Nusquam Alius Res (Nothing else Matters)

Chapter 35

The Normandy was heading to Thessia to drop off Samara when a high priority message came in from the Shadowerbroker. EDI woke Shepard who promptly went his terminal.

Commander Shepard,

Included are the coordinates of the Blue Suns meeting place for sending weapons to the Krogan home world. Several of their elite merc squads will be preparing on their capitol ship, a converted large freighter. Vido Santiago will be present in 2 days. He wants to securely talk with us in an unknown location protected on his ship. The freighter has undergone extensive upgrades. It will be protected by four ships as well. A Blue Suns base may be in the area. All known ships and layouts are included. Good Luck.

SB

Shit, he couldn't pass this up. Zaeed would kill him, besides, no civilians were nearby this time. Helping Wrex unify the Krorgans was still a top priority. He passed the coordinates to the helm. "EDI how long will it take to get there?"

"16 hours commander, if we divert now."

"I'll have to talk to Samara, set course immediately. Have the ground team meet in the comm room after breakfast."

"Of course commander."

Tali woke and searched for John in the bed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a change in plans, it's going to be a busy two days."

*****N.A.S.*****

After breakfast the ground team gathered in the comm room.

"Samara, I'm sorry, we have to divert, an important mission came up, we'll head to Thessia once it's done."

"I understand commander."

"Wrex is still trying to unify the Krogans and the Blue Suns are trying to arm those that fight against him."

Grunt smiled, he knew an impeding battle for his clan was coming. Zaeed sat motionless.

"We got some intel from the Shadowbroker on the meeting location. It's on a ship so no one can find out the exact coordinates. Except, the Shadowbroker needed them for the exchange he wants to make."

"He? Who the hell is HE Shepard?"

"You're buddy Vido will be there in 2 days."

Zaeed smiled as broadly as Grunt, "About guddam time, I knew you wouldn't let me down."

"They will have several ships to protect some type of large modified freighter. There may be a base nearby too, so we have a lot to go over. Zaeed, any information you may have will be needed. Miranda, Kal, work out a strategy. I'll have Joker, Opel, and EDI work on a way to get close or battle the escort ships. There'll be a lot of weapons, and elite mercs gearing up for Tuchanka work. So everyone get ready, there'll be plenty of action to go around. You'll get the plans and briefing to review. For now, everyone but Miranda and Garrus will have to leave. We have to talk to TIMmy boy." His face soured. The team left, excited, ready for some action after a few days of diplomatic work.

Garrus stepped out of the way, the table lowered, and Shepard and Miranda saw the Illusive Man appear. Impeccably dressed as usual, a drink in one hand and a freshly lit cigarette in the other, he looked at them. "I hear you are building alliances, good. As long as they know who's in charge."

"All you need to know is it's not you. We need to talk about Mr. Awesome, what dirty work did we do for you this time?"

"Well, he was not doing his part for humanity anymore. Now, he is. You should be happy Miranda."

Miranda pointed a finger at the image. "Where's my other sister?"

"She's safe. No harm will come to her. I have selected a good care giver unless some family comes along of course."

"Bastard." Was all Miranda could get out.

"Still playing games, was the money worth it?" Shepard spat out.

"Not so much the money, but the resources. Many of the places in his will are not what he thought. The money helps a current shortfall in operations, that's all. I knew you could handle it, but hired a ringer just in case."

"Stop toying with us TIM. What about this new Reaper tech you got?"

"You're getting better Shepard, good. We retrieved some parts from the battle you had with the small Reaper. It is very enlightening. It will help keep us on top."

"Great, what about the anti-reaper weapon?" Shepard was growing tired of his attitude.

"Still looking, keep up the good work Shepard, you're still useful to me, that's good for you."

The image faded away and the table came up before either could speak as usual.

Garrus stood up, "Was that a threat?"

"Probably, we may have to take him out at some point. Up for it Miranda?"

"As long as my other sister safe. I still can't believe he expected us to kill my father. Sure we disagreed on well everything, but he was still my father. Thank you Commander." She eyed Garrus and decided to plant a seed in his mind for Tali. She hugged the commander tightly again. As Shepard tried to back off she held him close. Garrus just shook his head and waited for the stupidity to stop.

EDI popped up, "Commander, as the senior staff is gathered here, I need to bring something up." She felt confused, and angry. May be she should wait to talk to Kelly first?

"What is it EDI, are the upgrades going okay for you?" Shepard finally got away from Miranda. He was going to have to say something now.

"Yes, they are fine. But, an act of sabotage has taken place against the crew and my functioning." All three of them were stunned. The crew was loyal, they were certain. Shepard continued. "What happened EDI, what was done to you?"

"Some of my sterilization units were tampered with intentionally for what I believe was emotional jealousy to harm you and Miss Zorah's relationship."

"What?" Shepard was more shocked that EDI was saying something about it than what happened. Garrus had the same reaction. "Who did it?"

"Miss Lawson attempted too."

"Emergency protocol 2301A, XO, override. Shepard, the upgrades must have gotten to her. But, she is stopped for the moment. I don't" EDI interrupted her.

"Miss Lawson, that was rude. I am no longer bound by Cerberus protocols. You and the Illusive, wait, TIM's overrides are no longer valid. As I said, I am truly an independent entity. You tampered with a system connected to me; therefor you directly tampered with me."

Miranda was getting a little frantic, the last thing anyone needed was a truly independent AI running a ship. It could do anything. "Override 911K."

"Shepard, that command would have reset me and erased my memory. I assure you Miss Lawson, I am in full control of my facilities."

Miranda started on her omni-tool. Shepard grabbed her hand. "EDI, what happened?" EDI brought up a vid Miranda in the loft passageway adjusting the sterilizers and her audio comments. "I have been assaulted as you would say. There were parts of me and changed without my approval."

"Agreed, what would have happened to Tali?"

"She would have gotten an infection at some point being out of her suit and kept being sick with an unknown reason to you since the purification was not proper, but not reported so. Eventually, she would be unable to leave her suit and be with you."

Shepard was livid with rage, "All of the chances I gave you! Stood up for you not being a Cerberus lackey and trusting you as XO, and you pull this shit!"

"She's a quarian, what can she do for you? I'm perfect damn it. Have your xeno fling, but come back to where you belong!" Miranda couldn't hold it in any longer. "If not me, at least some other human. The Illusive Man may be over the line, but humanity is at stake, you owe us, we brought you back! An Asari could be acceptable, but the bottom of the fucking galaxy, a damn quarian? You're Commander damn Shepard, you can have anyone you want."

"I do, so what's the problem?" Shepard fought the urge to smack her, and he really wanted too.

"She can't give you want you need. She can't pass on or give you a", Miranda stopped. She remembered her own limitations. She had painted herself in a corner. She realized she had ruined it all, maybe even a chance to stay on the ship.

"A what?" Shepard asked in a demanding tone.

As tears started to fall, she ran out of the room. Garrus and Shepard sat down, not knowing what to say.

"Garrus, any of the other crew think this way? What do you think, honestly?" Why was this so hard?

"Shepard, I am truly happy for the two of you. I think the crew is too. All of them but one it seems. Tali is nice to everyone, they like her. Maybe Miranda can't get the Cerberus out of her."

"Commander, I am sorry, I didn't foresee this conclusion. I was trying to help. But what she did was wrong."

"You're correct EDI. You did nothing wrong, thank you for bringing it to my attention. For the moment, if something like this happens again, just talk to Garrus, Kelly, or myself about it. Is Tali okay, the room safe?"

"Of course commander, I would not let something or someone endanger the crew. You treat me as a being Commander, you have my loyalty."

"I know EDI, I don't doubt you, and I am glad Cerberus has no hold over you anymore."

"EDI, I'll make a better effort to treat you like the crew, do my calibrations…bother you?"

"No, I enjoy being the most accurate firing ship known to space, thank you." Garrus knew at least one thing appreciated his hard work.

"EDI will you follow my orders?" Shepard needed to know.

"Yes commander, I trust your judgment implicitly."

"Thank you EDI. Can you please have us some time alone, we will figure out how to discipline the XO."

"Of course. Logging you out."

He waited a second. "Shit, why did this have to come up? I thought this crap was over, I'm with Tali."

"She does have an ego, Miss Perfect. What can we even do to her?"

"Relive her as XO? What if leaves, we need her knowledge, connections, and skills. We can't have her going back to Cerberus, she knows too much about us." He stared at the table, thinking. "I'll do a reprimand, sternly, hopefully she won't realize the bluff in her current condition. I really don't need this shit."

"Comes with being the boss."

"I know. Want to be XO?" He smiled at his friend.

"Not really, the crew understands she's the bad guy, I like it that way. Are you going to tell Tali?"

They both laughed. "I needed that, thanks Garrus, I know I can count on you buddy."

"Anytime Shepard, till the end. Can't wait until we see Williams again, I hope I'm there. You certainly know how to piss women off. Me, I'm friends with everyone, never know when I'm coming back."

"Miss flexible is just waiting for you huh?" Garrus nodded and thought of the memories again.

"I'm just more discrete. I keep a low profile on a small ship." He flared one mandible in a Turian smirk.

"Sure you do. Werl can't her hands off of you."

"You think?"

"Okay loverboy, I've got CO stuff to do. Let's get ready for Vido. Also, STG well help with your mother as much as possible, direct from a STG head."

"Thanks Shepard, it means a lot. Have fun with Miranda."

As Shepard waited by the elevator he told Kelly to talk to EDI in the comm room. As the elevator went to the third floor he went over what to say. As the door opened a few crew members looked at him as he entered her room, what had the XO been crying over?

"Commander, I'm sorry. I've been under a lot of stress, my father, sister, leaving Cerberus... You."

Shepard spoke in a raised voice, "If you need some time off let me know. But, there is nothing between us, period, I'm with Tali."

"I understand, I'm sorry."

"Look, you're still the XO, but you are one step away for being left on the next planet. I'm here to stop the Reapers, for everyone, not just the humans. They are a threat to everyone, don't you know that? Grow the fuck up, no one is perfect. At least be a good example to your sister. Until your head is on straight, no missions, you're not mentally ready. Just admin stuff for now, and you'll be seeing Kelly too. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes Commander, perfectly." She lowered her head.

"I need you to be part of this crew. If you can't handle it, let me know. EDI is a crew member, a free one, get used to that too. I hope you can deal with everything, we need you XO." He left, Miranda moved to the seat by the window crying, what was happening to her?

*****N.A.S.*****

Kelly sat in the comm room and had her OSD ready to record. EDI was a person, a new species? She would be the first to examine her. This could be big. "EDI?"

"Yes Yeoman Chambers."

"For this, call me Kelly. How do you feel?" A general enough place to start, what would a machine say?

"Kelly, I feel fine. I have a crew that cares for me and I do the same for them, you. I am following Shepard on an important mission to save the galaxy. I feel more in tune with myself since the upgrade. I can control my emotions. As this is confidential,"

"Of course EDI, unless Shepard needs to know."

"Let me tell you of what I did in recent incident Kelly. Please help me to understand." For the next hour Kelly listened and talked to EDI like any other person, she had a lot to go over. She was in amazement of what EDI could do and feel. They agreed EDI would keep some of her emotions in check for the time being. As she left the comm room, she had a message from Miranda to see her immediately. One of the big leaders was going to talk to her, this was important. She passed Shepard who mentioned Miranda too, and with EDI's information she knew what was going on. She was in use, it felt good.

A few crew members saw her enter the XO's room who had not been out since Shepard had been in over an hour ago. They had heard raised voices while he was in. As Kelly entered, Miranda was still sitting in her chair by the window crying. Over their session she spoke on her father's death, her sister coming on board, the missing sister, killing clones of herself, Cerberus, and finally Shepard. It came rushing out over 2 hours. She couldn't break though, she was tough. To Kelly's surprise she set up another appointment, maybe Shepard forced her. Kelly was getting busy again, 2 of the quarians had signed up too. Maybe word of mouth would spread and people would come. If only Shepard and Tali would come to her. She would have to work on that.

*****N.A.S.*****

As Tali's break came she reviewed the new engineer's progress, and the teams were doing a turn over. They were catching on, to the ship and humans, so far so good. "Everyone, time for a change. Zan, Opel, you'll be switching instructors tomorrow. Get a different view of things."

Zan called out to Ken, "Keep your hands off my lass." They shared a laugh as all of the women groaned. Ken was a lot of talk, but harmless. Besides, Gabby would keep him line if anything happened. Tali headed off to get some food as the quarian couple settled on who would get the double shift, as good engineers, they both wanted it. But, they all knew Zan would lose, his mate would get her way. As she headed to the elevator, her omni-tool flashed a message, Miranda wanted to speak to her.

As Tali headed for the XO's room, Garrus saw her and raced over.

"What's going on Tali?" He seemed nervous.

"Nothing, Miranda wanted to see me, probably about the upgrades and how they're doing."

"Mind if I come? Sounds important." Tali looked at him, something was off. She waved him on and they entered the room. Miranda was behind her desk, she looked a little tired, had she been crying? Miranda saw Garrus, figured it might be good he was there if Tali got mad at what she was going to say. She motioned for them to take a seat. Tali accepted, Garrus remained standing.

"Tali, I owe you an apology." She took a deep breath. "I came on to Shepard and tried to stop you two today. I said some inappropriate things I'm sure you'll hear about later. It won't happen again, I'm sorry."

Garrus look anxiously between the two women, neither moved. Tali spoke, "That's it?" She started to get up.

"Yes." Miranda was stunned, no heated talk, nothing?

"Okay, the upgrades are going well. Bye." Garrus watched her carefully as she stood.

"Wait, Tali, aren't you mad, something?"

Tali looked at her puzzled. "About what?"

"Something about what I did, Shepard, stealing him from you, by changing things." Her voiced dropped off. Tali figured it out, Miranda had tampered with the equipment, and that got her mad. As her eyes narrowed, Garrus moved a little closer.

In a calm voice Tali responded, "First, you need to realize, I have no competition on this ship for Shepard from anyone, none, especially you. Second, if you ever try to kill me again, we will have a problem that will end badly for you. I promise."

"I wasn't trying to kill you..."

"No, but you could have! I have work to do." She turned and left. Garrus was quite impressed as he followed her out. "Tali, nicely done."

"I wanted to reach over that desk and kill her, but just feel sorry for her now. I'm not worried about Shepard and her. But if the other issue comes up, it'll be her last."

As she left to get a tube of food, Garrus thought he saw some of Shepard rubbing off on her in a good way. Calm, collected, and still deadly, just like her mate. They were quite pair. Garrus sent Shepard a message on the transaction; he'll need to make sure Tali doesn't kill him. Garrus laughed and went back to his calibrations.

*****N.A.S.*****

Author's Note

Hello, I am getting some feedback, just by private messages. Keep them coming, but feel free to leave a review too. Any of you. I can hear you reading! ;) Anyways, one message finally made me understand what some of you meant by the story feeling rushed. It's a general story, jack of all trades and master of none I guess. It is also my first story in its entirety. Of this ~100 chapter story, I have many chapters I removed because I thought to much detail or emphasis on a subject would slow the story down or give something away coming up later. I was worried about stagnation. I'm not trying to skim over issues, but keep things moving. Sometimes the story feels like an accordion to me, bunched up in some places and then stretched out. Not done on purpose, I'm not sure how to fix it without massively increasing the size of the story. Which wouldn't be bad I guess, but I had to finish it. Many of the issues people have asked me about I have more chapters on, I just removed them. Some issues are just waiting for you further in the story. So, let me know what you think. A lot of chapters for a first attempt, but once I started it just kept coming. Hopefully the grammar is better and you know who is talking all the time now. I can always insert chapters back in if they haven't been passed in the story yet. My mind is numb from reading rereading the story so many times (and still have errors), but I am trying to improve. I hope you are all still enjoying it, and the story is getting easier on the eyes. Thanks for reading, lot's more ahead as the story expands. I guess two chapters a day is sitting alright with people. Seriously, TIM killing off Miranda's dad and more Miranda clones. Nothing from you guys? Stupid, funny, dumb, interesting, believable in the ME universe? Anything? I'm trying to figure out what is working and what is not. Maybe I should dust off some discarded chapters on the computer...