Therum

"I've got big news for you Shepard. Captain Anderson is stepping down as the Commanding Officer of the Normandy. The Ship is yours now." Did she really hear what she thought Udina had said. The Normandy was her ship now?

"She is quick and quiet and you know the crew. Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well." Shepard still couldn't believe she was getting the Normandy.

"I'll take good care of her Sir. Tell me what's really going on here. " She questioned her now former captain, he was not the type of man that would willingly step down for commanding the most advance ship in the Alliance navy. She was honored for the opportunity but this was his ship, she would have been fine with any other ship.  

"You needed your own ship. A spectre can't answer to anyone but the Council. And it's time for me to stand down." He answered with a slight tone of disappointment in his voice. But Shepard wasn't convinced that, it was merely about her, she stared at him with an eyebrow raised and a face of disbelief, she was waiting for him to explain. Anderson sighs knowing very well that Commander was a persistent woman who would not leave the topic alone until she found out the truth.  

"I was in your shoes Twenty years ago, Shepard. They were considering me for the Spectres. I was sent on a mission with Saren and he made sure the council would never accept me as a spectre. That's all you need to know. Now you have a chance to make up for my mistakes." Shepard was used to having the weight of people lives on her shoulder, but this was bigger than that, the Alliance's place in the galaxy was now resting on her shoulders. She wasn't about to let them down now, no matter what it would take.

"I won't let you down, Sir." She told him before he changed the subject back to Saren.

"Saren's gone. Don't even try to find him. But we know what he is after: the Conduit. He's got his geth scouring the Traverse looking for clues." Captain Anderson had completely changed the subject away from his past. It must not be easy for him to talk about his mistake, so she would let it go for now.

"We had reports of geth activities in the Feros System shortly before our colony there dropped out of contact. And there have been sightings around Noveria." Udina said bringing her back to the situation at hand.

"Find out what Saren was after on Feros and Noveria. Maybe you can figure out where the Conduit is before he does." Anderson added.

"Anything else?" she asked making sure she had every lead she could have before going after him.  

"We have one more lead. Matriarch Benezia, the other voice on the recording? She has a daughter, a scientist who specializes in the Protheans. We don't know if she is involved but it might be a good idea to try to find her. See what she knows. Her name is Liara Dr Liara T'Soni. We have reports she was exploring an archaeological dig in one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster. " Udina explained.

"Sound like we should head for the Artemis Tau cluster." She thought, it might be a good idea, if Dr T'Soni was involved it would be good to get her out of the way. And if she wasn't maybe she knew something about the conduit that could help them find it. But either way they needed to find her before someone else did.

"It your decision, Commander. You're a spectre now. You don't answer to us." Before she could even replied to Anderson, Udina cut her off.

"But your actions still reflects on humanity as a whole. You make a mess And I get stuck cleaning it up." His tone was upset even a little threatening.

"I'll try not to make it any harder on you, Ambassador." Shepard said trying to reassure him and calm him down. She wasn't planning on causing anymore trouble they she would have to.

"Glad to hear it Commander. But remember: You were a human long before you were a Spectre. I have a meeting to get to. Captain Anderson can answer any questions you might have." He said and left towards the elevator. Shepard was tempted to ask Anderson About what Happened with Saren but knew it was too soon, so she just left onto the Normandy. After taking her armor off She headed to see Joker. "I heard what happened to Captain Anderson, Survives hundreds of battles then is taken down by back door politics. Just watch your back Commander Things go bad on this mission your next on the chopping block." He warned her.

"Captain Anderson should be the one in charge it's like I'm stealing the ship from him" Shepard replied feeling bad about what happened to the Captain. It wasn't fair he should be the one in charge of the Normandy any other ship would of been fine for her.

"Yeah the Captain got screwed but it's not like you could've stopped it, nobody is blaming you. Everyone on this ship is behind you Commander, a hundred percent." He says reassuringly. "Intercom is open if you got anything you want to say to the crew now's the time." Joker continued.

"This is Commander Shepard speaking we have our orders find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I'm not going to lie to you this isn't going to be easy. For too long our species has stood apart from the others. Now it's time for us to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy. Time to show them what humans are made of. Our enemy knows we are coming, when we go into the Traverse Saren's followers will be waiting for us. But we will be ready for them too. Humanity needs to do this not just for our own sake but for the sake of every other species in citadel space. Saren must be stopped! And I promise you all we will stop him!" She surprised herself a little with that speech she had came up with it on the spot.

"Well Said Commander, Captain would be proud." Joker said interrupting her thoughts.

"The captain gave up everything so that I could have this chance We can't fail." He nodded in agreement.

"Yes ma'am." He added.

"Set a course for the Artemis Tau Cluster and Tell Kaidan and Ashley to suit up I'm bring them on this mission with me" she ordered Joker. As she left to prepare for the mission.  

"Aye aye Commander."

"Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings. Really strange. Like..off the damn charts. It looks like it's coming from an underground complex a few clicks away from the drop zone." Joker warned the ground team. After blowing up a few dozen geth in the mako. They made it to the sites entry way. When they walked up closer out of nowhere came a geth stalker jumping around and A geth ship, that dropped a few geth and a geth amateur in front of them.

"This Dr Better be worth it! Get to cover!" She yelled to her squad. The fight didn't last very long. And the squad entered the site.

"Be ready I'm sure this place is crawling with geth." The commander warned. They killed a few more geth blocking their path on the scaffolding took an elevator down.

"The tiles in those holes remind me of a bathroom floor." Kaidan pointed out. Shepard and Ash laughed a bit at the humorous truth behind that comment.

The elevator malfunctioned sending sparks flying everywhere shepard cover her eyes with her arm to avoiding them. Below them the metal walkway had been destroyed leaving no other option but to jump down to the lower scaffolding. and the walkway was broken so they had to jump down.

"Uhh... Hello? Could someone help me? Please?" Woman's exhausted voice echoed from behind an odd blue barrier like nothing she had seen before blocking the way of her squad between this room and the girl. She was suspended over the ground in a stasis like a effect.. Shepard approached her cautiously. "Can you hear me out there? I am trapped I need help!" The Asari woman yelled out again. Shepard stared at her for a few seconds mesmerized or at least she hoped it was only that long. She was beautiful. Her eyes were a beautiful ocean blue filled with pure innocence. She shook her head mentally. This is no time for distraction. She thought to herself.

"Liara T'Soni I presume?" She was finally able to mutter.

"Thank the Goddess! I didn't think anyone would come looking for me. Listen this thing I am in is a Prothean security device. I can not move so I need you to get me out of it alright?" T'soni said her voice a little shaky.

"How did you end up in there?" Shepard was curious as to how she would have gotten into the the security device in the first place.

"I was exploring the ruins when the geth showed up, so I hid in here. Can you believe that geth beyond the veil!?! I activated the tower's defenses I knew the barrier curtains would keep them out. When I turned it on I must of hit something I wasn't supposed to. I’ve been trapped in here for days. You must get me out. Please!" The Asari explained Shepard could hear the panic and exhaustion in her voice.

"I will help you out after you answer a few questions. Your mother is working with Saren who's side are you on?" Shepard mentally face palmed herself for sounding so harsh but she took her role as a soldier very serious and knew sometimes you had to be a little rough to get information somehow something about this girl made her seem… Too innocent to be working with Saren.

"What!?! I am not on anybody's side! I may be Benezia's daughter but I am nothing like her. I haven't spoken to her in years. Please just get me out of here." Liara seemed shocked by both the fact this human she didn’t know was accusing her of working with her mother and that her mother would even do anything wrong.

"We just need to find some way past these energy fields." Shepard examined the barrier looking for a way to get through or deactivate it, but she couldn’t find anything the barrier seemed foolproof.

"There is a control panel in here that should deactivate this thing. You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtains. That's the tricky part. The defenses can not be turned off by the outside. I don't know how you will get in here. Be careful there is a Krogan with the geth they have been trying different ways to get past the barrier. " She tried to warn the commander, she would much rather leave with the humans, they seemed like they wanted to help her.

"Don't worry I'll find a way past these Barriers." She replied with a wink and a smirk of confidence. Then she disappeared from view as she made her way down the ramp, to fight the geth that were crawling around the room below her.

Liara watched until she was out of sight, as the Commander took down the geth. Dodging bullets and throwing the geth around with her biotics. It's was amazing to watch. She hadn't seen many humans in her life. She spent most of her time alone. But there was something intriguing about this woman. Maybe it was only because she was here to help. She had know idea that humans would be so.. Beautiful she had such beautiful flaming red hair and icy blue eyes that I had seen many hardships, which made them all the more magnificent.

But what do they want with me? I am only an archaeologist. She thought to herself. And why are the geth here? And what was this about my mother working with Saren, who is this Saren anyway what's going on here? A loud explosion interrupted her thoughts.

What was that?

A few moments later the commander and her squad of two other humans were standing right behind her. The other woman had this look of mistrust or so Liara thought she was not very good with social interactions.

"Oh how did you get in here? I didn't think there was anyway past the barrier." She said surprised to see the Commander there was no way to get past those barriers from the outside it just couldn’t be.

"I told you I would find a way. We have to get you out of here before more geth arrive." Shepard said with a playful grin on her face. The human’s grin made Liara’s heart flutter, having no idea why.

"Yes you're right. I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime. That button should shut down my containment field." She watched as The Commander walked over and hit a few buttons on the panel. And then she fell to the ground. She felt relieved, she could finally move again. Liara stood up and dusted herself off her body felt cramped and stiff from being stuck in the same position for so long. She stretched out her arms and neck trying to relax her muscles before they moved forward.

"Any idea how we get out of this place?" Kaidan asked.

"There is an elevator back in the center of the tower... At least I think it's an elevator. It should take us out of here. Come on." Liara said walking towards the elevator. She was finally free. Thanks to this human soldier and her squad. She still didn't know why The Commander had saved her and what she wanted. But now wasn't the best time to ask.

"I still can't believe all of this. Why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia is involved?" Liara asked she was a little scared of the answer she would get. She could not believe her mother would..

"Saren's looking for the conduit think fast miss Prothean expert" Ashley said quite rudely cutting off her train of thought. But Liara didn't pay much attention to her rudeness. She was confused. The conduit? What is the conduit. Why are they asking me? I have no idea what that is.

"The conduit but I don't know." But the sounds of the ground shaking interrupted her.

"What the hell was that?" Ashley yelled out angrily.

The sound of things crumbling and collapsing started to fill the room, the ground was trembling underneath her feet and she got the feeling that the dig site was ready to collapse at any moment.

"These ruins are not stable. That mining laser must of triggered a seismic event. We have to hurry." She walked over to the control system. Pressing buttons trying to get the elevator to work as fast as she could, feeling a sense of urgency.

"Joker get the Normandy airborne and lock in on my signal. On the double mister!" Shepard ordered to her pilot.

"Aye aye secure and away ETA 8 minutes" the pilot responded. She hoped he would make it in time before the place was destroyed with them in it.

"We need to move faster Commander, we can interrogate her later.." Kaidan says. As the elevator starts to move the sounds of crumbling gets louder echoing through the tunnels.

When the elevator stopped at the top floor a Krogan battle master and a few geth arrived. With a hand gesture Shepard told her squad to wait.

"Surrender or don't that would be more fun." The Krogan said.

"In case you didn't notice this place is falling apart." Shepard tried to point out to the Krogan. She knew it wouldn't be enough to convince him to just let them go. But she had to try right?

"Exhilarating Isn't it? Thanks for getting rid of those energy fields for us. Hand the doctor over." The Krogan demanded.

"Whatever it is you want you are not getting it from me." Liara said she was a little scared to be honest.

"She'll stay with us thanks!" Commander replied with a smirk. She wasn't going to hand Liara over to Saren. Not that easily.

"Not an option. Saren wants her and he always gets what he wants. Kill them spare the Asari if you can if not it doesn't matter." He said cold heartedly which sent a shiver down Liara's spine she was terrified and coward behind the control panel, while Shepard fought the Krogan's team. The fight lasted for a few minutes but in the end Shepard had defeated the Battlemaster. But the krogan got a lucky shot on the Commander while her barriers were down before dying. She ignored it knowing they had more important things to worry about.

They made their way to where the Krogan had just came from, an energy field was still up but disappeared when they approached it and everything started coming down around them. They all started to sprint to the exit they needed to hurry this place was about to fall on their heads.

"Move! Move! Move!" Shepard yelled stopping to let everyone pass her then started to run behind Liara. They made it out of the ruins without a second to spare the Normandy was waiting outside for them as they caught their breath.