Chapter 17
"Hey Kaidan. Busy?"
"Not particularly, Commander. What do you need?"
"I just wanted to chat, really. See how you were feeling, see if you had any questions or comments about the past few missions. Anything on your mind?"
"Not really, sir. I have to give you a lot of credit for taking down a Colossus on foot. Not many people could have done that."
"Thanks, Kaidan. And lose the 'Commander' and 'sir' crap. We're all friends here."
"Yes sir. I mean, uh, yes, man?"
Shepard grinned at Kaidan's attempt at being casual. "How about you just stick with 'Shepard?' Rolls off the tongue with flair, if I do say so myself."
"That sounds like a plan, Shepard." Kaidan smiled back.
"How're the migraines?" Shepard changed the topic.
"They're alright, for now."
"So what's the deal with the L2s, anyway? I know they can cause complications, but nobody's ever really explained it to me."
"To be honest, I don't really understand all of it myself. I just know that getting migraines is a blessing when it comes to the complications faced by a lot of us with L2s. Death, blindness, and insanity are some of the alternatives."
"Ouch." Shepard grimaced. Now for some reason, I feel like Kaidan's trying to be nice to me. He's probably worried about using big scary words and highly advanced concepts that my poor little brain wouldn't be able to understand. Normally, I'd be pissed off about that. Right now though, I don't particularly give a shit. "So they didn't explain the amps to you when you got them?"
"No." Kaidan shook his head. "I was brought up at BAaT Camp. They didn't really care too much about us understanding what was going on. They just wanted us to learn how to use our biotics as fast as possible."
"BAaT?"
"Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training. Conatix Industries ran the program during the '60s. Humanity was just starting to understand the effects of eezo exposure at the time, so they brought in some turians to help train young biotics."
"Really? Turians?" Shepard shook his head. "I can't believe they'd pull a stunt like that right after the war. How'd they manage to sell that shit sandwich of a deal?"
"They didn't, Commander. Everything was kept under the radar as much as possible. As a result, they had to find turians that wouldn't be missed. Unfortunately, most of the turians they were able to find that fit that billing had no love for humans. Life for us kids was . . . difficult, as a result."
"Whatcha mean?"
"Our turian instructors enjoyed making the atmosphere at camp as unpleasant as was possible. There was this one, Commander Vyrnnus, who was a real piece of work. The first time we met him, he stood up in front of us and said 'I was at the helm of the dreadnought that killed your father.' He seemed inordinately proud of that fact. I was a bit of a smartass when I was younger, so I made some kind of snarky comment. Vyrnnus absolutely had it in for me from then on, and did his level best to make my life a living hell whenever he could."
Shepard's insides roiled with rage at the thought of a turian taking credit for killing his father. I would have skewered the motherfucker right then and there. Fuck being a smartass; I woulda slit his goddamn throat just to watch him die, slowly. Oh hell, just thinking about fighting is making me tired. I need to get some rest pronto. Props to Kaidan for not doing kicking the shit outta his turian teacher, though. "I admire your restraint, Kaidan. I'm not sure I would've been able to sit there after hearing something like that."
Kaidan grimaced. "Well, it was different for me. No one in my family was even in the military during the First Contact War. If I had lost both of my parents to the turians, I probably would have done more than just talk."
"Thank god for small favors, eh Kaidan? Listen, I want to talk more about this, especially the BAaT stuff, but I gotta go get some rack time or I'm gonna pass out right on your table here. And I weigh a lot, so you'd probably have to just stop working until I came to."
"I think I'd be alright, Comm- Shepard." Kaidan grinned. "I'd just hit you with a biotic throw, and you'd be napping over there by the lockers in no time."
"Ah, don't even talk like that." Shepard clutched his ribs theatrically. "My body aches just thinking about being tossed around like a ragdoll. We'll talk more next time, Kaidan."
"Aye aye Shepard."
The Commander turned and walked into his cabin, before collapsing on his bed. He tried, unsuccessfully, to soothe the pain that was rippling through his chest in waves of utter agony. Fuck this shit hurts. I think I hurt more now than I did before Chakwas got her hands on me. Maybe I can go ask her for a little something for the pain? Nah, she'll probably tell me it's my own damn fault. Which it is, not that I'm gonna tell her that. While I can't see her refusing to give me something, I'm sure whatever meds I get will come at a high price of guilt and dirty looks. I don't think I'm in quite enough pain to trade for that. Yet. Guess I'll just have to tough it out. Now to find a Captain of a Ward on the Citadel to bully into giving me their range for a day.
Shepard got up from his bed and moved to his desk, activating the terminal. Immediately he saw that there were several messages waiting for him. Aw crap, I haven't checked my mail in, what, days? A week, at most. I really suck at being a responsible adult. I wonder what the hell is in there, anyway. Going to his mailbox, he saw that there were two messages from Beth, and one message from the Alliance.
With a heavy sigh, he sat down to read the messages. These had better be "Thanks for being so amazing" and "I just wanted to tell you how amazing you are" messages from Beth, and a "Here's a raise, champ" message from the Alliance, or I'm gonna break something. He opened the earliest message from Beth.
"Spike,
That sounds fine. Thank you for being so understanding.
Beth"
Alright, not bad. I'm glad she's using my first name again. That "Shepard" bullshit was starting to piss me off. He opened the other message from Beth.
"Spike,
I know you said you'd probably find yourself on the Citadel, but I haven't heard from you in a few days, so I wanted to see if you knew when you'd be getting back there.
Bye."
That one's a little more annoying. For Christ's sake, woman, it's been less than a week since I messaged you. I'm hunting down a fucking rogue Spectre! Be patient, damn it! I gotta admit her timing's fucking spot on though, since we're heading back to the Citadel right now. Fucking coincidences, right? He took a few minutes to type out a quick response.
"Beth,
Your timing is pretty good. I'm gonna be on the Citadel for a few days. How about we have our little 'talk' as soon as I can find some time? I'll message you to set it up once I've squared away my schedule.
Spike"
Finally, he got to the message from the Alliance.
"Commander Shepard,
Your current assignment covers a great deal of the Terminus systems. Alliance High Command asks that you notify the Alliance of the location of any mineral or resource deposits that you encounter during your mission. Please be advised that a small 'finder's fee' will be allocated to you for each substantive discovery.
Thank you.
Systems Alliance HQ"
Cool. Find them shit, and get paid to do it. I like that. Props, Alliance, for giving me an easy job for once. Still have a long way to go to get back to even, though. But if you keep pumping credits my way, I'm sure we'll be square in no time.
Shepard finally pulled up a list of the C-Sec Captains responsible for the different wards. Christ almighty. About bloody time, too. I finished talking to Kaidan like an hour ago and I'm just now getting to it. God damn stupid shit. Hmm. If I had to wager a guess, based on the names I'd say the Wards were under the control of one asari, two turians, and two salarians. I wonder why I haven't seen more asari in C-Sec, now that I come to think of it. Probably because they're too fucking smart to waste their time with a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit when they could be out making money as mercs or strippers. They've got the right idea, if Garrus's opinion of C-Sec is reliable. Which I think it is, since he's the best damn turian I've ever met. Although that's not saying much by itself, Garrus is fucking heads and shoulders above every other motherfucking turian, which should count for something. I don't really want to deal with any other turians today, and asari are too hard to read. Salarian it is, then. I think I'll go with the one in Bachjret Ward, since that's a cooler name than Kithoi.
Shepard clicked on the necessary commands to link him into the C-Sec comms network, and then used his Spectre authorization to call the salarian directly. After a few minutes of truly terrible waiting music, the other end was finally picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is this Captain Raerileis of the Bachjret Ward?"
"Yes. Who is this?" The salarian on the other end sounded slightly irritated.
Ha. He's probably feeling a bit shirty with me 'cause I called him directly. No secretary to tell me he's "busy" or "indisposed" or some other bureaucratic nonsense for "taking a nap." "This is Comm- Spectre Shepard. How are you doing today?"
"Ah. Hello, Spectre. My day is proceeding well, and yours?"
"Meh. Could be worse, could be better." Shepard paused for a beat, to give himself time to frame his request. Fuck. Really shoulda thought this shit out beforehand, Spike. You fucking moron. "Well. Captain Raerileis, as you may know I'm putting together a team that is tasked with taking down a rogue Spectre."
"Yes, Spectre, I had heard something like that through the gossip network."
"Right. Water cooler talk, I get it. Well, as of now, you can consider those rumors confirmed, but for your ears only. If I start hearing that a fancy salarian Captain started dishing about Spectre activities, I'll be coming down hard on you, if you get my drift."
"I understand perfectly, Spectre." To the salarian's credit, and Shepard's surprise, he didn't seem cowed by talking to a Spectre.
Good for him. About time a member of his species grew a fucking backbone. That genophage shit was such a little bitch move. "Oh no, the big bad krogan are coming! Quick, make them all impotent!" Fight 'em with bullets and bombs and knives, like real men. Is it any wonder the krogans are a buncha pissed-off giant dinosaurs nowadays? Some little lizard people basically gave them all the worst fucking case of limp dick in the universe. I'd be looking to pay those bitches back in lead too. Oh shit, I'm still talking to that Captain guy. Focus, Spike! "Anyway, I didn't call to threaten you. I have a request that I need to make of C-Sec, and from the people I've talked to, you seem to be the most level-headed C-Sec Captain around." That's a bit of an overstatement (alright, I pulled it outta my ass), but a little flattery never hurt anyone, right?
"I thank you for your compliment, Commander. What do you require of C-Sec?"
"My team and I need a place to practice where we're not gonna hit anything important on accident, and where we don't have to worry about the geth attacking us. A gun range is the perfect place for that, and I know that each Ward has one for its C-Sec personnel to use. Now, I'm not asking for the range for a month, or a week, or even a full day. We just need about a half a day, where we can go in there and work without getting interrupted, along with range passes for my crew. Whattaya say?"
"Well . . ." The salarian was quiet for a brief moment before he continued. "I'm not sure I can do that, Spectre. I have men who need training and the only way they can get that is on the range."
"Yeah, but my people need training too. And I have the utmost respect for C-Sec-" Ha. What a laugh. They're a bunch of useless fucktards. "-but I have to believe that my team needs to be at their peak way more than your C-Sec agents. I mean no offense, but I can guarantee Saren and his geth are gonna be way more of a bitch to take down than anything C-Sec will ever run into."
The salarian was quiet for a long while. Finally, he spoke. "I can see your point, Spectre. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I'll block off the range for as long as you need, and I'll make sure your team can access it whenever they need, on one condition."
"Which is . . .?"
"Make sure that you stop Saren." Shepard could hear the smile in the salarian's voice.
"You got it, Captain." Shepard smiled to himself. I'm starting to like this little guy. Maybe after all this shit's over with, I can buy him a beer. Or whatever the cool salarians are drinking nowadays.
"When do you need the range, Spectre?"
"Let me get an update from my pilot." Shepard put the call on hold. "Joker! I need an ETA to the Citadel right the hell now."
"Three hours, 12 minutes, Commander." The pilot's voice came over the intercom.
"Thanks." Switching back to the call, Shepard did some quick math in his head. "Captain?"
"Yes Spectre?"
"Can I get the range in four and a half hours, Captain? And just have it for the rest of the day?"
"Yes, Spectre. I'll leave word with the guard at the range to make sure that you and your team are let in without a problem. If a problem does arise, I am well acquainted with the 'Spectre problem-solving strategy.' Please don't hurt any of my agents, just call me."
Shepard chuckled to himself. "Sure thing, Captain. And I'll tell my team to leave your C-Sec people alone." He thought for a minute, then added "And when I put a bullet in Saren's brain, remember that you played an important role." That oughta keep him in a cheery mood if I need anything else from him. Hot damn did I make the right choice in picking out who to call.
"I will, Spectre. And thank you."
"Thank you, Captain."
Shepard typed the necessary commands into his omni-tool to wake him in an hour and fifteen minutes, and then closed his eyes for a brief respite from the troubles of command.