Road to nowhere, Arc 4 of "Gone with the Sun"
Chapter 45 Influence
Spin
Diane Allers: Commander Shepard. John. First, may I say welcome back.
John Shepard: Thank you Diana. It's as though I never went away.
Diane Allers: Speaking of which, I gather you weren't clinically dead this time.
John Shepard: There was the occasional dream, so I guess not.
Show and tell
Garrus still thought about improving security in the apartment, but Kahlee was concierge of the house, now. She had what amounted to a peppercorn lease from the executor of Anderson's estate.
This would ordinarily have made the executor liable for common-law breach of trust, but the executor (in his other capacity as Admiral of the Fleet) had organized for Kahlee to administer the place as lodgings for nominated fleet personnel. Her wages were easily offset by the contract income, with a suitable profit to the estate. This did mean she had to supervise 'suitable' media events, like this meet-the-galactic-hero show for the reporters.
The whole setup stank of Lawson scheming, but it seemed to fill a need.
Doctors
Diane Allers: What were you dreaming?
John Shepard: I can't remember much. Do you remember your dreams?
Diane Allers: Not often. It was worth asking. I won't intrude, then.
John Shepard: It's OK. I do recall one at the hospital, after the Cerberus coup.
Diane Allers: That sounds sad.
John Shepard: Mysterious, disconcerting, and usually unpleasant.
Diane Allers: Apparently, people don't usually remember dreams if they're not woken within a short time of having them.
John Shepard: My doctors thought they were coma dreams.
Si vis pacem
What a Kahlee-Châtelaine meant in practice was that man-traps and sentinel guns were a no-no. The most she'd unbent to allow was a hidden arms locker.
Given that inch, Garrus had taken a couple of miles. He and Jack reverently laid the second M-920 Cain and a Widow in their racks, taking care the power cells were safed. That done, they went down for chocolate (in Jack's case, with added whiskey).
This magic land
Sanders was shooing five of Jack's kids around like a mother hen, teaching the making of roux – a white sauce. Good reality vid stuff for Allers. Got ratings, odd that.
Al-Jilani had done an interview with Sanders in the room briefly shared with "Councilor Anderson". An oddly gentle interview. Fairly heartbreaking actually. Today the place was also occupied by himself, Lawson, Williams… and a bunch of other reporters.
Most wanted to know All About Shepard, but there were great big don't-go-there-yet warnings from the Council, the hierarchy and Hackett. So Garrus didn't, and they didn't.
Anderson had become a cult hero. So others, strangely, were there to find out all they could about the decoration of the apartment. How bizarre. Half the houses on Palaven had crumbled, and there was QEC bandwidth available to titillate with Citadel housing? Kahlee took care of them too, on special priority. Civilization had gone insane.
Mind you, Garrus had picked up some interesting vibes from the All-Turian Newsmaster syndicate's Modern Living reporter. Way too young for him. Vibes got stronger. He had thought Michel would kill him. Surely? Not her:
Get her a drink. Go on, you can both go to the Casino.
So he did, and they did. Mmm.
What's not was meant to be
Diane Allers: Have you been getting fan mail yet?
John Shepard: No. I don't think I have a public extranet account anymore.
Diane Allers: I suppose the old one was retired.
Hannah Shepard: Offline after the first ten terabytes. And that was just the text.
John Shepard: Apparently I have a military account but I've barely checked it since I woke a few days ago. For a while I could barely type. I had an assistant till yesterday.
Hannah Shepard: She's been reassigned. We'll get you a VI.
John Shepard: It won't be EDI.
Hannah Shepard: No. Cope.
Diane Allers: Um…
Hannah Shepard: The address? Depends. See me afterwards.
John Shepard: Er…
Hannah Shepard: Deal with it.
Diane Allers: About EDI…
Hannah Shepard: No.
End of the beginning
None of them were supposed to be here, but the frigates were stuck at the docks.
Mission timetables called for three of the Normandy class to fly the Cronos chain today. That was derailed by Kelly and Brynn popping a couple of days apart. So now, there was nothing to do, except play the casino or the arena. Fine for the crews but the Primarch had lined Garrus up for turian/asari/salarian social functions. Diplomatic duty, faugh.
The apartment also hosted the inevitable, if hollow, human party for Shepard and Jacob… Garrus had to be there, but the Admirals, Doctors, even Chambers and Brynn, were conspicuous by their absence after ten minutes.
A disgruntled Garrus felt like he was going around in circles. Miranda too seemed a little subdued on returning from Melbourne. Fairly chipper once it had been made known that John Shepard was expected on-scene when the frigates began sniffing around Pax and Anadius, but still a bit moody.
Williams, on the other hand, was exuberant. Diplomacy meant career brownie points.
Shepard, poor fool, remained stuck with reporters pending departure on Overlord for 'parts unknown.' Following advice from Hannah, first up was a terribly serious interview with Jilani about Thessia's fall, then his and Anderson's run through Vancouver, then another with Allers about… he wasn't sure what that had been about.
Spinning¹
Diane Allers: So you have other duties now?
John Shepard: I no longer command the Normandy. Time to pass the torch.
Diane Allers: To the other Spectre, right. You're retiring?
John Shepard: Not likely. Leave the service before my mother? Not a good look.
Diane Allers: I do believe that's an 'old-fashioned look' you're getting from your Mom.
John Shepard: Yeah. I'll pay for that later. Perhaps a short rest is in order.
Hannah Shepard: Glad to hear it.
A cripple taught me
Meanwhile, they all had to wait on T'Soni.
Pegasus equalled Joker's record coming back down the Nest chain when Liara heard Kelly had gone into labor. Bellerophon was being insufferably smug, despite not having her back quite in time for either the event or the party.
That set Garrus' teeth on edge. He still couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Chambers than had so far been broadcast. Yet, the Shadow Broker had no doubts at all.
Spinning²
Diane Allers: There's still a lot of fear out there.
John Shepard: Contrary to popular belief, the fate of the galaxy never depended on me.
Diane Allers: That's not what the the asari Councilor said. She speaks for many.
John Shepard: I've been privileged to know commandos, generals, and grunts – turians, salarians, krogan and asari as well as humans – who could have taken my place.
Diane Allers: But can they kill Reapers?
John Shepard: Yes. They covered themselves in glory at the London beam, bringing down the one blocking the way.
Diane Allers: You were there, though.
John Shepard: So was Anderson. Our armies have had practice now.
Diane Allers: And they knew you were there.
John Shepard: Look, the Reapers were defeated by a civilization, not by me, or Hackett, or the Council. You owe that to the teams we led, the ordinary citizens who toiled to give us the wherewithal to fight, the insight of the scientists and engineers who built the crucible and…
Hannah Shepard: Ahem.
Come dance along with me
Shepard hadn't been terribly happy about the prospect of leaving his family on what, orders aside, amounted to a treasure hunt. Garrus could relate. He himself had only been able to communicate by QEC text with his dad, who was taking that badly. If not for his sister's presence there, it would have been worse.
Chakwas had taken pains to make clear that Chambers would need rest and care, that she could do without him for some days; both Hannah and Chloe would be on scene. "Nothing to worry about, Shepard," she said. "Back in a week."
"Uh huh," said Williams. "Yeah, right," said Lawson. Garrus just snorted, Hmph.
It must have been hard, nonetheless. For the good of the Service, Shepard was torn away from his child. Scuttlebutt was, precisely this sort of thing was the cause of difficulties between Shepard and his girl.
Girl, not wife.
In point of fact, the father of Chambers' child had been dispatched on active duty six hours after his first child was born, sort of underscoring the point.
Garrus could sympathize; turian marital institutions in some ways resembled ancient Rome's, thoroughly monogamous. So bad things happened when military service separated partners. It could be complicated by property issues, perhaps. Was this situation like turian marriage? Just like in Roman times, especially if partners were of different citizenship tiers, their families argued over who got what.
Formal marriage could end badly through no fault by either partner in so many ways, of course. Even so: any other female in the galaxy would have grabbed Shepard with both hands.
Not Chambers – a suspicious non-event.
Chambers simply didn't seem to think Shepard was hers to grab. Property issues.
Spinning³
Diane Allers: So there are other superweapons?
John Shepard: Not a huge crucible. If you start thinking in such terms, you will go astray. Beyond that, I personally know very little and am not at liberty to discuss.
Diane Allers: But you have plans…
Hannah Shepard: Many plans. Much preparation. They are not the subject of this interview.
Diane Allers: It doesn't matter, Admiral. That you have plans is important, not what they are. Some assurance that Bekenstein, or Earth, or Palaven, or Thessia, won't happen again. Or, at least, that we can fight back.
John Shepard: Oh yes. That's what I've been trying to tell you. This time last year, there was a sort of paralysis of fear. Now there are heros walking among you with blood in their eye and an absolute conviction that they will prevail. That is what makes the difference. You will see.
Diane Allers: And there you have it, folks. Signing off now. Not from the Battlespace; here there is a little space for peace, for now. Good night, and good luck.
Guided by the master's hand
So far, the talking-head stuff was all about ongoing Reaper threats, and what Garrus considered an overly-dramatic documentary about the firing of the crucible (certain details elided).
None of Shepard's personal life had made it into the interviews. Yet. Which was odd, because at least two of the reporters most certainly knew the essential details.
It was surely only a matter of time before Shepard's mini-family hit the headlines. The extranet would explode. In Allers' case her silence was comprehensible. She almost counted as crew. Garrus still didn't know how Al-Jilani had been co-opted and didn't dare ask. Maybe she hadn't. It might come down to trust.
Liara had gone to see Chambers down in Melbourne, with Tevos, after communing with Shepard, Shepard's mother and Hackett. Garrus had thought of going but Hannah said later. The new mom really did need rest.
Garrus fervently hoped Kelly was on the side of the angels. Tevos, T'Soni, the Admirals? Who else has such friends?
With influence like that… and let's not forget Shepard, who might be fragile now, but one day…
Spirits, what kind of child would theirs be?
Next chapter: #46, "Field recovery"
Saturday, July 25, 2015