John, SR-2 Normandy, The Loft

"As of five standard days ago, the folded Volus company 'Asteroids Cyber Security' officially accepted your offer of buyout in exchange for new identities in the Terminus Systems," Liara smirked slightly. "The official paperwork has been filed and you are now in sole ownership of 'Watchdog Independant Security'."

"Perfect," John couldn't help his grin as he rubbed his hands together diabolically. "And the lawsuits?"

Pausing, Liara looked over her datapad before giving a quick nod. "Settled. The assets were seized when the first rulings came down. Essentially you just bought the name and business license."

"Honestly, I can't believe that worked," John half shrugged. "I thought it would be far more difficult."

"John," Liara gave a wide, insulted look. "I am an excellent information broker. I know everybody important on Ilium. The right amount of money in the right hands makes anything possible. Such as owning a security company that is now run through Ilium. The paper trails here can get very murky."

John nodded. His hand absently rubbed at the back of his neck as he considered his course of actions. "And...the other matter?"

"Significantly more difficult," Liara made a face. "And I am being blocked by the Shadow Broker. I have a lead on him though. I may need you soon."

"Anything I can do to help," John nodded, leaning forward on his desk. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, John," Liara laughed delicately. "That servant you bought is actually a minor miracle worker. I don't think my files have ever been this well taken care of. Though she is extremely pushy when it comes meal time."

Holding up his hands, John shook his head with a laugh. "Tali bought her, I was just along for the ride. And I'm glad she is keeping you on task. Your health is important. Can't be storming the Shadow Broker's Secret Lair with a grumbling tummy."

"John, asari don't get 'grumbly tummies', but I appreciate the concern," Liara snickerd before glancing at another datapad. Her look soured immediately.

"Liara?" John frowned.

"I just saw the name of the man setting up the new identities for the volus," Liara looked back to John, a dark expression on her face. "It's the same one I tracked Sidonis to."

Tali, SR-2 Normandy, Science Lab

"I finished decoding all the data we ripped from Hock's computers," Tali went right to business as she entered the lab. It was important to Mordin, and he wasn't the type to get stuck on social formalities.

"Information about Maelon?" Mordin looked up from his project with a single blink. "Assumption is krogan, though not sure. Sources in STG strangely quiet. Unnerving."

"Yes," Tali nodded. "He was hired by Blood Pack to do the pick up. The drop off was on Omega, then routed through several more locations."

"Blood Pack. Krogan Mercenaries. Odd group to take the initiative," mordin tapped at his chin as he thought. "Probably hired as middlemen. Issue more who would have motivations. Maelon worked on genophage, smart, skilled, not particularly gifted. Bit of a soft back, really. So...krogan clan. Which one? Urdnot? They are dominant. Urdnot Wrex solidifying planet under his rule. Geonophage cure, or at least perpetrator would go a long way to motivating clans…"

"Wrex isn't like that," Tali frowned. "He is a good krogan… Okay, that sounded patronizing."

"No, no, agree," Mordin waved a hand dismissively. "Not in Urdnot Wrex's personality. However, most likely a rival clan. Several strong ones still stand. Gatatog, Weyloc…"

"Weyloc?" Tali interrupted. "There was mention of that name in the data."

"Of course!" Mordin threw his hands in the air with a small smile. "Weyloc has direct ties to Blood Pack. One of the groups main contributors. Makes sense that they would use the group for kidnapping. Didn't even think of it. Too used to actually competent intelligence agents. Amateurs slip right through!"

"What was it John said," Tali tapped the side of her helmet as she thought for a moment. "Professionals are predictable, but amateurs are dangerous?"

"Accurate," Mordin nodded. "Need to get the information to Shepard. Make plans for rescue."

"I'm on my way up now," Tali shrugged. "I'll let him know and send him your way."

Xera'Raan, MSV Copernicus, Andromeda Initiative DryDock

"What do you think?"

"It's impressive," Alec turned to regard the quarian. "I recognize a lot of the architecture. Where did you get this?"

"It's Cerberus," Xera leaned against the wall, crossing her legs at the ankles. "That's the AI they put in the new Normandy."

"I see…" Alec looked back at the data crawling across his display. "That explains the infiltrators a couple years ago."

"They raided you?" Xera frowned. "They stole data on the geth from the Migrant Fleet. They also had a project that tried to connect a human mind to a geth cluster."

Ah!" Alec nodded with a small smile. "I get it now."

Xera stood for a moment as the human turned back around and began going through other windows and data streams. Silently.

"Alec," she said with a slight not of annoyance.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "Whoever wrote this AI script was good. Very good. The base data looks like that military VI that went crazy at the Alliance training base on Terra's moon. I'm also seeing Reaper scripts. They are woven in and around the Alliance data."

"Well, that can only go well," Xera snorted.

"Yeah, it doesn't mesh," Alec shrugged. "I tried it once. The Reaper data goes crazy and overlays everything, altering it to fit itself."

"You seem to have gotten around it."

"Yeah, I gave up on the Reaper data entirely. I ended up modeling a human brain map and altering code to fit," Alec nodded, pulling more screens and data. "That's what Cerberus took from me."

"The brain mapping?" Xera frowned again. This computer crap hurt her head. This was the stuff Tali might get, but she was but a humble, kind, beautiful, gifted, doctor.

"Yes," Alec confirmed, spinning back to her. "The person that wrote this, took the Alliance VI base, wrapped Reaper code around it, then used Geth datastreams as an insulating stitching, so to speak. Then, to top it off, they took a human brain map, and molded it all to fit."

"That...sounds terrible," Xera sighed. Things just kept coming….

"Maybe," Alec shrugged. "It's also ingenius. The geth datastreams kept the Reaper code in check, converting it to be benign. Then mapping it to the human brain map makes the geth data work into a single intelligence, instead of the strung out versions the quarian originally created."

"So...it's become a sentient mind that can learn," Xera ventured. "Like a child?"

"Sort of," Alec nodded as he turned back to his screens. He pulled up a batch of data and began what looked like wiping away layers. "This is the original human brain map. Whoever it was, they are, or were, a genius by themselves."

"Ah, shit," Xera cursed walking over to look at the brain. "I've seen that mind."

"You know who it is?" Alec looked up at her, surprised.

"Yeah. And they are gonna be PISSED!"

Jane, Corsair Ship Purgia, Medical Bay

"Friend Jane," Megan shifted uncomfortably for a moment. "Do not think that I do not trust you. But, are you sure that this vaccine will protect me from your diseases properly? All the warnings we were given were...frightening."

"About as sure as possible," Jane shrugged lightly. "I asked Mordin Solus to give you the work up. If he can't help you nobody can."

"Is he a highly thought of physician?" Megan tilted her head slightly, but seemed to get a little bit of her pep back.

Jane laughed for a moment. Then, another moment. Then, slowly, through a shuffering breath, she laughed again.

"Friend Jane," Megan actually frowned for may just as been the first time since she came on board.

"Sorry, sorry," Jane giggled as she shook her head. If it wasn't for the helmet she'd be wiping away a tear. "It's just...Mordin Solus is a geneticist. He was part of the team that altered the krogan genophage, to keep the krogan from adapting past it. If anybody knows how to protect against a disease, it's going to be him."

"That is not reassuring," Megan sighed, taking on a melancholy expression. Even the trilling birdsong Jane could hear behind the translator took a dip lower. "My people feel that the genophage is evil. A mistake that should never have been made. It is a terrible thing to have done to a people."

For a long moment Jane looked at Megan. Looked her in the eye. Then she nodded. "It is," she agreed. "I...can see the logic of it. The numbers are all there. The Rebellions had drug on for so long and become such a danger…. I know why they did it. Goddess help me, if I was there at the time...I would have agreed to it."

Megan nodded slightly. "And now?"

"Now?" Jane exhaled slowly. "I can still see why they altered it. I understand why they felt the need. They are wrong. The math may support them, but only if they use specific equations. There were options. They could have spent all that time, between then and now, finding a better solution. But they didn't. The Council simply shoved the krogan back onto their blasted world and ignored them until they were showing to be inconvenient. The Council did much the same thing to the quarians and I hate them for it."

"I..am sorry, Friend Jane," Megan said quietly as she reached up and slowly unsealed her helmet, and drawing it off. As she did, the feathers on her head fluffed out, flexing.. The feathers on the top of her head were long and dark, almost black, and they sat on her head, much the way human hair did. Then, they too flared up, like a crest. "I didn't mean to make such sad conversation I….Friend jane?"

Jane stood, her eyes wide and staring. Her hands had come up almost level with her shoulders as they reached out slightly. The fingers on her hands twitched forward.

"..." Megan looked at Jane's hands, then to her face. Then back to the fingers. "You can touch," she laughed, leaning her head forward. "I enjoy being preened."

"Yay!" Jane squealed happily.

Emma, Tears of the Weak, Illium

"This is Ilium Control, uh...Tears of the Weak…" a confused voice challenged the former slave ship as it came up in the rotation. "Please state your business."

"Just got the ship," Emma said, confidently from the command chair she sat in. She need a new one. Or to alter this one. She didn't look very 'comandly' with her feet dangling off the floor. "Looking for a re register, name change and supplies."

"Yeah, certainly suggest changing that name," the voice chuckled. "Send you you docking location. Fee is being transmitted. Please transfer funds before reaching your berth, or you will be waved off."

"Rodger," Emma nodded.

"Illium control, out."

"So...how are we paying for this?" Jac, the turian, only slightly younger than Emma, shorted. Emma could tell he was irritated. The little stubs that what was left of his mandibles twitched uncontrollably. Part of it was the nerve damage from the batarians but when he got agitated, he lost all control of them.

"This unit was given funds," Legion supplied. "We knew that giving the right people money would greatly assist us in our endeavors."

"Well, that will help," Emma chewed on her thumbnail for a moment. "How much do we have to work with?"

"Twenty million credits," Legion said, casually as it stared out the front viewport. "In geth ships, we do not have windows. They are viewed as structural weaknesses."

Around the bridge, the various children just stood staring at the geth. Some jaws were dropped open. Some had extremely wide eyes. Lily, the youngest, and a human, sat sucking her thumb.

"Is there an issue?" Legion's flaps flexed in various forms.

"Twenty...twen...twenty million credits?" Emma said, uncomprehendingly. "Twenty million…."

"In that not enough?" now Legion's head tilted slightly, like a confused puppy.

"No!" Emma exclaimed, dropping out of her chair. "That's a lot! Where did you get so much?"

"The geth have been monitoring various banking institutions for the last three hundred years. Over this time we have accumulated a sizable number of credits by making many small investments. This, in addition to the resources from the Morning War, gave up a small part as budget for this operation."

"Goddess," The little asari, Kikka sat, spinning her chair around and around, slowly. "We can get good food. Maybe some repairs. I'd like a nice bed. One that didn't smell like...you know."

"Yeah," Jac nodded, crossing his arms as he thought. "We can get the whole thing cleaned out. Better lighting, food, some of the older bits replaced or fixed. Make the ship reliable."

"This is an acceptable expenditure," Legion agreed. He was a good person. Er...robot. He seemed willing to do a lot for the kids. Things he didn't really need to do.

"Alright," Emma nodded. "Jac, make a list. Kikka and I will look for food and stuff. Rest of you guys stay on the ship. Don't let anybody in, and don't go out. Once we get an idea what it's like, we will get you."

"I shall stay on the ship as well," Legion nodded. "Odds are fair to great that nobody would recognize me as a geth. They would probably assume I was a careone VI shell. But it is not worth the risk, if avoidable."

"Yeah, was pretty much thinking the same thing," Emma grinned. "Okay! Let's do this!"

"YAY!"

Hestalia, MSV Corinthia

"John's fine, shot to hell, but nothing new. His people seem to have gotten him a good armor set," Hestalia sighed, rubbing his temples. "I would liked to have had warning about Zaeed, though."

"Sorry, love," Hannah gave her husband a weak smile. "I wasn't able to get you. You had done that underground thing you do when you go all mercenary."

"Yeah, yeah," Hestalia sighed again, this time sitting back and looking at Hannah tiredly. "The rest of the Eclipse hated Hock and didn't want to put up with him, but somebody had to do it."

"And now he's dead."

"And now he's dead," Hestalia agreed with a small chuckle. Then another name rolled through Hestalia's head. "I saw my mother."

"What?" Hannah sat up, blinking in shock. "I thought she was of prowling around the galaxy righting wrongs while hunting a heinous criminal."

"She was," Hestalia confirmed, shrugging lightly. "Whatever John is dealing with seems to have caught her attention, and it's bad enough that she is was willing to make a Justicar oath to serve him through this mission."

"Reapers," Hannah said quietly.

"Assumedly," Hestalia nodded. "Though in this case they are working through the Collectors."

"...did John know?"

Hestalia was quite for a moment. It wasn't the sudden change in subject that silenced her, but the subject itself.

"I don't know," Hestalia said at last. "John plays that kind of thing close to his chest. Hell, the only reason we realized there was something with Tali was how stupidly in love he is."

"That's a good point," Hannah smiled for a moment. "I like her."

"Of course Jane knew," Hestalia continued. "I was surprised she didn't shoot the fucker. Or at least hit him."

"What...did she do?" Hannah bit her lip. An expression Hestalia knew well. She wanted to know, but dreaded the knowledge.

"Ignored him," Hestalia shrugged. "Almost like he didn't exist."

"And...Zaeed?"

Now Hestalia looked uncomfortable. "I...could see something inside him die. With Vido dead, he realized he had nothing to show for it."

"I love you Hestie," Hannah smile a small smile, her finger reaching for the screen before her.

"Love you too, my heart," Hestialia did the same.

Together they sat like that. Longing to touch, but not able to reach.