chapter one

Commander Shepard was in deep thought when Joker interrupted her . ''You broke my ship again so what now'' a wise ass smile formed on his face . ''Omega will more than likely be the best place to start repears''she replied in a blunt tone . ''Setting a course for Omega E.T.A about seven hours ohh and...'' .

Joker continued to speak but Shepard was to busy working out the cost of the repears to listen . She had told Illusive man to stick her job where the sun don't shine and walked out with a highly trained crew and state of the art worship in hand . Only down side was she was a freelancer and had to pay for everything herself now. She walked away numbers and figures swirling around her head . ''Your welcome'' Joker yelled to her as she walked away

Shepard waved her thanks and walked down towards the elevator only to be met by Kelly . ''Commander we haven't had the chance to talk since...''Kelly paused unsure how to phrase what she was going to say next . ''Since Mordin's death'' Shepard said to spare Kelly the pressure of saying it herself. ''Yes are you ok do you need to talk?...or''. ''I'm fine Kelly but thanks for the offer''. ''Anytime Commander'' . She quickened her pace to the elevator and then pressed down on the smooth button. All she wanted to do was sleep but every time she tried she was woken up to do somthing or the nightmares scared her awake . So she had to settle for a few hours here and there but it was

starting to take its tole on her .

She was now alone in her room she looked at her reflection in the mirror . Her skin as pale as ever, her hair was it's normal tangled mess, her eyes the bright green they had always been she hadn't changed . ''Like nothing ever happened'' she said rubbing her eyes .

She sat on the edge of the bed and studied her datapad . The information she had could have convinced the council that the Reapers were comming and if they didn't get their heads out of their asses and admit it hundreds of deaths would be on the heads.

She grinned as she thought of what there faces would be like when they found out she was right . She lay back on the bed and sighed .Thoughts of the suicide mission filled her head .She thought about it ninety seven percent of the time she was couldn't even escape it in her sleep because she lived it over and over again in her dreams. She fell into a very uneasy sleep filled with the hollow reminder that once again kept living at the price of anothers life .

Meanwhile at Curberus

H.Q...

The Illusive Man sat drinking whiskey while absently staring out the large window in his office .'' How can I lose everything in one go. I lost my X.O , My state of the art worship a good forty crewmen ... ''Shepard will pay for this . She will regret crossing me if it's the last thing I ever do i'll make her pay'' . He looked at the file on Shepard Miranda had compiled before they brought her back . Then said to his A.I ''put a 2 million credit bounty on Shepard and her crew and leave it open to anyone in the Curberus network'' . A small bleep noise came from his computer . ''Task has been finished sir will there be anything else?'' . He said with a wicked smile '' that will be all ''

Jokers voice boomed over the intercom ''Shepard get your lazy ass out of bed and get to fixing my ship'' . She smiled, stretched and walked out of her room to the elevator . Leaning on the left wall of the elevator

as it moved down towards the CIC . The harsh lighting of the elevatorstung her eyes and made them water almost as if she was cutting an onion.

She glanced around the CIC to find it empty except Joker who claimed he was''to crippled to leave the ship'' whenever work needed doing .

She was just about to leave through the ships air lock when Joker said '' ahhh... Commander ...the...the council wants to speak to you they say it's important so you might wanna take it '' . She stoped

dead in her trackes and turned on her heels .'' I take it in the debriefing room Joker''

As much as she hated the council she nerer passed on a opertunity to

rightly piss them off.

[Thanks for reading R and R ]