Device – Ken Donnelly
"I'm just sayin'," Ken Donnelly was just saying, "Imagine the look on the batarians' faces when the Normandy shows up with a hundred meter put down painted across her belly." He shifted his weight on his perch atop three metric tons of mining explosives, his omni-tool blazing in hand. "And applied by professionals, no less, none of that haphazard graffiti."
Down below, Jacob was triple checking the work they'd done rewiring the charges. "Lead wire, purple and black," he said aloud, consulting the wiring diagram. He ran a thumb along the wire connecting the receiver array to the mining charges' switchboard. "Receiver out to sink on this side. Then red from here to here," he said, wiggling each connection in turn.
"Connections down here are solid," Gabby called, crouched by the base of the explosives on the opposite side. "Make sure you check that the panel still sits straight. Don't want it to catch on something when we are putting it back in the batty ship."
"Good call," Jacob agreed, face dour. He and Gabby lapsed into silence.
"It's a matter of self-respect," Ken said, piercing it, "The batarians have called us out, Gabby. We owe it to the whole human race to respond."
Gabby's face was concealed behind her own mask, but Ken could hear her eyes roll. "It's a ship, Kenneth, not an extranet board." Her arc welder sent white hot shadows streaking across the Normandy hangar. "Be the bigger person."
"I am the bigger person, Gabby. I've just got pride," Ken insisted. "Strut me." He held a gloved hand down.
Jacob handed up the next strut from the stack the Normandy's fabricators had printed. The struts were made of the same condensed polymer they used to fabricate gun and armor mods, and once heated could be shaped into place and affixed to the charges with an omnigel adhesive. Not as durable as a proper metal scaffold, Ken had warned them, but the best he could manage in space on such short notice, and better than leaving the charges loose to rub against one another in transit. Zaeed had been of the mind that the confiscated explosives could make the trip to Khar'shan as they were, and had called the whole operation a waste of their limited time, but Shepard had given the go ahead.
"The Trident is a classic machine," Ken continued, bending the new strut to wrap against the charges like twine around a butcher's package. "It's the workhorse of the Alliance fleet. It deserves more bloody reverence." At first he'd been as amused as anyone at the colorful insults scrawled over every square centimeter of the batarian ship's hull – he and the Normandy's remaining skeleton crew had read them out to each other over the work channel while they transferred the ship's explosive payload to the Normandy for modifications, until they were all breathless with laughter.
But then he'd seen "TRIDENTS GO HERE" painted on the ship's aft armor segments, with an arrow pointing directly at the stained aperture through which the batarian crew would jettison feces from the ship's toilets into space. Next to it had been a little misshapen image of an Alliance F-61 Trident fighter crashed on the ground with smoke trailing behind it.
Mocking humanity he could deal with, but mocking humanity's fighter craft? That was a step too far.
"Cosharcs go here," he said bitterly, imagining it painted in bright yellow next to Normandy's waste port. Derivative? Yes. But far more accurate. Batarians couldn't tell quality engineering even with four bloody eyes.
"I don't think EDI wants you painting insults on her, Kenneth," Gabby said. "Now that it's her body and all."
"Engineer Daniels is correct," EDI said, her chess-piece avatar appearing atop its projector by the hangar door.
Donnelly frowned. "It wouldn't have to be permanent, EDI. A few flybys over Khar'shan and I'd be satisfied."
"Due to decades of political tension between Hegemony and Systems Alliance colonization efforts, travel to Khar'shan is restricted," EDI pointed out. "Alliance regulations require all human ships wishing to travel to the Kite's Nest cluster to obtain special exemption. Given the risk of diplomatic incident, I think it is unlikely that Alliance officials would approve a journey so deep into Hegemony space only to escalate an argument with an unknown vandal."
"Oh, are we following Alliance regs now?" Ken asked.
"Per Shepard's orders, Normandy has been in compliance with all Systems Alliance safety and security regulations for ninety-one days."
"That's assuming you get the fire suppression system maintenance done sometime this week, Kenneth," Gabby said, in the tone of voice that said she was making some mocking hand gesture Ken could not see on her side of the shaped charges.
"Engineer Daniels is correct, Kenneth," EDI agreed. She somehow looked very pleased with herself.
"Always with the gangin' up on me," Ken whined. Gabby and EDI had become fast friends since EDI had been unshackled, and it seemed to Donnelly that the two of them were always conspiring. He had not been allowed to win an argument – be it technical or personal – in months. ("You probably should do the full reset procedure before you check off on the scanners, Kenneth," Gabby would say, smugly watching him do the weekly maintenance, "now that they're EDI's eyes and all," and EDI would agree and start quoting every technical manual, forum post, blog comment, or do-it-yourself channel on the extranet that disagreed with how he was doing it.)
The engineer in Ken had to be impressed with how rapidly EDI's personality had changed – the AI seemed more human every day – but he could not help but find her unrestricted freedom over the Normandy's systems a little alarming. In the days immediately after the mission in the galactic core, most of the crew had been sick with the lingering effects of the sedating jelly in which the collectors had entombed them. Ken had been the only abductee not rendered bedridden, and so he'd spent the better part of a week filling in for half the ship's crew. For days he and Tali – and, when she could be spared from her constant meetings with the commander, Miranda – had divided up the work of forty people between them, repairing systems blown out by the collector base's defenses.
Ken had seen it as a Herculean accomplishment at the time, until he'd realized that they'd only managed because the newly-unshackled EDI had taken over most of the crew's functions without anyone even asking. Scanner suites, navigation, targeting, diagnostics, network and comms – where once EDI had had to sit back and advise the small army of specialists that operated her modules, Joker's decision to free her from her shackles had cut out a great many middlemen. Worse, she hadn't even had the courtesy of doing a poor job of it – now that she had access to the entirety of Normandy's systems, it turned out most of them were just entirely redundant.
Thank goodness EDI didn't have hands.
"Well we're goin' to Khar'shan anyway, might as well kill two birds," Ken said. He welded the end of the strut in place with a bead of omni-gel that sizzled and cooled to a matte finish. "How many struts do we have left?"
"Four. Do we need more?"
"Nah," Ken said. "Not my prettiest work, but they'll do their job, such as it is."
"As long as they keep the charges from going off prematurely," Jacob said.
Ken grabbed one of the struts that had had enough time to cool and gave it a shake, listening for the tink of charges rubbing against one another. The stack was solid. It would have to do. "Honestly it's almost a moot point," he said. "Whoever stripped the shielding off of these things was a bloody maniac. Heat spike in a localized area and these will be happy to blow that slander-covered brick to fragments, signal or no."
"Well don't say that in the batarian's hearing," Jacob warned. "He wasn't happy about Shepard confiscating the bombs as it is."
Ken didn't blame him. He was no fan of batarians – especially not now that he knew how just how little taste they had when it came to classic fighter craft – but Orlash's insistence that they jettison the charges and then shoot them from a safe distance with the Normandy's mass accelerators had been about the only sensible thing anyone had said at the briefing Shepard had called. Intercepting a Cerberus plot to pilot a stolen batarian ship full of jury-rigged mining explosives to Khar'shan by piloting a stolen batarian ship full of jury-rigged mining explosives to Khar'shan had seemed at best a distant second.
"I'm just saying," Ken said, tapping one of the charges, "the Blue Suns clearly aren't as enthused for safety regulations as Gabby and EDI are."
"Never have been," Zaeed grunted, stepping out of the elevator doors into the hangar. The mercenary's usual yellow armor was gone, replaced by one of the bulky orange and white hardsuits that had been packed in the Cosharc's frontmost cargo container. The angle of the red slit 'eyes' on the helmet under his arm made it look like it was frowning. It was exactly the kind of armor Ken would expect Cerberus to make.
"How's the armor rest?" Jacob asked.
"It'd rest a lot easier without these goddamn shoulderpads," the mercenary snarled. He had made no secret of his distaste for this part of Shepard's plan, nor of having to leave Jessie and the rest of his equipment on the Normandy. It was only by the prospect of the massive embarrassment the plan would create for his former gang – and the promise that nobody would step foot in the starboard cargo hold until he'd returned – that he'd been convinced. "Uniforms never sit quite right," Zaeed complained. "They make people stupid." He paused, and gestured at the blank patch on the breast of Jacob's uniform, where the Cerberus logo had once been emblazoned. " Looks like the rest of you finally realized that."
"Yet another argument for repainting the Normandy," Ken pointed out. All over the ship, Cerberus logos had been disappearing, but the exterior still flew Cerberus colors. "Just sayin'."
"I helped field test those suits back on Lazarus station," Jacob said, ignoring him. "They're solid protection, but the shoulders were a problem back then too. Clearly they didn't believe me."
"Maybe it's because you run around in that skintight spandex," Zaeed said. "Makes your opinion on armor hard to take seriously, Taylor."
"Boy it's been nice not having you on this ship."
"It's been nice not being on it. Thirty minutes in and I'm already pegged for another goddamn suicide mission, and pro bono this time. Good lord, you people need other hobbies."
–
Before Tali had left the ship to answer the Migrant Fleet's summons, she had pulled Ken and Gabby aside.
"You keep Shepard and Garrus safe," she'd commanded, gesturing with a gloved finger. "Watch them. Don't let them do anything too reckless before I get back." Her face was, of course, unreadable, but Ken had judged by the shape of her eyespots that she meant them to take her at her word.
Now the two of them had cause to wonder.
"Well… Garrus isn't goin', at least," Ken whispered, as he and Gabby stood with the rest of the crew listening to Shepard's final orders. The turian stood behind Shepard with a stiff frown on his beaked face. Of the ground team, only he and Jacob remained, and neither would be accompanying Shepard To Khar'shan. This prospect had clearly not set right with either of them, but of course no amount of armor would ever make a turian pass for a member of Cerberus, and Jacob's history as a Cerberus wetwork agent made the risk that he'd be recognized and spoil Shepard's cover too great, and they'd both been forced to accept that they would be running support from the Normandy while Shepard, Zaeed, and the batarian went undercover. "So we did it half right, right?"
"We did it half right. Maybe she'll only rip out half of our guts," Gabby said hopefully.
"Or just all of mine, probably."
"Yeah, probably," Gabby agreed.
"This mission could be critical," Shepard was saying, suited up in a second set of armor to match Zaeed's. The batarian stood glumly to one side in a third. "It's the first major activity we've seen out of the Illusive Man in months. We need to find out what he's after and make sure that he doesn't get it."
The assembled crew murmured in agreement. Cerberus had no overt defenders left aboard the Normandy – the handful of crewmembers who wished to continue working for the Illusive Man had been compelled to disembark on Elysium with Shepard's good wishes. Those who remained had been obliged to explicitly resign their positions with Cerberus in writing. In time, Shepard had explained, they would do what they could to reconcile with the Alliance. Until Anderson could smooth things over with Alliance top brass, however, they would do all they could to minimize the damage their work for Cerberus might have done to Alliance interests. They'd spent the last several months bouncing about the galaxy righting what wrongs they could.
"Shepard'll be fine, of course," Ken said.
"Unless he blows up," Gabby said. They'd made the shaped charges as safe as they were going to get (which was to say 'not very safe at all') and packed them back into the batarian ship. With the charges rewired so that they would only detonate at Shepard's say so and not Cerberus', there was less threat of intentional explosion. But of course unintentional explosion was still a very real possibility.
"Right. But otherwise."
"This is going to be first and foremost a reconnaissance mission," Shepard was saying. "For the people here, that means stealth protocols followed across the board. Normandy is going to stay well outside of detection range of Khar'shan. Orlash tells me that Khar'shan is used to unregistered ships, so long as they're paid up on their bribes. We're assuming that Cerberus and the Blue Suns greased the right palms and the Cosharc won't be fired on. If it is fired on, we'll jettison the cargo and flee the best we can. You have my permission to run interference until they scramble interceptors, but then I want you to flee the system with or without us. No seat-of-the-pants rescues, understood?" He looked to Garrus. "If we get captured, get to the Alliance and tell Anderson and Hackett," Shepard continued. "They'll know what to do."
"And don't touch my stuff," Zaeed added.
"Sure. Don't touch Zaeed's stuff," Shepard agreed. He looked to Garrus. "Understood?"
The turian nodded. "Understood, Shepard."
"I'm not Shepard. You know my callsign."
"Sadly, I do," Garrus agreed. He sighed. "Understood, Solomon Gunn."
Shepard grinned at him and pulled his borrowed helmet over his head. His voice came out as a monstrous, electric rumble. "Zaeed, Orlash… We leave in five."
Ken saw his opportunity, and as the crew started to disperse to their respective stations, he slipped through the crowd after the batarian. The alien did not look quite as miserable as he had when he'd come aboard, but Ken still would have mistaken him for someone Zaeed had abducted if he had not seen the human prisoner Zaeed had abducted carried into the medbay with gunshots in both legs. As little as Zaeed liked the Cerberus hardsuit and its oversized shoulders, the batarian clearly liked it even less, and stood uncomfortably in the midst of the hangar looking like a boy in his father's shoes. Even across the species barrier, Ken could see how anxious the alien was around so many humans.
Orlash jumped when Ken tapped him on the back. "Hey," he said. "Orlash, right? Ken Donnelly. I'm one of the engineers." He held out a hand to shake before thinking better of it. "That helmet," he said, pointing. "Is it properly adjusted? Let me see it."
The batarian looked at him skeptically. After a long moment, he handed the helmet over.
Ken feigned poking around inside it to double check the comm wires. "Ahh yes," he said. "Some of the optics are a little off configuration. I can fix that for you. Give me a sec." He worked his fingers along the rim of the helmet, flicked its diagnostics off and on again, then gave a satisfied nod. He handed the helmet back. "Good as new," he said.
The batarian nodded. "Thank you, human." His voice was as low and flat as an elcor's.
Ken felt a pang of guilt at that. Technically he felt he had ample excuse to be wary of batarians – all humans did, he figured. They had done terrible things to humans for decades, and even long after humanity's position had grown too strong for them to resist, everyone knew it was a matter of time before there was open war with the Hegemony. In the Alliance, everyone from the grandest admiral to the lowest clerk could hardly expect to get along with anyone without indulging in the occasional joke at the batarians' expense ("How do you fit a batarian for new glasses? Fit two human colonists and wait.") Ken didn't figure the practice was even necessarily xenophobic – the batarians were like the French, just one of the demographics it seemed the whole universe had inexplicably reserved as acceptable targets of parody.
But Ken knew it was wrong. He wasn't Alliance anymore, no more than he was Cerberus. He was part of Commander Shepard's crew, and Commander Shepard's crew liked them some bloody aliens, damnit.
"Listen," he said, patting the batarian on one shoulderpad. "Don't worry. Shepard's the best. He's pulled bigger fools through worse things than this. Me, for instance." He smiled and tried not to look at the alien's teeth. "You'll be fine," he promised.
"Not if I'm captured," Orlash said, haunted. "Not if I'm caught helping humans sneak bombs onto my homeplanet. They'll burn my arm off and sell me to the slavepits to be eaten by animals at intermission." He blinked all four eyes. "Not if the bombs go off in the middle of a batarian city…"
"Yeah, well… Shepard won't let that happen. You'll see."
Shepard appeared. "Solomon Gunn," he corrected, in the hardsuit's ugly vocoder voice. He set a heavy gauntleted hand on Ken's shoulder, and another on Orlash's, and squeezed. "And no. I won't."
–
Gabby stared suspiciously at Ken when he returned to his place next to her wearing a satisfied grin. "What was that?" she asked.
"Nothin'," Ken lied, pretending to be distracted watching Shepard, Zaeed, and Orlash – all but indistinguishable with their helmets on – climb into the elevator. "Should we get on that fuel line recheck?" He turned to consider their tools.
"Kenneth…"
"You know Gabby," Ken said, eager to change the subject, "I think we might just get through this without Tali ripping out either of our guts." He tucked one of the hand drills into his belt and handed the other out to her.
"How's that?"
"It's a bit of a technicality," he said. "But she said don't let Shepard do anything reckless. She never said anythin' about Solomon Gunn."
–
Codex entry: Select emails from the terminal of Systems Alliance Prime Minister Amul Shastri
–
From: Adm Steven Hackett (adm_shackett Arcturus_inn_sa)
Sent: 10.1.2186 08:04:21 GST
To: PM Amul Shastri (pm Arcturus_inn_sa)
Subject: Progress on Operation Chokechain
–
Mr. Prime Minister,
You requested an update on Operation Chokechain.
In short, progress is good. Overt operations against Cerberus are proceeding on schedule and under projected budgets. In conjunction with planetary authorities, the Alliance has disabled Cerberus facilities on nineteen planets, including major operations on Earth, Benning, Bekenstein, and Horizon. In particular, peacekeeping forces under Admiral Mikhailovich deserve special commendation for concluding the rebel militia situation on Benning without bloodshed.
Legal action continues against individuals and corporations found to be associated with illegal Cerberus activity. Recent advances in money laundering cases against Earth-based corporations uncovered evidence that incriminates highly-placed individuals with suspected ties to Cerberus.
Total value of assets seized as part of Operation Chokechain exceeds 61.2 billion credits in bullion, scientific equipment, raw materials, spacecraft, arms, and communication equipment.
I am attaching official summaries. In short, our men and women are doing us proud. Their continued efforts have significantly hampered Cerberus activities throughout much of the galaxy.
Other operations proceed as well. Details forthcoming.
Regards,
Steven Hackett
Admiral of the Fifth Fleet
[27 attachments:
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RPT_CC_Horizon_Intrepid_Unclassified_05312186
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–
–
From: Steven Hackett (hacketout Arcturus_enn_sa)
Sent: 10.1.2186 08:31:40 GST
To: Amul Shastri (shastibobasti Arcturus_enn_sa)|
Subject: (none)
–
Amul,
Please consider the contents of this message to be for your personal use only.
Chokechain will not be enough. If the intelligence we were given is accurate, Cerberus has sympathizers at every level of the Alliance hierarchy. So far I am inclined to believe it, but we have a lot of work left to do before we will be able to say anything for certain. What I can report is that specific investigations into suspected Cerberus agents within Alliance high command are making progress. The problem is real, and it isn't only on Earth.
I am aware there is considerable pressure on your end to get results, but it is critical that our investigations remain small and secret, even at the expense of speed. The sooner word of the investigations' purpose leaks, the sooner Cerberus goes to ground – or worse, the sooner we have another Kahoku situation on our hands.
Regarding John Shepard: Recent reports reconfirm earlier intelligence that he has ended his partnership with the Illusive Man. Since its passage through the Omega-4 relay, we've had confirmed sightings of Normandy in the Hoplos, Typhon, Tasale, and Vetus systems. Several former members of the ship's crew have been arrested and are cooperating with our investigators. We're still validating parts of their stories.
Prosecutors are still preparing official charges against Shepard and co, but I think you can expect an indictment before the end of the year. My impression: The man is probably innocent of most of them. Certainly the talk of terrorism charges will go nowhere. If he ends up seen by a military tribunal, my guess is he will walk.
The charges against some of his subordinates have more teeth. In particular, espionage charges over Miranda Lawson's long and successful career undercover as an Alliance corporal. If she returns to Earth, she's likely to spend the rest of her life behind bars. That she spent so long undetected is a major black eye for the Alliance, and a cause for serious doubt over our past estimates of Cerberus' influence within our ranks.
Worse, I see no reason to expect Lawson is not still manipulating events. Records on other Alliance personal on Shepard's crew have been vanishing from Alliance servers without explanation – critical evidence for the case against Jacob Taylor effectively disappeared in its entirety from the lead prosecutor's console. Data has since moved to a more secure location, but without knowing who else may be compromised, it may be only a matter of time before it disappears as well.
We live in dangerous times. Please be careful and discreet.
Yours,
Steven
PS: Please give Elia my warm regards.
–
–
From: PM Amul Shastri (pm Arcturus_inn_sa)
To: Adm David Anderson (adm_deanderson Arcturus_inn_sa)
Sent: 10.4.2186 15:12:12 GST
Subject: Fwd: Ambassadorial staff reassignments
–
You see this?
–
––––––Forwarded Message-–––––
From: The offices of Councilor Donnel Udina (udina OCC_cit)
To: PM Amul Shastri (pm Arcturus_inn_sa)
Sent: 10.4.2186 08:10:55 GST
Subject: Ambassadorial staff reassignments
–
Amul,
I am writing to inform you of my dismissal, effective immediately, of Asrid Amongora as my chief of staff. Though I am sure Ms. Amongora's work for my predecessor was exemplary, I believe it is unseemly for an asari to fill so prominent a position within the offices of the Alliance's highest diplomatic authority. In her place, I have nominated my longtime assistant Serena Codison. Ms. Codison has accepted.
I would also like to meet privately with you regarding our strategy for negotiating a renewed trade agreement with the Vol Protectorate. I am unsatisfied with the terms as they stood with my predecessor and believe a more favorable compromise can be reached.
Also, please impress on Admiral Anderson the importance of a more comprehensive public statement on the matter of his resignation. It would help my office immeasurably to have a statement of his support.
Regards,
Cllr. Donnel Udina
Citadel Council
–
–
To: PM Amul Shastri (pm Arcturus_inn_sa)
From: Adm David Anderson (adm_deanderson Arcturus_inn_sa)
Sent: 10.4.2186 16:50:21 GST
Subject: Re: Fwd: Ambassadorial staff reassignments
–
I saw it.
You can tell Udina to kiss my ass. If I never step foot on the Citadel again, it'll be too soon.
Can we find some other position for Asrid? I never meant to get her mixed up in all this.
-David
–
A/N:
Thank you to those who read and reviewed. It is good to be back. I hope that Interstitium 2 will prove worthy of your continued interest.
So here's the plan: Interstitium 2 will continue from where Interstitium left off, and cover the plot of ME3. Like its predecessor, Interstitium 2 will switch POV characters every chapter, to include both major and minor characters. In Interstitium, Shepard and each of his 12 squadmates got to be the focus of at least one chapter, but also EDI, Wrex, Reegar, Anderson, Wilson, all five Quarian Admirals, Joker, Chakwas, Gardner, Ken, Gabby, Kelly, Okeer, and Morinth (plus some smaller sections for Warden Kuril, The Illusive Man, Aria T'Loak, Preiter Gavorn, a batarian Blue Sun, and one of the krogan rejects on Korlus). I had a lot of fun trying to give each character a voice and a backstory. I intend to continue in this fashion, revisiting many of the above listed but also emphasizing ones I haven't hit yet.
I also intend to continue to end each chapter with a codex entry – either letting me infodump some headcanon about a specific topic that came up writing the chapter, or jokey in-universe emails, songs, or whatever else amuses me at the time.
Interstitium 2 will generally have shorter chapters than its predecessor. There are two reasons for that: For one, I intend to make much more radical changes to ME3 than I did to ME2 (more on that later). For ME2 I could almost always rely on the assumption that my readers were familiar with the plot and characters of the game, freeing me up to focus on fun side crap like flashbacks without having to do much work constructing a coherent plot myself. For ME3 I feel I have to change many elements of the game's story which will need to actually be explained. Many shorter chapters will give me more freedom to do so. The second reason is that I don't have as much time or willpower to spend on fanfiction as I used to due to other writing projects and/or adulting. Some part of me hesitates to even post any of this for fear that I will never finish it, but there is no progress without risk.
This chapter's length is what I'm generally going to be shooting for. However, there are a handful of characters that either were left out of Interstitium or are new to ME3 that I feel deserve a more thorough treatment. For these 6 or possibly 7 characters I figure I need to write overlong, flashback-heavy, Interstitium-style chapters. These will be spread throughout the story as appropriate.
(Can you guess which characters I mean? One of them rhymes with 'Havoc' and is 50% of why I'm writing this story at all.)