Girl Anachronism

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Mass Effect. The original storyline, places, and characters are property of Bioware. Also the title Girl Anachronism is a song by the same name by the Dresden Dolls.

Again, thanks to everyone who adds story alerts, and double thanks to everyone who reviews. It's always nice to know people want to read what you write, and its even more appreciated when you take the time to tell me about it. This chapter is a bit longer, and contains some language (warning for any kiddies out there:P) For anyone who read the first chapter and thought "Oh no, its only Wrex and Ashley left." This chapter will ease your concerns. Anywho, enjoy!

Shepard let her hair loose and drape down to her shoulders. Rogue pieces fell in front of her eyes, as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Dark circles had long been formed under her eyes. Stress and exhaustion had not been pleasant to her, and Shepard felt like she looked surprisingly old, though anyone else would have argued that she looked amazing for "thirty." Exiting the bathroom, Shepard noticed Wrex puttering about the mess.

"What are you doing up here Wrex?" He looked up. If Shepard had startled him, he didn't show it.

"You're looking…calmer." He grumbled, "Don't think I've seen you that angry Shepard, not even when they grounded the Normandy before Ilos." Shepard moved over towards Wrex and sat on the dining table.

"Concerned, Krogan?" She asked raising her eyebrows and smiling coyly at him. Wrex chuckled softly, giving Shepard a small smile.

"Not happy about going home, huh?" He asked, avoiding her question. Shepard's smile was wiped away; Wrex's got bigger, satisfied that he struck a nerve.

"Did Ash talk to you?"

"Williams? Haven't seen her." Wrex responded, still smiling.

"How the hell do you know all this stuff about me Wrex?" Shepard asked, dropping her voice in case a crew member was around.

"I worked for someone who sells secrets for a living, Shepard." He said matter-of-factly, referring to the Shadow Broker.

"How does he kn-" Shepard paused. She remembered a Shadow Broker agent had contacted her once. When Shepard refused to hand over the information he desired, the agent promised that they would just retrieve it out of the Alliance database. Shepard was certain there was probably some file deep in the records that revealed her identity.

"Knowledge is power." Wrex said suddenly, jarring the Commander from her thoughts. For someone as brutish as Wrex, that statement seemed largely out of place. "That's what the Shadow Broker would always say. Considering he's one of the most powerful men in the galaxy, I'd say it's not far from the truth. That's why I know things about you Shepard." As always, Wrex's expression was unreadable. Shepard gave him a small smile,

"Bet you love that power Krogan." Wrex chuckled and that gave way to an agreeing smile. He had never taken offense to the Commander calling him Krogan; it was more of a nickname than anything. Wrex thought to himself, 'I must be going soft…I would have shot anyone else.' The smile faded off his face as he returned to his intimidating stoicism. He gave a small nod to the smaller woman, "Shepard." He dismissed himself.

Wrex was an enigma wrapped in a riddle to the Commander. Shepard could easily read any other person or alien, even Tali, whose masked face revealed little. Only an air of anger and aggression ever came from the krogan. Even when he smiled, Shepard questioned it, or the smile would fade quickly and Wrex would regain his composure. Wrex's only enduring smiles are when he is standing in the middle of a battlefield, with dead geth around him, but still. He had a heart, or two, and Shepard was going to bring it out in him.

****

Shepard sat her desk in her private quarters. She was supposed to be working on reports, but procrastination was setting in. She remembered when she was in high school, everyone complained of procrastination. Everyone.

"How did we accomplish anything? I wish Saren had procrastination. 'Let's take over the galaxy…Tomorrow!" Shepard leaned back in her chair. Looking passed her pile of reports, she spotted the small black book taken from the safe on Earth. Gently, she took it in her hands and opened it. The bottom right-hand side of the first page had a messy cursive 'Alan Baker." She flipped through slowly. Many pages had sketches on them, different schematics and prototypes of now out-dated ships. Shepard felt like she was looking at the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. The ships were far beyond the technology of the date they were designed. The earliest date was the year 2021, well before element zero, galactic colonies, or any Prothean technology was found my humankind. Small notes would be scribbled along with the pictures, or log entries describing minor events. On 4/11/2030 an entry was written. Shepard scanned the entry. It was of Alan's daughter, Joleen.

Big day for the family today! Joleen got her driving license today, her sixteenth birthday. Seems like yesterday my baby girl was running around the NASA headquarters, bugging all the 'spacemen' to take her to the moon. Now it will only be a matter of time before she becomes an astronaut herself. NASA HQ knows she has completed the basic requirements. She's done the basic training for fun about twelve times now. Hell, she's been riding the vomit comet since she was seven! Well, in two years when she finishes her Bachelor's in Engineering, they will have no option but to give her a pilot's license. Thank god we homeschooled her.

Shepard smiled softly to herself, flipping through more pages and more entries. Most were of a proud father, boasting of his daughter's achievements. At eighteen, Joleen did receive her Engineering degree, and then received her astronaut pilot license. The entries died off in the next year, but the sketches increased exponentially. Alan's blueprints had become even more advanced than before, possibly aided by his daughter. Shepard marveled at how old the drawings were, yet they had to have been similar to early Alliance ships. Another entry caught her eyes: 6/17/2034.

Today is the big day! In about an hour, Joleen will be taking off with the 'Omaha'. So much hard work, years and years of dedication on both of our parts and it all comes down to this. My ship, and my baby girl, heading off into the final frontier. At the end of the day, Joleen will be the youngest person in space. If the mission is a success, NASA will develop upon my 'Omaha' prototype. But right now, I need to go say goodbye to my daughter, and tell her I will see her soon.

That entry was the last. Shepard tossed the book on her desk. Out of the pages slid a small golden disk. It looked incredibly fragile, and she took extreme caution as she picked it up. Inspecting the disk, Shepard had no idea of any of the markings on it. It certainly wasn't human. While she couldn't decipher it, she had an idea of who could.

****

Shepard was pacing. The Normandy had landed at the Citadel, and the Commander and Williams were waiting in the embassies lounge. Ashley watched her superior wear the metal floor down. Some aliens had already left the lounge, anxious by the Spectre's motion.

"Commander Shepard?" A soft, feminine voice asked. Shepard looked up and saw the owner of the voice. Liara smiled softly at her former leader, and savior. Noticing the solider, Liara greeted, "Chief Williams."

"Lieutenant Williams." Ashley corrected bluntly. Shepard threw her a look, then greeted the young asari.

"Good to see you again, Liara. I have something I need your help with." Shepard pulled out the small disk. Liara took it gently in her hands and began to look it over. "We recovered that on our latest mission."

"It certainly looks Prothean. You said you found it in a diary. Was its discovery dated?" Liara asked, looking briefly at the Commander, then back to the disk.

"Not exactly. There was no mention of the disk in the book, it just fell out. But the dates of entries in the book only date from '21 to '34." Liara looked shocked.

"Wait? 2034?" Shepard nodded. "I'm not an expert on human history, Commander, but I thought your species did not uncover Prothean artifacts until a hundred years later." Again, Shepard nodded.

"We didn't. That's why I didn't know if it was actually Prothean. I have no idea how this man found this disk, a century before humans found the artifacts on Mars. Not to mention, 35 years before the human space settlement."

"He didn't even write it down. If I had found something alien like that I would have been shouting from rooftops." Ashley quipped. "Then again, it was Alan Baker." Ashley laughed softly. Shepard and Liara gave her a quizzical look.

"Oh come on? You two have never heard of him? That ship he designed, Omaha. That's practically the basis for every Alliance ship built. The guy was about a century and a half too early with his design. They say he lost his marbles after his daughter disappeared."

"Disappeared? What happened?" Liara asked, always interested in a history story.

"His daughter, Joleen Baker, is the youngest human to have flown in space. Not even Alliance pilots have beaten her record. All our pilots have to be at least twenty-one. Some people say it's just to preserve her honor and her record, but I think its cause of what happened. The girl took off one day, perfect flight, on course, and everything. Then the next day, she was gone. The old space program, NASA, they just thought they lost contact, so they sent up another ship to look for her. For years they would have every space mission deployed with the secondary mission to search for her. Never found anything. Lost in space, without a trace. No one has any clue what happened. She's the Amelia Earhart of our century." Liara opened her mouth, beginning to ask about Amelia Earhart, but Shepard waved her off.

"Back to the mission." She said in a commanding voice. Ashley gave a quiet, "Yes ma'am." Liara just nodded slightly. "We need to figure out what this disk says. It was probably what the geth were after."

"If you don't mind Shepard, I'd like to take it. Most Prothean disks take some time to decrypt, and it would be much easier in my lab." Liara asked, her eyes moving back to the disk. Shepard agreed, but told Liara to contact her as soon as she found something. They went on their separate ways, and the two soldiers headed back to the Normandy. They boarded the elevator in C-Sec to the docking bay.

"How do you know so much about Joleen Baker, Ash?" Shepard asked. Ashley shrugged.

"To be honest, she is kind of my role model. I know that sounds lame, but she was the youngest person in space. She had a dedication to becoming an astronaut and getting out there," She said, waving her arm out at the space visible through the glass elevator. "She got her high school diploma at fourteen, her engineering degree, then her pilot's license at eighteen, and was in space by twenty. Her record has never been broken, and probably won't be anytime soon. Plus, she was the first person to fly solo into space, and they can never take that away from her. You know, the old vids said that Amelia Earhart was her role model. Betcha she would have never guessed they fell to the same fate." Ashley said, her voice a little softer. "I don't know, skipper, growing up, knowing that a girl had set those records had kinda inspired me. You can't tell me you never had that?"

Shepard smiled, "Yeah…mine's a bit older though." The elevator had finally reached the docking bay and the two women headed to the Normandy.

****

"Transmission, Commander. Patching it through." Joker informed Shepard.

"Commander Shepard?" The deep voice of the Admiral came through. "I have a mission for you. An Alliance team has lost contact with us. They we last reported on Chasca. I'd like you to head out there and see if you can't find out what happened. Fifth Fleet out." Wrex and Ashley stood behind the Commander. Wrex grunted.

"Chasca was that planet we found all the Husks on. Those marines are probably dead."

"It's worth going out there if there is even one soldier alive." Ashley retorted. Shepard set the flight course for Chasca. She hadn't heard anything from Liara in a couple days and was getting anxious. Rather than tearing a hole in the hull from her pacing, Shepard thought the mission would distract her. She suited up and headed towards the Mako. Ashley jumped in behind the controls and moved the vehicle into position. The cargo door opened and Joker gave the word. The Mako ripped out of the Normandy and flew down towards the planet. The squad were lifted out of their seats as they free-fell, then getting rattled and tossed when the ground hit them suddenly. Bringing up the on-board computer, Shepard punched in the last known coordinates of the marine team. She was relieved to see it was away from the research buildings that had housed a colony of Husks. The Mako tore across the planet's surface, the Matano star casting a brilliant light. Shepard sat in the gunner's seat and was using the zoom on the turret to keep an eye out on the area ahead. A small object on the horizon seemed out of place against the picturesque background.

"Looks like there is a facility about three klicks ahead. Bring in up slow, I'll take out any forces outside." Ashley let off the gas and let the Mako slow down. Using the steep mountains as natural cover, Williams maneuvered towards the concrete building. Shepard spotted two sniper towers through the turret and took them out clean. The Commander loved the Mako's mounted turret. It was like using a giant, automatic sniper rifle. The sudden death of the two snipers had alerted the ground forces of the Mako's presence.

"Hit it Ash!" Shepard ordered. With a small sneer, Ashley gunned the Mako, at top speed, at the enemies. Their guns could not penetrate the Mako's shields, and their bodies certainly did not slow it down. With a thud the alien and human adversaries flew over the top of the vehicle. Wrex chuckled to himself in delight. With the outside enemies gone, the crew exited the Mako.

"That was too easy." Wrex said, looking at the bodies splayed about the field.

"Everyone else is probably guarding the base." Ashley replied.

"Well, let's not keep them waiting." Shepard pulled out her pistol and headed to the door. She unlocked it with her omni-tool and led the team in. The room they entered was similar to most of the bases in different colonies. It opened to a huge, multi-level area. As the door slid open, a turian looked their way. Wrex blasted him away before he could even reach for his weapon. The shotgun blast alerted every other enemy in the room and guns started firing off from every direction. The team took cover behind a short wall.

"I'm going to get up on the second floor, you two cover me." Shepard commanded. The other two nodded then came out from behind the wall, guns blazing. The closest enemies were quickly taken out and Shepard ran for the stairs. Reaching the top, she shot a sniper in the back of the head, then pulled out her own rifle. Looking down onto the first floor, the Commander saw Wrex and Ashley behind cover. Shepard shot a human who was advancing on the two.

Ashley heard the Commander's rifle and knew for a moment the enemies would be distracted from where the shot came from. She ran out from behind cover and shot down the first thing she saw move. Another shot rang out from above, as Shepard provided cover-fire. Wrex came charging out and threw a turian into a wall with his biotics. Ashley knocked another turian out with the butt of her assault rifle. Looking up she spotted the last enemy left, a hulking krogan. He lifted his shotgun, and took aim on Ashley. Suddenly he was surrounded with a dark glow and propelled straight up into the air. Wrex and Ashley both opened fire on the krogan until he dropped to the ground with a sickening and satisfying smack.

"All clear Commander." Ashley reported, taking off her helmet and fixing her hair. Shepard didn't reply. "Commander?"

Silence.

"Shepard!" Wrex bellowed, making Ashley cringe.

Silence.

Ashley's eyes widened in fear as she looked towards Wrex. They both took off running to the stairs. The second floor was empty, and there was no sign of Shepard anywhere. Ashley clipped her rifle back into place and started searching for a door or some explanation for Shepard's disappearance. Wrex moved in the opposite direction of Williams, keeping his shotgun at the ready. He heard a soft noise behind him and he whipped around. The young soldier was on the ground, a turian and a krogan stood above her. Wrex lifted his gun at the aliens.

"Let her go." He barked. The turian turned to face Wrex, and the enemy krogan lifted the limp woman up.

"Thank you Wrex, the Shadow Broker will be pleased that you brought these two to us." The turian sneered. The krogan tried to walk away with Ashley, but Wrex froze him in stasis.

"What the hell does the Shadow Broker want with them? He doesn't take hostages!"

"Your human allies had the opportunity to give the Shadow Broker what he desired, and they denied him. He swore he would repay them for their disrespect." Wrex was glowing with dark energy that matched his rage. The stasis holding the krogan died off. He grunted at Wrex, but turned to walk off with Ashley again. This time Wrex lifted him with his biotics, while Ashley dropped softly to the floor. Wrex lifted his shotgun at the turian.

"Give me back my humans." Wrex growled. The turian raise an eyebrow.

"Your humans? Oh Wrex, don't tell me you've gone soft for humans." The turian taunted. "Of all the species in the galaxy…" He shook his head. Wrex's lip curled in anger. In one quick blast, he wiped the smirk of the turian's face, along with the rest of it.

"I'll get them myself." He mumbled. The other krogan finally fell to the ground, and Wrex used his biotics to throw him up against a wall. He hit the metal wall hard, and slumped motionless on the floor. Wrex clipped his shotgun back and picked up Ashley's limp form. She had been bashed in the back of the head, and with no helmet to protect her, she was out cold.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you."

****

Shepard slowly opened her eyes. A throbbing pain in the back of her head blurred her vision temporarily. Some coward had smashed the Commander with the butt of their gun. Shepard's hands were bound behind her. The room she was in was empty of anything, and the only door was surely locked. Her captors left her weaponless, even taking her omni-tool. Shepard wished she had biotics. Then, at least, she wouldn't feel completely helpless, like she did right now. Her only chance was that her teammates were not incapacitated and looking for her.

The door slid open. Shepard barely lifted her head to see who entered. An asari walked right in front of her and sat on the floor next to her. For a fleeting moment, Shepard hoped the alien was Liara, but that was the probably concussion talking. The asari looked at her, almost apologetically.

"What the fuck do you want with me?" Shepard spat.

"I want nothing from you Commander Shepard, but the Shadow Broker has plans for you." The asari explained. Shepard got the feeling that the alien wasn't comfortable with holding the human Spectre hostage. A turian burst into the room, hardly waiting for the door to open completely.

"That bitch's little pawns just killed Kylen and Rykus!" He roared at the asari, and then faced Shepard. "I would kill you myself, if the Broker didn't need you alive." He waved his three-fingered fist in the Commander's face. Shepard glared into his black eyes. He sneered, "The Shadow Broker is going to teach you how important information is and how important you are to the galaxy…or not."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shepard growled, "What did you do with those marines?" The turian laughed.

"What marines? Maybe you were misinformed?" He taunted.

"You sent a false report to the Alliance just to get me out here?"

"Well not me, personally. The Shadow Broker might get mad if I took credit for that." The turian walked around the room like he was performing a victory lap. He paused with his back turned to Shepard. "Amazing the power information has, isn't it? Entire civilizations would crumble without it." He clenched his fist, then whipped around to face the Commander.

"Such power you hold over someone when you know their secrets. Wouldn't you agree, Shepard?" He said, lifting his alien eyebrow. All blood drained from the woman's face, and she dropped her head to the ground. The turian walked over and grabbed the Commander by her chin, lifting her head.

"Care to find out if anyone gives a damn about you?" He snarled. He let go and Shepard's head dropped back to the ground. "Another agent has contacted the Council, and informed them of your predicament. My credits say they will do nothing. What do you think Aleecin?" The turian turned to the asari, who had backed herself into a corner.

"I'm not playing your ridiculous game Braxen. This human has done more for the galaxy than the Shadow Broker, and she didn't have to bribe anyone with secrets." The asari burst out. The turian looked taken back. His face changed from shocked to angry quickly.

"Just watch her." He grumbled, then left the room.

****

"The human Spectre, Christa Shepard, has been captured. The agents holding her hostage demand a sum of one million credits for her release. If they are not paid, the Spectre will be killed." A transmission played to the members of the Citadel Council. The newest member, former Captain David Anderson could not hide his shock and concern.

"We have to do something." He blurted.

"Shepard got herself into this mess, she can get herself out." The turian councilor responded.

"Unfortunately, he's right Anderson," The asari councilor said in a calmer voice, "We don't deal with ransom situations, and Spectres are responsible for themselves."

"Can't we send in a ship? Someone to help her at least?" Anderson tried to reason.

Nearby a turian Spectre sat in on the Council's debate over if they should act. He had a feeling they would abandon the human Spectre, despite all she had done for them. He wasn't about to sit around and let the savior of the galaxy die. Copying the coordinates of Shepard's last mission onto his OSD, the turian took off to his small starship. Now he would finally get the chance to repay Shepard for taking him along on her battle against Saren, for teaching him everything, and for helping him become a Spectre.

Next update may be a little while...got a big paper due soon. But I'll certainly be procrastinating with this. -amante