Deep Space: An Epic Sci-Fi Romance

by Joan Jett

  Chapter 31 : Buried Secrets

  9 May 2183, Zhu’s Hope/Feros

  Fai Dan was bland, polite, clearly dedicated to the welfare of his people, and not at all forthcoming.

  “I’m sorry, Commander. I simply don’t have any answers for you.”

  Shepard scowled in exasperation. “You’re telling me there have been no unusual visitors to Feros in weeks. No turians, no asari, no unexpected off-worlders of any kind. You’ve never seen Sovereign. You have no idea why the geth decided to attack this colony.”

  “To be honest, we were barely aware that there was a war against the geth taking place.”

  “Fai Dan, I think you are lying to me,” Shepard said flatly. “We know Saren and his ship were here eight days ago. We have reconnaissance imagery of Sovereign in orbit over Feros. You wouldn’t have been able to miss it, or mistake it for anything else.”

  “I’m sorry,” said the colonist once more, no anger or resentment in his tone. “I can’t help that. All I can suggest is that ExoGeni may have the information you’re looking for. The geth attacked there first.”

  “How do we get to the ExoGeni headquarters?”

  “An intact Prothean skyway connects this building to the other two that ExoGeni has occupied. I think at least one vehicle in the garage still works.”

  “In the meantime, why don’t you do something useful for a change?” snarled the security officer, Arcelia Martinez.

  “More useful than lifting the siege and getting the geth off your backs?”

  “We’ve beaten them already without your help. Three times. The problem is, they keep coming back. We think they have some kind of transmitter down in the tunnels. It acts like a beacon, a control channel they can use even when one of their ships isn’t nearby. It helps them infiltrate and build up their forces until they’re ready to attack again.”

  “All right, that’s something we can help with. I’ll want to be sure your people are secure before we set out for the other buildings. What else do you need?”

  “I’m afraid the geth attacks have left us in a very precarious condition,” said Fai Dan. “The geth damaged out water supply system, and our supplies of fresh water are limited. Our food stocks are also very low. The power systems have been out for days, so we have almost no reserves to operate medical equipment or recharge our weapons.”

  “I’ll have my engineering team come in to help with repairs. In the meantime, my squad will try and find that geth transmitter.”

  Martinez looked like she wanted to deliver another sharp comment, but she subsided when Fai Dan glanced at her.

  “Thank you, Commander,” he said mildly. “If you can help us become self-sufficient again, even in the short term, we will be very much in your debt.”

  * * *

  We spent eight hours in the tunnels beneath Zhu’s Hope, following the maps Fai Dan provided.

  First we hoped to find and destroy the geth transmitter. Finding it proved easy, but reaching it was a considerable challenge. It stood in an alcove at the end of a long corridor, narrow and completely devoid of cover, guarded by geth assault drones and no fewer than three krogan warriors.

  There just wasn’t room for all six of us to place ourselves in the corridor and attack the enemy. Shepard, Ashley, and Wrex went in to deal with the drones, and then hold their position against a team of angry krogan. The rest of us watched for wandering geth and otherwise had very little to do but listen to all the gunfire and roaring.

  After a few moments, Garrus switched to my private channel. “I think we just got our proof that Saren was here.”

  I frowned, not seeing his point at first. Then it struck me. “The krogan?”

  “Sure. We just fought a whole campaign against nothing but geth. No signs of any krogan. Also no signs of Saren. It makes sense. I could see Saren hiring krogan mercs, but the geth are too isolated from the rest of galactic civilization.”

  “Perhaps. Shepard saw no krogan on Eden Prime, but we know Saren and Sovereign were there. Saren sent a krogan battlemaster to recover me from Therum, with geth support.”

  “No krogan on Noveria, but that was pretty much your mother’s show.” He glanced at me. “No offense.”

  “None taken. My mother would never have hired krogan. Why bother when you have asari commandos following you for free?”

  “Right. So we can probably map this out with symbolic logic. If Saren and geth, not necessarily krogan, but if krogan and geth, always Saren.”

  “That seems to fit the evidence so far,” I said, amused at the way he phrased it.

  “Hey, policemen are trained in logic too. No reason you scientists should have all the fun.”

  “You will get no argument from me.” I thought about it, wincing slightly as an unusually loud reptilian bellow echoed down the corridor. “It might give us a useful way to analyze intelligence data. Instead of looking for sightings of Sovereign, we could look for cases where krogan have been seen in the company of geth. Come to think of it, where is Saren getting all these krogan?”

  “He has plenty of money.”

  “True, but krogan are pragmatists. No matter how well they are paid, why would they work for someone who is clearly in partnership with the geth? Synthetics who seem fiercely hostile to all organic life?”

  “Hmm,” said Garrus, thinking about it. “You think he has some other motivation for them?”

  “I suppose they could just be indoctrinated, like my mother.”

  “We don’t know enough about indoctrination to know whether that’s possible.” Garrus hesitated. “I’m sorry, Liara, but we only have your mother’s word for how that was supposed to work.”

  “She wasn’t the most reliable witness, I know. Garrus, I was there. I watched her fight free of it for a few moments. She wasn’t faking any of it.”

  “Not saying she was. Just that we don’t have enough facts yet. We should be careful about assuming indoctrination before we have evidence of it. There might be a rational motive. In my experience, bad guys are often stupid but they’re always rational by their own lights. They have some reason that seems good to them for what they do.”

  “Agreed. So what is Saren offering the krogan to recruit so many of them?”

  He mulled that over for a long time. “Unknown.”

  “Add it to the list,” I told him.

  “It’s getting to be a very long list.”

  About that time the roaring stopped and we could proceed. We found the geth transmitter, planted explosive charges, and blew it to pieces.

  After that, the rest of our tasks seemed tedious but relatively easy. We found more geth in the tunnels, but without their control signal these presented little challenge. In one large chamber we thinned out a pack of predatory animals that had prevented the colonists from hunting for food. We also scavenged some heavy electrical gear that we thought might help them re-start their power grid. We even managed to reactivate the Prothean water collection system, delivering a boundless supply of fresh water to Zhu’s Hope.

  We did have one very odd encounter. As we moved through the tunnels and empty chambers, we found a few dead colonists, apparently killed where they had taken refuge during the geth attack. Just as we had finished with the water system, we found a living human.

  Ashley spotted him first, suddenly turning and pointing her rifle back into a dark alcove. The flashlight attached to her weapon picked out a male human, wearing plain coveralls and holding a sharp combat knife. “Come out of there and lower the weapon,” she ordered.

  The human stepped forward cautiously, dropping the knife into a sheath on his hip and holding his hands up. “Alliance?”

  “Most of us,” said Shepard dryly. “Who are you?”

  “Ian Newstead,” said the human, a grimace crossing his face as he spoke.

  “Are you hiding from the geth? The way’s clear back to the colony, you could come with us.”

  “No, I think I’d better stay out here . . . hyaah!”


  All of us stared at the human as he suddenly screamed, bending over with both fists at his temples.

  Kaidan stepped forward. “Hey, are you all right?”

  To our surprise Newstead stood up slowly, his scream modulating into a horrible sort of laughter. “Fine, fine. Oh. Oh my. That was a really good one.”

  “You don’t look fine,” said Shepard. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Just invoking the master’s whip. Reminds me that I’m still alive. Still fighting.”

  “Fighting who? The geth?”

  “No. I was out here . . . gah . . . before the geth arrived. They’re easy enough to hide from.” His face twisted with pain once again.

  “Then who?”

  “It’s not that kind of fight. More like . . . running through a thorn bush.” He had to pause, hammering at one side of his head with a fist. “You know . . . if you ever stop . . . you’ll never be able to get started again.”

  Wrex shook his head. “He’s crazy, Shepard. We should leave him.”

  “Not yet.” Shepard turned back to the colonist. “Mr. Newstead, if you were out here before the geth arrived, did you see what they’re after?”

  “Oh yes.” Newstead paused, his eyes wild, panting. “They’re after . . . they’re a thorn in the side of . . . aah!”

  This time the scream brought him to his knees, clawing at his temples.

  I said, “Shepard, I don’t think he’s insane. He’s in a great deal of pain.”

  “But why?” Shepard knelt by the suffering man. “Mr. Newstead. Is there any way we can help you? Do you even want help?”

  Newstead shook his head violently. “Nothing you can do for me. Go on. I’ve survived this long . . . Oh look. Time’s up.”

  Just then Garrus called a warning. “Geth!”

  We turned to fight. As usual, we faced no more than three or four troopers, clumsy and easily defeated. Afterward, we looked around and found that Newstead had vanished.

  “What was that all about?” demanded Ashley.

  “Post-traumatic stress?” suggested Kaidan.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Did you notice that most of his episodes occurred while he was trying to answer questions?”

  “His answers weren’t very direct,” observed Garrus. “As if he was trying to talk his way around something. Like a witness who doesn’t want to come out and help you on the record.”

  “Something didn’t want him talking.” Shepard scratched at the stubble on his cheek. “The other colonists were calmer, but they weren’t very helpful. There’s definitely something odd about this place. Something odd about the people, the colony itself.”

  I glanced at Garrus. “I hesitate to suggest it . . . but this reminds me of Saren’s indoctrination.”

  Garrus shook his head, but he said nothing.

  “You think Saren used whatever he has to control their minds?” asked Shepard.

  “No, I don’t think it was Saren himself.” I thought it through. “If Saren controls these people, why turn the geth and these krogan loose on them?”

  Shepard frowned. “On the other hand, Newstead was behaving a little like your mother did while she was trying to break free from Saren’s control.”

  “Exactly,” I agreed. “Something is affecting the colonists’ minds. Not Saren’s indoctrination. Something else, something we haven’t seen before.”

  “More spooky telepathy,” grumbled Wrex.

  “Could it affect us?” asked Ashley.

  “Indoctrination seems to require time to take effect,” I said. “Whatever this is may be the same.”

  “We need more facts,” Shepard decided. “Come on. It’s late and we’ve done everything we can to help the colonists. It’s time to get back to the colony, get some rest, and get ready for another sortie in the morning.”

  We set out through the tunnels.

  “Sir, if it’s all the same to you, I think we should pull back all the way to the Normandy,” said Kaidan. “I don’t like the idea of having any of us let down our guard around the colonists. And if there’s something affecting everyone in Zhu’s Hope . . .”

  “What if the geth attack again?” asked Wrex.

  Shepard made a cutting-off gesture with one hand. “No, Kaidan’s right. The colonists seem quiet, but I don’t think we can trust them until we know more. They should be better able to defend themselves now if the geth come back. We can leave a working radio with Fai Dan, to call us in if we’re needed.”

  Ashley asked, “Sir, isn’t the near end of the Prothean skyway on our way back? We should see what kind of transportation is available.”

  “Good idea, Ash.”

  Not long before we reached Zhu’s Hope again, we found a working lift up to the skyway. We found the road’s end in an enormous gallery on the side of the structure, guarded by two of Fai Dan’s people.

  There was one working vehicle: an M-35 Mako, the original model with a crew capacity of only three.

  Shepard smacked a fist into his other hand. “Damn it. Kaidan, what are the odds that we can get our own AFV over onto this skyway?”

  Kaidan turned his engineer’s eye to the problem. His face slowly became grim. “I wouldn’t recommend it, sir. It’s a terrible landing zone. Joker’s a good pilot, but I don’t see how he could get the Normandy into position over here without risking the structural integrity of the arcology, the skyway, or both. I also don’t like the look of the skyway itself. It might not take the shock of having that much weight suddenly dropped on it.”

  “And it’s a very long way down,” Shepard said, frustrated. “Well, there’s nothing for it. Tomorrow morning we’ll make our sortie across to the ExoGeni building. I’ll take Ash and Liara.”

  Kaidan looked mutinous. “Sir, with all due respect . . .”

  “Not this time, Kaidan. With Tali down I need your technical expertise back here, helping the colonists. Garrus and Wrex are good heavy hitters in case the geth come back. With any luck we’ll only be gone for a few hours.”

  Ashley and I exchanged a glance. Well. This should prove interesting.

  Chapter 32 : Skyway

  9 May 2183, SSV Normandy, Zhu’s Hope Docking Facility/Feros

  When we returned to Normandy, we learned Tali had rallied. All of us rushed to the medical bay to see how she was doing. Dr. Chakwas had done surgical repair of her injuries, but she had been pumped full of painkillers and quarian antibiotics and remained very weak. The doctor permitted all of us to visit for a few moments, but then chased us away to prevent us from tiring her patient. Only I stood by when Shepard stepped to the quarian’s bedside, took her gloved hand, and quietly praised her courage.

  “Thank you, Shepard,” said Tali simply.

  Shepard took a step back and then did something remarkable. He made a courtly bow to Tali, and for a moment his body language read as purely quarian. “Talas nasi den vael, Tali. Heal and recover. Your captain and your crew need you.”

  “I will,” she promised, and then became too tired or overcome to say any more.

  Shepard and I turned to go.

  “I didn’t know you spoke quarian exoteric dialect,” I murmured to him once we reached the crew mess.

  “I don’t, not fluently, but I have been taking some of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatic courses in my copious free time. Now that I’m a Spectre I can’t afford to be at the mercy of the translators all the time.”

  “I wonder if I should be jealous?”

  “No, Liara.” He suddenly became quite serious, lowering his voice so only I could hear. “Tali is a wonderful person and a real asset to this team, but there’s only one woman on board this ship for me.”

  “I’m not exactly a woman, you know.”

  “As they say, close enough.”

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have teased you like that.”

  “Hmm. Mahe sekhet ka t’savi ren zh’raseh.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” I told him, “but your accent is terr
ible.”

  He grinned at me. “Well, hopefully I’ll get plenty of opportunity to practice.”

  * * *

  10 May 2183, Prothean Skyway/Feros

  Early in the ship’s morning, Ashley and I met on the staging deck. “Commander told me to improve your gear,” she told me. “If the three of us are going to be going on sortie by ourselves, you need to level up.”

  Since Sharjila I had worn a light Aldrin Labs Onyx-Gamma suit, close-fitting and flexible but no longer sufficient for the opposition we had begun to face. Now Ashley fitted me for the best available light Predator model, from the turian manufacturer Armax Arsenal. This new armor bulked somewhat larger than the Onyx-Gamma, colored in black and dark green in a camouflage pattern. It put up more resistance to gunfire, with tougher materials and a fiercely powerful set of kinetic barriers. The software tricks Tali had loaded into my omni-tool reinforced the shields even further.

  Ash also offered me a new sidearm, an Elkoss Combine submachine gun. “You’re a fine shot with that pistol you’ve been using,” she explained, “but it doesn’t have a good rate of fire. I saw you trying to use it against that geth Prime up in the tower. Might as well have been a BB gun.”

  I frowned, not sure of the reference, but I took the new weapon. It fit comfortably into my hand. I found myself immediately familiar with the controls, already accustomed to other Elkoss Combine weapons. “How is the recoil?”

  “You’ll find it better than your pistol. It’s not quite as accurate, but you’re a good enough shot that shouldn’t make too much difference. Nice thing about this weapon is that it fires three-round bursts, you can pulse it to get something close to full automatic fire, and it takes a long time to heat up. All of which means you can do lots of damage, especially against shields.”

  “Therefore useful against geth,” I observed. “Let me take it into the range for some practice.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I left the staging deck with the M-4 Shuriken at my hip. Before long, I favored the new weapon so much that it became my preferred sidearm, all through the Reaper War and for many years afterward.