"Do you have a problem with me?"

Michael folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at Jacob. "Several. Would you like them in alphabetical order?"

"Look, the Alliance sidelined me after Eden Prime. Ended up on a job with Miranda that Cerberus treated like an audition, and here I am." Jacob met his eyes, though briefly.

Idly Michael found himself wondering what had gone down between Jacob and Miranda before deciding he really didn't give a shit. "You don't think of yourself as a 'results at all costs' kind of guy. Cerberus history doesn't bother you?"

"The Alliance is all politics. Somebody has to take down the bad people." Jacob shook his head. "Cerberus keeps that line, I'm on their side."

"And what happened to Jack, that was done by -"

"That wasn't a sanctioned op." Jacob glared. "Your hands aren't clean either, Shepard."

"Difference between you and me, Jacob." Michael drew himself to his full height and had the satisfaction of seeing Jacob flinch just slightly. That man had studied him and knew the mods. He knew what Michael could do. "I don't pretend they are." He narrowed his eyes. "And I don't actually give a shit who gets the credit."

"I -" Jacob exhaled. "Maybe. And Cerberus isn't exactly transparent, either. Where's an honest soldier go, Shepard?"

"Where he is needed, Taylor." Michael let his arms fall to his sides. Where would he have been today, if not for the geezer? Hackett had given him a chance. "And what exactly does have your balls tied in a knot today?"

For a moment Jacob looked like he was about to just shake his head and walk away. Then the other man sighed. "My private log got an update about the Hugo Gernsback, the ship my father served on. It sent an SOS last week, reporting a crash and requesting a rescue. Shepard, that ship went missing ten years ago. I hadn't talked to my father for three years before that. I've buried everything but a body. I'm not convinced it isn't just some automated distress signal ticking over. It's been too long."

Alright, that really wasn't an answer he'd been expecting. "Well, The Increasingly Melodramatic has us twiddling our thumbs right now. You want to go take a look at the wreck? See if it's legit?"

Various expressions warred for control of Jacob's face. Then he nodded. "If the coordinates aren't too far out of our way, I could at least verify the wreck. Who knows, maybe there is someone actually out there." He hesitated, then met Michael's eyes. "I want to also mention that I don't make a habit out of looking for random SOS signals. This was passed to my personal log through Cerberus filters."

Oh. Lovely. A trap. "Any signs that this was a Cerberus front?" He folded his arms again. "Who passed this to you?"

"I doubt the Illusive man would let a direct operation stay cold this long." Jacob leaned on the workbench. "If there's a link, it's probably just about money. Cerberus needs diverse holdings to fund projects like, well, you." Jacob shrugged. "And whoever sent this my way covered their tracks. Someone could be fishing for favors. Or thought it would get under my skin. Who knows with that bunch?"

That bunch. An interesting phrase. Perhaps Jacob's eyes were starting to open. "I think we can spare the time. Pass the coordinates to Joker."

"I appreciate that, Commander. I don't expect more than dusty old bones, but it'll be good to close the record."

#

He leaned on the railing, watching Tali head back down to engineering. A bit of motion caught at the corner of his eye, and he turned to find Shepard smirking at him. "She was just helping me calibrate something."

"Oh?" Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Is that what they call it on Palaven?" Shepard paused, then tilted his head. "Although that does lend a new perspective to all the time you do spend alone, in the forward battery, calibrating."

"You should try calibrating sometime. Might help you relax." Garrus clicked his mandibles. "Get you shooting straight."

"I shoot just fine, Vakarian." Shepard lifted his chin challengingly. "And I don't need a fancy eyepiece."

"Really..." Garrus held up the item he'd purchased from one of the Quarians. "Then you aren't interested in..." He clicked his mandibles as Shepard took the visor out of his hand and began fiddling with it. "And on the bright side, it also partially hides your face."

"I believe that is a point for Garrus, Commander." EDI's voice came over the comm, and Garrus clicked his mandibles again.

"EDI, what did I tell you about siding with Vakarian?" Shepard fitted the eyepiece to the left side of his head.

#

"This planet is very pretty. Lush. Tropical. Lovely beaches." Michael looked around. "Everyone be on high alert."

"I have run a scan of the ship." EDI's voice came over the comm. "I detect no life signs, but there may be useful technology or information still inside."

They walked closer to the wreck. Michael kept an eye on Jacob as they walked closer, and at his request Thane was doing the same, only more subtle like. Jacob frowned as they approached. "Looks like it was stripped after the crash. They'd have tried to get a beacon up as soon as possible."

"Somebody survived." Michael scanned the area. A faint sound drew them towards an activated beacon.

The hologram was repeating a missive. "Toxicology Alert: Danger of rapid neural decay. Local flora chemically incompatible with human physiology." The rest of the information it provided was just as ominous. Long pauses, records deleted, Jacob's dad promoted to acting captain. And Ronald Taylor activating the beacon remotely eight years after building it.

"From the look of it, this beacon's been here for awhile." Something here smelled fishy, and it wasn't the nearby body of water. "Why would they wait years to signal?"

"Let's check the ship." Jacob's voice was tight. "My father had the beacon for almost nine years. Maybe..." He looked around. There was a trace of something between fear and hope in his voice. "That neural decay affected him?"

#

The logs were not painting a pretty picture of what had happened on the planet. Michael watched Jacob out of the corner of his eye. He was doing a decent job of keeping his composure, but it was clear the man was disturbed by what they had found.

A slow, easy slide, and men became beasts. It was easy to make excuses. Sometimes he wondered if he'd have gone down the hole with the Reds, become a terrorist if Hackett hadn't offered him a chance. Then he shook his head. No. He'd been a thief. But even before Hackett and Kaiden and the others, he'd known there were lines that should never be crossed. He'd beaten the crap out of a few others for crossing those lines. Innocent people had been hurt here.

Outside of the ship, he caught a glimpse of movement. He was heading there when a woman rushed out toward them. "You came? From the sky? The leader said someone would come! He delayed for so long, but he still has power." Her movements were frantic. "Some have lost faith. The hunters! They will have seen your star. They will not let you help him."

"Who are you?" He should have checked a crew roster before coming down to the planet. "What was your rank on the Gernsback?"

"I..." She frowned, confused by the question. "Can't think. The leader thinks for us and we serve..." She waved a hand vaguely. "So we can go home. But some want to fight him. They were cast out." Behind her, he saw men moving in their direction. Armed men. "He exiled them, so they hunt his machines and those who help him. They don't believe that rescue will come."

Michael shoved her out of the way of a round. The men started to surge forward. "Kill them!" One shouted. "Agents of the liar! He will not escape!"

Not exactly the relaxing walk on the beach he'd been hoping for.

#

"My father wouldn't let this go on." Jacob was shaking his head again. "Something is very wrong."

"And The Imprudent Moron wouldn't have let something like Pragia happen..." Michael glanced at Jack before shooting a pointed look at Jacob. "Yet somehow, it did."

Jacob glared before he started stalking up the beach. They followed. Jack bumped Michael with her shoulder as she passed, and he nodded to her. Maybe he should have insisted Miranda come as well. This place could hold a few lessons for her too.

"Is that a settlement?" Jacob paused to point at something up the path. "They'd better be friendlier than the beach group. I need answers."

They entered the camp. The first thing Michael noted was that everyone in the camp was female. The second thing... "Huh." Garrus clicked his mandibles. They're from the same group as the ones that attacked us, but these are docile."

"Is this an earlier stage, or did the exile make the others violent?" It might have been that the females were less aggressive than the males, but he was a little concerned about voicing such an opinion in Jack's presence. A chill went down him. More likely, there was another reason for the divide.

"Either way..." Garrus's eyes started to narrow as he took another look around. From the sound of Jack loading a fresh heat sink into her sidearm, it was clear they'd come to a similar conclusion. "Such a clear gender divide seems odd."

"It doesn't matter right now." Jacob waved a hand angrily. "One of these people must know what my father has to do with this."

One of the women that had been approaching recoiled from Jacob. "You have his face." She shook her head fearfully. "He promised to call the sky, but he sends nothing."

"He forced us to eat, to..." Another woman rubbed her hands over her arms. "Decay." She took an angry step forward, gesturing at Jacob. "You are cursed with his face."

Not the best reaction to a family resemblance. Michael glanced at Jacob. "You certainly seem to have a way with words."

Jacob glared back at him. "You heard her. I have 'his face'. My father forced the crew to eat toxic food. What the hell?"

#

Looking around the camp failed to alleviate any of their concerns. They had to shoot a few more mechs as they traveled up the path. To Garrus's surprise, one of the remaining survivors walked up to them. "You..." She swallowed before approaching Jacob. "Have his face..." She looked around. "But you fight his..." She frowned. "Machines. You might stop this."

He expected Shepard to say something, but the commander stayed back, letting the woman talk to Jacob instead. She handed the Cerberus soldier a datapad she herself had forgotten how to read, one that apparently told what had happened.

Jacob stood still after the woman had left, reading it. Shepard, however, was still not inclined to ease up on the man. "Think on your own time. What's in there?"

"It's a crew logbook. Some of them thought the beacon repair was taking too long. They were afraid they'd run out of supplies and lose their minds to the decay." Jacob swallowed. "My father restricted the ship food for himself and the other officers so they wouldn't be affected. Everyone else had to eat the toxic food and hope for treatment later." Jacob lowered the datapad. "The rest is a casualty list. A few mutinied over the decision. My father and the officers turned the mechs on them."

"The beacon was fixed after a year, so the plan must have worked." Shepard kept his gaze level on Jacob's face. Garrus almost felt a tiny smidgen of pity for the Cerberus soldier. Shepard had a target in his sights, and the man was the second best sniper in the universe. "Why no signal?"

"Those weren't the last entries in the casualty list. More incidents, harsh punishments." Jacob's voice was tight and angry. "It's like they're cattle. Or toys. In a year, all the male crew members are flagged as 'exiled' or dead. They separated out the women. Assigned them to officers like pets." He heard Jack make a growling sound. "And after the beacon is fixed, the officers appear in the casualties, too. After! My father took control and didn't stop it."

Shepard looked around, his eyes pausing here and there before looking back at Jacob. "It's looking like he only activated the beacon because the men have come back ready to fight."

"He let this happen, and now it's biting him in the ass." Jacob put the datapad away. "Nine years. Why didn't he set it right?" Jacob turned back toward the path. "I need to find this man." Jacob started up the path again.

#

"This is Captain Ronald Taylor." A voice came over a speaker system. "Thank god you're here. My crew went insane. I only just got free."

"Goddamnit." Jacob put a new heatsink in his gun. "It's really him. Just got free? He's covering his ass."

"Pretending he didn't know. That it was someone else. That he didn't allow it to happen because it was benefiting him in some way. Blamed others when things went -"

"I know." Jacob glared at Michael. Then he took a deep breath. "I know."

"Time to set it right." Michael nodded to Jacob.

Jacob met his eyes, then returned the nod. "Yeah. It is."

#

"You're here." There was a resemblance between Ronald and Jacob. At least as much of one as there had been between Michael and his own father. Some tiny part of him wanted to feel guilt at the lesson he was hammering into Jacob. A man couldn't control who or what his father was. Except it wasn't really his father Jacob needed to open his eyes too. The asshole was smiling. "I knew a real squad would blow through just fine. Sorry if the mechs scuffed your pads." The man glanced at them, the smile fading uncertainly as Michael just walked past him. This wasn't his fight. "I'll get you something nice when we get back to Alliance space. I've got to have some back-pay coming."

"What about your crew, Acting Captain?" Jacob folded his arms.

"Total loss." There was even smugness in the man's voice. "The toxic food turned them wild. They propped me up here in some kind of ritual behavior. Waiting for a chance to signal has been hell."

"That the best you can do?" Jacob's own voice held snarl.

"You let all your people talk back like that..." Ronald frowned before glancing at Michael. "Uh..." The man shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Doesn't matter." Michael turned to face him. "You're running a very questionable setup here, Captain. Explain."

"Of course." The man tried to sound soothing. Like he was giving a practiced speech. "It was chaos after the crash, and the crew never really accepted me as captain. They rebelled and trapped us here. Once they started eating toxic food, I couldn't control them, and I couldn't get to the beacon."

"Just stop." Jacob took a step forward. "We know what you did to your crew. Why let this go ten years?"

"Who the hell are you?" Ronald turned to face Jacob.

"Lieutenant Jacob Taylor." Jacob met his father's eyes.

"Jacob?" Ronald recoiled. "My Jacob?"

"Not who you expected, Captain?" Michael leaned against the railing.

Ronald seemed to deflate. "I was hoping to not have to explain this to him. Or anyone, really." He turned back to Jacob. "You have to understand. This isn't me. The realities of command, they change you. I wasn't ready for that. I made sure you were taught right. Before I left. I had hoped to leave it at that."

"We aren't biting, Captain. At some point, you chose to do this to your crew." Michael straightened to his full height. This was one truth of which he was confident. However big an asshole he'd been, whatever decisions he'd made... He'd never been careless with the lives of his crew. "You."

"What was that moment?" Jacob got right into his father's face. Michael touched Jack's arm, and she gave him a tiny nod. It was clear she was pissed and wanted to tear the guy apart, but this was Jacob's fight. "I want to know that there was an actual reason."

Men were coming up the beach. Time was running out. Ronald still kept trying anyway. Men like him always had excuses for why it wasn't their fault. Why nothing they did was wrong. "There was resistance to the plan. Mutiny. We had to take a hard line to keep order. And things settled down. As the decay set in, we made sure the crew were comfortable. Some even seemed happier. Ignorance is bliss, right? And they were grateful for guidance, like an instinct. Pure authority was..." The man turned away from their eyes. "Easy. At first. Months in, the effect lowered inhibitions. They got territorial. Rank, protocol - they couldn't understand. We had to establish dominance. After a while the perks seemed..." Ronald shrugged. "Normal."

More were coming. Michael watched them approach. "That's it?" Jacob stepped back in disgust. "You created a harem and played king. Ten years in a juvenile fantasy?"

"I can't point to where it all went wrong. But when the beacon was ready, revealing what had happened didn't seem like a good idea." The man kept talking, justifying.

"There's no way I'm letting this slide, Taylor." Michael turned his attention back to the arguing men, gesturing for Garrus and Jack to keep an eye on the approaching hunters. "A price will be paid."

"How much?" Jacob drew his gun. "What kind of math can balance these lives? His life isn't worth pulling the damned trigger." A conclusion Michael had reached himself. "I don't know who you are. Because you're not any father I remember."

Then again... Michael shrugged. "I'm pretty sure we can spare the ammo."

"Yeah, you're right." Jacob nodded. Then he took out an extra side arm and removed most of the ammo block. "But I'm not taking the shot." He threw the gun at his father's feet. "My father owned his mistakes. He was a different man. A good man."

"Half charged?" Ronald picked up the gun. "You've seen the crazy ones. This won't stop them."

Jacob turned and started walking. He didn't look back. "It's not for them, Dad."

#

"Alliance ships are inbound to pick up survivors, Commander." Joker's voice came over the comm. "We can be long gone by the time they get here."

"They get as much as a glimpse, and you're restricted to decaf."

"Great. May as well serve it in the airlock." He could almost hear Joker rolling his eyes. "Hard ass."

Michael headed for the communicator. There were some answers he still needed. He apparently wasn't the only one. "What do you mean, it wasn't you?" Jacob was glaring again.

Tim's voice responded. "Jacob, if I had leaked the information about the Gernsback, I would be smiling at your resolution of the situation." Tim leaned back. "I am not smiling." No. There were a lot of conclusions down there that Tim would be unhappy about Jacob realizing.

"Really?" Michael stepped to Jacob's side. "Because given the result, it feels like something you'd have your hands in."

A glare answered him. "You know very little about me, Shepard. Don't presume to understand my intentions." The man tapped out a cigarette. "Cerberus is ultimately about humanity. My people are valuable to me."

How many little side missions had they run that proved otherwise? Most of Cerberus's body count was its own bodies. "Fine." Jacob shrugged. "You didn't forward it. So, who did?"

"I did." He did not start at the sound of Miranda's voice coming from behind them, no matter what any recordings might say. Tim, however, did.

"Was this supposed to be a favor?" Michael turned to glance at her. "Or did you just want to see him squirm?"

"What he did with it was his own business." Miranda put a hand on her hip. Then she focused her gaze on Jacob. "There was a time when it mattered to you. Sending this along seemed like keeping an old promise. I keep my promises."

"Miranda..." Tim's voice was definitely annoyed. Good. "We'll discuss your liberal interpretation of security protocol in private. Shepard. Jacob." The Ignorant Milquetoast shut down the connection.

Miranda walked away. Jacob stared down at the floor. It was possible, just slightly, that he had been a tiny bit too hard on the man. Jacob wasn't Miranda, maybe he hadn't needed the lesson driven home via tactical nuke to the head. "You had no idea Miranda was behind this?"

"No." Jacob exhaled. "She's got a good memory. Selective, but good. I hadn't thought about those days in a long time. Can't figure out what promise she meant though. Not really sure I want to know. She..." He gave Michael an odd look. "Requires a better man than I."

If the man was implying what he thought Jacob was implying, Michael was going to cycle him out an airlock. "You good with this, Jacob?"

"It's all bull, Shepard. Captain Taylor's body has some catching up to do, but the man died a long time ago. I've already dealt with that." He took a deep breath. "I guess he was a good enough father even he can't screw up what he taught me."

"No." Michael nodded. "But others have certainly tried."

"I really..." Jacob took another deep breath. "Really want to punch you in the face right now, Shepard."

"Admiral Hackett makes a point to kick my ass at least once a year." Michael shrugged. "Starting to figure out why." He gestured at the door. "We can go a few rounds if you need."

"I..." Jacob blinked. Then he nodded. "Yeah. I'd appreciate that."