Welcome back, sorry for the slight delay, and enjoy the first snippet of Chapter six!
Chapter 6.0 (Snip 1)
It was quiet in the meld after that, silent for a moment. Of course, I started to consider how a mental meld could be quiet, because a person couldn't just stop thinking, but the answer popped up from Vasir's own memories, her subconscious letting me know that the silence merely meant the Vasir was in complete shock.
Of course, by 'letting me know', I mean that I read her mind; that I'm reading her mind. The meld is no longer oppressive, no longer a domination of will with Vasir crushing me beneath her.
Say I believe this craziness, Vasir projects slowly, her thoughts hesitant. What would we do then?
Say? Say? Darlin, you can see my damn memories, you know that I'm legit.
Or a very, very elaborate fake.
Fine, then, let me prove it.
You can't, Nick. Everything you do or say could have been arranged by an organization.
Unless I predict something happening; unless I predict numerous things happening, things beyond the capability of one group.
Okay, Nick. Bedazzle me.
Garrus Vakarian, squadmate of Commander Shepard, is in C-Sec right now, and will be departing for Omega if he hasn't already. He's gathered or will gather a squad of twelve individuals, including Lantar Sidonis, another turian, and together they'll wage a war on crime on Omega, conducting raids against the Blue Suns, Blood Pack, and Eclipse, and everything in between. They'll try to avoid civilian casualties, but they don't mess with Aria because she's the only thing even resembling authority on Omega.
You could have engineered that.
Another, then. Liara T'Soni, Shepard's asari scientist on the squad, is now directly competing with your former boss to recover Shepard's body. The Broker wants the body because the Collectors are paying him for it, and in desperation T'Soni is working with Cerberus, who are going to try to resurrect Shepard with extensive cybernetics and other bizarre science, under the code-name Project Lazarus. Biblical references always were the most obvious, but unlike almost every other Cerberus projects, this one will actually work (well, technically...). Shepard will be back two years and twelve days after the Collectors killed her, and after that, T'Soni will set her sights on the Broker himself.
Right, that's when I'm supposed to get involved, according to your 'memories'.
Isn't that nice? I can actually tell that you put airquotes around that! This meld has a lot of useful abilities, almost like someone tried to balanced the horrible mind-rapey-ness of it.
Focus, Nick. She thinks of how the boy gets easily distracted, but, of course, the boy hears that thought and gives unspoken approval, as well as an idle image of some human dressed in a tweed jacket and wearing a bow-tie. She snorted once, then tossed the image aside.
Yeah, that's where you normally come in to play in the games. You're an enemy to Shepard, despite appearing quite good, and we never get the chance to convince you to help us take out the Broker. I always thought it was a waste of a perfectly good Spectre.
You know, if I wasn't reading your brain, I'd take that as flirting.
You know what I meant, Vasir. With a veteran Asari Spectre on our side, the Council wouldn't be as much of a problem, and we could prepare for the Reapers properly.
Which brings me back to my point. If I believe this stuff, then tell me what the next part of your plan is, now that you've failed to blackmail the Council?
Who says I failed?
You got thrown into a wall, I'd take that as a failure.
You're smarter than that, darling, don't try to play stupid around me, it'll just get you scathing sarcasm. You know just how curious Sparatus and Valern are, now that I've hinted about Asari superiority.
Actually, I don't. I didn't get any chance to see what happened in the Council chambers, Tevos had the recording wiped instantly.
Oh. Well, basically…
I draw up the very recent memory, projecting it over to her and meshing my mind fully with hers, sharing my insight and my thoughts during the memory. Huh… that gives me an idea about using the meld to recall memories perfectly…
…ah. So she cut you off just before you said Thessia.
Yup. So Sparatus and Valern are going be investigating into the Asari veeerry carefully. Still, I'm annoyed I didn't get a chance to finish.
Finish? What, so you could start a civil war? How in the Goddess would that help prepare for the Reapers?
First of all, screw Athame, he was a scientist, not a god. And yes, I think that I should have finished, because if I only got out one piece of blackmail, it would start a civil war. If I can say everything I want to, I can get unparalleled access to the resources of the Council. You didn't think the Salarians and the Turians were clean as a whistle, did you?
No, I've seen too much for that. But all the possible blackmail you could have wouldn't be enough to get what you want, Nick, you have to know that.
Oh… darling… you didn't process my memories at all, did you?
I can process the memories of a simpleton easily, but your mind is just fucked up enough that I'll need more time, punk. It's not that you're a genius, it's that you are the craziest fucking human I've met in all my life. See, you've even got me swearing like a human.
Heh. You're welcome. Here, let me show you what the Turians and Salarians have to fear from me. For an added bonus, I'll even tell you how this works in my favor, if you can't figure it out quickly enough.
With that, I pass forward the memories of the turian bomb on Tuchanka, then the ones of Mordin's confession about the modification of the Genophage. Just for an extra touch, I add the ones of the Salarian STG base in the third game, as well as the sabotage in the Shroud.
So yeah, if I was to tell the krogan of the bomb, combined with the genophage modification, they'll get sufficiently pissed off that I could restart the Krogan Rebellions, albeit temporarily. The krogan wouldn't have the reproduction numbers to properly overwhelm the Citadel, but there are still more than enough krogan to cause a serious dent in Citadel numbers. If the krogan could move fast enough, they could decapitate the Council. After all, there are no better shock-troops than krogan berserkers, eh?
That's….
Lost for words? Heh.
You'd unleash the krogan on the Council, just to make a damn point?
Yes. In a heartbeat. Care to know why?
Yes! Why in hell would you do such a thing? You'd weaken us for the Reapers catastrophically! We'd have no chance at all if we had to re-wage the Krogan Rebellions again!
Because I could get the genophage cured. Because I can talk to Wrex and convince him to settle the debt after we destroy the Reapers.
Genophage – cured? No, that's impossible! The krogan have tried, believe me! I've shut down a dozen of Warlord Okeer's projects to cure the genophage; it isn't that simple!
It is. Remember Mordin? The best damn salarian in the galaxy? He modified the genophage, and he still has STG access. I know that Mordin's feeling guilt over his actions; he's a true saint, in every meaning of the word. If I tell him about the Shroud sabotage, about the research his student, Maelon, will start soon, he'll help me shut down Maelon's genophage cure. Then, taking that data as well as the surviving krogan females, we could work on a genophage cure with less barbaric means, and since Mordin has access to the original genophage data where Okeer didn't.
Mordin's right on the edge of his decision to help the krogan, he won't need too much of a push to get to work. All we need to do is make sure the Dalatrass, that bitch, won't interfere. To do that, I need to gain the support, willing or not, of the Council.
That will never work, and you know it.
Yeah, it was a stretch... Still, it was only a first draft, I hadn't had as much time as I wanted to refine that idea.
Honestly, why in hell would you come to blackmail the Council then? It doesn't make sense.
Mostly, it was to see if I could. If I could influence politics or opinion at that high of a level. If I could, then I knew that I was – that I had the possibility of becoming a major player in the Great Game.
Though….
'Though' what? What are you hinting towards now, with your usual fucking bluntness?
Well, the whole Korgan thing was just so that I could get access to a Spectre or a ship. I suppose then that it worked out, since I got you on my side, and you have a ship, do you not?
I do, and what would you be planning to do with a ship?
Nothing major, I swear. Just more preparation for the War.
Tell me. Now. Before you start a war.
It's really nothing! It shouldn't be that hard to do, and no one would know until the War started, I swear!
The more you say 'I swear', the more I get worried. Tell me what you plan to do with my ship.
Well… first I have to send a few message probes through a Mass Relay…. then I go to where the probes were sent.
Where.
The Tikkun system. Fascinating place, really, with a good sized industrial base that has room for expansion, and a nearly abandoned nebula just full of resources. Even better, nobody has touched the space for a good couple hundred years, so we don't even have to beat off the pirates or anything!
Though the meld should prevent her from feeling such a physical reaction, Vasir felt her skin chill as the pieces clicked.
You… insane… demented idiot. They'd never work with you, they've destroyed every ship to ever try to get past the Veil! How in the Goddess's name do you think you can convince them to work with you?
I'm going to tell them that I know the future, drop the names of a dozen terms that only they use, and then see what happens. Best case, I become their messiah. Worst case, I get a story out of it. Wait, no, worst case, I die, and they prepare for the Reapers anyway. If I can get the Von Neumann machines to start preparing for the Reapers two years ahead of schedule, I'd consider that worthy of my life.
Besides, if anyone was going to believe me, it'd be the Geth. They're logical like that.
