Chapter 12 – ME1- Liara
AN: I hate the previous chapter. At some point, I definitely need to go back and work on it some more. Since I wasn't exactly able to reach the end of Freedom's Progress, this chapter needs to be shortened for correct pacing.
Mage 20th edition kickstarter has only 4 days left!
The newest Spectre sat and thought.
Shepard let the voices of her team's discussion wash over her. On the table in front of them were several potential leads to tracking down Saren. Most of the confirmed data was from Fist's info cache of Saren's activities they liberated. The council files were almost worthless, which left them with very little substantive corroboration. Kaidan and Garrus were trying to convince the rest of the team to first follow up with Matriarch Benezia's daughter. Steady detective work, but maybe not the correct choice here.
She felt Fate pressing down; a steady weight letting her know time was running short. Shepard was now in command of the Normandy, and she felt the burden of autonomy settle around her as well.
"No."
Everyone stopped talking and looked at Shepard.
"Saren knows what he's looking for, and he knows where to look for it, or at least where to look for clues. I know how this goes. He has the lead, the tempo. Let's say we go looking for Matriarch Benezia's daughter. If we don't find her daughter…" Shepard looked down at the files in front of her. "...Dr. Liara T'Soni, then we are days if not weeks further behind Saren's trail. If we find her but she doesn't know anything, we lose time. Let's say we find this daughter and she knows her mother's whereabouts. Who says the Matriarch is with Saren? Tracking her down means more time lost. What if her mother lied to her? Would she really tell her daughter her secret plans? Let's say Matriarch Benezia did tell her daughter the truth. Obviously it's because she then trusts her daughter to help her with her secret plans. We then present this trusted daughter with the information that her mother, the famous and powerful Matriarch, is doing something evil. Does the good doctor help us? She could feel her love for her mother is more important than strangers telling her that her mother's plans go against the entire galaxy. Who would believe that? Even if she wasn't already in on the plan? Let's say she's deep in the plot with her mother and doesn't tell us anything. She could lie to us. Do we torture her to make her talk? Unreliable, and again, we lose time." Shepard shook her head. "There is nothing that can help us down this path. Even if Dr. T'Soni wants to help us, and has valid information, at best she can tell us where her mother was when they last spoke."
Shepard glanced around the table, and smirked.
"Besides, we don't need to know where they are; we need to know where they will be."
Kadian smiled. "Then we can lay a trap for them."
Ashley shook her head. "But we don't know that. We don't have enough data on their plans."
Shepard smirk widened.
"Exactly. Swiftness comes from demoralizing your enemy, not outrunning him. We don't even need to know where Saren plans to go. Instead, we're going to strike at what we do know."
Her fingers tapped a report in front of her.
"Binary Helix. ExoGeni. There's a connection. They're using these companies for something, and they need the money. If we make a problem, they will come." Shepard stood. "We're heading to Feros. Reports show geth activity still active on the surface as of yesterday. If they haven't found what they're looking for, maybe we can find it first. If we can't, we shut ExoGeni down. The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Shepard smiled a humorless smile. "We'll make him come to Binary Helix, and we'll be waiting for him."
Weeks later, a lone archeologist on Therum is captured and the exhausted asari dragged before Saren.