Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: Well, this is the episode 21 of season two. I am getting excited for the finale arc. Though I feel like I owe people a bit of an apology ahead of time. The opening scene has me trying to describe what it's like to be inside a building that might be collapsing. I do apologize if that brings back uncomfortable recollections of any sort for someone.
Episode 47: The Hidden Garden [Part I]
Giving the order to run was well and good, but the floor was vibrating so hard that it there was no way to move at any speed past half-stumble. Before she got more than five meters down the corridor there was a loud crack and the long whining moan of bending and shearing metal. The wind and dust blasted inside, hitting her right across the back and obscuring her sight.
The ship's engines sprung to life, their roar akin to the sound of standing behind a monstrous waterfall, but a hundred times louder. The soundwaves packed enough force to tax her heart. Suddenly something snapped, a blast of wind and dust washed over her, and the ship's engine noise began to move, but she knew better than to linger to confirm things.
Shepard put her hand against the wall to steady and guide herself as she stumbled along. She was unashamedly terrified at the thought that the tower might just come down. The engine noise slowly died away, but the dust continued to billow and now the wind shrieked over her seals freely. Its full fury was now streaming into what was essentially a wind tunnel, filling every nook and cranny, seeking to equalize the tower's pressure. This was not what Shepard had anticipated. She though they would lose a section of the outer wall and a chunk of the floor, but this did not feel like just a chunk. This felt like half the building was gone.
"Commander!"
"Shepard!"
The noise across her seals prevented her from telling voices apart, but she could see multiple beams of light through the dust.
"Here, let me…"
There was a whomp and the dust began to glow with a periwinkle luminance. The wind calmed and the dust stopped rushing past her. Without the wind screaming in her ear like a banshee she could tell that the snapping and cracking had stopped. Liara materialized from the gloom, arm aloft, and her whole body glowing periwinkle.
"Shepard! Thank the spirits!" Nihlus appeared in front of her, and a moment later his hand settled on her shoulder.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded. Had she not ordered them all to make for the stairs?
"Since when do I follow orders?" he replied frankly, "I have her!" he called for the others.
Shepard shrugged his hand off. Did he not realize she was worried for them? Oh of course he would not. She reached down to check that Sin and Dex were still in their holsters. She could feel Nike at her back, so checking on the rifle was not necessary.
"Can you cover us for a bit, Doctor T'Soni?" Nihlus asked.
"Yes… I think I can keep it up, but not for too long." Liara replied.
Shepard turned to look in the direction she had come from. Liara's barrier spanned what had been a corridor, except now it was an open maw. The explosives crate was less than a meter away from a precipitous drop through the floor, and a large chunk of the level above them had also caved in. Yet the worst was the missing section of the outer wall beyond. The opening gaped widest on this floor, but she could see sunlight through the collapse above and past the destroyed floor. If this much damage was done by one set of claws, what had the other two sets done? "We need to evacuate this tower."
"You got it," Nihlus replied. "Now can we go?"
Shepard ignored him as she went and grabbed the explosives crate's handle. When she dragged it away from the edge it sent more little chunks of polycrete tumbling below. Still, Shepard knew she had to do this. She could not leave explosives lying around.
Nihlus grabbed hold of the other handle and raised the crate off the floor, "Come on."
Shepard could not miss the curt bark in his tone, "No argument here." It was not easy matching his pace given their difference in height and leg length, but fear put zip in her step. Liara followed behind them, walking her barrier back as she went.
"Commander, are you alright?" Kaidan asked as they rejoined the group. "I'm sorry, I wasn't much help…"
"It's alright Kaidan." Shepard replied as she clapped her free hand on his shoulder.
"Commander, allow me to take over." Garrus slid up to her side.
"Thanks," Shepard replied as she felt him grab the handle's other half. When she was sure he had a solid grip, she let go. Normally she would have protested that she could handle a little load, but there was a wobble in her step and she could not match pace with Nihlus comfortably. Now with some more meters away from the edge and having not heard a single additional collapse, she took a deep breath and let it out of her mouth. "Legion, can you tell me what happened to the heretic ship?" She asked.
"Affirmative. The heretic vessel was not ready for flight, they were unable to take off." Legion replied calmly.
"They went down?"
"Affirmative." Legion replied.
"Thank you," Shepard replied. She chose to forgo celebrating, simply because the heretics were Legion's people, regardless of what they chose to do. They were paying the price for Nazara, and that did not merit celebration.
When they were about half-way down the corridor, she heard Liara groan as the wind picked up again and the dust resumed billowing freely.
"Shepard, do you want to evacuate the ExoGeni employees to Zhu's Hope?" Nihlus asked. "Some will not go."
"Those would be the ones who know about the Thorian," Garrus slipped in.
Shepard hummed her agreement. Without a doubt Jeong would create a fuss, but would he expose himself? Anyone with even a shred of morals would turn against him in an instant. Suddenly that train of thought ground to a halt with wheels screeching. "Oh..." She smiled to herself. How had she not thought of this sooner? "That's a quick way of separating ExoGeni's innocent clueless employees, if there are any, from the willing stooges."
"A bit late there, Shepard." the Spectre said, voice laced with amusement.
Shepard blinked, surprised. Had Nihlus been angling for that from the get go? Well, he could claim a victory, just this once. She was not going to deny that she should have thought of that sooner. "Alright, well… that's a plan. There is no way I am letting ExoGeni get away with this, but they are small fry compared to our real issue. The Thorian. I am not letting it keep the colonists."
"What about the other AI?" Ashley asked.
Shepard had kind of written Nazara off by now. "It lost its bait, and it will not come after us here without exposing itself. The only thing it can still do is either cut its losses and leave, or gamble and remain up there, under stealth, hoping that the Normandy exposes itself before it does." They had reached to corridor where the stairs were. It went without saying that Shepard knew she needed to give Nazara a reason to run off. "Legion, could you send the Normandy a message again? I want Joker to notify Admiral Hackett that we need a show of force to scare off a stealth ship. Oh and we have colonists to evacuate. It is my determination that Feros is now in a state of emergency. Make sure to mention that, Joker needs to use those words, it's important." It would get a very specific response from Colonial Affairs.
"Acknowledged. We will compile code for transmission. Stand by." Legion replied.
"Thanks, Legion." Shepard replied. "That will take care of the AI. The frigates will arrive a few hours ahead of the relief. They will scare Nazara off right quick. The Normandy will remain hidden for the time being. We can stay down here. Our Kodiak has enough provisions to keep us for a day."
"We're camping?" Jenkins asked.
"Yes." Shepard replied.
"We have created and compiled the appropriate code. Accessing…" Legion announced, distant and detached, it was just a status update.
Shepard approached the stairway. The situation was hardly desirable, but unavoidable. Nazara's ambush was well laid, and it would have worked were it not for their own stealth capability. She figured she was working with the situation as best she could.
They made the return trip to the parking garage with some urgency, but it was largely uneventful. So far it looked like that tower was able to withstand that much damage. That calmed Shepard's nerves and allowed her to think. She knew that if she was going to use the situation to her advantage, it had to be sooner rather than later. Fortunately by the time they reached the Kodiak she had a plan. First, she ordered Garrus and Nihlus to stow the explosives aboard, and only then did she make her way down to the parking garage.
Predictably the situation down there had changed. For one, the garage was no longer pitch black. As Shepard descended her eyes landed on the pair of civilian wheeled trucks in the corner. The security personnel were moving crates from the storage space into the vehicles. Jeong was outside their hiding closet, pacing as much as he was supervising. "Hurry up!" he barked, "This building is no longer safe! We need to get to-" he turned then, saw her, and froze. "Oh…"
Shepard put on her poker face. "Administrator, it's good that you began evacuation preparations already," She said calmly. For the time being she would act as if she did not suspect a thing, and see where that got her.
"Yes, evacuation…" Jeong replied slowly.
"Do not believe a word he says, Commander!" Juliana Baynham called as she stepped out of the utility space. "Jeong, tell them about what you did!"
Jeong blanched like a sheet and backed away.
Lizbeth appeared behind her mother, and she looked no worse for wear, much to Shepard's relief.
Juliana glared at Jeong for a long moment, but when that got her nowhere she harrumphed and turned away, "Commander, we heard the geth ship come down, and he contacted ExoGeni HQ. He had a secret communication device all this time! But that's not the issue… the issue is that they told him to purge everything!"
Shepard knew exactly what 'purge' meant here. ExoGeni's executives were panicking like their hair was on fire.
"Enough Juliana. This is none of their business. Someone get her out of here!" Jeong shouted, wildly looking about.
All the guards around them stopped where they stood, exchanging looks amidst themselves.
"Don't you dare!" Lizbeth stepped in front of her mother.
"Damn it, do your jobs!" Jeong shouted, louder.
The guards exchanged glances again, but none moved.
"Enough of this, Jeong!" O'Rafferty announced as he jumped down from the back of the closest truck. "All this purge talk… whatever this is, I do not like it, and I say we will have no part in it."
Shepard knew a mutiny when she saw it, though for once it was entirely welcome.
Jeong rounded on the leader of the guards, "Your contact-"
"Is now void." O'Rafferty interjected sharply.
Juliana spared the chief of security a nod and a smile, and he nodded in return, but then turned back to Jeong and crossed his arms with a note of finality which made him seem even larger.
"Commander, ExoGeni will only evacuate the administrative staff. None of us knew about that plan before ten minutes ago," Juliana explained.
"Be quiet Juliana. You are divulging privileged company information. ExoGeni is right to cut their losses!" Jeong replied harshly.
"Bullshit!" Lizbeth shouted. "They're cutting losses," the woman sneered, "because you told them a Spectre was here, and you could not guarantee they would not find out about the Thorian and the experiments!"
A wave of whispers passed between the guards watching the scene. O'Rafferty threw up a hand and the men stilled in an instant.
"The what?" Juliana asked as she turned to her daughter.
Jeong shrank back, and said nothing more.
Lizbeth sighed, "It's a telepathic lifeform under Zhu's Hope. It exerts control over the colonists there. ExoGeni knew about it, worse yet, Doctor Renaud was studying it. I unknowingly… helped him. Those colonists cannot be separated from the Thorian. The control is powerful… I don't think he ever figured out how to break it."
"They'll abandon the colonists?" Ashley demanded.
"Worse." Lizbeth replied. "Jeong, do tell them about the failsafe."
The guards had by then abandoned their work, crowding around to listen. O'Rafferty was staring at Jeong as if the man would disappear at any moment.
"I don't have to say anything … we have lawyers." Jeong stated calmly.
"All the lawyers in the galaxy will not help you," Garrus stepped in.
Jeong turned to the former detective and smiled, "Oh the contrary. Even Spectres can't act without some evidence. And you will find none. I've already remote-erased our databases as part of the purge."
"You bastard!" Lizbeth hissed.
Shepard chose that moment to step in, before Lizbeth might try to go at the man's throat. "Oh dear…" she could not keep her tone from taking on a mocking note as she glanced at Nihlus. It drew all attention to her, as intended. Nihlus was giving Jeong a bland, unimpressed stare, but his eyes were predatory. Shepard knew she best finish this. Jeong's foolish belief that he could out-think anyone was hilarious. His histrionics were positively precious. "Do you mean the databases upstairs? The ones connected to your servers? The ones we've already copied in triplicate?"
It took maybe half a second, but then the color drained from the administrator's face.
Shepard smiled in pure self-satisfaction. She had him right where she wanted him, and would chalk him down under 'morons who thought I was born yesterday'.
"I think we can now get this over with," O'Rafferty said as he reached into a pouch strapped behind his back. "Jeong, I'm putting you under arrest," he announced as he pulled out a polymer tie.
"You have no authority!" Jeong shouted.
"Yea? And who will write me up?" the chief asked as he made to grab the administrator.
Jeong bolted for the truck, but the bigger man was on him in an instant, pulling his arms behind his back, looping the polymer line around his wrists.
"I'll have your head for this!" Jeong shouted as he struggled.
"Oh be quiet. For your own good." O'Rafferty replied as he tightened the tie.
Jeong did not say another word. He may have even realized that uttering threats with multiple witnesses was not a good idea. Though as far as Shepard was concerned, threats were the least of his worries, they would be on the appendix of his rap sheet.
Once the security chief was satisfied, he turned to face them, hauling Jeong along to keep him in front. "Sorry about taking over like that. But I figured I'd save you the bother. Then again… you could have shot him and no one would protest, or by this point, care."
Jeong whimpered at those words, his whole posture collapsed on itself, shoulders hunching.
Shepard would be lying if she said she did not enjoy watching his histrionics and bravado wither away. "I would rather not," she replied. At the end of the day, the case against ExoGeni would not be solid without him. He would try to cop a bargain, of course, but she could live with that. Quite frankly, as repugnant as he was, Shepard wanted to bring down ExoGeni's executives, not him. Jeong was a small-fry whose very career was officially over, no one would hire him for anything anymore, regardless of whether or not he weaseled himself out of criminal repercussions. That was punishment enough for someone like him. "I appreciate it, and don't worry, he won't be in position to do anything to anyone."
"Good. I'm going to lock him up in the back of a truck. That alright with you?"
"Sure." Shepard replied. All talk of illegal arrest would be moot the moment anyone mentioned the involvement of Spectres. The legal system might fume, but they could do nothing about it. Then, if O'Rafferty wanted to play jailer, who was she to tell him no? Then, once they finished evacuating this tower Jeong's defense lawyer would not be able to argue he was confined somewhere dangerous. Jeong really ought to be happy that she had not exercised full Spectre prerogative in dealing with him.
"Fellas, listen up! I want two of you to guard the truck at all times. And if anyone as much as thinks of cutting him loose-" the chief barked.
"Don't worry, we were listening. No one will spring that bastard." One the other guards replied.
"Good." With that said, O'Rafferty began to push the disgraced administrator toward the truck, none too gently. Jeong hung his head and focused on not falling on his face.
Shepard turned back to Juliana and her daughter. "Suffice to say all purges are off. However, the Thorian remains a problem."
"I… think I can help you with that." Lizbeth said. "Do you have Doctor Renaud's research data?"
"Of course," Shepard replied.
"My notes ought to be there. I studied the Thorian itself. I know something about its biology."
"If it is a plant, then perhaps I can help as well," Juliana stepped in.
Shepard nodded. "Thank you, but we have to worry about your safety first." Shepard could use all the help she could get. This was well past the limits of her expertise. "Is there another tower we can escort you and the trucks to?"
The next couple of hours were spent on immediate issues. They ended up helping load supplies onto the trucks, and then escorting the vehicles to the next tower. This one had never been cleaned up, but it was stable. It also had a similarly-configured roadway and parking level. The trucks drove right to the back of the space, though not down the parking lot ramp. This allowed the Kodiak to land close to the roadway door so the wash of thrusters would not singe anything.
Soon after the thoroughfare level began resemble a shanty-town. The security guards busied with trying to figure out what they could do with whatever supplies they had. No one so much as looked their way, and that was fine by Shepard. She had different priorities, and quickly pulled Lizbeth and Juliana into the Kodiak so they could put their heads together.
In the end, Doctor Renaud's work ended being the key. The doctor had been fascinated by the creature, and thus unbelievably thorough. However, Lizbeth steered the topic away from the physical changes the Thorian forced in its servants, and onto the so-called failsafe protocol that Doctor Renaud had devised. Lizbeth was single-minded about making sure everyone knew what it was, to the point that Shepard suspected it was the reason she turned on ExoGeni to begin with, and for a good reason. The failsafe ended up being nothing less than a termination protocol, in the event of Zhu's Hope going out of control.
Early on, when a few of Zhu's Hope controlled residents inhaled a slightly higher-than-normal concentration of a pesticide commonly distributed as a misting spray, it put the victims to sleep for twenty-four hours. Doctor Renaud theorized that an even higher concentration could be lethal, and what more, he found the lethal concentration using lab mice. ExoGeni then used that as the basis for the failsafe. Shepard easily saw the gruesome logic. Pesticide getting into the wrong water tanks could be written off as human error. It was a good thing that the doctor was already dead, because otherwise he would be wishing he was by the time she finished with him.
Still, and as much as it rankled, the system was their best way to deal with the affected civilians without resorting to force. At a low concentration the pesticide would knock them out, which meant they would not be fighting for the Thorian once its self-preservation instinct kicked in. Lizbeth was insistent that the plant was intelligent and aware of things through its victims. There was no way they could possibly get close to it, without it lashing out at a perceived threat. Shepard would not question any of that, as Lizbeth had studied the Thorian's biology, and found what looked like nerve tissue within her samples, and where there was nerve tissue, there had to be some sort of brain.
With their course of action chosen, Shepard ordered her team take a few hours of rest. They had a good twelve hours left before backup could be reasonably be expected. After dealing with the heretics and the tower, Shepard herself wanted a break. This was a natural break in the flow of the operation. The Thorian was the sort of objective that would not disappear while her team rested, ergo it was not necessary to run her people ragged by rushing.
After that decision, things began to move at a natural, drilled pace. Ashley and Jenkins took over organizing and distributing supplies. Kaidan took his food and water packets and inflatable pillow before sprawling over the Kodiak's bench row seats to rest his head. Tali sat across from him, eating her nutrient paste through a straw while she fiddled with her drone. Legion stood nearby and watched her work while recharging from the shuttle's power systems, via a cable that attached somewhere on their shoulder, amidst their neck cables. Garrus made himself comfortable in the corner seat near Tali, insisting that he would be fine sleeping in a seated position. Liara and her bodyguards drifted away toward the ExoGeni staff. Shepard did not protest, the Kodiak's stash of rations was stocked for her team, and just her team. Three extra individuals were simply not accounted for.
Shepard tucked her helmet between the ceiling and the netting suspended from it, grabbed her own share of the food and water packets, and went into the cockpit. Nihlus was already there, making himself at home in the pilot's seat. Shepard plopped into the co-pilot's seat and eased it back some forty-five degrees even as she unrolled her field pillow and twisted the valve on the attached compressed gas capsule to release its contents.
"You got some food packets?" She asked.
"Yes." He replied.
Shepard hummed. That did not sound right. Nihlus had never been one for monosyllables. Was he simply tired, or was there something else? She tucked the inflated pillow behind her head and eased back. No one would blame him if it was just tiredness talking, but her gut insisted that it was not just something simple, like tiredness. She stabbed the straw into the fruit puree nutrient paste packet and stuck the end in her mouth.
"Spirits… This is messed up," Nihlus mumbled.
Shepard turned to look at him, but he was looking in the direction of the non-functional front view screen. "What is?" she mumbled around the straw.
"This whole thing." Nihlus replied. "We should have known that Nazara would join up with Harbinger. All the deaths here, all the damage… all of it could have been prevented."
Shepard sighed, what should she say to that? She did not want to be a hypocrite in telling him about how hindsight was twenty-twenty. Being on the receiving end of that line always felt like the person saying it was being insensitive, she would not go there. If she was going to be insensitive, at least she could be direct. "I fail to see how. We are not responsible for Nazara and whatever it decides to do. We are not its keepers."
Nihlus sighed and slumped back into the seat, "Saren was its keeper."
Shepard blinked, surprised. This was going somewhere she had not expected it to go.
Nihlus turned to look at her, and Shepard could see the storm brewing in his eyes. "He found that thing who-knows-where and kept it hidden from almost everyone."
Shepard wondered, was Nihlus actually blaming Saren for this? His words could be taken as such, but they could also be taken as a simple constitution of fact. "Sure, Spectre Arterius lied to everyone. But the rest is all Nazara. It chose to kill and join up with Harbinger. I wouldn't say Spectre Arterius is responsible for its actions."
"Thanks, Shepard. But that is not my issue here."
"Then what is?" Shepard wondered. "Spectre Arterius also did not teach Nazara to be a monster, if that's where you're going." It was as simple as that. Shepard saw a distinction. As far as she was concerned synthetics and children developed in similar ways. Their core personalities were shaped by experiences and example. Whoever programmed a synthetic ought to realize they were bringing a child into the world, not a tool. "Nazara was likely a monster long before Spectre Arterius found it." She finished.
"That is not it. It is… well, I could have notified the Council as well, but I did not. I feel like I enabled this," Nihlus replied
Shepard blinked, how did she misunderstand him so badly? It was the most obvious angle for self-recrimination right now. Yes, he could have told the Council about Nazara, but he did not, it was a pattern of his. Shepard was acutely aware of the fact that she benefitted from said pattern. Suddenly the topic felt rather uncomfortable. How did one talk someone out of something like this in her shoes?
"Do not worry, I will not attempt to fix things by telling the Council about EDI. Yes, Nazara is exactly the type of AI the Council worries about, but I know that EDI is not like it."
Shepard could not say anything. It took everything she had not to freeze like a deer in the headlights right then. Was her thinking that transparent? Or did Nihlus just know her too well? "Look at it this way, Nihlus… now that we know Nazara is either working with or for Harbinger, we know where to look for it. We know it is not stalking the galaxy's shipping lanes, waiting to ruin someone's day. That's a good thing. The rest? We'll handle it. This is what Spectres are for, no?"
"You are right. I just… wish we did not have to handle it. I wish Saren had seen it for that it is, and I wish I had not listened to him when he told me to keep quiet."
Shepard nodded. It was clear as day that he was feeling the burden of responsibility. Nihlus was still a turian, no matter how atypical. She reached across the small space between seats and placed her hand on his forearm. "Nihlus, you are loyal to those who are important to you. Saren… was your teacher. That's all it takes." She thought she knew him well enough to understand. Nihlus put personal loyalties above other ones. Saren was the former, the Council commanded the latter. "I just understand why you did it, for all that's worth."
Nihlus put his free hand over hers. "It is worth much, Shepard. I did not tell you because I wanted answers. I told you because it was gnawing at me. Talking it out... helped."
"Talking it out is always good, thank you for trusting me," Shepard replied as she tightened her grip on his forearm. He probably could not feel it, but it felt important. "And I hope you know I'm always here for you," The words just tumbled out on their own.
Nihlus smiled, somewhat wanly as his mandibles did not part enough to show all his teeth, but it was a smile nonetheless. Shepard smiled back, but then the implication of what she said actually sank in and she stuck the straw back in her mouth, turned away, and began to suck up puree. Anything to bite back the sudden rush of embarrassment without showing it. She heard him rumble in amusement and knew she had been busted. Still, she did not move her hand away, she could not, because his had not moved either.
Shepard slept for six hours, the bare minimum of what she could run on. Her body woke on its own, and refused to go back to sleep, no matter how long she waited with her eyes closed. After about twenty minutes she gave up and got up to sneak out of the cockpit. There was only silence all around. The majority of ExoGeni's staff was still sleeping, though two of the security guards were on watch. Shepard would not fault them if they were still wary of straggler heretics.
It was a rare opportunity to sit down and really think, even if her mind invariably drifted to thoughts about the Normandy. Was Nazara still up there? No, she shook her head. Had it fired up its engines, EDI would have detected it enter light speed. Joker would have been crowing his victory in her ear about ten seconds later. Nazara was still up there, still biding its time. Well, not for long. Admiral Hackett would have put a rush order on getting some sweepers here. They would already be in FTL right now. She had to believe that, as no other possibility was acceptable. She had to get her head back in the game. She turned toward making herself a quick breakfast of two chalky caffeine-laced ration bars, and then to doing some light stretching to shake off the muscle stiffness. In the midst of morning exercises the rest of her team began to wake.
By the time they gathered up their makeshift camp, disposed of the trash, and tidied up the Kodiak, ExoGeni's people began to stir. Liara and the huntresses rejoined the team. The archeologist was still keen on seeing the Thorian for herself. Still, their takeoff would have worked as an alarm, as there was no disguising the roar of thrusters. The shuttle slid out from under the doorframe at a glacial pace, but as soon as it was clear, Nihlus gunned the thrusters, making the Kodiak gain altitude quickly.
Dawn had broken over this part of Feros, but the sunlight that penetrated the atmosphere was still anemic, and the vast quantity of dust dyed the sky blood red. Still, there was something picturesque to the sight. The cloud layers, heated by the rising sun, rose higher, some separate wisps sweeping across the elevated roads. Shepard could only imagine what it must have looked like fifty thousand years ago, when the buildings were pristine and vehicles streamed over the roads and through the air.
Soon Shepard got to do a visual inspection of the damaged tower. The gaping holes in its side were patently obvious, but the lowest ones had not gotten bigger, it meant she could afford some cautious optimism. Then the shuttle turned and Zhu's Hope was in front of them. The clouds swirled around the colony's mass effect field dome, but she could still see inside. Some of the colonists were awake and going about their business, seemingly undisturbed.
She turned her attention to the thin pylons rising to the crown of the mass effect field dome. These support structures contained the dome's emitters, but they also had integrated fire suppression sprinklers. ExoGeni had rigged them to deploy the aerosolized pesticide. The system was controlled remotely by a special program on the administrator's emergency mobile terminal, which they confiscated from Jeong earlier.
"Nihlus, can you make the Kodiak hover just outside the dome?"
"Sure, but it might be bumpy." he replied.
"That's not a problem," Shepard replied as she reached under the co-pilot's seat, pulled it out, and booted it on her lap. The shuttle began to turn as she waited for the system to fire up and run self-diagnostics. By the time the system gave her full status report, Nihlus had completed the maneuvers. Shepard kept her eyes on the screen, and did not like what she saw. Jeong had already dumped the pesticide into the sprinkler water storage tank, creating the lethal concentration, which meant their supply of pesticide would be limited.
"Damn him," She muttered as she triggered the tank's valve to dump about two thirds of the deadly mix straight into the tower's waste water system. When that was done, she ordered the pump to refill the tank with clean water from the tower's aqueduct. It was the only way to dilute the contents. It took a good fifteen minutes for the tanks to indicate they were full again. Now, all they needed was to kick the hornet's nest hard enough so that all the colonists would come out to be rained on. She turned to Nihlus, "We're good to go. Set us down."
"You got it," he replied.
Shepard reached for the comm console and tapped the key to open a link to the back. "We're setting down," she announced even as she reached to the side of the co-pilot's chair for her helmet. The shuttle turned and began to descend. With helmet in one hand she glanced back down at the read-outs on her lap.
Nihlus hummed, "Shepard, you might want to take a look at this."
Shepard looked up, the Kodiak was still high over the landing pad, and yet all the colonists turned to stare at it, and they continued to stare, without blinking, or going back to their tasks, and every one of them had the same blank expression. Did the Thorian already know they were coming? This did look a lot like awareness.
"That's creepy," Jenkins said, the internal comm relaying his words.
"Creepy is right, Keelah, they look like… robots."
Shepard reached to the Kodiak's controls and issued commands for the craft's scanners. At this range they could identify, lock on to, and count the number of living signatures and give her a tally.
The shuttle was about ten meters off the pad when the colonists simultaneously dropped everything they happened to be holding. A moment later they all turned and started shuffling toward the landing pad. Then the number of colonists began to swell as they emerged from the structures that into which Shepard could not see. The Kodiak's sensor readout listed thirty individuals, and as far as Shepard could tell every single one of them was reduced to a facsimile of the shuffling dead straight out of an old Hollywood movie. All shreds of individuality had vanished with a flick of an unseen switch.
"Shepard…" Nihlus trailed off.
She turned back to Jeong's terminal, but her hand hovered over the key to send the last command. She wanted to be positively sure that they got everyone with the misting spray. Any colonist not affected would have to be subdued with force. She glanced at the life-sign count, it still held at thirty. The Kodiak was now five meters off the pad. She dithered for another second but finally tapped the confirm key, sending the release command.
A long second later the sprinklers in the pylons erupted with a fine rain-like shower. The weakened winds within the dome whipped the drops at an angle, but the mass effect field prevented the rain from being blown off the roof. The Kodiak finally touched down and Nihlus shut down the main thrusters. Shepard noted that the colonists had stopped just beyond the landing pad's barrier, and none right in front of the MACs. It took a good half a minute before the liquid finally reached the rooftop and began to soak into the polycrete. The colonists still stood there, unblinking stares locked on the Kodiak, utterly unbothered by getting wet. It was the eerie sort of thing that one might have expected from pack of wolves waiting for a weak animal to become separated from its herd.
"Commander, are you sure this will work?" Kaidan asked.
Shepard would have loved to say yes, but she would be lying. However, before she could say anything at all one of the colonists grabbed his head as if a severe pain had shot through his skull. "Something's finally happening." She said. None of the other colonists seemed to be paying the man any attention. Suddenly the man collapsed and started jerking, as if having a seizure.
"By the goddess…"
Before Shepard could say anything, one by one the other colonists began grab at their heads. Within seconds of that they toppled, some over each-other, as the seizures took over. Shepard felt her stomach slam into her throat. This was not supposed to happen! Lizbeth said they would lose consciousness, she said nothing about seizures! Still, loathe it as she might, she knew it was probably a side effect of a more thorough exposure to the Thorian. The original accident happened quite early on. These colonists were no longer just affected, they were the Thorian's zombie puppets. Still, a bad feeling forced its way through and Shepard turned to the console in her lap and typed in the command to shut off the spray. When she finished, she looked at the sensor readouts. The Kodiak still registered the same thirty life signs. Looking up she saw that a good third of the colonists had stilled, and more of the others were calming with each passing second. The spray stopped, the last drops still dancing on the air. "The Kodiak is still registering the same thirty life signs… they're out cold." She hoped they were out cold, because if any of the colonists died, she knew whom to haunt.
"Are you alright?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard blinked, was she alright? That was a damn good question right then. The shuttle still showed steady life signs. Still, was she alright? No. Shepard knew that she was not. None of this was alright. She had just gassed her own people into unconsciousness. There was no being entirely alright with that.
"Shepard?" Nihlus repeated, his voice now laced with worry.
"I'm fine." She replied blandly, closing the terminal in her lap. They needed to get out of here and assess the situation in detail. Heaven help the Thorian if any of the colonists were actually hurt, because it would be in for it. "Kaidan, I want you to take a look at the colonists before we head down." She ordered as she slid the terminal back under the co-pilot's seat.
"You got it, Commander."
"Alright, last checks people," she said as he got up and moved toward the back.
Nihlus' fingers began to dance over the controls as he powered down the shuttle's systems.
Shepard turned and exited the cockpit. She was unsurprised to see that the majority of the others were already up and ready to go. "Alright everyone. Spore concentrations here are high, and I bet they'll spike even higher as we get closer to the source. That said, even concentrated exposure takes more than two weeks to actually make you the thing's puppet. It is your call if you trust filters or seal up for EVA."
"For once we are ahead of you, Skipper. I figured you would say that." Ashley replied as she fiddled with her helmet seals.
Shepard nodded and said nothing else. She turned to look at the asari. They had donned breathing apparatus designed for high altitude, where the air pressure was thinner. It was not ideal, but it would probably do. Some breathing apparatus with filtering was definitely better than none. She reached up to her helmet controls and triggered full closure and EVA seal.
"Commander, are you planning on… killing this Thorian?" Liara asked.
Shepard hesitated to reply. She did not want to tell Liara a flat yes. "I hate it, but we might not have another choice. If Doctor Baynham is right, and it is a plant, then this control mechanism is a function of its biology. It can't stop controlling living organisms any more than we can stop breathing." It sounded like a rationalization even to her own ears, but it was not a lie.
"I see." Liara replied.
"Truthfully I am not alright with the whole idea. Most of you heard it, Lizbeth said the Thorian might be the last of its species, or unique. But we might not have another choice." It was a sour bit of reasoning, doubly so given that she had let the Rachni Queen go on similar grounds and had even called the Council out on casual genocide. She had to tell herself that the Rachni Queen was intelligent and capable of speech. She had begged for a chance. The Thorian? It had just turned thirty people on them like they were weapons. Shepard doubted there could be reasoning with something that would do that. All that reasoning still did not make her comfortable though.
"Doctor T'Soni, you have to understand that Spectres are charged with the preservation of the galactic community's safety. At any cost." Nihlus explained blandly as he stepped out of the cockpit.
"I understand that. It is… unfortunate." Liara replied.
Shepard said nothing. There was an unmistakable bite in Nihlus' tone, in a typical Nihlus fashion he put the end to that topic as diplomatically as possible while also throwing his weight around. She hated the fact that she was grateful for it, as otherwise she could not explain a course of action she that honestly wished she did not have to take.
"Commander, you might want to see this." Jenkins announced, sudden urgency in his tone.
Another something to be grateful for. "What is it?" She asked as she turned, only to see that Jenkins was pointing out the door viewport. She followed where his finger pointed and froze. One of the colonists was not as out cold as the rest, he was stumbling toward the Kodiak, holding a rag to his nose and mouth with one hand, and a quivering pistol in the other. It took Shepard a moment too long to recognize the man as Fai Dan.
Shepard reached to the controls to open the door. She needed to stop Fai Dan right then and there. His pistol was a civilian model self-defense firearm that would not penetrate military-grade shields with one round, but with the way his gun arm shook he would sooner hurt himself. As soon as the door was open wide enough, she slipped out, raising her hands. "Lay down your weapon." She announced. "I am here to stop the Thorian." There was no need to disguise it, not now when the only thing standing in her way was a single man whom she could render unconscious easily enough.
"Good-" he groaned, "I am trying to fight it… but it is strong. Too strong." He tried to grab at his temple with his gun arm, which only put the weapon way too close to where it ought not be.
Shepard advanced slowly, mentally weighing her options.
"The… Thorian" he ground out. "Is below. About… argh! Twenty floors."
When he looked up for a brief moment, Shepard saw red in the whites of his eyes, the tiny capillaries in his sclera had begun to burst. Resisting the Thorian was causing him actual physical harm. "Thank you, but… please, lay down your gun."
"I can't…" Fai Dan replied. "You can't imagine the pain…" The red in his eyes was spreading. "It wants me to stop you… argh!" he grabbed at his head again. "Stop it! I won't! I won't!"
Shepard knew he was no longer talking to her. His gun arm shook worse than ever, and then the muzzle turned, angling toward his temple. Shepard reacted with a burst of explosive acceleration, closing the distance between them in a split of a second, and grabbed his forearm to wrench it aside. The gun fired with a crack, but the bullet went into the air. Fai Dan recoiled as if he had not even realized she was there. Shepard grabbed the gun with her other hand and twisted it. The weapon's grip popped out of his grip without resistance.
Suddenly Nihlus was there, she let him take the gun from her even as she twisted around Fai Dan and slipped her arm around his neck, putting his windpipe in the crook of her elbow. "Thank you, but I simply must insist you sleep now." With that said, she grabbed her fist with her free hand and applied pressure. Fai Dan did not seem to have the desire or ability to resist the choke hold. His body relaxed, and he was out cold in less than five seconds. "Thanks, Nihlus." She said as repositioned her grip and eased the unconscious man down to the floor.
"Figured you would want another notch on the tally of those you saved from themselves," Nihlus mused blandly.
Shepard looked up and gave him a look she hoped conveyed that now was not the time for his twisted wit. With that she glanced toward the others, "I think we can get back to the plan now." She announced.
"I'll check up on the colonists," Kaidan replied.
Shepard nodded and said nothing more.
While Kaidan was checking up on the colonists, Shepard began her side of the prep work. She figured that since they had no idea how large the Thorian was, they might need something with a little more bite than firearms. They still had most of the explosives, but she needed to reduce their individual payload. There was no way the Thorian's form would be as hard as the outer hull of a spaceship. So even a half yield ought to do quite a bit of damage, while making the charges light enough to parcel out among her team. No more toting the crate up and down stairs.
Once Kaidan confirmed that the colonists were stable, albeit deeply asleep, Shepard ordered everyone to regroup. They met up at the central block where there was a doorway that led down into the tower. The small stairwell that connected to the floor immediately below had been nothing too impressive, but it abruptly opened onto the final landing of a much bigger stairway that spiraled in ninety-degree turns around an open shaft into what might as well have been an abyss. The only light here came from faint, flickering safety lights installed on the landings.
Three floors down Shepard noticed the air temperature was growing warmer at about a degree per floor. The air was also moving down the stairs at a slow, creeping pace. This told her that the tower's climate controls and ventilation system were operable to some capacity, which did not make sense. Unless the system was actually the cause of the colony's grid problems to begin with. The Thorian needed to circulate its spores and bring down fresh air for itself. It made Shepard wonder what sort of plant it was. Photosynthesizing plants took in carbon dioxide and released oxygen, but mushrooms tended to work in reverse, taking oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. Was the Thorian an overgrown fern, or a fungus? The question mattered, because uprooting a fern was different from handling unwanted fungus. Mushrooms could also regrow much more easily.
After five more levels the temperature continued to rise, and down here the ventilation system was working more noticeably, blasting out warm air. Now there were black-brown leafless ivy-like tendrils growing in the fissures and cracks running along the polycrete walls. In places, the tendrils cracked open releasing white, fuzzy, hyphna-like threads. Elsewhere the ivy was gnarled with bulbous growths. Some were still growing, while others had burst and the remains were shriveling away.
"That's the weirdest plant I've ever seen." Jenkins said. "And Eden Prime got some weird native plants."
"Commander, you were right about the spore concentration. Here it is twice what it was on the roof," Tali announced.
Shepard glanced back at her team. Twice the ridiculous amount on the roof? Just how saturated was the air going to get? It made her worry for Tali and their asari companions, who wore only breathing masks, not full helmets. "How are your filters holding up, Tali? Doctor T'Soni? Huntresses?"
"I am fine, Commander." Liara replied.
The huntresses nodded mutedly behind her.
"I'm fine too, I'm sealed up for EVA. I'm not running my filters." Tali replied. "At worst, I'll end up with clogged sinuses for two weeks."
Shepard thought clogged sinuses would be preferable to the alternative, given what these spores could actually do. However, she would not say that much out loud. Tali would not appreciate the technicality.
"Creator-Zorah, we can extract the contaminants from your suit's air filtration system without swapping your filtration units." Legion stated calmly.
"I am not letting you anywhere near by seals!" Tali fired back automatically and reflexively.
"Acknowledged." Legion turned away.
Tali went on mumbling something in Khelish that Shepard's translator failed to pick up. Shepard had learned by now that Legion's odd tendencies to try and help Tali were still largely unwelcome. It was easier to let Tali vent it out, and not make a big deal about it. Legion never seemed to take being shot down adversely, they would just try again, with something else, no hard feelings. She came around another landing and started to descend the next flight of steps. Some infinitesimally small part of her was already groaning about having to climb all those stairs on their way back.
The temperature continued to climb a degree per floor, except now even the humidity began to climb, slowly but surely. Soon the ivy growth thickened to resemble jungle vines latched onto walls and the underside of the stairs with more of those white hypha fibers. Shepard could only see that as evidence that the tower's environmental systems were not as defunct as she had been led to believe. The Thorian was like a parasite, sapping whatever resources there were. Yet, as deep and as close as they got, the growth remained the only signs of something alive this deep into the tower. Shepard was silently thankful for that, as it meant that her record of zero civilian casualties was safe. As far as she was concerned, it was the only thing that had to go entirely according to plan, no compromises allowed.
When they finally reached the twentieth floor, Shepard stopped and looked around. The stairwell continued further down, but one quick glance over the railing told her that there was no need to follow it. This was the level where the lights stopped. The landing they stood on was on what Shepard assumed to be building's west side, and there was only one door onto the floor proper. When the sound of her team's footsteps died down, she closed her eyes and listened. The whole tower had largely been silent up to that point, but now, she thought she could hear dripping coming from somewhere on this floor. She turned to Nihlus, Garrus, and Legion. "I think I can hear dripping water somewhere, anyone else hearing it?"
"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander. We have detected the acoustic resonance of dripping fluids, however, we cannot confirm whether it is water," Legion replied.
"It got to be, what else could be dripping like that here?" Nihlus asked.
"Definitely." Garrus affirmed.
"It could be the Thorian's irrigation source," Jenkins jumped in. "No plant can survive without water. Even a mushroom greenhouse needs irrigation."
Shepard grinned, Jenkins' upbringing on a farming colony was finally paying him in dividends. For once he knew more about something than the rest of them combined. She reached down and turned on the twins and visually followed the meandering tangles of vines growing along the underside of the stairs. In the background she heard multiple other weapons whine as they powered up.
It quickly became apparent to her that the vines converged on the building's south side. Here the internal wall separating the stairwell from the rest of the building was perforated in multiple places, allowing the growth to pass through unobstructed. Tellingly the majority of them were perfectly circular. This was not a plant forcing its way through an obstacle, nor was it damage and decay. "First it might have irrigation, now… you see those holes? Artificially cut. This is designed. The colonists were busy making a home for it." For something to grow inside a tower, with little to no light and only water, the plant would have to be a fungus, not a fern.
"ExoGeni are looking worse and worse by the second," Ashley grumbled.
"As if they were not on my list already." Shepard replied. "Alright, let's follow the vines. Tali, I want your drone right in front, eyes and ears."
"You got it, Commander." Tali replied.
Shepard took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and let it out. They were very close to the heart of Feros' problems now, it was time to get back into the game. She waited only long enough for Chatika to zoom overhead before she made her way toward the door leading onto the floor proper. By the time she reached it Nihlus and Legion fell in step at her sides, and she knew Garrus was likely no more than a step behind her.
The door opened onto what could have been a whole new world. The temperature shot right up to thirty degrees centigrade, and the humidity peaked at eighty percent. The interior had been heavily modified. Whatever rooms or offices that had once had view to the outside were completely gutted. Every non-load-bearing internal wall was just gone, and sunlight streamed through clean, unobstructed windows. The black-brown plant matter was absolutely everywhere, covering every load-bearing pillar and snaking across the floor and ceiling. The dripping was also much clearer now, coming from all around. A single drop of water fell down from the ceiling right in front of Shepard's face, nearly causing her to jump.
"The colonists have been busy," Nihlus said blandly.
"Yea…" Shepard drawled. Somehow the term busy did not seem adequate enough for this. She glanced toward Chatika. The drone was floating about five meters ahead of them, sensor suite pointed toward the south. "Tali, anything?" Shepard asked.
"There is a large, warm mass up ahead, Commander." Tali replied.
Shepard hummed and started down the corridor. As she drew closer to the building's south side the sound of the dripping water became louder.
"Commander, I do not think that using explosives is a good idea here. The load-bearing elements are completely exposed and vulnerable," Garrus said.
"You're right, but realistically speaking we have no alternative options. Using flammables is an even worse idea, and we have no incendiary ammunition. I've never been fond of it." Shepard replied as she turned the last corner. "I've found its effects to be quite grue-" She abruptly stopped mid-sentence as her eyes registered the sight in front of her, "-some…" Her thought train might as well have hit a wall at full tilt.
The building's whole south side opened up into what could very well be described as an artificial cavern. The walls here had been cut away right to the central block, exposing all the massive load-bearing pillars. The floor and ceiling both ended abruptly about ten meters away, cut away, creating a hall that spanned at least three floors. Every surface was completely covered in thick black-brown growth of varying thickness. There was also the water, seeping, glistening along the walls, and dripping from the edge of the ceiling. The space felt like a semi-dark and dank cave, or the gullet of some enormous beast.
In the center of it all was what Shepard could only describe as a tumorous mass of black-brown vegetable matter. It had two sections, a huge main body, and a smaller roughly-oblong part with features that vaguely resembled an eye-less face, and only a vague something that looked like a mouth that sprouted tentacles. These were long enough that the tips just touched the cut-away floor. The thing looked like nothing she had ever seen before, an eldritch horror in the flesh, and the sight of it set off all the paranoid internal alarms she had.
"By the Goddess… is that it?" Liara asked in awe.
"I'd hazard a guess and say… yes. Be careful with that drop." Shepard replied as she slowly advanced toward the edge and looked up. The Thorian was huge, the vast majority of it literally hung overhead, clinging to the walls with tree-trunk-thick vines. The artificial cavern spanned three floors above them. A section of the outer wall on the third floor had been either pushed out, or collapsed, letting a single thick shaft of sunlight fall right on top of the plant. Below was a dark abyss. The cut away floors went much deeper than just one level.
She could not help but wonder whether the colonists could have done all this. Whoever had done the renovations, knew what they were doing, and had a lot of time to plan the job. The tower was still stable despite so much material removed. That brought back to mind the question of whether someone knew about this. If only one tower on Feros had a freakish monster growing into it, how had ExoGeni been so unknowingly unlucky? Or were they unknowingly unlucky? Shepard did not believe in coincidences of this sort. This, the purge protocol, the apparent compartmentalization among ExoGeni's staff, it tickled her paranoid senses. There was too much organization here for this to be an ad-hoc make-it-up-as-you-go thing.
Suddenly she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and dropped her gaze. The tentacles hanging from the mouth had started undulating, and a milky-white liquid came pouring from somewhere in their midst. Shepard took a long step back even as she raised Sin into position. In all likelihood even a full clip would be nothing more than mosquito bites to something this big, but the action made her feel like she was doing something. Garrus' earlier concern about explosives was now moot. It would take forever and a day to kill this thing if they had to resort to conventional means. Suddenly the tentacles reared up and the creature emitted a low, resonating rumble as a truly staggering quantity of that milky-white fluid came gushing out, and then something hit the floor with a light thud.
Tali gagged loudly, "Keelah… Sorry, Commander," she muttered.
Before Shepard could tell Tali that even she was mildly bothered by the disgusting sight, the tentacles parted and a humanoid figure stepped out. Shepard snapped her aim at its head instantly, all disgust forgotten. Nihlus and Garrus were at her side in an instant, guns trained on the figure. Shepard heard a number of other weapons cock.
The being stepped forward, completely unbothered by the guns. They wore black and gold armor, and had two arms, two legs, a defined body, and a head, but that was where all familiarity ended. Their features were vaguely insect-like, with four eyes, each having two pupils. "Invaders." It sneered, revealing a tightly-spaced row of sharp, sewing-needle-like teeth. "Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands you be in awe."
Recognition came suddenly, a flash of a memory from another incident. She had seen this form before, on Solcrum, as Harbinger's holographic proxy. Except now it was not a trick of light and mass effect fields. Standing in front of her, literally in the flesh, was a very real, and very angry Prothean.
Author Notes: Again, I apologize if I stirred any uncomfortable recollections. I did try to keep it as brief and as on point as possible, there was just no way to avoid it, while maintaining realism when dealing with a ship attached to the side of a building.
General Notes:
Nothing in Particular…
Chapter Notes:
Purge Protocol – The part about "purging the colony" is never fully explored in canon, as you stop it pretty well. I dragged it more into the open, then mixed it with the paragon choice to disable the innocent enthralled colonists to save some time. I think this way it's a little more realistic.
The Thorian – Yes, I've also fiddled with the Thorian. I kept as much of the canon as possible, but I admit that I felt like I needed to make the thing even more disturbing. Hence you get the fact that it is assimilating the tower.