Author`s Note: Yay for fourth chapter. I feel like some parts got a little slow, so forgive me. The next chapter will be important for Renee's history, as well as her relationship with both Kaidan and Jacob. And as you can tell I failed to describe what Renee wears, just think a version of Miranda's uniform obtained after finishing her loyalty mission. This was a long chapter, I'm not sure if the next one will be as long, but maybe. Anyway, enjoy.
.04 PROJECT GETH
Soon after Kaidan informed her of being summoned to an important meeting later, the Captain appeared in high-definition on her monitor after a few warning beeps from the computer. Dr. Renee Logan was just walking back and fourth getting comfortable with her surroundings when he cleared his throat to catch her attention. She turned away from where she was checking the medi-gel supply, thankfully this freighter hadn't forgotten to refill it before leaving the station. Captain Vero had downgraded his wardrobe from what she could tell, exchanging his Captain's uniform for a normal Alliance uniform the rest of the crew was wearing. He smiled as she re-approached her desk and sat promptly in front of the monitor.
"Captain?" she tried to act surprised to the best of her ability, but Renee usually found herself trying too hard whenever she pretended to be oblivious to what she already knew. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" That ought to have helped her.
The Captain smirked, and she could hear him lightly applaud her where his hands were off-camera. "No need Doctor, Kaidan already informed me that you know." She breathed a sigh of relief and heard his light chuckle through the speakers. "I wasn't aware you and the Commander had known each other prior to this mission?" Renee knew it would get around eventually and that soon the crew would be speculating just how well they knew one another, especially the Captain, whom had made obvious interests in her since she met him.
"Kaidan and I are really not that close," Renee answered in plain honesty, "I think finding someone else we know on this mission brings a bit of comfort, that's all." Captain Vero was obviously still suspicious, but accepted her explanation anyways. She didn't know any other way to describe their relationship, other than that they were simply friends; not best friends, and no way were they ever involved romantically. Kaidan and her just understood one another, which was an important foundation in how their friendship began. "We won't be breaking any regs Captain," she reassured when she still found him looking at her with a quizzical look.
"Sorry I didn't have intentions to talk about your relationship with Kaidan," although she secretly felt he had to get the facts for himself. "I wanted to drop in and tell you that I need you to be in the conference room in five minutes. I know that you didn't exactly want to be here, with the Corsairs, but your place on this team is very important to the success of the mission. I want to make sure you get all the facts of what will be required of you."
Renee looked at him in puzzlement. "I'm not a solider Captain, surely my role as a Doctor on the Stalengrad is only to fix the wounded?" The Captain faked a smile that only meant she was thinking under false pretenses, which gave way to the realization that Renee was to be far more involved than she wanted. Hell, she didn't want to be here in the first place. Her pleasant smile dropped from her face and she tried eagerly to hide her resentment. Renee probably should of known better than to think an Admiral would just randomly choose her for this.
The Captain sighed regretfully, "I didn't have a say in the matter Dr. Logan, but from what I've heard, you have an excellent record on the field...for a doctor." He shifted across the screen, indicating he was standing in front of his own monitor rather than sitting like her, and leaned closer to the screen. "I didn't want to say much over the link, but Renee, you were recommended by one of our most recognized corsairs. There was no way we could just toss your name in the trash." He checked his watch and whistled at the time, he looked back at Dr. Logan to see she was clearly interested in learning the name of the said corsair, although she was sure she already had an idea. "Meeting starts in a minute, we can talk after."
The link was cut and she was staring at a dark screen. Her reflection was that of someone confused, if it was who she thought it was, why did he do it? Why would he put her name up for something she had clearly never shown an interest in? Renee sighed in frustration and ran her hand down her face, she needed answers, and sooner then later. The doctor checked her omni-tool for the time and found she was seconds from arriving late if she left now, which was better than showing up awkwardly early. She got to her feet and rolled her neck, which had grown stiff from staring at the Captain through a monitor.
Renee was at the door when her omni-tool opened with a new vid-mail, at first she was worried to check the sender, but seeing the Captain's name was a sigh of relief. She decided to check it now, maybe there was something she needed to bring; someone's file or her own. What she wasn't expecting was a sentence entirely unrelated to the meeting. Renee read it over and over, and no matter how many times she did, the message never changed.
It was Jacob Taylor that told us about you. _Charlie Vero
Renee was pacing towards the elevator shaft in her usual manner, ignorant of those moving about around her and lost somewhere amongst her thoughts. She was terrible at hiding her emotions when something bothered her, a feature Jacob Taylor always made a habit of pointing out when she was upset around him. He always knew when she was lying. But these people didn't know her, and her walking while looking diligently at the floor was ignored completely by those she brushed past. Which was fine with her; she wasn't in a mood to answer to anyone who might be concerned about her well being. All she wanted was to get this meeting over and tuck herself to bed, or if time allowed, she would talk to Kaidan about what she had learned.
Impatiently Renee jabbed the elevator button repeatedly, waiting for the churning of mechanics to come to a halt behind the elevator gate. The replacement of a convenient stairway was coming from the fourth deck, or the Engineering Deck, and came to a hissing halt on the third deck, where her med bay and most of the crew would reside during the trip. She nearly jumped into the lift, just as eagerly pressing the 'Deck 2' button. Crossing her arms anxiously, she glanced between the button and the gate, waiting for them to fall close. Soon they did and she sighed with relief, however, mid-way through closing they began to re-open.
"Are you-" The doctor huffed, catching her words when she saw Lt. Hawke standing at the lift's entrance. "Kidding me," she finished in a hushed breath, recognizing he was just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. He nodded, acknowledging her, and stepped into the elevator beside her. Lt. Hawke pressed the same 'Deck 2' button and watched as the previously canceled closing of the elevator began to roll shut. Renee rolled her eyes and shook her head, this was just great. As if things weren't already annoying, she had to enjoy an elevator ride with a most loathing man, even if the ride was short.
While she was distracting herself, Hawke was looking at her in an apologetic manner. "Sorry about earlier," he muttered quietly. Renee could tell he had hoped she didn't hear him, but she did. She looked up at him and caught him look away quickly. "I know I was a complete jackass but..." he focused on her again with a friendly grin, although she could sense a hint of his egoist charm in the expression. "I wasn't expecting the Alliance doctor to look like you."
Maybe she should of been flattered, most doctors were far older than her these days and male, but Renee found herself feeling insulted again. She looked at him with the same dislike she had shown him before, "What are you trying to say?" If her arms weren't crossed already she would of crossed them at that exact moment to emphasize her words.
"Well for one, you're not wearing one of those un-flattering uniforms the old docs like to wear." It was true. You could always pick out Renee out of a crowd of doctors because she chose not to wear the standard uniform most doctors and researchers wore. She found them uncomfortable and definitely a very unattractive attire for someone of her youth. So instead she had adapted to wearing a black, sleek cat-like suit. It was light and easy to move in, which was a plus in a doctor's office full of patients back and fourth. Despite him trying to compliment her, Renee felt suddenly self-conscious and didn't like he was paying so much attention to her.
"If more doctors looked like you," he whistled and that same, old wannabe charming smirk was planted on his face. Renee smirked herself, catching him off-guard. "What?" he questioned as the elevator doors opened and she began to make her escape.
Dr. Logan hoped she could leave him to debate himself what she was thinking, but the lieutenant was rather persistent and followed her towards the conference room. "If only there was less Alliance soldiers like you," she spoke briefly over her shoulder at him. She wasn't about to explain her low tolerance for thick headed soldiers, especially ones that made a game of hitting on her.
They walked one after the other into the conference room, where only a handful of other soldiers were waiting in a cluster for the Captain to begin his opening statement. Renee scanned the room for Kaidan, but he was in the middle of exchanging words with the Captain to hear about her news. So she decided to wait along with everyone else, hopefully alone, if Lt. Hawke would just walk off to flirt with another female on board. However he stood beside her, waiting beside her. "Come on Doc, can't you take a compliment?" No, no she couldn't and if she were to think back on it, she never could.
"Just leave me alone Lieutenant," she scowled at him, unable to answer him earnestly. Renee turned away from him after sharing a glare and was happy to see that the Captain was ready to start the meeting.
There weren't chairs, so everyone stood in a wide half-circle around Captain Vero and Kaidan, whom was looking rather upset as the crowd of conversation began to die. The Captain briefly cleared his through to catch everyone's attention and then he nodded at each side of the surrounding soldiers. "As you know, the Corsairs are an elite group of Alliance soldiers thats work off the radar," he had his arms crossed formerly behind his back as he spoke in a loud clear words. "All of you have shown incredible advancement as a soldier, which is why you're here." Renee got that edgy feeling in her stomach, like when you're chugging along something high and on the other side you just race down, like the roller-coasters back on earth.
"Our mission is an important one. It can't be completed by a normal Alliance troop, we needed specialists of all kinds," Renee suddenly felt he was purposely looking at her as he spoke, which made her look away uneasily. "Men and women that will risk anything for the safety of the universe." There suddenly was a silence, an exchange of nervous looks from one soldier to the other. Renee even found herself glancing up at Hawke with curious eyes at where the Captain's speech was going. She saw that he noticed the stir and decided to speak again.
"Commander Alenko was part of a very important mission when the Normandy was attacked by an unidentified enemy," Renee immediately turned to Kaidan, noticing how he squeezed his hands into fists before releasing them again. "As you all know, the Normandy was lost, alongside one of our own..." Being reminded of Commander Shepard's death brought along bad memories of her own, and Renee felt empathetic to how hard this must be for Kaidan right now.
"The Commander and I," Kaidan interjected, catching the doctor by surprise, "We were searching for geth stragglers through out the galaxy." He stepped into the clearing that had been made and she could see just how hard it was for him to speak. "After the Normandy and- and the Commander were lost, the mission was written off. The Geth are still out there and we need to take them out before it all happens again." At that, the Captain joined his side again and nodded at Kaidan's courage for speaking.
"We're not just going to take out the geth, we're going to try and salvage any data caches these Geth might still have of Saren and the attack on the Citadel." There was a wave of gasps and sounds of disbelief. Dr. Logan knew that Geths often self-destructed when their data caches were in-dager of being of being hacked, destroying the data completely. She didn't understand why the Captain could believe that such an impossible task could be accomplished with a group of impressive soldiers. As far as she knew, there had been no one, human or alien, who had managed to ever capture a data cache. The Captain threw up his hands defensively, trying to calm the anxiety that flowed through the room now. "I know what I ask is near impossible, but we've managed to find some allies that can help us acquire the caches." And as if it had all been staged, the door into the conference room slid open and in stepped two Quarians.
Renee was fascinated, she had seen Quarians plenty of times during her work as a doctor and even spent a year studying their anatomy and immune system. However, she had never worked with a Quarian, and to be given the chance was an exciting change to this entire corsair thing. For a moment she forgot she was angry. The Quarians walked to the Captain and stood in the clearing with him. From the obvious shape of their environmental suits, one was a female and the other a male. Haven built the Geth themselves, it would take a Quarians knowledge of the synthetics to capture a data cache.
"I present you, Gerith nar Neema and his sister Rose Nollie nar Neema," the Captain said proudly of the alien crew members.
The male Quarian named Gerith presented a point-making hand gesture and spoke through his mask, "Twins to be exact." Renee's eyes lit up. Twin Quarians was definitely better than just normal sibling Quarians, especially when their people were only allowed to bare a single child. But at the same time she felt sick to her stomach for an entirely different reason. Renee noticed an exchange of annoyed looks between him and his sister. "Well, it's not like they would of known otherwise," he said with an innocent shrug. It was true, while in their suits, other species could barely tell one Quarian from another.
Captain Vero smiled and returned to addressing the crew, "Both Gerith and Rose are currently on their pilgrimage and have agreed to help us hunt down the Geth." He smiled at the Quarians, and Renee felt an eagerness to introduce herself as well.
"Ever wonder what a Quarian really looks like?" she side-glanced at Lt. Hawke, whom had unknowingly thought out loud. Of course, she did know, but she wasn't about to go and tell him that.
"Another addition to the crew will be Lt. Bruce Vector of the Turian Army." From the corner of the room a Turian, who had been left unnoticed since the beginning of the meeting, also joined the Captain's expanding circle of very important people. Renee was wondering soon if an Asari was going to make an appearance, but the Captain had clearly finished introducing extra terrestrial teammates. "He joins us supported by the Turians, to share what we might learn of a common enemy."
Suddenly there was a feeling in the air, a very specific heart-racing feeling that was hard to explain. Renee knew with the conclusion of this meeting the mission would begin. The impending danger sent a chill down her spine, the doctor didn't know if she could ever prepare herself to see a dead man again. Just thinking about it brought back nightmares from the attack on the Citadel, the bullet ridden and slaughtered corpse of innocence scattered across the wards. Patients she had spent years as their doctor, dead at her feet. There was no forgetting death.
"I'd also like to introduce our doctor, Renee Logan." Renee looked up abruptly from her thoughts and felt herself slightly blush at the introduction, she hadn't prepared to be named. The Captain smiled at her encouragingly, yet she still felt a little ill from the formal address. "She has has many experiences on the field, most recent would have been the Batarian terrorist attack on the Citadel. Although not an official Alliance solider, Dr. Logan has done some training and you can trust her to take care of herself as a part of the field team."
Field team? Renee was shaking her head and waving her hands in denial, "Captain I am not a soldier." Everyone seemed surprised by her remark, even the Quarians looked a bit uneasy beneath their masks. Captain Vero gave her a hardened look, even a bit darkened by her constant refusal to participate fully as a corsair. But she didn't care. Renee Logan was a doctor, not a gun-slinging soldier or a implanted biotic. However, it appeared no matter how many times she told him she wasn't a soldier, he was still going to expect her to physically hunt down the Geth. And as upsetting as that was, she was rather annoyed he had done his research on her.
"Everyone on this ship Dr. Logan has a part to play and I expect you to perform yours above the call of duty as an Alliance doctor," the Captain scolded her in the presence of everyone else. Renee crossed her arms, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of embarrassing her or showing her 'whose boss.' "Now if no one has any questions, you're all dismissed," he looked for any puzzlement among his crew, but there wasn't any. "Then, dismissed."
Renee stared down the Captain as everyone else hustled out of the room, she even ignored Kaidan when he paused momentarily at her side. Only when the Captain began to approach her did she turn her back on him and leave, even when he called her back. She stomped back to the elevator, weaving through the small crowd of soldiers exchanging their opinions of the mission with the recently introduced aliens; which meant she would have the elevator to herself id she were quick enough. She didn't delay pushing the button back to her floor and was relieved no one approached the elevator as the gate closed. But looking out, she saw Lt. Hawke smiling at her in an unusual manner across the lobby as the elevator closed entirely.