Chapter 14

When Shepard woke up in the darkened med-bay a few hours later, it took him a few seconds to remember where he was. Damn Chakwas and her drugs! They make me feel all fuzzy. Speaking of fuzziness, did she really need to feed me her entire stock of cotton balls? I need some water. As he went to get up from the bed, he noticed an IV attached to his arm. Gently pulling it out, he moved to the water cooler in the corner, poured himself a small glass, and then returned to his bed. Sitting up with his back against the wall, he pondered his next move.

I think we should just keep going back to the Citadel. I need some new armor, and I wanna check in with Barla Von to see if I've got enough cash banked to go buy those Spectre weapons. Then I'd like a chance to see exactly what kind of assets I've got with me. Liara's probably a pretty good biotic, but I don't know many archaeologists who are any good with guns. Actually, I don't know any archaeologists, so maybe I'm just being an ass. But I need concrete details, anyway. Wrex is a fucking tank, so I'm not real worried about him. What with him being a krogan battle master and all, I'm sure he can kick ass with anything I put in his hands. It'd be nice to get an idea of what Garrus's skills are with something besides a sniper rifle, but I can't risk jeopardizing a mission to do it groundside. Same goes for Tali with anything that isn't her shotgun. I know what Ashley and Kaidan can do, but I can't make just the others prove their skills to me.

Shepard came to a decision. So it'll have to be a full team thing. I'm sure Ashley will want to bitch about that too, but if she knows what's good for her, she'll keep her trap shut. Otherwise she'll be a permanent feature of the Citadel, or the Serpent Nebula itself if she really pisses me off. But where the hell can I do that? I doubt C-Sec will let me just start shooting up the wards for "practice." Oh, duh, C-Sec. They must have a training range somewhere, right? I can just commandeer that shit for a few hours. And luckily I happen to have a former C-Sec officer onboard. Actually, is he a former C-Sec officer? Maybe he's just on leave. I should ask. I'll open with that, then I'll ask him about a gun range.

Just as Shepard went to get up from his bed again, the med-bay doors opened and Dr. Chakwas entered. "Commander. Just where do you think you're going?"

"I need to ask Garrus something." Shepard said without meeting her eyes. "Thanks for patching me up, Doc. You did a helluva job. I don't feel a thing."

"That's because the IV you ripped out was a morphine drip. You were supposed to be unconscious and recovering for several more hours."

"Aw Doc, you know I'm smarter than that. I didn't rip out the IV." Shepard said, his voice tinged with sarcasm. "I gently removed it from my person."

"Quibble over words if you want, but the fact remains: you removed your IV, and you seem to be suffering from the misapprehension that you will be leaving my medical bay." By that time, Shepard had reached the door, which was guarded by Dr. Chakwas. The raven-haired medical professional stood with her arms crossed across her chest, leveling her strongest "doctors know best" glare at the commander.

"I'm the captain of this ship, Chakwas, so I make the rules." Shepard stared into the doctor's eyes. If I hadn't recently stared down a krogan warlord in Saren's employ while standing in a set of Prothean ruins that were sinking into a volcano, she'd probably be intimidating. Too bad that whole krogan-Prothean-volcano thing actually happened, though. "And I'm leaving."

To her credit, Chakwas didn't flinch or back down. "You may be captain, but I'm the chief medical officer. And you are not leaving."

Shepard pushed past her, as gently as he could. "Sorry Doc. Your concerns have been noted and overruled."

Shaking her head, Dr. Chakwas watched Shepard limp away towards the elevator. Foolish, stubborn man. Maybe someday he'll learn to take care of himself.

In the elevator, Shepard leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths. Shit, I think the morphine might be starting to wear off. That wonderful dull ache that shows up to let me know I'm in for a world of hurt is knocking on the door, wanting to join me for breakfast. Wait, what time is it? I shoulda checked before I went down to see Garrus. Looking down at his omni-tool, he checked the chrono. Eh, it's 0500. He oughta be up. And if not, I'll wake him up. Shepard grinned wickedly. When the elevator finally reached the hangar deck, Shepard looked out and saw that Garrus was already awake, and was working on the Mako's maintenance console. Shepard walked over and tapped the turian on the shoulder.

"Hey Garrus. You're up early."

"I could say the same to you, Commander." Garrus replied, eyeing the human up and down. "Tali told me that Dr. Chakwas would have you in the med-bay for at least 24 hours."

"Well, she tried." Shepard shrugged his shoulders. "But I go where I want on my ship. So why're you up so early, anyway?"

"I enjoy the quiet, so I usually get up early. Solitude is difficult to find on the Citadel, but I never really noticed how much I missed it until I came onboard the Normandy."

"Huh. Arcturus is really busy during the day, but it gets pretty dead most nights. Probably because it's mostly a military station."

"How long have you lived on Arcturus, Commander?"

"Grew up there, Garrus. Once I enlisted, space sorta became my home, but I keep an apartment on the station still. Gotta have some place to keep my shit, ya know?"

"Do you still have family on the station?"

"No." Shepard decided to change the topic before Garrus could ask the obvious follow-up question. "But enough chit-chat. I came down here for a reason: are there gun ranges on the Citadel? How do I get ahold of one of those?" Shepard suddenly remembered there was another question he wanted to ask Garrus. "Oh, and did you get a leave of absence to come with me, or did they make you retire? Answer that last question first, if you don't mind." Fuck Spike, get your shit together. You decided not five minutes ago to lead with the whole "did I get you fired" question.

Smiling slightly, Garrus finally stopped working on the Mako and turned toward the commander. "Sure. I was granted a leave of absence to pursue Saren. Due in no small part, I believe, because of how convinced I was that he was crooked in the first place."

"So maybe they did it to get you off the Citadel?" Shepard offered. "So you couldn't say 'I told you so' too much?"

"It's possible." Garrus chuckled. "In any event, they granted my request, so here I am. And you were asking about gun ranges?"

"Yeah. By the way, I'm glad C-Sec let you come with me. You've been a big help so far, and I doubt that'll stop anytime soon."

"Thank you, Commander." Garrus accepted the compliment with a nod. "As far as gun ranges go, there are several on the Citadel. There's one in each of the wards, and one on the Presidium."

"Excellent. And who do I talk to about reserving one of them?"

"They're not really 'reserveable,' Commander. C-Sec policy doesn't allow anyone who isn't a member of C-Sec to have access to the ranges."

"Bullshit." Shepard stated flatly. "There's always a way around policy. Who oversees the ranges? Who's in charge of them?"

"Each ward has a Captain overseeing it. They would have control over access to the range in their ward."

"Perfect. I'll call them when we get closer to the Citadel." Shepard pondered, briefly, whether he wanted to head back up to the crew deck and try to get some more sleep or stay and talk with Garrus a bit longer. Deciding that his chest hurt too much to seriously consider sleeping, he chose to keep talking. "So Garrus. How are you liking the Normandy so far?"

"She's a wonderful ship, Commander. And I'm glad to be helping you track down Saren. I feel like I've already done more to help the galaxy during the short time I've been working with you than in all the time I spent with C-Sec."

"Yeah? You didn't like working for C-Sec?"

"No, I didn't. Working for C-Sec, you feel like you're buried under enough red tape to crush an elcor." Garrus sounded angry. "The bureaucratic oversight is stifling."

"If working for C-Sec was so bad, why'd you stay there? Why didn't you quit, maybe go back into the military or something? I'd think your government would be happy as hell to have a guy with skills like yours back in the fold?"

"I can't quit, Commander. My father was a member of C-Sec for more than 20 years. He was, and still is, respected by many people for his unwavering adherence to 'the book.' Executor Pallin practically reveres him."

"So you feel obligated to keep Daddy happy by staying in C-Sec?"

"I guess you could say that." Garrus said with a downcast impression.

"Ah hell, that came out totally dickish. I didn't mean it that way, man." Shepard cast frantically around for a way to change the topic to something less depressing for his turian comrade. "So what was the worst red-tape mess you saw while you were at C-Sec?"

"The worst situation I observed, or the worst situation I was a part of?"

"Either. Both. Whatever you wanna talk about."

Garrus chuckled darkly. "Well, there was one time I was investigating a salarian geneticist, named Dr. Saleon. There had been a sudden uptick in black market trade of body parts, mostly organs. Nothing too extreme, just your basic hearts, livers, testicles-"

"Wait, what the fuck?" Shepard had to interrupt. "Testicles?"

"Yeah. Some krogan believe that a testicle transplant can help them beat the genophage."

"Only the stupid ones." Wrex added from across the hangar.

"Which happens to be most of your species, Wrex." Garrus countered.

"Shut it, Wrex." Shepard said without any real bite. "I wanna hear more about krogan testicles." That sounded really fucking wrong. "Garrus, buddy, do krogan really buy somebody else's balls and sew them on?"

"Yes. It's not cheap, either, at 10,000 credits apiece. That's 40,000 credits for a full set. Some unscrupulous doctors out there are making a lot of money."

"Krogan have four testicles?" What in the name of all that is holy do they need with four testicles? Imagine the mess! Actually, I don't want to think about what they do with twice as many balls as everybody else, because there're some disgusting goddamn images now burning themselves into my brain. I wonder if Chakwas or that hot Citadel doc Michel can do like a selective lobotomy or something. Just carve my imagination right out, maybe? I'm never gonna be able to look at Wrex the same way again.

"Yes." Garrus said, as if it were common knowledge. "But anyway, back to the story. We were worried that there might be a new dealer or harvester on the station, so we tried to track down one of the organs, or even just a sample. We eventually procured a piece of liver tissue, and genetic testing led us to a turian. Surprisingly, the turian was alive, unharmed, and still had his liver."

"That seems weird."

Garrus nodded and continued. "It seemed like a dead end. So I did some more digging, and found out the turian had worked briefly for this geneticist, Saleon. I went to his lab, looking for something to indicate unlicensed organ cloning."

"Did you find any evidence?"

"No. Not a single piece. Lacking any physical evidence, I brought in some of his employees for interrogation. And this is where the investigation went off-script. If you're squeamish, Commander, I can stop now." Garrus smirked at Shepard as he completed his statement.

"Bitch please. I have an iron stomach." Shepard said, waving a hand dismissively. "What happened next?"

"During an interrogation, one of the detainees started bleeding, profusely. I offered to have a C-Sec doctor patch him up, and he lost it. Started trying to leave C-Sec by any means possible. Naturally, I ordered a complete scan. What we found proved to be our big break." Garrus paused, for dramatic effect.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Well, it's not every day I have my Commanding Officer hanging on my every word. Wouldn't you be milking it a little?"

"A little, yes. But there's nothing little about your story anymore."

"Fair enough." Garrus conceded the point. "The employees weren't just employees, they were living, breathing, walking-around test tubes. Once the organ grew to its full-size, he'd harvest it and sell it on the black market. However, if the organ didn't grow properly, he just left it in their body. Most of these people were a mess, but only on the inside."

"That's fucking sick, Garrus. I've seen some sick shit, but that is really fucking out there. I'm really hoping that the next part of your story is you making this Saleon prick's insides become his outsides."

"No." Garrus shook his head in disgust. "That's the worst part: we never caught him."

"The fuck you mean? How could you not catch him? You had his ass dead-to-rights!"

"Once he got wind that we were on to him, he ran. He blew up his lab, took a few of his science-project employees with him, and headed for the nearest space dock. He was on a ship and off the station before I could find him. When Citadel Control tried to stop him, he threatened to kill his hostages if we tried to bring him in."

"So what?" Shepard scoffed. "Those hostages were probably dead anyway, and a bullet to the brain would be a better death than being dissected for your organs."

"I agree." Garrus concurred vehemently. "But C-Sec Headquarters didn't. They countermanded my order to shoot him down. Said they couldn't risk the casualties if pieces of his ship hit the wards, and couldn't bring themselves to kill the hostages."

"I can understand that." Shepard conceded with a grimace. "Obviously you don't want to hurt even more innocent people. But couldn't they go after him with a ship or something?"

"Apparently not. After he escaped, I went down to Pallin and gave him a piece of my mind. I told him I thought his policies, and him, actually, were terrible, and weren't protecting the people worth a damn. He told me I was free to quit anytime I wanted to. I almost did, but in the end, decided I could do more good as a C-Sec Detective than sitting in an apartment whining about how bad C-Sec was."

"I'm sorry, Garrus." Shepard said, putting a hand on his crewmember's shoulder. "That was a shitty situation, and a hard decision. Did you ever get another crack at Saleon?"

"No. I sent out feelers every now and then, and thought I found him not too long ago. Nevertheless, when I presented my evidence to C-Sec, they said they weren't 'convinced.' They even implied that I might be holding a grudge, and that it was affecting my judgment."

"Those motherfuckers. You still know where he is?"

"Yes. I kept the transponder frequency for his new ship."

"Send it to me." Shepard pounded his fist into his palm, then instantly regretted it as his chest surged with pain again. "We'll go get that motherfucker. We can't go right now, since I'm still recuperating from riding that Colossus bareback. But as soon as I'm healthy, we'll find his ship, and nail his ass to the wall."

"Are you sure, Commander?" Garrus asked, surprised. I would never have asked him to go out of his way to help me, but it means a lot.

"Of course." Shepard punched the turian lightly in the shoulder. "Brothers-in-arms, baby. And he seems like the kind of twisted piece of shit that needs to be brought to justice."

"Thank you, Comm- Shepard." Garrus corrected himself. If he's going to help me nail Saleon, I can at least respect his wishes to be informal in our relations. "I've never had a CO who took the time to talk to me like this. It's new, but not unpleasant."

"Glad to hear it." Hell, while I'm down here I may as well check in with everybody else. Otherwise, I'm sure I'll have Ashley bitching to me about "spending all my time with the aliens and ignoring the good, god-fearing Alliance soldiers. God damn, she can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Oh well. "Take care, Garrus."

"You too, Shepard."

Shepard turned from the turian and headed for Ashley. I'll start there, then talk to Wrex, then check in on engineering and Tali, and that'll bring me close to the elevator to head upstairs. Then maybe I'll chat with Kaidan and Liara before finding a C-Sec Captain to intimidate into giving me his gun range. At least that should be fun.