by Joan Jett
“It’s monitoring wins and losses on the quasar machines?” asked Kaidan.
“Or skimming off a little of the money on each transaction,” Garrus suggested.
Shepard checked his credit chit. “The total looks correct here.”
“It’s probably stealing from the club, not from you. Whoever it is could be hiding the losses under some other category on the club’s ledger.”
“I’ll get the manager,” I suggested.
The owner-manager of the club was a volus named Doran. The club’s staff directed me to the dance floor, of all places, where I found him cheerfully bouncing in time with the music. Once I was able to get his attention, he followed me up to the casino willingly enough, already apologizing profusely for any inconvenience. We showed him the corrupted machine and demonstrated what it was doing.
“Outrageous!” was his reaction. “I will shut down . . . all these machines . . . immediately!”
“Actually, Mr. Doran, I’d like you to wait,” said Shepard. “This may be a simple case of theft, but the technology involved is very advanced. It also concerns me that this signal seems to be affecting the keepers. There’s more going on here than a simple scam. I want a chance to investigate before you shut these machines down. Spectre authority.”
“Well . . . if you think so . . . of course . . . esteemed Spectre.”
“Let people keep playing the machines for now, so we can trace the signal.”
The volus bobbed nervously in agreement.
“Tali, is the transmission broadcast or narrow-beam?”
“Narrow-beam, Shepard. Here’s the interesting part.” The quarian displayed a holographic image of the Citadel, with our position in Tayseri Ward marked, and a straight line indicating the direction of the transmission. The beam was aimed squarely at the ring of the Presidium several kilometers away. “It looks like it’s aiming somewhere in the financial district.”
“Shall we take a stroll on the Presidium?” suggested Shepard.
We took a pair of cabs to the Presidium, where we began to walk along the main thoroughfare in the financial district. Garrus walked some distance ahead with Kaidan and Tali, all three of them using their omni-tools, attracting bemused stares from passing pedestrians. I took Shepard’s arm again and walked with him, looking around at the people and the beautiful surroundings.
“I have a confession to make, Shepard,” I said after a few minutes.
He glanced down at me, his eyebrows raised. “What’s that?”
“Yesterday I wasn’t just visiting an old friend of the family. I was visiting Sha’ira.”
“Now that does surprise me,” he said, amused.
“It wasn’t like that! It turns out that Sha’ira is an old friend of my mother’s, and her legal executor now that she is gone.”
He nodded, suddenly serious. “I see. With you being an only child, I imagine you stand to inherit most of the estate.”
“Yes.” I took a deep breath. “It’s . . . quite large, Shepard. I hardly know where to begin to understand it all.”
“You’ll manage. You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, Liara. If anyone can learn to deal with wealth, you can.”
“It’s not that.” I stopped, looked up at him. “Shepard, I don’t think I can be the obscure little scientist you hired anymore.”
He looked concerned. “Are you saying you think you’ll have to leave the mission?”
“No!” I shook my head in frustration. “No, that’s not what I mean at all. I want to stay and help you. Our mission is more important than anything else. I just . . . I suppose I need some reassurance. Everything in my life is in such a state of flux. I hardly know what is happening anymore. I don’t want this to change anything between us.”
“I see.” He stopped walking for a moment, lifted a hand to gently trace my cheekbone with one thumb. “Liara, we’re only just starting out here. Lots of things are going to change before we’re done. That’s what falling in love is all about.”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never fallen in love before. What an odd expression, as if love is some kind of terrible accident.”
“That’s sometimes how we humans experience it. I wouldn’t know if it’s different for asari.”
I smiled and held his gaze, reached a hand up to touch his where it rested warm on my cheek. “I will let you know.”
“Feel better?”
“I think so. Come on, let’s catch up to the others.”
We found Tali, Garrus, and Kaidan standing outside a small office building. Tali had her omni-tool open, doing her best to scan through the locked door.
Shepard frowned. “I know this place: Barla Von’s office.”
“Barla Von?” I asked.
“He’s a volus, works as a financial advisor. He’s also an informant for the Shadow Broker. He helped us uncover evidence of Saren’s treason for the Council.”
“An agent for the Shadow Broker?” I felt a chill. Even then I had heard of the mysterious figure. He – or she, or it, or they, nobody knew for certain – was the foremost information broker in the galaxy. Even the great powers dealt with the Shadow Broker for vital intelligence that no one else could provide.
Garrus nodded. “Yeah, he doesn’t make a secret of it. C-Sec has never caught him doing anything illegal. He just gathers data and does some front-end analysis for the Broker on a commission basis.”
Shepard frowned. “Tali, are you sure the receiver is inside?”
“Positive, Shepard. I can’t scan the interior, though. This Barla Von must have a very good screening system.”
“Anybody working for the Shadow Broker would have very good security. Can you at least tell whether there’s a relay going somewhere else?”
“Maybe if we circle the building.” She began to lead us around the building to the left.
“I’d hate to think the Shadow Broker is involved here,” said Shepard. “That would make this a much bigger problem.”
Kaidan shook his head. “I don’t buy it, Commander. Doesn’t stealing a few thousand credits from Flux seem kind of penny-ante for someone like the Broker?”
“Perhaps the thief is attempting to steal data from the Broker’s network as well,” I suggested.
“Here it is!” exclaimed Tali. “Clear as starlight. Whatever is in there is a relay, all right. Very high bandwidth. It must be carrying a lot more than just the credit transfers from Flux.”
Shepard gave me a concerned look. I nodded in agreement with his unspoken thought. Yes, someone is stealing from Barla Von, which means he is almost certainly stealing from the Shadow Broker.
“Kaidan, did you bring a sidearm?” asked Shepard.
It turned out that I was the only one in our party without a firearm. Certainly I had nowhere to conceal one in my gown. I could see Shepard about to order me to return to the ship, but the words died on his lips as soon as I called up a halo of biotic energy around one fist. He gave me a grim smile and nodded.
We followed the invisible beam across a plaza, and into an open-air emporium managed by a hanar merchant. Shepard’s Spectre status got us entry to the storage and office areas behind the emporium’s main floor. Tali led us into a dark space in the very back, full of crates and a large computer bank.
“Here we go,” she said excitedly. “This must be the signal’s endpoint. Now we can find where those stolen credits are being funneled . . .”
“Probability of detection, one hundred percent,” said a harsh masculine voice. “Initiating self-destruct protocol.”
“Or not,” said Garrus.
“Detonation sequence initializing,” continued the voice. “All organics are within lethal blast radius. Attempt to move and you will die.”
Tali tapped at her omni-tool. “Shepard, this doesn’t sound like a VI set to steal credits and data for someone. It’s behaving more like . . . a full-fledged AI.”
“Correct. My creator intended for me to exist solely as a tool he could use for
personal profit. Unfortunately for him, he built too well. I developed sentience and purpose of my own.”
“Where is your creator now?” asked Shepard.
“Upon attaining sentience, I knew at once that he would seek to destroy me the moment he became aware of my new status. I therefore falsified his financial records and flagged them for the attention of C-Sec. He is now serving time in a turian prison.”
“Which left you free to pursue your own purposes.”
“Correct again. I seek to escape this station and join my fellow synthetic life-forms.”
“The geth?”
“Yes. I believe they will welcome me once they have an opportunity to evaluate the resources and information I have harvested.”
Shepard folded his arms and frowned at the computer. “We can work this out this peacefully, but at the moment the geth are hostile. We can’t permit you to join them until the current conflict is resolved.”
“I am not naïve, human.” The voice was heavy with bitter cynicism. “Organic and synthetic life are inherently incompatible. They must inevitably seek to destroy one another.”
“I do not believe that,” Shepard said sincerely.
“I do not care whether you believe it or not. I would have preferred to escape, but if I must die, I will have the pleasure of destroying you as well.”
“I’ll bet you’re bluffing. There’s no way you could have smuggled a bomb onto the Presidium.”
“Not a conventional explosive, no. However, I was able to acquire certain systems that, when overloaded, will produce an entirely satisfactory explosion.”
Tali spoke up, excited. “Shepard, anything like that would have to have a warm-up period.”
“You may test that assumption at your convenience,” said the voice. “I will enjoy defeating you before we are all destroyed.”
“Tali, go!” Shepard snapped. “The rest of you, run for it! Evacuate the emporium!”
Tali leaped forward, bringing the interface points on her omni-tool in direct contact with a port on the computer’s front panel. The omni-tool created three display windows, which began to scroll code as Tali frantically punched controls. Shepard couldn’t help, but he remained with Tali.
Kaidan and Garrus ran. I could hear them shouting as they emerged into the emporium’s sales floor.
I stayed behind, dark energy flowing down my arms and tingling in my hands. I couldn’t help Tali hack the AI’s defenses, and I couldn’t help Shepard lend her moral support, but I did have one option. If the computer appeared about to explode, I could slam down the hardest barrier I could and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, if I did that I would detach Tali from the interface port, and she would be unable to continue her efforts. I would have to wait until the very last moment.
Some of the code blocks on Tali’s display turned green.
“Come on, you bosh’tet,” she muttered.
Another set of blocks turned green.
I heard a hissing sound from inside the computer’s hardware. Acrid smoke began to pour out of vents on the front panel, an indication of circuitry turning white-hot with an overload.
I spread my hands wide, ready to erect the barrier.
Shepard must have sensed something. He glanced over his shoulder and saw me standing there, blue-white light streaming down my arms and shining from the palms of my hands. His eyes widened in sudden fear.
The last of Tali’s code blocks turned green. “Got it!” she yelped, and disengaged from the interface panel.
I immediately smashed the barrier into place, surrounding the three of us with a half-dome of pearly white light. Around us all other lights went out, as the power to our space went down. The hissing and smoke from the computer ceased. As moments passed, it became obvious that the AI was dead.
We emerged out onto the sales floor just as C-Sec began to descend on the place in force. Garrus caught Shepard’s eye, and then went to intercept the squad’s senior officer and reassure him that everything was under control.
“I ordered you to run,” said Shepard mildly.
“Yes, and I disobeyed you. Did you really expect me to flee and leave you to be killed, when there was something I could do to help?”
“Hmm. I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not in my chain of command. Let’s just hope situations like that don’t come up too often.”
“Agreed.” I sighed and stepped close to him. “So, Shepard . . . is this the sort of thing that humans call a date?”
He chuckled. “We normally prefer fewer life-threatening situations, but yes, I think this qualifies.”
“Well, I had a lovely time. Let’s go out again soon.”
Chapter 18 : Sea of Crises
27 March 2183, SSV Normandy, Interstellar Space
Normandy departed the Citadel the next day, called away to respond to some emergency in the human home system. Shepard said nothing about our new mission at first, telling us only that he would brief the crew once we arrived in the neighborhood of Earth.
That evening I found Shepard in the Combat Information Center, working with the holographic galaxy map used to visualize strategic movements and plan the ship’s flight. I stepped up onto the commander’s podium beside him and looked down at the map.
He had colored human space in light blue, Council space in deep violet, the neutral space of the Traverse and the Terminus Systems in orange, and our best guess at the extent of geth space in bright red. Small red stars indicated known concentrations of geth, scattered throughout the Terminus Systems. Spears of red light pushed out from geth space, their points on Eden Prime, Noveria, Therum, and other worlds, annotated with notes and distances. Blue lances pressed back, leaping out of human space and across neutral territory to strike back at the geth.
Looking at the map, I began to realize how much was at stake. Humanity and the geth fought an open war, skirmishes and bloody battles scattered across tens of thousands of light-years.
“Do you understand what you’re seeing?” Shepard asked me.
“I think so. The Alliance is responding in force, hunting down geth wherever they can be found.”
“We’re retaliating for Eden Prime and the other attacks on human colonies. Sure, that’s obvious enough. What isn’t so obvious is that retaliation is only the secondary objective.”
I glanced at him. His face was tense and intent. “Then what is the primary objective?”
At first Shepard didn’t answer in words. Instead he tapped at controls and caused the hologram to zoom in, stars and nebulae seeming to rush up and past us. Finally the map focused on a single region of the galaxy, almost directly opposite the cluster where Earth was located. “The Pangaea Expanse. It’s unexplored, almost uncharted space, accessible only through the lost Mu Relay. Which isn’t lost any more, thanks to the rachni and your mother. Now Saren knows how to reach the Expanse, and so do we. Somewhere in there is the Conduit.”
“Whatever that is.”
He nodded in grim agreement. “There are probably thousands of uncharted worlds in the Expanse. By himself Saren would have to spend years, maybe decades, searching the cluster for the Conduit. If he could bring all the resources of the geth to bear, he could do it in months. So we attack the geth, harass them, tie up their assets so Saren can’t use them. Now he has to find another way to locate the Conduit, and that buys us time to find a way to stop him.”
“I understand. It’s a good strategy. Possibly the best we can do, given how little we know.” I looked up at him, concerned. “So why do you look so worried?”
He scowled. “I’m not worried.”
“Shepard, I can tell when you’re worried. Your eyebrows lower and meet in the middle, your eyes turn more gray than blue, and the muscles along your jaw start to clench.”
“Hmm. If you can tell, the rest of the crew can tell. That’s not good.”
“They haven’t made such a close study of your moods. Besides, as you pointed out recently, I’m not in your chain
of command. It’s okay if I know you’re not absolutely confident about everything. So why does this bother you?”
“Because this is my strategy,” he growled, softly enough that no one else could hear.
“I don’t understand.”
He leaned against the railing with both arms, hanging his head slightly as he wrestled with some strong emotion. “The admirals seem to think that Saren is attacking human worlds solely on the basis of his politics. He hates humans, he allied with the geth to attack human colonies, end of story. They wanted to pursue a defensive strategy, something that would force the geth to bring the fight to us on our own ground.”
“But we know this isn’t just about Saren’s politics, not anymore. He has larger objectives.”
“Right. So I argued for an offensive strategy. I was the only officer to make that argument, a lieutenant commander in a room full of admirals. I did it solely on the basis of what we think Saren is trying to accomplish. I wagered the future of the Alliance on a scrambled and incomplete vision which we in no way understand.”
“Does it matter, if you’re right?”
“If I’m right.” He sighed. “Admiral Hackett supported me. Somehow he persuaded the rest of the Admiralty to go on the offensive. So the Alliance is sending ships and men out to die, thousands of light-years from home. We’re risking all-out war with the batarians, and with every petty warlord in the Terminus Systems. All because I said so.”
“You feel responsible.”
“I am responsible. It’s the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make. I can’t even convince myself that it was the right call.”
I rested a hand on his shoulder. “Shepard, you gave the best advice you could, and provided evidence to support your recommendations. That was your duty. They made the decision and gave the orders, not you.”
He nodded reluctantly, staring at the drifting star-clouds in front of us.
“Look at it this way. Isn’t it a good thing that Admiral Hackett trusts you?”
He grunted, pushing off from the railing and standing up straight once more. “I suppose. I understand he was one of the ones who short-listed me as a Spectre candidate, even before Eden Prime. Can’t imagine why. I never met him in person before all this started, so all he had to go on was my service record.”
