Spacers often said that only those born in the black could ever truly appreciate outer space. Shepard wholeheartedly disagreed. She had been born on Earth, born to dirt and gravity and atmosphere, but she never felt more at home then the first time she stepped aboard an Alliance ship. For a girl that had grown up in a crowded, filthy, and disease-ridden slum, where the sounds of violence and despair could not be shut out, the unlimited expanse and utter stillness of space was a true wonder.

The first time she went EVA she was so filled with awe she'd cried. Her commanding officer immediately had her retrieved, and when questioned on the cause of her tears she could only whisper "I could die out here." That of course, had gone over poorly and she had to undergo several psych-evals before they let her resume EVA training. That day she vowed to never again so visibly display her emotions so as not to jeopardize her chances of being placed on active duty. She needed to be in the vastness of space, she needed the peace only traveling through it could bring.

And here she was, EVA yet again, watching with detached horror as the Normandy met its end. The explosions were vibrant and dramatic, each one visibly punctuating the loss of her home and her crew, but they were mercifully silent, the vacuum of space once more giving Shepard comfort. She averted her eyes from the visual assault and focused on her HUD. All of the Normandy's escape pods were miraculously still functioning, sending out jumbled radio chatter. She resolutely activated her homing signal and looked out towards the Normandy again in time to see one final, mute explosion, to feel the shockwaves send her spinning towards Alchera. Oxygen supply critical flashed on her HUD once before the screen sputtered out.

She could hear the quiet hissing noise as the air escaped from a rupture in her suit, could feel her saliva beginning to boil on her tongue. Her body reflexively responded by grasping at the hole behind her head, by twisting and turning and kicking, as if fighting would somehow release the vacuum's grip on her. Her mind, however, was at peace, and the last thought she had before her vision faded to black was "I could die out here."

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A/N:

Shepard's sensation of having her saliva boil was reported by a NASA technician whose space suit decompressed to vacuum in the mid-60s.