Shepard closed the console on his desk. He'd been reading up on all the citadel's dirty little secrets for hours, partially to satisfy is nosiness, and partially to find the information he had been looking for. His eyes were red, and his temple pounded with pain every time his heart beat; the Normandy was a little more than a day out from Therum, were his next mission lay, and he had spent the better part of that journey locked up in his room. He reached for a bottle of pills, opened it, and swallowed two: oh, the wonders of caffeine. He figured his "wellness check" on the crew to see how they were fitting in was long overdue. He got up, leaning heavily on the desk in front of him as he did so.
He opened his closet and threw a new pair of clothes on the bed. It would hardly befit a commander to walk out in pajamas, which he suddenly found ironic given that he had done everything but sleep. He finished dressing, splashed some water from a bottle on his face, dried it with the old clothes, and prepared to leave. It was best to speak with the newest members of the crew first, he decided, so he made his way for the elevator and went down to the cargo bay; most of the aliens had taken their place down there anyway. When the doors opened, he took a step forward and scanned the bay. He spotted Wrex and walked towards the krogan.
"You know, when I agreed to join, I assumed there would be more violence," he complained as he noticed Shepard approach.
"Keep your mouth shut, you'll have your fill, Wrex. If I wanted to hear your complaints I would have asked," Shepard spat back.
Wrex grumbled in annoyance. "You'd do well to learn from experience. I've survived for more than 700 years. Compared to me, your nothing more than a boy, Shepard."
"Really?" Shepard asked, dragging out each syllable of the word to denote his sarcasm. "What would you know about being screwed over by the council races? And then having to do their dirty work?"
The krogan started to laugh, which sounded more like a low growl; Shepard only noticed it as laughter because of the amusement plastered on the Kogan's face. "You know nothing, human. The day your species is driven to near extinction by the council's scientist lapdogs, then you can start trying to compare us."
Shepard stood there, scratching the back of his head in confusion, a sight that was not lost on Wrex.
"Oh, you don't know? While your race barely started to fully explore your own planet, a galactic war raged throughout the galaxy. My people, being superior combatants, won," Wrex stated with pride.
"But then how were you driven to extinction?" Shepard countered.
"The council cheated. Used bioweapons on us that rendered us almost unable to reproduce. And without the ability to replenish our numbers, we were forced into submission" Wrex elaborated. "Given that you humans like to spend the first part of your life in school, I'm curious as to why you didn't know. You're stupider then I expected, and that's coming from a krogan," Wrex stated before laughing at his own joke.
Shepard was not amused, but he figured that there was nothing much he could do about it either. "It would seem that not all of my race is as fortunate as you presume. Sometimes, we have to fight for survival too, just like you krogan."
Wrex swatted Shepard's rebuttal away; "bah, you aliens, always trying to compare your misfortunes to ours. You know nothing about being the last of your race, and watching your people die around you as they fight each other for credits."
"Right. Briefing in the comm room at 1600. I expect you to be there," Shepard stated as he slowly backed away, trying to end the tense conversation as quickly as possible. Damn does he have a victim complex, Shepard thought. The world never asked you for your pity, it just asks you to pick up the shattered pieces afterward. Some pick up the shards and put them back together. But other people, they pick up the shards and start stabbing other people with them.
"You know, Saren will be ruthless. Whatever you think you saw in your puny wars is going to be nothing compared to him."
"What would you know about it? I've been a commander for a while, and now I'm a spectre. I think I can handle myself," Shepard flaunted.
"In my book, experience outranks all, human. Unlike you, I've actually seen what he can do first hand."
"And you didn't think that would have been relevant information?" Shepard asked, a little shocked.
"Didn't think it would be important until now. I thought you knew everything, especially with your new spectre status," Wrex replied, a grin on his face. He enjoyed toying with the commander; krogan, after all, were not regarded as smart, so it was always a pleasure to put others in their place.
Shepard narrowed his eyes, clearly not amused. "Well?"
"I was hired to do a job. A friend said it paid well, so I said why the heck not. Our goal was to hijack a cargo freighter; that was the easy part. Then, I saw him: Saren."
"What the hell is a spectre doing hiring mercenaries to attack a freighter?"
"That's exactly what I thought. I had a bad feeling, so I got the hell out of there, didn't even wait to get paid. A week later, I find out every single merc on that job turned up dead."
Shepard stood there in silence, unsure of what to make of it. "Are you sure you can't remember anything else? Not even what was on the freighter that he wanted?"
Wrex just shook his head in silence, and Shepard followed it with a sigh of despair. Still at square one, without a single clue to help track Saren down. Shepard thanked Wrex for the information and walked away. Unable to find Garrus, who he assumed was also in the cargo bay, he made his way towards Chief William's, who stood in front of the weapon's bench. As he got closer, he realized that her assault rifle was disassembled and that she was trying to modify it. "You're going to melt the barrel doing that," Shepard advised as he looked at the sniper's configuration.
"Commander!" she shouted in surprise as she came to attention.
"At ease, Williams," Shepard replied coldly, not really in the mood for formalities.
"Yes, sir. And the barrel has also been modified to withstand the heat. It's for punching through the armor of heavier targets," she explained.
Still trying to make amends, isn't she, Shepard realized."Weapons are only half the battle, chief," Shepard replied cryptically. It was no surprise to Shepard that she would be trying to mod her weapon to counter the things she had seen on Eden Prime. Shepard had given up with trying that long ago, for the most part. To him, it was best to find the most versatile configuration and stick with it; changing it after every battle meant you had to adapt to a new style of combat every time with a different weapon. He preferred to master what he had already known.
"Uh… yes sir?" Ashley responded, confused at the commander's comment.
"Do you know where the turian is?" Shepard asked, quickly changing the subject.
"He's working on the Mako, sir."
"Under whose authority?" he demanded.
"I thought it was yours."
"Whatever, it's fine" Shepard replied dismissively.
Shepard turned towards the Mako and started walking towards it. Behind him, Williams just starred at the back of his head, one thought on her mind: What on asshole. Shepard got to the Mako, only to find no one there. That is, until he looked down at the floor to see two legs sticking out from under the Mako. "Who assigned you as a mechanic?"
It took Garrus a couple of seconds to fasten the bolt he was working on before he rolled out from under the Mako. Shepard extended his hand out, grabbing Garrus' odd 3-fingered hand, and heaved him off the floor. "Thanks," Garrus stated simply.
"What are you doing to the Mako?" Shepard demanded with an accusatory tone.
"Just changing out the transmission's oil. Trust me, it needed changing. You should have an easier time accelerating now. I thought I'd make myself useful while I was done here, rather than just sitting around and doing nothing."
"Hmmm, good work. But next time, clear it with me first. We might need the Mako on a moment's notice, and I can't have it out of commission when we need it" Shepard explained.
Garrus flared his mandibles slightly, an action which Shepard wasn't sure how to interpret, before he responded: "Got it. I don't think I'll be making any more repairs today, then. I'll resort to cleaning my rifle for now" Garrus stated, pointing one of his talons to the workbench in the corner. It was covered with every sort of tool, but leaning on its side was Garrus' sniper rifle. Shepard wanted to check it out but decided on doing that later: he had his rounds to finish.
"Meeting in the comm room at 1600, officer."
"I'll find my way" Garrus replied.
Shepard left the scene of the Mako to head towards engineering. He walked through the bulkhead, looking for the quarian, who was nowhere to be found. Great. Shepard sighed loudly: "Adams, how's it going in engineering?"
"Commander! Everything is running at optimal efficiency. She's a hell of a ship if I do say so myself."
Shepard only partially acknowledged Adams' response; his attention was focusing on the massive ball of eezo and metal in the center of the room.
"Ah, the core. Happens to everyone on their first time, although commanding officers usually don't come down here."
"Anderson told me it's what makes the Normandy special, but I never understood why."
"Well, I'll give you a quick rundown in laymen's terms then. The size of the core is far larger than it should be for frigates this size; as the mass of the ship decreases, and conversely the size of the core increases, the ship will move faster. And the reason we can stay so stealthy is because of the heatsinks that hold the heat until it can be dumped," Adams explained.
Shepard didn't really understand any of the reasoning that Adams provided, and he figured he never really would unless he took a physics class. Fat chance, he reminded himself; he was a soldier, his sole of objective to kill others or defend a target. He'd have to let the smart people handle running the ship, he glumly realized. Back on task; "Adams, where's the quarian? I thought she would be down here."
"Who, Tali? Cleaning some of the vents. You'd be surprised you can get her out of this room. She's been all over the engines; I'll tell you, she asks a lot of questions."
Shepard crossed his arms, clearly not amused. "Sorry about that, I'll tell her to find somewhere else to work."
"Commander, are you kidding? Give her another week and she'll probably know the engines better than me and the rest of the engineers. She's been a great asset, you don't need to worry," Adams tried to explain.
"Huh, fine. But if there are any issues, let me know immediately. I will not be having this ship crashing because of an overzealous girl in a suit."
"What issues?" spoke a modulated voice from behind Shepard. In reality, she had heard Shepard's entire rant. It hurt having him doubt her skills with the ship; she was a quarian after all. But could she really expect any better? She knew exactly what she had signed up for and who she would be working with.
"Nothing. Adams' here was just telling me how great of a job you've been doing. Glad to have you on the crew," Shepard offered with a fake smile on his face. And for the three seconds he had to hold that smile, it was the most torturous of his life, mainly because he never smiled except when drunk as hell.
"Thank you, I am glad to be here too," Tali replied with false optimism. People had been doubting her ever since she left the fleet. If even one of them listened, then maybe all her friends wouldn't have died. She wanted to give Shepard credit for helping her in the alley, but she realized it was never because he believed her; he helped her because he knew for a fact that she had something he needed.
"Just came to make sure your settling into engineering alright."
"Yes, sir. Everything is running great down here."
"Glad to hear. Just came to let you know about the meeting in the comm room at 1600. Don't be late."
"I will be there, sir," she replied meekly. "Is it about the mission?"
"Yep. We are going to be arriving on Therum soon. Not really sure what to expect, though" he explained. "I just hope there won't be any geth in my way."
"They're not that bad if you know what you're doing. As synthetic beings, they are susceptible to a variety of cyber-attacks."
"You're responsible for their creation. The least you could do is show us how to fight them."
Tali didn't know how to respond. Defend her people and anger the commander or say nothing and follow along. She looked at down at her toes, unable to face the commander. "They were created hundreds of years ago as servants, before my time. The geth were never supposed to gain sentience."
Shepard crossed his arms and snorted. "But they did. And now they work for Saren. If the quarians hadn't created the geth, we wouldn't be in this predicament, and millions of people wouldn't have died."
Tali's shoulders slumped, and she maintained her gaze on the floor. "Believe me, no one's suffered more because of the geth than my people. They killed billions and took our homeworld. Now, we live on a fleet of decaying ships, one hull breach away from extinction. I… we, never wanted any of this."
"Serves you right," Shepard sneered. "Besides, why don't you guys just find a new planet instead of whining and complaining about it."
"Well," she began to defensively explain, "the council won't let us. Every time we find one, they pronounce it better suited for a different dextro race."
"Sounds exactly like them," Shepard agreed. "So, what's it like living on a fleet of ships?"
"Not fun. If you ever make a mistake, you don't only but your life at risk, but the lives of the entire crew. It's a lot of pressure, especially when your family is on board too," explained Tali.
"Ah, family. Always causing trouble" Shepard replied sarcastically.
Tali turned her head to the side, confused at his comment. "Bad experience?" she asked.
"You could say that," Shepard replied. However, this was not a conversation he wanted to engage in. Shepard excused himself quickly and left engineering. He decided it was time he caught up on reading Saren's mission reports and see what he was truly up against.