"Hello?! Is anyone out there?! I demand to know why you are keeping me in here?!"
Corin was in a pitch-black room tied to a chair. It felt like he had been in there for at least an hour since he woke up. The last thing he remembered was going to his office, running into a suspicious woman and triggering the alarm. After that it all went black. The sound of engines was the hint he needed to figure out where he was. He had to be on a ship.
Suddenly lights turned on and Corin realized he was in some kind of a cargo hold. Some of the crates in the cargo hold had the logo of the Earth System's Alliance. He concluded that he was on an Alliance ship. He was about to call out again when the door opened and a man walked into the room. The man had a datapad in his hand. Corin didn't have to think long to realize who it was.
"Captain Shepard," he said, "I might have guessed that you would be the one shooting up my warehouse."
"Nice to meet you too Corin," Shepard said, "for the record I didn't want to shoot up your warehouse but it got complicated when you set off the alarm."
"What do you want from me?"
"I know that you sold some merchandise to a batarian named Ka'hairal Balak. I broke into your warehouse to find out what you sold him."
"I'm a merchant. Selling merchandise is what I do and what I sell and who to is none of your business."
"It is my business when your client is a terrorist. Whatever Balak bought from you I don't think he has good intentions for it."
"What my clients decide to do with my merchandise is not my concern."
Shepard held up the datapad and tapped a few buttons. He found the transaction records that he was looking for and held the datapad up to Corin's face.
"Maybe not," he said, "but the fact that your merchandise includes some items that are illegal for distribution should be a concern of yours. According to the records we got from your terminal, you sold Balak an electromagnetic pulse bomb. Those are in fact illegal and in the hands of someone like Balak could lead to a lot of people dying. The only thing that the records don't tell me is where you sent the bomb."
"Then I guess you will never know," Corin said, "because I'm not telling you a thing. I know you Alliance types. You're all a bunch of soft hearted, lousy excuse for soldiers who follow all the laws even if they keep you from putting criminals away."
A sly smile spread across Shepard's face. This was exactly what he was hoping Corin would say. Shepard started walking to the back of Corin's chair.
"Actually Corin," Shepard said, "I'm not acting on behalf of the Alliance. I'm actually working this case as a Council Spectre."
Corin was now starting to get a little nervous. Everyone in the galaxy knew that the Council gave the Spectres complete leeway to do what they felt was necessary to accomplish their missions. Some stories told of Spectres torturing criminals, destroying colonies and even murdering civilians. Would Shepard resort to similar tactics to get the information he wanted?
"You know Corin," Shepard continued, "I think it's about time for me to take out the trash."
Shepard began pushing Corin's chair towards the garbage chute at the back of the room. Once they reached the chute, he tilted Corin forward so that Corin's head was angled down into the chute. Corin was protesting the whole time.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!' he screamed. "I KNOW MY RIGHTS! THIS IS ILLEGAL! YOU'RE ABUSING A SUSPECT!"
"Maybe you didn't hear what I said," Shepard said, "I'm a Council Spectre. I can conduct my investigation however I want. If it leaves a body count, it doesn't matter. Do you want to be a part of that count? TELL ME WHERE THE BOMB WAS SENT!
"You…you won't kill me," Corin stuttered.
"Strike one," Shepard said as he cut one of the ropes holding Corin to the chair, "on the third strike you won't have any rope to keep you from falling down the chute."
"OKAY!" Corin screamed. "Okay. Balak had me send the bomb to Khar'shan, the batarian homeworld."
"Did he tell you what he was planning to do with the bomb?"
"I don't know. I already told you I don't care what my customers do with my products."
"Strike two," Shepard said as he cut another rope. Corin was now dangling in his chair with the one strand of rope barely keeping him from falling down the chute.
"I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW!" Corin screamed, practically begging. "DON'T LET ME FALL! PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU!"
"THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE CORIN! WHAT IS BALAK GOING TO DO WITH THE BOMB?!"
"ALL RIGHT I'LL TALK! He's going to use it to disable security at the capitol city. From there he's going to launch an assault on the presidential palace and assassinate Grothan Pazness."
Shepard knew that name. Grothan Pazness was originally a governor of a batarian colony on Camala. He was an outspoken critic against the Alliance believing that they were responsible for the destruction of batarian comm. buoys when in fact the Reapers destroyed them. After Shepard and the Normandy rescued him from his world, he underwent a dramatic conversion. For the remainder of the Reaper War, he released daily extranet videos urging his fellow batarians to embrace all Citadel races as comrades in arms. When the war was over and Balak had been deposed, Pazness agreed to become the new Supreme Leader of the Batarian Hegemony. His actions were the main force behind the batarians joining the Council and being welcomed back into the galactic community.
Shepard quickly pulled Corin's chair back and threw him to other side of the room. When the chair stopped moving, all Corin could do was sit in the chair panting and shaking. Shepard also thought that he heard Corin muttering "you're crazy" over and over. He didn't care. The important thing was he got all the information he needed to take Balak down. Shepard walked out of the cargo hold leaving Corin to continue muttering. Ashley was waiting for him just outside. She had a small smile on her face but Shepard couldn't help but get the feeling that she was a bit concerned about something.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she replied, "but honestly you scared me a little bit there. If I didn't know you better I would have thought you were going to throw him down the chute.
"Well then I guess it's a good thing you do know me better. I may be a Spectre but unlike some of our counterparts I need a better reason other than the fact a suspect is a scumbag before I decide to kill them."
Ashley's smile grew, "you're right. I'm sorry. You still are a true hero-man."
"Isn't that what you love about me?"
Ashley wrapped her arms around Shepard's neck, "that among other things."
Shepard leaned in to kiss Ashley but then stopped.
"What?" Ashley asked.
"Sorry Ash," Shepard replied, "but this is going to have to wait. Now that we know what Balak is up to we need to get Khar'shan."
"Joker has already plotted a course and Traynor is trying to get through to the presidential palace to warn them about Balak's plan."
"Let's just pray we're not too late. I'm going to tell Kasumi to get her gear together and meet us in the shuttle bay."
The smile on Ashley's face disappeared.
"What's wrong?" Shepard asked.
"I'm worried about her. I know we need her help but what if she starts seeing things while we're down there."
"She'll be fine. You and I will have her back. After the mission is over though, I don't know. Unfortunately we can't worry about that right now. We need to focus on saving Pazness first. I'll see you in the shuttle bay."
Within a few hours, the Kodiak had entered Khar'shan's atmosphere and was speeding towards the capitol city. Shepard was in the co-pilots seat with Cortez next to him. Ashley and Kasumi were sitting in the passenger compartment. Nobody had said a word since the shuttle left the Normandy. Everyone on board was worried to talk to Kasumi who sat in her seat rocking back and forth. She may have now known that seeing Keiji was an illusion but the possibility that she might see him again was keeping her on edge. Suddenly everyone on the shuttle rocked towards the front when it came to a sudden stop.
"Why are we stopping Lieutenant?" Shepard asked Cortez.
"We're at the minimum safe distance from the bomb," Cortez replied, "if I bring the Kodiak any closer and the bomb goes off, I won't be able to keep her airborne."
Shepard understood what Cortez said but he didn't like it. He sat back in his chair and started thinking. He had heard from Traynor that she had been unable to reach the presidential palace to warn them about the attack. The only thing Shepard could think of that made sense was that the terrorists were jamming communications. That meant they were about to launch or had already launched the attack. If they waited for the bomb to go off, there was no telling how long they had afterwards to stop Balak before he killed Pazness. There was only one option and it was a risky one. Then again, risky options were what Shepard excelled at.
"We have to get closer," Shepard said.
Everyone in the shuttle looked towards Shepard.
"But Captain," Cortez started to say.
"If we wait for the bomb to go off, Pazness will be dead before we get to the palace. Cortez I remember you landed this shuttle in one piece after being struck by the Leviathan's pulse…twice. Not only that but you managed to survive getting shot down by a harvester during the Battle for Earth. I know you and I know you are capable of landing this bird safely even if the pulse hits us. We may have to go the rest of the way on foot but at least we would be closer to the palace."
Cortez looked down and away from Shepard giving it some thought. Ashley and Kasumi looked at each other unsure of who they should side with. Finally Cortez looked back up at his controls with a new look of determination.
"Let's do it," he said.
Shepard turned back towards the passenger compartment, "you better buckle up back there. If we go down it's going to be rough."
Ashley and Kasumi strapped into their seats just as Cortez launched the Kodiak full speed towards the palace. As the shuttle flew on, Shepard was silently chanting "come on" over and over praying that they would get to the palace before the bomb detonated. He was starting to breathe a little easier once he had a visual of the palace. Then it happened.
The first thing Shepard saw was bright flash of light coming from the palace. It faded quickly but Shepard knew what he saw. The bomb had detonated. Then the shuttle shook violently as the systems shut down. Shepard could see that the palace was still fast approaching. He turned to Cortez who gave him a quick nod. That gave Shepard all the confidence he needed. Cortez knew that he was going to get them there. Shepard braced himself for impact.
The shuttle landed on the roof of the palace like a twenty-first century airplane. Unfortunately because it didn't have the landing gear that they did, it slid uncontrollably across the roof. As it slid, Shepard noticed that Cortez was starting to panic. Shepard looked ahead and realized why. The roof was not long enough to allow the shuttle to come to a stop before falling off. Shepard ordered everyone to abandon ship. One by one they jumped off the shuttle with Shepard being the last to jump. The shuttle fell off the roof shortly afterwards crashing into some trees below. Once everyone got back on their feet, they raised their weapons and did a quick survey for any reaction to the crash.
"Well if they didn't know we were coming before I'm sure that crash got their attention," Ashley said.
"Right but at least that buys us time to find Pazness," Shepard said.
"How do you figure that?" Kasumi asked.
"I know Balak. He'll use Pazness as a hostage to buy time to work out an escape plan."
"That's how he got away from us last time," Ashley said.
"And we're not going to let him do it again. Lieutenant, radio the Normandy and get us some backup down here."
"You got it Captain," Cortez replied, "I'll wait here on the roof for them. Plus if the terrorists want to meet an escape vehicle up here I can ambush them."
"Good. Williams, Kasumi, let's move. We've got a politician to save."
"Aye-aye skipper," Ashley said.
"Right behind you Shep," Kasumi said.
The trio headed for the roof access hatch and climbed down into the palace.