First Impressions

"Isn't she gorgeous? I mean, can you look at her and not stare?"

"No, I guess I can't."

"And she's fast, too! And incredibly quiet. It's the Tantalus Drive Core! It powers the stealth system, making her the quietest and smoothest ship ever. It so big, though – twice the size of a regular core – that it throws off her balance just a bit, but it's nothing I can't handle."

"Uh huh." I smiled at the pilot's enthusiasm, before turning back to stare at the ship. The Normandy certainly was a beauty, I'd give him that.

Joker sighed. "I'm in love."

"Guys! They're coming!"

I turned to see the rest of the crew lining up, so I grabbed my duffel bag and Joker's, and we made our way to our places. As soon as I arrived at my spot on the line up, I saw three figures make their way towards the dock. I immediately stood straight and saluted, standing at attention as Captain David Anderson walked to the front of the line, flanked by who I guessed was the famous Commander Shepard at his 4 and the turian Spectre at his 8.

"Good morning. I am Captain David Anderson, and I will be presiding over his mission. This is Commander Camilla Shepard, our executive officer, and Council Spectre Nihlus Kryik. All of you are here today because you are the best of the best the Alliance has to offer. Each and everyone of you have been hand picked to serve on the Normandy. I assume you have all read the briefing, and know that this will be the Normandy's first official flight. We will be going to the human colony of Eden Prime in the Exodus Cluster..." He kept on speaking, giving us more details about the Normandy and her first shakedown run, about how she was a product of interspecies cooperation about what we could accomplish if we worked together.

All the while I found my eyes straying toward the Commander. The first thing that came to mind was that she was… short. I mean, the woman was tiny! This was the Hero of the Blitz? This tiny woman was able to single handedly fend off an entire army of pirates and slavers in Elysium? In the Alliance promotional posters, she looked to be larger than life, with her long brown hair loose, her sniper rifle in one hand and her brown eyes boring straight into the camera, with the words: "I want you!" underneath her feet. Well, that was the idea, I guess. Looking at her now… she seemed like any other soldier, in standard N7 armor, her hair tied into a neat regulation bun.

As if to sense my eyes on her, she looked at me fleetingly before doing a double take when she realized I'd been staring. Crap. Her eyes narrowed a tiny bit, and I looked away, completely embarrassed. We weren't even on board and I'd already made an ass out of myself in front of the commander. When I looked back up, she had already looked away, but the corners of her lips were raised in the tiniest of smiles.

"Smooth." I heard Joker whisper, and had to stifle a groan.

"Thrusters, check. Navigation, check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift – just under 1500K."

I sat in the copilot's seat, with the Commander and Nihlus watching us closely from behind.

"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." Said the Spectre, turning to the Comander, his mandibles flaring in what I guessed was the turian equivalent of a smirk. Her lips quirked in a crooked grin and the turian turned on his heel and left the cockpit.

"I hate that guy."

I saw the Commander raise an eyebrow in surprise, but she remained silent.

"Nihlus gave you compliment, so… you hate him."

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom, that's good! I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead, so that's incredible! Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him on board. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid. The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

"That is the official story, and only an idiot believes the official story."

"I agree." The Commander's voice broke into our conversation. She'd been so quiet this whole time, I almost forgot she was here. "They don't send Spectres on shakedown runs."

Wait, did she just call me an idiot?

"So there's more going on here than the Captain's letting on."

"Joker! Status report!" The Captain's voice boomed through the comm.

"Just cleared the Mass Relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid."

"Good. Find a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime."

"Aye, aye, Captain. Better brace yourself, sir, I think Nihlus is headed your way."

"He's already here."

I had to hold back a laugh as I shook my head at Joker, and one look at the Commander told me she was doing the exact same thing. She was holding back a smile, her lips were tightly pressed together, but her eyes were twinkling with laughter. She had very expressive eyes.

"Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing."

"You get that, Commander?"

"He sounds angry." She said, mostly to herself, as her brows drew into a frown and she narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Something must have gone wrong with the mission."

Joker scoffed. "The Captain always sounds like that when he's talking to me."

"I can't possibly imagine why."

"Maybe it's because of that little stunt you pulled during the Normandy's trial run." The Commander smiled mischievously.

"What?! You know about that?"

"Of course I do."

"Ok, listen, I only did that because –"

I was sure Joker was going to go into his whole tirade of how he's the best pilot in the Alliance, but everybody looks down on him because of his disease, when the Commander interrupted him smoothly.

"Because you felt it was the only way to prove your worth, the only way to make them look past your illness – your limping and crutches – in order to see your skills and your talent."

"I – uh… Yeah."

"Well… I thought it was great. Very brave."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yes. It shows that, despite your condition, you're a man who goes after what he wants and knows his self worth. You did a good job, Flight Lieutenant. Just… don't pull anything like that again."

"Yes, ma'am."

She nodded and left.

"Wow… That did not go at all like I expected."

"Yeah… the Commander's really something, huh?" I replied, as I watched the woman walk away.

Joker snorted. "Yeah, well, you would think so."

"What?"

"Oh come on! Like you weren't staring at her back at the docks!"

"I – I… No I wasn't!"

"I saw you with my own two eyes! I'm crippled, not blind."

"I wasn't staring!"

"Right..." he drawled, "you were just observing her very intently, then."

"Oh, just… shut up!" I said, turning back to see if anyone was coming.

"Very eloquent. Come on, admit it. You think she's cute."

I laughed. "Cute? She could probably kill you with one punch, but you think she's cute?"

"Yeah, and you do too!"

"No, I – That's our CO you're talking about!"

"So? That doesn't mean she can't be hot."

I was about to answer when the comm picked something up. It was marked as urgent from Eden Prime. I opened it up and images of shooting and fighting came through, a marine screaming that "they" came out of nowhere and they were in need of an emergency evac.

"Shit. I'll patch it through to the Captain. Captain, we've got a problem!"

"What's wrong, Joker?"

"A transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You better see this."

He played the vid in the comm room, and then proceeded to inform the Captain that the connection was dead. A few moments passed in silence before the Commander came in.

"Alenko, get Jenkins and suit up. We're going in."