CHAPTER TEN
Diversion
Brynja was standing casually at the command station when Kara arrived in the CIC. Next to her, Keyx leaned in close to the console, frowning absently and tapping the occasional control.
"Hey," she said, circling the station, so that she could see over the young officer's shoulder.
Turning her head, a smile spread quickly across the blond's narrow face. "Kara. We thought you should see this."
"Yes," Kara agreed, leaning in closer. The display showed a reconstruction and analysis of a modulated signal, quite weak. "So, what does it say?"
"It's an Alliance distress signal," Brynja said. "Just the standard message. It's coming from the second planet in the Sparta system, Edolus. There no record of an Alliance base out this far, but we do send irregular patrols through the area. It could also, um…"
"Yes?"
"… be a trap," the blond suggested. "The Alliance could've found out where we were going, and planted this signal to lead you into an ambush."
Misuse of a distress signal was a crime both in both Council and Alliance law, and a PR disaster if revealed. An ambitious captain might be foolish enough to think it a good idea, but no admiral would sign that order. "You think we should ignore it?"
Brynja hesitated, her narrow mouth approaching a frown. "No," she decided. "We should respond. You wouldn't hesitate if it were anyone else, and you shouldn't now. If we go in under stealth, I should be able to detect any Alliance ships well before they can spot us."
"Good thinking," Kara agreed. They did not have space for many passengers, if it came down to that, but it was important not to give her opponents anything to use against her. And if it was a trap, she preferred to know that, too. "Keyx, prepare a course for Edolus, using full stealth."
"Already done, sir," he replied, turning his attention towards her. "We can arrive less than ten hours."
A long time to be in distress, but the signal must have spent almost twenty hours traveling to have reached their current position, beyond Sparta's heliopause. "Good. Take us there."
"I'll scan the site as we approach," Brynja said, as the older officer contacted the helm, "but I might not be able to spot a trap. Be careful?"
"We will," Kara said, laying a hand on Brynja's shoulder. The young woman would be off duty by then, but could take on the extra duty if she wished. "Thanks for watching out for me."
"Always," Brynja smiled, her narrow eyes meeting Kara's for a lingering moment, before dropping. "I should get back to my post."
Kara nodded, and let her go, them made her own way back down to the training room. Kaidan and Liara facing each other in the practice ring, when she arrived. From the look of it, he hadn't trained in biotic martial arts. His side of the fight looked strangely awkward, barely blocking the asari's light blows, and nearly overextending when he tried to counterattack. She had seen him fight again several of the marines, and his usual style was at least competent, when he should have been able to beat them easily. Like most human biotics, the Alliance had trained him for a support role, not for the front line, focusing more on guns and heavy biotic fields.
It was a choice she didn't agree with. Kaidan had probably not even learned the level of control taught to any asari child, in part because the Alliance had turned to the turians, who did not allow biotics to serve in the general military. Either the asari or salarian militaries would have offered a better alternative; asari had the most experience and best technique, that closely matched what the human body was capable of, while the salarians had integrated biotics into the ranks of their military and intelligence services as a form of specialist.
With his present training, Kaidan was mostly helpless. He could spar well enough, making him at least an equal to Liara's physical abilities, and after his first fall he attempted to make use of his biotics, but in the clumsy way of a powerful force used against too agile a target. It delayed the asari's second victory, but not by much, and he ended up yielding for a second time in as many minutes.
"Kaidan," she said, interrupting him before he could start another round. He nodded respectfully at the asari, and withdrew from the ring.
"Captain?" he inquired, turning to see if one of the other marines would take his place. "Do you think she would teach me to fight like that?"
"Ask her," Kara suggested. Honestly, she suspected that Liara would be uncomfortable with the prospect, but the young asari could speak for herself. "I need you, Sayuri and Ehigha ready for a mission in about ten hours. We're responding to an Alliance distress call."
"Sir, I thought HQ issued standing orders for us to be brought in. Are you sure that's wise?"
"What would you have me do?" she inquired softly, echoing the same question asked in Therum's ruins. It was an unnecessary risk, from a purely utilitarian standpoint, though she had never heard him agree with that type of argument before.
"Sorry, sir," Kaidan said, lowering his face. "I just don't want to end up in an Alliance cell, waiting for my court martial."
"I know," Kara said. "We'll be careful. Make sure the others are prepared for an Alliance ambush."
Kaidan nodded, "Yes, Captain." He moved off, interrupting Sayuri's use of the VR firing range on his way out of the room.
Kara turned back to observing Liara. The asari had accepted a challenge from Aaron Handel, who had served under her aboard the Kyoto, more than two years ago. He was an electronics specialist, and not the bulkiest of soldiers, but his physical training was better than Kaidan's. It wasn't enough.
As the young man picked himself up for a third try, Kara met Wrex's gaze across the room. He could usually be found there, observing and training with the more gifted marines. She tilted her head in Liara's direction.
He gave her a short nod. "Out of my way, human," he ordered, shoving Aaron powerfully aside. He drew himself up to his full, intimidating height, and gestured for Liara to attack him.
The asari did not show any concern over this new challenge, meeting Wrex's gaze with determined concentration as they circled slowly. She tested his defenses casually, and ducked his retaliatory punch.
Kara had sparred with Wrex on several occasions, since their first fight on the Citadel, and beaten him each time. While he made no attempt to learn melée biotics, he had gotten better at anticipating her tactics.
Liara started out well, keeping in close to reduce his advantages of strength and reach, and dodging those blows she could not deflect. The previous rounds had worn her down, however, and her pace began to slow—something Wrex noted, and adjusted his tactics.
To her credit, Liara noticed, and began an offensive. For a moment, it looked as though she might knock the big krogan off his feet, but she made a single hasty mistake, and Wrex felled her with a single, heavy blow to her chest.
"Shepard?" Wrex asked, catching her eye again as the fallen asari left the ring.
She shook her head. Liara was approaching her anyway. "Kara. Can we talk?"
Kara nodded. "Follow me."
"This is an Armali blend," Liara said. She looked more relaxed already, sitting at Kara's desk and breathing in scented steam from a mug held under her nose.
Kara nodded. "I thought you might like something familiar."
"Thank you. I wish your crew was as kind."
"You'll have to give them time," Kara sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed. "They're not sure if they can trust you, and some of them have never met an asari before."
"What about you? You've studied with my people, haven't you?"
Kara shifted further back on the bed, until she could lean against the wall. That topic was too intimate to speak about, after so many years of keeping it secret. "Yes," she admitted. Denying it would do their relationship no good, though she was not prepared to say much more. Maybe that made it too many years.
"I thought as much," Liara said, her gaze drifted to her mug, and then to the room's interior wall. "There is something about you… casual grace, and… deportment… that reminds me of a matriarch. How old are you?"
"Twenty—" she almost said eight, but her birthday had passed, unmarked even by her, just as they were leaving the Citadel. "Twenty-nine."
At that age, Liara might have been entering the first stage of asari adulthood, known as the stage, a time to explore her interests and sexuality, learning to rely on herself and make her own decisions, somewhat analogous to a human's teenage years, but without the awkwardness, and most of the confusion. She was now one hundred and six, perhaps ten years into the second stage, which began with full sexual maturity. "Oh…" the asari muttered, her attention returning to her host. The walls were bare, anyway. "If I'm to work with you, Kara, I'd like to know more about you."
That was a good sign, actually, showing that Liara's initial flush of emotion had passed, and she had begun to look upon her situation with more caution. "Did you ask Sayuri?"
"Yes, but I don't think she's a reliable source."
"She likes to tell a good story," Kara agreed, sliding forward until she reached the edge of her bed. She could provide a more accurate narrative, of course, had she cared for talking about her career. Unfortunately, that didn't leave much to say. "I don't."
That was not sufficient, as Liara's disappointed frown proved. She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "I was born before first contact with the turians, on a cruiser patrolling space around the Arcturus system, and raised on Arcturus Station. I don't remember final construction work, or our brief conflict with the turians, but I do remember my first lesson about them. I was twelve, and I could tell they were supposed to be scary. Our instructor kept using words like 'imperialist' and 'communistic'. Why reduce your enemies to a set of stereotypes, if not to hide a more complex truth.
"That was my first moment of real engagement, and I set myself to finding out what they were really like. I studied their classics, and some cultural analyses by asari and salarian sources. I discovered, to my surprise, that they were not so different from us, and that the Alliance viewed them as our strongest competition for power and resources. Then, in the middle of my studies, the propaganda suddenly shifted towards the batarians."
"Ah. Of course," Liara nodded. The four-eyed humanoids had never been really engaged with the Council on a diplomatic level, and were also the favored antagonists of salarian government officials, which made them a perfect target for a new species that hoped to make its reputation as a military power.
"Anyway, I was only fifteen when I stowed away on a freighter bound for the Citadel. After that, I travelled Council space for almost six years, and I gained some important insights, and some useful skills, before I finally returned home." She missed those days, sometimes. The feeling that everything around her was new and unfamiliar, filled by alien life and alien lives. She had no responsibilities other than following her instincts, to meet and to learn, rarely even worried about food, or the night's shelter.
Liara released an envious sigh—that was a stereotypical description of an asari's life, at her age, what human's knew as the 'maiden' stage of their lives. "I can hardly imagine what that would be like. I've always been more comfortable reading research papers than with people." She smiled faintly, almost sadly.
"Or on a solitary expedition to a remote world," Kara suggested. "Not many asari would volunteer for that."
"No." Not many humans would, either—they were both social species, poorly adapted to spending long periods of time alone. Still, regret lingered in her voice.
Had the situation been different, Kara might have offered some flirtatious encouragement, but that wasn't an option. "Sometimes, Liara, I regret my years with the Alliance. I don't know anymore what I thought to accomplish when I joined, but I'm here as a consequence of that choice, with a chance to make a difference in the galaxy."
"You don't even know what Saren intends," Liara pointed out, though her smile seemed less forced.
"Are you sure that's what I meant?" Kara responded. Saren and his goals aside, her split with the Alliance had not been without effect.
The asari shook her head, not truly in response to Kara's question. "Would you be willing to tell me a little about your people?" she asked, shifting position slightly, as if to mark the change of topic. "I tried looking through your cultural database, but I don't really know where to start…"
"The Normandy's on final approach, sir," Sayuri said, suited up and safely strapped into the Mako's driver's seat. "Commander Demas reports isolating a landing site, about half a klick from the transmitter."
"Good," Kara replied, checking the position on the central console, fed with data from the Normandy's sensors. He had a chosen a recent impact crater, flat and clear for about twice the recommended safety margin of a hundred meters squared. "Send confirmation, and prepare to drop."
"Aye, sir," the marine said. "Two minutes."
"Anything further to report, Brynja?" Kara asked, as she stepped through into the rear compartment.
"No activity," the blond's voice soft reported. "There's an M29 just a few meters from the transmitter. It looks as though it was cracked open by an impact, though it's hard to say for certain. There are bodies scattered about the site. Parts of bodies."
That sounded like a mess. "You believe the signal is genuine?"
"Yes, but something still isn't right. I can't see any tracks, or any other signs of an attacker, but no survivors, either. Kara—"
"We'll be careful," Kara interrupted, smiling to herself despite the situation.
"Good. Ásdísdottír out."
Kara sighed, securing her straps as Sayuri called out thirty seconds to drop. She did not feel as comfortable as Brynja with dismissing the situation. The M29 Grizzly was still common enough aboard the fleet—it was more a question of why they were on Edolus, and why their parent ship had not rescued them.
"… Three… two… one…"
The Normandy's magnetic accelerator ejected them rapidly from the cargo bay. She felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, briefly, before the mass effect field activated, and the barely-audible roar of thrusters reducing their surface velocity and descent speed. In less than fifteen seconds, they had landed with scarcely a jolt.
"We're down, sir," Sayuri declared, rightfully proud of a well-executed maneuver.
"Use you're own judgement as to speed, Sayuri," Kara ordered. "Just take the last half-kilometer slow, and watch for any surprises."
"I hear that," Sayuri said, grinning over her shoulder.
Kara laughed softly and shook her head, but the Sergeant had already turned back to her controls. Some people were-to her mind-inexplicably fond of speed.
"You and Ensign Ásdísdottír seem to be getting on well, sir," Ehigha said, from his spot beside her, as they accelerated rapidly forward.
"What of it?" Kara demanded, turning to face him. She was almost grateful for something to focus on, other than rocks and hills that flashed past on the digital viewports.
"Nothing," Ehigha replied, looking amused at her response. "I just mean, you have a history of cutting yourself off from the people around you. That kind of isolation isn't good for anyone."
"That's my business," Kara said, hardly aware that her voice had dropped to a whisper.
"Yes, sir!" Ehigha snapped, a sharp, disciplined tone that filled the compartment, and left an uncomfortable silence in its wake.
Kara closed her eyes and breathed deeply. The flash of anger had already passed. The Alliance had forced her to see a therapist after Elysium, when it began obvious even to her superiors that she had not escaped unscathed. She sat through three sessions without saying much of anything, while he babbled on about PTSD and the need to deal with the trauma, before he finally pronounced her fit, as much to be rid of her as anything. "Your job is to see to the health of the crew, Lieutenant. I can take care of myself."
Thankfully, Ehigha declined to say more, and the Mako soon rolled to halt next to a rock outcropping. "This is it, sir," the Sayuri declared, releasing her restraints and turning. "The site is about fifty meters ahead."
"Good," Kara replied. "Kaidan and Ehigha, with me. Sayuri, you'll stay here. Be prepared to pick us up if anything goes wrong. Helmets, everyone."
She slid her own helmet over her head, fixing it in place and checking the seals. The internal HUD flared to life; everything checked out, including the status indicators for her team.
That done, she pulled the latch on the side hatch, and climbed out after it lifted open. Edolus had an atmospheric density of about .8 standard, and, as usual for a barren world, no appreciable oxygen content. Abrasive silicate particles swirled in the dry wind. She drew her pistol, and led the way forward.
The scene appeared just as Brynja described it. The terrain descended into a shallow valley, possibly an old impact crater. Near the center, scattered bodies, some of them torn apart, surrounded the broken wreck of a Grizzly heavy tank. The constant wind had scoured and signs of activity from the ground, though dark bloodstains were visible in places, around from the half-buried corpses.
"Ehigha, see if you can't find out what killed them," Kara ordered, approaching the Grizzly herself. She put her weapon away as she looked inside, and switched on her helmet light.
"Yes, sir."
She pulled herself up, and dropped in through the gap. It didn't look like damage from heavy cannon fire. The opening was too big, and the edges were shorn apart, not blasted open. It didn't match anything she'd seen before.
She settled into the driver's seat, and attempted to start the onboard systems. The control lines to the generator were cut, but the computer started on battery backup. She linked in her omnitool, and uploaded the mission logs, before playing back the last.
A man in armor, with lieutenant's stripes on his shoulders, appeared on the main display. The time that flashed in the corner was over thirty-six hours ago. "We followed the distress beacon as ordered, but found no one," the recorded officer said. "Now half my men are dead, and the M29 disabled. Someone planted that beacon to lure us onto a thresher maw nest. I can only hope that if Shepard does show up, that traitor'll suffer the same fate we did."
His eyes, barely visible through his helmet's faceplate, were terrified. No wonder, when faced with a legend. "Ehigha, get back to the Mako. Tell Sayuri there's a thresher maw."
"Sir, did you say—"
"I did. Walk, Lieutenant. I'd rather we didn't disturb it. Kaidan, shut down that transmitter and pack it up. We're taking it with us."
"Got it, sir."
At least she knew why the parent ship had not responded to the distress call. It would be nearby, though, and would likely respond when the signal shut down. "Normandy, this is Shepard. There is an Alliance presence in-system. They will shortly know we're here. Prepare for immediate pickup."
Turning her attention back to the Grizzly's controls, she set its built in transmitter to send a warning about the thresher maw. Hopefully, the captain would listen, though she had her doubts; officially, the Alliance did not acknowledge the existence of such creatures. She could understand why, with their description drawn from a sadly ubiquitous presence in old science fiction; the beast that could live in any environment, from garden worlds to barren moons, moving through dirt and rock as easily as people did air. They might have seemed like a hazing ritual, a joke told by the older races to make the newcomers squirm, but she had heard the rumors confirmed by people she trusted. "Ma'am?"
"Just get here, and don't land the ship until—"
The ground shook, ominously, cutting her off. She leapt clear of the vehicle just as the giant beast burst from the ground beneath it, crushing the multi-tonne armored vehicle in its jaws. So much for her warning. Were footsteps all it took to attract them, or had it been something else? Deliberate, as the dead marine lieutenant had claimed?
The thresher maw shuddered, and roared, the vibrations shaking the ground, as it searched for its next meal. Locating Ehigha, it spat a blob of acidic ooze at him. Though still shocked by the creature's arrival, the attack drove him into action. He jumped out of the way, quickly regaining his feed and running towards the Mako.
"Sayuri, pick up Ehigha and get him on that turret," Kara ordered.
With another roar, that downed out the driver's acknowledgment, the thresher sank back into the sand. The ground trembled as it moved, out of sight. She tried to judge its direction, without success, and it burst forth behind her, not ten meters away. She threw herself aside, out of the path of a second burst of corrosive saliva. Her right side still caught the edge, her armor smoking and bubbling where the thick, greenish liquid struck. In the current atmosphere, a suit breach wouldn't be immediately deadly.
Kara didn't have time to recover, before the creature struck again. As the beast's round mouth approached her, she summoned all her strength, and tried desperately to manipulate it with a biotic field. With a mass that probably exceeded fifty tonnes, she wondered if it even noticed her efforts.
The thresher shuddered, and reared up. Kara was not certain why until a second round hit it, fired from the Mako's turret. Roaring in pain and bleeding yellow fluid, it retreated underground.
Kara pushed to her feet. The movement tore the weakened material of her suit, and the pressure warning flashing in the corner of her eye. She could see a faint stream of condensing moisture coming from near the elbow joint, as escaping air dispersed into the cold atmosphere.
"Kaidan, grab that transmitter, and let's go," she ordered, rushing over to him. He had yet to put away his pistol, though small arms were unlikely to harm something the size of an adult Thresher Maw. "Now, Lieutenant."
Of course, it was too late. The thresher burst out of the ground half a meter from the Mako, and only Sayuri's driving kept the vehicle from flipping over, as she swerved hard to avoid it. The heavy cannon fired repeatedly, doing only minor damage.
They didn't have time to waste, and not just because she was leaking oxygen. "Normandy, this is Shepard. What's your distance?"
"Five kilometers south, ma'am. Are you ready for pickup?"
The Thresher had retreated back underground, but she didn't believe it would stay gone. "I need you to finish off a thresher maw, first. Put Garrus on Tactical, and get over here. Hurry."
"Yes, ma'am," Keyx acknowledged.
The Mako skidded to a halt only a meter away. Kara opened the hatch, as Kaidan lifted the transmitter. He had only just climbed in with the device when the ground began to shake again. "Sayuri, go," Kara ordered.
The Mako sped off, with Kaidan barely clinging on as he struggled to close the hatch. Kara ran in the opposite direction. The Thresher Maw burst out of the ground where she had stood just a moment before, the force of its eruption throwing her three meters at least.
Thankfully, her armor absorbed most of the impact, though the chestplate cracked where the acid had weaken it. She rolled over, only to find the Thresher Maw looming over her, preparing for a final strike.
With the roar of atmospheric thrusters, the Normandy appeared overhead. The creature paused, attempting to assess the new arrival with whatever intelligence it had. Kara picked herself up and ran.
The Normandy's main guns fired, the shockwave from the hyper-accelerated shell throwing her to the ground. She rolled over, just in time to see the beast, a part of its side missing in a haze of dark blood and ripped flesh, shudder and collapse heavily.
Kara took a deep breath, checked that she hadn't lost her sidearm, and began to limp towards the where the Normandy had already started to land.
Note: Ah, yet more words. This chapter takes eight hours more than it did, as I felt that I had allowed insufficient distance from the system. Kara is a bit more secretive in her conversation with Liara, which is, I think, more proper.
Thanks for reading, and leave a review.