Chapter IX: Change Your Mind
"Out again, a siren screams at half past ten,
And you won't let go.
While I ignore, that we've both felt like this
Before, it starts to show."
-Change Your Mind, the Killers
Kaidan
Kaidan, Tali, and Sarah were fast moving, each of them using their abilities to make easy work through the hallways. Kaidan took special care in not detouring to clear out other rooms. The krogan would either find them eventually or stay where they were, either way they were scattered, and once the teams met up they could begin a methodical and organized sweep. Staying to the main corridors it didn't take them long to reach Shepard and Wrex, who had been moving even quicker, and in fact had covered three fourths of the distance between them.
"Okay," Shepard said when they disposed of the group separating them and met in the hall. "Front to back, or back to front? Any preferences?"
"Most of the front is already cleared, ma'am." Alenko explained. She raised her eyebrows at him.
"I said no detours." She said simply, a little confused.
"Yeah, you told me no detours." He smiled and then inclined his head to Sarah. What the girl had pulled off was impressive, and Shepard herself seemed a little surprised. Then her face opened into a proud grin.
"Welcome to the team, Sarah." She said before turning to the rest of the group. "Alright, we'll work this point towards the back then. Let's go."
Kaidan's adrenaline was pumping through him. It was exciting to be in the field again, and he felt a lot better now that he was with Shepard and he could have a little control over what happened to her. Quickly the group moved through the corridors, heading for the far back of the building.
It was strangely calm among the chaos. The chemistry in the team shone brightly. Directions rarely even had to be given, it was like they all knew their roles and were very good at them. Alenko and Wrex would use their biotics to knock the targets prone, either in the air or on the ground, Tali kept taking out any technical advantages their opponents may possess, and Shepard and Sarah were intense machines of fire power. The krogan just kept coming, but they were always dealt with. Rooms were cleared in minutes, and soon they had passed the meeting room.
It was a few turns after that when they came across their first real T in the hallway. Kaidan watched as Shepard checked around the corner and then walked into the intersection, looking down both ways. Silently she brought her hands to her face, gesturing in marine hand code. It was slightly abridged so that Tali and Wrex could understand, but it was just as efficient. She pointed to him, Wrex and Tali and motioned that they should go down the right hallway, and that she and Sarah would take the left. Then she indicated that they should meet back in the meeting room once their areas were cleared.
He nodded silently and padded quietly down his hallway. Tali's envirosuit made very little noise, and no one would think twice of hearing Krogan feet thumping through the halls. At the turn at the far end, Kaidan looked back in time to see Shepard and Sarah disappear around their corner. It was scary, but for just a second, Kaidan glanced at Sarah, and felt the familiar sense of companionship he had once felt with Ashley around. It was almost overwhelming, and he shook the odd feeling off before continuing down his own pathway.
Shepard
Shepard and Sarah stalked down their own hallway with deadly silence. Shepard was beginning to see a pattern in the building design, for she began predicting when rooms and hallways would appear, end, and split. Already she had suspected that after the next turn the hallway was going to open into a room, continuing on the other side. When she neared the corner, Shepard balled her hand into a fist, signaling Sarah to stop behind her. Cautiously, Shepard pressed her back against the wall of the hallway and leaned out and around the corner. They had been absolutely noiseless, and the group of krogan in the room didn't know they were present yet. There were three, for now. More than once so far reinforcements had arrived in the middle of the crossfire. If she wanted to clear this room with little resistance she would have to do it now.
Shepard leaned back around the corner, signaling to Williams that she was going to use a grenade, and then the two should press down the remaining bit of hallway and get into the room and find cover as quickly as possible. After a nod from Sarah, Shepard motioned her counts out. On two she armed the grenade, and on three she threw it.
Instead of waiting for the explosion Shepard jumped out of hiding, pistol ready for closer combat as Sarah followed quickly behind her with her shotgun. The two barreled down the hall firing, the grenade releasing a satisfying blast, taking out one krogan and injuring the other two.
Once inside, Shepard ducked behind a lone desk while Sarah squatted on the other side of the room, a little farther back, behind a very large set of equipment lockers.
Firing continuously Shepard gunned down the first fighter with excessive plasma. From her position, she could see a little farther into the hallway behind the remaining krogan. More were coming, some three or four more.
But Sarah couldn't see them from her angle, and Shepard watched in horror as Sarah hopped over the top of the lockers to blast the "last" one with a lethal shotgun. Shepard saw one of the incoming krogan push the activation button on a grenade.
Oh shit.
Without so much as a second of thought Shepard switched her pistol hand giving herself a shield boost in the process. She leapt out of her own cover, using the inaccuracy of her left hand to shoot wildly at the group of krogan to prevent them from getting a good mark on her while reaching out her right arm to Sarah. She ran straight towards the teen, lashing her around Sarah's stomach and throwing them both back behind the cover of the lockers with a grunt. Knowing the grenade was sure to follow, or possibly already plastered to the other side of the heavy equipment lockers, she rolled herself and Sarah directly behind them, then laid herself over Sarah's body in case the blast got through.
The whole thing took a matter of seconds, and there was an earsplitting boom on the other side of the lockers. Shepard pushed herself off of Sarah and pressed her back against the wall the containers provided.
"Shepard, what was that? I heard that blast over the comm, are you alright?" Kaidan's voice came over her helmet.
"Yeah, we're okay. Just keep moving." Shepard turned to Sarah. "You alright?"
Sarah nodded, wide eyed. "I j-just… I-I didn't see-"
"Its okay, Williams. You thought there was only one left, and the adrenaline-"
"I know." Sarah said, looking guilty. "But you're not supposed to leave cover until after the last one is down."
Shepard reloaded her gun while she heard the rustling of the enemy taking position somewhere behind her. Shepard's primitive predatory instincts took control, and like an odd "off switch" all the excess noise was hushed into absolute silence and all she could hear was her own breathing. And then there it was; a deft, subtle, tiny click of another prepped grenade. On intuition and gut, Shepard arched her back to peek around the lockers; she could see the swirling metallic mini bomb leave the krogan's massive hand.
Shepard grabbed Sarah by the shoulder and led her into a dive back out of the room. She crawled around the corner, Sarah next to her. They had been forced out of the room, and Shepard hated losing ground. In retaliation Shepard hit the activation button on her own grenade and chucked it at the reptiles, ducking back behind the lip of the doorway in time to hear one of the warriors speak. Apparently the two women had been blocked enough from the group that the krogan hadn't seen her and Sarah move out.
"Catch that, bitch- OH SHIT!" Ka-boom.
She waited a few moments, listening to any movement. It seemed mostly silent, except for an odd shuffling that suggested one was still alive, if injured. She rolled out of cover and from the ground shot the lumbering and wounded krogan till he fell with a great thud.
She released a breath and pushed herself up from the ground, walked quickly to Sarah, and offered the woman her hand to help haul her to her feet.
They pressed forward as soon as it was concluded neither was seriously hurt. They took down two krogan in the hallway, and just as Shepard predicted, the halls turned into another T. She guessed that one led through a whole other series of halls and rooms, but they must be reaching the very back of the base by now. The other hallways she supposed would lead to a similar barracks to one they had already encountered, if it their previous encounters were any idication. That was probably where the reinforcements had come from, and they were probably mostly empty now.
"Left or right?" Sarah asked breathing heavy.
"You take right, I'll take left." Shepard said, giving Sarah the easy route to the chambers, which were most likely near empty. "When its cleared, go back to the meeting room and wait with the others, I'll be along shortly."
Sarah nodded in agreement and turned down her own path.
"And Williams!" Shepard called after her. "Be careful."
"Yes, ma'am." The woman said. "You too."
Shepard turned down her own path, and stepped quickly over the tiles.
Kaidan
Kaidan stood in the meeting room some time later, turning over the bodies with the toe of his boot. "Boy, would I like to know what went down in here."
Wrex laughed. "I could tell you, but you probably wouldn't believe me. You'll have to hear it from the commander."
Tali was kneeling over the largest of the krogan group and examining the body.
"Something happened to this one." Her metallic voice said, motioning Kaidan over. There was a black and grotesque covering of burnt skin across his face, and he only had one eye.
"He was like that before we got here." Wrex said, coming over to them in heavy steps. "Souvenir from Virmire."
Kaidan nearly strained his eyes as they shot up to Wrex. "From what?" His voice sounded more shocked then he meant to, but there was no need to recover as the doors to the room slid open and Sarah stepped through. She had blood on her armor, but in a way that suggested none of it was hers.
The doors closed behind her, and Shepard wasn't with her.
"Where's the commander?" It was the first thing out of his mouth, despite how hard he'd tried to keep the worry out of his voice.
"She's not here yet?" Sarah asked, sounding a little concerned herself. "We had to split up, she told me to meet her back here." She explained. She looked so tired Kaidan didn't badger her farther.
His hand flew to the comm button on the side of his helmet. "Commander, are you alright? What's going on?"
"I'm fine." Her voice sounded hushed, like she was hiding or stalking something. She was busy, but not hurt. Thank God. "I think I've found the back section of this base. Get to the blast room, all of you. I'll meet you there."
"Yes, ma'am." Kaidan said, clicking off the comm. However, in that same breath he added to the rest of crew. "Go ahead, head for the blast room. I'm going to catch up to Commander Shepard."
"Lieutenant-" Tali began to argue with him on Shepard's behalf but he just shook his head.
"Please, just go. I'll make sure we both get there safely."
They all exited the room, most heading down the main hall, him veering to the right.
"Hey, LT. When you get to the T, the Skipper went left."
"Thanks Sarah. I'll just follow the blood trail."
Turns out, following the blood trail was easy enough to do. He nearly jogged through that place without as much as a single confrontation. And his way was lit in blood as if there were flashing red arrows guiding him through the winding halls. By the time he had gone long past the T, he really was jogging, and not really taking care to be quiet.
He was entirely caught off guard when he passed through the next doorway into a room and felt a hand snatch the front of his light armor. Before he could see his attacker he was being swung around with great force from the doorway to the very wall the door was in. His back hit the building with a thud, and the hand moved from his chest to his mouth suppressing his yell. He was literally scared and was cursing himself for being so stupid and careless when he got a look at his attacker.
Shepard stood in front of him, her fierce eyes glowing, and a finger to her lips.
When he released a sigh of relief she removed her hand from over his mouth. She grabbed her pistol and nodded with her head to the other corner where a second doorway like the first led into yet another room.
He couldn't help admire her smooth movements as she crept stealthily to the other wall next to the door and crouched down with no din whatsoever. She motioned for him to take place behind a crate that was conveniently placed in the area, allowing him to look down the hallway into the adjoining room and still have cover.
As quietly as he could he moved to the crate- some kind of storage container.
Understanding Shepard's intentions in an uncanny way, he concentrated his energy until his implant hummed in anticipation, waiting for her signal. She shot into the ceiling, tricking the group of krogan in the room to come to investigate. When they were halfway down the hallway Kaidan threw them back, disrupting most of their shields in the process. As a few tried to advance again he created a warp hole for good measure while Shepard pelted the group with bullets. There must've been five or six, but two continued charging down the hallway towards them.
They looked like they were heading for him, his aura basically painting a target on his chest, but Shepard slipped back from the wall a little bit to get better aim and stood, shooting repeatedly into the first one.
He kept firing as well as he watched the two light up in a white light briefly, increasing their pain tolerance and allowing their shields to reform. He heard the hiss of Shepard's shields take hits, her being so much closer to their fire. His shields were still on full power but in general his armor – designed for biotics – provided less protection than hers.
Just as he and Shepard would've done, the two krogan each targeted one of them, his own opponent lighting up in his own blue flare on the way towards him. Kaidan might've had enough power to keep his enemy immobile long enough to wear down his armor and shields but it would exhaust him.
He lifted the beast into the air, firing repeatedly into the massive form. In his attack he got a glance at Shepard. She had backed up calmly, walking, firing again and again and again into her own krogan, but he just snarled behind his bared teeth and kept advancing towards her. Kaidan heard the annoying beep that meant Shepard's weapon had overheated, and cursed that he couldn't do more to help her as he was busy enough with his own problem. When his opponent had landed he threw him into a stasis, and continued his seemingly ineffective assault.
He caught a glimpse of Shepard throwing her useless weapon with impressive force at the krogan's head. He growled in pain for a moment, but then continued to advance on her. Kaidan watched the krogan move towards her, and wondered briefly why the brute hadn't drawn his weapons yet.
Before Kaidan could see anything more his target finally broke the stasis and cast his own. Kaidan just barely released the killing bullet when the krogan's stasis caught him. His opponent was dead, but now Shepard was still in danger, and there was nothing he could do but watch.
He saw Shepard ready herself in some kind of defense stance and finally saw what Shepard must've already understood. There were few krogans still that preferred to kill their targets with their own hands. They found it more honorable somehow. Like using brute force, strength and size could really compete with a really good weapon. Unfortunately, really good weapons still overheat, and Shepard didn't have the time to reach for one of her other guns.
Knowing the monster could do incredible damage with his species' oversized muscles, Kaidan held his breath at the krogan swung. Then he watched Shepard block the krogan's arm with her own and followed through with a kick that actually managed to hit the krogan's jaw. Blood dribble from his mouth, but he didn't turn away.
Shepard tried to kick him again, but this time he was expecting her and caught her foot, using her own momentum against her, he twisted her, threw her into the air, and she landed a few feet away, groaning in pain. Judging by the way she was clutching her shoulder, Kaidan would guess it wasn't the first injury that shoulder had sustained today.
His concern was soon consumed by anger for the krogan that hurt her, and fear for her life, while he still couldn't break the stasis. In all reality only seconds had passed, but being locked in place while she rolled in pain on the floor made each one feel like hours.
Kaidan watched in horror as the brutish figure continued to tromp towards her, and the urge to yell for her made his chest hurt. When the krogan went to punch her again she moved out of the way just in time, and when he brought up his massive arm again she gripped on to it, letting him pull her up and to her feet.
Before the krogan realized that she had stood she delivered her own punch, which collided with his scaly cheek, but didn't slow him much. His next hit was cheap, as he backhanded her, the force spinning her until she collided with wall behind her, and she began to collapse under the force. Not many people could take a hit from a full grown krogan and still draw breath, but thankfully her helmet blocked most of the attack. Still, she slumped down the wall, her hand going to the lower part of her face that had been exposed between the visor and chin guard, wiping away the trickle of blood that had formed on her lip with the back of her gloved hand. Alenko could almost feel the headache she must have endure from sustaining such a blow of force.
Kaidan tried to yell for her again but the words would not leave his throat. She propped herself up against the wall with one arm trying to stand to full height again, only to have the krogan punch her in the stomach. She had moved, but he still caught the side of her torso, and a painful groan escaped her lips as she bent over clutching her abdomen.
Kaidan felt himself nearly burst with helplessness as he watched the krogan begin to pin her down quickly, trying to crush her under his weight. Finally after what seemed like two minutes too long the stasis field fell from Kaidan's body, and he ducked quickly behind the nearest crate, hoping the enemy hadn't seen him move. If he could just get to an angle at which he could shoot and not risk hitting Shepard…
The krogan released an awful, evil, mocking laugh that left Kaidan's stomach churning with nausea.
Shepard was a talented fighter, but she couldn't compete with the raw force of a krogan.
Kaidan tried again and again to gather enough dark energy to push the krogan away from her and take his shot, but he had spent so much in his last fight that he didn't have any power left. He felt exhausted.
Then he saw movement in Shepard's hand. Her fingers lay next to her right thigh, where he knew she usually hid her knife. She was still fighting.
The krogan hadn't seen it though. He thought she was dead. He bent over, and with one hand turned her over to look at her.
Shepard's movement was so fast, Kaidan didn't really see it. One second the krogan was leaning over her, the next he was on the ground with the knife sticking in at the base of his neck.
The Krogan was still coughing and sputtering to his death when Kaidan jumped out of his crouch and ran to help Shepard.
She sat back against the wall, her head tilted back while blood dripped slowly down the right of her mouth. Thankfully her helmet had protected her from anything more serious.
"Shepard, are you alright?" He asked dropping to his knees next to her and taking some medigel out of his own supply.
She didn't move but her mouth opened and she began to laugh. Slowly, carefully at first until she was forced to take a breath and the movement of her ribcage made her grimace.
"Krogan bastard." She said finally, using a little bit of energy to kick the body at her feet.
She winced and took another sharp breath when he carefully dabbed medigel to the cut along her busted lip. He should have let her do it, but he hadn't thought about it. He felt for a second while he carefully touched the gel to her lips that they were stealing an intimate moment they shouldn't have had. A guilty feeling washed over him and he looked to her eyes, only to find her own looking back at him.
For a moment he forgot what he was doing, and just got lost in the intensity of their moment. Her bright eyes froze him in another kind of stasis. She seemed to lose herself for a moment too and he felt her catch the fingertips lingering over her lips in her hand and kiss them. He hadn't really felt it through his armor, but the action had served its purpose and they both shook themselves out of whatever trance they had been captured in.
"Don't ever let me do that again." Shepard ordered. She could have been referring to anything, but Kaidan knew she was talking about the two seconds she had allowed herself to steal.
"Yes ma'am. If you don't let me…" What? Apply medigel? Jesus, Alenko control yourself.
"Forget it. It's my responsibility." She said, pushing herself up and retrieving her knife and her pistol from the floor. She sounded frustrated, and again Kaidan was reminded of their confrontation on the way to the base. He felt a mixture of his own anger and guilt as he watched her storm through the room. "Come on. We've got a little ways to go and then we can get back."
"Yes, ma'am." He said, and followed the woman. Just like he said he always would.
Shepard
Shepard had been pleased, but not surprised to find that Kaidan had chosen to come after her. Though she would never admit it because it sounded incriminating, she always felt a little more comfortable fighting beside Kaidan. It probably had more to do with the fact that she had had him at her side ever since their first mission on Eden Prime. She trusted him, and they had an unexplainable understanding of each other that allowed them to maneuver and fight smoothly, with deadly skill, without so much as a single word between them. They just worked well together.
Still, she tried to get him out of her head. They were getting distracted too easily, and next time it could cost them their lives. Why did I let him do that… why did I kiss him? Come on Shepard, you're smarter than that bullshit. She was angry with herself more than him. He would do whatever she asked, she knew that.
She refused to let herself dwell on it any longer here. They already had plenty to discuss once back on the Normandy, what with his little stunt on the way here. She refocused her energy and thoughts back where they should be… on the mission.
However, because they did work well together it was within fifteen minutes that they had finally reached the very back of the base.
She crouched down behind the lip of a doorway, and looked down the last hallway to a large room. The room appeared to be some kind of office. There was a large digital clock on the back wall with glowing green numbers, and large storage-looking devices along the back wall. In front of the wall stood four remaining krogan. Shepard smiled to herself as she imagined the thoughts of revenge they must have been feeling, the anger they might feel that she had so easily pressed through the rest of their defenses.
She knew that Kaidan had used a lot of his biotic energy in the last fight, and was most likely exhausted. There were only four, the last four, and so she switched to her shotgun, reactivated her shield boost, and charged into the last room.
Kaidan stormed in as well, firing his weapon at the group. Her shields hissed as the opponents bullets whizzed by, but she was already on top of them. Her gun gave a resounding great burst of power when she fired, and it was like shooting ducks at the fair.
Boom. One down.
Boom. Two.
Boom. Three down.
The three consecutive shots threw the powerful weapon into overheat, but Kaidan's pistol rang through the third one. When the krogan fell, he stopped firing, as if he had known she would want the last one alive. Which, given their battlefield connection wasn't shocking really.
Without glancing at her partner, Shepard locked her shotgun back in place and walked forcefully to the krogan. She knelt beside the beast and grabbed the ring of armor around his neck violently, bringing his dinosaur-like face to hers.
"How many know?! How many more will come!?" She demanded her answers, shaking him a bit. He was twice her size, but she knew presence was the key to intimidation. "How many more know about Virmire!?"
The Krogan sputtered and coughed. "None of us know anything about Virmire. All we know was that it was Karx's motive for joining, and we didn't ask him about it." The krogan coughed up some blood, but Shepard didn't move away.
"Joining? Join what? Why are you here!?"
The dying krogan grinned. "Why are krogan anywhere?"
Shepard shook him again to remind him she wasn't joking. "Who hired you!?"
"Why should I tell you? I'm going to die here anyway." The krogan laughed at her situation until he began coughing again. He was mocking her and she wasn't in the mood. So she tried a more compromising approach.
"If you tell me what I want to know, I'll get you out of here and give you medical attention. You'll stand trial, but you'll live."
"You'll never get out of here in time." He grumbled lowly.
"What do you mean?" She said scanning his face as if the answers were written along the ridge of scales.
And then it hit her like a reaper. The blast room; that was why the krogan hadn't bothered taking her weapons, even if she had managed to kill Karx, who had obviously been running the show, krogan always had a contingency plan. They were going to blow the place up! How could she have been so stupid? Had she really been so naïve as to believe the krogan would just "forget" to take her weapons?
No, in letting her and her crew keep them, the krogan had achieved what she had attempted to achieve by giving them up to Karx: lull the opponent into a false sense of security. And it worked. She had fallen for it. All of a sudden fury pulsed through her veins.
"Uh, Commander…" Kaidan started, but she was too angry with herself to answer him.
"Damn it, Krogan! Tell me where the bomb is! How can I turn it off!?" She shook him again, a little more vigorously then intended, and she hit his head on the tiled floor.
"Um… Commander?!" She was paying close attention to her victim, and ignored Kaidan's comments.
The krogan laughed in her face. "You'll never turn it off. Its voice activated, and you already killed the krogan who initiated it."
"Commander!" Kaidan yelled.
"Damn it, what!?" She demanded, tired of being interrupted
"Commander, the numbers on that wall are going down." He said, pointing to the clock she had seen earlier.
"What?" she asked, although she had heard him just fine. She looked up at the glowing green numbers.
The clock read 5:05… and a second later, 5:04. She watched in horror as she realized what she was seeing. On a second examination of the storage devices she realized they were all bomb components, wired together and disguised as cabinets. And that wall was covered in them. 4:58. They had less than five minutes to get the hell out of there.
Oh shit.
"RUN!" She screamed at Kaidan, leaping up from the floor and hopping over the krogan, to sprint alongside the lieutenant. "Go! Move, move, move!"
The two fled the room together, matching stride for stride as fear gripped her mind. She hit the comm link on the side of her helmet.
"TALI!" She shouted through it, knowing she very well may have shocked the poor quarian in to cardiac arrest. "Are you in the blast room?!"
"Yes, isn't that where we were supposed to meet you?" Tali's voice sounded nervous.
Shepard grunted as she leapt over a body in her path. "Yes Tali!" She yelled desperately. "Stay there, seal the back door, we're on our way. If we aren't there in four minutes seal the second set, this whole place is going to blow!"
Damn the krogan and their suicidal contingency plans!
This time when Shepard tried to hop over a body it caught her toe, and she damn near fell, but Kaidan caught her arm, steadying her by her waist with his other hand, and they set off again.
"Yes, Commander." Tali said shortly. Shepard took her hand off the link and focused on running. They nearly collided at the sharp turns and obstacles, but they always stayed together, catching each other and pressing each other forward.
"Go, Kaidan, go!" she urged him, stressing her legs to go that much faster. She wasn't sure they could even get there in time. It had taken her nearly thirty minutes clearing this area and she couldn't really remember how large it was.
Her muscles screamed. She became painfully aware of all the injuries she had already endured that day. As her arms pumped, the shoulder Karx had crushed groaned and protested in sharp pain. The side of her stomach where her punching friend had nailed her left her nearly doubled over in pain again.
She knew Kaidan must've been absolutely spent as well. He could only use so much of his power before collapsing, she'd seen it once on the citadel. She worried for him, but none of that mattered if they didn't make it out of there in time.
The pain in her side grew until she thought it would consume her. Her vision darkened, and she felt like she was going to faint. Then she felt a strong grip grab onto her own hand, bringing her back to the task.
"Come on soldier, keep moving." He encouraged her. She would have to reward him for that later.
She knew they were running out of time. They hit a particular bloody and sharp turn that had them both skidding and sliding to steady themselves, but again they were off, hand in hand. The sheer dire fate of their situation moved her body so fast she felt like her feet were barely touching the floor. A few minutes later she began to recognize her surroundings. They were maybe two turns away from the blast room. But just how long had it been? Maybe the team had already sealed the doors. It had to have been at least four minutes. Any second Shepard expected herself to be engulfed in flame and heat. They turned the last corner, and she gained her last few sprints from Kaidan's encouragement. At the end of the hall the doors stood open, Sarah standing to the side of them, waving them in, yelling for them to hurry!
Somewhere in her being Shepard sensed the clock stop counting down and the bombs blast. The sound, fire, and wave of force would not catch up to them for maybe a second. In that one moment simultaneously, Shepard felt Kaidan's arm wrap tightly around her waist and he jumped the last few feet, throwing them both into the room. Sarah hit the button for the doors to close, and on the other side of the room, Wrex hit the seal button.
Shepard had a feeling the seal wasn't totally in place yet when the earsplitting boom swallowed all other sound. And then the force wave came. She and Kaidan had still been in the air when it hit. They were both thrown across the room to the other wall like dolls. Kaidan hit first, having made the initial leap, and she heard his body make an unsettling sound as his back slammed against the wall. Unable to control her own movement, she slammed into his chest and fell into his lap, both of them gasping for breath and groaning in pain.
The others, who had been standing before were now lying on the floor, even Wrex, a few feet from where they had been initially, but their movement let her know they were all okay. Her legs trembled, and she felt darkness cloud her vision once more. As if knowing that they had all made it was all her mind needed to know before consenting to blackout, Shepard was succumbed to the feeling, and passed out.
Kaidan
A loud rumbling of ruptured cement and crushed metal bore into Kaidan's ears. For a moment that seemed to last excessively long he tried to block out the brain numbing sound as he held tightly to Shepard's body. She had landed on top of him during the blast, and he wasn't about to let go now. The room shook and vibrated while the base around them collapsed. The lights flickered and buzzed and then were out. He felt immense heat, but it wasn't enough to burn his skin. When finally the world stopped crashing down around him and all went quiet, he could finally focus on their condition. Holding Shepard to him with one arm he lifted his other hand to his helmet, flicking on a mini light attached to the hood.
It was then he realized Shepard hadn't been fighting to get away from him yet. He looked down, the light falling across her face. She wasn't moving. He very gently took off her helmet, and his glove, putting his bare hand to her neck. He released a giant sigh of relief when he found a pulse.
Finally assured that they had both survived he took his own helmet off and leaned his head back on the wall. There was a screaming pain in his back, like maybe it had gotten thrown out on impact but he ignored it.
"Everyone okay?" He asked to the darkness, still holding on to Shepard.
"Yeah." Came a female groan. He heard shuffling, and then he saw light coming from a corner he couldn't see over the crate that had landed next to him in the blast. But he guessed Sarah was crawling to her feet, flicking on the flashlight of her own helmet.
"Takes more than that to take me out." A rumbled voice said, heavy footsteps making their way towards the human voices.
"Tali?" Kaidan asked, still not moving.
"I'm here." It sounded close. She probably could see him from behind her mask, but he couldn't make out her dark suit in the lack of light.
"Where's the commander?" Sarah asked, her voice getting closer.
"I've got her." He said, looking down at her and squeezing her for a moment. "She's right here."
Sarah came out from behind the crate and he could see her walk towards him. She kneeled in front of him, using the light to get a better look. "She alright?"
"Yeah." He said. "Just unconscious. She took quite a beating in the end there, I wasn't sure she had that last run left in her." He smiled admiringly at Shepard and then nodded to Sarah.
"Comm Joker. Tell him to pick up Jones, arrange for a fifth fleet cruiser to pick up the hostages, and then come pick us up. I have a feeling we're going to need the crew to help dig us out of here." Let's hope we can get out a signal through these walls.
"Yes, sir." She answered, walking off a few feet to have her conversation with Joker. Her alto voice was calming, and Kaidan leaned back on the wall once more and closed his eyes. Then he felt stirring in his arms.
Shepard groaned and winced in pain in his lap, her hand going to her head as she tried to sit up.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. That wasn't the most graceful landing you've pulled off." He teased.
She grumbled. "Get Joker-"
"Already taken care of, Commander." He cut her off, trying to get her to relax.
"I need to move." She said struggling to get free of him.
"Shepard, don't you think-"
"Let go of me Lieutenant." The words came out clearer than her previous ones, so he let her go reluctantly. She stood, but wobbled.
If she's going to get after me for wanting her to be careful then she better be ready for a lecture on letting people help her when she isn't. He thought grumpily, hauling himself to his feet and trying to look less hurt than he was. He picked up her helmet for her and handed it to her, which she took and tucked under her arm.
Debriefing was going to be interesting.
