A frightened asari was suspended in the air by something and a forcefield blocked Lauren, Tali and Ashley from getting her free. "Scan the area for something that we can use to gain access to that alcove," ordered Lauren as they started down the ramp to the cave floor.
"That over there," said Ashley, walking toward a machine Lauren had never seen before. "I've been around enough mining colonies to know that is a drilling laser. We could drill through the floor and..." She was interrupted by Tali. "Geth, incoming!"
"Time for some payback!" hooted Ashley, as she blasted away at the charging synthetics.
"This is for Rannoch!" yelled Tali, firing with equal fervor.
Lauren had a slight smile of her own as she used her biotics to lift the geth from the ground, making them easy targets. Sometimes combat can be fun, she thought. A nice day out with the girls.
As the last geth fell, Lauren looked back at the strange laser Ashley was talking about. "How do you use this?" she asked.
The dark-eyed woman shook her head. "I only saw them work. I never learned how to use them."
"Tali?" Lauren looked at the quarian.
"I think I can figure it out...just give me a few...got it!" And the mining laser flared to life, suddenly cutting a deep trench in the rock floor.
"There's an opening on the other side of the alcove!" Lauren shouted. "See if you can go under the cement construction!"
Tali nodded, keeping the laser aimed below where the asari was trapped. Dust filled the air, but the beam made quick work of the rock and soon the air was clearing and the trio was walking past warm rock walls to the opening behind the asari.
"Oh wow, you made it...can you get me down please?" the asari said. "There were geth coming after me and I activated the forcefield, but then i must have hit something else and I was trapped. That console over there should release me."
Lauren looked at it, then looked back at the asari. "Are you Liara T'Soni?"
"I'm Dr. Liara T'Soni, yes."
"And your mother is Matriarch Benezia?"
"Again, yes...can you please get me down?"
"Do you know who your mother is working with?" Lauren asked.
"I haven't spoken to my mother in years. What are you talking about?"
"Do you know a turian named Saren Arterius?" Lauren pressed further.
"No, I do not. All I know is that some geth and a few krogan were trying to capture me just a little while ago and I thought you could be my rescuers. Please get me down." The asari was looking worn.
"I just want to make sure that letting you out won't get me shot in the back," answered Lauren as she pecked at the console, finally freeing the doctor and dropping her to the ground.
"Thank you," she said, brushing herself off. "I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name?"
"I'm Commander Lauren Shepard of the Alliance Navy, but if you don't respect that I'm also a Spectre. I'm here to find you. We thought maybe you could help deal with your mother." Lauren knew she was being a bit of a hard ass, but she just wasn't so sure about this doe-eyed looking asari.
"I'm sorry, I really don't know what you are talking about. What has she done?" The asari still looked frightened.
"Your mother is working with a turian, Saren Arterius. He's been disbarred as a Spectre and has gone rogue...working with the geth. He's looking for something called the Conduit, and we were told it had something to do with Prothean technology. Have you ever heard of it?"
"The Conduit? No, I know they were wiped out catastrophically about 50,000 years ago, but there's so little left on them. I spend years studying the littlest bits I can find. I don't even know what killed them."
"I think I do...I came into contact with a beacon on a human colony, Eden Prime. It gave me a vision of...horror," said Lauren, her voice tight.
Just then the earth shook. "What was that?" Ashley asked.
"Earthquake," Liara explained. "This planet is filled with active volcanoes. Perhaps your drilling caused a shift, but whatever it was, we should get out of here. This elevator over here can get us nearer to an exit shaft."
The elevator platform began rising, and Ashley found her place beside Lauren. "Kind of rough on the new girl, aren't you?" she teased.
"If her mom is one of the bad guys, why wouldn't she be? I don't trust anyone, until they give me a reason to," answered Lauren.
"Why'd you trust me then?"
"You're one of us...a soldier...a..."
"Human?" Ashley said.
"No, a survivor...it is something that Kaidan and I know very well."
"Yeah...L-T said something about understanding. He never explained though. I know your story well enough. You're kind of the 'what not to do' example in the textbooks," Ashley smiled. "But nobody ever tells you who the real person is behind it. They made you out to be batshit crazy. You don't seem that scary to me."
"Thanks, I'm not...it was just...just poor coping skills, I guess. We can talk about this later," said Lauren as she walked toward where Tali and Liara were talking. "Which way do we go once we reach the top?"
"There's only one way out, you'll know it when you see it," said Liara.
The platform slowed and Lauren saw an alcove much like what Liara had been trapped in, but this one was filled with some large krogan and some geth. "Fuck...draw your weapons!" she shouted.
One of the krogan walked onto the platform. "Give us the asari and we'll leave you alone. I have orders to bring her to Saren."
"She's ours for the time being, no thanks," answered Lauren.
"Then no one gets out of here alive!" yelled the krogan as he and the rest scattered and started firing.
Lauren ducked behind a cement spire and saw Tali and Ashley fan out as well. Krogan were well-known for being mostly offensive fighters and these were no exception. The three woman took advantage of their defensive positions to take out the krogan and the geth as they charged. Liara, being unarmed, ran for a safe place where she hid.
This fight proved to be tougher than the earlier fight with the geth, but the women still prevailed...in time to feel the cave start to shake violently, much more than before.
"We need to get out of here now!" Liara shouted. "I think this volcano is going to erupt!"
"Goddammit!" Lauren yelled. "Joker, we need an evac now! Can you pinpoint our location?"
"Yeah, Commander, I got it. Be there in two," answered the pilot.
x-X-x
Back on the Normandy, Lauren sighed as she stepped into the hot water of the shower. Only Ashley was in there with her, as Tali had her own cleansing routine and that involved Dr. Chakwas and a whole lot of sterile instruments, and Liara said she would head to the mess for something to eat.
"Some day, huh?" asked Ashley, as she started to lather up her hair.
"You're telling me. I never expected just trying to get some blue chick off a planet would make us cause a volcanic explosion," said Lauren.
"Ha. I bet it's just another day for Commander Shepard," Ashley laughed.
"Laugh it up, Chief. Just wait until I have a bad day," Lauren joked.
After hitting the showers Lauren called her ecclectic team together in the comm room to introduce them to their new asari member. Liara was the first one to enter the room.
"Thank you, Commander, for saving me from those krogan. I don't know what they wanted with me."
"You can call me Lauren. He said he was bringing you to Saren. Maybe he thought the same thing we did...that you could help us find the Conduit...or at least tell us what it is."
Wrex entered the room next. "Nice, an asari...biotics can always put up a better fight."
Garrus was right behind him. "And I suppose crack-shot turians mean nothing?" Wrex just guffawed loudly.
Kaidan and Ashley walked in together, talking quietly amongst themselves. Ashley winked at Lauren and took her seat. Kaidan finished whatever he was saying to her and sat down himself, giving Lauren an attentive, but unemotional, look.
Tali came in last, apologizing. "I'm sorry I'm late. My suit had a small rupture...probably from flying rock. It's patched, but Dr. Chakwas gave me a heavy dose of antibiotics to stave off the infection."
"Ok, well," Lauren looked at all the faces looking at her, and suddenly she felt very inadequate. Almost 29 years old, commanding officer of the Alliance's top ship, and on a mission of galactic importance. This was not what she had dreamed as a girl wanting to escape BAaT. She never felt the leader, but she was always put into places of leadership. So she swallowed hard and tamped those feelings down.
"This is Dr. Liara T'Soni. She is the daughter of Matriarch Benezia. She will be helping us with her knowledge of the Protheans and with her mother as well. Anderson said she had last been seen heading to Noveria, so that is where we're heading next."
"Lauren," Liara started, "You said you had come into contact with a Prothean beacon."
"Yeah, it burned something into my mind," she answered.
"Perhaps I can help. If you would like I can join our minds, then I can see what you saw and possibly give some greater context to it."
Lauren was concerned. "Join minds? It's crowded enough just having me in here."
"I promise I won't be invasive...just find what you want me to find. Nothing else."
"What about you? Will I be able to read your mind?"
"I'll let you see anything you want to see," Liara stated. "I have nothing to hide."
Lauren thought that maybe this would give her a chance to see if Liara was truly the innocent she claimed to be. "All right," she said reluctantly. "Let's do it."
Liara stood, taking Lauren's face into her hands. Her sky blue eyes looked into Lauren's gray-blue ones deeply then suddenly went solid black.
"Embrace eternity!" the asari said.
Lauren immediately lost her own vision as her eyes involuntarily fluttered shut, then she felt the oddest sensation of being in more than one place at once. She could tell Liara was moving through her mind, sensing things enough to know what they were, but not look. Soon there was this unexplainable opening between them, nothing physical, but it could definitely be felt. This woman's mind was fascinating, and she really was what she had claimed to be...a boring, Prothean expert. It wasn't that her life was so interesting to Lauren, but rather the experience of being able to experience another person's life.
Liara touched the memory that held the beacon's signal and Lauren's mind was filled with it once again, drowning out all other thoughts. Screeching, pain, blood, anguish, slaughter, death.
Everyone else was watching this in interest. No one could really tell what was going on, because the process was silent. But when Kaidan saw Lauren's eyes open and suddenly go wide in fear, he gripped the arm of his chair tightly, fighting the urge to say anything. He had no idea if anything was wrong, but it didn't look right. She looked scared. He looked over at Ashley who had the same worried look on her face.
Kaidan finally felt himself breathe again when Liara released Lauren's face. "That...that was astounding. By the Goddess, I've never seen anything like it," said Liara breathlessly. "It's a communication of some sort, but I can't tell what, it's like it's signal has been jammed. We need something to clear it up." She swayed awkwardly and Lauren reached out to catch her before she fell.
"Are you ok?" Lauren asked.
"Yes, I'll be fine. The process is very tiring. I should go lie down."
"I'll help you to the medbay. Dr. Chakwas can look you over first," said Lauren.
"Thank you. I appreciate the concern."
As the pair walked out, the rest of the group began to disperse, but Kaidan stopped Ashley from leaving. "The asari is the one getting help? I thought...Shepard was in terror part way through that."
"I know, I saw it too," said Ashley quietly. "Whatever it was, I don't want her getting into my head. She won't like what she sees. I'll tell you what, L-T...Shepard is a tough and badass as they claim her to be."
"I know..." he answered, putting his hand to his forehead.
"You do?"
"Yeah, we go back a long way."
Ashley smiled mischievously. "That's news...How far?"
"We met as teenagers...it's a long story," said Kaidan.
"So are you two...?" Ashley brought her two pointer fingers together.
"Together? No, not at all."
"Oh, so you broke up..."
"No!" said Kaidan emphatically. "It's never been anything. We've always just been friends..."
"I see..." Ashley nodded her head, grinning wickedly. "You don't have to worry about me. I won't tell...Your secret is safe with me."
A/N: Yes, this is kind of game stuff...but it is my paraphrased memory with my own imagination added in. A much more interesting way to get Liara, IMO. :) Thank you for reading!
