Act I : Chapter XXI

Noveria, Port Hanshan

Slade Jordan had seen enough corporate bureaucracy and espionage to last a lifetime, so he was strangely happy to have murderous Geth shooting at him; after all, the damn robots weren't trying to extort his life savings from him. Slade was almost disappointed when the last Geth trooper crumpled lifelessly to the floor.

"Clear!" Kaidan called out. The vehicle garage had impressive acoustics and Kaidan's voice echoed four or five times before it finally died out.

"Echo!" Shepard laughed as she slung her Lancer into its holster on her back. Her echos were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Commander Shepard!"

The squad turned towards the garage entrance to see Captain Matsuo approaching with a squad of guards.

"Please tell me what exactly happened here, and why I shouldn't arrest all of you right now?" Matsuo demanded.

"Alright", Shepard giggled. "Who would like to volunteer for explaining everything to Captain Matsuo? Three, two, one, NOT IT!"

"NOT IT!" Kaidan and Slade exclaimed simultaneously. The squad looked at Liara, chuckling at the very confused expression she wore on her face.

"Did…did I miss something?" Liara asked.

"Not at all, Liara", Shepard laughed. "Please explain what happened to Captain Matsuo."

"Very well…" Liara said cautiously. "I apologize for any inconvenience, Captain Matsuo, but we only acted in self defence; after all, the Geth did fire the first shot. We did not ask for a firefight."

"Geth?" Matsuo scoffed. "Geth?! Do you really expect me to-

"Captain!" A turian guard interrupted Matsuo and she looked over to her. "They're not lying. Look at this." Matsuo walked over to the inactive Geth unit being inspected by the turian and returned to face Shepard a few moments later.

"This doesn't make any sense", Matsuo scowled. "We scan everything that enters this port. There's no way in hell those things could make it inside without someone noticing. This is not good… If word of this gets out to the public…there might be an investor panic and a formal investigation…"

"In case you didn't already know", Slade sneered. "Half your security force is corrupt. This was probably an inside job. One of your officers must have 'overlooked' something while they were counting their bribe credits, and those Geth just waltzed in."

"And what proof do you have to support your accusation?" Matsuo countered aggressively.

"How well did you know Sergeant Stirling?" Slade taunted.

"Slade…" Shepard warned.

"It's quite convenient that you mentioned her", Matsuo spat. "Her body was found in one of the offices, and a culprit has yet to be apprehended…but I'm sure you know all about that. Isn't it strange that a Spectre and her team arrives, and a few hours later one of my sergeants is dead?"

"What are you insinuating?" Slade demanded.

"You're not as stupid as you look", Matsuo growled. "I think you know exactly what I'm getting at."

"Slade…" Shepard warned again, slightly more seriously than before.

"Hey, listen!" Kaidan said urgently, as he quickly stood in front of Slade to face Matsuo. "Look, I'm sure neither of us wants another fight. How about this… We promise not to breathe a word about the Geth, and in return, you can allow us to go about our business. As soon as we're done at Peak Fifteen, we're going to leave Noveria, and we'll most likely never return. Does that sound fair, Captain?"

You didn't need to butt in, Kaidan. I could've handled this myself.

"Fine", Matsuo snapped. "Be on your way, and make sure I don't see any of you again."

"Thank you, Captain", Kaidan smiled. He then gently grabbed Slade's shoulder and steered him away towards the garage exit, and Shepard took the lead again.

"That was stupid, Slade", Shepard scolded. "Things could have gotten ugly. Why are you always looking for a fight, when it would be so much easier to avoid one?" Slade chose to remain silent instead of replying, but Kaidan spoke for him once again.

"Come on, everyone", Kaidan sighed. "What's done is done. There's no point debating it, let's just focus on the mission ahead and be glad things worked out." Shepard silently nodded and continued walking on ahead, as Slade rolled his eyes inside his helmet.

If anyone else said something like that, I bet she would've had something to say in response. I guess it's okay when KAIDAN does it.

/

Commander Zoey Shepard had lost her patience a while ago, and was now on the brink of uncensored rage.

"Commander?" Kaidan called out, his voice echoing around the small shaft Zoey was standing inside. "Is everything okay down there?"

"Yeah!" Zoey answered. "I'm just…ummm…taking my time, so I don't mess something up!"

"Ah, crap", Slade groaned. "Get comfy. We're gonna be here a while."

Zoey wanted to shoot a witty remark back at Slade, but she silently agreed with him: they were going to be here a while. She was feeling far too proud and was unable to ask Kaidan for help, or radio Tali on the Normandy. Peak Fifteen's VI core was running on emergency back-up power, but the core needed to be manually reinitialized. Zoey sat inside a cramped maintenance shaft in the VI mainframe, and was attempting to reroute the emergency power for almost half an hour. Not only were her legs and shoulders sore from remaining in such an uncomfortable position, but her patience had now run out. Zoey painfully squeezed her hand into her belt, and yanked out the only omnigel canister she was carrying.

This is all we have. This patch-job will probably end up using all of the omnigel. So…Do I admit defeat and ask for help…or use our only supply of omnigel?…Fuck it!

Zoey popped open the canister and slathered the entire power panel with the gel inside. As she predicted, all of the omnigel was required to cover the entire panel; however, the core was soon engulfed in green light, and Zoey breathed a long sigh of relief. She quickly tucked the empty canister into a crevice in the shaft and activated the small elevator, smiling underneath her helmet as she rose up to her squad.

"Wow", Slade mocked. "You actually did it?"

"Of course!" Zoey smirked. "Did you actually doubt me?"

"No, ma'am!" Slade muttered. "Not at all, whatsoever…" Slade then reached into his belt, pulled out a small credit chit, and casually handed it over to Kaidan.

"Pleasure doing business with you", Kaidan teased.

"Wait!" Zoey demanded. "Did you two bet on whether I could fix the VI?!"

"Commander!" Liara exclaimed. "Please forgive me for interrupting, but the VI is working! Look!" Liara pointed to the mainframe behind Zoey and she turned around to see a holographic projection of a human female.

"It looks like you're trying to restore this facility", she said in a monotone voice. "Would you like help?"

"Thanks for the distraction, Liara!" Slade whispered. Zoey rolled her eyes and focused on the VI in front of her.

I miss Slade when he was awkward and quiet… now, he's a troublemaker… I feel like this is somehow my fault…

/

"We should've brought Tali along too…"

Slade Jordan silently agreed with Kaidan, but was more preoccupied with keeping an eye on the swarm of insect creatures trapped in the decontamination chamber. There were at least three of the bigger ones and a multitude of the tiny, scuttling bastards. He did not want to admit it, but the creatures completely unnerved Slade, and he dreaded the idea of opening the door.

"Unfortunately, Tali is not here", Liara said without looking up from the control panel. "So we must find a way to succeed without her." She and Kaidan had been tampering with the controls to the decontamination chamber for a few minutes while Shepard and Slade had been keeping an eye on the bugs locked inside the chamber. The control panel had malfunctioned while the power was offline and was now having difficulties rebooting. They needed the decontamination routine to purge the unwanted inhabitants; more importantly, running the decontamination sequence would also open the chamber and allow the squad to proceed to the tram station. Tali would have probably fixed the damned thing in a heartbeat, but Kaidan and Liara needed to bypass the console without her help. Fortunately, the station's VI - designated 'Mira' - gave the squad a plan B in the event they could not run the decontamination sequence. Unfortunately, plan B was to override the chamber doors and allow the creatures to escape, which Slade definitely wanted to avoid at all costs.

"How's it coming along?" Shepard inquired. "Please don't tell me that we need to play exterminator and flush them out ourselves…"

"I can't see any way to bypass the console, Commander", Kaidan admitted. "It really looks like we might have to do this the hard way."

"Wait a moment", Liara muttered. "I think we might be able to bypass the console with a moderate amount of omnigel. If we assume the console is halted in the 'off' setting, then if we apply omnigel to the control module, it should switch to the 'on' setting."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea", Kaidan praised. "It just might work, Commander. In any case, I don't see any other option available to us. Let's go with Liara's idea! Would you mind passing us the omnigel, Commander?"

"Ummm…" Shepard stammered. "See…here's the thing…well…ummm…I didn't bring any omnigel…"

"What?!" Slade burst out. "We triple check all our gear before we leave the Normandy, and then Ashley double checks on top of that! How did we manage to find ourselves without any omnigel?!"

"Hey, it's not my responsibility to always have omnigel on me!" Shepard deflected.

"Actually, it is!" Slade pressed. "You're the squad leader! You've always been the one carrying the omnigel! How do you not have any?!"

"I must admit, it's kinda strange Commander", Kaidan commented. "I mean, you've always carried omnigel, even when we didn't need it. Why do you suddenly not have any?"

"Kaidan, if you don't believe me, you can come here and pat me down yourself", Shepard said as she held her arms up. "I'm telling you guys, I don't have any omnigel!"

"Please, everyone, now is not the time to be fighting among ourselves!" Liara called out. Everyone had stopped talking and looked over to her. "This is obviously a stressful situation, but pointing fingers at one another will not solve our predicament! Commander Shepard believes she does not possess any omnigel, and I believe her; however, I also remember seeing a canister of omnigel on the armoury table as we were preparing to leave the Normandy. This means that one of us must be in possession of that canister, so I suggest we all calmly search our belongings until we locate it."

"I think that's a great idea, Liara", Kaidan smiled. "Any objections? Commander?"

"Well…" Shepard said nervously. "Let's just hope ONE of us actually DOES have it…" The squad formed a circle and slowly inspected all their gear. Slade was sure to check both his utility belt and the various pouches over his armour. After a few minutes - and a double check for good measure - Slade was certain he did not have the canister of omnigel.

"I am quite certain I do not have the omnigel canister", Liara said first.

"Me neither", Slade added.

"Nor do I", Kaidan chorused.

"Well…", Shepard finished. "If I don't have it either, we're hosed, aren't we?"

"How is this possible?" Liara groaned. "I could have sworn I saw the canister before we disembarked the ship!"

"Alright, everyone", Shepard said as she charged her Lancer. "I guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way. Get your weapons ready. Liara, get ready to override that door." Slade sighed and charged his Lancer, following Kaidan out into the hallway, but then immediately turned around to face the Commander.

"Hold up!" Slade shouted. "Commander, how exactly did you get that VI core up and running?!" Kaidan immediately turned around and joined Slade in staring down Shepard, almost as if he had read Slade's mind. Shepard awkwardly shuffled her feet and looked towards the wall at the back of the room.

"Ummm…what exactly are you insinuating, Slade?" Shepard stuttered.

"Oh, Commander…" Liara sighed as she facepalmed her helmet.

"Please, tell me you didn't use all our omnigel trying to fix the VI!" Slade demanded. Shepard chose to remain silent as she rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Here", Kaidan said as he pressed something small into Slade's belt. "Take your credits back."