and ash piles on both sides of the valley.
"Garrus, prioritise targets with heavy weapons. Kaidan, bring the Mako forward slowly and Ashley you annihilate everything you see! Wrex, Tali, you're the infantry support for the Mako. We're blasting through their line before they can fully dig in, are we clear?"
"Yes sir!" came the unanimous reply.
While Garrus and I sniped any Geth with anything bigger than their regular pulse rifles, the Mako rolled in. Ashley had the gun going none stop and the Geth were pushed back towards their base. Now was the time.
"Joker, need an airstrike at these coordinates. Bring it in while they're clustered together."
"Rodger that Commander. Strike inbound in 10… 9… 8…"
"Everyone down, take cover," I yelled.
The Normandy swooped down over head and unleashed a salvo of missiles right into the centre of the enemy concentration. Joker was one hell of pilot, and he proved himself once again right at that moment. The Geth had been decimated, their bodies and parts of bodies strewn all across the entrance to the base. I gave a signal and we moved forward again, Kaidan bringing the Mako up at the rear of our formation. There were a few Geth still active in the base, but they were all separated from each other and a few shots from Garrus and I took them out swiftly and efficiently. First success with my new fighting unit. We found the controls for the far-side gate and Tali worked her magic on the Geth console, clearing the way for us to head straight to the dig site. Once we were all crowded back in the Mako, Kaidan floored the pedal and we took off along the valley floor.
Gladly there was no further resistance until we arrived at the tunnel that would take us down into the Prothean ruins, and it was quite the welcome party. As well as a wave of regular infantry units the Geth had employed much larger, four-legged machines that boasted a powerful pulse cannon on their heads.
"Geth Armature!" Tali yelled.
"Dismount," I ordered, "Kaidan, Ashley, you take out the armatures and we'll hold off the infantry. Everyone go!"
Even as a large phaser pulse zipped past us, the four of us leapt out of the Mako and sprinted for cover, namely a collection of big crates not forty metres from the tunnel. The Mako's gun was blazing, but one of the armatures landed a hit right on the nose of our tank. The shields took most of the impact but I could tell that the Mako had been badly rocked. I took down a couple of Geth with my Mattock rifle and then radioed Kaidan,
"Back up out of sight and make what repairs you can, quickly."
"No sir, you can't take the Armatures without the fire support," Kaidan answered stubbornly.
"Move back, I'll have the Normandy bring them down."
"Rodger that Commander… Ash! On the Commander's flank!"
Ashley drilled two Geth infantry that were sneaking around us before the Mako backed away.
"Joker, airstrike on uploaded coordinates. Prioritise armature class units."
"On my way Commander. Man, it's tiring being the hero!"
I fired three rounds into the chest of one Geth, Garrus shot the light out on another's head. One Geth managed to reach our cover, but Tali surprised us all by hitting it with an electrical charge from her Omni-tool and then blasting its head once it had toppled over. I gave her an approving nod and continued to lay down the fire with the rest of the team when whoosh! The Normandy sailed in and dropped its missiles on our enemies and destroyed them almost entirely. Only one of the armatures survived, and even then, it had three of its legs blown off. However, it was still a danger and its cannon slowly traversed round to our location again.
"Spread out and give me covering fire!" I ordered, "Kaidan, bring the Mako back in. We'll finish that thing and get to the dig site."
As my team poured fire onto the damaged Geth I left cover and circled around to its side. The mobility of the Geth was severely hampered and this allowed me to sprint hard over to it and slap three of my grenades on weak points of its structure. As I ran away a pulse shot flew right above my head and the shockwave sent me sprawling to the ground, just as the armature was torn apart by my grenades.
Lying face down and shielding my face I waited until the ground below me stopped shaking before I got up again. The rest of the team was coming over to me while Kaidan and Ashley were powering down the Mako.
"Are you all right Scott?" Tali asked, almost choking with worry as she helped me up.
"Yeah Tali, I'm fine. Had to draw it off of you guys."
"You've got a quad Gardner," Wrex laughed, "but next time it's my turn."
I laughed and began to lead the team to the tunnel,
"You've got a deal."
The reprieve was over and it was back to business as we delved into the underground world that awaited us. The path was cramped and littered with debris. Signs of the attack were everywhere. Scorch marks from the pulse weapons of the Geth were almost everywhere and here and there I could see the bodies of diggers and archaeologists. They were from a variety of races; Asari, Turian, Salarian, even a Batarian was found.
"Check the Asari bodies. If one of them is Liara give me a shout. Ashley, Garrus, watch the upper levels as we go."
The rocky halls echoed slightly with our careful footsteps, but soon the works of the Protheans began to appear. A massive structure was centred in the chasm, pearly white in colour and strong in construction. There were chambers cut out of the side of the construct however, they were empty and bare and blocked off by energy barriers.
"The place still has power?" Ashley said, "the Protheans built to last didn't they."
It truly was impressive, but when I looked down from the catwalks, I could see another of the chambers, blocked off like the other, but with someone trapped inside. I could only see a pair of legs from my elevation, but that was enough to know that she was female.
"Down there," I pointed out for the team, "possible sighting of the Doctor."
We raced down, down creaking stairs and jumping down the shaft of a broken elevator, until we reached our target. The Asari was suspended in the air inside some sort of energy bubble, she looked terrified as her eyes lifted up to meet mine,
"Um… Hello? Are you here to help me?" her voice was soft and innocent.
"I'm Commander Scott Gardner, Human Alliance. Are you Liara T'Soni?"
"Y…Yes."
"Ok, keep calm Liara, we're here to get you out. How do we get to the command console?"
Liara tried to look around to her side, but she could not move very easily,
"It is in here with me. I must have hit something I was not supposed to when I turned on the shield. The Geth… were after me. I'm afraid I don't know how you can get past the shield."
"We'll deal with any Geth," I said while looking around me for any way to get to the Asari doctor. As we turned to head further down into the dig site Liara gave a final warning,
"Beware Commander. There is a Krogan Battlemaster leading the Geth. He has been trying to find different ways to get to me as well."
Wrex laughed,
"I'll deal with the pyjak when we meet him!"
We eventually made it to the floor of the chasm which was overflowing with mining equipment and shipment containers. Towards the back of the cave was a huge mining laser with its controls positioned just next to it,
"We could use the laser to bore through the rock into the building," I shouted, "Garrus… Garrus?"
No answer came and I looked round to find my Turian friend. He had dropped to a knee and raised his scope to his eye. Trusting his instincts, I signalled for the rest of the team to find cover as I reached his position,
"What's up?"
"There's Geth waiting down there. Hidden in the containers," he said, confident of his suspicions.
"That Krogan's around here somewhere as well, I can smell him," said Wrex as he slid not-so-gracefully over to us.
"Everyone take extra care, the enemy's waiting for us," I radioed the rest of our group.
"Attack!" came a horrific cry from above us. I looked up to the catwalks above us to see a hulking Krogan standing over us, glaring down at us with fire in his eyes. His Geth sprang from their positions and we had to fall back immediately. Wrex, Garrus and I were trapped on one side of the cavern while Kaidan, Ashley and Tali were pinned down on the other. I had to think fast or all of us were dead, and Saren would be free to bring destruction to the galaxy. We could not move with the Krogan firing down upon us and the Geth were closing in, working as a much tighter unit than the formations we had faced outside. I looked at Wrex beside me and then across to Kaidan with the other half of the team. I remembered Kaidan bringing down the footbridge on Eden Prime and knew we could do the same again. Krogan had rudimentary biotic abilities so I got on the radio immediately,
"Wrex, Kaidan! Bring the catwalk down with that Krogan."
The two biotics worked together, taking one end of the walkway each and shaking it to pieces. With quick and violent work, they soon had the walkway cascading down on top of the front ranks of Geth, but the Krogan would take a lot more than that to be defeated. He emerged from the wreckage, his biotic barrier fired up and glowing hot. Wrex snarled beside me and I could feel him accepting the challenge of the other Krogan,
"Hold on Wrex, you go charging out there you're a dead man!"
"You don't need to tell me that, Commander. I'm just letting him know that I'm going to tear him apart when I get my hands on him."
The volume of fire from both sides was increasing, but the smoke and dust from the destruction made it difficult to fire accurately. I moved back from our position and moved around to the flank, sniper rifle at the ready. The visibility was not much better, but I went to ground and began firing anyway. My Widow rifle put everything that I fired at down straight away, its power absolutely mind-boggling. Garrus appeared next to me and set his rifle to work also while across the other side I saw Kaidan and Ashley emerge from the smoke, assault rifles blazing.
That was when Wrex went for it. Bursting from the dust cloud like a rampaging bull he smashed into the Krogan Battlemaster. Both of them roared and shouted obscenities at each other, clawing and biting and punishing each other with thunderous punches. While the Geth numbers dwindled the Krogan fought each other almost to a stand-still, but it appeared that Wrex had the upper hand. He managed to wrestle his enemy to the ground and reached for his shotgun, but before he could fire the killing shot a pulse shot came out of nowhere at high velocity and tore through Wrex's arm. The other Krogan leapt up and was on Wrex almost within the same second and before I knew what I was doing I was racing out, combat knife in hand, to help my friend.
I jumped on the Battlemaster's back and dug my blade just under where the crest plate on his head began and started to lever it off. The Battlemaster squealed and thrashed about uncontrollably. The brute strength of the Krogan sent me flying through the air, but I had achieved what I set out to do and bought Wrex time. When the enemy veered back over towards Wrex he received a face-full of shotgun and he crumbled to the ground. Amazingly he was still alive and it took two more shots from Wrex's heavy Claymore shotgun to finish the job.
The Geth were picked off slowly. While one half of my team would advance up one flank the other would lay down heavy fire and then the two halves would swap roles. This left the flanks of the Geth exposed to one group or another and soon they were all killed. Kaidan and Tali took the final kill as Kaidan knocked it over with a biotic field and Tali slotted the synthetic with her sub-machine gun. Our fight was over, but now we still had to get through to Liara. There would have been more Geth in the surrounding areas and so speed became essential. Even so, Wrex still took the time to say a quick thank you,
"Never thought a Human would have the balls to rush a Krogan. I might just be starting to like you, Scott."
"The feeling's mutual," I joked, "I don't sit back and let friends get hurt Wrex. We're a team."
"Don't get preachy on me Commander, I'm in this one hundred percent. It's about time I fought for something more than just credits."
Garrus and Tali soon had the laser working, and fortunately the workers who had operated the machine before the Geth attack had already plotted several routes to get under the Prothean structure. The blast from the mining laser was short but intense and it carved a way through for us in a matter of minutes. We were inside and ascending on an ancient Prothean elevator before we knew it. As we went up, I could hear and feel distant rumbling noises, not explosive sounds but lower and they ground on forever.
"We… may have triggered some seismic activity with that laser, Sir," Kaidan said slowly.
We drew level with the cell that Liara had trapped herself in and I jogged over to the control console. A few button presses later and Liara dropped to the ground, free of her imprisonment.
"Thank you, Commander. Thank all of you. I though the Geth were sure to get me sooner or later. But we must be quick, I feel like this entire zone is about to collapse around us," Liara said with certainty. I was inclined to believe her.
"Joker," I said over the radio, "we need to get out of here now. Be ready for a pickup at the dig site entrance."
We took the elevator back up and we ran along the catwalks back to where we came in, rocks and boulders beginning to fall all around us. The catwalks shook and strained, a few down on the lower levels collapsed outright and I knew we did not have long. However, sunlight soon blessed my skin again as we escaped the deep underground and I was filled with joy when I heard the gentle hum of the Normandy's engines overhead. We had all survived a pretty hairy mission, but we all came out alive and a much tighter unit.
We were all back aboard and I gathered my team and Liara in the comm room.
"Thank you for rescuing me Commander. I'm sure I would have been killed or dragged away if the Geth had caught me," Liara said timidly.
"It's ok Liara," I reassured her.
"May I ask," she said, "while I am grateful, I am wondering what it is that you want with me?"
"You're the daughter of Matriarch Benezia, correct?"
Liara looked as if I had insulted her,
"Yes I am. But what does she have to do with all this?"
"I'm sorry but… your mother is working with a Turian called Saren, a Spectre. Or, a rogue Spectre I should say. We needed to find you either to prevent Saren from gaining another ally, along with your Prothean expertise, or save you if Saren had sent men after you. It would appear that it was the latter situation."
"But what would Saren want with me?"
"He's looking for a Prothean artefact; the Conduit. He wants to bring back the Reapers; a race of sentient machines that annihilated the Protheans fifty thousand years ago."
Liara looked confused,
"I have heard every theory out there as to what caused the Protheans to disappear, but I have never heard of these Reapers before. What evidence do you have to prove this?"
"There was a damaged beacon on Eden Prime, it burned a vision of sorts into my mind. I… still haven't figured anything out apart from the Reapers. And that was only thanks to Tali's recovery of a Geth memory core."
Liara seemed to be in shock, either at the mention of her mother working with a renegade or at the realisation of what happened to the Protheans, but she looked on the verge of fainting.
"When was the last time you ate? Or slept?" Kaidan asked politely.
"Not… recently," came Liara's weak reply.
"Okay," I said as I stood out of my chair, "everyone get some rest. Wrex, have that arm looked at and Liara, Dr Chakwas will help you. I'll be along to check on you in a little while."
"Thank you, Commander."
"Kaidan," I said as he walked past. He came over and I waited until everyone else had left the room before I spoke again,
"What do you think mate? Protocol says I should place a guard on Liara until she's proven herself trustworthy, but if she was being hunted by the Geth, Saren's Geth, then it's safe to assume she's on our side. Right?"
He rubbed his chin and thought for a moment,
"I think she's ok. She seems a bit… um… socially awkward. I don't think she could lie to us if she tried."
He was right. I let him off for rest, told Joker to set a course for Feros, and retired to my own cabin for a wash and a few hours of shut-eye.