Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: There is very little I can say here now, the mysteries are about to deepen, and the corruption goes deep.
Episode 15: Found
The shuttles returned to the Normandy an hour later, covered top to bottom in silicate dust. The drop shuttle's damage was apparently not as light as Shepard assumed; Nihlus said there was a loss in propulsive thrust during takeoff. As far as Shepard was concerned, that shuttle was officially labeled out of service until it could be repaired.
The away team fared no better, she could see it in their body language. Kaidan was even quieter than usual, unwilling to banter with Ashley. Shepard had observed that the two worked well together, so when they were not ribbing each other at regular intervals, in their own ways, it was something to note. Ashley was tense like a bowstring. There was a cold, tempered sort of fury there. The revelation that the situation involved something as foul as a trap luring fellow marines to their deaths clearly and rightly bothered her on a personal level. The biggest change was Jenkins; he barely said a word at all. Jenkins normally held back in the field, deferring to the higher ranks, but now, even the piece of thresher maw chitin he cut for himself as a souvenir could not inspire him to be his excitable, jovial self. That bothered Shepard enough. Somehow Jenkins' excitability had become a bit of barometer. It was a sad day when even he could not muster optimism.
Shepard sighed and stepped out of the drop shuttle, already reaching for her helmet seals. She took it off, and as a matter of habit raked a hand through her hair. Only to regret it as sand poured onto her head from underneath the ceramic plates on her forearm. It was then, looking at her arms that she realized she was covered head to toe. There was silicate dust crammed into every nook and crevasse, even in the weave of her undersuit. Shepard heaved another sigh, mentally noting to add that to the list of things to scrub down. So many things required a thorough scrub down she did not know where to start.
"Spirits, that is foul," she heard Nihlus grouse somewhere behind her.
"Heh. Thresher acid, the smell is worse than getting it on you." Wrex supplied smugly.
Shepard would have grinned, if she at all had the energy. Right now, there was a huge list of important things to do, and a dubious amount of energy left in her to do them with. She needed to get cleaned up and get on the task of calling for backup. The Alliance had to send someone to retrieve the bodies and secure the evidence. "EDI, I want you to maintain passive observation. If you pick up a ship, any ship, entering this system, I want to know, immediately."
"Of course, Commander." The AI replied quietly.
"Also can someone take the operations recorder up to the OD?" she wondered.
"On it, Commander!" Jenkins called back.
"We will have to stay here as long as we can safely maintain stealth. Meantime, everyone, get cleaned up and get some shut eye. We can debrief after all of us don't look like we're about to keel over."
Nods went around and the group scattered. Ashley collected the weapons from Kaidan and Jenkins, forming a pile at the work table. Shepard left her twins and Vincent on another work table. She would come down to clean them herself. She was surprised when Nihlus' shotgun, assault rifle, and side-arm joined her weapons. Wrex went off to his corner of the shuttle bay, his shotgun in his hands.
When she turned to go, Jenkins was standing next to the elevator; operations recorder under his arm, holding the elevator door open for her. "Thanks," she said.
"Doing my job, Commander."
They took the elevator silently, with Jenkins exiting on the CIC while Shepard continued up to her loft.
Shepard was back in the shuttle bay an hour and a half later, having showered, cleaned her armor, and then gone to the mess to get a strong cup of black coffee. It was not as good as stimulants, but it would allow her to hit her second wind, push through tired and into stubbornly-refusing-to-sleep. During ICT she had pulled days of training runs and all terrain slogging on an hour of sleep here and there. It was pretty much a case of either learning to push through tired, or breaking. Those who did the latter were not N7 material. ICT was training in hell by sadists, with the idea that if a trainee could survive it, they could survive anything.
Wrex was nowhere in sight, but Nihlus was at the maintenance area work tables, seated on a stool, a weapon cleaning kit spread out in front of him, his assault rifle disassembled and in the midst of cleaning. She was surprised to see Garrus was in the shuttle bay as well. The drop shuttle was raised off the deck in its gantry cradle, and Garrus was below, inspecting the damage.
"Before you ask, Vakarian decided to do that on his own." Nihlus muttered quietly enough by way of greeting.
Shepard hummed, not at all surprised that he either heard her, or quite more likely picked up her soap.
Garrus looked up from his work. "Commander!" he called.
"Garrus." Shepard replied.
"He is also upset that we went without him. Still does not trust me with you all alone." Nihlus finished, flashing a teeth-baring smirk.
The other turian froze for all of a split second, but then the moment was gone and anger flashes instead. "Yes, because this-" he flicked a hand in the vague direction of the shuttle, "does much to encourage confidence in your skills as a pilot."
Shepard sighed, Nihlus was at it again, and Garrus' temper was up in an instant.
"Very upset."
"Last I heard you also wrecked your ship," Garrus fired.
"My Defiant was shot down!" Nihlus barked back, all bland smugness gone in an instant. "The fact that I am here ought to tell you enough about my skills as a pilot!" Nihlus rebuffed sharply. "You on the other hand-"
"Oh for heaven's sake you two… just stop!" Shepard cut in before they could go past mere sharp words. She could let Nihlus constitute fact, but she drew the line at fanning the flames further. "Nihlus, stop being an ass. You started this argument. And Garrus… while I appreciate the thought, we do not have spare parts aboard to replace the damaged armor and thermal paneling. We'll be returning to Arcturus for that."
A silence settled in the shuttle bay. Shepard did not say it, but she thought it. The Kodiak was a relatively new vehicle. Bringing one in, damaged by a thresher maw, would interest the engineers. Devising effective protection against maws was something the Alliance was looking into. After what they had seen today, after Akuze, Shepard thought those defensive means were sorely needed. She would supply the raw data if it helped. As long as the Normandy got a second shuttle in some form, the R&D lab geeks could even keep that one.
Garrus drew near and stopped on the other side of the armory work tables. "Are you alright, Commander?" he asked.
"I'm just tired, that's all. Too much to do. Too little time to do it in." She pulled up a second stool and reached for the cleaning supplies Ashley left out for the benefit of those whose weapons she did not maintain. The growing collection was something. It had started with bottles of lubricants and tools specifically required for Shepard's weapons, but now the gunnery chief left out the tools for all their weapons. Ashley could say anything about being uncomfortable with aliens, but little things like these showed that it was slowly going away, replaced with an odd sort of still-only-professional consideration. Shepard was okay with that, everything had to start somewhere.
"What happened down there?" Garrus asked after a long moment of silence.
Shepard looked up from disassembling Dex. She honestly wondered if reading one more person into this situation was a good idea. Then, she figured that plenty of people knew already. There was no keeping a secret on a ship this small for very long. Hell, she had a feeling that Wrex would probably recount the destruction of the maw if asked. Garrus could piece things together from that along with other hearsay and bits of evidence if he put his mind to it, which he probably would. There was ample evidence in the damage done to the shuttle alone.
"It was a mess," she prefaced before she launched into explaining what had gone on down there, and what they had seen.
In the end, Shepard ended up working well into the night. After cleaning her weapons, she returned to the OD to write her report. It was an exercise in some form of masochism to force her mind through that, but it had to be done. It had to be as detailed as possible, thus written fresh. Still, an hour into it, things began to swim. She had to down another black coffee just to stay awake at her terminal. The report needed to be finished. The information Kaidan logged, especially the armor beacons, had to be forwarded to Rear Admiral Kahoku, he would send someone to do the grim task of digging for bodies.
The Grizzly's operations recorder was sitting on the coffee table untouched. She had only disconnected its beacon so that it would not blow the Normandy's stealth. Shepard knew that it was not up to her to remove the recorder, but in her defense, that thing had too much vital evidence to be left lying around where foul play was involved. Someone had played tricks with the signal tower. They might even know that the tower was disconnected. She could not leave the orange box in its place, lest by the time the recovery crew got to Edolus it might be tampered with. She made a point of explaining that in her report. Truthfully, she could not fully trust the recovery crew either; one person on someone else's payroll could do much damage right under the noses of a whole group. She did not put that in her report.
It was the middle of the night shift when Shepard passed EDI her finished report, with instructions to send it the instant they jumped out of the Sparta system and the Normandy could link to a comm buoy without blowing stealth. With that done, she was all too happy to see her bed, and was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The next morning, the ship was on its way to Arcturus, though they had to make a stop-over to discharge static from the Tantalus drive and the stored heat in the IES. Fortunately the Hades Gamma's Antaeus system had a gas giant with an atmosphere conducive to both without undue hazard to the ship. The IES vent involved opening conduits through which heat stored in the sinks flowed to the thermal plates lining the Normandy's hull, allowing atmospheric gasses to wick it away efficiently. It was not something that could be done just anywhere. The hull was normally super-cooled, to disguise the Normandy's profile. When the ship was venting, the hull glowed on thermal sensors like a candle in a dark room.
They arrived at Arcturus in the afternoon. With her report sent in the morning, Shepard was not surprised that there was a cradle waiting for the Normandy rather very close to the station's main body. The first thing Shepard did was arrange for someone to come and inspect the Kodiak. Whether they would fix the shuttle on board, take it away to fix elsewhere, or replace it altogether was not up to her. She would have preferred one of the latter possibilities, because she did not want too many strangers on her ship. As a matter of course she declared twenty four hours of leave for everyone, though a handful of people had to remain on board to provide security.
Shepard was not surprised when a message arrived from Admiral Hackett shortly after; he wanted to see her in person in his office, despite the hour of the day, so to speak. She left the Normandy in Kaidan's hands, overseeing the skeleton crew as she went to the meeting. The route to the Fifth Fleet admiralty office was still mapped out in her mind. With the Normandy docked where she was, Shepard only had to take a transport vehicle to the main naval base compound in the saucer section. From there she had to do some walking. That said, it still took a good half an hour, but she was in no rush, and in no way wanted to appear to be in a rush.
The Alliance naval base on Arcturus was always a bee-hive of activity, teeming with uniforms of every grade and stripe, from the non-commissioned soldiers on guard duty, right up into the highest echelons of command. Despite her rather infamous hair streak, Shepard was happy to say she went largely ignored the whole way. Even when she got to the Fifth Fleet office, which was as busy as ever, the first person to salute her that day was Claudia, Admiral Hackett's personal secretary, before she notified the admiral that she had arrived. Within ten seconds the woman looked up from her console and smiled. "You can go in now, Commander."
Shepard nodded tapped the console on the door, the locking mechanism was already green and the door swished open without a delay. When she stepped into the office, the door closed and the locking mechanism beeped. Shepard snapped to attention and saluted, "Admiral Hackett, sir…" then her eyes landed on the other person in the room, "Captain Anderson, sir!"
"At ease, Commander." Hackett replied.
Well this was certainly a surprise, she thought as she slipped into parade rest. She was not told that Captain Anderson would be present.
"I will not keep you longer than I have to. This meeting is atypical as it is, normally we could have discussed this over the communicator." The admiral opened. "Kahoku forwarded your report from Edolus to me. You made a good call taking the data recorder. That evidence is too valuable to lose. Kahoku will send someone to pick it up while the Normandy is staying on Arcturus. You are only to make the hand-off to a person who mentions the right code words, which he sent ahead, you will have them when you return."
"Understood, sir." Shepard replied.
"Now to the reason why I called you here," the Admiral went on. "I assume you have already figured it out, but something is going on here. Someone wanted those marines dead."
"There is no other conclusion to make. They also wanted it to look like an accident. Obviously, something those men knew, someone did not want getting out. Rear Admiral Kahoku mentioned they were conducting an investigation in the Sparta system, I got no further details, but I have a feeling it had something to do with all of this."
Captain Anderson glanced at Admiral Hackett, and when the latter said nothing, the captain turned back to her, "They were investigating what one Armistan Banes was doing on Edolus at the time his ship went down, to the loss of everyone aboard." Captain Anderson noted.
A name, Shepard thought. This was certainly getting interesting. "Who was he?" She asked.
"Banes was a xeno-biologist the Alliance contracted after what happened on Akuze."
Shepard blinked. Why did it have to be Akuze. "Research on thresher maws, I assume."
"Yes. Banes' work was meant to help the Alliance develop effective means of dealing with them. But questions were eventually raised. A former lab assistant blew the whistle that someone else was seeing the work, the full results. Naturally that was a breach of military contract. An investigation was launched, but before it could go anywhere Banes fled."
"Kahoku's men tracked him down to Edolus, where his ship crashed, ostensibly after suffering a catastrophic meteor impact." Admiral Hackett slipped in calmly.
Shepard hummed, why would anyone run to Edolus when one was trying to outrun an Alliance inquest? Those who were in trouble within Council Space usually tended to run into the lawless Terminus, where they could readily vanish off the face of the galaxy. It did not take much to vanish in the Terminus, no one questioned names and people tended to avoid snitching to the authorities unless there was money in it for them.
"The marines were tasked with capturing him and recovering the research data and the identity of his other employers, but by then a virus had already obliterated the ship's databases and navigation logs. The trail went cold. We know someone killed Banes, we don't know who," Captain Anderson finished.
"They might have gotten away with things had they not also killed the marines." Shepard murmured.
"Indeed. But they likely did not want to take chances. Maybe they thought the marines knew or saw something on that ship, enough of something to trace back."
Shepard hummed, she could certainly see the logic. Loose ends of that sort invariably proved vital to undoing the conspiracy tapestry. Dead men tell no tales and take no notice. The beacon that had lured them to the maw had probably first lured the marines into the trap by making them believe they were tracking something on the planet? "What of the ship itself?" Shepard asked.
"A second investigation is… unlikely. The stone wall is still in place… Officially Banes was murdered by his other employer. Official channels will not help us." Hackett leaned back in his seat. "As to the ship... you are certainly welcome to go see it, but it will probably be a waste of time. Whatever evidence the marines might have seen, is likely gone. Your report indicated the beacon was active for seven days. That is long enough."
Indeed it was, Shepard thought. If she was covering up such a thing, she would have had that ship stripped to the bulkheads in that time. This was obfuscation through elimination of evidence, while the fact that a crime had been committed was plain for all to see. Someone out there was literally thumbing their nose at the Alliance investigative efforts, confident in their ability to cover up their tracks and dead-end the whole thing.
"The official investigation might be cold, but those marines were murdered. I do not like the thought of the murderers getting away." Hackett continued in a stern, cold tone.
"Murderers… indeed, I get the feeling we are not dealing with one individual here, it is not easy to set up a scheme this elaborate…" She stated. There were other things rubbing her wrong about the whole thing. Why even go for a trap this elaborate? Surely if Banes was the issue, a swift knife in the back would have been simpler. If she had to eliminate someone, she would have found a window of opportunity to get close, and work from there. Everyone had a personal vice that could be exploited in order to stage an accident, if one was creative enough. She shook her head to ditch the cycle thinking, right now was neither the time nor place. "The whole thing revolves around Banes. If whoever he worked for, really worked for, killed him, took his research, and then killed our marines… the fact that some of it was done by thresher maw… unnerves me."
"Ah, so you do see that disturbing piece of the puzzle," Captain Anderson noted.
"I need whatever the Alliance got on Banes. Someone looked into him before he got the position; I want to see that material. Also…" she paused there, turning the thought over in her head before she voiced it fully. "The whistle-blower, perhaps I ought to look at them as well. What made them decide to snitch?" She noted the small growing grin Captain Anderson had, and realized that she was probably going right over what they expected her to ask. "I will also need to discuss this with Nihlus, with your permission, Admiral."
"You will have the intel within the day, both on Banes, and the lab assistant. As for the Spectre… I am honestly surprised that he has not followed you to this meeting." Hackett replied. "Your reports indicate you work in tandem on most things."
Shepard grinned sheepishly. She has not even considered the option of bringing Nihlus along. "Perhaps a bit too much compartmentalization on my part, Admiral, can't be too cautious."
The admiral nodded and said no more on the matter. Shepard thought it was probably a good thing she did not bring Nihlus along. Turians normally did not venture to Arcturus without a good reason. The last major visit was the delegation of the Primarch of Palaven, with a handful of generals, at the closing of the First Contact War. Naturally those sorts of visits were not seen as favorable. Subsequently when the Systems Alliance parliament ratified the Citadel Conventions, the presence of Hierarchy high officials looked a little more like strong-arming than the settlement of peace and the opening of diplomatic channels.
"You seem to have collected an eccentric group, now including a krogan?" the admiral continued.
"Wrex knows more about the Terminus than even Nihlus, for obvious reasons, he walks the other side of the proverbial tracks. I've also seen first hand what he can do with a gun and his biotics. Beyond that, he took one look at EDI's topographical scans of the plain on Edolus where the beacon was set up, and suspected there was a maw there. We would have gone in blind if not for him." Shepard explained. Come to think of it, she ought to buy Wrex a large jug of good Ryncol. He did say he would bet on that plain being a nest, and he technically won that bet. She would have to look into what constituted good Ryncol.
"That is good to hear; otherwise I would have had to explain myself to Hannah." Hackett noted.
Shepard could not help but grin, it was in these odd moments that the admiral let something past his stern, professional façade.
"Alright, I believe we covered everything of note." The admiral went on, returning to his normal formal habits as he pressed a button on his desk console to unlock the door.
"I will pursue the few avenues of investigation that I have, Admiral." She replied.
"Good. Dismissed, then."
Shepard snapped another formal salute, made an about face and stepped out of the room.
"Shepard!" Anderson called at her back. Shepard stopped a few steps outside the office, to let the captain catch up with her. "Walk with me, there is… something we ought to talk about."
"Of course, Captain."
"There's no need for formality, it's nothing relating to the matter at hand."
Shepard nodded, but said nothing.
The captain led the way out of the office building, and onto the grounds fronting the building. The base on Arcturus was very much built in the spirit of the great naval bases of the past. Captain Anderson stopped and motioned to the winding paths that meandered around the manicured lawns and groomed and sculpted flower beds. To Shepard it seemed like whoever designed the gardens was an old traditionalist at heart.
"How's your position treating you? Be honest, I will not summon a tribunal over a complaint or two." The captain broached as they walked.
"I can't complain," Shepard replied. "The paperwork is daunting, but… I do what I must."
Anderson chuckled, "Of course, the paperwork. Don't ever take command of a cruiser, there's much more of it. But in all seriousness, Shepard, I want to know, how's your… mentorship?"
Only by dint of training did she not freeze in place or even break step. "I don't know how to answer that, I mean… how do typical Spectre mentorships go that I should be judging mine?"
Anderson spared her a look that brokered an end to the jokes. "That's not what I meant. How's Kryik? He's not running you into the ground, is he?"
"Nihlus? No. We get along. He's actually pretty laid back, no one else ever complains about anything he does, and he's-" Shepard paused, trying to come up with a good way to explain Nihlus' other habit. "We're closer to partners. Standard operational procedure is we discuss what has to be done, hash out a plan, and do it. Even when we work on something assigned to by the Council. The only times he really comes down is when it comes to… he's a stickler to timely reports. I get the feeling he's all for doing them right the first time simply so they don't waste more of his time later."
Shepard noticed the way the captain's shoulders lowered, a relaxation reaction? Curious.
"That's good to hear. When I found out who mentored him, I worried he might be… less than pleasant toward you."
Shepard blinked as it suddenly bricked her where this discussion was coming from.
"His mentor hates humans. I was wondering whether the protégé shares his views," Anderson went on.
"Nihlus is not like Saren," Shepard said.
The captain stopped cold in his tracks.
Shepard pretended she had not just purposefully dropped that bomb. She knew, and she wanted Captain Anderson to know that she knew. He did ask her to be honest. "I met- well met would be the wrong term… encountered Spectre Arterius on the Citadel. Nihlus told me about their history after that." That was technically not a lie, just a whole lot of truth bending. Nihlus told her, yes, but after some delay and when he had to. Were it not for that, he would have never told her. She did not feel the need to point out the truly odd coincidences involved. One could say her mother had killed Desolas Arterius. Her daughter was mentored by the protégé of said admiral's brother. If she at all believed in fate, she might have said it worked in truly mysterious ways. She also did not feel the need to reveal that she knew about Captain Anderson's shot at Spectre.
"I see."
"Nihlus and I have a professional understanding, and I want to think that we work well together. He has his personal hang-ups, but who does not? Despite everything, when the bullets start flying, I trust him to watch my six." As soon as she said it, she realized there was no truth-bending there. She trusted Nihlus at her six as much as she trusted him at her nine and three. Despite the few so-called hang-ups and the shakeup, Nihlus had been nothing if not helpful. Though, come to think of it, she might actually have to watch his six. Sometimes he did not think everything through, like that time on Omega. Had he faced D'Aros alone, he would have been in trouble.
"Hackett was right then, should have known, he does read the reports, and then… you're on a first name basis with him."
Shepard tried not to let the sheepish smile creep on her face. "To be fair, we made that agreement on day one, and I am on name basis with my whole crew. Though some still call me Commander no matter how many times I tell them just Shepard is fine." She thought of Garrus, the chief perpetrator, and Tali, a close second, who was easily nervous.
Captain Anderson stopped and faced her, "I am glad you're adjusting to this. You will prove everyone wrong before long."
There was no great mystery in what he meant by that. "I should not have to prove anything. They ought to know they're wrong, but…" Shepard shrugged in that noncommittal way rather than finish her thought. She knew that most people rarely knew what they ought to know, they required to be proven wrong.
"A Shepard sentiment, Hannah would be proud. Well I got what I wanted; I won't take up more of your time."
"As you wish, Captain."
They parted after that, Anderson turned to walk back toward the Fifth Fleet offices. Shepard continued down the current path, taking a meandering circuit out of the gardens. One look up caused her to frown; really the illusion of the gardens was completely shattered when one looked up. Nothing could disguise the fact that it was not a blue sky overhead, but an arched artificial roof. She glanced down the path and hummed, work beckoned. She picked up her pace, down the paths leading toward the areas where she could get a transport that would take her back to the docks where the Normandy berthed.
Arcturus, more than the Citadel, was a place where a lot of cultural delights and human comforts could be obtained. The restaurant district alone offered a hodge-podge of places, with Italian, French, and Moroccan cuisine right next to the Chinese, Indian, and Japanese, and those were just the big eateries and restaurants one started with. For spacers who were used to the simple, relatively quick-cooking fare of ship-board life, Arcturus was a gastronomic paradise, flowing with whatever one craved. Best of all, it came at far more reasonable prices than on the Citadel.
Shepard was no less prone to occasionally wanting something a little more decadent than the regular ship's galley fare. On her return she made a detour stop at a bakery to buy three large slices of mille-feuille, a cake delight with alternating layers of custard cream and puff pastry to sate her rare sweet tooth.
Box in hand, she finally returned to the Normandy. The ship felt a little barren with most of her crew out enjoying their free time in a familiar port. She stuck the box into the back of the levo refrigerator. Three slices would last her three days; her transient craving for sweets rarely lasted longer than that. After that she returned to the OD to check on whatever messages waited on her terminal.
There, top of the inbox, was an encrypted message from Rear Admiral Kahoku with instructions regarding the operations recorder, including the key phrase that only the proper messenger he sent would know. She was not to hand the box to anyone else, no matter what they said and what credentials they flashed.
She was just thinking of signing off when the OD door opened. Shepard glanced up from her terminal. Garrus strode in, holding a data pad in his hands and judging by his posture, nervous about something or other. "Commander," he greeted.
"Garrus. Is something wrong?"
"No, but I do not want to interrupt if you were occupied with something important. EDI told me you were back, and I thought I should drop this off," Garrus explained, flicking the pad in his hand. "I completed the Thanix's power system calibrations, as requested."
Shepard took the data pad and scanned over the contents briefly, eyes running right down to the number tables. "A thirty percent power efficiency increase? Most impressive."
"Thank you, Commander. If I may though, I… erm… I wish to reiterate my offer regarding the targeting systems. Working on the guns I could not help but identify the problem."
Shepard glanced up; well, he really did want to mess with the ship's guns. She set the report down and slid it over to the small pile of other pads already on her desk. "Garrus, I don't want you to regret it if it gets out."
"I know. You do not need to worry, I have a way around that," he offered. "The guns are missing a vital component, a VI system that regulates the minute fluctuations of the electromagnetic containment field. Now, I am not suggesting we go looking for one of those, so I am not be giving the Normandy what it does not already have. The VI auto-calibrates the system to compensate for the field oscillations, but I can do that manually."
"If that's normally done by VI, it sounds like a constant and on-going job."
"It is." Garrus replied. "Every time the guns fire, there is flux in the containment field caused by the heat of the shot. First, it throws targeting out of alignment, and that misalignment is cumulative. Second, the flux also creates weaknesses in the field, which causes loss of shot matter and a widening of the beam, effectively losing power and constriction."
Shepard leaned back in her seat; all of that kind of went over her head. All she knew was that the guns were off the mark, like a rifle with a poorly zeroed scope. The crosshairs could be on the target's head, but they did not align with the barrel trajectory.
"I know you will say the Normandy can make do," Garrus continued. "But this will be worth it. It will increase the current operational range and make each shot hit with less that one degree of deviation even at maximum power and constriction. The Normandy will fire like a sniper-rifle, and not like a crude flamethrower." He explained with surety and confidence.
She had a feeling that he already figured out what to do and only needed permission. She loved big guns as much as the next person. Love for the art of marksmanship went in the family. Still, she just could not let Garrus, eager as he was, take this step lightly. If the Hierarchy found out, there would trouble. He would get no protection from the Alliance. His employment on the Normandy was precarious, with everything hinging on her. She did not want Garrus to ruin his standing with his own people for something that could implode on him at any given time.
"You are still hesitating," Garrus said.
Shepard shook her head.
"I know we discussed this before, but I gave it some thought. The only thing I can not help with is if you decide to acquire the VI regulation system. Getting it is a bad idea. Beyond just the difficulty of tracking down and disabling a Thanix frigate, you would have to fight through the whole crew, thereby committing an act of war, and there would be a few other challenges I am not able to discuss, but…"
Good thing Shepard knew he was talking in hypothetical terms here. "I assure you that's not something I would ever do, and it is not something Admiral Hackett would order me to do." She could guarantee that, she knew that much of her CO. Admiral Hackett fought on Shanxi; he knew that a war with the Turians would be a grizzly, long one. Humanity might win, but the losses and costs would make it a pointless pyrrhic victory.
There was a reason why the Council stepped in to end the First Contact War when they did. The Turians had been mobilizing for all-out invasion of Earth. The Council saw how long it took to subdue Shanxi, how quickly General Williams was ostracized as a traitor for surrendering the colony, and how fiercely the Second Fleet fought to break the blockades to allow for a liberating army to put boots on the ground. They saw how ruthlessly said army fought to free Shanxi. They only had to project the prospects onto Earth to know that no one would benefit from a large-scale war. No matter who won, the balance of power would shift. If the Turians lost, it would shift dramatically. The Council had only one goal, conserve the status quo at all costs. Shifts in the balance of power were very bad for the status quo.
Garrus' mandibles spread in a proxy of a smile, "Barring that… there is a loophole in the matter. One part of being crew on a Turian ship is ensuring the ship operates at optimum capacity. We can not withhold skills from the knowledge of a commanding officer, especially skills that could be employed for the benefit of the ship and its crew. During my service I had training with various weapon systems, including the Thanix. There, now that you know, you can order me to work on the guns, and it would be my duty."
Shepard hated to be the downer when he clearly thought he had everything figured out, but she was not the type of person who lived on such thinking. "Except this is not a Turian ship. Will the Hierarchy really let it slide with that?" She asked, knowing full well that the answer was highly likely to be an emphatic no.
Garrus hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe?"
He was clearly not backing down. "Admit it. You just want to work on the guns."
He cleared his throat, his gaze suddenly slipped to the bulkhead, "Maybe."
Shepard smiled. He returned the smile with that tooth-bearing expression that would have intimidated someone who did not know him. Shepard was tempted, oh so tempted to let him do it, and it would be the worst thing she could do for him. Still, Garrus knew the risks, knew the fallout that could follow, and he was willing to shoulder it. On the other hand, this was not the first time this came up, not a first thought whim of his. Could she keep saying no based on her idea of what was better for him? No, she could not. She could just try to prevent the fallout from happening. She straightened in her seat, "Alright, that'll make you my ship's ordnance officer, no?" She mused.
"Oh, I like the sound of that," he replied as he straightened to his full height.
Shepard thought that were he human, he would probably have saluted. She had a feeling she had just made his day, maybe his year. "Just please, don't start while we're still on Arcturus. Let's not do this right under the admiralty's nose."
"As you wish, Commander."
She would have to bend the rules a little herself, in for a penny, in for a pound. "EDI, there is something you can do to help Garrus."
"I will be happy to be of assistance, Commander." The AI replied.
"Before any changes are made to the targeting system of the Thanix, save the current configuration profile. Then of course, keep a separate save of whatever on-going changes Garrus does." She glanced at the turian in front of her.
Garrus hummed, "We can swap configurations in a matter of hours if need be, so the system can appear unaltered."
Shepard grinned and inclined her head in a bow. It was positively devious, but deviousness was a useful skill in her trade. "EDI, the modifications are to be encrypted. Only my authorization, and of course Officer Vakarian's is allowed to access the saved data."
"Understood, Commander," EDI said. "Officer Vakarian I will walk you through the process of setting up a personal system authorization key at your convenience."
"Thank you, EDI."
"You are welcome. Commander, clearance levels will be yours to confirm." EDI went on.
"I'll do that when I have it," Shepard said.
"You will not regret this, Commander." Garrus said. "In the end, this is no different than Kryik offering you his skills as a pilot. Though he is definitely not honest about what he piloted. I would expect to see training with fighter craft in his military records, not transports or ground vehicles."
Shepard hummed. Idly she wondered if this was more of their back and forth. She knew Nihlus could fly a Mantis gunship, that sort of skill did not come without some sort of training. "I would not be surprised." She said calmly. Little would surprise her about the Spectre at this point. He liked to keep his cards close to his chest. To say nothing of the fact that he did not talk about his military time. "But I thought you implied his skills are sub-par."
Garrus shifted his weight from foot to foot, "I may have. Yes."
Shepard could see floundering where there was floundering. "You were baiting him, weren't you?"
"Maybe." Garrus replied.
Shepard tried her best not to let her exasperation show.
"To be honest, Commander, the damage to the Kodiak is not light. Aside from the damaged armor and knocked off thermal plates, one of the four ventral thrusters was rendered inoperable and another is reduced in capacity. I must give Kryik some credit. He kept it flying."
Shepard blinked; Nihlus had not told her the damage was that severe. She remembered the moment of impact, the feeling of her stomach rising into her throat, that tell-tale kick of falling out of the sky. That had to be the moment they lost the ventral thrusters used to takeoff, land, and hover. Yet the kick felt so brief; a testament to how quickly Nihlus compensated. There was no mystery how; he must have used the vectored thrust of the main drive thrusters, which would have necessitated a matching thrust output so as to not overpower the functional ventrals, to keep the craft level.
"He did not tell you?" Garrus asked.
"No, he only mentioned that there was a loss of thrust." Shepard replied. Why keep quiet about the full extent of the damage? What benefit was there to derive from concealing the details? Now that she thought about it, there was a reason, just one, that could potentially explain things. Nihlus certainly had no shortage of pride. Was he bothered by the fact that he let the shuttle take that hit to begin with? If he was, his harsh rebuttal to Garrus the night before made a lot of sense. Perhaps Garrus' words had been a deeply-felt one-two whammy. Nihlus' pride did not seem to let a personal insult go, and doubly so when it came from Garrus, not when he might have felt guilty to begin with.
"Typical," Garrus muttered.
Shepard was not going to defend Nihlus' proclivities more than she already had.
"Well, I will not keep you from your duties, Commander. I have to prepare some things myself."
Shepard could hear the barely contained eagerness in his tone. He would be in the main battery, working on the preliminary things in a manner of minutes. She would probably have to verify clearances on his authorization in about twenty minutes. The gun settings would be backed up and the system made ready for his calibrations shortly after. "By all means."
Garrus strode out of the OD like he had just been given the best news he had ever heard. Shepard smiled to herself and turned back to her terminal.
The next morning, Shepard woke up to much to do. Bright and early a crew arrived to look at the damaged shuttle. Within an hour she was told that the damage was too severe to fix without specialized equipment. The blown thruster had to come out in its entirety, and whatever armor and thermal plates remained had to be replaced due to the fact they were structurally compromised even if they looked sort of fine. The leader of the work crew also requested an explanation for the sand in the crevasses, and was less than amused when he got it. Thus the Normandy was one shuttle short until a new one would arrive.
Rear Admiral Kahoku also sent one of his men to pick up the operations recorder. Shepard conducted the hand-over after making thoroughly sure that the lieutenant was in fact who he said he was. After that, EDI notified her that she had a priority data transmission from Admiral Hackett, and so Shepard found herself seated on the OD couch, going over the information she received.
There was quite a bit of it. Everything from the background on Banes, information on his work for the Alliance, and even the scattered information Rear Admiral Kahoku's men managed to relay before they died. Most crucially the lattermost included everything they had on Banes' death, including the report on a medical examination done in the field. Shockingly, there were photographs of the interior of the ship, where and how they found the bodies. The commanding officer in charge of the inquest had been thorough and took a lot of field notes as well; he seemed to have been trained to conduct such investigations. It made it even clearer why someone would want to kill these men; they were not just typical soldiers. It made the loss of such ability even harder to swallow.
The OD door swished open and Shepard looked up from the pad and grinned as Nihlus strode in. He stopped level with the half-wall that divided the OD into halves and stood there.
"Shepard," he said.
"Nihlus." She replied in the same casual tone, but she could not help but smirk a little. "You're going to have to find somewhere else to lounge today. The OD couch is mine." Truthfully she had an even nicer couch in her quarters, but Shepard did not want to be so separated from her crew. Add to that, if she relocated to that couch, it would be giving up the OD altogether. Nihlus could smile pretty all he wanted, she would not let him have that win. He had a couch in the XO's quarters, why he was so damn keen on the OD's mystified her enough.
He made a sound akin to an amused snort, "Actually, I was coming to ask you how long we will be staying on Arcturus."
Shepard looked up from her work, "You have orders?"
"Not as of yet, no."
"Then I honestly don't know what to tell you. I would prefer not to leave Arcturus a shuttle short. We ought to get ours back, soon."
"Alright." He seemed to deflate a little.
Shepard quirked an eyebrow as she wondered what was chewing him now. He seemed eager to get going. Was that nothing more than just being unused to lulls between jobs? Well she could probably entertain him for a while quite easily. "We have something to discuss. I went to a meeting with Admiral Hackett yesterday, regarding Edolus."
"Shepard, you could have told me you were going, I would have come with you." He said as he sat down on the couch.
"Funny enough, Admiral Hackett said he was surprised you did not show up." Shepard chuckled. "I'll tell you what I told him, my bad, perhaps it was a bit of an oversight on my part."
"Since Hackett said that, I assume I am to be read in as well?"
"Definitely. I have information you can look at as well." Shepard glanced down at the pad, "Let's start with the basics. The marines were there to investigate the death of one Armistan Banes. He was a xeno-biologist the Alliance hired after the events of Akuze. Three thresher maws destroyed a nascent colony, and then killed fifty marines sent in as aid. Banes later came under suspicion of breach of contract; someone else was seeing his work before the Alliance. But before he could be fully investigated, he fled. Eventually he was tracked to Edolus, where his ship suffered a catastrophic meteor impact. Up to there it seems rather open and shut."
"But we know it is anything but."
"Indeed. Catastrophic space rock impacts don't introduce viruses into a ship's system. The ship's databases were wiped. Then someone put a lot of effort into staging an unfortunate accident for the marines. We can see that there is nothing accidental to any of it, but we can't connect anything to anyone, and we definitely don't know who Banes was working for before he was murdered."
"Are you sure Banes is dead?" Nihlus asked.
"They conducted a medical examination, the report is right here," she motioned to the pad in her hands. "They ran DNA against medical records. Over ninety-nine percent match. Due to desiccation from atmospheric exposure there was some degradation, but still that is too good a match. Banes' family history lists no siblings. The likelihood of someone else having identical DNA is astronomically slim."
"Sounds to me like this Banes was silenced by his other employer."
"That would be the logical conclusion, yes." Shepard agreed. "I am going through everything I have, looking for any loose thread to pull. His employment history is probably cooked, falsified. I know that, but I haven't finished reading over everything yet."
"I can run the name through Spectre channels." Nihlus volunteered.
Shepard smiled, "I was actually going to ask if you could do that, I would appreciate it."
Nihlus hummed, "You want to catch the responsible. Running a name through my channels is the least I can do. First though, I will need to read over the material you have. Perhaps… an extra set of eyes would help?"
"I'll get you copies." Shepard said as she stood up and moved toward her terminal. Within seconds brought up the data package, and sent it over to his omni-tool. "As of right now, I can see why the Alliance hired him. He was educated in a prestigious university on Earth, graduated with honors, with glowing references. I am still cross-referencing his employment and financial records though. So maybe there is something there, but so far it's all rather very clean. Worst thing there is a subscription to Fornax. Yes, that's the worst I can see so far."
"Hey, some say it is humanity's greatest contribution to galactic society."
There was no mistaking his tone of sarcasm mixed with amusement. "We taught the galaxy to enjoy filthy magazines as a mass-market commodity, what an achievement."
"Jokes aside, when records are clean, that is when you ought to start asking if they are too clean," Nihlus said.
In other words, Nihlus did not trust the records. Shepard would concede that point, she had thought of it. Banes was rotten, that much they knew, but the source of the rot remained elusive. "As I said, I am still cross-referencing."
"But you must have some thoughts, right?" Nihlus pressed.
"Some. Just about things not adding up. What made Banes run to Edolus? Was it merely somewhere to contact his other employers, hand over data, and punch out? That stuff could have been done on Omega for half the trouble."
"Yes…"
"Then of course there is the beacon, it was active for a week." Shepard went on. "It's all cooked, Nihlus. The employer killed Banes by faking a crash. They left a body, yes, which would make things consistent with a crash, but any two-bit keyboard jokey could have taken one look at the ship's computers and spotted the tell-tale signs of a virus wipe. They are goading us like a bullfighter goads a bull. It's just not adding up, and when that happens… there is something else going on."
"I agree. Have you told any of the others?" Nihlus asked.
"Not yet." Shepard replied. "I mean once we have a lead and somewhere to go, they would have to know. However, as of right now, this matter is best kept to as few as possible. In fact, I should not to be investigating this deep at all. It is a matter for the Alliance Criminal Investigative Services. But Rear Admiral Kahoku clearly trusts no one except Admiral Hackett, and the official investigation was stonewalled already."
"Perhaps we ought to look into who prevented the investigation."
Shepard shook her head, "Pointless. We might be able to find the bureaucrats responsible for the blockages, but they will have multiple perfectly legitimate sounding excuses ready to go. First and foremost, I do not have the authority to investigate in the legal sense. I'm not ACIS, the legal system will not deal with me, and without that I have no legal weight to bring to bear. Everyone I approach has the right to deny me access to anything and everything with a smile on their face, and while I could get at their dirty laundry my own way, it won't be legal evidence. Then I am not a Spectre either. As such, I really cannot play that card." Frankly, Shepard could see it devolving down to them saying she was overreaching, cook up some legal caveats, and get everyone involved into serious legal trouble. Shepard was positive that Kahoku knew the legal route was no go, thus his request she pull in Nihlus.
Nihlus sighed. "It would be much simpler if this involved Hierarchy bureaucracy."
"I'll take your word for it; I'm not familiar with said bureaucracy."
"But I am a Spectre… you can work through me by proxy, as a deputy." Nihlus said.
"True, but there's just one little problem with that… you're not human. Don't take it the wrong way Nihlus, but I get the feeling that we're dealing with the sort where that matters," Shepard finished. "So far, the guilty parties are getting away with multiple murders simply because they know the system and are damn good at obstructing it."
"Or they are in the system." Nihlus said.
"That goes without saying."
Nihlus hummed again, the register of his voice dipping lower. Shepard leaned back into the couch and waited, mentally ticking the seconds. She barely reached ten when his green eyes leveled on her in a scrutinizing way. "This brings us right back to why Kahoku requested Hackett's aid, and then mine. He knew Hackett had someone who could see justice done, outside the system if needed. If legal prosecution cannot be brought against them, he needed someone who could operate outside the legal system."
"Naturally, and I get the feeling it's not for the extra-legal investigation either," Shepard said. "Why else would they come to me specifically? If they wanted someone to bring these people in handcuffs..." Hackett had others who could do the cuff jobs. Foremost was Captain Anderson, someone who got things done, one way or another, but also an N7, someone who knew how to deal with shady organizations and the sort of people they liked to employ. No, Hackett must want someone who was singularly known for pulling triggers, having no qualms about it, and could keep the Alliance's name clear of the mess that followed. He wanted the Poltergeist. This was Hackett's often unseen Machiavellian nature on an outing. "Look at it this way, there is doubt whether ACIS can create a case. If they can't, then the Alliance Judge Advocate General would not give this a trial. No trial, no conviction. There is money here, I can smell it. Money buys lawyers, judges, juries..."
"Money cannot buy me." Nihlus said.
"Or me." Shepard smiled; they were on the same page then. At the end of the day if the Poltergeist had the people responsible in her crosshairs, and legal immunity in the form of a Spectre saying she was doing things under his authority, she would pull the trigger and not bat an eye. Ideally she would have preferred to have her own Spectre authority for this sort of thing, less of a chance of it coming back to haunt her later, but for the time being she had to make do. She crossed her arms and met Nihlus' gaze, "The writing's on the wall, so to speak."
"This makes our job is a little easier. Spectres have other sources of information to turn to."
Shepard glanced at the viewport as she tried to keep the discomfort she had from showing too overtly. "Ah. Well there's the one qualm I have. How trustworthy are those sources?" This was a problem because while she had no trouble punishing people who deserved it, she wanted to be sure they deserved it. She knew that two wrongs never made a right, but they sure as hell created a solution. The right thing would be to bring the guilty parties in front of the law. Still, when the law failed, she had no problem with alternative solutions. The law was a tool, but when monsters could use it to get away with murder, it ceased to be useful. It was time to switch tools, and give the monsters a taste of their own medicine. She had no problems with that.
"As trustworthy as such sources can be," Nihlus replied.
Shepard hummed, "We have to be absolutely sure we're aiming at the right people before we start pulling triggers." Foremost, the old saying went when one stared into the abyss, the abyss stared back. Shepard would not let herself become a creature of the abyss. She needed to have a line to keep sight of. Second, she never wanted to kill an innocent ever again. If she could find some semblance of justice in this, it would vanish with the death the wrong individual.
"Is that a personal code?" Nihlus asked.
"I will never kill anyone on the mere supposition of guilt." Shepard said as she met his gaze.
"I can work with that. Shepard, we will find the right people, and then, you can make them pay."
A solemn sort of silence settled between them as Shepard mused on what they had to do now. "You do know that I can't let go of the legal means entirely, right?"
"Would not have it any other way." Nihlus smiled. "We can work this case from both ends."
"Then we have a plan," Shepard let herself relax a little.
"Yes. Now we just need to get a second shuttle so we can carry it out."
Shepard tipped her head to the side and grinned. It sure seemed like he had an issue with indefinite down-time, or that he was happiest when he was planning or carrying out a plan. She could certainly understand that part.
Author Notes: This episode was troublesome to write. Since I established a pattern of exploring the political intrigues, I had to basically sit down and try to think out how a conspiracy of this scope would go undetected. This is the foundation of how I will bring in my version of Cerberus. They will be essentially the shadowy organization that seeks to put humans at the top of everything, through any means possible. More to come!
General Notes:
None this time…
Chapter Notes:
None this time…