"Ah, Commander. Thank you for coming."
"What is it, Lawson. I'm busy you know."
"Of course, Commander. This should only take a moment."
Shepard waited for her to speak.
She cleared her throat before starting.
"I received news you'd changed trajectories from the Citadel, choosing to remain in the Omega cluster. I just wanted to know what your reasons were." Miranda explained, trying to keep the tone in her voice as polite as possible. If the Illusive Man wanted her to remain in Shepard's crew, she was damn well going to make sure it happened.
Shepard stood against the door, her hand to her mouth in a contemplating gesture as she studied her XO. Her synthetically enhanced eyes glowed red. It kind of reminded Miranda of the synthetic optics in the Illusive Man's own eyes, although she hated to admit it. And she and her team had put them there. She almost couldn't contain the desire to convulse at that thought, but she kept her face neutral toward Shepard.
God, if I'd known what I do now back then, I'd never have agreed to do this.
After a few moments of Miranda staring at her, Shepard finally moved her arm.
"I want repairs to take the shortest time possible. Would a Fuelling Depot suffice?"
Miranda shook her head. "I would suggest reconfirming our original course to the Citadel. Fuelling Depots have limited resources."
"They can fix ships."
"The Normandy needs entire new parts which only a major colony would be able to supply. Besides that, I've already had the engineers take stock of what we need and put the orders in with a contact of Cerberus to get them. They should be ready to collect at the Citadel in…"
"Wait, you're saying we have to wait for the orders to come in, never mind installing them?" Shepard interjected.
"That is correct." Miranda nodded.
Shepard looked irritated (more than usual), and took a step back toward the wall.
"How long will it take?" She asked flatly.
"According to the contact the total time it will take for all of the orders to be ready will be…" She typed something into her computer. "…3 weeks." She winced, anticipating the Commander's response.
It was not immediately forthcoming.
"And then how long will they take to install?" Shepard asked.
"Anything up to 2 weeks, considering the damage we've sustained." Miranda clarified.
"So… about 5 weeks total. 5 weeks we lose sitting idle while the Reapers find a way to destroy the whole damned galaxy."
"We need to do it, Commander. Can you suggest another way?"
Shepard eyed her, a mutual intense dislike of one another relaying between them.
"I can, actually. We go to Omega instead. It's much closer than the Citadel. If our parts are so rare, buying the parts from the brokers ourselves and not doing any of this waiting shit would work. I'm sure we could find what we need in Omega's markets."
"You're talking about underground dealerships." Miranda clarified. "That's illegal."
"Doing illegal things has never bothered you and Cerberus before." The statement was most definitely meant to be accusatory. "Besides, Cerberus pretending they're several different buyers isn't exactly legal either."
"But you're not a Spectre anymore, Shepard. You can't just go around doing things like dealing with illegal goods."
"Nobody would know."
"They would suspect. Isn't it better to keep as clean a reputation as possible?"
"I can compromise my reputation for mine and the galaxy's lives."
Miranda couldn't contain her sigh.
Shepard paced forward again, placing her hands flat on Miranda's desk and staring directly at her.
"So they're both illegal. What's so different? We either get the parts in a few days, or a month."
"Shepard, you're not seeing the whole picture clearly. Omega likely wouldn't even have most of the parts we need. This ship's top of the line."
Shepard started to say something, stopped, then pushed off the desk in annoyance.
"I'm not going to sit idle for 5 weeks. But fine. Continue the order. I'll find something else to do while my ship is down."
"… I'm glad you've come to see logic, Commander." She was trying so hard not to sound sarcastic.
Shepard gave her a funny look, then made for the door. She paused as she reached it, looking back at the XO.
"We'll dock at the Citadel."
She stepped out the door, which automatically closed behind her.
"Citadel it is," Miranda said flatly as the door shut completely.
Shepard exited Miranda's office, striking up the comm to Joker. "Joker, change of plans again. Our resident Cerberus operative has informed me we need to go to the Citadel after all."
"Geez Commander. If you change your mind one more time, I'm going on strike."
"You'll have plenty of time not to work." Shepard muttered.
"Eh?"
"Just focus on piloting, mister."