Chapter Notes:

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Reference Notes:

Revision History: 11/04/2017

Part 1: Chapter 3::19 hrs Post Awakening: Normandy SR2/MSV Menrva

A few hours after she left the Cerberus operative's office Shepard received a message from Miranda informing her that the other woman had submitted her suggestions to the Illusive Man for review, and requesting her presence on the Normandy SR2/possibly future MSV Menrva for a walk-through of the ship and to meet her new crew.

Entering the vessel through the main airlock on the command deck, Shepard motioned for Miranda to go on ahead, assuring her she would catch up in a few minutes after checking in with Joker. Turning, she made her way forward to very front of the ships fuselage, the bow of the vessel. Windows, windows everywhere top and bottom, was her first impression of the ship's bridge. Once they left the station, she had no doubt that the view from here would be very impressive. It would also be extremely vulnerable during combat if the bridge relied solely on the ships barriers for protection, so she hoped it came with some deployable armor. Joker was still a bit subdued from their discussion earlier, but still rallied enough to wax almost poetical about the comfort of his pilot's chair, including the fact that it was upholstered in quality leather.

And then the strange holographic blue globe next to Joker spoke up, or as Joker called it…ship cancer. An actual AI…completely against both Citadel and League laws, incorporated into the basic electronics and wiring of the ship and shackled by Cerberus. Who knew what hard coded back-doors they had built into AI's programming, ones that not even it might be aware existed until they were activated. If it wasn't for the fact that the AI was hardwired into her ship, Shepard would have had less problems with it. Even with her encounters with the Geth during her hunt for Saren, and their alliance with the Reapers, Shepard wasn't quite certain what to think of AI's in general. Perhaps it was simply due to her upbringing as a human, there were so many different stories humans had written about AI before they had even found the ruins on Mars. Murderous AI, hero AI, and simply indifferent AI, all of them were represented in various stories, films and games.

That had actually been a fairly major source of contention between she and Tali over the Geth during their hunt for Saren. Shepard was uncertain what the Geth would have done if the Quarians hadn't attempted to destroy them, and Tali had been adamant that they would have eventually rebelled. Amanda was still not certain, AI's weren't organic, they weren't limited to one physical body. Would they even care that some of their platforms were picking vegetables and doing household chores if they were allowed to self-task other platforms? She honestly didn't know, and certainly the Quarians had not given the Geth the opportunity to show that they did not intend to start any violence. Once the Quarians did attack, the Geths' programmed self-preservation sub-routines, ones the Quarians themselves had programed into the machines, had probably prompted the AI on how to defend themselves from forcefully being deactivated. What had happened next had resulted in the deaths of billions of Quarians, and the loss of their home world and colonies.

That worst case scenario aside though, Shepard thought with a dose of black humor, the idea of an AI operating the ships electronic and cyberwarfare suites seemed intriguing, and coincidentally the way humans had most frequently portrayed AI's being used in science fiction. So not a big surprise that Cerberus scientists had developed this AI for just that purpose. Even the AI's name, Enhanced Defense Intelligence, sounded like something they had taken right out of a popular gaming series. What the AI had admitted next though was not as nearly intriguing, nor in any way geekily amusing - not when the topic was collating all the records from the ships on-board monitoring devices for review by the Illusive Man.

In other words, the AI was tasked with spying on the crew, and there was no telling how extensive it's monitoring capabilities were throughout the ship. Probably wise to assume that the entire ship was closely monitored which meant that she should assume every conversation was being recorded by passive monitoring devices. Every electronic communication would also be monitored, but then that was the case on any Alliance military ship, thought Shepard as she made her way toward the ship's CIC or combat information center. Passive scanning should let her know if more active scanning measures were being employed to monitor certain biometric data. Though honestly her Cerberus provided omni-tool was suspect there, Shepard realized with a grimace, no telling what data it was sending on her biometrics and activities. Maybe while she was on the Citadel she could get this one examined to see what information it was storing and sending, and if necessary replace it with an Alliance hardened one.

"I think Joker has a leather fetish," Shepard confided with a smirk as she came up to the waiting Cerberus operative.

Miranda rolled her eyes, but did not otherwise reply to the Commander's quip. Instead, in a completely professional tone, she responded, "This is the CIC, the ship's tactical center, providing processed tactical information as well as the navigational display and control center. Behind the CIC are the Research and Tech Labs, the Armory, and the Briefing and Communications Room. If you would like, while we are on the Command Deck, we can speak with Jacob about obtaining that armor you mentioned earlier."

"Sure," Shepard agreed easily, following along behind the dark-haired woman as they walked around the large oval of the navigational center. Miranda hadn't been nearly as obstructive as she had anticipated over her suggestions about how to conceal their identity, so she was feeling slightly more charitable toward the dark-haired woman now than earlier in the day. Perhaps the operative had been just as concerned about how they would be able to complete their mission, but hadn't mentioned anything to her boss. Which actually…Amanda frowned, was something to consider, just why did a terrorist organization want to boldly advertise their presence by stamping their logo on nearly everything when so many different groups were gunning for them? It was…odd now that she thought about it.

Still though, this wasn't the time to bring that particular question up, she did however have a different question. "Those independent colonies the Collectors hit - I've been to New Dehili and Trafager, and I already mentioned that I'd been to Freedom's Progress a few times. Those colonies all have a red-light section of town full of bars, clubs, casinos and brothels just to lure in mercenaries. Mercs come, spend their money and have a good time, and as a side benefit their presence as well as the regular ship traffic from Alliance and League space serves as an extra deterrent to slaver attacks. I noticed on Freedoms Progress that there weren't any visiting mercenary ships at the starport. Was that the case at the other to colonies, the Collectors attacked in between mercenary group arrivals?"

Miranda slowed, shot her a sideways glance. "Correct," the operative confirmed. "On New Dehili the Collectors attacked within a 16-hour window just after an Eclipse ship left and a Blue Suns ship was due to arrive. The Blue Suns were actually the one's to first discover their disappearance. On Trafager, the same thing, but this time the Eclipse were the ones who arrived only to find the colony completely deserted."

Shepard frowned, "Interesting, so they're monitoring these colonies closely enough to know exactly what the ship arrival schedules are and when to attack to avoid them. And…they want to avoid them. I wonder why?" she mused softly. "In their attack on Freedom's Progress they obviously had sufficient numbers and equipment to subdue and clear out almost a million people in less than 12 hours. That's what…" she had to pause to do the math, "80,000 people in an hour? Or around 1400 every minute? When you have a force capable of that why worry about a few thousand or so mercenaries?"

"We know they subdue the population using those paralyzing seeker swarms from the footage recovered from Freedom's Progress," Miranda replied, "and that they used some type of hovering stasis pod to confine and move them onto their ship."

Amanda felt an upwelling of helpless rage and sorrow as she recalled how the Collectors had lifted and thrown the colonists into those pods as if they were nothing but cargo. It reminded her too much of the way Batarians treated their captives. Realizing what she was doing, the Commander exhaled slowly, and forced herself to emotionally detach from the colonists' situation. Rage and sorrow might make her feel as if she were doing something, but the fact of the matter was that her emotions didn't actually do anything for those colonists or in any way affect whatever was currently happening to them. Clear thinking might however, or at least might prevent more colonists from suffering the same fate.

"Commander?" Miranda glanced over curiously at her silence.

"Just thinking about the information we got from Veetor," Shepard deflected, "Those seeker swarms allow the Collectors to subdue large populations relatively easily, and those pods seemed somewhat automated in their pathing. Between the two, its likely the Collectors only need a relatively small force to take a colony. I would guess only slightly more than the minimum number required to collect and move the colonists. That would give them some leeway if they faced more opposition than expected once on planet. Minimal numbers would also account for them avoiding attacking the colony when there were a large number of visiting mercenaries, as would the seeker swarms being confused by the presence of multiple species which is common in League mercenary groups." She followed Miranda through a bulkhead door, the word ARMORY painted in white on the grey wall beside it. "We might even be able to get a very rough idea of how many Collectors were on Freedom's Progress from the information Veetor gave us."

"Already done," Miranda replied as she stopped just inside the long room, "We estimate the number of attacking Collectors was around 15,000." The dark-haired woman scowled, "If not for those seeker swarms the colonial militia would have been able to drive them off even with the Collector's technological advantages given how much they outnumbered them."

"Most likely," Shepard agreed, "on most colony worlds every able-bodied adult belongs to and trains at least a few hours every weekend with the colonies militia. They would have far outnumbered them."

Jacob, who had been working at one of the workbenches along the wall, stopped what he was doing and came over to them. The former Corsair himself up, "Miranda, Commander," he greeted them. Shepard was relieved he had listened to her request and stopped saluting her every time they met. She much preferred the simpler attention stance rather than having to exchange salutes every time she turned around, especially on smaller ships when everyone should be focused on their duty stations and not on her movements.

"Jacob," Miranda responded, "The Commander feels we should make an effort to conceal our identities, both as Cerberus personnel and as humans, while operating in the Terminus Systems. She mentioned an armor that Alliance operatives frequently use in the Terminus to hide the fact that they're humans?"

He looked puzzled for a moment before his expression cleared, "Yea I think I know the armor you're talking about. League made, they call it Anoydine Armor…"

Shepard nodded sharply as hearing the name refreshed her memory, "That's it, bulky looking armor, but highly modifiable."

Jacob nodded, "That's it alright, and I know right where to get us some sets. We won't even need to go into League space to get it. Hange Prime should have everything we need, I can just order it from them and have it picked up and delivered to us. It's a really popular armor among mercenaries," he continued, "pretty much just an outer shell as it's expected that you'll add your own underlay, outerlay, electronics and VI, kinetic barriers, protective coating or plating, and any mechanical augmentations you want to it. I can pull everything we will need for a basic armor set out of the standard Cerberus hardsuits we already have on hand. If we get something better," Jacob shrugged to show this wasn't a big deal, "then we just pull the armor apart and rebuild it with the new layer. The outer shell will be a matte black, but it will take almost any type of coating or plating you want to use. Very individualized." He rocked back on his heels, "It doesn't look like much, and certainly isn't form fitting, but that's what the mercenaries like about it. You can't really tell if a person wearing it has only a base level of protection or something really advanced just from looking at it."

"Its deceptive," Shepard agreed with a nod, "and while we may get a few looks for wearing it, the person staring will probably be trying to figure the armor out rather than whose wearing it."

The three of them discussed the specifics of the proposed purchase for a while longer. The number and basic size ranges of Anoydine Armor to buy, as well as the purchase of some component pieces. Shepard in particular wanted a specific type of asari made kinetic shield which she preferred for its protection level and exceptionally quick recharge speed.

As she and Miranda were leaving the armory the dark-haired woman inquired, "You don't find that so many colonies have red light districts objectionable?"

Shepard glanced over, saw the slight frown creasing the other woman's brow. "Not really," she responded with a mild tone, "Those red-light sectors and the traffic they drew in were the only reason those colonies were still independent. Otherwise they would have had to invest much more heavily in their defenses or become part of the Alliance or League. The threat of slavers and pirates is just part of the risks of living outside of Citadel space. You either pay your taxes to the Alliance or League, pay for enough soldiers and defenses to deter attacks, or get attacked. So…no I don't really find it objectionable, that was their decision on how to handle the risk they faced."

Miranda slowed to a halt and turned to face her, "And the fact that they really wanted asari mercenaries for their abilities instead of human ones?" Now she sounded a bit agitated.

Shepard snorted and crossed her arms as she leaned against the nearest wall, "Honestly, no not really. Asari simply have more time to learn their biotic abilities so they generally are more adept at using them. And the fact that they actually metabolize small amounts of eezo over their lifespan means that they will eventually be stronger than any human biotic. These are facts based on biological differences between Humans and Asari. We can whine about the unfairness of it and feel sorry for ourselves as much as we want, but neither will do anything to change reality. Personally, I prefer not to waste my time like that and prefer to focus instead on what I can achieve."

Before Miranda could respond, she continued, "And the colony authorities didn't just prefer the asari mercenaries to the human ones for their combat abilities. Asari mercenaries are less likely to start fights or attempt to commit crimes," Shepard smirked, "or at least not while they're focused on partying. A simple examination of the police records shows the difference in number of arrests between the different merc groups. The only way you get more is to mix the two and thats mostly due to the human mercs starting fights with the asari. As a result, the colonies make every attempt to keep the Alliance based and League based mercenary groups separate. I know for a fact that most of the sex workers preferred asari over humans because we employed quite a few of them as informants and they were constantly leaving to go to League space. Asari generally treat sex workers much better than humans. They don't call them names, they don't demean them, they pay them more, and I've never heard of an asari harming or even threatening to harm a sex worker… So yea the sex workers, whether they were men or women, preferred asari to humans…not very surprising."

Amanda almost laughed at the look of annoyance on Miranda's face. "That may be," the operative snapped her mouth shut on the last word, only to inhale and start on what she obviously wanted to address. "But that is one of the reason's that Cerberus exists. Why should we simply accept those biological differences when the ability to erase them is within our reach?"

Shepard had to admit that the other woman seemed sincerely passionate about this topic, but there were more than a few problematic issues with the idea. "Using what methods? Your already suspected of causing most of the accidental eezo exposures that killed almost 75 percent of those affected. Exactly how many humans are you going to kill in your research to attain these goals? How many dead humans lie at Cerberus feet in the attempt already? Over 100,000 combined from those accidental exposures alone. And at the same time you're searching for a way to strip the Asari of their biotics? Don't lie," Shepard snapped out coldly as she saw the other woman was about to interrupt her with another empty excuse, "that's obviously what the research on Trident was about, how do you think the League and Republics will react if you actually manage it?"

"We wouldn't use it," Miranda didn't even try and deny the intent of the Trident research, "just the threat of it would…"

"Would do what?" Shepard snapped incredulously, "you're not stupid, Miranda, what exactly would the Asari do if Cerberus did make such a threat? They would have to react decisively enough to discourage the Hegemony and Union from trying the same thing. So, they would probably let the Hierarchy do what they've wanted to do all these years since the First Contact War. Only this time the Republics would help the Turians subdue Humanity, strip us of our colony worlds, and confine us to Earth. Billions of humans would die and those biotic abilities that you want to develop wouldn't be of much use when we're outnumbered by around 175 to 1. We don't live in some dream world Miranda, and Cerberus' actions can have very serious consequences for the rest of Humanity. You might want to start considering what those consequences might be before doing anything likely to cause grievous repercussions." She turned and waked toward the elevator at the back of the Command Deck, only to come to a halt with her back to the operative. There was one other thing she just had to add, "Not to mention that you can bet the Asari Republics has already considered why Cerberus was testing that drug, and that knowledge has probably already damaged the relationship between the Alliance and Republics even without Cerberus doing anything else other than what you've already managed to do."

Shepard was still fuming when she entered the elevator. Distantly she realized that she certainly wasn't exhibiting her normal level of control over her emotions, and it was a problem - that outburst was a problem. "Ugg," she growled as she forcefully tapped the next deck down, the Engineering Deck, on the elevator's destination panel. Might as well walk through Engineering and the Shuttle Deck before heading up to Captain's cabin, it would give her a chance to keep moving for a while longer, and that would help her calm down. She was quite aware that by the end of her tirade everyone in the CIC was staring at them two of them. Amanda reached up rubbed her forehead, that hadn't exactly been what she wanted to happen, but she had had a chance to think over the events on Trident and the League's reaction and realized something extremely troubling.

The Asari, whether League or Republic, were not going to react well to any government or group actively researching how to take away their biotics. She was quite aware that part of the classified briefing about the League had included speculation that the Terminus salarians, or Lystheni, had made the mistake of researching something similar… The conflict was called the Two Week War, and the reason behind it was a supposed terrorist attack utilizing a dirty radioactive bomb on Warlord Seva's personal estate. The entire League had responded to the attempted attack, and as the wars name implied, overwhelmed all of the Lystheni colonies and outposts within a period of only two weeks. Then, in just a few years, every Lystheni daltress had taken an asari bondmate - an asari bondmate that was present for every hatching, and to whom every Lystheni hatchling was just as imprinted upon as their daltress. That was still the case today, every new generation of Lystheni females took an asari bondmate. It had seemingly become the custom for them…and it conveniently allowed the asari of the League to keep the Lystheni both completely loyal to them and under their absolute control.

Taken from a strictly historical perspective, the League's reaction seemed a bit of overkill, but not entirely unreasonable depending on the exact size and composition of the bomb in question. And that was how the Systems Alliance had taken it…until SA Intelligence, quite by accident, uncovered a very different reason behind the Leagues' attack on the Lystheni. Something to do with a biotic dampening bio-weapon they had been developing against the Asari. No, Shepard felt a chill go through her, the Asari would not let what happened on Trident go without some level of response and the last time someone had tried this the Asari had removed their ability to be a threat altogether. And now Cerberus was striking dangerously close to doing something very similar to what the Lystheni had done that earned them an imprint collar from the Asari. The Turians sometimes sneeringly called humans Asari pets, but that might become a lot more literal than Humanity was comfortable with if the Asari ever felt actually threatened by them. The Illusive Man seemed aware of everything in the Alliance, was he aware of that particular report? And if he was aware of it, what exactly what was he up to taking such a dangerous course of action? Maybe it simply wasn't true? Amanda shook her head, she simply didn't know enough to even really make a good guess at this point.

Nearly two hours later, Shepard concluded her conversation with engineers Kenneth Donnelly and Gabriella Daniels. She stored Engineer Donnelly's request for T6 FBA couplings in her omni-tool and returned to the ship's only elevator. At least this one moved much faster than the one in the original Normandy which had served both as a heavy equipment lift and an elevator. This new ship was large enough to have heavy equipment lifts in the central cargo area, which meant the central elevator's sole purpose was to transport personnel from one deck to another.

As soon as the doors slid shut leaving her alone and out of sight, Shepard raised her hand and let her fingertips carefully explore what felt like a network of scars on both sides of her face. Underneath them, her face ached with a dull repetitive throb, bone deep and inescapable. It had been that way ever since she had woken up, though admittedly it did seem that it didn't hurt as much now as it had a several hours ago, perhaps it was getting better. Shepard leaned back against the smooth steel wall behind her, she was exhausted. She had been moving and fighting with only short breaks to take a few hours nap in ever since Miranda had woken her in the medical bay to the sound of gunfire and explosions and the news that someone was trying to kill her almost a day ago. Or perhaps more accurately, Amanda thought with grim humor, attempting to re-kill her. Though she did wonder why Wilson had waited until then, it seemed as if it would have been so much easier just to fail at repairing her body, to have never let things get to the point where she could wake up at all.

Following their escape from the Lazarus Project's base, she had been taken to another Cerberus facility where she had met, if that was the right term for the long distance holographic meeting, with the leader of Cerberus, the Illusive Man. It hadn't been hard to deduce that he was absolutely certain the Reapers were behind the human colony abductions. From the moment he assured her that they could split ways if she didn't find any evidence of the Reapers there, she had been sourly certain that she would find that evidence. Getting away from Cerberus wouldn't be so simple, not after they had spent four billion credits to bring her back.

As for this afternoon, the crew had been polite to her as she made her tour of the new ship, but it was hard not to notice how their eyes went to her face and then shifted uncomfortably away. Miranda and Jacob hadn't, but presumably they were more used to her appearance or at least had more self-control. Amanda tapped the Captain's Cabin, the upper desk on the destination panel. Surely there would be a mirror there, it was past time for her to see clearly what she had only seen up until now in vague reflections in passing windows. She needed to know…to see, how much of herself was left and how much had been replaced.

A few extra bits and pieces Jacob Taylor had commented. Shepard was reasonably sure he had meant it to be reassuring, even though she hadn't found much reassurance in it for she suspected it was rather more than a few extra bits and pieces. She remembered dying with a clarity that she wished she didn't have, the hissing of escaping air from her combat suit that she had noticed as soon as the explosions from the ship had died away. The struggle to reach the back of her suit, to try to find some way to stop the escaping oxygen only to realize, as she gasped for each successively harder and harder to take breath, that it was the rebreather itself that was damaged and not just one of the hoses.

She had finally focused on the planet filling up her field of view, her mind sharpening, focusing in the same way it did when she was in the midst of battle, when everything seemed to slow to almost a crawl giving her time to analyze and react what was happening. That clarity of mind had brought with it the realization that she wouldn't be able escape this, there would be no convenient last second place to hide this time from the death come calling for her. Her struggles stilled, her body going limp as she finally stopped trying to futilely take a breath. There had been a long moment of aching sorrow that she was leaving Liara alone mixed in with a plea to whatever might be listening that the young asari and her crew had gotten away safely and were still alive and unharmed and would remain so until their distress call was answered. As it became harder to focus, she had made a final silent cry of apology that she hadn't been able to beat this to her lover, felt a chill of worry and fear about the future and the threat of extinction facing all of them… and then everything had faded away. Her surrender to death should have been the end of her life.

Only it hadn't been...

The elevator doors opened and she stepped out into the short hallway. A door on her left, the only one in the hallway, was simply marked Deck 1 and then underneath in smaller lettering, Captain's Cabin. The door opened and she entered the room taking in the spaciousness of it and of all things two large fish tanks built into the left wall. There was a work area on her right as she first entered separated by a large display case and stairs leading to a lower area where her bed and lockers for her clothing and armor were located. She took in everything with a long glance before turning to the bathroom which was on her immediate right as she first entered her quarters.

Given the bits of logs she had found and listened to during her fight through the station where she had first awoken, Amanda strongly suspected that all the skin on her body had needed replacement. Vacuum and the cold of space were not kind to unprotected flesh. Not to mention what must have happened to her body as the gravity from the nearby planet she had seen filling her vision before she died pulled her down onto its surface.

Entering the small room, she flicked on the light. The expected sink and mirror were indeed there along with a standard ships toilet beside the sink. She moved in front of the sink, looked with resolute grimness into the mirror. Her resolution lasted only a second before shifting into numbed horror. An orange-hued something could be seen where the open seams between the patches of skin grafts revealed what was underneath, it certainly wasn't flesh. It wasn't limited to her cheeks and jaw either, the same orange material also showed though a long unhealed area on her forehead. Dear Goddess, no wonder the crew had stared at her.

"In an effort to accelerate the process we've moved from simple organic reconstruction of the subject to bio-synthetic fusion. Initial results show promise." Memory rose of listening to the log in numbed disbelief, suspecting strongly that the subject the woman was speaking of was her.

Was this the bio-synthetic Miranda Lawson had been talking about or something else? Cybernetics? Hell, how much of her face was even her face anymore? Amanda turned her head to examine her cheek more closely and caught the faint reddish glow from deep within the pupils of her eyes. She drew in a sharp startled breath as she jerked back from the mirror.

"When I first saw you, you were nothing more than meat and tubes. Anywhere else they would have stuck you in a coffin." Jacob's frankness had been numbing, as had his news that she had been… gone for two years.

Shepard swallowed heavily as she remembered the log entry she had found near the shuttle bay, the aborted move by Jacob to prevent her that she had stopped with one hard glare. "Test subject has been recovered but the damage is far worse than we initially feared. In addition to the expected burns and internal injuries from the explosion, subject has suffered significant cellular breakdown due to long term exposure to vacuum and subzero temperatures."

"I guess there wasn't much left of my eyes," in the silence, her own husky sounding whisper startled her. She hadn't realized she had spoken her thought aloud. How much of her had been left, she had been…salvageable she knew that, but just how much of this body was hers and how much of it wasn't? With a grim expression she began taking off her clothes, it was time to see what the butcher's bill was for this. The thought broke a grim bark of laughter from her. She already knew the butcher's bill, four billion credits, and she had no doubt Cerberus intended to get their full value back out of her.