Right. Get the ship running. The Normandy was built with redundant systems; she could take a beating and keep going, as long as they had time to work around the problem.

"Damage report, EDI. Is there anything I need to physically fix, or can we rig work-arounds with software?" Not that I know how to physically fix much. He should have asked if Shepard could spare Tali. She needed everyone she had with her, he was sure – but getting out safely wouldn't do much good if they couldn't leave.

"Life support systems are green. The hanger bay is depressurized –"

"No shit. There's a great big hole in it."

"Three, actually. The ablative armor —"

"—Ablated. That's what it does. Skip the checklist; just tell me the worst problems."

"That is difficult. There are errors whose cause I cannot ascertain."

Shit. "What do you mean?"

"I have access to all of the Normandy's internal monitoring systems, but I am still software. Where there is no camera or detection circuit, I rely on inference."

He sighed. "You need me to crawl somewhere, don't you?"

"It would be quicker if you walk, Jeff."

He rolled his eyes and started for the elevator. "Where'm I going?"

Her voice kept pace with him, coming out of different speakers. "Engineering. The first anomaly is in the coolant flow-rate on the port-side vent. It may indicate structural damage. Visual analysis is needed to determine if it presents danger in flight. Enter via the port access hatch. Describe any anomalies you find."

"Describe?" He had a vision of himself and EDI arguing definitions on a non-functional Normandy when Shepard arrived, the entirety of the collector species hot on her tail. "That's ridiculous. Hold on." He veered right, towards the armory. "I can't believe we don't have a mobile camera set up for you. I suppose that'd be too damn useful."

"I can instruct you in removing a stationary camera, but I'm afraid –"

"It'd take too long. And I'm going to need all the power in my omnitool if I have to fix anything. Got a better plan." He pulled a helmet out of an armor locker. It was an extra; plain matte grey, straight from the factory.

"We have the technology." He balanced the helmet on his thigh while he fumbled for the switches inside. On his other hand his omnitool shimmered to life. "One second… oops… bingo. Helmet's comm suite is already keyed to the Normandy. You see anything?"

"Yes. A close-range visual of your –"

"Gah, never mind!" He turned the helmet around and carried it by the neck back to the elevator.

"The visual is now upside-down."

"You have an entire room of processors. I'm pretty sure you can flip an image." He stepped from the elevator onto the engineering deck. The port access hatch opened on a narrow utility corridor directly inside the interior pressure hull. Insulated pipes ran the length of it. He held the helmet up so the face-plate looked at the largest. "This the one?"

"Yes. Start at one end and look for physical anomalies."

The close space reeked of hot metal and he had to watch his footing, but the problem wasn't hard to find. A set of mounts holding one of the pipes in place had sheared off the bulkhead, and the pipe sagged alarmingly. Stress lines were already beginning to show on the metal surface.

"The visible damage is commensurate with the variance in the flow data," said the helmet.

"Ah yup, it's a problem." He crouched down to peer at it. The bolts had been sliced clean through by sheer forces, either in the crash or when he'd bumped one of the derelicts in the debris field. Sorry girl. He raised a hand to the pipe; it was still warm to the touch. "A little out of my depth here, EDI."

"There is a roughly 70% chance that activating the mass effect generators will cause this conduit to rupture at the point of weakness if not repaired. The conduit must be replaced for long-term use, however welding the broken support should suffice until the Normandy is in safe space again."

"If I knew how to weld, that'd be awesome," he muttered.

–––

Kasumi was well into the vent when they encountered the first collectors. Shepard was almost glad to see them; she'd expected them earlier, and the quiet had been eerily reminiscent of the trap on the collector's ship.

She ducked behind a low ridge, thankful for the organic irregularity of the base's construction. Mordin and Miranda followed suit, one on either side.

"Make me a weak spot in their armor. I'll take the fight to them." She couldn't let Kasumi get too far ahead of her. Once the collectors caught on, the thief would be a sitting duck.

She centered herself, pulling power into her chest while Mordin and Miranda softened up her prey. She hurled herself forward just as the flash of Miranda's biotic explosion faded, straight into a huddle of collector drones. The force of her arrival scattered them like bowling pins. In the moment of dilated time she killed the first one before it hit the floor. After that she had to act fast, trusting her armor and her team.

"Shep, there's a barrier! I can't get through from this side, but I can see the mechanism. 10 o'clock, near the exposed section of the vent."

The blockage was twenty meters away, across an open space that just begged for an attack on her flank.

"I don't want to distract you, Shep, but it's getting kinda hot in here."

She was about to start running when she saw a flicker of movement near the vent – another drone, headed straight for the mechanism – and Kasumi.

Shepard grinned. Blue light raced along her shoulders. She crossed the open space in an instant, will focused on her new target. The lifeless body crumpled to the ground, and she mentally thanked it for the transportation. The control panel wasn't so helpful. She could barely tell what was machinery and what was wall.

"Now that's service," Kasumi said. "Okay, I've bypassed the code lock, but there's a physical aspect. Look down and to your left. See the knob? No, the other one. Farther. It looks like a rotten plum. Pull that – it's mechanical, brute strength should do it."

Shepard checked her six; Mordin and Miranda were buying her time. She grabbed the lever and yanked. The gate blocking the vent rose so fast it slammed into its housing.

"Maybe slightly less brute next time," Kasumi suggested.

"I'll keep pace with you. There might be more." The end of the lever had come off in Shepard's hand. She tossed the broken piece over her shoulder.

"Sounds good." Kasumi vanished behind a bulkhead, slipping through the tiny space like she'd been greased.

Shepard readied her shotgun and ducked down the passage, staying as close as she could. The corridor twisted and turned, covering twice as much ground as the path Kasumi was squeezing through.

"Looks like there's another gate up here."

She started running, surprising a collector as she came around a corner. She hit it with a shotgun blast to the abdomen and didn't stop to see if it was dead. Ahead of her the way widened into another cavernous space. Collectors were landing on it, flying up from the chasm to her right. At the far end she could just make out another control panel.

There were only five drones on the ground, but the whir of chitinous wings promised more.

"Shep, it's getting hot again," Kasumi panted.

Shepard charged, passing the nearer enemies as if they weren't there. Her barriers slammed into a drone in the middle of the room. Its exoskeleton gave a sickly crunch. She whirled back the way she'd come and shot another in the back just as Mordin and Miranda appeared in the space where she'd been, running for all they were worth.

A drone alighted on the ledge and started to glow. Harbinger. Once the drone was completely possessed, it'd be tougher to kill. And it'll probably talk.

"Shepard," Miranda panted, "We can't cover you when you get that far ahead!"

"So move your asses!" The longer they waited, the more collectors would arrive. Holding position was death.

She unleashed her gathered power and hurled herself towards the glowing drone. The impact pushed it backwards off the ledge. Caught midway between being its own creature and the puppet of Harbinger, it couldn't make its wings work. The body plummeted into the chasm, a faint orange glow against h the darkness.

She turned from the pit to find her next target. "Full speed ahead, motherfuckers."

–––

"I was top of my class in flight school. No one ever mentioned plumbing. Should've taken night classes – ow!" Joker straightened up too fast and whacked the back of his head on a pipe. Not the pipe he was working on, small mercy; it probably would have exploded under the strain and drowned him in coolant. Shit, that would be an embarrassing way to die. Almost as embarrassing as frying yourself on a welder you don't know how to use.

They'd found and evaluated – well, he found and EDI evaluated – the physical damage to the ship. EDI's priority list lead him right back to the first access shaft and the damaged pipe. They couldn't be sure of the engines until they tested them, and they couldn't do that if the coolant system flooded engineering.

He looked at the diagram on his omnitool again. It can't be that hard. Donnelly can do it.

The access way had seemed spacious enough when he'd looked the first time, but now, juggling a welder, hand light, jack, and EDI's helmet, it felt tiny. It was impossible to move without bumping things. He'd already hit his injured side once; it should have been agony, but with the nerve-blocker induced numbness it only made him feel queasy. He'd pay for it later. Just as long as there is a later. Rhi promised there'd be a later.

"I don't like being down here," he grumbled as he worked. "I can't tell what's going on with Rh – with the ground team." Which is everybody except me, now.

"I will update you on any events of strategic importance, Jeff. All team-members are currently healthy. If you wish for direct contact, you may of course use this helmet's radio." A light near the face-plate blinked. "Ah, a coincidence. Here."

"Joker," Shepard's voice issued from the spot EDI's had a moment before. "Kasumi's almost through. My stalker's back – Harbinger – but so far, so good. How's the Normandy? Any complications?"

"Haven't had any company. Have to fix a few things before I can get a time estimate on restoring the generators, but there's nothing we can't deal with, babe." There was no one but EDI to hear the endearment, and it made him smile.

"'Course there isn't. Shepard out." Judging from Rhi's tone it had made her smile, too.

"Please ask any time you wish to speak with the commander, Jeff. I would not like worry to impair your usual efficiency."

His smile turned into a grimace. "Okay, that's just kinda not right."

"What is 'not right?'"

"Talking to a helmet that's you and then Shepard. And then you. Freaky."

"The helmet is merely serving as a communication device, Jeff – a radio. Surely that is not 'freaky.'"

"Yeah, but it's head shaped, and – just leave it, okay, EDI? Most weird-ass creepy things are not logic things." He squeezed back under the pipe, around the jack that wedged everything in place, and fired up the welder. Rhi had her targets. He had his.

–––

Garrus's squad rejoined Shepard's on the other side of the first set of doors, slipping through the narrow opening with collectors hot on their tail. Kasumi was breathless and flushed when they pulled her out of the vent.

The security systems that had almost kept them out bought them a moment of peace. They stood on another broad ledge. In front of them an empty column yawned above and below. The space was lined with pods. How many held human bodies? And how are we ever going to find our own?

"Shepard," Miranda said, "You need to look at this."

"Grunt, Zaeed – watch the doors." One of the collectors' body-pods stood on-end next to Miranda. The surface was murky, but as Shepard drew nearer she could make out the human form within; a young woman wearing practical work-a-day clothes.

"One of the colonists? Poor kid."

Miranda nodded sadly. "We were too late for her before we ever came to Horizon. For all we know she's been in this case since Ferris Fields. Or Freedom's Progress."

"Mmm." Shepard frowned. The colonist must've been in there at least a month, but the body was perfectly preserved. The nerve-toxin bearing seeker swarms must have gotten her; there was no sign of injury or struggle. The girl looked like she could wake at any moment.

Wait. Did she just move? "Miranda! Mordin! Get this open!"

Rhi ran her fingers over the case, trying to find a catch. The woman inside started to twitch in earnest, like a dreamer coming out of a troubled sleep. The pod might have been carved of one piece; she couldn't find anything that looked like an opening. Miranda and Mordin worked frantically at its other side, but to no more effect.

We'll get you out. Shepard looked in the front again, hoping to see a seam from the inside. A dark sheen was creeping over the woman's pale skin. "Mordin! What's happening?"

"Not chemical." Mordin was jabbing furiously at his omnitool. "Cyber-tech. Purpose unknown. Suspect speed of the essence!"

The film covered the woman's face, now, thickening in the creases of her skin and turning darker. No. Eating her! It was blood that made it that red.

Shepard raised the butt of her shotgun, intending to slam it into the clear pane, but she was too late. The young woman dissolved before her eyes.

Miranda met her gaze, porcelain skin looking greenish behind her faceplate.

"EDI!" Shepard clenched her jaw and turned from the unsettling sight. "The missing crew are top priority. What do you have on their location?"

"There is a faint signal which I believe to be Daniels' suit radio," EDI answered. "I am attempting to pinpoint the location, but the bulk of the collector base is creating interference."

"Got it." Shepard shouted the team out of their shock: "Tali, Samara, left ten meters. Kasumi, Thane, right ten. Give EDI access to your omnitools." Maybe she can triangulate that signal. Come on, EDI.

The seconds dragged while EDI gathered data. Mordin poked at the body-pod; the rest of the squad looked anywhere else.

"I have pinpointed the signal. Twenty meters on my bearing."

An indicator light flashed in Shepard's HUD. She followed it to where a narrow shelf skirted the edge of the chasm. It'd be single file for the first fifteen meters – the perfect place for an attack.

"Garrus, Legion – stay here and cover us. Everyone else, with me."

"Shepard," EDI spoke on a private channel, "it is quite possible that the collectors' constructs only affect organics. The survival of the radio does not indicate the survival of the bearer."

She'd been thinking the same thing. "I know, EDI, but we're not giving up until I know for damn sure. Keep it quiet." More pods lined the wall to her right. She didn't let herself look at their occupants.

There was a whir of wings from below. Legion's rifle boomed, and the collector fell before it could reach them. Garrus took another, but more were coming, and her people were pressed between the pods and a long drop.

"Hug the wall!" Shepard threw a shock wave into the approaching hostiles. It flung them back, buying time for her team. The snipers picked the staggered collectors off.

Three meters farther on the path widened. An aperture in the wall lead to a more defensible chamber – and the signal EDI was tracking. Shepard ducked into the room, checking left and right for further danger. It was empty except for the body pods, lining the perimeter and stretching in ranks up towards a distant ceiling. My crew.

"Thane, Zaeed – hold that door. Garrus, Legion, wait until everyone's off the ledge then get over here."

The first pod was vacant, as was the second, but the third's dusky surface revealed the black and white of a Cerberus uniform. "Mordin! How do we get them out?"

"No time for finesse. Suggest knives and/or brute force."

She had her switchblade out before he'd finished. She stabbed into the pod nearest her, and the transparent membrane cracked under the sharp steel. She pulled the shards away from the body within, and helped a blinking Matthews into the light.

The rest of the team was running from pod to pod, checking for their people, but they'd only found a few.

"Shepard! Up here!" Kasumi was halfway up the wall, climbing among the cases.

"Got it! Get back." She caught the case in a biotic field and tugged it down off the wall. Tali appeared at her side, nimble fingers worked over the edges. When the cover slid away Donnelly fell into the quarian's arms. The engineer looked woozily at Tali's face-plate, slurred "my hero," and started to fall to the ground.

Tali helped him to sit, and Shepard turned back to the wall, pulling down another case. Around her the others were helping without need for instruction. Samara, Jack, and Jacob's biotics flickered blue along with her own, retrieving the cases that Thane and Kasumi found on the walls. Grunt was opening pods with his forehead, which had to be terrifying to wake up to. Mordin and Miranda were checking for signs of injury.

Zaeed lifted Mercer bodily out of a case; the young relief pilot clung to his neck for dear life. The brawny merc untangled her fingers with surprising gentleness and set her on the floor with the others. Shepard freed Chakwas herself, slipping an arm under the older woman's shoulders before she could fall.

"Hang in there, doc. You're almost home."

The group of survivors huddled on the floor grew bigger; Shepard saw Patel's dark hair and Chambers' red, holding each other tightly. Daniels and Donnelly, Rolston and Hotchkins. Chakwas, refusing to let herself collapse with the others, even though she had to lean on Zaeed.

Shepard did a quick head-count.

Then she counted again, and once more, hardly believing it.

Everyone. They'd found everyone.

Relief added spring to her step, a buoyant, floating feeling. She keyed the private channel.

"Joker," she said, "we've got them." Her eyes were wet. "We've got them all." She swallowed around the lump in her throat. "Whatd'ya think, babe? You ready for a full ship again?"

It took him a moment to respond, and his voice caught on the words. "Better send 'em on home. But tell 'em to wipe their feet first."

She chuckled, heart full. "Will do." The recovered crew huddled together on the ground, leaning on each other for support. "They're not going to be much help for a while, I'm afraid."

"Eh, they're just decorative anyway." His voice was gruff, a casual facade over a relief as deep as her own. "And you can tell Donnelly I said that. Any chance you can spare Tali? I'm trying, but it's like paint-by-numbers. I don't know what the hell I'm doing with engines."

"Sure thing."

She turned to the waiting crowd, giving Chambers a hand up, gently slapping Matthews shoulder, folding Mercer into a hug. Everyone's alive.

She stepped back to address them all. "I know it hasn't been a pleasant ride, but you need to hang on a bit farther. Doctor Solus and Tali will escort you back to the Normandy. We'll be giving the collectors other things to think about, so they shouldn't worry you much." She smiled at them proudly. My people. "It's good to see you again."

–––

EDI tracked the progress of the returning crew, and Joker was near the airlock to great them. He heaved a sigh of relief when the first bunch set foot in the Normandy proper. He wouldn't believe they were safe until they were all back in friendly space, but it was a start.

Chakwas was in the first group aboard, and her first move was to hug him – a sentiment he returned whole-heartedly, though he had to be a bit ginger about the actual gesture.

"Missed you, doc. Can't seem to keep myself in one piece without you around."

"Oh, no, what –"

"Nothing that won't keep. Looks like you'll have your hands full for a while."

The returning crew looked awful – sick and shaken, eyes bleary and steps uncertain. Chakwas was no better off, but she put a good face on it. "I suppose I can be patient for my favorite patient."

"You know it." He maneuvered the doctor between himself and Kelly Chambers. She'd just stepped out of the airlock, and it looked like she was in a hugging mood, too. Some things he wasn't up to dealing with.

Tali and Mordin were last aboard. Tali clutched a spot on her arm.

"You all right? You have any trouble?"

"Nothing we couldn't handle," Mordin said. "Tali sustained small injury. Lucky. Environment of collector base hostile to all non-collector life; unlikely to sustain bacteria capable of attacking quarian physiology."

Joker turned to Tali in concern.

"Just a scratch," She said. "Don't worry, I'm ready to work on the engines." She lifted her hand to show a neat seal already in place on her environment suit. "Speaking of engines, you haven't done anything awful to them, have you?"

Joker gave Tali a run-down of what they'd done so far. Ken and Gabby joined them, pale but determined.

"I'd rather work than think, if it's all the same to you," Ken said. He was leaning heavily on Gabby; the enforced immobility hadn't helped his limp.

"Only you would think those were mutually exclusive," Gabby shot back. She shifted her shoulders, resettling his arm. "Meet you engineering, Tali. We'll see how much good Kenneth can do sitting on his ass."

The two engineers started towards the elevator, grumbling at each other. The rest of the crew slowly filtered down towards the crew deck and the med bay, herded by Mordin and a rather woozy Chakwas. Tali left last, already poking at her omni-tool.

Joker sank into his own chair, relieved to know that the Normandy's mechanical systems were finally in more capable hands than his own, and radioed Shepard.

There was no response, only a burst of static on the line. "Garrus, this is the Normandy. Come in."

"Garrus here." A gunshot sounded, close to the radio. "Did the crew make it back?"

"Everyone's here. I can't raise Shepard."

"Miranda'll give you a sit-rep. I've got my hands full."

"Mr. Moreau, glad to hear the crew's back," Miranda's no-nonsense voice was a relief. "The main path was blocked. Shepard took a small team through an alternate route. The area she's in is full of the seeker bugs we encountered at Horizon – the swarms are so dense they cut off radio contact. Can you or EDI pinpoint their location? "

The radio signal wasn't coming through, but the simpler ping from the suits' life support systems was still making it. "Vital signs look good. Jack's having a tough time of it. I don't have more than respiration, temp, and heart rate, though. They're more than half way to you."

"Good, we're – uuff." Miranda's response was cut short by a sick grunt.

"You okay?!"

"Fine." She was panting. "That's what armor is for. We've been waiting at the doors for ten minutes, and we've got enemies coming in from every side."

–––

The noise was deafening. Billions of wings made a background buzz so loud they had to turn up their radios. Legion's sniper rifle boomed. Grunt roared. Jack, standing in the middle maintaining the biotic barrier that kept the seeker swarms at bay, cursed.

Swarms of seekers, each almost as large as Shepard's hand, hit the barrier like a hail storm.

Fighting within the confines of the barrier was hard; they had to let the enemy come to them instead of choosing their ground. Shepard and Grunt moved at Jack's pace, stopping only when the collectors threatened to overwhelm them. Legion paced them in the shadows, beyond the hemisphere of safety, bugs pinging off the metal platform.

Husks were crawling out of nowhere, some of them glowing red at the joints, a sure sign they'd been booby trapped. Suicide husks moved like a normal zombie until you took 'em down, and then they exploded, taking you with it.

Have to keep them away from Jack. If the barrier went down, they were all done for.

Shepard had been at the leading edge of the bubble, clearing their path. Now she fell back. Jack's position was too vulnerable; the collectors could fly in from overhead, and the husks seemed to squeeze out of spaces human bodies shouldn't have been able to fit. She couldn't defend Jack if she couldn't see her.

"Shepard!" Jack said as she passed. Jack was tiring; she'd never have let the note of alarm into her voice otherwise.

"Just watching your ass," Shepard reassured her. She checked her six again; clear for now.

"Bullshit," Jack panted, "I know damn well whose ass you like to watch, and it ain't mine."

Shepard snorted and sent a husk flying.

Grunt shot them a quizzical look. Shepard bellowed at him to keep his eye on the enemy. Jack chuckled weakly. "You'll understand when you're older, kid."

"With any luck I won't be the one explaining," Shepard muttered. Jack laughed again and the barrier gleamed a little brighter.

"Shepard, behind you!" Grunt roared.

She gathered biotic energy as she turned and sent it cascading out blindly behind her. Two husks flew backward into the darkness.

"Thanks." The barrier edged forward as Jack moved, and she walked backward, an eye on the shadows.

"I can see the exit," Jack panted. "Hurry, Shepard!"

Shepard risked a glance over her shoulder. More husks were closing in behind them, but the hatch and safety were so very, very close. A shotgun blast to the gut leveled the one nearest her. "As fast as you want, Jack!"

She guarded the rear while Grunt cleared the front, so close to the barrier that it tingled against her nerves and distorted her vision. On the other side seeker bugs flung themselves at her, bouncing off the barrier bare inches from her armor.

"FUCK!"

Shepard whirled. A husk had crept up their flank and grabbed hold of Jack's ankle, pulling her off balance. Jack couldn't catch herself; she crashed to the ground, hands still outspread above her. She didn't let the field so much as flicker. "SHEPARD!"

Rhi flung herself at the crawling husk. Old flesh and implanted cybernetics gave under her weight with a nauseating squish-crunch. She grabbed the monster's chin and skull and twisted until the spine snapped. When she released her grip the head almost came off.

Another wave of collectors was coming in behind them. Jack couldn't push herself up while maintaining the field. No time. "Grunt, get Jack! WE NEED TO MOVE!"

The young krogan turned from the collector he'd just head-butted into submission, flung Jack over his shoulder, and bolted for the door. Shepard followed, running down the slope ahead of husks and bullets alike. Legion was ahead of them, first to the door, providing cover fire.

As they crossed the threshold Jack roared. The barrier that had protected them surged outwards, flinging the enemy clear of the closing hatch. Then she collapsed against Grunt's back, spent.

–––

Shepard's radio signal came back with brilliant clarity. Joker thumbed the radio. "Miranda, Garrus – Shepard's out. Get ready to break for the doors."

"Roger." Garrus's vid showed a mess of collector corpses. "Everyone fall back! The doors are opening!"

There was a rattle of fire and a roar from Grunt, and Garrus's team retreated beyond the now open doors. Joker thumbed through several vid feeds in succession; the collectors fought until the last second, but the doors closed with the enemy safely on the other side.

"Joker, did everyone make it back?" It was good to hear Shepard's voice again.

"Yes, Commander. Safe and sound. Tali's down in the Normandy's guts – she'll be ready to fly again as soon as you make it outta there."

"Soon, Joker. This is the last push. EDI says these transport platforms oughta take us right to the heart. We'll overload the main systems and get the hell out."

He checked the scans for her area. "You have hostiles massing on the other side of those doors. Won't be long until they bust through."

"Figured as much."

She closed the private channel and turned to address the assembled team. "There are a bunch of angry collectors doing their damndest to get through those doors. Most of you are going to stay here to greet them."

Tali radioed up from engineering, and he muted the audio from the ground team while he answered her question. He left the vid feed up: it was easy enough to see what was going on. Shepard was telling them that they were hot shit, the monsters that collectors told baby collectors about to scare them into eating their collector veggies, more than a match for any ancient bio-engineered warrior races that happened to be lying around.

And they'd believe her.

This was why the Illusive Man had spent two billion credits to bring her back. Not the biotics, or the combat reflexes, or whatever freaky Special Forces tricks she'd picked up in N7 training. She'd made a team out of a bunch of self-interested type-As; kept Miranda and Jack from killing each other, Grunt from killing everything that moved, Garrus from killing himself and Thane from killing – hell, it could be anyone. Then she dragged them to the center of the galaxy, stuck them in the middle of a hostile force, and told them they were going to kick ass – and they believed her.

He'd always been too cynical to be taken in by all the gung-ho bullshit about heroes and natural leaders. They believed her because she believed herself; they believed in the image, in the coolly competent warrior. They didn't know she doubted more than she let on, and that she'd been a wreck a few months ago.

He knew too much to be taken in by it, but it worked on him anyway.

This amazing woman had come back from the dead fighting mad, let him see her weak spots, laughed with him. He needed her to make it back so badly that his heart clenched in his chest.

He finished the test Tali had asked for and turned the audio back on.

Rhi had crouched down, bringing herself closer to eye-level with the rest. She was grinning, now; that fierce, feral smile that welcomed all challengers. The fight ahead was fun, and she was generously letting the rest of the team in on it.

"We're here to defeat an enemy strong enough to threaten entire cultures; entire species. And to face that huge threat, we came through that relay with fifteen people." She lowered her voice, and all the little movements of the team stopped as they strained to hear.

"We came through the relay with fifteen people. And we're going to kick their fucking asses."

The squad yelled agreement as one voice.

I never told you how amazing you are. You're deadly and beautiful and funny and quite possibly insane, and god, I love you. Come back in one piece.