Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.
Rewrite Notes: Still inspired by the Beyonce song "Save the Hero," from the album I am…Sasha Fierce.
Author's Notes: I've always liked how PMC65 portrayed Asari culture, this chapter takes a lot of inspiration from her works especially the part where younger Asari learn directly from their mothers or other elder family members how to deal with emotional loss.
Revision History: 01/11/2018
Part 1: Chapter 14::12 Days Post-Awakening: Citadel Part 2
In the week following the data breach at the Ministry of Finance, Tela managed to make significant progress in discovering who had broken into the Citadel's Ministry of Finance, stolen classified data, and then published it on the Extranet. The successful attack had been orchestrated and carried out by a group calling itself TruthHax who claimed to be an activist group who thought that all information collected by the government should be freely available to its citizens. Citadel Intelligence, however, believed whoever was behind the break in at the Citadel had other motives that had nothing to do with the groups stated manifesto and a lot more to do with a certain volus clan's business interests.
Tela agreed with them. Finding definitive truth of that involvement that would hold up in court however, that would be another matter. Right after the break in and data theft at the Ministry of Finance, Citadel Intelligence had immediately started looking into the possibility that the Volus Protectorate and the Nao Clan in particular were behind it as they had been the most outspoken critics of the Council keeping their economic statistical sources secret. In response to Citadel Intelligence's investigations, the Nao Clan had very publicly declared that they had nothing to do with the break in, were indignant and offended that the Council would suspect them of such a thing, and condemned the actions of those who perpetrated it.
Determining exactly how the TruthHax hackers had gotten in and what they had done once inside had taken many hours of painstaking work sorting through data traffic logs and looking for correlations. Once that had been accomplished then the more difficult task had begun, following that trail back out the Extranet to determine where the attack had ultimately originated. Fortunately, all data connections were logged thought the official communications buoys which distributed the Extranet through Citadel space and beyond. You could obscure your involvement by using a series of intermediary devices, but a dedicated investigator, if they were patient, could ultimately follow the trail back through each hacked device. Tela was that methodical and patient when it came to tracking down her prey. That was the reason Councilor Tevos had assigned her to the case even though it meant putting off her investigation into the sudden re-appearance of Spectre Shepard.
The trail of the hackers led through several different compromised computers, but eventually Tela traced TruthHax's trail to Illium. That had surprised her, she had been expecting the trail to lead to one of the independent colonies out in the Terminus Systems. Illium though, that was interesting, and another potential tie in to the Nao Clan who had extensive holdings on the planet. It also made it a fairly simple task to track exactly where TruthHax was operating from on the planet, as Illium's government cooperated extensively with the Republics Intelligence Service as one of the stipulations for its continued independence from the Republics while still receiving all of the benefits of the Republics protection. With the assistance of RIS's Nos Astra branch office, Tela had recently discovered that TruthHax was composed of ten individuals who fell into two distinct groups. Six were young and seemingly naive hackers, two humans and four salarians, all males, who seemed to actually believe TruthHax's manifesto. The other four cell members were volus and were different matter entirely. They had ties to a rather powerful financial company which happened to also be majority owned by the Nao Clan. By now Tela was certain the Nao Clan was indeed behind the attack but she didn't have any evidence yet to legally prove it. For that she needed to head to Illium herself to lead the ongoing investigation, and while she was there she would also speak to Liara T'Soni, thus progressing that line of investigation as well.
She had actually been making preparations for the trip when the communication from Councilor Tevos had come in, notifying her that Spectre Shepard, or at least the individual claiming to be Spectre Shepard was expected at the Citadel in two and a half hours. She along with Senior Spectre M'Tara and Spectre Vanis were to meet her with the out of sight backup of a C-Sec rapid response team. Shortly afterward they had been sent confirmation of the arrival shuttle location and time by Councilor Anderson's office along with the video of their target in dark grey and blue armor boarding the regular shuttle service from Terra Nova Starport to the Citadel. Following that they had been given access by Councilor Tevos not only to Shepard's official personnel files, but just as importantly to Shepard's RIS dossier, which contained all of the collected information the Republics Intelligence Service had ever collected on the human over the course of her entire lifetime.
Tela promptly reserved one of the conference rooms in the Spectre Headquarters, located on the levels above C-Sec Administration, and requested that Alena and Cesra join her there as soon as possible. Once dressed in her armor, Tela headed there herself, knowing that the other two nais would be there shortly. As they now only had two hours to scan through the data, meet with the C-Sec security team and be in place before the shuttle arrived, Tela divided up the information between the three of them for a quick review. Anything that seemed particularly relevant they would share with the others.
Tela kept the RIS dossier for herself while dividing up the more extensive documentation in Shepard's official personnel files between Alena and Cesra. It made for some interesting and occasionally odd reading, which was not that surprising considering that RIS normally obtained information on non-asari only when they came into contact with one of their agents or their agent's network of sources. Therefore, the nature of the information gained depended primarily on the nature of the contact. Shepard's dossier came with the normal biographical information, details about her childhood, education, military service and any notable life events. The human's was longer than many Tela had read, but then Shepard had been successfully nominated as a Spectre, it stood to reason she had accomplished more than her peers. The only thing of note that stood out to her in the biographical section was that Shepard's training in childhood had been primarily in the arts: music, dance, acting and theater. She had been apparently extremely gifted as well, for the dossier mentioned that a human matriarch, who was highly regarded for her abilities as a teacher in the arts, had picked Shepard as her final acolyte and moved to Mindoir to focus solely on finishing her training.
The brutal attack on Mindoir by batarian slavers left Shepard without either of her parents. Even the human matriarch who had trained her had been killed by the slavers. Her father's mother, a well-regarded judge for one of the many governments on the human's home world, took responsibility for her, bringing her back to Earth. There Shepard's path abruptly diverted from the arts to the military. Instead of attending one of Earths academies for the arts, Shepard had instead enrolled in a military academy. Again, she had excelled, rising in the regard of both trainers and peers as one of the more talented cadets, a term which seemed to equate to huntress trainee. She had continued to excel during her training at the Systems Alliance Military Academy, graduating among the top of her class, and then conclusively proven her military acumen and ability to lead during the slaver attack on Elysium.
Then came the first odd entry in the RIS dossier, a report about a brief liaison with a Commando maiden shortly after the events on Elysium. At Shepard's request they hadn't melded, and the maiden had commented how much she had regretted that during the pleasuring that had followed due to the human's unusual intensity and focus. Tela suspected the incident had only been included because the subject was the human's 'Lion of Elysium' as the human press had called Shepard after her successes on Elysium against overwhelming odds. The encounter indicated that Shepard was at least curious about asari, something that was of course proven later with her relationship with Liara T'Soni, and Tela didn't doubt that RIS had documented it because they felt it was something that might be exploited in the future if necessary.
The next series of entries came after Shepard's training at the System Alliance's Interplanetary Combatives Academy, the human's version of Commando level training, and her graduation from there as a N4 ranked special forces operative. That placed her in the upper ten percent of the graduating class, as the remainder were assigned a N3 ranking upon completion of their training. Tela knew that the Alliance ran anti-slavery and anti-piracy operations out in the Terminus Systems. She had even run across a few of them herself while on her own missions, so she was aware that they frequently attempted to obscure the fact they were humans by pretending to be asari. Usually they failed rather dismally at it, apparently assuming that wearing concealing armor and asari helmets without making any effort to actually act like asari was enough to keep them anonymous. Quite frankly Tela thought they were fortunate that most Terminus asari simply didn't do anything to single out the clumsily moving, culturally blind 'asari' in their midst.
Shepard was apparently an exception, something that didn't come as a much of surprise to Tela given what she now knew of the human's childhood background. Shepard was able to, at least superficially, pass as an asari when undercover as one - even to other asari. That meant that Shepard was not only unusually graceful in her movement for a human, probably as a result of her dance training, but had made enough of a study of asari mannerisms to not immediately give herself away among them. Also, probably due to her early training, but this time in theater and acting as a performer. Tela's brown eyes narrowed as she thought about this particular piece of information, it also implied that Shepard had the ability pull off a deception successfully, something to keep in mind…provided of course they were actually dealing with Shepard or a clone with her memories and not a Cerberus impostor. Shepard was also multi-lingual. She was an expert in Human English, and conversational in Human Celtic Gaelic and Greek, and in Turian, Batarian and Thessian.
The three of them spent the last twenty minutes of their time discussing their target, known strengths, known weaknesses, her new biotic abilities. Then they decided on an approach. Their tasking was twofold, to stop their target if she proved hostile or to have hostile intentions, and determine whether or not, despite the odds against it, whether this was actually Shepard. In the meantime, with only a few suggestions about how to accomplish it, C-Sec had done a wonderful job in throwing up a temporary corridor leading off the arrivals terminal to C-Sec's medical ward where they provided treatment for their prisoners. Careful routing would ensure that their target never realized where exactly she was going or how segregated she was being kept until her identity could be confirmed. Once there, they would quickly separate their target from her armor and weapons. That still left their target's biotics to deal with, but then that was why Tevos had assigned three asari Spectre's to this task instead of anyone else.
Time was up. The three were still strategizing on their way to the shuttle arrivals terminal, deciding how to approach their target, and how to gain the advantage over her in case she did prove hostile. In this they followed what was essentially the Huntress's mantra: Gain the initiative, keep your target reacting to you rather than acting, and instantly exploit any weaknesses exposed by your target. The only exception they would be making was to not assume their target was hostile, or treat her in a hostile manner, but that didn't mean they couldn't subtly try and keep her off balance and keep a close and careful watch on her. Also since Shepard, and presumably any clone with her memories or operative trained in covert operations, was trained as an actress, as soon as they were sure she had no grenades of any kind on her they would open their rebreathers to the outside atmosphere and use their sense of smell to discern whether or not their target's feelings matched her actions. It wasn't infallible, but often it was very accurate.
At the arrivals terminal, Tela spent the last few minutes insuring everyone was in place before joining the other two Spectres and proceeding out into the passenger arrival area. Everyone in the area noticed them, and everyone gave them wide berth upon seeing the Spectre symbols on their shoulders. Everyone except for one lone female human passenger in grey and dark blue Terminus-style armor who spotted them as soon as she exited the shuttle ramp and immediately headed in their direction.
Twenty-five minutes later, "So, do you think that is really Shepard?" Cesra asked her and Alena as they entered the small room next to the C-Sec medical examination room where they could monitor what was going on within and intervene if necessary.
She and Alena glanced at one another, their subtly frowning expressions almost mirrors of one another. Tela glanced purposefully away and the taller matron answered, "I don't know, Cerberus is known for planning out some fairly elaborate deceptions, but I'm having difficulty imagining why they would so extensively replace a clone or operatives skin and musculature just to persuade us that her story is true. It would be just as easy to craft a plausible story that didn't require it."
Cesra frowned at her, "So, that's a yes?"
"That's a let's let the doctor do her work," Tela responded as she walked over to the display screen which showed what was going on in the examination room, "there are ways around the DNA scanners used at the arrival points, but not the cellular DNA testing we are doing to confirm her identity."
Alena walked over to stand beside her, and Tela looked up at her fellow Spectre at her exhaled breath. "Medical wouldn't release any of us in that condition, why was she even on Purgatory or Korlus…" she paused and the two of them glanced at one another. "I'll send it in," Alena said next activating her omni-tool and Tela nodded, they needed to know what Shepard had been doing on Korlus.
Cesra came up beside them, "What's going on?" the maiden inquired.
"Getting Intelligence to find out what she was doing on Korlus," Alena responded as she typed in the information.
Cesra nodded then looked up at the monitor, at her quick inhaled shocked sounding "Goddess," both of them looked up as well. Tela took a step back so she could see the long upper monitor that was currently displaying the results of the first scan. None of them were medical professionals, but as they all were Commandos, they had all had their share of injuries over the centuries and had seen scan results of their own bodies. A human's body shouldn't look that different, certainly not as different as what they were looking at now. Some of what Tela was seeing she could guess at what it was simply from having seen Shepard's body earlier. The denser material underneath the skin of her face, the entirety of her right arm, both hands, most of her left leg, and varied other places along her body was the bio-synthetic muscle they had seen in between the skin grafts earlier. Denser looking bone was undoubtedly the newer ceramic type bone replacement material, but even the bone that hadn't been replaced appeared to be denser than it should be on the scans. Tela's gaze shifted back up to the skull area, both eyes were very obviously cybernetic and it seemed as if most of the facial bones had needed replacing, what seemed to be natural bone left around the skull had been reinforced and protected with metal plating which also extended down the spine. Her gaze followed that along and spotted several of the spinal column disks had been replaced as well.
Beside her, Alena exhaled a loud breath and then wondered, "How is she even still alive after that much damage?"
A disquieting thought entered Tela's mind, the report Councilor Tevos had mentioned, the one the Council of Matriarchs had unsealed said that Shepard's body had been found by the Blue Suns who intended to sell it to the Shadow Broker who intended in turn to sell it to the Collectors. Nowhere had it been implied that Shepard had been alive and in stasis, in-fact the terms used seemed to specifically imply just the opposite, that Shepard had been dead and they were turning over a corpse. She gazed up at her friend, "You heard what she said about how she knew how to charge and flash-step?"
Alena nodded, "Should I stay for the cellular DNA verification?"
Tela glanced at the monitors, the human seemed fairly calm and though she had been reluctant and anxious at times she had so far displayed no evidence of hostility not by action nor by scent. "Go, but be back as soon as you can." Alena nodded, turned and strode swiftly from the room.
Cesra stared after her then turned toward Tela with a curious look, "I guess her reply to that question was unexpected and interesting?"
Her eyes still glued to the monitors, Tela nodded, "It was indeed, and implied that the answer to it should already be known."
The younger Spectre mused over that for a bit, "Something found while she was chasing after Saren perhaps?"
Tela tilted her head to the side considering it, she was fairly certain that Cesra was referring to the two beacons Shepard had interacted with during her mission. "It's possible," she finally responded. That might be the answer, but this wasn't the place to be discussing something classified by the Council. Something on the monitors caught her eye, now that she had the scan data it looked like Dr. T'Rani was getting ready to take the biopsies necessary to obtain samples for the cellular DNA testing. This would be a bit uncomfortable for the human, but she knew the doctor would make getting the biopsies as painless as possible. To conclusively verify Shepard's DNA, they needed three different samples from original tissues, the first would be a bone cell sample, the second a blood sample and the third an oocyte sample. Between the three they would know whether or not this was actually Spectre Amanda Shepard. She frowned as she saw Dr. T'Rani motion for Shepard to sit-up and then went to fill a small cup with water for her. Or apparently the doctor wasn't about to do the biopsies yet, she reached over and increased the volume of the speakers, so she could actually hear what was being said instead of just an indistinct murmur.
"In order to verify your identity, I need to take cellular biopsies from tissues and organs that haven't been cloned or otherwise altered," Dr. T'Rani was explaining to the human, "it would help if you could tell me whatever you're comfortable with about your injuries and the reconstructive surgery done by Cerberus restore you to health."
The nais frowned, why would the doctor be questioning Shepard about the extent of her injuries instead of gathering the cellular samples as planned? The only reason she could think of was that the scan showed that one of the planned samples was unavailable. Presumably she still had blood running through her veins, and there appeared to be some bone left… Oh, Tela dipped her head in regret, and she had just teased the maiden about not being yet ready to have children. Perhaps she was wrong, but she suspected that she wasn't wrong. That meant the doctor would have to expand the number of samples needed to obtain the same level of certainty in the accuracy of the DNA test, which would be why she was asking about this.
"Why isn't she just taking the samples?" Cesra questioned sounding puzzled as she stared at the monitor. "There isn't a lot of time left in the schedule for questions without delaying the meeting with the Council."
Before Tela could figure out how to respond, especially given the sensitive nature of what she suspected, the sharp, bitter sounding bark of laughter snapped both nais's attention back to the monitor. "That messed up inside am I," Shepard commented, then looked off to the side with a sigh as she closed her eyes for a few seconds and seemed to regain control over emotions. The human snorted, "So much for not needing the details of my reconstruction." The last was said a bit louder, and Tela faintly smirked knowing the human had guessed they were still watching and that had been directed at her. In truth though, she had not thought such details would be required. Shepard returned her attention back to Dr. T'Rani, "Unfortunately doctor I don't know exactly what happened to me after I died. I can make some guesses, but everything else is just based off the bits of info I found on the Cerberus station where I woke up."
T'Rani stared at her thoughtfully for a moment before speaking, "It was not anticipated that I would need such information, and for that I apologize for bringing up such a difficult topic. That is why I asked only for what you are comfortable sharing with me."
"And my fellow Spectre's and the Council…" Shepard added in a dry tone then waved irritably at the doctor when it looked as if she would say something in response and said in a clipped tone, "never mind, I understand." She didn't give the doctor time to respond before launching into her tale, "You know that the Normandy was attacked and destroyed by an unknown vessel," Shepard's voice was flat and toneless, but the way her hands were still and pressed against her thighs another story.
Beside her Cesra sighed and Tela glanced over at the frowning maiden, she wasn't exactly comfortable with this either. If this were actually Shepard, and she had only woken up twelve days ago, then the nais doubted the human had any opportunity to speak about this with anyone. Her first time discussing it shouldn't be in these circumstances, but none of them had much choice given the situation and doubts concerning this human's identity. "I am aware of that," T'Rani stated, her voice carefully modulated to project reassurance and concern and Tela returned her attention to the monitor. Given the doctor's tone, she had no doubt an asari could clearly scent the layered calming, soothing and reassuring pheromones from her. What a human could smell with their deadened nose the nais had only a faint idea, perhaps only a few of the most obvious scent notes since that's what she recalled from her melds with humans.
Shepard nodded and then continued, "I was helping my pilot get to an escape pod when they made their final attack. I didn't make it into the pod, but I did manage to hit the release for it so that he made it before I was flung into space by an explosion." This part they already knew, thought Tela as it had been in Pilot Moreau's report. "Sometime during all that my air supply was damaged. It didn't take long for it to bleed out into vacuum." Shepard seemed to shake her head just a little, and her hands clenched on her thighs. T'Rani straightened as if to go to her, but then she continued, "The last thing I remember before I died was staring through my visor at the planet we were near when we were attacked. It was an ice planet, white clouds upon a white snow and ice-covered surface...quite beautiful actually."
It might have seemed a strange thing to notice and mention, but Tela was aware that sometimes you intently focused on the scene in front of you when you thought it was going to be your last. "Do you know what happened after that?" T'Rani's tone was still calm.
"My body was caught in the planet's gravity well, and, after not burning completely up on re-entry due its thin atmosphere, impacted on the surface. The scan I saw of my body on the Cerberus station…" Her voice faded for a moment, and Tela thought she wasn't, or couldn't, continue, but then she shook her head and went on, "This arm," she raised her right arm, "the bone looked like it had been pulverized, only fragments of bone left." She sighed and glanced off to the side, "The rest of me didn't look much better honestly." She fell silent for a moment and Dr. T'Rani looked as if she were about to say something when Shepard continued, "And then my body froze, the temps on Alchera average negative twenty-two degrees Celsius. From what I know, I don't think they thawed me out for quite some time."
Dr. T'Rani looked about as taken aback by that statement as Tela felt, she thought the human had been exaggerating for effect, but apparently not. The question was any of this actually true or only what Shepard believed was true. "Why do you believe that?" T'Rani asked.
"Do you think that's really true?" Cesra quietly asked her as they both stared at the monitor, listening intently to the conversation going on in the examination room.
Tela sighed, "I don't know, but I think she believes it. Hopefully Dr. T'Rani can determine whether or not Cerberus actually did bring her back to life after so long."
"My eezo nodes in my body are larger than they were when I got my medical examination after becoming a Spectre, aren't they?" Shepard stated.
Dr. T'Rani stared at Shepard for a long moment without saying anything, long enough that Tela wondered what the doctor could possibly be thinking about. Finally, she inclined her head, "I did notice a discrepancy when I viewed your scan data, give me a moment to pull up the comparison view from your file." The blue complexioned asari moved over to a data terminal and began pulling up the information. A few minutes later the doctor motioned for Shepard to join her, "This is a view of the nodes in your left arm." She enlarged view down to a comparison between the same single node, "As you can see its actually slightly larger, but more significantly its over twice as dense as before." T'Rani fell silent for a moment, a very slight frown betraying her emotions, finally she asked, "Do you know how Cerberus accomplished this?"
Shepard nodded, "I told this to Spectre's Vasir and M'Tara just before you came in," she commented, "Cerberus was able to force my eezo nodules into a receptive state, similar to the way they are during puberty, and then exposed them to another dose of element zero."
T'Rani inclined her head once again, but more significantly to Tela did not really look surprised by the information. "Do you know the procedure they used?" the doctor inquired looking back at the display.
Shepard turned her head and gave the doctor a sharp inquisitive look, "From what I was told the procedure produces mass effect field fluctuations in the eezo nodules that are strong enough to burn out the neural pathways of the patient. Since I was still dead and frozen though when they did it, they were able to insulate my neural pathways from my eezo nodules and bleed off the fluctuations before they caused too much…" she smiled with sour wryness as she finished, "more damage to my body." Neither of them spoke for a moment then Shepard said, "You know something about this don't you."
Beside her Cesra shifted but neither of them said anything, instead both waited to hear how Dr. T'Rani would respond. "Now that you've described it," the doctor responded, "yes, it is familiar to me. Shortly after the first salarians displayed biotic abilities after being exposed to element zero during puberty, the Republics government funded experimentation to determine whether or not it was possible to replicate this effect on asari. As you described the researchers were able to induce the eezo nodules of…the test samples…into a receptive state, but then ran into the same difficulty you mentioned that the resulting fluctuation in the mass effect fields from the process itself would prove lethal. When no progress was made after several decades, the government funding was withdrawn and efforts to find a solution became sporadic. Few know of it now, but there was a biotics researcher at a symposium I attended a few decades ago who brought up the study during their presentation. I thought it interesting at the time which is why I recalled it during your description."
"So, Cerberus just borrowed from that research," Shepard turned and paced away from the doctor. "And since they had a frozen beat up body to work with said hey," the human turned as she reached the counters on the other side, "why not try this, if it works we will be a step closer to our biotic super soldier." She crossed her arms over her chest, an effect that was ruined a bit by the light blue examination jumper she was wearing, "If not she will just be a bit crispier than before."
Dr. T'Rani's head whipped around as she gave the human an incredulous look, "You should not speak so dismissively about what has happened to you." Tela had to admit, she didn't quite know how to take what the human had just said, but at another level she understood it or at least perhaps the motivation behind saying something like it.
"Right," Shepard sighed, looked away her lips tightening, whether in anger or some other emotion Tela couldn't quite discern. "I guess I shouldn't bring out the Spectrcicle jokes either," she commented, and the listening nais was now certain the emotion was resentment.
"Spectre…what?" Alena said incredulously from behind them as she entered the monitoring room.
"Frozen," Cesra commented, "she's referring to having been frozen," and Alena's incredulous expression transferred from the overhead monitor to the maiden.
The expression on T'Rani's face softened, "No, it is I who need to apologize, if this form of humor helps you cope with what happened to you then it does." She sighed, "You are not the first, nor will you be the last Spectre to do so."
Shepard turned to look at her with a huff of laughter, "Gotta deal with this shit somehow. Good to know I'm not the only one with a questionable sense of humor." She sighed, "Though admittedly it's not usually quite this black."
"Black?" the doctor questioned, puzzled by the reference.
"Black humor, gallows humor?" Shepard tried to explain. "Humor in the face of death or perhaps despite death would be more accurate."
"Was there something?" Tela took a moment to ask the tall asari who was now standing beside her, referring to the question of how the human suddenly knew how to charge and flash-step.
Alena inclined her head, "There might be, but we can discuss it later." Understanding that the other nais meant this was not a secure enough space, Tela let the subject drop. Cesra, who had been listening in likewise did not say anything. She looked thoughtful however, at the confirmation that there might be an explanation which the Council was already aware of instead of their original assumption that Cerberus was somehow responsible for it.
"So that was why you said your body remained frozen for a period of time, it had to remain so for long enough for them to complete the process of increasing your biotic abilities," Dr. T'Rani commented after Shepard finished speaking. The asari doctor looked thoughtful, a slight frown furrowing her brow as she considered something. A moment later she carefully said, "Even if you were frozen however, you could not have remained so for too very long, because your neural pathways would have still degraded in such conditions. Slower perhaps at the temperature you mentioned, but they would have still degraded within a rather short period of time."
Instead of taking that as a challenge of her version of events Shepard just nodded, "You're right they would have…which was why they saturated my neural tissues with drell neurochemicals to keep my memories stable so they could extend that amount of time."
Dr. T'Rani's eyes widened in surprise at that piece of information, "You are certain of this?"
Again Shepard nodded, "The doctor on the Normandy did a neurological scan and found physical changes resulting from the use of the neurochemicals."
"I notice she's not mentioning who this doctor is," Alena noted and Tela smirked because she had noticed the same thing.
"Would your doctor be Dr. Karen Chakwas?" Dr. T'Rani inquired.
If she hadn't been intently observing the human, Tela wouldn't have noticed the brief betraying stillness before it as gone and Shepard curiously inquired, "Why would you think that?"
Tela's brown eyes widened, "Oh she's good, very good."
The doctor responded, "A question relating to cybernetics and daily caloric usage made its way to my desk from another colleague from her since reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation are my specialties. From what I have heard Dr. Chakwas is an excellent trauma surgeon and general practitioner, with an unusually wide range of species specific certifications. You are very lucky to have her as your physician."
Shepard's light grey eyes narrowed just slightly, "We were lucky to have her on the Normandy, she saved several lives."
Alena huffed out a laugh, "Nicely non-committal there, but I think we need to look into this doctor's background. Find out how long she's been involved with Cerberus. She might lead us to others."
"True," Cesra commented glancing over at the taller asari, "interesting how hard she's trying to protect her. Just out of loyalty I wonder…"
"Have you experienced any changes to your memories due to this?" Dr. T'Rani's questioned, and that had all three asari returning their attention to the monitor to listen to the human's answer.
"Yes," Shepard responded after a brief moment, "I'm remembering things I had forgotten from my past, and my memories now are rather more detailed and accurate than before. I suspect it's something like having a grey box."
How would that even be, wondered Tela suddenly, to wake up after you thought you were dead…or maybe in this case had been dead, and your body had been extensively reconstructed, your memories were different and you were in the hands of terrorists. She crossed her arms over her chest as she considered it. If this actually were Shepard, which it was starting to seem more and more as if that were possible, even though the tale behind it was even more unlikely than anything they had theorized, then she was very impressed with the human maiden. Shepard might not have been monitoring her health as closely as she should have been, but it seemed as if that had been a case of not having the right information instead of neglect. What she found impressive was that instead of simply returning to the Alliance and Council, Shepard seemed determined to turn the situation to the Council's advantage and use her presence inside Cerberus to thwart their objectives.
"Do you know why your skin required such extensive replacement?" the doctor inquired next.
"Not exactly," Shepard admitted, "but I found a log on the Cerberus station that mentioned long term exposure to cold and vacuum caused significant cellular breakdown. I suspect that did a number on my skin along with the heat of re-entry even with Alchera's almost non-existent atmosphere."
"You've mentioned twice now finding information on the Cerberus station where you woke up," commented Dr. T'Rani. "Were you woken up and then informed of what had happened to you by their medical personnel?"
Shepard snorted, an actual snort, and then began laughing. It wasn't exactly a happy laugh however as it had a definite stressed undertone to it. Tela exchanged concerned looks with the other two asari and re-evaluated her impression of whether or not it was a good idea to send Shepard off on a mission against Cerberus. Perhaps it was a better idea to keep her here long enough to heal and recover from her injuries - both the physical and the mental ones.
"Ah ha, sort of," Shepard managed to get herself quickly under control again. "No, I was woken up with Miranda yelling at me to get out of bed, as if I'd been oversleeping, because the facility was under attack. Then it was pretty much hurry to find a weapon, and then hurry to get into cover before the mechs heading my way killed me. Turns out the other guy in charge of my reconstruction, Wilson, was in someone else's employ besides Cerberus and they didn't want me to wake up."
Tela drew in a breath, the Shadow Broker? Had he tried again to obtain Shepard for the Collectors? Or rather her body, for this Wilson had evidently been assigned to kill her. The nais frowned, maybe she and Tevos had been wrong about the source of who had led the Collectors to the Normandy's location and it hadn't been Cerberus at all, but the Shadow Broker.
"I lost contact with Miranda shortly after I woke up," Shepard continued. "Since the mechs were just as busy killing off the Cerberus personnel as they were trying to kill me, I had the opportunity to snoop through every data terminal I passed and that's exactly what I did. I hacked into each one trying to figure out what the hell was going on, where the hell I was as it was definitely not an Alliance facility, and why the hell wasn't I dead. Then I met up with Jacob and that was when I found out I had been dead for two years instead of a few minutes and that when I arrived I was most definitely dead. Nothing but meat and tubes as he put it," Shepard smiled bitterly, "but at least he was pretty sure I wasn't a clone." She sighed, "So, no it didn't quite go the way you mentioned."
For all of her six hundred plus years, Dr. T'Rani looked as dumbfounded and taken aback by this as Tela was at her mere four hundred and twenty.
"That's…" Cesra seemed at a loss for words, "Goddess what a way to find out what happened to her."
"If it's even all true, or just what they want her to believe," Alena responded to her. "I'm having difficulty believing they could actually bring her back to life after what she described happening to her."
Tela knew that Alena wasn't going to be the only one with those doubts, a majority of the Council members would question this chain of events as well. She didn't know whether or not she believed it, but she was willing to see what evidence Dr. T'Rani could find to either prove or disprove it. "Let's wait and see what the scans and cellular samples show, they might still the waters and reveal what lies beneath these waves."
Alena inclined her head in agreement with her, "Indeed, we should wait to see what they reveal."
"You say Dr. Chakwas found evidence verifying that these Drell neurochemicals were actually used in a neurological scan?" Tela glanced back at the monitor, her attention caught by the doctor's question.
Shepard gave the doctor a reproving look, "I said a doctor did a neurological scan and found evidence of it."
Unsurprisingly the humans disapproving expression didn't seem to have much of an effect on Dr. T'Rani, "Then I believe the prudent thing to do is to perform one as well to obtain that evidence and conclusively prove or disprove whether or not such chemicals were used on you. I would also like to re-scan you with the newer scanning equipment available at the Central Medical Center. I believe the extra detail that equipment will provide me along with the data from the Republic's biotic experiments will allow me to conclusively determine whether or not your biotic nodes were enhanced using similar methods."
"And thus indicate whether or not I was actually frozen at the time?" Shepard questioned, looking cautiously interested in the idea.
Tela sighed, she should have expected this turn of events given what they had just learned from Shepard, but this was going to exponentially complicate the security arrangements. "I'll let the Council know we will be substantially delayed," she said to the other two Spectres. "Also, C-Sec already has procedures in place in case a prisoner needs to be transferred to the Medical Center, we can use those to transfer her."
"She will realize she's being treated as a potential threat and is essentially our prisoner until her identification has been verified and the Council decides what to do with her," Cesra cautioned, "I thought we were avoiding that if possible?"
Tela studied the human in the monitor, "I think she already suspects it, so verifying it won't make much of a difference. But we can ease up on our treatment of her, that should help alleviate any sense of isolation or estrangement she may feel over it."
Her concern responded to, Cesra inclined her head in agreement, "Then I'll go speak to Lt. Duvidos about arranging the transfer to Central Medical."