Chapter 13

Jacob glanced back to the guardsmen flanking him and nodded them off.

"You know Shepard, you're not as discrete as you think you are," Jacob mused with a grin.

Shepard slung his rifle onto his back and stepped through the doorway, moving forward to shake Jacob's hand firmly. EDI holstered her pistol and followed closely behind. Kaidan, on the other hand, lowered his weapon, but remained alerted. He stepped through the door after the other two, eyeing Shepard and Jacob cautiously.

Shepard crossed his arms. "You know, I think I've heard that before. Maybe I should just stick to running in guns blazing."

"Heh. Well that is certainly more your style," Jacob responded. He glanced to Shepard's companions as they joined the commander's side.

Shepard glanced to his left. "Jacob, this is Major Kaidan Alenko. He's a Spectre."

Jacob's face turned serious as he straightened up, snapping a sharp salute. "I've heard a lot about you, Major Alenko. It's an honor to meet you."

Kaidan returned the salute warily. "Thanks... the Alliance has quite the file on you as well, mister Taylor. You're not exactly the typical Cerberus operative."

Jacob smirked. "Which is probably why I haven't been one for quite a while now."

Shepard looked over to EDI. "Jacob, I believe you already know EDI."

Jacob blinked in disbelief. "EDI...?"

The AI smiled and nodded. "Hello, Mister Taylor. It is a pleasure to see you again."

Kaidan cleared his throat slightly. "Sorry, I don't mean to cut this reunion short or anything... but I just want to make sure we're on the same page here. This is not a Cerberus facility?"

Jacob chuckled. "Well that depends. Is it run by Cerberus? Hell no. Does it exist because Cerberus had deep pockets? Can't say no to that."

"Well on that note," Shepard started, "I think it's time I asked what this is, Jacob. What are you doing out here?"

"I can answer that," an accented voice chimed in.

Shepard looked to see Miranda Lawson standing off to the side and leaning against one of the prefab buildings. Miranda wore a confident smile as she straightened up and walked toward the group.

The commander smirked and turned to meet her half way. "Miranda. I was hoping you might be hanging around."

"Hanging around?" Miranda asked almost indignantly. "Who do you think is running this operation?"

Shepard held out a hand. "It's good to see you."

The ebony-haired woman smiled and took his hand. "Same to you, commander."

As Shepard turned back to Jacob and his squad a uniformed woman hurried to Jacob's side. The woman pointed back toward the recently arrive transport, which Jacob responded to with a curt nod.

"Hey, I gotta take care of these new arrivals," Jacob stated regretfully. "Miranda, you got things handled here?"

Miranda nodded once. "Of course. I'll take them to my office."

EDI and Kaidan had joined Shepard's side, both of them watching Miranda. EDI looked thoughtfully, as she often did, to the "new" face. Kaidan, on the other hand, still wore a cautious expression. He wasted no time introducing himself to the self-proclaimed head of the facility.

"Miranda Lawson, was it?" Kaidan queried.

Miranda turned her attention to the Spectre. "That's right. And you're Major Kaidan Alenko. Second human Spectre, if my sources are accurate. Congratulations on the appointment."

"Thanks," Kaidan replied. He realized that he was still holding his rifle. He tried his best not to look sheepish as he slid the rifle onto his back.

Shepard looked to EDI and was opening his mouth to introduce her as the AI stepped forward and extended her hand. "Greetings, Ms. Lawson. I do not believe we have exchanged pleasantries since your departure from the Normandy's crew."

Miranda eyed EDI up and down slowly, her lips still curled into a smile. "I'd heard rumors about what became of the Coré Project. From one person designed to be perfect to another... you're looking good these days, EDI." Miranda slowly extended her hand, grasping and shaking that of the AI.

EDI smiled in amusement. "You appear aesthetically cohesive as well, Ms. Lawson."

As Shepard watched the greeting a green light began flashing on his omnitool. He glanced down to see a status report request from Bravo squad pending. "Hey Kaidan... I think Garrus might want to know that the situation is under control."

Kaidan shook his head and raised his omnitool. "Garrus, this is Kaidan. Call in Cortez to extract you three and bring you back to the ship."

"...What?" A clearly confused Garrus responded.

"We're not dealing with hostiles. I'll give you all a full debriefing back on the Normandy once we've got everything squared away."

"You said non-hostiles?"

"Yes..."

"Well... I'm glad Liara convinced me not to snipe this sentry sleeping on duty."

Shepard shook his head with a grin and raised his comm as well. "Pack it up, Vakarian. We'll see you three back on the Normandy."

"Acknowledged. Bravo out."

Miranda and EDI stood patiently watching the two Spectres as they cut their comm signals. Miranda gave a small smirk. "It's getting a bit muggy out, no? Why don't we head to my office and I'll try to answer any questions you might have for your investigation."

Without waiting for a response Miranda turned and began walking into the complex of buildings. Shepard and his squad quickly fell into file behind her. The compound was made up entirely of standard prefab units most often found on the frontier worlds. However, there was a distinct variety in the designs and placement of the units.

"Wait a second," Kaidan began. "How do you know we're here on an investigation?"

Miranda glanced back briefly. "Numerous reasons. The most significant being that I have a digital copy of the Spectre mission assignment that you accepted five days ago."

"How the hell do you have access to-"

Miranda stopped Kaidan mid-sentence. "Money. And with that comes virtually any information I need. I've even consulted with the Shadow Broker once or twice..."

Shepard pretended not to notice the comment. "It's only been... what... nine days since the Battle of Earth. Has all of this been constructed since then?"

Miranda lead the group into a courtyard, nodding in response to Shepard's question. "Pretty much. I've had the plans ready for much longer, of course. These prefab units are incredibly fast and easy to work with."

"I can't help but notice that most of them seem unoccupied..." Kaidan stated, leading Miranda on.

"Well of course. We only finished construction on this facility twenty hours ago," Miranda responded.

Miranda lead the group up a ramp and came to a stop at the door of a rather large unit. She tapped one button on the security panel and pressed her hand to the scanner. The door chimed as the light in the center turned green and slid apart, allowing the group to enter. The inside of the large prefab unit was as sleek and spacious as Cerberus could be. In the center of the room sat a long, metal desk, which Miranda immediately walked to. She rounded the desk and slid into the large, padded chair that sat behind the desk, nodding to the two chairs on the opposite side. As the door slid shut behind them Shepard turned to EDI. The AI smiled and held out her hand to one of the chairs.

"You may have the seat, Shepard. I will stand." EDI answered before Shepard could ask his question.

Kaidan and Shepard seated themselves across the desk from Miranda as EDI stood to the side of Shepard's chair with perfect posture.

"Nice office," Shepard commented as he observed the room.

"Hmm," Miranda acknowledged. "Thank you."

Miranda glanced to Kaidan before looking down to her desk and letting out a light sigh. "I was hoping the Council wouldn't have the resources to investigate my operation. At least not so soon. But if they had to send someone then I'm glad it was the Normandy."

"How long have you known we were coming?" Kaidan inquired, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Well we've known someone was coming for days. We didn't know it was you until we intercepted your comms after you landed." Miranda adjusted herself in her seat.

Shepard glanced back to EDI. "We weren't running on encrypted channels?"

Miranda injected before EDI could respond. "Of course you were. But I've got quite a bit of experience dealing with the Normandy's communication protocols. It only took a minute or two to crack the encryption." A cocky smile crept onto Miranda's lips.

Kaidan sat up, slightly irritated. "You couldn't have told us it was you?"

"I didn't know how far you would go," Miranda retorted. "There was a chance you might declare this place a non-threat and leave us be."

"Well you know what, Ms. Lawson, I'm not entirely convinced there isn't a threat here. What exactly are you doing here?" Kaidan was clearly ready to begin his investigation.

Miranda narrowed her eyes. "Fine."

She stood and turned to a large holo-projector behind her, entering a few commands. The screen blinked on, displaying what appeared to be a map of the compound.

"This place is... many things," Miranda began as she turned back to her guests. "The compound you're in now is barely more than a test for what is to come. But... I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably start from the beginning."

Kaidan and Shepard exchanged glances as Miranda spoke. "I've been laying these plans out since we took out Sanctuary and my father. I "inherited" quite a bit of money that day. A week or two later I learned that the Alliance had assaulted Cronos Station and I knew it would only be a matter of time before Cerberus collapsed. As their network digressed into chaos I gained access to their hidden accounts and froze them."

"I can't imagine that was easy. The Illusive Man always seemed to like his security tight," Shepard commented.

"He did," Miranda agreed. "But I knew far, far more about every aspect of Cerberus than the Illusive Man ever knew. And as a result I found that money would not be an obstacle for my plans."

"Which were?" EDI interrupted. The three humans glanced curiously at the AI to see her leaning forward in anticipation for Miranda to continue.

Miranda gave a slight smirk to the AI's curiosity. "I had known my father was up to no good with Sanctuary from the moment I learned of his involvement. It made me... sad. The idea of Sanctuary was a noble one; a place where refugees could escape the horrors of the Reapers and begin anew. And that, in short, is what this is."

"A refugee camp?" Kaidan asked.

"No, no. It's much more than that," Miranda answered with a soft smile. "It's a colony. A place where we can start to rebuild now that our galaxy is safe. We have virtually endless farmland beyond these hills mapped for settlement. This place, Compound Dawn, is really nothing more than a processing facility for the new colonists."

"That's... a noble endeavor," Kaidan admitted. "But why the secrecy?"

Miranda shook her head. "Multiple reasons. The most obvious being that, given their track record, the Council might be suspicious of a "colony" being funded by Cerberus. On top of that, with this operation kept secret, we can avoid a massive influx of refugees we simply can't handle..."

Shepard raised a brow as Miranda trailed off. "...And?"

"And..." Miranda closed her eyes. "I just want to do this my way. No interference from governments or bureaucrats. At least not until we're established and on our feet."

Kaidan shook his head slightly. "I'll admit I wasn't expecting to find something good here when this mission started."

Miranda took a seat and met both Spectre's eyes. "Look, I didn't mean to cause such a fuss with all of this. I was hoping everyone would be too busy cleaning up the Reapers to notice a relative trickle of credits from Cerberus's pockets."

Everyone remained silent for a few moments. Shepard glanced to Kaidan expectantly. The major sat silently, his eyes locked on Miranda as she met his gaze. Eventually Kaidan straightened up in his seat and took a deep breath.

"I think this might actually be a good idea, Ms. Lawson," Kaidan finally spoke.

Miranda's face lightened. "I... thank you. I wasn't expecting either of you to approve."

"Unfortunately the Council is going to want to know what we found here," Shepard reminded them.

"Exactly," Kaidan agreed.

Miranda pressed a finger thoughtfully to her lips. "You could report that you wiped out what you found."

"Which would work until they realized that you're still drawing funds from Cerberus. Even if you found a way to mask the transactions they would notice you once this place takes off," Shepard quickly noted.

Kaidan shrugged lightly. "I could... stay on Horizon for a little while. Tell them I need more time for my investigation."

Miranda shook her head. "You can't... you're a Spectre. You have responsibilities. I can't ask you to sit around doing nothing just because your report would interfere with my plans."

"Well... he doesn't have to sit around doing nothing," Shepard stated as both Miranda and Kaidan looked to him curiously. "Kaidan, if you're really that supportive of the idea why not lend a hand?"

"That's... an interesting proposition. But I don't even know the details here." Kaidan looked to Miranda.

Miranda brushed a lock of dark hair from her face. "I could give you a run-down of everything if you'd like-"

The door behind them chimed softly and slid apart as Miranda finished, causing the four to turn and see Jacob standing in the doorway. He nodded once and took a step into the office.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting..." Jacob started.

"Not at all. Actually, I was about to ask Shepard if he would like to look over the compound while I showed Spectre Alenko our long-term plans. Perhaps you could show him around?" Miranda glanced to Shepard for his response.

The commander nodded and stood without hesitation. "Sounds good to me."

Jacob smiled and crossed his arms. "I can manage that. Maybe Shepard can tell me all about this most recent time he saved all life in the galaxy. Ya know, catch up."

Shepard chuckled and turned back to EDI who had already taken Shepard's seat and was looking to the commander. "I will stay here, if that is alright with Miranda and Kaidan. I would like to learn more about this colony."

"Of course," Miranda said with a smile. "If anyone is going to find a technical or logistical flaw it's you. Why not?"

Shepard turned back to Jacob who motioned toward the door. "After you, Shepard. I can't wait to hear this one."

Author's Note

I've got a bit of a busy week coming up (moving half way across the country) so the next chapter might take a bit longer than usual. And now: sleep.