Chapter Three – Faster Than Light
Jules didn't needed to voice her answer to Grunt. When she appeared on the crew deck with her arms folded and a scowl of resignation across her brow he already knew that he had won, and the knowledge made him chuckle softly.
Jules wouldn't allow him a total victory however; she emphatically refused to abandon the Normandy, instead insisting that they follow Grunt's ship through the mass relays that would take them back to Earth, where Tevos had apparently established her headquarters.
Liara was sceptical about Jules' demand, it was probably a few years since they had taken the old girl through a relay. In fact it was months since they had even gone to FTL because of fear the ship wouldn't hold together. But she had decided that it was pointless arguing and so preparations for the journey began.
Liara and the other asari set about running as many tests as they could think of on the systems that were still functioning while Jules disappeared into engineering to check the engines and had still yet to emerge over an hour later.
"What the hell is she doing in there?" Grunt asked eventually when the tests had been completed and the ship was declared as ready as she would ever be. Liara looked up from where she was sitting and smiled sadly.
"She'll be talking to Tali."
…
"You realise the galaxy is probably falling apart without you?"
"Don't exaggerate," Jules muttered gloomily.
She was sitting on the floor of engineering with her legs swinging down into one of the service ducts that was exposed by a missing section of the metal grating. All around her the drive core was humming gently, not as quietly or healthily as it used to perhaps but she found it comforting all the same.
"I'm not exaggerating," Tali replied and Jules turned to look at the young quarian sitting next to her. For some reason she always pictured Tali in her suit when, in truth, she had spent most of her life not needing it.
The geth may have been destroyed by the Crucible, but it hadn't taken the quarians long to adapt what the machine race had taught them and after several years of research they had found ways to boost their immune systems to the point where their suits weren't necessary.
The quarians had become invaluable after the war. They had been used to surviving on little and scavenging what they needed and their technical expertise had helped hugely in the wake of the Crucible, after it had knocked out half the tech in the galaxy.
It was quarian engineers who had been the masterminds behind the reconstruction of the mass relays which had eventually reunited the galaxy again and so perhaps it was no surprise that Rannoch had been one of the first worlds to become easily assessable again.
The quarian home world had never been under siege by the reapers like the other worlds had and it was probably the most habitable home world left after the war so – in contrast to the asari – their rebuilding had been swifter than most.
With their skills in high demand and a planet to call their own, the quarian race had quickly prospered. They had formed a new government, built a thriving economy and eventually lived their lives outside their suits, breathing in the air of their world without the need of filters or detox programs.
But now Tali appeared as she had done back in the early days, young, fidgety and well hidden behind a tinted visor, "When you died in the Collector attack everything fell apart. Then when you got arrested by the Alliance everything fell apart again."
"Tali, everything was always falling apart back then, whether I was there or not."
"Yes, but when you were there you fixed it, even our stupid war against the geth. Wouldn't you rather know what Tevos and the asari are up to?"
Jules threw her a look, "Why are you still trying to convince me? I've agreed to go with them."
"But you're not happy about it."
"I'm an old woman, I'm allowed to be miserable!"
Tali chuckled, "It doesn't suit you though."
"Hmph," Jules looked down into the service duct, repeatedly hitting her heel against a warped piece of metal that was barely visible through the shadows.
"What do you have against Tevos anyway?" Tali asked after a moment.
"Aside from her hiding the prothean beacon on Thessia and dragging the war out longer than necessary? She's trying to use my face to sell her project."
"That's just Liara's theory," Tali dismissed, "she's not right about everything you know. Maybe Tevos just wants your support."
"My support?" Jules laughed, "Why the hell would she want that?"
Tali shrugged, "You remember what she was like after the war."
"Vividly," Jules agreed grimly.
Tevos had been one of the very few people to survive the reapers' assault on the Citadel, when they had captured it and brought it to Earth. She had stayed trapped in the wreckage for nearly two weeks before a rescue team had finally dragged her out, barely alive and traumatised by the ordeal.
When she had regained her senses, she found herself in a post war world where the asari population had been decimated, Thessia had been lost and the mass relays were unusable, more or less stranding her on Earth. Not many ships had been flyable after the Crucible had hit them - certainly not at FTL speeds - and resources for repairs had been scarce.
It had also taken a long time to re-establish communication with the rest of the galaxy and Tevos had found herself completely cut off from whatever had remained of the asari leadership – which they had later learned was very little.
The first thing the councillor had done was start a hate campaign again Shepard, trying to blame her for the mass relays' destruction rather than working to fix them. The amount of anger and confusion people had been harbouring in the aftermath of the war meant that she had gained a lot of supporters and the whole thing had made Jules' life even more difficult.
But ultimately Tevos had been a broken woman. There had been a lot of asari who had found themselves trapped on Earth after the war; some who had fought on the planet during the final battle, others who had been part of the fleet and had sought refuge on Earth in the aftermath.
Tevos's attempts to unite and lead those asari had bordered on hysterical and had eventually fallen apart. Her inability to hold her own with the human and turian leaders who were emerging was possibly one of the reasons the asari race had never really regained much power after the war. That and the fact that no other asari had seemed willing to step forward.
Eventually the HTA had been formed and Tevos had slowly slipped into the background. At some point she had gracefully accepted that she was no longer fit to rule but she was tenacious for an asari and Jules had known she wouldn't be planning to stay quiet forever.
She wondered if two hundred years was long enough for her to have gotten her head together or if this mission was just another crisis she was going through. Then again, perhaps Jules wasn't the best person to judge the metal state of others. After all, she was the one sitting in an empty room talking to a dead quarian.
"So," she muttered to the non-existent Tali, "any more words of wisdom for me?"
"If you try to jump to FTL the drive core's going to explode," Jules looked up sharply, she didn't know whether it was the statement itself that surprised her or the casual way Tali had delivered it.
"Rubbish! The Normandy's in good condition."
Tali turned to look at her, tilting her head slightly to exaggerate the incredulous expression Jules was sure she was pulling beneath that visor, "The Normandy hasn't had any maintenance for over a century. If you try to power up the FTL it'll cause a massive power overload that will spread through every system on the ship. I'm being serious."
"So what are you suggesting? I can't just abandon her."
Tali looked down, shrugging slightly as she replied, "It's just a ship, Jules."
"Hmph, now I know you're not really Tali."
As soon as she said it the illusion vanished and Jules was left alone with only the unhealthy hum of the drive core for company. Suddenly it didn't seem so comforting anymore.
She sat there for a while longer until the door opened behind her and Liara came in.
"Are you ready?" she asked softly and after a moment Jules nodded.
"Yeah, let's get it over with."
…
Jules sat at the pilot's controls while Liara took up the co-pilot's seat. Behind them the asari were passing swiftly back through the airlock as they re-boarded their own ship and prepared to disengage from the Normandy.
Grunt, on the other hand, stayed put behind Jules' chair, staring steadily over her shoulder in a manner that was impossible for her to ignore.
"Shouldn't you be on your own bridge?" she asked dryly after a moment then looked over her shoulder to see the krogan barely glance at her in response.
"I'd rather stay here."
"Why? I'm not going to run off or anything. I gave you my word I'd follow you, don't you trust my word anymore?"
He avoided eye contact, hesitating enough for her to sigh heavily, "Never mind, don't answer. I don't want us to fall out with each other. Are your lot ready to get going?"
He answered by activating his omni-tool, "They say the ship's ready to go… hold on, they're picking up another ship heading for us."
"Let me see," Jules spun round in her chair and took hold of Grunt's arm, making him lean down so that she could see the interface, "I don't believe it. It's that fucking salvager again! Didn't he take the hint the first time? Get him on the comm," she turned back to Liara who obliged.
There was a pause before a human man came into view on the screen. He was unshaven with long, shaggy hair that fell untidily across his forehead and he was slumped casually in a leather chair, his legs slung up over the arm.
"Hello again," he grinned pleasantly though there was something lurid lurking behind the greeting.
"What do you want?" Jules asked him bluntly, "Because I'm pretty sure I sent you packing a week ago."
He shrugged carelessly, turning away to pick something out of his teeth before he spoke, "Thought I'd come and see if you'd had a chance to rethink your answer."
Jules folded her arms, "Why? Have you come up with a less insulting offer? Because I don't care how much you're willing to pay, this ship is not for sale."
He chuckled, seemingly amused, "That ship is only good for scrap. Frankly, you should be paying me to take it apart."
Jules bristled but didn't rise to the insult as she exchanged a sideways glance with Liara, "Well, like I said, she's not for sale."
He snorted, his demeanour suddenly changing as he swung his legs down from the chair arm and leaned forward, "Oh, the time's long passed for that, love. I was willing to pay before but now? I'm happy to take it for free."
"Free? And how are you planning to do that?"
"Oh c'mon, we both know that piece of junk is barely fit to fly, a few well-placed shots and the whole hull should break apart. Makes salvaging it easier anyway."
Jules opened her mouth but before she could come up with a retort the comm link severed and she was left seething at a blank screen.
"Arrogant little bastard," she muttered before turning to Grunt, "what kind of guns has your ship got?"
The krogan shrugged and shook his head, "It's unarmed."
"Unarmed? You agreed to take command of an unarmed ship? Jesus Grunt! What has that asari done to you?"
"Enough!" Liara cut in, "Jules, he's charging weapons. Are our canons still online?"
"Sort of, their power circuits are keeping the heating systems running so I'd have to rewire it all. By which point he'll already have blown a hole through our hull."
"Then we have to evacuate, he won't come after us in Grunt's ship."
"No way!" Jules snapped, "I am not letting some jumped up little scavenger get his hands on the ship that defeated the reapers!"
"Then what do you suggest?"
Jules went quiet for a moment, frowning down at the console in front of her before she finally gave a resigned sigh, "Grunt, get back on board your ship. You too Liara."
"I'm not leaving without you," Liara said.
"You won't have to, I'll be right behind you," she looked up and saw Liara frowning at her suspiciously, "trust me," she added with a smile, "I'll be fine. Now go."
…
Grunt's ship was clean, and warm, and brightly lit in white-blue light that complemented its smooth, metallic surfaces, giving it the impression of being fairly newly constructed. It smelled of asari and air fresheners and the computers hummed and beeped softly with reassuring consistency.
None of this, however, was of present concern to Liara as she barged her way through to the cockpit and leaned over the plush pilot's chair where an asari was sitting.
"What's happening?" Liara demanded of her, only briefly registering that she had not been one of the ones who had boarded the Normandy.
The woman glanced back at her and seemed to do a double take before she quickly recovered and answered, "The scavenger's ship is coming around for another attack, he's fired two shots already, the Normandy is… Goddess," she breathed suddenly, "she's charging the FTL drive."
"What?" Grunt said, forcing his way past several other members of the crew as he followed Liara into the cockpit, "What the hell is she playing at?"
"She'll have a plan," Liara told him, "she always has a plan."
"Yeah, to run off with the Normandy and disappear again!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Liara snapped, "Aside from anything else, the Normandy's in no condition to run anywhere!"
"We have to disengage the ship," the pilot said suddenly, reaching for the controls to separate them from the Normandy.
"No!" Liara yelled, "Shepard's still on board, we can't leave her!"
"We have to, if we don't our ship will be-"
No one ever found out what would happen, at least not from the pilot's mouth as she was suddenly dragged out of her chair and pinned against the wall, "We are NOT leaving without Shepard!" Liara shouted, her body lighting up with biotics as she pressed her forearm against the asari's neck, making her choke and splutter as she tried to speak.
"Now, now, Liara. Put the nice lady down."
Her grip instantly loosened at Jules' voice and she turned to see the human breezing in through the cockpit door, pausing only briefly to raise one eyebrow at the scene, "And if you wouldn't mind putting her back in her chair, we need her to pilot this ship as far away from the Normandy as possible, preferably before the FTL charges."
"Why? What's going to happen when-"
"Questions later," Jules cut the pilot off – more gently than Liara had – and carefully manoeuvred herself in between the two of them as she nudged her back towards the controls, "quick as you can," she repeated as the pilot sat, "oh, and it's good to see you again Ereba."
She clapped a hand to the pilot's shoulder and the asari looked round in surprise, "You remember me?"
"I remember everyone, now…" she gestured meaningfully to the controls and Ereba nodded.
"Of course, disengaging from the Normandy's airlock…" there was a soft clunk somewhere distant through the ship but they barely felt any movement at all as Ereba steered them away from the Normandy.
"How long till the Normandy's FTL charges?" Jules asked and Ereba looked down at her console.
"Twenty seconds."
"Get us as far away as you can, and keep the Normandy on the view screen."
Ereba did as she was told and they watched as the Normandy grew steadily smaller and smaller while the scavenger ship continued to fire on her.
"Five seconds till the FTL charges," Ereba muttered.
"Jules, what-"
"Shh," Jules said softly, stopping Liara before she could ask as they continued to watch.
"Four… three… two… one," at first nothing seemed to happen, aside from Jules' breath hitching slightly.
Then, as they watched, the Normandy's hull seemed to crack and split apart, revealing white-hot light spreading through the ship.
Starting from the engines, the metal twisted and warped and for a split-second the Normandy SR2 shone with the intensity of a star; then the hull crumpled and collapsed and the galaxy's most famous ship vanished in a silent flash of light.
A gentle shockwave rocked the cockpit and a second explosion was witnessed as the scavenger ship was caught in the blast, leaving nothing but a field of debris floating in space.
Surprisingly, it was Liara – not Jules – who reacted most to the sight. Her hand flew up to her mouth, stifling a strangled cry as her legs seemed to give out beneath her and she sank into a chair by one of the consoles.
Several of the asari watched her and exchanged hesitant glances as they appeared to consider offering some comfort. But ultimately, the room remained silent and no one moved.
For a moment Jules just stared blankly at the screen before she finally turned away and laid a hand gently against Liara's shoulder. The asari looked up at her, her sapphire eyes glistening with tears.
"How did you know?" she breathed.
Jules just smiled sadly, "Tali's never wrong."