Chapter 10: Poked and Prodded

Garrus wasn't sure if the time it took for the executor to return was the longest he'd ever experienced, or the shortest. Though, he was certain his internal clock was completely askew from his time imprisoned so that may have had something to do with his confusion.

Then the executor returned with a group of C-Sec officers and STG operatives. All of them were carrying rocket launchers. The annoying salarian who had been questioning him for most of his imprisonment trailed behind, waving around a datapad and talking about freezing and cutting, but thankfully stopped when they reached the front of Garrus's cell. The executor stood directly at the front of the group.

"Spectre Vakarian," he said, "You have proven enough that you are not a Protoform and are being released." The barrier wall deactivated.

Garrus sagged in relief. Freedom. He remembered freedom. It was far away from the annoying salarian and where he had space and where plants grew and he had to worry about being shot instead of being experimented upon. It was alcohol and making sure his weapons were properly calibrated. And varren pups and colorful nebulas. Spirits, he was so damn happy.

Garrus walked stiffly out of the cell and muzzles of all the rocket launchers followed him. He stopped in front of the executor.

"Spirits Vakarian, you need a bath," said the executor.

"That would… be really welcome right about now," replied Garrus.

"It's a shame that is going to have to wait. STG is determined to examine your shoulder."

"Maybe my stench will punish them for the inconvenience."

The annoying salarian chose that moment to speak up. "Executor, we are not entirely certain that this man is Vakarian. A few questions about family prove nothing!"

"Family is one of the known topics of questioning where Protoform fail to maintain their disguise. Either they cannot steal older memories from their victims or they can only take a few memories and familial memories are usually not among them. They often invent familial information when they don't have it. And it is well known that Protoform usually have weak or exaggerated emotional responses." the executor retorted. "Vakarian answered the questions accurately and his reactions to the topics were genuine." The executor pointed to the C-Sec officers, "You and you, escort Spectre Vakarian to the infirmary. And you," the executor pointed to the annoying salarian, "stop trying to convince me to let you vivisect an innocent man!"

The infirmary was one of the best equipped Garrus had ever seen. Of course, his expectations might be lower than most since the best medical set up he had seen was the C-Sec infirmary and that was always distressingly short on supplies. This looked like something that he'd always imagined was what the nicer personal infirmaries for the wealthy were like. There were so many white, pristine machines, many of which he had no idea what their purpose was for and there was a salarian seated at a terminal who looked up as he entered the room.

"Ah-Spectre-Vakarian-how-nice-to-finally-meet-you. Please-have-a-seat." said the salarian and he gestured to a chair near some machines. Garrus blinked and sat in the chair. He was certain he had never seen or heard any salarian doctors like this one. He looked old with leathery tan skin, wrinkles, and had numerous scars on his face, a tattoo on his forehead and one cranial horn broken. He looked like a krogan in the body of a salarian. And he spoke really, really fast.

"Yes. Good. Been-waiting-to-see-the-affects-of-the-medigel-substance-on-sapient-life-forms-for-sometime. Doesn't-seem-to-work-well-on-the-nonsapients-or-have-adverse-effects. Maybe-must-be-keyed-in-or-tailored-for-a-species." Was he going to be examined by a mad doctor on stimulants?

"Um, could you slow down a little bit, and maybe introduce yourself before you start poking me with odd instruments?"

"Slow-down?" the doctor looked shocked, "Hello. I. am. Doctor- no-no-no, I-can't-do-it. I-am-doctor-Mordin-Solus-of-the-Spectal-Tactics-Group-well-not-for-much-longer-but-this-is-a-pleasant-way-to-end-my-career."

"Um. Okay. Doctor Solus."

"Just call me Mordin, it's faster. Now let me have a look at your shoulder." Mordin replied offhandedly as he pointed a large device that Garrus vaguely recognized as a high definition scanner. Then he pulled up his omnitool screen.

"Fascinating. No tumors or scar tissue at all. No sign of wound ever occurring. All cells look normal. Area appears to be perfectly fine," said Mordin. Garrus didn't feel perfectly fine. In fact he was getting a little worried and he wasn't sure whether it was the word tumors or the fact that he was beginning to understand the doctor that worrying him more.

"What do you mean 'Tumors'?"

"Analyzed and tested small samples of medigel on various non-sapient organisms. Effects ranged from slow inefficient healing to small growths in the surrounding area. When it had any effect at all. Also, does not work on plants."

"Should I be worried about these 'small growths'?"

"Threat of cancerous growth appears to be minimal. Rapid cell division effect ceased shortly after application. Observation of test subjects indicates that cell division resumed natural pace. Mind if I get a tissue sample?"

"Go ahead. So what have you found out about –ow- the stuff so far?"

"Substance appears to be an amalgamation of nanomachine, biological and chemical technologies. Analysis is proving to be difficult as it degrades quickly after being removed from packaging." said Mordin as he observed the sample through a different machine, probably some type of microscope. "The cells appear to be entirely yours and the genes show no abnormalities. Your body may have purged the extraneous components of the medigel. I am going to need a stool sample."

"My suit is equipped with a waste system. You can have the entire contents." Garrus wondered if he was a horrible person if he was so happy to give his shit to STG, but beneath his relief he was pretty angry from being locked up for so long. Besides, it was for science.

"Excellent!" Mordin looked far too pleased by his answer. "Just leave the whole suit of armor here." Then he asked through his omnitool for a set of male turian clothes in Garrus size. Eh, he was probably going to replace the armor anyway.

"So, am I going to be alright?"

"Should be. Medigel appears to have had no adverse effects on your physiology. Can't do anything more. Suggest you inform the executor about your encounter with the humans. Also, suggest you bathe first."

Garrus thought that sounded like a plan.

******************** Poked and Prodded: End *******************

Talk for reader:

I am running on the theory that salarians tend to be like some smart people I know: when they get a conclusion they like in their head, they are very good at coming up with defenses for it, especially when they are wrong. I get this idea from how Mordin and other salarians defend updating the genophage for so long despite it being obvious that it is killing off the krogan. (Honestly, I also kinda think the salarian government wants the krogan extinct. They seem to have it pretty well set up for the krogan to slowly die off and be able to blame the krogan for their own extinction.)

The wiki's explanation of how medigel works doesn't seem to fit with how it works in-game And while I am ignoring gameplay things like health bars and the like, I think I will go with the in-game ease of use medigel has. So, I am going with a different explanation of how it works to make it more "untrained idiot" and "panicking under gunfire" friendly. So instead of a high tech Band-Aid, it's a tissue regenerator!

I did some work on the previous chapter. Discovered Solana Vakarian is Garrus's sister, not mother. Oops.

Due to site not liking overly long words I had to fix Mordin's dialogue. Those hyphenated strings are said really fast.