Another chapter done and dusted! As always, constructive criticism is encouraged.

Hope you like!

Disclaimer: Bioware owns everything except my OCs.

A couple of days later, I had just collapsed on the sofa after a workout with Jen, when Harris' voice sounded over the intercom.

"Sal, we're coming up to the Matano system now, we should be at Chasca in about half an hour. Would you mind prepping the Captain?"

I scowled. "Can't you do it, Mr Omnipresent Comm System Pilot?"

"The Captain cuts me off when he's making calls," Harris said, a petulant tone betraying his annoyance at this (completely deserved) lack of trust.

"Well, get Jen to do it, she's on-duty."

"She's got magic powers," Harris said promptly.

I snorted. "That doesn't stop you from annoying her normally."

"Yeah, but – "

"Besides, you've got legs, haven't you?"

"Please, Sal?"

"Do it, already!" came a moan from the other sofa, where a serviceman was trying to nap.

"Fine!" I rolled off the sofa and got up. Then, I remembered my position and levered a finger at the private. "Just because you're sleeping, doesn't mean you can offer cheek to your superior officers, Jackson."

"Sorry, ma'am," came a hasty reply as Jackson remembered himself and tried to sit to attention.

I nodded seriously, then walked off, grinning to myself when I decided he could no longer see me.

Feeling slightly happier after that assertion of my authority, I quickly jogged up the stairs and went to the door of the comm room. It slid open soundlessly and I stepped through it. There was a man on the screen, wearing a black baseball cap and looking very annoyed.

"Why've you told me this, Kaidan? Surely your fiancée could help you out better."

The captain was sitting in a chair, resting his head in his hands. He didn't notice me come in. "I made Shepard promise not to call me when she's out on a mission. If I call her whenever I feel like it – "

"Wait. You're not still calling her by her end name?"

Captain Alenko groaned. "Now I know why Anderson was so eager to leave the Normandy…"

"Hey, it's not my problem that you chose me to confide in about your resident freak – "

Resident freak? Who are they talking about? I decided this was probably a good time to announce myself.

"Uh, Captain?"

Both men turned to look at me.

"I'm gone," said the one on the screen, and vanished.

"Lieutenant," Captain Alenko said. He looked more alert than usual, almost wary. Probably because I almost caught him talking about one of his crew, I thought, feeling smug. I may have gossiped about my subordinates on occasion, but they were my subordinates to gossip about. I didn't like anyone else doing it.

Especially not my superior officers.

"Harris says that we're entering the Matano system, sir. ETA thirty minutes."

"Thirty minutes?" he repeated distractedly. "Good." He looked so ill at ease that I felt my earlier self-righteousness dissolve into sympathy.

"Don't worry, sir. I didn't hear anything important," I reassured him.

He visibly relaxed. "Good. Uh, not that there was anything to hear…"

"Hey, we gossip about one another all the time… um, sir. Scuttlebutt doesn't hurt anyone." I paused, and then added, "Well, so long as you make sure whoever you were talking about doesn't find out." I had just remembered several embarrassing situations that occurred due to Jen's rather loud whispering voice.

"Good advice," he said weakly.

We stood there uncomfortably for a little while, until I coughed and said, "So, about Chasca…?"

"Oh, yeah. Alert Cole and Green and suit up. I want the Mako deployed as soon as Harris gets close enough." He sighed, and rubbed his temples as if to soothe an oncoming headache. "Hopefully, this will be a straightforward mission and we can get it over with quickly. I know I could do with a few days' shore leave."

"Yessir," I said, trying to disguise my delight at the possibility of getting off the Stirling for a little while.

"Dismissed," he said, nodding at me.

I turned around and walked off with a bounce in my step, feeling much more cheerful than I had been only a few minutes earlier. I'd been chosen to lead the shore party; there was the possibility of some shore leave soon; and I'd saved Captain Alenko from the wrath of one of my crewmates.

Or, that's what I thought. I was wrong, as it turned out, on all three counts.

Ignorance is indeed bliss.