Of Cats and Dark Energy
Part 1: The Bad Wolf Protocol
The Normandy was back in shape, at least. She had come back through the Omega 4 Relay pretty banged-up, but her new – self-appointed – Chief Engineer, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, was a brilliant and tireless martinet. The ships' advanced survey and mining facilities were undamaged, which meant that raw materials were not a problem. Where parts or items needed to be purchased, there were still enough credits left from their former Cerberus funding to cover their needs. For now.
Not that Commander Shepard was worried about money. The produce from their mining operations could be sold legitimately for considerable sums. Illegitimately, they could be sold for a lot more, but Shepard was not willing to go down that route. If the Blue Suns or Eclipse wanted strategic supplies, they could go elsewhere.
What worried Shepard was his crew, or what should have been his lack of a crew. The bulk of them were, or had been, Cerberus operatives, and after his last, tense, interview with the Illusive Man, Shepard had expected either mass desertion or outright mutiny. Neither had happened. There had been a few crewmen who had not come back from shore-leave, but less than half a dozen. Yeoman Kelly Chambers, Shepards' Admin Assistant-cum-Ships' Counsellor, told him that the crew had decisively shifted their loyalties: "It wasn't the Illusive Man who went through that relay to get them back!"
That caused the Commander some concern. These people needed to be looked after. Fed, clothed, paid. Many of them had families, families who Cerberus might use as leverage. Shepard still retained his rank as a Council Spectre, but that was a card he didn't want to play unless he had to. He'd been allowed to keep the rank because the Council wanted to avoid a scandal, but he wasn't sure how far he could push things.
Then there was the matter of the others. Tali had made it clear that she was staying with Shepard, whatever happened, and there was nothing he wanted more. Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, the best pilot in the galaxy, would be wherever the Normandy went, that was a certainty, and while Joker had Vrolik Syndrome, Dr Chakwas would be there to treat him. Jacob Taylor, the Cerberus operative who had been with Shepard since he awakened in the labs of the Lazarus Project, had also made it clear that he would follow the Commander. He had even followed suit when Shepard had abandoned the Cerberus uniform he'd been wearing for a plain black outfit of his own design. Shepards' old friend and comrade, the turian Garrus Vakarian, had simply noted that he'd better stick around, given the Commanders' penchant for getting into trouble! As for the tank-bred krogan, Grunt, Shepard was his Battlemaster, and that was that.
Others, however, had more obscure reasons for staying. The salarian, Mordin Solus, had just said: "Best lab I ever had. Helpful AI. Lot of work to do. This best place." Shepard guessed he was working on the genophage, trying to find a more humane answer to the krogan problem. The drell assassin, Thane Krios, simply had nowhere else to go, and was apparently content. The same seemed to apply to Jack, the artificially-augmented human biotic. When Shepard had said to her that he was surprised at her staying, her veneer of toughness had cracked enough for her to admit that the Normandy was the only place she had ever felt safe. More puzzling were the two other humans, the thief Kasumi Goto, and the hardened mercenary, Zaeed Massani. Both had just said that they might as well stay put until another job came up, and would admit no more. The asari Justicar, Samara, was equally cryptic, saying only that there was 'something left to do'.
All of which left only the person he was going to see now. Miranda Lawson was an officer of Cerberus, and almost fanatically loyal to the cause. Since his falling-out with the Illusive Man, Shepard had been half-expecting Miranda to try and seize control of the ship. The matter was further complicated by the coolness that had existed between them since he had supported Jack in an argument with Miranda. The fact that, morally at least, Jack was in the right, had meant nothing to the woman she referred to as the 'Cerberus cheerleader'. Miranda and Shepard had barely spoken since, but now she had sent for him.
As he entered the office, she glanced up and gestured him to a seat. Miranda was dark, curvaceous and sensually lovely, despite her habitually severe expression. Shepard knew, however, that her looks were all part of a set of carefully-designed genetic enhancements made to Miranda and her sister by their wealthy, ambitious and domineering father. Sexy by design. He thought, as he watched Miranda pretend to finish off some work. She was nervous, something unusual for her. When she finally spoke it was in a lighter tone than she had used with him for some time.
"I wouldn't have pegged you as the type for mutiny, Shepard." She said.
"Barratry, actually." He replied in a similar tone. "Mutiny is when the crew take control of a ship from the captain and officers. When a captain, with or without the support of his officers, turns the vessel to his own purposes, as distinct from the owners', it's barratry."
"I didn't know that." She admitted. "However, your act of barratry has had consequences. When you refused to preserve the Reaper technology for Cerberus, the Illusive Man went raging to our backers, telling them you'd betrayed us. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't told them what he'd planned, and some of them – more than half, in fact – thought you'd done exactly the right thing. Then they started asking about other things Cerberus had done that they hadn't known about, and things got very tense.
"So now, Cerberus is split. The Illusive Man still has the support of a small group, enough to carry on, but at a reduced level. The larger group has decided on a different strategy. They feel that the best way to advance humanity is to work with, rather than against, the other races. But they still don't want to be bogged down by Alliance red tape. So they struck a deal with the Alliance to make you a Corsair, but this time a fully independent one. The new private organisation, they're calling themselves Hermes, will continue to fund you at the same level Cerberus did, and occasionally they'll ask you to do jobs for them. But this time, it'll be up to you which jobs you do and how you do them.
"There's more. Hermes reached out to the Council through Anderson, to let them know that things had changed. The Council weren't sure until your name was mentioned, but then, after you'd shared all the data you got beyond the Omega 4 relay, they figured they owed you one, so they confirmed your status as a Spectre, with full privileges to operate wherever you like."
"Sounds perfect." Shepard said. "But why are you telling me this? And where do you stand on the whole thing?"
Miranda got up and began to pace, he had never seen her so nervous, so unsure.
"Both Hermes and the Illusive Man contacted me." She said. "Both promised me I'd retain my rank and status if I worked with them. But.." she seemed to be searching for a way to say things, "...Hermes offered me the choice, to work with them, or to go my own way. The Illusive Man...Shepard, it was like he was whistling for his pet dog to come to heel!
"I told you once that I joined Cerberus because they gave me somewhere to belong, and you said I was thinking of myself as a tool to be used, not a person. I was kind of upset about that, but the fact that the Illusive Man thought of me in the same way woke me up.
"I've watched you, Shepard, at first because it was my job, then later because I couldn't understand what I was seeing. You believe in duty, in discipline, in a chain of command, just as I do. But you never let that interfere with your own moral compass. Orders or no orders, you'll always do what you feel is right.
"You helped me get Oriana safe. Not because you had to, not because I'd owe you, but because it was the right thing to do. And when you supported Jack against me, I was furious with you. But then I saw the inside of that Reaper ship, and what they did to those people, and I realised that it was no different from what Cerberus had done to Jack and all the other kids in that place. I finally saw the path the Illusive Man was heading down. You can't defeat an enemy by becoming him.
"So I joined Hermes, and I'm willing to stay on as your First Officer, if you'll have me. All I ask is that you answer me one question."
"Ask away." Shepard said.
"On Zorya, when Zaeed set the refinery alight, you left a lot of people to die so you could hunt down Santiago. Why?"
Shepard frowned. "That wasn't an easy choice. But when Zaeed told me his story, I did more than listen, I watched. Sure Zaeed wanted revenge, but it was more than that. Massani's a badass, through and through, a fighting man. But all he ever wanted was to do his job and collect his pay. Santiago was something more, a psychopath, he killed because he could and because he liked it. The Blue Suns are one of the best armed and trained mercenary groups in the Galaxy. Santiago was the kind of man who'd make a grab for power, real power, one day, and it would be bloody. I had to weigh the loss of a few lives in that refinery against the thousands, maybe millions, who would have died if Santiago stayed in charge of the Suns.
"Put it another way, you don't want an army out there led by the kind of man who can scare Zaeed Massani!"
"No, you don't!" Miranda agreed. "But it's just that kind of decision that you manage to make and that I don't trust myself to."
"Yet." Shepard told her. "You have to give yourself time. More, you have to stop being what others want you or made you to be. You need to find out who Miranda Lawson is and what she stands for."
"Not going to be easy." She admitted.
"It never is," he allowed, "but you're not alone, remember. But now, we have a ship to run!"
The messages came through simultaneously. One was from Hermes: a colony on the edge of human space had been attacked. There were survivors, but communications were reduced to a few garbled messages and an automatic beacon. Alliance relief ships were on their way, but Shepard had been asked to look into the matter. Further information would be sent as it arrived.
The second was more urgent. It came direct from the Council and stated that an asari colony -again on the fringe of their territory – had been attacked and completely wiped out. The only information was a message from the officer in charge of an asari commando unit stationed at the colony, and that was sparse. As the closest available Spectre, Shepard was being asked to go and find out what had happened. The commando message would be forwarded to the Normandy.
"Two incidents, half a Galaxy apart!" He said to Miranda, who had joined him in the Briefing Room. "How am I supposed to deal with both?"
"A month ago," Miranda replied, "I'd have said to follow up on the human colony and let the asari take care of their own. Now, I'm not so sure." She frowned. "Intel on both is fragmentary, but to me, the attack on the human colony sounds like it might be a slaver raid. The fact that there are survivors means it's unlikely to be the Collectors or the Reapers.
"The asari colony, though, that's different. A total wipeout, that includes taking out one of their commando units. We both know that asari commandos are as elite as troops get. That sounds like geth, or worse.
"My best advice is to send a small team in a shuttle to the human colony to take a look. You should take the Normandy to the asari colony."
Shepard was about to agree when the holographic globe that represented EDI, the ships' AI, activated.
"Alert!" The pleasant female voice was tight with synthetic urgency. "Security breach in Engineering!"
"What?" Shepard barked. "What kind of breach?"
"Unknown." EDI replied. "An unidentified device has simply appeared there. I can get no readings of any kind from it."
Then the intercom opened. "Commander? This is Engineer Daniels. We've got a situation, here!"
"Stay calm, Gabriella." Shepard said in a measured tone. "Tell me what happened?"
"Well," she was obviously distracted, "there was this...noise...and then it appeared. Some kind of big box. Blue, made of wood, light on top. Says 'Police' on it. Ken went to get a sidearm, he's just coming...Kenneth, it's opening! Be careful!"
"Get down there!" Shepard told Miranda quietly. "Pick Grunt up on the way, just in case."
As she left, Shepard heard Engineer Ken Donnellys' voice barking: "Don't move! Put your hands where I can see them!"
"Make your mind up!" Came the reply, in a rather peevish male voice. "If you want me to put my hands where you can see them, I have to move!"
"OK, then come forward slowly!" Donnelly was holding it together well, given that he was non-combat crew. "No sudden moves, and keep your hands up. I have a gun here!"
"I can see that." The other voice answered. "I'd prefer it if you'd put it down. You won't need it and you're shaking so much you're likely to set it off by accident."
"You're trying to board our ship!" Donnelly blurted.
"Not trying, I have." Was the answer. "Didn't intend to, but I often end up in unexpected places. Usually with some idiot pointing a gun at me. What's wrong with just saying hello?"
Then there was the sound of hurried footsteps and Mirandas' voice. "Stand down, Donnelly, well done! Grunt, keep an eye on the intruder. Shepard, we're here!"
"Good. Scan the intruder for weapons, then bring him up here. Shepard out.
"EDI, get my team in here!"
Tali was the first to arrive. The slender quarian woman slipped through the door, ran up to Shepard and hugged him tight.
"I thought I'd get that in before everyone else arrived!" She said. "Besides, I wanted to tell you something. You know what happens every time we're intimate?"
"You get sick." Shepard replied. "It worries me."
"Well, you can worry less!" She told him. Her breath mask was raised to him, and he could envision the smile on the alien, but oddly human-like, face behind. "Because every time, I get a bit less sick. I think I'm adapting to you, Adam, the same as I would if we were both quarian."
"As long as you don't become completely immune to me!" He told her. She gave a silvery giggle, then broke apart from him as the door opened.
"I don't know why you do that." Kasumi remarked as he came into the room. "Everybody on the ship knows about you two!"
"Leave the kids alone!" Growled Zaeed as he and Mordin followed her in. "Let 'em have a bit of romance!"
"Good for morale." Mordin remarked with a benign blink of his large brown eyes. "Commander happy, crew happy."
Garrus, just behind them, commented wryly. "Except the ones who aren't getting any!"
"Kelly has her eye on you, Garrus," Shepard told him, "she may be the Commanders' yeoman, but she's not out of bounds!"
Jack just rolled her eyes, then settled herself, back to the wall, close to the door. She still wasn't comfortable near too many people. Jacob also said nothing, simply saluting Shepard and taking position near him, an unobtrusive but dedicated bodyguard.
"Miranda and Grunt are on the way with our 'visitor'." Shepard told them. "Where's Samara?"
Thane, the drell assassin, answered in his usual quiet tones. "The Justicar requires a few moments to complete her meditations. She will join us as soon as she can."
The party from Engineering arrived first, and not in any expected fashion. Grunt and the intruder came in first, chatting like old friends. Miranda trailed behind, eyes slightly glazed.
"What's going on here?" Shepard demanded.
The intruder broke off and grinned at him. "Don't often get to meet a krogan." He said. "Had some catching up to do. Your other friend didn't seem to want to talk."
"I couldn't," Miranda commented, "get a word in edgeways."
"Write that one up." Jack remarked, just loudly enough for everyone to hear, and met Mirandas' venomous glare with a lazy smile.
Shepard studied the newcomer. He looked human. Tall and thin, with a mass of vigorous grey hair, and a craggy, lined face out of which a pair of fierce blue eyes also studied Shepard from under a set of formidable eyebrows. He was wearing a white shirt, a plum-coloured jacket, dark trousers and sturdy shoes.
Then Mordin spoke. He had been quietly scanning the man with his omni-tool, now he looked up and said. "Fascinating. Looks human, but isn't. Too robust. Advanced neurological makeup. Brain activity off charts. Two hearts. Cells storing large amounts of bio-energy, unknown type. Potential for extreme longevity, perhaps immortality."
"You're an alien, then." Shepard said. "Why do you look like a human?"
"Parallel evolution, it happens." The man replied. "Besides, everyone's an alien to someone." He looked around. "A salarian, a turian, a drell, a krogan, and the young lady in the Encounter Suit isn't a Vorlon, so she must be a quarian.
"That would make you Commander Adam Shepard. Have you been through the Omega 4 relay, yet? More importantly, what am I doing here?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Shepard wanted to know. "Along with how you know me and, more importantly, who the hell are you?"
"I don't know why I'm here -I usually don't until after I arrive, anyway – but this is too far off the beaten track." The stranger said impatiently. "Everybody knows Commander Shepard, you're a legend!"
"He's right about that." Miranda allowed. "But the Terminus systems aren't that far out!"
"I'm not talking about space!" The alien retorted. "Space is neither here nor there – just everywhere. I'm talking about time!"
"That makes no sense at all." Garrus commented. "Time isn't a place, it just is. And you still haven't told us who you are!"
"He is the Oncoming Storm." The stern contralto made them all jump. They had been so fixed on the intruder that nobody had noticed Samara enter. Now the stately asari approached the stranger and inclined her head with guarded respect.
"The Oncoming Storm," she repeated, "and the Peacemaker. The Destroyer of Worlds and the Protector of the Weak. The Voice of the Voiceless and the Silencer of Kings. The Lonely God and the Sainted Physician." She turned to Shepard. "But he calls himself the Doctor. I felt there was something left to do for me here, Shepard. If the Doctor is here, then my feeling was correct."
It was a measure of the respect all the others held for the Justicar that nobody, not even Jack, made to argue with or question her certainty. The Doctor, however, simply snorted.
"Just 'Doctor' will do." He said. "That was portentous, even for an asari. Who are you?"
"I am the Justicar Samara." She replied, her gravity untouched by his tone.
"A Justicar? Well, that explains it!" He replied.
Before he could say any more, the local EDI terminal activated. "Shepard," the AI announced, "I have more information for you. Predicated upon Professor Solus' medical data, and the configuration of the vehicle now in Engineering, I have searched Alliance databases. The results confirm that our guest is the individual identified as the Doctor, and that the Bad Wolf Protocol should be put into force immediately."
"The Bad Wolf Protocol?" Shepard frowned. "I think I remember that from N7 training. Something about extraordinary circumstances?"
"It is security coded Ultra-violet." EDI explained. "It dates from the early 21st Century and obliges all Alliance personnel, civilian and military, and including Corsairs, to assist and support the Doctor, and to treat him as having command authority."
Shepard snapped his fingers. "I remember, now!" He said. "I thought it was weird at the time, because this Doctor would have to be incredibly old!"
"Do you mind?" The Doctor protested. "I may not be in the first flush, but..."
"But beside you, we are as children." Samara said.
"Never mind." Shepard said. "Doctor, if that's really who you are, I'm prepared to listen, and to assist you with anything you might need. But until I have clearer proof of who you are, and know more about what's going on, I'm still in command, here."
"Good!" The Doctor said. "I hate being in command. People keep expecting you to tell them what to do, instead of making their own minds up."
"You can't have soldiers deciding to do whatever they want in the middle of a mission." Jacob pointed out.
"Soldiers!" The Doctor snorted again.
"You don't like soldiers?" Jacob asked.
"I don't like the mistakes and the stupidity that make soldiers necessary." The Doctor told him. "Sooner or later, you have to sit down and talk. Why not do it before you burn down houses and make widows and orphans?"
"Some enemies don't want to talk." Shepard noted.
"I know." The Doctor acknowledged. "The ones created by others to do their fighting for them. Others who ended up getting killed by their own creations. Mistakes and stupidity."
That comment, Shepard reflected, probably hit home with both Mordin and Tali. The salarians had advanced the krogan as a weapon against the rachni, only to see them become a bigger threat. The quarians had created the geth, and the whole Galaxy knew how that had turned out.
Then the intercom lit again. "Bridge to Commander. We have a problem."
"What's up, Joker?" Shepard asked.
"We have ship dead ahead." Joker replied. "Only it didn't come from anywhere. It just appeared. I barely had time to stop us ramming it!"
"What kind of ship?" Shepard wanted to know.
"Beats me." Joker responded. "No known configuration. Not geth, not Collector, not Reaper. But it's big, I figure ten times the size of the Normandy. What you got, EDI?"
"Very little, Jeff." The AI responded, in the special tone she reserved for the pilot. "The ship seems to be partially dormant. Life-support is active, and I detect over a thousand life-signs on board. Mostly human, but also several alien types I do not recognise. All seem to be unconscious or asleep. Their computers have firewalls I cannot penetrate, but seem extremely advanced. I detect seven active fusion reactors. I also detect stored anti-matter. There is an advanced ion drive, but I cannot detect a mass-effect drive, or any Element Zero on board. There do seem to be advanced weapons systems, though these are not currently active."
The Doctor was frowning. "Can we see it?" He asked.
"Sure." Shepard told him. "EDI?"
The holo-image of the Normandy that dominated the centre of the conference table was replaced by a real-time image of a truly awesome craft. Even Jack pushed forward for a closer look. The Doctor walked round the table to stand beside Shepard, facing the saucer-shaped section that was apparently the bow. He looked at the bold lettering on the top of it and nodded soberly.
"United Federation of Planets Galaxy-class starship NCC-1701-D USS Enterprise." He said grimly. "Now I know why I'm here."