The datapad in my hand failed to hold my attention as the last of the requisitions disappeared inside the hold of the Starquake. Julian stood by my side, a sentinel, as swarms of people swelled and ebbed to and fro. My crew approached me for orders, ignoring the blond man beside me. Although by this time most of the crew had already boarded and hard at work double checking all the systems. My tongue clucked as the crew scientist – Setaria Kasril, a medium blue asari with marks a smidge darker than her skin dancing over her eyes. Turian markings they said – boarded the Starquake. With time, maybe she would switch her loyalty from my brother, although if my brother had it, then I must too. Gideon trotted by, a large rucksack doubling him over.
"Stealing half the ship?" I joked. Gideon jumped, noticing me. His face flushed bright red.
"Uh… well, w-we can't forget the kitchen sink, can we?" he said with a sheepish smile. Julian cast him a long, sideways look. "It's just uh… w-well, I thought I needed a hobby, to- to keep me out of trouble y'know?" My smile melted into a puddle of relief and warmth. My smug grin made Julian snort.
"See? He didn't need to get his face punched in! He just needed something to keep himself busy!" I scowled, smacking up the upside of his head. Julian glowered, taking an extra step away from me. "So, what hobby needs you to break your back, hmm?" Gideon blanked for a moment, thinking.
"Well uh… c-computer engineering, I guess? Programming, wiring, processor synthesising, that sort of thing," he shrugged.
"Oh wow, I wish I could do that, I terrible at programming," I grinned. Gideon smirked, confidence building.
"Mum, you're terrible at computers full stop," he countered. My eyebrows snapped down.
"Ship. Now," I ordered. He laughed before diving to avoid my swipe and scurry onto the ship. My nose raised notch, catching Julian in my peripheral vision as pride bathing me in a warm wash. Julian ignored me, but a slight snap to his tone leaked in as he spoke to his team. My hands dusted down my trousers, trying to ignore the thin black, blue and grey stripes running down the arms of my uniform now. Yeah, Julian pushed for a uniform modification. Despite his best attempts, our stubbornness collided until we decided against a full colour change though.
"So, you'll be heading off then," Julian said, folding his hands behind him. "Remember our agreement, Delly," A sigh escaped.
"I'll give you updates at least twice a week, although you must understand we could do little for months on end," I warned. Julian shrugged.
"If I know where you are, I can direct my own excursions in other areas. I need those location updates. You have the RIT equipment on board?"
"Yep, I checked, they were in the med bay. Once a month?" I asked.
"For you. Once every two months for everyone else. Too much RIT can cause schizophrenia and brain hermitages. Because of Nyryntha, you'll need it at least once a month. Only that though," Julian warned.
"We'll be careful. Despite what you think, we aren't complete idiots," I snorted. Julian remained composed, turning to the Constellation crew backing equipment away from the Starquake. My chest heaved with a breath, pulling myself straight, offering a hand. "Well, Julian, thanks for everything. Try not to kidnap me," Julian snorted a laugh.
"Don't give me a reason to," he threatened.
"Dick," I scowled. He grinned before yanking on my hand, pulling me into a hug.
"Please be careful, Delly," he murmured. His words dragged a stone through my heart. Damn you heart strings!
"Fine, I won't go stepping on any krogan toes," I grumbled. He patted my back before pulling away.
To rile him up, my fingers flicked off my forehead before turning to the Starquake, grinning at the frown on his face. My legs couldn't carry me up the ramp fast enough, ducking inside the airlock. It closed behind me with a hiss. The familiar bridge met my sore eyes, tension easing as the familiar bustle rang in my ears. For once, Gideon had vanished from sight and the bridge hummed with activity. When my back pressed into the Captain's chair, all the sourness built up over the past month flooded out. The galaxy map glowed above me. My finger danced over it until it zeroed in on the Citadel. The Council would want an explanation in person…
"We're green for go, Captain," Lanster sang. A smirk grew, reeling in the buzz. "We heading for the Citadel?"
"Yeah, the Council will want answers about where the hell we've been," I sighed. "Besides, Julian avoids contact with the Council and the Citadel regardless. It'll be a haven until we can shift through the data he gave us. He gave us a list of Reaper names, yes?"
"He did, but the information is patchy. Some species don't have Reaper names. We'll just have to find them out for ourselves," Mat'al said with a cool smile, flicking through a datapad. My hand rubbed my temple.
"Alright, let's get the Council up to speed first then worry about identifying what Saboteurs we can," I ordered. "Get us out of here, Lanster,"
"Aye, aye, Captain. Disengaging from the dock," Lanster called. The walkway above me lit up with the camera screens, the dock of the Constellation disappearing from the front view cameras. The pin pricks of stars greeted us, the coldness of space waiting. Lanster eased us out, revealing two of the cruisers flanking the Constellation. After we gained enough distance from the fleet, Lanster FTL'd us, aiming for the nearest mass relay to take us to the Citadel.
With the ship on course, personal matters now came to my attention. They had turned the Starquake on its head and then some. They turned everything over and removed everything fixed in place. That didn't mean they put everything back in the same place they found them. When the elevator doors released me onto the officer's deck, a door leading to an unused room lay open. Cautious, my curious eyes poked inside.
What awaited me was Julian's 'advisor'; a tall, pale purple asari with darker purple frosting on her tentacles and neck. She shifted her gaze once she noticed movement, pausing from placing a book on the bookshelf above the desk, her eyes more purple than mine. She flicked a small smile as she turned, allowing me to see the dark grey/purple markings that curled from her brows to soar high over her head. Another fanned down to a fine line between these brow markings. Her lower lip and chin formed a fan marking that widened at her chin, disappearing under her clothes as the line continued down her neck. She folded her arms as her slight pointed features caught the light.
"Captain Shaik, a pleasure," she said with a warm smile. A smile spread over mine, if only to hide the unease.
"I am, I assume you are who Julian asked to be my advisor?" I asked, keeping my tone light.
"You are correct, I am Saria T'keve, a Justicar and a commander of Admiral's Shaik's on the Constellation. He trusted no one else to handle you," she grinned. My face blanched for a moment.
"Saria…" I echoed, flashbacks of a pale blue asari crossing my eyes. Saria spotted my change of demeanour and chuckled.
"I read the report, Captain. I assure you, I have no intention of crushing your face into a wall," she said with a small smirk. My shoulders relaxed.
"Oh good, then we'll get along just peachy," I said, masking the relief sagging my shoulders. "How are you finding the Starquake?"
"So far? She is a lovely ship, smaller than what I am used to, as you can understand, but it shouldn't take too long to settle in," she replied.
"Brilliant. Well, I need to get my room back in order. I dread to think what has happened to it while I've been gone," I said with a shake of my head, dreading those doors opening. "I look forward to working with you, Saria,"
"And I you, Captain," Saria smiled before returning to her boxes. Ok, new crew member met, time to get on with the rest of my jobs for the day
My room wasn't in a mess, or even muddled up. The only thing that had moved were the personal touches. After a thundering heart second, my eyes spotted the neat pile by the table on the upper tier. My hand reached over, picking up the items near the boxes and bags. There wasn't much. The photograph of my parents glared up at me, my chest bleeding in my chest. Did mum know I was safe now? My eyebrows curled upwards as it sat on the side table beside the sofa. A pile of books gained through my journey; some fiction and a handful of non-fiction to help educate me on the ways of space travel and the other species that called this galaxy home. They went on the desk. The next item was my battered Locust and Carnifex. They were beyond repair but they held too much value to ditch. Even Val didn't know I still had the Carnifex. Maybe it was time to put it in a more prominent place. A case stood by the wall between the upper tier and the desk. That would be a good place for them. Everything else was just clothes, accessories, a few posters with helpful information on it – safe and non-safe spots in space – and a few geological things, just to remind me of where my journey started.
Two days passed, two days of reorganising the crew. 2 months off the job created slacking tendencies. After what the ship had just gone through, they learned the hard way that slacking would not fly. That and wearing the uniforms were mandatory, as some seem to forget. The Starquake, to be fair, was running without a hitch, not even a computer bug. Whatever Julian's engineers had done, they had done a good job… but that still didn't mean we could be complacent. Gideon sat crowded up in his room with this new hobby of his, leaving the rest of the ship in peace. Shayan assured me he popped in often to engineering asking for help or lessons, Intel was a frequent stop too. The bridge was quiet now, much to the relief of some of my crew. He had a welcome distraction effect through, but it was more to give me a reason to procrastinate. No, while I missed the bugger, we couldn't afford distractions. Something told me that shit would hit the fan.
On the third day, less than an hour until our mass relay jump to the Citadel, a call rang through. My eyes lifted from the screens around my desk, reports in various forms floating for the Council to receive should they ask for one. A frown formed, looking at the unfamiliar numberThe Council wouldn't call from an unknown number. It wasn't their style. Then studying the number further caused more concern. The number was shorter than normal. Galactic standard demanded that all numbers have the same 12 digit area code followed by the local then the number itself. My system flagged this as an impossible number given the area code. Curiosity won though, accepting the call. The call screen shoved the report windows to the side, showing me an image of an aging man with grey hair and vivid, patterned, blue eyes. A puff of white smoke drifted over his face as he exhaled a cloud of smoke, lounging in a chair with what an orange, burning sun behind him. The man drawled his eyes over me, assessing me as my eyes narrowed, concern rising. My shoulders tugged back, ready for a fight.
"Miss Shaik, good afternoon. Or would you prefer Captain?" the man asked. My frown grew. At least he seemed polite.
"Giving the situation, Captain would be more appropriate," I said. "Who are you, how did you get this number and what do you want?" The man took another long draught from his cigarette.
"I have many friends throughout the galaxy, Captain Shaik. You are more difficult to get in contact with than most, I admit. But how I came to obtain your details is irrelevant to the proposition I have for you," the man explained, flicking the residue into an ash tray.
"Name or I hang up," I threatened. The man offered a brief smile.
"You are nervous, I understand. My sources informed me you have been off the radar for several months," he began. My back straightened in my chair. How did he know this?! "Many people call me 'The Illusive Man', and my organisation would like to request your assistance,"
"The Illusive Man… right… and that is the closest to a name you'll give me? You're not even going to attempt for anything more than a cheap Marval name?" I snorted.
"Ask anyone in the galaxy who The Illusive Man is and they shall tell you the same thing, Captain," he continued, not buffeted by my scowl. "They will tell you I am the head of an organisation called Cerberus. We believe humans deserve to have a better standing in the galaxy, that we have more than earned our place in the galaxy, that the racial discrimination we receive are unjustified," The Illusive Man explained. My brow rose, twitch by small twitch, fingers tapping away as subtle as they could to bring up a page on the Council's organisation list for more details. My eyes flicked over the screen as it produced a result, my expression hardening as the words of one particular field primed every muscle.
"The Council has listed your organisation as a terrorist group, Mr Illusive Man. Give me one goddam reason I should do a damn thing for you when my own employers are damning your entire existence?" I demanded.
"Some of our methods are… unsavoury, that we can both agree on. But the end goal justifies the means. We are being oppressed, Captain, now more than ever with the colony attacks," The Illusive Man said. His words grabbed enough attention to prevent me hanging up.
"Colony attacks?" I echoed.
"Someone is attacking several of our colonies, whom we are unsure. But whole colonies are vanishing, not a living person has remained in any of them. They vanish with no sign of struggle or fights yet everyone seems to have left in a hurry. That is why we are asking for your aid," The Illusive Man explained, eyes watching my expression.
"So… what, you want me to divert from my goal to check out a few colonies? I'm sure the Systems Alliance is more equipped to deal with this," I said, my face scrunching up. Missing colonies… no, not my field.
"There is political red tape between the Alliance and aiding these colonists. We have precious little time as it stands before the next colony is decimated. I am sure that your hunt for Reaper servants within our species is of the utmost importance and I thank you for your hard work and dedication, however we have information that leads us to believe you may have information that can aid us," he explained. How… did he know of the Saboteurs? This was not going to nice places, not at all.
"Sir, this is the first time I've heard of disappearing colonists. If the Alliance has nothing, I very much doubt the Council will. And I doubt even more that we have anything of worth, if I was even willing to work with you," I said with a low growl burning in the back of my throat. "You are, by the Council, classed as a terrorist organisation and to be frank, as someone who captains a ship filled with members from all species, not just human, I would betray my crew by forcing them to work for you and my own beliefs in cooperation rather than domination. If you want to convince the Council you are not a terrorist organisation, you can speak to them for aid. I take my orders from them, not from some random man who somehow learned my number to call me… a direct number," I growled.
"Captain, please consider the greater threat here. Whatever is targeting our colonies could well prepare for an assault on Earth. Who knows who is behind these attacks," The Illusive Man pressed.
"Our data is not available to third parties," a voice rumbled. My skin jolted as Val appeared in my peripheral vision. He leaned over the desk, trapping me between his arms. "Dell, hang up," he whispered. My gaze stayed fixed to the screen.
"Illusive Man, I have made my decision and I am keeping to it. The Starquake is not aiding you in your endeavour, although I wish you the best in locating and stopping the problem in a lawful and ethical manner," I said. The Illusive Man sat in silence for a time, waving his cigarette in his fingers.
"As you wish, Captain, perhaps we can work together to the betterment of our species in the future," he said. My snort didn't even warrant an eye bat.
"Illusive Man, nothing short of you raising the dead or the Council losing their minds will make me change my mind," I said with my voice dropping. The Illusive Man smiled, hidden behind is cigarette.
"Another time, Captain Shaik, it has been a pleasure," The Illusive Man said before the screen went dead. Tension eased out of my shoulders.
"What did he want?" Val asked, borderline demanding.
"He says whole human colonies are disappearing without a trace. He wants me to help him look into it," I said, "I declined," Val released a held breath before freeing me from his trap.
"Good," Val breathed. "The last thing you need is to be working with those psychotic assholes. I dread to think how many non-humans are dead because of Cerberus," he leaned against the table, folding his arms "We will hit the mass relay to take us to the Serpent Nebula. Lanster has forwarded the flight plan and the Council… well, they'll be on the dock waiting to come aboard," The news sent my skin crawling.
"I should have expected this. Ok, get the war room prepared. I want all Commanders, Raisha and Spectres ready for a debriefing. There is a few rules I need to put in place before we do anything," I ordered, rubbing my eyes. "You hear that, Lanster?"
"Report all commanding officers and Spectres to War Room. Roger that," Lanster repeated. At least he hadn't slacked on his job to keep an ear on me. Maybe that's why Val came to investigate.
With Val no longer blocking me, it freed me to stand and flee the safety of my room. Val remained by my heel my hand hit the elevator button. Inside the War Room, all but Rosmani and Shayan were present. But that wouldn't last, since Shayan scurried in seconds after Val and I crossed the threshold. Rosmani was a minute or two behind, grumbling. My expression set while lowering myself onto a chair, eyeing everyone until they sat down themselves.
"Ladies and gents, it's time for a small update. The Council will come aboard as soon as we dock, so I need to lay a few rules down before any of you open your mouths," I said. Marruns laughed.
"Oh, this will be good," he grinned.
"Marruns, break any of these rules and you'll be off the Starquake faster than cat in a filled bath," I snarled. Marruns' grin died. "First things first, under no circumstances do you inform the Council of Julian Shaik's relationship to me, hell, don't even mention him by that name. The last thing I need is the Council hunting for him to twist his arm like they did mine. Only this time they'll get their asses kicked by his fleet. You call him Palalrian and you tell them he is hunting the Saboteurs like us. You know nothing else, clear?" I asked.
"What makes you think the Council will go after him?" Mat'al asked.
"He's a Saboteur and he is in control of his body like I am. The Council will want every asset they can get to better their chances of survival. The downside to this though is that Julian has told me there are Saboteurs either within or close to the Council. He doesn't have the same powers as we do to remove them and he wants to remain hidden while he does his research before coming out and hunting them. He doesn't need wave after wave of Saboteur attacking his fleet yet," I sighed. "That and we'll be several Spectres less if they try to bring him in like they did me,"
"Next rule?" Drutus asked.
"Next rule, we keep what we have learned quiet until we can confirm it. I don't need the Council rushing ahead. I heard rumours they tried to assault the STG base for Rolidin. Those teams have gone dark," I said. "I don't trust the Council to keep their heads about this situation, not with their people at risk. Break any of these two rules and I will throw you off the ship," A series of nods passed around the room.
"Captain, we're approaching the Citadel. Do you or Raisha want to meet the Council at the airlock?" Lanster chortled. My scowl deepened.
"Laugh it up, smart ass," I grumbled. "I'll go. Make sure there is water for everyone here, I feel we'll be a while," My head shook while abandoning my chair to head to the airlock.
To judge the Councillor's mood, seeing them from the cockpit wouldn't be a bad shout. Lanster offered a wide grin when he noticed me stop beside him, eyes bright as my hand swiped at him. My eyes stayed glued to the windows before me, watching the arms of the Citadel engulf us and the docks growing as we approached. My hands clenched behind my back, teeth gritted as Lanster lined us up. The Council waited for us dockside; Sparatus looked agitated; Valern's severe frown told me of his disquiet; Udina paced with a furious scowl on his face and Tevos stood still, but that terrified me more than the others. Her emotions masked from me. After a moan, my attention turned to the airlock. Seconds after reaching said airlock, the doors burst open. There was even less time to compose myself before the four Councillors marched towards me. My back straightened, hand straight to forehead.
"Councillors, please accept my humblest apologies for the communication silence over the past 2 months. The situation was beyond my control," I said.
"And I hope your excuse is valid. We have had Spectres scouring the galaxy for you since your failure to check in," Udina rumbled.
"I will explain everything in the War room, Councillors. But trust me when I say our position now is far better than it was 2 months ago," I assured.
"In what sense, Shaik?" Sparatus asked. He frowned at my small smile while leading them down the hall to the War Room.
"I am not alone in the galaxy, Councillors. There is another Saboteur able to resist their Reaper. They will help us but they wish to remain in the dark as much as possible, they have made many enemies within the Saboteurs. I am to be the sword," I explained, reaching the War Room.
"Another free Saboteur… and they are the reason for your disappearance?" Tevos asked. My head nodded while my arm spread towards the chairs in the room. The Spectres and officers all stood and saluted.
"They are, Councillors. I shall explain. Please, get comfortable. This… may take time," I said with an apologetic smile, eyeing a clock on the wall. Just survive this meeting and then we could get back to work… at last.
The Fact Sheet, Timeline, Saboteur Sheet and Galaxy Map have been updated for this chapter. Please see profile for link to Archive.