ME1: Andromeda Series Chap 8

MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA SERIES CHAPTER 8

When Shepard, Ashley and Garrus escaped topside from the Thorian's lair, they found the colonists coming to from the sedatives.  Shepard rushed over to help up Fai Dan. Groaning, the man held his head and looked around the colony blankly, "Wha…What happened?"

"Take it easy. The Exo-Geni sedatives were strong….but it was the only way to put you down from the Thorian's control." Shepard coaxed as he held onto the stumbling man's arm.

"Thorian?" Fai Dan asked as he was led over to the steps of one of the cylinder buildings.  

"A plant that was living under your colony. Exo-Geni was studying it. I guess they forgot to leave that part out of this place's brochure, huh?" Shepard looked around at the other colonists who were talking amongst themselves in confusion.

Fai Dan rubbed his head. "All I remember are the headaches….you… and the Geth attacks."

"We think that's why Saren ordered the Geth to attack here. Saren wanted the plant's mind control capability."

"After Saren got what he wanted…he had the plant turn you all on us." Garrus added.

"Are you going to be alright?" Shepard asked the colonist leader.

Fai Dan nodded his head solemnly, cupping his face with his hands.  Shepard looked over at his two squad mates. "I think it's time we left this place."

"We cannot leave that girl, Krysta, here, Commander.  After talking with her, she seemed pretty new and I don't think she belonged here…" Officer Williams brought up as she looked inside the cylinder building worriedly.


"Alright. Go get her, Ash.  She may know more about the attacks since she wasn't completely under the Thorian's' control when it happened. "Shepard motioned her off.
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Seconds after she left inside, Williams ran back out in alarm. "Commander! She's gone!"

"What?!" Garrus sprinted after the woman as she ran back inside the building towards Krysta's room. Commander Shepard followed the two.

Officer Williams was right. The room was empty and the bed's restraints were undone and not cut, meaning that someone freed her.  "Are you sure she was here?" Shepard asked as he looked down the hallway at the other two rooms.

"Yes. She was restrained to this bed. I knew something wasn't right, Commander!" Ashley insisted.

"Well she couldn't have just vanished into thin air…" Garrus walked towards the bed to examine it closer.

"I bet I know who did this…." Ashley growled as she rushed out of the room and came back, pulling Calantha's husband roughly by the arm. "You better talk." She hissed threateningly through her teeth.

"What?! Please let me go!" The man struggled with fear in his eyes.

"She knew something that you guys didn't! You stopped me from interrogating her so start talking."  Ashley squeezed his arm tighter like a vice, making the man cry out in pain.

"Williams, let him go!" Shepard jerked her hand away from his bruised arm.  

"I don't know what happened to her….I-I don't remember anything…." The man whimpered as he rubbed his throbbing arm.  

"Bullshit!" Ashley spat.

"Get out of here." Shepard ordered the cowarding man as he stood aside from the room's entrance.  The frightened and startled man hurried out, back to the room where he was previously.

"None of this is adding up, Commander. She was restrained and she was let go." Ashley persisted as she crossed her arms.

"If she was defiant, the Thorian would have had the colonists kill her like it tried with us.  I don't see her corpse anywhere. "

"Saren….it wasn't the Thorian…it was her….." Garrus contemplated under his breath from where he stood by the bedside.  Turning around to walk away, he hit the wall with his fist. "She lied to me…"

Startled by the Turian's sudden violent reaction, Shepard and Ashley stopped their debate and both looked over at Garrus as he walked past them. Reaching out to stop him with his arm, Shepard asked out, "Garrus, did you find something?"

"It's clean, Commander. No sign of struggle or forced escape.  I guess there is no point to further investigate this. I'm ready to get the hell out of this place."  With that, the Turian walked between the two humans to head back to the Normandy. Ashley and Shepard exchanged confused looks but followed Garrus' lead.

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Just before reaching the ship's decontamination chamber, Shepard stopped his squad and looked squarely at Garrus. "Before we board, I think it's time you shared with the class, Garrus."

"Huh?" The gray Turian asked in confusion.

"How dumb do you think I am, Garrus? Back there you said that she lied to you, care to explain?" Shepard glared hard at his squad mate.

"Oh that? I was just remembering back to when Officer Williams and I questioned her."

"I questioned her. Remember?"  Ashley interjected.

Garrus cursed silently and tightened his mandible.  He slipped up….and normally he was pretty good at remembering details.   Scowling, Shepard withdrew his hand cannon and aimed it squarely at the shocked Turian's head.  "I don't like being lied to Garrus….especially by my crew, which I hope to trust.  I should leave your ass here."

Every muscle tightened by the weapon aimed at him, Garrus controlled his heart rate to keep him from panicking.  "It's a long story…" Garrus began as he kept his hands out to show that he had no intention to draw his own pistol in defense.  "I'm sorry, Commander. I was kept in the dark too about the details until I came here."

"Inside," Shepard pointed to the chamber with his gun. "I'm going to meet with the Council and once I'm done all of us are going to sit down and have a chat."

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Once onboard the Normandy, Commander Shepard followed behind Garrus and Ashley towards the elevator. "Commander!" Joker called out from the cockpit as they boarded.  "I saw what happened outside.  Something going on with Garrus?"

"Patch the Council to the comm room." Shepard ordered, ignoring the pilot's question.

"Geez….and I thought Garrus was the one with a pole up his ass…" Joker muttered under his breath as he tapped the screen on his control panel to comply with the Commander's request.

"Ashley, watch Garrus. I'm going to talk to the Council." Shepard walked on as the two went inside the elevator.

Ashley saluted. "Yes, sir."

Garrus sighed as the elevator doors closed in front of them.  His fists clenched at his side.  His mind racing on what events recently transpired. After all this time, Andromeda was still hiding something from him, but why would she? What the hell was it? More importantly, why did Saren want it? "Officer Williams…." Garrus spoke out as the elevator shook to a stop, the doors opening once again in front of them.

"Yeah?"

"Stay out of my way." Garrus walked out of the elevator towards where the Mako was parked:  His normal station.

"Asshole…" Ashley seethed as she stomped over to her worktable. Shooting daggers back at the Turian, whose back was now turned to her where he was working.   She slammed her helmet on the table. Garrus didn't seem to even budge by this.

"Problems?" Wrex inquired from where he stood beside the brunette's workstation.

"I just remembered how much Turians piss me off…." Ashley began to unhook her suit.

Chuckling, Wrex glanced over at Garrus. "You going to kill him?"

"Believe me; I would love to shoot him out of the airlock right now." Ashley stepped out of her suit.

The burly Krogan shook his head. "Not personal enough.  I always like to shoot Turians straight in the head."

Overhearing the two, Garrus growled through his teeth by their words and the reminder of his failure.  Lashing out, he struck the Mako's side hard with his fist. "Shit!" He yelled out from the sharp pain that throbbed in his now slightly fractured knuckles.

Wrex chortled as he watched on. Seeing the Turian inflict pain on himself amused him greater than actually him doing it. "So what's his problem?"

"He's hiding something, Wrex…." Ashley stated as she inspected her gun to clean it out.  "Geth were all over that place."

"Anybody die?" Wrex perked up.

"Yeah….colonists and Geth."

"A good fight."

"Those colonists didn't have a chance.  I don't think any of them knew how to fire a weapon. I've seen better newbies coming into the Alliance than them. We found one young woman there. I think Garrus knew her….ever since we ran into her, he has been acting strangely.  She disappeared....and I think he knows why."

"An Asari." Wrex stated matter-of-factly.  "I see their kind always with Turians on the Citadel."

"No…a human," Ashley corrected, shaking her head.

Wrex laughed hard, unable to stifle it. "Must be hard when an Asari even turns you down, eh, Turian?" The old Krogan taunted.

That was it…the last straw. Within seconds, Garrus was up on Wrex, his pistol pushing up against the massive chin.  "Give me one good reason why I don't blow your head off, Krogan…or…" He glanced down then back up. "Or maybe your balls first since their worthless to your kind anyway."

Wrex didn't flinch even if he was looking death square in the face.  "You have three seconds to kill me, Turian or I will rip off your scales off one by one…"

Ashley tensed up. She knew the history that the Turians and Krogans had…they normally were very aggressive towards one another.  Even if a firefight did break out, she would be unable to stop it until one of them was dead.  Speaking out would just include her in the battle.

"Don't tempt me…" Garrus hissed, keeping his talon on the trigger.

"One…" Wrex counted looking the Turian right in the eye.

"What the hell?" Shepard asked as he walked out of the elevator onto the scene in front of him. "Vakarian! Stand down!" Garrus held his ground, his eyes never leaving the Krogan. Wrex remained firm where he stood. He wouldn't dare make the first move.  "That is an order, damnit!" Shepard yelled.

Sighing hard, Garrus took one huge step backward and reholstered his weapon, holding his hands up to show that he was no longer in a threatening position.  Wrex stayed where he was, his muscles relaxing. Ashley exhaled with relief as she felt her heart rate decreasing.

Storming up to the Turian, Shepard reared back his right fist, and punched Garrus straight into the side of his face hard. The impact caused him to lose his footing. "Alright….I deserved that…" Garrus rubbed his now stinging face.

"Damn right you did!" Shepard spat. "Now you have five minutes to explain yourself or I'll have Joker dump you off at the next relay fuel depot."

"Look, Commander…" Garrus started as he continued to rub his face. "I'm just in the middle of this as you are."

"Cut out the innocent crap, Garrus. Just tell us how you know Krysta." Ashley crossed her arms as she looked on.

Chuckling, Garrus shook his head. "Her name is not Krysta…it's Andromeda. I met up with her during my investigation of Saren on the Citadel."

"Where on the Citadel?" Shepard questioned as he listened carefully.

"I…..rather not say." Garrus' more natural tone creeped out.  "I'm rather embarrassed…"

"You tell us everything."

"I guess I deserve this for not telling you sooner…" Garrus laughed quietly.   "Chora's Den. She worked there."

Wrex chuckled, "Prostitute."   Ashley couldn't help but to smirk herself.

"Waitress…" Garrus corrected.

"Same thing…" Wrex argued.

"Continue," Shepard instructed.

"She used a Turian surname, which is very unusual.  Kryik."

"Kryik? As in Nihlus Kryik?"

"Guess you're familiar too, Commander.   When I questioned her, she seemed not very reluctant to explain.  I managed to take her out of Chora's Den for further questioning.  She has a past with Nihlus.  Apparently she was a colonist as a child on Eden Prime. Nihlus and Saren both were sent there to take out some mercs. Unfortunately her parents didn't survive the attack. She said that Nihlus helped watch over her. Many weeks ago, he contacted her and told her to meet her on the Citadel. She told me that she didn't know why. He was going to meet her there. As you know, Nihlus didn't make it.  After I ran into you, Commander and agreed to join you, I went back to her apartment to continue my questioning only to find her missing.  She left a note stating that she needed to get out of the Citadel.  Just before we set course for here, I found out that this is where she went. With Saren's attack and her disappearance, I suspect that he was the one who took her and that she was not telling me the whole story."

"That's it?"

"Every word, Commander.  Like I said, until her disappearance from Feros, I didn't know she was hiding anything else."

"You think she's working for Saren?" Ashley questioned out loud.

"Doubt it. When I interrogated her, she didn't seem the type to work for him."

"That's it for now. Garrus, you are grounded here until I give the order. Understood?"

"Understood." Garrus nodded his head, somewhat relieved that he was going to be given a reprieve.

"And no crusade on finding Saren on your own got it? We find him, we'll find her.  He's now one step ahead of us."

"Where we going now, Skipper?" Ashley pondered tiredly.

"I'm going to talk to Liara. Maybe she can give us some insight. Besides I need her to unravel this enigmatic vision that's in my head from that Thorian Asari. Await my order."