David set up the interface for the Eden Prime site, Garrus and Jane got in some time in the simulator after Garrus got a much abbreviated rundown of basics. Garrus wanted to get to the planning stages, all business.

They suited up with their preferred gear and preferred weapons, just the two of them entering from the best entrance route for stealth. She could cloak, but Garrus couldn't. Liara would be going with them.

They walked through the space, got familiar with the landscape and then asked David to reset their entrance and attempt to populate the area with hostiles.

The scenario blinked and then reset. They walked down the main path they had familiarized themselves with before and within seconds there was a blinding light and the scenario reset.

Jane said blankly "What the hell just happened? Glitch?"

David said calmly "No. There were explosives placed under that path and your passage detonated them."

Garrus started to laugh. Jane said "Okay."

David said lightly "You did not specify that the hostiles be stupid."

Garrus laughed harder. Jane said "So it's going to be a long day."

Garrus shrugged "At least there's no actual physical feedback on being exploded. Thanks David."

David replied "You are welcome. Upon fatality I will reset. Although negative feedback is regarded to be a deterrent, in this case it would be counterproductive."

Garrus nodded and said sagely "I imagine because it's going to happen a lot."

David answered "Unless you specify that the hostiles be stupid, yes."

Jane drew in a deep breath and said "Okay. Starting over."

Garrus fiddled for a bit with visor specs with David's assistance, clarifying whether or not his real visor would have picked up the explosives. David discussed his method of using layers of loosely packed stone that would shield the explosive from detection and helpfully behave as shrapnel.

Jane asked calmly "Why would someone booby trap an entrance to that extreme? Aren't there kids around here?"

Garrus answered before David could "If they're indoctrinated, no. Everyone will work together and behave, and they can agree on this level of trap."

David said with emphasis "And it worked."

Jane sighed "And it worked. Okay."

They found maybe one out of three traps. They died…a lot. Jane was grateful explosions didn't do retinal damage or cause pain.

They stood still by the side of a modular building, trying to figure out whether or not the door, the threshold or the room itself was trapped, as she said "Elevators have always bothered the hell out of me. I think of the things that have struck fear in my heart more often than not, it's been getting in a damned elevator, and here's my proof, right here. Anybody as smart as David should have trapped those damned things and killed me easily. And who was the person who came closest to killing me in an elevator? David."

David said solemnly "I apologize for that, Commander Shepard."

Jane said automatically "It is fine. EDI tried to kill me too, once. Just not with an elevator. As you've said, negative feedback is a useful deterrent. I have a wish, Garrus, to never get on another elevator."

Garrus examined the door and said absently "Shepard, you can come back from the dead, but you know and I know…we're getting on more damned elevators. And now I'm going to be terrified." He examined for a little longer and said "Seems clean, but it is possible the room itself is set to blow. Fire source possible. Back draft. Picking up accelerant traces."

She asked "Could that be from the other fifteen things that have exploded? Can we open it remotely, out of the potential blast?"

He said slowly "Door's intended to open to organic biometrics so we can't just throw a rock at it."

She said thoughtfully "We've killed a few guys. Can we drag their bodies over and maybe…lean them up so they fall against the door while we run like hell?"

Garrus blinked and said "We'll have to rig some sort of timer. Running like hell is a bad plan."

She said flippantly "Then why don't we just put his hand on a looong stick…"

Garrus said, trying not to laugh "Maybe a pulley system…"

She sighed and said "I don't believe I've properly appreciated that most of the missions we've undertaken, though daring, have had fairly evenly spaced stupid people to shoot."

Garrus said, distracted "I appreciate the run through. We should up our game and David has some good points. I'd like to develop some simple policies and countermeasures to these obstacles. We haven't focused enough on traps."

David said helpfully "I have developed solutions to each of the obstacles placed using either your available equipment or improvised measures from your environment. Beyond that, I would be happy to discuss with you designs suitable for utilization in the field."

Garrus said with obvious pleasure at the challenge "Don't ruin it, David, I'm having fun."

Jane sat down on a verified safe patch and tried not to touch anything.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Prep for Eden Prime kept Garrus blissfully busy and energized about the possibilities of the interface, having discussions with David about how well simulated practice impacted the physical body. David had informed them that their physical bodies were chemically paralyzed similar to but more completely than the way it would be while dreaming to keep from having physical reactions. Garrus didn't have time…at least in front of her…to have extended discussions regarding interface sexy times. She was grateful to be spared those conversations. She vaguely thought David would be terribly helpful and that made it worse.

Garrus and David designed a shooting simulator and Garrus was himself hooked.

He took time to help EDI learn to dance, in the simulated Vakarian Madlis that David had provided for him. EDI wore her body and the dress, Jane happily but weirdly in attendance. Surreal and joyous were becoming two words nearly inextricable from each other.

They needed more pods, a lot more. David gave her and Garrus his absolute best, and she was also certain it took up not terribly much of his time. He enjoyed it, and he'd be happy to guide other crew members in their own interests. She imagined ultimately if she called shore leave, nobody would leave the ship and pod attendance could become contentious.

She planned a trip back to Rannoch with Legion's assurance that the pods could in fact be installed anywhere and inside private cabins would be feasible for anybody willing to provide the space.

Everyone would be willing, she was sure. She'd have three put in her cabin.

Coming up on Eden Prime, though, ideas of fun screeched to a sudden halt. She was out of her pod and on the CIC as they arrived, but their proposed orbit was obstructed.

Joker was in his pod and she'd heard his voice "Hey…Commander…this is…"

She looked and thought maybe they'd just found…many…of the indoctrinated vessels that had gone missing. They were in orbit. Turian, Alliance, Batarian…

Lots of Turian vessels.

She asked Garrus to call up the view while he was in the interface, and he took only moments to step out of his pod, moving to stand next to her, at the projected screen, lit up on a planetary scale, what looked like dozens of vessels geosynchronous over Eden Prime's main colony, where Nihlus had died, the last words she'd hear him speak in person being "I move faster on my own."

She had never forgotten his casual and dismissive words as it struck her that needing to move fast or move on his own was odd…considering he was supposed to be observing her…and that it had cost him his life. Perhaps if he'd stayed with her, they'd have found Saren together. Perhaps Saren would have ended that day.

Nihlus had lost it all because he had to play independent Spectre who couldn't be bothered to move at a human pace.

But Saren wasn't the real problem, was he?

Sovereign and his kin had no trouble finding new puppets. Ships full of puppets. With Sovereign gone and Saren gone, the Turian casualties multiplied.

She whispered out of caution and a preternatural chill down her spine "How's our stealth going to hold?"

Joker's voice answered "I'm heading to the pole. Hopefully nobody's looking out a window. Either way, we're still the best ship and I'm on it. David's on it. EDI's on it. Legion's on it. We should be able to stay undetected."

She looked at Garrus, who was scanning the ship IDs as they were confirmed. She said "We could call in Palaven. We could call in the Alliance. But I think if we do that…"

Garrus said with strain "If we do that, they're all dead. Indoctrination law doesn't extend pardons. This is treason, conspiracy and piracy…"

Jane said softly "What if we could convince them they could get their ships back?"

Garrus closed his eyes and said "I don't know. Too much of a risk. You and I know there are no grounds for negotiation. Once they become aware of our presence the timer is on for newly arrived ships, and it could quickly tip in balance. It could be days until enough ships get here to make a difference, and they're not stealthed. Could result in massive casualties on either side, and I think Palaven would like to recover personnel and ships…but they would also not be averse to blowing them out of the sky on the grounds of treason. There are growing factions more interested in preserving those who have not been indoctrinated than salvaging those who have been. It's part of the Turian soul. Treason under any circumstances is not likely to be forgiven, and I'd be…hesitant to call them in for assistance and expect them to follow our interests in recovery. This isn't someone caught in a scan. This is hardened, organized opposition. I know people on every ship named so far. Good men. Good women. A lot of Vakarians are in those vessels. Yeah, I know some assholes there…"

Asshole shouldn't be a death sentence.

She made a quick decision and said "Okay. So we're on our own. Calling in more ships results in ship to ship battle, high casualties. We have surprise, we have stealth, we can do the same thing we did at Cerberus. Plus, I want whatever it is that is on that planet that has provoked this level of interest. If the Reapers want it, I want it more, and I don't want it behind some black ops curtain on Palaven or Earth."

Shepard hit her Omni Tool "Kasumi, I need you. We're at Eden Prime. Ships, multiple ships, all reported missing, many Turian, obstructing the mission site. I need to know who they are, what they've been doing, and in particular, how they communicate with each other."

Kasumi said in acknowledgement "I'm on it."

Shepard spoke to the CIC in general and said "I need solutions. Monitor communications. I need to be able to duplicate them. David, let me know the odds of taking a single shuttlecraft, overriding landing protocols on each ship one at a time without detection and taking down each ship with a small team, leaving it in an undetected holding pattern with the goal of undetected infiltration and not obliteration. I need every advantage. I need comm, I need atmospheric control so we can use the same gas we did at Cerberus hopefully and spare lives. I need to know if adjustments can be made for Turian and Batarian physiology. Each ship's complement has to stay down until all ships are down. We don't have enough people to run multiple raids, so a three-person team in fast succession, Garrus and Legion and I will go in. We can't even approach what's going on the ground until we wipe out air support without them knowing it is missing. While I'm busy taking down ships I need someone here to get me an action plan and update me on intel of what's on the ground. If the single shuttlecraft moves undetected, we can start taking groups of those who are indoctrinated under security back to Omega. Aria will let us in. Dr. Abrams can get them surgery. Let them make choices once they've survived the surgery. I'll return Turian ships to Palaven without crew, I'll do the same for Alliance ships but we will keep any Batarian vessels for our own use. I'm out for the next nine hours. I need answers then, and we need to go in eleven hours."

She figured someone else would have a better idea soon, but she was going to have to prep for this one, and the only prep available was sleep.

She drew Garrus aside and said "Legion doesn't need downtime, you need four hours, I need eight. I need sleep. Prep however you want, but I need you to get the solid four hours before we hit the first ship."

She turned to head out, considering asking for Dr. Chakwas's help, but thinking maybe she could meditate into rest. She had a discretionary stash of things to help her sleep and she started trying to consciously calm her breathing after the adrenaline rush. Time to test what Thane had taught her.

Garrus followed her.

She didn't head to the Med Bay because problem solved. It appeared his prep would be ensuring she slept.

She had a smile on her way up in the elevator and as they looked at each other sideways, she could see he had one too. When the elevator door opened he picked her up and turned her horizontal, carried her into the room under one arm like a duffel bag and dropped her unceremoniously on the bed like the proverbial baggage. While she was laughing he took the time to remove clothes and his visor, which was fortunately very sturdy, considering how often it got thrown around the room after he'd forgotten to remove it. She wondered if he'd recorded…

She worked on her own clothes efficiently and said "How many recordings of us do you have on your visor?"

He turned his head and smiled at her, then went back to what he was doing. He said "That's a long conversation and we do not have much time. But…none of you. Thane encouraged me to record."

She gaped and then shimmied out of her pants "Why didn't you ask me?"

He sat down on the edge of the bed to get his footwear off "Because you did not want a recording."

She was done getting rid of her clothes, but he was still working on the bits that snagged and all the technical doodads he carried at all times. She got up on her knees and moved over to him, pressed her body against his back and said "I hope you are aware I appreciate your chivalry."

She kissed up and then down the edges of the overlapping plates lining the back of his neck, teeth along the edges, tongue dampening the curves. He dropped the final piece of whatever it was he needed to detach, flexed his neck and groaned. She kept that up, careful to not get her tongue pinched as he moved his neck to meet her mouth. Her hands moved to stroke along his waist and he shifted from groaning to a deep contented rumbling purr. It took him a while to speak in response, but when he did he said "Chivalry is a bizarre word. You used it back on the SR1 and I looked it up and its historical context. As though I were being kind somehow by not being irredeemable scum I should shoot on sight."

She considered while her hands roamed over him and then said as she ran her cheekbones over the same spots on his neck to further pleasure sounds "Hm…well…Thane has pointed out that my expectations of males are not the highest. But you're changing that. To be fair my expectations of women are also not that high. Thane has perfect recall of each moment. You have asked him, so it must have come up that you would prefer some of your own recall. I have no recall other than what is in my head and no…I would not record you either without your consent…and I would never ask …"

He said bluntly "Your expectations of males are in fact nonexistent. It's a little insulting to have my standards compared to human males. With the ability to record you showed no interest, so neither did I."

She nodded sympathetically and said "If it helps…I did not think you had recorded…but if you had…"

He sighed and said lightly "Kerim, if I had…you would forgive me and behave as though it were entirely my prerogative, regardless of what you thought. You would at least superficially think my way because in your mind is the word chivalry…not mine."

She scratched harder with her nails, considering the Turian-human conundrum of preference and permission. She asked "What word is in your mind?"

He considered as he flexed and stretched under her fingertips "There is a Turian word; hetak. There is a human word; receptive."

She asked "What does hetak mean?"

With his head tilted to the side she focused on using her mouth and hands, listening and feeling his deep rumble through her lips and her fingertips. He said "Hetak is service. Not like doing a job. Service of a lifetime. Service of assigned role. Service to family, service to military, service to mate. For a male Turian, hetak is determined by your Avah first, your commanding officer second and then your mate, your new Avah. A male Turian does not serve himself, it is for the Avah to learn their needs and provide for them. A commanding officer must know what must be developed in a male Turian, for them to find their place. Our mother taught me hetak. She is an imperious woman, Kerim. Loving and knowing and imperious. Through every stage of my life I was told exactly what to do, what my place was, what my service was to be. I was spoiled in a Turian sense by her love and knowledge. She did encourage me to find my own way within the wide boundaries she set. She knew me, loved me and after her definition of hetak, that of my commanding officers was too confining, lacking love and knowledge. They should have led but were instead selfish, did not provide for the hetak of others. They failed in their roles. And then I met you. My hetak was lost, because what you are, Kerim, is receptive. Dangerously, frighteningly receptive."

She smiled against his skin, paused and then continued. His hands were stretched out and she noticed that his talons extended and then withdrew, a Turian stretch. He said slowly "You did not negotiate or dictate. We shared a common, passionate goal. I believed at first I was being tested. Which was of course true, but not in the way I imagined. You spoke with Ashley about poetry. You spoke with Wrex about the genophage. You spoke to me about Saleon and my father. Your face, always receptive, your eyes, encouraging or neutral. Never condemnation. I had a lifetime of navigating condemnation, but never neutrality. You seemed to always accept or possibly agree with everyone's view of the galaxy. You drew them out, gained their confidence, gained their loyalty. By the time I left your service I had not worked up the courage to ask you a personal question. Not one. Because you are dangerously, frighteningly receptive. You know the right answer. You judge and you classify and you condemn behind the guise of agreement and neutrality and you do not let it reach your face. You did not like Ashley's racism. You disliked Wrex's callous and reckless behavior. At first I thought you dangerously tolerant until I saw Wrex restrained. In that moment I saw the potential for water to turn to ice, perfectly capturing his form, that you had postulated it, predicted it, and shown no sign that you would freeze instantly, revealing every detail of his psyche, solid and damning. Wrex's insubordination was extreme and your response was nearly Turian, so I missed some of the finer aspects of how your nature would respond to me. It took me longer to realize that you listened but did not often speak. It wasn't until after Sidonis that I saw that you always knew the right answer. You asked me carefully about my attitude regarding Saleon and regarding Sidonis. You let me kill them. You knew I was wrong to do it." His last words were flint, brittle and cold.

She didn't try to argue. She did, she had, and there were layers of meaning in there, layers she'd learned about herself and him since then, calculations and motivations wrapped up in inclination and command necessity. She had needed him focused. He had needed to do it with single minded chosen blindness. She had understood the needs of wrath and anger…but he was right. If it hadn't been an absolute emergency, if she hadn't needed him so badly, if she'd had more time…she would have tried to find a way to draw his Spirit to the conclusion hers had made. She had honored his will instead, knowing she would gain his loyalty at the cost she was willing to pay at the time, the life of someone who dearly deserved death, even if it would do Garrus no personal good. Especially if it made him feel he owed her. She vaguely wondered if his wrath had contributed to her sense of immaturity and greenness in him, had made her not take that step into the Mako, had in fact influenced her willingness to touch him or reach out to him. It must have occurred to him as well. It had cost them both. She said softly in acknowledgement, her hands moving on him "You were wrong to do it. I was wrong to transmute murder to loyalty."

His voice retained his cold, but it was not directed at her "Given some power, I created my own hetak. You gave me enough power for you to learn my nature, but not expose your own. I was far into being your lover before I realized…just as with Wrex…you would allow me every arrogance and demand…until you would not. I would get no warning. And then I realized …it is always a test. It will always be a test. You will judge and then instantly forgive and I will never know what counts against me until the day you freeze and I am faced with my perfectly rendered form in frozen clarity. I occasionally long for the black and white I was raised to understand, your deceptive, receptive gray has given me a depth of caution I never thought possible."

She said with his gravity "Good thing you didn't ask me to let you kill someone else."

His laughter was soft, he said "Some of us do learn, Shepard."

She said gently "I'd let you kill six, seven more people, as long as we space them out once a year…"

He said lightly "I'll submit a list…"

She asked gently "So why don't I like recordings?" She wasn't sure she knew herself, but did know she had an aversion to the idea.

He was willing to talk as long as she did not stop what she was doing. Her breasts were warm, nipples finding a delicious spot against his hide and edges of plate of his back, hands enjoying the tremor of his waist. He answered "I do not necessarily know, Kerim. The simple answer could be that it has been a historical human practice for someone to record another during sex, against their knowledge, and publish that information for status or to humiliate. But you trust me, you would know that would not be why. You might perhaps understand that I would record you because you are beautiful and the memories we create are cherished. I think perhaps it lays more in the creation of a separate object, the recording itself, with the potential of independent interpretation and possibly malevolence. Not just because you are Commander Shepard, but because you are human, female. It became clearer in motive when Thane risked his life to eliminate recordings of you. He not only risked his life, but would not divulge a moment of what happened under torture, I am certain of it. Neither of you will tell me, but I have the knowledge that he would have let you kill him just for seeing it. I accept that my experience of not knowing is better than either of your experiences of knowing, and I will not ask, do not wish to know. You have had your body, your mind, picked apart molecule by molecule, thought by thought. The less possibility for exposure of your inner self to anyone other than who you choose…I respect that. For Thane and I…sex is more mundane…I don't have a word for it in English, mundane does not sound right. The Turian word would be ironically like the word for drinking water. Slaking thirst can be casual but an accepted necessity, nobody need justify or explain their need to drink. We drink before others, it is not hidden or private, not a vulnerable part of an individual spirit but something galactically shared. Thane can recall every moment together. He wishes for me to be able to do the same, to be able to somehow square that ability of his with an ability of mine so we could both drink from the same well. He comforts himself with the reiteration of moments that have meaning to him. It is to us the act of drinking, taking a canteen of water away from the source, to sip later, to remember. But you…sex for you, with you is not mundane, it is…sacred. You value each moment as unique and not to be repeated or revisited, consumed like something holy offered as a sacrifice, burned completely for the smoke. To take away water from that private spring…to drink alone…it does not extend a pleasure for you, but it would be violation of that sacred place. I don't pretend to understand, but I do know my revisiting it, separate from you would somehow diminish its unique quality you wish to experience, likely wish to inspire, do inspire…you would allow me to record you…but you would know it was wrong. And you would never tell me so. You would allow me to make any number of mistakes and never tell me so. Your Spiritual life is tied up in silence and sex."

She said softly "Maybe I think it is right for you but wrong for me."

With that he turned with a brittle laugh, caught her body under his and pressed her back, stared at her with his hetak-bound eyes and said "You're a better liar than Thane. He said once that he once believed himself to be a sacred liar in the service of the Gods, until he met you. Now he knows he is a thoroughly mundane liar, but that your lies will always be sacred."

She was inordinately pleased. Not that she made Garrus crazy, that obviously couldn't be helped, but that he was like a sailor in love with the sea, saw churning waves and icebergs where Thane saw fire. A sailor from a species that could not swim.

He was a liar as well. He did want to know. He would choose he did not because that was what she wanted, and it was unreasonable, and it was hetak. He wanted to remember how beautiful she was to him and she would not allow it in recordings, and that was hetak.

She had given him a path and he had chosen to follow it, and it was uniquely human and Turian in turns and bends.

She gave him appropriately neutral eyes with a knowing, loving smile.

Thane knew everything there was to know about her, more than she knew about herself, and he still loved her. Garrus knew more about her than she knew from the expressions of her skin and actions, and accepted that what he did not know belonged to her and was not his to take. They would both guard her with plate and venom and passion.

Odd that taking down a few dozen ships together seemed like an average challenge, but it did, and she didn't doubt they would win through.

Just another day as an iceberg on fire.

She pulled his mouth down to hers, as always not enough time to understand or change or fix, same as deciding that he would be able to kill Saleon or Sidonis. She made her imperfect choices, he followed and made sure the consequences of her folly were lessened by benefit of his rifle and his sheltering arms.

It was going to work the way it had worked, and it worked well.

She murmured against his mouth "Garrus Vakarian, I love you. I think I could not love you more, and then there are more moments."

His hands spread devotion over her skin, his mouth pressed words and love into her heart and mind, his body pressed pleasure and belonging into hers. She slept those eight hours, with his words in her dreams, swirling visions of ships at sea in spinning frozen stained glass and all the beauty of their lives together swept up in his hands and offered as a bouquet of the moment, thrown with wide arms and gusting wind into the water.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Strangely enough when she presented herself for command, Reverie still in her blood and the press of his mouth still warm on hers, she wasn't inundated with people having much better ideas than she had had. They provided her with the method. Since Bahak she'd rarely formulated a plan that went as proposed, someone had stepped in, so she didn't doubt anybody with a better idea would speak up.

They'd had nine hours to test it out and formulate, and she was given a solemn batch of stims by Dr. Chakwas with a significant look.

She had to go. She set a tentative goal of staying up for approximately 3 days, which was doable even in recent memory. The issue was…how quickly could they take advantage of having the ships and then make the push on the ground? She'd need to rest there also and having it all hang fire on her ability to be conscious…

Monitoring of communication had revealed not terribly much in terms of communication between the ships, which was good and bad. There was no communication to keep up or duplicate, but there was no communication to decrypt and determine what was going on. They only had eight hours of sample. They had to assume that the indoctrinated personnel were there to recover the Prothean jackpot, whatever that was. EDI had spoken to Tim about it, who professed ignorance.

There was industrious digging on the ground and an exposed pod from all they could gather, but absolutely no information on what to do with that pod. Something about indecipherable recordings. Eden Prime was strip mined from its previous appearance, the mockup of what it had looked like, even grounded and with memories of explosions and traps now obsolete in the course of the passing hours.

Alliance might show up at any time, though obviously it still took a lot to get people to drag themselves physically out to Terminus.

Time to roll the dice.

They loaded into the shuttle and got underway, the overrides on individual ships being coordinated between the geniuses back on the ship. They had seconds for tolerances and had to hover and hope it would work…

Fortunately it went easily, Turian ship specs holding true without radical modification. They were in the bay and to the ventilation systems undetected, the first ship was down in 42 minutes. No fatalities among the crew. Garrus's eyes lingered slightly longer on those fallen bodies with Vakarian paint.

With travel time between takeovers, 27 ships to go. With the first ship down, shuttles on that ship were left to Normandy security personnel, who were fully suited and armed with lots of ways to deliver sleepy gas. They started to ferry bodies to Omega.

With direct access to the first ship's computer and comm history, they decided rather than try to communicate any level of distress as a trap, they'd continue on with the same pattern, as EDI and David and Legion sorted through the data, seeing if they could help refine their approach. They could rig the bays without assistance, and people on alert was the last thing they wanted.

Back into the shuttle, adrenaline high and hope soaring, they continued their delicate leap frog.

It was the ninth ship that fucked them up. Seventeen hours into the operation, nonstop. They had peace, radio silence, and they were getting the hang of the layout of the Turian ships, deciding to take them all out first. Unfortunately…this one had at least one Turian on it that was still functioning and either managed to get suited or was suited when they started. The Turian had headed to the ship's CIC and was attempting to communicate with the ground and with other ships. David was blocking it and attempting to respond as a decoy, but the Turian, a female, had given up quickly. Shepard was trying to play catch up and by the time they made it to the CIC to attempt to isolate her, she was gone.

Garrus said tersely "She could sabotage the shuttle or take it, take another."

Shepard turned back to Garrus and Legion and said "Garrus, see what you can do from here. David, keep the bay frozen. Garrus, help with the shuttle bay, shut down comm from here. Legion and I will…go play hide and seek. Find her."

Garrus's jaw worked as though chewing on other possibilities, but said stoically "I'm on it."

They hadn't been screwing around with traps for nothing, so although she left the CIC, some feeling at the back of her neck made her think and move as though every square foot of this entire ship was trapped, because with an indoctrinated Turian running around…self preservation was not necessarily her highest priority.

She did play hide and seek, but changed her target area, motioned Legion aside at the exit, ducking before heading into the elevator. She kept her eyes on the room and saw the not so stupid Turian woman detach from the side of the CIC behind a console with…a fucking rocket launcher because…of course.

Jane shot her in the back as she was bringing the rocket launcher around, she never got it aimed at Garrus, but she did get it off before she fell, and there was a massive sucking hole in the canopy. This wasn't Jane's first massive sucking hole in a canopy and that wasn't the most fun, but Garrus was at least unharmed. The shields around the CIC isolated the area of trouble and once again she hoped nobody…looked out the window at the streaming loss of random objects

Garrus had turned and she couldn't see his expression because helmet, but she did hear "You used me as bait?" shouted over the comm.

She said calmly "Yes. Let's get to the shuttle. More fun to be had. I'm definitely awake now."

Garrus stepped carefully through the vacuum over to where they were standing. They avoided the elevator because she was not about to get into one right about now and took the maintenance stairs down to the shuttle bay. Yeah, it was a few extra minutes.

Garrus was quiet until she reached out her hand to active the shuttle doors and Garrus grabbed her hand, swerved it away.

She looked at him and he said "Rigged to explode."

She breathed in a deep sigh, looked at her hand in thanks and said "Okay. So. Let's take another shuttle. Maybe leave a note."

Garrus nodded and said with a heavy sigh "Nineteen to go."