Shepard sighed as she entered the Normandy's mess hall, eager to relax, and try out Sgt. Gardner's new food. She picked up her tray (immediately noticing the vastly improved smell of the food) and sat down next to Garrus and Tali as she began to eat with the rest of the crew.
She was making idle conversation with the rest of the crew when Kara stepped off the elevator. Shepard nodded in greeting, then turned her attention back to the conversation between Garrus and Tali. "It's just a lot of pressure. With me being my father's daughter, people expect more out of me."
"Screw their expectations." Garrus remarked.
Tali simply huffed, then turned to Kara. "What do you think?"
"About what's expected of you? Simply do the best you can, it shouldn't matter who your family is."
"Does family factor in at all in your culture?" Tali asked, deciding to divert attention away from herself.
"No. My culture is a pure meritocracy. You don't inherit anything from your family, and no one expects more or less from you based on who you're related to. Which is something I'm grateful for."
"Why?" Shepard interjected. "Is your family really important or something?"
"No, there isn't a social hierarchy in our clans. I meant that I'm grateful that a father's sins do not pass onto his son."
"Did somebody in your family do something?"
"Yes, but it's a long story."
"We've got time, if you don't mind telling it." Shepard said.
Kara tilted her head. "Very well. My grandfather (who shall remain nameless) lived on Earth around the rise of Rome. He was mostly a recluse, intervening in the affairs of Humanity only when he was hunting Humans who he deemed deserved death. He would take the bones of his kills, Human and animals, and build effigies out of them, trying to… discourage visitors. There were plenty of stories about a monster that lived deep in the forest, that would use it's knowledge to torture and maim its victims. Some were killed, others dragged into his home, where they were driven mad. The ones he killed looked almost as if they'd been eaten, and they were found hanging in the town square, or from a tree at the edge of the forest. The ones who survived spoke of a structure of impossible proportions, a hut in the woods. That when entered, contained massive libraries, scores of devices that the human mind couldn't comprehend. This went on for two hundred years, and people became more and more fearful of him."
"Nice guy." Garrus muttered.
"All of his victims had been accused of monstrous crimes in their own right. Regardless, no one dared enter the woods until, one day, a woman came to one of the villages on the border of the forest. She'd heard of the stories, of the knowledge the creature was rumored to possess. A young aspiring doctor, Aquila. She had come seeking the creatures home, and the knowledge contained within."
"Your grandmother?" Tali asked.
Kara nodded. "She entered the woods. And as she wandered, she began to see lights, strange orbs glowing in the night. All of them moving in the same direction, deeper into the forest. She followed them, knowing full well that something not human was guiding her. She ignored the bones that hung from the tree's branches, rotted and decayed, until eventually, she found the hut. A ramshackle hovel in the center of the forest."
Shepard noticed that the entire mess had gone quiet, as everyone listened intently. "She opened the door, and was dumbstruck by what she saw. From outside, the hovel looked as if it could house no more than two people, but as she crossed the threshold, she stepped into what felt like a castle. Massive pillars, stretching what looked like hundreds of feet into the air, bookshelves stuffed to the brim, lining every wall. Before she could take another step however, she felt my grandfather ever so gently place his claws on her shoulder. "How kind of my dinner to come willingly into my abode." He had told her."
Tali leaned forward. "What did she do?"
Kara smiled, remembering what happened next. "She took a deep breath, turned, and slapped him in the face."
The mental image of a human woman slapping a nine foot tall, 800 pound apex predator in the face filled Shepard's mind. Shepard was an N7, the best of the best humanity had to offer, and even she felt a shiver of fear run down her spine when she first met Kara.
Grunt burst into a raucous laugh. "I like this girl!"
Kara nodded. "Needless to say, my grandfather was stunned. Once he regained his composure, he asked her what brought her to his home. She simply swept her arm around the chamber and said she wanted to learn what he knew. She wanted to use his knowledge to elevate Humanity. My grandfather wanted to refuse, but he realized that my grandmother wasn't the kind of person he could scare away. If he tried to throw her out, she'd just bang on his door until he relented. So he did. He spent years teaching her, and her passion and hunger for knowledge enraptured him."
"So they got all lovey dovey and got married?" Jack said dismissively.
"Yes, and they had one daughter, my biological mother Livia. My grandmother spent centuries using her newfound knowledge, treating the sick and healing the wounded. Until the year 1345, when she was accused of witchcraft, and was subsequently burned alive at the stake."
Shepard winced. She couldn't begin to imagine what it would have felt like to have someone you loved for centuries be murdered.
"In response, my grandfather committed an act of genocide. He started the Black Death a year later. No one knows the true death toll, but he murdered tens of millions of people, at the very least. When Livia found out what he did, she killed him. Being that man's descendant, is like being Hitler or Pol Pot's grandchild."
Shepard was speechless. She couldn't fathom what it would be like to have a genocidal monster in your family tree.
"Did you ever know your grandparents?" Jacob asked.
"No. I was born in 1800, nearly five hundred years after their deaths. After killing her father, Livia became a pacifist, or at least the closest thing to a pacifist that can exist in our culture."
"Wait, you called Livia your "biological" mother. Were you adopted?" Miranda asked.
"Yes, but again, that's another long story, and we can save that for another time."
