Disclaimer: EVE Online is owned by CCP and Mass Effect by Bioware, I claim ownership of nothing except the storyline.
Well I must say this story is going better than I had expected. Over twice the views of my original story in not even a tenth of the time. We're also at 10 reviews, which is much appreciated. In any case, new chapter is up, with a lot of character building if I do say so myself. We'll get to more action again later. As always any comment, questions and reviews are welcome.
Trust Issues
Her return to the Normandy had been met with more silence than smiles, but she supposed she could understand that. For all their efforts they had only managed to slightly slow the Collectors and save half a colony. Then again that was more than they had achieved thus far. On the way up Shepard had thanked her for her help, but she had simply shrugged that off. She had done it more for her own reasons than any moral obligation to save his life. After boarding he had quickly moved to the comm. room for what she assumed was a report to the Illusive man.
She had taken the time to dig a little further into anything EDI would let go about Cerberus as well as anything on public file on the extranet. Copying Shepards id code for the connection had been too easy and it did make the searching go a lot quicker. So far she didn't like what she had gotten to know about the organization. They reminded her too much of the Black Eagles except they were government funded. She expected they would use any opportunity she would give them to gain more information out of her. Thankfully she had taken enough precautions so far and she doubted they could outmatch her ability to think ahead.
Miranda had gone straight up to her office as well, catching an elevator with Shepard. Presumably to make her own report to the Illusive man. She could guess as to what would be written about her. Zaeed and Grunt were still offloading and stacking all of their equipment in the lockers. All the while bantering along about the fight and how big a bang her smartbomb had made. From the talk she seemed to have earned their respect, though probably not their trust. Trust was such a complicated thing that mortals relied upon, in truth she found it terribly useless. Everyone did what they thought best for themselves, if that turned out to be working together and following orders then so be it.
As she walked to the elevator she made her helmet collapse back into her armor and set aside most of those thoughts. The Normandy was currently en route to Illium, apparently a major trade hub held by the Asari. She didn't feel like moving back to her own ship again just for the small trip. It would be pointless anyway, Shepard would want to see her the moment he was done with his briefing with the Illusive man. She could use a shower in the mean time though, the gel layer in her armor always made her feel sticky after atmospheric entry. Now where could she safely leave her armor?
More importantly where could she borrow some clothes?
Shepard meanwhile was getting more annoyed by the Illusive man every conversation they had. For now he needed the man, but he wouldn't fool himself in trusting him. As long as his intel and resources were use full they would stay aligned, for the most part. He would see what happened afterwards. Surprisingly he had seemed more interested in Eve then the actual save of the colony. In a way he couldn't blame the man for that one, but his suggestion that they keep her body for study if she ever died rubbed him the wrong way. Then again he himself was actually on his way to meet Eve right now. EDI had said she was unavailable at the moment, but he could wait for her in the lounge where Kasumi stayed. She had seemed to have made that her second home.
They needed to have a more in-depth talk about her weapons and armor technology. What she had displayed today on Horizon had been more than he had been expecting from her. That and the fact that her armor had been clean and without a scratch on the way back on the shuttle meant that she was packing tech he had a hard time believing it actually existed. He had understood that she had been advanced, their technology had developed along a different line without Eezo, but this was not just different. It was beyond them in almost every way.
As the door to the lounge hissed open the first thing he noticed was Eve's large armor suite sitting in front of the window. It had folded into itself making it about half its usual size. The next thing he noticed was Kasumi rummaging in the closet beneath the book shelves. Several pieces of clothing strewn about. He was about to say something when she popped out holding up a red t-shirt.
"Ha, found it!" Only to turn and smile at him. "Hey Shep, what's up?"
He had to smile, Kasumi was always in such a good mood. "I was actually looking for Eve, EDI just keeps telling me that she's unavailable at this time."
Kasumi's smile just grew wider. "Oh she'll be around in a minute. Feel free to grab a drink while you wait for her." She called as she dug back into the closet after tossing the t-shirt on the couch.
Shepard shook his head and went for a drink. He figured he'd deserved a pick me up after his conversation with the Illusive man. He watched Kasumi rummage a bit more while he poured his drink, till he had to ask. "Kasumi, what are you actually doing?"
She popped up again this time with a pair of jeans and threw those on the couch as well. "I'm organizing some clothes, what did you think I was doing?"
He laughed as he answered. "Finally picking out a non hooded look?"
Kasumi giggled back and mumbled "Something like that" as she dug back into the closet.
Shepard just shook his head and moved over to where Eve's armor was standing, drink in hand. It looked quite compact now that it had folded in on itself, only barely reaching his hips. The green metal gleamed as if it had just come rolling of the production line, not a sign that only 2 hours ago it had been burnt black and cracked like an egg. On the back of thing he noticed the black and gold rifle that Eve had used, stuck to the armor probably by some form of magnetic clamp system. He kneeled down next to the armor to get a better look at it when he heard the hiss of the door opening. He looked to the side to see who it was, only to quickly look away again.
It was indeed Eve, with a towel slung over her shoulders.
She just wasn't wearing anything below that.
Eve herself on the other hand didn't seem to be bothered a bit. "Hey commander. Kasumi, you find those clothes yet? "
Kasumi still didn't bother digging her head out the closet and just called back. "Yeah, on the couch. Still trying to find you some socks and shoes."
As Eve casually headed for the clothes on the couch, Shepard had stood up and purposefully looked out the window. Only to find Eve laughing at him in the windows reflection. "Commander, your cheeks are going red."
Shepard didn't grace that with a reply as he went to refill his drink, hearing Eve mutter behind him. "Such a prudish universe this."
Kasumi took that moment to pop out of the closet for the last time. "Ha found you some shoes, their even blue."
"Good, walking barefoot is so annoying."
At this point Shepard was just wondering what the hell he had walked in on.
"Well commander I assume you came here to talk with me, not to raid the bar till its dry."
Shepard cleared his throat and turned around as Eve put on her borrowed shoes. "I did actually, Kasumi would you mind giving us a minute."
Kasumi just shrugged and headed for the exit. "Sure, catch you later Eve."
Eve just flopped on the couch and smiled at him. "You know she'll hear everything that's said here anyway right?"
Shepard just shrugged. "Maybe so, but so will Cerberus with the bugs. I do prefer the illusion of privacy though."
Eve just giggled at him. "I suppose. I'll tell you what, I'll make sure nobody hears this conversation if you stop staring at the floor. I am fully dressed now you know."
Shepard just blinked. Then he chuckled as he processed what she had just said. He had no idea if she could do what she had just claimed, but he figured he had nothing to lose and nodded.
Eve closed her eyes for a second and smiled again as she opened them. "Done, all recording devices and scanners have been jammed. I'll leave it like that till were done."
Shepard couldn't help but laugh a bit. "I'm going to have to remember you can do that." Then stood from the bar and sat on the couch with her. "I actually wanted to talk to you about the tech you displayed today. I'll take any edge I can get against the Collectors, but that was more than an edge."
Eve hummed and looked out the window for a bit. "I knew you would ask me about that, but I can't really help you. Not in any time frame you would find acceptable anyway." She stood up and walked to her armor. Picking the golden rifle of the back of her armor with both hands. "You see, my weapons and armor are designed using not only materials and principles your mostly unfamiliar with. You really can't actually use them."
She walked over and handed him the rifle. "Try using it, use both hands."
Shepard took the rifle from her and the moment she let go the rifle hit his lap. He had definitely underestimated the weight. Using both arms he could lift it, but it was anything but easy to handle.
"Huh, didn't actually even think of the weight problem. Still that would probably make it usable for perhaps Grunt I suppose." Eve simply continued on. "Still to get back to my original point, try and fire it."
Was she insane! He had seen firsthand the damage it had done against the Collectors. A shot in here would probably blow out a bulkhead. Still he obliged and stood as he aimed the rifle. It seemed to be designed like any other assault rifle. The exterior design was foreign, but it required the same stand and grip. Then he noticed the first real problem. He was missing a trigger.
Eve meanwhile was watching him with an amused expression on her face. "I see you've figured out the first problem. These weapons are designed with a neural link in mind. You can't use them without it. I don't pull a trigger, I simply think about hitting a target. That means I can control the weapon without actually touching it." Suddenly he heard a whine as the rifle activated itself. Heat immediately started radiating from the weapon. So hot he nearly had to let go of the rifle. A second later it turned off again.
"And there's the second reason you can't really use them. There is a reason I stayed away from your squad on the battlefield. The simple heat coming off this thing would fry you in your suit. That was just from activating the startup procedure and I already had to shut it off before it came to standby mode. In actual combat when firing in rapid succession the temperature will easily go up to around three hundred degrees. That's more than your hard suit can actually insulate you against for any extended periods of time. Even I wouldn't fire this myself without any armor or shielding. And don't even get me started on plasma based weaponry. Compared to that this is a popsicle."
She picked up the rifle from him again and put it back in the armor. "Anything bigger then this will also require extra power from my armor, which is something your hard suits can't match. As for the armor itself, I link to that in a way that's similar to my ship. So unless you have these as well, you're not going anywhere with this thing." She pulled the collar of her t-shirt down a bit to reveal one of her metal link implants on her spine.
Shepard leaned back into the couch again, thinking. She was seeing where she was going with this. Her weapons were designed with augmented people like her in mind, they simply wouldn't work for them and in all probability kill them if they so much as tried. Still, something was off. "Couldn't we modify some of your technology to be compatible with ours. I don't know what you used to repair your armor like you did, but something like that could really be an asset."
She nodded and looked out the window again. "Standard repair nanobots, very basic technology where I'm from. I've been considering the same thing though I will admit more for my own purposes. The thing is so far I have yet to find a viable replacement for a few of the raw materials we use for construction. I'll continue to work on it and see if I get anywhere with replacement materials. However for now anything I already have available is not usable by you."
She was lying between her teeth and she knew it. Well she wasn't completely lying, but then she had learned long ago that the best lies were the ones coated in truth. It made it harder to distinguish the difference. Everything she had said so far was true, her weapons would kill the average user and her armor could indeed not be used by un-augmented people. The raw materials she had analyzed so far did indeed prevent mass applications of her current technology, but then she hadn't said that the designs themselves could in all probability be altered to achieve the same effect. The nanobot based repair protocols and hardened shielding technology in particular would be quite applicable in a world of this technology base. However she wasn't about give her technology away so easily.
She might concede if it became truly necessary at some point, but for now it was a simple precaution. For as long as she held the technological advantage she had an edge over the rest of the galaxy and a bargaining chip should she ever need one. At the same time she had begun theorizing ways to merge Mass Effect technology with her own. A Mass Effect core her own ship might be something worth looking into.
In the 2 second silence she had to think this through Shepard had gotten up. "Alright, let me know when you do find something that will work. I'll have Mordin working on the data you sent him. You might want to consider working together, Mordin won't let you down in thinking speed at least."
With that Shepard headed for the door as she got up and looked after him. Mortals, so predictable. He had believed everything she had said. This is why she kept the bubbly exterior, it had fooled more people then she could count. They simply wouldn't believe a girl like her would lie to them. They had all learned in time though, you never underestimate a capsuleer. She stopped jamming the recording devices as the door hissed open. Shepard turned to her before walking through though and smiled.
"By the way, let me know when you actually start trusting me and we'll have this talk again." And with that he simply walked out.
Eve couldn't help but laugh as the door closed again with a hiss. So maybe she had underestimated Shepard. That at least gained him some respect from her. She would need to watch him, Shepard wasn't as gullible as he let on.
Ah well, only 2 hours till Illium. Now what would she take down and maybe more importantly where could she park her ship?
Miranda had locked her office doors and waited in her seat for her terminal to connect to the Illusive Man. She had sent him a brief report about Eve's recorded combat abilities while on the shuttle and she was sure he would have asked Shepard about it. But when it came to accurate intel he would always defer to her. Her screen blinked into action and the Illusive Man's face appeared.
"Miss Lawson."
"Illusive Man."
He took another swig of his cigarette before continuing. "I read your report on the newest crew member. She seems a valuable asset, her knowledge probably even more so."
Miranda agreed on that part at least. "Agreed. She displayed technology far beyond what we currently have available. I will attempt to document as much as I can from her and send it to you. Though we might have some difficulty with this."
The Illusive Man just kept up his stare. "Explain."
"I don't trust her, but we need her and that feeling seems to be mutual. She has not let anything go about her technology so far that I can access."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but she provided Mordin with information on their space travel capabilities."
Miranda nodded at that. "That's true but so far I've been unable to access any of it. She has encrypted the information in a way I don't fully understand. The program itself seems aware of who is reading it and is scrambling its output accordingly. EDI is working on decoding it, but so far no luck. It might take decades to crack an encryption like this, we have absolutely no leads on where to start."
"Very well, keep working on it anyway. She'll release some information eventually."
"I'm not sure sir. Just now Shepard went to have a conversation with Eve about something. For the duration of the conversation Eve managed to jam all recording devices that would have picked anything up from the room. Despite EDI's best efforts to maintain standard surveillance all we have is static."
He took another swig of his cigarette before replying. "Interesting, this just proves how far her technology is ahead of us and that we need to get our hands on as much of it as we can. If she distrusts us, gain her trust. Use any way you see fit to obtain as much of her technology for analysis as you can. This is an opportunity we can't afford to lose."
He nodded once to himself. "That will be all Lawson."
Miranda leaned back in her chair as the view screen cut off. She would keep a close eye on Eve, but silently wondered how she would outsmart a woman as intelligent as she seemed to be.
In the end Eve had kept her ship parked cloaked in geosynchronous orbit and went down on the Normandy. Her legion would attract too much attention and she had no reason to attract it. As for what she had brought down, she had sticked to the basics. The moment they had entered system she had quickly moved a few things over from her own ship. The heavy armor and pulse rifle she had taken back and stored in the docking hanger. Then she had taken some lighter weapons and a stripped down light Caldari recon armor with her. It actually looked like something that could have been made in this galaxy and had shields like the rest of the armors around here. They of course worked off vastly different principles but the visual effect was similar enough.
She had stripped it down a bit though, so she wouldn't stand out in a crowd in full body armor. She only wore the boots and pants of the light grey armor visibly and the red t-shirt she had gotten of Kasumi on top. Beneath the t-shirt she was still wearing a portion of the back section though, which housed the primary power as well as shielding core. But considering their size, it was barely noticeable through the t-shirt. The protection level was of course nothing when compared to her heavy armor, but it was decent enough for this technology base and better then not wearing any at all. For his part Shepard had raised an eyebrow at her new look, but said nothing of it.
While he was busy talking to an Asari custodian she looked over the rest of the group. Garrus had come as always, he and Shepard seemed to share a deep trust she didn't fully understand. But for better or worse they relied on each other quite a bit. Then Miranda had come, from what she had gathered she and Shepard had some business to take care of on Illium. Then Zaeed was there to finish the squad, the mostly stoic mercenary seemed as uninterested in the conversation as she was. Jack was there as well, but Eve was pretty sure she had just gotten off the ship to find a good bar.
Uninteresting as it was she had listened to the conversation all the same. Apparently an old friend had paid for their docking fees. Liara T'soni, an information broker on this planet. She could be interesting to meet, or at the very least have as a contact. Information was something Eve still wanted a lot more off. Shepard and Miranda talked some more as they moved along, but Eve didn't mind them too much. She was still a bit on guard with all these different species around. It didn't take her long to assimilate new experiences, but her personality was still human. So she understood, that didn't mean she accepted.
But as they neared their destination Eve found something she found even more interesting than an information broker, a trading floor. Stocks rising and falling, newsfeeds everywhere and enough people looking at screens and betting there hard earned money on wild prospects. She could definitely work with this. Liara's office was just around the corner and up the stairs, overlooking the trading floor so she wouldn't be far. Quickly she made a decision.
"Shepard, I'm staying here for a bit. Come get me when you've talked to Dr. T'soni."
He stopped and turned to look at her, a bit of a surprised look in his face. "What are you planning on doing here?"
She smiled and replied. "Just going to look around for a bit. I should be here when you're done. Even then you've got my comm. channel if I wander off commander."
He seemed to consider it for a moment but then shrugged. "All right, just try not to stand out will you."
She giggled and yelled back "Off course not." as she walked to the centre of the trading floor.
Shepard just shook his head and went around the corner with the rest of the squad. Except jack, she had snuck off earlier.
As she reached the trading floor she linked in with her mind as others would do with their omni tools. Siphoning a thousand credits of the Cerberus expense account Shepard had access to was childs play, though making it so EDI didn't notice was a tad harder. Still with that done she setup a false ID and account in seconds and started crunching numbers.
Information was all good and well, but money. Now that was something you could use in any galaxy.