A/N: Beware da smoochies!


Shepard was not sure if she liked Miranda Lawson, or not.

She was quite attractive, that was unquestionable. In any other life, she could have easily been a vid model or an actress of some note. Her black hair offset her striking blue eyes, and she had an easy grace about her- the kind a cat has naturally and completely unconsciously.

Those were the first things that Del noticed. The second was the utterly icy chill that seemed to fill the air around them, forming between Lawson and Liara on an electric tide of disdain.

"Lawson." Liara was the first to speak.

"T'Soni," Miranda replied, managing to suck just a bit more warmth out of the air with that single word. Then her eyes moved away from the asari, quickly lighting in evaluation on first Williams, then Feris, then Traynor, before finally coming to rest on Del.

"You must be Dr. Shepard," she said, the Australian coming out clearly in her voice. "I hope you don't mind, I did a bit of reading up on you on the trip over. How you endured that woman…"

"It was not as insufferable as you might imagine," Del told her. "Osco was not easy to get along with, but-"

"I wasn't talking about Osco, I was talking about her." She gestured at Liara, who only narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. Del stiffened almost imperceptibly.

"In that case, I have found her quite easy to endure," she said coolly. "It probably helps that I haven't broken any Council laws or sent any hapless ships to their ultimate destruction."

The faintest snort came from either Williams or Feris- Del couldn't tell which. Traynor had covered her mouth, eyes slightly widened, but Lawson only lifted an eyebrow.

"Quick wits," she said calmly, then looked back at Liara. "Since we're hardly going to be catching up like old friends, you might as well show me to my work station so that I can get started."

"It is this way," Liara said, gesturing toward the door. As the group started out into the complex, Miranda shook her head, indicating Shepard and the other three.

"What's with the entourage? That afraid I'll try and bolt on you?"

"I am not worried about such an action in the slightest," Liara told her. "You are not a foolish or stupid woman, you would not risk your life or the pardon of your sentence on a scheme with a very low probability of success. Specialist Traynor will be helping you with your work. Commanders Williams and Feris are under evaluation for possible instatement to the Spectres, and they are Dr. Shepard's security detail."

Miranda lifted her brows and looked back at Del again. "How much risk could her life be under? We're under millions of gallons of water on one of the most secure planets, in one of the most secure systems in Council space. There are likely half a dozen security protocols you need to clear in order to sneeze, let alone open a door- and you still keep two N7 marines as her security detail?"

"I am taking no chances," Liara replied. "Osco has already demonstrated she is in possession of extremely advanced tech, and seems to employ at least one assassin. For all I know, she can walk through walls."

Miranda smirked at Del. "Well now. How's it feel to be the most important person in the galaxy?"

"If you were to ask me, right now I would say Osco is the most important person in the galaxy," Shepard said. "I am just a doctor trying to stop her."

"And yet here you are, tagging along with us instead of 'doctoring'."

"Do you have some kind of a problem with me, Ms. Lawson?" Shepard asked.

"I don't know you enough to have a problem with you, I am just kind of curious. Why are you here instead of off finding a cure to this horrible plague I keep hearing about?"

"I have seventeen different tests being run in isolation right now," Shepard told her. "I have instant updates feeding into my omni-tool every two minutes, and I can be back in the lab within five upon completion of my run-times. I can do the same work here at the moment that I can sitting in a chair and staring at a console in the lab."

"Yes, but why did you choose this instead of that? There's a reason you're here and not there. Wanted to stare at the dangerous felon who got seventy people killed, is that it? I'm leisure time to you?"

"That is enough," Liara said with irritation. "Her presence is none of your concern. Your only concern is getting us safe access to that relay and earning your pardon."

Shepard ignored the asari's defense of her (though inside she felt a small and oddly warm surge of gratitude for it). Instead she decided to answer honestly.

"Because I will be accompanying you through that relay, Ms. Lawson. I would like to know what I am in for."

That stopped the whole group, a startled 'what?' coming from both Liara and Traynor, the same word echoed in Williams' and Feris' expressions. Liara stepped a pace forward, fixing Del with a look.

"Dr. Shepard, your sole duty is finding a cure or vaccination for this plague," she said. "If we are able to successfully travel through the Omega Four relay and Osco is indeed there, I have no doubt the situation will be extremely hostile. You cannot be risked in case we fail to successfully traverse the relay, nor am I going to allow you to be pulled into a battle zone unnecessarily."

"She's right, 'Lilah," Sammi said before Shepard could respond. "You barely know how to even hold a gun, and we have no idea what kind of weapons or defenses Osco might have if we find her base of operations."

"Commander Feris has offered to show me how to shoot and to defend myself," Shepard said, then felt a twinge of guilt as Liara glared momentarily toward the marine, hoping she hadn't gotten her into trouble again. "And as a matter of course, I have to go. There's no way around it."

Miranda had started smirking, and Del suspected she'd already put it together. Williams shook her head. "Why? Why do you think you have to go?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Del asked. "If we find Osco's base of operations, that means we find her stores of PMD, her fabrication equipment, her records, her lab. Even QEC communications are not going to work, you'd never boost the signal enough to get out of the unique environment of the galactic core and through the relay to return to me- I won't be able to advise or even evaluate reports from a distance. Even if somehow I could, there would be a significant delay or degradation of data. We cannot risk that.

"The fastest way for me to track through her work and research for any invaluable hint that might lead to a cure would require me to be onsite and hands-on with her exact equipment and databanks. As well, none of you know as much about Osco and her way of thinking as I do. If she is, in fact, using advanced tech and artifacts from an alien civilization, I also stand the best chance of interpreting their proper use or how she would use them…it could mean the difference between spotting a clever trap or setting off a weapon reaction similar to the one that caused the Norvaya Tragedy at Deceptor.

"Not to mention that the PMD may not be the only biologic or genetic contaminant she is in possession of, just the most powerful. There are any number of other substances she may have or may have fabricated that would look like nothing more than water- things that even your hard-suits will not necessarily protect you from. You need an expert."

Though Williams had asked the question, Del had directed her answer toward Liara, her dark brown eyes stubbornly holding the sky blue gaze of the asari. Miranda was still smirking. Shepard could see it out of the corner of her eye. For one almost overwhelming moment, she wanted to punch that look right off the convict's face- never mind that she'd never really punched anything or anyone in her life before.

"We shall discuss this- and whether or not there are other options- later," Liara said at last. Her voice, like her expression, was impermeable. Shepard stared back at her, desperately trying not to be intimidated, before she finally nodded.

"Very well."

"Good!" Miranda smiled, as if they had been discussing what to have for lunch. "Now that is settled, I'd like to see my workspace. We have a lot to do, after all. Can't afford to dawdle."

Liara gave her a look that Shepard was surprised didn't actually cause the other woman to burst into flame, before she turned on her heel and gestured at them sharply.

"Come."

As the group started off again, Traynor shook her head and spoke low under her breath, pitched so only Del could hear her.

"That woman's a viper," she said, glaring at Miranda's back. "I had a cat like her once. It'd look at you and purr, looking all relaxed and inviting- but the moment you reached out to pet it, it would tear you open with its claws and not even blink. You keep your eye on her. Be especially wary if she starts acting friendly."

Shepard nodded, but truth be told she wasn't that convinced. Miranda might be exactly what Traynor feared but in Del's experience, there were cats that bit because they were that way from the womb, and there were cats that bit because it had been beaten into them.

For now, the jury was still out on Lawson, but whether or not the cause was nature or nurture, a cat bite was a cat bite, and Shepard had no desire to be on the receiving end of one.


It was like looking out onto the end of everything.

Ruth had darkened the solar shielding on the viewports even more, but she still had to squint a bit as she stood in the polished black room, and regarded the apocalypse happening all around her.

Even trying to look past the accretion disk was like trying to look into the heart of a sun- a sun surrounded by balls of fire and tidal oceans of blood and misery. Constantly moving, constantly orbiting at the trembling edge of annihilation, the wrecks of millions of ships formed an endless iron boneyard, slowly dancing their way toward the crushing, hungry mouths of the endless black holes, the vast ball of fire.

But not this ship, she thought. Not this place.

She could not look at the torment outside any longer. Turning, she looked instead to the pair of bodies that lay side by side on identical black slabs. The looming tank that had held one of them until recently was gone, having retracted back into its bed. Ruth walked across the darkness toward the form that lay nearest her.

Gellian Osco lay, staring lifelessly upward. Her eyes were flat and colorless, half lidded. Her blue lips had parted slightly as the muscles had relaxed…as if the soul had opened them just a tiny bit in order to escape.

Where her flesh wasn't ashen pale it was blue, or gray. Even the scars and series of tracks both old and fresh were subdued, two-dimensional, done.

Ruth's hand hovered a moment over the cold cheek, and then the dry strands of straw colored hair, but her fingers landed on neither. She couldn't bear to touch them. After a moment of trying, she drew her hand back, closed her eyes, and let out a long, weary breath.

Then, she moved to the second form, lying just as quietly, but as different from the first as night to day.

Gellian Osco lay, her eyes closed, a curtain of thick blond lashes brushing her cheeks. Her skin was a rich and healthy tan, the hair spreading behind her head a thick honey gold, as gloss as silk. No gray colored it, no lines etched into the corners of her eyes or the sides of her mouth. There were no scars, no wounds, no tracks left from a lifetime of injections. Her muscles were full and healthy, not cords of sinew ravaged by ultimately corrosive drugs.

This was a girl of thirty, of twenty…young and healthy and full of warmth and life.

Ruth reached out again, her fingers hovering as before. This time, after a tentative pause, she allowed them to land, gently stroking that gold hair, feeling the warmth of skin beneath her fingers.

As they traced across her cheek, Osco's brows knit slightly and she turned her cheek sleepily toward the touch, making a faint sound. Ruth cupped her face, brushing her thumb across her skin, trying not to shake.

"Gellian…"

Lashes shifted and then lifted, and as Ruth saw her sleepy eyes she recoiled slightly, surprised.

Osco's eyes had always been green, but a muddy green bordering on hazel- perpetually reddened and tired. These eyes were green- a color vibrant and alive and unbelievably brilliant- a color that could not have existed in any natural eye, born in any natural human being.

That gaze shifted in confusion toward her face, before they clarified a little. "Ruth…"

"Shh," she whispered, bending closer. "It's me. It's me, Jelly…are you-?

Are you, you? Are you my Gellian? Is she still inside there?

Osco blinked a few times, looking around before she started to push herself up. Ruth immediately caught her shoulders.

"Not so quickly…"

Gellian took her hand, gently squeezing it before shifting it away, sitting up. Apparently completely unconcerned that she was naked, she looked at her hands, then lifted them and touched her hair.

Ruth stood between her and the other slab, but Osco was neither foolish nor deterred. She started to peer around the other woman, who stepped to the side to block her yet again. Getting to her feet, Osco deflected Ruth's attempt to halt her, stepping around her.

She stood looking down at the dead, withered, ravaged body in front of her for a long moment, her expression oddly childlike, her brows knit. Ruth softly put her hand on her shoulder.

"Jelly…"

"It worked," Osco said softly.

"Of course it worked," Ruth told her, brushing her hair back. "Of course it did."

Osco looked at her, those brilliant eyes almost physically impactful. Ruth cupped her face, forcing herself to search those eyes. Seeing that sharp edge, that almost awe-inspiring intelligence behind them, she finally allowed herself to relax a little.

It had worked. It was her Gellian. She knew that now without a doubt.

Leaning forward, Ruth kissed her, relief making the motion more urgent than she had intended. As their lips parted, she whispered softly. "It is you…"

Osco's new fingers gripped onto Ruth's shoulder a moment, before she nodded slightly, clearing her throat. "Get rid of it," she said hoarsely, refusing to look at the body again. "Just get rid of it…"


A lot of what Miranda said was technical, and outside of Del's area of expertise. She remained silent as Lawson described her earlier work, accessing her extensive body of research regarding the Omega Four relay and her theories. It had all been confiscated when she'd been arrested, but the Council had forwarded it immediately to Liara upon request.

It was clear Lawson was extremely intelligent, and very passionate about her studies. Everything she displayed supported her hypothesis that the relay transmitted to the galactic core, but that was where things got a bit sketchy. Communications transmissions were not possible from the core to home space, even using the relay to…well, relay them. The incredibly high radiation of the core saw to that. The only way communication would even be remotely feasible would be to set up several very powerful buoys to capture and intensify the signal, filtering out the massive interference enough for a clear message to hit the relay and be forwarded on. The ships that she had sent through the relay had the equipment to set up this communications web on board…but since they had never been heard from again, it was clear the web either failed, or they had not been able to establish it.

"You sent these ships through without knowing what they might encounter, or where the relay even let out for sure?" Traynor asked. "For all you know, it dumped them directly into the galactic core itself."

"Give me some credit," Miranda said angrily. "We sent in six unmanned drones with signal boosters first. It took four hours after each drone before we could confirm it had transmitted through the relay safely. They weren't destroyed immediately upon exiting, which they would have been had the relay dumped into the heart of a sun or a supernova. I did my utmost to insure that those ships could get through the relay and emerge intact from the far side. If I'd had more time I might have been able to find a way to retrieve or communicate with them at the failure of the web, but I was denied that."

She glared over at Liara, but the asari refused to take the bait. "We shall have to repeat the steps with the drones. No ship passes into that relay until a drone returns first."

"I have all my original numbers," Miranda told her. "With a few small requests for equipment, I'm confident I can construct the drones needed to test the relay, survey the landing zone, and return through the relay intact. We are still going to have a communications problem between any ship we send through that relay and home space- Dr. Shepard was more than correct about that. Still, if we survive the initial trip, we should be able to send an unmanned buoy back through the relay to signify we made it."

"Why didn't you do that the first time?" Williams asked.

"I hardly had unlimited resources then," Miranda replied dryly. "I was limited to what I could smuggle, since my operation was…less than above-board, as T'Soni loves to remind me."

"That's a problem, isn't it?" Shepard said, more to herself than the others. Miranda looked over at her.

"What's a problem?"

Del blinked, realizing she'd spoken aloud, then shook her head. "The relay is under Council sanction. No one is allowed to access it. There are safeguards in place which alert the Council and several other authorities the moment that activity is registered near that relay. That's how they knew you were there, how Liara was dispatched to arrest you. Those sanctions are still in place. If Osco is hiding in the galactic core, wouldn't she be using that relay to go back and forth? Alerts should have been going off like mad long before now, indicating someone was accessing it."

Then she waved her hand, answering her own thoughts before the others could speak. "But…no. She could have an alternate way to the core we don't know about. The tech she seems to have her hands on…it could negate the alerts, mask the travel, bypass the relay altogether for all we know. Never mind, I wasn't taking that into account…"

She could feel Liara's eyes on her and her cheeks heated. It had been a dumb thing to suggest, especially before she had thought it all the way through. Liara's not a scientist but she's also not stupid. She obviously had already thought about that…

After a moment of silence, the asari looked at Miranda. "Provide a list of everything you need. I will have it here as quickly as it can be requisitioned. How long do you estimate before we can start testing our drones?"

"Depending on how fast the materials get here, I'd say we could be going into that relay in a matter of days. Two, maybe three on the outside."

"We shall have to hope that Osco waits at least that long before she sends off another batch of PMD," Liara said. It was clear she did not think that a possibility, but what other choice was left them? They could not act unless they found that base, or had some indication of the next target.

For all they knew, missiles or ships were already on their way to every home world across the Milky Way. They could already be too late.

As if on cue, Del's omni-tool chirped. She lifted it, quickly scanning over the latest results from her tests. She quickly excused herself, heading out and back toward the lab, Feris automatically joining her.

"Well, isn't she just a little ray of sunshine?" the marine asked, referring to Lawson.

Del smiled slightly, but it was thin and tired. "I just thought all of you Aussies were like that."

"Ouch, Doc." Sam feigned being wounded, and Shepard shook her head.

"I just hope she can really help us, and that Osco really is in the galactic core."

"One thing I've learned since working with Liara," Sam told her. "She's like a bloody hound dog. Give her the faintest trail and she'll find the other end of it, every time, without fail. There's a reason she's such a good Spectre. I'd trust her hunches more than other people's observed facts. If she's got the idea that Osco is hiding in the core, than you can lay money that we'll find Osco hiding in the core."