13Outside the Council chambers, after Sovereign's defeat
"So, how did it go?" Wrex asked.
"Fairly well, but there is a lot of job yet to be done. Should be easier now. Humanity was given seat at the Council and I suggested Anderson to represent us." Jane said.
"Good job, Shepard. Saving Council was a good move after all. Hopefully they will listen you more this time around." Garrus added.
"We sure will need them. Preparing for Reapers won't be easy. But like Anderson said - united, we will defeat them."
"True, true, but enough of that! We won today! Celebrations are in order! Follow me, I will teach you pyjaks how to drink ryncol and live!" Wrex said cheerfully, to slight horror of Shepard and Garrus. Awkward silence lasted for a few seconds, until slight rumbling was heard. Everyone looked at Shepard. She smiled, realizing she was saved by her own stomach.
"I am all for alcohol, Wrex, but I think I'll first have a bite to eat. Feels like forever since I had a decent meal."
"Hmmm, guess we could eat something. Been a while since I had a bite myself." Wrex noted.
"Make that three of us." Garrus added and opened his omni-tool "I know this place I used to go to after my shifts at C-Sec, down at the Zakera ward. Hope it still works after the Sovereign attack."
"Is it any good?" Jane asked.
"Excellent. They serve both levo and dextro meals, and even have volus and quarian rooms. They also offer 'krogan super-sized meals'." Garrus said as he searched the extranet on his omni-tool.
"Heh, I could go for one of those." Wrex said.
"Me too, Wrex." Jane added.
"And we are in luck. Says on the restaurant's page it's open." Garrus pointed his finger at the nearby stairs.
"Despite the geth attack?" Shepard said as they walked.
"Time tag says that page has been updated just an hour ago. If VI managed that page, it would show it's shut down unless staff checked in. Someone had to be working there." Garrus noted
As they walked they noticed that most of the place was littered by geth remains and there were couple of C-Sec officers estimating the damage, as well as civilians piling rubble in trash bins. Buildings were charred from explosions and blood stains were on the walls. There were no corpses, it would seem that C-Sec was quick to handle those first. There were also Keepers cleaning the rubble already.
"This street has seen better days. You sure that place will be opened, Vakarian?" Wrex asked.
"We should know soon, it's just around the corner and ... oh. " Garrus eyes popped out as he entered the small alley "Now that is just hilarious." He showed it to Wrex who give a small chuckle.
"What?" Shepard looked and a wicked grin spread across her face "Nice."
Although restaurant front was smashed, charred and riddled with bullet holes, there was a huge sign saying 'FUCK THE GETH! WE ARE OPEN!' And just to emphasize the point, a geth trooper head was impaled on a stick and placed next to the sign.
"I like this place already." Wrex said as the group entered inside. There was only one human inside, in his 30s with black hair, cleaning rubble from floor. Most of lighting was smashed, but tables were already set up with lamps. As they took their seats human lifted his hand, signaling them.
"I'll be there, just one moment." he said with strong slavic accent as he cleaned last of the rubble and throw it in a bag. He quickly washed his hands, picked few menus and hastily paced to them.
"Good day, boys and girls, how surprising to see customers so quic- Officer Vakarian?" the man said in shock.
"Greetings Elijah. Long time since I was here. How are you doing?" Garrus asked.
"Ha ha, I am good, but my god. Just this morning I saw the vids of the attack. You were there fighting with commander Shepard and Urdnot Wrex at the Council tower." He looked next to Garrus and his jaw dropped.
"Excuse me. Shepard? THE Shepard of THE Normandy?" Elijah asked, his eyes wide, not believing who he was seeing.
"Um, yeah." Jane said, hoping this man wasn't another Conrad Verner.
"Commander, it's a true honor to have you here! Consider all your orders - on the house!" he said enthusiastically.
"Now you really don't have to..." but man cut of Shepard immediately.
"No, commander. YOU didn't have to chase down Saren and fight geth, but you did and saved all our asses here today. I am ashamed I didn't recognize you earlier. I consider you all my guests and free meals are the least I can do."
"Well, if that is the case, we might as well order. What can you recommend us?" Jane said.
"Madam, we have just about any food from Earth and colonies, and every major dish from each of species homeworld. But we mostly do meat. We have lot of it, every kind from every habitable planet known to us."
"Heh, even Tuchanka? Got varren steaks?" Wrex asked.
"Yes indeed, we have them. You would be surprised how many krogan come here. We keep meats in special freezer with mass effect stasis fields to keep them fresh, maybe not as fresh as just killed one. We tried to have that option, but animal rights groups won't allow us to open a new slaughter house on the Citadel."
"Varren isn't varren if I just didn't killed it, but I could give it a try" Wrex said as he looked at the menu "I will take some fish as well and some ryncol with that."
"I would like some lut'avva stew, Elijah. Been a while since I had it." Garrus asked, looking at his own menu.
"Would you like it with meat of yritx or citruun?" Elijah said with the smile. Garrus was silently happy. Those meats were one of most expensive and he couldn't afford back when he was working with C-Sec.
"Spirits damn me, I think I'm on a visit to Cipritine. Can you make it with both?"
"But of course! Spicy or extra spicy?" the man asked.
"Think you could go beyond extra?"
"You better buy new digestion system, cause this dish will burn right trough you, officer. And what would you have, commander?" Elijah turned to Shepard again.
"Still thinking. You really have variety of cuisines on the list here. French, Italian, Japanese, Turkish, Indian, Greek, Chinese ... how do you prepare all that?" Jane asked.
"Eh. A little help with robots to retrieve supplies from storage and watch the timers, but other than that it's all in the hands." man wiggled his fingers to emphasize the point.
Jane gave him a curious look "You cook and serve here all by yourself?"
"Of course not. I normally just cook, but for obvious reasons rest of the staff took couple days off. Fear not, since you are only one here for now, that shouldn't be a problem. Unless you have friends coming?" he asked.
"Damn. We almost forgot about rest of the team. Would it be trouble if we invite some more people?"
Elijah seemed almost insulted "Commander, did I said that all food is on the house today or not? Call the people in, whole Normandy is welcome."
Jane smiled opened her omni-tool "Joker, come in? Where are you?"
"Commander! Good thing you guys remembered us. We just got out of the Normandy and Kaidan, Liara, Tali and I are looking for you and a place to drink, maybe Pressly and Adams will join us later after they organize shore leave. You guys coming?"
"Actually three of us just sit down to have a meal. We'll do the drinking later. Why don't you guys come over? I'm sending you the address right now." Jane typed in her omni-tool.
Joker murmured something to rest of the team and then came back "All right, we are coming, just to grab a skycar. Don't you start without us, we'll be there in ten minutes."
"Good. Shepard out." Jane closed the link and looked up. Elijah was no standing where he was. Moment later, shutters at the nearby wall opened and he was standing with cooking hat, apron and white gloves.
"Excuse me, mister Urdnot, can you come here for moment?" man waved at Wrex.
"Heh, you heard that, Garrus? I am "mister" Urdnot now."
Shepard smirked "And all you had to do to earn it was to kill a renegade Specter. Maybe we should get more of those and turn all krogan into proper gentlemen."
Wrex replied with a laughter and approached the chef.
"Mister Urdnot, if you could just pick your fish. We have a wide selection here." he said as he placed a long tray of fish on table "I will have lut'avva cooking in a moment." he pointed to Garrus and turned to Shepard "Commander, did you made up your mind?"
Shepard gave one last glance at the menu "I'll have shrimps in bacon, rare steak and a bottle of Carmenere. And some soup, any soup. I had been on dry rations for far too long."
"It will be the best soup in the galaxy" chef said as he typed in his omni-tool for robots to deliver ingredients from the storage "Until you wait, have some drinks, help yourselves, I am bit busy." he brought out couple of bottles and glasses on the table next to the shutters.
Wrex grabbed a bottle of ryncol, while Shepard and Garrus each grabbed their own beers. In the back, robots already brought material for the stew for Garrus and Elijah was busy chopping them into little bits, then setting water to boil. Wrex has already picked his fish, simply by pointing to all of them. Without blinking, Elijah picked the whole tray and fired up seven different stoves with pans, pouring oil on them. Waiting for it to heat up, he moved to the grill and took out beef and Varren meat, rubbing them in proper spices. The trio of Shepard, Garrus and Wrex stood next to shutters, drinking, watching the show with slight amusement. This man was as good in the kitchen as they were on the battlefield. He proceeded to wrap up the shrimps in bacon, fire up another stove, put fishes on pans and put ingredients into stew to boil.
"Don't stews take hours, Garrus?" Jane asked.
"Normally, they do, but a turian cook though me how to balance temperatures so to cook it fast, but not ruin it." chef said as he closed the lid and programmed timer on it, the moving on to wrap up more shrimps into bacon "Question commander: do you want more shrimps? Your friends might want a bite to try?"
"I wouldn't mind trying it." Wrex commented "And it is on the house, ha ha." he smiled.
"Sure, why not." Shepard said.
"More shrimps in bacon coming right up." he typed in his omni-tool and from a wall a small robot with long arms popped out. It moved next to chef and started wrapping shrimps into bacon, along with Elijah.
"First robots in months that don't want to shoot us. I don't know what to think about it." Garrus said.
"Watch out, Vakarian. It could hear you. And it's close to the knives. Might want to cut off your fringe and wrap it in bacon." Shepard said jokingly. Wrex laughed.
"Here lies Garrus Vakarian. He was a turian cop, fought alongside Commander Shepard and he was delicious!" Wrex added, making Shepard burst in laughter and even making Garrus smile.
In the background, Elijah has apparently finished all chopping and wrapping and all food was now silently cooking "Commander, while I wait, do you have any idea what your other friends will have to eat?"
"Don't know. I'll ask them." just about as Jane went for her omni-tool crew from the Normandy entered the restaurant.
"Shepard, good to see you again." Liara said, looking very happy.
"He heeeey, commander! Nice place they have here, I especially love the sign outside. Very creative." Joker said.
"Thank you!" a shout was heard from the kitchen.
"That the maker of the sing?" Kaidan asked.
"Yes, it is. And he's also the chef and our host for the day. What would you like, guys?" Shepard said as she handed over the menus "They got everything."
"And don't be shy, like I said to the commander: it's on the house!" another shot was heard from the kitchen.
Four of the new arrivals took their seats at the table and listed trough the menus. Garrus helped the chef by brining the drinks and glasses to the table. Kaidan asked first.
"You got pancakes? I could really go for something sweet now."
"I could have those as well, but I'm up for something salty first. I'll have a pizza toscana and a black beer." Joker said.
"I'll take Thessia spring rolls, along with Nos Astra steak and a bottle of elasa, please." Liara said as she put down the menu.
"That leaves our resident mechanist. What will you have, Tali?" Shepard asked her.
Tali was having trouble finding the right words as she look at the menu "You... REALLY have solid food for... quarians?" she asked the chef.
"Yes. Sadly, our clean room is not functioning right now." shout was heard from back of the kitchen.
"Oh..." Tali was sad.
"But we have a back up. Garrus, mister Urdnot, can you give me a hand over here?" chef opened the kitchen doors and the two walked in. Slight rumbling was heard as something obviously large was moved around. Doors opened again as Garrus and Wrex carried in a large white box with a small black window on its side. Everybody were bit confused, but Tali was not.
"Is that ... an emergency sterilization container?" Tali said as it was dropped right next to her.
Everybody paused, trying to process what she said, Kaidan was first "You mean a tiny clean room?" he asked.
"No. Emergency. Sterilization. Container. We use it when someone needs to remove parts of their suit quickly, but there is no large clean room to do so. Some use it also to have solid meals, but not often. It's a luxury to maintain them." Tali said as she approached to examine the machine.
"Maybe on flotilla, but there is plenty of material on the Citadel for that. Quarians often do jobs around this place. Sometime instead of credits they would like a couple of good meals. So about a year ago a dozen of them installed a clean room and bough several old sterilization containers which they fixed on their own expense. I served them free food every day until they finished their pilgrimage." Elijah smiled to Tali. Even though no one could see it, she smiled back.
"You are quite generous. Most stories I hear are of people living on charity and cheap nutrient paste."
"Well, glad we are exception to that sad rule. Now then. What can I get you?"
Tali scrolled through the menu. So many dishes caught her eye, she just couldn't make up her mind. Tempting as it was to try bit of everything, years of living on flotilla learned her against throwing the food away.
"Do you have a recommendation? I see so many things that I want to try, I just can't make my mind up."
"Would you like to try a 'quarian train'? It includes several dishes."
"I couldn't possibly eat all of that!" Tali said.
"Don't worry, I'll make portions small in size." chef added.
"And if you have any leftovers, I'll be glad to try some of them as well." Garrus commented. After confirming with Tali that she can operate the emergency sterilization container, chef retreated to the kitchen, working franticly. With one hand he started cracking eggs and adding them to flour for pancakes, while with other he started putting blue stuffing in pastry before rolling them. As soon as he was done he placed them in an oven and rushed to a fridge for premade pizza dough. With incredible ease he spin it around his fingers turning small lump into wide pizza base, earning small applause from Normandy crew.
"Is that part of preparation process?" Liara asked Kaidan.
"Nah, it can be done with a rolling pin. Some people do it just for show, though." he replied.
Chef put the pizza base down, adding ingredients on it in quickly succession before putting that as well in the oven. His attention switched to preparing Tali's dish, as he took out six egg-shaped cylinders and placed them on counter. Donning the gloves and a mask, Elijah took meat, vegetable and pastry brought to him by robots and carefully placed them in different cylinder. He then took out a UV lamp and irradiated each batch of food to kill off any bacteria. Each of six cups was sealed and some of them placed on fire. Elijah turned to his guests.
"If I timed everything right, you will all be served in fifteen minutes, in the meantime..." he brought out the bacon wrapped shrimps Shepard has ordered "You can pass time with these. I hope I made enough for everyone." Elijah said as he placed huge tray of shrimps in center of table.
Except for Tali and Garrus, everyone took their share. Shepard seemed to forget her manners as the delicious meal melted in her mouth and she grabbed more hungrily. Wrex wasn't far behind, declaring that despite the tiny size of the sea creatures, they made an excellent chow.
Satisfied that everyone had drinks, Elijah quickly returned to kitchen. Three minutes later he was back, carrying a large bowl full of steaming liquid, and walked to Garrus.
"Officer Vakarian, here is your lut'avva, good luck surviving its spiciness." chef said with devious smile.
Garrus took a good long inhale, his mandibles chipping in satisfaction. This stew was really something. Taking a spoon and blowing in it to cool it off, he carefully took a sip. It was beyond good. And spicy. But he didn't care for it. Tingling sensation on his taste buds was majestic.
"Damn, Vakarian. I wish I could be as happy as you are when you tasted that." Jane said and moved closer to him "Do you always sing a happy song when they feed you well?" she teased him.
"Laugh it up, Shepard. You turned into a ravenous Thresher Maw when those shrimps were brought onto table."
"Hurr hurr hurr, Vakarian." she replied and before she could make another joke Elijah was back with her soup, steak and a bottle of wine, diverting Shepard's attention "You are lucky this Maw is hungry and eating your dextero ass would be bad for my stomach." she added with smile. Garrus smiled back and returned to his stew.
Seconds later the tornado of a chef was back, carrying two more meals. He placed a massive pizza in front of Joker and spring rolls in front of Liara. Both looked quite happy with the meal they got. Coming back from kitchen again, Elijah brought in two massive trays for Wrex, one with steaming varren steaks and other with an array of fish. Krogan's face was of a man who got several mating requests at once and hungrily started eating fishes, each in one bite, not bothering with the tiny bones.
Tali and Kadian both gave thr Wrex a revolted look, but their focus quickly changed as chef came back again, with a small mountain of pancakes and a large bowl of maple syrup and milk.
"Hope you don't mind, major. Extranet told of your Canadian origins, so I assumed you would like this with your pancakes." chef said kindly.
"It's perfect, thank you." Alenko said and nodded in response.
"And last, but not least it's your turn, miss Zorah. Would you please?" Elijah said as he gently pointed to emergency sterilization container. Tali walked to it. It was like small booth for her upper body with tinted window and a chair under it. As she sat bottom half of container closed and decontamination proceeded. With a slight ping, it signaled that tiny room was clean.
"You comfortable?" chef asked.
"Yes, yes. It's quite good, thank you." she replied.
"Hope you don't mind that window is tinted. I was told that quarians don't like showing their faces much. You can still see your friends, yes? Good. I'll back in a second."
Tali activated her omni-tool and scanned the inside of the small booth. It indeed was very sterile. Slowly she removed her mask. Looking up she could see her friends are looking at her, trying to catch glimpse of her face.
"Damn, one chance I could see what's under the mask, and tinted windows are in the way again." Jane said. Tali giggled.
"A shame. I was told by older Asair that quarians are quite beautiful." Liara added.
"Don't know about the males, but I can vouch for the females." Wrex added between the two fishes he was eating. "Did you know that four centuries back they had quarian-only strip club at Omega? Good times, good times indeed. Credits well spent!" The old krogan chuckled.
Tali was spared further stories about her ancestor's less glorious history by Elijah bringing the first cylinder. He placed it into a small holder and cylinder was sucked inside the booth.
"First - a soup with meat bits and enzymes to help your body process the solid food that is to follow."
Taking the spoon, Tali grabbed bit of a hot liquid, blowing it to cooler temperature. Then she took her first sip. It was phenomenally good. So much better than nutrient paste.
"It's ... amazing." she said to chef. He smiled.
"Thank you, glad you like it. I would normally suggest guests to save room for later, but you better finish the soup. Enzymes in it will do really good work later. You still got five more cylinders waiting for you."
After Tali was done with amazing soup, Elijah brought in two more cylinders which were sucked in the booth and previous one was ejected. One held a rich salad with light dressing and other was filled with pieces of meat swimming in a thick brown sauce, with pieces of bread on the side. Color of the sauce was incredibly inviting. So was the flavor and the slightly crispiness of meaty bits.
Eating roughly the half of both portions, Tali decided to stop and call for next meal. Two cylinders inside of the booth were ejected out and Liara passed them to Garrus who, after one smell, was visibly impressed. Elijah put another two meals in the booth for the quarian. A rich pasta was one of them. Tali had often saw humans on Normandy eating this dish, but didn't knew there was a dextero version of it. She ate it with gusto, new flavors melting in her mouth yet again.
Other meal was something Tali couldn't recognize. There were little vegetable rolls filled with white cream, and the whole thing was swimming in red sauce.
"What are these little rolled things?" she asked Elijah.
"Ah, those are based off my mother's recipe. Trust me, they are one of our best dishes. Very hard to make dextero version of it. Very expensive too, so enjoy it."
Tali took several bites and found the taste a bit odd at first, but not unpleasant. As she took more bites, flavor begin to build up. This chef was outdoing himself with every meal he served. Finishing all of it, she ejected an empty cup this time.
"Awww, nothing left for me?" Garrus asked, faking extreme sadness.
Tali smiled "Sorry, this one was too good for a Bosh'tet like you."
And then Elijah brought the last cylinder into Tali's booth. As it opened, Tali recognized the rich smell of hot steaming chocolate. There was a small brown cake with a white lump of ice-cream on the side, whole thing carefully decorated.
"Be careful, the inside is hot. It's called a volcano cake." chef said.
Tali carefully opened her cake, molten chocolate mixed with the ice-cream. Bite she took was pure heaven.
"I should bring you as my pilgrimage gift to flotilla. This volcano cake is sweetest thing I ever had in my life." Tali said cheerfully.
"Volcano cakes? You make those too? Bring me one as well!" Jane added when she overheard what Tali was having.
"A cake called "volcano"? Now that sounds interesting. I'll have one as well." Liara said.
"Yeah, I'll take one as well. Never mind the pancakes I ordered." Joker added himself to the list.
"Ih'll huve whun ash whell! No. Thwo!" Wrex spoke with his mouth full of varren steak.
Garrus looked at chef "Guess I can join the order as well."
"I'm good." Kaidan said and returned to his pancakes.
While the volcano cakes were made, the Normandy ground crew returned to finishing their meals. They were all absolutely full, even Wrex. Silently they sipped their drinks, gasping for air.
"Damn, Garrus. You sure know how to pick a place. I had been on Citadel many times, but haven't been to such a decent place in at least a couple of decades." Wrex said.
"In that case, compliments should go to my sister. She's the one who recommended me this place. Elijah apparently was on Palaven about a year ago on some cooking contest and she got a chance to try some of his dishes. When she heard about him opening a place here, she practically ordered me to check it out."
"Ha, at least one of you two has a sense for good things. If it was all up to you we would go to some crappy processed paste burger joint." Tali added, smirking.
"In that case." Shepard stood up and raised her glass "To Garrus's sister!" everyone cheered and clinked their glasses. "May she always lead us to good places!"
At that moment Elijah stepped in with volcano cakes. Shepard turned around and raised a toast to him as well.
"And to Elijah! The best goddamn chef on the entire Citadel!" Jane spoke, earning even larger cheer from the whole Normandy crew. Elijah smiled proudly.
True to Tali's words, the volcano cakes were delicious. So much so that she and Liara asked for the recipe. All of the crew at this point had trouble moving. They just sat here, drinking and retelling parts of their hunt for Saren, while Elijah listened. He heard so much amazing details that weren't in official news, his jaw hanged most of the time. He told them also bit of himself, of his dream to build the greatest restaurant that could cater to every specie, and hopefully win a Michelin star one day.
"What's a Michelin star?" Wrex asked.
"Star of Terra for chef, basically." Kadian said.
"Really? You humans give medals away for cooking?"
"Nothing is 'given', Wrex. It's very hard to earn one. Often whole restaurant has to work perfectly for years before it's considered for one Michelin star."
"Weird, weird specie." Krogan rumbled to himself.
Eventually, Shepard decided it's time to go and hit a club for celebration, but not before indulging the Elijah's wish for a group photo with them. After a couple of quick shots, omni-tool printed out a large group photo and the whole crew singed the back. They all gave their last compliments to Elijah as they left. Kadian, Liara and Joker saying they will recommend the place to their friends. Wrex boasted that every krogan will know of "super-sized meals", smacking the chef on the shoulder in sign of approval. Garrus said his thanks for providing such great service. Tali was a bit emotional, saying how she has never been treated to such a fine dinner. Elijah smiled and just said to her to come again and she'll be treated even better. Qurian girl smiled under her mask. Shepard was last to leave, shaking Elijah's hand.
"It was a real pleasure to be here. You have been a wonderful host." she said.
"Bah, it's what I do every day. You are most welcome to come again sometime. I will always have a table for you and a clean booth on standby." man spoke, then he pulled Shepard bit on the side. "Commander, can I ask you something?" his face serious
"Yes?"
"The Reapers. They are real?"
Jane took a small breath.
"They are."
Elijah was silent for a moment, and then spoke.
"What can we do? Anything I can assist with?"
"I am not sure what can you do. Taking one Reaper down was hard. There will be much more of them when they come."
"I see. I am no solider, commander. I am a strong guy, but I don't think I can fight in a battle."
Jane smiled at him and put her hand on shoulder to reassure him "Not all are meant to fight, Elijah. Some stay behind us, help us, feed us, tend to wounded, cheer us up. It's as important as fighting. I'm sure you can help with those things when the time comes."
The chef smiled back at her "Very well. I will do my best with skills I have, commander."
"Please, it's Jane. Or Shepard, if you must be official."
"Then I wish you good luck, Shepard. As they say in my country: 'Jebi im mater'."
"Meaning?"
"Literally means 'fuck their mothers', but better translate as 'fuck their shit up'."
Shepard laughed loudly. "No mother of theirs will remain unfucked, you have my word."
She went down the street catching up with her crew, as Elijah came back into his restaurant and looked at the photography of Normandy crew. Then he looked at the empty wall near the bar. He smiled.
"I got just the right place for you." he said to the photo.
Some weeks later, Citadel
The photography with Normandy crew and the chef has attracted numerous guests at the Elijah's place over the last few months. But tonight a black ribbon stood at the corner of the now framed photo, in memory of the lost heroine. Elijah served the Normandy crew again after the memorial service, the atmosphere was dark. There was no food, only drinks. Few words were spoken, drinks were finished quickly. Everyone's mind was too burdened to stay for too long. In the following days, only Garrus came few more times, drinking into his sadness, exhausted from work at C-Sec he tried to lost himself in. Then he too stopped showing up. Tali showed up once, asking for Garrus. Elijah was sad he couldn't help. He served his guests as the time passed, but his mind always lingered when he looked at the photo on the well. Shepard's words were in his head.
Reapers are real.
He could do little about it. But damn it, he could do something. Prepare something. Buy supplies for dark days, get some medigel or canned rations. Hopefully, they would serve some purpose, even a little one. Taking a deep breath, he took a datapad and started looking into purchasing a storage room. He was certainly going to need one.
Two years later, unknown Cerberus facility
"Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of the bed now – this facility is under attack." Miranda said.