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Chapter 8

Normandy docked in bay 23; ESD

Shepard walks through the airlock and almost into a security team. "What's going on here?"

The leader is an almost human alien, the only thing that tells Shepard that he's an alien is that the irises are completely black. The leader says, "I'm sorry, sir. Standard procedure regarding unknowns."

"I understand. If you'll allow me, I would like to tell my people to expect you." The alien nods and Shepard activates him omni-tool. "Attention, this is Shepard. There is a security team here, and I would like everyone to be on their best behavior. Javik, if you think it's best if you keep to your room then stay there, please." As he finished, he felt like there was something digging in his mind, and it reminded him about the Illusive Man. Intuitively, he went for a pistol that wasn't there.

The alien sees this and says, "My apologies. I had to check to see if you were being honest."

"What was that?"

"My species is telepathic. But I'm surprised that you felt it. Usually people can't tell if a Betazoid is reading their minds."

"Well, I had a similar experience except that the bastard controlled me."

"I am sorry. I'll try not to do it to you again."

"Thank you. I would like to talk to an Admiral Quinn, please."

"Of course." The alien looks at the team and with a nod tells them to check the ship out. He looks back at Shepard. "If you will follow me, Commander."

Meanwhile, Quinn's office

Rorik and Yolis walks into the room and stand at attention. Quinn stands up and smiles as he says, "Dunsworths, glad you could make it. At ease."

He stretches a hand over his desk, and Rorik shakes it as he says, "Thank you, Admiral." As they let goes of each other's hands, Rorik asks, "May we sit? I have somethings to say."

"Of course. Sit." As all three of them sits, he continues, "So, Rorik, what is it?"

Rorik leans forward and puts his elbows on his knees, hands together. "Sir, the Normandy and her crew are… not from here. They are, in fact, from a different Milky Way. They are mostly human but there are unknown aliens on the ship. They have an Earth, but instead of the Federation, they have a Systems Alliance. They don't use warp technology but they have an FTL drive system. I think that if we can find a way to incorporate our tech into theirs, we may have just found an ally."

Quinn leaned back in his chair. "Hmm. I have to run this through with the rest of Command but I do see the wisdom of what you're saying. Also, I don't think this is all that you have to talk about, otherwise your First Officer wouldn't be here."

Rorik smiles and thinks, 'He's right. I always come down alone.' "Admiral, I request permission to take a few years leave."

Quinn frowns a bit. "You refused to take leave, expect when your ship needs drydock, and even then, you request to use a different ship. Why are you suddenly requesting leave?"

Rorik is having trouble not smiling. "Sir, I request you give Yolis maternity leave, and give me leave to take care of her. All those times I have denied leave had to have collected together and now I am calling it all in."

"Wait. Did you say, 'maternity leave'?"

Rorik couldn't help it anymore. A smile breaks out as he says, "Yes, sir. We're… we're having a baby."

Quinn smiles. "Wow. Congratulations, son. Of course, take all the time you need. I assume you want to recommend, what's-his-name, the Reman, Commander… E'mzon?"

"Yes, sir. I recommend him as acting captain and Commander Six of Nine as acting first officer. All I need is permission from you."

"Clifton, like I said. Take all the time you need. But I will need to take to the others about your recommendation."

As the three of them stand up, Quinn walks around his desk and gives Rorik another firm handshake, as Rorik says, "Thank you, Jorel."

Quinn then walked up to Yolis and hugged her while saying, "Congratulations, Yolis."

As they broke up, they kissed each other's cheeks as she says, "Thank you, Jorel."

Quinn turns to Rorik. "Clifton, if you want, I have piece of land on Earth in which you could borrow."

"Thanks, but I purchased a kinda broken down house on Earth. I was planning on retiring and rebuilding the place by hand, but now," he looks at Yolis, "I figured that now I have a real reason. But I could use a ride."

"Of course." He turns to his secretary, Lieutenant Linnea. "Lieutenant, take them to my personal shuttle and give the keys, so to speak."

His secretary salutes him and turns to Rorik and Yolis. "If you would follow me." As they exited the room, Linnea ran into Shepard bounced off and landed into Rorik's arms. Looking at him, she says, "Thank you, Admiral."

Shepard walks over. "I'm sorry, ma'am. Are you alright?"

She looks at him and it looks like she is kinda blushing. "Y-Yeah. I-I'm fine." The Ocampa quickly stands up straight and fixes her blondish-colored hair, which doesn't need fixing. She walks back into Quinn's office, and after a minute, she walks out and says to Shepard, "Y-You can go in now." As Shepard walks past her, she turns her head away, but Rorik sees that her cheeks are almost a bright-red.

Yolis walks up beside him and whispers, "I think the young lieutenant has a crush on him."

He smiles and whispers back, "You know, I think she does."

As Shepard walks past the woman who bumped into him and watches as she turns her head away from him. When he enters the room, and stands at attention. The elder-looking man studies him, and says, "At ease. I take it that you're Commander Shepard?"

"Yes, sir."

"Take a seat. I just want to take the time to know who possibly saved one of my best captains."

Shepard sits in one of the chairs and says, "Thank you, sir."

The man smiles. "I take it you're a soldier, by the constant 'sirs,' am I right?"

"Yes, sir. Technically, sir, I'm a marine."

"Hmm. Well, talk to me as if I'm a friend. I'm Admiral Jorel Quinn."

"I'll try, sir. I mean, Quinn."

He smiles. "That's better. Now-" the console on his desk starts beeping. "I'm sorry. I have to take this."

"I'll wait outside, sir," Shepard says as he starts to stand up.

"No. You're fine." He presses a button on the console. "Admiral Quinn here."

"Quinn, this is Eyvn. Admiral Jaal, would like to have a meeting concerning this new ship."

"Understood. Where and when?"

"Starfleet Command in two hours."

"Copy that. I have the captain of the ship with me right now. Do you want me to bring him?"

"Yes."

"Understood. Quinn out." He ends the call and looks at Shepard. "Go to your ship and get ready. Return here when you're done." Shepard stands up and salutes. "You're dismissed, Commander."

"Sir." Shepard walks out the office.

Two hours later; Earth; outside San Francisco

Rorik and Yolis stood and looked at the house. He could have sworn that it was in better condition the last time he was here. But it didn't matter. One of the things he learned in his youth was how good it felt to put something together with little to no modern tools. He always told himself that when he starts to live in a house it would be a house that he built or repaired himself. He looks at Yolis as he brought her closer. "I hope you love it."

She looks at him. "Not now. But I will once we finish."

He smiles. "That-a-girl. You know, most people would like a finish home before they move in."

She smiles. "Yeah, but you aren't most people. Hell, I would get up in the middle on the night and see you working on a block of wood. At first, I didn't understand why you didn't use modern tools. But then, one day, you kinda forced me to make something from wood using hand tools. And now I agree with you. It feels better to make something with your hands. And that is why, I guess, you bought this dump. So, you could feel better about what you're living in."

He smiles as he kisses her on the top of her head. "You are right. Back at Paradox, my dad showed me the joy about using hand tools on wood. And when I retire, I would live in a home that I built with my own hands."

Yolis smiles. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to work." Rorik smiles at her eagerness and let's go of her shoulder as they walk towards their future home.

Meanwhile; Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco

Shepard, now in his dress blues, stood at attention in front of a council. The female in the middle spoke through what looked like a mic. "Command log. Stardate: 95398.8250. Admirals presiding: Admiral Sinyn Jaal."

The alien, with antennae, to her right spoke next. "Admiral Eikv Eyvn."

Then Admiral Quinn, on the left of the first admiral. "Admiral Jorel Quinn."

Then the first admiral spoke to Shepard. "State your name, occupation, and origin."

Shepard walked up to the stand in front of him and spoke into the mic. "I am John Shepard, commander in the Alliance, captain of the SSV Normandy SR-2, and part of the office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."

"Thank you, Commander. Would you mind explaining what you just said?"

"Of course, Admiral. First, let me say that I'm not from this Milky Way. I'm from an alternate dimension. Where I'm from, Earth and its colonies has a government called the Systems Alliance. In a way it's similar to your Starfleet. The Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, or Spectres, is a branch of the Citadel Council, which is made up of four councilors, one for each Council race and is similar to your United Federation of Planets. The four council races are humans, turians, asari, and salarians. The Spectres are only governed by the Council and are granted nearly unlimited power. I am in command of the Systems Alliance Space Vehicle Normandy Stealth Reconnaissance-2, a ship of both turain and human design."

"Thank you, Commander, for clarifying where you are from. We understand that you have some kind of FTL travel, is that correct?"

"Yes, ma'am. We use a drive core called a mass effect core, I don't know the specifics, but it uses an element called element zero, or eezo, and an electrical current goes through the eezo which changes the mass of the ship depending of the charge of the current. Like I said, I don't know the specifics of it, but that is as much as I know, ma'am."

"Thank you. We shall recess for a few minutes, to discuss privately what will happen next."

"Of course, Admiral." Shepard turns and walks out of the room. When he's out in the hall, a familiar figure walks up to him. It was the woman who ran into him.

She walks up to him and says, "H-Hey."

"Hey." She seems real nervous, maybe embarrassed. "Hey, about what happened up on the station."

She starts to blush, "Yeah, I-I think that was my fault. Ummm. W-Would you like to take a tour of San Francisco, later, maybe?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I would like to, sometime."

She starts blushing even more, "O-OK, then."

Just then a guard opens the door to the courtroom. "Commander."

Shepard nods at the guard, then looks at the woman. "Take care of yourself."

Shepard doesn't know if she can get any redder. "Oh, uh, t-thanks." She basically runs down the corridor, as Shepard walks into the room.

Once Shepard stands at attention behind the stand, the first admiral speaks up. "Commander. We have a proposition for you. We don't know how long it would take but we would like to get you home." Shepard knew there was something else. "Until then, we would like to use you and your ship for operations that falls outside of Starfleet jurisdiction."

Shepard leans against the stand. "Black ops, you mean."

"Yes, Commander. If you don't know, we have a somewhat of a stable treaty with the Klingons."

"And you want the Normandy to do black op mission with full deniability since we are not from here."

"Yes. Commander, you will be sent out on only highly dangerous missions that can be in no shape or form, as you humans say, tied back to Starfleet."

"Admiral, my ship will need some modifications to be able to operate in this galaxy. So, what are my options?"

"Commander, we will help you get back home, but since we don't know how long it could take, it only seems logical that you will need our help and we will make the necessary modifications to your ship."

"Fine, but on one condition."

She leans forward. "What is it?"

"I don't want to be sent out on every little problem."

"That is logical. Very well."


Hey guys. So Rorik rarely took time off even when his ship needs drydock. And now that he has a reason he is collecting on the entire time of leave. Now about the Starfleet Command staff. I only know that Quinn is on it. If anyone knows who else is on it please tell me. I had to use name generators. And I decided to give Linnea a crush on Shepard. I couldn't find out anything about her life, so if she has some kind of mate please tell me.