Liara opened her eyes to a haze. Her world turned upside down, and she rolled her head to the side quickly as she vomited.
"She's coming around," Liara made out Feron's voice from somewhere ahead of her. When she opened her eyes again, the world was considerably more clear. Her skull was throbbing, but she managed to get a look at her surroundings. She was aboard the Vanguard.
"Liara? You okay?" Feron called from the cockpit.
She tried to nod, and her vision swam again. "I'm not sure okay is the word I would use, but I'm alive."
"Miranda is on the comm when you're ready."
Liara almost nodded again, but thought better of it. "Can you put her through back here, Feron?"
"No comm in back. Sorry, Liara."
She groaned and began to roll out of her sleeper pod. Her shoulders and neck screamed in protest, and an involuntary cry escaped her lips as she sagged, nearly falling to her knees. She grabbed the edge of the pod for support, trying to stand up straight. After a minute, feeling more steady, she released the pod and walked toward the cockpit slowly. Liara hated the way she had to grope along, moving from the sleeper pods to the galley table, from the table to the doorway, and finally from the doorway to the open seat in the cockpit.
"I'm here, Miranda," She said, sinking into the co-pilot's chair with a sharp gasp and a groan. She turned to the monitor and tried to look more put together than she felt.
"I thought we'd lost you for a while there. Glad to see you're still among the living."
Liara cleared her throat. "As am I. What happened?"
"After Blaque threw you into the tree, your burn box went off. The Nova Hammer troops went back to see what had happened, Blaque included. They never returned. Seems like they forgot about us. A stroke of luck, really."
"What about Shepard?" Liara asked, craning her neck, trying to test her range of movement.
"We searched for about two hours. By the way Blaque was talking, I think it's safe to assume they've got him, Liara. Oh, by the way… you owe me a new ship. Kestrel's Cry was destroyed either by Nova Hammer's bombing, or by your explosives."
"Did we determine how they found us yet?" She asked, stretching her arms.
Feron chuckled. "Yeah. Cunning bastard planted a tracer on your ship. Probably one on Miranda's too, but we didn't bother to check the wreckage. State of the art, Liara. I've never seen anything like it. Sensors didn't pick it up; I found it attached to the landing gear."
Liara nodded her thanks. "We're on a limited time window here. Blaque knows that we have the location of Titan Station, but he can't abandon it. He couldn't have anticipated leaving us alive, and there must be things there he needs." Liara's brow creased as she continued to think aloud. "Include travel time from Aite… Plus they have to gather at least their own data files and some of the harder to come by equipment… let's assume six hours after they land." She turned to Feron. "How long until we get there?"
Feron smiled. "How'd you know that's where we were headed?"
"Because you always have my back, Feron." Liara continued to stretch, wincing in pain. "Since you're flying my ship, I take it you've familiarized yourself with its systems?"
Miranda let out a short laugh. "It's quite a piece of work. Not unlike some Cerberus vessels I flew back in the day."
"You have no idea," Liara muttered.
"We've got about six hours until we reach the station," Feron said, suppressing a laugh.
"We need a plan," Miranda said with a sigh.
Liara bit her lip, thinking. Blaque's behavior in many ways reminded her of how her human friends aboard the Normandy had played chess. She briefly recalled something Samantha Traynor had said, about seeing the whole board at once, calculating not just one or two moves ahead, but several. How the key to winning was knowing your opponent's next move before they could make it. "I doubt that very much," Liara replied finally, half to herself, and half to her companions.
Feron turned to her in surprise. "What? Liara…" he shook his head. "This is no time to get reckless."
"I'm not. Consider it for a moment. Blaque has been one step ahead of us this entire time. He managed to hit us with the tracker when we thought we had the upper hand, and then he followed us right to his goal: Shepard. I think it's safe to assume any plan we put together right now, he's already considered and prepared for."
How would Shepard attack an enemy who can see him coming from a million miles away?
Liara was suddenly reminded of the defeat of the Reaper on Tuchanka. Shepard had done something totally unexpected; something the Reapers couldn't have anticipated when he summoned Kalros the thresher maw.
"We have to do something he couldn't possibly anticipate; something he overlooked completely. Some factor he would have no reason to account for…" Liara's lip curled as she fought to think clearly.
He'd call on his friends.
"I think I have an idea," Liara said with a grim smile. She turned to the comm unit. "Miranda, I'm going to close the channel. I need to contact a mutual friend to see if we can borrow some help."
Liara typed in a sequence to the comm unit. An unfamiliar Turian face appeared on the screen.
"This is a private military channel. Identify yourself."
"I am Doctor Liara T'soni. I have an emergency, and need to speak with General Vakarian immediately. He is not expecting my call, but I assure you, he will want to speak with me."
The Turian did not flinch. "Wait one."
Moments later, Garrus appeared on screen.
"Well, I wondered where you'd gone off to in the middle of the night," he said, mandibles flicking off his jaw.
"I'm sorry, Garrus, and I wish I had more time to explain, but I don't right now. Do you trust me?"
He cocked his head to the side, considering her words before he nodded. "You've never given me cause not to. If you say you had to go, I believe you. The duty officer said something about an emergency? What's the trouble?"
"I need you to mobilize as many ships as you can, as fast as you can, to the coordinates I'm sending you now." Liara typed furiously. "It's a Cerberus base- perhaps their last stronghold. It's run by Project Nova Hammer, a black ops team." Liara swallowed hard. "Garrus, they have Shepard."
The silence dragged on for nearly a minute before Garrus simply asked, "How?"
Liara shook her head, tears staining her cheeks. "There's no time. Please, Garrus."
He nodded once, and then again quickly. "I'll send what I can. You can damn well bet I'll be on one of the ships that show up. I'll be on the next shuttle off the ground. I can have ships there in…" He looked away from the monitor for a moment before answering, "five or six hours at best speed."
Feron groaned. "That's going to be close."
Liara nodded. "Please hurry, Garrus. I'll explain everything after, I promise."
Garrus made a noise that sounded somewhere between disbelief and agreement. "I'll contact you when we pass through the nearest relay." The channel went dark. Liara contacted Miranda again with swift keystrokes.
"I'm bringing friends. We'll assault the station once our forces arrive."
Miranda's eyes widened in shock. "Forces? Who did you call, the Alliance Navy?"
Liara shook her head. "No, Admiral Hackett would probably love to assist us, but I imagine he's bound by protocol of some kind. General Garrus Vakarian has some pull with the Turian fleet, however."
Feron shook his head in disbelief, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "This is going to be the loudest, most public Shadow Broker op ever."
Liara said nothing, and steeled herself for war.