Author's Notes:

Summary: Occurs after events of "Vindication". Remember the good old Star Trek episode called "The Trouble with Tribbles?" This is an homage to that episode, set in the Mass Effect universe with the ME 2 crew. Shepard is no James T. Kirk, but he sure does get a lot of ladies. If you haven't seen it, let's just say that the Normandy gets into trouble whilst visiting the Citadel one day.

I have finessed some rough patches that I did not catch the first time I wrote this novel and have added some extra material. For those of you who have read this before, it is not quite the same story. For those of you who were reading it when I removed the novel, I must sincerely apologize, but I did put that information on my profile last week.

Since Miranda and Shepard didn't get as much action in "Vindication", I figured that it was time for them to get some more scenes together. This story does involve quite a bit of the ME2 crew as stated in the summary, but for those of you who want more, there is definitely more in this story since it's a lot more light-hearted than my usual writing (with the exception of one chapter). For those of you who don't like her, well…my apologies. You have been warned.

Mass Effect: Complication

Chapter One

Normandy CIC, Orbit of Illium, Crescent Nebula, 2185, 1209h

Refueling the Normandy was normally a quick process, but Joker was exceptionally talkative today. His social skills and manners were better than the typical krogan, and he did actually make an effort on this mission to be a tad more companionable, especially after the Collectors abducted his fellow crewmen. Hadley, Matthews, he, and Shepard ended up in a very animated chat regarding baseball as they listened to a game on the extranet. Very few of the human colonies had teams that played professionally, but the rivalry between the Lowell City Jays and the Scott Frees was legendary.

"I hope that the Frees can their pitcher for clobbering Bo Jackson in the head like that," Joker seethed during a commercial.

"Those announcers always exaggerate everything, Joker," Matthews argued. "He'll be back in the season before it's over, don't worry."

"Maybe it's time for him to retire anyway," Shepard remarked. "I don't think he's worth the amount that he asks from the Scott Frees...not anymore, at least."

"Because he's a DH?" Joker demanded. "There are still plenty of good ball players out there who are DHs, and he only got bumped from playing short stop because he tore his right rotator cuff during the last season."

"It's a useless position just to make the game longer and fill up the roster."

Hadley scoffed. "Not much of a baseball fan, are you, Commander?"

"Shh…game's coming back on," Matthews hushed them all.

Yeoman Kelly Chambers' sanguine voice pleasantly came through Shepard's earpiece. "Excuse me, Commander, but there's an incoming call for you from the Citadel."

Shepard turned around on his heel and made his way towards the CIC; Kelly Chambers turned around to face him and folded her hands behind her back. "I heard Joker shouting up there not too long ago. Will he be all right?"

Shepard briefly laughed and shook his head 'no'. "Nothing to worry about, Chambers. He's just listening to a ball game with Hadley and Matthews."

"Oh, it didn't sound like he was enjoying it very much."

"He's a sore loser." His jovial expression faded into a straight face. "Is this call on a secure channel? How urgent is it?" he inquired with a cautious eye.

"I believe it is from Ambassador Udina. He would not leave a message with me or EDI, Commander."

Shepard pursed his lips together and bit his tongue. "I'll take it upstairs in my quarters." This had better be good. Nothing I hate worse than a slimy politician. I'd just as soon kiss a krogan's ass rather than play nice with this schmuck.

"Good day to you, Commander Shepard," Udina politely greeted him, although Shepard suspected that his tone was heavily laced with resentment. Udina was still upset about not receiving the position on the Council, a choice which was heavily influenced by Shepard's own recommendation.

However, now that Anderson had resigned, Udina was fully committed to continuing on upon that agenda once more. Shepard's relationship with the Council grew somewhat strained after he had made a temporary alliance with Cerberus. He had not yet conveyed his permanent break with the organization to the Council after having destroyed the Collector base and told the Illusive Man to shove it. Doing so would likely repair relations with everyone, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to prematurely reveal this information to Udina yet, especially since he had not yet received the position.

"Let's get on with this. Thought you disapproved of my resurrection," Shepard retorted and began to pace back and forth in front of his terminal.

"Believe you me, Commander, I am not calling you upon my own volition. I'd just as soon have left it to Anderson to deal with his incompetent former protegés."

"You seem to be lacking that silken bullshit tone that you usually use with the Council. Did your dry cleaner put too much starch in your suit today?"

"It's a good thing that I wasn't on the Council when you had your last meeting," he shook his head. "I wouldn't have renewed your Spectre status."

"Luckily for me, there are three other somewhat intelligent species on the Council."

Udina sighed. "I knew that this would be a fruitless conversation. Perhaps I'd better call someone from the Alliance."

Shepard halted his pacing and stared straight at the politician. "What do you want, Udina?"

"Calyn, an ambassador to the Elcor has a favor to ask of you, Commander. He asked that I contact you for your assistance. I told him that he'd be wasting his time, with you being on some important mission…-"

"I'll likely be needing some supplies from the Citadel since the Normandy took quite a bit of damage during our last battle. I don't foresee any issues with making a stop in the Presidium. Besides, I'm sure some of my crew members are looking forward to some extended shore leave," Shepard nodded. "Did the ambassador say how soon he needed to see me?"

A look of surprise came over Udina's face. For about three seconds, he was speechless. "Well, he did say that it was a pressing matter, but, the Elcor and time are rather hard to-"

"I can be there in a few hours. His office was right next to the human embassy, right?"

"That it is. I will deliver this news to the ambassador myself, Commander. We will be awaiting you there." He disconnected the call.

"Still can't say a thank you. Idiot," Shepard commented and rolled his eyes.

C-Sec HQ, the Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 2185, 1605h

"I'm glad to see that they repaired this section of the ward finally," Garrus began the conversation as he, Shepard, and Miranda stepped into the lift.

"Why's that? Didn't you detest working for C-Sec?" Miranda inquired.

"Not until the very end. Besides, this was a perfect way to kill time."

"Sorry, I'm not following you."

"Well, this is the way that we got to know one another a little bit more before the geth attacked the Citadel. We had a few friendly chats here and there in the elevators."

"That's why I prefer the transports," Miranda shook her head. "They're faster and quieter."

"That figures. You ever like talking to anyone for more than ten seconds at a time?" Miranda's eyes shot over to him with an icy glare, which made him raise up his clawed hands in defense. "Hey, I didn't mean-"

"Better stick to the chats with Tali, Garrus. For now, at least," Shepard laughed through his nose. "Girl has a shotgun, but she's harmless and a much better target for your humor."

"And that makes me feel safer how?' the turian's brow lifted skyward.

"The remains of a derelict space vessel have been found upon the dwarf planet Mnemosyne, but it will take quite some time for Alliance scientists to identify how and why this ship mysteriously lost its mass effect fields. The investigation that had been begun by Admiral Steven Kovach was put into suspension when the admiral suddenly announced that he was taking some administrative leave. No further action by the Alliance has yet to come to light," the galactic news feed announced.

As the trio made their way out of the elevator, they were soon greeted by a newly formatted Avina VI. "Welcome back to the Presidium, Commander Shepard. It has been one month since you have visited-"

The soldier groaned and traveled up the ramp with his other two companions. "Technology and I have a hate and hate relationship."

"I thought that you came to terms with EDI," Garrus joked.

"That was after she saved the Normandy. I've had to destroy far too many other 'advanced' science projects under both the Alliance and Cerberus." He was referring to the Luna incident and Project Overlord.

"Don't forget that you were an advanced science project," Miranda smirked.

"Yeah, thanks for that, by the way." They passed through the automatic door and strolled down the embassy corridor to the Elcor and Volus office.

"For reminding you or saving your life?"

Shepard never got the chance to reply as they just walked into the office. Calyn's monotone greeted him as he noticed the Normandy's commander right away. "With exuberance: Commander Shepard, it is wonderful to see you again on the Citadel."

It'd been a couple of months since the human had to deal with an elcor, but it didn't make the pain any lessening now. The elcor did not have tone inflections; they used adjectives to describe their emotions instead when dealing with aliens.

God forbid that I watch that Hamlet vid Grunt bought. Think I'll let him watch that on his own time, Shepard thought.

"Ambassador Udina said that you needed my help," Shepard nodded and placed his arms behind his back, standing at attention.

"Indeed I did, Commander," Udina agreed and patted him on the shoulder. "We know how valuable your time is. This meeting shouldn't take long." He wisely removed his hand as he noticed Shepard's head snap at his actions rather coldly.

"Pridefully: we Elcor are usually a self-sufficient species and do not often make requests. With concern: Commander Shepard does not feel any ill will against us, does he?"

Not unless this conversation takes longer than five minutes, no. "Please, Ambassador Calyn, continue. I came here without any persuasion from Udina."

"Relieved: this is fortunate news. Informative: Dekunna has a great export that many species find irresistible. This is the malaka cannabis, better known to the public as the Elcor rose." The ambassador directed their attention to the foliage sitting near the window. By all common appearances, Shepard saw that this heavily resembled a rubber plant. There were perhaps one or two blossoms on it, but they had yet to open.

"That's a rose?" Miranda spoke up.

"Informative: indeed, that is so. Inquisitive: would this be possible for Commander Shepard to transport back to the world of Dekunna?" Calyn continued. "Doleful: it is rather difficult for us to travel back and forth in these vessels due to our bodies' tight confinement in small spaces."

"You want me to be a courier for your plant?" Shepard's eyebrows went up.

Udina's mouth pressed itself firmly shut after he corrected Shepard's impolite question. "Careful, Commander."

"I'm just trying to figure out what he's talking about is all," the ex-Alliance soldier shrugged. "I don't have to show this to C-Sec or any other custom agency, right? They know what it is?"

"Truthfully: you are a Spectre. The planet of Dekunna is within Citadel space. With hope: it is not too far out of your way, is it?" Calyn wondered.

Shepard glanced upon his companions. Miranda's face, as usual was stoic, and Garrus' attention was already gone. He was likely studying the monitor near the keeper in the office.

"Commander, although the Elcor are not part of the Council yet, perhaps it would be best to keep a good relationship with them. Doing this will only strengthen it," Udina lectured him. "They have candidates for a seat that will possibly open up to them after we humans replace former Councilor Anderson."

Shepard changed the topic to deflect Udina's agenda. "How are the studies faring on Sovereign?"

"Shepard, if you'd care to discuss technology, we can get into that later. I'm afraid that I cannot delve into that at the moment," Udina replied. "Please answer Ambassador Calyn's question."

"I will, only after you answer mine," Shepard jabbed a finger into the ambassador's chest. "Let's cut to the chase."

"The funds from the study of the geth have been allocated elsewhere, Commander. Specifically, they went to repair the remainder of Tayseri Wards."

His eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't have had anything to do with that, would you, Udina?"

"This argument is irrelevant, Commander!" Udina sighed heavily. "I knew that this was a waste of time! You always drag that ridiculous myth of the Reapers into every damned conversation I've ever had with you!"

"You shouldn't be such a blind, short-sighted imbecile," Miranda broke in. "Shepard knows what he's talking about. If none of us prepare for this invasion, there'll be hell to pay, and humanity would rather not be dragged into the mud because of you."

"For a Cerberus operative, you're quite bold to walk in here and make demands of me," he pointed his index finger at her. "You're lucky I don't have a C-Sec officer throw you into jail right now for treason and terrorism! It's only because of Shepard's presence here that I haven't-"

"Let's all just calm down, Ambassador. I'll take the plant," Shepard replied and rolled his eyes. "It would just be nice to see some real progress instead of regression."

"I highly agree," Garrus finally spoke up.

"With concern: what are the Reapers?" Calyn inquired.

"I'll write you a manifesto after I make the delivery," Shepard grunted and walked over to the plant. "I don't have to handle this any differently than any other vegetation, right?"

"Deeply gratified: no, Commander. It is much like any other kind of vegetation on the human colonies. Informative: it should receive water twice a day. Artificial sunlight would be prudent if possible."

Normandy SR-2 Engine Control Room, 2185, 1719h

While Shepard made his rounds with Miranda, Garrus had taken it upon himself to return back to the Normandy with the Elcor rose. It was the least he could do; after all, poor Shepard had to take a verbal assault once again by that parasitic human ambassador. Sometimes Garrus wondered what had stopped Shepard from decking him a few times, especially during the last conversation. He wanted to defend Shepard even more, but since he was a turian, he figured that it was best to keep his mouth shut. He also noticed that Shepard didn't mention the rupture that had taken place in between himself and Cerberus. Why did he want to keep that information under wraps?

Humans are so difficult to understand. Some of them love direct confrontation, some of them despise it, and some can't ever seem to make up their minds, he thought.

Garrus dropped off the plant with Mordin, who was just about to go make travel arrangements for his own vacation to Sur'Kesh until the turian shoved it into his hands. He profusely apologized for the inconvenience, but it did not seem to bother the Normandy's science officer in the least. The salarian naturally knew what it was immediately and rushed back to his lab to provide the foliage's needs.

Garrus checked the clock that was in the Normandy's elevator. He was late; earlier, he'd made the promise to come help Tali'Zorah with the engines at 1700h. The quarians were notorious for punctuality, and the turians generally were, too, but this stupid plant business certainly put a wrench in things.

"Well, I think I heard my father say that 'I'm sorry, dear' or something like that usually got him out of sticky situations with Mom," Garrus murmured to himself as he exited the elevator. "Oh boy." He cautiously entered the ECR.

Sparks flew everywhere as Tali knelt near her work with a welding torch in hand. Her back was to him, but she knew he was there as she heard him clear his throat. "You're late," was her salutation.

"I'm sorry, Tali. Shepard had to make a stop at the Elcor assembly first. To make a long story short, he has to transport an Elcor rose back to their home planet of Dekunna. I took it back here to the Normandy so that he could finish his-"

"Your story just turned into a novel," she remarked impatiently. "Remind me to tell Shepard that we'll be needing some more eezo soon. Or possibly, I could just call it a night early and do it tomorrow morning," the quarian shrugged.

"What can I do to help you, Tali?"

"Do you have much experience with screwdrivers?"

Garrus nodded. "Sure. They're the best things to use for trying to jam up a lock." He bent down near her, and she stopped her work briefly to turn her head towards him. "Well, aside from electronically changed codes. I actually used one once to dislodge a trapped round from the cannon on the old Mako. Stupid thing used to jam up more than a human assault rifle." When Tali didn't laugh, Garrus stopped his own. "Uh, you won't repeat that to Shepard, will you?"

"I don't think he'd mind hearing it from you. He's got a good sense of humor," Tali replied. "Anyhow, okay, those precision screwdrivers on top of the controls should do the trick. There are some machine screws right next to it as well. Now, what I need you to do is to take the PC boards from my terminal outside this room, bring them in here, and place them inside of this voltage adapter that I'm finishing up." She resumed her welding as he arose and began his task.

Two minutes later, Garrus arrived back with all that she had asked and crouched down beside her. "Good. Those are the right ones. Now, this one will go into this circuit," she pointed to the left corner, "the second one in your left hand goes to the right of that, and the third one in your right hand will fit in the side facing us."

"Uh, okay." Garrus nodded with some understanding. He wasn't completely at ease with electronics like his companion, but he wasn't helpless. There were one or two times that Shepard had flipped the Mako over and caused it to stall. Unfortunately, the human soldier was all thumbs when it came to engines. He could make repairs to guns and assemble them faster than any human Garrus had seen in C-Sec, but still, he was not skilled with vehicle mechanics.

Tali arose, turned off the omni-tool's welding torch, and wiped her gloved hands onto her environmental suit. "I'll be back in just a few minutes. Need to go check on Engineers Donnelly and Daniels in the sub-deck," she told him.

"What're they fixing?" Garrus inquired.

"Oh, Donnelly was just making some repairs to the fiber optics in the power attenuators. I think Daniels is adjusting the Calrissian tangents and the Chekhov factors to compensate."

"Sorry I asked," the turian shook his head and put down the PC boards.

By the time Tali came back, she was shaking her head. "The two of them should really think about getting married. They're perfect for one another," she said.

"Yeah, like Shepard and…-um…ah…" Garrus cut himself off. Although he could not see Tali's face, he still knew that she had been terribly heart-broken that Shepard could not have seen her as more than a little sister or a child. Having to also work alongside the same organization that attacked her people could not have been easy either. "Sorry, will remove my foot from my mouth now."

"Let's see what we've got here. Ooh, you even screwed the lid on correctly!" the quarian engineer exclaimed hopefully. "I'm impressed, Garrus."

"Yeah, well, maybe you'd better double-check my work. I'm mechanically inclined and can nail somebody between the eyes at 100 meters, but I'm not sure…"

"Well, the part that I'm plugging it into won't be at full power. The worst that could happen would probably be just a minor fluctuation," she shrugged and picked up the box. "Besides, I wouldn't even dare to ask Shepard to touch any of this equipment. Give the man a gun and he could destroy an entire planet with it. Give him a soldering iron, and he'd probably electrocute himself with it somehow."

"Okay, but just let me know when you're plugging it in, because I want to stand away from it as far as possible."

She made a snorting noise through her helmet, walked over to her terminal, and hooked the box up to it. Seconds later, there was a large pop, a blue flash, and smoke poured out of the box. "Oh, Keelah!" Tali yelled. She rushed to unplug it while Garrus ran to find a fire extinguisher.

As soon as he came back, she had started already to unscrew the box and open it up. Thankfully, none of the other equipment had been damaged. "See what I meant?" he inquired sheepishly.

"I'll admit that I am rather interested to see what caused the blue flashing…oh," Tali'Zorah said as she discovered something unusual. "I told you to put this one here and that one here, for starters!" she exclaimed as she motioned to the circuit boards that he had accidentally swapped.

Garrus' mandibles twitched spasmodically. "Sorry."

"Hmm…and why am I finding extra machine screws lying around in here?"

Garrus lifted up a clawed finger and shook it in the air. "Oh, that's what happened to them! I was missing two screws for two holes that I wasn't sure about, so I just did the corners, and-"

Tali pulled out the PC board from the bottom of the device to examine it. "Well, congratulations are in order, I guess."

"Why's that?"

"I've never seen a Descartes-Hudson IC chip turn black before," she sighed.

"That's not good, is it?" Garrus wondered.

"Well, supposedly according to its specs, it was crafted to be the most substantial IC chip ever created by humans."

"Oh, well, that's the problem right there," he joked. "Humans and their outsourcing. I'll never understand-"

"And you managed to chip away a corner of this motherboard. I'm not even going to ask how that happened."

"Sorry."

"It's my fault. You're right, I should've double checked it."

"So, what does this mean?"

"Well, it means that depending how many more times Shepard wants to use the FTL drive core, it might mean that we either get stranded somewhere or will end up in a black hole somewhere in the Omega 4 relay," Tali sighed again and tossed the piece of electronics on the workbench.

"Oh. Wow, Tali, I'm really sorry." Garrus thought for a moment. "Want to grab a bite to eat upstairs? Sgt. Gardner's back from his sabbatical."

"No, I'll probably skip dinner tonight," the quarian's shoulders sagged despondently . "Go on, Garrus."

"Okay. Hey, I just had a thought. How the heck do you Quarians eat? I mean, you can't take off your helmets, right?"

"I don't think that I have time to explain it to you right now." She shook her head 'no' and turned away from him.

Garrus ran a hand over his fringe and started to trudge away sullenly. Suddenly, Tali's depressed mood swung into one of anger. "Come on, you stupid bosh'tet!" she screamed at the terminal and smashed her fist on the holographic interface.

The turian spun around, reached for his sidearm, and fired several rounds of his pistol into the terminal as well as the towers behind it. "NO!" The quarian slammed her hand on her hooded head as she exclaimed.

"What?" Garrus shrugged and put away his gun.

"Do you have any idea of what you've done?"

"Sounded like you were in trouble. Maybe there was a Reaper virus in the computer. You've got a back-up, right?"

Tali's silence was enough of an answer, and if he could see past her helmet's face plate, he would've witnessed the biggest scowl of a lifetime come across her face short of when she found out that her father had practically committed treason on the Alerai.

"You can't just buy this terminal anywhere, Garrus! This hardware was probably assembled right in this room, built specifically to be used just for the Normandy! It's OEM material!" Tali continued her tirade.

"But you can fix it, right? I mean, you're a genius."

The quarian crossed her arms. "Do you want to be the one telling Shepard that we're stuck here on the Citadel indefinitely, or shall I?" She waited for him to give her an answer. When he couldn't do so, she elaborated. "The drive core computer is broken. The Normandy's not going anywhere."

"Yeah, but I've seen you work miracles before. I mean, look at the Collector base, the stuff you salvaged on Haelstrom, the…oh, I'm not really helping, am I?"

"You might want to go eat now." Engineer Donnelly stormed into the ECR, dripping with perspiration, and his face was as black as charcoal.

"Bloody bastards, I'll show 'em who's boss!" he shouted to no one and shook a rather long monkey wrench up in the air. As he noticed the aliens staring at him, he smiled. "Hello, Boss. What's going on?"

"Uh, I was just…on my way out," Garrus said quickly and headed for the elevator.

"Engineer Donnelly, we might have a slight problem," Tali said nervously.

**Author's Notes**

Please do feel free to give constructive criticism or contact me. Reviews are very welcome and greatly cherished. If you do not like something, it's okay to share that as well, but I do humbly ask for a rational reason why you feel this way. There are always improvements to make, and I do not claim to be the best, nor will I ever do so.