The admiral, Shepard decided as she listened to him give his opinion, had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. And was in the habit of using old fashioned phrases. She was focusing on not running the term "co-developed boondoggle" through her head because it gave her the crazy urge to giggle.
Rear Admiral Mikhailovich had shown up to do a surprise inspection out of the blue. It was annoying but she didn't want anymore bad blood between her and the Alliance, especially since after the confrontation with Baker. She was even more annoyed that there was a news camera along as well.
Why they'd sent someone who stated outright that he thought the Normandy was a waste of time and money to inspect it was a mystery to her but she'd let the crew know they were to cooperate.
Mikhailovich's opinion that the Normandy was a waste of funds, one that was shared by many in the Alliance ranks, baffled Shepard. He seemed to think the entire project was done simply to placate the turians, and that simply wasn't true. Sure, they could have made another heavy cruiser with the money they used to create the Normandy but what was the point of that? They needed to experiment and adapt to needs out on the universe, because it sure as hell wasn't going to adapt to them.
She chided herself for getting defensive, trying to look at things from the admiral's perspective. She was proud of the Normandy, so it was probably coloring her judgment.
Shepard was more than willing to discuss the way the CIC deck was set up or the merits of the stealth system but then he started in on her crew. He didn't even like Liara, and everyone liked Liara.
She bristled, unable to stop an edge of coldness from coming into her voice, but she got through it. She didn't think he'd give a glowing report but hopefully it wouldn't be a completely negative one.
Shepard watched him go, ignoring the dirty look the camera man shot her.
You still remember what color your blood runs, Commander?
Did she?
Shepard took a moment to consider that, and then dismissed it for the moment. Right now, she had a job to do. She'd worry about politics and where her loyalties were supposed to lay later.
The Alliance News Network camera follows Admiral Mikhailovich as he steps onto the command deck. The admiral clearly doesn't like having someone watching him as he conducts his inspection. Most likely the only reason the camera man, and the camera man alone, is allowed onto the Normandy is because of the unusual circumstances and to calm the press, still frothing at the mouth to get a good look at the Normandy.
The crew present salute the admiral dutifully and eye the camera with wariness. Shepard isn't supposed to be present for it, she already put in a memorable appearance on the docks. She doesn't necessarily look like an Alliance soldier but looks every inch a galactic special agent, which doesn't impress the Rear Admiral. Anymore than his pointed remark about how the Normandy was supposed to be part of his fleet impressed Shepard.
Ever good Alliance soldiers, the crew follow orders to cooperate in any way, answering the admiral's questions and showing him where to go without hesitation. The camera man, however, is getting on their nerves. The fact he keeps wandering around the CIC deck and asking provoking questions is bad enough but the fact he ignores the admiral is clearly pissing off some of the senior members.
Case in point, the camera man stealthily breaks away from the admiral as he heads through the crew quarters, obviously intending to try and get a quick shot of someplace else. There's a rustling sound and a series of blurred images before everything goes blank.
When everything goes clear again, the camera is in the storage area of the Normandy and somehow, Shepard has it.
She swings it around and focuses on Wrex, who is leaning against the wall, watching with mild interest. "There's Urdnot Wrex, preparing for his one man show..."
"What did you do to the camera man, Shepard?"
"Nothing. He was annoying Joker and the admiral, so I stole his shit. Oh, he also forgot he wasn't supposed to have the camera on anywhere except the storage area, the quarters and the main deck."
"I could toss him off the edge of the docks for you."
Shepard tsks. "That's your answer to everything."
"Because it works."
Garrus's voice comes from across the room: "Not with reporters, it just encourages them."
Shepard turns in that direction, taking in the turian and Howard. "And there's Officer Vakaraian and Sargent Kell working on the Mako. It got a little bit busted up in our last skirmish with the geth..."
Howard snorts. "I'd hate to see what you consider very busted up."
The turian shakes his head, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "The admiral moved on into Engineering. I don't think he liked seeing us much, Commander."
"He didn't like seeing you, turian. He was scared of me," Wrex corrects from off camera.
"No he wasn't. He didn't even bat an eye when he saw you," Ashley's voice is also off camera.
Now Shepard turns to focus on her. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. A woman frighteningly good with her guns, let me tell you."
Ashley manages to keep a straight face and professional expression. Barely. "Did you throw the camera guy in the brig, Commander? Give him the full experience?"
"No, Pressley was more than happy to look after him, which means he's not going anywhere. I think I might recommend that next time they not pick someone bound and determined to piss off half my crew."
Shepard swings the camera around at the sound of footsteps and greets a surprised Rear Admiral Mikhailovich. "The camera guy kept trying to poke his way into the comm room so I confiscated his camera."
The admiral looks annoyed and holds his hand out for the camera, which Shepard obligingly hands over.
Another black period, then the considerably more subdued and huffy camera man is making a good parting picture, backing away from the Normandy and getting a good shot of it from the outside as he follows the admiral away.
Shepard was an utter fool.
Saren Arterius turned off the monitor, shaking his head at the report, and paced within Sovereign's depths, growing more and more infuriated with every turn.
He had an ally from the most powerful race in the universe, he had one of the most revered and powerful of asari matriarchs at his call as well as all her followers, he had an army of geth and though he didn't have the rights and status of a Spectre anymore, he still had the skills that had made him one.
He had all of Nihlus's files and personal notes regarding Commander Shepard.
So why couldn't he rid himself of her?
Nihlus's obvious fascination with the woman had disgusted Saren, but it had made his observations as well as his research very useful for gaining insight into Shepard and how she would act.
And yet...and yet he had still underestimated her. She thwarted him time and time again. Every time he thought he had an understanding of her, she did something that threw him off. His assassins hadn't been able to kill her, his geth hadn't been able to kill her, she'd gotten the Matriarch's daughter away from him and she had killed the Thorian. Moreover, none of the subtle things the Matriarch had planted worked either. The rumors about a human Spectre bringing too much power to the humans couldn't quite hold up because the majority of her squad weren't human and the little side jobs they kept doing were spreading tales of their heroism even across Terminus space.
Damn it, maybe it was time to consider what Sovereign was saying. Maybe the only way to bring her down was to bring her under control. Although having her as a mindless thrall would be a pity...she would be much more useful if he could convince her of his cause.
That was something to think over.
Meanwhile, they needed to step up to the game and find the Conduit. Shepard and her crew were a few steps behind them but even that was starting to be too many. It wouldn't do to have Shepard stop them when they were so close...
He turned to the Matriarch, ready to bark out an order...and paused. Benezia was standing against the wall, her hands folded in front of her, her face still and blank as she stared at him silently. She did that a lot lately, he thought with a glimmer of unease.
He turned away. "Take some of your followers and head for Noveria. The next time Shepard makes a move on the geth, I want there to be a surprise waiting for her."
She said nothing. She didn't have to.
Saren walked away. He'd intended to head in that direction himself but changed his plans. Suddenly, he had a great need to see how his research on Virmire was going...
He had time, he told himself through the whispers dancing through his mind. They'd covered their tracks well. He had a little time to take a side trip. To make sure he understood just what those whispers might be doing to him...
There were people who got off on being feared, and that was a simple fact. They didn't have to be 'bad' people, either. Military leaders, politicians...he'd seen that look in the eyes of both, that gleam that showed quite clearly that they enjoyed being feared, enjoyed having that kind of power over people.
Vyrnnus had been like that.
But Kaidan had never been one of them. By the time they closed BaaT down, his fellow biotic trainees were watching him out of the corners of their eyes. Their smiles were too bright, their manner too overly polite to be real. And Rahna...
He couldn't see her face clearly anymore but he could still see images, remember sounds. The sickening crack as Vyrnnus broke her arm; the wide eyed stare and the way she backed away from him, terrified, as Vyrnnus crumpled to the ground, neck broken; the quick, fluttery way she would move away anytime he moved toward her, her arm in a sling.
It hurt more than anything else to see that wariness in her eyes, that same kind of wariness she'd had when she looked at Vyrnnus. He'd thought that she, of all people, would have known him well enough that just because he could hurt her didn't mean that he ever would...
Kaidan found the recollections not quite as painful as he used to, maybe it had been good for him to talk to Shepard about it.
He had not been looking for sympathy when he had told her about the day he'd killed Vyrnnus, nor had he gotten it, exactly. More of a sense she understood him a little better. That had not been his reason for telling her either.
The only thing that truly concerned him about the way Shepard did things was that, while she understood her actions had consequences, the idea of taking steps now to prevent things from happening in the future wasn't one she put a lot of thought into. You never truly got out of the reach of the past, he knew that painfully well. It could rear up and bite you right in the ass out of nowhere.
He'd intended warning her about it by using Vyrnnus as an example of what happened when you cut corners and didn't leave paths open for the future but he was afraid he might have given her the impression he was comparing her to that long dead turian. He wasn't, there was no similarity between Shepard and Vyrnnus. When he pointed out he never would have dared to speak his mind so to Vyrnnus, Shepard had nodded and there had been a thoughtful look in her eyes that was reassuring. Even if she didn't take it to heart, he'd at least made her think a little.
Kaidan came back from the painful sounds of the past to the present, happier sound of Liara and Tali chattering. "It's not just humans," Tali was saying, "All young males of many species have really odd ideas about the asari."
"Some of their obsessions seem...unhealthy." The subject seemed to fluster Liara a bit. She'd gotten better but there were obviously things she wasn't used to talking about aloud to other people. Ashley had joked...at least he hoped she was joking...about asking her about her sex life just to see her reaction.
"No offense, Dr. T'Soni, but at least the asari still command respect. Everyone I've met seem to think quarians are thieves by nature. It's an automatic response to treat us like second class citizens." They were both silent for a moment, then Tali, not one to brood, added brightly: "But at least I have my family, my home, and we know what we are." She patted her omni-tool. "Once this information is decrypted, we can learn so much about the geth! Couple that with the database on the geth we've been putting together, I'll have plenty to offer when I go home! After we get Saren, of course."
Kaidan pretended he wasn't hearing the last half of that. That encrypted information they'd come across belonged to the Alliance but he and Ashley had decided to turn a blind eye to Tali somehow magically getting a copy of it.
Tali was working on something with her omni-tool. She'd been fiddling with one console or another in the comm room for most of the day. She explained things to Liara, who looked as baffled and amused as he felt, as she worked. "After I refine the search points, we should be able to track any major geth sightings on the major networks. Where the big groups of geth are, Saren will probably be, don't you think, Shepard?"
"What think? I don't want to think, why are you trying to make me think?" Shepard whimpered, her voice muffled since she had her face buried in her arms.
"How's your head, Shepard?" Liara asked. She was the only one who had any sympathy for her.
"I knocked him back. It was totally worth it," Shepard declared without lifting her head.
"How in the hell did you get roped into learning how to headbutt people from Wrex, Commander? You had to know he was setting you up," Kaidan said, eyeing her.
"He said my headbutting was pathetic, which was even more insulting because the bastard was right. I've never been able to headbutt someone properly. I almost knocked myself out once when I tried to do it to a human. It's embarrassing."
"Lots of humans can't headbutt, Shepard." Kaidan considered it an act of heroism that he wasn't laughing at her. Or maybe it was just his keen sense of self preservation.
"But now I can. I could even headbutt a krogan! Maybe. If he was standing still."
"Um, Shepard?" Tali looked over from the console she'd attached her omni-tool to.
"Yes, my queen?"
Tali paused. "Queen?"
Shepard finally lifted her head, resting her chin on her hand. She smiled. "You're no second class citizen on this ship."
Tali finally got it and laughed. Kaidan smiled a bit and shook his head. The quarian motioned to the console, her voice sobering. "Did...you said you told the Council about the Reapers, right?"
Shepard frowned a bit. "Yes, not that they were inclined to hear it..."
"Well, that explains why I'm finding so many reports saying that the geth are under Saren's control and only Saren's control. Everyone in Citadel space is tamping down on anything suggesting there might be something else behind them."
They all absorbed that silently for a moment. "That's understandable, I guess," Kaidan finally said. "We don't want people panicking about monsters from dark space, especially not now."
"It makes Saren out to be a lot more powerful, that's almost as bad." Shepard frowned, tapping the arm of her chair, her headache momentarily forgotten. "Makes me wonder exactly how much of it he and his minions are playing with."