A/N: Uh, hey there, just wanted to quickly say a few things. Here I go; One, this is my first fanfic (WOO!) and, two, is I'm british, so expect some british terminology that you might not get (indeed!), so don't tell me I spelt something wrong, 'cause I didn't, OK? ...Unless I did. Uh, I'm gonna shut up and let you read my work. Hope I got the characters right!


En Route to the Omega 4 Relay

22:58 [Standard Earth Time]

Friday 13th February 2185

Normandy SR-2

Deck 2

Combat Information Centre (CIC)

"Final preparations are complete, Commander." Echoed the Normandy helmsman Jeff 'Joker' Moreau's voice over the star-ship's Public Announcement (PA) system.

"Be warned, Shepard," came the cool, emotionless voice of the ship's advanced AI, dubbed EDI affectionately by the crew. "Once we are en route, there's no turning back." Warned the computer.

"I'm doing it." returned Commander Shepard decisively, as he stood gazing over the star chart.

"Very well; destination selected as the Omega 4 Mass Relay." Concluded the AI, and Shepard saw the star-chart's cursor zoom in from it's overview of the Milky Way, through the Omega Nebula, through into the Sahabarik system, and hovered briefly over the Mass Relay known as the Omega 4 Relay. Even from the sprite on the star-chart, Shepard could see it's ominous red glow, unusually coloured for a Mass Relay.

Then, the distinct voice of Joker came back over the PA. "It's gonna take a while, Commander. Estimates say about 3 or 4 hours from here."

"Good. I'll be in my cabin." Shepard returned.

"So… I'll see you then." Finished Joker lamely. Shepard turned on his heel and strided down the steps behind him, and headed for the elevator only a short distance away. They were going through the Omega 4 Relay; something which no living creature in the known galaxy could admit to truthfully.

Shepard picked up the luminously orange-screened datapad from his desk. His eyes followed the words, but he wasn't really taking it in. His mind was understandably on other things; he had good reason to, as it was no secret that the Illusive Man thought that his was a "Suicide Mission". He had spoken openly about the possibility of Shepard's team of specialists dying; in fact the entire crew of the Normandy had been abducted by the alien race known only as Collectors only hours before. Shepard didn't fancy his chances.

Shepard thought to himself, "There's bound to be something that goes wron-"

However, his thought process was interrupted by the almost inaudible sound of his cabin door opening. He turned his head towards the open doorway. There, silhouetted by the light of the elevator, was the quarian engineer Tali'Zorah vas Normandy.

When she spoke, it was clear that she was nervous. She took several tentative steps towards the Commander as she said "So… I've taken some antibiotics as well… as some herbal supplements that should bolster my immune system," she began. She took the datapad out of Shepard's hands. "I was going to bring music," she continued, as Shepard smiled encouragingly. "But… I didn't know what you liked; and… I'm babbling like an idiot." She finished. She's so cute when she's nervous, thought Shepard.

"It's OK," smiled Shepard soothingly, as he embraced her.

"I just don't want to… I want this to work. I've thought it over," 'babbled' Tali. "I've minimised the risks but I'm still nervous, and that always makes me talk too much, it's a defence mechanism and it's stupid, but…" Shepard sat down on the foot of his bed, and so did Tali.

"People who… who just see the helmet can't see my expression so I have to make it clear what I'm-" Tali slowed to a stop as she felt Shepard's human hands feeling around the clasps of the visor. There was a hissing sound as air left Tali's helmet.

"What I'm…" she tried again.

'Oh keelah,' thought Tali desperately. 'he's going to see my face…'

Shepard carefully lifted the visor from her helmet; his expression changed only a little as he gazed for the first time upon her mask-less face.

"…feeling." Finished the bare-faced quarian at last.

Whether through fear or exhilaration, or maybe both, Tali pounced on Shepard, pushing him back onto the bed, as her visor lay forgotten on the cabin floor.

Shepard lay relaxed on his bed, eyes staring up through the ceiling-window of his cabin. For the first time, he wasn't alone.

He felt the soft breathing of his new lover against his side as she slept. Shepard had woken up after a few minutes of sleep, and had found himself almost hypnotized by her natural beauty, and he himself somehow felt undeserving of such a girl.

As much as Shepard wanted to just lay there and watch her sleep, he realized that he was hungry. Sighing as he realized he'd have to get up, Shepard slowly slid out from underneath her petite quarian form and pulled on his trousers hastily discarded earlier that night. Shepard stood up and walked slowly out of the room, keeping one eye on the sleeping frame of his lover.

Shepard reluctantly stepped into the elevator and tapped the button for Deck 3, the mess hall. Although Mess Sergeant Gardner had been taken along with the rest of the crew by the collectors, there was still plenty of food in the Normandy's massive refrigerator.

The elevator made a small "ding" sound as it arrived and Shepard stepped outside into the corridor. He fully expected most of his team to be getting some last-minute sleep before they 'threw themselves into the fire' as Mess Sergeant Gardner had put it, so he was surprised but delighted to see his favourite turian sidekick sitting in one of the chairs eating a dextro-DNA meal.

As Shepard walked into the Galley, he could feel Garrus' eagle-like eyes on the back of his head. As Shepard reached into the refrigerator and tried to decide on strawberry or peach flavoured yoghurt, Garrus finally said something.

"Hey, Shepard."

The tone of Garrus' voice made Shepard look over his shoulder. Even though turians expressed emotion using their mandibles, Shepard could tell that Garrus was grinning. At what though, he did not know.

"Hey, Garrus." Returned Shepard, as he decided on peach flavoured, shut the door and sat next to his friend and brother-in-arms.

"So…" started Garrus coyly. Shepard could tell Garrus wanted to say something amusing, as he hadn't stopped grinning.

"Shepard, you know how the engines of this ship run so silently?" continued the turian.

"Yeah?" replied Shepard, only half listening. He was more focused on pulling the lid off his dessert.

"And do you know how there's virtually no-one on this ship anymore since the Collectors took them…" the turian went on.

"What are you getting at, Garrus?" asked Shepard, slightly peeved by his friend's use of questions.

"Well, I just thought you should know that, with all this silence, any noise made on pretty much any floor can be heard if one listens closely enough." Explained Garrus, still - well, if you could call it that - grinning from ear-to-ear.

Shepard could sort of see how Garrus was going to conclude. Positive that he must be wrong, Shepard dismissed that claim. "I don't know what you're talking about." He said as he fed himself a mouthful of yoghurt.

Garrus sighed. "Do I have to make it anymore obvious? Myself and, possibly others, could hear you and whoever you were with earlier; although it may be due to my superior turian listening skills. Anyway, given the sound of the voices, I can pretty much guess who you were with."

Shepard spat out a mouthful of peach-flavoured dessert.

"Never had you pegged as having a quarian fetish, Commander…" joked Garrus; then Garrus seemed to be unable to contain himself and burst out laughing. In between laughing fits, Garrus could just be heard to say; "You and… [hahahaha] Tali… [hahahahahaha] were… [hahaha]".

Shepard was appalled at how quickly his and Tali's secret had fallen through. He feverishly attempted to get Garrus to shut up, fearing he'd wake up the entire ship.

Unbeknownst to both of them, a metallic, mechanical figure approached them from behind.

"Shepard-Commander," boomed the monotonous voice of the geth platform known as Legion. Garrus instantly stopped laughing and both he and Shepard swiveled around in their chairs.

"We were interrupted from standby mode by Vakarian-Gunnery-Chief's loud and numerous exhales of air. Does mister Vakarian require medical attention?" questioned the geth.

"No, no, Legion, I was just laughing." Assured Garrus, calming down; then, a thought seem to strike him. "Say, you didn't hear any noise coming from Shepard's quarters, did you Legion?" quizzed Garrus, grinning at Shepard, whose mouth was agape.

"This unit's audio receptors recorded approximately 0 hours, 34 minutes and 23 seconds of audio from Shepard-Commander's private cabin." Replied Legion, monotonously as ever. By now Shepard's jaw had almost dislocated.

"Legion, would you be so kind as to play said recording?" asked Garrus with sickening sweetness. Shepard turned to Garrus and showed him his middle finger. He then turned to the geth unit and ordered "Legion, this is your Commanding Officer. Do NOT play that recording, in fact, delete it."

Legion's lampshade-like head turned in 'Shepard-Commander''s direction. "Contradictory instructions received; overriding original instruction." A faint whirring could be heard from the unit, then a minute click. "Done. Recording deleted." Concluded the geth. Without so much as a 'goodbye', the geth infiltrator turned on its three-toed foot and headed back into the AI Core. Shepard turned to Garrus with a serious expression on his face.

"Aw, c'mon Shepard, I was only having a laugh." Said Garrus, sounding slightly hurt.

"Shall we see how funny it is when a certain engineer hears what you were about to do?" said Shepard craftily.

"Ah, no, you're right, that wasn't very funny, er, at all." Hastened Garrus. "Well, I'll er, see you later, I kind of need to do some calibrations." With that Garrus turned and jogged back up the steps and into the Main Battery. Shepard watched him go, and then turned back to his yoghurt. Suddenly he wasn't so hungry anymore…