Chapter 5

Confrontation

Listening to Udina yell and whine to the Council was probably the low point of the day. His voice is even more annoying in person, and the attitude he'd had since we walked in was just making me want to punch him. I was leaning against the wall, looking out into the Presidium alongside Kaiden and Ashley before finally turning when I heard Udina's voice directed towards us.

"Captain Anderson, I see you brought half your crew with you," Udina said. Alright, seriously? The condescending tone wasn't helping things. This guy really did look down on everyone else as inferiors.

Captain Anderson nodded, "Just the ground team from Eden Prime. In case you had any questions."

"I have the mission reports," Udina snarled, "I assume they're accurate?"

"They are," Anderson said with a nod before gesturing toward the terminals Udina had been in front of, "Sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience."

Udina crossed his arms, the perpetual frown on his face deepening, "They were not happy about it. Saren's their top agent, they don't like him being accused of treason."

Shepard stepped up at this, "Saren's a threat to ever human colony out there! He needs to be stopped! They have to listen to us!"

"Settle down, Commander," Udina said, "You've already done more than enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the Spectre's. The mission to Eden Prime was a chance you could prove that you could get the job done. Instead Nihlus ended up dead and the beacon was destroyed."

Anderson came to Shepard's defense, "That's Saren's fault, not his."

"Then we'd better hope the C-Sec investigation turns up some evidence to support our accusations, or the Council might use this as an excuse to keep you out of the Spectre's."

Udina then had Anderson go with him to get things ready for the hearing while telling the rest of us to make our way up to the Citadel Tower on our own. The moment the door had shut behind them Ashley huffed, "And that's why I hate politicians."

I shook my head and sighed before muttering, "Some things never change."

"Come on," Shepard said, "Let's get moving."

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"Saren's hiding something, I need more time! Stall them."

There he was. As soon as we'd stepped off the elevator I'd spotted Garrus talking to his boss. We approached and came within hearing distance just as the conversation was ending, it seemed.

"Stall the Council?" The other turian said, shaking his head, "Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Garrus."

As we approached Garrus turned too us. "Commander Shepard? I'm Garrus Vakarian., the C-Sec officer in charge of the investigation into Saren."

"Who we you just talking to?" Shepard asked.

Garrus glanced over to where the other Turian had walked off to. "That was Executor Pallin, head of Citadel Security. He'll be presenting my findings on Saren to the Council."

"You wanted him to stall the Council?" I asked.

Garrus nodded, "That's right. I know he's hiding something, but because he's a Spectre everything he touches is classified. I wasn't able to get anything solid."

"I think the Council is waiting, Commander," Kaiden chimed in.

Garrus gave us nod and stepped aside, "Good luck Commander. Maybe they'll listen to you."

I had to suppress the urge to comment on the likelihood of that happening as we continued on. We met Anderson at the bottom of the stairs and he gestured for us to keep walking, "The hearing's already started, come on."

Walking up to the platform, the first thing that drew my attention was the over-sized hologram of Saren standing with his arms crossed and Udina spoke to the Council. When we finally made it to where Udina was standing I heard the conversation reach the point it did in the game as Tevos spoke, "The Geth attack is a matter of some concern, but there is nothing to indicate Saren was involved in any way."

Sparatus added, "The C-sec investigation came up with no evidence to support your charge of treason."

That's when Udina spoke up, and did the dumbest thing I think he's ever done. "Nihlus' assistant witnessed Saren giving orders to the Geth," he said. I just closed my eyes and clenched my jaw tightly to keep from speaking out. Dammit... This was going to be great.

I opened my eyes to find the Councilors all looking to each other before turning and looking back to us. Valern spoke this time, "Yes... we read the Eden Prime report, and noted mention of one, Dazac Praeletum. We assume this is the same Dazac Praeletum that we received a very distressing report from Nihlus about, just six days ago."

Well, shit.

"Yes," Sparatus continued, "A young human found... floating in space near a Relay, with no recollection of how he got there, or explanation of how he was even alive."

Double shit.

"More disturbing still," Valern said, tapping on his console and bringing up a large holographic screen that showed a Relay. "This is exterior footage from the ship that found him. As you can see there is obviously a body floating in orbit around the eezo core of the Relay. The pilots of the ship came up with a model of the orbit..."

A spiraling line appeared overlaid on the video, showing an originating point at the center of the core. Tevos spoke this time, "The model seems to suggest that this, Dazac, came from the center of one of the largest eezo cores known to exist. Yet he didn't appear to have suffered any ill effects either from exposure to the eezo, or the vacuum."

"When we looked for records on him, we found very little information. So little in fact that it raised several alarms." Valern explained. "It only listed a name, date of birth, and small summary that essentially said he was no one of any particular interest. There are no family records. No medical records. No birth certificate. No planet of origin. No history of schooling. No accounts in his name. The list goes on."

Oh, fuck me...

I felt everyone's eyes turn to me, frowning and glaring. Then I heard Saren chuckle and clenched my fists. "I find it difficult to believe that the reports of this... child boarding the Normandy alongside Nihlus, could possibly be true."

"Nihlus brought him on board!" Anderson exclaimed, "He said Dazac was there to assist him!"

"Maybe we should ask, Dazac here, what other secrets he is keeping if you truly know nothing," Saren suggested.

"Saren is right," Sparatus said, "Out of all of this, Praeletum is the piece that clearly doesn't fit."

I snarled at the Councilor for that comment, "We all have secrets Councilor. I would expect all three of you to know that."

"Are you trying to imply something, human?" Sparatus said, putting a slight emphasis on the word 'human.'

I crossed my arms over my chest, "I'm implying that my secrets are not the ones you need to be worrying about. It's Saren's secrets that should concern you."

"I resent these accusations!" Saren said, "Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend."

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Anderson shouted.

Saren's expression changed to what I can only assume is the equivalent of smugness for turians. "Captain Anderson, you always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me." His gaze turned to Shepard then. "And this must be your protege, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed."

"The mission to Eden Prime was top secret," Shepard said, glaring up at Saren, "The only way you could know about it is if you were there!"

"With Nihlus gone, his files passed on to me," Saren stated, "I read the Eden Prime report... I was unimpressed. But what can you expect, from a human?"

"Saren despises humanity!" Shepard said as he leaned forward, "That's why he attacked Eden Prime!"

"Your species needs to learn its place Shepard. You're not ready to join the Council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres," Saren said, causing my fist to tighten.

Udina was appropriately angered as well. I think that's the one thing I'll likely ever agree with him on. "He has no right to say that! That's not his decision!"

Tevos looked up to Saren's hologram as she gestured toward us, "Shepard's admission into the Spectres is not the purpose of this meeting."

"This meeting has no purpose," Saren replied, "The humans are wasting your time Councilor, and mine."

Shepard looked to the Councilors, "Saren's hiding behind his position as a Spectre. You need to open your eyes!"

Valern frowned and spoke, "What we need is evidence, so far we've seen nothing."

"There is still one outstanding issue," Anderson said, "Dazac's vision. It may have been triggered by the beacon."

"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now?" Saren asked, "How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?"

"I agree," Sparatus added, "Our judgement must be based on facts and evidence, not wild imaginings and reckless speculation."

"How did you become a Councilor?!" I said, drawing everyone's gaze.

Sparatus' brow lowered as he looked at me, "Excuse me?"

I took a step forward and directed my words toward him, "For someone who's supposed to know all about and help manage a society based off of Prothean tech, you sure are ignorant!" Apparently I stunned him and everyone else into silence and so I continued, "The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the user's brain. It appeared to be a warning. If that's the case, brushing it aside is the most wild and reckless thing you could do!"

"And you know a lot about the Prothean's? Tevos asked.

I smirked and replied, "I know quite a bit more than most, though, I guess I wouldn't know nearly as much as your Goddess."

The look on Tevos' face... priceless. Too bad I couldn't get a picture. She was very quick to compose herself though she did look at me with a rather odd expression. It was like a mix of fear, anger, and curiosity. And I just realized that this was definitely going to come back and bite me in the ass... Should've kept my mouth shut.

Apparently the other two Councilors were completely unaware of her reaction and just looked utterly confused with my statement. They looked to the others and Tevos took the initiative, "Do you have anything else to add?" I shook my head as Valern then addressed Shepard, "And what about you, Commander?"

Shepard snarled, "You've made you decision. I won't waste my breath."

Tevos and Spartus looked at each other and then the former spoke, "The Council has found no evidence linking Saren to the Geth. Ambassador, your petition to have him disbarred from the Spectre's is denied."

"I'm glad to see justice was served," Saren said. The bastard just had to get in the last word...

We made our way off the platform and gathered nearby. No one spoke until Udina walked up to us. "It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing, Captain. You and Saren have too much history, it made the Council question our motives." He then turned to me, "And you! You have some explaining to do! What w-"

"Not to you I don't!" I interrupted him. "I know just as much about all of what they said as you do!"

"So it's true?" Ashley asked in disbelief, "Nihlus actually found you floating around a relay?"

"Apparently," I muttered, saying it in a tone that told everyone I was going to say no more on the subject.

Shepard spoke up then and asked, "What did you mean when you commented on the asari Councilor's 'Goddess?'"

"Like I said," turning my gaze to Shepard, "We all have our secrets. I just happen to know one of her species' more damning ones." I then turned my gaze back to Udina and started speaking even as I saw his mouth start moving, "And don't ask for details. I'm not giving you any."

"How do you 'just happen' to know some damning secret about the asari?" Ashley asked, frowning heavily as she crossed her arms in front of her.

I looked at her with mock confusion, "What? You don't think Nihlus kept me around for my good looks do you?"

She just blinked at me, as did everyone else, before they all let out a simultaneous sigh. Ok, I get it. Bad joke. AT least it seemed to deflect the sudden interest they had in questioning me.

"Forget I asked," Ashley said shaking her head. "What do we do now though?"

"We need to find some way to expose Saren," Anderson suggested.

"What about Garrus?" Kaiden asked, "That C-sec investigator we ran into arguing with the executor."

"That's right!" Ashely said, "He was asking for more time to complete his investigation!"

"Any idea where we can find him?" Shepard asked.

Udina gave a nod, "I have a contact in C-sec who can help us track him down. His name's Harkin..."