Chapter 36: Back to the immensity
In front of her eyes, through the window, Shepard could see the space around them. They had no view other than the distant stars, that seemed cold but were actually huge infernos floating in empty space. Spheres of fire in orbit around the center of the galaxy, which Shepard had to visit herself to destroy the Collector's base.
There was no noise other than the soft hum of the engine. There they were, inside a small vessel with cutting edge technology, defying the stars. That was the definition of 'home' for Melody Shepard. She felt relaxed, at ease.
Each of the sentient beings inside the Normandy's cockpit were also staring out the window, at the blackness of space dotted with stars. Garrus, Tali, Sarah and Joker were probably lost in their own thoughts. EDI was sitting at her usual spot at the right of the pilot, but with her being an AI, and a curious AI on top of that, there was no way of guessing what she could be thinking.
After a few minutes of absolute silence, Chief Williams finally spoke:
"Tali," said the young human looking at the quarian, "seeing stars like this is normal for the quarians, right? I mean, until they fix the mass relays and you can come back to Rannoch..."
"It's also normal for Shepard," said Garrus gazing at the Commander, echoing her own thoughts.
"Stop reading my mind, Vakarian," Melody requested with a soft tone, half smiling. She wasn't serious of course. She didn't want him to stop reading her. She liked the way he knew her, the way he could anticipate her or understand her mood. "Home," she thought again. "And I share my bed with this tall guy over here. Wouldn't change a thing."
"Aw, so sweet," stepped in Joker, without looking away from his control panel. He touched something on his screen. "They're made for each other. Except for, you know, the chirality thing, and the different finger count. Oh, and the spikes," he concluded as if he had just thought of it.
"Moreau," said the Commander amused, shifting her weight to one leg, "you don't have the authority to even talk about biology issues when love is involved. Don't get me started."
"In answer to your question, Sarah," said Tali pretending to be annoyed by the long interruption, "quarian ships don't look like the Normandy. Generally we don't have so many windows. But civilians stayed back on Rannoch. The babies being born now will grow up with the sky of our homeworld over their heads."
"Babies?" asked Garrus moving a foot back to shift his weight. Shepard identified his tone as the one he used when he was about to joke. "Is that why you brought your boyfriend on board? Didn't want the civilians to have the advantage?"
"Not talking to you, Vakarian," replied Tali feigning irritation, "and I still have a shotgun."
Garrus leaned back a bit and put a hand extended in front of him, as if saying 'fine', but he didn't add any comments. For a moment, they all stayed silent in the cockpit.
"So, Commander," said Joker breaking the silence. He swiveled his head a bit in her direction. "Where to?" he asked amused. He was obviously teasing her.
Shepard didn't reply. She just looked at him, staying calm and serious. Her features were relaxed, her arms crossed over her chest. Even then she commanded an undeniable authority.
"Alright, alright!" the pilot finally said, shaking his hands as if he was erasing something in the air. "Coordinates are set already."
"I didn't say anything," protested Shepard, shrugging.
"You're scarier when you don't," explained Joker. Tali and Garrus nodded at the same time, agreeing with the pilot.
"I don't know why you say that," the Commander said shaking her head and dropping her arms to her sides. "Anyway, people, there isn't much to see from now on. I'll go take a shower and put dry clothes on."
"Great idea," said Sarah looking at her own soaked uniform, grabbing and edge of it.
When Shepard got out of the shower, she saw Garrus standing outside of the bathroom in their cabin. He had removed his armor and had only the suit he used beneath it.
"My turn to use the shower," he announced.
"Why didn't you get in with me?" Shepard asked amused, crossing her arms over the towel wrapped around her body.
"I didn't want to..." the turian started, stumbling with the words.
"To see your Commanding Officer naked?" she finished for him, clearly amused. She enjoyed teasing him like that very much, because of his reactions. "You should have thought of that before."
"No, I didn't mean that," he quickly replied, shaking his hands and taking one step back. "I always want to see you naked. No, wait, I didn't mean that either..." he fumbled, and she felt her heart tearing from the love she felt for him. He was a deadly turian sniper too cute for words. He could be awkward one minute and self-confident the next. He could joke about the most serious things, and be serious when everybody else was having fun. She realized that she really liked those seeming contradictions, and that she could see through them probably like nobody else in the galaxy could.
"Alright Garrus, get in," she said pointing at the bathroom's door with her head. "Take your shower. I'll decide in a minute if I'm clean enough."
He obviously took the hint, because she had never seen him undress so fast. He got inside the bathroom and the door closed behind him. She waited exactly one minute, then dropped her towel and joined him.
An hour later they were both sitting on the couch in their cabin, fully dressed and reading a datapad each. Inside the Normandy, Shepard normally used her N7 hoodie and a pair of black pants. Garrus was wearing casual clothes, which allowed her to lean on his chest as she read. She had both her feet over the couch, with one of his legs at her side. His other foot was on the floor, next to the coffee table.
She was reading about technical specifications of the other ships in her fleet, but after a while her mind started wandering off. Garrus obviously noticed that she wasn't paying attention anymore, because he asked:
"What are you thinking?" He took the datapad from her hand and left both of them on the table. With his now free arms, he surrounded her by the waist.
"About that promotion that I turned down," she answered honestly. She took both his hands in hers, and pressed her back a little more on his chest. "I don't know, Garrus. I didn't want Hackett to put me in charge of this fleet. I even got mad at him. But you know what? Now I don't totally hate it."
"Think you could get the promotion if you tell him that you changed your mind?" he asked in his deep double-toned voice.
"I suppose..." she said shrugging slightly, "but I still don't think I want that. I like how 'Commander Shepard' sounds. When I entered the Eagle Alliance Academy, I told myself I wouldn't stop until I was an Admiral, but a lot of things changed since I was fourteen... I guess the war made me less competitive."
"You, less competitive?" practically shrieked Garrus, and he started laughing. She swiveled her head to give him a glare of rebuke. "I think it's precisely the opposite," he continued, ignoring the way she was looking at him. "You're probably the first Commander in the Alliance who tells Generals and Admirals what to do. If you ask me, that's your way of telling everybody that you don't even need the rank. That you've earned your name and the right to do what you want, or rather, what you think it's best regardless of their opinion."
Shepard looked at the turian, serious and silent. There was nothing she could say, because he was right and he had put words to the way she felt. He looked back at her, directly to her eyes.
"When did you get to know me?" she finally asked. She planted a kiss on his cheek and then relaxed again, leaning on his chest as she had been before. He still held her with his arms, and she placed her hands over his once more.
"You mean, how could I know you if you were trying to hide your deepest feelings?" he asked chuckling slightly. "I don't know... same way that you knew I wasn't being myself when I wanted to kill Sidonis."
"Right," she simply said, caressing his hands.
They remained silent for a few more minutes, just content to be with each other. Finally she got up and went to check her private messages.
There was a message from Diana Allers offering her a daily subscription to the Alliance News Network. She accepted it and read the next message. It came from Grothan Pazness. The batarian leader had changed his title from 'Governor' to 'Premier', ignoring the previous title system of the Hegemony.
The message itself contained a detailed list of the resistance Shepard was going to find in the pirate base they were headed to, and a map. She could see it was a well guarded base, and perhaps it could have been a challenge for a less experienced crew. For them, it was an opportunity for Grunt to have fun.
"Come see this," said the Commander to Garrus, who was still sitting on the couch and had resumed his reading.
The turian got up and walked to where she was. He looked at the map, and immediately pointed at something that caught his attention.
"AA turrets?" he asked, signaling a spot on the map with one of his fingers.
"So it seems," she said nodding and shrugging slightly, "but we've disabled many of those before..."
"No, I mean..." Garrus said shaking his head, and she recognized his expression of 'you're missing the point', "this is a pirate base, right? Pirates. Very successful if they really gathered as many resources as Pazness says, but... they seem to be a little too organized. I don't think we're dealing with ordinary pirates here."
"Good catch, detective!" she said a little excited, smiling. "Yeah, we'll have to be careful."
"Something's not right," he insisted and placed himself in front of the map, effectively moving her from where she was standing. She decided to step aside and let him work. His time in C-Sec made him good catching leads, and he had good instincts.
Shepard left her cabin, and found Samantha Traynor working at her usual spot in the CIC.
"Have you got a minute?" the Commander asked to the young specialist.
"Of course, Commander," said Traynor, turning to look at her. "What can I do for you?"
"Tell me about the new Comm system," Shepard requested gesturing with her hand. "I know I should have asked before, but..."
"Oh, you will love the new features," said the young woman sounding really excited. "In the Comm Room you'll find a regular QEC between the Normandy and each ship, human and quarian. Then there is another highly experimental multi-node system connecting the entire fleet. Well, actually it consists of clusters of four nodes in tandem... but you're not interested in technical details," the specialist interrupted herself.
"I wish to know what can I do with it," Shepard said honestly. She loved the enthusiasm the young woman had for communications and technology, but the Commander was a very practical woman.
"The multi-node system can transmit audio only," explained Samantha. "You can contact all forty ships at the same time, or select what ships to address. You can also select only the human fleet or the quarian. Since the system is highly experimental, I do not advice transmitting confidential information with it, though."
"Can the other ships communicate with the rest?" asked Shepard shifting her weight to one leg.
"Well, when you are broadcasting," replied Traynor, "the other C.O.s can speak through the system, and everyone in the network you opened will hear. They can speak to each other but using the Normandy as a node, thus you have to authorize their communications."
"Could we authorize them on default?" asked Melody gazing at the door that led to the Comm Room.
"Yes, immediately, Commander," said Samantha nodding. "I'll adjust the settings right away."
The young woman left, leaving Shepard standing on the CIC. There were other soldiers there, people the Alliance had selected to be on her crew but that she didn't know by name. They all had seemed impressed by the Commander ever since they entered the ship. She decided she would give them more time to relax about her, until they learned that they could approach her at any time.
She remembered Ysel had told her he had made a few changes to the galaxy map. She decided to explore those changes at that moment.
When she stood on the small platform in front of the map, she had to grab herself on the railing because of the raw emotions that rushed to her. Her mind evoked when it was David Anderson who stood there on the first Normandy, giving indications of where to go to Joker. Then she remembered the first time she took that place, after she was made Spectre. Shepard recalled that she didn't want to be there, that she felt like she was stealing his ship. She had no choice however, because their mission was a lot more important than a few people and a single vessel. However, after her detention because of the incident in batarian space, when Traynor had informed her that Anderson was retrofitting the Normandy to use her as his mobile command center, Shepard had felt that Anderson was trying to take her ship. She had no right to feel that, of course, and at that moment that she was standing there in front of the galaxy map, reminiscing the past, she would have gladly relinquished the Normandy if that would have brought Anderson back from the dead.
She shook her head to clean her mind from the thoughts, and focused instead on the galaxy map. She noticed that there was a new inbuilt browser, with filters and everything. Just to play she typed the names of a few stars and planets she had visited. She could access the full information about them, what system and cluster they belonged to and what other systems and planets could be found nearby. There was an option to show the star or planet on the map, or travel there directly. The system also estimated distances and travel times between different points, with and without the mass relays active. There was also an entry where she could write her own notes about a certain destination, and she could protect the notes with a code. The Commander also noticed that Ysel added to the map all the information the quarians had about systems that she hadn't visited, and uploaded the names of every known planet in systems she hadn't fully explored.
Shepard didn't know how much time she had spent there, opening systems just to read about planets and their climate, population or mining activities. She was interrupted by the voice of her pilot, speaking through the comm in the ship.
"Commander?" said the voice of Joker, coming from above her. "Message coming in... from Liara T'Soni. She's using the QEC in Javik's room."
"Patch me through," said Melody heading for the elevator.
NOTE: Like I said many times, I won't include content from DLCs in this story, except for From Ashes. That goes also for Citadel DLC. However that last DLC gave a lot of insight about many characters, and I might use that if it doesn't contradict things I already said in previous chapters. Oh, and the DLC had a lot of funny moments, but I'll keep the tone I'm giving to this story. Don't worry, there won't be any spoilers. But why should I worry anyway? You haven't played Citadel yet? Why not? Go and play it! Seriously, it's the best Mass Effect DLC ever, I mean even better than the Lair of the Shadow Broker, and that's a lot to say!