Post by bxa on Jan 19, 2015 23:20:32 GMT 1
The first few chapters of what's probably going to be rather long piece divided into three parts (yes, a trilogy ;-) The rest will follow soon.
Rated M for language, sex and violence.
Post-destroy ending set in the Mass Effect universe 22 years after Shepard's death. A new threat emerges and some of Shepard's old friends must come together to face it under new leadership. The Shadow Broker is not pleased...
Part One
Preface
The image on the holo-screen against the window in Liara T’Soni’s office in Nos Astra spaceport was shimmering slightly with interference but Liara could still make out the Admiral’s reluctant expression as she waited for him to answer her question.
“She’s… different” Kaidan Alenko finally answered. Liara furrowed her brow slightly. “What do you mean?”
Kaidan averted his eyes for a moment with a somewhat contemplative look. Liara stared at him and waited for him to continue. “She’s… unconventional” he finally replied with a hint of a smile.
Liara narrowed her eyes and looked down at the datapad in her hand. “I can read, Admiral. I called you to get a sense of her personality beyond what my intel shows me” she said, slightly exasperated with these obvious attempts at avoiding to answer her questions.
Kaidan cleared his throat. “I know you want me to say she’s like Shepard…” he started and then paused to lick his lips while he seemed to be pondering how to finish his sentence. “But she’s not” he then finished.
Liara took a deep breath and resisted an urge to roll her eyes at him. “You can do better than that, Kaidan. What is she like?” Kaidan smiled. “She’s exactly like what it says in her files” he replied.
Liara closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Come on, Kaidan! She opened her eyes again and gave him a slightly mocking smile. “Admiral Alenko, you have asked me to go on this mission, and I need to know who will lead it. If you don’t tell me there’s a very good chance I might say no, and I also might strongly reconsider helping the Alliance with intel in the future” she replied warningly.
Kaidan studied her for a moment with his eyes slightly narrowed. He then broke into a small sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry Liara. She’s my captain and if the Council found out I was giving information about Alliance soldiers to the Shadow Broker…”. Kaidan didn’t finish but just gave her a small pout after his words.
Liara clenched her jaw and flared her nostrils, while she felt her face heat up with anger. “Fine. I’m not going!” she replied heatedly. She was about to break the transmission when Kaidan then raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Alright, wait Liara. Miranda… knows her. She’s here at the Citadel and can be on Illium tomorrow“
Liara sighed and then nodded before she gave Kaidan a pensive look. “Is she at least a little bit like Shepard?” she asked. Kaidan grinned at her and then gave her a wink before he broke the transmission.
Liara walked over to her chair with a resigned shake of her head and placed the datapad on the desk before she studied the image in the top-left corner.
The captain had hazel eyes and dark hair and was wearing a lop-sided grin that made her look both arrogant and charming at the same time. Liara had read extensively about the captain’s history in advance and she had to admit that she was not pleased.
This young captain was seemingly hot-tempered, overly ambitious and unsympathetic bordering on downright cruel to her enemies, but there was something about her that Liara could not quite put into words and Kaidan certainly seemed to trust her, regardless of his personal feelings which Liara suspected were not exactly doting.
The captain apparently also seemed to be an incorrigible womanizer and Liara’s intel showed that she had been intimate with a vast number of especially asari all around the galaxy. She had to admit however that the captain certainly had a talent for getting the job done, even if her methods differed greatly from those Shepard had employed. I could really have used you now, Shepard. Liara sighed and put the datapad in her bag before she rolled her chair around to look out at Nos Astra spaceport.
She remembered when Shepard had first come to see her in her office and had been surprised at how much Liara had changed. Shepard had not changed however and she never did, and Liara had loved that about her. Even in her final days when she had been under severe stress and suffered from sleep-deprivation she had still managed to give a smile and even a comforting word now and then to everyone she deemed needed it.
After it had been confirmed that Shepard had died at the Citadel after having activated the Catalyst, Liara had immediately sought out Kaidan to try and offer him whatever comfort she could and he had ended up crying in her lap, while she had listened to him repeating over and over that it should have been him instead of Shepard. Liara had not been able to hold back her own tears at the heartbroken expression of Shepard’s faithful companion and lover and had ended up staying with him for few days, before she had finally been forced to return to Illium to resume her duties as Shadow Broker.
The painful memory of her old friend did not help lift her tension about going on this mission, and she decided to fetch the datapad from her bag again and have another look at this new person in charge, trying to put a word on that something she had noticed before to reassure herself that going on a new mission 22 years after the Reapers, and Shepard, had died was not something she was going to regret.
She could certainly see how those hazel eyes might be compelling to young asari and human women who shared her orientation and Liara wondered just how much of an effort it actually took this captain to repeatedly lure these women into her bed. She probably just gives them that lop-sided grin. Liara had not been in love with anyone since Shepard, and those feelings had relatively quickly subsided in place of a strong attachment and friendly affections, making Liara wonder if she had in fact been in love with Shepard at all. I wonder if these girls fall in love with this captain. Liara hoped for their sake that they didn’t, since it seemed quite evident that the captain hardly even remembered them after they parted ways.
She then wondered how she would react if the captain would threaten an enemy with killing them or just down-right do it because she knew she could, and furrowed her brow with concern at the thought. She had read that the captain had shot enemies in the back to keep them from escaping and had once choked a batarian until he blacked out, and she wondered whether any of the soldiers in the captain’s platoon had ever wanted to stop her. Would I have stopped her? She had threatened people herself many times in the past, but she had never actually acted on her words as it had not been necessary. People knew who she was after the war with the Reapers, even if they did not know she was the Shadow Broker, and they knew her biotic powers were not something they should think about casually.
Liara then fetched another datapad from her drawer and studied it. The image was blurry and the datapad had very little details on it. She held it up next to the captain’s and took a deep breath. I really hope you can do this…
Azure
”You can go now” she said casually as she leaned in over the nightstand to get a better look at the datapad situated on it. She lit a cigarette and waited for the sound of bed-sheets being lifted, but after a few seconds of silence she made a half-turn and gave the naked asari next to her a look that meant business.
The asari immediately rose and went to fetch her clothes from the floor.
She turned again and studied the contents of the datapad more closely, narrowing her eyes. ‘Liara T’Soni’ the headline read. An image of the so-called Shadow Broker filled a quarter of the display and the rest of it was just the usual non-classified stuff which she had already read before in other files. The Shadow Broker, huh?
She lifted her eyes as she suddenly spied blue legs settling in front of her. The look on the asari’s face was a strange mix of disappointment and puzzlement. What did she expect? “I... had a good time” the asari said hesitantly. She couldn’t help but break into a grin before she lowered her eyes again to the datapad. “Mmm” she replied and tilted her head in the direction of the door silently telling the asari to leave. The asari immediately did as she was asked, and slammed the door behind her.
She left the datapad on the nightstand and leaned back against the pillow before she took a long puff of the cigarette, coughing a little as she exhaled. She only allowed herself one after sex, and it had been a while since she had last fucked someone. She tried to remember the face of the one before the last, but gave up after a few seconds. She only remembered that it had been another asari and guessed that she had probably looked a lot like the one she had just told to leave. They all looked the same. She put the cigarette in the ash-tray and rose to go look out at the sky-line of Nos Astra. The window was open and she felt goosebumps on her naked skin as she took in the view.
The flickering lights and outlines of tall buildings against the starry night looked exactly the same as everywhere else, and she once again hoped that she would not have to stay on this planet a minute longer than she needed to. She peered down as she noticed a skycar landing outside in front of the entrance to the hotel. Two asari, a male turian and a male human exited. The male human had his hand firmly placed on one of the asari’s left buttock, while the asari giggled at him and threw an arm around his neck. He was balding and fat and obviously severely drunk. She winced at how disgusting he must look naked and then quickly closed the window and returned to the bed.
The large tv-screen was still showing images of dancing, half-naked asari and she immediately told it to turn off before she then turned and spied something purple in between the sheets, realizing that the asari had forgotten her underwear. Did she leave that here on purpose? She threw the tiny g-string off the bed and took another puff of the cigarette before she stubbed it. She then picked up the datapad again and studied Liara T’Soni’s image again. She’s pretty, I’ll give her that.
She examined the image more closely and wondered how she would be able to persuade the Shadow Broker of all people to accompany her. Why the fuck didn’t the Admiral do this himself? She sighed and shook her head with exasperation at why she had to waste her precious time playing nice with some elevated asari cunt when she was already fairly certain that she couldn’t trust her and didn’t want her along at all. She knew the Admiral was old friends with T’Soni, but had not managed to get a reasonable explanation out of him as to why he couldn’t just persuade her to come along from the cozy confines of his office at the Citadel, and instead had sent his captain all the way to Illium to fetch her. He had muttered something about T’Soni needing to see her for herself, but she had not been able to get him to clarify that properly and had then given up and just nodded her head trying to hide her irritation. She put the datapad away and closed her eyes before she told the security-system to turn the lights off.
The next morning as she exited hotel Azure she was almost knocked over by the same fat man she had seen the night before. He was apparently still heavily drunk and gave her a half-hearted salute and then looked her up and down before he staggered over to hail a cab. She glowered at him before she examined her uniform to see if he had creased her press-folds. Two asari walked by her and one gave her a wink and her card before they followed the fat man into the cab. She shook her head with disgust and proceeded to the taxi-stand as she watched the car take to the sky. She threw the card into a small bush before she pressed the button to signal another cab. Within seconds one appeared and opened its doors for her to enter. She inhaled deeply as she placed herself next to the asari-taxidriver and gave her directions. Here goes nothing.
Nos Astra
“Captain Caroline Taylor Hayes, aged 32, N7 graduate” Liara T’Soni said monotonously and then peered up from her monitors to look at her before she continued. “Enjoy your stay at Azure?” she asked unsmiling. Taylor gave a small smile at that but quickly raised her eyes and kept them fixed on the windows behind Liara overlooking the trading-floor of Nos Astra spaceport. It didn’t surprise her that Liara already knew; she was the Shadow Broker after all.
“I did” she replied casually and kept a half-smirk on her face as her eyes lowered again to meet the Shadow Broker’s. Liara didn’t smile however, and immediately averted her eyes. Taylor felt her smirk wanting to turn into a grin but managed to suppress it by biting her lip. I think she likes me already.
“And this Mr. Crow, what do you know about him?” Liara asked without looking at her. “Probably less than you do” Taylor answered while she studied Liara’s face. The image on that datapad didn’t do you justice, Shadow Broker.
Liara raised her eyes and gave her a long look before she spoke. “Probably, but I’d still like to know just the same” she replied coolly. Her expression was somewhat stern as she leaned back in her chair with her arms across her chest. Taylor nodded and sat down on the chair opposite her desk.
“He has ‘restarted’ Cerberus. He’s in his late forties, but was already high in Cerberus ranks before the Illusive Man died 22 years ago. He supposedly worked alongside ex-Cerberus Operative Miranda Lawson on the Lazarus project and there are speculations as to whether he took a sample of Commander Shepard’s DNA with him after the project finished” she replied. She could see Liara’s expression turning slightly sad at the mention of Shepard, but ignored it and continued. “This is due to the fact that there have been several sightings around the galaxy of people closely resembling Commander Shepard, and Admiral Alenko has assigned me to investigate”. The words were almost a direct quote of the written brief she had received from the Admiral two days before, and she had deliberately memorized it as she had already suspected that Liara T’Soni might test her.
Liara rested her chin in her hand and stared blankly at her desk. “And he wants me to accompany you…” she said ponderously. “Yes” Taylor replied and wondered just how much of a song and dance she would have to do, before Liara would agree to help her. Liara sighed and rose from her chair. She turned around to peer out the windows but lowered her head after a second.
“Who else is coming?” she asked quietly. “Ex-Operative Lawson and a small platoon of the Alliance’s special forces” Taylor replied. She was getting impatient. Fuck you Admiral! “I want Garrus Vakarian with us” Liara said as she turned to face her. The look in her eyes was insistent and Taylor took a deep breath before she spoke. “General Vakarian is not part of the Alliance and the Admiral has not asked for him” she replied calmly. Liara gave a slightly scornful smile as she sat down again. “Neither am I, but you need me and I need Garrus” The stare that followed her words reminded Taylor of how powerful a biotic she had been and probably still was. Taylor returned Liara’s stare but sensed that she would probably get her way no matter what and then gave a small nod.
“All right, I’ll ask the Admiral but I can’t make any promises” Taylor finally replied, not even trying to mask her exasperation with this request. “No need” Liara said and punched some numbers on her omni-tool. “I’ll check with the Admiral myself. You can go now Captain Hayes” she said and waved Taylor out.
The Eternity Lounge was not entirely void of people despite the fact that it was still early in the afternoon. Taylor ordered some coffee and sat down at a table next to the bar wondering how long she would have to wait like an idiot before the Admiral finally contacted her and told her that he had granted T’Soni’s request.
She spied a couple of asari entering the lounge and guessed that they were dancers coming in to work. One of them was cute and Taylor gave her a smile and a long look before she turned her head to take another sip of her coffee. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to wait another day. She had been away on tour for the past two months and had hardly even had time to unpack before the Admiral had contacted her and immediately instructed her to go to Illium. He had been reluctant to give all the details at first, but Taylor had eventually managed to coax him into telling her what she believed to be at least most of the story. It was then that she had found out that Commander Shepard’s former squad-mate and close friend was in fact the Shadow Broker. She had been surprised but had managed to keep a straight face, and now she would have to team up with her and probably Vakarian too –another close friend of Shepard’s. To go hunt for clones of your dead girlfriend Admiral.
She shook her head despondently as she finished her coffee and then turned to watch an asari waitress clean the bar. She was young, Taylor estimated. Probably only about a hundred, but cute. Taylor approached the bar and placed the empty cup on it. She caught the asari’s eyes as she took it and gave her a smirk. The asari blushed a little and hesitantly smiled back at her. Yeah another day will be just fine.
She got her wish as she didn’t hear from neither Liara T’Soni nor the Admiral and thus wound up spending most of her day in the Eternity Lounge drinking with various other patrons and soldiers and hitting on asari dancers. She got a lap-dance from one of them while some human privates at the next table hollered at them approvingly. The asari leaned in and licked her earlobe before she whispered if there was some place they could go, and she ended up fucking her for hours in her small room in Azure, which she had retained after she had found out that she had to wait for the Admiral to make his decision.
As with the previous many ones she had brought back for a one-night stand over the past few years she threw her out afterwards without knowing her name. She didn’t want to know their names. Almost all of them tried to give her their names, but she purposely ignored them and instead focused on undressing them with her eyes.
She rose after she heard the door closing and went to the bathroom. God damn it! Her reflection in the mirror revealed a small, but noticeable hickey on her neck. She closed her eyes and shook her head, infuriated with herself that she had let this happen. She soon realized however that it didn’t matter much as she had remembered to pack a small case of make-up, which thankfully contained a concealer.
She left the bathroom and lit a cigarette from the pack and slowly inhaled as she watched the asari dancers on the screen opposite the bed. She wondered briefly if she had fucked one of them but doubted it. One of them resembled Liara T’Soni and she smiled as she watched the Liara-lookalike swaying half-naked on the screen with a lustful look in her eyes. This is going to be an interesting mission.
Rated M for language, sex and violence.
Post-destroy ending set in the Mass Effect universe 22 years after Shepard's death. A new threat emerges and some of Shepard's old friends must come together to face it under new leadership. The Shadow Broker is not pleased...
Part One
Preface
The image on the holo-screen against the window in Liara T’Soni’s office in Nos Astra spaceport was shimmering slightly with interference but Liara could still make out the Admiral’s reluctant expression as she waited for him to answer her question.
“She’s… different” Kaidan Alenko finally answered. Liara furrowed her brow slightly. “What do you mean?”
Kaidan averted his eyes for a moment with a somewhat contemplative look. Liara stared at him and waited for him to continue. “She’s… unconventional” he finally replied with a hint of a smile.
Liara narrowed her eyes and looked down at the datapad in her hand. “I can read, Admiral. I called you to get a sense of her personality beyond what my intel shows me” she said, slightly exasperated with these obvious attempts at avoiding to answer her questions.
Kaidan cleared his throat. “I know you want me to say she’s like Shepard…” he started and then paused to lick his lips while he seemed to be pondering how to finish his sentence. “But she’s not” he then finished.
Liara took a deep breath and resisted an urge to roll her eyes at him. “You can do better than that, Kaidan. What is she like?” Kaidan smiled. “She’s exactly like what it says in her files” he replied.
Liara closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Come on, Kaidan! She opened her eyes again and gave him a slightly mocking smile. “Admiral Alenko, you have asked me to go on this mission, and I need to know who will lead it. If you don’t tell me there’s a very good chance I might say no, and I also might strongly reconsider helping the Alliance with intel in the future” she replied warningly.
Kaidan studied her for a moment with his eyes slightly narrowed. He then broke into a small sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry Liara. She’s my captain and if the Council found out I was giving information about Alliance soldiers to the Shadow Broker…”. Kaidan didn’t finish but just gave her a small pout after his words.
Liara clenched her jaw and flared her nostrils, while she felt her face heat up with anger. “Fine. I’m not going!” she replied heatedly. She was about to break the transmission when Kaidan then raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Alright, wait Liara. Miranda… knows her. She’s here at the Citadel and can be on Illium tomorrow“
Liara sighed and then nodded before she gave Kaidan a pensive look. “Is she at least a little bit like Shepard?” she asked. Kaidan grinned at her and then gave her a wink before he broke the transmission.
Liara walked over to her chair with a resigned shake of her head and placed the datapad on the desk before she studied the image in the top-left corner.
The captain had hazel eyes and dark hair and was wearing a lop-sided grin that made her look both arrogant and charming at the same time. Liara had read extensively about the captain’s history in advance and she had to admit that she was not pleased.
This young captain was seemingly hot-tempered, overly ambitious and unsympathetic bordering on downright cruel to her enemies, but there was something about her that Liara could not quite put into words and Kaidan certainly seemed to trust her, regardless of his personal feelings which Liara suspected were not exactly doting.
The captain apparently also seemed to be an incorrigible womanizer and Liara’s intel showed that she had been intimate with a vast number of especially asari all around the galaxy. She had to admit however that the captain certainly had a talent for getting the job done, even if her methods differed greatly from those Shepard had employed. I could really have used you now, Shepard. Liara sighed and put the datapad in her bag before she rolled her chair around to look out at Nos Astra spaceport.
She remembered when Shepard had first come to see her in her office and had been surprised at how much Liara had changed. Shepard had not changed however and she never did, and Liara had loved that about her. Even in her final days when she had been under severe stress and suffered from sleep-deprivation she had still managed to give a smile and even a comforting word now and then to everyone she deemed needed it.
After it had been confirmed that Shepard had died at the Citadel after having activated the Catalyst, Liara had immediately sought out Kaidan to try and offer him whatever comfort she could and he had ended up crying in her lap, while she had listened to him repeating over and over that it should have been him instead of Shepard. Liara had not been able to hold back her own tears at the heartbroken expression of Shepard’s faithful companion and lover and had ended up staying with him for few days, before she had finally been forced to return to Illium to resume her duties as Shadow Broker.
The painful memory of her old friend did not help lift her tension about going on this mission, and she decided to fetch the datapad from her bag again and have another look at this new person in charge, trying to put a word on that something she had noticed before to reassure herself that going on a new mission 22 years after the Reapers, and Shepard, had died was not something she was going to regret.
She could certainly see how those hazel eyes might be compelling to young asari and human women who shared her orientation and Liara wondered just how much of an effort it actually took this captain to repeatedly lure these women into her bed. She probably just gives them that lop-sided grin. Liara had not been in love with anyone since Shepard, and those feelings had relatively quickly subsided in place of a strong attachment and friendly affections, making Liara wonder if she had in fact been in love with Shepard at all. I wonder if these girls fall in love with this captain. Liara hoped for their sake that they didn’t, since it seemed quite evident that the captain hardly even remembered them after they parted ways.
She then wondered how she would react if the captain would threaten an enemy with killing them or just down-right do it because she knew she could, and furrowed her brow with concern at the thought. She had read that the captain had shot enemies in the back to keep them from escaping and had once choked a batarian until he blacked out, and she wondered whether any of the soldiers in the captain’s platoon had ever wanted to stop her. Would I have stopped her? She had threatened people herself many times in the past, but she had never actually acted on her words as it had not been necessary. People knew who she was after the war with the Reapers, even if they did not know she was the Shadow Broker, and they knew her biotic powers were not something they should think about casually.
Liara then fetched another datapad from her drawer and studied it. The image was blurry and the datapad had very little details on it. She held it up next to the captain’s and took a deep breath. I really hope you can do this…
Azure
”You can go now” she said casually as she leaned in over the nightstand to get a better look at the datapad situated on it. She lit a cigarette and waited for the sound of bed-sheets being lifted, but after a few seconds of silence she made a half-turn and gave the naked asari next to her a look that meant business.
The asari immediately rose and went to fetch her clothes from the floor.
She turned again and studied the contents of the datapad more closely, narrowing her eyes. ‘Liara T’Soni’ the headline read. An image of the so-called Shadow Broker filled a quarter of the display and the rest of it was just the usual non-classified stuff which she had already read before in other files. The Shadow Broker, huh?
She lifted her eyes as she suddenly spied blue legs settling in front of her. The look on the asari’s face was a strange mix of disappointment and puzzlement. What did she expect? “I... had a good time” the asari said hesitantly. She couldn’t help but break into a grin before she lowered her eyes again to the datapad. “Mmm” she replied and tilted her head in the direction of the door silently telling the asari to leave. The asari immediately did as she was asked, and slammed the door behind her.
She left the datapad on the nightstand and leaned back against the pillow before she took a long puff of the cigarette, coughing a little as she exhaled. She only allowed herself one after sex, and it had been a while since she had last fucked someone. She tried to remember the face of the one before the last, but gave up after a few seconds. She only remembered that it had been another asari and guessed that she had probably looked a lot like the one she had just told to leave. They all looked the same. She put the cigarette in the ash-tray and rose to go look out at the sky-line of Nos Astra. The window was open and she felt goosebumps on her naked skin as she took in the view.
The flickering lights and outlines of tall buildings against the starry night looked exactly the same as everywhere else, and she once again hoped that she would not have to stay on this planet a minute longer than she needed to. She peered down as she noticed a skycar landing outside in front of the entrance to the hotel. Two asari, a male turian and a male human exited. The male human had his hand firmly placed on one of the asari’s left buttock, while the asari giggled at him and threw an arm around his neck. He was balding and fat and obviously severely drunk. She winced at how disgusting he must look naked and then quickly closed the window and returned to the bed.
The large tv-screen was still showing images of dancing, half-naked asari and she immediately told it to turn off before she then turned and spied something purple in between the sheets, realizing that the asari had forgotten her underwear. Did she leave that here on purpose? She threw the tiny g-string off the bed and took another puff of the cigarette before she stubbed it. She then picked up the datapad again and studied Liara T’Soni’s image again. She’s pretty, I’ll give her that.
She examined the image more closely and wondered how she would be able to persuade the Shadow Broker of all people to accompany her. Why the fuck didn’t the Admiral do this himself? She sighed and shook her head with exasperation at why she had to waste her precious time playing nice with some elevated asari cunt when she was already fairly certain that she couldn’t trust her and didn’t want her along at all. She knew the Admiral was old friends with T’Soni, but had not managed to get a reasonable explanation out of him as to why he couldn’t just persuade her to come along from the cozy confines of his office at the Citadel, and instead had sent his captain all the way to Illium to fetch her. He had muttered something about T’Soni needing to see her for herself, but she had not been able to get him to clarify that properly and had then given up and just nodded her head trying to hide her irritation. She put the datapad away and closed her eyes before she told the security-system to turn the lights off.
The next morning as she exited hotel Azure she was almost knocked over by the same fat man she had seen the night before. He was apparently still heavily drunk and gave her a half-hearted salute and then looked her up and down before he staggered over to hail a cab. She glowered at him before she examined her uniform to see if he had creased her press-folds. Two asari walked by her and one gave her a wink and her card before they followed the fat man into the cab. She shook her head with disgust and proceeded to the taxi-stand as she watched the car take to the sky. She threw the card into a small bush before she pressed the button to signal another cab. Within seconds one appeared and opened its doors for her to enter. She inhaled deeply as she placed herself next to the asari-taxidriver and gave her directions. Here goes nothing.
Nos Astra
“Captain Caroline Taylor Hayes, aged 32, N7 graduate” Liara T’Soni said monotonously and then peered up from her monitors to look at her before she continued. “Enjoy your stay at Azure?” she asked unsmiling. Taylor gave a small smile at that but quickly raised her eyes and kept them fixed on the windows behind Liara overlooking the trading-floor of Nos Astra spaceport. It didn’t surprise her that Liara already knew; she was the Shadow Broker after all.
“I did” she replied casually and kept a half-smirk on her face as her eyes lowered again to meet the Shadow Broker’s. Liara didn’t smile however, and immediately averted her eyes. Taylor felt her smirk wanting to turn into a grin but managed to suppress it by biting her lip. I think she likes me already.
“And this Mr. Crow, what do you know about him?” Liara asked without looking at her. “Probably less than you do” Taylor answered while she studied Liara’s face. The image on that datapad didn’t do you justice, Shadow Broker.
Liara raised her eyes and gave her a long look before she spoke. “Probably, but I’d still like to know just the same” she replied coolly. Her expression was somewhat stern as she leaned back in her chair with her arms across her chest. Taylor nodded and sat down on the chair opposite her desk.
“He has ‘restarted’ Cerberus. He’s in his late forties, but was already high in Cerberus ranks before the Illusive Man died 22 years ago. He supposedly worked alongside ex-Cerberus Operative Miranda Lawson on the Lazarus project and there are speculations as to whether he took a sample of Commander Shepard’s DNA with him after the project finished” she replied. She could see Liara’s expression turning slightly sad at the mention of Shepard, but ignored it and continued. “This is due to the fact that there have been several sightings around the galaxy of people closely resembling Commander Shepard, and Admiral Alenko has assigned me to investigate”. The words were almost a direct quote of the written brief she had received from the Admiral two days before, and she had deliberately memorized it as she had already suspected that Liara T’Soni might test her.
Liara rested her chin in her hand and stared blankly at her desk. “And he wants me to accompany you…” she said ponderously. “Yes” Taylor replied and wondered just how much of a song and dance she would have to do, before Liara would agree to help her. Liara sighed and rose from her chair. She turned around to peer out the windows but lowered her head after a second.
“Who else is coming?” she asked quietly. “Ex-Operative Lawson and a small platoon of the Alliance’s special forces” Taylor replied. She was getting impatient. Fuck you Admiral! “I want Garrus Vakarian with us” Liara said as she turned to face her. The look in her eyes was insistent and Taylor took a deep breath before she spoke. “General Vakarian is not part of the Alliance and the Admiral has not asked for him” she replied calmly. Liara gave a slightly scornful smile as she sat down again. “Neither am I, but you need me and I need Garrus” The stare that followed her words reminded Taylor of how powerful a biotic she had been and probably still was. Taylor returned Liara’s stare but sensed that she would probably get her way no matter what and then gave a small nod.
“All right, I’ll ask the Admiral but I can’t make any promises” Taylor finally replied, not even trying to mask her exasperation with this request. “No need” Liara said and punched some numbers on her omni-tool. “I’ll check with the Admiral myself. You can go now Captain Hayes” she said and waved Taylor out.
The Eternity Lounge was not entirely void of people despite the fact that it was still early in the afternoon. Taylor ordered some coffee and sat down at a table next to the bar wondering how long she would have to wait like an idiot before the Admiral finally contacted her and told her that he had granted T’Soni’s request.
She spied a couple of asari entering the lounge and guessed that they were dancers coming in to work. One of them was cute and Taylor gave her a smile and a long look before she turned her head to take another sip of her coffee. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to wait another day. She had been away on tour for the past two months and had hardly even had time to unpack before the Admiral had contacted her and immediately instructed her to go to Illium. He had been reluctant to give all the details at first, but Taylor had eventually managed to coax him into telling her what she believed to be at least most of the story. It was then that she had found out that Commander Shepard’s former squad-mate and close friend was in fact the Shadow Broker. She had been surprised but had managed to keep a straight face, and now she would have to team up with her and probably Vakarian too –another close friend of Shepard’s. To go hunt for clones of your dead girlfriend Admiral.
She shook her head despondently as she finished her coffee and then turned to watch an asari waitress clean the bar. She was young, Taylor estimated. Probably only about a hundred, but cute. Taylor approached the bar and placed the empty cup on it. She caught the asari’s eyes as she took it and gave her a smirk. The asari blushed a little and hesitantly smiled back at her. Yeah another day will be just fine.
She got her wish as she didn’t hear from neither Liara T’Soni nor the Admiral and thus wound up spending most of her day in the Eternity Lounge drinking with various other patrons and soldiers and hitting on asari dancers. She got a lap-dance from one of them while some human privates at the next table hollered at them approvingly. The asari leaned in and licked her earlobe before she whispered if there was some place they could go, and she ended up fucking her for hours in her small room in Azure, which she had retained after she had found out that she had to wait for the Admiral to make his decision.
As with the previous many ones she had brought back for a one-night stand over the past few years she threw her out afterwards without knowing her name. She didn’t want to know their names. Almost all of them tried to give her their names, but she purposely ignored them and instead focused on undressing them with her eyes.
She rose after she heard the door closing and went to the bathroom. God damn it! Her reflection in the mirror revealed a small, but noticeable hickey on her neck. She closed her eyes and shook her head, infuriated with herself that she had let this happen. She soon realized however that it didn’t matter much as she had remembered to pack a small case of make-up, which thankfully contained a concealer.
She left the bathroom and lit a cigarette from the pack and slowly inhaled as she watched the asari dancers on the screen opposite the bed. She wondered briefly if she had fucked one of them but doubted it. One of them resembled Liara T’Soni and she smiled as she watched the Liara-lookalike swaying half-naked on the screen with a lustful look in her eyes. This is going to be an interesting mission.