Chapter 6: Project Lazarus
Feron landed the shuttle in the abandoned station codenamed Lazarus with a sigh. Two years, two long years of being stuck in the Cerberus side of his double life and he had nothing to show for it. He thought the trip to Omega was signaling the end of his journey with these people but, in the end it was just more of the same. He would've taken 'Cassandra,' the name had to be an alias, down ages ago but the Alliance stopped him. Apparently, they decided she was more valuable alive then dead so, they wanted him to capture her. He had almost succeeded until Archangels' group raided the compound. Given the nature of who was on that team, he had sent a message to Miranda telling her that if Shepard was still alive, he'd be under her 'care.'
An anxious voice from behind him whispered, "What are we waiting on rana? I thought The Illusive Man said this place was abandoned?"
Feron grabbed his Black Widow sniper rifle from one of the cargo spaces in the Kodiak they were in, "When has that man ever told us the truth under any circumstances? You should know we need to keep our guard up Vega."
Arnold Vega had become a close friend to him these past two years, despite the man always calling him frog. Feron learned quickly that the man didn't mean it in a negative context, but more as a joke about the Drell's appearance. Arnold kept pretty quiet about himself until Feron caught the Human giving a report to Alliance Command when he was supposed to be on Cerberus duty. He then learned Cerberus had faked Arnold's death years ago so they could experiment on him, their mistake was then thinking they could use him to spy on the Alliance. Instead of doing what they told him, Arnold told the Alliance everything wanting to expose Cerberus and ExoGeni. The AIA sent him back into the organization shortly after his own infiltration and they became spy partners. He was less subtle than Feron but, the Drell made it his responsibility to make Arnold a better spy.
Arnold grabbed his shotgun from the same storage compartment and started opening the Kodiak's side door, "You don't think that little one percent culo suspects us do you?"
Feron stepped out of the shuttle giving a preliminary scan of the empty hangar with his black eyes, "We've given him no reason to think we are betraying him. And I doubt he would be listening to anything Cassandra says if I'm right."
Arnold sounded uncertain as he followed Feron, "Yeah... have you heard from Miranda about the intel at all?"
Feron slowly walked forward half expecting a trap to spring at them at any moment, "No I haven't, just The Illusive Man. Silence is a good thing though, if we were wrong she would've attacked us for giving her a false lead."
As they spoke, Feron was noticing just how empty this place really was. This Cassandra must've left in a hurry knowing her schemes were finally catching up to her. He had to wonder if she always had a great escape in mind from the beginning of Omega or, had the rise of Archangel and his team make her reconsider her plans? The question remained as to why she would abandon this station as well, it wasn't like Archangel traveled outside of Omega for his prey. What had she done that she thought was so out of line for Cerberus that she ran instead of trying to explain herself? The Illusive Man had been more than a little forgiving towards her mistakes in the past.
Arnold took a deep breath starting to hack a door, "We should find a way to tell him you know. I could pin it on Yang or Vladimir, he deserves to know Feron."
Feron stayed silent for a few seconds, they've had this argument several times before now, "And what would that achieve exactly? If we're wrong we'd just be giving him false hope. He's carrying himself by a thread right now as it is."
Arnold sounded frustrated glaring at him, "You just said the silence on Miranda's part probably means he's alive somewhere. Tell me it's wrong to not want to reunite them. You saw the video of Kal getting Jack out of that rubble just like I did. That's the type of love you don't wanna get in the way of brother."
Feron watched as the door to the main facility opened, "That may be true but you know we can't. You should drop it."
The debate at it's core was simple, ever since they had discovered the possibility that Shepard could still be alive and just kidnapped by Cassandra, Arnold wanted to let Kal'Reegar know the truth. In the past two years, the Quarian was on a self destructive path, he had gone straight to Omega after Jack's funeral service. Seeing as he was a veteran of the Skillyian Blitz on the Alliance's side, Kal assumed he would've been killed on sight. However, as if by the grace of Arashu herself, Archangel had saved him and they had worked together ever since. Feron was worried that the increasing danger the group put themselves in was a problem but, it wasn't his place to stop them.
On the surface, telling Kal his husband may be alive and well was a good idea but, Feron saw too many risks involved. The first was just the fact that getting the word out to him could expose them for not being team players. If their hunch was true to begin with, he had a feeling The Illusive Man would want to keep Shepard's siha as far away from him as possible. Secondly, if Kal knew the truth and who was behind it, he would tear apart every Cerberus base he could get his hands on to find him. That could disrupt their own operations when they were so close to finding The Illusive Man. Feron firmly believed that the two were soulmates but, getting them together right now was just too risky. Third, he believed Cerberus planned on trying to get Arnold and Jack back together. Since they thought Arnold was on the inside, he would work as a kind of anchor for Shepard to stay with Cerberus. They should've known Kal was a much better solution but, he couldn't be as easily manipulated.
Arnold gave him a smirk, "Yeah I should, but I'm not going to. It's wrong to just let him keep living his life thinking Jack's dead. I mean, he already has that Batarian in the group chasing after him. Think how complicated that would get if that becomes something and then he sees Jack?"
Feron started walking down the hall, "By that argument someone should've told Jack you were alive so he wouldn't fall in love for Kal. Things happen, in the end we can't change anything. If Kal is intimate with the Batarian, he is."
Arnold shook his head, "We were different, a fling when someone was eighteen is a lot different than promising your soul to someone forever and ever. All I'm saying is Kal would be better as a friend to us than an enemy."
Feron stopped and started looking around, "Arnold, what looks wrong to you about this place?"
At first glance, the hallway they were in looked like every other Cerberus hallway either of them had ever been in. The walls were a sharp white color and the black floors were as spotless as ever. However, the windows looking into the other rooms didn't have the usual LOKI mech equipment Feron would've expected. Cassandra's cells main objective was making the LOKI's so nothing else should be around. The rooms he was looking into though had medical supplies everywhere. It was the type of equipment you'd see at hospitals in the middle of high profile surgeries, not a mechanics building. The sight of the surgeon's tools make a memory flash behind his eyes.
He couldn't wait for Arnold, narrating what he was seeing, "My mother lays on the table, limp with her eyes closed peacefully. I try to push past the nurses to wipe the blood from her dress, she never wanted to be dirty. I cry for my father but no one is there as her vitals go flat. I do not understand what that means until someone tells me she has passed away..."
Arnold smiles faintly trying to pretend he hadn't just heard all that, "This looks like a hospital, what does Cassandra need with all this stuff?"
Feron took a deep breath appreciating Arnold for not bringing his spoken memory up, "Exactly, I'm going to look around the office. We need to know what was going on here. You should looked around the operating rooms, maybe there will be clues."
The two split up and Feron went into what looked like the main office. Unlike the hangar and hallways behind him, this room was absolutely littered with omni paperwork and other recording devices. Cassandra must've really been in a hurry if she just left all of this evidence laying around. What made her so sloppy compared to Miranda's efficient methods? What was Cassandra so afraid of? Looking over the written documents made Feron frown, they were Turian organ replacement reports. She had ordered everything from the heart, eyes, lungs to the male reproductive organs. Why did she need all of these materials? It wasn't like Cerberus needed credits through black market smuggling. For a moment, he thought they could be for Shepard because of his Turian DNA contribution but, these were Turian specific organs.
His finger hit play on the recording device hoping whatever she had stored here would help him understand what was happening here, "Cora reporting in at... 2200 hundred hours on New Years day 2183, Project Lazarus has officially begun. It took some convincing to get the CSEC people to give me the body in the middle of the night but, boys will be boys. Dad always encouraged me to use my natural talents, now I just need to get medical professionals in here quietly."
Feron was letting all of that soak in his memory while searching through the paperwork. The important thing was that he had a new name, Cora. He initially wondered why have codenames inside your own organization but, it made sense against people like him. Her status as an operator for a cell made her more important than others inside Cerberus. Also, the mention of a dad teaching her something made alarm bells go off. What if the Alliance's sudden change of heart just wanting to capture her was because they knew who she was related to? It wouldn't surprise him if her father was actually The Illusive Man, he had given her more freedom to mess up than any other agent.
He listened closer to the next recording, "April 10th, 2183 and progress is slow as it could possibly be. Removing the Reapers' tiny micromachines is harder than it looked on paper. They seem to attach to individual blood cells to emit the signals related to indoctrination so we have to get rid of them before we put in a new heart. If Wilson didn't have to ping pong between me and the bitch we'd be going so much faster. Dad won't help me thinking a doctor is outside of my scope... I wish Kai was here.."
Things were starting to become clear through the process of elimination. Cora was working with a Turian body that had been in close contact with Reaper materials and died shortly before New Years of 2183. That really left him with only one option, Saren Arterius. The revelation just gave him more questions, what did Cerberus want with his body? Was Cora honestly trying to bring Saren back from the dead to help Cerberus? Saren had been no friend to Humanity even before his indoctrination so why would he be now? Did she really believe Saren would thank her if she somehow succeeded? Unfortunately, only one other recording had been saved, there was no way he was getting all of his answers.
Cora's voice sounded excited, "December 4th, 2184 and finally we can wake him up. After putting so much time on freezing his brain in cryo, the transplant, scanning for indoctrination, all of it! I can happily say I brought Saren Arterius back to life with all of his memories and minus the Reaper indoctrination. The tech I traded with the Collectors really made all the difference in the world. And to top it all off, all they wanted in exchange was for me to keep Shepard in his cryo pod. Hopefully, this will be a big enough present to dad, otherwise I'm screwed."
He looked at his own omni tool, it was December 29th, 2184. Saren could be alive and walking by now, and Shepard was confirmed to be alive somewhere. He had a feeling The Illusive Man had known exactly what was going on here and that was why he was here. Someone other than Shepard needed to grab this Collector data because it was a person. He needed to find Arnold quickly, things were about to get a lot more complicated.