Chapter 29: Release

The team on board the Normandy watched as a ship escaped into the distance. Shepard thought about following the vessel in question, but didn't want to reveal their presence and had to wait until the teams were aboard. While he hoped for a positive report, he knew anything could have gone wrong.

Several minutes later, Taylor came on the communication system as their shuttle was preparing to launch, "The base is secure. The Krogans suffered two casualties."

Although saddened by the loss of the Krogan, Shepard was relieved none of his crew had been hurt and said with an upbeat voice, "Good job, Lieutenant."

With obvious sadness in his voice, Jacob said, "We're also bringing back one hostile casualty who was killed in action. Thane Krios."

With shock, the captain couldn't believe what he heard, "Thane was down there?" After asking his question, he quietly asked another, "He's dead?"

"Affirmative."

"Is the cause of death known?"

"He was shot by the Krogans. Whether he was fighting them or trying to escape, we do not know."

Wrex intervened and said, "The team had orders to shoot to kill, Shepard."

Imagining what could have happened, Shepard closed his eyes and bit back the pain. "Understood, Shepard out."

Having heard the news, Miranda came to Jared to see if he was okay. He held up a hand and said nothing, not wishing to talk about the situation.

When the strike team returned to the Normandy, having already secured the base, there was no celebration. Although the attack was an overwhelming success by any reasonable standard, everyone had lost someone important.

As they filed to gather below decks, the Krogan were mourning the loss of their two warriors. They had not expected to lose anyone, and to have them defeated in single combat was shocking. Their death was an honorable one in combat, and they would be celebrated. The bodies of their comrades carried in their arms, Shepard could see how they had been mangled before they left the flight deck.

While they were down there to begin their own remembrance, Wrex and Grunt emerged on the deck with Kasumi and Jacob. The latter two said nothing, but Grunt held the body of the dead Drell in his arms, hanging limply.

Speaking to Grunt first, he said, "You should be with your crew now and remember your friend. This is right." He lowered his head, and then bowed to Shepard.

"We'll talk later, Shepard," said Wrex, "but I have duties to do with my men."

Shepard nodded. The captain had nothing to say, but was shocked that Thane was there. Why was he fighting for the Blue Suns after his mysterious disappearance, and who had been with him? There were no answers, but only questions.

"Joker," he called out to the ship's pilot.

"Yes, Captain."

"Set course for Therum. We'll need to make a report there."

"Yes, sir," he said, his voice empty of the usual sarcasm he employed.

"Miranda, Jacob, Kasumi, and Grunt, let's go to the infirmary." He turned and didn't have to look back, because he knew everyone was following. He would get some answers first, and then the questions would follow.

Dr. Chakwas was already waiting for the team when they brought Krios into the operating area. Grunt laid the body gently on the table, and Shepard asked her, "Doctor, can you tell us anything about what happened?"

Looking at the body, she offered this initial analysis, "It looks like he died from internal bleeding. The wound in the chest would have been the killer, and he already had that lung infection."

"Thank you, Doctor," Shepard said. "Would you be kind enough to leave us for a few minutes?" Nodding her head, she accepted the dismissal without complaint.

Shepard looked at his crew and his friends and said to them, "After all these battles, we haven't lost anyone. I let myself believe this couldn't happen." He looked really distraught.

Miranda tried to comfort the Captain saying, "Thane left us, Jared. We don't have any clue as to our reasons, but he is responsible for what happened on Edolus."

Taylor agreed, "I liked the guy as much as anyone. We went through wars together. But it's not the same."

Shepard turned on them, "Being a member of this crew is more than just what uniform you wear or what assignment you follow. Even though they aren't here, Ash or Wrex would be just as much a part. Or Alenko, had he survived."

From all the places he expected he might find support, the surprising one who showed understanding was Grunt, "When we fight, we should always honor our dead. Whether they are our friend or our enemy, there is respect in having fought well."

"I have to believe Thane was doing what he was for a good reason," Shepard said to his officers. "He wasn't the type to simply leave without having a purpose."

"Okay, Captain," Lawson said as she tried to rationalize the situation. "What do you think could have been his purpose? Why would he join the Blue Suns?"

Shepard thought about the question more deeply. The Drell was a master assassin, trained to blend in and fit in any situation. If he joined the Suns, it made sense he was doing so to go after some target.

"Could he have joined because he needed to get close to someone?"

Taylor pointed out the problem, "But who? And why would he care?"

Slamming a fist on the desk, Jared let his frustration show and said, "I don't know. But I know one thing, it isn't like Thane to be seen. If he was shot, it was because he chose to show himself. Why?"

Although she had been silent during this entire exchange as she was not as close as the other team members, Kasumi offered her own view, "Thane was a man who answered to no one but himself. Perhaps he chose a mission no one else should have to undertake, and left quietly to do what must be done."

Miranda said, "It doesn't add up. Thane didn't kill those Krogan." She explained further, "Did you see how those bodies were twisted? A weapon doesn't do that sort of damage."

"She's right," said Jacob. "I've never seen a gun that can compress those thick hides into nothing without causing a body to go boom."

They didn't have the bodies of the Krogans before them, but all the crew members had seen how the armor had literally been used to push the life out of their bodies, collapsing on their forms like bread on two sides of a sandwich.

"They didn't die from shock," Shepard stated. "Something crushed them."

Jacob hesitated before offering a theory, but he said, "If a biotic was powerful enough, they might be able to do something like this. I've never seen it, but I've seen a lot of things for the first time when traveling with you."

Miranda looked at him, a view askance, and said, "I don't think it could be done. Biotics don't use their powers that way, and the amount of strength it would take would be absolutely incredible."

Jared looked at her and said, "But could it be done?"

"Can I collapse a can onto itself? Yes." She stopped and said, "But collapsing a body is different."

Miranda looked around the room and saw the others didn't understand. Explaining further, she said, "Each of your bodies has mass. I can throw that mass, or manipulate it, but to work on structures within a body that are connected is beyond anything I've done or was taught."

Realizing she didn't answer the question, Lawson added, "I don't think it was. But I can't see anything else that comes to mind either."

Shepard was connecting the dots with the earlier story he had heard from Grayson about his capture. He remembered the details about the powerful biotic who called herself Jack Normandy. She had been there on that planet, and she had killed these two Krogan, but why he didn't know.

Speaking to the crew members, he said, "Jack killed them. I don't know how, but it fits the earlier story. But we didn't know about Thane, and we still don't know why she was here."

When no one offered any objection, as each considered what they heard, Shepard added, "I don't know why she was here, but if Thane was with her, I'm sure she is angry now."

In fact, Jack was in her cabin drinking heavily. The crew had been thoughtful enough to load up the Batarian Ale while waiting for her arrival, and she appropriated a full keg for her use. As she took another drink, she cried and allowed herself to feel alone.

She had never realized how much Krios' presence had meant to her. He was the calming and reassuring hand that balanced her temper and her wild ambitions. He didn't question or threaten her, but he was there for support and had been someone to be counted on. In a life where she had never experienced that before, having someone who would take a bullet for her was a precious gift; a gift she didn't get the chance to truly know.

As she sit there drinking, hoping the alcohol would wipe away the blood not just on her uniform, but etched into her mind's eye, she felt numbness. Looking into a mirror, she looked at herself and saw just that, an empty body that was running from things but never to an ending.

A gentle knock came upon her door.

"What do you want?" she said.

"Ma'am, we've left the Sparta system, and we're now in a position in free space where we should be safe from any tracing. Do you have any instructions?"

Recognizing the voice as Lieutenant Richards, her first inclination was to tell him to get lost in the strongest of terms, but she didn't do that. Instead, she was silent for a few seconds, and walked to the door. She opened it, grabbed him by the neck, and pulled him into her office.

"Drink," she said and handed him a mug of his own.

"I don't know if I should," he stammered.

"That's an order," she screamed with fury in her eyes, and he took a long draught of the strong liquor.

"Richards," she said, "The best man I ever met died today."

He didn't say anything but paid close attention as she told her story.

"Thane and I have been through a lot together. We fought aliens you wouldn't even believe existed, saved worlds, and were ready to take something for our own. We had earned it."

She looked over at Richards with such an earnest expression that he couldn't help but nod. Jack took his hands in her own, and then let her head fall.

"I never knew him as well as I should have, Richards. Another chance I missed."

Not knowing what to say or do, the crew member decided to take another drink of the ale.

"Richards, I never even asked your first name," she confessed.

"Michael, sir," she told him.

"Mike," she replied, trying the name on for size. "I like it. I'm Jack."

"Linn and Garm died on Edolus. But I'm Jack Krios now."

She stopped and let a few tears show before this stranger whom she knew intimately in a few ways, and not at all in most. "He was like the father I never had."

"I'm sorry," said the lieutenant and he moved slowly toward her. Jack felt him wrap his arms around her and though a part of her was tempted to explode and push him off, she held back. She left herself be vulnerable, and let herself be open to the world. It could hurt her, but it wouldn't break her.

For a moment, the two remained close together saying nothing. Although Richards didn't understand the depths of her feeling, he knew enough to hold her tight, and give her the chance to release her emotions and the pain she was carrying. Her warm tears fell on his shoulder, and his arms held her tiny body close to his own.

"Thanks, Mike," she said. She removed herself from the embrace, and took a look around the room. "I'm a mess, aren't I?"

With a bit of swagger, he said, "I didn't see a thing, Captain."

She smiled with a hint of weariness, and then said, "Good. I suppose we can't just sit in space all day, can we?"

Opting for boldness, her pilot said, "We can stay here in this room longer if you like. The crew will follow you and so will I."

"Anywhere?" she asked. "I don't know where I would lead you."

"You'll figure it out," he said. "I'll leave you to get ready, and I'll be at the helm when you know where we are going." He stood and smiled at her. It was surprising to see him act like a gentleman under the circumstances, but his good intentions were cut short as a belch escaped from the potent ale.

Laughing despite herself, Jack could only watch as he blushed and walked out the door.

Feeling calmer now, her confidence was restored and Jack began to think about the future. She had a vessel that had proven itself spaceworthy along with a quality crew. Thane would want her to do something with this opportunity.

Jack didn't have the answers yet, but they would come. She could return to Omega and talk to her partner Zaeed. They understood each other, and he would want to know of what happened. Somehow, she doubted he'd be upset at the destruction of the Blue Suns base. There was a new beginning waiting.

In the back of her mind, Jack knew it wasn't so simply as that. She knew Zaeed might be a partner but would never be as close as Thane was to her. She knew they could establish themselves on Omega, but that the Reapers were still coming and there was a fight ahead. She knew she had been hurt before, and would be again, but she could handle it.

She walked onto the bridge, and asked the crew to assemble. She said to them, "Men, you did well out there today. I saw what happened in the command center, and none of our colleagues survived."

"I don't know how it happened, but the base was infiltrated by Krogan agents. They killed Commander Juxsun and they killed off the first mate before I could get even."

She could hear the crew whispering to each other about how strong she must be to accomplish such a fate against the hardy warriors. A few were disbelieving, but most were impressed.

"I also want to share who I am. My name is Jack. I have been hunted as a galactic outlaw for years for my biotic abilities. I didn't choose to be born this way, but everyone wanted to use me."

Her voice rising, she shared her soul with her crew, "I'm sick of being used. And I'm sick of being what others demand of me. I'm in this for me, and for you."

The crew nodded, but one Batarian asked the relevant question, "Who's going to pay us if the Suns don't?"

Jack looked at him, and then she said, "Every man on the crew gets a share. As for the Blue Suns, I will try to establish contact when it is safe and we will go from there. For now, we will go to Omega where I joined the group, and we'll see what direction we take from there."

The crew started to disperse, but she continued, "Wait. I want you to know you are my crew, and I will take care of you. I honestly don't know if that is with the Suns or not, but we survived this, and we made ourselves a little richer."

She knew she was acting a bit, but she understood the motivations of her crew and it gave her a glimpse into herself and a truth Thane had tried to teach her. Sometimes, there are causes greater than yourself, but they become that because you choose to care as much for their inherent value.

"What do you say, boys?" she asked as the spark came back into her voice

"Let's do it!" one shouted, and they all raised their arms in unison to cheer the suggestion.

Looking at the navigator who had a broad smile on his face, "Lieutenant Richards, take us to Omega,"

"Aye, ma'am," he said and went to follow his orders.

As the ship turned toward the mass relay, Jack went back to her office to have a conversation she had been needing to have for a very long time with herself. What did she want from this life?

Author's Note: Thanks to the reviewers. It keeps me writing, and I always enjoy your comments, observations, and questions.