Lazarus Project: Mass Effect 2 (Shenko)

Chapter 66

Omega System/Sahabarik/SSV Nomad

Earth year: 2185 –- October

Kaidan collapsed onto his bed aboard the Nomad. Despite his squad's curiosity, he'd ignored their request to explain what had happened in his meeting with Aryana. Alone, he wasn't sure he would ever tell them. They didn't need to know how he knew her, neither did they need to know about Thane or Liara. At least not yet.

Liara. Now there was someone he hadn't thought of in a long time. Finding out she was on board the Normandy and had been a target of the Shadow Broker was unsettling. What had she done that had garnered that kind of attention? But that wasn't what really bothered him.

Liara being on the Normandy had made him wonder about the rest of his former crew. Where were they now? He imagined Wrex was still on Tuchanka and Joker with the Alliance. But those were assumptions, not facts and suddenly, he wanted to know where everyone was. Did they know about Shepard? If they did, how had they reacted? Were they as upset with her as he was, or was he the only one?

Sitting up, he ran a search on his omni-tool. After half an hour he'd found nothing. A pit of doubt began to grow in him. Was it possible more of his former crew were on the Normandy? Was he the only one not there? His sense of unease building, he headed for the bridge.

"Chief." He began. "You're pretty good at finding things out right?"

"Uh...sure Commander. Sometimes. Why do you ask?"

"Come with me." Kaidan replied, turning and leading Mason back to his quarters.

"I need you to find out where the crew of the Normandy are now. Here's the list of names I need you to search for. Let me know as soon as you find anything."

"Understood Commander." Zima agreed, taking the list and skimming through it."Some of these might prove challenging, but I'll do my best."

"Good. I'll be on the bridge. Come see me when you're done."

An hour later, Zima joined Kaidan and Tanner with the results of his search.

"So what did you find?" Kaidan asked as Mason seated himself.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to confirm everyone's current location. Some of it is just educated guessing."

"That's fine. Just tell me what you found."

"Chief Engineer Adams is with the Alliance, reassigned to another ship. Urdnot Wrex is on Tuchanka, working to unite the krogan people. Tali'Zorah is on the Normandy. She received permission to join the crew from the quarian Admiralty Board. As for the rest of them, their current whereabouts are guesses."

"Alright. So we know where Wrex, Adams and Tali are. Tell me about the rest."

"Lieutenant Moreau was grounded after the Normandy crash and hadn't been flying anything for more than a year, before disappearing from the Citadel sometime last fall. Dr. Chakwas took a leave of absence from her reassignment to a Mars Medical Facility around the same time Joker left the Citadel.

Garrus Vakarian was last seen on the Citadel where he was catching a flight to Omega, but there's no record of him arriving. Shepard was on Omega a few months ago to recruit someone named Archangel. According to reports, the merc groups there believe Archangel is dead, but Shepard was seen leaving with a turian."

Mason paused, he could feel the tension in the air between himself and Kaidan increasing. He had known his commanding officer wasn't going to like what he'd found, but knew he had to tell him.

"Do you believe Garrus is Archangel?"

"I don't know. But based on the fact that many turians living on Omega are members of a merc group and that Garrus isn't much of a "joiner," I believe he might be."