I would like to state that any canon and copyrighted characters of Mass Effect that appear in this story are property of Bioware. I do make no profit from posting this, blah, blah, blah I know I probably don't have to post the disclaimer for every chapter, but you can never be too careful. Let me know if you get tired of seeing this.

Once again, this is an un-beta'd chapter, so if you see any spelling mistakes, improper word usages, etc, please do not hesitate to inform me. On that note, if anyone reading this is a beta or knows of an available one, please feel free to contact me. I really need someone familiar with the Mass Effect story to help me catch my mistakes here.

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Chapter Nine

Jacob got right down to business once the tour started.

"You are already familiar with the Med Bay," he said, stopping only briefly outside the doors to Mavis' current room of residence, "I'm sure you noticed there's another set of doors in there."

Mavis nodded, "Yeah. But I've never really seen going in and out of there."

There's a reason for that; it's where our AI core is located, the artificial intelligence that functions in part with the ship."

"I know what AI stands for," Mavis pointed out, hobbling along besides him, "I'm amnesiac, not clueless. Then again," she stopped mid step, baffled, "I'm not entirely sure why I know what it is."

"Well I suppose it is pretty basic knowledge they teach in school," Jacob said.

Mavis considered this, "Yeah, I guess that must be it."

"Anyway, the AI runs itself for the most part and rarely requires hands on maintenance," Jacob continued, "Hence the reason you haven't seen any activity in there. The Commander requests that you stay out of the AI core," at this, Jacob turned to face Mavis fully, looking her sternly in the eye, "It holds delicate equipment and is deemed restricted to anyone who isn't qualified personnel. If you ignore these orders you will have to be placed under arrest until we can hand you over to Citadel custody on the grounds of suspected tampering or espionage."

Mavis blanched, "Okay, message received; no snooping through the ship." She spared a glance at the boy walking besides her, "Mikhail promises too."

Mikhail nodded affably, "We promise."

Jacob regarded the pair carefully for a moment before nodding curtly, continuing on his way.

Mavis followed behind with Mikhail at a distance, eyes fixed on the soldier's back. She was getting the feeling that Jacob wasn't too keen on warming up to her anytime soon. Seriously, espionage? Sure she was a stranger, but it wasn't like she had dropped out of a ceiling vent in a cat suit humming the Mission Impossible theme song or something. What did he think she was going to do; hijack the ship? And would it kill him to smile at Mikhail from time to time? He couldn't possible think the kid was as suspicious as he found her, could he?

Mavis huffed petulantly. The day was already half over and she was beginning to regret leaving the Med Bay.

"As you can see, this is the crew deck," Jacob said ahead of her, waving a hand casually towards the large hard to miss letters stating as much, emblazoned on the wall across from the elevator, "and these are the crew's quarters," he explained, heading over to a new door on the left.

"Let's go in!" Mikhail shouted, tugging on Mavis sleeve.

Mavis turned to Jacob, "Can we?"

Jacob shrugged, "I don't see why not," he replied.

The doors opened automatically as Jacob approached and he stepped aside to let Mavis pass. Inside two crewmen sat at a table by a rather large window.

"There's the little cutie!" One of them, a tan skinned brunette woman exclaimed, positively beaming at Mikhail, "I was wondering when you'd stop by today."

"Hi Miss Patel," Mikhail greeted, skipping over to her.

Patel laughed, "I told you, you can call me Sarah," she scolded playfully, giving Mikhail a hug.

"Hi, Mikhail," the man seated besides Patel called out, "I was beginning to think you wouldn't be coming to see us." He looked on fondly as the boy clambered over to him. He rested a hand on Mikhail's shoulder and a fond, but wistful smile crossed his face. Peering down at the table, Mavis spied a picture of a baby in front of him. 'His kid', she guessed, 'he must miss her.'

Mavis felt oddly out of place in the crew's quarters, like she was intruding on some else' conversation. Mikhail had become quite familiar with various members of the crew while she was stuck in recovery and he seemed to have developed his own little routine with them while Mavis was sort of a third wheel. They probably all found Mikhail to be an instantly likeable presence on the ship; it was impossible to look at that kid's smile and not find his enthusiasm contagious, but Mavis didn't exactly have his childish charm considering her age.

While Mikhail launched into an excited babble about his day—rather uneventful, but apparently just about everything was amazing to Mikhail—Mavis took the time to look around the dimly lit room. There were quite a few bunk beds lining the walls with a few floor-to-ceiling dressers between them. The whole place was just shades of gray and faintly Mavis wondered how anyone could find themselves comfortable enough to sleep in such a bland and drab looking room. She had enough trouble sleeping in the sterile atmosphere of the Med Bay with all the nightmares and the tenderness of her wounds.

She turned away from the beds and her gaze fell on the window behind Patel. Walking passed the crewmen, she stepped up to the window and her eyes widened. Stretching for yards in front of her was a massive sphere covered in glowing orange lights. It was a huge metal structure that panned out far above the floor she was on and far below her. Mavis stared dumbstruck at it. Just how big was this ship?

"We haven't been properly introduced," Mavis turned around to find Patel standing behind her. The woman offered a hand, "Sarah Patel," she said. She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the man by Mikhail, "and that's Rolston."

Rolston waved a hand in greeting, "Vadim Rolston," he supplied, "nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Mavis returned as she shook Patel's hand.

"I've got to tell you, having Mikhail here has been a little ray of sunshine," Rolston said, patting Mikhail on the head, "it's not often we get to be around kids while on the job."

Patel nodded, "He never stops talking about you," she added, "you two must be close."

Mavis bent down to hug Mavis as he wandered back over to her and latched onto her waist like a limpet, "Actually we just met a few days ago on the colony…" she trailed off with a wince.

Patel frowned knowingly, sensing she was treading on a touchy subject, "So," she began, changing the subject, "Taylor giving you a tour?"

Mavis nodded, "Yeah. We started a few minutes ago." She looked back at the big sphere out the window.

Patel followed Mavis' gaze back out the window. "That's the drive core," she explained, "pretty impressive, right?"

"Yeah," Mavis agreed, "So it uh, drives the ship?"

"It's or less where the speed and power of the ship comes from for the most part," Patel elaborated.

"So it powers the whole ship?" Mavis craned her neck to see the stetching expanse of the drive core out the window. It sounded more like something out of a movie to her, "I guess I didn't really know what to expect when I started this tour, but this really blows me away. Are all drive cores this big?"

Patel shrugged, "Some are smaller I imagine; depends on the size of the ship. That's more of a question for Daniels and Donnelly down in engineering though."

Jacob cleared his throat, "I don't think we will be visiting engineering today, Patel," he said, "it's not really a place for children and—,"

"I get it," Mavis cut in, saving him the trouble of explaining, "more delicate equipment you don't want me or Mikhail messing around with, right?"

Jacob hesitated, "Yeah. That's it."

Mavis rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Mikhail who was pressed against the window peering out at the drive core.

She missed the look Patel and Rolston shared with Jacob. Patel glanced at Mavis. 'You don't want these two running into her?' she mouthed questioningly.

Jacob nodded. 'Or the other one.'

"If you are ready," he called out to Mavis, "we can continue the tour."

"Oh, uh sure," Mavis held a hand out for Mikhail.

"Guess we'll see you later," Patel called after them as they left.

Mavis turned back around to wave at her and Rolston as the door closed behind them.

Jacob moved further off to the left side of the hallway. "Before we go any farther," he began, "We should probably show you the restrooms now that you will be allowed about the ship and will be able to take care of those functions yourself."

"Okay, for starters," Mavis said, "does everybody know about the bedpan and sponge baths?! And also, why didn't you show me that to begin with?" She shifted on her feet, "I've sort of needed to go since lunch."

Jacob shrugged, "You should have said something earlier."

Mavis glowered at him, "excuse me for not wanting to ask you for an escort to take a pee," she snapped sassily, watching her language for Mikhail's sake.

Was that a smile Jacob almost cracked? Most likely at Mavis' expense but it was something, surely.

"I have to go too," Mikhail chirped.

Mavis eyed Mikhail suspiciously, "Do you really need to go or are you just saying that?" the kid had a habit of wanting to do everything she did these past few days. He even wanted to take the same medical exams as her. The mimicry would be annoying if the kid wasn't so damn endearing.

Mikhail nodded. "I really need to go," he stated in a poor attempt at seriousness. He danced around from foot to foot in a silly sort of 'potty dance'.

"The men's room is on the other end of the hall," Jacob offered.

"He's a little kid," Mavis retorted, walking Mikhail to the women's room, "I don't think anyone will mind if he uses the ladies room with me."

Jacob raised an eyebrow at her, skeptically, "It isn't exactly appropriate."

"Look, I know you're probably all about protocol and rules and such, but he's a child," Mavis insisted, "There isn't exactly anything scandalous about him being in the ladies room."

Jacob still didn't look convinced.

Mavis sighed, "I'm just trying to make things easier on you. Mikhail can't just wander the ship alone and you can't take us both to the bathroom at the same time and frankly I don't think either of us can hold it for much longer. Either he goes to the ladies room with me or you have to leave me alone while you take Mikhail."

"Fine," Jacob relented, not exactly wanting to leave some unknown woman unsupervised on the ship.

Mavis grinned triumphantly, "So the bathroom's right through this door, right?" she clarified. Without waiting for an answer, she walked into the room—

"This…is the restroom?" she asked.

It was tiny. It was small ad cramped and like everything else she'd seen so far it was in shades of dull gray. There were only two toilets and to her horror she couldn't see any form of door on either of the stalls and the shower area was one big space with multiple facets and showerheads. "You know what, I can hold it."

"Is something wrong?" Jacob asked.

Mavis grimaced, "Well…I mean this isn't exactly what I'd call appropriate, you know?" She gestured to shower disdainfully, "Is the men's room like this? Do you guys just shower communally? And there's only one sink! How does that work in a room designed for more than one person to use it at once? And don't even get me started on the toilets," she pointed flabbergasted at the stalls, "Where are the doors?! Don't you care about privacy?" In the back of her mind she knew she was probably coming off as a bit of a jerk, but come on! It was understandable; who wants to go to the bathroom so publically?!

"If I may, Mavis," a computerized voice lofted over their heads, "the doors are only down when not in use."

Mavis jumped, her gaze darting up to the ceiling. "What was that?" she flattened herself against the wall, her eyes darting wildly around the room.

"That's EDI," Jacob explained, from the doorway, "I told you we had an AI."

"You didn't tell me it pull a freaky voice-of-god thing from the ceiling," she snapped.

Jacob regarded her with a raised eyebrow, thoroughly unimpressed, "It's an artificial intelligence," he reminded her, "Did you think it wasn't capable of talking."

"That's not what I meant—,"

"It was not my intent to startle you," EDI replied factually, "I only wished to inform you of the restroom's privacy functions."

"Okaaaay," Mavis said slowly, "so how does it work?" She kept scanning the room for a source of the voice. 'Please tell me the toilet itself isn't talking.'

"When a stall is in use, a holoscreen activates allowing crewmembers optimal discretion in bodily functions."

"Like this," Mikhail skipped into a stall and just as EDI said it would, a non-transparent screen flickered up, obscuring him from view.

"You knew how it worked?" Mavis exclaimed exasperatedly after the little boy, "Why didn't you tell me?"

The only response she got was a giggle and a set of little feet tapping out a tune on the floor. 'Cheeky little squirt.'

"Okay, that's better," Mavis conceded, "What about the shower?"

"The shower is communal," EDI stated, "The members of the Normandy have all gone some extent of military training. It is quite common in such training regimes for trainees to become accustom to bathing and washing shared quarters to save time."

Mavis cringed, "…I'll cross that hurdle later I guess. Maybe I can stick to the sponge baths," she added as an afterthought, "For now I need to go." She headed for the available stall. Pausing she looked back up at the ceiling, "You're…not going to watch me go to the bathroom, are you?" she asked the AI.

"Surveillance is kept to a minimum in the restroom facilities, Mavis," EDI replied, "While I maintain various surveillance of the ship, it is not my intent to spy crew."

"She's an AI," Jacob pointed out, "She's processing data; it's not like she has an opinion to what you do in here anyway."

Mavis looked back and forth between the ceiling and Jacob warily. "…Alright…"

Jacob nodded, "I'll wait outside."

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A/N Sorry for the short chapter here.