As always, welcome and thank you for reading. Thanks to commentors RayneEthelwulf, Commander Alenko, NQ Wilder, and Made Nightwing. You guys rock. I'm still hammering away at the final fifteenth chapter. It's rough when you have all these notes you want to hit in the conclusion and you want to hit them all naturally and not just have a character come up and say a line then walk off again. Aaanyhow. Enjoy the wow finish.

Ch. 12 The Wow Finish

The screaming began not long after Alenko's team found the control room at the center of the ship. There were piles upon piles of Collector bodies here, curled up and dried out, some covered with downy white fuzz that signaled decomposition. There were only a handful alive here, sitting quietly near the ship's controls, leaning against the walls or each other.

Kaidan had come across several large pods in their trek to the control room, and the ones that weren't empty were filled with rotting human remains. The life support systems must have gone offline when the ship lost power, which might have been days ago.

"This is fucking grim," Bester muttered, training her gun on one of the live Collectors. "What's your order, Commander?"

Kaidan frowned and motioned to the ship's controls, "Tali, see if you can pull anything of value from the ship's files. Bester, just be ready. They aren't attacking us yet."

Tali nodded, running her six thin fingers over the display, eyes squinting behind her mask. "I'm going to need to give it a jump to turn it on and get anything," she said, lowering her omni-tool to a port in the side of the console, sparks dancing from it before disappearing into the dark.

"And see if you can get the lights on," Bester added, watching the Collectors warily.

The control console buzzed softly, lights blinking on the flat monitor. The quarian ran her hands over the controls again, nodding with satisfaction as the lights flickered on in the small room. The Collectors flinched, lifting their hands to shield their eyes, or rolling away from the sudden bright lights. Kaidan murmured a low, "Steady," to Bester to keep her calm as the creatures started moving.

"There we go," Tali said, "minimal power on. Enough to get some files." She paused, her head turning slightly. There was an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach, something like vertigo. It felt as if the whole room was slowly rocking forward. She frowned, looking over at Kaidan, gripping the console to keep her balance. "I don't feel-…"

Kaidan stepped to the side quickly, blinking at the slow tilting sensation. Bester stumbled backwards. "What the hell…?"

Tali's eyes widened. It wasn't just her, it was the ship. It was moving. She was pushed into the console with a grunt as the ship's nose continued to dip down. Panic stabbed through her. The ship was falling out of the sky. "We need to go now."

"Shit!" Bester screamed, scrambling towards the hallway.

"Alenko to Normandy! The ship is moving!"

"It's falling!" Tali shrieked, sprinting past him.

Kaidan sucked in a breath, his feet pounding the metal floor as he chased after the women. He was vaguely aware of someone calling back over the radio, demanding to know what was happening. "The ship is falling, we're coming back, we are going to need some help!"

"Copy that, Alenko!" Miranda responded. She'd been standing at the captain's controls, closely monitoring the mission. Now she sprinted towards the airlock, grabbing an emergency respirator from the wall near the door. "Joker, keep us on that ship!" In the next moment she was out into the gangway, sealing the door behind her.

The Collector ship continued to tilt, slowly being drawn towards Ilos like a sinking boat, finally snagged within its gravitational pull. The run back to the doorway leading to the Normandy continued to be a steeper and steeper climb.

"God damn it," Joker hissed, rocking the Normandy forward in an attempt to keep it connected to the Collector ship. The doorway creaked with the strain, and terrifying groaning sounds came from the hull as it rubbed against the other ship. "Hurry up!"

The bodies of the dead began to roll down the sloping floor towards them as they ran, and Kaidan had to dodge a few, gritting his teeth. "Turn on your boots!" he barked, staring at a corner of the HUD in his visor and activating the electromagnets within his shoes. They instantly gripped the floor, making sure he wouldn't slip back down into the depths of the ship but also making the climb a lot slower. The technology was meant for zero gravity, not this, and they might not hold up if the ship continued to tip. Tali stumbled, and he reached out to catch her. She gasped out a thanks, settling her feet more firmly on the floor and began to run again.

He could see light ahead. The doorway to the Normandy was only ten yards away. They were going to make it.

The Collector ship groaned and rattled, pitching to the side. Kaidan crouched, trying to keep his balance. He suddenly heard Miranda yelp and Joker cursing over the radio. "It pulled away from us, the jetway broke off!" Shit. "You any good at the long jump, Commander?"

"Stay on it, Joker!" Miranda ordered, stepping backwards and closer to the Normandy, holding onto the edge of the ship as the jetway connecting to the other ship shattered and flew off into space.

"I am, damnit! Everyone hang on!" The Normandy dove, spinning with the Collector ship as it continued to fall, spiraling and picking up speed.

Kaidan was aware of Bester screaming something as he continued to climb, fingers digging into the defects in the floor. All he could make out from Tali was "go go go!" over the creaking of the ship and the howling of the wind rushing in from the open door. He was four yards from the doorway now, and could barely see Miranda leaning out of the Normandy, shouting something at them, holding out her hand. She sometimes disappeared from view as the Normandy bobbed and weaved in an attempt to keep pace with the falling vessel. Bester and Tali were ahead of him, still climbing. The Normandy was too far away, and unable to keep up with the falling Collector ship. The world was shuddering violently and all he could do was hang on. They weren't going to make it.

He sucked in a breath, pulling himself upright, and swept his arms out with a bellow. Biotic power glimmered around Bester and Tali, propelling them through the air and towards the Normandy.

Miranda managed to grab them with her hands and pull them onto the platform, staring down at Kaidan as she got further and further away. "Alenko!"

This was it. He couldn't fling himself with his biotics. He wasn't strong enough. He would never be strong enough. This was the end. Honestly, he felt more guilt than fear, knowing all too well what Shepard would go through. He heard her voice then, screaming over the radio in his ear, "No!"

Suddenly, he was surrounded by blue light and was flying through the air, out the doorway, watching the Collector ship fall away from him and plummet towards Ilos. He felt the Normandy hit him hard, making his vision swim, and when it cleared he looked up to see Miranda standing over him, her hand in a fist, the two of them illuminated with her fading blue biotic energy.

Kaidan let his head fall back and the world went black.