Kelly Chambers ate without enthusiasm. It wasn't Sergeant Gardner's fault; his seafood gumbo was actually quite tasty. But the crew had just been briefed about what they'd found on Pragia. Shepard had given the full debrief, which included some pictures that Kelly knew would give her nightmares. They hadn't found anything useful to determine who had set up the Pragia facility. The structure had been half in ruins anyway.

And now that facility was vaporized. Kelly was glad of that. In the back of her mind, she had been dreading the discovery that Cerberus had been responsible. What would she do, in that case? She had put the whole thing out of her mind and decided not to decide. And now, fortunately, it looked as if she wouldn't have to.

There were a few people still standing in line to get their meal. Everybody else was either picking at their food or talking in low tones to each other. She stared back down at her gumbo. Jack's behavior suddenly seemed much more reasonable. Kelly thought it was a wonder that the biotic wasn't completely feral.

The elevator hissed, and Kelly looked up and saw Jack walk out. Donnelly was close behind her. Everybody looked up at the pair as they entered. The biotic stopped dead, staring at them all with an unreadable expression. Kelly saw several crew drop their eyes, and several more started to get to their feet. Clearly, they were getting ready to go give their condolences to Jack, who would promptly tell them to stick it. Or Jack might just smash a few tables in anger; Kelly knew that the biotic hated pity more than anything. She could see it all happening with a tedious inevitability, and so she decided to stop it.

Kelly stood up. "Listen up, people," she all but shouted. Kelly couldn't quite replicate Shepard's Command Voice, but it was a pretty good approximation. Suddenly everybody was staring at her instead, even Jack.

She didn't let herself get rattled, she just plowed on. "We are not doing this. Yes, we all saw it. It happened. But it is in the past, and it is dead. We are going to go on, and we are not going to talk about it. This is not denial. Jack deserves your best efforts as a crew. She does not deserve nor does she need your pity." She spat out the last word as if it was a curse.

Kelly sat back down, and picked up her spoon again. She deliberately ignored everyone. It was very quiet in the mess for a little while, as everybody else also paid attention to their meal. Kelly did glance over as Jack and Donnelly made their way to the serving line. She saw Donnelly place a hand on Jack's shoulder as the biotic received her food, and Jack seemed to lean back into his touch. It was a little gesture that suddenly made Kelly feel much better.

Finally. It was about time those two had figured it out.

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"Hi, Mordin, is this a good time? I just need to do a few spot checks."

"Certainly, certainly. Please take care around collector swarm cage. Should be secure, but caution always prudent."

Donnelly stepped through the lab. He shuddered a little as he maneuvered around the clear plastic cage. It was now filled with at least a dozen of the buzzing little horrors. He pulled out a probe and began scanning a conduit in the rear of Mordin's little domain. He was still unsure of how to approach the salarian regarding joining their conspiracy. There were certainly monitoring devices in the lab. How much small talk could he get away with? Sooo, Doc, whaddya think of Cerberus, anyway? No, this was going to take a lot of subtlety, and a lot of time...

"Assume your dead zone project in engineering sublevel is complete, yes?" asked Mordin cheerfully.

The probe slipped from Donnelly's fingers and clattered to the floor. He spun, looking in panic at the doors into the lab. If just normal Cerberus staff came after him, he might have a chance at taking them. But it could be Miranda who, all joking about her fashion choices aside, was incredibly formidable. One hand went to his sidearm holster-

Mordin held up a hand. "Apologies. Did not mean to cause alarm. Was aware of your project, quite ingenious. Applied the same 'dead zone' idea to this lab space, with some improvements of course. Can talk freely."

"Oh, ah, good," said Donnelly, and eased his hand away from his holster. His heart jackhammered against his ribs. "Um. Yeah. I was calling it a blind spot, actually."

"Of course! Better analogy. Should have thought of that," chirped the salarian as he tapped one finger against his head.

"What, ah, improvements did you make?" Donnelly's heart was no longer trying to hammer out of his chest.

"Added in switching ability, can now turn on and off the...'blind spot' effect at will. Helpful in this space, since XO Lawson much more likely to visit and check logs."

"Wow. Actually, I didn't even think that was possible. You must have set up the protocols so that...never mind. Um, I guess you must have been following me, then?"

Mordin gave a very human-looking shrug. "No need. Accessed Chief Engineer maintenance logs, compared with Alliance protocols and your previous service record. Noted discrepancies and deviations from norm, applied deductive reasoning as to reason for deviations, arrived at obvious solution. Gave me something to do during lunch."

"I see. Well, I guess I'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to put one over on you, Doc."

"Indeed. Would probably have to get up the night before."

Donnelly took in a deep breath. His heart rate was about back to normal, now. "And I guess you haven't told our sponsors."

"No desire to. Cerberus has supplied excellent resources." Mordin took in a deep sniff. "But Cerberus also has checkered past, disturbing methods and morals, appalling lack of oversight. Currently lesser of two evils, but still evil. Glad to see you are of the same mind."

Another sniff, and then Mordin fixed him with the most intense stare he'd ever seen from any salarian. "Need to know, Marcus. Any data from Jack's facility? Was it Cerberus?"

"What we have is suggestive, but not definitive," replied Donnelly. "Jack found a few file fragments, and Tali was able to decrypt them. There's some package receipts, inventories, a few shipping manifests, and a couple of emails that make references to a project head named 'Tim'. That could stand for The Illusive Man or just some guy named Tim. That plus Jack's helmet footage, that's all we have."

"Will need a copy of everything. Can do own analysis. Also have some contacts with former colleagues in Special Tasks Group. Will call in some old favors, access salarian databases on Cerberus."

Donnelly bent and picked up his dropped probe. "Doc, I'll certainly get you the files and we sure appreciate your help, but you don't need to burn through favors for this."

"Wrong," said Mordin in a clipped tone. "Necessary to do so. For own sake." He turned and looked out the lab window, his hands clasped behind his back. "Have done...questionable things in the past. Still believe followed right course of action, but can appreciate how others may not agree. And know my actions have caused pain. Pain in others, people I have never met. But necessary pain."

"For the greater good?" asked Donnelly. It came out a little more snide than he'd intended.

"No!" Mordin snapped. "Hate that term. Hate it. Last refuge of scoundrels. Too vague. Whose good? How much good? Greater portion of what? Need figures, data, analysis. Can then make informed decision."

Mordin's sudden anger deflated as he rubbed his forehead. "Made informed decision, once. But was hard to do. Even though necessary." He turned and pointed a finger at Donnelly. "But never used torture. Used tissue samples, computer modeling, statistical analysis, yes. Never used live subjects, never. What was done to Jack, to other children..." The salarian's hands gripped the edge of the table hard enough to make it creak as he stared off at nothing.

"Horrible, unacceptable, monstrous. Unnecessary pain. Unnecessary!" Mordin ground out the last as if it was the worst word he could think of. He took in another huge sniff through his nose, and calmed. "Engineer Donnelly, what is planned course of action?"

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The engineer folded his arms. "Well Doc, we're going to determine with certainty if Cerberus was behind the Pragia facility, and also clean any cybernetic surprises out of Shepard. After that, if Cerberus was responsible, we're going to wait until they can get us through the Omega 4 relay and then we're going to steal the goddamn Normandy out from under them. Then we're going to track down the Collector's homeworld and put them out of business. And then I'm going to find The Illusive Man, I'm going to lock him in a small room with Shepard, and I'm going to let the Commander beat The Illusive Man to death with his bare hands."

Mordin nodded, and gave a grim smile. "Suspect Shepard will have to get in line," he said.

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The conspiracy expanded. There were six by now: Garrus, Tali, Jack, Donnelly, Mordin, and most recently Chakwas. Communication and strategizing were difficult, even with two 'blind spot' areas to use. They couldn't just all traipse into Mordin's lab for a kaffeklatsch without raising eyebrows. So they had to meet in ones and twos, either in a 'blind spot' if possible or just resorting to passing notes and whispering.

Kasumi was a real worry to Donnelly. He had worked out what he thought was a method for detecting her even through her cloak, but its efficacy was theoretical at the moment.

Donnelly and Jack were making out everywhere in the ship, using the opportunity to drop or retrieve notes from the others. Sometimes, there were no notes and they just frenched and fondled like a couple of teenagers. Donnelly came to really relish the little tingling blue sparks which came when Jack got excited. For her part, Jack seemed to take pleasure in getting Donnelly really riled up, and then whispering, "Wait until Illium, Assface. Im'a gonna destroy you."

And more than once there was no making out. Jack just sobbed into his shoulder while he held her. "You know what I really wanted to find?" she said, after she'd cried herself out. "I wanted to find a normal school. Or just a mental hospital. Someplace where they hadn't done horrible fucked-up experiments on kids." She shivered. "Because then I would just be this crazy psycho bitch who had imagined it all. And that would be fine, that would be wonderful, because it would only be me. All the needles and cutting and killing wouldn't have happened. But it did happen." Donnelly said nothing, and just held her until she fell asleep.

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Garrus scanned the debris field with resigned distaste. After two weeks on Tuchanka, he had come to appreciate just how many different kinds of rubble there were. There were the huge, Mako-sized chunks of masonry which tilted against each other at odd angles and threatened to crush you. There were also the smaller turian-sized bits which stuck up like bad teeth and were a pain to scramble over. And then, like here, you just had a mound of gravelly. A pile that right now was infested with pyjaks that they had to remove. Garrus had amused himself for a while by estimating distance and windage in his head for a few of the scuttling vermin, but that had grown tiresome.

He turned and regarded the two human legs sticking out from under the control panel. Garrus heard a muttered, "Shift, ye wee bastard..." then a clang and a yelp of pain. "Christ. Garrus, me lad, can ye hand me the ten millimeter?" Garrus found the tool and slapped it into the meaty hand which now stuck out from under the console. "Thanks very much, now let's see..." A few more clanks, and then Donnelly gave a satisfied grunt. The human engineer wormed his bulk back out from under the console. "That should sort oot the bugger," he said. "The idiot who installed it had put the limit switches in upside down."

Garrus tapped a few controls, and the automated guns on either side of the platform swung into action. They were now actually pointing at the ground, which was an improvement from before when the guns had apparently thought that pyjaks lived in the sky.

"Hrm. Better," said Garrus. "Let's see, set target recognition...and there we go."

One of the guns made a fast, jerky turn to point at a pyjak that sat on a rock scratching itself. There followed a rapid-fire crackle, and the animal disappeared in a red haze. Donnelly laughed and clapped Garrus on the shoulder.

"What is it ye say? Scoped and dropped!" exclaimed the human.

Garrus shook his head. "One hundred meters, no wind. That's hardly a challenge. I could do that with a rock."

"Well, at least now the clan's vermin problem should decrease," replied Donnelly. "That should make Wrex happy."

Garrus looked behind them. The clan leader's council stood a little ways off. He could just make out Shepard's smaller form surrounded by a crowd of huge hunchbacked krogan. Grunt stood there as well, standing protectively near his commander. The tank-born krogan certainly looked impressive, even surrounded by his brethren. His headplate was smaller and clearly hadn't fused together yet. But his muscles stood out, and he bulked wider than the other krogan.

Shepard was talking animatedly with Wrex, and Garrus was glad to see how happy the commander was. Wrex had been ecstatic to see the Spectre alive, and Garrus knew what a boost that gave Shepard. Spirits, Wrex had even seemed happy to see him, and turians and krogans weren't exactly on the best of terms.

Grunt knelt in front of Wrex, a few words were exchanged, and then Wrex clapped the young krogan on his hump. Grunt stood, and there was a light in his eyes which hadn't been there before. Garrus turned away. He knew the young krogan was now going to be insufferable.

"We're really inviting trouble taking on Cerberus, you know," he said to Donnelly.

"Says the lad who helped kill a thresher maw. On foot, no less."

Garrus looked down at his left arm, where there was a still-healing acid burn. "Yeah, that was exciting. But at least you could see the maw and know where to shoot. We are dealing with a secretive and ruthless organization."

"We have a plan, Garrus."

"What we have is an inkling of a notion of an outline of a concept which might, in some far-distant future, grow up and one fine day dream to be a plan. We haven't even figured out what to do about the AI yet."

"You let Tali and I handle that. Mordin and Chakwas are working on the Shepard angle, and you and Jack are running interference and keeping an eye on Miranda and Jacob."

Garrus clicked his mandibles in frustration. He felt Donnelly touch him on the shoulder.

"You're okay with this, right Garrus? I mean right now it's all just contingency planning until we determine who was behind Pragia."

Garrus leaned forward and gripped the railing. "Yes, we should proceed. Shepard told me when I came on board that he was sure Cerberus was going to screw us over at some point. No harm in being ready to screw them first. The commander would want us to be prepared. Speaking of which, I'm assuming Chakwas and Mordin know what we need for scanning Shepard?"

Donnelly nodded. "A nano-MRI unit. That will have much better resolution than what we have on board the Normandy, plus it won't be supplied by Cerberus. We'll also need a micro-surgery suite just in case they do find any little surprises."

"Hmm. That's pretty specialized, which means we need a planet with a well-developed industrial and scientific base. Illium, then?"

"Looks like it. Chakwas has some contacts, and finding the right equipment shouldn't be a problem. There's a clinic she knows which should be ideal. We'll be there for a few weeks with the refit anyway."

Garrus gave a wry toothy grin. "I think the problem will be coming up with some pretext to get Shepard to the clinic. Not to mention, if there are any surprises in Shepard, the moment we take them out Cerberus will know something's up."

"Our boy TIMmy's always sworn that there was nothing nefarious installed in Shepard. So if we don't find anything, well it's just our fearless leader making sure. And if we do find something, well that's just Cerberus being naughty as usual. It'll be tense, but not a cause for er, breaking up with them. Not until we want to, at least."

Garrus looked out over the exploding pyjaks and pondered the 'plan'. EDI was the big unknown. His first instinct was to just hand Tali a shotgun and let her dance merrily off to the AI core to do some creative electronics rework. But Donnelly had pointed out there might be dead-man switches, hidden subroutines, all sorts of nastiness to prevent such direct action. They might even have the drive core set to explode if EDI was taken offline.

Garrus thought more through all of the possible complications. "And we won't have to worry about the crew?" he asked Donnelly. "They're humans. I'm not trying to be offensive, I just don't have a good intuition for how they'll react."

"No worries there for most of them," said the engineer. "There's probably a couple of hard cases in there...I've got my doubts about Rogers. But remember, most of this crew is new to Cerberus. They've only been told all the good things Cerberus has done. I mean, there have always been rumors of Cerberus meddling in dangerous alien technology. Hell, I even heard rumors they'd been working on rachni."

Garrus shuddered as he remembered what they'd found during the previous Normandy's mission. "The rachni rumor is true," he said.

"Oh. Fook." Donnelly turned and leaned on the railing next to Garrus. "But, my point is, right now the crew thinks that Cerberus is at worst foolhardy. I don't know how much ye know about human history, but we had a very bad war once. Over the whole Earth. The aggressors were evil, there's no other word for it. They committed human experimentation on prisoners, eugenics research, genocide. If Cerberus was behind Pragia and the crew find out...they signed on to save the galaxy, not to work for fucking Nazis."

"Nazis," said Garrus, and rolled the word around in his mouth. Interesting word. He'd heard the venom in the human's voice when he said it. He made a mental note to look up the history of that particular human war later. After a good stiff drink as a precaution.

"I mean, hell," continued Donnelly, "if they found out, they'd probably mutiny."

Garrus twitched, involuntarily. The last word seemed to thunder in his ears. A red haze descended on his vision. He turned his gaze to the human, who recoiled. Garrus realized he was in full predator display mode. His mandibles were spread, his fangs were exposed, and his crest was flared in a great arc.

Donnelly held up his hands in a defensive manner. "Sorry, lad! I didn't mean to upset ye. I know that's probably a very dirty word to a turian."

Garrus took a deep breath, and with great effort relaxed his face. He realized that the human really didn't understand.

"No, it's worse," said Garrus, trying very hard to keep his voice calm. "It's...how do I explain?" He turned to look around. Across the debris field was the camp's mess. Next to that was, of course, a small makeshift bar. There were a few krogan clustered around tables, hoisting drinks and apparently now placing bets on which pyjak would get splattered next.

"Let's get a drink," he said, and stalked off while towing a puzzled engineer in his wake.