Chapter 3: Right

"Captain Ka'hairal Balak!" Garrus shouted as loud as he could over the din of the market. One of the other batarians tapped the captain's shoulder and leaned over to him. The captain turned to face Garrus and smiled.

"Can I help you…?" Asked the captain. He tone was light, friendly and sounded genuinely confused. Garrus quickly prayed to the Spirits that was the case.

"Spectre Garrus Vakarian," Garrus said, "I've been looking for you."

"Why? Is there a problem?"

"Your apparent disappearance had gotten a great many important people worried."

"Yeah, sorry about that," the captain averted his gaze and rubbed the back of his neck, "it is my first time on the Citadel, I wanted to have a look around."

"You somehow completely disappeared from all the surveillance systems in the Presidium and made it into the Tayseri Ward without going through any checkpoints," Garrus pointed out, "I think you need a better explanation than that."

"Maybe I wanted to give the ambassador a bit of trouble." The captain stood straight.

"I think you gave him more than 'a bit of trouble.'" Garrus secretly readied an overload on his omnitool, "C-Sec was beginning to suspect you had been replaced by protoform." Garrus expected an attack from any three of the batarians.

He didn't expect for the captain to begin laughing.

"That's ridiculous," said the captain when he finally was able to breathe.

"Not really," replied Garrus. He was confused: protoform usually attack when confronted.

"You can't just go around accusing honest people of being protoforms! Where is your proof?"

"I'm a Spectre, I don't need proof," said Garrus. The captain glared and his fingers twitched. Garrus carefully pulled up his omnitool, making sure it's targeting laser was pointed away from the batarians, but could be aimed at them within a second. "But if its proof you want, I have seen your ship." He selected the pictures of the interior of the batarian ship.

"What about my ship?" asked the captain.

Garrus faced his omnitool's holographic display towards the captain, who stared blankly at it for a moment.

Then his eyes widened in horror. "What happened to my ship?!"

Garrus took this as a sign to press for confession, "well, it looks like it either experienced some protoform sneaking onto the Citadel trying to cover their tracks, or some really angry protoform successfully escaping captivity."

"So if I am not a protoform, I am trying to smuggle them? Do you realize how crazy that is?" The captain folded his arms across his chest, intertwining each other, an odd gesture for a batarian. Did the captain know a lot of asari?

"Completely crazy bu-."
"Where is my crew?" demanded the captain suddenly.

The captain's sudden topic change confused Garrus for a moment. "Crew?"

"My crew. You seriously don't think three people can man a frigate do you?" Garrus nearly slapped himself for the oversight. Of course, he mused, if only he had kept awake more often during his childhood schooling he would probably know more about crewing ships. Well, if he doesn't die within the next few days, he supposed there was time to rectify that.

"I'm afraid there is no evidence of any crew on that ship," reported Garrus. And glancing over his omnitool, that appeared to be the truth. There was no trace of blood or other bodily fluids and aside from the claw marks and footprints, there was no sign of anything organic actually being on that ship. "I assume it was an all batarian crew?"

"Yes, a staff of twelve excluding ourselves."

Garrus thought for a moment then changed topics, "you mentioned that you wish to cause trouble for the batarian ambassador."

"I do," replied the captain.

"It seems counterintuitive, even treasonous to undermine the ambassador of your own species."

"Yeah, yeah, Turians with their obedience." The captain had raised his hands up and wiggled two fingers on each hand at the word "obedience." "But the Hegemony is a member of the Citadel Species and should obey Citadel law. If the superior orders are in conflict, which should be obeyed?"

"What are you trying to say?" Garrus asked honestly.

"If the Council had outlawed an action, but the Hegemony ordered it to be performed anyway despite it being outlawed, how should someone respond to this conflict of laws and orders?"

"Usually batarians defend slavery."

The captain shook his head side to side and Garrus had no idea what that meant. "Much more serious laws," said the captain.

"What is more serious than preserving the basic rights of sapient beings?"

The captain snorted. "Spectre Vakarian, the Council doesn't care if a few peons have their rights trampled over." Garrus opened his mouth to protest but the captain continued. "The people that are enslaved are not theirs. They might be asari, salarian, or turian, but they are nobody considered important."

"Sir, if I may?" The batarian to the right behind the captain spoke up. The captain turned and glanced at him. The batarian addressed Garrus, "as long as nobody the governments like get captured, as long as the slavery does not hurt the accounts of the Council's backers and as long as it is too expensive to force the slavery to stop, the Council will never care enough to stop it."

The captain spoke "This is something that the Council could never ignore. You do recall the laws in the Citadel Conventions regarding first contacts?"

Garrus nearly groaned. "Yes, I know." And he did know. Species who are potential candidates for first contact are observed for years before the Council chooses whether or not to introduce the species to the galaxy. The Council itself appoints the ambassadors, who consist only of members of the three Councilor species, to meet the leaders of the new species. This policy had proved its importance with the krogan, the yahg, the vorcha and especially the protoform. As it was shown with all of these species, some are either not ready to, or should ever join the galactic community.

"Well, let's say the ambassador gave orders that required me and my crew to ignore them."

Garrus sighed, "The Batarian Ambassador cannot be accused of breaking the Citadel Conventions lightly. I need evidence."

"I was hoping you would say that." The captain pulled up his own omnitool and tapped at it with his other hand. Garrus pulled up his own. It made a soft bing and Garrus saw that he had what looked like a copy of a message from ambassador Jath'Amon. "That should be what you need to confront him," said the captain. He then stretched and said, "Well, I'll be going." The captain gestured to his men and then walked off with them following. Garrus tried to watch where they went but they soon disappeared into the crowds.

He opened up the message and read:

To: Captain Balak

From: Ambassador Jath'Amon

Re: New Supplies

This species looks promising. The applications for industry, agriculture and service appear significant and this primitive specie's tiny fleet will be easily crushed. It is fortunate that their homeworld is in the Attican Traverse. It is unlikely for any Council fleets to stumble into any operations. The Hegemony has determined threat of Council interference to be minimal and is eager to acquire some specimens. Capture some specimens to be brought to Torfan for inspection. I will send agents to conduct the inspection. You will paid 1000 credits extra for each one that passes screening. Do not disappoint me.

This was certainly enough to confront the ambassador. Garrus just hoped he wasn't expected.

******************** Right: End *******************

Talk for Reader:

The next chapter should have a fight scene.

I turned "sentient" into "sapient."

Haven't finished fixing chapter one yet.

I hate this chapter's title.