Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: Thank you or your review responses for chapter nine. I appreciate all of them, though I can only really reply where the option is given.
Episode 10: Sensor Ghosts [Part I]
The holo-projector turned off and its buzzing died, but a whole other sort of buzzing was still ringing in Shepard's ears. She stood there for a good five seconds before finally snapping out and into gear. "EDI, notify the leave rotation, I want them back on the Normandy immediately. We have an emergency."
"Right away, Commander." The AI replied.
Shepard returned to the OD. If she remembered her leave rotations correctly, then her marines were already aboard, but there were five crewmates, Lieutenant Adams, and Dr. Chakwas to wait for. Her mind was crunching the numbers, should she tell Joker to start calling for clearances now, because that would take at least an hour, or wait until the crew returned to use Nihlus' expedited process? She decided that it best to use the Spectre clearances.
"EDI could you also notify me when everyone returns?"
"It is on my task schedule, Commander. I assumed you would wish to be notified," the AI replied.
"Good, thank you EDI." Shepard sat at her terminal. With as much as an hour to wait, depending on where her errant crewmates scattered across the Citadel, she had a little bit of time to review the contents of the data package Admiral Hackett sent with the call. Today was just not letting up at all, was it?
She keyed in her security pass, the package was right on top, courtesy EDI, and it included the coordinates, which Shepard sent to the bridge for Joker. If he was at his post, and given his love for the full-body support of his leather chair it was likely that he was, the arrival of the coordinates would tell him they had orders. Beyond that there was some background information.
Their destination was the Daeva Cluster, Andra System, planet Daiwi. An icy ball of rock about the size of Earth, situated at 1.35 AU from its sun, with a balmy surface temperature around zero degrees Celsius, though its weather was probably colder. Other attractions included atmospheric pressure at 1.2 atm at a comfortable 0.95g, and a predominantly hydrogen-nitrogen atmosphere with traces of oxygen. The best part was the weak magnetic field. It was going to be a helmet-on, heater-blasting, hope-you-don't-develop-a-breach job.
Half an hour later Shepard stepped out of the OD to make her way to the bridge. EDI had just notified her that the last crewmate was back and she nodded to him as she passed the airlock just aft of the bridge.
"Hey, Commander." Joker greeted as soon as she passed the final bulkhead. "We're finally leaving?"
"Like bats out of hell," Shepard replied.
Joker straightened in his seat and reached for his consoles. "Alright."
Shepard felt the Normandy give a little shudder as the ship awoke from her week-long power nap. "What's our ETA to Daiwi?" she asked.
Joker hummed as he made calculations. "Andra is not a relay system, the closest is Akoman. As it is we'll have to make two jumps, and after those a relaxing twenty-four hours in FTL."
"Great. Alright, once we're in the Akoman system, top up the fuel before we hit FTL, I don't want fume runs." This was definitely out of the way for them. Twenty-four hours in FTL was hardly the speediest emergency response.
"Will do," Joker replied as the red warning lights began to flash outside the viewports. "Shuttle bay ramp raised and secured. Airlock secured. Clearance signal given, gangway retraction sequence initiated."
She had looked, but she was no pilot, so the exact confirmation of ETA was up to Joker. Still, she knew using the FTL drive meant running through their fuel. Most systems with a relay had about enough traffic to warrant at least a small automated fuel station. Widow had a cluster of them, and could serve multiple ships at the same time. The urgency of the orders forced her to roll the dice. It would probably be faster to use the depot at the Akoman terminus rather than wait in line behind who-knows-how-many interstellar passenger and cargo transports on the Widow side.
Shepard heard familiar footsteps and smiled, she figured the little shudder that passed through the ship as it awoke would be enough for Nihlus, and he did not disappoint.
"What happened, Shepard?" He asked as he entered ear-shot.
"I got emergency orders from Admiral Hackett." She replied stepping away from the pilot's seat as Joker began to call for departure clearances. "EDI, could you please request the away team, including Garrus, to gather in the OD please?"
"Right away, Commander." The AI replied.
"Do you wish to use my departure clearances?" Nihlus said.
"Nihlus, I know this is not a Spectre job, but can I impose on you?"
"Alright."
"I'll be with the away team, please come once we're clear of the docking clamps. Oh and EDI, Joker, I want you two listening in on this as well." Shepard instructed.
"Will do,"
"Of course, Commander."
"Aye, aye, ma'am."
Shepard turned and made her way back to the OD. She saw the elevator open on the other side of the CIC. Ashley, Kaidan, Richard, and Garrus made their way to the OD as a single group. She entered the OD shortly after them. The four were hovering about the couch, though no one actually sat. She perched herself under the viewport just in time to see the Normandy start to drift backwards as they were released from the docking clamps.
"Is something wrong, skipper?" Ashley asked.
"Let's wait a moment for Nihlus. I rather not backtrack." She glanced over to Garrus, he was still in his casuals, either not done with the armor tweaks, or did not have the time to put it on.
The OD's door opened seconds later as Nihlus strode into the room. She heard a scratch over the intercom, indicating that Joker was listening in, though EDI did not announce herself. "We're all gathered. Make yourselves at home," she motioned to the couch.
The marines sat a polite distance away, but the turians remained standing. Garrus was positively at attention. Shepard cleared her throat, "Admiral Hackett issued emergency deployment orders. We are heading into Alliance space, Daiwi in the Andra system of the Daeva cluster. There's a fringe mining operation on the planet and their weekly supply ship recorded anomalous readings during its regular visit yesterday. By all accounts the data suggests a ship on the planet's surface or low over it, yet it had no transponder, and attempts to make contact failed."
"Sensor ghosts, skipper?" Ashley asked, surprised.
"Possible. Hell, I hope it is sensor ghosts. But… there is some room for concern. This is a small eezo mining operation. By small I mean forty men, limited equipment, with most work done in somewhat old-fashioned ways. The planet has Prothean ruins, which the operation uses as habitation space."
"They think the anomaly could be geth." Nihlus said suddenly.
"In so many words, yes."
"Why automatically assume it is the Geth?" Garrus asked.
"Everyone is on edge after Eden Prime. Prothean ruins, strange readings, possibly ships with no transponders. The only reason anyone goes there is the eezo. The planet is barely above class one hazard level. It is cold, has an un-breathable atmosphere, and a relatively weak magnetic field. The nitrogen in the air is prone to ionization, so weird readings have been known to happen. Furthermore, the company's supply ship is old; its sensors do not have the resolution to conduct thorough scans. We got orders to investigate."
"Commander, is this mining operation under contract with the Alliance?" Kaidan wondered.
"Yes."
"I see."
"What does it matter if they are under contract?" Jenkins asked.
"It means this is a dirty job," Kaidan explained. "Didn't you wonder why they asked the Alliance? The Alliance hired this crew; the eezo they're mining is to go into the cores of Alliance ships. Pocket mining like this is done by small private firms under a tonnage contract, in places where the deposits are too small for the bigger companies to bother. The advantage of it is that the buyer can pay slightly sub-market prices per ton, and it is up to the company to keep solvent."
Jenkins visibly deflated when he wrapped his mind around that.
Shepard sighed, "Yes, this is a dirty job. Yes, the Alliance has vested interests. We get it because if these are not just sensor ghosts, then it might actually be geth, a vested interest of our own. Still, we are dealing with forty miners who might be in more danger than they bargained for when they signed an agreement to work there. They are still our people, and we owe them a serious investigation into what's going on." She knew this was not a glamour job, but it was not the proverbial latrine duty assignment either.
"You're right, Commander." Ashley looked to the floor.
"Shepard, I expect you have a plan." Nihlus said after a good ten seconds of silence.
"The makings of one," she replied. "First though, I want to decide our team. And before that I feel like I should say this. Nihlus, Garrus, this is a human matter. If either of you wishes to stay out of this-"
"It might be a human matter, but if it is geth..." Nihlus interrupted. "You remember what I said? I will lend you a shotgun."
"If they get into shotgun range… I have no intention of letting any geth come that close to the Commander," Garrus added.
Nihlus glared, Garrus' mandibles flicked, though he never looked at the other turian. Shepard rolled her eyes.
"Well, I am definitely coming," Ashley said as she folded her arms over her chest.
"Me too!" Jenkins chimed.
Shepard looked the corporal in the eye and he froze.
"We should all go. They came in numbers on Eden Prime, and if we face something like the black one again, we might need all the firepower we have," Kaidan said.
Shepard glanced at Kaidan in turn. As far as tactical assessments, he certainly had a very good point. "I normally do not take a team larger than five, myself included." She hesitated on whether or not she ought to break that rule and bring Jenkins along. He was too invested, clearly rip-roaring to face the geth again. On the one hand, he was too inexperienced for this sort of job, but on the other hand he would never get experience if he was benched all the time, a vicious catch-22. Just from the way Ashley and Kaidan looked at Richard, she knew they expected her to bench him. "I am going to bend my rule. Kaidan is right on point here." She announced. "But Richard, I do not want to see reckless behavior. You have nothing to prove to us, and even less to prove to them."
"Thank you, Commander." Jenkins smiled.
There was one elegant solution to the dilemma of slightly cumbersome numbers and their oddities of command, assuming there would be any sort of action involved. "Our primary goal is to scan for the same phenomenon that the miners reported and ascertain what it is. Scanning is best left to EDI, but I also want to go down to the surface to talk to the miners. Face-to-face interaction will calm them more than a message from orbit. Still, just on the chance that this is not a false alarm, Kaidan I want you in charge of a sub-division of our team, Bravo, with Ashley and Richard. I am counting on your field leadership to help me keep a unit slightly larger than my norm operational."
"Understood." Kaidan replied.
She glanced at Nihlus and Garrus. "You two will be coming with me." That was of course the most equitable arrangement, given their odd command structure.
"Yes, Commander." Garrus replied.
Nihlus nodded, but by the way he folded his arms she had a feeling he was less than happy to have Garrus along. Shepard was not going to let their Spectre-vs.-C-sec rivalries get in the way of how she operated things. They would have to learn to work together if they were to be part of her ground teams.
"Joker tells me that we will be doing a twenty-four hour FTL hop to reach Daiwi, but I will lay it down now, I want you to take that time to prepare your gear. I am uncertain how long we will be down there. So prepare supplies beyond just ammo. Ration bars and water packets for at least two days to be on the safe side. Do not count on the charity of the miners."
The marines nodded their heads, Shepard smiled. That was of course very basic instructions, there would be more to talk about once they knew what they were dealing with. She loved to have a plan for contingencies, but often enough her plans had to adapt on the fly, so laying out all the contingencies was hardly worth the breath.
"Now one last thing. Nihlus, I don't want you to introduce yourself as a Spectre. That will set them on edge as surely as the sensor ghosts. The miners are probably colony natives who've never even set foot on the Citadel. Assume their idea of Spectres is colored by hearsay."
"So I am playing mercenary?" he asked.
"If that will suit you. I'm saying this in front of everyone because you're all going to have to keep mum."
Another round of head nods went about the room.
"Now, concerns?"
She was greeted with silence.
"If you have any concerns or questions later, you know where to find me, for now… dismissed." With that said she got up from her seat and moved to the side table to grab the electric kettle before she made her way to the small attached washroom aft of the OD to fill it from the sink. When she returned with the full kettle about a minute after, she found the OD empty. Just the way she liked it. She was officially off the clock, today was done, and she wanted to forget it ever happened.
She especially wanted to get rid of that tiny part of her that was still unsettled. The bug chewing at her insides did not quiet down after her talk with Garrus. If anything, it sunk its jaws in even deeper. She knew it in her bones that what she was doing was wrong. Her lack of trust in Nihlus was justified in a very flimsy way. Nihlus could go up to Sparatus tomorrow and tell him that the Normandy had an illegal AI, and there would be little the Council could do about it. The Alliance would close ranks and raise a fuss.
Even if she washed out as Spectre candidate as a result, it would not be her fault, and enough people would see that. At the very least, the people that mattered most would see that. Shepard knew that her mother, Captain Anderson and Admiral Hackett would not hold it against her. She did have people in her corner. Her conviction that she had to protect EDI, the Normandy, and her career was nothing more than a screen to protect herself.
She refused to let herself trust Nihlus because she feared what he represented. If she was honest with herself, she feared the loss of control. Every mistake she ever made happened when she lost control. Every skill she developed after Elysium was a means of control, whether used for situations or even enemies. Nihlus was like a force of nature. He had his own ideas and codes that governed how and why he did things. Galactic law and even his former mentor could not get him to do something he did not want to do. He was chaos itself, and she feared to place her trust in the unpredictable. After that, it was all a matter of making excuses.
The kettle whistled and she shut off the induction plate under it. She had to stop making excuses. The bug would not go away until she leveled with Nihlus, openly and unabashedly, instead of hiding. He was an ally, and she wanted to think of him as a friend. Yet there could not be friendship without trust. She owed him the truth, and it had to come out on her terms. The truth had a habit of rising to the top, and if she kept this up it would do so at the worst possible time, and things would only get worse.
Their FTL hop day was almost down-time, except everyone kept busy, though in their own ways and on their own paces. Shepard spent a majority of the day just thinking. There was much to think about. This operation was something straight out of ICT training, a recon job on a hostile planet, with little supplies, and no confirmation on enemy position or numbers. Except she was running it with a small team that she was yet to really figure out, and that factored into her planning.
She liked to think of any operation as a very complex mathematical formula with many variables. The devil was in the math, the planning. The variables had to be identified, and accounted for, if not solved outright. Even with all the respect and trust she in her marines, when planning her mind saw them as variables. The only way to solve it was to know everything about how they thought and reacted. Shepard was under no delusion that she had reached that point with them, let alone with Nihlus and Garrus.
There was no use lingering on it. She had to think about the other variables she could remove. One was the planet itself, another was the geth. She had to plan for the conditions and the possibility of meeting a black unit again. It was their luck that the mine was eezo. If they had to fight through the mine, raw eezo did not pose any significant hazards, only a potential problem for women and biotics, but their re-breathers would be able to filter out the dust particulates. Admittedly though, Shepard did not care whether she was exposed to dust-form eezo or not. She would not love a child less for being a biotic. As for Kaidan, a secondary could make his biotics more unstable, which meant he would have to be careful. Ashley would have to make her own decision whether or not she used a re-breather with fine filters.
Shepard spent a good few hours making notes, and thinking through every angle and possibility she could foresee. Unlike Eden Prime, where she had slacked off a little, and they ended up in trouble that required plenty of ad-hoc improvisation, this time she would be better prepared. After that was done, she put in motion some preparation, checked her weapons, checked her armor, and packed some supplies without which she refused to leave the ship, beyond just two days worth of rations and enough ammo to wage a small war.
The Normandy made orbit around four in the morning, ship time. Shepard was woken up by EDI long enough to tell the AI that she should commence her passive monitoring while the Normandy made some orbital passes. It was then that EDI told her about the system's sun. According to the AI, the star was going through a period of increased solar flare activity, something the miners forgot to mention. To say Shepard was displeased would be an understatement. It was just one more thing that made it all sound like a wild goose chase.
Joker would hate her, since his job now involved flying circles around the planet while EDI tried to collect readings in an atmosphere that was actively charged each time the sun threw a flare. They would contact the miners once the away team was up, as scheduled two hours later.
Contacting the mine proved a challenge. Communications were affected by the sun's activity. It was usable, but the signal was less than pristine. Still, they managed to warn the men that an Alliance Kodiak would be coming down.
With that squared off, Shepard gathered her team and they were on their way by nine in the morning ship-time. The planet's atmosphere was such that the Kodiak rattled all the way down. Once they reached the cloud layers, visibility was diminished by a gauze curtain of snow. Fortunately the VI pilot's positioning software was guided by the Normandy's over-watch, so the vehicle did not err in its descent.
The mining operation itself was situated on a flat plain with plenty of ice and snow all around. The miners took over a Prothean mine, using the network of ancient tunnels as a basis. At the heart of the network was a single compound, most of it underground where it could be easily protected from the elements as well as the radiation. Because they warned the miners that they were coming, when the Kodiak swooped down, they were steered toward a large pair of doors set into the roof of the above-ground portion of the compound. These led down a shaft that proved to be an airlock capable of receiving a vehicle only a little larger than the Kodiak.
Once their shuttle moved past the set of inner doors, it made an effortless landing in a large cavernous docking bay. There was another set of large doors on one side of the docking bay, and a third set on the opposite side. Rails connected the two, and escaped eezo ore glimmered like tiny gem bits all along the path. Five civilian shuttles covered in giant tarps were pressed up against the far wall, likely to be used only for emergency evacuation. The absence of a wheeled vehicle meant that the only way in and out of the compound was by flying craft. The miners did not get out on the surface much.
Shepard was the first one to step out of the shuttle when its door slid open. Her eyes instantly landed on the small two-man welcoming wagon. "I'm Commander Shepard, I was asked to talk to a Mister Lee," she announced.
The bigger of the two stepped forward, he was probably in his late fifties, dark hair, and dark eyes framed with glasses, and dressed in simple overalls that probably never fully came clean. "That's right. I'm Albert Lee, head of operations here. Welcome."
"Thank you, Mister Lee." Shepard replied as she glanced back. It was as if just that look was enough for her marines to get on the task of securing the shuttle and their supplies. She was not at all surprised that Nihlus and Garrus opted to be her shadow.
"We don't normally get guests, especially non-humans. I'm afraid you'll have to pardon us for not having more than water to offer our turian guests." the mine operator went on.
"We brought our own rations," Garrus replied.
"Oh, of course. Good. Well I am sure you wish to talk, so shall we?" he motioned toward the smaller of the doors leading out of the large chamber. Shepard followed the mine chief, with her crew behind her.
They were barely past the doors and walking past a number of rooms that Shepard decided to breach the topic. "By what I understand you're a small outfit here."
"Yes, ma'am, just forty-two souls. Forty miners, and recently two Alliance archeologists. Most of the miners have been here since we set up the operation. I've been with this company for ten years, and done mining in many forgotten corners of Alliance space. It's not glamorous, but it's an honest paycheck and safe if you're careful. Normally the most excitement we get here is a tremor or two." He explained. Shepard nodded.
"What can you tell us about this mine?"
"It's a mine. There are tunnels, there are shafts, and then there's this." He motioned to their surroundings vaguely. "You're walking through fifty thousand year old ruins, Commander. The Archeologists are here to collect what the Protheans left behind. The compound goes down. Two clear levels below us, with a third obstructed by some collapses. They say a nasty once-in-a-thousand-years quake did that. Would you believe this whole place was largely operational when we got here?" He explained.
"Seems like everyone is nicely settled," Shepard remarked.
"Yes. We mine, they study things. Perfect symbiosis. Nice and quiet. Or used to be."
"Used to be?"
"Eden Prime made my whole crew nervous. They seem to think the geth will come here. I can't say they don't have valid concerns, but I am more skeptical. All I know is that we don't know what's below us. The scientists got drones they're putting through the collapsed sections. They seem convinced there's more than one level down there. Whatever they're seeing… now I'm no academic, but I know excited scientists when I see them. Eden Prime involved some tech or something, that combined made the men wary."
"What of the anomalies your ship picked up?" Shepard said. She did not say it, but she definitely thought it, this whole thing was beginning to sound like a panic attack that got a little out of hand. The men were reacting to Eden Prime. How would the geth know about the mine here if the research team was Alliance? Furthermore, what sort of tech would the Protheans run in a mine of all places?
The man hummed as he led them into a large room that looked like a recreation space and mess hall. There was an open galley kitchen of stainless steel appliances, the fanciest things there probably, and simple cheap mostly-metal furniture. Shepard noted that the other man vanished somewhere along the walk.
"We always have strange readings." Albert went on, seemingly without noticing her scan of the surroundings. "The atmosphere here lights up like a Christmas tree whenever the sun throws off anything, which is often enough. Usually it's no more serious than communication interruptions. Otherwise this place got very good shielding; we're in no danger of radiation."
"So what's so strange about these particular readings?" Shepard asked.
"Well, by what I understand, our supply ship picked up a localized source of heat, and their sensors guy is convinced it was a ship. Thing is, localized heat is not that strange for this planet. Honestly, ma'am, if you ask me, your superiors got you wasting your time. Go up there and switch your ship sensors to infrared. You'll see our auroras glow in more than just pretty shades of blue."
Shepard hummed as she glanced about the room. If the chief of operations was so convinced that there was nothing going on, it really looked like there was nothing going on. EDI picked up nothing in her initial scans, but she had Joker run more scanning patterns. If the phenomenon was natural, she wanted to be sure.
"Commander, I am sorry, but there is something you can do for me," he added. "I said we don't normally get guests, but this time… we did. She was hitching a ride on our supply ship, some sort of deal with the captain, I didn't ask, and I don't care. But she was interested in the readings and asked to be brought down."
"She?" Shepard asked, instantly curious.
"A quarian girl."
Shepard stopped cold. Now it really made sense why the miners were on edge. Maybe it was still just sensor ghosts, some natural phenomenon, but Eden Prime coupled with the sudden arrival of a quarian would set anyone on edge.
"Now we're not monsters to leave the girl out to freeze." Albert went on, unperturbed. "But her being here is making everyone even more nervous. Do you think you can get her out of my hair before the supply ship returns? We don't mean to be poor hosts here, but the sooner she's gone, the sooner my men might believe me when I say that nothing is going on."
"Can I talk to her?" Shepard asked.
"Sure, she's probably with the scientists in their lab."
Shepard figured he wanted to come off as polite, but there was no white-washing his attitude. He was convinced that nothing was going on, and he was not keen on having an alien around. Like any pit boss in the history of mining, he was worried more about the mine's operations than anything going on.
"I'll take you to her now if you'd like. Though-"
"That will not be necessary Mister Lee, but thank you." A voice announced from the doorway.
"Ah, there you are. Good, good."
Shepard turned to the quarian; she was about Shepard's height, maybe a bit shorter, but willowy and clad in a forest green and stone grey envirosuit with a purple hood. Her silver-toned eyes were just faintly visible, glowing through the suit's translucent, purple-hued face shield. There was a shotgun strapped to her lower back, and a wicked knife sticking out of a sheath on her left calf.
"Patrick came by to ask me to come up here. He went back to the control room after that." The girl said.
Shepard assumed Patrick was the other man who had greeted their shuttle's landing.
"Very well. This is Commander Shepard, Alliance navy; she's here to investigate the readings."
"Hello, I am Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
"Now that you're acquainted, I really must check up on things. We're blasting a new section today. If you excuse me."
"Of course, Mister Lee," Shepard replied.
The mine chief spared her a curt nod and breezed out of the room like someone who had an important board meeting he was late to. Shepard watched him go for a few seconds, listening for the footsteps to fade out of her hearing range. When they did, she turned to Tali. There were questions she needed to ask, but first… "These are my teammates, Nihlus and Garrus."
"Hello," Tali replied quietly.
"Tali would you tell me about the readings? Mister Lee told me you were on board the mining company's transport, and you wanted to come down?" Shepard asked.
"Yes. I was on the bridge when the ship made orbit." She replied. "I saw the readings, but the ship's sensor resolution was not good enough to pick up details through the ionization."
"You must have a theory what it was though, if you asked to be brought down," Garrus said.
Shepard grinned; Garrus beat her to the punch with that question.
Tali clasped her hands together, but within moments she was wringing her fingers. "I don't think it was… as the miners called it, sensor ghosts. I know this planet is prone to atmospheric anomalies, but that heat signature was too localized to be just some ionized gasses."
"A ship?"
"Likely," Tali replied.
"Geth?" Shepard asked.
"Maybe." Tali's finger-wringing only became more urgent.
"We were told there was no transponder picked up. The geth ship on Eden Prime had no transponder either." Nihlus noted.
Tali's hands froze, "You were there?" she asked.
"My ship responded to the distress call," Shepard replied. She was not going to go into details where they might have an audience. She glanced at Nihlus out of the corner of her eye, he was awfully too close to revealing his Spectre status.
"Oh. Well… first, they do have transponders, except they are encrypted and do not communicate such things as ship names and registration. Geth do not use those things."
Shepard hummed again, that made a lot of sense. It was also something she ought to mention to EDI. The AI could probably crack the security if she could only isolate the transponder from background signals. It would be something if they could detect the Geth with whatever transponders they did have.
"Do you remember the coordinates where the anomaly was picked up?" Shepard wondered. They had topographical scans of the planet and a shuttle; they could conduct an EVA investigation. It would not be fun for anyone involved, but it was still the only way to figure out what went on.
"Not precisely, but I do remember the land-features to look for," Tali replied. "There is a formation a couple hundred kilometers northwest of here. Three mountain ridges arranged like a splayed out hand." She raised her hand and spread out her fingers as she spoke. "The readings came from between the fingers."
"Would a topographical chart help?"
"Yes! Definitely!"
"Great, we are going out in the cold," Garrus grumbled.
"Is your armor not rated for it?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard chose to lead Tali toward the table where they could sit down. With EDI's scans projected over one of the tables, it took Tali all of a minute to narrow down the right locale, and another two or three to spot the formation she was looking for. It really did look like a splayed out hand. Tali pointed to the valley formed between the two "finger" ridges. It was not a big place, but large enough to conceal a frigate-sized dropship.
Footsteps coming into the room alerted them to the arrival of the marines. Shepard introduced them to Tali and recapped what went on, and with that they turned back to planning. Shepard was not stupid enough to fly an unarmed Kodiak right into the valley where an armed ship could be hiding, still the place needed to be scouted.
In the end, they chose a landing three quarters of the way up on one of the ridges, where the shuttle should in theory be able to make a safer approach, and they could take the rest on foot. It would be colder, windier, and nastier up somewhere elevated, but it was the safest way of doing things. The biggest issue was that they could not trust the Normandy to guide the shuttle's VI pilot. In the end it was Nihlus who opted to fly the craft, and Shepard had few reasons to tell him no. The Defiant may have been totaled, but he brought it down safely. As far as she was concerned any landing one could walk away from was a good landing.
An hour after that, the miners opened the air-lock and the Kodiak was on its way. Shepard was up front in the cockpit with Nihlus, there to help him with the difference in interface, though it figures that he had software on his omni-tool that worked with his helmet's HUD to translate things for him. Another reason for him to be cocky, at which Shepard rolled her eyes; really, a Spectre should be able to do that, right? Maybe it was just her habit of being grossly over-prepared, but the whole thing was a no-brainer in her mind.
She plopped herself into the co-pilot seat, her helmet in her lap, and just watched the scenery, snow-veiled as it was, fly by. This was the first time in a little while that she had been in some space alone with Nihlus. After her earlier resolution to be honest with him, now she was wrangling with the when.
Now did not seem to be the right time to bring up the topic, her training said that anything that could get in the way of the mission should be tossed to the wind. She had to focus, keep her eyes on the target, eyes on the prize, and all those pithy little lines her trainers ever used. Yet her other side argued that this was also the sort of thing that created tension that could impact her performance. There was more than one way to jettison something. If it could not be ignored, it had to be faced. Anything in the back of her head that prevented her from giving her team a hundred and ten percent had to go. She owed her team her absolute best.
"Something wrong?" Nihlus asked.
"What?" Shepard looked up.
"You were staring at nothing for five minutes now."
"Not nothing, just… snow." She replied lamely. "This planet reminds me of Elysium." Ah here we go with the technically-not-lies, she thought.
"Will that be a problem?" he asked.
Shepard turned her head sharply; did he think she had some snow-triggered issues? "What sort of problem could it be?" Shepard liked to think she had the sort of personality that allowed her to deal with traumatic experiences. The worst things she had seen only strengthened her resolve. The worst experiences she lived through only spurred her to fight harder. The White Death itself was all righteous rage. Still, rage was blinding, and she was paying for it, but in some ways that too only made her stronger. She survived, because she was unwilling to quit.
"You tell me," he replied. "There is something bothering you, I can tell."
"You got an application for that too?"
Nihlus chuckled, "no, but I am learning to read you. I am that good."
Shepard smiled, but she could not hold it for long, she just did not feel it. "I'm just thinking… tossing possibilities, probabilities. Got to be a step ahead, it's how I stay on top."
"It is how you give yourself a headache."
"Command comes with burdens," she replied, somewhat more defensively than she intended.
"Yes, and you choose to carry everyone else's while you are at it." He kept his eyes on the console, dutifully minding their course and altitude as he spoke. Even then she could not hope to see his expression past his opaque face-plate. "This is why I got out of the military when I got the chance. I work better on my own. But- I made a commitment to you, to this, and so… I can help. I can tell something is bothering you."
Shepard looked away; this was the time to tell him that to begin with, he had piled on the burden. "As I said, I'm thinking. I got command a month and a half ago, then barely three weeks later I'm a Spectre candidate, and were it not for that, I wouldn't be here right now. It would probably be a steady diet of merc and pirate rout jobs."
"You would be doing work that someone else could do just as easily." Nihlus replied. "You know, I wondered- the ship, the tiny crew, and the sort of jobs it is getting. You are a war hero, an example to your people, and yet… this. I saw the way you reacted when Verner unrolled that poster."
Shepard froze in her seat, was Nihlus about to figure out her issue based on little bits and pieces? Was she that transparent?
"Udina has a list on his desk of potential Spectre candidates. Every Spectre knows about it." He paused and turned his head to look at her. "By the way, do tell Udina that we would not nominate anyone off it, too much favoritism at too little actual skill. He might actually listen if it came from a human."
He was right, Shepard thought. That list was a load of hogwash even from where she sat. It was arrogant, presumptive, and overbearing, sort of like Udina in general. Honestly, if anyone knew the sort of people who had the gumption to be Spectres, it would have to be other Spectres.
"You might just be an exception though. Your name appeared on it after Elysium. But seven months later, it was removed."
"How long have you been a Spectre?" Shepard asked. A rock had lodged in her throat as she realized how close to the truth Nihlus got without her saying a word. As much as she wanted him to know the truth, it still terrified her.
"I was inducted in 2176. But you are trying to distract me. Something happened for them to remove you, and I would bet my bank account that it would explain things."
Shepard remained quiet for a long moment, holding her breath. They were ninety-five percent there. Only that last five percent was something he could not know without her telling him. She had to fill in that final blank. "I screwed up." She said. "I shot-"
"I do not care." Nihlus interrupted.
"What?" Shepard asked, stunned.
"No. Spirits. Not that way. More… if the Alliance thinks whatever you did made you unworthy of being a Spectre or even of their list… they can take the list, and… how do you humans love to put it? Stick it where the sun does not shine?" He glanced at her, but Shepard was too stunned to even nod. "I know what I see. That is why I do not care what you did. It will not change my opinion."
Shepard hummed, why did he stop her from spilling her guts like that? She had been on the cusp; the words had been on her tongue.
"Now that you know I will not think any less of you, if you still want to give me the details… I will not stop you," he finished.
"Thanks," Shepard murmured. "Well you're right, something I did, kind of… put me in a bad position." She owed him the truth, now more than ever, as he already knew most of it from bits of evidence. She promised herself that she would tell him. So she did. Over the next five minutes she recounted her fall from grace as the shuttle flew under his watchful eye. Somehow it was as if a pressure valve opened, she could feel the tension dissipate with each word. "… and that's pretty much it. Suffice to say, I couldn't say no when you nominated me." She finished.
Nihlus hummed, it was the first sound he made the whole time she had been talking. Some might have begun thinking he was not listening, it was hard to tell with his helmet on, but he gave her little clues, a little tip of the head here, a slight turn there.
"I never thought about it that way, and I would not have known." He said.
"You couldn't have known. I don't talk about it. Kaidan and Ashley know, but only because Kaidan served under one of my critics before. The rest of the crew might know too."
"So what made you finally tell me?" he asked.
"You're not angry that I didn't?"
"No. Why should I be?" He asked. "Shepard, I kept things from you too, remember?"
Shepard blinked, stupefied that he had just come out and said it. She cleared her throat, to push down the rock lodged there. "Well, Garrus and I were talking and… it got me thinking." Technically not a lie, again. "I realized that I was… that I couldn't expect you to trust me if I couldn't trust you."
He hummed again, amused this time. "I owe C-sec some gratitude."
"I think he'd like you not calling him that." Shepard was honestly stunned that he did not comment at her admission.
"I will take that into consideration." He was smiling as he said that, she could hear it in his lilt. "Shepard… listen," his tone changed, serious now. "I do not want you thinking about it any more. We both kept things to ourselves, and that is natural in our line of work. I kept my past with Saren; you kept your past after Elysium. But now you know my past, and I know yours. We are even. From here we move forward and focus on what really matters, making you a Spectre."
"It won't be easy," Shepard agreed.
"You are wrong there." He replied, but before he could say anything else, there was a series of bleeps from the console in front of him, which made him turn back to the readouts. "We are almost there." He announced. "We will talk about this later. Right now, duty calls."
"Yes," Shepard took a deep breath, and let it out. "Find our spot and set us down." Shepard raised her helmet and slipped it on, doing up her seals one by one, jerking on them to make sure they closed tight.
"I think I see it on the sensors."
"Good," Shepard replied. While Nihlus maneuvered the shuttle, she conducted her respirator checks and double checked both her battery levels and oxygen supply. She felt the shuttle begin to descend and as she double checked her webbing and weapons, it finally touched down. The mission was back on track, but she was glad to say that she felt more capable of dealing with it now. Her team would get the Shepard one hundred and ten, because they deserved nothing less.
Five minutes later the seven of them were outside in the snow, heaters blasting as they made their way over the ridge. Their landing was a small spot, barely the size of three Kodiaks side by side, surrounded by crags. It was almost at the top of the ridge, with the scanners showing a clear, if winding, path to the top.
The worst part for Shepard was that the wind now howled across her external microphone like an angry banshee. There could be a geth coming up on them from behind, and none of them, not even Nihlus or Garrus, would be able to hear it clutter. It was really too much like Elysium, like that night. The similarities set her danger sense off. Normally her internal alarm was quite acute, for it to be buzzing now, she was either finally becoming unpardonably paranoid, or they were going to be neck-deep in a geth mess any second now. Honestly, Shepard hoped for the former, because the narrow craggy pathway they had to take to the top of the ridge was no place for a firefight.
It took an ungodly half an hour to cover a distance of a couple hundred meters, but finally they reached the top of the ridge. When Shepard glanced back, she could see that Jenkins was bent over, his hands on his knees as he tried to breathe through the hike. Kaidan was no less winded, though he was not telegraphing it as obviously. Nihlus and Garrus had fallen to the back of the group. Their situation complicated by their top-heavy build and digitigrade walk, which offered them less surface area for traction up a twenty-five degree slope. The only ones who looked vaguely okay were Tali and Ashley; and the latter had the most gear of any of them on top.
Instead of saying anything and revealing how unbothered she was, Shepard swept the scene. Visibility was surprisingly good, despite the gusts of wind that drove the falling snow and whipped up the top layers from every surface. The temperature on her scanner registered a brisk minus thirty five Celsius, with wind gusts pushing it down to a minus fifty, but her heater was keeping up.
The path they used led up to a flat, weathered table-like structure at the top of the ridge. It was irregular, and altogether not big, probably a hundred meters square at most. Beyond was a sheer drop of a couple hundred meters with rocks at the bottom that promised a sure and painful death. The valley between the ridges stretched out as a jagged scar far below. It was not terribly wide, and the cliffs meant any ship that landed here would be concealed, but it would also have to climb straight up to get out.
"There's nothing here," Ashley said as she stopped next to her.
Shepard stared out into the valley, but it was clear as daylight that there was no eerily bug-like ship sitting there. Even if it was cloaked the snow would have given away its shape.
"Tali, these are the coordinates, right?" Shepard asked.
"Yes," the quarian replied. "The readings came from down there." She was wringing her fingers again.
Despite seeing no ship, or even geth, Shepard's sense of danger refused to quiet down. Joker should have completed the sweep patterns by now. She reached up and tapped at her helmet's comm, "Normandy come in, it's Shepard." The link clicked a few times, a hum of static filled her ear. Shepard tapped again, switching bands. "Normandy, come in. Joker, you better not be pulling my leg." There was more clicking, and the buzz of static. Her hand dropped away as she turned and glanced at the others. "Comm's dead here."
"The link was unclear before. Could the solar emissions have gotten worse?" Ashley asked.
Shepard looked up, the clouds were too thick to see the sky, and even then it was still daylight, she doubted they would be able to see the vaunted Christmas-tree auroras. "Maybe, but something just doesn't feel right," She murmured.
When she turned, she noted the way Garrus stood near the precipice, staring down into the valley. His posture was simply too rigid for casual curiosity, but somehow she doubted it was a fear of heights on his part. What sort of sniper had a fear of heights?
"Something about this place is off, and it is messing with my amp. The back of my neck's been tingling since we got here," Kaidan said quietly.
"It is interfering with my visor as well," Garrus added.
"Communicator, amp, and visor… something it messing with our electronics," Shepard murmured. She could see the news making everyone uncomfortable.
Ashley and Richard reached for their assault rifles.
Nihlus brought up his omni-tool and tapped at it. A few seconds later he hummed, seemingly to himself, "There is a highly localized electromagnetic field here."
"An electromagnetic field?" Shepard repeated.
"A strong one."
"Can I see the readings?" Tali asked shyly.
Nihlus motioned her over and the Quarian gingerly stepped over to him to get a look at his omni-tool.
"We're not going to be attacked, will we?" Jenkins asked as he swept his weapon from side to side, as if expecting geth to pop up from behind some rock any second now.
Two hundred years ago the weirdness of this place would have made the ghost-hunters giddy all over, but these days everyone knew ghosts did not exist, and stuff like this probably had a perfectly logical, mundane explanation. "What is it, Tali?" Shepard asked.
The quarian opened her own tool and began to type. "It isn't natural. The field is too intense and too… let me compare something." She kept typing away, looking between her tool and Nihlus'. "Yes, this spectrum- I've encountered something like this before. It's definitely not natural. Even for this planet."
"Are there geth here?" Shepard asked.
"Yes." Tali replied. "This is their trickery. This field is meant to conceal a ship from orbital electronic sensory by dampening and scattering the signals. As a side effect it also jams communications and apparently interferes with amps. Garrus… right now your visor can't tell you the distance to the other ridge. Is that right?"
"Yes. I can not even tell you how high up we are." Garrus replied.
"Then I am correct!" Tali exclaimed, suddenly chipper. "The only thing the dome can't mask is the heat signature. But…" she glanced up. "The geth do not keep breathable atmospheres or heating on their ships. Most of the heat they emit is power core and engines. The core is easy enough to isolate, to a certain point, and when the engines are turned off, their heat dissipates rapidly in this cold."
So they had functional stealth, no wonder EDI did not pick anything up from orbit. "The ship is not down there," Shepard said as she looked down into the ravine, "so… where are they now?" Her sixth sense was right on the money, again. She turned away, "I need to contact the Normandy." With that said she began down the path back toward the shuttle. The electromagnetic field probably worked only with clear line of sight. She might be able to get a signal to the Normandy if she used the ridge as a shield.
Going down the slope toward the shuttle was quicker, but a tad more dangerous. Her boots slipped a little, despite the traction soles. She did not go far down the path before her comm link began to hiss with static in her ear. "-ker to She-rd."
Clicking followed as the communicator tried to compensate, but it was enough, Shepard recognized Joker's voice trying to come through. She made her way further down the path and raised her hand to her comm. "Normandy, are you reading?" she asked.
"Co-ander! You– alright!"
"What is it, Joker?"
"EDI pick– up – sh– fly– aw–"
"Repeat that, Joker. You're breaking up." Damn it, just how powerful was that EM dome to be creating this much interference? This was a damn mountain; the signal ought to have been nearly clear. Or was the sun only complicating things? The line clicked a few times, static returning, and she got no reply from Joker.
Shepard tapped at her comm, shifting to short range band. This was not helping her nerves, her sixth sense for danger was more urgent now, like an air raid siren in her head. "Something is up. We have to go back."
"Roger that, ma'am," Kaidan's voice was covered with a thin veil of static, but audible.
It looked like the field would mess with everything except immediate proximity communications. Shepard glanced up the path and smiled when she saw the six of them appear as moving shadows in the gauzy snow curtain.
"What is it, Shepard?" Nihlus asked as they came down the path.
"I tried to make contact with the ship. The interference is bad, but by what I got, EDI picked something up. It sounded like Joker was warning me about the ship."
"The list of places they could have gone is not long," Kaidan murmured quietly.
"Yes. I'd like them to have gone away, but…" Shepard stopped.
"When are we ever that lucky?" Ashley finished.
"Exactly. Tali if you want to sit this one out, I will understand. This might get messy."
"With all due respect, Commander. I can handle myself. This shotgun is not a decorative accessory," Tali replied. "Besides, I know more about the geth than any of you and I've been at the mine longest too, I can help."
"Very well, Tali, but please stick close to us." Shepard did not say it, but she thought of it. She would have liked the quarian to sit this one out. Tali was an unknown, and given how young she sounded it did not sit well with Shepard to be taking a civilian, even an armed one, into a combat situation when she fully expected to be outnumbered and outgunned.
Ten minutes later and about half-way down to the shuttle, Shepard raised her hand to her comm again. "Normandy, do you read me?" she asked.
"Loud an– sort – clear," Joker responded.
Shepard let out a sight of relief; she could do with 'sort of clear', "Status report, what did EDI see?"
"EDI pick– up a locali–d heat sig–ture half – hour ago, and – took –ff."
The static on the line was still considerable, but Shepard understood the basics. "They fired up their engines," Shepard replied.
"They?" Joker asked.
"We found evidence of geth. The readings EDI picked up, were they near our current location?"
There was a pause, "Ye–, near – Kodiak."
"Where are they now?"
There was a longer pause as EDI checked her reading. In the back of her mind Shepard knew she was asking a redundant question, she knew where the geth were going. She was beginning to see a picture. The geth had been biding their time, using their EM dome to remain concealed. It is very likely that they picked up the supply ship in orbit when it arrived, while their engines were still hot. Rather than attack immediately, when they would be exposed, they decided to lay low for a bit.
"Shit! –ey are h–ding for – mine!" Joker replied.
The static was picking up in her ear again, this time though it was a different sort of static. Similar to what they had encountered when they tried to communicate with the miners. "Joker call the mine. This is an emergency, they need to get their men into the tunnels, as far away from the Prothean ruins as they can, and lock the fire containment doors."
"Aye, aye, –'am!" Joker responded.
The comm unit clicked again, this time it was Joker disconnecting. Shepard glanced around the team. They had finally caught up to her down the path. "They're heading for the mine." She announced. "We're going to have a firefight on our hands in tight quarters."
"Why the tunnels, why not evacuate?" Tali wondered, "They have shuttles."
"The dropship is armed. The mine's airlock is a bottleneck. The geth will have a clear shot at the shuttles coming up. No, the tunnels are their better option. I am willing to wager that whatever the geth want, it's in the ruins. They will not waste time crawling kilometers of mine tunnels, but if they have the bright idea, the fire doors will slow them down."
"So, what is our plan?" Garrus wondered.
"Control room first; we need to know where they are. Mister Lee mentioned they use explosives rather than mining lasers. The typical mining charge, even shaped, is not terribly powerful; it takes a few to loosen up ore. We ought to see if we can get our hands on some charges, though I have grenades in our supplies."
"Everything is better with explosives huh?" Nihlus asked, though she could tell he was amused.
"Explosives are for the black one, just in case. Stick to a play that works." Call her a one-trick pony, but Shepard knew that explosives were their best bet to get through the black unit's ludicrous shielding quickly. If it came wielding two MACs again, speed would be of the essence. This was no time for quibbling details, stick to what worked.
Author Notes: Here's one more misfit for the crew of oddballs that is the Normandy. Tali is not yet the badass she comes to be, she's still that adorably awkward nervous-at-times young lady.
General Notes:
Tali's Introduction – Much background on Tali, specifically how she came to have the data on Saren, and be on the Citadel in ME1, is explored in the comics quite well. That said this was the first introduction that had to be rewritten top to bottom, because as I pondered it, there was almost nothing from canon that I could keep. There is just her motivation, Tali is still very interested in researching the Geth, part spurred by her father.
Chapter Notes:
Astronomical Units – This is a unit of distance measurement, a proverbial yard-stick for measuring orbital distances. It is defined as the mean distance between the center of the Earth and the center of the Sun. Mean, because Earth's (and indeed most planets) orbit is not actually perfectly circular, it's an ellipse. Thus [1 AU = 1.49787021 x 10^11 m]. Without the scientific shorthand that's [149,597,870,210 m], or in manageable units (and tad rounded) 149,597,870 km!