by Cole Price
Javik leaped from a height next to me, landing on his feet with his rifle already brought to bear. A few meters away I saw Shepard standing once more.
“Everyone all right?” he asked.
“Yes, Commander.”
“I think so,” I said shakily. “Considering we just got shot by a Reaper.”
The ancient machine moved forward, with a noise like explosions in a sheet-metal factory. It made its great roar, trying to drive us into madness and flight.
“Consider that practice,” said Shepard. “No cover up ahead. Run!”
Oh Goddess he’s right there’s nothing to stand in that thing’s way . . .
I ran. Despite every instinct, toward the Reaper.
It stood close ahead, its legs spread in a strength-stance, its many “eyes” glowing like furnaces, impossibly tall and mighty. The cover over its firing chamber retracted once again. It began to fire at us every few seconds, a musical symphony out of hell, breaking stone and sending rubble flying on all sides. None of us even tried to bring our weapons to bear. It was all we could do to maintain our biotic barriers and keep running through the chaos.
“Okay, Shepard. I raised the maw hammers for you. You have to activate both of them! My recommendation is to avoid the giant laser!”
“Sound tactical advice!” shouted Shepard, dry humor audible in his voice despite the sound of the end of the world on all sides. It didn’t cause him to break his stride.
Someone was praying with manic intensity. “Oh Goddess oh Goddess oh Goddess oh Goddess . . .” It must have been me.
“Hah! I remember this part!” crowed Javik.
Well, if he’s done this before and survived, maybe I can. Maybe.
We reached a low stone wall, crouched behind it for a moment to catch our breath.
I glanced over the wall, saw the Reaper looming over us, well able to blast us into vapor where we cowered.
Then gunfire streamed down on it, blue-white bolts from behind our position. The Reaper hesitated.
A new sound from overhead, engines roaring as aircraft soared out of the south.
“Commander, this is Artimec Wing. We’ll try to give that Reaper something else to shoot at.”
Finally, something our side had done seemed to distract the terrible machine. It slammed its firing chamber closed and began to shift its stance, recoiling from the turian assault.
“Goddess, be with them,” I prayed.
“Go!” Shepard shouted. “Let’s push ahead!”
We vaulted the stone wall and ran forward once more.
Slam! Slam! More meteoric bursts of red flame, as new Reaper forces were deployed in our path.
One of them. Two. Three. Six.
Shepard never hesitated. His right hand lashed out, a shockwave rocking the creatures back on their heels, and then he dashed forward to roll under a slashing claw.
Javik followed. So did I.
“Liara! You and Javik break right! Get that maw hammer moving!”
Separate our forces?
Then I realized it made no difference. We were hopelessly outmatched. To stay together meant twice the time to get the hammers moving. Twice the risk that all of us would be gutted or smashed into paste before we could succeed.
I saw Shepard sprint alone, off to the left, and did my best to put him out of my mind. Instead I dodged around a brute, my barrier flashing and going down, as the creature barely missed a stroke that would have taken my head off. I shifted and changed direction before it could turn around and try again.
A shadow fell across my path.
“Asari!”
I glanced up, had just an instant to realize I was running under the Reaper, and then saw its massive leg descending. I screamed, dove and rolled to the side.
The sound of its leg slamming into the ground felt like the end of the world, but at least I heard it. I got to my hands and knees, spitting out dry sand, and saw the Reaper’s surface not two meters away from me.
Briefly I considered collapsing in sheer terror. Then I pushed myself to my feet, slipped around the Reaper’s leg, saw open ground ahead of me, and sprinted.
“This is utterly insane,” I gasped.
“Shepard! Get those hammers going!”
“There’s a Reaper in my way, Wrex!”
“I know. You get all the fun.”
Dry air sawing in my lungs. My heart feeling as if it would explode. Then I stood by the maw hammer, the activation switch just in front of me. I reached out and slammed it down with all my strength. Javik pelted to a stop beside me less than two seconds later.
Boom. Boom. Boom. A sound like repeated thunder, audible even over the cacophony of the battle. I glanced back the way we had come, saw an enormous column rising and falling in rhythm. Then the hammer next to me first slammed down, a noise to rival the sound of the Reaper’s movements not far away.
Completely spent, I leaned against a stone wall and stared about me in all directions. If a brute had charged me at that point, I think I would have stood quietly and resigned myself to death. Fortunately all the Reaper’s creatures seemed to have other worries at the moment.
“There!” cried Javik, pointing off over the sands. “Kalros!”
The Reaper turned away, walking close to us but paying us no attention, apparently staring out into the desert. It roared, opening its firing chamber once more.
The last few turian fighters turned away, fleeing for the horizon.
A geyser of sand, moving rapidly closer. Kalros became visible for a moment.
The Reaper fired its main gun. Missed.
Another eruption, flinging stone and sand hundreds of meters across the desert. Kalros breached, the forward half of its body soaring into the air. Its monstrous head slammed into the Reaper amidships, rocking the thing back so hard that it nearly fell.
The Reaper twisted in place, trying to dislodge Kalros. The struggle lifted the thresher maw’s body into the air entire, sending it soaring over our heads to slam into the Shroud tower in the middle distance.
“Asari!” shouted Javik. “This is not a fight we should witness at such close range!”
“Agreed,” I gasped.
We couldn’t quite manage to run, but we hustled as quickly as we could, back the way we came. I worried for a moment about the brutes, but there was no sign of the creatures as we fled. After a moment Javik put his shoulder under mine, his arm around my waist, supporting me as I tried to hurry.
I spared a glance for the Reaper.
It had shaken Kalros loose. It turned slightly and fired its main gun at the thresher maw once more.
Kalros dodged, moving with more speed and agility than I would have believed possible. Within moments, it retreated under the surface once more.
Javik and I reached the dubious shelter of a stone wall and paused for a moment.
The Reaper turned slightly, its firing chamber still open and primed, looking almost uncertain. For good reason, if the tremors still shaking the ground were any indication.
Then Kalros erupted out of the ground again, behind the Reaper, slamming into it, this time knocking it entirely off its feet.
The Reaper fired its gun desperately, but the thresher maw had adjusted its tactics. Instead of trying to simply slam into its foe, it wrapped its coils around the Reaper, exerting a terrible crushing force.
The gun fired. Then again. To no effect.
Kalros retracted herself down into the ground once more, dragging the Reaper with it, crushing it. I saw discharges of red energy, like blood from a mortal wound. I could hear the sound of crumpling metal, on a scale to shatter worlds.
One last time, the Reaper emitted its great mechanical roar.
Then it was gone.
I turned on my hardsuit comm. “Shepard?”
“Shepard!”
A burst of distortion on the channel, and then I heard his voice. “. . . okay, Liara. Came a little closer than I like to having Kalros slammed down on me, but I’m okay.”
>
“Oh, thank the Goddess.”
“Are you and Javik all right?”
I glanced at Javik. I was beginning to read Prothean body language: eyes wide, mouth slack, breath coming fast and deep, posture looking as if he wanted to fall to his knees. I guessed he was having the Prothean equivalent of a religious experience.
“I think so. Do you need us?”
“No sign of the brutes. If that thing had any more troops ready to deploy, Kalros sent them to hell with it. I’m just a few steps away from the base of the Shroud right now. I’ll make sure Mordin is ready to go. You and Javik head back to the truck, and I’ll meet you there.”
“All right. Be careful.”
“After all that, now you tell me to be careful?”
“You know what I mean.”
A short pause, then: “Yes, I do. I love you, Liara. See you soon.”
I turned to see Javik watching me. “To see a Reaper fall,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.
“Is this the first time?”
“Yes. For me, at least. I heard stories of the destruction of Reapers during our war, but those under my command never managed the feat. I understand that for you, this is not the first time.”
I nodded. “I was there when the Alliance fleet destroyed Sovereign. I may have helped, in some small way.”
“Rrrh. Two down. Many hundreds to go.” His usual cynicism seemed to have returned. Yet I saw a difference in the way he watched me. Perhaps, for the first time, a small portion of respect. “Come. Let us return to the truck, find the Commander, and see what we have won.”
* * *
We found Shepard standing alone in the sunlight, the genophage cure falling gently on all sides like a tracery of golden snow. He held his hand out to catch a flake of it, watching it vanish like a dream on his palm. His body language spoke of dejection rather than triumph.
I moved forward, puzzled by his stance. “Shepard? What’s wrong? Where’s Mordin?”
My bondmate said nothing, only pointed toward the Shroud tower.
Off in the distance I could hear explosions, signs of the tower tearing itself to pieces. The battle against the Reaper must have damaged it. It had lasted just long enough to perform its final service: scattering the genophage cure into the stratosphere to blanket all of Tuchanka.
“He stayed behind,” said Shepard, his voice dull. “Someone had to ride the elevator up to the top, fix the STG sabotage and make sure everything was in good shape. Whoever did that wasn’t going to be coming back down, and we both knew it.”
I stepped close to him, put my arm around his waist and rested my head on his shoulder. “So he insisted.”
He hugged me close. “Of course. Had to be me, he said.”
“Someone else might have gotten it wrong,” I quoted in a whisper.
The last tomkah rolled up behind us. After a moment, its hatch opened and two krogan emerged, looking up into the sunlight and letting wisps of the genophage cure fall onto their faces. As always, I found it hard to read Eve’s expression, with nothing but her eyes visible. Wrex reached up to shade his face, his expression one of simple wonder.
I glanced up at Shepard’s face, calm and still, his eyes red but not overflowing.
“I was fond of him too,” I said.
He nodded, his arm tightening slightly around my shoulders, but all he said was, “Let’s go home.”
Chapter 20 : Shadows of the Mind
4 May 2186, Urdnot Clan Territory/Tuchanka
Before we returned to Nomandy, we paused for a moment to say goodbye to our friends. The Hollows stood quiet now, the bones of the honored krogan dead scattered all around us. On all sides, krogan worked to pick up the remains of husks, carrying them away to be burnt on a pyre.
Wrex stood still, his head bowed. “A long time ago, my father betrayed me in this place. His own son. He tried to kill me. So I had to kill him. Right over there.” He pointed to a shadowed corner, where the bones piled high. “That’s what the genophage reduced us to. Animals.”
Shepard nodded, his eyes still shadowed with grief.
Wrex turned to place a comradely hand on his shoulder. “You and Mordin changed that today. You’ve given us our lives back. Even better, you’ve given us back a reason to live.”
“Now we’ll fight for our children, not against them,” Eve agreed. “It’s just a pity Mordin had to die.”
Shepard made a small smile at last, remembering his friend. “He wouldn’t have had it any other way. Wherever he is, I’m sure he’s putting in a good word for us. Probably a lot of good words.”
“Hah!” barked Wrex. “We’ll name one of the kids after him. Maybe a girl.”
“But you, Commander, you and your people, we can thank you in person.” Eve stepped forward, rested her hands on Shepard’s shoulders in a brief embrace, a gesture I had never seen from any krogan before.
“What will you do now?” I asked, smiling at the expression on Shepard’s face.
“Spread the hope you’ve given us,” said Eve. “Even now there are clans gathering in the Kelphic Valley, aware that something has changed, almost afraid to hope. I’ll go speak to them. Rally the females in particular around a new understanding of our universe. Make sure the gift you’ve given us isn’t squandered.”
“Meanwhile, you can tell the turians I’ll be deploying troops to Palaven immediately,” said Wrex. “And when you’re ready to kick the Reapers off Earth, you let me know. The krogan are back in business.”
“Goodbye, Commander, Dr. T’Soni.” Eve’s smile was so broad it could be seen despite her hood and veil, and then she bowed in deep respect. “Thank you for all you have done, and know that Urdnot Bakara calls you her friends.”
My eyes widened in surprise. For a krogan shaman to take up her name once more . . .
But then, she can’t be a shaman any longer. Mate to the greatest warlord on Tuchanka, mother to his children, moral beacon for her entire species, she’s probably destined to be the first great krogan matriarch since Shiagur.
I embraced her for the first and last time, feeling the strength in her arms. “Thank you, Bakara. Good fortune follow you, and all your people.”
Shepard nodded, shaking Wrex’s hand. “The same goes for me, Wrex. I’m looking forward to the day we can fight side by side again.”
Then we turned for the shuttle, and home.
* * *
4 May 2186, Aralakh System Space
The cabin appeared empty when I arrived. Then I heard the sound of water running in the refresher cubicle.
“Shepard?”
No response.
I nodded to myself and began to strip down. Once I finished, I opened the cubicle door and stepped inside, a dense cloud of steam wafting out past me.
I found Shepard leaning up against the cubicle wall, his eyes closed and his head bowed, motionless, just letting the hot water pour over him. I stepped under the water, put one hand behind his neck and the other on his hip, rested my forehead on his shoulder, and then I just stood there, not quite pressed against him.
“Shepard,” I breathed, tasting his scent on the humid air.
“Mmm,” he rumbled, and then he brought his arms up to gather me in.
“Are you all right?” I asked, enjoying the feel of his body against mine, hard and strong and rough, not asari at all. He had a sharp scent, but clean. I gave in to the temptation to taste his skin, just along the massive ridge of muscle from his neck down to his shoulder.
“I will be.” He took a deep breath, the muscles of his chest and belly flexing with the effort. “Rough day. Very rough day.”
“You have a gift for understatement, love.” My hand smoothed up the planes of his back, my fingertips caressing the path of his spine. “I don’t know about you, but I nearly got stepped on by a Reaper.”
“Same. Along with almost having a megaton of sandworm dropped on my head.” He drew his head back so he could look me in the eyes. “Battles almost never go as pl
anned, but that one was for the history books. How not to attack a Reaper.”
“Yet somehow it worked. We defeated the Reaper, cured the genophage, and won an alliance with the krogan.”
“At a cost,” he said grimly. “Lieutenant Victus and over twenty of his men, plus half of Artimec Wing. Forty or so of the krogan. Corporal Vance. Mordin.”
“I know.” I leaned forward and rested my forehead against his, so I could taste his breath while I spoke. “Shepard, do you remember the night I survived a fight with Morinth?”
“Mmm,” he agreed. “When was that? A few days before I came to Illium to meet you for the first time? I know I’ve seen it in your memories.”
“I think it was the low point of my time on Illium. Right after the disaster on Ferris Fields, right after Morinth murdered one of my people, the same night she nearly killed me. I felt broken. I couldn’t stop thinking about what appalling things I had done, how many of my own people I had lost. I wasn’t sure I could keep fighting any longer.”
His arms tightened around me, pressing me close, giving me comfort.
“Do you remember what snapped me out of it?” I asked him.
“You realized there was something worse than damning yourself,” he said quietly.
“Yes. Far worse to damn myself and fail.” I pulled back, maybe a few millimeters, enough to meet his gaze once more. “Shepard, we didn’t fail today.”
“I suppose not.” His lips met mine, an unhurried, passionate kiss, something to melt my bones and light a fire in my belly. “Like I said, Liara, I will be all right. I’ve lost people under my command before. I’ve lost friends before. More than I can count. Sometimes it was my fault, sometimes not. It never stops me from doing what has to be done. It just helps if I can take a little time to process it.”
“Let me help,” I whispered.
After a time, he braced himself against the cubicle wall, his strong arms holding me in place. Hot water continued to stream down on both of us. Our coronas fizzled and snapped in the moist air. I wrapped my legs around his hips, dug my fingers into the flesh behind his shoulders, and held on.
I fell a long way when the merger began. Deep into his memory, then into the wild country, the distant shadowed reaches of his mind. Into a place where even symbols and non-verbal thoughts fade away, leaving nothing but the eternal foundations of the soul.
