MASS EFFECT CHASM: CHAPTER 17

"You said you wanted to see me, Miranda?" Zalena greeted the brunette as she stepped inside her private office.

"Yes, Shepard. Thank you," With a smile, the Cerberus operative motioned to the chair in front of her desk. "I was able to arrange transport for Dratin to Aratoht for his request." She handed Zalena a datapad once she sat down. "Unmarked merchant ship in the Horse Head Nebula."

Zalena studied the data and cocked an eyebrow Lawson's way. "I thought you didn't trust Dratin."

"I don't," Miranda bluntly affirmed. "However, clearly, he did his part in the fight against the Collectors so far." Her voice dampened, "We are clearly at the end, Shepard. He has a family." A beat. "I think he has done his part."

Shepard blinked as she removed her eyes from the pad. "This is…...unexpected."

"We may not see sometimes eye to eye, Shepard. Cerberus is not all bad." The sentence was finished off with another smile.

Still baffled by the woman's strange behavior, Zalena arose from the chair and tucked the pad under her arm. "He needs to see this before we hit that relay."

Inspecting his newly acquire mods on his sniper rifle, Dratin heard the door to the ship's elevator open from across the cargo hold. Zalena walked in with purposeful strides towards his direction. Her brown eyes square upon where he stood. Once she was almost a few feet away, he turned to face her directly. "That IFF ready?"

"Not yet. EDI says we need to take a shuttle the next time we head out for a mission. All of the Normandy's systems need to be tested." She handed him the datapad. "I thought you may be interested in seeing this."

Dratin scanned over the info with all four of his eyes before lifting his head slightly to lift an eye ridge. "What is this?"

"Your ride out of here and to freedom. Once EDI clears the IFF, we can drop you off at the Horse Head Nebula to pick up the merchant ship to the Bahak System. No trace of Cerberus or the Alliance whatsoever." A warm feeling overpowered her as she saw the look of shock on his face by her gift. "You can see your family again."

"You think I can betray Aria like this?" He scoffed. "Betraying the Hegemony is one thing, but betraying her is another. I'll have every merc group after me on top of the Hegemony's headhunters." Dratin gripped the pad tightly in frustration with his fingers.

"I'll handle Aria," Zalena assured him.

Her promise didn't quench his worry. Shaking his head, he let out a sigh before handing the pad back to her. "I've waited this long. I can wait till we are back. I told you, human, that I would help you with this mission and I will honor that."

His answer was not what she expected and she stared at him for several seconds, dumbfounded. "Honor?"

He shot her a hostile glare. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? You think there's no honor among my race and just with the damn turians or the asari justicars?"

Zalena's eyes widened by his backlash and she held up her hands to ease the sudden tension between them. "Wait. Wait. That's not what I meant. Of course, I think there's honor and lack of thereof among all the races. Nothing is holding you back. You may have come here on Aria's orders to assist-"

"To spy," He corrected her, reminding her of the Omega queen's true intent.

"To spy," Zalena continued, picking up his interjection. "However, you are part of my team now and this crew. I'm giving you a chance to live."

"Who says that I won't after this?" He countered hopefully.

Zalena tossed a lop-sided grin his way. "You are being stubborn." She took the pad back. "I just wanted to give you the option…."

Dratin tilted his head in the direction that meant respect for his culture. "Thank you, human."

"Shepard," She reminded him.

He returned to his rifle. "Besides, the Collectors may not stop at the humans. My kind may be next. So, in the end, you could say that I am saving my family."

Eight hours later and Zalena tossed and turn in her bed. They were on their way to the Omega 4 Relay and all hell already broke loose before they got that far. While she and her team took the shuttle to Illium to await EDI's final checks on the IFF, the Normandy was ambushed by the Collectors. There was a signal embedded in the IFF that transmitted the ship's exact location to the Collectors. The mutated Protheans waited until the non-combative crew was left behind. They seized all except for Joker. Fortunately for him, Jeff was guided by EDI to bypass the ship's systems and open all the airlocks to flush the Collectors out and head out of there. There was not enough time to save the crew before this. All were taken aboard in pods to the Collector's vessel.

The ship presently felt so empty. A grim reminder of what was going to happen to the rest of them if they were not careful. She couldn't fathom the notion that familiar faces such as Chakwas and Chambers would be consumed by whatever means to the Collectors' twisted experiments. She vowed to get to them before this could happen.

Zalena's head throbbed on top of the lack of sleep. Another migraine. These were not common in her medical history, but intense stress was more than likely the culprit. Conceding to the fact that sleep was out the window before reaching the relay, she sat up and moved to her table to where the datapad rested that contained information on the Reaper IFF. The line of code was foreign to her and yet, easily translated by EDI. Shepard was lucky that EDI was installed. If it was the SR-1 without the AI, then this would be a much tougher fight. Hearing a chime from her cabin door, she turned her head away from the pad. "Yes?"

Thane Krios walked in with a guarded posture. He was deeply troubled by something. Normally, his expression was neutral and it was hard to figure out what he was thinking. That was what made him so mysterious. His head hung low as if he couldn't dare meet her gaze. Seeing him hurt, she moved swiftly to him. "Thane!"

It was then and there that the drell released his conflicted emotions. Strong feelings stirred within him and knocked him down more than any concussive round to his shields. He was ashamed for appearing to be so frail and defenseless. Zalena stood silently as she saw tears form in his eyes. He struck her desk hard with his fist. The metal banged loudly in her room. Finally, she was no longer able to stay in the background. She needed to get him through this. She needed to let him know that she was there. Gently moving his face to look upon him, she moved closer to his body. "Thane…" Her fingertips gingerly stroked his slippery flesh. His webbed hand reached out to caress her face. "Be alive with me tonight…" She could no longer fight the feelings she had for him. Shepard needed Thane. She wanted to find comfort in his embrace.

Post Omega 4 Relay…

Days passed since Zalena severed ties with Cerberus. The Illusive Man demanded that she preserve the Collector base to surrender all the technology to Cerberus upon ridding the galaxy of the Collector threat. Instead, Shepard remained steadfast in her decision to destroy the evil that lurked within and took out the base. More than likely, Cerberus would send in ships to salvage what they could. They could try. She didn't care. Shepard was exhausted of the betrayals that the Illusive Man did. There was no more teamwork. It was all that he deemed that was right for their cause. Multiple incidents passed to where he chose to sacrifice all that he could to get what he needed and she turned a blind eye. No more of that. She fulfilled her purpose with them and their partnership was now resolved.

It was time to remind everyone where her loyalties lie. The same words that Kaidan threw at her on Horizon. She was always an Alliance soldier. The Normandy would rendezvous with the Fifth Fleet to be commandeered and reverted to an Alliance vessel. Her crew screened. Those with Cerberus would be arrested and interrogated to determine their fate while the rest would be released after debrief. Due to their loyalty to the commander during the mission, she assured all, including Cerberus members that she would put in a good word for them and that would carry a lot of weight. Some even denounced their ties with the pro-human organization. Before she would get to their destination point, there was something she needed to fulfill. A promise to Admiral Hackett.

The aging admiral reached out to her to assist him on a personal sensitive matter. It revolved around a colleague by the name of Dr. Amanda Kenson. She and her team were working on a select task force group that led them to ironically, the Bahak system. Due to the hostile space, comms were silent and he would have to wait until she was able to reach out to him once she was in safer zones. A risk that they both knew she had to take. Months after her deployment, there was chatter across monitored batarian channels that Kenson and part of her team were arrested on severe terrorist charges. The allegation was that they were going to attempt to launch an asteroid into Bahak's relay.

The news stunned Hackett. He pleaded to Shepard to get her out of the prison on Aratoht. Something about this woman concerned him more than just a colleague. She never knew the admiral to be married or at least he didn't talk about it. He was a very private person. He was human just like her so he could have relationships. Was Kenson his lover? The mission was so dire that he didn't want an entire squad. If they were found, it could be perceived as an assault against the batarian hegemony to break out criminals. A political cluster fuck. This had to be done discreetly. Hackett agreed with Anderson on her recommendation as a Spectre to Udina. He didn't have to. This was not a mission requested by Fifth Fleet. This was a favor for him. Inwardly, Zalena thought back to Dratin. He was leaving the next day to meet up with the merchant in the Horse Head Nebula. However, since she was already going there, she could drop him off.

As soon as she was off the call to confirm her going to Aratoht to find Kenson, she moved back down to the Mess to where Dratin was eating his dinner with Garrus at the table with him. Both aliens turned their heads to look upon her when she entered. "Shepard?" Garrus cracked a smile as best as a turian could. "Don't tell me…. another suicide mission? One just wasn't enough for you."

"Nah," She played it off teasingly. "I think I'm good. Dratin, I think I found a more direct route to Aratoht for you."

"Hmm?" The batarian stopped eating.

"Admiral Hackett wants me to go to Aratoht as a favor for him. I can drop you off once I'm there."

"He did?" Dratin doubted this.

"That's crazy. The Alliance just sending you to batarian space," Garrus chortled. He stopped abruptly, remembering of present company. Dratin scowled at him. "Sorry."

"Humans don't just vacation there," Dratin agreed. "What's up?"

"I'm going there as a favor. That's all I can say. I'm sorry," Shepard shook her head. "You want to come with me or not?" She hated to lie to her team, but survival could change someone's behavior. Allies could turn foe. If Dratin knew that she was going there to break out a woman who wanted to blow up their relay, he could make a quick call.

"You said it was quicker. Then I'm going." The batarian arose from the table. "When we do leave?"

"In an hour. Grab your gear."

Dratin said nothing as he moved to the elevator to head down to his area to secure his belongings. Once he was gone, Vakarian finally met her troubled eyes. "You're not going to tell me about this one, are you?"

Zalena shook her head. "Sorry, Garrus."

"Drat. Not even a clue?" He begged playfully as she moved towards the elevator to move to her cabin.

She paused and looked at him once she knew Dratin was off their floor. "Two words: Terra Nova."

This left the turian even more confused. He sat there, pondering over the disclosure. "Huh? Wait…do you mean?" There was no answer to his question, Shepard was gone.

The shuttle ride to Aratoht's prison was so quiet that Shepard could hear the shuttle's machinery working away to get them to their destination. Dratin seemed more anxious than she. He shifted his body constantly and kept checking his items. "You excited to see your family?" She finally cracked through the uncomfortable silence.

"It's been so long. I don't even know if they are still alive or if the Hegemony found them…." His voice trailed off.

"Don't think like that." Shepard sat up straighter in her seat to address the batarian who sat across from her. "Your family is alive and well. You will see them again."

"Not sure why you are flying to the prison, hu-," He paused to correct himself, "Commander."

"Is it far from where you need to go?" She shifted the subject of the question.

"It's near one of my old friend's place. If he still lives there. The area is grown over so I shouldn't be detected. Only two to three miles. Once I get to him, he can take me to where I need to go. My wife would have reached out to him as soon as they arrived."

"Good."

Thirty minutes later, the shuttle arrived and Shepard quickly stepped out. Her face was met with cool misting rain. The change in the temperature made her shiver. Her hair became matted some around her face. She looked over to Dratin coming out behind her. "Good luck."

"Thank you again, Shepard." He gave her one final look before he took off running in the opposite direction to head towards the overgrown foliage. Minutes later, he was gone. Satisfied to see him not being spotted, she turned to her task at hand as the shuttle lifted off. Now she was alone. Just her and the numerous batarian prison guards. She had to reach Kenson.

An hour later, Dratin stood outside a small dwelling with his friend beside him. Fortunately for him, it was still dark. He pressed the door chime and waited until the door opened. There on the other side stood a female batarian. Her facial expression quickly changed from the curiosity of her unannounced guest to seeing her husband. Tears seeped from her eyes and her knees buckled from the emotional rush. "Dratin…." She sobbed as she reached out to touch him.

He moved swiftly to scurry her inside with his friend behind him. Once they were inside and the door closed, did he answer her. "Yes…. I'm here…" He sobbed as he held her tightly, smelling her scent once more.

"Mama?" A small voice called to his wife from behind. Dratin looked over her shoulder to see a small batarian male child looking at the reunion, perplexed.

Dratin's jaw dropped seeing how his son was no longer a baby, but a toddler now. "Is that…," He choked to his wife. She nodded with sobs.

"Son…" He moved to him and hugged the small boy as he let his eyes pour. Home. After all these years, he was finally home. "Thank you, Shepard…"