Chapter 21

Dirt floated in the beam of Shepard's Omni-Tool light as bounced off the tunnel walls. A musky dampness tickled her nose. A quick glance back confirmed she hadn't lost anyone yet. All the gawking and conversation had long since died down in the monotony of the tunnel system.

Shepard rummaged in her pocket for the other green capsule she'd taken from Dr. Chakwas. Her fingers fumbled around the incendiary and lift grenades until she found it and popped it in her mouth. The cool and quiet of the underground tunnels helped the pounding in her skull. They slowed on an intersection of tunnel passageways. Shepard flicked her light right and then left.

"This way." She continued ahead.

James edged up beside her and lowered his voice. "Not questioning you here, Lola, but we've been going around a long time. I mean, you must know something about this place finding those hidden doors, activating that bridge, and all."

"We're almost there," Shepard said.

"Yeah, but where's 'there?'" James said.

Jensen clicked her tongue as her light flashed around the tunnel. "Sure reminds me of the keeper tunnels back on the Citadel."

"When did you see keeper tunnels?" Briggs snorted.

"Grew up on the citadel. Trust me, got up to a lot worse than that."

"Who'd a thought these relays were so much like the citadel, right?" James turned back to them. "Didn't even know the relays had tunnels."

Shepard stopped. Her light illuminated a steel door dead ending the hallway in front of them. She turned to Jensen standing a few steps behind.

"Jensen, the door," Shepard said.

Jensen grinned rushing ahead and dropped beside the door. She ran her hands along the outside and searched along the sides of the tunnel with her light.

"I- I'm not sure how to open it, ma'am. There's no control panel to override."

Shepard sighed coming over and bent down by her. She ducked her head next to Jensen's watching the light as it moved across the smooth surface. No circuitry. Not that she was any good at that stuff herself anyway. Her palm pressed against the door. Her breath caught.

"What is it?" James rushed over.

Shepard blinked as her eyes swam with images. She rose unsteadily against the door and pulled her hand away with a gasp.

"What happened?" James said.

The door gave a dusty, squealy groan. Shepard stumbled back as it shivered and scraped across the floor retracting into the wall. The stale air hit them like the winds from a crypt. A faint light burned in the distance as Shepard edged past the door. Her footsteps echoed around the towering chamber. Her hair stirred around her head as she edged to a gasping chasm and looking up. It had to be as tall as the top of the level. Her breath caught as her eyes dropped to four metal bridges spanning the windy chasm. The dim light she'd seen glowed in the ring intersection of the bridges. A white shaft of mist or dust phosphoresced came up through the ring and shined into the dark canopy overhead. It was a glimmering stone suspended above the central ring in the shaft of light that caught Shepard's eye. She smiled.

"Set some lights up," Shepard said and hedged along the walkway encircling the chasm. The bright shaft vanished into the depths below. Shepard peeked past her toes into the torrent of wind and darkness. She pulled her head back and edged to the nearest bridge.

"You going to get up there?" James asked. "Doesn't look too steady."

James scooted along the chamber's wall and edged up beside her. The bridge's thin metal groaned as Shepard tested the weight of one foot. James gave her a sharp look, and she slowly lifted her other foot. The bridge moaned as she settled it beside the other. The metal shifted, and James caught at her elbow. The bridge settled as Shepard stood still in the whipping wind up the chasm.

"It's fine," Shepard murmured. "I'll go slow."

"Okay …" James released her elbow and pressed back to the wall.

Shepard shuffled forward as the bridge's overlapping metal plates groaning beneath her boots. The interlocking joints along the bridge shifted and she put her arms out with a grimace. James drew a sharp intake of breath. Her feet slipped backward on the metal as the bridge slanted up to the middle ring.

She crested the slope drawing shallow breaths. Her eyes focused on a stone no bigger than her hand, dark and smooth, hanging in the air ahead. The white mist hung in the air around it shooting up and down like a beam of light but without energy. It looked almost like snow or dust caught in the flash of a camera. Shepard shuffled up to the edge of the bridge where it connected by a thin metal ring circling the open air. The ring was wider than she realized, wider than a person laying down. The reflected back at her hanging just out of reach.

"Can you get it?" Jensen hollered. "That's what you're after, right? That what we came for?"

Shepard bit into her lip and strained forward. She had nothing to hold onto. Her stomach caught in her chest as she teetered. She drew back slapping back on the flat of her feet. The bridge shuddered. She froze, arms spread, and adjusted her balance as it settled beneath her.

"Want me to come up the other side, Commander?" James asked.

He scooted along the wall in the corner of her vision.

"No," Shepard yelled not taking her eyes of the shard. It wasn't much of a prize to look at it. The black chunk of metal barely had a shine, but that had to be it.

"What can we do?" Jensen called.

Shepard shifted on her toes and pushed her fingers into the mist feeling the air. A cool light chilled up her arm as she pushed her hand out further. The gravity field was bent or changed somehow. Shepard squinted up at the shard. Maybe she could use the field to reach it, but that didn't seem right either. She frowned and concentrated until a shiver ran down her back. She yanked her hand back and snapped onto the heels of her boots. She adjusted her weight as the bridge shifted and turned toward James. He was still inching along the walk and almost opposite her now.

"Vega," she called.

"You want me to come up?"

"No," Shepard said.

James paused waiting for her to speak.

She chewed her bottom lip and finally gave a growling sigh. "Bring me Anchor,"

X

"Commander." Anchor's voice echoed entering the chamber door below.

Shepard hadn't moved. She stood stiffly at the edge of the bridge next to the unmoving mist. She tilted her head enough to watch him gawk up at the massive room.

"Hey," Shepard called down. Her voice reverberated distantly in the chamber above. "I didn't call you to come gawk. I need your …" She grinded her teeth and then spat it out, "Biotics."

"My biotics?" He raised his voice over the wind.

"For what they're worth. I need you up here."

James frowned. "We still got that creature that makes the biotic fields."

"No," Shepard called. "Send Anchor up. I need some dexterity, a small level of finesses, to get this thing down."

"You can't reach it?" James projected stepping up to the edge of the gaping hole.

"I need a mass field to take it. Anything else, it'll just shatter. Anchor, get your ass up here."

"I'll come right up," Anchor said.

He shuffled against the wall rounding in front of her. Shepard gave another long sigh and shifted on her feet as she waited.

"Come up the bridge across from me," she yelled down.

"Certainly."

James lingered just out of full view as she watched Anchor approach the bottom of the bridge. The metal plating squealed and shifted, and Anchor reeled back from it.

"It's fine," Shepard said. "Go slowly. It's old."

"If your weight's already on it, then you add mine …" he said.

"That's why I told you to take the opposite bridge. Look at them, they're not supporting each other."

"So, my side goes, you'll be fine," Anchor hissed.

Shepard strained to hear it.

"Are you coming up or not? If not, I'll figure something else out. You decide, Anchor. Time's ticking."

"All right," Anchor bit off.

The metal shifted and whined as his full weight settled on the bridge. James paced against the wall with hands clutched behind his back. He caught Shepard's eye with a frown. Anchor squirmed slowly up the bridge. After some metal creaking and sharp intakes of breath, he crested the rise of the bridge, and she could see him. Their eyes met through the powdery beam.

"Why aren't you doing it? You're a strong biotic, I hear."

"Did you want to help or not?" Shepard asked.

He gave a weak shrug with his arms winged out. He picked his way forward as the metal groaned.

"Damn this is creaky. One good thunk …" Anchor looked down at her feet. "Your side just as bad?"

"You almost ready?" Shepard asked.

He slipped up to the edge of the metal ring and gazed up at the shard.

"Ah, there it is. Everything we came for. That's it? Smaller than I thought."

"The admiral said it was small."

"Yeah, not much of a shard. Makes me think of a crystal. Why'd they call it that?"

Shepard released a long breath to draw his attention. His head snapped back to her.

"Listen now," she said. "You have to reach up through this field. Use your biotics. This fields, it's a distortion in mass effect energies. I don't know how. I can't explain it. Just reach in. See what you feel."

Anchor's frowned at her but gave a sigh and reached a quaky hand out. His fingers dipping into the white mist. He blinked as if sensing something.

"You know what to do?" Shepard asked.

"No. I feel like I could … maybe …"

"Reach up. Draw on your biotics."

"They're weak."

"Doesn't matter. Just a little. Just enough. Shift the energy up but bend the center. Then let it move to the shard and pull inward. You can feel the resistance. Work around it like drawing in a vortex only outward."

His eyes scrunched as he gazed down into the abyss. A blue so pale it was almost white flared across his skin. He reached up in the mist and a swirl of blue light rose from his fingertips. The shard glowed, twisting, and vibrating.

"Slow down," Shepard snapped.

Anchor took a deep breath as the shard stilled. He tried again. It glowed with a soft hum.

"You're doing it," Shepard said.

She touched the misty beam could feeling the energies move.

"Now draw in a vortex but reverse it. Feel it loosening?"

Anchor grit his teeth and danced his fingertips at the shard. It rocked, tipping, and slide through the mist. Shepard lunged for it, but Anchor snatched it and rocked back. Shepard reeled back and retributed her weight as the bridge groaned.

"Good. You've got it," Shepard said.

Anchor opened his hand. It rested in his palm so dark against his skin, it seemed to draw in light. Anchor looked up and met her eye.

"Here." He stretched through the mist holding it out to her.

Shepard shook her head with a pressed lipped frown. "Just bring it back down."

"Wait," Anchor's eyes widened. "It's starting to stick. I can't …"

"What?" Shepard surged forward and grabbed a hand out after it.

Anchor snapped it back in his hand. "Got it. Careful."

He tippy toed and shot his other hand out. He met her hand and shoved her backward. Her elbow locked throwing her stumbling back. She teetered on the edge of the bridge as the metal screaming and moving beneath her.

"Commander," James yelled.

The metal gave way beneath her. Shepard lunged for the ring connecting the bridges as hers broke away. Her fingers skimmed the metal as she fell. Anchor stared wide eyed shooting away as the light pinholed. She threw her hands out to grasp something. Grasp anything. Her finger tips grazed the beam of light. Worthless. She felt the lump in her pocket and fumbled at it. The end of the light approached. She hurled the grenade. The light ended. It exploded.

Pain slammed into her body. She screamed, or tried, but her lung wouldn't opening. Blood oozing across her face from her bit tongue as circled floating above the ground. Her knuckled dragged on cool metal floor as bit of shattered armor floated around her face. Pain ripped her leg. She strained to see in the darkness. Her lungs opened, and she screamed. Gravity returned and she fell as the pieces of her armor rattled to the floor around her. She spit up blood, curling an arm around her leg, and stared up in the darkness.

She'd gotten the right one from her pocked: the lift grenade. A fifty percent chance and she was alive. She screamed again. The walls echoed around her. Faint voices stirred above. The prick of light above looked like a star. She stared at it, gasping for breath, and wondered if it really was a star.