A/N: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I do appreciate feedback, with this being my first fic and all.
CHAPTER 10: EVIDENCE
Commander Shepard finished the discussion with Wrex, and saw an asari in light armor waiting just outside the door. "Commander Shepard. I'm Senior Officer T'Sella. I'm in charge of this operation. We have a set of armor for you," the asari said coolly. T'Sella then turned to Williams and Alenko, the displeasure gone from the asari's expression. "We also have weapons for your teammates."
Ashamed about his recent thoughts towards his executive officer, the lieutenant focused instead on the checks he would need to perform on the rented weapons. The asari led the three of them into the small room, gesturing to the case of armor for the commander.
Shepard noticed that T'Sella obviously disliked her for some reason, but Shepard had to be polite to Garrus' boss. She thanked the asari, picking up the armor case to get changed.
Alenko and Williams began to check their weapons, powering up each and linking them to their armor's computer. With the functionality verified, the marines strapped the borrowed weapons to their backs.
Silence hung between the two marines for perhaps half a minute before the chief asked, "So, uh, L-T…can many biotics do that hovering…thing that the commander did?"
"Some," he replied. "It takes a lot of concentration and energy, even more so than a biotic charge. You're trying to control precisely where you are, rather than just hurling yourself at an enemy."
Williams nodded, still slightly apprehensive and unsure. "Have…do you ever hover with your biotics?"
"I haven't had a need to. It's more of an intimidation thing, it doesn't really have any combat utility," he explained.
She nodded again, and remained silent for many more moments, but with a question at the tip of her tongue. "Do you think we should be working with Wrex? And C-Sec?" she finally asked quietly.
"Commander Shepard knows what she's doing," Alenko replied, a little more sternly than his normal calm voice. While he had his own doubts about working with the Shadow Broker, just as Shepard did, he would never voice his doubt to a subordinate. "We need that evidence, which means working with the Broker. And we can't go after a gang leader without C-Sec buy-in."
"Yes, sir," Williams replied hesitantly, not convinced, turning her attention to her new loaned weapons.
Less than five minutes after entering the changing room, the commander come out. The chief looked at Shepard, and the NCO immediately burst into uncontrollable laughter. Ashley managed to stifle the remainder of the cackling by biting down on her hand.
"DON'T. SAY. A WORD," Layla said, clearly, loudly, and forcefully. As a result, Kaidan naturally turned to look at the commander.
Apparently, the only set of armor that fit her was a light set. That wasn't surprising to the lieutenant, and most biotics preferred light armor for the mobility, in any case. However, the surprise came from the colors of the armor – while a polished white covered just over half of the armor, a very feminine pink covered the rest.
"This is rented armor, Alenko. Double check it for me," Shepard ordered. Despite her soprano pitch, her voice did not broker any argument.
After several seconds the chief asked with an ear-to-ear grin, "Permission to speak freely, Commander?"
"NO!" came the immediate response.
"Okay." The chief only paused a moment before continuing. "First off, I want to take this opportunity to say that you look really cute." Then she started snickering, biting back her laughter.
"We're going to raid a club and extract information from a thug leader. I'm not trying to look 'cute' now. Those thugs will never take me seriously while wearing this," Shepard responded, gesturing to herself. Evidently the commander wasn't bothered by the teasing, Alenko realized, rather more annoyed at the color scheme. Annoyed…but it seemed that there was something else to her expression.
Williams paused for a moment before exclaiming in wide-eyed surprise, "You like it!"
"What?" Shepard responded in annoyance.
"You like the color!" the chief responded as a wide grin appeared on her face, before breaking out into laughter.
"No I don't!" their superior protested with a glare.
"What do you think, L-T?" Williams asked in between breaths of air.
"Look good, Commander," the lieutenant replied automatically as he finished inspecting the ports and interfaces on the commander's armor. He froze a moment later as he realized what he had said, and how that could be interpreted. "Your armor I-I m-mean y-your armor d-doesn't have issues I-I-It's set for c-combat," he stammered quickly, feeling his face going bright red from embarrassment. Oh shit please tell me that I fought that Wrex krogan and all his thousand krogan friends hand to hand a few minutes ago that Chakwas gave me a bunch of painkillers and that is why my face is on fire and not because of what I said I'm going to wake up and
"See! Even the L-T thinks you look good!" Williams said with an ear-to-ear grin, shooting a quick look at Alenko.
"I-I meant to say t-that no problems your rented armor is set to go there's no issues," Alenko stammered out quickly, not daring to look at his XO. Shit shit shitty shit SHIT
"Come on, L-T, back me up here!" Ashley said with a huge grin as she shoved his shoulder.
"No comment," he replied as he held up his hands in surrender as he tried to calm down, but the anxiety faded after looking at Ashley's face, and he finally glanced to his XO.
The commander sighed and sagged her shoulders. After a couple seconds she said grudgingly with a shake of her head, "Okay, fine. You both caught me. I admit: the girly part of me finds it cute. But clearly a different color scheme would be better for the situation. Let's go, and NOT. ANOTHER. WORD." Shepard turned and walked out of the room, with Williams trying and failing to suppress a snicker.
Wrex waited for them just outside. He immediately appraised the two marines, giving neither more than a cursory glance before his gaze settled on Shepard. He stared at her for about a second before the entire hallway exploded with the loud roaring laughter of a krogan. "HAHAHAHAHA!"
Shepard rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know. Let's go," she said in exasperation.
Wrex's bellowing laughter continued to echo off of the floors and walls as they entered the staging area.
The garage was filled with unmarked skycars, police cruisers, and several assault transports. Each of these transports carried nose-mounted and coaxial mass accelerators, the latter of which could put out a prodigious rate of fire.
Several C-Sec officers, including Garrus, approached them, all decked out for heavy assault and CQB. Shepard noticed she got a couple looks of incredulity, presumably about her armor's color. She sighed that no one would take her seriously wearing pink armor, though it was nothing that a singularity or two couldn't resolve.
T'Sella gave the commander a look before turning to the assembled officers. "Listen up. Fist has information that our…associates need. Unfortunately, Fist has decided to start working for rogue elements."
"He's already a criminal," a turian agent said. "He's not a nice guy, but why are we suddenly going after him after all these years?"
"First off, he has about twenty thugs fortifying his club, Chora's Den. Second, these rogue elements appear to be working with the geth," T'Sella said, and the room suddenly got very quiet.
"Which is why we need Fist to talk. Take him alive, then we can question him," Garrus added. "Plus, one fewer crime boss isn't a bad thing." Too bad we don't do this more often, he thought with a hint of anticipation. And that documentary he saw about Elysium had hyped up Commander Shepard's power. He was eager to learn whether it was exaggerated.
A loud series of pops echoed through the room as Wrex cracked his neck and knuckles, and a grin appeared on his face. The thought sent a slight chill down Williams' spine. Being interrogated by a krogan certainly wouldn't be pleasant.
"Why's he holed up in his office, instead of fleeing the Citadel?" another agent asked.
"Because he has about twenty thugs between him and us," T'Sella replied.
The agents exchanged nervous glances. "Us against all of them?" one asked apprehensively.
"Yes," Wrex said with a grin. He rolled his shoulders and flexed his knees in anticipation. "And despite her armor - " this earned the krogan a glare and scowl from the wearer of the armor " - this human knows what she's about. Or you all can just stay here, and leave them all to me," the krogan growled as he bared his teeth.
The C-Sec agents exchanged glances and the combatants piled into the vehicles after the brief finished.
After the fast trip, everyone quickly piled out of the assault transports as if the vehicles were clown cars. They hurried forward for fifty meters towards a t-junction in the hallway, quickly turning left and taking cover behind safety walls. A wide doorway stood on the far side of a fifteen meter wide chasm. Two large, neon-lit figures in suggestive poses flanked the entrance, one asari, one human female.
"Glad there's no civilians around," Shepard said in relief and a deep breath.
There hadn't been time to coordinate who had what roles in the assault. T'Sella looked to be about ready to issue a bunch of orders. Good for her. Shepard had other ideas. The room for Fist's club happened to be circular, just over ten meters in diameter.
"How much do you want to bet the door is rigged with traps," the commander stated.
"I wouldn't take that bet," Garrus replied.
"Nope," Wrex muttered.
"Alenko, use a throw on that door," Shepard ordered. "Wrex, get ready. We go in after the door is blown." Dark energy began swirling around her petite frame.
Alenko stowed his firearm, drawing dark energy to unleash on the door. Wrex charged his barrier and drew his shotgun with a grin. T'Sella spun around to look at Shepard. The asari glared at the petite human. "Listen, kid. This is my – "
"Now, Lieutenant," Shepard half-shouted, to be heard over the asari and the deep thrum of Kaidan's biotics. He immediately complied, his massive wave of energy ripping the door off of its rails. Motion sensors detonated explosives just milliseconds after the wave of dark energy impacted. The resulting explosion blasted the door into pieces, sending fragments ripping into the club and its occupying thugs.
The commander heard a salarian and turian scream, but she didn't pay them much heed. She walked forward into the smoldering entrance, dark energy swirling around her. "Open fire!" a krogan shouted, but she ignored it.
Shepard dropped an enormous singularity in the center of the room, picking up nearly every object present. Panicked shouts could be heard over the crash of objects slamming into each other and sporadic weapon fire exiting the maelstrom. Dark energy continued to swirl around the commander, and a moment later she detonated the vortex in an ear-ripping explosion that shook the external hallways.
The commander drew into cover next to the human female neon sign. "Wrex," she nodded.
The krogan let out a bellowing laugh as he charged into the room, shooting at a thug that had managed to survive the explosion. He then used a throw on a turian that attempted to fire back.
Williams glanced over to Garrus, who looked surprised, but shrugged back. T'Sella had a look split between shock and indignation. The E-5 saw her XO charge her biotics again and jump into the room. Alenko followed right on her footsteps, omni-tool sabotage at the ready. He immediately found a pair of targets – two turians attempted to get to their feet after the explosion. The sabotage overheated their weapons, and the lieutenant opened fire with his shotgun, diving into cover as he glanced around the rest of the room.
The room had been utterly trashed, with tables, chairs, and bottles of liquor strewn about, mostly near the edges of the walls as a result of the biotic detonation. At least a dozen motionless bodies were strewn about, and he saw only four hostiles remained. Rifle fire poured into the pair of turians, followed a moment later by a biotic attack that slammed both into the wall.
Alenko saw Wrex close into melee range of a large turian, but the turian didn't stand a chance. A few brutal blows from the massive krogan left the thug a limp body. The corpse crumpled unceremoniously to a floor now slick with blood.
All that remained was a large krogan gangster, who had leapt to his feet and charged at Shepard. Alenko and Wrex unleashed near-simultaneous throws on the thug, sending him crashing into the wall.
Good Lord, Ashley thought. The whole engagement was just a few seconds, and we – mostly Shepard – cleared out close to twenty thugs. She then glanced around what was left of the club. And COMPLETELY trashed the bar. Shattered bottles of liquor had been strewn about the room, with nearly every chair or table in the room having been smashed into heaps of metal and wooden splinters. It would be very clear to the crime scene investigators what occurred here: a massive biotic explosion. Or a party for the ages.
"Nice work, human," Wrex said to Shepard. "Next time, leave more for me."
Shepard then looked to the door to Fist's office, and…it was a prothean door. A door that was part of the Citadel itself. A door that couldn't be hacked. Because of COURSE it would be a prothean door, she frowned. That was a reason to stay holed up, but not necessarily a good one. He should have still fled, she thought, since he couldn't stay in there forever.
Well, no one said thugs that betrayed the Shadow Broker had to be smart, she thought.
Regardless, Fist was hiding behind a door that couldn't be hacked, that couldn't be blown up, that couldn't be broken down. They would need to find someone with the code.
Everyone else present came to the same conclusion over the next few seconds. "We need a code to open prothean doors."
"And everyone here is - "
"Dead," T'Sella said, turning to look at the commander as her anger came close to boiling over. This human had somehow roped Garrus, and by extension, her, into this mess. A literal mess that destroyed a bar and killed close to twenty thugs for no result. Several accusatory pairs of eyes settled on Shepard.
"Well shit," Garrus muttered.
The same eyes turned towards the sound of a groan as the krogan thug rolled on the ground. Wrex turned towards the gangster, striding towards his wounded kin, picking him up and slamming him against the wall. The thug slid back down into a sitting position. "It's our lucky day. And yours. You get to live, and we get the door open. Simple enough?" Wrex said as his corona flared. The commander strode to stand next to Wrex.
The krogan focused his defiant gaze on her. "Stupid human!" the krogan snarled at her.
"What's the code to open the door?" Shepard asked simply.
"Go fuck yourself, female!"
"We're don't have much time, so it would be easiest for everyone if you'd cooperate and just tell us the door to open the door," Shepard replied, though with a hint of frustration in her tone. Her corona glowed as she approached him calmly, crossing her arms. "Just answer that one question, and you'll get an easy sentence. We don't need you, we need Fist."
The krogan suddenly leapt to his feet and lunged at Shepard, but the commander was prepared. She jumped back and deftly dodged, then followed up with a massive biotic punch to the jaw. The impact sounded like a thunderbolt had struck the room. A jet of blood and several teeth went sailing into the air as his head snapped back, only prevented from snapping the neck by the massive hump on the krogan's back. The thug's feet left the ground as he went flying into a wall two meters away.
"AAGHH!" the krogan screamed in agony as he crumpled back to the ground.
"You broke his jaw," Wrex observed lightly. "Start with the hump next time. The teeth grow back quickly."
"I'll kill you for that!" the thug roared defiantly, curled up on the ground and clutching his jaw in pain.
The last comment earned a snort and rumbling chuckle from Wrex. "If you think that, you're higher than a rdek on red sand and ryncol."
T'Sella watched the proceeding events in surprise. This tiny human woman, the one the Alliance paraded around for the cameras to look pretty, had cleared out a squad of thugs in seconds and was now questioning a krogan that probably weighed ten times as much as her. T'Sella always felt that reputation and respect should be built on accomplishments and merit, not on simply media frenzy. She had always felt that this Shepard had received too much publicity simply because of the news reports, and T'Sella had instantly disliked the young human because of it. But now, T'Sella realized that the accounts of Commander Shepard's power and ability were not at all exaggerated. It also made her a bit afraid of the petite woman.
The thug turned to look at Shepard, then slowly turned to Wrex. "Huh. Urdnot Wrex. The head of the so-called mighty Clan Urdnot. Look at you. Pathetic. Reduced to being a lackey for the humans – "
A shotgun blast from less than a meter away ripped into the thug's knee. The thug howled in pain as a second shot from Wrex tore into the muscle underneath the armor. "Stop your whining, pyjak. It's just a flesh wound," Wrex grumbled. "It'll heal. What's the door code?"
"You're the one that introduced violence into this conversation, not me. You didn't have to try to hit me. We don't have much time, so all I want is the door code. After that, you can get medical treatment," Shepard asked again, frustration evident in her voice.
The thug took a deep breath, allowing his natural regenerative ability to dull the pain as he sat back up. "How about this. Cease your yammering and put your mouth to use by sucking dick, whore," the krogan spat at her. Shepard scowled back at him has her corona began to flare brighter. "Actually, I have a better – "
The rest of the thug's words were drowned out by Shepard's charging biotics. The krogan's torso became encased in blue light. His body suddenly got pulled forward towards the commander, then a biotic crash followed as he flew backward. "AAGGHH!" he bellowed as he slammed into the wall, leaving a krogan-shaped impression before he collapsed back to the ground. The thug curled up on himself after flopping to the ground, letting out a very un-kroganlike squeak of pain.
"A good, strong hit. You cracked his hips this time," Wrex stated approvingly. "He's just going to be a smear on the wall when you're done with him."
Now Shepard looked angry. Really angry, Williams saw. Despite her small size, despite that ridiculous armor color, the commander looked terrifying right now. If that thug didn't comply, he clearly had no survival instinct.
"Your disrespect has really tested my patience. What. Is. The door code," Shepard snapped. Her biotics thrummed enough that even at this distance, Alenko felt a tingle at the base of his skull as the wisps of dark energy began to interact with his sensitive implant.
T'Sella watched the situation unfold in front of her, experiencing something for the first time. For the first time in her C-Sec career that had started before the geth rebellion, she didn't know what to do. She was watching a bloody interrogation unfold right before her eyes. As an officer of the law, it was part of her job to prevent that. But even with her biotics, she didn't think she could subdue the massive krogan or the tiny human woman. She glanced quickly amongst her C-Sec officers, and none of them looked to have the slightest inclination to intervene. The exception was Garrus, who actually looked smug and amused at the thug being beaten and shot to a pulp in front of them.
The thug looked for several seconds between the two opposite people that stood over him; the massive ancient krogan battlemaster, and the tiny young human woman. Ordinarily he would have considered the latter as no threat, especially with her current armor, but now after seeing just what she was capable of with her biotics, he wasn't sure which he was more afraid of.
He was sure of one thing, though. If he wanted the excruciating pain from overpowering biotics and shotguns to the knees to stop, he should stop insulting the human.
"Now, varren shit," Wrex growled, his voice lower and quieter. "Tell me what the door code is, or I'll shoot you in the place where it won't heal."
The thug actually looked afraid at that prospect, and quickly relented.
The commander nodded. "You better not be lying to us," she glared. She stepped back before turning to the squad. "For all we know, Fist has a trap on the other side," Shepard said. She then turned to Alenko, contemplating. "Wait…Lieutenant, do you have enough control over your biotics to input the code remotely? Using biotics to press the buttons from behind the - what's left of the bartop?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied with a confident nod.
"I can put up a backlash to protect us, but I don't have enough control to input the code," she said, then turned to the thug. "Because if the door is trapped, Wrex will have additional questions for you."
"You better not be lying, pyjak," Wrex growled at the thug. "Otherwise, I have no problem following through on my threat."
The krogan thug nodded his head quickly. "It's correct."
"You better hope so," came the rumbling response.
The two biotic officers, meanwhile, took position behind the best available cover, the partially intact bartop. "Ready?" the commander asked him.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied a nod.
She nodded back, then began to charge and project a backlash a meter in front of them. Alenko had already felt the tingle of her biotics interacting with his amp, so the sensation did not come as a surprise, but the intensity did. He felt a tingle through his nervous system, and he put the sensation aside as he charged his own biotics.
Layla Shepard felt Kaidan Alenko charge his biotics, but she hadn't quite expected the intensity. She didn't feel the dark energy interact with her nervous system, but she didn't need to. The swirling energy from him surrounded both of their bodies, and she realized just how close they stood. She suddenly glanced to look at Kaidan's well-muscled physique that would be under that armor, then looked up to his face. His chiseled face, sheathed in a blue glow, his expression a mix of concentration, determination, confidence…
She then realized just how hot he looked right now.
The momentary distraction caused her to suddenly drop the backlash.
The lieutenant immediately stopped and turned to look at her, his own biotics fading. "What's wrong?" he asked immediately.
The commander quickly glanced away. "S-s-sorry," she said quietly. "I-I didn't expect your biotics to react to mine. It was a surprise is all," she said quickly, not looking up to meet his gaze. "I'm ready," she appended after a moment, still looking away, seemingly embarrassed about something. "Sorry."
Kaidan knew that reacting to other powerful biotics could make it very difficult to concentrate. Normally people would say that there was nothing to be ashamed of about a momentary loss of control, but he knew firsthand what happened when biotics lost focus. Lost control. "Ready when you are," he told her a little more harshly than he would have liked as he suppressed the memories of the past. "Ma'am."
She quickly made eye contact before looking away and nodding. She closed her eyes, focusing on the dark energy surrounding her.
The backlash went back up a moment later, and the lieutenant focused solely on the thin wisps of energy he created at the door panel several meters away. He closed his eyes for a moment, gritting his teeth as he slowly input the code. At least the symbols were far apart, making his task easier.
After the last symbol got put into the large door panel, both officers immediately dropped behind the bartop remnants, with the backlash still up. However, the door had silently opened, revealing a long narrow corridor.
"Great work, Lieutenant," Shepard said, though she didn't make eye contact. "Let's go see what Fist will tell us."
"Why do I have to do everything?" an enraged voice screamed. Shepard hurled a couple more waves of energy into the room, with Alenko and Wrex doing the same. The biotic display didn't trigger any traps.
The commander entered first, followed quickly by Wrex. A pair of large autoturrets popped up from the ground and rotated to face the squad. The O-4 used a backlash to deflect the turrets' fire long enough for the squad to get to cover, then she used her biotics to charge to a corner of the room to flank Fist. Kaidan and Garrus overloaded the turrets' shields, then Williams broke one with rifle fire while Wrex biotically charged a second with a laugh, shooting it with his shotgun for good measure.
Fist sprinted at the female biotic, reasoning that if he got close enough, she couldn't use her biotics and his shotgun could easily deal with this tiny biotic chick. Given how small she was, and the fact she wore pink armor, she couldn't be that much of a threat.
The commander already had her biotics ready, though, and dark energy swirled around her right hand. As Fist closed within a couple meters of her, he had realized he had made a huge mistake. She threw a punch at him, but her hand never actually hit him. When her fist got within about ten centimeters of his chest, the biotic energy around her released, forming a powerful biotic punch. Fist flew off of the ground and slammed against the far wall, and collapsed to the floor with a long moan of pain. Shepard then used her biotics to pin him to the ground.
"Don't kill me! I surrender!" the thug pleaded, fear now taking the place of the pain, as there were four shotguns now aimed at him a terrifying amount of dark energy swirling around three of his assailants.
"Where's the quarian?" Shepard asked him calmly, her soprano voice in stark contrast to the deep thrum of her biotics.
"She's not here. I don't know where she is. That's the truth!" Fist pleaded.
"Bravo Sierra," Ashley muttered.
"Uh huh. Sure you don't," Shepard said as she crossed her arms, dark energy still swirling around her form.
"Time to put a round into your kneecap," Wrex interjected, leveling his weapon at the thug's knee.
"Wait! Wait!" the thug pleaded, eyes wide in fear as he stared down the business end of an angry krogan's shotgun. "I don't know where the quarian is now, but I know where you can find her in a few minutes," Fist said.
"Start talking, then," Wrex snapped at him.
"The quarian isn't here. She said she'd only deal with the Shadow Broker himself," Fist said.
"Face to face? Impossible! Even I was hired through an agent," Wrex replied.
"Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Ever. Even I don't know his true identity. But she didn't know that. I told her I'd set a meeting up. But when she shows up, it'll be Saren's men waiting for her," Fist responded. He gave them the location and the time. "If you hurry, you can meet her there."
Shepard nodded. "Thank you for your cooperation. Wrex, carry this petty thug out to the C-Sec officers. If he's lying to us, we'll find out soon enough, and…well, you better not be lying to us," the commander glared at him. "For your sake."
Wrex grinned as he grabbed Fist by the shoulder pauldron and easily picked up the heavily armored gangster with one arm. "Another pyjack," he said, tossing him into the air. Fist let out a cry of pain as he rolled to a stop next to the wounded krogan thug.
"Alenko, Williams, Wrex, you're with me," Shepard said quickly as she hurried towards the exit. "We only have a few minutes."
"I'm coming too," Garrus said.
T'Sella didn't have time to be angry about how quickly and helplessly she had lost control. Garrus seemed to have no problem follow this human's orders. The asari couldn't keep the scowl off of her face as she issued orders to her officers, leaving six of them to watch the two seriously wounded prisoners until the C-Sec assault vehicles could approach. The asari and the remainder of her officers hurried to catch up to Shepard, who had already disappeared from sight around a corner.
Tali'Zorah nar'Rayya appraised the turian and two salarians, reflecting on just how terrible her luck had been the past two days.
As part of her Pilgrimage, she had traveled to the borders of the Perseus Veil, geth space, planning to collect additional intelligence on the enigmatic, isolationist synthetics. Upon her arrival, she had been shocked to discover that the geth had ended their three centuries of hermit-like seclusion, with ships deploying from several relays that linked to the Perseus Veil. The geth had deployed forces to planets across the Attican Traverse, and she had promptly disabled a fireteam of geth on a small colony a day and a half ago, her standard procedure for attempting to obtain data from geth databanks. Information extraction infrequently worked due to robust geth failsafes, despite her considerable skill, but this time she had been quick enough to extract some data from its memory core. She at first had been disappointed at the information contained, being just a surprisingly large set of audio and video from a wide series of geth units, but after a quick review, she realized that she had just stumbled onto something far more than a simple set of data files.
The Flotilla did get the galactic news – they were migrants, not vagrants – despite usually being treated as part of the latter. She, like everyone else in the galaxy, had heard of Saren the Spectre. So, when Tali started to review the fragments of the audio and video files, and saw Saren clearly working and leading the geth, she panicked. She took an immediate shuttle off world, wanting to get to the Citadel as fast as possible, to get this data to C-Sec. She should have just gone back to the Flotilla instead.
Somehow Saren – or the geth – had found out that she possessed an incomplete, but rather damning, set of data files clearly linking both of them to the recent attack on Eden Prime. Since then, she had evaded two attempts on her life and barely escaped a third – the latter had required her to overload a power conduit on the Citadel, but she had been shot in the process, being patched up just a few hours ago at a clinic in the Wards. While the brief treatment and antibiotics had helped reduce the chance of infection, she knew she needed proper medical attention soon, but she couldn't afford to stay in the same place for long.
C-Sec had been useless. She had pleaded for protection from three separate officers, but all had threatened to run her in for vagrancy. She had to get protection, and her best hope, until a couple minutes ago, was an information dealer called the Shadow Broker. She would give this data to him, and she would receive protection from Saren's frighteningly wide network of agents on the Citadel. However, she now suspected that the middleman named Fist didn't really work for the Shadow Broker at all, but rather for Saren himself. Just how many henchmen does that bosh'tet have on this station?
And she now found herself outnumbered and soon to be on the run yet again. Presuming she made it out of her current predicament.
"Did you bring it?" the turian asked.
"Where's the Shadow Broker?" Since quarians lived nearly their entire lives without seeing each other's faces, they had necessarily become very good at reading body language and listening to vocal tones of others. As a result, her species could very easily read people by just observing a few subtle hints. A slight shift in stance, a tiny inflection in tone. It only took them a bit of practice to apply these observations to other species as well. Tali hadn't been around other species before her Pilgrimage, but she could easily tell this turian in front of her was completely lying. She already knew the true answer – the Broker, or even a representative, wasn't coming. But she needed to buy herself time as she once again searched for an escape route.
"He'll be here," the turian replied softly as he ran his hand down her arm.
Bosh'tet. Her eyes instead tracked the two salarians. Salarians had very fast reflexes, and she had to wait for a time when they weren't fully focused on her…now –
Tali threw the grenade at their feet and sprinted behind a crate as fast as she could. She saw a pair of rounds go wide around her torso as she slid into cover. She quickly fired off a sabotage from her omni-tool. The turian subsequently cursed, and she was just about to stand to flee the alley when she heard the telltale roar of a powerful biotic attack.
Oh keelah this is it. One of the salarians, or the turian, were biotic. Tali had no counter for them. Not even a damping field would work against powerful biotics, and she had to get into melee range to use a neural shock. This was it. This was the end.
Something flew over her head at high speed, and she looked at the flying object to see it was the turian that had threatened her. He screamed the entire time, which was cut short by his hard impact with a wall several meters away. She was so shocked by this development that she froze in place, listening to the sound of mass accelerator rounds impacting barriers. These…were these the Shadow Broker's real people? Or were they someone else?
Shepard sprinted forward, biotics charged and omni-tool sabotage ready, the rest of the squad just steps behind her. She heard the explosion of a grenade, followed a second later by a sabotage discharging, and she prayed they weren't too late.
The commander rounded a corner to see a pair of salarians jumping to their feet, far faster than any human ever could, and a turian that began to aim his rifle at the retreating form of a quarian. While salarians were always a threat due to their fast reflexes, the turian had just started to open fire. He was the immediate threat to the quarian.
She uncorked a powerful throw on the turian assassin, hurling him into a wall and snapping his neck in the process, immediately following with a sabotage on the salarians. As much as she'd like to, there wasn't time to try to take a salarian alive. Both were already on their feet and backup weapons drawn as they instantly pivoted towards the new threat. But her squad already had their weapons and abilities ready.
Alenko hit the salarians with an overload as the two hitmen switched to sidearms in a flash. Wrex, Garrus', and Ashley's rifles both spoke in near unison, and the salarians crumpled to the ground after the burst fire, unable to jump away from enough of the shots in time.
"Let's sweep the area of any more of Saren's goons. Take them alive, if possible, but if there's any threat to the quarian, don't hesitate to kill them," Shepard ordered. She started sweeping the area with her pistol in her right hand and biotics primed with her left.
Shepard instinctively aimed her pistol at motion behind a crate ten meters away, only to lower it a split second later as she recognized the part of the head and the faceplate she could see as a quarian. "Ma'am," Shepard said softly in the trade language. "We've eliminated the thugs. You're safe now."
A shotgun first appeared from behind the crate, followed a moment later by the top of a quarian head. It was impossible to see exactly what the quarian in question was looking at, due to the faceplate shielding the eyes, but the head was looking right at Shepard. A couple seconds later the quarian stammered out in the trade language, "O-o-oh! Y-you're Commander Shepard! I saw y-you on the news about Eden Prime!"
Shepard instinctively winced ever so slightly at the fact she was recognized and the name of Eden Prime before she replied calmly, "I am. Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. And I've heard that you have evidence that links Saren to the geth and to Eden Prime."
"I do, Commander," the quarian said, relief evident in her voice. "And I can repay you for saving my life."
"We need to get somewhere safe, first," Shepard said. "Let's get back to the C-Sec vehicles." Shepard's fireteam and the C-Sec officers formed up around the nervous and injured quarian, with Garrus and Wrex leading the way, Alenko and Williams watching their six.
T'Sella had seemed to acquiesce to Shepard taking charge of the situation. I have a job to do, but you're too busy disliking me to properly do yours, Layla thought. The commander knew she shouldn't be surprised. A sizeable percentage of people thought her fame was unwarranted or she had received too much credit for Elysium. The O-4 knew they were right, but she hadn't wanted to become PAO's postergirl, either. We all have that in common, I guess, the commander thought with a measure of amusement.
"Were you hurt in the fight?" Shepard asked the quarian.
"I'm fine. Though I appreciate the help. I was shot a couple hours ago, but a doctor patched me up."
"That's how we found out about you," Shepard told her. "From Doctor Michel. What kind of evidence did you find against Saren?"
"I recovered a geth memory core that contains video and audio files that implicate Saren is working with the geth and is behind Eden Prime," the young quarian said.
Shepard stopped midstride for a second before resuming her alert walk next to the quarian. Wait what!? "That…would certainly explain why he's after you. But how does he know you have this information?" she asked, keeping the sudden excitement at the news out of her voice.
"I'm not sure," the quarian replied uneasily.
Another question we need to answer…just what reach does Saren have with his information network? Shepard thought.
"I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died," Wrex said.
"They do, but if you know what you're doing, and are quick and lucky, you can salvage some information," the quarian replied, a hint of confidence in her voice.
Makes sense, Shepard thought. The quarians built the geth – they're going to know more about them then we do. Hopefully the Alliance has enlisted some assistance from the quarians to look at the "dead" geth on Eden Prime. If not…well, we should change that. "What's your name?"
"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. You can call me Tali," the quarian answered after a brief hesistation.
Suddenly gunfire echoed through the narrow halls. Everyone quickly took cover, with Garrus pulling Tali behind a large crate with him. A krogan's dying yell followed, as well as a salarian scream.
T'Sella's communicator went off. "Officer!" a raspy voice shouted.
"What is it?" the asari asked instantly.
"Fist and the krogan attacked. We killed the krogan, but Fist escaped. Salden is injured, bad," the turian replied.
"Shit," T'Sella muttered. The C-Sec officers rushed around a pair of corners to Fist's former bar just fifty meters away.
"Follow them, but protect Tali," Shepard ordered. About fifteen seconds later a skycar zoomed off, wavering in the air before setting on a fast rapid course to merge with the rest of traffic.
Shepard entered the remnants of the bar to see everything mostly unchanged from their assault, with the exception of a krogan missing the top of his head and a salarian C-Sec agent down, with another agent providing first aid. The commander instinctively knelt to support, the salarian first aid training from the N-school training surfacing at the front of her mind. Her team and the remainder of the agents formed a very protective perimeter, with Tali hiding in a corner. Shepard quickly helped to stabilize the agent before three C-Sec cruisers and an ambulance arrived. The commander knew the agent would survive, but he would be out of action for a while.
Shepard looked around to the stabilized agent, and glanced around to the rest of the C-Sec officers, subconsciously giving the asari leader a skeptical glance. Didn't even have your officers bring cuffs or stunners, Shepard thought. Didn't you think that one or two of them might surrender? "Let's get everyone back to C-Sec," Shepard said, keeping the frustration out of her tone.
T'Sella and most of her agents had stayed to secure the area, while Shepard's team, plus Garrus, Tali, and Wrex, returned to the C-Sec office in an assault vehicle for the thirty second trip to the nearest office.
The six of them jumped out of the vehicle in the secure vehicle bay, then entered an elevator to take them into the C-Sec office proper. The surprisingly slow elevator seemed rather hesitant to move as it rumbled into motion. More ridiculously long elevator rides with people we don't know. Not at all awkward, Williams thought to herself. A news broadcast came on, with an image of a very familiar face smiling at the cameras after receiving an award. The figure then appeared as part of a split screen to the left of a human anchorwoman.
"In other news, recently promoted Lieutenant Commander Layla Shepard, commonly known as the Angel of Elysium, met with the Council earlier this afternoon," the anchorwoman began. "Commander Shepard was at Eden Prime, where the surprise geth attack has stunned the Alliance. The Council was not available for comment, and Commander Shepard has not been made available to interview. While reports indicate that a Spectre may have been killed on Eden Prime, it is known that the commander is under consideration for admission to the Spectres. She would be the first human to join the group of the Council's elite operatives."
Everyone slowly looked at Shepard, who shrugged innocently in response.
"Huh. It appears you've been busy," Wrex muttered.
"Don't they have better things to talk about?" Ashley asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Apparently not," Garrus muttered.
"Tali, what information did you find?" Shepard asked once they exited the elevator.
The young quarian appeared nervous, with the five members of the squad surrounding her along with four more C-Sec agents.
"Give us some space," Shepard ordered. Everyone but her and Garrus backed away from the quarian.
"I-I was on my Pilgrimage when I began hearing reports of geth. I was tracking a geth patrol on a small world. I isolated one from its unit, disabled it, and extracted data from its memory core. Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged some files. It contains audio, video, and process logs for geth units. It decisively proves that Saren is involved with the geth, and it proves Saren was behind Eden Prime."
Shepard didn't respond immediately, her eyes widening in surprise at their luck.
"We'll need to make copies of those files," Garrus said.
"I already have, on a separate OSD," Tali replied, pulling a small device from her belt. "And I have the core itself."
"Excellent. We'll need to make several more duplicates for our own voice and video analysis," Shepard said. "We need to verify that these are authentic."
"They are!" Tali said, clearly upset at presumed lack of trust once again.
Shepard held up her hands. "I'm sorry, Tali. I know you're telling the truth," she said softly. "But others won't be as convinced these are genuine. Even if the information came straight from a fellow councilor."
"Oh. Okay," Tali said after a moment's hesitation. She knew the commander was right. She had a hard time believing it.
"Let's get you to a doctor."
Tali then went to receive proper medical treatment for her earlier injuries, under the watchful, protective eyes of both Alenko and Williams. The former seemed to have no misgivings about working with non-humans, but the latter was constantly on edge any time she was around other species.
Shepard opened the OSD and began to…wow, there are a LOT of files here. She saw they were split into audio and video, and audio only. She selected a video at random, and started watching…wow, okay, that's pretty damning. She skipped the rest of that file, opening another one…holy shit. She opened another, then another, her eyes widening to the size of saucers, barely able to comprehend what she was seeing. Sure, her mind knew and processed what she was watching and hearing, but the fact it was all right here… It was a gold mine for the Alliance. HOLY SHIT!
She was so engrossed in a mix of shock and glee at what she was seeing that she hadn't even noticed Wrex approach, the large krogan silently watching the same information as her on the omni tool. "Huh. That bastard's guiltier than four naked krogan at a tnehd," he said after watching several files.
Shepard jumped slightly, quickly glancing behind her to see Wrex standing just to her side. First, he had slightly startled her with his silent approach; he was surprisingly stealthy for his size. Second, she really didn't want to know any details about what Wrex had just said. "Oh, he's guilty all right," she said, managing to speak after several seconds of trying to wipe and clear her mind of Wrex's words. "And here," she tapped her omni-tool, "is the proof."
After Tali had been patched up, and Alliance techs had arrived to make even more copies of the files, the fireteam took skycars to the embassies. Shepard told the assembled motley crew when they arrived, "We're going to need you all to stay on the Citadel for the time being, at least for the next couple das. We're going to need to sort through this data, and may need more of your support." Her "do not leave the Citadel," however, was primarily directed at Wrex.
The recently enlarged fireteam approached Udina's office. The secretary had quite a surprised look on her face at the incredibly diverse squad when Shepard approached her. The commander said in an amiable tone and with a pleasant smile, "Good evening, ma'am. May we please speak to Ambassador Udina?"
"I'll…I-I-I'll page him. You…you c-can go up to his office," the secretary stammered.
"Thank you." After the fireteam was out of earshot of the assistant, the commander muttered, "Oh, he's going to be real happy to see me."
The squad waited in the office for perhaps thirty seconds before Shepard heard a voice yell very loudly, "What the hell do you think you're doing, Commander!? I told you to stay out of the investigation, and look what you've done! Firefights in the Presidium!? An all-out assault on a club!? Do you know how many—" The ambassador's voice stopped mid-sentence as Udina entered the room and saw the number of individuals and species present. There was perhaps five seconds of silence, during which the ambassador quickly glanced between each member of the squad. Udina then asked in complete confusion, "Commander, what the hell have you been doing?"
"Making your day, Ambassador," Shepard said evenly, standing up straight and placing her hands behind her back, though she couldn't entirely keep the smug grin off of her face. Wrex took one look at the ambassador, scoffed, and stomped out, snorting some presumably krogan curse under his breath in a language that she didn't think even a translator could figure out.
"Maybe you better start at the beginning?" Udina responded.
"Miss nar Rayya has information directly linking Saren to the geth," the commander said, gesturing to Tali.
Tali stepped forward nervously, wringing her hands. "M-my name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
"We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?" Udina asked in an accusatory tone, his eyes narrowed.
Tali repeated the full story, but this time showed the audio and video files. The files proved that Saren was on Eden Prime, and showed Saren issuing orders to the geth across several planets, as well as inside some sort of building or ship. It took over ten minutes to review just a small subset of the files, and according to Tali there were still hours more.
Captain Anderson entered near the end of the brief review, and was quickly filled in. "Conveniently, the Shadow Broker has provided additional suspicious information on Saren. The Broker himself says he knew nothing about the attack on the commander, and Von is being surprisingly cooperative."
Awfully charitable of them. What will they expect in return? Shepard thought. All present returned to reviewing Tali's files. While many were just brief fragments, one particular file, however, really caught Shepard's attention. "The beacon on Eden Prime has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit," Saren's voice boomed through the speakers.
"He said Eden Prime brought him one step closer to finding the Conduit…what is the Conduit…" Shepard mused out loud.
"If the Conduit is somehow related to the beacon…" Anderson said, finishing her thought.
"There's more to this particular file. Saren wasn't working alone with the geth," Tali said.
The video file continued again. "The beacon on Eden Prime has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."
A female voice continued, "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."
The room seemed to rumble at the mention of the last word. Reapers…Shepard thought. Reapers…
She ran, panicked, breathing heavily. Someone next to RUN her fell from weapons fire, and she ducked as a FLEE
Shepard winced and closed her eyes, inhaling sharply at the unbidden memories from the beacon.
"Commander, is everything alright?" Alenko asked in a quiet voice upon noticing her obvious discomfort.
"I'll explain later," she whispered back, rubbing her head.
"I don't recognize that voice," Udina commented.
"Reapers…I've heard that name before," Shepard said quietly, not intending to be overheard.
However, the room had chosen that exact moment to go silent. "What?" the ambassador asked her with narrowed eyes, as everyone else in the room turned to face the commander.
"I'm…I'm not sure," Layla responded with a shake of her head. "It sounds familiar…from somewhere…" She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
"According to the memory cores recovered from the geth, the Reapers were an incredibly advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The Reapers hunted the protheans to total extinction. Then the Reapers vanished," Tali said. "The geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life. From the rest of the files, it appears they believe Saren knows how to bring the Reapers back."
"Hmph. That sounds a little far-fetched," the ambassador said with a skeptical look on his face.
Tali began to speak again, but it seemed to Shepard that the entire room suddenly froze. She watched her friend drop to the ground as FLEE an unnatural scream echoed through the cityscape. An officer yelled as some monstrosity inexorably lumbered towards her FIGHT
She readied her biotics, turning to defiantly face oh God what is that! her mind screamed in revulsion
"Commander?" a voice asked, suddenly snapping her out of…what had just happened? She blinked several times to return her mind, away from the vision and back to the ambassador's office.
Everyone was looking to her, expecting her to answer. She just stared back at them blankly, having no clue what they had been talking about for however long she had experienced the surprisingly long snippet of the vision.
"Commander. How many times did it come up?" Anderson asked her.
She blinked a couple more times as she looked down momentarily. "Sorry, sir," Shepard replied quietly and slightly embarrassed. "What was the question?"
Udina scowled slightly at her, earning him a quick glare from Captain Anderson. The captain said reasonably, "How many of the geth videos that you saw mentioned Reapers – "
At the mention of Reapers, Shepard immediately flinched as her biotics did nothing to the monstrosity as it "It…I…" the commander started to say as her vision started to blur, dark energy faintly flickering around her arms and torso.
"Commander?" both Anderson and Alenko asked concern and in near unison as she staggered slightly. The lieutenant was closer to her and rushed to her side, helping her into a seat a couple steps away.
"What is it, ma'am?" the lieutenant asked quickly. Something was clearly off with the commander. Biotic coronas flaring in such a way were a clear defensive reflex. While assassins had attacked Shepard a couple hours ago, there was no risk of ambushes in this office, with no windows, sturdy construction, and a company of marines patrolling and guarding the complex. So…just what caused his XO to suddenly prepare to defend herself? She had described the vision from the beacon to them, so was she having flashbacks? Just how intense were these flashbacks?
She took a couple deep, steadying breaths as she rubbed her temples, staring at the ground. "I…the vision from the prothean beacon. I saw machines slaughtering people, and the…all we know is that the protheans vanished," she said quietly.
"What do the protheans and these alleged Reapers have to do with the geth?" Udina scowled.
"We don't know how they vanished, but…the vision, it…I think I saw the protheans being wiped out." She looked up for the first time before looking down again at the floor, continuing to rub her temples. "The machines in the beacon's vision…we don't know how the protheans vanished…it may have been the Reapers. At least…that's what it seems like, seems like the beacon is trying to tell me." run HIDE FIGHT
Udina shook his head slowly. "Oh, the Council is just going to love this," he muttered. "Do you honestly think they will believe your story? And your visions?" Udina asked Shepard icily.
As much as the commander didn't like the ambassador, he did have a point. However, she knew it was Udina making accusations and statements that were heavy on emotion and light on substance was what almost got her discharged in the first place.
"No matter what they think about the Reapers, those audio files help prove Saren's a traitor," Captain Anderson interjected. "We'll need to make copies of the files, and confirm that it's him in the videos and that it's his voice. And we'll need to check the memory core's integrity. It also gives us time to correlate with all of the data the Broker provided."
The ambassador remained silent for several moments before nodding his head slightly. "The Council doesn't have an opening until tomorrow afternoon," he stated after looking at his omni-tool for a few moments.
"We'll need more time than that to prepare our final case. This time, we need to have our shit together before we go to the Council. Our case needs to be airtight," Captain Anderson said. "Two days, at least."
Udina nodded. "In the meantime, I will send a subset of these files to the Council." He then turned to Tali. "Hmm…what about the quarian?" Udina muttered to himself as he crossed his arms.
"I-I'd like to help. With these files," Tali said nervously, then turned to Shepard. "Commander, please, let me help," she implored.
Keelah, just what are you DOING, Tali? You're in front of the humans' ambassador and probably their most famous soldier, asking to HELP them? But Shepard didn't seem to care that she was a quarian…
"Of course," Shepard said without hesitation, followed by a nod and a slight smile. "Your expertise on the geth will be invaluable. We're outmatched here; we'll need all the help against the geth we can get. And we'll need your help with the files to begin with. We can…"
"There are more pressing concerns at the moment, Commander," Udina cut the commander off sharply. The petite officer bit her lower lip and briefly glared at the ambassador before quickly resuming her neutral expression. "I'll get the embassy techs to work on those files. Captain Anderson, I need your help drafting an initial report to the Council. Commander, be back here tomorrow morning at…0900 Alliance Time. We'll need inputs from you for the final report to the Council."
"Yes, sir," Shepard said with a courteous nod, more courtesy than she felt towards the ambassador at the moment.
Captain Anderson said, "I need a couple minutes to talk to the commander, Ambassador."
"Of course, Captain," the ambassador said. He didn't seem upset that the captain needed to talk to someone else, but he did seem upset that the person was Shepard.
Anderson took her aside into a small office and said, "Excellent work, Commander."
"Thank you, sir," she looked up at him with a grin.
"Alliance intel has come up with a few other leads, and they will now start to correlate their own data on Saren's activities with the data provided by Ms. Nar'Rayya. With the information you've found for us, plus what the Broker gave us, it's starting to look like Saren will, at a minimum, be disbarred from the Spectres. I don't see how he can weasel out of this one."
Everything that had occurred the last few hours was still all sinking in for the commander. She had just been doing her job. Many others had done theirs, but she would get most of the credit. And she'd likely get stuck with the so-called "reward"…
"It sure looks that way, sir," she told her mentor.
"How are you holding up?" he asked with concern in his voice.
"Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams took great care of me, sir. They have my back. Both of them are excellent marines," she said. Then her face broke into a wide grin. "I blame you for those assassins, sir. You said no one ever gets shot at on the Presidium! And look what happened!"
Anderson chuckled and shook his head in amusement. "That's what you get for doing a sniper check. Karma," he said with an amused look in his eyes. Then his expression turned serious. "Transport directly from here to the Normandy has been set up. Saren's goons probably won't try the same thing twice, but stay on the lookout. I will assign Alenko and Williams to guard you when you're outside of the embassy. I know you can take care of yourself, but it never hurts to have extra pairs of eyes watching for anything out of the ordinary. AIA is also looking into any other credible threats to you on the Citadel."
"Thank you, sir. I'll need to return this armor to C-Sec, sir, and retrieve the SDU I left there."
"About your armor…" he said with a raised eyebrow, crossing his arms. "Pink? Really?"
"Sir, this was the only set that fit!" she protested.
"Uh-huh. I'm sure it was," the captain said, not convinced in the least as he shook his head.
"Ask Lieutenant Alenko or Chief Williams, sir! Or Garrus, or Wrex! I'm serious, sir!" she continued, though her face broke into an embarrassed grin.
The captain shook his head in amusement. "If you say so. You're a terrible liar, anyway," the bemused O-6 responded.
Shepard grinned, then turned serious after a couple moments. "I've asked everyone present to stay on the Citadel for the next couple days, in case we need them. I have their contact info, since we will probably need to talk with them again."
Anderson nodded. "Agreed. We'll have Tali stay at the embassy for her own protection. I'll have someone retrieve proper rations for her."
"I can get Doctor Chakwas to take a shuttle here to check up on Tali."
Anderson nodded agreement. "We know where to find Garrus. And we've worked with Wrex before," Anderson told her.
Shepard's eyes widened in surprise at the statement. "Wait what?" she asked, skeptically looking at the captain.
"Wrex has been hired by the Alliance for freelance work before. Though he is a mercenary, for the most part he always works on the side of the law. The exception is when he works with the Shadow Broker," the captain explained.
"How…often have we worked with him, sir?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Often enough," the captain answered cryptically.
Shepard nodded hesitantly, still having a slightly dubious expression on her face. Then she turned away for a moment, biting her lower lip. "Captain…when I talked with Harkin, he mentioned some…things," Shepard said quietly. "Then, between what you've told me, and what Ambassador Udina said…" she stopped, her voice trailing off.
The captain closed his eyes as he let out a long sigh. "I was in your shoes twenty years ago, Layla. They were considering me for the Spectres," the captain replied somberly. "I failed."
Her eyes widened in shock. "Wait what?"
His voice was a mixture of regret and sadness. "It's not something I'm proud of. I'll fill you in on the details some other time. For now, all you need to know is I was sent on a mission with Saren, and he made sure the Council rejected me. I had my shot. It came and went. Now, you have a chance to make up for my mistakes."
Shepard had talked with Captain Anderson for perhaps ten minutes before she emerged, walking towards the impromptu fireteam. Wrex turned to Shepard and strode towards her. "I normally don't say this, but thanks for the help. It would have taken more time to get to Fist by myself through that goon party." He offered his hand.
Shepard took it with a cautious smile. "Thank you for your help, Wrex. Please stay around the Citadel."
"I will be. I'll just say that the Alliance has hired me for another job."
Shepard looked confused for a moment at the comment, but decided against asking. She watched the krogan leave and then turned to Garrus. She offered her hand. "We sincerely appreciate the help, with Saren and the thugs, not to mention giving us cover from C-Sec for our…um…'activities'," she said with air quotes.
The turian let out a quick chuckle, then took her hand and simply said, "You're welcome, Commander, though you did most of the work in Chora's Den."
"How is your C-Sec agent…Salden?" Shepard asked.
"He'll recover, just got out of surgery a few minutes ago. He's conscious, and actually seems most upset about being assigned to desk duty for a couple weeks," Garrus finished with a chuckle.
An amused look appeared on the commander's face. "Like most of us. Good to hear he's okay."
"I'll see you tomorrow at the Council hearing," the turian said with a nod as he turned and departed.
That left the three humans and Tali. They waited around for perhaps a minute before a pair of Alliance techs entered the ambassador's office. The commander turned to the quarian and said, "We've let the embassy personnel know that this is your show – our techs are there to help you, since they don't really know anything about the geth. You can stay at the barracks next to the embassy. They're getting compatible food for you now, and it will be safe in case any more of Saren's goons show up." Shepard stayed to help for several minutes before feeling satisfied that Tali was in good hands, then the commander excused herself.
"Thank you for the help, Commander," the quarian said with a bit of excitement in her voice.
The commander smiled and shook her head softly. "Thank you for the help. You single-handedly salvaged our investigation."
"You saved my life back in the Wards!" Tali replied.
"If there is anything you need at all, Tali, here is how to contact me," Shepard said, providing her contact info. They departed, and Shepard went to check that the quarian's sleep area was being set up. She even arranged for a temporary sterilized room to be set up for the quarian to use in any follow-up medical examinations.
Only when they left the embassy that the day's fatigue hit Shepard. The three humans returned their weapons, and the commander returned the loaned armor. It had been a long day for everyone, and Shepard was still feeling drained after Eden Prime and the beacon even after several days' separation. The commander talked to Chakwas for several minutes before returning to her bunk. Less than five minutes after lying down in the bed, the commander was fast asleep.
Tali kept tearing through the geth files at a pace that even several skilled technicians could not keep up with. She truly knew now why Saren wanted her dead. This evidence would certainly cost him his job, and possibly his life. She doubted that Saren would reply or respond to any orders from the Council for him to return. He would just hide out in geth space, or the Terminus, and no one would be able to find him. She would have to hide from him as long as Saren – or she – lived. Tali held no illusions on her ability to protect herself from a Spectre outside of the flotilla. But she couldn't just not provide the humans this help, especially after they had saved her life.
However, Saren wasn't the main reason Tali currently felt uncomfortable. The wound from earlier today was really starting to hurt again – while the doctor in the Wards had patched her up the best she could, the same could not be said for the C-Sec and embassy medical personnel. And drinking prophylactic antibiotics as if they were water made her very hungry.
She had become only slightly more comfortable around the human engineers that were helping her with the files, despite their overwhelming courtesy and deference to her. They were going far too out of their way to be helpful and polite, and she wondered just which human had sternly ordered them to be courteous.
Definitely not their ambassador. Despite Commander Shepard's fame and her willingness to treat Tali with respect, Tali didn't think she had the political clout to have that sort of sway, at least from what the quarian had observed. It must have been that Captain Anderson, she reasoned from her observations. Though he was only a captain, he did seem to carry a surprising amount of political clout despite not being an admiral. Always calm, collected, and precise, he clearly was a man who had probably seen and fought his way out of any conceivable military engagement, and a fair share of political ones, too. The human soldiers clearly respected him, with Shepard showing near-reverence for Anderson, close to what Tali would expect for a child to show to a parent. Anderson, in return, showed a paternal level of protectiveness towards Shepard.
The door opened and a human woman entered. She stood about Tali's height, with a slimmer build, green eyes with graying shoulder length hair. The quarian noted the bag the woman carried, and the quarian realized that this was a doctor. All in all, the woman carried a matronly air.
"Good evening, Tali. I'm Doctor Karin Chakwas," the woman said politely. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine," Tali replied.
The doctor calmly asked her several questions on how the quarian felt, surprising Tali with her extensive knowledge of quarian physiology. "If you are comfortable, I can perform another check up."
Tali assented, then doctor and patient walked across the hall. The quarian saw a private sleeping area had been set up, and next to that… "You…you have one?" Tali asked hesitantly.
"We do," she replied. "It's not permanent, but it will meet our needs for the moment," the doctor replied.
"How did you even set one up so soon?"
"Commander Shepard insisted."
Tali didn't respond, still pondering this strange species called humans. No non-quarians had been particularly helpful to her…until Shepard had showed up.
The doctor suited up and entered the clean area as Tali removed her suit. Chakwas only needed a moment to look at the wound. "Hmm…your first doctor did a good job, but that work looks a bit rushed."
"I was on the run. From assassins. I had to stay on the move."
The doctor nodded understandingly. "The…two follow-ups treatments you received could use some…improvements," Chakwas said charitably. The doctor then told Tali what treatment she recommended.
Tali found herself surprised yet again by Chakwas' knowledge of quarian physiology. "How…how did you know all of that?" she asked quietly.
The doctor let out a small smile, though barely noticeable under the faceplate. "Medical journals and practice simulations. Being a doctor on a military vessel often means long periods of downtime, interspersed with brief bouts of activity. And I've treated quarians before."
"Really?" Tali asked in yet more surprise. "When?"
The human doctor explained how the Alliance had helped a group of quarians that wanted to live outside of the Flotilla. Several had been wounded, and Chakwas had been the one to treat them.
How many human doctors, Tali thought with amusement, have treated quarian injuries before? What are the odds? Still, it was coming in very helpful now. "So…you're a doctor on a ship?"
"Yes," Chakwas replied.
It did not take long for the doctor to complete her treatment. While the wound hurt initially, Tali could tell it would heal and feel better much quicker than before. The quarian put her suit back on. "Thank you, Doctor."
A/N: Something I always found odd is that the Council kicks their best agent out on the basis of a five second audio file, and they never give him a chance to explain. Here, the data recovered is hours of audio and video, plus a wealth of information from the Shadow Broker.
And unfortunately, Fist escaped.