One More Day

They assembled in the war room, many still with blood spattering the front of their uniforms. There was a fragile tension humming in the air, at once the relief at being alive, but only the most tenuous resistance against the overwhelming despair pressing in on them from all sides. Professionalism alone, Garrus knew, was the bulwark they all took refuge behind. Chief Engineer Adams fiddled with a datapad. Specialist Traynor spoke quietly to Liara, and next to them Vega, Alenko and Javik made for a dour-looking threesome. Between bloodstains and bruises, they all looked like they'd just come out of a late-night bar brawl. Doctor Chakwas was notably absent, no doubt still attending to the wounded. Garrus supposed they'd been incredibly lucky to have suffered no fatalities; mostly just burns, impacts and no small amount of shock. It didn't do a lot to soothe his pounding headache, though.

A hush fell over the room as Shepard entered. She'd changed into uniform and was obviously doing her best to project an air of calm she probably wasn't feeling. She moved to the center, next to the display cradle, and touched a few commands. A holo of Joker, still in his pilot's chair, appeared to one side of the main display. Next to that, EDI's spherical blue avatar. The AI's body was absent. That, too, was no doubt a calculated move.

"Let's get to it," Shepard declared without ceremony. "Traynor. Communications?"

The comms specialist stood stiffly, her face pinched in the same pained expression all the humans wore. "The QEC emergency bursts I've been getting through are all reporting the same thing- any and all extra-system non-QEC communication vectors appear to be completely dead."

"All of them?" Vega asked.

"If the relay system is really closed, then it follows that all FTL comm buoys are no longer able to transmit out of system."

"The relays-"

"One thing at a time, Lieutenant," Shepard interjected. "QEC comms are functional, Traynor?"

"It appears so, Commander, but for obvious reasons we're experiencing traffic issues."

Shepard nodded. "Adams. Ship status?"

The chief engineer looked like he'd aged five years in the last hour, but he stood straight as he read off his datapad. "Starboard secondary thruster is offline. Primary has vector-guide and fuel line damage, but the reactor feed is stable. Major ablating loss in Q3 and 4 ventral, as well as minor loss in Q1 starboard. Three Q3 barrier emitters are offline and likely irreparable, and five more need electrical work. Overall, kinetic barriers are down to thirty-four percent capacity with a severe deficit on the starboard ventral section."

"I hope that's not the good news," Garrus said mildly.

"The good news is we're not dead," Adams said, wrapping his fingers around the holopad. "Internal hull integrity is sound. Commander, our big problem right now is heat. Whatever happened during that fight, we're already running well over seventy percent capacity on the sinks. We could have throughput problems on the starboard sink lines, but we're going to be in trouble if we get into another scrap."

"And we can't burn the tiger stripes or vent anything out here without lighting up like a fairground," Shepard said. "How long can we stay quiet?"

"With minimal non-essential systems, I give us maybe ten hours. But that doesn't account for any burn time we'd need to get back to a relay... or anywhere else."

"Threat of electrical discharge from the nebula?"

"EDI found us a relatively stable cloud formation, but it's not negligible, ma'am."

Shepard nodded, looking weary for a brief moment. "Repair time?"

"I think I can get the primary starboard thruster back up in about four hours, with a spacewalk. Secondary needs further assessment, but it's probably a no-go without dock time. Kinetic barrier should get back up to at least fifty with an hour of work."

"Spacewalk means our pants are down for that time," Joker said.

"I know," Shepard said irritably. "Joker, can you fly on only three mains?"

The pilot snorted. "I could fly a ham sandwich if you put an eezo line on it somewhere."

"Can the sandwich dodge an angry Reaper?"

"I'll make it work."

"Two mains?"

"On one side? Yeah, we're probably lunch."

"Walk it is." Shepard turned back and touched the control console in front of her. "Okay... EDI. What's your best assessment of what they hit us with?"

The display cradle holo came on, showing a model of the Normandy. The image scaled down, bringing the angry red scarabs of Reapers into focus. They looked huge next to the blue wedge of the ship.

"The Reapers made approximately four million seven hundred thousand intrusion attempts into my core processing between timestamp 04:17:01 and 04:17:08." EDI explained as the holo replayed the battle in miniature. "At 04:17:08, they successfully exploited a weakness in the carrier signal between my core and the mobile unit and temporarily overrode my control. It took me seven point five three seconds to regain control, but in that time the Normandy ceased evasion maneuvers. The Reapers then took up the following configuration."

The holo played forward with the Normandy at the center and the Reaper holos moving around it. Three of them moved into flanking positions kilometers away but nonetheless arranged in a triangular pattern with the SR-2 at its center. The spacing was far too even to be a coincidence.

"How very equilateral," Kaidan commented, squinting at the display.

"At timestamp 04:17:48," EDI said, "internal passive sensors logged a thirtyfold jump in hull vibration, the exact moment organic crew began experiencing physical and cognitive aberrations."

"Next time I get shot I'm calling it a 'physical aberration'," Garrus muttered.

"What caused it?" Shepard asked, shooting him a look.

"I have insufficient data to make a determination," EDI said.

"Speculate."

"Cross-referencing what data we have with known indoctrination effects suggests the two might be linked. Since sensors did not pick up any associated energy emissions, I would conclude the effect was a form of quantum interference aimed specifically at organic processes."

Liara leaned on the display cradle, peering at the tiny ship. "Perhaps they have a way of focusing their existing indoctrination array."

"Yeah, cross the beams and set them to 'brain scramble'," Joker drawled. "Great."

"They did not emit beams," EDI corrected.

"But they did deliberately move into a formation," Liara mused. "It suggests... a resonance of some kind."

"Can we avoid it in the future?" Shepard asked.

"I will add this formation to the hazard avoidance map I provide Jeff."

"So my safe corridors just got narrower," Joker said, rolling his eyes, "and I'm short a thruster. What the heck, it was getting too easy anyway."

Garrus wondered idly if he'd ever again encounter another person that evoked such a unique combination of admiration and deep desire to smack them on the back of the head.

Shepard shifted her weight, clearly trying to keep a lot of different things straight in her mind. "Next. The relays."

"They were unresponsive to all signals," EDI said. The holo in the display cradle switched to an image of one of the primary relays. "Reports from outside the system indicate the same is true across the entire network."

"Javik."

The prothean seemed startled to be addressed, shaken from whatever thoughts he was lost in. "Commander."

"Do you have any insight into any of this?" Shepard pointed to the display.

Javik shook his head. "The Citadel was lost long before I was born, and much of our history with it. In my time, we kept what records we could, but we were decentralized. When we lost a ship, often their knowledge went with them. Much of what we knew had been reduced to stories passed from one tal to another. My..." He hesitated. "You would call him 'mentor'. He told me that once, the relays had been open, a great highway for all to use. In my time, protocols were required to pass each relay. They were discovered by Ksad Ishan, the Wayfinder. He who created the Conduit of Ilos. But I am a warrior, Commander, not an engineer. Battle and command were my responsibilities. I... do not know what the engineers did to breach the relay system. That battle was fought long before I was born, and in my time it was simply the way it was."

"Then how do we-" Vega started.

Shepard silenced him with a raised hand. "You still have it, right, EDI? Please tell me the IFF is still on board."

"It is," EDI affirmed. "However, the blue box is not currently physically connected to any of my systems. It was concluded it was too much of a risk to leave active."

Garrus exhaled explosively, and Liara's eyes grew round. Vega and Alenko looked from them to Shepard, wearing the same expression of bafflement.

"IFF?" the major asked. "Identify Friend-Foe... for what?"

"It was a Reaper's," the commander said. "We acquired it during the Collector mission in order to get through the Omega-4 relay, which was also unresponsive to the usual signals. Wasn't this in the mission reports?"

He rubbed his temple with considerable consternation. "The reports stating you redacted the redacted with the redacted? No, they drifted over that point."

"Which, let's be honest here," Joker interjected, "is the only damn reason the thing is still cuddled up in EDI's main core. This might be the only time in history I praise Centcom's undying love of keeping secrets from itself."

"By the Goddess," Liara said, clapping her hands together in front of her. "We have a key!"

"A Reaper intelligence?" Javik asked. His rising tone suggested he thought Shepard had permanently abandoned reason. "On this ship?"

"The IFF is not self-aware," EDI said. "And I have already successfully identified and eliminated the problem signal source that caused the original Collector attack."

"The..." Vega said. "So wait, this thing might just be a big 'kick me' sign?"

Shepard folded her arms. "If you've got a better idea, Lieutenant, I'm all ears. Or you, Javik."

She waited, but neither said anything.

"At this point it's highly likely they're specifically after me," Shepard said. "It's possible they can even detect me somehow, I don't know. I'm not sure how much of a liability I am."

"I believe that is unlikely," the AI said. "If they could, then we would not be able to hide as we are currently doing. Further, the Normandy itself contains far more technology derived from Reaper sources than your cybernetic augmentations."

A ripple of discomfort traveled around the room. Javik glanced around as if he'd woken up in a nest of varren, but strangely, he still remained silent.

"Doesn't matter," Garrus said, "we hunt or die together, not dumping people out the airlock in hopes of a temporary reprieve."

Shepard looked through the holo, eyes hooded. "I just want everyone to fully understand the risks before we move forward."

Vega shrugged. "Ain't nowhere else to go but forward, ma'am."

She seemed to collect herself with some effort, and refocused on them, looking from one person to the next. "Here's what's going to happen. Liara, you and Traynor work on contact with anyone in the Council hierarchy as well as Admiral Hackett and any Alliance elements. Inform them we have a plan, but do not mention the IFF specifically. Liara, pass the word along to your contacts and get it out there to anyone who will listen. We don't know who might be compromised, so no details. Just that we're not sunk. Understand?"

"Yes, Commander," the two said in unison.

"Garrus, get a line through to Victus and the krogan. Same message. Make sure nobody gets any ideas about last stands just yet."

Garrus nodded.

"Adams, get that thruster running, and as much of the barrier and sink system as you can. Keep me advised of the heat situation. I want an up to the moment evaluation of our maximum range without cooking ourselves. EDI, work with Adams' team and get the IFF plugged back in. However, delay final power up until we're ready to go. Once the IFF is in place you need to run every check you can to keep from being compromised again."

"I am already running prevention scenarios," EDI said. "I suggest that when we make our run to the relay, the body be secured. I can provide specifications that will ensure sufficient restraint."

"Now wait," Joker said, "that body got our asses out of the frying pan once already. What if they try to brain scramble us again?"

Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose. "EDI, what are the chances of them getting into your control signal again?"

"I have closed the exploit they used during the attack. However, I am unable to provide a guarantee that they will not be able to compromise one of my systems again." The holo rippled slightly. "They are... too complex for me to anticipate every possible attack vector. Further, the presence of the body will cause unnecessary stress to crew who will be concerned about another intrusion. It will be a distraction."

"Perhaps a compromise," Liara suggested. "Would it be possible for you to isolate either the send or receive side of the carrier signal and engineer a failsafe? Something one of us could activate in the event it happens again?"

"What, like a killswitch?" Joker said, voice rising.

"Only affecting the carrier signal, Joker," Liara assured him, "not EDI herself. And even if we had to use it, it would be repairable."

"EDI?" Shepard said.

"After priority tasks are complete," the AI replied, "I will run scenario tests to determine if Doctor T'Soni's suggestion would work."

The commander nodded. "Do it. I'd rather have every asset on the table when we move."

Vega ran a hand over his close-cropped scalp. "Okay, so say this works and we get out. Then what?"

"If the IFF works then the next step is getting everyone else a key. The Normandy can't win this war alone."

"The IFF is a quantum-state blue box," EDI noted. "It cannot be copied in the conventional sense."

"That's why we're going to get help from the most successful distributed network in the galaxy- the geth."

The assembled crowd looked between themselves. There was clearly no end in sight for unexpected circumstances. Garrus wondered idly at what point they would cease to be surprised by anything Shepard said or did.

"The machine people?" Javik said, lip lifted. "They have no reason to aid us."

"On the contrary," Liara said. "It is within their best interests to do so. The Reapers will destroy them just as surely as us."

"And I have friends on the inside," Shepard said. "At least, I hope I still do."

"But if they can't copy it," Vega said, "what good does it do?"

"One battle at a time, Lieutenant," Shepard said. She leaned forward on the rim of the display cradle. "I don't think I have to explain to everyone what the stakes are. Right now, millions if not trillions of people are alone and very, very afraid. None of what we do now is by the book, none of it's pretty and none of it comes without big risk. I need everyone on board, and not just because our backs are against the wall."

She glanced around the room, settling her gaze on the prothean. Javik stared back for a long moment, unblinking.

"These are... not the most desperate measures I have been forced to take," he said at length. "I have no other course to suggest. On the path to vengeance I will do what I must." There was a finality to his tone that spoke of lengths Garrus didn't want to imagine.

"Commander," Traynor broke in, "Admiral Hackett is on the QEC."

"All right." Shepard gestured to the holo of the relay. "You all know what needs to be done. Dismissed."

As she passed, she seemed to shrink into herself, like a prisoner on her way to sentencing. Garrus watched her ascend the short stair into the comm room and disappear past the sound baffling. He vaguely heard Liara and Traynor talking as they filed out in the opposite direction, back into the main body of the ship. The mood in the room had changed- the crew had something to focus on, and maybe even a way out of this mess. He glanced around. He could admit, in the privacy of his own head, that he was glad the main body of the krogan relief force had already arrived on Palaven, but it was a meager comfort. The enormity of the closed relays settled all around them in a shroud. The room emptied to the sound of bootsteps and comm chatter until Garrus realized there was only one other person left. Kaidan stood with his arms folded, leaning back against the display cradle and staring at the floor.

"I don't know how we didn't see this coming," Garrus commented. "It isn't the first time they shut the relays on us."

The human glanced at him. "Or that they'd prioritize the Citadel."

"It's pretty clear that anywhere they decide to mount a full-frontal assault, there's just nothing we can do."

"I wonder how many strategic sessions have been starting with the phrase 'they couldn't possibly'. No one knows how to deal with a war like this. It's like they shut down... space. I keep trying to wrap my head around it all, and I can't quite do it."

Garrus lowered his voice. "I just wonder how Shepard's handling it all."

"Not well." Alenko met his gaze, then looked away. "But then, I don't think that's a new development, is it?"

"I'd hoped that things would get better, after the Collectors were dealt with. She'd get to go home. Let the evidence speak for itself. Exonerate everything we'd been saying. But Bahak tore all that back down."

"She'd tell you Earth isn't her home, either," Kaidan said quietly. "It certainly didn't treat her that way. More like an enemy combatant." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Now she's been saddled with the mandate to give everyone hope... and she has none whatsoever herself."

Garrus leaned on his hands, staring at the holo in the display. "It's not enough. We're not going to win this if the spirit of the Normandy is sick at its core. But we can't force it to heal, either. I couldn't."

The human frowned but didn't answer.

"Would you assume command if it meant the stability of the team?" Garrus asked. "A whole spirit?"

Alenko looked at him sharply. "This was never my..." he trailed off, looking troubled. "It's not why I'm here."

"But would you?"

"Garrus, how can you say that?"

It took all of Garrus' effort not to raise his voice. "Do you really think it's what I want?" he hissed. "There's so much at stake! We can't do this by just going through the motions!"

"She never found a way to deal with all of it," Alenko said, more to himself than to Garrus, "never got the support she needed."

"She never asked, either."

"I'm willing to bet that goes a long way back, too."

"That's not enough-" Garrus broke off, then sighed heavily, deflated. He tugged the targeter off his head. It came off reluctantly, so settled was it into the plates of his skull. He ran his thumb over the names painstakingly engraved into the metal. "I know what I must sound like."

Alenko shifted his weight. "Hard truths are still truths," he conceded. "You're not wrong about the command situation, or any of it. I just have a hard time even imagining it."

"On Omega, I lost friends because I didn't see the signs from within. Now I see them, but I don't know what to do about it."

Kaidan met his gaze. "You've already done a lot, Garrus. You were there when it mattered." He looked over his shoulder up the ramp toward the QEC comm room. "I can't force it either, but maybe I can try to untie a few more of the knots. The things... I made worse."

A faint thread of relief trickled through the blockade of anxiety in Garrus' head. He twitched his mandibles. "As long as I don't have to resort to that stick Joker likes to say I have. For either of you."

The human smirked. "Better keep it handy, just in case."

"If I have to die messily I'd rather do it side by side with friends. But I want them to be there willingly." He tapped the side of his head. "Call it a quirk."

"She said it herself; one battle at a time."

"Clear flame guide you," Garrus murmured.

The human nodded, and Garrus turned to go. As he made his way up the stairs, he looked back down to the engraved names. He'd once considered putting Shepard's name there, before he knew she'd been brought back. For a while after, during the Collector mission, it had seemed inevitable it would end up there anyway. Now, like then, it was a matter of keeping disaster at bay for one more day. He pushed his thoughts back to his responsibilities. There, too, it was keeping everything together just a little longer. He suddenly wondered if this was how Javik had lived every day, walking the edge of the cliff, trying to keep as many as possible from toppling into the abyss.

Where he'd once made Shepard promise to face one more tomorrow, now they had to convince an entire galaxy.