Chapter XVII
Note: I have changed Anderson's Memorial to London instead of Vancouver.
The evening before the inauguration of the Anderson Memorial, Shepard and Kaidan paid Lilianne a visit and stayed the night. Lilianne seemed in good spirits, but Kaidan knew that the longer his father was missing, the greater it weighed on his mother's shoulders. Kaidan wanted to tell his mother that there was still hope, but he couldn't-not until he had solid evidence that his father was alive.
After sharing a delicious meal with Lilianne, Shepard and Kaidan had stayed up late looking out on English bay, enjoying the evening's cool breeze. They talked about their childhood-both growing up as army brats, they discovered that they had a lot in common. They both moved from place to place, adapting continuously to new surroundings and new people. Shepard, a spacer, had been on five different solar systems by the age of twelve, and Kaidan, on earth, had been all over North America before he ended up in the BAAT program.
Shepard had always felt comfortable saying just about anything to Kaidan, who had a particularly calming effect on her, but tonight she had noticed something new. She was at peace there, away from it all, away from always being on her guard and looking over her shoulder. It was a revelation that she didn't quite know how to process or how to put it into words. Soon, they both started to yawn and they readily crawled into bed, exhausted.
It was the crack of dawn when Shepard woke up from yet another bad dream. Kaidan was fast asleep beside her. She carefully got out of bed and saw that she had received an urgent message on her omni-tool. With a couple of swift swipes, she opened it.
Commander Shepard,
Congratulations on your promotion. Rear Admiral, at such a young age. It's very impressive. Your mother is so very proud of you. And as the next Earth councilor, we hope you do not disappoint us like the last councilor.
The Praxidikai.
Kaidan had woken up just in time to see the expression on Shepard's face change into rage as she read the email.
"What happened?" asked Kaidan as he rose up to see the message Shepard had received. As Kaidan read it, Shepard noticed his omni-tool was also signaling an urgent pointed to his device and he opened it as briskly as she did.
Major Alenko,
It seems that you are in a privileged position to influence the events to come. We will be in touch.
The Praxidikai.
"What the hell are they playing at?" asked Kaidan, in shock.
"I have no idea, but we'll get to the bottom of this," exclaimed Shepard as she pinged Liara to call her back on a secure line.
Liara had been scanning every channel diligently for any reference to the affairs of the Praxidikai organization, but nothing indicated that the group was involved in anything other than philanthropic ventures. These two emails had been the first sign that the group had any particular interest in Shepard. Liara was able to trace a server hub on Earth's moon that had the same underlying markers as the messages Shepard and Kaidan just received. The servers were impenetrable. Liara suggested placing receivers, which she happened to have, on the servers to intercept any transmitting communications. Luckily, there was enough time to go to the moon and back before the ceremony for Anderson's memorial started.
Luna had been hit hard by the Reaper invasion. Its restoration had been funded by a large conglomerate of Earth-run institutions which had also installed their own communications facilities equipped with long-range extranet and intranet servers.
They devised a plan, left a note for Lilianne, called Steve, and packed what they needed. Once on the shuttle with Steve, they picked up Liara on the Normandy and flew toward the moon. As not to arouse suspicion, Kaidan would pretend to be an Alliance inspector and Shepard a technician. Liara had already replaced both of their identifications which she added to Luna's security systems. Once cleared for landing, Steve dropped off Kaidan and Shepard and flew Liara off station, where no surveillance would detect her presence and where she could quickly access the server room.
Kaidan and Shepard easily convinced the guards of their supposed purpose, which was to inspect the station. Their real purpose was to get to the security controls and allow Liara to override the cameras and sensors. Once the security measures were deactivated, Liara and Glyph would have under eight minutes to get to the server room, place the receivers, return to the shuttle, and wipe any recording of Kaidan and Shepard's visit before a station-wide alarm would be triggered.
Everything went as planned. The asari took just over 7 minutes to execute her part. It was now only a matter of time before Liara could pinpoint the exact location of any incoming transmission and possibly locate where Praxidikai was based.
They left the Luna station, changed into their dress uniforms and flew straight to London.