A/N: Sorry for taking so long! Thank you anjoee, mattgerrard, Ms Sticha and the guest for your reviews on the last chapter. And of course Vorcha Girl for both your review and being my awesome beta! Ela11, I want to thank you for your reviews as well. You'll catch up with my writing soon enough! :)
Bioware owns Mass Effect
Chapter 16. MSV Fedele
When Kaidan wasn't there at breakfast, nor on time for the daily morning debrief Shepard knew his migraine must have entered the pain phase, as he had called it the previous night. And when Dr. Chakwas walked in looking grim Nick figured it was bad. Or at least the worst he had had so far.
"Commander, you will have to work without the Lieutenant today and probably tomorrow. I had to give him rather strong medication, stronger than usual." The doctor's tone of voice was severe. "And, as the physician responsible for the crew's medical evaluation, I strongly recommend keeping Lieutenant Alenko on ship-side duty for several days after he has recovered from his migraine."
"He's going to be one unhappy trooper when I tell him he can't go ground-side," Shepard mentioned.
"Better unhappy for a few days, than completely frying his implant and ending up with chronic migraines or worse," Chakwas retorted. "And that is what will happen, if he isn't given several days to recuperate. He has been pushing himself too hard. I have no idea why. He is one of the most controlled biotics the Alliance has, so I don't know why he has come so close to over-taxing his implant so often in the past weeks." The way the doctor looked at Shepard indicated she had a pretty good notion, though.
Shepard blushed slightly, recalling what she had told him on Eden Prime. No more holding back.
"He also mentioned a new amp that he hasn't found the time to calibrate properly yet. He must be given that time. When you buy a new weapon, do you use it right away, or take it to the shooting range first and spend time tweaking it so it fits your abilities and preferences?" It was clearly a rhetorical question and the doctor continued speaking. "I will give him a lecture about that yet, too. He knows how important it is to tune his amp, both as a biotic and as a trained medic. Now, I am going to get back to the med bay. Commander."
After the doctor had left Shepard slowly exhaled. She had the feeling she had just been chewed out. She did not want to be in Kaidan's shoes when the doctor gave him his talking-to, not when the doctor was in Mother Bear mode.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. They wouldn't reach the mass relay until sometime that evening. She wrote reports, talked to the crew. All she really wanted to do, though, was head to the med bay and check on Kaidan.
Godammit, Shepard! Get a grip on yourself. It's not like he's dying. He is your lieutenant. Do your fucking duty and act like a commander!
She would go talk to Garrus or maybe Ash. They would help her take her mind off things. The turian had turned into a true friend over the past weeks. Not only could they talk about sniper rifles for hours they could also just sit in companionable silence. And she could poke fun at him.
"Geez, Vakarian! Do you ever not tinker around with the Mako? I swear, last time I took it for a spin it handled funny. Probably your fault," she said by way of greeting.
Garrus turned around, mandibles twitching. "Hah! If I weren't here you'd have to walk everywhere on your ground-side missions. You could just learn to use roads, Shepard. Just because the Mako can climb insane inclines doesn't mean it should."
She waved his comment away dismissively. "Roads are totally overrated. If I have a vehicle like the Mako, then I should use it to its fullest abilities. And that means off-road. Anything else would be boring."
"Boring? How much more action do you need, Shepard?"
She didn't answer, but climbed up onto the Mako. Garrus shook his head as she sat down on the turret and patted the spot next to her, indicating he was supposed to get his ass up there. He tightened the last bolt and put the monkey wrench to the side before climbing up and sitting down next to her. She felt his gaze on her as she scanned the room. Ashley and Wrex were both working at the weapons bench. Her requisitions officer was busy at his work station. Other than that the cargo hold was empty.
"What?" she asked as she tilted her head to look at the turian.
"How is Kaidan?"
"Doc gave him some killer meds against a killer migraine. Said he'd be out of it all day today, and possibly tomorrow. And she put him on ship-side duty for a week." Shepard huffed. "He is going to freak out. It is literally the worst thing that can happen to a marine." She fell silent and picked at her fingernails. After a short pause she continued, "Apparently he's come close to frying his implant on the last few missions. And if that happens his migraines could become chronic." She paused again. "You know what's the worst about it?" she asked quietly.
Garrus shook his head, waiting for her to elaborate.
"On Eden Prime he didn't use his biotics until I told him to. And then it was a weak Throw, just enough to throw the husks far enough back so I had time to shoot them. As soon as they were down I really laid into him with a tongue-lashing and told him he'd goddamn better use his biotics properly. I told him no more holding back. And he hasn't. Ever since then I have seen him use some truly… awe-inspiring displays of biotic power. Especially since I got him the Savant VII. "
"And now you wonder if the frequency and intensity with which he has had migraines in the last weeks has something to do with what you said," Garrus concluded.
"Yeah." The word was spoken softly. "Thing is, he knew exactly how much force to use to get the result we needed. I shouldn't have lashed out like that. I've worked with other biotic soldiers before. They were a lot more comfortable with their biotics than Kaidan is and used them at any chance they had. But not one of them had the power Kaidan has."
"Shepard, you did both the right and the wrong thing, I think. Right, because it is necessary for him not to hold back all the time. He is too good a biotic to waste his ability. Wrong, because you didn't realize to which extent he would follow your order." Hearing Garrus say it out loud in his two-toned voice gave her pause. She knew he was right. Her mind had run along the same line of thought but there was always a lingering doubt if she couldn't have handled it better. Kaidan had to grow more comfortable with his biotic ability. Nick was aware that his hesitation to use them had to have something to do with his time at BAaT, but she still didn't know details.
She didn't answer right away. "I guess so." She fell silent again for a moment. "But what if it's my fault if one of the Alliance most promising junior officers is forced to retire for medical reasons because his CO didn't consider that her lieutenant knew what he was doing?" She sighed.
Garrus shook his head. "Alenko isn't stupid. He knows his limits and as soon as he's gotten used to that new amp of his he'll be fine." At least he hoped so. Although he couldn't shake the feeling that Kaidan would throw all caution overboard in order to rescue Shepard. They lapsed into silence.
"You must've seen some action during your time with C-Sec, Garrus," Nick suddenly asked out of the blue, surprising him slightly.
"Not as much as you. But yeah, I've seen some interesting stuff."
"Like?"
"Well, there was this salarian geneticist I sent to investigate. That case was a bit … disturbing." He paused, clicking his mandibles.
"Disturbing? In what way?"
"I was tasked with tracking black market trade on the Citadel. Most of it was harmless. But during the course of my investigation I noticed an increase in the trade of body parts. Organs, mostly. We usually get a few of those, but not the numbers I was seeing. We weren't sure if there was a new black market lab or if some freak was harvesting organs from citizens."
"Body parts? Is that common?" she furrowed her brow.
"Every so often, some lab sells unwanted body parts over the black market. But they're not as bad as the psychos. There was this elcor diplomat we caught in my first year on the job. He was hacking people up and selling their organs. Had the station in a bit of a panic."
"I'll say."
"But this case wasn't that clear cut. There was more going on than we first realized. First we got a hold of a sample and ran DNA tests. The weird thing was, the match led us to a turian who was alive and very convinced he'd never lost his liver. After a bit of digging I discovered the turian worked briefly for Dr. Saleon, the geneticist. So, I went to his lab hoping to find evidence of cloned organ development. But there was nothing. No salarian hearts, no turian livers, not even a krogan testicle."
Shepard suppressed a snort. "Krogan testicles? You're kidding, right? I mean, who would even want a krogan testicle?"
"There's quite a market for them, actually. Some krogan believe a testicle transplant can counteract the effects of the genophage. It doesn't work, but that doesn't stop them from buying. They'll pay up to 10,000 credits each. That's 40,000 for a full set," he huffed. "Somebody's making a killing out there."
"What did you do about the geneticist?" Shepard inquired.
He told her about one of the geneticists employees, who started bleeding profusely during interrogation and then freaked out when they offered to patch him up. C-sec's medics found his body to be covered with incisions, some of which were fresh. They discovered the salarian was using his employees as living test tubes.
"You mean he was growing parts inside of those people? And then harvesting them? That is … sick."
Garrus agreed. Then he told her how the scientist used poor people for his experiments and only paid them if the organs were good. If they hadn't grown properly he just left them in his test subjects. Shepard was appalled.
"Bastard," she muttered. "He got what he deserved, right?"
Garrus shook his head. "That's the worst part. We never caught him. He ran for it. Blew his lab, grabbed some of his employees and headed for the nearest space dock. By the time I got there his ship was already leaving. He threatened to kill his hostages if we tried to stop him." He paused again. "I wanted Citadel defense to shoot him down, but C-Sec headquarters belayed my order, fearing for civilian casualties if the ship got shot down too close to the Citadel. As for the hostages, I told them they were dead anyway. He would just use them to grow more organs. But they didn't listen."
"A tough choice. So this means there's a mad salarian scientist on the run who uses living subjects as test tubes? Did you ever have another lead on him?"
"I thought I did. My info said he'd changed his name to Dr. Heart, but I never had the chance to investigate further. I got the transponder frequency for his new ship. Now I just need someone to check it out."
Shepard stretched out her hand, palm upward and made a come hither movement with her fingers. "I'll check out the coordinates."
"Thanks, Shepard. I'd hoped you would say that. When we find him I want to come along." There was steel in Garrus' voice.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," she grinned at him.
"Now, go and check up on Alenko." Garrus grinned and gave her a little shove, "How many hours have you been trying to keep busy instead of going into the med bay?"
"Maybe I'll go after I've punched in these coordinates into the galaxy map." She jumped off of the Mako.
In the end Shepard kept busy for several more hours until she went into the med bay to check up on Kaidan. It was past 2200 when she walked in quietly. Shepard was surprised to see Dr. Chakwas sitting in the corner reading.
"Doc? How is he doing?" Shepard asked in a soft tone.
"Commander," the elder woman smiled almost mischievously, "I am surprised you didn't stop by earlier." Then her tone became more earnest. "He was awake a little bit about an hour ago and tried to get up which didn't work out too well. I gave him another dose of his medication and I hope by morning he will feel well enough to eat."
Shepard looked at her surprised. "He hasn't eaten all day? Alenko? Well, I don't want to take up any of your time. I'll check in again tomorrow morning. Good night, doctor."
Kaidan spent almost the entire next day in the med bay yet and he looked decidedly unhappy when he entered the mess late that evening. The doctor had just chewed him out in style for not using his old amp until he found the time to adjust to the new one before releasing him from her care. She had a valid point. He knew it was dangerous to overtax his amp too often. But he didn't want to disappoint Shepard.
Hell, Alenko, she won't be impressed if you can't at least control yourself so far as not to completely fry your implant.
And now he was stuck ship-side for at least a week. Well, then he had plenty of time to practice with his Savant. Although Dr. Chakwas had been adamant that he was supposed to keep his biotics offline for at least two days and then slowly begin working with them again. He had to admit though that he really didn't feel well enough for any ground-side action. Almost two full days of pain, nausea and vomiting left him feeling dog-tired. With some luck they would be en route the whole time.
"Hey, LT. You look like shit," Ashley greeted him, lounging on a chair.
"Feel like shit, too," Kaidan grumbled as he walked past her towards the galley.
"Yeah. Been having a rough time the past two days, haven't you? You know how often the commander stopped by the med bay the past two days?" Ashley asked sneakily.
Kaidan stopped and turned to face her. "Ash."
"Seriously, LT. I think her schedule the since yesterday morning went something like this," Ashley straightened up and began speaking as if she were reciting the weekly duty roster, "Debrief with XO Pressley, go to med bay to speak with the doctor about LT, go to engineering and speak to CHENG Adams, return to med bay to speak with Liara and check on LT on the way, eat, head down to the cargo hold talk to everyone, go to med bay, go talk to Joker, do administrative shit, return to med bay." By the time she was finished Ashley was grinning. Then she let out a theatrical sigh, shaking her head. "I'm sure she would've gone by the med bay a whole lot more often, hell, she probably didn't want to leave the med bay. But she was probably worried someone might call that unprofessional. I don't know which one of you is worse."
"Sounds like what any commanding officer would do. You are making more of this than there is," Kaidan answered. He felt warmth spreading through him nonetheless. Had Shepard really checked by several times? Once he had thought he had heard her voice, but his brain was so fogged by the medication circulating through his veins he had dismissed it as a dream. "And anyway, maybe she just enjoys talking to Liara."
Ashley scowled at him. "Kaidan. Are you always that thick-headed? Sure, she talks to Liara. And Liara has a thing for her but you are the one Shepard doesn't take her eyes off of when she thinks no one is watching. Really, you two should talk more."
"We do talk, Ash."
"What about? Probably only mission related shit. I mean, have you told her how you feel?"
Kaidan scrubbed his hands over his face. He didn't feel up to this argument with the brash gunnery chief. He put as much steel in his voice as could at the moment. "Chief, there is nothing to tell. It doesn't matter what I feel. We have our duty and a mission to fulfill. And you would do well to remember that."
"You pulling rank on me, LT? That's pretty low. Guess I struck a nerve there." She crossed her arms in front of her.
"Ash …," he sighed. He was well aware that Ash wouldn't give up. "Okay. I told her she was special, alright?"
"Special? Well, did she tell you you were out of line?"
"No. I asked her if I was and she said no. But she also said there were regs."
"You two, seriously. I feel like whacking you both over the head with the Alliance set of regulations. You can't control who you fall in love with. And if that person doesn't outright shoot you down I would at least consider that they just might feel the same. Especially if the two people in question are Alliance officers. Quit being so careful, LT. If Shepard weren't interested she would tell you frankly, wouldn't you say? Think about that. I'm gonna hit the rack now. Good night, LT." She got up and yawned. With a wave of her hand she walked towards the sleeper pods.
"Good night, Ash." He stood there for a moment before heading to the galley to fix himself a sandwich. Leaning against the counter he slowly ate and mulled over what Ashley had said. Maybe she had a point.
Maybe.
They reached the Herschel system on the morning of the third day after Kaidan had returned to duty. He had been briefed on the details, but he was not cleared for any ground-side missions. Instead he found himself loitering in the cargo hold as Shepard suited up. Ash and Garrus would be accompanying her. As she struggled with some harder to reach straps their eyes met. A small smile played on Nick's lips as an idea formed in her head.
"Lieutenant, would you mind giving me a hand here?" She turned her back to him, looking back over her shoulder.
"Not at all, Commander." Kaidan stepped closer and adjusted the straps. Then he checked every closure. A quick double-pat let Shepard know she was good to go. She could have asked Ashley or Garrus to check the straps and closures. They were right next to her, after all, but she had asked him. When he was done he stepped back out of her personal space, feeling very aware of her. It didn't help that both Ash and Garrus were grinning.
"Thank you, Alenko."
"Anytime, Commander." He saluted and went to the elevator. He was on duty soon.
"Commander," Joker's voice rang over the comm, "we're ready to dock. You might want to come up to the airlock."
"We're on our way." She nodded to her team, following Kaidan to the elevator. "Move out!"
They got into the elevator together and Ashley winked at him with a big grin. She reminded him strongly of the Cheshire cat. Kaidan rolled his eyes, much to her amusement. Shepard didn't see it, standing with her back to them.
Kaidan went up to the CIC with them, heading for the helm and then sat down in the co-pilot seat. Joker cast a short look in his direction and grinned widely when he saw who had just taken up the seat. Kaidan did his best to ignore his smirking friend and powered up the console. He knew he could have very well worked at his console on the crew deck, but Joker always had the comm channel open so he could follow what the ground team was up to. And even if he couldn't go along this was the closest he could get while being stuck on the Normandy.
Meanwhile, Nick, Ashley and Garrus boarded the MSV Fedele. There was no resistance upon entering, but that didn't mean anything, so they moved on carefully, alert. They heard sounds from the main cargo hold and went that way.
Upon entering the cargo hold Shepard swore under her breath. Crates were stacked almost to the overhead, obscuring any line of sight. She signaled Garrus and Ashley to hold their position as she carefully crept toward one corner. When she was in position a quick glance showed her even more cargo. Nick motioned Ashley to move up and take position to the right side of the bulkhead. Ash nodded and swiftly took up position opposite from Shepard. Garrus moved to the other corner of Shepard's crate and shook his head. There was no way forward on that side.
They heard another sound.
Nick slid around the corner and headed to the row of boxes in front of her. There was one that could be used as a perch and she signaled Garrus to get on it. Perhaps he would have a chance of sniping something from up there. Nick inched to the other corner and peered around it.
A number of crates crisscrossing the floor with at least one containment canister and … something … that looked much like the Thorian Creepers they had encountered on Feros.
"Shit," Shepard whispered barely audible. She wished she had taken Liara or Wrex along. Their biotics would be helpful. Even more she wished she could have taken Kaidan along. His biotics and his Neural Shock attack would have been perfect. As it was though, she didn't have any biotic along.
She slowly pulled back and motioned Ash and Garrus to close up to her.
As soon as they were at her side she whispered, "There are some of these Creeper thingies from Feros. Don't let them get too close. They have a powerful melee attack and as soon as they are close enough they will try to vomit on you. Ash, you and I will try to knock them on their asses with our shotguns and Garrus will make sure they stay down with his assault rifle. There is a containment canister between some crates at one o'clock. I will try to lure some Creepers close to that canister and one of you lets it explode."
Shepard looked at her squad mates and they nodded, confirming they had understood the plan. Nick took a deep breath and then sprinted toward the crates.
As soon as she broke cover she heard the screeching wail of the Thorian Creepers. She shot the creeper ambling towards her, making it stumble. Without slowing down she jumped over the first crate. Two more Creepers were closing in on her. She shot the one closest to her and then aimed for the containment canister. It exploded before she took the shot, taking out two of three Creepers. Nick shot the third one and then focused on the remaining Creepers that had emerged from the opposite side of the cargo hold. The air filled with the putrid stench of rotting flesh as more Creepers exploded.
Garrus let another containment canister explode, dealing with two more Creepers. Ashley was trying to hold off two more as they converged on her position, taking a step backwards with every shot. Nick added her effort to Ashley's, bringing down the first one.
With a critical eye she swept the room. It appeared as though they had taken care of all hostiles. She opened her omni-tool and took a quick scan. Usually Kaidan would have done this. The scan revealed no more hostiles in the cargo hold, but it showed one more sign of life on the starboard side towards the helm. Shepard walked through the bulkhead, quickly followed by Garrus and Ashley.
There were three bulkheads in the passageway they were in now. One leading to the helm, one port and one starboard. Nick gestured towards the starboard bulkhead.
The bulkhead opened to reveal a salarian behind it. No sooner did he see them when he started speaking, "Thank you. Thank you for saving me from those things."
Garrus snorted. "That's him, Shepard. That's Dr. Saleon."
The salarian shook his head. "What, no! My name is Heart. Dr. Heart!"
Shepard tilted her head slightly to the side. "You sure about this, Garrus?"
"Positive," he answered. Then he addressed the salarian, "There's no escape this time. I'd harvest your organs first, but we don't have the time."
"You're crazy!" the salarian looked at Shepard. "He's crazy, don't let him do this to me, please."
Nick frowned slightly. "I doubt if you cared what your 'test subjects' went through. But I can't let my squad mates turn into the monsters we are hunting. We'll take him in. Jurisdiction can take care of him."
Garrus stared at her. "But...we have him! We can't let him get away again."
Nick cast a backward glance at him before focusing her gaze on the salarian again. "Think, Garrus! If he dies we'll never know what he's been up to. Or how he did it. We'll take him in, interrogate him and he'll serve his time."
Taking a deep breath, Garrus nodded slowly. "Okay. You're right." He looked at the salarian. "You are a very lucky salarian. You owe the commander your life."
With a sneering voice the salarian thanked them, and tried to run for it. Nick had been anticipating something along that line. She swiftly brought up her shotgun and shot. Dr. Saleon dropped dead.
"And so he dies anyway! What was the point of that?" Garrus sounded upset.
Nick turned around to face him and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "Garrus, you can't predict how people will act. But you can control how you'll respond and that's what matters. I gave him the choice of coming in quietly. He didn't, so I reacted in the way I deemed fit."
Garrus clicked his mandibles a few times before answering. "Yeah. You know, I don't think I've ever met anyone like you, Commander."
Nick grinned. "I've heard that before! Okay, let's see what we find here."
Their inspection of the lab brought forth a number of blood stained instruments and vials of blood from various different species.
"At least it's one madman less in the galaxy now," Ashley said.
Nick nodded. "Yeah. We're done here. Let's get back to the Normandy."