Chapter 36

T'Soni Offices – Lavinia Trade Building – Nos Astra

Shepard couldn't help but feel guilty. As she entered the building again with food for all five of the ragtag crew she had pulled together, she felt her heart ache for the asari doctor as the woman moped silently at her desk with the dead spectre's omni-tool sitting next to her terminal.

After Tela had finally hit the ground, Liara and Aethyta both approached to make sure she didn't get up. But they needn't have bothered. The woman was so utterly shattered from the collision of two biotic charges being directed into her stomach that her organs were likely going to be leaking out of her soon. It was then that Shepard heard Liara's cry of frustration.

Looking down at the kneeling doctor, she understood why. The spectre had purged her omni-tool. She must have done it after crash landing on the balcony when she realized she wasn't going to be making a clean getaway. Immediately, the redhead felt intense regret for allowing Vasir to live as long as she had. She knew in her gut that the spectre was more than she was letting on back at Liara's apartment. Maybe it was stupidity, or just a want to believe that all spectres aren't garbage. But she really wanted to actually work with another spectre again without it resulting in their death.

But her instincts told her loud as day why Tela was at Liara's apartment. She didn't know whether Vasir was responsible for the assassination attempt, but she knew the asari was there to find Liara, and not to check on her safety. Even so, she let her go knowing that her instincts weren't a reason to plant a body in Liara's apartment.

And now, the data that Liara had fought so hard for, the key she had been pursuing for almost two years sat smoking in ruin on her desk with a slightly disheveled and disheartened doctor typing at the computer trying to see if any remnants of the data were left behind on her terminal. But as was the law with Illium, someone had broken into her firewalls and erased it while she was chasing a spectre through the city.

Giving up, she rested her gorgeous blue head in her hands and let out a frustrated sigh as Shepard entered the door. The spectre smirked over at Niftu Cal who was lightly snoring on the couch off to the side of the office. Reaching into her food bags, Jane swiped the quarian meal and tossed it to Lia'Vael who was sitting and staring at a datapad in one of the chairs directly in front of Liara's desk. Lia caught to food began hooking it up immediately.

Next she swiped a vial of the best the restaurant had to offer in volus cuisine. She knew he'd have a headache when he woke up, and at least wanted to make it up to him for the blast he took from Vasir. Finally, she set the rest of the food down on Liara's desk. She could see Liara was trying to ignore the presence of the food, but her persistent stare over the woman's terminal finally made her turn away. "Fine, Jane, you win," grumbled the asari before she spun her chair away from the keyboard.

The redhead smiled and pushed a box of pizza towards her. "Get some food in you and explain to me what this important data was."

Liara's brows, which Shepard was still getting used to, furrowed as she flipped open the pizza box. "I don't think it's a good idea to talk here…"

Shepard snorted as she walked around the desk and planted her hand on the doctor's shoulders. But it was Aethyta who spoke for her. "Look, your joy toy here already snooped around the place and burned out any peeping eyes and ears. And given we've all been in here the entire time, nobody has had a chance to add any more yet. It's as safe as it'll ever be."

Liara almost purred at the contact on her shoulders, inspiring the spectre to massage them gently. "That's right. Besides, the data is gone, so what's it matter if we talk about it?"

Sighing happily at the contact and the relief of pressure on her neck, Liara finally gave in. "Fine," she said as she leaned her head forward, allowing Shepard full access to her neck. "It was a small algorithm attached to a Cerberus data cache. I don't know who created it or where it came from, but it apparently placed a small amount of code onto every single device that the data was transferred to."

Shepard grinned as Liara let out a groan of pleasure. "You're like one giant asari knot. You need to start relaxing more," ordered the spectre before nodding. "Continue."

"A-Anyway…" started Liara again, her face purple with slight embarrassment. "The coding was an action command. Whenever the device that the code was on was given a purge command, the code was ordered to send small packets of data to a remote data device somewhere in the galaxy. These packets collect information on every single comm buoy that they travel through leaving a trail that leads back to the original purge command. I don't know if the creator intended for this to be the case, but the information was traded back and forth from the Shadow Broker frequently."

Aethyta looked up from her slice of pizza and tilted her head. "Wait a goddamn minute, are you trying to tell me you may have found the Shadow Broker?"

Liara looked up and nodded sadly. "It was only a chance, but that's what it looked like. With how often the data was purged from the Shadow Broker's systems, which is likely a daily occurrence given how much information they have to process and balance, and given their need for being hidden, their location would have stuck out like a fireworks display.

Shepard's brows furrowed as well as she felt something pulling at her memory. Something she wanted to recall but couldn't. She didn't know if it was related to the Shadow Broker or if it was similar to the situation at hand, but it frustrated her nonetheless. "So, where'd you find this valuable data."

Liara smirked lightly. "As the Shadow Broker's agents watch me, I watch them as well. And while it's obvious I don't know who all of them are…" she said, looking at the floor next to her desk angrily for some reason. "I know a great many. I had been keeping watch on this small group of data brokers who were all agents of the Shadow Broker. I didn't know why at the time, but the Shadow Broker had ordered for the group to be killed. It didn't happen all at once. But as soon as I started noticing them dying off, I cracked into their systems and took everything they had." Liara shrugged and leaned back against Shepard affectionately. "My theory is that the Shadow Broker found out about this little script of code that could reveal their location and was getting rid of anyone who had handled the data before."

Shepard frowned and shook her head. "I wish we could have saved it. Maybe there's a copy of it out there somewhere."

"I can only hope," said Liara with a heavy sigh as she finally grabbed a slice of pizza for herself.

"Oh… hello," came a timid voice from the couch. Shepard looked over and tilted her head.

"Good to see you, Zan-Niftu. I want to thank you for helping keep Liara safe," said the spectre with a grin.

"Ummm… you're welcome I think…" he said as he reached up and touched his head tenderly. "We… were at Baria Frontiers. What happened?"

Aethyta swallowed her bite of pizza before answering. "You were headed directly south into a spectre's northbound fist."

When it looked clear that he didn't understand, Liara shook her head and answered. "You ran into the handler that tried to assassinate me. They knocked you out, and then stole the data I sent with you."

"Oh…" he said as he looked down at his arm. "My omni-tool."

"We'll get you a new one, big guy. State of the art," said Shepard, trying to cheer the guy up.

He nodded solemnly as he finally stopped touching the tender spot beneath the suit and placed his hands in his lap. "That would be much appreciated. But… what do you want me to… do with the data?"

Everyone in the room looked over at him curiously. "What data? Your omni-tool was purged," said Shepard as she cocked an eyebrow.

"While the information itself… was indeed purged, most of the data we received… from Baria Frontiers was purely numerical. And that wasn't purged," he said as he reached up and tapped his head.

With a look of desperate hope on her face, Liara stood in her chair and stared at him. "Are you saying you can reconstruct the location data of the cache?"

He slid off the couch and grunted as he got to his feet. "Down to the last… decimal," he said as he flexed his fingers inside the suited gloves. "I told you, my memory of numbers… is almost flawless."

"If you can reconstruct that data for me, I'll make you one of the most powerful volus in Citadel Space!" snapped Liara as her voice filled with hope once more.

"That won't be necessary," he said before removing the torched omni-tool and tossing it into a nearby trash can. "Make me rich enough that I… can work for you as a friend, and not for survival. That'll be enough," he said as he looked at them all. "I'll need an omni-tool… before I can begin."

"Deal!" said Shepard as she finally released Liara from her grip. Liara as she slumped back into her chair, looking like she was about to pass out from exhaustion. "I'll grab you a brand new one from the markets here in a few. In the meantime, take a nap." He nodded to her and curled back up on the couch. Shepard chuckled and shook her head before looking to Aethyta and nodding towards the door. The matriarch took her cue and headed out with the spectre.

Shepard loved the view on the small balcony. It was a city scape that paralleled the view of the wards from C-Sec back on the Citadel. It was a shame that the city itself was a miserable place of thievery and depravity underneath the beautiful facade. Aethyta leaned on the railing next to her with her soft drink in hand. "Hell of a place, ain't it?"

Shepard nodded as she felt the wind filtering through the buildings to blow her hair to the side. "It reminds me of the Citadel. Gorgeous on the outside and filled with so much promising life, but the outer shell covers up a much darker story."

"Things that bad on the Citadel?" asked the matriarch as she eyed the spectre.

It took Shepard a second to recall that the reaper relay and the hidden trap of the Citadel wasn't common knowledge. "You have no idea," she said as she finally turned towards the older woman. "So, you're really her father?"

Surprised by the question, Aethyta shrugged. "What, you wanna DNA test? Because asari genes don't work that way."

Shepard chuckled at the question before shaking her head. "I've lived a life of danger and it brought me and Liara together. I'm continuing to live a life of danger to make sure that people like me and Liara can live free lives in the galaxy without worrying about what existential threat is going to wipe out our species' next," said the redhead as she stared deep into the matriarch's eyes. "Liara is one of my driving forces, and I need to know that when we're at the precipice of danger, she isn't going to get blasted in the back by you."

"I'm not really sure what I can do to prove that I'm her father besides…" started Aethyta before she finally understood where the conversation was going. "You want to meld and read my history?"

"I just need to know that you aren't another agent for the Shadow Broker working to help us get within spitting distance of him before killing us both," said Shepard solemnly. "If you value your privacy that much, then that's fine. But I will not allow you to assist us any further."

"Why wouldn't I have ended you in that tower if I were working for the Shadow Broker?" asked the asari skeptically.

"The Shadow Broker wanted my body after my death to sell to the collectors. I wouldn't put it past one of his agents to deliver me and her both on a platter to his front door as a get rich quick plan," said the spectre as she stood up. "Make your decision. If you don't want me snooping around, you're free to go. But you will not see Liara again as I will count you as suspect. Until I determine she's safe from the Shadow Broker, you will not know where she is or what she's doing."

Snorting in annoyance, the matriarch nodded. "I suppose I should be grateful she has someone as thorough as you looking after her," said the asari before she finally squared up and stood in front of Shepard. Shepard noted that she was slightly shorter as she reached over and opened the door to the inside. Lia walked out with her omni-tool lit. Reaching over, she placed a patch on the asari woman's back. "The hell was that?"

"It's an explosive," said the spectre, getting a shocked look from the matriarch. "You're a matriarch, and I'm a human and very new biotic. I'll be in a very vulnerable position while we're melded. So, if you try to kill me while we're connected, Lia is going to make you regret it."

"I like you, you're funny," said the quarian with a glare in her eyes. "But do not think for a second I won't blow your arms off in a second if you try and hurt Shepard."

"U-Understood," said the woman nervously as she looked back at the spectre. "You're really serious about Liara, aren't you?"

"Dead serious," said the redhead as she reached up and grasped the short woman. "Once I've seen what I need to see, she'll disable it."

"I certainly hope so. She's a spicy little shuttle pilot, I'll give her that," remarked the bartender before placing her hands on Shepard as well.

"Now's your last chance to back out," said Shepard with a grin.

Aethyta glared at her. "Shut the hell up and embrace eternity already…" she said as her eyes filled with the void.

Shepard found herself pulled from reality, but this time she had her footing. After doing this with enough asari, it almost became like second nature. It took only moments before she found herself staring over the crib of a tiny asari whose crest had barely grown to cover her scalp. Her eyes stared at the cub for a brief few moments before she turned and looked up at the mother.

The other asari, currently wearing a leisurely yellow house robe sat in a chair near the crib with a drink in one hand. "The hell do you mean I can't be the father?"

"Of course you're the father," groaned Benezia as she rubbed her head gently and swirled a small glass of velvet wine. "The baby cries as much as you scream."

"Then what are you talking about, Benny?" asked the father as she planted her hands on her hips.

"I'm asking you to step aside as the father and let them live their life," snapped the older woman.

"You got a quad on you asking me to step down after we agreed to this," growled Shepard, wondering where the woman was going with the request.

"We were fools!" snapped Benezia before sighing and leaning her head back in her chair. "We got caught up in the moment, made promises that society will not allow us to keep! Times have changed, and if we don't change with them, we'll be left in the dust. For Liara to have any hope of a political career in the future, they need a clean slate. And they can't do that with their real father in plain view."

A look of realization dawned on Shepard's face as she finally understood where the idiotic request was coming from. "You think they're going to be bullied for being a pureblood."

"Ugh…" groaned Benezia as she waved her hand dismissively. "Don't use such vulgar language around the child."

"I'll say whatever I damn well please. I'm not the one too cowardly to stick up for our kid," growled the woman angrily.

The matriarch rested her head in her hand dramatically. "I knew you would be overly emotional about this."

"Overly emotional? You're asking me to pretend that the best thing that ever happened to me didn't happen because it might be politically inconvenient," snapped Shepard as she raised her voice. The baby suddenly started to fuss, and she reached down to pick them up. Benezia moved to stop her, but got an icy glare in return. Picking the small, sleepy infant up, she rested her on her shoulder and gently began to stroke her back.

"You're just not seeing logic, Aethyta! You don't… have the burdens I do, so you wouldn't understand the ramifications!" rambled the older woman as she desperately and drunkenly tried to plead her case.

"Just say what you mean. I'm just trash off the street and you're a rich brat who has expectations," glared Shepard as the warmth from the baby soothed her own anger.

"I guess you're just bound and determined to make me the bad guy. I can't do anything right in this house! Even wanting our child to have a future-" continued the ranting noble.

"Grow up and tell the truth, Benezia! This doesn't have a damn thing to do with Liara! It has to do with you!" snapped Shepard silently, not wanting to disturb the baby. Benezia stopped in her tracks.

"You never call me by my full name," she said, almost offended.

"Yeah, well I thought you were something special," she said through a heated glare. "Instead, I find out that you're too cowardly to even stand up for yourself. Bullied by society into not wanting to admit that you have a low born sayna and a pureblood daughter with them."

"I never said-," started Benezia, but she got cut off quickly as Shepard wasn't having her nonsense anymore.

"You didn't have to say it," snapped the spectre as she reached over and laid the baby back down in the crib. She grabbed the small stuffed animal she had purchased especially for her and placed it next to her. She smiled briefly as the infant reached over and hugged the stuffed Blasto toy. Then her eyes moved back up to her supposed partner and locked her with a heated glare once more. "If the goddess has any justice, this kid is gonna grow up and see right through your spoon-fed nonsense. Here's hoping she learns the lesson quick and gets away before you rub that cowardice off on her."

"Where are you going?" asked Benezia as she got to her feet, surprise on her face at seeing her partner leave.

"To find someone who actually cares about me and not just what I can offer them socially," said Shepard as she tossed the gifted scarf that Benny gave her across the room. "Feel free to call me when you grow up and learn to live for yourself instead of fretting over what everyone else thinks."

"You don't have to go! You can still-" started Benezia, but the door slammed shut, cutting her off and ending her years long relationship with the woman.

She stood at the counter, already annoyed as she found herself working in customer service. Her number for matriarch had come up years ago, and she had been rejected by her own society just as she knew she would. Shepard supposed it was obvious from the start, but also wanted to believe that people genuinely valued her friendship. Instead, it turned out that her proximity to Benezia was the sole reason for their attentions. And as soon as that proximity vanished, so did all of her supposed friends among the Conclave. She'd been thrown out into the trash just like anyone else who swam against the flow.

It was probably a lot easier to throw her away given her radical ideas of the advancement of the asari species. But it really didn't matter. Her life, as far as Thessia went, was over. And now she devoted herself to a bar in some shoddy, rundown area of Serrice. She managed to save enough while she was with Benezia to afford her own place at least. But the problem with small dives like this was the shady characters it brought in.

Like the shitshow in front of her asking her a few too many personal questions. She was about ready to throw them out on their pale blue ass when they finally busted the question. "The Shadow Broker wants to know if you're interested in a job."

Her eyes widened slightly at the random question. "Job? I have a job. What the hell does the Shadow Broker want with me?" Suddenly, any drunken demeanor the asari in front of her showed before had vanished.

"Get close to Benezia again and help them. Then when the time comes, just update us on how things are going," said the figure as they picked up the shot from the bar and downed it in a single go. Shepard stared at her stunned for a long moment before a glare set in. Reaching forward, she picked the newcomer up with her biotics and held them in the air, squeezing them tightly. "W-What are you doing!?"

"If you and your Shadow Broker boss ever come to me asking me to spy on them again I'll rip your spine out and decorate my bar with it! Understand!?" she yelled as she hurled them through the glass door and into the street. The newcomer bounced off the road and fell unconscious from the impact. Shepard looked down at her glass door now in a million pieces on the ground and groaned to herself. Turning back to the bar, the remaining customers inside all stared at her in terror. "Didn't wanna pay," she said before heading to the back. She battled with herself on whether she should call Benny again and warn her about the Shadow Broker's desire to keep tabs on her. But it was unlikely that she would even take her call. She buried her face in her hands at the stress.

"And what the fuck do you want?" asked Shepard as she glared over the bar at the familiar face. It had been so long since she had participated in asari high life that she nearly didn't recognize the face of one of her old "friends" from the Conclave of Serrice.

"It's been a long time Aethyta," said the taller asari with the smug grin on her face.

"Not long enough. What the hell do you want, Raisha?" asked the matriarch with a heated glare.

"I'm here as a humble customer…" said the asari mock offended as she sat at the bar.

"Don't patronize me or I'll put you through the door like the last three people that tried to fuck with me," growled Aethyta as she leaned over the counter and glared down the young matron. "You're not in the Conclave down here, you're in my bar. And I have no issues with handing you your petty rich ass."

Immediately, all of the sass dropped from the asari's voice as she nodded nervously. "I-I just came to make an offer from the Conclave."

"What kind of offer?" she asked as she prepared to throw the woman out if it was another like the Shadow Broker offer.

"We would like you to watch over Noble Liara T'Soni," said the matron quickly before scooting away from the bar.

But Shepard's biotics vanished as she heard the name. "Liara?" she asked in surprise as she turned away from the bratty high born and stared at the wall of liquor. "What do you all want with her?"

"Noble Liara has been on the Conclave's notice since she gave up her claim to House T'Soni. While she decided herself to give up her status among Thessian society… some among the Conclave…" growled Raisha, making it clear that she wasn't happy with the deicison. "Believe that she is a person of interest, and that she should be offered an honorary role among the sisters of the Conclave."

Shepard snorted as she stood up and planted her hands on her hips, staring down at the angry matron. "They helped kill Saren the spectre and defended the Citadel. Of course the Conclave would try shoving their noses up Liara's ass now," chuckled the spectre as she looked down at the floor. She had tried to keep up with Liara and her growth. Serraia had been kind enough to send pictures and reports on what she was doing with school. Then when she had freed herself from her mother just like she had predicted, she kept trying to formulate a plan to meet her.

It took a few decades to work up the courage to face her nearly adult child. But then she dropped off the map entirely, only reemerging later to drop her title as yranessa and then went off to save the whole goddess damned galaxy. Now, she didn't know what the hell to do about her.

Raisha finally spoke up again. "That appears to be the case, yes," growled the younger woman.

"What the hell does that have to do with me?" asked Shepard, annoyed that the Conclave dumped her nearly a century ago and now wanted back in her pants just to get at her daughter.

"Noble Liara is currently on Illium working as an information broker. We want you to watch them and see what they're doing. They visited Thessia recently with dark tidings for Noble Serraia, then returned to Illium. We want to know what Liara is working on before we move forward with the invite. After all, we don't want a repeat of what happened with Benezia," said Raisha before she finally finished her message.

Shepard was half tempted to throw her out on her ass anyway. But deep down she knew this was really the only chance she'd have to potentially reconnect with her daughter. In her current state, she couldn't afford to survive on Thessia. She could sell her bar, but that would be burning her only bridge for just an attempt at reconnecting. At least if she did it for the Conclave, they would pay for her to go and stay there. "Fine," snapped the spectre as she turned around and faced the younger asari again. "How am I going to go about this?"

Now sporting a smug smile again, Raisha nodded. "One of the sisters on the Conclave owns a bar on Illium named the Eternity Lounge. You will transfer there and take over as manager of the bar. Noble Liara's workplace is within walking range. We just need you to establish connections so that we can figure out what she's doing."

As tempting as it was to tell the stuck up young Conclave member that it was none of her damn business, Shepard knew this was just as much an opportunity for Liara as it was for her. Assuming they were being honest, of course. Which she didn't have that much faith in. Either way, her plan to reconnect with her daughter failed before, and she had just been given a second chance. She wasn't about to waste it.

T'Soni Offices – Lavinia Trade Building – Nos Astra

Shepard had scanned for other memories relating to the Shadow Broker in case there was some kind of meeting, with Aethyta offering no resistance. Eventually, Shepard concluded that she was being honest. When she finally reemerged from the meld, Shepard flexed her neck gently as the melding sometimes worked the neck muscles a bit too hard. Looking down at Aethyta, she could see that the woman was uncomfortable. "You didn't have to show me what happened with Benezia."

"Felt it was only right given you're basically my daughter-in-law as you humans call it," said the asari as she crossed her arms. "You and Liara both deserve to know why I wasn't in her life."

Shepard smirked and nodded. She knew she was pretty lucky when it came to parents, even if she wanted to slam her mother and father's heads together on occasion for some of the decisions they made. Being in the extremely difficult situation of being shamed out of a relationship with your child must have been devastating. "Thank you, Aethyta. I want you to know that I believe you, and I trust you now."

"Good. Now get this damn explosive off my back so I can get more pizza," snapped the grouchy matriarch, causing both Shepard and Lia to chuckle.

Biotic Training Room – SSV Normandy SR2

She looked down at the datapad curiously as she sat in the chair she had brought down with her. The entire room was a mess of destroyed dummies and training equipment to make sure the biotics aboard could properly train not just their bodies, but their abilities as well. And as far as the yeoman could tell, it had accelerated the skills of Jack and Shepard both. It probably helped Miranda a lot as well, but she'd probably never admit to it.

Looking up, she saw Jacob on the ground, his biotics lit and doing pushups despite the strain. She didn't know if the biotics made that easier or harder. All she really knew was he that he was effectively training two parts of his body at once. And honestly, she couldn't help but admire the fruits of his training as he wore a typical Alliance-like PT uniform with the shorts and tight shirt to go with. But she wasn't here for anything like that. In fact, she was pretty sure that Mister Taylor had as much interest in sex and romance as he did in psychology, which made it hard to rally him into her grasp for a mental health checkup.

"You sure this is mandatory?" he asked, his face showing that he was annoyed at the requirement. But she got approval from Shepard before the woman blasted off to Illium to get these sessions on paper, so to speak.

"Afraid so. Captain's orders," said the yeoman as she looked up at him again with a smile. "Oh don't be such a spoil sport. It's healthy and it'll be done before you even know it."

Letting out a groan as he did one last pushup, he swung his feet under him and then sat down cross-legged. "Alright alright…" he grumbled as he grabbed his towel off the floor and wiped the sweat away. "So, where do we start?"

She nodded, noting that his biotic aura didn't go anywhere. She supposed he might still be training them or perhaps he was in his inner world as Jack had called it. All she knew was that he could still hear her, and that was all she really needed. "I suppose we should start with what happened on Aeia, the world where the Hugo Gernsback crashed."

"What about it?" asked Jacob as his brow furrowed. "I found a long dead mentor turned into a monster."

"I read the mission report from Shepard. It said that some of the crew had survived and managed to eke out a living on the surface?" asked Kelly as she looked down at the datapad.

"Barely. They set themselves up so that they could fix the beacon. Standard protocol for about the first few weeks. The officers kept the ship food to themselves after it was discovered that the local flora of the planet caused mental degradation. Off the cuff it makes sense until the acting captain delegated the chief engineer, who happened to be a woman, to the lower crew eating the local food," he said with a heavy sigh. "He knew as soon as he found out the local flora that nobody was leaving that planet alive."

Kelly sat in stunned silence for a long moment as she processed the gravity of what he was telling her. Shepard's reports were very clinical and left emotion out of the reporting. But if Jacob's words were what happened then the whole scenario was more frightening than she could have imagined. "Well… how did you resolve the situation?"

"Sophia, the chief engineer that I mentioned managed to save a logbook. She documented what happened thoroughly, and as soon as she stopped being able to functionally write, she packed it away so nobody could find it hoping her words would help someone in the future understand what happened. After Shepard read the logs, we confronted the acting captain," he said, venom spitting from his lips every time he pronounced the word 'acting.' "We saved the crew who could barely articulate that they wanted rescued, arrested his toadies for crimes against humanity, and left him to rot," he said with a shrug as he looked back up at her, his face as cold as ice as he finished. "Last report, he ended himself. Had the scouts anchor his body and dump him in the ocean. Least he could do is feed the fish."

Kelly shuttered slightly at how ruthless he was with the matter. "You almost sound like a mobster when you say that," she said jokingly as she pictured him with a fedora and a cigar.

He chuckled and shook his head. "Galaxy is a big place and it's been a tough couple of weeks. When you see what kind of depravity humans are capable of, you learn to save your emotions for the victims, not the abusers. I'm a little speck of carbon in a universe so big that my entire species' life span fits into the blink of the cosmic eye. But despite that, I get a chance to live here, and I'm not going to waste that chance crying over monsters like Ron."

She nodded thoughtfully as she took notes. "That's very philosophical of you. So, what have you been doing with your time since?"

"Aside from helping Shepard?" he asked with a chuckle. "The survivors are getting better. Their higher thoughts are returning to them and they've begun writing letters. They're excited about it," he said with a charming smile as he looked at the ground. "I've finally gained their trust over the last few weeks. They're not afraid of me anymore, and many have even written me letters thanking me." He then let out a heavy sigh. "I got to see Sophia smile for the first time in ten years."

The statement almost gutted Kelly, her own compassion for all life in the galaxy slightly faltering at his words. She couldn't ever imagine being cold enough to treat a human life as he had, but she could absolutely understand why he did it and would die before judging him for it. "I'm glad you've found purpose in helping those who didn't have a voice for so long." She looked up from the datapad and leaned forward as she eyed him curiously. "So, what's the future look like?"

"I dunno. Obviously I'm sticking with Shepard until the collectors are toast. But I don't know if she'll want me around after that," he said jokingly before shrugging. "Honestly, I don't know if I'll still want to be on the Normandy. When I heard the stories about the kind of shit the original Normandy crew got up to in their pursuit of Saren, I was eager to be a part of that kind of squad. I wanted to matter, make a difference, be important. But…" he said as he leaned his head into his hand. "Now? I want a nap," he said, causing Kelly to laugh.

"Sleep does seem to be a luxury when we commonly fly away from exploding buildings," she said through her smile as she noted his turn towards the peaceful.

"No kidding. I mean… I say I want a nap, but honestly I want to adopt kids. I want to take them to the park, teach them to fight, show them that someone does care. And I feel like being on Shepard's squad isn't a great place for someone who has that goal," he said with a wistful look on his face. It was clear he was thinking heavily about this as his biotic aura finally started to dissipate.

"You want to be a father?" she asked in surprise. "I heard you… oh… nevermind," she said, embarrassed that she was about to confirm gossip she heard.

He just smirked and shook his head. "Look, it isn't a huge secret that I'm not about that sexual life. All the posters back home advertising seeing the stars and romancing aliens didn't do much for me. But I still want to be a parent, whether that means taking in human kids from Earth, or a giant krogan like Shepard did with Grunt."

"Was your father a good parent?" she asked as she tapped her chin with her stylus.

"He…" began Jacob, but he hesitated. "He was a great father, but not a good dad if you understand what I mean," he said as he got a nod from the psychiatrist. "He worked a lot, saying he did it because he wanted a good life for me and my mom. But I'm old enough to know better. He didn't really like kids and didn't know how to handle them. He did his best with me because he was responsible, but he was also a kid during the First Contact War just barely able to hold a rifle."

She tilted her head curiously, wondering where he was going with the comment. "When he was young?"

Nodding, Jacob continued. "Humanity went from only knowing about alien technology to discovering that the entire galaxy was full of aliens. As a young military recruit, he and everyone else back then was encouraged to have kids, go settle in a colony, expand, make more numbers. The Alliance didn't want to join galactic society looking like were some backwater settlement of a species. So, he did his duty. Got married, had a kid, and worked to give them a good life. All the emotional stability came from my mother, however."

"Is she still in the picture?" asked the yeoman as she gathered a clearer picture of his current situation.

"For the most part. Despite my father working himself to death, she also had a job as a journalist. She retired a little while ago and built herself a house on a family lot in Trinidad. She keeps demanding I come visit her and I do when I get the time. But we've been so busy that I haven't had the chance in a long while. I still call her from time to time to catch up, though."

"So, something I've been wanting to ask more of the crew," she said as she noted his lack of home visits in the file. "Shepard flies out to dark space and super punches all of the reapers to death, the galaxy is saved, no more bad guys to fight, what do you want to do?"

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "The reapers being gone doesn't make all the bad guys go away," he said, getting a glare from her. "But I know what you mean," he said as he scratched his stubbly chin in thought. "I dunno. Wherever I go I want to help people. Maybe I'll sign up to help all the parentless kids that the reaper war is no doubt going to create," he said with a heavy sigh. "As comical as it is imagining Shepard going Superman on the reapers, it's not going to be that easy. We're going to lose a lot of people. We're going to see things that are going to traumatize people for generations," he said as he looked at his own hands. "There's nothing in the world that I'm the best at, not by a long shot. But I can build, I know how to wire, I can teach, I can cook," he said, looking back up at her. "I can keep people safe, and give them a home."

She smiled brightly at him and nodded. "A jack of all trades still has trades," said Kelly smartly as she noted everything.

"I suppose so. Maybe when the war is over, I'll have my own little slice of peace. A bunch of kids, helping build communities, that kinda thing. I always did wanna try out volunteer work," he finished as he began stretching to cool himself off.

Ignoring his flexing in front of her, she stared down at the datapad. "That sounds like a wonderful goal." Finally, she smiled up at him. "Thank you for your time, Jacob."

"No problem. Lemme know if you wanna talk again. This wasn't too bad," he said with a brilliant grin.

Kelly got to her feet and left the young soldier in the training room to continue his routine. She saved her file on the datapad and sighed to herself as she realized the work she had ahead of her. Honestly, she should feel lucky that she had gotten the harder ones out of the way first. Disentangling Shepard's experience with death as well as Jack's brutal childhood were leagues ahead of all the others as far as difficulty went.

But it didn't stop her from groaning at the size of the list. Each of Shepard's ground crew members required one of these talks to make sure they had their head on straight for the future. And while she found herself looking forward to some, such as with Kasumi or Samara, there were others she dreaded. Miranda, who Kelly figured would be above such things and Zaeed who would sit and glare at her the whole time. She marked Jacob off on her list before shutting down her datapad for the long days ahead. "I suppose this is me pulling my weight," she groaned to herself before heading off to the showers to loosen herself up before bed.