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For not the first time in the last hour, Liara found herself staring at her unmoving hands as they poised idle over her keyboard. She was finding it a little difficult to concentrate because she was a little angry at Shepard. Okay, that was probably an understatement. She was furious at Shepard!
They were still stuck at the Citadel for another day after already being there for three days, the Normandy sitting there idle in dock while there was a war on while it’s Commander went rogue. It was unbelievable really. And incredibly irresponsible and unnecessary.
Shepard had tried to argue that her incredibly dangerous act of sneaking off, alone, to go fight in a battle in the far corner of the galaxy with a woman who was known to be a ruthless and psychopathological criminal who used people routinely for her own agenda, was necessary. But Liara wasn’t buying it. Sure, Aria had access to a fair amount of certain supplies that were getting harder to source and she had control over a certain number of, Liara wouldn’t call them trained, but experienced killers, as she wouldn’t call them soldiers either, but did that make the risk worth it?
Liara pffted out loud. Of course, it was not worth it! With the vocalization, her information drone came to life and was soon hovering near her face.
“Shadow Broker. Was there something that you required?”
“Yes, Glyph.” Liara made up her mind. “I require to get out of this room and away from this ship! Please monitor all systems and alert me as to any emergencies under protocol 766.”
“As you wish, Shadow Broker. And please enjoy your day.”
“Oh, I will.” Liara responded as she grabbed her satchel. If Shepard could just walk off the ship and disappear for days to go risk her life for some woman without back-up and without telling anyone, then she could just sneak off to the Citadel to go...somewhere. She would find somewhere to go. Maybe she would just go spend an obscene amount of money on something entirely frivolous. If Shepard could go run off and be irresponsible and pretend like there wasn’t a war on, so could she!
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“It is the finest quality.” The Salarian salesman droned on. “Having a chair like this in your home makes a statement. Whoever sees it, or if they are fortunate enough, sits on it, will know that they are in the home of a person of the highest quality with the most discerning tastes! The leather is imported from Unope , harvested from only the finest, most highly prized cattle raised by the Sohoe family. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. This is not just a chair; it is an experience!”
Liara couldn’t listen to this fidgety, pretentious man any longer. Of course, if your business was to sell 20,000 credit chairs, one would have to be pretentious.
“I’d like to sit in the chair and think about it for a moment if I could.”
The man looked her up and down in her battered and scuffed armor that she always wore when off the ship and then settled on her decidedly young-looking maidenly face. If he had a real nose, it would have been up in the air as he spoke again.
“Perhaps I can interest you in some more modest furniture? Over here we have…”
“No. I like this kind.” Liara interrupted him. She brought up her credit chit on her omni-tool and passed it over his. She then spoke in her best daughter-of-a-rich-upper-class-matriarch voice before settling herself on the chair like it was a throne. “That was 500 credits. Perhaps you can have someone fetch me a cup of tea at the establishment down the avenue as I decide?”
The salarian’s eyes grew even bigger if that were possible and he literally bowed to her. Liara imagined that the demand for over-priced, high-end furniture had waned considerably since the start of the war and was only going to get worse. The man had an air of desperation about him to go with the pretension.
“Of course! Is there anything else that we can get you? Perhaps a light snack to go with your tea?”
“No. Just the tea. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to be alone with the chair for a moment. I need to experience the chair.”
Liara almost smiled at the last bit but stopped herself as the man bowed again before quickly departing. Liara sighed as she settled into the decidedly comfortable chair. That was fun but it wasn’t as much fun as it should have been. She loved upsetting people’s often very low estimations of her. She was assumed to be poor because she was young and dressed modestly. She was assumed to be less intelligent because she was pretty (at least among non-asari; the asari knew better). Her research was assumed to be unimportant and incorrect because she was young (especially among the asari; the humans and salarians knew better). At least now, the store clerk would respect her even if, not really, he only respected her money.
She tried to distract herself but her mind kept going back to Shepard. She got a physical pain in her stomach as she thought about Shepard dying alone on a dirty space station without back-up, without anyone even knowing where she was. It was incredibly risky, irresponsible action and Liara still could not understand why she did it.
Aria managed to use her cold beauty to manipulate many who should know that she was simply using them. Is it possible that Shepard could be so easily manipulated? Why else would she do it? Granted, it would help the war effort in some small way and it would weaken Cerberus, which was a very good thing, but objectively, it was just not worth the risk. If they lost Shepard, what would the war effort look like then? It already seemed next to hopeless.
Of course, Shepard didn’t see it that way. She saw herself as just another soldier doing her part. She didn’t see the inspiration that she gave others. She didn’t see or understand that she had become a figurehead who was even more important than the results of her considerable actions.
Still, even if she didn't understand that, what she did was incredibly irresponsible and unnecessarily dangerous. She has a state-of-the-art warship and a whole highly skilled crew compliment to back her up and she agrees to go alone? Liara thought that maybe she herself was somehow jealous of Shepard’s relationship with Aria or maybe she was hurt that Shepard didn’t at least tell her where she was going. It was possible her own negative feelings were clouding her judgment of Shepard’s actions but no. What Shepard did was irresponsible and just inexplicable. And who else was going to tell her what she needed to hear if not Liara?
She launched herself out of the pricey chair and headed towards the exit. She needed to find Shepard and talk to her. The sales clerk jumped in front of her.
“I have your tea! Now where can I ship that chair?’
“I don’t want the chair. Maybe later.” Liara spoke as she moved around him.
“But what about your tea?”
Liara simply ignored him as she looked at her omni-tool, trying to find Shepard’s location. She wouldn’t be much of a Shadow Broker if she couldn’t locate one well-known woman on the Citadel. Of course, since she could simply track Shepard’s omni-tool, she wouldn’t need to use any of her assets to locate the woman. She just had to try to moderate her temper when she did.
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When she did locate Shepard, she was still irate and determined but something made her hold back from confronting Shepard right away. She was curious. She watched perplexed as Shepard ran from one store to the next and then back again. She decided to just observe for a while.
She could not quite discern what was happening without getting closer to hear some of the conversations. Of course, she had Shepard’s omni-tool codes. With a program on her omni-tool, she could easily tap into hers to hear everything but Shepard deserved her privacy.
Liara watched as Shepard once again jogged from one store to the next, looking increasingly frustrated. Maybe it would be permissible to listen in this one time. It was important for her to provide support to Shepard even if she was still furious with the woman.
“Okay, remember, this is for the war effort. You both have to bend here for the greater good.” Shepard stood with her arms crossed as she addressed the salarian store owner. “Mr. Hilnus has agreed to release the weapon mods if you will release him from the contract. In exchange, he will enter into another contract with you at a 20% discount.”
“20%? That’s ridiculous! I can sell those mods for a 100% mark-up right now! I’ll get double what they normally sell for. Why should I take an 80% hit while he takes only 20%? And who knows if those mods will even be worth half as much if I have to wait for the next shipment? Who knows if there even will be a next shipment with how badly the war is going?”
Shepard looked down, obviously trying to keep her temper, before speaking again. “That is exactly the point of it. If the Alliance gets those mods, maybe it makes some small difference and maybe we can turn the tide of this war and the entire galaxy doesn’t die.”
“I get that. That’s why I’m willing to sacrifice but I need to make enough credits to stay in business and to get myself out of here if the Citadel goes down. If he is willing to meet me half-way, say a 50% discount on the next shipment, then I am willing to make that sacrifice.”
“You are a true patriot. A real hero.”
“Insulting me won’t help, Commander. Do you want to make a deal or not?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
As she watched Shepard once again leave the store to jog back to the other shop, Liara felt her irritation rising but this time it was not directed at Shepard. Unbelievably, she watched as Shepard stopped and knelt down next to a crying child who appeared to be lost on her way back to the other store.
“Hey there, Little One. Where’s your mom and dad?”
Liara watched as Shepard scooped up the young human child and detoured to the nearest CSec office. It was absurd. Shepard just had a natural instinct to try to help everyone. Liara had asked her once on another trip to the Citadel about why she made it her business to help complete strangers. Shepard’s response had been her in a nutshell.
“Because I can.”
Because she was a kind, empathetic, giving person by nature.
Liara
was under no delusions and she knew that some of that was caused by Shepard’s insecurities from her childhood, her fear of rejection and her need to be liked, but most of it flowed from her innate nature. She chose negotiation and diplomacy even though she was very good at violence. She wanted people to be safe and happy if at all possible.
Liara
also knew that some people would and did take advantage of this desire. Shepard was a
Spectre
. She could have gone into that
turian
shop and simply taken possession of the mods and if the contracted buyer had a problem, too bad. If the
turian
objected, Shepard could have just taken when she needed by force without even breathing heavy and as a Spectre, would have been spared any consequences. Due to the war and the circumstances, it is doubtful the Council would have even disapproved.
Instead, here she was running back and forth like a teenaged errand girl, trying to make everyone happy and trying to work the win-win. After running around the galaxy for weeks, risking her life continuously. After just getting back from an insanely dangerous mission where she very well could have died alone on a dirty, completely indifferent space station, here she was running around trying to get goods to help the Alliance while also pleasing the other interested parties.
Because she was nice. Liara felt her fury rising. The Salarian was a war-profiteer and was gouging customers at a time when they all needed to work together as much as possible to beat a foe who would kill them all. Fortunately, Liara was not quite so nice as Shepard. She would have to be quick about this. Before Shepard came back. She lifted her omni-tool.
About 8 minutes later, she watched as the Salarian received a visit from a rather stout turian . 30 minutes after that, she listened in as Shepard returned to the man’s shop. The Salarian nearly ran to meet Shepard as soon as she stepped through the threshold.
“Commander! I’m glad that you came back!” Liara heard the Salarian’s voice crack a little as he spoke, his movements almost manic. “I’ve been thinking about what you said and I want you to take the weapon mods. I’ll even pay for the shipment as contracted. Consider it my contribution to the war. As a matter of fact, I’ll share half my next contract with the Alliance as well.”
“Half of the next...what are you talking about?”
“Did I say half? I meant the entire next shipment! Whatever the Alliance needs, if I can help, I will. Just say the word. I have armor mods, too! After all, we are all in this together!”
Liara smiled as she turned around to head back to the Normandy , satisfied that Shepard’s running around would be over for today at least. Liara thought about it for a moment before detouring back to the store with the ridiculously priced furniture. Shepard could use a nice new chair to sit on in her cabin. No price was too high for the comfort of the incredible woman she loved.