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Chapter 3
He Said
She began running, barefoot through the Ward, a full on sprint. I took off after her, but her short dress was a lot easier to run in than my Alliance Class "As" and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I spent my days since Horizon in endless meetings. She quickly out distanced me.
When I caught up, breathing a little heavier than I was proud of, she was already barking orders to those of her crew that had shown up. A drell, a short and skinny human woman with more tattoos than skin, the dark skinned man that had stood behind her on Horizon, and a pretty dark haired human woman were already at the dock. The dark haired woman had her hand up to her ear shouting into the com-unit earbug in an Australian accent. "I don't care about the fine! We need that escape pod retrieved, Tower Control!"
A young-looking krogan ambled up. Without looking, Shepard told him, "Get suited up, Grunt. I need you out there to retrieve Legion." Was Legion the geth she mentioned? Why was she sending help for it? Shouldn't she just let it rot out there in space?
"You got it, battlemaster!"
"Thane, Jack, Jacob – go with him and get the rest of our gear. I'm just glad we had it stored off the ship out of the way of the repair crews." Shepard said, shaking her head.
"Commander, we've got company," the dark-skinned man, Jacob, I knew now, nodded in my direction.
She glanced over at me, I was glad it hadn't take me too long to recover from our sprint through the Wards, and I could see her weigh and measure me for what use she could get out of me right now. But before she could order me to do something, an asari Matriarch showed up followed by Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, and Garrus Vakarian. A salarian walked behind them, muttering to himself and entering something on his Omni-Tool. And then, I was absolutely astounded to see Doctor Chakwas walk up to Shepard and ask, "What's wrong, Avery? What's happened?"
Shepard gave her that measuring look, "I'll fill you in in a second, Marie. Right now, I need you to find someplace the whole crew and the ground team can bunk for the night. Make sure they have a place that won't irritate Thane's condition, too." Chakwas nodded and immediately called up her Omni-Tool and started scanning through hotel listings.
The matriarch politely asked, "How might I assist, Commander?"
Shepard turned that ice cold gaze on the matriarch, and asked, equally politely, "I need you and Tali to go with Grunt. He'll need your help to retrieve Legion."
The asari nodded and turned to leave, but Tali demanded, "What's going on, Shepard?"
I was astonished to see Avery peak out of Commander Shepard's face for a moment at the quarian, "Legion will need your help, Tali. I promise to explain everything when you come back." The young quarian nodded and left with the asari.
Shepard was suddenly back as she turned to the salarian, "Professor, can you assist Dr. Chakwas?"
The salarian blinked at Shepard then turned to the doctor and began rapid firing questions at her. When Chakwas didn't blink at the rapid-fire cadence of the salarian's dialogue, I realized they'd probably been working together for quite some time.
Shepard's voice, no, Avery's, brought me out of watching the two medical practitioners work. "Garrus, do you think you can use your C-Sec contacts to allow us to retrieve Joker and get Legion on the Citadel?"
The turian laughed, "You realize they would have no clue we'd brought Legion here if we didn't tell anyone, right?"
I could hear the smile in her voice, "Indulge me, Garrus, please. You know I'd rather be up front about this sort of thing."
The turian's mandibles flicked outward in what I assumed was their version of a grin, "If I have to blackmail Bailey, I will."
"I hope it won't come to that," and Avery became Shepard again as she turned toward me.
"Commander Alenko, I'd like to ask you to get in touch with Councilor Anderson and tell him it's an emergency." I winced inwardly at her use of my title and her return to her command personae with me, where she hadn't used it with Vakarian. In spite of myself, I glanced at the former C-Sec officer who was staring intently at his Omni-Tool.
Bringing my eyes back to her face, I managed to become the Commander Alenko she'd addressed. It didn't fit me as well as it did her, I didn't think, but I'll be damned if she out-professionaled me. "What kind of emergency, Commander? I'm not going to wake the Councilor for just anything."
She gazed at me, her blue eyes wide. "Cerberus has stolen the Normandy SR-2, Commander. There are quite a few upgrades on that I doubt the Turian Hierarchy nor the Alliance nor the Council would want to fall into their hands. Wake the Councilor."
