Book 1, Chapter 17 -- The Mutineers
*****
Nervous excitement infected the crew. They were still doing their jobs, the chatter was slightly louder than normal, but I let it go for now. All I wanted was for the
Normandy
to get to Ilos safely and to finally track down Saren and kill the bastard. I did wonder what happened to Anderson once we'd made our escape. I had sent him a message but heard nothing back, so figured he'd already been arrested. I didn't believe the Alliance would sent anyone to hunt us down. Anderson believed, and I had a feeling Hackett did as well.
The journey to Ilos would take at least a couple of days, heading deep into the Attican Traverse. We would pass through systems that had either only been recently discovered, or we would pass through completely uncharted systems, wondering if we shouldn't be sending out a tonne of probes at the same time. I knew some of the crew would be worried about our presence, but we were a lone ship, and had the fact we could run silent and practically invisible. As long as we were careful, we'd make it to Ilos without a problem.
Of my team, it was easy to see Tali and Ashley were both in very good moods. Ashley remained a model professional in front of everyone. Tali... was a little more affectionate, though I didn't mind in front of her engineers. They were all aware that she liked me, though wouldn't have known that our relationship had turned physical. She didn't say anything to give away what we'd been up to.
I had a chat with Garrus, and he told me he'd spent some time with Chloe, the relationship apparently already turning rather serious. Wrex admitted he'd had a lot of fun back on the Citadel but suggested his time with me would draw to a close once we'd caught Saren, not wanting to get involved with everything else going on.
Then there was Liara and Shiala. The pair seemed to be rather closer, enough that Benezia had picked up on it, pulling me back into the mess as before I had walked through the med-bay. "I do believe my daughter is involved with another asari," she told me quietly, "I find this surprising considering both of them seem to be infatuated with you."
"Maybe they need the physical release?"
"While that is true, there is something about Liara that makes it..." She paused before gesturing to the nearby table. Seating herself, looking as elegant as ever, she asked, "What do you know about the asari and our mating rituals?"
"Not a lot, to be honest."
"Liara is what we term a 'pureblood' asari." I didn't understand, obviously, so Benezia added, "That means her mother and father, to put it in terms you would understand, were both asari. Though there are millions of pureblood asari still born to this day, there are negative connotations to being one."
"Liara knows she is one?"
"She has always speculated. I have never confessed to it being the case. Asari falling in love with each is not unusual, and if there were significant dangers, we would never have progressed as a species. But once we realised we could mate with other species, it was soon popular for asari to mate with other species, as though the child is born asari, the child will take some of their 'fathers' DNA, and it is regarded as the further evolution of our species."
"Why did you choose an asari as a mate?"
That made her smile. "Because I was in love, Shepard. You probably sit there now and see a Matriarch who has performed acts recently which would make you wonder how I'd ever fallen in love..."
"I wouldn't say that."
"I wouldn't blame you if you did though. But I did love her father. We spent a century together very happily married."
"I assume you are no longer together?"
"No. Once I fell pregnant with Liara, I chose to end our relationship so our daughter could be raised without the stigma of being pureblood. Very few if anyone knows the truth about her, though I'm sure the secret has been discovered over the years. The fact Liara has been suspicious would suggest she's put two and two together over the decades. I very rarely mention her father." Benezia trailed off, not meeting my eyes.
"You still love her?"
"Always," she whispered, "But it was for the best."
I figured moving the conversation on might help. "What will you do once we're finished here?"
"I will fling myself in front of my fellow Matriarchs and beg forgiveness. If you succeed in taking down Saren, and I am part of your crew, though my current position suggests I'm... What am I, Shepard?"
"I'm not sure, to be honest. I can't take you into the fight against Saren. You are far too susceptible to this indoctrination you spoke of. Is that still an issue?"
"I fight the voices every day, Shepard. It is... It is exhausting at times. But not being near that ship, near Saren, it is helping me. Anyway, if I am part of the Normandy when you eliminate Saren and his threat, then perhaps I will not be judged as harshly as I would be if you'd killed me on Noveria." She paused before leaning forward, resting a hand on mine. "Thank you, Shepard."
"For what?"