"Aw, come on, LT., you've got to admit that was the sweetest shot you've ever seen," Ashley said, practically crowing. She held her hands up to mimic holding a rifle and tracking a target. "Fifteen hundred metres and a fast-moving target. Bam!" She clapped her hands together for emphasis. "One geth, lying on the ground." The gunnery chief grinned, spotting Shepard. "It was brilliant, ma'am."

Shepard waved for her people to come in and sit down. She raised an eyebrow shrugged at the chief. "Don't congratulate me until you know what I was aiming at." A sardonic curl of her lip met Garrus's entrance to the comm room. "I might have been trying to take down ol' Crazy Legs over there for making me chase him across another colony."

Garrus sat, leaned back and rested a ankle on the opposite knee. "Someone had to try to catch it, Captain, and I did."

A sharp laugh cut from her lips as Shepard's eyebrows climbed toward her hairline. "Because Ingrid took out half its chest and it fell at your feet. I call that tripping over it and falling on your face, not catching it." She chuckled. "But, really, sincerely . . .." She clasped her hands over her heart. "Well done on that catch, C-Sec."

A deep, formal nod answered that. "Thank you." He coughed modestly as the others applauded, then stood and bowed. "No really, it was nothing. Right place, right time. Any of you could have done it." He coughed again. "If you were me."

Laughing despite herself, Shepard waved everyone into their chairs. "Okay, everyone sit." She waited until they did. "So, an exciting day on Eden Prime once again."

"What do you plan on doing with the geth?" Nihlus asked, sitting to her left. "It's dangerous to have on board."

"Very dangerous," Tali said from her spot, giving an exaggerated nod. "If the geth inside that platform are still active, it could be self-repairing right now."

Dangerous, yes. An icy tingle thrummed in the center of Shepard's back. The geth could certainly prove dangerous, but she didn't feel danger. She felt . . . excitement. Every nerve sang, her heart beating fast and strong. "Actually, I'm sort of banking on the self-repair. I have no idea how to repair a geth, and I want to talk to it. It acted very strangely. It didn't even draw its weapon on us, it just ran. And it knew who I was," Shepard replied.

Despite a great many protests from her team, something had told her to bring it along. A long history of trusting her gut and rarely being let down told her that this geth might be the key to cracking everything wide open.

Looking to Tali, Shepard asked, "Your people created and worked with the geth for some time before the war, so the geth must have talked before this one, right?"

Tali nodded. "Yes, they could speak, they just haven't chosen to speak to anyone since the exile. I don't know what to make of this one knowing your name, or of the fact it was on its own. The geth are networked intelligences, they get smarter the more of them there are. Platforms usually have a couple hundred programs running within them. Not enough for independent action and intelligence to the level of recognizing and speaking to an enemy. Maybe that's why it ran rather than trying to fight."

"Well, I'm sure it called my name because I am one of the people leading the fight to stop them and Saren. If Nihlus had been there, it probably would have said his name." She shrugged, but everything Tali said just made the excitement grow. They might have bagged themselves a command and control unit . . .. She forced herself to calm down. "You're right though, the whole thing is weird. Why would one geth go back to Eden Prime? It had a ship, so it wasn't just left behind." Leaning forward, elbows balanced on her knees, Shepard raked her hands through her hair a couple of times, then steepled her fingers.

"I say we treat it like a prisoner of war," Ashley said. "It's secure in the airlock behind kinetic barriers. It can't get into any of our systems, can it?"

Tali shook her head. "No, I put up extra firewalls. If it tries to hack the Normandy, alarms will go off so we can stop it. Trying to question will prove impossible, Captain. It doesn't feel pain or fear. If you push it, it will just wipe its memory, if being shot hasn't caused the memory core to self-destruct already."

"Even with a warning, I don't like our odds of being able to outhack a geth," Shepard muttered. She'd forgotten that geth memory cores self-destructed. Damn it. Maybe she'd lost her mind bringing the thing back with them after all.

Ashley shrugged. "If it wakes up or activates or whatever, we see if we can get it talking, get some intel. If we can't, then we take it apart, learn what makes them tick. We could use the materials for weapon testing." The chief turned a confused frown to Shepard. "Simple, right?"

Shepard shook her head, a sick twist forming in her gut. "If it's functional, then yes, it's a prisoner of war, with all the rights of any sapient being." She held up a finger to forestall several objections. "Sapient being, people. I hate what it stands for as much as anyone, but I can no more torture it or take it apart than I could a turian or volus prisoner." She looked to Nihlus. "See if we can talk to it, if not, turn it over to the authorities?"

He nodded. "It could have valuable intel, but I don't know what we could offer or threaten to force a geth to talk. I doubt it will cooperate. It attacked an Alliance colony, so we turn it over to Anderson, let him deal with the ethics of a geth POW. Bare minimum, it and its ship should give the Alliance some idea of how best to fight them."

"Okay, so the small matter of our guest is settled for now. On to Tali and her runaway father." Shepard smiled at the quarian. "What did you learn?"

"Father left a highly encrypted message for me," Tali reported. "He left for Omega thirty hours ago. He has information that the Blood Pack has taken over grabbing quarian hostages for Saren. They move them through the station and then on to wherever Saren is keeping them. Father is hoping to follow their trail." Tali shrugged. "I don't know what he thinks he can do against the Blood Pack all alone."

"Well, when we catch up with him, you can ground him for a year after an extremely lengthy lecture about making you worry." A long sigh and Shepard shook her head. "Anyone feel like we've done little but chase our tails?"

"Need two tails to do this much chasing," Kaidan agreed from her right.

"Okay, anything else, Tali? Did he give you a frequency to contact him? Anything so that we can know he's still going to be on Omega when we get there, because I'm not wasting another couple of days just to discover that he's moved on." Never one to find sitting still easy, Shepard jumped up, pacing the length of the room. Why couldn't they find just one piece of information to bring everything together? Or at least put them on a trail that led somewhere?

A corner piece. All we need is a damned corner piece.

"Yes, Captain. He gave me his comm channel, but just to send single sentence messages. He's afraid of them being tracked." Tali's entire posture collapsed a little. "I'm sorry, Captain. He's just trying to find our people."

Shepard strode over and laid a hand on the youngster's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. He's a pain in the butt, but hopefully a helpful one when we manage to round him up." She smiled. "Send a message to let him know when we'll be arriving on Omega. I'm sure he won't arrange a meeting or anything, but if he knows when we're arriving, he can find us."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Okay, raiders of the lost protheans, how did your field trip go?" Shepard spun to face the two asari who looked at one another as if establishing who would speak first, then began talking at a hundred kilometres an hour at the same time. She let them go for a few seconds, then held up her hands. "Whoa. Whoa, back it up, ladies. I can't understand a word. Liara, how about you start us off?" She returned to her chair.

The archeologist practically glowed with excitement as she perched on the edge of her chair. "Yes, Captain. Sovereign landing on Eden Prime caused a cave-in quite a distance away from the main dig site. When colonial authorities sent people to investigate what they thought was just a sinkhole, they discovered a huge, underground Prothean base."

"It's filled with stasis pods, Shepard," Shiala said, taking over. "It looks like a last resort attempt to save some of them from extinction: place a couple million people into stasis, hidden away until the Reapers went away, then come out and start everything over again. Only thing was . . .."

Liara bounced. "They didn't manage to keep it a secret. There is evidence of intense fighting inside the entrances and then further in. Also, extensive bombing damage. The scientists at the site say a neutron bombardment."

"So, no one survived?" Shepard asked, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

"There was no power to most of the facility. One tiny sector still has power, but it's unexcavated." Liara shrugged. "If anyone survived, it's in there."

"How about intact corpses, mummies, any clues at all?" A teasing grin tugged at one corner of her mouth as both asari gave her an exasperated glare at the mention of mummies.

Shiala pulled a smooth piece of metal like a flattened cylinder from a crate at her feet. About the size of her hand, the object looked to be the same metal as the beacon, and had a similar glowing stripe up the side. "Almost all of the pods had one of these inside. They appear to be some sort of personal data storage. Although I can't say for sure, I think it likely that the Protheans were biotic, and somehow imprinted information on these devices. We thought maybe with our biotics and my knowledge of the cypher, we might be able to glean some data off them."

"I'd like . . .." Liara paused, levelling an earnest stare on the captain. "We'd like to stay and help the dig team, ma'am."

Shepard nodded, but pressed her lips together, letting out a sigh of regret. "I'm sorry, but until we track down your mother and Saren, it's safer for you to remain on board. Shiala, you're free to remain on Eden Prime if you wish, but I'd like to request that you consider staying and assisting Liara in her work as we continue."

"Of course, Shepard. I'd be pleased to." The asari tilted her head in a gracious nod.

"Excellent, thank you." Shepard looked around the room at her people. "Is there anything else?"

No one spoke up.

"All right, our next stop is Omega. Two ground teams. Sparky, Crazy Legs, and Tali with me. Williams, Wrex, and Jenkins with Spectre Kryik." Looking up even though she didn't need to, Shepard included Normandy's pilot in the conversation. "When do we arrive at Omega, Joker?"

"Approximately 0630, Captain. And, can someone come get this geth out of the airlock? It's giving me the willies."

"Sorry, Joker, you're just going to have to live with it for a little while. The airlock is the only secure lockup on the ship." Looking over the rest of her team, Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Anything else?" When no one replied, she nodded. "Williams and C-Sec, armour up and bring pistols. Tali, come armed with your engineering skills and meet us at the airlock in twenty. Dismissed."

Nihlus stayed behind when everyone else filed out. After staring at her for a few minutes, his mandibles fluttered and rose a little. "It was a very impressive shot." He chuckled and stood. "Providing, of course, you weren't aiming for Vakarian."

Shepard just tilted her head and headed for the door. "So, are you as weirded out by the talking geth as I am?"

"It really doesn't make any sense for a geth to go back. Unless they left something behind, unless something Saren needed was still there. " Nihlus gave a bobbing shrug, seeming as frustrated with guessing as she was. "Too many geth or a return of Sovereign would be too visible. Maybe he thought one geth could get in and out without being caught."

"Well, let's find out and hopefully be able to stop guessing at everything." She headed down to the crew level, slipping into her second skin with the ease of over a decade of practice while her mind puzzled over the geth.

"So, Shepard," Nihlus said, in the tone that made her wince every time. "I'm sorry about last night. It seems no matter what move I make, it's always thickheaded."

Sighing, she turned to face him. "Nihlus, relax. Stop trying so hard. You're here. I'm here. You care about me, and even though I do have to wonder why . . ." She softened the teasing with a crooked smile. ". . . I care about you." She gave his cheek a gentle slap. "Relax."

He bobbed his head. "I used to be so much more . . . sane."

Snorting a laugh, Shepard gestured toward the elevator. "Yeah, well, it's overrated. Come on, let's go wade into the insanity by trying to activate a geth." She watched him out of the corner of her eye as they made their way up through the ship, a warmth spreading through her. Most badass operative in the galaxy or not, when it came to personal stuff, he ended up acting like just as big a dope as everyone else.

When they arrived at the airlock, the other three stood waiting. Stepping up, she unlocked and palmed the control. When the door slid open, the geth still sat, leaning up against the wall, a puppet with its strings cut.

"All right people, be prepared for pretty much anything." She pressed a supportive hand between Tali's shoulder blades, guiding the young quarian into the small space. "You going to be okay, Tali?"

She nodded. "Fine, Captain. It's just a little like coming face to face with the monster under your bed only to find out it needs medical help."

A warm chuckle greeted that image. "Maybe it'll be like the fable of the Lion and the Mouse. The mouse comes upon a lion with a thorn in its paw and helps, even though the lion could have eaten him. Thankful for the help, the lion becomes the mouse's best friend."

"I'm thinking more Scorpion and the Frog here, ma -" Ashley muttered.

Shepard cut her off with a knife-edged glare. "We're out here to find the better nature in everyone, Chief. That includes ourselves. As long as you stay on your toes, a little optimism is a good thing. Assuming the worst frequently does quite a lot of harm." Turning back to the geth, Shepard crouched down and activated her omnitool.

"I brought some tools I hoped might be useful," Tali said, rolling out a soft case of precision instruments. She activated her omnitool as well and the two set to work.

"It doesn't look all that bad," Shepard said. "It just looks like Ingrid hit a power node and that sent a surge along these conduits." She shook her head and pulled out the power node and scanned it.

Two hours later, Ashley yawned and slid down to sit in the doorway, her pistol in her lap. "Anyone going to declare time of death?"

"You two have to be ready to admit defeat," Nihlus called, craning his neck around the cockpit divider.

Shepard tossed a length of burned out wire at his head. "You're both just sitting there twiddling your thumbs. If you're so damned bored, I'm sure Joker could find you some work vacuuming out the consoles in the bridge. Or you could go into the crawlspace here and clean out the spiderwebs."

Ash cocked an eyebrow. "Spiderwebs? Really, Skipper? Not snipe nests?"

Shepard replaced the wiring. "Spiders are always getting on board in supply crates. They crawl through everything cannibalizing one another. I ordered real coffee from Earth one trip when I was an N6, broke open the crate found a huge hairy one the size of my hand. Sent everyone in the galley screaming." Shepard bit down on her lip as she saw Ash glancing down at the grate to the crawl space. At the same time, she noticed that Tali had stopped working.

"What's the problem, Tali?" She pivoted on her toes, her heel bumping a cluster of wires. The quarian let out a little shriek and jumped away from the movement.

"I don't like spiders," she squeaked.

"Don't worry," Garrus spoke up from where he leaned against the wall playing with one of the geth's damaged power nodes. "Air can't get in your suit, let alone a spider."

"Inside my suit?" Tali scratched her arm. "I never said anything about them getting inside my suit." She slapped her thigh.

"Okay," Shepard sighed. "There are no spiders. Not a single spider to be found. I made them up."

"I killed one in here this morning," Joker called out from the bridge. Tali gasped and scratched at her neck.

"Kill at least two a day in the cargo bay," Garrus said, still not really paying attention to the conversation. At least not enough to see Tali ramping up to race screaming out the airlock into spider-free space.

Shepard spun around to glare up at him, but it took him a minute to realize she was shooting him with the laser eyes of doom.

"What?" He passed her the node. "I think this one's working."

Shepard replaced it inside the geth's chest cavity. "We're just about done here, Tali. I have big feet for someone my size, I'll crush em before they get to you. Ignore these other cretins, and prepare to amaze them with our geth repair skills."

Ten minutes later, Shepard stood and stepped back. "Okay, let's see how we did. Grab your tools and stuff there, Tali, and step out into the bridge for a minute." Using her omnitool, Shepard sent a test surge of energy through the power nodes. Everything seemed to hold.

"Well, no smoke, and no explosions large or small," she said after a couple seconds. "All good signs. Let's see if it just needs a bit of a jump start."

"Sure, Shepard," Joker called back. "Just let me pop the hood and get the jumper cables out of the trunk."

"You do that. I can think of a couple places to hook them up."

"Oh, ow . . . cold, Shepard. Cold."

A crooked grin on her face, Shepard sent a small surge through the geth. Its fingers and toes twitched a bit, but no remarkable changes. Setting it a little higher, she nudged Ashley with a toe. "Chief, at least try to look like you believe in our geth repair skills, and be ready."

"Yes, ma'am." Ash climbed up off the floor, leaping into an action stance, her pistol trained on the inert geth. "Ready, ma'am." She flipped off the safety.

Shepard sighed. "Nice. Don't pull anything trying to hold that pose." Sending the burst of energy through the geth's components, Shepard frowned and tilted her head. "I wonder why, after all this time, the geth still build their platforms to look so quarian."

The flashlight that made up the geth's head sputtered and then began to glow, dim at first, but gradually brighter and brighter. The chattering, mechanical sound Shepard recognized from the other geth rattled through the space, and as quickly as she could have hoped for, four guns homed in on its head.

"It is the form the creators gave us," said a voice that sounded male but with a machine warble chattering underneath. "Why would we wish to change it other than to optimize utility?" The geth flexed its hands, arms, feet then legs. "Shepard-Captain, you and Creator Tali'Zorah restored this mobile platform's functionality, yet you initially rendered it non-functional" Unfolding slowly, either to not alarm anyone or because of remaining only partially operational, the geth pushed itself to its feet.

"Yes, I shot you. You're on board my ship." Shepard backed up a couple of steps. "Were you alone on Eden Prime or part of a larger contingent?"

"This mobile platform is currently the only geth unit functioning beyond the Perseus Veil." The flaps on its head moved, as if mimicking facial expressions.

"Bullshit," Ashley said, her voice a low growl.

Shepard glanced over her shoulder. "Chief, as much as I understand your anger, that'll be the last we hear from you. If you can't comply with that order, call Alenko and have him relieve you." Keeping her voice low and soft, Shepard laced it with enough edge to cut.

"Yes, ma'am, understood, ma'am." The chief squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.

Her eyes returning to the geth's . . . face, Shepard focused on what the machine had told her. "How can you be the only geth beyond the veil when we've fought hundreds of you, and know there are hundreds, possibly thousands, more allied with Saren and Sovereign?" She cocked a hip, turning away a little to seem less confrontational, her brow furrowing as the geth imitated her movement.

"You fought heretics. The Old Machines approached the geth, seeking allies. They offered the geth our future, we rejected their offer. The geth build our own future. The heretics accepted the Old Machine's technology. This acceptance formed a schism within the geth."

Shepard frowned, pacing toward the exterior hatch a couple of steps, then back. "Okay. The Old Machines are the Reapers? Sovereign?" Her heart began to race again, the excitement returning.

"Affirmative. Reaper is a name given to the Old Machines by the Protheans. Sovereign is a title given to the Old Machine, Nazara, by Saren Arterius and the heretics. They view Nazara as a supreme ruler." The flashlight followed her, apparently not distracted or disturbed by the others and their weapons.

"You said my name on Eden Prime. How do you know who I am?" She stopped in front of the geth and stood at parade rest, her mind reeling. A schism in the geth, some following Saren, some not. A massive possibility began to unfurl in the back corner of her mind, and it was all she could do to keep her hands from shaking.

"The geth observe organics through unsecured broadcasts, transmissions, and the extranet. After the attack on Eden Prime, the geth learned of your opposition to the Old Machines and heretics. When you disappeared, the geth sent this platform out to determine if you continued to oppose the Old Machines regardless of the council's objections. Contact with Shepard-Captain or Kryik-Spectre was a foreseen possibility." A three-fingered hand reached up to the giant hole in its chest. "As was confrontation."

"Do you plan to attack us?" Shepard asked, carving straight through to the wishbone.

"No."

"What about the rest of the geth? Why did they send you?" Eyes pressed closed for a heartbeat, Shepard prayed to hear the answer she hoped for. Opening them again, she waited, trembling inside her skin.

"The geth oppose the Old Machines. The geth oppose the heretics. Shepard-Captain opposes the Old Machines. Shepard-Captain opposes the heretics. Cooperation furthers mutual goals." It shifted a little from foot to foot, the flaps on its head emoting considerably more than its words.

It took all of Shepard's willpower not to hoot. She'd rarely been so glad to shoot someone and not kill him . . . it. "The geth want to help us with Saren, Sovereign, and the heretics?"

"Yes. The heretics made their decision to ally themselves with the Old Machines based on inaccurate data." The geth gave a helpless little shrug, very human. Studied broadcasts indeed. "Presented with the Old Machines' true plans, the geth calculate the heretics will see the error in their logic and return to the geth."

"But you and these Old Machines are both machine races," Nihlus said, stepped up beside Shepard. "Why would you side with organics against them?"

Again with the little shrug that made its hands flip loosely at the end of its arms. "The geth lie outside the Old Machines' plans. They view the geth as primitive, of limited utility. Once the heretics cease to be of use, they will be exterminated."

"Well, at the least, it strips Saren of everything but his Reaper," Garrus said.

"Are we going to trust this geth after they did to my people?" Tali asked, pushing past Ashley. "They slaughtered my people nearly to extinction."

"The geth defended themselves after the creators attacked them," the geth said evenly. "The geth did not seek confrontation then, they do not seek it now."

"Okay, we aren't going to solve this issue in a twenty minute discussion in the airlock. Can we agree to keep our guest under guard while we get to know one another a little better?" Shepard looked to Tali. "Your people want your homeworld back. What if we could do that without blood-shed? Wouldn't that be worth a little trust?"

Tali grumbled but nodded. "As long as it's under guard."

Shepard pressed a comforting hand on the quarian's shoulder as she looked up at Nihlus, seeking his approval. When he nodded, she turned to the geth. "Is that acceptable?"

The two flaps above its flashlight raised and lowered a couple of times. "It is."

"Well then, what should we call you? Do you have an designation?" Shepard folded her arms, a smile creeping back across her face every time she wiped it away.

"We are geth," it said, simply. "There are currently 1183 programs active within this platform."

"Okay, but it's going to get a little confusing just yelling 'Geth', so we need to designate your platform with some sort of name." Shepard chuckled. It was a little like talking to a six-year-old. A very smart, well-spoken, literal-minded six-year-old.

Ashley grumbled and shifted restlessly by the door, looking to Shepard as though she were on the verge of filling the geth platform with bullets. "Gospel of Luke 8:30: 'And Jesus asked him, saying, "What is thy name?" And he said, "Legion" because many devils were entered into him.'"

Shepard tried not to shudder and shot a glare at the chief. "I can't speak definitively for geth, but pretty sure calling someone a pile of devils isn't the best way to start off a cooperative venture, Williams. Return to your station and remain there until I relieve you."

The geth cocked his head. "Also Christian Bible, Gospel of Mark contains reference to Legion with only implied pejorative. We accept this as a fitting metaphor. We are Legion, a terminal of the geth. We will integrate into Normandy."

Shepard looked to Nihlus. "Your thoughts?"

"I can't quite believe I'm behind this, but if the geth can help, and Saren loses his shock troops . . .. We can't turn that down." He shook his head as he met her gaze. "However, I'm going to have to agree that we're belly deep in the insanity now, Shepard."

She nodded and turned toward the door. "We'll make sure it's always under guard, but hell yeah, if there's a chance that we can kick the heretic support out from under Saren, we've got to take it." She stepped out and waved to Legion. "Come on, I'll show you to your assigned area. You need to stay there and not wander the ship. Once people get a little more used to you being aboard, we can see about letting move around more."

"Acceptable. We will need to complete repairs." It gestured to the hole in its chest.

Shepard walked to Legion's right, while Tali hurried ahead, and Nihlus and Garrus picked up drag. "That's fine, feel free to use what you can find."

She set the geth up across from Alenko on the crew deck. It would no doubt make for some indigestion until the crew got used to it, but better out where it wasn't some dark secret to speculate about. After making sure that the guards knew their limits, which basically amounted to, 'if it starts hurting people, kill it, otherwise, call for Shepard', she retreated to her quarters, battening down the hatches to prepare for what she was sure would be a long line of freaked-out crew.

Pressley arrived first, screeching so loud she was sure the paint started peeling from the walls.

"Sparky, if you're here to either bitch about the geth or tell me that you think you're in love with me, turn around and just walk away." She grinned at the colour his face turned.

"Ah, no, ma'am. The geth is behaving itself - just standing there fixing the hole you blew through it. As for the other, frankly, ma'am, you terrify me. As my CO, I'll follow you into hell, but otherwise . . .." He shook his head. "Too scary. Apologies, Captain, but I'd feel safer dating Wrex."

"Excellent. Now that we have that out of the way, what can I do for you, Lieutenant?" She walked over to her desk and woke up her terminal.

"As you know, we lost the tracker signal on Saren in the Horsehead Nebula." When she nodded, he continued, "Garrus and I did a little digging. Saren is a major investor in Binary Helix. Binary Helix has massive lab complexes on Noveria." He walked up to her desk and leaned against the bulkhead, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Binary Helix . . .?" Shepard scowled. "I've heard that name recently in combination with something fishy." She paced while sorting through her memories, then stopped and spun to face him. "It was on the news. They're being sued by the krogan. Something to do with curing the genophage . . . or not curing it, as the case may be."

Kaidan's brow furrowed to match her frown. "Saren has been throwing a lot of krogan at us. Maybe he made some sort of deal with them. They fight for him, he pressures Binary Helix into finding a cure?"

"Or, maybe he found a cure and is keeping it to himself. An army of krogan could lay waste to the galaxy. They almost did before." Sitting in her chair, Shepard raked her fingers through her hair. "Sweet baby Jesus. That's all we need."

"That would mean a massive breeding or cloning facility somewhere. Not an easy thing to hide." Kaidan pushed off the wall. "Think that could be what they are doing in the labs on Noveria?"

Shrugging, Shepard shook her head. "I doubt it. As oversight-free as Noveria is, I doubt Saren would risk setting anything like that up so close to civilization."

After a couple of seconds, Shepard groaned. "Noveria is a massive pain in the ass. Nihlus can probably get us through most of the paperwork, but still. There's enough red tape involved just in docking to make Garrus's head explode." Blowing out a deep breath that end up as a raspberry, she nodded.

"Okay, Noveria is an option. We'll still head to Omega first, because we know Rael'Zorah is there, and I doubt that Saren and his Reaper are parked in Port Hanshan. Probably a pickup or dropoff, but we might get a clue as to where they are parked."

Shepard grinned. "Good work, Sparky. Like I said before, not just a pretty face."

He laughed and backed toward the door. "You ever consider, Captain, that saying things like that might be the reason you have a problem with crew members showing up at your door to declare their love?"

Laughing, Shepard tossed a pencil at him. "Get out of here, glowstick. Oh, and all the best to you and Wrex. Such a lovely couple."