Lair of the Archaeologist
The lack of food and sleep do strange things to minds. Nobody is going to like my version of Liara this chapter. You've been warned.
Dr. T'Soni laughed sounding wild and slightly deranged. Shepard wondered how long the asari had been trapped. Alenko's omni-tool couldn't get a reading past the repulsion field barring their way to the trapped alien.
"I'd say she's in shock, Commander," he told her after frowning down at the holographic interface as it lit up red against the golden-orange. 'Negative Readings' reflected backwards against his visor, on his face and his day-old stubble. "At least that field she's stuck in is keeping her upright."
"Brain trauma?" Shepard questioned, casting her gaze in his direction as he powered down his omni-tool.
He nodded. "Possibly."
The doctor began singing loudly and off-key startling them all. Garrus edged closer to get a better look.
"Probably," the turian said, gave a tap on the field. The rippling mass effect current changed from blue to violet and back again. He gave a little chitter that didn't pick up on the translators. Shepard knew Garrus well enough to know that the sound was equal to a shocked oath, but she didn't know which turian language it was. It would have been interesting to hear the galactic version.
"Great," Williams muttered, shaking her head in disgust, "a crazy alien. Like we don't have any other problems."
Shepard snorted at Ashley's comment knowing that she wouldn't be able to change the Chief's views on aliens overnight.
Wrex, however, guffawed. "Williams, the crazy ones lead us to the best fights." He nudged the marine playfully with his elbow – which was more or less the equivalent of being knocked down by an aircar. When the much smaller Chief stumbled, Alenko caught her elbow before she could go down completely, and they ended up in an awkward embrace of sorts, the ceramic of their armor clacking together, as both marines tried to get their footings in the same spot at the same time.
Shepard had to look away when they stared at each other a moment longer than was probably necessary, a slight catch in her chest at the thought of their closeness. Damn.
And not my business, she decided, taking a deep breath and looked at but not really seeing the repulsion field in front of her.
They were perfectly capable, professional marines.
Not my business.
Who they saw on their own time was their own business, and she'd made the rules clear as diamond dust aero-gel.
Not my business.
No fucking on the ship.
Definitely none of my damn business.
Irritated at her own inability to read her people and feeling foolish for even thinking Alenko had anything other than professional interest in her – Was it all in my head? – she studied Dr. T'Soni and the repulsion field surrounding her.
The field was nearly as blue as the asari's skin so it gave the appearance of a floating uniform with disembodied eyes. All Shepard could make out were the whites – a subtle difference of blue against blue.
There was a darker blue that didn't blend with the field's undulating color that defined one side of the doctor's face and stained her neck and her tunic. Squinting, Shepard noted that it was blood from a cut above T'Soni's brow.
Benezia's daughter could have roughed herself up. The Commander wanted to believe the doctor's story about not speaking with her mother for years.
Shepard's odd-colored eyes travelled once again to the repulsion field. Barrier curtain. Alori'we'I'k make. Wait. How the hell – Cypher, Shepard reminded herself. The thought made her shudder involuntarily, and she cast her eyes around the cavern looking for a solution to get T'Soni out of there.
This had once been a place of worship. No, a commune. A vague sense of wrongness hit Shepard. As a culture, the Protheans had looked down on this place. Associating it with a cult alleviated some of the doubt, but the Protheans were so alien to her that even that association made her uneasy.
The cavern was massive, fallen debris and rocks from the top littered the floor. There were no stalactites or stalagmites. No water. The thought worried Shepard. No water could mean they might not be able to get out. She set that thought aside as quickly as she could. There was no damn way she was dying in a cave on a planet in the Terminus. Hell no.
"Oh, Goddess," T'Soni wailed drawing Shepard out of her thoughts, the asari's voice wavering between madness and despair, "I'm going to die in here!" She tugged against the field holding her. "Please!" she begged. "I need help!"
Looking at the ceiling as though it held answers, she laughed again. "Wonderful, Liara, you're talking to yourself. If you weren't crazy before for coming on this expedition alone, you certainly are now."
"Calm down," Shepard said, holding up a hand and stepping closer to the field. "We'll find a way to get you out of there."
T'Soni slumped against the restraining field. "Of course," she replied. "What good is a hallucination if it can't offer false hope?" She looked away and then met Shepard's gaze. "If you're real, please get me out, but be careful," she warned. "There is a krogan with the geth."
"Lady, there's a krogan with the humans," Wrex replied. His gruff voice echoed off the cavern's walls.
"So there is," the doctor agreed. She said nothing more, shutting her eyes as though she were in pain or very tired. Shepard didn't associate enough with aliens to know asari mannerisms. She could have been meditating for all she knew.
"Well, this is going to be an interesting endeavor," Shepard quipped. She opened a channel to the Normandy. "Normandy, target sighted but not acquired. What's your status?"
Joker's voice filled their ears. "Goddamn, it's hot in here."
"Temperatures are returning to optimal operation, Commander," Pressly's voice answered. His tone was gruff, like he was either contemplating Joker's Captain's Mast or his bludgeoning. "We'll need another thirty minutes to cool everything down or risk overheating again. The long and short of it: It's broken and needs repairs."
"Getting out of the system may get a little tricky," Joker added. "We aren't going to be able to cloak. She's fast enough once we clear atmo, but getting there is gonna suck for a few."
"There aren't any signals or comm traffic from the colony," Pressly continued. "Just like Eden Prime and Feros. We haven't sent out scouts."
"We don't have the man- or fire-power," Shepard agreed. "Be ready. Dr. T'Soni appears to have sustained head trauma. Have Dr. Chakwas and her trauma team on standby."
"Aye aye."
"Commander," Alenko said, pointing to the large piece of equipment squatting on the cavern's floor. "That's a mining laser."
"Drill through to the other side?" she guessed.
He nodded as they left Wrex and Garrus to watch the doctor, heading for the ramp at the end of the catwalk. The three humans did not see Wrex shove Garrus out of the way and follow.
The Prothean barrier disrupted the HUDs. Kaidan didn't see the geth until a sniper round tagged Shepard in the shoulder. She went down with a yelp. Then the AIs were all over them, swarming, shooting, and squawking in snapping click-hisses.
"Shepard's hit!" Garrus said as they hit the deck and immediately scattered for cover. He let fly an ECM then cursed when it struck geth and the mining laser.
"Hit but not out. Find cover!" Shepard shouted. Her left arm hung limply at her side; red blood splattered against the cracked green ceramic plates of her shoulder, against her helmet and visor.
"Fire in the hole!" She lobed a grenade with her good arm, and, using her biotics, propelled it past the mining laser and near the feet of two snipers. It exploded in flash of light, smoke and heat, incinerating the geth with its thermal paste.
The other geth didn't appear affected by the burst and continued their advance, shotguns and rifles at the ready, firing away and ejecting heat sink after heat sink. Kaidan's pistol was already glowing with heat.
Kaidan was closest to her. "How bad?" he asked as he leaned back into the paltry cover he'd scavenged while his gun cooled.
She made a face beneath her gore-splattered visor. "Synth skin is the worst skin," she complained as she rolled to her feet and took cover with Garrus behind a downed piece of catwalk from the upper level.
"Could be worse," Kaidan replied. Gun cooled, he fired a few shots at the nearest target as the pistol's targeting computer fed the information to his HUD. Even with the barrier's interference, he was able to make the shots count. Two machines lost their arms.
"What's worse than slimy medi-gel under your armor?" Williams questioned as she groped for better cover.
"Molten omni-gel under your armor," Kaidan replied. He executed a mnemonic, igniting his nervous system. He gave a forceful shove foregoing any fear of hurting anyone. Kaidan only had Line of Sight on the enemy. The force of energy hit the geth swarming them and hurled the machines away; they clattered into each other, limbs crashing into limbs, sparks flying.
"Do I want to know?" Shepard asked, her voice strained from pain and lack of mobility in her injured arm.
He grinned, remembering the incident fondly. He was glad it never happened again though. "Ask me again sometime."
She grunted. "I'm gonna know everything about you, Lieutenant."
He laughed. "Yeah, well. One day at a time, right?"
She grinned, levitating a large boulder and dropping it over two geth. Creative.
"Biotic competition?" he asked, eyebrow lifted.
The Commander laughed. "We'll determine who's got the biggest one day, Lieutenant."
"Looking forward to it, Commander."
The battle ended just as fast as it began.
"These were less coordinated than that first group," Shepard mused after they had taken out the last geth within visual range. She, Williams and Kaidan made their way down the ramp to the mining laser as Wrex and Garrus searched for stragglers.
"Don't geth get more intelligent as their groups increase in number?" Kaidan asked as he held up his hand and looked pointed at Shepard's shoulder.
"Tali's explanation was just a bit over my head," the commander stated. She pointed to the laser with her good hand. "You can dress the wound once we get that thing operational."
Kaidan disagreed but nodded anyway. "Yes, ma'am." If he could convince the Commander to hotwire it, then maybe he would get the opportunity to do a med-interface with her hardsuit.
The mining laser was a thick hunk of metal with an inverted cone on the end. A ladderwell was connected to the side with a perch large enough for three people, four turians, or two krogans to stand side by side. The cockpit itself was recessed into the top with three consoles of aero-gel displays that didn't require haptic interface mods under the skin of the fingertips.
Kaidan whistled appreciatively when he reached the perch and removed his helmet to get a better look without the flare of an inoperable HUD on the backside of his visor getting in the way. High-end. Not some civvie bullshit. Hacking would be a nightmare. God, what fun! But they were on a timeline, and he had to address Shepard's injury – whether the Commander liked it or not.
"Problems?" Shepard asked as Williams gave her hand up to the perch. Kaidan hadn't realized they had followed him up.
The Commander had her calculating look on – like he was a specimen to be studied, a thing that could be picked apart. Normally, it didn't bother him, but he suddenly felt like a ten year old getting caught for sneaking out of his parents' house to experience the late-late stimulcast of the newest Golden Orbit stim.
Ducking his head, he admitted sheepishly, "I, ah, I wish I had time enough to go through the systems." On a damn mining laser. Underground. In the middle of a fucked up op.
On top of a massive volcano that was set to blow any day.
Maybe any minute.
Brilliant plan, Alenko.
Sobered with those thoughts, he cleared his throat, stepped down into the cockpit and kneeled at the nearest control panel, setting his helmet at his side. The HUD wouldn't help him. His omni-tool would be imperative, especially since Garrus' ECM had caught the laser in a shower of sparks. He hoped the machine wasn't too damaged; otherwise they would have to dig with their rifles or something. Or wait until the volcano blew their asses sky-high.
Pulling off the panel, he nearly drooled at the wiring. Hello, beautiful.
Blue-, red-, yellow-, and green-encased wires were bundled neatly in rows along the edge feeding into the mother board. They connected the mother board to inverters that powered the aero-gel displays, hard drives and memory cards. White and black flat ribbon cables connected the mother to the drives and cards.
"You're not seriously considering slapping omni-gel on that, are you?"
Shepard's tone reminded him of his mother back before Conatix had come into their lives. His father had tried to wear something casual to a fancy dinner party. The memory stirred something in his chest, and he set it aside with easy laughter.
"Orders, Commander?" he asked in lieu of an inappropriate comment.
"How long will it take to hack?"
He shrugged, pulled a pack of green wire loose. "First, I have to repair the damage the electromagnetic cartridge inflicted." He showed the Commander the burned, frayed wires, the melted green casings. "Depending on the damage," he cocked his head to the side, peering in. The mother board looked relatively unscathed. "We should be able to get the doctor by the time the Normandy is space-worthy again. Might even be able to use this to get us out of here." He hooked his thumb to the back of the cavern.
Shepard nodded. "Carry on, Alenko."
Kaidan held out a vial of omni-gel. "Care to do the honors, ma'am, while I have a look at that wound?"
Her lips quirked mischievously, and his heart did a little somersault in his chest. As she took it from his hand, he suddenly wondered if she had plans to dump it in his hair. He hoped not. Omni-gel was a bitch to get out, and it was capable of burning a few layers of skin off before it cooled to sticky, gelatinous goo.
He moved aside as she knelt down; the subtle clink of the ceramic of their armors as her leg brushed against his made him swallow, and he forced control. Underground and on top of a volcano. Possibly trapped underground. With geth and a krogan.
He booted up his omni-tool and interfaced with Shepard's medical suite. He blinked, looking sharply at the Commander. She had quite a cocktail in her system.
"Uh, Commander," he began, unsure how to broach the subject. He'd had his fair share of this conversation with marines under his command. Most had been fresh out of boot.
But this was some serious shit for some serious pain. And Dr. Chakwas had personally signed off on the order. He swallowed wondering what the hell kind of ops she'd been on in order for Dr. Chakwas to even consider adding it to her suite. He also wondered if the doctor had confused his medical suite for hers, but quickly decided against that. The Normandy's chief medical officer had gotten the position because she was damn good at what she did; a perfectionist to the core.
"Adjust as necessary," Shepard replied, saving him the trouble of going through the spiel best said to a recruit. She didn't look up as she brushed omni-gel carefully over the wiring, the smell of burning plastic accosting their noses. "Just don't expect Georgette to be very helpful in the next fire fight."
"Georgette?"
She reached behind her with her good arm and patted the Spectre-issued shotgun attached to the small of her back.
"You named your shotgun?" Garrus asked. Kaidan looked up and saw the turian and Wrex on the perch. Wrex wore a grin, and Garrus looked completely flummoxed.
"Why not?" Shepard asked. "Closest thing to giving birth."
Kaidan was swamped with images of Shepard holding a child and quickly put the thought aside by asking, "How's that, ma'am?"
She shook her head as she added another globule of omni-gel to the wiring and brushed it on. "Cost enough to pay the doctor bills, purchase new furniture and put the kid through a semester of private school on Bekenstein."
"Should I ask how you know that?"
"Anderson."
"Oh."