Jason Hough - Mass Effect - Nexus Uprising

Tann only grumbled at this, because this at least he understood. Manually closing all the doors would require a large workforce, which meant the krogan. As of yet, no one had been able to locate them. Or Kesh.

Or Addison, for that matter. She hadn’t been seen in hours. Probably found a dark corner to hide in , Sloane thought, but she didn’t say it aloud.

“Spender,” Tann said.

“Sir?”

“What assignment was the krogan workforce on when all this started? Where were they?”

Spender didn’t need to look it up. “Replacing ruptured electrical conduit between decks nine and ten.”

“And Kesh was with them?”

“Who knows. She’s got her big snout in everything.”

“Now, now,” Tann said, though without any real force. Spender barely tolerated Kesh, and the feeling was mutual, which was probably why their paths so rarely crossed. Some history there, but Sloane had yet to ask either of them about it. “Answer the question.”

“I have no idea if Kesh is with them,” Spender said bluntly.

Sloane saw where this was going. “I’ll head down there and find her.”

“Send a team,” Tann said. “A small team. I think you should remain here. You’re the face of security. You need to be seen… securing.”

Sloane glared at him. “With all due respect, I’ll make decisions about how best to make use of myself and my officers.”

Tann stopped, mid-step, and faced her. He said nothing.

Sloane went on. “Calix worked for Kesh. We don’t know yet what Kesh’s… attitude… toward this activity is.”

“Are you saying she’s in on it? That the krogan are part of it?”

“Do not go there,” Sloane said quickly. The last thing she needed now was for Tann’s natural distrust of the krogan to become a factor. A bigger factor than it already was, at least. “The krogan have been nothing but loyal from the moment they woke.”

“So had our life-support team.”

“I have no reason to believe they’ve turned on us. What I do fear is that Calix has already thought about this. That he chose his moment when he knew they would be far away, out of comms range.”

Tann nodded thoughtfully. “He might have even done something to sabotage them.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“I would.”

Sloane sighed. “You know, no one has suggested the most obvious approach to this. I could try talking to Calix.”

The salarian looked at her as if she’d spoken in an alien tongue.

“ You? ” Spender’s eyebrows climbed halfway to his hairline. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“Got someone else in mind?”

Spender let out a smug laugh. “Someone with a bit more political finesse, perhaps. I’d be happy to deal with Calix—”

“Should we have a listen to the speech you wrote for Tann? As a masterclass in political finesse.”

“This is an irrelevant conversation,” Tann snapped. “We do not negotiate with terrorists.”

Sloane stepped up to him, got right in his face. “Done listening to your advisors, are you?” To his credit, Tann held her gaze. He did not step away.

“Forgive me,” he said carefully. “I assumed that you, of all people, would agree with such a policy.”

“Oh, I do, I do,” she replied. “I’m just not convinced yet that the term terrorist applies.”

“You may need to reexamine your definition of the word then,” Tann said, showing surprising backbone. “They assaulted the armory. Killed the guards you posted there! Burned hydroponics. I could go on, but really, isn’t that sufficient?”

Sloane found she couldn’t argue, yet didn’t want to admit he was right, either. She clenched her jaw and stared him back.

Tann held up his hands. “Look,” he said, “find Kesh. Maybe you could track down Addison while you’re at it, but the bulk of your team needs to remain up here, visible. We need to restore order as much as we need to stop Calix, whatever method we end up choosing to stop him.”

Sloane heard all this, agreed with it, even, but she shifted her gaze to Spender and glared wrathfully for a few seconds before speaking.

“When this is over,” she said, staring at the weasel, “there’s going to be some changes around here.”

With that she turned, and left. In the hall outside her team waited, arrayed as if expecting an invading army to come at Operations. They all looked at her expectantly. Sloane steeled herself.

“Talini,” she said.

The asari lifted her chin.

“Take three volunteers. You’re to track down Foster Addison and bring her back here safely. Try the CA offices, or the hangar.”

“Understood.”

Sloane looked at the others. “I’ll need three of you with me. Kesh and the krogan workforce are out of comms range, and we need them in order to secure the doors.” There was no shortage of raised hands to pick from, so Sloane pointed at three randomly.

“Two stay here, the rest of you spread out,” she said. “We can’t defend Operations at the expense of the rest of the station. Start with the areas adjacent to here, make your presence known, restore order.” She paused, then added, “Try not to shoot anyone, understand? These people are scared, they’re on edge, and they have every right to be. If we’re acting the same way, that only amplifies, understand? We need to be the reasonable ones.”

Nods all around.

“Good,” Sloane said. “Let’s move.”

She marched back through the common area outside of Operations, bolstered by the flow of her officer core around her. They spread outward to the left and right, the formation bringing a mixture of emotions to the faces in the crowd that had followed them here in the first place. Some looked soothed, others as if they were about to be beaten down.

“Stay in your rooms,” Sloane said to them. “Or here in the commons. Anyone looting or causing a disturbance will be dealt with according to the laws of the Nexus.” She said this loudly, for her own troops to hear more than anything. They needed to know the right things to say. Those exact words would be repeated as her officers spread from section to section.

With each area she entered, a few more soldiers peeled off to put down in-progress thefts or angry altercations. Sloane tried not to flinch when a bit of rotten food slapped against her neck, thrown by one of the malcontents. She ignored it, resolving to brush it away when they left the area.

But not before.

They passed back through the row of shops cleared earlier of Calix’s left-behinds. Sloane saw shadows in those stores once again, only this time she knew they were citizens, taking anything they could find. She gestured for her last few extra officers to get in there.

“Careful,” she said as they jogged away. “You’re outnumbered.” They nodded, fear obvious in some of their eyes, though they did not break stride.

People moved in the shadows, scurrying like rats as Sloane approached, hiding until she passed. At her back they shouted for new leadership, or simply the mantra that seemed to be catching.

“No Cryo! No Cryo!”

“Faster,” Sloane said. They were only four, now, and still had seven levels to go before they’d find Kesh. “From here on we do not engage, we do not let ourselves be seen any more than we have to.”

“Understood,” her trio replied in unison.

Sloane avoided the next hall. Too many silhouettes lurking there. She led her group across the promenade fronting the shops and to the railing at the edge. There was a small gap in the section of ceiling that had collapsed across it. The space overlooked one of the Nexus’s long arms, and the wall leading up to it was slanted. Sloane hopped over the railing, holding on as her body came to rest against the outer-sloped wall. She started to move along the length, looking for her spot, when a shout went up from the citizens in the shadowed hallway.