"WARRGGAHHHH"
Shepard leapt away from the apparently still active husk head sitting on one of Dr. Bryson's work stations. Huffing out a short breath, she quirked an eyebrow at EDI's soft chuckle behind her.
"Commander, you are not usually this jumpy when it comes to dealing with reapers."
Shepard rolled her shoulder, stretching out the sore muscle, and answered with a small smile, "Hyeah, well, usually when they're beheaded they're not still screeching at me."
She moved on to search around the room for possible clues as to the whereabouts of Dr. Garneau; the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end at every creak of the building's infrastructure. This lab gave her the creeps.
Shepard had never been a fan of unknowns. Unknowns were what got people killed, and whatever this Leviathan thing was seemed to be a particularly dangerous type of unknown. If it really could take down a reaper... they had to find out what it was; if it could help. At the very least, they needed to make sure that its reaper-killing abilities didn't royally bite the galaxy in the collective ass somewhere along the line. And, what with the indoctrinated lab tech murdering Dr. Bryson, the galactic ass-biting seemed to be a certainty if they didn't handle this situation fast.
Indoctrination. Ugh. Things always got weird when indoctrination was involved.
Shepard sighed and bent down to examine some Eezo samples that Bryson had been studying.
A distracting little voice in the back of her mind kept whispering that the last time she had a mission directly involving indoctrination, it had culminated in her waking up captive on a station full of crazy, along with the destruction of an entire system. She swallowed and pushed that thought and the accompanying guilt back into the box in her mind labelled "Deal With Later". She needed to focus. She climbed the stairs up to Bryson's lofted bedroom and a drawing on the table to her left caught her eye.
"Another piece of Ann Bryson's childhood art," EDI helpfully pointed out.
"Wait a minute." Shepard picked up the picture. "Well take a look at that." There was a lightly scrawled string of numbers hidden in the grass of the crayon drawing.
"I can use this to construct a decryption key for the reaper flight pattern data," EDI said as she pulled up her omnitool.
"I guess that's what he meant when he said he'd keep it close to his heart..." Shepard trailed off and wandered over to another audio log sitting on Dr. Bryson's book shelf. Batarian voices played out, talking about finding a derelict reaper, and keeping the rumors of the "Leviathan of Dis" from the rest of galactic races. Nothing helpful in their current search for Dr. Garneau.
Sure that they had searched most everything relevant in the lab, Shepard headed back for the stairs. "EDI, lets go grab that reaper flight data and see if we can narrow down the possible systems Garneau could be in on the galaxy map. Hopefully we have enough to go on now."
They did, and soon Shepard was on her way out of the lab and radioing the rest of the crew that shore leave was being cut short.
"Commander, Dr. Chakwas would like to see you in the med bay."
"Thanks, Traynor," said Shepard, tossing the specialist a nod as she turned for the elevator. They had just over a full day of travel out to Aysur after the initial jump to the Caleston Rift, and Shepard was sincerely hoping that Chakwas wasn't intending to spend that full time fussing over the hit Shepard had taken a few days ago on Rannoch. Granted, it was a hit from an actual, full-scale reaper, but Shepard had really only gotten a little burned as she had rolled out of the way of the reaper's laser. Just a little. Insignificant. After the last orbital strike on the damn thing, Kaidan had vaulted out of the shuttle, face alight with worry, and hurriedly slapped some medigel on her exposed arm even as she stood shouting down the reaper's insistence that the stupid cycle needed to continue. Good as new. Chakwas, however, had had a disparaging thing or two to say about it, and Shepard wasn't sure she had gotten all of the lecturing out of her system before they had docked at the Citadel.
The medbay doors slid open with a hiss.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Ah, Shepard. I was hoping you'd come down," Chakwas said as she swiveled in her chair to face the commander. "Remember our agreement? That we'd split a bottle of Serrice Ice brandy every year. And it's my turn to buy."
Shepard mentally threw the universe a thank you that Chakwas was in a drinking mood, not a lecturing mood.
"Buuut it hasn't been a year yet," she pointed out.
Chakwas sighed, "Yes, well, something tells me we won't have the chance a few months from now. Indulge my impatience?"
Yeah, that didn't sound grim at all. Shepard drew up a pained half smile and said, "You grab the glasses, I'll open the bottle."
Maybe liquor would take her mind off the Leviathan thing. And besides, She had killed a reaper in the past week. She deserved some damn alcohol.
They had worked their way through nearly the whole bottle, and their conversation had devolved to reminiscing about the old crew, and Joker's "Admiral Winky". Chakwas was clutching her sides and Shepard wiped a tear from eye from laughing, when the medbay door slid open. Javik stood framed in the doorway, rifle in hand.
"I heard strange noises coming from this room. Are you being attacked? Has the AI finally turned?" Javik cocked his head and blinked his many eyes, taking in the scene. They stared back at him, frozen. Chakwas with her glass halway to her mouth.
"Primitives." He shook his head in disgust and stalked back out.
Shepard and Chakwas lost it all over again. When Shepard stopped long enough to gulp some air, Chakwas said suddenly, "You've never called me by my first name."
Shepard leaned forward with a her arm on her knee to steady herself (for some reason, the medbay seemed to be wobbling more than a proper medbay ought to) and replied, "Wellll neither have you."
Without missing a beat, Chakwas cracked a smile and proclaimed, "And I NEVER will. YOU are Commander Shepard. HERO of the Citadel. CONQUERER of the Collectors. SAVIOR of the Galaxy." Chakwas crossed her arms, suddenly business-like, while Shepard fidgeted on the crate she was seated on. "Using your first name just disrespects everyone you're fighting for - alive or gone.
"PFFT. That makes no sense," Shepard slurred, shaking her head at the doctor. She never knew how to react to people singing her triumphs. Always awkward. Luckily for her, the brandy seemed to be doing its own triumphant job of beating down any feeling of needing to be as serious as Chakwas was at the moment.
"Consider it a lady's prerogative, then." Chakwas said, leaning against the wall. "Come, let's have a toast."
"Toooo a woman I'm proud to call my friend. I'm lucky ta have ya, Karyn."
"And to you, dear friend. It is my great honor to share this journey with you, Commander Shepard. And good fortune to us all."
They polished off the last of the bottle and Shepard stumbled her way out onto the crew deck. The floor was sliding around under her feet more than it should.
Chakwas' little name game was bothering Shepard. It wasn't just the doctor that only called her Shepard, it was everyone. Her friends - all of them. Shepard gulped and leaned against a wall. Did... did they not KNOW her name?
She shuffled her way over to the elevator controls and jabbed at the button for her room.
Once in her room, she took a moment to turn on music and stare, sadly, at dead fish floating around the top of her wall-sized fish tank. "Ah," she sighed, "At least I can keep a miniature giant space hamster alive."
Shepard flopped herself spread-eagled on the bed and pressed the com in her ear to make a ship-wide announcement.
"Attention crew," she said, examining her ceiling. "It has come to my attention that you don' seem to know my name. This... this is ridiculous. I 'spect full reports on this in the morning." She paused. "Also, Major Alenko, you're needed in my quarters immediately. IMMEDIATELY. Shepard out."
As soon as she had finished her announcement, the doors to her cabin opened and Kaidan strolled in looking mildly amused. He stopped at the top of the stairs and leaned against the display case holding her model ships.
"Fun night with Chakwas?"
Shepard grunted in the affirmative.
Kaidan chuckled. "The old lady drink you under the table?"
Shepard grunted again.
"You know, you pulled me away from a pretty intense poker game with Vega. He was about to steal the shirt off my back."
Shepard lifted her head up to look at him, still spread-eagled on the bed. "I could probably assist with some shirt-stealing... maybe a little more than just your shirt too," she said with a wink.
Kaidan flushed red and raised an eyebrow in a half-amused, half-pained sort of way. Shepard loved that she could still get that embarrassed reaction out of him. It was endearing, really. There he was, the best and the brightest in the Alliance, council spectre, "capable", as Liara had so aptly put it back on Mars, and he still got flustered about 70% of the time they were alone together.
"Ah-hahh. I'm a gentleman, Shepard. Wouldn't want to take advantage of you in your current... state." She rolled over to look at him where he had just seated himself on the corner of her bed.
"'S'not ungentlemanly if I've been in love with you for years..." She drawled, yawning widely.
"'Fraid it is, Shep." Kaiden leaned forward and began taking her boots off. "So for now, I think it's best to focus on making your life a little easier tomorrow. You need to get some sleep. Gonna have one hell of a headache in the morning."
"Do you even know my first name?" Kaidan turned to see Shepard whisper this question in the direction of the ceiling - purposely not looking at him.
He dropped back to lay next to her on the bed, and wrapped an arm over her waist, gently turning her to face him. "Hey, hey, why's this bothering you so much?"
Shepard yanked out the hair band that kept the tidy bun at the back of her head together, and ran a few fingers through her hair, combing out some non-existent knots. "I don't actually know," she said with a short laugh.
Kaiden pulled her closer and she tucked her head on his shoulder.
"It's just that.. something Chakwas said shook me up. I'm just worried that... that no one's going to remember me."
Kaidan looked down at her, incredulous.
She glanced up at him, and corrected, "No, no. I mean, obviously I've done some stuff… but I mean remember ME. The person. I don't want to just be 'Shepard, the Hero of the Citadel'. At least not with my friends. I guess that's all," she trailed off.
Kaidan pressed a kiss to hair and said softly, "I don't think that'll be a problem, Jane."
She chuckled into his shoulder and replied, "I probably shouldn't have made a ship wide announcement. Garrus and Vega are going to give me hell for it tomorrow."
"Most likely."
"Kaidan?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"No problem, Shepard."