Through the Motions

Carrine hated being on the Citadel. It was the home of too many, it was too crowded for her tastes, and everything smelled like a hospital.

But what she hated most about it was the fact that it was home to three stupid people of three races that had their thumbs up their asses.

Of course, she was talking about the Council. Along with Saren, they essentially laughed at her to her face and told her she was being crazy. Not in those terms, but that was how Carrine heard it and that was what she was convinced of.

On her way to the medical ward, she paused by a windowsill to collect herself and get a grip on her patience. Ashley and Kaidan came up beside her, Ashley in the middle and still wearing that garish pink and white Phoenix armor. Carrine decided she would have to do something about that; it stuck out too much in battle.

Kaidan had smile on his face while looking out over the Citadel arm. "Big place."

Ashley smirked and quirked an eyebrow at him. "That your professional opinion, sir?"

Carrine snorted. "This isn't a station, it's a city. Bigger than anything I could have imagined living planetside."

"There must be millions here," Kaidan murmured, eyes sweeping over the view. "It can't be possible to track everyone coming and going."

"This makes Jump Zero look like a porta-john," Ashley commented, "and it's the largest deep space station the Alliance has."

Kaidan's view stilled on some distant location; Carrine noticed he didn't look very focused on the conversation, more lost in memories. "Jump Zero was big, but this is a whole 'nother scale. Look at the ward arms, how do they keep all that mass from flying apart?"

"...super awesome alien super glue?" Carrine offered, causing the other two to laugh. She smiled a little, but softly sighed. Ashley didn't notice, but she was certain her Lt. had. 'My LT? No. Don't do that.' she thought to herself. "The Council represents more races than I thought. No wonder they're careful with newcomers. Especially since they don't want to jam their heads up their asses anymore than they already have."

Kaidan nodded, pushing himself up off from leaning on the railing. "They probably just want to keep everything running. It has to be hard keeping all these cultures working together."

Ashley frowned, a note of disdain creeping into her voice. "Or maybe they just don't like humans." Carrine shoved that into her mental notebook; she would have a discussion about her opinion on non-humans once they were back on the Normandy.

"Well, what's not to like?" Carrine offered, trying to get something out of the Chief. "We have oceans, beautiful women, this emotion called love," her inflection on the word causing Ashley and Kaidan to laugh. "According to the old vids, we have everything they want."

"When you put it like that, there's no reason they wouldn't like you," Kaidan said, his voice quiet. It was obvious he didn't mean to be heard but he wasn't quite quiet enough. Ashley shot him an amused look, and Carrine raised her eyebrow in amusement at him as his eyes widened when he realized he slipped up. "Uh, I mean, us. Humans. Ma'am."

"You don't take much shore leave, do you LT?" Ashley smirked, holding back laughter.

Carrine chuckled. "All right, laugh it up, Chief. I appreciate the thought, Alenko, but we're on duty here."

Kaidan looked like he wanted to crawl into a vent shaft; this amused the commander to no end. "Uh, aye, aye, ma'am."

Carrine glanced at Ashley, who shot her a smirk and nodded. The game had been started. The goal? To embarrass Lt. Alenko as much as possible.

- - - - -
Garrus was...interesting. To Carrine, it seemed like he had much to learn, but was skilled enough to offer her team something, and he wanted Saren dead. That was good enough reason for her.

With directions from him and the krogan, Wrex, she took off towards the alley where the quarian was supposed to be. Garrus wanted to stay with the doctor to make sure she was okay, so Carrine left Ashley there as a guard, and took Wrex and Kaidan to find the quarian.

After only a minute or two of running, they found the right alleyway just in time to see a turian harassing who Carrine assumed was the quarian they were looking for. In a matter of seconds, a fight broke out, and she ducked behind a crate at a drone went out, flattening the two coming up to flank the quarian. Carrine had her pistol in hand, and took out one of the two firing at the quarian. As soon as Wrex signaled the all clear, she headed out to meet the one they had been looking for.

"Fist set me up!" the quarian snarled, her own fists clenching and unclenching. "I knew I couldn't trust him!"

Carrine nodded, holstering her pistol at her left hip. "Were you hurt in the fight?"

The quarian sighed, seemingly exasperated. "I know how to fight for myself. Not that I don't appreciate the help," she quickly added. "Who are you?"

Carrine locked her arms behind her back. "I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance, and I'm looking for evidence against Saren. I'm out to prove that bastard a traitor."

The quarian nodded. "Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But...not here. We need to go somewhere safe."

"We could take her to the human embassy," Kaidan suggested, looking at Carrine. "Udina would want to see this, anyway."

Carrine snorted. "All I want to do is shove my boot up his ass, I hate politicians."

Wrex brightened at this. "Can you eat him?"

"I think I would get food poisoning, Wrex," she laughed, beginning the trek toward a Rapid Transit station to get to the embassies. She may not be a people person, but she understood krogans, and she made a point to be familiar with her team above all else.

The Transit ride didn't take long, and soon they were waiting to be called in to Udina's office. When she walked in, she was met with him shaking her head at her. "You're not making my life, easy, Shepard. Fire fights in the wards, all out assault on Chora's Den, do you know how many-" he stopped dead in the middle of his rant at her, choosing to stare at the quarian for a second. "Who's this?" he asked bitterly. "A quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?" Anderson, who walked up beside him, sighed, and nodded to Carrine to explain.

"Making your day, Ambassador," she grinned, giving him her best impersonation of seeming feral. He grimaced, and it thrilled her that her little ploy worked. She heard Kaidan cough down a laugh behind her and heard Wrex grunt. "She has information on Saren and the geth."

"Really?" Udina said, light sarcasm present in his voice. He hated dealing with Carrine as much as she hated dealing with him. "I guess you better start from the beginning, then, miss..."

"My name is Tali," the quarian said. "Tali'Zorah nor Rayya." She continued to explain that she was on her Pilgrimage when she came across a group of geth, and that she salvaged part of a memory core. The audio on it held a voice that clearly belonged to Saren, and a female partner who no one recognized. It also spoke of the Reapers, bringing a collective temporary silence in the room.

"That...vision," Carrine said slowly, pieces clicking into place, "the one from Eden Prime, it has to be the Reapers attacking the Protheans. It all makes sense." Udina looked at her like she had absolutely lost her mind, Anderson was confused, and she guess Kaidan's and Wrex's reactions weren't much different, although Kaidan may understand. "Don't give me that shit, Udina, I'm not fucking crazy."

"Commander," Anderson snapped at her.

She shut her mouth. "Sir."

"The geth revere the Reapers as the pinnacle of non-organic life," Tali continued, a little uncertainly. "They believe Saren can lead them to the Reapers."

Udina sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "The Council is just going to love this."

"They HAVE to believe us about the Reapers," Carrine said, determination showing. "They have to believe me."

"At the very least, this will prove that Saren is a traitor," Anderson added.