Three Little Lovebirds
Chapter 16 – Shadow Puppets
Lucy awoke with a start. Blinking once to focus her vision, the tiled ceiling of the Medbay gradually appeared above her head.
"What happened, Doc? Why did you pull me out?"
When she was met by nothing but silence for several seconds, Lucy raised her head. There was no sign of the doctor. Glancing around, she quickly realised she was alone in the room; even Liara was missing from her bed.
"What the hell?" Lucy quickly slid off her plinth, mind racing as she struggled to think of an explanation. There was no way Doctor Chakwas would just leave during such a delicate procedure; something must be wrong. Something that gave her cause to move Liara but not her.
The room leaned precariously as Lucy got to her feet; a disorienting side effect of the neural stimulator. As she waited for her balance to re-assert itself, Shepard took the opportunity to double-check her surroundings for anything out of the ordinary.
When her dizziness hadn't passed thirty seconds later, Lucy began to worry. It was as if the Medbay was built on an incline; she only felt like she was standing upright when her entire body was leaning slightly into the slope of the room. It couldn't actually be tilting though; no type of malfunction in the artificial gravity of the ship could cause it to rotate twenty degrees. Besides when she went with the gradient, the mugs, pads and instruments adorning the counter remained at an impossible angle that would surely cause then to slide off.
By now, Lucy's instincts were screaming at her that something was very, very wrong. In the early days of neuroscience, there'd been all sorts of horror stories about people who's perception of reality was permanently altered due to a malfunction in the machines during treatment. What if something similar had happened to her? Was it reversible?
"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas!" the spectre shouted this time. Still no reply.
The incessant lean of the room was threatening a major headache. Lucy screwed her eyes tight shut, massaging the bridge of her nose in an effort to stop the throbbing pain that loomed from the corners of her mind.
When she opened them again, the room was back to normal.
Lucy sighed with relief. It must have just been a momentary imbalance brought about by exiting the neural stimulator too fast. Ordinarily, you were meant to be woken up in stages.
It quickly became apparent that no one was going to come and check on her. The brief relief that had accompanied her return to normality evaporated as Lucy considered what could cause such an absence of people. A tremor of fear fluttered in her chest at the thought that it somehow involved Liara; a logical conclusion since she had been moved. Tali was hardly any safer, and without a weapon, neither was she.
That could soon be remedied however. The spectre had given Liara a pistol back on Verdus and the Asari had no doubt stashed it with the rest of her gear in the medical store room.
Glad that she had a plan, albeit a very temporary one, Lucy turned towards the doorway to Liara's quarters. What she saw next made her recoil in absolute horror.
Blood.
There was purple Asari blood completely covering the operating table Liara had been lying on; a great pool of it reflecting the strip lighting overhead. Droplets spilled over the edges, falling to the deck beneath and staining it a dark magenta.
There was no way someone could lose that much blood and live.
Lucy felt sick. She'd seen blood before of course, no soldier as long-serving as her hadn't...but the thought that it belonged to the young scientist she'd been trying to revive was nauseating in the extreme. What in God's name had happened? Had it been there when she'd woken up? Surely she'd have seen it.
Clamping down on the lump in her throat, Shepard forced her cold, military logic between her and her emotions. There was no guarantee the blood belonged to Liara. Perhaps the ship had been attacked and one of the intruders had been Asari. It sounded far-fetched, even to her, but she refused to feel sorrow until she was absolutely certain there was no other explanation.
Careful to avoid looking too closely at the grisly sight, Lucy picked her way around the foot of the bed and into the antechamber beyond. Thankfully, the room appeared undisturbed and it was a simple matter to find the trunk where Liara's armour was kept. As per her predictions, the pistol she'd loaned to the Asari rested neatly on top, immaculately maintained like everything else Liara owned.
Retrieving the weapon, the spectre realized that the terminal on the desk opposite her may hold some answers. At the very least, it would give her rudimentary access to the Normandy's computer core; enough to ascertain if there was any damage to the vessel and the condition of the crew. At this point, whatever lay beyond the Medbay doors was an unknown quantity, and Lucy wanted to know as much as she could before potentially walking into a trap.
After several frustrating attempts however, the terminal still refused to boot. The screen came on, but displayed nothing but flickering white noise. Either there was a fault with this particular console, or the Normandy's VI had been disabled. Judging by the blood and lack of any apparent life, Lucy was forced to admit that the latter was more likely.
Clutching her gun tighter, the spectre came to a snap decision. Skulking in the Medbay wasn't going to help her or her crew. If the ship had been attacked, she'd been left alive for a reason and she was willing to bet whoever had done so would not simply shoot her on sight. There was still a slim chance that the situation could be resolved without further violence.
That being said, Shepard felt a lot better knowing that she had some firepower.
Prowling back through the Medbay, Lucy came up short of activating the door's proximity sensor. She shifted her stance into a firing position; ready to open up on any hostiles that were right outside. It gave the spectre no small amount of discomfort to know that she'd be unable to rely on any biotic powers...she hadn't had the opportunity to get a replacement implant after Verdus.
Sucking in a steadying breath, Lucy stepped forward and the doors opened.
What met her eyes was the closest thing she'd ever seen to a vision of hell.
The regular cabin lighting had been reprogrammed to a sickly blue that made everything beneath it look pale and withered. The bulkheads and control panels around the mess had been twisted and deformed, as if some great hand had simply crushed them like tin cans. Jagged edges of metal and sparking electrical wires transformed the once social area into a deathtrap where one wrong move could result in serious injury. Not even the deck plates had been spared, many having been ripped up or warped so badly they no longer fit.
The crew hadn't fared much better. As Lucy entered the room, at least ten sets of lifeless eyes turned to face her, glowing with the same dead blue light that shone from the ceiling. Every last one of them had been transformed...their skin implanted the with cybernetics that turned living, breathing people into mindless Husks.
These weren't just unknown civilians and soldiers like the undead on Eden Prime or Verdus. Lucy had known each and every face which now angled blankly towards her. From the looks of it, the assimilation had been recent; their flesh still maintained its original pallor as opposed to the monochrome grey of the others she'd encountered. Even at a glance, she could identify Doctor Chakwas amongst the horde; her absence finally explained.
This time, it was simple fear which prevented the spectre expelling her stomach contents. No amount of training or battlefield experience could prepare one for the sight of your entire crew, friends, horrifically twisted into thralls of the enemy. When Lucy returned their gaze, she saw absolutely nothing...there was no trace at all of who they had once been. The Husk's may wear her colleague's faces, but the people behind them was long gone, ripped from their bodies.
This was it.
Saren had won.
Saren had beaten them and there hadn't been a damn thing Lucy could do about it. No doubt he'd left her alive purely so he could enjoy watching her former crew tear her apart. She could just imagine how much the sight would amuse him.
In the brief seconds she had before the Husk's broken minds registered her as an enemy, Lucy sent silent thanks to whoever was listening that she could not spot Liara or Tali amongst the cyborgs. She was under no illusion that they still lived, but a clean death was like luxury compared to what the wretches before her endured.
It was that thought that spurred her into action. There was no real hope of escape...if the entire crew was turned, then it was her versus about fifty Husks. In such close quarters they would overwhelm the spectre easily, able to throw themselves at her until her pistol overheated. Perhaps if Lucy put up enough resistance, they would deem it easier just to kill her than try and capture her body intact for transformation.
Levelling her gun at the closest Husk, the remnants of what had once been Kaiden, Lucy squeezed the trigger.
No shots left the barrel.
The spectre watched in horror as the weapon simply disintegrated in her hands, collapsing into a pile of ash which trickled away through her parted fingers.
A harsh, rasping laugh echoed through the otherwise silent chamber. As it did, the Geth undead shuffled back towards the walls, heedless of the cuts the gutted walls scored on their flesh. The noise prickled along Lucy's spine, setting every nerve in her body on edge. It just sounded...wrong, as if no sound of that kind should be allowed to exist.
From behind the shaft that housed the lift to the cargo bay, a perfectly composed figure emerged. The synthetic man was dressed in funeral black and would not have looked out of place bearing a coffin over one shoulder. In his right hand, he dragged a limp figure whose legs were apparently unable to support its own weight. Only when he stepped into one of the many pools of light did Lucy recognize a familiar, purple shawl.
With apparently no effort at all, the Shadow Broker hoisted a trembling Tali to her feet. He kept his hand clamped tightly around the back of her neck, preventing the young girl from making any effort to escape...not that there was anywhere to run to.
"Ah, Commander Shepard, I was wondering when you would join us."
Lucy choked back a sob at the piteous sight. One of Tali's legs rested at an awkward angle; the delicate bones of her raised ankle joint clearly broken. The Quarian's suit was torn in several places and her visor was cracked from corner to corner, slowly seeping the gasses that normally remained trapped inside. If the holes in her defences weren't repaired soon, there was a very real risk that Tali could die.
"Let her go you, son of a bitch; she's done nothing to you." Lucy's voice thrummed with an anger she hadn't even known she was capable of.
The Shadow Broker tilted his head slightly, his features alien and unreadable.
"If you want."
With a jerk of his arm, the information dealer sent Tali stumbling from his grasp. Lucy rushed forward to meet her, but was unable to prevent the young girl's weight from falling squarely on her injured leg. A choking cry of agony escaped from the Quarian's lips, a sound which filled the spectre with her own empathic pain; tearing at her heart like a rabid varren.
Lucy scooped her arms around Tali's torso, pulling her close and supporting the panicked girl's weight. She could feel the fright radiating off her lover in palpable waves and did her best to soothe it, although given their current situation, it was an all but futile endeavour.
"Who are you?" she snarled over Tali's quivering shoulder "What do you want with us?"
"I think a better question would be 'what do I want with you?'" the Shadow Broker replied, not making any attempt to move from where he stood "I have no buisness with your crew or your Quarian; they are simply tools which I can use to my advantage."
The synthetic man began to pace, his top hat casting periodic shadows across his features as he moved in and out of the light.
"You see Shepard, only a fool follows the path of a paragon. You vaunt your human emotions: compassion, mercy, love, as ideals to which all should aspire. In the end however, they only serve to increase your organic fallibility. See how easily I can control you...I realised early on that it was not your own life I should threaten for maximum effect, but those of the ones you care for. Observe."
Two Husks, the remains of Pressley and Williams, emerged from the gloom, bearing a stretcher between them. On it lay the unconscious Liara, covered up to her neck by a white sheet normally used to robe corpses. Lucy was unable to tell if she had sustained any injury, but her face was distinctly paler than normal. Attached around her neck was a bulky metal collar with several vials of a murky green liquid protruding from it at regular intervals. Shepard didn't recognise what it was, but chances were it was bad news.
"This," the Shadow Broker said, indicating the object of Lucy's attention, "is a Batarian discipline collar; a device so cruel that even slavers avoid using it. At a mere thought from me, your pet Asari will be injected with a controlled dose of moonsnake venom. In small quantities, it is said to be the most agonizing experience a living organism can endure. In large amounts, the result is a prolonged and excruciating death. So long as you obey my every command, I will not have cause to observe its effects first-hand."
Lucy's response was automatic.
"Put the collar on me. If I'm the one you want to control, then punish me for my mistakes."
"That's not how this works Shepard, you will carry out my commands or she will suffer."
Lucy bit down on the urge to scream. Unconsciously, she hugged Tali closer to her chest, desperate for every ounce of emotional support the young girl could give her. There was no way out...nothing she could do but accept whatever terms this unspeakably evil stranger gave her.
"What do you want me to do?" she spat the words with every ounce of hatred she possessed.
"It's quite simple really," the Shadow Broker stated, his emotionless voice somehow conveying a malicious joy. "I want you to break her fingers."