I had never been to a shipyard. Correction, I had never been to a space shipyard. I had expected something not too dissimilar to a shipyard from back in my day – a bunch of docks with boats in various estates of (dis)repair. It was nothing like that.
It was a whole lot of empty space.
A myriad of spaceships were floating out in space around a small space station, thousands of kilometres away from each other. Some of them were in good enough nick to be out there on their own, minimal power and keeping a steady relative position. Others were held in place by autonomous drones carrying propulsion engines.
Our destination was one of the latter. A Metis class ship, with no less than sixteen compartments attached into each other like a cargo freight, a four cabin command module at the front, and four Mass Effect engines at the back.
According to the classified ad, the engines were cooked. Well, not in so many words, but reading between the lines it was a lot of "cannot be held responsible, sold as is with no warranties, yadda yadda". But if Kasumi had said this was the one to get, this would be the one to get.
"As you can see *kshh* Earth-clan," the Volus was saying, "the structure of this ship is in excellent condition."
"Uh-huh. Tali?"
I had to ask her because, quite frankly, I had no idea what to look for. The ship was in complete darkness, not even a minimum of life support or power running. We had docked at the very back of it, coming in through the last of the attached compartments. Each section was built like a large hexagon, with the walls going out and in and creating a weird-looking space. Of course, it was hard to take it all in while in an envirosuit.
Yeah, Shepard had actually gotten my suit and had it fixed again. I thought it was a loss when I couldn't find it in the hospital – which, considering the beating it had taken, was pretty much expected – but that's how she rolls.
Her quip about it not being an Alliance hardsuit had made me chuckle. There was a whole conversation in that single phrase.
Meanwhile, Tali was going over the main beam atop the compartment with her omni-tool, scanning. The whole thing was quite big, as big as the main bridge of the Normandy, and taller. If there were sixteen like that, there was a LOT of room in that ship.
"Seems all right," Tali said. "But it would be a lot easier to check with some power."
"Ah, of course. *Kshh* As my advertisement described in detail, the *kshh* engines are not in the best condition. But considering *kshh* the excellent price it is a bargain, and with some repairs *kshh* it would make an excellent addition to any fleet."
"I'll go check them," Tali said, flipping her omni-tool off and heading for the back.
"The access to the engines-"
"I know my way around," Tali interrupted. I had a feeling she didn't much like the volus.
"Of course Rannoch-clan," the volus replied.
Meanwhile, I had taken my omni-tool and was doing some scans as I moved along. I wasn't entirely sure what I was looking for, but I couldn't let the volus know that. Without Gee, I was useless with the omni-tool. Well, not entirely useless, I had learned a thing or two thanks to him. Still, nowhere near as competent as my geth buddy.
After a few minutes of this, with the volus droning on and on about the wonders of the ship, the entire place lit up like a Christmas tree.
"A-hah!" Tali called over the comms. "I knew it!"
"What's up Tali? Did you fix it?"
"Well no, the main conduits are fried," she said. "But these engines use the same couplings for the emergency H2 reserves. So if we go like this..."
As she spoke, the rest of the ship came to life. There was a hum I could feel under my feet, and the gauge on my HUD for atmospheric pressure started climbing. Life support was back, too.
"Ah, of course," the volus said. His voice was supremely annoying through the comms. "It seems *kshh* you have acquired quite a bargain, Earth-clan. I would *kshh* say, I am undercharging for this fine vessel. I-"
"We had a deal," I snapped, turning to the volus in an instant.
"I... *kshh* Of course! Of course, Earth-clan! I was merely pointing out *kshh* the great quality of my merchandise."
He took a step backwards, and I took one closer, looking down at him. I raised my left arm, and brought my omni-tool back up. I had no idea what the volus looked like under that suit, but he wasn't moving. With a few keystrokes, I accessed my credit account and made the transfer.
His omni-tool lit up, and he brought it up to look at the message.
"We'll take it," I said.
"Ah. Yes, very good. Nice doing *kshh* business with you, Earth-clan."
He spoke quickly as he retreated, and without much ado, headed for the door. Well, good riddance. It had been a pain in the ass to get him to agree to the deal, which was a good thing because he had taken pretty much every single credit I had. I was left with just over a thousand credits in my account.
"Roy," Tali called. "Could you do me a favour? I need you to go to the command module. I need a systems check and the terminal here is dead."
"Sure," I replied in a flat voice.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, just had a couple of words with that volus."
"Uh-oh."
"Uh-oh? What?"
"No, nothing. I just have this mental image of you opening that poor volus' suit and him going pop."
"I didn't think you liked him much," I said, moving along the different compartments.
"That doesn't mean I want him to go pop," Tali said. "You are a little scary these days."
"Who, me? I'm an angel," I replied.
"I thought your angels carried swords, not shotguns."
"I wasn't going to shoot him. Unless he tried to screw us over."
Tali laughed softly at that, but didn't add anything to our silly conversation. By now I had made my way through most of the compartments, and noticed not all of them were empty. At least six of them had what looked like isolation rooms or something similar.
"Tali?"
"Yes?"
"I think there's some isolation rooms up here, or labs or something. Does that sound useful?"
"Isolation rooms? What kind?"
"Err... I don't know?"
"Is there a terminal up there?"
"Wait... yeah. Okay, it's working. What do you want me to do?"
"See if they have some diagnostics."
"Sure, one sec."
I fiddled around with the menu, and quickly found what I was looking for. The interface was actually really easy to use. I tapped the diagnostics menu, and the terminal started spitting statistics at me.
"Let's see. Atmospheric reserves at fifty-three percent, seal check passed, primary pumps-"
"Does it say the model anywhere?"
"Uh... wait, yes. Dalum IsoLab 3. Does that ring a bell?"
"Nice! Those are really good to make into clean rooms! I didn't expect we'd find something like that outside of a hospital ship."
"Clean rooms?" I said.
"Yes. We aren't born into enviro-suits you know," Tali replied.
"So... you're going to turn this into a maternity ward?"
"Maybe, it will be up to the captain. For a ship of this size to have its own clean room is quite a luxury."
"I guess so. There's like twenty of them tho."
"Twenty?!" Tali squeaked.
"Yeah. At least. Four per compartment in six compartments."
"Wow. Those labs are expensive! I wonder how Mika managed to get this ship. With a gift like this, she could have chosen any ship in the migrant fleet."
"Yeah," I replied absently.
"Not that there is anything wrong with the Iaera! I'm sure they'll welcome the gift, I just-"
"It's fine Tali," I interrupted her. "She wanted to get to the Iaera. She said captain Mal'Saleh was happy to wait for her."
"I bet he has no idea," Tali said. "It must have taken her years."
I made my way through the smaller hatch connecting the cargo area to the command module, and headed for the cockpit. Compared to the open space of the other compartments, the place felt almost claustrophobic, with low ceilings and small rooms. Other than the pilot's compartment, the rest were rather empty. Cots folded up against the wall, a few lockers, and one restroom with showers.
I had expected more given the size of the rest of the ship.
"Okay Tali, I'm here. What do you need?"
"Can you bring up the main computer?"
"Sure, hold on... There."
"Now, can you patch the engineering feed back through the power terminal back here?"
I followed her instructions, re-routing controls back to the working terminal and looking at more and more systems come to life. Propulsion, navigation, the internal network, with every system Tali's excitement grew.
*CLANG*
"SHIT!"
The noise almost made me jump out of my suit, and I snapped around to see what the hell it was. It had sounded like something falling right behind me. When I turned, I saw that the door to the cockpit had closed, and the controls in the middle were flashing an angry red.
"Roy! What's wrong?" Tali called over the comms.
"The door just closed!" I said. I rushed to it and hit the release, getting nothing but a disappointing buzz of denial.
"That's odd," Tali said. "Wait, I think I know what's wrong. I moved the emergency cell assembly, so the computer probably thinks there's a leak. If I ..."
I looked around while Tali droned on. The room was small. So small. The red lock light was blinking, filling the space with an eery glow that came and went. My breathing was loud inside the helmet, faster and shallower.
And then, my head just went somewhere else. The Citadel.
Mika.
Trapped in a room like that, just waiting. For how long? Hours? Did she even try to escape?
Did she believe me when I said she'd be safe?
I hit the release again, but as before, all it did was buzz.
"Roy? Are you there? What's wrong?"
"The goddamn door!" I yelled, slamming my fist against the lock. My heart was beating hard against my ribs, and I was nearly...
Panic attack.
Knowing what's happening is very different from being able to control it. I finally realized wht was happening, but I was still (uselessly) fighting that door. I had to get out. I was trapped there, and I had to get out. I was vaguely aware that Tali had shouted something at me, but I couldn't focus.
When the door flipped to green and opened, I didn't even think what had happened. I just wanted to rush out. But as I was about to, I ran into Tali, bumped with her, and had enough presence of mind to hit the brakes and throw a step back to avoid throwing her off.
As a result, I fell back on my ass.
"Woah!" Tali said, grabbing onto the edge of the open door. "Roy! Are you okay?"
I didn't try to stand up. I was just muttering imprecations as I sat up against the wall, clawing at my suit's helmet.
"Wait, wait!" Tali said. "Let me- Let me help!"
Between the two of us we finally pulled my helmet free, and I was able to take big mouthfuls of fresh air. Stale air. It didn't matter, I couldn't stand being inside that helmet a second longer. It was cold inside, my breath was turning into small clouds of vapour as it escaped, and the sweat on my face was cooling rapidly.
It felt perfect.
"Roy?"
"Just... Just give me a minute..." I muttered.
By the by the attack subsided, while I just kept my eyes closed and waited. Waited for what seemed like a very long time. In reality, it wasn't much more than two or three minutes, if that. When I opened my eyes, I saw Tali was sitting on the ground, cross-legged in that odd way her knees bent the wrong way, and looking at me.
I had to turn away, I just couldn't look at her face... Her quarian face right now.
"Dammit," I said. My voice chocked as I felt a rising burn in my eyes. I pulled my gloves off, and pressed on the bridge of my nose, wiping a couple of stray tears away. "Sorry," I muttered again.
"Don't apologize," Tali said.
"It's just... How she must have felt. Trapped in that room, after I told her she'd be safe. I didn't..."
"You couldn't know," Tali said, catching my thought even though I didn't mention Mika. "It's not your fault, Roy. You saved everyone, you couldn't know this would happen."
"I know," I said. I took a deep breath and looked at Tali again. "I know. And that's the worst part. Even if I went back... To that moment. I wouldn't..."
Tali reached out and grabbed my arm, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"I know," she said, echoing my own words.
We stayed there in silence for a while, until I finally put myself together. I took a deep breath, and pushed myself up to my feet, Tali doing the same even more easily. When I picked up my helmet and put it on, it didn't feel like I was suffocating again.
"All right," I said, slapping the helmet on my head. "So what do you think?"
"It's perfect," Tali said. "It's going to make a lot of quarians very happy. How did she manage to get her hands on this?"
"She just knew the right people," I said.
The early warning system had gone off nearly an hour ago. It was an uncommon occurrence, but something he had never had to be concerned about. An exploration vessel, some adventurous pirates, it was usually the lowest of the low class that made their way through to the system. There was nothing to be found. That was the reason why the ship was parked in the system.
Even if there had been something to catch attention, it wouldn't be in that planet. The storms, the extreme temperatures, and the scarcity of resources all made for a very disagreeable prospect. And the perfect place for an empire built on secrecy.
When the alarms warned of an approaching ship, his troops started to mobilize. Internally, he was already cataloguing potential leaks, identifying assets that could have become liabilities. Precious few knew the location of that ship, even less would do anything to jeopardize it. Most were invested enough in the preservation of the systems.
And everyone simply feared them.
As they should.
"Outpost A, report," the Broker's raspy voice called.
"One ship, unknown configuration," the reply came.
"I have no visual, use the hard links."
It took a moment before the signal finally came through. Hard lines were limited and cumbersome compared to the omnipresent wireless protocols, but they had an enormous advantage. They couldn't be hacked without physical access. And right now, the image that was getting through was worth the trouble of getting the system installed.
"That is a geth ship," the Broker said.
"What? It doesn't match the-"
"Deploy countermeasures," the Broker ordered, ignoring the protests. He switched channels, and his voice boomed through all channels. "Teams one through four, deploy to Outpost A. Maximum alert, we are under attack by geth forces. Deploy appropriate countermeasures."
Geth. Unexpected, and worrying. The ship was not a completely unknown configuration, it was merely an old design. A quarian design. How the geth had found his location was one question. Why he was under attack was another. Their gambit on the Citadel had failed, and the Reaper they had brought with them had been destroyed. It had been a costly battle, and it had a lot of potential to change the galaxy's balance of power. It was an opportunity.
He didn't expect he'd be the next target. The fact that the ship was an old design bothered him, too. Someone might be using a recovered geth ship. The deception would be pointless, and his troops would be able to repel the attack.
Despite the fact that the attack was so unusual, he had not been caught unprepared. Not even the quarians knew as much about the geth as he did. Cyberwarfare routines had been prepared just for such an occasion, capable of disrupting the geth consensus and make their platforms easier targets. As he watched, his troops were already swapping weapons. High penetration tungsten and magnetite rounds. Even the lightning rods outside could be tuned to discharge on the synthetics. It would do some damage to the ship, but it would be effective.
He had to remain patient. His instincts were screaming at him to go outside and join the hunt. His sense prevailed, and he stayed where he was, at his seat of power, observing.
Patience.
The cameras outside started failing ten minutes into the attack. He realized then that his comms had been hacked, and the geth were listening to all their chatter. They knew he had hardwired cameras.
Smart. The AI had decided not to disrupt his communications.
"Code Hannel-three," he called over the comms.
He didn't need to say anything else. It was part of his troop's training. Comms compromised. No need to inform the enemy that they had been discovered. Use it to your advantage.
With no image, he had to follow with audio.
"Shoot that thing! Shoot it!"
"I'm fucking trying! It won't go down!"
"Biotics aren't working!"
"Sho- AARG"*BZZZZT*
"Pull back, pull back!"
The sound of an explosion was the last thing that came through the comms from the team. The chatter increased as the geth continued their attack. It was clear the electronic countermeasures weren't working.
"Teams five through eight, prepare for access door breach," the broker called. "Release all combat drones."
His orders weren't even acknowledged. All he could hear were confused screams as his elite troops dissolved into panicked chaos. And right before he could call new orders, the comms were filled with noise.
Iron Maiden – Run to the Hills.
It was music. Run for your lives, went the lyrics. No, that wasn't a geth attack. And whoever it was, he was making a terminal mistake.
"All teams to Outpost B," the broker shouted over the strident music.
"Yes. All teams get together. It will make it easier to kill you all," a deep, tone-modulated voice replied.
"All forces to Outpost C," the Shadow Broker's voice called through the comms. "All forces!"
I was tempted to reply. I even had the perfect one for it.
They're dead, Jim.
Instead, I took a moment to catch my breath. I had gone through two loads of stims, so I was hesitant to hit a third. Specially with what we had planned for the Broker. I wasn't going to need it.
"Morgan-Messenger," Gee said. "Status request."
"I'm fine buddy," I replied, my modulated voice coming a lot more badass than how I was feeling. "How did we do?"
"Geth platforms are at eighty-three point seven-" I looked at him. "Over eighty percent capacity."
I bumped Gee on the chest with my fist and chuckled. He was in a massive Prime platform this time, which I found out was his original body. We had been hit hard in the very beginning, some sort of electronic countermeasure had broken through the geth comms and split them, so Gee and I had had to take point, and I'll be damned if the AI's shield hadn't been worth its weight in gold. It had blown off more of the Broker's troops with biotic explosions than I cared to count. It recharged every time one of the pylons outside discharged on me. That had been a surprise, and not just for me.
The massive automatic chaingun Gee had given me had helped, too. It reminded me of the minigun… thing from Mass Effect three (which I couldn't remember the name of), but almost like an earlier model. What it did, however, was spit rounds like it was going out of fashion. I was pretty sure I could cut trees down with that shit. What it didn't do was do the flashing electric thing the one from ME3 did. It just shot bullets.
And went through thermal clips like they were candy.
Fortunately, that had been enough to buy Gee enough time to counter the countermeasures. He managed to upload some of his code to allow for the other platforms to have more autonomous decision-making, and that just did the trick.
"Gee, why do you keep uploading your runtimes everywhere? Anytime you do, you end up losing some."
"Prime platforms serve as mobile exchange nodes for the consensus. Our runtimes carry new subroutines to other platforms."
"Oh. Well, it's just that… Nah, nevermind. Let's do this."
I bumped my fist on Gee's chest again, and readied the gun. Considering how freaking large it was, it was surprisingly light. Behind us, twenty geth platforms also readied themselves, their movements out of sync due to the lack of consensus.
Yeah, the conversation about understanding organics by keeping one set of runtimes away from the consensus was probably not for Gee. Legion was the one chasing after that. Gee, he wanted information. He had managed to put together some support for the attack, but as far as I knew, they were on the "edge" of the consensus, just like he was.
Then again, would Legion really happen if I kept Shepard from dying?
I guess I'll find out.
"I'll go in first. Just give me a minute."
"Risk exposure of intended plan of action could be minimized by coordinated attack."
"He won't be attacking me. He'll talk. Trust me."
"Acknowledged."
The lock on the door was bright red, but all I had to do was look at Gee, and a second later it switched to a cheery green.
I hit the release and stepped in, gun at the ready. The fact that I knew what was going to happen in the game didn't mean it'd happen in real life.
Real life.
Yeah, by now, it was real enough.
As I walked in, the outline of the Shadow Broker could be seen covering the myriad of screens in the background. He was sitting at his oversized desk, watching me walk. He didn't say a word.
"Surprised to see me?" I said, lowering the gun but still keeping it ready in my hands.
He didn't answer, not even when I stopped in front of him but a few steps away. It struck me then, he had no idea who I was. I hit the regulator of my shield, and it just took a couple of seconds for the barrier to dim down. When it did, I took my helmet off. Even then the Broker didn't really react, but I thought for a moment that he did recognize me. It did sound a little pretentious in my head, as if I was important enough for the Broker to give a toss.
Then again, it was never explained in the game how much OCD the Broker really was.
"Well, I guess I'll break the ice," I said, and put my helmet back on. I stopped walking, and although I didn't point the gun directly at the Broker, I grasped it properly with both hands. "You had one job. One. Fucking. Job. Why the HELL DIDN'T YOU WARN SHEPARD?!"
For a moment, with the fight and everything, I had nearly forgotten how pissed I was. I was coming down from it, but as soon as I started talking, it all came out in a torrent.
Why, why, WHY!
"An alliance with the geth from a member of Shepard's crew, how unexpected. I wonder if she will approve," the Broker finally spoke.
"Too bad you'll never know," I said. "Why didn't you warn her? I paid for the goddamn job!"
"She refused any interaction with my agents. She was a fool, and so are you," the Broker said. As he spoke, he stood up, a good eight nor nine feet tall at least. "To come here alone, to fulfill your lust for vengeance. Do you truly believe you can defeat me?"
"Maybe not, yagh," I replied. "But then again, I don't really came in alone."
On cue, the door to the room was blown open, and get started to pour in. It all happened with no plan or order, bullets started flying, the Broker threw his desk as he pulled his own gun and shield, and the fight started.
I wasn't sure what to expect. There were enough geth in there to take on pretty much anything, and thanks to Gee's reprogramming they were acting on their own without a hiccup. But even then, the Broker was well armed.
Or so I thought. I went through three clips, barely a minute firing while trying to keep his attention on me. With all the bullets flying I didn't really have much time to think. But when something finally got through to him, he went down like a ragdoll as bullets ripped through him.
I didn't even really process it until he was down. It had been so anticlimactic I hadn't even expected it.
"Wait!" I yelled.
The geth reacted almost – but not quite – in unison, and stopped firing. The Broker was on the ground, making some pained gurgling noises, so I racked the heavy gun on my back, and pulled my Striker out. The small bauble Mika had strung to it bounced noiselessly as I walked towards him. The shield slowly lowered to its minimum setting, flipping the voice modulator off.
"This is for the Chief you son of a bitch," I said. I pulled the trigger, and kept firing until the gun stopped, beeping angrily at me with a red Overheated warning flashing on my HUD.
The Broker was dead.
I stayed in place looking at the body for a while, I don't know how long. It wasn't until the chatter from the comms console at the back became unbearably loud that I broke out of it.
"Go on Gee," I said, turning to look at my bud. "It's all yours, just like I said."
Without a word, Gee walked off to the console, and stood in front of it. He didn't move a muscle - or a servo - to physically access the console, but I could guess he didn't really need to.
"We are the Shadow Broker," he said. "Communications have been restored after temporary failure. All terminals are to report to the consensus with current assignments."
There was this pause after Gee made the announcement. I'm guessing everyone was about as surprised as I was, and a hell of a lot more confused. I made my way to the console, and hit the comms myself.
"And one final thing. Whoever thought it was a good idea to leave that little surprise in my comms VI during the repairs, you can come forward now, or expect less than lenient treatment once I find out who it was. I expect those reports from all active operations. Shadow Broker out."
Gee looked at me, and even though he was just a geth, he did it with such a puzzled expression he actually made me chuckle.
"Gee, we're going to have to work on your language skills," I said.
"We will establish a consensus with Morgan-Messenger," Gee replied.
Without another word he turned to the terminal and brought up the interface. Information was flying through it at a speed I couldn't even follow, but Gee didn't seem to mind. As he worked, the rest of the geth had started to actually clean up the place.
"Is it everything you wanted?" I said. "Whatever information you're looking for, I'm sure the Broker has it."
"There are two thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven entries matching the Old Machines," Gee replied.
"Great." I pulled the heavy gun again and unfolded it in my hands. "Is there anyone left alive in this tincan?"
"Affirmative," Gee replied. "One life form confirmed."
"One? Where?"
A holoscreen popped up on the terminal in front of me, showing a real time video. It looked like a series of cells, or a lockup of some sort. And in one of them, a single solitary figure. I nearly shit a brick when I saw it.
Her.
Liara.
It never ceased to amaze me. Never. It didn't matter what I did, what I knew, or what I expected. Curveballs just kept appearing out of nowhere. This was supposed to be a simple idea. Get in. Kill that son of a bitch. Leave the entire info network to Gee. That was it. That was the plan. Gee had all but confirmed he wanted info on the Reapers. At the very least, she wanted info, and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to give him the best source in the galaxy after everything he had done for me.
I was gearing up for some weird conversations. About why organics do the kind of things they do. Explaining about blackmail. Maybe help him make choices, understanding what choices mean for organics. It was a big sell, trying to explain what a moral system is to a gestalt AI, but after all the time I spent with Gee, I had a feeling I could trust him if he ever had to make decisions like that. Maybe the Shadow Broker network would change with him at the helm. Who knew. At the end of the day, it wasn't important. In two years and some change we'd all be fighting the reapers anyway.
But all that was put aside the second I saw that image. Liara. In that cell. Alone.
What. The. Hell.
"All right Gee, I'm ready," I called over the comms. I hit the regulator on the shield, and the gauge went up to max. That, and an assault rifle I took from the dead guards was all I needed. "It's showtime."
The door to the cell opened, and as soon as it did, Liara looked up. Given the startled cry she gave, and how she fell off the chair where she was sitting, crawling backwards until she hit the wall, I wasn't what she was expecting.
"Get away! Leave me alone!" she yelled.
"Doctor T'soni," I said, stopping short of a yell.
She froze instantly, big scared eyes fixed on me. She was dirty, and had a good assortment of bruises on her. I wasn't an expert, but given the rainbow of colours they were showing, some of them had to be older than others.
"W-Who…" she muttered.
I offered my hand.
"Come with me if you want to live."
Yes, so sue me. It was the perfect setup for that line, and damn if I wasn't going to use it.
She didn't answer at first. She was just looking at me, trembling in fear. But after a few, long, uncomfortable seconds, she nodded and reached to grab my hand. And as soon as she did, there was a pulse of biotics, and she was thrown hard against the wall, letting out a yell of pain.
"Don't do that," I said. I walked in closer, grabbed her hand, and pulled her up despite her protest. "We need to leave now."
"Who are you?" she said.
"It doesn't matter," I replied. "Let's go."
I made a point to ready my gun and lead the way, gesturing for Liara to follow. It was pointless, but I wanted to put a show for her. She followed, reluctantly but she followed.
We left the cell block and made our way out, stepping over fallen corpses and the debris of battle.
"Goddess," Liara whispered. "What happened?"
"They were in the way," I said. "Do you know where you are?"
"The… I'm not sure, These people work for the Shadow Broker. They brought me here."
"What did they want?"
"A beacon. They had a Prothean beacon, they wanted me to study it. But it was damaged, there was almost nothing for me to study. They did not like that."
"I see."
"Where are we going?"
"There are shuttles in the lower bay. You are going to use one to leave this place."
"What about you?"
"I have to finish cleaning up. Come on."
She followed as we moved, slowly and methodically walking through the eerily empty place. The geth had removed all signs of their presence, but left the rest intact. It was a mess, which was just as well. I didn't need Liara asking questions. Like, finding out this was actually the Shadow Broker's lair, that he had been replaced by a geth, of all things, and that I had been the one driving it.
Yeah, it was too much of a headache to consider. And so far, long explanations never worked in my favour.
It didn't take us long to find the shuttle bay. Liara had stopped commenting on the disaster we were walking through, thankfully, and was just following silently, biotics at the ready. It was taking a toll on her, but I wasn't complaining. We checked every corner, and when she was satisfied we were safe, we went for one of the shuttles.
"Strap yourself in," I said, heading for the controls.
"I thought you were not coming," Liara said.
"I"m not. I am programming the autopilot."
"Where… Where are we? Where am I going?"
I didn't answer. I finished transferring the geth control program, and then headed to the back of the shuttle. I leaned over as if to whisper in Liara's ear, and as I did, I hit her on the neck with a hypospray. She jerked in surprise, but didn't get to even ask what was going on before she was out.
"It's better if you don't know," I said.
The shuttle took off as soon as I set foot outside, and I saw it disappear into the distance through the mass effect field acting as a window. It had gone as smoothly as one could hope. I took my helmet off, and got a deep breath in.
"Gee, did you manage to get through?" I called through the comms.
"Affirmative. Feron-Operative will meet with Liara-Archeologist at designated target."
"Thanks mate. You're the man."
Dear Mr. Morgan,
My name is Mal'Saleh, captain of the quarian ship Iaera. I am writing to you today to convey my gratitude, along with that of my whole crew. Tali'Zorah informs me that you were the one who ensured the safe recovery of Mika'Talae's Pilgrimage gift. We thank you, as you humans would say, from the bottom of our hearts.
Mika was a good soul, and a good quarian. Along her many qualities was that of being honest. I knew of her predicament, of course, and know that a gift like this was far beyond her means. It would not have mattered to me, of course; I would have welcomed her back to her people regardless of the richness of her gift. It is perhaps because we ourselves will need help one day, that those of limited means are more willing to help each other. Whatever guided your actions, know that Mika's name will be part of our ship's crew manifest in its rightful place, and that I see myself personally in your debt. I ask of the ancestors only that I will have a chance to repay you.
With my best wishes. Keelah se'lai.
Mal'Saleh vas Iaera.
Author's Notes: So, here it is. The two scenes that close Mass Effect 1 for good. The assault on the Shadow Broker's lair changed quite a bit every time I reviewed the chapter. I know the old adage about "Show, don't Tell", but I found myself cutting action scene after action scene because they were simply not hooking me at all (and if they weren't hooking me, they wouldn't hook the audience for sure). Thing is, Roy here is coming in hot with superior weaponry and a small army of geth, reading all about a very one-sided affair isn't that exciting, specially when the point of the chapter is... roy making Gee the new Shadow Broker.
This was the idea I had all the way back to chapter... Uh... Chapter 22? That was quite a while ago. When I introduced Gee. I thought about Gee and what his motivations would be. I figured that his motivation was that Roy knew about the difference between Heretics and Geth, and that he was working with Shepard (who opposed the Old Machines), but the reason he was coming out was that he was not agreeing with the consensus.
This is an essential existential crisis for a geth terminal. And you already know what he wants: To show the consensus the dangers of the Old Machines.
So, there's that! Also, no excess wangst about feeling guilty about Mika. Sad, yes, but not guilty. And pissed off, too.
Anyway! Hope the chapter (which lost about 3,000 words all said!) was enjoyable.
Reviews! So many reviews, probably the chapter with the most reviews by far, y'all are amazing.
First off, everyone: I'm sorry about Mika :(
She's not a footnote or a disposable cutie for the sake of drama, she's part of the plot all the way to close to the end and beyond. But Convergence is a very cruel mistress.
general-joseph-dickson: I'm hoping for a redemption arc for Nihlus, if I haven't managed to completely ruin the character by now...
Rektangl: He didn't have to do it alone this time, so it was easy. Having friends is good, isn't it?
Mizuki00: She's alive! :D
fan-rei: Way I see it, AI's guilty by inaction. The Citadel should have been better prepared for Nazara. But I'll eventually explain (and hoping it'll make some sort of sense; then again, I can't possibly top the Catalyst's level of idiotic AI, can I? :D)
MidnightFenrir: What have I got in store for Romance? Drama, so much drama. :-)
Toothless: I couldn't have it all be down, down, down, so there had to be some ups too. Hope you didn't get motion sickness!
Zeru'Xil: Ya think? :D
bluemarlin: Thanks! I probably have some deep-seated issues, I had set her up almost like a writer's pet, only for her to Die for the Plot. Sigh.
Rainsfere: Yep, Roy's not going to let things go as free as he has done so far, AI or not. Well, at least he'll try. Thanks!
FluxBlade: I figured that vehicular manslaughter via Mako-fu would be very fitting for this Shepard. I just had this image of the ME1 end scene with Shepard having the long discussion with Saren until he convinces the turian to put a bullet in his head, then thought "Naaaaah, what would MY Shepard do?". Well, Taa-Daa!
Uemei: Quite familiar with Zoid's line! :D Also, did you think Roy'd forget something like that after what happened with Mika? Just wait! And Tali... Ah, sweet sweet Tali, what's not to love?
BJ Hanssen: You guessed it right, no more Broker! Did you guess who was going to be the replacement tho?
Fanfiction Reviewer Man: Roy's a hard one to pair off, let me tell you. Sorry 'bout the delay too.
DanteAl999: I think part of the problem is that, with no SI, we know what Shep's going to do. I tried to keep it fresh (Nihlus is there, after all, and things went a bit off the rails), but ME1 is quite linear in that respect. I hope it'll be better for the next leg, ME2 gave us a bigger cast with much better personal interactions after all. Most of the game is spent dealing with the cast, not the collectors.
griezz: Well, we know now what happened to Liara! Imagine what haul for the broker, the Prothean expert and the prothean beacon. Both coming from Saren's base in Virmire. And yeah, Cerberus won't let up easily.
Guest: Thanks for the reviews. Yeah, I got similar feedback all those chapters ago, I probably was a bit too hamfisted with the SI and the rest of the cast not meshing :)
maesde: As Dante said, he needs a brohug.
V-rcingetorix: Thanks! That's a lot more evil that I envision Roy being, but I have to admit it's rather brilliant. Doubly so since the SI should know Shepard would be back! And yeah, the AI's a jerk. And the reason Roy didn't keep the gun is that he threw it away during Akuze (the reason he kept the shield was that he was wearing it). And you're onto something with the AI.
cuisinart8: Sowwy :3
So, next Chapter! Next chapter we embark in a wonderful adventure where we go hunting for remnant heretic geth with Shepard and the Normandy. What could possibly go wrong? Until then, thanks for reading!