Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect games. This story is written with no profit in mind. I make no money from it. It isn't for sale or rent.

Chapter 2

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Interlude: Choosers of the slain

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Secure briefing room

Arcturus station

Five people gathered to make the final decision about who they would recommend to the Citadel Council as the first Human Spectre. First to arrive was Admiral Steven Hackett – for a week now he has been busy with setting up Fifth Fleet for its rest and refit period and barring any unforeseen complications he would soon be enjoying a long earned vacation.

Right after him entered Captain David Anderson – strictly speaking the first Human who underwent a trial run for a Spectre and failed under conditions classified up to this day. Surprisingly the cover up held and very few people in the galaxy at a large knew Humanity had been offered this opportunity before. That experience combined with Anderson's otherwise spotless record and political connections made him a natural shoe in for this meeting.

The two old friends had a few minutes to catch up in peace before the politicians turned up. Ambassador Udina was back from the Citadel in person, officially to add his own experience and observation to the final screening process and bring back the personnel files. However, he had a lot of other reasons to visit the political and military heart of the System's Alliance – at Arcturus Station he could catch up with allies, friends and contacts as well as personally check the pulse of both Parliament and the Senate – the people whose achievements and mistakes he had to either herald for the whole galaxy to hear or try his best to sweep under the rug depending on the circumstances. Such informal meetings were vital for his future career if he wanted to be something more than an Ambassador, even if he was among the most important diplomats holding such a place in Human history.

Udina walked right beside Prime Minister Leonard Redding – an ageing man of Scottish origins who had a vague resemblance of his famous countryman Sean Connery. That was an image he was proud to maintain as a fan of the long passed actor. It was his intelligence and raw charisma that allowed him to rise up during the turbulent years following the First Contact War. Redding saw an opportunity and endless possibility within the fledging Systems Alliance and threw everything he had into the political arena to make the idea succeed. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that he built up the current ruling coalition with his own two hands. His silver tongue and ability to make people believe in him and his ideas were incredible boons both for him personally and the government as a whole.

Last but certainly not least walked in Defence Minister Valeria Shu – herself a veteran of the First Contact War. She saw first hand how outclassed Humanity was in space and once peace was achieved, she threw herself into politics in order to ensure both that the System Alliance didn't start a conflict it couldn't possibly win and do her best that eventually it would be ready to face all possible adversaries. The latter was a task she didn't expect to live to see achieved even if she wasn't particularly old woman.

The military men got up to meet their superiors and once they all exchanged pleasantries, ensured the room was sealed and in fact private, they all sat and get to the reason for the meeting.

"Udina, I must congratulate you again for giving us this opportunity." Valerie offered the Ambassador a dazzling smile.

"True my friend – this is the next step for Humanity and the System's Alliance. Admiral, Captain, we gave you access to the best of the best we have. Now we need to narrow it down due to reasons that go beyond our people's skills and achievements." The moment Redding began to speak it became clear why he was able to craft the ruling coalition – now, right there in person he was simply larger than life. When he spoke, people believed in both him and themselves and he made it look effortless.

"I must admit the original selection was quite curious." Anderson allowed.

"You can speak plainly, Captain." The Prime Minister offered a small nod of respect.

"The whole list we had to chose of – all soldiers, the best of the best within the Navy and Army. While my personal experience with the Spectres do indicate they get their hands as dirty as they believe necessary or for expedience sake if nothing else..." Anderson paused and looked the politicians in the eyes. "We know for a fact that for every Spectre who appears in the news, there are at least five doing their thing quietly. Most of the people we had to select from simply aren't suited for such types of assignments."

"I owe you a drink, Prime Minister." Udina cracked a small smile. "You did figure it out." He looked back at the Captain. "Should I explain or?"

"Let me do the honours." Minister Shu picked said in a pleasant alto voice. "One of these candidates should be the First Human Spectre." They all clearly heard the capital letters. "We want an operative who will get assignments where they can shine, publicly at that. While there's no official confirmation and Alliance Intelligence brings back more rumour than fact, you're in fact correct, Captain Anderson. As far as we know, majority of Spectre deal with quite mundane and boring cases within Council Space. More often than not, unless the situation got too fucked up to be salvaged, their achievements don't see the light of day for decades, centuries or ever. That's not what Humanity needs right now."

"We need a symbol – both for our people and for the whole galaxy to see." Redding continued smoothly. "A distinguished soldier of proven ability, one that the Council will have no choice but throw into the fire to get good use of their new Spectre." He smiled sadly when he saw how the military men narrowed their eyes at him. "I'm not disparaging or discarding the sacrifices any of our boys and girls in uniform make, gentlemen! What we do, is for Humanity's sake. You two, especially you, Admiral, are keenly aware of our precautions position. The breakneck expansion after gaining an Associate Status, one we fuelled with the expanded economy we got as a result, has brought us to the brink. Yet, we didn't have a better alternative then if we wanted to ensure the long term prosperity of our people! You all know the score! We had to expand or be locked out of priceless Garden Worlds and deposits of rare elements, especially eezo!"

"In fifty, more likely a hundred years, our children and grandchildren will thank us for it." Minister Shu added. "If we can keep things together for them to inherit the fruits of our labour. Even a third of our tiny new colonies develop and gain a respectable populations, we will be firmly placed to be the fourth most powerful species in the galaxy. Right now, outside the Council only the Batarians are our peers and in the fullness of time unless they radically restructure their society they can't keep up. Everyone else outside the Council has something that cripples them – from the isolationism and fanaticism of the majority of Hanar that has kept their economy small if extremely advanced, to the physical limitations and personal inclinations of the Volus and the slow way the great majority of Elcor make decisions crippling them in crisis and combat..." She paused for breath.

"I think that's enough, Val. Everyone here does know the picture. We're uniquely positioned to become the fourth Council member once we're a better known quality and our society and economy matures and expands – which would allow us to military keep play at least in the same ball-pack as the Salarians." Redding gently admonished.

"We in the Admiralty know the score, Mr Prime Minister." Hackett said. "However, that really doesn't make our current jobs any easier nor our situation any less dangerous. Our fleets are stretched to the breaking points and even the planned and agreed for expansion programmes would at best keep up with retirement of obsolete ships and not really with the current rate of expansion. The situation with the Army isn't really much better – we lack the logistics and numbers to supply more than a squad or two on many of our smaller frontier colonies. Even if we get authorization to expand the army, it would scarcely do any good – we would still keep the bulk of forces here in Sol or at our largest colonies, which are in fact the most secure."

"We can't expand our military nor merchant marine any faster than we are without breaking the bank. It's bad enough that the military eats the lion's share of the budget, however its worse that the economic prosperity the Systems Alliance enjoys hasn't really reached too many of our people."

Over seventy percent of the benefits and general expansion of the economy was centred around the military and its related industries – like the aerospace sector and everyone connected with the colonisation efforts. The largest of corporations thrived too – after series of mergers made them just big enough to survive an environment where they were small players compared to the mega fauna populating the economic oceans of Citadel Space. Many smaller businesses simply couldn't compete and ended up either bought or driven to sue for bankruptcy as the SA economy gradually opened more and more. It wasn't that there weren't fortunes to be made, it was just that most of those moneys and resources had to be invested into expanding the military again and again as well as founding more and more new colonies in order to claim space and more importantly, the precious resources contained within it – both as raw materials and place for humanity to expand into the future without the need of conflict.

Needless to day, no one was crazy enough to outsource military supply to Citadel corporations, which currently was the only viable way to catch up in the short to medium term.

"Let's get back on topic. Before we figured out what you might actually be looking for, the final list we were about to propose was a lot longer. As it is, we have ten names to go over..." Hackett got them all back on track.

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Part 3

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22.04.2183 GS

STG Safe house

The Citadel

During the short, yet enlightening conversation Shepard had with Vasir, the other Spectre had set up for work. On the left he had windows opened above his workstation showing a running search for their Quarian guest's identity based on the scans he took while treating her. To the right, her omni-tool sat innocently on a scanner while Bau did his best to spoof any possible traps.

"Kestel work – relatively cheap but robust one, as expected. Running Gentle Rain 11.4 OS, we've got both hardware and software hacks for this type of device and software combination..." Jondum began muttering at rapid pace once Shepard joined him. "Shouldn't prove too hard nor time consuming. Quarian have limited manpower and industrial capacity to spare. Usually using off the shelf components, more often than not obsolete because that was all they could salvage or afford. It makes their software easier to hack when we have access to the original code and hardware running it is old and more importantly, we're familiar with. Quarian updates obvious, meant to stop remote access cold. Sending manufacturer licensed update containing software attack package..." Tali's omni-tool lit up briefly before turning back into a small inert block. "Protocols compatible, upload finished..." The Salarian turned to flash Shepard a confident grin. "and we're in." He went back to work. "Downloading and copying data. Once its done I'll have the VI's go over it searching for the Intel. I might need you once we begin running verification. Are you familiar with that?"

"Vaguely. I'm usually the one they send to get the data – other people then make sure if its genuine."

"Then it will be a lesson time. Watch, don't touch and ask when something is unclear. Now scamper off, I'm busy monitoring hundred and one things."

Shepard took a few steps back to give Bau some personal space and let him work in peace and while waiting he went over what Vasir explained in his head. It did make sense even if the picture she pained was somewhat different from popular belief. That in itself merely made it that much more plausible. He certainly didn't expect that everything he had heard of the Spectres to be true – no clandestine organization worth their salt would allow such a breach of security unless one of theirs went rogue. Shepard had to suppress a wince at the thought of how much damage Saren could cause with his knowledge alone. He could actually see why the Council wanted to move quietly with the investigation too – somehow the Commander doubted that this was the first accusation that a Spectre received of being a rogue or a lose cannon.

"Aha! Multiple encrypted files located!" Bau exclaimed in glee. Running scans and decryption protocols using known Quarian algorithms… Ten more windows popped up showing progress bars.

"You're in already?" Vasir silently stalked until she was right beside Shepard and he didn't even sense her until she appeared in the corner of his eye and opened her mouth. His estimate on how dangerous the Asari was shot up again. Right now she was tied with that Gorgonian Wrex they picked up as the two most deadly individuals he personally knew. Between their experience and biotics, Shepard would loath to face any of them without the backing of at least a mechanized platoon, preferably with air support. He was glad they were supposedly on his side.

"We'll know once the decryption is done. Quarian overall tiny population strikes again – no matter how much they get hailed as the premieer tech specialists in the galaxy, with seventy odd million people they simply can't really compare. Granted, the mere fact they've survived this long guarantees that almost all of them are expert scavengers and incredible with jury rigging, however the people who they can with inclination, skills, training and experience in software development is just enough to really keep the fleet's networks working and reasonably secure. Not enough time and people to really dabble in software or hardware development. With couple of exceptions what they have software and hardware wise is distinctly obsolete, which might work against the Geth given their unfamiliarity with the originals, makes for glaring vulnerabilities when faced with well, us." Bau stated matter of factly – there was no pride in his declaration, merely a statement of facts.

"There's a reason why the Quarians on pilgrimage are primary sought on frontier colonies with limited resources or various repair facilities across Citadel space. We have at a minimum couple of hundred on the Citadel alone at all times doing maintenance work or modifying gear. In contrast, those working the really high paying and profile jobs – software and hardware developments, I can count them on one hand with fingers left to spare. Not really bad given their population, however in practical terms that's simply inconsequential. You don't develop proper software nor hardware without enough people and funds and the Quarians lack both so..." Vasir didn't need to extrapolate any more.

"One of the files is a diary of sort. Decryption there complete – it was modified commercial standard of a few years back. Easy prey for military software. Browsing to the last part…" The Salarian opened a new window with a text file in it. Shepard obviously couldn't read Quarian without first scanning the text with his omni-tool and using it for translation so he had to wait for either Vasir or Bau to enlighten him. And wait he did because Jondum went muttering himself at a too fast a pace for the Commander to get more than the odd word. "Mission to… found Geth… hunker down… isolated unit… engaged… cover… access data core… salvaged… more Geth… had to run… barely made it… ship… died… arrival…"

"Ahem." Vasir cleared her throat. "Enlighten the class, Jondum."

Bau froze for a moment then his head snapped to look over his shoulder. "Sorry," he had a sheepish smile on his face. "I just got caught up. Fascinating stuff. The ship she was on pilgrimage along with a group of other young Quarians detected some odd signals – similar to old Geth intercepts and went to investigate. Once on the ground they did stumble on a Geth setting up some king of outpost. They got lucky in cornering and neutralizing an isolated unit and Tali here," he pointed at the couch, "went to try salvage some data. As it turns out, if you are one of their creators and familiar with their systems, you might be able to salvage a partial dump of a Geth's data core before it wipes out and slags itself."

"So that's why Saren wants her gone." Shepard concluded.

"Probably. I've got a highly encrypted audio file – very different protocols used there. While we've got partial match in the database, it would take some time to get it in useful format. Then we'll have to verify to the best of our ability it's not a plant but genuine."

"Not just us – though we'll need enough to present it as credible to the Council. They'll have everyone – other Spectres, STG and some CDF and C-SEC software specialists go over it too." Vasir pointed out. "All we need to do is ensure it isn't an obvious fake, then its out of our hands."

The older Spectre did have a point – there had to be loads of qualified people to dissect the evidence ten ways to Sunday just on the Citadel alone. They didn't need to do everything themselves. Was this one of the secrets of being a Spectre? Given their broad authority, delegating might often be the trick. They really didn't have to do everything alone, otherwise they wouldn't have the authority to technically request any and all assets that they might need. They just have to be careful when and more importantly, how they used said power.

One of the windows with countdowns pinged and went green.

"Huh, that was faster than expected. Scanning and copying file… and now playing it."

"Eden Prime was a major victory!" A Turian's distinct flanging voice came from hidden speakers. "The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." He sounded quite pleased with himself too.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers..." A very different, female voice added.

That word, Reapers, it scratched inside Shepard's brain and brought fourth a stabbing headache.

"That's all the audio. The rest is bits and pieces of data salvaged while undergoing delete. I'll need time to put it together in some kind of manner making sense. The voice certainly sounds like Saren. I don't know the other one. Running diagnostic and deep voice analysis..."

"That word, Reapers..." Shepard trailed off. "When hearing or thinking it, I keep getting flashes from that dream… the Beacon's vision, I think..." He stopped talking and began massaging his forehead.

"Most curious." Vasir said. Her omni-tool flashed to life and she began scanning Shepard with it. "Huh, that's a lot of neural activity. Reapers." She added.

Another stab of pain and disjoined image of twisted flesh, metal and screams.

"There's definitely a spike in there." Vasir confirmed.

"How much did that omni-tool cost to be able to do that?" Shepard tried to focus through the pounding headache.

"An obscene amount of credits and it's worth every single one of them, especially when I'm interrogating people. It's much simpler when both they and I know they lie thanks to their neural activity. That by itself has broken more than a few without having to touch or really threaten them." Vasir smirked. "We'll have to consult with a Protean expert or two. Hopefully someone with high clearance or one we could make quietly disappear for the duration of the investigation."

"Primary analysis complete – this is indeed Saren's voice. I'm running comparison for the other one as well." Another ping. "And we now have our guest's identity – Tali'Zorah nar Raya – Admiral Rael'Zorah's daughter no less! We've got a real VIP in here." Bau interrupted them.

"That can prove quite useful. We can use the Quarian's expertise in the war with the Geth, though after all that happened over the past few centuries, the Council might have trouble selling that to both the general populace and their governments. I'll arrange a meeting in person for when the kid is up. Meanwhile, once we've got a preliminary conclusion about the validity of this evidence I'll send it too. Bau, just in case, back it up to off site locations and had it ready to go to the Council, Spectre Office and STG if something happens to us before we can validate it as not an obvious fake." Vasir rapid fired a string of orders.

"I'll run a search about anything relevant called a Conduit." Shepard added. It doesn't really ring a bell."

"Yes, that's another thing to consider. It might just be a code word mind you." Vasir nodded in approval at the show of initiative.