The moment the shuttle had disengaged, the communications console lit up like Christmas.
Sam was piloting, Liara hovering over her shoulder. They had not been able to reach Jura on board the Aswa either, and while the airlock system should have prevented the contagion from spreading to the small asari ship, there were no guarantees.
Liara didn't let out the slightest breath of relief until they saw the Aswa had disengaged from the Percusses and had moved to a safe distance, Jura the first over the comm.
{Captain, please respond. Please tell me that is you aboard the transport.}
"It is," Liara replied. "The Percusses was sabotaged and the plague deliberately released throughout the ship. We have the immune patients, some of the research, and the saboteur. What is your status?"
{Air sampling in the lock went down almost the same moment as our communications. I immediately disengaged from the Percusses and tried to hail the helm but whatever dampener your saboteur used is top rate- I cannot get around it. I notified the Alliance frigates of the situation-}
{Captain T'Soni, this is Captain Neuenswander of the Albany. What is the status of the crew on the Percusses…do we have any survivors?}
Mordin, overhearing, stepped in from the back. "Survivors, most certainly. However will be going mad or too ill to move, beginning stages of cellular mutation. Possibility remains that one or two may be immune."
{If there are further immune or anyone who managed to seal themselves away from contagion, we need to retrieve them. I'm sending in a heavy team in full suits to resecure the Percusses and retrieve any surviving patients. Did I hear correctly, you have the two original patients and the saboteur?}
"That is correct."
{We have the facilities to hold a prisoner but not the patients. Take them to the dirt-side camp, they have the means to keep them quarantined. I'll have another team meet you down there. Dr. Shepard is still intact?}
"She is unharmed."
{Best news I've heard all day. We'll see you in Purdue soon, T'Soni. Neuenswander out.}
"Jura, maintain orbit. I will contact you again within two hours."
{Understood.}
Turning from the helm as Sam pointed the transport toward the planet, she stepped into the back. They had been decomed, and with the patients, Wyatt, and the research samples secured within anti-pathogenic fields there was no risk of infection. She'd taken off her helmet, as had Williams and Shepard. As she stepped in back, Ash headed up front, leaving Del and Liara alone.
The doctor was pacing the small back area, a troubled look on her face. She'd tied her hair back when she'd put on the helmet, and now several strands of hair were escaping, sweeping in haphazard drifts over her cheeks. Liara watched her a moment.
Though humans were the most diverse species in galactic space, it was astonishing how much Dr. Shepard resembled Ashley and Sam. She had the same black hair, the same dark eyes. Her skin was slightly duskier than Ashley's and had a hint of red to it, and her features seemed somehow more serious than either of the cousins, but other than those distinctions they could easily be of the same family.
Her natural appearance of seriousness was only enhanced by her clear stress and exhaustion. She wasn't a marine, no commando, no one used to combat. Until Orthrus had invaded her home, she had probably never been shot at. Events of the last thirty hours might be every day to Liara, but for her…
She must feel as if she has been dropped into a completely different reality.
"We are heading down to Purdue. They have the facilities to accommodate our patients. Try and relax, Merah. You will wear a hole through the hull floor."
"I'm just trying to get my head around…" Shepard started, then stopped, blinking at Liara. "There's that name again. Merah…why do you call me Merah?"
Liara shrugged slightly, setting her helmet down before taking a seat on a small passenger bench. "It is asari," she said. "It means 'bright red'."
As if to prove the association, Shepard's cheeks flared crimson again. Liara started to smile, then shook her head. "I am sorry. I did not mean it in any kind of condescending fashion. It was not my attempt to shame or belittle you-"
"No, it's…it's all right," Shepard replied, then sat down herself on the opposing bench. "I know I haven't exactly been a glowing beacon of dignity lately."
"You have been just fine."
"Yeah," Shepard said softly, miserably. "I did perfectly well at hiding huddled in a corner."
Liara leaned forward a bit, her eyes intent. "Your safety is priority," she said. "Putting yourself into combat that you are neither trained nor prepared for would only have increased the risk…to you and to everyone else. You are not a coward, if that is what you fear."
Shepard looked up and met her eyes. "You have no idea if I'm a coward or not. You don't know me."
"True, I may not know much about you," Liara told her. "However, I do know this. There are far more measures of bravery than simply withstanding a battle of bullets and biotics. You are here, millions of miles away from anything familiar, willing and even eager to help put a stop to Osco and her plague. You know that doing so puts you at grave risk, and yet you are here. That is far from cowardice."
"I can't just let people die, not when I can help them."
Liara's faint smile appeared again. "Precisely my point."
Shepard regarded her, then nodded faintly, wiping her palms on her thighs before tucking one of the loose locks of hair almost absently back behind her ear. Liara tilted her head a bit.
"I make you nervous."
"N-no, you-…it's not really you," Del replied. She could feel that her cheeks had gone red again. "I just…"
"Have no experience with non-humans. I understand."
"I-I'm sure I must seem incredibly sheltered and naïve to you."
Liara sat back thoughtfully. "I was seventeen before I met my first salarian," she said. "I stared at him until my father worried my eyes were about to fall from my head."
Del lifted her brows. "Really?"
"Yes. I had met turians and krogan before, of course. My father's father was a krogan, though he died before I was born. My father was rather fond of her krogan heritage-"
"Her?" Del said in surprise, before her face went horribly hot again. "I-I-I'm sorry. I forgot..asari reproductive methods and- just…you were saying 'father' and…"
"It is all right," Liara said again, bemused by the human woman's almost constant fluster. It was actually rather endearing. "Humans are used to assigning that title only to male members of the species. You intended no harm. Both of my parents are asari."
Tucking her hair back again, Shepard tried to ease her embarrassment with humor. "What a coincidence, both my parents are human."
Liara laughed, and Shepard gave a relieved smile, before worry reappeared. This time, it was for other reasons. "I hope they're ok…"
"I am sure that Admiral Hackett has their safety well in hand," Liara told her. "When we arrive at the dirt-side base…well, you cannot call them, but a message can be sent, assuring them that you are all right."
"Thank you. I'd like that. Are you…close with your family?"
The look that passed over Liara's face must have been more than she intended, because Del sat back and shook her head. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up anything unpleasant-"
"It is all right." Liara stood up. "We should be landing soon."
As she headed back into the helm, Shepard dropped her head into her hands and sighed. "Great. Good going, Del. You are such a big goddamn idiot…"
The dirt-side lab just outside of Purdue's borders was made up of four huge mobile stations and a cluster of small pre-fab living units. Everything was static-free, and everyone had to be resealed into their suits before they could set foot on the ground.
An Alliance shuttle landed moments after they did, while they were still in the process of transferring Domingo and Delphine from the transport to secure units in one of the stations. They, too, had been put into light environmental suits, just to be extra certain no further contagion was dispersed.
Liara diverted to talk to the marines that had emerged from the shuttle, Williams going with her and leaving Mordin, Shepard, and Feris to the patients. A pair of human doctors met them, hastily introducing themselves and bringing Shepard into the main lab with the research samples.
The older doctor, a woman named Constance Wheeler, was also the most talkative. "We do not have the facilities or equipment down here that they had on the Percusses," she told Shepard. "Still, it should be enough for a while. Hopefully they can decom and repurpose the ship, get us access back."
"Have you learned anything new?" Shepard asked her as she locked the samples away behind an anti-path field.
"Not really. There is some unusual spore growth at the initial crash site, and we've taken several samples-"
"No, can discuss later," Mordin said, stepping over and interrupting. "Dr. Shepard needs food and rest. Exhaustion and malnourishment will be detrimental to work."
"Dr. Solus, I appreciate your concern, but-"
"No argument. Would not do to miss vital information because of mental incapacity."
"Dr. Solus is right," Wheeler said. "I will go over the data and catalogue the samples you brought, perform some new blood tests and make sure the patients have everything they need. You should get some food and rest, come at this fresh. We need the full capacity of your skills on this."
They directed her to a free pre-fab dome. As she crossed toward it, she saw Liara escorting Wyatt off the transport with Williams and the other marines. She idly rubbed at her chest-plate as she watched them go, no doubt for questioning. For some reason, the residual ache from her broken ribs had renewed itself, settling a heavy, annoying weight.
Turning back to the dome she slipped into its tiny decom chamber, realizing all at once just how right Solus had been…and just how exhausted she really was.
Commander Hovin, Neuenswander's XO, had come down to lead Dr. Wyatt's interrogation. She was a small woman, barely reaching to Liara's shoulder, but she had a stocky stance and something told Liara the woman was as solid as a rock.
Not all the marines that had come dirt-side were soldiers, however. Four others- three medical assistants and one R&D- had come to supplement the research team. As they got their gear off the shuttle to take to the lab mobiles, Liara and Ashley escorted Wyatt off the transport and to one of the private domes. They passed through decom, and Williams shed Wyatt of his helmet, securing him wrists and ankles to a chair.
As she passed through decom, Hovin shed her own helmet, revealing a haystack shag of motley brown and blonde. She passed her helmet to another marine, then pulled a small data pad from her belt.
"You've been identified as Dr. Percival Wyatt, is that correct?"
He was looking around at the dome as if surveying whether or not a hotel room would be adequate to his needs. Though balding, what hair he had was as long as his chin and stuck in damp patches on his face. His glasses, extremely unusual in this day and age of corrective surgery and genetic therapy, winked in the light.
Hovin's look went stern. "You are Dr. Percival Wyatt, is that correct?" she repeated firmly.
"Mmmhmm," he replied with an amiable smile, finally looking at her. "Well, they do breed you Alliance Marines robust, don't they? You're rather bullish…not exactly a comely trait for most women but I suppose in your line of work-"
"Dr. Wyatt, we've traced your connection with Dr. Gellian Osco."
"Not surprised. It's not all that big a secret, no reason to hide it."
"She's your half-sister."
"Yes. We have the same mother," he said, and beamed a grin. "Rather astonishing, actually. Mom wasn't all that bright, sadly…but she managed to pop out two geniuses."
"Two geniuses, perhaps…but only one unprecedented one. Seems your IQ is rather high but Gellian's outmatches it by a good seventy points."
He scowled darkly, and said nothing. Noting she'd clearly hit a nerve, Hovin nodded once.
"Where is Osco right now?"
He said nothing, and she lifted a brow slightly.
"What is her next target?"
Silence.
"How long have you been married?"
He blinked. "What?"
She smiled faintly. It was a smile without charity. "Your wife, Dr. Wyatt- you remember her? It wasn't that difficult to uncover that tie either. You really didn't go too far to hide her. Is she involved in this?"
His cherubic smile was back again. "Do you think I would tell you if she was?"
"No, not at all," she said. "Which is why there's an Alliance team heading to her doorstep right now to take her into custody and interrogate her."
"If you're trying to frighten me-"
"Your fear or lack thereof doesn't concern me, only facts. We need to know Osco's plan and location. If we don't beat it out of you, then we beat it out of her…and we keep on beating until we get what we need or are satisfied that either of you legitimately don't know. I warn you, though…I'm very hard to convince."
He laughed. "Beating isn't necessary. I could outline everything for you, even walk you right to Gellian's front door, and it will not do you a lick of good. Everything is already in motion. You can't stop it."
"I don't buy that."
"I'm not selling it. It doesn't matter to me."
Liara, who had been lingering near his shoulder, tapped her finger over the odd silver lines on his suit. They seemed melted into the plastic and ceramic, radiating over his chest and shoulders in a thin web. "Earlier on the ship, my biotics passed through you without effect," she said. "How did you do that?"
He craned his head and looked at her. "It's Gellian's invention…you like? It creates a refractive field, bends dark energy around and away like a curved lens bends light."
She lifted her brows. Such technology would have astronomical implications if it were understood. Tech that could redirect or nullify dark energy would be invaluable in ship and armor design.
"Williams, take his pads for study," Liara said, and Ashley began to unbuckle his chest plate. He seemed utterly unconcerned about it.
Hovin folded her arms. "Very well, you say it doesn't matter to you. So spill. Where is Osco and what is she planning?"
He grinned. "Dr. Shepard knows."
"No, she doesn't," Ashley replied with a scowl. He laughed.
"Of course she does! Or rather, she will. Once she gets her head working on those samples and looks over the data, I would be surprised if it even took her a full solar day to work it out Osco's motivations. Why else do you think Gellian wanted her dead?"
"Because she can develop a vaccine faster than independent researchers," Liara told him. "Developing a vaccine does not reveal Osco's whereabouts or motivations."
"Believe me…Shepard will know," he said, then shrugged. "Or don't believe me. Makes little difference to me. As for where Osco is now, I can't really say. I went into this knowing there was a good chance I'd be caught if not outright killed, and Gellian is far from stupid. I don't know where she went, but I do know she's extremely well protected and a hell of a lot smarter than all of you. So good luck finding her. I will tell you this, though…"
He leaned forward with a smile. "There's one more test before the main event. Another of those lovely devices is going to be set off somewhere. Not so small as this one, no…somewhere the population is higher, far more densely packed. I don't know where, but at most you have twenty hours before it happens. By then Shepard will know exactly what Gellian is doing and why she is doing it, I'll bet."
"Twenty hours," Hovin demanded. "You're sure of this?"
"At most, yes. Could be as little as ten minutes. So you'd best get on the horn to your precious Alliance and your sycophantic little Citadel Council and scramble like bugs to find it before it's too late. Oh, and while you're at it, since you'll be talking to my wife anyway…"
His expression was downright beatific. "Tell Ruth I love her."
Though she was certain that the spinning thoughts in her head would prevent her from sleeping-however exhausted- it wasn't the case. Barely had she laid down than she was folded under into heavy arms of black, sinking so deep even dreams could not find her. She woke sometime later to a knock and a chest that felt as if a rhino had sat on it. Disoriented for a moment, she reluctantly sat up, rubbing at her chest.
"Come in."
It was Sam. She stepped through decom with a sealed box in her hands. Smiling over at Del she apologized.
"Brought some hot food, figured you could use it."
Shepard had also not realized how hungry she was until Sam unlocked the protective case and the smell was allowed to escape.
"Nothing fancy, but it'll fill you," Feris told her.
"How long was I asleep?" she asked, going over to the tiny table and sitting down, unwrapping the sterile-seal utensils.
"Seven hours, give or take," Sam told her.
"Did Wyatt say anything?" she asked.
"I'll leave that to Liara or Commander Hovin to fill you in on if need-be. I can tell you they're following some leads. Patients are settled in, and the Alliance sent down some extra medical hands to help you. Mordin is already in the lab analyzing some soil samples, I think."
Shepard nodded, and tried to eat quickly. She was hungry enough to shovel and in a hurry to get to work, but years of upbringing prevented her from tossing all manners to the wind, regardless of circumstances. As she ate, she eyed the patiently waiting marine.
"Do you mind if I call you Sam?"
"Not at all. It is my name," she said with an amiable smile. She was kicked back against the wall of the prefab, casually at rest but her hand on her pistol all the same. Shepard nodded toward it.
"You still expect trouble?"
"Only always. Kept me and those under my protection alive thus far."
Shepard glanced at the pistol again, remembering her wildly pathetic shots at her home on Virmire. She'd originally purchased it for an added level of security, but she had never really believed her house systems would fail or be hacked so efficiently. As a result, while she knew how to handle it safely and keep it maintained, she'd never spent much time actually learning to shoot it.
"Could you teach me?" she asked. When Sam lifted her brows in question, she gestured at the gun. "Teach me to shoot, I mean? I know that you three are there to help if something goes wrong but…I should be able to protect myself as well, don't you think?"
Sam thought it over for a second, then nodded. "Yeah, might not be a bad idea. We could show you some self-defense moves too. I'll run it past Ash and Li."
Shepard finished her meal, Feris helping her back into her static suit before they passed back through decom and then outside. Evening was only a few hours away, and late afternoon had made the shadows long and the light golden. In every direction she could see-save north, where the low hills rolled more like waves- was a flat and endless sea of grass. A faint breeze stirred and rippled them in intricate patterns.
They entered the first trailer, going through decom again. As this facility was for data research, and completely sealed against any trace of contagion, Del took her helmet off as soon as they were clear. Necessary as it was, she hated the bulky thing with a passion.
Half a dozen faces turned toward them, more than one figure rising from a work station. Liara stood talking with Mordin at the far end of the room.
One woman, dressed in an Alliance static-suit and also sans helmet, had been bending over a younger man's shoulder as he pointed some numbers out to her. She straightened as she first looked- then headed- their way.
Sam, who'd met the officer earlier, started to introduce them. "Del, this is-"
She broke off in shock as the Alliance officer closed in, grasping Shepard's face and kissing her hard.
Sam stared, then glanced over at Mordin and Liara with a befuddled, amused expression.
"Just a feeling but…I think they already know each other."
"Yes," Liara replied softly. "So it would seem."
