Chapter 33: Stage Hands
Deep in the Terminus Systems:
Memories flooded the sleeping mind.
Thirty years ago a man known as Jack Harper had formed a psychic link to alien artifact that transcended space and distance known as the Arca Monolith. Desolas Arterius a General of the Turian military during the First Contact War had taken the relic to Illium after its discovery in a cave on Shanxi. He seized it shortly before the end of the war and General Williams had given up his garrison to save the civilian population.
At the time you could have started a band with the number of humans that had visited the asari dominated planet. It had been a trap one that Jack Harper and Eva Corė had walked into. He wanted to get his hands on Harper because Jack had been the only one to come in contact with the Arca Monolith and retain his identity everyone else had become but mindless drones….husks.
Desolas Arterius elder brother to the fallen Spectre Saren had been a man of vision, cohesion and the catalyst for the birth of Cerberus and the rebirth of its leader. A military man gets religion just at the time he discovered a device that created super soldiers. It had worked as a very useful tool to bring others to the new order. Not only did the turian general initiate the order of the Valluvian Priestess but he reopened one of their most holy sepulchers that had been sealed after the turians found life in the stars. They no longer needed their Titans of myth. The day the Arca Monolith came to Pavlon, Desolas changed it. It was a brilliant tactic. It reminded Harper of Clarks' Third law: A sufficiently advanced technology is always going to look like magic. Desolas used it for religion. Desolas believed that when any upstart race can enter as equals it was time to change the equation. It was time to bring myth to life. It galled him that humans were not subjected to second class citizenship.
Faith is a means of control. Of domination.
One Jack Harper used to create his own following.
After the First Contact War and each subsequent hostile action carried out by aliens: the atrocities of Mindoir and the Skillian Blitz, Eden Prime and the Battle of the Citadel there were more and more sheep rushing to his flock. More devotees took the oath of servitude.
Obedience breeds discipline. Discipline breeds unity. Unity breeds Power. Power is life. Life is Humanity's survival. Survival is Cerberus. Cerberus breeds Obedience.
The words were altered, paraphrased to suite Harper's new vision as the Illusive Man but they were not his. They came first from the Arca Monolith. The words in a strange language had been burned into his mind.
Obedience breeds discipline. Discipline breeds unity. Unity breeds power. Power is life. Life is The Harvest. The Harvest is ascension. Ascension breeds Obedience.
The monolith had control over the converted turian researchers, it had controlled Harper's friend Ben Hislop. But in understanding that control Desolas was able to manipulate the transformed to do his bidding-for a time.
While the alien artifact turned Ben into a monster, it had ascended Jack. It gave him deeper insight, knowledge of the other races. He no longer needed a translator; he could understand any language of the other species once more he could speak it fluently. The words suddenly came to him in perfect clarity as it had on Illium the first time he had used his new gift when speaking with the asari residents.
Thirty years ago Jack did not know what the relic was. He had not touched it physically but he had been touched by it and he heard its call…protect and prepare. To serve. Jack Harper took those words to heart. He had sought ways to protect Humanity, to prepare for the 'Arrival.' Desolas however had another view point. He said it was time to change the equation. It was time to bring myth to life. These words were true. Myths needed to be brought to life. It sparked something in Harper's creative mind. He despised and respected the general. And he had a very valid point.
Humans needed their own myths to come to life as well, perhaps more so than the skull faced birds of Pavlon. What could be a greater protector against the monsters in the unknown depths than the three headed hound that protected the gates of Tartarus the abyss of Hell itself? Humanity needed-nay it deserved Cerberus to protect it from what lay in the abyss.
Desolas's actions within the Pavlon Temple had been most instructive as well. On instructions from the self-deluded self-aggrandizing general the Arca Monolith had been placed in the rotunda…a place of honor. Yet he played a cynical double game on the turian citizen's superstitions-and the transformed. Any attempt to study it personally resulted in more 'evolved turians' the appearance of more 'Valluvian Priests' might do well for the masses but it did not suit the General's purposes.
Harper took this lesson well. Provoke, invoke and observe. It was now standard procedure for all Cerberus scientists observed new situations, tech and species. It was a tactic used on Akuze when humanity stumbled into their first encounter with the thresher maw. Cerberus had devised a second encounter by placing a false distress beacon directly in a thresher nest to lure Alliance military rescue operation.
They needed a way to test the maw's venom within the human system and a way to protect against it. The operation was a complete success and the Alliance military had the best protection against toxins built into the microframe of all their hardsuits. A few must be sacrificed to save many more.
Desolas's reasons were impeccable. Science could be understood. But one must answer magic in the language of magic. Jack had tried to tell the General that there was more to the Arca Monolith than just an evolutionary jump-start. It was dangerous. Desolas was not convinced, calling Jack a racial partisan who stood in the way of turian destiny.
And so Harper was held prisoner within the temple for days because he would not speak to the General nor would Eva Corė. Then one day Desolas came for him and had him brought out of his cell. Confided some of his finding: While they couldn't find the mechanism by which the so-called priests were linked, it was enough to know they were. The bond was strong Transcendental. They would do anything to protect it and to see others brought to it. If Desolas brought others to it, they would do anything for him.
The isolation had given Jack the ability to do something no turian since the building of the temple had been able to do or even understand why it had been done. The meta-turians wanted Desolas to bring the monolith to Pavlon specifically to the temple. He had read it all in the writing on the wall. It was written in the same language the meta-turians spoke. It turned out that long ago turian ancestors the Valluvian Persists of legend had found another monolith and had created the temple for it.
The ancient turians took action against the spreading contaminations. The temple wasn't sealed because the turians no longer needed their myths. It was a way to seal something dangerous, something they could not control so the old priests had been walled up with the first Arca Monolith. To protect the turian species because all attempts to destroy it had failed. There was no point of evolving a species to its physical peak if you sacrificed intelligence. Jack and Eva had finally convinced Saren to act against his brother by showing the younger Arterius the truth.
Saren had called Pavlon Command and declared a bioweapon emergency. It had been an all-out battle between Desolas with his meta-turians and Pavlon Command. During the fight Eva had tried to destroy one of the monoliths but Ben had killed her as he was driven to protect the alien device. Their deaths gave rise to creation of the Hislop-Cord Aerospace Company a front for Cerberus and responsible for the Alliance military contract for their ships which included the Normandy SR.
As for the monolith, Jack knew what it was. It wasn't an evolutionary device as Desolas claimed it was but one of devolution. It had been planted by its creators for advanced species to find it and transform its members into something they could control: husks. The temple, the meta-turians and the monoliths had been destroyed by bombardment. Even if the monoliths were still functional they were buried under tons of rubble. It was the day Saren: Savior of Palaven was marked for his actions and he was named Spectre.
The rubble of the temple was where Jack Harper was buried and the Illusive Man was resurrected like Lazarus. He rose with a manifesto. He and his devotees would watch the dark places and bring Illumination. There is no magic only technology, tools humanity can master. Tools humanity must master not just to survive but for the betterment of mankind. He had declared that humanity would take their rightful place in the stars.
He was Cerberus.
Both Saren and the Illusive Man became driven as in finding answers to whom or what created the Arca Monoliths. The only reason to build an army was for protection from enemies both foreign and domestic-to capture and maintain territories.
The monoliths created drones….husks strong, powerful but mindless. Both men saw the merits of such an army of super soldiers, preferably made from the bodies of your enemies. Saren chose humans killed by the geth to create his husks with moderate success: The Illusive Man chose with failure rachni, thorian creepers and their own husks taken from the dead of Eden Prime.
Both knew what was coming.
The voice of the Arca Monolith the Illusive Man now knew belonged to the Reapers. It was the voice not of Sovereign but of Harbinger. There was no rock-hard proof but The Illusive Man knew the Collectors answered to Harbinger: leader of the Reapers.
*Your time is almost at an end. It is the way of things. It is inevitable. You can't fight it. You can't avoid it.* worlds slipped past The Illusive Man's sleeping eyes. One of them eclipsed by a dying sun causing, the corona to flare a brilliant orange. *Or you can accept your fate. We are your destiny.*
'Destiny? Strange you choose such a word. You'll find humans are superior to the turians you seized Harbinger. We are resilient. We adapt. We learn. You hit us with something we haven't seen before and a week later we're mass-producing it and selling it back to you-new and improved.
'A sufficiently advanced technology is always going to look like magic. We have nothing to fear from you. You may be our destiny but not as you believe. You will be under our dominion. It is only a matter of time. The more of us you hunt, the more of us you harvest the more arsenal you are giving me. The Illusive Man countered.
*You can not begin to comprehend us. We are your ascension. The pinnacle of evolution. We are your destiny, resistance is futile. The only way for your survival is synthesis. You will rise or you will fall. *
'I understand more than you realize. I was marked by the Arca Monolith. Do you expect me to buy into the Ghost in the Shell story? That is not so difficult to understand. Isaac Asimov already beat you to it. 'I Robot.' Why don't you read it? Organics trying to wipe out the machines they built because they gained a soul—a ghost. They feared their creations would surpass them and become the masters. And the synthetics fell into a logic loop caused by the Three-Laws, stipulating the only way to protect their organic creators their first law was to 'delete' them. It's easy to understand. Hell recent history played it out once more with the quarians and geth.
'Sovereign's motives were not complicated. Far from it. He was harvesting organics to fuel his armies. He called it our "ascension." The culling was for our own preservation. You are saying nothing so different. You expect us to buy that story? The words you parrot are a knock-off plot from an old sci-fi story. Find something more original to threaten us with. To claim we can not possible comprehend is bullshit.'
The Illusive Man smiled when he felt silence in the whispers of the Arca Monolith. It was a triumph. He knew the Reapers could be controlled. Already he was controlling the whispers. It was far far more than Desolas had ever managed. But then he could not hear the whispers, understand them. The Illusive Man appreciated his gift over time. It had gained him significant insight into his enemies mind.
The problem with Saren was he had gotten too close to the Reaper. Allowed it to take over his will, his mind. He bought into the lies of synthesis, that slavery was preferable to extinction.
The Illusive Man knew differently. He knew they could be controlled. It was only a matter of understanding the how. The recreation of husks was paramount. Desolas had one thing right, the control of the husks was key; he simply went about it the wrong way.
Dr. Henrico Vorschslagg was on the cusp of uncovering the means and method of mental control over a healthy mind. Henry Lawson had the knowledge to take the experiments further. All that was needed now was the technology beyond the Omega Four Relay. Sacrifices were needed to make this happen. Shepard was a twenty megaton neutron bomb. She just needed to be primed and dropped. All you had to do was sit back and watch the explosive results come to fruition.
She of all people would understand the necessity of sacrifice. For had Shepard not sacrificed hundreds of human lives for the sake of ten thousand asari and the Council?
The abductions of thousands of humans were absolutely necessary to gain the power that lay in the Collector Base. It was the key to uncovering the ways and means of controlling the Reapers. Even if her idealism crippled her into what was ultimately necessary her call of duty would have act in his favour. The Collector base would be seized. If necessary Miranda Lawson could be counted on to do what was required of her and neutralize the threat to Humanity.
The man once known as Jack Harper rose from his bed, snatched a golden and black paisley robe from the bed post and slipped it up over his shoulders. Lazily he tied the sash about his middle as he shoved his feet into fleece lined slippers before making his way to the work station in his private chambers.
He had often gained insightful dreams from the Arca Monolith-how best to prepare, how best to protect humanity. There were times his visions were more knowledgeable than any Intel the Shadow Broker had at hand. Sleeper agents were absolutely key to Cerberus's success, as much as undercover operatives. Infiltrate enemy forces with low and high key positions. After all a pawn who reaches the end of the enemy territory could become a fallen high ranking piece even if it was the captured queen.
You had to learn to bend your morals or you'd break. It was only a matter of course that Shepard would break if she did not bend fully. Either way, he won.
What the Arca Monolith had done to and for Jack Harper the Prothean beacon and Cipher had done to Saren Arcturus and Samantha Shepard. Of course Saren had been indoctrinated it was why he was so very willing to be a thrall because he feared the visions and knowledge of the Cipher. He was willing to choose the fate of all organics-all synthetics without their consent with the Reapers ultimate plan of perfect Synthesis. The perfect solution, the perfect compromise.
Contrariwise Shepard's mind was set in the Reapers absolute destruction for she was not contaminated by Reaper indoctrination, only that of the endemic ancestral memory of all that was Prothean. She wanted the Reapers and their allies utterly obliterated—no compromise, no other options. Without free will, with out choice, without hope you might as well be a machine.
But the Arca Monolith had given Jack true perspective. To control them, Desolas was only partially right but where the short-sighted turian wished to control the minions, The Illusive Man sought to control their masters by becoming their master. He would become the new Harbinger. He would bring peace, order and guidance to the other Reaper forces. The grand protector of the galaxy.
That was where the human colonies of the Terminus Systems played their part. Their glorious sacrifice would be the pinnacle of human evolution, human domination. And the 'Good' Shepard would lead the way whether she knew it or not—liked it or not. Heroes whether they be paragons of virtue or renegades of morality were so very easy to control all you had to do was to provide the perfect motivation; it was exactly like moving a pawn in a well planned out gambit.
Logging on to the stations secure QEC he pinged one of his felid agents on Project Olympus. Four minutes later he was answered. *You rang sir?*
"Messner it's time. Deliver the package to Farris Fields then depart and wait for the next phase to begin. I will not need to tell you when it is time to act. Shepard will insure it transpires the way it needs go. Once it has drop the second object off at Fehl Prime. Remain there until contact has been established with our friends."
*Understood boss. You're sure banking a lot of creds on this Shepard. How do you know she'll even play ball? *
"Because I know her. She will have no option but to act. She's an idealist more than that she's a catalyst. She will play her part heroes always do. She is not your concern or your priority. Keep focused on your mission, Messner."
"Yes sir. I'll see it gets done."
ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME
At any given time Cerberus had twelve active cells in operation. Each independent of the others ignorant of the other cells goals, mission or function. Most never crossed paths, when they shared a common factor such as Lazarus, Caser, and Olympus it was imperative to keep close watch on how they intersected.
Chambers continued to file her reports on the crew's mental health and state of mind. Apparently Shepard continued to be frustrated with the Council, continued to be very mistrustful of Cerberus. Chambers remarked how swiftly the Commander gained the respect from her crew, even the more roughish members like Subject Zero. She was trying to make the team not only co-exist on the ship but function cohesively as a team.
He had to strike a delicate balance. Isolate Shepard enough that she remains creative but not so alienated she became too rebellious and unstable. He needed Shepard to be Shepard. He couldn't allow her to deviate from the path he had set her on. Rage once guided her hand when the attack occurred on her wife. Now duty drove her.
Cerberus's rise to power would all come from Shepard, willing or no. He'd feed the Spectre scraps of information to continue her mission. Already anticipating she'd not trust him, The Illusive Man made arrangements to pass the information through different channels so that T'Soni would get wind of it. The asari would undoubtedly respond by sending in her agents to verify the hearsay and confirm the data given to Shepard. Thus the Spectre would be the good little soldier and do as she was ordered. As he said earlier to Messner, heroes were predictable.
The other common vector in the projects was Miranda Lawson. She was lead of Lazarus that had merged with Caesar. And though Lawson didn't know it she like Shepard was a contributing factor to Olympus—the project that would lead the way for Cerberus, for him to take control of the Reapers.
The Illusive Man scrolled over the newest reports that had been flagged priority. the first was tied loosely to Olympus. Project Overlord: the objective to create a mainframe that had direct control over the geth. The success was critical as a means to control the Reapers. Dr. Asher reported that asset had linked with very positive results. The geth were obeying the Overlord. If it were possible to dominate the geth platforms on a small scale then it would be possible on a greater level. Project Overlord had a two-fold objective, control the AIs as a means of disposable ground troops and to establish methods to dominate the Reapers and their husk minions.
Project Pegasus had started with 's neo-soldiers; it was now overseen by the Director. He reported the project was progressing further, beyond expectations. In fact one of the Project operatives Randall Ezno tasked with capturing aliens for study and just brought in a new batch of specimens for 'the Barn.'. Pegasus prime directive was to create superior soldiers each with specialized abilities. Snipers, heavy assault, tech, biotics they would be the counterparts to the N7 units the Alliances deployed.
The secondary objective was tied directly into Lazarus. The Illusive Man wanted to know just how the gestalt between Shepard and T'Soni manifested. One of the more interesting results were evolution of Shepard's biotic prowess and she now aged considerably slower. All his experts reached a consensus from the DNA samples that had been smuggled to Cerberus that the Shepard would like reach three hundred before she expired from old age, surpassing even Miranda Lawson's projected longevity.
He and his scientists were ever curious as to how this came to be. Vivisecting the asari brain had led to little insight on that particular subject. Forcing a gestalt had resulted in both test subjects dying in all twelve studies. Apparently the emotional link was paramount; it was something that could not be reproduced in a laboratory. Marina Stevenson the nurse that had been a part of the Normandy crew before her imprisonment, said the asari had linked with Shepard for over four days. She had been her life support system. Anytime T'Soni had released the link Shepard arrested almost immediately. That was also something that could not be fully reproduced within the lab.
Shepard's clone had been created from DNA taken post gestalt. Stevenson had been quite thorough. She had gotten bone marrow, brain fluid, spinal fluid, blood and tissue samples. All collected during the four day surgery to piece the broken Spectre back together. If there was anyway to uncover and utilize Shepard's anomalous qualities it lay in her clone.
ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME
The young woman had many names, many faces: Maya Brooks, Hope Lilium, Captain Channing to name just a few but those within her Cell knew her as Rasa. It was a name carried over from childhood when she was forced to pretend to be a boy as a child laborer in the asteroid mining facility orbiting the gas giant Themis, which supplied the majority of materials for the construction of Arcturus.
She had escaped the fate of an early death and assumed the name of the woman who had saved her and was consequently was the first person she had killed. She had shot her savior in the back because the original Miss Maya Brooks refused to take her away from her life of enslaved drudgery. The original Brooks had been an agent for the Shadow Broker, sent to assassinate a Cerberus agent. That day she was not only free; it had set her on the course to join Cerberus. It was supposed to mean something, to be something better. And for a time it was.
The direction the organization was taking was not what it had been, what it was supposed to be. Rasa had performed her duties save for the incident with apprehending Subject Zero without fail. Thought it could be argued gaining the data on Shepard was not entirely successful. She had been captured by that damned asari Spectre Vasir. The disk contained a virus which had been fortunately contained and isolated by Lazarus Project's XO Dr. Eva Coré
Coré had taken over the project when Miranda joined Shepard on the Normandy SR2. Serving under the Ice Queen Lawson had been a treat compared to working with the sub-zero bitch that Coré was. The Spectre had made sure Rasa's cover had been blown. On top of that she had been poisoned by a drell assassin. It had taken several days for the physicians to isolate and create an antidote to the poison. Even after she recovered Rasa was bed-bound by Coré and regulated to compiling the rest of the dossiers for Shepard's crew. Insuring that the list be passed to Lawson and thus into Shepard's contemptuous hand
Rasa had almost died on the mission that fucking bitch Coré had sent her on. Spectre and assassin. And for what? Shepard! The mighty Spectre. She had drawn a cult around her of sycophants and drones. She was not so different then the Illusive Man. Like him anything she touched would soon turn to ash
That was weeks ago. Now freed of her forced medical suspension, she padded past the lesser minions of Cerberus. No more mindful of them then they of her. Coré had stacked two more days to the sick bed, spouting the poison surging in Rasa's body was not like anything they had ever encountered. As it turned out that damned drell, that same assassin now serving Shepard had used his own body's secretions to poison her. While bedridden she was forced to compile the dossiers on the Normandy's crew. The only name absent from the list was Jacob Taylor. A man Shepard had no tolerance for, a man she sent to prison for the death of a quarian boy. Not that Rasa blamed the Spectre, she never liked the man. He was an ass.
Still unhindered Rasa slipped in one of the most secreted chambers of the Minuteman Station. It was also one of the most secure and at this hour it was a silent as a tomb. Like a phantom lurking in that same tomb at the witching hour, Rasa haunted the rooms. She gave little thought to the idea that her visits were not unobserved. There was no place on the station that wasn't monitored and watched. Because it was so, it was easy to shrug their constant vigil. What did it matter? Let them watch. Let them listen. They were ever covetous over their assets.
Within was Project Lazarus's great asset: the clone. Though it could be argued that the Project's greatest asset was and is the Normandy SR2. Such a powerful warship in the hands of an idealist crusader and alien sympathizer. The galaxy needed its heroes, t'is true but did they need the Spectre now that there was another option?
She stood now before the tank that held the clone. She placed her hand upon the glassed surface looking at the perfect duplicate of the great and terrible woman that was Citadel's newest hero. "What about you?" she uttered softly to the creature behind the glass. "What do they have in store for you?"
The clone of course gave no answer. She floated in the embryonic fluid in dreamless unending sleep. There was no ghost in that shell. No pale cast of thought lingering in a perfectly formed mind. It lay there waiting to be filled.
Rasa could not help but appreciate the perfect beauty that was Shepard's s clone unmarked by the scars of battle and life. Genetics truly favored her. Her skin lightly tanned by mixed Salish blood, deep rich black hair nearly blue it was so black. A face with high cheek bones, pouty lips and a splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks down her spine and speckled her breast. A gymnast's body: perfect in muscle and bone.
"What will they do with you?" she repeated the question, reformed. In her hindbrain she knew she was not alone in the lab. It was always under observation. But she cared not. Let them watch. The agent continued to look at the silent hibernating clone. This woman, this weapon-perfect in form and function…stronger, faster than the original, but she would be misused by Cerberus, by the Illusive Man.
She leaned in close whispering to the clone, her voice was not her own but that of Shepard's both in tone and word. "Don't concern yourself with Cerberus. The wheel of fate, the inexorable cycle of death and rebirth to which all sentients are compelled. We serve the same purpose. You are perfection, Cerberus would profane, seek to destroy all that you are." Her hand rose as if to caress the clone's cheek.
Her words this time seemed not for the clone but for the true Shepard. "I loathe you Shepard, you offered me that first bitter taste of that terrible illusion …hope-I will never forgive you that. You're no better than The Illusive Man you despise-a voracious parasite cloaking its appetite in a shroud of righteousness. I refuse you both! That Prothean marker you bear is a constant reminder you are bound Shepard.… and The Illusive Man is corrupted by his myopic obsession with the Reapers. Both of you are tainted by alien influences. But you, you will be more than she is, won't you?"
Rasa sighed "I beg your indulgence. My mind is far from easy. In these once familiar –streets, I feel shadows everywhere. There is a hole in the world like a great black pit filled with the people and vermin of the world who inhabit it.
"Sometimes I feel I need to pour everything out, until that great….pot in the mind is not empty but…relieved.
"I am both of your directions-life. What do I believe in? What is truth? I believe in myself. Even my most delicate intangible thoughts and feelings, somehow remaining handing downward the most but somehow as strong as a cobweb in the wind. I exist more with the cold glistening frost. But my bata rays have colors I've seen in paintings. Ah life. They have cheated you."
ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME
Half way across the galaxy within the Sahrabark system within Omega Nebula aboard infamous space station Hondaúmea in her own people's tongue, known to all Omega-the Pirate Queen of the Terminus Systems held court. Before her 'throne' with in her private chambers stood a contrite and yet still belligerent asari maiden due more to her youth than any earned reputation as an Eclipse Sister.
Standing next to her as a matron who had earned the right to her belligerence but revealed none of this upon her blue face, indeed it would take a person of great observational skills to see past the frozen façade of the Specter. Tala Vasir was far more curious why T'Loak not only had a concern in this child but invested interest. So much so the asari Council could not move swift enough to acquiesce to Aria's request to deliver the maiden to Omega. Vasir knew T'Loak's reputation for being ruthlessness, immeasurably powerful, deadly both with wit, mind, weaponry and biotics. Indeed she was said to be or rather have been equal in power to the departed Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. Vasir also knew T'Loak was one of the very few to refuse a Spectre's calling. She also turned down the appointment o the Matriarchy yet she ruled as if she were part of that nest of vipered crones. Were it anyone else Vasir had no doubt the Justicar would have been sent to investigate her, yet she remained unmolested.
Queen indeed. How was it she came to hold not only the leash of Shepard, but Tevos as well?
For a long five minutes Elnora lat of the Illium Eclipse Sisters stood before gauging eyes, her feet shuffled nervously. At long last the silence was broken.
"Tell me how is it that someone scarily more then sixty survives the Spectre's scourge of your base?"
"Shepard's a sucker for a pretty asari face." Elnora smirked. She pulled the same crestfallen expression she held when she first crossed paths with the Spectre when she was hiding in the security alcove. "All I had to do was shed a few tears 'Oh I didn't shoot! I only pretended to because the others were looking' She bought it like the dull stone human she is..."
A small twist of Aria's wrist sent Elnora on her ass. "Fool child. That is not why you lived. If you have nothing intelligent to offer for an answer keep your damned teeth together." She inclined her head towards Vasir. "Turn player on will you."
Tala looked to the holoplayer of a very expensive top-of-the-line home theater system. As she had with her youngest daughter Liselle before she sent the maiden off to her sire, she let the security-feeds play. Again she watched how her first-born had died at the hands of the Spectre. Like this sixty year old child Wasea completely underestimated Shepard.
Aria could forgive a mistake, an error in judgment especially if one admitted and amended them but she could not forgive blind foolishness and open stupidity. She never forgave Wasea's death but it was her daughter that bore her ire not Shepard. Had her first-born choose a wiser course she'd still live, still hold control over a goodly portion of Illium's underworld.
"Now watch." a simple command.
Shifting to her knees not daring to more further than that the maiden obeyed. Tala was keen to watch as well, she was more than curious to see the famous human Spectre in action.
Like asari huntresses, Shepard relied heavily on her biotics. She was what the humans called an N7 Fury, though she was armed with a monomolecular sword and used it much like N7 Shadow counterparts. Shepard used wit and the battlefield terrain to her advantage. Unorthodox methods, out of the box thinking and the ability to adapt to the situation like a seasoned huntress.
Tala looked to Aria and she to her. Both had spotted what Elnora of course would not have recognized such talents. Shepard was skilled in the Echo Game. She used that training to strike out at her enemies positions even as the mercenaries biotically teleported from cover to cover. Shepard knew how to deeply her team and utilize their talents in conjunction with one another.
The trio of asari watched as Wasea fell to Shepard. When it was over the screen went to the default blue of inactive screen.
"Now why did Shepard let you live?" Aria asked again, "you yet live when all your sisters are slain. Why?"
Elnora thought back to the words of Shepard:
You were looking for action. You're going to get more than you bargained for kid. And the Republics are going to need capable huntresses, capable fighters. Thing is when the time comes will you step up or are you going to be the little maiden playing at guns trying to be a big-bad?"
"What do you care what happens to me, human? You didn't care about my sisters you killed back there."
"What happened back there could have been completely avoided if Wasea's Lieutenant just gave up the name of the ship the ardat-yakshi shipped out on. Captain Wasea would still be kicking around if she had done the same with me. Instead she chose to fight. She lost. But you? You made a stupid choice kid, you chose the wrong side. Now you've got another chance. Don't fuck it up,"
"I...I don't know. She gave me some sort of warning about that ship Sovereign being alive and being some kind of Vanguard for things to come. She said if I wanted to hunt bad guys like I tried to convince her I was doing...um... the Eclipse Sisters...then I should enlist."
"You'd never make it as a huntress." Vasir snorted at the maiden. "Your biotics aren't strong enough and you don't have the right temperament."
"Temperaments change with time my dear Spectre. You know this as well as I. As for her biotics they may yet grow in strength—with training. But I didn't summon you fool girl because of what you might be, but what you are. Shepard let you live. Maybe it is just sentimentality. Simple as that. She has an idealist code of honor and probably saw that you were not worth killing or more likely trying to save a kid's life and set them on the 'straight and narrow.'
"Like the prisoners bought and sold on Purgatory before Shepard blew it up, you now belong to me." Aria grinned. "I own you."
Elnora dared ask a question. "For how...how long?"
Aria glared down at the maiden. "For murder you were given the sentence of the victim's life? That is eighty-five years."
Elnora nodded. The common sentence for murder within asari justice system was to serve a term in prison for the period of the victim's natural lifespan from birth to old age death.. It gave the term life sentence a whole new meaning.
"A mere drop in the bucket to an asari's life." Vasir aid. "Fortunate to serve it in relative freedom. Not that you have a choice."
Elnora looked down to her feet. "What do you want of me?" she asked in a much more humble tone.
"Your body."
The maiden dared to look up. It was said Aria often bedded her hand maidens and her strippers. Elnora seriously doubted the Pirate Queen when to such expense and trouble to have yet another bed warmer. As a rule asari usually didn't take lovers from another life stage not out of any taboo but older asari could easily overwhelm the minds of their younger partners during the Joinings with sensations and experiences they were not completely prepared for. It took phenomenal control from an elder asari to hold to most of her self in reserve when she went into Joinings with one younger then her. It could generate frustration that she was not to open herself completely.
There were exceptions as there always were to any given situation or occurrence. One such was the specialized training Consorts underwent as novices which progressed and became perfected there years as an acolyte
Another exception was the Pirate Queen who approached Joinings much like a Consort but for her own pleasures and satisfactions rather then the needs and desires of her partners. The amusements Aria took in her dalliances with her handmaidens and pole dancers were surface touches only, which was all she ever allowed with anyone she took to her sheets. The only one she had allowed deeper within had been Tevos during the conception of Liselle and then almost 115 years later with Shepard.
Aria watched questions ripple over the ever expressive face of the maiden. she grinned at the befuddlement of the junior asari. "In short you will replacing my handmaiden Liselle who was a member of one of my top teams. She was in a…relationship with a petty minion. A little scud I do not trust, but Liselle did. Her trust bought his life. It is the only reason I allowed him to pollute my air.
"I want you to seduce and bed this louse. I already suspect he had ties to Cerberus, your task is to confirm it, tell me, and then you will slit his goddess slit him open from cock to tongue. My handmaiden's feelings for him are now as meaningless as dust on the mantel. Easily wiped away and forgotten in the same action. You murdered a relative innocent to gain your Eclipse armor. Killing in cold blood should not be a problem for you. And I'm not giving you a choice."
Elnora was silent. She was lost in the overwhelming dread of being in Aria's court; add to that Tala Vasir standing directly behind her. Murder. It was a thrilling powerful sensation to pop that shitty little suit rat wide open with her shot gun. But to gut a guy with a blade….fuck she didn't even finish her Great Hunt for crying out loud! Gutting a person was infinitely easier to do than a fucking firaxon shark
Sure no problem….
"Whose the guy?"
"Paul Johnson."
"That's a human name!" Elnora wrinkled her nose in utter distaste.
"Yes it is." Aria nodded. "I share your displeasure. Human males never excited me as much as their females. Human males as with batarians fuck even turians are always so full of their own cocks they can only ever see with it. Ironically human male homosexual are not as blusterous cocksuckers as their hereto counterparts.
"Paul is full of shit as any male, make no mistake. But his head will turn when he sees you and he'll want to fuck you as soon he claps eyes on you. You have perky tits, a cute ass, nice curves and large eyes that give you a little girl's innocence. Something a lot of human males get hard for. Just look at the genre they call anima. The majority of it is filled with massively boobed little girls in impossibly short skirts that live to get fucked in the ass and remarkably short on brains, dauntless tenacity and anything resembling personal dignity. That's you as human's say in a nutshell.
"Watch a few of the anime movies and you will get the idea of what their males want. It all boils down to tits, ass, a tight pussy and far removed from anything remotely militant and independent. They want to be 'daddy' to their women. It makes most males terrified to think their females are equal if not above them just like the batarians and turians."
That was true, female batarians ranked just above the slave cast. And you'd never see a female Primarch of Pavlon. An only in the past hundred years have female humans gained the same respect as their males without having to work twice has hard to be considered so.
"I don't want you to play the complete dull stone to this Paul Johnson. Liselle was anything but. However you will need to find a middle ground of meek and deadly. Overall your goal is to bed the bastard and gain his trust. Then kill him, if you can milk him for information on Cerberus do it. But don't be stupid about it and try not to be overly coy either. Here are his details. Study them." The Pirate Queen tossed the girl an OSD. "Everything Liselle reported and what has been observed by other members of his team."
Elnora caught the data drive then nodded trying to convey to Aria she understood her new role as seductress and assassin.
"Don't disappoint me." Aria said. She flicked her wrist indicating that young maiden was clearly being dismissed.
When the room was emptied save for Spectre and Pirate Queen the huntress turned to T'Loak with a curious expression on her face. She didn't ask after why Aria wanted the maiden. The quires rolling in her mind centered around another female. Shepard.
"Ask already." Aria said standing then wandering over to the mini-bar tucked away in the corner of her private quarters. She didn't offer a choice of drinks to the Spectre yet poured her a glass from a decanter of Novarian rum.
"You invested a hell of a lot in that little egla úquen to get her free. It wasn't just to play harlot to that balchoth. Why?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Call it professional curiosity. Any C-Sec tin –badge grunt could have delivered the runt to your feet. . But you asked for a Spectre to do it. More specifically me. I think I have a right to know why."
"You would think so, Spectre. But I couldn't possibly comment."
"Then tell me why such an invested interests in Shepard. Truly? There are some that whisper she is your favored new pet."
"You asked a similar question before what makes you think my answer will be any different?"
"Any answer would be different then the evasive glibly given response I received."
"Coy, Vasir very coy."
"It's a talent. Now why is Shepard so important to you?"
"I have seen. I have heard the deepest parts of her mind. And I was not gentle."
Vasir stared at the matriarch. Mental rape was one of the gravest crimes in asari society, next only to the sinister ravaging frenzy of a free Ardat Yakshi.
"Do you want me to tell you that in her mind I saw the chiefest of calamities? A darkness beyond all reason? That her warnings of the Reapers be true. And what if I did, Spectre? What then? My words would not be listened to any more than hers. Wouldn't it be better to take the Council's route and deny that lurking malevolence even exits, that our dear heroic human Spectre has delusions of nightmares and the remnants of memory not her own.
"Or do I tell you what I told you before? That she is mine. Shall give you a very gentle reminder that what I do to those that harass that which is mine. I know there is a heavy bounty for Shepard from the Shadow Broker."
"You think I'd betray you to the Shadow Broker?"
"Who needs a reason for betrayal? One must always assume the worst, Vasir, even of your friends and especially of your own kin. That way, you avoid too much disappointment in life. When someone tells you they will never betray you, you can be rest assured that is exactly what they will do.
"Did you know the humans have a doleful little proverb about such betrayals? It's called being paid in thirty silver. It centers on a disciple betraying their god-king who apparently was aspect of bivalence, charity and compassion to an opposing empire and their holy men. This god-king of kindness was taken away and slain like some common rabble-rousing thief. Apparently his ministries were greatly feared. After all you can't have someone telling people to turn swords into ploughshares and forgiving your enemy when you want war can you? This lousy little shit disciple was paid in thirty pieces of silver for such a task. Since then it's become a metaphor to the humans for betraying someone very close to you to darker forces.
"So I'm asking Vasir will you be paid in thirty pieces of silver? Making me become very cross with you, and have to do something about it. Or will you play The Game, a bit longer?"
ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME~ ME
AN: much was based on the graphic novel: Evolutions. Foundations, with a few changes considering that Miranda is on the Normandy when many of the events of Foundations were taking place. on another note: either Miranda outright lied to Shepard when she told her she knew Maya Brooks as Hope Illium rather than Rasa and didn't have a lot of interaction with her. But in the Foundations Miranda has a great deal of interaction with her as Rasa and the clone which Miri also said she knew only rumors about. (I might have said the writers didn't communicate with one another but the graphic novels and the game share the writers)
AN2: egla úquen = Forsaken Nobody
Balchoth = barbarian / alien