There was only the space of a single heartbeat- if that- between the door opening and Del's shoulder slamming hard into the wall. In that heartbeat, she'd gotten a single look into the lab.

The space was large and extremely well-supplied. Computer banks and ranks of advanced equipment lined walls and tables, with a huge 3D projected micro-capable display dominating the air just seven feet overhead. At the far end of the room, the wall enclosed two cells. Anti-pathogenic energy fields shimmered through the length of thick slabs of plasti-glass. Using both the glass and the energy fields only drove home how deadly this contagion was, and how determined they were not to allow it to escape. In the leftmost cell, she could see a middle-aged human man, red-faced and sweating as he beat a fist against the glass. The right cell appeared to be empty.

The dead were everywhere. Bodies littered the ground or slumped against walls, draped over tables or sprawled on the floor amidst shatters of glass. At first she thought the heavy splashes of green, purple, and red were paint, before she realized they were blood.

Almost immediately in front of them, drooped in his chair and facing them, was a dead salarian- the first thing she'd seen. He was still in a static suit but his helmet was gone, his lavender eyes staring blankly, blood still trickling down his face from a hole just above them.

Just as Mordin suddenly shoved her to the side, she saw motion. A form rose from a crouch, turning toward them and lifted something. Then, Solus shoved her and she hit the wall.

In the next breath someone grabbed her, forcing her down to her knees and crouching beside her. "Stay down, Doc!"

The accent gave Sam away. Guns started to blaze as Liara, Williams, -and surprisingly, Dr. Solus-ran into the lab.

Huddled in the corner, her heart thundering in her ears, Liara's words came back to her. Assassins and moles. It was clear that what had happened in the lab was a case of massacre by bullet and not an accidental release or mutation of the infection.

The gunfire was getting quieter, but still blazing. It seemed to be getting more distant than the length of the room would have allowed for.

There must be another exit. They're chasing the shooter.

Sam had her pistol in hand but was still blocking most of Shepard's view. Her other hand was to the side of her helmet, and Del could hear her trying to reach the Percusses' crew.

"Repeat, we have a serious situation in the hot lab! We have a breach of quarantine and hostiles on site! Lock down this deck! Is anyone reading this?"

Shepard started to edge up toward the door, and Sam immediately grabbed her and halted her. "Stay put, Doc!"

"They've left the lab…someone may still be alive in there-"

"Not happening."

"But the research…the samples may be compromised! The contagion could be escaping that room from shattered vials right now!"

Before Sam could reply, something caught her eye. Gripping Shepard's arm to hold her still she turned and aimed her pistol down the corridor behind them.

A salarian man had rounded the corner at speed, careening into the far wall. He took the blow on his shoulder and side, stumbled and nearly went down, before he surged back up. He was not wearing a static hard-suit or armor of any kind, just a uniform. His eyes were bloodshot and bulging, and gouges lined his face. From the green dripping off his fingers, it was clear he had inflicted the injuries himself.

As he surged toward them, Sam coolly pulled her trigger. The man stumbled to a halt, falling to his knees, before collapsing in a heap. Shepard stared at him as the marine beside her slowly shook her head.

"No," she said. "It's already out."


Solus reacted quickly the moment the doors slid open, shoving Shepard out of the way of the first shot that sailed their direction. Liara heard it hum past and immediately threw up a barrier. Orders didn't need to be vocalized. Williams and Feris were good at their jobs and immediately were in motion.

As Feris covered the startled human doctor, Williams flanked the door and Liara set a surge of biotic energy rushing into the room. It was meant to knock the assailant off his feet, but instead it seemed to pass through him without any sort of effect. She grit her teeth, but there was no time to be startled or surprised. There was an ongoing risk and it had to be neutralized immediately.

They surged into the room, opening fire. Liara wasn't surprised to see Mordin join them, a pistol in his hand. She knew from his records he was former STG and no stranger to combat.

Their opponent was alone, dressed in a static clean suit the same as the rest of the techs or researchers. There was an odd glimmer of silver crisscrossing his chest-piece, and from what she could see of his face he looked like a human male. A shield generator was clipped to his belt, and their first volley reflected away from him with pulses of energy.

He immediately darted toward the far end of the lab, weaving and then sliding behind one of the work tables. Unable to get a clear bead they moved forward, Ashley tugging a light grenade from her belt and lobbing it his direction. The moment before it ignited he broke cover and darted again, firing wildly toward them. Liara zeroed in on him and let loose, but the shields were still holding. Under the caliber of bullet they were sending at him, any standard shields would have started overloading by now.

He's well equipped, which means he's well -funded, she thought. In the cells ahead of them, she could see the male patient still beating on the glass holding him back and shouting. The female patient- younger and clearly terrified- was huddled in a ball in the back corner of the cell.

Their antagonist seemed to have no interest in the patients. As he darted from cover, shooting at his opponents one handed, he aimed what looked like a small remote to the left. The moment she saw the tiny red light on the remote blaze into life, Liara shouted.

"Turret! Take cover!"

The turret had been placed on the floor in one corner. A flat, rectangular box folded open swiftly at his signal, the heavy machine turret extending. In less than a full second, it opened fire.

Mordin dove aside as heavy caliber ordinance sprayed toward him. He slid behind a desk a second before pits began to chew into it. Liara and Ashley had gone the other way. Taking advantage of the turret's distraction with Mordin, Williams grabbed one of the desks and disengaged its mag-locks.

"Set!"

With a biotic sweep of her arm, Liara sent the desk hurling with speed, slamming it into the turret and crushing it into uselessness against the wall.

"Dr. Solus!"

"Uninjured, go!"

Liara and Ashley took off after their prey. He had vanished through a far door near the cells which lead to a hallway similar to the one they had just left. Liara saw their assassin near the end of the hall and snapped her gun up, peppering him with shot. His shields remained stubbornly effective, but instead of continuing on his way he turned and fired back at them.

{I have no communication with the rest of the ship!} Sam's voice filled her ear. Liara smacked her helmet.

"Keep on it!"

"With the lab compromised like that the plague may have spread to the rest of the ship," Ashley said breathlessly. "Anyone not in a suit is going to be at risk."

The attacker fired again, his bullets deflected by Liara's biotics. Again, she tried to sweep him off his feet, only to watch the dark energy flow through and past him as if he didn't exist. He fired twice more, then turned to run again.

"Enough of this," she said darkly, and grabbed another light grenade off her belt.

At the far end of the hallway where it formed a T-head, there was a fire suppression panel, high up near the ceiling. Designed to sense heat and even microscopic byproducts of chemical combustion, the panel would trigger the fire suppression systems.

Setting and then pitching the grenade, she struck the panel perfectly just as the device ignited. Instantly alarms began to sound, and billowing clouds of halon filled the corridor.

They were safe from the gas in their suits, but the chemical clouds were impossible to see through…if one was wearing a static hard-suit and not a combat set. Liara and Ashley's HUDs instantly switched to infrared, lighting up the corridor clear as day despite the gas.

Their opponent was not so lucky. Completely unable to see he hurried along anyway, one hand held out in front of him to try and halt a collision with a wall. Splitting at a juncture, Liara went left and Ashley right, easily flanking him. The first clue he had that they were there was when Liara's forearm came up hard under his chin, slamming him back into the wall. He gaped at her through his smudged face mask, then yelped as a pistol shot snapped off far too close to his hip. His shield generator failed with a hiss of sparks.

"Do not move," Liara told him with cold fury.

"It's too late to stop it," he said with a sweaty grin. "It's already been released, all over the ship."

This close, Liara could see his features behind the white smears on his face-plate. He was middle-aged, bearing a thinning head of reddish yellow hair and a pair of old-fashioned spectacles.

"If that is so, then we have two courses of action before us," she said. "I can deliver you to a Council tribunal where you will be tried and executed for war crimes on a galactic scale…or I can take your face mask off and watch the plague eat through your brain."

Shifting her hold she turned him around and then slammed him against the wall again, pinning his arm behind him. The halon, programmed to only go off for a short amount of time, had begun to thin.

Ashley bound his hands as Liara touched her helmet again. "Feris, report!"

{I've got the Doc with me and she's all right, but the plague is out. I can't get ahold of any other decks but I've already had to put down two crew members that came at us. We've retreated into the labs.}

"Can you get any communication to the Alliance frigates or the planet's surface?"

{No luck so far.}

"Keep trying. We have the assassin and we are on our way back now."

Liara lead the way, Ashley steering the prisoner in front of her, giving his arm a hard and painful yank every time he stumbled. When they reached the lab the air had all but cleared, only a faint haze remaining of the halon. Whatever shape the crew might be in, at least the automated ship systems were still functioning.

Sam had sealed the far door and stood just within as they entered the near one, sealing it behind them as they passed through. Shepard was over by the cells. The male patient looked ragged, sweating and red-faced still as he leaned on the wall and kept his eyes turned away from the silent scene of the massacre.

The female was pale and trembling, but looking. She seemed to become incensed as she saw their prisoner, pointing and shouting something in his direction. Whatever it was, Liara didn't hear it clearly, and Shepard immediately set to talking gently to the girl, trying to calm her down.

Mordin was crouched by one of his fallen colleagues, the same young salarian they'd seen upon entering. He'd pulled him from his chair and laid him on the ground, folding his hands over his stomach. As Ashley planted their captive hard in a free chair, Liara headed toward Solus.

"Doctor?"

"My nephew," he said looking up at her. "Sixteen. Eager to be on assignment with me. Favorite uncle."

"I am sorry, Mordin," she said softly.

He nodded, then straightened to his feet, eyeing the captive, before he walked over. The human man looked up at him, apparently unafraid. "Hello, Dr. Solus. Sorry about the mess."

He smiled, thin lipped but almost cherubic. Mordin folded his arms, narrowing his eyes. Then he looked at Liara. "Would like to question him. Probably shouldn't. Doubt he'd survive."

"We will leave that to the Alliance interrogators. For now, our priority is to get a communication link off this ship or at least off this deck. There is a chance the contagion has not yet spread ship-wide-"

"Oh, it has," the prisoner said amiably. "Just before you walked in the door I input a computer command that dropped two capsules of the plague into the ship's environmental systems. Fairly clever design, they looked like simple replacement hydrolyzers. The salarians installed them with their own hands during routine ship maintenance. In seconds the entire ship was exposed through the atmosphere humidity regulators. By now…nearly half will be dead and the rest going mad."

"How could you do such a thing?" Shepard asked, astonished. He spoke of it like talking about a new hover bike he'd bought, or commenting on the particularly delightful weather they'd been having lately.

"The fucker is insane!" the male prisoner, Domingo, shouted from his cell. "He shot everyone like he was taking a stroll through a park! Tear his fucking head off and be done with it!"

Liara lifted a hand toward the others, never taking her eyes off the prisoner. "And the two Alliance frigates? Were there similar devices aboard them?"

"No, they're just fine," he said with a sigh, as if talking to a child who'd asked a particularly stupid question. "Their security protocols are a bit higher than that of a salarian lab ship, sad to say."

Mordin's eyes narrowed at this, though he knew it was true. The Percusses was not a military ship by design, and her crew were not military either. Its primary purpose was ecological survey and exploration. When a new world that had the possibility of life or life forming on its surface was discovered, the Percusses was sent in to take soil samples, identify microbes, bacterium, and other microscopic forms in a static and quarantined environment. That way, future teams that landed on its surface would not immediately catch or be infected with some nasty new form of disease that could wipe out entire civilizations…and they'd have a patent on any beneficial or medicinal elements they discovered.

"What is your name?" Liara asked. "What is it that Osco hopes to accomplish?"

He gave her a sardonic look. "I thought you were going to leave that to your Alliance interrogators."

"His name is Percival Wyatt," Mordin said.

"Could that be an alias?" Ashley asked.

"No. STG vetted members coming on board. Dr. Wyatt has full career, personal references going back to infancy. Hundreds able to vouchsafe identity. Even Shadow Broker cannot plant that many agents simply to solidify false identity. No ties to any merc organization found, no criminal history, no history of imbalance. Training, psych reports, all solid."

"His psych reports are solid?" Sam sounded surprised, gesturing at the massacre around them. "Obviously, they missed something somewhere."

"As an N7 marine I'm sure you've killed far more people than I have. Are your psych reports solid?" Wyatt asked her. She scowled at him.

"That's far different than massacring helpless lab techs!"

"Is it?"

"That is enough," Liara said. "Shepard, I want you and Dr. Mordin to get started salvaging any samples and research that you are able. Sam, see if you can't get into the computer system, find what's blocking our communications and get ahold of the Alliance frigates or the dirt-side team. Ashley, stay and guard our prisoner."

"What are you going to do?" Shepard asked, looking over at her.

"I am going to see if I can clear a path to the shuttle bay, and secure us transport."

"Advise caution," Mordin said. "At this stage, those who have progressed toward brain degeneration will be hostile and combative. Should be safe so long as you remain in hard-suit but any fluid contact on skin or mucus membrane will transmit disease vector."

"I am not planning on taking off my hard-suit," Liara said. "I will return shortly."

"Be careful," Shepard said softly. Liara glanced her direction, pausing a moment before she gave a faint nod.

Then, she was gone.


The girl's name was Delphine Paulson. According to Mordin's brief, she was only sixteen years old, and only a year from her L2 implant install. She was young, scared, and more than a little traumatized by what she'd witnessed.

"Can you let us out?" she asked, as Mordin and Del bent to the task of retrieving what research and notes they could.

Shepard looked over at her. The girl was all but hugging herself, timid and red-eyed with tears. She felt nothing but sympathy.

She watched just about everyone she knew die, got locked in a box, and now all of this. As she looked toward Ashley, the marine shook her head.

"Not a good idea, Doc."

"Why not?" Del asked. "The entire ship is already infected. Neither of them are a danger-"

"Because they could be working with me," Wyatt said serenely, smiling a smile that left Del with an uncharacteristic urge to punch. Even then, she knew it was true. The reason the pair could be immune could very well be because Osco already had a vaccine, a counter-agent that she injected into her own people to make sure they could still function and not become infected. Both Domingo and Delphine could be plants, sent down to the planet's surface before the plague was released.

For what purpose? She thought, then answered her own question. To waste researchers time trying to explain their immunity or extrapolate a cure from their tissue samples. To be in the proper place at the proper time in case an insurrection like this occurred again.

"No," she said out loud a moment later, and looked calmly at Wyatt. "No, they're not working with you."

"How do you know?" he asked, almost in concert with Ashley, who then glared hotly at him.

"There's no reason," she said. "If they were plants then they're immune because they were inoculated. The inoculation would produce the same reactions in the tissue samples as actual infection addressed by natural immunity and could be reverse engineered from those with more ease than said natural immunity. Osco would be handing us the vaccine on a platter."

"They could be plants," Ashley ventured.

"No, again. Until there is a provable, functioning cure or counter-agent, they'll be sealed up and highly guarded to keep them from infecting others. Both are carriers whether or not they show reaction to the disease. So what is their mission if they're plants or agents? To stand around helpless and unarmed in a box even a yahg couldn't break out of whilst being poked with every needle imaginable?"

"They could be assassins. In case my mission goes wrong, you feel sorry for them and release them because the infection is already out on board." He smiled again. "Then they kill you. A back-up plan, as it were."

"Unarmed? Against N7 marines? And if they were assassins and your 'back-up plan', why tell us that? Why not just keep your mouth shut and watch us let them out? Besides, I can prove it."

"Oh? How?"

"If a vaccine existed that made them immune, then it stands to reason you'd be immune as well, and just wearing that suit for appearance sake."

She walked over, grabbing his helmet. "All I have to do is take it off."

He recoiled, fear lighting his eyes almost the moment her hands landed. Ashley grabbed her wrist and shoulder, moving her back a step, eyes wide in surprise. "Doc!"

"That was fear, real fear," Shepard said, ignoring Ashley as she spoke to Wyatt. "You're not immune. Which either means, there's no vaccine and they aren't plants…or you're not nearly as important to Osco as they are."

He glared at her, and she glared right back, until Ash gently nudged her, still holding her shoulder. "Hey, it's all right. Doesn't matter anyway. Unless we have to move them they need to stay put, just to be certain. They're safer in those cells anyway."

Shepard's shoulders loosened and she looked at Ashley, weary resignation in her eyes. Ash nodded. "I know. It fucking sucks, she's just a kid- but that's what we're stuck with right now."

Glaring once more at Wyatt, Shepard retreated back toward the consoles, giving Delphine a sympathetic look.

"It's ok," the girl said sadly. "Not your fault. We'll be all right."

"I'll make sure you are," Del replied. "I'll figure this out, find a cure. I swear it."


There were not many souls between the quarantined lab area and the shuttle bay. Liara moved carefully, passing the two fresh bodies that Feris had taken out, then several more only a corridor later. Engineers and work techs, most of these were contorted, still gripping hold of throats or chests with curled hands. They would have been the ones to die quickly, sneezing and gasping for air as their hearts all but exploded.

They shouldn't have been on this deck, which would have been restricted to anyone not in a static suit. A gaping door at the far end of the corridor- one that should have been sealed- provided her answer.

He just overrode and opened the doors. Once infected they wandered in here, dying and were three hundred souls aboard this ship! she thought, then shook her head. She could not help them now. She had a mission to concentrate on, or others might die.

Her priority remained getting Shepard and what research she could off this ship and to safety as quickly as possible. Once they were free of the ship, the Alliance could send in marines to investigate or simply blow the vessel apart if circumstances demanded it. Better the Percusses go down in a fiery ball than allow even an atom of this illness to escape it.

There were small transports in the shuttle bay when she arrived. Activating one she hurried on board, making sure it was clear of hostiles and doing a quick scan of its systems. Designed for contagious patient transport, it would allow them to move the two patients secured into the lab on board without risk of contaminant then infiltrating their destination on arrival. If the Alliance frigates didn't have facilities to contain the patients, then the dirt-side camp most certainly would.

Satisfied, she returned to the main lab, her eyes going first to Shepard. The human woman looked troubled, irritated, as she helped Mordin pack a static-free case with blood and tissue samples. She looked up as Liara entered, and for a moment their eyes met again.

Then Liara looked to Feris. "Any luck?"

"No. I can't break into communications from here to even see what the problem is. If I could get to the helm-"

"Too risky. I have a transport waiting and a clear way to the shuttle bay. Once we disembark we can notify the frigates of the situation. Ashley, you and Sam make the first run while I stay with the others. Get our prisoner secured on board, then one of you return to help us get these patients and samples loaded."

As they escorted Wyatt off, Liara headed toward Mordin and Shepard. "The patients are safe to move?"

"Yes. Pose no danger in and of themselves," Mordin said. "Proper transfer into transport static-free cells should contain infection sufficiently. Will want to double check systems to insure no tampering. Don't know everything Wyatt got up to before massacre."

They closed up the two cases of data backups and tissue samples. Feris returned shortly thereafter and Liara had her wait with Domingo and Delphine while she and the two scientists took the samples to the transport. Once there, Shepard secured them as Mordin double checked the shuttle systems against signs of espionage.

Once he was satisfied, they returned for the patients. Delphine was meek enough but Domingo was indignant as he strode out. "It's about time! You know how lucky we are we weren't shot like fish in a goddamn barrel in there?"

"No danger of shooting. Had Wyatt wanted you dead, would simply have vented air from cells," Mordin told him. Delphine paled at that, and Shepard reached out and took the girl's hand. They all had to go through full decom anyway, so what contagion might be in the small amount of moisture on Delphine's skin was moot. It couldn't penetrate Shepard's suit, and the girl needed reassurance.

"He wasn't after you," she said. "You're safe now and we're going to keep you that way."

"Safe?" Domingo scoffed. "We're guinea pigs you mean. You lot are going to poke and prod us until the day we die, aren't you?"

"They're looking for a cure," Delphine said furiously.

"And if they don't find it? We may not be sick but we're carriers. If they never find a cure we're going to die locked up in boxes like goddamn rats-"

"Mr. Causter, I will thank you to please keep further opinions to yourself for now," Liara said sternly. He frowned at her.

"Or what?"

Her eyes were frozen ice. "Or we shall find out how much biotic force it takes to free a human tongue from its root."