"Fuck..."
I couldn't say anything else right now. More accurately, I could, but considering Ori was in the medbay right now, I tried to restrain myself.
"Brother... are you sure it was worth it?"
"Yes... no... I don't know..."
I shook my head uncertainly.
"Tevos wanted to send me on a secret mission anyway, so it'll be even better if I'm considered dead."
"But..."
"Don't worry, the corporation will function normally. No one will try to tear it apart because even though I was at the head... the shares, according to my will, passed to another individual..."
I smirked.
"...who stood behind me and directed me. Basically, my front identity."
"Fool!"
I was punched in the shoulder, luckily the good one.
"That's not what I'm worried about! It's just... just..."
Ori looked down.
"...you took such a risk. And for what?"
"For the sake of proving that the Collectors are not friends and that they are the ones responsible for the destruction of the ships, which means they can be equated to pirates, and after attacking a Spectre..."
"Wait, they didn't know you were a Spectre..."
Ori looked at me intently.
"They knew."
Jane had regained consciousness once again and decided to join the conversation.
"They could see through our stealth system, and a ship of that class is unique in the galaxy and belongs to a Spectre, everyone knows that. And yes, thanks for the rescue."
"Since you're awake... Ori, let me introduce my woman, Jane Shepard. Jane, this is Miranda Lawson, my sister."
"A pleasure."
Ori shot Jane a look that I interpreted as: "This hussy?! She's not worthy of my brother!"
"Glad to meet you."
Jane, on the other hand, reacted to the introduction more calmly.
"Alright, Jane still needs some healing, and I need to contact a couple of people."
"By the way... Miranda cannot be trusted."
Ori said this with pain in her voice.
"Huh?"
Since I had already stood up from the couch I was sitting on and taken a few steps toward the medbay exit, I had to look back. Ori looked extremely displeased.
"She already managed to call me and say that she and I are the ones worthy of running the corporation after your death, and she proposed a plan for how she and I can seize control from that unknown person who became its owner."
"Well..."
I looked thoughtfully at my sister.
"No, I understand that it's probably not entirely her plan, but the Illusive Man's plan, but it's still disappointing. She's your sister, you two even seemed to... become friends a bit?"
"Drop it... no need to be offended by her. Let's just play this hand the way we planned... and Miranda's actions... well, we could turn them against... actually, no..."
I shook my head.
"...as much as I'd like to nip a piece off the Illusive Man's empire, it's not worth doing at Miranda's expense. That terrorist doesn't forgive mistakes, and they might well try to get rid of my sister."
Ori bit her lower lip.
"You know, we'll probably fast-track a few more plans..."
"As you say, brother."
Ori nodded resolutely, and I headed to the comms room.
"John..."
Aria T'Loak answered my call extremely quickly. It was clear she had been waiting for it, and now on her usually cold and slightly arrogant face, one could see emotions uncharacteristic of her—namely, anxiety. Anxiety that was already beginning to recede.
"Aria..."
I gave a short nod, greeting my mentor and foster mother.
"...calling to say that we're fine and that we're proceeding to the next phase."
"So, that's it?"
"Yes, that's it..."
I nodded.
"...the games are over, the Collectors really are on the side of the Reapers. So organize your shadow fleet of bastards, let them hunt these ships. Of course, it won't stop these lackeys of universal destruction, but at least they won't be able to act so openly."
"Anything else?"
"Yes..."
I closed my eyes thoughtfully.
"...I have one more idea, but..."
I made a vague gesture.
"Well, come on, don't drag it out!"
"We could try to strike them in the very heart."
"The Omega-4 Relay? If we destroy it, everyone will be in trouble, and according to some scientists, we could destroy an entire system."
"And why destroy it if we can use it?"
"John..."
Irritation began to show in Aria T'Loak's gaze, while the anxiety completely vanished from her face.
"Are you going to speak normally or do I have to pull every letter out of you?"
"Fire ship."
"Ah..."
Aria T'Loak froze for a couple of seconds.
"...that might actually work. Of course, one fire ship won't be enough, we'll probably have to launch dozens, if not hundreds, but there's so much junk in our galaxy that we can buy for pennies that it's just..."
She shook her head.
"...install a simple VI autopilot, then send them through the Omega-4 Relay. And frankly, I don't care what happens to them after launch. They just need to reach the destination, and there..."
She smirked predatorily.
"...I'll take care of it. Just don't expect me to buy the ships solely on my own dime."
"The corporation will allocate funds for at least twenty wrecks and the explosives for them. Especially since we can probably get by with shuttles rather than full ships."
"Considering..."
Aria T'Loak cut herself off mid-sentence.
"...yes, in the future, this might play into our hands even more. We'll go for quality of explosives, so that after the blast, only small fragments remain of the shuttle and whatever was surrounding it."
She didn't finish, but I saw it in her eyes. She realized I wasn't expecting to reach the Collector Base. I was more expecting to clear the path to it. To reduce the amount of large debris at the exit point. Of course, during the jump itself, it doesn't really matter if the debris is large or small; at those speeds, the mass of the object you collide with doesn't play that big of a role. For example, the armor of ships that frequently travel via Mass Relays is covered in tiny nicks.
Actually, calling them nicks is wrong; they're more like tiny scratches left by collisions with sand grains. Well, sand grains by space standards—they're actually about the size of a finger phalanx, these objects leaving scratches on armor. It's extremely rare to collide with something larger... And in all of history, there have even been a few collisions with meteors that crossed the ships' trajectories. They were unlucky...
In short, at high speeds, we won't care what we hit, but after deceleration, if there are no large fragments, we can just head straight for the Collector Base.
I'm not sure yet if we'll even fly there, but I'm duty-bound to prepare a possible route.
"Exactly."
Agreeing with Aria T'Loak's words, I fell silent for a while.
"Listen, there... within a couple of years..."
"I remember... your crazy sister will show up on Omega. You already asked me not to kill her, and I don't suffer from amnesia."
"Just reminding you..."
I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Yeah... anyway, I got it. And yes, Tevos asked me to tell you she suspects the old communication channel might be monitored, so you'll keep in touch with her through me."
** Two weeks later. A view from the side. **
"Miranda?"
"It won't work..."
Miranda shook her head in response to her boss's question.
"...my sister told me to get lost and threatened that if I insist or make a single attempt to go against her brother's last will..."
She said the last word with a hint of contempt, though it was slightly feigned, and she was very lucky it was only slightly, as otherwise the Illusive Man might have noticed that she actually regretted her brother's death. However, right now she wouldn't even admit it to herself, so the Illusive Man couldn't see it either.
"...then she'll cut off all communication with me entirely, and the contract that was signed will be voided."
"Bad, Miranda... very bad."
The Illusive Man was displeased, though he had guessed it would be so. He knew perfectly well that John maintained good relations with Oriana and that she wouldn't allow Miranda to go against her brother's will. He understood, and yet he believed Miranda had some chance of seizing control of the corporation.
"Then we'll go with the second option..."
"But..."
"Do you have something to say against it?"
"No..."
She shook her head, though deep down she was ready to curse her boss out, and it wouldn't even be a sailor's rant, but something far more virtuoso.
"Good, then I'll assign the preparation for the second option to other people, and you, meanwhile, prepare Project Lazarus... and yes, don't forget to prepare the control implants..."
A predatory smile appeared on the Illusive Man's lips.
"...he didn't want to cooperate with me? Fine, now he won't have a choice, and if he won't cooperate of his own free will, we'll make him."
"But..."
"Do you have something to say?"
"Yes... we still haven't found the remains... according to unconfirmed reports, Oriana found them and took them off Alchera. We don't know exactly where."
"Efficient girl..."
Notes that Miranda very much disliked appeared in the Illusive Man's voice.
"...then we'll play on her love for her brother."
The Illusive Man pressed a couple of keys on the armrest of his chair and, after thinking for a bit, pulled a cigar from a special compartment. While he did everything necessary to experience the true taste of such an expensive cigar, the call he had organized finally went through.
"Good day. Viktor Semenov, secretary to Miss Lawson, how can I help you?"
"May I speak with Miss Oriana Lawson?"
"Who is calling?"
The secretary who took the call was extremely polite.
"This is Jack, Jack Harper, I'm the head of a company that supplies resources. The thing is, I have a surplus of goods and I'd like to offer them to you..."
"One second..."
The secretary clearly put the call on hold, and the Illusive Man, releasing a cloud of smoke from his mouth, began to watch as it slowly dissipated into the surrounding space.
"Miss Lawson can take your call. Transferring."
"I'm listening."
"Miss Lawson..."
The Illusive Man's voice was sweeter than molasses.
"...I greet you and ask you not to hang up. The thing is, I had to mislead your secretary about the reason for my call."
"That... is not very good."
The girl's voice became a few degrees colder.
"The thing is, a certain technology has fallen into my hands... just don't take this as a joke... it can bring a person back to life."
"Nonsense."
"No, believe me, I have that capability. And I'd like to help you... I know you were very attached to your boss... He was a truly ambitious and extremely responsible man who cared for his employees..."
"Mr. Harper, if you call me again with such jokes, I will terminate the contract and then bring the full weight of the corporation down on you. Believe me, they will drag you out from under the earth and destroy you. Now, goodbye."
Oriana cut off the Illusive Man, not letting him finish, and after finishing her short speech, simply hung up.
"M-da... I thought she'd jump at the chance to bring her brother back... Well, then we need to find out where John was buried and get him out of there..."
"I..."
"No, not you, there are people who will handle that, and you, for now, prepare Project Lazarus... you might find yourself facing a more difficult task than we can imagine."
"Understood..."
***
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