The video link was a little fuzzy- one year since the activation of the Crucible,the extranet was working and the mass relays were mostly functioning, but galactic communication was not yet back to its pre-war standards. The sound quality was fine, but the image lagged and Shepard's face periodically jerked out of focus.
"Liara?"
As far as she could make out, the Commander seemed well. She was smiling at least, which had been a rare sight in the later months of the conflict. They'd only met in person once since the end of the war, but communicated frequently, technology permitting.
"Shepard," she smiled. "The quality is a little substandard at my end, what about yours?"
"It's pretty bad." The video continued to act up, as though to verify her claims. "I'd try and do something- but Kaidan made me promise not to mess with the communicator settings anymore."
Liara smiled. As a sentinel, Kaidan had always been bemused at best by Shepard's "have you tried turning it off and on again?" approach to technology.
"How is Kaidan? Are you still in Vancouver?"
"He's good." She grinned. "Out with his Dad at the moment. And yeah we are - Still not sure what to do with ourselves… peacetime is strange. Good, but strange. Hackett wants me to write my memoirs…"she rolled her eyes. "so I'm hoping you'll get your book finished soon and then write mine for me."
Liara laughed. "Unfortunately, I believe there is still a substantial amount of work to do."
"Are you and Javik still arguing?" Shepard frowned. "Do we need to-" she mimicked his voice "find an airlock, so that we may throw him out of it?"
"Thank you Shepard, but that will not be necessary, we are getting along well- in fact…" How should she phrase this? It would probably surprise her, it had certainly been unexpected. "There is something that I should perhaps tell you about the situation here-"
"Are you still having problems with irrigation?" Shepard-ever the strategist- instantly leapt to the problems Thessia had been suffering since the Reaper attack.
"No, Shepard. It's-"
"The power grids again? Damn, I thought that was sorted."
"No, it's not that-"
"Are the networks on the western continent stable yet?"
"I believe there is still some trouble with radiation emission, but that's not what I-"
"Damn it," Shepard was lost in the issue of her own invention. "Liara, I'm going to talk to some people from Alliance R&D and see if they have any new prototypes that might be helpful. I'll get right on it and send you a message when I know something. Take care okay?"
"No, Shepard! Wait I'm-" the distorted Shepard waved to the camera and then disappeared. "-pregnant." Liara finished. She pressed her hand to her lips and sighed.
