I don't own either Mass Effect of Alien vs Predator.
USM Normandy, Eden Prime system
One moment, space was empty; the next moment, a small warship appeared in a multicoloured flash of light. To the casual observer, the ship would have been something of a curiosity. On the one hand, it was clearly a human warship, as indicated by the external engine pods and the lettering on the hull. On the other hand, the design itself appeared to deviate from the human standard. Whereas typical human ships had a boxy, almost unfinished look, this vessel appeared to be streamlined, with a smooth, elongated hull and swept-back wing structures clearly intended to facilitate atmospheric flight.
"Jump complete." The ship's pilot went through the standard post-jump routine. "Thrusters, check. Navigation, check. Internal emission sink, engaged. All systems online. Drift, just under 1500 kilometres."
The voice that answered him was definitely non-standard. In fact, it was probably the first time in history that that kind of flanged voice had sounded on the bridge of a United Systems Military ship.
"1500 kilometres is good. Your captain will be pleased." With a stiff nod, the turian stepped back and left the bridge.
"I hate that guy."
The man in the seat beside the pilot snorted. "You, a human officer, just got a compliment from a turian Spectre. That has to be something of a first in the history of the universe, and you hate him?"
The pilot snorted. "He said I was good. You know what's good? If you remember to zip up your pants after taking a leak. Me, I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. That's not good, that's incredible. Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having one on board. Call me paranoid-"
"You're paranoid."
"-but the whole thing stinks." The pilot continued as though his companion had not spoken. "What is that guy doing here, anyway?"
"Did you sleep through the briefing? He's here to pick up that Prothean beacon we found on Eden Prime."
"Yeah, well, that's the official story. Only a fool believes the official story."
"I see we're setting a new standard for professionalism on this ship." A dry voice interrupted their conversation.
"Commander Shepard." The pilot turned around in his seat. " I hadn't heard you enter."
"That happens when you talk too much, Mr Moreau," The woman standing in the door opening said. "You lose track of your surroundings. Not such a good thing for a pilot. Not that you were necessarily wrong. A Spectre is not the most logical choice for this assignment. Now, if they'd sent an archaeologist or even an engineer, that would have made a lot more sense. But a Spectre..."
"So, you think there is more going on than the captain is telling us?" The pilot asked eagerly.
The woman shrugged. "Does that surprise you? Welcome to life in uniform. In my experience, there is always more going on than we're told. In this particular case, though, what did you expect the captain to say? Something along the lines of 'Please welcome aboard our new passenger, Spectre Nihlus Kryik, our new favourite contender for most obvious spy in galactic history'? Or how about, 'Because they're sending us such an obvious spy, the brass on Arcturus Station have decided to give him access to the latest, most advanced warship we have, just to see if he takes the bait'? That wouldn't have been very diplomatic, now would it?"
"You believe Kryik is a spy?" the man next to the pilot asked.
"Well, of course he is, Lieutenant Alenko. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to find him searching through the captain's desk while twirling his moustache-" "Which would be kinda difficult for a turian." the pilot interjected. "That too, but in any case, I would expect a Spectre to be too smart to give himself away like that. Still, you cannot tell me that he isn't carefully recording everything he sees and hears. He'd be an idiot if he didn't. Besides-
The intercom interrupted their conversation. "Bridge, this is captain Anderson. Status report?"
The pilot spoke up.
"We've cleared the mass relay, sir. Stealth mode is engaged, all systems running normal."
"Good. Link us to the local network. I want ongoing mission reports relayed to Arcturus HQ with full visual."
"Aye aye, captain." The pilot was silent for a moment, then he continued. "Head up, sir. I think our turian guest is on his way to see you."
"He's already here, Lieutenant. Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the briefing room." The intercom fell silent.
"And, that's my cue." Shepard turned. "The captain sounds unhappy."
"He always sounds like that when he's talking to me."
"I wonder why." Lieutenant Alenko muttered.
-o-o-o-
It wasn't just the outside of Normandy that deviated from the standard for human warships. Whereas previous frigates had followed a conventional design with corridors that gave access to separate rooms, the design of Normandy had deviated from that concept. There were no corridors. The bridge was at the front and opened directly to the command and control centre. Behind that were stairs and an elevator that gave access to other decks and behind those was a general purpose area that could serve a variety of purposes, including that of briefing room. It was a very efficient design that made the most of the available space. Of course, it was not without its drawbacks. Without the corridors, there was no effective way to separate the individual areas, which made the ship more vulnerable to structural damage and less capable of isolating damaged sections.
Then again, Shepard thought as she entered the command centre, a ship as small as Normandy wasn't really capable of absorbing damage anyway. It was either intact or a wreck. For frigates, the trick was not getting hit in the first place.
"He just came stalking by." Pressly, the navigation officer was talking into the intercom. "I'd say like a man on a mission', but-"
"But instead we'll call him a turian on a mission." Shepard had not been on board long enough to be able to recognize everyone by voice, but it sounded like Adams, the chief engineer. "Wel, that fits. He's a Spectre. They're supposed to be on missions. Don't sweat it. We've got everything locked down tight. If he wants to get into engineering, he's gonna need a plasma cutter."
"Is there a problem?"
Pressly turned around to face her. "No, ma'am. Just checking up on our security."
Shepard's eyebrows rose a fraction. "That sounds like there is a problem. Do we have security issues?"
"Not right now ma'am. But we do have a turian on board."
"Ah, yes. Our new pet Spectre. And you're worried about him breaking into engineering."
"Perhaps I'm prejudiced. My father died in the first contact war. But that doesn't mean I'm wrong. I don't care whether he works for the Hierarchy, the Council, or both. The aliens saw an opportunity to put a spy on board one of our ships and they jumped on it."
Shepard nodded. "It certainly looks like it. Not much of a surprise, really. When will they get another chance to put one of their people aboard a human warship? "
"Then why let him on Normandy, ma'am? Any ship could have made this run. We could have sent one of the old Rapid Deployment Vessels, or even a destroyer. Nothing there that isn't common knowledge unless he got access to the tactical database, but Normandy? The one ship in the fleet where he can be an effective spy just by walking around the right compartment. Allowing him on board is like letting a dog into a butcher's shop. Hell, we're practically begging him to spy on us."
"We are, aren't we. Makes you wonder what the top brass have in mind. Then again, you might also wonder why they put me on board. They've had me holding a desk job at headquarters for over a year, now. Then, all of a sudden, I'm told to report for ship duty. Aboard Normandy, of all ships. I'm not an engineer, so they don't need me for systems evaluations. And I'm certainly not a science type. I'm not sure I would recognize prothean tech if I tripped over it. The only reason to put me on board a ship like Normandy is if someone expected her to go into combat. So, why did I suddenly get this assignment? When you look at it that way, my being here makes less sense than that Spectre's."
Pressy's eyes narrowed. "Wait, ma'am. Are you saying that-"
"I'm not saying anything, Mr Pressly. We're just having a casual conversation." Shepard smiled. "Meanwhile, I suggest that you go on making sure that Normandy's systems remain as secure as humanly possible. Should there be any turian-related breaches, well, why don't you let me worry about that?"
With a nod, Shepard moved on. Past the tactical display, past the elevator where the ships medical officer was talking to one her marines. From the few words Shepard picked up, she was busy crushing his dreams of fame and glory. That was good. People looking for glory inevitably wound up getting either themselves or other people killed.
She entered the briefing room. There was no sign of captain Anderson. Only Nihlus Kryik, the turian Spectre, who was looking at a viewscreen that showed what appeared to be a tourist guide to Eden Prime.
-o-o-o-
"Commander." As much as he seemed absorbed in the documentary, the turian had heard her enter the room.
"Spectre."
"I'm glad you're the first to arrive. I believe your captain will be joining us soon, but I was hoping to talk to you for a moment."
"Is that so?" Shepard pointed at the screen. "Are you thinking of immigrating?"
"No. I was simply curious about this place. Eden Prime is something of a symbol for your people, isn't it? Proof that you are able to interact peacefully with the rest of the galaxy. But how secure is it, really?"
"Is that supposed to be a warning or a threat?"
"Neither, Commander, simply a question. It's a big galaxy and there are all kinds of threats out there. Are your species really prepared to meet them?"
Shepard's lips twisted into something that could, with some imagination, be called a smile. " I think we've done okay, so far."
"Ah, yes, you would think that. And you may well be right. Still, threats can take many forms. And not all of them can be countered with a fleet and an army."
"Is that so."
"Absolutely, Commander." The Spectre turned away from the screen. "Invasions and pirate raids are simple threats. One can see them coming, prepare for them, and fight them off. It's the small things that are truly dangerous. The ones you don't even notice until it's too late. Especially, if they're not as small as you think. In my profession, you see those a lot. I remember this one case, on Degeris. Local authorities were practically begging for help. They were suffering this whole string of murders, all over their capital city. Law enforcement seemed incapable of dealing with it. I thought it would be straightforward. Then I got there and it turned out that they had nothing. Just a few hundred mutilated corpses. No connection between the victims, no connection between the locations. And not a trace of the killer. Some were hacked apart in broad daylight. And these were turians, military trained, many of them armed."
"Hacked apart?"
"Yes, definitely blade work. Pieces missing too, mostly heads and talons. As though the killer was taking trophies. We even caught some of it on the security cameras. You could see the victim being sliced open. But no sign of whatever was doing the slicing."
"Infiltrator cloak?"
"That's what we thought," Nihlus nodded briefly. "But it was the best cloak we'd ever seen. It seemed to stay active forever, and even when the victims fought back, it never failed."
Shepard considered briefly. "Not completely unexpected I suppose. Everyone is working to improve those cloaks. Sooner or later, someone is bound to succeed."
"Perhaps, but just one person working on their own? This wasn't some holodrama. In real life, it usually takes a lot more than one mind to get something like that done. Even so, we didn't have anything else to work with. So, we adjusted the scanners all the way to far infrared and tracked the heat signature. Not really an image, just a blob that glowed on the screen. In the end, we cornered him in an industrial warehouse. Some abandoned building that should have been torn down. Next thing we know, there is a roar and that building and a few around it are turned to rubble. The Spectre was silent for a moment. "We lost a lot of good people that day."
"So, whatever it was, it suicided rather than be captured."
"I wish! No, it wasn't an explosion. It was a ship taking off. Problem was, we couldn't see it. Somehow it had been buried underneath that building. It took off, right in front of us and we saw nothing."
"Wait." For the first time since the conversation began, Shepard was actually shocked. "The ship was cloaked?"
"Unbelievable, right? I certainly didn't believe it. It's one thing to use an oversized drive core as emission sinks the way the salarians do for the STG ships and I assume was implemented into this frigate." He made a weird noise that the translation software interpreted as a laugh. "Yes Commander, I figured that part out the moment your ship showed up on sensors. The drive core is too large for the ship, and there is really only one reason to build like that. Your Mr Pressly is wasting his time with those desperate attempts to keep me from learning anything about this ship. I will not attempt to break into a restricted area or hack into your computers. That would be foolish. I already know what I needed to know. The technical details are of no interest to me. In any case, that's an old trick. Expensive, but straightforward. But it doesn't truly hide the ship. Anyone looking out of a window can still see it. This ship was invisible. We looked straight through it. And that should have been impossible. An improved infiltrator cloak for one person is one thing, I can believe that some twisted genius finds a way to design and build that on his own. But a cloaked ship? That is a whole different level of technology. Even if it were possible it would take a major organisation with a lot of resources just to come up with the theory, let alone build it. And if such an organisation existed, why would they allow some insane murderer to play with it. It would be worth billions on the arms market."
"Where it hasn't appeared," Shepard noted. "as far as I'm aware."
"Indeed. So, tell me Commander, which explanation do you prefer? That some madman managed to design and build a cloaked ship on his own just for the purpose of going on a killing spree; that some research team designed and built it, then used mass murder as a proof of concept and managed to sell it without anyone knowing about it; or that there is someone out there, someone big and powerful, who are capable of building and deploying a system like that and consider it so trivial that they're willing to let it be used as a toy by some deranged murderer. To be honest, I'm not sure which explanation frightens me more." Nihlus made a gesture. It had no human meaning, but Shepard had the idea he was basically shrugging. "In any case, Commander, the reality is that the galaxy is very big and we really don't know more than a small fraction of it. If it's not near a relay, we just never go there. Like your people, for example. You were expanding in space for two centuries before we met. Who knows how many other civilizations are out there and what they are capable of?"
Shepard shrugged. "I guess we'll find out, eventually. And when we do, well, then we will deal with them, one way or another."
"Not all problems can be solved with violence, Commander."
"Really? Curious that a Spectre should say that. I thought solving problems with violence was pretty much your job description."
This time the turian seemed genuinely amused. "We're not quite as bloodthirsty as your government likes to portray us, Commander. I cannot speak for the others but in my personal experience, whenever you solve a problem with violence, you end up creating new problems."
"Which you can solve with more violence."
Behind them, the door opened.
"Commander Shepard, Spectre Kryik." Captain Anderson walked in. "Anything I should know about?"
"No, sir. Just debating the merits of violence as a universal problem solver."
"I see. Well, I'm afraid that discussion will have to wait. We'll be at Eden Prime within the hour. Unfortunately, there seems to be something of a communications breakdown. I have been unable to reach port authorities."
"I see." No human had ever learned to properly interpret turian facial expressions, but it was not hard to see that Nihlus was far from happy. "I presume that that is not a normal occurence."
"Far from it. Eden Prime is one of the busiest interstellar trading hubs in the United Systems. Port authority should always be available for communications. I don't like this. Not one bit."
"Bridge to captain Anderson." The pilot's voice came through the speaker.
"This is the captain."
"Sir, we're getting a messag from Eden Prime. It's a distress signal."
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Because the political situation is so different from canon, the conversations have to go differently as well. Still, it seemed reasonable enough to Nihlus would want to talk to Shepard for a bit. After all, this is probably the only chance any Spectre would get to talk to the 'Butcher of Torfan' personally.
I left out the conversation with Chakwas and Jenkins. That's a typical case of things that happen in videogames but otherwise don't make sense. Can you imagine in real life: The captain orders the XO to meet him and the XO shows up half an hour late because he stopped on the way to talk with all kinds of people. Not a good way to earn a promotion. Talking to Pressly can be excused as ship's business, but the rest ...
