I first contacted Admiral Hannah Shepard aboard the NSV Sydney, an Alliance medical carrier that she has served as the commanding officer of for the last 8 years. After hearing my request and speaking with Kaidan, she agreed to meet with me at her home in Mumbai. Though approaching her 65th birthday, she remains as fit and as youthful in her appearance as someone 2 decades younger. Though remarried after the death of her late husband John (to New India Prime Minister Amesh Singh), she retains the name Shepard in honor of both her husband and son. Adorned in the entryway of her study is a photo of Shepard and what I assume to be his sister Heidi. I ask about the photo. Admiral Shepard tells me it was taken the morning Garrett was to ship out for basic training. Her gaze lingers on the photo for a moment longer, in what I know must be a bittersweet memory. She quickly returns to the present and we both take our seats in a pair of lush chairs. After a moment, she admits she doesn't know where to begin.

"Why don't we begin at the beginning?"

She chuckles, "Seems like just as good a place as any I guess. Well I want to start by saying that John and I had never planned on having any children. We were just 2 young flight officers in a still very young and very juvenile relationship. What you have to remember was that the Systems Alliance had just been founded. There was this great excitement at the discovery of the Charon relay. We were all so busy and excited to be a part of the whole thing. Heidi was as much an accident as you can imagine. But it forced us to grow up fast. We got married and a few years later Garrett was born. At that moment, I was probably the happiest I'd ever been. Of course that all changed a couple years later"

"How so?"

"I was in the camp of exploring and expanding. John was very much a 'wait and see' kind of guy. I wanted to leave the Alliance and join one of the settlement groups that were out there finding and discovering new worlds. John would have none of it. One night, he and I got into a very heated argument; you're married so you know what I'm talking about. It never got physical but lines were definitely crossed and things were said that it definitely took a while to apologize for. Suddenly this tiny voice spoke. In those moments, neither of us had noticed that Garrett was standing there watching us.

"What did he say?"

"He simply asked for a drink and needed to be tucked back in. Neither John nor I said another word. We had the routine down. He would get Garrett something to drink, and I'd carry him back up the stairs and put him to bed. We shelved our disagreement and went back to being dutiful parents and soldiers. Sometimes, I wish more people would have followed my husband's point of view."

"Why do you say that?"

"It couldn't have been a few days after that fight we were at war. At least we thought we were anyways. I think about the arrogance of those first missions, they were out there activation every relay they could find. We didn't know a damn thing about anything past our own system, and yet, there we were, spreading our name across the stars. John used to say that we were like dogs that had never been outside before. We were marking our territory on everything we could find. He'd ask, 'What happens when the bigger dog come back to claim what they believe is already theirs?'

"How did you raise a family during war time?"

"The short answer is we didn't. John had family that he was still very close to on Earth. Heidi and Garrett went and stayed with them. It was the first time since I became a mother that I had been separated from the 2 of them. Looking back, I feel stupid for even referring to the First Contact War as an actual war. The alliance lost 623 people; the Turians lost a few more. Overreacting on both sides, but hey the advantages of wisdom and hindsight, huh?"

"Let's move forward a few years. When was it that Shepard, well Garrett, decided he was going into the 'family business' as it were?"

"John and I never forced our kids towards any set future. We'd learned over the years, that that was the quickest way to lose them. Tell either kid what to do, and it was almost a surefire guarantee that they'd do the opposite. With Heidi, even at an early age, you knew that military life wasn't for her. She wanted to put her feet on real soil and raise a family without the trouble of picking up and moving every 6 months or so. To her credit, she and her family have been in Paris for nearly 20 years. Garrett on the other hand, was bound and determined to be just like his father. In the years that the kids were growing up, John had been promoted to Major and oversaw a unit whose sole purpose was chasing down slavers and pirates. It was extremely dangerous work, but to a young boy it was the adventure that he'd always wanted."

"When Garrett enlisted, it was a very somber day in the Shepard household. We were proud of him, he had the scores and requirements needed to attend ICT (Interplanetary Combatants Training), he had the mind to be a Fleet Admiral. But he chose to be a marine instead. Don't get me wrong, I have the highest respect for the men and women that have put their boots in the mud and have learned to fight from the ground up, but as a mother, even a mother who still wears the uniform, I was terrified."

"So, it probably goes without saying that you were less than happy with his acceptance into and pursuit of the famed N7 program?"

Hannah laughs out loud. "Yes, that's a pretty spot on description. John and I were busy with our own careers, and as much as we'd have liked to, keeping track of Garrett was difficult. He'd check in with us once a month to let us know how he was doing, but he was always vague about the work that he was doing. It wasn't until after he'd completed the N1 course that we were even aware that he'd been accepted into the program."

"I wasn't happy. I knew the grueling and often tortuous means that the recruits went through. I was more than a little upset that my youngest child was voluntarily putting himself through that. But once again, it was John's cooler head that put everything in perspective."

"How did he manage that?"

"How many soldiers have you known in your years with ANN?"

"Thousands, at least."

"And how many of them were N7 graduates?"

"Maybe 20?"

"Exactly. That was John's argument. Of all the recruits that go through the N program, less than 1% actually receives the N7 rank. In truth Garrett had decided to leave the program after he'd failed to receive the necessary points to progress to N5."

What happened?

"Akuze."