Chapter Eight – What Happened?

Doctor Tavia Aegina sat in a windowless office, beneath the streets of Rinoka, arranging the items on her desk with painstaking care until everything was in its exact and proper place. Precision was a turian trait, her father had always told her, and one she had always excelled at.

She settled back in her chair and waited, counting the seconds as they ticked by. The knock came at her door two minutes and forty-two seconds late, but she let it pass as she called out: "Enter."

Her assistant appeared around the door. The salarian was out of breath and his wide eyes were blinking furiously as he stammered to speak, "Shepard has just arrived, Doctor, they're bringing her in now."

Tavia looked down at her desk and moved a datapad two millimetres to the left, "Did everything go smoothly?" The length of his pause told her that the answer was no and she looked up to see him fidgeting nervously, "What happened?"

…

"What happened?" Matriarch Tevos strode through the corridors of her headquarters, her heels clacking loudly on the hard floor as one of the medical staff jogged to keep up with her.

"Doctor T'Carra was called to Shepard's room because she had collapsed," the asari nurse explained breathlessly, dodging to the side as Tevos sharply rounded a corner, "then an ambulance was seen pulling up outside. Thing is, there's not actually any record of one being called."

Tevos frowned slightly as they passed a group of gossiping staff who went abruptly quiet as she came into earshot. Word had spread quickly, it seemed "Go on."

"The paramedics took Shepard outside but for some reason Liara got into a fight with them, she's been shot at least four times."

"By paramedics?" she cast the young nurse an incredulous look and then slowed as they arrived at the medical room. Through a glass window Tevos could see that it had been turned into an impromptu operating theatre; Liara was lying unconscious on a medical bed while three of their four doctors tended to her wounds. The most senior member of staff present was Rhys, a quarian doctor who was calmly issuing orders to the others.

"Where is Doctor T'Carra?"

"I don't know," the nurse replied, "we haven't been able to find her."

"And Shepard?"

"She was taken away in the ambulance but none of the hospitals in the city have reported admitting her."

"Hey!" They looked up as Grunt appeared with Ereba following closely behind him. The huge krogan was lumbering casually towards them while Ereba's worried strides barely managed to keep up with him.

As they reached the window Grunt took one look at Liara and shrugged slightly, "What happened?"

…

"WHAT HAPPENED?"

Tavia heard the screamed question two corridors away and sighed inwardly as she headed calmly towards the irate, human voice.

"All you had to do was get Shepard into the ambulance without making a scene! Not have a fucking firefight, in the middle of the street, in front of a crowd of journalists! You realise your faces are all over the news? What the hell were you playing at?"

Tavia rounded a corner and found the voice's owner. Erica Jensen was tall for a human with angry red hair and dark eyes that flashed menacingly as she raged at the human man who was standing meekly in front of her with his head bowed. Looking at him, Tavia could see that his nose was broken and there was dried blood across his face from a nasty head wound. It looked like he had been smashed face-first into something very hard.

"Erica" Tavia greeted curtly as she approached, "I hear things didn't exactly go to plan."

Erica growled at that and the man paled even further.

"I thought this was supposed to be a simple assignment."

"Oh it was," Erica agreed, "but it turns out that Mister Dester here probably couldn't organise a piss-up in a fucking brewery!" she gestured wildly to the man and he almost managed not to roll his eyes.

"Look, we didn't know Liara was going to be there," he said in his defence, though he quickly looked away again as Erica's eyes flashed furiously, "she was insisting on getting into the ambulance."
"You should have let her!" Erica snapped, "We'd have found a way to deal with her once we'd got her back here. But no, you had to go and shoot her in front of a crowd of witnesses. Nobody is ever going to believe Shepard is in hospital now, the whole fucking city will be looking for her!"

Tavia sighed calmly and clasped her hands behind her back. The original plan had been a good one, Shepard slips into a coma and is rushed to hospital where she tragically dies after her implants inexplicably fail. A fake corpse and a few falsified records would have been enough to make it convincing and they would have been left with all the time they needed to work on the real Shepard.

But if people were going to come looking for her then they would need to move more quickly.

"Where is Shepard now?" she asked.

"In the operating theatre," Erica replied coldly as she continued to glower at Dester, "all ready and waiting for you."

"Good, it's best that I don't delay, time may be short."

"Tavia," there was a warning edge in Erica's voice that made Tavia pause curiously as the woman turned to look at her, her dark eyes glimmered briefly as she smiled without warmth, "I know you revel in the chance to play with your scalpels," she said softly, "but there is a lot of money riding on this, so don't get carried away, will you?"

Tavia blinked, "I assure you Erica, I am well aware of what is expected of me."

She turned away and began to walk swiftly back down the corridor, behind her she heard Erica's rant against Dester start up with renewed vigour as the incensed woman began demanding solutions from him. Erica had many admirable qualities for a human, the ability to remain calm and reasonable was not one them.

As arms dealers went, Erica Jenson was one of the most successful, powerful and rich amongst them. She was also one of the most illegal, willing to resort to whatever methods were necessary to make a profit, otherwise she would never have hired Tavia.

She entered the operating theatre to find that Shepard was already wired up to the machines and her condition was being monitored. Her salarian assistant and several of the other scientists were recording down the data and running all the tests that she had ordered.

"What's her condition?" she asked as she walked over to join them. As she laid eyes on the legendary Commander Shepard she was, for some reason, surprised to see that she looked exactly like the pictures in the history books. Her red hair was vividly striking, not like the dirty orange that Erica's was, and her hard brow seemed to be glowering menacingly even as she lay unconscious with wires coming out of her. It wasn't hard to believe that she had once saved the galaxy.

"Unconscious but stable," her assistant replied, "T'Carra's injections have reduced the function of her implants just enough to keep her alive, exactly as she said they would."

"The whole purpose of that was to give us a legitimate reason to carry her away in an ambulance," Tavia sighed, "the way things have gone, we may as well have stormed the building and taken her by force. Still, it can't be helped now. How are the implants looking?"

"They're incredible, Doctor," he replied, the awe was apparent in his voice as he gazed down at the scans, "if we can work out how they function, we might be able to develop all kinds of lifesaving equipment. I can't even imagine the advancements that could come from this."

Tavia listened grimly to his enthusiasm. Lifesaving equipment was so rarely invented to save lives, most companies only invested in it because people were willing to pay millions to get their hands on it. That was certainly the only reason Erica was interested in this.

Tavia knew that any technology developed from those implants would never go to public hospitals or government health schemes; it would go to criminals who wanted an army of super soldiers or rich billionaires who wanted to live forever and become – like Shepard – a living legend.

But she would let the young salarian keep his naivety for now, it would make him more dedicated to the task ahead.

"Which implants do you want to start with, Doctor?" he asked her.

"The ones in her brain," Tavia replied, "we want to learn as much about their functions as we can before we remove them so we'll need her to be conscious."

He paused at that, turning away from the scans to stare at her through wide black eyes, "Why?"

Tavia blinked, "So we can monitor her reactions and gain a better picture of each implant's purpose. It will save time later."

"But-" he faltered slightly and she continued to stare at him expectantly. She could predict what his objection would be but she wanted to see if he actually had the backbone to say it, "isn't that unethical? If she's conscious, it could be quite… distressing for her."

Tavia kept her expression blank as she calmly took a step forward, "Michael," she started coolly and saw him shrink back a little, she only ever used his first name as a warning, "we need to learn as much as we can about these implants if we are going to recreate the technology they use to function."

"But-"

"I thought you were supposed to be a scientist," she challenged, "scientists understand that sacrifices such as this are necessary for innovation. Are you committed to this project or not?"

For a moment he stared at her, then his huge eyes briefly lingered on Shepard and he sighed softly, "Yes, Doctor."

"Good. Then start bringing her round."

…

"She's waking up."

The voice drifted to Liara through a haze and she frowned as she realised she didn't recognise its owner. She was on her back, there was a bed beneath her and her eyes felt too heavy to open so she strained her hearing and tried to work out where she was.

She seemed to feel both numb and sore at the same time and suddenly grimaced as she shifted and pain shot through her. Her shoulder twinged, her leg ached and somehow her stomach felt like it had been ripped in two.

"Now, now. Take it easy."

She frowned more sharply this time. Whoever was speaking was a stranger, she had no idea where she was and she could hardly move. In short, her mind was screaming: danger!

She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a quarian. The man was leaning over her, gazing at her through glowing, golden eyes; slick, black hair fell in soft waves to his shoulders and his thin face was split into a sharp, alien smile.

"Hello my dear," he greeted her brightly and Liara tried not to recoil too obviously.

"Who…" she began, but trailed off as she realised how dry her throat was, she looked behind him and saw several asari in medical outfits moving about the room.

"You're back in the headquarters," she snapped her head round at the second voice and saw Tevos standing at her other side. The matriarch's expression was soft and completely calm as she continued: "you were shot, do you remember?"

Shot? She looked down at herself and saw the wound stretched across her abdomen. It was a mess, stained with dried blood and the stench of medi-gel was thick in the air. In two-hundred years the smell hadn't changed – or improved.

As she continued to stare, Tevos laid a hand gently on the shoulder that wasn't throbbing painfully, "What do you remember?"

Liara frowned. She had been outside, surrounded by reporters. There had been an ambulance, and medics, medics with guns. Jules had been ill, unconscious. Jules…

Her frown turned to a glare as the memories returned and she looked up sharply to meet Tevos' eye, "Where's Jules?"

The matriarch blinked, "We don't know, we were hoping you-"

She was cut off abruptly as Liara slapped away her hand and reached up to grab her by the collar, "Don't lie to me! What have you done to her?"

…

Jules awoke slowly. She could hear the soft hum of technology and the low murmur of voices and she opened her eyes to find herself staring at a dark, unfamiliar ceiling. The smells in the air were bitter, like a med bay.

Awareness returned groggily to her and at first she didn't really question where she was. She did vaguely register that she couldn't smell Liara, or hear her breathing, or feel her nestled against her side like she usually could when she awoke. Come to think of it she couldn't even feel her side.

Frowning, she made to reach out her arm. It was then she realised she couldn't move.

A shadow fell across her and in the corner of her eye-line a turian woman appeared and looked down at her. Intricate grey markings decorated her carapace – an element of turian culture that had apparently survived the war – and her eyes were yellow like a cat's.

"Don't panic," she stated rather impassively as Jules squinted at her, "we've administered a paralytic drug, that's why you can't move. It's nothing to worry about."

Jules blinked until her vision focussed and peered at the tall turian suspiciously. As she glanced around she saw there were five other people in the room, including a salarian who seemed to be fiddling with some wires that were plugged into a computer. As she followed the line of the wires she realised they were coming out of her own arm. The arm she couldn't feel. Because she was paralysed.

"Right," she croaked softly as she looked back at the turian, "a group of strangers have me on an operating table, there's wires coming out of me and I can't move. Nothing to worry about at all."

"Sarcasm?" the turian cocked her head in mild curiosity, "I must say I was expecting confusion, anger, surprise at the very least."

Jules swallowed and licked her lips, "It's not that easy to surprise me. Trust me, this is far from the weirdest place I've ever woken up in… probably," she swallowed again and looked around as much of the room as she could see, "where am I?"

The turian didn't answer at once. She paused to take a datapad that was handed to her by one of the others and took a moment to read it, "It's not important," she said at last.

"It's pretty important to me," Jules retorted, "I'd like to know where the hell I am, and how I got here."

"What's the last thing you remember," the woman asked absently, though she seemed more interested in the datapad than the answer.

Jules narrowed her eyes and again glanced around the room. The five other people were all silent as they stood at the machines, recording things down onto datapads and occasionally adjusting things that Jules couldn't see.

"I don't think I caught your name," she muttered distractedly.

As she looked back she saw the turian staring at her blankly, "My name is Doctor Aegina. What is the last thing you remember?"

"A turian doctor?" Jules ignored the question again, "Wasn't a lot of them in my day, back then turians were either soldiers or mercenaries. Well done for breaking the stereotype."

Doctor Aegina blinked, "What is the last thing you remember?"

Jules wasn't about to tell her that her last memory was sitting in a dilapidated park with Liara, reminiscing about the war, moping about the state of the galaxy and generally feeling sorry for herself. She thought she could remember getting back to the headquarters but she couldn't be sure and she sure as hell couldn't remember how she had gotten here. Had Liara been with her? Did they have her paralysed on some operating table too? She frowned as she strained to remember something, anything.

"Okay," the doctor finally relented with a sigh, "let's try something easier: what's your name?"

"What?" Jules looked at her incredulously, "Is this a trick question?"

"No. What is your name?"

"You don't know who I am? I find it very hard to believe that you would go to the trouble of kidnapping me if you don't even know who I am."

"I know who you are," she explained calmly, "I need to know if you know who you are."

"Seriously?"

"Answer the question, please."

Jules sighed, trying to buy time was going to be difficult with this one, she suspected, "Juliet Shepard, you've probably heard of me."

"Thank you," she replied impassively, before looking back down at the datapad.

"Well you told me yours, it was only fair."

The doctor didn't act as though she had heard her, "I'm going to ask you some more questions, Shepard, while I do my colleagues will monitor your brain functions. You may experience some side-effects but I don't want you to worry."

"Sweet of you," Jules muttered, she watched as two of the scientists began adjusting some of the wires and felt a brief flutter of anxiety rush through her.

"If you're ready we'll begin."

"Wait!" Jules shouted suddenly and Doctor Aegina actually looked up from her datapad long enough to meet her eye, "That's it? You haven't even given me a vague explanation about where I am or what the hell is going on and you expect me just to lie here and cooperate with you?"

The doctor sighed and again the datapad became of more interest to her, "I can't see that you have much choice."

"Just tell me one thing," Jules snapped, "what happened to Liara?"

…

Tevos had managed to release herself from Liara's grip, which had been impressively strong considering she was recovering from three bullet wounds and a deep gash across her arm where a fourth had grazed her.

Despite this, the asari was now sitting upright on the bed, ignoring the protests of Rhys – the quarian doctor – as she stared Tevos down coldly.

"Do you really expect me to believe you know nothing about this?" she demanded, blue eyes glittering intently, "Shepard was kidnapped right outside the doors of your headquarters! Why didn't your security intervene?"

"I don't know," Tevos admitted, though she planned to find out, "I want to find Shepard as much as you do, we are on the same side."

"Are we?" Liara folded her arms and glared, though that may have been to disguise the way she winced as her shoulder moved.

"You have my word," Tevos told her, "I brought Shepard here because I need her on this mission, the last thing I want is for any harm to come to her. Now tell me, why did you attack the paramedics?"

Liara hesitated. Her dazzling eyes were still narrowed but she seemed to relent a little, "I saw one of them was carrying a gun. He wouldn't let me go with her in the ambulance, I could tell something was wrong."

"And your first instinct was to fling him ten-foot across the street into a crowd of journalists? Remind me not to get on your bad side," they both looked sideways at Rhys where he was tending to the gash on Liara's arm. Feeling their eyes on him, he looked up and smiled, "Oh, sorry. You carry on, forget I spoke."

Tevos turned back to Liara, "Do you have any idea who they were? Did any of them say anything?"

Liara gazed down at the floor for a moment, "There was something. One of the medics who was tending to Jules, he was scanning her implants, he said they would be worth an army."

"Worth an army," Tevos repeated slowly, "then it's her implants they want," she wasn't entirely surprised, she had known that bringing Shepard back was likely to stir up a lot of unhealthy interest in her. She had thought she had taken better steps to protect her.

Liara closed her eyes, "I should have stopped them."

"It was three against one, my dear, you were lucky not to be killed," Rhys muttered as he finished seeing to her arm.

"Only because I'm one hundred years out of practice."

"Hm," he smiled, seeming faintly amused, "not to worry, a few months of training and you'll be back to being the force of nature the legends talk about."

"We don't have a few months, if they remove Jules' implants she'll die."

"We will find her," Tevos assured her calmly, "the ambulance can't just have vanished, we must be able to find out where it went. And we know why she's been taken. Someone clearly wants to sell her implants in order to fund an army."

Liara shrugged and shook her head, "But who?"

Tevos sighed heavily, "I think I might have an idea."