Shepard stared at the man who had appeared in his comm. room. "Who are you?"

The Doctor began muttering to himself. "Let's see…Systems Alliance military uniform, circa 2180, probably a cruiser, judging by the sound of the drive core, therefore I am…" The Doctor whipped out his psychic paper and spoke more clearly. "…Dr. John Smith, Systems Alliance R&D."

"Okay…" The commander was a little taken aback. "How did you get on my ship?"

"We've been experimenting with teleportation," the Doctor answered, putting away his "credentials". "Could you tell me where I am?"

"Wait. You teleported here and you don't know where 'here' is?"

"Well, I was supposed to end up in Barcelona. Am I close?"

"Barcelona the city?"

"No, Barcelona the planet."

"Who would name a planet Barcelona?"

"Maybe someone from the city Barcelona?"

"Well, I don't know if we're near Barcelona, but I could show you where we are." Shepard gestured out of the comm. room. The two walked out into the CIC.

"This CIC isn't standard Alliance. It looks almost Turian."

"The Normandy was partially constructed by Turians."

The Doctor became excited. "The Normandy?"

"Yes…"

"I'm on the Normandy?"

"Yes you are," replied Shepard, walking up the ramp to the galaxy map.

"But that makes you Commander Shepard, doesn't it?"

"Do you want to know where you are or not?"

"Right, sorry." The Doctor walked up next to Shepard. The commander pressed a series of buttons and the map zoomed in, first to the Horse Head Nebula, then to the Pax system, and finally to the planet Noveria. "Noveria?"

"That's right."

"I'm on Noveria."

"For now…" Shepard then proceeded to plot a course from Noveria to the Citadel.

"Commander," said a voice over the comm. system. "We're getting a transmission from the Citadel."

"Is it the ambassador?"

"It's not his signature. I think it's from the council. I'll patch it through to the comm. room."

"Alright." Shepard looked over at the Doctor. "And tell Lieutenant Alenko to report to the CIC."

**

Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko climbed the stairs up to the command deck. Passing through the door at the top of the staircase, he saw the commander talking with a tall man in a brown coat. They turned to face Kaiden as he approached. Commander Shepard walked over to him. "I need to talk to the council. In the meantime, I want you to keep an eye on Dr. Smith here."

"Who is he, sir?"

"No idea. He says he's from Alliance R&D, but I have a hard time believing that."

"You just want me to watch him, sir?"

"Be discrete about it. Maybe give him a tour of the ship or something. Just make sure he doesn't touch anything."

**

Tali and Adams were working diligently when Kaiden brought the Doctor to engineering. "Oh…that is beautiful." Tali turned around and saw the Doctor admiring Normandy's drive core. "That's a Tantalus drive core. No wonder I thought this was cruiser…" The Doctor looked down at her and smiled. "Hello. I'm Dr. Smith."

"Um, I'm Tali."

"Nice to meet you, Tali."

"I'm sorry, but I'm very busy right now," Tali said, turning back to her work.

"What's the problem?" the Doctor asked as he walked up next to her, looking over her shoulder.

"We've got massive power fluctuations. I have no idea how it happened, but if we don't fix it, we'll drop out of FTL."

"It's worse than that," said Adams. "At this rate, the core will discharge long before we decelerate."

"And what happens if the core discharges?" asked the Doctor.

"Normally the ship's grounded so it's no big deal. But if the core discharges in space, we'll all be fried."

"But without knowing how the fluctuations started, there's no way of stopping them." Tali said almost frantically.

"May I?" the Doctor said calmly, gesturing at Tali's station.

Normally, Tali would have ignored such a request, but there was something about this man that she trusted. She knew somehow that if anyone could save them, it was Dr. Smith. She stepped out of the way.

The Doctor pulled out his glasses and put them on as he started working. After about a minute, Adams announced that the readings were returning to normal. The Doctor stepped back, taking off his glasses. "There," he announced. "That should stop the fluctuations and give you plenty of time to reach the Citadel before the core needs discharging."

Adams was impressed, Tali was speechless, and Kaiden was starting to wonder just who this man really was. "Who did you say you were, again?"

The Doctor showed Kaiden the psychic paper. "Dr. John Smith, Systems Alliance R&D."

Kaiden raised an eyebrow. "Is this a joke?"

"Is what a joke?"

Kaiden nodded at the psychic paper. "That paper's blank."


Author: Yay! Chapter two's done!

Martha: Hang on. How come I'm not in this chapter?

Jack: Neither am I.

Author: Don't worry, you'll be back in the limelight soon enough.

???: I can't believe I agreed to this.

Doctor: What's wrong?

???: You get an entire chapter to yourself, but I haven't even said anything yet.

Doctor: So? That just makes you more enigmatic.

Author: Anyway. To those of you reading this fic: Thank you and please review.