A/N: These boards certainly look a lot different than a few days back, suddenly there's a large bear sitting next to my story. But do not alarmed, he is old, bored and more interested in chewing on his water pipe than human flesh. :)
Also, a warning: Shepard's talks with Garrus are definitely not a prelude to kinky comfort sex! Sorry! No depressing and angst ridden love triangles in here. Morgan is just so terribly old-fashioned and thinks it's cool to remain faithful to someone she claims to love, that silly woman. Honestly, who wants to read about that?
As always, your reviews are much appreciated. Keep them coming, awesome people!
Chapter 11 - Exercises in Team Building
The galaxy does not only seem like a small place, it often also seems unbelievably cruel.
Shepard's joy from being reunited with an old friend had quickly turned into horror and fear as the Blue Suns gunship suddenly appeared out of nowhere, unleashing a barrage of missiles at unsuspecting Garrus. There had been so much blue-violet blood everywhere that Morgan had feared that Garrus would never survive his wounds, leaving her all alone on a ship with strangers and tentative allies.
But now, several hours later, Garrus lies in the medbay with Dr. Chakwas and Shepard standing at the foot of his bed, Morgan barely allowing herself to believe the marvels of modern medicine. The turian looks a little bit worse for wear, some of the shots have grazed the side of his face and those scars will never go away, but somehow they make Garrus look even more rugged and dangerous. "You two are worrying over nothing," he grumbles about Dr. Chakwas' orders confining him to bed rest for at least twenty-four hours.
"You nearly died, Garrus," Shepard reminds him. "I'm going to be really displeased if you disobey the doctor's orders and get some infection set in or something. No way I'm going to lose a friend to something stupid like his own goddamned impatience!"
Shepard is so vehement about this that Garrus gives up almost disappointingly quickly. Chakwas conducts a few more tests to make sure her patient is stable and recovering before she exits the medbay, allowing Shepard some privacy with her friend. Garrus immediately peppers her with questions about her resurrection, and Shepard quickly fills him in on the whole story and describes the mission they are on.
"I don't believe I'm saying this, Shepard, but it looks like you made the right call to join Cerberus for this task," Garrus nods, having listened to her tale.
"I haven't joined them," Morgan reminds him. "I still don't trust them, and you shouldn't either. We're just using their resources to stop the Collectors."
"Yeah, that's what I meant," Garrus says, tentatively poking the side of his scarred face. "Listen, Shepard... could you get me a mirror?"
"Sure thing, Garrus," Shepard jumps off the seat and starts looking around the medbay for a mirror, quickly finding one. "Don't worry, I can't even tell which side of your face took the rocket and which was just ugly to begin with."
Garrus laughs, then wincing and touching his cheek, feeling the injuries despite the painkillers. He quickly examines his face in the mirror, remaining rather pleased. "That's not as bad as I imagined," he remarks thoughtfully. "I will probably become an even bigger hit with the ladies. You'll have to ward them off me, Shepard."
"But what if your new scars will drive me so wild I decide to jump you myself?" Shepard laughs. Garrus looks a little worried before he realizes she is merely messing with him. "Sorry, Garrus, those are probably all krogan women who find scars attractive."
"I don't think the same can be said about women with scars, though," Garrus points out, looking at her badly healed side of the chin. "You might want to do something about that, because I don't think Liara has a drop of krogan blood in her."
"Yes, Chakwas is working on patching me up," Morgan nods. "Speaking of Liara... you have not heard anything from her during these years?" Garrus shakes his head, looking at her with sympathy. "The Illusive Man said she's working for the Shadow Broker now."
"What? That's a load of crock, Shepard," Garrus is bristling with disbelief. "Not the Liara we know. That said... things could change in two years, who knows what she has been doing all this time. When I last saw her, she was..." he turns away awkwardly. "She wasn't dealing with it well, Shepard. I guess none of us really were."
"It must have been tough," Shepard nods, falling silent. "I've been thinking about the old crew ever since I got back on my feet again. Seems like Wrex is back on Tuchanka and Kaidan is doing some classified work with the Alliance. And you would not believe this, but during our mission on Freedom's Progress, we actually ran into Tali!"
Garrus perks up immediately. "You met Tali? Why didn't you bring her with you?" Shepard explains the circumstances and Garrus nods, appearing a little disappointed. "Well, perhaps we will run into her again," he adds, a little hopefully.
Later on, Shepard prompts him to tell her about his adventures on Omega. It is not a happy tale. His team, put together with the sole reason to disrupt and annoy the mercenary packs running Omega were eventually betrayed from the inside by a fellow turian named Sidonis. Shepard promises Garrus to help him bring this traitor to justice, should they ever run across him.
"I think we've talked more than enough for now," Shepard finally realizes that she should allow Garrus to rest and recover his strength. "I'll let you get some sleep... oh, Archangel," she adds, chuckling at the way Garrus winces when he realizes his new nickname is not about to just go away.
Before retiring to her cabin, Shepard makes sure to speak with her crew, just to gauge their reaction to the way she runs things. Surprisingly enough, Lawson seems to approve of how things have gone so far. "As Cerberus operations go, this is by far one of the smoothest," she informs Shepard.
"That's because it's not a Cerberus operation," Shepard simply replies. Despite their barely disguised dislike for each other, they manage to speak civilly for a few minutes, Shepard trying to understand exactly how someone who claims to be so genetically superior to every other human can become so blindly devoted to a shady character like The Illusive Man, to the point of nearly idolizing him.
Miranda tells her more about herself. Her level of genetic modification is indeed far more extensive than in any other human. She has been virtually created in a tube using nothing but her father's DNA. Her father is an extremely wealthy and powerful businessman back on Earth, interested in using her to maintain his dynasty, arrogant control freak who has made Miranda feel like a glorified slave. She mentions escaping as soon as she has been able, seeking protection with Cerberus. When she also mentions that her father believed greatly in Cerberus' pro-human agenda and donated generously to them over the years, Shepard finds herself blinking in surprise.
"So... weren't you a little concerned that Cerberus might find your father's funding more important than whatever a sixteen year old with extensive genetic alterations could provide?" Morgan asks.
Miranda shakes her head, replying in her usual polite brainwashed tones. "The Illusive Man immediately recognized the biotic potential in me," she explains. "He promised to protect me from my father and he has been keeping his word for many years. That is why I have complete trust in everything he does."
"So you don't think that there's even a remote possibility that your father is actually still keeping tabs on you, only through Cerberus and The Illusive Man?" Shepard asks.
Miranda's face is briefly contorted by a flash of anger, but she regains control of her emotions very quickly. "I see what you are trying to do Shepard, but your efforts to erode my loyalty in Cerberus are doomed," she replies, then shaking her head sadly. "I don't know what needs to happen for you to give us a second chance. But I truly wish you would do so."
"We'll see about that," Morgan says, then excusing herself. For someone genetically perfect she has some frightening blind spots, Shepard thinks, heading to the elevator and then up to the CIC. Or maybe I'm just paranoid and see evil and betrayal everywhere. Kind of hard not to, when there really IS evil and betrayal lurking around every corner.
Jacob is a significantly more pleasant conversationalist, and she spends a good quarter of an hour chatting with him in the armory. Even though she does not ask directly, with some gentle prying Morgan gets the impression that there is more than simply working relationship between him and Miranda, or at least there have been some romantic ties there in the past.
When they talk about their old times with the Alliance, Taylor is quick to air his grievances. Apparently some of his more impressive and successful missions in the past have been hushed down the same way as Morgan's defeat of the Sovereign. "To maintain the illusion of peace to the general public and prevent widespread panic," Jacob says dismissively.
Morgan does not entirely appreciate this way of thinking. "I got frustrated about the treatment of the Reapers too, Jacob," she says. "But a part of me realizes that the Council is right, and that there was a selfish side of me that wanted the recognition and the accolades. But that's not what serving the Alliance has ever been for me, Jacob. That's not what it should be for anyone. This is not about our personal glory. This is doing what is best for humanity and the galaxy on the whole, without expecting anything for it."
Jacob looks thoughtful, then shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe I just wasn't cut out for the Alliance then. You're of a different stock, Shepard," he says. "Still, I can't believe you can forgive them for the way they treated you. Few months after your death, and it's like you had never existed, they took you off all posters, all vids, erased all existence of you."
Morgan laughs, much to Jacob's confusion. "My dear Mr. Taylor, I would certainly expect them to take my face off their recruitment vids," she chuckles. "I'm not sure how seeing my face would send an inspiring message to the potential recruits, considering that I was... you know, dead? That's a rather unappealing future prospect for a recruit, as I'm sure you'll agree."
Lastly, she visits Mordin in the ship's lab. Watching the hyperactive salarian work is almost mesmerizing, and he has this strange habit to speak out his every thought that passes through his brain, constantly talking with himself without even recognizing it. It seems Mordin has already made some small breakthroughs with the Collector intel, and he notes with some satisfaction that the facilities on the ship are very impressive, finding EDI highly helpful in particular.
Mordin confirms what several sources have already told her, he has past with the salarian STG. He reminisces slightly about his last mission before retiring from the special tasks forces. "Studied krogan genophage," he says. "Took water, tissue samples from krogan colonies. Did recon together with young Captain Kirrahe."
Shepard immediately snaps her fingers, the memory coming back to her. "Oh yes, I worked with him on Virmire!" she says. "I have only good things to say about him, he seemed highly professional and skilled."
Mordin nods enthusiastically. "Good captain. Bit of a cloaca, though. Always loved his speeches. Hold the line, and all that. Personally prefer to just do the job and go home. Maybe a military thing. All that chest pounding." He suddenly falls silent as he catches himself and looks at Shepard worriedly. "Err, no offense." Shepard merely laughs.
He explains a little bit more about the salarian interest in observing the genophage and whether the krogan are not slowly adapting to it. There are a lot of cold numbers to explain why even a slight increase in the krogan population could threaten the galactic peace, and Mordin recounts them with such confidence and assuredness, that Shepard cannot find a single weak point in his impersonal and brutal arithmetic. Every fiber of her being believes that the genophage is morally abhorrent, but... what if these projections of top STG scientists are correct? What if curing genophage would really bring about another Krogan Rebellion? With the Reapers threatening galaxy, Shepard realizes that they do not need another war that once already almost ended with krogan bringing the rest of the galactic races to their knees.
These questions are complicated and difficult, and not meant for a tired mind and body, so she quickly retires to her quarters and falls down on the cushy bed, being awoken exactly six hours later by Joker, informing her that considering their mission on Omega is complete, Operative Lawson has given him the order to begin preparing the ship for leaving the system. Morgan's swearing over the comms can probably be heard through all of CIC, but she cares little, there is still business she needs to attend to here on Omega, and Lawson be damned if she is thinking about getting in her way.
She quickly washes the last remnants of sleep from her eyes, before reaching out to Garrus on the intercom. "Oh Archangel, how is your gentle face today?" she jokes, earning a string of curses from Garrus. "Can you come up to my cabin?" Shepard asks then. "Quickly, if you may."
Garrus arrives almost immediately, and Shepard turns the stereo system in her quarters to the maximum, as she sees the turian entering through the doors. Garrus faces her with a surprised stare, as if wondering if she's truly interested in a wild session of dancing in front of the large aquarium filled with koi fishes. But Shepard clearly has other ideas, pointing to one of the seats at the nearby table, telling Garrus to sit down. She quickly moves the other seat so that she can sit right next to Garrus.
"Every place of this new Normandy is probably bugged," she leans closer to whisper in her friend's ear. "I'm not sure this will help, but I'm willing to take the chance."
Garrus nods, understanding. "If you distrust Cerberus so much, perhaps it's worth looking out for someone else willing to do something about the Collectors? Like the Alliance?" he asks.
"Cerberus maintain they are the only ones willing to tackle this," Shepard says. "If that is so, then I think we should stay on board. Use their crew, their ship, their resources, beat the Collectors without sacrificing a single Alliance marine or turian operative. In the meanwhile, we work to learn as much as we can about The Illusive Man and Cerberus and leave information drops for Hackett and Anderson to pick up. No matter how much of a 'nice' front these people put up, they are still ruthless, xenophobic hate mongers."
"I have no sympathy for them," Garrus shrugs. "If you want to expose them, go right ahead, you'll have my support."
"I'll need your support, Garrus," Shepard admits. "The Cheerleader is watching me day and night like a hawk, insisting I take her along on every mission outside Normandy. For now I can't pass a message with sensitive information to the Alliance… but you could. You are not watched as severely. You could make up a lot of reasons why you need to get off the ship."
"Sure thing, Commander," Garrus nods. "Nice to know we'll be taking down the Collectors while enjoying the comforting atmosphere of trust between us and our Cerberus teammates. Or… well, not."
"Yeah, it doesn't sound good, whichever way you twist it," Shepard winces. "But I need to make contact with the Alliance first, before they have learned of my resurrection from other sources. That would not look good." She passes a small OSD over to Garrus. "The messages to Hackett and Anderson are encrypted, to the best of my ability. There's a third, unencrypted message, that one is to my mother. Just send that to the Alliance command, they will pass it on."
Garrus accepts the OSD, looking grim. "It will be taken care of, Shepard."
"We'll be disembarking soon, with the pretext of delivering this," she points to a small datapad resting on her bed, "to Aria T'Loak. I found it on a corpse of one of the merc leaders during our fiery little encounter. Looks like those mercenaries were going to take Aria down after they had dealt with you."
"I think Aria will be very thankful to learn this," Garrus says. "Even more so because we already took care of these pretenders."
"Exactly," Shepard nods. "I figure having someone like Aria on my side can only be a good thing. And while I take Lawson and Taylor with me to visit Aria, you can slip off the Normandy and pass on the messages I gave you."
"Got it," Garrus nods, impressed. "Good thinking, Commander."
Shepard reaches out to shake his hand, then walking over to the sound system to turn down the volume of music. "You have no idea how much it means having you back on this ship, one person I can really trust," she says then.
"I think I have an idea how that feels, Commander," Garrus says, smiling thinly as he leaves. "In fact, I can relate very well…"