Chapter 45: Come Along

2186 CE

'What do you mean, escaped?' I ask, blinking.

'Dr. Eva Coré escaped.' Miranda replied.

'Did you tell them she was a robot?' I asked.

'I did.' Miranda replied.

'How did she escape, then? Wasn't she switched off?' I asked.

'The Alliance has decided not to read me in on their security failures, Professor. I only learned about her escape when they asked me if I knew anything that might help to track her.' Miranda admitted.

'Damn. Okay. What's the damage assessment? How much harm can she do?' I asked.

'The Illusive Man is still behind bars. The Alliance has swept the cells and recruited some of the scientists and imprisoned others. Most of the engineering teams were recruited but black ops, like our cell, were mostly imprisoned. Kaidan may be an outsider on that, but if he is then Shepard's one too. That leaves most Cerberus operations out of her reach one way or another. There's not much she should be able to access to cause harm in the short term. Stuff like the Thresher Maw experiments would take months to years to be usable as a weapon. The only things I can think of are Kai Leng-'

'Who?' I asked, honestly not recalling him.

'The Illusive Man's right hand man and deadliest assassin?' Miranda asked, as if that clarified anything.

'Wasn't that you?' I ask.

'Wasn't who, me?' Miranda asked.

'The Illusive Man's right hand man?' I asked.

'No. Of course not. The Alliance was very specific that they couldn't pardon the Illusive Man's Right Hand Man, no matter how helpful they were, when they offered me a pardon. So I told them that Kai Leng was his right hand man.' Miranda explained.

'You lied?' I asked.

'Of course not! I had a nice long talk with my lawyer who pointed out that The Illusive Man never actually called me his right hand man, and that legally speaking, that wasn't my job title. So reasonable people can disagree on whether I was or not, and I disagree with anyone who says that I was. Now.'

I stared at her.

'There was at least 30 minutes worth of soul searching and self-reflection involved. I grew as a person.' Miranda insisted.

'Right, so 'Dr. Core' has access to the 'The Illusive Man's Right Hand Man.' Anything else, we need to worry about?' I asked.

'She probably also has access to the Shepard clone we were using for spare parts that someone stole, and the varren handling cell.' Miranda explained.

'Okay, I knew about the Shepard clone, but... the varren handling cell?' I asked.

'They handle the various varren-related projects. The genetically modified varren, the varren-dog hybrids, the incendiary varren... They were even working on creating a copy of the varren power armor you built back in 2077 CE. I don't know if they got it working actually They weren't inside my direct chain of command. Last I heard they were having trouble replicating the biotic charge system.'

'… What.' I asked.

'The Biotic Charge system for the varren armor you developed.' Miranda clarified.

'Why was Cerberus wasting resources on that?' I asked, stunned.

'You unleashed the most effective small tactical scale terror weapon the galaxy has ever seen and you're wondering why we wanted to replicate it?' Miranda asked.

'I what now?' I blinked.

'Krell, in 2077 you unleashed a small scale test of an anti-infantry terror weapon capable of holding an entire town hostage, and trainable to follow commands. You unleashed it on Thessia. You were the villain of the entire planet but they couldn't find anything to charge you with since none of the individual components were illegal, no one had outlawed varren power armor yet, and they couldn't prove you had any sort of malicious intent doing so since the actual unleashing was done through the seeming negligence of the delivery company. The terror weapon rendered a town uninhabited. The Asari sued the delivery company into oblivion.' Miranda explained like this should be obvious to me.

'Wait, are you talking about Hachiko?' I asked, the bit about the delivery company ringing a bell. 'Hachiko wasn't developed as a terror weapon! She was a gift!'

'Who the hell do you hate enough to give that as a gift?' Miranda asked.

'Well, it was Liara's birthday and I figured she should have a pet; and since all Asari are biotic, I didn't want Hachiko to feel left out.' I explained.

'Krell. The Varren destroyed an entire village. All of it. There was nothing left but rubble.' Miranda explained.

'I remember something about a village, but the insurance covered the damages and they didn't want me to come to the court on Thessia in person for some reason. Hachiko just wanted to play. She'd never hurt a fly.' I explained.

'The flies aren't the problem! The problem was the structures. Your power-armored terror weapon demolished them all with biotic charges!' Miranda yelled.

'Nah. I tested the impact, Hachiko could barely dent a wall she ran into. I wanted to make sure the walls would give a little bit first so that Hachiko wouldn't get hurt running into them.' I explained.

'Krell, when you tested your terror weapon against walls, what planet were you on?' Miranda asked, as if realizing something.

'Tuchanka, of cour-' I paused, realizing the issue as well.

'Oh.' I admitted.

'Right, so as I was saying, Cerberus was having issues getting the varren to activate the biotic charge system reliably.'

'Voice activation, keyed to varren growling. You can do it with muscle control too, and there's some simple mind/machine interfaces you can make with electrode sensors and feedback pads on the small of the back that work well as well, but voice activation is the only system that would also let the owner issue commands.' I explained.

'Krell, it's probably for the best that your gift never got to Liara.' Miranda decided.

'Yeah, I'm getting that feeling myself too.' I admitted.

'Right, so aside from our issues with replicating the control scheme, the armor works just fine. So unless you have a counter for a fully armored biotic varren that I'm not aware of, we should probably keep an eye out.' Miranda explained.

'There is that Fenrir mech. I'm not really a software engineer, but I could probably beef up the processing power and storage enough that EDI could inhabit it remotely. Maybe give it some weapons, too.' I mused.

'Fenris Me-! Krell, do you seriously believe that the only way to counter a canine war crime is to create another canine war crime?' Miranda ashed, annoyed.

'Well, it's probably not the only way, but it does seem like the most amusing way? Also, if Eva is still using her body that means EDI doesn't have one for her own use, and those Loki mechs are nowhere near as modular as the Fenris mechs are.' I explained.

'Okay. Let's tentatively call the varren 'handled' then. What about Kai Leng and the Shepard clone?' Miranda asked.

'Miranda...' I stared at her pityingly. 'That's what we have guns for.'

2186 CE

The greatest problem in the Mass Effect universe with regard to combating the Reapers isn't a lack of weapons; weapons are easy enough to make if you know what is coming. It's a lack of trust and coordination.

The Great Library of Krell is technically a super weapon. But that's not its main purpose. The purpose of the Great Library of Krell is to serve as a flagship and mobile coordination hub for the combined fleets of the Galaxy.

It serves as a failsafe for if we lose the Citadel; a convergent answer to Omega and the Citadel both.

Liara hails us immediately as we approach. The captain of The Friendly Headbutt happily lets me take the call.

'Grandfather.' Liara smiles warmly at me.

'Liara! Enjoying your new office, I hope?' I replied.

'It is a bit... Big.' Liara commented carefully.

'You did find your office, right? You know you don't get the entire library, right?' I clarified.

'I saw the signs for my office, Grandfather. You gave me an entire office complex.' Liara replied.

'You should probably just keep one office. The rest you can use for your minions.' I explained.

'Grandfather, I don't have minions.' Liara lied.

I stared at her.

'I don't have any minions officially.' Liara eventually clarified.

'Well congratulations. You're now the Chief Underling in charge of Intelligence Operations for the Great Empire of the Enkindlers; or whatever Javik's decided to call it. Never let it be said that your grandfather is above using nepotism to get his granddaughter a job that she is vastly overqualified for!' I decide.

'Grandfather?'

'I'm apparently the empire's chief strategist. The job probably comes with some minions. Javik didn't really give me any information before I left to meet up with you.' I confessed.

'You're making me the head of intelligence for the reborn, and incredibly war-like Prothean empire?' Liara sounded less than enthusiastic about this new development.

'Well, you are a very good information broker.' I complimented.

'My capacity to do the job is not the problem, Grandfather.' Liara explained calmly.

'You don't need to stay on after the war is over, but I plan to have a Prothean studies department at the University of Tuchanka I am building for after the war, and I can't in good conscience hire someone for Department Head who hasn't taken the time to head out and work with some Protheans. It would be negligence of the highest order!' I grinned.

'Grandfather. The Protheans were extinct!' Liara protested.

'See! That's exactly why I have to put that requirement in place! You can't go teaching things like that to students! Not only are statements like that factually wrong, they're based on self-serving lies created by the Asari government! It would be academically irresponsible to hire someone without first-hand experience! Pure nepotism!' I complained.

'It was nepotism when you hired me on as your chief underling too!'

'That was that and this is this. I can't go violating academic integrity all willy nilly, can I?'

'Now you care!?'

'Well, I just discovered how important academic integrity is to my granddaughter. She would be extremely upset if I violated it in such an open and blatant manner!'

'I'm your granddaughter!'

'I have more than one granddaughter.' I countered.

'Yes, but I'm the only one who cares about academic integrity!'

'Well then, you must see how important it is to make sure that I follow all of the rules when hiring you for an academic position.' I grinned.

Liara glared murderously at me.

'Think of it this way, No one will have access to more of the secrets and realities of the Prothean empire than you will! You'll be the best qualified person for the job!'

Liara continued to glare murderously.

'The docking bay nearest your office is reserved for the Normandy.'

The glare ceased.

'You could have just said that in the first place.' Liara revealed.

'For some reason I thought that academic integrity would be the stronger argument.' I confessed.

'You're clear to land, Grandfather. And let me be the first living being to welcome you to the Great Library of Krell.' Liara replied.

'The name isn't too pretentious is it?' I asked.

'Honestly, grandfather? If anything, you have a gift for understatement.'

Author's note: I haven't actually done much writing over the last two months or so, but I realized that that's exactly why I have a backlog. Starting a new job tomorrow, so I wanted to post something to celebrate. Title's a song by by Cosmo Sheldrake.