Parallel Lives: Six Glimpses: The Salarian Spy
Parallel Lives is a crossover AU (Dragon Age:Origins characters in a Mass Effect setting) that has spiraled into a major series. Six Glimpses introduces the six "Wardens" (one from each origin) and their place in the galaxy circa early ME2.
Nasum Dorado Aegohr Cal Amell Vardo - known to non-salarians as Vardo Amell - had always been an unusual member of his race. He was one of the incredibly rare salarians born with biotic ability. This resulted in certain expectations that he would use his talents for the benefit of the species, which he had no reason to dispute. Except that Vardo had no intention of becoming some sort of salarian super soldier.
Having biotic powers did not automatically make him an asari commando or a krogan battlemaster. Nor did it give him any urge to get into violent confrontations with one. He was perfectly content to leave such heroics to the hot-heads who joined Special Tasks. In addition to his biotic gifts, Vardo was also particularly talented at mathematical reasoning. And some very simple calculations had easily convinced him that - in contrast to the hostile alien forces often encountered by STG squads - ledgers and credit chits were highly unlikely to shoot at him.
So Vardo had become a forensic accountant.
His work was still extremely valuable; there were multiple occasions where Special Tasks wouldn’t have known who they ought to be shooting at without the information in his reports, so he was clearly making a substantial contribution to the well-being of his people. And he was doing it via a method that involved a statistically reduced probability of sudden and violent death.
His current project involved analyzing the financial transactions of the pro-human extremist group Cerberus. There were indications the organization had recently converted a large number of its assets into liquid form. Signs of increased Cerberus activity made other races understandably nervous, and the salarian government had tasked Vardo with investigating the intended purpose of the newly freed capital.
It was hardly a surprise that this most recent game of “follow the credits” had led him to Ilium, the galaxy’s premier center for illegal but civilized mercantile activity. His first two day cycles on planet had been spent establishing his cover as a shrewd financial trader with flexible scruples. He’d arranged several deals to shift questionable commodities and investments between interested parties. Nothing relevant had come out of it, but he’d made several contacts he hoped would prove useful in future investigations.
Having accomplished that, he was taking the evening off from business dealings and spending it in a small lounge enjoying a musical performance. The singer was an asari, probably somewhere in her maiden phase. Her name was Leliana, and the audience was not nearly as large as it ought to have been, given her level of talent. Vardo had seen her perform previously in front of far more impressive crowds than this. He assumed that the difference was a result of the location; she would logically draw a better audience in non-asari space where she would be viewed as an exotic novelty. Here on Ilium, an asari performer was a more common commodity and thus less readily marketable. None of which in any way diminished her ability, of course. Vardo found her performance every bit as skilled and appealing as it had been in a larger venue, perhaps even captivating as a result of the intimate setting facilitating her natural rapport with the audience.
When Leliana paused for a break after her second set, Vardo joined the small crowd of people waiting to speak with her. He deliberately lingered near the back of the group, waiting as the other fans bought copies of her music and asked for autographs.
Vardo watched her with her fans, remembering why she had caught his attention when he first saw her perform a few years ago. Leliana was warm and open, greeting everyone with a ready smile and a soft laugh that suggested openness. Her stage persona was intimate, creating personal connections without ever truly giving away anything about herself. It was a masterful performance, and he recognized the skill involved immediately. Her music was enjoyable, also, a mixture of traditional and new songs collected from regions scattered across the galaxy and arranged well to suit her voice. Listening to her performances, unlike many of the things he was called on to do in his professional capacity, was never a hardship.
Leliana caught his eye and smiled as she chatted with the pair of patrons in front of him. When they left, she turned her full attention to him. “Vardo! It is lovely to see you, as always. How long has it been?” She didn’t pause for him to respond. “Too long. I’m glad you’re here.”
She prattled cheerily, as if their meeting was an unexpected and pleasant coincidence rather than the result of several coded messages and the primary reason she was currently on Ilium.
“I’m pleased I had the opportunity to hear you sing again. Some of the material was new since last time, wasn’t it?”
“Of course! Even the best performer stagnates when lacking variety, and her art becomes stale as a result. I will get bored and dull if I do not keep challenging myself.” She smiled, the warm smile that suggested she was taking you into her confidence, revealing a secret. “That’s why I chose to become a musician in the first place. I thrive on the creative stimulation.”
Vardo returned her smile and made an appropriate response, wondering if that might actually be true. It would be rather unexpected for an asari commando to give up the mercenary lifestyle because it bored her, but he could actually believe that of Leliana. He had never seen her fight, but she always looked so vibrant and present when singing that he could well imagine she had found any other lifestyle unsatisfying. Of course, no longer wearing the uniform didn’t mean she had given up all of the contacts and skills from her old life. And her new career gave her complete freedom to travel wherever she wanted with little scrutiny. It made her an ideal information source, one Vardo rarely hesitated to take advantage of when his work was in an area where she would be useful.
“I don’t even need to ask what you want, of course.” Leliana pulled an OSD out of her bag. A careful observer, such as a trained salarian spy, would notice that it came from a separate pouch than the music recordings she had been selling earlier. “You’re always wanting to have what is new since you saw me last.”
“That is quite true. I enjoy variety as well.” Vardo took the OSD and handed her a credit chip. It was for a significantly larger amount than could possibly be reasonable for musical recordings, but no one was close enough to see, and he kept it shielded by his fingers out of habit just in case.
Leliana tucked the chip quickly away without appearing especially hurried. “It was a pleasure to see you, Vardo, as always. I do not wish to be rude, but I am afraid I can’t linger. It is time for me to begin again, and it would be wrong to deprive my audience, such as it is.”
“As part of said audience, I completely understand. I wish you continued success until we meet again.” Vardo sketched something between a nod and a bow, earning what he thought might actually be a sincere smile, a rare occurrence from such a consummate performer.
Having achieved his primary goal for the evening, Vardo tucked away the OSD into a hidden inner pocket and settled back into his chair to enjoy the rest of the night’s music.
Vardo waited until the next morning to look through the files he had received from Leliana. Strictly speaking, “morning” might not have been the appropriate term. It would probably be better to describe it as the point in time at which his body had decided it was prepared to begin functioning for the day. Vardo had decided years ago that it was far more efficient to simply refer to that point as morning, regardless of when it occurred temporally. He often thought one of the biggest advantages of the amount of interplanetary travel involved in his job was that he always had a ready excuse for being out of sync with local time.
As the files came up on his screen, he began methodically sorting through the masses of financial data Leliana had provided. Vardo had no idea how she got her information, and he often suspected that he would prefer to remain ignorant on that topic. He spent the next several hours scrolling through invoices, financial transaction records, and shipping manifests, all the while making careful notations about anything that stood out as particularly unusual or interesting.
By the end of his subjective morning, a pattern had definitely started to emerge. Perhaps two separate patterns.
He would need to consult with some experts in specific technical areas to confirm his assumptions about the purpose of the individual items being purchased. But all signs pointed to Cerberus investing extremely heavily in physical supplies required for both cutting-edge ship design and beyond-the-cutting-edge medical technology. Several of their suppliers, particularly for the starship parts, were turian companies. That, combined with the amount of capital that was being invested into this endeavor, convinced him that this project - or these projects, as he had no evidence other than timing that the two were related - was not being undertaken lightly.
Vardo had no idea what to make of this information, but that wasn’t his job. His responsibility was to find the patterns and pass them on to his superiors. They had the unenviable task of figuring out precisely what Cerberus was doing with this equipment and if there was anyone Special Tasks ought to be sent to shoot or sabotage as a result. He was entirely content to leave that to them. His part in this situation was well and truly completed.