Nusquam Alius Res (Nothing else Matters)
Chapter 36
Shepard was in bed reviewing some tactical data on the upcoming mission with he heard the door open. He dropped the OSD and looked at Tali as she removed her visor and helmet. He had not heard from her all day. She finished changing her clothes in silence, put on her new pajamas and came to the bed. She smiled at him and caressed his face.
"Everything alright?" He was still nervous.
"No problems at all. Thanks for setting Miranda straight."
"You too, heard you handled yourself quite well."
"I have a good teacher." She hugged him tightly, she wished she could do more, she still wanted to do more.
"You don't want to learn from me, explosions remember?"
She chuckled, "Only on other people's ships." She switched to a serious tone, "John, on quarian ships, the mates of captains may have other jobs, or responsibilities. But, due to the nature of the fleet the mate gets involved in ship issues no matter what. Or, at least hears them and tries to help their mate with other views and information. Except for the most sensitive of issues, they know all the captain does. It's a part of our culture since we all live so closely together. They take an oath and cannot betray their mate or the ship by sharing any information. It's as important as the captain's oath to serve the fleet and our people. I know human's don't have the same problem, but I'd take the oath for you. Just something to think about." She kissed him and lay down, ready to sleep.
"I'll think about it, an interesting concept. Quarians have to deal with it, on human military ships there is no cohabitation, legally, so it does not come up." He'd have to look in to it more. It might be good idea given everything that could happen in the room. She was already senior staff as head of engineering, and knew more than most people, and he trusted her. It would be nice to have someone to talk to about the issues affecting them all. He put his OSD on the nightstand and laid down, feeling Tali next to him. The lights dimmed, and he felt her roll over and reach for something outside the bed.
Tali reached for the lubricate. She would do more tonight for him she thought as she rubbed it on her hands. Then she rolled back over and placed them on his member. He jumped at first but soon relaxed, and then a sultry voice spoke, "Can the rooster come out and play?" He knew he would have to do something to make sure that name didn't stick, but as his thoughts left his head and he concentrated on the pleasure from his groin, he didn't care.
*****N.A.S.*****
Shepard woke up feeling pretty good, he looked over at Tali, she deserved something pretty good too. He started to give her small kisses on her shoulders; she shrugged at first, and then rolled on her back, coming towards the affection. He slowly and softly kept kissing down her smooth body. Bringing his hands in, massaging her breasts, sliding down her stomach. She was still asleep but a smile came over her face. He reached her belly button and finally his destination. He kissed all around it softly, slowly, watching her legs slightly part as he began to arouse her. He kissed her right on her mound, already moist in anticipation.
Tali was having a wonderful dream. Shepard was loving her, she felt good, it felt real, it felt really good. She liked this dream, no bad thoughts, fighting, or thoughts of the fleet, just Shepard taking her away. Then her brain kicked in, it did feel too good, it was real, there were things to do. She snapped out of her sleep and bolted up and back from Shepard who was just about to bury his face between her legs.
"Stop, you can't, not now." Her body seemed to be cursing at her for denying it something it craved.
"Why not, some quarian rule I don't know?" He dragged her back by the legs.
"No, remember what Mordin said, you can get sick from….you know…swallowing too much…ahh..of me. We have missions coming up; you won't be down because we were having fun." She was trying to be the adult, or so she thought.
"I'm a big boy, I can handle it, now come here." He pulled her closer again, Tali's mind was starting to lose the battle with her loins.
"Zaeed would kill you if got sick." Her lips shot out the statement in desperation. She really didn't want to stop, but unfortunately, the mission came first, again. She hoped it worked; she was losing her internal battle.
Zaeed's name stopped Shephed, not out of fear, but the image of his face. "Fine, fine, another time, you can count on it." He smiled a devilish grin, got out of bed and headed for the shower. Tali laid back down, still aroused, but knew she did the right thing, maybe. Besides, she needed to drink the herbal tea after last night. She heard the water turn on. Maybe they couldn't do some things for the moment, but a shower would be nice. She disrobed and followed Shepard in to shower; the day was starting quite nicely.
*****N.A.S.*****
Werl was bringing some trash to Zaeed's room for jettison before breakfast when she noticed a gun not in the armory on some crates. Zaeed was working out and not present. An older M-8 Avenger, she picked it up and reminisced about some missions she had with one. None ending well, that's why she was on ships fixing things and cooking she guessed. As she went through the procedures she noticed it never hummed, came to life. She checked and it didn't operate. Guess it's for crushing she thought. She compacted her trash and put the gun in the jettison queue. She took the rifle and thought, she'd fix it, something else to do, probably simple enough.
She walked in to the armory, Jacob was not around. She pulled up a chair and disassembled the rifle. Someone took good care it, especially since it didn't work. She went through the parts, everything seemed in place, but no charge. The core had life; she brought up the schematics, everything in place. She had repaired enough of these things, she went through the stupid fixes, nothing. Finally it hit her, the mass effect pin had become charged. Easy to fix, but no one usually checked for it, as it almost never happened. She went through the draws and found an old pin.
It took more time than she would have liked, but she finished it. She was out of practice. She put the gun back together and this time heard the familiar charge up of the weapon. Satisfied, she went to put it in the gun rack and thought better of it, she could use it for ship defense under the counter. She smiled and went to the elevator.
Kelly caught a glimpse of Werl in the elevator as the doors close with Zaeed's Jessie? She shook her head, couldn't be, no one was that stupid.
Werl was serving breakfast a roar came from the rear of the deck and an enraged Zaeed came from around the corner still in his workout clothes. "SHEPARD! I put up with a lot of shit on this ship from your random collection of do gooding shitheads, but someone took Jessie, I'll kill the guddam bastard. You better find her NOW!" The crew was shocked, who would take Jessie from the crazy merc?
"I'm sure it's around, no one would take it." Jack guffawed at her play things anger.
"You bitch, did you take Jessie!" He pointed a finger at Jack. "You were always jealous of her!"
"I wouldn't take your broken piece of shit rifle. No one would. Fuck off."
Zaeed was still enraged and wanted someone's head. Werl saw the confusion and asked, "Who's Jessie, someone I missed on the roster?"
"No, she's better, the most loyal and trusting women in the universe. She's never let me down. I let her down once though and it's pained me ever since. Now where is SHE!" Zaeed stared down everyone in the mess, even Grunt. Werl had a blank look on her face. Tali like most of women present didn't understand the love affair, "It's his old rifle who he won't let anyone try and fix. He named it Jessie."
Werl reached under the counter and produced the M-8 rifle she had found in Zaeed's room. "I thought it was for trash, I almost spaced it. I" before she could finish, Zaeed raced over and claimed his Jessie. As he ran over it, checking it, he heard an old sound, it was charging up. "You..you fixed Jessie? How?"
"Old issue that hardly comes up. The mass pin got charged, you must have fired this thing a lot over the years." Then in a shock to everyone, Zaeed bent over the counter and lightly kissed Werl on the lips. "You are a great woman, I owe you." Zaeed smiled and walked out of the room patting Jessie, "Come on baby, let's go home."
Everyone was shocked, but Zaeed seemed calmer. Jack was surprised, she felt nothing when Zaeed kissed Werl, she needed something else. Tali was shaking her head then looked at Garrus, "Do all men name their guns?"
"My sniper rifle is Nafla, flexible enough for any situation."
"Grunt?"
"My Claymore is named after the best battlemaster, Shepard." That made everyone a little uncomfortable.
"My shotgun is Penny." Kasumi made a note to speak to Jacob about who Penny was.
"All of my assault rifles are called Fleet, reminds me of why I'm somewhere, that leaves you Shepard." Kal stated proudly.
Tali turned to Shepard, "You too?" Shepard seemed to blush a bit. "Keelah, what is it? You're not obsessed like Zaeed are you?"
"No! umm…Relly." Tali had the same reaction as everyone else, that's it?
"Relly the Revenant? Really Shepard? We all expected better." Garrus looked with disapproval at his friend as he mentioned it. "Not Reaper slayer, Tali lover, or something awesome?"
"No comment. I should go." Shepard got up and left leaving Tali still shaking her head, "Men."
*****N.A.S.*****
The ground team was in the comm room with Liadi and Joker as Shepard walked in ready for the briefings. Liadi was a bit nervous, but started off with the ship part of the encounter.
"We'll enter on the far side of the system, enter stealth mode and make our way to the far side of this moon and wait. The ships should enter here and head away from us. We'll come up from behind them with the shuttle and ground grew in our shadow. We'll engage the escort ships until they are destroyed or surrender. The shuttle should be able hide on the top, in the infrastructure. The freighter is heavily modified and the Normandy will have to stay away from it, it is the biggest threat to us."
Next, Miranda and Kal gave the ground team portion, Miranda acted like her old self as she began, "It's a converted earth Liberty class freighter; the insides should be stock for the most part. More sections have been added, but the top area looks stock. We will have three ground teams enter through hatches on the top of the ship. The shuttle will drop off teams and wait. One team each for engines, bridge, and the hanger bay. Controlling these areas should bring the ship in to our control quickly. The mercs are supposed to be the better of the Blue Suns."
As everyone studied the ship and ingress points Shepard had his teams in mind. "Okay, my team will go for the bridge, Zaeed and Grunt you're" Kal interrupted, "Shepard, the hatch for the bridge team is too small for Grunt to fit through, he can only go in the hanger bay ingress point. You'll also need a tech for each team."
"Okay, I've got the bridge with Zaeed and Legion. Garrus, you have the hanger bay with Grunt and Kasumi, keep anyone from leaving. Tali, is engineering ready if you're not present?"
"Yes, they can handle anything that might come"
"Okay, Kal, you lead the engine team with Tali and Samara. Jacob, you have Mordin and Jack in the shuttle as back up. If someone makes a run for it let us know, if they try to board the Normandy, head back. Mordin, Junior's had some training correct?"
"Yes, basic STG introduction. Has omni-tool, ready to go, nice modification with my help."
"Okay, he's on ship defense, have him go to Werl. Let's get ready to go. Miranda will be overviewing everything here and keep us up to date. We'll wait in the cargo bay until it's time to go."
Zaeed eyed the plan, "What about the base on nearby planet?"
"No threats from there, we have some intel on the base itself, but we'll hit it afterwards." Miranda was certain and felt confident again.
"He'll have an out, Vido's a slimly bastard. Watch for it."
*****N.A.S.*****
The ground team was in the cargo bay waiting by the shuttle, armed and in their protective suits to survive space until they could get in the ship.
"Shepard, the Blue Suns group has entered the system and will be in position soon."
"Thanks EDI, sound GQ and let's get ready. Send my message before we attack." The teams got in the shuttle and waited.
"Message?" Zaeed seemed annoyed at the prospect.
"They will have a chance to surrender." Zaeed rolled his eyes at Shepard's continued willingness to find the good in people. He had extra weapon today though, he had strapped Jessie to his back, just in case.
"They are in position, we are starting towards them."
"You heard EDI, everyone in, let's go."
The door opened and the shuttle took position behind the Normandy as they came to the rear of the enemy formation.
*****N.A.S.*****
"This is Commander Shepard, Council Spectre, power down you ships and surrender, no one has to die." As the message ended on the loudspeaker Vido got nervous.
"You gotten be shittin' me. If Shepard's here, so is Zaeed, shit! Get my shuttle ready, I'm leaving for the planet, tell the Shadow Broker we can talk there. Reply back they can all fuck off, never mind, I'll do it, open the channel." The captain signaled he was on. "Hey Shepard, Zaeed, Fuck off." The crew on the bridge laughed, they had 4 escorts and a freighter full of surprises, one SPECTRE would be no problem. They saw a pulse of light off of the starboard side and one of the escorts explode followed by a trail of torpedoes above them and a second escort explode.
"This is the Blue Suns ship Kerdnad, we surrender and are powering down." Vido swore and would kill that captain when they were out of this. He ran out and to the Shuttle. He almost fell down as the shock waves from the explosions reached the ship. Zaeed would pay for this. The crew was fanatically looking for any ship that could have attacked them, the sensors showed nothing. The Operland, the remaining ship in the fight call out a visual, it was the Normandy, that meant it was stealth mode. Surprise number one was coming up thought Vido.
The teams in the shuttle saw the bright flashes of the Normandy firing and break off and away to get ready for another attack. The shuttle glided along the top of the freighter, hugging it, stopping only to let the team members get out. Jacob stopped the shuttle in an antenna array, they should be safe there. The teams hackers all signaled ready, the hatches were all ready to enter. "Go." As Shepard spoke, they entered the airlocks and the techs got on with the next hack. As they exited the airlocks, the ship shock from the escort explosions, Zaeed grinned, he could feel Vido was close.
As the Normandy banked away from the formation, EDI confirmed the Kerdnad had powered down and she had control of the ship. As they started to come around, the freighter launched several projectiles in all directions. They exploded in a gaseous cloud and the two remaining ships took evasive maneuvers. Liadi wasn't sure what the clouds were, but they were not a weapon. Goldstein called out, "It's a cloud of small particles, benign, but if we go through them, they would collect on us, and the Normandy would show up on their sensors. They're firing a second round!"
The second round went out further than the first, some beyond the Normandy. The freighter had also begun to open up and expose its guns. A gas round exploded near the Normandy which could not avoid it. Seconds later, the guns from both ships started firing in their direction. "Liadi, the gas has collected on my hull; I have no way of getting it off. They can see us."
"I know EDI, we're doing plan B." Jeff put the Nomandy through a series of aggressive evasive maneuvers, shots occasional hitting them, the shields where holding for now. In engineering, two humans and two quarians, worked together to keep the shields up and power ready for the weapons.
The escort and the freighter worked together to keep the Normandy at bay. Now that they could detect the Normandy, they could defend against it. The Blue Sun's ships had too much firepower for a direct assault by the smaller frigate with the element of surprise gone. The Blue Suns ships headed for the base planet side. On the bridge, the damage control officer noticed the topside airlocks had cycled. He thought it was strange, but in the middle of a battle, strange things happened. He ignored it; there were more important things to worry about.
With the freighter at GQ, there was no resistance in the passage ways, everyone one was at their battle stations. The one or two guards patrolling would be cut down by the teams as they headed for their destinations. EDI had been trying to hack the controls of the ships, but had limited success as the Normandy had to pull out to a safer distance. The protocols she put on the Kerdnad left it locked up.
As Garrus's team passed by a passageway overlooking one of the hanger bays, a figure waiting by a shuttle happened to see them. He knew he had no Krogans aboard, "Damn it, sound the intrusion alarm, we've been boarded. Let's get the hell out of here, NOW!" Vido boarded the shuttle and the doors opened. As the shuttle exited, heading planet side, the intrusion alarm sounded and the teams got ready for their fights.
*****N.A.S.*****
Author's note
Okay, thanks for some feedback, keep it coming. I knew you were out there! Also, I don't believe I have gotten any bad reviews from anyone. Constructive criticism, or pointing out issues, is not bad (to me at least), so I hope no one thought I was putting any reviews down. If you don't tell me, I can't improve, and all of the feedbacks have been great so far. I have a Beta reader who has helped me immensely. But, life got in the way and he didn't have the time to do a final check for grammar at the time. I thought he didn't have time period and charged ahead putting the story out. He found some plot holes and other atrocities. Also, for you guys, he convinced me to save some of the OCs. I was treating them like red shirted Star Trek Ensigns on the away team. Without the deaths, I thought the story would be to sun shiny. He told me killing off OCs just as readers may care about them was bad. I didn't want him marred by being associated with something he couldn't finish. I'll reveal him if he wants it. If you like Liadi, thank him cause I had already killed her off by now originally, another OC too. They are safe for now, the future is uncertain (from your perspective). The story has been done for a few months now, just polishing it up. Like I said, I hated stories that started, got you involved and then stopped. So, it's done, you'll get it all no stoppage. By the time it's done you'll be sick of the story being at the top of ME story list all the time.