Alright. Chapter 5 is starting to come together, and Chapter 6 is gelling in my head, and I finally bludgeoned myself into giving Chapter 4 that third pass.
Chapter 4: Reunion
The Williams name was a bit of a pariah to the Systems Alliance. Ashley's grandfather had been the first human to surrender to aliens, and that meant the only way for Ashley to rise in military service was to be outstanding in every way she could, and she had the steel in her spine to do it. She was a damn fine shot, she had the guts to face down an angry Urdnot Wrex, she had leadership skills, and she had a very nice set of hips under that hardsuit plating. Her mouth sometimes got ahead of her, but I had to admit that might have been my influence. I know I could try people's patience, and for some reason Ash just brought it out of me.
She was also my subordinate, which is why I kept it to the annoying.
Now she stood before me, rifle in her hands. Ashley Williams, who to me had always meant self-control, was looking at me with tears in her eyes. Her trigger finger was trembling.
A Marine gunny's trigger. Trembling. She had it on the outside of her trigger guard so that when it twitched hard enough to squeeze, it tightened on the guard and didn't discharge the weapon. Because if she didn't have it there, she might shoot me by accident.
That was how bad her control was.
"Two years, Commander," she said. "Two fucking years. We thought you were dead. Tali, stay back, just in case."
"I-" I tried to interrupt.
She was having none of it. She closed her eyes, focused, and that iron will came back into play. Tali dropped her arms and stepped away, looking from me to Ash. The marine socketed her assault rifle more firmly into her shoulder. Her finger steadied, moving from the guard to the trigger itself. Her lips steadied. "We thought you were dead. Who convinced you to do it? Cerberus? The Shadow Broker? And what did they do to convince you?"
I saw fucking red. My jaw clenched. "No one convinced me of anything, Ash. No one told me to hide. You thought I was dead? I. Was." My jaw clenched. I drew in a shaking breath, let it out my nose, deliberately unclenched my teeth. I would say this. "I went down with the Normandy, Ash. I was dead in every sense of the term, and then in a coma, I've only been awake for about twelve hours, and even that's because-"
Oh, shit.
I went pale. Slowly, my hand came up to my ear, keying my radio. "Speaker, abort the drop. Abort the drop!"
"Negative, Shepard Commander. Harmony has been deployed and will be landing in five."
I slung my rifle, held up my hands at chest height, palms out. "Ash, Tali, do me a huge favor? Hold your fire. There's a friendly geth prime landing in about two-"
BOOM.
Tali started talking into her omnitool, but Ashley just glared at me. "And why should we do that, Shepard? You know what the geth have done. To Tali's people. To me personally. Fuck this, Shepard, I'm taking you to the Council."
"I know, but they also brought me back to life, they're here to help get Garrus to a medical facility."
"Garrus?" Ashley blinked, lowering the rifle again. She looked over at Liara, who was putting another dose of medi-gel into Garrus's neck. "Garrus! Liara?"
"I'm a little distracted here."
Ash looked back at me, then back at Garrus. "Tali?"
Tali was looking at me. Her voice sounded cold. Angry. I'd never heard her so pissed. "The team is holding back for now, but they're going to want a damn good explanation. As am I."
Liara looked up. "I don't care if we put him on your shuttle or the geth one, Garrus is still bleeding and we need to get him to medical immediately."
"I'm a little tricky to recover, darling." Tali and Ash looked startled as Harmony's voice came on net, unmistakably artificial but unmistakably...Harmony. "I'll stay here for a bit, cover your retreat, then come back with Loot."
I looked at Ashley. She looked at Tali. Tali looked at Garrus.
"Alright," the quarian said. "For Garrus. Is there a medical facility you trust here? We only have a shuttle and a quarian combat medic who's not trained to work on aliens."
"Doctor Chakwas is on the Oddysey. She's got experience putting Garrus back together."
Tali nodded and started talking into her omni-tool again. Ashley looked at me, moved over to the window next to me. "Doctor Chakwas? I thought she was still with the Alliance."
I shrugged, then paused. "She was - are you not? Alliance?"
Ash blinked. "You have been out of the loop, haven't you."
"Like I said, dead." I frowned at her. "But...they didn't kick you out, did they?"
"No more than they would have you, before long." Ash grinned at me. It was a little shaky, but still a smile. "'No man can serve two masters,' and all that."
I had my rifle back out and was sweeping the barricade. There was a heavy beast of a mech, shorter but bulkier than Harmony, just on this side, slowly turning in a circle with flames emerging from one of its weapon ports, torching the smaller mechs around it.
"Dance, my puppet, dance!" Harmony was yelling.
"Okay, seriously, Shepard. Is that thing really a geth, or is it a VI lash-together in some salvage?"
"Oh, she's geth." I spotted the tech armor of a salarian engineer, lined up a shot. Took it. "The other geth says she's weird." I pulled back.
Ashley leaned out, her own sniper rifle out. "Just how many-"
Liara's voice interrupted us. "Shepard. We've got Garrus on board, but I don't think we're going to be able to fit everyone."
I closed my eyes, and Ashley's rifle boomed. "I can ride back with Harmony. Are all the quarians aboard?"
"Yes, Commander." This was from Tali. "I don't think we can fit more than one more, though."
"Alright," I said. "Ash, get down there."
"Fuck that, Shepard."
I looked up at that, saw her staring at me with that mix of emotion I couldn't pin down, anger and fear and something else besides.
"The last time you told me to take care of your crew, Shepard? You fucking died." Her jaw set, and she turned back towards the enemy. "I'm not letting you out of my sight this time. If that means riding back in a fucking geth shuttle, if it means fucking walking, so be it. Tali, get moving. We'll meet up on Shepard's ship."
"Liara's ship," I said, a smile crossing my lips. "Clever use of invective there, Gunnery Chief."
Her rifle boomed. "Spoken like a vacuum sucker. I'm a Marine, sir, we improvise, adapt, and overcome."
"You know what really bothers me, Ash?"
"I can think of half a dozen things, but why don't you tell me."
"Sitting here waiting for the enemy to come to me. Shall we take the fight to them?"
Her wolfish grin matched mine. "I thought you'd never ask."
Things were not better on our flight back to the Oddysey. Ash looked tense, and in pain; she was clearly nursing what looked like a bruised rib. The plate had caught the slug after her armor failed, but armor can only do so much.
It didn't seem to help that Harmony spent the whole trip talking about inanities; there was plenty of room in the shuttle for Shepard and the two humans in it, but Primes were significantly larger and Harmony could only ride the shuttle racked for deployment. All she could do was move her head, but she did that constantly, asking Ash questions seemingly at random, then looking at me, then back at Ash, then asking Ash another question, looking at me...
I was very glad when we got back to the Oddysey, because Ash's hand was starting to tighten around the assault rifle in her lap.
As soon as the shuttle landed, I popped the hatch and headed for medical, Ash following at my heels. Doctor Chakwas took one look at us as we walked in and pointed at Ashley. "You. That table, start getting that armor off. Commander, give her a hand." Then she went back to using what looked disturbingly like a hot glue gun on Garrus's mandible.
She didn't have to tell me twice, though I choked that thought down and kept most of my attention on Garrus. "How is he doing, Doc?"
"He'll be just fine, once the cloned blood integrates with his system. I'm just finishing up the last damage to his facial plates now. It'll be noticeable, those fibers never heal the same way, but he should...be...just...there." She set the device down and stepped around Garrus' desk to the one Ash was sitting on.
I started picking plates up off the floor. "Armory's just across the corridor. I'll get these over-"
I was interrupted by the wet 'thump' of a skinsuit hitting the deck. "Thanks, Shepard."
Nope, nope, nope. I locked my spine. Not looking.
Joker's voice saved me. "Hey, Commander."
With some work, I got most of Ashley's armor under one arm and cued my omni-tool. "What is it, Joker?"
"I have the Elanus shuttle parked between the quarians and the geth, but you might want to get out there to prevent the Geth War from starting back up on my girlfriend's ship."
I heard Ash's voice behind me. "Did he just say-"
Damnit, I wanted to see her reaction to that, but not when it meant...
"Oh, yes. It's actually quite endearing."
The hatch hissed closed behind me, and I leaned back against it, the skinsuit draped over my arms still warm with Ash's body heat, the scent of her sweat wafting up through the air. She was in there, practically naked, and so was Garrus - and damnit, this was a slaver, of course it'd have a top-notch internal security system. I logged on to the ship's network and overrode the med bay's camera, shutting it down.
If Joker was watching, he was smart enough not to draw my attention to it.
Ashley's armor went into the bin, where the minifabs started breaking corrosion down and reversing it. A warning popped up about the materials she was using and how they might be a bit expensive to replace. I raised my eyebrows - her gear was as good as mine, maybe even a little better.
Mind, mine was also two years out of date.
Still, I had a team of quarian Marines and a pair of the robots who'd driven them from their homeworld in the cargo hold and so I left the jet black armor with the automatics, checking the locks to make sure that Ashley was authorized for the room.
I had no interest in being the one to keep her from her armor. She had a mean left hook.
I also didn't want to get involved in what was going on in the hangar without armor, so I left mine on as I strode out. Once again, the Elanus shuttle was my first stop, sliding past the faded grey of what looked like an old UT-29.
That was the quarians for you. If you couldn't fix a ship, you sold it to the quarians for scrap, and then they fixed it anyway and used it for the next fifty years. Incredible.
Still, I needed to get the tone. "Hey, Miller. How are things back here?"
The shooter looked skeptically at the geth shuttle. "Well, on the one hand, if they start something, then we'll have a whole bunch of backup from those suit - uh, Marines. On the other hand, we're right in the crossfire when the shooting starts, and it's getting to feel like this hangar is really, really crowded. I never thought I'd miss it when it was just the nine of us on board."
Speaker and Harmony were once again working on Loot, though I heard a lot more tension in their voices this time. The quarians were quiet. Very quiet.
I sighed.
"Well, Eugene said that as soon as we're back at the Citadel, you guys are rotating out. We will miss having you."
Miller nodded. "Any idea what the ETA is on that?"
I keyed my omni-tool. "Hey, Joker. ETA to the Citadel?"
"Another half hour to the mass relay, then it's about eight jumps in a row, then twenty minutes. Not long, though."
"Thanks, Joker." I nodded to Miller. "I'm going to go keep the quarians thinking about something other than their ancient enemy."
From up close, the quarians seemed just as tense as before. Granted, their armor doubled as environmental suits, so it was hardly a shock that they were still wearing it. Still, all of them had their weapons, none of them had their weapons in a maintenance cycle, and a few had them in their laps or otherwise to hand.
I took a moment to visibly hesitate as I looked them over, then I shrugged. "Hey, I'm not as familiar with the quarian rank structure as I should be. Who's in charge?"
A marine in a red suit raised his hand. "I am. Kal'Reegar vas Neema. Well, I'm in charge of the marine detachment, but we're really just here as Tali'Zorah's bodyguards."
"Commander Haley Shepard, of the Normandy. Formerly." I raised my hand to wave.
"Pleased to meet you, Commander. Sorry to hear about your ship. It's always a tragedy." He settled into his seat, but his shotgun was still close to hand. "Tali'Zorah's said a lot about you, you and Williams."
"Oh, yeah?" I took a seat on a crate they'd moved out of the shuttle. "She ever tell you about the time we met?"
"So she just looks at him, and says in the driest voice you can imagine, 'I'm pleased that the imminent destruction of all organic life in the galaxy has been so good for your career prospects.' I nearly broke laughing."
That got another round of chuckles and even a few serious laughs.
I heard a raspy voice behind me. "To be fair, it was really good for my career prospects."
I stood and spun. "Garrus! Let me get a look at you."
He rolled his eyes, but tilted his head up and to the left obligingly. "I figured too many of the ladies were looking at me," he said. "Needed to give you your fair shot."
"Why Garrus, how very thoughtful of you." I mock-scowled. "Next time though, I seriously urge you to duck."
He held out a hand. "Because of you and Liara, there'll be a next time. Thanks."
I shook it, then glanced at my omni-tool and turned back to the quarians. "I'm going to head up and watch the jump. If you would like, we have a berthing space on the second deck and another on the third that's not in use. I know you can't take your suits off here, but at least you can lie down on something moderately soft."
One or two of the quarians looked skeptically over in the direction of the geth.
I lowered my voice and moved a little closer. "They're not going to try anything, not when they're this badly outnumbered, and the Elanus guys will be keeping an eye on them regardless. If anything happens, you'll know and we'll be hitting them from every side."
"Commander's right," Kal'Reegar said. "May as well get some shuteye."
"I see you haven't lost your touch," murmurred Garrus as the quarians trooped towards the ladder.
"On the one hand, I didn't actually have all that much time to lose any." My voice fell. "On the other, brain damage crops up in the oddest places."
His hand fell on my shoulder. "You've seemed all right so far," he said.
"Am I?" I asked softly. "You deserve to know the context. Come on, I'll introduce you to the other set of guests."
He hesitated. "If you're sure that's a good idea..."
I glanced over. "I am sure. That's the problem - I don't know if I'm sure because I'm right, or if I'm sure because of lingering brain damage. Or if I'm sure because they planted a chip in my brain that makes me more amenable to them."
"So you want a second opinion." Garrus smiled appreciatively. "And you ask the former detective. Clever."
"Hey, C-Sec had to teach you something, right?"
"Mostly how to fill out forms. So let's meet these possible allies of yours."
We passed teh ERCS shuttle again, and I waved to the troops. Then we approached the geth.
"Shepard Commander." Speaker looked up from Loot. "Vakarian Detective. We would be interested in determining whether our skills as a sniper are inferior or superior to yours."
"Right..." Garrus frowned. "But I'm not a detective any more. I quit that job."
"We apologize. Do you have a preferred designation?"
"I suppose just 'Garrus' will do."
Harmony beeped something amused; Speaker beeped something annoyed. Then they said, "Understood, Garrus. Designation loaded."
"I'm Harmony, darling. This is Speaker." Harmony stayed working on Loot. "So. We have Creators on board."
"Yes. This situation will be awkward." Speaker pointed its optic at my face. "Please ensure they know that we do not wish them harm. It is possible that..."
Harmony interrupted with an angry digital squeal. Speaker countered with its own, a very short argument followed.
Garrus leaned down to whisper. "What's happening? Did they forget how to speak Basic?"
I tilted my own head back. "They're arguing. Probably about what they can say."
He looked at me, his mouth open. "You are good."
Speaker and Harmony fell quiet, still staring at each other. Finally, Harmony bowed her head. "I hope it doesn't come to that. I really do. But if it does...they may be invaluable allies."
Speaker bowed their own head. "We agree on all counts."
"What was that all about?" I asked.
"We...cannot talk about this, Shepard Commander, much as we regret this."
"Is it me you can't talk to? Do you need to talk to the Citadel Council?"
"We cannot discuss it with anyone. Geth have not yet reached consensus. Talking about it prematurely could cause an incorrect response. We hoped..."
I frowned as Speaker trailed off.
"It doesn't matter, darling. We had hoped you would be able to aid in reaching consensus. But your radio doesn't work, which means you're not tied into geth, and the geth we need you to reach won't listen."
"We apologize, Shepard Commander, but we are still conferring with geth and trying to reach consensus. We are pleased to see you reunited with your comrades."
"We're also pleased they agreed not to shoot us for now, darling. It's nice to meet you, Garrus."
With that, Speaker and Harmony turned their full attention back to Loot and the geth FTL link. I turned and walked back towards the hatch, Garrus walking beside me.
"That was...odd. Now come on. I need you to show me where the gunnery compartment is so I can do something familiar."
I blinked. "Uh, there are a pair of consoles in CIC, one for the spinal, one for-"
"No, no. Not the controls." Garrus scowled at me. "Systems access, the temperature monitors, magnetic and graviometers, you know, all the stuff it takes to get a shot lined up over a hundred kilometers?"
Okay, yeah, I did know what he was talking about, but I'd been all over this ship on the trip to Omega, and I hadn't seen a gunnery compartment. "I'm not sure there is one."
"Shepard. There is always a gunnery compartment. Do you have any idea how utterly embarassing it is, to line up the perfect shot, and have it miss by half a klick because someone didn't degauss the barrel? Because the temperature measurements on port were reading a few degrees lower than on starboard? Just assuming everything will go right because the manufacturer said so is lazy, and it's sloppier thinking than I have come to expect from you. The sooner we find the gunnery compartment the sooner I can get started on the neverending business of making sure everything works the way it's supposed to, and if this ship seriously does not have one, I will tell Liara she needs to sell it off like the worthless scrap it is."
I grinned. "Damn, Vakarian, that touched a nerve."
He coughed sheepishly. "It, ah, might be a legacy of my time in the Hierarchy. Specifically, ah, my early time in the Hierarchy."
Still smiling, I shook my head. "I don't remember seeing one, but given it's a chin-mounted turret and a lower spinal cannon, I'd expect access to be either at the front end of the lower deck, or through a floor hatch on the systems deck, and damn but I must have brain damage to not have gone looking for it earlier. Lower deck has way less on it than crew deck."
"You were distracted," he said. "And speaking as the person who would be dead if you weren't distracted, thank you again."
I clapped a hand to his shoulder. "Any time, Garrus. I know you'd do the same. We're family. You take port, I'll take starboard?"
It was only a few minutes of meticulous searching - on a much more focused level than my earlier trip through the vessel - before Garrus spoke up. "I think I've got something."
I slid over. "What is it?"
He traced one digit over an almost invisible crack in the wall. "Frame of a hatch. I have to say, I've got no idea why they'd go to such lengths to cover up a compartment of the ship. And no idea how to open it."
"Well," I said as I pulled up the power detection software on my omnitool, "keep in mind it's not just a frigate with a big cargo hold. It's a pirate, and a slaver, and beyond that, a Hegemony spy ship." AR lines representing power and data lines showed up under the metal plating, and I panned my hand over the frame, looking for the motor that would open the hatch. And there it was, almost hidden by the ladder, where the hatch would swing into the compartment towards the centerline of the ship. Now to trace the lines...
"How did Liara and Joker wind up with a spy ship?"
"I don't know, and they haven't told me yet. It's only a matter of time, you know Joker. Here we are." I held my omnitool over what looked like an ordinary square of metal, if it hadn't had a bundle of datalines running to the motors of the secret hatch. A few moments later, an orange door tag appeared on the hatch. Then it turned green, and the hatch opened. "And...well."
"Not bad," Garrus said, stepping in. "All the physical access I need, all the digital access, too. Enough space for me to set up a work bench, and it's only a few meters from the armory. I think I'm in love."
"You are going to be so much fun to play with," I said.
"What? Shepard, I thought you were -"
"Huh? Sorry, I was talking to my baby here." I reached out and patted the subtle grey box mounted in the shadow of the hatch. "I've been looking for her everywhere."
"What is it?"
I grinned at him. "Secure data repository for classified intel. Dead drops, secret Hegemony facilities, ciphers, things like that."
His mouth quirked into a matching grin. "Sounds like we both have our work cut out for-"
Ashley's voice boomed out of a hidden speaker. "Commander Shepard to the conference room. Immediately."
"And mine just got pushed to the side." I frowned. "Is it just me, or has she gotten bossy?"
"Well, you aren't her superior officer any more," Garrus said. "Better get a move on, though. I'll be here if you need me."
Ash was in the conference room. She did not look pleased. "Shepard."
She wasn't alone. Tali was next to her; Kal'Reegar was on Tali's left, their faces unreadable, their body language less so. Tali looked tense. Reegar looked calm, but prepared. Prepared for what, I wasn't sure. Liara sat at the end of the table looking like she would rather be anywhere else.
I took the seat opposite from Ash. "Williams."
For a moment, there was a flash of...something in her eyes, I couldn't tell what. Then it was replaced by iron control that still only managed to force out one word. "Geth."
I blinked. "How much has Doctor Chakwas told you?"
Williams blinked. "The Doc?"
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, steadied myself. "I remember getting Joker to the escape pod, and then...whoever it was hit the Normandy again, and knocked me away from the ship. Joker's pod was clear, but I was still to close when...when." Damnit, I would be in control. I opened my mouth, closed it. "There was a breach. At the nape of my neck, above the skin seal. I couldn't...couldn't reach it. Couldn't stop it. And then..."
Ash half-lifted a hand. Her mouth opened.
I shook my head quickly. "I don't remember anything else. Just a fragment. I remember waking up and hearing geth. I don't know, I thought I was on a battlefield, and I'd been taken out, and the geth were looking over the casualties..." I paused, remembering. "...And then a voice said they were 'repairing' me. And then I went back under. And I woke up...less than an hour before Liara found me, so eleven hours or so?"
"About that, yes." Liara was quiet, uncomfortable. That was too bad, because I was about to make it worse.
"Doctor Chakwas did a deep scan of me as soon as we came on board. Speaker had already told me some of it, but the short version is that the geth replaced...a lot. My heart and lungs. Most of my skin, a lot of my muscles. There are reinforcements on my bones." I broke my gaze with Ash and looked at Tali. "And I'm very glad that you're here, because I don't think there's anyone in the galaxy who knows geth hardware better than you, and they had to put some in my brain so that my brain would be able to tell my heart to beat. It comes out, I die, but I don't know what else it might be doing."
Tali looked away from me, down at the table.
I looked back at Ash. "So if you want to know why the geth are on this ship, it's because I literally owe them my life. If you want to know why I want them with us when we go to the Citadel, it's actually not." I smiled, still a little sad but pushing on. "It's because they talked to me. You've heard Harmony, you may have heard Speaker. For three hundred years, ever since the Migrant Flotilla left Ranoch, the only communications anyone has ever had with the geth are mass accelerator rounds. That changed, and I think the Council needs to know why."
Ash looked at me flatly. "The Reapers."
I hesitated, then shrugged. "Yes, but there's something more. Something they haven't been willing to tell me."
Tali's head shot up. "You see, Shepard? They-"
Ashley raised a hand, and Tali cut off. "Any idea why?"
I glanced over at the window. I wasn't close enough to actually see the geth shuttle from here, but I knew where it was. "They said they were still coming to a consensus. But the ones on this ship..." I could feel a stinging in my eyes. Damnit, I'd known them for less than a day. "I'm worried for them. They told me they would rather give up their sentience than serve the Reapers."
"And you believe them?" I could hear the sneer in Tali's voice. "Bosh'tet."
"Why shouldn't I?" I asked her, levelly. "You were there on the Citadel with me, when Saren finally understood he'd been indoctrinated. I would have done the same damn thing. Why would I believe it any less of them?"
Tali was still glaring at me - I assume - but after a moment, she started looking through the table, and I knew she was thinking about that day. About Saren. About his last words.
I know I was. Damnit, I was a trained commando. I should not be crying for Saren Arturius.
Ash reached out, touched the back of my hand. It wasn't much.
But it helped. Helped enough I could force the next words out. "I'm worried for them, and for us. Because they told me they would rather give up their sentience than serve the Reapers. That implies other geth might not, and 'geth have not reached consensus.'"
After a moment she stood, walked to the window, looked down on the hangar. "In any case, it's Liara's ship, and you still have Spectre authority. If you want to take flashlight and mega-flashlight onto the Citadel, I can't stop you."
"I don't think C-Sec would be happy with me, and I need to talk to the Council first, anyway. See if they're still going to consider me a Spectre. The Alliance, too. Joker said Anderson was still the human Councillor?"
I saw a tightness in Ash's shoulders relax. She turned, leaned against the window. "Yeah, and he'll make time for you, too." A crooked smile crossed her face. "It would have helped a lot if you went to the Citadel first, you know."
"Garrus would be dead," I said.
"Alright, point. I've had enough dead friends." Her eyes lingered on me.
I looked down at the table, then up at Tali. "Tali, are you busy? Because I really could use your help."
Kal'Reegar leaned over and whispered something softly that I couldn't hear.
She nodded a little jerkily. "I...Yes, Shepard."
"And Ash? Have you spoken to our 'guest' in the systems deck berth?"
I got a raised eyebrow. "Guest?"
"Liara can tell you about her. She's Cerberus. I figure maybe she's lonely and wants a visit. But I have to go see the doctor."
Ash's wolfish grin matched my own.
Tali was looking at a display. She hung her head for a moment, then shook it quickly. "I...Shepard, I don't know what to say. It looks like a geth core, but only part of one, and heavily modified, and I have no idea what it's doing."
Doctor Chakwas sighed. "I'm having the same problem, I'm afraid. These fibers are strung through...everything."
"Which means that the geth implants could be doing anything to her brain."
"Well, but consider the beta wave samples, compared with her baseline...and after Eden Prime...and after Ilos..."
And now I was completely lost.
"Can I get up?" I asked, looking up from the diagnostics bed they had me on.
"No," they both said. Dr. Chakwas continued. "You're staying in that bed until we can figure out these readings. Doctor's orders. Now lie back down."
I sighed and did so. Still, I was too restless to just sit still for long, so I tapped a few buttons on my omnitool to bring up an interface to the Hegemony core, moved it to where I could see it, and checked on the decryption routine I'd started before I'd gone up to meet with Ash and the others.
Unsurprisingly, it hadn't been successful. Unlike most of the pirates and mercenaries we'd run across, the Batarian Hegemony was a state government, with powerful encryption set up specifically to keep out both the Systems Alliance and Council Spectres. Also unsurprisingly, it wasn't perfect. I'd pulled out a ton of partial files, indexes, and listings.
Then one picture, somewhat scrambled but still identifiable, caught my eye.
Sovereign.
I moved the image out of the way, pulled up another screen, and began combing through files, trying to figure out what that picture was tied to, what it was connected to. I found the file listing for its directory, and a project name, Leviathan, and a series of emails, still too heavily encrypted to read. Then I started up one of the more specialized decryption programs, watching for possible plaintext matches.
The shifting of letters was almost hypnotic, words appearing and disappearing. I saw 'Leviathan' pop up and I tapped it as a probable match. 'Human' showed up elsewhere, tap. Then chunks of plaintext started coming out like they were rising out of the sand.
"Match," I whispered. Looking at the headers, I think it was the ship's executive officer, conferring with his handlers back in the Hegemony. These were the messages to him; the ones he sent out would be keyed to the recipients, and I wouldn't be able to get them as a job lot.
Then I started reading the text of the messages, and my mouth went dry.
Ash's voice broke into my chain of thought. "What's the word, Doc, Tali?"
Tali sounded frustrated. "I don't know. Maybe my father would know for sure, or Daro'Xen, another of the Admirals."
Doctor Chakwas stepped in. "We know she's connected to the geth network, because we can see brain activity in response to messages on the geth network. But nothing's going back out, not even the automatic response. They're not reading her brain."
"You can't know that," Tali said. "Not without scanning an active geth-"
"But I have. While Shepard was gallivanting around Omega, I asked Speaker to sit on that bed while I took some baseline scans."
Tali spun to the console, tapping at virtual keys. "I need to see that."
"I can't understand what they say," I said quietly. All three started and looked over at me. "But I know how they feel about it. It has to be coming over the network, and not making it the rest of the way in."
Ash grimaced. "So they are influencing you."
I shook my head. "No more than you are when you sound angry. Or scared. I haven't noticed anything else."
Then Ash noticed what was on the screen I'd moved out of the way. "Still thinking about Sovereign?"
My expression flattened out. "No. This isn't Sovereign. It's a dead Reaper the batarians call 'Leviathan.'"
She walked over. "I...Yeah, I can see it. There's damage to the forward arms that Sovereign didn't have. And it's bigger and smaller in a few places. A different curve."
I tapped a key, mirroring the other screen on the other side. "The Oddysey was a Hegemony spy ship before Liara took it. Their last mission was to find Leviathan. The Hegemony was moving it from one secret facility to another, and it got diverted in transit somehow. They don't know where it went, but they're pretty sure we took it, Ash. The Alliance. And if they can't find it, they'll invade to make sure we're not in a position to take advantage of the technology."
"But we don't have it," Ash said. "Hackett would have told us. Anderson would know."
"Not all humans are Alliance, though." My lips smiled while my eyes stayed hard. "Think maybe our friend on systems deck might know something?"
"Cerberus," she whispered.
"Keelah," Tali said quietly. She had moved up to join us. "Cerberus with Reaper technology would be a nightmare."
"The Council has to hear this," Ashley said. "Joker has us on approach to the Citadel. We have a meeting with Councilor Anderson."
Councilor Anderson and Ambassador Udina were both in Anderson's offices when we arrived. It was just me and Ashley, but she had a stack of datapads with signed documents by Tali, Liara, and Chakwas attesting to my state, which she handed to Udina.
Udina's gaze was cold as we entered. "Shepard."
Anderson's was a lot warmer, though he still looked a little more reserved than he used to. He looked older, more than the two years that had passed; he looked tired. "Shepard. It's good to have you back. Come on in, we'll be meeting the rest of the Council in here. We didn't want a big spectacle of you when, well, to be honest the Council isn't really sure what to do with you."
"I understand." That display, with the metal implants nestled up against my brain flashed across my mind, and involuntarily I looked over at Ash, then back to Anderson. "I...still feel like I'm me. But I don't know if I would feel any different if I wasn't, and that's leaving aside the fact that you can't necessarily take my word for it."
Udina growled. "We certainly can't. And these reports are inconclusive, besides. I almost wish - I'm glad you're back, you were very useful, but...geth. This is going to be yet another shitstorm."
Anderson studied me. "Shepard, do you have any idea why the geth would do everything they have?"
I sighed. "No, Councilor. They said it was to help fight the Reapers, but that only makes sense on the face of it. Why me? Why go to such lengths? What can they possibly gave gotten that would make it worth spending so much time on this side of the Perseus Veil, especially when we're still fighting Sovereign's geth forces here and there?"
"This is going to be a hard sell, Shepard. I've already cast my vote, but the others are still discussing things."
"I hope you appreciate the amount of effort it's taken," Udina muttered.
"Donnel..."
Anderson's office had three holographic terminals. He led me to them, while Ash and Udina stayed further back. After a moment, first Tevos, then Valern and Sparatus appeared. Familiar faces all, and all people who'd said we hadn't been attacked by Reapers, but by the geth.
Sparatus was the first to speak. "So it's true, then. You are still alive."
"They told me I was dead, Councilor." I sighed.
Tevos cast a scathing look at Sparatus' image. "We've received the reports from our agent," she started.
"A recent one, and a human-" he countered.
Now Valern cut in. "Who would already know better than to send us rumors. Shepard."
"Councilor?"
"We have been at war with the geth for the past two years. Why should we listen to anything they have to say?"
"Because they're saying it, Councilor, and not with guns for once."
"But you say they haven't said very much." He frowned, but nodded and looked at Tevos. "Alright. My vote is no, but yes on the compromise."
Tevos looked at Sparatus.
He looked at her, reluctance written large on his facial plates. "I don't like it, but it's acceptable. Agreed."
She looked to Anderson, who nodded, then turned to me. "Based on the testimony of the individuals presented to us, and your answer, we have decided to award you contingent Spectre status."
"Contingent-" Udina broke in, but she ignored him. I guess he wasn't part of that discussion.
"We will return you to active status, but you wil be placed under the observation of a more experienced Spectre-"
Sparatus snorted, but she ignored him, too.
"-who is familiar with your history. Agent Williams?"
"Ma'am?" Ashley said.
Ash?
"Are you willing to keep Agent Shepard under observation?"
"You'd have to order me not to. Ma'am."
I looked at Ash, my mouth open.
"Very well. How will this affect your current mission?"
"I can't see that it will, ma'am. The Flotilla's representative and her team are already on Shepard's vessel, and as long as there are active geth also on board..."
Sparatus nodded. "Then we're done here." His image disappeared, shortly followed by Tevos and Valern.
I was still staring at Ashley. "Agent Williams? You're a...Spectre?"
She glanced at me, then looked away, any way away. "You were...well, you were dead, Skipper. Someone had to take up the slack."
