Chapter 1 "Mayrie"
Her left eye twitched at the bright sparks as she crossed two bare wires in the panel. Her right eye on the other hand stared unresponsively as she continued attempting to bring the dead systems back to life. She had lost the real eye in the final moments of the Geth invasion on the citadel when her command console over loaded due to cascading system failures. She was lucky though because if it had it happened earlier in that battle she might not have survived the conflict. It was due to luck of timing that the Geth retreated when they did allowing the medical teams to search for wounded. The damages left the boat she was on dead in the water but over ninety percent of the crew survived because the hull was still mostly intact with some sectors locked down and emergency life support operational. The alliance medical benefits she had only coughed up enough to cover basic cybernetics that restored full eyesight. The new eye was actually able to do things that her old eye couldn't but they didn't make it look human again under the Alliance budgeting. Today however the eye looks human again thanks to the cosmetic work she had done later at her own expense but she chose to keep the three metal plates that are covering some electronics visible. Two of which were on her cheek and the other one was on her forehead just above her eyebrow and matching its curve. She thought they added character and it was constant a reminder of what caused her pain.
In the events that followed the Geth attack and the later the disappearance of Shepard she was asked to resign her duties to the Alliance. They didn't actually force her to but they strongly recommended that she resign of her own volition which just made the paper work look better and they didn't want to hurt her reputation since she was good at what she did. They had recommended her to state the reason for resignation being that she was no longer able to perform her duties due to medical complications resulting from her injuries sustained in the Geth attack. This was of course wasn't true because the cybernetic eye was actually better than the original but it had enough proof backing it to stop any possible questioning. The alliance didn't like that she had taken a rather boisterous stance about the reasons behind the Geth attack and how they should respond to it. She had unofficially seen the reports that Commander Shepard filled and strongly believed that the first human specter had been right about the beings called Reapers. The alliance as well as other organizations including the console did not want to credit the existence of these Reapers. Mayrie was too bullheaded to back down from this mind set and about two months after the battle of the Citadel when Second Lieutenant Mayrie Pullman's resignation was approved and she was honorably discharged for medical complications. She didn't know it but she wasn't the only one the Alliance had asked to leave for similar reasons.
"You really need to junk this thing May, most the ships on the flotilla are in better shape that this jalopy", her Quarian pilot yelled across the room. "Jalopy" May asked "This is your home too you know and when did you learn that word?" "I was bored and started reading through the ships language translator matrix. Why did I use it wrong?" "No just didn't expect a Quarian to call a ship… no not just a ship his home a piece of crap" May said as more sparks bounced off her face. "You're going to fry yourself one of these days working on live systems and it may be home but it's falling apart." The Quarian turned back to the monitor he was watching and he seen a sudden spike in one screen just as he heard a sudden yelp of pain behind him. He glanced over his shoulder briefly to make sure she didn't get a lethal jolt that time but she was already starting to sit up so he turned back to the screens. "Hey what ever you did I got something here." May was sitting on the floor about three feet from the panel she was working in looking at her hand but luckily there was no burn mark. She had lost the sensitivity in that hand and she hoped it was only temporary. There was also a smell in the air like a rag caught on fire be she didn't see any burning rags near by. The jolt that went up her arm was more of a surprise than of pain so she actually jumped that far from the equipment instead of being thrown. "Hmm oh don't worry I'm fine. No harm done, thanks for asking", May said sarcastically at the lack of response to her yelp. "Huh? Did you say something?" May glared at him wondering what his expression was behind the tinted face shield.
"So you said you say we got something" May asked dismissing the lack of inquiry about her health. "Yea it's running a start up diagnostic right now and so far so good." May got up and dusted her self off and walked over to see the status her self. As she approached she got an alert from the implant in her head about a status change to power distribution. One of the upgrades that May had done to her implanted eye was a wireless module that allowed her to access some of her ships computer systems and while on a station she has the ability to connect to most public data networks. Looking at the monitor she watched it finish the prestart diagnostic but when the power overlay came up there efforts had only been able to restore fifty percent of the main power which was too low. She couldn't help but think that the new cargo she picked up may have had something to do with this. Dismissing the thought as quickly just as it come it had to be coincidence the ship needed some repair work for a while now. Besides it had to get through C-sec before loading on her ship so how bad could the cargo really be she thought. May was staring blankly at the warnings on screen when the pilot cut in, "May what's wrong?" Startled from her thoughts she jumped, "Oh nothing, just running numbers through my head. I'll have to manually set the distribution so why don't you head up to the bridge and get ready to bring us out of this drift. Is the in-system drive enough for you need to stop us?" The Quarian thought for a moment, "Well we were only drifting about a light year an hour so yea I think that's all I need but if you can power the FLT drive I'm sure I can do something." "I'll see what I can do and when were stopped find out where we are and look for a near by planet to discharge at. I need a little time and some sleep to see if I can find out what happened." With a "Yes Ma'am" the pilot took off in a hurry.
May headed off to the main controls on the upper engineering deck to manually set the power output. She had been awake for nearly twenty hours now and her vision was starting to go in and out of a blurry state and it was a chore just to keep her eyes open. What she could really use was more crew but she couldn't afford more than a pilot and a Salarian that was okay at both engineering and cargo handling but no specialist. The regular crew cost enough and on top of that for this haul she needed mister rent-a-guard because she didn't trust her two of clients. With the Salarian in med-bay she was pulling double time to compensate for it. As she walked through the corridor she fumbled in a pouch on her waist for her communicator. She felt the familiar tingle go through the right side of her face as the ear piece was put in place and it connected to the contacts hidden behind her ear lobe which linked it into her eye. As usual there was some brief static in the visual input as a result but with her human eye she thought she saw movement ahead of her in the dim emergency lighting. Then her vision went blurry for a few seconds and she stumbled in her sleep deprived state. Even though she couldn't trust her vision her instincts put her on alert mode and without thinking she had pulled a hammer out of her tool belt. She arrived at the controls she was looking for without any other strange occurrences and set the power to full for life support and control systems seeing as they needed them to survive. Tapping her ear bud as some lights on the board switched from green to red "Noran I got your in-system drive back online but the FLT is still offline. See if you can stop our drift." She waited impatiently for a response and was getting ready to call the Quarian again when he finally radioed back. "I got her under control captain." She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding "good I'm heading your way now".
The trip to the bridge was expectedly quiet so nothing blew up or burst into flames fortunately. He must have heard the sound of foot steps approaching "Ah there you are. Take the scenic route?" May was pinching the bridge of her nose trying to suppress the building pain behind her eyes. "I'm really not in the mood for this." Noran turned around seaming to notice her condition for the first time "Oh sorry you umm… can put that hammer away there's really no need to test out my helmets impact resistance." May stopped and looked down at her hands and wondered when she grabbed the hammer then quickly put it away on her belt. "So what do you have?" "Ah… oh right" he stammered and a holo-projector in front of the captains chair flickered to life. "Well it's a good thing we got some power back online in about three hours or so we would have hit a moon." "Oh lovely" May replied. "That is assuming we survived the asteroid belt that's only an hour away." He looked for her reaction but all she did was raise an eyebrow so he continued. "The bad news is we lost a half day on the arrival time but the good news is we can still hit the first drop point ahead of schedule if we get under way again in less than fourteen hours." The projection was displaying the current system and Noran set the zoom to show their ship and three nearest planets "we should be very much alone out here and this planet here is closest and should be good for discharge." May nodded and blinked away some more blurred vision. "While were in orbit is it alright if run some scans for minerals and possibly drop some probes? We don't have much to discharge so I think I can bring the sensors back online in about three hours." May felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth, "Great idea you should have more than enough time to do your scans." May wasn't sure but she figured he had an excited look on his face under the mask. With the need for repairs she wasn't going to turn away any ideas for a few credits and if he found large enough deposits that information sells pretty good.
Noran was looking at his captain and her apparent condition was bothering him, "Umm with all due respect ma'am you… um look like crap." As soon as he said it he regretted his choice of words, "Umm I… err only meant you look like you need some sleep". He hesitated then pointed at her chest "and maybe a new shirt". May looked down and pulled at her shirt slightly and saw a three inch hole burned just under her left boob. She immediately became self conscious and crossing her arms as she turned away quickly. Noran could only see part of her face but it was turning a bright red, "Umm sorry". May now thoroughly embarrassed was on the verge of running back to her cabin but she remembered something important. "Could you check on Talon and then find that Turian and ask him to do a once over on the ship before you start your scans", May asked trying to ignore her embarrassment. "Sure I'll check on him but why do you want to have the ship searched?" May wasn't sure if she wanted to tell him but she wanted to keep his trust so she told him, "I… I think I saw something but maybe it's just the lack of sleep." He jumped to the obvious thought "a stowaway?" "That's possible but it could be nothing really" she said calmly. "Should I umm walk you to your cabin?" Noran asked hesitantly. "NO" May snapped harsher than she meant "no I'll be alright but be careful this ships too big and were too few to check it all out." "I will and don't hesitate to call for help if you need it. You better go get some sleep I don't want to trip over you in the hall", Noran told her trying to lighten the mood.
May nodded then left almost in a run as the thought her embarrassing wardrobe came back to mind. She figured she would never hear the end of it after he told the others. When she got to her quarters she engaged the door locks and went into her private bathroom. Looking in the mirror all she seen was hour's worth of labor all over her. She had grease and dirt on her face and her long brunette hair was all tangles and coming out of the tail she always tied it in when doing maintenance work. Her clothes were singed and stained with some strange fluid she didn't remember getting into. Her eyes drifted to the hole in her shirt and confirmed her fears. She was thankful for getting her mother's genes because she might have been showing more if she was any bigger in that department. Still with him looking up at her he must have seen more then she ever wanted him to. She forced herself to snap out of it and striped for a quick hot shower, even though her body longed for the bed. She just got new sheets and wasn't going to sleep this filthy besides silk from earth isn't easy to come by these days. When she was finished she was careful of how she dried off because she was feeling the irritation from the seams in the clothing she had been wearing. She could see all the lines as the inflamed skin was swelling. May suffered from a skin disorder that caused her skin to react oddly to contact at irregular times. At times something as simple as a light trace of a finger nail would cause her skin become inflamed and at other times it might need a bit of force like a tool dropped on her foot.
Before she got into bed she dumped her surviving clothes in the ECO-Pure and set if for a deep clean. She never did find out where it came from and assumed it was as old if not older then her ship was but it did good work. The ruined shirt she tossed in a bin destine for the incinerator. She looked around to make sure she wasn't forgetting something but all she could think of was her futon in the corner of her small cabin. She was picky about the lighting when she slept. Following her normal routine she walked over to the old steel desk to shut off her computer display and moved a picture to block the light from a clock. When she got over to her futon which rested only on Tatami Mats just like she thought it would have been in ancient Japan back on Earth and killed the last light source that would have kept her awake. She wasn't sure why but being that close to the floor seamed to help her sleep at night. May was grateful when she finally crawled into bed because the cool smooth feel of silk on here bare skin relived some of the burning itchy feeling. Sleep came almost as immediately as she was buried in the red silk comforter.