Jo's fingers drummed on the counter. She felt restless. Being in between assignments always did that to her. She'd been assigned to one of the best, nah, probably the best ship in the Alliance navy. The SSV Normandy. She'd always found it just a little bit too much to name all their ships after places of famous battles. Well, at least they wouldn't run out of names for a long time. Her mind wandered for a moment as she sipped her drink. At least she only had to wait another day. One more night at the bar. The music was lousy, but they did have proper imported alcohol. Strong stuff, too. After months without a drop of alcohol – too busy, too respectable, no one to drink with, anyway – her tolerance had definitely gone down a notch, as she'd noticed on her first night off. She'd restricted herself to only one drink per evening after that. Just a small indulgence.

"Get away from me, you creep!"

Jo turned around to see a quarian woman rushing through the dancers, followed by a turian guy. He grabbed her and she tried to pull away, but he was too strong for her. The dancers parted around them, stared, but didn't do a thing.

Jo jumped up and strode over.

"Let go of her."

It distracted the guy enough for her to wind out his grasp, rubbing her arm.

"Is that turian harassing you?"

"She owes me money!"

"I do not! He's been following me for days now!" It wasn't easy to tell through the voice output of her helmet, but to Jo, she sounded close to tears.

"Have you any evidence for your claim?" she asked the turian.

"No, but... Who are you, anyway? Stay out of my business, human."

"Please, I just need to wait here for my friend, would you wait with me?" the quarian asked urgently.

"Of course I will."

"Get lost, human!"

The turian pushed her and Jo, in a reflex born out of years of training, threw a punch.

"What is going on here?"

Another turian. Great, Jo thought, then chastised herself for the thought. Not all turians bad, just the assholes, she told herself firmly.

"That human punched me, and the quarian stole from me!"

"Is that so?" There was something about the newcomer that instantly inspired, well, not exactly awe, but definitely a certain level of respect.

"This guy has been harrassing her, I tried to help. A moment ago, his story wasn't that she'd stolen from him, he told me she owed him money. And he pushed me." She grimaced at that last sentence. It sounded whiny.

"I want your names."

"Are you C-Sec? Otherwise I'm not..." the turian started, but the other interrupted him.

"I'm a Spectre and I usually don't involve myself in petty affairs like that, but you've crossed me on my day off. So. Names?"

"Vala'Tares nar Idenna," the quarian said with a quiver in her voice.

"Aertus Keet," the turian muttered.

Jo opened her mouth, but the spectre cut her off.

"I know who you are. Shepard. Hero of the Skyllian Blitz."

She gave him a scrutinising look, but didn't comment.

That moment, another quarian rushed towards them.

"Vala! What's wro... oh no, not that bosh'tet again! Whatever he said that she did this time, she didn't! He's been stalking her for days! We have complained with C-Sec, but nobody cares about quarians on this station."

"Shepard, get me a C-Sec officer please. I think we're all going to have a word."

"Hey, I didn't do anything to the suitrat! I'm leaving!"

In an impressive move that was too fast for Jo to really follow, the spectre had locked the turian's arms behind his back and was holding him in place. Shepard nodded quickly at him, left the bar, and rushed towards the C-Sec office nearby. The words "bar-fight" and "spectre" worked wonders in combination.

"He'll have to keep away from you, miss, restraining order. Spectre authority. I don't think he will go against it, but if he does, drop my name to any officer who may be refusing to help. It's Nihlus Kryik."

"Thank you!" The quarian actually hugged him, and he patted her on her back awkwardly. Shepard bit back a grin.

"And you as well!"

Vala flung her arms around Jo, too, while the other quarian watched them stoically.

"Take care of yourselves, alright?" Jo said kindly.

"We will. Come, Vala."

Jo turned back to the bar, then cursed lowly.

"Problem?" Kryik asked.

"Ugh, no. It just seems that my unattended drink has vanished. Probably cleaned away, that did take a while..."

"Let me buy you another."

For a moment she wanted to protest, then wondered why exactly. She usually didn't let people buy her drinks, but then they often had certain motives. This was different. She sensed that Kryik was looking for an oeuvre to start a conversation, and she was curious how the turian spectre new who she was.

"Alright."

They sat down and ordered drinks.

"I must admit, for a moment there, I thought we'd all be in even more trouble when you came along."

"I noticed. I didn't expect you to tell me so frankly, though."

He smiled, or well, what counted as a smile with a turian. Bared pointy teeth that just had to stir a primeval human sense of self-preservation. In any case, it made the hair on her neck stand on end. He had extensive facial tattoos, white on dark brown hide, and bright green eyes. He was an impressive sight. A spectre to boot. She'd heard conflicting things about spectres and couldn't quite believe that he would have used his authority to help those quarians.

"I am not overly diplomatic, most of the time. Or know when to keep my big mouth shut at all. But I am glad you helped when you did."

She lifted her drink to him briefly, then wondered whether he was familiar with the gesture. But he requited it after a moment.

"So," she said after a slightly too long pause. "A spectre?"

"I have no doubt that we have a... mixed reputation."

She managed to look slightly abashed.

"It's just this thing about absolute power," she replied.

"It corrupts absolutely. I have heard that one from other humans before. It is a credit to your species that you try to balance power, mostly, even though it seems in the nature of your rulers to grapple for it."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You know human history?"

"Overviews. No more than other species'. Now I've made you wary."

"No. Just embarrassed by my own ignorance."

He looked at her in silence for a moment, then steered the subject away from his interest in other species' history.

"The point is, we do not have absolute power. We still answer to the council. There have been bad eggs among our ranks, but few. I know it is hard to trust in my word only, as so much of our work is classified, but our results speak vastly in favour of this arrangement. Pirates, slavers, they don't care about C-Sec regulations. If anyone really threatens them, they just hide out in the Terminus Systems. The Citadel may have its problems, but at least it is not Omega. Ah, never been there, have you? It's a lovely station. The level of corruption and lawlessness makes you want to plant a bomb and be done with it."

"You do make a strong point," Jo conceded with a smile. It was clear that he was passionate about it and really did believe in what he said. She hadn't made up her mind about the entire spectre business, but he at least appeared to be a commendable agent.

"How did you become a spectre?" she asked after another sip of her drink.

"Oh, I just stepped on enough toes in the turian military to completely ruin my career and someone thought this laudable trait deserved some mentoring," he said nonchalantly.

She laughed.

"I see." She rubbed her neck for a moment, then said quickly: "If I may ask, how do you know about me?"

"You are a war hero, after all. Josephine Shepard, the woman who single-handedly held out against hundreds of batarians on Elysium until the air strikes took care of them. Did I say something wrong?"

She'd grimaced involuntarily as he'd said her name.

"No, it's just that no one usually calls me Josephine. My parents sometimes did, when they were chastising me, half a lifetime ago. Since their death... Well, it's usually just Jo. Or Shepard."

He didn't inquire and she was thankful for it. She never talked about Mindoir. Not with friends, crew mates, lovers, or even Alliance therapists, who'd proven annoyingly persistent on the subject.

"Jo, then," he said after a moment. "Would you excuse me briefly?" He got up and made his way towards the facilities. She watched him until he was out of sight, and was startled when the bartender asked her if she wanted another drink.

"No thanks, I really shouldn't."

"Hot date you've got there, sweetie," the asari said appreciatively.

Jo's face turned as red as her hair.

"He's not... we're not..."

"Really? Goddess, I'd hit that. If I didn't have to work, I'd sure as hell make a move." She looked at Jo appraisingly, then smirked. "I got you all embarrassed. Sorry. What's wrong, you just shy or don't you do xeno?"

"I've never... I don't think I want to talk about this with a stranger."

"Hey, no strangers here, just friends who haven't met." She pointed at a sign above the bar that read those exact words. "It's a human saying, or so I've been told."

"We're a highly discordant species," Jo muttered.

The asari laughed.

"Tell me about it. Well, alright then. He's been here before, I may just get lucky and catch him at the end of my shift someday." With that she walked away, probably to bother her other customers, Jo thought with a scowl. A small part of her envied the asari their nonchalant approach to sex with other species, but their damn superiority irked her.

As Nihlus came back, though, she couldn't help wondering if she could be attracted to the turian. Damn asari. She knew there were humans who'd taken to aliens like fish to water, but except from once drunkenly kissing an asari on shore leave, she had never even considered it. And in any case, asari didn't look that alien. At least they had lips. The only thing definitely attractive about turians were their voices.

Alright, she had watched a couple of vids. But who didn't? It was natural to be curious. Most turian-human vids went far beyond her comfort zone, anyway. She blushed and forced herself to think of something else.

"So, are you on shore leave?" Nihlus asked once he'd sat down again.

"No, starting on a new ship day after the next. I hear she's been co-designed by turians."

"The SSV-Normandy?" he asked.

Jo nodded.

"Pride of the Alliance navy."

"You will be working under Captain Anderson then."

She frowned.

"You know him?"

"I have... heard a lot about him. He is a highly decorated man, although..."

"Although what?"

He shook his head.

"I'm sorry, it's classified."

Jo narrowed her eyes.

"That's a nasty move, and you know it."

She was glad, all of a sudden, for a reason to be angry at him. She got up.

"I should leave."

"Wait. Please." He got up, too, and put a hand to her arm. Claw. She didn't know what the appropriate term was. She glared at him. "I didn't mean to tease. I really can't tell you about it, it's just that I have heard conflicting things about him. He is held in high esteem by almost everyone who talks about him, but someone I... whose opinion I value very highly has told me quite a different story. Another spectre. I can't tell you more. But I didn't want to give you doubts about your new captain before you'd even started working under him."

She relaxed a little. They looked at one another. His claw was still resting on her arm. Firm, and very warm. Alright, she was intrigued.

"You wanna get out of here? The music is giving me a headache."

He looked taken aback for a brief moment, then gave a jerk of his head that she took as a yes.

She turned once more to the bar before they made their way out, and caught the eye of barkeeper, who smirked and winked at her.

Damn smug asari.