7: Downtime


SSV Normandy

Briefing Room

08:00 October 1st 2181

...

"Commander Shepard, do you really expect us to believe that these people are from another reality?"

Shepard rubbed the bridge of her nose. It would be the Turian councillor who would dismiss what she said so easily.

"Well can you come up with a better story or how that ship is full of humans?" Asked the Salarian councillor to his Turian counterpart.

The Turian turned and stared at the Salarian. "Valern, why would you believe such a ludicrous story?"

"I don't, but I won't dismiss it out of hand." He turned to look past Shepard and MacLeod who was trying not to laugh at the Turian. "Commander MacLeod, do you have any way to prove your story?"

MacLeod took a deep breath before he spoke. "Councillors, I have provided Commander Shepard with a complete history of the Federation – minus classified materials – so if you think it's a load of crap, then you're either blind," he turned and stared at the Turian. "Or you're an idiot."

"How dare you…"

"Commander," Interrupted the Asari. "Insulting the governing body of the Citadel is not a wise career move."

MacLeod smiled viciously. "Nor is dismissing the fact that my ship – even critically damaged – was able to destroy three Batarian ships with a single torpedo at ten percent yield." He stepped forward. "And if any attempt is made to seize my vessel, I will happily show you what it can do at full yield."

"Councillors," Shepard spoke quickly to avoid this meeting descending into a farce, well more of one. "Commander MacLeod's crew contains aliens that have never been encountered by any Citadel race, uses technology that is radically different from our own, and as the Commander stated, is massively more powerful than any ship of its size."

"Indeed Commander." Started the Asari. "We shall see soon enough as to how powerful this 'alternate dimension' ship really is."

Before anything else could be said, the Asari ended the dialogue by cutting the signal; something Shepard suspected was payback for his actions during the Noveria debrief.

"Sanctimonious asshole!" stated MacLeod as he stared daggers at where the image of the Turian had been. "I would really like to educate him about all the things he doesn't know."

Shepard fought hard to keep from smiling as she felt the same way. "I'm more concerned with their final statement. It seemed to imply that they're coming here."

MacLeod frowned a little. "Well either that was all for show and they are coming, or you're just misreading her statement."

Shepard placed it from her mind and walked out of the briefing room, MacLeod in tow. "Well we'll find out soon enough. The council team should be here sometime tomorrow. It would help if you would let us examine your engines."

MacLeod shook his head, "Sorry, as I've said before – and you should've read from the files we sent over – we don't share technology or get involved in the natural development of any species."

Shepard nodded as they passed through the CIC. "Your Prime Directive?" MacLeod nodded. "A smart idea, though I'm sure it doesn't apply as we're not in your universe anymore."

MacLeod actually laughed, though it was more a laugh of discontentment than humour. "Trust me; we've had several instances of crews being thrown through the looking glass. But they've always been to dimensions similar to our own. Yours is massively different in so many ways that the quantum signature of our universe has a disturbingly large variance from our own that we're not sure if we can get home."

Shepard really didn't know how to respond to that – way out of her pay grade – so she changed the subject. "So how are your repairs going?"

"Well enough. Engines are still several days away but even then we'll only be able to do about a low warp factor, probably warp four, until my chief engineer is sure there are no micro fractures in the hull." He noticed Shepard's look. "That's about two hundred times light-speed."

"That all?" Commented Shepard. "Most ships using eezo do around fifteen thousand L.S. military ships can get up to two thousand."

MacLeod grunted at the slight insult. "And how fast were Citadel ships going a thousand years ago?"

"The same why?" said Shepard; not fully getting what was being implied.

"Exactly." MacLeod looked directly at Shepard as he spoke to her. "Two hundred years ago, fifty L.S. was fast, a hundred years ago a thousand was fast. Current Federation ships can hold up to three thousand L.S." He smiled as he thought about merging the two techs. "Give us a year and using eezo we should be capable of five thousand L.S. or more"

Shepard thought about it for a moment then nodded. "Well eezo seems to have a limit based on current power generation technology. Plus the Asari and Salarians have had mass effect tech for thousands of years and they've not really improved it." She thought a bit more. "Same is true of the Citadel – which they didn't build by the way – among another things."

"Exactly." Said MacLeod as he nodded and continued walking. "I'm glad you can see it. People here seem to be uninterested in improving and just accepting what they have. It's troubling."

"Survival of the fittest." Muttered Shepard. "If you don't evolve you die."

"It's almost like something or someone has control your development by giving you the Mass Relays." He smiled as he remembered his history. "And just like at the birth the Federation, the other races fear Humanity because we don't like to stand still."

Shepard laughed. "True enough. So how fast can this ship go?"

"Cruising speed of around seventeen hundred L.S. and maximum of about two thousand L.S. for twelve hours."

"So how often do you need to stop to discharge excess heat?" She asked, hoping to learn if there was a weakness to their power generation technology.

MacLeod recognized the dual nature of the question but saw no risk in answering. Besides, he found the redhead attractive, and he never could saw no to a pretty face. "Thanks to our reactor, we can sustain warp speeds for weeks if not months at a time, though we can only hold warp nine point six for a week or so before the injectors need to be examined for stress." MacLeod smiled at Shepard as she actually gawked in shock. "Well, with those relays you don't need to travel that fast for long as the relays are working. Who built them anyway? "

Shepard stopped as the vision shot through her head again. "Shepard?" She shook her head and looked at MacLeod.

"Sorry, just thinking about something."

"Saren?" Shepard gave MacLeod a dead stare. "Some of your crew like to talk."

Shepard sighed. "I'll have to have a word with them about the concept of need-to-know." MacLeod laughed lightly as they reached the airlock and he looked into the cockpit.

"You ready to go back May?" Ku turned and smiled as she walked over.

"Aye sir. Joker was just showing me how he files the Normandy."

Shepard looked at her helmsman. "Tell me you were civil Joker."

Joker feigned hurt as he answered. "Me when am I ever not professional?" Shepard smirked. "Well, if other helm officers all looked like Ensign Ku, you'd never hear me be anything but nice ever again."

Not wanting to pass up that gift horse, Shepard turned to face Ku. "Any chance I could get you to sign on with my crew?"

Ku laughed softly and just shook her head as she walked into the airlock.

Shepard watched the two extra-dimensional humans – and she found herself believing their story after two days of talking to them – leave before turning to Joker. "We sure do seem to find all the weird stuff don't we?"

Joker laughed as he turned back to the controls. "Commander, if you told me God himself told you to do something, I'd believe it. You have that kind of luck."

Shepard didn't know whether to laugh of scowl at the comment so she just shook her head and walked away.


USS Vanguard

Sickbay

18:00 October 2nd 2181

...

MacLeod looked down at his captain, wishing the older man was In charge. MacLeod had almost no experience with first contact protocols and such and much preferred to be in a fight than working with new people.

He had spent all his downtime yesterday drinking- not a good sign he knew – as a means to cope, but it didn't help. He needed someone to talk to but the ship's Councillor was dead and everyone was looking to him to lead and protect them. He'd try his best but it wasn't ready for commanding a starship, not even clone

He had already made a few mistakes in regards to repair schedules and supply assignments but thankfully D'Mora had spotted them before it resulted in any accidents but he knew that sooner or later someone would get sloppy as they dealt with the trauma of being stuck in another dimension after watching so many of their crew-mates and friends die. And not knowing if the Borg had been stopped or if Romulus had fallen must have been beyond stressful for everyone, especially the Romulans themselves.

How he wished his Captain was here. "How is he doing Kestra?"

Judal looked at his readings as she spoke. "I'm afraid there's no change. The swelling on his brain has down, thanks to the EMH's excellent surgical skills, but there is serious damage to his neural pathways. Doctor Chakwas couldn't do anything either, though their medigel has distinct possibilities. With a little time and research it could really change how we deal with battle-field medicine and first-aid."

"Will he wake up?"

"If we could get him to a Starfleet medical facility, then maybe. But here and now, I just don't see it happening."

MacLeod looked at the man lying on the bed in-front of him. Willard had taken MacLeod under his wing after MacLeod had finished his second stint at Starfleet Academy – his first cut short by the war and getting trapped on Betazed – and done his best to help him cope with the loss of his homeworld, which the Dominion had bombed out of existence once they discovered the truth about its colonists.

Willard, along with Ku and D'Mora, was the closest thing MacLeod had left to family. He wasn't sure he could manage to protect this crew, especially if what Shepard had mentioned about Saren and the Geth was true.

"Erik?" Prompted Judal as she rested her hand on his shoulder. Even without her telepathic abilities, she could sense his distress easily.

"I'm OK Kestra. I just wish he was here."

"You'll be fine." He looked and nodded his thanks and turned to leave Sickbay.

No sooner had he done so than his communicator beeped. "MacLeod here."

"We've detected a FTL event on the far edge of the system." Said D'Mora from the bridge.

MacLeod frowned. From what Shepard had said the Council ship should arrive along the same vector as the Normandy did and as such, they were both waiting near that side of the system. The Morning Star had departed during the night as she had a job to do but Captain Travis had invited him to drinks at a club called Flux when he finally arrived at the Citadel.

"Any word from the Normandy?" MacLeod stepped into a turbo-lift.

"They haven't detected the event but they have suggested launching fighters to investigate."

"Do so, and bring the ship to yellow alert."

D'Mora laughed. "You didn't get Varik's report did you?"

"No, what's wrong this time." The lift opened onto the bridge and MacLeod stepped out.

"The shield generators were taken offline so Varik could carry out a level two diagnostic before restarting the warp core."

MacLeod rubbed the bridge of his nose as he settled into the command chair. "Could it get any worse?" he muttered.

D'Mora opened her mouth to give a snide reply but was interrupted as three loud clangs rattled the outer hull.

"What the hell?" Muttered the Ensign at the helm as an alarm sounded.

"Hull breaches, deck five, port side." Stated Fourier who was currently manning the tactical station. "Somehow our sensors failed to detect them."

"Just great. Tell Varik to…"

"Hold on." Interjected Fourier. "I've got movement from the sections were the objects struck. Strange thing is I'm getting little or no life-signs in that section."

MacLeod got a sickening feeling in his stomach as Fourier spoke. Something about this was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Dispatch a security detail." Commanded D'Mora as it seemed she also felt something was wrong. "Consider it a boarding action."

Fourier nodded and relayed the orders to the nearest security team.

MacLeod tapped a button on his armrest. "Vanguard to Normandy."

"Go ahead Vanguard." Said the voice of the XO, Pressley. "What's the problem?"

"We've got a possible boarding action yet we're only getting movement, but no life-signs from the area in question."

Pressley could be heard cursing as he did something on the Normandy. "Vanguard, we suspect that you have Geth on-board. We're breaking the seals and moving into a defensive posture. Suggest you do the same."

"We will, but be advised that our shields are down for repairs. Vanguard out."

MacLeod turned and looked to D'Mora. Both had read the reports about Saren and the Geth. With a slight nod, D'Mora stood and left to take command of the security teams.

"Sarah, sound the intruder alarm." Ordered MacLeod as he gripped his armrest.


A/N: There is something that has been bothering me about ME tech. They have access to antimatter but don't use it. They don't seem to ever push beyond what they have currently.

I guess this is bc of the Reapers, but if anyone else ca come up with an idea as to why I'm all ears :)

And I hope ppl are enjoying this as much as I am writing it.