Deep Space: An Epic Sci-Fi Romance

by Joan Jett

  When I met Shepard and Ash at the airlock, I still felt underdressed – both of the professional warriors were much more heavily armed and armored – but at least I felt as if I could hold my own in their company.

  Of course, neither of them can turn geth into tinfoil with their minds, I told myself, and felt a little more confident.

  With the rest of Kaidan’s team, we returned to Zhu’s Hope. Shepard spoke briefly with Fai Dan, and then took our people aside to give them last-minute instructions. Kaidan nodded soberly. “You can count on us, Commander.”

  With that, we made our way up to the Prothean skyway. The Mako we had seen in the garage was not in ideal condition, but its drives, sensors, and weapons systems all came up when called on. We rolled out onto the skyway as Feros’ primary star climbed high into the sky to our right.

  We soon encountered geth on the skyway, mostly rocket-wielding Juggernauts and four-legged armatures. Fortunately the skyway had broken into sections, hanging at different angles in such a way that the roadbed did not lie flat. We could come up to a ridge-line in the roadbed, and still remain hull-down to the geth. Shepard would edge us forward while I sent up-to-date sensor readings to Ashley’s board. Once we stood exposed, Ash would fire the main gun and coaxial cannon for a few moments, scoring hits on the distant geth. Then Shepard would back away, putting us hull-down once again and letting geth rockets and plasma bolts sail overhead. Eventually we wore down and destroyed each group of geth platforms.

  On two occasions, we emerged from the Mako to fight geth in the pedestrian tunnels built into the roadbed itself. These fights were sharp and quick, the three of us pitted against no more than two or three geth troopers at a time. I found them good practice, a chance to become accustomed to my new armor and weaponry under easy combat conditions.

  Without Kaidan to set up combinations for my biotic warp, I wasn’t the “glass cannon” Shepard had once labeled me. My biotics still helped control the battlefield. We soon settled into easy teamwork, with me applying telekinetic force from the rear while Shepard or Ash charged down on the helpless geth in front.

  About halfway along the skyway, I detected radio transmissions from the structure ahead of us. “Shepard, I think there are humans still holding out in that building.”

  “Let me hear,” he ordered from the driver’s seat.

  I sent the transmissions to our general channel. A female human voice: “This is Juliana Baynham of Feros Colony. Is there anyone on this channel? Dammit, I’m showing movement on the skyway and it’s not geth. Who’s out there?”

  “Survivors of the geth attack?” guessed Ash.

  “Answer them, Liara,” ordered Shepard.

  I tried transmitting back, but to no avail. “Whoever they are, their communications gear isn’t in good order.”

  Soon enough we discovered the truth. The skyway entered the structure and began to rise several levels, through a series of ramps and landings. Just before this point we found what might have been an ancient vehicle station, a large platform where vehicles could be serviced or inspected. There we saw a ramp, too small for the Mako, leading down to a secondary platform sheltered on all sides by the bulk of the structure. We saw a makeshift barricade at the bottom of this ramp, and human figures moving about.

  We stopped the Mako and approached on foot. Armed ExoGeni security guards watched us nervously, but held their weapons aside and let us pass their barricades. I looked around and saw perhaps two dozen humans, some of them wounded, all of them looking shocked and apathetic. Survivors of some terrible calamity.

  “Stop right there!” shouted a harsh male voice. The speaker pushed himself to the front, confronting Shepard.

  “Take it easy, Jeong, they’re obviously not geth.” This one was an older female, her voice recognizable as the one we had heard over the radio.

  Shepard raised both hands in a calming gesture. “I’m Commander Shepard of the Alliance military.”

  “I’m Juliana Baynham,” said the woman. “I’m probably the senior remaining scientist from the ExoGeni installation. This is Ethan Jeong, the last surviving corporate representative.”

  “I’m in charge here, Juliana!” snapped Jeong. “What are you doing here, soldier?”

  “I’m here to deal with the geth attack, and to investigate what caused it. Do you have any ideas on that?”

  Jeong shook his head. “No. This is a small colony. We don’t have anything the geth could want.”

  Baynham interrupted. “Commander, you would have come through the spaceport facility?”

  “That’s right. The colonists at Zhu’s Hope came under heavy attack too, but most of them have survived. We were able to help them keep the colony operational.”

  She frowned at Jeong. “I thought you said the colonists were all dead.”

  “I said they were probably dead,” said Jeong.

  “Well, now we could join them.”

  “No, it’s too dangerous! The geth could attack again at any time.”

  Shepard nodded in agreement. “We did have to fight our way across the skyway, Ms. Baynham. If you haven’t been attacked yet here, it might be safer for you to stay until we investigate the main ExoGeni facility.”

  “Why do you need to investigate there?” demanded Jeong sharply.

  “Sir, my mission requires me to find out why the geth are here in the first place. There’s no clue that we could find at Zhu’s Hope. They must be after something that’s at your main facility.”

  “That facility is corporate property, soldier. I can’t authorize you to trespass on it.”

  Shepard frowned. “Mr. Jeong, I don’t need your authorization. Not only am I an Alliance soldier, I’m also a Council Spectre. I go where my mission requires me to go.”

  “A Spectre?”

  Shepard produced his Council identification for Jeong and Baynham to inspect.

  “No. No. It has to be a forgery.”

  “Come off it, Jeong. That’s no forgery and you know it.” Baynham turned to us. “Commander, if you’re going to the main facility, would you keep an eye open for my daughter? Her name is Lizbeth, she’s a scientist in the main research office.”

  “I’ll see what we can do, if you think she could have survived the geth.”

  “Sure, there are some places she could have hidden,” Jeong muttered. “For a short time.”

  “One more question for both of you. Did anyone unusual visit Feros about eight or nine standard days ago?”

  Jeong only scowled in denial, but Baynham nodded slowly. “There was someone. He came and met with just a few of the top people in the corporate office. I don’t know who it was. None of us saw him, not even Jeong, but he brought bodyguards with him.”

  “Bodyguards?”

  “Asari commandos,” said Baynham.

  I let out a surprised gasp. “Shepard, that –”

  “Just about has to be our man,” said Shepard quickly, cutting me off. “What happened to him?”

  “I don’t know. He came, he met with the seniors, he left. I don’t think he was here more than a few hours. The geth attacked about a day later.”

  “Did he come through Zhu’s Hope?” asked Ashley suddenly.

  “Of course,” said Baynham, puzzled. “Everyone does.”

  Ash looked at Shepard. “Yeah. Fai Dan and all his people lied to us.”

  “Sure. The question is why?” Shepard turned to Jeong and Baynham. “All right. Sit tight here until we get back, then we can talk about how to see to your safety.”

  “Thank you, Commander,” said Baynham. Jeong only turned away abruptly.

  * * *

  10 May 2183, ExoGeni Headquarters/Feros

  We had to fight hard to get into the ExoGeni facility. Geth waited for us on the second segment of the skyway, more aggressive and in greater numbers. They wore the Mako’s kinetic barriers down to a little over twenty percent by the time we finally arrived at the entrance to the ExoGeni building. Then we discovered that the gara
ge opened through a narrow passage into a large chamber, full of geth, including Juggernauts and the hopping sniper platforms. We could find no way to bring the Mako’s weaponry to bear. We had to emerge from the AFV, cautiously move up to the entrance, and work to wear down the geth with our weapons and my biotic talents. In the end we gained entrance without taking serious damage, but it took a long time and fatigue had all of us in its grip before we finished the job.

  Once we had secured the first chamber, Shepard permitted a short rest. He went off to scout the perimeter while Ash and I sat on a broken stone platform and refreshed ourselves. Ash produced an energy drink and sipped deeply at it while she mopped sweat from her brow. For my part I took a chocolate bar from a pocket of my armor and began devouring it with grim determination.

  “Hardly seems fair,” said Ash after a time. “You don’t even sweat.”

  “Asari temperature regulation mechanisms are different. We do sweat, but only when the external temperature is very high. We tend to flush or pant instead.”

  “If you don’t mind my saying so, it’s very weird how different you are in some ways. I start thinking of you as just a blue-skinned human, and then something like that comes up.”

  I smiled. “Many of us asari feel the same way about humans. You are so like us in some ways, and so alien in others.”

  “Yeah.” She tipped her bottle back to drink the last of its contents. “I’d like to thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Serving the last few weeks with you, with the other non-humans on the crew, it’s been a real eye-opener for me. I never had the chance to get to know any aliens very well before. I wasn’t sure I trusted any of you. You’ve given me a chance to learn better.”

  “This attitude seems common among humans. I suppose it is to be expected. Your introduction to galactic society was difficult.”

  “I’ll say,” Ash snorted. She watched me soberly for a few moments, and then appeared to make up her mind about something. “I had some personal reasons to mistrust aliens. Family history, you might say.”

  I thought back to the evening that I had read through Shepard’s background, and wondered if I should have investigated Ashley’s as well. “Go on.”

  “I come from a military family. Four generations in the service, since before the Alliance was even formed.” She took a deep breath. “My grandfather was the most famous of us. Or the most infamous, depending on how you look at it. General Henry Williams, commander of the garrison on Shanxi during the First Contact War.”

  I reviewed what I knew about that conflict. I had been working a dig site on the other side of the galaxy at the time, and had only learned most of the details years later. “You must be very proud. I understand he did well under very difficult conditions.”

  She stared at me for a long minute, until I began to wonder how I had misspoken. “That’s not how most of the Alliance sees it,” she said at last. “In our history books, he’s listed as the only human commander ever to surrender to an alien force. He was drummed out of the service in disgrace.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “I see.”

  “Do you?” she asked scornfully. “My father joined the Alliance. In a lifetime of service and sacrifice he never made it past Serviceman Third Class. I was kept out of every fleet posting I ever applied for until Captain Anderson brought me aboard the Normandy. Takes a special kind of thick-headed to keep trying to push your way into a job where your whole family has been black-balled.”

  “I will likely have similar experiences for the rest of my life,” I pointed out quietly. “Remember who my mother was. No matter what we accomplish against Saren, I suspect I will always be mistrusted by my own people.”

  That brought her up short. “Hmm. I suppose you’re right.”

  “I do understand your resentment. The turians . . . they are a great asset to the galactic community, but they can be inflexible and brutal. They did not display themselves at their best in your first encounter with them, and the rest of us did not step in as quickly as we should have done. Your grandfather was a victim of our inaction.”

  “Yeah.” She sighed. “I still don’t really trust the Council races as a whole. I think when push comes to shove, you’ll always look out for your own interests first.”

  “Humans do not look out for their own interests?”

  “Hey, I didn’t say you should trust us all that much either.”

  “Point taken.”

  “It’s just . . . all of you are so advanced in some ways, but you’re not angels or gods. The galaxy isn’t a paradise. We all have to figure out how to get along from day to day, and sometimes we won’t agree. I guess what I’ve learned is that I can be a friend to some of you as individuals, and to hell with the big picture. I’ll let other people worry about the politics of it.”

  “That seems wise. I hope you think of me as your friend.”

  She shook her head ruefully. “Yeah, despite everything I do. Tali too. Even Wrex. Even Garrus. He’s a hell of a soldier, he has a wicked sense of humor, and I know he would die for any of us. A turian. For all I know he was one of the ones fighting my grandfather on Shanxi.”

  “I’ve read his dossier. He was not on Shanxi. He was not old enough to be in military service at the time.” I gave her a penetrating glance. “Although it may interest you to know that Saren was on Shanxi as a young soldier.”

  Ashley gave me a slow and rather dangerous grin. “Doc, you are not nearly as innocent as you seem.”

  I only smiled and finished my chocolate.

  Shepard returned soon after that. “Well, I have good news and bad news. Bad news first. There’s some kind of energy barrier surrounding the core of the building. The geth must have put it up, and it is solid. No way are we getting directly through it.”

  “What’s the good news?” asked Ashley.

  “I think I’ve found a way around it. This building is in bad shape. There’s a place where the floor has fallen in and we might be able to climb down into the lower levels. The barrier may not extend that far down.”

  We agreed that it was worth a try, and followed him to the collapsed area. The climb down looked dangerous, but we took it slowly and managed to reach the bottom without incident. We looked around to see another empty, badly decayed floor of the arcology, full of rubble and pools of polluted-looking water.

  Then someone shot Shepard.

  It was a single shot from a civilian-grade pistol, and it didn’t significantly damage his shields. It certainly got our attention. All three of us whirled to face the attack, weapons out and biotic surge ready.

  A young woman cowered, her back to a pile of rubble, half-backed into a corner. The firearm in her hand trembled like a leaf in a mild breeze. “You . . . you’re not geth.”

  “Not the last we checked,” said Shepard dryly. “Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. This is Gunnery Chief Williams, and Dr. T’Soni.”

  “Lizbeth Baynham,” said the woman, finally putting away her weapon. She looked terrible: haggard, filthy, and half-starved.

  “You’re Juliana Baynham’s daughter?”

  “That’s right. Mom’s alive?”

  Shepard nodded. “She and some of the others made it to the midpoint of the skyway. They’re hiding out there, safe from the geth for the moment.”

  “Are you here to rescue me?”

  “Not exactly. We’re here to deal with the geth, and to figure out why they’re attacking this place.”

  She hesitated, and then set her jaw in determination. “I think I can tell you that. They’re after the Thorian.”

  “The what?”

  “The Thorian,” Baynham repeated. “It’s a native plant life-form. I don’t know much about it, but I know the front office has been excited about it for weeks, ever since it was discovered.”

  “What’s special about it?” demanded Shepard.

  “I’m not sure, but rumor in the labs was that it has some kind of mind-controlling properties.” />
  “Of course,” I interrupted. “Shepard, remember that we were wondering about whether the people here were indoctrinated?”

  “Right. It didn’t make any sense if we assumed that Saren was indoctrinating the people here. But if this Thorian is somehow influencing people’s minds . . .”

  “There was that crazy guy we met in the tunnels,” Ash pointed out. “Kept talking about thorns.”

  Shepard nodded. “Thorn . . . Thorian. It does sound similar. As if he was trying to tell us the truth. Ms. Baynham, what else can you tell us about the Thorian?”

  “Not much. I never saw it myself, or any of the lab reports. I only know what I heard through the rumor mill.”

  I shook my head. “Something still doesn’t make sense, Shepard. We still don’t know why Saren would come here, leave peacefully, and then send his geth to attack the colony. Why would he do that if it was his goal to obtain this Thorian life-form?”

  “I think you’re right. We still need to press forward. Ms. Baynham, can you stay in hiding for a while longer until we get the geth barrier curtains down?”

  The girl looked haunted. “I suppose. Just . . . don’t take any longer than you have to.”

  * * *

  We left some rations with Baynham and entered the core of the ExoGeni facility. Soon we made our way through spaces that looked like quarters and maintenance facilities.

  Suddenly Shepard stopped and held up a fist. We froze and listened.

  A voice sounded ahead of us, deep and resonant. “Stupid machine!”

  We crept forward, slowly and silently. Behind a partition of frosted glass, we saw a bulky silhouette, apparently hunched over a workstation. “No, I don’t want to look at your tutorial menus . . . access encrypted files! Stupid machine.”

  Krogan, mouthed Shepard. He held up one finger, then two . . .

  On three we attacked. Shepard and Ashley opened fire through the frosted glass, breaking it into countless shards and exposing the enemy. The krogan reacted with blinding speed, jumping to one side and returning fire with his shotgun before charging us.

  I placed a biotic singularity directly in his path, lifting him helplessly off the ground where my friends could hold him in a lethal crossfire. He was tough as any krogan, but not even he could stand up to our combined assault. He fell dead a few moments later.