The Future

"My credits?" I growled at the salarian super scientist, not out of anger but because of how long we had been playing the silent game.

A match he just won.

"Did not agree to wager with you." Mordin spoke as he continued his work, "Argument was logical, but did not want to believe. One of two ways a person can convince himself of a lie."

"I am aware that people will believe a lie because they want it to be true, or they fear it is true." I told the amphibian, "You ran face first into another of the lies you've been telling yourself on Tuchanka."

"Yes." agreed the hyperactive genius.

"You reduced an entire species to data points in a simulation and predictably missed the individual sentient response to your imposed solution." I lambasted the typical salarian mindset, "The uneven cruelty of the Genophage caused your models to be completely wrong. Instead of bringing us down to the galactic average breeding model, you enacted a slow but final solution to the krogan problem."

"Yes." Mordin agreed again, "Noticed a distinct lack of snark when mentioning the krogan problem."

"A thousand offspring a calendar year of a species with naturally high aggression and no natural off switch?" I chuckled, "Who could imagine they'd cause any long term problems for everyone?"

"And there is the snark." Mordin noted, "You are surprisingly anti-krogan for someone who made himself chief of the oldest krogan settlement."

"I've got the unique perspective of knowing what it feels like to be krogan without the cultural baggage of being naturally born." I explained my view point, "There is a distinct schism between what I know and what I feel, and I always try to hold to what I know. Which is why I view the end of the Genophage as a must, but know that it needs to be replaced by a more gentle alternative because the krogan cannot be trusted to keep the peace for long after we start breeding unimpaired again."

"A perspective not shared by many outside of the salarians or turians, not shared by your 'space momma' either." Mordin acknowledged, "Not shared by me, now."

"How many homicidal thoughts have you had while I've been here in the lab?" I asked him.

"Dozens." Mordin admitted, "Mostly plans to counter should you become hostile."

"I've been having near constant homicidal thoughts since I was born, and I know that is the standard for my species." I expressed the horrible truth, "My other thoughts are sexual and food based. In between those I get philosophical, that is what separates me from the normal krogan male."

"Very standard krogan male psych profile." Mordin chuckled, "The philosophy used to be more common, surviving krogan ruins show a dedication to brutalism art and architecture."

"Yeah, till we killed all the artists and architects in nuclear fire." I laughed especially deep considering the Fallout backstory of my species.

I really missed the times when those games were good. (New Vegas)

"How much do you want to bet on the salarians secretly trying to uplift the yahg so they can have a better beat stick after they failed with us?" I chuckled about the average salarian mentality that views other species as tools.

"Fool's bet." Mordin denied, "Several ongoing experiments on Sur'Kesh attempting to tame yahg enough to uplift in time of emergency."

"And that is why the Genophage has been left to fester for a thousand years." I shook my head, "The salarians got what they wanted from us, and are fine waiting until they need something from us again to bother helping us, but not if they have better options waiting in the winds."

"Yes." Mordin agreed for the third time.

"How hard would it be to adjust the number of eggs the females produce a year?" I asked the salarian.

"Far easier than work fixing the Genophage." Mordin told me, "Was considered as an alternative should Genophage adjustment prove infeasible. Scrapped due to possibility of conflict with hold over Genophage effects sterilizing the species."

"And if the Genophage was cured first?" I questioned him.

"Work of a couple months with volunteer subjects." Mordin answered.

"Then I'd like you to come back with me to Tuchanka once we are done crewing with Shepard." I told him, "I want an alternative ready for if we manage to cure the Genophage. The krogan need to be controlled and the salarians need to be appeased, otherwise we are going to war over it."

"Glad to help." Mordin smiled, "Sounds like best path to pave way to brighter future."

We brought our hands together for a six finger shake.

Shepard came to find me after I returned to the cargo bay later.

"I am glad your meeting with Mordin ended peacefully." She commented as an ice breaker.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." I quoted while repping split squats with a barrel of water held over each of my shoulders, "We discussed the finer points of being krogan and salarian and arrived at a gentleman's agreement about the future of the Genophage."

"That's the part that had me worried." Shepard admitted to spying on us, "Most krogan are a lot more passionate about that topic, and that passion sounds a bit like, 'death to the salarians and the turians!'"

"It does indeed." I agreed with her, "I doubt you are here for a rehash. What's up space momma?"

"I wanted to discuss your massive change in status now that you are the chief of the Gatatog." the commander took a seat on some cargo within my restricted line of sight.

"Need me to rally the clan to come battle the collectors?" I asked her, "I can bring just over four hundred warriors. No guarantee they aren't shit considering how easy it was to take down Uvenk. That scrawny bastard was supposed to be their strongest warrior."

"No." Shepard denied, "Your trip to Tuchanka was intended to get your head in the game for this mission, but instead you left the planet with far more responsibility than when you arrived. I need to know that your mind isn't in two places when we go after the collectors."

"Trust me." I grunted as the burn really started kicking in, "I am fully dedicated to wiping out the collectors and the reapers after them."

"And afterwards?" the commander questioned, "Leadership is a hard path."

"Then it is a good thing I am learning from the example of one of the galaxy's most 'visionary' leaders." I chuckled.

"Did you just make a dig at my prothean beacon visions?" she asked incredulously.

"Oh no. Of course not." I snarked, "You and Anderson did such a good job selling the idea that a super advanced machine race was coming to kill us all that even after one of them attacked the Citadel itself everyone still doesn't believe in them. I can't imagine anyone ever making fun of you for that."

"And you would have done better?" the red headed space marine got defensive.

"Fuck no." I told her, "I'd have just given up sooner and tried to focus them more on Saren and the geth. Politicians need an easily visible enemy to be seen opposing, without that they risk showing how hollow they really are. The reapers have done too good a job scrubbing their presence to be a political cause."

"I know that now." She admitted, "But back then, the politics just seemed so stupid after what the beacon showed me. I wasn't in the right mind to deal with the council."

"Hopefully we can do enough damage to the reaper cause to make up for the fact that we are woefully unprepared for a galaxy spanning war of annihilation." I comforted my space momma, "Were are we going for that next?"

"Ilium." the commander answered, "We have an assassin and a justicar to recruit and a personal mission for Miranda."

"Sounds like we'll be painting the town red!" I laughed.

"I think you mean that more aggressively than the saying implies." Shepard chuckled.

"The violent meaning is still a flamboyant good time to a krogan." I informed her.