Here is the next chapter. Sorry about the delay but life got hectic. I'm having a lot of fun with this story, I hope y'all are enjoying it as much as I am. Please r&r. Enjoy!
000
The two corpses of the geth troops lay crumpled right where they had fallen where Claire had killed them. Claire split the team sending Garrus and Wrex with Luke while keeping Liara and Tali with her. She would search the upper levels while Luke searched the lower.
It seemed like a simple enough task until Luke saw what was contained in the lower levels. What Luke found caused his body to freeze like a statue.
Holding cells lined the wall filled with salarian prisoners. They reminded him of the pens that he and the other colonists had been held on the batarian slaver ship. The small spaces with no room, treated like animals or worse, that was no way for a person to live.
"Is there someone there?" The voice was coming from one of the cells. Luke could see someone looking tough the glass.
"Hey, it's alright. Who are you?" Luke said as he took a look at the lock.
"Lieutenant Ganto Imness. Captured two days ago during recon. You must be the shadow team. I know the captain and how he thinks. He will want this place destroyed." Ganto's tone seemed rushed and stressed. It made Luke nervous. What Benezia said about the indoctrination process still rang in his head.
"What did they do too you?" Luke asked. He stopped examining the lock and turned to the imprisoned salarian.
"Tortured me and experimented on me…The others weren't as lucky. They're just not right…like they are not there anymore."
Luke turned and looked at the cell next to Ganto. He could not believe just how many of the STG troops were inside, silent and barely moving. One turned toward the window giving Luke a clear view but when he looked in the soldier's eyes, he saw nothing. He had seen that look only a few times in a person's eyes. Never at this severity, but he had seen it in the eyes of criminals serving life sentences who had just given up and were waiting to die.
"That is a fate worse than death," Garrus interjected. His voice was sullen as Luke turned back to his friend.
"What do you think Wrex? Those lines between friend and foe still blurred?" Luke asked.
Wrex looked to Luke and simply shook his head. Luke could not tell what was going through the krogan's mind but he had the slightest inkling that it might be something murderous toward Saren.
"I just need to get out of here…please, let me out. The whispers are just too loud," Ganto said placing his hands over his ear holes.
Luke turned to look back at the imprisoned salarian. "What whispers Lieutenant?"
"The constant voices. You can't hear them. They are constantly at my ear, merciless and unwavering!" Ganto started to pace back and forth in his cell before stopping at the back wall and looking to Luke and his companions. "Let me out."
Luke looked back at Wrex and Garrus trying to get a read on what they thought of the situation. Wrex seemed utterly indifferent but he was also silent. Garrus however made eye contact with Luke and shook his head. Luke wet his lips and turned back to the cell.
"I think it might be too late for you lieutenant. We can't let you out for the sake of the mission." Luke hated himself for saying it, but he was trying to think like Claire. She always seemed to make the right call in tough situations like this.
"I…I have to do what it says…have to get out…let me out! LET ME OUT!" Ganto started screaming sprinting full speed at the door.
Luke watched in horror as the salarian crashed head first into the glass splattering green blood across the window. The way the body fell, Luke could tell that Ganto's neck was broken. The alien was dead.
"This must be what indoctrination looks like if it goes wrong," Wrex said. He sounded rather disturbed by the sight. "It would be more honorable to die in battle."
Luke turned to look at his friends. "I don't want to leave them like this. They deserve an honorable death, not being blown to dust by a nuclear explosion."
"What are you going to do?" Garrus asked.
Luke had no idea what he should do, but what he had to do was clear. Both for his own conscience and the empty husks of salarians that stood imprisoned before him. "I'll do what I would want either of you to do to me if this ever happened to me." Luke pulled his pistol and took aim.
"Wait, are you sure you want to do this?" Garrus asked placing a hand on Luke's shoulder.
"No," Luke started, "but they deserve some peace." Luke raised his pistol and took aim at the closest salarian. The blank expression made his stomach turn. Hehad to act before he thought twice. He gently squeezed the trigger and the pistol flashed. Just finish it. Keep going. It's the merciful thing.
Each shot was like a kick in the stomach. This was the closest thing to murder that he had ever seen or done. But he would rather die from a bullet than a nuclear blast. It might have been the merciful thing to do but it still felt like cold blooded killing.
000
Claire, Liara, and Tali had secured the upper level with little incident. There had been a few more indoctrinated salarian troops but they had dealt with them quickly.
"I wonder how Luke and the others are doing," Liara said checking her omni-tool for the time.
Claire was concerned too. Luke and his team had been gone for some time. Perhaps that meant that they found something, or got into a fight. Worst possible scenarios started rampaging through Claire's thoughts. It almost made her sprint down the stairs to search for her brother and companions, but at that moment she saw the door to the lower labs open. The team took aim but quickly realized that it was Luke, Wrex and Garrus.
"What took you so long?" Claire shouted. But Luke's expression told Claire to drop it for a later date. At that moment, they had mission to complete and she had a gut feeling that they were right on Saren's heels.
"That door over there might be our best chance," Tali informed Claire pointing to the entrance along the platforms. It was a reinforced door that had been guarded by two geth troopers. Whatever was inside, it was important. The reunited team moved slowly and covered Tali as she hacked the door.
"Are you using the brute force approach with the intermittent data pulses?" Luke asked glancing over Tali's shoulder.
"I thought we were trying to save time. I don't think the commander wants to wait for a cleaner lock hack," Tali answered. Claire could not tell for sure but she assumed Tali was smiling. Luke and Tali had become close, sharing each other's knowledge and improving their skills. Claire had even found where Luke had hacked into the CIC galaxy map and added a planet to the Sol system named Made-You-Look. Everyone but Mallory, Pressley, and Kaidan had gotten a good laugh out of it.
The door opened revealing a small room that looked like an office at first glance. Luke quickly leapt in front of the group with his gun up. Claire could not see what he saw but she immediately drew her gun too.
"Come out with your hands up!" Luke shouted.
It was only then that Claire was able to see the asari hiding behind her desk. I have to pay more attention to the details. Claire moved forward slowly as the asari made her way around the table with her hands up.
"Identify yourself!" Claire shouted.
"Dr. Rana Thanoptis. I'm a neurospecialist. This job is not worth dying over," the asari whined.
"Why would Saren need a neurospecialist? It doesn't make sense," Claire whispered glancing over at her brother. Luke shook his head and aimed down his sights.
"Please don't shoot!" Thanoptis pleaded.
"I'll give you two seconds to give me a good reason why not." Luke's tone make Claire's blood run cold. He was ready to kill her, just like Saleon.
"I can help you," the asari informed them. She scurried over to a control pad and punched in a code that unlocked the door. "See, unrestricted access to all of Saren's research and files."
"Why would you have access to all that intel? What exactly do you do here?" Claire asked lowering her weapon. She knew Luke would not lower his so she felt comfortable disarming for the moment.
"He is researching indoctrination. He's really concerned about its effect on those influenced. But I think that he is scared that it might be affecting him too." Thanoptis looked around the room as the team glanced at one another. "You think indoctrination only affects prisoners? Sooner or later I would end up on one of those cutting tables."
Claire glanced over at Luke he was not lowering his weapon or backing off. He seemed more determined than ever to shoot the asari.
"Look, we are about to destroy this facility, so if you want to be outside of the blast radius, I suggest that you start running." Claire had to make sure that she saved as many people as possible. Thanoptis had worked for Saren but she had helped them, not to mention she was a non-combatant.
She spotted Luke moving forward but by the time she moved, it was too late. Luke fired a single shot through the asari's head without warning or hesitation.
"No! Luke, why!? She was a non-combatant!" Claire shouted. Luke holstered his pistol and looked back at Claire.
"She had been exposed to indoctrination for most likely weeks. The salarians that were in the lower holding cells were nothing but empty husks. If we let her go, we could be faced with another situation like Benezia later on," Luke said. Claire could not believe how numb Luke was to the asari's death.
"Luke, you killed another unarmed person right in front of me. You told me that you…"
Luke held up a hand cutting off his sister. "I told you that I would follow your orders. You did not order me not to shoot a potential threat. We have the intel and the access."
"Luke, what would Ash say if she had seen you do that?" Claire watched as Luke's cold demeanor melted. His gaze immediately dropped to the floor and he could not seem to hear anything else.
"Sorry Claire. I'm just trying to do what is best for the mission, just like you," Luke said softly.
"Whatever, let's just move on." Claire had to keep the team moving. Sure she was pissed at Luke, but they needed to finish this and plant that bomb. Maybe they would get lucky and get Saren in the process.