CHAPTER 17: MORE QUESTIONS, NO ANSWERS
Lieutenant Commander Layla Shepard saw a faint light in her eyes as she slowly came to her senses. She could hear a not-so-pleasant ringing in her ears, a ringing that fortunately began to fade, as the light in her eyes began to form into blurry shapes. Memories slowly returned to her…Therum, the geth, the unstable ruins…what happened? She instinctively rubbed the ache in her side, then she remembered the krogan's words.
Take her alive!
Shepard jolted upright in alarm on the bed as she instantly glanced around and charged her biotics, feeling a searing pain in her side that the sudden adrenaline rush suppressed only partially. To her relief, she was on the Normandy, or at least was in an Alliance medbay. She took a deep breath, then switched to shallow breathing after a burning pain in her side accompanied the large gasp of air. The sudden motion had caused the pain to spike in her side, and she winced as she lay back in bead, the discomfort causing her to clench her teeth.
One of the crewman that also functioned as a corpsman hurriedly entered the room about twenty seconds after she woke, alerted by telemetry that his patient was now conscious and also in not-negligible pain. "Easy, Commander. Your ribs were bruised. Take it slow."
"Anything broken?" she asked with a wince. It sure felt like it.
"No ma'am, just significant bruising and swelling," he replied.
"Any casualties on Therum?"
"Nothing serious ma'am, just minor injuries to you and Lieutenant Alenko. He'll recover, ma'am. A broken arm. He's still awake, and he should be on his way now that you're up. Lieutenant Pressly has the deck."
Her mind still fuzzy, it took a moment for Shepard to recall the timing of the duty roster. Gladstone on-call medical support, Alenko awake, Pressly as OOD…she had been unconscious a while. "How long was I out, Gladstone?"
"About fifteen hours," Gladstone replied.
Shepard blinked at the number, a momentary flash of concern crossing her face.
"You can rest, ma'am. Joker and Greico were on your scheduled shift for OOD, so they took care of things. I know they're not technically deck-qualified, but they've been around enough to know what to do."
Shepard sighed, slowly shaking her head. "Joker as OOD…how far out are we from Elluria?" The asari planet was the equivalent of Earth's Las Vegas for the galaxy.
Gladstone laughed. "He actually took us to patrol the Armstrong Nebula. Orders from the 63rd. And we probably don't want to give Joker any ideas." He left the medbay after checking up on her medical status, and the door didn't even get a chance to close before Lieutenant Alenko entered.
"Commander, I'm glad you're awake," Kaidan told her.
Her eyes widened in noticeable concern at seeing his current condition. A cast held one arm in place and he sported a rather large black eye. "What happened?" she asked quietly.
Alenko shrugged with his good shoulder. "Bar fight. I won…I think," he said deadpan.
She couldn't help but let out a brief laugh, despite the situation and the pain. "What are your injuries?" she asked.
"Broken arm, and took a few punches, but nothing serious," he replied. "I'll be fully cleared for action in about five or six days."
"Is…Dr. T'Soni onboard?" she asked next.
Alenko nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"Any sign of any security issues?"
"None, but she hasn't been awake long. She actually was out for almost as long as you. She woke about an hour ago. Fatigue, stress, dehydration," the lieutenant responded, then he lowered his voice. "Wrex has been watching her the entire time. No issues." At least for now, he didn't add.
"Good," Shepard replied. "So…what happened after I was unconscious this time?"
Garrus threw an overload grenade at one of the krogan and opened up with full automatic fire towards the mercenary's head. The krogan howled in agony until a round pierced his skull; the angered behemoth fell to the ground in a slump. Wrex was fighting the other krogan the old-fashioned way: with his fists. After a few punches Wrex finished off the mercenary and turned his wrath towards a pair of geth troopers shooting at Liara's cover, quickly eliminating them with his biotics.
Alenko turned to open fire on the battlemaster, the krogan's words from several seconds ago echoing in his mind. The krogan looked to be trying to knock Shepard out so he could capture her and take her to Saren. He felt a chill run down his spine at the thought, but his horror was immediately replaced with anger. He mentally cursed as he was forced to hold his fire as the krogan lunged towards the commander, who stabbed the thin skinned neck of the krogan with her combat knife. The battlemaster howled in pain and threw her across the room.
Alenko opened fire with his assault rifle in his left hand and drew in dark energy with his right. The krogan turned, focusing on the conscious threat, and charged Alenko with terrifying speed. Alenko barely got a throw off before the krogan reached him. Normally the force would have been enough to send the target flying into the wall. The krogan's high mass and natural biotic resistance meant he only flew about two meters backwards. Still, he was on his feet in an instant as he charged Alenko again. The lieutenant pulled out his shotgun and aimed it at the krogan's head, but the battlemaster got there first.
The krogan punched Alenko in the eye as the human tried to jump back, which limited the force and the damage. The wounded battlemaster swung his fist at the lieutenant, who dodged it and followed with a biotic punch to his wounded neck where the knife was still jammed in the folds of skin. The battlemaster screamed in agony, but swung his arm down violently on the lieutenant's extended arm after the punch. Alenko yelled in pain as his left arm bone broke; were it not for the armor the bone could have broken through the skin. The krogan swung his other hand at the marine.
Ignoring the searing, mind-numbing pain in his arm as he staggered slightly, Alenko ducked and spun around. He charged his biotics and punched the krogan as hard as he could with his right fist, augmenting the hit with his biotics. The force hurled the krogan into the wall. Wrex jumped into the scene, following up with another powerful throw that smashed the hostile mercenary back into the wall, crumbling the portions of the ancient structure. Alenko biotically pulled the shotgun to his good hand, firing it one-handedly at the krogan's faceplate, the rounds reflecting off the barrier. Wrex did the same, except his shot drained the barriers. The hostile mercenary jumped to his feet and lunged at Alenko, hoping to finish off the wounded human, but the lieutenant deftly slid aside with his biotics. He fired his shotgun right into the krogan's head just as the mercenary lunged past him.
The krogan howled in pain as he tried to swing his fist at Alenko, but he again jumped away, charging his own biotics for another throw.
He didn't get a chance to. A massive wave of dark energy from Wrex rippled past him, slamming into the mercenary. The hostile krogan bounced off the floor and into the wall, suddenly going limp as his fractured faceplate finally gave way, his head impaled on an exposed beam of metal.
Alenko staggered from the crippling pain in his left arm and the sudden and powerful biotic exertion. The last of the geth blew apart in a shower of sparks from Garrus's overload grenade. The ground rumbled again…Kaidan suppressed the pain and looked around.
The commander lay motionless against a wall. The rest of the squad and Liara looked to be fine, though the asari looked very shaken by the brief but intense battle. Alenko praised the wonders of automatic medigel that numbed his arm as he ran over to the commander, quickly checking his omni-tool to view her vitals. She had considerable internal bruising and the start of swelling, and was out cold, but was not in serious condition. Nothing Chakwas couldn't fix. Gritting his teeth in pain, he picked up the commander with his good arm and put her over his shoulder.
Suddenly Alenko realized he was in command. With the unconscious commander draped over his shoulder, he was in charge of a fireteam, a civilian, and the first human Spectre…all of whom stood in a prothean ruin that could collapse at any moment.
The ground shook again, nearly throwing Alenko off of his feet. "MOVE!" he shouted, running towards the exit.
Wrex and Garrus needed no encouragement. Wrex waited for Liara to sprint out of the collapsing ruins. Apparently unsatisfied with her pace, he scooped up the staggering asari scientist midstride in one arm as he leapt over a boulder towards the exit. Alenko ran, finding the adrenaline and medigel dulling the pain. He glanced back to see Garrus –
"Run Alenko! I'm right behind you!"
"Ghostrider, be ready to pick us up in thirty seconds!" Alenko yelled into the comm.
"Uh, copy that, Lieutenant. We'll be there," Joker said with a bit of surprise on now hearing Alenko giving the orders, and from the tone of his voice the biotic seemed to be in considerable pain.
The squad ran outside to see the Normandy hovering a half-meter off of the ground with her loading bay open. "Everyone up! Now!"
Wrex roughly deposited Liara in the bay. Garrus leapt up a moment later, helping the doctor to her feet and away from the ramp. Alenko laid the commander's body in the bay, with Garrus pulling her away from the edge. Wrex grabbed the lieutenant's good arm and hauled him into the ship. "Joker, we're on. Get us out of here!"
The Normandy used her mass effect drive to accelerate vertically into the air as the cargo bays closed. The last sight that Kaidan saw of Therum was a fissure open in the ground at the ruins. Alenko breathed a sigh of relief as he picked the commander up with his good arm and carried her to the medbay, momentarily ignoring the pain in his arm.
"What happened down there?" Doctor Chakwas asked in a surprisingly composed voice as Alenko staggered into the medbay carrying the unconscious commander.
Alenko gently set Shepard down on one of the cots. "Treat her first," he said through clenched teeth.
"Your arm is shattered," the doctor protested.
"Treat the commander, Doctor," he rasped. He felt the onset of a migraine, and the pain in his arm…he took a seat on one of the medical beds as his vision narrowed. "She had some reaction to the beacon visions down there."
Chakwas gave him a brief look, eyes narrowed as she quickly appraised the commander. After thirty seconds the doctor said, "She'll recover just fine. Bruised ribs and swelling, unconscious from the blows." The doctor paused a moment, narrowing her eyes as she looked up at Alenko. "What kind of reaction to the beacon visions?"
Alenko explained.
The doctor remained silent for several moments before turning back to the commander. "Extended use of biotics can make it slightly easier to be knocked out. And given her size, she's not as resilient or hardy as someone like you." The doctor checked another screen's set of readouts. "Though she is much tougher than one would think for someone as tiny as she. As for the beacon visions…" the doctor paused for several moments, keeping her thoughts to herself. "Only time will tell. Let's look at your arm, Lieutenant."
"So everyone's okay," Shepard commented.
"Yes," he confirmed again.
"The status of the ruins?" she asked.
"They started to collapse when we left. There's…some damage," he replied cautiously.
Shepard sighed, closing her eyes with a wince that wasn't from pain. "How bad?"
"We're not completely sure. We were ordered to head for the Armstrong Nebula to investigate geth activity." He didn't want to bother her with details on the ruins, and he didn't know much other than the damage was considerable, so he changed the topic. "You had used your biotics pretty hard, so we decided it was just best to let you sleep to recover."
She sighed, her eyes focused on a blank wall display. "How far out are we from the Armstrong Nebula?"
"Five hours, ma'am."
"Alenko?" she said softly with a grin. "What did I say about formality? I'm lying here half-conscious in the medbay; does it look like I'm on duty?"
"Sorry, uh…Layla, force of habit," he responded as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Where is Dr. T'Soni now?" the commander then asked after a couple moments of silence in the medbay.
"She's been talking with Garrus in the comm room. Wrex too. He's…suspicious of her."
"You've spoken with her too?"
"Briefly." A moment after his response, a nearly unnoticeable, very brief expression crossed her face, so fast that Alenko couldn't decipher what it meant.
She winced as she slowly pulled herself up into a sitting position. "Well, I'm not wasting any more time in a medbay. Saren certainly doesn't have to. Let's set the briefing for 2100 Zulu. I'd like you, Pressly, Williams, Joker, and all of our guests there."
"Pressly has the deck right now," the lieutenant responded.
She sighed, closing her eyes as she turned to sit at the edge of the bed. "That's right," she muttered at the reminder. "We really could use another OOD. If we had more time, and weren't chasing Saren, I'd say qualifying another one would be one of our top priorities. But it sounds like Joker and Greico had things covered without me."
Alenko nodded, typing a few things on his omni-tool to get everything set up. He paused before continuing. "There's, uh, something else. The embassy…really wants to have a more formal ceremony for your admission into the Spectres," he said slowly.
She cringed at the news. "Please tell me you're joking," she frowned. He shook his head no. "When?" she scowled in response.
"They're still trying to set up the place and time."
"Well, neither of us are in shape to attend anything like that at the moment. And we certainly don't have more important things to worry about right now. Such as, you know, Saren. Benezia. Geth murderbots. Reaper murderbots," she frowned.
The lieutenant chuckled. "Well, when they order us back to the Citadel, we can always stop to pick up fuel somewhere. We'll still have enough, even after a few days of patrolling Armstrong. That takes time to refuel, but it never hurts to be at a full fuel load. You know, just in case," the lieutenant responded with a shrug, keeping his tone even, though the right corner of his mouth twitched upward in a smirk.
"I like the way you think," she grinned, then winced as she clutched her side again. "Ow. Teaches me for wrestling with a krogan." Then her expression darkened. "I…thank you for dealing with that krogan," she said quietly. "I don't know why Saren wants me alive. Liara makes sense, but…why me?" She looked away and bit her lower lip.
Alenko found himself pondering the same question again, concerned that he didn't have an answer. He had mostly forgotten about the krogan's words, given that the commander was unconscious and he had painkillers coursing through his body. And, of course, the other things he found himself occasionally pondering when he was around her… "I'm…not sure. Maybe he wants to know exactly what you saw in the beacon? Or what we intel currently have about him?" he asked.
"Maybe. There's easier ways for him to get what intel we have on him," she said quietly. "Well, he's welcome to have the nightmares from the beacon," she muttered after a pause.
"Nightmares?" Alenko asked as his eyes narrowed as he looked into her own eyes. "You've been having nightmares?" he asked softly, his voice filled with his own concern.
Shepard had a quick intake of breath, and the lieutenant figured that she hadn't wanted to mention that particular fact. "Remember when we were on the Citadel, and you and Ashley noted I was up early those days?" she asked quietly. "I have dreams that wake me up…from the beacon. I see the images, the scenes, replay in my mind…then I jolt awake," she answered. "It's…it's like my mind is still trying to understand it, like it's trying to tell me something…but I don't understand what. Other than I should be scared."
"Chakwas knows about the nightmares, right?" he asked after a moment.
Shepard nodded in the affirmative.
"Is there anything I can do to help? I'm second in command on the ground – if there's something I can do on the ship, on the ground…" he suggested.
"Just keep watching my back," she replied, looking up at him before quickly glancing away.
"You had my back on Eden Prime and the Citadel. With those hitmen, if you hadn't pushed me out of the way in time, I might not be here," he told her quietly.
She shrugged. "You dealt with the krogan on Therum and carried my unconscious rear back to the ship."
"If we're keeping score, then that only counts as one," he told her.
She gave him an amused look. "If that's the case, you also carried an unconscious me back to the ship after Eden Prime as well."
"But you pushed Williams and I out of the way of the beacon, so it evens out." He then shrugged with his good shoulder. "Can't beat the CO's score at anything. Looks bad on a CSR, after all."
Shepard let out a quick laugh, regarding him for a moment. "Well, at least we're both…I was going to say unhurt after Therum, but your cast and my side are telling me otherwise. At least we'll both recover in a few days." She slid the rest of the way out of the cot, taking a tentative step before taking a confident one. Her omni-tool pinged, and a brief frown crossed her face before she opened the tool and glanced at the message. "I'll see you at the briefing, Alenko."
The available crew assembled in the briefing room at the requested time a couple hours later. "You know, Commander, I prefer gold. For my medal for pulling your asses out of a collapsing ruin. The gold one with the cross and the blue ribbon, to be clear," he said. "Just for, you know, future reference."
"We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?" Liara asked with a look of shock and horror on her face.
"Joker pulled us out from a collapsing ruin. He's earned the right to some teasing," Shepard said with a small grin.
"I see. It must be a human thing. I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species, Commander. But I am grateful to you. You saved my life back there. And not just from the collapse. Those krogan and geth would have captured me and dragged me off to Saren," Liara said.
Us to Saren, Layla reminded herself. Why does Saren want me alive, and not just dead? It makes sense that he would want Liara alive, but…why does he want me? Several reasons crossed her mind again, all of them worrying. She put those thoughts aside for the moment, and focused on the immediate discussion. She would have plenty of time to dwell on the things she didn't know.
"What did Saren want with you? Do you know something about the Conduit?" Kaidan asked Liara.
"Only that it is somehow related to the prothean extinction. That is my real area of expertise. I have spent my entire career trying to figure out what happened to them," the asari said.
"How old are you, exactly?" Ashley asked with a raised eyebrow.
Liara ashamedly told her age to the assembled quorum in asari years.
"Huh. That's only…106 in human years," Shepard said in surprise with raised eyebrows as she did the math in her head. At realizing their asari guest's age, the commander took another look at Liara. The crew had found a spare women's BDU that fit the asari, and Liara's chest completely filled out the generously sized shirt, something that Shepard struggled with even in the petite-sized t-shirts. Layla suppressed a frown and put aside the momentary surge of jealousy. She needed information from Dr. T'Soni.
Ashley whistled. "Damn! I hope I look that good when I'm your age!"
"That may seem like a long time to a short-lived species like yours. But among the asari, I am barely considered more than a child. That is why my research has not received the attention it deserves. Because of my youth, other asari scholars tend to dismiss my theories on what happened to the protheans. It is difficult, since the protheans left remarkably little behind."
"Yeah, except for the mass relays and Citadel," Ashley muttered sotto voce.
Liara did not seem to notice the comment as she continued her monologue. "It seems as if someone did not want the mystery solved. It's almost like someone came along after the protheans were gone and cleansed the galaxy of clues other than the relays. But the unbelievable part is that all the evidence suggests the protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. I did not get deep enough into the ruins on Therum, but they were built on top of even older ruins from a prior civilization."
"Where'd you come up with this theory? I thought there wasn't any evidence," Garrus asked.
As interested as Shepard was in the protheans, the pain medication along with the receding throbbing in her side made it easy for the commander to zone out during the long monologue by the asari.
"If the protheans weren't the first, then who was?" Alenko asked after a couple minutes, his voice being the unexpected trigger that returned Shepard to the conversation.
Liara shook her head. "I do not know. There is barely any evidence on the protheans, and far less on those who came before them. And there are no clues as to why they vanished."
"There was a damaged prothean beacon on Eden Prime. It burned a vision into my mind. From the information Tali gave us, and whatever was in that beacon…it points to a race of sentient machines called the Reapers," Shepard said. Just the mere mention of the beacon and the Reapers brought the visions to the front of her mind again, and she rubbed her head at the spike of pain coming from her temple.
"Beacon? Visions?" The asari paused. "Yes…that makes sense. Prothean beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user. Finding one that still works is extremely rare! No wonder the geth attacked Eden Prime! The chance to acquire a working beacon—even a badly damaged one—is worth almost any risk!" The asari had practically come out of her chair in excitement.
"Enough for Saren to not care about being exposed as a traitor," Alenko said quietly.
Liara then looked directly to Layla. "But…the beacons were only designed to interact with prothean physiology. Whatever information you received would have been confusing and jumbled. I-I am amazed you were able to make sense of it at all! I would have expected that any non-prothean mind would have been utterly destroyed by the process," Liara said, staring intently at Shepard with utter awe. "You…you must be remarkably strong-willed, Commander!"
"Or just lucky," Shepard said quietly. "What information do you have on the Conduit? Or Saren?"
"Of course. I…am sorry. Unfortunately, I do not have any idea about Saren's intentions, nor have any information that could help you find the Conduit, other than oblique references to it inside of ruins."
"Explain, Doctor," Shepard ordered.
"References to the Conduit are very sparse. Of all the ruins I have researched, I have only seen it mentioned twice, and even then, the references were only mere mentions. All I have learned is that it is something that is somewhere."
Great, now let's have an ontological discussion on top of this headache, the commander thought wryly. She had the feeling that the asari would talk for hours on end if given the opportunity. Liara would need to be kept on topic. "You mentioned that the prothean ruins are built atop other civilizations? How often have you found these layered ruins? Do you know anything about the precursors to the protheans?" Shepard asked.
"I know next to nothing about them, other than they too vanished. I have seen several sets of prothean ruins atop the ruins of other civilizations, but only at a few sites," Liara explained.
"Have you ever encountered a beacon? Or the remains of one?"
"No, Commander. I have just seen references to them. We are still struggling to translate their language."
"How many different civilizations have you found underneath prothean ruins?"
"I have encountered three distinct styles of ruins that the protheans built on top of," Liara said. "In addition to another civilization on Junthor that the protheans researched in the Armstrong Nebula."
Are the geth apparently interested in the Armstrong Nebula because of its favorable location for outposts? Or are there more ruins than Junthor out in that cluster? Shepard wondered. She brought her thoughts back to their immediate concerns."Did you determine the age of the ruins the protheans built on in Therum?"
The asari had, and the commander converted the ages to human years. 350000 years. Plus Liara says other ruins at about 110000 and 800000 years…plus 50000 years for the protheans, plus probably even much more for those ruins on Junthor. If the asari's data was accurate, at least five civilizations had vanished, leaving only ruins behind…and how many other civilizations appeared in between those years? And how many before that? Another fragment of evidence now pointed to the Reapers, and Shepard suppressed a shudder as it seemed the room itself chilled at the information.
Alenko could hear the commander let out a brief sigh of frustration, and she paused for a couple moments before speaking. "We are en route to the Armstrong Cluster to patrol for geth activity. While Saren and Matriarch Benezia take priority, we have no new intel on either at this time," the commander said. She continued briefing for another minute, then said, "Dismissed. Lieutenant Alenko, please stay a minute."
The crew filed out of the comm room to return to their duties. The two officers discussed their newest crewmate. By now, pretty much everyone aboard agreed that she wasn't a security risk. While a naïve individual was often the last person expected to be an enemy agent, the young asari talked too much for that. And she seemed a bit too…clumsy, possessing an awkwardness that wasn't faked.
The commander spent the next few hours talking with the crew, taking the time to not only talk with the Alliance personnel, but with the ground crew as well. She was tired of spending half her time in the medbay, and was getting concerned that it set a bad image of her to the crew. The crew certainly hadn't got any time off while she rested or was unconscious.
Shepard was pleased that the new members of the team were starting to work with the Normandy's crew, with Tali quickly integrating herself with the ship's engineers and providing expertise about the geth to all aboard. To the commander's delight, Garrus and Ashley had apparently found mutual interest in modding weapons. Wrex was mostly Wrex, and kept to himself for the most part, but he seemed to be willing to talk with her. Some of the time, at least.
She approached the krogan to chat, and he immediately told her, "Turns out you were right and I was wrong. There's more to you than meets the eye. I've never seen a human biotic put forth as much power as you."
She grinned for a moment, then said, "I try my best." She then paused, and raised an eyebrow. She couldn't read krogan expressions very well, but the one in front of her looked to be deep in thought. "What's wrong, Wrex?"
"Those three krogan we fought on Therum. There was the battlemaster you and Alenko fought, but the other two, they seemed…"
"They seemed…what?" Shepard asked after several moments of silence.
"Off," he said finally, unable to find the right word.
"What do you mean?" Shepard asked inquisitively.
"They both seemed immature. Not from a growth perspective, but they seemed to be…empty. Hollow. I can't think of the right word," he grumbled. "Talking isn't my thing. But those two…ah, whatever," he said dismissively. "They died easy enough."
Shepard nodded hesitantly. "If you figure it out, speak up." She changed the subject. "Krogan live over a thousand years, and you've been around the galaxy. Surely you've seen some more interesting things?"
He told a couple quick stories, and Shepard listened intently, asking questions. She wanted to learn more about the people she worked with. To her surprise, though, Tali came to Shepard while the latter had just finished up chatting with the crew in the mess.
"Hi Commander," the quarian said nervously.
"Hi Tali," Shepard replied with a smile to put her at ease. "And don't forget what I said about titles," she said softly.
"Right. Sorry, um, Layla," Tali responded. "So…I've been working on some infiltration routines that could be used against the geth." She paused, not sure how to ask the question of the petite commander in front of her.
"That sounds useful," the Spectre agreed as she looked up at Tali. "Will it increase the success chance of extracting information from the geth's memory cores?"
"Yes…but…not only will it improve extraction of data from dead geth…I think it could also infiltrate functioning platforms," Tali said.
Shepard's large eyes widened further. "Wait what? You think you could hack a geth unit?"
Tali nodded her head. "The program tricks the outputs of their sensor processing functions and their network inputs. They have functions that determine whether an organic or synthetic is non-hostile or hostile. My program makes the output identical; essentially, the functions report every organic or synthetic as hostile. The second part is to block their network inputs from other geth platforms. The affected platform will lose all connections to other geth units."
"So…it sees every everything as hostile? The unit basically goes berserk?"
"Exactly," Tali nodded.
Shepard's eyes lit up in both awe and excitement. "Tali, that's amazing! Can we deploy it on our omni-tools and test it!?" she asked with considerable enthusiasm.
Tali hadn't expected to see Shepard get this excited about a hacking program. The human Spectre had almost squealed in excitement. It made her sound a little…like a quarian. Tali began to wonder if she herself sounded like that when she got excited. "That's-that's the thing," the engineering expert said nervously. "I think it will work, but…I-I need a b-better omni-tool," she stammered.
"Which one?" Shepard asked immediately.
"A umm…it's a…I need…I n-need a S-savant," Tali finally blurted out. There. She had just said it. For some reason the young quarian felt oddly relieved when she finally said the words out loud. She had just asked her current captain to only buy her the most expensive omni-tool ever made for testing something that may or may not work.
"If that's what it will take to give us an edge on the geth, and see this hacking program in action. I'll put an order in for a few," the Spectre replied without any hesitation.
Tali gasped in shock. "Really!? You'd do that?" she managed to squeak out.
"Tali, you're part of my crew. If that's what you need to test it out, I'll get it for you," the commander stated.
"But…they're really expensive," the quarian said, still in shock from processing the fact she would probably be getting a Savant omni-tool.
Shepard shrugged her shoulders. "I'm already in hot water from the Alliance for all of the armor and weapons I purchased. They can't really get much angrier with me than they already are." Her tone was dismissive, but Tali could tell that the commander was not entirely convinced in what she just said.
Now Tali looked very confused. The commander was concerned that her bosses would get angrier with her about spending credits, but… "Is…is the Normandy's water heater malfunctioning? Did you burn yourself? I can see about fixing it," she offered awkwardly.
"Huh?" Shepard looked puzzled for a moment and narrowed her eyes in confusion. Then her expression faded and she broke out in laughter that quickly resulted in a wince and gritted teeth
Tali didn't need to be a quarian to tell that her captain was in pain. "Commander! What's wrong?" she asked in alarm.
"It's nothing," the commander rasped. "Just the bruising healing from Therum." She hesitated for several moments before continuing, taking a couple breaths. "I'm sorry, Tali. It's a human expression. Saying 'I'm in hot water' means that I'm in trouble with someone. My spending on gear for the crew has resulted in a bit of scrutiny from the people that purchase and distribute equipment."
"Oh." Tali nodded her head, then wrung her hands nervously. "They're upset you bought the armor and weapons for all of us?" she asked slowly.
"They would have been upset no matter what I purchased. Even if it was just premium coffee," she replied dismissively, though the quarian could tell once again that the commander's tone didn't convey complete confidence. "We're going up against the geth and a rogue Spectre. I don't want us going into combat with anything short of the best available equipment."
"I-I…thank you," Tali replied nervously.
"Don't thank me, you've done all of the work," Shepard replied with a soft smile. "You found the key evidence against Saren, and you've developed a hacking program we might be able to use against the geth. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't enough hardware that can be purchased for you to fully repay the debt the Alliance owes you."
The commander had never seen Tali's face, and had only seen quarian faces from pictures on the extranet. However, she could imagine Tali having an ear-to-ear grin about now. The first human Spectre talked to Tali for several minutes about quarian culture before being interrupted by a ping on her omni-tool.
The Normandy was about to reach her first destination in the Armstrong Nebula. Since they had no new clues on Saren, they could at least try to localize and hit back at a couple of the geth incursions in the meantime. She hoped they would get a break soon on what Saren and his geth were up to.
Shepard decided to use the opportunity to make a quick call back to the Citadel while they could link into the comm buoy. She informed the COMMO to link into the network to contact the embassy and Fifth Fleet when they decelerated in a few minutes, then entered the comm room.
She reviewed a locally stored report on known geth activity while she waited for them to decelerate. She just finished when she saw the ship status light indicate they had dropped out of FTL, and twenty seconds later, she saw the comm buoy link light flash and hold at a steady green.
She immediately put in a call request to Captain Anderson. She expected there to be a wait, but instead he answered after less than half a minute.
"Thanks for the call. An excuse to get out of an appropriation meeting," Captain Anderson muttered, receiving a quick laugh from the first human Spectre. "How are you, Layla?" his voice echoed from the comm panel.
"Doing well, sir," she replied. This link had about a one and three quarter second delay, she saw.
"Layla, let's drop the formality for a moment. I read about Therum. Your reaction to the prothean ruins, and the fact Saren wants you alive," he replied softly. "How are you really?"
She sighed, hesitating. "I'm…a little concerned," she told him quietly. "That could have ended very badly, since that vision picked the worst time to return. And if…well, I'm just glad that Lieutenant Alenko, Wrex, and Garrus had my back down there. We know nothing about why Saren is acting the way he is, and why he would want me alive. And we don't really know much more about the what, either."
"We're trying to learn the why and the what, but not having much luck. Since Eden Prime, there haven't been any sightings of Saren or that ship."
"Any leads on Benezia?"
"None. She's dropped off the grid too, unusual for a figure of her considerable public reputation and influence. Have there been any security issues with Dr. T'Soni?"
"No," Shepard replied. "I wasn't expecting any, given the past few exchanges with her mother. But…well, Wrex has been watching her every moment. He doesn't think she can be trusted."
"And you do?"
"From what I've seen and heard, yes."
"If you're wrong…"
"I highly doubt I am, but if so, I can handle her," Shepard replied confidently.
"I know you can," Anderson told her, not a hint of doubt in his voice, "but you may not be able to stop her in time before she does a lot of damage." And that one other thing…
"She's completely preoccupied with her research, even since coming on board. She's working to analyze what is…was in the ruins on Therum," she finished quietly.
Anderson kept quiet about the extent of the destruction. "I presume she doesn't have any insights into the beacons?"
"None yet, but we haven't had too many opportunities to talk."
"You're probably right that she can be trusted, but just be careful. If she isn't…"
"I really doubt that she's acting with ulterior motives. She's just…too awkward for that." She let out a quick chuckle. "Kinda like me when I was a cadet and even when I was an O-1. Remember?"
She heard a snort of amusement from the other end of the line after the delay. "But if you get a hint that she does have ulterior motives, if all of our intel is wrong…"
"Don't worry," she replied. "And sir, weren't you supposed to be taking Kahlee on a trip about now?" she scolded him, crossing her arms even though it was an audio-only call.
She heard an angry growl on the other end of the line. "You too now?" he grumbled. "Hackett already asked me the exact same thing."
"Take her on a vacation," she replied. "Now."
"You're one to criticize for not having a personal life," he shot back. "You know what they say about people in glass houses, right?"
"I'm deployed on a ship; you're not. You don't have an excuse anymore," she replied.
"What about all those times when you weren't on a ship?"
"I was in the Traverse," she replied defensively.
"And all the rest?"
She shook her head. "Uh-uh. No. This is about your personal life, not mine. You're not changing this topic on me, David," she replied with a grin that he couldn't see but he knew she had on her face. "Plan it, or I'll plan it for you."
"Commander?" his scolding voice came through the line.
"I'll plan it for you, sir," she continued grinning.
"That's better. And yes, I'm planning something."
"What?"
He told her. "Does it meet the Shepard Seal of Approval?" he asked dryly.
"It does." She actually found herself wanting to take a quick two day hop to somewhere. Maybe someplace with a beach where she could swim, maybe someplace where she could try skiing again, maybe someplace in the middle of nowhere where she could just rest. Just something to get away from everything for a moment, get away from the sudden upheaval in her life since being assigned to the Normandy, get a quick breath and get her bearings after being thrown into the maelstrom. But she couldn't. She was the first human Spectre. Her relaxation would have to wait, if she were to get any. She had a job to do.
A ping announced that the Normandy was about to jump to FTL, which would end the comm link. "I'll make sure and shoot a couple vids while we're there for you," the captain told her. "Now take care of yourself out there, Layla."