Padok Wiks

Padok Wiks was the salarian Special Tasks Group base commander on Sur'Kesh during the Reaper War. A scientist researching a cure for the genophage, he had come, late in his career, to regret the salarian practice of uplifting other species, and that conviction drove his determination to undo the damage his people had done to the krogan. In events where Mordin Solus did not survive the Collector crisis, Wiks took up his role in the work on Sur'Kesh and Tuchanka.

Convictions and the genophage#

As a scientist for the STG, Wiks worked on a cure for the genophage, the affliction his people had engineered to suppress krogan reproduction. His earlier career had involved the uplift of lesser species, work he came to regret deeply. Fascinated by the role evolution played across the galaxy, he concluded that every species held value and a place in that process, and that the salarians had been arrogant to believe they had the right to interfere with the destinies of the krogan or any other people. He also held that the natural order of the universe was too perfect to be mere chance, attributing it to a higher power he called the Originator and arguing that this balance should not be upset. These beliefs underlay his drive to cure the genophage.

Sur'Kesh and the cure#

When Commander Shepard arrived at the Sur'Kesh STG base to retrieve a surviving female krogan, Wiks defused a tense standoff as STG sharpshooters trained their weapons on the visiting krogan leader, apologizing for the incident and explaining that the war had everyone on edge. In events where Mordin was not present, Wiks personally escorted the female krogan through the base when Cerberus launched a surprise attack, going so far as to hold a gun to the head of a subordinate who tried to invoke protocol against releasing the "specimen." He afterward offered his help curing the genophage to secure a krogan-turian alliance and remained aboard the Normandy SR-2, where he christened the female krogan "Eve" and proposed using the Shroud to disperse the cure.

Fate#

Wiks developed a genuine concern for Eve, describing their bond as more than mere professional duty. During the cure operation he monitored Eve's vital signs to ensure the treatment did her no harm and completed the process within the Shroud once a thresher maw drew off a Reaper. His fate depended on Shepard's decisions: if the Commander acted to genuinely cure the genophage, Wiks gave his life to spread it; if Shepard instead sabotaged the cure, he could be forced into a deadly confrontation, though under certain conditions he could be persuaded to stand down. In that case he later sent word that he had retired to a colony to live as a farmer, intending to take the truth about the cure to his grave.