Chapter 33
The Normandy departed Tuchanka with a great deal more Krogan goodwill than they'd expected. Shepard's stunt in the Arena earned humanity a considerable amount of respect in their eyes, especially when before leaving, Captain Anderson requested Wrex and his entourage visit Earth and discuss the installation of ambassadors. This was further than the Krogan had ever gotten with the citadel. Even right after the rachni wars they were offered an embassy that was never delivered, instead they were expected to be placated by an ugly statue in the Presidium commemorating the millions of Krogans that died protecting their precious Citadel.
What impressed Wrex most is that the Alliance weren't promising him anything. They asked to discuss an embassy, and the potential of future trade relations, but didn't disrespect the Krogan by offering empty promises. Wrex also secretly hoped that Shepard's display of martial skill wasn't a fluke, since it would take a strong partner to prevent the Krogan from falling into old habits. Wrex was old, and tired, and he'd seen his people dragged through the mud for so long, and now there was a hint of a brighter future, and he was going to drag his people into it kicking and screaming.
"Your thoughts, Uvenk?" Wrex asked as he watched the Normandy disappear into space.
"Potential. I'm not betting on them just yet, but they're far more impressive than the Council was." Uvenk said.
"I'm glad. We have a lot of catching up to do, and we won't get there by settling old grudges. I don't want to pull our people up out of this tailspin just to have them waste it all on revenge." Wrex said.
"I agree, brother, but people will fight this. There's so much hate, there's been so much suffering." Uvenk said.
"We need to learn from pain instead of wallowing in it for once." The soft voice of the female Shaman interjected as she approached them.
"I dearly hope we can learn, Shaman. We have to, or all that our people once were, all that we could be will be lost forever." Wrex said.
"What of the female clan? How do we factor into this new future?" She asked.
"Change is inevitable, we need to embrace it and not fear it. We'll gather the clans and once we subdue any dissension, it's my hope, Shaman that you'll lead by mine and Uvenk's side." Wrex said.
"Female leadership? Where is Wrex and what have you done with his body?" She asked, chuckling. Wrex snorted.
"There's been so much pain, Shaman. I don't presume to know the pain our women go through with our dead children, but I've been father to my fair share of stillborn. Even now, hundreds of years later I grieve for each one." Wrex said.
"With thinking like yours, Brother, the younglings born today will never know that suffering." Uvenk said, patting him on the back. The three Krogan returned to their chamber to plan their suddenly brightened future.
The Normandy returned to Earth to drop off Admiral Raan, she was needed at Alliance HQ to oversee several projects, now one of which was information sharing with the Krogan. There were few intelligence operatives on Tuchanka, as the Krogan tended to prefer might over subtlety, however they deeply appreciated the massive information dump about the Citadel they received from the Alliance.
The journey was suspiciously long, and for the duration neither Admiral Raan nor Captain Anderson could be found, leaving Shepard in temporary command of the ship. The crew deeply respected her, and had no issues adapting to her command style. In fact she was responsible for the slow journey, insisting that she wanted to keep the engines from "overheating." In reality she wanted to give Anderson as much time with his beloved as she could.
They had almost arrived at Earth when they received communication from the Mayhem. Admiral Xen, in her crisp new Alliance uniform standing next to Admiral Chambers greeted Shepard when the connection was established.
"Lieutenant Commander Shepard, it's a pleasure to see you again, I hope you are well?" Chambers said.
"We are quite well over here, thank you. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" She asked.
"Forgive us, but we were hoping for a more private conversation. Could you take us in your cabin?" Xen asked.
"Of course." Shepard said, rerouting the call and jogging up to her cabin.
"There we go, the room is secure." Shepard said.
"Good. While you were on Tuchanka and I was on Rannoch, Admiral Chambers intercepted a pair of Salarians seeking an audience with the alliance. Specifically they were a pair of geneticists tasked with "improving" the genophage to counteract the Krogan natural adaptation to it." Xen said.
"And did you wait until you were docked with a station before shoving them through the airlock? I wouldn't have." Shepard said, an angry sneer on her face.
"While I agree with your sentiment, we did not. After some conversation it was discovered that the younger of the two salarians took the assignment specifically to sabotage STG's efforts, and the elder had a change of heart after seeing the result first hand. They offered us invaluable data on the genophage as well as samples of the original strain from Tuchanka. We are extremely close to an effective end to the genophage." Chambers said.
"Jesus. What are your orders, sir?" Shepard asked.
"Well as soon as Captain Anderson wears Admiral Raan out, brief him on our findings and set a return course to Tuchanka. We're not going to withhold this any longer than necessary." Chambers said, causing Shepard to chortle.
"I'll go see if I can get him to hurry it along. By your leave, Admiral." She said
"Of course. Chambers out." he concluded, ending the communication.
Back on Tuchanka, Wrex, Uvenk and the female Shaman were reviewing information given to them by the recently departed Humans and Quarians. Amongst the exabytes of data provided, were documents, videos, sound bytes, schematics for invaluable technology and medical breakthroughs, everything they needed to synthesize medigel and a nearly comprehensive history of the Alliance. Most intriguing was the old, partially corrupted video records from what the humans called simply "The War." They were equal parts impressed and horrified with Humanity's capacity for making war. Wrex saw a lot of themselves in these humans, from the short-sighted greed and blood lust, the bigotry, all that lead to the opening shots to the horrors of cities full of innocent people vaporized in impossibly bright columns of nuclear fire, Human history could easily be mistaken for Krogan history with a different cast of characters.
Battle after battle, the humans annihilated each other with terrifying precision. Wrex at first through Anderson had been exaggerating when he said they brought their population down to 10% but this makes it look like that might have been generous. Then he saw a faction rise up, mostly young humans, some even children. Company by company, some of which were made up of child soldiers themselves, laid down their arms and refused to fight themselves any more. Across the world. Armies full of starving children, together rising up and turning against the old powers. Even their leaders, hard, seasoned old generals enraged at being ordered to slaughter even more innocent children. Then they marched on their capitals and laid siege against the rich, soft old fools that ruined the world and with one violent strangled yelp, they ended.
In the end the leaders of the military offered themselves up for justice, they'd followed orders that devastated the world, but the youth decided enough blood had been spilled, and that erasing the past would do nothing to prevent it from repeating. Instead these old generals were made into teachers, and spent their days showing the children that survived, and the ones that came after the consequences of unchecked greed and hate.
The human's war generated it's fair share of heroes, there was Arthur Reynolds, a 16 year-old captain that led an entire company to victory against a fully trained and equipped division using guerrilla tactics, Jennifer Greensborough, a school teacher that smuggled thousands of teenagers out of involuntary military training camps before being caught and executed on live television, and Michael Shepard, a tall red-headed man who broke into and sabotaged a nuclear weapons depot, causing the enormous lead-lined shielding around the depot to collapse in, entombing both the missiles and the people responsible for manufacturing, loading and firing them.
Wrex paused when reading about that last one and smiled. Shepard. Of course she'd been born from a line of heroes. He looked at a photo of her Ancestor and saw the same red hair, green eyes and defiant smirk.
"It seems that Humans have a history of "Shepards" causing trouble." Wrex observed.
"I saw that, there's no way that was coincidence." Uvenk agreed, grinning.
"I can't help it, I really like these humans. They share their flaws without reservation. Now it's easy to see why they weren't judgmental about our own self-destruction." the female shaman said. Then, as if preordained, Grak came running in with news for Wrex.
"We just got a message from the humans, they're asking to land again, said there'd been a development they wanted to discuss in person." Grak said.
"Granted, This ought to be good." Wrex said, Grak nodded and ran back to the communication area.
Back on the Normandy, Anderson made his way to the CIC to relieve Shepard, followed by a gingerly walking Raan who was sporting a goofy grin. Shepard briefed them on the genophage situation and explained that they were on their way back to Tuchanka.
"Pretty sure we're never gonna get you back to your office, Admiral Raan." Shepard said,not even trying to hide the smirk.
"Oh please don't hurry on my account. I'm sure I'll manage somehow." She said smiling at Anderson, who grinned back at her.
"Has there been news from Rannoch?" Shepard asked Raan
"Yes, Admiral Noran is thoroughly enjoying her "retirement" on the homeworld. The Geth fuss over her, and she pretends to hate it. She's making great progress with them though, they are learning how to interact with Organics and are more and more open to reunion. I suspect however that you'll see more humans moving to Rannoch than Quarians eventually. Many have fallen in love with their new home." Raan said.
"Well that's up to the Geth either way. They've gone out of their way to make us feel welcome, I have no desire to take that for granted." Anderson said.
"I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Just before I say anything, know that I am 100% for curing the genophage, no questions asked." Shepard said.
"Go ahead." Anderson prompted.
"We do this, we're opening the flood gates. I have confidence in Wrex, Uvenk and especially the female shaman to keep them on the straight and narrow, but do you two? Do the rest of the admirals and the Prime Minister?" Shepard asked.
"Valid point, Shepard, and yes, the admirals are all on board. We know the risks as well as the Asari, Turians and Salarians do, we were there when during the so-called "rebellion." Raan said.
"It was awful. A Krogan mercernary is a brutal, mindless butcher, but a legion of them under competent leadership. Keelah I'm surprised the Citadel lasted long as it did. However, I am also a member of a race whose extinction was averted by human and Rothschild's mercy. We must help them, Shepard, how could we look our children in the eyes if we have the means to help and do nothing?" Raan continued.
"I agree wholeheartedly, Admiral Raan. Like I said, Devil's advocate." Shepard said.
"What does 'Devil's advocate' mean anyway?" Raan asked.
"The Devil is a character from one branch of human mythology. A being who is the living incarnation of evil. Basically the "antithesis" to 'God' the not-so-creatively named creator god in Christianity, one of our religions. 'Devil's advocate' means arguing a point you don't agree with to ensure that an idea is fully fleshed out." Shepard said.
"That is genius. Keelah, I can't help but feel if we had an Admiral playing 'Devil's advocate' before the Geth war we would have paused long enough to think it through." She said.
"Hannah does that with her advisory board. One of them always disagrees not on principle, but to force the others to argue for their cause, it helps them find holes in their logic." Anderson said.
"I'll suggest that to the others when we meet next month.
"Good, while we're crossing all the Ts and dotting all the Is are we still all on board for our incentive measure?" Anderson asked.
"I agree it's extreme, but They have no reason to trust us, it's the least we can do to assuage their doubts." Shepard said.
"Agreed, I have no problems with it either." Raan said.
"Approaching Tuchanka, ETA 5 minutes" Joker announced over the intercom.
"Thanks Flight Lieutenant, go ahead and request landing clearance. We'll prep to head out." Anderson said. He then looked at the two women "I'd like you both to accompany me, please." Anderson said.
"Aye aye sir. Pressly, the ship is yours." She said to Lieutenant Pressly
"Yes Ma'am." he said as stepped behind the console at the CIC.
A few minutes later they were intercepted at the landing pad by Wrex, Uvenk and the female Shaman.
"Guess you guys just couldn't get enough of my raw, animal magnetism." Wrex said, grinning. Shepard laughed and began fanning herself with her hand "Oh Wrex you've got me all flustered." She said, eliciting laughs from the other Krogans.
"Truly though we have important news. We made some Salarian friends..." Anderson said.
"They didn't try to talk you out of curing the genophage, did they?" Uvenk said, his irritation obvious.
"No, quite the opposite. They were apparently here in secret months ago adjusting the genophage. Apparently the Krogan were developing a natural resistence to it. One of the Salarians, Maelon was his name, had accompanied the elder, Dr. Mordin Solus specifically with the intention of sabotaging his work. Maelon discovered what the genophage did and was horrified enough to betray his mentor. Luckily for him, his mentor had a change of heart as well, and the two sought us out looking to assist." Anderson said.
"That's interesting... and suspicious." Uvenk said.
"Precisely, which is why we came back to you." Anderson said. "We have what amounts to the first version of a finished cure, along with all of their notes and all of the test studies run agaisnt tissue samples gathered from Volunteers during our last trip. Everything looks promising, but I can throw those Salarians much farther than I can trust them." Wrex laughed at this.
"We were hoping to run some controlled trials in orbit on a quarantine ship above Tuchanka with a few volunteers. Preferably five males and five females. " Raan contributed.
"If you agree, the ship will be brought in by the end of the day and will be ready for the volunteers mid day tomorrow. It will be fully furnished, and the subjects will have free access to food, drink, entertainment and any other comforts or necessities we can offer." Anderson said.
"This is all well and good, but this is a lot faster than we were expecting. You'll forgive me for being skeptical." Wrex said.
"Totally understandable. That is why we are offering ourselves as hostages." Anderson said.
"Excuse me?" Uvenk said, startled.
"The Normandy stays parked in your bay, the crew evacuates, engines and reactors shut down. We all live here under your supervision for the duration of the trials. If the cure turns out to be a trap, you kill us and no long term harm is done to the Krogan." Anderson explained.
"You're serious?" the female Shaman said
"Completely. We are determined to see this through. The genophage is an atrocity, and we are in a position to eradicate it. Those with the means to help should do so without hesitation." Shepard said.
Wrex just stared at them. This was big. IF they weren't lying, and they just gave him a real big reason to believe they weren't, this time two weeks from now, Krogan pregnancies would be a source of unbelievable joy rather than abject misery. This time next year there will be Krogan babies in the thousands. Extinction would no longer be all that they had to look forward to. Wrex looked at Uvenk and then the female shaman, both of whom nodded.
"Do it." Wrex said. Immediately Anderson pulled up his omnitool and forwarded an acknowledgment to Alliance command.
"Do you have temporary lodging for the crew? They're marines, they don't need much." Anderson said.
"We've got hundreds of unoccupied houses, they need a bit of work though." Uvenk said.
"Marines are good at that kind of work." Shepard said gesturing over their heads to Tali who was walking over to them.
"Reactors are spinning down and the engine is shut down. Once everything cools the rest of the engineering crew will evacuate." She said.
"Tali, if you're bored my mechanic Grah is over there banging his head against a few engineering issues with our Tomkahs." Wrex said. Tali made an excited noise, kissed Shepard and ran over to help him.