Chapter 52: Old Blood
The next room according to EDI contained crates that held unstable materials. She warned that a misplaced shot could cause a significant explosion. Mordin countered with that a well placed shot could be useful to burn through krogan armor.
In preparation for any opposition Tali summoned both her drones for deployment. She gave ordered to Chikkitika to target any of the boxes if they were being used as cover by the enemy. The defensive drone was given commands to set up holographic barricades to protect them from incoming ballistics. Tali also readied her turret for deployment once they engaged in hostile actions.
Samara wasn't glowing yet in the power of dark energy, but it was only a matte of will that she'd summon the mass effect field that fed her biotics. Mordin was busy entering commands on his omni-tool that would call forth his decoy. As before in battles the holographic projection was a strategic tool to distract enemy forces allowing the good Professor time to set up tech-attacks and hopefully even tech-explosions if the timing and right techniques were used in conjunction.
No sooner had the companions entered this last great bay door when they were set upon by a band of krogan in red armor. The Blood Pack were out in force, vorcha and blooded varran as nasty and enraged as any of the pit fighters fighting along side experienced krogan warriors.
Tali rushed for immediate cover as did the other two. Drones hovered about the engineer's head for a moment before flying off to their pre-appointed duties: one to attack, one to guard.
Tali took a shot and ducked as the vorcha let loose a volley of assault gun fire, "Can you do that thing Shepard does? The big wave thingy?" Tali shouted over the din of gunfire.
"Not without another biotic." Samara answered. "Too dangerous. It could kill you and Mordin. No." She shook her head. "It is not possible."
"Destroy the crates. Weaken the armour by tech." Mordin called out. The decoy kept the attention off of the companions for a moment, but it would not last. Varren could smell blood, sweat and flesh and vorcha followed the hounds. Solid photonic projections gave off no scent, carried no blood and did not sweat in battle.
The distraction of the drones and the decoy would not last long. Samara's shockwaves disrupted the pack of varren. Her reaves and annihilation field kept them weak and her lifts and pushes kept the enemy from swarming.
Mordin deployed cryoblasts freezing the enemies solid before the krogan had chances to make a charge. Tali took the cue and crushed the Blood Pack armour with tech overloads and energy drains, her tech attacks caused unparalleled damage to the enemy shields. Mordin followed with energy drains of his own mixed with neural-shock knocking out the lesser willed enemies as well as inflicting toxic damage to their bodies.
Left vulnerable the Blood Pack were wide open to Samara's more aggressive biotic assaults: slams, pulls, leaches, singularities and flares. All weakened the enemy's defenses, decimating them.
The battle was brutal and bloody and over. The companions checked each the others over for damage but the blood spilled was orange and deep red, none of it belonged to quarian, asari or salarian. A pause to take stock of thermo-clips and weapons and other tech and the trio were off once more.
More doors with more locks, easily cracked by Tali. Behind the last door there was a lone salarian toiling away at a large computer screen. The monitor held equations that even a brilliant mind as Tali's could not decipher. The algorithms pertained she supposed to the genophage work. This was obviously the missing scientist from Mordin's old team. On either side of him were exam tables littered with the dead bodies of human and krogan. Victims of the experiments. There was an unnatural coldness in the air. Either by the climate control or the prospect of so many dead bodies it was hard to say.
"Maelon. Alive. unharmed." puzzled the professor. He walked forward still in a quandary over the state of his protégée. "No signs of restraint. No evidence of torture. Don't understand." warring emotions crossed his face.
Only then did the other salarian speak. His voice higher pitched, much younger at least by a decade perhaps even two given Mordin's extremely long life for a salarian at fifty. Most rarely reach forty-five. He did not turn as he raised his hands armed with twin omni tools.
"For such a smart man, Professor, you always had trouble seeing evidence that disagrees with your preconception."
"You can say that again." Tali muttered very much under her breath. Even over the dead krogan woman Mordin refused to see the true horror of the genophage.
If Tali's words were heard they were not commented on. Indeed. Maelon continued to speak. "How long will it take you to admit I am here because I wish to be here?" He turned to address the others face to face.
"Perhaps the Weyrloc brainwashed or drugged him to keep him under control," Samara suggested, leaning towards Mordin.
"Unlikely. Pupils normal. Body language consistent with standard metabolic state." Mordin discounted the words.
"Please Professor. You wrote a paper on this. Forced behavior modification always results in mental degradation. Whether from Reaper indoctrination or drugs, tests subjects always lose their higher cognitive function."
"Not brainwashed or conditioned. Need Maelon at peak capacity for work. Must be alternative source of coercion." The anger was rising in the older male.
"He wasn't kidnapped. He came here voluntarily to cure the genophage." Tali said staring at the younger male.
Just like Maelon said. The professor could not see past his own preconceptions. "Impossible. Whole team agreed! Project necessary!"
"How was I supposed to disagree with the great Doctor Solus? I was your student! I looked up to you!" Maelon snapped.
"Experiments performed here. Live subjects! Prisoners! Torture and executions. Your doing?" Mordin growled back.
"We've already got the blood of millions on our hands, Doctor. If it takes more to put things right, I can deal with that."
"Do you honestly think that the experiments you did here are justified." asked the Justicar. Curiosity was always dangerous, and the asari never pursued it in her investigations. But she knew Shepard would open a line of questions before she took actions. To understand motives and reasons The Third Oath obligated Samara to follow, the Spectre's morals thus she asked the questions she knew Shepard would have.
"We committed cultural genocide! Nothing I do will ever be justified! The experiments are monstrous…because I was taught to be a monster." large dark eyes glowered at Mordin.
"Mordin, did you ever perform experiments like this?" Samara continued the inquest.
"No." Mordin shook his head. "Never taught you this, Maelon."
"So your hands are clean! What doest it matter if the ground is stained with the blood of millions! You taught me the end justified the means. I will undo what we did, Professor. The only way I know how."
Playing the devil's advocate as the humans might say, Samara asked the question that many would, that had been Mordin's argument all along. "What happens if the genophage is cured and the krogan expand again? That will be on your head."
Maelon shook his own head. "We justified this atrocity by saying the krogan would cause havoc and war if the population recovered. But look at the galaxy! Batarian attacks in the Traverse, geth attacks on the Citadel! This is a more peaceful universe?. The assault on the human's Eden Prime might never have happened if we had let the krogan recover. We'll never know."
Tali frowned behind her faceplate. "Lost here. How would a krogan population explosion have done anything to stop Saren and the geth? He already had some kind of vendetta against the humans."
Maelon's argument was on the causative. "An increased krogan population would have forced the Council to take steps, likely involving colony rights in the Traverse. The turian fleets would be vigilant for any military activity in the area. They might have stopped the geth at Eden Prime."
"Supposition. Impossible to be certain." Mordin discounted the younger male's reasons. Ignoring the uncomfortable truth that his own arguments about krogan expansion leading to war were mere supposition.
"Don't you see? We tried to play gods, and we failed! We only made things worse….and I'm going to fix it."
Playing the game once more Samara used Mordin's words not that she agreed with them, perhaps this way the good Professor would see the folly of his 'moral' stance. Perhaps Maelon's counter argument held the words Mordin needed to hear as he respected no other's opinion on the matter save his own and those held by the salarians who agreed fully with him... "You talked about killing, but the genophage isn't lethal. It only affects fertility rates."
"Krogan fight over fertile females. They become mercenaries or pirates because they see no alternative! They would be thriving in a cultural renaissance now had we not decided that this is what they deserved!"
Mordin unsurprisingly was not moved. "Inaccurate. Krogan population growth resulted in war. Simulations were clear!"
"Why work with Clan Weyrloc? And how did you access the genophage data?" Samara interrogated the young male.
"The data was easy to obtain. We still had clearance. We were heroes. All I had to do was ask." Maelon spoke the bitter casualness of truth. "As for the Weyrloc, they were the only clan with both the resources and the commitment."
"Urdnot has a larger camp than Weyrloc. Why not use them?" Samara pursued.
Maelon shrugged. "Urdnot Wrex too soft. He wasn't willing to do the experiments I needed."
"Wrex isn't soft!" Tali defied the insult. "You'd know that if you fought beside him as I have. He's good man."
"Never said he wasn't. Only said he wouldn't allow experiments. Exposure to Shepard and her ways likely cause for his reluctance. Everyone affiliated with the STG knows what she had done on Virmire to the cloning facility and the cure Saren acquired from Sovereign. It's Urdnot's loss and Weyrloc's gain. Their clan will be the first to recover from the crime we committed."
"Professor, clearly Maelon does not need rescuing. What do you want to do?" Samara addressed the elder salarian.
"Have to end this." there was no hesitation in the answer.
Maelon's defiant anger was back. "You can't face the truth, can you? Can't admit that your brilliant mind led you to commit an atrocity!" He lifted a pistol he clearly had hidden in the small of his back, pointing its muzzle frantically from one face to the other.
'He sure as hell can't.' Tali's hindbrain agreed with Maelon as she faced his gun at her unflinchingly. Her only concern was that it would go off accidentally.
Mordin surged forward and gave a right hook into the younger male; the force of it slammed Maelon's back into the terminal with a hard THUNNK. Tali never even saw Mordin's hand go for his sidearm but there it was right in Maelon's face directly under his chin. "Unacceptable experiments. Unacceptable goals. Won't change. No choice. Have to kill you."
"Wait you don't have to do this Mordin. You're not a murderer." Tali reached past the shock of the drama and was now standing at the Professor's side.
Maelon was wholeheartedly agreeing with the quarian engineer. He had no desire to die.
"No. not a murderer." Mordin lowered the gun and placed it back into the holster. "Thank you Tali." He looked up to Maelon. "Finished Maelon. Get out. No Weyrloc left. Project over."
Maelon wiped the sweat that had accumulated on his brow with the back of his hand. And exhaled the breath he had been holding.
"What if he talks to more krogan, tells the public about the modified project?" Samara asked uncomfortable but necessary questions.
"Special Tasks Group good at covering tracks. No proof." Mordin sniffed. "Weyrloc willingness to work with salarian unusual. Other krogan will kill him."
"Are you not concerned he will start his research again?"
"No. Locking this unit. Special Tasks Group can cut access to old data. Could start from scratch. Decades to work through. Didn't teach you everything I knew." Mordin gloated.
"You heard the Professor. You better run before he changes his mind. Or the Justicar puts you down." Tali said pointing a thumb over her shoulder to the open door behind them."
Shaken and vexed Maelon turned. "Where am I supposed to go, Professor?"
"Don't care. Try Omega. Can always use another clinic."
" Of course we should contact Spectre Shepard. She may wish to arrest him." Samara aid. "I am sworn to follow Shepard's code, or I would indeed killed you Maelon. For now you will be detained until the Spectre determines your fate. Resist and you face execution."
Mealon's shoulders sagged under the weight of his own body. "Very well." He looked up to the other salarian Still adamant on his argument Maelon wasn't going to let it go. Even if he was going to be sent to prison by the Spectre his mentor had to hear the words. "The krogan didn't deserve what we did to them, Professor. The genophage needs to end."
Mordin turned to the computer banks. "Not like this." he uttered softly. He stared at the screen. "I will need to apologize to the Commander. Misunderstood mission parameters. No kidnapping. My mistake. She will need to be thanked."
"Shepard wouldn't have thought it a waste." Tali knew her friend would have come even if she knew that Maelon wasn't held prisoner. At this moment she also knew exactly how Shepard would respond to what just happened. She'd ask a simple question even if she completely disagreed with a crewmate because she cared about her crew. "How you holding up?" Tali asked with Shepard's inflection.
The watched as Samara took binders from the table that had been used on the human and fastened them around the salarian's wrists which were behind his back of course the Justicar was ever mindful to remove his omni tools first.
"For your sake I advise against doing anything foolish." Samara warned.
Mordin watched his words softly spoken. "Should have killed him. Wanted to. Easier than listening. Easier for him too. Experiments indicate how far he has fallen. Expected it from krogan. Not one of mine."
"Maybe you'll remember that the next time you're discussing the ethics of the genophage."
"Yes." Mordin finally admitted. "So many variables. Stress responses. Impossible to truly predict. Something to think about." Her turned to his companions. "Maelon's research. Only loose end. Could destroy it. Closer security. Still valuable, though."
With the prisoner secured the sari returned to the others, "Samara shook her head. "This is the research that included tests on living victims. It's tainted.
"Right now, victims died for nothing. Keep it; use it, deaths worth something. Maelon's work could cure genophage. Don't know. Effects on krogan. Effects on galaxy. Too many variables. Too many variables!"
"You regret what the krogan have become." Tali suddenly pointed out, her voice softer than it has ever been since Mordin's admission the night before. "You see the horror of what they did you, but you see the loss too."
"Wasted potential."
Behind them on the gurneys were a line of the dead: krogan men and women. All of them reaching for the hope of their people. Tali looked at them, then back to the giant screen. And she knew exactly what Shepard would do and say at this exact moment.
"We need to contact the Commander." Samara said thinking along the same lines.
"She'd say the same thing I'm going to. Shepard would tell you that the krogan don't deserve this. She'd say that data needs to be saved." Tali said.
"Point taken, Tali'Zorah vos Normandy. Capturing data, wiping local copy. Still years away from cure. But closer than starting from scratch." Mordin worked on the console with a bleep the interface went dark. "Done. Ready to go. Ready to be off Tuchanka. Anywhere else. Maybe somewhere sunny." He looked as Samara hoisted the subdued young male to his feet and marched him out the way they came. "After we take care of him."
ME~ME~ME~ME~ ME~ME~ME~ME~ ME
Shepard sucked in a deep breath of air. This was not how she had envisioned the celebration of Grunt's rites of passage, in a lone chamber waiting for the appearance of a woman who had requested breeding rites.
This was not going to be easy. Damn Wrex for allowing it, not telling the truth.—that she could not give this woman a child. The gestalt changed her yes, her biotics were aligned with those of an asari but she could not create a child as Liara could. It was an unnecessary cruelty to both this young want-to-be-mother and Shepard who had to deny the maiden's request.
And so here she was pacing back and forth with quarters provided to her by the other females of clan Urdnot. The young hopeful woman entered the chapters, her expression bashful and hesitant. She was taller than Shepard imagined a krogan woman to be. In fact she seemed taller than even Grunt. Than again a lot of reptilian females were much bigger than their male counterparts.
In waiting Shepard downed her fourth glass of imported Serrice iced brandy. With all the upgrades, and her biotic metabolism she processed the alcohol very quickly. By the time she had her seventh glass the young Urdnot female made a show of herself.
The female's crest barely carried any color at all; the blueness had only just developed along with her maturity. Shepard faced the young woman and her heart felt even heavier.
The hopeful eyes of the girl pierced Sam to the quick. "I know you asked for me…" Shepard began and ran her hand though her dark locks. "But I don't…um see why. Sorry.., ah…I should have asked for your name."
"I am Urdnot Mina" The woman addressed herself. "I…I know you have a bondmate. I'm not stupid. I'm not looking for something permanent. But there are stories that you got changed after the Battle of the Citadel…that you're more asari…than human."
Shepard held up her hand and shook her head. "Okay um look Miss Mina this is going to sound harsh and clinical but you need to hear the truth. Even changed I'm still very much human. I can't give you a child. Even if I was asari I couldn't give you one. The girl would have been born asari not krogan." Shepard felt like the lowest lifeform ever created. "I am so sorry no one ever told you…"
"I know how asari physiology works." The young krogan woman looked down to her bare feet then back up to Shepard. "I was hoping you'd be like your…bondmate…that you could make babies like her."
Shepard opened her mouth then closed it. "I'm devoted to Liara; she's my whole world Mina. All I am, ever hope to be, can be, is wrapped up in her. I'd never betray her even if I could give you the child you seek. I'm sorry." Shepard felt absolutely miserable. Having to say the words, forced to say them and to see the look in the woman's eyes as she said them.
The words the Spectre heard were not those she expected. "I …had to try." The admission was so softly spoken Shepard was straining her ears to hear them. "Do you have any idea what its like to be a fertile female and crave the attentions of your own sex?"
"I…ah…"
"Of course you don't. Humans, asari …turian, salarian, quarian…. you all have the grand luxury of choosing. Krogan females who are fertile are traded…bartered as great prizes of conquest. And as fertile females we are obligated to breed.
"One in one thousand that's what the salarians condemned us too. They preach to all other races that is the perfect number. I was one in one thousand. Many of my sisters and brothers died before they were even hatched. Stillborn in mother's womb. The salarians never thought of that. They think of only the perfect number: one in one thousand. They don't care of the personal cost of the women who bear the 999 others." Mina uttered softly "As a result of the genophage…my people have ignored all personal rights.
"Any male or female who wishes only for the company of their own sex are branded an aberration…a deviant. Clan leaders force those who are fertile to breed. We have no choice. They tell us we are furthering the krogan race. We must take several males to preserve our own people."
Shepard looked sick. She couldn't imagine Wrex ever agreeing to rape and yet this is what the genophage had reduced krogan people to. Governmental sanctioned rapes of fertile females if only to further the race's survival. It was culturally accepted as the only way to ensure children were born.
Yes it was up to the female clans if they accepted the male who was to breed, but what if the female didn't want to breed? What if like Mina they preferred their own sex, but because they were deemed fertile were forced to breed.
God what a fuck up.
But were the males forced to breed any less innocent than the females they bedded? Yes they competed desperately for the rite for breeding, to meet the obligations of the female clan-leaders for the rights of fatherhood. But once met the females they were sent to breed with did not seem to have much choice in the matter. This was the legacy the salarians and turians left the krogan. A fate the vast majority of turian and salarian people would say was deserved of krogan for their Rebellions.
"Mina. I…I can't help you. I can talk to Wrex, maybe to your clan leader…so you're not forced to breed. "
"I have an obligation to my people. It's my duty."
"No. You don't have to …"
"Yes. Shepard I do. I am fertile. I am obligated to breed." Mina voice broke. "My clan leader will oblige me, I will obey. There are no other options."
"Of course there are."
"Only if the genophage is cured." The krogan whispered. "If we are told we must breed, we breed. But we at least we can choose which males we bed. Many females chose Urdnot Grunt for his triumphs in the trials. I had hoped you would be like Urdnot Char's mate…. because of what happened to you and Dr. T'Soni…"
"My connection with my bondmate makes it absolutely impossible to connect with anyone else. Not that I would ever want to." Shepard said. "Look, Wrex is like a brother to me. We're close. I'll talk to him…."
"Clan Chief Wrex has no authority in the female camps. No male ever does or will. Whatever you tell him will make small matter to what my clan chief orders. She tells me I am fertile and so I must breed. I can choose any male but I must lay with a male. I have no option to do otherwise and maybe I will bear a child who actually lives.
"999 lives destroyed so that one may live. That is the price we pay. The price we will always pay. The price the salarian demand and the turians ensure we pay. We must betray our own flesh, our own souls so that our race continues to live. One in one thousand. Ask any salarian and they will always justify that is the perfect number for the survival our species, but they don't count the survival of our souls. Our souls count for nothing to any salarian, to any turian. To them a krogan doesn't even have a soul; we are only animals-beasts with insatiable urges."
"You mean to defy that."
"In any way I can. Even if that means exposing myself as a sexual deviant that prefers her own sex."
"Mina you are no deviant." Shepard took the other woman's hands into her own. "You are a smart woman, you are special and you matter. Any race that makes a pariah of their own people for following their natural inclinations for preferring their own sex is the deviant. They are the perverted and they are the ones that should face prosecution.
"As far as I am concerned as long as your nature doesn't involve children, animals or your own blood relative—it's natural. Race, creed, gender, species, religions it doesn't matter. Liara is well over eighty years my senior, yet equilaterally I am hers. Look if you are fertile there are other means. You can be fertilized in vitro with harvested sperm to produce a child you don't have to lay with a male if you don't want to."
"No krogan can ever trust a doctor." the admittance was softly spoken.
"Maybe not, but you can trust the word of a Spectre. You can trust me. I suspect you know this already or you would never have asked for the breeding rite with me. My own ship's physician…Dr. Chakwas can help. We get the sperm sample and she can implant it, make sure the pregnancy takes. She's human like me and she's familiar with krogan physiology. Maybe not an expert but she knows her medicine. She's treated Urdnot Wrex after many battles during our hunt for Saren and she's treated Grunt. All I have to do is ask."
Mina seemed to consider this. "What do you know of Urdnot Grunt?"
Shepard smiled "He's young, impulsive, a bit arrogant, but brave and true. I know in his head he's identified me with some sort of mother figure. Hell the crew even sees it now. Don't ask me how it happened. It just did. He's a good man, one I'm glad to have at my side in any battle. If you mean for him to father your children he is a good choice. If I ask it of him he will donate for you, Dr. Chakwas will do the rest."
"Why do you do this for me?"
Shepard looked down at the ground then back up at the bright orange eyes. "I may not know the pains of constant child loss as the krogan people do, but I know what it is to hold a dead baby in my arms, a soul robbed of life.
"My bondmate was brutally attacked by mercenaries. My baby was assassinated in her mother's womb. My little girl - her tiny body…I held her as her life was winked out. I felt her soul go. It was the single most devastating thing I have ever felt. Her loss will forever burn my heart, my soul and my mind. I do this in her memory. Besides it's the right thing to do. The choice, Mina is completely yours."
There was no hesitation in the young krogan woman. "If Grunt agrees, then so do I." her maw gave way to a smile. "Thank you Commander Shepard." her words as before were softly spoken but filled with so great a depth of emotion and gratitude it almost broke the heart to hear it.
Shepard merely nodded and her smile uplifted the other woman's heart. "I'll speak with Dr. Chakwas and with Grunt as soon as I return to my ship. The Normandy will not leave Tuchanka without helping you Urdnot Mina."
ME~ME~ME~ME~ ME~ME~ME~ME~ ME
Jack returned to the Normandy just as Shepard had commanded. She did so without complaint. She was hot, sweaty and tired. Returning to the Normandy wasn't a sentence. Yeah sure she couldn't party with Grunt, ring in his success at becoming a real man, but what the hell? At least she could shower, eat, and fucking sleep and get piss drunk.
Only goddamn Chakwas wasn't letting her out of the fucking medbay just 'cuz her eyes had a hint of blue in the sclera. The ex-con waited impatiently as the doc ran her tests. Bloods, tissue, PH balance, and whatever else the doc could think of.
At least Chakwas gave her something for the fucking migraine. It was a dull thumping now, and no longer felt like someone used an ice-cream scoop to dig out her brain and fill her skull with razor blades just to give it a good shake. The doc also administered specialized therapeutic pharmaceuticals to stabilize Jack's hormonal levels to negate any backlash of overuse of biotics.
The physical included monitoring of Jack's implants, insuring there was no damage. Fortunately there wasn't. The prototype L5 implant the science team developed on the Victory was one of the strongest and most resilient in its ability to stabilize the neurological needs of a biotic nervous system.
"I know you won't sleep here." Chakwas said looking at the tattooed woman. "But if I let you go to your little cubby… what guarantees will you give me you'll sleep and won't partake?"
"Partake?"
"Jack you're not stupid."
"Yeah fine no fucking drinking."
"Then I give you a choice. Stay here, I give you a sedative, knock you out for twenty-four hours and then reexamine you. Or….you forego any drink and I let you take to your hidey-hole. Your choice."
"Okay fine I promise not to guzzle down any booze. Satisfied, Doc?"
"Are you?" The doc countered. "Should I tell you what happens to those with Cyan Syndrome?"
"Yeah I already fucking know." Jack said kicking her heels against the foot of the exam bed. "Made a bunch of them L2s fuckers crazy as shit."
"Yes. It did. And CS also almost destroyed our Commander and her bondmate. She was treated on Illium before it nearly destroyed her. She's evolved from an L3 since the gestalt to an L5 just like you.
"Subject Zero was designed by Cerberus to be the most perfect, the most powerful human biotic. And if it wasn't for the gestalt and what it did to Shepard, you would be." the older woman said matter-of-factly. "Now it's hard to say who is. Frankly I don't care who is the stronger. I care about your health. Now it's easier for me and better for you if I send you to your hidey-hole to get some bed rest.
"However if I have to knock that skinny ass of yours out to make sure you do I will. Don't test me on this kiddo. I knocked Shepard out when she was being a pill and refusing to listen. Mark my words I will do the same to you." Chakwas pointed a fierce finger in Jack's face. "No drink. No biotics. Sleep. That's an order. Oh and you won't be going on any missions for at least a week."
"A week?!" Jack sprung off the bed, her booted feet clapping against the tiles of the medbay's floor.
"Yes. A week. Jack, you used the power of that blasted tsunami without properly preparing for it. You're lucky the three of you are still alive after such a foolish risk."
Jack whipped her head way, unable to meet the older woman's eyes. "Don't you think I know that? I do alright?" she sighed. "Yeah it was fucking stupid. I thought I could take big-ass worm down. Its guts were spilling out and it seemed the best move. It's the most powerful biotic attack I've ever seen, and I can smash anything with a slam. I can erupt in a pulse. But this power…I ain't ever seen anything like what it did on Horizon.
"I have the strength, the power. The damned worm was dying. The pulls on its guts was taking too long. Yeah okay, I should have told Shepard about the pulls and she'd have helped. I didn't. I fucked up. Yeah we're working as a team for a while but I still ain't used to not looking over my shoulder for being friendly fucked. Shepard's the real deal. Still doing my head in, ya know? Hell even the fracking Cheerleader will cover my back in a firefight and I will never trust Cerberus."
Chakwas only listened offering no judgments, no voice but allowed the younger woman to speak as she clearly needed to. "You need to talk to Shepard about this. She will listen. "
"Yeah." Jack mumbled. That was something she wasn't looking forward to. It was great to feel the pride, Shepard had in her over the past couple of weeks, then this shit… If only life were a vid-game you could just reload and make different choices.
"You know if were up to me…I'd ban Shepard from ever using it. I'd wish to God it was never downloaded into her memory. It's like running around with a live nuke leaking radiation. It will only end one way. Badly. You want to know what really happened to the Protheans? Their biotics killed themselves and everyone else around them using that damnable power. That's what happened to them." Chakwas said firmly. "And no matter how gifted or powerful anyone else is she should never have taught it to anyone else." the white haired physician looked solemnly to Jack. "You mustn't teach it to anyone else. It is far far too dangerous."
Jack looked up and witnessed something she had never seen in the old woman's eyes before. Deep worry. "Doc, no need to worry about that. I ain't no teacher. I ain't a leader like Shepard. Never lead anything but boarding parties. And I sure as hell don't give anyone anything they can turn around and kill me with."
"Prudent. Shepard is a good leader, a great one. I'd follow her anywhere at anytime. You couldn't ask for a better teacher or guide. But I think you give yourself too little credit Jack. Don't sell yourself so short."
"Pft. I'm not selling anything. I know what I'm capable of and what I'm not. I'm not any kind of commander."
Chakwas smiled. "Oh military life isn't for you." she chuckled. "That is something Shepard lives and breathes. Good grief the woman was diapered in a uniform. Considering who her parents are that's not surprising. But you tell me something, Jack. You were captured by Blue Sun mercs while infiltrating a Cerberus facility. You were there to destroy it, but you found kids there right? Biotic kids. Did you not try to warn them against Cerberus's evil, to rescue them? Your distraction I hear allowed many to escape."
"Yeah. So."
Chakwas smiled warmly as if the answer was clearly evident. "Get some rest Jack. Come by tomorrow for a check-up. And if your readings come back normal or near enough, I'll okay a few indulgences, like that grease monkey grog you seem to be so very fond of."
The warm smile turned teasing. "First however I suggest a shower. You're a bit rank, Jack."
Jack rolled her eyes. "Thanks doc. What the hell happened to your good bedside manner?"
"You're seeing it. Now go."
"Yeah, yeah." Jack said shaking her head and leaving for the medbay's door.
She crossed the hall and went directly into the womens' head. It didn't take the biotic long to strip down, collect the shower pack from the shelf and get under the spray of the shower. She felt rather than saw Miranda's approach.
"I heard the shuttle returned with you." the Cerberus agent said.
"Yeah what of it?" Jack continued to scrub her body free of the dirt and grime of Tuchanka. She could feel Cheerleader's eyes on her body giving her the once over. No doubt noting and counting the several bruises covering her.
"I thought you'd be sucking down ryncol with our resident krogan and the Commander toasting a successful trial."
"Yeah? You thought wrong." Jack didn't turn around to eyeball the brunette, she continued soaping up, hissing as she brushed against one-mother of a bruise under her left-breast where one of the varren had slammed into her ribcage.
She heard Miranda step up behind her, felt the older woman's hands slide down her soapy spine, across her shoulder blades, lightly touching each bruise marring the inked and scarred skin.
"What are you doing?" Jack asked, her tone had none of its usual bite.
"What does it feel like?"
Jack turned and for a moment lost herself in gray eyes. The water cascading down her shaved head spilling bubbles down her chest. "You're getting your clothes wet Cheerleader." she unzipped the front of the black now glistening PVC catsuit, slid her hand down Miranda's very toned perfect stomach, to the small thatch of black hair between her legs and dipped her fingers into the inner warmth causing Miranda's breath to hitch as she inhaled. She smirked. "That's not all that's wet." She stuck her tongue out and dragged her fingers across the center of it as if she was sampling a gourmet meal.
Miranda's breath caught in her throat once more, this time because she saw the hint of very faint blue in her lover's eyes.
"Don't make a fucking big deal out of it. You'll bring me down and out of the mood and I seriously want to get laid."
"Jack …"
"Oh for fuck's sake…fine." the bald woman sighed frustratingly. "But I ain't explaining it here. Meet me in my cubby. And bring food." Jack pushed passed Miranda, snagged a towel, quickly brushed off the water and remnants of soap. Jumped into her dirty trousers, shirked on her jacket, stomped out of the head with her engineer boots in her hand. She dressed so swiftly, Shepard would have had approved of the military precision.
A few moments later a very sour-faced, very irritated ex-con sat on her cot, now dressed in her clean orange trousers and a mesh shirt Growling over the fucking Cheerleader's bad timing, the whole no booze and the fact she wasn't going to get laid. Now this was fucking punishment. She heard the sound of someone click-clack down the metal stairwell. The Cheerleader with her stupid high-heeled bitch-boots.
She sat up and managed to catch the bottle of water and blue-foil MRE pack tossed at her. "What the hell is this?"
"Food." Miranda said sardonically. "If you wanted better fare you should go to the galley yourself. Not that Garner serves Michelin quality."
Jack rolled her eyes and ripped open the foil and started to dig in the contents. "You know just cuz we fuck don't mean we're girlfriends or anything."
"I never assumed anything more." retorted Miranda.
"Good. Then you know I don't owe you a goddamm explanation."
"You're such a child."
"That would make you a pedophile."
Miranda made a disgusted noise as she propped herself up the table / desk. Jack puffed out a breath of her own and dug into her…hell she couldn't even tell what she was eating some sort of chicken noodle mush. With enough tobasco, salt and pepper it was edible. While she ate she gave a brief explanation of what happened in the proving grounds. When she had finished there was a deep silence in the little dark hole.
So many thoughts ran through the loyalist's mind. How irresponsible using the tsunami had been. Jack had no concept of how powerful it really was and considering the magnitude of Subject Zero's biotic power was astonishing, given her impetuous nature and sociopathic tendencies it was a very lethal combination.
"You know I'm not surprised you did that. You have no impulse control."
"Yeah? Maybe it was cuz you fucktards are the ones who raised me. Taught me to get all warm and wet when I kill. Not to hesitate. So yeah I let loose. Didn't think first. Just did. Shepard's already pissed at me. Sent me back here. Doc cut me off of booze, and I've been grounded for a week."
"If you don't want to get worse it's a sound directive."
"Whatever." Jack shoved the spork into the foil pack and tossed it on the table near Miranda's custom-made leather boots. "Ain't in the mood any more, just take that and get out." Jack laid back down the bunk and put her arm over her eyes.
"Take care of your own trash, Jack. I'm not your maid." Miranda responded coolly as she rose up and left, feeling just as sour-faced and irritated as the psychotic biotic.