Chapter 9: Trial

Kaiden had to wait for the shock to wear off, before speaking again. He was just chosen to be the second human spectre, with this he could with the coming war. But then he thought about Shepherd, as good as he was, he felt that he wasn't spectre material, Shepherd was there with he was say go for it. Being a spectre would be an honor, but it was an honor he was not sure he was ready for.

"I'm honored but I can't take it, I feel that I'm not ready" Kaiden said. The committee looked at each other.

"Why not? Explain" Tui said.

"I'm flattered that you consider me spectre material, but my skills don't come close to W…Commander Shepherd"

"Nonsense, we saw you in action when Saren attacked the citadel, you helped save the council" Udina said.

"Only because I had a good leader, without Shepherd I don't know if we could have stopped him on time" Kaiden said.

"We understand, but why don't you give it some thought and come back" Shriver said.

"Understood, thank you for your understanding" Kaiden said walking away, leaving only the committee and Udina.

"I told you it would not work, Udina" Alexandros said. "Alenko is too loyal to Shepherd"

Udina sighed and rubbed his face. "Yes…as much of a discipline case Shepherd is, he knows how to inspire loyalty"

"So what now? As long as Shepherd is considered the face of humanity and the Alliance, war with batarians is guaranteed" Tui said.

"Then we wait, we have the batarians report from the council, Shepherd can't possibly escape this"

"Be careful Udina, that's what they said about Torfan, and look what happened he became the first human spectre" Mutuku said bluntly.

"Unfortunately I remember, hopefully Alenko will wise up or he will fall with his precious leader" he said as his image faded.

The Trial Floor

Kaiden met back with the team, still thinking about the offer, he shook his head he needed to talk to Shepherd. When he got back the room was silent with someone talking, as he got close he saw it was the salarian that the Hegemony hired for their side. He looked at the jury, he couldn't tell what they were thinking, but chances are they disagreed with batraian's side. "How's Wayne?"

"Natalia and Boss are holding their own, but that lawyer the Hegemony hired is no slacker" Garrus said.

Shh! Wayne's side is up" Lia said. As the salarian got up, Natalia got up and faced the jury. They could tell she was experienced from the way she looked at them, no hesitation, good first start, but now they needed to know if she give a good argument in Shepherd's case. She cleared her throat.

"My opponent keeps saying my client is a terrorist" she started. "But your honor, look at my client's record, he has a proven track record of saving lives, remember what he did two years ago on…" The salarian stood up.

"Objection! His record has nothing to do with the travesty at Bahak!"

Natalia crossed her arms. "A travesty you keep perpetuating was the work of the Alliance and the Commander"

"The Hegemony had reports of a female human, within the system; the communication was deciphered as Alliance" the salarian said. "And after that, Shepherd's ship, the Normandy was seen exiting the system short before the Bahak system was destroyed"

"And how do we know that was Alliance and not them faking it, we all knew the attack on Elysium happened because clients faked an Alliance distress!"

The salarian narrowed his eyes. "That had nothing to do with my clients! They were criminals of the Hegemony" The team was impressed with Natalia's style, she riles up the persecution, getting them angry and the jury would see how unlikable they were. Before the salarian could say anything else, the gavel banged loudly.

"Order! We will take a thirty minute recess" the judge said. "Court is suspended until then" The crowds and jurors scattered for their break, some when to get some lunch, others were talking about the trial, and some were just wondering until the judge called them back in. Tali and team met with Shepherd, the spectre didn't seem all to phased by the trial, but they knew that this was only the beginning. The salarian was relentless, and they knew it wouldn't be long before he start to bring up his past and when that happens that's when the knives will come out.

Tali hugged Shepherd. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine" A voice spoke up.

"You sure? They were throwing some heat towards you way" The team looked back, it was Anderson. He was wearing a new admiral uniform instead of the business suit from when he was on the Council. Shepherd, Kaiden, and James all gave him a salute, Anderson raised his hand and they went at ease.

"Sir, when did you get here?" Shepherd asked.

"A few moments ago, I couldn't miss your trial" he said.

Shepherd lowered his head. "I'm sorry about what the council did…"

"Don't be, in fact I welcomed it, hearing those fools argue was grinding on my nerves anyway" Anderson said. "I'm just upset Udina was the one to take my place"

"Sir, I know you haven't seen him in so long, but we need to discuss the trial" Natalia said.

Anderson nodded. "I understand I need to talk someone anyway" he said. "I hope to talk to you soon"

"Me too, sir" Shepherd and the others walked away. Anderson looked up and saw Hackett on the balcony looking over the crowds. He went upstairs to meet with him.

During recess-Balcony

Hackett was looking at the crowds as they dispersed. He sighed, the Admiral was worried about the how well Shepherd's defense would be holding up, but it looked like they were doing fine. He hated that Shepherd had to take the fall, but it was good for the Alliance, he could only pray that his plan worked out. "So far so good…"

He then caught Anderson at the corner of his eye, shortly before leaving for Omega; Anderson had given Hackett a call on rejoining the Alliance. The high command was quick to get him in, and even gave him the rank of Admiral, unlike the committee high command was a huge supporter if Shepherd and Hackett had hope the admirals could sway things. He hated politics, most soldiers like him did, but in order help Shepherd, he was willing to get his hands dirty. "David" Anderson came and gave him a big punch to the face.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Anderson asked angrily. "I read the reports, what happened was an Alliance project, and yet Shepherd is getting the blame!"

Hackett rubbed his cheek. "I know, but I had to do it, if the galaxy got wind of Project Arrival, humanity could be indicted, meaning you would have kicked off with no replacement"

"And so you called Shepherd to clean up the mess, if it wasn't for the fact that it's the batarians, you could have ruined Shepherd's reputation"

"Yes and no"

"Stop playing games Steven, what the hell are you talking about?"

"It wasn't just to clean up our mess, the project had something to do with his own mission, a mission so important that he worked with terrorists"

"The reapers…"

Hackett nodded. "I read the mission report on the Normandy, Shepherd gave us time to prepare for the war, the reapers were planning on using Bahak's mass relay as back door into our galaxy" he said. "If it wasn't for Shepherd, we would be dying like dogs now"

"Okay, I get it, but I don't like using a friend as a scapegoat because of our mistakes" Anderson said.

"I know old friend neither do I…" The com broke through. A woman appeared. "What is it?"

"Sir, one of our scientists has found something on Mars, something …" she said. "It's Prothean"

Hackett and Anderson looked at each other/ "Prothean? What is it?"

"They don't know, it's unlike anything we have seen before, but they said it is a huge discovery"

"I'll be there, make preparation"

"Sir!" The image faded.

"Sounds important, what do you think it is?" Anderson asked.

"Hopefully, a new resource" Hackett said getting his coat. "I know he's like a son to you, but now he's the best chance we got"

"I know, that doesn't mean I have to like it"

Hackett nodded and walked away. "By the way, you still hit like a sissy" he said with a smirk. Anderson shook his head went to meet Shepherd.

Shepherd's room-during recess

"Wow, they asked you to be a spectre?" Kasumi asked. After discussing their plan for round two, Kaiden had told them about Udina's offer. The team was surprised, but they knew Kaiden was the best man for the job, even if Kaiden didn't believe it himself.

"Yeah, they did, but I don't know if I'm ready for it" Kaiden said.

"You kidding me, I've seen you in action Kaiden, trust me you're Spectre material" Shepherd said.

"You think I could do it?"

"Of course, you've yourself to be a capable leader, remember when I got poisoned by that Thorian creeper?"

"Not to mention, when helped me lead the team on the collector base, Boss is right you should do it" Garrus said. Kaiden looked around and they all gave him approving nods.

"Okay, since you think I can, I'll walk up and tell them" The door opened and Anderson walked through.

"What's up? I could hear you guys from down the hall" he said.

"Anderson, guess what? Kaiden was asked to join the spectres" James said. "Udina recommended him"

Anderson blinked. "Really?" Shepherd looked at him. "Congrats son, couldn't have happened to a better man"

Kaiden saluted. "Thank you sir"

"Guys, why don't you go and take your seats, I'll see you later"

"Okay Wayne" Tali and the others walked out, leaving Shepherd and Anderson.

"I take it you're not happy about this sir" Shepherd said.

"Kaiden is a hell of a soldier, the spectres would be lucky to have him" Anderson said.

"But?"

"I know Udina, hell worked with him; he doesn't do anything out of the goodness of his heart" he said. "There's always a catch with him"

The spectre frowned. "So what, we tell Kaiden to not take the offer because Udina may have some hidden plan" Shepherd said.

Anderson shook his head. "No, at the end of the day Kaiden is a good choice for the spectres, but tell him to watch his back" he said. "Politician isn't a Politician without a knife"

Mars-Prothean Archives

Mars, humanities first attempt at space colonization, it was during the building process that they found the Archives. It was then when humanity found out there was life on other planets, but more importantly it was the start of a new golden age for Humanity. They unlocked the secrets of the Archives, found secrets that jump-started their technology by two-hundred years which lead to the discovery of the Sol relay, the mass relay not far from Pluto. And from there spread to other systems, and the rest they say is history, nowadays the Alliance have restricted immigration to the planet to Alliance personal and the Archives have become the new Area 51. The shuttle landed inside the hanger, Hackett came out and met with the scientists that made a huge discovery. "Ah, admiral glad you made it"

They walked throughout the base, to the location of the main archives; many of the scientists were scrambling to unveil as much about their discovery as they could. "So how much of it have you recovered?" Hackett asked.

"Ten to twenty percent…it's so big that it's going to take a while for it to be fully revealed"

"We've been on this rock for decades, how are we just now finding it?"

"The archives have extremely advance security; some of us are still trying to access the data to this day"

"So what can you tell me about it?"

The scientist sighed. "Not much, all I can tell you is that it's Prothean, huge, powerful, something that big would need a huge power source" she said.

"A weapon of mass destruction?"

"Don't know, we barely know anything about prothean technology as it is, this is a brand new can of worms"

A powerful prothean device that no one could understand, there only one person for the job… "Then we'll need some help, call Dr. Liara T'Soni, she's an expert on everything prothean" Hackett said.

"Are you sure that's wise to bring in outside help sir?" the scientist asked.

"Dr. T'Soni is an old friend of Commander Shepherd, she helped him with his mission with Saren, and we can trust her"

Hagalaz

Liara was taking a nap, exhausted from searching for the reapers. Just then her information drone appeared in front of her, or rather the old broker's drone. It was created to assist the broker with a new data so they wouldn't get overwhelmed, it was god-send. She called the drone Glyph, since just calling information drone was simply too boring.

"What is it, Glyph?" she asked tiredly.

"You have a message incoming"

"From who?"

"Admiral Steven Hackett, of the Alliance" Liara sat up and the image appeared.

"Admiral, this is unexpected" she said. "How is Shepherd?"

"He's doing fine; so far the trial is going his way"

"He deserves better…"

"I know, but this not about Shepherd, this about the reapers" Hackett said.

"Did you find anything on them?"

Hackett shook his head. "No, but we did find something that could turn the tides"

Liara eyes went wide. "What?"

"Uploading data to your omni-tool" Liara took one look and fell back in her bed; this was something she had never seen before. Such a thing could help turn the tides in the upcoming war.

"Goddess, what is this? Where did you find this?"

"We hope you can tell us, when can you leave?" Hackett asked.

"I can leave now" Hackett nodded and his image faded. "Feron, I will be leaving for a while, you are in charge until I get back"

"Liara, what's going on?" he asked.

"Hope, we found hope"

What is this hope Liara is talking about? What other plans does the committee and Udina have for Shepherd and will this affect his trial?

Find out next time. As always Review and Comment.