Sins of the Father, Sins of the Flesh

So there they gathered, the good, the bad, and the (depending on your point of view) ugly: Shepard’s crew, seated around the long table. She felt grief like a fist to the solar plexus: only eleven now, instead of the even dozen there should have been. One empty seat that nobody looked at, but that everyone was looking at, just the same.

Anger bubbled up inside her. She wanted to scream, throw things through walls; she wanted to be Grunt and rip the ship to shreds with her bare hands, wanted to be Jack and blast everything to hell just by snapping her fingers. “If I can’t even keep my own people safe, goddammit,” she thought, “what am I even fighting for anymore?”

“’Cause that’s what you do, Shepard,” Grunt rumbled, and she realized she’d spoken the last words aloud. “You fight. And for you, there’s always a fight to be found.”

Shepard dropped into her chair at the head of the table and covered her eyes with one hand. “Don’t even Krogans get tired of fighting sometimes, Grunt?”

He snorted. “That’s what your krantt’s for.”

In her cool, lovely voice, Samara said “You do not fight alone, Shepard. Did you forget my oath so easily?” A smile quirked one corner of her mouth.

“Or mine?” Thane said.

“One fight’s as good as another; might as well fight for someone who gives two shits about me,” Jack said.

“Credits haven’t run out yet,” Zaeed said. “’M stickin’ around until they do.”

“I spent two years of my life bringing you back from the inside out; I’m certainly not going to let you go off alone,” Miranda said.

Jacob shrugged. “I’m with her.”

“I lost my love,” Kasumi said, “but perhaps I may help you find your friend.”

“Will stay with you, Shepard,” Mordin said.

Tali, sitting next to her, placed her hand gently on the Shepard’s shoulder. “He is my friend as well…and you are my captain.”

Legion looked at each face in turn, and each one felt he somehow met their gaze; when he turned at last to Shepard, he said only “Consensus has been reached, Shepard-Commander.”

“I guess it has,” she said, and felt the sting of tears behind her eyelids. Drawing a deep breath to steady herself, she stood and placed the palms of both hands on the table.

“Okay. You’ve all got the dossier with the info on Aria’s daughter and Dr. Fell. Hopefully, you’ve all read it,” she said, with a small smile on her face, “but let’s hit the high points anyhow. EDI?”

A holo popped up in the middle of the table, the same one Aria had given Shepard. There were a few low sounds of appreciation. “This is Petra T’Loak—“ EDI began, but Shepard cut her off. “EDI, let’s get to Dr. Fell first, please.”

A few questioning looks from around the table.

“Let’s get this clear,” Shepard said, meeting everyone’s eyes in turn. “Petra is not our first priority. I’d like to find her—I want to find her—alive, but if the search goes in different directions, we go after Garrus first. Any problems with that?”

Nobody spoke.

“This is Dr. Justin Fell,” EDI said.

Another holo popped up in the middle of the table, this one of a middle-aged man with a scholarly look; he was clean-shaven, with small, round glasses and a shock of dark hair. Shepard could picture him brushing it out of his eyes impatiently.

“Holy shit! I knew I knew that name from somewhere!” Jack said. “I know that guy!”

“Well, guess we know who didn’t read the dossier,” Shepard said. “Can you hold on a second while EDI gives us the background?”

“Sure, whatever,” Jack said, leaning back and propping her boots up on the table.

EDI continued. “This is Dr. Justin Fell.”

Mordin interrupted. “Ah! Also know him. Didn’t put pieces together until now. Hm. Should have read the dossier.”

Shepard sighed. “Okay, is there anybody else who didn’t read the dossier and knows this guy?”

When she was met with silence, she said, “EDI? Let’s try this again.”

“This is—“

“We know who it is now, EDI.”

“37 years old. Educated on Terra; graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University, summa cum laude at Harvard Medical School. Postgraduate studies included alien biology, including work with the salarian Special Tasks Group. Currently holds position as chief of medical staff at Illium Entertainment Plus.”

“What’s Illium Entertainment Plus?” Grunt said.

Jack laced her hands behind her head and grinned. “It’s a porn studio. It’s also where I know the guy from.”

“Still begs question: how did doctor of Fell’s standing become chief of staff there?” Mordin said.

“Did you know him before he ended up at IEP?” Shepard said.

“Knew of him. Didn’t work with my group. Met once. Had interesting conversation about genetic modification of Terran bees. Postulated that their vocalizations could somehow be modified so that they would produce pleasing harmonies, quote “Imagine the Goldberg Variations as recreated by a beehive!” Believe he may have been intoxicated at the time. Still. Brilliant clinician, diagnostician. Prolific researcher; published in many respected journals. Work with STG pertained to possible ramifications of cross-species disease vectors—not highly classified.”

Mordin paused. “Also, a very…kind…man. Gentle. Selfless.”

“Yep, sounds like him,” Jack said, sitting up and putting her feet on the floor with a thump.

Shepard sighed. “I know we’re all going to regret this, but I have to ask. Jack, how did you know Dr. Fell?”

“I was in a couple of vids for IEP,” Jack said, with a wicked smile.

“Which ones?” Zaeed asked, with interest.

“Moving on,” Shepard said, loudly. “Tell us about Dr. Fell, Jack.”

“Well, this was after the whole space station crash thing, so I was trying to lay low—“

Miranda made a rather unladylike sound. “Only you would think that laying low involved starring in pornography.”

For once, Jack completely ignored her. “—trying to lay low and make a few easy credits. So I walk up to the guards and say I’m there to work. One of ‘em laughs and says I have to “audition” for him before they let me in. So I smashed his head into the wall, started on the rest, and then this asari with these crazy eyes comes out and they all just stop moving. Completely. So I look at her, she looks at me, she smiles and tells me they just might have a little work for me to do.”

“What do you mean by “crazy eyes”?” Shepard said.

“Well, you know how when asari do that freaky “embrace eternity” thing their eyes get all black?” Shepard saw Samara hiding a small smile. “They were like that—all black—except for these, I don’t know, stars, I guess. Her eyes looked like the view out the observation deck. They glittered when she looked at you. Fuckin’ creepy. I asked her where she got eyes like that and she said, “Child, if you have to ask, you can’t afford them,” and she smiled again and put her hand on my face. Now, I’d usually break some bones for that, but…I didn’t feel like fucking with her.”

Shepard tried to digest the idea of someone with whom Jack did not want to fuck and found it difficult.

“Anyhow, she didn’t even give a shit I’d just taken out a bunch of guards, just said that normally she’d have me fill out some paperwork but in my case she’d make an exception, and I said that was a good idea, so she just took me to the doctor and told me he’d tell me where to go from there.”

“She took you to Dr. Fell?”

“Yep. Nice guy, didn’t ask too many questions, just did his little scan thing on me and asked if I’d wait a few minutes while he got ready to go. He got all his shit together and walked me to a studio, usual setup, recording equipment, director, all that, and a girl on a bed.”

Jack paused. “A really fucking hot girl on a bed. So I look at the director and ask what he wants and he tells me to fuck her and beat the hell out of her, and I got to choose the order. He also told me not to kill her, but pretty much anything else was okay.”

Eyes widened around the table.

“Ah…was the girl good with this?” Shepard said.

“Fuck yeah,” said Jack. “She walked over to me, gave me this great big smile and a kiss on the cheek and said she looked forward to working with me. I could tell she was clean—no drugs, whatever—just thought she was crazy. Then she grabbed my hand and led me over to the bed, the cameras started rolling, and we got down to it. I started by yanking her hair back—she had this really long, thick black hair—with one hand and ripping her shirt off with the other, and then—“

“Okay, Jack, we don’t need all the details, thanks so much, just tell us what this has to do with the doctor.”

Jack snorted. “Fine. So we get on with it, and at the end, she’s a fucking mess. I used my biotics on her, used my fists on her, they had a couple of nasty leather things—she was just a mess. Pretty sure I broke her cheekbone, know I broke her ribs. And she was getting off on it the entire time.”

She paused. “So was I, matter of fact. Damn, that girl was good. There was this one thing she did with her tongue—“

“Again, Jack, not the point, let’s get to the doctor,” Shepard said, strain in her voice.

“Anyhow. We’re both naked and covered in blood, most of it’s hers, she’s barely breathing, and here comes the doctor.”

“Thank God,” breathed Shepard.

“And he starts scanning me.”

“What?” Tali said.

“Yeah. He starts scanning me. Helps me up, real gentle, takes me over to a chair, tells me I’ve got a few broken fingers, starts fixing me up. The director and the camera guys are looking over the footage and there’s this massively fucked-up girl on the bed and I get in the doctor’s face and tell him to get the fuck over there and she lifts her head up and says she’s fine.”

“What?” Mordin said.

“Yeah. She just waits another minute or so, I’m watching her while the doctor’s fixing my hand, and she gets up. Her bones are cracking and I can see her ribs heal up, her cheekbone snaps back into place, the cuts close over and the bruises just fade away. Some assistant or something comes in with a sponge and just rinses the blood off and then it’s like I never laid a hand on her at all. She walks over to where I am and asks the doctor am I okay. He says I’m fine, does a quick scan on her, tells her she’s fine. She kisses me and says she hopes we get to work together again, that’s the best job anybody’s done on her since the last krogan they had in the studio, puts on a robe, and walks out.”

“What the fuck?” Zaeed said.

“Yep. The doc finished with me, told me he’d take me to my room, so I grab my clothes and we get going. He’s talking to me the whole way but it’s not pissing me off like it usually does. He was just…nice. Real calm. Right before we got to my room, a guy came out in the hall limping, doesn’t see us, starts walking the other way. Doc calls after him, asks him if he’s hurt his knee again, knows the guy’s name and everything. Guy stops and says yeah, he was on his way to the clinic and the doc tells him he should have called down, they’d come to see him. He asks me if I’ll wait a minute, I lean against the wall, and he goes into the guy’s room. Maybe five minutes later, he comes back out, smiling and telling the guy to make sure he stays off that knee for a while. He says he’s sorry for making me wait, gets me to my room, tells me he’ll come see me later, and that if I have any questions about anything, I can ask him.”

“Then what happened?” Shepard said.

“I worked there a few more weeks,” Jack said. “Did three more vids, all with the same girl. Damn, that was some good sex.” She stopped talking and smiled.

“Let’s get back to the doctor, Jack,” Shepard said.

“Anyhow, one time I asked the doctor how the fuck she just fixed herself like that, was she part krogan or something? And he says no. Then he dropped his head down and said something real low about how she was just a little more human than human now.”

“He sounded sad. And pissed,” she finished. “Only time I ever heard him sound like that. And what he said…well, it kind of freaked me out. So I got what was owed me and I booked.” Jack looked up and glared, as if daring anyone to make an issue of it. “That’s it. End of story.”

“Hm. More human than human, huh?” Shepard said, mulling it over.

“More Human than Human,” EDI said, “is the motto of the Tyrell Corporation, a leader in the field of human genetic modification. It is located on Illium as well.”

Shepard’s eyes narrowed. “Any connection to Fell?”

“Records show that Dr. Fell sits on the board of directors of the Tyrell Corporation.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Miranda said, in a low whisper.

“How do you know that?” Shepard asked.

“Because I know the name and face of every man and woman on that board as well as I know my own,” Miranda said. “I have notes, transcripts, and video footage of every meeting they have, up to and including the one held last week, and I have never seen that man there.”

“How do you get it? More importantly, why?”

Miranda smiled sickly. “I get it straight from the Illusive Man. I need to keep track of him, you see.”

Blank looks from around the table. “Him who?” said Shepard, breaking the silence.

“The Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Tyrell Corporation,” Miranda said, deep bitterness in her voice. “My father.”