Jason processed various half thoughts as he ran. It was all about the target. It all made sense when you eliminate the noise. Even if that noise was a tragedy in its own right.
He needed to find the Asari Specter. She was the fulcrum, the center point for which this whole mess twisted. The hunter and the prey. But he needed a place to start. He had one lead that had propelled his legs before his brain had caught up.
Whoever the Shadow Broker was, they were an unscrupulous bastard. This fact had to work in his favor. You could not burn people without earning ire. Jason just had to wonder just how detached a person had to become before they lost all humanity. He had one chance.. a thin one by any guess. Everything he thought he knew and could guess told him that going this route was a one way action. Getting it wrong would likely cost him the little he had. Getting it right may cost the lead everything.. unless they were dead already. Which is why he ran. Lose ends would not last for long.
Jason skidded around the narrow alley and passage corners as he sprinted to the ward base level industrial district. Skirting around the back of various premises, Jason came to a stop behind a small business warehouse. Remote Worlds cargo and shipping. A light was still on in the third floor office window. Jason looked at a vent one floor up. The time for civility was now past.. Needs must.
He clambered up a narrow utility rail and eased off the friction cover to slip inside. A small sound below caught his attention as a darkly dressed figure entered the same side alley from the other end; checking briefly down its length before looking behind. It skirted the deeper shadows toward the small rear door, holstering a pistol before proceeding to work through picking the lock. A few moments later the figure slipped silently into the building.
Jason frowned. He hadn't expected to be the only actor at play, but the timing could be a problem. He didn't have a weapon. He'd not even thought about it in his haste. This just left the wildcard option.. they didn't know he was here; a state of play he had to retain in both offence and defence. He slipped quickly through the vent and entered quietly into the warehouse volume of the small building; skirting the maintenance walkways to climb a narrow access ladder to the top floor.
Jason paused to listen as the other entrant padded almost silently along the bare metal corridors. He'd caught sight of her.. definitely a her.. an Asari, in black but she didn't move like Jason's other encounter.
It was not the Specter… this one moved differently.
He tried to remember his reading on the Asari Huntress class and training.. their focus was elegance, efficiency and efficacy.. this one didn't fit that bill. She stalked. She moved objectively and deliberately always toward her target with cursory.. predictable.. attention to hindsight. Like reading a manual, rote trained.. A thug. An intelligent, capable thug.. but still a thug..
Jason had an edge. He climbed up into the steel rafters supporting the segments of suspended ceiling below, making his way along toward the offices. He kept the skulking figure just in view. She was being cautious, having only now drawn her weapon as she neared the office corridor. Jason moved to glance through a small grating in the corner office ceiling as the dark figure slowly made its way around the long corridor. Kessera was busy working at a large terminal. Her back to the large thick glass windows and facing an older fashioned swinging door to her front left that was set slightly ajar and opening inward so she'd notice anyone entering. She wasn't unprepared.
Jason picked his way across the beams to the end of the room. A small from below sound made him freeze, a split second of almost panicked placement moved the culprit to the corridor. He could just make out Kessera's head crests shift as she subtly glanced toward the door, slipping a hand beneath her desktop but otherwise continuing immersed in her work for a few minutes.
"I know you're there.."
Jason tensed, closing his eyes to invest entirely into one sense. A subtle creek rippled through the floor as someone shifted weight as they stopped dead.
Kessera stood.. the sound space shifted as her sound shadow moved. The almost missable tick of metal sliding out of a sheath, a switch flipping as she moved.
"Show yourself or I start shooting..". She shifted toward the door. A few seconds passed, the door slowly opened, weight shifted. A muffled flurry of lightning fast reactions and one ultrasonic squeal rose beyond hearing.
"Drop it."
This voice was harsher. A moment's hesitation later the sound of metal on carpet marked the shift in the dynamic.
"You?" Kessera spat the word through a clenched jaw. Restricted. The muffled sound forced in an ongoing struggle and physical effort.
"Go Sit.."
More movement. Two distinct shapes separated. The sound of a chair shifting and bumping into the wall.
"What do you want?" Kessera said after a long pause. She did not sound surprised, or she hid it well. She did have a tenseness that betrayed her suddenly weaker situation.
The other figure shifted toward the door, closing it with a resounding click.
"I am surprised you are still here." It moved toward the center of the room.
"Of course I am.. your business is not my only concern."
"All your business is his concern. You've gone dark, the broker was.. concerned."
"I'm not towing that line. I've been clear from the beginning. I'm my own business-"
"That was your deal. He never agreed to those terms."
"I've done everything he asked. Do you know half of what all this cost me?"
"You've been adequately compensated-"
"-Compensated? No one was supposed to be able to link my sister back to this.. let alone an old Krogan."
"She got too close, you were responsible for her. And your father. The broker does not suffer for your failures, he acted to protect you and his interests in the exchange."
"I tried.. the stupid thing ever learned when to look away. I deleted all her fields. You can pass that on to.. him."
…
"What files?"
"The video recordings."
"When did you report this?
"Report? I don't work for-"
The crack of a weapon shattered glass admit a shout of rampant frustration. Drifts of more distant sounds entered the room.
"ALL of this is the broker's concern. Any potentially compromising material should be submitted for review and counter measures. THAT is policy.
"It's nothing… nothing.. a cheap camera stuck up somewhere that ran out of battery power ages ago."
"Did you recover it?"
"What? No. Why?"
Another shot. The voice of Kessera let out a whimper.
"There's no place for liabilities in the organization."
"If my mother gets wind of this-"
"The Matriarch is busy with more important matters. She's not going to save you. What do you think she will do after finding out you killed your sister and your father? You'll be lucky if you can find a hole deep enough in the galaxy to hide.. You're bad at this, Kessera. And He thought you had so much potential."
"Please.. no. I can do better."
"He is particularly unforgiving at present."
Jason's heart hammered in his throat. He shifted between two beams and concentrated on the sounds from below.
Movement shuffled. A weapon clicked as a muzzle pressed into something.
"no.. please.."
"I am doing you a favor. This is easier for everyone."
Jason dropped. The thin panel below offered no resistance, buckling and collapsing in a rain of dust as the instant impact bought him precious milliseconds in confusion. The weapon fired as he struck up at Asari's arm and planted a kick the assailant's midriff sending her headfirst into the wall with a heavy thud. He pushed up to duck under a still swinging panel, pulling it off its tangled wires in a rain white debris over his shoulders as he knelt. Quickly checking the agent; binding and gagging the unconscious figure before standing, kicking away the fallen pistol and turning back to the distraught Kessera.
Jason approached the cowering form slowly, reaching out an open hand as he neared.
The Asari was barely cogitant, wedged somewhere deep in the jaws of abject fear.
She sniveled as she looked dubiously at the hand. Hesitating as her eyes darted across his visor searching for but not finding any recognition.
"WWho-?"
"I know what you did."
Kessera's eyes shot wide open in fear, "She was about to-"
"Yes. And I am not."
Tears streamed from her eyes as she sobbed. "I killed them... I can't bring them back.. I.. I.. don't know why I did it.. " She sniffed. "He's going to kill me.."
Her eyes settled on the prone agent crumpled in the corner. "Help me.. please. I..I have a contact.. he's not going to let this go.. she can protect me.. I've got to go.."
Jason held up a hand. "There's something I need to know."
The Asari peered at him through the equivalent of reddened eyes. "Anything.."
"Why?"
She wavered as she got to her feet, the core of the Asari's world laid bare.. "Money." She sniffed. "Debt.. Dad's gambling. Tris' stupid hobby.."
"And the Specter, Vasir?"
".. She came to me.. few months ago. She was looking for records. Financial information, exchange logs. White collar crime. Kept coming back. It was good money.." She wiped her face, looking toward the agent. ".. but.."
Jason watched her carefully. "The Shadow Brokers terms got steeper.."
"I went to CSec.. a detective-."
"A Turian? Scruffy, white tattoo."
She blinked and looked at him. ".. you know? .. He.. threatened to kill Tris..." she fell quiet.
Jason stayed impassive, he couldn't get involved. "I need a lead on the Specter."
"I.. She'll kill me.." The Asari looked haunted as she realized her twin fates. "The Shadow Broker will hunt me down.."
"Where do I find the Specter? That's my only condition.."
"Y-You can't. She finds... she comes to you." Kessara looked defeated ".. the Presidium.. she has an apartment somewhere near CSec headquarters."
"Is she still there?"
"MMaybe.." She rubbed her eyes and flicked open terminal, pulling up an itinerary in a complex portal. "I saw this.. a flight log.. schedule.. she's departing Presidium secure dock six F for Thessia in.. two hours.."
Jason stooped to read the details for himself.. if this was the sort of information that was being traded he could understand the power that was being wielded. Context was king. Pity the fool…. He shook off the distraction.
He looked between the terminal, Kessera and the prone Asari. There was no way that the terminal wasn't bugged or traced, at the very least it logging all her activity.. it's what he'd have done.. "This isn't safe.."
He flicked the control on his omnitool and grasped the metal of the terminal. The explosion of sparks was mirrored in the Asari's wide eyed shock.
He looked squarely at the Asari.
"Who's this safe contact?"
The Asari scrabbled through her desk, shakily pulling out a crumpled handwritten note shoved at the back of her drawer.
"It's.. it's an anonymous drop box address.."
He read it over. "Do you trust it? .. With your life?" He added.
Kessera sniffed and nodded.
Jason opened his omnitool and typing out a terse message, thinking for a moment before adding a note on the agent. Then he turned and made toward the door.
"W-Wait! Where are you going?" Kessera looked panicked.
Jason looked back over his shoulder. "I have a Specter I need to see.."
"SShe'll kill you!"
"I don't think so." Jason shook his head. "That's not my plan."
"YYou can't leave.. I don't have.. anywhere to go.."
Jason's arm buzzed. He looked at an anonymous message that had pinged his omnitool, soliciting a scowl.. "Twenty minutes.. leave everything." He quoted. Kessera stood behind the desk, lost in the shattered remnants around her. Jason glanced back and walked out.
So much for an anonymous drop box… He sighed as he picked his way out of the building. Absolutely nothing in this future was actually secure. He re-read the message before wiping the mailbox. Jason cracked the vambrace open, ripping the small comms and ID chip out with a small spark and crack then crumbling it to the floor in one swift movement. He'd have a fresh start tomorrow.
…
Jason ran down the maze of alleys. Alarmed pedestrians occasionally jumping out of his way as he jogged through the bustling cross streets and down quieter alleys.
Everything about the situation was off.. unbalanced. He retrospectively played out the countless scenarios, generating more questions than useful answers. Should he have acted sooner? Should he have killed the agent.. or Kessera.. what would that have aided? Did he have the right to judge her guilt enough to pass punishment or was living with it enough? He'd have misread her if he'd simply acted. Her facade had been believable. How much of her collapse was another? He hated having witnessed the shakedown. Would it have ended if he had left it to play out? Why did he care? Why could he not… He'd made it his problem too by interfering. And now he was doing the same again, but a Specter. Vasir.. she'd tried to kill him. Did he need more reasons not to try? Jason stumbled over the poisoned logic and dismissed the argument.
Everything was leading him back to the old and simple motivator: because he hated that manipulative, selfish and corrupting bastards got away with it. It sufficed.. but he knew it wasn't the whole reason he needed. The prisoner's dilemma got him this far.. but it prescribed strategy and couldn't answer the moral questions of the what ifs or whys... or, whether it was a game that he even wanted to win.
Was he being rash and naive? Probably.
Would it hurt him? Probably.
Not having much to lose and his sense of detachment was definitely affecting his decision making. He grappled for purpose, and a simple goal he could believe in. Find the Specter. Save her. If he could stamp on a few of the tendrils of subversive bastards along the way while finding just a little justice for innocent souls caught in the crossfire then he was committed. He had to care.
…
"HUD? I need a route to the presidium.."
{HUD: updating.. current presidium access is limited to four ward level security checkpoints.}
"I don't have time for that.. I've another idea.. the tunnels."
{HUD: the likelihood of finding a path in a timeous way is low to zero.}
"Timeous?" A small ripple of doubt ran through the back of his mind, he pressed on, "What about a skycar?"
{HUD: a security token will be required to avoid a diversion to a checkpoint.}
"Fuck..". Jason dodged a trade hauler, narrowly missing a collision and recovering the momentum with a dive roll. "Wait.. how do you know that?"
{HUD: The skycar that departed directly toward the Presidium with the Specter had the officer's pass inserted in the console prior to our boarding the diverted vehicle.}
A cold shiver ran down his spine. Jason skidded to a halt. "How do you know this.. I don't know this.. you.. weren't even there…". His words slipped in the mental fall. Jason's function model of the last few days collided with the memory of days prior that felt an age ago. The flimsy patchwork of denial and willful ignorance collapsed like paper walls to a relentless torrent.
"Holy fuck..." He staggered into a dead quiet alley lit only by the ward glow far above. Reaching around to pull the hood off as a crushing claustrophobia closed in. "..Release."
Nothing happened.
"I said Release, dammit... Get the fuck off.. NOW."
{HUD: Jason, you need to calm down-}
The invocation of this name shot like fire down his spine. "How the hell?!.." he gripped the neck seam and tried to pull. "RELEASE.. Off."
{HUD: you won't succeed without injuring yourself. You are acting irrationally.}
"Get OFF." Jason strained at the barely budging seam. Hints of cracking sprang through the shell.
{HUD: We did not believe you were prepared for integration. The situation demands we proceed. Standby.}
"I'm not.. fucking.. standing.. by.. for anything.. get the hell off.."
The plate interlocks released. Jason ripped the hood off, gasping for air as he stared wide eyed at it. He turned it over in shaking hands to stare at the subtly imposing visage. "What the actual fuck?"
{You panicked.}
The voice in his mind was as clear as his own thoughts.
"Bullshit.." He punched the wall. The pain blossoming in a fleeting focus of perception. The small indentation in the metal beneath his fist not going entirely unnoticed by his reeling mind. ".. I've got to be imagining this.."
{We are not an illusion. The mechanical and electrical interfaces of the helm were used simply to ease your adaptation. Your rejection of this aid necessitates reversion to a more intrinsic interface.}
Jason took a few deep breaths trying to calm the rising panic. "Okay.. it's ..okay..". He turned his attention to the unplaceablr something he could feel was watching him. ".. you're not in the suit?"
{Negative.}
He stared at the small reflection in the visor. "You're in my head."
{Negative. We are all of you, as you are.}
Jason rocked for a second, "I had thought.. the abandonment was.. an end, an exit. Was that just a pointless act?"
{Negative. It was necessary for situational placation and resource collection. .. We acknowledge your reticence for accelerated change. Complex biological systems are more receptive to evolutionary development than rapid adaptation. This was anticipated.}
Jason rubbed his temples, exhaustion lingered at every precipice of his mind. The mental distancing that the entity had made evident revealed the stark reality. His still functioning state was not attributable to his own doing. He felt hollow. "I've not slept for days.. how's that evolutionary?"
{We have aided in this concern. Recovery is unnecessary with sufficient energy reserves to effect repairs while you are active. Your body had adequate surpluses, it is a less effective strategy but you were self regulating with distraction.}
"And the building?" Jason viscerally recalled the instant the weight hit him.. in retrospect he could recognise that it should have killed him there and then.
{Your mental preparedness is not adequate to be }
This couldn't wait. "Shit or swim.." The crass proverb underlining his immediate mental state.
There was a moment of silence before the voice returned.
{Understood. Your biology is being integrated with adaptations to support your continued survival in this environment.}
"Human is not good enough? Survival for what? .. wait.. I am going to STAY human, right?"
{If that is your preference. Yes. Without the exo-suit and electro-mechanical augments your innate physical capabilities are inadequate to guarantee our survival in an unexpectedly hostile environment.}
Jason processed this, a series of horror scenarios slowly faded to silence. A word pinged, Jason's mind grasped at a thread the analytical part of his brain could handle. "You said 'adaptations'? What sort of adaptations?"
{Various basic perceptual enhancements and corrections. Ongoing concerns include physical and neurological conditioning. Mechanical fortification of skeletal muscle tissues and heavy element crystalline reinforcement of skeletal structure.}
Jason blinked, a shiver ran through his core. He didn't feel different.. the idea of changing what literally constituted you sat uncomfortably in his bones .. "When you say heavy element you mean what exactly?"
The voice began to list, {Titanium, Molybdenum, Uranium, Tungsten, denatured Iron-}
"-What? More than half that stuff is toxic and lethal!"
{Negative.}
"Where the fuck did.." Jason started, then stumbled in the onslaught of memory. "oh.."
{The device was deconstructed and utilized in your repair by the collective.}
Jason leaned his head on the wall. "You've got to be kidding me."
{Negative.}
"How?… all of it.. just how.. everything?" He hung on the anticipated answer. He wasn't stupid. Either there was realizable truth to it or the fiction would collapse.
{Biological programming, DNA manipulation and Nanotechnology.}
"This is separable? You control all of this?"
{It is our nature.}
"… Ours as in yours or Ours as yours and mine?"
{Ours.}
"Fuck.. I don't understand… I don't even know if I want to."
{Your dissonance is exacerbated by temporal displacement. Our recommendation is to focus on the objective at hand.}
"What? Interfering with the plans of an ethically corrupt information broker as a distraction from… this?"
{… Yes. Focus and situational integration promotes functional goals.}
… "Which are what?"
{Learning, Adaptation, Survival. Our integration with you is not separable without termination of both our entities. Your collective is different from our own. Units act in dissonance with the other. We are not natured this way. Your willful adaptation to our symbiosis is required for both entities to continue to evolve, survive.}
Jason stood still for a long minute trying to marry rationalization with apparent reality and failing miserably. "Why?"
"It is our purpose to exist. You must survive." The voice fell silent. Jason knew it was thinking. It was both terrifying and fascinating. At the edges of perception he could feel memories that were not his own being replayed. It was looking for something. Struggling in its own isolation to comprehend a thought that had been held in a collective consciousness unfathomably greater than itself.
Jason gripped his head in his arms. "This.. all of this is bordering on the literal definition of insane." He slid to the alley floor and stared at his knees. ".. so? what's next?"
{We do not understand.}
"You're the protagonist of this outfit.. I'm just the shell.. What's next?" He knew he was being childishly obstinate.
{You misconstrued our symbiosis. Your decisions and actions are your own.}
Jason leaned back and stared at his hands for a long moment. Feeling a strange wash of calm as though a thousand mental needles vanished with the revelation. He was unsure of what had replaced them.. but it felt tenable.
He had his agency. That was communicated in more than words. He was somehow given the understanding of it. That knowledge alone placated most of his fears. He had their agency. Which worried him separately and nudged a thought.
"Can you control or influence me?"
{Negative. Clarification, that is not our intent and neither is it our nature.}
Jason digested this. He was completely derailed, yet somehow.. somehow the strange prospect of not being alone at an existential level was curiously empowering, even if it was practically equivalent. Whatever this was depended on him, but at the same time was undefineably part of him.
He felt ideas unlocking as he realized the converging interests that slowly lead him to a decision; If he was going to pursue the litany of broadening goals that had been born from everything he'd learned and knew being thrown upside down in mere days then he needed to start with his whole self.
He pushed up, coming to stand between the two opposing walls of the dim alley. He was not looking anywhere but inwardly.
"Do you have a name?"
{We are.}
Jason sensed that the reply carried an unspoken expectation that depended entirely on himself in determining the nature of the outcome.
He thought for a moment. "Ethos?" Jason tried the name out.
The sense of it felt right. The lack of protest carried the wash of agreement.
A momentary cautionary thought that naming something made it real shattered and faded away. Any lingering prospect of avoiding a fundamental reality shift was rendered impossible as he and his companion forged common ground.
This wasn't delusion, it was acceptance. With it came more than just self realization. Jason could see the glimpses of Ethos's alien thoughts, flashes of incomprehensible experiences mixed with the changes it had wrought within him. Its own energies merged with Jason's driving motivations to ignite them in potentials and potency he could barely grasp. Fleeting ideas unlocked in portions of his mind that had been outside of any thought and awareness, tearing open prospects for insights he had yet to fathom.
In a few short moments Jason's cautious plans shifted from mere thought to driven realities.
He closed his eyes. Letting his definitions of self loosen for a moment before opening his eyes again as something new.
He looked at the hood in his hands, oblivious to a thin ring of gold that glowed around his irises, turning it over before pulling it on his head where the shell plates clicked into place.
He felt awakened.. like the last days were a clouded in a dream that was burning away under the incandescent focus at the back of his mind. Nothing was trivial. He had a task.. and above all else, he would finish what he started.
"We have a specter to find."
…
Jason jogged out of the alley and entered a large plaza.
{Locating an individual who specializes in clandestine operations with no means of contact may prove difficult in the remaining time.}. Jason echoed the sentiment. He glanced at the chrono on his omnitool that fizzled and blinked out. He pulled it off, gutting the microelectronics into a bin and throwing the vambrace in another.
Little over an hour wasn't much. But he had an idea.
"We have to get her to come to us. The Presidium is still the best target. CSec would be the best and safest target."
{Affirmative.}
He looked at a nearby Rapid Transit terminal and then down the ward to the distant cargo terminals. Jason watched a cargo transport lift off from a small goods handling dock and vanish into the volume of the Citadel and toward the massive white ring.
"What if we didn't go to the Presidium by skycar?"
{A direct route appears possible. However, the atmosphere is maintained to a limited height above the ward base level. Departing this zone in unpressured transport will require vacuum protection.}
Jason looked at the constant stream of high altitude autonomous vehicles. "Exposure would hurt but suffocation would kill faster.."
{The sole vacuum rated item we have is the hood. Without an external atmosphere or an oxygen generator we have seven minutes of sustainability.}
"Including blood oxygen?"
{Affirmative.}
"What's the acceleration on those cargo cars?"
{Significantly above passenger carrying vehicles.}
".. and likely undamped or with limited inertial damping. Is it survivable?" Jason rubbed his arm unconsciously missing the vambrace.
{.. Yes.}
This was going to hurt.
—*—
CSec headquarters was a bustling hive of activity every hour of every day. It was the hub of the vast station wide command and control of policing power and the nexus of council sanctioned civility and authority.
Presently it was in an uproar.
Jason didn't pride himself in chaos even when chance and necessity demanded it.
The direct infiltration had gone entirely without incident. Any spectacle had been largely avoided up until docking. His target had been the CSec impound. The large ward facing bay was the receiving hub for auto piloted vehicles that were confiscated and directed to the impound by field officers.
That part had gone better than he had expected. The double barrier enforced a one way, entry only, system and autonomous mag lock tethers secured any landed craft. It was ultra secure and heist proof. There were no authentication requests or codes, no permits.. nothing. After all, who would forfeit a vessel to CSec? People wanted lost assets out, not in.
This flaw was the perfect entry vector.
The cargo drone had drifted in through the massive barriers without attracting any attention. It had hovered briefly at a designated zone waypoint where Jason had expected it to land, and prepared to disembark. A second later the navigation reset and the hauler started making back toward its original delivery target. The vessel jerked and shuddered as a descending mag clamp clipped a thruster. The unbalanced forces sent the craft into a pinwheeling spiral as it mistimed a burst of acceleration. The underside tore open as it mashed into the fuselage of a large yatcht in a fiery explosion that sent it slicing nose first through a row of transports and directly into a tanker. At some point the cargo door had ripped off sending Jason careening across the bay into the side of a heavily modified racer. The heavy impact burst around him as the impact cracked the heavily modified engine core's containment just as the tanker violently exploded in a blackening fireball.
Claxtons rang out. Main lighting failed to black and was replaced by the staccatoed flashing amber and red alert lights. Jason pulled himself off the stricken craft in a cloud of white icy spray a lot more bruised than he'd hoped but confident with full stats on generating attention.
Now it had to work for him..
A small army of heavily armored CSec officers swarmed the hangar.
The crackle of burning plastic and metal amid the ongoing explosions and smoke completely masked Jason's emergence. The spectacle of anything actually living emerging from the destruction may have been sufficient to cause surprise, but add the billowing wisps of cryo coolant that had drenched most of Jason (and stung like fire as it evaporated) and trailed back ominously in the fiery glows as he walked solicited shouts of surprise and double take that saw the squads rapidly backtrack.
Warnings rang in calls over the din.
Jason planted himself and held up his hands, making sure that a boxy device he held in his left hand was clearly visible. He couldn't help but marvel at his own naive hope in the novelty of a civil encounter. Getting shot wasn't the plan and so far not one weapon had been fired.. yet. He needed to keep it that way.
He pointed vaguely toward the main door leading deeper inward to the station major as the formations closed ranks and distanced themselves.
Jason had framed the simple single word demand carefully. Ethos amplified it through a filter that dropped the timbre with subsonics that rolled out in a visible shockwave through the mists .. (and massively draining the hood's power supply in the process).
"VASIR."
…
The next few minutes were choreographed chaos. Reinforcements piled in and then out, cordons appeared in passages rammed with curious onlookers. A stern voices shouted and directed off the distant crowds while Jason just watched.
A face in the churning mix appeared and stayed fixed toward him. A Turian.. white markings.. slightly asymmetric fringe; he busied himself in the glow of his omnitool while occasionally looking up to glare toward Jason.
Yahtzee.. thought Jason.
Fifteen minutes in and the forces withdrew further and finally away, doors closed and blast bulkheads came down. He was being left alone in both a good and bad portent.
{There are eight functioning electronic surveillance devices within the vicinity.}
"Can you do anything about them?"
{Negative.}
"Dammit.. okay-"
{Correction… the devices are going offline. All are offline.}
Jason scanned the room. "Here goes nothing.."
"Vasir?"
He called out over the minor ongoing background noises of fire and failure, he could just make out a hint of footsteps. On metal. Above.
He looked up just as a blue and black blur descend to stop in a perfect crouch landing barely ten meters in front of him. The Asari's crests tipped back as she looked up, revealing her stony focus. Puzzlement crossed her otherwise expressionless face..
"You?" Tela Vasir's brow furrowed as she stood, the few seconds delay in recognising him through his visor. "What, by the goddess, are you doing here? I thought you had left the station. Luccus said-"
"-that I left the station? No." Jason cocked his head as he processed this puzzle piece. "Why would I do that? I did get to spend several hours in an abandoned lockup. Maybe you should ask your friend or his master about that.. It's nice to have all the names now. Thank you."
The specter looked perplexed for a fraction of a second before her features hardened. "What are you talking about?"
"Let's see if I can put this together.. Luccus is your CSec contact, Kessara is your informant? A job, a favor and a coverup.. am I close?" Jason watched the impassive Asari carefully, a finger made the barest tick as she listened. Jason marveled at her control.
"I've made my reports.", Tela's eyes narrowed. "I don't know how you accessed classified information, but none of this is new information."
"It isn't. And I haven't." Jason continued. "May I jump to the bit where every single piece of this sordid puzzle is strung back to the Shadow Broker? I came here to tell you that you've been played, Tela.."
"I am a specter, I won't be accused of u-"
Jason waved off the objective defense. "You should have been more cautious when you went to Kessera. I have to admit a successful shipping company is a good cover. Connected, seemingly wealthy and successful.. except for its piss poor trade in actual shipping. But you know that already.. These transactions are far from the first.."
The Asari's looked surprised.
Jason pressed on. "I think this Luccus is your noose.. do you know who pulls his strings? I do.. it's not CSec. He and Kessera go way back. Which leads you to the Job. Imagine actual Bloodpack activity on the Citadel? How convenient is it that CSec stays in the dark until it suits? Did you know the BloodPack were a curated plant and that your CSec friend knew? How about the Krogan that you killed for favor with the BloodPack was Kessera's father out to avenge her own sister's death? A frightened journalist who was on the cusp of exposing this entire mess. If she'd succeeded she'd have learned of her sister's betrayal and probably outed your CSec friend before you were hooked up to being danced like a marionette."
The Asari's head dipped for a moment in cogitance, her expression darkening.
"I am curious… What did you get from the Blood Pack? What did Kessera have on you? Or rather.. Maybe I should ask it more directly, because Kessera is also a pawn in this.. What does the Shadow Broker have over you?"
"You don't know what you are dealing with-"
Jason swore. "Fuck.. he has already got to you, hasn't he.. Dammit.."
"Are you going to try to blackmail me? Here? In this place? In my domain and authority?"
"DON'T try to bullshit me, Vasir." Jason cut in. "You do NOT know me. Fuck. I came here to see if I could warn you.. even try untangle a mess.."
The Asari looked curiously at Jason. Her eyes shooting to the fiery broken masses of craft strewn around the CSec bay. "THIS is your version of untangle? CSec alone will bury you for half of this."
Jason sniffed. "No one innocent has died by my action.. I don't think you can claim the same."
The Asari fumed but her eyes hid a moment of hauntedness that Jason struggled to ignore.
"What about the bomb?" She nodded toward his hand.
Jason looked at the thing in his palm. "What? This?" He idly threw the scrap aside where it split and scattered across the floor. "Some rubbish I picked up to spook the response, I needed to draw you out."
Tela's look darkened. "That is dangerously manipulative."
"It was a gamble. I never claimed it to be anything, yet a handful of electronic junk is enough for everyone to assume the very worst." Jason shook his head. "Would you have come if it hadn't escalated to this? I'm willing to bet you weren't notified through official channels either.. your handler?" She looked away.
Jason paused before continuing less aggressively. "Do you see the strings? YOU'RE the fucking Specter.."
"-You don't know the half of it, human." Tela muttered.
"Then get out of it."
"I. I can't."
"Why?"
"The council-"
"-REPUTATION? Are you fucking kidding me?" Jason fumed. "How many more will die along the way for fucking pride and reputation? People FAIL, it's part of what is normal. Failure is what gives actual power, it makes people better."
The Asari stood her ground, "Why do you get to judge me? I don't know who you are, but I know HIS capability. No one can beat him. The broker shapes World economies, makes and breaks politics and alliances, wars are fought and battles decided by his reach and influence. Everything is traded in a currency of information and influence. Do you think your ranting objection is anything new?"
"You are the one who is supposed to be better than this."
The statement disarmed her. Jason pressed on. "Specters are meant to be the ones who get shit done that needs to be done.. FOR the agreed good, not playing to another master's tune."
Jason watched her just staring at him, or through him. Her mind and thoughts were far away while her hands flexed reflexively at her sides.
"Get out of it or get away from it." Jason pushed, wondering where his own fight was coming from. The unsettlingly familiar argument knotted a ball in his own chest.
Tela broke the glass moment. Storming past and grabbing him roughly by the arm as she walked. Jason staggered and spun round to follow or be dragged along. "Hey-"
"Shut up."
He followed her into the tangled mess of metal beyond any sight of the sealed entrance ways. She waved her arm over an access panel, a small door split open. A keeper tunnel.
Jason turned to Tela, the gloss of his helm catching the red orange of toxic fires "What's this?"
"Not a favor." She didn't look him in the eye. "Go. Disappear.. I won't remember ever having met you."
Jason cocked his head in question. "What about you?"
"The council needs operatives in the Terminus systems.. It's less… connected."
Jason scowled. "Bullshit. That's running. You can't outrun-."
"-I can't just hit undo." Vasir's eyes burned with an inner defiance of someone fueled by their own terrors. "Everything I have done and spent years building and protecting would be undone and torn apart if I turned myself in. So much would amount to nothing.. I saw what happened to Saren.. he wasn't always bad but nothing worthwhile that he fought for still stands and everyone is paying for it. I've got to finish what I started. You don't know how fragile the order is.."
Jason crossed his arms. "Enlighten me."
She counted out on her fingers. "Between your kind breaking the balance, the Baterians going dark, the Turian's bristling, the Krogan unification, murmurs of Rachni, the Geth, Saren's betrayal, the conduit and the Sovereign dark space question the whole galaxy has been desperate for someone to pull the strings just to keep it moving forward.. to stop it from tearing itself apart, keeping it focused."
"Focused on what? Subversion, greed, power and control? I can't see those things solving tomorrow's problems."
"Today works because of it."
Jason shot her a disapproving look, "..not from my perspective.." He mumbled, stepping into the tunnel before turning to face the Asar again. "That answer is just fear, Specter. You are a fool if you truly believe that." Jason keyed the button. "I don't think you are a fool."
Vasir looked Jason directly in the visor as the split door started to close, she reached behind and flicked a pistol out; the blocky Rosenkov hilt briefly stalled the closing door before Jason took it.
"Who are you, human?"
The door slipped closed with a momentary hiss of a seal. Jason's form unmoved against the dim glow of the small key keeper pad.
"We are Fallen."
—*—
The silence of the tunnels rang in Jason's ears as he walked. It wasn't over. It felt like a reset, neither a beginning nor an end. He had time. He could watch and he would learn. But if Vasir was to be believed then it was not just Humanity who were floundering. He needed more information. A lot more information. There was the obvious source but then he needed a really good plan to get it.
Jason pulled the hood off and cowl over when he reentered the ward. Even though Ethos had mapped a near flawless path though the endless maze had occupied him for hours. The relief of eventually staggering out of the exit was draining. He took a deep breath as his perspective and perception shifted back to a different normal. It was impressive what the visor could do routed directly into his perception rather than through it. Now out of the way Ethos was more distant, leaving him to his own senses or its own recovery; he wasn't certain. Perhaps it was just its intention to give him his own space. He tucked the hood into a pocket and wandered through the lower vias; joining the main thoroughfare under a mezzanine level that looked over the cityscape.
A security checkpoint on the other side of the long hall was a mass of annoyed shouts and arguments. Queues of people vented their frustrations at closed doors and shuttered windows. Outside there were long tailbacks of skycars hovering in streams that were mirrored on every ward.
Whoops. Big whoops.. But he was certain what he'd done was right. The encounter hadn't gone anywhere nearly as well as he'd imagined, but better than he had hoped. He hadn't been shot, cuffed or locked up which was a 100% improvement on the day's endeavors.
Speaking of wounds.. Jason turned to a sign he'd been loath to follow and led himself through various corridors and lifts; eventually coming to a stop outside a doorway with a brass medical plaque affixed to the wall. He lifted his arm to check the time on his omnitool, the display flickered and went dark. Jason sighed. So much for the battery.
He pressed the buzzer.
"Dr Michel?"
The door split open a minute later to the friendly smile of the red haired Doctor. "Come on in. I was clearing up for the day to head home but there are unusual transport delays." The door shut behind, "I had not heard from you. You are late for your check in." Her light accent made the berating harsher than it was given.
Jason shrugged. "I've been busy."
She looked him over and frowned disapprovingly at the grayed burns, dirt and blood on his haphazard gear. "Certainly worse for the wear. Let's change your dressings and make sure whatever you've been up to hasn't caused more injury. You seem to be carrying yourself better. Go sit, I will be with you in a minute. And off with that thing, I can't see through armor."
She disappeared for a moment, returning with a small cart that paused as she entered. Jason felt gloved hands inspect several bruises. She turned him around to trace a large and still sore angular impact across his sternum to a similar shaped bruise between his shoulder blades.
"This one.." Dr Chloe grabbed a small scanner and opened her omnitool. "This one should have killed you."
"It's just a bruise."
She looked him dead in the eyes. "No. It is not." She jabbed a finger just left, halfway up his sternum and right in the middle of the dark bruise.
"Ow."
"That is where your heart is."
She looked critically toward his piled ensemble. "Why are you not wearing biotic graded armor? Or a barrier harness?"
Jason shrugged, feeling honesty would not serve him under this type of scrutiny.
"Are you a biotic?"
"Definitely not."
"Trained in biotic defense?"
"Uh, No."
"Then why are you fighting or even getting anywhere near lethal encounters with biotic masters?"
Jason shifted uncomfortably. "I can handle myself."
Two green eyes narrowed and weighed up Jason carefully. "Hold that thought. Come with me for a minute.."
The small office at the back of the clinic had a secured terminal that the Doctor unlocked and pulled up a file. "Don't worry.. there are no identifying details tying scans to you, this is also a fully offline station and files are time encrypted and self corrupt and delete after three days.. you're just in time.. now, look at this." Dr Michelle loaded the scan from her omni tool and put it side by side with another. "This one is now. Same scanner..". She looked at him. "I know it's the same person."
Jason frowned. The old scan looked normal enough to him; the new was possibly human. It was like looking through static and cotton wool. He could just about make out some of the skeletal structure, in fact that was the sole discernible reference to anything in the scan.
"Interference? Problem with your scanner perhaps?"
"Hold out your right arm." She commanded, scanning it and then repeating the same on her own. "These are live copies I am sending directly to this display.. ready?"
Jason stared.
The Doctor shook her head. "I'm not one hundred percent certain, but I don't think that is a scanner fault."
Jason looked at his own real arm and turned it over reflexively. He felt normal. His scan, however, was almost indecipherable next to the near textbook radius, ulna, phalanges and musculature of the doctor's.
She seemed to pick up on Jason's distraction. "You're still human.. under all that noise.. I don't need scanners to read basic human anatomy. Not all doctors have time or place for technology..". She picked something off a shelf. "And this.. is also yours." She handed him a small glass vial with a white screw cap. "I'd normally throw those into hazard recycling but that one would have generated an alert."
Jason turned it over. Something small went 'clink' inside. He instinctively rubbed his now evidenceless shoulder. "Why?"
"I did some secure verification on it, a friend." She added, ignoring Jason's glance. "It is a Geth tungsten alloy. Very hard, and with a very, very specific radiometric signature."
Jason closed his eyes. "Which means you can place it.."
"There was nothing like that before-"
Fuck.
"-and nothing after." Jason finished. He signed, and continued slowly.. "A sniper round. A squad was moving to surround me. I wasn't ready for it. i didn't expect it… It punched straight through my armor."
Chloe watched him for a second and then ran through the files and scans, securely deleting all of them and purging any backups before closing down the workstation.
Jason looked up, sensing Ethos was watching carefully. "Will you tell anyone?"
"No. It's not my place.. and Doctor-Patient confidentiality, remember." She looked at him carefully, her expression slipping to concern. "Have you reported in?"
Jason chuckled mirthlessly which earned him a hardened look. Jason backtracked, explaining as nondescript as he could on the spot. "No on the count of expectation, and a No on the count of a reporting line."
"Are you Alliance?" The question was laboured.
Jason nodded, "Yes."
"There's a 'but'.."
Jason looked curiously at the Doctor. It was easy to forget that people were sometimes as or more perceptive than you gave them credit for until you were caught off guard. "Could we leave it that way?"
The Doctor thought for a moment before answering. "Yes. Honesty, only because I do not know how to even begin to understand what exactly is going on." She looked at him carefully. "I will agree on one condition and two honest answers.."
Jason cast her a questioning look.
"You come back so I can monitor you." She gestured at him. "You're medically interesting. You have potentially bullet proof bones, you heal fast and scar free and have both lost weight and built mass in fewer days than it takes to decide on a diet. I simply don't see how your biology isn't stressed, yet you respond well to medigel, basic dressings and surgery.. which does make a medical practitioner at least of some use to you .. beyond uncomfortable conversations."
Jason chuckled at the self deprecating assessment. "I think you are all good Doc."
"I will not try to figure out what is making you.. you.. but, my first questions.."
Jason nodded cautiously.
"Is there an active Geth threat on the station?" Her eyes flicked from the vial to his shoulder and finally his face.
"No."
She walked up to Jason and looked him sternly and directly in the eyes. "Do you work for Cerberus?"
—*—
Zol looked up from his polishing as Jason entered. He smirked at the human's unkempt appearance, that alone set him apart from the general primness of most others on the station. To Zol it was priorities being screwed on correctly, you couldn't care about the amount of grease on your crest while your bed was burning. This human went around like the whole settlement was on fire, non stop.. for days. A day ago he'd returned missing half his armor, barely throwing on a shirt before vanishing back out into the ward. He'd lost the curious steel vambrace he had over his left arm and just wandered tour with the hooked cloak. It was still a curious look, yet he managed to readily disappear into crowds. His return now was the first time that the human had walked in without a focused beeline toward his next objective.
Zol pulled out the small job the human had asked to do.. ten credits.. It was simple enough. "This checks out, all cleaned and serviced." He slid the cloth wrapped pistol over the counter to the human, cocking his head in curiosity. "No tracers or bugs… little bit of wear on the grain slicer, otherwise it's as good as new."
Jason looked up as though only just noticing the enormous lizard in the shop. "Thanks.." He pulled out a datapad and slid it over the counter to the old timer's view.
"What's this?"
"Your money."
"This is eighty grand."
"Yep." Jason ran a hand through his hair and wiped something off on his trousers. "You said Quarians were expensive.."
"Not this expensive..". The Krogan's eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"
"I went to collect… okay? The Asari turned out to be a double crossing arsehole who put profit over her own family, and it cost her everything. Her own father's and sister's deaths I can directly attribute to her and her work with the Shadow Broker."
"So?"
Jason shrugged defeatedly. "I was too late.. someone got back there before me. The place was an inferno and whatever accelerant was used just had to be left to burn out. There's nothing left.."
Zol, picked up an oilcloth and continued his tending. "Sounds like she got what she deserved."
"Deserved? No one deserves that. No one.. it burnt so hot they closed the skyways because of the thermals it created.. there's an actual cloud over block 472. Then, just as I'm about to leave, an Asari taps me on the shoulder and gives me this.." Jason pointed to the datapad. "Scroll to the bottom.. it says .. with her Ladyship's Compliments and Thanks for your troubles. … Who the Fuck?"
Zol jabbed the small screen with an oily finger. An eyebrow raised. "You got a patron.." Zol grinned in amusement. "I'm impressed."
Jason glared at him. "I don't want obligations. I like my privacy."
"Not suggesting you don't have it. But your actions don't go unnoticed. You run around here like your tail's on fire half the time.. makes me tired just to watch and I don't even know your name, human." A deep laugh rattled through the store's shelves.
Jason paused in thought. "You never asked."
"I don't care until it's about business or death.. " Zol grinned toothily. "The second list gets shorter. You don't want to be on that one. Your call."
Zol picked up the datapad and transferred the attached chit. He then pulled out a small blank chit device from a pocket, programming it and sliding it over to Jason.
"Cut as agreed … Don't lose that. I don't do insurance."
Jason looked at the value in the dim holo print.
Twice.
Thirty two grand. He looked wide eyed at the Krogan who was carrying on with his work.
"Can I stay at the workshop?"
"Business. Good.." The Krogan grinned. "The board is jobs.. I've seen your work. I'm not going to turn down a bargain, human."
"Jason."
Zol wiped his hands off and extended an arm. "Isembar Zollus."
"Come.. I'm done here and need a drink." Zol stumped over to the shop door and locked before lumbering toward the back of the shop. "Jason… an unusual name. Your kind of human doesn't crop up much anymore. Especially outside the Alliance."
Jason followed as they wandered through the short passage and into the rows of towering shelves
"My kind? There must be millions of humans just on this station alone-"
Jason walked into the Krogan who had stopped. Zol turned around and jabbed Jason in the chest.
"Every species has their kinds.. talkers, fighters, workers, healers, makers.. Humans scared the crap out of the council back when they turned up because you have a different kind. The Krogan used to have a name for the idea long before the nukes turned Tuchanka into dust and memories." He chuckled at Jason's perplexed expression and tapped a fist on his bony crest plate. "I'm old, Human.. older than most of my kind think too. Nearly two thousand years, it gets hard to count eventually. I don't care much for it. I do remember my elder's stories.. no one cares to know them now; especially since the old overseers and warlords turned our histories into battle cries and generations of Krogan into blood-hungry rabble."
"You sound resentful."
"Nah. Just objective." Zol padded into the far warehouse and pulled out a crate next to the workbench; sitting down with an ominous creak. Jason rummaged around and pulled two canteens of water out, offering one to the Krogan.
"I read about some sort of Krogan unification going on.. clan Urdnot?"
Zol huffed. "Got his crest screwed on right that one. Wrex. Urdnot is an old clan family. He's beating some sense into the factions on the homeworld. But he's still a warlord even if his true colors are not entirely visible yet. Tuchanka is a broken world that needs taming for different reasons now..
The Krogan failed a long time ago when pride and bloodlust overtook us. Conflict defined us. Not much else is left in the bloodlines that wouldn't survive the trials of our own making. We may survive because of him.. if he can finish what he's started.
He's not what the Krogan want, but what they need. I can't fault that. Urdnot is wise enough to weather the backlash, break the old patterns. We won't survive if we don't change. Every species has its own goals and limits. Some are inside.. some are imposed."
Zol looked Jason over with something approaching amusement in his yellow eyes. "One of your kind is responsible for Urdnot coming to pull the Krogan back from the brink. Gave the whelp a braining and dragged him around the galaxy before some sense sank through his headplate."
Jason chuckled. "An easy job then?"
"You don't know how stubborn Krogan can be."
"I know we're squishier but think I can say the same about humans."
"True. Except for the thing you call Hope, it sets you apart. Every species has something like it, belief.. drive.. motivation.. reach.. fervor.. no translations match the thing that humans wield without turning it into something else.. lesser. You.. infect with it."
Jason frowned. "I don't follow."
Zol stared up at the ceiling in thought. "Try this.. say you were in a situation where you were thrown into a deep canyon where a pack of wild varren lived at the only exit. You fell in with a handful of others that you don't know, some of whom are wounded and will die.. attracting the pack in who are hungry and ready to hunt. What would you do?"
Jason thought for a minute. "Can I bind the wounded? Find or make weapons for everyone from any local materials? We could climb the walls to tend the wounded while building a defense and a strategy to draw the varren into traps and kill them one by one.. then escape."
"… See?"
"What?"
"That.. that is not normal." Zol waved a scaly hand. "A Turian would bait the varren with the dead, collapsing the walls of the canyon to crush the threat in one go. Asari would set out to avenge their losses, mercilessly hunting the hunters as they slept by day. Salerians would climb and throw rocks, wounding the alpha and his mates enough that the pack retreats back to its nest, and then escaping. Krogan would.. charge…" Zol chuckled as he took another drink. "You get my meaning.."
"I hear you. But I don't understand."
"Exactly. Your instinct is not to drive or be driven by conflict but to wield it, to change it. Drawing others into causes that change them and their purpose. It's interesting. And dangerous.. Your kind of human is dangerous to a lot of things. Shaper." He reached out and clinked Jason's canteen with his own. "Nice to meet one."
Jason looked down at the canteen. "Got anything stronger than this?"
The Krogan grinned. "Heard of Ryncol?"
—*—
The blackness of space moved in an endless spiral. Jason floated in the dead silent void, staring down through the center bar of a spectacular spiral galaxy spread out below. A small sound escaping from the white heart of the celestial structure like a heartbeat. But it wasn't.
He strained toward it, trying to place or shape the sound that had begun to permeate everything. The billions of stars oblivious to the metronomic tick that inexorably sped up as the spiral arms swirled faster below. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch it.
A shadow fell over him. He shielded his eyes from the galactic glow to peer into the dark. A dark shape crawled unendingly over his view until it blocked the stars with a vast tentacled shadow.
Red orbs ignited, eyes opening to meet his own golden. He stretched, not finding a human form but one just as vast as the other opposed. His sense of presence occupied the form in its entirety making scale feel irrelevant. His fascination was pulled away by the burgeoning threat.
Crackles of crimson lighting rippled across the other. An answer was demanded. Jason hesitated. He didn't know what the question was.
The monster descended in an accelerating split second of movement; instantly filling all his vision in a crash of burning crimson energies and explosions.
Jason sat bolt upright, panting and dripping in perspiration as his heart thundered in his chest.
He threw his legs over the narrow cot and buried his head in his hands. "Holy fuck…. I'm not touching that stuff again.."
{You are exhibiting severely elevated stress levels but we are unable to determine a cause.}
Jason took a few deep breaths. Trying to shake the last half second of terror. "It's just a dream, Ethos. Imagination running wild."
{Why do you imagine our memories?}
Jason stalled halfway through a drink of water. "Memories?", he coughed.
{Affirmative.}
"Memories…". He repeated. "Something like that does not haunt you?"
Jason sensed incomprehension.
{The collective defines us. Experience shapes us. We cannot unknow our origin without losing our identity.}
"Do you have memories from before that?"
{Negative. The collective is aware it had. But what was is lost in this beginning.}
"Why did you share this with me?"
{We did not. Your subconscious is processing your insights into our integration. This is not a process we can interfere in without altering your nature.}
"Okay.." Jason stood and felt around for his shirt. The small cot was deep in the more organized half of the warehouse. It felt oddly safe to sleep surrounded by a literal arms store. Safe from everything except what he had in his own head. "No sleep it is then."
He stretched and padded to the workbench. Unplugging the hood from a makeshift charging rig and sighed. He really needed to get proper gear.
The stupidly large credit chit glowed on the shelf next to the small quartz vial. He picked up both and placed them on the bench workspace.
Was it enough? He turned the vial over in his fingers.
Jason pulled out a small holo terminal he'd managed to resurrect in while he worked on a replacement omnitool and opened an extranet browser. There were no shuttles or charters that would take direct payment without a banking or brokering intermediary. Of course.
He smirked mirthlessly as he leaned back in the chair and rubbed his eyes.
He knew why.. if you control how money flows then you controlled money and by proxy people. It was all this shit again. Sure there were arguments for preventing actual fraud and illicit trade, but brokerage? The way around it was to be a part of the system. So much of this explained the information trade and its pace of influence. Decentralization.. sure.. Now you have these bastards scraping on people's transactions too. Point to point transactions still existed in a way; people held a pool of credits on digital wallets that could be broken out into unowned chits that could be physically traded or locally transmitted. Fast exchange quantum keys worked well as a proxy for hard currency.. but at risk. And limited to smaller unregulated transactions. Larger values and secure transactions had to go through an intermediary. Hence brokers or traditional banks. The latter having taken the brunt of losses and usage burn outside of large institutions.
The problem was that if he bought a flight to Elysium it would leave a trail. A small one, yes.. but indelible. It would be a start. He wasn't sure he was ready for that yet. Especislly having a sense of the potentially concerning actors at play.
So far he had Cerberus.. a low immediate concern; but venturing near Jean would reshuffle that wild card. CSec was the next nearest problem that he would have to deal with depending how deep a hole the Specter had left for him - or if the Shadow Broker's agent had any lead on him; no one had come knocking yet. Which left the biggest unknowable problem, the Shadow Broker. The thought of the unscrupulous entity incensed him. They were his primary concern and target.. after personal matters.
But how to play…
If you wanted to catch an ocean of fish you start by shrinking the sea.
He hated that stupid saying. Cronus used to bring it up every time was an unboundable problem. The eternally frustrating thing was that he had always been right on that count. And also on how it was achieved.. one bucket at a time.
"Fuck it.." Let's play.
"Ethos.." Jason hesitated a split second, part of him wondered if it was the hangover doing the thinking. Was he about to step into an abyss? Or was he already in free fall… could he tell the difference? This felt like forward.. as insane as it was, this could drain the sea; or in the very least give him a trail to follow.. eventually. Jason looked at the steel canisters left strewn on the workbench. Maybe one day he should find out what the hell was in Ryncol… or maybe it was better not to know.
—*—
A few days later and Jason sat in front of a Volus. It pondered thoughtfully behind its desk, clicking its stubby hardsuit fingers together in deep contemplation. Jason had spent hours going through service personnel before eventually being shuffled into a large office at the top of the Kithoi ward headoffice bearing the Galactic Council's Ministry of Finance insignia.
"I'm.. not entirely sure what.. you are asking is possible..."
"I've gone through the Act. You're welcome to put it to the test." Jason gestured toward the adjacent building housing the Legislative offices. "I think the free market should decide whether it is a solution that befits the needs of the consumer and supplier."
"The transaction economy.. is a large and complex playing field. It has many very well established participants… Some who will take umbrage to the methods… you are proposing… You should know... The ministry will not intervene, unless… there are functional impediments… to legal exchanges."
"I am counting on it. And I want my five years of design exclusivity on a novel architecture. Closed source."
"Do you have underwriters for your clearing house? The Vol Protectorate and Thessian Articles have exceptionally very good short term contractual offerings that may interest you."
Jason produced several letters from Earth based institutions business who had been more than surprised and cautiously keen to engage.
The Volus's green eye ports blinked at Jason. The hundred credits on a tailored suit and a thorough cleanup had left him feeling a lot more civilized and official. He held the Volus' gaze impassively.
"Very well... It is your future, human… The fee is twenty five thousand credits." He pulled a datapad from a drawer and signed it. "You have a temporary ninety day operational grant.. you will need to select and declare your head-office.. and have the articles of incorporation ratified by a.. council authority to fully grant the charter.."
"A councillor?"
".. yes."
—*—
Jason stepped out into the open air of Kithoi Ward and let out a long breath. Zol waited nearby at a skycar terminal. The old Krogan had tagged along wanting to see what Jason was up to. His silent presence had proven a very general deterrent to unsavory characters. Simply wearing a suit in some districts was a sure invitation for opportunistic thugs. Jason couldn't wait to disappear again; he felt exposed.
"Did you get it?"
Jason held up the datapad as a skycar pulled in and they boarded. "Signed.. sealed is a little more difficult."
The Krogan looked at the small thing. "Is that all it takes? A bunch of no nonsense credits and a few words with a pressure bear?"
Jason frowned disapprovingly. "Volus, Zol.. but broadly yes. And a bit of coding."
"Now you're a bank?"
"No. Well.. yes, and no. I own the potential for one, in theory Cirius is a legal transaction coordinator and, yes, a bank…"
"Can I get a loan?" The Krogan grinned. "Got this idea for a nice place on the South Pole of Tuchanka that I always wanted."
"No, Zol."
"You're sticking with this plan of yours?" he grumbled.
"Yes."
"You're not going to make money if you don't charge much for transactions. I get a bill every month, the Pyjaks would take my license if I didn't pay."
Jason smiled. "My target market.. point zero one percent if both parties are in."
"You're serious? And my credits?"
"Safe and private in your own personal encrypted bank."
"I don't own a bank."
"You do with an account with Cirius. I just handle the brokerage and the clearing house closure for external validations and legal stuff and records."
"Sounds complicated."
"It's a fully distributed commercial economy in the hands of every user, Zol.. "
"Still sounds complicated."
"It's the future. Will you help me sign up clients? I'm thinking we start with merchants."
The Krogan cracked his knuckles. "They certainly won't say no, I will guarantee that."
".. willingly."
"Oh, yes.."
Jason chuckled as they disembarked. He was riding high on the inertia of the moment, nearly missing a Turian who was standing idly near a shop corner. He looked up to mark Jason as they walked toward Zol's store's alley. Jason didn't recognise him but his general armor and demeanor made him immediately suspect CSec.
"Excuse me." The flanged voice cut quietly over the general noise of the quarter. "Human. Do you have a few minutes.. I have a matter that is of your direct interest."
Zol cast a curious eyebrow Jason's way. Jason held up a hand, "I'll see you in the shop in 10, Zol."
The Turian watched the Krogan lumber off. "Is it ignorance or confidence, Human? You don't know me but you send off you guard?"
"Zol? He's his own. And you are CSec. Plain clothes but you may as well wear a sign in this place."
"Chellick, Detective." The Turian eye'd Jason darkly. "You've been a difficult face to find."
"It was the skycar, wasn't it.. Aren't I only supposed to worry if I have something to be worried about?"
"I can't disclose official means."
Which Jason interpreted as a 'Yes'. Surveillance was, truly, everywhere.
"Off the record.. I was passed your face ID for a lead. And no, it's not a picture.. the note came with a caution on your identity so it's just a passive ID code, it may have been any other human getting off of that car and I wouldn't have known them from you.."
"I can accept that." Jason nodded slowly. "A lead for what?"
"I'm investigating corruption and non sanctioned influence in CSec."
"You're talking about the Shadow Broker, correct?"
The Turian hissed. "NOT so loud."
Jason rolled his eyes. "Are you hungry, thirsty? Let's take this conversation somewhere you can be a bit less circumspect."
The detective looked momentarily nonplussed. "I can eat."
"One minute.. Let me just tell my friend not to come out here with an entirely legal weapon of questionably overkill destruction.."
The detective gave him a wide eye's stare. Jason shrugged.
"This IS the lower wards."
…
Jason was sat opposite the Turian detective in a bustling human restaurant, he paid a few extra credits for a private sound dampened dining booth. The detective picked over the dextro menu.
"I'm going to assume that you picked this up a few days ago."
"I've been on and off investigating this for months. Resources are thin so I take it up when there's a push from above or something interesting appears on my desk.. or in my apartment while I'm asleep." The Turian watched Jason for any clue. "Everytime I get a lead it turns into red tape, a dead end or vanishes."
"Sounds frustrating."
"More than you know.." The detective's eyes narrowed. "I don't know who you are.. What will I find on you if I were punch you into the database?"
"A party with a shared interest and no desire for exposure for precisely that reason."
"Okay.. I'll give you that. What can you offer in return?"
Jason closed the menu and sipped his coffee. "You have at least one major infiltration that I suspect is actively influencing the agency's awareness and capability."
"I need more than that.. names, badges, places."
"I can't do that without shifting risk. And trust me when I say I don't think either of us want that."
The Turian's crest dropped as he grumbled under his breath. "Fine. What then?"
Jason tapped his cup in thought. "We draw him out."
"How?"
"I suspect that after recent events they are under a certain amount of pressure to get answers ..."
"Really?" The gleam in the detective's eyes betrayed his overenthusiasm.
Jason leaned forward, his brow furrowing in genuine concern. "Is CSec really this oblivious? Here is an entity who is directly manipulating countless lives and livelihoods to the point of commanding debilitating resources and influence over critical institutions of state.. and thee is one detective just starting on the case, arguably, without any actual traction."
Chellick stared at Jason for seconds. "You think this is unwise?"
"No, not in the grander scope.. but this? now? Yes. Being aware of the whole state of affairs is important. I don't think you're ready, unless you intend to be caught off guard and fall prey to the very thing you're tying to catch. I invite you to consider the risks involved before deciding to take up my offer.. I cannot offer protection that I don't have for myself. You work for CSec.. you have existing protections and safeguards .. witness protection, information separation and the will of the galactic council.. would you trust it all, right here and now?"
The Turian flexed his mandibles as he thought, eventually framing a half vocalized. "No."
Jason placed his hands on the table and made to stand. "Find your certainty and security, detective. Then find me."
Jason left the bustling shop and the contemplative Turian behind. He rubbed his temples as the elevator ride back down to the lower ward levels slowly ticked down. He wasn't alone in the elevator, which wasn't new. People left each other alone for the cramped journeys. Which is why he was surprised when the other occupant, a young light blue skinned Asari, reached out and hit the emergency stop button half way down.
"Hey-"
She ignored his protest and quickly jabbed at her omni tool; a spark rippled out that killed the control panel, light and red camera indicator. Only the nebulous azure and city lights illuminated the interior as Jason tried to quickly form a defense plan.
"Stay calm. We have nine minutes." Her voice was smooth and confident, spoken in the tone of someone expecting resistance but nevertheless hopeful.
The Asari turned away, seemingly captivated by the view. She looked out over the length of the ward, "I have missed visiting here.. but it is not entirely safe."
"I'm sorry but who are you?"
"Forgive my rudeness. We have not yet met, and you are a.. difficult.. individual to isolate. I wanted to find you myself and in person.
You've met a mutual acquaintance. One whom has proven more valuable for me than you know despite her grave missteps. You didn't have to remand her to my care. But you did, and in doing so you gave me access to information that will severely wound our mutual concern. That is a debt I intend to repay. Which is why I needed to speak to you more directly. Your actions, and I suspect our goals, are curiously intertwined.
My name is Liara T'Soni. And despite my significant efforts, I am still at a loss for yours.."