And It All Seemed Harmless: Chapter 13
Though Shepard hadn't been this nauseous since Wrex had explained Krogan mating rituals in detail to Grunt, the soldier was uninterested in going back to her quarters quite yet.
"Nos Astra Marketplace." The soldier barks at the turian cab driver as she settles into the backseat, taking deep breaths to still herself. The driver nods slowly and lifts off without a word, clearly picking up on Shepard's less than friendly mood. Instead of striking up a conversation, his claws punch the destination into the brightly lit navigation immediately.
Running a hand through her matted red hair, Shepard peeks into the rearview display at her reflection. Though a disciplined warrior like the Commander was taught to never wear their emotions, the soldier looked how she currently felt. Her face was paler than normal, the deep purple bags under her eyes that had been pooling for weeks now stark against her skin. Her hair was tousled, and matted in places from sweat.
Leaning down, the soldier puts her face in her hands, a grunt of frustration escaping her. The morning had been a disaster, and though the Commander had intended on slipping away before she could cause Liara more pain, she hadn't expected Jack and Miranda to come looking for her. And, she hadn't expected tempers to flare as they did.
Every soldier has an arsenal of reactions that are triggered by instinct. In the heat of battle, the Commander's muscles often worked with no thought involved. Her body moved in a dance of pure instinct choreographed to keep the soldier alive. However, even when thought was not involved, Shepard was well acquainted with her instant reactions, and often knew how her body would react to a situation before it did. She didn't predict her body would react the way that it did when Jack confronted Liara.
The soldier cringes as she remembers the smaller biotic's hurt face when Shepard had slammed her tattooed frame into the wall. Jack had been taken off guard by the move, clearly not expecting her companion to react as harshly as she did, and the soldier now regretted the violent move against her friend. Good job Shep, she was just starting to trust you.
The Commander could not deny she had been deeply offended by what Jack had said to Liara. If the soldier could redo those few minutes again, she would still have confronted the other biotic. Defending the asari was Shepard's most core instinct, and it was not one the soldier could turn off at will. However, as the leader of the mission and Jack's companion, her reaction had been misplaced. Even Miranda had called her out of line, and Miranda had once nearly warped Jack into the bulkhead.
The vehicle begins to slow, and through the windows the Commander is greeted with the familiar bustling sight of Nos Astra's many shops. The marketplace is buzzing with activity, a low roar of the sound of many species milling about audible even in the sealed cab.
Steeling herself, Shepard pushes away further memory of the fight. She had something she needed to do, and if she kept reflecting on her fight with Jack, she would eventually move on to reflecting on what Liara had said at the end of the confrontation about her mission. And the soldier didn't believe she was capable of facing her feelings on that just yet.
The cab comes to a stop in a lot on the edge of the marketplace, and the soldier gives her driver a few credits as tip for the peaceful ride. The moment the cab departs the platform, the soldier begins to tap on her omni-tool, satisfied there was no one in the immediate vicinity to hear her.
"EDI?" Shepard calls into her tool. The Commander waits less than six seconds before EDI's circular form projects from her tool.
"Yes Commander?"
"I need you to do me a favor and find a terminal where I can access camera feeds from the night club Eternity from the last 24 hours." Shepard barks, thankful EDI wasn't one to ask too many questions about why she required the records.
"Certainly." EDI replies, her projection disappearing for a moment as the AI searches for the information.
Though it only takes EDI a minute to reappear, the seconds feel agonizingly long for the spectre. From the moment she had recognized Archer as the customer to information about her last night, the soldier had been on edge. It was relatively harmless for the scientist to know where the Commander had been if his plan was to enact revenge on her alone. The soldier's ship and crew traveled planets so often their enemies struggle to lock onto them. The danger that made the woman's stomach turn, was the possibility that Liara had been in that footage aiding the spectre. Shepard could handle her actions putting a target on her armored back, but she would not put the asari in more danger than she managed to find herself.
"Commander.." EDI's voice shakes the soldier from her thoughts.
"Did you find something?" Shepard questions earnestly, silently begging the AI to work faster.
"Yes. There is a terminal 200 yards your current position that would suffice. However, it is my recommendation you use an alternate terminal...there is one 600 yards from your position, that has less individuals in close proximity."
"Send me the coordinates. Thank you EDI."
"You're welcome Commander, did Ms. Lawson complete her objective to locate you? The officer had inquired about your vital report and location."
So that's how she found me.
"Yes she did EDI, please keep my location cloaked from the crew until further notice. And honor no requests on information about me until I return to the ship."
"As you wish Commander."
With a low blip, EDI's form once again disappears. Trailing her fingers over the display of her omni-tool, a map appears to the coordinates EDI has sent. The soldier scans it, then puts away her tool. Being seen following a map would definitely arouse suspicion. Striding forward, the Commander trails toward the console, keeping pace with a crowd of market-goers until she can break away to the dimly lit corner where the terminal lie.
There are a few crowds milling about near the area, but none directly by the console as EDI had stated. The soldier leans on the wall next to it, scanning the eclectic faces of the crowd to see if anyone had given the ragged woman departing the crowds a second glance. To Shepard's relief, the many beings seem more concerned about who was next in line to purchase at Sirta than what she was doing in a corner of the market.
After a few minutes of scanning to be completely confident no one was watching, the soldier drops to her knee by the console, connecting her omni-tool to the hard drive of the device. The device has a relatively straightforward firewall, and the soldier hacks past it within a minute, tapping rapidly on her omni-tool as she deciphers the code flow.
As the terminal provides the spectre access, a log of videos fills the screen, each time-dated seventeen minutes apart. Scrolling through the entries, Shepard locates a folder of video files from Eternity, silently hoping that whoever had hacked the video files for sale had not erased the copy from the drive.
Each video is distinguished a small thumbnail shot of the content and a timestamp, the entries littering the screen as the Eternity folder opens. The spectre exhales in frustration as she realizes just how many videos there are from Eternity's many cameras over the past few days of footage.
"EDI?"
"Yes Commander?"
"I need your help with a terminal I'm hacking. I don't have a lot of time so I can't run through these videos myself. Please isolate the footage from 21:00 hours last night to 03:00 hours this morning."
"Right away Shepard."
After a few moments, the mess of thumbnails thins to a page of neatly ordered vids. Scrolling through the thumbnails, the soldier pauses when she recognizes her own bright red hair in a shot of the bar. A few taps cause the video to play, and Shepard frowns as she watches a scantily clad purple asari approach her own figure, swaying on a barstool. Increasing the playback speed, the figures move in an animate fashion, her poor choices flying before the soldier's eyes. Another wave of nausea hits the spectre as she watches herself to stumble towards the Eternity private rooms, the other asari in tow slightly after.
Great way to deal with your shit Shepard. You're acting like a horny recruit who doesn't know how to deal with a damn battle or a breakup.
Resisting the urge to punch the wall next to the terminal in frustration, the soldier taps on her omni-tool, taking deep breaths once more in an attempt to focus on her mission and not her mistakes being replayed as a film.
"EDI? Are the cameras in the main lobby of the bar the only ones in the club? I need to see the inside of the private rooms in Eternity if possible."
A low whir sounds as EDI scans the terminal again, a blue flash from the omni-tool signifying when she finishes her scan.
"There is no alternate footage Commander. Eternity is only fitted with three cameras, all in the central lobby."
"Understood. Thanks EDI."
Part of the Commander is relieved by the update, knowing all too well that a soldier as infamous as herself caught in a compromising position on footage could become a galactic scandal if treated by the wrong people. However, another part of her is disappointed. Though she was not sure if her mental health could take seeing herself actually make a mistake with some random asari from a bar, she would now never know for sure if she slept with the asari or not. And part of the soldier desperately wanted to find she had not, and Liara had not caught her in the act with another woman.
Increasing playback speed again and returning to the initial footage, the bar patrons dance around the room in hyperspeed fashion. The bartender mixes two drinks, one in the glass Shepard had been using, and the soldier pauses the footage as she catches the asari pour a suspicious packet into that glass instead of one of the horrific liquors from the bar well.
"EDI zoom in on that asari's hand, the one behind the bar in the center of the frame."
A moment later, Aethyta's dark purple hand fills the screen and Shepard sighs in relief as she immediately recognizes the packet. It's a nutrient solvent, typically given to soldiers and commandos to cleanse and recharge the organs and immune system of a soldier that has been poisoned. In the Alliance, it was sometimes used to clean up a recruit that had engaged in bottle therapy before a mission, and Shepard was no stranger to the solution after Akuze.
Now where did she get military grade nutrient supplements…
Though the spectre's interest is peaked by the supplement, she decides to gloss over how Aethyta had procured the solution. Aethyta was a well connected bartender, and it would not surprise the spectre if a military companion of the asari had given her a few of the packets as first aid in the case of a particularly dangerous alcohol overdose.
Great, even one of the roughest bartenders in the galaxy saw the need to give me an intense nutrient supplement just in case...how spaced was I?
Resolving to make an express trip to thank the bartender for likely keeping her breathing through the night, the soldier returns to the footage before she can wallow in shame over having needed the bartender to play medic for her broken down self. The footage is incredibly boring for a few minutes. Different species mill in and out of the bar while the group of Alliance marines that had been eyeing Shepard during her stint at the bar each try their hands at dancing only to look about as foolish as the Commander herself on the dance floor.
Aethyta manages her bar in typical fashion for the gruff asari, either making drinks or coming close to throwing them at patrons as she barks at the few rowdier ones to leave. A vorcha tries to reach over the bar at one point to grab a cherry out of a jar on Aethyta's garnish tray, and the asari has his wrist almost instantly, an ear piercing noise falling out of the vorcha.
Eventually, Aethyta disappears from the bar to meander towards the private rooms. She has only left the bar for what Shepard estimates to be less than a minute when a sight causes the soldier's body to clench. Liara.
The information broker turns a few heads when she enters the bar, but she does not linger, striding purposefully towards the private rooms. In her rushed steps the soldier can practically feel the asari's anxiety, and though the spectre knows it's too late, all she wants to do is run into the picture and lead Liara away from her destination, before she sees the soldier's mistake.
A scream cuts through the audio, and though it is relatively inaudible over the Thessia synth pop playing in the bar, Shepard could isolate Liara's scream in a planet of noise. Unable to restrain herself, Shepard unleashes a cross to the wall beside the terminal, the metal slightly denting under the soldier's fist.
She screamed. She literally screamed. Oh god what did she see me doing…
The soldier is about to unleash another blow on the wall as if taking it out on her own fist could curb her own crushing anger towards herself when EDI appears on her omni-tool display.
"Commander. Enacting structural damage near the terminal has caught the attention of some individuals in the proximity. I suggest you finish your business with the terminal quietly and with haste."
Shepard doesn't respond, another wave of anger at herself crashing into her mind as she realizes she is making yet another mistake. The spectre resumes the feed quietly, and for a few minutes neither the spectre or the information broker are visible. This time, Shepard numbs herself as she watches, utilizing her military training to empty her thoughts as she monitors the screen. The soldier didn't think she would be capable of continuing to watch if she didn't.
Soon after, both Aethyta and Liara return to the main lobby, carrying the soldier's clearly unconscious form. Her thick red hair is strewn over her face in a lame attempt to hide her identity, which would likely fool many of the bar patrons but not anyone previously watching the security feed. Shame begins to seep into the soldier's stomach like acid and she quickly chokes it down, taking a deep breath to keep her emotions from interfering with what clearly needed to be done now that it was clear that if anyone had footage of the soldier's previous night, Liara was in it.
"EDI, I need you to get me a log of any other individuals that have accessed this footage. Now."
"Right away Commander."
As EDI scans the files of the terminal once again, the soldier busies herself from her thoughts by surveying the crowds around her once more. EDI had been correct, a few individuals were now clearly keeping an eye on the spectre after her outburst their eyes flitting over to the woman's position periodically. Most concerning was a volus with his eyes squarely trained on the Commander, speaking into his comm a series of hushed words the spectre couldn't quite make out.
"EDI I need it now."
"I have it Commander. The information broker Barla Von most recently accessed this terminal. The footage has not been reviewed by any other individual, and unusually, not even the Eternity nightclub security."
"Delete all Eternity footage from the time frame I had requested before they do. Barla Von has office on the Citadel, does he have any network points or offices on Illium? I need to track where he sent vital information now."
"One moment Commander….yes. Barla Von does have a branch office of his financial advising business on Illium. Sending the coordinates to your omni-tool now."
"On my way. Thank you EDI."
