Chapter 1: Contact
*GASP*
"Sir! I've spotted another one!"
"Oh god, not another notch to the dead tally, please God no. Hurry up see if there are any life signs!"
"Sir yes sir!"
The faint padding of feet gradually got closer, warped and slow
*GASP*
"SIR! I think we have life signs!"
"WELL GET THEM OUT OF THERE MAN! DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" someone barked.
More feet pound over and the sound of moving rubble is present, the jangle of dog tags being clutched is heard
"Sir…it…"
"What?" the reply comes heavy, out of breath.
"Sir this is….it's…Commander Shepard"
"What?!"
Rubble is heaved was fast as the four men could lift it, their energy low, spirits high, they put their all into getting Shepard out. A Krogan soldier finally and carefully lifts her body barely recognisable. Her face covered in cuts and dirt, dried blood and bruising. Her body limp and lifeless still struggling to breathe as they get to an ambulance and Shepard is rushed to a hospital ASAP.
The mood on the Normandy was at an all-time low. The crew stood at the memorial wall, all piled, sombre, Liara stepped forward placing a plaque in the middle for 'Captain Anderson' Joker winced as it slowly clicked into place, Anderson having won over so many hearts of the Normandy crew, his loss shook through all of the team. Garrus stood still, his body still stiffened after taking so many hits and recovering, but mostly through grief, for he held the plaque for Amy Shepard. He hadn't realised how strong his feelings had become, until now as his eyes started to sting and his mandibles twitched trying to hide any sign of emotion through pride and swallowing hard. He finally stepped forward placing the plaque gently and carefully into position, his talons gently caressing the letters of her name one by one as he smoothed it into place.
The Normandy fell quiet that day, more in respect than anything… and for the fact that they were lost. All communications had gone down, and EDI had gone offline.
Joker's head was hung low, his cap used to cover his eyes and try to hide any emotion that may be visible, should anyone dare ask if 'he was OK'
Chakwas played with her omnitool
"It's no use Joker, my omnitool is still down, and it seems EDI has shut down entirely"
Joker sighed, part of him thought this was sad, pretty wrong that he had fallen head over heels in love with an AI… but this was EDI, EDI was different.
"Have Liara and Tali gotten anywhere with fixing the omnitools?" he asked almost emotionless
"I have no idea Jeff" Chakwas replied "I suspect they will let us know as soon as they have fixed them"
Hmpf Joker replied. No words to really reply, OK would have sufficed but he didn't have much left him in to say so.
"I'll leave you to be and look into anything that can help Jeff" Chakwas said respectfully before leaving the cockpit, Joker watched her, expressionless and jokeless.
*thud thud thud* a stress ball bounced off the wall, then off the floor and into a taloned hand repeatedly. Garrus' mind had numbed, all he could do was bounce Shepard's old ball off the wall and stare into space. He could faintly hear commotion from Liara's quarters next door, but his mind wasn't focused on it too much. He couldn't comprehend what had happened and for the time being, he didn't want to. 'Has everyone moved on already?' he pondered. The ramblings were far from giggles and laughter, but enough to make Garrus feel a tiny bit angry that life just carried on. This is Shepard were on about, people won't just 'carry on' His mandibles twitched, his eyes welled somewhat. Spirits, please let my gut be wrong. His head dropped down whilst he fought with his own thoughts…
"Liara, try boot it up now" Tali chirped as she typed away furiously on Liara's terminal playing with an array of software to fix the downed omnitools which mysteriously happened when a red wave of energy pulsed the entire ship into another system.
"Goddess Tali, it's worked!" Liara gasped "The messages, gosh"
"Would you expect anything more being the shadow broker Liara?" Tali replied dryly, Liara turned to her shooting a look of knowing that was sarcasm as her brow furrowed.
"There's one marked urgent, videocall, Earth, pre-recorded"
"Well open it then! Kee'lah…" Tali slurred shaking her head, she never understood why Liara hesitated and insisted on drawing things out longer than need be.
Liara tapped her omnitool a few times and got no response
"Tali, it seems to be losing communication with what im doing..."
Tali gestured to scratch her head, So attached to her suit that it had no benefit to her to scratch, but made her look like she was doing more than just 'standing there'. She then proceeded to tap away at the main computer. Liara's omnitool flickered
"Ah! That seems to be doing the trick!" Liara excitedly chirped as she moved various parts to gain access to her emails. Finally a holographic screen popped up from Liara's omnitool and started to buffer a video
"Huh…Connection errors? There seems to be a lot of issues with technology since that pulse" Tali mused
"Quite" Liara added "It doesn't make sense, what has happened? We have no clue where we are without the war map working, EDI is down, omnitools seems to be unreliable its just all-"
"Liara, Liara! Oh I hope this reaches you"
"FERON!" Liara's heart pounded "Oh by the goddess, Please be alive Feron" her eyes welled, her lips quivered, Tali had never seen Liara get emotional since Thessia had be taken by the Reapers, She kinda felt awkward, intrusive, like she shouldn't be here
"Should I?" Tali gestured towards the door
"No, no, it's ok, honestly" Liara regained composure "The connection seems off still, can you help?"
Tali tapped away with gusto once more, it didn't do the trick, but it was enough to get this message through
"Liara, Liara! Oh I hope this reaches you. I made it to Earth, to help the fight. I figured you'd be here somewhere, but I can't seem to pinpoint your location" Static started to buzz through, Liara's brows furrowed in hopes the connection would hold "We don't know what happened here, do you?" His arm could be seen gesturing outwards in slight panic and confusion "All I know is here, the reapers are dead, some weird red energy came over us, they all collapsed, and our computers seem to have gone to crap. It's a mess Liara. But I hear news, must be my good ol' skills" His slight smirk oozed charm, Liara was lucky not to blush in front of Tali
"They found Shepard Liara, she's alive" Liara's jaw dropped
"Where?!" she went to ask before realising this was a recording
"She was stuck under some rubble, she's in such a bad way, she was barely breathing when they found her, I guess that's better than when we got to her before lazarus project" his shoulders shrugged "I needed to tell you Liara, I knew how close you both were, but please, as soon as you get this, just… Just try reply." He bowed his head slightly and closed his eyes "Goddess Arashu, May your eyes watch over her, May your arms hold her, May your lips guide her and may your mind and body protect her." The Video closed [TRANSMISSION ENDED]
Liara stood, stunned. Her hands made swift movements hoping she could reply but her omnitool downed just after those last words
"Damn it!" she yelled "Tali? Anything?"
"Erm, Maybe the War room units will have more kick, we should try there, I might be able to get a link via the vid comm between you and Feron should he be able to reply"
"Ok let's do it" Liara gestured towards the door "We need to get up and running soon, I feel odd not knowing anything, and it's odd not hearing Glyph's voice"
"He's like your pet huh?" Tali tried to lighten the mood
"You could say that, I guess" Liara smirked "We should take a look at EDI too, poor Joker must be beside himself"
"Right" Tali agreed "I'll go see them and meet you in the war room"
"Okay" Liara nodded as they parted ways from the elevator
Tali paced towards the cockpit to find Cortez with, well what seemed like a defibrillator, minus the shock pads. Tali's eyes narrowed as she got closer, it WAS a defibrillator
"What the hell?!" she shouted as Cortez touched the two naked wires to EDI's neck
"Stand back Tali" Chakwas' arm came to stop her going further "We're seeing if we can get EDI back online"
"What by shocking her? Shes not like us you know, she hasn't a heart to jumpstart!" Tali's arms flapped enraged
"No but sometimes cars need a jumpstart, No?" Vega chirped in folding his arms
"In case you hadn't noticed EDI is NOT AN AUTOMOBILE EITHER!"
"Huh" Vega raised one eyebrow rolling his eyes "What's got sparks so jumpy?"
"This isn't working" Cortez finally retorted, beaten, he looked to Tali "You should know what to do best miss. Tech expert"
"Well actually…well yes, I guess so, Garrus is capable too but..." her fingers fumbled around each other awkwardly she spoke before she thought and all went silent "I need to speak to Garrus" her head shook, what was she doing? She had just found out Shepard was alive, surely Garrus should know first? One of her closest friends on the ship, albeit from the fact they shared most foods on the ship, she regarded him best alongside Shepard, she owed it to him
"Incase anyone noticed around here, we've got a broken ass ship, with a broken ass AI and NO-ONE seems to be doing anything about it" Joker snapped his words a little venomous, but emotional too, the crew could sense it was from the deep feelings he had for EDI in that comment
"I promise you Joker I will do my best as soon as possible, I need to help get everything back up, could you bring EDI's unit to the War room? Im going to see Garrus so I will go check out her mainframe from the AI core and see what I can do, I swear"
"Fine." Joker replied "Although you'll have to get Vega to take her, I'd go down like a sack of shit if I carried her, she weighs a ton, should tell her to go on a diet when she wakes back up"
Chakwas laughed
"That's the Jeff I know" She smiled, her eyes creased in the corners from the genuine smile, Jeff was the closest thing to a child she had gotten, in the alliance of course although she wouldn't admit it, she adored Jeff as if he were her own.
"See you later" Tali quickly added before running down the CIC, various crew members tinkered away at units all watched Tali run towards the elevator, arms flailing like it was her last ever run, all eyes on her bemused and a few shook their heads.
The doors closed, she panted a bit - Woah, and what do I say? Where do I begin? - She thought, her hands finding each other again, wringing her fingers around one another – Garrus, no, D'oh kee'lah… Garrus, its Shepard. Bah! She's been found, no that's awful. She's alive! Bah! No too frank and stein… wait that's what he's called right? Because if Cortez wound me up..."Ahh!" Before she knew it her body had been on autopilot and she was at the Main Battery, doors opened and Garrus was looking at her, waiting for something to be said
"Err"
"Are you OK Tali?" Garrus said dryly, he didn't express emotion at the best of times, but now it was nowhere to be found in his voice
"Yes, Yes fine, im good, Garrus" Her back went ridged, She knew what she would say now could mess with Garrus' head, hopefully in a good way. Garrus still stared at her folding his arms impatiently "Garrus it's Shepard, we've heard news, liara got a vid message from Feron, he says shes alive!" words rushed from her mouth like a race car.
Garrus shook his head like he'd gotten a little shock, his eyes readjusted, he looked around towards the floor
"Wait…What? How? Are you having me on?"
"No! Why the hell would I do that?!" Tali snapped almost offended "I thought you'd be happy!"
"I…I...I am, Don't get me wrong…im just" He slumped to the floor, still not making eye contact "Confused."
Tali tilted her head and sat beside him
"I knew I'd mess this up, I couldn't think of how to say it to you and went through scenarios and-"
"Seriously" he murmured "I just began the mourning of the woman I loved, and now she's alive? My head is all kinds of messed up. I just, Wow. I need to see her" He stood up with integrity
"That's our only hurdle, I need to get the systems back online, EDI is down still" Tali looked up at Garrus, her eyes glowing in soft white hues through her helmet "I could use your help if im honest"
"OK, Im on it" he nodded towards her, the passion in his eyes to reach his mate was clear to see
They both left for the war room.