Chapter 5: Tense Negotiation.
"Thank you." The subdued, somewhat synthetic sounding voice of the suited man caused Ryuuji to smile as he straightened out the plate next to the medical bed.
"No problem, Veetor," the boy said. "Lemme know if I got the spices better this time, Okay? It's kind of a pain when I can't taste test."
"It… was fine last time," the Quarian mumbled, his head darting sideways for a moment, glancing over the other beds. Ryuuji winced as he followed the glance. The blond kid was curled up under his blankets, asleep,but the brown haired one stared steadily back at them as they talked. He suddenly had a lot more sympathy for people who talked about 'creepy eyes,' having been on the other end of a set.
The tall boy tried his best to shrug off the feeling. "Hey, I can only get better with proper feedback, ya know." The alien in the bed didn't respond, only starting to adjust the fittings around his mask in preparation for his meal. Ryuuji turned away, trying a tentative wave at the other patient. "You sure you don't need anything?"
"I'm fine," the brown haired boy replied shortly.
"...Right." Raising his hand to trigger the door, the ship's recently appointed official chef re-entered the mess area, where a few of the other refugees were gathered around the table. His head jerked towards the kitchen as he heard a loud, repetitive CRACK sound. "Taiga…" he muttered to himself, as he observed the short girl hammering at a cutting board with a knife, some poor, unfortunate carrots caught in the middle. It was probably a good thing for all involved that the board was made of some space-age polymer rather than wood.
He sighed, walking over to her. "I can get the rest if you want to take a break," he offered.
"I'm fine," she grunted back, shoulders huddling up as she continued 'cutting.' She'd been getting more and more tense over the past couple of days, as had most of the rest of the crew. Unfortunately she tended to handle tension by punching something or someone. Usually him. Luckily, she was taking it out on the carrots instead, so in his eyes, it was an improvement.
"I'm pretty sure-" his statement was interrupted by the chime of the ship's intercom system.
"Attention everyone, this is your captain speaking," a drawling voice announced. "We're approaching the mass relay, and we'll be at the citadel in a few hours. Can all of the refugees please report to the landing bay so we can get some stuff out of the way before we arrive? Thank you."
"Finally," Taiga huffed. "I really want to get off of this tin can."
"Odds are we are just going from one tin can to another," Ryuuji noted, as he grabbed a container to store the 'chopped' carrots in. The smaller girl just side-eyed him threateningly as she slowly put down her knife. It was a moment later her leg blurred in an abortive movement, before she gritted her teeth and planted it firmly on the ground.
"Let's just go…"
HR.
"No, not you." Garrus rested a hand on Ranma's shoulder, turning him away from the lift as Kaidan brushed past them.
"Huh?" The pigtailed boy blinked at him.
"We're gunna have a little talk," the Turrian explained, "Follow me." Even without the ability to read his expressions, the tension in his tone was probably obvious, as the human teenager shifted nervously before following him down the corridor. A moment later, the door to Labrys' cargo bay slid open and the two stepped in.
The white haired synthetic blinked at them from where she was sitting on a box reading from a datapad, a flash-forged charging device sticking from the side of her upper arm. "Hey, you're back pretty fast," she said, glancing questioningly at Ranma.
The boy just shrugged back, before Garrus himself cleared his throat. "Alright, what the hell were you two thinking?"
"Uh… I've been thinkin' a lot of things,"' Labrys replied. "Wanna narrow it down?"
"Having Saotome show up at your examination and threaten to start smashing things, in an extremely sensitive part of the ship, if he saw anything funny going on." Strangely, while Ranma shifted nervously on the spot as he'd expected, Labrys looked shocked, and then angry.
"You said what?!" She yelled, the datapad clattering to the floor as she jumped to her feet.
The boy raised his hands defensively. "I had ta make sure they'd wake ya back up after they were done," he explained, hurriedly. "I mean, I dunno how to fix a shut down robot. It ain't like first-aid would've helped."
"From your surprise, I'm guessing you didn't actually ask him to do that?" Garrus questioned.
"No!" She denied hurriedly. "I… I asked him to be there just in case I went berserk again or something. I specifically didn't want to hurt anyone!" She said this last with a pointed look at the pigtailed martial artist.
"So the threat to kill us all was only your idea," Garrus drawled, turning to the martial artist. "I've been trying to convince Kaidan that you're dependable and reliable. You're not helping."
"Yeah," he admitted, some reluctance in his tone. "If I'd known what was down there, I'd probably have limited it to hurtin' them."
A barely audible groan came from the Turrian. "You shouldn't have done it at all!" He burst out. "Labrys' precaution actually made sense, but you-"
"She told me what you said," Ranma interrupted. "The whole galaxy's afraid of her for some reason because of those Getters or whatever, when she's got a lower body count in that base than you or Sagara!"
"The 'Geth' exiled the Quarians from their planet! They almost exterminated their creators!"
"And Labrys ain't a Geth!" Ranma shot back, the white haired girl glancing between the two of them as they spoke. "I ain't gunna lose anyone else because someone decides to be a paranoid asshole!"
"Okay," Labrys said suddenly, stepping between Garrus and the glaring Ranma. As she did, a strange feeling washed over him, as though a pressure Garrus had been unaware of suddenly eased up. "You guys both need to calm down. Especially you, Ranma. You looked like you were gonna punch Garrus into the wall."
"I…" Ranma took a slow, deep breath. "Yeah, sorry." When Labrys slowly backed out of the way, the strange pressure didn't return.
Garrus shook his head as if to clear it, before gathering his thoughts. "I… wanna say I get it," he admitted. "You defended a teammate, and if I had the information you do I'm not sure I wouldn't have done something similar. The problem is that we're in a bad situation here, and the Citadel Council is going to take some convincing to listen to us at all." By this point, he was pacing before the two younger people.
"So what, we just sacrifice Labrys if they want us to?" Ranma snapped.
"No, shut up and listen!" The Turrian barked. "If it comes down to it? Do what you have to do." Labrys actually blinked, looking between the two, but fortunately for Garrus' nerves, neither she nor Ranma spoke. "Like I told her," he continued in a level tone. "People are going to say a lot of things. They aren't going to treat her like she's alive, they might even treat her like a V.I. or something similar. But getting mad about that is just going to make things worse right now. You can only act when there's actual danger, or everyone who's not on this ship is going to think you're a lunatic. Or a cultist."
"Cultist?" Labrys asked, confused.
Garrus twitched. "Trust me… you don't want to know," he shook his head, trying to banish some old memories.
"Yeah, I get it," Ranma finally said, after a moment, running a hand down the side of his face sharply.
"And you might wanna apologize to the engineers," Labrys chipped in.
He tossed up his hands. "I said I get it!" He said defensively. "Garrus… if things actually go bad…"
The Turrian nodded. "I've got your back, as best that I can. But now, I've got to go try and spin this to Spectre Alenko." Turning, he headed for the door.
HR.
"Naru, are… are you sure this is necessary?" Keitaro Urashima asked, glancing over the shoulder of the brown haired woman as she poured over page upon page of documentation on a datapad.
"It's not happening again," Naru muttered irritably. "I'm going to have everything prepared ahead of time, this time…"
Keitaro winced. He was pretty sure she hadn't been this obsessive at any point at the Hinata inn. Different people coped in different ways, he guessed. "Shouldn't we go see what that announcement was about."
Naru sighed, putting the pad down on the crate that acted as a bedside table next to her cot. "Right, sorry." She removed her glasses, rubbing at her nose. "Yeah, let's go." It wasn't that long a walk, since what was laughingly called their 'living quarters' were already in the landing bay. As they approached the lift, Keitaro spotted a few of the other refugees nearby.
"Is… is she hiding in a crate?" He asked, blinking as one girl seemed to be trying to coax her friend out of said crate, a head of pink hair disappearing down into it before it closed with a clunk.
"Oh, come on Bocchi-chan, you need to come out." The response to that was a simple sharp rap on the lip of the crate, and the locking lights on the top turning from green to red. "Who taught you how to do that?! Won't you suffocate?!"
Different people coped in different ways… He was distracted from that thought as the lift door opened once more, and a tall dark haired man wearing a military uniform exited, glancing around. He muttered something, and tapped on one of those strange orange glove computers everyone seemed to use, before glancing around again.
"Hello, everyone." The man's voice came out magnified enough that it could be heard fairly easily throughout the landing bay. "My name's Kaidan Alenko, and I'm going to be helping deal with the Citadel Council and the Alliance on your behalf when we arrive." He shifted a bit, seeming slightly uncertain. "We want to try and arrange things in the best… so that it's easy for you to get on with your lives. Unfortunately, we can't bring all of you in to speak to the representatives, so I'd like a volunteer to do so on your behalf."
This caused a murmur to run through the crowd, and Keitaro looked around to see that most of the others were doing the same. He half expected Naru to try and volunteer, but she just shook her head and grumbled something about engines.
"I vote for Yomi!" A loud call came from one side of the room.
"Hey, don't volunteer people like that," another voice retorted, irritably.
"Well, our class rep's not here… and it was Chiyo anyway, so that probably wouldn't work out too well," the first explained.
"Look, there's a difference between starting a class and talking to some ambassador," a teal haired girl said, hands on hips. "I was a class rep and student council VP, and-"
"I vote Kaname!" The first loud voice called.
"Really sorry to say this," the brown haired girl who had been volunteered originally said, "But you did bust your way into a meeting with the ship's captain… and a staff meeting after that, so… I second the vote for Chidori-san."
The girl in question blinked, and then looked around the group in a panic. As her gaze passed over him, Keitaro recognized the 'someone get me out of this' expression on her face, but only shrugged, sheepishly. He was pretty sure an amateur archeologist was about as qualified as she was.
"Okay, so no one's got a problem with Chidori?" A short redhead in one corner of the room asked, glancing curiously at the man next to her.
"I… uh…" Kaname's shoulders slumped. "You know I didn't succeed in talking them out of the last crazy plan, right?"
"But you did talk to them," The first girl countered. "Which means that they are more likely to listen to you than any of the rest of us."
"That's…a surprisingly well thought out statement coming from you, Tomo" The second girl commented.
"Oh, thanks Yomi," Tomo said, and then paused. "Hey wait a minute…"
Mr. Alenko tried to hide a small smile. "Unless there's anyone else, I think you were just volunteered, Ms. Chidori."
Kaname groaned. "Sousuke's going to love this." She muttered to herself before she stood up straight and squared her shoulders. "All right, I'm in."
The dark haired man nodded. "Then I'd like to go over what's most likely going to happen, and then you can check with the others about how you want to handle it."
"Well Naru, at least it wasn't us." Keitaro sighed, sitting down on a nearby crate. After a few moments, he felt knocking from inside the crate. Leaping off, he turned around, bowing slightly. "Sorry," he whispered. He tried to ignore the giggling from the girl nearby as he awkwardly shuffled off.
HR.
For one of innumerable times, David Anderson wondered if he should have turned down the assignment. Paging through yet another report on a dispute between a Vollus trade consortium and a group of asteroid prospectors, the dark skinned man raised a hand and rubbed his eyes. He had not joined the military to play politics, though as an Admiral, he supposed the idea that he could avoid it was a pipe dream. Acting as a glorified secretary to a man he'd once punched rightfully in the face hadn't been on his agenda either. Looking up as he heard a chime from his console, he took the thin excuse for a distraction and put the datapad down, tapping the answer key. "Anderson here."
"Uh, sir…" the nervous looking young Salarian on the other end bore the insignia of C-sec traffic control. "We've got something strange here, and I… uh…"
"Calm down, son," the admiral said levelly. "Is there something happening with an Alliance ship?"
"Not… exactly?" The traffic controller said, before tapping a few buttons off-screen, the image splitting in half and showing a telemetry readout on an incoming ship. A very familiar looking ship. "SSV Normandy II?" Anderson asked, flatly.
"Yes sir," the C-sec man replied quickly. "It's actually astoundingly similar, right down to drive core emissions. Even at twice the size it's got a lot of the signs of a Tantalus core, and-"
Anderson raised a hand. "Yes, I see that. Have you contacted them?"
The Salarian caught himself, and nodded. "Spectre Alenko's onboard, sir."
"I'll speak with him," Anderson said. He glanced at the telemetry, noting that the ship was holding position a few kilometers off from the mass relay.
"Understood, sir," the traffic controller said, the universal relief of a junior officer who had had something way above their pay grade taken from his shoulders flashing across his face before the screen changed to the spinning Alliance logo.
'First mission and he's bringing back a clone of the Normandy,' Anderson winced. He just hoped this wouldn't end the same way Shepard's first assignment had. As he thought, the Alliance logo vanished to reveal a bridge that looked startlingly familiar, though he picked out the differences quickly enough. Oddly Kaidan wasn't the first person he noticed. That was the obviously nervous looking young girl sitting behind him, working at a console tentatively, and throwing the occasional concerned glance at his viewpoint.
"Admiral Anderson," Kaidan's voice was stressed, though also obviously relieved. At this point, the older man would have expected a quickly rattled off status report, but didn't get one.
"Spectre Alenko," He nodded. "What, exactly, is going on here?"
"That's… a long story," the Spectre responded, the tension laced under the words.
"Then I suggest you get started, soldier," Anderson ordered firmly.
"Right, yes sir!" Kaidan straightened. "There was an… incident… on Omega."
Anderson listened intently as Kaidan explained, occasionally being interrupted by an interjection from Joker. At the least, his concerns about the obviously untrained civilian behind them were answered quite quickly, only to be replaced by a gaggle of new, or suddenly much larger concerns.
He suppressed a small, unkind smirk as he thought of how Udina was going to handle this, and a much larger one as he wondered how the Council was going to deal with Udina. He may not like the man, for a myriad of understandable reasons, but he could admit that he could make a lot of noise when he wanted to.
"I'm going to need as much data on all of this as I can get," Anderson said, after the Spectre stopped talking. "I'll also want to speak to you privately as soon as possible. I'm giving your vessel clearance to dock at an Alliance reserved bay."
"Yes sir," Kaidan nodded.
"Oh, and one last thing," Anderson spoke, catching himself before he could close the channel. "SSV Normandy II? And it says here that it's registered to 'Pirate Captain Jeff Moreau.'"
Alenko threw an incredulous look to the man sitting in front of him. Joker, for his part, shrugged. "We needed new IFF identifiers when we flashed the system, and when the A-" He cut himself off suddenly, and then restarted. "When I was asked I was kinda stressed and went with the joke. Besides, Cerberus called the damned thing 'The Shepard'."
Anderson winced. "Understandable," he admitted. "Come up to the Embassy building as soon as you've docked."
He was about to close the channel when Kaidan spoke. "Sir, I've asked the refugees to choose a representative to speak to the authorities. Should I bring her as well?"
"Yes, that would probably be a good idea," Anderson nodded, before the screen went blank. As it cleared to his desktop, he groaned. A traitorous part of his brain came out with the thought that it might not be a great idea for humanity to have Spectres, if they were going to keep finding messes like these.
HR.
"Okay, that's over half a minute…" Kaname grumbled, as she watched the digital display on the side of the elevator car slowly crawl its way towards their floor. Her foot then began to tap the floor impatiently, slowly but surely building up tempo.
"Believe it or not, they used to be worse," Spectre Alenko offered. "Had some pretty interesting conversations on them, though."
"Don't know why you're so eager," Joker sighed. "I'm about to lose my ship, and I didn't even get a hat. Every pirate captain needs a good hat."
"This place is supposed to have some really big malls, right? You could buy a hat." Kaname wasn't given an answer to that, as the door finally slid open, and the three stepped out onto an open, airy pavilion, the rest of the Citadel visible all around them. She would be inclined to find the view awe-inspiring, if not for the fact that she'd gotten a real eyeful of it as the Arm Slave was offloaded from the ship by about twenty marines in battle armor who had been trying to be secretive.
The ones standing around the human embassy were doing the exact opposite, one marching up and saluting the Spectre. Glancing down at the datapad in her hands, the teenager tapped at it, checking her information one last time. The guard stopped and fell back into place beside the entrance, raising his omni-tool to trigger the door, and the three of them stepped into a spartanly decorated, neatly arranged room. A man in a blue uniform sitting at a desk nodded at them, and then smiled. "This was not what I expected when I signed your resignation, Mr. Moreau."
Joker shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. It was either that or do nothing about the upcoming threats, so I chose to be proactive"
The man winced, along with Spectre Alenko. It didn't take a lot of social awareness to spot the tension increasing markedly. "Right…" the man looked away from Joker, eyes falling on Kaname. "So, you're the civilian representative, miss…" he asked, standing and extending a hand.
"Kaname Chidori," she answered, taking it.
"David Anderson," he answered. "I'm sorry to ask you this, but I'm going to need to speak to Mr. Moreau and Spectre Alenko privately for a few moments."
'Hurry up and wait,' the girl found herself thinking, but did her best to keep her expression friendly. "Right, I'll wait outside, then?"
Anderson nodded and pushed a button, the door sliding open. As Kaname turned to leave, she saw Joker giving her an apprehensive glance but did her best to ignore it.
HR.
"So come on, lemme try it!" Yuuno winced, trying to ignore the annoying voice in his ear. He'd been released from sickbay only an hour earlier, and his attempt to write up his notes in a proper way rather than the… interesting… operating system the ship used was not going well.
"You're just sitting there, staring into a glowing ball in front of you, are you taunting me?"
The blond took a deep breath, absorbing the spell he was working with and glancing over at the black haired girl who was leaning so far into his personal space that he could feel a lock of her hair poking him in the nose. "Most people don't even have any substantial Linker Core," he began. "I don't know how long we're going to be here, and it took me years to learn what I know. On top of that, it's supposed to be secret and I only showed you to help save your life."
"So what's the problem?" She asked. "If I probably can't do it anyway, what's the harm in teaching me?"
"Other than the fact that I'd be wasting my time?" he muttered under his breath. He almost flinched after saying it. The vast majority of the time, he was much more polite, but the girl had gotten on his last nerve about ten minutes earlier.
"Other than that, yeah," She replied, shamelessly. "C'mon, I'm going out of my mind with boredom here, and Yomi's busy."
"And why is-" Yuuno cut himself off, and groaned. Reaching out for the datapad he'd been transcribing into magical storage, he transferred his notes to the ship's central server and started typing rapidly.
Tomo leaned in over his shoulder, and her eyes seemed to glaze a bit. "That… looks complicated."
"It is," he nodded. "A lot of people use devices to handle these bits, but I learned to do it without one, and we don't have one here so that's how you would have to learn it, too." With a flourish, he passed her the pad, the screen of which was full of instructions on meditation, mindset, and a set of several mathematical equations that looked like paragraphs in themselves.
"This is… a lotta math," the girl said faintly, paging through it. Yuuno just nodded slowly. "Could you… make one of those device things for me instead?" He wanted to laugh, but instead, he only shook his head, equally slowly.
Tomo remained silent for a few more moments, until Yuuno noticed tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. "Are… are you alright?" He asked, beginning to feel a little bad for how bluntly he'd shot her down.
"I'm… I'm fine…" She started. "I can't believe Yomi and Chiyo were right about math! But if I've gotta pass a math test to become a magical girl, then fine!"
"A… magical girl?" Yuuno asked, recalling someone else proclaiming something similar.
"I've got this, Yuuno-sensei!" Tomo proclaimed, backing away from the table, pad still in hand, before bowing so rapidly it probably hurt. Turning, she dashed out of the mess hall and into the hallway.
"Good… luck?" A tap on his shoulder got Yuuno to turn. "Yes?" He asked, curiously looking at the brown haired chef's assistant who was still holding a pan in her other hand.
"So is the magical girl training open to everyone?" She asked. Yuuno facepalmed in unison with the boy standing behind her. "What?" she asked, "Cleaning dishes all day is boring. Also, I'm out of dishes."
Yuuno winced. "I'm… kinda out of datapads." The girl sighed and slumped her shoulders before trudging back to the kitchenette.
"What would your magical girl name even be? Cure Tiger? Palmtop Princess Spinkick?" The chef offered with a slight smirk.
Yuuno decided to ignore the two when the girl whirled angrily at the chef, recasting his recording spell as he heard a loud yelp in the background.
"Wait, no biting!"
HR.
When Kaname re-entered the room, the tension was a lot thinner in general, though admiral Anderson looked a bit more worried. "Thank you for waiting," he said, looking over some of the screens at his desk. "I've been made aware of your situation, and I wanted to ask the thoughts of the refugees on the current situation before I start trying to make arrangements."
"Right," Kaname nodded, glancing down at her datapad even if the first thing she had to say was pretty damned easy to remember. "Most of us just want to get back to earth. Even if it's been so long, we just want to get our feet back on solid ground. Some are willing to keep helping if they're needed, though."
"They were a pretty massive help," Joker chipped in. "From what I hear Chidori here was a major reason the core didn't overload or shut down."
"I'm not on that list," She retorted hurriedly. "I just want to get back home."
"Understandable, and a fairly simple request," Anderson nodded. "There are a number of humanitarian groups who can assist. But the way you spoke, there are others?"
"Yeah," Kaname winced. "The ship's replacement Chef has asked if he and his friend can stay on."
"I am entirely in favor of this plan," Joker said hurriedly. "Kid might be a culinary genius."
"Noted…" Anderson said, shooting him an irritable look, before turning back to Kaname. "Did he say why?"
"He says he has no idea what Earth is like now, and he's got a steady job," she responded, a bit reluctantly. "He also said that cooking Quarian food was one of the biggest challenges he's ever had and he wonders what else he can learn."
"That's interesting," Anderson said with a small smile. "Not the worst reason I've heard for wanting to serve aboard a ship. Of course, he could also find that sort of work outside of the ship, but in the end crew decisions are entirely Mr. Alenko's to make."
"I'll… talk to him when we get back," the Spectre said, as Joker shot him a look Kaname couldn't figure out.
After a moment where no one spoke, she continued. "There are only two more, but they're… to put it bluntly, insane. Ranma Saotome and Labrys both say that they want to stay aboard so that they can help destroy Cerberus."
"What about the Collectors?" Alenko asked.
"No, they're definitely after Cerberus," Joker cut in. "So am I at this point, to be honest."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I've actually got less problems with Labrys than Saotome, on that score," Alenko noted.
"After the second time he's tried to blow up the ship… yeah," Joker admitted reluctantly.
"He only actually tried once," Kaname felt a bit obligated to defend the pigtailed boy. "And I think he'll calm down a bit when he's not being shot at for a few days."
Anderson looked between the three of them, puzzled. "I find it kind of strange that you're debating him when the other is a rogue AI."
"And you see, that's why I don't have a problem with the 'second time'." Kaname said, irritably. "The hypocrisy is driving me nuts. I mean, you use Arm Slaves, and Cerberus was all about building the Normandy with one when they needed-" She stopped when she saw that Anderson was staring at her intently.
"What did you say about Arm Slaves?" He asked, his tone demanding an answer.
Kaname got the distinct impression that she'd just stepped on a landmine. "They need an internal AI in order to move fluidly?" She began. "Especially since yours moved a lot like an M9, so… wait… that doesn't…" The world seemed to fall away as the images she'd seen on the bridge monitors during the Collector attack ran through her mind once more. "It was barely faster than an M9, and its precision was off too. Too much countermotion when the pilot moved the arm. With the technology you have it should-"
"Ms. Chidori?" Anderson asked, deliberately turning away from his monitor before tapping two buttons on his desk. The office's windows darkened dramatically, the holographic icon on the door turning bright red.
And now her other foot was on a second landmine, especially when the man leaned forward and hit her with the kind of stare that vaguely reminded her of an angry Commander Mardukas, times ten. "Mr. Moreau, Mr. Alenko, what you've just heard is top secret information, vital to the Systems Alliance's security. You will not speak of it to anyone without explicit authorization from myself or someone of similar clearance, am I understood?"
Both men snapped to attention, saluting crisply, the fact that Joker was doing so made the sinking feeling in Kaname's chest even worse. "I… probably shouldn't have said that."
"You think?" Joker asked, relaxing slightly and dropping his arm from his salute. "So I guess that whole thing with you being some sort of prodigy means you worked on Arm Slaves?"
Kaname played nervously with her hands. "I didn't really work on them, I just… knew some things about them, that's all."
Anderson glanced away, causing her to sag a little in relief as he read off of his computer's screen for a moment. "You knew some things about a model that had barely been deployed when you were abducted?"
She shifted a little. "Yes?"
The admiral sighed. "For the record, Ms. Chidori, the speculation you were moving towards is correct. Modern Arm Slaves do not use artificial intelligence. This does decrease their performance and reaction times, even with the best VIs we can develop, but is necessary given Citadel law. Unfortunately we weren't able to make this change until ten years ago during the Skyllian Blitz. Since the Arm Slave was the most effective ground weapon we had, we continued using them during that time in violation of council law. If it came out that we were using this black technology,' it could cause an immeasurable amount of damage to humanity diplomatically."
Kaname tried to restrain the flinch, she really did, but the phrase just popping up at random blindsided her, and it was obvious by Anderson's expression that he noticed.
"That might explain why the Illusive man wanted her," Joker suggested. "If he thought she was dangerous to humanity or something…"
"Possibly," Anderson nodded. "Mr. Moreau, Mr. Alenko, can I speak with Ms. Chidori alone for a moment?"
Both men nodded, heading towards the door, which unlocked for a moment to let them through. Kaname briefly entertained the mental image of Sousuke bursting through it to save her from her current predicament, until it closed and the symbol blinked red again.
"So, Black Technology," Anderson said without preamble after the door had slid shut. "And you were abducted in late 2006, roughly half-way through the Whisper Renaissance."
"The… you've got to be kidding me.." The teenager groaned, rubbing at her forehead. "So you know everything, then?"
"Very little, actually," the admiral admitted. "We know of a roughly thirty year period of massive technological development that gave us the Arm Slave, Palladium Reactors, the Exo-Atmospheric Vehicle and others. Technologies that it took almost a century to properly understand rather than merely duplicating. And judging by Cerberus' interest in you, and your reactions, you know a lot more."
Kaname snorted. "I wish." At a raised eyebrow, she continued reluctantly. "I didn't know anything was strange until… maybe a year ago? I… I mean, from my perspective, not-" Anderson just nodded, and she continued. "Sousuke showed up, trying poorly to pretend to be another student at my school, then I was being chased by some international terrorist organization because I was 'whispered.'"
Anderson actually smiled a bit. "That would be why you reacted so badly to the name?"
The girl only grunted, before reluctantly continuing. "From what I know, the Whispered get some knowledge dumped into our heads at random. It just sort of happens, and can get us ranting, like when I started criticizing your Arm Slave. We can also… talk to other Whispered… sort of? But that's supposed to be dangerous, because you can lose yourself to the other person's mind. Yeah, I know that sounds nuts."
"I've heard some similar things," The admiral nodded, encouraging her to continue.
"That's about all I know," She finished. "There was some technology that could do the telepathy thing too, I piloted a submarine solo once, but I wasn't actually told much."
"So, just to get this straight, the 'Whispered' are the people that received these technological insights?" The man asked simply.
"Wait...I thought you obviously knew since it's called the 'Whisper Renaissance'?"
Anderson thought for a moment. "I'm beginning to think somebody did, and didn't want us to."
"There were a couple of mercenary groups going to war over it back then," Kaname offered, wincing. She really hoped that the Danaan and her crew got through that alright.
"This… complicates things," the admiral admitted, one hand moving to tap on his keyboard. "Ms. Chidori, I assume that before your… whispered impulses got you ranting about classified technology, you were planning on concealing your nature and returning to Earth with the rest of the civilians," he said, slowly, and Kaname's stomach dropped.
'Were planning?' she thought, one fist clenching at her side. Before she could continue, the admiral spoke again.
"The Systems Alliance has been reluctant to admit this, but Cerberus is damned good, and has collaborators in uncomfortable places," Anderson said levelly, a complex expression crossing his face that she couldn't figure out. "If you re-enter the general population of earth, or any of our colonies, I would give them a month to track you down if they know of your abilities. Which, since they separated you from the others when they were trying to process you, they likely do."
The teel haired girl's fist went slack. While a large part of her was busy freaking out about being ripped away from all she'd held dear, the rest had pointed out that at least Amalgam couldn't be chasing her anymore. In a way, she was in an even worse position, because while Sousuke would certainly try to protect her, he no longer had Mithril's resources, while Cerberus had spaceships.
"So what, this alliance is going to arrest me?" She asked, her anger tinged with not a small amount of resignation.
"I can see why you think of it that way, but your accommodations would be as comfortable as we can make them. Likely on a high-security Alliance research facility." As her face darkened, he continued, "You wouldn't be required to contribute, and no experiments would be run on you."
Kaname snorted. "So just sit in a box and be kept away from the bad guys. At that point, I'd almost rather stay on the ship and take my chances with Saotome and Labrys." She had intended it as a joke, but as she spoke, Anderson twitched. He then did his level best to pretend the twitch hadn't happened, but her eyes narrowed.
"Ms. Chidori?" Anderson asked, as she rapidly looked down to the datapad she'd still been holding in her off-hand, tapping in a query she'd already made once as quickly as she could.
"Authority only limited by the Council…" she muttered, and then looked up. "I could stay on the ship," she started slowly, "If the Spectre let me."
"You could," Anderson admitted, slowly. "But setting aside how difficult it may be to convince Spectre Alenko of that, would being stuck on his ship be an improvement?"
The highschooler pulled together all of the resolve she could muster. "If I've got no chance of going home, then I'm with the chef, it's better the devil you know."
"Fair enough," Anderson nodded. "While I must officially inform you that I don't recommend this course of action, as you are not currently a citizen of the Systems Alliance, I'm unable to do anything about it until and unless you submit yourself officially to Alliance Immigration. Or Cerberus makes a move against you."
Kaname did her best not to smile. Dealing with Sousuke, and especially Commander Mardukas, provided the translation from military to normal person as 'Go for it."
"I guess that means we've got nothing else to talk about?" She asked tentatively, and the admiral nodded slowly.
"If you've got that list of refugees on that pad, I'll relay it to the right people," he offered. She took a moment to close the codex program, and handed it over, glancing towards the door. The admiral tapped a control on his desk, and the anti-eavesdropping measures that cast the room in shadow faded away, followed by the door's lock flicking from red to green.
The older man stood from his desk, extending a hand. "Good luck, Ms. Chidori," He said as she shook it. "And if you need help from the Alliance again, don't hesitate to contact me."
"Thank you, sir," Kaname returned as she released his hand.
Joker and Spectre Alenko looked up from where they had been quietly talking at the side of the corridor when the office door slid open. "That took you a while," the man leaning on a set of crutches commented.
"Yeah," the girl shrugged him off. "Spectre Alenko, we need to talk."
HR.
A sense of unease built slowly in Ranma's chest as he stood in yet another line with a decent portion of the Normandy's crew, waiting to talk to a receptionist in the middle of a high-tech facility. The sense of Deja Vu was almost overwhelming, only helped slightly by the fact that he could see other groups on nearby docks going through the same process.
A tickling sensation ran across the back of his neck, and he turned rapidly, glancing off to one side of the hall for a moment and narrowing his eyes. "Hey, careful there, buddy!" An annoyed girl's voice butted in on him.
"Huh?" He glanced up, spotting the excitable black haired girl he'd seen running around the ship a few times scrabbling to pick a pad up off of the floor.
"Tomo, you ran into him," Another girl with glasses grumbled. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to pay less attention to what you're reading. What is that, anyway?"
"Nothin'!" Tomo said hurriedly, clutching the pad to her chest.
"You guys go ahead," Ranma said absently, brushing past them back down the line. When he spotted Sousuke, having a low conversation with Kaname as she pushed him in his temporary wheelchair, he noted that the other boy was also tense, but by the time he'd gotten to the end of the line, the prickling feeling had faded to almost undetectability.
"Something wrong, kid?" He slid into a stance as he whipped around, one arm raised to deflect a blow even as he drew the other back. "Hey! Hey! Friendly fire!" Garrus said hurriedly.
"Oh, uh…" The martial artist fell out of stance, groaning. "Sorry. I think Labrys was right about me bein' too tense. Feels like someone's watchin' me."
"It's C-sec customs, there are about twenty people watching you," The Turrian said dryly. 'But yeah, you need some time to loosen up. Fortunately, the paperwork for everyone is going to take a week or two to sort out, so you've got it."
"Not sure what I'm gunna do with it," the pigtailed teen muttered, taking a deliberate, slow look around the spaceport around him. "This place is…" He trailed off, a little lost for words as he gestured upwards at the looming shadow of the Citadel's other arms.
"This place isn't as overwhelming as it seems when you first get here," Garrus spread his hands in his equivalent of a shrug. "Could show you a few of my old stomping grounds, if you want."
"Yeah, maybe…" Ranma said, only half paying attention as the tickling sensation crawled down his neck again. He slowly shifted sideways, glancing around, but spotting nothing. "Could be fun," he finished, rolling his shoulders a little.
HR.
Kaidan Alenko groaned as he looked over the next document in his queue. "That bad, huh?" Joker's voice came from his open comm to the bridge.
"I just received Chidori's official permission request to stay aboard," the Spectre responded.
The helmsman chuckled. "You knew it was coming. She make that bad of an impression on you?"
"That's the third civilian who's asked to stay on so far," he countered. "And you're going to argue for this one too, aren't you?"
"Well…" Joker drew out the word. "Not directly? But Garrus would kill me if I didn't mention how combat effective Sagara is."
"And Sagara goes where she does," Kaidan muttered.
"I would point out another factor," The cool, female voice made the dark haired man twitch as the ship's AI Avatar's smooth blue form popped from the projector in the corner of the room.
"Not sure bringing this one up right now's a great idea, A.I.," Joker said, the wince audible in his voice.
"It is a fairly important factor," the A.I. in question countered.
"Well then let me hear it so I can figure that out," Kaidan grumbled irritably.
"Chidori herself is… anomalous," The A.I. answered, a series of log entries and observation records popping up on Kaidan's terminal screen. "I noticed that her calculation abilities surpassed human norms when she was assisting with manual control of the engines' mass effect field balancers. At that time, I altered some of the data she was receiving and provided her with several extra tasks that should have been impossible for a human to complete in the timeframes given without machine assistance. She accomplished each task with time to spare, and showed a startling understanding of Mass Effect field theory when she did so, intuiting at least one method that is more efficient than the standard."
"Wait wait wait," Joker interrupted rapidly. "You never told me you were running her through intelligence tests while she was keepin' my ship flying straight, you just said she did math faster than most people."
"You didn't ask for detail," the A.I. responded, almost primly.
"You see what I've gotta deal with?"
Kaidan interrupted before Joker could go further. "Why the hell did you feel the need to test a random teenager's intelligence?" He demanded, glaring at the Avatar.
"It was after Cerberus had attempted to capture her, and I had obtained a substantial amount of their available data," the A.I. explained. "She was tagged as a very high priority. Higher, in fact, than the Anti-Shadow weapons technology and a human subject with obviously abnormal abilities."
"Which… is why her file notes that she wants protection," the Spectre said in a defeated tone. "The ship's the only place she trusts so she wants to stay here, just like Takasu."
Joker chuckled. "Well, I'd talk about puppies following you home, but it was mostly Garrus' fault." He paused for a moment, and then spoke more tentatively. "The guy's definitely trying his best to emulate Shepard. Well, the wilder side anyway."
Kaidan shifted uncomfortably, and in the end only grunted. "You okay there?" Joker asked, trying to fill the silence.
"Yeah." The Spectre filed Kaname Chidori's request for later, and tried to pull up the next, before wincing. "Threat Report: Anti-Shadow Supression weapon - Unit #031 - Labrys."
"I've got to go take care of something," he said after a moment.
"Sure, talk to you later," Joker answered, a little uncertain, before the comm line closed. Kaiden closed his terminal down before standing, heading purposefully from the unnamed Cerberus ship's executive officer's cabin and into the galley.
"Spectre Alenko," Ryuuji called from the kitchen, nodding at him. Kaidan waved back absently, nodding to doctor Chakwas as he headed through sickbay, and entered the large, dimly lit confines of the A.I. core behind it.
"Wow, that's…" As he entered, he heard a girl's voice raised in excited wonder.
"Yeah, it was pretty intense from out here too," a male voice returned, and he caught sight of the synthetic sitting at a chair next to the core itself, a holographic screen floating before it showing a view of one of the citadel's skybridges. "Sorry I can't show ya much more, but we're sorta stuck in this apartment block for the day."
"That's fine," The synthetic returned. "There's one little problem, though. Is it supposed to be in black and white?"
"...shit." The boy's voice sounded sheepish. "I'll.. uh… have'ta ask Garrus about it. I promise it'll be fixed by tomorrow, alright?"
The synthetic smiled. "Don't worry about it, it looks fine the way it is. Kinda documentary, right?"
There was a chuckle from the other side, and the image spun to reveal a grinning Ranma Saotome. "I gotta work on the papers they slapped me with, but I'll be back later."
"Talk to you later," The synthetic agreed, and the comm screen disappeared.
"Was I interrupting your date?" Kaidan asked, leaning against the wall next to the door and crossing his arms.
"My…" The synthetic froze for a moment, and then raised its hands. "No, that…. That wasn't… was it?" She then started looking worried, eyes flicking between him and the blank screen before her hands rose to cover her face. "That wasn't what it was… right?" She squeaked.
Kaidan reeled. That reaction was… unexpected, and he wasn't sure how to react to it. His first instinct was to reassure her, until he reminded himself that he was dealing with some sort of custom-built synthetic weapons system. Which lead to the next question. To his horror, he found himself speaking it aloud incredulously. "Who the hell programs a mech to react like that?!"
The synthetic's flustered expression suddenly faded, replaced with a frown. "Of course," she muttered, sourly. "So you're here to talk to me about that too? Ain't bad enough I'm not allowed-" She cut herself off with what looked like a great deal of effort, and then began again. "Anti-shadow weapons need ta use Personas, which work off of human will. If our emotions weren't as human as possible, it wouldn't've worked." A dark expression flitted over her face, before she shook her head. "We need ta know how fucked up it is that we're weapons in order to be good weapons at all."
"I…." Kaidan paused, unsure how to react.
"Would you like to try the other boot, Spectre Alenko?" The synth snorted as the ship's A.I.'s voice came from a speaker on the wall.
"No, I… I think I'm fine," the man said in a strained voice.
"Look, I'm s-"
Kaidan interrupted the girl before she got the third word out. "No, don't apologize," he said, quickly, and as she looked at him, confused, he shrugged uncomfortably. "I was out of line." Taking a deep breath, he straightened up. "Guess you're getting pretty tired of this, huh?"
"Understatement of the century," The synthetic sighed, slouching more in her chair. "It's just…exhausting. I mean, it's kinda weird. I just… woke up before, y'know? But Mitsuru and the others wanted to help me, and I thought it wouldn't be so bad. Then… I'm suddenly fighting Batarians, and I've found out that A.I. genicided a planet. I get that it's kinda unreasonable to ask everyone to get over it, but-."
Kaidan raised a hand, reluctantly, and Labrys came to an uncertain halt. "I've got a question to ask you," he began, leaning forward. "You want to stay on this ship and fight Cerberus. Apparently you were very specific about that point. Why?"
Labrys snorted. "You kiddin'?" She asked. "Watch someone string up and tear apart a couple dozen of yer sisters and see how pissed at them it gets you. Plus, I mean…" She gestured around helplessly. "Where else would I even go at this point?" Her voice cracked at the end of the question. "It's not like you guys'll let me just go live on Earth like a normal person. My options are either to be of use or be killed."
"No, that's-" The kneejerk protest burst from the Spectre's mouth before he could stop it, but then he sighed. "That is how it is, from your perspective, isn't it?" He asked bleakly. The room fell into an uncomfortable silence for a moment, and the taller man noted absently that Labrys fidgeted with her hands.
"There's boarding requests on my desk that run from someone claiming to be an actual wizard, with proof, to some unstable martial artist who threatened the ship's engineers two days ago," he started after a moment. "Turning you away after that would seem kind of pointless. I will be restricting you from the CIC and armory without escort, and yes, that's because you're an unknown A.I.. But if it's any consolation, your terrorist boyfriend's going to have the same restrictions."
"He's not my… I mean… terrorist?!" the girl asked, indignantly.
Kaidan shrugged and then smiled crookedly. "If you've got a better name for it, lemme know."
"I think I have a problem with that whole statement," the white haired girl snapped, crossing her arms in a huff..
"Sorry, but I need to get back to work," the Spectre returned, waving and turning to leave the A.I. core.
After the door slid closed behind him, Labrys looked around and spoke plaintively. "Was he messin' with me?"
"I believe so," E.D.I. contributed. "Which is probably a good sign."
"If ya say so," Labrys replied dubiously.
HR.
Donnel Udina snorted as he finished reading the newly arrived letter from councilor Tevos, sipping from his glass of scotch. 'Horrible transgression… get to the bottom of…' "Bah… Bunch of equivocating nonsense," he muttered, sourly. He was confident that the Asari would come down on his side, as Sparatus had, enthusiastically, half an hour earlier, but he'd found that Asari could never just say 'yes' when a five paragraph essay and a day of deep consideration would do.
Valern was a slightly difficult matter. The Salarian was a bit unpredictable in most situations, but he would be fine with a 75% majority. Whoever had abducted so many humans was going to be on the wrong end of an Alliance marine detachment within the year if he had anything to say about it.
His console beeped again, and it took him a moment to realize that it was an active comms request from Valern, rather than a message. Hurriedly, he shuffled his scotch behind a small pen case beside his terminal and pressed the accept button. When the other councilor's face appeared on the screen, Udina was slightly taken aback. While it was often difficult to read Salarian facial expressions, over a year of working closely told him that the other looked unsettled and stressed.
"Councilor Valern," he said, pasting on his usual political smile. "It's good to see you."
"You as well, councilor Udina." The Salarian's eyes twitched, glancing rapidly around the image of Udina's own office on his screen. Yes, definitely rattled, the human thought. He was usually much better at hiding his tells. "I felt it necessary to contact you directly about the message you just sent. It's-"
Udina interrupted him, banking on the seriousness of the situation and the other councilors' opinion that he was a bit blunt to carry him through. "The STG knows something," he half-accused, and half-demanded.
Valern seemed to flinch in on himself. "It's… a bit more severe than that," he admitted. "We know who abducted those human civilians, because it was a Salarian scouting team."
"It was what?" Udina's previously feigned annoyance had abruptly been replaced by real, cold fury. "What the hell are you playing at?"
The man on the screen before him clasped his hands in front of his chest, and paused for a moment before speaking. "Due to the enactment of the law forbidding the activation of unknown mass relays, the Union occasionally launches long-term expeditions to assess the state of the system on the other side of one. The crew travels in stasis, scans the system, and comes back with a report, and in the past, samples, so that we can see if the relay can be activated. The Charon relay was designated for one of these trips several hundred years ago, but we assumed the expedition was lost."
"And the bastards took human samples," Udina grated. "And sold them to Batarian slavers?!"
"...yes." The word came from the Salarian's mouth as though it were being dragged out by a rusty hook. "It would have been… an embarrassment, either way, and we would have, of course, made reparations, but the vessel's captain panicked when he found out that humanity had gained a seat on the council." His tone practically dripped acid on the word 'captain.' "He admitted to what he'd done under STG interrogation only three days ago, and I only got the report this morning."
Udina slowly leaned back in his chair, biting back the first, second, and fifteenth thing he'd wanted to say as both too vulgar and counterproductive."I assume the Systems Alliance isn't going to get the bastard," he finally deadpanned.
"No," the Salarian councilor said very, very flatly. "Normally, this would go before a council tribunal and proper diplomatic sanctions and reparations would be made, however-"
"I'm not willing to let you people off just because you claim this captain went rogue," Udina interrupted hotly.
"We're not asking for that," the Salarian shook his head. "Besides, I'm certain that this investigation is going to go ahead, given the current disposition of the council. However, I have been authorized by the supreme Dalatrass to… deal more directly with you, in order to keep our involvement from becoming publicly known."
Udina sighed. Backroom deals. He almost wanted to laugh at the tiny part of his mind left over from his young, naive and stupid days that was actually offended by the suggestion. He pondered for a moment, and brought up the report Anderson had submitted only hours earlier next to the Salarian's image. "Spectre Alenko's heading into the Terminus Systems to investigate another lead pertinent to the Alliance's interests," he began. "We could instruct him to track down the traffickers at the same time. Maybe beat some Batarian bushes."
"I…" The other councilor seemed to pause for a moment, and then nodded, some tension draining from his posture. "That seems like a wise course of action," he eventually agreed.
Udina smiled. That had been surprisingly easy. Sparatus would also be keen on securing colonies from attack, so Alenko's mission was virtually certain to be uninterrupted. "Now," he continued, "How about we have a little talk about some of those mineral trading tariffs you've been pushing?"
The Salarian's eyes widened, and then narrowed, and Udina almost imagined he was grinding his teeth. This afternoon had started off terribly, but he was now certain that it was going to get better.
HR.
"Mr. Hibiki!" Ryoga blinked, shaking his head from his daze and looking up from the spot on the wall he had been intently focused on. "Mr. Hibiki, you can stop now." The nurse's tone seemed a little strained, and Ryoga looked back at him, stepping carefully off of the treadmill as the heavy weight seemed to release him from its grasp.
"So, we're done?" He asked, rolling his shoulders, where the weighted pack sat like an old friend.
"Yes!" The man cleared his throat. "Yes, I think we're done, we got the readings we wanted."
"Oh, that's good, it was pretty good training actually," Ryoga said with a smile, cleaning his face with a towel that was sitting next to the treadmill. "Think I could try it again later?"
"We do have a gym with similar facilities," the nurse offered.
"Oh, yeah," Ryoga laughed nervously. He'd been fairly reluctant to explore the Cerberus facility, for obvious reasons. "For now, I guess I should go back to my room?"
"Well, you're free to go anywhere in the unrestricted part of the facility." The other paused for a moment. "Would you like me to lead you somewhere?"
"No, that's fine." Ryoga shrugged the pack off of his shoulders and placed it gently on a table. "I think I can get back." He turned and headed for the door, and then after a moment, returned from the office he'd entered and stepped into the actual hallway.
A moment later, he spotted a flash of red hair, and froze. Turning, he was half-way through saying something when he realized that the shade of red was off, much darker than he was used to. The girl he'd whirled to face stepped back, bumping against a wall and gaping at him. "What… what the hell are you?" She demanded, harshly.
"Uh… Ryoga Hibiki?" He offered, bowing slightly.
"Not… what I meant," the girl shook her head. Just like everyone else in this place, she was wearing the same orange black and white jumpsuit branded with the 'Cerberus' logo. "You were walking with a 500 KG pack under 5 Gs."
"That's… a lot I guess?" The lost boy tilted his head.
The girl barked a laugh, and then looked surprised. "Yeah, that's a lot. Even an Alliance marine with full mods in a combat hardsuit couldn't do that."
"I travel a lot, carry my own supplies," the fanged boy fiddled with his brand new yellow and black bandanna. The pattern was a little different, but he liked the familiar weight. "I did a lot of strength training too."
The girl leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "You wanna sign me up with whoever trained you?"
Ryoga frowned, and his relaxed mood dipped slightly. "I'm pretty sure elder Cologne's not around anymore."
"Elder…" The girl seemed to make an effort to shake off the comment. "Never mind. So you said you're Ryoga Hibiki? What're you doing here? I haven't seen you around."
"Cerberus rescued me and some friends from some slavers." The sentence felt strange even as he spoke it. "They said they've never seen my abilities before, so I'm going through a few tests while I decide what to do."
"You going to join up?" The girl asked, leaning a little to one side.
"Haven't really decided yet," Ryoga admitted.
"Well, it is a good cause, protecting humanity and everything, even if people here can be a little intense." The girl straightened up. "I'm going through my basic training right now. Don't suppose I could get you to teach me to get some of that strength of yours?"
"I'm… not really sure," Ryoga thought for a moment. "Can we get boulders on a space station?"
The girl's eyes widened. "Boulders?"
"Nah…. that might be a bad idea… maybe rhythmic gymnastics?" Ryoga muttered, looking the girl up and down and causing her to shift uncomfortably. "By the way, you know my name, but I don't know yours."
Her uncomfortable shifting got worse, and she looked a little to the side. "People around here call me Shepard," she replied, a bit quietly.
"So what do you call yourself?" He asked.
"Shepard's fine." The two stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment, before she abruptly spoke again. "I… I should go." Turning, she hurried down the hall, Ryoga looking after her, confused.
"...Crap, I think I also need to go that way."
END.
Author's Note: We would like to formally apologize for the beating of the Illegal AI Horse, but it is unfortunately a consequence of the setting and the characters we have chosen. We love Labrys, but she understandably scares a lot of people.