"You really thought I was going to let you walk away without settling this?"
It didn't take long for everyone to get situated. A minor argument between Garrus and Empyreus had broken out as to whether they should discuss the mission in the briefing room, but Garrus refused to be elsewhere while Dr. Solus examined Shepard. Most of the away-team had returned to their posts, but Corporal Vaya, Liara, and Tali had all joined Empyreus, Solus, and Garrus in the med bay.
Dr. Chakwas was not especially pleased.
"You're not going to be very happy when half of us pass out due to lack of oxygen." She told Garrus sardonically as she had to squeeze between he and Tali for the third time.
"We should be here to listen to the prognosis." Liara said solemnly. "Whether it is good news or not."
"You could have just opened a comm frequency." Chakwas informed her.
"Nah, not the same." Joker said over the connection. "I mean, you guys would know right away if something went wrong, where I have to sit up here and ask 'What? What's going on?' like an idiot."
"I will need a reminder on why we found a geneticist for a Reaper matter." Empyreus eyed the Doctor suspiciously. So far, the salarian had checked all the records he could find and spent a lot of time staring at Shepard's body, and not very much time actually fixing anything, so it seemed.
"Four doctorates open a lot of doors." Davisson responded dryly on Joker's end of the conversation.
"That's correct, of course." Kerrin said absently. "But I will need to take a closer look at all available data. There is something about these readings…Reaper technology would also be useful, if you have any."
"I just love how he's asking for Reaper tech like I'd ask for coffee." Joker chuckled.
"Ah, yes, caffeine would be nice, too."
"How long will this take you?" Tali asked.
"Mm." Kerrin moved his hand side to side with a grimace. "Four, five hours give or take. Mostly depending on how much I have to read through."
"And we're supposed to sit around while that happens?" Garrus scowled. Well, his mandibles and face formed a shape that could be construed as a scowl, anyway.
"Not by any means." Kerrin held up a hand. "There are still things to do while we wait. Namely, I'm interested to know exactly why Cerberus and the Blue Suns want my…forced cooperation."
"And this situation should be reported to the Hierarchy." Empyreus said. "This has turned into something more than a simple rescue mission."
Garrus looked much like he was either about to vomit or mulling over a very difficult decision. He opened his mouth to speak, but Davisson cut him off.
"And Admiral Vakarian gets to stay here and watch over the operation. Continuous updates."
Empyreus blinked. "It is h-"
"Empyreus." Davisson's use of the name was sharp, causing several of those gathered to adopt expressions of surprise. "I'm calling in your favor."
Empyreus flashed a glance at Vaya, then the communications console. "You are...certain?"
"Wait. What?" Joker's question was largely ignored.
"I am."
There was a pause as Empyreus considered his options. Then apparently swallowed some bile. His eyes were narrowed to slits, glaring deeply at the console. "Fine. But I will be taking the crew of the Victorious with me. We can drop the asari on Illium along the way. And Corporal Vaya stays here."
Kerrin and Chakwas were busy discussing the medical situation in the corner. Tali, faceless to the group, revealed no expression. Liara and Vaya, however, looked surprised. Garrus, by comparison, looked like Shepard had just got up and started singing Opera music. His head swiveled towards Vaya once in recognition, then again in surprise.
"Always a pleasure to see you, Admiral." She inclined her head, sounding amused.
"Huh. I guess 'you win one, you lose one' applies to 'the hell do I know', too." Davisson mused.
"If I may ask, with Kaidan recovering, who is actually in charge of the Normandy?" Liara asked, looking to Garrus.
The turian looked slightly sheepish as he responded. "Well, not to drop rank…"
"I'm an Admiral too, Garrus." Tali sounded like she was smiling. "If you want to drop rank, you'll have to arm wrestle Jeddah for military superiority." She got several chuckles around the room from that.
"Put Davisson in charge." Empyreus smiled demonically. "He loves that."
"What?" The Colonel on the other end of the ship was suddenly a lot less cheerful and a lot more desperate. "No! I preemptively reject the offer! Twice!"
"We could try a joint operation." Garrus offered.
"Hmm…does that mean I can send you to the brig if you do something stupid?" Tali asked, intrigued.
"We'll talk." Garrus laughed. It was a bit harsh, like he hadn't done it in a while, but clearly it took some discomfort off of his shoulders.
"All right, that's enough." Chakwas looked at them sternly. "You'll have to go elsewhere for a while. We need to look over this data, and that requires concentration."
"If any of you would like to stay as patients, I have a lovely selection of consciousness-reducing anesthetics." Kerrin added. That got everyone out rather quickly.
Barely ten minutes after he'd returned to his room, Davisson heard someone knock on his door. He sighed and made sure his armor didn't have anything corrosive on it. "Come right on it. Unless your skin is blue."
"It's more of a light gray." Garrus said. The door opened to reveal the Admiral himself in normal attire, which struck Davisson as odd. Then again, he'd only seen him in battle gear.
"Admiral." Davisson stood up and saluted. "What brings you to my cabin away from slightly-larger-cabin?"
"I want to talk to you about Admiral Empyreus." Garrus waved his hand at the Colonel to be at ease and took a seat nearby.
Davisson couldn't stop some suspicion from showing on his face. "That's a pretty broad subject, sir. But I'm guessing we can skip over the wild parties at his place on Christmas."
"I-" Garrus blinked. "You're not…serious, are you?"
"Rarely am, sir. It's something of a norm for me. To answer your not-question, though, the five-minute version is that we were on a black ops team together. I pulled him out of a few fires, et cetera."
"You have a gift for being laconic, Colonel." Garrus said dryly. "Exactly how classified are these black ops?"
"Not exactly high-tier, but all of us, governments included, spent a while trying to forget them." He glanced over at a half-empty whiskey bottle on his desk and scowled. "With varying degrees of effectiveness."
"That bad?"
"Well not as bad as firing bigass cannons at Reapers while your head is on fire and husks are nipping at your heels, but kind of exactly like that." He looked at Garrus sadly. "I'm not going to insult you by imposing that I've got more baggage or tougher times, but…I'll bet there are a few things you'd like to forget, too."
"I understand." Garrus nodded. "Though…I have to ask about your rank." Davisson groaned softly. "I've read your file. Even without details on the black ops, you should have your own fleet by now. I haven't seen a record that impressive since I searched Anderson on the extranet."
"Christ, did everyone read my file?" He held up a hand. "No, I really don't want to know. Truth is, I've never wanted command. I had enough of that shit in the war. I guess you could say I work better at a 'blow his head off when I tell you' level. All those commendations say is how well I do that. I'll let you in on a secret, Admiral; I basically came out of retirement when I got called for this mission. The only CO willing to take me on worked a mining station on some backwater world, and he kicked my ass. My attitude doesn't do me many favors."
"Colonel," Garrus said seriously. "I'm not a fan of procedure to begin with. If you're half as good as your file says you are, your attitude can run as much as it wants."
"Nice to finally meet someone else with a military 'get 'er done' philosophy." Davisson said with a grin. "Not to say you won't regret this, though. Caveat emptor."
Garrus looked puzzled. "Either my translator glitched…"
"It's an old Earth language. Translates to 'Buyer Beware'."
"Well now that we're on the right foot, so to speak, I had another question I wanted to ask." The tone of the conversation took a turn for the serious. "Why did you convince him to let me stay here?"
"Because frankly, if it was me, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be dragged off to play politician when there's work to be done. People to look after."
"Something tells me…"
"Yeah, well, you read my file, I read yours. Not that you and Shepard was this huge secret or anything."
"Thanks." It came out more roughly than Garrus intended, but he meant it.
"Okay, my turn at the wheel for twenty questions, if you don't mind." Davisson mulled over how to approach his interest before deciding visibly on 'screw it'. "What's the deal with you and the lieutenant?"
Garrus sighed. "Kaidan and I haven't always been…"
"Wrong lieutenant."
"Well, Joker's good for more than-"
"Okay, now you're just screwing with me." Davisson laughed. Garrus, caught in the act, joined in with a low-key rumble.
"All right, all right. Renar…I first met him back on Palaven. Five years ago. The Reapers had just been wiped out, and I was assisting the cleanup." Davisson nodded, listening intently. "To say I was in a bad place…would be an understatement. Renar's parents lived in one of the major population centers to be the hardest hit. He'd been hidden in an underground bunker. It was fairly hard to find, and well stocked.
"His parents…they didn't make it. When I found him, he was alone, tired, scared out of his wits. When he saw me…" Garrus closed his eyes, looking pained. "He thought I was his father, coming to get him out. He hugged me, he was crying…he thought his nightmare was over."
"Shit." Davisson said softly. "How old was he?"
"Barely fifteen at the time. Too young to have had military service, or even to be out of normal schooling. I think…I think something inside me broke, then. But something else fixed itself, too. I made him a promise. I promised him that he wouldn't lose his father again."
"That makes him what, twenty?" Davisson whistled. "I gotta say, kid's got chops. Fought off those Blue Suns down there like it was nothing and made Physics his bitch in the process."
Garrus chuckled mirthlessly. "The turian Cabals will do that to you. Soldier to shock trooper in a few short years. I should have kept him on my ship."
"I'm guessing the turian biotic training is different than ours. Not worth it?"
"I can't say if it was 'worth it'. But…it changed him. It's not something I should tell you. If you get the opportunity, he should have the chance to tell you himself. Or not."
There was another pause, then Garrus looked up, locking eyes with the marine. "And I want to thank you. For keeping him safe down there."
Davisson grinned. "I didn't need to. Like I said, he does damn well for himself."
"I don't know, the way Tali tells it, you came up with half the plan."
"Just hal- Oh, ha ha ha. I see what you did there." He grinned.
"Why Colonel, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Hnh." Davisson glanced down, deep in thought, then perked up a bit. "So then, what's with you and Corporal-"
"You noticed that over a comm line?" Garrus asked exasperatedly.
"No, I noticed when she was giving you eyes on the way down to med bay." When the turian was not forthcoming, Davisson added tantalizingly: "I'll tell you about that time a Batarian tried to kiss me…"
"All right. That one I have to hear. This was a few years before all this started. The ship I was on was on the way to take down a Batarian pirate base, and we were all on edge…"
"-And Arlonn on the second weapons pattern." Empyreus' gaze lingered on his twenty or so new crew members as they walked through the airlock doors on to the Dawnstar. He'd assigned them all positions just in case trouble came at them as it was wont to do, but didn't intend to keep any of them. Once they finally docked on Palaven, any turians formerly assigned to the Victorious would stay on the planet until they received further orders.
His most prominent reason was that he felt if Admiral Vakarian decided to request a new vessel, he should have as many original crew on board as possible. He understood better than most the benefits of familiarity and camaraderie. The other reason was that he didn't want too many soldiers from the 'Hooligan Ship' causing problems on his machine.
He fully expected someone to check in after he was finished, and wasn't disappointed. Though, he had expected Vakarian himself to do so, even after seeing his crew off below decks.
"Admiral." Vaya saluted formally.
"Corporal." Empyreus responded in kind, raising an eye ridge slightly. "Was there something you needed?"
"Standing orders aside from orders to stand, sir." A serious questions phrased in a humorous manner. How very like her.
"Ensure the mission succeeds to the best of your ability." He told her simply. "Do not die, either. That will reflect poorly on your record."
She chuckled. "Yes sir."
"And above all…This is a personal request, but one I hope you will not disregard." He opened the airlock door and stepped through, looking over his shoulder to finish his sentence before the door closed. "Keep Colonel Davisson from harm."
Vaya blinked at that. Empyreus wasn't the type to ask personal favors lightly.
How important was that human, anyway?
Liara walked hastily, pulse quickened. Her major insight had left her excited, and her pace was brisk, as were her thoughts. Above all, though, she had to make sure that the present Commanding Officer knew about this. Technically speaking, she didn't need to ask permission, but she felt putting it forward to Garrus now rather than later might make the process easier.
However, she slowed down when she heard laughter from Davisson's cabin. Of course, she knew Garrus was asking him about something, but it sounded like they were…trading humorous anecdotes?
"Seriously?" Davisson said in between gasps. "'Reach and flexibility'? That sounds like a cheesy pickup line."
"I thought so too, but only afterwards." Garrus turned to Liara, and she noticed that for perhaps the first time since he came aboard, he looked almost relaxed. The look was good on him. "Not that I was going to complain…Liara, what can I do for you?"
Davisson saw her and his expression immediately sobered a decent amount. She didn't necessarily regret their earlier conversation - she'd needed to make that subject perfectly clear - but unfortunately it seemed like she had sacrificed a potential friendship for it. A shame. He seemed interesting.
"I have a plan to track down the Cerberus remnant." She said more breathlessly than she intended.
That put the conversation down quickly. Garrus stood, looking serious. "How?"
"You remember Miranda Lawson, from the first SR-2?" He nodded. "I believe I can contact her. If anyone has been keeping a very close watch on Cerberus operations, she has."
"I'm not so sure." Garrus said, while Davisson sat confused in the corner. "She doesn't exactly have a great reason to help us."
"She doesn't have a very good reason not to help us, either. And if we can mention that this might help Shepard, she would be even more inclined."
"Well it's not like we have any other leads to follow. How do you plan to reach her?"
"Advertisements for her father's company in key areas. I will embed my personal code in each. She will know to contact me."
"Send and wait, huh?" Davisson shrugged. "I'll get out the checker board in the meantime."