by Colin Cook
stubborn politician into letting you land and staying in the Tower for a while," I explained as I placed the chit in Darren's hand. His eyes bulged as he heard the amount,
causing him to look the device up and down as if expecting it to be a fake.
"Dude if you want it, you can buy the whole car with this, I'd be your gunman," he answered sincerely with a sweep of his hand across the dashboard.
"I think I'll just pass on that, the last time I tried flying one of these it didn't go so well," I said quickly with a wince as I remembered the eventful trip in Irwin's Viper from
the Market District to the Military Docks. Darren chuckled at that as he remembered it to.
"Yeah I heard about that not too long ago. Man, a high speed battle with a Ray, you sir are a badass," he stated with another of his grins and a finger pointed over at me. I
smiled at that as I inclined farther out between the two front seats, bringing myself closer to him.
"Alright, so if you're gonna be my getaway man, here's the plan I've thought out…" I said before I began to lay out my idea of how I was going to escape from the Council
Chambers after I had successfully planted the Replicator Dart on Shepard.
"Alright we're here dude!" Darren announced excitedly as he brought his taxi into a slow glide through the air within the dim-lit but lushly decorated Council Chambers. As
we easily flew toward the large trees and shrubbery spaced near the center of the room, I was having a hard time breathing properly, my heart and lungs having already
gone into overdrive from the adrenaline coursing through my body. My fingers were nearly breaking the backseat's armrest as they remained clamped around it, shaking
slightly from the ordeal we had just gone through.
"That uhh…that was some insane flying Darren," I managed to say after calming down enough to speak again. When I'd told him that I wanted to get to the Tower as fast
as possible, I wasn't prepared for the speed or maneuvers he had been willing to enact to do just that!
(And I'm just going to leave it at that and allow you guys to conjure up whatever insane acrobatics you think a hover car could manage, because chances are they won't
even come close to what he was able to do)
With a deft mastery of the controls, Darren brought the taxi to an easy hover over top of the large pink tree set up close to the large pit the Council would hold meetings
over, gently easing us down until we had landed directly in front of the glowing Fast Transit terminal positioned before the large grand double staircase that led up to the
extended Speaker's platform.
"So you remember everything you need to do?" I asked from the backseat as I clapped our hippy driver on the shoulder.
"Yup. Basically just sit here and wait for you to get back. If anything goes wrong I'm suppose to listen for your word," Darren answered, summarizing everything that we
had planned together on the way here. I smile at that as I clapped him again.
"Close enough." With a quick repositioning, I leaned against the side door closest to the Chamber staircase and pressed the small button on my left gauntlet, causing the
familiar tingling and brief pixeled flash to travel across my body as my armour's cloaking device activated.
"Wicked!" Darren awed with a grin as he looked around the interior of the car, obviously having lost sight of me even though I could still see my own body just fine.
'This'll be very confusing if I ever forget to turn this thing off,' I thought as I took a moment to look myself over.
"Alright, open the doors now," I ordered over to him, appearing as a disembodied voice from his perspective. With a quick nod Darren pressed the release button, causing
the entire taxi to open up like a flower and let me step out.
"Excuse me sir. Only taxi's with official Council business are allowed to park here," said a Turian Chamber guard as he came over to Darren's opened vehicle.
"Hey boss chill out. I am on 'Official Council Business', I'm just waitin' to pick up a dude after the meetin' they got goin' on up there," Darren said up to the Turian looming
over him, making good use of finger quotations for the business part as he jabbed his thumb up the stairs toward the Speaker's platform.
"The meeting hasn't even started yet," the guard pointed out as he flicked his eyes up the Council platform, catching sight of the Turian, Asari, and Salarian Counselors
only now just arriving to take their positions.
"Then I'll just wait here until it starts, and then wait again until its finished so that I don't miss my fare," Darren remarked.
"Do you have any permits to enter into Chamber airspace, or land on Chamber property?" the Turian demanded.
"No sir I don't, but I do know the fees required to park in this area," Darren shot back with a folding of his arms. The Turian folded his own arms and glared down at the
Human that was trying his patience.
"So you already know about the 2000 credit spatial fees, plus the three hundred…" the guard began when suddenly Darren pulled out the credit chit I had given him and
held it up toward the Turian's face. (Which considering the Turian's natural height and how low Darren was sitting to the ground, it reached up more to the man's waist
than his face)
"Yeah yeah yeah, how about you just take the money for the fees and another 2000 from me as a way of saying 'Get away from the car and don't bother me again',"
the hippy interrupted as he waved the chit. The Turian scoffed, snatching the chit out of his hand and taking a scan of it with his omni-tool.
"As if a man as badly dressed as you could possibly afford to…WHOA!" the Turian stated with his eyes bulging once he saw the amount the chit contained scroll up on his
screen.
"Thanks, Bird-Face," Darren bit out, in a slightly smug tone, as he snatched the chit back after the Turian had finished transacting the fees from it.
"Yes sir! Sorry to disturb you sir! I'll make sure nobody does it again, sir!" the guard said with perfect military precision as he snapped off a stiff salute before marching
away. With that Darren clicked the button on his dashboard again and caused the car's doors and roof to seal back into place.
I laughed quietly at that altercation, still standing out in the open but remaining completely hidden from all the politicians and guards scattered throughout the Chambers.
"I always run into the strangest characters when I'm out on my own. First Irwin and Bruce, then Kurath, and now Darren," I listed off with a chuckle as I gestured over to
my getaway taxi.
"Yes you do. And…Axel, he's here!" Haxon began before suddenly hissing his warning in my ear. Snapping my head around as I heard the telltale screech of another hover
car echo throughout the colossal Chambers, I stiffened with apprehension as another Fast Transit Taxi touched down on the other side of the pink tree that Darren had
landed beside. As it opened, Commander Shepard, Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus, and Tali all staggered out from its insides, each of them groaning or massaging the stiffness
from their limbs after having been crammed together into such a small vehicle.
"All in favour of taking the elevator next time?" Garrus asked offhand to everyone while rubbing the back of his sore neck. I held my breath tightly as they each walked
around the back of Darren's car, passing within fifteen feet of me but never glancing in my direction as they began climbing up the double staircase toward the Speaker
platform. I breathed again slowly, inwardly relieved that the cloaking device was working as properly as Irwin said it would. As I watched them walk farther away from me,
most of my focus shifted to Tali as she allowed herself to fall to the back of the group.
I smiled as I thought back to the last thing I had said to her, how if we ever saw each other again it would be at a less rushed moment. Bu
t now here I was, standing
within normal speaking distance of her but unable to actually show myself.
Suddenly however, something strange happened.
As I noticed Captain David Anderson suddenly appear at the top of the staircase and begin to descend down to meet up with Shepard, the group stopped for a brief
moment on the steps. Kaidan, Ash, and Garrus all began engaging in a short conversation amongst each other, but Tali took this moment to turn around and look out
across the Chambers, obviously struck in awe by its sheer size and beauty.
What was strange however was when she panned her view over to the right; she suddenly stopped abruptly with her gaze centered directly on the area I was standing in!
My smile dropped and my eyes widened slightly, my body going rigid and remaining completely still. My breath caught in my chest as Tali slowly cocked her head to one
side, the glowing silver orbs visible through her visor shrinking slightly as she narrowed her eyes, as if she were curious or confused about something.
"Haxon? The cloaking device is still working right?" I asked very quietly while barely moving my lips, feeling my apprehension raise another notch as Tali took a slow step
off the staircase towards me, her eyes narrowing even more.
"Of course it is," Haxon answered, but even as he said it I could hear a slight wariness in his voice. For another second I stayed as frozen as a statue, staring into the eyes
of the woman in front of me, waiting for her to suddenly shout and oust me to everyone.
"Come on. Udina's presenting the Quarian's evidence to the Council," Anderson's voice echoed down from the middle landing of the staircase, causing Shepard to signal
for the rest of the squad to follow him and the Captain up to the Speaker's platform.
"You coming Tali?" Kaidan asked over to her once he saw that she wasn't moving. The lieutenant's voice seemed to snap Tali out of a deep trans, causing her to shake her
head as if clearing her eyesight.
"Uh, yeah…I'm right behind you," she said hesitantly, casting one last confused glance over at me before turning and following the others.
"She saw me!" I stated in astonishment as I watched her ascend quickly up the stairs.
"Axel, you're using one of the most advanced cloaking devices out on the market, there's no way she could have seen you," Haxon defended.
"Maybe she couldn't actually see my body, but she knew I was standing here somehow." I barely had time to extrapolate further on this when suddenly the deep grainy
voice of Saren Arterius boomed out across the glass-covered pit from atop the stairs.
"Eden Prime was a major victory…" I cursed as I recognized those words from the Geth audio logs that Tali had discovered. Our window of opportunity to tag Shepard
was quickly closing!
"We need to get to a vantage point now!" I said sharply as I spun around and dashed to the far left side of the Chambers. Crossing the distance in seconds and running
past an oblivious Admiral Kahoku who at the moment was arguing with an uncooperative communication's terminal, I came to a skidding stop within an enclosed sitting
area surrounded by elevated layers of soil-beds, each with lush bushes, trees, and greenery growing out of them. With a snap decision, I sprinted over to my right and
dived head first into the bushes of the first soil bed, coming up in a roll and launching myself up onto the second level. The citizens and politicians who were sitting on the
benches in the area all began speaking to each other in alarm as they saw, to their perspective, the bushes and plants I was climbing through roughly shift and move all on
their own.
"Where are we going?" Haxon asked as I lunged through an alien flowerbed and latched both hands onto the edge of the third and final level. Baring my teeth and grunting
in effort, I quickly kicked my feet and hauled myself onto the flat vine covered top of the level, standing up and pointing my left arm across the deep pit that stretched out
below me.
Far off to my right, the Speaker's platform extended out above the center of this pit, at the moment supporting Ambassador Udina on its front end as he played the rest
of Tali's recording for the three Counselors towering over him on their higher platform.
'This is ten times weirder then back at Chora's Den,' I thought with an amused smile, reflecting back on how I had been present and had even helped during one of the
pivotal moment's in Mass Effect's plot, even without the main character's knowing of my presence.
"We're going to perch up there," I said quietly as I pointed up to a small extended roof jutting out overtop of a walkway that encircled around a portion of the glass-pit the
Council was presiding over, one that would give me a perfect bead to fire the Dart onto Shepard when the time came.
"…And one step closer to the return of the Reapers," the voice of Matriarch Benezia suddenly echoed out from the glowing console on the Speaker's platform, showing
that Tali's evidence was finished playing.
"Remember when you said you wanted me to go through a tutorial on how to use my grappling-hook? Now's the time, how do I use it?" I asked as I quickly scanned
across the gauntlet surrounding my left forearm.
"It's very simple, press the first button next to the one that activates your cloaking device," the A.I. explained. After finding the indicated button, I pressed it and suddenly
felt a sharp mechanical movement within the gauntlet.
Immediately a six inch long steel spike jutted out of a small barrel that had extended from the gauntlet, one that quickly snapped out a series of progressively larger
serrated edges along either side of it, forming a large and very sharp arrow-like head!
"Whoa! What's next?" I asked in surprise as I took a moment to look over the dangerous appearance of the grappling hook's end.
"Take careful aim at your target, and then press the next button over from the one you just used, this will fire the hook," Haxon explained further. Seeing the third button,
I outstretched my left arm while flexing my wrist downward and sighted along its length with my right eye, taking a brief second to steady my aim before pressing the fire
button. My arm barely jerked from what little recoil there was as the dart-hook silently blasted from my gauntlet all the way across the glass pit, a thin steel cable wildly
trailing out behind it from the barrel before the dart head sunk into the Chamber's surrounding wall above the jutting roof with a metallic slicing sound.
"Nobody else can see this right?" I asked after a quick look around for any onlookers.
"Steve modified the cloaking device to extend its field down along the cable, thereby keeping it invisible even when extended to its full length. Now, simply press that
button again and it will automatically retract the cable, taking you along with it to the roof." With a wide grin I gave an eager nod, excited for my first attempt at flying
through the air on a grappling-hook.
"Tally-ho then," I said with a chuckle before slamming my finger against the fire button for a second time. Suddenly my eyes widened as the mechanism in my gauntlet
began sucking the cable back into its barrel, and harshly pulling me up through the air with enough force to nearly rip my arm out of its socket!
"HAAAAARGH! I screamed as I was whipped up from the vine level and yanked across the pit toward the wall my hook was attached to.
"You wanted proof, there it…" Ambassador Udina began stating up to the three Counselors after the Quarian's evidence had finished playing, pointing a commanding finger
at them before he was suddenly interrupted by a loud masculine scream that echoed out across the Chambers from the far left side!
"HAAAAARGH!" the voice screamed before it was cut off by a tremendous metallic crash, followed by two smaller crashes, le
aving an awkward stillness running
throughout the room afterward. Everyone: Udina, the Counselors, Anderson, Shepard and his squad, along with anyone leaning against the walkways that surrounded the
glass pit all looked to that general direction in confusion, searching for whatever had caused that noise.
"What was that?" Ashley asked to the rest of the squad as her eyes also scanned across that portion of the room.
"Most likely an accident has just occurred, guards will be dispatched immediately to find the source and render any aid that may be required," the Salarian Counselor
reassured as he activated his omni-tool to put in this order.
"Meanwhile we must return to the issue at hand," the Asari Counselor said to everyone, earning a collective nod from the other Counselors. As the meeting continued and
everyone returned to what they were doing, Tali continued looking up toward the area the scream and crash had come from, the sensor's in her helmet visor picking up a
slight spatial anomaly now present on the roof of a walkway that curved around a small section of the glass pit they were standing over.
She frowned deeply and narrowed her eyes in suspicion, leaning over the side railing of the Speaker's platform as she tried focusing her gaze on whatever this thing was.
It was like looking at a heat haze, very nearly invisible to the naked eye but distorted enough to be distinguished from the rest of its surroundings. It was the very same
distortion that she had noticed at the foot of the stairs just a little while ago.
"Tali? Are you alright?" Garrus suddenly asked as he reached out and gently shook her by the shoulder. Tali blinked as the movement made her lose focus on the
distortion, causing it to vanish just like it had the last time she'd seen it. The Engineer shook her head again and massaged a spot near her helmet's temple, the
experience of seeing something and then having it vanish on her twice causing a small pain to flare up in her forehead.
"I…I think my suit might be malfunctioning, its picking up random heat traces," Tali answered as she turned away from the railing to face back up to the Counselors.
"You may want to get that looked at before we run into anymore trouble," Garrus said. Casting a subtle glance back up to the roof, Tali could see a portion of the heat
