Ante Up Chapter 26: Citadel pt 1

Miranda was waiting for Shepard in the docking bay. She popped up from her seat and quickly strode up to Shepard, hands on her hips, eyes pointed to the ground. Shepard crossed her arms and leaned back, sizing up her old XO.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Miss Lawson?" Shepard greeted tersely.

Miranda glanced up at her from under heavy eyelids--god, she looked exhausted. "Shepard, I... I wanted to apologize. After everything we'd been through... I realize you must still be angry."

"Angry? No, not really," Shepard said coolly.

Miranda didn't buy it. "I had to think of my sister, Shepard. If it had only been my life on the line... fine, I'd have gone. But, for Oriana's sake, I can't take unnecessary risks. She depends on me."

"Yeah, and lucky for Solana, she has a sibling looking out for her, too," Shepard snapped. Miranda's head drooped again, and Shepard let the argument wane. "So, what's the Illusive Man want? I'm assuming he sent you."

"He didn't," Miranda said. "He won't. Never again."

Shepard quirked a brow. "You quit Cerberus?"

"I did," she replied simply.

"I hope that came with a nice retirement package."

"Not exactly," Miranda said, shifting her weight onto one leg. "The Illusive Man wasn't too thrilled with my resignation. He doesn't take rejection well."

"No kidding," Shepard scoffed. "So, why are you here, then?"

Miranda sighed and paced forward. Shepard followed until they reached the far edge of the docking bay. In the expanse above them, ships were coming into port. After a decisive pause, Miranda said, "I may need help. Not now, of course, but... soon."

"Why ask me?" Shepard muttered.

"I'm having to hide from just about everyone," Miranda murmured. "Being on the run isn't nearly a glamorous as it sounds."

"No one else will help you," Shepard concluded. She exhaled loudly and leaned against the railing. "So, what's wrong?"

"I... am worried about Oriana," Miranda said. "I haven't heard from her in some time."

Shepard had a few choice words, but sifted through them carefully to find the perfect ones. "I would gladly go looking for her, Miranda," she bit, "but I think I should discuss it with XO Vakarian before I make any split-second decisions. You know, see if he thinks the life of one person is worth the risk to the crew."

Miranda faltered a little, looking drained. "I'll admit I deserved that, Shepard. But, it took a lot for me to reach out to anyone, let alone you. I shouldn't have expected..." She craned her head to the side, eyelashes heavy over her eyes.

"Lawson..." Shepard spun around to grip the railing as she spoke. "Is she is Reaper-controlled space?"

Miranda blinked up at her. "Not that I know of."

Shepard mulled it over in her mind. Miranda had turned on them before, but she had been loyal in the months prior to it. Plus, she was the one who gave Shepard a second chance at life. Could she risk working with Miranda again?

"What sort of rescue are we looking at here?" Shepard said after a long moment.

"No rescue," Miranda said quickly. "I wouldn't ask that of you. I only need... information. I can't help but shake the feeling that my father is involved, but he has heavy security following him every step of the way. I can't even pull up an Extranet search without being shut down completely."

"You've lost all your contacts and the privileges that came with them," Shepard assumed.

"Yes," Miranda admitted with a defeated frown.

Shepard pushed away from the rail to face down Miranda. "I'll help you get information, but nothing else."

"That's all I'm asking," Miranda agreed with a faint smile. Shepard walked past with a slight wave, enough of a signal that she was leaving. She paused and turned when Miranda spoke up one last time. "Garrus' family... are they safe?"

"Yes," Shepard replied. "We got to them in time."

"And he's been promoted to my old position?"

"You had a doubt about who I would choose?" Shepard returned instantly.

Miranda laughed softly. "No, I suppose not." She swiveled on her heel and sashayed in the opposite direction. "Take care, Shepard. I'll be in touch."

__________________________________

The shuttle arrived before Garrus even had a chance to become impatient. He programmed the destination--the refugee camps--into the map and initiated the auto-pilot feature while Cami slid into the passanger seat and reclined back.

"You really think the kid would go slum around with a bunch of batarians?" she asked absently.

"Like I said," Garrus sighed, "her father was a batarian. She understands the culture." He eased back into his own seat as the shuttle revved up. "She wouldn't have any trouble fitting in."

"Right," Cami huffed. After an awkward minute of silence, she said, "What're the odds that my ma got out alive?"

When her subharmonics wavered, Garrus didn't look over. "I've seen worse odds."

In his peripheral, he saw her shift in her seat to face him fully. "Garrus, what if they turned her into one of those machine things?"

Her vocalizations hit a pitch that dug into Garrus' brain. "Stop it," he hissed. "I can't give you and answer and I'm not here to help you pull it together while you find one."

She flinched back, startled. "The years sure have done a number on you, huh? There's no reason to be so sharp--"

"I'm not trying to be uncaring," Garrus interrupted. "I just can't risk an exchange between us being misread."

"Misread?" Cami repeated. "What are you--oh." She straightened where she sat. "Shepard didn't believe me? I told her I wouldn't try to proposition you."

"You haven't served with humans before, have you?" Garrus laughed.

"No," Cami admitted.

"It will take more than a quick chat to convince her to trust you," Garrus said, shifting as the shuttle took a dive toward the lower levels of the Citadel. "I'm far from an expert on human behavior, but I've worked with them for years now. They're a very fickle species sometimes."

Cami snorted out a laugh. "And, what, you decided it would be fun to mate with a creature like that? How can you stand it?" Her clicking undertones relayed disbelief.

"Keeps me on my toes," Garrus said, chuckling. "You can't fault her too much. I've always been the only turian on board. She needs time to adjust to the way we interact with one another."

"I just hope you don't run into a female of ours who actually wants you," Cami muttered. "I don't imagine Shepard would take too kindly to it."

Garrus chirped a low-frequency protest. They wouldn't dare try it.

Cami rebutted with a trilled expression. Don't be naive. "You know there are plenty among us who wouldn't accept your marks as valid, just because she's human."

"You say that like I don't already know it," Garrus growled.

"Just reminding you," Cami said. "When's the last time you've really seen one of our females? While you've been off getting friendly with humans, we haven't become any less aggressive in our advances, you know. Thought you might need the warning."

"Well, I don't," Garrus said, clicking out an additional, sarcastic, Thanks for the advice, but I didn't need it. "And just so you know, I wasn't getting friendly with humans. I only ever had an interest in Shepard." Under his breath: She's the only one. She'll always be the only one.

Cami hissed out, More than I needed to know, while saying, "Good to know you're still the same liquid-hearted fool you've always been. Do humans find that attractive, I wonder?"

As the shuttle took its final dive into the lower docks, Garrus chimed, "The one that matters does."

_______________________________

Part one of Aria's assignment landed Shepard in a hotel room with a Blood Pack vorcha. She hadn't even caught his name when he began explaining a plan to lure out the current leader of the Blood Pack--and kill him. Great.

Shepard was to act like a prisoner so the head honcho would let his guard down, which was an easy enough task, except that they wanted to take her gun away. For appearances, only, of course. Shepard begrudgingly complied, adding a tally to her mental "Aria owes me" list.

Once the soon-to-be-offed leader arrived, Shepard played the defeated hostage, quietly readying her biotics just in case she needed to throw up a last-second barrier. If Garrus were to walk in right now, she thought, holding in a snicker. If Garrus saw this, Shepard on the ground, disarmed, and surrounded by vorcha, he'd go absolutely ballistic. People would pay good money to see the type of carnage her turian mate would unleash.

Luckily, Aria's associates kept to their end of the bargain, taking out the head vorcha without hesitation. With that situation handled, Shepard proceeded with the assignment, heading to Bailey's office to discuss the release of an Eclipse leader.

_______________________________

Chellick groaned as his office door flew open, expecting an intern to waltz in an throw another stack of paperwork in front of him. When he was instead greeted by Solana's arrival, he quickly relaxed into his chair, grinning.

"Sol," he chirped, "when did you get here? You didn't call."

"Came straight here," she replied, dropping her bag by the door. "Did you know they almost refused to let me come upstairs?"

"I don't doubt it," Chellick replied. "Security's upped because of all the new arrivals. People are starting to get cramped. It doesn't bode well for rationality. I'm expecting a full scale riot any day now."

Sol crossed the room and circled around his desk. Chellick rolled his chair back, allowing her to sit on the desk in front of him, legs dangling on either side of his. She hissed, "I had to submit to a full search in the lobby."

Once Sol had made herself comfortable, Chellick inched closer, nuzzling her collar. "Hope you didn't have anything obscene in your bag."

She laughed, bending her head down and flicking her mandibles against his crown. "What kind of girl d'you think I am?"

"Oh, I know what kind of girl you are," he returned without missing a beat. He nipped at her neck with a suggestive subharmonic trill.

"You're one to talk," Sol sang, her own vocalizations humming back in response to his unspoken propositioning. "Listen to yourself." He responded with a chirped, Please? "Don't you have work to do?"

"I did, but I'm finding it difficult to concentrate for some reason." His words strained as she grazed her teeth against his crest. "See? You're a deviant."

"You shouldn't be surprised," Sol purred.

"I'm not," he replied, "but I'm still blaming you if I get demerit for fooling around while on duty."

"Oh, please," Sol quipped. "Desk sex is barely even worth a slap on the wrist compared to all the colorful things the rest of my family has indulged in within headquarters."

Chellick stifled his laugh against the arch of her chest. "Right, how could I forget?" He pulled away from her, pushing his chair back so he could stand. He pressed his forehead against hers, brushing gently to pick up her scent. "I figure we have about half an hour before someone drops by with more paperwork."

Sol chirped, "Is that a challenge?"

"It might be," he purred in response.

_______________________________

"I said Pulex, do I need to spell it?"

The human worker at the refugee check-in station nearly trembled under the scrutiny of Cami's demands. She fumbled through the digital archive, scanning the alphabetized list. Quietly, she tried to make small talk. "Is this a family member you're looking for?"

"My mother," Cami replied.

"All right, so I'm looking for another turian," the woman said absently as she scrolled through names.

"No, a hanar," Cami snapped, underlining her voice with harmonics that signaled joking. The human took it as sarcasm, however, and shot her a scalded look.

"I was only talking out loud, I didn't mean..." she protested weakly.

Cami frowned, wondering if she hadn't sounded out her vocal cue loudly enough. Then, she reminded herself, Humans. Right. Can't understand contextual cues even if they do hear them. To correct her mistake, she put on her sweetest voice and said, "No, no, that was my fault. I forgot that humans only speak on one frequency."

The woman gave her a pleading sort of look. "Excuse me?"

"Okay," Cami began, "so, some species use various frequencies at the same time to convey context along with spoken words. Translators usually don't pick up on the outlying frequencies, though, or, if they do, they translate it into something that sounds very awkward."

"Like... elcor?" the woman asked hesitantly.

Cami blinked, trying to think of how a translated version of elcor speech would sound to a human. Turians understood them well enough, but humans seemed to think they sounded bland. "Right," she concluded. "So... what I said... if an elcor were saying it instead, you would've understood it as jokingly: no, a hanar. Understand?"

"Oh, I see," the woman said, attempting a smile. "Why, um... why don't translators pick up turian speech if it's like an elcor's?"

Cami chuckled. "My best guess? We speak too quickly for a translator to keep up or there's too much meaning put on a single inflection of sound."

The woman nodded sharply, causing her dark mop of short hair to sway. "That makes sense, I guess." She frowned down at her holo screen. "I'm... not seeing anyone with the name Pulex in our database."

"Dammit," Cami hissed, curling her claws against the ground.

"But," the woman added quickly. "If... if for some reason she was wounded or unable to check herself in, she would've been transported straight to the turian medical sites without paperwork. You should check the turian camps, just to be sure."

Cami sighed, backing away from the counter. "I will. Thank you."

___________________________________

Bailey was none too thrilled with Shepard's request, insisting vehemently that the Eclipse leader she wanted to free was clinically insane and dangerous. Shepard grumbled, "I know, Bailey, but you have to trust me on this one."

"You sure?" Bailey pressed. "The war's giving us enough to deal with without some maniac running the streets. At least have a word with her before you go making any final decisions. If you still think it's a good idea to let her go after you've talked to her, then okay."

Shepard nodded. "Fine, I'll go talk to her if that's what it takes."

____________________________

Finding a blue child in a crowd of earthy-skinned people didn't sound like such a hard task, but after searching for the better part of three hours, Garrus had to sit and let his eyes adjust. He'd seen so much dingy brown--skin, clothes, walls, floors--that he wasn't sure he'd ever see color again.

He'd marked four batarian camps on his maps and was currently finishing up with the third one. Only one more muddy brown camp and he'd have to sift through the sea of blue he'd find in the asari camps. Suddenly, brown didn't seem so bad, and he resumed his search, hoping desperately that Mierin's daughter had favored her father's people over her mother's.

To his great relief, he spotted a teal flash buzzing back and forth within one of the medical stations. For a moment he paused, watching to ensure he had found the right person. She was tiny, appearing to be only ten or twelve humans years old, though Garrus knew for a fact she was at least as old as Solana. Still, for an asari, that meant she was far too young to be on her own. She was toting around medical supplies to the various stations and wiping sweat from her forehead. Her light, dappled facial markings were nearly identical to Mierin's.

Taking a deep breath, he strode through the crowd toward the tent, avoiding the wary looks of the refugees around him. He decided that if anyone gave him trouble, he'd just pretend he was with C-Sec. He seriously doubted anyone would question it.

As Garrus ducked into the tent, Mierin's daughter twirled with an armfull of towels and nearly dropped them as she spotted him. She stared up at him, eyes huge and purple and hopeful, as he drew closer and towered over her.

"Thought I might find you around here," Garrus said. As her lips began to form the word Archangel, he held up a hand to silence her. "I don't know if you remember my name," he said, "but it's Garrus."

She took the hint and rearranged the sounds. "Garrus," she said, testing it. "I remember. I saw someone with your colony marks a while back. I guess she told you I'd be in the camps?"

"She did. You're lucky to have found someone who knew me and not just someone from my home colony," he said gently, crouching down to meet her at eye-level. "Look at you, out here surviving by yourself. You're a tough one, huh?"

She nodded, even as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Kanna," he said, recalling the name Mierin had so lovingly repeated when speaking about her child, "you've done really well. Your mom and dad would be proud."

When she gave another shaky nod and tears spilled down her cheeks with the motion, Garrus silently thanked the spirits that he was good with children. Growing up with a sister who'd had a seemingly endless crybaby phase and being stationed in an area of the Wards saturated with duct rat kids had made him a pro at dealing with nearly anything a child could throw at him.

Kanna shuffled forward, still hugging the towels tight to her chest, and pressed into his shoulder, resting a hot, wet cheek against the cool metal of his armor. "I'm scared," she whimpered.

Garrus gently took the towels from her and placed them on a table beside them. "Everyone's pretty scared right now. It's okay to be afraid." He turned back to her as and she instantly moved toward him again, hugging herself tightly.

"I didn't know who else to turn to," she cried, digging her tiny fingers into her biceps. "I'm sorry."

Garrus brought a taloned hand up to stroke the curved top of her head. "Don't be." He stood, keeping his hand on top of her head. He had to figure out what to do now that he'd found her. "Isn't there someone caring for you here?"

"Some C-Sec officers stop by to check on me," she replied, trying to sop up her tears with her sleeve. "But, I don't wanna be here. I can't trust anyone here."

Garrus sighed, patting her head. "Were you able to bring anything here with you?"

"A couple of things," she said, still wiping her face. "Clothes. Some holo pics."

"How long will it take you to pack?" Garrus said, content with his upcoming decision.

"Not long," Kanna replied quickly, her watery eyes widening excitedly.

"I'm leaving the Citadel tomorrow evening," Garrus explained. "Is that enough time?"

"Yeah!" Kanna said forcefully. "I can be ready tonight. Or... sooner. I can go now."

"All right," Garrus said. "The sooner the better. If you leave now, you can come back with me. It'll save you the trouble of finding the docking bay later."

"Yeah," Kanna said quietly, grinning as she teared up again. "Yeah, I'll go. Let's go!"

_____________________________________

Having spoken with the imprisoned Eclipse leader, Jona Sederis, Shepard trudged out of the C-Sec outpost. She sent Bailey a comm request, which he answered almost immediately.

[Shepard,] he answered, [did you speak with her?]

"Oh yeah," Shepard scoffed. "Arrogant, isn't she?" That was an understatement, really. Everything about Sederis had screamed power trip. Before Bailey could respond, she said, "You were right, Bailey. We definitely don't need someone like her running around at a time like this."

[Glad to hear it,] Bailey said, smirking.

"Just letting you know there won't be a vacancy in that cell any time soon," Shepard said.

[Thanks, Commander.]

"Of course." Now she just had to locate Sederis' second-in-command so the whole plan wouldn't unravel. He had last been seen in the refugee camps... as had the Blue Suns leader Shepard needed to speak with. Perfect, she thought, two birds, one stone. She set out for the camps, wondering if Garrus was making any progress there.

___________________________________

In the years he'd served as C-Sec Executor, Venari Pallin had learned many things.

For example, he'd come to realize that there was a fine line between time on duty and off duty and that it took a lot of effort on his own part to keep the two separate. He could barely remember the last time he'd left the office on time and definitely couldn't recall a day that his work hadn't followed him home. Miraculously, this was one of those rare days when he's escaped the office in a timely manner, and he was determined to leave all his duties behind and relax for once.

He'd learned that there was such a thing as setting goals that were too far out of reach. The hole he was digging himself into as he searched for corruption within the Council was becoming deeper and darker, and he couldn't see an end to his mission. That brought another life lesson to mind: when politicians were involved, there would be corruption, somewhere, somehow, it was just a matter of uncovering it. In his search, he'd found some off color things about the Councilors: Sparatus' unrecognized asari mistress (unrecognized, meaning he hadn't discussed it with his mate, as any proper turian man would), Tevos' illegitimate child with a batarian a couple hundred years ago (who was now a "massage therapist" somewhere on Ilium), and Valern's horrible bloodline (which pretty much nullified any chance he had of breeding). But, he had yet to discover anything remarkable about Udina, the one man he suspected the most of being legitimately underhanded.

A final thing Pallin had learned, which shot to the forefront of his mind as he reached his penthouse, was that when you returned home and found your door unlocked, it could mean any number of things. On the negative side, and especially if you had accumulated many enemies (as Pallin had, undoubtedly), it could mean that someone had broken into your home for whatever heinous reason.

It could also just be an absentminded mistake, a door that had been accidentally left open. Pallin wasn't typically the type to forget things like that, but he had been in a hurry that morning.

Lastly, and on a positive side, it could mean that his mates had returned from Menae. Tacita did have a terrible habit of leaving the door unlocked, something that could be attributed to her children. The Vakarian home on Palaven had almost never been locked when the siblings were younger. The two made a game out of tampering with the keycodes. Solana, ever the crafty one, would hack the locks and alter the keycodes to prevent Garrus from getting in, and her brother would foil her every attempt by overloading the keypads (which would sometimes short out every circuit in the house, as well). Tacita had all but given up on using keylocks like a normal person, seeing as how the locks on her own home had become obsolete.

Pallin chuckled at the memory of the "good old days" and entered his apartment, locking the door and readying his concealed pistol just in case he did have an unwanted guest. He skirted around the foyer and into the living area, dropping his hand away from the gun as Tacita and Aetius came into view.

They were piled up on the couch together, their plates glimmering under the light of a floor lamp. Aetius had opened a bottle of dextro brandy that had been stashed in the cabinets and was swishing the liquid around in a glass while Tacita nuzzled into his shoulder. On the table in front of them lay a closed to-go box of something (Pallin had no idea what, but it smelled fantastic) and a couple of plates that had been scraped clean.

As Pallin entered the room, Tacita perked up, drawing away from Aetius. "You're early," she chirped.

"I decided to leave before I drove myself crazy," Pallin said, crossing the room and heading for the kitchen to get himself a drink of the non-alcoholic variety. Once in the kitchen, he called, "Sorry I didn't have anything of real substance to eat here." He popped a bottle of water from the refrigerating unit and returned to the living room. "I order out a lot."

"So we noticed," Aetius replied, pointing to an array of delivery menus laid out on the table.

Tacita nodded her head towards the food on the table. "There's a some left if you want it. It's from the place next to your building."

Pallin smiled. "I don't know what I need more now, food or sleep." He twisted the cap off his water and took a gulp, then wiped his mouth against his palm. "Where's Fedorian? Too busy to come say hello?"

Tacita flinched, her subharmonics dropping into a soft wail. Aetius wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, staring up at Pallin with a terrible intensity. He sighed and said, "You might want to sit down for this, Venari."

______________________________________

It was late when Shepard finally left the refugee camps. Sederis' salarian second-on-command had eagerly accepted the position as the new head of Eclipse, much to Shepard's relief. The meeting with the Blue Suns man, however, hadn't been so productive. The slimy bastard wanted offered Blue Suns supported in exchange for the life of General Septimus Oraka, a turian who had come out of retirement to put a stop to the illegal weapon trade the Suns were fronting.

Shepard had met Oraka back in the "Saren days" when he'd been drowning his lovesick self in liquor down in Chora's Den because the Consort had refused his advances. At the time, Shepard had helped him out but had thought he was a weak, pathetic sort of man. She's never really bought into the whole "forlorn, unrequited love" thing.

Of course, at the time she'd known nothing about turians, their culture or mannerisms. After traveling with Garrus for so long, being together with him, she realized that Garrus might not handle the situation much differently. Turians, she learned, were a species that became very devoted to those they loved. They chose their bondmates carefully, fully intending to spend the rest of their lives with them. If the Consort had led Oraka on, made him believe she would consider mating with him, a rejection would've crushed him. Shepard hoped that Oraka had taken her advice years ago and recovered from the ordeal.

Shepard assumed he had, since he was focusing his efforts on thwarting the Suns. She couldn't decide what to do. There was no way she was going to go murder the guy, but she didn't know how else to get support from the Suns. She tabled the issue, deciding to go speak with Aria about it the next morning.

For the moment, she just wanted to get back to the Normandy and prepare herself for the next day of missions and meetings.

________________________________________

"Aren't you ready to go yet?" Sol whined, spinning anxiously in her chair.

Chellick laughed and tucked a stack of datapads away into his desk. "Impatient, aren't we?"

Sol ceased her twirling and stared him down. "Don't even pretend you aren't wired."

"Oh, I am," he muttered, a hiss lining his words, "but I'm more concerned about that intern that walked in."

"You'd think the sounds would've been enough of a hint," Sol hissed.

"I know," Chellick sighed.

Sol growled and held her talons up in a gesture like she was pinching the air. "I was this close, dammit."

"I know," he repeated, grinding his mandibles against his jaws. He surveyed his desk one last time to make sure he wasn't overlooking anything. "In all seriousness, though, I hope she won't go telling everyone what she saw."

"Stop worrying so much," Sol chided. "Who's going to give slack about it? Pallin?"

Chellick gave an affirmative click. "He is my boss, you know."

"Big deal," Sol puffed. "Like he can say anything." She leaned forward, a smirk flickering across her mandibles. "Did you know that there's an automated sprinkler system that kicks on at night, when the Presidium Gardens are closed?"

"I assumed there was, but I've never personally patrolled the Gardens at night," Chellick said, chirping out a confused trill. "So... no, I didn't know that."

"Yeah, neither did he," Sol said. "And he only ever patrolled the Gardens once and swore he never would again."

"Do I want to know why?" Chellick hummed, rising out of his chair.

"Probably not," Sol said, "but if he bothers you about our little excursion today, ask him about the morning he and Dad turned up from patrol soaking wet. It'll shut him up really quick."

Chellick stared, half in awe and half in mortification, for a long moment, before he finally sputtered, "I am not asking that."

"Do it," Sol teased. "It happened so long ago, he probably thinks I forgot about it. The look on his face would be priceless."

He shook his head and tsked out, You're terrible.

She responded with a purred, You love me.

He flinched as he unconsciously returned, I adore you. Always have, always will.

The humor of the situation shattered as Chellick averted his gaze, embarrassed. He quickly stuffed some things into his briefcase and pushed up his chair, not daring to look up to gauge Sol's expression. Sol smiled as she watched him fumble. She knew how he felt,  but it was still bold of him to vocalize it.  

Sol stood to meet him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," he whispered.

"Good," Sol chirped, snuggling his collar. "Let's get outta here before I pounce you in the hallway."

______________________________________

Kanna skipped onto the Normandy ahead of Garrus, squealing as she entered the airlock and got her first look at the cockpit. Joker, who had been napping in his seat, apparently, jolted awake and whirled around to face her. "Whoa, good morning... Who're you, kid?"

Kanna shrank back, bumping into Garrus. He placed a hand on top of her head and handled the introduction's for her. "Joker, this is Kanna. Her mother worked with me on Omega. She'll be tagging along for a while."

"Great," Joker grumbled.

Kanna glanced around the cockpit and gasped, "This is incredible. I've never seen a ship like this before." She stared at Joker, eyes glistening. "You get to fly this?"

"Yeah," Joker said awkwardly. "She's my baby."

Kanna spun around, inspecting the CIC. "That part looks like a turian ship, but I don't recognize this." She gestured around the cockpit.

"Hybrid design," Joker said. "Turian and human. You know about ships, kid?"

Kanna forced a sad smile. "My daddy was a pilot. When I was born, he retired and started selling parts and running maintenance on ships."

Garrus zoned out as she spoke, recalling a profile of Kanna's father. Mierin had only just started her Matron stage, but her mate had been nearly sixty years old when Garrus met them. On average, batarians lived ten to twenty years longer than turians and humans, so the man hadn't been terribly old, but he had already lived the first big chunk of his life when he'd fathered Kanna.

When Garrus had started recruiting for his squad, Mierin and her mate had both been potential prospects, but Mierin had insisted that she be the only one to join, that someone had to maintain a civilian life and care for Kanna. Her mate had been given that role, Garrus had assumed, because his time with Kanna would be limited... because Mierin would have all the time in the world with her.

The thought stabbed into Garrus, forcing him to remember the atrocities that had befallen Mierin and the others. Even now, he blamed himself for his squad's betrayal, and seeing Kanna only drove home the reality that she was an orphan partially because of him.

When Garrus snapped back to reality, Joker was explaining something about the Normandy's engine design that flew over Garrus' head--he was a gun expert, not a ship junkie like Joker. Kanna, however, seemed to be following everything he said and was even supplying questions about the navigation systems and and FTL drive core that had Joker twitching excitedly in his seat.

The dicussion escalated further when EDI, Traynor, and Liara returned from their supply run. EDI, who took a seat in the co-pilot chair beside Joker, instantly fascinated Kanna.

"Hey, kid," Joker quipped, motioning towards EDI. "You ever seen a ship with an AI co-pilot?"

"An AI?" Kanna echoed in amazement. "She's an AI?"

The topic spiraled into some sort of ship babble about how an AI must make things much more efficient and how it was an amazing idea and yadda yadda... Garrus couldn't hold back a grin. Liara was watching the exchange intently, then turned to Garrus with a questioning look.

"My squadmate's daughter," he said quietly.

"I see," Liara replied.

Once Kanna had ceased her chatter, she turned to Liara, who was still staring at her. Kanna asked, "I'm not the only asari here?"

"You aren't," Liara said, smiling warmly at her. "Commander Shepard teams up with other species whenever she can."

"Commander Shepard?" Kanna repeated, glancing up at Garrus for an answer.

"That's our commanding officer, Kanna," he replied. "She's off on some business now, but you'll get to meet her soon."

"Okay," Kanna peeped. With the discussion of ship mechanics ended, she adopted a shyer tone.

Liara moved closer to her, reaching out to take her hand. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "I can make you something to eat, if you'd like."

Kanna nodded quietly, lacing her tiny hand into Liara's. She gave a quick glance over her shoulder at Garrus as Liara led her out of the cockpit, and he waved her on, silent permission to follow the older asari. As the cockpit cleared out, Garrus gave a grateful sigh. He was glad to have Liara around, realizing suddenly that he hadn't been thinking too seriously about how he would care for Kanna. He had no idea how to prepare levo food at all, let alone asari (or batarian?) foods. Left up to him, he would've probably just heated up a levo ration and hoped for the best.

Joker laughed and said, "Did you hear that kid? She's pretty damn smart. Kinda reminded me of Tali."

"Yeah," Garrus said, "except she probably wants to build a ship and then fly it. You better watch out, Joker. She might be your competition."

"Yeah right," Joker scoffed. "She'd need to be some kind of freak of nature pilot to be as good as me. Not happenin'."

"She has many more years to learn, Jeff," EDI said absently. "If she really wanted to become the Normandy's pilot, she could simply wait for you to grow old."

Joker glared. "I'm having this ship disassembled and buried with me."

Garrus laughed and turned to the CIC. "Joker, could you tell Shepard to comm me when she gets back?"

"Not necessary," Joker replied. "She coming into the airlock now."

"Oh," Garrus said, whirling back around. "Guess she finished up her business with Aria."

The airlock hissed open moments later, admitting Shepard into the ship. She cracked her neck, groaning as she entered. "I hate mercenaries," she grumbled.

"That bad?" Garrus asked, falling in beside her as she trudged down the catwalk into the CIC.

"I've been running all over the Citadel trying to get this business sorted out," she said. "Still have to figure something out tomorrow." She hailed the elevator. "The Suns don't want to cooperate unless I kill General Oraka for them."

"Oraka?" Garrus asked. "The guy we had to slap some sense into at Chora's Den?"

"Same guy," Shepard said. "He's apparently hindering some weapon deals."

"You aren't going to go through with it...?" Garrus muttered, stepping into the elevator with her.

"Of course not. I'm going to have a word with Aria first thing tomorrow. There has to be another way." Shepard stood back as Garrus keyed in the number for the crew deck. "So, how did your search go?"

"Didn't hear anything about the batarian," Garrus said, "but I found Mierin's girl."

"And?" Shepard said, grinning.

"Liara's making her dinner," Garrus returned, his subvocals humming out, Hope that's okay? Shepard didn't understand it, probably didn't hear anything more that light static over her translator, but it was enough to put an unsure tone in his voice. He hadn't approved the plan to bring Kanna along, simply assuming that Shepard won't mind.

She didn't, thankfully. Smiling, she leaned into Garrus' shoulder, tucking her arms around his. "Is she okay?"

He lowered his head, resting his cheek against her hair. "She's doing remarkably well for someone her age. She's still fifteen to twenty years shy of being independent, but she's survived out there without the support of her parents or anyone else." He chuckled. "I think she won Joker over."

"That so?" Shepard hummed.

"She speaks ship mechanics," Garrus said.

"Funny," Shepard said with a laugh. "Is she coming with us?"

"If that's okay," Garrus replied. "I couldn't leave her in that camp, Shepard."

"I understand," she said, bringing a hand up to stroke his mandible reassuringly. "She's just as safe here as anywhere else."

"My thoughts exactly," Garrus purred, tilting into her touch. The elevator pinged. "Ready to go say hi?"

"Yeah," Shepard said. "Let's do this."

_________________________________

Pallin had abandoned his water in favor of the turian brandy, taking a few long drinks straight from the bottle. He left the bottle on the table, falling back onto the couch beside Tacita. He absently leaned into her, shifting until his head was resting against her neck. His subharmonics were pouring out so rapidly and at random that they no longer formed coherent thoughts.

The only thing he could think was rage.

"Why would he leave the moon?" Pallin hissed. "Why the hell would he leave, knowing you were coming?"

"He must not have been told," Aetius reasoned.

"I think comms were down," Tacita added. "Garrus mentioned that he had to repair the towers himself before they could even contact central Hierarchy to get Victus' name."

"It doesn't make any sense!" Pallin growled with a harsh, accusing undertone.

"Nothing makes sense anymore," Aetius snapped back with a reprimanding hiss of, Don't take this out on her.

Sorry, Pallin chirruped back softly, nuzzling Tacita's jaw to emphasize the sentiment. "Why would Sparatus send you there without confirming it? How would he even know that Fedorian was still there if comms were shot?"

"Perhaps the situation became too dire for him to stay," Aetius offered weakly.

"No, we still have Menae," Tacita argued. "There were casualties, but nothing that would warrant immediate evac. They were holding their own out there." She gave an unsure hum. "Something isn't right." It doesn't feel right.

"So, settle it," Aetius insisted, speaking to Pallin. "Contact Sparatus now. Ask him."

Pallin sat up, nodding slowly. Right, good idea. He called up his Omni-tool, keying in the Councilor's contact information. Sometimes, it paid to have connections.

Moments after sending a call, Sparatus answered gruffly, [This better be important, Executor. Do you have any idea what time it is?]

Pallin held back an irate tone and replied, "Sorry to contact you at this hour, sir, but this is important. Were you aware that Palaven has a new primarch?"

[Of course,] Sparatus said. [The primarch met with the Council today to finalize plans for the War Summit.] There was a brief pause. [If I recall, you were acquainted with the previous primarch.]

"I knew him well," Pallin said bitterly.

[I'm sorry for your loss,] Sparatus offered.

"I need information, Councilor, and I'll be blunt," Pallin said forcefully. "Did you inform Fedorian that someone was coming for him?"

[Naturally,] Sparatus hissed back, accenting it with, I don't like that tone. [I was unable to get a message to him directly, but I contacted a recon operative who was assigned to him.]

"Are you sure he received the message?" Pallin urged.

[Would you like a copy of the transcript?] Sparatus snapped.

"I'm just trying to make sense of the situation, sir," Pallin said. "If I could see the records, it would be of great help."

Sparatus grew quiet as he isolated the files on his own Onmi-tool and sent them over. [There. Do with them what you will.]

"Thank you, sir," Pallin responded. Sparatus closed the connection without another word. Instantly, Pallin opened the files and held his arm over Tacita's lap so the three of them could see the display.

>2186[date encrypted]
>[sender encrypted]
>[receiver encrypted]
>This is Sparatus.
>I request a connection with Primarch Fedorian.

2186[date encrypted]
[sender encrypted]
[receiver encrypted]
His messages are defaulting to me.
I'm setting up a stable link now.
Go ahead, Councilor.

>Who am I speaking with?

Hierarchy Reconnaissance, second division.
Identification 35-62-i-o-alpha.
Do you need a moment to verify my credentials?

>Yes...
>...
>Very well.
>Can you relay a message to the Primarch?

Of course.

>I'm sending a team to evacuate him from Menae.
>They will be arriving within the week aboard an Alliance vessel, the Normandy.
>They are led by the human Commander Shepard.

Menae is a war zone, sir.
We, very honestly, may not have a week.

>Make it happen.
>As an added incentive, inform him that Vakarian is with them.
>Or rather, they all are.

I'm sorry?

>Vakarian.
>He'll know the name.
>Former Blackwatch.

Must've quit before I joined recon.
Can't say I recognize the name.
I'll let him know.

>Please do.

I've sent a message down the lines.
He thanks you, Councilor, and asks that you preemptively designate a neutral meeting ground for the War Summit.
He had a place in mind, but we have since learned that it has fallen under Reaper control.

>Of course.
>I hope to meet with him soon.

[End transmission]

When Pallin tore his eyes away from the display, he saw Tacita scowl in the edge of his peripheral. "There... is something wrong," he muttered.

Aetius inclined his head, nudging Tacita. What is it?

"This..." she began. "This is falsified. If this scout actually informed him that we were coming--that I was coming--he would not have left Menae under any circumstance. Fedorian never received this."

"Agreed," Aetius hissed. "Run a scan on the ID. See who this scout is."

Tacita queued up her Omni-tool, allowing the interface to overlay on Pallin's. Her claws flew across the display, picking up the identification code the scout had recited. Once it had been copied, Pallin lowered his arm so Tacita could work.

After a brief lapse in time, she was able to access the Hierarchy databases. When she was prompted for authorization, she quickly entered her Blackwatch ID. Retired or not, her code was enough to grant her access to nearly any database she wanted. The system lagged momentarily (bad connection to Central Hierarchy?) then blinked onto her screen. She pasted the ID code into a search prompt and waited as the server connected to a profile.

Slowly, the screen loaded the service history of the scout in question, followed by a description of the most recent post where the scout had been stationed, and, finally, a digital photo.

As the file loaded, Tacita scanned it, becoming more and more tense as she read. As she took in a name and description, she flinched, her subvocals jumping in confusion. As the picture loaded, she shot up off the couch, enraged, and stormed to the door, ignoring Aetius' protests.

She was vaguely aware that the two had followed her outside, a veil of fury clouding her mind, as she hailed a shuttle to the docking bay.

___________________________________

It didn't take long for Kanna to warm up to Shepard, though the commander seemed to have no idea how to handle herself around children in general, and especially a young asari. She had begun speaking to Kanna in the most clumsy, dumbed-down fashion that might have been acceptable for a very young human but was in no way appropriate for an asari child.

Kanna seemed to have found it humorous, however, and had politely informed Shepard that she didn't have to change her speech pattern. Embarrassed, Shepard had fumbled out an apology and resumed speaking normally.

The crew was slowly filing back in from their days activities, some more exhausted (or drunk, in Vega's case) than others. Within an hour of Shepard's arrival, the only people not present were Solana (who wouldn't be back until the next day), her parents (who were also expected to be gone), Victus, several of the Blackwatch operatives he'd taken with him, and Camilla.

EDI had begun lowering the lights in the crew areas to prepare them for the night cycle when Joker contacted Shepard through her comm. [Hey, Commander, you might wanna be on alert.]

"Is there a problem?" Shepard replied. She was only at half attention as she watched Liara and Garrus escort Kanna to the XO cabin. Liara had taken it upon herself to watch over Kanna, and she seemed to be treating her like a little sister. It at least solved the problem of where the young asari would sleep.

[I don't know, but we've got one seriously pissed off mama turian on board,] Joker quipped.

"Tacita?" Shepard questioned.

[Yeah, followed by a two-man entourage,] Joker replied. [Garrus' old man and somebody else. White tattoos.]

"Pallin," Shepard guessed. "Did they say anything?"

[No, but they just hit the elevators.]

"I'm on it," Shepard groaned. "Garrus!"

He said a final goodnight to Kanna and turned to his mate, grinning. His expression dropped when he saw Shepard's less-than-happy look. "What's wrong?"

"We need to go cut off your mom in the elevator," Shepard said, motioning for him to follow as she headed for the hallway. "She just came aboard angry enough to worry Joker."

"Not good," Garrus muttered. "I wonder what happened?"

"She didn't say anything, but-"

The elevator was swooshing open as they reached it, and Tacita came out briskly, Aetius and Pallin behind her. She had the wildest look in her eyes that instantly made Shepard shiver and think back to the Nekheny vids. Same expression, older face. It was frightening. Behind her, the two other turians looked more composed but no less angry.

"Mom," Garrus greeted as evenly and pleasantly as he could. "What's wrong?" He was trilling out sounds that were making Shepard's translator crackle. An attempt to calm her?

"That recon scout," Tacita hissed, "where is she?" Her pupils constricted into intense pinpoints and the static that her undertones caused was almost too much for Shepard to listen to.

"Calm down," Garrus said, holding his hands up in front of him. "What did she do?"

"That's what I'm going to find out," Tacita growled. Aetius reached out and was clicking something at her but he quieted and drew his arm back when she hissed a protest at him.

The untranslated conversation was enough to bother Shepard--she didn't like not knowing what was being said on her own ship--but the fact that neither Garrus, his father, nor Pallin were daring enough to touch her was a little too worrisome.

"We don't know where she is," Garrus said slowly. "She went to the camps and hasn't come back yet."

Shepard cleared her throat and gestured towards the elevator. "I'll go see if Joker can get a location."

Tacita shot, "Please do."

Shepard hesitated, fighting the urge to shoot Garrus a pleading look, and slinked into the elevator.

____________________________________________

Cami was dragging her feet as she entered the docking bay. She'd had no luck finding her mother. No one, not even refugees who'd come from colonies surrounding her home colony, had seen or heard anything about her.

She trudged up the airlock, wanting desperately to just faceplant into her bunk (which, thank the spirits, she wouldn't have to share with Sol tonight). She crossed into the decontamination chamber, sighing as the fog hissed over her skin. She decided she would just go straight to bed and have a big breakfast to make up for not eating dinner.

When she stepped into the cockpit, Shepard was standing behind Joker. She whirled and grabbed Cami by the shoulders, pushing her back into the decontamination chamber. "What the hell did you do?" she urged.

"What?" Cami said, almost stumbling on the word. She jerked away from Shepard. "Get off me! What's your problem?"

"My problem is that Tacita Vakarian is angry to the point that she may very well hurt somebody," Shepard growled. "What the hell did you do?"

"Nothing," Cami sputtered. "I haven't done anything." She shrugged. "I've been crawling around the camps looking for my mother all day. You can ask any number of C-Sec agent and camp leaders."

"Shep," Joker called from the cockpit.

"Not now," Shepard groaned.

"Shepard," he said, louder this time.

She sighed and turned. "Wha-"

She saw the flash of tan and, before she could even turn, heard Cami cry out as she was slammed against the back of the chamber. Shepard spun and watched Tacita tighten her grip around Cami's throat, talon's pricking the skin.

Garrus beat his father into the chamber by a single stride, and Pallin was close behind, but they all froze when they spotted Tacita. As Cami struggled, Tacita had brought her free hand up to one of her thin, black mandibles, and had wrenched it away from her face; not enough to do any real damage, but it certainly looked painful.

"Tacita," Aetius said, his vocalizations frantic. He took a step forward and she tugged at Cami's mandible. He immediately halted, knowing then that she wasn't going to let anyone close. "Stop this."

She ignored him. "You," she snarled at Cami. "Your identification number."

Cami swallowed and recited, "35-62... i-o... alpha."

"Have you scrubbed any of your records since before you arrived at Menae?"

"Wha..." Cami whimpered with difficulty, buzzing out, Please don't. "No, I haven'..."

Tacita yanked just enough to get a reaction. "If you're lying, a ripped off mandible will be the first and least of your problems. Show me your Omni-tool, now."