Shepard had to admire the view from the Normandy's cockpit as Joker brought the ship in to the Citadel for docking. She could only stare in awe at the massive space station, a true city amongst the stars. The metropolis arms glittered brightly in the fluorescent purple nebula, steady streams of constant traffic easy to see even from a long distance away. Five arms spread out from a circular middle piece, giving the station a starfish appearance. As the Normandy flew in amongst the outstretched arms, Shepard began to make out individual buildings and even green patches that had to be parks. She couldn't fathom what it must have taken to build such a magnificent piece of architecture or how much it must cost to keep the station running. Shepard actually had her nose pressed against the glass like an overeager tourist after a long flight. She had to go out and explore. Hopefully her shakedown by the higher ups wouldn't last too long.


Shepard stood straight against the holo-screen of the Normandy's conference room. She stood beneath the withering glare of Udina, the cool and collected gaze of Admiral Hackett, and the moody stare from Anderson. Each man seemed like they wanted to say something before the other two just to make sure they got the first point across. Shepard waited for the berating to come, wondering what would become of her now. Would she be sent back to the Common Man for flight testing again? Buried under a bunch of paper work to be forgotten about?

"Dammit, Shepard!" Udina said.

Shepard couldn't help but feel a bit surprised that he had been the first to speak. Then again, he seemed the angriest. Anderson at least looked sympathetic with his moody stares but Hackett… the man was unreadable. "Nihlus dead, the beacon destroyed! What am I going to hear next?! That you were the one that killed him."

"Ambassador," Anderson said quickly. "Shepard did an admiral job down on Eden Prime, worthy of a medal. She saved the colony!"

"Don't you think I know that?!" Udina asked incredulously. "I have no doubt for Shepard's skill or dedication! We brought her into this project to show that humanity can work with aliens and were willing to share information! The implications that this mission might result in...!"

"They might think we blew up that beacon on purpose to hide any information inside," Hackett said with a curt nod. "Or that we ordered Shepard to kill Nihlus while his back was turned. It wouldn't be the first time that something along those lines happened."

Shepard listened to them bicker as if she weren't even in the room. She stayed still with her legs shoulder with apart and her hands clasped behind her back. She stared forward emotionlessly but inside she quaking with fear. She didn't know what of. Maybe being sent away as a failure?

"We had no way of knowing that the geth were attacking," Anderson said adamantly. "Besides, the Council has our report already. They know what we found down there and they'd be fools to think we would stage something like that to keep a fucking pole of history lessons from them."

"The point is, all of the work we put in trying to earn the Council's trust has almost certainly been in vain because of this mission," Udina snapped. "And-"

"You want Shepard as a scapegoat!" Anderson shot back.

Shepard could barely hold in her gasp. The way Anderson spoke to Udina was dangerous. Not only for him, but for the entire project. Udina had only to snap his fingers and he would be able to end Anderson's career. Shepard half expected Hackett to step in but the main simply sighed and took a flask out of his jacket pocket.

Shepard's eyes danced between Anderson and Udina. Why was Anderson fighting so hard at her defense? Was it because he truly believed she had done a good job… or was it because he didn't want to wait another few weeks while the choosing process for a new candidate started up again? What was Shepard to him? An executive officer or a means of simply getting humanity to the top? Did any of these men truly care… Shepard's thoughts were interrupted as she felt a pair of eyes fixate firmly on her.

Hackett stared intently as Shepard, his mouth still around the lip of the flask. Shepard noticed that his cheeks were slightly flushed. How much of that alcohol had he drank? Why was he looking at her like that? Shepard's eyes met his. She saw them flash. Obviously he was trying to tell her something. What did he want?

"Do not try and shift this on me, Anderson!" Udina said angrily. "Who was the one on the ground?! Who had the power to keep Nihlus alongside her?! Look at the footage again! You yourself and even Shepard outlined everything she could have done! Face it! She could have conducted that mission a hundred different ways! She could have saved Nihlus, she could have actually followed containment procedures instead of touching the beacon."

"Shepard did her duty as was expected," Anderson argued. "If you actually had cared to read William's report you would know that the beacon wasn't active when it was uncovered. Something happened after the geth got a hold of it!"

"It doesn't matter whether it was active or not!" Udina said. "It was intact when it was uncovered, it should have been intact when it arrived at the Citadel. Instead we got the base of the beacon and two body bags to show for it."

Shepard once again saw Hackett's eyes flash. His eyes narrowed and then quickly returned to their normal coolness. He lowered his flask and capped it before stowing it away in his pocket again. Shepard swallowed. Did he want her to say something? What?

"I think we're forgetting something critical here," Anderson said, his hands clenched into fists. "The dockworker. He said that the person that killed Nihlus was a turian named Saren."

"Don't bring up conspiracy theories, Anderson!" Udina said. "The Council doesn't want to hear you babble on about Saren to them again."

"How else could the guy have known who Saren was unless he heard the name?" Anderson asked. "Saren is a pretty uncommon name and has never been a human name."

Shepard suddenly understood. Hackett wanted her to say something. Nothing specific, just something. Something to defend herself. What could she say? Shepard frowned. What could these men want to hear? Should she tell them that she'll do better? Should she lay down her evidence? Prove that everything about that mission had gone wrong but not by her doing? Shepard took a small breath and took an abrupt step forward.

Her boots clacked loudly against the paneled floor of the conference room. Shepard continued staring straight ahead, but brought her hand up in a crisp salute. Her entire body tensed as if to lock her in place. No going back now. You'd look like an idiot not to say something after this. Her movement had gained her the surprised attention of each man.

"Commander Jodie Shepard of the Normandy reporting for duty, sir!" Shepard said loudly.

"What are you going on about?" Udina asked with a glare.

"I am the executive officer to Captain David Anderson, handpicked by Admiral Hackett and Ambassador Udina themselves!" Jodie went on without lowering her voice. Her tone carried off the walls of the room. "I was chosen to be the catalyst of humanity's advancement to the Council! I was to be assessed by a Spectre to join the Council's elite ranks and not only serve my people but everyone in the galaxy! My leaders chose me because I could get the job done! I am an N7 trained soldier of the Alliance Marines, bred from the streets of Minneapolis on Earth!

"No one is better suited than I for this position!" Shepard said, her voice rising an octave. By now she was almost trying to convince herself more than the three staring at her in shock. "As the leader of the ground team and the executive officer of the most advanced ship in both the turian and human navies, I advise that we allow the Council to pass judgment! I will stand before them with every scrap of evidence at my disposal and I will become humanity's first Spectre!" She was shaking. Visibly shaking. Her outburst had caused adrenaline to surge through her body. She was so worked up she wanted to break a nose.

The men were quiet for some time. They each searched her, trying to catch a break in her resolve. Shepard only stared forward, unblinking.

She could do this. Shepard wouldn't be stopped, no matter what these old men thought of her. Shepard was a soldier of humankind! She could do what twenty other soldiers couldn't, she could save a colony from annihilation. She was born for this! Could these men simply cast her off and use her as a scapegoat? Would she let that happen? Fuck. That.

"Maybe we ought to give her another chance at this," Hackett sighed, standing up from his seat and stretching. "We'll let the Council decide what happens now. They have the reports after all and it was there Spectre that was killed. I vote we keep Shepard in." Shepard almost started sobbing right then and there.

"Agreed," Anderson said quickly. He glared at Udina with a smirk. The politician looked about ready to burst he was so angry. He shook with barely controlled rage because he might have thought he was being ganged up on. Shepard watched him intently. Udina growled and relaxed his pent up shoulders.

"Fine," Udina said. "We'll let the Council pass judgment. But she'll be under their authority and their disciplinary procedures. Not ours."

Shepard wanted to scream and dance. Her smile broke through her stoic defenses and landed squarely on her face. She watched as Udina marched out of the room. Hackett flashed her a look that Shepard thought might have said 'good work' before he too left. As the doors shut behind him, Shepard's shaking was getting out of control.

"At ease, officer," Anderson said, sitting back in his seat. Shepard fell to her knees and fell forward onto her forehead. She grinned into the floor and planted her palms flat on either side of her.

"That was a good speech," Anderson said.

Shepard turned her head slightly to smirk at him from the ground. Shepard loudly exclaimed, "I won't disappoint, sir!"


Shepard's excitement was short lived as the realization that she would be at the Council's mercy kicked in. She walked out of the conference room with a waning smile, trying not to focus too much on what might happen. She ought to just be thankful that Udina had let her off so easily, although in his mind a trial by the Council was probably punishment enough. Maybe he was confident that Shepard would be prosecuted by the Council?

She waited for only an hour before Anderson called her into his office. He told her to put on her best uniform because they were both headed up to the Citadel Tower to meet with the councilors themselves. Ten minutes later found them both cleaned up and riding the monorail across the wards. As they left the Alliance sector, filled with only armed guards and varying ships, and their train rode into a wide open landscape of boulevards and shopping centers and Shepard gasped quietly.

Shepard stared out of the windows at the metropolis around her while Anderson simply busied himself with a datapad. Shepard couldn't tear her eyes away from the thousands of passing advertisements and glittering skyscrapers. Skycars of all kinds traveled in lines of traffic and honked their horns. It was entirely different feeling to be riding inside the city than looking down at it from space. The other ward arms stretched out above them. There was no sky or clouds, only the glitter of stars and the other arms. To think each arm was its own city, and to think that the entire metropolis of Tokyo would only take up one half of one arm…

Shepard wanted nothing more than to leap out of the moving train right then and there and run around with a blank check. She'd never seen so many shopping centers in one space before, and never so many aliens. They walked around in packs, asari, humans, turians, salarians, and even the massive elcor. They carried shopping bags and wore expensive clothing and all walked about like it was just another day for them. Shepard couldn't imagine getting used to living in a place like this. Every day would seem like a vacation to her.

Shepard stared with wide eyes at construction cranes high above her. The city wasn't just a behemoth, it was growing. Buildings were getting taller, shopping centers were getting wider, and the population was getting more and more diverse. There was no clear sector of influence by an species besides the military dockings bays and assorted embassy's. Everything was a cultural mishmash on the Citadel and almost overwhelming.

Shepard couldn't even read many of the advertisements as they flew by. They were all in alien languages and flashed bright colors in her face. The sensory overload almost made Shepard's headache return, but her excitement outweighed any discomforts.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Anderson asked without looking up. "This is your first time on the Citadel, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir," Shepard said breathlessly.

"Well enjoy it while it lasts," Anderson sighed. "Because it gets old pretty quickly."

"How could a place like this get old?" Shepard asked with a smile. "It's massive! You'll never run out of things to do!"

"You will when you realize that you don't have the paycheck to survive a week here. You wait. Your funds will dry up if you aren't careful."

Shepard knew he was probably right but it didn't matter to her then. Even if she only got a few days to enjoy this place, she'd make the time and money to do it right.

Shepard didn't stop her ogling for the entire ride to the Citadel tower, and even then, she was practically dancing in her seat to get out and snap some pictures. The Presidium was even more impressive than the wards.

A circular crowning jewel of the crown that was the Citadel, the Presidium was brightly lit with its own blue sky and fluffy clouds. It was all a hologram of course, but Shepard could feel the temperature difference as they rode in. While her eyes adjusted to the sudden light, Shepard gasped again. A bustling metropolis was replaced with a calm waterfront coastline on either side of a clear blue river. Buildings arranged like giant, rising steps with sky bridges stretching across the water every so often were interrupted by quaint restaurants and gardens that dotted the long landscape. There were actual fields of green grass instead of cold metal and stone.

Shepard could also see that the Presidium was where the government had most of its influence. The Citadel Security building sat on a small peninsula that jutted out into the wide river, with rows of blue and black sky cars lined up in a parking lot. Shepard could see landing pads where gunships waited to be launched at a moment's notice. The hospital was only a short ways down the river from the C-SEC building, although its shape was much different. The building was built like a sky bridge, spanning the widest point in the river. It was as wide as the Normandy was long, with large glass picture windows on either side. As the monorail rode down just below the massive building, Shepard could see large words flashing on the side in different languages.

"Huerta Memorial Hospital," chimed the VI as the monorail briefly stopped at the hospital station before jetting off again. Of all the buildings on the Citadel, the Citadel Tower was the least impressive, at least at first glance. As the monorail stopped in front of it and Anderson and Shepard disembarked, Shepard blinked in confusion.

"Shouldn't the government building be… a little more impressive?" Shepard asked. It wasn't that the tall, cylinder shaped building was an eye sore, but compared to the rest of the station's magnificence, it was a bit of a letdown.

"Just wait for the elevator ride," Anderson said. And Shepard did. And she was, once again, impressed. The lobby of the Council building was circular, like the outside of the building, with various waterfalls and potted plants adorning the inside walls. A few groups of standing politicians schmoozed as Shepard and Anderson walked to the back wall. Shepard supposed the front desk was at the top?

They both stepped into the elevator, which had more buttons than the Normandy's flight controls. Anderson pressed the top center button and immediately the elevator shot into the air at an alarming rate. Despite the rapidly disappearing ground below them, Shepard didn't feel even a shake as the lift shot up like a bullet. The glass box they rode in was an oddly comfortable ride.

The elevator breached the top of the Presidium, and suddenly Shepard was standing amongst the stars. She gazed out at the five, outstretched arms in renewed appreciation for their might. It was like she was the presidium itself. She could see the rear thrusters of the Citadel defense fleet. The stars were magnificent from there, the purple nebula wrapping around the station like a blanket. Shepard knew that no matter where she went in life, no matter what planet or station, nothing would ever stand up to the Citadel's might. Never before had a city left such a lasting first impression on her.

Hopefully it wouldn't be Shepard's only visit, and hopefully the Council would be as magnificent as the place they lived.