Chapter 5: Kenson
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"I'll ask you again… where is your base?" the black armoured guard asked in a bored voice.
"You are wasting time, the Reapers are coming!" Kenson replied fervently struggling vainly against her restraints.
"The Reapers are coming here... to this relay? He said voice heavy with mocking condescension.
"Every moment you keep me here you bring them closer!" she screeched.
"So I should just let you go, destroy the relay... destroy this system?" he said angrily.
"Do what you want to me Batarian, torturing me won't save you" Kenson replied contemptuously.
"No but it will amuse me" he chuckled.
Leaving Kasumi and Miranda to work on the terminal in the observation room, Jacob and I left to find the door of the interrogation cell. I positioned myself on one side of it and motioned for Jacob to do the same. I silently used my fingers to count down 3 – 2 – 1. We burst into the room and with the ruthless precision of trained killers dropped the guard before he could make a sound.
"Who are you? What are you doing?" she asked nervously
"Dr Kenson, I'm Commander Shepard, I'm here to get you out" I replied deactivating the interrogation machine and removing her restraints.
"Commander Shepard! I heard you were alive. Hackett must have got my message" Kenson replied elatedly "But the armour…?"
"I'm… working with Cerberus at this moment in time. This is Operative Talyor"
"Good to see you are ok ma'am" said Jacob smiling reassuringly
"But why would Cerberus…?"
"Let's just say we have common goals in protecting the human race" Jacob said.
"We are looking at a major diplomatic incident if the Batarians find out I was involved Kenson, this evidence better be worth it."
"It is Commander. The Reapers are coming. Diplomacy is the least of our worries." she said with an evangelical gleam in her eye.
"We need to get out of here, think you can handle a heavy pistol Kenson?"
"I may be a scientist but I can look after myself Commander" she said confidently grabbing my Carnifax. As we turned to go she called for us to wait. Kenson walked slowly over to the dead Batarian guard and repeatedly stamped on his face. "Now we can go" she said happily, brushing past us.
Rejoining the rest of my team I discovered that Kasumi had been busy. She had managed to somehow hack her way into and deactivate the colony's orbital tracking system and find an escape route to the prisons shuttle bay. We hurried down corridor after corridor meeting no resistance until suddenly the prison came alive with the sound of screaming alarms.
"Damn, I guess Kasumi's little trick has been discovered. Move it people, we're going to have to fight our way out" I shouted.
Thankfully we were almost at the shuttle bay but entering it we ran into a hail of fire from at least a dozen guards in heavy armour protecting the shuttles and were forced to find cover.
"Commander, they are trying to flank us!" Jacob yelled
"You and Miranda counter that flanking movement but stay under cover, Kasumi, do you think you can make it to the shuttle cloaked?"
"If you need me to I will Shep" she said confidently
"Good girl" I smirked "Get in and fire up the engines, maximum thrust"
"In here...? Oh, I see..!" she said "crude but effective"
"Thats me... get to it!" I ordered "I'll cover you"
Kasumi vanished and Kenson and I popped our heads out from behind cover and began wildly spraying the shuttle bay with fire.
"Commander!" said Miranda over the suit radio "we can't keep this up much longer, there's just too many of them!"
"Fall back to our position!" I ordered
"Roger that Commander!"
The two operatives ran back to us taking fire, their shields shattering. "Never thought I'll be grateful for this ugly thing" Miranda said gesturing to her scarred and pitted Cerberus Assault Armour.
"It won't do us much good once they manage to flank us!" Jacob yelled
Just at that moment, the engines of one of the shuttles roared into life. Most of the guards were incinerated instantly and those that weren't ran out of cover straight into our kill zone and were promptly gunned down. The relief we felt didn't last long more than a few seconds hearing the sound of many more guards on the way.
"Move it people!" I ordered "Get to the damn shuttle, double time it!"
As we ran, the shuttle doors opened and Kasumi motioned for us to get in "Time to leave now I think" she grinned.
Closing the doors, the shuttle roared into life again incinerating many of the newly arrived guards in its wake. In seconds Kasumi had us airborne racing undetected away from the prison back home to the Normandy.
Exhausted, we hardly exchanged a word as the shuttle achieved escape velocity and left the atmosphere of Aratoht except when Kenon collapsed into a dead faint probably, the delayed shock and exhaustion of her interrogation finally catching up with her. After Miranda determined that she was in no danger we lifted her body and laid her out on one of the seats as comfortably as possible.
"Dr Chakwas should probably take a look at her when we get back" Miranda said tiredly removing her helmet.
I nodded *And Mordin too"
"Do you really think she might be indoctrinated Shepard?" asked Jacob.
I rubbed the back of my neck. "I don't know Jacob" I admitted "She's not acting like the indoctrinated Salarians my old team encountered at Saren's base on Virmire or the scientists on the derelict Reaper we boarded but we can't be too careful with anything to do with the Reapers."
"Roger that, Commander" he said slumping back in his chair.
Kasumi put her hand on my arm and said quietly in a concerned voice "Shep, about what she said, about the Relay… You not thinking of actually blowing it up are you? All those people... Sure some of them are not very nice but still…"
I looked at her and smiled gently "I don't know, I hope not, if I can find another way, any way I will take it but…"
"Sometimes tough decisions have to be taken, sometimes hard choices have to be made" finished Miranda with a touch of steel in her voice.
I sighed in despair "You said it Miranda"
A/N Thanks for your reviews and comments