A/N: On turian clothing-when you're imagining it, we're going for something a little closer to some of the concept art and little further from what actually appeared in the game. For reference, Google these two artworks, which will explain more than full paragraphs (both are located on Deviantart, but this site eats the full address):

Fancied-Up-356921678

Garrus-01-clothes-1-159093573

Absolute Magnitude

-Chapter Four-

For the Consideration of the Counsel

For every official source of information there were no less than three unethical sources, someone had once told her.

As that someone had gone off the grid the instant her contract expired, taking two of their best civilian contractors with her and was still alive after almost a decade of being an independent contractor in the Terminus Systems, Shepard was inclined to believe her.

The Citadel, however, was not just unfamiliar territory. It wouldn't be the first time she'd operated without contacts or favors owed, though it had been a long time. It was more that she suspected that information traded on the Presidium involved galactic stakes and therefore incurred galactic rates.

She wasn't willing to pay quite that much to have it confirmed that without months of investigation by someone who had something well above C-Sec clearance, Saren was untouchable.

Also, she'd liked the Executor. It would feel like a small betrayal if she made use of the other sources, even if he never discovered it.

Which left her with-she checked her omnitool display out of habit-entirely too much time on her hands. Shepard spent it drifting around the Presidium, investigating, listening, and watching, though it would normally be impossible to be inconspicuous in full dress. Comfort, however, was out of the question.

She was the first one back to the rendezvous point, but she didn't have to wait long for Kaidan and Williams to rejoin her. Both looked more at ease than they'd been, though some of the stress lines reappeared as the two soldiers glanced up at the Tower, reminded anew of their purpose.

The long elevator ride was made in a silence broken only by the sound of cloth rubbing against cloth as someone shifted impatiently.

When they stepped from the elevator, it was into a kind of purpled twilight, all ribbed, soaring ceilings and illuminated trees. Shepard was instantly at ease, some miracle of acoustics dampening the sound of other conversations to leave her feeling almost as if she walked alone beneath the trees.

It was a scene completely at odds with every human government building that she'd ever been in, which were all designed to make visitors feel small, insignificant, and ill at ease. The days of aesthetics being prioritized over utility had gone the way of kings, but this park...

Whatever poor news the Council had for them, it would be easier to bear with composure now. That this was a calculated effect didn't matter to Shepard; she could only be pleased that they'd bothered.

She was so distracted by the trees she almost bypassed a pair of turians despite recognizing the Executor, but Saren's name brought her up short.

"Saren's hiding something! Give me more time. Stall them," a turian in C-Sec standard issue pleaded with Pallin, subharmonics aggressive. She could immediately see why the Executor had called him "unconventional." Holding public arguments with his superior wasn't something she expected from a turian, though she thought that kind of grit was exactly the reason the Executor would have chosen to send him after a Spectre.

"Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Garrus," Pallin replied, none of his earlier antipathy toward the Spectre obvious in his voice. His eyes fell on Shepard as he turned aside and he inclined his head slightly in recognition, but said nothing as he strode away.

Still radiating tension, the strange turian turned toward her. "Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren."

"You sound unhappy with your results."

"I don't trust him," Garrus said, crossing his arms tight across his carapace. "Something about him is grit in my plates. But he's a Spectre, everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence." His head tilted slightly to one side. "And you don't seem surprised by that."

"I'm not doubting C-Sec's competence or yours, but this was the kind of thing that needed a full task force, top level clearance, and a lot more time than we gave you," Shepard said frankly. "That you came away with anything but frustration for an investigation going nowhere is impressive enough. You're probably more aware than I am that it was a token investigation, meant to appease Ambassador Udina, but I appreciate the effort."

Garrus just shook his head, a wordless sound of frustration escaping him.

"Commander," Kaidan said, a low-voiced reminder of the time.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Officer Vakarian."

"Good luck, Commander," the turian called after her. Lower, so she almost missed it, he said, "Maybe they'll listen to you."

Anderson was waiting for them on the steps leading up into Council chambers and Shepard followed him inside without either of them saying a word. Torfan had never went to a formal trial, but it wasn't her first hearing. It wasn't even her first antagonistic jury, but it might well have involved the highest stakes.

Nihlus stood silently glowering to one side, his interview apparently over. She'd hoped that his word would lend a lot of weight to their sparse evidence. Turian honesty was one of those pleasant stereotypes that had solidified into a universally accepted truth, like turian loyalty.

Human honesty, on the other hand, ranked lower on the scale. They might have demanded examination by a truthseeker, which was the living, breathing asari equivalent to a polygraph test, but human memory had proved to be too malleable in the past for that to stand unquestioned.

Which was just as well. Shepard had several thoughts on aliens in her mind, all of which had grown far less flattering after her tête-à-tête with the beacon.

As Kaidan and Williams answered questions posed to them about the reports that had been submitted, Shepard fixed her eyes on Tevos, pondering what asari might actually look like without the pheromones and whatever else it was that made them attractive even to salarians. She'd known from the moment they'd entered the room what the verdict would be. It was only a matter of waiting it out, now.

When it was her turn to be cross-examined, she kept her answers brief.

"The geth attack is a matter for some concern," Tevos offered, her tone conciliating. "But there is no evidence to support your charge of treason. Saren admits to being on Eden Prime, investigating several suspicious readings from that sector. Which turned out to be the geth dropship you spoke of. But he was there to investigate what turned out to be a geth invasion, not to lead it."

"He set us up for an ambush!" Williams protested, forgetting herself for a moment.

"The geth were all down when I left," Saren's hologram said unperturbedly. "After confirming the presence of the beacon, I decided that my priority was to determine whether the ship was only the vanguard of a larger force. Nihlus was on the ground with a Spectre-candidate. I didn't think they'd require my supervision to complete their mission. It seems I was wrong."

"You told me that the Council had sent you," Nihlus retorted in a tightly controlled voice.

"Yes. However, baiting you about your choice of Spectre-candidates isn't treason. And, after she managed to destroy the beacon, it looks like my reservations were well-founded. I see you even brought Captain Anderson with you. Strange, how often he seems to be involved in making false charges against me. Humanity needs to learn its place. You aren't ready to join the Council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres," he sneered.

"You have no authority to make that decision," Udina protested vehemently.

"Shepard's admission into the Spectres is not the purpose of this hearing," Tevos agreed, her voice gently chiding as she glanced over at the hologram of Saren.

"This hearing is a waste of your time, Councilors. And mine," was Saren's retort.

"There is still the outstanding issue of Commander Shepard's vision," Anderson pressed. "It may have been triggered by the beacon."

"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now? How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?"

"I agree," Sparatus said, clearly impatient to bring the matter to an end. "Our judgment must be based on facts and evidence, not wild imaginings and reckless speculation."

That earned a nod from Valern. "Do you have anything else to add, Commander Shepard?"

Shepard was silent for a long moment, head tilted slightly in consideration. "Would you have said that if I was asari?"

That took the Counselors aback. "Would you mind clarifying that statement, Commander Shepard?" Valern asked.

"Dreams, visions, wild imaginings. If it had been an asari who interacted with the beacon, would you have made that same accusation, or would you have assumed that it communicated something to her via a method similar to their neural entanglement? The beacon was destroyed. That is a fact. But you seem to be overlooking the issue of how. It's not as if it was a glass paperweight I dropped. Your teams will find no evidence of explosives. What they will find is some sort of internal meltdown, caused by the activation of the beacon."

"Yes," Sparatus drawled. "You did include that hypothesis in your reports, that Protheans were capable of transmitting and imprinting messages directly in the mind. A very garbled message, which proves nothing and cannot be proven as anything more than an especially vivid dream after a tiring day."

"Perhaps not, Councilor," Shepard conceded. "What the beacon showed me was likely unrelated to Saren and the primary cause of this hearing, regardless. I simply dislike being held accountable for breaking a fifty thousand year old artifact by standing next to it. To have the very uncomfortable product of that interaction dismissed as a hallucination, to be held against me on my next mandatory psych eval and used as a reason to keep me from the Spectres-I can and will accept the responsibility of a failed mission, but I want it to be very clear in the record that I am not unstable or prone to wild imaginings." She might have over-emphasized those last two words, judging by Sparatus's response. "That is all."

There was some exchanging of speaking glances on the Council's part and Tevos's next announcement came as no surprise. "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Sovereign and the geth. Ambassador, your petition to have him disbarred from the Spectres is denied."

Udina's expression barely masked tightly controlled anger that became less controlled as Saren's hologram said, "I am glad to see justice was served," before flickering out.

This time, it was Anderson who caught the lash of Udina's frustration, but while she was curious about the open antagonism between the Spectre and the Captain, she agreed that being openly aggressive without rock-solid evidence wouldn't get them anywhere. In order for that to happen, they needed not only what information the first investigation had produced and a breakthrough beyond that, but also an uncompromised chain of custody. No other species was as legally pernicious as humans, but there was no point in taking chances.

Another Council-sanctioned C-Sec investigation wasn't in the forecast, but with Nihlus, his Spectre authority, and the frustrated C-Sec officer who'd asked for more time, this could be salvaged.

"I need to contact a C-Sec officer named Garrus Vakarian," she told Udina.

"That's right," Kaidan said. "He was arguing with the executor when we came in."

"Asking for more time to finish his report," Williams's voice held distinct excitement. "He must have thought he was close to finding something."

"Best not to go through the official channels," Udina replied thoughtfully. "I have a contact at C-Sec named Harkin who can help you track Garrus down without drawing attention to yourselves."

"Forget it," Anderson said sharply. "They suspended Harkin last month. Drinking on the job. I wouldn't waste my time with that loser."

Shepard's brows rose and she glanced over at Udina. It seemed strange that a man as politically realpolitik as Udina would keep a contact who was a liability. The thought must have been clear on her face, because Udina grimaced. "There are very few humans in C-Sec. My choices were very limited and, at the time, Harkin seemed an acceptable choice. He is still your best chance at contacting this Vakarian without drawing the attention of the Council. Or anyone else." His eyes flicked over to Anderson. "Captain, your past with Saren makes you a liability. Shepard will handle this investigation."

Anderson nodded sharply. "Understood."

"Good. I have some things to take care of, but we'll meet in my office later. There are other things we need to discuss." Without waiting for a reply, Udina walked away.

Anderson watched him go, then turned back to Shepard. "I doubt he'll be useful, but Harkin will probably be getting drunk at Chora's Den. It's a dingy little club in the lower section of the wards."

"For a man who's a drunken loser, that's an awfully specific location," Kaidan observed.

A brief flash of humor broke through Anderson's expression. "Let's just say that it's a little difficult to get a drink on the Citadel somewhere where the press can't find you and where you also aren't likely to catch something. I've seen him there once or twice and if he's suspended without pay, he's going to be more concerned with how cheap the drinks are than the atmosphere. Though he seemed to like the atmosphere just fine."

Shepard nodded. "If I can ask, sir, what's your history with Saren?"

Anderson's eyes trailed over Williams and Kaidan. "Ask me later, Shepard. That's just history-we have to be concerned with right now." Shepard understood his unspoken message, though she should have guessed. Anderson was something of a legend; if he'd done work with someone as infamous as Saren, it would have been common knowledge unless it was a mission that the higher-ups had decided was best marked confidential and tucked away.

"If Harkin doesn't pan out, talk to Barla Von in the financial district. Rumor has it he's a representative for the Shadow Broker. If any information dealer has anything on Saren, he will, but it won't come cheap."

"Understood," Shepard said, catching sight of Nihlus stalking past.

"Good luck, Shepard," Anderson called to her as she hurried to catch up to the Spectre.

There was a low, intermittent growling coming from the turian as she fell in step beside him. "Do you need something, Shepard?" he asked her as they entered the elevator, his movements full of a leashed violence as he stalked to the controls.

"Your cooperation, if I ask the officer who was in charge of investigating Saren to continue his investigation."

"What makes you think he'll cooperate?" he asked her after a long, uncomfortable moment of study.

"He was arguing with the executor in public. More specifically, he was a turian arguing with his superior officer in public. If he'd do that without good reason, he wouldn't still be in C-Sec."

Nihlus's mandibles flickered thoughtfully. "Who is he?"

"Garrus Vakarian."

"Vakarian?" Nihlus asked sharply.

"Yes, why?"

"Because that's a name I've heard before. His father was a legend in C-Sec, but they say the son is a brash hothead. He's still young enough to be in the reserves."

"The reserves?" Shepard prompted.

"Every turian serves in the military until they're thirty. Not all of us spend it in the active forces, though. If there aren't any ongoing major conflicts, depending on your MOS and how long you've served, they'll offer you the option to be placed in a reserve unit. It leaves you free to take another job. If the rumors about his personality are true, I'd say that Vakarian the younger was feeling stifled. The Hierarchy runs you hard, without a lot of latitude for questioning your officers. You know it's a bad, bad day when chain of command breaks down. If he was any good, he was probably considered for Spectre status. They look for that kind of personality."

"Why's that?" Kaidan asked, falling in behind them as they elevator finally reached the base of the Tower.

"C-Sec? That's a turian model of how to deal with crime. The Spectres are an asari idea, modeled on their own justicars."

Kaidan made a thoughtful noise, then Williams spoke up. "You really mean everyone serves in the military?" she asked incredulously.

Shepard glanced back at her. "It's not quite like it sounds," she answered her. "It's not as if they're all frontline combat troops or even involved in professions we'd even consider being "military". In the Hierarchy, the military is synonymous with government at any level. Their primarchs have always been active-duty generals and their colonies are administered by governor-generals. Their sanitation workers, their road workers, and even their schoolteachers are all active-duty military. Anything that we'd consider government funded." At Nihlus's puzzled glance, she said, "I'd never heard about moving people into reserve units, but I'm not completely unfamiliar with your service model."

Nihlus chuckled. "That would be because we like to pretend we're all good turians. The ones who opt for the reserves tend to be our artists and entrepreneurs, which are a significant minority. It's almost traditional to option for the reserves if you're going for C-Sec, though. They put you through a minimum of a year of cultural sensitivity training before they ever let you out in public and that's aside from having to learn a legal code that's supposed to let a half dozen species live peacefully on the galaxy's largest space station."

"So not exactly your average beat cops, then," Williams said wryly.

"Not exactly," Nihlus agreed. "I assume you have a plan, Shepard?"

"Yes. Step one involves returning to the Normandy and changing into something that doesn't have my rank on the shoulders," she said, tugging at the high collar of her dress uniform for emphasis. "Step two is to divide and conquer. Kaidan, Williams, you'll pay a visit to Barla Von and get us a quote for what the Shadow Broker's services will cost us. Be polite, don't sign anything, and don't agree to any vague, open-ended favors."

"Well, that ruins my plans for the afternoon," Kaidan quipped. "We'll handle it, Commander. You and Nihlus are going to Chora's Den to talk to Harkin?"

"If Nihlus doesn't have other plans," she replied, glancing over at the turian.

He opened his jaws and flared his mandibles in the turian equivalent of a wry grin. "My plan involved a classier bar, but yours works."