"The shuttle is primed and ready to take you and the bodies to the Cerberus base." EDI's voice rang out as Shepard waited in the CIC for Joker to complete docking procedures. "
"Anything else I need to take care of while we're on the ground?" She asked the AI.
"Captain Anderson wishes to speak with you before we leave."
"Okay. Thanks EDI."
"Docking procedures complete. Logging you out Commander." she responded.
Shepard walked towards the hanger bay. The entire crew lined the halls, standing vigil for the fallen. Upon reaching the caskets, she paused and laid her hands upon them. "You weren't my crew first, but you were my crew last," she spoke as if no one else was in the room. "It was an honor and a privilege to know you and to save the universe with you. For all our disagreements, you did right by me and I hope I'm doing right by you. Rest in peace my friends."
Garrus joined her at the head of the caskets, grabbing hold of one while Shepard took the other. A few of the others filled in around them, and together they carried the caskets onto the shuttles. As the rest of the crew filed out of the shuttle, Garrus took her hand and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. She squeezed his back, and watched him exit the shuttle. She sealed the door behind him.
As the engines started up, she saw the crew stand at attention and salute. Their stoic, prideful faces sending their wishes with her as she maneuvered the shuttle out of the hanger bay and into the blue skies of Earth. She flew for about twenty minutes without seeing another shuttle, yet as she approached the coordinates that the Illusive Man gave her, she started seeing more, these with their distinctive white and orange logo plastered on the side.
She maneuvered the shuttle over the facility and began her descent to the landing field. nine uniformed officers were waiting as she stepped out from the ship. She nodded towards them and in turn they saluted her. She wasn't expecting that.
"Commander Shepard," one of the officers spoke in a polite tone, "Thank you for bringing them home."
"Of course Lieutenant," she replied after sneaking a glance at the rank on his uniform.
"With your leave ma'am, we'll have the boys take the caskets to the medical center. I'll have you follow me to our main office. We have some general paperwork we will need you to fill out."
She briefly looked the entourage over. The officers were all male, well built, and all sporting the same style Cerberus uniform of their lieutenant. She turned back towards the man speaking with her, wondering if he and the others knew the full extent of what Cerberus was up to off of Earth's surface. Earth based Cerberus facilities were much different than those she interacted with on a near daily basis. Earth was, of course, their prime recruiting location, so they kept their noses clean for the most part. Over the years they had gotten good at riding the fine line of the law between legitimate organization and a gang. The facilities on earth were always geared towards propaganda and recruitment. The ones in space however varied widely: from espionage, scientific testing, to warfare. As all terrorist organizations do, they fed off fear and misinformation. Shepard had never been inside an earth-bound Cerberus base, she was curious to see what she could learn inside.
"Lead the way Lieutenant." she agreed.
He led her towards the bright white building in front of them. Behind she could hear the doors of the shuttle opening and the caskets being moved. She took one last glance back at them before they walked through the double wide glass doors of the facility. She was sad they didn't get the send off that Tali did. They deserved better than Cerberus.
He took her into a waiting room, had her sign in, and gestured for her to take a seat in a small waiting room. She stifled a giggle as she entered it-the child's toys and magazines reminding her too much of her childhood dentist office. This was a far cry from the Cerberus she knew. She browsed the collection of magazines, selected one and sat down to wait.
It was only five minutes before someone entered, but it was not who she expected. The door to the room opened slowly and Shepard watched as a small child came into view. The girl was no more than two and barely waking steadily. One hand was firmly grasped around the door handle and the other clutched tightly in the Cerberus woman's hand who accompanied her. The child had wispy yellow-orange tendrils of hair which fell in small ringlets at her shoulders. A small ragged bunny hung by its ear from the crook of her pinky finger on the hand which held the door. Shepard felt bile rise in her throat.
"Your testing on children?" she accused the woman in a voice laced with as much venom as it could hold.
"Hannah sweetheart," the woman spoke to the child who looked up at her with trusting eyes. "Why don't you go play for a little bit. I'll be back soon," she pointed to a stack of toys in the corner of the room.
The child, Hannah, cautiously glanced at Shepard, giving her a wide berth as she tottered past on her way to the toys. Shepard couldn't help but smile at the girl. There were security cameras in three of the room's corners and Shepard eyed each one briefly. Though the Cerberus woman had left the room, they clearly wanted to keep an eye on both of them.
"Can I come play with you?" Shepard asked the child after she settled into the toy corner.
Hannah looked at her quizzically, then returned to her toys without speaking.
Shepard moved slowly from the chair to the floor and knelt down, sliding slowly next to the child.
"Oh, you're playing with blocks?" Shepard asked when she saw what the girl was holding.
Hannah nodded shyly
"It's a pretty block." Shepard commented, "What color is it?"
"Lellow" Hannah answered correctly, holding the block tentatively out to her.
Shepard held out her hand and Hannah placed the block gently on top "Thank you Hannah." Shepard said with a smile.
The child looked healthy enough. There were no signs of needle marks on her arms or bruising on any of her exposed skin. She appeared to be well-developed too. As Shepard played with the girl it was clear she knew most of her numbers and colors.
It comforted Shepard to know that the child wasn't being physically mistreated, but Shepard studied her carefully anyway, memorizing as many details of her facial structure and mannerisms as she could. Hopefully upon returning to the Normandy she could dig up some information on the child, figure out what Cerberus wanted with her. Hopefully, the girl was nothing more than an operative's child attending "take your daughter to work day," but Cerberus wasn't known for their good behavior. Shepard's gut told her that chances were good she'd need to come back and liberate this, and any other child, Cerberus was holding here.
More than an hour passed in the child's easy company, and when the door finally opened again, the Cerberus woman who entered before was not surprised to see Shepard interacting with the girl.
"Paperwork is all ready for you, Commander." she said almost too politely.
"Okay" Shepard responded as she got to her feet. "Thank you for playing with me Hannah." she told the girl, running her fingers through her yellow-orange curls.
The door clicked locked behind them as they exited the room and walked back towards the entrance. Picking up a clipboard from the front desk the woman handed Shepard a pen.
"Please sign pages one and seven of these forms, one for each of the deceased," the woman instructed her. "We appreciate you bringing them home."
"I did it for them. We may not have always seen eye-to-eye, but they were good people in the end."
The Cerberus woman didn't meet Shepard's eyes.
"Is that everything you need from me?" Shepard asked as she clicked the back of the pen.
"Yes."
"Then I'll be going. I would like to attend their funerals, if possible."
"I'll speak to my superiors about that and keep you informed as to the specifics." the woman responded as she showed Shepard to the door.
Shepard left the building with a pained expression. Though it felt good to put Miranda and Jacob's bodies where they wished, she couldn't stop thinking about the child. It was clear from the meeting that Cerberus, perhaps even the Illusive Man, wanted her to interact with the child, a hand she could not resist playing into.
If anyone could help her figure out what the Illusive Man was up to, it would be Liara.
There was a message waiting on her private computer before she even had a chance to ask Liara to look into the girl. Marked PRIORITY from an unknown sender, Shepard opened the message before she could think about not opening it. The message contained only six words and a Cerberus logo on the bottom.
"Hope you enjoyed meeting your daughter."