The Barracuda: Allegiances
Chapter 2: The Normandy
Tension from the Alliance crew and the quarian was almost palpable as they watched to see what would happen between their commanding officer and this stranger who had, quite literally, fallen from above. The quarian was rubbing one of her elbows tenderly.
The two women were quietly staring each other down. Charlie was smirking madly, her eyes narrowed but summing Shepard up. Her hair was as black as oil, cut to her chin. Honeyed brown eyes smoked with violet eye shadow regarded her coolly, giving nothing away. Though paled slightly from starship life and mostly covered in a uniform, her skin was naturally tanned and smooth except for a mark above her left eye: A short, wide, and white scar.
"Aw, I see Pippy cut her hair," Charlie teased, crossing her arms over her chest. She resisted cringing when her armor groaned from neglect.
"It's hard to run courses with braids," Shepard replied, her own lips quirking into a smile. "Besides, I'm not fifteen anymore."
"Does the eye makeup help you aim a gun?" Charlie sneered and gestured toward her face as she spoke.
"No, but I look damn good while doing it," she said without missing a beat. She stepped forward deliberately, coming to stand directly in front of Charlie. They stood at the same height, but next to Shepard, Charlie looked pale and beat up, her hair ruffled into a messy Mohawk and dust covering her from head to toe.
Silence dropped between them again. Just as those watching thought they couldn't handle their curiosity any longer, both women suddenly threw out their arms, exclaimed—
"Charlie!"
"Piper!"
—and embraced tightly. Shepard patted her on the back a few times before pulling away, her face cracked by a grin as she held the other woman by the shoulders.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked with a short laugh. "The last time I saw you I was leaving for basic."
Charlie shrugged her shoulders, her own grin making her cheeks hurt. "I've been bouncing around here and there, freelancing—"
"—and breaking into Alliance warships to throw the engineers around?" One of Shepard's eyebrows was raised.
Charlie laughed a bit, rubbing the back of her head as she looked apologetically at the two men she had tossed into a wall. "Sorry about that, I don't have a great handle on my biotics." She spotted the quarian and turned to her. "Are you all right? I didn't mean to, um, fall on you."
"I'm…not sure what to say," she replied. That accent! Charlie cooed inside her head. "But I'm…okay."
"C'mon, Charlie. Walk with me." Shepard moved toward the door, shouting for everyone to resume the departure. As she opened the door to the elevator she smirked at Charlie. "Welcome to the Normandy, you're stuck with us now."
Charlie beamed. She grabbed up her helmet and bag where they had fallen to the wayside, and then practically bounced to join Shepard in the slowest elevator in the galaxy.
Charlie should have known that it wouldn't just be her and Shepard when they arrived in the communications room. An older man and two other Alliance soldiers waited inside, a dark-haired man and olive-toned woman. They were surprised to see her accompanying their commander.
"This is Charlie Evans, she's an old friend and will be joining the crew. Charlie, this is my XO Navigator Charles Pressly, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams." Shepard gestured to the older man, the younger man, and the woman respectively.
It was obvious the three were overflowing with questions, but they swallowed them at Shepard's no-nonsense expression. Instead, the XO stated, "Joker needs a destination, ma'am."
"We'll pick up the scientist first and then book it to Feros. Make sure the Mako is ready to go, as well." Shepard gave a friendly smile then. "Thank you, Pressly."
The man saluted and then left. The other two continued to eye Charlie. She glared back.
Their expressions didn't go unnoticed by the commander, Williams's especially. "Speak freely, Ashley," said Shepard, crossing her arms and frowning.
The gunnery chief cut her eyes to continue looking at Charlie for a moment before turning her full attention to the commander. "It's the aliens, ma'am. Are you sure we should trust them on our ship?"
Shepard sighed. It was clear this was not the first xenophobic comment made by the woman. "Do you doubt me, Ashley?"
This took her by surprise. "I—no. No, I don't doubt you, ma'am." She pulled a curt salute. Once dismissed she moved stiffly to the door, glancing mistrustfully at Charlie one last time. The latter wiggled her fingers and smiled cheekily at her.
Shepard turned to Charlie then and she quickly snapped to attention in a poor imitation of a soldier. The commander just shook her head, her small smile amused. "I need to go talk to Joker and Pressly, so how about you grab a bite to eat in the mess while you wait on me? Kaidan, will you show her?"
"Yes, Commander." He saluted. Like a toy soldier, wound up tight, thought Charlie.
Shepard clapped Charlie on the shoulder before leaving the room. She watched her go, and when she had, she snorted.
Kaidan looked at her curiously so she explained, "Last time I saw your commander she had pigtails to her butt and dirt on her nose. Now she's Miss Large and In Charge." She laughed more openly and then took a good look at her escort. He wasn't a bad looking guy; she had always been a bit weak in the knees for a wide shouldered, dark eyed man, after all.
"So, you're Kaidan Alenko?"
He nodded. "Yes, ma'am. You can just call me Kaidan, if you want."
Charlie shuddered. "And you can just call me Charlie. No 'ma'am.' Please."
Kaidan chuckled. "C'mon, the mess hall is one deck down."
She admired the ship more as they passed through new areas. Kaidan gave her a brief tour as they walked, pointing out things like the galaxy map and the direction of the bridge. He led her down stairs behind the command center and around a partition where a table was set up near a small mess. It was the size of a kitchenette, but technology had both improved and shrunk the size of rations.
"Do you want something to eat?" Kaidan asked and when she shook her head they sat at the table across from one another. She stowed her stuff underneath her chair for the time being.
"Surprisingly, I'm still pretty full from the breakfast C-Sec gave me," she said nonchalantly. It wasn't until she saw his face that she remembered opening a conversation with one's latest arrest story wasn't generally seen as the best first impression. "Erm…How long have you known Piper?"
He relaxed, obviously more comfortable with the topic change. "Not very long, but it's already been like nothing else in my career. Hell, my whole life." He sounded awed, maybe even star struck. Charlie smirked.
"She's always had a knack for stirring things up," she said. "Probably why we got along so well. Things are never boring with The Shepard."
"'The' Shepard?" Kaidan sounded amused.
"That's what the other kids would call her a lot. Never could pinpoint exactly who started it." Charlie sat back, lifting her feet to rest on the corner of the table, crossed one over the other.
"Kids? So you grew up with Shepard?"
Charlie nodded, humming her affirmation as she picked at her greaves. The faint blue stripes had been peeling for months. "We both had no parents and no one we could trust, so we decided to trust each other, no matter what."
"You make it sound so simple," said Kaidan, a bit wistful. "You just…made a decision, and that was it? I don't think things are ever that easy."
"That was it." For Charlie, it wasn't complicated. "She's never given me reason not to trust her, and there isn't much she'd gain from back-stabbing me. But none of that shit even matters, because I'm not ever going to be the type of person who doesn't trust the only family they have. I don't want that for my life." She thought for a moment while Kaidan mulled over her words, and then she laughed. "Imagine if she did take me out though. She'd get this shitty armor, a few creds, and a bunch of crap paintings. Woo, what a prize!"
Kaidan cracked a smile and she was happy to have caused it. She may be pretty aggressive at times, but making someone smile or laugh was satisfying. She was always one to break the tension with a joke or by exclaiming something outlandish.
When he suddenly stood and snapped to attention, Charlie raised an eyebrow curiously. She looked over her shoulder to see Shepard approaching.
"Damn, Pip. I see your effect on men has only intensified." She gestured lazily toward Kaidan.
Shepard rolled her eyes. "At ease, Lieutenant. You can return to your post."
"Aye aye." He nodded, and then looked at Charlie. "It was nice to meet you."
As he headed for the stairs Shepard took his vacated seat, leaning back and crossing her arms.
"You aren't supposed to put your feet on the table, you know."
"Do I look like one of your grunts?"
Shepard laughed, and it was a good sound. Charlie grinned.
"I'm so glad you haven't changed," she said, and she did sound relieved. "But why were you looking for me? Are you in trouble?"
Charlie's grin fell away and her shoulders slumped. "Damn, Pip, can't lay off the perceptiveness for longer than five minutes?"
"You forget how well I know you." Shepard leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table. She lowered her voice. "Is it that merc group you're in?"
"Technically, I'm not in it anymore."
"Technically? God, please tell me you just quit…"
"I just quit."
Shepard's look was not amused. "Charlie."
"Piper," she mimicked. "I saw all the news about you becoming a Spectre and going on this big adventure and I thought, there's no way she's doing this without me!"
"So you attempted to stow away? Why not just…I don't know, walk up to me and say 'hey'?"
"Number one, I didn't attempt, I did stow away. Number two, I figured you'd be surrounded by guards or politicians or something." Charlie looked into Shepard's eyes, trying to read her friend. "I need to be on the move and you are, so whatever it is you're doing as a Spectre, let me help."
"I'm chasing down a rogue ex-Spectre named Saren."
"Oh GOD I'm in!"
It felt like a couple of lifetimes ago that Charlie Evans and Piper Shepard were together, but at the same time everything felt the same. Sure, they both looked different and had taken very different oaths in life, but who they were, who they would always be at the core, was the same. It felt like coming home.
While Shepard inspired this feeling, the Normandy did not. Everywhere she went people cut their eyes at her distrustfully. She supposed it was only fair, since she was giving them the same look.
Shepard had just enough time to give her a brief account of recent events and what this mission was about. It was likely going to take them all over the galaxy, which meant plenty of staying off the grid. She wasn't in any of the Normandy's files and she wouldn't ever be as long as she was around, so it would be difficult to track her past the Citadel.
But she wasn't going to just hide out on the ship either. She was deadly with pistols and handguns, half decent with assault weapons, and she was a biotic—albeit an untrained one. She had had Shepard's back on Earth, she intended to do the same again for letting her onto her ship. It settled something deep in her that Piper also hadn't abandoned their pact.
Charlie explored the ship as they traveled to the Artemis Tau cluster. From there they would have to travel to a different system, so she had some time to become acquainted with her surroundings.
She started at the top, her first stop the bridge. She was curious about the pilot and the ship's set up. It was touted as a masterpiece, human and turian engineering at their greatest, and she had a passing interest in starships, especially fast ones.
As she entered she noticed the XO on a terminal to the right. He gave her a courteous nod and continued to work. Then she noticed Kaidan in the co-pilot seat.
"Didn't realize you were a pilot," Charlie said and he looked over his shoulder at her.
"Technically, I'm not, but the Alliance trains you for everything." One corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. "Joker here is the real deal, though."
The pilot's chair swiveled around as the man inside said, "So, about that appointment…"
Charlie's eyes widened. She couldn't believe she was looking down at the cripple from outside the hangar. "You! You weren't lying?"
His tone was snarky when he replied, "Uh…what does it look like?"
"Wait," interjected Kaidan, sounding a bit confused, "You two have met?"
"Briefly." Joker rolled one of his shoulders until it popped. "She told me if I was really the pilot of this ship then she was Sha'ira the Consort."
"Sha'ira is an asari."
"Not the point, Kaidan."
Charlie started to laugh, startling the boys to look at her again. She kept laughing for longer than was comfortable, but she couldn't help it. It had just occurred to her how absurd her day had been, and it wasn't even over.
She left the bridge still chuckling to herself, the helmsman and staff lieutenant watching her with a mix of bewilderment and wariness.
She retrieved her helmet and duffle bag from under the table in the mess and took the elevator back down to the shuttle bay. She avoided the doors leading to engineering and approached the lockers on the starboard side. Gunnery Chief Williams was standing off to the side, her arms crossed and watching Charlie coldly.
She ignored her as she accessed the locker Shepard indicated earlier. She shoved her stuff inside, slammed the door shut, and used her Omni-tool to program the lock. She kept her heavy caliber pistol on her for now.
Williams's eyes hadn't left her yet, so she spun to face the woman and barked, "What is your problem?"
Her dark eyes narrowed, her lips tightening. She seemed to consider multiple things to say before settling on a brisk, "No problem, yet."
Charlie clenched her fists, her knuckles crackling. "What's that supposed to mean? Be straight."
Williams unfolded her arms to place her hands on her hips, straightening to her full height and turning her nose up slightly. "You are obviously a mercenary, and thugs only attract trouble."
Charlie quirked an eyebrow. "Like you? Cause shit was fine until you opened your mouth."
She made to retort, but the next voice Charlie heard was dual-toned and male: "Hey, hey, what's going on here?"
She bristled, immediately thinking, A cop, crap, only to remember in the next moment where she was. She looked at the turian who had spoken, and sure enough he wore C-Sec requisitioned armor.
"Oh, what the hell?" she blurted out. "Is this a military vessel or a flying circus?"
The turian laughed, a friendly and endearing sound, which was strange for Charlie. "That's actually pretty accurate. We even have a krogan and quarian. Add some Geth, a salarian or two, and some asari, and we're in business."
Charlie laughed, the action coming out of its own volition. "You're the funniest cop I've ever met."
He looked surprised, the mandibles along either side of his jaw lifting slightly. "Did Shepard tell you I was C-Sec?" Emphasis on the "was." "Besides, you don't look like any Alliance soldier I've ever seen.
"That's because she's not an Alliance soldier," Williams snapped from behind them, obviously offended by the insinuation.
"If I'm going to be taking orders all day then it's going to be on my terms, with way better pay." Charlie snorted, crossing her arms. "Anyway, Shepard didn't tell me. I've been arrested by your lot far more times than I can count." She smirked up at the turian. "Perhaps you've heard of me, I'm—"
"BARRACUDA!"
When a krogan shouts, anyone's first instinct is to duck and cover, so that's what the trio attempted to do. They scattered in different directions, trying to find shelter in the mostly open cargo hold. But then their senses returned to them and they stood in random places around the room.
Charlie knew this krogan, something about the way his head crest was cracked, not to mention he called her by that title.
"Spirits, Wrex!" the turian scolded with a weak laugh. "Not all of us have a back-up heart, you know."
"Heh, heh," Wrex laughed slowly, amused. "It'll keep you sharp, Garrus!" The krogan turned back to Charlie now, giving her a good once over before nodding definitively. "Yup, thought so. Shepard hooked the Barracuda, huh?"
Suddenly it clicked, and Charlie's mouth dropped open. "Wrex? Urdnot Wrex? Holy shit, I don't believe it!" She moved forward and clapped him on the arm, her grin stretched across her face genuinely. "Had any good jobs since we took down that Cerberus station in the Terminus Systems? That's been a few years."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Some had their moments. Chasing down Saren has the best potential yet."
"So I hear. I never would have thought I'd see you on a military vessel, much less Alliance." Charlie paused and then added, "You know, as a friendly. Not tearing it up."
Wrex laughed. It was a deep, rumbling sound like thunder. "Same for you, kid. You not running with Javos anymore?"
Charlie's heart thumped painfully in her chest, sweat sprang out on her brow and soaked her palms, her mind began to race. She clamped down on it with might, but still her voice wavered slightly when she replied, "No. Red Tide and I are done."
If the krogan noticed any change in her demeanor he didn't indicate it. He said, "Fair enough," and that was that. They started to talk about the job they had run together, and the turian called Garrus joined in to listen. Even Williams was straining an ear to eavesdrop.
"So why 'Barracuda'?" Garrus asked, looking from Charlie to Wrex for his answer.
"Ever seen one?" questioned Wrex. "Aggressive and fast, look like a flash of silver tearing through the water. That's how the kid looks in combat." He chuckled as though amused. "Helluva sight, funny too."
"I liked the name you gave me so much I got a barracuda tattoo." Charlie grinned, patting the outside of her right thigh.
Right then the intercom clicked on and Shepard's voice filled the ship. "We're making our approach to Therum. Ground team squad report to briefing."
"That's us," said Garrus. "Who will be the lucky two to go with Shepard?"
"Finally, some action!" growled Wrex.
Charlie felt a thrill run up her spine, her nerves popping and crackling with biotic energy. She had to agree with Wrex. She was ready for some adventure, and there was no way Piper was going down on that planet without her.
Author's Note: It may seem strange that Shepard just takes Charlie in when all the current evidence points to them not having seen each other in a long time. Bear with me, it will make more sense as the story progresses and you learn more about their past. Also, I want to go ahead and note that Charlie suffers from PTSD. I will try to do this disorder justice. I have experience with it as well as a ton of research. Anyway, enjoy!
