Book I - Chapter 7: Mothers
Liara followed the Commander's lead and carefully knelt down to examine the insectoid corpse on the ground. This particular one was killed by Shepard's biotic, not by Garrus' oversized sniper rifle, so the body was relatively intact.
Shepard turned on her Omni-tool to scan the remains into the database before pulling up a few holographic images. "This confirms it. They are the same kind of bugs from a Cerberus lab in Binthu. Now we know where they got their specimens from."
Garrus scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You think Saren is working with Cerberus?"
Shepard shook her head. "Possibly, but not necessarily. There are only so many places you can get illegal genetic research materials from. Think of it as they belong to the same supervillain club. You never know if they are working with or against each other for world domination. That's my guess anyway."
Liara frowned at the thought that their enemies seemed to be multiplying and boxing them in from all sides. Saren and his geth had caused enough headache already.
"Liara, I'm stating the obvious here, but don't touch the acid. The toxin damage will penetrate the shield even if you have your barrier up at full power. Garrus, keep doing what you do best. Stay in the back and snipe the spitters. Liara will lift them and I'll keep the Kamikaze bugs away from you." Shepard said.
"Kami-ka-what? Sorry, that didn't translate." Garrus asked.
Shepard cracked a smile. "Ah, it's a human reference. Those little bugs will run at you and explode themselves in your face, effectively killing themselves while dealing a lot of splash damage. Humans call this tactics Kamikaze."
"Nasty." Garrus clicked his tongue.
"Expect more geth. Benezia brought a lot of crates with her. Geth don't need to breathe, and they can be packed tightly. We don't know how many of them are here. Also watch out for asari commandos. Geth were not the only ones Benezia brought in. Keep an eye on your HUD and watch for movements. The snowstorm out there is going to last for a while, so there is no need to rush. Benezia is not going anywhere. Liara, Garrus, you two fight best at a distance. Stay in the back and provide cover. Let me be the vanguard and draw enemy fire. Don't follow me too closely. Are we clear?"
"Aye, aye, Commander." Liara and Garrus acknowledged Shepard's orders.
Shepard turned off her Omni-tool and readied her pistol. "Good. Let's move."
Peak 15 was in stage three quarantine. The VI of Peak 15, Mira, informed them that Benezia was currently in the Rift Station, which could only be accessed through the tram line, which was inconveniently shut down because all the systems that were needed to run the tram line were in critical failure and had to be manually restored one by one. While they were running around the facility to restore power and reconnect landlines, they had to fight through swarms of acid spitting bugs plus random geth blocking their way. After they finally restored the tram line, they had to fight through even more bugs to get on the Central Station.
It got tiresome very quickly.
Initially Liara was scared of those creepy-crawlies because of their fearsome appearance and tendency to jump out of unexpected places to ambush them from their flanks. She got over her fear quickly once she learnt to spot them by the soft clicking noise they made when they moved. By the time they got to the Rift Station, she had become very adept at dodging acid while returning fire. She accidentally got splashed once - that was a painful lesson she had no wish to repeat. Shepard was right to warn her about it beforehand.
There were survivors holing up in the science station. Captain Ventralis and his ERCS guards had been hopping on stims for two days to defend the scientists from the bugs. "I don't get it. Even dumb beasts should know not to stick their noses where it hurts. They just keep coming this way." Captain Ventralis said.
A slight frown kneaded between the Commander's brows.
When Shepard asked about Benezia's current location, the man answered quickly. "She went to the hot lab a couple days ago, and she hasn't come out yet. Here, you need this to get inside. The door is locked." Captain Ventralis said as he passed an access card to the Commander.
Shepard's lips pressed into a thin line. It was not an expression Liara had seen very often on the Commander's face. She wordlessly took the card and tucked it in a compartment in her hardsuit, only giving a curt nod to the Captain as a quick thanks. "Let's go check on the survivors first. They might have more information on the creatures." Shepard said softly.
Liara understood the unspoken request - Shepard was asking for her patience. They needed to collect information on those strange bugs just as much as they needed to confront Benezia. Her mother was not going anywhere, but the scientists might not survive long if the bugs kept coming.
The scientists inside the barrack looked traumatized and sleep deprived. One scientist in particular, a volus named Han Olar, was the worst off. He was the only survivor coming out of the hot lab since the contaminants broke out of the secured facility. Liara felt sorry for the guy until she learnt of what he had been doing inside.
Those bugs were not just dumb beasts as Captain Ventralis so derisively put it. They were rachni - a sapien alien insectoid race that were supposed to have been eradicated by krogans thousands of years ago. Someone found a frozen egg on a derelict ship, revived the egg, and attempted to create an army of obedient soldiers out of them. Only, their plan backfired disastrously.
Shepard looked very troubled by the news. "If they are rachni as you claimed, that means you people have been conducting experiments on a sentient species."
Han Olar wheezed with the effort to speak. "You think I didn't know that? We took the newborns away from the Rachni Queen, turned them into lethal weapons, and broke their minds in the process. Perhaps it was justice that so many of us were killed by the monsters we ourselves created."
"This is what happens to science without ethics. All those brilliant minds, all the wonderful discoveries they could have made; they decided to create weapons." Shepard whispered in a voice so soft, Liara almost didn't catch it. She observed the Commander discreetly, watching her raised her right hand and flexed her fingers in an almost tentative manner. The way Shepard frowned critically at her hand reminded her of an earlier conversation they had onboard the Normandy.
Liara recoiled as a sharp pain shot through her chest like a physical blow. She remembered. Shepard had made the same gesture when she first spoke of her cybernetic enhancements. Added that to the undeniable look of self-loathing on her face when she admitted to Dr. Chakwas she had been experimented on, plus her unnaturally strong biotic that was more asari than human...
Someone tried to turn Shepard into a weapon!
This revelation knocked all the air out of her lungs. Liara staggered backward half a step, gasping to catch her breath with her back hunched over.
"Liara?" Shepard's hands were on her in an instant. They were so tender, so full of care, that the mere touch of them brought tears to her eyes.
Liara raged in her mind. How dare they! How could anyone even dream of this perversion?!
"Sweetie, are you alright?" Shepard asked urgently. Liara could hear a hint of panic in her voice.
"Y-yes. I'm f-fine. Just t-tired." Liara stammered. The grimacing smile she forced on her face was as unconvincing as her poor excuse.
Shepard stared at her for a long moment, obviously not believing a word she said. "Benezia is a very powerful biotic. The rachni won't be able to harm her. You will have the chance to talk to her soon, I promise." Shepard said in a voice so low, so velvety, it caressed her skin like a loving touch.
Liara did not wish to correct Shepard's false assumption. She took in a shuddering breath, held her lower lip between her teeth to prevent herself from sobbing, and nodded.
"Shepard is right. From what we've seen, the rachni are weak against biotics. If anything, Benezia's asari commando bodyguards will be more than enough to keep her safe. They are considered the best fighters in the galaxy for a reason." Garrus also tried to cheer her up.
"I-I'll be fine. Really." Liara said, fixing her gaze firmly on the floor. "We should keep going. There are still a few people we have yet to talk to. Please, don't let your concerns for me distract you from the mission."
Shepard gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. "As you wish."
They moved on and resume interviewing the rest of the scientists as if her brief episode of emotional breakdown had never happened. Liara was grateful for that.
In the cafeteria, they found a salarian jumping at the slightest noise, an elcor with the saddest expression on his wrinkly face, and a young asari maiden standing very still, meditating with her eyes closed.
"Odd. You seem to be awfully calm about the situation. Seeing your colleagues slaughtered, being trapped in a frozen planet with a swarm of killer alien bugs; one would imagine a maiden such as you to be more terrified than you appeared to be. What's your name?" Shepard regarded the asari with an inquisitive tilt of her head. Judging by the way she spoke, Shepard was intentionally trying to get a rise out of this asari.
The asari scientist looked at Shepard like the human was something she accidentally stepped on. "Alestia Iallis. I'm not freaking out like everyone else because I'm in a middle of my meditation, which you rudely interrupted."
"Meditation. Of course. What can you tell me about Benezia?"
Alestia rolled her eyes impatiently. "Why ask me? Why not ask your friend?" She pointed at Liara.
"Me? I do not know anything about Benezia." Liara said defensively.
"So why would I?" Alestia scoffed.
Shepard humed nonchalantly. "Because you are a trained commando. I mean, who else has the habit of meditating prior to entering a combat situation? You're obviously not a justicar."
In the corner of her eyes, Liara saw Garrus reaching for his pistol, but he did not draw it.
Alestia floundered for a moment before she could form a coherent response. "Any asari with decent biotics knows how to meditate."
Shepard turned toward Liara. "Is that right?" She asked.
Liara noticed the strangeness in Alestia's explanation. A normal scientist should have been more startled by the assumption that they were going to be in a combat situation than the fact they practiced meditation. She should know. It was not too long ago she counted herself as one. With carefully chosen words, Liara replied, "she is correct in that any asari with decent biotics should know how to meditate. It is part of the standard curriculum in the asari education system."
"You must be a very good student then." Shepard said to the scientist.
Alestia gave the Commander a dirty look. "Very. A military muscle head like you probably can't even comprehend my job description."
"Probably not." Shepard smiled easily and moved on to chat with a different person in the room.
Garrus kept his hand on his pistol from this point on.
After chatting with all the scientists in the cafeteria, they found that the bug infestation was not the only woe they had suffered at Peak 15 when all systems went critical. Dr. Cohen in the med bay had his hands full of a group of very sick scientists exposed to a lethal bio-weapon they were developing, and the only cure was locked away inside a quarantined lab.
This information filled Liara with an unfamiliar feeling of cold, vindictive pleasure that it was justice that those who developed the bio-weapon should be the ones to suffer from it. The sudden flood of negative emotion was so strong, it actually unsettled her a lot to experience it. Normally, she was never one to derive joy out of other people's suffering. Only just realized what kind of monstrous abuse had been done to Shepard, Liara had very little sympathy at the moment for those unethical scientists who thought they were above scrutiny. If she were in Shepard's shoes, she would have walked away.
Again, Shepard proved herself to be a far better person than Liara ever hoped to be. The Commander was a hero, a protector - she always tried to do the right thing.
"You said the toxin is not contagious, but the lab is quarantined." Shepard asked.
Dr. Cohen, the scientist who was not a medical doctor but served as a temporary medic, answered, "yes, that's right. Captain Ventralis had the area quarantined because he refused to listen. He may not be a toxicologist, but he has guns, and his men are keeping those creatures away. I have to do what he says."
Shepard sighed. "Of course. Let me talk to him."
Captain Ventralis was not entirely convinced it was a good idea to let the squad go in the quarantined area, but he eventually relented. "It's not my call if you want to risk your own hides. You're not under my command. I'll tell the guards to let you in. But we'll lock the door behind you. If you are contagious, we won't let you out."
The same thoughtful, thin-lipped expression appeared on Shepard's face again. She considered for a moment and agreed with a shrug. "Fair enough."
Alarm bells started to go off inside Liara's head. She gave Garrus a sideway glance and noticed the former C-Sec gripping his pistol tightly.
The guard did not give them much trouble once Shepard let him know they had Captain Ventralis' permission to go in. Yet again, the guard stressed that he would lock the squad in until they were proven to be not infected by the toxin inside the quarantine lab.
Shepard responded to the guard's threat with a decidedly unbothered easy smile. As soon as the door locked behind them, a blank expression replaced the smile on her face. "Get your cannon ready." The Commander said to Garrus.
Garrus pulled out his sniper rifle and aimed it at the door.
"Liara, can you help me with the vials. This is over my head." Shepard scratched her head at the notes, looking a bit embarrassed.
Liara quickly read through the notes. She followed the instructions and carefully mixed the vials with precise timing. It took her one try to get it right. "I got it. We can go back to Dr. Cohen now."
The supposedly locked door slid open. Alestia Iallis the rude asari scientist sauntered in with an armed asari commando and a geth destroyer flanking her sides. Before Alestia could get a word out, Garrus snapped out two shots in quick succession, reducing the enemy count down to one.
"What? You want me to wait for your speech?" Garrus asked the scientist as he cocked his sniper rifle to reload.
Alestia froze on the spot in pure shock.
Shepard cackled.
Liara walked up to Alestia with deliberate strides until she was face to face to the scientist. "You work for Benezia. Tell me why she is here." She demanded coldly.
Alestia's face twisted into a dark scowl. "You are a disgrace. A disgusting little pureblood like you is unworthy to be a T'Soni."
Before Liara could respond, Shepard's hand was on Alestia's throat, lifting her up and slamming her down on the ground in one smooth motion. This one attack cracked her skull and broke her neck, killing her instantly. Shepard straightened up slowly from her kneeling position while stealing an unsure glance at Liara's direction. "Um, I didn't like the way she talked to you." She muttered, clenching and unclenching her hands anxiously. It was clear to her that Shepard was afraid that Liara would think less of her, having witnessed such a violent outburst.
Liara so wanted to tell the Commander that she was more than just a weapon, that whatever had been done to her body could never touch her spirit. Instead, Liara simply slipped her hand into Shepard's and said, "she deserved it. Awfully rude, that one."
Shepard grinned at her and lightly squeezed her hand. The brilliant smile made Liara want to cry.
Outside the quarantine lab, Han Olar was waiting for them. "They came out of the maintenance tunnel and killed the guard. I think there might be more of them back there."
Shepard thanked the volus for the information and led the team back to the med bay.
After getting the cure to Dr. Cohen in exchange for the pass to go through the maintenance tunnel and some medi-gels, Shepard asked the doctor to do her one more favour. "Captain Ventralis told me Matriarch Benezia is in the hot lab. I think he was lying. Still, he wanted us there for a reason, so I need to check the place out. Make up some excuses and get all the scientists to come to the med bay. Lock the door and don't come out if you hear gunshots. I don't want to get you caught in the middle."
Dr. Cohen was shocked by the news, but he agreed nonetheless.
As it turned out, Captain Ventralis wanted them to go to the hot lab because he simply wanted them dead. The door dead bolted behind them as soon as they stepped inside, trapping them with a swarm of rachni and scattered piles of half-dissolved, half-eaten body parts that probably belonged to the scientists who used to work here. "Lovely. Now what?" Shepard looked around with a scowl on her face.
One particularly large pile of rubble moved. The squad whipped around, leveling their weapons at it.
"Don't shoot." Rasped a heavily accented voice. A human male covered in blood and filth slowly wiggled his head and shoulders free from underneath the pile of debris and body parts. From the look of it, he had been hiding from the rachni by pretending to be dead for the past two days. "They are sleeping. They won't attack if you stay quiet. Here, take the card. Go to the control room and activate the neutron purge with my authorization code. It will kill everything in the hot lab."
Shepard took the card from the injured man. "I guess you are the only survivor?" She asked quietly.
"Yes. I hid. Everyone else is dead." He said weakly. His face was drawn and pale.
"The door is locked."
"It will automatically unlock once the countdown starts." He said.
"Alright. Keep hiding. We'll activate the purge and grab you on the way out." Shepard promised.
The man gave the Commander a grateful nod and laid perfectly still. It seemed he had mastered the art of playing dead from the past two days.
They stealthily made their way inside the control room. They could see dozens, if not hundreds of rachni sleeping in the habitation chambers through the glass panels. One loud noise and they would swarm out through the tunnels they had dug into the metal flooring to bypass the acid-resistant glasses.
Shepard activated the Mira VI and entered the code. The neutron purge countdown began with the loudest, most obnoxious shriek of a siren wail that Liara had ever heard. Never mind the rachni; the noise could have waken the dead.
"Move!" Shepard shouted.
The rachni woke up screeching along the noise of the countdown siren. They swarmed out of the tunnels in a wave of sharp pincers and clicking claws, eager to tear the intruders to shreds. The sheer number of them had the squad overwhelmed. Garrus could only shoot so fast, and Liara's biotics took time to charge. They tried, but there were just so many of them. With thirty seconds left on the countdown, they were not even half-way out of the hot lab. By her estimate, they would need at least another minute to reach the door.
Just when Liara thought all hope was lost, Shepard roared.
The Commander pulled her right arm back into a tight fist and punched the ground with a mighty BAM! A gigantic wave of biotics exploded out of her body like a supernova, sending every rachni within acid-spitting distance flying in all directions. The next instance, her body blurred as she charged forward at an impossible speed, transporting her right to the middle of another group of rachni. She slammed down her fist again and finally blasted open a path for Liara and Garrus to reach the door.
Much to Liara's horror, the HUD was showing that Shepard's shield was completely gone after the second attack. Shepard would be taking direct damage if she were hit again. By the look of it, Shepard had expanded all available biotics into the attacks and would need time to recharge. Essentially, she was defenseless.
With no shield and twenty-four seconds left on the countdown, that heroic idiot decided now would be the perfect time to worry about other people. Shepard dragged the scientist out from under the rubble and slung him over her shoulder as if the chubby full-grown man weighed nothing more than a shirt.
They sprinted out of the door with fifteen seconds on the clock.
Shepard led the squad to the Rift Station platform and carefully put the injured man down on a roll of seats. "You doing alright? What's your name?" She asked, pointing at the makeshift tourniquet tied in the middle of his left thigh. Half of his leg had been torn off. The wound looked clean, and there was a thick film of medi-gel seal to prevent blood loss and infection. Still, this man was clearly in a great deal of pain.
The man looked down at the bloody stump and replied with a pained smile. "I'll live. Thanks to you. I'm Dr. Yaroslev Tartakovsky, geneticist. I specialise in cloning. I wanted to save lives, to clone an army of obedient shocktroopers to replace the need for soldiers. What a mistake... Sorry, I'm rambling. You saved my life, and I don't even know your name." He said.
"Commander Shepard, Council Spectre." Shepard said and handed Yaroslev a tube of medi-gel. "Hang in there. We'll get you to a doctor soon. A question - do you know anything about Matriarch Benezia?"
Yaroslev replied, "yes, she was here right before the breech. She was very interested in the Rachni Queen. The Queen was stored in a special isolation tank inside the science station. We intentionally separate the Queen from her offsprings - another huge mistake we made. The separation damaged their minds. The hatchlings were nothing but insane beasts. We did this."
The Commander exchanged a meaningful look with Liara and Garrus. "That would explain why the rachni kept trying to get in there. They wanted to go to their Queen." She turned to Yaroslev and said, "don't go anywhere."
Yaroslev chuckled. "You're talking to a one-legged man, Commander."
"Right." Shepard coughed.
The Commander led her squad off the Rift Station platform and stopped in front of the elevator leading to the science station. "Benezia is in the science station. That means Ventralis sent us to the hot lab to die. I'm thinking his real job is to guard Benezia while she is in there with the Rachni Queen. He is going to open fire as soon as he sees us. So get ready."
Liara was having a hard time suppressing the rising sense of dread. Ventralis' men were the very last hurdle standing between her and her mother. What would her mother say to her? Would she even recognize her own daughter? What if Sovereign had completely destroyed her mother's mind?
"Liara," Shepard's sharp voice snapped her to attention. "Focus. We're almost there."
"Aye, aye, Commander." Liara acknowledged the order. And it was clearly an order given to her by her commanding officer, not a request from a close friend.
They rode in the elevator in brooding silence.
Captain Ventralis and his men was waiting for them with their weapons drawn. "I'm sorry, Commander. I don't want to do this, but I have my orders."
And then no more words were exchanged. The guards died quickly. Liara had to wonder why in Athame's name those poor fools thought it was a great idea to pick a fight with an elite three man squad that had survived dozens of rachni in an enclosed space. Perhaps they thought the squad would have sustained serious injuries after a trip to the hot lab?
"All targets down." Garrus said after double-checking the area for hostiles. The firefight only lasted about two minutes.
They went through the maintenance tunnel, cleared out one stray rachni hiding inside, and abruptly found themselves face to face with Matriarch Benezia.
Her mother looked absolutely exhausted. Liara could tell with one glance from a distance. There were dark blotches under her eyes, and the soft scales framing the edge of her regal face had hardened with stress. Her aura was chaotic and sickly. It clawed and swirled around her like a waithe.
"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it toward happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." Benezia looked away from the Rachni Queen inside the isolation tank and turned to address the Commander. "I won't be moved by sympathy, no matter who you bring into this confrontation."
"Liara is here because she wanted to be. I gave her the choice." Shepard said.
Benezia raised an eyebrow. "Indeed? What have you told her about me, Liara?"
"I told her the Benezia I knew was not the same person who has been helping Saren. This is not you, mother. This is wrong. Please, you need to fight the indoctrination." Liara pleaded.
Benezia's aura twisted and thrashed in agony. Her face, however, was cold and still as ice. The Matriarch ignored Liara and turned to taunted Shepard instead. "Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have."
"That's the indoctrination talking. Ignore her, Liara." Shepard said to the maiden.
A pained grimace twisted Benezia's feature for a brief second, and it was gone. "I should have been stricter with her." She said in a robotic tone before she lashed out with a powerful stasis that froze Liara and Garrus in one move.
Shepard rolled out of the range just in time and countered with her own stasis.
The look of disbelief was frozen on Benezia's face just as numerous geth and asari commandos poured inside the room.
Liara broke free of the stasis field and dodged out of the way of an incoming rocket. She retaliated with a well-aimed lift and left the floating geth to Garrus to deal with while she dodged behind a crate to shake the two commandos at her flank. Liara took a moment to reinforce her barrier before she risked poking her head out to create a singularity next to the two commandos, jerking them out of their cover.
While she was busy pelting bullets at the two commandos, a force slammed into her from behind, knocking her off her feet; she had missed the third commando. It took a second for her eyes to focus on the HUD and see the red dot behind her disappear. Liara got up, turned around, and saw a ball of flame sitting on the floor where the third commando should have been. Garrus got her.
The sound of explosives going off at the other end of the circular ramp told Liara of Shepard's current location. The Commander was standing next to the still frozen Benezia, fighting a group of geth snipers without cover.
Liara sprang out from behind a crate and lifted two snipers at Shepard's flank. Her outstretched hand balled into a fist as she warped the two synthetics until their bodies twisted at an unnatural angle. She pulled up her pistol and let loose a barrage of bullets while waiting for her biotics to recharge.
In the corner of her eyes, Liara saw Shepard reapplying stasis over Benezia before it had the chance to wear off.
"Cover me!" Shepard barked. Both Liara and Garrus dashed pass the Commander and focused their fire at the group of three geth snipers behind her. Garrus got one with his sniper rifle immediately while Liara trapped the two left in a singularity. The room became eerily quiet after they finished them off.
There was only Benezia left.
Liara slowly turned around to face her mother. The only sound she could hear was the frantic pounding of her heart.
The stasis field wore off. Benezia staggered backward, her hands clawing at her neck. "What have you done?!" The Matriarch hissed at Shepard.
Shepard gave Benezia an even stare. "Biotic collar. Got your pistol, too. You are completely disarmed. This is over."
"This is not over! Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear." Benezia chanted with a crazed rapturous expression on her washed out, drawn face.
Liara wanted to weep. What had they done to her?
"I will not betray him. You will… you…" Benezia's voice wavered and tapered off. Then Liara could see clarity returned in her mother's eyes.
Benezia straightened up, her aura tasted calm and serene like the purest water. She was herself again.
"You must listen. Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsion. Briefly. But the indoctrination is strong. I hid a small part of my mind and waited for the right moment to betray him. The dreadnaught, Sovereign. The longer you stay on board, the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. He sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay; he needed it to find the Conduit. I ripped the information from the Rachni Queen's mind. I was not gentle." Benezia admitted the last part with great shame.
Mind rape. The most heinous crime an asari could commit. Saren and Sovereign made her mother violate another's mind.
"I need the location of Mu Relay to stop Saren."
"Of course, Commander. I transcribed the data to an OSD. Take it." Benezia said, and handed the item over.
"Knowing the relay's coordinates is not enough. Do you know where he planned to go from there?" Liara asked.
Benezia shook her head in regret. "Saren wouldn't tell me his destination. But you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived. You have to stop..." She grabbed her head with both hands, trying desperately to hold onto her sanity. "Stop me. I can't… You should…"
Liara wept as she pleaded with a broken heart. "Mother! Don't leave. Fight him!"
With the last moment of lucidity, Benezia smiled lovingly at her only daughter. "You've always made me proud, Liara."
"Mother…"
Shepard lunged forward and stabbed the Matriarch's neck with a small device. Benezia's eyes went round in shock before they rolled to the back of her head as her knees buckled underneath her own weight. Shepard caught the woman before she hit the ground.
"What did you do?!" Liara shouted at the Commander.
Benezia's eyes fluttered open weakly. They were unfocused, but they were firmly on Liara's tearstained face. "Goodnight, Little Wing. I will see you again with the dawn…"
And then she was still.
Shepard carefully folded Benezia in her arms in a bridal carry. "Dr. Chakwas gave me the injector. The drug puts your mother under a medical coma. I've procured the best cryogenic stasis pod I could find from Illium. It's on the Normandy right now. Benezia is indoctrinated, but she is not completely gone. I don't know how long it'll take, but we'll find some way to get her back. I promise. Even if it means we need to destroy every last stinking Reaper in the galaxy to free her mind, we'll do it."
Liara was completely lost for words. What could she say? When she agreed to be part of the mission, she was fully prepared to commit matricide. And now she was told she had a chance to turn it into a rescue? A choked sob escaped her throat. Liara broke into an ugly, hysterical cry. She flung her arms around the two women she loved with all her heart and hugged them with all the strength she possessed.
Eventually, Liara reluctantly let go when she heard Garrus clearing his throat behind her. "Um, we should get going."
Shepard agreed. "Yes, we should. It's best to have Dr. Chakwas take a look at Benezia as soon as possible. Garrus, take Tartakovsky to the med bay in the science station. The Mako only seats three. I need you to stay behind with the scientists in case more rachni show up. We'll arrange transport and get everyone out."
"Aye, aye." Garrus nodded.
Shepard was about to say something else, but she was interrupted when she saw movements in the corner of her eyes. The body of one of the many dead asari commandos rose up woodenly from the ground, turned around, and spoke in a way that was reminiscent of how Shiala's clone spoke in Feros. "This one. Serves as our voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colourless."
"Hold your fire." Shepard ordered before Garrus could shoot the commando.
Inside the isolation tank, the Rachni Queen wiggled her tentacles in synchronicity with the movements of the dead asari.
"Musics? I don't understand." Shepard asked.
Through the dead asari, the Rachni Queen explained, "your way of communication is strange. Flat. It does not colour the air. When we speak, one moves all."
Shepard regarded the the Rachni Queen with some caution. "Why do you wish to communicate with us?"
"The children we birthed were stolen before they could learn to sing. They are lost to silence. These needle-men. They sought to turn our children into beasts of war. Claws with no song of their own. Children know only fear if no one sings to them. Fear has shattered their mind. End their suffering. They cannot be saved. They will only cause harm as they are." The Rachni Queen lamented.
Shepard nodded. "If they can't be saved, I will do what's necessary."
"Before you go, we stand before you. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?" The Rachni Queen asked.
Garrus looked at the creature with trapedition. "See that contraption in there? It's rigged up to release acid to flood the tank. The rachni are dangerous. We shouldn't let her live."
Liara disagreed. "It is not her fault to be alive. If we kill her, we are committing genocide."
"What are you planning to do if I let you go? Will you attack other races to start another war?" Shepard asked.
"We will seek a hidden place to teach our children harmony. If they understand, perhaps we would return. We… I did not know what happened in the war. We were only an egg, hearing Mother cry in our dreams. A tone from space hushed one voice after another. It forced the singers to resonate with its own sour yellow note." The Rachni Queen replied.
Shepard did a double take. "The rachni were mind-controlled? Was it indoctrination?"
The Rachni Queen paused. "We do not know. The Mother you carry cried as ours did."
Garrus muttered, "the Council is going to love this."
Shepard made up her mind. "I won't destroy your entire race. You'll go free."
"You will give us a chance to compose anew? We will remember. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children." The Rachni Queen wiggled her tentacles and released her control of the dead asari.
"My hands are a bit full. Could you…?" Shepard said to Liara.
Liara smiled and quickly typed in the commands in the terminal to release the hatch. The Rachni Queen gave the squad one last dip of her head in gratitude before she left.
"One more thing." Shepard adjusted Benezia in her arms. "The Council. I'm afraid what they would do to Benezia if they know she is captured instead of killed."
Liara looked up sharply. "What do you mean?"
Shepard frowned uncertainly. "Do you really want me to spell it out?"
Liara was suddenly afraid to know the answer.
Garrus, on the other hand, did not get the hints right away. He needed the clarification. "Yes. I don't understand."
Shepard gave Liara an apologetic look before she explained. "Asari Matriarchs are known to possess the strongest mental fortitude in the galaxy. Now there is a mind-control method that could bend even the strongest mind. What do you think people would do with that knowledge? The Council would put Benezia under arrest and keep her in their custody. I don't think I can fully trust them to treat Benezia right."
"You mean they might violate my mother further by experimenting on her to learn the secret to indoctrinate others, instead of trying to cure her." Liara said flatly.
Garrus winced. "I did not consider that possibility."
"But if we let the Council think Benezia is killed, then Liara would have custody of her mother's body." Shepard suggested.
"Count me in. I was C-Sec. I understand how the Council operates. All the bureaucratic red tapes they set up are there for their own benefit. Your concern is… not unfounded." Garrus said.
Liara enveloped the turian in a tight hug. "Thank you."
Garrus' mandibles fluttered in embarrassment. "Um, you're welcome."
Shepard smiled at her squadmates. "Alright then, let's go."
x-x-x
It was not a difficult task to make everyone think Benezia was dead. Shepard was glad of that. One look at Liara's puffy eyes and Benezia's still form was all the evidence people needed to come to the obvious conclusion on their own.
Shepard left Benezia in the stasis pod in the med bay. Through the glass panel, the matriarch's face looked perfectly relaxed and hauntingly serene - she looked both dead and alive at the same time. In a literal sense, Benezia was in purgatory.
For a brief moment, Shepard wondered in morbid fascination whether that was what she herself had looked like to Liara when the maiden handed her corpse over to Cerberus. And then she quickly remembered that her body was a lot more damaged when it was recovered from Alchera. She had never visited the Normandy crash site herself. The same day she received the message from Admiral Hackett, she also received a message from the Delusive Man to locate the missing science team in Mnemosyne.
At first, she didn't go because she was too busy with the whole Collector business to split her attention, but she knew the real reason why. The unbeatable Commander Shepard was too afraid to go. Liara did visit the crash site, though. Shepard once found her old N7 helmet and her dog tags hidden inside a secured box in Liara's office on the Normandy SR-2. She never brought it up, and Liara never said anything.
Shepard never wanted to see Liara hurt by losing her loved ones again. She might hate Cerberus for a lot of things, but she was forever grateful that they had brought her back from the dead so Liara did not have to suffer so much.
"You can trust Dr. Chakwas. She will make sure Benezia is perfectly preserved in stasis. The drugs and the biotic collar will mask her lifesign if someone scans the pod." Holding Liara in an intimate hug, Shepard whispered into the side of her under-crest, while tenderly brushing her cheek with a thumb in a comforting gesture.
Liara gave her a jerky nod as a reply.
"It's been a very long day for you. You should rest. I'll take Ashley with me for the evec. I really should go. Lots of cleanup to do." Shepard said, and she meant it. She only had time to drop off the T'Soni's on the Normandy. There were still dozens of people trapped in Peak 15 that needed rescuing.
Captain Matsuo was one of the few reasonable person Shepard had met in Port Hanshan. It didn't take much wrangling to get her to agree to arrange for a twelve-men shuttle bus that would significantly speed up the evacuating process for the scientists in Peak 15.
The evacuation went smoothly. Shepard's Mako escort only ran into a few geth on the mountain path. There was no more rachni inside Peak 15. Even if there were more rachni out there running free in the icy wilderness of Noveria, they were no longer Shepard's problem.
Captain Matsuo was understandably upset by the death of so many ERCS guards at the hands of a Council Spectre. To that, Shepard had one thing to say. "Clean house. You have too many mercenaries in guards' uniform."
One other problem they ran into was Tartakovsky. Port Hanshan did not have a good enough medical facility to handle his injury, so Shepard had to take him on board the Normandy to be treated by Dr. Chakwas. He would be dropped off at the Huerta Memorial Hospital once they reached the Citadel. As good as Dr. Chakwas was, she simply did not have enough materials to construct an entire cybernetic leg for Tartakovsky.
The mood of the after mission debrief was somber. They had scored a major win against Saren by defeating Benezia, his second-in-command. They had also obtained the coordinates of the Mu Relay, critical intel to bring down Saren. But Benezia was Liara's mother. Clearly, everyone with eyes could see that the maiden was hurting. Furthermore, even with the intel they were no closer to finding the rogue Spectre himself.
"What's our next move, Commander? Head for the Mu Relay?" Ashley asked.
"Not so fast. The Mu Relay can link to dozens of systems, hundreds of worlds. Unless we know exactly where Saren is going, we'd just be wasting time. We can't afford to rush off blind." Shepard said.
"But when we do, we will know how to get there." Liara pointed out the silver lining.
"Exactly." Shepard smiled. "And don't forget, we did come across a few leads when we were on Noveria. What we have here is not your typical military operation - this is detective work."
"I see." Ashley scratched her head. "I guess this is what running with a Spectre is like. More C-Sec than Alliance."
Garrus twitched his mandibles. "With a lot less red tape."
"And a lot more explosions." Tali added.
Shepard chuckled.
"I hope the Council wouldn't be too hard on you again, Commander. They're not going to be happy about the Rachni Queen." Kaidan said thoughtfully. "Although I have this funny feeling they are going to be unhappy with you no matter what you do."
"I don't know what you were thinking, Shepard." Wrex was not particularly happy with Shepard's decision to free the Rachni Queen either, and he made sure to voice his displeasure. "It was a mistake not to kill that bug when you could. Millions of our ancestors died to put these things down, and you decided to give them the chance to come back."
Shepard regarded the unhappy krogan with a raised eyebrow. "Forget the old grudge, Wrex. You of all people should be glad that the rachni are back. If they become a problem, maybe the Council will find themselves needing krogan help again. Wouldn't that be an excellent kick in the butt for them to hurry up and find a cure for the genophage? You might even get a second krogan statue in the Citadel for your trouble. If the rachni behave themselves, then that means I've done the right thing not killing their entire race off. Either way, you've got nothing to lose."
Wrex stared at the Commander with his mouth open. "You are one tricky bastard, you know that?"
Shepard grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"Fine. Just remember, if the Council wants us to deal with the rachni again, they will have to beg real nice to get any help from us. I expect nothing less than shameless graveling." Wrex grumbled.
"I'll make sure they do that." Shepard smirked. She knew she had made the right decision. Last time she killed the Rachni Queen because she did not want to risk another Rachni War. She did not expect the Reapers would create their own version of the queen, the Breeder, and used it to breed an army of twisted Ravagers as their shock troops. She had committed genocide for nothing. This time, by sparing the Queen, she hoped to enlist the rachni's help when the Reapers invaded.
Her mission was to unite all races against the Reapers - batarians and rachni included.
"Anything else? No? Crew dismissed."
Joker's voice came through the comm as people were filing out of the conference room. "Noveria report is away, Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council?"
Shepard stood up from her seat and faced the FTL comm unit. "Patch them through, Joker."
"Setting up the link now, Commander."
The holographic images of the three Councillors flickered on. Tevos was the first to speak. She sounded worried. "Is the report accurate, Commander? You've found rachni on Noveria?"
Sparatus interjected angrily before Shepard could answer. "And released the queen! Do you have any idea what you've done? How many generations until they overrun the galaxy?"
"The ancient rachni were mind-controlled into fighting a war they never intended to be a part of. This queen is different. She understood why those insane beasts of war had to be wiped out. She thought it was mercy. I don't know about other races, but humans generally do not enjoy committing genocide." Shepard defended her position. Using Sparatus' own words against him seemed to be very effective. The turian was silent after her retort.
Valern's left eye twitched in annoyance. "This mind-control nonsense again. Commander, you can't keep using that excuse for every wrong-doing out there."
Shepard gave the salarian an unblinking stare. Very soon, Valern was going to wish he had never made such a comment. "No, I can't, and I won't. Regardless of how the Rachni War came to be thousands of years ago, mind-control remains a real threat today. Indoctrination is one of the most powerful weapons the Reapers have in their arsenal. I urge the Council to take it very seriously."
Tevos let out a sigh. It appeared she was also very tired of listening to Shepard's warnings. "Commander, you need to focus on Saren. There is no evidence the Reapers you spoke of even exist. They are fanciful stories Saren made up to distract you, nothing more. You are playing right into his hands, chasing fairy tales."
Shepard had to count to ten inside her head to prevent from shouting at the asari Councillor. "I signed up as a Spectre to maintain peace and stability of the galaxy. You can count on me to do whatever is necessary to complete my mission. I know who my enemies are, I know what is at stake." Do you?
Her reply seemed to be diplomatic enough to appease the Council. "Very well. We await your next report." Tevos said, and disconnected the call.
Shepard rubbed her temples tiredly. As far as Council meetings went, it wasn't too bad. Still, she felt like a drink and a shower afterwards.
Politicians.
x-x-x
A/N: I always found Liara's reaction to Benezia's death to be unrealistically calm, that's why I decided to write the Noveria arc from her POV to give her character some depth. She wasn't given nearly enough screen time in the first game. Also, Shepard was mocking the Illusive Man in her head by referring to him as the Delusive Man. It wasn't a typo.