Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: This is part two of the Noveria arc. Shepard has a bit of a last laugh.
Episode 21: Peak Fifteen
Shepard did show any outward sign of her surprise or discomfort, but she knew she had to dig herself out of this mess, and now. Saren thought she acted without authorization, specifically his, but Shepard knew better. "I came across a lead that might yield a pass; I pursued it with full authorization from Nihlus, my supervisor." She replied calmly. "Thus, tell me, Spectre Arterius, when have I acted without authorization?"
"Do you have a pass?" he asked.
Hah. He did not ask Nihlus whether he authorized anything. Shepard was entirely unsurprised that Saren would assume she had Nihlus wrapped around her finger. "Not-"
"No." He repeated with a sneer. "You failed, and your stunt in the Synthetic Insights office only created a problem for us."
Shepard glared up into his eyes, meeting the malice in his voice with glacial calm. "As I tried to say, before I was rudely interrupted, I do not have a pass yet, but I know how to get one." It was impossible to miss that Nihlus had backed out of the middle ground between them. "I did not fail, nor did I create a problem." She smiled, "Yes, I had to deal with a few Elanus Risk Control employees, but they will not create a fuss. First there is no evidence I was up there." Even before she knocked out the power, the security cameras would not have been able to see her. If anything, the cameras would incriminate Stirling and her posse more. "And second, they were up there on Anoleis' very illegal orders to begin with."
"What were you doing there?" Nihlus prompted.
"I was up there getting something or other."
"And how does that get us a pass?" Nihlus asked, mildly incredulous.
"Simple. I have a deal with office's administrator. I get him this something or other, before Anoleis' men get it, and he gives me his pass."
"And the men you killed?" Saren asked.
"Ah, but who said I killed anyone?" Shepard replied with a grin. The stunned look on Saren's face at that moment was positively priceless. Nihlus must have agreed, because he chuckled. She was not so sloppy as to give Anoleis the ability to deflect guilt by saying she committed the worse crime. "They're taking a nap, and by the time I'm done, they'll be unemployed. Now can I go and finish my exchange?"
"Where to?" Nihlus wondered.
"Hotel lounge, but there's a bit of a wrinkle, Parasini put me on the lead for this whole thing, and she approached me when I got out of the office. I think she intercepted the alarms, so Anoleis does not know I was up there. The wrinkle is that she wants to talk to me before I talk to the owner of the thing. She has her own agenda, but I haven't got a clue what it is."
Saren actually growled, "Get the pass, human. We are not here to solve this accursed place's problems. That woman is Anoleis' secretary; she probably wants to get the thing -as you call it- from you."
Shepard was not surprised that he immediately assumed that. "I would not put it past her, and yes, we may not be here to solve all of Noveria's problems, but I'm already in this mess, and I want to get to the bottom of it." Besides, if the OSD contained what she thought it contained, it might actually be enough to bury Anoleis. Maybe she was a little bit petty, but given half a chance to bury that corrupt ass, she would take it. She turned and peered out over the Port Hanshan plaza, a public terminal alcove was hardly the place to discuss this, but she had no choice.
"Saren, the blizzard will not dissipate by special request if we depart immediately. Let Shepard work, this is what she does," Nihlus said.
Shepard pretended she had not heard him as she turned toward the hotel and left the two Spectres behind. They would either keep up, or let her handle things her way.
In the end Nihlus and Saren both followed her, the latter probably only because he wanted to witness her crash and burn. The hotel bar got no less packed in the span of an hour and a half. Shepard instantly scanned for Qui'in and found him sitting at the same table in the back, still engrossed in his work. As she scanned around, she could not help but wonder which ERCS guard was the one on the take. In the end though, Shepard decided that he might not even be in uniform. Plain clothes would make sense if he was hovering close enough to Qui'in to know whom the turian met. It was not long before she spotted that rather very gaudy pink dress. Parasini sat on a stool at a tall table for two between two planter boxes. Shepard turned and made her approach. She slid into the open seat and set her hands on the table.
"Commander. Spectres." Parasini greeted with a slight inclining bow of her head. "I assume the Commander told you about our situation."
"Yes." Saren replied. "We were thoroughly briefed."
"Good. Allow me to re-introduce myself. Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs." The woman flashed a rather formal and real-looking identification card confirming her identity.
"Well I'll be damned," Shepard could not fully contain her surprise. Of all the possibilities, Parasini being Internal Affairs was up there as one of the less likely ones. Nevertheless, it certainly explained some things, up to and including why Parasini sent her to Qui'in. "Why is an internal affairs agent involved in this?" Shepard wondered. She hoped Parasini would realize she meant the whole Qui'in picture.
"The executive board knows about Anoleis' corruption. I've been undercover for six months looking for evidence, but Mister Qui'in beat me to the punch."
Then Anoleis found out, suddenly Parasini's urgency made sense.
"Commander, I want you to convince him to testify before the board. His records, together with his testimony are everything I need to prove Anoleis' guilt in one package."
Well that explained everything. She could see why Qui'in would not like Anoleis, and necessity made highly intelligent people get creative. Perhaps Qui'in even wanted to lean on Anoleis for that singular reason. In the end his reasons really did not matter. What mattered now was that if she could convince Qui'in to do the right thing, the rent gouging would end and the whole thing would stop being unpleasant for her. "I don't think Mister Qui'in will take well to that, and I need his pass." Shepard argued.
"You help my investigation and I'll provide whatever you need. Favor for a favor."
"Seems simple, Shepard. Convince Qui'in to do his duty, and we can go do ours." Nihlus said.
"I'll see what I can do," she said.
"That is all I ask. Thank you. You know where I work, come talk to me once you know if he'll play ball." Parasini slid out her seat and breezed off. Shepard figured that there were some preparations for the woman to make.
"Give Qui'in whatever you have, get his pass, and be done with this nonsense," Saren demanded as soon as Parasini was well out of earshot.
"We shall see," Shepard replied. Really of all people there, she would have expected Saren to want to bury Anoleis up to his eyeballs. Helping the NIA was the morally correct thing to do, but Shepard would have put money on the fact that Anoleis had crossed the white-clad Spectre to be the bigger draw. She figured Saren as the type to resent Anoleis for the run-around, but maybe he did not want her to score one over his head, was he that petty? Well, she did not care for his sensibilities. She wanted this whole mess not to leave an unpleasant taste in her mouth. Qui'in would use this information as blackmail, and she was very much against that. If he really wanted the rent gouging to end, he would not care how it was done. If there was more to his plan, well, someone was going to leave that conversation grossly disappointed.
She slid out her seat and moved toward the back of the lounge where Qui'in sat. Parasini had cleverly chosen a seat in such a location that Qui'in would not see them conversing, which worked for her. The sound of her boots on the bare flooring must have been enough as Qui'in looked up from his work when she approached.
"Ah, Miss Shepard. Always a pleasure." He greeted.
"It's Commander actually; I'm an Alliance officer." She replied as she slid into the seat opposite from him.
"Of course, pardon me. Any news on that matter I asked you to look into?"
"It is done, and the carpet will not require deep cleaning." He smiled at that, but Shepard knew his expression was going to change very quickly now. "An Internal Affairs investigator contacted me. She would like you testify against Anoleis."
Qui'in's caramel-colored eyes lost amusement quickly as his mandibles drew up against his chin. "Now that you have my property, you want to dictate how I use it? I have no interest in public spectacle."
Shepard shook her head, "I do not wish to dictate anything. But I think a little… spectacle is called for. Everyone in Port Hanshan chafes under Anoleis' extortion. You might end up a hero."
He sighed, "My employers rely on the goodwill of the Executive Board to work here."
"Yes, and I should think helping said Executive Board weed out someone who is costing them money would be good for goodwill," Shepard argued. Qui'in gave her a long, piercing stare, even as she could feel an even colder one aimed at the back of her neck. She was not going to flinch from this; it was the right course of action to take.
Still, she could understand that Qui'in may have wanted something more from this, maybe something more personal. "This will create a bit of a shake up of the status quo, but I always found that those present opportunities. Anoleis will get fired at the very least… and so the Executive Board will need to hire a new administrator. They will have to replace him quickly… so they will look for someone who already knows Port Hanshan and its operational norms. Of course, it would also have to be someone they can work with." As far as Shepard was concerned, doing the right thing did not necessarily mean giving up personal interest, it merely meant thinking outside the box. She was perfectly fine with telling Qui'in that she knew, and that he still had cards to play.
The long stare lingered as Qui'in mulled over the implications of what she said. Shepard leaned back in her seat and let him think.
"You are an interesting woman, Commander. Very well, I will testify. Make whatever arrangements you need with your contact."
"Thank you," Shepard smiled and slipped out of her seat.
Nihlus and Saren were standing a couple meters away by the wall, but they probably heard every single word. Nihlus' big grin was certainly a give-away. She walked right past them, her destination now Anoleis' office.
The office of Administrator Anoleis was not hard to find, it was off the side from the main plaza and flanked by atypically heavily-armed ERCS guards. The outer glass door opened for her automatically and Shepard stepped into a long, empty waiting space that had more public access terminals and seating. Their footsteps echoed on off the bare walls as they walked.
At the far end was another set of doors that also opened without resistance, and right in front of the door was Parasini, seated at a big desk. Out of the periphery, Shepard noted the presence of two more turians, and surprisingly Matsuo. Parasini looked prepared to move in with the arrest.
Shepard thought that it was a good thing that she would not have to go far to tell the head of security about her errant employees. Stirling and her crooks were probably out of the office already, but in all likelihood they had not had the time to access the security cameras. If Matsuo went to collect the data now, she would see exactly who was taking kick-backs.
Still, a small part of her always entertained every possibility, and right now there was the one where this might end up being a crooked scheme where Anoleis actually thought he would have the last laugh. She just hoped for the sake of these people that Parasini was actually Internal Affairs, as the four of them could not possibly handle her and two Spectres at the same time.
As she approached the table, Parasini got her feet. "Commander. Have you given any more considerations to what we discussed previously?"
Shepard noted the way Parasini clasped her hands in front of her, a subtle tick of nervousness that could mean a number of things. Either the woman was worried her six month job was not done, or she realized the four of them would not be enough.
"It took some persuasion, but Mister Qui'in has agreed to the arrangement."
Parasini sighed loudly, "That's a world of stress off my back."
Shepard actually grinned, so the woman was on the level. She reached into her pocket, withdrew the OSD, and put it on the table. "The… records."
Parasini took the device before she turned to the guards, "Miss Matsuo, arrest Mister Anoleis immediately on charges of extortion, bribery, and racketeering."
The dark-haired woman nodded and waved to the two turians to follow her deeper into the office.
Parasini watched them go, "I did not think you'd help me." She confessed. "A deal is a deal then," she reached into the drawer of her desk and withdrew a plastic card. "A pass to for the vehicle garage, as agreed upon. I even notified our mechanics to have a vehicle fueled and ready."
"Thank you," Shepard slid the pass across the table and palmed it.
At that moment there was an explosion of noise, "This is an outrage!" shouted a deep, but somewhat squeaky voice. Shepard turned her head, the show had begun. "I'll see that you never work in this sector again!"
"Yes, yes." Matsuo replied, not the least bothered.
Four figures came around the wall behind Parasini's desk. Anoleis was a salarian of a dark bluish-grey color, clad in a smoke grey and cobalt blue suit. Matsuo had handcuffed him and was now practically dragging him along by the upper arm, a grip the soon to be ex-administrator was very much against, given how much he tried to pull free. The other two guards walked a step behind them, and one looked vaguely bemused.
"You! Arterius! This is your doing! Next time I will not allow a single Spectre on Noveria!"
The look Saren spared the salarian was nothing short of absolute loathing, even worse than the ones he gave her. Shepard covered her mouth with her hand to conceal the giant smile she could not stop. Anoleis thought Saren had orchestrated this whole thing! Oh, if that was not the icing on her victory cake!
"Mister Anoleis, you have the right to remain silent. I wish to God you would exercise it." Parasini said.
The look of venom the salarian sent her way was all the more priceless. Matsuo pulled him toward the door, and he kept struggling and barking threats the whole way. Shepard turned back to Parasini, "There is one more thing."
"Of course, Commander. Anything else I can do?"
Shepard reached into her pocket and withdrew the second OSD. "When I was in the Synthetic Insights office, Mister Anoleis' men, ERCS guards paid under the table, were there looking for the data as well. I took this off their hands. Miss Matsuo does not know about their outside employment."
Parasini took the OSD from her hand and nodded. "I already pulled the security feeds; I planned to let Miss Matsuo know about them when we finished processing formal charges, but thank you."
"We have to go," Saren said.
"Oh. Of course. I wish you the best of luck and the easiest of tasks on Peak Fifteen."
Shepard nodded her acceptance, turned, and walked off. She was a few steps into the waiting area when a set of heavy footsteps caught up to her.
"I do hope you are happy, human." Saren said.
"Everyone did the right thing and I got us that pass. So yes, very!" Shepard replied, no use lying about that.
"Your meddling was unnecessary," Saren noted.
Shepard looked at him, "Oh, but that's the thing, Spectre Arterius, as far as most people on Port Hanshan are concerned, I had nothing to do with it. Anoleis himself certainly seems convinced the credit is all yours." She pointed out, keeping her voice intentionally flat.
Saren stopped suddenly, and then it must have sunk in, because he looked positively ready to murder her. Then Nihlus snorted and started chuckling. Saren sharply turned that murderous look on his former student.
"That is the first time I have seen someone manipulate another to take responsibility that benefits their reputation as comeuppance!" Nihlus murmured as his laughter faded.
Shepard grinned. As ludicrous as that sounded, Nihlus summed it up rather accurately. Thinking about it now she thought maybe she ought not to have said it, because tossing it in Saren's face was goading the bull, but there was also no use in crying over spilled milk. Dubious tact also did not invalidate the truth either. Only two people knew she did anything, Parasini and Qui'in, and neither had a reason to speak up. The Synthetic Insights office cameras might only show a little flicker of a cloak passing by. If the flicker did identify a cloaked human, most would sooner assume she was acting on the Spectre's orders. Anoleis would certainly blame Saren for everything, and loud-mouths like him easily shaped the version of events people embraced.
Shepard chose not to toss any more fuel on that fire and resumed walking. She was no mastermind; the whole thing could not have been planned, as it involved a convoluted set of circumstances. She only played her cards as dealt.
Shepard was acutely aware of Saren's silent animosity the whole way to the garage. He clearly did not like being made her scapegoat, but Shepard thought she made her point. If he wanted to think her stupid and incapable, it was his error, and it would cost him. She could have made him look much worse if she cared to. The silence was only broken when security at the garage entrance wanted to know who they were.
Port Hanshan's garage was much like the docks. A cavernous space blasted into the mountain and barely lined to keep the rocks stable. Like the Normandy's berth, temperature here plunged to zero degrees and the wind howled like a pack of wolves on the hunt as it worked its way inside through the cracks in the huge bay door.
Shepard stopped cold when she saw the vehicle prepared for them. "This will be an experience," she mumbled. Port Hanshan had an unarmed civilian version of an M-35 Mako, in all its six-wheel-drive, high-clearance, independently-suspended glory. The vehicle, famous for its ability to scale up seventy degree slopes while assisted by a mass effect core also handled like a boat when it had to traverse a straight line on level ground. The least shift in the center of mass or a tire bounce due to a flaw in the surface under acceleration could send it off in some unexpected direction. The power units in the nose also made it front-heavy, which manifested in a tendency to tip forward when deployed from a low-flying frigate for a thruster-assisted landing.
It made perfect sense that Port Hanshan would have one, but Shepard never mastered handling one. She would not admit that out loud though, it was embarrassing enough just thinking about it. She could perform high-altitude precision wingsuit inserts, but could not drive the land-boat. Well there was nothing to it now; she doubted Nihlus could just pick it up on the fly. She would have to drive and hope that the road did not get too bumpy. Still, with this weather, she was officially doomed to be found out in the worst way possible.
A barefaced turian in orange and blue mechanic's overalls approached them, "Spectres, Commander," he said gruffly. "Your Mako is charged and ready to go."
"Thank you." Shepard replied.
"I wish you luck." He added as he held out the vehicle's RFID fob key.
Shepard took the fob, nodded, and moved on. She knew she would need that luck, especially if she was to pack two tall Spectres into the tight confines of the Mako's rear passenger section. When she got close to the vehicle and raised the fob up to the side door, it sprung open. She climbed inside first and moved toward the driver's seat.
She heard footsteps on the deck when she jammed the fob into a slot by the system controls. The Mako's main systems powered up and Shepard tapped at the console between the crew seats. "Make yourselves comfortable. I need to run a full system check before we pull out. I am taking no chances with the blizzard."
"Good." Saren said.
"For once you will not get an argument even from Saren. Getting stuck in this weather with no heat is probably one of the worst things that can happen to a turian." Nihlus explained as he eased himself into the navigator's seat.
"Yea. I'm not big on the cold either, though most would think I'm right at home in the snow." She stopped and glanced at him, hopefully he would figure out that she was referring to her image as the White Death. Most thought that with a name like that she would not even feel the cold. "Alright, Nihlus can you figure out how to use the navigation system? I need an extra set of eyes on the imaging and ground-penetrating radars." This would be problematic enough without unscheduled descents.
"Got it."
"Power cells charged to capacity, motors check, thrusters check, eezo core check…" she mumbled as she read off the various colored status markers on the console. When she saw that all the sub-systems reported ready to go, she tripped the switch that closed the Mako's side hatch and initialized the environmental systems.
"The navigation system has all the lab facilities programmed in. I have our route." Nihlus announced.
"Then we're good to go," she said as she signaled the garage controls to open the bay doors.
The huge panel slid up and the wind and snow rushed in. One second she was looking at the ugly door, the second there was only a curtain of backlit white. Shepard tapped the controls to put the Mako into drive and gave it power. If she was at all faithful, she would have recited a Hail Mary, because this was going to be that.
Outside the garage, the terrain opened up onto the Aleutsk Valley, a deep ravine between sharp jagged peaks with glaciers and endless snow all over. When the Mako rolled out of the garage the wind seized it instantly, blowing under its high carriage, pushing against the side, seeking to either lift the vehicle off the ground or drive it sideways into the rock face.
Shepard tipped the control to increase their apparent mass, which would hopefully stabilize the ride. The road from Port Hanshan was a shelf blasted into the rock. Fortunately the edge was marked with regular safety beacons, red lights set on the tip of a filial that would remain visible no matter how much snow piled up on the road itself. Those red lights were about the only thing Shepard could see clearly, the rest was almost completely whitened out with the relentless falling snow. She focused on keeping her input even; a sudden jerk could cause the Mako to misbehave. The snow, the wind, and the poor visibility put her on edge around someone who could not be allowed to see even a hint of weakness.
Half an hour into the drive she was positively forcing herself to relax when everything in her was tense as a bowstring. The snow was messing with the Mako's radars. Imaging could barely see a hundred meters in front, and ground penetrating missed ruts which the Mako's tires found readily. The winding road meant that the direction of the wind pushing against them changed from one moment to the next. The only reprieves were the tunneled sections blasted through the mountains. Shepard could open the throttle in those, but otherwise she kept their speed low. Peak Fifteen was not particularly far, but she was taking no chances.
Shepard heard her communicator click, a private line attempt. She reached up and tapped her helmet authorization keys.
Nihlus hummed against her ear, "You know… this reminds of my flight training. We had to fly a route and land, instruments-only, through sandstorms on Palaven." He said.
The Mako entered another tunnel section. "We have something of the sort too, even for these land-boats." Shepard replied, idly wondering why he felt the need for a private link for this.
"Good to know. Between us we should have no problem."
Shepard blinked, and glanced at him, and then it suddenly dawned on her, he was trying to calm her down. She was not keen on anyone figuring out just how much she disliked being in environments that reminded her of Elysium, and how much driving this thing bothered her. Nihlus picked up on the latter. The private link was him keeping it from Saren. She was almost as thankful for that as she was for the assurances themselves.
The blizzard never let up, and it took a good two hours to get to their destination. Crowning the Skadi Mountains on the far side of the Aleutsk Valley, Peak Fifteen materialized like a wall from the curtain of white. Shepard drove the Mako into a receiving garage of what was known as Central Station.
As Nihlus explained during the ride, the lab facilities themselves were above Central Station, connected to it with monorail trams bored into the mountain. This dispersion of facilities allowed the lab's security to monitor who came and went, but also created multiple redundant quarantine procedures. Peak Fifteen had called Code Omega, serious breach of containment. It was the only sound part of why Anoleis would not let them come; the rest was just his decision to be an obstructionist.
In a manner of a minute all three of them were out on the ground and the Mako closed its hatch behind them. A moment of pause allowed Shepard to inspect the facilities. The garage's main lighting fixtures were dimmed and the red emergency lights were flashing. She noted the gantry crane overhead which led deeper in. It was large enough to be used to move heavy equipment, which made her wonder what sort of laboratory would require a gantry crane to move machinery. At the back was a large door to receive the equipment the crane shifted. She assumed there was a special cargo tram on the other side. On the left there was a set of stairs, which led to the clearly-labeled personnel entrance, which according to the sign, included a security checkpoint.
"User alert. All Peak Fifteen facilities have suffered a great deal of damage." A monotone voice announced over loudspeaker. "Biohazard materials present throughout facility. Virtual Intelligence user interface offline."
"Well, this is certainly not ominous. Nope, not at all," Shepard muttered.
Nihlus chuckled.
"Spare me your attempts at levity, human." Saren noted.
Shepard rolled her eyes but did not say anything. There was no need to antagonize the white-clad Spectre. Instead she took stock of things. Her HUD showed that the temperature in this space was ten degrees above freezing, which was not normal even if the bay door had opened just recently. The heating was off, which meant it would only get colder.
When Saren moved past them toward the stairs at the back, Nihlus followed, and Shepard trailed behind them. "It's too quiet, the lighting is too low, this cold... the power's been cut," she whispered to her mentor.
"Code Omega quarantine protocol entails exposing the labs to Noveria's cold. If they cannot regain control of the facilities that way, they will initialize the submersion of the hot labs." Nihlus replied.
Shepard followed the Spectres up the steps. Nihlus had seemingly scrounged a great deal of information on these labs during that hour she had spent playing hide and seek with ERCS guards. Shepard had an idea of what would be typical for a high security hot lab. Noveria and its various research facilities were considered maximum security due location on such a cold world. Hot labs were another security layer on top. They got their name from the fact that they were built into stable glaciers. In the event of a catastrophic loss of containment, the elevator shafts would decouple, and the facility's exterior would heat, sinking the whole structure to the bottom of the glacier. The melted water from that had nowhere to go except up. When it froze up anew it would entomb the block in ice for the rest of time. A simple but brutally efficient way to keep things contained.
The three of them came to the security checkpoint. The doors opened as soon as the infrared sensors detected heat. The security point was a room divided in two by a large transparent wall. On the one side there was a passage right through; on the other a security office. One foot inside, Shepard noticed that the automatic defense turrets mounted on the walls had deployed, and they faced inward.
"They are trying to keep something from getting out," Nihlus murmured.
Were they so bent on containing employees? Or was there something worse loose in this place? Shepard glanced into the security room on the other side of the transparent wall. There were mugs and plates on the table. "If this lab worked on cloned tissue only there would be no need for guns."
"Clearly these fools cloned more than just Rachni tissue." Saren replied.
"Unless these are for fleeing employees. Which makes this all the worse," Shepard argued.
The door on the other side of the checkpoint did not bar their path, and the corridor beyond turned ninety degrees to the left and into an elevator that took them up. Once the doors opened, they found themselves in another, shorter corridor, carved into the mountain and left largely unfinished. The floor was bare and the ice crunched underfoot. At the other side was another door, which led to a large two-storey lobby-like place.
This space seemed set into the mountain as well. The only light was murky sunlight filtering through large translucent panels partly obstructed by snow. The bottom level seemed to be a mess hall, while the second had offices of some sort. The air here was absolutely still and deathly silent, but the room still retained plenty of evidence of a hasty evacuation. Some tables still had meal settings that were never cleaned up. As the three of them made their way through the space, Shepard could sneak a glance at the meals. She was surprised to see no actual food or drinks. A few places had smears of sauce, but otherwise every shred of something edible was gone.
"Saren, you hear that?" Nihlus asked as they walked among the tables.
The white-clad Spectre hummed.
Shepard tipped her head from side to side, straining to hear what might be going on. In the silence that settled as the turians listened to their surroundings, she realized she was out of her loop. She could not hear a darn thing that was not her own suit.
"There is something moving in the ducts," Nihlus said.
Shepard nodded. Nihlus knew her hearing was not as good as his, so he was only pointing her in the right direction. Shepard slipped her hands to her guns and turned them on.
Saren moved toward the steps that led to the upper level of the hall. Shepard followed wordlessly, with Nihlus trailing behind. At the top of the stairs was what looked like a small recreational area. There were tables, chairs, and offline vid screens. Someone forgot a suit jacket on the back of one of the chairs. Then on their left were two offices with a large transparent wall panels for windows, which overlooked the hall. So far as Shepard could see, both were empty and their doors were unlocked. The walkway then led past the offices, to another door marked with a glowing sign that bore some sort of symbol that Shepard could not make out.
As they passed the last office, Shepard heard something skittering, which made her look up sharply. The skittering sounded like dozens of tiny feet on thin metal in a space that resonated with multiple echoes. She heard the door open and knew she ought to follow quietly and quickly.
This door led them to another short hallway carved into bare rock, at the end of which was another elevator which took them further up. From there the hallway made another ninety degree left-hand turn and revealed another doorway. All these twists and turns and elevators made Shepard think of a horror vid, which did nothing for her remaining calm. Her sense of danger was positively buzzing, convinced she was currently watched. The final door opened up onto a transfer facility. On the left was the access way to the tram, clearly labeled with a glowing sign that showed a stylized pictograph of a tram. In front was a door with a sign that looked like a radio dish, and on their right one with that symbol she could not quite make out.
"We need to bring the facility's VI back online if we want to know what happened here," Nihlus said.
Shepard heard more skittering from the vents above. "Whatever it is… it's following us," she said.
Saren hummed a grudging assent.
"They." Nihlus said, "There is definitely more than one, but I can not tell how many. There is too much echoing."
"Glorious." She could hear the sound clearly now, like a miniature stampede somewhere above her head. She also knew that looking into the grates was moot, and might actually make whatever it was up there attack. She was not going to do the horror vid cliché. Whatever it was, if it wanted a piece of her, it would have to come out where she could see and pump it full of bullets.
As Saren moved deeper into the space, toward the doorway that was marked with the satellite dish, the skittering picked up, louder than ever. Suddenly it was in front of them. Saren reached for his rifle and just like that the vent grate at the end of the space dropped to the floor. Dozens of small green creatures dropped down in a single mass. Shepard drew her guns, and Nihlus reached back for his assault rifle.
The creatures writhed in a ball of bodies before they righted themselves on their four spindly legs and charged. Nihlus opened fire first, and Saren followed suit. As the shots sprayed over the creatures, their bodies exploded into a nasty brown liquid that splattered everywhere. Yet they kept coming. Shepard joined the fray, pumping shots into them, suddenly very aware that her arsenal could not deal with these numbers.
Nihlus' rifle cut out in clicks first, thermal clip at capacity. Saren's followed, and yet more of the little things remained. Shepard stepped back as Sin and Dex gave their fifth barks, and after the sixth, her clips filled. At that moment the remaining five creatures jumped into the air with high pitched hisses.
"Shepard!"
What happened next was too fast for Shepard to keep track. One second she saw the creatures jump and the next she was enveloped in a one-armed bear hug as her vision filled with charcoal black and burgundy red. There was a whomp and the sound of a liquid splattering. Closer now, she could hear something hiss in that tell-tale acid-eating-through-things way. Shepard holstered her guns and grabbed at her mentor's armor, "Nihlus are you-" Oh hell; did he just take it across his back?
He laughed almost right into her ear and Shepard let go of his armor. His arm unwound from around her, "I am fine."
Then Nihlus turned, stepped aside, and ejected the hot thermal clip from his rifle. Now Shepard could see what happened. Saren had stepped in front of Nihlus, and Nihlus had yanked her to him. The white-clad Spectre was still glowing with a periwinkle corona, and judging from the bubbling gunk at his feet, the suicidal little creatures produced a lot of acid between them.
It took her a moment to realize two obvious things. First, Saren Arterius was a powerful biotic. Second, the spray pattern on the floor showed where his biotic barrier had stopped. He had shielded himself and his former student. It was Nihlus' quick thinking that prevented her from being hit by a splash of acid. Shepard mutely slipped her fingers over the receiver releases to eject spent clips and reached behind her back for a fresh pair. If Saren thought she would cause a fuss, he was dead wrong, but she did have a rather long memory.
"Saren, what were those things?" Nihlus asked.
"Worker rachni."
"Spirits, it is true then." Nihlus breathed.
"Indeed."
Shepard thought Saren sounded too blasé for someone who was facing a very ancient and suddenly very real threat. Still, maybe he had a right to be. If those things made that much racket before they attacked, they would never take the three of them by surprise. Even she could hear the stampede of tiny spindly legs when it was close. Turians could probably hear it a kilometer away. Still, she felt very much under-armed as she only had twelve shots in her guns. If these workers always arrived in writhing masses, she could not kill all of them on her own. For the time being she would have to rely on the hail of bullets the Spectres could produce, despite the fact that only Nihlus would actively help her. All evidence pointed to the fact that Saren would not go out of his way for her.
The white-clad Spectre continued to the door, and Shepard had no choice but the follow him. In the room on the other side there was a great bank of computers and what looked like the holographic terminal for the VI. Most of the galaxy used a holographic image of a person as the face of VI software like this. On the Citadel, the information kiosks were operated by a VI called Avina, who looked like a transparent holographic asari. When Saren stopped in front of the holographic pad, the VI did not materialize, confirming that it was indeed down.
"Bringing the VI back online ought to be simple." Nihlus wandered off toward the computers that lined the walls of the room. "Here. I think this is a maintenance console."
"Can I see?" Shepard asked as walked over to where he stood. She slid in front of it and tapped around. While not a VI expert by any sense of the word, Shepard knew a thing or two. Most VIs were so simple to turn on and off that a child could do it. "I can bring it back online, give me a minute." She tapped a series of keys, and within seconds she knew what the problem was. "The security protocol disconnected a few of the databases from the virtual intelligence matrix. I just need a moment to get the system to…" she trailed off, hands flying across the keys. "Bingo!" she announced.
The holographic console Saren stood next to lit up; a woman-like hologram appeared. "It looks like you are trying to restore this facility. Would you like help?"
"System information," Saren replied.
"This system is monitored to respond to the name 'Mira'. May I ask your name?"
"Saren Arterius. Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."
Shepard now stood as close to the white-clad Spectre as she dared, all considering. She thought he sounded less than pleased to be talking to a human-like artificial construct. Whether that was simply because it looked human or because Saren hated VI interfaces, Shepard would not hazard a guess.
"One moment please." The VI paused. "Council authority confirmed. You are entitled to Secure Access of all systems. Please note that queries relating to corporate secrets require Privileged Access. Privileged Access is only available to Binary Helix executives."
"We need access to the main facilities."
"To access the main facilities, you must take the tramway to Rift Station. User Alert! The tramway system is currently inoperable."
"VIs, right?" Nihlus grumbled.
"Is the tramway damaged?"
"One moment, please. Diagnostics in progress." Its proxy-eyes seemed to go glassy and unfocused, a rather disturbing zombie-like look.
Shepard did not like that little part about these sorts of systems; they went straight into the uncanny valley of creepily unnatural.
"Critical Failure: Main reactor shut down in accordance with emergency containment procedures. Manual restart required. Critical Failure: Landline connections are disabled. Passenger tram systems are offline. Report complete."
"How do we restore power?"
"The valves to the helium-3 fuel line must be opened. This can be done at the controls on the reactor assembly proper."
"And the purpose of the landlines?"
"The landlines connect my mainframe here at Central Station to the various sub-facilities of Peak Fifteen. This allows the crew to remotely access my databases from the comfort and security of their labs. When emergency protocols were implemented within the hot labs, the cabling was automatically ejected."
"In other words, this is the computer that runs all the facilities on Peak Fifteen, and until it can interface with everything again, we are going nowhere," Nihlus summed up.
"We should not split up. There might be more of those workers in the vents, and if they keep coming in mass…" Shepard cut off. She did not want to face that again, alone or even with just Nihlus, they did not have the firepower. She hated having to rely on Saren, but a gun was a gun, no matter who wielded it.
"Well the communication access is this way; we handle that first, and then see about the reactor." Nihlus motioned to the door behind them.
This time, he was the first one to approach it, and Shepard followed. The door led through another short corridor to yet another elevator, which took them even further up. Beyond the short hallway on the upper level, the door led out onto what appeared to be the roof of the Central Station. Shepard raised her arm to bar their passage when she saw the snow blowing across the floor.
"Let me do it," she said. If they went out into this cold, despite the fact that Noveria's atmosphere was actually breathable, even a few minutes of exposure would cause severe frostbite. As she tapped the side of her helmet to close her breathing apparatus and then engaged her seals, she inspected the rooftop. There were conduits everywhere, electrical boxes of various kinds, and a satellite dish. She could see another holographic panel and the maintenance console.
Higher up over their heads the network of cables climbed partly up the wall and came together into three thick bundles that ended with plugs made up of dozens of sharp gold-plated needle-like prongs. These ought to have been in their sockets, which were embedded in the wall. But the clamps that held the plugs in place had opened, and gravity took over. The cables still hung in place; their ends mere meters from where they ought to be. There were thin guide wires running from within the sockets to the plugs. Shepard hazarded a guess that once the system was told to re-couple, those guide wires would pull the plugs back into the sockets.
She moved toward the maintenance console, and immediately brought up the interface. Her HUD showed the temperature up here was minus sixty-three, which meant her armor was going through its energy pack just to keep her from freezing. She needed to reconnect the landlines quickly.
She tapped at the console when a shadow fell over her; Shepard glanced up, only to see Nihlus and Saren. Both had their helmets closed, faces invisible. She should have known the former would not let her come out here alone, the latter probably did not trust her not to bungle things. There was a thud as one of the cables began to move "That's conduit one. Each of these things has its own sub-system." She announced as she continued to work. Then the second cable began to move, Shepard looked up and watched as the first cable's prongs slid into their sockets, and when the cable was fully inserted, the clamps closed. The second was in the middle of a similar process. She turned back to the console and accessed the third conduit. A few second later, the cable began to move. She only watched it until she saw the clamps engage and the console reported that the cables were properly connected and had full contact.
After that the three of them retraced their steps back to the VI control room, and then the interchange beyond. From there they turned the side door that led to the power core. The corridor was much longer and took them to yet another elevator, this time it took them down. At the end of that was another hallway ending with a door.
The door opened as soon as they were close enough and now they were in a small control room overlooking the core assembly. The space beyond was three levels at least, with the large helium-3 fusion core dominating it all. On either side of the maintenance room was a doorway which led onto the catwalk access that ringed the core itself. The lighting beyond was scant and the atmosphere in the room seemed more deathly silent than a cemetery. The core room was also still relatively warm, ten degrees. That told her something of the timing. The typical helium-3 fusion reactor was hot on top of humming. This one was large enough to heat its surroundings, and it would take a good long while for an insulated room to cool when the core shut down due to loss of fuel. She moved to the terminal in front of the transparent panels overlooking the core, hoping that it would be the end of this mess.
For a long moment there was silence as she inspected the system, looking for the fuel valve controls. Shutting off the fuel in an emergency was the simplest, safest way to shut down a core without a team of engineers to ramp it down. Where were those controls? Suddenly she heard whines behind her, the unmistakable sound of cocking weapons. Shepard looked up and blinked. Saren and Nihlus had drawn their rifles, and that told her that once again they could hear something she could not.
"Vents again?" she asked as she looked up.
"No. There is something else here." Nihlus replied.
Shepard peered out toward the darkened core. Would it be much to ask for it to be some stupid employees taking refuge? It made sense; the core would be the last room where they would freeze to death and one of the first places a rescue team would search, simply because they would have to restore the power.
She turned back to the console and worked with a renewed zeal. A minute ticked by and Shepard sighed in frustration, "I cannot access the fuel valves from here. When Mira said the reactor assembly, I think it meant it literally." She glanced out onto the core. In that moment, a shape flicked through the gloom. She reached for her guns.
"You better work fast, human. We are not alone here," Saren said.
"Don't I know it," Shepard murmured.
The white-clad Spectre moved toward the door closest to him and opened it. Nihlus followed, and Shepard brought up the rear.
Barely a few steps past the door there was a loud high pitched squeaking screech, and a brown creature emerged from the gloom, shrieking as it advanced. Unlike the workers that resembled dinner-plate-sized green aphids on four legs, this creature looked more like a cross of a cockroach and a lobster. It stood at least a meter and a half tall on four spindly triple-jointed legs. It had tiny eyes, two sets of antennas, and a mouth surrounded by five mandible-like things that flared open with each shriek. Where its torso curved vertically from the head down to the belly it had a pair of arm-like appendages, each tipped with two long clawed fingers, and further along a pair of long whip-like limbs, each tipped with a bulbous section that split into three parts.
As the creature advanced, shrieking and thrashing its whip-like appendages, a second materialized from the gloom right behind it. Then suddenly the leading creature slung both its whip-arms, the triple parts joined into a single spear point. Shepard raised Sin and Dex, laser sights flared, and fired. Her bullets ripped the tips apart, which made the creature retract the tentacles, spraying some sort of liquid everywhere, even as it hissed louder yet and charged forward.
"Kill them!" Saren ordered as he opened fire.
Their shrieking became a cacophony as bullets ripped through chitin, splashing rancid brown liquid every which way. She fired again and again, aiming for the heads of the creatures. Saren's gun ripped huge holes in the exoskeleton of the leading creature, but it took her emptying Sin into its head to finally cause the thing to collapse. The creature in the back merely stepped on and over the body of its fallen kin on its way at them.
Shepard turned Dex on it at the same time that Saren's gun clipped out. Nihlus opened fire with her, his bullets ripping away exoskeleton, exposing dark fleshy parts underneath. After what seemed like an eternity the creature stumbled and fell, still twitching and jerking in its death throes.
Shepard ejected her spent clips and holstered her guns to reload. There was a sudden silence in the room. "Are there any more of them?" she asked Nihlus, because right now Saren was giving her the death glare again. She could practically see the accusation right there. Humans cloned dangerously large very much living rachni. There was just no way this could possibly get worse.
"None that I can hear." Nihlus replied.
"Good. Because holy hell. I shot each five times in the head, with a Carnifex, and the first three looked like they didn't even register." Her take-away from this was that the rachni were tougher than she would have given them credit. Right now it also looked like the bits on Binthu might have been living specimens once. Just how many said specimens did this lab produce?
"Now you know why they needed the Krogan to stop them."
"Will you reiterate your justification, human?" Saren asked.
Shepard knew that tone, and knew what he was digging at. "In theory, yes." She was not going to back down. Strictly speaking, ethical research into the rachni was to be encouraged. "In practice… well I have nothing against destroying the rachni here and erasing every shred of data gathered on them." The problem was that this was not ethical research. She thought that was argument closed, for now, and moved past him to circle the core.
The walkway was sleek with rachni fluids, but fortunately because of the holes, no puddles had formed. As she turned the corner, she saw a console mounted along the back part of the catwalk. Shepard was in the system in seconds. The Spectres made their way over just as she found the controls for the fuel lines. "The system is user friendly; it includes the procedure for a restart. I have to open the fuel lines gradually; a rapid fuel injection will cause a rapid increase in the fusion rate and a heat spike, which might damage the containment envelope and cause the core to shut down again. No restarting it then."
The core stirred to life as soon as she initialized the first stage, ten percent capacity. The computer told her when to increase output as the cooling system reacted. From there she opened the valves to thirty, which already increased the light levels in the core room. It was like everything was coming out of cold sleep. The cooling pumps kicked in fully, the mass effect field that helped contain the core's reaction manifested as a periwinkle corona around the bulbous containment chamber. She increased the fuel injection to sixty percent, and then fully after two more minutes, which increased output to ninety percent. The final ten percent would manifest on its own once the reactor reached optimal temperature and rate.
"Done. Let's get out of here. A core this powerful will soon make this room uncomfortably toasty."
They retraced their steps back to the interchange. The light level had increased all around. The monitor next to the door leading to the tramway had turned on, indicating that the tram system was operational and one of the cars was in fact at the terminal. The door led them through a long corridor to yet another elevator, which took them up. Throughout the walk, Shepard listened to the vents. The restoration of power had kicked the heating back on, so if there were more workers in the ducts, they would become boisterous. She could hear the circulating vents and the humming of the heating system, but there was no skittering that indicated workers.
Beyond the elevator they found a second security checkpoint like the one they had cleared on their way up from the garage. The door to the transverse section was marked with red indicators, locked. Saren stepped into the security room adjacent to the security checkpoint and Nihlus followed. Shepard was the last one inside. The problem was clear to see, there was another Rachni soldier in the transverse section, locked in by the doors.
The security guard, a salarian, was lying on the floor in the security room. Shepard moved over to him, but she did not need to check his vitals to know he was dead. He had a clear fly-through wound, temple to temple, blood pooling around his head, and the gun was still there, lying within reach. "Self inflicted. He committed suicide."
"If he was the one to lock that thing inside…" Nihlus said.
"Why not purge it?" Shepard asked. "Look, the warning sign, this checkpoint has a plasma purge system."
"It uses diverted plasma from the core. If those things got here when cold quarantine already began, the power core would have been shut down."
Shepard hummed, "Well we restored the core." She reached for the console that the salarian had to have been sitting at. A few taps brought up the security controls; the console was still logged in. A few more taps and the plasma purge system ignited. The rachni soldier trapped inside shrieked before it was liquefied. Once the system detected that there was nothing in the chamber, the door status panels turned green.
Shepard sat there. The sound of the rachni's agony was something she wished she had not heard. That shriek had not been an animal in its death throes, it almost sounded like a sapient being in pain. She had to remind herself that the rachni were to some degree sapient. They had at one point been able to built ships and travel the stars. Still, when the Council, back then made up of the asari and salarians, encountered them, the bugs attacked the envoys. From there, they spread via the relay corridors until they threatened asari and salarian space. The salarians uplifted the Krogan as an emergency measure.
In many ways, the First Contact War owed much to the rachni. To this day the Council feared activating uncharted relays, because last time the Rachni Wars followed. Humanity had unknowingly echoed the naïve optimism of the asari explorers. Unfortunately Alliance ships activating a relay were encountered by the Turians, and they had a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy.
She mutely followed Saren and Nihlus as the Spectres exited the security office and made their way through the previously locked checkpoint. Beyond was another long corridor, which finally led them onto the tramway platform. It was a cramped, rectangular shoebox with waiting seats, and at the end of it stood the tram. Shepard had a horrible sinking feeling that she just could not ditch.
The tram car made its way through an entirely covered tunnel devoid of lighting, and the trip felt like it took a day short of forever when it was really barely ten minutes. Rift Station was completely abandoned. The platform here was similar to the one they came from, though leading from it were two doors. The left-hand door led to worker quarters, while the other locked door led into the labs.
Saren approached the lab door and tapped at its console, but within seconds it became obvious that the door would not open, no matter how it was poked and prodded.
"That only leaves the crew quarters. If any of the scientists survived, they will have the keys. A high enough clearance level ought to bypass the quarantine lockout." Nihlus said as he moved toward the other door.
Shepard followed immediately. If there were surviving scientists here, they would probably he half out of their minds with fear. She had a feeling that right now, she would need to step between them and Saren, for the simple reason that the white-clad Spectre would probably allow nothing for the effects of trauma. He would not get any help from them, and the scientists would suffer for it.
The crew quarter's door led to another landing room with two doors, one that went to the quarters, and another that was an entrance to another lab. This second door was also red-lit and locked. Nihlus completely bypassed it in favor of the other. Once there they had to take another elevator up. Once the elevator door opened, Shepard threw up her arm, stalling Nihlus from exiting the cabin. There were four armed men standing behind crate barricades, and they had their guns aimed at the elevator.
"Stand down!" someone shouted. As one, all four men lowered their guns.
Shepard decided that perhaps now was the best time to play mediator. She was the first off the elevator and approached the speaker, who was clearly their leader. He was a tall, dark-skinned, bald man in white armor.
"Sorry." He said, "Captain Ventralis, Elanus Risk Control Services. We couldn't be sure what was on the elevator. We're taking no chances here. Who are you?"
"Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy, these are…" she glanced back, Saren was going to have her head. "Nihlus Kryik and Saren Arterius, Council Spectres."
"Huh… well… welcome. You won't see me turning down armed bodies, not in this mess. We lost containment in the hot labs seven days ago and we've been trying to keep those things off us ever since. They clawed up the vents into my command post. Killed half my men before we knew what was going on."
"How many survived?" Shepard asked.
"Counting my men and myself… there's seventeen of us. Ten are scientists and lab techs."
"You survived seven days of this siege; I'd say you did a good job."
"Yea?" he paused and shrugged, "Sure as hell doesn't feel like it. We can't get any communication out; they probably think we're all dead. Probably waiting for the cold to freeze the things out."
With the power restored, freezing the rachni out was no longer going to happen. If they did not fix the problem soon, the hot labs would sink. Shepard knew better than to mention that to these people. No need to make them even more nervous.
"We need access to the hot labs," Saren said.
"Figured you'd want that. Normally you can take the tram from Central Station directly to the hot lab, but the tunnel's been contaminated and closed. There's an emergency elevator out by the trams, you passed it." He reached into a pocket on his webbing and produced a key card. "This card will let you activate it. It will take you straight down."
Shepard took the card from him and slipped it into her pocket. She knew Saren would want to go down there immediately, but Shepard wanted to get to the bottom of this mess. This lab was somehow connected to Binthu and to Cerberus. She was not going to let Saren get in the way of her investigation.
"If you need medical supplies, go see Doctor Cohen in the medbay." The guard went on.
"Who else of the research team survived?" Shepard wondered.
"The staff of the secure and quarantine labs mainly. Most of the research team from the hot lab never got out... except Doctor Olar. He's the only one who escaped. Fair warning, he's… seen something down there that rattled him."
Shepard suspected that 'rattled' meant Olar would be in the early stages of post-traumatic stress disorder with possible side of survivor's guilt; civilians were more susceptible to both, especially in these sorts of circumstances. "The others don't know what going on down there?"
"No. Compartmentalization is tight here; those who work in the different labs do not tell each other what they're working on. Even I do not know. So long as people do not start dying on me I do not need to know."
Shepard was not amused, such tight compartmentalization effectively created a security problem. She could tell how and why these men were caught off-guard when the breach happened. She glanced back at Saren and Nihlus who had remained oddly quiet during the whole tête-à-tête. When they did not seem keen on protesting, Shepard turned back to the ERCS men. "Well thanks, Captain; we'll get this sorted out, one way or another." She said.
"I really hope you do. We haven't had the luxury of much sleep in days. Stims only take us so far."
Shepard nodded and moved past the barricade toward the door that led into the staff quarters. She listened for the two sets of turian footsteps behind her. The door led into a corridor that bore the signs of battle, acid burn marks, and dark splotches that looked like dried blood. The rachni had gotten far, but the ERCS men seemed to have taken some control back, for now. Past another door she found the security desk with the surveillance equipment, where she paused to let the Spectres catch up.
"What our plan?" Nihlus wondered.
"I don't think we have a plan. There's too little to go on right now. We need to talk to this Doctor Olar. Gently mind you. I suspect he has burgeoning post-traumatic stress disorder. Say the wrong thing and he'll either go catatonic or have a flashback and a panic attack."
"We have no time to cajole weak-willed civilians." Saren replied.
"We will make time." Shepard rebuffed. "This place has connections to Binthu, connections I am interested in. I will not botch my investigation by rushing."
"She has you there, Saren. Now, personally, I am interested in the staff of the quarantine and secure labs. This place is a single operation, and though Ventralis insists otherwise, some cross-communication was bound to happen," Nihlus added.
"Also, if the rachni killed everyone in the hot labs other than this one doctor… I think there are more than a few of them left. Two are difficult to handle, but more? There has to be a way to handle them without risking our limbs or sinking the hot lab to the bottom of the glacier."
"It is highly likely they have a neutron purge system." Saren offered.
"Would be ideal, but that's all the more reasons why we need to talk to Olar, he would know for sure."
Shepard could see that she was making points here. This was a typical brainstorm session for her. The fact that Saren had begun to contribute was encouraging. Still, the task ahead looked quite monumental. As Shepard continued down the corridor, she could not help but worry. How did this situation get so out of hand? To be sure, now that she knew there were three labs involved the operation looked to be quite large. Where did Cerberus fit in? There were dozens of questions buzzing in her head; she wanted answers to each and every one.
Author Notes: This was a rather fun episode to write, even if it did turn out a little dry in the second half. I enjoyed writing this delightful growing conflict between Shepard and Saren. I was not going to make them okay with each other before they ground down some obvious axes with each other. Shepard is not going to make it easy either, she can play nice with him, but at the end of the day she will not compromise on her own goals.
General Notes:
Nothing this time…
Chapter Notes:
Nothing this time…