Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or the various X-COM games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not written for profit. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.

Chapter 4: The Spectre

=SF=

Part 1

11:09, 4 September 2176

XSV "Rhine"

Exodus Cluster

I was already getting bored – being stuffed into not particularly comfortable bed in the med bay for days after damaging the psi-amp implanted in your head has that side effect. Plus, being lightly wounded, yet conscious, wasn't an excuse not to file up the paperwork coming with my position. Then there was the AAR…

At least I wasn't the one who had to write the letters to the families of the three troopers we lost on the last op. As it turned out, Anderson ran into a pair of capable biotics too – they took out a pair of troopers with them before being blown to bits.

On the bright side, the docs on board of the Rhine managed to patch up and release all other wounded within a couple of days, which was great. Back in the day, at least two of the injured soldiers would have been discharged thanks to receiving crippling wounds so their speedy recovery was great. The downer was that I was left mostly alone in the med bay, while my implants were slowly being fixed by nanites.

I had done the required paperwork, written and checked the AAR multiple times before sending it to the LT and I was getting bored out of my skull. Once the job was done, I was left to rest – no access to the net or even something to read while the tiny robots were finishing their job. I was supposed to be resting when not doing paperwork and somehow I got caught up on it last night, which meant that I was already bored out of my skull.

I was already contemplating various kinds of mischief so I wouldn't go insane, when a disgruntled looking Anderson strode into the compartment.

"Are the children rowdy without adult supervision, sir?" I quipped.

"Not really. In unrelated news, the hangar bay is shinning." David sighed. "We have another issue."

"For some reason I think I won't like what you're about to say."

Anderson snorted. "We'll be getting a Council observer, who has experience in dealing with pirates."

"Ah." That was my eloquent reply. "Command wants us to play nice or arrange an accident?" I asked, while wondering why the powers that be had agreed on the idea. It positively reeked on politics and that was never a good thing.

"Accidents are to be avoided at all costs." David sighed. "It gets better."

"Understood. We'll keep the VIP in one piece." I frowned. "Though that may prove problematic if they decide to observe an op in person on the ground." I really hoped that wouldn't be the case. "We can keep them safely on board, right?"

"The good and bad news is that we're getting a Specte." Anderson gave a painted look that showed how much he disliked the very idea.

"Lucky us." I grumbled. "So babysitting, while doing our best not to reveal too much about tactics and weaponry?" That was a good way to get people killed.

"Oh, it gets better."

"Can I request a transfer to another ship?" I tried.

"We can always throw you out of an airlock at the next target. I just had a long chat with the Captain about our guest. We'll be babysitting the VIP, which given our lack of officers and NCOs right now means you."

"What did I do to deserve this?"

"You made yourself a hero on Elysium and I guess this is the reward." Anderson smirked.

I groaned. "All I wanted was to kill aliens and keep the civies safe!"

"Tough. We'll be meeting a Turian frigate in a few hours to take on board the Spectre. I want you up and presentable by then."

"At least did you arrange my escape with the Doc or should I release myself?"

"It's done. You'll be out of here shortly."

"Do we know who the Spectre would be? Dossier?"

The LT pulled out a small data-chip from one of his pockets and threw it at me. I snatched it before it could bounce off my chest.

"An Asari, which given our last op might be an issue. Tela Vasir. Here's what command has on her or at least believes we need to know."

"Well, that's just great." I groaned. "She'll be our guest, not the above the law Spectre bullshit, right?"

What could possibly go wrong with an Asari on board, just a few days after members of her species killed three of our own during the last op? Fuck, I was going to have my hands full.

"A guest." Anderson snorted. "No one's insane enough to give free reign to one of the Council attack dogs in our space, much less on an X-COM ship."

"Is the Asari aware of that?"

"I asked the same and she should be."

"Should?" That sounded less than reassuring. "What exactly are my orders, sir? Would she be allowed with us on an op? What isn't she allowed to see? Contingencies?"

"Allowing her to leave with examples of Elerium based tech – power cells, plasma weapons or the stuff itself is a big no-no. We'll be restricted to laser, Gauss and particle weaponry while she's on board. Standard information restrictions apply."

"Understood. No talking about ship numbers, capabilities, etc…" The same for ground formations, weapon capabilities or well pretty much anything. It was a given that a Spectre would be able to make some pretty conclusions about our capabilities, however we shouldn't make her job easier. She shouldn't be able to learn much beyond a first hand experience with our small unit tactics, which in the grand scheme of things wouldn't be decisive in a conflict between us and the Council. Besides, we wouldn't be using the nice toys, which were restricted for either a full scale war or Ethereal incursion.

Hopefully command knew what they were doing.

At least keeping the Asari out of the ship's network wouldn't be my job. We had an AI for that. Still, I would need to make sure that she wouldn't be able to leave unpleasant toys behind or pocket a data-pad or chip with restricted info.

God damn it, I didn't need to deal with this shit!

=SF=

Part 2

15:24, 4 September 2176

XSV "Rhine"

Exodus Cluster

A Turian shuttle – a small, fragile looking boxy thing of a design preferred by most Council races touched down in the Rhine's hangar. It's side doors slid up and opened, revealing the sole passenger, who jumped lightly to land on her heels. If I didn't know better I would have thought that there was some kind of mistake.

The Asari wore casual clothes with a backpack thrown over her left shoulder and a large duffel bag in hand. She made a great impression of a lost coed or a woman who was on her way home after a shopping spree. However, she had the same face I saw while reading the briefing package on the Spectre – those tattoos or marks on her face were quite distinctive.

Her eyes on the other hand made her hard to confuse as a civilian – they were moving rapidly as she examined the hangar for danger and decent cover.

"Spectre Vasir, welcome on board. I'm First Lieutenant David Anderson." The LT sounded as happy with wearing his dress black uniform as I felt. Considering that the Captain had no intention of meeting our guest and declared her our brand new problem, we were forced to be more diplomatic than usual. Or at least the LT told me so when he ordered me to crawl into the damn dress uniform while we approached the rendezvous with the Turian cruiser.

"I'm positively charmed." Vasir gave Anderson a smile that didn't touch her eyes and nodded to the shuttle's pilot.

The transport's door closed with a distinct click and the machine rose up with the characteristic whine of a eezo powered craft. It turned in place and a moment later shot trough the atmospheric shield keeping us all from meeting a messy end.

"I guess no one on board is thrilled with our respective bosses newest brainstorm?" Vasir continued.

Did I mention that this whole thing was damn awkward?

"I'm sure that the idea sounded great back on Earth and the Citadel." I quipped. "I'm Sergeant Delkatar Veil, Ma'am. I'll be your guide while on board."

"My minder. Or guard, you mean." Vasir gave me a searching look.

"It's the best way to avoid misunderstandings." Anderson added.

"So he needs to make sure your people behave?"

"Or that you don't try to leave with a souvenir or two. That would be unfortunate." I stated. Who in their right mind thought that I can deal with diplomacy of all things?!

"The Sergeant will see you to your quarters, Ma'am. When you've settled in he'll provide you with a tour of the ship."

"The areas little old me is allowed in?"

"Don't worry, the ship's AI will make sure you don't get lost." I couldn't help myself.

"Do try not to kill each other. It will take a lot of paperwork to explain it." Anderson sighed. I didn't need my gift to sense that he thought this was going to be an ongoing disaster. "I'll see you at dinner, Spectre." The LT gave our guest a nod and headed towards the exit.

Damn it, Anderson!

"Is trying to kill each other some human initiation ritual or just XCOM's?" The Asari asked, then smiled. "The Krogan had a few similar traditions."

I swear I was going to find whoever brainstormed this mess and introduce them to the messiest ways a psion can kill them.

"Perhaps tomorrow. Please follow me, Ma'am."

"Huh. It's actually refreshing." Vasir mussed. "Usually everyone who knows I'm a Spectre steps lightly and acts very carefully around me. Not to mention that most of them are scared out of their wits."

"I'm more concerned if some bored grunt decides to see if you Spectres are as good as you're supposed to be." I sighed. Note to self – make sure the troops were too busy to even notice our guest. I guess that the hangar could use some more polishing or something.

"Not you?"

"I've seen what Asari are capable of." I grunted and headed towards the exit, waving Vasir to follow me.

=SF=

13:45, 4 September 2176

HQ Regional HQ

Arcturus Station

Jack Harper slumped behind the desk of his temporarily office. The investigation was making decent progress in uncovering the tracks of whoever screwed over Elysium and the Alliance as a whole, and he was beginning to like the emerging picture less and less with every new clue.

Oh, the perpetrators had done expert job in hiding their tracks, yet there was one piece of evidence that they couldn't remove – there were very few people with access high enough to get the codes for Elysium's defense grid. Even fewer couldn't be psionically checked without a court order and the rest were already cleared, though it would take about a week or so for them to recover from the deep scans.

That left only ten names and he knew most of them as either colleagues, friends, sometimes both.

Jack groaned and focused on the lit up holoterminal on his desk. It wasn't like there was much to see in the utilitarian office he was occupying. There were ten pictures with names and short descriptions of possible motives and opportunities. A painfully familiar face was smiling from the middle of the list – it was Henry's unforgettable damned smug grin. The only good news was that the analysts and AI's going over the lives of the suspects couldn't find a plausible motive for Harper's old friend, even if he had ample opportunity.

In his role of defense contractor and CEO of the corporation that built and maintained Elysium's defense grid, Henry was one of the handful of civilians who had access to the defenses… Yet, the man shouldn't have had the up to date codes needed to disable the system by bypassing its safeties and locking it into a self-diagnostic loop. If Henry was a traitor, he most certainly didn't do it alone. Someone had to give him the codes, Lawson had to provide the opportunity and then there had to be someone on the ground who actually crippled the defenses – as a safety precaution such a stunt couldn't be pulled off wirelessly.

It was known who actually carried out the sabotage – their bodies or perhaps doubles were found on Elysium… and half of them were Henry's employes. Still that by itself didn't mean much, not without a shred of evidence and with Lawson being recipient of psi-blocker implants and conditioning the easy way was out.

That's why an X-COM strike team was currently en route to get Henry for a chat. All Jack could do was to ensure that they would get him at work and not risk an accident with his goddaughter present.

Harper sighed and cursed the regulations forbidding smoking on the station. He really needed a cigarette. Preferably a pack of two.