Chapter 14
Shepard finished developing a program to filter and automatically approve certain requests. Roughly half of her new job appeared to be to approve requests that nearly anyone in C Sec could have approved, so this allowed her to focus on far more pressing plans, namely the allocation of resources of the fifty-nine human colonies to best allow restoration of the most colonies at once. Fourteen of the colonies are completely uninhabited, and the bulk of the resources from the colonies are being directly funneled to Earth to reestablish trade hubs and Alliance headquarters.
Despite the fact that her day to day tasks have been largely automated, she still cannot focus on her planning as Sella bought over a seamstress to work on her dress. The best she can do is float a couple of screens in front of her with her Omni-tool to read the most recent reports from each of the colonies. All of them are from early in the war. Even though the Normandy was the primary ship to acquire resources, she cannot be sure how up to date the reports are. By her best estimations, roughly half of the galactic population was destroyed, and she cannot be sure how many were humans.
"Human wedding dresses are always white? Are you sure they can't be changed?" Sella asks as she flips through multiple screens on her tablet.
"Almost without exception. Shepard has no interest in deviating." The seamstress is a human who is easily twenty years older than Doctor Chakwas with the calming presence of a grandmother, but she barely hides her irritation about the changes that the Asari kept trying to insist on.
"But they look so plain. Are you sure we can't add some flowers or color panels?"
Shepard fights to not mention that most Asari on the Citadel are frequently found wearing nearly identical floor length dresses. "I prefer no to." She simply comments, remaining as focused on her work as she possibly can be.
"She wants the dress modeled after her mother's and grandmother's. Plus, from what I can tell Shepard prefers things understated and rather not make a real fuss, so please dial it back." The seamstress fights for her instead. Shepard hides her smirk behind her translucent screen—she really wishes that she remembered her name.
"Fine. We will just make the venue more elaborate." Sella starts. "Tevos set enough funds that we can build something."
"No, the gazebo on the Presidium will be fine. There is lots of flowers there, and it is visible from several vantage points, which will be good for your goal to broadcast it across the galaxy, and it will mitigate outcry against the Council as it is a preexisting structure. Plus, it has a gorgeous view of the lake that cannot be built. If you want to relocate some plants from near construction sites to the gazebo, you can do that, but really you should not do much else." Shepard rants, still not really glancing away from her screens.
"Actually, it will be near a fountain in Citadel Tower. Tevos wants to ensure that no one can attack the members of the Council or other figureheads. Would you like me to build a gazebo?"
Shepard sighs; "No, it's fine." She goes ahead and has the colonies sorted by resource and then by the amount of the resources she suspects to be remaining. Even with incomplete data she can do this much for a starting point for when the updates come in. She had put in requests for reporters to verify the resources on each Colony, but with the wedding coming up, no one is available to go check.
"The guest list is finalized as well. Everyone should arrive in four days so we just need to double check their lodging so that no one will be sleeping on their ship." Sella seems to be mostly reporting to herself.
"My mother will be arriving with them?" Shepard finally looks away from the screen.
"No Captain Hannah Shepard will not be arriving—she did not make the cut."
Shepard says nothing.
"That is ridiculous. Her only living relative should be there." The seamstress fights for her.
"It can't be helped. We have dignitaries from every race present and very little room. We had to cut her. We did invite Garrus's family, but only his sister responded." The Asari says.
"I know you Asari don't get it, but humans are close to our families; we don't just toss our children aside when they are grown. We look after them until we die, we hold our families together as tightly as we can for as long as we can, we are devastated when the family falls apart, and, most importantly, we need to be at every event that changes our families. It was bad enough that no one took the time to tell Captain Shepard when her daughter came back from the dead, but she has to be there." The old woman rants at the officious Asari.
"I suppose I can find a spot for her." The Asari admits defeat. "I'll go call her now."
"Thank you so much for that." Shepard closes her screens as soon as Sella is out of earshot.
"I know you are just going along with this because you have to, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to get at least something that you want. I have been following you for a while—you have done everything in your power to save everyone, even when everyone was against you. You have done everything to keep the peace, making the decisions that no one else could. I may not be military, but I know that no one else could possibly do what you did. You may not be able to fight for what you want, but I can. I am old and I will never have any power, but I have no problem going head to head with that Asari." The seamstress says as she quickly programs a hologram on her own omni-tool. She sets up a mirror in front of the Commander and establishes the hologram onto her.
The hologram is thick enough that she cannot see her usual clothes through it, but she can barely even recognize herself. The dress is nearly identical to her mother's, only with a higher neckline to hide her freshest scars. It is simple, plain, but it is exactly what she wants.
"Maria, thank you so much. This is perfect." She finally remembered her name. "I really appreciate it."
"Is there anything else you want Commander Shepard? I will fight to the death to get what you deserve."
"Katherine, please. And so long as she gets my mother here in time, I will do whatever they need me to."