Summary: The first visit to the Citadel, by the members of the Normandy's ground team from the Eden Prime mission, includes some unexpected sightseeing along the way. It also gets the team embroiled in a political situation that had not expected, which leads them to new allies and into fights with assassins, mercenaries, and a crime lord.
A/N: This is a new series I'm working on that will span all three games, so strap in for the long haul. I thoroughly enjoy delving into the characters, both mine and the game's, so you'll get to know people in a new and interesting light. You will probably see some little traces of headcanon here and there, though major ones I'll try to point out. I hope you will enjoy this piece and please, read and review, I would really like to know if you liked this story or not, or any thoughts you'd like to share with me!
Acknowledgements: I want to throw many kudos and flowers at the feet of my beta readers-xforeverquotex and my paramour. You guys are amazing and I appreciate your time and assistance with this piece.
Disclaimer: Mass Effect belongs to Bioware, I'm only playing with their universe. I do not own the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. I do it for the love of the game, the world, and the characters; and because they stuck with me long after I turned the game off (and back on, and off, ad infinitum).
07 Making Contacts
i.
In her career, there had been three occasions when she had set foot on the Citadel, and in none of those had she gotten much farther than the docks, or so she'd told the Williams, Alenko, and Moreau on approach to the station. The human Ambassador Donnel Udina had not yet been ready for them when they arrived, but when the time neared for Anderson's appointment with the man the team prepared to meet him on the Presidium.
Shepard was waiting for her team on the gangway, leaning nonchalantly on a bar that ran the width of the platform, staring at a vibrant green bug-like creature busily taping away at a terminal, not far from the airlock. "What the hell is that?" she asked without shifting her gaze, when she heard their approach.
Alenko didn't miss a beat. "It's called a Keeper," he began as she crossed to him. He read out the highlights of the information he'd pulled up for Williams' sake while shifting his arm slightly as Shepard looked over his shoulder.
When she reached forward and tapped active a second file he'd pulled up he turned and found her leaning over his shoulder. The proximity made his pulse quicken and when her eyes met his, he felt a little unsteady. Kaidan reminded himself that he needed to maintain a professional distance from her, physically and mentally, even though all he could think about in that moment was precisely how close she was to him. It filled his mind with all the questions and the internal battle he'd been struggling with since he first saw the commander on the bridge when the Normandy put out, which stood in stark opposition to the very first time he saw her.
"Huh. Interesting. Enough xenobiology for one day." She glanced at the insectoid again, eyes moving over the target in a disconcerting way. To Alenko it looked like she was looking for a chink, a weak spot to strike if ever the need arose. She'd looked at him like that before their little biotic display in the hold, sizing him up like she was measuring him for a body bag.
Williams narrowed her inspecting gaze at her teammate. "You always do that, L-T?"
"What?" his reply was clipped, wondering to what she was referring.
"Go all Encyclopedia Brown on things."
"Hey, better to have intel than to go running around blind. Don't you think, Chief?" Shepard suggested from an angle she knew the soldier would understand. The commander knew the lieutenant came at it from the side of a scientist or an engineer, and besides, she had her own tendencies to go in search of information so she wouldn't judge. For her, it didn't matter how you came at things, just that you got there.
"Well, when you put it that way. Keep at it, sir," Williams said to the lieutenant.
"Time to meet the bulldog," Shepard sighed moving to the elevator. "God, I hate politicians."
"I hear that, X-O," Williams agreed.
Though Udina had been ready for them this time, the Council had not been, but thankfully the marines hadn't had to spend those three hours waiting with the human ambassador. Only Anderson had to endure that particular brand of torture. But after finally exiting the Council Chambers at the top of the Citadel Tower, Shepard was reminded how much she truly preferred her own kind-people of action and deeds.
To say the least Nyx was angry, irritated, and a feeling a little vengeful, and she was certain it was clearly evident despite her usual efforts to keep her emotions under wraps. From their first meeting Udina had treated her like something he had accidently stepped in and couldn't get off his shoe. He didn't know how to deal with her and she made him uncomfortable, which was obvious in the way he refused to meet her gaze. The Council acted in a fashion she had expected: placating, spineless, protective of their asset, and unwilling to take the human evidence at face value. They dismissed everything from Eden Prime and stood with their Spectre.
Then there was Saren Arterius. Arrogant. Superior. Cold-blooded. Everything he did and said in that meeting made Shepard even more certain of his guilt. In his accusations against the humans, against Anderson, and against her, she could read his attempts to cover his tracks. He mentioned acquiring Nihlus' files, which meant that he knew more about the commander than she wanted him to know. But none of any of that mattered, Shepard knew. For her it all came down to a handful of things that culminated into the fact that she felt she owed Nihlus Kryik. He had put his faith in her. In her mind she had failed him on Eden Prime, but Shepard was determined to do whatever she could to not let his murderer skulk back into the shadows. She was going to expose Saren.
Udina had growled, while Anderson consoled and suggested options, but when it came right down to it this was not her specialty. Nyx leaned back against the wall of the elevator and rubbed at her temples, just thinking about it made her cringe. Sure she could recon a target with the best of them, and while this wasn't the first time she'd ever gone spelunking for her own intel, at least in the past she had leads to go on and assets in place. Right now she was stuck between trying to pry information out of a drunken human C-Sec officer who was cruising toward forced resignation or a shrewd Volus financier with blatant ties to a galactic information trader, known only as the Shadow Broker. It was not a win-win situation, in fact, she was fairly certain that either of these sources could fail to produce anything, especially if she approached them incorrectly or bent them the wrong way.
Apparently massaging her head prompted some kind of synaptic response. She slid open her omnitool and went straight for a resource she hadn't tapped in years. Surprised the extranet site still existed at all, she took a blind shot in the dark and scrawled a cryptic message that sounded too much like a personal ad. "SF-Human seeks M-same for romantic strolls along Presidium Fountain." She stopped for a minute and stared at the ceiling looking for the perfect phrase. "Must enjoy ghost stories, turian demolitions tactics, and quarian history. We can talk about traditional Anhurri pilgrimages through the Amun system and go Dovekie watching in the Arctic."
Shepard was totally unaware that she'd been muttering what she was writing, at least not until the chief mentioned it.
"What the hell are you typing Shepard?" Williams asked, looking over her shoulder.
"Message for an old friend."
"What's a Dovekie?"
"It's a small Arctic sea bird. Black body and head, white chest. They call it the Little Auk. They were believed to be an example of convergent evolution," Shepard said absently. As a wistful smile played across her face at the thought of her best friend and she laughed lightly. With a glance at her teammates, she realized they were both looking at her the way she and Williams had looked at Alenko earlier when he dug up a lengthy textbook answer to the commander's question about Keepers.
The last phrase, about convergent evolution, had made her smile widen just a bit too much. That's what Caz had said about the two of them-he and Shepard. They were so alike, almost identical in ideas and behaviors. He'd always said the two of them were prime examples of convergent evolution because they developed those qualities separately. It was the thought of her childhood friend that made her smile; but while the smile remained a certain and palpable sadness darkened in her eyes. She hadn't heard from him in years, not even a blip. Shepard just hoped he was still around to respond to this call for assistance.
Calev Zingel, Caz, had proven a vital intelligence asset for her in the past. But she never reached out to him. He had always contacted her. Sometimes with information about what she was currently working on, or about something he needed her to look into. Despite this Calev made sure that she knew how to contact him if she needed it, though in the past, all her messages posted on that site had been responses to his inquiries or notes of thanks for his intel.
"And I'm guessing this friend can help?" Ashley asked, getting back on topic.
"That's the hope, but we'll have to wait and see," the commander replied with a shrug as they walked out of the elevator and back onto the Presidium.
ii.
Crossing the lakes, Shepard walked with purpose straight toward the financial districts, the trio of marines slipped through a marked, but unguarded, door unbidden. The greeting suggested they were expected. "Ah, Lieutenant Commander Shepard," the little round suited banker said as he rolled out of his chair. "I haven't heard your name this much since that little debacle on Anhur."
Kaidan noticed the commander's shoulders tense. He didn't remember anything about Anhur in her file and he quickly realized what was happening. Barla Von was demonstrating the type of information he had at his disposal, trying to set the hierarchy for the encounter. Her response was seamless. Commander Shepard set her hand on her beaten up little Edge pistol. It was a calculated move. If his information was as good as his previous declaration suggested, Shepard would hear him out. And everyone in that room knew she wouldn't need to ever draw that pistol, if push came to shove.
"I do prefer to keep a low profile," she responded coolly.
The strained greeting seemed to set the tone for the rest of the encounter. It was like watching a game of chess, each carefully moving across the field of play placing and moving pieces until it finally ended in a stalemate.
The volus walked the length of his desk then casually hopped into his chair. "I'm telling you this, because I was told to tell you this. The motives of which are not my concern. Speak to the krogan, or do not speak to the krogan. The information is yours to do with as you will. Good day, Commander."
For a moment, Alenko just watched them; it was one of the strangest encounters Kaidan could remember having in his life, and Shepard just seemed to take it all in stride. He hadn't even been part of the conversation and still felt a little tense about the fact that the Shadow Broker knew her, hell, he probably knew them all on sight. That thought didn't help the tension building in his head.
The volus had given them nothing more than a breadcrumb. But Shepard didn't seem perturbed by it when she asked her team, "Shiesty little guy isn't he?"
"This doesn't bother you, Commander?" Williams responded after the commander gave them leave to discuss it, and Alenko could see the tightness in her features as well.
"Barla Von doesn't scare me, pop his little bubble and he goes boom," she stated in a detached voice that made it clear her mind was elsewhere.
"We just came out of the Council's Chambers and he already had information prepared for you. He knew you were coming," Alenko stated, his voice holding an edge.
"Not the first guy to have really good resources," she said with a sideways glance at him. She stopped and spun, facing her subordinates who halted with her. She took a deep breath and her eyes moved between them, studying them both. "We are dealing with a Spectre. Someone with a lot of power, authority, and probably resources, given how long he's been at this. There is nothing normal about what I am being ordered to do. But I'll put this to you straight. I'm asking you two if you want to do this with me."
Neither of them answered, though Williams looked over at him when he'd glanced at her. And Alenko realized her question was designed to probe them and their response to the situation.
"If you want to take a powder-"
They both started to speak but stopped when Shepard held up her hand before they did more than inhale.
"You can go back to the ship. This is outside typical operational purview. I understand if you'd rather not get involved in this cloak and dagger type of insanity."
"Permission to speak freely, ma'am," Williams blurted out.
Shepard nodded.
"Fuck that."
"Concur, Commander," Alenko declared a little more subtly.
"Oorah, L-T," Williams replied, bumping his shoulder with hers. "There might be some next level shit going on, but we've got your back."
"Good to know," Shepard said with a relieved little smile. "Going to make a little detour since we're in the neighborhood."
iii.
The grin on his face garnered the correct response. The little human jumped back a few inches then leaned forward poking that finger at him again. God, what I wouldn't give to just grab it and break it. Leave him writing on the floor crying at his crooked little pointy finger. Fucking uppity humans. But casting a glance around him, Urdnot Wrex knew that would not be the best choice. The two turians and the trio of humans wouldn't stand much of a chance, though one might walk away from a confrontation if a fight broke out. It was the two asari, the salarian, and another pair of turians up the stairs who would be the ones who'd put an end to it. Or at least draw it out long enough for reinforcements to end it.
Returning his attention to the little man still rambling, the krogan caught the movement in his peripheral vision. Three humans-not Citadel Security- but well armed, well armored, and interested in this little conversation. Promising. He watched them out of the corner of his eye as he mostly ignored the C-Sec officer. The little one leads, strange. And the male is following the female-she must have him by the quad. The other looks at her like… a battlemaster. She commands respect and deference from the males and the females alike. Very promising. He chuckled gruffly as the little human officer poked him; the little pyjak actually deigned to touch him.
The grumbling growl reverberated throughout his body, and his plates began to itch.
"Do you want me to arrest you?" dared the human who had poked him.
The growl became a chortle as he quickly answered, "I want you to try."
A smile, well not a smile, but a slight curve of the lips on the blonde human female told Wrex that she was impressed, or at least bemused by his little display. There was promise in either. And he found himself curious. Not only about the human soldier, but about why she might be so interested in a gruff krogan mercenary being waylaid by C-Sec.
"Just stay away from Fist," the officer ordered shrilly as he took a step back. "And watch yourself while you're on the Citadel. Go on get out of here." There was a lot less vigor in his voice as he and the other officers made their way back up the stairs.
Wrex waved him off and turned toward the trio of soldiers. He allowed his eyes to move over the obvious leader freely. Her reaction told him she was not a stranger to this type of inspection, though her comrades were much less so. The other female bristled and he felt the man flare in response. A biotic. Interesting. And they are protective of their leader. Approval rumbled in his throat. The combination proved formidable and it was a display he could appreciate-her strength and their loyalty suggested she might be someone worth a few moments of his time.
He could feel the smile playing on his lips as she looked him over in a similarly deadly way, though he doubted she could tangle with him, he wouldn't put it to the test in the middle of Citadel Security Headquarters.
"Yes, human?" he said with as much disinterest he could muster.
Her eyes reached his face, she studied the scar his father had given him, then finally spoke. "I'm trying to take down a Spectre." She paused for a moment and gauged his response, he gave her nothing. "Saren Arterius. Barla Von suggested I speak with you."
Bold. Just put it all on the table from the get go. His eyes narrowed on her. Why lay it all out so easily? Time? Trust?
He kept his voice was calm. He wanted to surprise her, show her the true depth of what it was to be krogan. Too few aliens understood more than rage about his people, this one seemed willing to look past his reputation and his species. His explanation was concise and revealing and she didn't seem to form an opinion on him based on his purpose there. So he offered up more-the reason for Fist's disciplining-the betrayal and the quarian asset.
The wisp of a smile played in her eyes, though her face remained stoic. So that is what you are looking for, little warrior, he said to himself. You want to know what I know. Perhaps I'll do you one better. "Whatever she has is valuable. Supposedly links Saren to the geth. Reports say he paid Fist a small fortune for the little bantam," Wrex added.
"This could be just what we need, Commander," the male said quietly, leaning toward her.
She merely nodded in response before she asked if he was there for the kill and the information. As far as Wrex knew, Fist was the only loose end in all this that needed to be dealt with directly. The Broker doesn't want the quarian. Her intel will reach his hands no matter what channel it goes through. He just doesn't want Saren to have exclusive access. The Broker wants the Spectre's hide on his wall.
Wrex couldn't help but like the gutsy little human. She was pushy and good at leading the conversation, as well as being led.
"What about Vakarian?" the dark-haired female interrupted.
"You know Vakarian?" the krogan asked curiously.
Her associates looked at him with surprise. The leader just raised her eyebrow at him a bit and glanced up at him.
"C-Sec loves when I visit. I've run across him a few times, just never with the right vehicle," he muttered to himself. "Told some big fringed friend of his he had a lead he needed to check on in the wards."
The woman was considering her options. Wrex was fairly certain of the one she'd come to. She was calculating and careful. If she was also as talented as the loyalty of her squad suggested, he could work with that.
"All right. Can you hold off on killing Fist until I can get in touch with Vakarian?" she asked as she shifted her weight to her left foot.
Wrex looked at her, studying her again. "I'll give you twelve hours. Then I kill him my way."
Shepard nodded, to which the krogan smiled rather creepily.
"It seems the enemy of my enemy may be my friend," he said, offering her his hand.
She looked at it a moment, knowing it meant more in this moment than a simple gesture of greeting or agreement. Shepard gripped his hand firmly and looked him squarely in the eye as she replied, "Looks like."
iv.
Twelve hours. The timer ticked on her datacuff as well as through her mind. Twelve hours to find a turian security officer on the hunt and then meet up with a krogan mercenary C-Sec was keeping tabs on. The tightness in her neck made her shoulders ache-the added stress and her lack of sleep were weighing on her. She could hear it in her own heavier footsteps as the trio moved through the Citadel's lower levels. But she knew not all of her unease could be attributed to Eden Prime and its aftermath.
Following the conversation at the overlook that Williams had detoured for, Nyx's world seemed just off center enough to have her leaning a bit to port again. She'd been able to correct her listing after the reassignment, mostly, but Alenko's comment had her veering off course again. Despite this she did what she always did-regardless of the situation-her job.
She tried to distract herself with the fit of her gauntlet, which seemed off to her; it just felt loose. Thankfully it's only the left hand, shouldn't be too big a deal. It was her offhand, though she was still a decent shot with that one too, but it could mess with the movements she used to control her biotics if she wasn't careful. She was looking at it when she walked out of the red-lit hallway and into the open area outside Chora's Den. It almost proved a fatal distraction.
"Gun!" Williams yelled, drawing her own.
Shepard suddenly found herself on the deck beneath the lieutenant. She gazed up at him. His warm brown eyes met hers for a moment and she saw his concern and more. Then his eyes scanned her quickly before he rolled off her. The weight of him gone her mind returned to the situation and she followed his lead: grabbing cover and flipping the safety off her own sidearm as she drew it.
She tried a familiar trick, but the turians were ready for her-a well-timed warp and an overload set an alarm to off in her ear as her shields went down.
"Goddamn, those guys," Shepard growled as she tucked back behind the wall to give her shields a chance to charge back up.
"I can't get a bead on him, X-O," Williams growled. "Come on, you cagey bastard."
Alenko was even having trouble getting anything to stick. Their enemies' shields were recharging faster than the team could take them down, and the terrain was crap. Everybody had solid cover and the pillars messed with line of sight. Shepard couldn't help but admire whoever had planned this ambush.
"What the hell is going on?" she asked no one in particular after one of the turians tried to rush her. Pushing him back, Shepard realized she didn't like the direction this firefight was taking. It was drawing out too long. The combination of Saren's resources and knowledge of her tactics suggested she was going to have to improvise and fast because the situation was quickly going to hell in a hand basket.
She ordered her team back through the doorway and spun past Alenko as she entered. Holstering her pistol she knelt down. Williams leaned slightly away from the wall to watch her. "What are you doing?"
"They aren't wearing helmets," Shepard noted with a grin and a raise of her eyebrows. She wasn't sure who it was, or really what caused the sound that belied surprise, but she knew what it was in reference to-the rather long black blade she drew from her boot.
"You're gonna get handsy with a turian?" Williams tried to sound scathing, but it came off as a little more like jealous.
Shepard gestured at Kaidan to let her take his position at the door. Her eyes locked on his. "When the first one comes through you step out and toss his boyfriend. Just get me … as long as you can get me."
He nodded.
If you fuck this up we are all done for, Shepard, she thought. You've got twelve seconds to get this guy down. Plenty of time, she assured herself. "Plenty of time," she whispered to no one as she took a long deep breath.
Twelve seconds was precisely how long William's fortification and shields would hold out against a focused barrage. Unless, of course, the turian overloaded the chief's shields, in which case, it would be less. Shepard shook off the thought. Saren will not get the pleasure of taking any more of my crew.
The three of them stood there bait-like hoping to draw the turians into the trap. Fuck! I hope this works, she thought looking from one marine to the other as they waited. Then suddenly she heard it again echoing off the interior of her skull. "When you put it that way there's no reason they wouldn't love you." Son of a bitch. This is not the time to crack up, Shepard. She shook her head violently.
Then she heard the careful scrape of clawed boots on the smooth floor, then the shadow. Guess even turians can be stupid. She leaned back, trying not to draw the target's attention. Two steps. Come on, you flightless avian bastard.
When he turned toward Williams, the three of them moved in sync with one another, it was a beautiful and dangerously choreographed dance. The chief slid across the wall as she boosted her shield, drawing the turian's fire as Shepard pounced. She got the momentum she needed, pulled his head up just enough and buried the knife deeply into the soft break where his neck met his skull-just where Nihlus had told her to before Eden Prime.
Kaidan was half a step behind Shepard and had pulled the second attacker into the air when he popped up to take aim at them. As Shepard twisted the knife, she manipulated the turian's head to bring his body to the ground without interfering with Williams. Nyx fell to the ground with the dead assassin as weapon's fire echoed off the rounded walls while Shepard remained crouched and pulled his buddy back into the air for her team to finish him off.
"Thank you, Nihlus," she said in a tone heavy with relief when it was all said and done. "Turian Anatomy 101, pays off," she added when her team looked at her curiously.
"Damn. Wish I'd have been in that class," Ashley replied with more than a pang of jealousy.
The commander chuckled as she climbed off her victim. She shook her hand sharply to get some of the excess blood off her gauntlet before she reached down and grabbed the hilt of her knife. No way. It can't be stuck.
"Try to steal a marine's knife, that's just poor manners," she lectured as she finally pulled it lose then turned her attention to inspecting the dead assassin. "Check the other one," she ordered quickly to her squad who were still staring alternately at her and one another.
Shepard joined them in a matter of minutes, still shaking her hand slightly as she crossed the courtyard. Her squad looked up at her with looks between confusion and curiosity. "What?" she asked with a nonchalant shrug, like what they'd just done was perfectly normal. "Find anything?" she redirected with a quick glance around the ambush site.
"Not a damn thing." The lieutenant looked up at her a little exasperated. "I mean not a shred of anything, even the default programming is gone, let alone anything we could trace."
Williams stood and looked down at the turian, "It's like they expected them to fail."
Shepard nodded for a second. "They did. Expect them to fail. Then you're covered either way. Standard procedure-no trace, no clues. It's a turian thing. They do it with the military, too, from time to time. Wipe their tools, black market armor. Then if they're lost, there's no trail to follow."
The commander's eyes moved over the body lying before her as she spoke with a rather removed tone. She neglected to mention their own Alliance was a fan of that particular method of covering their tracks as well. Shepard realized she was moving toward rambling and stopped cold.
"They were a test. My guess is either someone is watching or the security footage will find its way to Saren. So smile and wave we're on assassin camera." She looked at the turian one last time before she stepped over him, sending a clear message of her own to whatever audience might be watching. Normally she exhibited more respect and consideration for the dead, even her enemies, but she wanted Saren to understand that she wasn't easily intimidated, nor was she afraid of him or his resources.
"Very nice work by the way. I mean it... Stellar. Absolutely stellar," she said as they approached Chora's Den.
The door slid open and Shepard felt an overwhelming desire to take the knife back out and stab someone or, hell, everyone. In her conversation with Anderson he had neglected to mention one very important detail about this so-called club. Sure there was music and there was a bar. But it was the main attraction that made the commander purse her lips slightly.
Shepard glanced over her shoulder at the chief who captured both their feelings more than adequately when she said, "A million light years from where humanity began only to find a bar filled with men drooling over half-naked women shaking their asses on stage. I can't decide whether that's funny or sad."
"Can't it be both," Shepard muttered. Advanced civilizations, my ass. "Let's find this guy." She walked right, circling the round bar and scanning the faces of the few humans she saw. She heard Harkin before she saw him.
Harkin pushed hard, pouring all he had into his attempts to rattle and distract the commander. Though it hadn't worked on her, his sly smiles and smirks suggested he was succeeding in getting reactions from her associates. Shepard was more used to this type of thing than she should be. She'd spent most of her life, and her entire career bombarded by this type of behavior to varying degrees. Williams mentioned growing up in the colonies, but being female in the service, especially in combat duty, Shepard figured the Chief had some experience with sexual harassment. Alenko, however, he was likely the one struggling the most. His file had him growing up Earth-side, and though Shepard knew men caught a fair amount of it too, she figured the chivalrous guy who'd bound a mugger in stasis when they had first met was not taking this little display in stride.
Eventually Shepard got the tidbit she needed and guided her team out the door to more of Harkin's targeted crassness. But she'd kept herself between them and him the entire time, in case he'd pushed anyone too far. She didn't have time to deal with the repercussions of a confrontation. Once they were outside, the two of them moved quickly away from one another and from Shepard. She could tell they needed a moment. The lieutenant was leaning against and tightly gripping the balustrade, while Ashley paced with her hands on her hips and her eyes cast skyward. Shepard stood between them and the door of the strip club with her arms crossed over her chest, while they sorted themselves out.
Eventually Kaidan calmed enough to speak, though his irritation was still evident in the tension in his body and his voice. "How could you let that guy talk to you like that?"
"He matters even less than anything he had to say, past telling me where to find the turian," Shepard replied calmly as she assessed both marines.
He pushed off the balustrade and faced her, poking himself in the chest as he spoke. "I have two sisters, if anyone ever talked to them the way that guy talked to you…" He concluded his statement with a frustrated shake of his head as he spun away from the commander again.
"Kind of agree with Alenko, ma'am," Williams added, finally stopping, resting her gaze on the commander. "And what was that crap about the Captain?"
"Don't know. Don't care." She shrugged; Harkin was not an intelligence resource and she was certain that any information he would freely offer up was likely tainted with bourbon and spite.
They both stared at her. She placed her hand on the grip of the pistol on her hip, gesturing subtly with the other. "Why were we here?"
No answer.
"Garrus. That's it. Not to beat down some failure thinking with the wrong head. Not to dig up Anderson's skeletons. I got what I needed. I know where my turian is, and I have a job to do. When you're ready to get back to it, find me."
She walked off in the direction of the ward's markets wishing she'd wiped some of the blood off on Harkin's shirt, the drying liquid made the mesh of her glove stick to her palm. It was a little irksome and made her feel rather grimy, leaving her with an ill-fitting gauntlet on the left and a gooey one on the right. She shook her hand again knowing it would not help the odd, slimy sensation.
The commander had been well aware that she wouldn't make it through the first hatch before her people would rejoin her. The quick footfalls confirmed it. They had merely needed a moment to refocus and she knew she had a little more experience with these types of situation and the excess amount of stress, than they had.
It hadn't been an easy situation all the way around, and she couldn't blame them for reacting. The stress had been piling on incrementally since they met with Udina culminating with having to stand there and listen to Harkin degrade and deride their XO and their CO in turn. Shepard had spent years in high stress situations; she knew that for the most part this was a new way of life for the two marines with her. So she guided them like she did all the others she'd worked with and trained. And if she was entirely honest with herself, there were more than a few moments when she had to resist the urge to punch Harkin in the throat.
After an encounter like the one outside Chora's Den, normally she would have pulled her squad out of the mix, if only long enough to shower and fuel up. This was not an ideal situation, however. Shepard's clock was counting down-she needed to find this turian before the timers ran out for the krogan and on the quarian. Thus the trio of marines moved quickly toward the little medical clinic in the upper area of the wards.
v.
An idealist, Dr. Chloe Michel ran a clinic in the wards where she tried to help as many people as needed it. Trained in xeno-medicine she opened her doors to any species on the Citadel and often found that her patients tended to be non-council races: batarians, quarians, humans, of course, and even a few drell. Her clientele were mainly the forgotten and overlooked of the Citadel-some were marginalized merely because of their species and the rarity of their people among the citizenry of the Citadel. Too often her offices were filled with the young, the ones security officers called duct rats, children who played and lived in the crawl spaces so common on the Citadel.
Garrus Vakarian knew her reputation well. She was a talented doctor who could have practiced anywhere on the Citadel with her education, but she chose to be here in the wards. She had resorted to living out of her clinic. He knew she owned the space outright-bought it with her inheritance-but she didn't keep anything back for herself it all went to the people she helped, the overlooked, the ignored, the forgotten.
"Sorry Garrus," she said as she stepped back out of the closet where she'd hastily stowed the pillow and blankets that had been neatly folded at one end of the sofa when he entered. "I wasn't expecting you."
"I can see that," he said lightly.
"How can I help you?"
"Remember that young female you told me about? The one trying to sell information?"
"Of course," Chloe replied as she tiredly poured herself into the chair behind her desk.
"I need to speak with her."
Michel shook her head once and then leaned forward resignedly. "I told you before. I don't know where she is. When she came in for the last dose I told her you needed to speak with her urgently. But she declined, Officer."
He didn't say anything.
"I tried to tell her you weren't like other C-Sec officers. But she was having none of it. She simply said that no turian would help her."
If whatever this quarian has is bad enough to make her see any turian as a threat, he had to get his hands on that information. There was no way around it.
A loud crash was followed by a clattering of small metal objects from the main area of the clinic. The doctor was on her feet scrambling out the door instantly. "Oh no!" she cried, seeing the freshly sterilized instruments strewn about the floor. She never saw the man who grabbed her by the throat.
Judging by the red shirts, they were Fist's crew, which offered him a modicum of relief. At least they weren't hired by Saren. He peeked around the doorway quickly, finding that they had dragged the doctor to the treatment area, which was a bad thing in a myriad of ways. It was secluded from the rest of the clinic, there were medications back there, and tons of sharp and ready torture tools. He knew the doctor was in more than just danger for her life. Fist's boys had a bad reputation for pushing the boundaries way too far. Garrus was sure of one thing, them killing her was probably pretty low on her list of things that might happen in that room if he didn't intervene-it was on his.
He coiled around the door and pressed himself against the wall trying to step as lightly and quietly as possible, knowing his own tendency to scrape his talons along the ground when he walked. When he was younger, if his father heard the telling scrape, he'd yell, "Pick up your feet, son. March proud. Remember the honor of the Vakarian name." Garrus pinched his eyes closed and took a deep breath, this was not the time or place to have his father's voice in his head pointing out every misstep.
The whoosh of the clinic door broke his attention and he cocked his head at the short blonde it took him a moment to recognize. Shepard. What is she doing here? Her eyes moved from him and widened a bit at the scene behind him. All he could think to do in that moment was raise a talon to his mouth. She could be just the distraction he needed.
"Who the hell are you?" the seeming leader growled as he pulled Dr. Michel toward him.
"Just put the gun down. We can talk this out," Shepard ordered calmly, gun drawn on the suspect.
The encounter was over in a matter of minutes, but these sorts of confrontations usually were. Garrus had put down the man who'd grabbed the doctor with one shot, then mainly just watched as Shepard and the female soldier with her cleared the rest of them. From the moment she walked in the door the little human had taken full control of the situation and maintained it.
"Alenko. Williams. Take the doctor here to her office," she said, eying the turian in a way that reminded Garrus way too much of his father.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," they replied in unison.
Not taking her eyes off of Garrus, Shepard tugged at the other woman's arm and whispered something into her ear. The C-Sec officer glanced at the office door when he heard it close. It had been a mistake.
The impact of the hit shocked him, but no more so than finding himself pressed tightly up against a wall by someone so much smaller than himself. He blinked down at her unmoving as a fire twisted and burned in her eyes. Garrus suddenly realized he had underestimated her. When she showed up, he had assumed she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, it never crossed his mind that she might be there for the same thing he was. But after what happened with the Council why wouldn't she be looking for some way to get back at that smug Spectre bastard?
"What the hell were you thinking?" she growled through gritted teeth.
"It was a clean shot."
"You could have hit the hostage."
She bounced him off the wall once more, much more lightly than the last one and pushed away from him. She paced a few steps away, bringing her hand to her forehead. When she looked back up at him, there was little dark blue streak just below her hairline. His eyes shot to her hand, and the barest glisten suggested that the mark was from precisely what he thought it shouldn't be-turian blood.
"What the hell kind of turian are you?" she asked, stopping and looking at him. When she noticed he was staring at her right hand, the commander straightened slightly. "Assassins. Courtesy of Saren Arterius, if I had to take a guess."
"Not surprised."
Shepard seemed to have calmed slightly as she leaned on the exam table he'd used for cover. "Now, would you mind telling me why you pulled that stunt?"
"Calculated risk."
"With a civilian's life? Wow!" Her eyes rose to the ceiling as she took a deep breath. "That has got to be the first time I've ever heard those words come out of a turian's mouth in response to something like this. Calculated because she was human-" she accused, her eyes on him again.
"Do you have any idea what those men would have done to Dr. Michel? Me possibly miscalculating and killing her was the least of the concerns in my head at that instant," he interrupted. Garrus didn't realize he'd moved until his irritation subsided a bit, and he became conscious of the fact he was looming over the smaller human in a possibly menacing way. What was even more surprising is that she wasn't the least bit intimidated, though that might be because of the encounter that left her hand covered in turian blood.
"Sorry," he said, taking a few careful steps back.
Shepard looked at him curiously, like she wanted him to continue.
"I'm looking for evidence to prove Saren's dirty. I know it in my gut but neither the Executor nor the Council will take that as evidence."
"They won't take mine either," she consoled.
"Dr. Michel takes care of people here. The ones the Council forgets about. And a quarian came to see her. Apparently she was suffering from a bit of an infection and in her delirium told the doctor that she was selling information on a Spectre to the Shadow Broker. I can only assume she meant Saren."
"You know, assumption is the mother of all fuck ups, right?" Shepard asked with a playful smirk as she cast a mischievous glance his way.
"My father used to say something like that."
She straightened and walked toward him. "Well, in this case your gut was right. She's got something on that arrogant bastard, and he's looking as hard as everyone else for her."
"So you were here about the quarian, too?"
She shook her head. "Nope. I was looking for you."
Her eyes were calm and steady, completely cool. The stark change from earlier disturbed him slightly. But it was no more striking than the shock that she'd been looking for him. "Me? Why?"
"You were looking for evidence against Saren. And that's precisely what I need to take to the Council."
Vakarian realized the implication of it. "Let me help you."
"You're turian."
"Saren is a disgrace. If he were asari or salarian, it wouldn't change my opinion. He's dirty. He needs to be taken down."
The little lift of her eyebrow told him he'd shocked her. She eyed him carefully once. "Fine." She straightened and walked toward him, stopping and grabbing the collar of his suit, jerking him toward her. The deep blue eyes were icy now. "You ever pull a stunt like that again. I'll kill you myself. That is not how I work."
"Understood," he replied quickly. "I'll follow your lead." She gave him a time and a place. "I'll meet you there. I'll also have C-Sec post a guard on the infirmary for now."
vi.
Dr. Michel hadn't been able to provide any new information on the quarian so the team left her sedated and comfortably resting on her sofa after a message from Garrus suggested they not be at the clinic when security arrived, unless they wanted to be detained. Sticking to maintenance corridors, they managed to back track their way back to the docks, thanks to Alenko and his penchant for research; he'd dug up a few maps that helped them avoid places they could have easily become lost in.
What the hell are you thinking, Shepard? Hooking up with krogan mercenaries and trigger-happy turians. Garrus was a decent shot and seemed dedicated to some sense of justice. Wrex was formidable, though he had a reputation that could be problematic. But she didn't have much in the way of options.
"Fucking impressive," the commander mumbled as she considered what she'd learned over the previous several hours.
"What?" Alenko asked. Shepard just looked over at him. "What's impressive?"
She nodded realizing she'd done more than thought it. "This quarian. The fact that she has this evidence at all is incredible. But add to that her ability to elude C-Sec, Fist's crew, Saren, and the Shadow Broker. She's got to be something else."
"No doubt," Williams agreed with a nod. "Makes you wonder how she's managed it."
Alenko ignored the fact that the suggestion was completely rhetorical. "Quarians are on the fringes. After their creation of the geth the Council turned them away, and people started treating them with suspicion. They are seen a nomads and refugees. The volus call them clanless-a major insult in their culture-because they lost their homeworld to the geth."
The two women looked over at him, this time with more encouragement than derision.
"Sorry," he replied quickly.
"That's kind of sad." Ashley noted with a faraway look. "Keep going."
The corner of Alenko's mouth twitched then he continued his little diatribe on quarian history and culture.
The three of them worked well together-in combat they were easy partners. Now came the tougher side of team building, getting personalities to mesh. Alenko and Williams were about as opposite as they could be. The lieutenant was a tech expert and seemed to have a curious streak; he was all about data and information-very much a by the brain soldier. Ashley was the opposite. She was all about the heart. She felt her way through combat, and looked at things with a trace of wonder and awe. Their little deviation at the observation point and the chief's impromptu poetry recitation had cemented that for Shepard.
"Then there's their immune systems. That's why they wear the suits, and the reason the quarian went to Michel. Even a minor infection could have killed her. But at the same time that suit is probably one of the reasons she's been so hard to find. She could easily go unnoticed and unrecognized, well, in a place with some other quarians."
"I haven't even seen a quarian since we hit the Citadel," Williams noted, looking around a bit like one might just pop up because she said it.
Alenko shook his head. "They know how people feel about them. They keep to themselves, take care of their own."
Kind of like marines, Shepard thought. "So where would I find quarians on the Citadel?"
"You wouldn't," a husky blonde man said from a few feet away. "Didn't mean to interrupt."
"No, it's fine." Shepard replied. "Why not?"
His uniform told her he was Citadel Security. "People around here don't much trust them. They see them as scavengers and thieves. I've never heard of many of them actually doing anything like that, though they get accused of it often enough. They are geniuses with tech, there's this little guy down in the mechanic's shop; he's an absolute god with any kind of engine they throw at him.
"Plus there's that whole geth thing makes folks nervous, especially now. After… " The officer stopped short
The marines traded a quick unnoticed look as they neared the man. None of them needed need him to finish the statement to know what he meant-Eden Prime.
"They've been even more skittish than usual lately. But they've always kept to themselves. The ones that come in usually stay with other quarians that left the Flotilla. Some will brave the shelters, but not many. Like your friend said, they seem to take care of their own," he concluded.
Shepard just watched him, while he gesticulated ferociously as he spoke. As she crossed over toward him, from the shadow into the light, he froze. The commander furrowed her brow and looked around for whatever might have put the young man into his current stupor. "Are you all right, officer?"
"You!… You're…," he glanced over at Alenko when she had and leaned toward the lieutenant, though his eyes never left Shepard. "Do you realize who that is?" he whispered.
Alenko nodded and patted his shoulder a little. "Yeah."
He lurched forward and grabbed her upper arms trying to hold himself upright as he looked at her. "My grandpa still talks about you. The night you and your guys came into his shop." The officer swallowed hard. "It's an honor to meet you, Commander."
She shook his hand. "Look…"
"Lang. Eddie Lang."
"Okay Eddie. You're grandfather's name is Willis right?"
"Yeah. Ed Willis. I was named after him. I can't believe you remember him."
She laughed and smiled widely as she told her team, "If it weren't for Mr. Willis we'd have been throwing sticks and rocks at those pirates." They all laughed this time. "Tell your grandfather I send my best."
"Oh, I will. He'd skin me alive if he found out I saw you and didn't tell him about it."
"Take care, Eddie," she said as she backed away and continued toward her destination.
Once in the elevator Williams leaned toward Shepard and said, "So is he the president of your fan club or just your run of the mill fanboy?"
Shepard turned and glared at her.
"Yeah, Shepard that was a little much," Alenko agreed.
"You… You're… "Ashley draped her wrist over her forehead and pretended to swoon against the wall of the lift.
The three of them burst out laughing as the elevator doors opened. Shepard smiled slightly and shook her head as she followed them onto the dock.