2183, Artemis Tau sector, Knossos System, Therum.
Of all the permanently inhabited planets I have ever landed on, Therum probably ranks as the worst, or among them. It was vital to the Alliance, producing large amounts of heavy metals, but I wouldn't have ever wanted to live on it. The average surface temperature of 59°C, a far cry from the 25°C that my body insisted was the normal temperature of any environment, after growing up aboard climate-controlled naval vessels, following my mother from one posting to another. I had no intention of even stepping out of the Mako IFV I was dropping onto the surface in.
Given the nature of the mission that was being carried out, I had brought Garrus Vakarian with me, alongside Kaiden Alenko. Garrus was as close to a representative of the Council as I had aboard the Normandy, aside from the first, and entirely unsupervised, Human SPECTRE. Kaiden was still a serving officer in the Alliance fleet, as was a biotic to boot. If we were carrying out an operation liable to result in the arrest of an Asari commando, I wanted him on hand to give my TASER a chance to down the only daughter of Saren's main ally, before we ended up inside a microscopic black hole or whatever else she was liable to do.
The drop went as well as it normally did. Joker brought in the Normandy, I drove the Mako off of the cargo ramp, and then brought it in for a landing on its jump jets, touching down perhaps three kilometres from the dig site that local intelligence had indicated was associated with the scientist.
We had just settled on the surface, and begun to follow the route suggested to us by Jane, as alliance soldiers had nicknamed the navigation VI built into the Mako, when, suddenly, Joker, aka Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, boke in on our communications circuit, from orbit. "Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings. Really strange. Like, off the damned charts. It looks like it's coming from an underground complex a few clicks away from your drop-zone."
"Roughly where her dig permit says she can be?" I asked.
"Pretty much." He replied. "Listen, Commander, if she is hostile, can you please try and bring her in alive anyway? I'm sure that her mother would be slightly less homicidally inclined if we had deliberately not killed her only daughter."
"I'll consider it, Joker." I replied. Knowing him, he was more interested in being able to take 3D scans of an actual living Asari, even if she was demented and homicidal.
The Mako began to trundle along, following a typically slightly meandering route across the rocky ground, and around a long river of lava. A short hop with the jump jets allowed me to cross perhaps fifteen metres of the molten material, cutting out a round trip of near two hundred yards, before I began to cruise up a low rise, and heard a very familiar sound.
A geth dropship, an all-to-familiar sight during the first phase of the Reaper War, appeared from behind the Mako, cruising overhead, and dropping a pair of Armature mechs, the rough geth equivalent of a light tank, along with a number of troopers.
"I think we can be fairly sure whose side she's on now." I commented, dryly. "She must have a safe house at that dig site."
"I think it's pretty much proven." Kaiden replied, watching the geth units taking aim in our direction.
"I agree there, Shepard. She's not on our side." Garrus replied.
Kaiden brought the turret around, and battle was joined, 155mm railgun vs the ionic plasma weapons favoured by the geth. A number of I infantry were disposed of with the co-axial machine gun. I was keeping the IFV mobile, and generally hull-down, with terrain blocking geth attacks, or simply evading them through careful driving. Each armature took about five on-target shots to disable, and the duel lasted perhaps two minutes.
Then we continued to advance, main turret swivelling around repeatedly to dispatch pockets of geth infantry, particularly those armed with rocket launchers. It wasn't more than half a kilometre or so until our path was blocked again, this time by a barricade that exceeded the jumping height of a Mako by a good factor of two. It was covered by three rocket turrets, which, immobile, were disposed of by the main turret after a somewhat shorter duel, before we were forced to proceed around a dogleg and into the base which, of course, was full of I troopers.
It was the other reason I'd brought both Garrus and Kaiden; they had tricks ideal for seeing off packs of geth in close quarters combat. It was still a brutal firefight when we disembarked from the Mako, having shredded perhaps thirty geth platforms, but we gained the upper hand inside of a minute of close quarters, exhilarating combat, assault rifles and pistols firing away. I had no biotic powers or technical skills to call on, so I was entirely limited to what could be achieved with careful shooting, well-placed grenades, and the occasional gun-butt.
Despite the intensity of the firefight, we cleared the further building from our transportation first: it needed doing anyway, as it contained the controls for the gate that would allow us to proceed beyond what appeared to be a repurposed mining outpost. The geth defending the building didn't last long in the face of three elite soldiers punching through the doorway with a very elegantly executed breach manuever. We opened the gate, before turning around, and fighting our way past the geth in the courtyard, exchanging fire with them for about twenty seconds while we crossed, and then cleared them out of their position in another close quarters engagement. We weren't going to leave any hostile robots behind us.
The last building contained a handful of geth, who we quickly cleared from the structure with volleys of fire and a couple of butt-strokings. Then we left the second gate closed. Crossing back to the Mako, we pulled down the access ladder gratefully, before using it to re-enter the Mako, and remove our helmets with relief. The combat had been intense, and both of us humans were covered in sweat. Gratefully, we took advantage of the water dispenser built into the fighting compartment, consuming two pints of the ice-cold fluid apiece. Garrus also partook of the water, and seemed just as grateful for it as we humans were. Crew welfare had been on the design list of the IFV from the outset, although handling was something most troops considered the tank incapable of.
Back in the saddle, we advanced again. The far side of the gated compound consisted of a series of firefights, tank vs armature units, at enough range to be very unpleasant, without cover of any kind. Generally, I was able to dodge the shots although a couple did strike the hull at various points. Inevitably, the Mako triumphed, after a considerable amount of time spent duelling each armature.
Around the next major bend, though, we found a larger version of the Armature, known as a Colossus. It was supported by a number of rocket armed geth distributed around the nearby buildings and folds in the ground. Fighting them was the first thing we did. Kaiden fired the main gun into the buildings, using the machine gun for clearing individuals out of creases in the ground. I drove over a couple of them to save him time.
Then we were just fighting the massive geth unit. Guns firing, we quickly set to work dismantling it slowly, and ultimately, after taking more than a dozen direct hits from the main gun, as another couple of hundred from the machine gun, it died.
It had been guarding a tunnel, into which I piloted the IFV, keeping an eye out for geth units, while Kaiden, manning the turret, kept scanning as well. There weren't any issues in the tunnel, although when we came out, about five rocket troopers were barring our way forward, sans any real cover. They died quickly, the three in the centre taking a slug from the main battery, while one of the flankers was mown down with the machine gun. I ran over the last one of them twice, before we continued on our way. Past them, there was the entrance to another tunnel, which we traversed as well.
This time, around the first corner, I saw the tell-tale flare of a rocket propelled weapon, rapidly approaching the forward armour of the Mako. I side-slipped, twisting the forward armour of the six wheeler out of line with the rocket, before Kaiden opened up from the turret. I drove over one geth, and the second was crushed under a volley from the co-axial machine gun. We proceeded through the rest of the tunnel, exiting it quickly, and finding ourselves confronted by a geth infantry position, with about ten troopers dug in behind a barricade. Kaiden fired the main gun into the barricade, causing a significant explosion, before I drove around it, allowing him to bring the machine gun into play once again, sawing down most of the geth, while another couple ceased processing under the wheels of the Mako.
Around the next corner, we found that we had reached what would have to be our debussing point, owing to a rock formation that there was no way I could get the Mako over or otherwise past. We were going to have to continue on foot.
Clambering back out into the sweltering heat, even inside climate controlled armour, I briefly weighed up the situation; One Spectre, one alliance biotic commando and one turian cop, even if the cop had done a period of military service, against an unknown number of geth units, and quite possibly a team of asari commandos, led by the presumably extremely powerful daughter of a very high ranking matriarch.
Wonderful.
Carefully, we advanced past the obstruction, keeping our zones covered. Letting a lone geth unit get the drop on all three of us would be extremely embarrassing. Around the corner, a Geth was present, armed with what looked like their standard rifle, and looking the wrong way.
We all fired at the same moment. Garrus and I fired a salvo from our assault rifles, while Kaiden rattled off a volley from his sidearm. Everything hit.
The Geth fell over.
Well, at least we knew it wasn't getting back on its feet, anyway.
A few seconds later, a rocket crashed into the wall ahead of us.
Briefly glancing around the corner, I saw a troop of geth, perhaps a dozen or so units, all armed with rifles. A couple of them were also carrying rocket launchers, which, of course, they wasted no time in firing at me.
"Fucking hell." I muttered, pulling my head back into the cover. Garrus was behind another rock, and before I really knew it, there was the tell-tale boom of a sniper rifle, followed an instant later by a second report. I checked again. Both rocket armed units were down. I followed up this brief observation with a volley of gunfire, collapsing the shields of a Geth unit and disabling it with ten rounds of assault rifle fire. A second burst of eight downed another trooper. Kaiden hurled in a pair of throws, and there were a lot of disoriented, floating geth. All three of us treated it like a shooting gallery.
We knew that there were going to be a lot more geth before the fight was over.
Rounding a U-bend in the rock, we were confronted by a basin, along with a number of I drones. My omnitool, when I pulled it up briefly, told me that the dig site itself was about four hundred yards away. On the far side of the Geth, of course.
Garrus briefly showed himself. At that point, a red laser sight, made visible through the specialised cameras feeding information to our HUDs, appeared, tracking towards the turian. He responded with a casual looking shot, which disabled the geth unit on the spot. Then all hell promptly broke loose, and we ducked into cover, a rocket propelled munition passing overhead as we ducked behind the rocks. Kaiden responded with a lift field, scooping five units out from behind various rocks, allowing us, once again, to introduce another cluster of geth to the concept of the turkey shoot. The surviving units, concentrated on the ground slightly above us to the right, also got shooting, but it didn't take long for precision bursts of fire to disable them, once they were clear of cover.
Continuing our advance, we passed through the area presumably being guarded by the I we'd just dispatched, finding no more hostiles, and reaching the entryway to the mineshaft without incident.
It was roughly at that point that Garrus noticed the geth coloured object hanging below the walkway we were about to pass underneath, just before it unfurled, confirming that it was a geth, and very good at climbing, jumping, and scuttling very low out of sight before anyone could get a shot off at it.
Of course, a dropship also picked that moment to arrive overhead.
The day was getting better and better.
Geth hammered into the battlefield ahead of us with a series of loud thumps. About four or five trooper units, along with an Armature unit, landed, unfolding, and immediately drawing their weapons.
We ducked into cover, returning fire with immediate effect. The sniper units darted around overhead, quickly discovering that they had run into an angry biotic and an angry turian sniper, who left them floating in mid-air or exploded inside of a minute, I focused on the troopers, rifle blazing, and quickly dispatching them with bursts of fire. It didn't take long until we were left with the armature alone, and joined battle, firing our various weapons at it, and pummelling it with overload charges and every other trick we could think of to disable it.
In the end, it fell over. Then it exploded.
The dig site entrance ahead of us was fairly typical for a mine or excavation, proceeding upwards at 45 degrees, supported on a series of articulated metal struts.
Not all that imposing for the lair of one of the galaxies nastiest evil asari, or so we thought at the time.
"So, this is it. The lair of Liara T'Soni." Garrus grated.
"Sure looks like it." Kaiden replied. "Not all that impressive. I guess that the budget for exterior decoration went on geth."
"If only they'd spent a little less of it like that, and a little more on cute female turians." Garrus said, as I overrode the hatchway looking mechanism, and we made our way inside.
The far side of the hatchway was a disappointment. No geth drones, no mercenary troops, and, most annoyingly, no scantily clad asari mastermind trying to seduce us or kill us. Or both at the same time.
There were a couple of geth at the bottom of the tunnel. We shot our way past them rapidly enough in a traditional hail of gunfire. Going around to the right and down some more steps, we encountered additional I, who died as quickly as the first pair had, in the teeth of the concentrated firepower of our strike team.
Ahead of us, the elevator light blinked green, for fully functional, and entirely active.
"Weird." Garrus said. "Usually, they shut down the elevators."
I was forced to agree. Even Batarian pirates knew how to disable their elevators in the event of a three-o-clock knock. (1) "Keep an eye out. I don't trust this as far as I can throw it, but it's our only point of entry." I scanned it quickly, looking for obvious signs of booby traps. There were none, of course. No unusual currents, no additional wires, none of the hundred and one different ways insurgents have come up with to blow up soldiers using a lift.
So we stepped into it, and sent it down to the bottom of the shaft. It ran smoothly and evenly, and reached the bottom of its run without incident.
That made us even more suspicious.
Then we were attacked by three drones, which rose up out of the shaft, perhaps fifteen feet ahead of us, straight into a volley of gunfire, although they succeeded in dropping Garrus's C-Sec issue shields before we destroyed them.
We stepped into a second elevator, having first submitted it to the same level of scrutiny as the elevator we'd used before, again, there was nothing. It even seemed to have been maintained well.
Dammit. Where were the clichés?
After a few more levels, though, the lift decided to malfunction, suddenly sparking, and leaving us ever so slightly marooned.
"Bit of a drop." I commented, sticking my head out of the cage, and glancing downwards.
"You go first, Shepard. I'll wait here." Garrus grated. "Humans used to live in trees, didn't they?"
"They sorta did, Garrus." Kaiden interjected. "It doesn't mean we fall any better than the average turian swims."
Fortunately, there was a platform about six feet below, which we let ourselves down onto, quickly enough, in order to avoid sharing our elevator cage with a grenade or rocket propelled munition.
Then we heard a voice, and got our first look at the figure we'd been reckoning as galactic public enemy No.3.
"Uh... hello?" We heard. "Could somebody help me? Please?"
I turned to face the mastermind of all of our troubles, and burst out laughing for a moment.
Rather than the leather clad asari commando we'd been expecting, holding a shotgun in one hand, with a biotic corona surrounding the other, we saw a young woman, wearing what appeared to be a work jumpsuit. Who happened to be trapped several feet off of the ground, and who was encased in a sphere of the same type energy as the force field, arms and legs spread, although her arms were held away from her body far more than her legs were spread.
When I walked up to the force field, she looked at me, with large, innocent blue eyes. I'd seen the eyes of a lot of killers in my time. Even the best dissembler of the lot hadn't looked this innocent, and he'd firmly believed that he made the driven snow look like Satan. More to the point, she didn't have the physique of a combat trained biotic. There was lots of soft muscle, and rounded curves, not the gymnast muscle that was associated with a combat-capable biotic.
I realised that we might have misjudged the situation.
"Can you hear me out there?" She asked, clearly concerned by the lack of response from three heavily armed strangers. "I am trapped. I need help."
"Dr T'Soni, I presume?" I said. "Are you OK?"
"Listen." She replied. "This thing I am in is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it, alright."
"How'd you end up in there?" I asked. From the literature I'd ploughed through pre-mission, she was some sort of genius when it came to the Protheans.
"I was exploring the ruins when the geth showed up, so I hid in here. Can you believe that? geth beyond the veil?" I wasn't an expert on Asari visual cues, but I remembered enough from the course during basic Systems Alliance Military Police training to tell that she probably wasn't lying. "I activated the tower's defences. I knew the barrier curtains would keep them out. When I turned it on, I must have touched something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here. You must get me out. Please."
"For a suspected terrorist, she seems very polite to me." Kaiden commented, out of earshot of the slightly panicking scientist.
"Yeah, they aren't usually this nice." Garrus commented. "Talkative, for sure, but it'll usually be their damned manifesto that they are spewing, not reasoned discussion."
"Your mother is working with Saren." I told her. No point dancing around. If this was a trap, I wanted it sprung quickly. "Whose side are you on?"
Her answer was a bit surprising, given the circumstances.
"What?" it was genuine bafflement. "I am not on anybody's side. I may be Benezia's daughter, but I am nothing like her! I have not spoken to her in years. Please. Just get me out of here."
She was convincing, I give her that much. Either she was a brilliant liar, or I was about to arrest an innocent scientist. Guess which one I was going to take my chances with.
"We just need to figure out some way past this energy field." I told her.
"There is a control in here that should deactivate this thing." She told me. Looking more closely, I could see that she was very uncomfortable, with what looked like urine stains running down her jumpsuit. "You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain. That's the tricky part. The defences cannot be shut down from the outside. I don't know how you'll get in here. Be careful." She warned us. "There is a Krogan with the geth. They have been trying different ways to get past the barrier."
Reluctantly, I nodded, turning around, and heading down the steps, into a geth ambush. It was only half a dozen troopers, and they were dispatched very quickly in a hail of gunfire. I heard what sounded like a muffled gasp from the Asari behind us. Then we spread out, searching for a door, breaching charges, or anything else that might get us into the tower.
There was only one option that we found.
A mining laser.
Reluctantly, I fired it up, hacking into the security system, and sending a massive beam of energy tearing through the tower and into the bedrock, producing masses of dust and vaporised rock particles, before I shut it down, in the hopes that it would not have dug too deep.
When I approached the still-glowing hole, it went exactly where I'd wanted it, into the tower. Presumably, I'd be able to access the next floor and arrest the scientist.
I didn't care she was innocent. She was a potential hostile combatant, and almost certainly a very dangerous biotic, so she was getting cuffed. I could take them off later, once I knew she wasn't going to drop a warp field through my left eyeball.
A Prothean lift presented itself, and I hit one of the few controls with an obvious label, simply an arrow shape pointing upwards. Sure enough, the lift activated, and cruised up several floors, straight, by some minor miracle, to where the scientist was waiting to be rescued.
"How… how did you get in here?" She asked. "I didn't think there was any way past the barrier."
"We have to get you out of here before more I arrive." I told her.
"Yes, you're right." She replied. She'd started using contractions, which suggested that her translator was working a bit better, or that ours were adapting to her speech patterns, "I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime. That button should shut down my containment field."
It was worth a shot, anyway. If it went bang, and she was faking inside some sort of biotic field, we could deal with that. I crossed to the terminal, and tapped the button once, seeing no wires leading away from it.
There was a clang and a grunt as the Asari became reacquainted with the concept of gravity. I didn't give her time to get her bearings. I crossed over to her, seized her wrists, and twisted them behind her back, before locking a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.
"Dr Liara T'Soni, I am arresting you on suspicion of crimes against the galaxy, and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism against the human species, on my authority as a Spectre. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be taken down and given in evidence against you. Do you understand this warning, and why you have been arrested?" It was the Systems Alliance caution. I hadn't had time to research the galactic or C-sec equivalent.
It felt like I was arresting someone's teenage sister or girlfriend. It wouldn't have been the first time, and it certainly wasn't the first time I'd detained an Asari, although, before, it would have been on charges of solicitation.
"Why are you arresting me… oh goddess." She said. I duly noted it down on my omnitool. "I'm not in league with my mother, please…" That went in the omnitool as well. Then she broke down into tears, and collapsed against my shoulder.
"Well…" Garrus replied. "What do you say we take her back to the ship and straighten out her story?"
"Sounds good to me." I stated "How do we get out of here?"
Our expert was currently incapacitated by an acute fit of tearful panic, not to mention hyatt 3840 handcuffs. As a result, I took the lead, and led the way to a set of consoles, before setting them for the surface. Below us, there was a rumble, provoking a louder sob of panic from the handcuffed Asari.
I didn't want to find out what was going on.
"Joker!" I ordered, down my communications link. "Get the Normandy airborne and lock onto my signal. On the double, Mister."
At the top of the shaft, sure enough, the Krogan warlord she'd warned me about appeared.
"Surrender. Or Don't. That would be more fun." He said. Real charmer, this guy.
"In case you didn't notice, this place is falling apart." I replied.
"Exhilarating, isn't it." He responded. Oh boy. "Thanks for getting rid of those energy fields for us. Now, hand over the doctor."
He didn't look like he had a form 47j handy, for some reason.
Liara huddled behind me, managing to look even more pathetic and dejected, somehow.
"She'll stay with us, thanks." I responded. "Unless you have a 47j transfer form handy?"
"Not an option." He growled. "Saren wants her. And he always gets what he wants. Kill them, spare the asari, she isn't going to be able to fight."
The geth opened fire.
We returned it.
They went down.
We didn't.
The Krogan charged.
Kaiden stopped him dead with what looked like a flying kick that crushed his skull, reinforced plating and all, like it was a ration tin full of sardines.
Everything started to shake at that point, so I threw Liara over my shoulder, ignoring the smell of stale urine, and just ran, as soon as the field covering the exit went down, to meet the Normandy. We scrambled aboard with a few seconds to spare, taking off with the hatch closed just as the pyroclastic flow arrived from the now erupting volcano we'd managed to annoy with the mining laser.
I've had better first dates.
Once we were actually aboard, I put Liara down, back onto her own feet.
She just slumped to the deck of the cargo bay, ending up on her knees, and crying. It felt worse than when I had been forced to arrest a fourteen year old girl who had snuck into boot camp to visit her brother, and refused to leave.
Reluctantly, I picked her up again; cradling her in my arms rather than throwing her over my shoulder, keeping my helmet seals firmly shut, and carried her into the elevator shaft, walking past a Mako that was having scorch marks and geth internal juices removed from its chassis and powertrain. It gave a mute idea of just how much had been flying around in the way of munitions while we were on the surface.
Dr Chakwas was waiting for us both in the medical bay.
"Shepard." She greeted me. Technically, I was superior to her, but everyone on the Normandy respected her power to assign marathons on the treadmill at three gravities to those who stole the sweets from her medbay drawer, or otherwise displeased her. "Why is she handcuffed?"
"Because she's under arrest." I replied.
"Take them off of her." Rather than risk the wrath of the ships doctor, I complied.
Liara groaned slightly as the bracelets slid off of her wrists, before looking up into Chakwas' face, which had taken on a distinctly motherly cast.
"Mater?" She asked, softly, before shaking her head. "Sorry. Can I have some water?"
Chakwas handed her what looked like a pint bulb of water. I was fairly sure that it was biotically assisted as she emptied it into her stomach. Knowing Chakwas, the water would contain a wide variety of compounds, including a drug to prevent stomach cramps from drinking so much in a short time, having been without water for a few days.
Then she pointed at the door of the medbay. "Out."
I complied, stepping out onto the mission deck, taking a pair of the strawberry suck sweets with me.
The blinds closed as soon as I was out.
Several hours later, an Asari, now scrubbed clean, and wearing what appeared to be a standard jumpsuit, knocked on the door of my office. The mission report had taken a while to write. Half the time, I never filed them with command, who tended to dislike the facts, and prefer concise, short reports that they could then read and file. Filing a few of the reports we'd sent in over the years would have required new sections in the storage media.
"Dr. Liara T'Soni." The VI said, before the Asari thoughtfully announced herself by sticking her head around the door without knocking.
"Come in, Doctor." I replied. "Leave the door open."
She clearly had no idea why I had issued the instruction, if her facial expression was anything to go by, but followed it anyway. Was it really possible for someone as renowned as her, in the field of archaeology, to be that naive?
"Dr Chakwas said I was to report to you." She said.
"I'll have to thank her for that." I replied. "Doctor, this is a formal interview. Technically, you are still under arrest at this time." I repeated the caution for her, along with the galactic equivalent.
"I… understand." She responded. "I will answer your questions fully and concisely."
"Doctor T'Soni, have you, at any time in the last few months, been in contact with either your mother, Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, or Spectre Saren Arterius?"
"No. I have never heard of the latter. The last date I communicated with my mother was by a video message on her birthday, seven months ago. I did not receive a reply, although I was at a dig for the subsequent five months."
I checked the biometric scan of her. She wasn't lying. That agreed with my analysis of her facial expression, and the way she was sitting.
"In that case, Doctor T'Soni, I am unarresting you."
She looked at me with surprise. "Thank you." She said. "I've never been arrested before, so I'm glad that I am not arrested any longer."
The idea that Asari students were not involved in silly, alcohol-fuelled pranks seemed a little unlikely, but I was in a position to let it slide.
Now I just needed to figure out what to do with her.
"For the moment, Doctor, you are a guest of the Systems Alliance." I told her. "I would advise that you find yourself some rations, and have a sleep. The VI will guide you in this process."
With a smile, very shyly, in my direction, she left the cabin.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
2186, Local Cluster, Sol System, Earth.
Looking up at Liara, I smiled slightly. That smile had been the first of many.
"Liara?" I asked her. Everyone else had left my room, escorted on their way by the most terrifying of organisms imaginable: The Matron. It was generally considered that the number of such organisms who'd survived the war was testament to the fact that any reaper confronted by one would go in the opposite direction rapidly. "What did you see in me? When we first met, I arrested you. Most of the time, I acted like a thuggish soldier."
"Shepard." She replied. It was her chiding tone. "I knew, after you shared the cipher with me, from some of the things you thought while doing so, that you'd been doing your job as you saw it, and genuinely regretted it. That made things an awful lot easier to forgive."
She leant over the bed and kissed me, allowing me to pull her close for a longer kiss.
"Sleep." She told me. "You need to recover."
I followed that instruction, for obvious reasons. Wifely wrath is even more terrifying than that of a Matron or Medical Officer.
Wow. Longest chapter I have ever written, by about a thousand words of narrative. I'd like to thank brandon66 for pming me with his comments, and ask that everyone who enjoys reading this gives thought to some form of review as a thank you to the author. This would have been up sooner, but the computer ate every mention of Geth and Asari, replacing them with a l, resulting in manual re-integration of the terms that wasn't completed in the first interation. I've made a few small edits as well to this chapter.