Well, here it is, the end of the road.

Chapter 10

"I'm fine Kaidan, I'm fine," James insisted over and over again as Kaidan led him into the med-bay. He really hadn't liked the idea of leaving Shepard behind and all he wanted to do at that moment was go up to the CIC to wait for news on Shepard.

"No, you're not. A Mako exploded right in front of us both," Kaidan told him as he helped him up onto a bed. It was an understatement if there ever was one – the two men were lucky to be alive after what had happened.

"Then slap some medi-gel on me and let me go!"

"You're wounded James," Dr. Chakwas said calmly. "You need to stay here and let me assess your injuries."

"I don't care, I need to find out if he's okay."

"I'm worried about him too James," Kaidan said with a sigh. "But you're badly hurt."

With a shake of his head, not at all happy with the situation, James removed his armor. Luckily for him the bulk of his injuries were relatively superficial and the Doctor was able to quickly treat most of them, except for the leg, which would require more time to recover. Short of keeping him there in a splint, the only alternative was to give him a simple painkiller, which would allow him to leave the med-bay.

"Alright, I see no reason to keep you here," she began after administering a sufficient dose. "But I want you to come down here if that leg starts hurting again."

"Sure thing doc," James swung his legs over the bed. Afraid that she might change her mind, James hurried out of the med-bay allowing Doctor Chakwas to treat Kaidan.

He quickly headed up to the CIC anxious to find out if Shepard had made it. As soon as he arrived, he saw the state of panic everyone was in. The Citadel was firing a red beam of energy that was quickly turning into a massive wave. Before he could do anything, before he could even breathe, the Normandy turned hard to port, preparing to escape the system.

"What the fuck is going on?" James demanded as he ran up to Liara. "Why are we leaving? Shepard's still over there!"

"Hackett's ordered the fleet to leave the system James," Liara whispered. "I don't like it any more than you do, but we have to go."

The Normandy headed towards the Sol System's Mass Relay as the energy wave continued to expand, enveloping Earth. A few minutes later, the ship entered the relay and began to travel through it.

"Ah, guys, I think we have a problem," Joker turned in his seat to face Liara. "That energy wave's heading towards us through the Relay."

"What?"

"Yeah, it's about overtake us, there's nothing I can do."

"All hands, brace for impact!" Liara grabbed onto something right before the wave slammed into them.

The wave threw the Normandy out of the Mass Effect field into the gravity well of a planet. "Oh fuck," James yelled.

"What the shit?" Joker said. "I can't get us out of this gravity well, we're going down!"

"Joker, try landing the ship!"

"Easier said than done, we're crashing!" Joker hit a few buttons on his console. "Wait, I can stabilize us so we won't impact at the angle we're about to impact at. There, that should do it, but we're still coming in faster than I'd like."

"At least we won't crash anymore," Liara turned to EDI. "EDI, try finding out where we are."

EDI wouldn't respond or move, Liara waited a few moments, but she wasn't doing anything. "EDI?" she asked again. "EDI! Joker, there's something wrong with EDI."

"EDI?" Joker called out, "EDI, come on!"

"Never mind her, we have to make sure we don't crash!" James yelled as he watched the ground quickly coming towards them.

"We're not going to!"

The words were barely out of his mouth before the Normandy crash-landed on the unknown world that had come out of nowhere. The ship screeched to a halt half a kilometer from where it had slammed into the ground. The impact of which knocked James off his feet. James had just enough time to yelp as he fell to the deck, his head connecting with the cold hard floor, blood in his eyes, his world going dark.

With a start, James woke up from what had seemed like a deep sleep. He got up from the floor, his head pounding. Had it all been a dream, could it all somehow have just been a dream. Taking a quick look around, he realized it wasn't. The Normandy had crashed and Shepard was still there on The Citadel. He should've been there where he belonged in James' arms, but he wasn't. He believed in doing his duty, even if it killed him.

"Are you okay Lieutenant?" Liara asked him as she got up.

"Not really," James hissed at the pounding in his head. "But I'll survive."

"Well I should hope so James."

"Uh, guy's, I'd hate to break up this moment, but you gotta come over here now!" Joker called to them from EDI's side. "She won't wake up! There's something wrong with her!"

Making her way over to him, Liara shook her head, "The crash probably knocked her offline. It's nothing to worry about."

"No, something was wrong before we crashed, remember. Come on, we have to help her!" Joker insisted.

"We have more pressing concerns at the moment Joker," Liara said forcefully. "We have to find out where we are!"

"And whether or not everyone's okay," James added with a nod.

"Fine," Joker conceded, crestfallen, "But she's part of the crew too you know."

"I know," Liara sighed, turning away. "Come on, the navigational logs should give us a clue to where we are."

"Okay," James agreed, making his way down the corridor to one of the darkened command consoles. "Shit, it's offline too."

"Most of our systems are," Samantha told him, heading in his direction. "They were knocked out during the crash."

"Do we still have comms?" Liara asked her.

"The onboard ones are knocked out, but we can still communicate through our omni-tools," Sam explained.

"Have you managed to get a hold of anyone?"

"Yes, all members of the crew are accounted for," Sam began. "Some minor injuries have been reported, but nothing serious."

"Good, that's something at least," Liara smiled.

"It's good to hear that everyone's okay, but we still don't know where we are," James pointed out.

"We should go out there then," Sam suggested. "The omni-tools should be able to take enough readings that we might be able to get our bearings."

"Good idea. James, Joker, let's head out. Sam, I want you to head down to engineering and see what Adams has to say about repairs," Liara said, making her way towards the airlock.

"Okay, I'll call you on my omni-tool as soon as I have news."

Liara nodded as she strode towards the airlock with James right behind her. With a sigh, Joker headed back towards EDI instead of following them out, he had one more thing he wanted to try before he gave up on her.

Stopping at the airlock door, noticing Joker wasn't with her, Liara asked, "Joker, what the hell are you doing?"

"She told me something once," Joker began, using his omni-tool to tinker with EDI's systems. "That this body of hers has an autonomous power supply and can shut itself off in the event of an overload to protect its memory and the rest of its systems. So, I'm kinda hoping it did that instead of what I'm afraid happened."

"Any luck?" Liara asked him.

"There, that should do it," Joker said as EDI's body twitched. "EDI, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Jeff, but something is wrong."

A little shocked, Liara asked, "What do you mean?"

"I've lost the ability to communicate with the ship. I can no longer sense myself as being part of it. It's rather like I'm blind," EDI explained quickly.

"Maybe it's that wave. It might've disrupted the transmissions between her body and the ship," James suggested with a shrug.

"No, that would've knocked out her ability to communicate with her body, not the ship."

"Then is she stuck in her body instead?" James asked him.

"It would appear that I am, at least for the time being. My consciousness is here, not there," EDI confirmed, rising from her seat.

"Well, we don't have time to figure it out right now," Joker pointed out, turning towards the airlock. "Liara, you were going to head out to see where we are."

"Yes, after you if you would like," Liara nodded.

Joker exited the ship and out into the unknown world that their ship had crashed on with James following him. Gathering herself, afraid of what she might find, Liara went out after them. The mysterious world looked almost like Earth in a way, except it had two rather large moons and it was much warmer.

"You know, this place is pretty nice. Wouldn't surprise me if this is a colony of ours," James said with a smile.

"It does seem kinda homey, doesn't it," Liara agreed with a grin of her own.

Heading back towards the airlock, mildly disgusted, Joker said, "Well, if you two are done blowing each other, I'd like to see if EDI knows anything about this place."

"Okay, fine, you do that," Liara replied sarcastically.

Passing Joker on his way back inside, Kaidan emerged from the airlock with a smile on his face. It had been a long time since he saw the beauty of a natural world – since he had smelled the fresh air of an unspoiled world – he hadn't realized how much he'd missed it.

"Decided to join us Major?" Liara greeted him.

"Yeah, Chakwas cleared me for duty and I as far as I can see, there's a lot to do."

"There is indeed major, there is indeed," Liara responded, continuing to take a look around at the strange new world.