Chapter 32
"Dr. Solus, we haven't yet made meaningful diplomatic contact with the humans, and they don't seem stupid. Don't you expect them to be suspicious?" Maelon, a young Salarian scientist said to his mentor.
"Of course I expect them to be suspicious. Would be disappointed if not. However, we have little in the way of options, unless you have changed your mind." Mordin said to his protege.
"No! Of course not, this needs to end, damn the costs! I just don't want to ruin our chances before we even get started." Maelon said
"We will take adequate precautions, but this is the only avenue available to us. We stick to the plan, and we will make it through." Solus responded, reassuring him.
"Do you think the rumors are true? About the Dalatrass and the rest of the leadership?" Maelon asked.
"Rumors worrying, but not based in fact. Not enough information to be sure, must keep an open mind." He urged. Internally, he was almost positive the rumors were true, that they had been compromised but he didn't know by what. That worry was the one thing that tipped the balance on his decision to assist Maelon in his plan. He suspected STG were also quietly distancing themselves from their government, especially since Kirrahee himself ordered the flight controller on Sur'Kesh to allow them to depart without clearance. Once he knew they were safe with the Alliance, he would work through back channels to try and connect again with Kirrahee.
"We'll be exiting through the Arcturus relay in five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One." Maelon said as their ship returned to normal space. Maelon went to engage the sublight drive when proximity warnings began blaring on the screen. Both activated scanners and found nothing in range, so they switched to a visual display and saw nothing at first between them and the Arcturus station. Then as if summoned, space in front of them began to waver, like heat radiating from asphalt as the hulking form of the MSV Mayhem rippled into existence ten thousand kilometers off their bow.
"Problematic..." Mordin said as his screen filled up with indications fo confirmed weapons locks coming from the behemoth.
"They're hailing." Maelon said, and Mordin reached over and activated the viewscreen communicator.
"Greetings, My name is Admiral Simon Chambers of the MSV Mayhem, and I'd absolutely LOVE to know what you're doing in our space!" He said.
"Hmm. Perhaps should have called ahead." Mordin said as Maelon began repeatedly banging his head against the console.
"Might have been wise. Would you like to turn around and go back through the relay, or be boarded?" Chambers asked.
"This is going to sound strange, but boarded please. We have important information for the Alliance." Maelon said, having headbutted the console sufficiently for now.
"Oh this will be interesting. Disengage your drives, bring down your kinetic shields and prepare to be boarded please." Chambers said before deactivating the connection.
Sargent Lynn Masters was pleasantly surprised when a search of both the ship and its occupants turned up no weapons. In exchange for their honesty, and having arrived unarmed, she decided to forego the restraints and instead guided them towards a conference room where Admiral Chambers awaited.
"Please sit, Mr?" Chambers said
"I am Mordin Solus, this is my protege Maelon." Mordin said gesturing to his companion.
"Pleased to meet you both. Forgive my skepticism, but we have been warned about your government's penchant for subterfuge and deception. I appreciate you allowing us to search your ship." He said.
"Not at all, as stated we came with good intent. We have information that would be useful to the Alliance." Maelon said.
"That's what you said, and I'm very eager to hear what it is." He said taking a seat himself, and offering with a gesture, water to his counterparts. They politely declined.
"Spies within STG have discovered that your people are making diplomatic overtures to the Krogan." Mordin said.
"Indeed we are, though we've made no secret of it." Chambers said.
"Then you are aware of the genophage?" Mordin asked. Chambers' expression darkened.
"Yes, we are aware of that vile plague that murders babies before they can draw their first breath." He said.
"Correct. Recently it was discovered that Krogan birth rates are increasing faster than anticipated. Likely natural adaptation to genophage. Maelon and I were dispatched to Tuchanka and over a course of six months successfully modified the genophage to overcome natural Krogan adaptation." Mordin said, barely able to get the last syllable out before he found himself staring cross-eyed into the barrel of Chambers' gun. Maelon had squealed and crumpled, hiding under the desk.
"Forgive me, Dr. Solus, but I kind of have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to baby murderers. Can you concisely give me one reason why I shouldn't splatter your baby murdering brains all over that wall?" He asked. Mordin paused in thought.
"Possibly." He said, his tone completely devoid of fear. Maelon sobbed. Simon cocked the gun.
"Do go on then." He said.
"Maelon and I were sent to modify the genophage. That we did, and in process gathered the original genome sequence and secreted it off Tuchanka, have spent last three months working on cure." Mordin explained. Chambers squinted his eyes.
"Explain." He said.
"It is one thing to know on academic level what the genophage does. Its general purpose is reasonable, control population of Krogan. They breed expeditiously, and live extremely long, longer than Asari. Unchecked breeding would overpopulate viable worlds in Galaxy in less than ten thousand years. It is entirely another to watch weeping mothers and piles of dead babies taller than the trees." Mordin said, genuine sorrow in his voice at the end.
"Can do nothing to erase millennia of horrors inflicted onto the Krogan. They were not blameless during the Rebellions, but never deserved this. Nobody deserves this. Can work to prevent it from happening again. Brought work and samples of original strain with us." Mordin said. At first Chambers said nothing else, he did however hit a few commands on his omnitool. A few moments later a tall, skinny, elderly man walked into the room.
"You wanted to see me, Admiral?" The old man asked.
"Yes, gentlemen would you please give your work and samples to this man?" Chambers said and the Salarians complied.
"Of course you realize given what you've admitted to, I can't just let you go on your merry way. I will need to speak to my superiors to determine what we're going to do with you." Chambers said with no small amount of menace in his voice.
"Understand. Just understand. Maelon originally joined me to sabotage genophage alteration. Set out from the beginning to help Krogan. Never wanted to engage in barbarism. If you must, execute me but please don't hurt Maelon." Mordin said, causing Maelon to look at him in shock.
"We won't be executing anyone, but as to what to do with you, well that decision is above my pay grade. Johnson, Wilson, please escort these two to the brig." Chambers ordered as the Salarians were led away.
"What's your read on this, Rothschild?" Chambers asked.
"Shouldda chucked them out the fuckin' airlock." Rothschild answered, opening the container given to him and beginning scans.
"Trust me I dearly wanted to, but you know. Paperwork." Chambers said.
"This shit just might be good enough to justify letting them live though. This fills in a lot of holes in our work so far. Might be able to move testing up." Rothschild said.
"That's good. Please keep at it, I'll inform the Prime Minister." Chambers said. Rothschild flipped him off, farted, then walked out the door with the goods.
Meanwhile back on earth, Captain Armando Owen Bailey and his wife Catherine were sitting down to dinner.
"It was nice to have Jenny and the boys over." Catherine said.
"Yeah, I'm gonna miss having those boys running around. It's too quiet in this big old house since the kids grew up. Maybe we should find a smaller place to live." Armando said.
"Oh stop it, this house has been in your family for three hundred years." She said.
"Yeah, I know but still. As much trouble as they were, I miss the noise." He said. With that his omnitool went off and he excused himself to the next room to take the call.
"Colonel Hastings, Sir, What can I do for you?" Bailey said.
"Armando, how's Catherine doing?" Hastings asked.
"Fine, Jenny just left with the grandkids. Having them around has a way of reminding you how old you are and at the same time keeping you young." He said.
"That leads nicely into what I wanted to ask you." Hastings said.
"Oh?" Bailey said.
"You remember that case I was working? The Cerberus one?" Hastings asked.
"Yeah, real doozy that one. Was it true about the girl?" Bailey asked.
"Yeah I got her here with me for now. She's a good kid, got a great head on her shoulders. Armando... They tortured her. Electro shocks, beating, God knows what else. I had to medigel her hands because they decided to break her fingers." Hastings said.
"Jesus. Damn fine work getting her out of there, Angus." Bailey said.
"Yeah, thanks. One small problem though, I live in the Barracks, never got around to finding Mrs. Perfect and buying that cottage by the lake. I was going to see if you and Catherine would be willing to have her over for a little while."
"Jeez, Angus I wish I could help, but... Well I have to talk it over with Catherine. You know I don't talk details about what we do with her." Bailey said.
"That's fine, just think it over, ok? A night or two in the barracks won't kill her but she needs a real home, some place safe to start to recover until we can find adoptive parents." Hastings said.
"I understand. I'll go ask her now." Bailey said.
"Thanks. Hastings out." He said severing the connection. Bailey walked back to the table and sat down, poking at his food.
"Everything ok dear?" She asked.
"That was Colonel Hastings. He's been working a case, a group of human extremists calling themselves Cerberus has been abducting children with high scores in mental and physical tests, mostly orphans and street kids." He explained.
"That's horrible." Catherine said.
"He raided one of their facilities, he only found one girl. Fourteen years old. Cate they tortured her." He said.
"Oh.." Catherine said, tears springing to her eyes.
"Listen, I know it's a lot, but this girl needs a place to..." He went to say but was interrupted.
"Yes. Armando. Yes of course we'll take her." Catherine said. Bailey smiled, Catherine's enormous capacity for unconditional love was one of many things that had attracted him to her in the first place.
"I'll let Hastings know. Wanna go shopping?" He asked. She didn't even nod she was already on her feet, their dinner forgotten. He laughed. Looks like t hat noise thing wouldn't be an issue for long. Bailey sent Hastings an email before getting into the transport with Catherine and heading to the local department store.
"Jack, can you come here for a minute?" Hastings asked. The girl walked over, rubbing her still aching fingers.
"That still bothering you?" He asked.
"Only a little. What's up?" She asked.
"Remember me telling you about my friend Armando and his wife Catherine? They have that big house outside of Minneapolis." He said.
"Yeah, you were going to ask them if... wait they accepted?" She asked.
"Yes, with almost no prompting." He said.
"Why? I mean I'm grateful, but why would someone want a... me?" She asked.
"I can give you a thousand reasons why someone would want you as part of their family kid. I'd adopt you myself if I felt I could give you the kind of life you deserve, but I live alone in this barracks." He said. She was touched at his sentiment.
"Armando and Catherine are really, really good people. Catherine is a complete softy, she'll probably try to mother you to death. Armando will pretend to be a hardass for all of five minutes then he'll probably be putty in your hands. Just, be good to them kid. They're really amazingly genuine people, the only ones I'd trust with you." He said. She nodded, her eyes misty.
"Thank you, Gus. Thanks for everything." She said, reaching out for a hug, which he instantly reciprocated.
"Anything Jack. And keep in touch you hear? You aren't just a case to me you know." He said. He was going to seriously miss this girl, but she had a damn good shot at a great life with the Baileys.