"I didn't expect to find you here, Shepard."
Probably she thought I'd be hiding in my cabin. Ever since Jack had been kidnapped though, the commander disliked spending much time there. Staying in comparative luxury while her girlfriend was trapped in her own private hell didn't sit well with Shepard, but she didn't feel like admitting that and so she just said, "I wanted some air."
Ignoring the incongruity of that statement aboard a starship, Miranda replied, "You'll be happy to know that the artifact has been secured in the science lab without incident. Operative Rooker's best guess is that it's a variant of the Husk spikes the Collectors used, but keyed for another species, probably one from a previous cycle. She thinks that an in-depth comparison of the two devices will shed further light on how the Reapers transform their victims."
Shepard didn't try very hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice, and she was sure she hadn't succeeded. "Well, I hope it's useful. We certainly killed enough people to get the damned thing."
The operative said nothing in response, simply starring out the window, and Shepard decided to press her. "Go ahead and pretend this doesn't bother you but I'm not buying it. You may not like to talk about your personal life, but I've seen the Shadow Broker's files on you."
That got her attention. Miranda turned around, her brows narrowing. "And just what did they tell you?"
"Who your father is. How he created you and tried to control you. And how far you were willing to go to break free of that control."
"I did what I had to. Surely you can understand that." Her eyes stayed hard, her mask still firmly in place, but there was just the tiniest tremor in her voice, and the commander kept going.
"I know you think I'm naïve but I'm a soldier Miranda. I've spent my entire adult life doing what I had to. Criticizing you wasn't my point."
"Then what exactly was?"
"That you're doing the same damn thing your father did, and I can't believe you're okay with that. Modifying my body, using me to manufacture a baby for Cerberus and then stealing that child… Does that remind you of anything? You're using Jack to control me. How would you feel if someone took your sister to do the same thing to you?"
A biotic flare erupted around Miranda and she stormed forward, her eyes burning. "I swear to god, Shepard, if you've had your friends hurt Oriana, I will send you Jack's severed head after she gives birth!"
Shepard rose, meeting Miranda's gaze without flinching but when she spoke, she did her best to keep her voice level. Don't attack her. Just make your point. Miranda has to see this for herself. "I didn't. I wouldn't do that to an innocent person."
She could see the operative's breathing relax slightly, and what might have been a flicker of shame passed behind her eyes. Verbally, though, Miranda didn't retreat. "This is different. My father only wished to advance his twisted idea of a dynasty. What Cerberus does, we do for the good of all of humanity. Of the galaxy."
"Are you so sure?" She sat back down, trying to reduce the temperature in the room, and she was glad when Miranda did the same. "The Reapers will probably be here in a matter of months, years at the most. How long will it be before my child is of any use to the Illusive Man? He wants them as a weapon for after the war, assuming any of us survive it. He wants his empire too."
For a long moment, Miranda said nothing. "An interesting thought," she finally replied. "What, precisely, do you expect me to do with it though? Do you think I'm going to apologize, tell the Illusive Man to let your girlfriend go, and give you back command of this ship?"
Shepard shook her head. "No, I suppose not. But maybe it will give you something to think on." You deserve a sleepless night or two. A small repayment for all the one's you've given me.
The operative got back up, striding out of the room without a further word. The weight on her shoulders as she walked seemed palpable and Shepard knew she'd been right. Miranda didn't like what she was doing. The question was: when the time came, would that matter?
"God, this a shit detail." Matthew Browner took a swig of his beer as his fellow soldier let out a snort of agreement. "Cooped up underground, spending our time guarding some drugged up bitch, putting up with that fucking Hope Lilium bossing us around all the time…"
The big man on the next stool over shook with laughter. "You think you're sick of her? You just got here. I've been stuck in this base for six months. Half a goddamn year of listening to her bitch us out just because she's bored." He spat. "Still, I guess it could be worse. We could've been the ones out there fighting those fucking Collectors. I hear they've got some weird-ass weapon that paralyzes you and then sucks your organs right out of your body."
Browner tipped back the last of his drink, the alcohol lending him an extra shot of courage. "Hey, I say bring it on. I signed up with Cerberus because the Alliance was nothing but red tape and parades. I thought this would be a chance to get out and kick some ass. Instead, it's just more bullshit, one boss worse than the last."
Alonzo Alvarez only shrugged. "What'cha gonna do? At least Cerberus pays better then the government." He glanced down at his watch. "Come on, let's call it a night. We pulled the early shift tomorrow and I don't want to be hung over for it."
Browner shook his head. "On at 0800. Just one more thing we can thank Ms. Lilium for."
He threw a few credits down on the bar to cover their tab and the two of them headed out into the chilly Shanxi night. Even the colony's main spaceport was a real one-horse town to someone who'd grown up in New York City, and at 2300 hours, he wasn't surprised that they didn't encounter another soul until they were almost at the lot where they'd left their skycar.
"Hello, gentlemen. Perhaps you can assist me."
Even in the meager illumination provided by the streetlights, Browner could see that the asari was cute. Light blue skin, a good figure, and a perky pair of tits that her shirt was unbuttoned far enough to give him a nice sense of.
He smirked. "Sure, babe. What do you need?"
Alvarez shot him a skeptical look, but he just rolled his eyes. He was no alien-lover, but he was also a man, and at the end of a long day, this babe looked pretty damn good to him.
"I seem to have misplaced my rental car. I thought perhaps it was parked here, but I may have been mistaken."
"Oh, don't worry about that," he told her trying not to be too obvious about his leering. "We'll give you a lift and you can come back and find it in the morning. Trust me, our car is much…"
His sentence was cut off abruptly by a wave of excruciating pain that began in his back and tore through the rest of his body. His legs failed and his solid frame crashed to the ground, his muscles spasming. He wrenched his head in the direction of Alvarez, hoping for help, but the other man wasn't moving, instead trapped in a biotic stasis field that the asari had projected.
A female quarian in a purple suit was walking over towards them, and Browner tried desperately to control his twitching hand. There was a pistol at his side, and maybe if he reached it, he could get out of this mess. Every inch he moved took an agonizing effort, but it was a wasted one. The asari's shoe crashed down on his arm and as the suit rat raised up her neural disruptor, all he could think was, "Fuck me, why did I wish for more excitement?"
"That was remarkably simple. I never realized how easily I could distract people."
Ashley laughed at Liara's observation. "Yeah, once you show most men a pretty girl, they get fairly stupid in a hurry." She and Garrus picked up the two fallen soldiers, cuffing them and efficiently removing their weapons and equipment.
"Just men?" Tali's voice was bemused. "I think she can distract Shepard pretty well too."
Liara felt herself blush at the remark. Her recent, brief encounter with the commander remained vivid in her mind and in spite of the confusion she still felt about things between them, there was no doubt that it had been intensely pleasurable.
"Yes, well, we should get moving," Liara said quickly, trying to distract herself from the erotic memories and her friends from the entire topic. "The last thing we would want is to be stopped by the local authorities kidnapping two Cerberus soldiers."
She and Garrus loaded their prisoners into the trunk of their skycar while Ashley handed one of the men's omni-tools to Tali. "You're sure you can pull this off? Because if it doesn't work, we're going to be left standing in quite a pile of shit."
"Don't worry. I won't let Shepard down."
Liara could almost see the self-assured smile behind Tali's helmet, and she hoped that her friend's confidence was warranted. If Cerberus realized what they were doing too soon, they would kill Jack, and no matter how much the biotic had complicated Liara's life, that wasn't something she could ever wish for.
"Ms. Lilium, we have a problem."
"Hope Lilium" looked up from her terminal, flashing an irritable glare at Sgt. Heller. The little man was a nervous wreck, constantly fretting on about nothing of particular importance.
"What is it? More wildlife breeching the security perimeter? A clogged toilet in the crew quarters?"
"No, Ma'am. Two of our soldiers, Privates Alvarez and Browner, didn't report back for their shifts this morning."
"So? They're probably just passed out drunk somewhere. Dock their pay and make them pull a few doubles when they turn back up."
"I don't think that's it." Heller's throat twitched and she could see beads of sweat forming on his pinched face. It was possible this was more than his usual overreaction. "Corporal Liu reports that the security protocols on Browner's omni-tool have been triggered. Someone just tried to gain unauthorized access to it."
The Cerberus operative took a deep breath, shaking off her boredom and focusing her attention. While it was always possible that that idiot Browner had triggered the protocols himself while drunkenly fumbling with the device, this could be a real problem. "Do we have a location on the missing omni-tool?"
"Yes, Ma'am. The tracking signal places it inside a small rental property about a mile east of the spaceport."
"And who's renting that house?" Must I think of every question myself? God, she hated being stuck here, managing these second-rate imbeciles while Lawson got to order around Shepard and command the Normandy. The other woman had fucked up the Shepard assignment the first time; she should have been the one stuck here babysitting their tattooed freak of a hostage while Hope got the ship and the glory.
"I don't know," Heller admitted. "This has all been happening very quickly."
"Well, find out on the double. And get a squad over to there to retrieve it." With any luck, they'll bag us a few of Shepard's friends here to rescue Subject Zero in the process. And if I'm very, very lucky, that will impress the Illusive Man enough to get me off of this useless flea speck of a world.