Chapter 24: Answers

Thessia

A shuttle approached the planet, inside was the Shadow Broker, Liara T'soni. She was going to the planet find the location of the prothean super weapon. While she looked for the weapon, the Alliance would continue to dig deep for more information on the weapon. The shuttle landed on the planet at the Athame Spaceport. She walked through the spaceport until she saw a dark blue asari in a yellow and white lab suit. She came up and shook her hand.

"Liara, it's been far too long" she said with a smile.

"Yes it has, Ahara" Liara said. Ahara Passante, was a former colleague of Liara, she graduated from the University of Thessia at the same time as she did. Ahara was amazingly brilliant, back when they were in school; they had a heated rivalry on who had the greatest knowledge on the Protheans which left some hurt feelings and even started some fist fights.

Nowadays, the rivalry has mostly cooled down as the two asari went their separate ways, Ahara was now a professor teaching at the University, while Liara was now the most infamous information broker in the galaxy, but she didn't need to know that. They took a shuttle and went to the Prothean archives in the Sarane district in Athame, the capital of Thessia. As they flying to the location, Liara looked out the window; the night sky of Thessia was beautiful as always. She remembered how looking at it used to give her relief especially when she was frustrated. Being the daughter of a Matriarch was not easy, especially when she one as respected as her mother Benezia, she often face with high expectations from everyone including her mother. That was why she got into archaeology, at first it was to get from under her mother's shadow, but then as dug deeper into the prothean's history she began to fall in love with their culture and began to truly embrace the science. Though it had caused a rift between her and her mother, something Liara regrets to this day…if she tried to understand her, would she still be here, could she have stopped Benezia from being corrupted by Saren? Liara would never know. Ahara spoke up.

"You're very quiet Liara, you okay?"

Liara snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh just thinking, about the past…"

"I see…do you ever miss it? The passionate discussions on the protheans?"

Liara chuckled. "Sometimes, back then things were so easier"

"You know, I can put in a recommendation, I'm sure the University would hire you" Ahara said. "Goddess know we could use more teachers as brilliant as you"

"Thank you, it's something to think about" She smiled sadly, Liara knew this could never be, teaching young minds was not for someone who had as much blood on her hands as she did. When they got there, the archives were under guard, but because it was night-time security would be lax. However, they still needed to be careful, prothean data caches were some of the most valuable in the galaxy, one intact data cache could shift the balance of power which was why they were guarded so aggressively. If they were found trespassing, it would end badly for the both of them. They made it to the archives, where Liara started to exam the data, she searched for a few hours but there was no info on the super weapon.

"So you never told me why you needed to see the Archives" Ahara said.

Liara looked back at her, she couldn't tell her she was looking for a super weapon capable of destroying a race of ancient genocidal machines, that would make her think Liara was crazy. "I'm writing a book on the protheans, and I was hoping for more information to fill my book"

Ahara chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like you, I'm glad…"

Liara raised a brow. "Why?"

The asari sighed. "There had been rumors, that you have sold information on the black market" she said. "But that's crazy, you would never do that…"

"Yeah…crazy…" If only she knew the type of things she had done in the name of killing the last Shadow Broker, things she won't even tell Shepherd. "Trust me I would never do those things"

"Well good, cause you're better than that" Ahara then thought hard. "If you're still looking for stuff for your book, why not try Kahje?"

"Kahje?" Liara asked.

"Yeah, the hanar dug up some ruins recently near one of the drell's domed cities" She said. "It was all over the news, they said it was the second coming of the Enkindlers, or some silly stuff like that"

Liara thought about it awhile, it was long run, but maybe they could find info on the weapon there. "Thank you, Ahara, I'll look in to this…"

Kahje

Kahje, the hanar home world, with 90% of its surface covered by a vast ocean known as the Encompassing, Kahje is permanently enveloped in a blanket of clouds created by the heat from its energetic white star. Beneath that cloud cover, the planet's land area consists solely of small islands. Kahje's atmosphere is perfect for life; while containing some traces of ammonia, it consists primarily of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, similar to that on Earth. Unfortunately, the climate has also proved too humid for the non-native drell, who were evacuated there from their own dying home world by the hanar two centuries earlier, and they have found it more tolerable to live in climate-controlled domed cities.

Kahje is also dotted with Prothean ruins, which has shaped the religion and society of the hanar. Mount Vassla, an underwater volcano, is at the heart of one of the largest Prothean ruins. The winners of the religious events of the hanar holiday of Nyahir (or "First Cresting Bloom") are inscribed in bioluminescence on the sides of the mountain for a year afterward. Liara travels to the dome city of Za Rakhana (New Rakhana) the largest dome city of the drell, as well as the oldest hoping to gain access to the newly unearthed Prothean ruin. As she got out of the shuttle, she met with a hanar official and his drell assistant.

"Ah, Dr. T'soni, welcome to Kahje this one is pleased to meet you" the hanar said. "This one is called Quina"

Liara nodded. "Yes, nice to meet you Quina, have you receive my request?"

"Indeed, but this one is afraid your request has been rejected…" Quina said. "The Illuminated Primacy, was quite clear that no one was to disturb the shrine" Liara frowned, if she couldn't get to the shrine then there was no chance to locate the super weapon. She did the next best thing, she bribed him.

"That's too bad, Mr. Quina, the organization I represent was willing to make a hefty contribution to the upcoming Cresting Bloom holiday" The drell assistant spoke up.

"If I may be so bold, sir, isn't generosity is an Enkindler virtue?" he asked. "If her contribution is generous enough, then maybe she should be allowed to see the shrine, at least briefly…"

"Yes, though no contribution would be enough for such a privilege" Liara said politely. After a pause, Quina spoke up.

"This one will allow this, if your contribution is large enough" the hanar said. "Quoyle?" The drell typed in the number that was inspected for Liara to pay and showed it to the asari. Liara looked at the number, and smirked, the amount was easy enough to pay thanks to the resources she had as the Shadow Broker.

"We expect your tithe soon" Quoyle said.

"Of course" She said. Liara and Quoyle took a submersible to get to the shrine; however what they didn't know was that they were being followed by a unknown submersible. As they approached the shrine, Liara looked out the window, she saw all sorts of life-forms swimming in the waters, some large and some small. For a planet of mostly water, it was quite beautiful, and it was a shame tourists couldn't visit more of the planet due to the hanar's strict laws regarding their shrines. The drell spoke up.

"We're approaching the shine, since this is your first time here, let me set some ground rules" Quoyle said. "The shrine is sacred to both my people and the hanar, so do not touch, if you do I cannot be responsible for what happens to you"

"They would really shoot me for just touching a prothean artifact?" Liara asked.

"The hanar, no, at worst they would scold you for defacing the Enkindler's shrine" Quoyle said. "My people however, would not think twice…"

The asari frowned. "That's a bit extreme…"

"Please understand, Dr. T'soni, my people owe the hanar their lives for saving us from our homeworld centuries ago, we are very loyal to them and a lot of us have adopted the hanar's religion as our own" the drell said. "And some are more fanatical than others…." As they saw the shrine in view, the submersible alarms started to sound off.

"What's going on?" Liara asked. Quoyle checked the radar and his eyes went wide.

"Goddess of oceans…we're being targeted, and there are torpedoes heading for us!"

Liara's seach for the super weapon have taken the turn for the dangerous, how will she get out of this? And who is attacking them?

Find out next time! As always Review and Comment!