Moon base was a little different to his last visit, hastily erected air seals dotted the landscape. He was a little surprised by the salute he got, but being in a frontal assault on a reaper had a way of gaining respect. 'Sir, glad you could make it Sir.' Garrus nodded at her. 'Please, come stand behind the one way glass, so we can show you what we've found.'
He looked around, he could see blinking lights from a structure in the middle of the room. 'You keep it in the dark?' He asked.
'She… sleeps when it is dark.' The scientist told him hesitantly. 'We thought it was best to keep her in a day night cycle. James, would you go in and demonstrate for us?' The soldier frowned at that and then nodded.
He walked into the room and the lights went up a little, Garrus had been expecting something like this but it didn't stop the faint growl that came into the back of his throat. The cables were the first things he noticed, pushed through her skin at the location of her implants, more cables held the body to the machine behind it. It took him a moment to recognise the blood, red blood was still difficult for him to react to because the colour didn't mean the same thing to him as it did to the humans. It was thick and dark, a wound that had been left for a long time and wouldn't heal. There were scars running down her arms, burn marks if he had his guess. Long hair was pushed aside by the cables but still a sign that normal biological processes were maintained. He wondered how her body was getting nutrients.
'Morning Lola.' The eyes snapped open, glowing bright red as the thing that had been Shepard stared at the man. 'How you doing this morning?'
'This unit is operating within parameters.' Garrus felt his heart clench, it was her voice, smooth and deep but devoid of emotion.
'Good to hear, you recognise me?' He asked.
'You are James, former marine, currently with N7 training.' Her eyes stared and Garrus could feel the void inside them.
'And how do you know that?' He asked.
'I see everything.' She looked at him.
'Tell me how to make a mass relay.' Garrus started physically when her head slammed back and she began to speak, technical specifications flowing from her lips and images being traced in light in front of her.
'What is that light?' He asked the scientist.
'She's using a mass effect field to create an image.'
'Of how to make a mass relay?' He asked incredulously. 'That's what the cables are for.' He stated after a moments thought. 'They hook up to her brain, transmit the information.
'Yes, Sir.'
'And what do you want from me?' He asked.
'We want you to get her out of there, sir.'
It had taken four days for her to finish describing every facet of making a mass relay and in that time Garrus had learnt that she had been picked out of the rubble of the Citadel like this not a week after the explosion. He had watched her talk about science that, not only she had not known, but it wasn't known to anyone else either. They had asked her questions, learnt how to recreate the mass relays, learnt about worlds they had never known, ancient civilisations before the Protheans that had died out.
And now they wanted their hero out.
Garrus wasn't sure what to make of that. 'What was her first meeting with you like?' He asked James.
'Eerie. She's able to talk with you about the past as if it happened to someone else. But she can't separate herself from the machine. They're in her implants.' Garrus frowned.
'Those can be removed, they were there to force her body into life, she's alive. Once we've separated her mind from the machine we can remove them.' The scientist said to him and he nodded at that.
'We're hoping you'll get under her skin. So to speak.' James grinned.
'How did her meeting with Kaidan go?' He asked after a moment.
'Here, we can play you the video.' The scientist, Garrus would have to find out her name at some point, he decided, went through the computer next to them and pulled up a video file, one image on the room, one centered on Shepard's face. The length of her hair told Garrus that this was some time ago.
Kaidan walked towards the machine and paused wordlessly, Garrus understood the eternity of thought that must be on his mind. 'Hello Shepard.' He said in the gravelly voice that spoke of longing. Kaidan had been with her first and whilst he trusted Shepard with everything he still found a small pang of jealousy when the biotic followed her around like a puppy. 'Do you know who I am?'
Garrus watched her face, the red glow flicking down and pausing, he had gotten used to her face, the small wrinkle in her forehead spoke volumes to him. 'You are Kaidan Alenko. Biotic and second human spectre.' She said, smooth and emotionless, but her eyelids didn't move for a second too long.
'Who was the first human spectre?' He asked.
'This unit was known by that designation.' Kaidan paused and moved out of the cameras eyeline before walking slowly back in.
'Do you remember what happened the night before Ilos?' He asked and Garrus frowned, everyone on the ship knew what happened the night before Ilos, trust Kaidan to focus on that part of their relationship like it was special. James touched his shoulder and Garrus looked up, shaking his head, it wasn't the sex that bothered him, just the idea that the relationship was only about the sex, or the sex was the highlight of it.
'You had sex with this unit.' Garrus almost chuckled at the dispassionate way she said it, Kaidan must have found that statement hard. So hard that he didn't say anything for a long time.
'Turn it off.' Garrus said after a moment. 'Got to feel for him.' He stood up. 'Okay I think I have my game plan. Anyone got a chair?' He asked unholstering his sniper rifle.
'You're not going to shoot her?' The woman asked with large eyes.
'Not today.' He said simply, because he knew that if he couldn't get through to her then she wouldn't want to live like this.
He sat down in the chair in front of her and looked up into her face for a moment, she was asleep, the soft lighting barely touching her. Wordlessly he went back to tuning the scope on his gun as the lights came up. He could see her body shift as she woke up and felt her eyes on him, when she wasn't spouting schematics she followed any organic in the room, they had proved this theory with a puppy and combat drone. After he had finished with the scope he looked through the sights for the moment and lay it across his knees, looking up into her eyes. 'Good morning, Shepard.' He said and waited, her eyebrows shifted slightly, recognition, he decided. 'It's been a long time. Ten months in fact since we spoke on Earth. I've been thinking about that baby idea, maybe one of each, one Turian, one human, what do you say?' He noticed the flashing lights that seemed to come on when she was responding to someone, but she'd not said a word. 'Well it was a thought, I figured we could annoy the government a little by naming the Turian Shepard and the Human Vakarian. That would annoy them don't you think?'
She paused, watching him carefully. 'Politicians are never pleased.' She said and it was a start.
'I don't know about that. I was thinking that you could teach them how to shoot a gun and I could teach them how to shoot properly.' He grinned up at her. 'Actually that was something I always wanted to know, that time on the citadel did you miss on purpose?' There, deliberately vague, but his Shepard would know what he meant.
'I did.' Garrus grinned faintly.
'I wondered about that, we're going to need a rematch you know?' He had promised to talk about the future, allowing himself to dream for a little while. 'Maybe after we buy that beachfront property. There's a little island I know about, I say know about, Normandy crashed there, but it's beautiful, I think you'd like it. You want to come with me sometime?' He asked and the lights began to flash more heavily.
'I do.' She said.
'Well maybe I can get some pictures of the island, Tali spent most of the days we were marooned there taking some vids, I'll tap her for them tonight. She's going to wonder why I'm on the moon of course, she's still waiting for transport to go home, afraid that someone else is going to take her place on Rannoch.' He smiled softly at her. 'But then I'm not sure the reaper crater looked that attractive. Tell you what, I'll go and get that sorted out, I've got other things to talk to you about, but later.' He stood up, crossing the gap in a stride before reaching up and stroking her cheek softly. 'Good night, Shepard.'
He walked out of the room feeling her eyes on him until the door shut and he joined the scientists who were watching him speechlessly. James looked at him with a grin and then nodded. 'Yes, talking as if you have a future, you forget how many respond to that.'
'Well asking to remember didn't work, recall is not thought.' Garrus said simply. 'It's going to be a long road, but I think we can get her.' He said after a moment. 'So long as no one asks her questions about her past or how to build mass relays.'
'I will send a memo.' The scientist said and Garrus shook his head. 'No need really, the only people going in that room are to be people she has a connection with.'
'You can't really make that order Sir.' She said hesitantly.
'But I can.' James said. 'She's now on restricted access, no one without security clearance can go in there. I'll clear it with Admiral Hackett, Garrus.' He said. 'So, you need a bed in there too?' He smirked. 'Or just something to calibrate?'