Thane was on Shepard's left, Garrus was on her right, as usual. As always when on a mission, he was hyper aware of his surroundings, but this time he couldn't completely suppress the thrum of anxiety that pulsed through him with each heartbeat. My son. My son is in danger.
It didn't matter that his son was a Compact-trained assassin, just like him. The last time Thane had seen Kolyat, he had been a gangly child of nine. He couldn't imagine him grown up and fighting for his life as his contact has warned. Kolyat was working dark and was unreachable by the Compact, which was why Thane's contact had sought him out.
Even though Shepard had graciously agreed to help and had set an immediate course to the Citadel, Thane was terrified that they would be too late. He had all the info given to Kolyat, who had been tasked with taking out a particularly nasty cell of batarian slave brokers operating in the murky backwaters of the Citadel. These weren't the ones who got their hands dirty by acquiring slaves. In Thane's mind, these were worse. They were the ones who negotiated for slaves, who set the price and determined which colonies to hit and what characteristics to look for in captives. If he weren't so worried about his son, he'd be proud of the task he was doing. Unfortunately, a batarian information broker had managed to hack the details of the contract, and it was a sure bet that Kolyat was walking into a trap.
All three of them jerked at the sound of gunfire nearby. "Shit, it's started," Shepard growled and sprinted toward a run-down warehouse the next block over. His Commander wasn't one for subtlety. It had been hard for him to adjust to in the beginning, but now he welcomed the shock and confusion she created when she threw a grenade to blow open the door and used her biotics to toss the batarian guards up against the wall. She left them for Thane to deal with, and he did – double tapping each in the head.
She dashed into the center of the warehouse. Her white armor gleamed in the dimly lit space, and even when she ducked behind crates, it was easy to pick out her location as the epicenter of destruction in the form of bullets and biotics. "Thane, get high. Look for your son. Garrus, cover me."
Knowing Garrus would find and drop any long distance threats to the Commander, Thane scanned the heights of the building. Where would he be, if this were his contract? There! The roof of the small air-conditioned control room. He couldn't see anything, but he would bet his life that Kolyat was there.
He jumped up and grabbed the catwalk grating for the next level. Ignoring the bullets, he jumped and pulled his way up another level and ran toward the control room. A group of batarian mercenaries was pounding up the stairs and headed for the control room as well. He drew his Tempest and fired while still running. Three of them went down with center shots to the heart.
That got their attention, and they turned to face him, but by then he was in their midst. He had never moved so fast and so fluidly. He was even deadlier hand to hand than he was with a gun. Three in front of him fell to throat strikes and a bullet to the chest. One he swept over the side. If he survived the three story fall, Shepard would take care of him. He felt footsteps shake the grating and turned to see another group charging him from behind. With fluidity born of years of practice, he dropped the heat sink and slammed a fresh one home, all while bringing his Tempest up to bear on the leader, but before he could fire, a neat hole bloomed in the batarian's head and he fell backward. Even as Thane fired on the next enemy, another one fell to a perfectly placed headshot. Quick mental triangulation confirmed Thane's initial suspicion that the shooter was on top of the control room.
The batarians on the catwalk were all down, giving Thane a precious few seconds to regroup and assess the situation. Down on the floor, Shepard was still moving from cover to cover, but he saw a YMIR heavy mech advancing on her position. Garrus was on the opposite wall's catwalk and firing steadily. He didn't see any more enemy targets advancing on the control room for the moment, so he swapped weapons to his Viper and assisted Garrus in wearing down the YMIR to the point where Shepard could destroy it. The hidden sniper on the control room was also aiding them.
Just as she fired the final shot, Garrus cursed loudly over the comm as a group of batarians came up behind him. Thane quickly switched targets, but Garrus was forced to vault over the catwalk and make the long drop to the warehouse floor. He landed badly and sprawled out helplessly. Shepard used her biotics to throw an entire stack of crates at Garrus to provide temporary cover until he could regain his feet, something not made easier by being covered in crates, but he managed.
At the same time, another YMIR lurched into the warehouse and a group of batarians appeared behind Thane. "Damn it, Thane! What the hell did your son do to these jerks?" Shepard groused over the comm as she dived for cover and dragged Garrus with her. Thane knew better than to answer. She was just talking, something she did to relieve tension. Besides, he didn't have an answer for her.
The YMIR ignored Shepard and Garrus in their scant cover. Instead, it was targeting the control room with missiles. Just before they launched, Thane saw a shadowy figure dive from the top of the roof, but he lost track of the figure in the resulting explosion. "No!" he yelled and ran toward the burning wreckage. The YMIR was winding up to fire again. "Shepard, stop it!" he pleaded as he ran.
"On it," she muttered. She stepped out and used her biotics to strip its shields, diverting its attention to her as the largest threat. Garrus worked smoothly with her to overload its systems.
Thane knew he should pay more attention to his team mates, but Shepard and Garrus were a well-oiled machine that worked perfectly together. He was confident they would protect each other, but he had to find out if that shadowy figure was really Kolyat, and if so, he prayed to Arashu that his son was safe.
He skidded to a stop near the wreckage and was forced to pick his way carefully through the twisted metal and jagged siding. The gloom up here was no hindrance to his vision, and soon he spotted a humanoid shape in the wreckage. He jumped over a girder and landed lightly by the downed figure. "Kolyat," he breathed.
His son was stunned, but the sound of his name roused him violently. He whipped his gun arm up at the figure looming over him. Quick as thought, Thane snapped his own hand out and disarmed Kolyat before he could fire. "Kolyat, it's your father." His son stared uncomprehendingly at him before his eyes rolled back in his head and he lapsed into unconsciousness.
Quickly Thane checked him for injuries and found a piece of metal stabbed through his midsection. Thick dark blood was seeping around the wound. Thane grimaced. The wound would be fatal if not attended immediately. He pulled out a medigel pack and squeezed the gel around the wound. There was nothing else he could do until they reached a medical facility.
He realized Shepard was calling him. "Thane, status?"
"I've found him, Shepard, but he's badly injured. He needs medical attention immediately." His only reply was a wordless growl followed by the sound of gunfire. He carefully lifted Kolyat up and hauled him bodily out of the wreckage, doing his best to avoid jostling the metal and making his wound worse.
"Downed one," Garrus announced. "That's the last of them, Shepard."
"We hope," she amended angrily. "All that to take out one assassin? Either your kid is better than you are, or he pissed in someone's cereal big time, Thane."
He couldn't take time to try and understand her human phrasing. "Shepard, I need to get him to a medical facility."
In no time, he heard the heavy thumps of both her and Garrus pounding up the stairs. She flicked Kolyat's jacket open and took a quick look at his wound and then wrapped Kolyat's other arm over her shoulder. "Garrus, take point. Get us out and find us an RTS car."
Thane watched the blood seep down his son's clothes and leave a trail on the floor. Every instinct he had from his own training days was screaming at him for the obvious trail they were leaving behind, but this was different, he told himself. This time, he had Shepard on his side.
Garrus commandeered a car and they quickly loaded Kolyat in the back. The turian made to take the driver's seat, and visibly blanched when Shepard slid behind the wheel. "Really, Shepard? You can't toss the kid around with that kind of wound."
"You drive too slow, Vakarian. Get on the comm, and warn Chakwas to get ready."
Thane slid in next to Kolyat and glared at the other two. They could argue when his son's life wasn't on the line. He was about to say something when Garrus dropped into the passenger's seat and buckled himself in. He turned around and said, "Hold on to your kid, Thane. You've never had the pleasure of Shepard's driving. Too bad this will be your first."
"Shut up, Vakarian," she snapped. Thane was wondering how bad it could be when he got his answer. She accelerated as fast as the car could manage and jerked around the one in front with centimeters to spare.
"Spirits, Shepard! This is taxi, not an armored vehicle. Watch it!"
"He's bleeding out, Garrus! Talk to Chakwas!" Shepard drove like she fought, brash and crazy. She used her horn like she would her biotics, shoving others out of the way in fear of getting caught up in her wake. He held on to Kolyat's jacket to keep him anchored against him. It was hardly the time to get nostalgic, but he stared in wonder at the man his son had grown into. Gone was the innocence of childhood and the gangly awkwardness of youth. In its place was a hardened warrior who resembled Thane at that age to an uncomfortable degree. Kolyat was slimmer than Thane and a little taller, but aside from their coloring, the family resemblance was striking. He hardly knew how he should feel now, staring at the adult face of the child he had given to the Compact fifteen years ago. Kolyat's lips were thin, and even unconscious, he seemed to scowl. Thane didn't have to guess at the training and hardships his son had gone through. Part of him still regretted that decision, especially in light of the fact that he and Irikah had been unable to have more children. But then again, Kolyat wasn't home when the batarians came for Irikah, and perhaps that had spared his life. He would never know. Now, faced with his son after so long, he was desperate to talk to him, to learn about the man he'd become. Please, he prayed again, let him be spared and willing to talk with me.
He suddenly realized they had stopped moving. Shepard had ignored every rule there was and navigated the car through the shipping lanes to land as close to the docking ring as possible. She snapped his door open and helped him pull Kolyat out of the car. He deliberately didn't look back at the pool of blood on the seat. Never had the decontamination cycle seemed so long, but finally they were through. Shepard was yelling for the crew to move as they carried his unconscious son into the medbay where Chakwas and Mordin were waiting. He was vaguely aware of Shepard's arms around him and pulling him out of medbay, but it wasn't until he found himself seated at his table in Life Support that he was able to focus on her.
She sank down in her customary chair with a heavy sigh and stripped off her gauntlets. "Dr. Chakwas is a fantastic trauma doctor, Thane." Even now, he appreciated that she didn't give him the hollow reassurance that Kolyat would live. They had both seen his injury and the amount of blood loss. "How are you doing?"
He stared down at his hands wrapped around each other in his typical meditative pose. His body was still, but his mind was anything but. "I find myself unsettled," he admitted. "I did not realize how much I missed my son. It also makes me think uncomfortably of my own parents. There is nothing like finding yourself in the circumstances of others to appreciate their viewpoint."
"So you never saw them once you...graduated?" Her lips twisted up slightly on the last word. He could tell she was still uncomfortable with the entire concept of the drell and hanar Compact. They had discussed it many times before, but she was unable to get past her own prejudices and felt his service was more a form of slavery than the honor the drell deemed it.
He shook his head. "I did, but it was at Irikah's behest, not my own. In our culture, families are very close, and once a couple are married, their families are joined as well. Irikah became my parents' daughter and I became her parents' son. She dragged me to more gatherings than I wanted, but in time, I became more comfortable with my extended family. It was a major shift from my Compact training where they teach us to be completely self-reliant. Now I realize Kolyat has also lost his larger connection with family and culture. I look at him and see myself, and I have yet to even speak to him." It was only with the practice of long years of self-control that he refrained from showing his anxiety and anger in his words or body language.
"Do you still think the Compact is such an honor?" she asked.
"Of course," he answered immediately. It had been drilled into him since birth that service was one of the highest honors an individual could perform for both drell and hanar. But after his reflexive answer, he wondered if that was still true. Perhaps if he had never known the joys of marriage, family and fatherhood, he would still think the same, but now he admitted that a large part of him felt severed.
He thought of Kolyat. The odds of his son finding someone to change his mind the way Irikah had changed him were infinitesimal. So it was likely, indeed, almost certain, that his son still felt the same commitment and honor that Thane had before he met Irikah. Thane could only hope that his son survived so that they could discuss such things as he did with Shepard. There was so much he didn't know about his only son, and he had written off any chance of ever finding out. Now to have this opportunity was a gift from the gods. He looked back at Shepard. She seemed unconvinced of his answer, and he felt a challenge would not be long in coming.
She did not disappoint. "I don't see it." She wouldn't actually be crass enough to call him wrong, having admitted that his culture was alien instead of human, but they had discussed humanity's history of slavery and the indentured servitude of Illium frequently in the past. "You had no choice in the matter. It was a decision made for you by your parents and the Compact. They brainwas...taught you everything you know. You didn't have a chance to grow up thinking anything different. Of course, you're going to consider it an honor if that's what everyone around you tells you."
He bowed his head slightly to her. "And yet, even as an adult, I made the same decision for my son, because it is an honor, Shepard. You may ask him yourself if he agrees with me."
Her lips quirked up in that half smile that he found so pleasing. It was as if she refused to take anything seriously if she wasn't forced to. He had been with her long enough to know that the burdens she carried were substantial, and he sensed that her irreverence was how she balanced her life. "I intend to. Hang in there, Thane. If he's anything like you, he's a fighter. He'll pull through." She stood up. "I should go. I need to change and get us enroute. We need to go find Tali."
Thane rose to accompany her to the door. He knew that this side trip to the Citadel had been unplanned. "Thanks are inadequate for what you have done, Shepard. You have given me this chance to save my son." She smiled again and clapped her hand against his arm before she headed out. Normally such casual contact disturbed him; he hated for anyone to be that close to him. But he was finding that Shepard was an exception to many things he had come to expect as normal in his life.
He walked slowly back to his table as he reflected on his charismatic Commander. He truly could never repay her for what she had done, even if...and his mind had trouble forming the words...Kolyat died. He wasn't the first she'd helped, either. She'd gone to Tuchanka with Grunt and taken down a thresher maw on foot, of all things. If he hadn't been there, he wasn't sure he would have believed it. It was as if she were a...ah.
He sank slowly down into his seat. He hadn't seen it at first. Her alien nature was too strong at first for him to recognize it. She was one of Arashu's own. Another siha. Why? he asked Arashu. Why would the gods put another siha in his life? Was it his duty to protect her, as he had been unable to do with Irikah? It would give him much to ponder in his meditation until Kolyat awoke.