Fifty-Three: Maze
Once Joker reestablished a connection to Mara's camera, he wasn't expecting motion sickness to set in only a few moments after her surroundings came into focus. She was in the process of helping Jack to her feet while Garrus braced himself against the databank terminal, fighting against the unsteady movement of the platform as it swung about in the middle of the cavernous chamber. Mara looked up in time to see an identical platform hovering mere feet from the one she stood on and carrying several angry-looking Collectors.
Before his brain even caught up, Joker's hands already started working on the Collector security, attempting to break through their firewalls and find some way to take control of one of their systems. Instead, he found the exact opposite.
"Uh, Mara, you're gonna have to move a little faster."
She huffed angrily in response. "Oh, I'll get right on that, Jeff."
"No, I'm serious! The ship's weapons are powering up," he insisted, panic rising in his throat. "I'm not gonna lose—"
"You won't," she interjected.
Secretly, Joker was glad she interrupted him. Otherwise, the word "you" might have slipped out instead of "another Normandy." He felt a hot, suffocating feeling in his chest and took a long gulp of his now-cold coffee. It did little to calm the sensation, since all it did was remind him of the way Mara made coffee – and by extension, what it had been like to think she could never make him coffee again.
Joker forced himself to turn Mara's camera feed off and rely on the comms. He didn't want to look away from the screen, but he was making himself sick by watching her wade through waves of shambling husks and Collector drones as she frantically tried to reach an exit. He wanted to attribute it to the sudden movements of the camera, but the knot of anxiety that had taken hold of his stomach wasn't just a product of motion-induced nausea.
After what sounded like a particularly thick cluster of husks, Mara hurriedly announced that she was on the shuttle. Joker only had to wait a few more seconds for it to land in the Normandy's hangar, and he was already priming the drive core for a rapid escape.
"Now!" Mara shouted as Joker's screens indicated the closure of the bay doors.
"EDI," he began, "get us out of here!"
"Please specify a destination, Mr. Moreau," EDI requested evenly. Apparently, AIs didn't come equipped with panic modes.
"Anywhere that's not here!" he snapped, his heartbeat reaching a violent thump-thud in his ears.
The Normandy powered up without much help from him, and for once he would accept EDI's control over his ship. Bluish-purple streaks of light began to shimmer outside the windows and he sank back into his chair as the barely-tangible feeling of acceleration tugged gently at his stomach. He closed his eyes, but not before he smiled with relief at the familiar sound of ceramic-plated combat boots marching down the bridge.
A.N.: To all the new readers, followers, and reviewers: Hello, friends! It's awesome to see even more people getting into this story! I've started to lose a bit of faith in the first handful of chapters; it's clear that my writing has adapted and improved since I first started writing this over a year ago, so I'm growing ever more surprised that so many people are finding and enjoying this story from the very beginning! I don't see the earlier chapters as bad, but they're definitely a lower quality than what I can produce now. But that's just a sign of progress, and as I'm fond of reminding you all, I don't think I would've come this far with Shooting Stars without your support. It makes me smile every time I see a review, follow, or favorite, and I love being able to interact with you all through this site and now, Tumblr. I'd like to hug every single one of you!
