Chapter 2: Prime

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams couldn't quite remember what happened last night. And her entire brain was killing her. She was sitting in the med clinic with her head in one of her hands.

"Are you ill, Chief?" Ash looked up to see Doctor Irina Stolya standing over her, smiling. Ash stood.

"You could say that." She said. "Wondering if you could give me one of those shots?"

The doctor laughed, her red ponytail shaking. "One of the hangover shots you mean?"

Ash felt embarrassed, and looked it. "Uh yeah," she said. Ash wasn't normally the type to get so hammered she couldn't see straight. But last night she'd been in a particularly foul mood.

Doctor Stolya grabbed a syringe gun, loaded it with a small vial, pushed it against Ashley's forearm and pulled the trigger. The quiet hiss of the medicine entering her system was soon followed by an almost complete alleviation of her headache and nausea. She sighed.

"Rough night?" The doctor asked.

"Something like that. Thanks doc."

"You're welcome."

Ash left the clinic and headed to the shower. She wished the drug would have done something to cheer her up. In the locker room, she undressed, wrapped a towel around herself and headed to one of the shoulder high stalls. She barely even noticed Corporal Roger Ndele in the stall next to her until he spoke.

"Who pissed in your breakfast?" He asked over the rush of water from the shower nozzle. Ash turned her water on as well and sighed as the hot liquid hit her face. Roger continued. "Man you were wasted late night at Tillery's. You celebrating something?"

Ash scoffed. "Hardly," she said.

"What's up, Chief?" Ndele asked.

"Transfer got denied…again." She said.

"Oh man. I know how much you wanted that. I'm sorry Ash."

"Eh it's no big deal I guess," She lied. Ashley had been trying to get transferred to a starship position for as long as she could remember, pretty much since she'd joined up with the Alliance seven years ago. Each time she put in for a transfer she hoped that it would be the one and each time she got a message from the brass saying that she was shit out of luck and better luck next time. They never gave a reason for it, but she knew exactly why. The Alliance was trying to keep her existence nice and quiet because of the black spot on her family name – a black spot that in her opinion they didn't even deserve.

"I don't get it," Ndele said.

"Get what?" Ash deadpanned as she shampooed her long dark hair.

"Why none of your requests go through. Swarvski got transferred to the Tokyo and he's borderline retarded."

"Thanks," Ash said annoyed.

"No what I mean is you're one of the best damn marines we have on this sleepy planet. Why him and not you?" He shook his head. "I just don't get it."

Ash sighed. "Bad luck I guess." She didn't like to talk about her grandfather, even with someone as friendly as Ndele. She didn't like anyone to know who she was. It was her shameful little secret and it was starting to wear on her. Sometimes she even considered giving up, quitting the Alliance and moving on to something where she could actually make a difference. But she knew she would never quit. Being a marine was something she felt like she was born to do. Even at a young age she'd felt drawn to it, probably because her father and grandfather served. It was simply in her blood. She didn't even know what else she could do.

Ash finished her shower and got dressed. It was almost time for her patrol. She carefully tucked the small silver chain with a tiny silver cross on it under the shirt of her uniform. It was a gift from her mother years ago and Ash always wore it whenever she went out for an op. Ash could almost do her daily routine with her eyes closed: workout, shower, dress, put on armor, gather squad, patrol eastern perimeter for ten hours, return to barracks, remove armor, shower, dress, beers with the squad, sleep. It was the same every day. She didn't mind it really. She had a job to do and she would always do it 100%, but she knew that she was better than this. She deserved more than a groundside post.

The most excitement they'd had on Eden Prime in the four months that she'd been there was the unearthing of some ancient artifact. She didn't know the details. She just knew it was old and that it seemed important. More than once since they'd dug it up, Ash had wondered if the rest of her service would be spent guarding dusty old archeological finds. It wasn't that she craved action. She wasn't stupid. She knew the sobering reality of what happened when the fighting started. She just always felt like she should be doing more.

She entered the squad room to find her whole unit already prepped and present, laughing, making jokes. She was squad leader, something she was particularly proud of. It was more than her father had done. She knew she had a dominant streak, a propensity to call the shots and squad leader was perfectly suited to her aggressive personality. As per usual, she kept the briefing short and to the point.

"All right," she started. "We're headed 5 klicks east to patrol the perimeter. Stay on your guard, don't mess around and Kransky if I catch you lagging behind again I'm gonna shove my boot up your ass, got it?"

There was a chorus of hoots and hollers and laughs and Kransky saluted, smiled and said "You got it, chief."

"All right let's go," Ash commanded.

"You heard the chief!" Ndele barked. "Move it or lose it, grunts! Lots of gentle rolling hills and lush forest to protect!"

Ash smiled, rolled her eyes and walked past Ndele. "You're such an asshole."

"Just keeping things fresh, Chief."

"I appreciate it." They laughed and headed out. Ash knew her unit was just as bored with the monotony of their post as she was. The difference was that most of them didn't care. Most of the marines in the 212 groundside garrison were happy to be and stay there forever. They had their daily beat and their nightly revelry. Eden Prime was paradise, and most were happy to get stationed here if only for the nightlife. She knew for a fact that most of them had other plans after finishing their service. Ndele wanted to be a doctor, Bhatia wanted to open a restaurant, Higgins wanted to get married and have babies and so on and so on. Ash wanted to be a marine.

Ash's surface vehicle, the first of four grinding slowly over the terrain near the perimeter of the colony was cramped and the ride was bumpy as usual. Ndele, Marcus Drake, Greg Takinawa and herself could barely fit in it comfortably. Ndele drove.

"Damn," Drake said. "These shitty chairs make my ass numb."

"Quit whining," Takinawa said. "You want the Alliance to wipe your ass too?"

"With the cheap ass toilet paper we get, be happy your ass is numb." Ndele said.

Ash smiled. "Maybe if you didn't spent most of your time on your ass it wouldn't go numb all the time," she quipped, prompting a chuckle from both Ndele and Takinawa.

"My ass is just fine, Chief. You keep talking like that and I'll –"

"Base Charlie to Sierra 1," The voice of Nirali Bhatia's thick Indian accent crackled over the radio, prompting Drake to shut up.

"Sierra 1, go 'head Charlie." Ash said into the radio.

"Got something on the sensors about half a kilometer from your location along the perimeter."

"Any transports coming through that we missed?" Ash asked.

"Negative. The signal is strange. Object is unidentified, over."

"Roger that Charlie. We'll check it out. Standby."

"Copy."

Ash touched her com. "You get that Sierra?"

"Copy that Chief," came Arnold Weng's voice from the transport behind her.

"Got you loud and clear," reported Dmitri Ivanoff.

"Bringing up the rear, Chief." Crackled Angela Danson.

Ash and the fourteen other marines in her unit made their way toward the unknown source of the signal.

"That's weird," Ndele said. "What do you think it is?"

"Probably just an unauthorized vehicle. We'll detain and scan for authentication." Ash said.

The far perimeter of the Eden Prime settlement was lush, green hills marked with large boulders and a few tree lines. Settlement hadn't spread to it just yet. It was peaceful and beautiful like the rest of Eden Prime, its untouched nature pristine and bountiful. Ash had often thought it would be nice to walk through it, if she wasn't already patrolling it almost every day. Not many people came out here and the ones who did had to have special permission. The convoy of surface vehicles made its way along the road that had been constructed through the tall grass and trees.

Ash could see something on the radar screen.

"Looks like it's just on the other side of the tree-line there," She pointed. She could see something, something big as they came around the bend.

Ndele stopped when he saw it. "What the hell is that?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," Ash said. She stared at the giant silver thing lying in the road. It was orb-like. She touched her com. "Charlie, do you read?" No answer. "Charlie do you copy, this is Sierra 1, over." She looked at Ndele.

"Must be atmospheric interference or something," Drake said.

"Great. Piece of shit radios." Ash sighed. "Well let's check it out." She touched her com again. "Standby Sierra. Unidentified egg shaped object at about 30 yards we're gonna scan on foot, over."

"Copy that, Chief" said Weng.

Ash reached for the door handle to the transport Ndele grabbed her arm, hard. She turned to him, ready to curse at him but saw the look on his face.

"Chief," he said, his eyes focused on the object.

Ash turned her gaze to it and noticed it spring to life. It stood, or what she could have sworn was stood and appeared to have four legs and a long, silver front piece with large light on the top. Her stomach turned. Whatever it was, she had the sinking feeling it wasn't friendly. Her thoughts were cut off by Takinawa.

"What in the holy shit is that?" he asked. Ash touched her com again.

"Charlie!" Ash said. "Charlie do you read? Come in Charlie, this is Williams, Sierra we have a possible hostile armature device –"

"All units!" It was the command unit, loud in her earpiece. "All units return to base! All….-urn…ase!" The static was cutting them out. "Hostiles si…..-king everywhere!" Ndele was frantically tapping Ash now.

"Um Chief? Chief!"

"What?!"

"It's moving towards us."

Ash's brain clicked into action. "Drake!" she yelled.

"I'm on it." He climbed to the top of the vehicle to man the rocket launcher. "In position."

"Fire on it, Drake!"

Ash hit her com. "Sierra, fire in the hole! Offensive positions now! Weapons free! Let's move! Drake! Would you freaking fire that thing!"

"Turret's jammed!" Came Drake's voice.

"It's locking weapons!" Takinawa said.

"Shields!" Ash yelled. "Sierra offensive positions now!"

"Shields at 75%! It's targeting!"

The next second became a blur of smoke and flame and screams from inside Ash's vehicle. It took her a moment to realize that some of the screaming was hers. There was fire in the cabin. She only heard Ndele yelling in pain. Takinawa and Drake were silent.

"Get out!" she yelled.

"My leg!" Ndele screamed.

"Get out now!" Ash looked behind her at the clearly dead bodies of Takinawa and Drake. The shields had been up enough to keep the vehicle from being destroyed, but the fire had gotten in anyway and burned them alive. She realized her forearms, her right ribcage and leg felt severely burned under her armor as well.

Weng's vehicle was firing on the giant machine now. It targeted them. She grabbed Ndele.

"Come on!" she yelled. He screamed as she helped him from the vehicle. They fell hard onto the road below, smoke pouring out of the doorway. More screams from Ndele. "Get up!" she ordered. He did and she helped him to an area of cover. She touched her com again. "Charlie, do you copy? Charlie this is Sierra 1 over! We have hostile contact!"

"No shit, Sierra 1!" It was Bhatia's voice again. "We got hostiles all over the place! Unidentified synthetics! It's a damned bloodbath over here!" Ash was straining to hear over the gunfire from her convoy. "All units! All units return to base! The colony is under attack! I repeat….ny…..under attack!" Ash's stomach turned again at the thought. The colony was under attack. Civilians were under attack. Families. Children. Her thoughts were interrupted by Danson's surface vehicle erupting into a ball of flame and shooting skyward in a giant explosion. She realized the blast hadn't come from the original armature. It had come from the rear.

Ash poked her head out from cover, her assault rifle drawn. Weng's launcher had taken out the first armature and soon after the second was down, blasted in half by Ivanoff's transport. Smoke curled through the air, but the world was disturbingly quiet again. Ash coughed. Ndele groaned. She looked at him and saw that his face was also badly burned. He was in bad shape.

"Hang in there, Roger," she said. She got up, too quickly because she almost fell back down and walked to the other marines who had gotten out of the remaining two transports.

She swallowed and made an effort to compose herself. "Casualties?"

Erin Munson looked up at her from her sitting position. "Everyone in Danson's transport. Jolsik, Guttierez." Munson's arm was bleeding badly.

"Drake, Takinawa," Ash added. She looked around. Out of fifteen marines she'd headed out with that morning, five of them were left. The transports were mangled. They hadn't expected any trouble so the shields had taken too long to power up. Ash could feel the burns on her skin now. She wondered how bad they actually were. The fire had penetrated her armor somehow. She took a deep breath, realizing that what remained of her unit was staring at her, waiting for her command. She mentally slapped herself back into focus.

"We make for the colony on foot," she said. "Somebody help Ndele up. Let's move!" With that the five of them sprung into action. It was about 3 klicks back to the colony. "Ndele can you move?" She asked. He was finally up.

He nodded. "I'll live," he said, limping forward. Ash nodded at him.

"All right let's double time it! Stay frosty, check your blinds. Let's go."

Ash and the four other marines jogged, weapons drawn, eyes alert through the terrain of Eden Prime. Ash fought to stay focused, but she kept thinking about what they would find there. By the time the colony was in sight, Ash could see smoke rising from the buildings and several large drop ships firing from above.

"My god," Munson whispered. "It's a war zone."

Ash could feel her eyes start to burn with tears. She knew by the destruction before her that civilian casualties would be immeasurable. She blinked and turned to the marines.

"Let's hope they got off some sort of distress signal," she said. "In the meantime we're going in there. Let's round up some survivors and get them someplace safe. Check your targets! They could be friendlies."

The moved forward, cautiously, the colony approaching quickly on the horizon. By the time Ash felt the turning in her gut that told her something was wrong, it was too late. In a split second she watched Weng and Ndele get blasted. They fell, dead, their shields proving no match for the assaulting weapons.

"Take cover!" Ash yelled, but Munson and Ivanoff fell too. Ash dove behind a rock, desperate to avoid the fire from two assault drones. She could hear her breath in her helmet. They were machines, synthetics. Her brain quickly shot to generic knowledge from her training about the Geth. But it couldn't be. The Geth hadn't been seen in centuries. She peeked around the boulder and saw her fallen comrades. Her gut ached for them, and she was clearly at a disadvantage. She took a deep breath and right then decided that she was going to survive.

She knew she didn't have a chance where she was. Her cover was pretty bare and she was outnumbered. Her only chance was to run for it. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, said a little prayer and bolted out from behind her cover. She felt the ground explode next to her several times as shots barely missed her. She ran as hard as she could, not looking back, using cover when she could, putting as much between her and the drones as possible. She didn't dare stop to dig in anyplace. It would mean her death. More than once as she ran she felt indirect blows to her shields propelling her forward. Her heart was pounding in her ears, her sweat dripping into her eyes and her breathing was hard. Her muscles were shaking. She was tired. She ran forever, hoping, praying that she would stumble upon another unit that could help her.

As she approached the research camp she saw bodies scattered and burned. She also saw that she would be completely out of cover in about five seconds. This was it. She had to turn and fight. Otherwise she'd be a sitting duck. One more glancing blow off of her shields was enough to push her forward, launching her into a clumsy dive. She skidded across the dirt, turning quickly on her shoulder and raising her pistol. She aimed, fired and as luck and skill would have it, managed to hit both drones with a series of shots. They exploded in air, sending flaming parts flying towards her. She put her hand up to shield herself.

She heard a noise then like nothing she'd heard before, a mechanical series of noises that made her turn her head. What she saw made her eyes widen. Two armed, walking, moving, almost humanoid synthetics were no more than twenty yards away from her. They were…talking to each other. She hadn't expected this. It took her a split second to realize they were holding a dead human body and another grotesque split second for her to realize he wasn't dead. Her stomach turned. She stood, weapon drawn, ready to fire on the enemy. She opened her mouth to yell, to save the man in their grasp but instead let out a small audible gasp as the man was impaled brutally on a large metal spike. She stood, frozen for a second, eyes wide, terrified, horrified. And then they spotted her.

"Oh shit," she whispered to herself. Her feet wouldn't move. "Fucking move!" she scolded herself through gritted teeth, snapping herself out of her frightened trance. She ran to the nearest rock she could find and hid. It was no use. They'd seen her. She was out of cover. She was outnumbered. It was over for her. She had no idea the enemy she was facing and it occurred to her then that she was probably going to die. She felt oddly calm then, as if resigning herself to it made it much less difficult. She took her assault rifle from her back, holding it in one hand, her pistol in the other. Her shots wouldn't be very accurate this way, but she had decided something.

If she was going to die, she was going to die fighting.

She growled, spun out from behind the rock and aimed her weapons at the approaching enemies. She fired, pummeling one with bullets. It went down. Next to it she could see the other one aim. This was it. She knew she could never re-aim and fire in time.

Luckily she didn't have to. A barrage of fire riddled the enemy before her and it fell to the ground. There was silence then. Ash quickly turned her attention to the two men coming toward her. They wore Alliance armor, but to Ash they might as well have been wearing angel wings. She knew they weren't part of the groundside garrison, which meant someone thankfully had put out the distress beacon and the Alliance had responded.

Ash doubled over, hands on her knees. She let out a deep breath and then laughed just slightly before taking a good look at the men approaching her. She could tell their ranks by their armor, a lieutenant and a commander. The commander was an N7, bringing her further comfort. N7 marines were good to have around in a tight spot. She stood and caught her breath.

"Holy shit, I could kiss you both," she said, not caring about her informal tone.

"Are you hurt?" asked the lieutenant from behind the helmet and visor that showed only his brown eyes.

She shook her head. "No sir. Nothing serious."

The commander spoke then and Ash's gaze turned to the blue eyes behind his visor. "What's your name?"

Despite their situation, Ash reflexively saluted. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, sir."

The commander nodded. "Shepard." He gestured to the lieutenant. "Alenko." He looked back at her. "Give me a report, Williams." He said. His voice was commanding and authoritative. Its strength immediately soothed her nerves. For a second she thought she could tell why he was a commander. His very presence could keep a marine calm and focused.

She cleared her throat and spoke, trying to keep from racing through her tale. "Oh man," she started. "We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to double back to the colony when we got the order, but we walked into an ambush." Her gut churned again as she thought of her unit. "I'm the only one who made it. I haven't seen anyone else but you."

Shepard nodded. "What kind of enemy are we facing?"

"I think they might be Geth," she said. Shepard glanced at Alenko. "All I know for sure is that they're hard to kill and they came in heavy and fast. Oh god all the colonists." She lost her focus a moment as flashes of burned bodies and smoking buildings hit her. "I'm the only one…," she nearly choked on her words, looking down. She felt like she'd failed them all. Shepard stepped toward her.

"Focus, Williams." he said sternly. He'd noticed her check out. Her head snapped back up and her eyes found his again. They stared her down, prompting her to pay attention and then she saw them soften ever so slightly for just a second. "Deal with it later, marine" he said, his voice softened with a tinge of compassion – enough to let her know he knew what she was going through, but not enough to make her break down.

She nodded. "Yes. Yes sir!"

"We need to find the beacon they dug up," Shepard said, his voice returning to normal.

"The…the beacon?" Ash was confused. How could that relic possibly be important? "The uh…it's…the beacon should be at the dig site. It's just over that ridge." She gestured.

"You fit to fight Williams?" Shepard asked.

"Hell yes sir." Ash's strength and vigor was suddenly renewed. She tasted adrenaline at the back of her throat. Her muscles were no longer tired. She no longer felt the pain of her injuries and she felt the fire in her belly rising up. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to obliterate some synthetics.

"Move out," Shepard said.

It took only moments to get to the dig site. The area was eerily silent. Ash could hear her footsteps and that was about it. As they approached the location she could see that the beacon was clearly not where she'd last seen it.

"Dammit," she said. "It's not here. It must have been moved."

"Where would they have moved it?" Alenko asked.

Ash shrugged. "I don't know for sure. Maybe the spaceport. There's a tram just up the hill."

"All right let's go." Shepard said.

As they reached the top of the hill, Ash heard Alenko's voice.

"Woah!" he said. "What the hell?" Ash followed his gaze to an enormous, gnarled, insect-like ship slowly ascending on the horizon. Her mouth fell open. No one said anything. They stared as it lifted, turned and moved off into the distance.

"That's….new," Shepard said calmly. "We need to get to that spaceport now."

"Right behind you, sir" Ash said.

The three marines approached the tram platform in formation.

"Sir!" Ash exclaimed, unable to help herself when she saw the sight before her.

"Oh god," Alenko muttered under his breath.

Before them stood several giant metal spikes, each piercing the torso of a corpse. Ash shuddered involuntarily as she remembered watching it happen to the other man earlier. She was reminded of a high school history class she had where they'd talked about Vlad the Impaler. The scene before them reminded her of the horrific ways he used to display his enemies' bodies.

Upon further inspection, Ash realized they were not human bodies at all. They appeared charred, disfigured, and some sort of power current seemed to be running through them.

"What the hell did they do to them?" she whispered, mostly to herself. She jumped as the one she was looking at moved.

"They're still alive?" Alenko asked, clearly as horrified as Ash. She looked at him and then a shriek of metal pierced her ears. When she looked back, the spikes were gone, but now the creatures from the top of them were standing on their own and turning to face Ash, Alenko and Shepard.

"Take 'em out," Shepard said calmly. They opened fire as the creatures, gurgling half human screams came running toward them full speed. When they were all down, Shepard stood over one. Ash could see his wrinkled brow as he tried to figure it out. "Come on," he said.

On the platform for the tram lay a dead Turian. They approached him.

"Commander," Alenko said. "It's Nihlus."

Ash looked at Alenko, then back to the Turian. "A Turian. You know him?" Ash had only ever seen a handful of Turians in her life. She'd never actually talked to one. She knew that technically they were allies to the Alliance, but Ash still had her doubts. And now she had plenty of questions she would need to ask the commander later if they ever got out of this alive. Clearly this had not been a rescue operation. That was clear from Shepard's immediate insistence that they find the beacon. Something big was going on. Ash suddenly felt a little overwhelmed and under-prepared. She started at a soft noise a few feet away.

"Something's moving!" she said. "Behind those crates!" They all pointed their weapons simultaneously toward the noise.

"Don't kill me!" said a terrified voice.

"Come out of there," Shepard ordered. The man emerged, hands up. Shepard lowered his weapon, prompting Ash and Alenko to do the same. "You almost got yourself killed."

"I –"

"What happened here?" Shepard cut him off. He gestured to Nihlus' body.

"Uh…he…the other one shot him." The man said. His arms were still up even though no weapons were pointed at him.

"What other one?" Shepard asked.

"The other Turian. They seemed to know each other. Called each other by name. The other was called Saren I think."

"You think?" Shepard asked. "This is a council SpecTRe, so think real hard." Shepard's voice was commanding, but he clearly wasn't trying to intimidate the traumatized man.

Ash looked at Nihlus' body again. A SpecTRe. This was way bigger than she'd thought.

The man nodded frantically. "Yes. Yes! I'm sure. His name was Saren. Your friend there let his guard down. Saren shot him right in the back." The man finally put his hands down.

Ash looked at Shepard. Even with the helmet she could tell his jaw was clenched in frustration.

"Stay out of sight," Shepard told him. "You're gonna be fine. Rescue crews are on their way."

The man nodded and ducked back beneath the boxes.

When Shepard, Ash and Alenko were on the tram, Ash finally couldn't take it any longer.

"Sir," she asked. "What is going on here? Do you know something about why they attacked us?"

Shepard nodded as the tram revved up and began to move quickly to the spaceport.

"We came for the beacon. It's extremely valuable." Shepard shook his head. "We knew there was a chance someone would make a play for it, but we never expected Geth." He sighed. "We weren't expecting any of this."

"So they are Geth." Ash said, but she would have to get the answers later. The tram was coming to a halt and they were drawing their weapons again.

Ash flinched as a round of fire hit the beam next to her, causing sparks to fly.

"Move!" Shepard yelled and the three of them made their way from cover to cover.

Ash was surprised at how quickly they took the wave of enemies down. Then again, Shepard was elite and Ash supposed that if Alenko was with him, he was probably no slouch either. She'd already seen an impressive display of biotics from the lieutenant. She'd never seen a human biotic before. Ash was seeing a lot of things for the first time today.

When all their targets were down, Shepard gave a hand signal and they fanned out and swept the area.

"Yikes," Alenko said quietly. Ash and Shepard moved to his location. There, in a corner was the biggest explosive device Ash had ever seen.

"Alenko?" Shepard said.

"Yeah." Alenko said as he crouched and his omni-tool hummed to life.

"That's a big bomb," Ash said.

"That's an understatement," Kaidan sighed, clearly concentrating on the device.

"Can you diffuse it?" Ash asked.

Alenko let out a sarcastic chortle. "I guess we'll find out in…" he looked at the timer. "about three minutes."

"Or ten seconds if you blow it," Ash scolded herself. "No offense, sir."

"None taken." He was barely paying attention to her anyway, focused completely on the bomb.

Ash didn't even notice that she was backing away from the device slowly until she bumped into Shepard.

"Sorry sir." Get it together Williams! She thought to herself.

"Don't worry about taking cover." Shepard said. "If this thing blows it's taking half the colony with it." He said it with the same tone of voice as if he'd been telling her it was a nice day outside. She watched him as he watched Alenko. He didn't look nervous at all. She practically jumped again when she heard a series of beeps from the bomb.

"Got it," Alenko said.

Only then did Ash see Shepard let out a deep relieved breath. He'd been far more nervous than what showed. She reminded herself to be more like that.

They descended a set of stairs, weapons still out and at the bottom, on a large platform was the beacon that had been unearthed a short while ago. Ash recognized it.

"There," she said and pointed. It glowed an odd ghostly green as they approached. She stared, walking toward it. Behind her she could hear Shepard on his com reporting that the beacon was secure. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Alenko approach Shepard. The beacon was absolutely fascinating. She walked closer. "It wasn't doing anything like this when they dug it up," she said thoughtfully. She started to wonder about where it came from when she felt a dull jolt course through her body.

The world spun before her. Her head was swimming. She felt off balance, felt her body vibrating and being pulled in all directions. She couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't think. For a moment her vision blurred and she got the sensation of floating. Her head throbbed. She felt as if her mind was being violated.

The next thing she knew she'd hit the ground hard, wrenching her shoulder. Her vision focused as Alenko came into her line of sight. She thought she heard him ask if she was all right, but everything seemed slow. She shook her head, trying to escape the feeling and when she looked up again she was shocked to see Shepard suspended in mid air in front of the beacon.

She gathered that he'd pushed her out of the way. Oh God, she thought. What have I done? She climbed to her knees in an attempt to get up.

"Shepard!" she yelled, but she was grabbed from behind by Alenko.

"No don't!" he barked, holding her there. She almost fought with him until she realized there was nothing she could do. She watched helplessly as the commander's body jerked and flinched. She felt like a fool. Worse, she knew that whatever was happening to him was not pleasant in the least.

Just when she thought she couldn't take watching anymore, the beacon exploded, sending Shepard's body backward and downward with the blast. He hit hard, the sound of his armor producing a dull, dead clank on the metal platform below him. He didn't move.

In a panic, Ash wiggled away from a surprised and confused Alenko and ran to Shepard. Her heart raced as she removed his helmet as gently as she possibly could. She would never forgive herself if he was dead. Behind her, she heard Alenko on the com, ordering their extraction.

As she looked at his face, she realized he was breathing and she sighed with relief. Alenko knelt then, removed one of his gloves and felt for a pulse.

"Pulse is strong, but irregular." He opened one of Shepard's eyes, then the other. "Pupils dilated but eyes are clear. Doesn't appear to be any trauma. Normandy's picking us up in two minutes. We have to move him."

Ash looked at him. "You're a medic?"

"Yup," Alenko said as he stood and positioned himself to lift Shepard. Ash hopped up to grab the commander's legs. "I got all kinds of tricks," Alenko grunted as they hoisted Shepard off the ground.

Almost fifteen hours.

Shepard had been out for almost fifteen hours since Ash and Alenko had brought him back aboard the Normandy. He still wasn't awake.

During those fifteen hours on the starship, Williams had kept busy. She got checked out by the ship's doctor, who treated her burns and scrapes. She met Captain Anderson, who informed her she'd been reassigned to the Normandy based on a recommendation by Lt. Alenko. She thanked Alenko, who she noticed had a kind smile once his helmet was off. She sent a burst to her mother and sisters, assuring them she had survived the attack. She met the crew, who all welcomed her nicely enough, even if they were understandably somber. She was apparently replacing a Corporal named Jenkins who was killed in action on Eden Prime before she'd met up with Shepard and Alenko. She'd managed to get in a shower, during which she'd wanted to cry, but just couldn't. She supposed she was still in shock. She'd forced herself to eat, but she knew she probably wouldn't sleep for awhile. The images from Eden Prime were fresh in her mind. She could still smell the charred flesh of the colonists.

In theory, Ash finally had what she'd been wanting her whole career. She was now officially serving on the finest starship the fleet had to offer. A small part of her was happy, and the rest of her felt the crushing weight of guilt.

She stared at Shepard as Dr. Chakwas changed a couple of her bandages. He was on one of the beds, lying still. Small sensors had been placed on his forehead, bare chest and arms by the doctor. Chakwas noticed the look on Ash's face.

"The Commander is pretty durable, Williams. Don't look so dire." Chakwas' British dialect and tone of voice were oddly soothing to Ash.

Ash shook her head. "I just keep thinking if I hadn't wandered toward that beacon like an idiot…" she trailed off.

"Don't beat yourself up," came a weak and groggy voice from Shepard's bed. Ash's heart actually leapt. She felt it. She could have sworn that it literally jumped up and down with joy in her chest. Both she and Dr. Chakwas shot up and moved toward him. He was stirring and slowly moving to a sitting position. His face was contorted in a painful grimace for a moment and he quickly removed the sensors as soon as he sat up. For some reason, Ash got the feeling Shepard wasn't a very good patient.

"You had us worried, Commander" Chakwas said. "How are you feeling?"

Shepard paused. "Just a headache," he finally said. "How long was I out?"

"Almost fifteen hours." Chakwas replied. "Something happened with the beacon."

Ash couldn't contain herself any longer. "It was my fault. I got careless. If you hadn't needed to push me out of the way-"

"Relax, Williams," Shepard said. "You couldn't know what would happen. It's okay." Shepard removed the sheet and stood up next to the bed in his boxer briefs. He cracked his neck. Feeling much better that he didn't blame her for his condition, Ash allowed herself a millisecond to be impressed by how attractive Shepard was. She couldn't help herself. When he'd stood, the effect of his handsome face, six feet frame, perfectly toned arms, chest and abs combined with his lack of clothing had slapped her in the face unexpectedly. She suddenly felt a little awkward. Out of respect, she made a conscious decision not to let her gaze fall below his neck again.

Chakwas sighed. "You should rest, Commander."

"I just did for fifteen hours." Ash almost smiled. She was right. He wasn't a good patient. He seemed more like a little boy who just wanted to go out to play no matter how sick he was.

"Not exactly," Chakwas said, her voice full of exasperation. "You exhibited an almost constant state of rapid eye movement associated with intense dreaming and your brain waves were incredibly strange. It's not exactly the most restful sleep."

"I did have dreams," Shepard said. He appeared to be thinking. "Or nightmares."

"Hm," Chakwas pondered. 'I'll add it to my report. It may - Oh. Captain Anderson."

Ash hadn't even noticed Anderson's arrival to the med bay. She quickly stood up straight.

"How's our XO?" he asked, his deep voice contained genuine concern.

"Minor throbbing. Nothing serious." Shepard dismissed.

"Good," Anderson replied. He looked at Chakwas and Ash. "I need to speak with the commander privately," he said.

Ash saluted. "Yes sir," she said and followed Chakwas out.

When Ash reached the mess hall she paused. She wanted to talk to Shepard. She hadn't had a chance to properly thank him for saving her life. She also considered apologizing again. She sat and waited for Anderson or the Commander to emerge from the med bay.

She didn't have to wait long. After a few minutes Anderson exited, nodded at her and strode through the room. A few seconds after, Shepard followed. He walked right up to her.

"I'm glad you're okay, Commander" she said. "Losing Jenkins was hard enough on the crew."

Shepard nodded. "Jenkins was a good marine." He looked at her face, appeared to be trying to read it. "Anderson tells me you've been reassigned to the Normandy."

"Yes sir," she said. A wave of irrational insecurity hit her. Almost immediately she expected him to say something about her grandfather and why he didn't want her aboard the ship.

"Welcome aboard," was all he said and all her alarms stopped screaming.

"Thank you sir." She looked him in the eye. "I wanted to thank you for saving my life. I would have been dead if you and Alenko hadn't shown up."

He shook his head. "Don't mention it." He raised an eyebrow. "Besides it looked like you were doing just fine on your own."

She smiled thinly. He continued.

"Look I know things were pretty ugly down there," he said. "You holdin' up?"

Truthfully she didn't know if she was. "Yes sir," she answered confidently. "I'm really looking forward to serving here," she added.

Shepard smiled just slightly. "I get the feeling you won't disappoint me, Williams. We'll talk later at the debrief." And with that he turned and strode off with a purpose.

Ash's entire world had been turned on its ear in the past few hours. She would need to adjust and adapt quickly and she knew she needed to bring her A game to the Normandy, to the captain, and to Shepard.

She mad a silent promise to herself then. She wouldn't disappoint.