Andrea lay back first on the bed in her quarters staring up at the ceiling, it had been two hours since the attack on the Shadow Broker base and Shepard was taking her and the rest of the crew to Tuchanka to pick up another Krogan, she on the other hand had more personal thoughts on her mind.
"Hey Andy, are you in here?" Jenny called out to Andrea using her much hated nickname from her youth, Andrea groaned and sat up.
"Aye, and didn't I tell you how much I hate that nickname." Andrea said using her biotics to grab a hairbrush, she started brushing her hair and the younger woman blinked.
"No need to get so snappy at me." Jenny said folding her arms. "You do know that it's dinner time right?"
"Not hungry." Andrea said dismissively as she finished straightening out her hair. "Why? Did Shepard send you to check up on me when he wasn't taunting you about your recently deceased boyfriend?"
"I'm not even going to respond to that." Jenny shook her head as she turned to leave the room. "I'll let Rupert know." Jenny said before leaving.
"Whatever." Andrea muttered under her breath as she grabbed her laptop in order to check for any news from Earth, she heard the door open again and groaned. "Jenny I thought I told you I wasn't hungry." Andrea said not bothering to look up.
"Do I look like an 18 year old Alliance soldier? Or even a human for that matter?" Drakus said making Andrea jump. "Sorry, just wanted to check up on ya, you haven't eaten since leaving the Shadow Broker base."
"You just noticed?" Andrea muttered sarcastically.
"Well you do eat a lot." Drakus pointed out.
"It's a side effect of being a biotic." She shrugged as she typed away at her laptop. "Besides you're a biotic yourself."
"Yeah but Krogans eat a lot regardless of whether or not they are biotics." Drakus pointed out. "You sure you're not hungry?"
"I'm as sure as Krogans are ugly...no offence." Andrea said brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"No offence taken." Drakus said with a shrug. "Andrea. I've known you almost as long as Jenny's known you, if you have something on your mind you can talk to me."
"It's personal Drakus, that's all I'm saying." Andrea said looking to the side. "And I've found what I was looking for, a list of humans successfully escorted from Earth since the Reaper invasion."
"You found that online?" Drakus asked confused.
"You can find most stuff online, if you know where to look." Andrea said before pausing. "Unfortunately that also applies to the more extreme versions of porno." Andrea added with a shudder.
"Point taken, so, if you don't mind me asking, whose name are you looking for?" Drakus asked and Andrea paused again, then she paled when she saw a name on the list. "You found what you where looking for."
"Aye, Elizabeth McKenzie." She nodded closing her laptop, Drakus blinked.
"Elizabeth? Isn't that your mother's name?" Drakus realized, he was the only person in the galaxy that Andrea trusted enough to talk openly about her mother.
"Yeah..." Andrea trailed off. "You know what? Screw it; I'll have something to eat." Drakus blinked at this.
"I know your mother's a touchy subject but why the sudden change of heart?" Drakus asked scratching his massive head.
"I'm hungry, is there an intergalactic law against that?" Andrea asked rhetorically. "Unless, of course, you finished all of it before the other crewmembers could eat the food."
"That was only one time!" Drakus asserted but by then Andrea had already left her quarters, by now most of the crew had returned to their stations save for Shepard, Ashley and Jenny, Andrea sat down next to Shepard and Rupert looked up at her.
"About damn time, what can I get ya?" Rupert asked Andrea who shrugged.
"Surprise me." Andrea said with a shrug and Rupert started searching through the food supplies for something for Andrea to eat.
"Is there something on your mind Andrea?" Shepard asked catching her by surprise, she blinked before shaking her head.
"Not much." She admitted. "Why do you ask?"
"You just seem distracted." Shepard pointed out, she shrugged her shoulders as Rupert started preparing something for her.
"It's nothing, really." Andrea said before thinking back to the conversation she had with Tali during the attack on the Shadow Broker base. "Okay there is something on my mind but it's not something I want to discuss in public."
"How about we discuss it after dinner then?" Shepard offered just as Rupert brought her food over, it wasn't much, just a plate of fries with some ketchup on the side but Andrea dug in regardless.
"Look Shepard, this isn't something I like discussing with people, hell the only other person who knows is Drakus and possibly Liara what with her being the Shadow Broker and all." She said once she swallowed one of the fries.
"I understand but it's not healthy to keep things like this bottled up, unless you want me to ask Liara about it..." Shepard started, Andrea sighed in resignation.
"Fine, we'll talk after dinner." She sighed, once she cleared the plate she waited for Shepard to finish and once he did she led Shepard to her quarters, once they were inside Andrea sat down on the bed. "I guess I should apologize for starters, I lied when I said that Jenny's brother got me into thievery, it's actually the opposite."
"That's it?" Shepard asked and Andrea shook her head. "So if Zach didn't get you into thievery, who did?"
"My mother that's who, she was a career criminal herself and when she found out that I had biotic talents she arranged for me to get biotic implants but she only did that because she thought that having a biotic on her side would help her with future robberies once I, alongside my biotics, had matured enough." Andrea said shaking her head; Shepard frowned when he realized just how bad that must've been for her.
"That can't of been easy for you, where is she now?" Shepard asked and it was Andrea's turn to frown.
"She's in Prison, serving a life sentence for murdering a store clerk during a botched robbery attempt." Andrea explained with a sigh. "I've hated her ever since." That part caught Shepard off guard.
"Wait, you hate your mother because she is serving a life sentence?" Shepard blinked. "There has to be more to it than that."
"Aye, you want to know how young I was when she was arrested." Andrea said but didn't give Shepard a chance to finish. "I was seven years old at the time, barely two weeks removed from my seventh birthday; her mistakes landed her in jail for the rest of her life and me in foster care for the rest of my childhood." Andrea said with rage clear in her voice.
"Where was your father during all this?" Shepard asked.
"Never met him, my mother raised me alone and never mentioned him, her closest family member was an aunt who lived on Horizon but her failing health, not to mention the distance from Earth to the colony." Andrea explained. "And no I was never adopted either, I was labelled a troublemaker by the orphanage's staff members, for good reason in hindsight, and prospective parents were worried about the stigma attached to adopting the child of a convicted murderer." Andrea added sensing Shepard's impending question.
"No offence but I'm not sure if I blame them or not." Shepard said and Andrea shook her head.
"Shepard, the only crimes I committed up to that point where petty crimes but that didn't matter to them." Andrea said shaking her head. "Any way you look at it its guilt by association and I was glad when I finally moved out of that dump."
"It couldn't off been that bad." Shepard said sitting down. "You still stayed there until you where to old to live there."
"That's only because I had nowhere else to go." Andrea shrugged. "The orphanage they stuck me in was the closest one to where I used to live which was pretty much my only request, and mistake in hindsight."
"Here's what I don't understand, despite all that you're surprisingly well adjusted." Shepard pointed out and Andrea laughed.
"Shepard, just because I was a petty thief with a murderer for a mum doesn't mean I was stupid, since my mother was more interested in stealing anything NOT tied down to actually raise her own daughter I pretty much raised myself, Jenny's parents helped and that was how I met Zach." Andrea said before shaking her head. "Basically Shepard the reason I'm so well adjusted despite all that is because I learned to look after myself."
"If you don't mind me asking why did the McKansa's help you?" Shepard asked, at that moment the door opened and Jenny entered catching the tail end of Shepard's sentence.
"Oh, err, sorry I didn't realize you two where..." Jenny trailed off clearly embarrassed, she started rubbing the back of her head. "If you want me to leave I'll do so, I was hoping to talk to Shepard anyway."
"What do you know Commander? Since breaking up with Ashley you've become a chick magnet." Andrea joked getting a laugh out of Shepard.
"Ha, ha, very funny, oh how hilarious." Jenny muttered sarcastically. "And you tell me to stop doing stand up comedy."
"We get it, you didn't like the joke." Andrea said rolling her eyes. "They basically helped me because they saw the writing on the wall so to speak."
"Meaning that my parents knew it was a matter of time before her mother did something stupid." Jenny interjected. "Sorry, I was just worried that Andrea would skirt around the issue."
"I've been brutally honest about my life throughout this conversation but thanks anyway." Andrea said bluntly, she stood up and went to leave. "Kid if you want to talk with Shepard knock yourself out, I'm going to see what Drakus is up too."
"Actually this may concern you as well." Andrea stopped in her tracks at Jenny's words and turned around. "More pacifically it's about Zach." Andrea blinked.
"First I'm willing to give my life story to Shepard and now you want to talk about your brother, did hell freeze over whilst I wasn't looking?" Andrea joked before sitting back down.
"Nah, day that happens is the day that the Krogan get a embassy on the Citadel." She responded before turning to Shepard. "You know something happened between me and Zach, well now you need to know the truth."
"I know he was a money grubber if that's what you mean." Shepard said folding his arms, Jenny blinked before shaking her head.
"That, whilst true, wasn't what I wanted to talk about." Jenny shook her head. "To say that I was being less than truthfull about Zach is a bit of an understatement, you already know the basics, namely the fact that a certain someone broke up with him before leaving for the Terminus Systems."
"How many damn times are you going to bring that up?" Andrea asked annoyed.
"About a million more times." Jenny shrugged before turning to Shepard. "He was never the same after that, when he wasn't arguing with my dad he was arguing with me, when he wasn't arguing with me he was arguing with Kate, when he wasn't arguing with Kate..."
"We get it, he liked to argue, where are you going with this?" Andrea cut her off.
"It came to a head after me, Sophie and Kate joined the Alliance, Zach hates the Alliance for what our grandfather went through we argued for days up until I was set to be sent to boot camp, I checked my account on the way over as dad had said that he put some money in our accounts for our first shore leave but..." Jenny started.
"Zach cleared them out didn't he?" Andrea interrupted, Jenny nodded but sighed.
"That's not the worse part, he left Earth to go to the Terminus Systems, and last I heard he had joined the Eclipse mercenary group and the group he's in has taken over a mining facility, using the workers there for slave labour." Jenny bit her lip. "Commander, I'd understand if this is a bit much to ask but could the Normandy go to the mining facility so I could try to talk some sense into him?"
"Send the coordinates to Joker; we'll get there as soon as we can." Shepard told her, the two women blinked in surprise as what the Commander said dawned on them.
"Seriously? Thanks Commander, I appreciate it, really." Jenny said as the surprise wore off, she left the room and Andrea turned to him.
"I didn't think you'd be willing to do that Shepard." Andrea commented once the door was closed. "You know, due to the attack on Earth and all."
"I understand your confusion." Shepard said folding his arms. "But I need the crew at their best for when we do return to Earth and if this mission secures Jenny's commitment then our chances against the Reapers will improve tenfold, besides those minors need our help." Shepard said as he started to leave.
"Wait, Shepard." Andrea called out to her Commander catching his attention. "Could I ask for a similar favour?"
"I'm all ears." Shepard said sitting back down again.
"You know how I mentioned earlier that I never met my father? I would like a chance to change that." Andrea said bluntly. "I've been chasing down leads it between jobs but it hasn't been easy and I'd ask Liara but..."
"I understand." Shepard nodded in understanding. "If nothing else asking Liara for help will point us in the right direction but since most of the data has been lost we won't get a definitive match."
"That's fine; I'd rather meet my father face to face anyway." Andrea said standing up, she followed Shepard out of her quarters and to Liara's quarters which she ended up sharing with Kasumi , now the room was one part Kasumi's quarters, one part Shadow Broker base, Kasumi, Tidoses and Feron were out of the room at the moment but Liara was hard at work at a terminal.
"Liara, you have a minute?" Shepard asked, the Asari looked up and saw the two humans and frowned.
"I wish I did Commander but reconstructing the lost data is easier said than done." Liara said.
"It won't take to long, it's just simple fact checking." Andrea said folding her arms.
"I see, I hope you realize that the information you want won't be complete." Liara said, Andrea nodded and Liara turned to the terminal. "What do you want to know?"
"I need you to check if any prison guards who served at this prison around the time that Elizabeth McKenzie was first arrested, in 2163 to be precise, who would now be old enough to be my dad, match this description and are still alive." Andrea said forwarding the relevant data to Liara's onmi-tool, she scanned the data and smiled.
"This should be easy enough; Earth is the one area of the Galaxy that I didn't lose any data on." Liara said typing in the relevant data. "There are three possible matches, one died from cancer around the time that Elizabeth was incarcerated, the other was killed in a car crash a week into her incarceration and the last..." Andrea bit her lip anticipating another dead end. "Is alive and quit his job after Elizabeth's release, he now serves as a C-Sec officer; however he changed his name before changing jobs for some reason and I don't know what his current alias is." Andrea sighed in relief.
"Good enough for me, what was his name before he changed his name?" Andrea asked, Liara checked the information again.
"Thomas Redmond." Liara said forwarding the data to Andrea's onmi-tool. "I hope the information is helpful Andrea."
"Yeah, I agree with you there." Andrea agreed after confirming that the information had been transferred. "Thanks Liara, this means a lot to me."
"I am glad I could help." Liara nodded.
"Andrea, would you mind giving us a few minutes?" Shepard asked, Andrea nodded and left the room, once the door was closed he turned to Liara. "How are you finding the new Normandy?" Shepard asked.
"Can I be perfectly honest with you? With the data lost in the crash it feels as if I'm back on Ilium chasing down leads, at least now I have you and the Shadow Broker agents in my employ to help me, as for the ship the crew members have been nice to me and it was good to see Drakus again." Liara confessed and Shepard blinked.
"Drakus did jobs for you in the past?" Shepard asked.
"I guess he forgot to mention that but yes, he briefly worked on Ilium a couple of years ago, I needed someone to get information on the Shadow Broker, he needed the work, it was a match made in Heaven, without the sex of course." Liara said as she typed away at the terminal.
"Did he get you the information you needed?" Shepard asked.
"That and a lot more, according to him he had a friend who was a Shadow Broker agent who owed him money; I offered to pay him more for the extra info but he declined, said that he was in it for battles rather than money." Liara said.
"And I still am." Drakus said as he entered. "Sorry Commander but I wanted to say hi to Liara, and ask a favour of you."
"Did you talk to Andrea or Jenny in the past five minutes?" Shepard asked, the old Krogan blinked in surprise.
"Actually no, I was talking to Grunt down in the engineering deck about his Rite of Passage, he said that you took him there as a favour before the Collector mission which made me think." Drakus said folding his arms. "You remember how I mentioned my son Hrasus and that he's in the Blood Pack? The Blood Pack base he was stationed on went silent whilst we were on the Shadow Broker's ship, that usually means one of two things, a rival merc group attacked the base or some of the local wildlife attacked them."
"The Blood Pack is mostly Krogan, why would the local wildlife attack them?" Shepard asked.
"The world he's stationed on is a lot like Tuchanka, minus the nuclear winters, several species have tried inhabiting the planet, Asari, Turian, Salarian, Batarian, Drell, and each and every time the local wildlife slaughtered them, eventually the council wised up and declared the area a No Fly zone, hasn't stopped merc gangs from setting up shop there though." Drakus said and Liara blinked.
"Usually when a planet's declared a No Fly zone they send a small fleet to form a blockade around the relay that leads to the planet, why haven't they tried it with that planet?" Liara asked.
"A valid point but I did some research into it, the council considers the relay to be too far out to be worth the trouble, and it's in the Terminus Systems to boot so..." Drakus started.
"They can't send a fleet there without starting a intergalactic war." Shepard interrupted.
"That's exactly right." Drakus nodded. "Joker already has the coordinates, just give the word Commander and you will have my loyalty."
"We will go there as soon as possible." Shepard nodded, Drakus grinned broadly at this.
"Thank you Shepard, personally I recommend bringing Grunt with us, the local wildlife might prove troublesome for someone like Jenny." Drakus said.
"That's a good point; I'll decide when we get there though." Shepard said Drakus turned on his heel and left the room satisfied with the outcome of the conversation, Shepard turned to Liara. "Sorry about that."
"It's not a problem Shepard, making sure that the new crew's minds are clear for the mission ahead is very important." Liara said with a nod. "As for Tidoses and Feron, I'm not sure if I saw a look as priceless as the look on Garrus' face when he realized Tidoses was a Spectre, other than that they are getting along well."
"That reminds me, how did you and Tidoses meet?" Shepard asked.
"I suppose that is a question worth answering, shortly after I became the Broker one of my agents was contacted by Tidoses, she was looking for information relevant to the mission given to her by the Council namely tracking down a Batarian slave ring that had kidnapped a Turian diplomat who was visiting a human colony that was attacked by the Batarians." Liara started. "Every lead the Council had given her had led to a dead end, out of desperation she contacted me through an agent, I was able to point her in the right direction and since then she has become a trusted agent, of both me and the council."
"I'm surprised that you're willing to work with a Spectre after what happened with Tela back on Ilium." Shepard pointed out.
"I admit that initially I had my doubts about working with her but if she did want to betray me she would've done so years ago." Liara said and Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know that for sure?" Shepard asked.
"Because those where he exact words when I told her about the incident with Tela and about my doubts about working with a Spectre." Liara said reassuringly. "Besides that I am trying to figure out who leaked the location of my former base to Cerberus."
"You think it's an inside job?" Shepard asked and Liara nodded.
"All the signs point in that direction, I have eliminated the possibility of someone on the ship its self being a double agent for two reasons: only my most trusted agents where allowed on the ship and before you arrived no shuttle left or boarded the ship." Liara explained. "Problem now is that I have operatives all over the galaxy to suspect."
"If you need any help let me know." Shepard instructed Liara.
"Off course I will Commander." Liara nodded and Shepard left the room, he was considering what to do next when Marcus approached him.
"Shepard, I'm not usually one to ask favours of people, especially since people usually ask favours of me, but I need your assistance with something." Marcus said.
"Did you happen to talk to Jenny, Andrea or Drakus in the past five minutes?" Shepard asked and Marcus raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, I talked to Jenny why do you ask?" Marcus said before shaking his head. "Never mind, it's about my son, he's fallen into a bit of trouble."
"What do you mean?" Shepard asked.
"He's always been talented at technology; unlike me I've always left that to the tech experts, but therein lay the problem, he's currently in love with a Quarian on the Citadel." Marcus said just as he heard footsteps behind him.
"And is there a problem with that?" Tali's voice rang out with a distinct tone of annoyance, Marcus sighed.
"I knew I should've asked to have this conversation in private." Marcus sighed. "I have nothing against Quarians Tali, just this particular Quarian, hey name's Reya'Dora nar Wera, I don't know much about her but I checked up on her with help from Feron, she has a pretty extensive criminal record on the Citadel, nothing major but definitely a bad influence on my son."
"Sounds like she's on Pilgrimage, if that's the case I'd like to come with you and do what I can to help her." Tali said and Marcus sighed.
"This is where things get complicated; Reya also has a bounty on her head, 50 thousand credits, with explicit instructions to not leave any witnesses." Marcus said causing Shepard to blink.
"They put a 50, 0000 bounty on a Quarian girl's head?" Shepard asked. "It sounds like she's in as much trouble as your son."
"Yeah, I'd like to go to the Citadel and make sure that they are both safe." Marcus said, Shepard nodded as did Tali.
"We were going there anyway in order to help out Andrea." Shepard said.
"Commander, we've just arrived at the Krogan DMZ." Joker called out over the PA, Shepard saw Drakus and Grunt walk by.
"Drakus, Grunt, I need you two to accompany me on this mission." Shepard called out to them, the two Krogan nodded. "I'll see you guys when I get back." Shepard told Tali and Marcus before entering the elevator with the two Krogan.