"Congratulations." Captain Anderson held out his hand.
I shook it, looking to the Ambassador as he opened his mouth.
"We've got a lot of work to do. You're going to need a ship, a crew, supplies..." He trailed off before continuing. "Anderson and I will set all this up. Why don't you go off for a few hours?" He didn't bother waving me out, simply walking away while thinking.
Still in a daze, I walked out, heading the Quick Transit car.
"Hmph! Bastard didn't even thank you." Wrex grumbled, breaking through the haze.
"Until I find Saren," I replied automatically. "I haven't done anything."
"Where are we going?" Alenko asked, a hesitant tone to his voice.
"Huerta." I summoned a cab, climbing in. I know I'd said that visiting him was a waste of time earlier, but that was before I'd been made a Spectre. A fucking Spectre.
He glanced at the others before climbing in too, Williams joining us. The rest of them looked on as the car pulled away.
They waited in the lobby while I went back to the turian's room. Grabbed a chair and sat by his bed, reaching out and-
I pulled my hand back, letting my hair loose and running my fingers through it anxiously. "You planned this from the start, didn't you? There was a reason you took that mission. We never worked with other humans before, not on that scale. This was all a setup. In the best way possible. It just… ended in almost the worst way possible." Tears streamed down my face, my voice dropping to a whisper. "I'm sorry I didn't realize it was that mission sooner. I'm sorry I failed you."
There was always that little piece of me that worried I hadn't done enough. Sure, I'd done that before, but maybe, if I'd just let him die instead... No, what's done is done. I'd don't the best I could for him. It was his turn now.
The artificial sky darkened as I sat there, hunched over in my guilt and grief. Eventually, the well ran dry, and I was too dehydrated to cry any longer. A nurse came in and gave me a glass of water. I offered a weak smile and took it gratefully, draining it in just a couple swallows.
"Thank you."
"He's going to make it."
I looked up at her.
Her eyes were kind. "He's going to be okay."
"Thank you." I repeated, my smile stronger. A weight lifted off my shoulders. I put my hair back up, gathering strength from the action.
She walked beside me, telling me about how his vitals were getting better, steadier, as I made my way to the lobby.
Taking her hand, I squeezed it. "I know I've said it a lot but thank you."
She laughed. "It's what I do."
"There she is, L-T." Williams pointed me out, and Alenko immediately stood.
"I'm sorry I took so long. I honestly didn't realize the time until a few minutes ago." I fidgeted with my hands.
"It's alright." Alenko waved me off. "How is he?"
"He's stable, but they're keeping him in a coma until his brain has healed enough." He'd always been a fast healer, so hopefully he wouldn't be down for long. The way the nurse had described it, it really was just for precaution.
They led me toward the elevator.
"That's good, right?"
"Yeah." I let out a deep breath. "He's expected to make a full recovery."
"How long have you known him?" Williams asked curiously.
"Hmm..." I thought about it a moment. "I think it's been about... oh, ten years?"
"That long?" Her eyes bugged out. "What was that like? Was he a Spectre the whole time?"
"Yeah." A nod.
"Did he rescue you?"
As if that was the only option. What a leap from point A to point Z, with no stops between.
I barked a laugh, quickly covering my mouth. "Sorry. Sorry, no. Definitely not."
She tilted her head. "How'd you two meet, then?"
I sighed, trying to think of something to change the subject. The viewing platform outside the markets caught my attention. Leaning against it, I felt the smile creep across my face.
"Big place." The Lieutenant seemed to flounder for something to say.
"That your professional opinion, sir?" She chuckled, raising an eyebrow.
"This isn't a station;" I swept my arms out, "it's a city."
"There must be millions here. It can't be possible to track everyone coming and going."
The Gunnery Chief sounded a little jealous. "This makes Jump Zero look like a porta-john. And it's the largest deep space station the Alliance has."
"Jump Zero was big. But this is a whole 'nother scale. Look at the ward arms. How do they keep all that mass from flying apart?"
"The Council represents more races than I thought." A shake of my head as I looked out. "No wonder they're careful about new species."
"They probably just want to keep everything running. It has to be hard keeping all these cultures working together."
"Or maybe they just don't like humans." A bitter mutter under her breath.
"Why not? We've got oceans, beautiful women, this emotion called love." Laughing, I counted off the reasons. "According to the old vids, we have everything they want."
"When you put it that way, there's no reason they wouldn't like you." There was silence for a beat, then. "I mean, us. Humans. Ma'am."
"You don't take much shore leave, do you, L-T?" Williams teased.
Alenko's face flushed, and he opened his mouth, but I spoke before he could.
"Please. I'm perfection." I scrunched up my face, making them laugh.
After we'd composed ourselves, I stretched, and Williams motioned toward the stairs. "If we take any longer, Udina might send hounds after you."
"Spectre." I shook my head, reality slamming back down. "I'm the first human Spectre."
"Are you gonna join the Alliance?"
I wrinkled my nose. "Do I have to?"
Garrus, Wrex, and Tali were waiting outside Udina's office.
"Udina in there?"
"Yeah."
"Are you okay?" The quarian asked kindly. "You looked out of it when you left."
A ping came from my omni-tool, and I glanced down at it. A message. From Admiral Kahoku. He wanted to meet with me to discuss something. As we walked through the door, I shot him a message, letting him know I'd be free in a few minutes.
"I've got big news for you, Shepard." Udina was talking before I'd even cleared the door. "Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is yours now."
Analytically, it was a good move. A Spectre should have the best at their disposal, and the Normandy was top of the line. And built for stealth, to boot. My favorite thing. A good, solid choice, though I doubted Anderson wanted to step down as her captain. My condolences.
But at the same time... Regardless of the fact I was masquerading as human, I wasn't Alliance. What led them to this outcome?
"Saren's gone. Don't even try to find him." I could feel the lot behind me bristle at Anderson's words. "But we do know what he's after: the Conduit. He's got his geth scanning the Traverse looking for clues."
"We had reports of geth in the Feros system shortly before our colony there dropped out of contact. And there have been sightings around Noveria."
Ah, Noveria.
"Find out what Saren was after on Feros and Noveria. Maybe we can figure out where the Conduit is before he does."
"We have one more lead." Udina held up a finger, wagging it around. We got it. One more lead. It was obvious how stressed he was at the situation. "Matriarch Benezia, the other voice on that recording? She has a daughter, a scientist who specializes in the Protheans. We don't know if she's involved but it might be a good idea to try and find her. See what she knows. Her name is Liara." What are the odds...? "Dr. Liara T'Soni."
Oh, snap. I hadn't seen her in a hot minute, and now I had a reason to drop by! A part of me wondered if she'd want to tag along, especially with her mom being involved.
"We have reports she was exploring an archeological dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster."
"Noted." I gave a firm nod.
"Remember-" Here came the lecture. "You make a mess, and I get stuck cleaning it up."
"I'll try not to make things any harder for you, Ambassador."
"Glad to hear it." He looked down at his omni-tool. "I have a meeting to get to."
And with that, he was gone.
Anderson talked to Alenko and Williams briefly before he, too, left us.
"Well, that's that. Now," I looked back at Kahoku's message. "I'm going to the Presidium for a few minutes."
Sure enough, everyone followed after, like I was the mother goose.
...
"Shepard. Congratulations on becoming the first human Spectre. I'm certain you'll be up to the challenge."
"I appreciate it."
We shook hands, his eyes drifting to the side. Anyone else would say he was looking over the group of people with me, but I knew better. He was hesitating on what to say, searching for the right words.
"Kahoku." I murmured gently. "What is it?"
"I wish we were greeting each other on better circumstances. Shepard, I need your help. You're the only one I know that can do it, now that Nihlus is in Huerta." I waited patiently for him to continue. "I'm getting stonewalled by bureaucratic assholes. One of my recon teams was investigating some strange activity out in the Traverse." A sigh. "We lost contact yesterday. Now I can't get clearance to check it out- suddenly it's a restricted area."
"Send me the information, and I'll look into it first chance I get."
His shoulders slumped in relief. "I appreciate that, Shepard. I was running out of options." He jerked his thumb back at the terminal. "I'm going to stay here and see if I can find anything out through official channels."
I rolled my eyes, at the oxymoron of finding anything out going down that path. "Don't hold your breath. Once they've deemed something "classified," you can't get anywhere." I offered a smile. Reassuring. "I'll find them."
Before I was even walking away, he was punching in the information to his omni-tool. Sending it my way.
I made my way toward the stairs, and a man waved me down.
"Garoth!"
"Shepard, I wanted to thank you in person. For finding my brother and saving him. I don't know how you managed to convince that Spectre to go investigate but thank you. If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know."
I chuckled. "It wasn't that hard, honestly. Wasn't that much of a fight, the opposition wasn't prepared for reinforcements. Easy enough to pick them off. I'm just glad your brother is safe and sound. At the end of the day, that's what matters."
Trotting down the stairs, Alenko pipped up. "You make it a habit to help random people?"
I shrugged when we reached the bottom, rolling my shoulders. "When I get the time. Usually when we've parted because of a mission he's on and doesn't want to bring me along."
"You don't get to do what you want when you're with him?" Ashley frowned. "I mean, he's a Spectre. I can't imagine any doors being closed."
"If I feel strongly about something, he makes time. And every few weeks, he lets me choose something we do. I happened to run into Garoth on the day I got to choose."
"And now that you're a Spectre, you'll be helping anyone who asks?" Garrus sounded disapproving.
"You learn who genuinely needs help and who's just using you, after being around a Spectre for as long as I have." Turning to him, I gave him a big smile. "I like knowing I'm leaving the universe better than I found it."
Everyone gathered in the elevator quietly.
"In other news, ExoGeni Corp is still denying reports that one of their survey teams has gone missing in the Hades Gamma cluster. When asked why communication with the survey team was suddenly cut off last week, company officials refused to comment."
"I hate them so much." I grumbled, typing a note to myself check it out. "How they're still in business is beyond me."
"They buy off politicians."
"Well, yeah. I just. The universe would be better off if farmers were in charge."
"I'm... sorry?" Garrus laughed out. "Farmers?"
"Yeah, farmers. Don't laugh, I'm serious. Farmers are the backbone of everything. They're politicians when they need to be, laborers that work horrendous hours for next to nothing. They make sure there's food to keep everyone alive, and lord knows how difficult that must be, when they're constantly being limited and told what they can and can't have and do. The governments are always at odds with them, giving them less and less of everything to work with. From funding to equipment to personnel. If someone can manage all that, and stay humble... Well, we need that kind of person in office. Not someone who's taking bribes from big corporations that are doing straight up illegal shit and get away with it because they've got the politician backing them. We need people who'll keep the little people in mind, and do something about the issues they're facing. Not sweep them under the rug and say 'suck it up.'" I paused. "Sorry."
"You're always full of opinions, Shepard." Wrex patted me, hard, on the back. "I like it."
"So, you're joining us, right? Going after Saren." I changed the subject before anyone else could comment.
"Damn straight, I am."
"Shepard..." From her tone, I could tell she disapproved.
"Williams, if you don't like it, you can stay on the Citadel. Be placed on another ship." The elevator stopped, the doors opening, but I didn't step off. Instead, I turned to give them each a look. "That goes for any of you. Either join and don't catch me hearing you complain about working with aliens, or stay and go do something else. You have until we get to the docking bay."
No one got the chance to say anything, because I saw something when I faced the room in front of us.
"Oh!" Jogging up to the Keeper, I gave a quick scan.
"What are you doing?" Tali sounded curious.
"A guy I know developed a software that lets you scan Keepers, and I offered to do it for him. Because I was traveling with Nihlus, and who's going to stop someone who's with a Spectre?"
"Scan the Keepers? That's never been done before."
I held up my omni-tool, bringing up the latest scan. Showing it to her.
"That's... So much could be learned from this!"
"That's why I'm helping him." I scrolled through the files. "I've got one more to scan. I-"
"Shepard." An older woman's voice called out to me.
Ah. "Helena."
"I have a business proposition for you."
I merely raised an eyebrow.
"I know of two crimelords." My interest was piqued, but she didn't need to know that. "They're hiding on remote worlds, and I have their coordinates. You could do the galaxy a favor."
"And what do you get from this?" Williams was suspicious, crossing her arms.
Helena looked over at her, a calculating expression on her face. Turning back to me, she gave me a tight smile. Oh, she did not like being questioned by a stranger. Hah. It was nice, to watch her squirm for once.
"We share interest in certain cooperative ventures. But their business practices have forced me to terminate our relationship. Once they're dead, I will manage our organization in a more tasteful manner."
"What crimes did these men commit?" Kaidan, this time.
Okay. While the first question had been humorous to me, this was starting to wear on me. And Helena, judging by how she was holding herself. My eye started twitching. This was why I liked to work with the turian Spectre- he didn't ask questions when I was doing what I do.
"They're red sand dealers who make victims of their customers. Those who can no longer pay are sold to batarians as slaves. They're loathsome, hurting people. They must be ended."
I waved off the incoming comments from the peanut gallery. "Just give me the coordinates."
I input the numbers she rattled off. Hmm. Two men, but three locations?
"When these men are dead, I will wait for you at the third set of coordinates." She bowed her head to me. "It has been a pleasure talking with you. As always."
"Shepard-"
I started to turn toward him, ready to stop him right there, but Garrus beat me to it.
"She's a Spectre, she can decide what she wants to do. Clearly, she's more than capable, or she wouldn't be a Spectre."
I clapped my hands to diffuse the tension rapidly building between the two men.
"Alright. Where to next?" Tapping my chin thoughtfully.
Williams grumbled under her breath. "The docking bay would be nice."
Everyone went really still, unsure how I would react. I was an unknown to them, their nervousness was warranted. Plus, I'd been quick to turn toward Alenko, a retort that never left my mouth at the tip of my tongue. How would I react to this blatant disrespect?
"Yeah, probably." A light went off in my head. "A quick stop at the Requisitions Office in C-Sec. Then, we'll go. Trust me." I held up my hands in a defensive gesture. "You'll want to be there with me. All of you."
On the way to the elevator, we passed Emily Wong.
I stopped in my tracks, Tali bumping into me before she could stop.
"Shepard-"
"Sorry, Tali." I offered an apologetic smile, before turning to the reporter. "Here." I held out the disk. "It's the information you wanted."
"Oh! Thank you so much, Viridian!" She was so excited, she gave me a hug.
I laughed, patting her back. "Anytime. Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything else."
Everyone had confused expressions on their faces, save for Wrex. He was used to me making deals and handing things off.
With that, we were on our way again. I didn't give them time to say anything.
Even with as slow as the elevators always were, it didn't take long to find my way to C-Sec.
"Miss me?" I singsonged as I came into view of the turian behind the desk.
"Nihlus' little troublemaker." He chuckled, leaning forward. "'Fraid you'll have to just go through our regular stock today, since you're not with him."
I grinned. "Check your systems. I'm one hundred thousand percent sure you'll open the rare stocks for me today."
"What are you up to?" He muttered under his breath. Eyes going wide a moment later. "Spectre?" He shot me the turian equivalent of a grin. "About time."
"You sound like you already knew." My tone started joking but turned suspicious by the end.
"Maybe." Was all I got.
"Unbelievable. I was the last to know." I was pouting, and I knew it. "Anyway," Waving a hand toward my companions. "let my friends look through the Spectre-grade items you've got." As an afterthought, I added a please a beat later.
I sent a quick message to him, saying I would be footing the bill for it. That if asked pricing, he should say it's already been taken care of.
He gave a nearly imperceptible nod my way. Garrus glanced over, eyes a bit narrowed. Interesting. He was good at paying attention. Something I'm sure would come in handy at some point.
While they were all drooling over the high-tech gear, I went to the terminal next to the desk, going through the files and messages there. Marked several locations on the map on my omni-tool.
I also sent another message out, asking for a favor.
By the time I was done, everyone was kitted out.
"Y'all ready?"
The humans blinked at me.
"'Y'all,' ma'am?" Williams spoke up, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Yeah? Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, no. I'm sorry."
"Well, c'mon. No one said they weren't ready to go, so pony up." With that, I walked away, heading toward the docking bay elevator.
"'Pony up?'" I heard Alenko echo. "Where is she even from? I haven't heard that outside of old vids."
