"I am sure we are all mad, in the way you view things," Liara told the rakir calmly. Behind her, Del had opened a small pack of medi-gel, sealing the cuts on her neck and stopping the bleeding.

Sihra took a step forward, thrusting her hands in front of her, eyes fixed on Liara. "You will release me," she said, her tone brooking no argument.

Before Liara could reply, Del tossed down the used medi-gel packet and gripped the asari's shoulder pad, glaring over at the rakir. "No, we will not," she said. "You will go and stand quietly in that corner over there while I treat the Captain's wounds."

Both Liara and Sihra blinked at her, the latter quickly turning the expression into a glare. "You dare speak to me that way, Stunted?"

"Look, whoever brought you here left you for dead," Shepard told her. "We did not take you from your home nor have we harmed you in any way. If you are wounded I will treat you too, but right now I need to help Liara. If you have a problem with that-"

Unconsciously, Del stepped past Liara as she glared at the rakir. The asari immediately turned to grab her arm and halt her, but the motion sent agony through her side and made her head spin momentarily. Sihra, incensed at this upstart 'Stunted', stepped forward and grabbed Shepard's shoulder pad. Shepard reacted out of instinct, gripping hold of the side of the rakir's neck in an effort to keep her back.

Instantly, Sihra sagged to her knees and went still, an odd keening whine escaping her throat. Startled, Del released her and then moved back as Liara took hold of her. Eyes like embers, the rakir got to her feet and moved back, silently stalking to the far end of the lab and then sitting down quietly by the wall.

"What did you do to her?" Liara asked, astonished.

"I-I just grabbed her. I…don't know-is she hurt?" She started toward Sihra. "Are you hurt?"

A very loud warning growl erupted, startling Del into backing away, and Liara caught her arm again. "Just leave her be for now. She will tear you to shreds if you push her."

"If she's hurt-"

"Then it does not seem to be seriously, and you have no knowledge of her physiology anyway. You could do her more harm than good."

Liara returned to the bio-bed stiffly, fetching her rifle from her weapons pack and setting it beside her where she could easily grab it if Sihra came after them again. Still casting wary looks over at the rakir, Del helped Liara off with her armor chest-plate, using her omni-tool to scan the wounds.

"I can seal them up, stop the bleeding, and give you some pain medication," she said. "But you are going to need a real medical doctor. I don't think these are life threatening but you've lost a lot of blood and if you move too quickly you can tear them even worse."

"Seal me up, but leave the pain killers," Liara told her. "I need my head clear until we know we are safe."

Del reluctantly agreed, carefully packing the gashes with medi-gel and covering them with sealant. "You really should have some blood product but there's none here," she said softly. "If we find a source of water you need to take in some fluids. You're going to be dizzy, and nauseous, until what you've lost is replenished."

Liara nodded, gingerly sitting again. Del carefully helped her to her feet, then blinked as Liara tightened her grip and turned her toward the bio-bed. "Your turn."

"I'm fine-"

"Not buying it Doc. I can see how you're moving. Up. At least let me scan you."

Gingerly, Del climbed up on the bio-bed and tried to sit still as Liara passed her omni-beam over her. She frowned.

"You have cracked your sternum again," she said. "Other than some contusions that seems to be the worst of it."

Del nodded. "It's nothing that's going to kill me or that we can treat here," she said. "We need to find a communications hub, continue to search these computer databases for any trace of information we can glean."

Liara eyed her with a funny, small smile, and Del felt her cheeks heat a bit. "W-what?"

"You just sounded like a soldier for a moment, Merah," she said. Del ducked her head a bit, then cleared her throat, looking toward Sihra again.

"What are we going to do with her?"

"We have little choice but to take her with us," Liara said. "We cannot abandon her here. Once we establish communications I will contact the observation team for her home world, see if we cannot find some way to arrange taking her back to her people."

"Good, yes. Getting her home would be best, I think," Del said, then got up off the bio-bed. Liara caught her arm to help steady her as she got to her feet, and Del glanced at her, feeling her cheeks heat again…especially when Liara didn't immediately release her grip.

"Th-thank you," she said, and Liara nodded stiffly, finally loosening her hold.

Heading back over to the rakir, the asari gestured at Del to stay at a safe distance before approaching. Sihra glared up at her, and Liara crouched a bit.

"I am going to take your cuffs off," she said. "If you come with us we will get you back to your home, your people. If you attempt to fight either of us again I will kill you. Am I clear?"

"Why would you take me home?" she asked.

"Because you do not belong here," Liara said. "I think you know this as well as I do."

"Yes, but what do you gain from taking me home? If you hope to get favor with the Ubuut by such an action-"

"Our ways are not your ways, Prilekk. I return you home because it benefits both you and me."

"I can find my own way home."

"I promise you, you cannot," Liara said. Sihra growled, showing her teeth again.

"I am no weakling Stunted, detrak! I can smell my way home from anywhere. I do not need help."

Shepard watched the exchange with a bit of wary sadness. Of course, the rakir would think they were still on her world. If they were at the level of the bronze age, they probably had only started to have an actual written language. They would have no concept of their world being round, of the truth of the depths of space. To speak of flying through the air like a bird would possibly be heresy, to say nothing of space travel. She had no idea of their religious or ideological culture but on the whole, her species would be infants. Even fathoming the truth of outer space might be too much for her to handle.

They had no sedatives, no means of knocking Sihra unconscious again without hard physical damage…and it was more than a given she'd fight back strenuously, even bound. Del went to the far door of the lab and sealed it, before she went over to Liara's side.

"Let her stay if she wishes. We need to find communications," she said.

"We cannot leave her here on her own."

"We won't," she said, and nodded toward the far door. Liara glanced at it, noting the interface was red and locked. Del nodded toward the only other door, and looked at the asari meaningfully. Sighing, Liara rose to her feet.

"You will remain here for now, Sihra," she said, gesturing Del toward the door. "We will return."

Following Del, she was out of the door a moment later as Sihra rose to her feet. Wordlessly, Liara closed and sealed it, effectively trapping Sihra in the lab. With no knowledge of the computer systems or how the doors functioned, she would not be able to get out on her own…though Liara suspected by the time they returned the lab would be in ruins.

"We'll have to find some means to sedate her before we depart," Del said. "Knowing the truth of her situation…she's not prepared to handle it."

"Agreed. With any luck, we can transport her back to her home world unconscious, leave her close to where she was picked up. Come. There has to be a communications grid around here somewhere."


Moving through the empty complex was eerie. The sensation was far better with a companion than it had been when Del had gone through alone, but the empty halls and rooms still made her feel tense- like she was being watched.

At the top of the complex they found the small landing pad set into the side of the mountain. The wide doors were open, revealing the rocky landscape and cold lake in the distance, but the sun was starting to set, casting everything an odd and fairly forbidding crimson.

The main control room was situated just above the landing pad. Both women moved toward the computers, Del trying to find any laboratory data she could on the PMD or any of Osco's other surprises, while Liara accessed communications and tried to pinpoint their location.

"It appears we are on a small moon called Ivix, orbiting a gas giant in the Horsehead Nebula," she said after a moment. "It will only take a few hours before we can be picked up."

"Any luck with the Aswa?" Del asked, glancing over at her.

"No answer yet. They may still be on the far side of the Omega Four relay. I am sending continuous pings. Hopefully we will get a response when they return to home space."

The silent 'if' hung in the air between them, unacknowledged. Liara looked over at her.

"Are you having any luck with Osco's research data?"

"No. She wiped most everything pretty thoroughly. What's left is horribly fragmented. I'm downloading it to my omni-tool anyway, maybe we can piece it together. As far as the PMD, if there was any kept at this site, then Osco took it with her when she evacuated."

"Which means that even now the contagion may be speeding toward a colony or city, anywhere in the galaxy," Liara said softly.

Del said nothing, only gritting her teeth and continuing to dig deeper into the database. A few minutes later, Liara let out a soft 'aha.'

"I have reached the anthropology base surveying the rakir home world," she said, a moment before a holographic form appeared in the center of the room.

It was an asari woman, wearing lab fatigues and smiling with affable confusion.

"This is Dr. Leeha. You identify as Spectre T'Soni?"

"That is correct, doctor. I am Liara T'Soni."

"What can I do for you, ma'am?"

"We have a bit of a problem, doctor. One of the rakir has been taken off their home world."

The woman blinked before her eyes widened in shock. "What? How is that…we haven't had any vessels approach 320 Alphergi- Nakira, or even attempt to enter the system in two years-"

"We believe the vessel that took her has extremely advanced stealth capabilities. It slipped past your grid undetected."

"This is…this is alarming," Leeha said. "The rakir are a highly predatory species. If slavers are taking them off the planet-"

"It wasn't slavers, I assure you, and we have no reason to suspect more will be removed. This seems like a one-time event," Liara said. "However we do have a fully mature female rakir on our hands and she is rather unhappy at her current situation."

"Goddess, this is…this is absolutely dreadful. This is…this is horrible, on so many levels."

Confused, Del rose from her seat and walked over. "I grant you it is troubling," she said. "But we have her contained. She's not hurt, I don't think. She thinks she's still on her home world. If we sedate her we can transport her back home-"

"No, no, that isn't going to work, she-…wait. You said she still thinks she's on Nakira? How do you know this?"

"We have spoken with her," Liara said. "The one who took her outfitted her with a translation device- I can only assume she got into your systems and pulled your rakir language files to create it-"

The doctor reacted as if she'd just seen a baby murdered in front of her, making a horrified sound before moaning and covering her face. "Oh…no."

"What is it, doctor?" Liara asked.

"All right, all right, let me think…perhaps she's of low rank, that would be…that would be workable, no one would ever believe her," Leeha said, speaking more to herself than to Del and Liara. "Did she give her name?"

"Utchibahna Sihr-"

"Sihra! The First Prilekk to…Goddess! Goddess, no, anything but that…"

"Doctor, we are not following you," Liara said, irritation in her voice. "What exactly is the problem?"

Leeha took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. "Utchibahna Sihra is the First Prilekk to the Ubuut…b-basically, she is the equivalent of an asari nifayta, or…or what ancient humans used to call a Champion, a First Knight. Not necessarily a military general- she doesn't command troops, but she is the highest military advisor to the Ubuut and she stands in as champion in any conflict directly involving the Ubuut."

"The Ubuut is like…a chief?"

"More like an emperor," Leeha said. "The current Ubuut rules all known rakir lands. He has conquered every autonomous tribe and village across their largest continent. He is the Aswa V'Dess or Alexander the Great of the rakir home world. Normally the Ubuut fights his own battles but he is now over a century and a half old…incredibly ancient in the way the rakir measure their current lifespan. Now, whenever he is challenged, it is Utchibahna Sihra who stands in for him and fights in his place. The woman is incredibly deadly."

"All the more reason we need to sedate her and return her home."

"That isn't going to be possible! If she had been unconscious the entire time that would be one thing…we could return her home and she'd be none the wiser. But she's seen non-rakir faces, non-rakir technology. She is completely loyal to the Ubuut and is not going to keep that information private. She may not understand what she saw but she will describe the strange people she met, the strange things they had. The Ubuut and the rest of the rakir will listen, and they will go hunting across the continent, looking for us, intent on declaring war."

"But they will not find us," Del said tentatively. "I mean, there is nothing for them to find on their home world. We have no presence there. They will look but they'll never find us, it's impossible."

"Yes, I know," Leeha said. "And when that happens, Sihra will be declared insane and executed. If we return her home now it will be as good as laying a death sentence on her head. On the other hand, if we don't return her home, someone is going to challenge the Ubuut and he will have no Champion to fight for him. Custom dictates the next two most powerful Houses beneath the House Ubuut send their strongest warriors to battle for the honor of becoming Champion. Neither of those two Houses is loyal to the Ubuut…they want to overthrow him and Sihra and her loyals have been the only thing stopping them. Without her, the emperor is going to die and the entire rakir species is going to fall into civil war until the power vacuum is filled. They cannot afford any kind of war right now- their birthrates of fertile males are already below extinction levels. If massive groups of their people are slaughtered they will never recover from it. They will go extinct within forty solar years."

"But if we return her, the same thing happens. She is declared insane and executed, and there is nothing to stop the Houses from turning on the Ubuut," Del said softly.

"Yes, exactly!"

"Could we wipe her memory?" Liara asked. "Make her forget everything that she's seen or heard here?"

"Rakir neurology is so incredibly different than any of the other known species…I do not know if we would have any hope of succeeding."

"There has to be something," Del said. She was so furious with Osco she could feel it burning in her chest. With one careless act, she had potentially wiped out yet another entire species, just to satisfy her own perverted curiosity.

Leeha paced, a shaking hand covering her eyes as she attempted to think. "I…there are only two things we can do, and both may be impossible."

"Tell us," Liara said.

"First, if we are able to convince Sihra to never speak of what she has seen and experienced here to anyone on Nakira- and we trust her to keep that promise- then we should be able to return her safely and avoid messy political entanglements."

"I do not see that happening realistically," Liara said. "She has been loyal to her people and her emperor her entire life. She has no reason to trust us at all, let alone do as we ask."

"The only other hope then is to convince the Council to go forward with First Contact," Leeha said. "Then, our contact teams can escort Sihra home and speak to the Ubuut in person, stop a civil war from happening, and hopefully lead to a cure for the Stunted plague that is destroying them."

"Is there a chance the Council will listen?"

"I honestly don't know. They have been incredibly reticent to allow First Contact with the rakir due to their violent nature, and are reluctant to rethink that stance even knowing they are facing extinction without our intervention. Having a rakir there face to face with them…it might sway them a bit but it still is a long shot. They are not going to consider a civil war on Nakira or the extinction of one primitive race to be of enough consequence to risk it."

"Th-there is another option…" Del said, her voice uncertain and thoughtful.

"What is it, Shepard?" Liara asked.

"W-well, it might not work but…h-how long do you think we have before the Houses notice that Sihra is missing and take action against this emperor?"

"Few days, weeks perhaps," Leeha said. "Most rakir like to hunt…it's in their blood, their nature. Sihra often goes quite a distance away for an extended period of time on solo hunts. That must be what she was doing when she was picked up. It's not unusual for her to be gone for up to a month, but no one ever knows when to expect her back. The Houses will not strike until they are absolutely sure she's not going to return unexpectedly and interrupt their plans. I will do what I can to find out how long she's already been gone but…what is your thought?"

"We take Sihra with us, tell her the truth. We show her the truth of the galaxy, let her help us find and stop Osco-"

"She will not understand what she is seeing, Del," Liara said. "She is going to be incredibly frightened. This will be so completely outside of her realm of reality-"

"We have to try. If we can convince her, and she helps us stop Osco…don't you see? The Council isn't going to stand and look someone who just saved trillions of lives all over the galaxy in the eye and say 'you saved our people, but sorry…yours have got to go.'"

"I think you underestimate the potential callousness of the Council," Leeha said. "They did exactly that with the krogan, more or less."

"And I think you underestimate the power of their constituencies," Del replied, then looked at Liara. "My father is a prominent senator on Earth. He has contacts. You have contacts as a Spectre. If we stop Osco with Sihra's help and the Council still will not save her people then we spread the word about it, tell the whole damn galaxy the truth."

"To do so goes against my every oath as an asari soldier and a Spectre," Liara said. "I cannot just-"

"What? Try and save an entire species? We have to try, Liara. The only other options are to either execute her now and let her people die, or send her home to be executed and let her people die. Even if my plan doesn't work, the rakir remain in the same position- facing war and extinction. You won't even try?"

Liara said nothing, and incensed, Shepard stepped back. "You truly are heartless," she said in a rough whisper, then turned and strode out of the room.

Liara's jaw tightened and she looked at the floor, before she spoke to Leeha. "Do you think her plan has a chance to work?"

"I think she is correct," Leeha said. "I think it is the only chance we have, slim as it may be. It is a one in a trillion shot but it is the only option that even potentially saves the rakir people."

"Do you think Sihra will be cooperative?"

"I think Sihra is going to be horribly confused and frightened and extremely hostile as a result," Leeha said. "You may end up having to put a bullet in her head, as sorry as it makes me to say it- and we will still be facing the disaster we are facing now."

Liara nodded softly. "Thank you, doctor. We will contact you again shortly to let you know our decision."

She cut off the communication before Leeha could respond, and strode out after Del.

Shepard was halfway across the launch pad floor. Ignoring the ache and pull of her wounds, Liara trotted to catch up with her. "Doctor! Shepard, wait-"

Del ignored her, but as Liara caught her arm she whipped around, hand lifted to slap. Liara caught her wrist easily to prevent the strike. "Shepard-"

"You have just condemned that woman and her entire species to die, Liara. You did that. You are no better than Osco-"

"You are angry so I will forget you compared me to that woman," Liara said tightly.

"Why do you care what I think? I'm nothing but a mission to you, remember? Just another civvie to be protected, used as a tool when convenient and tossed aside whenever-"

She broke off as Liara firmly grabbed the back of her head, fingers tightening in her black strands of hair as she pulled her forward. Del barely had a chance to blink in surprise before the asari kissed her.