Chapter 1.
I can hear the sound of my breath, it is the only thing I can hear now besides the hissing sound of escaping oxygen. My mind tells me struggle, to fight for survival, but my body can no longer respond to it, I can see my life flashing in front of my eyes. The images come and go so fast as if they hold no real meaning to me, it's like a tape being fast-forwarded to skip all the meaningless things. Suddenly, I get the feeling as time stopped and so did my life, it seems like my memory got to the part of my life that was important to me, it showed me someone I really cared for, showed me someone I fell in love with, it showed me Liara…
"Commander? Commander! Come on Commander don't go all turian Councilor on me!" said Joker out loud, obviously irritated that he is being ignored.
"I'm sorry Joker, I am still thinking about the meeting with the council we had on the Citadel" John lowered his gaze at the pilot of the Normandy.
"Commander, what's there to think about? You're the first human Spectre, tasked with brining a dangerous ex-Spectre down and save the galaxy in the process. Really not a big deal if you ask me." Joker smiled, his not-so-witty jokes always raised Shepard's mood.
"Thanks Joker, that's reeeeeeally helpful." Shepard quipped, and made a faint smile.
"Any time Commander." Joker made a short laugh and turned back to Normandy's controls.
Shepard turned around and walked down the central walkway observing the crew who was hard at work at their stations. He was still trying to take in the fact that this ship is now under his command. He had a bit of an uneasy feeling, but he wasn't going to let the humanity lose this opportunity of making its chance at Council seat to fade away.
As Shepard passed the Galaxy map, he noticed Navigator Pressly in a heated discussion with some of the other crew members. As Shepard walked up to them, the conversation stopped, as all three men saluted him.
"At ease, political debates I presume." asked Shepard seeing that all three men standing in front of me were a bit nervous, he smiled to let the tension drop.
"I-It's nothing Commander, just having a little chat about… the new crew members." Answered Pressly
"Is there something I should know? Are any of them causing trouble?"
"No it's not like that Commander! Some of our crew is just concerned with the amount of aliens on an Alliance ship." The other two silent crew members averted their eyes from Shepard.
"Have any of them given you reason to be worried?"
"No Commander, they have not!"
"This is a joint operation, so I hope we can all work together on this in order to achieve our goals."
"Yes Sir!" said all the three men and with another salute, went to their workstations.
Shepard didn't think there would be a lot of tension between the Normandy's crew and the new recruits, but it seems that he was too quick to judge, the war with the turians left a deep scar in humanity's memory. He walked down to the crew deck. He saw Leutenant Alenko standing at his terminal, doing some sort of work, most likely handling one of the Eden Prime reports. He turned towards Shepard, straightened out and saluted him.
"Sir." he greeted the Commander, awaiting a response.
"No need to be official Kaidan, at ease."
"Yes Commander. Is there something you wanted to ask me?"
"I just wanted to ask your oppinion of how we are doing so far. And don't worry, this one is off the record."
"Alright, to be honest commander, I am concerned about all the non-humans we are picking up."
"Not you too Alenko." Shepard answered with a sigh.
"Sorry Commander, but just hear me out. Humanity already had a run in with the turians several years back. I came down to an all out war, only after the council found out and learned that the turians fired first that we got the privilages that humanity has now. I can still sense the tension on the citadel between humans and turians in public places. Then you have krogans, those behemoths managed to wipe out the rachni and when they became a threat, the council had to resort to bioweapons to pacify them, that's no laughing matter. And last, we have a quarrian, they unleashed the geth on the galaxy, the geth that we are fighting right now Commander."
"I understand your concern Kaidan, however I have a different oppinion on all three non human races we currently have on board. This vessel is a joint human-turian design to improve the human-turian relations. It is only fair to have a turian on board to further this cause. Besides, Garrus doesn't look like he is prejudiced against humans."
"With all due respect Commander, he used to work in C-Sec and they are a multi-race organisation, he was taught to treat everyone equally."
"Then it's even more of a reason to not give him doubt about his training don't you think?"
"Yes sir I see your point."
"As far as krogan go, Wrex is no different, he is a mercenary and will work for the highest bidder. He does however have respect for strength, like any other krogan, and he can see the strength in this ship and in this crew. Also Kaidan, there are no fertile krogan females on this ship, so I wouldn't worry about them overrunning it." Shepard smiled.
Kaidan let out a chucle. "Commander, your jokes are worse then Joker's, no offense." he replied cheerfully.
"That was uncalled for Kaidan, my jokes are never as bad as Joker's" John laughed, then let out a caugh to supress the laughter. "That leaves the quarrians, I know about their involvement with the geth, however as they unleashed the geth on the rest of the galaxy, they also posess the most knowledge on them, without that recording from the geth data core we wouldn't even be on this mission right now, don't you agree?"
"You're right Commander, I appologise."
"No need for appologies Kaidan, I understand your concernes, but I think we should give our guests a chance. I should go, we'll talk later."
"Commander." Kaidan saluted.
John went back to the elevator, after a quick descent he was in the cargo hold. John took a quick look around, and spotted two turian legs sticking from under the Mako. He walked up to the vehicle and squatted down to take a look underneath. The turian was working on one of the thrusters of the Mako, most likely calibrating the output of the jets. Garrus Vakarian was of great help on the citadel, being a C-Sec officer he knew his way around the station, however his patience with C-Sec protocols were more then enough to jump at the opportunity to join Shepard's crew.
"How are you doing Garrus?" John asked, barely containing a laugh as he heard a distinct *thud* and an expletive. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." he said as the turian pulled himself out from under the Mako.
"That's alright Commander." Garrus answered with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "What can I do for you?"
"I was just checking in to see how you settled down in here, was there any trouble with C-Sec transfers?"
"There was no trouble, although Executor Pallin wasn't very happy about me transferring to a human ship and under the command of a human Spectre." Garrus let out a small laugh "Seeing his face was priceless."
"Glad to hear it, if you need anything let me know."
"Sure thing Commander." And as Shepard started to walk away, he added "Oh and Commander, thanks again for taking me with you on this mission, all the C-Sec red tape garbage was really getting to me. I'm glad that we are finally able to actually do something, without the need to fill out 10 forms and have them all approved"
"No problem Garrus, we are here to get things done, however knowing when to stop is what matters, otherwise we are no different from Saren."
"I understand Commander."
"Just call me Shepard."
"Very well, Shepard" The turian nodded and climbed back under the Mako
Shepard walked across the cargo bay to another new recruit. The Gunnery Chief from the human colony of Eden Prime was transferred to Normandy after the colony's assault by Saren and his geth.
"Making friends with the turian skipper?" Ashley turned and faced Shepard, her hands crossed on her chest.
"Is that a proper way to address a superior officer Chief Willians?" Shepard asked with a straight face.
"I… but… Sorry Sir, won't happen again, Sir!" She straightened up and saluted the Commander.
"Relax Ashley, I was just kidding." He said with a smile.
Ashley's face was now all red from mixed emotions of embarrassment and anger. But it only took her a moment to collect herself.
"Well played Commander Shepard." She gave a hint of a smile "So what's the plan skipper?"
"We are on route to Therum, according to the council, Matriarch Benezia's daughter is there on a prothean digsite, she might contain some information on her mother and perhaps the Conduit."
"So this is a rescue mission for an asari archeologist?"
"Yes, but if I was Saren, I would probably try to either acquire or remove such an asset. We have every reason to think that Dr. T'Soni is in danger."
"Asset?"
"Prothean expert with possible knowledge of her mother's location and intentions, sounds like an asset to me Ashley."
"Fair enough, I better get back to work though skipper, we will be arriving to Therum soon and I still have a few guns that need maintenance."
"We'll talk later"
I turned and walked a few steps to the krogan mercenary, who helped us take down Fist, the head of a small crime syndicate, and ultimately helping us uncover Saren's betrayal.
"Shepard." Wrex nodded in approval. "That female is a feisty one, reminds me of the krogan females, when they are calm."
"It's true, I wouldn't exactly call her an average human female." Shepard smiled, "How are you doing?"
"Doing pretty good, for a member of a dying race, the funds for Fist's contract were just recently transferred."
"I hope you won't make a habit of shooting people we are questioning Wrex." John asked, rather annoyed by the trick he pulled when they were in Chora's Den.
"Not unless I get paid for it." Wrex let out a loud laugh.
Shepard shook his head "I'll talk to you later Wrex."
"Shepard." Wrex nodded.
John had a bit more time before they land on Therum to talk to the last addition to the team, and to the person to whom he owes his Spectre status. He walked through the door on the left of the elevator and entered the drive core. Among the human engineers stood a quarian, configuring something on her omnitool.
"Hey Tali, how are you doing?"
"Shepard!" She said loudly, sounding rather ecstatic "Your ship is amazing!"
"I'm glad you like it Tali." Shepard answered with a smile.
"Thanks for bringing me along Shepard, I never even dreamed that I would get to experience the flight on board such a ship." If John could see her expression under that helmet, he could bet she was smiling right now.
"No problem Tali, you helped me prove that Saren is guilty, this is the least I could do."
"Still, Shepard, no one has ever treated me this nicely before. People usually see the suit and the helmet and immediately have an opinion of me, even if I haven't done anything. It is a stigma of my people."
"Don't worry Tali, I promise that as long as you are on this ship, you will be treated equally as any other member of my crew."
"Thank you Shepard, I better get back to adjusting my omnitool, it's been giving me a bit of trouble."
"See you later Tali."
"Fifteen minutes ETA Commander!" Joker's voice resonated in the com system.
Shepard opened a communications channel. "Williams, Vakarian, I will meet you at the make in five minutes." John shut off the transmission and walked towards the elevator.