Their Finest Hour

Title: Their Finest Hour, Chapter 15

Author: Draygon

Game: Mass Effect

characters/pairing: F!Shep/Garrus

Disclaimer: Bioware owns it all. I am just playing with their toys. U No SU. Also, SPOILERS for all the things!

 

Thane stepped out of the lift, his eyes adjusting to the bright 'sunlight' of the Presidium's Market District. He stood to the side of the elevator and inhaled as much as his lungs would allow. The smell of the water and plants reminded him of how long it had been since he had been planet-side, and he suddenly remembered the smell of Illium before he had taken the Dantius job. The smell of the open air bar, Eternity, where the gruff Matriarch tended to the patrons with a mix of rugged charm and head-butts came to his mind almost unbidden. The memory made him smile, if only because without his time there, he never would have found his son in time to save him from himself.



Shaking himself out of his memories, Thane started down the hall toward the markets. The new Captain manning the small C-Sec office on Zakera ward had directed him here, though with a stern warning not to take too much of his son's time. He had promised not to interfere with his son's training, to which the Captain, a deep purple Asari who looked to be less than a century from Matriarch, had merely grunted before going back to her duties. Thane wondered if all older Asari were short with their words or just those with Krogan for fathers, when he spotted Kolyat walking with an older human woman.



Seeing her in person, Thane understood his son's hesitation when he was assigned as her trainee. She was a stern looking woman, and if the wrinkles around her eyes were any indication, she had led a hard life up till now. As he approached the two, Hudspeth's eyes locked on him, her mind putting two-and-two together and before Thane had opened his mouth to speak, she had her hand extended in greeting, a genuine smile pulling at her thin lips.



"You must be Mr. Krios. It's a pleasure to meet you."



Thane took the offered hand. Her palms were calloused like Shepard's, he observed and like Shepard, she had several scars on her face. Including one starting above the hair line above her ear and extending down to the left side of her mouth. "Thank you, Captain," Thane replied, as he clasped his hands behind his back. Kolyat seemed a little tense, though Thane chalked it up to their still strained relationship. "I know I only have a few minutes to talk."



Hudspeth had been observing her trainee's discomfort, and she tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm going to get a bite to eat at the bar." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the open cafe tended by an old Asari wiping the surface down with a towel.



Thane watched her leave before turning his gaze back on Kolyat. "Your training officer seems pleasant enough."



Kolyat chuffed, his hand moving to scratch an imaginary itch on the back of his head. "Yea, well, you haven't seen her angry." Kolyat craned his head toward where Hudspeth was talking with the bar tender. "The only reason that Krogan didn't kill her was because he was too drunk to see straight."



Thane chuckled as a third person came up to the bar to order a drink. Thane could only see the young human woman's profile, but he thought she looked familiar.



"She's pretty strict though." Thane turned back to his son, noting that his words weren't a complaint. "I can't tell you when the last time I slept in was."



"You seem to to be doing well under her tutelage, regardless."



Kolyat shrugged. "Yea... Thanks." The young Drell shifted his feet slightly, his nervousness showing as he wracked his brain for something to say. This seemed so much easier over vid-chat. "I'm staying in Zakera ward. It's a nice apartment, a little small but at least I can afford it on what they pay trainees."



Thane nodded his approval, his keen hearing picking up Hudspeth heading back in their direction. "I am proud of you, Kolyat. I always have been."



Kolyat tried to suppress a smile at his father's words, though he was only half successful. The words to express the pride he felt hearing his father complement his choices seemed stuck, somehow. Smothered under a blanket of lingering disappointments and loneliness.



"Thanks," Kolyat lifted one corner of his mouth to match the other, giving his father the first genuine smile of his adult life.



"I should probably let you get back to work." Thane turned to leave, not trusting that his voice wouldn't crack, as Hudspeth joined them, again.



"Do you have a place to stay?" The words tumbled out of Kolyat's mouth before he could stop them. He mentally kicked himself for even thinking to ask, but some part of him was afraid his father was living in a shelter, or worse, in an ally somewhere.



"Not yet, son" Thane chuckled at Kolyat's embarrassment. "I've only been here for a few hours. I do not doubt I will find somewhere to live. Shepard did not allow me to leave the Normandy without compensation."



Kolyat nodded, knowing Hudspeth was probably silently laughing at him. He didn't trust his mouth not to run off with him, so he merely smiled as his father turned and walked toward the cafe.

Garrus slowly leaned back on the small couch, stunned into silence by what he had just read. Everything Chorban had learned from Shepard's scanning of the Keepers was on the OSD Garrus had found in Chorban's apartment. The jumpy Salarian had used the scanning data as a tracker to plot the movement of each of the twenty or so tagged Keepers through out the Citadel. He even used the Keepers interactions with each other to expand the database until he was tracking the movements of almost ten thousand Keepers. Most of his notes were observations of their activities and movements throughout the inaccessible catacombs of the Citadel's interior.



However, as Garrus got toward the end of Chorban's detailed notes, he began noticing Chorban's increasing paranoia about his partner again. As Chorban closed in on the central control hub for the Keepers activities, he included detailed observations about Jahleed's suspicious activities. Garrus had nearly put the OSD down at that point. He had thought the entire issue between the two had been resolved rather well, though Chorban's observations included one crucial detail that kept Garrus from tossing his research aside. Chorban had followed Jahleed into the warehouse district on a hunch he was trying to sell their findings again. Instead he had found himself eves dropping on a conversation between his partner and a Cerberus agent. Chorban had recorded the conversation between the agent and Jahleed and it was, indeed, Cerberus attempting to get their hands on Chorban's research.



But, why?



Chorban had asked Jahleed the same question and from his notes, his partner's answer was somewhat evasive. The Volus had tried to get Chorban in on the deal, trying appeal to Chorban's greed first, then his ego with money and fame. But the Salarian had rightly deduced that in the hands of Cerberus, this information would be far too dangerous. 'Better to hand it to the Council, he had written,' and 'face any penalties than let Cerberus use any part of this.'



Garrus continued reading, his eyes scanning over a more recent entry. He opened the play back of the audio file and listened.



"Found out where the Keepers are coming from. Under the Presidium tower, under the archives, way under. Back-traced through one of their terminals in Zakera ward. It's what the protein vats are for. Cloned. Programmed. Virus in the program, though. Interferes with outside signals, I think. Who's controlling the Keepers from outside the Citadel? Who wrote the virus? It's relatively new. Original program is old. Ancient. Older than ancient. Can't access main body of code from terminals. Only packets. Some packets aren't from the central control. Originate from elsewhere. Looks like activation orders. Activating what? Why? Who is sending these codes? Pinging source doesn't help. Says it originates from dark space. Impossible. Unless... Shepard was right. Jahleed? Is that you? Wait! Your not-"



So Cerberus had come calling for Chorban. Garrus scrolled down further and found one last audio recording. He tapped the screen and listened again.



"Whoever this is, make sure this gets to Shepard. *Cough* They killed Jahleed. Framed me. Damned Cerberus. Knew they were *groan* trouble. My partner tried to sell this information to them. Only let him have half, though. Probably why they killed him. Thank goodness for remote backups. Destroying everything except this disk. Hope it gets to the right people. Dead either way."



Garrus listened as Chorban took his last breaths. He was gone and this was the only thing left of his research. Knowing all of this, Garrus suddenly felt closed in. He nearly leapt from the couch and started pacing the small hotel room, his mind whirring. There wasn't much he could do with this information on the Citadel. No one wanted to even hear the word 'Reaper', not after the smear campaign both the Alliance and Council had orchestrated against Shepard. Even after everything he, himself, had seen, he still wouldn't even be able to get an audience with the Council. And, too, Chrorban's findings might actually land him in trouble if someone got the idea that they were a form of disturbance to the Keepers.



"I'd get a better reception with the Hierarchy," Garrus muttered to himself. But he had to admit that he had no more pull with the Primarch than the average citizen. Garrus stopped pacing as a thought occurred to him. "No." He continued his restless circuit around the hotel room. But he stopped again as his eyes found the data pad. "I must be going insane." Garrus rubbed a hand over his face as he considered his options. As he made up hims mind, he felt his shoulders sink. He had to try. Taking the OSD from the data pad he stowed it in an inside pocket in his civilian clothing and started packing his meager belongings.



On the laptop built into the desk, he booked himself on the first transport to leave the Citadel and walked out the door. He was finely going home.