J2P and P2J Ver 1

By Drew Karpyshyn

BALDUR 'S GATE II , THRONE OF BHAAL TEMPLE HILL STAR WARS, DARTH BANE, PATH OF DESTRUCfIO STAR WARS, DARTH BA E, RULE OF TWO MASS EFFECf, REVELATIO MASS EFFECf, ASCE SIO

EF

EC

ASCENSION

DREW KARPYSHYN

BALLANTIN E BOOKS· NEW YORK

Mass Effect : Ascension is a work of fiction . Names, characters, places, ami incidents are the products of the author's imagination o r are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. A Del Rey Books M ass Market Original Copyright © 2008 by BioWare Corp. All rights reserved. used Under Authorization. MASS EFFECT we owe you our I-lves. " Lemm didn'r ack nowledge her gra rirude, bur insread asked, "Why were rhey ho lding you prisoner? " "They were going ro sell us ro rhe Co llecrors." He shuddered, bur did n'r say anyrhing else . A second larer rhe display screens ca me onl ine. "No sign of any immed iare pursuir," he murrered. "Cerberu s won'r give up on us rhar easy," Hendel wa rned him as he enrered rhe cockpir. "They aren'r working for Cerberu s," Ka hlee explained, remem bering rhar Hendel hadn'r been parr of rhe conversarion in Grayson's cell. "Nor anymore. I guess rhey figured rhey could ma ke more by going freelance. " Ir was only rhen she realized Hendel hadn'r yer borhered ro ask why Grayson had been left behind.

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He must have hated him even more than I thought. Given how things turned out, she cou ldn't rea lly blame him. " You were right about G rayson," she told him. " H e was a Cerberus agent. H e m ust have been working with Jiro the whole time." The ship trembled slig htly and there was a low ru mble as Lemm fired up the engines. The news of Grayson 's true identity didn't seem to surprise H endel at a ll. To his credit, the security chief didn't take the opportunity to say " I told you so." Instead, he only asked, " Did you kill him?" " H e's still a live, as far as I know," Kahlee a dmitted. " They were holding him prisoner, just like us. 1 left him in his cell. " "If they turn him over to the Collecto rs, he' ll w ish you had killed him ," Lemm chimed in. Kahlee ha dn't thought about that, but the idea brought the hint of a g rim smile ro H en del's lips. The quarian ma de a few final a djustments a nd rhe thrusters engaged, lifting the shuttle slowly into the mr. "What course shou ld 1 set? " he asked. Good question, Kahlee tho ught. "Nothing's changed," H endel sa id, giving vo ice to her own concerns. "Cerberus will still want to get their hands on Gillian, an d we still can't risk goi ng to the Alliance. Grayson a nd his for me r friend s may be out of the pictu re, but Cerberus has p lenty of other agents. "No ma tter w here we go, they're going to find us sooner or later."

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"Then we have to keep moving," Ka hlee sa id. "Sta y one step ahead of them. "

"It'll be hard on Gillian," Hendel warned her. "We don't have much choice. For a ll we kn ow, they could have someone stationed on every human accessible world, colony, and s pace sta tion in the galaxy." " I know one place you can hide where Cerberus is guaranteed not to find you," Lemm sa id, turn ing in his seat to join the conversation . " The Migrant

Fleet. "

In the a ftermath of the barrie Grayson made a thorough exploration of th e warehouse from top to bottom. For a moment he had debated racing down to the second rover on the garage floor a nd trying to chase after Gillian, but he knew the other vehicle would be long gone by the time he got there. If he wanted to find Gillian, he had to be patient and sma rt. An examination of th e warehouse floor revealed severa l bodies, including the woman he'd shot in the back. Two more had been shot, two had been run over by the missing vehicle, and o ne woman lay crum pled agai nst a wa ll , her neck broken. Grayson recognized the corpse as a telltale sign of biotics, and he suspected it was H endel , not Gillian, who ha d infli cted the damage. H e a lso found a shotgun si tting in the middle of the floor. It app eared to be of turian manufacture, but the mods on it were of a n improvised yet effectively cu nning design that was the ha llma rk of the quaria n specIes. Recognizing the value of the weapon, he pi cked it

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Up and ca rried it with him as he left the garage and went to explore the remainder of the base . H e became lost several times in the confu sing halls, but eventually he found himself back on the main floor, in a room that had been converted into a barracks. There were twe lve bunks, but on ly nine showed signs of use . Grayson had fou nd seven bodies in th e warehouse; adding these to the two gua rd s in the hall near his cell ex plained why he hadn't run across a nyone else during his search. With a ll the occu pa nts of the warehouse accounted for, he was able to relax his guard. On any other station or world he would have been worried about law enfo rcement res po nding to th e sounds of the battle. But Omega had no police, and gunfire a nd exploding rockets genera lly encouraged the neighbors to mind their own business. Someone would com e to investigate the premises evemu a llyprobably w hoever had been renting the loca tion to Pel and his team. H owever, Grayson didn 't expect anyone for a t least a few days. The barracks led down a shorr hall to several offi ces Pel had set up as intel and comma nd p osts. Looking through the com puters a nd OSDs, Grayson found the reports from their original assign ment. They were coded , of course, but only with a basic Ce rberus cipher, and Grayson ha d n o problem making sense o f them. Pel ha d been sent to Omega to try and find a way to infiltrate the quarian fl eet. Unfortunately, the reports were incomplete. They m entioned a ship they had captured called the Cyniad, a nd a single prisoner that ha d been taken for interrogation, but the results

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of the interrogation weren't recorded. Pel had obviously given up keepi ng the logs once he threw his lot in with the mysterious Collectors, and he wasn't stupid enough to keep a ny records, electronic or written, of his plan to betray the llIusive Man. The mention of the quarian shi p a nd prisoner, com-

bined with the discovery of the quarian modified shotgu n, left little doubt in Grayson's mind as to who had busted the others Ollt. A quarian rescue team must have come for th eir compatriot, a nd for som e

reason they had decided to take Gillian, Kahlee, and H endel with them as they shot th eir way to freedom.

Satisfied he had learned as much as he could from the fil es, he resumed his slow, ca reful sea rch of th e premises. In another office, this one located near whar he guessed to be the cenrer of th e building, he discovered a small door bui lt inro the floor. It was primitive in design; ra th er tha n sliding on rails it simp ly swung upward on a pair of metal hinges. It was closed and locked with a simple dead bolt latch. Grayson took aim at the door with his newly acquired shotgun and used the toe of his boot to slide the d ea dbolt aside. H e waited for severa l seconds, and when nothing happened he leaned forward ca utiou sly and threw open the door, ready to fire if a target presented itself. The cellar beneath was completely dark. A rickety wooden staircase descended into the blackness. Grayson flicked on the flash ligh t bu ilt into th e shotgun's barrel, usi ng its powerful beam to pierce the gloom as he made his way slowly down the stai rs . When he reached the bottom he cast about in a quick circle, sen d ing the illumination into eve ry cor-

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nero The room was squa re, maybe twenty feet on each side. The walls were fin ished with brick and mortar, the fl oor was bare cement. It was completely empty except for a motionl ess figure lying o n its back nea r one of the walls. Training the beam of his fl ashlight-and th e muzzle of the shotgun--on the body, Grayson approached. H e was w ithin a few feet befo re h is m ind finally recognized w hat he was seeing; he had found th e quarian capti ve . Ru nning the fl ashl ight slowly from head to toe, he saw that the prisoner was boun d hand and foot, and had been st ripped com p letely naked. Grayson had never seen a q uarian wi thom its enviro-suit and helmet before, though he doubted this individ ua l could still be ca lled anything close to a rep resenta ti ve examp le of his species. His face was a deformed mess of lu mps, bruises, cuts, and burn marks--dear ev idence of the torture he had endured. Someone had knocked out a ll his teeth and caved in one cheekbone. The other cheek gaped wide, as if someone had slit it lengthwise from lip to wha t passed for the quarian ve rsion of an ear. One eye was swollen completely sh ut. The other had both upper and lower eyelid s missing, the ragged edges of the flesh left behind attesting to the fact that they had been savage ly torn off with a pair of p liers. Grayson reca lled w ith distaste how much Pel had enjoyed that pa rticular meth od of torture: in addition to th e excruciating pain of the b ruta l removal, the victim would go slowly and agonizingly blind as the exposed eyeball became dehydrated. The rest of the body showed simi lar signs of abuse.

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The fingers and toes were all broken, a nd several had been yanked from their sockets. Every inch of exposed skin s howed s ign s of being beaten, cut, burned o r dissolved by acid. However, there was something even more unu sua l about the body that caused Grayson to crouch down for a closer loo k. There a ppeared to he some kind of loa my, gray growth spreadi ng out from the quariao's wounds to crawl slowl y across the s kin. It t ook Grayson a moment to realize it was some kind of bact erial fungus; in addition ro the sadistic torture, the qu arian mu st have contracted a stra nge a lien disease. H e gave a grunt of disgust and stepped hack from the body. To his surprise, the quarian reacted with a shorr yelp of fear.

Jesus Christ, the poor bastard's still alive! H e was actually trying to talk , saying the sa m e phrase over a nd over in a shaky, raspy voice. Th e words were di storted from his missi ng teeth and misshapen face, a nd it too k Grayson's automated translator severa l repetitions befo re it could decipher what he was trying to say. "Frequ ency 43223 .... My body travels t o dista nt st ars, but my soul never leaves the Fleet. . . . Frequency 43223 .... My body travels to di stant stars, but m y soul never leaves the Fleet. ... " H e ke pt repeating the sam e ph rase over and over, his voice ris ing a nd fa lling in a trem bling, terrified warb le. Grayson crouched down close to him, though he was careful not to touch the infected fl esh. " It's okay," he sa id so ftl y, knowing his translator would repeat the words in the quarian's own la nguage. "Nobody's going to hurt you now. It's okay."

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The quarian didn't seem to hear him, but continued babbling, his words coming more and more quickly as his broken mind spewed out the information in a desperate a ttempt to avoid continued torture. " It's over n ow," Grayson shu shed, hoping to ca lm th e frantic captive d own. " It's over." H is words seemed to ha ve the opposite effect, as the quarian began to thrash agai nst the bonds holding his wrists and a nkles. H e let out a c ry of frustration, then began to sputter and cough. A fine mist of b lack, fou l-smelling ichor spewed from his lips and the gash in his cheek, causing Grayson to jump back to avoid the sp ray. The fit ended with the quarian letting out a series of hitching, gurgling sighs, and then he finally went still and silent. Steeling himself again st the fecund stench th at was now em anating from the body, Grayson got close en ough to verify that the quarian had stopped breathing. H e left the body in the b lackness of the ce llar and climbed the stai rs back to the ground floor. Closing and bolting the door beh ind him, he then scrounged up eve rything of va lu e he could carry. Fifteen minures later he was behind the wheel of Pel's second rover, making his way down the unfa miliar streets of Omega with a pack full of su pplies a nd the shotgu n resting o n the seat beside him. Staying focused on his true purpose a ll owed him to ignore the little voice in the back of his skull tell ing him to t rack down a dust dea ler for a quick hit. Instead, he set off to locate a tra nsmit station so he could link into the comm network and send a message

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off to the Illusive Man, tell ing h im eve ryth ing t hat

had happened. Pel had turned his back on Cerberus, but Grayson was sti ll loya l to the cause ... and he knew t hey could

help him find Gillian again.

EIGHTEEN

Six hours had passed since Kahlee and the others had esca ped the warehouse o n Omega . Lemm had managed to find the currenr location of the qu arian flotilla by linking into the camm network and scan ning the news updates. The Migranr Fleet was passing through a remote valu s-conrrolled system near the edges o f Cou nc il Space. According to the news reports, severa l valus di plo mats were petitioning the Citadel to do eve rything in its power to hasten the quarians' departure.

Kahlee doubted their political appeals would have any noticea ble impact. The C ita del was sti ll coming to grips with the changes wrought by Saren and his geth army. Their primary foclls was on elim inating the few rem aining pockets of geth resistance scattered across the galaxy; an objective being pursued by a n emergency coalition force headed up by humanity and the Allia nce. Once the geth were pus hed back beyond the Perseus Veil, she suspected the next order of business would be to a ddress the restructuring of th e Cou ncil, along with the m assive po litica l fallout that would entail. The last thing anyone o n the C itadel wanted to dea l with was the Migrant Fleet.

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Kahlee knew that even during the long period of interstellar peace that had preceded humanity's arrival, the various species of the galaxy tended to view the activities of the Fleet as Iitrle more than a mi nor inconvenience o r n uisance ... until they passed throug h one of th eir systems. Then the most effective course of actio n was to offer unwanted resou rces in the form of decommissioned ships, raw ma terials, a nd s pare parts to the quarian Admiralty. The qu aria n s allowed themselves to he bou ght off with such gifts, with the understa nding the flotilla would quickly move on to become a thorn in someone else's side . Kahlee hated to pass judgment, hut she couldn 't help hut see it as the interstellar equivalent of panhand ling.

And in another forty hours we'll be hoping to join up with them, she thought, shaking her head in disbelief a t the course of events over the last few days. Lemm had plotted their course into the na vigation, then gone to lay down in the sleeper cabin in the back once they'd m ade the ju mp to ITL fli ght. Kahlee still had p lenty of questions for him-like how he knew who she was-but in light of all he had done for them, she could affo rd to be p atient. She'd g ive him a few hours to rest and start recovering from his injury before she began peppering him with questions. Besides, s he was anxious to check on Gillian now that the girl had woken up. The nrst words our of her mourh upon gaining consciousness had been , "I'm hungry." H endel had easily so lved that problem by preparing a dou ble-portioned serving for her from the ship's rations.

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With the ship's navigation following the preprogrammed course, there was no need for a nyone to keep a n eye o n the helm. So the three of themKa hlee, Gi llian, and H endel- had gathered in th e passenger cabin, the two adults sea ted side by side facing her, while the girl ate from th e hard pla stic tray of food on her lap. She was just now finishing the last of her mea l. As she had d o ne back at the Academy, she chewed with focused determination, never pausing o r brea king rhythm as she steadily con sumed her food o ne methodical bite at a time. Kahlee, however, noticed s he didn't stick to her normal pattern of taking only one single mouthful fro m a dis h before moving on to the next item o n her plate. In fact, she didn't even touch the apple cru mble dessen until everything else was gone. Once she was done she carefully set the tray on the seat beside her and spoke for the second time since regammg conscIOusness. "Where's my dad?" There was no emotion in her voice; it was flat a nd monotone, like the primitive speech synthesize rs from the twentieth century. There was no sim ple a nswer to this question. Fortu nately, she and H endel ha d discussed what to say while Gillian was sti ll sleeping off the drugs their captors ha d g iven her. " H e had some business to take ca re of," Ka hl ee lied, figuring the truth would be too much for the girl to handle right now. " H e's going to catch up with us later, bur for now it's just you, m e, and H endel, okay?"

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"How will he find us if we took his ship?" "H e'll find another ship," she assured the girl. Gillian stared at her a nd squinred her eyes slightl y, as if she su spect ed deception a nd was trying t o peer throug h her to the truth. After a few seconds of this she no dded, accepting the situation. "Are we going back to the school?" "Not yet," H endel told her. "We're going t o meet up wi th some other ships. Quarian. Do you remember w hen yO ll st udied the quarians last year in history class?"

"They ma de the geth ," she sa id simply. " Yes," Ka hlee ad mitted, hoping this wasn't the sole fact she associated wi th the species of their rescuer. "Do you rem em ber anything else about them? " " Driven fro m their home system by the geth nearly three centuries ago, most qu arian s now live aboard the Migrant Fleet, a fl oti lla of fi fty thou sand vessels ranging in size from passenger shuttles to m obile space stations," s he a nswered, and Kahlee realized she was reciting the entry verbatim from her history e- book. " H ome to seventeen m illion qu a ria ns, the fl o tilla understa nda b ly has sca rce resources," the girl continued. " Becau se o f this, each quarian must go on a rite of pa ssage known as the Pilg rimage when they com e of age. They leave the Fleet and o nly return once they have found something of va lue-" "That's o kay, G illia n ," H endel sai d gently, cutting her off before she gave them the enti re chapter. "Why are we m eeting a quaria n ship?" Kahlee wasn 't sure how much Gillian remembered about the violent greeting they had received upo n

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landing at Omega, so she was intentionally vague in her answer. "We met a quarian named Lemm while you were sleeping. H e's going to help us hide from some people who are trying to find us." "Cerberu s," s he sa id, a nd the ad ults cast a nervous glance at each other, uncertain where s he had picked up the name. "That's right," H endel said after a moment. " They want to hurt you , and we won't let that happen." Gillian frowned a nd bit her lip. She was silent for severa l long seconds before she asked the sa me question that had been bothering Kahlee. "Why is Lemm helping u s?" Neither of them had a ready a nswer for that o ne. " I guess we'll have to ask him when he wakes up," Ka hlee finally admitted. Fortunately, they didn't have long to wait. Less than a n h our later she heard the un even, clumping steps of Lemm coming down the hall. Hi s leg was covered by a hermetically sea led, hard-shelled boot th at protected and supported everything from the tips of his toes up to the joint of his knee. H e was still wearing his mask and enviro-suit, of course; Kahlee suspected he wouldn't take them off again until they reached the flotilla. " Lemm," she said as he entered the passenger cahin and stopped. "This is Gillian. Gillian, this is Lemm." The quarian stepped forward and bowed slightly, extending his gloved hand in a gesture of greeting common to both species. To Kahlee's amazement Gillian reached out and s hook it.

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"Nice to meet you," s he sa id. "Nice to meet you, too. I'm gla d to see you up and about," he replied, releasing her hand and sitting gi n-

ge rly down in the seat beside her, facing Kahlee and Hendel. "Why are you helping us?" Gillian asked him. Kahlee winced. They hadn't been able to warn th e qu aria n about Gillian's condition , a nd she hoped Lemm wouldn't take offense at the girl's lack of tact. Fortunately, he too k her question in stride. " Yo u get right to the p oint, don't you ?" he said with a

laugh from behind his mask. " I'm autistic," Gillian replied, agai n with abso lutely no hint of emotion. It wasn't clear if Lemm fully understood the meaning of the word, but Kahlee figured he was smart enough to grasp the basic concept. Before he could formulate a response, Gillian repeated her earlier questIOn. "Why are you helping us?" " I'm a little curious about that myself," H endel added, lea ning back in his chair and bringing his right leg up so he could rest it on his left knee. " I'm on my Pilgrimage," the quarian began. " 1 was on the world of Kenuk when I met two crew members from the Bavea, a scout ship for the cruiser Idenna. They told me another scout s hip, the Cyniad, had gone to Omega to broker a deal and not returned. " I came to Omega in search of the Cyniad crew. 1 hoped I could rescue them, or at least discover their fate. On Omega a nother quarian, a man na med GolD, told me the Cyniad had arranged a deal with a small group of humans.

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" I broke into their warehouse hoping to find the crew. Instea d, I found you." "But why risk your life to save us?" H endel asked. " I s uspected your ca ptors were slavers. No species deserves to be bought and sold. It was my mora l o bligation to free you. " Kahlee had no doubt he was being si ncere, but she also knew there was mo re to the story. " You recognized me," she said. " Yo u knew my name. " "Th e name Ka hlee Sanders has become very well known a mong my people in the past few mo nths," he admitted. "And I recognized your appearance fro m an old image we picked up off the Extranet. You ha ve hardly cha nged in eighteen years." The pieces began to click together in Ka hlee's mind. Eighteen years ago she had been involved in a n illegal Alliance AI project headed by a ma n na m ed D r. Shu Qian. But Qian had betrayed the project, forcing Ka hlee into a desperate fli ght for her life. It was h ow she had met Captain Anderson ... and a turian Spectre na med Saren Arterius. " It's beca use of my con nection to Sare n," s he sa id, looking for confirmation. " Your con nection to him, and his connection to the geth," Lemm clarified. " The geth revolt was the single most significant event in the history of my people. They drove us into exi le; an army of synthetic machinesruthless, relentless, and unstoppable. "But Saren led an army of geth aga inst the Cita del. H e found some way to make them fo llow him. H e found a way to control them and bend them to his

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will. Is it any wonder we are so interested in him , and anyone who has ever had a nything to do with him ?"

"Kahlee?" Hendel asked, uncrossing his legs and si tting up straight, his muscles tensing. "What 's he

talking about ?" "Back when I was with th e Alliance, Saren was the Spectre sent to investigate a research project I worked

on." She had never really talked about what had happened on that mission with a nyone other than Anderson, a nd s he didn't want to start now.

"How did the quarians find our ahout all this?" she demanded. Her voice was rising; she was begi nning to get a little hit scared, and that in turn ma de her angry. "Those Alliance files were classified." "Any information can be acquired for the right price," the quarian reminded her. It was hard to read his expression behind his mask, but his tone see med calm. "And as I sai d , we have an understandable obsession with the geth. "Once we knew Saren was leading their armies we began to gather all the information we could on h im: personal history, past missions. When it was discovered he had close dealings with a human scienti st working on an illegal AI research project, it was only na tural we would delve into the scientist's backgroun d as well." " Illega l AI?" Hendel muttered, shaking his head in disbelief at what he was hearing. "That was a long time ago," Ka hlee told the quarIan. "The Capt ain of the Idelllla will want to s pea k with you."

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" I can't help you," she insisted. " I don't know a nything about Saren or the geth." " You might know more than you think," Lemm replied. "You make it sou nd like we don't have any choice in the matter," H endel n oted , his voice dark. " You are n ot prisoners," the q uarian assured them. " If I take you to the Fleet it will be as hono red guests. If you do n ot w ish to go, we ca n cha nge course right now. I ca n ta ke you to a ny world you choose. " H owever, if we do join up with the Fleet, it is possible they won't allow you to leave right away, " he admitted. " My people can be overly cautious when it comes to protecting our ships." The security chief gla nced over at Kahlee . " It's your ca ll. Yo u' re the cele brity." "This will end your Pi lgrimage, won't it? " she wanted to know. "Meeting me is your gift to the cap. " talll.

H e nodded, but did n't speak. "If 1 don't do this, you can't go back to the Fleet yet, ca n you ?" " I wi ll be force d to continue my journey u ntil I fi nd something o f value to bring back to my people. But 1 will not force you to do this. The g ift we bri ng mu st not be won through ca using harm or s uffe ring to another-quarian o r nonquarian." " It's okay," she sa id after thinking on it. " I'll talk to them. We owe you our lives, an d this is the least 1 can do. Bes ides," she added, " it's no t like we'll be sa fer anywhere else."

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Forty hours later they dropped from FTL travel less

then 500,000 kilometers from the Migra nt Fleet. Lemm was once agai n occupying the pilot's chai r,

with Kahlee seated beside him . Hendel was in his now typica l spot, sta nding just inside the door heading hack to the passenger cab in, a nd even G illian had come up to join th em in the cl ose confin es, sta nding

directl y behind th e quarian's cha ir. The girl seemed to have taken t o Lemm. She had started following him around , or ju st sitting and staring at him w henever he sat down or caught a few hours of sleep. Gillian didn't initia te conversations with him , but she answered promptly whenever he spoke to her. It was unu sua l, but encou raging, to see her res po nding so well to someone, so neither Kahlee nor H endel had tried to stop her when she'd come up to the cockpit to join them. The Migranr Fleet, w ith its thou sa nds upo n thousa nds of ships flying in tight formation, showed up o n the nav screens as a si ngle, large red b lob as they approached. Lemm punched up their thrusters, a nd they began to move steadily toward the flotilla . When they reached a ra nge of just under 150,000 kilometers the nav screen showed severa l sma ller ships detaching themselves from the ma in armada, arcing around o n a n intercept t rajectory with thei r own course. "Navy patrols cha llenge every shi p approaching th e Fleet," Lemm had infor med them earlier. " H eavily a rmed. Th ey'll open fire on any vessel that doesn't identify itself or refu ses to turn back." From what Ka hlee knew of quaria n soc iet y, their reaction was com pletely understandable. Deep in the

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heart of the Migrant Fleet floated the three enormous Liveshi ps: gigantic agricultura l vessels that supplied and sto red the majority of the food for the seventeen million individua ls living on the fl otilla. If an enemy ever da maged or destroyed even one of the Liveships th e inevitable result wou ld be a ca tastrophic famine, and the grim prospect of slow starvation for m illions of quarians. Lemm responded to the quickly app roach ing patrol by thumbing open a comm cha nnel. A few minutes later it crackled with a voice speaking in quarian, thou gh of course the tiny tra nslator Kahlee wore as a pendant o n her necklace automatica lly converted it into English. " You are entering a restricted area. Identify." "This is Lemm 'Sha l nar Tesleya, seeking permission to rejoin the Fleet." "Verify a uth orization. " Lemm ha d previously expla ined to them that most qu a ria ns who left o n their Pi lgrim age tended to return to the flotill a in newly acquired ships. With no records of the registra ti on or ca ll signs for the vessel, the only way to confirm th e identity of those o n board was through a unique code phrase system. Before leaving on his righ t of passage, the captai n of the Tes/eya, Lemm 's birth ship, had made him m emorize two specifi c phrases. One, the a lert phrase, was a warning that something was wrong, such as hostiles on the shi p fo rci ng the pilot to try a nd infiltrate the Fleet. The alert phrase would cause the heavily armed patrols to open fire on their vessel immediately. Th e second phrase, the a ll clear, would get them safely

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past the p at rols, where they would join the densely packed mass of other ships, shuttles, and cruisers. "The quest for knowledge sent me away fro m my people; now the discovery of wisdom has brought m e

back. " There was a long pause as the patrol relayed the exchange back to the Tes/eya, somewhere deep inside th e fl otilla, for confirmatio n. Kahlee's palms were

swea ring, and her mouth felt dry. She swallowed hard in the silence a nd held her breath. Grayson's sh uttle was built for s peed and long-distance travel; it had no weapons, no CARD IAN defense system s, a nd virtually no armo r on its hull. If Lemm had mixed up the alert an d all-clear codes, or if som ething else went wrong, the pat rol would tear th em apart in seconds. "The Tes/eya welcomes you home, Lemm" cam e the reply, and Kahlee let her breath out in a long, low sigh of relief. "Tell them it's good to be back," he responded, then added , " I need to contact the ldenna." Again there was a long pause, but this ti me Kahlee didn't feel the sa me unbearable tension as she waited. "Sending coordina tes a nd hai ling frequencies fo r the Ide1l1w," they finally replied. Lemm verified receipt of the message, then disconnected the comm chan nel. They continued their approach to the Fleet, and the single gia nt red blob o n th e nav screens became countless tiny red pixels jammed so close together Kahlee wondered h ow th e vessels they represented avoided crashing into each other. Moving with a steady, expert ha nd their quaria n pilot ma neu vered them into the mass of ships, work-

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ing his way slowly toward where the Idenna floated along with the rest of quarian society. Twenty minutes later he fli cked the comm channels open again and sent out a hailing call. "This is Lemm'Shal na r Tesleya requesti ng permission to dock with the Ide1l11a." "This is the Ide1l1w. Your request is gra nted. Proceed to docking bay three." Lemm's trifingered hands fl ew over the controls, making the necessary adjustments to bring them in. Two minutes later they felt the sligh t bump as docking clamps fastened o nto their ship to hold it in place, followed by a s harp clang as a universal airlock connected to the ai rlock of th eir own ship. " I'm requesting a security a nd quarantine tea m," Lemm said into the comm channel. "Ma ke su re they wear their en viro-suits. The ship is n ot clea n." "Request confirmed. The tea ms are on the way." The qua tian had warned them about this, too. The qu ara ntine ream was a necessa ry step whenever a new vessel was fi rst brought into the flotilla . Th e quarians couldn 't risk bacteria, viruses, or other impurities from former nonqua ria n owners accidentally being released into the flotilla. Similarly, requesting a security team to inspect your ship upo n fi rst arrival was considered a com mon courtesy a mong the qua rian peop le-it showed you had n othing to hide. Typically, th e team would com e aboard, introductions would be exchanged, and no search would ever actuall y be conducted. H owever, this situation was as far from t ypica l as it could get. In the three hundred years of their exil e, no nonqu a ria n had ever set foot on a flotill a ship. As

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m uch as Lemm wanted to bring Ka hlee before the ca pta in o f the Idef/Ila, it simply wasn't in his p ower. An d the u nexpected sight of h umans o n a ship that had slipped past the Fleet's patro ls was likely to ca use

shock and ala rm. There was no protocol for this unp recedenred event, hut Lemm had exp lained that there were procedu res that could be followed ro minim ize the risk to both the crew of the ldenna and th e humans o n hoard th e shuttle. " Let's go m eet our guests," Lemm said, sta nding up awkward ly on his injured leg. " Remem ber, just stay calm an d everything will he fin e. We just need to take it slow." The four of them ma de their way into the passenge r cabin, and the three hu ma n s sat down in the seats. Lemm ma de his way to the airlock to greet the security a nd quaranti ne teams coming o n board. Agai n , Kahlee fel t the stress o f being fo rced to sit and wai t. What if Lemm was wrong about how th e other q uaria ns would react to their presence? What if some body saw the hu mans and pa nicked ? They we re putting a lot of faith in someone w h o was, technicall y, not even a n a dult yet in the eyes of his own peop le.

I think he's earned a bit of trust after everything he's done for us. Kahlee could n't argue with the infallible logic of her own m ind, but it did little to quell her fears. She could hear voices com ing from the airlock, thoug h th ey were too far away to p ick up w hat was being said. One of the voices was rising, either in anger o r fear. Someone-it sou nded like Lemm , though she

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couldn 't be sure-was tryi ng to ca lm the upset speaker down. And then there were footsteps com ing throug h the airlock and into the ship. A few second s later four masked quarians, one female and three m a les, entered the passenger ca bin, armed with assa ult rifles. The one in front, the female, actually did a d o ub le take on seeing the humans, th en turned back over her shoulder to sp ea k to Lemm, who was standing ju st behind them . " I thought you were joking," she sa id. " I really thou ght you were joking." "This is unbelievable," one of the others muttered. "What were you thinking?" the fema le, clearly the one in cha rge, wanted to know. " They could be sp ies !" "They're not spies," Lemm insisted. " Don 't you recognize the woman? Look closely." The three huma ns sat silently as the fema le quarian stepped up to get a better loo k. "No ... it can't be. What's your name, human?" " Ka hl ee Sanders." There was a n involuntary gasp from the other qu a ria ns, and Kahlee thought she hea rd Lemm ch uckle. " M y name is Isli' Feyy vas Idenna," the female quarian sa id, bowing her head in what seemed to be a gesture of respect. " It's a n honor to meet you. These are my ship mates, Ugho'Qaar vas Idenna, Erdra ' Zando vas Idenna, and Seeto'H odda nar Idenna. " Kahlee bowed her head in return. " These are my friends, H endel Mitra and Gi llian Grayson. We are hon o red to be here." " } brought Ka hlee here so she could speak to th e

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captain ," Lemm interjected. " This meeting is my gift to the Idelllla. " Isli glanced over a t Lemm , then turned her mask

back

to

Kahlee.

"Forgive me, Kahlee Sanders, but I cannot permit you to board the Idenna. That decision must com e from the captain , a nd he will want to consult with the

ship 's civilian council before deciding." "So what are you saying?" H endel asked , judging th e mood to be cal m enough for others to join into the conversation. "We have to leave?" "We ca nn ot a llow yO li to leave yet, either," Isli to ld him after a moment's consideration. "Not without the capta in's approval. Your shuttl e must stay here in the dock, a nd yO li mu st stay aboard your own vessel until a ru ling is reached on this m atter." " H ow long wi ll that take?" Kahlee asked. "A few days, I wou ld guess," Isli a nswered. "We're going to need some su pplies," H endel said. " Food, p rimarily. Human food." "An d they will need s uitable enviro-suits when the ca ptain finally decides to let them o nto the ship," Lemm added, taking the optimistic view. "We will make every effort to accommodate your needs," Isli told th em. "We don't have any stores of nonqu a ria n food aboard the ldemw, bur we will contact the othe r s hips to see what we ca n find." She turned once more to Lemm. "You will have to come with me. Th e captain will want to spea k to you in person." Then she turned back to the humans. " Remember, you a re not to leave rhe confin es of this vessel. Either Ugho or Seeto will be posted outside

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your a irlock at all times. If you need anything, they can help you." And with that, the quarians, inclu ding Lemm , left them alone. A minute la ter they heard a loud cla ng as the door to the Ide1l11a'S external airlock sla mmed shut, seal ing them inside the sh uttle. " Hmph," H endel gru nted , " that's a hell of a way to treat a celebrity."

NINETEEN

Even with a ll he had done for Cerber us, even a fter hundreds of missions and a lmost s ixteen years of service, Grayson could count on one ha nd the number of times he ha d met the Illus ive Man face-ta-face . As cha risma tic a nd impressive as he a ppeared over a vid screen, he was far m ore impos ing in person. There was a seriousness about him, an air of authority. H e possessed a cool confide nce tha t made it seem as if he was completely in control of everything that

unfo lded around him. There was unmistakab le intelligence in his steely eyes; coup led with his silver-gray hair and his da unting presence, it gave the sense that he had wisdom far beyond that of ordinary men. This impression was further enhanced by the surroundings of the office the Illusive M a n used for his persona l meetings. The room was decora ted with a classic dark-wood finish, g iving it a serio lls and subdued, a lmost somber, feel. The lights were soft and a little dim, leaving the corners obscured by sha dows. Six black m eeting cha irs surrounded a fro sted glass table on the far s ide of the room, a llowing him to accommodate larger groups. This meeting, however, was a private sessio n. Gray-

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son was seated in one of the two oversized leather chai ts in the center of the office, directly across from the Man himself. H e'd noticed a pair of guards posted just outside the door as he entered the room, but inside the office it appeared to be just the two of th em. "We haven't found a ny hard evidence to back up your story yet," the Illu sive Man said, leaning forward in his own chai r with his elbows resting o n his knees and his ha nds clasped before him. H is features were sympathetic and his voice understa nding, but there was a hard edge just below th e surface. Grayson once again found him to be compelling yet intimidating at the sa me time. H e made it so that you wanted to confide in him. Yet if you chose to lie, his eyes seem ed to say, he would know ... and there would be grave consequences. Fortunately for Grayson, the truth was on his side. " I stand by my report. I pulled Gillian from the Ascension Project as ordered. During the mission, 1 was forced to alter the plan because of interference from Kah lee Sande rs and H endel Mitra, who insisted o n coming with Gillian. 1 made arrangements with Pel to deal with them, but when 1 arrived o n Omega he imprisoned us a ll so he could sell us to the Collectors." The Illusive Man nodded as if agreeing with every word. "Yes, of course. But I'm sti ll not clear on what ha ppened next." The question was innocent enough, but Grayson recognized it as a potentia l trap. Within two days of receiving his message, Cerberus had sent an extraction team to bring him from Omega back to Ea rth to meet with the organization's leader. Considering Pel

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and his e ntire team were dead-some of them by his hand-it was an invitation he wasn't given the option

of refusing. Upon la nding they had hustled him into a waiting ca r and taken h im directly to the nondescript office rower that served as the corpora te headquarters of Cord-Hislop Aerospace, the legitimate business front

for Cerberus. Virtually the enri re bu ilding was sta ffed wi th everyday men an d women engaged in the bus iness o f ma nu facturing an d sell ing ships and sh uttles. None of them had any idea they were really wo rking

for an anonymous individual who inhabited the secure penthouse at the very top of the building, a bove the priva tely accessed suites o f the more well known corporate executives. Grayson had been irching for a sand hir during rh e seemingly endless e1eva ror ride ro rh e rop of CordHislop. Bur ir would have been sheer idiocy ro du sr up before a meering as important-and dangerousas rhis o ne. H e had o ne chance ro convince the Illusive Man that Pel was a traitor. If he fa iled , he likely wouldn't leave rhe bu ilding alive, meaning he' d never see Gillian agai n. " I've to ld you everything I know about Pel's death. An unk nown person or persons, probably qua ria n , broke inro the warehouse. I presume they helped rhe others escape. Mosr of Pel's team were killed during rh e escape. During the batrle I broke o ur of my cell. I killed Pel and o ne s urvivi ng mem ber of his tea m myself. Th en I contacted you." The Illu sive Man nodded again, then srood up slowly. At ju sr ove r six feet tall, he towered a bove Grayson, still sea ted in his cha ir.

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" Paul," he said softl y, gazing d own on him from o n high, "are you addicted to red sand? "

Don't lie. He wouldn't be asking if he didn't already know. " I wasn't high on this miss ion. 1 wasn't hallucinating when 1 shot Pel , and 1 didn't ki ll him a nd his team to cover up some mistake 1 m ade while stoned . 1 ju st did what was necessary." The Illusive Man turned his back to him and took a step away, po ndering his words. Without turning back to face Grayson, he asked, "Do you care fo r Gillian?" " Yes," he a dm itted. " 1 care for her as much as any father ca res for his child. You told me to raise her as my own , so I did. It was the o nly way to get her to tru st me." And you already knew the answer to that

question, too. The Illu sive M a n turned back to face him again, but rem ained sta nd ing. " Do you ever have d oubts about wha t we do here at Ce rberus, Paul ? Do you ever feel conflicted over w hat's been done to Gillian?" Grayson didn't speak for seve ral mo m ents, trying to carefully fo rmu late his response. In the end , he couldn 't find the words to answer while eva ding the qu estion, so he replied as honestly as he could. " It tears me a part whenever 1 think a bo ut it. " Then he a dded with convictio n, " Bur 1 unde rsta nd why it m ust be done. I see how it serves the greater good. 1 believe in our cause ." The Illusive Man raised o ne eyebrow in surprise, tilting his head to fix his gaze o n the ma n si tting before-and beneath-him. " Your former partner would never have given m e

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an answer as ho nest as yours. " Grayson wasn " t s ure f I the words were mea nt as a compliment or an in sult.

" I'm not like Pel. He made a deal with the Col1ectors. H e betrayed humanity. He betrayed Cerberus. He betrayed you." Grayson felt a sm a ll hint of relief when the Illusive M an sat down agai n. "We've had no reports on your sh utrle's location since it left Omega. Not a si ngle sig hting at any space station or colony in either Council Space o r the Termi nus Systems." " } think I know why," Grayson a nn ou nced , exha ling a breath he didn't even know he was h olding as he

played his trump card. " I think they're hiding amid the quarian flotilla." Again, the l11u sive M a n raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I'm curious as to what led you t o this rather unlikely conclusion. " H e didn't have a good answer. His theory was based on a few pieces of highly circumstantial evidence: the shotgu n he'd found at the warehouse, th e prisoner in the basement, and the unshakable certainty that he just knew where Gillian was. " Instinct," he finally replied. " I feel it in m y gut. The quarians took m y daughter." "If they did ," his boss replied, " then she is beyond our reach. " Grayson shook his head, silently refuting the other man's statement. " I found Pel's mission rep orts in the warehouse. 1 know he was gathering information to infiltrate the Migrant Fleet, and 1 think th at's what drew the quarian rescue team to the warehouse . But they left one of their own behind; a prisoner Pel had

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tortured to the brink of insa nity. H e gave m e a transmission frequency and what I believe to be som e kind of p ass code before he died. " Pel 's reports also m enri oned a quarian scou t ship he'd acquired, the Cyniad. I think we can load a team onto the ship and use the frequency and code to get insi de the flotill a a nd get Gillian back." The Illusive M a n didn't try to deny the purpose of Pel's mission. Instead, he considered Grayson's plan, most likely weighing the risks agai nst the potentia l rewards. " It could work . . . assuming you 're right about the qu a ria ns taking Gillian." H e stood up aga in, but this time the action seemed to signa l a n end to their meeting, as if he'd gotten what he wanted out of Grayson. " } will have some of our ope ratives in the Terminus System s see if they can find any information to support your theory. If they do, we'll send an extraction team to get her out. "We have a quarian conta ct o n Omega who could help us," he added. " I will give him the code to see if he can verify the authenticity." Grayson had achieved ha lf of what he wanted from this meeting: Cerberu s was sending troops to bring Gillian back. Bur that wasn't enough for him this time; he was done letting others control his da ughter's life while he sat idly by. " I wanr to be p a rt of th e extraction team." The Illu sive Man simply shook his head. " The m ission will requ ire exacting precision and fl awless execution. The sma llest mistake cou ld put the entire team at risk. And I'm concerned your feelings fo r Gillian have compromised your judgmenr."

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" I need to be p art of th is," Grayson insisted. " I need to get my daughter back." " I give you my word no harm will come to her," the Illusive M an assured him, his voice slippi ng into a low, soothing register. "We' ll do everything to keep her safe. Yo u kn ow how important she is to us."

That's what I'm counting 011. Gillian represented over a decade of intense Cerberus research. Tens of thousands of hou rs and bil-

lion s of cred its had been invested in his little girl in the hope she wou ld o ne day become the key to un-

locking new frontiers in th e field of human hiotics. The l1Iusive Man wanted Gillian back ju st as much as Grayson, though for d ifferent reasons. And that gave the father something few people ever had when dea ling with the Illusive Man: leverage. "You d o n't have any other choice," Grayson warned him, delivering his ultimatum in a sure, steady tone. " I won't give up the pass code . Not until I'm on a ship heading right into the hearr of the Migrant Fleet. If you want to get Gillian back, then I'm your only shot." It was a d angerous ga mble. They could a lways torture him for the information, a nd their techniques would make the methods Pel had used on his quarian prisoner seem merciful by comparison . But Grayson could sti ll be useful, especially when it came to Gillian. Cerberus knew of his da ughter 's condition; th ey knew she cou ld be unresponsive to stra ngers. H er father was worth keeping arou nd ... or so he hoped. "You are very dedicated to her," the Illusive Man said with a smile that didn't quite hide the rage be-

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neath it. " I hope that does not become a problem 1a ter all. " "So I can go?" The Illusive M an nodded . " I will set up a meeting with GolD, our quarian contact on Omega." H e motioned with one hand a nd Grayson stood up, fighting to keep his elation well hidden. It was quite likely there wou ld be repercussions for his defiance somewhere down the road-the lIlu sive Man had a long, long memory. But he didn't care about that now. H e was willing to pay any price if it mea nt

he could get his daughter back.

T\NENTV

"Remember what I told you, Gillian," Hendel said. "Get the image in your mind, then clench your fist and concentrate." Gillian followed H endel's instruction, scrunching up her face as she focused a ll her a ttention o n the pillow at the foot of the bed they were sitting crosslegged o n. Kahlee watched them with interest from the other side of the bedroom, leaning against the frame of the open door.

Though Kahlee wasn't biotic, she was familiar w ith the techniques H endel was teaching. The Ascension

Proj ect used si mple biomechanica l feedback, such as clenching a fi st or thrusting a hand high into the air, as a tool for unleashing biotic power. Associating basic mu scle movements with the necessa ry complex thou ght patterns crea ted a triggering mechanism fo r specific biotic feats. Through practi ce a nd training, the correspon ding physical action became a catalyst for the required mental processes, increasing both the speed and strength of the desired biotic effect. " You can do it, Gillian, " H endel urged. "Ju st like we practiced."

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The girl began to grind her teeth, her fist clenched so tight it began to trem ble. "Good girl," H endel encouraged. "Now throw your arm forward and imagine the pillow flyin g across the room. " Kahlee thought she saw a faint sh immering in the air, like the rippling heat rising off a su n-scorched b lacktop. Then the pillow launched itself from the bed, hurtling toward Kahlee a nd smacking her square in the face. It didn't hurt, but it did catch her offguard. Gillian laughed-a nervous bark of excitement and surpri se. Even H en del cracked a sma ll smile. Kahlee scowled a t th em both in mock exasp eration. "Your reaction time's a little slower than it used to be," H endel commented. " I think I better leave you two a lone befo re 1 ca tch a lamp in the teeth ," she replied before exiting the room an d making her way aft toward the seats in th e passenger ca bin. Three days ha d passed since their shuttle had docked with the Idelllla, and they were still waiting for the captain to give them clearance to come aboard his shi p. During that time they had been well looked after, but Kahlee was starting to develop a serious case of cabin fever. Gillian a nd H endel had fought against the boredom by focusing on developing her biotic ta lents. She had made astou nding progress in a n incredibly short time. Whether that was from a ll the o ne-on -one t raining H endel was giving her, or if it was because her outburst in the cafeteria back at the Academy had broken through some kind of internal m enta l ba rrier,

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Kah lee couldn't say. And though she was glad to see Gillian making progress, there was little she could do to

help.

It was clear, however, that Gillian was coping surprisingly well with their si tuation. She had always had good a nd bad days; the severity of her condition had an irregular ebb and flow. Over the past severa l days there were still times when Gillian seem ed to simply zone o ut or disconnect from what was happening around her, bur overa ll she seemed more consistently aware an d engaged. Again, Kahlee wasn't sure of the exact reason. It could be the fact that s he was receiving far more personal attention tha n she ever had at the Academy. It might have had something to do with their inab ility to leave the tight confines of the shuttle; Gillian was intimately fami liar with every square inch of the ship. She likely felt safe and protected while on board, as opposed to being exposed a nd vulnerable while wandering the classrooms and halls of the Grissom Academy. Or it s imp ly could have been the fact that she had to interact with fewer p eople-apart from H endel a nd Kah lee, the only visitor to the shuttle had been Lemm . H e stopped by once or twice a day to g ive them updates on what was happ ening aboard the Idenna, and sha re a ny important news coming in from the rest of the vessels in the Fleet. With almost fifty thousand ships-ma n y of them frigates, sh uttles, and sma ll persona l craft-there was a constant st ream of information and traffic within the flotilla. Fortunately, in the quarians' endless efforts to seek out resources for their societ y, th ere were a lso d ozens of vessels arriving and departing from nearby worlds

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on a daily basis. As promised, the Idclllla had requested from the other vessels foo d stores that were suitable for humans, as well as human en viro-suits. One day after their arrival supplies began to come in, and the shu ttle's hold was n ow stocked to overflowmg. Not surprisingly, the request ha d set off su sp icions and ru mors among the rest of the Fleet. As Lemm exp lained it, that was one of the reasons the decision was taking so long. The capta in of each ship was given a bsolute authority over his or her vessel, provided that a uthority wasn't abused and didn 't en da nge r the rest of the flotilla . Apparently the harboring of nonqua ria ns defin itely fell beyond the sco pe o f w hat was permitted. In the wake o f the Idclllla's strange request fo r human-centric s upplies, the Conclave a nd the Admiralty-the respecti ve civilian and mil itary lea ders of the quarian government-had become involved in th e discussions of what was to be done. Ultimately, Lemm had explained to Kahlee, the fi nal decision would be given to the Idclllla's captain, but not before everyone else had weighed in with their opinions and recommendations . To pass the time between Lemm's visits, Kahlee had begun s peaking w ith the qua rians posted at the airlock as their guards. Ugho, the o lder of the two, was polite, but som ewhat col d. H e responded to her questions w ith short, al m ost clipped, a n swe rs, a nd s he soon gave up bothering to speak w ith him w hile he was o n duty. Seeto, however, was the exact oppos ite. Kahlee guessed he was abou t Lemm's age, though hidden be-

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hind his m ask and enviro-suit her only clue was the "na r" identifier in his name. But for some reason Seeto seemed more naive and youthfu l than their rescuer. Lemm spe nding severa l m o nths away from the fl otilla on his Pilgrimage no doubt had something to do with that, but Seeto a lso struck her as having a

chi ldlike exubera nce abour him that she simply chalked up to a n excitable, outgoing persona lity. She learned very quickly that he was a talker. One or two questions from her were a ll it would take to get the words flowing, and then they came o ut in a gushing river. Kahlee didn't mi nd, however. It helped pass the time, a nd she had learned a lot about the quaria ns in genera l, a nd the Idenna in particula r,

from Seero. At only thirty years ol d , he had ex pla ined, the Idemza was still considered a new ship. Understandable, considering som e of the ships in the flotilla were ma nu factured over three centuries ago, befo re the quaria ns' defea t and exile at the hands o f the geth. Over time they had been upgraded , repaired , and retrofitted to the point they hardly resembled the o rigina l vessel anymore, but they were still seen as less reliable than newer ships. Seeto also told her that the Idemza was a mediumsized cruiser, large enough to have a sea t on the Conclave, the civilian board that advised the Admira lty on setting Fleet policy and passed rulings on s pecific di sputes an d decisions within the fl otilla. She learned th at there were 693 men, women, and children who ca lled Idemza home-694 if Lemm 's proposed gift from his Pi lgrimage was ultimately accepted by the captain a nd he joined their crew. Kahlee was asto n-

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ished by that number; in the Alliance, a medium-sized cruiser would have a crew of 70 or 80 at the most. In her mind's eye she env isioned the inhabitants of the Ide1l11a living in squalid, overcrowded mise ry. The mo re she had ta lked with Seeto, the more comfortable he'd become. H e'd told her abou t Ysin'Mal vas Idenna, the ship's captain. Ship captains tended to be men and women bou nd by t rad ition; Mal, however, was generally rega rded as a n aggressive proponent of change an d progress. H e'd even, Seeto had confided in a low whisper, put forth a proposal fo r the flotill a to start sending out cruisers on long-term exploratory missions to uncharted regions of space, in the hopes of discovering uninh a bited , life-bearing worlds the quarians could settle as their own. This particular view had often brought him into conflict with the other sh ip captains and the Conclave, who believed the quarians needed to remain united in the M igra nt Fleet if they were to ensure their survival. H owever, from the way the young quarian spoke, it was clear to Kahlee that Seeto supported his captain's position, rather tha n commo n conventIOn. As s he passed through the passenger cabi n on her way to the airlock, she hoped it would be the m ore interesting Seeto, and not the stoic Ugho, who was sta nding on duty o utside. Still forbidden to leave the ship, she was about to use the airlock's intercom to contact the gua rd outside a nd ask him to com e aboard when the sea ls on the door suddenly released on their own. Surprised, she stu mbled back from the door as it op ened and a group of seven qu a ria ns entered.

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Kah lee felt a brief moment of alarm as they marched onto the shuttle, hut when she realized none of them had thei r weapons drawn she relaxed. She recognized both Seeto and Ugho a m o ng them. And she thought the one standi ng at the head of the group was Isli, the leader of the security patrol that had fi rst greeted them. Th e other four she didn't know. "The capta in has agreed to meet with you," Isli said by way of greeting, confirming her identity.

About damn time, Kahlee th ought. Out loud she only asked, "When ?" "Now," lsli told her. "We will escort you to the bridge to see him. You will need to wear your envirosuit, of course."

"Okay. Let me tell Hen del and Gillian where I'm . " gOing. "They need to com e, roo," Isli insisted. " The caprain wants to m eet with all of you. Lemm is alrea d y there waiting." Kahlee didn 't like the idea of forcing Gillian to leave the shuttle a nd dragging her through the crowded decks of the ldenna, bur given the circumsta nces s he didn't see how she could refuse. H endel shared her concern when she told him, but Gillian didn 't seem bothered by th e idea. Five minutes later, once they had a ll d onned their enviro-suits, they were off. Isli, Ugho, and Seeto went with them as th eir escorts, while the other four quarians stayed behind. "They need to sterilize your shuttle," Isli told them. " It's better if you a ren't on the vessel while they' re working. "

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Kahlee wondered if they were really decontaminating the vessel, or if this wa s just an opport unity for the quarians to thorough ly search the shuttle fro m top to bottom without o ffen ding them. Not that it ma de a difference; they had nothing to hide. Isli led them throug h the ship w hile Ugho marched silently a long beside her. Seeto fell back with the huma n s so he could provide the occasiona l comm ent o r explana tio n o n wha t they were see ing during th e Journey. "This is the Idenlla's trading deck, " he sa id as they pa ssed from the docking bays into what would have served as the cargo hold on a n Alliance vessel. The room was packed with quarians, all in their enviro-suits, milling about. Each o ne carried a bag o r backpack. Sto rage lockers lined the wa lls. Most of them were open, revealing the contents to be a m ishmash of mu ndane items, from clothes to cooking uten sils. Si mi lar p iles of goods were loaded into large, op en -topp ed steel crates and oversized meta l storage containers sca ttered hapha zardly abou t the floor, fill ing the room except for the narrow aisles that ra n back and forth between them. The quaria n s were m oving from conta iner to container and locker to locker. They would ru mmage throug h them, occasionally picking up an item and exam ining it befo re either keeping their fin d o r putting the item back an d resu ming their sea rch. "Anyone who has un need ed goods a nd items stores th em here," Seeto explained, "so o thers can com e and take w hat they need." " You mea n you ju st let a nyone take anyth ing from anyone else?" H endel asked in su rprise.

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"Not if someone else is using it," Seeto said, his voice making it clear th at, to him, the answer was b lata ntly obvious. "But if you're no r using it, you 're ju st supp osed to b ring it here and give it away for free to someone else?" "What else would you do w ith it ?" the young quaria n asked, the q uestion m aking it clea r that the concept of sell ing surplus mercha ndise to you r neighbor was completely foreig n to h im . "What if som ebody hoards t hei r possessions?" H endel asked. "You k now, keeping everything fo r

himself?" Seeto laughed. "Who would d o such a thing? Your living space wou ld becom e so crowded you 'd have to sleep sta nding up, just for the sake of having items you don't even lise ." H e shook his head a nd c hu ckled softly a t H endel 's foo lish ness. As t hey passed t hrough the tra d ing deck, Ka h lee cast a q u ick glance over at Gillia n . Ir was hard to read her e m otiona l state be h ind her m ask, but she seemed to be okay. Satisfied, Kahlee turned he r attent ion back to the qua ria ns hu nt ing through the me rchan d ise. At fi rst glance the scene resem bled the crowded market squa re of a ny colo ny world. A closer look, however, showed it was very, very different. It lacked t he aggressive, b ustl ing energy o f a typica l bazaa r. D espite t he crowd-fort y or fifty people by her guessnobody was pushing, shoving, or fig hting over it em s. Ofte n , two o r t hree people would stop and ta lk, though they were a lways ca reful to move aside so they didn't block the a is les when t hey d id so.

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It took her a moment to realize what else was missing: the noise . There were no mercha nts loudly hawking their wares, and no angry shouting of customers and proprietors haggling over prices. Only the so ft sounds of people searching through the lockers and bins, a nd the low, good-na tured conversation of neighbors a nd frie nds. They were nearing the large freight elevator that would take them up to the next level of the ship when Ka hlee noticed something else. A sma ll desk fa shioned from a n unidentifiable a lien hardwood had been set up in front of a door leading to a s upply room o ff to the side of the ca rgo hold. A female quaria n sat at the desk behind a computer, where a line of five or six others stood waiting. Two male quarians stood behind her. The man at the front of the line said som ething to the wom an, who punched some information into the computer. H e ha nded her a n em pty pack, which s he passed to one o f the m en behind her. He disa ppeared into the room, then emerged aga in a few seconds later and handed the p ack, now fill ed, back to the m an in line. "What's going on over there?" she asked. "Essentia l items, such as food or m edici ne, are stored separately, " Seeto expla ined. "We need to keep track of our reserves to make sure we always have enough fo r everyone in the colony." "What happens when the rese rves run low?" H endel asked. "If we ma nage them carefully, they never w ill," Seeto replied. "Weekly ship ments arrive from th e Li veshi ps to provide for our bas ic needs. And specific

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o r luxury items are acquired by the scour s hips we send out to explore the worlds of the systems we pass throug h, or throug h trading with other vessels in the

Fleet. " They boarded the elevator and began to ascend,

leaving the trading deck behind them. When they reached the next level the elevator d oor opened, and Ka hlee's jaw dropped at the sig ht before her. They were on what would have been the crew deck of an Alliance c ruiser. But instead of the expected mess hall, sleeper pods, medical ba y, o r ree room, she got her first good look at how the vast majority of qua rians lived. Most of the interior walls of the deck ha d been torn out ro m axi mize the use of space. Replacing them was a m assive grid of cubicles, arra nged in grou ps of six: three ru n ning fore a nd aft a long the sh ip's deck by two running port to starboard. Each individual cu b icle was maybe a dozen feet on a side, wi th three walls fashioned from steel plates that ran three quarters of the way up to the ceiling. The fourth side, the o ne facing out toward the aisles that crisscrossed fore to a ft and port to starboard betwee n each group of cubicles, was open, though most had heavy sheets of bright, multicolo red cl oth hanging down from the ceiling like curtains to cover the opening. The noise that had been absent from the markets seemed to have migrated here, a general din of sound and voices th at rose up from each cu bicle. "This is the deck where I live," Seeto told them proudly as Isli led them down one of the a isles ru nning through the cente r of the cubicle grid. As on the trading deck, the lanes running in both directions

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were crowded with people. These individua ls moved with more purpose than the idly browsing shopp ers, thou gh they were still unfailingly courreou s in making way for others. As they passed cub icle a fter cub icl e, Kahlee wondered if the colors and intrica te designs sewn o nto the cloth curtains that served as the doors had a ny significa nce, such as identifying individua ls from a s pecific clan or family. She t ried to look for sig ns of commo n or repeati ng parrerns in the artwo rk that might h int at m ea ning, but if it was there it eluded her. Many of the cloth curtains were only partially drawn, an d Kahlee couldn't resist th e urge to glance from side to side at each cu bicle as th ey passed, ca tching occas iona l glimpses of ordinary quarians living their everyd ay lives . Some were cooking on sma ll electric stoves, others were tidying up their cubicles. Others were playing ca rds or other ga mes, or watching persona l vid screens. Some were gathered in sma ll groups, sitting on the floo r while they visited a fri end's or rela tive's space. A few were even sleep ing. All of them were wearing their en viro-suits. "Are they wearing their suits beca use of u s?" H endel wondered. Seeto shook his head . "We rarely take off our enviro-suits, except in the most private settings or in. nmate encounters . " "We work hard to maintain o ur ships," Isli added from up a hea d , "but the chance of a hull breach or engine leak, remote th ough it may be, is something we must be con sta ntly and acutely aware of." On the surface her explanati on ma de sense, but Ka hlee su spected there was more to it. Hull breaches

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and engine leaks would indeed be ext remely rare, even in o lder, run-clown vessels. And si mple airqu a lity monitors, com bined with element zero detectors, could a lert people on board to don their suits in the event of an em ergency long before any serious harm was d o ne to them . It was quite likely wearing the enviro-suits had become a deeply ingra ined tradition , a custom born from the inescapable lack of privacy o n the overpopulated ships. Th e m asks and layers of materia l could ve ry well he a physica l, emotional, and p sychologica l buffer in a society where solitude was virtua ll y im-

possible to find. " H ow do you go to the bathroom?" Gillian asked,

much ro Ka hlee's surprise . She had expected the girl to withdraw into herself in an effort to escape the

crowd s and overabundance of noise in the unfamiliar surrou ndings.

Maybe she's getting some kind of psychological privacy from her mask and eflviro-suit, too. "We have bathrooms and showers in the lower decks," Seeto expla ined , in answer to Gillian 's query. " The room is sea led and sterile. It is one of the few p laces we feel comfortable removing o ur enviro. SUItS.

"

"What about when you' re not on a quaria n ship ?" Gillian wanted to know. "Our suits are equipped to store severa l days worth of waste in sea led com partments between the in ner and o uter laye r. Th e suit can th en be flu s hed, discharging the waste into a ny com mon sa n itation facility-like th e toilet on your shuttle-wi th out exposing the wearer to outside contam ina nts."

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Seeto suddenly da rred up ahead a nd pulled back the curtain on one of the cubicles . " This is my li ving qu a rter," he said excitedly, us hering them over. Peering inside Kahlee saw a cluttered but tidy little room. A sleeping m at was rolled up in one corner. A sma ll cooking stove, a personal vid screen, and a computer rested aga in st one of the si de walls. Several swatches of brigh t orange cl oth h ung o n the walls, th e color matching the curta in th at was used to block th e open entrance. " You li ve here a lone?" Kahlee asked , and Seeto laughed aga in at the foolishness of humans. " } share this space with m y m other and father. My sister lived here for m any years, too, until she left o n her Pilg rimage. Now s he is with the crew o f the

Rayya. " "Where are your parents n ow?" Gillian asked, and Ka hlee thought she heard a hint of longing in her vOice. " M y fath er works on the upper decks as a na vigator. M y mother is usually part of the civilian Council that advises Captain Ma l, but this week she is volu nteering o n the Liveships . She will be back in two more days." "What about a ll the orange cloth hanging from the walls," Kahlee asked, cha nging the topic away fro m missing p arents. " Does it mea n a nything?" " It means m y m other likes the color orange," Seeto chuckled, letting the curta in fall back into place as th ey contin ued on their way. They made their way through the remaining cubicles until they reached a no ther elevator. " } will escort the hu ma n s alone from here," Isli in-

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formed Seeto a nd Ugho. "You two go report back fo r norma l work deta il. " " I'm afra id this is where we part comp any," Seeto said with a courteous nod. " I hope we shall see each other again soon. "

Ugho nodded, too, but didn't bother to speak. The elevator opened and th ey followed Isli aboa rd. The doors closed and it whisked them up to th e bridge. As they step ped off, Kahlee was surprised to see several m ore cu bicles built a long one side of the hall running from the elevator. Apparently space was so va luable tha t even here, o nly a few dozen feet fro m

the bridge itself, every available inch was used. "Those are the capta in 's quarters," Isli poinred out as they walked past o ne of the cubicles roward the bridge, filling the role of tour guide now that Seeto was no longer with them. The blu e and green curtain was completel y drawn, b locking a ny view inside. But based on the width of the corrido r and the two steel p lates that formed the side walls, Kahlee estimated the captain's room was the sa m e size as ever y other. When they arrived on the actual bridge Ka hl ee noted with some surprise that this was the one p lace the ship didn't seem unusua ll y crowded. There were still a lot of bodies crammed into a small area-o helmsman, two navigators, a comm operator, and various other c rew-but the sa me could be sa id of any Alliance vessel. The captain was sea ted in a chair in the center of the bridge and Lemm, his in jured leg still encased in the p rotective boot, stood just behind him. The capta in rose a nd ap proached as they entered, while Lemm clumped along behind him. "Captain Ysin'M a l vas Idenna," Lemm sai d , mak-

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ing the introductions, "a llow me to present Kahlee Sanders, and her companions H endel Mitra and Gillian Grayson." "You and your friends are welcome aboard the Ide1l11a," the captai n said, extend ing his ha nd to each of them in tu rn. Once again, Gillian didn't fli nch or shy away from the contact, though s he didn 't find the courage to speak this time. It has to be the enlliro-suits, Kahlee thought. Ca ptain Mal looked, to Kahlee's eye, exactly like every other male quarian she had met. She knew her o bservation was more tha n just interspecies bias. Even accou nting for the fact that many of the physica l differences were obscured by their environmental suits, it was a safe generaliza tion to say that quarians all tended to look prerry much the sa m e. They were of an a lmost u niforml y si mila r size an d build, with far less variety than what was found in hu ma ns. Apart from Lemm , who was easy to identify because of his boot, she had learned to rely on specific subtle differences in their clothing to tell the quarians apart. For exa mpl e, Seeto had a sm a ll bur noticeable disco loration on the left sh o ulder of his enviro-suit, as if it ha d been rubbed or worn at constanrly over ma n y m o nths. H owever, if H ende l and Grayson were both wearing enviro-suits, it would have been easy to tell them apart without rel ying on si milar tricksH endel was half a foor taller a nd seventy pounds heavier than Gillian's father. That same degree of varia nce simpl y didn't exist in the quarian populanon. It's like that with all the other races, Kahlee thou ght to herself. For some reason, humans just

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have more genetic diversity than the rest of the galaxy. She hadn 't rea lly noticed it before, not consciou sly, bur here on the bridge of the Idemla it seemed to strike home.

It's happening to

ItS,

too, she realized as Hen del

shoo k the captain 's hand. The big man's mix of Nordic and Indian a ncestry was the n orm o n Earth now, a nd the inevitable genetic by-product was a more physica lly homogeneous popu lation. In th e twem y-second century, b lond hair like hers was a rarity, and naturally blue eyes were non existe nt. But

with hair dye, skin toning, and colored contact lenses, who really cares? " } extend to each of you th e warm welcome of my ship and her crew," the ca pta in was saying, causing Ka hlee to s nap her mind back to the present. " It is a n honor to m eet you." "The honor is ours, Captai n Mal," Kahlee replied. " You have taken u s in when we had n owhere else to go." "We are wanderers ourselves," the captain replied. "We have found safety and community here in the Migrant Fleet, and I offer that safety to you now, as well. " "Thank you , sir," Kahlee replied. The capta in bowed his head in acknowledgment of her gratitude, then reached o ut and placed a hand on her shoulder, d rawing in close so he could speak to her in a to ne so so ft she could barely hear it throug h th e voice modu lator of his m ask. "Unfortunately, the safety o f the Migrant Fl eet is a false one," he whispered. Kahlee was caught off-guard by the c ryptic warn-

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ing, too surp rised to give a reply. Fortunately, he didn't seem to expect o ne. H e took his ha nd from her shoulder a nd stepped back, resuming the conversation in his norma l voice. "Representa tives from the Conclave and the Admiralty are comi ng to the Idemza to speak with you," he told her. " This is a great honor for my ship a nd my crew. " From the tone of his voice, Kahlee suspected he felt th e honor was more of an inconvenience. "Sir," one of the crew members informed the captain, "the Lestiak is requesting permission to dock." "Send them to bay fi ve," Mal replied. "We'll meet them there. "Come," he said to Kahlee and her companions, "we shouldn 't keep s uch important visitors waiting."

T\NENTV-ONE

Once aga in Kahlee and her com pan ions were led th roug h the shi p by three quarians. This time, however, their escort con sisted of Isli, Le mm , and the captalll.

They rook them back down

to

the lower levels and

over t o the docking bays. Instead of going back to Grayson's shuttle, however, they made their way to one of the other occu pied bays, where the Lestiak, along with its crew of VIPs, was already waiting fo r them. Conside ring the po litica l statu s of those on board, Ka hlee was su rprised to see the captain didn 't request permission before opening the airlock and e ntering the vessel. " I guess the capta in gets to go wherever he wants

on his own ship," Hendel whispered

to

her, making

note of the stra nge behavior as we lL Insi de the sh uttle they were brought into a large conference roo m that a ppeared to be set up fo r what looked t o be som e type of official inquiry. Or a caurtmartial, Kahlee thought. There was a long, semicircular table with six c hai rs behind it. Five of th e c hai rs were occupied by quarians, though one on the end

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was empty. Several armed guards stood at the back of the room, behind the seated dignitaries. Mailed them to the center of the room, where they stood whi le he made a full round of introductions. Kah lee didn 't bother trying to remember a ll the names as they were tossed out. She did, however, make a point of noting which three of the quarians in attendance were elected representatives from the civi lian Conclave, and which two were members of th e military's Admiralty board. She also noticed that when Mal introduced Lemm, he referred to him as " Lemm 'Sha l vas Idenna"; apparently the young quarian's Pilgrimage was o fficiall y over, and he ha d been accepted into Mal's crew. When the introductions were finished, Mal went over and sat down in the lone un occupied seat at th e table. Isli went a nd stood behind him, joining the other honor g uards watching over the scene from the back wall. Lemm didn't move, but stayed with the humans who remained standing in front of the table. "Ka hl ee Sanders," o ne of the Admira lty representatives asked, beginning the proceedings, "do you understand why we have brought you here?" "You think I might know something about Saren Arterius and how he was a ble to control the geth," she rep lied. "Could you describe your relationship with Saren?" another representative asked , this one from the c ivilian Conclave. "There was no relationship," Kahlee insisted. " I only met him briefly two o r three times. As far as I knew, he was just the Spectre ass igned to investigate the acti vities of my mentor, D r. Shu Qian."

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"And w hat were those activities, exactl y?"

"Qian had d iscovered some kind of alien artifact," she said, ch oosing her words carefu ll y. " It might have been Prot hean. Maybe it even p redated t hem . None of us really k new. " H e t hought it was t he key to crea t ing a new kind of artificia l intell igence. Bur he kept the rest of u s in t he dark; we were just lab monkeys for h im, runn ing da ta he gathered fro m his tests a nd experiments. Qian was the only o ne w ho knew a ny of the details about the artifac t: w here it was, w h at it was, what it

d;d. "Bur Qian wem missing, and he was never fou nd.

Neither were his files." " Is it possible Sa ren fo und his fi les?" one of the Conclave asked. " Is it possi ble he fo und this artifact, and used it to gain control of t he geth?" " It's poss ib le," Kahlee answered, somewhat relucrantly. The idea had occurred to her before, but she didn't like speculating rh at she h ad played some role, howeve r small, in the devastation wrought by the geth. " H ave you ever hea rd of a species ca lled the Reapers?" the first quaria n wa nted to k n ow. Kahlee shook her head. "T here is wo rd com ing from t he C itadel t hat Saren's fl agshi p, Sovereign, was actu ally an ad va nced AI. It was a live; just one of an entire race of enormous, sen tient ships ca lled the Rea pers." "Those are just rumors," H endel inter jected. "There's no proof to s upport those theories ." "But it could explain why the geth fo llowed Saren ," the q u aria n cou ntered. "An advanced AI might have

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been ab le to override the geth 's rudimentary intelligence systems." " I can 't really say," Kahlee answered. " I d o n't know anything about the geth , other than what I' ve seen o n the vids. And 1 have no idea why they fol lowed Sa ren." " But if Sovereign was a Reaper," one of the Admiralty m embers pressed, "then there could be more of its kind. They could be lying dormant in unexplored regions of space, just wa iting fo r someone to accidentally discover and awaken them." "Maybe," Ka hlee sa id with a n indecisive shrug. " It seems obvious to me that this is something we would want to avoid at a ll possible costs," one of the Conclave rep resenta tives chimed in . "One Reaper nea rly destroyed the Cita del. Another could fini sh the job. The galaxy already b lames us fo r the geth. We don't need to give them a nother reason to hate us." "Or maybe if we found one of these Reapers," M a l countered, joining the conversa ti o n for the fir st time, "we could u se it as Saren did-to take control of th e geth ! We could return to our h omeworlds and reclaim what is rightfully ours!" There was a long silence, then one of the Admiralty asked Kahlee, " Is Captain Ma l correct ? Do you believe it m ight be possible to discover a dormant Reaper a nd use it to gai n control of the geth? " Kahlee shook her head, bewildered. " I can't say. There a re too many unk nown va riables." " Please," the quarian urged , though his request seemed more like a command, "speculate. You a re one of th e galaxy's foremost experts in synthetic intelligence. We a re eager to hear what you think. "

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Kahlee rook a deep breath a nd considered the problem carefully before answering. "Given what I knew of D r. Qian's research, if Saren's flagship was the alien artifact we were studying, it might have been possible to use it to control the geth. And if there are more ships out there like Sovereign, then yes, it is logical ro assume they could also be used to contro l or influ ence the gerh . . . assum ing that's what Saren

d;d." It was difficult to read the body language of th e qu a rians a t the t ab le while their express io n s were obscu red by their masks. But Kahlee thought she derect ed anger o r frustration in several of their postures. M a l, however, seem ed to he sitting ta ller than before. " Is there anything else you ca n t ell li S, Kahlee Sa nders?" one of th e Admiralty asked. "An ything about Saren, or the geth, or D r. Qian's research?" "There's really nothing to tell," Ka hlee said a pologetically. " I wish 1 could be more helpful." " I believe we ha ve everything we need," Mal sa id, st a nding up. " Thank you, Kahlee." Rea lizing they weren't goi ng to get a nything more out of their guest, the rest of the participa nts deferred to his decision and similarly rose from th eir seats. "We thank you for your time," one of them sa id. "Ca pta in Mal, we would like to contin ue this discu ssion with the rest of the Conclave. We hope you will accompany us." Mal nodded. " I am eager to speak with them." "We should leave as soon as possible," one of th e other qu a ria ns noted. " Perhaps you could have your security chief escort the huma ns back to thei r shuttle?"

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"Ka hlee a nd the others are honored guests of the Idemla," Mal said poinredly. "They do n ot need a security escort. They are free to come a nd go as they p lease. " There was an awkward sile nce that was finall y broken by one of the Admiralty. "Understood , Captain." H av ing won his point, Mal turned to Kahlee and th e others. "As long as you a re careful n ot to interfere in the operations of the s hip, I am granting you free run of my vessel. Should you wish to have a guide, Lemm would be honored to show you around." "Thank you, Captain," Kahlee sa id, eager to get off the Lestiak a nd leave the increasingly tense situation behind. " Perhaps when I return from the Conclave, we ca n speak again," he said. "O f course," she rep lied. " You are always welcome o n our sh uttle. " Unsure if there was som e kind of formal protocol still required before they were dismissed, Kahlee simp ly stood the re unril Lemm gave her elbow a gentle tug. "Come on," he whispered, "let's go. " Mal and Isli stayed behind as he led them away. Once they were beyond the a irlock a nd back on the Idemla, H endel turned to Lemm. "What the hell was that all abou t? " " Pol itics" was the sh ort, a nd uninfo rmative, a nswer. "You can't be a little more detailed?" Ka hlee pressed. " I'm sure the ca ptain will make everything clear when he returns from the Conclave," Lemm assured her. " Please, just be patienr for a few more days."

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"It's not like we have any other ch o ice," H endel said with a grunt. " But my patience is growing awful

thin lately." Grayson didn't like Golo. The Illusive Man had a rra nged a m eeti ng between Grayson an d the quarian on Omega to plan their assa ult on the Migrant Fleer. The meeting was taking p lace in a small rented apartment in the Ta lon district, not two blocks away from the warehouse where he had killed Pel. The room was empty except for two chai rs, one table, and the two of them. "You might as well give up," Gola declared to start off the conversation. " Infiltrating the quarian fle et is

impossible." "They have my daughter," Grayson replied, keeping his voice neutral despite the bile in his throat. " I wam her back. I was to ld you could help us." Golo may have been an ally of Ce rberus, but he was a traitor ro his own people. Grayson couldn 't respect anyone who would turn on his own kind simply to make a profit. It went aga inst everything he believed in. "There are fifty thousand ships in the Migrant Fleet," Gala reminded him. "Even if th ey do have her, how are you going to figure out which vessel she's on?" "The pilot of the scout ship , the one Pel tortured for information, sa id his name was H ilo'Jaa vas Idenna. I think the Cyniad was a scout sh ip for the Idemw. Whoever ca me looking for him was part of the sa me crew. They're the o nes who took Gillian."

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"That makes sense," Golo admitted. Something about th e way he sa id it m ade Grayson feel as if he were being played, as if Golo alrea d y knew a ll this. " But it hardl y matters. Yo u won't get a nywhere nea r the Idellna. Even if you ' re in the Cyniad, the patrols w ill sh oot the vessel down if you don 't use the proper codes and hailing frequencies. " " I have the frequency an d the code," Grayson assured him. " The pilot gave them to me befo re he died ... Golo laughed. " H ow do you know they' re rea l? What if he gave you a fa lse code?" Grayson th o ug ht back to the qua rian he had di scovered in the cellar. Pel had possessed a sixth sense for knowing w hen his victi ms were lying unde r torture; interrogation had always been o ne o f his strong SUItS.

"The in format ion's good," he sa id. " It' ll get u s pa st the p at rols." " Your confidence is inspiring, " the quarian replied, and Grayson cou ld hear the smirk in his voice. H e knew Golo had been Pel's contact on O m ega. H e'd been instrumental in acquiring the CYlliad, and Grayson couldn't help but wonder w h at else the qua ria n an d Pel had been invo lved in together. " We're offering ten times what you were paid fo r the last m ission," Grayson sa id , struggling to kee p his rising anger in check. H e needed Go lo. H aving th e codes wasn't enough ; if the mi ssion had a ny ho pe o f succeeding they had to have someo ne fa milia r with the protocols o f the Migrant Fleet o n the ship to kee p them from making a

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mistake tha t would expose them. And they needed someone fl uent in the qu arian tongue o n the ra d io to relay the codes back a nd forth w ith the pat rols; a n automa ted transla tor w asn't going to cut it.

"Ten times?" Golo sa id, considering the offer. "Generous. But is it wo rth risking m y life for?" "This is a lso a chance for revenge," G rayson reminded him, sweetening the pot. He' d read Golo's profile in Pel 's mission reports. H e knew the qua ria n harbored a deep hatred for the society that ha d exiled him , an d he w asn't above exploiting that hat red. Not if it helped him get Gillian hack.

"The Fleet bani shed you. They cast you out. Thi s is your chance to strike back at them in a way they will never forger. H el p us a nd you can make them pay." "A ma n after my own heart," Golo sa id with a cruel laugh , a nd Grayson felt his stomach t urn. " Does this mea n you 're in ?" Grayson demanded . " We still ha ve severa l problems to consider," Go lo sa id by way of confir mation. "The Cyniad a n d the co d es will get us past the patrols. Bu t we' ll need some way to disrupt the Idemw's commu nicatio n s after we dock so they don't a lert the rest of the flotilla once the assault begins." " We can ta ke care of tha t," Grayson sa id, knowing Cerberus ha d that technology readily ava ilable. " What else?" " We' ll need b lu eprints of the ship's interior layout. " " It was origi na lly a d ecommissioned bataria n Hensa class cruiser," Grayson replied, relaying information the Illusive M a n 's agents ha d a lready gath-

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ered in preparation for the mission. "We have the layout. " " Impressive," Golo replied. " There is a cha nce this could work, after all. Provided you a nd your team do exactly as I say." "O f course," Grayson sa id through gritted teeth, offering his ha nd to symbo lically seal the dea l. " I wouldn't have it any o ther way."

T\NENTV-T\NO

Three more days passed befo re M al returned to the Idemw. Kahlee had spent much of that time exploring the quarian sh ip, becoming more fami liar with its

inhabirants and their culture. She had come to rea lize that most of her previous beliefs abou t the quarians were either outright wrong or gross distortions of the truth. She ha d a lways considered them to be scavengers, beggars, and thieves: a culture of petty crimi nals not to he trusted. Now s he saw them simply as resourceful a nd determined. They were a peop le stru ggli ng to su rvive with limited space and resources, yet they refused to a llow their society to degenerate into selfish ness a nd anarchy. To accomp lish this, they clung fiercely to their powerful sense of community. There was som ething noble in this unity, enforced thou gh it might be by their ci rcu m stances. Every qu a ria n truly bel ieved th ey needed to work together to survive. The strong fa mily bonds among shipmates, an d the willingness of individua ls to sacrifice for the greater good, were val ues Kah lee thought other species could aspire to . . . should they ever

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learn to see p ast their own prejudices and preconceived notions about th e quarians. Whi le Ka hlee was exploring the ship, H endel and Gillian spent most of their time o n Grayson's shutrle practicing biotics. Even while wearing her envirosuit, Gillian still wasn't enti rely comfortable around strangers, an d she preferred to stay isola ted in th e mo re familiar surroundings. Occasionally Lemm o r Seeto would come to visit, thou gh both were closed lipped when Ka hlee o r Hendel tried to pry information from them about the qu a ria n politica l situation. It was frustrating, being a pawn in a game she didn't fully unde rsta nd, but Ka hlee was confident they wou ld get some answers soon: Ca ptain Mal was finally coming to speak with them. Kahlee, H endel , and Gillian were a ll wearing their enviro-suits in preparation for his visit to th eir shuttle. Lemm had suggested the idea yesterday as a way for them to show res pect for quarian customs and tradition s in honor o f th e capta in 's arriva l. Until they knew more about the pur pose of this meeting, H endel had noted, it was proba bly best to do whateve r they could to stay on his good side. With some reluctance, Ka hlee had agreed. She didn't like wearing the su it if she didn't have to, a lthou gh she couldn't quite say exactly w hat she di sliked about it. The suits were fully climate cont rolled, so she never felt hot or sweat y while wearing it, and the thin, p li ant ma teria l ba rely restricted her movement. And with the vis-glass o f the faceplate and the audio enhancem ents in the helmet, she cou ld actually

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see a nd hea r better while wearing the sui t than without It.

Still, she never fel t comfortable in it. The sui t comp letely cut her off fro m normal tactile sensations, like the feel of the warm leather under her pa lm when s he p laced her hand on the arm o f her seat, o r the cool, hard meta l of the tabletop as she d r ummed her fingers against it. It even ma de it imposs ible to run her fin ge rs through her hair. In contrast, Gillian seemed to love wearing the su it, on ly taking it o ff o nce since their m eeting with the captain o n the bridge. She even wore it during her biotic trai ning with H endeL Ka hlee knew the secu rity

chief fou nd her behavior odd, bur he put up with it for her sake. H e did, howeve r, in sist that s he rem ove the helmet a nd mask during their sessions. Gillian had complied , though not w ith o ut some g rumbling and compla ining . The m ere fact that she gru m bled a nd complained, rather than mutely o beying, wa s fu rther evidence of how much she ha d changed. Kahlee had comm ented to H endel on how m uch improvement Gillian had shown, a nd she' d even shared her theory that the suit might m a ke the gi rl feel psychologica lly safe and mo re confident. H endel , however, had offered a different theory. " I think she's just getting better beca use Ce rberus isn't drugging her anymore." The thought was disturbing, but Kahlee was surprised she ha dn 't come up with it on her own. It was doubtful Gillian 's conditio n could be blamed solely on whatever chemica l concoctio n s J iro had been feeding her, b ut it wa s very possible they had ma de her

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symptoms worse. Somehow that knowledge made what Grayson had allowed them to do to his daughter seem even more monstrous. The sound of the airlock opening starrled her out of her recollecti ons. "Not big on kn ocking, are they?" H endel muttered, rising from his sea t to greet their visitors. Ka hlee a nd Gillian did the same. Kahlee ha d been expecting some kind of honor guard or security detail to accompany the ca ptain, but if they came they must have stayed o utsi de the ship. Apart from Lemm, Mal was alone. "Thank you for this invi ta ti o n," he sa id, once handshakes had been exchanged all around. "We're honored to have you here," Kahlee replied. "Please, sit down and make yourself comfortab le." There were only four chairs in the passenger ca bin, so once a ll the adu lts took their sea ts, Gillian hopped up into H endel's lap. Yet again, Ka hlee was a m azed at how fa r she had come in a little less than two weeks. Before a n y of them could speak, they were interrupted by a shorr, muffled beep comi ng from behind Mal's mask-the sound of an incoming message tra nsferred to his in-helm et radio. H e held up o ne hand, asking the others to be silent as he listened to the message . Kahlee couldn 't hear what was being said in his ear, but she saw him nod. "Send them to docking bay seven ," he instructed. "And tell th em it's good to have them back." "Forgive me," he said a moment later to Kahlee and the others. " I have to approve all arriv ing vessels before they ca n dock."

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"Do you have to go?" she asked.

He shook his head. " Isli a nd her tea m will greet them. We can continue our business ."

"And what exactl y is that bu siness?" Hendel sa id, casting tact and decorum aside. Kahlee could n't b lame him ; she was abour ready to d o the same th ing. Forrunately, Ma l seemed willing to be completely

candid. "The Migrant Fleet is dying," he said flatly. " It is a long, slow, a lmost invisible death, hut the facts are undeniable . We are nearing a rime of crisis for our species. In another eighty or ninety yea rs, our population will he too large fo r our ships to support. " " } thought you had zero population growth," Ka hlee said, remembering Seeto describing the unive rsa lly enforced po licies of birth control during o ne of her tours of the lower decks. "Our population is sta ble, bur the Fleet is not," the ca pta in exp lained. "Our ships contin ue to age and break down faster than we ca n replace or repair them. Little by littl e we are running out of livable space, yet neither the Conclave nor the Admiralty are willing to take action . I fear that by the time they finally realize som ething drastic mu st be done, it will be too late to stem the tide." "What d oes that have to do with me?" Ka hl ee wanted to know. "Why we re they asking me a ll those qu estions about the geth and Rea pers?" "There is a small but growing coalition of ship capta ins who believe we must take immediate action if th e quarian nation is to surv ive," Ma l explained. "We have proposed that severa l of the Fleet's largest vessels be equipped for long-di stance voyages. We want

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ro five-year jo urneys into uncha rted regions o f space or throu gh unexp lo red m ass re 1ays. " "Sounds dangerous," H endel n oted . " It is," Ma l admitted, "but this could be our only hope t o secure th e long-t erm surviva l o f the quaria n [W O-

species. We need to find life-bearing, uninhabi ted worlds we can call o ur own. Or, fa il ing that, we need to find some way t o return t o the Perseus Veil and reclaim our ho me from the gerh. "

" Do you rea lly believe you' ll find one of these

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called Reaper ships somewhere on the fr inges of u n-

explored space?" Hen del asked. " } believe it is better than doing no thing, and waiting fo r o u r numbers t o begin an irrevers ib le decline. " "Seems log ica l," Kahlee a dm itted. "So why is there so much opposition to sending out these ships?" "Our society is extremely fragile," Ma l explained. " The small est cha nge can have huge re percussions. Sending away several o f our larger vessels will weaken the Fleet as a whole, at least u ntil they return. M ost of the representatives in the Conclave are not w illing to take that risk. "Thei r caution is underst a ndab le," the ca ptain a dmitt ed. " For nea rly three hundred years the Admiralty and the Conclave have fought to protect what little we have from crumbling away. They had no choice but to a do pt careful an d conser va ti ve policies. "Those policies served us for a time," he conti nued, " but now we need to adapt. We need new policies if we are t o survive. Unfortunately, the weight of tradition hangs heavi ly over the Fleet, and there is a wi desp read fear of change.

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"Tha t is why your t esti m o ny before the representatives was so important, Kahlee," he added . "We need to win others over to our cause, t o make them see tha t taking a risk is o ur best c ha nce to survive. Even if we don 't find the Reapers or discover a way to drive th e rema in ing geth from the Perseus Veil, we still might fi nd new worlds we can settle." " Bur m y testi mony was m ea ningless," Kahlee objected. " It was a ll s pec ulatio n and maybes. I don't know a nything u seful about the gerh or the Rea pers. And I never sa id sending shi ps into the uncha rted

void would help yO ll fin d them. " "That's beside th e point," Mal explai ned. " People believe you have knowledge that ca n defeat the geth; it doesn't ma tter if yO ll really do. You have become a symbol of hope for the future among our sociery. If other captain s see you a llied with me, it will w in su pport to our cause. That is why those who oppose us want to see you leave the I dellfla." " Leave?" H endel sa id worriedly. " You mea n they' re kicking u s out of the Fleet ?" "They won 't do that," Mal assured him. " It wou ld turn you into ma rtyrs for my cause, dru mming up even more support for those of us w ho advocate change. " But there are many captains w ho oppose us," he contin ued . "Severa l have offered to give you sa nctuary o n their vessel s, should you choose to leave th e I demw. They believe if you travel with them , it w ill gain support for their side." " I d o n't like being a po litica l pawn, " Kahlee muttered darkly. " } u ndersta nd," Mal sa id sympathetica lly, "and 1

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am sorry I have put you in this position. If you really don't want to be involved, you are free to leave the Fleet. " Kahlee frowned. Leaving the Fleet wasn't an option; not while Cerberus was still looking for them. " Please, Ka hlee," Lemm added. "Sending out th e exploration sh ips is the best hope for my people to survI.ve. " Lemm probably could have gotten her to agree sim ply by saying she still owed him for saving them on Omega. But Kahlee had learned enough about qu aria n culture to rea lize he would never try to force her like that. Still , she did owe h im. And Mal's arguments made sense to her. Before she could answe r, however, they heard the distant but un mistakable soun d of the ldenna's shipboard ala rms. "We're abou t to find out if your information is reliable," Golo whispered as the Cyniad's nav screens showed severa l patro l frigates breaking off from th e ma in body of the Migrant Fleet. The quarian shuttle was packed with ten highly trained Cerberus comm a ndos, a long with Golo, Grayson, a nd a pilot trained to fly the qua rian modifi ed vesse l. Everyone on board was wearing a full combat hard-suit equipped with kinetic dampeners, and they each carried a heavy assault rifle. "Open the hailing chan nel," Golo instructed, and th e Cerberus pilot did as he was told. Grayson was technically in charge of th e mission, but for much of it he would be deferring to Golo and his greater understanding of th e quarians.

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A few seconds later the radio crackled with the cha llenge of the qu aria n patrols. "You are entering a restricted area. Identify."

"This is the scout ship Cyniad, of the Idemw," Golo responded, "seeking permission to rejoin the Fleer. " "Verify authorization. "

Grayson held his breath as Go lo recited the code phrase . "My body travels to distant stars, but my soul never leaves the Fleet. " Several secon ds passed before they got their response. "Idemza confirms your idenrity. Welcome

back, Cyniad." Golo flipp ed off the comm channel. "Bring us in nice a nd slow," he in structed the pilot. "We don't want to spook anyone." Locating the Idelllla a mid the armada of ships was surprisingly sim ple. Every vessel in the Fleet transmitted a sho rt-range homing signal on a unique frequ ency. As a scout ship, the Cyniad was preprogrammed with the Idenna's frequency, so that the vessel showed up as a green pixel on the nav screen, in contrast to the red of the other ships. As they drew close, Go lo opened the comm channel again. " This is the CYlliad, requesting permission to dock with the Idemza. " There was a delay of several seconds before the radio crackled with, " Th is is the Idel111a. Your request is granted. H ea d to docking bay seven. And th e captain says it's good to have you back." " It's good to be back," Golo replied. " Better send a security and quarantine team," he a dded , before clicking the comm channel closed.

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"A secu rity team?" Grayson asked, suspicious. "Sta ndard protoco l," Golo replied. " If I didn't request o ne, they'd get suspicious." "Wi ll they be a rmed? " " Probably, but they won't be expecting any troub le. Your sq uad should be ab le to take them down without too much difficulty. " Grayson fe lt his stomach clenching as they drifted into the docking bay. For the first time in severa l days he felt the sudden craving to dust up, but he pushed it aside by focusing on the mission. The three men in the cock pit were silent until they heard the docking cla mps secure th e shi p in p lace . " Lock onto your target," Grayson instructed , and the pilot nodded. "But hold fire until my order." Cerberus had m ade some additions to the Cyniad, includ ing the addition of a s ma ll but powerful sho rtrange laser. One well-p laced shot could knock out the Idemza's tight-bea m transmitter, killing the s hip's externa l communications a nd preventing them from alerting the rest of the Fleet. The timing ha d to be perfect, tho ugh. The Idemza would still have internal communications, and as soon as the transmitter was knocked out the bridge would a lert everyone on board. Grayson wanted to wait until the security tea m com ing to meet them had been dealt with before that happened. "Alpha tea m ," Grayson sa id into his combat helmet's transmitter, "you're going to have compan y when the airlock opens. Report in as soon as you take th em out." A few seconds later they heard several sha rp bursts of gunfire coming from just o utside the ship.

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"Enemy is down ," the Alpha ream leader replied.

"N o casua 1. tIes on our e n d. " "Take out the transmitrer," Grayson sai d , a nd the

pilot fired the laser, shearing off the dish in a quick, clean cut. The shipboa rd a larms kicked in a lmost immediately. "Now the fun begins," Golo sa id, and behind his mask Grayson knew he was grinn ing.

T\NENTV-THREE

"What's happening?" Kahlee demanded, shouting over t he di st a nt alarms. The capta in listened intently to a n incoming message, then relayed the news to the rest o f them. " The Cyniad, o ne o f our scout ships, just docked with us. They knocked out o ur tight-bea m transmitter." " I was searching for the crew o f the Cyniad when I found you in that wa rehouse," Lemm to ld them, speaking quickly. " I thought your ca pto rs ha d som e connection to the scout ship."

"Cerbe ru s," Hendel sa id. "They're coming for Gillian ." "What about the security team you sent t o meet them ?" Kahlee asked , remembering the captai n 's earlier instructions. " Isli and the others?"

"No response," Mal sa id , his voice grim. They all knew what that likely meam. "If it's Cerberus, they'll be coming straigh t fo r this shu ttle," H endel warned them. " They'll want ro grab Gillian and get out quick, before yOll can o rga nize . any resista nce. " "Do you have a ny weapons o n board?" Lemm asked.

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Kahlee shook her head. "The rifle we took from the warehou se is nearly o ut of ammo. H endel's biotic, but t ha t 's a ll we've got." "Ca ll fo r a secu rity detail," t he big man said.

"T hey won't get here in time," Mal repl ied. "The Cyniad's o n ly two bays over." We can't even seal the shuttle and make a run for it, Ka hlee rea lized. We'd never disconnect the docking

clamps in time. "Come on," she said, ju m ping to her feet . "We can't hold them off in here." T he five of t hem-two quaria ns and three humansraced from the sh ut tle t hrough the airlock o ut into

the landing bay o f the Idenna. Hendel had to hal fdrag and ha lf-ca rry Gill ian to keep up; the alarms were disorienting her, and she was moving with s low, dist racted steps. "T rading deck !" Ma l shouted. "We have weap o ns in t he st oreroom." As they ran throug h t he crowded halls a nd corridors of t he ship, Kahlee couldn't help imagining w hat wou ld happen w hen the Cerberus t roo p s arrived to fin d G rayson's sh uttle e m pty. T he q uarians h ad no reason to ever expect an att ack inside t he confin es of their Fleet vessels, and ready access to firearms in such crowded living cond itions was n o r mally a reci pe for d isaster. As a result, no o ne except a h a n dfu l of security details carried wea pons. If armed Cerberus agents st arted searching for Gi ll ian through the populated decks, it would t u rn into a massac re. Mal was shouting inst ructions into his radio, tryi ng to organ ize reinfo rcements to drive back the e nemy. "We need to ma ke a stand!" Kahlee shou ted. " H o ld

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rhem on the trading deck. If we don't, hu ndreds will

· " d,e. H e nodded, and relayed the instructions to t he

bridge. How did they find us here? Kahlee wondered as she ra n, fo llowed quickly by, Is there nowhere in the galaxy Gil/ian can escape them? The Cerber us tea m arrived a t Grayson 's o ld shut tle to fin d it a bandoned. "T hey mu st have gone into t he ship to h ide," Go lo guessed . " How many q uarians on board?" Grayson demanded. " Between six and seven h u ndred," Golo estimated. " But o nly a couple dozen will be a rmed. You stay here w ith a sm a ll tea m to secure the shuttle, and I'll

take the rest w ith me. We' ll find Gillia n and bring her

back here." Grayson shook his hea d. "She's my daughte r. I'm com ing with you." "Forget it," Go lo rep lied. "We don 't need you in t here. " " I'm in charge of t his m ission," Grayson rem inded him. "An d I' m the o nly one w h o knows h is way around a qua rian ship," Golo countered. "You can't do this wi thout m e, a nd I'm not going in there w ith you as part of m y team. " You' re too em otion ally involved," he contin ued, al most apo logetic. "You 're n ot thinking straight, and you're n ot ready fo r t his." G rayson didn 't argue the point. H e'd barely slept

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since escapi ng Pel's warehou se; he was ju st a duster ru nning on ad renal ine a nd desperation. Exha ustion and withdrawal would slow his reaction time and impa ir his judgment, putting the entire team in jeopardy. "If you really want your daughter back," the qua ria n a dded in a sensiti ve whisper, "the best thing yO li can do is wait he re a nd get th e sh uttle ready for o ur escape. " Golo was playing him; pushing his emotiona l buttons. The quaria n didn't care what happened to

Gillian. He was just a lying, ma nipulative, son-o fa-bitch who was on ly looking out for his own selfinterest. But that didn't m ea n he was wrong.

Th ey're better off without YO II. For the sake of the mission-for Gil/iall's sake-you have to sit this one out. " You, you, and you," Grayson said, pointing to the pilot a nd two others. "Stay here with m e. The rest of you go with Golo. Re me mbe r, we only have thirty minutes to get off this vesse l. " "If the humans went into the sh ip they're probably wearing e nviro-su its," Golo noted almost casua ll y. Grayson swore s ilently a t the extra complication. " The Illusive Man wants Gillian alive and unharmed," he remi nded the eight so ldiers going with Golo, stressing the point to make sure they un derst ood . "Don 't shoot at anything smaller tha n a fullgrown qua n.a n. " "Not unless you 're close enough to cou nt th e fin ge rs," Golo added w ith a laugh. "The bridge is sea ling o ff section s of the ship," M a l told them as he passed out the gu ns stored in th e

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stockroom with th e food, med icine, and other carefully tracked su pp lies. " It won't stop them , but it might slow them down. The civilia ns are being evacua ted to the upper decks, a nd I've ordered all security teams to meet us down here. " Kahlee took the assa ult rifle he ha nded her, hefting it to test the weight. It was a cheap volus knock-off of a tu rian desig n-a substa nda rd wea po n, but it was better than nothing. G lanci ng around the roo m , she considered their chances. There was o nl y one entrance o nto the trading deck from the loading ba ys: Cerberus would have to come straight down a long, narrow hall right to them. But if th ey got past that first door, they wou ld fi n d plenty of cover among the oversized crates and bins u sed to store mercha ndise that were scattered a ll about the room. A well-orga nized strike team would have no problem spreading out and trying to fl an k M a l's people. And if they had to fall back there was only one place to go--up to the heavily populated living quarters of the deck above. Two quarian security teams were already o n the trading deck. By the time Ma l ha d fini s hed passing out weapon s to Kahlee, Lemm, and H endel, fo ur mo re secu rity teams had arrived fro m the decks above. " Everyone spread o ut and find cover," the captain o rdered. " H old the doors to the la nding bay for as long as you ca n . If I give the order, fall back to the level above." The quarians scrambled to find their positions, and Ka hlee turned to G illia n. She wasn't moving or look-

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ing around; she simpl y stared straight ahead a t n othing, her arms hangi ng limp by her sides. "Do you remember where Seero's room is?" Kahlee asked, trying nor to think about the fact that the young quarian, along with lsli a nd Ugho, was proba-

bly already dead. Gillian didn't a nswer her at first, but simply stood still and quiet, gazing off into the di stance from be-

hind her mask. "Gi llian!" Kahlee shouted. "This is important! " The girl turned her hea d slowly toward her. "Do you remember when Seeto showed us his

room?" Kahlee repeated. The girl nodded once. " Do you know where it is?" "Th e deck ahove u s," she answered, in a flat monotone that indicated she was slipping farther a nd farther away from her surroundings. " The first cubicle in the group along the fourth colu mn and the sixth row. " " I need you to go th ere and wait for me or H endel to come get you!" Kahlee shouted. " Do you understa nd? Go to Seeto's room and hide!" Gillian gave the familiar single nod, then turned and walked slowl y over toward the freight elevator. "The stai rs, Gillian," Kahlee sh outed after her, knowing the elevator wouldn't be operational with the ship in emergency lockdown. "You have to ta ke th e sta irs!" The girl didn't look back at her, she simply al tered her course and headed fo r the stairs. "You sure about sending her off a lone?" Hendel asked, checking the sights and a utota rgeting system on his own weapon.

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Kahlee wasn't sure. In fact, she hated it. But s he didn't see any other option. "S he can't stay here," she sa id. "And we can't send anyone with her. M a l's going to need every possible body if we have a n y hope of holding this position." H endel nodded, agreeing with her assessment of the grim situation, then ran off to find a cover spot behind o ne of th e overflowing metal b in s that gave him a clear s hot at anyone coming in from the landing bay. Kahlee did the same, hunkering down behind a large steel c rate filled with pots a nd pans. Cerberus didn't keep them waiting long . The assau lt began with a handful of grenades lobbed through the door and into the trading deck. None of M a l's team were positioned cl ose en o ug h to the entrance to be ca ught in the blast range, but when th e grenades detonated they sent severa l of the crates, and their contents, flying through th e air. No one was injured, but it served as a distracti on as the fi rst wave of two Cerberus soldiers pushed forward to the edge of the door. Kahlee and the others opened fire, trying to drive them back. Trusting in their armor's kinetic barriers, the enemy returned fire as they sprinted forward through th e entrance toward o ne of the nearby crates that prom ised them cover. The p la n would have worked if not for H endel. While Kahlee and the quarians were unloading round after ineffective round into the enemy shields, the biotic had been ga thering his strength. Ju st as the Cerberus soldi ers ducked behind the cra te they assumed would give them shelter, H endel lifted it high into the

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air, expos ing them to another barrage o f concentrated assault- ri fle fi re.

Their shields, still depleted from their initia l charge throug h the door, couldn't save t hem fro m a second ha il o f bu llets. Both men were to rn to shreds, and Ka hlee felt a burst of t ri um phant exultatio n . H er euphoria was short lived. T he second wave of Cerberus soldiers-this ti me a group of threefo llowed only a few seconds after t he first, usi ng the sa me tech niques. H en del needed more time to recharge before he cou ld u nleash h is powers aga in, so this t ime t he trio ma de it safely ro the cover of o ne of t he bins. Protect ed from enemy fi re, t hey were able to regroup an d recharge their sh ields, t hen quickly strike out agam. They burst from their cover at the same ti me, a ll three movi ng in d ifferent direction s as t hey scattered to a nd fro among the maze of crates an d containers. Ka hlee focused on the nearest enemy, losing track of the other two. She t ried to take him down with wellai med bursts as he m oved from cover point to cover point, but he k new t he lim its of his shields, and he a lways m a naged to du ck out of the line o f fi re just before they were completely d ra ined . She saw he was try ing to wo rk around to the fa r side o f t he room , attem pting to get to a position w here he could sneak up on the defenders fro m behind. From the corner of her eye Ka hlee saw one of t he q u arians st ep out fro m the crate he was hidi ng behind t o try and c ut him off, only to get m owed down by the weapons of t he t hird wave of four Cer berus t roops charging through the door. It was then t h at Ka hlee realized how hopeless t he

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si tuatio n was . Despite having a two- or three-to-one edge in numbers, the ta ctica l a nd technologica l adva ntages o f the Cerberu s agents were too much to overcome. They had better weapons, better armor, and better training. H alf of M a l's team-inc luding Lemm, the captain, H endel, a nd Kahlee herselfweren't even wea ring body armor. And Cerberus had grenades. As if o n cue, she heard a lou d boom over on the far side of the deck. Whipping her head around she saw the smoke from the explosion clearing to reveal the burned a nd lifeless bod ies of two q uaria ns who had been caught in the deadly bla st. At least they had H endel o n their side. Th e big ma n poked his head out from behind his crate and u nleash ed another biotic a ttack, this o ne hurling two Ce rberus so ldiers backward fro m their hiding places, sending them both crashing agai nst a nearby wa ll. One landed hard, quickly scrambling to her feet and making it safely back behind cove r. Kahlee squ eezed the t rigger of her weapon and ma de sure the other one didn 't. An instant later, however, H endel was the one flying backward through the air-Cerberus apparently had a biotic o n their tea m , too. H e shouted out in surprise, then sla mmed hard against the wa ll beh ind the desk o utside the stockroom where they had grabbed th eir guns. H e crump led to the ground a nd didn 't rise. " H en del!" she cried out, fi ghting agai nst the suic ida l urge to leap up and rush over to check on him. Instead she turned her a ttention back o n the enemy, drawing on her years o f Alliance training to stay focused. Soldiers went down in combat, even fri ends.

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Usually there wasn't a nything you could do to help them until the enemy was neutralized. She held her position, picking her targets carefu ll y. She saw one m ore Cerberus soldier go down-by her

counr that left five, including the biotic. But all around her she could hear the screams of Mal's people. When the Cerberus biotic launched another at-

tack, batting aside the bin shielding a quarian armed with a sniper rifl e so she could he gunned down, th e captain finally gave the order Kahlee had known was com mg.

"Fa ll hack!" he shouted. "Fa ll hack!" She didn 't want to leave H en del behind, hut attempting to reach him now would a lmost g uarantee her getting shot. Blinking away the harsh tears in her eyes, she lay down a line of cover fire as s he began to make her retreat. Gillian wandered back an d forth a long the grid of cubicles, silently cou nting unti l she reached rhe o ne blocked by the bright orange curtain. Fa r away she could hear the sha rp retorts an d ricochets of sou nds she couldn't-or didn't want to-consciou sly identify. She knew something was wrong, and she knew it was somehow her fault. But though she fought to piece together what was goi ng on, the truth eluded her. Shocked inro a trancelike state by the st ress of the si tu ation , a ll her fractured m ind could latch on to were disconnected bits and pieces. For example, she realized that there sh ould have been more p eople around. She had hazy, incomplete memories of crowds movi ng in and among the cubi-

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cles. She could reca ll the buzz of chatter; it had circled around her head like a swarm of angry bees. Now, however, the cubicles were empty. Everything was still and si lent. Again, she knew this was wrong. She ju st could n't quite figure out why. Kahlee said hide in Seeto's room, she th o ug ht, as she reached out and pulled the curta in aside. Th e room didn't look as she remem bered it. The sleeping mat had been moved half a foot to the si de of where it had originally been p laced, and someone had turned the cooking stove ninety degrees since the last time she was here. Gillian knew that people moved things around sometimes. But she didn't like it. Things should a lways be put back in the sam e place.

I do n 't like it here. I want to go back to the shuttle. She let the curtain fall from her hand and t urned away from the cubicle. Walking with slow, uncertain steps she began to m ake her way back through th e crisscrossing ais les toward the sta irs leading to th e deck below, taking a long, mean dering route far different from the one that had broug ht her here originally. Kahlee fell back up the stairs, knowing a ll hell would break loose when Cerberu s fo llowed them and th e figh t spilled over into the cubicle gri ds. Even with all the civilians cleared o ut, the batrle would become a run-and-gun skirmish up and down the crisscrossing aisles, g iving Cerberu s and their su per ior weaponry an even greater advantage . Whi le severa l of M a l's people took up positions

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around the co rners of cubicles near the staircase, a iming their weapons at the door Cerberus wou ld have to come through, Kahlee made her way straight to Seeto's room to grab Gillian. By the rime she got there, she could already hea r steady bursts of gunfire being thrown back a nd forth. She knew she didn't have long; as easy as it had been for Cerberus to break through the quarian defenses on the lower deck, it would he even harder to ho ld position up here. There were simply too many options; the quarians wou ld have n o h ope of pinning a n enemy down when they could simply doub le back to one of th e other aisles an d com e at them from the opposite side. She pulled the orange curta in back, only to discover a n empty room staring hack at her. Gillian was sti ll wandering up and down the halls when the loud noises her m ind had refused to identify earlier began to ring out even louder. She saw a quarian run across the far end of the ais le she was standing in, a nd the gun in his hand forced her to recognize the sou nds as gunfire. I don't want to be here, her mi nd screamed at her.

Go back to the ship. Gillian intended to do just that. She could hear the gunfire all around her now, spo radic bursts coming from in front, behind, and off to ei th er s ide. But her overwrought m ind simply b locked it out an d she continued to make her way toward the st airs. She took a left turn and came face-to-face with a ma n and a woma n. She cou ld tell right away they weren't quarian-they had no environmental s uits.

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They were wearing helmets, but the visors o nly covered the first three quarters of their faces, and they had big, bu lky vests that hid their chests, sh oulders, and a rms. Each was ca rrying a g un , a nd when they saw her they raised their weapons up and pointed th em in her direction. Gillian sim ply conrinu ed to walk toward them, as if oblivious of rheir presence. " H old fire!" the woman shouted, lowering her gu n as rhe girl approached. "It's her! Grayson's daughrer! " The ma n lowered his weapon and rushed fo rward, reaching o ut to grab her. Withour even rhinking about it, Gillian made a fist and snapped her hand out, just like H en del ha d ta ug ht her. The man hurtled away from her, slamm ing his back against the edge of one of the cub icle walls. There was a sharp crack and he bent in a fu n n y way. " H oly morher-" the woman gasped, bur Gillian cut her words off. M oving on pure in stinct, she reached out with an open ha nd, palm upward, and fli cked her wrist. The woman launched up to the ceiling, sm ashing agai nst ir so hard her helmet cracked. She dropped down at Gillian's feet, her eyes roll ing back into her head and b lood trickling from her nose, mouth, and ears. H er leg twitched once, her boot kicking agai nst the side of a nearby cubicle, then went still. The girl simply stepped over her and continued o n her way. She reached th e stai rcase without running inro a nyone else, then went down to rhe lower deck. She could still hear th e gunfire from up a bove, but it was quierer down here. Feel ing a lirtle berter, she

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began to hum a tuneless song as she headed toward the shuttle.

Kahlee was in a near panic as s he raced up and down the aisles, desperately searching for Gillian. Forrunately, her training allowed her to keep her wits together just en o ug h no t to d o anything stupid , and

instead of dashing blindly around corners, she would poke her head o ut at each intersection , taking a quick peek for enemy com batants.

All arou nd her she could hear the sounds of fighting, bur she didn 't encounter any Cerberus troops until s he ca m e across two dea d soldiers lying in the middle of one of the a isles. For an instant she thought

she'd found proof that H endel had survived being th rown twenty feet through the a ir: it was obvious the soldiers had been killed by a biotic attack. Then another thought occurred to her.

Gillian. Since coming to the ldenna H endel had worked closely with the girl, teaching her to develop and control her biotic abil iti es. But despite the remarkable improvement in her condition over the past few weeks, she was still a n emotiona lly fragile, easily disturbed little girl. Som ething had set her off in the cafeteria back at the Academy, unleashing a storm of biotic powers. Now Ka hlee had clear evidence that th e storm had been unl eashed yet aga in. She's scared, Kahlee thou ght to herself. Confused.

She's going to want to go somewhere she feels safe. An insta nt later she had it.

She's heading back to the shuttle. Leaving the two dead so ldiers where they lay,

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Kah lee continued to work her way carefully through the aisles back toward the stairs. Golo was thoroughly enjoying the battle against his former people. While he hadn't been a crew member of the Idemta, he had no trouble imagining the quarians he gu nned down as being the ones who had banished him from the Use/a, his old ship. H eavil y armed a nd armored, he had alrea d y notched six kills during the battle-two o n the trading deck an d four more hunting through the cubicles up above. Given the superio r weaponry Cerberus had provided him, it wasn't even a fair fight ... which was exactly how Golo liked it. In fact, he was enjoying himself so m uch that he nearly lost track of the time. It was o nly when the timer in his hel met began beeping softl y that he rea lized they had only ten minutes left. They hadn't found the girl yet, but that didn't really matter to him. It was time to hea d back to Grayson's shuttle and get off the Idemta. H e knew the rest of the team would keep fighting and searching for Gillian for another five m in utes before pulling ba ck, hut he didn't like cutting it that close. With a sigh of regret he aba ndoned his hunt a mo ng the cubicle maze, and made his way quickly and ca utiou sly back toward the stairs leading to the deck below. Insi de the passenger cabin of the nameless sh uttle th at had been stolen from him on Omega, Grayson paced a nxiously. Checking his watch, he realized they were down to just under ten min utes .

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"You and you," he said, pointing at two of the

three soldiers left behind to help him secure the shut£Ie. "Get o ut there and find the controls to release the docking clamps." H e intended to wait to the last possible second before leaving, but that didn 't mean he couldn 't ha ve everything ready beforehand.

The two soldiers ru shed out to the airlock, while Grayson and the other ma n- the pilot who had flown th e quarian vessel in-wai ted in silence . H e heard a loud, heavy thump coming from outside the ship. Curious, he m ade his way cautiously toward the airlock and saw a sm a ll, fema le figure covered head to toe in an envieo-suit sta nding in the cente r of the landing bay.

"Daddy?" the figure sai d. Though the voice was partially obscu red by the m ask and breath ing apparatu s, he recognized it instantly. "Gigi," he sa id, dropping to one knee a nd holding out his hand to her. She approached him in her familiar, stiff- legged walk until she was close enough for him to to uch. Kn owing her condition well, he dropped his hand without m aking contact. And then, to his great surprise, she lurched forward another step a nd hugged him. Only when he was clasping his da ughter to his chest did he notice the two so ldiers he'd sent out only moments before-they were pinned beneath a n overturned forklift the quarians would have used to load and unload cargo vessels. It loo ked as if the six-ton vehicle had somehow been picked up and dropped o n

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them, crushing them like ants an d killing them insta ntly. Their private reu n ion was broken an insta nt later

when he hea rd the copilot spea king behind him. "S-s-sir," he sai d in a stuttering, tremb ling voice, staring at t he mangled bod ies of the two dead soldiers

peeking out from beneath the forkl ift. "What happe ned to them ?" "Never m in d," G rayson said s harply, releasing his hold o n his da ug hter and standi ng up. "Ju st get o n boa rd a nd fi re up the engines. It's t ime to go." "We can't go yet," Gi ll ian said. Grayson was su rprised to hear rea l emot ion in her vo ice, rather tha n the flat mo n otone he was used t o. "We have to wa it

for my friends." "Your frien ds?" he asked, hu moring her. " H endel and Kahlee and Lemm," she answe red. " Lemm's a qu arian ." "We ca n ' t Walt . for them , honey," he told her gently. She crossed her arms an d stepped away from him-a gestu re he'd neve r seen her use before. " I'm not going withou t them ," she said defia ntly. G rayson blinked in surprise, then nod ded. "O kay, honey, we'll go fi nd them." As she turned away to head back toward t he Ide1l11a'S interior, he step ped u p beh ind her and drew a sm a ll stun ner from his belt. O ne qu ick shot between t he shoulder b la des an d she slouched over into her father's wa it ing arms. Feel ing gu ilty over using the weapon o n her, but knowing t hey had p recious li ttle ti me to sp are, he scooped her up and carried her aboa rd the shu t tle.

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Once inside, he rook her to the bedroom, setting her gently down on the bed. H e removed the enviro-suit helmer, and for a long moment he just stared at her face, only glancing up when he heard the pilot addressing him agai n.

"Sir?" he sa id, standing at the door. "The docking clamps are still attached." "Go release th em ," Grayson orde red. " I'm not leaving my daughter's side." The man n odded, then turned a nd left them a lone. "Don't worry, Gigi," he whispered. " I'll make sure they take good care of you from now on."

T\NENTV-FOUR

Kahlee ran through the deserred trading deck, heading for the shuttle Gi llian now thought of as her home. She was so focllsed on finding th e girl before something happened to her that she didn't even think to

check on Hendel behind the desk.

She slowed down as she moved through the hall separating the trading deck a nd the landing bays, moving quietly in case any of the Cerbe ru s troops were waiting for her. H er ca ution proved well founded; th ere was a si ngle guard just outside th e shuttle. H e was sta nding with his back to her, one hand punching at a control panel to disengage the docking clamps on the vessel while his other hung at his side, casua lly grippi ng his assa ult rifle. Gunfire might alert anyone else nearby, but that didn't m ean she couldn 't use her assault rifle as a weapon. She knew his armor was eq uipped with kinetic barriers, but they were progra mmed to respond specifica lly to speed. If you sat down or slapped someone on th e back th ey didn't activa te; it took a high-velocity round to trigger them. A s harp incoming blow to the head wouldn't be fast enough to set them off.

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Moving quickly, Kahlee crept up behind him, wrap ping her arms around the end of the barrel and holding the gu n like a baseball bat. As soon as s he got w ithin range she took three quick r unning steps to build up m o mentum , then swung her ma keshift club as hard as she could. The sound of her feet clanging against the meta l fl oor of the land ing bay during her quick charge gave th e soldier just enough warning to react. H e ha lfturned toward her, bri nging o ne arm up and ducking

his head so that the blow landed on his shoulder rather tha n the side of his helmet. The force of th e impact knocked his assault rifle from his grasp, a nd it clattered to the floor as he was knocked sideways, staggering to keep his balance. Kahlee swung aga in, but s he was in too close to get the leverage s he needed. The blow st ruck him on th e side of his helmet, but not hard enough to knock him out. Dazed, the soldier stum bled away from her, his hands fu mbli ng for the pisto l on his hip. Spinning th e assault rifle in her hands, Kahlee rep osi tio ned her grip so that she could jab forward w ith the heavy butt of the gu n. She came in low, just beneath the edge o f the three-qua rter visor, smashing in the front teeth of his lower jaw. His head snapped back and he fe ll over. Kahlee leaped o n top of him, driving the butt of the ri fl e down on his head with both ha nds. Even his hel met couldn't protect him from the savage force o f repeated impacts. After six consecuti ve blows Ka hlee was certain he would never get up agam. She gave him two more shots just to m ake sure.

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Rising to her feet, she saw the assa ult rifle had been bent out of a lignment by the attack. Useless piece of lIa/us crap, she thought as she grabbed the pistol from the dead soldier's belt. With her enemy down , she took a quick glance around the rest of the landing bay. When she saw the bodies of the two Cerbe ru s troopers beneath the fork lift, she knew the girl had been by. She crept into the shu ttle, moving as quietly as possible. The pa ssenger cabin was empty so she headed up to the cockpi t, only to discover it was deserted as well. When she made her way to the sleeping quarters in the ba ck, she was only mildly surprised to find Gillian lying on the bed, her father protectively sitting over her. Raising the soldier's pi stol, she pointed it at Grayson. "Get away fro m her, you son-of-a-bitch. " H e glanced up a t the soun d of her voice, an d his eyes widened in shock. It took him a moment to recognize her behind the enviro-su it and mask. " Kahlee? " he muttered. She nodded and gestured with the pistol, and Grayson slowly stood up and backed a way from the

bed. Kahlee gla nced down at Gillian and realized she wa s unconsciou s. " What did you d o? Drug her again?" she dema nded. "Stunner," G rayson whispered , an d Kahlee tho ught he actually sounded ashamed of himself. She realized th at, despite everything he had done, he tru ly cared for his daughter. Som eh ow it made his devotion to Cereberus seem both m ore terrifying an d more pathetic.

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Then she felt the hard jab of a pistol digging into th e side of her ribs. "Drop the gun," a voice from behind her sai d. For a split second Kahlee cons idered shooting

Grayson. But killing her father would n't save Gillian, and it woul d almost certainly get Kahlee killed. Instead, she let the pistol fall from her ha nds. " Lay facedown o n the ground , hands behind your head," the voice ordered, jabbing her again with the pistol. She did as ordered, and then she heard the soun d of her u nknown assaila nt walking past her over toward

the bed. "Don't touch her, Golo," Grayson warned, the cold anger in his voice causing the footsteps to stop.

Fla t on her bell y, Kahlee dared to tilt her head to look up. She was stu n ned to see he was s peaking with a q ua nan. The world ca me back to H endel in a wave o f pain. Every bone and m uscle in his body ached fro m being slammed into the wa ll , and as consciousness slowly returned, he just lay there, t rying to get his bearings. After a few seconds, it a ll started to come back to him. H e was on the trading deck, where the quarians had been battli ng Cerberus. H e could still hea r gu nfire, but it was com ing from far away.

The fight moved to the deck above. Ig noring his protesting muscles, he fo rced himself to stand up. There were a few seconds of vertigo before he steadied himself. Looking arou nd, he loca ted

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his assault rifle where it had fa llen o n the fl oo r and picked it up.

Gotta go help Kahlee and the others. Before he could clamber out from behind the desk, however, he heard heavy footsteps running down the stairs. Two Cerberu s g uards bu rst into view from the deck above, th ei r arrention not focused on H endel, but rather on the quarians pursuing them. Th ey're retreating! H en del realized. We've won ! Bi otics were o ut of the question. His head was still spinn ing slightly from being thrown, and he su spected he had a mild concuss ion. But he was feeling well enough to use his assault rifle. Relying on the weapon's a utotargeting systems to overcome any lingering unsteadiness he might be feeling, he lined up the nearest Cerberu s soldier and op ened fi re. From this range, the bullets made sho rt work of his shield s. They lasted just long enough for him to turn toward H endel, but n ot long enough for him to bring his weapon up a nd return fire. The secon d soldier wheeled o n him as the first fell to the ground , a nd H endel ha d to duck behind the heavy desk for cover. The first burst from his enemy chewed away huge chunks of hardwood, but the cover held together in time for H endel to dart into the safety of the stock room. H e poked his head through the door to return fire, only to see that the Cerberus sol d ier was a bout to be caught in a crossfire. Hen del o pened fi re, as did several qua rians coming down the sta irs from the deck above. With enemies both in from and behind, the so ldier didn't last more tha n three seconds.

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"It's me, H en del !" he shouted out fro m t he stockroom, not wanting to su ddenly pop into view and get accidenta ll y shot. " H endel!" he heard Lemm shout. "You're alive!" H e wa lked o ut from the storeroom a nd climbed gi ngerly over the desk. Lemm, Mal, an d fou r other quaria ns were gathered at the foot of the stairs.

"Is that the last of them ?" Hendel asked, nodding toward t he dead Cerberus t roo pers on the grou nd. H e fig u red the figh t was over, as he didn 't hear anymo re gunfire. "T here might he one o r two left," the ca ptain a n-

swered, "fa lling back to the Cyniad." "T hey ha d us o n the run, when a ll of a su dden they broke into a full retreat," Lemm added.

"Why would they-" Hendel bega n, then stopped short. "Where's Kahlee? Where's Gi ll ian?" Nobody an swered. "Cerbe ru s has her!" H endel shouted. " Th at's w h y they're pu lling out!" As a grou p, they broke into a ru n, heading for the landing bays. "S hould I shoot her ?" Gala asked. Grayson looked at Kah lee, still lying facedown o n the grou nd in her en viro-suit. T he q uarian ha d his p isto l pointed a t the back of her head. "N 0, "G rayson sal. ·d "K eep her a 1·Ive. She 's an expert in b iotic a m p configuration s. Cerberus might want her to help with G illia n 's new trai ning." " I'll never hel p you wit h your sick experim ents," Ka hlee spat o ut fro m the floor.

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"Quiet," Golo warned, kicking her hard in the ribs. Grayson w inced. Kahlee gru nted and rolled over onto her back, her hands clutching at her side. " Gillian will hate you fo r this," she gasp ed, trying to catch her breath. "S he' ll never fo rgive you." The quarian ha u led off a nd kicked her aga in, ca u sing her to pull her knees up into a fe tal pos ition to try and protect hersel f. " Enough!" G rayson snapped. " H ow can you let them do thi s to your own daughter ?" Kahlee asked through gri tted teeth, still balled up from the pain. " Did you see the forklift out there? " Grayson dema nded. " Do you see w hat Gillian is cap able of? That's beca use of what Cerberus did!" "They wa nt to make her into a weapon," Kahlee countered, panting behind her mask. Grayson guessed severa l of her ribs were broken. " They're turning her into some kind of monster." "They're transforming her into a savior of th e human race," he countered. " We don 't ha ve time for this," Golo warned. "They're destroying her," Ka hlee sna rled, her words fill ed w ith pain and anger. " Those drugs made her con dition worse. Without them, she has a chance to be a lmost normal!" Unb idden , the m em ory of Gillian actually hugging him outside the airlock fill ed Grayson's m ind. H e remembered her words, and her surprising defiance .

We have to wait for m y friends. I'm not leaving without them.

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"G illian was happy here," Kahlee continued. " H ave you eve r seen that before? She was actu a lly happy!" "S hut u p! " Golo sh o uted , kicking her aga in . This ti me he didn't stop, hut contin ued to beat o n her until Grayson sna pped, "No more! That's enough. It's over."

Golo looked over at him, panring sligh tly fro m th e exertion , a nd shrugged. On the ground Kahlee was

ro lling feebly from side to side, moaning a nd whimpering from behind her mask. G rayson's eyes flicked away from her a nd over to

Gillian on the bed. She looked so sma ll, vulnerable and helpless. Sall/ation comes with a cost, he seemed ro hear th e Illusive Man saying in his head. His mind fl ashed back to the mutila ted qu arian in the cellar of Pel 's warehou se.

judge us 110t by our m ethods, but by what we seek to accomplish. " We're a lmost out of time," Golo reminded him. " We have ro leave now. We can't wait for the others." Grayson was s uddenly struck by the si milarities between the quarian and his fo rmer parrner. Both were sa distic and cruel. Both had n o compu nction about rorturing o r killing others for personal ga in. And both were trairors to their own p eople. It sickened him to think about the kind of indi viduals he had allied himself with.

We tak e terrible burdens 0 11 ourselves for the greater good. This is the price we must pay for the cause. " Get the engines fired up and get us out of here," Grayson o rdered.

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As the quarian turned to leave, Grayson calm ly bent over and picked up the pistol Ka hlee had let fall to the floor. H e stepped up behind the quarian and ja mmed the barrel aga in st the back of his helmet, too close for the kinetic barriers to save him. And then he shot Gala once through the head, the bu llet exiting th roug h th e from of his m ask and lodging itself in the shuttle's bulkhead . As the quarian toppled forward, Grayson let the pistol fall from his hand. H e turned a nd loo ked down at Kahlee, but he couldn 't tell what she was thinking behind her m ask. "The ship we a rrived on is filled with explosives," he to ld her. "We have a bout two m inutes before they detonate a nd rip a h o le in the side of the Idemza . I'll need your help if we want to sto p it. "Ca n you walk?" he as ked, reaching down a nd offering a hand to help her to her feet. She hes itated for a split second before g rabbing it and hauling herself up with a groa n. " I ca n damn well try," she a nswered. H endel and the quarians were running at a full sp rint as they burst into the loa ding docks. The Cyf1iad was in bay seven, on the far end past a ll th e other ships. The form er security chief's long strides had pulled him slightly a head of the others, but they caught up when he stopped to stare in amazement at th e two figures coming out of the airlock in bay three. Kahlee, still in her envi ro-sui t, and Grayson, wearing Cerberus armor, were exiting the shuttle. She had one arm wrapped around Grayson's neck, and he ap-

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pea red to be ho lding her up, as if she couldn 't stand on her own. Neither one of them was armed. " H endel!" Kahlee shouted , bur her voice was c ut off in a gasp of pain and her free hand clutched at her

side. "The CYlliad," Grayson called out to them. " Th e ship in bay seven. It's filled with explosives!" Hendel, bewildered by the scene before him, could

only shake his head. "What's going on? Where's Gi llian?" "S he's safe," Grayson answered, spea k ing quickly. " But you have to get to the Cyniad. Disarm the bomb before it detonates !" "Wha t the hell are you talking about?" "Cerberu s. We never inte nded to escape on the Cyniad. We were going to take m y shuttle. Th e CYlliad is filled with explosives a nd set to go off on a timer to provide a distraction as we escaped." " H ow m any explos ives, and how much time?" Hendel demanded. "Two min utes, a nd enough to rip a h ole in th e Idemza's hu ll." "Watch him!" H endel sa id, pointing a t Grayson as he turned to go. "Wa it! " Grayson shouted, freezing him in his tracks. " It's a dual sync arming syste m. You need two people to enter the code s imulta neously or it'll detonate. " "What's the code?" M a l demanded. "Six two three two one two. " "Everyone else evacuate the loading bays," th e ca pta in ordered, the n turned to H e ndel. " Let's go." It took them less than thirty secon ds to reach th e

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Cyniad's airlock. The bodies of Isli, Seeto, and Ugho lay just beyond it. The airlock itself had been sealed . "Wait," Mal sai d , grabbing H endel by the arm. "What if it's a trap? " The security ch ief ha d been thinking the sa m e thing. " That's a chance we have to take." They o pened the a irlock and raced up into th e qu aria n shuttle. The cargo hold was fill ed with enough explosives to b low apart a sma ll asteroid. At least fifty drums of liquid rocket fuel, each as high as Hendel 's shoulder, were clustered in the center of the floor, held together by a mess of wires. From somewhere in the m iddle of the canisters, completel y inaccessibl e, he heard the rhythmic beep-beep-beep of a timer counting down. "Find the overrides!" H endel shouted, and the two of them split up, one go ing clockwise around the ring of explosives, the other counterclockwise . H endel tried to sync the high-pitched beeps with the imaginary clock ticking down in his head. H e figured they ha d maybe thirty seconds to spare when he fin a lly found what he was looking for: a sm all keypad attached to the side of one of the drums. Two wires ran from the base into the co rds woven around the explosives. H endel had n o doubt that detaching either of the wires would set the whole mess off. " I've got mine!" Mal shou ted from the far side of th e canisters. "Me too," Hendel called back. " Enter the code o n three? Ready? One ... two ... three!" H e punched in the numbers, knowing there was a lag of on ly a couple seconds for M al to do the same. If they weren't in sync, if either one of them hesita ted

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o r made a mi stake, they'd both be instantly vapor-

ized. The steady beep of the timer suddenly cha nged to a single long, shrill whistle . Hendel instinctively closed his eyes as he braced himself for the boom ... And nothing happened. The shrill whistle slowl y faded away, a nd Hen del reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow, o nly to

have his gloved hand bump against the mask of his .

.

enVl rO-sult. " H ell of a n a ll-clear signa l," he muttered to him-

self. And then he began to laugh.

T\NENTV-FIVE

In the aftermath of the bartle, the qu arian s had taken Grayson into cusrod y. For nea rly a week his

fare hung in the balance as the Admiralty, the Conclave, a nd the c ivilian Cou ncil of the Idenna weighed in on what was to be done.

He had saved dozens, possibly even hundreds, of lives by warning them ahout the explosives. But Ka hlee, along with everyone else, knew that the only reason their lives were ever in dange r was beca use of

what he had done. And there was still plenty of blood on his hands to be accounred for. Over twenty of the Idemza's crew had been killed in the attack, along with eleven Cerberu s soldiers and Go lo, the quarian trai tor. The cost was high, but it was far less than it could have been. Mal understood all this, and he took it into accounr while passing the fina l judgment on Grayson, as was his right as captain. Kahlee had feared there could be consequences for her an d H endel, as well; none of this would have happened had the quarians not taken them in when they first arrived. H owever, she had underestimated the value quarian culture p laced on community a nd crew. They had been ac-

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cepted as g uests on his ship, Mal had explained to her. They were part of the Idellna family. H e wasn't about to cast them o ut n ow, a nd he wasn't going to hold them accountab le for the action s of Cerberus. In the end, the captai n even agreed to a llow Kahlee to take Grayson back to the Alliance as her prisoner, giving them Grayson's own sh utrle for transportation. Lemm agreed to accompany her as the pilot, and to help her keep a n eye on their captive. Hendel a nd Gillian, however, would not be going with them. "Are you sure you know what you 're doing?" she asked Hendel as they stood in the landing bay, saying their good-byes. "G illian needs this," he sa id. "You saw how far she's come since we've been here. I don't know if it's the ship, the enviro-sui ts, the lack of d rugs ... a ll I know is that she's happy here on the ldenna . "And soon she'll be beyond the reach of even Cerberus," he added after a moment. Kahlee nodded, accepting the fact that she could n't change his m ind. The news of a n enemy force infiltrating the Migrant Fleet had shaken the quarian society to its very core. Faced with the shocking rea lization that they were vulnerable even within the flotil la, many of the ship captains had changed their views on the idea of sending exploratory vessels o ut into the depths of space on extended missions. The Conclave had fiercely debated the matter, but in the end those who favored the exploratory m issions, like M a l, were the ma jority. The Admiralty could have overrurned the Conclave's ruling, but

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they, too, seem ed to have had a change of heart. They acquiesced to the decision, though they did impose st rict rules an d restrictions on h ow ma ny vessels could go, a nd when they could leave. Not surprisingly, the Idelllla was chosen to be the first of those vessels. In three weeks it would set o ff throug h a recently activated mass relay in an uninhabited system , heading into pa rts unknown. Even now it was being refirred wi th new technology to allow it to survive on its own for up to fi ve years w itho ut any ou tside contact o r resources. To m ake such a journey feasi ble, however, the crew wou ld have to drop fro m its current populatio n of nearly seven hu n d red to just over fifty, a ll handpicked by M a l himself. The ca pta in had already given H endel and Gillian permISS ion to go. " D o you rea lly think Cerberus will stop looki ng fo r her a fter five years?" Ka hlee asked. H endel shr ugged . " I don 't know. But a t least it'll give her a chance to grow up som e befo re she has to deal w ith them again. " H e glanced over at the sh urrle, w here Gillian was in side saying a last, private good-bye to her father. H ende l had opposed the idea initially, bur Kahlee had worn him down. G rayson deserved that much, at least. " What do you thin k he's telling her in there?" th e security chief wondered. " I d on't know. " She cou ldn't even imagine what Grayson was going throug h. Everything he had done in his a dult lifeevery action, eve ry decision he had made-had been

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in the service of Cerberus and their so-called great and glorious cause. But in the end he had fin a lly chosen his da ughter over these nebulous ideals. Unfortunately, that choice meant it was impossible for her to

stay with him. "What are you going to tell Gillian

if s he ever asks

about him?" she asked Hendel. " I'm goi ng to tell her the truth," he sai d. " Her fath er is a complicated man. H e made some mistakes. But he loves her very mu ch, an d he only wants what's

best for her. And in the end he did the right thing." Kahlee nodded again, and pulled Hendel close for a hug. "You two he careful our there," she whispered.

"We will." They broke the embrace when they heard the familiar clump of Lemm's boots coming foward them. "Are we ready to go?" he as ked her. Kahlee knew the young quarian was eager ro take her and Grayson to the neatest Alliance colony so he could drop them off and get back in time to rejo in the Idemza. Like H endel and Gillian, he had a lso been selected by Mal to be part of the long and da ngerous Journey. She'd a lread y said her good-byes to Gillian, and as m uch as s he hated to take Grayson away from his daughter it was time for them to go. " I'm ready," she said. They were only a few hours away from decelerating from light s peed in the vicinity of C uervo, the nearest Alliance co lony. Lemm ha d a lready programmed their destination into the nav system s, and Ka hlee had sent off a comm message: there would be

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a security p atrol waiting when they landed to take Grayson into immedia te custody. Now the quarian was taking a quick nap in the bedroom, while Ka hlee a nd Grayson sat in the passenger cabi n, facing each other. Grayson's hands were cuffed in front of him, resting in his lap. As a further precaution , Ka hlee was a rmed with both a stunner and a pistol just in case he had a change o f hea rt. She could tell he was getting scared. H is eyes kept darting around the cabin as if he was loo king for a n escape, a nd his fingers fidgeted nervously in his lap. " You realize this is a death sentence for m e," Grayson told her. "The Alliance will protect you," Kahlee assured him. " Yo u have valuable information on Cerberus. They' ll want to keep you arou nd. " "They can't protect m e," Grayson answered , shaking his hea d. " It might take a month , or maybe even a year, but sooner or later one of their agents inside the Alliance will get to me." "What do you expect me to d o?" Ka hlee asked him. " I can't let you go." "No," he sa id softly. "No, I suppose you can't. " " You had to know this was go ing to hap pen, " she told him. "But you helped us a n yway. I think you wanted to atone for your past." " I'd like to think I ca n atone without dying," he said with a grim smirk. " Remember why you' re doing this," Ka hIee sa id, hoping to improve his mood. " It's for Gillian." The mention of his daughter brought a forlorn smile to the thin man's lips. " You were right," he sa id. "Wha t you told me be-

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fore I killed Go lo . Gillian's happy now. I guess that's all I ca n rea lly h ope for."

Kahlee nodded. "You did the right-" H er words were cut off as Grayson suddenly th rew himself a t her. He moved quick as a snake, throwing hi s head forward to strike at her unprotected nose. Ka hlee du cked to the side a t the last possible insta nt

and he butted her in the shoulder. H is weight was bea ring down on her, pinning her in her seat. His cuffed ha nd s were trying to grab at

her, unti l she jabbed her fingers, held flat and stiff, sharply into his windpipe. Gasping and choking he fell away from the seat,

then curled up in a hall on the floor. Kahlee leaped out of her chai r and stood over him, her muscles coiled in case he lunged at her a second time. "Try that again a nd I'll shoot you," s he warned, but there was no rea l venom in her threat. H er hea rt was pounding and her blood was racing with ad rena line, but he hadn't actually hurt her. She'd been expecting som ething like this for some time now; he was getting despera te. If anyone was to b lame it was her for not recognizing he was still da nge rous. "Come o n," she sa id in a so fter voice, taking a step back from him. " I didn't hurt you that bad. Get up." H e ro lled onto his side, and Kahlee rea lized he had something clenched between the fingers of his sti llcuffed ha nds. It took her a second to rea lize it was a stunner-he must have torn it from her hip during the scu ffl e ! She tried to s hout o ut a warning to Lemm, but Grayson fired a nd everything went black .

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When she woke Lemm was standing over her, looking concerned. She rea lized she was in the shuttle's bed, but the effects of the stunner had left her feeling disoriented and confused. "Where a re we?" she asked, struggling to sit up. " Daleon," Lemm answered. "A sma ll volus colony. " " I thought we were supposed to land o n C uervo," she sa id, her foggy mind sti ll purring the pieces together. Lemm shrugged. "A ll I know is that somebody knocked m e o ut with a st un ner. When I ca me to we were sirring here at the Da leon spacep ort. " "Where's Grayson? What happened to Grayson?" "Gone," Lemm replied. "We could search for him, if you want. It's possible he might still be here on Daleon. " Kahlee shook her head, realizing what had happened. " H e's long gone by now. We'll never fi n d him. " "So what n ow?" the quarian asked. "Take the shuttle a nd head back to the Idemta," she told him. " You 've got a lot o f preparations to make fo r your journey." "What about you ?" "Just dro p m e off at the Grissom Academy," she said. " There are a lot of kids in the Ascension Program who still need my help." With a s mile, she added , " I'm pretty sure I ca n convince the board to take me back."

EPILOGUE

The vid screen beeped to indicate an incoming message. The Illu sive Man looked up from the report he was studying at his desk a nd noted the call was coming over a secure line. "Answer," he sa id, and a n image of Pa ul Grayson fli ckered into view.

The Illusive Man blinked in mild surprise. He had assumed the mission to infiltrate the quarian flotilla was a failure, sim ply beca use two weeks had passed

and he hadn't heard anything. With most Cerberus assignments he could get general updates by watching the news vids, but with no media coverage of what went on in the confin es of the Migrant Fleet, it had rendered him as clueless and ignora nt as any ordinary, average CItizen.

" Paul," he sa id with a slight tilt of his head. " H as the asset been recovered?" " H er name is Gillian," the man a nswered. The hostility in his tone was un mistakable. "G illia n, then," the Illusive Man conceded, his voice cold. "What happened on the mission?" "The team's dead. All of th em. Golo. Everyone." "Except you. "

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" I'm as good as dead," Grayson replied. " I'm a gh ost now. You'll never find me." "What about your daughter?" the l1lusive Man asked. " H ow long will she be able to survive as a fugitive? A life on the run is no life for her. Bring her in, Pa ul, and we can talk about what's best for Gillian." Grayson laughed. "She's n ot even with me. She's o n a quarian deep-space exploration vessel out in the middle of some uncharted system beyond the edge of th e galaxy. You'll never find her." The Illusive Man's jaw clenched ever so sl ightl y as he realized the girl was beyond his reach. The fact that Grayson was willing to tau nt him with the information was clear evidence of how impossible it would be to track her down. H e rel ied o n a network of Cerberus informants throughout Counci l Space and the Termin us Systems to supply him with a consta nt flow of information. Out beyond that network he was literally blind. " I thought you were loya l to the cause, Paul. " " I was," Grayson answered. " Then I saw the kind of people who sha re your vision, and I had a cha nge of heart." The lIlu sive Man sneered a t th e screen. " I'm in the business of savi ng li ves, Pa ul. Hu ma n lives. You used to understand that. Now it seems you're suddenly trying to save your soul. " " I think my soul is too far gone to save." "Then why are you calli ng?" the Illu sive Man demanded, the smallest hint of fru stra ti on creeping into his voice. " I'm giving you a warning," the man on the other end of the vid screen answered. "Stay away from

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Kahlee Sanders. If you come after her, I go to the Alliance with everyth ing I know." The Illusive Man studied the image o n the vid screen ca refully. H e n oticed the familiar signs of Grayson's

red sa nd use-the bloodshot pupils, the faintly luminous sheen on his teeth-were missing. And he realized the man wasn't bluffing. "Why is she worth so much to you ?" " Does it matter?" Grayson countered. "She's hardly worth a nything to you. Not com pared to all the dirty little secrets I have. I figure my si lence in excha nge fo r her safet y is a bargain."

"We will find you, Paul," the Illusive Man promised in a menacing whisper. "Maybe," Grayson admitted. " But that's not why I

called. Kahlee Sanders-do we have a deal?" After taking a moment to weigh the offer, the Illusive Man nodded his acceptance. Gillian's loss would set their biotic research back a full decade, but Cerberus had too man y other projects on the go to ris k them a ll fo r this. On the screen Grayson s miled. An instant later the image went blank as the call was disconnected. H e didn't bother trying to trace the ca ll-G rayson was too smart to slip up on something that simple.Instead, the Illusive Man just stared at the blank screen for a long, long time, slowly clenching and unclenching his jaw.