Liara

Feron led me through the desolate halls of the Shadow Broker's base on Alignon. Our footsteps echoed and I saw no one else as we moved through the labyrinthine halls. I had never known that the air of secrecy could have a pervasive discomfort, an unconscious sway that, with little effort, could dominate the mind and be used to control.

I do not, however, see the need for everything to be so still, silent, and ominous. Surely the Broker's power would be better used without all the convoluted layers. Mayhaps he has his reasons but…but I should like to know what they might be. This is all very…inefficient.

"I am getting the distinct impression that your employer is far less broker and far more shadow." I commented in a low voice as we walked. "If this is a base, where is the manning? Where are the people?"

"At other, more known, locations." Feron answered. "Alignon is for beyond-covert operations only. Shepard's body qualifies."

I frowned, attempting not to think of the contents of the box, but of the warm, confident, beautiful woman whose bed and heart I had shared. She should be remembered as such, as someone who was alive, and whose life touched countless who were living. Those, like me, who owed her their lives. And those, out in the far-flung reaches of space, who would never know how much she had sacrificed for them.

"I am tired of her being spoken of as merchandise." I hissed. "She was…still is…so much more."

"I doubt she cares all that…" Feron's callous, if intended for humor, statement fell short as he saw my face. "You don't believe she's dead." he breathed. "Or else you think Cerberus could actually do the impossible."

I shook my head. "I am a scientist, Feron." I whispered. "I studied the dead…and I have seen firsthand the legacy they left, the fingerprints all across the galaxy that most do not even recognize. Shepard lived an…expansive life. I know she is dead." the words made my chest feel hollow. "But that does not mean that she ceases to exist."

"Siari, right?" Feron asked, stating the name of the belief that had largely overtaken my people's belief in our Goddess. "Everything returns to the universe? Becomes something new? That has to help you cope a little bit."

I laughed, it tasted bitter, cold…with an edge of wistfulness that surprised me. "There is no coping, Feron. Nor any forgetting, nor any respite. My mother...Serena...I've not been haunted long enough to know if the phantoms of memory ever fade. I know that at times they lose their potency, but always there is a resurgence."

"Scientist my ass." Feron smirked, offsetting my brooding recollections with snark.

A coping mechanism, my heart lurched in my chest, how often did Shepard, Ashley, Garrus, Wrex, and Tali all devolve into insulting each other and making each other laugh in the most dire of circumstances? Feron even now is doing so.

"Oh?" I raised my brow. "And what am I, Feron?"

"A philosopher." he decided with an emphatic nod.

I shook my head, but what might have been merriment stopped at the sound of footsteps and what had to have been the harsh, stilted breathing of a volus. The sounds drew closer and Feron and I ducked down behind a wall partition. The sound of the volus' respirator…or whatever it was…grew louder and I trusted the shadows to keep me safe enough to lift my head.

My throat dried out and tightened and my heart rate tripled as I saw something that few in the galaxy ever did…and if they did, they rarely lived to tell the tale. I had to assume it was a Collector, because I had never seen its like anywhere, not even a picture in the depths of the extranet.

It loomed over the volus it walked beside, casting an immense, threatening shadow. Its shoulders were broader than even those of a krogan, and its body…I shuddered. Its body looked as though its skeleton had forced itself out, over the skin, forming into armor across its chest, outer thighs, shoulders, back, and head. Its hands were talons and even its feet were clawed, with wicked spurs made of the same bone-like armor that covered it. Its head looked almost like an Earth creature…a cobra, if I recalled correctly. Beneath what looked like bone, I could see the maroon definition of striated muscle, tight and hard and powerful. The entire being shimmered with an aura of pure lethality, and a shiver crept down my spine as I saw its eyes.

There were four of them, all glowing orange and yellow, and filled with…nothing. I thought, once, that I had witnessed empty eyes, but that had not been the case. Behind the four glittering orbs there lay an absolute blank, a light without reason and a life-force without name and being and a terror fiercer than any that had a name nestled deep within the core of me.

"The package…is at the north dock." the volus spoke in their familiar, stilted cadence. "I…assure you…it is in…prime condition."

"It had better be." the words were simple, but I flinched at every syllable. I knew that deep, resonating, haunting voice. It was not this thing…this Collector…that spoke. Those tones belonged to only one sort of creature, one sort of sentience.

I was right! I thought, and I dreaded the truth of it. They are in league with the Reapers, if not completely controlled by them.

Biotic energy swirled around my hands and I prepared to break from cover as the Collector and volus moved past us. An attack from behind would be our best chance at catching them off guard. After all, it was a secure base and no one would expect a hostile force…

"Liara, no!" Feron grabbed me by the arms, stopping me…again!

"Let me go!" I hissed. "This is our one chance!"

"We have time." he assured me, and the fervor in his eyes convinced me that he spoke true. "We have time, I swear. I know exactly where they're going, and they're going to have to repressurize the landing bay. But we need to find out why this exchange is even taking place."

I thought of the Collector and I shuddered. "How could the Broker deal with them?" I asked Feron. "How could anyone in their right mind give Shepard's body to…to that monstrosity?"

For the first time, Feron looked truly appalled. "I don't know, Liara." he admitted at last, no longer seeming as though he knew more than I, or had more insight into the entirety of the situation. "So far, the Broker has been neutral in everything…never took a side. But…but this goes beyond anything I've ever seen him pull."

He sighed and looked up, beyond our ersatz hideaway, towards a door.

"This is why I'm helping you." he cemented his loyalty at last. "I need to know more. And if there is one thing I've learned in this business, it's to never interrogate the middleman." he moved out and I followed him towards the door. "You always," he ran a complicated hack with his omni-tool and the door flared open, "go to the source."