Chapter 17
Shepard and Garrus turned the corner and headed over to C-Sec headquarters. The two had gotten into a friendly debate over whom was the superior marksman, and Garrus had suggested they make use of the firing range in C-Sec Headquarters in order to find out. As they walked through the door a sad looking Turian carrying a box full of his personal effects nearly bumped into them. He stood aside and waited for them to pass, causing Garrus to stare dumbfounded at him.
"Never thought I'd see the day.." Garrus said.
"Huh?" Shepard asked.
"That was Denitus, he landed a cushy desk job at C-Sec Medical. His father is on the Primarch's council, and he was a snotty little shit in the academy, never had to do any real work. He must have fucked up bad to get the boot from C-sec." Garrus said. Shepard's eyes narrowed momentarily but she shrugged.
"Sucks for him. Now come on, let's go see if you can shoot straight." Shepard said. Garrus laughed, opening the door to the firing range and holding it for Shepard. She grinned and confidently walked through the doors. Shepard got a few curious looks, it was well known that she was the first Human Spectre, but more of them were impressed by the N7 insignia she wore. They arrived at their firing lane and Shepard unpacked and expanded her rifle.
"So how'd your dad like being the Human ambassador?" Shepard asked.
"It's not something he'd want to do for a career but he was able to make quite a few friends in the process." Garrus said, expanding his own rifle and checking it over for issues. Shepard, being ready first, raised her rifle and fired, hitting the target millimeters away from dead center.
"I'd never want to command a dreadnought, but I wish the Normandy could fit firing lanes like these. The range we have onboard is tiny." Shepard said.
"You wouldn't want to command a dreadnought?" Garrus said. His bullet hit millimeters away from hers, the hole in the target overlapping.
"Definitely not. There's so much to do with commanding a dreadnought, I'd never be able to lead combat missions." Shepard said, lining up her next shot. Garrus waited for it before continuing.
"I don't think I could imagine you as a dreadnought captain come to think of it." Garrus said, the shot rang out, almost perfectly passing through the hole Garrus had just left. Garrus nodded and pressed a button which caused the target to be replaced with a generic holographic humanoid figure that began walking around at a standard gait. Garrus raised his rifle and fired, hitting the target between the eyes.
"I wouldn't even want a cruiser. Give me a frigate with a good pilot and a detachment of some badass marines." Shepard said, firing her rifle. The bullet shot through the center of the figure's neck. Garrus pressed the button and the figure started alternating between walking and jogging and randomly changed directions.
"I can't disagree. The main guns on those dreadnoughts are powerful, but inaccurate and take forever between shots. Between Joker's flying and my shooting we could easily take on a Salarian dreadnought." Garrus said. His next bullet shot through the figure's heart. Shepard grinned and pressed the button again. This time the figure started bolting back and forth, diving behind projected cover, leaping out at random intervals to move to another obstruction.
"Why a Salarian dreadnought?" Shepard asked, peering down her scope, lining up a shot.
"Point defenses on Turian dreadnoughts have improved drastically since we started collaborating with the Alliance, and Human dreadnoughts have always been built like a fortress, now their sensors are far more accurate thanks to the Turians. Salarians still use technology from like five hundred years ago, they rely on their cruisers to get things done." Garrus said, leaning against the wall, observing Shepard.
"What about the Asari?" Shepard asked, almost taking the shot but holding off as the figure dove behind a holographic boulder.
"Never a contender, except the Destiny Ascension. You get in close and they can't do a thing, they're only effective at range." Garrus noted. Shepard fired and the bullet hit the target, dead center, right in the balls. Garrus looked at her, raising the Turian equivalent of an eyebrow. She grinned mischievously.
"You win." Garrus said, laughing. She cheered, and started packing her rifle up.
"Ground forces, nothing comes close to the Turians and Humans though. If the Krogan had more numbers and organization, they'd be unstoppable, but the Asari, Salarian and Batarian armies are nowhere near as well trained and lead as ours. That is of course not taking STG and Asari Commandos into account." Garrus said, collapsing his rifle.
"Agreed, I'd be wary of a squad of STG or Commandos." Shepard said. She looked up and quirked an eyebrow. They'd attracted a crowd of C-Sec officers and candidates.
"Where the hell did you two learn to shoot like that?" a Turian C-Sec officer asked.
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"I owe you an apology, Tali." Ash said, having finally found an opportunity to speak to her In private.
"There's really no need, Ash." Tali said.
"No there is. I've just... I've held onto a lot of resentment for so long, I didn't see myself turning into a bigot. God, the Quarians never had anything to do with the first contact war." Ash said. Tali shrugged.
"We're used to it." Tali said.
"And that's the problem... Harry set me straight that first day but I've been doing some reading, trying to learn about the other races, and the information on the extranet isn't very kind about Quarians." Ash said with a frown.
"I'd imagine not. We've made so many mistakes..." Tali said.
"So I reached out to the fleet, they got me in touch with an archivist on one of your liveships. I read quite a bit, especially about the Geth war." Ash said. Tali tilted her head.
"I'm curious to hear what a Human's perspective on that is." Tali admitted.
"Well I mean, logically, playing with AI is dangerous and foolish, but you guys weren't playing with AI. For all you knew the Geth were just advanced VI that shared processing power, and they became self-aware accidentally. I mean Humans have almost made that mistake tons of times, there's a Museum on Earth that has a server they built during the third world war. We saw it in science class when I was a kid. They were desperate to predict enemy movements so they built a supercomputer with limited AI capability, and when they weren't paying attention it gained sentience and started taking over all of the computers in the facility, exponentially increasing its processing capability." Ash said.
"What happened?" Tali asked. Ash leaned against the wall and looked pensive.
"The AI took control of the facility's automated defenses and started killing people. They sent in special forces, but none could get past the autocannons, so they tried an EMP blast via a small nuclear detonation, unfortunately it was too well shielded. In the end it was actually Harry that stopped it." Ash said.
"Seriously?" Tali asked. Ash nodded.
"I've never asked him about it, and I've heard he doesn't like talking about the war, but you might want to ask him when you have time. He'll have an interesting perspective on things." Ash said.
"Tell me Ash, what's your opinion?" Tali asked, wringing her hands nervously.
"I think that your ancestors made two mistakes, the first was creating the Geth and the second was jumping straight into violence instead of trying to reason with them. I can understand it though, they were scared. The important thing is, they were your ancestors. They've been dead for centuries. No living Quarian is responsible for what happened on Rannoch." Ash said. She looked up when she heard Tali sniffling.
"Thank you Ash." Tali said.
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Harry sat at a familiar bar on the Citadel, and ordered his favorite; ryncol. He looked around and noticed he was the only patron.
"One ryncol." He heard Aethyta's gravelly voice say. Harry smiled at her and reached for his credit chit, but she stopped him
"On the house. I owe you a hell of a lot more than that." Aethyta said. Harry shrugged.
"I'll take the free drink, but I'd do it again In a hearbeat. Liara is awesome." Harry said. Aethyta sighed.
"She is, isn't she?" Harry said, giving her a meaningful look, before downing the shot of ryncol.
"You should introduce yourself." Harry said. Aethyta scoffed
"You're aware of the stigma I assume? She'd never find work in the republics if it came out." Aethyta said.
"She doesn't work in the republics anyway." Harry said.
"She's just a maiden, What happens in a couple hundred years when she enters the matron stage and wants to settle down? Housing is hard enough to come by on Thessia, and that's without being a pureblood." Aethyta said. Harry paused, pondering his next words carefully.
"Did I ever tell you when I spent time with my parents?" Harry asked.
"No..." Aethyta said.
"That's because I didn't. They died. When I was a baby. I grew up hated by my aunt and uncle, and when I entered the magical world when I was eleven, all of the adults in my life reveled in telling me about them. At first it was great, but after a while... I kept hearing about how amazing my mum and dad were, over and over again from people who had the privilege of being able to know them. It sucked. It wasn't fair." Harry said, surprised at the tears that formed in his eyes, even after all this time. He wiped his eyes and sighed.
"I went through a lot of shit when I was a kid, and I lost count of the times I went to sleep crying, wishing more than anything I had my parents to come and comfort me. I never had kids of my own, part of the reason of that is I'm terrified of risking putting someone else through that. I know my parents loved me Aethyta, but I don't remember ever hearing that from them." Harry said. He looked up and into her eyes.
"You said you owe me... Well I'm calling it in. Go and introduce yourself to your daughter. Tell her you love her while you can. You never know when opportunity ends and regret begins." Harry said, standing up and walking out the door. Aethyta stood there silently, watching him leave, tears streaming down her own eyes.
"Fuck." She said, collecting his glass and bringing it over to a sink to wash it.