Chapter 28

"I don't care what the Council says, they're not getting him." Hackett said.

"Agreed. But what do we do with him?" Anderson said.

"I could kick him in the balls a few times." Harry offered.

"The reapers actually removed those." Anderson said, grimacing.

"Wow. So are they like sitting on a jar inside of that dreadnought?" Harry asked.

"The Salarians have volunteered to undergo quarantine on Sur'Kesh. STG will be supervising it directly. Perhaps we could have them keep him on ice until we can figure out what to do with him?" Shepard proposed, ignoring Harry's comment.

"That's not a bad idea. I'll propose it to Kirrahee, STG leadership decided to start listening to him apparently now that a lot of his 'insane claims' are being proven right." Hackett said.

"What about Ilos?" Harry asked.

"Benezia's info suggests that there is something called 'the conduit' on Ilos that Saren was looking for. I assume the reapers are still trying to find that." Anderson suggested.

"I'm guessing Sovereign is keeping an eye on all of the relays, I feel like if we send a task force there he'll figure out what we're doing and try to intercept us." Harry said.

"Agreed. We hold off on Ilos for now." Anderson agreed.

"We have a task for you, however, that will require Harry's services." Hackett said.

"I'll put it on your tab." Harry said grinning. Hackett pinched the bridge of his nose, and Harry whined when Shepard elbowed him in the side.

"Of course, Admiral." Shepard said.

"We have sensitive data we want you to deliver to the Quarian admiralty. Sensitive enough that you are to deliver it in person." Hackett said.

"No problem, Admiral. We'll get on it right away." Shepard said.,

"The Migrant Fleet won't be close to a relay for another couple of days, take the chance to get some shore leave in. Besides, from what I understand, Matriarch Benezia is visiting Earth and your pilot seems to have gone missing." Hackett said with a knowing smirk.

"Jesus Christ I hope they're being careful." Shepard said, groaning.

"Who's gonna tell Liara not it." Harry said

"Not it!" Shepard said

"Not it!" Anderson said.

"Seriously?" Hackett said

"We don't make the rules, Steve." Harry said with a grin.

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"So I heard you took our engineer on a date." Shepard said, grinning at Harry.

"I tried, but Adams simply isn't interested in a relationship at this time." Harry said.

"You know what I meant." Shepard said, rolling her eyes. Harry shrugged.

"I took her out to Amish country and bought her a new head scarf." She's been stuck on the fleet her whole life, and most places in the Galaxy do their best to shove Quarians out the door as soon as they arrive." Harry said. Shepard frowned.

"I wonder what she looks like..." Shepard said. Harry brought up his omnitool and started showing her a few pictures.

"This isn't Tali obviously, if you want to see her you'll have to ask, but this is what they look like." Harry said.

"Wow, they're beautiful." Shepard said. Harry nodded.

"They look a lot like us. Weird, huh? Us, the Asari and Quarians all kind of resemble each other, despite being from completely different parts of the galaxy. Hell, the closest capital world to Earth is Tuchanka." Harry said.

"That is peculiar." Shepard said, seemingly distracted.

"Janey, I only wanted to show her around." Harry said, concerned.

"What? Oh no, I know. I trust you Harry. It just got me thinking. Aside from the Hanar and Elcor, all of the civilized races all walk upright, have forward-facing eyes, arms, two legs, feet and hands that work in similar ways, we even have very similar organ systems.

"Weird, innit? Before first contact I kind of thought Aliens would be completely different from us. Like blobs of sentient slime, or clouds of gas that communicate through electrical impulses or something. Aside from the Volus we all breathe Oxygen too. Could be intelligent design..." Harry suggested.

"I didn't think you were religious." Shepard said.

"I'm not, but think about it. Humans, Asari, Turians, all of the sentient races in this galaxy that we know of, all of us can trace our ancestry back more than a hundred thousand years, but there are missing links all over the place." Harry said.

"So what, some alien race bio-engineered us all?" Shepard asked. Harry shrugged.

"We're all different enough, and adapted to our home worlds to suggest we still originated there, but I wonder if there was some sort of manipulation... acceleration of our development. I dunno though, I'll leave theory to the nerds." Harry said

"Says the man who has published dozens of scientific papers and magical textbooks." Shepard said with a grin

"Shut up." Harry grumped.

"You even look the part, with those glasses and that goofy hair." Shepard said, ruffling his hair.

"Shut up!" Harry whined.

"You're so cute when you're all frazzled." Shepard said, pinching his cheek.

"Rictusempra." Harry said, pointing his finger at her. She fell to the ground laughing hysterically for clsoe to thirty seconds before he lifted the charm. Harry smirked and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Alright Poindexter, let's get back to the ship." Shepard said.

"Shut up!" Harry cried, following reluctantly after her.

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"Get in, gather the intel, and get back out and don't be seen, have I made myself clear?" Jack Harper said to the armored, cybernetically enhanced man standing in front of him.

"Yes sir." Kai Leng said.

"Get to it." Harper said, taking a long drag off his cigarette. He frowned slightly when he heard the telltale clack of high heels behind him.

"Are you sure he can be trusted?" A woman with a thick Australian accent said.

"Of course not. I don't trust you either, but you and he get results. Speaking of which, what is the status of your program, Miranda?" Harper asked.

"No progress yet but testing is only ten percent complete." Miranda said.

"Find a way to speed things up, am I understood?" Harper asked.

"Yes sir..." Miranda said, frowning. She walked on autopilot back to her laboratory, her mind was busy trying to find a way to safely speed up testing. She didn't have any direct contact with the subjects, as they were all in solitude on a planet called Pragia, but she could only assume they were human beings. She hoped they were consenting. When she pressed her hand against the palm reader on her door, she nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice called her name behind her.

"Miranda." The man said.

"Jacob! You scared me half to death! Come inside." Miranda said, leading him into her lab. Once the door was closed she sighed and slumped down into an armchair, Jacob sat in front of her on another.

"Stressful day?" Jacob asked. Miranda nodded.

"The Illusive Man wants me to speed up testing on the new biotic agent. I can't see a way to do that safely, especially without having direct access to the test subjects. Jacob... is that offer still on the table?" Miranda asked. Jacob's eyes widened and he nodded.

"It is. The only reason I'm still here is because I didn't want to abandon you." Jacob said.

"That's sweet, but you shouldn't stick your neck out for me, Jacob." Miranda said.

"Listen, I know things didn't work out between us but we're still friends and I don't bail on my friends. My contact offered full amnesty, as long as we cooperate with the Alliance. When I joined Cerberus it was because I wanted to see Humanity advance, but never at the cost of anyone else. This anti-alien shit is not what I signed up for." Jacob said. Miranda sighed, and reached over to her console, bringing up a calendar.

"Tomorrow afternoon, they're bringing down the mainframe for maintenance and upgrades. I'll have a shuttle ready. I'll get everything I can downloaded during the surevillance blackout. I need you to meet me at that shuttle at 1400 sharp, and be prepared to fight our way out of here just in case." Miranda said.

"Yeah... I already um... Let's just say those new mechs have shit firewalls. We should be covered." Jacob said with a grin.

"Keep your guard up, Jacob. He has a way of finding things out." Miranda said.

"You too, Miranda." Jacob said, before leaving and returning to the armory .