Chapter 6
The Citadel. Shepard had only been to the giant station a few times in her life, even then she never wandered too far from the docking bay. The only reason she ever came to the Citadel before was to drop off a delivery she was hired to make. So when Captain Anderson informed her she would be meeting with the council she admittedly felt a bit anxious.
Shepard stood just outside of the Normandy, the Alliance ship that she had been on. Anderson allowed her to have her omni-tool back so that she might be able to contact her crew. He wanted the info Tali had apparently found while on Eden Prime. She could only hope her crew made it off planet in one piece.
She quickly typed out a message to Tali on her omni-tool, informing her she was on the Citadel and still in custody. Sort of. Anderson still had guards following her around, claiming they were running a criminal back ground check on her. Joke was on him. The most she had been arrested for in the past were bar fights.
Once she finished typing out her message and hit send she turned, leaning against the railing. She had to admit, as she looked at the frigate before her, it was a pretty ship. Her cargo ship looked like junk in comparison.
Nicole sighed though as she recalled what Liara had said earlier. The beacon was a warning. Liara claimed to have seen machines killing people, hearing screams, perhaps that whatever the warning was went across the galaxy. But why warn the whole galaxy? It wouldn't make sense if the machines killing people were geth either. The geth weren't around during the prothean era. The quarians created the geth.
So were they machines the protheans created? Shepard frowned. Was this warning even relevant? But why would the geth even get involved on Eden Prime? And what were those... zombie like creatures? And that ship... It all had to be connected somehow, right? The answer had to be there somewhere, but it wasn't as obvious as Shepard had wished.
"So, why did you become a mercenary?" a sudden question interrupted Nicole from her thoughts. Shepard lazily looked over to the woman who had asked. Williams, she believed her name was. Or her last name anyway.
Shepard shrugged as she looked back at the Normandy. "Why did you become an Alliance soldier?" she deflected. Williams actually snorted at the question. Shepard perked a brow as she looked back to the woman who was tasked with watching her. To be honest Shepard did not want to tell her life story to some stranger.
Williams shook her head, but looked amused. "You know what? Fair enough." Williams then said in response. Shepard couldn't help but return the smile and shook her own head. Perhaps the way she deflected the question came off a little more harsh than she meant it to be.
Shepard turned around, leaning against the rail with her arms, looking around the single ship docking area. "Sorry, not trying to be an ass. Got a lot on my mind." Shepard then said.
Williams nodded some as she looked over, seeing Anderson walking out of the airlock, asari in tow. "It's alright. It was honestly getting awkward just standing around." Williams admitted. Shepard chuckled slightly as she shrugged.
"Any word from your crew, Shepard?" Anderson asked as he approached the two women. Shepard stood and turned to face Anderson. She activated her omni-tool but noticed no new messages.
She shrugged as she let her arm drop back at her side. "No." She said. Liara wrung her hands a bit, perhaps feeling worried for Shepard's crew. Shepard would admit she was a little worried too. But she also knew her ship was barely running and it usually kept Tali busy. "I'd say I'm worried... And I partly am, but my ship is old and falling apart." Shepard admitted to Anderson. "Tali is my engineer, it keeps her pretty busy when it's having a tantrum." Shepard added.
"I am sure they are alright, Shepard." Liara said, perhaps trying to comfort. Shepard. Nicole gave the asari a half smile. Anderson perked a brow as he watched the short exchange between the two. He still did not entirely trust Shepard. And he had the feeling these two knew each other better than Shepard just happened to be watching over the asari and her fellow scientists on a dig site.
Anderson spoke next, "We still need to see Ambassador Udina." He debated for half a moment. "He will want a quick brief before we see the council. Maybe you will hear something from your crew member by the time we get to his office." Anderson then said as he looked the three women over once. "The three of you come with me, we better get this over with." he then said before he turned and headed towards an elevator.
Liara quickly joined Shepard's side as they all began to follow the Captain. Liara looked to Shepard who continued to look concerned. The asari wanted to comfort the human, but she wasn't sure how. "We will get through this, Shepard." Liara said finally, only loud enough for the two of them to hear, as Ashley was not far behind them.
Shepard looked to Liara as she smiled appreciatively. "Thanks... And please.. At this point we've been through life and death together, call me Nicole." Shepard said back. Liara flushed slightly.
"Nicole..." Liara tested the name. She had to admit, it sort of felt good saying Shepard's first name. She had never heard any of Shepard's crew call her that before. She felt a bit honored being allowed the privilege to use the human's first name.
Shepard gave her a lopsided grin. Nicole would have to admit she kind of like hearing her first name coming from Liara.
VWVWV
"Bosh'tet ship!" Tali hollered as she frantically moved about the ship's engine room. After having loaded as many survivors as they could they tried to escape the planet. They took minor fire from a geth fighter as they fled for the mass relay.
Sparks flew from one of the consoles, no doubt as a result of the damage they took from the attacking ship. The ship was barely holding together as it were, now it took damage from an enemy ship and it was all she could to keep the ship from falling apart.
"Tali, we're almost to the Citadel, we just need a little more power." Kaidan's voice came over the intercom. Tali cursed again as she rushed to a console trying to reroute the systems to give the engines a little more stability.
Tali felt exhausted while trying to keep the ship running. The closer they got to the Citadel the more problems that arose. Multiple system warnings, consoles trying to catch fire, and she even had to get Garrus to help her out, it was too much for one person. "I'm doing the best I can. This ship is just too old to handle a firefight." she responded as she managed to reroute enough power to the stabilizers. "That's all I can do, it should be enough to get us there, but we are going to need some serious repairs and overhauls to this rusty junk." Tali then said, her annoyance obvious in her voice.
She could hear Kaidan chuckle over the intercom. "Don't let Shepard hear you call her ship junk, she might take offense." Kaidan joked before cutting the line.
Tali finally took a moment to stop and recollect herself as Garrus popped out from a maintenance shaft. "Remind me to never rewire a ship while it's in flight. I about lost a chunk of my face in there." he tried to joke, but the look on his face also said he was serious.
Tali leaned against a console, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't know, Vakarian. You might look pretty good with a facial scar." She quipped as he gave her a laugh, madibles flaring.
He then gave her a teasing look. "Are you flirting with me, Tali'Zorah?" he questioned, but she could tell he was joking with her.
She shrugged as she could hear the sound of beeping. Mistaking it for the console she turned to see what the issue was now. When she realized it was not the console, but her omni-tool she raised her arm, seeing a message from Shepard. "So what if I was?" She asked as Garrus laughed again, but was also a bit thrown off.
Tali then looked to Garrus. "It's Shepard!" She chirped, sounding both excited and relieved. "She's on the Citadel, still with the Alliance ship that took her and Liara." She said as she read over the message.
Garrus came over to Tali's side, reading the message as she showed it to him. "Well it's about time we heard from her." he said as Tali quickly went about typing back a message.
WVWVW
The group of four had already been on the lift for the Presidium Embassies when Shepard finally got a response from Tali. Her omni-tool chirped at her as everyone looked to her. She couldn't help but give them all a sheepish look as she checked her omni-tool. "It's Tali." Shepard finally said as Anderson's attention was now focused on Shepard.
Shepard read the rather lengthy message. Her ship had taken damage in their escape from Eden Prime and was barely holding together. Shepard sighed as she read through the damage report. She was going to need a new ship at this rate. "Well, what does it say?" Anderson finally asked.
Shepard regarded the man for a moment, deciding to scroll through the long message to get to the point of it. "They're close to the Citadel." Shepard finally said. "If your ambassador can wait I can have Tali meet with us at the embassies." Shepard said as she opened a reply box, but looked to the Captain, waiting to hear what he had to say.
Honestly, Shepard never thought she'd be working with the Alliance... But when Liara told her about the apparent warning from the beacon, and what had happened on Eden Prime... She wondered if there was weight to any of it. If this was a galactic concern then it concerned her too. Anderson finally nodded his head as a go ahead and Shepard typed out the message before sending it.
The wait took an hour. When Tali finally came trotting up and spotting Shepard. She practically tackled the human. "Keelah, Shepard I'm so glad you are alright!" She said as she squeezed the human with a tight hug. Shepard couldn't help but smile as she hugged the quarian back. Tali was something of a little sister to Nicole, so she was glad to see the quarian in one piece as well.
"I'm glad you're alright too." Shepard said as Tali released her before giving Liara the same treatment. Liara stiffened however, flushing slightly.
Tali squeezed the asari who tried to hug her back awkwardly. "And you too, Liara, we were all so worried." Tali went on as Shepard looked to Anderson, who looked back at her. She knew he knew that she didn't tell the whole truth back on the Normandy in that moment. She wondered how much trouble this would cause her. And Liara.
The asari and quarian released each other as Liara smiled at Tali. "I am glad you are alright too, Tali." Liara replied, none-the-wiser about the implications of this situation. Shepard just sighed some as she would figure out how to keep the damage minimum, if Anderson tried to get too involved anyway.
"The Ambassador is getting impatient." Anderson said as he turned, once more leading the way. He didn't seem too thrilled about seeing this ambassador and Shepard noticed this. She didn't know anything about this Udina, but she was never too fond of politicians. Always in it for themselves it seemed like.
Once they were in Udina's office, Shepard could see why Anderson didn't seem all too happy to be speaking with the man. He was pompous and arrogant. A combination Shepard did not care for. Liara stuck close to her side, as did Tali for that matter, the three of them feeling completely out of place in this meeting. "Well, let's hear this information." Udina said impatiently.
Tali looked to Shepard, who nodded. Tali brought up her omni-tool as she selected the file. "While we were on Eden Prime I managed to salvage this audio file from a geth's audio banks in it's memory core." she started.
Anderson looked at her curiously. "I thought that was impossible, that they fried their cores upon death." He responded. Tali nodded her head at him, as if agreeing.
"While that is true, my people created the geth. If you're careful some data might be salvaged from the core before it's completely fried." She explained. Anderson nodded in his understanding. "Since the geth haven't been seen outside of the Perseus Veil since my people went into exile I wanted to know what they were doing on a human controlled world. The only way to get that information was to separate a geth drone from it's unit." she went on.
She then pressed another button on her omni-tool. "This is what I recovered." She added as the audio file began to play.
A turian voice came through the audio recording. "We must retrieve the information from that prothean beacon." he said. "It may be the key to finding the conduit." He went on.
Anderson looked surprised. "That's Saren's voice!" He said, looking to Udina. Shepard, Tali and Liara exchanged looks with each other before Shepard looked to Anderson.
"Who the hell is Saren?" she questioned. Whoever he was, Anderson seemed shocked to hear his voice on the audio file. Udina, however, did not look pleased at all.
Anderson shook his head, as if he should have known better. Saren hated humanity, he knew this. And he knew now that was who killed Nihlus, the dead turian back on Eden Prime. "Saren is a Spectre, one of the council's top agents." He explained. He then looked to Shepard, his facial expression serious. "We had Nihlus with us on the mission to Eden Prime, another turian Spectre. One of the survivors on the colony claimed another turian had killed him." Anderson went on.
Tali interrupted before anyone else could go on. "That's not all of it..." She said as she hit the play button once more. Only this time a woman's voice came through. And Liara looked absolutely stricken, if not heart broken.
"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." the woman said. Liara's hand clutched her tunic as she looked at Shepard, the distress clearly written on her face.
Shepard quickly turned her full attention on Liara, unsure of what was going on. "What? What's wrong?" Shepard asked concerned as she looked Liara over, wondering if this was some side effect from the beacon.
Liara shook her head. "It... That was my mother. Matriarch Benezia." She barely managed. Liara had not heard from her mother in such a long time. But to think that her mother had anything to do with the senseless slaughter on Eden Prime... Her heart shattered at the very idea of it. Her mother was always so kind, so gentil... Spoke about how important peace was. To think she was partly responsible.. Liara could barely believe her ears.
She once more looked to Shepard, as if lost. The mention about these Reapers or this conduit didn't even register in her mind as it was so occupied thinking of how Benezia was involved with the deaths of innocent people. The mercenary could not stand that look on Liara's face. "Come here." She said quietly, her voice full of sadness for the asari as she pulled her into a tight embrace.
Shepard felt that maybe if she held Liara close enough, she could chase that pained look on her face and in her heart away. When Liara clutched onto the human it did nothing to settle Shepard's own feelings on the matter. She ignored the look she got from Anderson. "It'll be alright, we'll figure this out." Shepard tried to assure Liara instead.
"What are Reapers?" Ashley finally spoke up. She had been silent this whole time, Shepard almost forgot she was even there.
Anderson finally looked away from Liara and Shepard and to Ashley. "If Eden Prime is any indication... Trouble." He replied.
VWVWVWV
I wanted to thank my commentors from fanfiction dot net and AO3. I'm glad you are all enjoying this story. I cannot stress how impatient I was to get home from work to continue working on this story lol. I'm just so excited to be writing it right now.
Until next time =D
