Chapter Six - Trust

The moment Jules had been led away to Tevos' office, Liara had found herself confronted with Egret; her dark purple eyes had glittered with enthusiasm as she offered herself up as a tour guide around the headquarters and Liara had found herself obliged to accept – if only to get away from the curious stares of the office workers.

She had quickly learned that Egret was a talkative one. She was speaking constantly as she led Liara through rooms and corridors, leaving little space between sentences as she jumped seamlessly from one topic to another.

This was a talent Liara had never quite been able to comprehend. How was it possible to find so much to say without running out of words? And why was it necessary to use so many words to convey something that could probably be said in a single sentence?

It certainly wasn't an ability she had any desire for herself, she found polite conversation far too tiresome to ever want to prolong it.

Luckily, the constant stream of information Egret was providing left very little need for any input on her part and she mostly followed her guide in silence, her brain subconsciously filtering out all the unimportant details as she closely scrutinised every room she was shown.

Tevos had certainly built up an impressive operation, there was no doubt about that. Somewhere in Egret's torrent Liara registered that there were over ten-thousand employees in this building alone and more working outside of it.

At first she was shown offices and conference rooms where all the day-to-day tasks were being taken care of, but as they moved closer to the heart of the operation the offices came to resemble command centres and the work looked far more serious.

In some rooms simulations were being run, or statistics were being studied. Diagrams and schematics lined the walls and screens displayed streams of data while groups of analysts frowned, muttered and swapped datapads.

The one time Egret fell silent was when they lingered at the back of a room and listened to an asari lecturing several employees about HTA restrictions that were being imposed on them and how they could best work around it.

That got Liara thinking. Back when she and Jules had first founded the HTA it had simply been a way to control rations, distribute aid and keep the peace in a war-torn galaxy. Now it seemed as though they were a kind of galactic government. They made laws, controlled trade, kept order and – from what Liara could tell – held influence across most of the galaxy.

It also seemed that they were fairly keen to keep people out of asari space.

They moved on from the lecture and found yet more rooms where the colonisation itself was being planned, a task which seemed to mostly revolve around facts, figures, and guesswork.

The staff were running predictive programs to try and work out how fertile Thessia's land would be, how badly the war might have impacted its surface and which areas would be best for recolonization.

Once they had guessed their way through that they had to calculate how many people to send, what supplies to take, how many ships should make up the first expedition.

Liara was particularly surprised to discover that all of these estimates were being done with no more information than long range scans and pre-war records to determine the state of Thessia. It seemed that in two hundred years this was to be the first scout expedition to the Athena Nebula – at least the first official one. She found that bizarre.

She might have asked about it, but Egret had still yet to pause for breath and, more importantly, Liara was becoming increasingly aware that she was being closely watched by everyone who saw her.

Every room they entered contained another audience who would instantly stop and stare though few of them actually spoke to her. Some carried the same awe and excitement in their faces as Grunt's crew had but most actually seemed suspicious, or even downright hostile.

It seemed her presence wasn't welcomed by everyone and she decided it was perhaps better to say as little as possible for now.

As Egret led her further through the building, they came to departments that were devoted to raising the funds to accomplish it all. There also seemed to be a lot of jumping through hoops, dealing with red tape and being engaged in constant negotiations with suppliers, companies and the authorities – the HTA in particular.

Most people wouldn't have envied the task, but Liara couldn't deny the prickle of excitement she felt at the challenge ahead of them. In many ways the operation reminded her of her time as the Shadow Broker, collecting data, coordinating tasks, calculating figures.

Of course the advantage of Shadow Broker work had been that it was all done through agents, meaning she rarely had to speak to anyone in person and there were no busy offices full of workers to contend with.

Even so, there was something intoxicating about watching Tevos' plans coming together, this was clearly the result of decades of work.

"Next there's the ship designers," Egret was saying as she led Liara down yet another clean corridor. Liara was only half listening as she watched two other asari pass, both murmuring something as they eyed her strangely.

"They designed our four flagships, including the Armali. They're still making adjustments and improvements."

"Are there any plans for when Tevos' expedition will leave?" Liara asked, finally managing to break through a gap in Egret's blethering. The young asari stopped and turned, opened her mouth expectantly and then closed it again. She was apparently completely unprepared for actually being asked anything.

"Erm," she began, "I think… obviously Tevos doesn't tell me of her plans but, well… I think she's waiting for certain… facts to be confirmed before…"

"She's waiting for Shepard's answer isn't she?" Liara cut in bluntly and Egret seemed to blush slightly and turned away. She took a moment to glance around the now empty corridor and then took a step closer and continued in a hushed voice.

"People further up the chain of command than me have been saying that we were ready to leave months ago. But then Tevos put everything on hold until we found you. Supposedly it pissed Adarna right off, she thought finding you was a waste of time."

"Really?" Liara murmured, "So the bosses are arguing, that's never a good sign."

A rush of blue coloured Egret's cheeks and she winced suddenly as though in pain, "Shit. You should probably forget I told you that. It's likely just gossip."

"I'm sure," Liara agreed, though gossip like that didn't tend to come from it was a good thing Egret was such a chatterbox, who knew what else she might let slip.

Her attention was suddenly drawn by muffled shouting and she glanced over to the nearest window where she could see people gathered on the street outside. These were not the journalists they had seen earlier however, instead they were holding plaques and banners with slogans similar to the protesters at the docking port.

Curious, she made her way to the window and gazed down at them with mild interest. Egret came up beside her and sighed.

"Do they really believe the Reaper War didn't happen?" Liara asked her calmly.

Egret shrugged helplessly, "Who knows? Maybe they just want something to shout about. At least some people really believe it though, there are loads of theories. Some think that the reapers were a benevolent machine race who the organics rebelled against and then changed history to cover themselves. Some think that the reapers never existed at all and they were invented to cover up some cataclysmic event, usually one they blame the asari for, since we were the most powerful race before the war. They particularly don't like Tevos because she spends so much time talking about how things were before the war. Then when she announced she was looking for you and Shepard… well…" she trailed off and gestured to the protesters with a sigh, "most of them don't believe you and Shepard ever existed."

"Our story does sound a little farfetched," Liara admitted, "I don't blame them for not wanting to believe in the reapers, there were plenty of people before the war who denied their existence too. Tevos was one of them."

"Is that why Jules doesn't like her?" Egret asked and Liara smiled a little.

"Our relationship with Tevos is an old and complicated one, one that risks opening up a lot of old wounds. It's not a case of not liking her, Jules isn't sure whether we can trust her."

…

Jules was barely ten strides out of Tevos' office before she heard Aria's swift footsteps coming up behind her.

"Shepard, I need a word," the asari snapped as she overtook her and Jules paused only to sigh.

Aria led her through the open-plan office, drawing looks from the staff who all seemed careful to stay out of Aria's way. Jules practically jogged to keep up with her as she veered out through a door, into a corridor, up a flight of stairs and eventually came to a locked door with a key pad. Aria keyed in the code and the door swung open.

Jules stopped dead. For a split-second she could have sworn she had walked into Afterlife.

The lighting here was dark and tinged with red, forcing Jules to squint as her eyes adjusted. Club-like music was playing but it was turned down to the levels of background noise and two asari pole dancers were on a raised platform at the back of the room, already performing their routine as though they had known Aria was about to return. A white, square sofa was positioned in the corner with a good view of them.

It was no wonder Jules had believed Aria was on Omega. It didn't smell of alcohol and piss and there were no drunk batarians leering at her but apart from that it was a pretty good recreation.

Judging by the large double bed and the bathroom Jules could see through an open door, this was Aria's private room. She had also turned it into a private nightclub.

"I see you're adjusting to life on Earth well," Jules commented dryly as Aria gestured for her to sit.

"Everywhere else in this fucking place is too clean, don't you think?" Aria muttered as she also sat and settled back to observe the dancers. Jules didn't admit it, but she had been thinking the same thing.

They were silent for a while as Aria kept her eyes fixed on the movements of the dancers and Jules tried to work out why she had been brought here.

"So," Aria said after a time, "what's your first impression?"

Jules followed Aria's gaze questioningly and the asari looked away from the dancers to smirk slightly, "I meant the project. Do you think it's a bold idea or just the pipe dream of a tired old woman?"

Jules considered her carefully, "Not sure yet. Could be both."

"Could be neither," she agreed, "quite the conundrum isn't it?"

Jules didn't respond, "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Aria smiled, "There's a lot 'going on' Shepard, and I doubt I know all of it. Care to be a bit more specific?"

"Why are you here?"

"To help reclaim my home world."

"Bullshit. Omega is your home and there's only one time I've ever known you to leave it – when Cerberus took it off you and gave you no other choice. Now, since Cerberus aren't around anymore, I'm guessing… the HTA?"

"Good guess," Aria barely batted an eyelid as she replied, her attention was still fixed on the two asari.

"Pretty obvious really," Jules shrugged, "if the HTA wants to expand into the Terminus it makes sense to take over Omega. How did they do it? Lure you away like Cerberus did?"

"Didn't have to. The HTA's fleet is so fucking huge they don't have to worry about being clever," Jules watched as Aria's fists clenched across the back of the sofa, "they were on us before we knew what was happening. We barely managed to put up a fight."

"How did you get out alive?"

"By letting a lot of other people die," the asari turned to look at her quite suddenly, her lilac eyes glowing dangerously in the din, "loyal people. People I'd known for years. You may not believe it but that pisses me off more than losing Omega."

Jules held her gaze calmly, "I believe it. But what are you doing here? If you're on the run from the HTA why come to the planet where they're based? Seems a bit risky."

She snorted grimly, "Tevos is here. I knew she had contacts in the HTA, people she was bribing or blackmailing, she'd never have got this project off the ground otherwise. I also knew she was desperate for funding. They may have taken Omega from me but I still had credits hidden away, enough to make it worth her while to help me. She cut a deal with the HTA, so long as I'm on the project they leave me alone."

"If you've got that much money couldn't you have gone on the run? Sounds like you're as much of a prisoner here as you would be in jail."

She clenched her teeth, grinding them together softly before she spoke, "You don't know how much influence the HTA has these days. Trust me, this was the better option."

"Well, well," Jules muttered, "how the mighty have fallen."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Aria's tone turned cold, "perhaps when you've lived a bit longer you'll learn the difference between failures and setbacks. There are advantages to having centuries to settle scores."

As calm as her voice was remaining, Jules saw her muscles tense and her mouth had curled into a snarl.

"Can I ask you something?" Jules said after a while.

"I'm sure you're going to anyway."

"Are you loyal to Tevos? Or are you just using her?"

"Hm. Interesting question. Any particular reason why you're asking?"

"She obviously doesn't trust you. Makes me wonder why she would help you, surely she didn't need the money that badly, she has other benefactors."

Aria snorted, "I don't know if you've noticed yet but Tevos is a laughing stock these days, she'll take support however she can get it, why the hell do you think you're here?"

"Me?"

"Oh don't look so surprised, Shepard. Do you really think Urdnot Wrex would have given Tevos any money if she hadn't told him she could find you? Most of her 'benefactors' didn't give her a penny until your name came up. You've been nothing but a legend for so long I think they were curious enough to humour her. Now you're actually here they might even start taking her seriously."

"So Liara was right, I'm a bargaining chip."

Aria shrugged, "Sure. But you have to admit, our chances of getting through this mission alive look a lot better now you're here, don't you think?"

"Is that why you wanted me here?"

"In part. Mainly I wanted someone here who I could trust."

Jules almost choked, "Trust? What the hell makes you think you can trust me?"

"Because you haven't been here for the past hundred years. You're not loyal to anyone, you're not anyone's spy and you don't have an agenda. You're here for the same reason as me: you don't have anywhere else to go. Tevos and Adarna on the other hand…" she sucked her teeth irritably, "scheming old hags, the pair of them. Always talking about the need for the asari to reclaim our home world but there's more going on here, I'm sure of it."

"Why?"

She pursed her lips and waited for a while. The dancers were still gyrating to the steady rhythm of the music; the effect was more calming here than it had been in the crowded noise of Afterlife.

"Shepard," Aria said after a time, "why do you think the asari were the most powerful race before the war? How did we manage to hold on to the wealth and the power for so long?"

Jules shrugged, "Experience, wisdom, longevity of life."

"Resources," Aria corrected her, "think about it, who was the biggest exporter of element zero before the war?"

"Thessia," Jules replied without hesitation, it had been a well-known fact after all.

"Eighty-six percent of the galaxy's eezo was mined there," Aria agreed, "it was so fucking rare everywhere else. Even if you found another eezo deposit, it was expensive and dangerous to try and mine it and often there wasn't enough to make it worthwhile. But on Thessia you can't get moved for the stuff and we use it for everything, drive cores, biotic implants-"

"Toothbrushes," Jules agreed absently as her thoughts briefly drifted to Samantha Traynor.

"What?" she looked over to see Aria staring at her strangely.

"Toothbrushes. With tiny mass effect fields to break up… never mind."

Aria snorted, "Everyone needs eezo, Shepard, so everyone had to play nice with the asari, even I had to keep them sweet. That's why we were the most powerful race in the galaxy. If you control the eezo you control the wealth, if you control the wealth you control everything else. All that bullshit about wisdom and patience was just the matriarchs trying to make us seem more mysterious than we actually were. So, where do we get our eezo from now?"

Jules hesitated, "Well. We scavenge most of it I suppose, from wrecked ships and pre-war bases… dead reapers."

She remembered them stripping Harbinger and several of the other reapers apart to repair the Charon Relay. Most of the other eezo they had managed to salvage from the final battle had gone towards repairing drive cores and the like. Element zero shortages were one of the main reasons it had taken so long to restore the mass relay network.

She was starting to see where Aria was going with this.

"We're going to run out, aren't we?"

"We've been running out since the moment the Crucible fired."

"Mm, true," she agreed, "one of the main reasons we formed the HTA was to ration the eezo supplies. The three things people were killing each other over after the war were food, medicine and eezo."

"And there was Thessia, biggest source of element zero in the galaxy, sitting right next door. But what did the HTA do? They turned around and headed in the opposite direction, abandoned asari space and aided colonies across the Traverse instead."

"There were more people in the Traverse," Jules argued, "eezo wasn't going to stop those colonists starving to death and they didn't have the resources to do both."

"Not then maybe but now? You would think getting their hands on Thessia would be their priority but instead they're over in the Terminus with their hands all over my operations. I've seen the size of their fleet, Shepard, they could take back the Athena Nebula as easily as they took Omega."

"So why don't they?"

"How the fuck should I know?" she hissed sharply, "But I do know this: if anyone gets their hands on Thessia now, it'll shift the balance of power across the whole galaxy. It would be like finding a freshwater spring in the middle of a drought, people might just start killing each other for a single drop."

"You're saying it could start a war?"

Aria shrugged, "It's already happening out in the Terminus. Eezo is the new red sand these days, gangs are massacring each other over it. Out here the HTA keeps a tight control over where the eezo rations go, that's how they're so good at keeping order."

"If you control the eezo you control the galaxy," Jules repeated Aria's words thoughtfully, "so if anyone got their hands on Thessia and brought steady eezo supplies back onto the market-"

"All hell would break loose," Aria agreed, "yeah."

"Tevos can't not know that."

"And yet do you ever hear her talk about it? No, it's all about the asari people and how we need our precious planet back. There's more going on here Shepard, I'm sure of it. We're both trapped in the middle of it."

Jules watched her closely for a moment. Her fists were still clenched and she was scowling at the two dancers like they were the source of all her problems. She was more on edge than Jules had ever seen her.

"So you want us to be allies? After all that's gone on you expect me to trust you over Tevos?"

"Tell me something Shepard," Aria muttered through gritted teeth, "have I ever actually double-crossed you?"

Jules thought for a moment, "Not yet," she admitted.

Aria turned, lilac eyes glinting, "Can you say the same of Tevos?"

Jules hesitated. It was an annoyingly good point.

As far as she could recall all Aria had ever done was help her. She had helped when Jules was recruiting for her mission against the Collectors. She had helped during the war, given her more support than the Council had been willing to, at least in the beginning. She had even given her Oleg Petrovsky after they had liberated Omega from him, though Jules had known she would rather have seen him dead.

As far as she could recall Aria had never done anything but help her.

Aria seemed to realise that her point had got across and chuckled grimly, "Tevos doesn't care about anything besides the asari, she would do whatever it took to put us back at the top and damn the consequences."

"What about Adarna? Do you think they're on the same side?"

Aria paused, "Not sure about that. Bitch makes my skin crawl though, I've known her type before, always has an agenda. She wasn't keen on the idea of going looking for you, thought it was a waste of time. I think she would love it if you and I were at each other's throats."

"And you think we should stick together?"

"Why not? I might be the only one here you can trust."

"You?"Jules repeated sceptically, "Aria, you lied to me during that vid call, you told me Tevos didn't know how to contact me but it turned out she had my exact coordinates. If you want me to trust you then tell me who the hell told her where I was."

"Her anonymous informer?" Aria nodded and looked away, "I don't know who it is. I only know that they've been in contact with her for months."

"Are they really anonymous?"

"I doubt it. It's more likely she had someone watching you. You must have made enemies out there, Shepard. Surely you can think of someone who would have been willing to sell you out."

"Not anyone who knew where we were," Jules went quiet for a while, absently watching the silhouettes of the two asari who were still performing for Aria's pleasure. She wondered if Aria had brought them with her from Omega, or if she really had made it out alone.

It was strange to see her here, without any lackeys or bodyguards around her, having to obey Tevos' every word.

"How bad are things on Omega?" she asked after a time, "Will you be able to take it back?"

Aria didn't answer at once, though as the pause lasted her scowl deepened, "Omega's gone. They planted charges and blew the whole asteroid apart. The HTA can be… ruthless like that."

Memories of the Normandy's last moments flashed back into Jules mind and she nodded soberly, "You've got nowhere else to go then. Looks like we really are in the same boat."

"Headed for the same fucking iceberg," Aria agreed grimly.

…

Jules left the room more bewildered, irritated and confused than when she had gone in, with her regrets about agreeing to all this having increased tenfold. The only thing she could be sure of was that she was in the middle of a minefield and she doubted anyone had her best interests at heart.

She was already sick to death of politics and game playing. She just wanted to find Liara, to tell her: 'I've changed my mind! Let's go back to far reaches of space and let the galaxy forget about us.'

Liara would know what to say, something reassuring, something rational, something that would calm her and stop her fists from clenching.

They met utterly by accident as they both wandered opposite ways down the same corridor. Liara's tour had concluded and she had begun to explore on her own – much to Egret's disappointment. Jules was simply walking to think, hoping she could untie the knots her brain was in.

When they found each other they both smiled in relief.

"How was your meeting with Tevos?" Liara asked as she approached.

"Urgh," Jules merely grimaced in reply and as they met she pulled Liara into a tight hug, like the kind you would give a friend you hadn't seen in months. It did almost feel like it had been that long.

"Are you alright?" Liara murmured into her ear.

"Just tired," she replied and forced a smile as she pulled away, "I'd forgotten how exhausting dealing with other people could be," she kept her arms hooked around the asari's neck as Liara laughed softly, "Where have you been?"

"On a grand tour," she replied, "it's an impressive operation Tevos has here."

"Mm, you'd better start from the beginning."

They swapped notes, Liara described everything she had seen throughout the building in detail and Jules relayed her conversations with both Tevos and Aria. She outlined the maze of scheming and backstabbing as best as she could and probably still didn't make the situation any clearer.

Liara listened with a thoughtful frown and when Jules had finished she leaned back against the wall and sighed.

"Eezo… I wondered if that had something to do with this…"

"Makes sense now I think about it," Jules agreed, "it was never going to be as simple as a gallant plan to retake the asari home world, was it?"

"For some of them it will be," Liara mused, "Egret, Ereba, most of the crew are probably only here because they want to see Thessia again, or for the first time."

"And they've got no idea what they're really mixed up in," Jules sighed, "shit. Aria's right, Tevos is using us both."

Liara shot her a look, "Do you trust Aria?"

"Normally I'd say no. But this isn't Aria's battleground, it's all wrapped up in politics. She's no politician, she's just a criminal."

"And that makes her more trustworthy?"

"Probably makes her more honest."

Liara looked away but Jules could still tell what she was thinking.

"You're not convinced, are you?"

"I just wonder what it is that Aria is hoping to gain from all this. If asari space is as lawless as they say, it sounds like she might find a lot of friends there."

"I'm not doubting that she has her own agenda," Jules agreed, "that doesn't mean she can't be an ally. It's certainly better than having her as an enemy. Course, we haven't actually agreed to join the mission yet. Just say the word and we'll leave."

"And go where?"

Jules shrugged, "Tuchanka? We could visit all of Wrex's children, that would kill a few years," she smiled but didn't get much of a reaction, "We'll find somewhere Liara, we'll manage somehow. I won't let Tevos trap us."

Liara had gone quiet, her brow furrowed into its familiar, thoughtful frown.

"I want to help them Jules," she said suddenly, "whatever's going on here I want to be at the heart of it. If Tevos is corrupt then I want to stop her, if Aria is plotting something then I want to know about it. And I want to protect the people who are following them."

Jules nodded, "I thought you might say that."

"Do you mind?"

"Mind?" a smile twitched at the corner of her mouth, "It's not like I had anything better to do."