MASS EFFECT CHASM: CHAPTER 21
"I'm beginning to think you don't want me on the Normandy," Chakwas teased Shepard. She entered the private room at C-Sec to join up with Shepard, Bailey, and Kolyat.
"A little detour first," Zalena grinned.
"Here's the scan," Bailey handed the woman a datapad. "Off the worker."
Chakwas took her fingers to zoom in on the screen. Her brow scrunched as she studied the image. Her silence left Shepard on pins and needles. "How old is the deceased?" Chakwas asked without looking up.
Bailey scratched his head. "Per his ID, thirty."
"May I get his prior medical history?"
The captain grunted. "That may be a tall order, but I'll see what I can do."
"Why, Doctor? What do you see there?" Shepard eagerly questioned. The woman in front of her appeared to be very disturbed and dumbfounded at the same time. This alarmed Zalena.
"Per only the imaging, I would suspect the age of this gentleman to be in the early hundreds." She pulled her focus away. "The scan resembles changes in the lateral lobe that is common with those diagnosed with Dementia."
"Dementia?" Shepard was baffled by this prognosis.
"I said it resembles. There are some differences in that disease, but the traits are parallel. There appears to be shrinkage of that lateral lobe. A common sign. Though, since the beginning of the twenty-second century, the number of cases has dropped considerably."
Captain Baley shook his head in frustration. "That disease killed my great great grandfather. He hallucinated a lot. Horrible way to go."
"This doesn't make any sense. Can someone with this type of study simply flip the switch on and off?" The whole prognosis muddled Shepard.
"You mean look perfectly normal one second, then go bat-shit crazy the next?" Bailey joked.
"Exactly."
"No. It's a constant change and progresses with age," Chakwas answered matter-of-factly.
"Then we are back to square one," Shepard grumbled.
"Any more diagnostics to compare?" The doctor inquired thoughtfully.
"No, just the one. We lost one when Saren attacked the station a few years back. This has been going on too long. How can I protect the law-abiding citizens out there on the wards when we don't know what to look for?" Bailey swore under his breath. Defeated, he turned to open the door to the room. "Thanks for taking a look, Shepard and Doctor Chakwas. I'll keep you posted if anything else shakes up."
Just as Shepard stepped out, she noted the same long blonde-haired officer in the area where they were. The woman reacted instantaneously and reached to unholster her gun. Her motions were rigid and lacked malice or emotion. "Gun!" Zalena pushed Chakwas out of the way and went to withdraw her weapon. No sooner than she did, she heard a shot fired. She flinched, thinking it was the sound of the woman's gun being discharged. Instead, it was Kolyat who was waiting outside the room for their exit. He saw the entire event and took action. He shot the woman square in the chest and she fell backward, dead. Screams from within the precinct elevated and officers poured in from their desks to see what was going on.
The dead woman remained on her back on the floor with a pool of blood under her. "Show's over, everyone," Bailey growled as he moved over to investigate. He reached out to take note of her ID badge. "Officer Kzansinsky."
"She's one of yours?" Shepard took his side.
"Yeah, or was," The man shook his head as he stood up. "She patrolled Zone 16."
"She was dogging me ever since I returned to the Citadel today from the Alliance Docks."
The captain cocked his eyebrow at this comment. "Then she was out of her assigned area. Crap. This doesn't make any damn sense. Nothing on her psych profile would show any aggression like this."
"Well, Doctor," Shepard turned back to Chakwas, who was still shaken up by the ordeal. "You have another sample."
Bailey touched his ear comm. "This is Captain Bailey. Got another body down here. Need transport for a neuro scan per Commander Shepard." He then returned his attention to Zalena. "I'll let you go, Commander. I know you have that big summit to get to."
"Don't remind me."
"I can have the scan be transmitted to your ship once it comes through. I hope we solve this."
"Keep me posted." Zalena then looked over at Karin. "Shall we go?"
"I'm by your side, Shepard."
Kolyat walked over to them. "I'll escort you both out."
Dr. Garret Bryson paused the coffee cup at his bottom lip when he noticed the spherical artifact in the quarantined-off section of his lab began to pulsate. Its surface swirled like the ocean in a maelstrom. Setting his cup down quickly, he dashed over to observe the abnormality. "Hadley!" He called to his assistant who was over in the other area of the lab.
The young man raced in and saw Bryson over by the artifact. "What is it?"
"I don't know. There's activity. More than usual." He moved over to the terminal on the desk nearby. "Time the pulses, Hadley."
"Yes, sir."
"Let me cross-reference this with the earlier spikes," Bryson moved out of the room to his office to document his observation.
The artifact's pulses intensified and Hadley began to turn to grab his boss' attention. Before he could, a strange hold overtook him. The man's state of concern dropped and he remained transfixed upon the sphere in front of him. In a monotone voice, he spoke out loud, "Shepard has returned. She brings doom with her."
