Update: I made a few quick changes based on feedback. Some characters are blunt and direct (such as Wrex), who would definitely would ask/confront Shepard about her biotics after Noveria. Once I complete the story I'll go back and edit some chapters since there's a couple other things I want to fix.
A/N: Thank you for the feedback on the last chapter. Honestly, I wasn't too happy with the published result (especially the rachni), so I'm glad folks enjoyed it. But yes, Shepard's biotics overpowered Benezia's. Turns out that drawing in more and more dark energy to use against this Shepard isn't a particularly good idea. After Benezia, Saren and his goons will learn, and will adjust their tactics.
The rachni reveal in ME1 always bothered me a bit. The galaxy learning of the rachni's survival would be by far the biggest event in centuries, given they are the cause of so many bad events over two millenia in game history (Krogan rebellions, genophage, Turians joining the council, First Contact War, etc.). Yet they are very casually introduced (and the player won't even know the significance of the rachni unless they pursued side conversations and read the codex), and then the player is presented with a binary choice to spare or kill. Realistically, the only option in game should have been to phone the Council and say "Haaay Council, you remember those bugs we all thought the krogan killed off a couple millenia ago? Turns out they're alive, and I'm staring at one." But in the game we only get the light side/dark side…err, paragon/renegade binary choice to spare/kill. Shepard's decision to spare them will have massive repercussions in the future.
Acronym:
BAD - Biotic Affairs Division
CHAPTER 22: MIGRAINES
Layla Shepard groggily opened her eyes as her gaze lazily drifted around her surroundings. The room looked familiar; she had been here before. She could see a myriad of instruments, though she couldn't identify a single one of them. She struggled to turn her head, but slowly was able to look around the room, but it didn't help her to figure out where she was at. She remembered a battle, then something with a code…but nothing else.
It took another twenty seconds for the commander to realize she lay in the a medbay. This time she had an IV in her arm, another one in her side, and an oxygen supply at her nostrils. Her whole body throbbed, though it paled in comparison to the searing pain that came into focus in her side.
One of the machines clicked next to her, and a soothing cool sensation spread from the IV in her side, just as the pain started to reach teeth-clenching levels. Her vision dimmed again, and she grayed out for a few moments before some semblance of alertness returned.
Her mind soon registered that a handsome man entered the room, with dark hair and eyes. He had a look of surprise on his face. "Y-you're awake. We thought it would be a few more hours," a deep, warm voice came from the figure. "How do you feel?" It took her mind a couple moments to register that this was Kaidan Alenko, Staff Lieutenant. Her subordinate.
"Tired," she muttered. "Dizzy." The past events slowly returned to her through the medication-induced haze. "Noveria…rachni?"
Alenko nodded. She then noticed his arm in a cast, and she couldn't remember why that was, though it probably was important. "Huh…stabbed by a rachni," she slurred, louder this time. "Need to…" She started to sit up, but immediately faced a wave of nausea and she fell back to the bed. "I feel…need…" Her stomach churned inside-out and she started grasping for a bag or trash bin.
The lieutenant used his good arm to pull a bag and put it close to her head, then he helped her roll onto her side. "That's the antitoxin medications, and lingering effects of the poison. You still need to rest," Kaidan told her. Her nausea slowly abated, though not without a couple painful dry heaves. She felt a hand gently holding her arm. Her eyes settled on Kaidan, his grip…warm. Reassuring. Comforting.
Realization of his cast then dawned on her. "You…you were cut by a rachni. On the arm," she mumbled.
He nodded. "Not as bad as you, though."
"Yeah. It got me…pretty good." Her eyes closed a moment. "How's…everyone else?"
"Everyone's fine. The two of us got the worst of it."
Her eyes fluttered. "Good. That's…good."
"Don't worry about us, Commander," he said softly. "Just rest."
He suddenly withdrew his arm, and Shepard's skin felt cold at the sudden absence of his touch. She felt better with his touch, she realized. She turned her gaze to him as he studied several instruments. He was right, though. She should rest. Her eyes closed and she fell asleep in seconds.
Commander Shepard woke for good the next day, the pain in her abdomen subsiding as her body healed, with Doctor Chakwas stopping to talk with her patient to discuss her current condition and recovery process.
"Sorry, Doc," Shepard said sheepishly, though not without a grin. "You have to patch me up after every mission."
"It's my job, Commander, though I would prefer if you returned to the ship conscious after at least one mission," Chakwas replied deadpan.
Lieutenant Alenko entered a few minutes later for a checkup, and the doctor helped him remove the sling on his arm so she could replace his cast.
Shepard's eyes widened as Kaidan began to remove his t-shirt. She quickly turned her head away, though with an irresistible urge to sneak a quick look. Protocol took over and she kept her gaze averted. He's your subordinate, Layla, her mind scolded her.
The doctor and lieutenant then took a seat on the cot next to Shepard, separated by a privacy curtain, giving her time to purge the inappropriate thoughts from her mind. She focused on the rachni found on Noveria. Nothing had been mentioned about her decision, but the commander figured it had been passed up the Alliance chain of command. The embassy, and the Council, would not be happy at all. She began to second-guess her decision, but she just couldn't have done it. She couldn't just murder the last of a sapient species.
She found herself thinking about what might happen. The fact she got key information on Saren, and eliminated his top lieutenant, should buy her some reprieve from her decision…she hoped. The rachni were stranded on Noveria, anyway, so her decision might not even matter.
Chakwas finished replacing Alenko's cast, and the doctor departed a few minutes later, leaving the two officers alone.
"Alenko?" Shepard asked after a moment.
"Yes, Commander?" he replied, coming into view around the curtain.
"How's Liara?" she asked sadly.
"I would say Liara's doing well, especially given the circumstances. She told me that her mother made her choice by joining Saren. But she was glad that the real Benezia broke free from the indoctrination before…" Alenko paused. Before what? Before a human overpowered an asari matriarch in a biotic duel? The same asari matriarchs that are the most powerful biotics in the galaxy? He reflected that Shepard didn't just destroy Benezia, the commander had also simply shrugged off the matriarch's biotic attacks. Shepard had claimed that her own charging biotics had disrupted the stasis from the commando in Port Hanshan, but she certainly couldn't say the same for Benezia's stasis, and it still hadn't even affected her. How was she apparently immune to biotics? And in their one-on-one biotic duel, Shepard had the upper hand, forcing the millenia-old matriarch on the defensive. Nobody was that powerful, Alenko knew, but somehow Layla Shepard was.
"Before she watched me kill her mother," Shepard said quietly, averting her gaze.
He bit his lip momentarily. "Disintegrate" is more accurate, he thought. The lieutenant thought about his own biotics, how he focused on pinpoint control; as a result, he could use his biotics for long periods of time. He could apply raw biotic power when needed, but that would result in debilitating migraines. If he pushed to his peak power level, he could hold his own against an asari commando, but he could never defeat a matriarch with biotics, not without help. He had been told by BAD – a singularly inappropriate acronym, he thought – that he was one of the most powerful human biotics, his ranking in the single digits. He now had extremely high confidence in the individual that was first. He reflected, though, that her high power output made her fatigued very quickly, and he wondered if it was due to her small size…or something else? He always had a few questions about his CO's biotics, but he kept them in the back of his mind. Now, they were much closer to the forefront. Something didn't add up, and that concerned him. Regardless, many concerning events had occurred on Noveria. While both intriguing and concerning, Shepard's biotic power wasn't the one at the top of the list, he knew.
The commander remained silent for a while, her voice pulling the lieutenant out of his concerns. "I can't imagine being in her shoes now…a parent trying to kill me." She looked down. "Has anything been said about the indoctrination Benezia claimed?"
Alenko wrung his hands nervously. "While you were unconscious, I…well, I had to write up the AAR. I left out the rachni in the initial report, but I had to brief Captain Anderson again. I know that's supposed to be your job, but you were –"
"I was unconscious and drugged up in this cot. You did exactly what you were supposed to," she told him softly.
"He wanted as much information as he could on the rachni. We did discuss Benezia for a while, but he didn't really share his thoughts with me."
"What Benezia told us will probably be dismissed as a false flag, and it very well could be," Shepard admitted.
"Benezia wasn't lying about searching for a mass relay. That's exactly the information she transmitted to Saren, according to records, and all the data Tali pilfered. That's not something that would be easy to plant on a system like that. They've found the relay, but have no idea which system they need to link to. There's millions of star systems charted that are in range of the relay."
"We haven't found anything new?"
"Nothing new," Alenko confirmed. "Tali's searched everything we've, uhh…obtained from BH. She's querying through it again; she's being very thorough."
A small smile appeared on Shepard's face. "Well, she wants to impress, and she has." Then her expression turned sour. "About my decision…with the rachni…has there been any problem with Wrex?" she asked quietly.
"No. He's keeping to himself, as usual, in the cargo bay."
"Okay. Good," she sighed. "For now," she muttered.
"When I briefly talked to him, he seemed to be stewing, but…well…he hasn't come near the medbay."
Her eyes narrowed. "But what about his injuries?"
"He said he healed on his own." Kaidan shrugged. "Benefit of being a krogan, I guess." He paused, appraising the commander's condition and appearance again.
"What's wrong?" she asked, confusion appearing on her face as he remained silent.
He said nothing for several seconds. "You look like hell," he finally blurted out. His eyes shot open and his face instantly started to burn, as he realized just what he had said and who he had said it to. "Uh m-m-ma'am," he added quickly.
"Way to make a girl feel good, Alenko," Layla sighed quietly, averting her gaze.
Alenko felt dread rise up into his chest for a moment before Shepard's face broke into a wide grin.
"Relax, Alenko. I know what you meant," she teased, her face lighting up. "You meant that I look like I've been overdoing it on drugs. Well, at the moment it's probably true, with Chakwas' miracle meds."
The lieutenant's dread quickly became replaced with relief, though some nervousness still remained. He always thought before he spoke, except around Shepard –
"So what has happened the last few days?" she asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"Scouting for geth. Intel had reported that the geth had been using a remote system as a discharge point. We arrived a few hours ago."
"I take it no sign of our murdering robot friends?"
He shook his head. "No."
"So, where next?"
"Arcturus for resupply. We'll arrive in a couple days," he told her.
Her mind raced for a moment, then her expression darkened. "We have plenty of fuel, ordnance, and foodstuffs," she said quietly. "We're not really going there to resupply. It's about the rachni…isn't it?"
Alenko kept his expression impassive. "We haven't been told, just that we need to return to Arcturus."
Shepard sighed, closing her eyes. "Great. Any good news?"
"The embassy wants to have a quick ceremony for you. They started planning for it when you were first assigned to the Normandy. Originally they wanted it on Eden Prime, but…"
She winced. "Probably a good idea to move it," she said sadly. "And not sure why they want to have any sort of ceremony for me after I spared the rachni."
He paused before speaking. "No one has yet to mention anything about the rachni. Nothing in the news about it, either. It's been highly classified by both the Alliance and the Council."
She sighed again, shaking her head. "So, is there actual good news?"
"Uhh…I guess you're feeling better, I take it?"
Shepard laughed for a moment. "Kinda. But the more important question is how are you feeling?"
The lieutenant paused, looking away as his CO regarded him closely. "I'll be cleared for combat in a few days," he replied.
She nodded, looking pleased and amused at the same time. "So, uh…would you mind filling me in on the details of what happened while I was unconscious this time?"
Alenko awoke to feel a throbbing pain in his arm as he slowly woke. He realized he was lying in the medbay. He looked around to see Dr. Chakwas sitting at the computer rapidly typing into a terminal. "Doctor?" he muttered.
She quickly turned to face him. "Ah, Lieutenant, you're awake," she replied.
"How long was I out?" he asked groggily.
"Eighteen hours."
"Huh," he stated in surprise. The number alarmed him, but he wasn't quite sure why.
"Yes. I couldn't suture up and treat your wounds immediately, so a medic started with the antitoxins while I treated the commander."
The reason for his current worry flashed into his mind. Shepard…oh God did she die? The lieutenant's stomach did a somersault as he remembered the events, his body tensing as he shot up in bed. "Is she okay?"he asked in panic.
"She's fine. She will make a full recovery. You can lay back down, Alenko," the doctor assured him.
He let out a long sigh of relief. The panic that had quickly swelled up within him was gone just as fast, but the searing pain in his arm lingered.
"You should limit general movement for another day. Your arm will need to stay in a cast for another few days to play it safe. A biotic attack cracked your arm bones; nothing too serious, but that arm also had a fair amount of toxins present."
Now that the lieutenant was awake, he realized he did feel exhausted.
"You might feel a bit groggy today, I'm afraid. The antitoxin combined with the anesthetics will make you fatigued."
Williams strolled in a couple minutes later after the doctor reviewed the lieutenant's injuries. "Hey, L-T, you're finally up. You were out cold for a while," the chief said.
"That blade got me pretty good, apparently," he replied.
The chief paused before asking, "So, uh, L-T, are special assignments usually…this…"
"Weird?" he finished for her. "They can certainly be interesting, but this definitely takes the cake."
The chief grinned, then her expression turned serious. "L-T, Captain Anderson has been asking for information on Peak 15. I've finished up the draft AAR, since both you and the commander were out. Someone will need to add what you all over the commander's omni-tool while she was at Port Hanshan. Feel free to make whatever changes you need, rip it apart, whatever. I always BS'ed my way through creative writing classes."
Alenko snorted at the chief's wry comment as she departed a few minutes later, and he began to read the report. It was incredibly thorough and detailed. Everything that was encountered, how it was solved, even exactly what was said in some places was written down. The chief caught all the details, without using the armor audio/video feeds, and Alenko realized just how stupid the prejudice against her family was. Someone as smart and capable as her should never be posted on garrison duty. From looking at it, nothing needed to be changed at all...except something was missing.
After he finished reading it, he went to the crew mess where the chief was currently relaxing. She looked up at him and asked with a smirk, "That bad, huh?"
"No, your report is great," he responded quickly. "I didn't make any changes, actually. I just had a question."
"Yeah, I left the rachni out. Also I didn't describe the creatures in detail. Not sure what the commander wants to do about that. Not like it matters. The Council would have been pissed no matter what she did. Free it, and they'll say we unleashed the rachni on the galaxy again. Kill it, and they'll say it was genocide."
Alenko hadn't yet thought about that, but the turian councilor did seem to have it in for Shepard. He never seemed to pass up an opportunity to criticize her.
"Hopefully I'm wrong, but that turian councilor…" she stopped, drifting off.
"Yeah…"
"Anyway, have fun writing the Port Hanshan part, since I wasn't on comm for that. I'm glad my short story involves action and not politicians," she replied.
"The rachni…we have to tell them the full truth." She sighed. "The Council is going to be livid with me."
Alenko grimly nodded agreement. He thought the best decision would be to leave the rachni be, or let the neutron purge deal with them. A lightbulb nearly turned on in his mind. Something about the neutron purge -
"The armor cams will show everything; the good, the bad, and the ugly," she said quietly. "I'm not sure how long we will be at Arcturus, but it will at least be long enough for me to get torn a new one or two." She shrugged. "Well, I'll give the crew leave when we arrive for a few hours. I'm not sure where we'll be headed after that. Did we pick up any leads on Saren?" she asked him.
"Nothing new. The current 'official' intelligence assessment is Saren is laying low for a bit since we got to Noveria so quickly after Benezia."
"We certainly did, but I don't put a lot of faith in some of those intelligence assessments. It seems everyone I read turns out to be wrong," she replied lightly. "Things seem break, or blow up, or otherwise fall apart when I interact with them." She paused for a couple moments, her eyes narrowed. "Now that I think about it, things have gone sideways on every mission that we've been on. Maybe Joker's on to something with the blonde stereotype." She grinned. "Would you please do me a favor and pass the word along to the crew about a few hours of leave? I know it is just on Arcturus, but they've earned it."
"Of course," he replied. "And Arcturus isn't so bad. They do have some good restaurants and bars."
"Pricey, though."
The two officers continued talking for several minutes before Shepard got drowsy from the medication and went back to sleep.
Something stalked her as she ran. Something dark, unseen. Pure evil. She ran as fast as she could, chills running up and down her body. But not from the cold.
An utterly sinister laugh echoed through the darkness, so chilling was it that it caused Shepard to shake so bad she tripped and fell. The presence was nearly upon her when
Shepard woke with a gasp as she jumped up in bed. She sat in the bed, oblivious to the spike of pain in her body. Her head jerked around in nervous movements, frantically glancing around the room for her attacker. She hadn't even realized that her corona had flared, dark energy swirling around her hands. It took her mind a couple moments to realize she was in the medbay of the Normandy. She slowly lay back into the bed, pulling the covers close around her. Her mind then focused on the obvious a moment later.
That…whatever that was…is not normal.
She tried to focus on anything but the nightmare, but failed, her mind wondering just what was in the beacon, just what it was trying to tell her. She waited a few more minutes before getting up and going to get cleaned up. She finished her shower, taking a longer one than usual, though it did nothing to remove her uneasiness. She still had another day to rest up before meeting with the Joint Chiefs and the Council.
Despite her unease from the continuing nightmares from the beacon, the shower felt good for her body – after nearly four days of mostly unconscious bed rest, just being able to wash up was a treat. The doctor wanted her to rest for the remainder of the day, and by tomorrow she could get back to non-combat activities. Exercise and combat were still several days away for her.
She winced as she gently washed the area on her left side where she had been stabbed. The area was still sensitive, but the scar was already smaller and fading, thanks to the doctor's good treatment.
She suddenly felt dizzy, and she took a seat on the convenient small bench in the shower, made for that very situation. She turned the water nozzle onto her head as she sat, lowering her head and massaging her temples with her hands, relishing the wonderful feeling of warm water flowing over her.
So much had happened the last four weeks, and she had been unconscious or limited to bed rest for what seemed to be half of that time. Eden Prime, the beacon, the Council, a thresher maw – she shuddered for several moments as she recalled the brief mission to Edolus. Despite the warm water, she still got goosebumps from the memories of that encounter. Then Therum and Noveria, the rachni…
Shepard didn't know how long she sat on the bench before she finished washing up, only that thick steam now permeated the entire med bay bathroom. She toweled off and applied a new patch over the wound on her left side, pulling on a fresh medical gown. She slowly returned to a clean bed that she was supposed to use. The shower had woke her up a bit when the water started, but she was now feeling fatigued again, both from the activity and from the still-present antitoxins used to treat her wounds.
She crawled into the new bed, picking up a datapad to begin catching up on what she had missed. Her mood soured as she read the list of people that wanted to talk to her about the rachni. The fact that she had encountered rachni was classified at a much higher level, but the messages all stated their "concern at events and decisions on Noveria." The events and decisions in question were rather clear to the commander. Admiral Mikhailovitch's office was supposed to filter some of this crap, but apparently he both disapproved of the decision and was angry enough about it to let all of the hate mail reach her. She sighed; well, she knew that making tough decisions was part of the job, but she never had expected to make a decision regarding the life or death of an entire species thought extinct for two millennia. Logically, she knew the choice that she should have made, that everyone expected her to make, but her conscience simply wouldn't let her do it.
Shepard startled slightly when the door to the medbay suddenly opened and Lieutenant Alenko entered. She immediately could see something wasn't right. He staggered to the nearest cot, barely making it to the bed. The commander ignored the pain in her own body as she pulled herself to her feet and hurried to his side.
Doctor Chakwas followed him in a moment later, alerted by her omni-tool. It nearly broke Layla's heart to see Kaidan like this: his warm brown eyes shuttered in pain, a pained grimace across his face, his teeth bared. "What's wrong?" the commander asked him in alarm.
"Mmii-raine," he rasped.
Shepard looked at him in concern while Chakwas hurriedly retrieved some medication. The doctor administered the medication, and the two women helped him lie down in the cot, Shepard continuing to ignore the pain in her own body as she helped Alenko get settled. "That will alleviate most of the pain and help you rest, Alenko," the doctor replied.
"Tthahash," he muttered.
"I'll shut off the lights when I leave," Chakwas said.
Shepard turned off her datapad and climbed back into the cot. Chakwas spent several minutes updating something on her terminal, then she dimmed the lights to a faint orange hue as she walked out the door. "Get some rest, both of you," she said to them.
The commander heard Alenko in the cot next to her let out a moan of pain, and she wished she could do something, anything, to help him, but the best thing she could do for him was to just keep quiet and let him rest. She listened to his breathing slow and become more natural rather than painful, labored breaths. She realized he had quickly fallen asleep, his breaths coming in easy, natural sighs.
She felt her own fatigue begin to return as she listened to his peaceful breathing. Rest did sound pretty good to her at the moment, and just a couple minutes later, sleep too had claimed her for the evening.
Commander Shepard slowly opened her eyes, noticing the dim orange glow providing minimal illumination to the medbay. Her memories returned to her, and she recalled that when she had fallen asleep, she hadn't had the medbay to herself. She had no idea how long she had been resting, and she presumed Kaidan was still in the cot next to her. She ever so slowly turned her head to glance over to his cot, seeing him lying there motionless. The current illumination provided excellent definitions to the muscles on Alenko's arms. She looked away, focusing her thoughts on something else rather than checking out the lieutenant.
She lay in bed for a while, not wanting to disturb the Alenko's rest. She knew that the migraines suffered by some L2s were crippling, and was glad she didn't have to face that. After a while she slid out of the cot as quietly as she could, but she heard the lieutenant stir. "Commander?" a smooth baritone voice called out from the other cot.
Shepard winced as she realized that she had woke him up. "Ssh, Alenko. Go back to sleep," she whispered softly.
She heard him shift in his cot for a moment. "I've been awake for a while," he responded. "I, uh…I d-didn't want to wake you."
Shepard didn't respond. "O-oh," she finally said, touched by the fact that while he had suffered a brutal migraine, his first thought was to not disturb her.
He didn't say anything for a moment, then she heard his sheets rustle. "Wait a minute," he said, a bit louder this time. "You weren't lying awake in the cot just to not disturb me…were you?"
"I…was, actually," she replied. Both officers made eye contact with surprised wide eyes at the realization before both simultaneously laughed.
After the laughter subsided Alenko glanced at the clock – Shepard couldn't see it from her cot. "Well, regardless of how long each of us were lying awake, I'd say we each got more than a full night's sleep."
She couldn't help but chuckle, the warmth she felt at the way he considered her needs first not subsiding. She emerged three minutes later. She climbed back into the cot and turned on her uninjured side to face him. "I take it your migraine is gone?"
He nodded. "Sure is – well, I think so. I haven't tried to sit up yet." He slowly sat up and swung his legs over the side of the cot. He took a deep breath and said, "I'm good. I just need to sit for a few minutes," he said, suddenly rubbing his neck and looking down. "How's your side, Commander?"
"Alenko," she replied quickly. "Drop the formality around me, especially when it's just the two of us."
Kaidan paused, looking at her for a moment. His mind flashed back to Peak 15, where he saw Shepard's biotics annihilate Benezia. Something just wasn't right about that. The logical part of his mind told him that he needed to be careful, very careful, around her. But another part of him wanted to know Layla Shepard, not Commander Shepard. "Okay…Layla. It just…takes some getting used to," he replied slowly.
"Talk to me as you would a friend, not a superior. Okay?"
"Okay," he said after a moment. "How's your side…Layla?"
She nodded, seemingly pleased at him using her first name rather than rank. "Much better," Shepard replied.
Silence settled between the two officers for several moments as Alenko rubbed his head. "I'm good. Just need to sit for a bit."
"Well, looks like you're stuck with me for a few minutes, then. Sorry," she grinned at him.
"I can think of worse people to be stuck with," he said immediately with a chuckle that suddenly stopped as he looked down at the floor, trying to ignore the sudden flushing of his face.
She blinked twice rapidly with a look of surprise that vanished after several moments. "Wrex?" she then asked with a smirk.
"I was going to say Joker, but Wrex too," came his quick reply.
She laughed, the sound being music to the lieutenant's ears. He could listen to her laugh all day. "Well, you've had to listen to me talk about myself ad nauseum. I'd like to hear a little about you," she said with a small smile. "You had mentioned that you went to a special school for biotics? What was that like?" she asked him curiously. She propped her head up with her right arm as she faced him.
He preferred not to talk about BAAT in detail, but everyone had been asking Shepard details about…well, everything about her. She had been open with him, and they both were resting in a medbay; it wasn't as if they had anything else to do. She had asked about BAAT, in addition to wanting to talk as friends, and he figured there wasn't any harm with giving an overview of Brain Camp. At least, an overview of the parts that weren't a complete shitshow.
"'Biotic Acclimation and Temperance' – BAAT – didn't last past the airlock. To the kids they hauled in, it was 'Brain Camp." Sorry, 'hauled in' is insensitive," he replied with air quotes. "We were 'encouraged to commit to an evaluation of our abilities, so an understanding of biotics could be compiled,'" he said, giving air quotes again to a quick chuckle from Shepard.
"That sounds very Alliance-ese," she replied, then her face broke into a wide grin. "I first was expecting 'Alliance's School for Gifted Youngsters' or something like that."
Kaidan burst into uncontained laughter at her comment; fortunately, his migraine didn't return. He shook his head with one last chuckle before he looked at her again. She had turned onto her side to face him, now looking at him intently with an inquisitive expression. He was struck with surprise by her interest in his past. None of his COs had ever expressed more than a passing interest in his history; most just wanted to know how many bad guys he could kill with his biotics, and how quickly he could accomplish that. None of his COs had ever been as cute as Shepard, either…nothing good would come from him following that line of thinking, of thinking of Shepard as cute, he knew. He felt conflicted; he enjoyed their conversations, and especially the banter, but she was his CO and the first human Spectre. He remained silent for a few moments, getting his mind and thoughts in order. "It wasn't fully Alliance, though. Sure, Alliance oversight, but the day-to-day was run by Conatix Corporation." He shrugged. "There are worse results of exposure to element zero in the womb. Beats the brain tumors some kids grew up with."
Shepard nodded, a solemn look on her face. "We're definitely the lucky ones. How were you exposed?"
"My mother was downwind of a transport crash. It was before there were human biotics. A little after the discovery of the Martian ruins. What about you?"
"Both my parents were Alliance, and a transport full of eezo crashed while they were on vacation. They helped rescue survivors from the ship and the building they landed on. And well…I was born nine months later," she replied. "Humans didn't know that eezo caused biotics until after the end of the First Contact War."
"Yeah. Intentional exposures didn't start happening until around '63, when Conatix had more information about biotics and they ran out of first-gen test subjects," Alenko added. "And as big as the exposures were, it was hard to track down accidentals. It was different then. No one knew the potential, so there wasn't a lot of regulation. And anything Conatix developed with human biotics was gold. I'm not saying they intentionally detonated drives over our outposts. But in retrospect, they seemed to be damned quick on the scene in the 60s," he replied. "Bunch of guys in suits show up at your door after school. Next thing you know, you're out on Jump Zero – that's where BAAT was located. Despite the isolation, it had benefits. You don't have to worry about a bloodthirsty mob showing up at your door."
Layla nodded, knowing firsthand discrimination all too well. She didn't say anything, waiting for Kaidan to continue, trying to file away what he had said over the distracting sound of his smooth voice. That voice…she could listen to him talk about BAAT all day…or about anything, really. BAAT, encyclopedias, cookbooks, Alliance protocol manuals – as long as she could listen to his voice. No. He's a subordinate. You're a Spectre. The first human Spectre. Everyone already thinks you've had many lapses in judgment. You can't afford another one, for any reason.
She then realized that he was waiting for her to ask a question or to respond to him. "How many kids were there?" she asked after a slight hesitation.
"About two hundred total in BAAT itself. Those kids were the few that didn't get tumors and actually developed biotics. The youngest were usually about seven or eight – just about the time you can start moving small objects biotically," he said. Shepard noticed his expression change slightly, with a noticeable pause before he continued. "They had a separate school for kids starting at toddler age up to the age where you joined BAAT."
"Did they have all of you in the same classes?" she asked.
"They split it up into three phases. The pre-teen one focused on coursework and turning the fancy corona into something that can actually move small objects. The second phase moved into refining your biotics. In the final phase, you got fitted for an implant and amp, and then learned to use your powers…or not," he finished quietly.
Shepard nodded grimly, knowing very well what happened when one was hooked up to an implant, and counted herself lucky. However, she sensed there was more to his story, and while tempted to ask, she figured that was a conversation for another time. "I've heard about a lot of the side effects with the L2s. Most…didn't do well. You were lucky," she told him.
"Yeah, I was, just like you," he replied solemnly. He wondered about her past, and her own biotics, her fight with Benezia returning to the front of his mind… "Did you ever have Conatix show up at your parent's door?"
Shepard's expression darkened at the mention of her parents; she glanced down at the floor and didn't respond immediately. "If they did, well…they never told me. That's why my parents moved from Earth, to get away from the discrimination." While she didn't like revisiting her past, she found Alenko so easy to talk to, and even easier to listen to.
"Yeah. That was a nice thing about BAAT – all of the kids there were in the same boat." He let out a low laugh for a moment. "Sorry, here I ramble on about myself."
"Not a problem at all, Alenko. You've had to listen to me ramble on about myself for weeks now. Besides, I enjoy talking with you," she said with a warm smile. "I don't exactly get much in the way of company here in the medbay. Well, with the exception of Doctor Chakwas," she added quickly. "But usually she comes in with needles," she frowned.
Alenko laughed at her joke, grateful that he had something else to focus on rather than what she had just said. He wasn't that good of company…was he? Well, it was just friendly banter, after all. That he could do, and she had said to talk to each other as friends in this situation. And he found that he really enjoyed bantering with her. The logical voice in his mind told him that he should be careful around her, something just didn't add up about her biotics. But… "I'll make sure to send some of the crew in to say hi. But you need to get some rest."
"Or what?" she asked him, a sassy look on her face.
What's the harm in a little friendly banter? he thought. Lots of things. But… "Or…I'll come back with needles," he replied as he crossed his arms.
"Ouch." She cringed. "I'd prefer it if just you came back, and left the needles behind."
"Then get some rest…Commander," he replied in mock seriousness.
"Yes sir," she replied with a grin and a cheeky salute.
Shepard watched him leave, settling back down into her cot with a sigh, her grin fading. She really had to watch her words with the lieutenant. There was a fine line between banter and what could be considered flirting, what would be considered fraternization, a line that she came very close to inadvertently crossing in their last conversation. She found it so easy to talk and joke with him, once she got him to loosen up and be casual around her. Though he didn't seem to mind, she would have to stop, even though she enjoyed it. She was the CO of an Alliance vessel, and Lieutenant Alenko was her subordinate. She was the first human Spectre, and every aspect of her decision making would be scrutinized, much more so now. She cleared her mind and began reading reports on a datapad. After an hour, she began to feel drowsy again from the medication. She set the datapad down and dimmed the lights, quickly falling into a deep sleep.
Miranda Lawson looked over Commander Shepard's report with a frown bordering on a scowl. She had already seen the commander's audio and video logs, and the report simply restated the obvious.
Shepard had released the rachni queen. Miranda knew that to be a terrible decision that would return to haunt both the Alliance and the galaxy centuries, or maybe only decades, down the line. She knew Shepard to be idealistic and paragon, and there was a time for that, certainly. But Noveria was not one of those times. The rachni had been the cause of nearly every terrible event of the last two thousand years – the krogan rebellions, the genophage, even the First Contact War. The rachni should have been swept back into the dustbin of history where they belong. But the commander inexplicably chose to spare them, apparently stating that she couldn't genocide an entire species. Miranda couldn't believe it. That was exactly what Spectres were for. Make the hard decisions so others, such as the Council, wouldn't have to. The galactic government needed to be able to wash their hands of the decisions of its agents.
The Council was absolutely livid with the decision, as well as the select few in the Alliance that knew about it. So far, Shepard's decisions as a Spectre had done little to inspire confidence. Miranda knew the Council had no doubt discussed dismissing the commander from the Spectres, but that would cause an utter shitshow with the public. Questions would be asked, and answers would have to be given. Sooner or later, the public would find out about the rachni, and the panic that ensued would fall squarely back on the Council, but especially on the Alliance.
Commander Shepard probably hadn't thought of any of that, however, when she made the utterly idiotic decision to let the rachni queen go. Of course she hadn't. Despite her supposed considerable intelligence and alleged tactical genius, she apparently possessed zero capability for strategic thought, as evidenced by her decision on Noveria. Her tactical thinking had been quite poor on Therum as well, given she simply used her biotics to bludgeon her way through a blocked tunnel rather than look for a more nuanced solution that would not have resulted in the destruction of the prothean ruins. Miranda sighed; having a human Spectre was supposed to remove migraines from humanity, not add to them.
However, Shepard's decision making was not the current topic of discussion. It also wasn't contingency planning for the rachni's return. All of the Council species, as well as the Alliance, had newly created contingency plans if the rachni attempted to hit the spaceport. A cruiser-class vessel or larger would always be within four hours of the planet. If the rachni made any attempt to attack Port Hanshan, the only location with offworld transport, the port would be destroyed by orbital bombardment.
The topic was also not even the concerning revelations from Benezia. While the few people privy to all of the Noveria AAR had mostly focused on the highly disturbing fact that the rachni had been released, some had found Benezia's behavior and words to be alarming. The ship called Sovereign had capabilities that dwarfed anything in the galaxy. Miranda remained skeptical, though, of Saren's mind-control capabilities, and of course Shepard hadn't thought to preserve a bit of Benezia's corpse for research into the alleged mind-control. Instead, as usual, she had just used her biotics to splatter the threat, an asari matriarch in this case, against the nearest wall. Miranda also found that surprising. How was it possible for a human, with only a few years of biotic training, to so outclass an asari matriarch with nearly a millennium of experience? That just didn't make sense to Miranda.
In addition, while many doubted Commander Shepard's so-called visions from the beacon, Miranda knew that something had happened to the commander. She knew that the physiological response from Shepard's body meant that something truly drastic and profound had happened to the first human Spectre on Eden Prime, but surprisingly, the details of those reports were inaccessible to the Cerberus officer. With her current cover role in AIA, she had nearly every conceivable access, but yet she couldn't access the reports detailing whatever happened to Shepard, nor could she access her medical history. That was even stranger. Other L2s had nearly every aspect of their medical files placed under extreme scrutiny, but Shepard's didn't even appear to exist on a network.
Miranda put aside the strange thoughts about the first human Spectre's medical history. They had other another topic of concern, a topic that had been mostly overlooked. That topic was the neutron purge.
From the Binary Helix reports, the neutron purge had indeed cleansed the Peak 15 station of higher forms of life. All of the remaining rachni looked to have instantly perished, including an energy pulse that had been detectable at Port Hanshan, and even from orbit. Miranda couldn't help but wonder if the pulse worked on the geth, but Shepard's squad had been quite thorough in destroying the entire contingent of synthetics. Honestly, Miranda couldn't fault her for that, though having a geth or two alive to see the effects of the neutron purge on them would certainly have been helpful.
A source from Binary Helix had recently reported that the company had recently found a derelict ship. That hadn't prompted much concern; despite the vastness of space, derelict ships along major relay routes in the galaxy were a feature, not a bug. While the rachni queen egg had indeed come from that derelict ship, the neutron purge had to be something else. She doubted Binary Helix had the scientific and engineering know-how to develop a capability that could specifically and solely target life-forms over hundreds of meter scale distances. Neither did any of the Citadel or Terminus powers. That concerned the Council, AIA, and Cerberus.
Miranda looked to the several other personnel in the room where the meeting had just concluded. All of them were AIA, with two exceptions. Miranda and her colleague Jacob Taylor weren't really AIA, though everyone else thought they were. They primarily functioned currently as conduits of information, allowing information from AIA to reach their true employer. When the circumstances demanded it, they would do the reverse – giving AIA information that Cerberus had obtained. This was one of those times.
Binary Helix had vehemently denied that they had found a rachni egg, and played dumb with the neutron purge. While most overlooked the latter, Miranda hadn't. She knew that an entire army group wouldn't be able to find the rachni queen on that iceball planet, especially with Noveria Development Corporation rather angry at both the Council and the Alliance right now, for the Normandy explicitly ignoring the gentlemen's agreement on rules regarding the presence of Citadel-affiliated vessels.
Information from Cerberus had been passed on to AIA, though the latter had no idea that Cerberus had infiltrated their organization. Binary Helix was planning to move the neutron purge offworld to a corporate lab that wouldn't have outsiders crawling all over it in the next twenty four hours. Miranda knew past decisions were highly correlated to future behavior. Binary Helix would hide whatever they had from the Alliance, hoping to gain some sort of competitive edge in the future. Somehow. That line of thinking didn't make much sense to Miranda. But one thing did make sense to the Cerberus operative. Cerberus needed to recover whatever caused the neutron purge. That technology – the ability to cull higher forms of life within a certain radius – could not be held by an irresponsible corporation who was beholden to Saren Arterius' interests as a result of his massive investments.
However, her AIA "boss" hadn't wanted to act, preferring to sit on her hands. She hadn't wanted to stick her neck out for based on one source of information, despite Miranda's passionate insistence. Miranda knew this wasn't a time for indecision. The Alliance – more specifically, Cerberus – needed to recover whatever device caused the neutron purge. Binary Helix would take years to pass such technology onto the Alliance, if the even would, given how they were beholden to Saren. Cerberus could do it in a fraction of the time, being able to indirectly call on resources from across nearly the entire Systems Alliance.
Miranda sighed, angry at her boss – and Shepard. She internalized her emotions – she had a task to do. She saw this as a perfect example of why Cerberus was needed. Cerberus didn't have government functionaries that only looked out for their own careers. Cerberus wouldn't hesitate to recover whatever device or technology could create an energy pulse that wiped out higher forms of life.
So Miranda would find another way to recover it. Even if AIA ended up with it, Cerberus would still get the knowledge, and potentially the know-how to build such technology. One thing she knew: Binary Helix would not share any of their gains from advanced technology with the Alliance, not as long as Saren had such significant investments with the company. That could take years, or even decades, to resolve. Her real boss had mysteriously stated that humanity didn't have the luxury of time. Furthermore, to her considerable surprise, the Illusive Man had also stated that the device needed to be recovered at any cost, even if it meant blowing their cover with AIA. Just what did the Illusive Man know about the neutron purge? She also found herself wondering just what he might know about that massive ship from Eden Prime, a ship that nearly made her shudder anytime she saw the vids from the planet.
Miranda sighed as she leaned back in her chair as most of the others left. Jacob remained, the two of them sharing wordless looks which, despite that fact, nearly perfectly conveyed their thoughts.
"We have to recover the device that caused the neutron purge," Jacob said. Left unspoken was the fact that Cerberus needed to know just what the device was, and just what it was capable of doing.
"I know," Miranda replied. She started to think about what assets they could leverage. She didn't know how many personnel Cerberus had, but she knew that most collaborators with her organization were unwitting, having no idea that they passed information on to a rogue special ops cell. Or a human supremacist organization. Or terrorists, or a gang of thugs that slaughtered civilians for shits and giggles. Those few in the Alliance that actually knew about Cerberus didn't seem to know what Cerberus actually was. Ask five different people, and one would get five different answers.
Miranda and Jacob had only sat in the room for a few seconds when the door swished open and a turian entered. Her surprise was replaced a moment later with suspicion. Now with a human Spectre, collaboration with the Council species and the Alliance on military and intelligence matters had increased dramatically. Other species at this AIA office had become a near-daily occurrence, rather than something that was a head-turning rarity just a few weeks before. A few Spectres had even begun bartering with AIA, often mutually exchanging exclusive information.
"Miss Lenner," the turian said in greeting in the trade language. "I heard you are concerned about the neutron purge."
"You are remarkably well-informed…" Miranda "Lenner" responded. She knew this turian was someone with significant influence in the Hierarchy or with the Council. Few non-humans were allowed unescorted around this Alliance office, especially turians.
"The name's Rix. Avitus Rix," he replied.
Miranda saw that Jacob put up a hand to cover the twitch of a grin on his mouth. Like Jacob, she also highly doubted that Avitus had heard of James Bond before, though she had control over her emotions. She showed no hint of amusement.
"I will be blunt. The neutron purge needs to be recovered from Binary Helix. That company has already shown a staggering level of incompetence in their handling of the rachni." Miranda noted that he surprisingly didn't make a reference to Shepard releasing the rachni, something that the few turians that knew about it always seemed to rub that fact in every chance they got. Well, it was easy to remind the turians that one of their own betrayed the Council and was indirectly responsible for everything else that followed. "They can clearly not be trusted."
"While I agree with you, Mr. Rix, AIA will recover the neutron purge," "Lenner" replied.
Avitus shook his head. "No. You will not," he replied simply. "Your boss is indecisive; she did not authorize AIA to retrieve it. However, you can retrieve it, but you will need my help."
"With all due respect, Mr. Rix, what help can the Hierarchy provide?"
"I do not represent the Turian Hierarchy," Avitus said simply, letting that fact sink in for a moment.
Miranda acted slightly surprised as she filed the information away. Cerberus now had the identity of another Spectre.
"We both want to recover the neutron purge from a corporation that has demonstrated a staggering level of incompetence. We can help each other. Binary Helix is a human company, with ninety-two percent of its staff being human. You will get Spectre authority for your actions," the turian continued.
"That won't help us much with AIA," Miranda countered.
"If this device is what I think it could be, your organization director and members of your parliament that oversee AIA will give you all the forgiveness that you could ever need," Rix replied cryptically.
This genuinely surprised Miranda, enough that her eyebrows raised slightly along with her eyes widening. Just what did Rix think this neutron purge was? However, even on prodding from Miranda, he refused to elaborate.
"I will extend the full protection from my office to both of you, in exchange for your assistance," Avitus said.
Miranda paused. She had been ordered to retrieve the neutron purge at any cost. She hadn't expected that cost to be working with a turian. But she had her orders, and arrived at a decision quickly. "We'll need that in writing," Miranda replied. That could come in handy, for several reasons.
Avitus nodded. "Of course." He discussed information he had obtained, and Miranda and Jacob reciprocated. Then, the three of them worked on a devising a plan to recover the device. The Cerberus operatives knew this wasn't an ideal situation, working with a turian, bit given the circumstances, it would have to do.
Shepard slowly awoke from the latest nap, checking the time. She had now been down nearly six days from the rachni wound, the doctor keeping her in the bed for nearly the entire time. This time she had awoke without nightmares for the first time since being impaled by a rachni, and she only had a minor headache. That was certainly a start towards feeling better.
Chakwas visited a few minutes later, refreshing her on what she could and could not do. Shepard was fine moving about, but she couldn't walk more than a couple kilometers, couldn't run, and certainly wasn't cleared for combat.
The shower removed the remnants of her headache, and she was pleased to see the scar on her side had entirely healed. She pulled on a spare women's jumpsuit, which was nonetheless several sizes too large for her petite frame, from the medbay bathroom and went to her quarters. She got a chance to read quick updates on what the Council and brass wanted to hear from her. Nothing had really changed—they wanted to grill her over the coals for releasing the rachni.
She sighed as she dried her hair, cleaned herself up, and donned her service dress yet again. The Normandy had docked at Arcturus station a while ago, and apparently a couple members of the JCS even wanted to talk with her as soon as possible, instead of going through Admiral Mikhailovitch and Captain Anderson. However, Chakwas had insisted that she get additional rest, and since she was the attending physician to her case…the thought brought a small smile to her face. She owed the doctor yet another one.
She had to complete two things before the briefings, though. First, she had to talk to Liara. She had not talked to the asari scientist since Noveria.
Shepard slowly approached the small research room, little more than a closet, that adjoined the medbay. She tentatively opened the door after a moment's pause.
Liara had made the two by three meter room her home, allowing her privacy and a place to perform research uninterrupted. The two screens on the wall displayed what looked to be academic texts, and Shepard recognized the language as the main asari tongue. Surprisingly orderly sets of datapads had been stacked into several piles, with a larger one that displayed an image of prothean ruins propped up against the desk.
"Commander!" Liara exclaimed with mild surprise as she quickly stood, knocking over a propped up datapad in the process. "I hadn't expected you to be up so soon."
"I can't spend all of my days in a medical cot," she replied. "And please, you don't need to call me 'Commander.'"
Liara nodded, and Shepard closely scrutinized the asari as she stood. Her movements were quick, deliberate, and after standing she held herself straight, not slouching. The asari looked Shepard in the eyes, not averting her gaze, no anger or hostility in her stare.
"Listen, Liara, I…" Words died in Shepard's mouth. She had walked through what she would say several times while getting ready, but she silently stared at the asari. The commander didn't realize that she was fidgeting with her hands.
"If you came to talk with me about Benezia, you need not bother," Liara said, a surprising amount of conviction in her voice.
Shepard barely managed out a surprised, quiet "Oh" before the asari continued.
"Benezia made her choice when allying herself with Saren. Mind control or not, she made a choice to start with, a choice to side with a traitor to the galaxy. Still…" a wan smile appeared on the asari's face as she looked behind Shepard to the door "I'm glad I was able to speak with her, as my mother, before she died."
The commander didn't say anything, surprised by the words and response from their asari guest.
Liara's face took on a concerned look. "Still…I am worried about what Mother said at the end." She took her seat, looking away from Shepard to the datapads.
"The fact Benezia was mind-controlled by Saren," Shepard said quietly. She sat in the second seat in the lab, crossing her legs and nervously putting her hands in her lap.
Liara nodded. "Yes. My mother was incredibly strong-willed. Independent. For her to fall under the spell of another…"
The commander nodded, remaining silent for several moments. "Liara, look, I…wanted to apologize. I had hoped we could talk down Benezia, but…" She wrung her hands.
"I know. You killed Benezia," Liara replied. Hearing those words stung Shepard to her core as she looked at the woman whose mother she had gruesomely killed. The asari's eyes then softened. "But you did not kill my mother. She will always live on, in my memories, in her actions before joining Saren." She let out a quick chuckle, but didn't elaborate, seemingly reminiscing in the past. "And you saved my life," Liara said.
"You saved my life in that fight too, Liara," the human said softly.
"But you saved me multiple times on Noveria, not to mention on Therum," the asari responded.
Shepard remembered the krogan's words on Therum, causing a brief surge of alarm. Just why did Saren want her alive?
"What about you? Are you close to your parents?" Liara asked inquisitively.
"MOMMY! DADDY!" she screamed in terror as her mind refused to believe what her eyes told her, kicking as rough hands grabbed her and -
Layla snapped out of the memory, nodding. "Yes," she responded simply.
A soft smile appeared on Liara's face. "They must be very proud of you."
Terrified, she tried to pull free of the batarian pinning her torso to the ground, her arms flailing for leverage so she could -
Layla remained silent, nodding slightly after a long pause. "They are." She blinked, but she still saw the corpses of -
She blinked again, and the memories and the screams faded.
It took her a moment to regain her mental composure. "What about your…father, Liara? Is that the correct term?"
"Partially," Liara corrected, then she explained the prejudices against pureblood asari.
Shepard's eyes widened. "So…you don't know who Benezia's partner was, other than she was another asari?"
Liara nodded. "Possibly Benezia couldn't allow the union to become public."
"Have you thought about searching for her partner?"
"Sometimes. Even when we were on better terms, my mother never told me. Possibly because an asari of her station should only partner with those who are…influential." The asari's face turned into a small frown. "And she always was pushing me to be something more influential than an archaeologist."
The commander let out a brief chuckle. "Liara, I think you're going to have far more influence than she would have ever thought. You're a prothean researcher, and we're chasing after someone who wants to bring back the machines that wiped out the protheans. I think you'll be very influential, just in a different way than your mother expected."
The two women continued talking for a few minutes until Shepard's omni-tool beeped, alerting them that they had just transited the relay to arrive at Arcturus. The commander took her leave, and the asari watched her depart, the intrigue to decipher the mystery of Commander Shepard growing.
Shepard's first task completed, she now moved on to her second. She had to talk to Wrex. She was worried that he could snap, and if he was going to snap, she wanted it to be at her rather than one of the crew, but unfortunately she had been stuck in a medbay for the last few days. That could either give him time to calm down, or just make things worse. He was doubtlessly still fuming about sparing the rachni queen. She found him at his usual spot, looking to still be skulking after the decision. She took a deep breath and slowly walked towards him.
"What do you want, Shepard?" Wrex growled at her as she approached.
"Nothing, Wrex. I just want to talk," she replied softly.
"Talk? After what you did, we have nothing to talk about," he growled. He turned and walked away.
Shepard hurried to walk alongside him. "We need to talk," she told him softly. She placed her hand on his arm, but he angrily slapped it away.
"No. We don't."
"Wrex, we need to talk about Noveria," she said again.
He growled menacingly, tightly grabbing her arm with his own and gripping hard as he yanked her to within just thirty centimeters. He bared his teeth in rage, the anger in his eyes nearly enough to burn holes in nearly anyone he looked at.
She didn't flinch at all, despite the painful iron grip on her forearm. Nearly anyone else would have run away screaming in terror at her situation. She had angered a krogan that was more than a half meter taller than her and probably had a mass close to an order of magnitude higher, but she held her ground. She said quietly and softly, "I just want to talk, Wrex."
He released her arm. She knew he wanted to talk, even if he wouldn't admit it. She knew he could physically throw her across the entire cargo bay without biotics, or snap her like a twig as if she was a child's toy. But she knew he wouldn't.
"Wrex," she said again softly.
The krogan glared down at her. "When you released that queen, you spat on my people."
"Could you have done it, then? Genocide the last of a species?" she asked him softly.
"Without question," he growled immediately. "You people were still thousands of years away from space travel when the salarians uplifted us to do the fighting for them. You may be gone by the time they return, but I won't. Your children, and their children, will be the ones to deal with them."
"Who says they will be hostile?" she asked.
The krogan snorted. "Let's recap first contact in history. The rachni, immediately attacked when the relay was opened. Us and the turians. The quarians, immediately tried to exterminate the geth when they thought they were sapient. The yahg, slaughtered the first contact team. The turians, again with you humans. First contact always ends in bloodshed."
"But it doesn't have to," she responded, shaking her head. "Everyone is so trigger-happy that they don't bother to even think before shooting, or bother to understand the other side. They just shoot and start killing each other immediately, just because it is the easiest thing to do."
"Exactly my point," the krogan replied.
"Yes, I agree that first contacts have been bloody. But they don't have to be. We can meet—or re-meet—new species without bloodshed, in peace," she responded. "Besides, the queen could have easily attacked us when she was released, but she didn't."
The fight between Shepard and Benezia returned to the old krogan's mind. "The queen just saw you vaporize Benezia and paste what little remained of the matriarch on the back wall. The same Benezia who mentally tortured her for information. There was no way she was going to fight you."
"The salarians uplifted your species to genocide another race, then they sterilized your species when you became too unruly, not even bothering with any other option." Her voice softened, nearly to a whisper. "If I would have killed the queen and wiped out the rest of their species…would wiping out the last rachni be much different from all the things the salarians have done to your species? All of the violence and manipulation masquerading as convenience?" she asked softly.
The krogan glared her for several seconds with anger on his face. The anger didn't fade, but he finally spoke up after what seemed to be an eternity of regarding her words. "No," he said quietly.
"It just takes one time where we meet a new species in peace, and people might just pause for a second before pulling the trigger, not just immediately shoot everyone that looks or behaves different."
The anger remained on Wrex's expression for what seemed to be another eternity. He regarded the woman in front of him with an intense stare. Finally his expression softened and he rolled his eyes, and another krogan snort followed. "You're unbearably naïve."
She grinned up at him. "Yep! But I'm still alive despite that."
"I would say I hope you're right. About peaceful first contact…hell, about peaceful anything, about any sort of optimism. But I gave up on hope a long time ago," he growled.
"You shouldn't have," she responded quickly. "Sometimes, hope is what keeps you going. Hope that things will get better."
Wrex had very sensitive krogan hearing, and detected something different in her voice when she just spoke. He hadn't had enough experience with humans to know what it meant, but there was something definitely different in her tone. He wondered just what could have caused it, and why, but he brought his mind out of his musings and shook his head, chuckling again. "You're just hopelessly optimistic, aren't you?" He would have plenty of time to ponder her vocal tone, not to mention her biotics, later.
"Guilty as charged!" she grinned back.
He sighed. "I guess I've got to respect that. All the shit we see in our business, and you stay optimistic. That's hard to do. Maybe if someone like you would have been in charge for one of those first contact scenarios, things may have been different."
She widened her eyes and put her hands to her mouth in mock surprise. "Urdnot Wrex…did you just give me a compliment?"
He glared and growled at her, though his response was devoid of any threat. "Don't get used to it, kid." He appraised Shepard. "You're back to normal after that rachni wound?" he asked her.
"Somewhat," she answered. "Not cleared for combat yet, but will be in a couple days."
He snorted. "It took me a few hours to fully heal. Benefits of a redundant nervous system and organs."
She chuckled. "Yeah, humans don't really have that."
He continued looking at her. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
"Where…oh, you mean on Noveria?" Shepard asked after a moment.
"Yeah. When you fought Benezia."
Shepard sighed, looking slightly apprehensive. "It's…a long story."
"We have time," he replied simply.
Shepard looked up at him for several moments. "It's a combination of several things," she said slowly. "My parents were downwind of an eezo transport crash. Both helped with the rescue, and Mom became pregnant with me soon after. Both took extremely high doses of eezo, and began to develop…complications years later. Honestly, the doctors were shocked that she could even become pregnant after her level of eezo exposure, much less how I even survived to birth."
"That explains why you're a runt, then," he growled before turning serious. "But that doesn't explain your peak power."
She remained silent for several moments. "Humans developed a really powerful implant, the L2. But it was prone to causing…complications during and after the surgery. So humans switched to the L3, which had less power but didn't cause complications. However, my parents couldn't afford the new, expensive implant…so I got the last version of the L2, the version with the highest peak power output."
Wrex narrowed his eyes. "Why would humans switch to something with less power?"
"The complications could be bad with the L2s, frequently even lethal."
"But in a species with your numbers, it's worth it."
She shook her head. "Not when those very powerful biotics are mentally unstable. And mistrust of human biotics already runs high."
"Hmm," Wrex growled. "How many go crazy?"
Shepard sighed. "Too many. That's why we dumped the L2."
"What about Alenko? He an L2, too?"
The commander nodded. "He is."
"Then why doesn't he have your power output?"
Shepard looked up at Wrex for several moments. "He…had special training throughout his career to control his power output. I didn't have any training into control until a couple years ago, and on Elysium and…other places, I had to use every bit of power I had just to survive. Since I don't have much control, I get fatigued very quickly, much faster than you, Liara, or Kaidan."
Wrex paused, slowly nodding after several moments of contemplation. To his surprise, she stayed and talked with him about his past experiences. To his further surprise, he actually talked to her. Normally people weren't interested in talking with him, just how much he would cost to kill someone, which was more than most could afford. And it was even rarer that he actually answered their questions. But there was something about this damned human woman…it was just impossible to stay mad at her. Furthermore, he could see that she was genuinely interested in his stories, asking questions to clarify what he said.
He had lost track of time they had spent talking, and he remembered that the Normandy had already docked at the human's big military station near their homeworld. The commander excused herself and left to board the station, leaving the krogan to ponder her words.
The tension and excitement that Miranda Lawson felt exceeded the amusement. She, Jacob, and Avitus were now at Peak 15 in the neutron purge control room, after they had conceived of a plan so silly that it only properly belonged in a cheesy B-list vid. They had spent hours thinking up various plans to steal the device that produced the neutron purge, and the only plan that seemed likely to work had also seemed to be the most absurd. Even Avitus had found it amusing. Yet despite the objectively wacky plan, it had worked. They were about to retrieve the neutron purge for AIA, and by extension, Cerberus.
"Start packing up the neutron purge," "Miranda" said.
The lead Binary Helix salvager at Peak 15 shook his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but…that's going to be a bit difficult."
"We brought help," Jacob said. "We have a large transport we can load it in."
"Size isn't the problem, sir," the salvager replied.
"Then what is?" Jacob asked.
"It's…uh, just easier to show you, sir," the man replied, biting his lower lip apprehensively, leading them to another room. The lead salvager approached a nondescript doorway that apparently was important enough to have an armed guard standing watch. "Open it," the salvager said after a moment.
"But sir – " the guard began to reply.
"Open. The door," the salvager said quietly.
The guard paused before finally replying, "Yes sir." The man put in a code, and underwent a retinal, fingerprint, and DNA check. The light clicked green ten seconds later.
The door hissed open, and the five of them walked inside. The three newcomers stopped after only a single step. Despite being an expert at controlling her emotions, Miranda's eyes shot open and her jaw dropped, all pretense of pretending to be calm gone. All three of the newcomers stared in silence, and it was Jacob that finally broke it.
"HOLY SHI–"
A/N: This concludes the second part of Minutes to Midnight. The next section will cover some side missions and backstory before Feros.
A couple more characters from ME2/3 are making cameo and early appearances.
Feedback is always appreciated.