Disclaimer: Castle and Mass Effect are not mine. They belong to those that created them and continue their stories.
In Orbit of Arcturus Station, Arcturus System, Earth Alliance Space – one week earlier
Commander Kate Beckett grips suddenly onto the side of the cabin as the Kodiak class shuttle rocks violently for a few seconds, almost knocking her from her feet.
"Sorry about that, Commander," comes the cheery female voice of the shuttle's pilot from the cockpit at the front of the craft.
With one hand still outstretched towards a bulkhead in case there is any more unexpected turbulence she makes her way forward until she is standing in the open hatchway leading to the cockpit. Once there she looks down at the very young woman, almost a girl to Beckett's thirty something eyes, whose long, flaming red hair she can see in a pony-tail poking out from the back of the regulation blue with gold piping Alliance Navy ball cap the pilot is wearing.
The pilot must sense Beckett's presence behind her because she turns a porcelain white face and striking blue eyes up to her as she says apologetically while continuing her bright tone, "Oh, hey Commander. Sorry again. I had to avoid an unexpected trash dump by a Volus freighter and the inertial dampers on this crate aren't what they were. I've tried tweaking them but they just won't stay fixed. It happens with these first run Kodiaks. We were supposed to get brand new ones but funding was tight towards the end of the build so they lumped us with some hand-me-downs."
"That's OK, Flight Lieutenant….Castle? Did you say your name was?" Beckett recalls from their brief introduction at the shuttle bay on Arcturus station.
The woman nods her head eagerly, "Flight Lieutenant Alexis Castle, ma'am, but you can call me, Blue."
"Blue?" responds Beckett with surprise.
The young officer rolls her eyes before replying, "Yeah, that's my call sign. It was given to me at flight school. It's an Aussie slang thing. I did my initial training at Kingsford–Smith base just outside Brisbane and one of my instructors was a local. Apparently Aussies call people with red hair 'Bluey'." The pilot shrugs her shoulders, "It's one of those opposites slang things. So all though training he would call me Blue and it's stuck with me ever since."
Beckett then sits down in the empty co-pilot seat next to Blue and regards the young pilot for a few moments. She must admit Flight Lieutenant Castle or Blue intrigues her for no other reason that she finds it unusual that such a young person is already a Flight Lieutenant and a qualified pilot. She watches as Blue makes some minor adjustments on the holographic controls that are projected in front of her and her movements are assured, almost graceful as her fingers glide across the controls.
So Blue seems competent enough but she still looks far too young for her rank. There is a mystery here and Kate Beckett only likes mysteries in the books she reads and not in one of the officers that is now under her command. Her appointment to this duty was so last minute that, while she's read as much as she could about it on the way here, she hasn't had a chance to review the personnel files of all of the crew yet so she doesn't know this officer's story. She then notices Blue giving her scrutiny a couple of nervous sideways glances and so Beckett decides to put her out of her misery while also satisfying her own curiosity.
"If you don't mind me saying, Blue, aren't you a little young to be a Flight Lieutenant?" Beckett asks a little bluntly.
There is a definite blooming of red on the white cheeks of the pilot before she responds just a little defiantly, "I am eighteen, Commander. I was identified with a high IQ and superior hand-eye co-ordination in grade school by an Alliance early development program. After further testing I showed that I also have a natural aptitude for science and engineering. My Dad and I were encouraged for me to enter an Alliance Military advanced early education program. I spent my High School years at the Academy and there I discovered that besides tinkering with all the latest tech I really love to fly. After graduating from the Academy I went to flight school while minoring in engineering. So besides being a pilot I also supply tech support aboard. Upgrading and moding armour, weapons, load outs and the like."
"So you're some kind of girl genius then?" comments Beckett with just a hint of teasing.
The blush gets a little deeper on Blue's cheeks, "I suppose you could say that."
"Then you're the shuttle pilot and tech support aboard?" clarifies Beckett.
Now the blush is so red on the girl's face that it is matching the colour of her pony tail, "Uh, while I do help the Chief with tech support my primary duty is ship's pilot."
Beckett cocks a curious eyebrow at that as it is unusual for a ship's pilot to be flying a shuttle. Blue glances nervously at her and seeing her expression hurriedly explains, "When I heard that you were joining us, Commander, I swapped with Ensign Tolliver so I could be the one to fly you to the ship."
Blue pauses for a moment but as Beckett doesn't fill the silence the pilot continues bashfully, shoulders now a little hunched in embarrassment, answering Beckett's unasked question of why?
"I swore I'd never tell you this but you're the type of officer I aspire to be, Commander. Youngest woman to achieve N7 rating. Winner of the Star Cross at Zoratell. Not to mention taking command of the Singapore when only a Lieutenant, after all the other senior officers were killed and defeating that Batarian slaver ship that ambushed you. Next to Shepard you're one of the most well-known officers in the Alliance. With him dead there's even talk of you becoming the next human Spectre…..I…..I just wanted the opportunity to be the first person to welcome you aboard," Blue embarrassedly stammers her admission.
Beckett sighs and turns away from the embarrassed but hero worshiping young officer and looks out the side view port at the black emptiness of space as she responds gruffly with a hint of resignation, "I'm nothing special, kid. Don't put me on a pedestal. I'm just the same as any other Alliance officer."
"Oh…No….I didn't mean…Oh, I was afraid of this," continues a now mortified Blue. "Please forget I said anything, Commander. I just meant to say that I have the highest respect for you and I'm honoured to serve with you."
Relenting a little so to alleviate Blue's very obvious disquiet at how their introduction has gone Beckett responds a little lighter in tone and turns back to the pilot to offer a small, false smile, "Not to worry, Blue. Don't mind me. It was a long trip from Earth so I must still be a little space lagged."
Blue nods her head eagerly and in relief, "Of course, Commander."
Silence falls in the cockpit at that and Beckett turns back to look out the view port again. Beckett hates that. The notoriety bordering on fame, the adoration and the inflated expectations that have come about because of her past. As she said to the young woman at the controls, she considers herself no different than any other Alliance officer. In her opinion she'd just gotten lucky a few times when a lot of others hadn't.
Ok, so she's not so unassuming not to acknowledge that she does have some skills and she does take some small pride of the N7 patch on her armour and all the blood and sweat she went through to get it. It's just that with the reason she joined the Alliance Military still a dark hole in her heart she feels anything but the perfect example of an Alliance officer that Flight Lieutenant Castle obviously thinks she is.
Unfortunately since Shepard's death, a little under two years ago, the Alliance propaganda machine has been looking for a new poster child and has latched onto her. Little did the ship's pilot know that Councillor Udina did, in fact, offer her the job as the next human Spectre.
Those enigmatic agents of the Citadel Council who act as its very direct and rough right hand. Doing all the jobs, some very dirty, that the Council need doing that don't require or warrant the attention of the Council fleet. Answerable to no one except the Council, not even to the government of the agent's own home world.
Beckett's sure that some of the Flight Lieutenant's high estimation of her might drop if she learnt how Beckett had flatly refused the offer. She doesn't want to become a plaything of the Council, especially the Asari. Not with her past and that reason she joined the Alliance.
A couple of loud beeps from the console in front of Blue interrupt her thoughts and Beckett turns to look back at the pilot as her hands move quickly and precisely over the controls. Blue then indicates with her head at the main view port in front of her and says with some pride, "There she is, Commander. The New York."
Beckett looks out the view port at what Blue is referring to, the rapidly approaching profile of a ship seemingly hanging in space ahead of them. Her new duty assignment, the SSV New York, SR12. As she looks over the curved, shiny, blue-grey hull some of the misgivings that she felt when she was offered this assignment resurface.
She had been on Earth preparing to leave on another assignment when she'd been ordered to report to the Alliance Admiralty in Vancouver. Once there she had received new orders to step in as the brand new New York's Executive Officer and Commander of the ship's two squads of Marines. The suddenness of the appointment was due to the previous XO being seriously injured during the ship's trials and the ship's Captain requesting her, specifically, as the replacement.
Knowing that the Captain in question was her old mentor, Captain Roy Montgomery, had her quickly getting over the suddenness of the change of orders. That and she hadn't really been looking forward to undertaking her previous assignment.
As part of the Alliance wanting to use her as the new ideal of an Alliance officer for the recruiting posters, she had been about to undertake a goodwill mission to the human colonies in the Terminus Systems. While there she was to offer to oversee the installation of defence batteries, press the flesh, play nice and show the Alliance flag. All to a bunch of colonists that were mostly in the Terminus Systems so that they would have nothing to do with the Alliance. Therefore she'd fully expected to be as about welcome on the colonies as a Geth would be in the Quarian Migrant Fleet. She pities whichever officer has to do that publicity stunt now.
Therefore she'd been eager to take on this new role and had spent the journey from Earth to Arcturus, the large space station that is the seat of the Alliance Parliament and Military, reviewing the specs of this new ship that she can now see for herself in front of her. Seeing in it the obvious influences in its design brings up the same misgivings she felt when she read those specs on the way here.
The New York is a both an experimental and new class of ship. After the success of the joint Human-Turian project that resulted in the hybrid frigate Normandy and its pivotal role at the Battle of the Citadel, the Alliance started looking for similar interspecies development opportunities. The New York, named after the cruiser lost at the same Battle of the Citadel, is the result.
Launched just eighteen months after the mysterious loss of the Normandy and resulting death of Commander Shepard the New York is a joint Human-Asari designed light cruiser. Looking at the ship now she can again see the Asari influences in the ship's design.
While still having the same basic long hull with down and rear angled wings running its length giving the appearance from front of an rectangle with a wedge that are the wings running the length of the ship that is common in all Alliance cruisers, the Asari influences are still apparent. All the normal hard edges of the ship have been rounded off and there are more graceful curves in the hull than is normal in a human vessel but are common with Asari design. As she noticed before the hull also has the same shiny, blue grey sheen of an Asari cruiser and not the usual off white with blue paint job of the Alliance Navy. She knows this is due to the carbon nanotube with diamond Chemical Vapour Deposition armour that the hull is made up of, just the same as an Asari warship.
Then there is the most obvious indication of that the Asari had something to do with the ship's design, the engines. At the rear of the ship, instead of the inverted V of the wings pierced with ports at their end for standard sub-light and FTL engines, the wings are joined together to form a hollow oval ring. This ring is illuminated on the inner circumference with the pale blue light of an Asari engine. Just the same as the hollow centre engines that are a part of all Asari warships right up to the massive dreadnought the Destiny Ascension.
Due to the Asari engine the ship requires a large Element Zero Core, the reactor that harnesses the energy from the mineral Element Zero that enables the manipulation of dark energy and allows travel at faster than light speeds and through the Mass Relay network to the rest of the galaxy. Because of such a large engine core the ship had to be bigger than the frigate that had been originally envisaged but it is still smaller than the average Alliance cruiser. So the new class of light cruiser had been born.
If it wasn't for the Asari being responsible for the ship and the Asari engineers that are aboard to assist with the running of their engine she wouldn't have this feeling of unease as the shuttle is skilfully and smoothly being brought towards the ship's hanger deck. Not that she has anything against the Asari as a species or any aliens for that matter. One of her best friends is a Drell, Willak, who she worked with for a few of years when he was assigned to the ship she was serving on at the time as part of a personnel exchange with the Hanar.
No, it's just that all Asari are biotics and Beckett doesn't trust biotics. Those beings, due to in utero exposure to raw Element Zero or who have undergone genetic alterations later in life that are able to manipulate dark energy with the power of their minds, some training and the assistance of technological implants. The Asari home world, Thessia, is covered in rich deposits of raw Element Zero so all Asari are born biotics.
It is because Earth has barely any Element Zero or 'Eezo' deposits why there were no acknowledged human biotics until humans discovered the Prothean archive and the true potential of the mineral. Hindsight now shows that the few and often derided reports of people with telekinetic or telepathic abilities from Earth's past indicates that they may have actually been untrained biotics born near one of the rare Eezo deposits.
She has such personal reasons for distrusting biotics regardless of their species that it has almost hurt her career in the Alliance Military. Biotics are becoming more and more prevalent in the Alliance and while she's done her best to avoid working with them it has become impossible given how almost every Marine squad has one as part of the unit now. In abstract she can appreciate the ability to project an energy barrier to deflect incoming projectiles or how the ability to knock down an enemy's cover with a solid wave of energy would be useful in combat. It is just that whenever she sees a biotic use the warp ability that allows them to rip something apart from the inside she gets a churning in her gut that almost makes her think they are using the warp field on her.
A couple of times she's been reprimanded for objecting to having a biotic on her squad. In the end she's followed orders like a good soldier but she hasn't liked it. On the surface she's been polite to the individuals involved but she never socialises with them off duty like she would her other squad or ship mates. Often, at the earliest possible opportunity she would seek a new assignment to get out of the situation.
She knows she's being unfair and prejudiced but after what a biotic did to her family she doesn't think she'll ever be comfortable around one. She looks out at ship that now fills the view port in front of her and contemplates how comfortable she's going to be serving on a ship built with the help of a race of biotics and with biotics on the crew?
As she is rocked slightly as the shuttle gracefully settles onto the deck of the hanger, Beckett muses that she guesses she's about find out.
A/N: So both Alexis and Beckett are introduced here. I know Alexis isn't the same age as she appeared at the start of the show but even with the premise of her being a 'genius' that had been tagged to join the Alliance at a young age, I couldn't justify in my own mind a fifteen year old flying the ship. As it is I'll try not to make her too like Wesley from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I do like the quirk however that it looks like that any significant Alliance ship is piloted by a redhead.
As for Beckett being the Sheppard like Commander in the story I'll just say that if they ever get the Mass Effect movie out of development then I think they couldn't do better than Stana Katic as FemShep.
Also please excuse my clumsy explanation of the look of the New York. Again I hope Mass Effect fans at least can get where I'm coming from.
More to come in about a week.