The Candidate – 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect. All that belongs to Bioware, and Drew Karpyshyn. I am merely playing in their universe.

Debriefing

Shepard was sitting in a ward of the command hospital in Armali. He had been brought there the moment he had landed in Thessia. He had requested that the four injured and exhausted commandos along with Matriarch Benezia to be taken to the local hospital. However, the Asari authorities, having taken one look at him and his companions, had insisted that he too accompany the others for a quick evaluation at the same medical facility. Shepard couldn't deny that he too needed some rest as well. The last two weeks had been nerve-wracking, so the rest it offered would be very welcome indeed.

Shepard had slept in the bed trying to get as much rest as he could before the investigators turned up. He had managed to get a few hours sleep before he had been woken up by a nurse who told him he had guests. Shepard had managed to make himself look somewhat presentable but there wasn't much you could do in a few minutes.

As his 'guests' began to enter his room Shepard had to admit that his set of visitors were truly august and indimidating. The first to enter was councillor Tevos followed by a spectre, Tela Vasir, who had been sent to observe him. She looked angry enough to scratch his eyes out. `It is either that or she'll shoot me between the eyes if I so much as twitch in a way she doesn't like.' Shepard thought darkly.

Behind Tela was Matriarch Artemisia, the Asari who had awarded him his current task. The last to enter was a normal looking Asari if it weren't for the eyes. Those eyes told him that nothing would be able to take her off guard and that if anything tried it would most likely turn up dead and beaten. Not necessarily in that order. The last Asari was introduced as Matriarch Thalia.

Shepard's four visitors took in his exhausted appearance and his weak attempt to freshen himself up. Matriarch Artemisia waved Shepard back in his back imperiously when he rose to greet them. Shepard sat on the edge of his bed as three of his four visitors occupied the three chairs while Tela placed herself with her back to the door.

"Commander Shepard," began Councillor Tevos, "we are here to congratulate you on your successful mission. Bringing Matriarch Benezia and her students who were trapped on Noveria back here safely without raising any suspicion about what happened to them was a superb performance on your part." Councillor Tevos paused to let that sink in. "Particularly given the difficulty of the task and the unforeseen complications."

The remark about the unforeseen complications had not been unexpected. But he preferred to let them lead the interrogation. "I merely did my job, Councillor," Shepard said mildly. "I'm more interested about the matriarch and her students. Are they alright?"

"You will be pleased to know that they will recover completely." Matriarch Artemisia answered with a warm smile. "This city owes you its gratitude, Commander. As for myself, I owe you a debt that I cannot ever repay. Matriarch Benezia is a close personal friend."

Tela Vasir began the interrogation. "Tell us how you got them out?" she asked him. Though it sounded more like a demand than a politely asked question.

Shepard considered for a few moments, trying to arrange his thoughts, and began, "When I landed in Port Hanshan, I learnt that the Binary Helix security had sent a code omega signal – a terminal breach of security protocols and shut down the station VI. If there was no `all clear' signal from Binary Helix security within a reasonable period of time, the Noveria Corporate Board would vote whether to destroy the facility. I had to forestall them. Using our cover as the experts hired to put in place the new security devices and protocols for Synthetic Insights, Liara, Tali and I began installing surveillance devices provided by the Asari intelligence around the Binary Helix buildings. Initial observations showed that there was an outer cordon of Geth outside the labs. Familiarising ourselves with the Geth patrol times and routes in a couple of days, Tali and I sneaked past them to the VI and we managed to bring it back online without much trouble. We prioritised only electronic surveillance of the entire station, shutting down all other functions, and arranged for the VI to send us the surveillance footage at irregular intervals to prevent the Geth from picking up the transmissions." Shepard paused again to let that sink in and to see if they had any questions. Since none of them said anything Shepard continued retelling what had happened.

"After our surveillance, I saw that the situation was complicated. There was an outer ring of Geth, cutting off access to the outside. Inside the main facility, there was a horde of Rachni cutting off access to the tramways which led to the rift station, which was where Lady Benezia and the still living staff of Binary Helix were holed up. The security and scientists had retreated to one of the med bays. The Matriarch, and her remaining students had been driven back into one of the labs. Between the scientists and the Matriarch, was another bunch of Geth. To make matters worse, I found that the Matriarch was not... In full possession of her faculties. She was in considerable distress, both from whatever was tormenting her and from Rachni venom. So were a couple of her students."

For the first time, Matriarch Thalia spoke, her eyes flashing, "What was Benezia suffering from apart from Rachni toxin?"

"I am not at all sure," spoke Shepard softly, his voice fraught with worry. "I only know what her student – a Dr. Alestia Iallis – reported to Liara."

The Matriarchs exchanged glances. "What did she say?"

"That Matriarch Benezia had been … under the influence of Saren."

"How so?" The question had come like a bullet from Tela Vasir.

"Apparently, the monstrous dreadnought that Saren possesses emits some kind of signal allows him to bend the wills of the others. Dr. Iallis escaped only because she and another of the Matriarch's students had never been on the ship," returned Shepard drily.

"That's preposterous!" exploded Vasir. "No ship could …."

"I don't know," returned Shepard, his gentle voice full of concern. "On Eden Prime, people who had been exposed to that ship's signal for just a few minutes spoke of suffering from a searing headache. Is it so impossible that the ship should be able to affect the minds of those who were in it for long periods?"

The others stared at each other in worry, and, it seemed to Shepard, fear. Vasir perched herself on the window ledge. Matriarch Artemisia intervened, "Be that as it may, please continue, Commander."

Shepard shot an irritated look at Vasir took a deep breath to calm down and continued where he had been interrupted.

Shepard proceeded, "There were two separate groups of people who were in distress and both had to be rescued nearly simultaneously. From the conversations between the Asari that the VI surveillance picked up, I also knew that the Matriarch and some of her students had been poisoned, I had to get an antidote for them."

"And how did you get Rachni anti-venom?' asked Councillor Tevos.

"Rachni venom is basically a variant of warfarin," sighed Shepard. "It interferes the ability of blood to clot. The best antidote to it is phylloquinone. However, phylloquinone is a controlled substance on Noveria, and not sold without a prescription. So, I had to improvise the antidote."

The four Asari stared at each other in stupefaction. "How did you do it?" inquired Matriarch Thalia finally.

"It was not all that hard," smiled Shepard. "Menadione, a pet food supplement, is however easily available. I simply had to buy a few dozen tablets, and heat them with an equivalent mixture of phytol – a raw material used in making perfumes – in the presence of oxalic acid dihydrate – essentially, stain removers."

"And this was what was in the blackened vials that were found in your luggage?" asked Matriarch Artemisia, thunderstruck.

"Indeed, yes," answered Shepard.

It was well for the Asari that they were already sitting down. What this human was saying was fantastic, terrifying, unreal. To counteract Rachni venom with a jury rigged antidote improvised from pet food supplements, perfume raw material and stain removers – it took resource, knowledge and skill of the highest degree. Very few field agents would have had the ability to do what Shepard had done, and get away with it. Yet, proof of it was the fact that all five of the Asari who had been trapped in the Binary Helix facility had been rescued and brought back alive by the human. Matriarch Thalia pulled herself together with an effort. "If the rest of your story is as interesting as what you told us until now... Please Shepard. Continue."

"I had Liara contact one of Matriarch Benezia's students. This woman, a researcher in microbiology, assured Liara that she would make sure that the Asari would be ready to leave when we gave the word. She warned us that their situation precluded fighting, though. It was lucky that we had the time and the resources to determine how to get there. Getting past the Geth and the Rachni was no easy feat. Tali and I had prepared for that though and the results are obvious."

Matriarch Thalia nodded. That agreed with what her agents had reported.

"I returned to Port Hanshan, then. You see, I was worried about the Noveria Board's decision about the Binary Helix facility. The last thing I wanted was for them to vote to destroy the Binary Helix facility before I was ready to move. So I arranged for a distraction by providing a Noveria Internal Affairs agent with information about the corruption of the Port Hanshan administrator, Anoleis. This was something that had come to my notice, and I found a use for it. With the board preoccupied with the corruption of the administrator, they would be unlikely to focus on Binary Helix."

Yes, they had done that very efficiently indeed, thought Matriarch Thalia. What the three had done was recover the data from Manager Lorik Qui'in's Synthetic Insights office proving Administrator Anoleis' corruption, without firing a shot. The Matriarch's daughter had played a damsel in distress and had caused a loud scene, while the Quarian had triggered a fire alarm, distracting everyone. While the ERCS guards were distracted by the other two, Shepard had sneaked in, and activated the close circuit cameras that had been disabled by the Port Hanshan police, recording the irregularities perpetrated by the police itself, and recovered Lorik Qui'in's evidence as well. Then he had persuaded Qui'in to testify against Anoleis and sold his evidence to a Noveria internal affairs agent named Gianna Parasini.

"Goddess!" breathed both Councillor Tevos and Matriarch Artemisia, while Tela Vasir growled, "You distracted me as well."

There was a slightly amused smile on Shepard's lips. "I did nothing of the sort. You let yourself be distracted."

The others looked confused, and Matriarch Thalia spoke quietly, "Perhaps you could explain, Commander Shepard?"

"There's not much to explain, really. You may remember the original evidence connecting Matriarch Benezia to Saren and the Geth? I left it with a police sergeant in Noveria." He turned to Vasir, "Why, by the way, did you kill that sergeant?"

"Who says she was killed?" growled Vasir.

Shepard sighed and reached into an inside pocket, and extracted a small datapad. He pushed it towards the Asari spectre. "You wanted to know how I know about Sergeant Stirling being killed? I can read – that is why. That's Noveria's latest news."

"I never killed her!" Tela Vasir defended.

"Didn't you? Well, it is certainly fortuitous for us that the evidence connecting Benezia to the Geth has been recovered by you and is safe." Although Shepard had spoken in a very mild tone, his words could not have been more provocative.

"She was a corrupt cop," returned Vasir firmly.

"Why did you leave that evidence with a corrupt cop, Shepard?" questioned Matriarch Thalia.

Shepard answered readily, "Precisely because no one would suspect her. And I have enough leverage over her to ensure that she will not double cross me."

"What happened next, Shepard?" queried Councillor Tevos.

"Not much more to explain, ma'am." Shepard replied with a weary smile. "We struck at Binary Helix then. One good thing that the shutting down of the VI had done was that it had also snapped all satellite links with the outer world. That meant that the Geth were cut off from the commune, and more vulnerable to us. Tali and I came up with a useful hacking program. I restored the satellite link and broadcast the hacking program at full power, through the satellite transmissions. The Geth systems were completely scrambled by our program. Then it was simply a matter of shooting the disoriented Geth and getting into the main centre. There, I initiated the neutron purge via the VI to destroy all the Rachni in the main facility."

Matriarch Thalia nodded inwardly. Yes, the Asari technicians were examining the dead Geth in Noveria, and what Shepard said agreed with what they were finding. The Geth had been submerged in the software equivalent of a fog – their sensors had been inundated by a sea of noise, combined with spurious virus attacks on their core systems, hugely reducing their processing power, while altering the power requirements of different subsystems, causing catastrophic overloads for the Geth. In effect, the Geth had been reduced to mindless hulks by the program, and with those accursed synthetics cut off from the commune, she could well believe that they were unable to recover before being executed by the trio. However, with an effort, she pulled herself out of her thoughts and listened to Shepard's explanation.

"After that, we hopped on the tram to get to the Rift station. Once there, given the Matriarch's disposition – she was constantly veering between tentative cooperation with her Asari students and outright hostility under Saren's influence – we decided to take no chances. We used the same program against the Geth, and pumped in a home-brewed knock out aerosol into the ventilation systems to render everyone – Rachni, scientists and the Asari – unconscious."

Matriarch Thalia grimly reflected that Shepard had been nothing but extremely thorough. He had pumped in one of the methylfentanyl variants dissolved in a halothane base to create an aerosol – a combination that was a hundred times more powerful than the equivalent amount of morphine – into the Rift station. In the confined space of the labs and the med-bays, everyone would have been knocked unconscious in less than a couple of minutes, well before they realised that they were being incapacitated. The intriguing part was that Shepard had likely improvised methylfentanyl from piperidine – a common industrial solvent.

Shepard continued, "I then broadcast the all clear signal, executed the remaining Rachni, got hold of the Matriarch and her students, and left with them on the Matriarch's ship. We flew to to Yelburgi – a small settlement three hours flying time away – and transferred to a chartered ship to Thessia."

"You flew to Yelburgi! How did you get the Matriarch's shuttle flying?" The exclamation had come from Tela Vasir.

Shepard answered, "The engine of the Matriarch's shuttle had frozen solid in the cold, yes, but Tali was able to make some repairs and modifications to get the ship airborne once more."

A flying miracle, grunted Thalia to herself. That was what the stunned mechanics who had examined the ship had said. The young Quarian had foraged in the Binary Helix spares and patched in a pair of engines originally designed for Mantis attack gunships into the bay of a D34 transport shuttle.

"Why did you not return to Port Hanshan, Commander?" inquired Tevos.

"I judged it safer not to return to Port Hanshan."

"What do you mean by that?" inquired Artemisia.

"It is quite possible that my raid would become known once the Geth started dying in the Binary Helix research centre. Many Geth carried small portable transmitters, capable of reaching Port Hanshan. It was possible that some of Saren's minions might be in Port Hanshan and try to intercept me. With several non-combatants, and wounded in my care, it would be very stupid to look for a fight. I considered it more prudent to fly to Yelburgi."

The Matriarchs and the Councillor glanced at each other, and the Councillor broached the most important topic, "About those Rachni ..."

"They won't be a problem anymore, ma'am," replied Shepard grimly. "They have been dealt with."

"But who …," began Matriarch Artemisia ...

Shepard drew a small OSD from his tunic and tossed it towards Tela Vasir, "This contains a record of all transmissions to and from the Binary Helix facility to Cerberus. It seems that they were breeding Rachni for their own purposes!"

"Cerberus!" all the others in the room growled.

"What can you tell us about this group, Commander?" queried Councillor Tevos.

"Not much, I am afraid," replied Shepard. "Nothing you don't already probably know. They are a supposed terrorist group, who put human dominance of the galaxy above all else. They have a penchant for utterly unethical science experiments, and have perverted science for their own ends plenty of times. They were once a black ops group of the Alliance, and have since gone rogue – or so it is said."

"Do you doubt it?" The question had come from Matriarch Thalia.

Shepard shrugged, "They certainly have very powerful protectors in the Alliance. If they had truly gone rogue, it is doubtful they would be so protected. My own theory is that they do useful favours for the Alliance, and are consequently, protected. But not everything done by Cerberus is approved by the Alliance, and most of the Alliance officials and soldiers are truly ignorant of Cerberus and its connections to the Alliance. Therefore, when something ghastly done by Cerberus comes to light, they can honestly deny any knowledge of it. In fact, among the intelligence staff and special forces, Cerberus is particularly despised."

"Why is Cerberus despised?" inquired the spectre.

"For the same reason Spectres are disliked by C-Sec," replied Shepard with a weary smile. "Cerberus plays fast and loose with every rule and protocol, leaving colossal messes for us to clean up or explain."

"So, if we were to produce this evidence against Cerberus to the Alliance …," began Councillor Tevos.

"It is unlikely anything much would come of it," answered Shepard, completing her sentence. "They will deny all knowledge of Cerberus experiments with the Rachni. Probably truthfully. But they certainly are not likely to go after Cerberus."

Matriarch Thalia signalled to the others and they all obeyed. Councillor Tevos and Matriarch Artemisia once more congratulated Shepard on safely recovering the Matriarch and her students, and left, along with Tela Vasir. Only Matriarch Thalia remained. She walked to the window, and smoothly pulled a listening device off the curtains in one hand. Without missing a beat, she dropped it on the ground and stomped on it. "Now we can talk freely," she smiled. "I take it you recognised me?"

Shepard nodded, "Head of Armali's intelligence for the last ninety five years. A privilege to meet you, ma'am." It was easy to see that Shepard meant it.

She smiled at Shepard and it was a very warm and admiring smile. "You are good, Shepard. Very good indeed. You not only managed to do the impossible and get Benezia out without arousing any suspicion, you also managed to outwit everyone else here today." Her lips quirked in amusement. "Not only that but you also managed to put one over Tela Vasir. I doubt any of my own agents could do that."

"I don't think Vasir liked that," replied Shepard.

"No. No, I don't think she did. But really, Shepard – what she likes is immaterial. But tell me – did you deliberately set up that police sergeant on Noveria to be killed?"

"Sergeant Stirling? No. I don't work like that," Shepard shook his head. "I intended for Vasir to buy that evidence. Stirling was corrupt and a mercenary. I knew Vasir was having me shadowed, so I made sure that my tails knew I had handed over the evidence connecting the Geth to Benezia to Stirling. I expected them to run back to Vasir and tell her what had happened, and Vasir to buy that evidence."

"Why did you do that?"

"Two reasons. First, I wanted to get Vasir off my back. If she found out that that evidence was with a corrupt cop, she would run to secure it, leaving me free to do what I needed to do. Second, that evidence was once a weapon in my armoury. Now, its utility had been expended, and it was a weapon against me. I wanted to get rid of that evidence as quickly as possible and what better way than to dispose of it in a fashion that would aid my cause?"

Shepard continued, speaking almost to himself, "Still Vasir's ruthlessness relieves me of an embarrassing problem."

"What do you mean?"

"I bullied that corrupt sergeant to do me a favour using the footage of her activities in the Synthetic Insights office. I intended for Vasir to pay for that favour, by buying that evidence. For aiding me, that sergeant would get her reward, with Vasir paying for it. For being corrupt, I would have exposed her to Maeko Matsuo. That would be her punishment for her corruption. In the longer run, it is more important to keep faith with Maeko Matsuo than with that pathetic corrupt bully of a sergeant."

Thalia seemed taken aback at the ruthlessness of the human. She collected herself enough to inquire, "What favour did the sergeant do for you?" inquired Matriarch Thalia.

"I persuaded her to let me have physical access to their satellite targeting systems." answered Shepard.

"Why?"

"You remember I told you about the Board being able to destroy the facility if it needed?" Seeing the Matriarch's nod, Shepard continued, "Did you never wonder how they proposed to destroy it?"

The Matriarch looked questioningly at him, and the human explained, "They planned to fire an antimatter warhead from one of the battle stations, guided by the satellites. I accessed the targeting systems, removed the targeting radio frequency crystal, and left it on the table. Even if they put it back, they would need several hours to re-calibrate the targeting systems, before it could be used. More than enough time for me to get in and out of the Binary Helix facility."

"But the board was already occupied with that corrupt administrator ..." began Matriarch Thalia, before the answer flashed to her. "You feared that Vasir might make murderous use of the battle systems?"

"I was not going to leave it to chance," replied Shepard grimly. "I'd be a fool to do so."

Thalia nodded. She remarked, "You have told me everything. But why did you want to rescue Benezia at all?"

"I told you, she is a friend of humanity ..."

"All that is true, but that is not the real reason, is it?" Thalia's voice was very quiet and firm.

"What other reason could there be, Matriarch?" echoed Shepard.

"Think once more, Shepard. It is best to be frank with me."

"I have said all I have to say," replied Shepard equally quietly.

"Very well, then," smiled the Matriarch. "I shall tell you your reason. Let us speculate that Rachni breeding project was not a Cerberus project – at least, not originally. It was an Alliance project, and your mother, being the head of secret Alliance science projects, was probably responsible for it. But after the Rachni were bred, it was either taken over by Cerberus, or perhaps even handed over to Cerberus. However, there was still evidence connecting the Alliance with the project. When you found out that Benezia was at the Binary Helix facilities, you were horrified. You already knew about the Rachni breeding project. At all costs, the evidence connecting the Alliance to the project had to be eliminated. Therefore, I suspect, you played a masterly charade. You were never interested in Saren and your subsequent actions bear that out – you were content to leave that part of the investigations to the Alliance. It is also why you – ah, rescued – Liara T'Soni. You wanted some leverage against Benezia if she had not already fed us the information about the Alliance involvement with the Rachni. With Liara in your hands, you came to us with the evidence connecting Benezia to Saren, played the part of a traitor and a renegade officer, got us to sponsor your infiltration of Binary Helix to rescue Benezia. While fulfilling our task, you could and did also accomplish your own objectives. Now, with the evidence pointing at Cerberus, the Alliance is safe, and only Cerberus will be blamed! How close is my guess?"

Shepard had remained immobile and stony while Thalia expounded her theory. He answered slowly, "It is conjecture. There is nothing to establish it."

"Of course," smiled Matriarch Thalia. "That is the whole point. If there were still genuine evidence connecting the Rachni to the Alliance, your mission would be a failure!"

"All this is pointless," replied Shepard coldly, his voice soft and terrible. "Such conjecture is idle – fruitless and dangerous. For instance, Matriarch, it is possible to speculate that Lady Benezia did not join Saren of her own accord. Asari matriarchs of her stature do not risk their lives, reputations, and liberties on a whim or a wild goose chase. Let us conjecture that the Asari knew something of what Saren was up to. They wished to turn him away from that path. The Asari are the past masters of this game – cultivating capable figures from other races, influencing them to think in the Asari way, or at least, be tolerant of Asari interests. One might conjecture that Benezia joined Saren precisely because it was an Asari intelligence operation. And Lady Benezia is the agent of influence par excellence, and has no rival in that field. When I came to you with my offer, it was a godsend for you. You were in a fix with Benezia trapped inside Binary Helix, neither able to rescue her, nor openly destroy her. After all, it is bad form to throw one's own agents to the wolves – it would be devastating to the morale of the other agents. When I offered to get Benezia out of the Binary Helix facility, it served your own interests. You were content to let me try to rescue her, with no risks for you, before you had recourse to more ruthless means. And Vasir was following me all the time, because, if I failed, it would be necessary to obliterate any evidence connecting Benezia to Saren. Am I close to the truth, ma'am?"

Thalia had stood rock still during the exposition. She gazed at Shepard for a long moment, and broke into soft applause. "Magnificent, Shepard! Magnificent, indeed! Whether your guess is true or not, you are the perfect foil for any agent! You can put any Asari matriarch to shame with your deviousness!"

-(Author's Notes)-

Some head spinning conspiracies and plots from all sides. All sides playing with the truth. All of them tell the truth, and often nothing but the truth, but no one tells the entire truth. Partial truths are more useful in obscuring the full truth than any lie.

Also, I am emphasising Shepard's strengths in this chapter. He prefers to fight with science when he has to fight at all, and is a fantastic improviser. So, by the way, is Tali. That is why the two will get along very well. One major change I made with the game is that I got rid of the Geth on the road to Binary Helix – it is a little too much to expect that anyone would be able to smuggle in colossi and armatures, not to mention cannon towers.

Do guess where the idea of pumping methylfentanyl into the ventilation systems comes from. Hint: It was done in 2002.

I am surprised that none of my German readers picked up the reference to Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz, who was protesting the Einsatzgruppen atrocities in Poland. His protests were what Shepard's memo was based on.

Coming up next – Shepard gets an offer from the Asari.

As usual, all comments are welcome.