Chapter 34

A/N - "More fillers!?" Yes, sorry. "I waited a week for this!?" Yes, sorry. "You're just gonna apologize and hope that it'll make everything better!?" Yes, sorry.

"Footage showed small insect-looking creatures. Believe that they are used to paralyze or tranquilize nearby humans. Unsure if it targets other races. Seems to leave quarians alone. Should be easy to make them bli-" Was as far as Mordin got before Holt tuned him out completely. Asking the salarian how his research was going had been a mistake. Luckily, Holt was really good at feigning interest, so he pretended to listen to Mordin as he instead listened to the conversation between the other two at their table.

"These calibrations done to the ship are giving me a headache..." Miranda mumbled as she stared down at the data pad next to her plate.

"Don't they increase performance? I looked them over it looked good to me." Jacob answered from across the table. Holt could still hear Mordin bombard him with words with little room to breathe in between words.

"They do, but you haven't looked over the costs of the upgraded parts that were needed to suppor-" And again, Holt tuned the words out since they were approaching some dull economy talk. Maybe he should give Mordin another chance?

"Difficult part is to make sure it works against the swarm... No, no should be fine. All numbers point to it. But if we go with my current idea, might send off warning signals to the collectors if we use too muc-" Nope, not a chance in hell he was gonna be able to keep up with this salarian. Today had been quite tiring with all the breaking out of jail and almost getting into a fight with one of the most powerful biotics around.

"What a day..." A new voice groaned behind him. "I just wanna go back to my quarters and sleep until we reach Korlus..."

"You're the captain of the ship, who's stopping you?" Holt chuckled as Shepard sat down next to him.

"A sense of duty, I guess." She answered as Holt noticed that she had already gotten her food. Mordin's non-stop talking seemed to have brought him into a comatose state if he had not noticed Shepard enter the room. "That and that I'm starving for food more than I'm starving for sleep. And I'm probably eating way too much than what's good for me. But I just don't give a ham." She said while making the ham on her plate more visible with a grin on her face. She was looking at Holt, apparently seeking praise for her little joke.

"Nice pun."

"Thanks."

"So how are you doing on the protection against the see-"

"Don't ask him." Holt begged with a whisper as he realised hat Shepard was about to ask Mordin who seemed to be talking to himself by now.

"Why not?" She whispered back as Mordin still didn't seem to realise that Holt wasn't listening. Or maybe he just didn't care.

"He's not done with it yet but he's more than happy to explain what remains to be done."

"Oh... Thanks for stopping me."

"Also, don't mention calibrations to Miranda."

"I'm already avoiding that word because of Garrus. But why should I not mention it to Miranda?"

"What are you two whispering about?" Jacob suddenly asked as the people at the table were all observing them. Even Mordin had stopped talking.

"The next mission." Shepard quickly answered.

"The last mission." Holt answered at the same time. "The next mission." He then quickly corrected, hoping that no one noticed. With how Miranda was watching them with narrowed eyes, he guessed that she had noticed.

"Which one is it?" The Cerberus woman asked as Holt glanced over to Shepard who was now fully focused on her food, leaving him to deal with this himself.

"The next one." Holt tried again. Mordin had stealthily left the table, probably sensing danger as Miranda appeared to be more irritated than usual. Jacob used the same tactic as Shepard and kept his face down, close to the food.

"And?..." Miranda pressured. "Is something unclear about it?"

"Not the mission itself but..." Holt began, urging his brain to come up with an escape plan. "It's just that we'll be arriving so late tomorrow. And we don't really need a lot of preperation." He said, stalling for time. So the problem here was that Miranda was pissed off after having had a lot of work dumped on her after all the modifications done to the ship. If he could solve the workload problem, maybe he could get out of this alive?

"So you're complaining about too much free-time?" Miranda asked, making Holt realised that he had made a mistake. Complaining about there being not much to do just as Miranda complained that she had too much to do? Not very smart. "You can deal with this then." She said while handing him the data pad she had been looking at. Before he had a chance to save himself from getting this workload, Miranda was walking away with her now empty tray. Someone was trying to contain their laughter next to Holt but was failing miserably.

"Laugh it up." Holt mumbled as he took a quick look at the contents of the data pad. Going through this would take the whole evening and most of tomorrow.

"I'm trying." Shepard chuckled while covering her mouth. "Laughing with food in your mouth just didn't seem very ladylike."

"What does being a lady have to do with you?" Holt asked and was rewarded with a quick jab on his shoulder.

"So what exactly is that?" Shepard asked as she eyed the thing that had ruined Holt's evening.

"This thing is called a data pad. It can contain numerous things such as-"

"I meant what's on it."

"Think I'll leave you two to your flirting." Jacob said with a small chuckle as he left the table. Holt had actually completely forgot he was there to begin with.

"Wow... That's a lot of numbers..." Shepard's voice was suddenly heard right next to his ear. Glancing in her direction, Holt saw that she was leaning over to get a better view of the screen. "Seems very... fascinating." She yawned.

"Having this dumped on me is nothing more but punishment." Holt sighed as he dropped the thing and resumed eating. "Any chance you can force it upon some other poor sod? You're the captain after all, they have no choice but to obey you."

"So because you're lazy, I'll have to be hated by the crew?" She asked with a raised brow.

"Or just use it as a way to get back on someone." Holt suggested with a shrug. That's when he thought of something. Judging by her reaction, Shepard must have thought of the same thing.

"Garrus." They both said at the same time.

"He would want nothing more than to look this thing over." Shepard confirmed with a nod.

"It's mostly because of him that this needs to be dealt with anyway." Holt agreed.

"It has nothing to do with what he did a couple of nights ago."

"Not at all, this is strictly professional."

"No personal feelings went into this decision."

"None at all." Holt said as they stared with each other with a flat look on their faces before they both broke out in laughter. Several of the crew members stared in their direction and Holt had to agree that their laughs did sound quite evil.

"So that's that dealt with. Your evening must be quite open now?" Shepard said as their laughter died down and she resumed eating.

"I don't know about that. My schedule is quite set in stone."

"Is that how it is now?" Shepard asked with an amused grin.

"Got to drink the milk before it expires, finish watching the paint dry and then I have to put aside at least an hour or two to sit and stare out the window while contemplating life."

"Good thing you managed to get rid of this then." Shepard chuckled while nodding towards the data pad. "Be careful not to wear yourself out."

"Of course, I can make some arrangements and move stuff until tomorrow if you had something in mind?" Holt asked but before Shepard could answer, the voice of Joker echoed throughout the room.

"Commander. Our new friend desires your presence." The pilot informed as Holt saw Shepard's head hang down with a sigh escaping her lips.

"While this wasn't what I had in mind I guess it'll have to do. You coming along?" She asked as she stood up and handed the data pad to a nearby crew member, asking her to take it to Garrus.

"Sure." Holt answered as he too stood up. "I mean, Jack seemed so fond of me earlier. She'll love the fact that I come visit her together with you."

"You sound scared." Shepard pointed out with a grin.

"An unstable biotic with enough power to turn me inside out with a snap of her fingers? I think I would rather try and cuddle with a krogan."