If the mako had been uncomfortable before Shepard and her crew had picked up Liara, it was even more uncomfortable now. Tali had no choice but to squat awkwardly on Garrus' right, shoving him into Shepard and making the tight space even tighter. Shepard was sweating through her undershirts with the turian practically on top of her as she drove. She was sure it wasn't making firing the turret any easier for him either.

Fai Dan had not been lying when he said an army of geth stood between Zhu's Hope and the ExoGeni headquarters. The mako had been absolutely bombarded with them. There were armatures, juggernauts, rocket launchers, troopers, and even a few hoppers. The vehicles' shields had taken substantial damage, though they were still holding, thanks in large part to Tali's constant maintenance as they moved.

"Please, God, don't let me die sweating my ass off in this piece of shit vehicle," Ash muttered behind them.

"We have to be close to the headquarters by now," Kaidan said. "Shepard, how much further?"

"No noise from the peanut gallery, thank you. I'm trying to drive this thing with a turian in my lap."

"Now's not really the time for that, Shepard," Wrex quipped.

The moment was far from sexy, however. Garrus' elbow was jammed into her side between her armor, a bony, sharp appendage digging into her skin. Her sweat was probably smeared over half of his arm, and every time he turned his head, he caught her face with the edge of his fringe; if it hadn't been for the shields on her armor, her face would have been scratched to hell.

"I'm picking up static on the comm link," he told her.

"I might be able to patch it," Tali said.

After a moment, they heard a woman's voice over the mako's comm uplink.

"We've got movement. Some sort of vehicle. I don't think it's geth…"

"There!" Garrus pointed to a small tunnel on the side of Skyway. It was partially covered by fallen debris, but the dim glow of artificial light emanating from inside suggested it may be where the mysterious voice was sounding from.

Shepard pulled the mako to a halt and turned to address the squad.

"Kaidan, lift the hatch. Keep an eye out for any geth."

"We shouldn't waste our time with these people, Shepard. We have geth to kill," Wrex complained.

"We're getting out here," she replied sharply. As valuable, and sometimes funny, as the krogan could be, his insubordination over the smallest commands was starting to grate on her nerves. She was used to having seasoned Alliance crewmen follow her orders. Or at least people with more of a conscience to care about helping possible injured civilians.

Stepping out of the mako was a merciful relief, even though the air along the Skyway was smoggy and stale. Shepard led the way slowly down into the tunnel on the side of the road. It opened quickly onto what appeared to be an underground parking structure that had been converted into a safe-house for surviving ExoGeni staff. They were huddled around hastily constructed tables and cots, looking like they hadn't slept in days. A thin, sour-faced man that reminded Shepard of Udina greeted them with the barrel-end of his gun.

"Relax, Jeong, they're clearly not geth." A soft-faced middle-aged woman stepped forward.

"You probably want to lower that weapon," Garrus folded his arms across his chest. "You're pointing it at a Council Spectre. Commander Shepard, to be exact."

The sour-faced man, Jeong, brought his gun down unsurely, glowering at Shepard and her squad. "What's a Council Spectre doing on Feros?"

"What's an army of geth doing on Feros?" The middle-aged woman asked, rolling her eyes. "Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth, Jeong." She offered her hand to Shepard. "I'm Juliana Baynham. I'm a scientist with ExoGeni. We're all that's left of the staff. We were beginning to think we were the only ones left on this planet since the geth…"

"Fai Dan and some of the colonist at Zhu's Hope are still alive," Shepard told her.

"Barely," Garrus added.

Juliana turned to Jeong with fire in her eyes. "You told us they were dead!"

Jeong waved his gun at her, "I said they were probably dead."

"They're holding on. We helped clear out some of the geth from the surrounding area," Shepard addressed Juliana. "We were on the way to ExoGeni headquarters when we heard your voice on the comm link."

"Channels must have gotten crossed. Good thing, though. If you're still bent on going to headquarters, be prepared. There's an army of geth waiting."

"We've already seen an army of geth on the Skyway," Ash said.

"Do you know why the geth attacked?" Shepard asked.

Juliana shook her head. "All I know is they broke into the facilities a few weeks ago and we've been struggling to survive ever since. I don't know what geth would want from ExoGeni. Or a human colony, for that matter."

"How are your supplies holding up?"

"You gonna run errands for every human on this planet, Shepard?" Wrex demanded.

She ignored him.

"We're all right for now. I'm not sure how much longer it will last though. Commander, could I ask you a favor? I know you owe us nothing, but…" Juliana looked down at the ground and frowned.

"What is it?" Shepard asked.

"My daughter, Lizbeth…she worked at the facility with me. She never made it back. If you find any sign of her…"

"I'll do what I can," Shepard promised. "I could leave one of my squad to help protect you if geth show up if that would…"

Jeong stepped forward. "We don't need your help, Spectre. And if you're going to ExoGeni headquarters, you better not touch anything that isn't the geth."

Shepard had dealt with plenty of small-minded, holier-than-thou men like Jeong before. A good ass-kicking usually put them in their place, but she didn't have the time and she didn't want to start a commotion.

"Fine. We'll be leaving. Our comm link is open. If something happens, send a distress call."

"Thank you, commander." Juliana smiled.

"You should have stomped that stupid human all the way back to Earth," Wrex grumbled as they made their way up out of the tunnel and back to the mako. "If he knew who he was really messing with…" He shook his head. "It's like I said, you're too soft sometimes, Shepard."

"If I was too hard, I'd be a geth," she shrugged. "I prefer that people know I have a soul." She climbed into the mako again.

"How much further from here, do you think?" Ash asked, frowning deeply as Kaidan closed the door and sealed them back inside the vehicle.

"It can't be too far…"

An hour later, Shepard wished she could eat her words. As far as the map showed, and from their own visibility on the Skyway, ExoGeni headquarters wasn't far at all; only a few miles. Those few miles crawled by, unfortunately, thanks to the enormous geth presence waiting for them outside of the area where the tunnel had been.

"Shepard, you're going to drive us off the cliff!" Garrus complained as she struggled to keep them out of the way of the geth's heavy fire.

"Well if you would shoot the turret faster maybe I wouldn't have to steer like I was drunk!"

"I'm shooting it as fast as it goes. Do you want it to overheat and burn us all alive?"

"I thought you fixed the heat sink?"

"I improved it. Nothing will fix this ancient piece of junk besides launching a grenade through it!" He slammed his fist on the firing mechanism irritably.

"Well I'm sorry the Alliance isn't made of credits to buy brand new shuttles for the whole military like the turians probably fly."

"TEN O'CLOCK!" Garrus shouted.

Shepard jerked the mako out of the way as Garrus hit the jump mechanism, narrowly avoiding a blast from a geth armature.

"If you two pyjaks don't stop arguing I'm going to knock your heads together!" Wrex bellowed.

"As if you have the dexterity to get up to us in this crowded sauna of a vehicle…" Garrus muttered.

"What did you say?"

Wrex stood up, which threw the mako's weight balance off and made Shepard veer dangerously close to the edge of the Skyway. It took Ash, Liara, and Kaidan to wrestle the krogan back down into his seat, and in less confined quarters even that likely wouldn't have been enough. Tali, the model of professionalism, remained squished between Garrus and the window, typing away at her omni-tool and hacking every geth system she could access.

"Garrus, your three," Shepard told him.

"As if I don't see it?" He fired the turret.

"Remind me never to get in the middle of a fight between the two of them," Kaidan said to Ash.

"I know Garrus would disagree, but this might be worse than Noveria." Liara wiped some sweat from her forehead.

"Agreed," Shepard said. "I'm dying up here."

"You're getting your sweat all over me too," Garrus complained.

Shepard, utterly fed up with the situation, wiped her sweaty arms all over Garrus' face in act of utter childishness. He spat and swatted at her and the mako swung to the right, scraping the wall and plowing over a geth armature.

"I guess that's one way to do it…" Liara sighed.

"Would you two stop? We're almost to the headquarters, my hacking interface is seconds away from overheating. Just drive the damn car and shoot the damn turret!" Tali burst out suddenly.

Everyone fell silent. Shepard felt ashamed of herself. She was their commander, she shouldn't have behaved the way she had, even if the excuse of burning up and taking an hour to drive four miles through a field of geth was a fairly valid one.

They moved on through the fray without another word until there were no more geth in sight and the opening to the ExoGeni facility rapidly approached.

"Radars are jammed," Garrus broke the silence.

Shepard brought the mako to a halt a few yards from the facility entrance and they all piled out of the vehicle in a hurry.

"Sorry for the, uh, insubordination, Shepard," Garrus said softly as they stood next to each other outside of the mako. "Tight quarters make me a little irritable so…"

"Sorry I wiped my sweat all over you," Shepard punched his arm and turned to the rest of the squad. "Let's move in. The place is going to be crawling with geth so watch each other's backs."

They moved, Shepard, Garrus, and Kaidan taking the offensive approach while the others hung back in a defensive spread.

The original door to the facility had been blown open, and inside the antechamber, a narrow opening in the concrete was the only way through. Shepard slipped through first, followed by Kaidan, with Garrus bringing up the rear.

They ducked behind some crumbling debris and watched as a few geth troopers and a rocket trooper walked the perimeter of what looked to be the ExoGeni garage. Garrus fired off a shot that pierced through one of the troopers, and from further back Ash and Wrex took down the other small-build geth. Unfortunately, this got the rocket trooper's attention. He sent a missile flying directly toward them.

"Shepard, watch out!" Garrus and Kaidan both dove to pull her out of the way and the three of them went tumbling forward, down a broken staircase to a lower level of the garage, their fall broken by rocks and crumbled concrete.

Shepard lay dazed beneath both the turian and the lieutenant, staring up at the top of the former stairwell. It was much too far for them to climb back up, even with someone of Garrus' height.

"Are you two okay?" she asked them, gently prodding Garrus first.

He and Kaidan pushed themselves off of her and brushed the debris from their armor.

"Are you?" Kaidan asked, offering a hand to help her up.

"I'm fine."

Wrex, Ash, Liara, and Tali appeared at the top of the opening a few seconds later, peering down at them. "Is everyone all right?" Liara called down.

"We're fine. I think we're going to have to find a way around though," Shepard said.

"There's some sort of field up here barring entrance into the next room over," Ash told them. "Should we jump down?"

"No. Stay up there. We'll try to make our way around to the field. Maybe we can find a way to open it. If there's no way around I don't want us all stuck down here."

"On the bright side, we could always use Wrex as a stepping stone," Garrus offered.

"How about I use you as one?" Wrex laughed. "Wipe that smug grin off your ugly turian face."

"I'm fine down here, thanks," Garrus replied.

"Call us on the comm link if anything happens," Shepard said. "We're heading out!"

Garrus hadn't even been thinking about his own well-being when he grabbed Shepard to push her out of the way of the incoming geth rocket. It had been a gut reaction, one Kaidan seemed to have had as well. Garrus knew that Shepard had talked to Kaidan about his unrequited feelings, but it didn't stop Kaidan from having those feelings. His pheromones still surrounded him whenever he looked at Shepard, not that she was aware of it. The funny thing was that Garrus was picking up a new scent now. Sometimes he hated having such a keen nose. When Shepard had been talking to them after their fall, she had been giving off some of her own pheromones. Her scent was more pleasant than Kaidan's, earthy and warm; it reminded Garrus of Palaven.

He wondered if she was developing feelings for Kaidan, but the thought gave him a twinge of…what was it? Jealousy? Maybe he had expected her to tell him something like that; they seemed to talk all the time about anything during their sleepless nights on the observation deck. Of course, it wasn't his business if she was sexually attracted to Kaidan, so why did it make his stomach twist? Maybe she wasn't even aware of it yet. Shepard could be very closed off emotionally, that was probably it.

All of these thoughts tumbled through his mind as the three of them made their way toward the pit's opening on the lower level of the ExoGeni garages. They stepped around some debris, finding a dead varren at the opening of the large, hangar-like garage. Shepard kicked the varren's corpse to ensure it was dead just as a bullet clipped Kaidan's shields. The three of them whirled around in the direction of the gunshot, weapons drawn.

"Dammit!" A feminine voice sounded. A young woman stepped forward under the flickering red garage lights, hands held up defensively. "I'm sorry! I thought you might be geth…or varren…I…"

As she drew closer, Garrus thought he saw a resemblance to the Baynham woman they'd met back in the tunnel off of the skyway, though humans looked so alike. Spending as much time as he had with them aboard the Normandy, he was beginning to understand how to tell them apart by sight, not just smell.

"Well, we're not geth," Shepard shrugged. "What are you doing down here by yourself?"

Garrus noticed that the woman wore an ExoGeni lab suit. "Your people are back in a bunker on the Skyway," he told her. "Did they leave you behind?"

"My people? ExoGeni people? How many were there?" the woman asked.

Shepard held up her hands. "Let's start with names. I'm Shepard, this is Kaidan and Garrus. You are?"

"Lizbeth Baynham."

"Yes!" Garrus let out a little shout of excitement despite himself.

"Garrus?" Shepard cocked her head.

"I just, er, suspected they might be related," he tried to play it off cool.

"You're very proud of yourself, aren't you?"

"When you can tell me apart from another turian, I'll let you chide me," he told her.

"I could tell you apart from any turian." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway," she turned back to Lizbeth, "your mother is with a group of surviving ExoGeni staff. She asked us to look for you."

Lizbeth's eyes welled up with tears. "She's still alive? Oh, thank God. I was stupid and stayed behind to back up some data and I lost them. By the time I was able to run, the geth dropship had latched on to the building and the power went out. You must have come from the broken stairwell. I tried to climb up there, but it was no use. And there's a barrier blocking the only other way out."

"Why would the geth put up a barrier?" Kaidan asked.

Lizbeth shifted uncomfortably.

"She's hiding something, Shepard," Garrus whispered.

"Lizbeth, this is life or death right now. We need to know why the geth are here. What do you know?"

She sighed. "I don't know for sure, but if I was going to take a guess, I'd say they're here for info on the Thorian."

"What's a Thorian?"

"It's an indigenous life-form to Feros. ExoGeni was studying it. I'm only a research assistant, so I don't know much. I think it was some type of very old plant…" Lizbeth shrugged. "Some of the scientists with my mother might be able to tell you more. I think the geth ship is powering the barrier. If you could get them to leave somehow…"

"If we could do that, we'd be best friends with the quarians," Shepard laughed. "All right. Stay low and contact me over your comm link if any geth show up."

"Here," Lizbeth handed them her ID card. "This should get you access to most places."

Shepard pocketed the card and they moved across the width of the garage to a door. The backup generator was running, but poorly, and it took a few swipes of Lizbeth's card to get the door to open. Beyond the door was a tower, with stairs running up the inside and branching off at different levels. From their spot at the bottom of the stairs, they could hear a deep voice one floor up.

"Stupid machine!" The voice complained; it sounded krogan. "Access encrypted files!" Shepard motioned for them to follow her slowly up the staircase.

"No, I don't want to review protocol!" The unseen krogan yelled.

Sidling up the stairs, backs against the wall, they moved around the corner on the second floor to find a krogan arguing with a male VI unit.

"I am unable to comply. Please contact your supervisor," the VI said in response to each of the krogan's shouts.

The krogan kicked the machinery behind the VI. "Tell me what I want to know or I'll blast your virtual ass into actual dust."

"I've got a clear shot, Shepard," Garrus spoke as quietly as he could.

"If there is nothing else, please step aside. There is a queue forming behind you for the use of this console," The VI said as Garrus was lining up his rifle scope with the krogan's head.

"A queue?" The krogan turned around and saw Garrus and the two humans standing next to the doorway.

Garrus fired off his shot before he could charge them, and the krogan fell back against the wall, sliding down it into a heap on the ground. Blood spattered on the wall behind his body.

"Nice aim," Shepard said.

"Well, I am the best shot on the Normandy," Garrus replied quickly.

"I think Shepard has two hundred credits that say otherwise," Kaidan grinned.

They stepped around the dead krogan, up to the VI terminal.

"ExoGeni security reminds all staff that the discharging of weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden," the VI said.

"I see why the krogan wanted to blast it." Garrus folded his arms over his chest.

Shepard swiped Lizbeth's card into the interface.

"Welcome back Dr. Baynham. How may I help you today?"

"What was the krogan trying to access?" She asked.

"The previous user was attempting to access details on the study of Subject Species 37, the Thorian," the VI replied promptly.

"What can you tell me about the Thorian, then?"

"There is no new data on Species 37. All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu's Hope have been inactive for several cycles."

"What does that have to do with the Thorian?" Kaidan pondered aloud.

The VI answered before Garrus or Shepard could venture forth any theories. "Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu's Hope outpost."

"That feeling we had when we walked into the colony…" Kaidan said. "Something's not right about this Thorian thing."

Garrus agreed. He had been uneasy about the colony and the sickly appearance of the humans. If this plant, or creature, or whatever the Thorian was, was somehow influencing the humans on the colony…

"Review all files on the Thorian," Shepard demanded of the VI.

"Accessing files. The Thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora," the VI explained. "Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control other organisms, including humans. The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, almost 85% of all test subjects were infected."

"You mean this plant is…taking over the humans in Zhu's Hope?" Kaidan asked, a look of horror on his face. "And ExoGeni knew about it?"

Shepard shook her head. "This is sickening."

"It was deemed necessary to assess the true potential of Subject 37."

"This must be what Saren is after. A plant with mind-control powers would be a useful tool," Garrus suggested.

"We should warn Joker," Kaidan said. "If the people of Zhu's Hope could be controlled by this Thorian creature, the Normandy may be in danger."

Shepard nodded, but when she tried to contact Joker on the comm link, the signal was blocked.

"We have to get rid of the geth. They're jamming all frequencies."

She led them around to the other side of the second floor. The hallway wrapped around to a room where pieces of a geth drop ship had infiltrated through the concrete, extended arms of metal and coil digging into the wall with great metal spikes. Below them, on the ground, a few geth were kneeling around a glowing white light. If Garrus didn't know better, he would have thought they were praying, but why would AIs waste resources on religion?

They took out the three geth quickly and moved down and around.

"If we could release these claws somehow, it should cut power to the barrier that Lizbeth mentioned," Garrus said. "They're sturdy though, I'm not sure conventional weapons will work."

"We'll find a way." Shepard was steadfast as always.

"Even if it kills us?"

She just smirked and kept moving.

They wound their way through a series of narrow, crumbling hallways until they found themselves in the room where the barrier in question was located. A large blue field blocked access through the doorway back out to the main garage. Liara and Tali stood on the other side, investigating it and, in the distance, Wrex and Ash kept watch for geth.

Liara waved and started speaking, but the barrier was blocking out sound too. She kept talking for a moment until Shepard shook her head, then she frowned and motioned to avoid touching the barrier. Garrus decided he didn't need to find out what happened if you touched it.

Shepard spent a minute trying to mime that they were finding a way to open the field. Garrus and Kaidan watched with interest at her exaggerated hand movements. Liara and Tali stood staring at her unsurely.

"I don't think they're catching your meaning, Shepard," Kaidan said. "Maybe we should head through and find a way to detach the geth ship. They'll figure it out."

Shepard sighed. "You're right. Damn thing. Let's move."

They seemed to run through the entire building, down another flight of stairs, deeper into the structure. Eventually the found themselves in another room containing the geth ship's connections. A claw ran through an open gate, latched to the other side. Garrus speculated that if they could get the gate to close, they could sever the attachment. Unfortunately, the room was crawling with geth, as well as another krogan. Through his visor, Garrus could make out the gate controls on the other side of the room.

Shepard tried to move slowly into cover before the geth took notice of them, but her boot caught a bit of gravel, which went rolling onto a mine the geth had placed, causing a loud and very noticeable explosion.

No one was hurt, but the geth immediately began firing on them. Garrus ducked behind a fallen slab of concrete and fired off shots while Shepard and Kaidan moved to cover across the room. The lieutenant sent a geth shock trooper flying into the air and Garrus shot it down. It was just like shooting beer cans with Wrex in the cargo bay…only a beer can couldn't shoot back.

They played this game for a while, Kaidan throwing the geth and Garrus shooting them, while Shepard shot at the larger geth units, occasionally ducking back to use her tech skills to sabotage their systems. The krogan had, all the while, been hiding out behind some interface panels letting the geth do his dirty work.

When only a few geth remained, they moved in toward the krogan. He came out of hiding to fire a few shots before unexpectedly rushing them. He slammed into Shepard, knocking her shields out in the process. Garrus moved to help her, but the krogan had her in his grip before he could make it, holding a gun to Shepard's head as she struggled and squirmed in his tight grasp.

Garrus and Kaidan trained their guns on the krogan.

"Let her go, krogan. We just took out a room full of geth. So, you can imagine that this doesn't end well for you," Garrus growled.

"You think I don't know who you are? Saren didn't send me here for Commander Shepard, but I bet he'll be pretty pleased if that's what I bring him back."

Garrus watched Shepard struggling to free herself, wondering if he could line up a shot without looking through his scope. But when he looked closer, really watched what was happening, he realized Shepard was faking it. She was waiting for the krogan to get too comfortable. She had a grenade in her hand, ready to launch.

Why would he ever doubt her?

"He's right, Kaidan. We should just let him take her. I mean, if she leaves, maybe you could be the new ship captain," Garrus said, lowering his gun.

Kaidan kept his eyes on the krogan. "Uh, Garrus?"

"What's going on?" the krogan knew something was amiss, but was too stupid to figure it out.

This gave Shepard her window. She smacked the grenade into the krogan's chest with all her force and then ran toward Garrus and Kaidan. Realization dawned on the krogan's' face right before the grenade detonated and blew him into a thousand tiny pieces.

Shepard rocketed into Garrus, unable to stop herself as she ran from the grenade explosion. She wasn't sure that either of them would realize she had a way out, but Garrus did a good job of letting on he knew without ruining her chances.

Garrus caught his arms under hers quickly to keep her from falling when she rammed into him. She looked up at him and he looked down at her and for a moment she felt an uncomfortable fluttering in her chest. She shook it off; It was probably the adrenaline from trying to escape an explosion.

"Are you all right?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard took a step back from Garrus. "I'm fine."

They crossed the room to where the gate controls were. Garrus examined the interface while Shepard observed the geth ship's hold near the gate. The doors could theoretically destroy its grip, but it would take a lot of force.

"I have to calibrate the door to the right PSI," Garrus explained. "Then when I activate the gates, it will be so pressurized that it will snap down and sever the ship's connection. The problem is, there's a safety override precisely because of that, so I have to bypass that first."

"Do what you need to do," Shepard told him.

"Things just keep getting stranger, don't they?" Kaidan asked. "I liked it better when we were running errands for the Alliance."

"I don't know, there's fun in a little adventure."

"I'd hate to think what would happen if Saren got his hands on this Thorian creature. Mind control…that's a scary thing. And what ExoGeni has done to those people in Zhu's Hope..." Kaidan shook his head. "I always liked to believe the galaxy had more good in it than that."

"Shepard is the galaxy's way of apologizing for all the bad things it's done," Garrus said from his spot by the interface. "She comes in and cleans up the mess. With our help, of course."

"I'm going to make sure ExoGeni pays reparations to the colony for what they've done." Shepard didn't address his comment.

"We should be good now." Garrus hit one final button.

The room shook as the gates slammed shut with the speed and lethality of a guillotine. The force of the movement severed the arm of the geth ship and it fell down against the outside of the building, and further still possibly. Shepard didn't have to ask if removing the ship had done the trick, because a moment later her comm link came on.

"Commander Shepard? This is the Normandy. Come in. Seriously, hello? Come on, commander?"

"Joker, I'm here," Shepard said.

"You better get back here. Something happened to the colonists. It's…not good. They're banging on the hull and clawing at the door. We're on lockdown, but…just hurry."

Shepard, Kaidan, and Garrus all exchanged a look of concern. "Sit tight, Joker. We're on our way back."

"Yeah, I was going to go for a leisurely stroll, but since you told me to sit tight…"

Shepard cut off the link and turned to Kaidan and Garrus. "We better hurry. It might be too late."

She sincerely hoped it wasn't.

A/N: Thanks again for all the follows and reviews. I'm still having a blast writing this so I hope you're all enjoying it!