Chapter 44: The Gift of Greatness
At the same time Shepard and her chosen team had touched down on Joab a call came through. White noise clogging the bandwidth and serious degradation made the message difficult to read even after EDI managed to clean it up. Still there was no mistaking the Gernsback's beacon SOS.
Garrus made the executive decision to have Joker FTL jump the Normandy to the neighbouring system then make a return trip back to the Enoch system in time to pickup Shepard and her squad.
2175 Aeia as an idyllic world orbiting Alpha Draconis in what the humans called the 'Goldilocks zone'. Not too hot, not to cold, oxygen / nitrogen rich atmosphere. Heavy with minerals including element zero. It was to the naked eye a paradise. The Hugo Gernsback's crash site was close to the equator making it lush and tropical. The warmth of the sun and tangy of salt in the air was almost the equivalent of Earth's Mediterranean.
To Garrus it was more like his home back on Pavlon. Even the trees looked like the swaying palms of his homeworld. The keening cries of the gull like birds even sounded the same. A garden world to be sure—lush and vibrant—full of life. He supposed if one was to crash and be marooned you could do worse than a paradise world.
EDI reported though she had made scans of the ship she found no life signs, though she suggested that there might be salvable technology or information to be found within. What Garrus found was all together very different.
"The wreckage most impressive" Mordin commented training behind the turian. "It is mostly intact suggests the crew could have survived impact. But it has been years. Whether or not the crew has flourished since then: unknown. Appears to have been stripped after the crash. Intelligent move, take what you can to make odds of survival higher."
"They would have tried to get beacon up as soon as possible." Miranda added. "So why only now are we hearing it?"
"Too many contributing factors and unknown variables to find an easy solution Operative Lawson. Mordin answered her.
"As the AI suggested we will perhaps find more answers within the ship." Samara said. It was unwise to approach the derelict vessel without being armed. Of course being an asari Justicar she was never completely unarmed, her biotics have always served her well. That aside she unholstered her pistol though she kept the muzzle pointed down and her finger flagging the trigger.
The others within the team had their weapons out as well. The foot traffic in the dirt around the detritus was ages old and there was no sign of wildlife in the dirt made by paw, claw or hoof. No scat either, so it was unlikely that a beast had taken the dead ship over as a lair. Still it paid to be cautious.
There were a handful of 10 gallon drum containers, and several stacked crates near the ship's boarding ramp upon one such was a laptop computer terminal. Garrus thought it was highly unlike that such a device left open to the elements was still operating but you never knew. He swiped his Omni tool over it to hack it systems and give the device enough juice to function.
It must have been left open to log channel for a human voice blitzed on mid sentence. "…along with this anymore. We've done horrible things to the crew. The condition they're in they don't understand what we're doing to them. Distract them for two seconds and they forgot what you did before the bruises show. It's got to stop. I'm talking to the others as soon as…." the rest of what was said became a garbled fizzing static.
Garrus's mandibles twitched in a turian frown. Pirates and raiders wouldn't leave a log. Or least one that sounded lamentable about abuses. This journal entry had to have come from one of the officers. He looked at the screen and managed to make out the word Anders, but no rank.
"What in the hell is going on here?" He asked not really expecting an answer.
Mordin however was only too agreeable to offer an answer. "I believe we can find the answers from ship's beacon. VI" His stood in front of a mauve holographic projection of a human male in a three piece suit and crew-cut. Its default setting no doubt.
"Repeat toxicology report: danger of rapid neural decay Local flora chemically incompatible with human physiology. Override. Beacon resumed. Paused time, eight years 257 days, seven hours."
"From the look of it this beacon has been here for awhile." Garrus moved to the VI left side watching as it flickered. "Why would they wait years to signal?"
It wasn't his team mates that answered but the hologram. "Paused time, eight years 257 days, seven hours. Pause in beacon protocol recorded as RECORD DELETED by acting Captain Ronald Taylor."
"That isn't correct. Jacob's father was first officer." Miranda said
"Ronald Taylor was promoted under emergency command protocols. Other flagged issues. Unsafe deceleration. Local food and neural decay. Beacon activation protocols."
"Who's in command of this ship? Where are the survivors?" Garrus demanded. If the flora generated neural decay he didn't wanted to be anywhere near it. Flora didn't just mean fruit and veg: it meant spores; pollen and the Spirits knew what else.
"Captain Harris Fairchild reported killed following unsafe suborbital descent. First Officer Ronald Taylor promoted infield to acting Captain."
"But where is he now?" Miranda really hated literal thinking VI's. If you didn't ask the right questions you wouldn't get the right answers. VIs weren't programmed to make distinctions, understand metaphors or similes. Was it any wonder she preferred EDI?
"The location of the remaining crew of the Hugo Gernsback is unknown. This beacon has been unattended for several maintenance cycles."
"Yeah no kidding. Should have brought Tali." Garrus muttered under his breath. "She'd have this thing working in no time."
"Unfortunately we will have to make do with its current state of operations. Unless you can clean it up Professor." Samara said.
"Waste of valuable time." Solas shook his head. "I highly doubt Tali would wish to spend her time so frivolously as well. I assume unsafe deceleration references the crash. Give us the details."
"Following an unspecified impact and sublight drive failure the Hugo Gernsback made an unscheduled decent at 446% of recommended theoretical sub-orbital velocity. The Hugo Gernsback then decelerated at 782% of theoretical recommended approach velocity sustaining significant damage to investment and crew."
"What about the rest of it?" Garrus wanted to know giving a flowering plant a dubious if not baleful look of distain. "Local food impairs brain function? What are the effects? Just the food or will inhaling the pollen do it too? Is it just humans or are other races affected as well?"
"Impairment of mental functions due to chemical imbalance begins within seven days of ingesting local flora, regardless of decontamination or perpetration. Impact on higher cognitive abilities and long term memory loss is cumulative, but significant within a standard month. It is not known if neural decay is permanent. There are no non-human crew members of the Hugo Gernsback. It is unknown at this time if neural decay manifests in other species. Inhalation of local flora has not been tested. Data collection was not completed."
"Perhaps more prudent measures are warranted." Samara suggested. And though her suit might not look like it, there were several hidden compartments. In one such she carried olfactory blockers; it might at least filter out some of the contaminants. There were similar devices within the pockets or utility belts of the others.
Mordin opened up the command bar on his Omni tool to the medical apps and started scanning everyone. "No signs of decay." he proclaimed. "Suspect ingestion is key factor."
"Willing to take that bet are you, Professor?" quipped the former C-Sec officer. "Because I'm not. There are respirator units on the shuttle. Mordin go back and fetch them. Lawson and I will continue to question the VI. Samara check out the interior of the ship."
It only took a moment longer for the team to obey Garrus than it would have had Shepard given the command. He had a point what if the pollen and the crap in the air they were breathing was contaminated. The Garden was filled with poison apples or so the human metaphor went. Until now Garrus wasn't quite sure what it meant only that it had something to do with one of the human mythologies. Now he got it all too well.
"Why wasn't the beacon activated until now?" Miranda asked the VI.
"This emergency beacon became functional after 358 days- twelve hours following the unscheduled sub-orbital decent of the Hugo Gernsback. Activation was triggered remotely after eight years 257, days, seven hours on the authority of acting Caption Ronald Taylor. Pause in beacon protocol Pause recorded as RECORD DELETED."
Samara entered the ship cautiously not necessarily for a trespass in some creature's den but more out of care for the unknown stability of the flooring. She gave a wonder why this acting captain waited so long to signal for help. The logical conclusion was that the neural decay had to have something to do with it. Another logical assumption was that those skilled with tech and repair had been lost in the crash. And though setting up an emergency beacon was rudimentary training for officers and crew of even commercial and private owned ships. Indeed in order to get a license to fly all commercial and private crew had to be certified in rudimentary emergency care or they didn't fly…. legally that was. Even merc guilds were required to have some training. The Justicar should know in her youth she ran with more than one merc guild.
There was no way this Ronald Taylor could avoid eating something from this planet. After nearly nine years of cumulative decay it was a wonder the beacon was functioning at all.
The hold where Samara enters is opened the sky, allowing hanging moss to drape along the metal skeleton like the mane of a tusked panther albeit one suffering from the mange. The flooring was covered in leaves, dirt and bird guano. In its current state it is nearly impossible to tell what this room once was. Perhaps a storage bay? Despite the gangplank at the entrance the chamber did not carry the look of typical ships entry point. More than like it was a spot of a dozen other emergency exits, not that it mattered at this juncture.
There were however more than a few workstations. So at one point it was an operation section of the ship. Going to t he left, Samara saw a destroyed screen on the wall that looked like it may have once been a ship's diagnostic readout. Next to it was computer kiosk. As Garrus had with the first one they found, Samara waved her Omni tool over it and activated it.
The voice belonged to a very distressed human female . "What…was her name? Sarah? s-s-Suzanne? My god I can't remember! I can't remember her face!" The matron closed her eyes. She knew that sound. That voice. It belonged to a mother. A mother trying to recall her lost daughter. The old Justicar's heart broke a little for this unknown woman-for this Sarah….this Suzanne who knew not the fate of her mother. "We need to get out! So I can remember! So I can think straight. They have to hurry."
Samara left the computer and found another: "…always said no. She even threatened to report me if I didn't stop sending messages. But now she's so innocent. They all are. And that look she gives when she smiles…It's sure easier now. What's the harm? We're stuck here any…" Static ate the rest of the message. Just as well. What was once filled with pity for the lost mother was now filled with rage. This was self-confessed rapists. Neural decay or no the Code demanded this man be made accountable for the sins he committed when he was not incapacitated. Provided he still lived.
Another log. Another woman. A different voice from Lost Mother. As with the others much of the message was degraded and corrupted. But some of it was decipherable. though many of the words were stuttered and skipped like an old fashioned vinyl record "…crash you can't expect the luxury of due process, but that isn't a military ship. Just bumping the command line up a notch doesn't work. Captain Fairchild knew this crew. His replacement doesn't command the same level of respect. I'm hoping the man has it in him but doubt it…."
"What did you find?" Garrus said walking into the ship holding out a clear rebreather for the asari matron.
She strapped the clear breathing device on under her crest and activated it. Strange, perhaps it was a placebo effect but her hindbrain felt instantly better, secured that she was no longer breathing in possible contaminants. "The crew not only degraded mentally but morally as well. There is a recording of a self-confessed rapist. There are other recordings of a mother I believe she is the ship's doctor who can not recall the face nor name of her child and another woman who fears that this acting Captain Taylor is unable and unworthy of command."
"Sounds like father like son." Garrus shook his head in disgust. Shepard was just going to love this.
Miranda was having none of it. "I know Jacob! What happened on Freedom's Progress…"
"…was allowed to happen because of his command. Or lack of it." Garrus stopped Miranda's defense of her Cerberus colleague. "And it seems his father is the same kind of bastard. Let's his officers beat and rape the crew. That is inexcusable. No reason is good enough for that kind of crap."
"Alleged." Miranda retorted. "And we don't know if the neural decay took over these men's cognitive reasoning and moral fortitude when these recordings were made or the crimes perpetrated."
Garrus turned on her, his eyes narrowing into a hard stare. "I actually hope you're right, Lawson. I hope these men acted like beasts because they no longer have a proper mind to make a choice. But it sure as hell sounded like that Anders guy knew what he was doing to me."
"This argument is academic until the survivors are recovered. Should any still live." Mordin intervened. "Find them. Find answers."
There were indeed survivors of the Hugo Gernsback.
"You're from the sky!?" the elation in the young woman's voice was unmistakable, there was hope—more than hope. There was faith. "The leader said someone would come." he looked from human to turian, salarian to asari faces. "He delayed for so long. But he still has power." she was utterly manic.
It set Garrus teeth on edge, this wasn't right. She … this woman-child...the neural decay had made her all wrong….
"The hunters…she looked over her shoulder, past the ships stores. "they will have seen your star. They will not let you help him."
"What are you talking about child?" Samara moved past Garrus to face the young woman. Her aura was like the haze of neon lights in the rain and fog. Blinking, luminescent but unreal.
The woman touched her forehead wincing. "I...I don't know how to say it." She looked at the asari pleading to her silently for the right words. So she might speak them. "The words she spoke was now deliberate, careful chosen from scattered memory of what should be. "He's our leader. We serve so…we can go home?" she answered in the form of a question like a child being quizzed in a classroom over a particular question. You could almost hear 'Is that right?' spilling from her lips though they were unsaid.
Her listless eyes dulled, the corners of her mouth contorted into a scowl. "But some want to fight him. They were… they were cast out. He exiled them!" her voice became pitched in fevered indignation. "So they hunt his machines and those who help him. They don't believe that rescue is…"
"Get down!" Samara saw the flickered movement of people coming from the beach. She threw the woman-child to the earth, covering the innocent with her own body only to roll up to her feet and send a heavy warp into the mass of enemies.
"Hunter's they won't stop until the leader is dead".
Her shot was true and crippling. Around the Justicar the others fanned out: twelve o'clock, two, ten, nine and three.
"Kill them, agents of the liar! You will not escape!" it was a bestial growl of command and denial.
The Hunters were victims of their environment; they attacked not as a coordinated pack like wolves but disjoined mob of pit-varran. They were easily felled. And yet it seemed like no more a victory than swatting a swarm of midges from a swamp.
"This is the neural decay? They seemed simply insane to me." Miranda said feeling uneasy over the brawl as the others. It wasn't even proper fight, the Hunters fought because they had no other choice. This world had compelled them to take such actions. it was no victory it was a slaughter. "This is so very wrong." Miranda said looking at the bodies of half a dozen men. The uniforms they wore were those of crewmen, no decorations, no embroidery, in inclination of rank
"You killed them." the woman-girl said standing up, acting as though she hadn't been pushed to the ground. She even seemed rather puzzled as to why there were growing bruises on her knees. "But they're more every day. They want to fight. But I just want to go home." her bottom lip quivered.
Samara wrapped an arm around the young human settling her. "And you will child. We promise you, you will not tarry here for much longer. We have come to save you, to liberate you and the rest of the crew from this fate."
"I knew! You came from the sky from your star. I knew."
"Take us to the others." Garrus said trying to sound reassuring as he might have with a victim of an assault when he was in C-Sec.
The young woman was hesitant. She looked at the companions, to the dead hunters back to the companions. She nodded "Others yes. They will want to know about your star. They want to go home."
The path to the village was not uneventful there were a few mechs barring the way but swiftly dispatched. But at the very least this skirmish didn't taste of bitter dirt milling about the mouth.
Of the village it was something out of a surreal nightmare. Directly center of the shanty-town was a massive statue—an effigy—a god. Piecemealed from metal scavenged from the Gernsback. The survivors had not created this by freewill, they couldn't not have. They were pushed into creating it. Forced.
"They are wearing the same uniforms of those we engaged in on the beach yet they are not hostile." Samara pointed out.
"There aren't any men here." Miranda said. "Maybe it affects genders differently. Makes males get violent."
"Logical conclusion. Estrogen and testosterone react differently to chemical imbalances. Testosterone naturally aggressive state. However the woman on the beach said the exiled ones came back as hunters."
"I think it's a bit moot. We have to find Taylor and put an end to this…." Garrus's words were cut off by the gathering women.
"They came from the sky!" Their guide called out. "They have a star!"
"No" he promised to call the sky but he send nothing." a voice denied the guide's proclamation. Her voice desperate and angry.
"He promised to call the sky! But he does nothing! He forces us to eat. To decay!" another lamented.
"Why would Taylor force his crew to eat the toxic food?" Miranda frowned. This was not the man Jacob told her about. "Wherever is happening here must stop." she looked down near her feet, were a crate of ships food stores had been left to rot. This was a deliberate act Taylor had allowed it to happen or rather caused it to happen forcing the crew to eat the toxic food for who knew how long.
"A man who forces his crew to build an idol of him, I find no difficultly in believing he forces them to eat contaminated food to make them more pliable. The logs on the ship state as much. How much easier it was to manipulate them, to use them and abuse them?" said Samara.
Another of the women said almost on the cusp of the asari's words. "He keeps us, he protects us. And we please him like he demands."
The companions all got a sick feeling in their guts for what that meant. But now she's so innocent. They all are. And that look she gives when she smiles…It's sure easier now. What's the harm? We're stuck here any… was that Taylor's voice. His words?
Another challenged the seemingly zealot, her voice almost gleeful. "The hunters will kill you! They fight because he waited too long. He is bad!" She was shaking her head, holding it as if besieged by a migraine "Bad! You'll hurt me.!" She wept. Fear had taken hold of her and she ran from them, diving into one the tents trying to make herself small, hidden.
The companions moved through the village. The message of the women was all same: the leader lied. Made promises to call the sky. A mixture of absolute fear of the leader and adulation that he would do as promised. Forced them to eat, the bad face, the bad man caused the hurt so much hurt.
Garrus wanted nothing more than to walk up to the son of this bad man this demon and slit his throat. To him this Jacob was just as bad, had the same bad face, the same evil as his father. Rage built up in Garrus. There was a human saying an eye for an eye, a life for a life. How many lives did this fracking slime sucker owe? Taylor's son was the direct cause to the torture of one of Garrus' wife's people: a boy! Now he finds out the father of this monster is the architect of crimes unforgivable Ronald Taylor would pay the old price. A life for a life.
He gave a look to Samara; he didn't see an issue with the Justicar seeking justice. Mordin himself had said sometimes the best way to help people was to make other people dead. Garrus's only issue was to the Cerberus loyalist. What would Lawson do? She still exonerated Jacob Taylor saying he was not responsible for the boy's torture and death….would she say the say for the fuckers father? Possibly.
Lawson was seemed the sort of woman what would excuse anything, any crime if it was committed in the name of Cerberus. Ronald Taylor may not be Cerberus, but his fucking son sure was. So that exoneration mostly likely extended to the shit pile of…there was no word bad enough to describe Ronald Taylor.
Garrus just wanted to tear this acting captain's and his son's heads off with his bare talons. Destroy the whole Taylor line lest it contaminate humanity. The disparity in the camp was cloying, overwhelming. He had to do something for them. The Normandy was still too far out of range for effective communications, and there was no comm-buoy near by to link to, to boost the signal But Shepard would be here soon enough.
The companions continued to move through the camp, the women fear and laments coiled around his ears and filled his nostrils despite the filter covering his muzzle. Spirits he could almost taste it.
"I can't talk to you. " One woman stumbled backwards. "I don't want punishing."
Another voice feminine came from the north-east but not alive…it could only come from a LOKI mech. Taylor was sending mechs to stormtroop the camp. Why wasn't Vakarian surprised?
"Incoming." Garrus barked out a warning just as the camp was hit by the clankers. He raised his rifle and peered through the scope. Yep defiantly clankers. he squeezed the trigger causing a loud sparking pop. "One less to worry about." His mandibles twitched in a smile. "I love this rifle." He patted the M-98 Widow anti-material rifle on the side as if it was a loyal hound. It was a good rifle, made all the better that his wife had given it to him as a gift.
"Your captain demands obedience. Weapons are forbidden." The mech declared
"Not our captain." Garrus called out and dropped another.
Both Samara and Miranda sent shockwaves into the machines-scattering their tin bodies into the air. As the LOKIs fell like clay pigeons back to the earth Garrus and Mordin took pot shots at the center mass destroying them.
Nonchalantly the former C-Sec officer returned the widow to its slot on his hardsuits weapons rack. It was only then he saw a human cowering near an empty crate. She rose up and looked at him as if he was some sort of heavenly being swooping down to save her.
"You fight his machines. You stopped them." she said in awe.
Samara recognized the voice as the one from the ships logs. This was the doctor. The Lost Mother. She seemed so very young, she couldn't have been over forty, then again the matron was no judge of human ages. Up to a point they all seemed to have baby faces. Only Dr. Chakwas seemed to have the lines of years on her face and even then it wasn't withered.
"You might stop this." Dr. Lost Mother handed Garrus a data pad. "This…I forgot how to …read, but this...was the start. What he promised and what they did to us. We need the sky. Take us back to the sky." she backed away slowly, her eyes never leaving the angel that saved her from the machines.
"Garrus what does it say?" Miranda asked, not sure she wanted to know.
The turian activated the pad and started reading. Fortunately working at C-Sec he had learned how to read various languages of other races without the use of automated translators, even still he ran his Omni tool over it in case he misinterpret something.
"It's a crew logbook. Some of them thought the beacon repair was taking too long. They were afraid they would run out of supplies and lose their minds to the decay. Taylor restricted the ships food for himself and the other male officers so they wouldn't be affected. Everybody else had to eat the toxic food and hope for a cure later.
"The rest is a casualty list. A few mutinied over the decision. Taylor and the officers turned the mechs on them."
"And yet the beacon was fixed after a year." Mordin pointed out. "The plan was successful. Does not explain why there was no signal. Unless act of deliberation. Either by Taylor or the Hunters."
Garrus shrugged. "Those weren't the last entries on the casualties list. More incidents, harsh punishments. It's like they were cattle or toys. In a year all the male crew members are flagged as 'exiled' or dead. They separated out the women. Assigned them to officers like pets."
"Sex-slaves." Samara said coldly.
Garrus continued summarizing what was on the pad. "After a year the beacon is fixed and the officers appear in the casualties too. After Taylor took control he didn't stop it. Just like his son on Freedoms Progress."
"We haven't seen any other officers, save for the doctor. Did Taylor kill them?" Miranda asked. She had to know for the man she called friend. Despite what crew of the Normandy thought of Jacob she had made a promise to him long ago.
"There are five officers left after the crash, medical, engineering, bridge staff. Should have had no problem fixing the beacon and keeping people safe." Garrus shook his head. All killed within the same week—about a month after the beacon was repaired."
"Does it say why he separated the men from the women?" Miranda pursued the line of questioning. "Or is as bad as it seems."
"No it turns to gibberish. Maybe the men got violent early on but from the state of this place and what we've seen I'd say the Hunters are more recent. What he allowed here, I don't see any justification."
There wasn't, how could there be? Miranda closed her eyes. This was not what she wanted for Jacob. This man was not the father her friend had spoken about. A man who knew right from wrong. This was monstrous—barbarous. Her hand almost went to her collarbone but she stopped the action and let her hand fall to her side.
"Anything in there about whether the effects of the toxic food can be treated?" she asked.
"Nothing. But it seems to be the right call. If everyone gets toxic food who's left to fix the beacon? You'd never get out."
"Certain cases of neural decay are treatable. Victims of Cyan Syndrome for example can be treated. Victims of Indoctrination not so much. Must run tests, on food on victims. Human physiology adaptable. Many variations to reactions of mental deterioration. It was why humans were chosen as control species during the plague on Omega."
"This type of neural decay must be treatable how else were they able to fix the beacon." Miranda said looking at her fellow humans. To be left like that, the indignity of it, to lose who and what you are….to be left in constant fear. It was a fate she wished for no one. Not even her father. "The signal wasn't sent until now. Abuse of power doesn't get any clearer than this. The initial decision might be understandable if the food stores were low. Make sure those capable of repairing the beacon did not suffer the decay. But the rest?"
"We won't find the answers standing here." Garrus said. "We move on Taylor's compound. Take him. Put an end to all this crap."
Taylor must have had some sort of monitoring system in play for as soon as the companions began the trek up the bottleneck slope he began giving excuses for the mech attacks. How he had to keep them distracted, presuming he meant the Hunters. He praised his god for Garrus and his team. He even went as far to say he just got free.
'Free my ass,' Gasses thought bitterly 'He's covering his own ass.' they passed decaying bodies on the path. Some had obviously been left as a message, most of them had been female. The new corpses were male and much fresher. Hunters, gunned down by the mechs.
The companions ignored the lies spilling from Taylor's mouth knowing then for what they were. Taylor had had his fun now he wanted out. That wasn't going to happen. As they had before on the beach and at Taylor's approach the team fanned out two-by-two. and combined their abilities to lay waste to the clankers. Both Garrus and Miranda deployed overloads into the heavy Mech dropping and wreaking its armor for Samara and Mordin to drill holes its chassis using a combination of shotgun and heavy pistol weapons fire.
It was not long before the area was clear and they could finally confront 'Acting Captain' Ronald Taylor. As soon as they laid eyes on the man there was no mistake this was the bastard that had fathered Jacob. It took everything within Garrus not to march right up to the tyrant and slam his body with a gut punch and crush his neck under his boot.
"You're here. I knew a real squad would blow through just fine." he smiled. Probably in something he considered charming. Sorry if the mechs scuffed your pads." Garrus pushed past him and looked out over the sea. His rage nearly choking him. "I'll get you something nice when we get back to Alliance Space. I've got to have some back pay coming."
Miranda shook her head. "What about your crew 'acting captain.'?"
Taylor shrugged indifferently. Total loss. The toxic food turned them wild. They propped me up here in some sort of ritual behavior. Waiting for a change to signal has been hell."
"That is the best you can do?" Miranda snapped.
Taylor turned from the woman. His expression was clear, the female needed to be put in her place. So he turned to Garrus. "You let all your people talk back like that? Who are you exactly?"
That was enough. The rage was too much. Gurus wheeled around and back handed Taylor in the jaw, sending him spilling to the floor. He approached his boot came down on his neck as he had fantasized. Taylor reached for it tried to pull it off but to no avail.
"WHa…Let…go…"
"The name is Garrus Vakarian XO of the Normandy SR2, under Commander Shepard- Council Spectre. And you are filth to be scraped from my boot." he twisted his foot a little making Taylor gag. "We saw and heard what you did to the females. Treating like chattels, creatures to use and abuse." he replayed one of the logs found on the ship.
"…always said no. She even threatened to report me if I didn't stop sending messages. But now she's so innocent. They all are. And that look she gives when she smiles…It's sure easier now. What's the harm? We're stuck here any…'
"You chose to do this to these people. When they resisted you butchered them, we saw the corpse—the warning signs."
"Its….not…its…command…changes you. It was …I wasn't ready for that." he struggled with the boot, he felt his Adams apple bob against the rough underside. He was a hair's breath from being stomped into paste and he knew it.
"Why did you do this to your crew!?"
"Theeere ….cough…was resistant to the plan. Mutiny we had to take…cough…a hard line. As the decay set in we…we.. .cough…made sure the crew… cough…was com...com...fortable.."
"And raping the women made them comfortable or was that the hard line?" Garrus snarled. "No more lies. No more excuses. I don't need to hear any more. Murder, rape, torture you've done it all. Now you answer for it."
"NO!" the struggling became more intense. But the foot wasn't going anywhere. "….NnnnnO!"
"Suggest we leave him for the Hunters." Mordin said. "Human mythology says an eye for an eye. Life for a life. However, easier to just kill him."
Garrus pulled the trigger. The struggling stopped. The hunters that had been approaching from the south stopped their advance. Not that the liar was dead, they no longer wanted blood. Or at least not that of the companions.
"The Alliance can have ships here in days, pull everyone out." Samara said holstering her shotgun.
"Or Cerberus." Miranda said, "We have bases that are closer. They can evacuate these people and get them treatment."
Garrus shook his head. "After what TIMmy has done to Shepard by spreading his own propaganda that she's with you, you actually think this 'win' should go to him? That the Normandy crew swooped in to save them all on the wings of Cerberus? No the call will go to the Alliance. We'll leave supplies for them until the rescue ships arrive."
Not long after the companions returned to the settlement they got a call from Shepard ready to come in with the Calvary if needed or render medical aid. Garrus gave a full SitRep, cautioning about the hunters but with Taylor gone their incentive and motivation for attacks might lessen. The males hadn't stormed the platform where Taylor had secured himself as the village overlord, chances are they violent streak might simmer down to a dull roar. For the safety of the women the hunters may have to be sedated, least they turn their aggression against them. Despite the fact Taylor used the mechs to police and terrorize the hapless crew the clankers were effective in keeping the women more or less safe from further abuses. As sick as it might be to the companions, there was method in the tyranny at least in this case. Until aid arrived the women had to be protected.
After walking the crash site, the village and the Taylor's lofty holdout, Shepard chewed over what to do with the women. How best to protect them. "We leave the clean food stores and voice recordings that help is coming so that they remember. I'll have Tali create a few drones to deploy to patrol the area, set to incapacitate the hunters not to kill. Just unpleasant enough to train them not to enter the female camp and we'll leave enough supplies near the crash site and shelter for them they won't need to venture here. We'll also make recordings for them; reassuring them help is on the way."
Shepard looked out at the ocean. It truly was a paradise—albeit a poisoned one. "I know you're mad about the way I handled Taylor. That I didn't bring him in to serve time." Garrus stood next to his best friend.
Still leaning on the railing on her folded arms Shepard looked up at Garrus then shook her head. "No. I don't blame you at all. I would have been tempted to do the same. Ten years for everyone here is not nearly enough. Not nearly"
Garrus was silent, watching as the gull-like birds flitter by, diving into the water to capture minnows. After a few moments he asked. "What would you have done?"
"Typically I'm not one for mob justice or posses though I might have made an exception in this case. I assume Samara felt the same about executing him, I mean."
Garrus soundlessly nodded his head.
"This thing with Robert Taylor is different to Dr. Saleon. Taking in Saleon would have given information on how he did what he did. You got a confession, victim testimonies; the action you took was understandable."
"Not justifiable?"
"Didn't say that." Shepard stood up. "Of course I might have shot him in the daddy bags first."
The turian gave a dry humorless chuckle.
"What's done is done Garrus. Let's just concentrate on helping these people." She clapped the man on the back. "You did a good job here, buddy. Archangel Indeed." she smiled. "You definitely were these people's angelic savior. So much for the gift of greatness, the Taylor's certainly don't have it. The Vakarians sure as hell do."
Garrus coughed in embarrassment, "Keep talking like that and it will go to my head."
"Can't have that. Tali will be after me for screwing up her husband….and that sounded soooo much better in my head." Shepard frowned at her faux pas.
He let out a full blown chuckle at his friend's discomfort. "I won't say anything if you won't."
"Deal." She looked down at the corpse of Taylor. The levity reflecting in her eyes lived a temporary existence. It was strange to see candor take its place and thrive. "There is one more thing. By the looks of it an unarmed man was murdered. I can't allow that to go into the report. My XO can't be a murderer."
"Shepard." Garrus frowned. "I…"
She held up her hand silencing him, and then she called in the ground team to assemble at their location. It only took a moment for the companions to abandon their tasks to the Normandy relief teams to rendezvous at Shepard location.
"What's going on?" Miranda asked as they mounted the ramp.
"In apprehending the suspect Ronald Taylor there was an accidental discharge of a weapon. Garrus for improper weapons maintenance you will clean and inspect every firearm within the Normandy armory.
"Acting Captain Ronald Taylor on multiple counts of cruel and unusual treatment of your crew including: several counts of aggregated assault, willful endangerment, conspiracy to commit the torture, rape and assault of your female crewmembers. Several counts of committing torture, serial rape, slavery of said crewmembers the murder of officers and crew. Desecration of bodies. For these crimes as a Council Spectre I hereby sentence you to death." She pulled out her N7 Eagle and fired until she emptied the thermoclip, slammed in another and emptied that one as well.
Shepard looked at the assembled ground crew. "Justicar Samara you can testify I alerted the perpetrator of his crimes and administered the appropriate justice."
"I can." the asari said.
Shepard nodded. Her eyes didn't meet the others. "You guys saved a lot of lives here. Good job, everyone."
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME
"I don't understand." Tali said helping her husband with his cleaning of the ship's small firearms. "She wasn't unset about you killing that bosh'tet, so why did she drop two loads of clips into him and said she killed him? Now everyone will think she was there leading the mission. She's not the type to steal someone else's thunder. That's not Shepard. I don't get it."
Garrus was reassembling one of the hundreds of M-15 Vindicator battle rifles in the ship's stores. "It's easy love. She had to. Even if I was still a detective for C-Sec what I did to Taylor was show of excessive force and murder. Shepard doing it… as a Spectre…"
"She can move without impunity," Tali said sliding in the firing pin as she spoke. "Still people will think she was there."
"We both know her. She'll take the blame for her crew's actions but not the credit. It's why she addressed Samara down there. Justicars to the asari are a lot like Spectres to everyone else. Their authority and judgment aren't questioned. If asked why we didn't bring Taylor in, Samara can testify that the Spectre decided it was better to execute him for his many crimes father than spend taxpayers' money to send him to prison for a hundred years.
"Shepard protects her crew, her friends. We both know she'd jump through any number of fires or hoops for us. It's who she is. It's why the ship's logs have to show I was disciplined for accidental weapon's discharge and she riddled the body with bullets after she sentenced it to death. It's why she made the team witness it, so all the reports reflect the same: Shepard sentenced and shot Ronald Taylor for gross criminal charges so…"
"So she wouldn't be forced to mention you and murder in the same report." Tali finished her husband's sentence. "That's her all over isn't it? Making sure those she loves doesn't become a cautionary tale, making sure they don't fall down any dark holes." Tali picked up a pistol and began to disassemble it. "Speaking of dark, how are you doing?"
Garrus picked up a Mantis sniper rifle, "What went down there, Tali. What was allowed to happen…. you know I've seen a lot of dark on C-Sec. A lot of dark. Stuff that makes it hard to sleep at night." He had all the parts on the worktable and was busily swabbing the barrel of the rifle. "Seen a few cases like Taylor's. Turian and human men selling human girls into slavery, conditioning—grooming them. Some as young as five. They were selling them off Ito the batarians."
Tali looked at man she loved: stunned.
"It was sick." Garrus didn't look up; he just continued to clean the rifle. "I was enraged for what my people were doing, for what the humans were allowing. I wasn't the only one. Detective Chellick was in on the case as well. We broke the case, put the syndicate down." he slammed the parts of the rifle back together again.
"And the leaders…"
"Shot resisting arrest." Garrus said robotically.
Tali could hear the quote marks around the words her husband spoke. Garrus was all black and white he had no idea what to do with gray, not like Shepard who swam in the colour. Garrus and Chellick would have put down the leaders out of vindication and justice because the law might not have given it.
Of all things Garrus Vakarian hated the most was the victimization of innocents and the helpless. So much so Tali was left wondering if her beloved had been a victim of some sort of violence, either personally or someone close to him. But his family was hale and hearty, his sister and his father. His mother's death was due to illness because of a genetic defect not to criminal violence.
Garrus had a very definite sense of right and wrong. The wrong needed to be punished more than often with a bullet lest they escape justice due to a technicality. What decent cops hated most was for scum-buckets to get off due to a technicality. There was a big difference between a dirty cop and a good cop willing to get their hands dirty. Garrus was of the latter. He was all about vindication, about making things right.
So was Shepard. It was why the Spectre was willing to take the fall for her Archangel. Why Shepard always would. Why her true Trusted did what needed to be done. There was no Shepard without Vakarian. Tali knew there was no Vakarian without Shepard.
Together they cleaned every small arms in the armory including the prototype models, then went on to calibrate the main cannons of the Normandy, the shield modulation and the new tech incorporated into the ship.
After all the Normandy and her crew was the gift of greatness.