**
Three
**
Ships always had their own little quirks, their own little idiosyncrasies and flaws that added together to create the character of the ship. Sometimes those sparks of personality took years to develop and sometimes, like with the Normandy, those flaws were right there from launch day, and one of them was the portside heat sink manifold access station.
Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko stood over the monitor, rubbing at his forehead in exasperation. He'd fixed the same console at least half a dozen times now, and the sensor net kept flipping out and dying. The engineers had sworn off the console, citing it as 'non-mission-critical unknown error', after they'd wasted most of the trip from Arcturus to Earth trying to sort it out. Chief Engineer Adams had gladly signed over management of the issue to Kaidan, and Kaidan was already regretting having agreed.
"Ok," he said, to the console, opening his omni-tool, "One more time. From the top."
"Lieutenant."
He jerked out of his awkward half-crouch and jumped to attention, saluting sharply as Captain Anderson's voice reached him.
"At ease," Anderson said, returning the salute casually."Busy, Lieutenant?"
"I'd be grateful of the reprieve, actually, sir," Kaidan said, honestly.
Anderson's mouth quirked into a small smile. No doubt he'd heard the tail of the eternally failing matrix from Adams. "Our XO is coming aboard at Earth. I'll be in conference with Alliance command when we dock with the transport. I'd like you to give her a quick tour and get her settled in."
"Aye-aye, sir," he said, nodding his head sharply.
"Excellent," Anderson said, "Commander Shepard will be coming aboard at oh-five-forty ship time tomorrow."
"Commander Shepard?" he repeated, startled, and only realise that he had blurted the name out when Anderson looked at him with a sharp glint in his eye. "The Commander Shepard? Of Akuze?"
"The very same," Anderson said, inclining his head, "She's a decorated marine, and we're lucky to have her aboard."
"Of course, sir," he said, wondering if Anderson had thought that he had meant anything other than respect with his question. "I'd be honoured to show the XO around."
"Good. Carry on, Lieutenant," Anderson said.
Kaidan saluted again, and watched as Anderson headed towards the medical bay, presumably to speak to Doctor Chakwas.
"System error," the Normandy's VI told him, and the console's status lights all changed to red. Kaidan sighed, and pretended he was allowed to smash it with a hammer for one brief, pleasant moment.
~*~
"That is not a thing of beauty," Joker said, disdainfully. The transport vessel was big, clunky, and lacked in any sort of external decoration except for an ID string printed on the bow. It was exactly the sort of the thing that the government and the military liked to use to move people and equipment around without spending too much money on niceties. They were normally used for low-cost rapid deployment operations.
Kaidan leaned on the back of Joker's chair, peering out of the narrow slit of window that looked out on the grand vista of space. "I wonder what's so important they had to put our XO on a fast transport for rendezvous. This is just the shakedown cruise, right? I thought we were supposed to take her onboard in a couple of days."
"Don't be so sure," Joker said, hands moving across the console, eyes fixed on readouts, but chatting easily, as if he wasn't busy trying to match attitudes and velocities with another ship, matching airlocks without tearing either of them to shreds in an unanticipated collision. "I got new vectors. We're heading to Eden Prime best speed, and they've got Pressly plotting a stealth approach. Sound like an easy shakedown cruise to you?"
"Hmph," Kaidan frowned at the approaching hulk of the transport. "You know what they say about no plan surviving contact with reality."
"Too true, man," Joker said, as a thunk resounded through the hull, making the deckplates shiver under Kaidan's boots. "Go meet our XO, and tell me if the hero of Akuze is all they say she is. I'm betting bad-assed and one-eyed."
"You won't laugh if she really is."
Joker reached forward and tapped the comm. "Hard dock achieved, airlock synched. Stand by to receive passengers." He leaned back and jerked his head towards the airlock. "Better get moving."
Kaidan turned his head to see Ensign Mullen, the Captain's Yeoman, stepping up, holding a dataslate and looking nervous. He smiled gently at her. She was a pretty, diminutive thing. Attractive, but somehow a bit too delicate for him. She had a nice smile though, which she flashed at him.
"Who are you meeting?" he asked, faintly curious.
She opened her mouth, about to answer, when the Normandy's VI chimed in to report the completion of decontamination, and the airlock door slid open with a noisy scrape. First through was a turian in a thick hardsuit, pistol at his hip. Ensign Mullen stepped forward and smiled that same nice smile.
"Spectre," she greeted, "Welcome aboard the Normandy."
"Thank you," the turian, the Spectre said, bowing ever so slightly towards Mullen, "And please, call me Nihlus. Spectre is not a rank or title, and I find I prefer the informality."
Mullen's smile broadened. Kaidan wondered if she'd ever taken the exo-linguistics courses, and if she realised that, in at least half a dozen cultures he could think of off the top of his head, smiling and baring the teeth was considered a threat display more than anything. Nihlus didn't seem to be offended, at least.
"Captain Anderson is in the comms room and is waiting for you, Nihlus," she said, "If you'll follow me?"
"Lead on," Nihlus said, gesturing in a gallant fashion.
Kaidan watched them go. A Spectre. Joker was right. It definitely wasn't going to be a run of the mill shakedown cruise. He dragged his attention away from the retreating Nihlus as another person came through the open airlock, easily hefting a standard issue duffle bag, wearing body armour and carrying a full weapons loadout.
That someone was a woman, around Kaidan's height, slim, athletic, with a sharp and intelligent look about her, and a smile on her lips. Then he caught sight of the N7 marker on her armour, and he realised both who she was, and why she was armed for battle on an Alliance ship. He snapped to attention and saluted.
She halted in front of him, and looked him up and down in a smooth motion. He couldn't tell whether she was assessing him or just checking him out. He was fairly guilty of doing the latter when dealing with subordinates, like a fair few others, not that anyone would admit it. He kept his eyes forward. She returned the salute with her free hand.
"At ease," she said. Her voice was warm, and rich. "Lieutenant Alenko, right?"
He tried not to look too startled. "Uh, yes, ma'am. Commander Shepard, ma'am."
She looked rueful. "A long flight on a rapid deployment transport means you don't get a lot of sleep, and you might as well read your personnel dockets. A pleasure, Alenko." She held out her hand.
"Likewise, ma'am," he said, shaking her hand. She squeezed his hand, without the slight over-compensation people tended towards when touched people while wearing hardsuits. The lack of tactile feedback was hard for a lot of people to deal with, gripping objects too tightly or not tightly enough. Shepard wore her armour like a second skin. "Captain Anderson asked me to show you where to stow your gear and give you the tour while he's in conference with-" He looked down the long hallway down towards navigation and the comms room. "Well, while he's in conference with the Spectre."
"Love to hear the story behind that one," Shepard said, following his look.
"You don't know, Commander?"
Shepard shook her head thoughtfully. "No. And Nihlus didn't even say much on the flight. We picked him up a couple of relays back. I wasn't even expecting to be here yet. I had two days of leave on Mirage still booked."
Mirage, a nascent colony established on a group of tropical archipelagos on a small moon in the Herald system on the edge of asari space. It was more renowned for its tourism industry than anything. Kaidan abruptly felt for Shepard. He wouldn't have liked being dragged away from a beach-side holiday. The thought was immediately followed by the question of whether she had spent the days clad in a swimsuit or a bikini. The hardsuits were figure hugging enough that he didn't have a hard time picturing either, and Kaidan suddenly prayed that the low lighting of the flight deck hid any colouring of his cheeks that suddenly happened.
"Early recalls are never a good sign," Shepard added. "When they divert a transport to pick you up, something even worse is brewing."
"Speaking from experience, Commander?" the question was probably inappropriate, but Shepard didn't seem to find it an impertinent question.
"Hell yes," she said, "Anyway. To the lockers, Lieutenant, so I can finally ditch this stuff, even if it's only bikinis and beach towels."
He opened his mouth, and closed it again with a snap. He had no idea how to answer and was suddenly acutely embarrassed by the idea that she might have worked out what he was thinking. He actually hoped she was just winding him up. From the ill-suppressed grin at his silence, that was very likely the case.
"Right, ma'am. I mean, aye. If you'll follow me."
He led her to the lockers that most of the senior officers had for their own use. The rest of the crew had to traipse down to the cargo hold to access their personnel belongings, while the ranking officers were located right next to the sleeping pods. He pointed it out, mentioned that only Anderson got private quarters, which received an eyeroll and a comment about rank and privileges, before taking her into medical to meet Doctor Chakwas.
The two exchanged handshakes and the usual polite greetings, and Chakwas said, "I've already received your file from your last posting, Commander, but I'm afraid I wasn't expecting you yet and haven't had time to review it. Do you have any medical conditions that I need to be made aware of?"
Shepard shrugged, the weapons on her back shifting with the motion. Chakwas hadn't even given the guns a second glance. "No allergies or injuries, Doctor," she said, "I have the early-version L3, well-integrated."
Kaidan tried not to look startled. Biotics weren't common in the military, and this was the first time he'd met an N with an implant. Early stage L3 meant somewhere between L2, his own implants, and the modern L3 implants. There was rumour that it meant a higher spiking L3 without the side effects, but it had never been proven in testing. Kaidan tried to keep up on biotic research.
"Good. I'll require you to have a standard physical before the day's out," Chakwas said.
Shepard gave a jaunty little salute. "You're the doc, Doctor. I'll be back once I'm done with my tour."
Chakwas grinned. "Commander, every time I think I have the infirmary-resenting stereotype of the military down pat, someone comes along to shatter it. I'll see you shortly."
He gave her a quick walking tour of the rest of the ship, showing her the cargo elevator, the lower decks, engineering, the mako, showers and toilet facilities, before leading her back towards the flight deck, introducing her to Pressly and walking her forward to meet Joker. They'd separated from the transport not long after Shepard had come aboard, and Joker was holding the Normandy in orbit. Occasionally there were flashes of the kinetic barriers kicking in as bits of ancient space debris skipped off the shielding.
"Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, this is Commander Shepard, our XO." Kaidan introduced, as Joker moved his chair away from the console and shook her hand. Watching carefully, Kaidan could see the minute relief in Joker's face that Shepard wasn't one of those who gripped too hard while wearing a hardsuit, and he came away with his hands intact.
"Joker, to anyone who flies on my ship," he told her.
Shepard didn't look like she considered it funny, she treated the statement seriously, just saying, "Joker it is then," without taking issue with the 'my ship' statement.
"You're the infamous Commander Shepard," Joker said, folding his arms and looking at her appraisingly, "Are all the stories true?"
"Oh all of them," Shepard agreed dryly, "Especially the one about me, the two asari, the rubber chicken and wholesale bottle of maple syrup."
"I don't think I've heard that one," Joker said, lasciviously, "Care to share?"
"Only if you buy me drinks," she told him.
Joker gave a pout of disappointment. "Too much like hard work. I'll have to go without."
"Your loss," Shepard said, before throwing a glance at Kaidan. "Well, I believe I have an appointment with the Doctor if we're done, Lieutenant."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, "I should be helping Joker with the relay calculations anyway."
Joker didn't react, though he knew perfectly well that Kaidan needed to be doing no such thing.
"Of course. I'll see you later, gentlemen," Shepard said, nodding to them both before turning with a grace that only came from years of physical training, and heading back towards the medical bay.
Kaidan and Joker watched her go.
"I have to say," Joker said, barely contained glee in his voice, "I love combat-spec hardsuits."
"I hear you," Kaidan said, not taking his eyes away from the sight that was walking away from him. "I definitely hear you."
**