by Colin Cook
"Like what Professor Ultra-Universe?" Bailey asked with clear sardonic sarcasm in his voice, cocking his head expectantly. Chellick scowled, shutting down his omni-tool
and aggressively leaning closer with his hand on the edge of Moira's desk.
"I don't know Patton, perhaps in Axel's universe all this is really from a book, or a movie, or even maybe a video game!" the Turian bit out gruffly, the heightened voices
between the two men causing several of the officers and agents surrounding the area to once again look over at them in alarm.
One particular Turian agent sitting at a desk not far from Moira's stared at the two lieutenants inquisitively for a slightly longer period then all the others, which in turn
made Bailey and Chellick turn their heads toward him with irritated scowls.
"What're you lookin' at!" they both snapped at the man simultaneously.
Immediately the Turian held up his hands in surrender and quickly turned back to his work.
"Guys! I got a hit!" Moira suddenly announced from her terminal, frantically typing into it's keyboard.
Behind Chellick the massive wall screen showing Axel's fingerprint changed, the image flicking into that of a grainy beige coloured military personnel file with a square
photograph of a large man in an older style uniform placed off to the left.
On the file it showed a specially organized list of individual information, ranging from eye colour, height, date of birth, and so forth.
But, while all of this was clearly marked in jet-black lettering, stamped in blazing crimson red across the picture of the man were three solid letters spelling out the
acronym...
'K.I.A.'
"Bailey, Chellick, meet Second-Lieutenant Jarrod Alexi François of the Canadian Royal 22e Régiment," Moira declared with a wide grin as she leaned back in her chair with
her fingers laced behind her head. Stunned by this sudden change in luck, Bailey and Chellick dropped their anger towards each other and turned to the wall screen in
astonishment.
"That's the guy! How did you find him?" Chellick asked while pointing a talon up at the picture connected to the file.
Jarrod's military-ID picture was the regulation standard for the 20/21st Century Canadian Armed Forces. With the striking red and white of the Canadian flag propped up
across a neutral coloured background, Jarrod sat un-smiling facing toward the camera that had taken this shot nearly two hundred years ago.
Clean-shaven, wearing a tightly fitted black military beret on his head and a desert camouflage dress-uniform over his large muscle-bound frame, Jarrod was the spitting
image of an elite soldier. All that was needed to make him look like the Jarrod that Bailey and Chellick had seen down at the Docks was some stubble on his face and a
little more wear-and-tear to his clothing.
"I used the info that Axel gave us over the recording. With the Citadel's connection to the Alliance's Military Archives, I was able to reach back far enough into their older
files and match up his name and background with the very one you see now," Moira explained with a nod up to Jarrod's dossier, her proud smile still lining her cheeks.
"Outstanding Moira," Bailey complimented her as he came up closer toward the screen, his eyes looking across the two hundred year old document. Sitting up straight
Moira began typing into her keyboard again.
"Thanks because it wasn't easy, in computer terms this thing was a fossil, which I wouldn't have gotten at all if my query hadn't been so specific. It would seem Axel's
helping us out with this investigation in more ways than one."
"What does Jarrod's file tell us?" Chellick asked over to her before turning back to the screen.
"As much as we may not want to believe it, everything Axel described appears to check out perfectly. François was an honour graduate from Officer Training out of
Valcartier Army Base, had several tours-of-duty under his belt both in and outside of Afghanistan, as well as several joint-efforts with the Royal Canadian Navy in the
South China Seas…" Moira began citing off, her blue/green irises zigzagging back and forth over the lines of text the file contained.
"The file closes with his death on September 25, 2010. It says that after the Army Company he belonged to liberated a village in the northern district of the Kandahar
Province, Jarrod suffered a severe mental breakdown...and then…" she continued before breaking off abruptly, her head cocked and a frown on her brow.
"And then? What happened after that?" Chellick asked, prompting her to continue. Moira shook her head with a shrug before looking up from her terminal.
"Remember this thing is nearly two hundred years old, the data is so corrupted from age and misuse that parts of it are missing. From what I can make out it claims that
while interrogating a captured insurgent, Jarrod suddenly lost it and drew his sidearm, killing the prisoner and then proceeding to fire blindly upon the rest of his unit."
"It doesn't mention what his psychological state was before the incident, or if he was suffering from any kind of mental illnesses that would have led up to it. It simple
ends with him taking one of the local villagers as a hostage while being pursued by the rest of the unit, and then being shot in the head by…by one Lieutenant Sorenson…
when he attempted to detonate a frag grenade that would have killed himself and many others within the surrounding area," she finished before looking back up at
Chellick and Bailey.
"We already know what caused him to go off the hook, his brother," Bailey stated without turning away from the screen.
"Yeah, both Axel and Jarrod mention farther back on the recording about how his brother Luc François was captured and killed during an operation that went sour, the
same one that their commanding officer Captain Cormier died in as well," Chellick mentioned after rubbing his chin in thought.
"Well we're in luck on that one, there's a connecting link here that lists Jarrod's next-of-kin as…" Moira added as she tapped a button that would activate the said link.
A second of processing went by before Jarrod's military file disappeared and was replaced by an almost identical one.
The bold red stamp spelling out 'K.I.A' was still emblazoned across the picture set off to the side, but the picture itself was of another man who looked very similar to but
slightly different from Jarrod.
"Lieutenant Luc Avery François, the younger brother of Jarrod François but one level higher up in rank than him," Moira stated after all of the ancient file had finished
downloading.
"He looks almost just like him," Bailey remarked with a cocked eyebrow.
Luc did indeed look like a younger version of Jarrod, with the same strong jaw, the same brown eyes, the same rigidness to his face and cheeks. But aside from the many
similarities between the two there were noticeable differences, a few being that Luc was about an inch or so shorter then his brother and wasn't as physically large. One
major difference that could be picked out at first glance was the hair; his trim cut being a soft chocolate brown as opposed to his brother's jet-black. The most striking
difference between the two however wasn't in their physical appearance, but in their mannerisms toward the cameras that had taken their pictures.
While Jarrod had chosen to regard the camera with a neutral poker face, Luc had decided to do the exact opposite. From his photo he was flashing Moira, Bailey, and
Chellick with a wide smile.
After taking a moment to look across Luc's file on the wall screen, Chellick turned and came back around behind Moira's desk to look at the more detailed contents
contained within the rest of it on her terminal.
"Everything here correlates with the information Axel spoke of Bailey, there's no denying now that these men are the ones
he was referring to," Chellick told Bailey after a
minute or so of looking over Luc's personal history. Nodding in agreement Bailey pulled away from the wall screen and came back around to stand beside Chellick.
"Alright so we know Axel's story is genuine, now I want to see who the man was himself all those years ago. Try bringing up Axel's military record," he stated with a nod
down to the screen.
"There's no link in either of the François' files, and any other other data mentioning Axel in connection to them has deteriorated beyond repair so we won't be able to
access his records through those either," Moira explained as she began typing away. Suspiciously though Chellick took this moment to crack a sly Turian smile.
"But, with his fingerprint now in our possession, we should be able to match a direct link to his file and his file alone," the Turian remarked to both of them with an equally
slyly cocked brow-ridge.
"Exactly," Moira added in the same manner right before jabbing a single button.
Both the wall screen and Moira's terminal changed at the same time, their surfaces shimmering for a moment as the Citadel's network tried to access the ancient files.
The emerald green image of Axel's partial fingerprint returned to the right side of the screen, immediately being followed by a set of visibly aged handprints taken from
various Canadian military files dating back to and before Axel's time appearing directly beside it.
These prints began cycling through the Citadel Network's list of names, each one appearing for a quick moment and then flicking to a different set just like they had done
when Moira had been comparing the fingerprint to the Alliance files earlier.
For several tense seconds nobody said a word, the three of them all waiting with baited breath as the computer went through the ancient names.
Then suddenly (and after a pretty short time span when one looked at it realistically) the left side of the screen froze with the image of a single black-inked handprint
displayed on an orderly sheet of detailed paper that had been photographed so as to be placed on file within the former Canadian Army's digital archives. Right away the
ominous handprint started to grow in size, filling up its portion of the screen as the computer zoomed in on the finger print belonging to the forth finger from the left, the
ring finger.
Once zoomed in, it took less than a second for Moira's terminal to compensate for the one hundred and seventy-ish year time gap between the two prints that were now
displayed side-by-side before a small click sounded out and a glowing line of bright green text appeared across the entire screen.
'POSITIVE MATCH CONFIRMED' was what the flashing message spelt out, almost triumphantly as the two prints slid inward together until they had morphed into one,
showing that they both matched up perfectly.
"Boys, get ready to buy me a beer," Moira declared before tapping the execute button on her keyboard.
The matching prints dimmed down as a familiar beige military file opened up over them, scrolling from the top of the screen downward until it had completely unfurled
before its awaiting audience.
"I give you Axel Kaae Sorenson himself!" Moira read off victoriously before folding her arms and leaning back with her boots propped up on her desk crossed at the
ankles.
Axel's file looked very similar to Jarrod and Luc's, with the one major exception of his not having a 'K.I.A' stamped across his ID. In his picture he was dressed in the exact
same attire as Jarrod and Luc had been, with a well-prepped desert uniform and a tight black beret overtop of his trim cut blonde hair. Having an attitude more like Luc,
Axel was framed sitting on a stool with his right hand casually pressed against the top of his thigh, looking up at the three C-Sec officers with one of the friendliest grins
they had ever seen.
"THAT'S OUR SCUMBAG!" Chellick roared out across the office with his fists raised into the air, his face overcome with joy.
"Would you three knock it off!" a nameless agent shouted angrily from one side of the room as most of its inhabitants turned towards Moira's desk in annoyance…again.
"Sorry…" was all Chellick could manage with a suddenly embarrassed look while everyone returned to their work, more then a few of them casting the Turian cold glares
as they did.
"'Speed' reference!" Moira added in non-the-less, trying to ease the pressure off Chellick as she flashed a giddy smile to pacify anyone still glaring at them and held up a
hand to receive a High-Five. Chellick laughed quietly in thanks as the palm of his three fingered hand briefly clapped with that of hers.
(So I guess that makes it a High…Three?)
"I gotta admit, he actually looks pretty handsome when he isn't being chased and shot at by an army of cops," Moira remarked with an impressed cock of her eyebrow
after she had looked over Axel's ID a few times.
"Moira…" Bailey stated down to her flatly while he gazed at the wall screen. Moira laughed and sat up straight in her chair.
"Oh don't worry Bailey, intergalactic terrorists aren't exactly my type," she joked back up to him with another smile.
"Moira!" Bailey repeated more firmly while casting a deliberate look down at her, pointing to her terminal with all of Axel's information. Kealoha's smile awkwardly
disappeared at that.
"Right…" she said quietly before turning around and clearing her throat.
"This file is almost more corrupted than Jarrod's was, so don't expect any miracles," Kealoha stated over her shoulder before reading aloud the information before her.
"Axel Sorenson, born August 2nd, 1985 A.D., in Carleton Place Ontario to Steen Sorenson and Michelle Morris-Sorenson. His mother unfortunately died due to
complications in childbirth and as a result his father raised him alone from then on. Shortly after his birth he and his father moved northward to the city of Thunder Bay
where Axel spent the entirety of his childhood, it was here that he met and befriended the François brothers early on. When he turned twenty he and the François' moved
out on their own and journeyed together to the brothers' ancestral residence in Gatineau Quebec, where they all enlisted with the Armed Forces and got accepted into
Officer Training. From then on it describes an almost meteoric rise through the ranks, with the three of them acting as a modern Three Musketeers of sorts."
Moira continued describing what partial information the dated file had on the three's experience through Basic Training and onward, giving a detailed picture of the social
structure the trio seemed to have between each other. From the file's point of view, Axel was the leader and the most cunning out of the three, Luc was usually the laid
back easy going voice of reason, while Jarrod had been the lovable albeit sometimes brash and hotheaded hulking muscle of the group (which was in stark contrast to the
murderous and insane man the C-Sec trio had been researching up to this point).
If put alongside Alexandre Dumas' iconic characters, Axel would have been Athos, while Luc would have been loosely equated with Aramis, and Jarrod would have been
the strong-as-an-ox figure that was Porthos.
As she continued, the file started to get more and more distorted but was clear enough to show some more notable events that took place during Axel's time with the
military.
After nearly three years into the job the three were noted to have befriended another man who readily became the forth member of their little group, a sort of D'Artagnan
to their Musketeers, an up-and-coming Sniper Officer named Geordi Hiamoto. Shortly after that all four of them graduated to the ranks of Lieutenants before being
assigned and accepted into the Company of one Captain Fredrick Cormier, to which the original three served as
a large portion of the captain's administrative staff.
"The data gets more corrupted after that but from what is still clear it mentions that after being assigned to Cormier's command, Axel's father Steen became terminally ill
with some kind of fungal virus he picked up while camping in the northern woods around Thunder Bay, he eventually dies six months later," Moira explained with a small
shake of her head.
"That must have been hard on him," Chellick stated softly, as if he were empathizing with Axel. Bailey squinted his eyes while looking over the terminal screen, barely able
to read the eroded text.
"What else does it say?" he asked down to their tech specialist.
"Everything else talking about what they did on base or their work throughout Canada has faded away, so if Steen's death did somehow affect him I can't tell. However
there is one thing that I can still make out that's a bit interesting…" Moira stated before squinting her own eyes and leaning closer to the holographic screen.
"What is it?" Chellick asked, both he and Bailey remaining quiet and listening intently so as to not miss anything.
"There was once a complaint brought to Cormier about an issue regarding Axel. Apparently Mister Sorenson may have had a problem with fraternization in the
workplace," Kealoha cited with a very amused thin smile as she looked back at Chellick and Bailey.
Both officers turned to one another with stunned expressions after hearing this intriguing nugget of information.
"He was sleeping with soldiers under his command?" Chellick inquired with a cocked brow-ridge and a rather unsettled look on his face. Immediately however Moira shook
her head and turned back to the screen.
"It doesn't say anything about him sleeping with anyone, it just says that Axel was seen on a few occasions becoming rather close with one officer in particular who
belonged to a different unit. The source claimed that Lieutenant Sorenson and this officer were rarely seen apart when the two groups were brought together, and that as
time went on they both began to show very slight signs of PDA whenever they were around each other on duty, both while on base and even once while on a