MASS EFFECT WINTER EYES: CHAPTER 19
PROJECT OVERLORD
A man with light red hair turned to greet the group inside the neuro research lab of the station. He branded a Grissom Academy staff uniform and Raven noted that he appeared to be uneasy of their approach. "Good to see you again, Commander Shepard." His voice shook as he extended his right hand in greeting. She accepted the handshake. "I'm glad that the circumstances of our meeting now are on our better terms than before. I can't thank you enough for giving me mercy and allowing me to atone for what I did to David. He will never be the same following the Overlord Project, but he progresses positively each day among the other students."
Garrus stayed beside Raven and could tell that Raven was having difficulty processing everything that the man in front of her was relaying to her. He leaned to his left to put his mouth closer to her right ear. "He was experimenting with his autistic younger brother and the Geth." He whispered to her, hoping to provide clarity. His beady eyes glared angrily at Dr. Archer. "Subjecting him to intrusive procedures that no being should ever endure in the name of Cerberus." He allowed his voice to raise to where his last statement could be heard by all, especially Gavin.
The news was appalling to Raven, and she shook her head in surprise and resentment. "I can't believe I allowed someone like you to live. I'm vague against our opposition and the Geth, but turning your back on a fellow human being, especially your family, is unforgiveable." She unholstered her pistol and aimed the barrel straight at the man's forehead.
Her sudden move caught everyone off-guard and the room sprang into a panic! Liara grabbed her arm to deter her from the foreseeable next action. "Shepard, wait!"
Dr. Archer didn't flinch as he stared down the barrel of the gun. "I know I deserve death, but don't take me away from David. He needs me."
"I think he would be better off away from you." Raven hissed. "Where is he now, anyways?"
"With his class. He's doing quite well." Kahlee interjected.
"Besides, Shepard." Miranda commented. "If you kill Dr. Archer, then you are lost to us."
"I agree with Miranda. As much as I wouldn't mind what you are about to do- "Garrus nodded his head, turning his avian eyes away from the man.
"Garrus," Liara argued. She didn't like how Garrus changed since they recruited him to go after Saren. She didn't like the fact that he was the one who pulled the trigger to take out Dr. Saleon and Sidonis. She wasn't part of those missions. It bothered her that Macha didn't condone his actions. Did she encourage it? She never expressed her concerns to her former commander and now it was water under the bridge.
"Why would Cerberus even want you to do this?" Raven continued her questioning of the guilty man in front of her.
"The Illusive Man thought there could be a way to control the Geth. He was fascinated by how the Geth seemed to follow Saren." Archer explained.
"They followed him because they were following the Reapers." Liara added. "The Illusive Man seemed to want to control all his enemies."
Raven's head spun, and she felt a mild migraine forming as her eyes began to hurt. Rubbing the corner of her eyes to apply pressure counteract the pain, she groaned. "The Illusive Man? Reapers? Control? What the hell are you guys even talking about?"
"Easy, Shepard. Don't try to remember yet." Tali moved to gently touch her arm.
"Does the recall of memories trigger pain for you, Shepard?" Gavin inquired as he stepped closer to examine her.
"Yes. Damn migraines. Sometimes when I try to recall certain events, the pain is immense. Everything that is being explained to me doesn't make any sense."
Dr. Archer stroked his chin as he contemplated silently all the different theories behind her condition. His blue eyes watching her. "What has been the most difficult?"
Raven glanced around everyone and then felt a bit uneasy to answer. She knew whenever she tried to recall certain events that involved Garrus, the pain was the most extreme. Judging by his body language, and his expression, that in her former life, she developed feelings for him. Maybe it was mutual or maybe just one sided on his part. She was unclear. "I…I'm not sure." She hesitated on fully answering the question. Her face felt hot and she could feel herself flushing.
"Think, Shepard. There has to be something." Miranda prided.
"I would like to witness this onset of pain, Shepard. It will help me with my hypothesis and the best course of action." Archer moved to grab a data pad.
Garrus clenched his fists as he watched Raven denying knowing. He could tell that she knew but was reluctant in telling them. He recalled seeing her struggle on Omega. Stepping forward, he clasped her hand. "I know." His blue eyes met her purple ones. "I saw it on Omega. You were tracking Archangel."
"Garrus…" Raven bit her lip.
"You found the old warehouse. You crossed that bridge again. This time you were not in my sights."
Raven's mind flashed to crossing the bridge with the Blue Suns mercs. Many taken out with precise sniper shots. Professional head shots. Many dying all around her, but she was not struck and made it across. She searched the front of the warehouse for any threats in her scope, then raced up the stairs to the second floor. There stood a turian in blue armor with a matching blue helmet. His black visor hid his face. "Archangel?" She called to him. Instead of firing back, the turian set his sniper rifle to the side after noting the threat was momentarily paused and removed his helmet. The familiar face of Garrus Vakarian appeared. Raven's heart fluttered as she noticed him. Suddenly, the memory vanished like a tidal wave crashing onto the shore line, destroying a child's sandcastle. Pain burst throughout her frontal lobe and her ears rung. Dropping to her knees, Raven clasped the sides of her head to suppress the sudden surge of cranial pain.
Garrus dropped down beside her to gently rub her back to calm her down and ease her suffering. He glanced angrily upwards towards the man who remained quietly observing. "That's enough, doctor! Shepard, stop remembering. Focus on the metal floor in front of you."
Liara took her other side. "Breathe slowly and deeply, Shepard."
"Impressive. I've never seen a neuro block like this before." Archer spoke up as he turned towards his workstation to begin his thought process.
Miranda followed him. "Is it something that can be reversed, though?"
"Hard to say. We will need a full brain scan to see what kind of hardware we are up against. If anything is implanted, we will need to investigate what we are up against before any intrusive procedures."
Raven shook her head as the pain slowly subsided and a dull throbbing pain continued. She was cognitively alert enough now to be back in the conversation. "No way. You plugged your brother into the Geth. You are not going to experiment on me like that. I would never interface myself with a machine." As soon as she said that, she noted that her fellow team members all gave one another uneasy glances. "What?"
"Actually, you have interfaced with a machine before…" Tali spoke up first.
"More than once. You were taking over by David when we were trying to shut him down. You also allowed Legion plug you in with the Geth's consensus. I didn't agree with it, but I trusted that you knew what you were doing." Garrus continued.
"Okay." Raven sighed hard in defeat. "This is just getting weirder and weirder. What will I learn next? That I interfaced with a Reaper too? Whatever, the hell that is."
"You did speak to one." Liara smiled wryly.
"More than one. Don't forget Sovereign, then Harbinger." Garrus corrected her.
"And the one on Rannoch." Tali pointed out.
"I give up." Raven face palmed and groaned again. "Just hook me up, doctor."
Dr. Archer's eyes widened with all the news of Shepard's past interfaces. "Incredible."
"Don't get any ideas, doctor." Raven slated him.
Setting down his datapad, Dr. Archer ushered her over to a large piece of medical equipment. "This is a cranial scan that I use on our students to check on any infection from their implants when there are complications. It should be sufficient enough to tell us what we need to know." He moved to the front of machine and motioned her to stand where he was. "Just stand here, Commander. I will check the diagnostics before starting the procedure."
"How long will the scan take?" Miranda asked as she looked on.
"Momentarily. Modern medicine and science accelerated rapidly following the end of the twenty-first century. You would be amazed how in depth everything is now." Archer's fingers gracefully moved across the keyboard in front of him. "All checks are completed, Commander. I can initiate the scan whenever you are ready. I would ask everyone to step towards the front of the room until the scan is complete."
"Just do it, doctor. I want this nightmare to be over with." Raven said.
Noticing that the others complied with his request, Gavin initiated the scan and Raven closed her eyes as the red beam projected onto her face. She could hear the machine whirring and tried not to think about what all was happening to her. Forty-five seconds later, the whirring stopped. "Scan complete. It will take a moment for the analysis to come up. You may open your eyes, Commander."
"Is it safe for us to come back over?" Tali eagerly asked.
"Of course. The readings are displaying now. I will project them onto the large monitors, so you can see as well." Archer explained as he moved towards the center of the back wall to where two large monitors were placed. He used his datapad to pull up the data onto the screens. "On the left will be the visual image of the divided layers of Shepard's brain from the top. On the right is the horizontal position."
"Did the scans find anything?" Liara asked as she rapidly moved her eyes over the images to find something.
"Two foreign bodies, actually." Gavin zoomed in on two areas of the brain on each monitor. "The hippocampus and the cerebral cortex."
"English." Raven grunted as she tried to listen in.
"The hippocampus and cerebral cortex are the two areas of the brain that are used to store memories. I've never seen this type of work before and wouldn't know anything else until there's an intrusive procedure."
"You want to dig around up there?"
"This technology is unlike I have ever seen before, Commander. I didn't know Cerberus was capable of such a feat."
"Neither did I, but we did bring back Shepard from the dead." Miranda brought up.
"I don't like the idea of someone screwing around with my brain." Raven growled. "I mean if you mess up, then I'm a vegetable, right?"
"Always a possibility." Archer chewed his lip as he studied the images. "I would make certain that it doesn't happen. As I said before, I'm not familiar with this technology and I do not know what backup systems are in place for any malfunctions."
"You mean that Charon could have a kill switch?" Fear crept in Garrus' voice as he nervously looked over at Raven. The idea of her just killing over with him being unable to do anything shook him to his core. He never came across this as a possibility after they recovered Macha from Omega.
"I wouldn't put it past them," Kaidan spat in disgust. "That Erinyes could be holding the switch any minute. Should we go after them?"
"She may not know that Shepard is on our side." Tali argued. "If she did, she would have done so already. If we attack, then she will know."
"Good point," Alenko agreed glumly.
Liara studied the images displayed. She didn't think that Dr. Archer may not have the answer they were looking for. "You don't suppose that this is leftover Reaper tech?"
"How is that possible?" Garrus turned his head her way. "Wouldn't the catalyst kill their existence?"
"True."
"I can't believe this…" Archer muttered under his breath.
Tali picked up on this. "What is it?"
"With Project Overlord, my intentions were finding a human connection to control the Geth with interface. I would expand the project upon its success for this type of neuro work. I just never would imagine that this would be done…"
"Did you keep notes and logs about all your data and research?" Miranda turned to him away from the displays.
"I did, but after I disbanded from Cerberus to follow David, I thought I destroyed all my data. I took what I could on hard discs for my own personal copy and they are stored here."
"The Illusive Man could have been backing up your files on your terminal without your knowledge, Doctor." Liara explained.
"I wouldn't put it past him." Miranda agreed. "He was always a distrusting bastard."
"And those files passed to whoever is in charge of Charon." Liara looked at the team. "I thought the Illusive Man didn't trust anyone."
"He didn't," Miranda answered.
"In order to gain the credits, resources, technology and this data, he had to." Liara disagreed with her. "One person alone in the organization wouldn't have uncovered all this on their own and all cells were destroyed following the war."
"Erinyes…." Raven seethed. She spun on her heel to turn back at Archer. "You think you can fix me, doc?"
"I will try my best. There's always a risk again of a block. A firewall if you will. If the devices have any proximity sensors to detect tapering, there could be a self-destruct protocol that would reduce you to a vegetable state. Or with those parts of the brain, a permanent loss of long term and short-term memories."
"You mean to tell me that she will forget everything all over again?" Garrus didn't like the idea of losing Macha again. He was so close to getting her back. He wasn't about to let it happen again.
"Yes, and possibly even more previous memories. I cannot say how far back. Complete amnesia is a possibility."
"We can't do that. Let's go after Charon. We will make them fix her." Kaidan angrily shook his head.
"Kaidan…" Raven sadly looked at him. "Don't. You go after Erinyes and I'm good as dead again…or may as well be. "Her purple eyes moved towards Dr. Archer. "I'm placing myself in your care. Fix it."
"I have an emergency medical room in the nearby sector of the station. I will begin the preparations." Gavin nodded before turning away to grab his datapads.
"Shepard…are you sure?" Garrus approached Raven. "What if he messes up?"
"What if he doesn't?" Raven sighed. "You want me back, right? This is the only way." She moved her attention towards where the human Spectre stood. "Kaidan, I will give you the location of the last whereabout of Erinyes. Just in case I lose it."
"I can send scouts to survey the area until we are ready to attack." Liara brought up.
"Sounds like a plan. Better than infantry. I don't want to risk detection yet." Alenko agreed.
"Let's hope Erinyes doesn't realize any of this until I'm cured."
Erinyes looked at herself in the mirror that early morning as she applied her makeup. It was routine for her to get up every morning at o six hundred and make herself presentable. Deviation from that was never acceptable to her, no matter how late she went to bed. Discipline was everything to her. Her father taught her that. He also taught her something else. How to broker deals with enemies to take out another enemy. Alliances with their enemies were short lived if a bigger threat was upon them. Long term was never an option. Sometimes this would not be expressed verbally to the party on the other side. Much to her dissatisfaction to stray away from things that her father did that she didn't agree with, she had to follow in his footsteps. A call was being placed by her staff to Omega to the recipient, Aria T'Loak. Once connection was made and accepted, then the call would be routed to her quarters. No visual. She wasn't about to give Aria the advantage of her knowing her face. Erinyes wasn't with her father when he had to broker a deal with the queen of Omega near the last few years of his lifespan. His reports to her were all that she had. Transcripts of each call. Aria was feisty and cunning. She seemed to get the best of her father even without his knowledge. She wasn't about to let this happen.
The failed attack on Aria's life would make it difficult to place agents to track down Shepard there. Deals had to be made. She had to get Aria's cooperation in finding her asset for her. Losing Shepard on Omega was not an option. She had to keep her there and out of the hands of her friends. "Call placed into the communications room, mam." One of her staff members came through the room's intercom.
"Transfer the call here." Erinyes replied.
"Aria requested a video call, mam." The agent's voice wavered. "She insisted- "
"You don't let her insist anything." Erinyes shouted back angrily. The room fell silent. She knew the poor staff member was probably squirming in their chair. Displeasure to their leader was ill advised. "Keep the call there. I will be there momentarily." She smirked as she moved out of the room towards the call's whereabouts. If Aria wanted to play this game, then she would be up for the challenge.
Once inside the room, she seated herself behind the main desk and engaged their video scrambler program. A neat trick that she obtained from a mutual client. It would randomly give computer images of different species instead of her own image. Her voice would still be masked. She selected the voice type to be of a male to even screw with Aria more. She could see what was being displayed to Aria on the right terminal and on the left terminal was the video feed of Aria's unhappy face. Erinyes fought back the urge to grin at the deceit since it would be displayed by the program. The right displayed a male green tone salarian sitting at the same position as she was. "Aria T'Loak, it is a pleasure to speak with you." She said through the microphone. On other end, a male human deep voice spoke showing the age around fifty in their life years, Eastern European descent. Not Salarian at all.
"A video and voice scrambler." Aria rolled her eyes at the ruse. "How cute."
The video changed over to a four eyed batarian male instead. "Sorry, Aria. I forgot you are not into salarians. Is this more to your liking?"
Aria's eye ridges creased downwards with anger. "What's that supposed to imply?" Her voice dangerous.
"Or this?" The video changed by Erinyes fingertips to a blue skin maiden staged asari. "Little more provocative?"
"Stop fucking around." Aria seethed. "Just tell me what the hell that you want."
"I'm here to strike a deal with you. There's an asset of mine that has made its way on Omega."
"Then come here yourself and I can put a biotic sphere right up your ass." The asari spat flatly.
"I can make it worth your while." The image switched over to a krogan.
The physical appearance constant changes were becoming bothersome to T'Loak. She rolled her eyes again. "Fine. Tell me and quit messing around with your program. I hate that shit."
"We have learned that Commander Shepard is very much alive and is on Omega. Her recovery is crucial."
Aria's face remained neutral for several seconds, then she replied, "How much?"
Erinyes fought back the urge to smile even more. Greed was always a weakness to Aria she noted in earlier transcripts. "Depends on what you are wanting in exchange. Ships? Credits?"
"Five hundred thousand now and I will decide the rest when I capture Shepard for you." Aria smirked.
The amount sought was extremely high and this infuriated Erinyes. The asari's greedy nature could not be overlooked anymore. "Two hundred thousand and not anymore."
"Agreed," The smirk on Aria's face didn't falter.
"I will transfer the credits now. I look forward to working with you, Aria T' Loak."
"Show me your face." Aria demanded. "How can I trust someone that I do not know?"
Erinyes was expecting this. Her face was well hidden throughout her years, so it wasn't like Aria wouldn't instantly recognize her even with scans. She would risk this. Shepard was worth the risk. Stopping the program, she displayed the real image of her face. "Satisfied?"
"Close enough." Aria ended the call.
"Just made two hundred thousand credits for nothing," Bray chuckled with a big grin on his batarian face after the call ended. He was listening quietly from his post. Aria played into their caller perfectly. "Shepard's not even here anymore."
"Because you fucking lost her," Aria narrowed her eyes at him. "Two hundred thousand is nothing." She tossed aside casually as she rose up from her couch, summoning her hand maiden to come over to give her another wine glass.
"Charon must be desperate if they wanted to kill you before, Aria and now want to kiss your ass for help."
"I must admit that it is unsettling. A female wanting to go up against me is very impressive. She does have balls that's for sure." She smiled to herself. "More than most."
"Last time a female dared to go up against you was Nyreen." Bray thought back to the heated argument that rose between the Talon leader and Aria.
Spinning around, Aria delivered a hard-biotic shove that knocked Bray down the steps and into a salarian server, scattering his drinks all over the floor. "Don't speak her name!" She hissed lowly to him as her heart pounded. She was not entirely over the loss of Nyreen from the adjutants and the painful memory of her lost lover's face was not what she needed right now. The disruption caused a stir in the nearby crowd as their eyes looked up to see Aria standing at the top of the platform and then to the scrambling body guard, drenched in alcoholic beverages. The salarian server was muttering under his breath as he tried to clean up the pieces of shattered glasses. Seeing their eyes upon her Aria glared down at them. "What the hell are you looking at?!" The patrons quickly moved away to their own affairs.
Still fuming, Aria moved over to her couch once more and tossed back the full glass of wine; discarding the glass down angrily to the floor, ignoring the breakage. Her maiden would dutiful pick it up. Seconds later, she was right. She didn't like the fact that Shepard left the station. Charon would come to collect. The ruse would not last forever. She was tired of the mess that Shepard placed on the station. Omega's stance was always to stay out of council affairs. Especially Spectre's. She would not sit back any more. She would find Shepard and collect on the bounty. Her aid to retake Omega was a footnote.
Their partnership dissolved after she had the station back. Whatever happened to the former Commander after that was of no concern of hers.
Erinyes remained seated at the workstation following the call. She didn't like the idea of revealing her face to someone like Aria, but she anticipated this demand. She was confident that she could not be tracked down and no harm would come to her or her organization by doing so. Her father always explained to her that sometimes there had to be personal risks to benefit human kind. He lived to this quote to the very end of his life.
The hunt for Shepard drew her away from her true motivation and she blamed herself for the distraction. Shepard was only a piece in the chaos she was creating. The war between the krogan and turians seemed to be on standby. Future engagements may risk exposure to Charon. She would let them simmer for now. Another log would be place into the fire soon. She needed to focus on her true mission. There would be no more failures against past squadmates. It was time to continue her purpose. Per Avery's report, Zaeed Massani was recognized at the bar she went to find Shepard. She learned from him that she left there with two batarian Blue Suns mercenary to Omega. Zaeed Massani was a former member of Shepard's team. Contracted as a dossier to help Shepard take down the Collectors. Somehow, Shepard gained Zaeed's loyalty over credits and he maintained to be on her team even when she double-crossed Cerberus. She didn't give the order to Avery at the time because tracking down Shepard was key. They had to do this discreetly. She had what she needed from him and now he was useless. "Avery?" She waited for the connection for her agent to be made.
"Yes, mam?" Avery's distorted face came through seconds later on the visual. She was in her private ship.
"Change of plans. Go back and take out Massani."
"Understood. I will double back there now."
"For a prize, bring me back his fake eye."
"Acknowledged. What about Shepard, mam? Has Raven been located on Omega?"
"I have that worked on, Avery. Do not fail me."
"I won't."