Omega

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The man ran through the large hall towards the lab. Dead vorcha and krogan littered the floor, their bodies horribly disfigured by bullets and special powers he barely understood. He remembered walking through here at the beginning of the plague, when it hadn't become so bad yet. People had sat on the benches here and joked with each other, gone shopping... and now it was basically destroyed. Well, that's not strictly Shepard's fault, they were armed and probably wanted to storm the base, like the Blue Suns tried from the other side. With a shudder, he remembered treating the very mercs who had attacked them after they got cut down by the mechs. One had been screaming for his mother as he died in Daniel's arms, his wounds too serious to heal at a mere clinic.

Daniel was an average-sized human with a receding hairline, his short, unkempt hair betraying the fact that he didn't care about his looks very much at all. The stress associated with being a doctor, working 19 hour days trying to find a cure for the mysterious disease, had taken its toll on his body the last few weeks. For the first time in his life, he was starting to look his age – normally, people always assumed he was ten years younger than his thirty-four. He was exhausted when he flew through the door, finally safe within the confines of the clinic. Just as he was about sigh in relief, the professor arrived and immediately began talking.

"Ah, Daniel. Good to see you made it back. Sent someone to look for you, looked like a capable team. Seems they did not disappoint."

"Capable?" exclaimed Daniel. "They-"

"No time, tell me later," interrupted Mordin. "Environmental systems are offline, patients must be kept alive until they are restored. Come, much work to do."

Daniel followed without another word, fully focused on saving lives again. A very sickly batarian had arrived moments before, clearly suffering of the advanced stages of the plague, and been placed upon a bed. Mordin and Daniel once again melted into their routine. They worked seamlessly by now, the last few weeks allowing them to build up enough knowledge on the batarian body to place the IV without spending three minutes looking for a vein on the thick, leathery skin. This was why Daniel had applied for the position as assistant here: to learn. And he had learned a lot from the salarian doctor, be it about medicine, the way the galaxy worked or even about human history.

Suddenly, as Mordin used a scalpel to cut open the batarian's chest, he started talking. "Daniel. Have important news. Probably leaving soon. Want you to take over the clinic."

Daniel nearly dropped the rest of the medical tools in shock. "But I'm not ready! The apprenticeship's barely started and you're leaving? This was supposed to last two years! Can't I go with you?"

Mordin took an uncharacteristically long pause to think about what had just been said. "Will stay in contact with you of course. However, more important problems than plague in galaxy now that cure has been found. Cannot take you with me, too young, too inexperienced. Could jeopardise mission."

"With all due respect," began Daniel, "what about the safety of the patients? Supplies? Equipment? If you leave with the mechs, we'll all die and I'll run out of medical supplies before next week anyway. Aria only tolerates us because of you running this operation. Without the great professor Mordin Solus to protect us we'll be dead by tomorrow."

The batarian wriggled a little bit as Mordin looked up at his apprentice. That was the kind of drive and dedication he wanted in his students, he'd chosen well. "Will leave mechs and medical supplies with you, only taking private possessions. Believe you can do this. Will talk to Aria."

"You're not going with that woman are you?" asked Daniel, distraught as he remembered previous events. "When I was out I got into a spot of trouble with some batarians. I was talking my way out of it when she barged into the room. They pointed a gun at me as if taking me hostage, and she promised them safe passage if they let me go. They did, and she and her team shot them dead!"

Mordin didn't look shocked, merely concentrating on removing a particularly nasty puss-filled growth from his patient's lung. Then, as if it were the easiest thing in the world, the low hum of ventilation systems started again. The salarian doctor looked up for a moment, a satisfied smirk appearing on his face before he continued the delicate procedure.

I know he's listening to me, thought Daniel angrily. So why doesn't he react? After what seemed like an age, the doctor had finally managed to cut through a particularly tough piece of tissue and was busy disinfecting the now bleeding wound, occasionally sticking out a hand asking for a tool. Daniel always knew what tool his master wanted; as such, they worked in silence until they finished up.

"Patient will most likely make a full recovery," said Mordin. "Frankly amazed he made it to the clinic, Shepard only gave him one dose of medigel."

"One dose?" shouted Daniel in surprise and outrage. "But he was about to die! He almost didn't make it and the only reason he's not coughing up his lungs right now is that we operated. Imagine the pain he was going through when he crawled here. This is unbelievable! He could be dead right now."

Mordin looked at Daniel questioningly. "What he could be is irrelevant, Daniel. A second dosage of medigel would have been a waste, has no real effect on plague and would have done nothing but increase pain threshold of patient – could have come to clinic too late, consequences deplorable."

Daniel wanted to keep arguing but he was interrupted by the unmistakable thump of a krogan walking around the clinic, which could only mean that Shepard was back. The massive beast she had with her was an amazing sight to behold: unlike other krogan he had seen before, who were usually brown or almost black, this one was grey and it stood much taller than its species usually did. Her other companion was a black man who seemed just as laid back as before, just that last time he'd been pumping bullets into living beings. It boggled Daniel's mind that it was possible that he didn't change, that he was genuinely as care-free killing as he was when flirting with the clinic receptionist. Well, as much as Daniel disliked them he could tell Sarah had taken a liking to the man – maybe brawn really was just sexier than brains, he wondered.

Mordin picked up a databad and quickly scanned it with his impossibly quick eyes. "Environmental systems engaged, airborne viral levels dropping, patients improving, vorcha retreating... well done Shepard. Thank you."

"Professor!" exclaimed Daniel. "How can you thank these... monsters! They butchered those batarians in cold blood."

Shepard's eyes seemed to turn red as a fire was seemingly ignited within her. You've done it now Daniel – you're dead. "I risked my life to save you – hell, I saved this whole damned district! Now you're judging me?"

She stared straight at him, red eyes daring him to contradict her, to push her over the edge. He decided to look away and turned to Mordin for support. There was no way the professor would accept this kind of aggression coming his way in the clinic. The woman might have been dangerous, but Mordin had defended the clinic almost by himself.

The salarian sighed before shaking his head. "Shepard is right. Batarians tortured you, would have killed you, right to kill them."

Daniel couldn't believe what he was hearing. His role-model was actually siding with the murderous psychobitch from hell?

"Professor how can you say that?" he exploded. "You're a doctor, you believe in helping people!"

"Lots of ways to help people," chided Mordin, clearly amused at his student's idealism. "Sometimes heal people. Sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps." When no understanding seemed to be registering on Daniel's face, the professor decided to try a different approach. "Go check on the patients. Lots of work to do. Think about what I said."

Daniel stormed off, datapad in hand. Is he crazy? What the hell is he doing with that woman? He decided to distract himself by looking at the current patients and seeing who needed assistance the most. He was surprised to find a human couple on the list, although no injuries seemed to be present. Who are they? What do they want here? The young doctor was far from being racist, but he decided to go check on them first; if nothing else he could kick them out if they were looking for some drugs. Again? Surely Aria's men and the mercs have Omega so saturated with that shit that they don't need to come here of all places to get their fix. It repeatedly boggled his mind that anyone came here to get high, it was a stupidly dangerous place to get your stuff. Break the quarantine, sneak past the mercs and Vorcha, only for some painkillers? Who was that stupid? And yet he'd had to turn away five people just this week.

As he walked into the waiting room, however, he immediately changed his facial expression from one of ice-cold get-out-of-my-clinic to one of surprise. "Jim? Mary? What are you doing here? Is everything alright?"

The two well-dressed humans looked rather happy to see him but still very worried. Mary was the one to reply in the end. "Yes, we're fine. Things were heating up near the apartment so we go the hell out. The looters are everywhere and willing to kill as well as the mercs."

Daniel raised his eyebrows at the news. He knew from his own, very recent experience that the southern side of the district was marred in warfare and death, but he hadn't been aware of the north being in such chaos too. "I thought you bought yourself one of those unhackable doors a few months ago. You could have stayed inside, where it was safe?"

"We saw Christine and Thomas in their apartment on the way here," said Jim. "They had the same one installed before us and got killed by looters – it was only a matter of time before they got to us. Well, it would have been if the gangsters hadn't been killed as well."

Realisation dawned as Daniel put two and two together, but he decided to ask to make sure. "Let me guess: a woman with red hair killed everything outside your flat and you decided to get the hell out."

Jim smiled awkwardly as he filled in the details. "The Blue Suns had been trying to get into our flat for hours when we suddenly heard screams and lots of shooting. It was over pretty quickly and we thought it was over, but I saw that our door was being hacked. Thirty seconds later in she walks, as if the door had never been locked. She gave us a hard time for wanting to stick around at home and told us to follow fifteen minutes after she left. We did as she told us and the only obstacle we faced was having to dodge dead bodies, blood and guts everywhere."

"That's also when we decided to check on Christine and Thomas," interjected Mary. "Their bullet-wounds were old, but the looters had only died recently. We think the woman killed them. The murdering scum deserved it too."

It saddened Daniel to see his friends in such a state. He cursed Shepard for making him feel thankful that she was there. She had saved two good people, avenged two more and killed countless murderers. It wasn't hard for him to understand why people agreed with her way of doing things; it was just that he didn't agree that killing everyone was the right solution. What if she got manipulated into thinking someone had murdered someone they hadn't? What then? What about rehabilitating people into functioning members of society? Not even the families of the dead were usually at peace after the murderer had been killed. No, they wanted something else, less bloodshed and more positive thinking.

"Well I'm glad you're here. Make yourselves at home, we'll keep you safe until all this blows over," he announced with a warm smile. "For what it's worth, that should be pretty soon. Commander Shepard, the woman who cleared the way for you, cleared out the Vorcha menace and inserted our cure into the district's ventilation system. It won't be long until the plague is completely cleared up and you can go home again."

They thanked him and he moved on to a turian sitting on a bench with her head leaning on the wall behind him. She had her eyes closed and looked like she was concentrating very hard on not releasing the contents of her stomach on the floor in a shower of explosive vomit. Daniel took out his old-fashioned mag-light and shone it into her eyes, pulling down on the hard skin. The plague affected every species differently: turians were initially nauseous and their eyes would weep a dark, black mucus. It looked horrible but was easy to spot, and this particular female looked particularly stricken. Female turians were very similar to the males and only had a slightly more feminine form and less rigid fringe on their head. Looking down at his datapad, he noticed she had been given the cure from Dr Solus not long before and probably just needed time. Still, he decided to inject a stimulant that would act against the nausea, some sugar and some vitamins to get her back on her feet. She needed a few days of bedrest, that was for sure.

Mordin cleared his voice behind him and Daniel spun around.

"Daniel, know this is surprising to you. Surprising to me too," he began. "My belief in you is firm. You know where everything is?"

The man could only nod in return, as despite himself he couldn't be angry at his mentor.

"It's been an honour working with you, Dr Solus. I hope I'll hear from you soon!"

The salarian moved forward and stretched out his hand. "Has been an honour for me too, Dr McIntire. So long and good luck."

With that, he turned away, smiling and walking away followed by an automated trolley following him filled with all his things. He looked around the waiting room and all he could see was more work. Sarah was sitting at the desk and he caught her eyes. She had a beaming smile and- did she just flutter her eyelashes at me?- he walked over.

"So you're the boss now huh?" she said seductively. "So what's going to change around here?"

Daniel smiled as he realised Dr Solus had been right.

"Nothing at all," he answered.

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Soooo yeah a couple of months break. Needed to get this chapter out of the way.

In case you're wondering: yes, a lot is going to change, and soon :D

This is it as far as the viewpoints go, there are only going to be three „main" characters in this fic. Question to you: would our friend Dino look like Grunt under his armour?