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Drops of Jupiter
Chapter 1: Prologue
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I leaned back in my seat and let out a loud yawn, Jeff rolling his eyes. "You bored CP?"
"Come on Jeff, don't tell me that you're not," I whined. "We've been in this sector for how long now? And nothing's happened! Nothing! I wish that Tali, Wrex, and Garrus were still here," I grumbled, crossing my arms. I poked my head around my seat to grin at our new ensign, Talitha Draven. "What do you think Talitha?"
Talitha was nice. She'd transferred to the Normandy not too long after we saved the Citadel, eager to work with the legendary Commander Shepard. She was a couple of years younger than me, and I loved talking to her. Mostly because when she wasn't talking about the ships scanners, she was adorably shy.
"I-I don't mind what we've been doing," the girl stuttered.
"Aw, come on Talitha," I pouted. "Side with me! This is boring, right?"
"Stop bugging the new girl CP," Jeff scolded. "We're jumping the Relay in a minute, so focus."
I saluted him mockingly. "Aye aye Flight Leauitenent Moreau, Sir!"
Jeff smirked. "You're such a brat. Why'd we ever become friends?"
"Best friends," I corrected with a grin. "And it was because I was so unbearably charming that you just couldn't handle not being my friend."
"Yeah, sure. That was the reason," the pilot snickered.
After we'd defeated Sovereign, the Council had been sending us to wipe out Geth resistance. Personally I thought it was a complete waste of time. Sabrina was a Spectre, there were far more important missions that they could be sending us on. Besides, we'd been having less and less problems with the Geth.
It kind of felt like the Council was just trying to keep us busy and out of the way so we couldn't keep bringing up the Reaper threat. They were eager to drop the matter, and hard as Anderson tried to fight them on the decision they just wouldn't listen.
I turned on the ships PA. "Hey guys, we're about to jump from the Eagle Nebula Relay to the Omega 2," I stated. "Prepare all stations for transit." I turned off the PA, double checking it to make sure I wouldn't accidently say something embarrassing to everyone on the Normandy.
Again.
Joker turned to grin at me. "We're about to hit the Relay, better close your eyes," he teased.
"Oh shut up," I laughed. Looking out the windows, I smiled as I watched all the stars speed past us, turning into lines. I guess the one good thing about these boring missions was that we could relax. Returning my gaze to my console, I tapped on the aerogel, feeling the ship slow down.
"Disengaging FTL drives… Emission sinks active," Jeff called out.
"Board's green, we're running silent," I finished with a nod. "To the Amada System!" I declared, throwing a fist in the air. "What's our ETA Jeff?"
"Five minutes, not even," Jeff told me, adjusting his hat.
Pressly made his way onto the bridge, a scowl on his face. "We're wasting our time. Four days searching up and down this sector and we haven't found any sign of geth activity," the older man grumbled, getting just as tired as I was about this whole 'mission'. He checked a few things off on his datapad.
"You're telling me," I piped in agreement.
"Three ships went missing here in the past month. Something happened to them," Jeff reasoned, shrugging.
Pressly scoffed. "My money's on slavers. The Terminus System's crawling with them."
I smirked mischievously. "Oh, are we making this a bet Pressly? Because I do enjoy a gamble every now and then."
"No way Officer Kogan," the navigator refused with a chuckle. "I wouldn't gamble against you."
"Darn," I sighed. "Nothing fun happens here anymore."
"Um, guys?" Talitha called out. I perked up at her voice, turning to look at her curiously. "I'm picking up something on the long-range scanner. Unidentified vessel. Looks like a cruiser."
Jeff looked it over on our screens, his brows scrunching up. "Doesn't match any known signatures."
"Cruiser is changing course. Now on intercept trajectory…" Talitha told us, a hint of worry in her voice. I frowned, pulling the long ranged scanner up on my screen.
Pressly shot her down in disbelief, shaking his head. "Can't be. Stealth systems are engaged. There's no way a geth ship could possib-"
Oh God.
"It's not the geth." Jeff realized at the same moment as me, cutting the older man off. "Brace for evasive maneuvers!" he ordered.
The console Pressly was standing by exploded, the man letting out a cry before collapsing to the ground. "Pressly!" I shouted, turning to look at our ensign for help. "Talitha-" I started, an explosion from her console cutting me off and throwing the young woman down to the floor. I shot out of my seat, checking Pressly's pulse first.
There wasn't one.
"CP, I need you here!" Jeff snapped at me.
"Give me a second!" I barked back, moving towards Talitha. I rolled her over gently…
Her eyes were glazed, empty. Devoid of life.
I bit my lip. Talitha… she was so young, and sweet, she didn't deserve this... Just this morning she'd brought me coffee. And now… I shook my head, trying to fight back the dark thoughts.
Luckily Jeff was there. "Kim, what's going on? You okay?"
"Pressly and Talitha are dead," I answered sadly, shaking my head. "Okay, okay. I'll dwell on this later," I decided firmly, jumping into my seat and returning my attention to the Normandy's controls. Smoke began to fill the air around us, and I could feel the area behind me heat up.
Fire.
"Oh God," I whispered, my eyes scanning my screen. Our barriers were completely down. "Jeff, Kinetic barriers down," I warned, feeling panic begin to rise in my chest.
"Multiple hull breaches. Weapons offline," the pilot began tapping the console in a panic, glancing behind him. "Can you get that fire out?" he asked me.
At his request I stood up, grabbing the fire extinguisher and tossing an oxygen mask to Jeff. "Put that on." I ordered, putting one over my face as well before working on getting rid of the flames. Once they'd finally died down, I spotted Kaidan running through the CIC and towards us; already in his armor.
"Kim!" Alenko called out, relieved that I was safe. "You two get on the evac shuttles-"
"No! I can save her!" Jeff snapped at the sentinel angrily. Kaidan glared at the pilot, stepping forward and grabbing Jeff's shoulder.
"There's no way you can," Alenko stated bluntly. Jeff glared up at him, a fire in his eyes that I'd never seen.
Before things could escalate, I placed a gentle hand on Kaidan's arm, giving him a weak smile. "You find Sabrina and get her into an evacuation pod. I'll stay with Jeff," I told him with a nod. "We'll be fine, just go."
Kaidan opened his mouth to argue, but at my pleading look he reluctantly agreed. "I'll go get Shepard and make sure everyone else gets off the Normandy."
"We can save her!" Jeff argued, Kaidan leaving. "I'm not evacuating!"
"Jeff, we can't save her," I told the man gently, resting a hand on his shoulder. He glared up at me, rage flaring in his eyes.
"I can! Just help me already CP!" he shouted, accusing. As if it was my fault that the Normandy was getting destroyed.
I pursed my lips.
Oh, I could not deal with that attitude.
"Jeff!" I growled, now fed up. Turning around I could see Kaidan clear everyone out of the CIC, heading down to the escape pods. "What am I supposed to do? Let you die trying to save a ship that's already gone? We have to go."
He turned to look up at me, green eyes filled with grief. "Kim, please. Just trust me," he begged.
I stared at him for a moment. I did trust him, I trusted him more than anyone (Sabrina not included). We sang together, ate disgusting jelly beans… He held me as I cried over Ashley's death He was my best friend, my teammate, my partner…
My pilot.
Letting out an annoyed groan, I glared at him and returned to my seat. "You owe me." I stated. Of course he had to pull the 'trust me' card. And the calling me by my first name card. God, I was such a sap. "Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is SSV Normandy! We've suffered heavy damage from an unknown enemy," I spoke into the communications console, turning around and seeing another blast from the enemy ship tear the top off our CIC, removing all the oxygen from that part of the ship. Thank god for the cockpit's internal kinetic barrier, keeping oxygen in the room.
Thank God Kaidan got everyone out of there.
"Come on baby, hold together… Hold together…" Jeff muttered, and I looked at him again as our comm channels began to get cut out.
It wasn't going to hold together, and if we didn't leave soon we'd both be going down with the ship.
"Jeff, nothing's coming through. We need to go; this ship's going to crash," I told him firmly. "We have to go." It was just so obvious that the Normandy couldn't be saved. Why was he refusing to see the obvious?
"I can save her!" Jeff shouted stubbornly.
That's when Sabrina came in.
"Joker! Kim! Come on we have to get out of here!" Sabrina exclaimed, fully armored and her helmet covering all but her eyes. I stood up at the sound of her voice, stepping towards her and placing my hands on her shoulders. Why was she still here? Kaidan should have left with her.
"Sabrina what are you still doing here?" I fretted. No, no, no, she was supposed to have been evacuated with Kaidan. "You have to get off the ship, it's dangerous-"
"It's not dangerous!" Jeff snapped. "I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!"
"The Normandy's lost!" Sabrina snapped back at him. "Going down with the ship won't change that."
At her words, finally the truth seeped into the man's mind as he sighed. Defeated, Jeff looked away from the two of us. "Yeah, ok… Help me up."
Looking at our scanners again, I dashed towards the last escape pod. "They're coming around for another attack!" I shouted as Sabrina grabbed Jeff and threw him out of his seat, dragging him towards the escape pod.
"Ah! Watch the arm!" Jeff cried out. If he'd fractured anything, I was sure that there would be a first aid kit in the evac pod for me to use… at least to numb the pain, or something. One of these days I had to get Chakwas to teach me how to treat brittle bones.
I jumped into the evac pod, Sabrina passing Jeff over to me. "I got him Sabs, come on," I reached my hand out to her to help her in.
Then wall next to her exploded, throwing her back and away from us.
My eyes widened, and I took a step forward. "No!" I screamed, Jeff limping forward.
"Shepard!" Jeff yelled after her, my sister glancing quickly to the emergency release button for the pod. Sabrina looked into my eyes, and she knew.
We wouldn't leave without her.
"Sabrina, no! Wait, please!" I begged, a sob forcing its way out of my throat. "Don't do it."
She hit the button to release the pod, staring into my eyes the entire time. I could see acceptance in them, a crinkle in them as if she was smiling. Why was she smiling? I clenched my chest with my fist. It hurt so much. As the doors closed, I collapsed to the floor.
She was gone.
She was gone.
Sabrina was gone.
"No… no…" I cried, banging on the door pitifully as if somehow that would bring her back. "Not you too Sabrina, not you too."
It felt like someone had torn my heart straight out of my chest. It was hard to breathe, and oh God, it hurt. It hurt so much. I just lay there on the floor of the escape pod, crying. Jeff leaned down beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Kim," he whispered, trying to pull me into a hug.
No, no, no. Don't touch me, don't touch me.
I shot him a glare, roughly shrugging him off.
"Don't touch me," I spoke, completely monotone. "This is your fault. It's your fault she's dead."
It was his fault. If he hadn't been so damn stubborn, if I hadn't trusted him…
I felt a stab through my chest.
I trusted him, and that put Sabrina at risk…
And now she was dead. This time, I knew she was dead. It wasn't like when I'd gotten the call about Akuze, and she'd shown up on my doorstep a week later with a grin.
I'd left her behind on the Normandy.
First we'd left Ashley behind on Virmire… and now we'd left Sabrina behind. Why was it that I always left the people I loved behind? And Sabrina…
She was alone. Sabrina didn't deserve to die alone, no one deserved to die alone. I should have been with her, I should have grabbed her hand, I shouldn't have trusted Joker.
No.
I should be dead. She should have gone in first, I should have hit that button… not her.
Sabrina had always protected me, I should have protected her.
It was all my fault.
Numbly, I stood up, stumbling to the back of the escape pod. I found the medical kit. "Show me your arm," I ordered. Without a word, he limped over, showing me his arm. It was swollen. I applied the medi-gel gently, not knowing what else to do until he saw a doctor.
The two of us didn't speak, we were silent until our pod was picked up by a rescue ship sent by the Alliance.
We didn't see each other again until the funeral.