October 7th, 2153 CE

Sirius System, Local Cluster

SSV Cambridge, Mess Hall

After so many conversations with so many new people in a single evening, the new Captain's head was beginning to hurt as she balanced herself on the bar with one hand, pouring herself yet another drink with the other.

Oh come on, it's not even late and you're not even drunk. You're getting old, Erika. Remember when you could drink properly? Of course you don't, that's the idea. They were fun times.

Shuffling carefully towards one of the chairs on the edge of the Mess Hall that suddenly looked terribly inviting, she cast her eyes around the room approvingly, watching her new crew mingling together, chatting and laughing as if they were old friends. She couldn't help but feel a swell of pride and give a satisfied sigh that her idea to get the crew gelling after a tentative launch had been a success.

Definitely a success… hell, I'd go so far as to say this was a triumph.

She couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous immediately after the launch of the first ship of her very own. She'd spent far too long in her native Latvia trying to stay hidden and keep people apart where she had to, so the idea of having to bring them together all by herself frightened her more than anything she'd faced before.

So it was with great satisfaction that she now looked around the hall and saw not just acquaintances, but the foundations of an unbreakable bond that only military life could bring; a brotherhood. The beginning of a family unit that would sustain them on their travels into the unknown and beyond.

She still couldn't help feeling a little overawed by the situation the Alliance had placed her in, having only joined the Alliance as a Lieutenant three years ago. There was a large part of her that felt as though she'd been promoted beyond her measure, as though she wasn't quite ready for the command that had suddenly been thrust upon her.

But another part of her knew that whatever the hows and whys behind the situation, there was nothing to do but take it on as best as she knew how. And that meant getting her new crew to bond in a way that she knew all about – by getting them all drunk.

Gazing around the room, she took note of some of the people she'd instantly memorised the names and faces of. Her main pilot, Rebecca Waters, had instantly struck her as obviously fun-loving but obnoxious as she was chatting away happily to a group of junior crew members. On the other hand, her chief engineer, Brian Watts, was a grumpy individual who Erika had actually struggled to get a conversation out of – luckily, he'd retired from the event as soon as he'd obviously felt safe to just disappear.

Speaking of disappearing…

The one who'd stood out the most to her was her Executive Officer, the newly-promoted Commander Thomas Jameson. He was a very interesting individual; very quiet and thoughtful, obviously highly intelligent, yet seemingly unwilling to share it with anyone, either through lack of confidence or outright shyness. He was a good man and would become a great officer, no doubt. But she had a feeling it would take a lot of effort and some highly well-planned nurturing to convince him of that.

I'm sure he was here ten minutes ago…

He'd seemed to be mingling with the crew well enough, albeit a little constrained. She found herself wondering if his mind was somewhere else as she carefully got to her feet, praying that her legs didn't collapse underneath her as she slowly picked up her drink, eventually setting off towards the bridge at a slow, unsteady stumble.

SERIOUSLY. This is ridiculous. You've been half as drunk as this after drinking twice as much before. Oh no, of course, I'm 30 now. It's all downhill from here, isn't it?

"Cap'n! Wherrre… d'you think you're gooooooing?"

She turned towards the source of the amusing drunken slurring to find Waters stumbling towards her, her shoulder-length brown hair splayed across her face, barely staying upright as she kept crashing into tables, chummily putting her arm around the Captain's shoulders as she reached her.

Thank heavens for autopilot…

In her own drunken state, it took her a moment to remember the Lieutenant had actually asked her a question.

Shit… can't exactly say I'm off to get some air.

"Just… going up to the bridge. Could do with a little alone time…" she eventually replied, a little weakly as she attempted to force her words out with a bit of coherence. Waters raised a finger in front of herself as she attempted to start talking again.

"Ok, but… f-fiirrrrst… I need to tell… you about something that's reaaaaaaaaaallllllllly important…" She lowered her voice to a whisper and moved her finger in front of her mouth in a shushing motion as she reached the end of her sentence; a wild, secretive grin forming on her face as she did.

"There are… nooooo good vids anymore. Ever… everything that gets released now is boring… I wissssh I was alive, like, a hunred and fivvvvty years ago…"

Her rambling was cut off as she finally focused on Erika's face to find her cocking an eyebrow at her, distinctly unimpressed.

"I'm leaving now," she simply replied, unhooking the pilot's arm from around her, setting off back towards the bridge. She heard a deeply unsatisfied huff from behind her as she walked away, and she couldn't help but suppress a small laugh.

What DO we do with the drunken sailor…?

She wasn't even halfway up the stairs leading to the bridge before she realised she was losing feeling in her hands from holding on to the railing so hard.

This is just pitiful. Here I was thinking being able to drink everyone under the table was a prerequisite of being the Captain. Great start, genius.

It took what felt like hours and a climb halfway up Mount Everest before the door to the bridge finally swished open, revealing the room to be completely deserted. With several hours until they reached the mass relay for their next jump, the ship was running on the experimental VI autopilot. Erika wasn't sure she was comfortable removing the human element from the control of the ship – even when they were basically heading in a straight line for several hours - but given the sheer speed at which technology was advancing, she was prepared to open her mind to experimentation a little.

I still can't believe it sometimes. This only started five years ago… I was 25. It's no time at all… yet it feels like a whole other life.

She fondly recalled watching the breaking news at a friend's house in her adopted hometown of Southampton, UK – slack-jawed and utterly silent with disbelief as the details of the discovery were revealed by that period's President of the UNAS, who came across as not really believing what he was reading himself. He had stumbled through his pre-written statement in a daze, though luckily for him, much of the world were too dumbfounded by the news to even notice.

"Captain?"

She jumped a little in shock as her thoughts were interrupted by a male voice almost immediately to her right. Slowly turning her head, she saw the Commander sat at one of the terminals clutching a datapad, having turned around to face her. She couldn't quite tell with her vision steadily going double, but he seemed to have an inquisitive expression.

Makes sense. Always curious.

Eventually, she turned the rest of her body around back in line with her head, putting her arms out in front of her for balance.

"I… sorry, I didn't think anyone was here…"

He exhaled lightly, smiling.

"Well, I wanted to be a ninja when I was a kid. Maybe I had what it takes after all."

Erika smiled and laughed a little herself before a realisation hit her. Straightening herself, she suddenly switched to inquisitive mode herself.

"What are you doing up here? Didn't fancy the party anymore?"

Steadily, she moved to take a seat at the terminal next to him, still holding her hands out slightly at her sides as she struggled to maintain her balance.

"Nah, I've never been one for big social events," he replied, a hint of nervousness about his voice. "Reminds me of the old school discos too much, you know? Leaning up against the wall with some crap drink full of sugar while everyone ignores you… it's just not my style, I guess."

"I wouldn't know, I only went to school for 8 months," she retorted, barely meeting his gaze as he turned to her in shock.

"Come on, the world is broken. Only the richest countries are even suitable for living in nowadays, much less getting a good education. In Latvia, the only education you need is how to defend yourself, how to scavenge, how to survive. Growing up there was… it was horrible. I got out as soon as I had the chance… and even that took a lot of lying."

Thomas looked away, staring off into space as an expression of thought crossed his face.

"What about your parents?" He eventually said. Erika couldn't help but laugh bitterly, clenching her jaw.

"My mother was killed by a street gang when I was a baby… while she was pregnant." A cold steel had trickled into her demeanour – though she had long since dealt with the sheer hatred and contempt she felt for the nameless monsters who had destroyed her family, they were not feelings she enjoyed recalling. "My father did the best he could with me. He taught me to fight and gave me as basic an education as he could, but it wasn't enough… I managed to escape to the UK when I was 13 and ended up joining a group of street rats in Southampton who taught me English. They were the best family I had… I stayed with them until I joined the Alliance."

Thomas simply sat and listened, taking it all in as she recalled her childhood in as much detail as she allowed herself to give away. A few seconds after she finished, she found herself smiling again.

"But, you know, everything that's happened to me has led me to where I am now and turned me into the person I am today. And I'm happy with that." The Commander laughed, admiringly.

"I wish I could take that attitude sometimes. It'd make my life a lot less stressful, although…" His voice trailed off, and he turned his attention back to the datapad in his hand, a faint, wistful smile slowly spreading across his face.

"I suppose it could be worse."

Erika leaned over to get a closer look at the datapad, taking care not to almost fall out of her chair as she did so. After a second, Thomas turned it towards her, and she was presented with the image of him in a holiday picture with a beautiful, mid-20s woman, her soft face and piercing blue eyes framed with long, jet-black hair completely at odds with the sunny background. Erika couldn't help but smile warmly at the image.

"Is she…?"

"My fiancé, yeah," he replied, not even needing her to finish. "We're getting married as soon as this tour ends." Erika's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Wow, OK, I wasn't expecting that. Nervous?"

Again, Thomas laughed slightly.

"Not really. I don't think it's really hit me yet…"

Now it was Erika's turn to laugh.

"Oh, it will, believe me," she replied, brushing a stray hair from her face. "You'll be standing there all dressed up on the day and you'll find yourself thinking 'Shit, I'm about to commit myself to one person forever…'"

She stopped herself just as she realised she was actually allowing herself to feel vulnerable, to reveal her innermost thoughts to another human being for the first time in years. Looking up, she noticed Thomas looking at her, obviously a little bewildered.

"You sound like you're speaking from experience?"

As painful as the memory niggling at the back of her mind was, she couldn't help but chuckle.

"There's a lot that no-one knows about me…" she replied, coyly. "Anyway, I'm hardly marriage material. I can't cook, I'm never home for more than ten minutes, and my idea of a romantic meal is a heart-shaped pizza."

This time they both laughed, and the Captain found herself feeling a little embarrassed.

"But honestly… you'll be fine. Obviously I don't know her and I barely know you, but you look perfect together," she said, setting aside the joviality in her voice. "I know it sounds cliché, but the couple that looks good together stays together."

The wistful, glassy look in Thomas' eyes gradually reappeared as he returned his gaze to the datapad. It might have been the alcohol, but Erika thought she could see the telling signs of tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

"But as well as that, just think of all the work we're doing out here, if we can even call it that. Everything we're doing, every new place we discover, and it all goes towards the improvement of humanity. One day, your children could walk in a human city in an alien world, or even meet aliens themselves, and it'll all be thanks to us taking these first steps, here and now. Trust me – as long as we believe it, it'll happen."

The words fell out of her mouth before she'd even realised she'd thought of them, such was the blunting of her conscious mind by the alcohol flowing through her, though she felt much more in control physically now.

Did I really just say that? It didn't even sound like me. Never been one for motivational speeches, even when I'm sober.

Still, the words had the effect that she presumed that she'd desired. She noticed Thomas straightening himself slightly, his far-off expression gaining that little bit more focus. Without even thinking, she found herself standing up from her chair, beckoning him to join her.

"But first, we've got a party to finish, Commander," she continued, a hint of mischief creeping into her voice. "There's a few lines of vodka shots down there with our names on them. Think you can handle it?"

Catching her meaning, Thomas' smile widened into a full-blown grin, and he let out a laugh that was part excitement, part amusement, and part resignation to an impending doom as he stood up to follow her back down to the mess hall.

"As long as I don't have to fly the ship tomorrow."

April 12th, 2157 CE

Floor 337, Arcturus Station

It was almost a regular day. On the surface, just like any other.

Floor 337 was most definitely a relaxation deck. A wide open space, littered with downtime activities such as theatres, bars and observation rooms, where anyone could simply stand and stare across out into the vastness of space outside. The areas in between were filled by benches, booths, places where one could just stop and catch their breath amongst the madness. All it needed was a blue sky and a fountain, and it would almost be serene.

It was a favourite meeting place for many of the station's residents, full-time employees and visitors alike. Its bright, silver walls and relaxing atmosphere made it an ideal place to chill out during free time, and groups of friends would often meet here after work to spend their time.

Today, the atmosphere was a little hushed, as it had been for almost the previous two weeks. Everyone knew about the invasion by now, and it had unsurprisingly sent quakes of varying emotions across the whole of humanity. As many people were enthralled by the discovery of present-day aliens as they were worried, but most of them were struggling to contain their panic at the first contact with aliens resulting in the invasion of a colony. Even more so, people were becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of news. None of the national governments of Earth seemed to be willing to take responsibility for the liberation of the colony, with even its Chinese owners seemingly happy to abandon the inhabitants of Shanxi to their fate at the hands of the alien insurgents.

"The Alliance has to do something. We're the only ones that will."

It was becoming an increasingly common phrase among the whole of Arcturus Station.

Many of them had noticed more ships arriving to dock at the station over the last week.

"All we have are exploration ships. What are we supposed to do? Throw probes at them?"

Today, Floor 337 was significantly quieter than normal. Many now chose to spend their free time glued to news channels to await an announcement of action. Still, there were around forty people dotted around, talking as if nothing was happening.

None of them noticed the swishing of one of the elevator's doors opening.

All of them noticed the angry, thunderous footsteps of the man who followed.

The body language made his mood painfully obvious. Straight, rigid back, tightly balled fists, arms swinging perfectly in time with his thumping steps. His jaw was clenched tight, and his eyes fixed straight ahead, glaring deathly at nothing in particular. It was clear he was paying no attention whatsoever to his surroundings, and it was clear that he was severely pissed off.

Many of the people in the room recognised the man's face once he was close enough to them. None of them dared approach or interrupt him as he walked straight towards an observation room, thumping the door's panel with his fist and immediately walking inside.

A couple of minutes later, another person entered the floor. The contrast couldn't be wider. Where the man had been tall and broad shouldered, this woman – petite but muscular, her shoulder-length blonde hair tied into a ponytail - looked little more than half his size. She walked quickly with short steps, her shoulders hunched and her hands fidgeting by her sides, and she looked down at the floor as she walked, her eyes occasionally darting around the room to examine her surroundings as she tried her best to draw as little attention to herself as possible. Every so often, she reached up to wipe away the beginning of a tear from her eyes. Eventually, she reached the same door that the man had entered, and she stood outside for a moment, taking a few long, deep breaths to compose herself before following him inside.

I can't remember the last time I was this angry. Come on, Thomas, pull it together… blind rage won't solve anything.

His conscious was fighting his instinct as he simply stood, arms folded, staring at the starfield outside. He hadn't said a word for the rest of the meeting yesterday after Erika's entrance through sheer shock, and he felt annoyed with himself for immediately leaving the meeting afterward without saying a word to her. But there would be none of that today as he waited for her to arrive at the meeting point she'd suggested to him by e-mail later that day.

Maybe I'm overreacting. But how the fuck am I supposed to feel?

His fists clenched just slightly tighter as he heard the door swishing open behind him, closing a couple of seconds later, and he closed his eyes as he waited for the inevitable awkward first words.

"…Hello, Tom," Erika eventually said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I've missed you."

Taking a deep breath, he slowly turned around to face her. She had obviously grown physically stronger, as her lean, powerful-looking arms suggested. But right now, the emotion of their situation had her looking shrunken slightly as she clasped her hands in front of herself, her puffy eyes giving her away as being on the brink of tears.

"I missed you too," he bluntly replied, failing to hide the tinge of anger behind his words.

Might as well say it. This is not a time for lies.

The tension hung thick in the air for a moment. Neither of the pair really knew what to say; it wasn't until Erika opened her mouth slightly to say something that the words came tumbling out from Thomas.

"Fourteen months," he began, struggling in vain to keep the emotion from bubbling over. "Fourteen months and no contact whatsoever. What the hell happened?"

Behind the hint of tears in her eyes, Erika's expression suddenly formed a steely glare.

"I did contact you. Four times. I couldn't use my own address, with my existence being classified. I had to hijack a junk account to send you messages, which you obviously didn't get."

A faint ring of recognition began to sound at the back of Thomas' mind, and his subconscious began filing through his memory for anything that matched up.

"You can thank me for not letting you ruin your career by leaking the news of the invasion, by the way," she continued, straightening herself as she forced some defiance into her voice.

Wait, what?

"How… what do you mean?"

"That e-mail virus you sent to the colony on Terra Nova? The one that would have made it look like they'd received the drone themselves? I intercepted it. The Alliance would've been able to track it back to you…" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"…so I passed it on to Winters, and… suggested that he leak it himself. He wanted action to be taken, after all. But as well as that, he was expendable."

It took him a moment to process her words and the meaning behind them.

"Wait… so you took advantage of him being desperate to cover my back? And more to the point, how did you even intercept it?"

As quickly as it appeared, the determination in her expression began to fade, and she hung her head, her whole body slumping a little as she resigned herself to defeat.

"I… before the Moscow launched, I bugged the communication systems of the ship so I could see where you were and how you were doing. I just wanted to keep track of your progress on your missions…"

Thomas' eyes widened in shock.

"You were… spying on me?"

Faced with the direct accusation, Erika's emotions finally got the better of her, and her composure crumbled in an instant, tears beginning to stream down her face.

"I wasn't spying… I didn't know if I'd have access to mission records while I was doing my N7 training…" She began to wipe the tears off her face, taking another deep breath to try and reassert herself. "I just wanted to protect you."

Thomas could feel the anger rising in his stomach, and he clenched his fists involuntarily, taking a deep breath to remain in control.

"And you were the one who said we each had to learn to make it on our own," he simply said, his tone full of contempt as he recalled the day of his promotion and Erika's efforts to reassure him that he was ready for it. "Well, I've learned, even if it was because I didn't have a choice. Have you, Major?"

All she could do was stare, her eyes glazing over as she remembered the same conversation herself. Her figure slumped further still, and she opened her mouth to begin a reply that never came. She placed her heads in her hands as she turned to her side, drawing them down and taking a deep breath, smearing tears all over her cheeks in the process.

"Alright, you want me to say it?" she said, quietly. "Yes, I wasn't ready to let go. When I was told that I'd have to disappear at the start of my training, I panicked. Because I thought we'd be able to keep in touch once we were serving apart. When I realised that we wouldn't… something just snapped. I guess I still felt like I needed you…"

"Needed me for what?" Thomas suddenly exploded, the anger burning its ways through his veins finally becoming too much to contain. "Erika, you're one of the most prestigious people in the Alliance… never mind, in the whole of fucking humanity. If it's really too much to ask of yourself to stand on your own two feet in that position, should you really have put yourself there?"

"I'm still only human!" Erika shrieked in response to his outburst, her entire demeanour quickly switching from shrunken and defeated to the ferocious defensiveness of a cornered fox. "You're talking like I'm some kind of superhero! Had it not crossed your mind that I don't have any family to fall back on?"

The introduction of family into the argument stopped Thomas in his tracks. Though his fists were still trembling with rage, his heart still pounding with adrenaline, his words were cut short as the sudden change in topic blindsided him.

"It's alright for you… you have Keeley and Claudia at home, always there when you need them," she continued, her voice quietening to barely above a whisper once again. "Who do I have?"

Thomas cocked his head at her, a hint of confusion entering his voice. "What about your father? Surely you can get hold of him somehow?" She shook her head in resignation.

"The day we got back to Earth, the day of your promotion… I got word that he died of a heart attack a couple of weeks earlier. He was completely alone. He didn't approve of me joining the Alliance… we hadn't spoken in years."

Thomas rolled his head back as he processed her words, slouching slightly. Am I being too hard on her? But she ploughed on, her voice becoming steady and determined as she refused to let him think beyond what was necessary.

"My entire family is dead. I'm not married, I have no children. Everyone I knew in England has disappeared. I have nothing to go home to but an empty house. You're the closest I've had to any family in years. Can you really blame me for panicking that I might lose you too, given the timing?"

As she finished, she closed her eyes, tightening them slightly as she wiped the streaming tears from her cheeks, and turned back towards the window to look out on the starfield. Thomas could tell by her body language that she felt she had made her case, and he began to pace up and down, flexing his hands in and out of fists as he considered her words.

A part of him wasn't even sure why he was angry.

I WANT to believe her…

NOVEMBER 7TH, 2154 CE

GORODSKAYA KLINICHESKAYA HOSPITAL, MOSCOW, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Come on, come on! Faster!

Erika was tapping her fingers furiously on her knees as the skycab driver processed her fare, one leg already hanging out of the door, ready to move as soon as it was complete. She hadn't even noticed the freezing early winter air whistling its way through every gap in her uniform.

It felt like an eternity of shuffling and anxious tapping before the machine eventually let out a quiet ding, and she was up and running towards the hospital entrance almost before the driver had even had a chance to hand her credit chit back to her. This was not a situation calling for patience.

Her mind, seemingly detached from her body as she run, caught itself up in idle thoughts as she ran. It was pure luck that she'd happened to be in Germany, only two hours away by skycar – or just one if you pay the driver to break all the speeding laws – when she'd received the call, which she'd barely been able to understand through the hyperventilating she heard on the other end. But given the date and the identity of the caller, she could easily guess what was going on. It was the first event she'd gotten truly excited for in months.

Her mind snapped back into focus just in time for her to stop herself running straight through the hospital's reception desk, merely slamming into it and winding herself instead, and she cursed her runners' habit of zoning out as soon as she was moving.

You'd think I'd be better at this after running a treble marathon in seven hours…

Quickly, the receptionist, a grey-haired, grumpy-looking woman in her fifties, popped out from the office to see what the commotion was, looking somewhat taken aback at the sight of the panting Alliance officer draped over the desk, her long blonde hair and dress uniform unkempt. She scowled, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Alliance, da? You know, you people usually look a lot more professional," she said, her heavy Russian accent thick with disapproval. "Are you new?"

Erika whipped her head up as she registered the receptionist's comment, and with a huff, she began straightening her uniform out.

"What? No! I'm a Captain!" she said, more than a little petulantly as she pointed to one of her shoulders. "See the bars? They mean Captain!" The woman merely deepened her scowl, unimpressed.

"Anyway," she continued, brushing her stray hair behind her ears as she reasserted herself. "I'm looking for Keeley Jameson. She's in labour."

"Are you a family member?" The receptionist replied, not breaking her piercing eye contact or her scowl. Erika couldn't help but pause for a moment.

"Uh, kind of. Her husband is my… best friend," she replied, on the assumption that the increasingly dislikeable woman behind the desk wouldn't understand the meaning of Executive Officer.

"Right. And your name is?" Sure enough, despite finally shifting her gaze to her terminal, her voice was still heavy with suspicion. Something told Erika that she'd taken the meaning of 'best friend' as being entirely unsavoury, and she found herself clenching her jaw, growing increasingly irritated by her attitude. She'd never held Russians in particularly good favour, often finding them rude and uptight, but the woman she was dealing with here was downright obnoxious.

"Erika. Erika Ziemelis. Need me to spell that for you?" she replied sarcastically, earning a death glare from the receptionist as she continued tapping buttons on her keyboard. She allowed herself a slight devilish grin.

"Very well. A nurse will be down to collect you shortly," she said bluntly. Erika's eyes shot wide open in shock, and she raised her hands in frustration.

"What? Can't you just tell me where she is?" she said, trying her hardest to grab the woman by her collar and slap the arrogance out of her.

"No. All visitors to the maternity ward must be escorted. Please take a seat, Captain." She replied, lacing her final words with a heavy tone of 'I don't care who you are, tough shit', and she immediately stood up to return to the office, leaving Erika with nothing to do but find a seat, clenching and unclenching her fist as she growled in frustration.

Bloody Russians. Why the hell did Thomas and Keeley move out here anyway? I don't have time for this!

After sitting down, she found herself unable to stop fidgeting furiously until she decided she couldn't stay where she was, and she flared up her omni-tool.

Heh… almost lasted 20 seconds. Ah well, this shouldn't take long.

The sheer potential of the omni-tool had boggled Erika's mind since she'd figured out how to hack almost any system she came across. The idea that anyone with a little bit of tech knowledge could harness it and cause chaos was a little scary, but thankfully, most of those people only had that knowledge through Alliance education, and most of Earth's governments only knew what the Alliance allowed them to about Prothean technology, meaning they would always be one step ahead of all but the most curious of minds on Earth. Along with the fact that personal omni-tools were still expensive beyond the reach of the average person, it wasn't really a cause to worry. Not yet, anyway.

Harsh? Maybe. But it works. We have to stay ahead if we're to lead the entire human race into a new age.

The potential moral dilemma briefly flashed through her mind as her fingers flew deftly across her omni-tool's input, and after little more than a minute she was scrolling through the list of the hospital's current patients and their locations.

Here we go… maternity… J… there! Room 381!

Being careful not to draw too much attention to herself, but unable to stop a mischievous grin spreading across her face, she flicked her omni-tool closed and stood up, walking towards the hallways leading into the depths of the hospital. She shot a look at the office behind reception, catching the receptionist's eye just as she was about to disappear from view, and she couldn't resist giving her a childish wave of victory before she took off at a swift run towards the elevator.

In bizarre contrast to the short, sharp, strangely exhausting sprint from the skycab to reception, the quick ascent of eight flights of stairs felt like a pinch, even in her dress uniform. As she cleared the top stair, she flicked her hair back with a satisfied huff and began straightening out her uniform once again as she set off down the hall.

Yep, still got it.

It didn't take much searching before she found the room she needed. Following the signs leading toward the number she was looking for led her to a dogleg of private rooms, once of which had a terrified-looking Thomas sat next to the door, elbows resting on his knees, rocking himself back and forth gently, rendered almost catatonic by nerves. Inside the room she could hear a low moaning that told her that a baby would likely not be forthcoming in the next few hours, and she breathed a light sigh of relief that whatever panic attack he was having wouldn't cause him to miss the birth entirely.

Unsurprisingly, he completely failed to notice her approach, even once she sat down right next to him. It was only she called his name a couple of times and, when that didn't work, snapped her fingers a few inches in front of his face that his head suddenly whipped around to her, eyes wide, his face white as a sheet. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but smile.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," she chuckled.

Once again, he completely failed to react, apart from to turn his head back to his front, fixating on a square-inch of floor that obviously held something of great interest, but at least the rocking had stopped. She gently placed her left hand on his arm and began rubbing her other up and down his back comfortingly.

"So, come on then, out with it. What's wrong? What are you doing out here?"

It seemed to take a minute before he even registered what she'd said, and another before he eventually answered in a low, quiet voice, barely above a whisper and lacking in his usual thoughtfulness.

"Keeley kicked me out. Said I wasn't any help to her like this."

Inside, Erika couldn't help but laugh. It was one of the first things she'd noticed about him on their first tour – give Thomas time to think logically about a problem and how best to approach it, and he'll come up with an absolutely flawless battle plan that a senile gorilla could execute perfectly. But put him on the spot, and nine times out of ten he'll fold like wet tissue paper, and as high-pressure situations go, they don't get much tougher than this.

But this wasn't the time for friendly reassurance. Right now, he needed tough love. She found herself questioning whether it was Thomas who'd called her here, desperate for help, or Keeley herself, needing her husband's captain to drag him back to reality.

"So, what? That woman in there has put her body through an insane amount of stress to carry your child for nine months, and you're just gonna sit out here and let her deal with the hardest part of that by herself?"

She saw a flash of something in his expression that told her that deep down, her words were getting through. But he remained in the same position, staring at the floor, and she immediately cut him off as soon as he opened his mouth to reply.

"No, Thomas! I don't want to hear it!" Without thinking, she suddenly found herself standing over him, dragging him into a standing position by the collar of his shirt. "I promise you, if you don't man the fuck up, walk back into that room and be there for your wife and baby, not only will I lose all respect for you, but you will regret it for the rest of your life!"

Despite the anger she was forcing into her voice, deep down, Erika couldn't help but pity him. She knew that he was prone to the occasional crisis of confidence, and the details of what he must be feeling right now were feelings that, having long since resigned herself to never starting a family of her own, she could never hope to truly understand. She also knew that she didn't really mean the harshness of her words, but she also knew that it was really the only way to get through to him.

To her relief, this time, he seemed to fully absorb her words, and his regular, quiet confidence finally crossed his features once again. To her surprise, however, he said nothing, only smiling slightly and giving her a nod before he turned to enter the room once again.

Erika looked behind him as he opened the door, and she caught sight of Keeley, laid back in her bed, looking surprisingly together for a woman in labour. Erika couldn't help but feel impressed as she recalled the backstory Thomas had told her about his life and imagined the effect that she must have had on him over the years; turning the quiet, socially awkward teenager into a distinguished military officer that anyone would be proud to know. Keeley looked up as Thomas entered the room, and she made her best attempt at a smile as Erika caught her eye in the background, mouthing thank you.

Erika simply smiled, winked, and gave her a thumbs up in response.

April 12th, 2157 CE

Observation Room, Floor 337, Arcturus Station

He had no idea how much time had passed by this point. Half an hour, an hour, maybe even two. Any sense of the passage of time had deserted him as he went over and over Erika's argument in his head, the internal battle raging in his head between what he wanted to believe and what he actually believed. Erika herself was simply stood motionless, silent, her expression unreadable as she leaned on the barrier in front of the window and staring out into space as she waited patiently for his response.

His logic told him that, as far as leaving him alone went, she was entirely faultless. She was absolutely correct in saying that the N7 project was classified at the highest level – after all, although Drescher had obviously known something about her disappearance, he had still seemed as surprised as Thomas himself did when she arrived at the meeting. For a black ops project that highly classified, she would've had to disappear entirely from all human records; if she had any family left, they would've been told that she had been killed in action. No, he was satisfied that at least from that angle, there was nothing to be angry about.

What had upset him was that he felt she'd deliberately gone against everything that she had said to him herself. About moving on and learning to stand alone when she had proven herself unable to do so. And that was before he even thought of her bugging the ship to track him. That in itself felt like an invasion of privacy when it wouldn't have been necessary if she hadn't disappeared.

"No," he suddenly said without even realising, and he immediately found himself wishing he could take it back as she slowly turned, her previously neutral expression suddenly wrinkling in confusion a mixture of confusion and surprise.

"What do you mean 'no'?" she replied quietly, seemingly unsure how to approach.

"I can't do it. I could've lived with it if you hadn't bugged the ship, if you'd learned to stand alone like you said we needed to." He felt strangely disconnected to the words he was saying, as though he were a spectator on someone else's conversation. "But you betrayed me when you bugged my ship. I just can't look past that."

Erika pushed herself off the barrier and turned to him, clenching a fist as she fought to keep up her impenetrable façade.

"So… what? That's it? After all we've been through, every time we've been there for each other, and you're just gonna walk away over this?" Her voice was cracking once again, giving her away as being on the brink of tears.

"I have to. I can't trust you anymore. Not after this."

He knew he was talking in the heat of the moment, that he was going to regret it eventually. But for some reason, right now, he just couldn't think of any other option as he watched her take a deep breath and look up to the ceiling as the last remnants of her defence crumbled before his eyes before she fixed him with a look that frightened him. It wasn't bitterness, anger, or sorrow. It was nothing.

"Well then. I guess that's that…" she said, her voice suddenly devoid of all emotion. Her body went rigid as she turned towards the door, and she walked with slow, careful steps, only stopping to look back as she reached the door, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

"Take care of yourself, Tom."

And with that, she was gone.