Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.
Warning: none
Notes: This is inspired by the Beyonce song "Save the Hero," from the album I am...Sasha Fierce. This is an Alternate Universe story. The portrayal of Cerberus in my story is heavily influenced by the contents of the second and third official Mass Effect universe books, Ascension and Retribution, in addition to the Mass Effect games. In Retribution, two characters with extensive intelligence gathering networks to back up their assertions explicitly state that Cerberus seeks to eliminate their race. One high ranking diplomat cites Cerberus' existence and actions as the main reason behind their opposition to humanity joining the Council. The portrayal of Cerberus in the official Mass Effect books is as an extremely xenophobic terrorist group. Cerberus' actions in the books are magnitude of orders worse than those presented in the Mass Effect games and most of the Cerberus operatives we are introduced to hate aliens and sometimes kill them for no other reason than they are not humans. The character of asari Spectre Tela Vasir comes from the Cerberus Daily News, where she has been mentioned several different times.
Citation Help! - Deciding that Tevos is actually the asari Councilor's last name is not my idea, another writer did it first. Problem is I can't remember who or what fanfic now, if someone knows please let me know so I can properly credit them.
Rating: Teen
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.
Errors and Corrections: Yes, please let me know about any errors you see so that I can correct them. This is un-beta'ed so it probably has a few.
Revision History: 05/29/2010; 08/04/2010
Citadel - the Asari Embassy, Councilor Tevos' Office (same night as Thane's recruitment)
"Very well Councilor," Matriarch Orazia's tone was cool, "I thank you for your time."
Councilor Elana Tevos glared at the now blank screen, finally letting her aggravation with the other asari show. She wouldn't have taken the communications request, but Matriarch Orazia was too powerful to ignore without consequences, and Orazia had mentioned Spectre Shepard by name.
The Councilor shook her head; the Dantius family was both powerful and notorious. Certainly it seemed as if the rumors that the sisters had little love for one another were true, Matriarch Orazia had been in more distress over the possibility of her company being investigated than over the death of her younger sister, Nassana. Actually, Elana immediately revised that thought; Matriarch Orazia had seemed rather indifferent about Nassana Dantius' death. There certainly hadn't been any signs of grief that the Councilor had noticed. Elana frowned in distaste, doubtless, the Matriarch was already plotting how best to make use of her sister's death to increase her own power and wealth.
As for Shepard, the asari Councilor turned to her terminal and started searching for the news reports Matriarch Orazia had referred to. When the Councilors had believed they knew the events surrounding Shepard's return and her coming to them for their support, not requiring the human Spectre to make reports to them had seemed like an excellent idea. Without any obvious oversight of her actions by them, it would be easier for the Council to disavow Shepard's actions in the Terminus Systems if it proved necessary. Now though, the lack of reports from Shepard left the Councilors uncertain what the Spectre was doing and unsure as to what the reasons were behind the activities of which they were aware.
It took her less than thirty seconds, the current headline news item for nearly all the news outlets on Illium tonight was the report on a Spectre and Justicar battling against Nassana Dantius' guard force of Eclipse mercenaries at the Dantius Towers in downtown Nos Astra. The mercenaries had been ordered to clear the tower of workers and if the workers didn't move quickly enough to kill them. The news report went on to detail how Spectre Shepard and Justicar Samara had sent out small groups of severely traumatized salarian workers to emergency personnel and police forces waiting at the base of Dantius Tower Two as they rescued them from the Eclipse mercenaries. Then Justicar Samara, in accordance with the Code, had carried out her judgment upon Nassana Dantius for giving those orders, executing her. Although it had occurred several hours ago, the police were still pulling Eclipse bodies out of both towers, and had found where the mercenaries had hidden the bodies of the workers they had killed. Speculation was the mercenaries had planned to dispose of them, but had been interrupted by Spectre Shepard and Justicar Samara before that happened.
Councilor Tevos' hazel eyes widened slightly as she saw the estimated body count, nearly forty Eclipse mercenaries, and tonight was apparently not the first time Spectre Shepard had tangled with the mercenary group over the past few days. The reports were claiming that the Spectre had been responsible for the deaths of over a hundred Eclipse mercenaries over the past three days and the wiping out of their main base in Nos Astra. Elana shook her head a single time in bemusement, it sounded as if Shepard had started a small war with the Eclipse on Illium, and the mercenaries were definitely coming out on the losing end of it.
The asari let out a short annoyed breath as she thought about Councilor Metellus' response to this news; he would insist they bring Shepard in... again. And she would side with Councilors Valern and Anderson against the turian Councilor's proposal, just as she had both times before. The death of the mercenaries was not of any great concern to her, she would receive no angry communications about Shepard's actions from anyone on Illium. There might be a few minor politicians that the Eclipse bought off to look the other way, but they would not be so foolish as to draw attention to themselves by lodging a protest against the actions of the Spectre with the Council. It was well known that the Eclipse mercenary guild members were all murders and dealt in illegal weapons and drugs, making Illium a conduit for their smuggling these illegal items into not only the other asari colony worlds, but also Thessia and the Citadel.
Wry amusement warred with annoyance, fighting for dominance over the Councilor's expression...wry amusement finally won and a small smile quirked the edges of the asari's lips upward. Well, at least it seemed as if keeping track of where Spectre Shepard was, or recently had been, would be almost as simple as when the human was chasing after Saren.
Close to three years ago, the first thing the Council's first human Spectre had done was to trigger the eruption of a volcano in the process of rescuing Dr. Liara T'Soni from the geth, causing the destruction of a valuable prothean ruin on Therum and leading to several protesting communications from different archeology groups. Next the human, while fighting the geth force on Feros, had not only destroyed a geth dropship, but also an ancient sentient plant, the Thorian. That had led to the discovery that ExoGeni had been using the human colonists as unwilling experimental subjects while researching the effects of the Thorian's spores. The Council and the Alliance hadn't publicized that, but the corporation had paid a hefty fine as a result of it. Then Shepard had destroyed an entire lab complex on Noveria in the process of wiping out the rachni which had gotten loose there, killed Matriarch Benezia and her followers, released a rachni Queen, and had become involved in the arrest of the Noveria Administrator. The last had triggered multiple complaints from various corporations. Shepard's last action before Ilos and the Citadel Battle had been on Virmire, where Captain Kirrahe's STG unit and Shepard had used an improvised nuclear bomb to destroy Saren's krogan cloning facility.
In response to the complaints from Noveria, Councilor Valern had taken great pleasure in replying that if the administration there had cooperated more fully with the Spectre instead of hindering her investigation, doubtless Shepard would have continued on her mission and not become involved with assisting the Noveria Internal Affairs agent in the first place. Councilor Metellus had been outraged that Shepard had released the rachni Queen. Councilor Tevos had been concerned as well, but she had been as equally distasteful of the other choice Shepard could have made, to destroy the rachni Queen and commit genocide against the race for a second time. The asari Councilor had also been curious as to exactly why the human Spectre was so certain that the rachni Queen had been truthful with her when the Queen promised her offspring would not be a future danger to them. A curiosity that was never fully satisfied, for that report and the Virmire report following it, had been more tersely worded than the two earlier reports they had received. They had been little more than bare outlines of the events that had occurred as opposed to the detail of Shepard's previous two reports.
The only thing that had seemed like the human's prior reports had been the Spectre's recommendation that they clear Benezia's name of treason. Shepard had claimed that Matriarch Benezia had not helped Saren of her own free will; she had been indoctrinated by Sovereign and during the few minutes she had broken free of it had willingly given them the location of the Mu Relay. After Shepard's had saved their lives in the Citadel Battle, when the Spectre's claim that Sovereign could indoctrinate organics hadn't seemed so farfetched, Councilor Tevos had obtained the other Councilors agreement to posthumously clear Matriarch Benezia's name of all treason charges. That decision had not been revisited since they had decided that the ship Saren had called Sovereign had actually been a geth ship and not a Reaper. Councilor Tevos had certainly not brought it up herself, content to let the decision stand. It had been the Matriarch's information that had allowed Shepard to find the Mu Relay and Ilos after all. No matter what exactly had happened, in the end Lady Benezia had chosen to help Shepard against Saren.
As for the rachni, except for the attacks on the Alliance listening posts, which had been traced back to Cerberus' activities, there had been no aggressive actions from them in two years. In fact, there was the occasional odd report of their scout ships assisting other small courier and merchant vessels under attack from pirates. Something the Council had managed to keep quiet so far. In no cases though did the rachni vessels remain long enough for contact to be made, they withdrew and retreated. As time passed without any reports of aggression from the insectoid race, it did seem to Elana as if Shepard might be correct and these rachni were different from their ancestors.
No, the asari Councilor reflected, in the past they had not needed Shepard's reports to know where the human Spectre had been when she was after Saren. The reports had just answered the question of why Shepard had acted in a certain manner, something they were lacking now.
From the intelligence the Council had gathered on Shepard's activities, it seemed as if the Spectre was building a team to help her investigate the Collectors. They knew that Mordin Solus had joined her, and that Shepard had been on Purgatory to pick up a prisoner known only as Jack, reputed to be a very powerful and violent human biotic. Now Shepard was on Illium, if she were indeed building a team as she seemed to be, then it was reasonable to assume that she had somehow persuaded Justicar Samara to join her. If Elana was correct in her speculation...that was surprising. If it were true, she would be interested in finding out exactly how Shepard had managed to persuade the Justicar to join her.
The Councilor frowned, there was something about the reports they were getting in from the Terminus Systems that troubled her, but what was it? The asari leaned forward and tapped out a several commands on her terminal, pulling up information on Spectre Shepard's activities, both past and present. In about twenty minutes the Councilor had her answer, there were no non-intelligence provided sources such as news reports, included in the information they had received about Shepard's activities with Cerberus prior to her actions on Freedom's Progress. Something that was distinctly different from the reports they had on Shepard's actions while pursuing Saren and unlike the few reports they had on Shepard's recent activities both on Freedom's Progress and afterward.
Security footage from Freedom's Progress had confirmed Shepard's presence there and her actions to aid her former crew member Tali'Zorah vas Neema who had been on the colony with a quarian team at the same time. In addition, the tapes had revealed that the quarians had left with another quarian, who had not been with them when they arrived. Councilor Anderson had sent a request to the Migrant Fleet for more information about the quarian in question, and about Shepard's actions on Freedom's Progress. He had received a response from the Admiralty Board two weeks ago. The quarian's report confirmed that Shepard had been leading the Cerberus team in an investigation of the Collector attack. As soon as they had met up with the quarian team lead by Tali'Zorah, Shepard had agreed to work with them to find the young quarian they were seeking, Veetor, who had been on pilgrimage there. When Shepard's team had found Veetor, the Spectre had chosen to send him back to the Migrant Fleet instead of turning him over to Cerberus for questioning, a decision that had gone against the recommendation of one of the Cerberus members accompanying her.
They didn't have any direct secondary information regarding Shepard's actions on Omega, but they did know that Mordin Solus had joined her. That fact was definitive proof that she had been to the Station and strongly implied that she had assisted the salarian with curing the Collector plague as she had claimed in her report to the Council. In the case of the prison-ship, while they had no secondary verification that Shepard had been involved, they did have plenty of reports on its destruction and efforts to recapture the prisoners that had been incarcerated there. As for the attack on Horizon, in addition to Chief Williams' report, there were eye witness reports from the Horizon colonists who, while in stasis, had witnessed Shepard fighting against the Collectors. There were even two colonists to whom the Spectre had spoken, giving them her name and assuring them she was here to stop the attack on the colony.
Both when Shepard had been pursuing Saren two years ago and now after the human claimed she had woken up from a coma, they had information obtained from non-intelligence sources verifying Shepard's actions. The only reports that didn't have any second hand information were the ones that Shepard disputed, and claimed that Cerberus had fabricated.
Yet both were supposedly equally as accurate and truthful, at least according to their intelligence network. Councilor Tevos' thoughts however, kept reminding her that many of those systems had been either damaged or completely destroyed in the Geth attack on the Citadel and had been rebuilt in large part by human contractors. That had been in an effort to include the newest Council race in the rebuilding of the Citadel. In retrospect however, it may have been an unwise decision, especially if it had given Cerberus an opportunity to compromise the Council's intelligence gathering network. Councilor Tevos tapped her finger on the armrest of her chair, she knew that Councilor Valern had the same suspicions and had already started using alternate methods to pass sensitive intelligence data to the salarian STG.
Through her former crew member, Chief Ashley Williams, Shepard claimed that Cerberus' influence and power within the Alliance and Alliance defense industry extended farther than the Council had previously realized, and that the human terrorist group was deliberately feeding misinformation to both the Council and Alliance to manipulate their responses to both her and the Collector attacks on the colonies. When Chief Williams had initially relayed this to the Council during her debriefing, Councilor Tevos had thought it highly unlikely, yet the more intelligence they gathered the more the evidence seemed to support Shepard's claims. The possibility that Cerberus had compromised their intelligence gathering network to such an extent that they could successfully fabricate reports was extremely troubling and a matter of grave concern to her.
The Council depended on accurate intelligence; if Cerberus was able to manipulate it to suit their agenda... Councilor Tevos frowned, with every piece of evidence that suggested the human Spectre was correct, the Council's need to either confirm or deny Shepard's claims that Cerberus had successfully compromised the Council's intelligence network grew more critical. Yet how to find the evidence they needed without exposing Shepard's own investigation into Cerberus and why they were interested in the Collectors, as well as determining who was controlling the Collectors?
Spectre Tela Vasir was headed to Illium in the next few days to investigate the break-ins at the Citadel Council's Ministry of Finance. Councilor Tevos had known the asari Spectre for several centuries now; Tela was capable of subtly keeping an eye and ear out for information on Shepard while she was there. The Councilor's gaze fell on the still sizable stack of data pads awaiting her reading and acknowledgement, the galaxy was in the midst of a widespread economic downturn, with critical economic indexes showing that they were headed into recession unless strong measures were taken to prevent it.
As important as the possibility was that Cerberus had compromised them and as important as it was that they gather more information on Shepard's activities, those were only a two of the many issues she needed to give her attention to before her day was done. Councilor Tevos quickly sent out a request for Spectre Vasir to meet with her at her earliest convenience tomorrow morning. She didn't mention about what, knowing that the asari Spectre would assume that it was about her upcoming mission, and so would anyone else reading it. Then the Councilor picked up the first data pad in the stack, a report on the current index of consumer expectations, a critical leading indicator of the galactic economy and began reading through it, a frown etching itself into her expression.
****************
Early the next morning the Councilor's work was interrupted by one of her aides stepping into her office. Elana glanced up from what she was doing to gaze inquiringly at the matron. "Spectre Vasir is here to see you Councilor. She said that you had requested her presence?" the other asari questioned uncertainly. She had Elana's calendar and knew that there was no such appointment scheduled.
As she set the report she had been reading upon her desk, the asari Councilor responded to her aide, "I did, send her in please." The matron nodded and departed as quietly as she had entered. A few moments later a blue complexioned asari with reddish-purple facial designs and wearing blue and silver combat armor with the Spectre symbol embossed on one shouldpad walked through the doorway.
"Councilor Tevos," the Spectre respectfully greeted her, "I hope this isn't too early."
"No," Elana responded as she gracefully gestured with one hand for the other asari to take a seat. "Spectre Shepard is currently on Ilium," she began, getting right to the point of why she had asked for the Spectre to meet with her. "I received a communication yesterday night from Matriarch Dantius regarding Shepard's activities there. It seems that she has persuaded a Justicar to join her." That drew a briefly startled look from the Spectre before Tela controlled her expression. Councilor Tevos permitted herself a small smile, "Indeed, I am curious as to how Shepard managed that as well. They killed Nassana Dantius last night in Nos Astra after getting into a battle with her Eclipse mercenary guard force. Their actions drew a significant amount of media attention." The Councilor picked up a data pad from her desk and passed it over to the Spectre, on it were a few of the news reports she had found last night.
Tela accepted it and immediately began scanning though the information. The Councilor gave her a full minute to glance though the first news report before continuing, "I'd like for you to discretely search for information on her activities there." The Spectre glanced back up at her, her dark eyed gaze curious. "Investigating the data theft from the Ministry of Finance is your primary investigation," Elana said, "but as you have time I'd like for you to also find out as much about Shepard's actions on Illium as possible."
"I've heard rumors that Shepard wasn't dead," Tela's voice was carefully neutral.
Councilor Tevos lips quirked upward in amusement. "And working with Cerberus," she filled in what the Spectre carefully hadn't said. In truth, she would have been disappointed if Tela hadn't known something about Shepard's reappearance. "Both are true." Spectre Vasir's brown eyes narrowed at that, but she didn't say anything. Instead she waited patiently for the Councilor to continue. "Shepard is investigating the human colony disappearances in the Terminus Systems," Elana explained to the asari Spectre, "Cerberus is providing her support and is apparently the reason she's still alive. She came to the Citadel and asked the Council for support in her investigation several weeks ago." So far, the asari Councilor didn't think that anything she had said was a surprise to Spectre Vasir. "We reinstated her Spectre status so that she could work with Cerberus without being prosecuted for her dealings with them and gave her authorization to continue her investigations as long as she was discrete in her actions and restricted her operations to the Terminus Systems."
Tela's brown eyes flitted down to the data pad in her hand, "And now that she's been indiscrete?"
Elana could hear the slight amusement in the other asari's tone. "Nothing, her investigations are too important for us to interfere with them at this point."
That got the Spectre's attention, her gaze fixed inquiringly upon the Councilor, "Investigations?"
Elana rose, the rest of what she needed to tell the Spectre should be said in more secure surroundings. "Follow me please," she headed toward the door that lead deeper into the asari diplomatic complex and a room that was secured from all known surveillance techniques. She could almost feel Spectre Vasir's gaze sharpen on her back as the other asari realized where they were going and what it implied about their upcoming discussion that they were moving to a more secure location than the Councilor's own office which was considered secure enough for most briefings. As they walked along the hallway Councilor inquired, "Are you aware of the fact that human public opinion supporting the Alliance joining the Council has been slowly eroding over the past two years?"
When Tela nodded in response, the asari Councilor continued, "Despite the fact that these missing colonies are clearly not in either Citadel or Alliance space, our refusal to protect them has giving human political groups such as Terra Firma more ammunition with which to attack the Alliance and their joining of the Citadel Council. Coupled with our refusal two years ago to send in a fleet to stop the geth attacks on human colonies in the Skyllian Verge, the separatists are proving troublingly successful in swaying human public opinion their way." Her lips thinned in annoyance, all Terra Firma had to do was to keep pointing out that human lives had been sacrificed at the Citadel to save an alien Council which consistently refused to help humanity in return and they kept gaining support. It was difficult for the Alliance to refute something that was, if one ignored all other political realities, true.
They arrived at their destination, a sealed door. The asari Councilor input her code into the control pad by the door, then placed her palm over the sensor and waited for it to verify her biometric data. When the door slid open she motioned for the Spectre to enter ahead of her. They stepped into a deceptively simple appearing room. A table with comfortable looking chairs around it was provided for the reading of highly classified data. Inset into one wall was a data terminal that connected directly to the embassies classified data system and nothing else.
Councilor Tevos walked over to the data terminal and began typing in commands. "At the time Shepard came before us, we believed she had been working with Cerberus for several months investigating the attacks on human colonies in the Terminus Systems and that they had managed to persuade her that the Reapers were involved to gain her cooperation," she continued speaking as she pulled up the information she wanted Spectre Vasir to review. That done she turned to face the other asari who was listening intently to her, "Since Shepard had shown that she was willing to work with Cerberus, and as in the past she has proven to be exceptionally stubborn once set on a particular course of action, we decided to let her continue her investigations in the hope that she would discover what was behind these disappearances and put a stop to them, thus giving the human separatists one less argument to use against the Council."
That exceptional stubbornness had been what that had driven Shepard to complete her mission to stop Saren despite Ambassador Udina and Councilor Metellus' attempts to ground her and prevent her from leaving the Citadel in further pursuit of Saren, and had been the only thing to thwart the rogue Spectre's plan to take over the Citadel, destroy the entire Citadel Fleet, and the Council. Despite her obsession that the Reapers actually existed, Shepard was a promising young Spectre and she had saved their lives as well as the lives of all the crew aboard the Destiny Ascension. Councilor Tevos believed the Council could afford to let Shepard have her way in this and hoped that the human would both survive it and become wiser for the experience. The Councilor's hope was that Shepard would come to the conclusion that she had been deceived about the existence of the Reapers on her own and quickly end her association with Cerberus. She and Councilor Valern had worked together to persuade Councilor Metellus to agree to let Shepard continue working with Cerberus to investigate the colony disappearances instead of arresting her as soon as she showed up in Citadel space, which had been the turian Councilor's original and strongly desired preference.
"This is our embassies record of the meeting between Spectre Shepard and the Council approximately three months ago," Councilor Tevos explained as the data screen began displaying a holographic image of Councilor Anderson's office. "This meeting would be more productive if Udina was to join us." That was her voice, Elana's lips tightened, then she hadn't known that Councilor Anderson wasn't certain of his advisor's loyalties when it came to the Alliance and Cerberus. As an individual she liked the human Councilor, he was honest, forthright and staunchly moral in his actions, unfortunately it was those same characteristics which sometimes made him difficult to deal with in the diplomatic arena.
She glanced over at Spectre Vasir, it appeared as though the other asari was giving her full attention to the recording though she had no doubt the Spectre was fully aware that she was currently being observed. On the screen Councilor Valern was speaking to Shepard, "We've heard many rumors surrounding your unexpected return. Some of them are... unsettling."
She looked back up at the display, what they were watching was all part of an agreed upon performance between Metellus, Valern and she. Unfortunately, as soon as Shepard mentioned her belief that the Collectors were involved with the Reapers everything had started going downhill as Councilor Metellus couldn't resist the opportunity to ridicule Shepard for her continued belief in their existence. Two years ago, Shepard had, except for a few exceptions, maintained a professional demeanor in the face of his needling. Not so on this day, the intense dislike and the brief curling of Shepard's lips in an expression of disgust in response to the turian Councilor's mocking words were easy to discern, even with the fact that Shepard had been wearing a helmet. Watching once again, now she also noted the shift in the human's stance and the brief curling of her hands into fists before they relaxed and opened. Anderson had quickly acted to calm her down, explaining why the other Councilor's didn't believe that Sovereign had been anything but a geth creation. Shepard had still argued with them; bring up the VI on Ilos and the fact that the geth would not have followed Saren if they hadn't believed that the rogue Spectre was an agent of the Reapers.
"Saren was a compelling and charismatic individual. He convinced the geth that the Reapers were real... just as he convinced you." In a distinct contrast to her turian counterpart, her own words to Shepard had only provoked narrow eyed irritation from the human.
"It was part of his plan to attack the Citadel. The Reapers are just a myth. One you insist on perpetuating." Once again Councilor Metellus had unnecessarily provoked her with his choice of words and derisive tone.
Elana had tried to soften the message in the hope that Shepard would listen instead of simply getting angrier with them, "We believe that you believe it, but that doesn't make it true."
Once again Shepard had brought up the VI on Ilos and that Sovereign had been a very advanced warship, stubbornly determined that she was correct. The human had at least listened in apparent calm to Councilor Valern's and then Elana's own counter explanations, the VI on Ilos was no longer functional and nothing suggested that the geth could not have created Saren's dreadnought.
Then Metellus had spoken again, "This Reaper theory proves how fragile your mental state is. You have been manipulated - by Cerberus and before them by Saren."
Shepard's jaw clenched as a scowl of anger formed, and then it was gone replaced disconcertingly by bitter resignation. "Of course he was right," the softly said words were hard to hear, they hadn't really been said to them. Shepard's gaze focused on them, "I kept Saren from conquering the Citadel. I sacrificed human lives to save this Council."
At the time Councilor Tevos had only seen a blatant attempt to manipulate the Council. They knew what Shepard had done for them, but that did not mean they would overlook the fact that she had not reported to them before now nor did it mean they would overlook who she was working with. "We are in a difficult position, Shepard. You are working for Cerberus - an avowed enemy of the Council. This is treason, a capital offense."
At the time, the flinch and brief look of hurt and betrayal in reaction to her words from the human had not made sense. Now though, if Shepard's claims made though Chief Williams were true and the human had only been on her feet for a week and had only accompanied the two Cerberus operatives with her to Freedom's Progress, her reaction made more sense. Why would she expect that cooperating with Cerberus that one time would result in an accusation of treason from the very people she had saved? As for what else Shepard had said, Elana suspected that the Illusive Man had told her that the Council would be unwilling to help her or do anything about the Collector abductions.
At least Councilor Anderson had immediately responded in defense of Shepard, and things had actually proceeded according to their plan, allowing them to make their offer to reinstate Shepard's Spectre status with certain restrictions. By then though Shepard's emotions had been running so high that Councilor Tevos hadn't even been certain for a few moments that Shepard was going to accept their offer to reinstate her Spectre status the human had been so clearly upset with all of them. In the end Shepard had controlled her temper and accepted their offer, but her flat tone had made it clear that she too clearly understood her reinstatement was just a gesture and no true offer of support.
The recording finished and the screen went blank. Elana glanced over at the asari standing beside her; she could tell that Spectre Vasir was disturbed. Tela turned toward her, "Were the turian Councilor's interactions during this meeting typical of his interactions with Shepard two years ago?"
Not the question she had been expecting, but then Councilor Metellus had never been anything but courteous toward the asari Spectre. Seeing him act in such a manner had to be disconcerting. "Unfortunately yes, I don't think Shepard made any decision that he didn't find reason to disagree with her actions."
Spectre Vasir was quiet for a moment, then she inquired, "And your opinion of her actions?"
Elana stared at the blue complexioned asari, considering the question... or rather the implications of answering it. Finally she responded, "Spectre Shepard always completed her missions satisfactorily. She consistently managed unusually low civilian casualty rates considering she was almost always operating under battlefield conditions. Property damage however was sometimes another matter," she added thinking of the prothean ruins at Therum. She sighed, thinking of the rachni, "My only concern with some of her decisions was that they were overly idealistic." She knew that Tela was staring at her curiously, but she offered no further explanation of her words. She didn't want to divulge any information about the rachni to anyone who was not already aware of the events surrounding their reappearance without a very good reason.
Instead she stepped up to the data console once again, "Five weeks ago the human colony of Horizon was attacked. Shepard's former crew member, Chief Ashley Williams, was there assisting the colonists with the installation of a GARDIAN defense system at the time of the attack. The attackers were Collectors." She pulled up the data files that Shepard had sent them by way of Chief Williams, brought up the information on the Collector constructs called seekers and displayed it. "The Collectors use swarms of these constructs to inject nanites into their victims creating a stasis like paralytic effect. This is why none of the colony sites have shown any signs of an attack. The humans were surprised and rendered helpless by these swarms before they were able to organize any defense."
She looked over at Tela, the Spectre was reading though the extensive data Mordin Solus had compiled about the seekers with narrowed eyes and a grim set to her expression. Tela glanced over at her, "If I understand this correctly, with minor modifications these could be used against any race. They're not specific to humans."
"You are correct," the same team that had examined the Collector bodies had gone over this data as well and confirmed Dr. Solus' conclusions. "Spectre Shepard went to Omega Station after leaving the Citadel and recruited a retired STG researcher, Dr. Mordin Solus, to join her crew. He put together this data and from it designed an armor modification that defeats the seeker's detection systems, rendering the wearer invisible to low concentrations of them." She pulled up the proper data and displayed it. "Using this armor modification Shepard and her crew were able to land on Horizon and after repairing the targeting sensors were able to utilize the GARDIAN turrets to drive away the Collector ship before the Collectors abducted the entire colony."
"Their keeping them alive," the asari Spectre said, it was a statement not a question. "How many humans did they take from Horizon before Shepard stopped them?"
"One third of the colony, just over two hundred thousand humans," Councilor Tevos responded, "at last report Freedom's Progress had approximately nine hundred thousand human colonists."
Disquiet ghosted over the asari Spectre's face, "Do we have any intelligence on what the Collectors are doing with them?"
"Only speculation," Elana responded. She turned back to the terminal and scrolled though the various files until she found the ones she was seeking. She then set them up to show sequentially, beginning with Chief William's debriefing. "Shepard was aware of Chief Williams' presence on Horizon, when she encountered her former crew member she used the opportunity to transfer this data to us and send in a report." She started the recording playing, and then stepped back to view it alongside Tela as she had before with the previous recording.
Through Chief Williams, Shepard had made many claims, most of which had sounded highly unlikely when the Councilor had first heard them. She glanced over at Spectre Vasir; unsurprisingly the other asari did not look very convinced by what she was hearing. Neither had she been at the time, but the fact that the Alliance marine had secretly smuggled back both Collector and husk corpses had been alarming. Were the geth working with the Collectors now or had the geth perhaps originally traded for the technology to make husks from the Collectors? What were the Collectors doing with so many live humans? Previously the information on them indicated that they only traded for at most a few dozen specimens at a time. How exactly did the bioengineered plague they had spread on Omega fit into the Collector's plans?
A quiet sound of surprise from Tela drew the asari Councilor's attention back to the recording playing on the display screen. Ah yes, Chief Williams' scan of Shepard's facial reconstruction. That had been unexpected and had given credence to the human's assertion that she had been clinically dead and that Cerberus had spent quite a lot of time and credits bringing her back to full health. Only very severe facial injuries would warrant the replacement of nearly all the facial and cranial tissues as well as cranial bone repair and reinforcement. In fact it appeared that the human Spectre was lucky she was still alive if her head injuries had been that extensive. Elana didn't believe the pro-human terrorist group had spent four billion credits, nor two years repairing Shepard's body, but she could believe they had told Shepard that to make the human feel indebted to them.
On the display, Shepard's cranial scan was replaced with the information from Spectre Shepard's own omni-tool, the recording of her battle with one of the controlled Collector's. As the recording began playing and as the two asari listened to Shepard's conversation with the Collector, Councilor Tevos wondered once again how whoever was controlling the Collector had known of Shepard's conviction that the Reapers were real and why they were trying to make Shepard believe that a Reaper was controlling the Collectors. Was Councilor Valern right and this was all a carefully designed plan of Cerberus'?
The salarian Councilor believed that Cerberus was actually helping the Collectors, or rather whoever was actually controlling the mysterious race, abduct human colonists in exchange for advanced technology. When the salarian Councilor had first shared his theory with her right after the scientist's revelation that the Collectors had once been Protheans, it had seemed a bit extreme to Elana. After Valern shared what the salarian STG had learned about the pro-human terrorist group's activities however, his theory no longer seemed so unlikely, especially not if what Cerberus stood to gain from the transaction was great enough.
Years ago the salarians had come across a survivor of one of Cerberus' cruel experiments, a very traumatized young male human who had been subjected to horrific experiments as a child in some type of effort to strengthen human biotic abilities. In exchange for his information, the salarians had provided psychological aid and a new identity so he would be safe from the terrorist group. Anyone that was capable of ordering or of leading people who would experiment upon children, who would torture and callously murder the youngest, the most innocent and defenseless of their race, children who should have been able to depend on the adult humans around them to protect them instead of abusing and brutalizing them, was surely capable of any monstrous action. This Illusive Man, Cerberus' leader, believed that the ends justified the means... any means. The pro-human terrorist group seemingly had no lines they would not cross in their desire to ensure human dominance of the galaxy and the subjugation or outright extinction of every other race.
"Whatever happened to her, she seems to be fully healed now judging from her performance during that fight," Tela commented once the recording was over. "That Collector recognized her," she added, looking over at the Councilor.
Elana lifted her head, looked over at the other asari, "Yes," she acknowledged, and then shared the salarian Councilors theory that Cerberus was working with the Collectors exchanging human colonists for technology with the asari Spectre. After a few moments thought she also shared the intelligence data on Cerberus that Councilor Valern had shared with her, the existence of the Cerberus research facility where the terrorist group had experimented on human biotic children.
In a rare display of obvious emotion, Tela's expression betrayed her horror and revulsion at what she was hearing. It took the asari Spectre a few moments to smooth over her expression and even then the set of her jaw was grim and her eyes hard. She didn't comment on what she had been told however, instead she remarked, "Shepard's concern of being implanted with a control chip if Cerberus figures out she's not as compliant with their plans as they think she is, doesn't seem as paranoid as it did a few minutes ago." After a second's pause she added skeptically, "That is if they actually have the technology to do it."
The blue hued asari leveled an inquisitive look the Councilor's way as Elana grimaced at the Spectre's words. "Unfortunately they might," the asari Councilor revealed and Tela's brown eyes widened briefly in dismayed surprise.
Councilor Tevos turned back to the data terminal and selected the last piece of classified information she wanted to share with Tela, the findings of the research group regarding the Collector and husk corpses Chief Williams had brought back with her. When it showed up on the display screen she stepped back and motioned for Spectre Vasir to take her place. The research team's findings had been an unpleasant and completely unexpected surprise, and had raised the nagging question in Elana's mind of whether or not Shepard might be right after all and the Reapers, or at least the race that had destroyed the Protheans, actually still existed.
That had been the second, and unspoken, reason for her supporting letting Shepard continue her association with Cerberus and her investigation into whoever was attacking the human colonies in the Terminus Systems. The long view demanded that, in order to safeguard and protect the interests of the asari, Elana consider all possible future contingencies. That included the one where the human was right and the Reapers were out there trying to find a way into the galaxy from dark space so that they could exterminate all advanced sentient life. If they did exist, then Shepard was the most likely to find evidence of that existence and bring it before the Council. Elana suspected similar reasoning was behind Councilor Valern's initial support of Shepard being allowed to continue her investigation into the colony attacks.
Spectre Vasir was staring at the data, an obvious frown creasing her brow and turning down the edges of her dark lips. Finally Tela looked up from the display screen, "If the Collectors were once Protheans and were genetically engineered fifty thousand years ago to serve as the servants of...something after the rest of their race was wiped out, then is there a possibility that Shepard could be right?" Her tone was dubious, as if she didn't actually believe that, but as if the question needed to be brought up and evaluated for its merits.
"Is there a possibility that the Reapers might be real you mean?" Councilor Tevos responded. It wasn't really surprising that both of their thoughts would travel this way after learning about this information. "Anything or anyone could be controlling the Collectors," Elana responded easily, she had resolved this question in her own mind weeks ago. "There is no reason to assume that their controllers are Reapers instead of some other unknown entity or even unknown race." The asari Councilor hesitated for a moment and then added, "If the Council were to receive factual and compelling evidence that the Reapers were real, something other than Shepard's personal belief in their existence, then I would reconsider my decision about their existence."
Councilor Tevos made a slight motion with her head and one hand, the equivalent of an asari shrug, "Perhaps a machine race did wipe out the Protheans and is the reason for their extinction fifty thousand years ago," she allowed, "Shepard's visions from the beacon would indicate such, but we have seen no evidence of this machine race's existence since that time nor have we seen any solid evidence supporting her belief that they are involved in a cycle of galactic extinction." Elana shook her head, "Surely if either were true there would be some evidence to support Shepard's assertion that these Reapers exist and have done what she claims. We have found none." She met Spectre Vasir's brown eyed gaze, "I do not believe that the Reapers are anything other than a myth Saren used to persuade the geth to join him. It is unfortunate that between whatever messages she had imprinted into her mind by the prothean beacons she interacted with and Saren's own lies that Shepard believes in their existence. Let us not join her in her delusions without any more evidence than this."
Tela considered her words for a moment and then nodded, satisfied with her reasoning, "So Spectre Shepard is investigating not only the colony disappearances and Cerberus's interest in the Collectors, but searching for proof that the entity controlling the Collectors are these Reapers."
Elana smiled briefly, "Succinct and correct," she replied approvingly.
The Spectre inclined her head in response, "And my investigation?"
"Her actions, the identities of the team she is building, and evidence of her mental and emotional state," the asari Councilor replied.
The last drew Tela's immediate attention, "For someone who is willingly working with them, she does not seem to have a positive opinion of Cerberus," the Spectre commented almost expressionlessly.
Elana shook her head, "She does not. Shepard tracked down and eliminated several of their cells while pursuing Saren. She knows something about how they operate, though not the full extent of their actions."
Tela considered that for a long silent moment. Then her expression turning frowningly thoughtful, she observed, "So if she's telling the truth, she's been in a coma for the past two years. She wakes up to find herself in the hands of a group she regards as an enemy and then they are the only ones who will help her do what she feels is her duty: stop these abductions, stop the Collectors, and she believes stop the Reapers from whatever their plans are to attack us."
Elana's lips thinned, that was certainly going directly to the heart of the matter. "So the evidence indicates," she agreed, "and thus the concern about her mental state. Councilor Anderson spoke with Chief Williams after her debriefing with us. He was able to get information from her about the way Shepard acted during their meeting on Horizon. Shepard raised her voice and was easily angered when questioned by Chief Williams about her association with Cerberus; she also refused to look at the results of Chief William's scan of her. Describing the information as something she did not wish to see and felt she was unable to handle at that time. All signs of extreme stress and psychological trauma in humans."
After a moment Spectre Vasir noted, "She was easily provoked and angered during her meeting with the Council as well."
Councilor Tevos nodded. After learning about Shepard's behavior on Horizon she had considered that as well and wondered if they were truly doing Shepard any favors by not taking her into custody and ensuring that the human received psychological counseling. Hopefully Tela's investigation would find some indication of whether Shepard's current mental state should be a matter of concern or not.
Still looking thoughtful, Spectre Vasir said, "May I review Spectre Shepard's mission reports before leaving for Illium?"
Elana nodded, "Of course," she turned and headed for the door, those were not as heavily classified. Spectre Vasir could view them in her office.
Councilor Valern had assigned an STG team to investigate the colony disappearances. He had even made the announcement publicly in an effort to reassure the Alliance that the Council was doing something about the missing human colonies even if they weren't in Alliance space. Now, if the Council needed to acknowledge the fact that the Collectors were behind the disappearances they could point to the STG team and avoid mentioning Shepard's involvement in the discovery. None of them, except perhaps for Anderson, wanted to give Shepard any political standing for her to use to publicly advance her belief that the Reapers actually existed, and were using the Collectors to attack human colonies. The last thing they needed in the current economic climate was Shepard instigating a public panic. She didn't doubt that both Anderson and Metellus were quietly investigating the information they had received as well. She intended for Spectre Vasir to be her main source of trusted intelligence.