The asari herbal pharmacopoeia was, without a doubt, the most extensive in the galaxy. Only humans shared the appreciation for the art, even if the extent of their knowledge was not as wide as theirs. Salarians favoured purified chemicals. Turians didn't have time for anything that wasn't swiftly effective in solving their needs, not caring much about its origin. Asari had a tea for every occasion, every mood, and every person. Benezia had a favourite, of course, and not one that would befit her station. Mibba. A leaf from a plant that was little more than a weed, insultingly common in the equatorial coasts of Thessia, plain in flavours and mild in effects.
She always had it fresh, so as to preserve the more delicate flavours found in it. Musky, deep, it was the timid aftertaste of spice that she liked best, how it turned into an unexpectedly subtle drink. It was a tea to be had in small sips, with patience and care, if one wanted to truly appreciate its unexpected and largely ignored best qualities. It wasn't a herb renown for having potent calming properties, but it did have that effect on her.
It could also be the product of her own mind. It did not matter, as long as it worked. Very turian of her, that.
Talking with the human was an exercise in frustration. She had spent so many decades dealing with asari politicians she was starting to think she had lost touch with the rest of the galaxy. Dealing with those asari politicians was always a delicate process, always trying to get the most from each other while giving nothing away. It was the case even between those whose policies agreed. It was a matter of courtesy, really, not to underestimate one another. Dealing with politicians from other species was much the same thing, except most of the time it was easier.
Occasionally she'd run into someone who did not play the game. Who'd be not only honest, which many asari were, but also naively open, which was a different matter. They'd expect that sincerity and openness would be rewarded in kind. Reality tended to disabuse them of that notion fairly quickly, or they'd be plucked out of the political arena by nothing but natural selection. Much the same as in business, business and politics were hopelessly interwoven in asari culture.
Roy was open, honest, but not exactly like that. He didn't expect his openness to be reciprocated, he only wanted to be believed. She had found the one thing he would not yield, and that was revealing the origin of his knowledge. She had touched his mind, gleaned from it that the information wasn't real, per se, but he believed with every fiber of his being that it was reliable. And yet he was convinced that revealing its origin to someone else would prove a catastrophe. Leaving that one thing aside, everything else he was offering, he was offering freely, only hoping (not even demanding, or expecting, but merely hoping) that Benezia would believe him and act on it.
Everything he offers is out in the open, if I but reach for it.
He even knew that revealing his knowledge of the beacon in the Temple of Athame was a dangerous gamble, with nothing for him to gain, yet he did it anyway. How could she doubt his sincerity? Moreover, there seemed to be no end to the revelations he had to offer. He didn't have to hold anything back because he always had more to reveal.
The only pattern she could find was in his thoughts on one Aliana Shepard. She remembered seeing the name in the file Shiala had hastily put together for her. He had been her legal guardian, and he appeared adamant on leaving her out of this business, but few other details were there. There were, in fact, remarkably few facts on Roy as well. There was one big void prior to his recruitment by the Systems Alliance. It was so suspicious by itself that it pushed the fact all the way to being too obvious to be suspicious. Whoever had sent him hadn't even bothered to create a fake identity for him, despite having the perfect canvas to do so.
So far she didn't have much to go on. An old ship capable of driving her asari mad, five corpses, and a maiden with a shattered mind. She had written the letters to the families herself. Five space burials, the remains having been taken from the derelict reaper and thrown into the gas giant below. Too dangerous to even attempt to recover them into the frigate, specially those of Mareeri. The cleanup inside the reaper was left to captain Alkia. Including the considerable clutter of fifty destroyed combat mechs. Shiala had put an order for a large amount of remote work drones before returning, which Benezia had approved of.
She sipped her tea again. No, even with what little she had, she now believed he was just what he was presenting himself as. A supremely naïve, but brave and honest human. Perhaps deep down there was another personality, buried under brainwashing or mental control of some sort. She had melded with mind-altered asari and aliens before, she couldn't find any of the signs. Implanted memories and personalities were usually flat, lacking in emotional breadth, if not depth. It could be a more perfected case, but she doubted it; she left only a small, remote possibility open in her mind.
Her real problem was an emotional one. She could think about the puzzle that was that human all day long, but it was the issue of the reapers she couldn't put a rational thought to. Because of her daughter.
Being part of the T'soni family meant more than just being the daughter of a powerful matriarch. House T'soni was more than the two of them. She had expected Liara to do her duty and assume her position in the family, not because she had asked for it as her mother, but because it was something that many people depended on. Liara wasn't going to lead the household after Benezia passed (a good two hundred years from then, she hoped), there were more experienced matriarchs that would take that place. She'd only inherit a small part once the matriarch's state was broken up after her passing. But contacts and relationships had to be maintained.
Liara understood this, Benezia knew she did, and she had rebelled against what she considered a life she hadn't chosen for herself. That, too, was expected, but as her rebellious years stretched on, the chasm between the two of them widened. For her to become a scholar, so far removed from her mother's path, was more than simple maiden's rebellion. With every academic accomplishment the chasm between the two of them grew more and more. And yet, her rebellion was so brilliant, so accomplished, that even she could see the two of them building a bridge over that chasm one day.
Then Liara's obsession with the prothean extinction had come. It was a dead field of study. Her reputation had suffered, as well as the brilliance of her achievements. It was one thing for Benezia to play the political game with a daughter who commanded respect and rose through increasingly influential academic circles. It was another to have a wayward daughter whose interests were, being charitable, oddly obsessive. She had to let go of her. She hated it. Hated it, and so did every cell in her body that had grown and nurtured that child. But leading the T'soni family meant more than her and her daughter. If she had to do one thing as head of the household, was to put the interest of everyone above the singular interests of any individual member.
Thus, she cut ties. Liara could pursue whatever academic interests she wanted, but not as a political member of her family. Contacts and reputation meant everything for asari. Contacts she had had to cut. Her daughter's already spluttering career took a meteoric nosedive. Grants and publications dried up.
And now... Now came this human, with a tall tale tying the prothean extinction, the dead field of study that had cost her a daughter, to the need for the galaxy to unify and fight a looming, gigantic threat; something she would be, at the very least, capable of attempting.
It was too good to be true. Her disgraced, but indisputably brilliant daughter, being the foremost expert on a neglected field of study that would prove to be absolute key for the salvation of a galaxy Benezia had to unite. She wanted it to be true. Goddess help her, despite the threat, despite what it would mean for untold billions of sentients, she wanted that tale of horror to be true for the sake of her daughter. Even if Liara never forgave her, at least there was a glimmer of hope that they could be brought together again.
Too good to be true.
No, it was not good. It was horrifying. It was nightmarish. It was an event of such magnitude that her mind had trouble truly grasping it. But somewhere in her heart, she felt it was too... perfect. Such a disjointed story that was coincidentally just what could bring the two of them together. Whoever had manipulated Roy knew her too well. Knew how to get to her. Knew many things they shouldn't, a lot of spread out facts that would be hard to gather from a single source. She kept racking her brains, wanting to find a target to vent her anger and frustration. Roy was the only target, but she knew he wasn't the right one. Even his short explanation on saying that Saren was indoctrinated. His description of the path she would take... On the path she was already contemplating for the turian. She worried about the Council's top Spectre. Roy couldn't know. But someone knew her well enough to have guessed such a thing with uncanny accuracy.
It was disturbing that she could think anything in the story was good, though. It wasn't what she meant, she knew it would be the stuff of nightmares if it came to pass, that their very existence would be threatened. But by the Goddess, she missed her daughter so much. How many times had she fantasized about it? Throw the entire load of familial duties away. To the abyss with them. Be a mother to her daughter once more. Support her. Love her.
No, she still loved her. That would never go away, no matter what the Universe tried to do.
The chime of her cabin's door echoed in the silence of her tiny room, followed by Shiala's voice.
"Mistress?"
"Come in, Shiala," she said, taking the time to refill her cup.
The former commando entered the cabin, and as soon as she laid eyes on Benezia, a look of worry etched itself on her face. Odd, how long had she been lost in thought?
"Mistress, are you okay?"
"Of course," Benezia replied, and gestured at the free chair. "Come join me, pour yourself some tea."
Shiala took another moment to look at the matriarch, and sat on the offered seat. Benezia turned her chair around, resting her arm on the small table to look at the passing stars outside. Nine hundred years, and the galaxy had never stopped offering her new wonders to behold. Good, or bad.
She heard Shiala preparing her own tea. Either because of her mistress, or because of her own taste, she shared the matriarch's passion for teas. The smells wafted through the cabin, overpowering the one from her own weaker brew. Pungent and floral, Shiala favoured the Mountain Black Button, a wild plant from the mountains of the Southern Shore. It was a tea to smell, not so much to taste. As powerful as its smell was, its taste was very mild. It was a good leaf to have in company. To be silent and think. Steam wafted from the boiler as Shiala worked.
Benezia waited until Shiala was done before speaking.
"Do you miss our Little Wing, Shiala?"
The question was sudden, and as she had expected, the effect on the asari was immediate. She turned to see Shiala holding her cup as if carved in stone.
"Miss? I... I mean..."
"It was not a complicated question," Benezia said, her face relaxing into a ghost of a smile.
"Of course I miss her," Shiala said, her voice low. "How could I not? How many years did I spent as her teacher?"
"You taught her well," Benezia replied, turning to lose her gaze in the infinite cosmos again. "And then her mother abandoned her."
"You did not-"
"Have a choice?" Benezia interrupted. "Of course I did. What kind of mother does such a thing?"
"Not a mother, the head of a family."
"You turn my words on me," Benezia said, giving Shiala a look. She didn't meet her gaze. "I am inclined to believe Roy, Shiala."
"W-What? Why?"
"Because of my daughter, why else?" Benezia said. She didn't explain any further, merely sipped her tea, the last few mouthfuls having cooled to a tepid warmth. She didn't need to explain. She didn't want to.
"I cannot believe the story," Shiala finally said. "He might believe it, but... I don't even know where he could have gotten something like that from."
"But what if..." Benezia said, her voice soft.
The implications were mind-boggling. What if. It took a few minutes for Shiala to speak again, and when she did, Benezia could hear the hesitation in her voice. Even after two hundred years, she still had that twinge of uncertainty whenever she was going to contradict her matriarch in some way.
"If I may... Maybe it does not matter whether we believe him or not," Shiala said. Benezia looked at her, her expression calm. "If he's brought all this to you, he must want something out of it. Whatever that is, maybe we should listen to him. It could give us a clue as to what he's really after. Or who is really behind it."
"And play along-"
"-for now," Shiala hastily added.
Benezia put her empty cup down, and Shiala wordlessly took it upon herself to prepare a fresh batch for her mistress. She had gotten the young asari's meaning quite well. The standing of house T'soni would be in question once again, were she to welcome her daughter back on a wild story which later proved to be false. But if whoever had set all this thing in motion knew so much about them, they'd know she wouldn't do that. Whatever Roy requested, it would be achievable without such risk.
They just would have to figure out who'd profit from it, and how it could hurt house T'soni.
Neither of them were thinking of the long term implications of his story, if it was true. Something like that would require extraordinary proof. The most immediate hypothesis was the one they were both following: it couldn't be true.
But what if...
Shiala finished preparing Benezia's tea, casting the spent leaves in the small bowl on the side. The pile of them had grown considerably.
"You are right, Shiala. Maybe it is time we let Roy finish his tale."
"I'll go get him," Shiala said, a satisfied smile on her face.
You are smart, Shiala. You should stop doubting yourself when talking to me. She took a sip of her tea, slurping slightly to cool the beverage. I feel you will, after all this is said and done.
It was pretty late when Shiala came for me again, and I was starting to get a little tired of them yanking my chain. I assumed it was an asari thing, but really, I wasn't sure what else I could tell them about the reapers that I hadn't yet.
Benezia was in her small cabin, and as soon as we entered the spicy smell of some weird herbs hit me like a slap. It was downright stuffy in there, like a bathhouse. What the hell had they been doing?
…
Mind off the gutter, please. They'll read it.
"Roy, please," Benezia said, her voice calm and... pleasant, almost.
She gestured at the small chair on the other side of her desk, while Shiala took position next to the Matriarch at her command. I was a little bit suspicious, but hey, maybe we were making some progress. There was a cup in front of me.
"Tea?" Benezia offered.
"No thanks," I said. "Sooo..."
"Please, let me allay your suspicions," Benezia said, reclining slightly on her chair and bringing her hands under her chin, in that gesture of infinite patience she seemed to favour. "We have danced around this for long enough. Supposing I believe you, what is it you want from me?"
I almost replied automatically, something like "tell the galaxy to get off its collective ass", but I stopped, and gave her a suspicious, narrow-eyed look. I saw Shiala smirk, but look away and cover her mouth when I looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Surely, if you came to reveal all this to me, you expected we would act on it. How did you expect us to react? What would you have me do?" She waited, then offered a few suggestions. "How do we fight these reapers? When will they attack? Where? You did not expect me to rouse the galaxy on as little as you gave me."
Ouch, that hurt. Mostly because it was quite close to the truth. I had no head for how to get the galaxy off its ass, how to rise an army, develop a fleet (or a thousand, more like it). Shit, I didn't even know If it could be done in sufficient numbers, or we'd be fucked and have to rely on the Crucible, assuming it existed.
"You did," Benezia said, her voice low and... amused?
"Pardon my French, but how the fuck should I know how to get the galaxy together for any of this?"
"Then, what do you know?"
Why was I hesitating anyway? Might as well give her the whole fucking spiel. It wasn't like it was going to be worse than telling them about the reapers.
So, with a deep breath, I started. I made a quick recap on the reapers, and talked about the last days of the prothean empire. How the reapers arrived through the Citadel (that got me the stares again), locked down the relay network, and with the knowledge of their central government, proceeded to systematically wipe the empire. System by system, planet by planet. I made a point to mention how the protheans would burn entire worlds when they'd fall to the reapers, to avoid having their own troops used against them. That, I saw, had an effect, after what had transpired with the derelict reaper.
But it wasn't enough. In the end, they started with truly desperate plans. And then, I hesitated again.
"Yes?" Benezia prompted.
"It's..."
Shit is the only way to describe it.
The Crucible would be a clusterfuck. Not only would it require both beacons from Mars and Thessia, but the fucking results would be apocalyptic. How many people would be utterly fucked with the broken relay network? Not to talk about killing the geth. Or EDI, if she was ever built. And yet, if I mentioned it, it'd be an obvious solution. Would Benezia just go for that and ignore the rest?
Would that actually be a good thing? Prepare for it and fire the fucking thing as soon as the reapers show up, and avoid an absolutely horrific war. The cost-
"Do you know what the most important quality for a politician is, Roy?" Benezia said, getting me out of the pit of my thoughts.
"Uh..." I hesitated again, in good part because the question was such a left field one.
"You do not have a high opinion of us, I see," she said, not without amusement.
"Not all of them," I replied. "And I don't know. Intelligence? Ambition? Charisma?"
"Fear," she replied flatly.
"… fear?"
"Fear. Our actions affect the lives of millions. Billions, even. Those who feel no fear that their decisions might cause harm are not fit for office."
It's so fucking annoying that she always knows what I'm thinking.
"And without a need for melding," she said, smiling. "I do not intend to choose any course of action without thought, or extensive consultation with good minds I can trust. Speak your mind, Roy."
Sigh. Wait, did that just include me in the minds she can trust?
"Well, in the last days of the protheans, they came up with some crazy shit. And I mean crazy." I looked at Benezia, and she nodded for me to continue. "They created underground installations to leave their people in stasis until the reapers passed. I know of two of them. One is on Eden Prime."
I admit, I was a little disappointed that the announcement didn't have more of an effect.
"Where?"
"I'm... not sure, actually. It's somewhere close to the spaceport, or any planned expansion for it. I don't know, if you dig around there, you'll find it."
"That's very precise," she said, giving me a small smile.
"I don't know exactly," I replied, shrugging. "There's a beacon, too. And even better, there's pods still active down there. Honest to goodness living protheans. At least one."
If they wanted to ask how the fuck I knew that, they didn't say. But they were looking at me like I had lost my fucking mind.
"And the second?" Benezia prompted.
"There's a prothean world called Ilos," I said, looking at Benezia to see if she knew it.
"I do not know of it, but I presume my daughter does."
"Yeah," I said, and chuckled at that. "It's somewhere in the Pangaea expanse, you'll need to find the Mu Relay to get there."
"The Mu Relay?" Shiala said. "Isn't that the relay that was blown by a supernova?"
"Yeah. Not blown, just pushed out of orbit. It's in a nebula somewhere."
"How do you propose we find it?" Benezia said.
"The rachni knew where it was, it was part of their territory."
"The rachni are extinct," Benezia said.
I didn't say anything, I just looked at her. If she always knew what I was thinking... Well, this was going to be good.
It was. She didn't really say anything, she just lowered her head slightly, her gaze sharp and penetrating. And intimidating.
"How?" she said, her voice low and threatening.
"Did you know the rachni aren't actually hostile?" I said.
"A galaxy full of dead asari would dare disagree with that notion, human," Benezia replied. Holy shit did that sound fucking threatening. She hadn't even considered whether I was making shit up in this case.
"They were indoctrinated."
…
The room went so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Outside. In the vacuum. They were looking at me... shit, I can't even describe it. Like they wanted to be pissed off, then someone had given them a left hook. Shiala, at least. Benezia didn't show anywhere near as much, but the way her eyes had opened wider, she had taken it to heart.
They sure knew about indoctrination now.
"How? Why?" Shiala said, but Benezia silenced by raising a hand.
"Not entirely sure why, though. Not really important. What's important is that there's a rachni queen out there. Binary Helix has either found the egg by now, or they know where to find it. Well, they may have the location and not know there's an egg there, I'm not entirely sure what they know, know. Get that queen, and she'll tell you where to find the Mu relay. Hell, be nice and she'll probably be an ally against the... uh, what was it? Sour Note I think they called it."
Ye gods, but the looks they were giving me. We waited in silence for a while, mostly me waiting for them to process that and hopefully move on.
"How did we get to the rachni anyway?" Shiala finally said.
"Ilos," Benezia deadpanned. "And the protheans."
So, topic closed. For now at least.
"Ilos had a research outpost, where the protheans were studying the mass relays. They got pods going, too, but by the time the reapers had gone, only a handful were still active."
"So, no living protheans this time?" Was that sarcasm, Benezia? Tsk, tsk.
"No, the VI, Vigil, woke them up after the reapers were gone, but there were too few of them. All they did was spend the rest of their lives finding a way to stop the reapers from returning."
"I assume they did not succeed," Benezia said.
"No, they did succeed a little. At making sure the Citadel didn't activate again. You know that mini Mass Relay in the Citadel's Presidium?"
"Yes... Oh."
I nodded. "That's the prototype. Backdoor to the Citadel. They got aboard and locked it up. It can still be used to bring the reapers back, but it'd require retrieving the information from Ilos, someone activating it from inside, and possibly a reaper docked to it. Unfortunately, I don't think it works both ways."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, the VI's still active, but not for much longer now, so we need to find it fast and do repairs. It's been fifty thousand years, after all."
Benezia looked at me and nodded. What else?
"There's... Something else. The protheans also came up with... Well, a superweapon really. The Crucible. The designs are deep in the beacons, in Mars and the Temple. It can destroy the reapers."
"...but?" Benezia prompted. She smiled when I gave her a look. "You would not have mentioned anything else if it were that easy."
"Yeah, that. It... will probably blow up the whole relay network."
That got me the bertstare from the two asari. Yeah, it really is never that easy. I shrugged, and started to go over the whole thing in my head again. Anything else important I should mention? The- oh shit.
"Oh, couple of details. The Thorian, and the Collectors."
Bertstare again. With a sigh, I went on to explain what both of those were. The Thorian really wasn't that important if we got Javik, but it was there. Then there was the collectors, which were known only as rumors; the remains of the protheans, and they had the technology to build reapers. Lived on the other end of the Omega-4 relay, and needed a reaper IFF to get past, such as the one in the derelict reaper. Oh, and fucking dangerous to boot. I strongly suggested they needed killing. They were not going to backstab anyone, much less Shepard, if we got the drop on them.
We spent quite a while with that, so long that I completely lost track of time (easy, while being in space). We discussed the reapers and how they fought, which got a few reluctant snippets from me. I wasn't exactly up to speed with space combat. There was the problem that there was a metric fuckload of them. Conventional warfare wasn't going to do much good, unless we could raise a fleet that'd dwarf that of the protheans. And even then, the problem was the main planets. If the reapers attack and land on, say, Thessia, defending it would be back to conventional warfare. And conventional warfare with the reapers would mean being fucked over with extreme prejudice.
The protheans were willing to burn fucking planets to avoid giving the reapers more troops. And even then they fucking lost.
"Roy," Benezia said, after we pretty much exhausted what was in my brain at the time – melds not included, even though they were offered. "What do you want out of all this?"
"Me?"
"You want nothing in exchange for this information, do you not?"
"Surviving the upcoming apocalypse?" I offered. Well, there was... something. Benezia looked at me and prompted me with her chin. "Okay, I would like help with something, sooner rather than later. There's... a facility on a planet called Pragia. It's a 'research' facility," I said, even adding the air quotes, "they're kidnapping kids and forcing experiments of them to improve on biotic potential."
I could see the disgust in their faces, even on Benezia's. It was Shiala who spoke.
"What do you want us to do?"
"Um, go there, rescue the kids, and burn it to the fucking ground? I doubt I can do it by myself, but I can try I guess."
Shiala looked down at Benezia, and the latter nodded. "We'll look into it," she said. "I give my word," she added, on my look of disbelief. "If what you say is true, you didn't need ask for it as payment for anything."
Benezia looked at Shiala, and the latter nodded and gave me a fierce look. "Experimenting with kids? Yeah, I've killed scumbags for less than that."
I sighed in relief, which got me an amused look from Shiala.
"Is there anything else, Roy?" Benezia said.
I chuckled. "Isn't it enough?"
"Allow me to recap," Benezia said. "A living prothean and an active beacon on a human colony, to which I wouldn't have access if I wanted to conduct excavations to begin with, even if I knew where to search. A lost prothean world that would require resurrecting the rachni to access. A sentient plant that would demand human sacrifice to impart the knowledge necessary to interpret prothean data. A spacer legend race which you claim is the remnants of the prothean empire, living in the center of the galaxy, which would require incorporating reaper technology into a ship to traverse a relay from which no ship has ever returned. And a superweapon that would destroy the entirety of the mass relay network if it were to be used, and requires information from the two most guarded prothean beacons in the galaxy to be constructed. All this the only way to defeat an ancient race of machines capable of destroying all sentient life in the galaxy." She gave me a significant look. "You will excuse my very cautious optimism."
"When you put it that way..." I replied sheepishly. "You will look into Pragia, though. Won't you?"
"I do keep my word, Roy."
And thank the fucking goddess for that. Hang on Jack, help is coming.
Roy, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?
It's been two weeks since I last heard from you. I'm worried AND pissed off.
Lana.
Damn him. He had missed his second FTL call, and Shepard was starting to be very pissed. And worried. Specially worried. It would be better if she knew what Roy was up to, no matter how dangerous it was. Hell, he could have said he was going to test atmospheric re-entry without a ship or Mass Effect and it'd be better than not knowing.
If you're reading this, it means that my plan has gone horribly wrong.
What the hell was the numbskull planning anyw-
*WHAM*
A hook caught her straight on the chin and sent her tumbling, the headgear not absorbing enough of the hit. She rolled on the ground, blinking away.
"Sheppy!" Goldie shouted, looking at the recruit in front of her. "Goodness me, what happened?"
Shepard shook her head and stumbled, trying to get to her feet, and the blonde woman came swiftly to help her up. She had fallen outside the mat, and had hit the ground pretty hard.
"Damn," Shepard muttered, blinking hard and looking up at Goldie.
"What's wrong? You've been off all day," Goldie said, steadying Shepard and taking her shoulder. "Is everything okay?"
Shepard sighed, pressing on her jaw to numb the pain. Damn, but Goldie had a mean hook. It was fun to watch on the sparring mats, she had such a cheery, light demeanour, and was capable of kicking tremendous amounts of ass. People had slowly started to underestimate her, but she showed no signs of slowing down.
And damn but she was cute to boot. She was starting to wonder about herself, and she knew she wasn't the only woman thinking the same. Even with her hair less than half an inch long, she just radiated a sort of lethal femininity she couldn't help but envy.
"Sheppy?"
"I don't know, Goldie," Shepard replied. "I don't know."
"Is it your boyfriend?" Goldie said, speaking in a whisper.
"W-No!" Shepard snapped, and would have jumped back if Goldie wasn't holding her.
"I knew it!" she replied, giggling. She grabbed Shepard's gloved hands and shook them. "You gotta tell me now!"
"It's not like that!" Shepard said, speaking in a hoarse whisper. "Roy and I aren't... that."
"So it's like friends with benefits or something?"
"No! Fig's sake Goldie-"
"You ladies going to braid each other's hair after this?"
Shepard recognized the voice immediately, but Goldie kept talking with perfect normalcy without giving her a chance to shush the girl.
"Of course not, I don't like fake hair and- Oh. Sir, no sir!" Goldie said, snapping to attention just like Shepard did.
"Get on your face and give me twenty-five!" the sergeant yelled.
"Yes sir!" they both replied, and started with the push ups.
They hadn't even done ten when Goldie whispered to Shepard. "Is he cute?"
"Goldie!" Shepard replied in a harsh whisper.
"Make that fifty!" the sergeant yelled.
Sigh.
Fifty pushups later, and they were done, hurrying to join the rest of their team around the match mat. It was only four of them at the time, with Q-ball having been sent to PT hell to shape up, and the Queen having called it quits (a badly disciplined young woman who'd done enough pushups to move the freaking world, with all the tantrums she had had). That left them with the twins, who called themselves Pollux and Castor, a joke Shepard had had to look up on the extranet. Really tall with curly light brown hair (before it had been mercilessly shaved, the gods wept), rail thin but filling fast, and... incredible teammates. To each other. Goldie and Shepard felt somewhat left out, the two of them worked so well together they almost felt like intruders with them. Goldie, of course, much less than her. She could get along with a krogan.
Goldie herself was the first one up. The other team had chosen four people, and matches had been drawn. Goldie was paired with the Celt, a freaky enormous guy who she'd trust in a firefight anytime, but not so much on anything more... brainy.
Her blonde companion didn't much seem to care. She got on the mat while stretching her arms and shoulders, twisting her lean figure in impossible ways. Then she raised her guard, smiled, and as soon as the go signal was given, she dove in straight for her opponent.
Watching Goldie fight was... weird. From the outside, she didn't seem like anything special. True, she had good reach, was fast, and seemed to have the reflexes of a viper, making accurate and lethal counters when she launched them. Taken from that alone, one could thing she was easy to peg. But it was only when facing her that things got weird. She was never where one expected her to be. She twisted, turned, and moved like water. And she never lost her smile. Even when someone did get the best of her, she'd wipe her nose, rub her bruises, and keep on trucking.
In this case, the Celt was hitting nothing but air, getting a barrage of hits on his midsection. Half because it seemed to be his weak spot, half because his face was too far up even for Goldie to reach. He didn't get frustrated, though. For three rounds he took the hits, managing two or three punches on each one that had Goldie thrown all across the mat and almost out of bounds. Shepard winced on every punch like it was hitting her.
On the fourth round, it went to shit. For the Celt. Goldie moved like she was gearing for a barrage again, the Celt braced for it and try to counter, and he likely never really found out how Goldie suddenly sneaked behind him and used his inertia to push him out of bounds.
It was such an ignominious way of defeating him that he had to be restrained by four other people after the fact.
"Goldie," Shepard said when the blonde came to sit next to her. It was one of the twin's turn, and she was last. "You sure that's a good idea? He's pissed now."
"Ah Sheppy, you're too nice," Goldie replied with a smile. The smile then disappeared as if a mirage, and the young woman looked at Shepard straight in the eye, her voice falling a whole octave and becoming deadly serious. "When the time comes, there isn't a single thing that's too dirty to win. Not. One. If it's kill or be killed, be damn sure you're the one doing the killing."
Goldie smiled again and turned to the fight, and Shepard was so shocked by the sudden change in her that she couldn't look away.
I wasn't a fish out of water. I was a fish in the water of the fucking Citadel Presidium. I was so not supposed to be there. But there I was. Twenty asari and me. The ship was being guided by the VI as we flew back towards Thessia, and Benezia had declared that it was time for pleasure before we had to go back to our ordinary lives. Twenty asari and me.
Pleasure, in this case, being a formal dinner. Everyone was wearing what passed for fine dresses in Thessia in the twenty-second century, while all I had were jeans and t-shirts. Benezia didn't have anything that would fit me.
I'm not going to tell whether they tried to fit me with something or not.
Asari are social creatures. So are humans, and most civilized societies, but for asari the term takes on a whole new level. Even in the ship, cramped as we were in the dining room, there was rank and proprieties to be observed. I was now a guest, and as such I sat with the others. But I wasn't a diplomat, or a guest of standing, so it wouldn't be proper for me to sit next to the more experienced members of the crew, nevermind near the freaking matriarch. So, I was sitting with the maidens. Heck, Shiala was three seats removed from Benezia, even though she had been breathing down my neck with her during the whole damn business.
"Here," one of the maidens said, offering me a sealed bottle. It looked a bit like a teardrop, with a narrow flat bottom and long neck, glass completely closed with no cork on it. She was showing it to me like on display, label first. Bluish-purple liquid was inside.
"I can't read that," I said, with a shrug.
She smiled, then took a tool that looked a lot like a pair of tongs. With a twist and a pull, she made a clean break of the top, and then proceeded to pour a sample in my glass.
By now everyone was looking at me, except for Benezia and a couple of her companions. Too good for it I guess. It was the most stiff dinner I had ever seen, or even better, been part of. And as far as I knew, this was informal for a matriarch like Benezia. Friggin' hell.
I took the glass and turned the liquid inside. Wine, I supposed. Asari wine. The colour was off, as I said, somewhat blue. I wondered idly what fruit they used to make it. Or even better, whether it was actually safe for humans. With that, I gave it a gentle sniff.
Holy shit.
Due to my... parentage, shall we say, I developed really strange habits at too young an age. One of them was trying to do wine tasting. I was obsessed with it. It took a long time to get rid of the habit of getting bits of food, fruit, spices, whatever I ran across, and try to smell it, to "train" myself. I'd get a bowl of fruit, and I'd eat each bit separately after crushing it between my fingers and smelling it. If I couldn't get away with that, I'd be using a spoon but still doing the same. Whenever I ate something, I spent most of the meal trying to deconstruct it.
Trust me, weird eating habits are not fun to deal with, and hard to get rid of.
And even with all that, I had never smelled anything like that wine. I've smelled some weird wines. Heck, I remember a Château Musar that smelled like a freaking leather couch (and how I came to taste that bottle is a story upon itself). No joke. But that smelled... fresh, like bottled sea breeze, or freshly fallen rain. I took a moment to process it, and then tasted the actual wine.
Ye gods that was some potent stuff. Similar tannins to earthen wines, and so very heavy. This was old, we're talking times of the fucking pyramids old. It was really hard to make anything out of it yet.
"This is like nothing I've ever tasted," I said, putting the glass down, "but there's one thing I can tell you. It's in desperate need of air."
The asari looked surprised for a moment, and a quick look around showed me that there seemed to be a divide in reactions. Some smiled, some were surprised. Shiala was smiling.
With that, she put the bottle down, covering the opened top with a small cloth weighted at the corners, and set an hourglass next to it. How long to wait before serving. Freaking hell, what a place; it was like they were watching my every move to see what I did.
The dinner moved on with the maidens mostly interested in talking about humans. As I said, a bit like the elephant of the menagerie, something odd to be admired but as something they wouldn't really accept as an equal. Very uncomfortable. As dishes passed and more wine was had, we turned to – what else – politics. I didn't much care for the finer politics, but the discussion about where the different species of the galaxy fit was one I could have.
"It's really that simple, other races do not have the capacity to take the long view of what's best for the galaxy," my companion, one Karila M'nai, was saying. She was of a light teal complexion, with red facial tattoos almost like tiny scales coming out of her eyes and towards her crest. Very... bony features. And quite full of herself, I must say.
"And why not? Logic isn't exclusive to the asari," I said.
"A shorter lived race sees something that will happen in a hundred years as a legacy, or something for their children. Even with the best intentions, they cannot share the same perspective."
"So krogan should be setting policy then," I said.
There were a few chuckles, and I offered her a shrug when she gave me a look. She didn't seem to be bothered by the barb, though. I reached to grab my glass of wine, and in doing so I tapped the side when I didn't intend to, nearly upsetting it.
Whoops.
I stopped right there, doing a mental recap. No, I was only on my third glass, I shouldn't be feeling this tipsy. Yet there it was. I picked up the glass and gave it a small sip, more for form's sake, but then I put it down not to be touched again. I don't like getting drunk, for obvious reasons.
Meanwhile, Karila was still talking and I wasn't paying attention.
"… are consequences in the long term you will consider more carefully when they will happen in your lifetime. This is specially true when short term gains may lead to long term grief." She looked at me and smiled mischievously. "Take the policy concerning relays..."
She left the word hanging, and I had to suppress a laugh. "That one proves you can still make mistakes, same as everyone," I said.
"But surely you'll see the dangers of opening a relay without caution," she said. It was clear what she implied, opening a relay without the utmost care had ended up with us getting a faceful of turians.
"It's pointless! Look, relays are doors, and doors open both ways. You got lucky with the Systems Alliance, you could have ended with something much worse coming through. You don't want to open a relay, but they can be opened from the other side. Relay 314 did just that, and out we came. The turians punched us, we gave them a bloody nose, and you nearly found yourself with a full scale war before you knew what was happening, policy or not."
"We would have won such a war," she said.
"Sure you would," I conceded. "But consider the cost."
"I don't see how a new race coming into the galaxy would be a challenge for the existing ones, we have a very large and technologically advanced fleet. Any new race would fall short in both respects," she said, her voice final with self assurance as she picked up her glass of wine.
I didn't actually said anything, I just looked at Benezia and tried my hardest not to laugh. After having been discussing the reapers for so long, the maiden's response was so perfect. Benezia didn't even blink, she turned to gave the matron to her right a look, and the latter immediately picked up the convo.
"Having the responsibility of taking the long view," she said, her voice soft but immediately commanding silence from the entire room, "means not only setting policies that will bear fruit beyond the lifetime of shorter lived races, but also understanding the shortcomings of such a view. Events not always allow themselves to be solved in a long time scale." She looked at Karila. "You claim we lead, yet we make ourselves stand behind the shield of the Hierarchy's fleet, as they are best suited for that role. We limit our own fleet to ensure their dominance."
She paused to sip at her wine, a calculated gesture to let her audience recap what they had heard. Karila gave me a look, a bit more serious this time. The matron put her glass down, and turned to look at me.
"The rules against the opening of new relays are ostensibly for our protection, but they encompass more than that. It allows any newcomer to our galactic community to establish first contact with us on their own terms, not to feel threatened when alien races enter what they might have always considered their space. The error of the First Contact War was the fact that we wrote the rules, not the turians. We care a great deal about the spirit of the law, but turians spend a great amount of effort making sure the letter of the law can be considered the final word. The mismatch between the intention of the law and the actions it prompted was as much our failing as it was theirs."
She paused again, and this time she gave the entire audience an all-encompassing look.
"As for new threats to the galaxy, it would be foolishness to think we can face every one with an inflexible asari view. The long view means leading, when it suits, and following, when seeing those best suited to deliver us to the future come forward. In matters of war, we defer to the turians. And when it comes to science, we are only too happy to rely on the salarians. And for every new challenge, we should be able to follow, as well as lead."
It takes a little bit of knowledge of asari culture to see how I had been fucking told by Benezia. On the surface it was just a lesson from the much more experienced asari for the younger audience. But Benezia had basically reacted to my amused response to the maiden's words, which pretty much all but said "fuck the reapers, we're invincible", by having someone else explain to me how those asari who knew better would know they weren't. Without Benezia having had to say a fucking word for context. She could have done it directly herself, but it was much more effective the way she had done it.
Of all the people in the room, Shiala was the only one with the full context, and I could see she was hiding a smile behind her hand, paying very close attention to her glass but glancing at me every so often.
What could I do? I picked up the glass of wine, which I didn't want to, and offered a tiny toast to the matriarch, who replied with only the barest of nods.
Well played, Benezia. Well played.
If nothing else, it did give me a bit of hope. Maybe she'd take this whole thing seriously after all. Maybe we had a chance.
Benezia was tired.
She didn't remember being that tired in a long time. She hadn't had a full night's sleep since the whole ordeal had started, and it had only gotten worse when Shiala had returned from that accursed trip to the derelict reaper.
And life was so simple, with nothing but backstabbing galactic politics and cutthroat businesses in Thessia.
After listening to the rest of what Roy had had to say, she was more inclined than ever to consider the human to be simply insane. The things he had asked, not directly, but by inference, were as strange and disjointed as she could imagine. A corporation operating from their headquarters in Noveria, a basic primary colony deep in Alliance space, a crazy and impossible tale in the centre of a galaxy with connection to a spacer legend... She didn't even know who could profit from such a disjointed trail of clues, or more important, how. He had to be mad.
But the ship had been right where he had said it would be, clear as the Northern Bay. And so was his mental image of the Temple he had never set foot into.
Maybe we are all quite mad.
She had to find that reference Roy had given her. It sounded like it would be an enlightening read.
With a sigh, she took another sip of her tea. No Mibba for her this time. Human Oolong tea, of which there were many varieties. A sumptuous one, heavy on the stimulants. She needed more information. And advice. It was too big to jump to quick conclusions.
"Fieney," she called. A moment later, the door to her cabin opened, and in came her assistant.
"Matriarch?"
"I need you to arrange a few things for me when he arrive to port," she said, gesturing at the free chair.
"Of course," Fieney said, the perfect picture of efficiency. She sat, and rose her omni-tool, ready to take notes.
"First, contact Matriarch T'lena. Ask her to have her people prepare a dossier on multilateral companies with substantial interests on Eden Prime."
"Sure."
"Also, I want to know everything about Binary Helix."
Dutifully, Fieney wrote down her notes. "Looking for investment opportunities?" she asked idly.
"More of a hostile takeover."
Fieney looked up from her omni-tool, saw Benezia's face, and offered a small smile. "Matriarch T'lena will be thrilled."
"I know," Benezia replied, her own mouth returning the smile. Being the financial advisor of house T'soni meant handling enormous but largely safe portfolios of investments. That should provide some excitement. "Make an appointment with Trina Palav. We have a lot to discuss."
Fieney nodded without a word, but it was clear what that was for. She was one of the most influential board members of Armax Arsenal, and a very reliable turian.
"Next, put a request for Councillor Tevos' time, we need to discuss important matters at length."
Her assistant nodded and kept writing.
"Finally, invite Matriarch Telan to meet me at her earliest convenience." That got Fieney to snap her head up, mouth hanging open in surprise at the order. "You can manage, can't you?"
"I-I'll do my best, mistress," she replied, turning quickly to her omni-tool.
"I know you will," Benezia replied, hiding her wide smile behind a sip of her tea.
Before she could continue, there was a chime on the door. Followed by a second one soon after.
"Yes?" Fieney said, standing quickly and opening the door.
Of all the people she had expected, Roy was probably the last one. He had been given free rein to roam the ship now, but she didn't think he'd take it that freely.
"Oh. Am I interrupting?" he said, his voice a little hesitant.
He wasn't drunk, but Benezia could hear the alcohol in his voice. He had half expected him to be plunging face down and melding with one of the maidens aboard the ship at that point, but he had done little in the way of flirting with them. Or responded to it when they tried. Curious, but not exactly unusual given the circumstances. Apparently, he could be cautious too.
"No, we were finished," Benezia said. "Fieney, that is all for now."
"Yes mistress," the asari replied, bowing to the matriarch and giving Roy a final look before leaving.
Roy walked in and stood awkwardly until Benezia gestured for him to take the seat.
"Are you drunk, Roy?" she said.
"Nope," he replied, furrowing his brow. "But what did you put in that wine? I had like... three glasses only."
"Some asari wines can have that effect on humans. It is not just the alcohol, it depends on which fruit was used. Humans consider anything other than grapes to be no proper wine. We asari are more open minded."
"You served that on purpose?"
The suspicion in Roy's voice was so clear Benezia couldn't help but laugh at it, something she rarely allowed herself to do spontaneously.
"Oh Roy, you still are suspicious about me?"
"I... guess I am."
"I observed you as you drank, and saw you stop on your third glass. I considered your self-control to be sufficient. It is merely one of my favourite wines, did you not like it?"
"It was amazing," Roy said. "Never had anything like it... Probably never will, I guess," he offered with a shrug.
Benezia's lips twitched a ghost of a smile, and she relaxed back in her chair and putting her hands under her chin. "What can I do for you?"
"Well, I was just thinking..." he said, leaning forward. "I know, I know, dangerous start." His tone told her he was only half-joking. "You showed me how weird all this shi- this stuff is. So I thought I could give you something a lot better and less unbelievable. You know, since you're looking into Pragia for me and all that."
Benezia just nodded at him, amused.
"How secure is this ship?" he suddenly asked.
"Extremely," Benezia replied, not missing a step with the tangent. "It is one of the few places in the galaxy where I would discuss the Temple of Athame openly."
Roy took her answer in, then a deep breath, and seemed to come to an internal decision.
"Well, 'kay. Look, how would you like to replace the Shadow Broker?"
As a nine hundred years old matriarch, Benezia had had many surprising moments in her life. Many unexpected turns. The whole situation with the reapers was one of them. But that one, she wouldn't have expected to hear in a million years coming from someone like that human.
I had a hangover.
Last night, I remembered going to Benezia's cabin and telling her about the Shadow Broker. I had no idea what possessed me to do that, but now that it was morning and we had arrived back to Thessia, I still wasn't sure whether it was a good idea or not. On the one hand, I had just given her something quite valuable she could use immediately in exchange for Pragia. On the other hand, well, the freaking Shadow Broker. Talk about shaking the tree, I just hoped nothing fell on my head. But it was going to have consequences for sure.
I knew Benezia threw a meld in there at some point, and I showed her the broker. The Yahg. The ship. And the system. And the planet. Hagalaz.
And quite frankly, I was feeling like a huge fool for having done that. Useful in the end or not, I shouldn't have decided on that simply because I had had too much asari wine.
The last part was what I hated about it. What the fuck had I done?
"Roy," I heard Benezia call behind me.
We were outside her private spaceport, and I was going through the list of messages I hadn't received while I was away. Ye gods, Shepard was pissed.
"Matriarch," I said, offering a bow.
"I enjoyed your company, Roy. You are full of surprises," she said, offering her hand.
"Not as much as I did, I assure you," I replied, taking the offered hand. Because I was fucking glad I had walked out of the situation alive like that.
I made such a fool of myself yesterday.
Benezia smiled.
Roy, you are a jewel. We will be in touch.
Damn. I had forgotten how those small thoughts could be exchanged with a mere shake of hands. And I was so shocked by the response I didn't even know how to react. Benezia moved on, followed by a procession of asari. The last was Shiala, who gave me a smile as she passed.
What a fucking trip.
Hey Lana,
I'm back. Trip was awesome, I'll tell you about it on FTL. I'm tired as shit and need a fucking burger, but I'm back.
Go kick ass in the camp.
Roy.-
Author's Notes: Okay, very quick update this time. This was... easier than I expected. Once I had written the first part, with Benezia putting her thoughts in order about Roy, the rest flowed so much better. And the final bit with the Shadow Broker was a left field throw I hadn't seen coming myself, but now I know where it's coming from. Spoiler: From Convergence :D
I think one of the reasons why I've updated this fast recently is because these are rather difficult bits to write. It's really one of the key moments on any SI fic: the reveal, so to speak. So I have been thinking about these scenes (and several others cascading from this moment) for a long while. It took over 100k words to get to it, but now that we're here, oh boy. I can smell some really good bits coming, and I want to get there! I want to get there properly though, I'm not going to rush over important things just to get to the juicy bits. They still don't really believe Roy, but since you and I know the reapers are very real, they'll eventually have to. Just a matter of how they take it.
The dinner scene I had a lot of fun with. I kept it short, but as you can imagine, it could have gone on for ages (specially about weird food, always a laugh, that; you can imagine why after all that I'd say I needed a freaking burger). One of the things I wanted to highlight was the "social stiffness" of the asari, at least in the context of the respectable part of their society. Sure, you have maidens shaking their asses on bars all over the galaxy, crazy mercs, and places like Illum, but Thessia's still the heart of the republic, and things are different there. Part of the reason why maidens go so crazy when they're young, I suppose.
I'm not done with Benezia, obviously, but we should be seeing more of Shep and Roy. And Shiala. One of the things I'm not sure I made clear enough was that Shiala getting the knowledge that there's a secret beacon underneath the Temple of Athame is... bad. For her. She is so not supposed to know that. But now that she's in, she's in. As a consequence of her knowing, she's neck deep in the craziness.
Oh, and I'm still debating a scene between Liara and Benezia. Somewhat, I have a feeling I wouldn't do it justice.
Finally, the part about smelling things constantly is true. I've managed to wean myself off that, and curiously, cooking helps. When I'm cooking I know what's going in there, so I don't need to deconstruct it to figure it out, so to speak. And smelling and tasting things as I cook is both necessary and helpful. But yeah. Recently I became acquainted with Madagascar Voatsiperifery Pepper, and I spent a week constantly opening the pot and smelling it (seriously, it's an amazing spice). Like, I'd put it back in the kitchen, go watch TV, and after half an hour I'd start thinking about it being there. Anyway, I've gotten better.
And reviews keeps coming! Thanks everyone, really!
5 Coloured Walker: Worry not, there'll be lots of asari, and yes, I consider that a several hundred years old commando will likely be deadly effective too.
Law77: I'm hoping I can change your mind! Well, that'd be a tall order, but at least show a few asari you might not dislike as much. I'm hoping to give asari a bit more depth with this fic. I'm guessing you did like Parasini in Mass Effect 2? ("I love nailing asari, they think they're so superior before you arrest them" :D)
Pradian: All inside the reaper, just ship combat mechs in there until the crazy mutated monster stopped killing them.
RadioPoisoning, Sci-Fifan95: I took a cue from ME2. In there, the Cerberus science team all ended up as husks (although we're led to believe that it happened slower). I'm thinking young and weak minded asari, and the derelict reaper not being "all there", so to speak. Nazara manipulates Saren & Co. as a means to an end, but if high processes are all shut down because the ship's badly damaged, maybe just the most basic "reaperify things" functions still work. Shepard and her team are much stronger minded, and know what the reapers try anyway. Not that they stayed for long aboard the reaper, and it had lots of husks to play with anyway.
WomanSlayer: You'll see why it's ironic :) Can't we all just get along? (I think I've been hanging out with asari too long).
BJ Hanssen: Haha! It's one of the themes of Mass Effect (and common in Sci-Fi in general, too), us humans being a lot more diverse than other space faring races. Language is very important for us, I'm hoping to highlight it more later with... stuff. As far as being subtle... I don't do subtle well. Infodump and making everyone think I'm crazy is more my rhythm :D
Mizuki: Yup, she never left the reaper. Not the best ending for her really, the Ardat-Yakshi stuff is something I'd love to explore more at some point. I mean, space vampires! We've done a lot with vampires since the early days of "blood-sucking children of the night" in fiction (even made them sparkly and angsty, apparently).
general-joseph-dickson: Not the salarians, but I'm going to introduce someone important soon who doesn't fuck around for ages and ages, hehe.
So, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, thanks again everyone! Next time, the Black Mamba, and I'm going to have a laugh or two. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
P.S.: Dear goddess, I just realized I've spent 25,000 freaking words on the "reveal to Benezia" alone, and she is still not convinced. Sure, it's "just" three chapters, but goodness me that's a long ass time to spend on a single plot point. I hope it wasn't too boring.