Book 1, Chapter 4 - Doctor T'Soni, I presume? (Therum)
*****
Standing by the galaxy map, I realised straight away I could do two birds with one stone. Within the Artemis Tau cluster were four systems. Therum was in the Knossos system. Kahoku hadn't been able to give me a pinpoint location on where the marines had gone missing, but sending out a few probes in each system should help me pick up something. If the marines had managed to get a distress beacon working, even better. Our ship should pick that up on the scanners.
Getting to the system we needed would require a few relay jumps, and then we'd have to fly through space to reach the system. We'd be looking at a little flight time before we'd hit the ground. The only concern I had regarding that is the system was deep in the Traverse. And despite the brave speech I'd made, I still didn't want to have to face a roving band of pirates. Thankfully the stealth systems of the
Normandy
should keep us cloaked from any scanners.
The extended flight time gave me the opportunity to wander the ship and get to know my crew, as to be honest, I was rather new to the
Normandy
myself, so we'd barely got to know each other before I assumed commander. The enlisted men and women were immediately respectful, I think for a variety of reasons, one being my war record and, two, the fact I was the first human Spectre.
Speaking to Pressly, he surprised me by voicing his suspicion of the fact I'd hired non-humans as crew, believing the mission to catch Saren should be a human-only endeavour. I listened to what he had to say, believing he had the right to express his opinion, before I retorted, suggesting the fact we accepted the help from what we had one termed 'alien' races simply made the Alliance appear more open-minded and tolerant than perhaps other species in the galaxy. Adding to that, the Alliance could and should accept help from anyone who wished to ally with it in the face of such overwhelming danger. It was food for thought.
Ashley was also suspicious, particularly of Garrus. Her suspicion wasn't a great surprise considering her personal history, and after doing a little research on her, it was rather sad to know she was basically banging her head against a brick wall in regards to promotion. I would do what I could if she proved herself in my team, but it appeared the entire Alliance had a chip on their shoulder regarding the Williams name. I gave her credit simply for joining up, knowing what she was possibly in for.
Kaidan was a rather private individual, not particularly wanting to open up to me yet. He admitted to suffering headaches because he was a biotic, but other than that, he wasn't ready to open up yet. I'd give him time. Garrus was just relieved to be off the leash, showing absolutely no concern about quitting his job with C-Sec. Wrex just wanted to go and kill things. As for Tali, she was terribly excited, near enough bouncing off the walls, in regards to being allowed onto such an advance spaceship, explaining a few things about the Migrant Fleet, as I knew next to nothing about them.
Entering the correct system, I had everyone head down to the garage by the Mako, where I would explain how things would work. Anyone who had served in the Alliance would know about a Mako air-drop, a ship would fly down close to the ground, unloading the Mako, which would use small thrusters, though relying more on suspension to soften the landing.
"Okay, let me explain a Mako air-drop," explained Shepard to the group, "LT. Chief. I have no doubt you've experienced an air-drop during your service. Correct?" Garrus, Wrex and Tali all nodded, all three keeping their faces inscrutable. "Okay. Wrex, Tali and Garrus. I'll explain. It is not always possible for the Normandy to land on a planet's surface. The Normandy is rather heavy, even for a frigate, so it is not always possible to land, and subsequently take off, depending on a variety of factors, two being atmosphere and the gravity field, another being whether docking facilities are available or not. To make infiltration and extraction easier, the Alliance uses a Mako air-drop. It's quite simple. Joker will come in low over the surface. The Mako, this massive lump of metal beside us, with the team inside, will be dropped out of the hangar bay doors. The Mako will deadfall to the ground, where thrusters will be fired to allow a graceful landing on the surface."
Wrex just started to rumble with laughter, so I assumed he thought it was fine. Garrus shook his head, muttering something about spirits. Tali wrung her hands, I assume nervously. "Any questions?" Surprisingly, all three shook their heads, so I must have explained it well enough that they knew what they were in for. "Now, usually, a Mako will only handle a driver, me, plus three occupants easily, five with a squeeze, any more than that and it does get rather uncomfortable. Since there are five of you here now, I don't see the point of keeping any of you back on the ship. The Mako is used for transport and to eliminate those which cannot be taken out on foot. So, you're all in for now. Grab armour and weapons, Joker will let us know when we've located the correct planet and we can be unloaded."
As I was assembling myself in armour, Joker came over the comm, letting us know that he'd received a signal from a planet named Therum. I immediately pulled up any information about the planet on my omni-tool, and the words that leapt out were 'Prothean Ruins', so that explained why she was there.
"You won't like this, sir, but the planet is crawling with other signals."
"Who?"
"Think it's the geth, sir."
"Fuck, that's all we need. Okay, thanks, Joker. We'll load up in the Mako and wait for your word."
Should have known those bastards would involve themselves again.
*****
It was the moment that she always feared, working alone on dig-sites in the ass end of nowhere. She left a trail of footsteps in the soft dirt as she ran, her head down, her heartbeat thumping, breathing heavily, arms pumping, as she tried to put as much distance between herself and what she could only assume were geth. She carried her pistol in her left hand. It was cold for the moment, but had been hot only moments before, as the geth dropship suddenly appeared in the sky and geth units poured out.
Liara T'Soni was concerned. She had no idea why the geth would suddenly appear outside of the Veil, and of all places, on a planet that was primarily worthless, apart from the Prothean ruins that she had been investigating for the previous six months.
Why would the geth have any interest in Prothean ruins?
Liara could hear the occasional burst of gun-fire behind her but she knew she was leaving the geth behind as she ran towards what she thought was relative safety. She had also noticed a krogan battle-master working alongside, if not leading, the geth units. She had no idea why a krogan would be working with the geth, or vice-versa. It was a strange turn of events.
Liara turned her head as she ran. She could see the geth behind her, far in the distance. She thought she might just have a chance of out-running them. Escaping, though, was a completely different proposition. Her shuttle was parked up miles away on an abandoned space-port, and running there, in this atmosphere, would be impossible. As far as Liara knew, she had been alone on the planet. Liara was used to working alone. There were not many asari archaeologists of her age. Most asari her age were far too busy living the high life to traipse across the galaxy, rather than Liara, who enjoyed digging in the dirt, looking for information regarding a race that had disappeared 50,000 years ago.
She could almost grin to herself as the entrance to the mine-shaft appeared over the horizon.
Just another minute...
Up the ramp Liara ran, looking to her side to see the geth in the distance, the krogan lumbering behind them, shouting orders. The doors to the mine-shaft opened, Liara running as quickly as she could. The cavern she ran into was a treasure-trove of Prothean artefacts. She had been trying to piece together information on why the Protheans had just suddenly disappeared. What she had managed to find, so far, had been disturbing.
Two long elevator journeys to the bottom of the cavern had Liara fretting, as she was sure that the geth would be approaching, if not already in the mine-shaft itself. But, for now at least, Liara still had time. She ran into the large Prothean ruin that the miners had excavated in the previous year and started keying the terminal she had been using. She couldn't read the language, but had worked out, through trial and error, what most of the commands did.
The sounds of metal on metal, as the geth ran along the walkway high above her position, caused Liara to pause for just a moment. She knew she was now trapped, but there was an ace up her sleeve. She keyed the buttons on the console and pressed the command she knew meant 'Execute'. She looked to her right as the barrier started up and soon a see-through, near-invisible wall separated herself from her pursuers.
What do I do next though?
Liara just stood there and waited, her breath calming as her safety was assured for now. It would be a waiting game. She watched as the krogan exited the elevator and trudged towards her position, laughing to himself as he approached the barrier.
"Looks like you're stuck in there, Miss T'Soni."
