Chapter 2: Hide and Seek
Investigations into the areas the batarians were last seen in had proved pointless. There was no sign of anything happening, not even miniscule holes from mass driver weapons which Garrus had honestly been expecting. This mission had gotten under his plates so bad he felt like he would be attacked by protoform around every corner.
Garrus spent much of the rest of his day sitting on a bench outside the massive building that housed the embassies waiting for new leads and calibrating his rifles. Occasional updates from the techs in C-Sec kept the investigation from being completely hopeless. After checking and rechecking the scan data, the techs repeatedly assured Garrus that they were absolutely sure that there was no possible way the missing batarians used, of could have used, biotics to hide the abnormal, disproportionate weight typical to protoform. There was absolutely no sign of active biotics, the telltale aura which surrounds all things which create mass effect fields, which is impossible to hide. There was not even any eezo found within the batarians, so they could not use biotics even if they wanted to. He told the techs to search the various security video feeds across the Citadel to find where the batarians went and privately hoped that whoever docked as the captain was just another batarian who had cosmetic surgery to impersonate the captain.
To his great shame, Garrus also discovered the importance of the Fathar System while he was waiting, from a news feed. While Garrus lamented the parasitic newscasters being better informed than he, he did learn that the lost communications and ships from the Fathar System were just another example of a recent pattern going on in the Terminus Systems. The whole Terminus was systematically cutting off contact with Council Space, or being cut off.
He supposed that he shouldn't be surprised he did not know about the lack of communications from the Terminus; he had been avoiding the newsfeeds for the last few years since he became tired of hearing about the protoform attacks happening all over the galaxy. After 300 GSY, reports of protoform still made headlines and ratings.
Finally, the secretary from the Batarian Embassy emerged from the front doors of the building and headed over to the Public Transit terminal. Moving as quickly as possible without drawing attention, Garrus headed over to the terminal. The Public Transit system had the same simple security systems in place to prevent use by protoform: scales and scanners, but with alarms and automatic disabling instead of armed guards. It was simple enough for Garrus to slip in the transit car behind the secretary without her notice.
The car was halfway to the Tayseri Ward when the secretary finally noticed Garrus crammed behind her seat, and only because he spoke, "I suppose with the standard communications out, I suppose the only way to deliver news now is to do it in person. So, the question is, what news was the Captain delivering?"
The secretary jumped in her seat. If the car's navigation were not automated, it would have crashed from her fright. She turned around and found a pistol barrel aimed right between her four eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"I suppose with thing going the way they are in the Terminus, it was surprising the captain even arrived at the Citadel to bring a report. So tell me, what news was the captain to bring?"
The secretary fidgeted in the seat.
"If you don't tell me about the captain now, I shoot you here for smuggling protoform into the Citadel."
"Protoform?!" Squeeked the secretary. Garrus always thought it was funny when batarians did that.
"Yes, protoform. Your family will probably never recover from the shame of your stupidity. They may even have your eyes cut out. Unless you tell me about the captain."
The secretary tilted her head to the left, a sign Garrus noted as acknowledgment of a superior. "Captain Balak called ahead… said that he had news from Lorek. The ambassador thought this was odd but it was the only contact from the Fathar System we've had recently… so we scheduled a meeting."
"Why was it odd?"
"Besides the lost communications, the captain was supposed to be stationed on Torfan in the Skyllian Verge to help acquire resources for the Hegemony, far from Lorek in the Terminus."
"What kind of resources?" Growled Garrus.
"The Hegemony is having a bit of an economic problem… as there are not enough workers to produce the goods we need, so Captain Balak was to help bring in more… workers… from the Terminus…"
"You mean slaves."
"Slavery is a traditional part of batarian culture," said the secretary. To Garrus, she sounded like she was reciting propaganda.
"It is still illegal and if the Hegemony wants to enslave people so much, enslave only your own people!"
"The Council never cared what we do in the Terminus anyway, it is outside Council jurisdiction," cried the secretary.
"It is still repugnant." Garrus changed the subject, "why was Captain Balak calling the ambassador if he were making slave runs?"
"I don't know. He just called and said that he had news from Lorek."
The car landed before Garrus could continue questioning. After a second of thought though, he realized that he had run out of questions to ask anyway. A quick glance around revealed that they were at a Tayseri Ward Transit Terminal, though he could not remember which one. Garrus thanked the secretary for her aid in his investigation and stepped out of the car.
He walked a few steps before he received a message from on his omnitool from the techs. The techs had found Captain Balak's credit chit being used in the Tayseri Ward markets outside Anitoch Square, making purchases that appeared unusual when compared with the captain's Purchase Profile. Garrus was not sure he wanted to curse or thank the volus who created the purchase profile system which tracked everything bought by every individual who used credits. He never liked the system, but right now it was helpful so Garrus supposed he could do without hating it for a few minutes. The message said that the captain had being purchasing many books and vids on the culture, history, law and fictional works of the Council races, figurines of various military forces throughout history, model ships and an impressive amount of alcohol. The only thing on that list that fit the captain's profile was the alcohol, though never in the amounts that he was buying now.
Garrus took the Transit car he had just arrived in over to Anitoch Square. It was a lively and bustling public square, with many markets, the Museum of Galactic History and a beautiful park with children playing running about playing. There were the same basic security measures as everywhere, complete with armed C-Sec guards, but it was as if the protoform threat was largely unknown here.
The markets themselves were loud and crowded with all races. Garrus thought he even saw a few vorcha, who were much more common in Terminus space, haggling at one of the kiosks. He wove in and out between the crowds, the stalls, the stands, displays, and many other things that simply did not register in his mind. Suddenly, just beyond the next crowd he saw a face he recognized. Garrus pulled up his omnitool and looked at the image again for comparison. No mistake, he had found who he was looking for.
Garrus pushed past the crowd and found three batarians standing before a stall, one of which was examining a model of the Destiny Ascension, the flagship of the citadel fleet. He had found Captain Balak.
******************** Hide and Seek: End ********************
Talk for Reader:
Alright, I am not satisfied with my first chapter. I find it too fast paced and I give too much away. So, sooner or later, I will be breaking Chapter 1 into two or three chapters, as well as refining some of the details. I also really want to get rid of that "as you know…" cliché. I'd rather just make Garrus look like he liked to sleep during history class (despite that being a gross misuse of a history class). So, expect this to happen one of these days.
As you can see, the batarians are up to their usual antics. I am personally of the opinion that their culture is similar to the Old South with bits of Cold War totalitarian regime mixed in, and with extremely wealthy slave owners controlling the government and seeing slavery as a necessary evil (because it is very, very profitable). The other classes are disproportionately poor in comparison, but do not want slavery to end either because that will flood the job market with more competition. And then you have those jobs that have ridiculously high mortality rates for various reasons that many free people just will not do (and jobs with high mortality rates that slave owners do not want to waste their "good" slaves on), necessitating the practice of bringing in more slaves. A lot of people hate it, but the problem with an economy built upon slave labor is that slavery becomes too important to simply abolish, because abolishing it will lead to economic collapse. Furthermore, the (free) people who live in a slavery based economy, when others call them out on how repugnant it is, they justify it, usually by claiming that it is "their right" and that it is "good for the slaves." Actually, they just don't want economic collapse because that really sucks. The problems that come with slavery-based economies are really quite fascinating.