"If I remember right, the only time I've seen a similar feat was from Kasumi on Bekenstein," Shepard said, bringing her fork to her mouth.
"Wandering among enemies while cloaked doesn't count as a feat," Vakarian said, stirring the contents of his bowl.
"What the hell did Kasumi do, Shepard?" Jack asked, taking a bite of a red fruit.
"She jumped on a gunship hovering in the air, and deactivated its shield with her bare hands. Oh! And then she did a hero landing."
"It doesn't compare to snapping the neck of a krogan, Shep," Miss Goto said, looking at Thane sitting at her left.
"A true warrior needs no more than their hands to take down enemies," Samara said, taking a sip of her steaming tea while she stood by the kitchen cupboard.
"You're stronger than you look, drell. It's not easy to take down a Krogan Battlemaster without extra help or bullets," Grunt said, taking a seat next to Shepard with a plate of food.
"Strength irrelevant. Technique, however, critical for such a feat," Doctor Solus, who was standing next to Samara in the kitchen, suddenly said. "Despite Thane's diagnosis, flawless performance and lethal result. Impressive."
"I've never met a professional assassin," Tali'Zorah said, sitting next to Vakarian across from Thane. "Nor a drell!"
"Benefits of joining Shepard's team, Tali," Vakarian said. "We're a floating circus. No offense, Krios."
"None taken."
"Krios is an ace in the art of killing, that's why we recruited him," Officer Lawson intervened, heading out of her office located behind the kitchen. "Judging by his dossier, what Shepard tells us is but the tip of the iceberg."
"Alright, let's see, Krios," Vakarian interrupted, flaring his mandibles. "How would you kill each of us?"
"You? Side kick to the knee, an armlock to cause your legs to lock so I can break them. I'd finger-stab you under the jaw or in your eyes, and I'd grab you by your head fringe to snap your neck."
"Goddamn it, drell! As quiet as he always is, you wouldn't tell," Zaeed Massani said, rummaging in the fridge non-stop.
"Now you know, Garrus," Pilot Moreau interrupted through the loudspeakers, "gotta be nice to Thane."
Vakarian flared his mandibles.
"What does the armlock have to do with the leg-lock, Garrus?" Tali'Zorah asked.
"A lot. Don't ask, Tali," Vakarian said.
"A goddamn cruel and brilliant strategy. Turian legs lock in response to pain," Massani explained. "In my days with the Blue Suns I had to deal with a couple of turians with my bare hands."
"As I said, it doesn't compare," Miss Goto said, disappearing behind the sparkling effect of her cloaking shield.
"And how do you handle the whole embracing eternity issue, Thane?" Jack asked.
Front approach, throat-punch to collapse airway, arm control lock to neutralize biotics, advanced hip throw, grip chin and scalp to neck-snap.
"Not looking into their eyes," he said.
Everyone in the mess laughed out loud.
"Your advice is two years too late, Krios," said Vakarian. "Right, Shepard?"
"Fuck you, Garrus," Shepard shot back, still focused on her plate.
Thane looked at his. After leaving Life Support, Shepard had suggested a classic example of human cuisine: spaghetti and tomato sauce. Sargent Gardner prepared the portions in record time. To go with it, Shepard had spread grated cheese on top. Apparently, it was a favorite of humans, for Operative Taylor had also ordered one and taken his plate back to the Armory.
Thane tangled his fork in the pasta with the help of the spoon, as he saw Shepard doing, and took it to his mouth. He had to admit to himself that it had an interesting flavor and texture – a mixture of subtle sour and sweet with a pinch of salt. He understood why Shepard ate hers with gusto, seated at the head of the big table.
They were on the way to Omega. They were going to make a technical stop and, for that same reason, they'd all have a shore leave of ten hours. The trip from the Krogan DMZ to the mining station in the Terminus Systems would take about seven hours.
"I'd have given everything for your guys' help two years ago," Shepard said suddenly. "Those of us who fought Saren's forces know we'd have greatly appreciated having had you in the team, especially after having lost Kaidan on Virmire ..."
Vakarian and Tali'Zorah looked at Shepard at the same time. She pressed her lips, exchanging looks with her comrades. No, they were her friends, Thane thought.
"Anyway ..." the Commander continued, "it's just that Wrex, Garrus, Ashley, Tali, Liara and I were barely enough."
"How's Liara, Shepard?" Tali'Zorah asked, and immediately after she drank a dark liquid through a straw connected to her helmet.
Thane noticed Shepard's expression hardening. Until that point, her gaze had been open and relaxed, but at the mention of Liara, a frown darkened her demeanor.
"We briefly saw her on Nos Astra before recruiting Thane and Samara," Shepard said. "Let's just say she's had a career change." Shepard made a pause as if she was remembering something unpleasant. "EDI, ask Chambers to remind me to contact Liara T'Soni on our next visit to Illium."
"Right away, Shepard," EDI's voice said through the loudspeaker.
"The little we could talk with her that day reminded me of her mother, which is worrying," Vakarian said mysteriously. "She's an ex-comrade and a friend of the Normandy," he said, looking at Thane. "By the way, speaking of embracing eternity, our Commander knows enough about it thanks to Liara."
"It was the only way to make sense of the horrifying and senseless jumble that was the Prothean beacon of Eden Prime," Shepard said.
"I tried it once," Jack said. "At the beginning it's a bit strange, as if they're squeezing your brain, but soon after it feels nice, like mental sex. At least they don't kill you."
Unless it's an Ardat-Yakshi.
Thane watched Samara leaving the mess. For a moment he supposed the topic of conversation had offended her, but he immediately discarded the idea. He had heard the asari justicar was close to a millennium in age. With that amount of accumulated experience and wisdom, very few things would have the power to affect her.
Tali'Zorah and Vakarian began to reminisce about their asari former teammate and mentioned the times she had almost lost consciousness after melding her mind with Shepard's. Thane noticed the Commander purposely staying out of that conversation, pretending to focus on her plate of spaghetti and on a datapad in her hand.
Slowly the group began to disperse. Vakarian argued he had to catch up with some calibrations on the forward battery, while Tali'Zorah said she had to assist Donnelly and Daniels in Engineering. Massani, Jack and Grunt went back to the fourth deck with her. Thane hadn't felt Miss Goto's sparkling cloak shield by his side for long enough to assume she too had retired. With special interest, he realized how Doctor Solus had watched him and Shepard, as if he noticed something the others couldn't see. Officer Lawson had served herself a portion of cornflakes, chopped fruit and milk and left for her office. At Shepard's order, Sargent Gardner had prepared a teapot for the both of them and, right after, he had begun to clean and tidy up behind the kitchen's cupboard. Shepard was still sitting at the head of her table.
"I haven't had the time to come back to you on the meditation lessons," she said suddenly as she kissed the rim of her cup to drink a sip of her tea.
"My offer still stands."
"Could I bother you now, then?"
"You're never a bother, Shepard."
They stood up and took their cups on their way to Life Support.
"Shepard, Samara requests to speak with you immediately," EDI said through the loudspeaker.
She looked at him as if she were apologizing in silence for this interruption.
Thane saw her walking towards Starboard Observation and disappearing behind the door. He left for Life Support. As soon as he entered, he thanked the silence and warm air that welcomed him. He took a seat where he always did and focused on the constant buzz of the drive core as if it were the only stimulus present in that moment.
After long minutes trying to meditate, he gave up. He couldn't stop thinking of Shepard. It had been many years since anyone had touched him in any way. It had been more than ten years since he had last sat at a table with others and shared a casual meal and conversation. To say he was out of training for both things was an understatement. He wasn't used to being the center of attention.
Thane didn't know how to interpret the attention Shepard gave him. He supposed that, as the Commander of the Normandy, she had to be on good terms with every member of the team and crew. As Vakarian had metaphorically illustrated, this ship was a floating circus. It was only natural that Shepard talked with each of them about their species, perhaps as a way to distract herself in the downtime between operations and the long hours traveling.
For some reason, a sudden wish to contradict that logic manifested in his chest. Being the center of her attention made him feel good. He had been the one to seek and encourage her touch! He wanted to believe her interest in him was more than mere curiosity for the drell species, their history and culture. He wanted to matter to her for himself, not for solely being the avatar of his people.
Immediately he was shocked by his own imaginings and backtracked. Was his ego actually so starved and thirsty that he was capable of holding onto the casual attention the Commander was giving him like a dying man dragging himself to the nearest oasis? His job in this team was clear: to assist Shepard in defeating the Collectors and to cover her back and the backs of his teammates. Nothing else. Thane refocused his attention on the pulse coming from Engineering, which felt like the beating of the ship's heart vibrating through the floor and walls. He let his thoughts parade through his mind and slowed down his breathing. He closed his eyes and meditated.
His omni-tool vibrated with a new message. Thane opened his eyes and wondered how much time had passed while he was in deep concentration. Mind your head, he read on the holo screen. He frowned his brow ridge, puzzled. Next, something landed on his head with a dry sound. In one fluid movement, he leapt up and drew his pistol. He pointed at the ladder just above his chair. He waited, his senses at their sharpest. Someone was crawling on the ceiling. They were approaching.
"Don't shoot. It's me," a female voice whispered.
Thane closed the distance and, cautiously, he peeked through the hatch entrance. A silhouette covered by a black hood appeared. She smiled.
"It's Kasumi. Do you want to pick up the receptor I just threw?" she said, going down the ladder and landing right next to the table.
Thane glanced over the floor until he spotted the device. He synchronized it with his omni-tool while his comrade adjusted the frequency on hers.
"Good, now we can communicate through our omni-tools," she said.
"Miss Goto," Thane said, holstering his pistol, "if you wish to speak to me, you need only to call on my door. We are two steps away from each other."
"Just call me Kasumi. Listen to this, we don't have time," she said, opening an audio file from her device.
He recognized the voices of Shepard and Samara. The justicar was speaking about the dangerous criminal she had been trying to hunt down for centuries. Her prey was on Omega. She was asking for the Commander's help to capture her.
The moment he heard the asari utter the word Ardat-Yakshi, Thane tightened his fists and tensed his jaw. Shepard's voice asked about her nature and Samara's urgency to catch her. He listened to what he already knew. Different from the mind melding of normal asari, the Ardat-Yakshi left their partners at the gates of death with a massive internal brain hemorrhage. They melted the nervous system of their victims after seducing them. Some even believed them capable of manipulating their victims' wills and inducing a state of hypnosis, leaving their targets at the mercy of their commands.
Shepard's voice agreed and then Samara revealed that the monstrosity she was hunting down was her daughter. Next, she asked Shepard to come alone, stripped of her armor and weapons, and begged for her discretion on the matter. Shepard assured her the technical stop on Omega would provide them with the perfect excuse to disappear without raising any questions.
Thane exchanged looks with Kasumi.
"Shep has accepted. Other than Samara, no one else will know where she's gone, nor will they be able to reach her in time to cover her back if needed. I know Shepard is very capable, but I doubt she's prepared to be the bait for such an asari black widow."
"How do you know about the Ardat-Yakshi?"
"People on the deepnet talk. There are cases exposed ... I know they're considered a myth but I also know for a fact they exist and they're extremely dangerous. Have you met any?"
"Yes," Thane said. "Curiously, it also happened on Omega. Luckily, neither of us were part of each other's priorities so we ignored each other."
"Perhaps it's the same one! Would you be able to recognize her if you saw her?"
Thane chuckled. Even without the drell eidetic memory, he'd be unable to forget the face of that asari. He nodded.
"What do you suggest?"
"We do what we do best. We're the only ones who can cover Shepard's back without her ever finding out or endangering her operation with Samara. I can follow them cloaked from the shadows while you could do the same from above. Bring your sniper rifle. You may need it."