930 hours, 27 minutes and 44 second since the red wave of The Crucible washed over the galaxy and killed all synthetic life.
"Why are these hallways so empty, do idiots around here think it's haunted or something?" Hannah Shepard thought out loud. And by idiots she meant the crew for Admiral Hackett's ship. She had been stuck on his ship since they pick here out of that escape pod about five weeks ago. Now she ran around this ship, giving orders to what felt like every human in existence, and her patience was waving thin.
She emitted that this was bound to happen eventually, but it did not mean she liked it. Admiral Hackett had declared martial law on Alliance and what was left of humanity. Now every commanding officer had kilotons of civilians dumped in their lap and told get them organized. All the civilian governments were dead, including the old Earth countries and Alliance parliament, so the chain of command was the closes thing now to a form of government.
The worst part is that nobody knew what to do. Some want to form new countries on Earth, while others wanted to reestablish the old countries of Earth. There was even talk about just making on unified government with Alliance taking on all affairs of governing and not really being much of a alliance any more, just a single force of humanity. Hannah personally liked the sound of the last one the most. The countries of Earth were often filled with the ignorant and too much tradition, also completely unaware of what happened outside of Earth. And now that most of population is dead and the old Earth nation having been reduced to rubble, it meant it was best time to create a single force for humanity.
However they would probably expect someone to make a new constitution or something to make this new government and would also expect probably an admiral to do that, which included her. She did not want do that, hell she did not want be an admiral. It was just the fact that Reapers killed so many, she became a rear-admiral. And she tired of it. She felt like a combination of the grief of responsibility, the anger of having deal with too much and not being able to punch things, and finally just weariness of working for so long. Her hair was a nice blond before all this and now there were very prevalent stripes of grey in it. Her once sort of perfect skin had succumb to wrinkles and slag. She also felt physically lighter.
She was not the only one feeling this. The after mention idiots all had dirty uniforms with holes, dark saucers around their eyes the size of dinner plates and all had seemly picking up a hearing disability so they all had to be told twice to doing something right. Reports she would get were often now filled with grammatical and spelling mistakes, some were just plain out right unintelligible. Even some of her most trusted and best men were now coming down with incompetency from their tired states. It was like the brains and personality of crew she worked with had been thrown out the air lock.
It was times like this she just wish she could shoot something or someone. But no, she had a job to do that involved making sure millions of civilians and soldiers got food they need. That she had set up for next wave of search party or order a ship to deliver some supplies. And last but not least, working with their new alien allies to make sure everyone was comfortable squatting in the Sol system. At this moment retirement did not sound like a bad option.
Then there was infuriating matter before her. Five day ago, she was told by Hackett himself that she could finally go visit her boy. But right when she is about to visit, the doctor pull him away for surgery and tell her come back a couple of days. "The balls on that quarian to send her off" she thought. If he did the same thing again, she would shoot him with her ivory gripped Paladin. "They're ivory. Only a pimp from a cheap Omega whorehouse would carry a pearl-handled pistol" she thought.
Just as she thought about all ways to kill that orange quarian, she came across what must be keeping the crew out of these halls. In front of her were a handful of fully armored krogan with huge shotguns. She personally never understood why people were intimidated by these oafs, she thought they look like over sized turtles or toads. "How could anyone take them seriously?" she thought.
As she stormed by them as they growled at her, but it only remind her of tom cats back when she was a child on the farm that would hiss at anything that moved. Then they would beat their fist to try look imposing, but that did not work on Hannah because she could have them all thrown out the air lock or at end fire squad by the end of the day.
Then she finally got to a krogan standing in front of door to her son's room. This one, she came to conclusion to was especially adorable. His small hump, his lack of a fully develop crest and the fact he tried to look so imposing made him seem child like. However, his eyes disturbed her. They were icy blue that sent chill with knowledge that he was a pure blood killer who loved it.
"Human, female, small, old, what do you want?" asked the krogan, who took a step forward to have his face just inches away from hers, sniffing her. She made a note on his bad breath.
She felt her blood boiled at his remark. "How dare he call me small" she thought. Five, two was a perfectly acceptable height in her mind of a serving woman. She considered that moment calling the marines, but decided to wait of this panned out. Did he also call her old too? She would give him a special personal hell later.
"I am here to see the commander If you can't guess. Now step aside" she figured that if Krogan did not know who she was, she should keep that knowledge ready till later. For knowledge is power and in right hands, a powerful weapon.
"I do not sense fear in you, that's good. But I don't recognize you, so I will not let you see the Battle Master" he stepped back and took back his attention position, his gaze still firmly on her.
"Battle Master, you call him Battle Master? So he is your superior, correct?" He called her son Battle Master. "What had her son gotten himself into" she wondered.
He took a few moments to respond. "Yes he would be my greater and few others" he seemed to be offended in having to admit that. That's also when an idea came to her.
"It seems to me that you don't know the long standing human tradition. In human culture, mothers always outrank their offspring. And since my offspring outranks you and I outrank him. That would mean I outrank you as well. So step aside" now she prayed that krogan did not know better.
He stood there for a while; she guessed trying to decide if she was lying. But finally he let out"Humans are strange, fine. Go on in" He step aside and gave her a mean stare.
Once inside, she inhaled quickly with surprise at the sight before her. Before her laid in bed a man, one that look like her son, but looked strangely wrong. He was flexing his left arm and curling it, when she noticed that his bicep looked sickly wrong. It was grey and you could count fibers. It reminded her of the arm muscles of the geth, but these were on her son. As well, there were two artificial fingers instead of his pinky and ring finger on his left hand. They were thick and made no attempt to look human, no nails or fake skin. They were just thick grey synthetic muscle, again very geth like.
However that was not disturb her to most, it was his face that disturbed her the most. Red cracks surrounded his face, making it seem like one could pull off his face and show a burning sun. It looked wrong or even daemonic. It was especially disgusting to see it on her boy.
"What happened to your?" Hannah used her own finger to point to her own face, her words getting stuck in her throat. The last time she saw her boy in person was to see him off as Captain Anderson XO. Back then he was jaded and hardened, but that look meager compared to his expression on his face now. There was also something new on his face too, tiredness. From what she could only possibly imagine.
"Mother! You did not know? I was on the vids with my interview; I figured everyone was use to my ugly mug" he stopped focusing on his left arm's new features and turn to his mother with honest look of confusion.
"No I saw the interviews and I am very proud on how you talked her down, but…" She drift off as an answer came to her mind. Shepard was much a symbol of humanity and the Alliance would not want their symbol to look inhuman. So the Alliance paid or intimidated the studio to edit the vids to cover the scars to keep their symbol looking good.
"I think I figure out why I did not know, but what are they? Is it from the Reaper?" uttered Hannah with the desire to find out what happened to her child.
"No this was from when I died and Cerberus resurrected me. They never finish completely, leaving the scars, and I kept them to remind myself of my failure. They also help me make people see my way" he smiled a little at the final statement. It did not ease her at all.
"I heard you were working for Cerberus from Anderson, I would not have believed it from anyone else. But you actually died?" what she said was true and it was part of the reason she came. She had not heard anything about her son activities' since he became a specter and she came to hear his story.
"Yes, I know it's hard to believe but it did happen. And afterward I worked with Cerberus to stop the Collector. Then I cut ties from them" he made sure to emphasis on the with in his statement, but he did not need to. She believed him.
She stoppedhim before continuing. "So the rest of the" she pointed to his bicep and fingers "are from injuries on Earth" She had a feeling what the answer would be but wanted to hear it from him.
"Yes they are, and supposedly half of them haven't been implanted yet. I thought at first my cybernetics expert was alright, you know the quarian with the bulky suit. But he turns out be insane as Xen. He just came in here one morning, knocks me out cold and next I wake up with this bicep and fingers. Talk about poor bedside manner" He looked away from her when he was done, as if transfixed on something in his lap. She had pulled up a chair while he was talking, leaning forward with her elbows to her knees and her hands together.
"I will have a talk with this quarian later; I think I know who your talking about. He has an orange suit right?" She raised an eyebrow waiting for his answer.
"Yeah that's the one. He also wants to do more cybernetics than I think is necessary and my other doctor agrees with me. And don't get me start on her" he rolled his eyes as he mention her.
"From the way you make it sound, it sounds like you have the worst doctors in the world" she must admit that she was very interested. And if they did any wrong the her son, she would bring down fury of as much Alliance she commanded on them.
"Oh don't worry; they just have poor bedside manners. I am sure they are the best at what they do or else their respective people would not have sent them" it was at this point Hannah decided to cut to the chase and get to why she came here.
"So you care to tell me what you been doing for the last four years. All I been picking in up is the headlines and I doubt that's the even the half of it" she smiled that smile that showed pride in her son. She had to admit she had no idea about what he was going to say next.
"The best way to describe it is like a roller coaster, there have been highs and lows. When I started as a XO of prototype ship it was just a job I did so other did not have to do it. It slowly became I did that job because I wanted to defend the people I cherish" his regards were still on the sheets covering his lap. He paused for a several moments, as if expect his mother to interject. But she did not. She stay there, listening intently and calmly.
"I have had to make some tough calls, but I have made some friends, which is something I never expect out of this job. And I have learned so much" he finally turned to her to look her eye. A look that asked what she thought about this.
"How about we talk about these new friends of yours. I must admit I am surprised to hear that, you were never very social" She remembered him becoming very quite around adolescents, never hanging out with kids his own age.
"What, where get this idea I was not social?" he looked genuinely puzzled by his mother remark.
"Well you never hang out with kids on the ship and I never heard about your acquaintances in your work"
"They other kids all turned out to be meathead and were scared of me because of my biotics. And when I joined the Alliance I decided not to be too close to people, knowing they could be gone any moment" she thought about his response and did it make sense. It was right about the time he developed biotics that he became seemly anti-social.
"So what changed? She could not wait to hear his response, feeling like a child about get a present inside.
"It's hard to resist when you work with some people for so long. And some personalities are just impossible to ignore" He gave that grin that taunts you with the fact he knows something but you don't.
"Would some of these friends be at your funeral, because then I might have met some of them then" She still remembered the funeral. It was big and public. It was at the Citadel and it seemed like everyone was were hired mourners by the cargo ship full. Then there were the speakers. Each member of the Council had given each a little speech that was obviously to her created by people who did not know her son or cared. The exception being the recently appointed Councilor Anderson, who lack of elegance in words showed very well that day and did nothing calm her mourning heart. For so long had she known nothing about her child due to top secret classification that she hardly remembered what he was like as man.
"I would assume so, I would not know because I was not there" he responded. She thought she should have seen that coming, but this was all she had to go by. She remembered a few speakers there that were supposedly part of the crew, but she never got to talk to them. And there was one in particular that made her blood boil with disgust. A turian who did not have the decency to take his stupid visor off when speaking. She did not like turians in general because every time she encounters one of them they got stick way up their butts about rules and regulations. Then there was also that time they shot at her back when she was a lonely navigator for SR Goshawk during the First Contact War. She also thought they were just freaky looking as well.
"So does a turian whose always wearing a visor ring a bell to you" At her retort Shepard seemly burst with excitement.
"That was probably Garrus" he paused when he figured out what his mother was thinking, letting his next statement drip with suspicion. "Mother, this isn't about your hatred of turians is it? I know they shot at you during First Contact, but Garrus is different and he is too young for that or at least I think he is"
"Sure he is different. Did not seem too different to me at your funeral" she still remembered his piece. He was the only one who was as bad as Anderson in his wordplay.
"Ok, first off he was not at First Contact. Two he is not a stickler for rules like the others, actually he joined my team to get away from C-Sec red tape and rules. And finally that man has been with me on almost every mission since almost the beginning for my hunt for Saren. There are few others who I trust equal to him" after he was satisfied with is answer he fold his arms, as if asking her to make a counter argument. However if he is this passionate about this, maybe she should keep an open mind about this Garrus fellow.
"Alright I get the picture. If I ever meet him, I will try to give him fair shake. Now there was another one I wanted to talk about. There was an asari who also spoke on your behalf, a Tiara L'soni or something, I forget her name. But I do remembered she had impressive credentials" She remember her very well as her speech sound more like little schoolgirl with a crush than adult. But then again she never really liked asari to begin with. Always trying to hide behind words and suitors, never getting their hands dirty, they mostly made her sick. Also did not help that their reproduction system always gave her a headache when they tried to explain it to her.
"That is Liara T'soni and yes she is a friend. We had a little bit of rough start because I had told her I killed her mother. But now I say were friends" Rioul stance became more uncertain and he looked away at something on the floor when he mention the rough start. And idea came to her head, was there something more to this she wondered. Was he afraid that she would disapprove of a relationship with an asari? She was not for certain and decided not to press until she had more evidence.
"I also spotted a quarian there as well, she did not say anything and she ran away when I tried to talk to her. But I have to assume you knew her if they let her in the VIP area of the funeral" She remember seeing the petite thing there, standing as if trying use up as little space as possible and not get in anyone's way. That was the first time she seen a quarian in the flesh, but she had heard of their reputation from the other species.
Her son's behavior at mentioning the quarian she found more interesting than his response. His cheeks turn red, his scars red glow faded, he awkwardly stared away from her and he rubbed his neck, a tick she often took for embarrassment or nervousness. It flared up her motherly instincts like ant under magnifying glass in summer heat. Did her son have feelings for this quarian? The idea shocked her more than idea that he had feelings for the asari. She did not know what to think. If either were case, she will grill him when he announce it to her, if he does.
"She is best engineer I ever met and she is a good friend, just as good as friend as Garrus and I trust her just as much. She has been with me for almost as long and she has given me a great respect for the quarian people. Also probably one of nicest people I ever meant, I am kind of surprised she was at funeral" At her son's uncomfortable response, she decided to change the subject. But her suspicions were set very high by his response.
"And when did you get krogan bodyguards. You going to tell me they are your friends too" She saw an instant change in her son's expression at the change of questioning, eager to talk about the krogan.
"Oh, them. Well you see I became good friends with the now krogan leader, Wrex, during my hunt for Saren. He helped kill my way to Saren and his goons. Afterwards I urge him go back to Tuchunka and help his people. The rest is history. I guess he figured I need guarding sense I have proven to be a valuable ally to the krogan. Also the krogan at the door, Grunt, I served with him during my mission against the Collectors and has been a loyal ally ever since. I could not hope for a better guard" She smirked at his comment about his guard. She thought about whether she should say she trick this Grunt into letting her in, but decided to hold back. He had enough to worry about and she did not think anyone else would be able to get away with that, so there was little to worry about.
"This all well and good but do you have any friends that are human? I have meant Kaidan and he seems like nice kid, no backbone, but a nice guy." At this point in conversation she was wondering if her boy remembered what color his blood was, but this was a time for recovering time, not persecution.
"Don't worry about that, I have plenty. But some of them make the aliens look normal" he was now looking at her, his face showing fondness of memories only he saw. However she was getting overwhelm by all these people, and although she saw that this brighten his mood, that will fade when she leaved and he be alone and weary again with his thoughts. She saw it as her duty now put some ease on this.
"Well I am sure I will meet them all, but let's talk about what was troubling you before I got here. I know you will try to deny it, but don't bother lying to your mother. I can tell that this position, being a specter has placed aches on your soul and mind. Speak of them child" He was stunned by sharpness of which his mother change to conversation. That's how she like to do things, when they come to mind and charge full force.
"Alright, if you insist, while I have been sitting here I have been doing some thinking. I have made some calls that at the time I thought were right but now I not so sure. Now I am wondering if there might been some…" he did not get to finish as his mother placed a finger to his lips hushed him.
"Let me stop you before you go with that thought. Look what you have done, you have brought a divided galaxy under one banner and slain the greatest threat ever to arise. All in command have to make tough choices, I have made some myself. Here is example you can relate to. Remember back when that Reaper, Sovereign, attacked the Citadel; I was part of the relief force Hackett mustard up to attack the geth and their Reaper master. I and my crew had taken quite a kill count, but we got the enemies attention. We could take quite a beating being our ship is a dreadnought and all. But things were getting very bad. Some of my trusted confidantes said ship could not take anymore, we should abandon ship and we would lose a lot more of the crew if we did not abandon ship. However I knew that if we abandon ship the geth would go past us and destroy the weaker ships behinds us, killing hundreds more. Or I could stay and loose a dozen men and possibly lose the ship. I found the choice was obvious and we held are ground. I lost a lot good friends and ship had to dock back on Earth for repairs. But I took solace knowing I saved the people behind me" she gave a weak smile at the end of her story. It was tough after that, the crew grew distant for a while and being planet side was worst thing for her. But she knew it was the right call.
"Oh, mother you were grounded by repairs. That had to tough for you" her son's show of sympathy was about two years late, but it was appreciated. She did in fact hate being of planets for any extend period of time. It made her feel dizzy with different composition in the air, the open sky and no hum of a drive core to comfort her to sleep. She spent so much time in space it was just hard to transfer to life on the ground. However she tried to stay positive.
"Oh it was not all bad, got to have some face to face time with family, actually got to be there for the holidays. Also was able to get some good food for change as well" She had four other siblings who she was close to, but never really got to talk to either. They all grew up on a farm in Montana with Ma and Pa. And would tease her for staring for hours on end at the stars, she just loved their beauty. So she did her best in school to get scholarships for college to become an astronomer. Then Alliance all of a sudden comes up, advertises as exploration force for the stars and it was love at first sight. Next thing she knows is being picked up as a navigator and going to the stars. Then First Contact happened and the Alliance becomes more military, but she did not mind. As longs she got to see the stars, she was happy, even if that meant she did not get see her family as much.
"That's good to hear. How are they anyway, I have seen them since I was seventeen" With also being in military, her own little family did not get see her extend family much. Sometimes on Christmas, or other holidays, but that's was about it.
"I have been so busy I have not really got to check up on them. Although I know your grandmother is alright, so I assume your Uncle Keith is alright too" she had been so busy she could not check on the others, but since grandma stayed at the family ranch with her brother looking after her, in the middle of no-where. She was sure they were fine.
They then returned to silence as the conversation pattered off. It was obvious he was getting winded from the exchange. Her motherly instincts were flaring, telling her he needed some rest. But then he asked a strange question that hit her in face like bird flying into a window.
"Mother I am little curious about something. Do you know where dad is or whether he is alive or not?" Mr. Chirkoff as she liked to call him now invokes the temperature in her blood to rise. She would not lie, she had checked to see if he was alive or not, so she not reason not to tell. She just wondered why her son cared now, especially considering how poor they left one another the last time.
"I must admit I was curious where he was in all this chaos. Turns out he is on a little colony in the middle of no-where, running a hospital or something. Why were you wondering about that?"
"Just curious" he yawned deeply to degree she could of swore she saw his lymph nodes or something. "Those are in throat, right" she wondered. You would think being married to doctor for twenty eight year you would learn a thing or two about the human body. Turning out not to be case for Hannah Shepard.
"Alright my curiosity is satisfied for now, so come here" she swooped down on her son, consuming him with her arms in a fierce hug that had been building up for years. Her arms craved for this and ached with passion. However Rioul seemed to be startle at first, but soon embraced the embrace and gave in to the passion of maternal instinct by returning the hug, awkwardly.
"Now get some rest, you're going to need for all award ceremonies they got planned for you" she smiled as she was about to leave the door. She decided to leave before he could make protest or inquire what she meant, but she thought herself pretty obvious in what she meant.
As she walked with spring in her step away from the grumbling and growling krogan, she reviewed the facts she just learned about her son. He has become good friend with a turian, has made the krogan bask in amazement at him. Is possibly in love with an asari or a quarian, and has become a cyborg. "Well at least he us not in love with a turian" she thought optimistically. She also wonder how this could be her child, she never expected this. But then again what mother knows exactly how their kid is going to turn up. They just have to try the best the raise them right and hope for the best.
She then resigned to thought now she had get back to herding cats and stormed off to her command.
Author's Note: Well here is the usual I am sorry for being late, please forgive me and etc. I have been very busy bee.
Normally I would never put references in my story, but I could not resist. It's from a movie I LOVE to death and I will love the people who can name the movie in their reviews or private messages. Not the creepy kind love, more like water down penny for your thoughts love. Hint, its a quote the main character says and I have only change two words in the quote into one.
I am also thinking mama Shep is becoming one of my favorite characters. Mainly because I find her easy to write. By the way, should my manhood be in question for fact I find it so easy to write motherly characters? Well that is a can of worms for another day.
