Liara T'Soni wondered briefly if they had all in fact died. Though how her thought processes could continue normally was a curious event. If she was actually dead, that was. The siairi religion led all to believe that though you may lose your physical body, your spiritual energy would travel on to meld with the universe, to be processed anew. Liara was never certain if she believed it (as that happened with asari her age), but she was always curious about it. If her consciousness remained intact after death, maybe she could somehow understand the Reapers' processes, or understand why the purging of cycles happened to begin with. So many things could be possible if her spiritual being left her physical one.

Today would not be the day she would see the universe's unveiling, it seemed.

James Vega, the bulky human that incessantly argued about biotics with her, exhaled heavily. Before the landing, she had heard him rapidly muttering words in an unfamiliar human language. Asking for safe landing and the hope of survival, if he was speaking of the same things she had been. He straightened up beside her and let out a low whistle, which made her believe she could open her eyes.

Crew members were deafeningly quiet as they came to. The pressure change had caused a vast majority to lose consciousness as the Normandy dropped from the skies. Liara leaned forward, but immediately regretted the decision. Cuts from the explosions on Earth reopened, the deep violet of her blood seeping through the white of her suit. She dropped her head back, inhaling sharply.

"You all right, Doc?" Vega asked.

"I've been far worse before," she sighed as she attempted to straighten up again. "How is everyone else?"

"By the looks of it, in one piece, at least. Hey, Traynor, can we get out of these things?" The muscular man wriggled uncomfortably in his seat at her right, tugging at the durable buckles of the safety harnesses.

Liara had a suspicion that he was not a fan of his body being confined. She could understand the discomfort, however. The straps were pressed firmly across her own body, situated conveniently against her cuts. Running across London on Earth seemed eons ago, but the injuries she sustained hardly allowed her to forget. A shot of pain erupted through her thoughts when she made the slightest movement.

"We may have to wait a few more minutes," Traynor's voice came from her left side. In the rush to get safely secured in their seats, Liara had forgotten that the comm. specialist was beside her. "The ship has a fail-safe to keep all of the harnesses secured some minutes after impact. If the damage is suspected to be severe, it could take longer for them to release." She was quiet for a brief moment as she shifted her own weight against the harness's grip. "But hey, a plus side, there's no fire. The fail-safe opens up if there's anything combusting anywhere on the ship."

"Oh, so we won't become roast pigs in these things, fantastic," Vega answered sarcastically. "There's no secret code to override it? 'Open sesame' or any of that crap?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Maybe shouting buzz words at it will make it cooperate."

Liara laughed lightly despite herself. James quieted down as the three of them looked around the CIC. Traynor made a worried huff sound beside her, and the asari assumed she knew why rather quickly. Aside from the natural light coming in from the ports, the Normandy was consumed by darkness and shadow. Darkness on the ship was unfamiliar; no matter where they were in their travels, there was some form of light on the ship. Monitors, personal lights of crew members, the walkways constantly illuminated from underneath … seeing the Normandy in near pitch-darkness was unsettling.

"EDI could activate it herself," Traynor said to no one in particular. Perhaps to sound reassuring. "But I suppose if the ship doesn't have power. I've never seen that happen before, though."

"We did just drop out of space," Vega observed. "Maybe it has a fail-safe about that, too."

"Maybe."

"Doc, what about your floaty thing? The one that likes to talk a lot?"

"Oh, you mean Glyph?" Liara asked, realizing.

"Yeah, can the little guy do something about the lights?"

"EDI does not like Glyph to interfere with the ship's operations. But perhaps he could help if she needed …"

It took a moment for her to reach her left arm with her right hand, but she activated her omni-tool. She and some of those near her turned their heads away instinctually, their eyes unprepared for the light of the device. Once she was able to return her focus to it, Liara tapped a command for Glyph to come to her location. Normally, it would take the holographic orb mere moments to appear before her, but her omni-tool vibrated with a message of protest. Unable to connect, it read. Curious, Glyph had never been out of connection from her since she took over the Shadow Broker's information …

"Everyone all right?"

Garrus Vakarian's voice caused Liara to jump. His tall form was cast in shadow on her left side, toward the entrance to the cockpit. It was easy to forget that the man's species was such a predatory one when he was among the other crew. Eyes pre-designed to see in near pure darkness, with fine detail, was one of the most notable among turians. The blue haze of his visor cut through the dark as he walked toward the rest of the crew. Combined with the sub-harmonics of his voice, a genetic mechanism to cause fear in lesser species, he seemed to be a form to fear. Of course, everyone on the Normandy knew Garrus well, but that didn't stop a few form gasping on his first approach.

Members of the crew either nodded of answered in soft voices. Some were still unconscious from the earlier pressure drop, but most were now awake, looking anxious (from the faces she could make out), and incredibly no worse for wear.

"How's EDI?" Kaidan asked amongst the darkness.

Liara was unable to pinpoint where his voice had come from, but she recognized it instantly. She had not heard any concerns about EDI before the Normandy left the Crucible … It was a bit of a shame she could not see the massive weapon fire, though she knew full well she would have died if she had. Still, the end result of the blueprints she found, and the extensive work of so many, had been remarkable. To see the final product in action would have been amazing.

A sinking feeling came to her stomach. Anyone who was close enough to the blast was certain to have been eradicated by the force of it. There was potential risk that Earth itself had suffered damage, since the Citadel had been moved so close to the human planet. If the damage were to be as severe as they anticipated, then surely Shepard …

"Not quite sure yet," Garrus answered passively. "Tali, how are you?"

"A little rattled," Tali sighed from a distance. "But alive. I hit something pretty hard."

"I think it was me, then the wall," Kaidan said with a forced chuckle. "Your helmet is a hell of a lot harder than it looks."

"Kee'lah, I'm so sorry! I didn't even realize …"

"No problem. I'm glad you're all right."

"Do you think you'd be okay to go down to engineering, Tali?" Garrus cut in. "Adams and Donnelly probably need a hand."

"Are they all right?" Tali questioned.

"Yeah, they managed to get to their spots before we hit. The comms in the ship are still working, so they called up."

"What about the power?" someone asked.

"Should be up in a couple more minutes. Apparently, the ship is supposed to put all of its energy reserves to its fields and the cockpit when there's a problem. Joker still has power, so that means the rest should reboot in a few minutes."

"The harnesses won't be able to open until the power's back in proper order, Garrus," Traynor offered.

Garrus nodded. "Right. Well, sit tight. Could've been a lot worse, but we'll see where we're at once we're up and running."

Liara tinkered with her omni-tool for some time, trying to contact Glyph. The AI was somewhat absent-minded at times, but never before had he not responded to her call. She wondered if she crash had damaged some of her equipment, but she would be unable to check until she could get down to her office. The rest of the Normandy's inhabitants shifted in their seats uncomfortably, finding little to converse about.

Finally, a reassuring hum sounded around them and, little by little, the power was restored around them. Monitors blinked on. The galaxy map in the middle of the CIC flared to life, showing a brief holographic picture of the Crucible, its walls dark and broken, before replacing the image with rapid flashing as it worked to find where the Normandy had landed. Lights came on above them. Instant relief came to the asari as the harnesses released their safety straps, allowing everyone to move freely. Several people sat forward, but no one made a rushed attempt to stand up.

"What now?" James asked beside her.

That, Liara believed, was the question everyone wanted to ask.

Author's Note: Hey, everyone, and happy Freedom Day to any U.S. readers! Just wanted to say thanks for making it this far with me in reading Aftermath. I really appreciate that people have an interest. I apologize if the character jumping or the flow of the story seems a little sporadic. I'm still working on finding the voice of this thing, which takes some experimenting. And my chapter naming is becoming more complicated, since I can't use repeat chapter titles for this site. So if I ever decide to, I may just cave and have them be"Chapter 1" and onward ... Rambling is a strong suit of mine. Opinions are always welcome via private messaging or reviews! Have a great day, everybody!