Mass Effect - A Hero Rises Ch. 13

He was sitting in the mess later that night by himself, nursing a can of beer. Shepard wandered out of his quarters, noticed him sitting alone, grabbing his own beer before sitting opposite him. "Want to talk about it?"

He looked up and met his eyes. "Lot to tell, Shepard."

Shepard smirked. "Don't call me that often, Kaidan."

"Just a sign of respect, sir." He sipped at his beer before sighing. "Shit, I wouldn't even know where to start."

"Don't curse often either."

That made him chuckle. "What can I say? Just thinking about BAaT... It changes who you are, Shepard. You think it doesn't. You think you can square it all away in your head, but it's the sort of shit that stays with you for life. Particularly where it's the place where you first killed a man. Or turian. Same thing."

"How did it feel when you did it though?"

"Honestly? The word is righteous, Shepard. He was a bastard, and while I won't say he deserved to die, he had it coming. He hurt those I cared about. I only wanted him to finally stop and see sense, but I guess when you're backed into a corner, you learn what you are truly capable of."

"Some of what you told me before, Kaidan. Horrifying doesn't even begin..."

"I can almost forgive a lot of it simply because no-one had a clue what they were doing. But the Alliance should have at least asked the asari for help. They're the most naturally gifted biotics in the galaxy. God, if we'd had a few of them to train us, BAaT would have been a massive success. Still operating now, I believe. Kids would come out fit, healthy and able to live with their condition."

"Surprised you don't have your own issues with the Alliance."

"I still do from time to time, but as I said, I can forgive a lot simply because I can understand. We were diving into the unknown, much like those first pilots who went through the Mass Relays when we found them. We still don't know everything about biotics, how it does effect the human body."

"And Kyle, what do you think?"

"He's clearly messed up from what happened on Torfan. He clearly needed those kids to save them. From the little I know about Torfan..."

"He lost nearly every soldier under his command."

"Little wonder then he's gathered all this 'children', desperate to save them this time." He trailed off and shook his head. "God, I love serving but... Damn, the Alliance gets things wrong badly at times. I mean, no-one is perfect but they've really dropped the ball a few times."

"All we can do is work to make it better, Kaidan."

"It's why I joined up, Shepard. I wanted to make a difference. I didn't want another Jump Zero to happen."

Shepard chugged his can, squashing it in his hand. "Good. Glad you're doing okay."

"Come out here to check on me, Shepard?"

"I figured you knew a few faces in the crowd."

He nodded. "I did. Guess I ended up coming out of it a lot better than most of them."

"Once I get word that they're landed on Feros, I'll see if Juliana or someone can get in contact, let you know how they're getting on."

"I'd like that, Shepard. Thanks."

"No worries. Now, I've got shit to do. We're heading to the Citadel as we've been on assignment for quite a while. While we're there, we'll hopefully find out our next move in regards to Saren."

Shepard headed off and Alenko quietly sipped at his beer, a slight smirk on his face. The one thing Shepard probably didn't know is that Alenko did recognise a few faces. And of those faces, let's just say that he'd been intimate with more than one of them. But that was for him to know only. A man has to keep some secrets.