MASS EFFECT CHASM: CHAPTER 9

Zalena wasted no time in searching out Garrus down at the forward battery later that day. The flagged message that came through her private terminal perplexed her. Aria T' Loak requested a meeting with her at the club, Afterlife. During their first exchange, the asari gave her hints and clues about her two listed dossiers that she was supposed to pick up from Omega. She admitted that she was curious about Zalena's reported death, her business on Omega, but then followed up that Omega didn't care. The queen of the Afterlife claimed disinterest in her affairs, so why such a sudden message right after she tracked down Archangel? Shepard needed normalcy. She needed to converse this with someone that she could trust. Someone that went into the depths of hell with her and back. Her current squadmates lacked that.

When the doors to the battery room opened, she found the turian busily working away at the main gun's schematics. This took her back. "What? No cargo bay this time?" She playfully questioned, referring to his old setup with the Mako when they were hunting down Saren. Every time she came to see him get his take on their current mission status, he was always working. Always. Did he ever take a break?

This aroused a soft chuckle out of him before he winced from the lingering facial pain. "Oww…damnit. It still hurts."

"Well, you did take a rocket in the face by Tarak." Zalena crossed her arms with a smug grin.

"I should have gotten that bastard earlier on," Vakarian muttered.

"It did sound like he shit his pants from the first encounter with the infamous Archangel," She teasingly pointed out.

"Good," He gleamed.

Zalena stood there silently for several seconds, just basking in the familiarity of their conversation. Vakarian was a good friend, and it seemed he endured a lot on Omega before she found him. The reason for his placement there was secretive and judging by his talk with him before the mercs sent in their next wave against his hideout, it made her think that it wasn't something he wasn't ready to quite talk about. She respected his decision. Her quietness made him tilt his head in confusion, "Everything alright, Shepard?"

"Yeah," She held her head to shake off the exhaustion. "It's been a long day."

"You're telling me." His voice then lowered to almost a whisper, "Fes up. You're not really with them."

She knew that he was referring to Cerberus. That was the hot topic. Shaking her head, she said, "Not in the same capacity as Jacob and Miranda, if that helps a little."

"Some."

Zalena then eyed the room cautiously, remembering the ship's new AI that the Illusive Man installed. "EDI?"

"Yes, Shepard?" The AI promptly answered back.

"Is this room being monitored?" Hoping that Cerberus didn't find a way to allow a shackled AI to lie at will. The concept was a human trait.

"Yes."

"Turn it off."

"Specify the duration."

"Until I leave the room."

"As you wish. Monitoring deactivated."

The turian cocked up an eye ridge. "You think it will stop?"

"Probably not," Zalena groaned as she rubbed her nose bridge. Now, she felt silly for even asking the computer to stop recording. She was just afraid of what was being sent back to the Illusive Man. Something about him rubbed her the wrong way.

His blue avian eyes stared right at her, studying her for several seconds. "I trust you, Shepard. Not them."

"I'm in the same boat," Shepard thought back to her interactions with Miranda, Jacob, and Kelly. The only one that tore down some of her walls was Jacob. There was a sense of honor to him, and she could sometimes see that he was internally conflicted between his duty and his conscience. Miranda Lawson also read into this and often called him out on it. It sounded like the two had a history and one that neither wanted to discuss.

"It's nice to see that we also have a mercenary onboard," He teased, referring to Zaeed Massani. Another dossier that she picked up on her first rendezvous on the lawless station. He and Cerberus already established a contract together. To him, it was about payment and the promise to help him out on a mission that he had for payback. Her role was to make sure everything was carried out except for the payment.

"I can't speak about that one," Shepard admitted. "Cerberus picked them. Though, they must have known it was you pissing all the mercs off on Omega. That, or the timing was just perfect."

"Maybe, they were hoping the mercs would get me?" He shrugged. "I'm sure if you knew it was me, I would be first on the list. Tough break for them."

Shepard nodded her head at his comment. There was some truth to that. "One hell of a sick joke then." She then thought back to his dealings on Omega and grinned, "Wanted to go, rogue, a little? Be off the grid. Did you have fun with that?"

"Like being dead for two years?" He countered with a thin smile across his bony, leathery face.

"Touche." She moved over and leaned up against the workstation table to get more comfortable. Her feet were aching. "You feel like going back to the station to help me find Mordin Solus?" She hated to ask after all he went through, and she would give him a couple of hours to rest if he would even do that. He knew his way around Omega, it seemed, and would be a huge help to navigate the slums to track down the salarian doctor.

"Heard of him. He has a clinic in Gozu District. Thankfully, I wasn't near where the plague was hitting. That's more near the slums."

"Anything else about him that you know?"

A slight chuckle escaped his mouth once more. "Picked up on radio chatter when I was scanning frequencies for the mercs. It turns out that Tarak sent a couple of his men to shake down the clinic. Unfortunately for the Suns, the Vorcha are immune to the plague, so they were gaining turf."

"Oh?" The news interested her. Tidbits that Aria didn't disclose nor any of the mercs that she encountered while tracking down Archange. Then again, their main priority was him and not the plague.

"Turns out that their bodies were discovered outside the clinic by a scouting party. All three were incinerated."

Shepard's eyes widened as she listened in. "On display as a warning?"

Garrus nodded his head. "That's quite impressive for a salarian. I have a feeling that he isn't just a doctor."

"I'll take all the help I can get right now if we are going up against the Collectors." She switched gears to their previous conversation. "Alright, get some rest, and I'll meet you at 0900. No word of Archangel once we are there. There's still a price on your head."

"Fortunately, every merc who saw my face during the firefight is dead."

Shepard bit her lip as she remembered the message from Aria before she met with him. He picked up on this. "Everything okay with you, Shepard? How are you holding up?"

"I'm not dead." She joked, forcing her laughter out. "Thinking about a message that I received when I returned. Kelly flagged me on it."

"Oh?"

"It was an invitation from Aria to meet her."

"Invitation?" He scoffed at the news. "More of a demand. From what I know, she doesn't ask."

"You think something is up?"

"Maybe. All I know is that you don't cross her."

"I know the one rule," She sighed again. "We need to get Mordin. The mission comes first."

"I'm fit for duty."

"0900," She reminded him gently before spinning on her heel to leave. He needed to rest.

"After my calibrations…."

She stopped and laughed. "Garrus…" Playfully warning him like a small child. "Please, get some rest."

"Fine, but I won't be satisfied," He grinned just as the doors closed behind her.

The trek back from the slums to the club seemed to go a lot faster on the way back than on the way down. Shepard's steps felt lighter as she beamed from her accomplishment. Mordin and Garrus were at her sides. Not only did she fulfill her dossier slot, but they spread the cure for the plague. The Vorcha started to retreat as the Suns, Eclipse, and Bloodpack moved in to recoup their lost territory. Many residents exited their apartments after the strict lockdown with tears of happiness in their eyes. They survived, and their lives could return to whatever regularity they had before. There would be no more deaths that day, at least not to the bioengineered plague. But shockingly, the Collectors concocted the epidemic, and only the vorcha and humans were immune to it. The reason for the development was still a mystery and one that she may never figure out. Not until she was done ridding the Collector threat once and for all.

A familiar-looking man, slumped on the ground outside the club's steps, groaned out loud when he saw the trio walking up to where he was. "Fuck!" He bellowed in a slurred manner. "Why can't you fucking go away?!"

"Intoxicated," Mordin noted beside her on the right.

Shepard recognized the deranged man right away. It was Fist; the ex-owner of Chora's Den. He fled the Citadel once she busted him and saved Tali. Fist broke ties with the Shadow Broker to deal with Saren instead. A very costly mistake to him. He was a marked man, and it seemed he was hoping that Omega was far from the Shadow Broker's men. Then, he could hide in the shadows and take on a new alias. However, his first run-in with Shepard inside Afterlife was very shocking and upsetting. A stern reminder of why he was there in the first place. He threw back a few more shots after she left him in the club to handle her own business, and then he went to find a new spot to lurk. The alcohol content must have been more potent than he believed. He seemed to have barely made it out on his own and took a tumble down the steps. Clubgoers moved around him to get in line, treating him like he was just a piece of trash that was littering the already dirty streets. "Must have been pretty bad if they threw you out?" Zalena slighted him.

The man grimaced and swung in futile at her. This just caused him to lose his balance and collapse to the ground. Bystanders busted out laughing at his predicament, amused by what was taking place before them as they eagerly awaited their entry inside. "Shut up!" He spat saliva at her. "You are the reason why I'm here! You took everything from me!" The overboiling anger transitioned to despair, and he began to bawl as if he just lost someone very dear to him.

"You were in a dirty business," Garrus scolded him. "Serves you right."

Fist scowled at the turian and flipped him off. "Fuck you, C-Sec! Like, I don't recognize you! You don't rule me here!" His mood twisted into a fit of laughter as he was able to obtain a shaky gait. "You can't touch me!"

Garrus sidestepped around Shepard, reeled back his arm, and then threw a hard punch right in the man's drunken face. The impact made him fall back down on his butt, and he gaped up at them with a now bloody nose. The sudden outburst of violence startled Zalena. Not Vakarian's style. Did he change in the past two years? She was on the balls of her feet, ready to step in if he pressed on. Thankfully, he quietly stepped back to where he was previously. "You fucking broke my nose!" Fist screamed as he held his bloody nose. "Are you looking for me? You're just screwing with me!"

"My business is not with you, Fist," Zalena answered the man calmly. She glanced around to see the crowd's full attention on their quarrel.

"You have a contract on me," He accused in a muffled tone by his hand. "I know it."

"Delusional," Mordin commented again.

"You got that," Shepard rubbed her head. "Fist, do I look like a merc? You played a dangerous game, and you lost. If I were you, I would stay quiet and quit talking to me. You do know that I stand outright?"

Growing pale, the man nervously looked around and crawled a few feet away from her and everyone else, still nursing his broken nose. "Shit. Shit."

Rolling her eyes, Zalena turned away to head up the stairs to where a batarian doorman monitored the entrance. "I'm here to see your boss."

The four-eyed alien grunted as he glanced down at his datapad to check the list, then opened the door. "Go in. I'll tell her you're on the way. Once inside, go up the stairs to the first room on the right. Your companions stay down on the main floor. Aria doesn't want company."

"Shepard, I have a bad feeling about this," Garrus whispered as he took her side inside the corridor. "Did you piss off Aria?"

"Not that I'm aware of…."

Mordin looked around with interest. "Hmm, new decorations."

Shepard and Garrus stopped dead in their tracks, overhearing his comment. "You been here, professor?" Zalena asked.

"Afterlife?" Garrus was just as puzzled as she.

"Medical purposes only," Solus calmly explained.

Shepard and Garrus gave each other doubtful glances but then shrugged. She continued her walk inside. "I'm more concerned about you lingering out here too long," She continued her conversation with her squadmate.

"Why's that?"

"Do I need to say it?" She lifted an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms. The longer they were out there, the more of a chance someone would recognize him to be Archangel. Of course, the stakes were still low, but there was always a chance.

"Hopefully, it won't be a long chat with Aria," Garrus offered words of encouragement as Shepard parted ways to head up the steps as directed. The club's pounding techno music was peaceful and ominous at the same time. What would take place behind closed doors?

Aria was relaxing on a small plush purple couch inside the private room once Shepard entered. An unknown alcoholic beverage was in her hand. "Thank you for your prompt attention," She greeted the commander. The sarcasm oozed off her purple lips, referring to the delay. "I trust everything went well in the slums." Her words were hinting at knowing her every move on the station.

Shepard took a few steps further inside and observed a fully armed batarian bodyguard standing off to the right. Was the asari expecting trouble from her? She was a strong commando, so why the extra muscle? The tiny hairs on the back of her neck crept up, creating a chill down her spine. She thought back to Garrus' words of caution. Still, she wouldn't let on that she was a bit intimidated by the setup. "I also heard that Archangel suddenly disappeared with many mercs slain in the process," Aria continued.

"Too bad for them," Zalena played the insinuation off.

"And now you have a turian with you. Interesting. You could ask him about it." A knowing smirk spread across her gorgeous lips.

"How would he know?" Shepard wasn't going to allow her to win. She had no idea what was happening in the club while she was whisked away there. Was Aria in cahoots with the mercs on the bounty? "He's been on my ship since my arrival. Picked him up from Palaven."

Aria stood up from the couch, unmoved by her explanation. "Oh, then he wouldn't know anything about a turian called 'Archangel' then." The continuous sarcasm resonated on her tongue. "Let's go back to the reason why you are on this station."

Shepard huffed. "I have nothing to hide from you, Aria. On the contrary, I disclosed my intentions the first time."

Aria waved her hand at the comment. "Yes, yes. Here to save everyone. You were recruiting Archangel and Professor Solus. I'm assuming those matters are fulfilled….well…" Her words trailed off. She wasn't about to let go. "Archangel may still be out there, or he may not be."

Shepard crossed her arms defiantly. "Or he could be dead."

T'Loak narrowed her eyes, irked at Zalena's wit. "Or dead. The point is that you are after the Collectors. I've…. heard of them." The break in her sentence led Shepard to believe that the infamous pirate queen was not letting on everything she knew about them. "A dangerous enemy…of course. I would like to help you."

Zalena kept her arms crossed. "Why the change of heart suddenly? I thought Omega did not care."

"Call it my good nature," Aria remarked sourly. The lightheartedness of her voice quickly evaporating. "His name is Dumart Hizor. A remarkable tech expert. He can hack into practically anything. Pretty good shot with a sniper rifle. Hasn't missed yet. A little shy."

"And on your payroll," Shepard added the undisclosed obvious. She knew that Aria was trying to sell her this plan of hers, but she could see right through it. Another person that was eager to spy on her. T'Loak was a tough negotiator. She opened up with the hint of blackmail should Shepard turn her down. The Archangel card rested comfortably up her sleeve. Now, Zalena regretted bringing him back. Then again, Aria had eyes and ears all over. It wasn't like someone was keeping tabs on what was unfolding on the hideout assault.

"Yes, so what of it?" Aria seemed almost offended by her statement. "You think I want to know all your dirty secrets?"

Defeated, Shepard uncrossed her arms. "Fine, give me his location. I can use all the help I can get." She was right in her admittance. The fight against the Collectors may prove to be more challenging than with Saren. A great tech expert is someone they could use, plus it may give some competition to Garrus on the sniping.

Aria smiled in delight and snapped one finger to grab her bodyguard's attention. "Bray, transmit the coordinates to Shepard's omnitool."

"On it," The batarian obliged.

Seconds later, Shepard's omni chimed a notification. "It's not far from here. I already told him of his assignment," Aria continued. "Just bring him back. He's useful to me."

"I can't guarantee that," Shepard opened her tool to glance at the map to verify the target's exact placement. It seemed to be two levels down inside a row of small apartments. "There has to be a catch."

"He's free. Enjoy," T'Loak's curtly responded, obviously annoyed by Shepard's indication that she had hidden reasons behind this gesture of kindness. Standing back up, Aria motioned for Bray to open the door. "Now, I have guests to entertain. Any drink you want is on the house."

"Thanks, but I need to get going," Shepard politely declined, hoping that her rejection would not offend Aria. She closed down her omnitool, then set off to meet back up with Garrus and Mordin. The club's pulsating rhythm drowned out her thoughts as she saw them at a table right near where she left them. Garrus seemed guarded while Mordin casually sat in his seat with his amphibian eyes glancing around from time to time. Once they saw her coming back out, Vakarian was the first to stand up. "Let's get out of here." The loud music made it hard to talk, more or less think. She had no idea what kind of game Aria was playing. Shepard was working for Cerberus, a devout enemy to anyone that wasn't human. Was this some sick trick? Once she was satisfied that they were far enough from the club and no one was tailing them, Shepard stopped in her tracks and looked over the railing that prevented anyone from falling into the dark abyss below. The darkness on the horizon was littered with lights from housing structures. It was hard to imagine that this mammoth station was carved out of an asteroid, and eezo was mined down below them. However, the fluorescent glow from Afterlife provided some color besides the blackness. "Aria wants us to help us against the Collectors."

"You're kidding?" The statement dumbfounded Garrus.

"No, I'm not," Zalena opened up her omni to display the hologram of where she needed to go for the pickup. "She's giving us a tech expert named Dumart Hizor."

"One of Aria's?" Vakarian questioned. Shepard nodded.

Mordin rubbed his chin as he studied her. "Interesting. A salarian name."

Garrus was not convinced. "Just how good is this guy? Can he fight?"

"Aria did say he's pretty damn good with a sniper rifle," Shepard tossed out a playful wink. "You may feel crowded there, Garrus."

He scoffed and dismissed the claim. "Doubt it."

"A tech expert who is a sniper?" Mordin still mulled over the details. "No one in my group with STG matches that description. Another regiment, perhaps? Possibly."

Zalena shrugged. "Garrus, you know where this area is at?"

Vakarian nodded his head. "Four blocks south of where I was. Not far."

"Good," Shepard closed her omni. "Let's just see what this guy is about. I'm not about to turn down help. We just need to remember that he may have his private agenda."

"Like Cerberus," Garrus muttered under his breath. He was right.

The further they moved away from the club and shops; the less traffic there seemed to be to their destination. Two turians nearby were outside smoking and eyed the approaching group cautiously. Shepard didn't flinch and kept her eyes off them. She wasn't too sure if they were robbers lurking for a quick hit or residents. Either way, the pair decided not to interact with the heavily armed team. A few more doors down, and they finally reached the apartment. Shepard paused and glanced up and down the corridor and then pressed the room's call button.

Seconds later, the door whisked open, and the tenant stood on the other side. "I guess you're Shepard."

Mordin's, Garrus', and Zalena's eyes widened in surprise by Aria's gift. There standing in front of them, was not a salarian, but a batarian.