Author's Note: Bioware owns Mass Effect and all related characters and plotlines. No infringement is intended or implied.
Eden Prime Colony
Aftermath of the Geth Attack
Spaceport Platform
Downtime
The hum from the exploding beacon, aftershocks of alien energy, was still skittering along his nerves, making his amp heat reflexively. His ribs ached viciously from where Shepard had slammed into him, and he knew he was bruised from the way he'd rolled across the ground as she'd thrown him clear of the effect field. Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko mentally catalogued the injuries and discarded them, ignoring them in favor of gingerly rolling over the sprawled form of his commanding officer.
"What the hell was that? Is she OK?" Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams had one hand on her pistol and both eyes on the wrecked beacon as if she expected it to light up and grab someone else.
"I don't know." Kaidan shook his head, and immediately regretted it as the world spun.
"That thing was trying to get a hold on you, too, lieutenant. The commander hit you pretty hard when she yanked you out of the effect field. You OK?"
"I'm fine." He wasn't; for a relatively lithely built woman, the commander had hit him like a piledriver when she tackled him. His head was unpleasantly muzzy, possibly from the fall, possibly from the beacon, but it didn't matter. He had a soldier down, and his duty was clear. He rattled off the comm protocols for the Normandy to Williams. "Call in. Tell them we need immediate evac and that the commander is down with unknown injuries."
"Yes, sir!" Williams got on the comm, leaving Kaidan to continue his evaluation. His long fingers moved swiftly down limbs and checked for broken bones and hardsuit ruptures, then removed her helmet and checked for trauma to the neck before noting blood pressure. There was nothing wrong, at least nothing he could see. The memory of Shepard hanging in midair, convulsing in the beacon's energy field, was not one he was going to be able to forget anytime soon. Whatever the beacon was doing to her, I'm betting medigel isn't going to fix it.
"Lieutenant? The Normandy is en route. Helm reports ETA in three minutes." Williams paused. "Is the helmsman really named Joker?"
"Yeah. It fits, trust me. See if Joker can shave any time off his estimate; we need to get the commander to the medbay ASAP."
Ashley obediently got back on the comm, leaving Kaidan to sit back on his heels and stare down at an unconcious Shepard. The remains of the beacon leaked a sullen stream of smoke into the ruined sky.
What had he done?