Author's note
BioWare made the Mass Effect series.
I think we should just accept the fact that the rest of this fic is going to consist of long chapters (eye roll). At least this one doesn't contain the longest joke in the galaxy. A canon character makes a reappearance, another is introduced, and we are given a different look at Alliance politics (not at all based on South African politics, I swear).
…..
Chapter ten: September to October: I take a stand
We caught a shuttle at four o'clock sol time back to the Everest. Despite the ungodly hour, the CIC was bustling with activity. One of the sailors caught sight of us. "Officers on deck," she bellowed.
"What the hell is going on in here?" Commander Jupiter mumbled, as everyone sprang to their feet.
"Commander, thank Kalahira you're back," Kasuumi, who was standing closest to us, said.
"Operations Chief Dranne," Commander Jupiter said. "What the hell is going on?"
In answer, Kasuumi looked towards Commander Jupiter's station. It was occupied by a tall, dark haired woman with an abnormally long nose. The woman saw us staring at her, and got languidly to her feet and came towards us.
"Who's she?" Commander Jupiter asked Kasuumi.
"Commander Agira," Kasuumi, who on closer inspection looked exhausted and miserable, said.
Commander Agira reached us. "Commander Jupiter, Lieutenant Shepard," she said, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Welcome back." She extended her hand to Commander Jupiter, who ignored her.
"I see the Alliance didn't waste any time replacing me," she said instead. "How long have you been here?"
"Almost a month now," Commander Agira said.
Commander Jupiter scowled. "We were released over a month ago," she snapped. "Where's Lieutenant Jupiter?"
"He's currently on Grageran Station," Commander Agira said, smiling pleasurably. "I believe he's being charged with attempted treason, blackmail and attacking a superior officer."
Commander Jupiter's mouth dropped open. "Never mind that right now," I said quickly. "Chief, what's going on? Why is everyone awake?"
Kasuumi looked uncertainly at Commander Agira. "Good to see you in one piece, Lieutenant Shepard," Commander Agira said calmly. "Answer, the lieutenant, Dranne."
"Ma'am," Kasuumi said. "We've all been put on five day stand-to. This is our fifth day."
"The entire crew?" Commander Jupiter asked in shock.
"Yes ma'am," Kasuumi said.
Commander Jupiter turned to Commander Agira, her face livid. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she snapped. "Where the fuck did you get that N7 designation, the extranet?"
"Well, you were clearly sleeping when they were teaching you basic protocol," Commander Agira said icily. "I've never seen a more undisciplined group of soldiers."
Commander Jupiter ignored her, and climbed onto Kasuumi's chair. "Everyone, you are dismissed," she called. "Get some rest. I expect you all back at your stations no later than 1200 hours. Someone please notify the engineers."
I had never seen the CIC empty so quickly. "How dare you undermine me?" Commander Agira hissed.
"How dare you undermine my men?" Commander Jupiter snapped. "What if they needed to be sent on a mission? They'd be working at lowered capacity because they hadn't slept in five days."
"I'm in command here," Commander Agira said.
"No one's relieved me of my command yet, and until that happens, I'm the commander of the Everest," Commander Jupiter said. "Lieutenant Shepard, to your station. I need to find out exactly how much our trip to Montenegro cost us. After that I need you to do a full inventory of the ship's stocks. I expect both reports on my desk by no later than 0900 hours. Dismissed."
"Aye aye ma'am," I said.
"As for you," Commander Jupiter said, turning to Commander Agira. "Get the hell out of my CIC."
"This isn't over, Jupiter," Commander Agira said coldly.
"Oh yes it is," Commander Jupiter said.
…..
Later that afternoon, I was sent into the conference room by com officer Bharesh. Commander Jupiter was waiting inside. "Admiral Mikhailovich wants to debrief us," she said angrily.
"Um, right," I said cautiously. "You do know we're not each other's favourite people in the galaxy."
"Don't care, Shepard," she snapped. "Set up the link, Bharesh."
"Yes ma'am," com officer Bharesh said.
Admiral Mikhailovich appeared on the QEC screen. "Commander Jupiter, Lieutenant Shepard," he said.
"What the hell is going on?" Commander Jupiter snapped.
"I beg your pardon?" Admiral Mikhailovich asked, affronted.
"I'm barely gone a month and you're replacing me with some psychotic witch?" Commander Jupiter asked. "Do you want to tell me what this is about?"
Admiral Mikhailovich glared at me. "Don't look at me, sir," I said hastily. "I'm just here to be debriefed."
"Alright, Commander Jupiter," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "You know your brother has neither the rank nor the ability to command a group such as Company 6. Commander Agira is the only N7 I could find on short notice."
"Right, well, I'm telling you now sir, with Shepard as my witness, I'm not stepping down," she said. "These are my men. They listen to me. You'll have to arrest me."
"Noted," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "Speaking of, you've heard your brother's in a bit of a pickle."
"Yes sir," Commander Jupiter said.
"Good," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "Is there anything you want to say, Lieutenant Shepard?"
"Yes sir," I said. "I'd like you to seriously consider surrendering to the batarians."
"Very funny, Shepard," Admiral Mikhailovich said. The screen went black. So much for our debriefing.
"I wasn't joking," I mumbled.
"What am I going to do, Shepard?" Commander Jupiter asked.
"Well, you could get Antonio or Dranne to duff her up and then space her," I suggested.
"That's not funny," Commander Jupiter said.
"Why does everyone think I'm joking?" I asked. "I'm not joking."
"Right," she said, giving me a strange look.
"Well, on the bright side, you still haven't been relieved of your command," I said. "And if push comes to shove, you can drive a wooden stake through her heart whilst she's asleep in her coffin." I waited. "Ok, that time I was joking," I sighed.
"Where is she sleeping though?" she murmured. Commander Agira had spent the morning marching up and down the crew deck before dismissing herself and going to bed.
"Oh, if she's in my cabin, she will pay," Commander Jupiter snapped. She ran out of the conference room, with me in close pursuit.
"What exactly are you planning on doing?" I asked as we climbed the ladder to the upper deck.
"To show her the way to the airlock," Commander Jupiter snapped.
She opened the door to her cabin, to reveal Commander Agira sleeping peacefully in bed.
"Right, that's it," Commander Jupiter snapped. She pulled the covers from Commander Agira.
"I'm trying to sleep, Commander Jupiter," Commander Agira said, sitting up. "I have barely slept in five days."
"Whose fault is that?" Commander Jupiter snapped. "Get out."
"This is the commander's quarters," Commander Agira said quietly.
"And I'm still the commander of this ship," Commander Jupiter said angrily.
"Well, so am I," Commander Agira said. "No one's relieved me of my command yet."
"You're still in my bed," Commander Jupiter shouted.
"You can always sleep in that bed," Commander Agira said, pointing at the XO's bed.
"That's Skye's bed," Commander Jupiter said obtusely.
"Yes, and he's in prison," Commander Agira said. "In fact, given the nature of the charges placed against him, he'll be lucky if he ever gets to leave the prison."
"For the love of God, how old are you two?" I asked tiredly. "It's a fucking bed. Grow up."
Both commanders turned to stare at me. "You are right of course, Lieutenant Shepard," Commander Agira said at once. "I don't mind sleeping in the XO's bed."
"Uh right," I said, surprised and suspicious of the sudden change of heart. "I'm leaving now."
I needed someone to tell me exactly what was going on.
…..
"So, you have returned, have you?" Carlotta asked, pulling herself out from the gun battery.
"Your excitement is underwhelming," I said sarcastically.
"Yeah, yeah, shut the fuck up," Carlotta said. "Is Commander Jupiter with you?"
"Well, not at the moment," I said. "I think she's busy declaring war on anyone with the last name 'Agira'. What the hell's been going on around here?"
"Ah, so you've met the biggest bitch to walk this ship since, well, you," Carlotta said. "Is she leaving now that you two are back?"
"No one's relieved her of command, so she's refusing to step aside," I said.
"Fuck," Carlotta said. "Ok, well, she shows up a month after you lot leave, and at first it's all fine and dandy. She seems nice enough, I mean as COs go. Then one day, Sobana fucks up in a training exercise, and Agira flips out. Loses her mind and beats the crap out of Sobana, then threatens to shoot us all if we tell anyone. So that's pretty much how it's been since then."
"She can't do that," I said in outrage.
"Smurfette, wake the fuck up and smell the eezo," Carlotta snapped. "We're in space in the middle of a war. Hackett hasn't been around in ages. She can pretty much do whatever she wants." She sighed and shook her head. "I lived for sixteen years in an abusive household. I don't want my daughter to grow up in the same hell."
"And Lieutenant Jupiter?" I asked. "What happened to him?"
Carlotta snorted. "Stupid idiot," she said. "After he got your call, he contacted the Joint Military Council and said that if they didn't launch a rescue operation, he'd go to the batarians and give them all the intel he had on the Alliance."
"Wow," I said.
"Yeah," Carlotta said. "In case you hadn't noticed, the Jupiters are big on family."
…..
That evening they played Commander McDougal's funeral on television. Cat must have gotten leave to attend it, because the camera focused often on her face. She was dry-eyed, her face expressionless. I wondered what she was thinking, whether she blamed me for her father's death. On her right sat a red-haired young man, who I assumed was her brother. On her left was her mother, who was also dry-eyed, but who looked furious. I had no idea whether Cat's parents were married, but I knew that Cat had spent six months of the year with her father and six months of the year with her mother. Cat's brother was dressed in civilian clothes, so I guessed he wasn't in the military.
"There goes one of the biggest cunts to traverse this galaxy," Zaeed murmured as Commander McDougal's casket was carried to the hearse.
"That's quite disrespectful," Ismaeel said quietly.
"It's the truth," Zaeed snapped. "He put me on a one hundred hour stand-to for messing up on a communications test."
"Come on, Masaad, I bet that isn't all you did," Nina said.
"Well, I did swear his mother," Zaeed admitted. "Doesn't change the facts that he was a complete fucking bastard."
"You never do anything wrong, do you Masaad?" Terrence said. "It's called a narcissistic personality type."
"Who asked for your input, you fucking ginger twerp?" Zaeed asked coldly.
"Commander McDougal hated me," Kasuumi said.
"Why's that?" Joey asked. "I mean, apart from the fact that you flit around invisible and eavesdrop on private…moments."
"Jacking off in life support isn't all that private, Carboletti," Zaeed said.
"I can't believe you told him," Joey mumbled, going scarlet.
"I didn't," Kasuumi said, throwing Zaeed a curious look.
"Wow, I was just taking a guess there," Zaeed said. "I wasn't actually being serious."
"I guess McDougal hated me because I'm part alien," Kasuumi said.
"I knew it," Zaeed said angrily. "Fucking racist bastard."
"You do realise you're disrespecting a superior officer?" Commander Agira asked coldly.
"Commander, he's dead," I said, stepping in. "I doubt Commander McDougal cares anymore. If you want, the men can apologise when they next see him."
I waited in anticipation for the inevitable stand-to. I didn't get it. Instead, what I got was a horrible smile and an "of course you are right, Lieutenant."
Wait what? Everyone except Commander Jupiter, who was determinedly looking at her left foot, turned to stare at Commander Agira. "What are you all looking at?" she asked coldly.
…..
It continued like that for the rest of the week. Commander Agira and Commander Jupiter continued to fight for control of the ship, with me, for some reason, caught in the middle. Commander Jupiter refused any contact with Commander Agira, preferring to rather send me as a messenger if there was anything that she needed. Commander Agira in return treated everyone except me like crap. For some odd reason she treated me with a respect that bordered on ass-kissing, almost as though she was sucking up to a superior. And I knew it wasn't in my imagination, the others had noticed it too.
"Hey, Shep," Nina said. "Go ask your girlfriend if we can get more ammo clips. We're about to run out."
"She's not my girlfriend," I snapped.
"Yeah?" Nina asked. "Then why the hell is she treating you like the Messiah?"
"She doesn't," I insisted.
"She does," Zaeed said from where he was busy pretending to write an operations reports.
"Who asked you Masaad?" I asked. "What are you even doing?"
"Writing an operations report," Zaeed said.
"You haven't been in the field since Commander Jupiter and I got back," I said.
"So?" Zaeed asked. "I have a backlog."
I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, I intensely dislike Agira as much as you, Ruben," I said, turning back to Nina.
"I don't intensely dislike Agira, ma'am," Nina said. "I hate her."
"Hate is a strong term, Chief," I said mildly.
"My dad was a mullah," Zaeed said.
"Your dad was a miller?" I asked in surprise. "Didn't you come from Shanxi? That's starship parts."
"A mullah, you deaf bint," Zaeed snapped.
"Don't push it, private," I said.
"A mullah is a wise counsellor, or a teacher in Islam," Zaeed said.
"I thought you weren't religious," Nina said.
"I'm not," Zaeed said. "My parents were. Anyway, my dad was a wise counsellor, taught the religious kids in our town Arabic and the Koran."
"Is this going somewhere Masaad, because some of us actually do have work to do," I said.
"It would if you stopped interrupting me," Zaeed said. "Anyway, as the saying goes, behind every successful man is a successful woman."
"Sure, that old, sexist saying," Nina said.
"Wait, how can a teacher be successful?" I asked. "They don't earn much."
"Money isn't a measure of success unless you happen to be incredibly shallow, Shepard," Zaeed said.
"Yes, well you're a successful loafer on a private's pay," I said.
"My father had a one hundred per cent pass rate, and Islam Weekly voted him the best Muslim in the Asalamabad region," Zaeed said.
"Ok, he was pretty successful," Nina said. "I take it your mother was even more successful."
"Indeed," Zaeed said. "She was often known for coming up with wise and witty sayings. You know the saying: where there's eezo, there's an economy?"
"Who doesn't?" I asked.
"She invented that saying," Zaeed said. "She also invented the saying a stitch in time saves nine. She was busy sewing a patch on Nine, an old family friend's, underwear. You see, Nine named his underwear Time, owing to the fact that they were a particularly old pair of Y-fronts."
"That's balls," I said.
"Ok, I made that one up," Zaeed said. "Anyway, the saying she's most famous for was 'two N7s on one ship is asking for trouble'."
"Oh my God," I said. "I can't believe I just wasted five minutes of my life listening to this crap. You must be the stupidest person in this galaxy. I've met vorcha with more intelligence than you Masaad. You make trained pyjacks seem smart in comparison. You are officially banned from talking around me."
"Is there a problem?" Commander Agira's voice asked softly from behind me and I jumped.
"No ma'am," I said. "Uh, Ruben just asked me to ask you for permission to order more ammo clips. It seems we've almost run out."
"Of course," Commander Agira said. "We can't let the ship run out of ammo clips." She studied us for a few moments. "Are these soldiers keeping you out of work, Lieutenant?" she asked at last.
"No ma'am," I said again. "If anything, I'm, uh, keeping them out of work. Telling them stories about my father. He was a miller."
"Funny, I thought he was in the army," she said.
"Oh God, this tour is going to kill me," I mumbled.
"What's that, Lieutenant?" she asked.
"Nothing ma'am," I said. "Just displaying psychosis."
She laughed. She didn't know I wasn't joking. "Walk with me," she said.
She's going to space me, I thought. My stupid big mouth had finally killed me.
"Back to work," I told Zaeed and Nina.
"Aye, ma'am," Nina said, speeding off.
"Wait, Gunnery Chief," Commander Agira said. I could literally feel Nina's eyes roll. "I think it would be better if Private Masaad and Gunnery Chief Ruben waited here so that you can finish your conversation when you get back, don't you?"
"Not really," I said. "Masaad has a backlog after all, it's important that he gets back to work."
"That's what I thought," Commander Agira said. "Wait here, you two."
"Aye aye, Commander," Zaeed said, practically spitting venom.
I looked over my shoulder as I walked away and mouthed, "Belayed. Get back to work."
…..
Commander Agira took me into the conference room, shutting the door neatly behind her. "So, Lieutenant, how are you doing?" she asked me.
"Um," I said, taken surprise by the question.
"I'm glad to hear that," she said.
Since when did um mean anything positive? "You do realise I didn't actually answer the question?" I asked.
"You've been through quite a lot in your young life span, haven't you?" she asked, clearly not hearing me. "I mean, you're only nineteen-"
"I'm twenty three," I interrupted.
"Yet you've seen more things than most of our seasoned veterans," she continued.
"Sure, I guess," I said, really not sure of where this conversation was going.
"And I can see it so clearly," she said. "You and I, we're alike."
"We are?" I asked.
"You see it too?" she asked excitedly.
"I said, we are?" I said, emphasising the question on the 'are'.
"I know, I heard you the first time, Lieutenant Shepard," Commander Agira said. "You are as ambitious as I am. You wish to make it all the way to the top. Think about it: Major, Commander, General. Who knows, maybe even Admiral. You have that potential. Admiral Jane Shepard. Doesn't that sound good?"
"Um," I said, deciding that that was by far the safest answer.
"But you won't get there if you keep siding with Luna Jupiter," Commander Agira continued. "She's stuck in the old ways. I know it. You know it. Admiral Mikhailovich knows it. Heck, a senile vorcha grubbing in the sewers for a scrap to eat knows it. She's old and she's past it."
"She's not that old," I said.
"Admiral Mikhailovich told me this when he posted me here to this ship to help you," Commander Agira went on. I debated asking to be dismissed while she continued this conversation with herself, but decided against it. She was quite a bit taller than me, and not in a nice way. "Admiral Mikhailovich knows how far you can go, and he knows I'm the only CO in the fleet that can help you get there. That's why he sent me here."
Privately I thought the only reason Admiral Mikhailovich would've had sent her was to do me in, but again I kept this to myself.
"Well," I said for variety's sake.
"And you know this too," she said, clearly not giving a damn about me or my opinion. "That's why you've come to me for help. You know I'm the only one who can get rid of Luna Jupiter and her old ideas."
"If this is your idea of reverse psychology, it's a good thing you became a soldier," I said, unable to stop myself.
Commander Agira opened her mouth, and the door to the conference room slammed open. "There you are, Shepard," Commander Jupiter said. She glared at Commander Agira. "What the hell are you doing in here?" she snapped.
"Just having a chat with young Lieutenant Shepard," Commander Agira said. "Such an amazing woman. That was such an enjoyable conversation, wasn't it Lieutenant?"
"Um," I said, reverting to my old favourite.
"Oh Jane, the same to you," Commander Agira said. "See you around, Jupiter." She left.
"She does know you didn't actually give her an answer, right?" Commander Jupiter asked, looking concerned.
"Our entire conversation consisted of her saying stuff, and me saying 'um', which she interpreted as something random, so no, I doubt it," I said.
"Really?" Commander Jupiter asked, trying and failing to sound disinterested. "Um, what did you talk about?"
"What a shit commander you are, how you're holding me back, and how I'm more likely to make it as an admiral if I was on her side, whatever that's supposed to mean," I said.
She snorted. "You?" she asked incredulously. "An admiral?"
"And why not?" I snapped, nettled.
"Sorry," she said. "Er, what did you say?"
"Um," I said.
"Don't be coy," she said angrily. "If you're changing sides, just say it."
"No, that's actually what I said," I said. "Um. And what's this 'changing sides' business? You're the better commander, my childhood hero, and a pretty nice person, if you discount the fact that you have a temper like a krogan in a blood rage."
She grinned. "Thanks Shepard," she said, surprising me with a hug.
"Ok," I said uncomfortably, patting her arm. "Let's take a breath."
"Sorry," she said, stepping back.
"You wanted to see me?" I asked.
Her face sobered. "We have a situation," she said.
"I always get this pang of anxiety whenever you say that," I said.
"Well, this situation affects everyone," Commander Jupiter said. "You know that there has been a huge outcry since our 'execution' was aired on television. People, including Terra Firma party and a number of other parliamentarians, have called for the resignation of Prime Minister du Plessis."
"I didn't know that, actually," I said. I'd been spending most propaganda hours either asleep or very close to it.
"Well, it's been happening," Commander Jupiter said. "Anyway, today, at midday sol, Prime Minister du Plessis announced his resignation."
I sat down. Jan du Plessis had been the prime minister of the Alliance for eighteen years. I'd been five when he'd first secured the position. I hadn't known any other prime minister.
"Holy crap," I said quietly. "What's going to happen?"
"Well, the deputy Prime Minister, Elsebeth Merein will be finishing the term, but I'm not sure who'll take over the leadership of the ADP," Commander Jupiter said.
"Why are you telling me this though?" I asked. "Why the secrecy?"
"Well, the new prime minister is going to need a defence committee to advise her on the best course of action with this war," Commander Jupiter began.
"And you think you'll be asked to be on this committee," I finished.
"Yes," she admitted. "Promise me, lieutenant, that if I leave this ship, you'll look after the men, make sure Agira doesn't hurt them. They'll follow your lead, I know it."
"What makes you think they'll listen to me?" I asked.
"They respect you," she answered. "More importantly, every single person on this ship loves you and would die for you without a second thought."
"They seriously need a hobby then," I said. She raised her eyebrows. "Ok, I promise, they'll come to no harm whilst you are away."
"Good," Commander Jupiter said. "Thank you, Shepard."
…..
Early the next morning, as I was doing the month's proposed budget, an announcement came over the intercom. "At this moment, at 0900 hours sol, the new prime minister, Elsebeth Merein has been sworn in," Commander Jupiter announced. The Alliance national anthem was playing in the background. "What follows is her inauguration speech."
There was a crackle and then Elsebeth Merein's voice came over the intercom. "It was with a great deal of sadness that I see the reign of Prime Minister Jan du Plessis come to an end," she said. She sounded very convincing, even though she had been Jan du Plessis's deputy ever since he became prime minister. "Under his great leadership, humanity has prospered. The Alliance has the fifth-strongest economy in the galaxy, an embassy on the Citadel, the best combat armour in the galaxy," she was really scraping the barrel here, "the galaxy's strongest cricket team," mainly because we invented the sport, "and some of the richest, most influential individuals in the galaxy." She paused, no doubt to give all the patriots in the galaxy the chance to cheer fanatically. Looking around at my fellows, I saw more than a few shining eyes and wide smiles.
"Unfortunately, not all is well in the Alliance," Elsebeth Merein continued. "The first issue being the Skyllian war. To you, my fellow humans, I make this promise: by the end of this year, we will have the batarians grovelling at our feet. We will make them regret that they ever threatened our safety."
The CIC burst into cheers. Great, another leader who didn't really care whether we lived or died.
"The second issue is poverty," she continued.
"Lieutenant Shepard to the conference room," someone interrupted her. "Lieutenant Shepard to the conference room. Thank you."
"That's weird," I said. "I wonder if whoever that was is a relative."
"That was actually for you," Joey said.
"Right," I said.
There was nobody in the conference room. "Hello?" I said uncertainly.
"On the QEC," com officer Bharesh said.
"Thanks," I said. I switched the QEC on to reveal Analyst Valencio. "Hey, it's you," I said. "Long time no see."
"Whatever," he said. "Firstly, congratulations, you've been promoted to staff lieutenant."
This took me by surprise, but I was quick on the return. "Finally," I cried. "The power I've been waiting for all my life."
"Shut up, please," he groaned. "Secondly, and I can't believe I've actually been ordered to do this, but you've been requested to come to Seattle and present yourself to Parliament within the next solar week."
"Ok," I said. "Why?"
"The Prime Minister has personally requested you to be put onto her new defence committee," he said, pulling a face.
"Wow, she's crazier than I thought," I said.
"That's what I said too," Analyst Valencio said.
"No need to be so rude," I said. "I suppose I'll see you in the next week."
"More's the pity," he mumbled.
…..
The reactions to my announcement that I was leaving were varied. "But-but, I thought I'd be the one going to Earth," Commander Jupiter said in dismay. I didn't find this very supportive.
"Yes, she's leaving again," Carlotta said excitedly. That wasn't very supportive either, but at least I expected it. Most of the others of Company 6 seemed disappointed and vaguely worried. This was both unexpected and unsupportive.
Later that afternoon whilst on a smoke and coffee break in the smoker's lounge, I contemplated the fact that I would be serving as one of the advisors to the new prime minister. My name would have been presented to her by the Joint Military Council, but for once I couldn't see what their angle was.
"Congratulations, Lieutenant," someone said from behind me, breaking my reverie. It was Commander Agira.
"Thank you, ma'am," I said.
"I knew you'd go far," she said. "I'm proud to have helped you reach this point."
"Well, I've only known you for a week, but whatever floats your boat," I said.
"That's exactly my point," she exclaimed.
Wow.
We sat in awkward silence for a while, until she said, "I heard somewhere that you're the best shot in the Alliance."
"Ah, must have been pathological liar Liam," I said. "He's always telling stories."
"I'd love to see you put on a little show before you left," she said. "It'd be good for the men to see some true skill."
Why not? It had been a while since I had the chance to show off. That evening, after parade, everyone of Company 6 (apart from Commander Jupiter, who claimed to have a headache) gathered in the hold to watch me show off. First I shot at a few targets, and when that got old, Commander Agira threw tennis balls for me to shoot at. When I hit twenty in a row, everyone burst into applause.
Commander Agira then positioned herself against a wall, and balanced a tennis ball on her head. "Go on, Shepard," she said.
I was reminded of the DP I had gotten in my first year of training, after Admiral Greyling had tried to get me to shoot a tennis ball off of one of my fellow grunt's head. Then I had been terrified of hitting him. Now though, I was confident in my abilities and I easily shot the tennis ball off of Commander Agira's head.
"Brilliant," she said. "Absolutely brilliant. You see, marines. This is the kind of talent we need." Her eyes lit up. "Let's shake it up a bit," she said.
She went over to where Rochelle was standing next to Carlotta and took Rochelle's hand. Carlotta grabbed Rochelle's other hand. "What the fuck do you think you're doing with my daughter?" she hissed.
"Let go, Antonio," Commander Agira said.
"Like fuck," Carlotta snapped. "You let go."
"I won't ask again," Commander Agira said. When Carlotta still didn't release Rochelle's hand, Commander Agira punched Carlotta hard in the face. Carlotta fell backwards and hit her head hard against the corner of a packing crate.
"Mama," Rochelle cried.
"Hush, child, your mother is fine," Commander Agira said. There was absolute silence in the hold as she put Rochelle against the bulkhead and balanced a tennis ball on her head. "Go ahead, Lieutenant," she said.
"Ma'am," I said flatly. I looked at Rochelle's tiny face, and I felt ill.
I walked to where Carlotta was slowly sitting up. I held my left hand out to her, helped her up, and gave the pistol to her.
"Do you want to do the honours, Lieutenant Antonio?" I asked tonelessly.
She took the pistol from me and nodded. Commander Agira realised what was going to happen as Carlotta raised it, and twisted her body. The bullet that would have hit her in the chest buried itself instead in her upper arm.
Carlotta dropped the gun and ran over to Rochelle, pulling her into her arms and burying her face into Rochelle's hair. "Khan, Brown, get her to the med bay," I said, my heart pounding. "Van Richte, get Commander Jupiter. Just tell her Commander Agira's been hit, don't say anything else."
Ismaeel and Terrence helped Commander Agira up. "You'll pay," she said coldly to me.
"Probably," I sighed.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," Carlotta was whispering.
"You're not allowed to say that word, Mama," Rochelle's muffled voice said.
"Antonio, you need to pull yourself together," I said. A vague plan was forming in my mind.
"Fuck, motherfucker, fuck," Carlotta continued.
"Lieutenant Antonio," I snapped. "Pull yourself together. You'll be ok."
"I'm about to be arrested and sentenced to death," Carlotta snapped, glaring up at me.
"You aren't," I said. "You'll be fine, but only if you calm the fuck down." Carlotta stood up, but continued to grip Rochelle's hand tightly.
"What are we going to do, Jane?" Joey asked.
"Follow my lead," I said. "Try not to act like this is news to y'all."
"What the fuck is going on in here?" Commander Jupiter bellowed, walking into the hold.
I took a deep breath. "I shot Commander Agira," I said.
"What?" Commander Jupiter asked in surprise.
"What?" Carlotta echoed. I glared at her.
"It was an accident," I said. "I was doing a training exercise with my pistol. She was throwing tennis balls, and, uh, one of my shots were off target and hit her in the arm."
"And what happened to Antonio's face?" Commander Jupiter asked, nodding at Carlotta's broken nose.
"I-uh, she slipped and hit her face against the bulkhead," I said, hating how feeble the story sounded.
"Uh huh," she said. "Is this true, Corporal Sobana?"
"Yes ma'am," Nkosi said unconvincingly.
"I don't believe it," Commander Jupiter said. "I want to believe it. I want to believe you accidently shot her, Lieutenant Shepard, but I know you don't miss. You don't miss, and, if you do, you don't miss that badly."
"I did miss that badly, Commander," I said.
"We'll see," Commander Jupiter said. "I'll be reviewing the video feed of this area of the ship. We'll soon know the truth."
Fucking big brother. "Yes ma'am," I said, my heart sinking.
She left. "I'm sorry," I muttered to Carlotta.
Carlotta nodded. "That must have been the lamest story anyone's ever come up with," she said. "I suppose I should go pack."
…..
I wasn't sure exactly what the punishment would be for lying to a superior officer and aiding and abetting the shooting of another superior officer, but I was certain my time on the Everest was fast drawing to a close. Instead of going to the mess for dinner, I went onto the observation deck, to have one last look at the stars.
Carlotta joined me. "Any new ideas?" she asked.
"I would suggest running away, but we're in space," I said. "Where's Rochelle?"
"Maya's looking after her," she said.
"Is she ok?" I asked.
"Yeah," Carlotta said. "She doesn't really understand what happened. She thinks it was a game."
"How's the face?" I asked.
She scowled and winced. "Painful," she said. "I've had worse though." We sat in silence. "Why?" she asked.
"Why what?" I asked.
"Why did you lie for me?" she asked angrily. "You didn't have to, especially since your career is looking up again. You could have told the truth, gotten off free and easy, and with that pendeja wrapped around your finger."
I stared out at the stars. "I still owe you for helping me two years ago," I said. "I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't been there for me."
"Well, I guess we're even now," she said.
"Officer on deck," one of the sailors on duty on the observation deck called, and Commander Jupiter walked over to us.
"Shepard, Antonio," she said. "I'm glad I found you two. I wanted to tell you that a virus caused the ship's internal cameras to malfunction at around the time this…incident happened, so we are forced to accept your version of events."
"I-a virus?" I asked.
"Yes, Shepard, a virus," she snapped. "Now, I don't want this sort of thing to happen ever again, is that understood? This is going to cause enough trouble as it is."
"Yes ma'am," Carlotta said.
"Thank you," I said.
…..
I arrived in Seattle seven days later, and was met at Seattle Spaceport by Analyst Valencio. "Lieutenant Shepard," he said. "I wish I could say it was a pleasure."
"The feeling is mutual, believe me," I said. "Learn any new jokes since we last saw each other?"
"Yes, I heard one recently," he said. "Which totally overrated, boring and annoying officer has just been promoted?"
"I don't know, which?" I asked. He raised his eyebrows. "Ouch," I said. "You know, I heard a few good ones on Taetrus."
"Can you walk and talk?" he asked. "The car's this way."
"Asking me to multitask, hey?" I asked. "Ok then." We started walking. "How many humans does it take to activate a dormant mass relay?"
"If I ignore you will you shut up?" he asked.
"Wrong," I said. "Six hundred and two. Six hundred to vote on it, one to ask a salarian for technical help, and one to request a seat on the Council afterwards."
"Word of advice," Analyst Valencio said, unlocking the car. "Don't tell the prime minister that joke."
"Noted," I said. "So, where's my new digs?"
"In Parliament," he said. "Now, I'm to tell you the correct etiquette for meeting the prime minister."
"Oh God, this ought to be boring," I said. I put my feet up on the dashboard. "Ok, go for it. Do your worst."
"Always refer to the prime minister as Madam Prime Minister," Analyst Valencio said. "Be polite. Avoid swearing, bad jokes and disrespect of any kind. Never remained seated in her presence unless she sits down first or says you may sit down. When you first meet her, you shake her hand, give a slight bow of the head, and then step back. Any questions?"
"So, I refer to the prime minister as 'yo bitch', am as rude as possible, swear like a trooper (which, by the way, I am), tell all my best jokes, sit down for a rest when she arrives and give her a high five when I first meet her?" I asked.
"The Joint Military Council put your name forward to be on this committee," Analyst Valencio said. "Don't make them regret it."
"I will," I said.
"And the admirals would like to see you as soon as you arrive," he continued, not hearing or not caring about my comment.
"Can't wait," I said. "In fact, to celebrate, I'll put it into my diary. Freddie."
"Greetings, minions," it said, popping out of my new omnitool. "How can I enslave you?"
"It's my VI," I explained to Analyst Valencio, who was eyeing Freddie with a certain degree of trepidation. "Freddie, mark in my diary that today the Joint Military Council wished to meet with me."
"Why?" Freddie asked.
"It's for emphasis," I said. "Now, vamoose." Freddie vamoosed. "There," I said, grinning at Analyst Valencio. "All done."
…..
The defence committee was to be staying in The People's House (the incredibly ironical name for the president's house in Seattle). We were not, under any circumstances allowed to leave the premises of The People's House unless we were on our way to a meeting at Parliament, and, if for whatever reason, we needed to leave the premises, we had to be accompanied by a member of the Secret Services. Analyst Valencio told me this, as he parked the car in the underground skycar lot of The People's House.
"You will now be taken to your room, where you will change into your formal wear," Analyst Valencio said, marching across the skylot and through a door into an elevator. "After that, at approximately 1000 hours you and the others of the defence committee will meet with the Joint Military Council for a briefing, after which you will take a skycar to Parliament to have your first meeting with the Prime Minister."
"A hot bath would be nice first," I said.
"The Alliance is in crisis, and all you can think about is having a bath?" he asked incredulously.
"I have my priorities straight, bub," I said.
The elevator doors opened to show a beautiful, (most likely) fake wooden panelled corridor. "Looks a bit like my grandmother's place, if she had money," I said.
My room was the third on the left. Analyst Valencio showed me in, then left. My room was huge, with large windows that could easily have fitted three of me standing on their shoulders. I had a king sized bed with a pretty patchwork quilt depicting a rather alarming scene of carnage on the battlefields of the First Contact War. Peaking behind the door of what I thought was the closet showed an ensuite bathroom with a hot tub.
"I've died and gone to rich person heaven," I said aloud. There was a knock on my bedroom door.
"Ken, you in there?" a familiar voice called. Of course, I should have expected this.
"It's open," I said.
Commander Anderson came in. "Good to see you again, boy," he said, nodding at me.
"Really?" I asked in surprise.
"God no," he said. He nodded at my shoulders. "I see you have a new bar there, proving yet again that the admirals are nothing more than a group of scared boys."
"Well, they made you commander, so I suppose this is just a tiny step in the wrong direction in comparison," I said.
"Ooh, Ken, finally discovered that those round things between your legs are a pair of testicles," Commander Anderson said. "So, I'm in the room next door, which means that you need to keep it down if you think you hear the monster under the bed."
"Noted," I said. I folded my dirty laundry and placed it neatly in the laundry chute. One of the domestic mechs would pick it up eventually.
"I love how spacers never waste time in settling in," Commander Anderson remarked, watching me unpack my duffle. "So, Ken, you haven't asked me what's new."
"Well, I assumed that the answer would be that you'd thought up a new insult for me, which I would then have to endure, so I decided against it, sir," I said.
"That is just not true," he said in scandalised tones. "Go on, ask what's new."
I sighed. "So, Commander David Anderson," I said. "What's new?"
He smiled modestly. "Well, you know that ship we've been building with the turians?" he asked. The construction had started when I was sixteen. There had recently been a news report to say that the construction of the ship had been mostly completed.
"Sure," I said. "They're fighting about whether the ship will join the Alliance fleet or the Hierarchy fleet. What about it?"
"The turians have kindly allowed us to get the ship," Commander Anderson said. "It'll be joining the fifth fleet in August next year. And…drumroll please."
I glared at him. "No," I said.
"Fine," he said. "I've been asked to command it."
I wasn't sure why exactly he was telling me this. "Congratulations," I said. "So, you'll be leaving the Tokyo."
"Hell yes I'm leaving the Tokyo," Commander Anderson said. "If we actually manage to get the Alliance to surrender, she'll go back to patrolling the Argus Rho cluster. Do you know what's there?"
"Sure, Zhu's Hope," I said.
"And what happens on Zhu's Hope?" Commander Anderson asked.
"Root crops and-," I began.
"Nothing," Commander Anderson interrupted me. "At least this new ship will be sent to somewhere exciting."
"Right," I said.
"And, do you know what this means, Ken?" Commander Anderson continued.
"You're the Alliance's new bone?" I asked.
"No," Commander Anderson said impatiently. "This'll officially be the best ship in the fleet, and whoever is in command of it will have to be the best office in the Alliance."
"Are you kidding me?" I asked.
"Now, don't be jealous Ken," Commander Anderson said. "I understand. I also get to pick my own crew. It'll be the cream of the crop."
"It's ten dickhead," Freddie said, popping out of my omnitool. "You need to meet with the Joint Military Council."
"Damn, I wasn't done with gloating," Commander Anderson said. "This way, boy. Don't forget to salute when you arrive, or else the admirals will be cross."
…..
The way the defence committee worked was thus: two officers in each division of the army (i.e., marines, naval, artillery, air force and biotics) was asked to join, usually in the event of a change of leadership during wartime. They would then sit in the committee along with the admirals, the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the treasurer, the head of the Department of Colonial Affairs, the head of the Department of Human Affairs and the head of the Department of Defence for a period of two weeks and provide the prime minister with as much advice as possible on the best course of action of the war.
The rest of the officers on the committee were already waiting in the boardroom when we arrived. I didn't recognise all of them, but I few of them I knew. Flight Lieutenant Jeff Morreau, who was shorter than I was and had to walk with the aid of crutches and leg braces owing to a brittle bone disorder, was considered the best pilot in the Alliance. To his right sat a very blonde, pale man dressed in an artillery uniform, who I recognised as Captain Welmud Schmidt, captain of the Two Fifty Two Heavy Artillery Unit. Next to me sat a swarthy man with a scar across his face. He was Captain Jean-Marc Valje, captain of the SSV Dunkirk. As I looked around the room, I was struck by the sickening realisation that I was not only the only woman, but also the youngest person there.
"Ken," Commander Anderson hissed, poking me in the ribs.
"Ow, Jesus, what?" I snapped.
"Joker is going to be my pilot," he whispered.
"Joker?" I asked.
Commander Anderson nodded at Lieutenant Morreau. I wondered why he was called Joker, as he looked like someone very unlikely to laugh or tell any jokes.
"And I'm going to ask Lieutenant Alenko to be part of the marine forces," he continued in an undertone.
"Kaidan?" I asked in surprise.
"He's my new tech expert," Commander Anderson said. "He's very good actually, but then he was the best in your year at Del Sol."
"I'm surprised you noticed," I mumbled, scowling.
"Maybe I'll ask Williams too," he continued, ignoring me. "I'll have to change her designation though. That might be difficult. Huh, maybe Antonio, although she'll need to have a serious attitude change." He saw my face. "You're not expecting me to ask you, are you Ken?"
I snorted. "No," I said too quickly.
"Good," he said.
At that moment the door swept open and the admirals swept in. We all jumped to attention. "As you were," Admiral Hackett said and we sat down again.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "Welcome. Perhaps before we begin, each of us should say who we are and which ship we serve on. Joker, if you'll start us off."
Weird. Admirals didn't usually use nicknames.
"I'm Flight Lieutenant Jeffrey Morreau," Lieutenant Morreau said. "I'm the commander of the flight deck on the SSV New York."
"I'm Flight Lieutenant Winston Magalesha, and I fly Fighter Jet two three seven in the second fleet," the dark-skinned man next to him said.
"My name is Major Bruce Carraway, and I'm the commander of the Thirty Third Biotics unit," the prematurely grey-haired man seated next to Lieutenant Magalesha said.
"My name is Staff Lieutenant Tsepho Moshoeshoe, and I serve on the Twenty Eighth Biotics unit," the man next to Major Carraway said.
"Commander David Anderson, and I'm the commander of the SSV Tokyo," Commander Anderson said. I was next.
"I'm sorry, I can only give name, rank and number," I said.
Admiral Mikhailovich scowled. "Shepard," he said coldly.
"Staff Lieutenant Jane Shepard, and I serve with Company 6 Marine Corps Scout Snipers on the SSV Everest," I said quickly.
"Captain Jean-Marc Valje," Captain Valje muttered. "I'm the captain of the SSV Dunkirk."
"I'm Captain Mario Estavez, and I'm the captain of the SSV Rasputin," the man next to Captain Valje said, grinning at us.
"My name is Captain Jasper Johnson, and I command the Fifty Second Medium Artillery Unit," a red-haired, freckled man said.
"I am Captain Welmud Schmidt and I am the captain of the Two Fifty Two Heavy Artillery Unit," Captain Schmidt said.
"Excellent," Admiral Kahoku said. "We're happy to have you all with us. Each and every one of you were asked here because you are the best officers in your corps."
"God, this is a bad day for the marines," Commander Anderson mumbled.
"You will be meeting with the prime minister later today for the first time," Admiral Foster took up the narrative. I wondered idly if they practiced talking like this before meeting with us. "I trust you've been adequately briefed on the best way to address her?"
There were murmurs of ascent. "Yo, bitch what's up?" I muttered. Commander Anderson snorted.
"Is there a problem, marines?" Admiral Mikhailovich asked sharply.
"No, sir," Commander Anderson said sweetly.
"Now, this war is costing the Alliance a fortune, which we sadly do not possess," Admiral Hackett said. "Worse than that, it is costing us too many lives. We've lost a third of the Alliance's military force to this war."
"Maybe this should have been considered before this war was started?" Lieutenant Moshoeshoe said coldly.
"True enough, and we told the former prime minister of this when he first considered declaring this war," Admiral Foster said. "He didn't…heed our advice."
"No kidding," Captain Johnson said.
"I was posted to Skyllia two years ago," Captain Schmidt said. "My team is not the same as the one I first started with. They're all dead."
"We've all lost team members, Schmidt," Admiral Barishka said.
"That being said, you also need to remember that humanity doesn't surrender to aliens," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
"Are you kidding me?" I asked incredulously. "You just said we need to end this war, now you say we don't surrender. How the hell else can we end this war if we don't surrender?"
Admiral Mikhailovich scowled at me. "Lieutenant Shepard," he said.
"I mean, what's more important, human lives or human pride?" I asked.
"I agree with the boy," Commander Anderson said. "There is no way we can win this war. We have too few men left, and the enemy is too deeply entrenched. Our only option is to surrender, and surrender now."
"And then what, give the batarians Skyllia?" Major Carraway asked.
"There are other worlds we can colonise," Captain Valje pointed out.
"Sure, and explain that how exactly to the people living on Skyllia?" Lieutenant Morreau asked. "Dear folks, I know you're all psychologically scarred by the war that you've recently experienced, but now we'll scar you some more by uprooting you and moving you to a new planet? Come to think of it, Elysium is the only city we still have. Everyone else is stuck in batarian territory. We won't be able to get them out."
"I was in Montenegro a couple of weeks back," Commander Anderson said. "The people seemed well enough. I don't think the batarians are hurting them any."
"I like the way you are all debating this," Admiral Barishka said. "But maybe this sort of talk should wait until you're with the prime minister and the other ministers?"
"Agreed," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "The car will pick you all up at half past one, lunch is served in the dining room at twelve. Dismissed. Shepard, if you would stay behind?"
I pulled a face. No doubt this would be his moment to threaten me with death.
Everyone else filed out. When the door slammed shut behind Lieutenant Morreau, he turned to me. "Don't bother sir," I said. "If I fuck this up, you'll throw me into the brig where you will fight very hard to have me put to death."
"You can only speak when I give you permission to speak, Lieutenant," he snapped. "Now, inviting you here was not my idea." I resisted the urge to say obviously. "But other members of the Joint Military Council seem to have a great deal of respect for you." He glared at Admiral Hackett, who scowled.
"I tend to command respect," I said.
"However, if you step one toe out of line, I'll arrange for a little 'accident' to happen the next time you go out on a mission," Admiral Mikhailovich snapped. "You are too much bloody trouble, Shepard. Your escapade in that Prison of War camp was a bureaucratic nightmare for the Alliance."
"So, what, you'd have preferred it if Commander Anderson and I were executed in galactic television?" I asked. A realisation dawned on me. "No one on my squad would allow a 'little accident' to befall me. Is that why Commander Agira is on the Everest?"
"Commander Agira is on the Everest because the ship was missing a commanding officer after Lieutenant Jupiter showed his true colours," Admiral Barishka said coldly.
"Lieutenant Jupiter was trying to protect his sister, who is his only family, just by the way, you pompous prick," I snapped.
"Enough," Admiral Mikhailovich snapped. "You have been warned, Shepard. Now get out of my sight."
…..
I went back to my room, and turned the television on. There was nothing good on, so I took out my datapad and opened it to my place in Neverwhere, the twenty first century sci-fi book I was reading. I had barely read two pages when there was a knock in the door.
"The only way you're going to make friends is if you actually stop being such a wallflower and go out and talk to people, Ken," Commander Anderson called.
I opened the door. "There are perks to being a wallflower, sir," I said.
"Just shut up, and come," Commander Anderson said. "What did old cranky pants with you this time?"
"The same old thing," I said. "To threaten me with death if I didn't toe the line, et cetera."
"I wish he'd make good on his threats once in a while," Commander Anderson said. "Instead he seems to keep on promoting you when you scarcely deserve to be in the army in the first place."
"Where are we going?" I asked, ignoring him.
"The rec room," Commander Anderson said. "Everyone's hanging out there."
"And you want me there because…?" I asked.
"Everyone can be impressed with the wit and speed of my insults aimed at you," Commander Anderson said.
"Of course," I mumbled.
…..
The rec room was big and beautiful. A large, flat screened television was set against one wall, whilst a football table and a pinball table was against the opposite wall.
"Hello baby," Captain Johnson said coming over.
"Good bye, ginger," I said. I turned to Commander Anderson. "Is there anyone decent here, or am I going to spend my time here in my room?"
Commander Anderson didn't answer, most likely because he was bent double with laughter.
"I could join you in room, if you like," Captain Johnson said, I think he was trying for seductively.
"If that happens, my foot would join your face, and not in a kinky way," I snapped.
"Damnit, Anderson was right," Major Carraway said.
"I am not eleven, and I am not a boy," I said angrily.
Everyone gave me a strange look. "Ken, I told them you have the smartest mouth in the galaxy," Commander Anderson said in a strained voice.
"Right," I said.
Thankfully, at that moment a distraction arrived in the form of a tall, beautiful woman with auburn hair and large green eyes.
"Ah, Greta, perfect timing," Commander Anderson said. "You've just saved Ken here from a lifetime of mortification."
"Too late for that," I said. "Have you seen how tall I am?"
"Ah yes, Joker has finally found someone shorter than him," Commander Anderson said.
"Very funny," Lieutenant Morreau muttered.
"Wow, that must be the first time you're the punchline on that joke," I said. "Who's the bird, Anderson?"
I swear to God, Commander Anderson almost cracked up then and there. "The bird, Ken, and I don't appreciate that misogynistic tone by the way, is my com officer, Greta Stalone," he said. "She is unarguably the best com officer in the Alliance and makes the greatest coffee in the galaxy. Greta, meet Ken, the bane of my existence."
"Nice to finally meet you," Greta said, shaking my hand. "I've heard so much about you from the commander."
"Greta, I warn you not to continue that line of thought unless you want to spend the rest of your career cleaning the latrines," Commander Anderson said.
"I must say I'm kind of nervous of meeting so many high-up officials in one day," Flight Lieutenant Magalesha said.
"Please, there's nothing scary about meeting politicians," Commander Anderson scoffed.
"Only because you've met so many it's old hat to you," Captain Estavez said. "For the rest of us it's a pretty scary thing."
"What do you mean?" Commander Anderson asked.
"Do I have to spell it out?" Captain Estavez said. "You've won so many medals you probably jangle when you wear your blues."
"Yes, I know," Commander Anderson said unmodestly.
"It's just a bunch of politicians," Lieutenant Moshoeshoe said. "What's the big deal?"
"Spoken like a true biotic," Captain Johnson said. "What's the big deal? No one save Commander Anderson has ever seen one in the flesh."
"I met the president of Tiptree," Lieutenant Morreau offered.
"Really?" Captain Valje said.
"Yeah," Lieutenant Morreau said. "It's not every day that a severally disabled kid graduates top of flight school and becomes the best pilot in the fleet."
"I've also met a politician," I said. "It was when I was eleven and my dad was posted to Shanxi for a couple of months. I got to meet the assistant of the assistant of the junior undersecretary of the Minister of Defence."
"Must have been a big moment for you, kid," Major Carraway said.
"I'm twenty three," I said tiredly.
"Yeah, but you look like you still wear pigtails and pinafores on your off-day, so I'm going to go with kid," he said. The others laughed.
…..
Lunch was like nothing I had ever experienced. Raised on army food, I had grown accustomed to barely-substantial meals. However, on this day, and every one of our days in Seattle, we were treated to roast beef, roast vegetables, soups, Yorkshire Puddings, quiches, and delicious-looking, egg-filled deserts that I was unable to enjoy. Commander Anderson however very kindly told me just how delicious they were.
"You know, you remind me of my older brother, and not in a good way," I snapped as he dug into a delicious-looking custard cream.
"Is it my fault you were too bloody proud to have the genetic enhancement to have that shit cleared up?" Commander Anderson asked. "No. Tough titties to you then."
After lunch, we were taken to the Alliance Buildings in a stretch limo with a blue light brigade. This was a first for me. It seemed that this would be a day of firsts.
"Is there any champagne on this bird?" Captain Johnson asked.
"Ah yes, Johnson, that'd be a good way to prove to the PM that artillery soldiers are stupid, useless, and should be locked up," Commander Anderson said dismissively.
"Shut it, you jarhead," Captain Johnson snapped.
"Ken, what am I about to say?" Commander Anderson asked me.
"How the fuck should I know?" I asked. "I'm not psychic. I can't read your mind. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd want to."
"You trained under me for two years and lived with me for three months, you're telling me you can't hazard a guess?" he asked.
"Do you two want to find a room in this limo and see if you can work the sexual tension out that way?" Captain Johnson asked.
"Wait, I think it's coming to me," I said, holding both hands up. "Um, come on brain. Wait, yes. Is it push-ups?"
"Good guess," Commander Anderson said. "Now, Johnson, you really do have an unfortunate name, and if you had served under me or trained under me, I would have named you either penis or meat and two veg. I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that I am of a higher rank than you and therefore demand some respect. I want you to bare this in mind when I ask the following question: how strong are your arms?"
"Yes sir," Captain Johnson said, gulping. "Sorry sir."
"Apology accepted," Commander Anderson said.
…..
The Alliance Buildings had very much been modelled after the old American Houses of Parliament, the so-called White House. Dome roofed and, well, white, it was built on the top of Capitol Hill, so that it had a beautiful view of the city of Seattle, when it wasn't hidden under a layer of smog. On this particular day it was, so I missed out on the beautiful view of the city of Seattle.
A group of secret servicemen took us to the situation room, a room filled to the brim with N1s analysing the crap out of data that nobody really cared about.
"I can't wait til I have my own command and can walk into my CIC and say 'what's the situation'," I said.
"Ken, the day you get your own command is the day I leave the fleet," Commander Anderson said.
"It could happen," I said. "I am a staff lieutenant now after all."
At that moment the politician members of the defence committee along with various personal assistants and undersecretaries walked in, led by Saul Hendricks, the Minister of Defence. We all stood to attention. I half-expected the national anthem or Chariots of Fire to start playing as Rhiveshan Moodley, the Minister of Finance, Maria Raul, the Minister of Human Affairs, Linda Mitshali, the Minister of Colonial Affairs, Sibusisu, Magamela, the new Deputy Prime Minister, the speaker of the house, Robert Muller and finally, the Prime Minister, Elsebeth Merein.
She was quite tall with mousy hair and blue eyes, her face seemed older than her fifty three years.
Admiral Hackett immediately sprang into ass-kissing mode. "Madam Prime Minister, it's such an honour," he said.
"Admiral Hackett," Elsebeth Merein said, holding her hand out. Admiral Hackett shook it as though he was touching something fragile and extremely valuable. "I take it these are the military members of the defence committee."
"Indeed," Admiral Hackett said. "May I present them to you?"
"Please do," Elsebeth Merein said.
"Admirals," Admiral Hackett said, nodding to the other admirals.
"Madam Prime Minister, may I present Commander David Anderson, the commander of the SSV Tokyo, and Staff Lieutenant Jane Shepard, of Company 6 Marine Corps Scout Snipers on the SSV Everest," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
First Commander Anderson, then I shook the Prime Minister's hand. "Nice to meet you, Lieutenant," she said.
I couldn't remember the protocols that Analyst Valencio had told me, so I sort of bobbed my head, and said, "You too, Madam Prime Minister."
"You're the only woman here," she said, examining my companions.
"Yes, Madam Prime Minister," I said. "I've come to terms with the fact that I'm probably just window-dressing, since you're the first female Alliance Prime Minister."
"Lieutenant Shepard," Admiral Mikhailovich said in a low voice.
"Right," I said. "Good luck for your reign, Madam Prime Minister."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," she said.
Commander Anderson nudged in the ribs as the others were presented. "What?" I hissed.
"I dare you to say something snarky to the PM," he whispered.
"How old are you, six?" I whispered back. "Besides, Admiral Mikhailovich would probably kill me."
"Why do you think I want you to do it?" he whispered.
When the Prime Minister had shaken hands with Lieutenant Moshoeshoe, she invited us to sit down. "Thank you for joining us," Robert Muller, the speaker of the House, said, standing at the foot of the table. "We are proud that so many of humanity's finest could afford the time to leave the frontlines to help us out here. Before we begin, a few announcements. Ambassador Udina will not be able to join us today, as he only arrived last night and has yet to settle in properly."
What a wuss. I arrived this morning and I had managed to settle. It seemed the ambassador had grown soft whilst living on the Citadel.
"Secondly, we will break for tea at four PM sharp this afternoon, and continue again from five PM until eight PM," Speaker Robert continued. "For the rest of the week, we will begin at eight AM, break for lunch at one PM, and finish the day at five PM. You will see on the green datapads in front of you what the schedule for each day is. Finally, the blue datapad in front of you contains a waiver. We need each of you to sign it to say that you have agreed to sit on the committee and will not reveal anything discussed in here to anyone outside of this room. Will you sign it now please, and Tsepiso, will you collect the datapads please?"
I scanned the waiver, but it didn't seem to contain any clauses where I gave my body to science, so I signed it.
"Then, before I turn the table over to you, Madam Prime Minister, I would just like to say that, for obvious reasons, this room is not under surveillance, but all the areas in the People's House are being recorded," Speaker Robert said.
In other words, we'll be watching you.
"Thank you, Mister Speaker," the Prime Minister said. "And thank you to all of you who joined us. It should be no secret to you why you are here. My predecessor, Prime Minister Jan du Plessis declared war on the batarian Hegemony in late 2177. It is now seven years later, and our stale mate continues."
Well, actually they were whipping our asses, but now wasn't the time to point this out to them.
"We have asked you here on by-law fifty chapter twelve in our constitution states that when a new Prime Minister is elected in a time of war, two officers from each corps gets asked to form the defence committee to advise parliament on the best course of action," she continued. "We, well, we need your help."
Good start, but what was next?
Captain Schmidt vocalised it for me. "Respectfully, Madam Prime Minister, what do you want from us?" he asked.
"You've all served on the front," the Deputy Prime Minister said. "You know what it's like there."
Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. At this point I was literally biting my tongue to stop the sarcastic remarks from coming out.
"Before we begin with the soldiers, Madam Prime Minister, Minister Moodley has prepared a report that he would like to share with us," Speaker Robert said, getting to his feet.
"Of course," the Prime Minister said. "Minister Moodley, if you will?"
"Thank you, Madam Prime Minister," Minister Moodley said, getting to his feet. He was a thin, balding, nervous-looking man. "As you will see on the green datapad in front of you, there is a financial report from last quarter."
I opened the datapad. By now I was adept at navigating budgets, and I felt my mouth drop open as I read.
"As you can see we are approximately twelve and a half trillion credits in debt with the Council, and a further trillion credits in debt with the Asari Republics," Minister Moodley said.
"Yeah, uh, what is up with that?" I asked, unable to stop myself.
"Shepard," Admiral Mikhailovich said in a low voice.
"Sorry, sir, but this is a good form of torture for me," I said. "Forcing me to listen to people talk and not giving me the chance to make some badass comment."
"If only that worked on Spiders," Minister Hendricks mumbled, and there were titters around the room.
"I'm warning you Shepard, one more word, and you'll get a time out," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
Time out? Whatever happened to the days I was threatened with death? "Yes sir," I said. "Sorry sir. Won't happen again."
"As I was saying, the Alliance cannot afford to get into any more debts," Minister Moodley said.
"What happens if we do get into more debt?" Minister Mitshali asked.
"We lose our embassy on the Citadel, and by extension, Council protection," Minister Moodley said. "As you are all no doubt aware, if you don't have Council protection, you are effectively an enemy of the Council, like the krogan and the yahg, which gives Council species the right to reclaim any colonies that are in their territory."
"How many colonies are in Council territory?" the Prime Minister asked.
"At least four," Minister Mitshali said. "Bekenstein is directly in Council space. Shanxi and Akuze are both in turian space, and Nevos is in salarian space. An argument could be made for Terra Nova, Horizon and Eden Prime, as they are very close to asari and salarian space, but I think that they are over the borders. Of course, if we lose Council protection, our territory would be considered Terminus Space, which would naturally be problematic."
"Thank you, Minister Mitshali," the Prime Minister said. "Minister Moodley, if we were to end this war, how long would it take to repay these debts?"
"It's hard to say, Madam Prime Minister," Minister Moodley said. "Several years, perhaps several decades. However, compromises can be made with the Council."
"Such as?" Minister Raul asked.
"Well, if we were to get a human on the Council, or into the Spectres, a large portion of the debt to the Council will be considered to be paid off," Minister Moodley said.
For some reason, everyone turned to glare at Commander Anderson, who sighed loudly. "I'm not having this discussion again," he said, tiredly.
"Commander Anderson has made his position on this topic known," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
"Let us consider this matter closed then," Speaker Robert said. "Minister Raul, haven't you prepared a report for us on the human reaction to the war?"
Minister Raul's report consisted mainly of how humans were unhappy with the war. Again, I could have easily have told the Parliament this myself. I began to wonder if I had maybe gone for the wrong career.
"There have been talks of an uprising," Minister Raul said. "It seems that the change in governance has placated the people for now, but if there is an uprising, well, we just don't have the manpower to contain it."
"Can't we contain it now?" the Prime Minister asked. "Before the uprising starts?"
"Respectfully, Madam Prime Minister, if we were to arrest every single person who spoke out against our methods, the prisons would be full," Minister Raul said.
Her report was followed by tea, then a report by Minister Hendricks, who said that the Alliance's military strength had been reduced by a third since the start of the war. I was beginning to wish that I had rather stayed on the Everest. Finally, at quarter to nine, we were dismissed, and flown back to the People's House.
"Jesus H. Christ, I fucking hate politicians," Captain Valje muttered in the car ride home.
"I kept fantasising about supper," Flight Lieutenant Magalesha said. "What do you suppose it'll be?"
Supper turned out to be a tomato soup and fresh baked bread.
"It'll be difficult to go back to army food after this," Captain Estavez remarked.
"We could always AWOL," Captain Johnson suggested.
"Yeah, that's a good way to get better food, go on the run from the Alliance military police," I said.
"Poor Ken, you were really struggling in there today," Commander Anderson said. "I could see you biting down all the bitter, sarcastic comments. How do you feel now?"
"Give me a chance to make some more bitter, sarcastic comments, and I'll be as good as new, sir," I said.
…..
After supper, the men all crowded around the terminal to vote for the most beautiful woman in the galaxy from a list of a thousand on the extranet, whilst I settled down to watch an episode of Alvin and Bim. Unfortunately, it was a rerun of the wedding episode, which a) I had already seen about ten million times, and b) reminded me of a happier, more innocent time when I didn't have a scarred face and did have a boyfriend, so I turned the television off, and joined the others at the terminal.
"Ah Ken, decided to let your boner rule your thinking after all," Commander Anderson said.
"Whatever," I sighed.
The screen showed a pretty young asari maiden with the name of Maeren S'nismu. "She looks pretty," I said, proving my point.
"'One hundred and eighty two years old, the daughter of two asari, Maeren is a back-up dancer for singer Kaya Valsen, as well as a part-time student of the Armali University on Thessia, where she is studying asari family law,'," Major Carraway read. "'Maeren is a fun-loving, gentle-hearted maiden who enjoys reading, walks on the beach,' as if, she's one hundred and eighty, 'and a good party', that's more like it."
"Her nose is off centre," Lieutenant Morreau said.
"So, she looks sort of natural, and not totally plastic then," Captain Schmidt said.
"Do you want to vote for her, Schmidt?" Major Carraway asked.
"Fuck no, she's an alien," Captain Schmidt said. "I'm just saying we can't discount her based on the fact that she has an ordinary nose."
"Wow, this is quite insulting," I said.
"Shut it, Lieutenant, no one asked you to join," Captain Johnson said. "Right, who's next on the list?"
It was a beautiful young woman, with dark hair cropped around her ears, big green eyes and pale skin.
"Phwor," Captain Valje said. "She's gorgeous. Who the hell is she?"
"'Danielle Schere, age nineteen, grew up on the planet of Bekenstein, in the Widow system next to the Citadel,'," Major Carraway read. "'A model for the human brand, Coco Chanel, Danielle has been a beauty queen since she was four. Danielle is fond of the band, the Mass Effectors, and has attended all their concerts.' Well, she's got my vote."
"And mine," Lieutenant Morreau said. "Magalesha?"
"Christ no," Lieutenant Magalesha said. "Kasuumi Dranne for life."
"You know, she serves in my unit," I said. "She's a real pain in the butt. Good card player though."
"Go to the next page," Captain Estavez urged.
The next page showed a picture of me dressed in my formal blues. There were loud shouts of laughter. "Hey, Lieutenant, does she look familiar?" Captain Johnson asked.
"Read what it says," Captain Schmidt urged.
"'Second Lieutenant Jane Shepard is a twenty three year old woman serving with the Alliance Special Forces,'," Major Carraway read. "'Whilst not being a conventional beauty, this space-born soldier more than makes up for it for being a feisty little firebrand. Known for such things as killing thresher maws and being the youngest ever officer, Jane is reported to also have a soft side, enjoying reading, and listening to music from the human twenty first century.'"
"That is patently untrue," I said, blushing. "I'm not a feisty little firebrand."
"You are something to look at though," Captain Estavez said.
"We won't say what kind of a something though," Lieutenant Moshoeshoe said.
"I don't know," Commander Anderson said. "The scars…"
"You said they added a year," I said. "And you said I'm a boy. This is a competition for the galaxy's most beautiful women."
"Ken, that gorgeous piece of skirt on the terminal is not you," Commander Anderson said. "You are blonde, short and nothing like this woman."
"Oh what's the use," I mumbled. "I'm off to bed."
…..
The next morning (after a boring breakfast of muesli whilst everyone else enjoyed an English breakfast), we were taken back to the Alliance Buildings for another round of boredom with the politicians.
Ambassador Udina had by this stage gotten over the terrible journey in the lap of luxury from the Citadel, and was in time to give us a report on what the Council thought about our state of warfare which sounded alarmingly similar to the reports given the previous day. Finally, after his report, the committee moved on to asking us about our experiences on the front. I went first, probably keeping with the parlance of an age long gone.
"You were in a prisoner of war camp for a week?" Speaker Robert asked.
"Yes sir," I said.
"It says in your field report that you were tortured for information on Alliance outposts in batarian territory on Skyllia," he continued.
"Yes sir, it does," I said.
"Is it the truth?" he asked.
"Do I need a lawyer?" I asked. "It feels like I'm on trial here."
"Just answer the question, Lieutenant," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
"Yes sir," I said. "It is true, I was tortured for information on Alliance outposts. I would like to say, for the record that I did not crack under the torture, and our outposts are safe."
"What form of torture was administered?" Speaker Robert asked.
"I was beaten and shocked with a cattle prod," I said. "Once again, I did not crack, and our outposts remain safe."
"Was anyone else tortured?" Speaker Robert asked.
"I was kept separate with Commanders Jupiter and Anderson, so I have no idea what happened to the rest of my party," I said. "I believe Commander Anderson was tortured prior to our arrival, but they left Commander Jupiter well alone. For the third time, I didn't crack under the torture, even though I really wanted to."
"I'm curious though," Commander Anderson interrupted. "Yesterday you mentioned Alliance torture methods of batarian prisoners."
"Commander Anderson, your turn to speak comes later," Speaker Robert said nervously.
"Of course, Master Speaker," Commander Anderson said smoothly.
Something hard pressed down on my foot. "Ow, Jesus Anderson," I snapped.
"Why do I bother?" he groaned.
"Oh, right," I said. "What torture methods are employed by the Alliance on batarian prisoners of war?"
"Why does it matter?" Minister Hendricks asked.
"I don't know, I just think that since we both have inside knowledge on their methods, we might be able to assist with refining our methods," I said.
"Madam Prime Minister, pay no heed to these two," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "Shepard, shut up."
"What is the harm in her asking these things?" the Prime Minister asked, looking confused.
"I know we have a facility on Grageran Station where a few dozen batarian soldiers are held," I said. "Can't we make time tomorrow to visit the station? It's a two hour journey."
"I was there last week, there's nothing to see," the Prime Minister said.
"Well, then there's no harm in us going there," I said.
"Alright, Lieutenant Shepard, have it your way," the Prime Minister said. "We'll cancel Ambassador Udina's talk on the next step."
"Aw no, really?" I said. Admiral Mikhailovich gave a loud cough. "I mean, thank you, ma'am," I said hurriedly.
…..
At lunch time, I was called before the Joint Military Council. Expecting a telling off for my insolence earlier that day, I was somewhat surprised when Admiral Mikhailovich said, "You shot Commander Agira." Commander Jupiter's report must have finally gotten through.
"By accident," I said. "I was doing a training exercise, and she, uh, got in the way."
"I've seen vids from when you were in training, and you never missed," Admiral Mikhailovich said impatiently. "Almost never missed anyway."
"Yet I did," I said. "I must have been having a bad day or something. Anyway, there it is. I missed."
"You're lying," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "I know it. Unfortunately I can't prove it, because the surveillance footage has inexplicably gone missing, conveniently at the exact same moment that you shot the commander. What the hell is going on on that ship?"
"Ask him," I said, pointing my chin at Admiral Hackett. "It's his ship."
"I wasn't on board the Everest at the time of this…incident," Admiral Hackett said. "The ship was under the command of Commander Agira when I left."
"And when we came back, Commander Jupiter wanted her ship back," I said. "Obviously. No one formally relieved her of her command, so the ship was still hers."
"Enough," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "That's irrelevant."
"No, it isn't," I insisted. "The ship's gone crazy, because no one knows who the hell's in command any more. As for the me shooting her part, well, it's unfortunate, but I have apologised for it, and there's nothing more I can do about it. Now, please threaten me with death so that I can go eat."
"What makes you think I'm going to threaten you with death?" Admiral Mikhailovich asked, looking confused.
"Well, it's sort of what you do," I said. "Before you ask, yes you are that predictable."
"Get the hell out, Lieutenant," Admiral Hackett said.
"Sir," I said.
As I was walking out the door, I heard Admiral Mikhailovich say, "What are you going to do about her, Stephen?"
"Why me?" Admiral Hackett asked. "She's in your corps."
"She's on your ship, and she's going to kill that entire platoon off if we're not careful," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
The door shut behind me.
…..
I sat down next to Commander Anderson and helped myself to some stew. "Where were you?" Commander Anderson asked.
"Being threatened with death for shooting Commander Agira," I said sulkily. "Well sort of." Commander Anderson's jaw dropped open. "What?" I snapped. "Oh, it was an accident."
"One thing at a time," Commander Anderson said. "Agira's still kicking?"
"Oh, she's kicking all right," I said bitterly. "Why, do you know her?"
"She was my XO for a while," Commander Anderson said darkly. "Nasty piece of work if you ask me."
"Why?" I asked. "What did she do?"
"Killed off a lot of soldiers for one thing," Commander Anderson said. "Remember back in seventy seven when my squad was killed off? That was due to a decision she made."
"What happened?" I asked.
"This was back when we were sort of still in the running for this war," Commander Anderson said. "Not like now, since you've joined the fleet. And that wasn't a dig at you. The Alliance has become so desperate for cannon fodder, they'll literally take a one-legged hunchback, provided he knows how to hold a rifle, and sometimes not even then. Anyway, we were tasked with infiltrating an enemy compound and stealing a bomb."
"A bomb?" I asked, laughing.
"Don't laugh, Ken, it doesn't suit you," Commander Anderson said. "Yes, a bomb. You might not have noticed but the batarians have us sort of outmatched when it comes to firepower. The hope was that if we stole the bomb, Alliance R&D would be able to examine it and come up with similar technology."
"I take it you failed, since we're still out matched by batarian tech," I said dryly.
"Don't be dry, Ken, it doesn't suit you," Commander Anderson said. "Yes, we failed, but not in the way you think. I gave the in-field command of the operation to Agira, who was a major back then. Stupid mistake."
"Why?" I asked.
"Don't be confused, Ken, it doesn't suit you," Commander Anderson said. I rolled my eyes. "I gave her command because she seemed a vaguely competent CO back then and, I figured, if she turned out to be really good, I could recommend her for ICT training. See, I didn't think she would kill the entire squad off. She's really manipulative, but at the time, I thought she was for the most part, a decent gal."
"You can say that again," I said with feeling. "But why was it a stupid mistake?"
"I know Jupiter doesn't, but most COs have three rules on their ship," Commander Anderson said. "It can be anything, no singing during work time, no shouting of 'commander on deck', that kind of thing. It's our way of maintaining control, and of making sure that we don't go out of our bloody minds."
"I'm remembering that 'commander on deck' thing for when I have my own command," I said. "It's going to happen. Admiral Mikhailovich can only hate me for so long."
"Never going to happen whilst I'm in the fleet, Ken," Commander Anderson said. "Anyway, my rule number one is 'no one takes over my command unless I am physically incapable of going out in the field'."
"That's neat," I said. "What are rules two and three?"
"Something along the lines of 'orders' and 'push-ups'," Commander Anderson said.
"Once a PT instructor, always a PT instructor, eh?" I said. "So what happened with Agira?"
"Well, she does really well, actually," Commander Anderson said. "Follows protocol, establishes infiltration lines, all of that. Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to carry a giant bomb out of the compound without being detected, and, well, they are detected. She gets them into a defendable room, and orders our old technical expert to set the bomb off."
"What?" I say in astonishment.
"Yeah, like I said, total nutjob," Commander Anderson said. "The man had some sense, and refused, so she shot one of the servicemen. She shot five more of them before the tech armed the bomb. It killed everyone in the base."
"Everyone except her," I said.
"Well, yeah," Commander Anderson said. "I'll tell you one thing though. If she's all normal-looking, it's due to a shit-load of plastic surgery, because that woman was a mess when they pulled her out. Her own mother didn't recognise her."
"How did she survive?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Maybe she cast a spell, or perhaps she jumped on her broom and flew away," he said. "Or she asked her old friend Lucifer to help her out of this tight spot. Most likely, it was a combination of luck and sheer will-power. I mean, you managed to survive a thresher maw attack. A stubborn enough person can survive just about anything."
"What happened to her after that?" I asked.
"She was in hospital for a long time," Commander Anderson said. "I visited her from time to time. I don't know why, probably to understand what went wrong, how I didn't see it coming. Maybe it was because she was the only one left of that squad. Fuck, but was that squad brilliant. We'd served together for close to five years without losing a single man. We were probably the strongest, closest squad in the Alliance. After she was discharged, I lost track of her. I figured she'd be court-marshalled and executed, but I guess not. Why is she on the Everest?"
"She replaced Lieutenant Jupiter as commanding officer whilst we were out rescuing you," I said. He looked confused. "Didn't you hear?" I asked. "He blackmailed the Joint Military Council to get them to interrupt our dramatic execution sequence."
Commander Anderson started laughing. "Jesus fucking Christ, that's why I love the army," he said through laughter. "You will never find morons like that in any other profession. He blackmailed the fucking Joint Military Council?"
"Yup," I said, amused.
"Of course, the Jupiters are all about family," Commander Anderson said. "I take it Commander Jupiter didn't take too kindly to being replaced?"
"That's an understatement," I said. "The groundside war is nothing compared to what's happening on that ship."
"So, who shot her?" Commander Anderson asked.
"Me, remember?" I asked. "I did tell you earlier."
"Yeah, I remember you said you did it by accident," Commander Anderson said. "Describe this accident to me."
I narrowed my eyes. "I was doing a training exercise, sort of like clay pigeons," I said. "I missed one shot and hit her."
"Ok, so who really shot her?" he asked.
"I did," I repeated.
"Ken, I remember you doing clay pigeons at Del Sol," Commander Anderson said. "Fuck, I remember you almost beating the pants off of the best shot in the turian Hierarchy with only one hand because you'd burnt the other. You rarely missed, and when you did, it was certainly not enough of a miss for you to hit an innocent bystander."
"Well, this time I did," I said.
"Holy crap, your Jesus had nothing on you with martyrdom," he mumbled. "Fine, have it your way. Pass the potatoes."
…..
The next morning we boarded a ship called the Atlas for Grageran Station. I had personally never been to Grageran Station, but it was the largest prison facility the Alliance had. It had been built in the year 2025, originally to be used as a habitat for very rich people wishing to get away from Earth. After Faster Than Light travel and Mass Relays were discovered, rich people decided they'd prefer to live on colonies, and Grageran Station became depopulated. Someone then decided that it would be a good idea to keep all of humanity's worst criminals apart from rest of humanity. It was quite a sound strategy, as the number of escape attempts from the space station were zero. There were however, no execution facilities, but since people liked a good execution as the morning's entertainment, all executions took place back in Seattle. I sometimes wondered whether we'd evolved at all since the eighteenth century.
It was a two hour journey from Earth to Grageran Station, during which we were briefed on the correct protocol for interacting with the prisoners.
"Who thought I'd be hanging out with spiders on my off day," Captain Johnson muttered.
"I'm seeing you on my off day, Johnson, yet you don't see me complaining," Commander Anderson said.
We were greeted at Grageran Station by an incredibly chipper warden. "Hello, hello, hello," he said cheerfully. "My name is Anh Phan, and I am the chief warden here. Madam Prime Minister, it's such an honour to have you here."
"Thank you," the Prime Minister said. "It's an honour to be here."
"Welcome to Grageran Station," Anh Phan continued. "We are the Alliance's largest prison facility, with the capacity to house up to fifty thousand inmates, although we are rarely full to capacity. Each prisoner is housed in a single cell that is approximately five feet by three feet. They are in these cells for twenty three hours a day, the additional hour being used for exercise and showering. Your personal assistant said you're here for the batarian soldiers we have here?"
"That is correct," the Prime Minister said.
"Follow me please," Anh Phan said. "We have about forty five batarians here. They are all officers, and were sent here because the Joint Military Council felt they might be able to provide us with information on the war. Admiral Mikhailovich, it is good to see you again."
"Mr Phan," Admiral Mikhailovich said politely.
"Any results?" Captain Schmidt asked.
"Some," Anh said. "The batarians are incredibly…loyal to their Hegemony. They don't give information up to easily."
I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable, although I was unsure of exactly why this was. "It's strange though," Anh was saying. "For all their loyalty to the Hegemony, we have not been contacted for the release of these prisoners, and some of them are high-ranking. Here we are."
We had reached a large metal door that looked like it belonged in a dungeon. Or a bank. Anh pressed his ID bracelet against a scanner next to the door, and the door swung open with a loud creaking sound.
The first thing I was aware of was the smell of excrement and vomit. Behind me I heard one of the ministers (I think it was Minister Raul) gagging. I followed Commander Anderson into the room.
"Jesus Christ," he mumbled in an awed voice.
The room was large with a high roof. Approximately twenty guards patrolled the room. There were about thirty five batarian soldiers in the room, all of them naked. And the room was absolutely silent.
It took me a while to understand exactly what I was seeing. One of the classes we'd taken at Del Sol had briefly described what the methods of sensory deprivation were, and how exactly it was administered. In this room, there was a high wooden platform, where a group of prisoners stood on the very edge. Against the far wall was another group of prisoners, who were standing on their toes and had their fingers pressed against the wall. Another group sat on their hands in the middle of the floor. They had dark goggles over their eyes and headphones over their ears. Closest to the door, a group of batarians were standing on stools with hoods over their heads and nooses around their necks.
One of the guards came over. "Sir," she said. "Subjects two zero four, three ten, and four three seven expired during the night."
"Alright, well space the bodies," Anh said. "See if there was anything valuable among their belongings."
"Yes sir," the guard said and returned to her post.
I looked around at the faces of my companions. Some looked horrified at what they were seeing. Some, like Commander Anderson, weren't revealing anything. Others looked satisfied, even gleeful. "That'll teach the spiders," Captain Johnson whispered.
"Don't fuck with humanity," Major Carraway mumbled.
"Satisfied?" Admiral Mikhailovich asked us harshly.
"Yup," Commander Anderson said. "Let's get the fuck out of here."
The others turned to walk away. That's when I realised that if I left, if I walked away from what I'd seen and pretended it had never happened, I would not be able to live with myself. "Ken?" Commander Anderson asked. They had reached the door.
"No," I whispered. I cleared my throat. "No," I said louder.
"What's the matter now, Shepard?" Admiral Mikhailovich asked.
"This is wrong," I said.
"Get off your fucking high horse, Shepard, this is war," Admiral Mikhailovich snapped. The prisoners that could, were slowly turning towards us.
"No it isn't," I said. "I was a prisoner of the batarian Hegemony, and, whilst it wasn't exactly the most comfortable stay, it wasn't an abattoir like this place."
"You were tortured," Admiral Kahoku started.
"Not like this," I said quietly. "I swore to defend humanity when I signed on. I didn't promise to allow this."
"Shepard," Admiral Hackett said in a surprisingly gentle voice. "Let's talk about this back on Earth."
I hesitated. Whilst I was firmly of the opinion that what I was seeing here was wrong and very much against my own morals, I was also coming to the realisation that no one was stepping up to side with me.
"We'd better," I said at last.
…..
We silent on the trip back. A skycar took us from Seattle Spaceport to the People's House. "We need to meet," Commander Anderson told the other officers. "Meet in the lounge in ten minutes."
"What if we don't?" Captain Johnson snapped.
"You'll be duffed up good and proper," Commander Anderson said. "You don't want that. I may be shorter than you, but I'm pure muscle."
"Can I sit this one out?" I asked.
"Oh no, Ken, you started this, you can damn see it to the end," Commander Anderson said. "Ten minutes."
…..
Ten minutes later I found myself in the lounge, sitting between Lieutenant Morreau and Captain Schmidt. Commander Anderson marched in soon after, scowled at all of us and said, "Right, Ken, you've stolen my thunder."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I snapped, not in the mood.
"Do you honestly think I would have confronted the Joint Military Council, the Alliance Parliament, the Prime Minister, and the Alliance in general in public?" he asked. "Have you learnt anything I taught you?"
"Whatever," I said. "This doesn't matter right now, you can berate me later. What are we going to do now?"
"Why should we do anything?" Major Carraway asked.
"Holy mother, I know biotics don't have a moral compass, but surely even you can see that what's going on in there is wrong," I said.
"I agree with Carraway," Captain Johnson said. "This is war."
"Which is all the more reason we need to be the better people," I said impatiently. "There is only a very thin line between war and barbarism, and I'm afraid we crossed that line today."
"Are you always this self-righteous?" Captain Johnson asked.
"Are you always a moron, or is this just a special day?" I snapped.
"Simmer down," Commander Anderson said boredly. "And the boy's right, Johnson."
"Come on, Commander," Captain Johnson said. "They kept you prisoner."
"And they didn't do anything half as bad as that to any of us," Commander Anderson said. "They could've, it would have made for a more dramatic cinematography, but they didn't."
"Back in the nineteen thirties, the Germans imprisoned millions of Jews, homosexuals and gypsies, and tortured them, just because they could," I said. "Sorry to bring this up, Schmidt."
"It's alright," Captain Schmidt said uncomfortably.
"In the late eighteen hundreds British soldiers put Afrikaans women and children into concentration camps during the South African war, and barely fifty years later the South African government implemented Apartheid where non-white South Africans were subjugated to all kinds of hell," I continued. "In the early twenty first century, my own people, the Americans imprisoned and tortured thousands of Arabs, just because they were at 'war' with the Arabian countries, separated children from their families in their own country because of fear. We all agree that that was wrong, no?"
"Of course," Captain Johnson said.
"What makes this any different then?" I asked.
"Well, they're aliens," Captain Johnson said.
"So?" I asked.
"Humanity needs to look out for its own first," Captain Johnson said.
"But-," I began. "Oh, what's the use? You're a fucking coward, a racist and a moron. What do the rest of you think?"
"Shepard, I'm your superior," Captain Johnson spluttered.
"Blow it out your hole," I snapped.
"Johnson, take a seat," Captain Estavez said quietly. "What do you reckon we should do?" he asked me.
"We can't let this continue," I said.
"Agreed, but what should we do?" Captain Valje asked.
"We're in a unique position of power here," I said. "We are all here because we are apparently the best officers in our corps. We can use that to our advantage."
"See, I don't know," Lieutenant Morreau spoke for the first time. "It sounds like you want to threaten the Alliance Parliament. No good can come from that. Also, I hope you're aware of the fact that this conversation is being recorded."
"Yeah, I know," I said. "I hope the Prime Minister is watching this, so that she can know exactly what I think about this."
"So, what do you suggest, Lieutenant?" Commander Anderson asked.
"I'll remember just how strongly you backed me up, Anderson," I snapped.
"Yeah, yeah, get to the point, short stuff," he said.
"We ask for an audience with Parliament and the Joint Military Council," I said. "We say that we want them to stop the torture of batarian prisoners of war."
"And what if they tell us to screw off?" Lieutenant Magalesha asked.
"We say we're not prepared to fight for a people that allows that kind of treatment of its enemies," I said.
"What if they call our bluff?" Captain Schmidt asked.
"They won't," I said. "At least not with you lot. I imagine Admiral Mikhailovich would perform a touch-down dance at the prospect of having me leave the marines, but I can live with that."
"Alright," Captain Valje said. "Let's do it."
At that moment there was a loud explosion.
…..
The source of the explosion was a few miles away from us. "What the hell was that?" Commander Anderson mumbled.
Captain Valje ran to the window. "Looks like it's in the city centre," he said. "I see a lot of smoke. Nothing in the sky."
"We should armour up and report to duty," Captain Johnson murmured.
Five minutes I was armoured up and reporting for duty in the basement of the house. Admiral Mikhailovich, Admiral Hackett and Admiral Kahoku were waiting for us next to a couple of Makos.
"Reporting for duty sir," Commander Anderson said, saluting.
"Good, but it's not what you think it is," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "It doesn't seem to be an invasion. We don't know what it is." He went to the wall and opened a locker. "Grab weapons and BOLs," he said. We each picked up a rifle and a BOL from the locker.
A few moments later an artillery soldier rushed in. "Ready and able, sir," he said.
"Excellent, Bombardier," Admiral Kahoku said. "Saddle up, everyone."
We climbed into the back of the Mako and it jolted off. "Ken, since you somehow managed to miss a clay pigeon and hit a whole other person instead, I don't want you fighting anywhere near me," Commander Anderson said.
"Actually, it was a tennis ball I was aiming at," I said.
"Somehow that makes it seem worse," Commander Anderson mumbled.
"Yes, but at least I broke her serve, har har," I said.
"That was an awful joke, Ken," Commander Anderson said boredly. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
"But it's my only line," I said sadly.
"Shut up," Commander Anderson snapped.
"I haven't fired one of these since my last review," Captain Valje murmured.
"When was that then?" Captain Schmidt asked.
"Well, my next one's at the end of the month, so, yeah, about five years?" Captain Valje said. He cast a nervous glance at the admirals. "I probably shouldn't have said that," he decided.
"Ya think?" Lieutenant Morreau asked.
"Ken, I've changed my mind," Commander Anderson said. "I'll use you as the world's smallest human shield, and if you feel like breaking another person's serve, will you try for Admiral Mikhailovich? I want to win Wimbledon this year."
"Steady, Anderson," Admiral Mikhailovich said, scowling.
"If I have to shoot anyone, I'll end up breaking every bone in my arms," Lieutenant Morreau said morosely.
"But on the positive side you'll be out of active duty for however long it takes your arm to heal," Lieutenant Magalesha said cheerfully.
The Mako lurched to a halt. "Alright, let's get out," Admiral Kahoku said.
We climbed out. We had arrived at a main street in the centre of town. "That's where the Earth branch of the Fishdog Food Shack was," Captain Estavez murmured. "This wasn't an invasion, this was a terrorist attack."
A young lieutenant wearing sapper gear came over. "Admirals," he said, saluting smartly. "Permission to give report."
"Go ahead," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
"Preliminary examinations indicate that the explosion had two different points of origin," the lieutenant said. "The explosion took out the two shops on either side of the restaurant as well. We've evacuated everyone to beyond the barricades, and our team went in approximately two minutes ago to make sure there are no other explosives in the area."
"Good work, Lieutenant," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "Back to your post."
"Aye aye, Admiral," the lieutenant said, and rushed off again.
"You lot, man the perimeter," Admiral Kahoku said. "Commander Anderson's in command."
"Thank you, sir," Commander Anderson said. He turned to us. "Right then, you maggots," he roared. We all jumped. "There's a perimeter that needs to be manned, so let's go man it."
"Now isn't the best time for that sort of thing, Commander," Admiral Hackett said.
"Yes, sir," Commander Anderson said. "Come on."
…..
We manned the perimeter until after the sun had set, and all the commuters of the shops on the street had gotten bored and gone home. Apparently a third explosive device had been discovered by the sappers, and had to be disarmed.
I tried to look impressive whilst I manned the perimeter, but I quickly realised that when you were four foot eleven and weighed ninety pounds, it was very difficult to look impressive at anything, except maybe beating a feather up.
"I now realise why you're a sniper," Commander Anderson said at one point. "You'd look ridiculous as a front-line soldier."
"But I'd make an excellent child model, don't you think?" I asked.
"You need good looks for that," he mumbled.
The admirals had long since retreated to the comfort and luxury of the People's House, and it was finally one of the sappers who came over and told us that we could go.
"Everyone," Commander Anderson called, sounding important. "Back to the truck."
The Mako was gone. "The admirals must have taken it," Major Carraway said in disgust. "This is a pickle."
"A pickle?" Captain Johnson asked in amazement.
Commander Anderson made a noise in the back of his throat. "Let's walk," he said. "It's not that far."
"You do know Seattle's not the safest place in the galaxy, especially not at night," I said.
"Ken, we're armed and dangerous," Commander Anderson said. "We'll be fine."
We'd barely walked fifty metres when Captain Estavez said, "Fuck it, I'm calling a cab."
"Are you kidding?" Commander Anderson asked as Captain Estavez went over to unlock a couple of cabs parked nearby. "Fucking navy, they've got no fucking stamina."
"We're wearing heavy armour and we're at least five miles away from our destination," Lieutenant Magalesha said.
"You wouldn't last five minutes in the marines, any of you," Commander Anderson said. "That includes you, Ken."
"Yet here I am," I said sarcastically.
"The snipers don't count," Commander Anderson said. "All you do is climb tall things and shoot people from range. That's hardly heavy lifting."
"Speaking of heavy lifting," Captain Schmidt said. "In the artillery we build barricades, move cannons, move shells for cannons, fire the cannons, and drive Makos. Trust me, sir, you wouldn't last a second in the artillery. If it weren't for us, you'd all be space fodder."
"Well, have you ever tried throwing enemy soldiers around with your mind?" Lieutenant Moshoeshoe asked.
"Have you ever tried infiltrating an enemy camp and lay explosives without being detected?" I asked. I paused. "Neither have I, but still it must be incredibly difficult."
"Cabs are unlocked," Captain Estavez said.
"Joker, you're my driver, and I want Ken, Moshoeshoe, Schmidt and Valje with me," Commander Anderson said authoritatively. "See you rotten eggs back at the house."
As it transpired, Lieutenant Morreau was not the greatest driver. "I thought you were the best pilot in the fleet," Captain Schmidt said, his hands over his eyes.
"I fly a frigate, not a skycar," Lieutenant Morreau snapped, swerving so that he narrowly missed a bus stop.
"I've changed my mind, Morreau, I don't want you to pilot my new ship anymore," Commander Anderson said, sounding ill.
"Hey, the New York hasn't been crashed yet," Lieutenant Morreau said, screeching to an almost halt to avoid on-coming traffic. "In fact, it hasn't even been hit, or narrowly missed."
"Probably because the batarians thought it wasn't worth the bull-look out," Commander Anderson cried.
"Could you slow down?" I asked in a high-pitched voice. "My life is flashing before my eyes really fast at the moment, and I don't want to miss the first time I ate ice cream."
Thankfully we made it back in one piece, only to be met by an irate-looking Admiral Mikhailovich. "Why the hell didn't you call to say you were done so that we could send the Mako to pick you up?" he snapped. "Don't any of you have brains?"
"I did, sir, but Anderson stole it," I said.
"That's why I came away empty-handed," Commander Anderson mumbled.
"Get upstairs to the drawing room," Admiral Mikhailovich said impatiently, choosing wisely to ignore us. "The Prime Minister is waiting."
…..
"'This is a message to all aliens threatening Earth's safety'," the man on the television screen said. "'What happened today was just a taste. The Alliance may have failed in protecting humanity, but Cerberus will not. We will defend humanity ruthlessly, and without mercy. Any alien who attempts to hurt humanity in any way will be dealt with efficiently and effectively. You have been warned.'"
The screen froze on his face.
"This message went out over the nine o'clock news," Minister Hendricks said. "As you can imagine, it has caused quite a stir, and there are reports of lynching and rioting in cities where there is an alien presence, most notably in London where there is an asari restaurant, in Hanshen on Noveria where Dranne Incorporated is, and in Harapan on Shanxi where there is a turian outpost. Naturally, we've dispersed troops to deal with them."
"Terra Firma has already jumped on this opportunity to do more rallying," Minister Magamela said. "We need to deal with this now."
"My brother works for Dranne Incorporated," I said quietly.
"Confirmed, Madam Prime Minister, that is the Illusive Man," Greta said.
"Thank you Greta," the Prime Minister said.
"The Illusive Man?" Lieutenant Magalesha asked.
"Andreas Paulapolous," Minister Raul said. "He's also known as The Illusive Man. He's believed to be the leader of the terrorist group, Cerberus."
I looked back at the television screen. The Illusive Man seemed somewhat short and slight, with dark features and alarmingly pale blue eyes. They looked almost unnatural, as if he'd had surgery to put them in.
"Madam Prime Minister, you need to get on the news channels immediately and make a statement saying you do not agree with Cerberus or its principles," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "Ambassador Udina, you also need to get on all Council channels saying the same thing. We'll need you to speak to the Council and convince them that the Alliance had nothing to do with this. Fishdog is a salarian business, it should be quite difficult."
"You're right," the Prime Minister said.
"Then you need to surrender," I found myself saying. All eyes turned to me. I shifted uncomfortably.
"Humanity doesn't surrender to aliens," Ambassador Udina said coldly.
"Well, you can't exactly say 'humanity doesn't endorse the killing of aliens', then say 'humanity doesn't surrender to aliens'," I said, realising too late that I was digging myself the galaxy's deepest grave. "Those two don't exactly sit well together."
"Shepard," Admiral Mikhailovich said warningly.
"What are you really trying to say?" I asked, ignoring him. "'Humanity doesn't endorse the killing of aliens unless we're the ones doing the killing?'"
"Shepard, that's enough," Admiral Barishka said.
"Let's look at this objectively," I continued, ignoring him too. "We continue this war, we lose Council protection, Cerberus continues bombing Council species for us, and the Council eventually declares war on us."
"Shepard I'm warning you," Admiral Mikhailovich shouted.
Still, I ignored him. "I mean, come on," I said. "The Council species are…drumroll…the asari, who are the strongest biotics in the galaxy, the salarians, who are the smartest species in the galaxy, and the turians, who have the best military in the galaxy. Their allies are the volus, who are super rich, the elcor who are seriously huge, the hanar, who are not very exciting, and the drell, who have one of our largest investors among them. If push came to shove, they could always call on the krogan, like they did when they were fighting the rach-wah!"
Admiral Mikhailovich picked me up under the armpits and marched me across the room. He opened the door, and pushed me bodily out of it, slamming the door loudly behind me.
How humiliating. I hadn't been removed from a room like that since I was twelve.
Five minutes later Commander Anderson was led out of the room by Admiral Mikhailovich, who looked as though he was about to blow a gasket.
"Don't come in until you're ready to apologise," he snapped.
He slammed the door again.
I looked at Commander Anderson. "Well, sir, if you asked me, I'd say my father is alive and well and sitting in that room," I said.
"What a bunch of over-pretentious pricks," Commander Anderson snapped. "Lives are at stake."
"What did you do to warrant being sent to the naughty chair?" I asked.
"You know, Ken you can sometimes over-labour a joke," he said impatiently.
"I am aware," I said. "So, what did you do?"
"I agreed with you," Commander Anderson said.
"That all?" I asked.
"Well, I may have called Admiral Mikhailovich a pussy who's too afraid to give his real opinion and only wants to look good for the prime minister," Commander Anderson admitted.
"You did what?" I asked in astonishment.
"Yup," Commander Anderson said. "Time in the brig for sure."
"Well, I guess now is not the best time to talk about batarian prisoners," I said.
"Tomorrow's another day, Ken," Commander Anderson said. I opened my omnitool and dialled Jason's number. "What are you doing?" Commander Anderson said.
"Trying to call my brother," I said, trying not to sound too worried. "He's a programmer in Hanshen for Dranne Incorporated."
"I'm sure he's ok," Commander Anderson said reassuringly. "He is a human after all."
"A disabled human that studied with salarians and is working for a drell," I pointed out.
It took more than two hours to get through to Jason. No one came to check up on us outside, no doubt because they were all too busy trying to kill humanity off.
"Lo?" Jason's voice sounded in my ear when I was about to give up.
"Oh my God, Jason is that you?" I gasped.
"Shay?" he asked. "Where are you?"
"I'm on Earth," I said. "Jason, are you ok? Are you safe?"
"I'm fine," Jason said. "They evacuated us. We're in a safe place."
"Thank God," I said, almost tearfully. "Holy Mother, I was worried Jason."
"No need," he said calmly. "I'm fine. They got a hold of some of the alien staff before the soldiers could stop them, but I got out safely."
"Jason listen to me," I said. "You need to get off Noveria. Go to Tiptree, go stay with grandma and grandpa for a bit. Just get away from there."
"No," Jason said.
"What?" I asked. "Did you just say no?"
"Yes," he said stubbornly. "Noveria's my home, and these are my friends they're threatening. I'm not leaving."
"Jason Shepard," I said sternly. "You need to get off of that planet, you hear me?"
"Shay, I'm not a kid anymore," he said. "You don't get to tell me what to do."
"Jason," I began.
"Shay," he sighed. "You're not the only one who gets to fight."
"Jason, you little-," the connection cut out before I could finish what I was going to say. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," I shouted.
"Is he ok?" Commander Anderson asked.
"For the moment," I said dully. "He's not leaving Noveria though. He wants to stay, because Noveria's his home, and his friends are being threatened."
"I see 'annoyingly selfless' is a character trait of all Shepards, not just you," Commander Anderson said.
"Yeah," I sighed. I sat down on the step again. "Please God, I know You're busy protecting soldiers and stuff, but if you have time, protect my little brother," I whispered.
"Come on, Ken," Commander Anderson said. "Let's go to bed."
"What, just leave?" I asked.
"I have no intention of apologising, and I'm sure you don't either," Commander Anderson said. "And I know Mikhailovich is too stubborn to call us back in without an apology. Let's go catch some shut-eye."
I sighed. "Yeah, alright," I mumbled.
Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well that night.
…..
The next morning I was woken up at around half past four by someone shaking me. "Lieutenant Shepard?" a worried voice asked.
"It's Jane until I've had my first cup of coffee," I mumbled.
It was Greta. "There's a situation," she said. "The Prime Minister needs you in the situation room at the Alliance Buildings ASAP."
"When did you start waking people up for the Prime Minister?" I asked, getting out of bed. "What's going on?"
"Can't say ma'am," she said, her face expressionless. "All I know is the Defence Committee needs to assemble now."
"Alright, thanks Greta," I said.
She saluted and dashed out.
Half-an-hour later I was in the situation room. "Your jacket's inside out," Commander Anderson told me. "And your trousers are back to front."
"I'm not used to putting my blues on at half past four in the morning," I explained. I supressed a yawn. "Is there coffee?"
He nodded at the table, where a delicious-looking breakfast was laid out. "Good to know in a crisis, humanity knows what its priorities are," Commander Anderson said.
"What's going on?" I asked, helping myself to cereal.
He shrugged. The Prime Minister and the other ministers walked in and we all stood up. I thought she looked remarkably alert for a woman who had gotten very little sleep the night before.
"Thank you for getting here at such an early hour," she said. "You may be seated."
We sat down again. "Joker, pass the marmalade," Captain Johnson said.
"What's the situation?" Commander Anderson asked.
"This morning, at approximately one AM sol, the batarians started a strike against Alliance forces in the Attican Traverse," Minister Hendricks said.
"So, they've been doing that for seven years now," I said. "What makes this so special?"
"There's a new kind of weapon that the enemy is using," Admiral Hackett, who looked like he hadn't had any sleep at all the previous night, said.
"Uplink established, Madam Prime Minister," one of the techs said.
"Patch it through," the Prime Minister said. "This vid was taken off of the external cameras of one of the ships in the battle."
One of the giant vid screens lit up to show the system of the Attican Traverse. The clip itself was short, maybe fifteen seconds long, but was long enough to show an Alliance cruiser get blown up in a bright red flash.
"What the hell caused that?" Captain Valje asked. "I didn't see any shell or projectile."
"Preliminary analysis shows that the explosion is caused by a light device that works through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation," Admiral Mikhailovich said.
"English, damn it," Commander Anderson said. "I didn't get up before the crack of dawn on an off day just to have Wikipedia quoted at me."
"A laser," Lieutenant Morreau said.
"A laser?" Captain Johnson echoed.
"We're not sure, but yes, that is that is what this appears to be," Minister Hendricks said, sounding more than slightly worried. "An incredibly high-powered laser that's capable cutting through metal at range."
"Ok, not to sound stupid, but a laser is just an extremely powerful light, right?" I asked. "How does it work in a vacuum?" Admiral Foster shook his head pityingly at me. "No?" I asked.
"If anything, a laser is even more powerful in a vacuum," he said, vaguely patronisingly. "There are no particles in a vacuum to diffract the photons on the laser from its original path, thus making it more powerful."
This didn't make any sense to me, but I nodded and said, "Of course, you're right."
"Where did they get this kind of tech though?" Captain Schmidt asked. "We don't have it. Heck, the Council doesn't have it."
"We don't know," Admiral Kahoku said. "As far as we know, no species has this kind of tech yet. We've experimented with laser-powered weapons, but we haven't developed one accurate enough or powerful enough to take out an entire ship."
"What was the outcome of the battle?" Captain Johnson asked.
"It's still carrying on as far as we know, but we've lost ten ships already," Admiral Barishka said. He too looked exhausted.
"I need to get back," Commander Anderson said at once. "Alenko and Marikain can't do this on their own."
"We're sending you back this afternoon," Admiral Mikhailovich said. "All of you. But first we need to solve this."
"What do you mean solve this?" I asked. "It's not like we can wave a wand and make the nasty batarians disappear."
"We received a message from the batarian monarch demanding our surrender," the Prime Minister said. "He said that this was the smallest of their plans, and if we don't surrender to them we'll regret it forever. He also said he's willing to negotiate who gets to hold on to Skyllia if we surrender now."
"Well, that seems simple enough to me," I said. "When will this war be over?"
"I can't just surrender," the Prime Minister said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"General Williams is the only human to surrender to the aliens," she said. "I can't just set this precedent."
"Look, I know General Williams' granddaughter, and trust me, his surrendering hasn't made her any less gung-ho," I said. "In fact, she's probably this nuts because he surrendered."
"Shepard," Admiral Mikhailovich started.
The Prime Minister held her hand up. "Let her speak," she said.
"I'm all for fighting unbeatable odds," I said, surprised and slightly alarmed that I had been given a spot in the limelight. I cleared my throat loudly before continuing with my speech. "I mean, look at me, I was born with unbeatable odds, yet here I am, still fighting. The danger comes though when you're too ornery to give up that you start hurting yourself and those around you. There's nothing wrong with giving up sometimes," I said softly. "It shows that you're smart enough to know that you're beaten."
There was absolute silence in the room. "The thing the Council species admires most about the human race is the fact that we are stubborn enough to keep going when our odds are stacked," Ambassador Udina said.
"I thought it was the fact that humanity looks out for its own before anyone else," I snapped. "Look, whose side are you on anyway?"
"Humanity's, Lieutenant Shepard," Ambassador Udina said. "Unlike you it seems."
"If you were really on humanity's side, you wouldn't endorse the continual loss of arguably innocent people for the sake of saving face to the Council," I snapped. "And this isn't just about humans dying anymore. We're turning into a group of scared cowards that hide behind locked doors and fire nuclear bombs at aliens because they're different to us."
"Enough," the Prime Minister said. "Saul, order the release of the batarian prisoners of war. That's a good enough compromise for now while I try and figure out what to do next."
"There may be a way for me to get the Council on our side, Madam Prime Minister," Ambassador Udina said.
"Do what you can, Ambassador," the Prime Minister said. "Thank you all for your help. You may go."
"What?" Captain Estavez asked.
"You need to pack, Captain," Admiral Kahoku said. "You fly back to Skyllia today."
…..
I was always kind of disappointed that I never got to make my 'I'm pissed off for the torture of batarians' stand, but I was proud that I stood up for what I thought was right in front of the most important people on the Alliance. That afternoon, I boarded a ship back the Attican Traverse, where, I was almost certain, a slow, gruesome and painful death awaited me.
