Feros was not a pretty planet. The surface was covered in prothean ruins, surprisingly well preserved. He met Ashley, Kaidan and Garrus at the airlock.

A man met them as they disembarked. "We saw your ship. Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately."

"Who's Fai Dan?" Shepard asked.

"He's our leader. He need your help to prepare for the geth. They're making another push." He pointed. "Please. Up the stairs past the freighter."

Suddenly geth fired a rocket out of nowhere killing the poor man and Shepard signals the rest of the crew. Together they were able to push the geth back and eliminated them.

"We better meet this Fai Dan and find out what the situation is," said Shepard.

An older man smiled warmly as Shepard approached. "Oh, Commander. I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us."

The woman next to him, on the other hand, looked rather angry. "You're a bit late, aren't you?"

"Arcelia!" Fai Dan turned towards the woman. He looked back at Shepard. "Sorry, Commander. Everyone's on edge since—" He blinked.

"Watch out!" Arcelia ducked back and hefted her rifle. "We've got geth in the tower."

"Protect the heart of the colony!" Fai Dan yelled as he took up a defensive position.

"Wrex, Kaidan, Liara hold this position." Shepard unslung his rifle.

He led the others into the tower and began to engage the geth, they quick too out the geth at the entrance. They then climbed the stairs where they encountered more geth, they kept on shooting until they came into a hallway and saw a geth ship above them. Apparently they took out enough geth for the to redraw and they saw the ship flying away.

Shepard turned to Tail. "Tali, do a quick scan, see if you can learn anything about what they might be doing here."

"I'll see what I can do, but there may not be enough pieces." Tali ran her omnitool over the most intact of the geth. "I've got a signal location, but not much else. It's probably the main encampment."

"Well, we've cleared this area, at least." Garrus looked around.

"That should keep Fai Dan and the others safe." Ashley nodded. "After an update we can head out for the main encampment."

"The tower's secure. Thanks to you, Commander." Fai Dan smiled.

"I'm just glad you're colony is safe." Shepard nodded to him.

"I appreciate your concern… and your efforts against the geth." Fai Dan took a look around. Kaidan was tending to Liara who somehow got wounded.

Arcelia sighed. "They may have been slowed, but they'll be back. They always come back."

"Help me find what the geth are after and you'll get out of here alive," Shepard assured.

Fai Dan simply shrugged. "We don't know what they're after. They came, they attacked us. That's all we know." He sighed. "Their main base is at the ExoGeni headquarters. A good place to start looking if you want answers."

A quick check with Tali confirmed that the ExoGeni headquarters coincided with her signal location. Fai Dan went over the difficulties the colony was experiencing. It did make some sense to have a fall-back point. "Tali, check out the power and water problems, see if you can jury-rig something"

"Yes, Commander." She headed in the direction Fai Dan indicated. "Williams, Wrex, hold this location." He left Kaidan and Liara with the medics and gestured for Garrus to follow him to see what kind of food problem they had.

Tali's report was somewhat less optimistic than he'd hoped. It didn't take him long too realised that they were heading into the tunnels. He left Garrus, Ashley, and Liara to hold the point and headed down into the tunnel.

He shook his head as he watched Wrex and Tali. The quarian and krogan made a surprisingly effective team with their shotguns. Wrex managed to work in a lecture on proper grenade usage while blasting varren.

"Aha!" Tali looked down at her scanner. "Commander, these power cells. They'll work for the colonists with only minor rigging."

"Note the location. You found that jammer yet?" He raised an eyebrow.

"We are getting close."

"Good." He glanced over. "Kaidan, how are you coming with that water?"

"Looks like we need to switch it on in a couple more places."

"Good."

They kept on looking deeper in the pipeline and then they saw a man. He didn't look so good, in fact it was as if he was in agony.

"You don't want to go down there!" The man shook his head.

"What are you doing down here?" Shepard frowned.

"Nothing I should be, and anything I shouldn't." The man glared defiantly, then gasped in pain and fell to one knee. "Nooooo!"

Shepard drew his sidearm before gesturing to Kaidan. Kaidan pulled out his medical scanner. Slowly, the man got back to his feet. "That was a good one. Very intense."

"What's the matter with you?" Shepard tilted his head. He kept the sidearm ready, but didn't point it at the man yet.

"Just invoking the master's whip. Helps remind me I'm still alive." The man grinned. "You're here for the geth, aren't you? You're not the only one interested in those…" He waved a hand. "Things."

Shepard couldn't fathom who was on Feros would be interested in the geth. "Who else is looking for the geth?"

"Not looking for; looking to get rid of. They're a thorn in the side of the—" The man's face contorted in pain. Kaidan stared at his medical scanner, then shook his head in confusion. "Trying to get to the—" The man cried out again, then started laughing.

Kaidan applied a dose of something, then stepped away. "He's lost it. We should just leave him be."

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" Shepard asked calmly. "Do you even want help?"

"Help me?" the man breathed. "No. No one can help me now. I would rather die fighting."

"Fighting what?"

"Not that kind of fight. It's like running through thorn bushes. The more you struggle… Times up. Company's coming. Ask Fai Dan. Ask him about the—aaaagh!"

Then suddenly they were attacked by geth and after they took them out the man just stood there talking to himself.

Kaidan glanced back over his shoulder, then looked down at the scanner. According to the readings, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the man. He turned back to Shepard, who was raising an eyebrow at him. "I've got nothing, Commander."

"All right." Shepard nodded. "Let's finish getting that water on, and head out."

"Something about that seems…" Kaidan glanced down at the remains of a geth. "Like it should be wrong."

"The people here are acting a bit strangely," said Tail.

"I've a feeling we'll find answers at ExoGeni," said Shepard.

Shepard hacked the lock on the mako's hatch. "Are you sure we should be taking this, Commander?" Kaidan asked.

"It's the only way we can cross that bridge with all those geth guarding it," said Shepard. "Alenko, Williams, Garrus you're with me. The rest of you head back to the Normandy and with a further instructions."

Liara, Wrex and Tail nodded and left.

"Alenko you're on the scanners, Garrus weapons, Williams your my co-pilot," said Shepard as they boarded the mako.

Crackling over the radio revealed there were survivors somewhere. Shepard gestured for them to be wary as they headed in to investigate a bunker. Inside they found refugees and they started to panic.

"That's close enough," said a man.

The woman next to him gave him an annoyed look. "Relax, Jeong. They're obviously not geth."

"Get back, Juliana." The man glared at them. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Shepard rolled his eyes. "Commander Shepard. I'm here to remove your geth problem."

"You see?" The woman, Juliana, folded her arms. "You worry too much."

"And you trust to easily, Juliana." Jeong turned his glare to her.

"I'm just glad to see a friendly face." Juliana nodded to him. "I thought we were the only humans left on this planet."

There was an undercurrent here he didn't quite like. "Fai Dan and some members of Zhu's Hope are still alive."

Juliana immediately whirled on Jeong. "I thought you said they were all dead."

"I said they were 'probably' all dead," Jeong replied weakly.

"They're surviving, but the geth really hit them hard," said Garrus.

"We know what that's like. Those damn synthetics are relentless."

"I'll do whatever I can to keep them away from you," said Shepard. "But I need some information."

"What kind of information?" Jeong asked suspiciously.

"Ignore him." Juliana shook her head. "The geth are up in the ExoGeni headquarters. Just a bit further along the skyway."

Jeong turned towards him and actually pointed a finger. "Those headquarters are private property, soldier. Remove the geth and nothing else."

"I'm not interested in your company secrets," Shepard assured.

"Commander, before you go…" Juliana held up a hand. "My daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing…"

"They shouldn't waste time poking around." Jeong waved a hand. "We can do a proper accounting of our casualties after the geth are gone."

"That's my daughter you're talking about! She's still alive. I know it."

He got what information Juliana had, and promised he'd keep an eye out. Under the circumstances, he really didn't want to give her false hope.

Before they could leave, yet another person asked for help by the name of Gavin Hossle. This one wanted information off his computer, but was afraid it was too dangerous for him or one of his friends to go back for it.

Ashley looked back at Jeong suspiciously. "That guy is hiding something."

"I got that feeling to," Shepard nodded.

"I say that we should look at the files in ExoGeni," said Garrus. "The geth attacked this place for a reason and I have a hunch has something to do with ExoGeni's secrets."

"Maybe Juliana's daughter knows more," said Kaidan. "That if she still alive."

"Has only one way to find out," said Shepard as they boarded the mako.

They soon entered the building and fought their way through and they had just finished a bunch of varren when a shot went over their heads.

Shepard aimed his sidearm and was about to fire when he realised the other shooter was a human woman. "Damn it!" She stared at them. "I'm so sorry. I thought you were geth, or one of those varren." She let the gun fall to her side.

Shepard lowered his sidearm he had a feeling that this was Lizbeth. "You're safe now. But why are you here in the first place?"

"It's my own fault. Everyone else was running and I stayed to back up data." She gestured. "Next thing I knew, the geth ship latched on and the power went out. I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."

"We'll get you out as soon as we find out what the geth are after." Shepard nodded to her.

"It's not the geth." She shook her head. "It's the energy field they put up. They don't want anyone else getting access to the—" She cut herself off.

At last. The plot thinned. "I'm here for the geth. If you know something, tell me."

She hesitated, and then nodded. "I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing they're here for the Thorian."

"What say a Thorian?" Garrus asked.

Lizbeth explained that it was an indigenous life-form ExoGeni was studying and said she could tell them more when they were safe. He thought she might be a little worried that if she answered all their questions, they'd leave her behind. She gave them her ID for any locked doors they encountered, and went to find a good hiding place.

They made their way deep into the facility and found a krogan mercenaries trying to get information from the VI, but was having problems.

After dealing with the krogan they began to ask the VI some questions. They discovered that Lizbeth had known more than she had let on about the Thorian. As it turned out ExoGeni had used the colonists has guinea pigs to study its spores and how it controlled them.

This certainly explained why all the colonists were acting weird whenever they asked some questions. It also me the job a lot more difficult and Shepard had a hunch that they would have to fight them in order to get to the Thorain. They also discovered that their communications were being blocked, no doubt because of the geth dropship.

They followed the power cables and found that the geth attached their ship to the side of the building.

"The geth must have anchored their ship to the side of the building with these claws," said Garrus.

"Subtle as a boot to the face," said Ashley. "How do we cut the power if it's coming from the ship?"

"Could the ship be dislodged? Maybe there's a flaw in one of the other claws we could exploit."

"What is this place?" Kaidan looked around. "Almost looks like the geth built themselves some kind of church."

"Hey, if they're looking for God, I'd be happy to send them on their way," said Ashley with a firm grip on her rifle.

"Let's just focus on dislodging this thing," said Shepard. "We don't have enough explosives to dislodge it, we'll have to come up with a creative way of dislodging it."

They made their way deeper into the building and made their way over to the shuttle bay after roasting a few geth. One of the claws was sticking out of the shuttle bay doors.

"If we can somehow truly like the shuttle bay doors we might be able to slice through that claw," said Shepard as he examined the door controls.

They watched as he fiddle with the controls and as he hit the last one the blast door came down, shearing through one of the claws. There were creaking and crashing sounds as the other claws tore free and the geth ship started to fall away from the building.

"All right!" Kaidan smiled. "The door ought to be open now. We can head back and deal with this Thorian thing."

"Damn. I'd like to have seen the face on their pilot when that thing toppled," said Ashley with an odd smile satisfaction.

"Keep your guard up," said Garrus. "There still might be a few geth inside the base."

Suddenly the communicator started to work again. Joker's voice came over. "I repeat, Normandy to shore party. Are you reading? Anyone there? Normandy to shore party. Come on, Commander, talk to me!"

"Is that you, Joker? What's going on over there?"

"We're in lockdown here, Commander. Something happened to the colonists. They're banging on the hull, trying to claw their way inside the ship. They're freaking out!"

"They can't do any real damage. We're on our way back. Just hold your position."

"Uh…" Joker's voice came back over. "Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll just wait right here for you, Commander."

Shepard then looked at the others. "This place will be crawling with geth in a minute. Keep together and we'll get out of here in one piece.

Lizbeth was waiting for them when they got out. "There you are." She waved. "We should get out of here. I don't think this place is safe."

Shepard narrowed his eyes. "I need some answers. You knew more about the Thorian than you let on.

"I—" She visibly paled. "I was afraid. I wanted to stop the tests, but they threatened me, told me I'd be next. When the geth attacked, I stayed behind to send a message to Colonial Affairs. I tried to tell them where to find the Thorian, but the power cut before I could send the message. I…" She looked down. "I never meant for this to happen."

Shepard nodded. "You did what you could. I'll help them if you can tell me where to find the Thorian."

"The Thorian is underneath Zhu's Hope, but the entrance is blocked." She gestured. "The colonists covered it with the freighter just before the geth attacked."

"But why are the geth after the Thorian?" Shepard frowned. "What could Saren want with it?"

"Well, it does have unique mind-control capabilities. That's what ExoGeni was interested in."

Joker's voice over the comm saved him from having to find a wall to beat his head against. "Normandy to shore party. Come in."

"What is it, Joker?"

"We're getting a lot of geth comm chatter. Looks like they're headed your way."

"Thanks for the heads up, Joker," said Shepard. He looked at the others. "You heard the man; let's move out."

"I might be able to help." She fell into step behind him. "Undo the mess I helped create."

As soon as the voices came over the comm, Lizbeth stood and popped open the hatch. "That's my mom. Stop. Stop the rover." She started climbing out.

Shepard hit the brakes and they followed her.

To his complete lack of surprise, Jeong was still being stupid. Only this time, he was armed and stupid.

"You can't do this, Jeong!" Juliana yelled.

"Everyone shut up! Let me think!" Jeong yelled.

"What's going on?" Lizbeth hissed at Shepard. Shepard merely shrugged.

"You won't get away with this." Juliana was shaking her head.

"Get her out of here!" Jeong gestured, and one of the guards grabbed Juliana.

"Get away from her, you son of a bitch!" And then Lizbeth was standing up and heading down there before he could stop.

"Lizbeth!" Juliana ran towards her.

"Damn it!" Jeong glared. "Come out where I can see you. All of you." Shepard shrugged, and walked out, flanked by Ashely, Kaidan and Garrus. "Hah, Shepard. Damn it! I knew it was too much to hope the geth would kill you." Jeong shook his head. "I found some interesting facts about you in the ExoGeni database. I know what you did during the Blitz, but your heroics are not needed here."

"What do you think you're doing, Jeong?" Shepard glared.

"Communications are back up. ExoGeni wants this place purged."

"This is a human colony, Jeong." Lizbeth shook her head. "You can't just re-purpose us."

"It's not just you." Jeong actually sounded like he thought he was being reasonable. "There's something here far more valuable than a few colonists."

Shepard then crossed his arms. "You're after the one unique thing Feros has: the Thorian."

"The what?" Juliana blinked.

Lizbeth sighed. "It's a telepathic life-form living under Zhu's Hope. It's taking control of the colonists there. ExoGeni knew all along."

"You won't get away with this, Jeong." Juliana glared.

Jeong shrugged. "So you keep saying. But nobody's going to miss a few colonists."

"Can't you see the inherent potential in this colony?" said Shepard shaking his head. "Think of the promotional opportunities!"

Jeong stared at him as if he was crazy. "Opportunities? What the hell are you talking about?"

"They recovered from an alien attack on a frontier world," Shepard pointed out. "Add that to your company profile."

Jeong rubbed his chin as he began to consider the proposal. "Well, yeah. No one's ever gone broke playing the 'champion of humanity' card."

"Sadly, you'd probably make a killing," said Juliana bitterly. "But if it will let us get back to our lives, I'm for it."

"It just might work," said Jeong then his eyes widened. "Wait, no, but the infected colonists will for a bit of a wrench in that plan. No, no. They need to disappear."

"You can't just kill the colonists. It's not their fault." Juliana clenched her fists.

Lizbeth turned towards him. "If you kill only the Thorian, it might be enough to stop the infection. Maybe."

Shepard nodded. "It's worth a try, but I don't know if I can avoid harming the colonists."

"There has to be another way." Lizbeth sighed.

"Maybe there is." Juliana nodded. "Come and talk to me before you leave, Commander." She started to walk to a lab bench.

Before going over to Juliana, he had the OSD to Hossle and he gave him a few credits for his troubles.

When he returned he found that Kaidan had fitted the gas cylinder into the concussion grenade, and glanced over his shoulder at Shepard.

"What's the safe distance for this nerve gas?" Shepard asked.

"I doubt it will affect you at all. There are only trace amounts of Tetraclopine, a neuromuscular degenerator. Since their immune systems are already weakened, it may act as a paralyzing agent."

"It's worth a shot," said Ashley. She looked down at the grenades, and signed. "Exactly six shots."

"There we'll have to be careful how we use them," said Shepard.

The way back proved to be a lot more difficult than the way coming in, because the bridge was now full of geth and soon they reached the colonists base. However, when they got outside they were soon attacked by strange creatures.

"What the hell was that?" said Ashley as Kaidan ran his scanner over it. "I don't know what that plant does to people, but that's not human."

"No hitting the colonists, even if the Thorian makes some fire on us," said Shepard firmly. "That's what the gas grenades are for."

Kaidan nodded. "You got it, Commander. Let's do this."

The gas took out all the shooters except Arcelia. She came up, her rifle aimed at Garrus's back. Shepard moved in, grabbing her arm and lifting the rifle up so the shot missed Garrus by several feet. He brought the top of his head down on the bridge of her nose, sending her to the ground. Blood gushed from her face, but she was out of the fight.

He told Kaidan to make sure the colonists were both alright and going to stay unconscious for long enough for them to deal with the Thorian.

Hacking the lock to move the freighter didn't take long. Shepard was starting to head in when he heard Fai Dan's voice. "I tried to fight it, but it gets in your head. You can't imagine the pain." The man had a gun in his hand as he staggered towards them. And they were out of grenades. "I was supposed to be a leader. These people trusted me." He lifted the gun. Reluctantly, Shepard did the same. "It wants me to stop you…" Fai Dan shook his head. "But I…" The gun shook. "I won't." Fai Dan shifted his aim. "I won't!"

The man pulled the trigger. And took his own life. Shepard sighed.

"Okay, by the numbers. We just need to find…" Kaidan nearly ran into Shepard as the man came to an abrupt stop. "To find…" His gaze went to whatever Shepard was staring at. "What…" He stared. "Is that?"

They were staring at what could only be the Thorian. It was massive, possibly larger than the Normandy and hardly looked like a plant. In fact to looked more like at tentacle monster and some kind of liquid was pouring out of what appeared to be a mouth.

"That does not look like any plant I've ever seen," Shepard stared. "This may be… problematic."

Slowly, Shepard started to move forward, gesturing for Kaidan, Ashley and Garrus to stay put. Liquid started to drop from the thing's mouth? And then a green skinned asari slide out.

"Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose." The green asari stared at them. "I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"

"You gave something to Saren." Shepard nodded. "Something I need."

"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the Long Cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given! The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies! It will listen no more!"

"I won't let you keep your thralls," said Shepard narrowing his eyes. "Release them. Now!"

"No more will the Thorian listen to those that scurry. Your lives are short, but have gone on too long." She attacked.

They took her out easily, but the Thorian unleash more of it's creatures towards them and it looked as if they were going to be overrun at any moment. However, the Thorian roared in pain when they shot a pod, Shepard turned his attention on the pod destroying it. It alos caused the Thorian to send out less and less of those things.

"There's another one of those pods. Garrus, hit it." Shepard had to punch one of the fungus-people.

Kaidan glowed blue, and used his biotics to throw a half dozen of them off the ledge. Ashley on the other hand was letting loose with her assault rifle mowing down anything that got in her way. The Thorian made a roaring sound as Garrus sniped the pod. Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan stayed back to back, keeping the fungal-things from getting to the turian as he focused on the Thorian itself.

"Almost there, Commander," Kaidan said. "That thing has to drop soon."

"Hopefully before we do." Shepard grabbed one of the fungal things and threw it at where one of the psuedo-asari was starting to glow. It hit her, knocking her back. He then shot her before she could get her biotics going again.

As another pod was blasted apart, the Thorian started to shudder. Then it started collapsing in on itself. The remaining nodes pulled free as it fell, shaking the entire structure. For a moment, Shepard was worried the entire place was going to go down with it. With a final rather horrifying sound, the Thorian was gone.

Then suddenly a pustule on the wall started to move. And an asari fell out of it. He went with a curse instead, and nearly fired a shot before realising this particular asari was a purple.

Slowly, she got to her feet, and began looking around her. "I'm free." She smiled. "I'm free. I—" She seemed to notice them for the first time. "I suppose I should thank you for releasing me."

"Is everything all right? Are you hurt?

"I am fine. Or I will be, in time," she said. "My name is Shiala. I serve—" She shook her head. "I served Matriarch Benezia. When she allied herself with Saren, so did I." Past tense was definitely appropriate. "Benezia foresaw the influence Saren would have. She joined him to guide him down a gentler path. But Saren is compelling, Benezia lost her way."

Shepard's eyes widened. "Are you saying Saren can control minds?"

"Benezia underestimated Saren. As I did. We came to believe in his cause and his goals. The strength of his influence is troubling."

"She tried to manipulate Saren," said Garrus. "But in the end, her plan backfired."

"Asari Matriarchs are among the most intelligent and powerful beings in the galaxy," Shepard frowned. "How could one fall under Saren's control?"

"Saren has a vessel. An enormous warship unlike anything I've ever seen. He calls it Sovereign. It can dominate the minds of his followers. They become indoctrinated to Saren's will. The process is subtle. It can take days, weeks. But in the end, it is absolute. I was a willing slave when Saren brought me to this world. He needed m biotics to communicate with the Thorian, to learn its secrets. Saren offered me in trade. I was sacrificed to secure an alliance between Saren and the Thorian."

"Saren's pretty quick to betray his own people," Shepard noted.

Shiala nodded. "He was quick to betray the Thorian, too. After Saren had what he needed, the Thorian became a liability." She nodded to him. "Saren knows you are searching for the Conduit. He knows you are following his steps. He attacked the Thorian so you could not gain the Cipher."

"What's the Cipher? And why did Saren need it?"

"The beacon on Eden Prime gave you visions. But the visions are unclear, confusing. They were meant for a Prothean mind." She spread her hands. "To truly comprehend them, you must think like a Prothean. You must understand their culture, their history, their very existence." She lifted a hand. "The Thorian was here long before the Protheans built this city. It watched and studied them. When they died, it consumed them. They became a part of it."

"So the Thorian taught Saren to think like a Prothean?" Shepard frowned. "How?"

"The Cipher is the very essence of being a Prothean. It cannot be described or explained. It would be like describing color to a creature without eyes. To understand, you must have access to endemic ancestral memory. A viewpoint spanning thousands of Prothean generations. I sensed this ancestral memory—the Cipher—when I melded with the Thorian. Our identities merged, our minds intertwined. Such knowledge cannot be taught; it simply exists."

"I need that knowledge to stop Saren!"

"There is a way. I can transfer the knowledge from my mind to yours, as I did with Saren." Shepard couldn't say he was fond of the idea, but he had no alternative. He then nodded. "Try to relax, Commander. Slow, deep breaths. Let go of your physical shell. Reach out to grasp the threads that bind us, one to another." Shiala began to approach him. "Every action sends ripples across the galaxy. Every idea must touch another mind to live. Each emotion must mark another's spirit. We are all connect. Every living being united in a single, glorious existence. Open yourself to the universe, Commander." Her eyes went black. "Embrace eternity!"

Images floated in his mind. Some vaguely recognizable. Others dancing tantalisingly out of reach. The screech of metal on metal. Noise and knowledge, too fast for him to be able to grab any long enough for them to make any damn sense. For a moment, he simply drifted in space, looking across the universe at… something.

When he opened his eyes again, Shiala was looking back at him. Her face mirrored his own confusion. She nodded. "I have given you the Cipher, just as it was given to Saren. The ancestral memories of the Protheans are a part of you now."

Kaidan's hand touched his shoulder, and looked at him with concern. "Are you all right, Shepard? What did she do?"

"I saw…" He needed to redefine the term 'okay'. "Something. It still didn't make any sense."

"You have been given a great gift: the experience of an entire people. It will take time for your mind to process this information."

"You look pretty rough," said Kaidan as he pulled out his scanner and gave him a worried look. "We should get you back to the ship."

Shiala sighed. "I am sorry if you have suffered, but there was no other way. You needed the Cipher. In time, it will help you understand the vision from the beacon."

He looked at Shiala. "Now that you're free of the Thorian, what are you planning to do next?"

"If you allow it, I would like to stay here with the colonists. They have suffered greatly, and I played a role in their suffering. I would like to make amends."

Shepard couldn't see anything wrong with that and there was no denying that the colonists needed help. "The colonists will need all the help they can get. They'll be happy to have you on their side."

"Thank you, Commander. May fortune smile upon you."