Mass Effect: Plan for the Galaxy

by bored peasant

I was chosen because I had thought it through and because I knew what pain and suffering was. Now I have the chance to see if my ideas can help Shepard save the galaxy. SI.

39. Chapter 38

A/N

Hi everyone. Not going to say much today, because I am tired and have been working like crazy recently. I am glad that most of you seemed to enjoy the last chapter update. If you want to read the next four chapters, they are available on pat-re-on under Bored Peasant's Written Works. I have the next chapter well and truly started so that will be uploaded soon too, I hope.

Special thanks to BuzzGrave, Doglore63, FallenMetalGod, Ezoz, EndlessWaltz00, MathTheOriginal, r4p16, and sonic for their patronage.

Anyway, on with the story

…

CHAPTER 38 – THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN WHILE WE TRAVEL

(Liara POV)

Liara was only a little over a hundred years old. While that might seem like a long time for the majority of the races, she was still a child by the definitions of the asari, regardless of her education and qualifications as a doctor. It led to a form of prejudice from the asari academics, who were all ruled by matriarchs.

Still, despite the lack of years she had experienced by her people's standards, she had seen quite a few things in life. It was a natural result of being both Benezia's daughter, where she was able to experience the privileged lifestyle afforded to the fabulously wealthy.

She was also cut off from Benezia's support when she began field work on prothean ruins due to her belief in a cycle, meaning she had gone from wealthy and protected, to broke and fighting off slavers and mercenaries on the fringe of space. To live a life of danger lacking anything other than her own wits and abilities was a way to see things no one in the galaxy would ever likely see, both the amazing and the terrible.

Yet, in spite of all that, she had never seen a human kneeling down and bowing in front of another human.

The confrontation between Mr Nielson and Sergeant Williams had quickly become common knowledge across the ship. Even though Liara had to admit she was too shy to strike up conversations with too many people randomly, she had still been able to listen in whenever she came out of her makeshift quarters. It might not have been polite, but one of the things her mother had taught her was that it was important to listen to rumours as they will often tell your more truth than people expect to hear.

The fact that he had lost a child was heartbreaking for her. She couldn't imagine the pain that it brought. Clearly it still hurt after two years. She hoped she never had to feel the same pain.

His requirements for the apology had also been surprising. The humiliation that would be required to apologise in this manner seemed to run against the clearly prideful human woman. Liara hadn't spoken to the gunnery chief much but the human still seemed to send mistrustful look at her whenever she thought Liara wasn't looking.

Despite that, the woman had been able to swallow her pride and prostrated herself before the businessman.

"Mr Nielson," the woman spoke out, not quite growling and with a clenched jaw. She seemed to bite something for a moment before she gave out a heavy sigh and a lot of the aggression and defiance seemed to flee her body. "I am deeply sorry for the things that I said previously. I was ignorant and spoke unthinkingly and I truly didn't mean to cause you pain with what I said. Or at least, not like that.

"Also," she hesitated for a moment before continuing on, "my mother has asked that I forward to you a message from her with her apology for not helping me control myself properly. I have it ready to send to you."

Mr Nielson stared down at the human woman for a long moment, his face appeared to be carved from stone.

"Stand up, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams," he said, his voice soft but filled with a commanding tone.

The woman seemed to move before her mind caught up and she looked surprised as she stood up. She looked straight ahead as if she was at attention, ignoring the room full of spectators who were staring openly at this… Liara hesitated to call it a confrontation, but spectacle would likely be appropriate.

"Do you even know why you don't like me, Williams?" Nielson asked, his tone still soft but carrying clearly in the silent room.

"Is it because I am a civilian?" he asked when no reply was forthcoming. "I doubt it, you don't seem to have a problem interacting with people not in uniform.

"Is it because I run a paramilitary group? I should hope not. We have freed more slaves in the last two years than any collection of governments has managed to do in the last twenty, including during the so-called Blitz. Right this moment, there are at least three more missions that are targeted at freeing people from all races from slavery.

"I am not an alien, which your well-known paranoia would have you disliking me on principle, so it can't be that. And while I make jokes and insult people as both a way t reduce stress and give me some amusement, I know that you faced far greater harassment on Eden Prime by virtue of your last name, so nothing I said should be worse than what you dealt with there.

"Ultimately, I can only see two reasons why you would actively dislike me. The first is that I am a human that is not Alliance. The second is that I am rich. Or it could be a combination of all of the above. So, which is it?" Nielson finished.

Liara, and everyone else, watched as the woman seemed to struggle with how to respond. Finally, she responded tightly. "It felt like, when you first met up with Shepard on Eden Prime that you were attacking the Alliance for not being there, when several people in my squad had been killed by the geth. It felt like you were mocking their deaths, saying that they were nothing. Since then, it was just everything that you did was just making fun of that or something like that and that made it worse. And while they may not have liked me all that much because of my grandfather, they were still my squad."

That made sense to Liara and it wasn't something she had thought of in the small number of things that had happened since she had been on the ship. It had sounded like the human woman was just being antagonistic for the sake of it. This gave much more context to her behaviour.

Apparently, Brock Nielson agreed. "I see," he replied softly. "I can understand how that would cause resentment and left unresolved, would breed into further bitterness. Well, for my part, I will apologise if you felt like I was disregarding the members of your squad on Eden Prime. I was only directing my comments towards Alliance command who had not responded to the attack in time to do anything about it from their sector response forces. But I can understand that I didn't explain that at the time."

He huffed a long sigh. "Because I didn't understand why you were being so aggressive towards myself, I decided that I wouldn't care if I antagonised you or dismissed you out of hand because obviously you weren't going to like me anyway. Now that I understand that you had a legitimate reason, I would like to propose that we start again from scratch. And if there are any more things that come up like this, that you talk about it with me first. Does that sound like a fair request for you?"

Williams blinked, before some of the tension visibly left her body. "That… sounds fair," she said slowly. Then she let a breath out slowly. "And I accept your apology too."

Nielson gave a small smile and nodded. "Then it is nice to meet you, Gunnery Chief Sergeant Williams," he said cheerfully.

Liara could see Williams' lips purse briefly. "Sure, nice to meet you too."

Nielson's smile morphed into a full grin. "Chin up there, Williams!" he said. "We just became friends! And my friends always get gifts from me." He threw an arm around her shoulder and led her away towards the elevator. "Let's start with that weird pink and white armour that you wear and see where we go from there."

As they stepped out of sight, Liara stood amazed at how they had gone from direct animosity to him acting like the best of friends. And Liara didn't fail to notice that Williams didn't attempt to throw his arm off her shoulder as they walked away.

The crowd, seeing the spectacle finished, slowly dispersed as people headed away from the dining area. Liara was certain she saw a flash of red hair disappearing into the Spectre's quarters. Apparently, Shepard had been in the room to watch too.

"Well, that was certainly something," a stern voice said from beside her.

Liara turned to look at the human doctor, Chakwas, who had also been watching the show through the Med Bay window.

"Pardon me?" Liara asked, not having expected her to comment.

"Young lady, I have been part of the military for a very long time," Chakwas explained. "One thing that I have seen is that there are few people as stubborn as generational military members like Chief Williams."

Liara chose to not speak against the obvious misnomer of the human calling her 'young lady'. But the words that the human woman spoke couldn't be denied. "I would say that it is true for all people who tend to come from generational soldiery," she agreed. "How is my mother?"

Chakwas turned to look at the unconscious matriarch, Liara's mother, lying on her bed. "Physically, she is in perfect health," the human doctor reported. "Though I am getting some strange readings in her brain scans. Mr Nielson was right in recommending that I look into them to see how they are in comparison to a normal scan. It almost seems as if her mind is being activated remotely. It is activating specific sections of the brain that normally don't report much activity, while normally active sections appear to be unusually quiet. It is rather baffling. For now, we are keeping her sedated until we can reach the Citadel to give her advanced medical care."

"I see," Liara said, pondering on the information she got. It wasn't much of a change from what Mr Nielson said at Rift Station. But it was good to know that there was at least something neurological involved. It would help to explain her behaviour but Liara doubted it would be enough to fully clear her. "Please let me know if there is anything that you need of me."

"Of course," the human doctor replied.

With nothing else to do in the medical bay and not really wanting to go back to her little area just behind it, she decided to leave and make her way to the garage area. She hadn't really been through there, preferring to stay in her quarters where she could continue to study her prothean artifacts and read reports, unless she was in the field.

She had to admit, she was never afraid to be on the ground team and be part of the combat. While she wouldn't go so far to say that she enjoyed it or got a thrill out of it, she never had a problem with it. She may be a wealthy young maiden but she was no coward! Not in standing up to the matriarchs on her research or dealing with mercenaries that wanted to do unthinkable things to her before selling her to slavery. Not until she experienced Shepard's driving anyway.

At least Brock had been very sweet about it. Her face heated up as she remembered how he held her hand the entire to ride to make sure she was comforted. Seeing as Brock had been the one to pass some of the prothean artefacts, images and scans at least, until they returned to the Citadel, on to her, it gave her an excuse to talk to him between missions.

Though now she had another reason.

She shook off those feelings for now and walked into the garage from the elevator. The man she was looking for was standing next to a work bench adjacent to the equipment lockers, assessing the odd white and pink armour that Chief Williams seemed to favour. She had no idea why as the armour was certainly substandard quality and would stand out far too much on the battlefield.

Being the daughter of a wealthy matriarch, her mother had always made sure that Liara knew how to spot quality equipment.

Seeing the businessman joking with the human female caused an odd unpleasant feeling in her that she didn't like. It was a feeling that she was altogether unfamiliar with but she was certain that she could name if she was willing to acknowledge it. But she wasn't, not now at least.

Regardless, she made her way over as Chief Williams was choosing a new colour scheme for her armour to replace the hideous colour scheme it was currently adorned with.

"Brock," Liara called. "May I have a moment of your time?"

The two humans looked up at her, Chief Williams' stare was the unimpressed and slightly suspicious look that Liara noticed on her face every time they were in the same room. Brock's face broke into a gentle smile that made her stomach flutter.

"Hey Liara," he replied. "Sure thing, did you need some privacy?"

"No," she denied. "I only need a moment. I just wanted to thank you again for finding a way to capture my mother without… killing her." She swallowed the emotion that came with that though, feeling a lump form in her throat. "While I understand it might have been necessary if the mission required it…"

"She's still your mother," Brock said gently. "I understand. Despite whatever betrayals we feel from those who hurt us, there is still a connection that we have and regrets of what could have been if that is taken away from us in an instant."

"Yes," Liara agreed. "And, in spite of what she did to betray the Citadel, and our own disagreements, I still love her. So, thank you. She may spend the rest of her life in prison, or possibly even be executed for treason, but I am glad that her last moments were not on that mission."

"As I said, I get it." He stepped forward and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. His warm hand was very soothing and she put her own hand on top of it to increase her reception of his warmth. "Your mother is your mother, and even if the worst punishment is required, this will hopefully allow you a chance to get some closure."

"Yes," she murmured.

She felt a pang of loss as he removed his hand and took a step back. "I… I should get back," she stammered. "If you wish to talk further about the prothean artefacts you mentioned, I will be in my office behind the Med Bay."

"Of course," Brock smiled. "I will talk to you later."

Her piece said, Liara made a swift retreat to her quarters, ignoring the glare of the Chief that she saw at the edge of her peripheral vision.

…

(Kaiden POV)

Kaiden Alenko watched as Nielson walked around the corner from the elevator and made his way to the Med Bay. He never went anywhere on the upper level unless he was invited, or he was leaving the ship through the main airlock, so it was easy to track his whereabouts at any given time. He also didn't go to the engine room, despite his good relationship with the quarian girl that had basically set up a nest in there, Tali. In fact, he seemed to be making sure that he never went anywhere that could potentially house sensitive data or systems.

If that was all it was then Kaiden would probably be happy. The man was a guest on an Alliance warship and was making sure that he wasn't risking any trust the crew had in him by going to restricted areas without permission. Normally that would be considered trustworthy and respectful for a guest. He never even asked to go to those areas.

For some reason, that didn't help settle Kaiden's concerns about the man.

The guy was just too clean, too perfect for the role, like he had been specifically crafted for it. Everything fit into place a little too well for it to not be unnatural.

What were the odds that a billionaire just happened to be involved in the anti-slavery business, while also happening to be on Eden Prime at the right moment to fight the geth and meet Shepard as they were taking a Beacon back to the Citadel? This billionaire also has significant combat experience, high-level business connections and abilities, connections to the Council of all things and seemed to know plenty of things about all their targets? That's just getting more suspicious.

Then he manages to very quickly ingratiate himself with Shepard, despite the fact that he is not a soldier, not Alliance and not a Spectre? He gives critical information on how to perform the very job that she was needing to do, and places himself in a mentor position at the same time?

Add all of that up and there are far too many coincidences for Kaiden to accept as all above board.

He had tried to share some of his concerns with Shepard but she had simply said that she needed Nielson, at least for now. He was providing 'valuable resources and intel' that no one else was giving.

He had talked about it with a few others. Doctor Chakwas had the nerve to ask if he was just being jealous at how much the Commander was relying on the businessman. She intimated that Kaiden wished the Commander would rely on him.

The woman had no idea what she was talking about.

Williams might have done it before today but now that there was a 'new start' between them, he wasn't sure if she was going to be willing to risk that so soon. If she did anything wrong, it was likely that Shepard would kick her off the Normandy.

At least Pressley and Adams were on his side. They said that they would keep an eye on him but seeing as Nielson never went to Engineering or the command deck, there wasn't much that they could do. If he wasn't in the garage, then he was in the crew deck or the Med Bay. And while a few of the others were suspicious, they had their duties and enjoyed hearing the man's stories. It turns out they were more suspicious of the krogan than they were of the human.

He could sort of understand that. After all, the big alien had openly admitted to being a bounty hunter for the galaxy's largest and most secretive information broker and criminal coordinator. Trusting someone like that openly was just trusting a jackal to babysit your kids.

Without the help that he was looking for to monitor the man, and without the proof to justify the extra supervision, there wasn't much he could do. After all, a hunch was not exactly foolproof. And if he was to do anything too openly, then it could have major negative repercussions on team cohesion in the field.

There was also the problem that Liara, Tali and Wrex liked the man. Accusing him would be a surefire way to guarantee that Kaiden wouldn't be on anymore ground missions.

For now, it looked like any extra supervision would have to come from Kaiden himself. He just would have to make sure that no one, specifically Nielson, knew that it was happening. But for Shepard, he would do it.

…

(Brock POV)

"Nielson!" Shepard called out as she approached my little workstation. "I've been looking for you. Hello Torrin," she greeted the young turian with me.

"Spectre," Torrin nodded from where he was playing pokemon on his gaming gear next to me. I had designed a few updates that I had shared with the Hashiji Gaming Company that would be an upgrade for the existing pokemon game.

While pokemon in my original time had been about having a new game that introduced a new region to go playing around in, I was testing just having it as an upgrade, meaning that the pokemon levels were going to be higher. That way, you didn't need to buy a new game, you just got a patch and a new region opened up. It meant that you didn't need to start from scratch every time, because the previous locations were still there, but if you did want to start from scratch, you could choose which region you were going to start in and focus on that until your badge limit was high enough to travel to other regions.

I had considered putting in contests as an alternative, but the programmers at Hashiji were still working at how to make attacks look 'prettier' with training. It was coming along though and allowed for a greater immersion and interactivity with the game. Really, it was like each pokemon in the game was going to end up as its own proper VI interface. It was actually really exciting. I could only dream of that when I was a kid.

Torrin was being used as an alpha tester for the new update to see if it would be better to go that route or if it would just be easier to make the new region a new game and then have them connect at a later time to allow travel between the regions.

"I was looking for you to talk weapons and armour," Shepard said, drawing my attention back to her. "I think it's time to upgrade the team's gear."

"Sure thing," I said, standing up and walking to where Williams was standing at her workbench next to the squad's lockers. "Might as well get Wrex, Williams, Tali, Liara and Garrus to join us. It will save time."

Soon enough I was standing at Williams' workstation while the four members of the ground team were scrolling through catalogues of armour, trying to decide what they wanted best.

"Which armour do you use?" Liara asked looking up at me.

I knocked on my locker. "I use a customised Colossus medium armour from Kassa Fabrications. Though I have my own technicians do the modifications, of course. It has the highest rating for physical damage for its class and while the shields are stronger on the Predator and Crisis body armour, the difference isn't so much that the difference can't be made up by the physical damage it can take."

There were a few hums of acknowledgement as most of them tapped away at their catalogues. Williams didn't bother with armour as we had taken care of that earlier and now just needed to wait until we got back to the Citadel.

"Oh, the list of add-ons they have here are nice," Garrus commented idly as he scrolled through his list.

"Like that cloak you have," Wrex grunted. "Any chance I could get that?"

I chuckled. "Sorry Wrex, but you are so big that we can hear you coming along time before we can see you. Unless you are planning on sitting still for hours, it wouldn't help you. And unless the Spectre can use her clearance at the Spectre office on the Citadel, we can't get more. I don't have the licence to start passing that around."

A bit of a lie but one that would hold up. While the salarians did have cloaking shields, they didn't know I had one and that it wasn't restricted by proprietary tech, at least not theirs. It meant that I could copy it and pass it around but I didn't really want something like that to just go to whomever.

Honestly, I mostly liked having something the rest of the team didn't have.

"Don't forget to send your sizes with the order," I said. "If you need resizing, you will need to wait until we get to the Citadel. Remember ladies, that wearing nothing during the fitting gives you more accurate measurements, and me happy thoughts."

Liara blushed at that while Williams glared at me and Shepard gave me an unimpressed stare. Garrus, buddy that he is, just laughed while Alenko shook his head. Wrex ignored me.

It took a nearly ten minutes but finally everyone had chosen armour. Not that we were done. There was still a very important decision to make.

"So," I began conversationally, "what weapons does everyone want?"

"I want that grenade launcher!" Wrex barked out instantly.

I couldn't help chuckling at his declaration. I had already agreed to him getting this, but I guess the big guy was getting impatient.

"Me too," Shepard jumped in quickly. "And I want the auto shotgun."

"Me too!" Wrex added.

I put my hands up and cut off anyone before they could jump in. "Ok, I agreed to the M-79. But the Butcher is not going to be on the list of requisitions."

Shepard frowned. "That doesn't sound fair," she bit out. "I could order it as a Spectre."

I raised an eyebrow at her, as the other humans looked uncertain. "Try it," I said flatly. "See how that works out for you."

Shepard blinked, clearly not knowing how to respond to that.

"But as a matter of fact, you can't order me to hand it over to you or give it to you," I continued. "There are very clear corporate protections that prevent Spectres from just taking things from companies. And as I am not openly selling the Butcher on the market, then there is no need for it to be declared as a Spectre-class weapon. Ergo, no, I am not giving it out to anyone that doesn't work for me directly."

Shepard really didn't look happy. She levelled a glare at me. "This is not over," she declared with a growl.

"You keep telling yourself that," I replied. "Now, there are some good assault rifles in the mix. I would personally recommend either the Breaker assault rifles or the Kolvalyov assault rifles. There are some that are more powerful but they are the best mix of power and accuracy in my personal opinion."

"The Alliance supplied us all with Avenger line weapons," Williams objected. "That stuff works fine."

I gave her a deadpanned stare. "If I could, I would give all of my enemies Avenger line weapons," I said firmly. "I wouldn't buy that stuff on a dare. It's weak, it sprays all over the place and it gets less shots off before it overheats. You seem to forget that everything a military requisitions its contracts for is the lowest bidder, and it's the lowest bidder for a reason.

"Honestly though," I said, looking at Shepard, "it would probably be better waiting until we get back to the Citadel and having you look through the Spectre only stock to see if you can find something there. No need to worry about expenses, you just get what you like and send me the bill."

Some of the glare lessened and she gave me a nod. She still didn't look entirely happy though, so I guess that she really wanted the Butcher. Well, too bad.

"Shepard," Joker's voice broke through our gathering over the intercom. "We are coming up on Feros."

"I'll be right there, Joker," she responded. "Everyone, suit up." She stared at me. "Any reason for you to be on this ground team? I'd like to give the others a try."

I shook my head. "I think I've held your hand enough for now," I replied. "See how you go on your own. You have this. You're ready."

The corners of her mouth twitched up in a grateful smile as she nodded. "Alright, I'm heading to my locker on the crew deck. Let's see what Saren has cooking for us on Feros."

With that, she marched to the elevator. I held in a snort. She really needs to let Adams approve a speed change on that thing.

…

Valern looked over at the reports on his desk again, a concerned frown on his face.

It felt like that was happening far too often lately.

When the local CSEC teams found a batarian down in the Kithoi Lower Wards that had been executed, it was listed as the usual gang activity. Then the method of execution was identified and that suddenly made his job a lot harder.

The batarian had been peeled open from the back, with his internal organs on display. His ribcage had been hacked… not cut, or slice, but hacked according to the report, open, letting the executioner or executioners have access to the batarian's lungs, which were now draped over the four-eyed alien's shoulders.

Said eyes had all being cut out, the tongue had been severed and the alien had been tied up and left to hang in place. It spoke of a level of brutality that was rarely seen outside of the Terminus systems or the most brutal of the Hegemony's slavers, and a fascination bordering on the depraved.

Most concerningly, the autopsy said that the batarian was alive during the whole process.

Valern knew that salarians had different nervous systems than other races and they all processed pain differently. That being said, every single race out there would be in indescribable agony as they went through this tortuous punishment.

He had almost given up on the report until two pieces of information had been put into the footnotes. He knew that most being didn't read footnotes, but in his habitual thoroughness, he always did.

The first piece of information was that this had been a form of the worst type of execution that was available to a subgroup of pre-industrialised human group that had been bred and converted out of that custom more than a millennium ago. Clearly, whoever had used this form of killing had a bloodthirsty streak and a fascination with history.

The second, more concerning, piece of information was that this method of execution had been used only a short time ago.

While the eyes and tongue being removed was new, the removal of the being's lungs from the rear had been done in a public display on Omega more than a year ago. According to reports, a sign had also been hung with the body, announcing the crimes.

This time there was no sign. That spoke to copycats, likely given the addition of the eyes and tongue being removed, or they felt that in a place like the Citadel, the reasoning for this crime would be blatantly obvious and required no explanation.

Given the attack by batarians on an orphanage early yesterday, Valern could reasonably guess why someone would thing that.

The batarian that had been executed was identified as Halak Balaam, a confirmed slaver that had escaped his prison cell not long ago. He had evaded attempts to recapture him, presumably with the assistance of the Hegemony, but that was unconfirmed.

More importantly, the batarian had been confirmed by DNA as being in attendance at the orphanage attack, making it likely that the probable contenders were affiliated with the orphanage somehow.

This was where Valern found that he needed to be extremely cautious.

The orphanage was owned by one Brock Nielson.

Given the human had so much damning information that would ruin the Citadel, and the salarian's in particular, Valern was in a quandary on how to proceed. The normal rules were out the window. And he didn't have enough blackmail to go after the man publicly.

He blinked. Maybe that was the thing to do; don't attack the man personally. Go after his businesses.

His mind latched on to that idea and immediately pointed out the problems. The man was involved in computer games, orbital defence platforms, and ridding the galaxy of slavery at his own cost. Not a single business was one that he or his people would normally do anything to boycott or undercut. Perhaps the orbital defence systems, but the problem was that Nielson's platforms were far more power than anything else that was being put to market and had, so far been of excellent quality and performance.

Not an easy thing to dispute.

Other than that, Valern didn't particularly like being held hostage to a private individual. He was a Citadel Councillor, the highest political position possible. That said, he was not one that would go into bat against someone like this if it meant that he was showing support to slavery.

Everything that the Council were doing these days was under a significantly higher level of scrutiny and it was making it harder to move unilaterally and do the job without causing discontent with the public. He had not truly appreciated the ease that the complete subservience had given the Council before. Not having it now was… vexing.

Moving had to be done in the shadows. Something that Valern was no stranger in using to his advantage. It was part of what made the STG so invaluable. They could move through channels that he simply never could. But the results they gave were what made them so good. They were a tool, much like the Spectres, that could be made to create or destroy.

He shook his head to stop himself going down the path those thoughts would lead him to and turned his mind again to his current problem. He felt bound by the restrictions that acting against Mr Nielson placed on him. But it did not mean that he should not verify the information he had. And that was something he could do.

After all, anything on Omega meant dealing with Aria. And dealing with Aria meant that Tevos would know about it.

He activated his encryption protocols and fired up his comm, dialling the asari councillor. It only took a few seconds before the connection to happen.

"This is Tevos," the familiar smooth voice came across. "How can I help you today, Valern?"

"There has been an incident in the Wards," he said bluntly. A politician he might be but wasting time on frivolous talking was never something he did without purpose. "A body was discovered after having been executed."

"That sounds disturbing, but not necessarily unusual," Tevos said. "I assume that there is something specific about it regarding myself?"

"Not exactly," Valern denied. "Or at least not directly. The body was found to have been splayed and cut open from the back. The ribs were removed from the spine and the lungs had been removed and placed on the shoulders of the victim. There is only one other execution that took place in this manner that I am aware of and it happened on Omega more than a year ago. I presume you know what I am speaking of."

There was a long pause as Tevos no doubt processed the information and thought of her response. "I am aware of this incident on Omega," she confessed, unsurprisingly. "Aria felt it was noteworthy and asked if there was anything I could tell her about similar incidents by anyone in Citadel space."

Unlikely the full story. "I am aware of the involvement of Mr Brock Nielson," Valern said, cutting to the chase. "A former member of his crew was killed in this manner and a message was left, identifying the cause as being for treason. Presumably causing the deaths of some of his people."

A longer pause as Tevos probably thought of what to say next. "Mr Nielson is currently on the Normandy with Spectre Shepard chasing down Saren," she pointed out. "Somehow I doubt that he was involved in this latest incident."

"True," Valern conceded. "However, the incident appears to be a response to an attack on an orphanage owned by Nielson on the Citadel yesterday. One with no known survivors."

He could hear a sharp intake of breath. "I had heard that there was an incident but not on Mr Nielson's orphanage," her reply came back swiftly. "It is not a publicly known fact, but his adopted daughter resides there whenever he is on his ship and unable to have her with him. She goes to school with the rest of the children there and makes friends from the orphans."

That wasn't information that his agents had been able to uncover in their examination of the place in the last two days. Though to be fair, they likely would have if they had been looking into it. It did make the response to the assault far more understandable though, as he was learning more from rewatching the recordings that Nielson had given him. It made him think of his wife's near miss with the attack on her ship.

While he did not marry his wife out of love, or anything so pedestrian, he had already had a great deal of respect for her when they married. Since that time, respect grew to legitimate companionship. When he took over the Council seat for the Union, her companionship was one of the things he valued the most to the woman that had become his best, and possibly only, real friend and confident. While he would never reveal anything confidential to her, she always knew how to brew the best seaweed tea to help him relax after a hard day and provided an easy ear and a fresh perspective on how things appeared.

If he lost that relationship, which he still wouldn't say was made up of romantic love but of genuine respect and fondness, then he had no idea what lengths he would go to, to extract justice. Even if that justice meant that there was nothing left to go to trial, once every piece of useful information had been squeezed out of it by whatever means necessary and available.

"I see," was all he said to Tevos, not letting his inner thoughts be known to the asari. "That does put things into context. Though if, as we know, Mr Nielson is currently on the Normandy with the Spectre, and therefore unable to administer this response himself, it is likely that some people in his organisation, probably the very people that provided the defence of the building and its inhabitants, chose to act in such a way in an attempt to gain approval from their employer. Or out of vengeance."

"It's probable," Tevos concurred. "What is your plan of response for this?"

"Nothing," Valern said quickly.

Hear could almost hear the blink of surprise that Tevos undoubtedly gave. "I'm afraid I don't follow," she said slowly.

"Halak Balaam had been sentenced to death and was awaiting execution by the asari courts," Valern explained. "However, by the Republics justice system, any execution must be delayed for at least five years to allow for new information and evidence to be brought to light. With his escape, Balaam's execution was guaranteed. It was simply carried out by those that captured him."

Now he could hear the frown. "That's not how the justice system works, Valern," Tevos replied sternly. "What you are suggesting is close to vigilantism, which we don't encourage on the Citadel."

"Only in the outer planets," Valern agreed with a little bite. "I am not going argue the merits of why laws in all places of Citadel space differ depending on location. However, Balaam was slated for death and I am not going to spend the resources it would take to go after Shieldstar employees who merely killed a slaver after he attacked them."

There was a long pause. Briefly, Valern considered sharing the main reason why he wasn't going after Nielson or his people, but he didn't know for sure how the human would respond to that.

"Very well," Tevos said, her voice tinged with resignation. "I'm sure that you have more information that you are not telling me and that you have fully weighed the consequences of going down this path, so I shall trust you. Is there anything else you need from me?"

"Not at this time. Goodbye, Tevos."

With the call disconnected, Valern looked at his terminal again, which now displayed Nielson's application to CSEC to increase the number of armed personnel he could have on the Citadel in wake of the attack on his orphanage, shipped straight to his desk from CSEC Executor Palin.

It was a standard form that many businesses would submit for various reasons. Admittedly, Nielson's reasons were more justifiable than most of the successful applications.

The application mentioned that none of the armed persons would be placed on the Presidium and would only be placed around any of Shieldstar's properties as a way to deter from further retaliation.

Ultimately, Valern couldn't think of a valid reason to deny the application and sent a reply to Palin to authorise the additional armed staff on the Citadel.

Once the reply was sent, he felt an icy trickle move down his spine. Somehow, he got the feeling that those extra personnel would be dealing with more, soon enough.

…

1 film, 4 reviews

Predator

Thessian Suns Publication

By Klerea Al'tichi

A genuinely fascinating and terrifying film that also reflects humanity's fear of aliens attacking them for unknown reasons. It demonstrates their belief that even though they may be outmatched, they will eventually be able to overcome their obstacles through persistence, ingenuity and creativity, as well as the ability to take action. Highly recommended. I just wish that modern vids were this compelling.

Palaven Daily Call

By Cassius Messua

Humanity is minding its own business and an unknown alien civilisation with advanced technology and a warrior mindset starts attacking them out of nowhere. It is disturbingly easy to see a link between the actions of this Predator and the Hierarchy when humanity made its appearance among the stars.

Sur'kesh Leaf Script

By Silarn Moduk

A fascinating and entertaining action vid that deals with facing the unknown and conquering your fears. While there can be similarities to bring to mind this humanity's introduction to the galactic community, this vid came out long before this and were clearly not think of the turians when it was made. There are many iconic moments and quotable scenes. Plenty to enjoy.

The Krogan Word

By Ognut Grax

If there was ever a vid that I wished was a woman, it would be this one. I think I'm in love.