X57 - a giant rock in space, twenty-two kilometres long, twice the size of the asteroid that had wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth and orbited by two smaller rocks and a red dust cloud. Originally set to be brought into an orbit around Terra Nova by using fusion torches, it was now on a straight impact course, as batarian extremists had taken over and reprogrammed the fusion torches. Such a huge asteroid, artificially accelerated, would kill the entire colony on Terra Nova, four million people, and for good measure practically wipe out the planetary ecosphere, too. Shepard was not about to let that happen. His squad had already disabled one torch, and now the Mako was nearing the second one.
In a way it was almost funny. Elysium, Eden Prime... and now, if Shepard could pull this off, Terra Nova. The three largest human colonies saved by him, if he managed to defeat the batarians. And if not, then he would perish on this asteroid anyway - he would either save the planet or die trying. However, at the moment Shepard could not quite appreciate the situation: With four million lives on the line he was too focused on the mission, too determined to save the colony.
Simon Atwell, the chief engineer of the operation, had warned them about blast caps around the second furch station. Originally he had set them up to excavate the area, but now they served as defence measure for the batarians. And as it turned out they were a problem indeed: Inevitably, the Alliance had "secured" the second fusion torch station with turrets, and inevitably the batarians had taken them over, too, just as with the first station - however, with the station's surroundings littered by mines, this made everything even more complicated. It meant the Mako had to enter a long range combat with them.
Shepard strained the Mako's agility to the last, but it was still hit several times. At his side, Tali was working hastily on the automated self-repair programs. Under her breath she cursed the weak Alliance decryption programs which had allowed the batarians to take over the turrets, and Shepard could only mentally agree - and hope that he was quicker in destroying the turrets than the turrets were in whittling down the armoured vehicle. When finally the last turret was eliminated, he breathed out in relief. Still, there was no doubt the Mako, even though it had been freshly stolen on Noveria, would need a general overhaul once this mission was over.
"I think those were all," Garrus announced needlessly.
"And now the fun part," Wrex said, "Storming a mined hill on foot under enemy fire."
Unfortunately, the krogan was all too right. The squad had to dismount as the Mako would set off the blast caps for sure. They had to reach the station by foot, and the batarians, expecting them to come, had already set up makeshift fortifications in front of the entrance. Thus the squad was greeted by a constant hail of enemy gunfire, while they tried to navigate their way through the blast caps. The Normandy's sensors fed the squad's suits with proximity signals for the mines, and that was the only way for the team to avoid the danger.
Forward, forward, forward. Shepard's shields were depleting and he had to constantly regard his suit's data about nearby blast caps, but his main thought was getting up the hill as fast as possible, to take the fight to the batarians there. He ran and sprinted and in the end jumped in front of one of those crates the four-eyed aliens used as makeshift barricades - and now being directly on the other side of such a crate Shepard could use it to the same end.
Once the squad had managed the way through the minefield, the batarians at the entrance were easily overwhelmed. Taken by the enthusiasm of the charge, Shepard stormed into the facility, followed by the squad. He encountered two more batarians in the entrance room and shot them down before they could react, and then charged into the facility's main room - only to come under fire from several sides. Defence drones. Yet another piece of Alliance equipment the batarians had taken over.
Something was absolutely not right at all if they could have taken over so much of the defence infrastructure intact. Fortunately it was a trick the squad could reproduce, as Tali could easily hack into the drones' security systems. Still, even with some of them turned a complex battle ensued.
However, eventually the enemy resistance was broken, and Tali could work on the controls of the fusion torch. Shepard could only watch as she unfolded her magic - this was definitely something going way beyond his skills and in many cases even beyond his simple understanding in these fields. However, what he did know was that so far Tali had managed to force her will upon every resisting piece of technology they had encountered - and this time it was no different: She managed to shut the torch down. Shepard nodded appreciating.
"Very good," he said. "The rest of you, too. Great fight. Especially given the circumstances." He added jokingly: "Well, if we ever need to fight the Alliance and their equipment, this should give us ample training". Then again, given my strained relations to the Alliance, maybe that's not as much a joke as I'd like it to be.
Before anybody from the squad could answer, Kate Bowman seemed to have picked up that the torch was down. She had been their guide so far - an engineer in hiding watching the batarian activities. The torches' comm system carried her voice to the squad: "Are you there? You've got to hurry. You've really pissed them off. Their leader's setting charges everywhere. I think he's going to blow this whole facility."
"Understood," Shepard answered, "I..."
He was cut off by a bellowing batarian voice carrying through the communication system: "Get away from there!"
"Don't shoot, please!" That was Kate. "No... hn... Aaron!"
It was clear Kate and her brother had been discovered. "Damnit," Shepard cursed. This was a catastrophe unfolding right in front of him.
"Ah! Umph..." A male human voice, Aaron probably. He seemed to be treated roughly by the batarians.
A new batarian voice could be heard: "Who's shutting down the torches?"
Kate did not answer. The batarian threatened: "He'll die." He's blackmailing her. With his life. And after a while, when Kate still did not answer "I won't ask you again."
I can't let this happen! After all, it would not be important if Balak knew of him - he would come for the batarian anyway, and he even had a warship in orbit, giving him a heavy tactical advantage. He shouted into the communication system: "Wait! It's me. Jonathan Shepard. Council Spectre. Currently at the central torch station. Balak, I presume?"
"Hrm," the batarian confirmed his presence.
"I'm here, Balak," Shepard repeated himself. "That's what you wanted to know, isn't it?"
"And now I do," Balak just said - and shot. No!
"No!" Kate cried.
"You bastard!" Shepard shouted incensed "You'll pay for that! I'm coming for you and I don't care if you know it or not. You can't stop me. I have a warship right above your ugly fucking head. You won't escape from this rock. I'll rip out each of your eyes before..." Shepard realized Balak had him cut off already. "God damnit!" Shepard cursed.
Without a further word he turned to return to the Mako. A cold rage built up in him as he drove the vehicle to the third torch station. He had known about the batarians, of course - who did not? They were slavers and raiders and pirates of the worst sort. They captured people to enslave them, and what they did to the slaves... it was pure horror. Recently, some slaves had been freed by the Alliance Navy, people who had been taken by batarian slavers on Mindoir. Their stories had circulated in the news and they were really more terrible than anything Shepard had heard before, or could even had only imagined.
Still, the batarians had always been a far away issue for him. He was an Earth boy - he had nothing really to do with the colonies, except for having visited some with the Alliance Navy. And the batarians pretty much were an issue of the colonies. Plus, in recent time he had been occupied with crimes much nearer to home - the Alliance's own crimes. Of course what the batarians did was far, far worse - but then, Shepard did not exactly consider 'being better than slavers and pirates' to be much of an achievement for a government, so that was a somewhat invalid comparison.
I have not cared about batarians before. But now I do. Them trying to kill four million people on his watch would of course do that. And all of them on this rock will die. Especially Balak - who had shot Aaron even when he had gotten the information he wanted. Shepard had been unable to save Aaron - so now instead he would make Balak pay.
Shepard knew all about rage and hatred. Both were emotions that inflicted him often enough. When he had left the streets of New York, he had thought he would now enter a better, safer, fairer world - but of course, this had not been the case. And every time he was reminded of this again, by the many injustices and cruelties of the galaxy, it let rage boil inside him. Unlike many others Shepard did not condemn those emotions or the principle of revenge per se. Quite often they were very much justified, after all. The old adage that 'an eye for an eye makes the world go blind' missed one thing: By the time 'an eye for an eye' would apply, half the population already was blind, victims of the other half. Revenge merely ensured that other half would not profit from their crimes.
Sometimes such feelings overwhelmed him, but at other times he could channel them, make them work for him. It was difficult to keep his anger from boiling over, but he managed to keep it down, to make it a mental focus for him - a mental sword to wield in the battle for the third fusion torch. In it he was aggressive, but not reckless, ruthless, but not bloody thirsty. The batarians had no chance. He let none of them escape. Every last of them Shepard could see died in the battle, and yet another main room of a torch station ended up littered with batarian corpses and with the electronic garbage of former defence drones. Shepard looked at the battlefield with distaste - not because of what he had done, but because this was only a battle won, not yet the war.
Tali worked on the station's controls to bring down the final fusion torch. Now we just have to get Balak. Content, he and the squad were walking down to the ground level of the station again when they heard a batarian voice: "Hold it right there. This doesn't have to end in bloodshed."
Shepard immediately stopped and raised his weapon. So did the rest of his squad.
"Who's there?" he demanded to know.
Three batarians came forth from behind a crate. Shepard's eyes narrowed. What do they want? They had shouted that it did not need to end in bloodshed, but the Spectre did not even trust the batarians to have any word meaning 'peace' or 'truce'. He did not fire, as he was too curious what those batarians would have to say, but he remained watchful. He took some steps towards the trio.
"Don't come any closer," one of the batarians demanded, the same who had spoken before.
Shepard paid him no heed and came to a halt less than a meter in front of him. "What do you want, scum?"
"Listen, we can do this the hard way, or we can end it peacefully," the batarian offered.
Shepard had a feeling of deja vu: Somewhere he had already heard that voice. But he paid that no heed. "Look around you," the Spectre said and made a wide gesture spanning all the batarian corpses in the room. "I love the hard way."
"So I see. Humans," the batarian replied. His voice was a complete condemnation of the fact and of humans in general - something completely reversing all facts on the ground.
"Last time I checked it wasn't us who are trying to kill four million people," Shepard protested. And it dawned on him where he had heard the voice: It was one of the batarians who was with Balak when he had killed Aaron Bowman.
"Look," the batarian answered. "I'm just doing my job here. Hijacking this rock wasn't my idea. I signed on to make a little profit. A quick slave grab. Noth..."
A quick slave grab? Shepard immediately raised his right arm and let dark energy pulsate through it. A powerful biotic push lifted the batarian to the ceiling, and Shepard raised his weapon. A quick slave grab? That was not an excuse - that was a crime of the worst category, and he would not let these batarians get away with it.
The two batarians remaining on the ground were quickly gunned down. One of them had not even had the time to raise his own weapon, and what little shots the other one was able to fire were useless and repelled by Tali's shields.
When the leading batarian fell down to the ground again, Shepard quickly put a boot on his left arm, knelled down to suppress his chest with his knee and held his pistol to his head. Anger ran through him like hot lava. His voice trembled: "A quick slave grab? Your people treat them worse than animals, you fucking scum. I've seen survivors. I know what they tell. And you wanted to make profit off that?"
The batarian had struggled at first, but now simply looked at Shepard and breathed ragged. He's in fear Shepard realized. That was good. A small taste perhaps of what slaves had to suffer under batarians. Entire lives in agony. Death is too good for the likes of him. He knew a bit about batarian superstitions, like the belief that if all their eyes were blinded their soul could not escape the body upon death and would whither away with it.
His thoughts wandered to Tali's combat knife and he trembled a bit. I could do it... He breathed heavily. "You utter scum," he hissed at the batarian. "I should... I should..." However, even he was repelled by thoughts of such savagery. "I should..." In a quick and hasty move, he stood up and aimed the pistol anew at the batarian. "Fuck it!" He felt this was the only way to keep himself from doing such butchery - to make a quick end for the batarian.
However, somebody spoke up calmly: "No, Jon." Tali. Shepard's head turned around. The quarian walked towards him, and laid a hand on his right arm, the one holding the gun. "Make him your prisoner. That's what you should do."
Shepard understood. She had said 'should', but what she had been talking about was not giving orders to him or anything like that. That's not what the 'should' had meant. What she meant were his own damn ideals. Uphold the law, don't be the law - had he not said this himself to Garrus when he had come aboard, and again when they had hunted down Saleon? That batarian deserved death. That was his strong opinion - but it was not for him to decide.
"You're damn lucky, squint," he finally grunted to the batarian. "Damn lucky that we're better than your kind." He turned to the squad. "Garrus, secure him. We're leaving him bound here to be picked up, later." He trusted the turian had equipment from his time at C-Sec with him. He usually did. He himself simply walked off.
Tali followed him, and whispered: "I knew you wanted to be better than that." And she was completely right. He had started into this job with such high ideals, after all. Ideals to never abuse his power, to never become a law unto himself, to always do the right thing. He thought that overall he mostly still did the latter, still mostly did the right thing, but that seemed to be fed more by righteous anger rather than ideals. However, Tali was right: Even though he often did succumb to rage, and much as he condoned the notion of righteous anger, he nonetheless wanted to have those ideals, wanted to be 'good'. To be better than lowly street rabble. Even if the rest of the worlds was often not much better, he had risen above this now - or at least he should have.
"Thank you," he whispered back. Telling how much she knows me already.
She simply padded him on the arm in response. Garrus had secured the batarian - one "Charn" according to his belongings. Garrus had also found a key card to the asteroid's main facility among said belongings. That facility had been occupied by the batarians and was where Balak was - and now the squad could access to it. Thus they now returned to the Mako. It was time for the final confrontation.
The main facility was a surprisingly large complex of several buildings. Shepard had seen smaller outposts that were the entire settlement of entire garden worlds. X57's two 'moons', small asteroid splinters orbiting their big brother, were hanging right above the facility. It looked like somebody had fixed them in the air, only some hundred meters above the surface. They were surrounded by a red dust cloud, like them held by X57's gravity, small as it was. And behind that all - Terra Nova. It was a spectacular view.
The facility consisted of a main building, three silos and several odd cylinders around it. Shepard slowed the Mako down. Those aren't... They were. The cylinders opened and revealed yet more missile turrets. Damnit! Heavy Armoured Turrets! He did not think the Mako's gun could seriously hurt their armour, so the only time when he could shoot back was when the cylinders were opened and the turrets were firing.
Somebody pumped a lot of money into the asteroid's defence. And yet the batarians have simply taken it all over intactly! What the hell!
However, no batarian was outside to "support" the turrets. They seem to have holed themselves up in there. Not that he could blame them - after losing all three torch stations, playing turtle was pretty much the only thing left to do for them. However, it meant he was able to shoot down all turrets without problems.
The interior of the facility was designed quite nicely. It was clear that X57 had been planned as a longterm project, and that hence some amenities had to be offered to the workers on it. As the squad walked up a staircase, they could see a large area behind it - a two-level plaza of sorts, with trees growing up from the bottom level, and with several more plants placed everywhere. It looked like a recreational area - but but recreation was unfortunately not yet possible for Shepard: The place was swarming with batarians and defence drones.
The squad holed itself up in the entrance to the plaza, a small tunnel of sorts. Shepard knelled down and began to shoot. He regretted now that he had not brought Ashley along - as it was, Garrus was their only sniper. The rest had to make do with pistols to cross the long distances to the enemy. However, that was enough: Several batarians tried to storm their position. The squad fell back, drawing them into the tunnel - and overwhelming them there with superior firepower.
"Go go go go!" Shepard ordered. As the last batarian in the entrance tunnel fell down, now was the time for the counterstrike. The squad stormed forwards, and took up a new position at the railing to the bottom level. Defence drones circled at the far side of the room. Their suppressive fire had the squad pinned down behind their cover, while more batarians came running for them. The squad holed up in its position and simply defended itself against any assaults as could as they could. As the enemy came from all sides, they soon stood or knelled back to back, to cover all ground.
"Funny," Wrex observed, unmoved as ever, "they're hurling to death on this asteroid right alongside us."
"I fail to see the humour in our shared demise," Tali answered annoyed. However, she was more concentrated on aiming and shooting than on the conversation, such as it was.
"Relax, we still have several hours," Wrex replied. Shepard wondered if anything besides the genophage and the rachni could ever truly upset the krogan. He seemed to be perpetually calm and detached.
"And with the rate Garrus is shooting down those drones we'll be free in no time at all," the Spectre added. It was true: The turian used his sniper rifle to shoot down one drone after the next, and without their suppressive fire the squad would be able to go onto the offensive again. Garrus was so concentrated on the task that he did not even seem to hear the Spectre's compliment.
"Optimism, a warrior's most important skill," Liara muttered while sending a biotic warp against a batarian rushing to their position. Shepard grinned. The asari even had a point: Morale was important in battle - and it still seemed to be high. The Normandy had taken heavy losses back on Virmire, but overall it had run from success to success. There was hence little reason for the squad to doubt that this mission would end in victory, too.
"I think I got them all, Com... Jon," Garrus announced calmly after a while.
Shepard nodded. "There's a remaining concentration of enemy troops on the other side of the room. We'll charge at my command." He waited for everybody to nod or state acknowledgement. "Go!" he shouted.
The squad ran forwards, in its usual formation, with Wrex and Shepard at the front. A final battle erupted. The batarians had positioned themselves at the top of a staircase leading downwards, a strategically well considered place as it was surrounded by several plant boxes and railings. The squad pushed forwards, but took a lot of punishment. Shepard saw Liara, who had closed up to the front, fall down besides him. Bullets had hit her in the chest - her shields had already faltered. Immediately, Tali knelt down besides her and began to apply medi-gel. Shepard, Wrex and Garrus were absolutely enough to end the battle.
"Did we get everybody?" Shepard asked after a while and looked around suspiciously. There was no enemy fire anymore, but the layout of the area offered places for ridiculously many hiding spots.
Wrex simply answered: "We have no more idea than you do."
Shepard nodded and waved the two to him. Liara, supported by Tali, also followed - it was probably unwise to have the squad split and to leave the vulnerable parts behind. Liara leaned heavily on the quarian, and seemed to be in great pain, but could move again. The medi-gel seemed to do its work. The Spectre looked relieved at that, and then went down the stair case, to see whether more batarians were on the bottom level.
However, just as he had walked down all the stairs, a voice appeared from behind him, from up the stairs: "Stop right there. Or your friends will all going to die!"
Shepard whirled around, gun in hand.
"I wouldn't do that," the voice said. It came from behind a plant box. "I have hostages." A group of batarians stepped forth from behind the plant. The speaker was a green-skinned one with extra-prominent cheek bulges, and he held a small remote control device in his hands. Shepard recognized the voice: Balak. "Shoot, and I'll detonate these charges". He pointed to a room at the other side of the plaza. "Your little helper and more of her ilk are there. Would you risk their death?"
Kate! Shepard clenched his teeth. "You bastard..." he muttered under his breath. Than he breathed out. A hostage situation. Ugly. Very batarian. Somehow he doubted Balak would care about his own kind at all, if the situation was reversed, but that did not matter. He, Shepard, did care."You can't get away, Balak. There's a warship in orbit. It's the fastest warship in the galaxy, too, with the best pilot of the Alliance Navy. You're done. Be peaceful and you might survive to be brought before the Council."
"I don't answer to the Council, or to you!" Balak answered angrily. "I'm leaving this asteroid, and if you try to stop me, all those humans will die. Surely, the oh so grand 'Hero of Elysium' couldn't allow that."
"Hah," Shepard laughed dismissively. His brain was working feverishly on a solution. He needed to negotiate now, if only to win time. "I let you go, you'll detonate those charges anyway. Why should I trust you?"
Balak held up the device in his hand. "This remote control device only has a limited range - which still is several AUs," he explained. "If I detonate those charges, your ship will still be near enough to shoot me down. If your ship let me leave, my control device will eventually be out of range."
"Clever," Wrex commented. As mostly always, he had little stake in the outcome of the mission, and hence could admire Balak's craftiness. Shepard was slightly annoyed with him. Shepard was annoyed with the whole situation. He had come to kill Balak - but now the batarian held several lives in his hands.
"He speaks the truth, Jon," Tali reported. "I can't take over the device, but I could analyse its function. It's just as he said - a range of some AU, but not more."
"Your pet quarian tried to hack me? Hah," Balak laughed. "You're a failure like your entire race, quarian. The humans, they're stronger. And they've use that to invade our space - take worlds that would have been ours, resources that should have been ours!"
"Cut it, Balak," Shepard hissed. "Nobody wants to hear you preach. Not even your own people. Charn even tried to sell you out. You're all alone. Give up." Roll over and die!
"Give up? To a human? Never!" Balak exclaimed. "We've been forced into exile, forced to survive on what we can scrounge up. All because of your kind. It's been like that for decades."
Even more anger boiled up inside Shepard. I can't let it go free, I can't risk the hostages... But an angry response was pouring forth from his mouth: "You slavering scum deserves far worse than having to face some honest competition in the Verge. Your raids, your piracy - we should have bombed you all to oblivion decades back! Fuck, you're a slave trader and yet you want to be the victim? Fuck you! I'll... " He breathed out several times. I can't risk the hostages' lives. But he was so unused to just swallowing his anger.
"You what? Shoot me? Hardly," Balak mocked. "And I really should have known better than to expect a human to understand. You couldn't... actually you and your kind just don't want to understand. And I'm done wasting my breath."
"And there was much rejoicing..." Shepard muttered sarcastically.
"Hrm," Balak made and again held up his control device. "So, will you let me go?"
"You goddamn bastard..." Shepard muttered again. Negotiations were clearly at an end, and it looked like Balak had the upper hand. That was just a plain fact and yet - he so dearly wanted to kill him, wanted to rip him apart, wanted to stab all his eyes out. Balak was a slaver, he was an attempted millionfold mass murderer, and he had shot Aaron Bowman. Everything inside Shepard was screaming for revenge.
However - there were the hostages. Shepard hesitated. He could not just sacrifice them. He thought of Tisiphone. She had even named herself after one of the Ancient Greek Furies, after a goddess of revenge - and yet she put the welfare of her people above her revenge. She was not willing to sacrifice them for the sake of it. That's something the Alliance would do. He had no doubt about that. The Alliance would spew some bullshit about the security of human space or whatever, and then take its revenge, the hostages be damned. The Alliance cared more about appearing strong than about human lives after all. That was what the Alliance was all about.
And I'm not like the Alliance. I'm not in the Alliance anymore, either. That gave Shepard a sense of perspective, an identity. He would not be like the Alliance. He would be better than them. Or as he had told Tali - yes, the universe was uncaring, so caring was up to them. He certainly was nobody who thought ill of revenge per se, but not at the cost of other people's, other people's lives. And as for Balak - letting him go was no security risk, not really. True, he could come back and attack another colony. But if not him, another batarian could also do so and take his place. Balak was not so special as to warrant several human lives - and Shepard's revenge was not as valuable as a single human life.
"Well," he said finally with a forced calmness he did not feel, drawing out the word, "I'd congratulate you to your victory, but it's not like you had any. You can save your worthless life, that's all. And be assured the Normandy is watching you."
"They can watch impotently as I'll slip away," Balak mocked. "Oh, and one more thing: You'll never find all my surveillance gear in this facility on time - and if I catch you trying to free the hostages before I'm gone... boom." And with that he turned and went, followed by his lackeys.
While they were leaving, Shepard maintained a posture of defiant strength. But after they had left his shoulders, his entire stature, just slumped down. All strength, real or played, slipped out from him. He had saved Terra Nova, yes - but it still felt like a defeat. All emotions left him, leaving behind just a vague numbness. He looked around. His squad seemed to be more upbeat. They seemed to value their victory more than the small defeat at the end. Only Tali - well, he would not be able to see her grinning anyway, but she stood quiet and watched him. Concerned, Shepard realized, touched. And not without reason.
"Goddamn," he muttered.
Tali walked up to him. "You did the right thing," she said soothingly. "Again."
"I know," Shepard answered. "But I can't feel it."
"And that's important for you," Tali said, "I know." She took his hands into hers. Seeing as Shepard was in full armour, his hands were indeed probably the only part of him receptive to touch at the moment.
"Well. We did it," Shepard stated. "We saved this world. Four million people. What the hell is Balak compared to that?" But he sounded unconvinced and unenthusiastic - he indeed just could not feel it
"Come," Tali just said. She held his hand, and led him to a nearby bench - after all, this area was originally supposed to be for recreational purposes. They sat down exhausted and leaned against each other.
After a while of content silence, Shepard commented: "This is a nice way to end missions." He could get used to it.
Mischievously, Tali whispered: "Too bad they have no clean rooms here."
Shepard's head spun around, and then he laughed, freely and honestly. It was liberating. He sighed. "Thanks, Tali. Again."
"I think you told me once not to thank you," Tali said. "And I've told you often enough I'll be there for you when you need me. So don't thank me."
A wave of emotional washed over Shepard. A gratitude to Tali, a feeling of closeness to her - an emotion of love. He smiled softly. There was also an undertone of melancholy to it: What will I do once she's gone? And that would happen, eventually. And the nearer they came Saren, the sooner it would happen. For the moment, though, he just sat besides her in content silence and in soothing closeness. He let all the disappointment about Balak's escape and all the tension of the mission fall off from him. Balak was gone now yes - but he thought he could come to live with that. After all, he had saved Terra Nova.
Actually, that's a funny thought... "Hah," he laughed, "Now that the world is saved..."
"Hm?" Tali made.
"I mean, it's obviously not as important as a world of four million people being saved, not at all," Shepard said, "but - this is the largest colony of the Alliance, and it took a ship of damn mutineers to save it. That's not something they can hush up. It shows their own incompetence, and they can't portray us as villains anymore..." Tali threw her head slightly into her neck. Shepard knew what it meant - it was akin to eye rolling. Maybe she even did just that behind her helmet's mask. He grinned. "Heh, I know, I know. It's just, now that the world is saved, why not think about it..."
"If it makes you feel better," Tali said, and it sounded only half ironic - and half serious.
Before Shepard could answer, though, he head Garrus shouting: "Somebody's there." Immediately, Shepard and Tali jumped up from their bench and reached for their weapons.
They looked around - and saw Simon Atwell approaching them. "Hey, sorry, it's me," the asteroid's chief engineer said.
"Atwell!" Shepard exclaimed, still somewhat angry from the shock, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I... There might have been something I could have done. to help," Atwell explained. "I thought I should be here. I know this asteroid better than anyone."
"Right," Shepard answered and calmed down. It was a reasonable enough explanation. "Well, engineer teams from the Normandy stand ready to change the course of the fusion torches and reactivate them."
"And not too late," Atwell explained. "It's still hurling towards the planet. If you hadn't been here... I've ran the number. It would have hit near the capital. The most densely populated region. But this won't happen now. Thanks to you."
"Yeah, well," Shepard answered. He had no problem with praise, but he did not want to be too vain, either. "I hardly could have done nothing. And after the engineers have arrived, we'll go free Bowman. We still have to wait on that damn terrorist, though."
Something made click in Atwell's mind - that was visibly clear on his face. "Wait, that's what happened? You let him go to save them? Is that - will you get into trouble for that? Even more? I mean he could do the same thing elsewhere, couldn't he?"
"So I should have let him blow up your friends?" Shepard asked angrily. He was angry enough that Balak had escaped - he did not need to have that rubbed in by somebody like Atwell, who by all rights should instead have been happy that Kate Bowman had survived. "Is that it?"
"What?" Atwell asked surprised. "No, I..."
"Balak is nothing special," Shepard cut him off. "He would've just been replaced by the next thug. All I could get would've been blind revenge - but not at the cost of those people. Nobody dies on my watch. I won't sacrifice people for revenge, and I won't sacrifice real people for some hypothetical bullshit that could happen in the future." He grimaced. "That's what the Alliance would do."
"Easy there, son." Atwell said very calmly. Shepard did not quite like the address, but remained silent. The Chief Engineer seemed to honestly wait for him to calm down, and then continued: "I don't know about the Alliance, but anyone asks me, you did the right thing. They say otherwise, I'll set them straight." He paused. "Shepard - thank you. For my grandchildren's lives. You saved them, saved the entire planet. Just you and your team. Yeah, you were right, that's something the Alliance Navy should have done with all its resources." He shook his head. "I'll see if I can give some instructions to those engineers of yours. That's something I can do, at least."
Shepard nodded, and Atwell walked off. The Spectre occupied himself in the following hours with directing the Normandy's engineer crew's efforts and communicating with Terra Nova. The planetary authorities were in something of a bind - legally, they were obliged to arrest the ship's crew as mutineers. However, they hardly could do that now that the crew had just saved them all. It became clear during communications that there were some who still, despite that, called for their arrest. However, in the recent hours Terra Nova had been in panic - the approach of X57 had been published to start at least small-time evacuations. Hence, the planetary population had been sure doom would come - but now it did not, thanks to Shepard. So in the end there was just no way at all that his crew could be arrested. In fact, it was clear they would become heroes, mutineers or not.
Finally, the Normandy reported that Balak was outside their sensors. Kate Bowman could finally be freed. Tali hacked the door open to the makeshift prison of her and the other hostages. Half a dozen people stormed to Shepard, glad to be finally free. They thanked him enthusiastically - but then immediately afterwards all ran into freedom. Shepard could hardly fault them. Only one person had stayed back the entire time, an attractive woman with short blond hair. Kate Bowman, according to a picture Atwell had sent to the Spectre. As the room emptied, she approached him.
Her eyes widened. "You're Shepard, aren't you? The Spectre. You've been in all newsfeeds for days."
"Yeah," Shepard just confirmed, unsure what else to say.
"I couldn't believe you let Balak go...to save us," Kate continued. She sounded very melancholic. "I half expected you to just let us die. Sacrifice the few for the many. But then, I didn't know who you were..."
Ah. My reputation precedes me. It was a charming thought that he was known like that. It certainly was how he would like to be known. "Thanks," he said. "Yes, I wouldn't sacrifice people, other people, for some abstract goals. It's just wrong."
"Huh. You sound like my brother," Kate stated. "He admired you. And like you, he was always so stubborn. - and always willing to do the right thing, no matter what." In the end her voice sounded like it might crack.
Shepard looked down. "I'm sorry. I... I tried to save him, but Balak..." I failed Aaron. And his sister.
"You did what you could. It's not your fault," Kate protested. "You even risked your own position for his sake. At least... Aaron died in a place he loved. He was the one who convinced me to join the team here. Said it would be an adventure."
"Hell," Shepard cursed, "What did the batarians even try to accomplish here?"
"I don't even think they knew," Kate answered. "When they first arrived, they were talking about getting us back to their ships. They wanted to sell us as slaves. When Balak showed up, everything changed. It was his idea to redirect the asteroid. Said it was the will of the batarian rebellion. Whatever that is. They followed him quickly enough, but I... I don't know. I don't think they were all as fanatical as he was."
"They were still slavers," Shepard pointed out decisively. He sighed. "You did a brave thing, Ms Bowman. Contacting me on the radio, risking your life."
"'Stubborn and determined' runs in the family," Kate said. She sounded so very sad. "My father was in the Alliance, back on Earth. If he knew how Aaron supported you... but I think he'd still have been proud of him." She sounded so very sad. "And Aaron would have just loved this. The Alliance tries to condemn you at every turn and then you turn up and save their biggest colony when they couldn't. He really would have loved it." Shepard did not quite know what to say about that. "I... I really should see to him," Kate continued, and now her voice was indeed breaking. "Aaron, I mean. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but..."
"Of course not," Shepard reassured her. "Take care, Ms Bowman, and I hope you get to see a better future here."
"If so, it will be thanks to you, Com... Shepard," the engineer said, and left.
Shepard watched her go. He felt sorry for her. However, his thoughts also wandered to what she had said. She had a point: While it was far more important that four million people had been saved , he had made a fool out of the Alliance in doing so. This is going to be interesting...