Karin Chakwas had always prided herself on the top-notch medical skill she possessed. In her lifetime she had saved countless lives and even brought a few new ones into the world – until a few years ago she was thoroughly able to keep her personal life separate from her profession. Then she was asked to join the crew aboard the Normandy SR1 and everything changed.
John Shepard was an unknown entity that vexed her beyond anything she'd ever experienced. He never once completely adhered to her specific instructions and he was always pushing her to be quicker in her application of medicine so that he would be able to 'get back to it', as he would always argue.
Now though, she was at a loss.
Modern Medicine had started to rely so heavily on technology that more traditional forms had gone amiss through the years; meaning that these past few hours had been hell for Dr. Chakwas.
First she had to endure the constant turbulence which she had learnt to associate with ship – to –ship combat, and then she had to patch up Major Alenko and Liara T'Soni, owing to their field-mission to Earth alongside Commander Shepard.
During all of this, though, she felt in her element and at her best.
Fixing a major artery ruptures in the upper leg and treating severe blows to the head was what she had been doing for most of her time as a Doctor in the Alliance Navy.
Then they were fleeing from some sort of Electromagnetic Pulse sent out by the Crucible – EDI was busy explaining this to the crew when suddenly every single electric device on the SS Normandy SR2 shut down and the artificial gravity had been lost.
Not long after that though, things got worse.
The Normandy SR2 crash-landed on an unknown planet with no idea of their location or if the war was over – they were thrown back to basics; whether they liked it or not.
Isolated on the Crew Deck, Dr Chakwas quickly set to work on manually opening the door to the med-bay – the Normandy seemed to have lost power completely, so she grabbed a torch from the emergency panel closest to her.
"Does anyone need any assistance?" she called loudly. "Hello!?"
She heard another door being forced open and made her way there.
"Over here, Doc!" she heard Garrus calling from where the door had opened. "Kaidan is passed out or something!"
She nodded, finally reaching the door. "Should've guessed that the Normandy wouldn't be the only thing that powered down – I need to get inside, Garrus." she spoke through the small slit he'd managed to get open.
"It's stuck, Doc," Garrus huffed, exerting his full strength on the door.
Karin nodded. "Never mind, then," she said quickly. "Is Kaidan still breathing?"
She heard scuffling inside as Garrus went over to where Kaidan must've been lying.
"He is," Garrus said with more relief than he'd liked – he should've checked that first. "But they're really shallow and quick breaths."
"His body is in shock," she explained. "L2 implants have a much larger dependency on their host than the engineers had hoped for – this isn't uncommon in cases where the implant failed."
Behind her, other doors were scraping open.
"Garrus, I'll be right back – hit the door with something when Kaidan stops breathing,"
She was gone before Garrus fully understood what she'd said. "Wait – when?!
She stopped at the crew quarters first, where another group was just exiting the door.
"Does anyone need assistance in there?" she asked quickly, not intending to stop and chat.
"Negative, doctor," one of the privates answered immediately. "We're just a little bruised, is all."
"Good," she nodded. "I need help opening the starboard observation room -"
The group immediately made their way to the door without any protest. Karin saw one of them limping badly and made a mental note to check on him as soon as the critical patients were taken care of.
She reached Liara's office and banged on the door. "Dr T'Soni!"
Instead, though, she was greeted by Glyph.
"Glyph! How -?"
"Dr T'Soni is requesting help, Dr Chakwas -"
"Of course," Karin consented and watched as Glyph went through the door.
She immediately searched for the emergency release lever – marvelling at how Glyph had survived the wave when almost nothing else had. Finding the lever without any difficulty, she pried the door open, grateful that it was not obstructed.
"Liara!" she called when she entered the room.
"Over here, Dr Chakwas," Glyph said calmly, his presence illuminating the room in a ghostly shade of blue.
"Oh God, Liara!" she called, seeing that the brackets holding her monitors to the wall had come loose.
"I'm fine, Karin," Liara said, her voice sounding laboured. "The electric current from the monitors just keeps -" her voice cut off and she convulsed.
Karin nodded once again.
"Glyph," she said with authority. "I need you to find a way to cut the power to this room – and possibly revert it to the medical bay."
"At once, Doctor," and the drone disappeared.
"Liara, I won't be able to lift the monitors alone,"
"What do you need me to do," Liara huffed. "My biotic abilities seem to have been disabled -"
"Direct electric interference is messing with your thought processes – once the power is cut off, your abilities should be back under your control."
The sparks that were emitting from the monitors stopped then, and Karin gripped hold of the metal frame connected to the monitors.
Liara focused all of her energy on accessing her biotics – for the first time in her life struggling to do exactly that. She felt the weight of the monitors lessening slightly.
"Come on!" she shouted at herself in frustration.
Dr Chakwas' arms and legs were shaking badly from exertion.
A feint purple glow flickered over Liara's skin.
"Any time now, Liara," Karin desperately called.
Liara pressed against the wall that seemed to be keeping her from her abilities – feeling it start to shatter.
"Can't – hold – much -" Karin huffed. She then heard the sound that made her stomach drop and the weight of the monitors seemed to double.
Garrus was hitting the door of the room he and Kaidan was trapped in.
"Doctor Chakwas!" A digitalised voice gasped from behind her.
Tali had climbed up through the emergency access ladders from engineering.
The Quarian immediately grabbed onto the metal frame and pulled with all of her might.
Liara felt the weight of the monitors lift off of her and crawled towards the door as fast as she was able.
"Liara!" Dr Chakwas sighed heavily and she and Tali let the monitors crash to the floor again.
"I'm sorry, Karin – the crash rattled me worse than I'd initially thought – my biotics have never failed me before -"
"You have to keep trying, Liara – Kaidan is dying and we need you to open the door – Tali, could you see if you can restore power to my medical equipment, we'll need more than an emergency field kit, I'm afraid." Karin said and she briskly walked back to where the few crew members were trying to open the door between her and Kaidan.
Tali, in the meantime made her way to the medical bay – Glyph had succeeded in reverting power to the room and the lights were burning dimly.
"Heave!" Garrus shouted through the door not too far away, and the men and women pulled with all of their might, only succeeding in making the panel groan in protest.
"Garrus – do you know how to administer resuscitation to a human?" Dr Chakwas called over the commotion, not seeing another option.
"They squish too easily, Doc," Garrus called back, after seriously considering the request.
"It may be our last resort," Karin said, feeling the weight of what she'd said settling over her. "I'll talk you through it."
"Stand back," Liara said calmly.
The group complied immediately and allowed the glowing Asari to walk towards the door.
"Garrus, are you and Kaidan close to the door?" She asked, too serene to be comforting.
"Uh," they heard scuffling for a few seconds. "Not anymore!"
"Good," she lifted her arm up and pictured millions of particles forming an expanding ball of energy in the space between the doors. The doors seemed hesitant at first, but Liara forced particles where there was space for none – the opening widened.
"How is the door opening without moving?" one of the crew members asked another.
"The metal seems to be folding in on itself," the other replied in awe.
Karin snapped out of her state of awe. "We need to see if other members aboard the ship are injured on the other levels," she stated, and the group of soldiers divided immediately, heading to the other floors via ladders and emergency shafts.
"There," Liara said whilst her glowing subsided – there was a round gap in between the doors – which looked like two crumpled papers against the walls.
"Back here!" Garrus called frantically – something that surprised Liara, seeing as he was always so cool and calculated whilst in a situation of panic.
"Garrus," Dr Chakwas addressed him once again with authority in her voice. "We need to get Kaidan to the Infirmary."
Garrus nodded and picked Kaidan up like he was a bag of flour. "You have to save him, Doc," he told Dr Chakwas. "He can't die."
"He'll be fine," Liara said softly, putting her hand on Garrus' arm softly. "Would you go and check if anyone needs any help on any of the other decks?"
Garrus shot one last look at the doctor, who was frantically pulling out drawers and pulling open cupboards in search of medical supplies and walked out of the room.
"I thought that Tali was in here," Liara said more as a question.
"I'm back here!" Tali called from the AI core. "Enabling emergency power – now."
There was a loud grinding noise followed by a calmer hum coming from the emergency generators.
"Thank you, Tali," Dr Chakwas called and walked over to where Kaidan was lying very still on the bed. She pressed a button on the bed he was lying on and a holographic screen popped up.
"Initiating heart restart procedure – please avoid any contact with patient," a digital voice announced and Kaidan's body arched on the table.
Tali's hands flew up to where her mouth would've been if she wasn't wearing a mask.
"Administering Adrenaline,"
Dr Chakwas' face displayed no emotion, only her years of experience could be seen taking control – her hands flying over consoles, barely pausing between actions.
"His primary functions are fine, vitals reverting to normal," Karin announced, taking a breath.
"What caused all of this?" Liara asked quickly.
Dr Chakwas sighed. "Kaidan's L2 implants, I'm afraid."
"Did they short out?" Tali asked, as if she was asking about a difficult mathematical question. "Forgive my bluntness -" she continued. "But that's what happened to my suit – luckily I was able to enable my analogue power before I ran out of breathable air."
Dr Chakwas nodded. "The symptoms are all pointing to it."
"Will he be alright?" Liara asked – sincerely hoping for a nod.
Dr Chakwas obliged to her wish and nodded. "I want to keep his implants offline until we have the appropriate medical technology at our disposal – but I don't see why it would be a problem so long as he's breathing."
"Thank the Goddess," Liara breathed out heavily and sat down on the open bed next to Kaidan's.
Tali started fidgeting with one of the ports on her suit – she needed something else to occupy her thoughts. She looked at the door to the AI core and tilted her head sideways.
"EDI?" she tried – no response.
"Why hasn't she rebooted?" Liara asked. "The emergency power has been on for a few minutes now."
"Must've been whatever hit the ship – I'll go and have a look." Tali said and walked into the other room briskly. She made her way to the main console and waved her hand over the sensor which usually then displayed the keyboard.
"Let's see what's going on down here," she said and sat down in front of one of the CPU units, opening the panel.
"Blown fuses," she concluded. "I'll have you up and walking around in no time."
The quarian set to work – changing fuses and bypassing non-critical systems.
"Joker – you owe me a drink," Tali said after what seemed to be hours and she hit the manual reboot button next to the main CPU.
The screen above her flickered to life.
"Enhanced Defence Intelligence suite booting," came EDI's voice over the room's intercom.
"That's a new one," Tali said, cocking her head sideways. It was EDI's voice, alright, but that's where the similarities stopped. It was as if it was a brand new computer that was being started for the first time.
The screen was consumed by multiple diagnostics and process bars that kept track of the installing software.
"What's going on, EDI?" Tali asked to the screen, knowing that she wouldn't get a reply yet.
Then the screen was a clear orange colour, displaying 'EDI' on the background.
"I am this vessel's Enhanced Defence intelligence – How may I be of service?"
"Keelah," Tali exclaimed, feeling her shoulders drop.
"Ah! Easy!" Joker gasped as Dr Chakwas manually splinted his broken tibia in the med bay. "I'm brittle, remember, Doc?"
Karin gave him a warning look. "If you'd have been taking your medicine as you should have been doing -" she secured the brace's straps with a huff. "You could've avoided the pain, Joker."
"Always with the disapproving tone," Joker chuckled. "Have any of you heard or seen EDI?"
Dr Chakwas' hands froze momentarily, but she forced herself to continue working. Liara and Garrus was sharing an awkward look – Tali wrung her hands beside Garrus.
"There's no easy way to tell you this, Joker," Tali said slowly. "Judging by the state of the Normandy's electronic interfaces and systems – the blast that was emitted by the Crucible practically obliterated any tech it came into contact with."
Joker's face went blank – the blood drained quickly and his mouth opened and closed silently.
"Tell him," Liara said softly.
"There's more?" Joker almost whispered.
Tali nodded silently, and cleared her throat – not something Quarians had to do, really, but apparently spending so much time with humans had taught her a few bad habits.
"I succeeded in rebooting the AI core – well most of it anyway -"
"Oh my God," Joker exhaled in relief, a bright smile lighting up his face. "You had me worried sick there for a – ah!" he jolted with pain as Dr Chakwas tried bending his elbow.
She shook her head and typed something into the bed's interface.
Administering selected Micro-Organisms the mechanical voice announced and Joker frowned.
"I've always hated these beds," he said to no one in particular. "They always sound so calm when they -"
"A test group decided to remove the emotive aspect of the VI's voice once installed – some species prefer the calm of a mechanical voice rather than the sympathetic views of a chatty VI."
"Thanks, I guess?" Joker said to Liara after her explanation. "Now I know where beds come from..." he chuckled.
"Anyway," Tali interrupted. "EDI doesn't have the ability to remember anything, Joker."
Joker rolled his eyes. "That's impossible – she's -"
"She's synthetic, Joker," Liara said calmly, her eyes narrowing with pity.
"I don't -" Joker shook his head in confusion. "What does – she has amnesia?"
Tali rubbed the front of her mask – a gesture that had always been strange to experience by other people, since she wasn't able to actually touch her face without the risk of getting infected.
"I believe that EDI's main storage hard drive was damaged by what was essentially a massive EMP," Tali said quickly. "With the limited resources at my disposal – the best I can do is to restore her to her shackled state and to let her help with repairs at a minimal capacity."
"How is all of this possible?" Joker asked sadly. "She – changed her programming, or whatever."
"I know that this is hard, Jeff," Dr Chakwas said and lay her hand on his forearm that was shaking badly, though she knew that it was mostly due to the micro organisms repairing his elbow joint.
"It's not permanent, though?" Joker asked meekly.
Garrus felt odd at seeing Jeff so – humourless. He was always the one who made inappropriate jokes at the strangest of times.
"Not necessarily," Tali said, still wringing her hands. Garrus put his hand on the small of her back for some reassurance. "There is also a possibility that she could repair herself, once rebooted, of course."
"My vote doesn't count, then," Joker sighed.
"Not at all, Jeff," Liara shook her head. "You are the closest thing EDI had to – well, any semblance to a next of kin."
"But if she doesn't remember me – that doesn't count, now does it?" Joker chuckled humourlessly. "For what it's worth – I trust EDI complacently. I say we reboot her without the shackles."
"I second that," Kaidan groaned from the bed beside Joker.
"Kaidan!" Liara exclaimed and rushed to his side with the rest of the group. Garrus took Tali's hand automatically – which brought a smile to her covered face. Though she was swimming in antibiotics due to her suit's momentary lapse of power, she couldn't be happier.
"I take a nap for five seconds and the whole damn ship falls apart," he chuckled. Taking in the tired faces of the people around him.
"We're all glad that you're alright, Major," Garrus said from behind Dr Chakwas, who was entering something on Kaidan's bed's holo-terminal. "If you died – Shepard would've killed us."
"He's alright, then?" Kaidan smiled. "Probably barking orders at someone as we speak."
"We're not sure of his current status," Liara said stiffly for the first time since she'd crawled from under the wreckage that was her room.
"Right," Kaidan chuckled, rubbing his eyes. "EMP?"
"You heard correctly," Tali said in her heavy accent. "No contact with anyone so far."
"Well, we'd better get EDI online, if we want to do so any time soon," Engineer Adams said from the door of the Med Bay. "I've reviewed the situation – and I suggest that we try to repair as much of the AI core as possible before turning on an essentially new-born Artificial Intelligence."
The crew relished at chance to do something other than stand around making small-talk.
Dr Chakwas informed Kaidan of his lack of Biotics – something she'd expected much more of a reaction to, though Kaidan merely nodded and thanked her for helping him.
He waited until she left the med bay before his own little mental breakdown, though, and as soon as she was out of the door he'd pulled his knees up to his chin and was taking short and panicked breaths.
He's okay – Shepard's okay.
He kept repeating this to himself until he was able to mask his panic efficiently. He wondered if his L2 was the reason for his uncontrollable mood swings – but the worry was accompanied by an indescribable pain in the area where his heart was, which did nothing to stop his worry.
But, as any well trained biotic would be able to tell you – mastering the control over one's emotions is the first rudimentary step of resuming normalcy, so he forced himself up from his pitiable heap and volunteered to inspect the outer damage to the Normandy alongside James and Joker, of which the latter seemed much too restless.
In the meantime, the Normandy's engineering crew had been working non-stop on EDI's, well, brain.
Entire circuits had been scorched and countless data had been lost, but when Tali hit the reboot button again, EDI set to work reconstructing the Normandy's virtual architecture. The crew felt the Mass Effect core begin to hum not ten minutes after EDI had greeted them all much too formally and introduced herself once or twice in what could only be recognised as gibberish.
Joker kept to himself mostly, though EDI was insistent on being able to communicate with him at all times.