A mournful klaxon echoed through the ship as Shepard pressed forward past the corridor leading to the AI Lab where Tali and Legion recovered Xen's virus. Rifle raised, he peered through a hatch into another lab compartment, similar to Mordin's on the Normandy. Scientific instruments and expensive scanning equipment covered the deck by the aft wall, smashed into fragments. A woman in a white lab coat lay crumpled in the debris, her arms and legs twisted in a way no living human could withstand. The alarm system continued to wail as Shepard moved forward to the control center.

When the hatch to Xenophon's CIC opened, the situation was even more grim. Bodies were piled up against the compartment's aft wall as if swept there by a giant broom. Many were still strapped into seats which separated from their mounts from the sudden, excessive acceleration. Unlike Normandy, the research ship was not reinforced for combat maneuvers. Crushed skulls, broken necks and backs meant an instant death for most, but some in the pile still moaned and cried in pain.

A single crewmember sat on her knees next to them. She was in her late twenties with short black hair and athletic build, with the insignia of a sensor tech on her shoulder. Shepard might have been looking at Gabby or Kelly on his own ship. Her hopeful expression morphed to fear at the sight of the N7 logo on his chest and the rifle in his hands, but she continued to comfort the moaning man she cradled in her lap.

Shepard reached for the medical pack stuck to his armor and tossed it to her. "Do what you can," he said and turned forward.

Like the Normandy, Xenophon's command deck was arranged around a large holo projector with crew stations in a ring facing outward. A long corridor lead to the bow, also lined with stations. Anyone unlucky enough to be in this part of the ship found themselves falling four stories at five gravities when the ship's engines kicked in.

The corridor narrowed and ended in the hatch. Shepard touched its panel and it slid open. Unlike the Normandy, the Xenophon had a bridge, not a cockpit. The circular room was spotless, covered in gleaming white panels and chrome accents. A nav console with two recessed seats sat before enormous bay windows filled with white from Ma-at's corona. The captain's chair sat empty immediately behind, with another ring of outward-facing stations along its perimeter.

The left-hand navigator seat was empty, but the right was still occupied by a young man in a Cerberus uniform trying to bring the ship under control. On dthe deck nearby, another crew member tended to an older man laying on his back, the Xenophon's captain by his rank insignia. Five other crew members lay on the ground next to each other, unconscious or dead, tended by a third crewman with an emergency kit.

The man attending the captain looked up at Shepard's arrival. "Sir," he said, patting his commanding officer on his shoulder. The injured man opened his eyes.

"Captain," Shepard said, lowering his rifle. "Your ship's on a suicide course. I can stop it if you give me access to your quantum entanglement communicator."

"Go to hell, Shepard," the Captain whispered between ragged breaths.

Shepard regarded the old man sadly. There wasn't time to bargain or argue. But if this were the Normandy and he were lying in the Captain's place, would he feel any different? "You need to think of your people, sir."

"I am thinking... of my people." The Captain struggled to stay conscious, but was still defiant. "Are you?"

Shepard scanned the bridge, looking for the comm station. "I need access to the quantum entanglement communicator," he said to the surviving crew members. "The Illusive Man is going to kill all of you. It's the only chance any of you have got." They all stared back with hate in their eyes.

"If Shepard takes another step," A bubble of blood popped in the Captain's mouth. "kill him."

"You don't want to try that," Shepard said. There was no more time to waste. He walked port to the nearest console.

The two medics and the helmsman looked at one another then went for their pistols. Shepard raised his rifle and fired three shots along three vectors, headshots all. The three Xenophon crew crumpled to the deck, with the helmsman's ball cap tumbling from his head when he hit the ground. Shepard turned back, his rifle aimed square at the captain's head.

"Traitor," he murmured as consciousness left him.

Shepard lowered his rifle and reached out to seal the bridge hatch. It wouldn't lock without a command code, but at least it would provide a warning when someone tried to come in. He walked around the ring until he found the comm station. It was locked and secured. He pulled up his omnitool and started the time-consuming override process. "Legion, do you copy?"

"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander. What is your status?"

"I'm on the bridge. I'll have the QEC shut down in a minute. How're you doing?"

"Status unchanged. Self-destruct sequence is still initiated but we are still impeding its progress. Negative contact with enemy personnel."

"Good," Shepard said, still working his omnitool. "Stand by."

"Shepard," a familiar voice said from the comm console, displaying familiar face on the holo screen. Glowing blue eyes stared at him through a cloud of cigarette smoke, from a face framed by a glowing red star.

The Illusive Man leaned forward in his chair. "Before you take any further action, consider what you're going to cost humanity." Shepard gave no indication that he was even listening as he worked controls outside the view of the camera. "Think about the future, what's at stake. If we control the geth, we control our destiny, no one else. Do you think that any other species would hesitate in our position? What would the asari do? Or the turians, or salarians? Or worse, someone like the batarians? Think about the geth themselves. What will they be capable of? Left to their own devices, they may one day present a threat to organic life greater than the reapers."

As Shepard continued to focus on his unseen task, Illusive Man struggled to maintain calm. If he somehow managed to convince Shepard to quit it would be a miracle, but all he really needed to do was stall for time and let Ma-at solve the Shepard issue for him. "Right now we have control. We have the power! There will be no question-"

Shepard finally looked up at him on screen. He simply shook his head, then the feed went blank, replaced with the words SIGNAL LOST. All telemetry from the Xenophon ended simultaneously. The quantum entanglement link that could transmit to a ship anywhere in the galaxy had been switched off.

The Illusive Man sat back in his chair and stared at the now-dead monitors, his cigarette burning between his fingers. Without the QEC, there was no way of knowing what was happening at Ma-at, or if the quarians were still on the attack, or if Archer had re-established control over the geth. Most importantly, it was impossible to know if Shepard and his squad made it off the Xenophon alive.

What were the odds of Shepard regaining control of the ship? The fact that he was aboard meant he already had access to the geth virus. With the help of Tali'Zorah and Legion, he might already have modified it to counteract Cerberus control of the collective. But even if that were true, he'd have to somehow pilot the Xenophon back to Orbital Body 413319. He'd have to get inside the hub, defeat Major Griggs and close to forty of the best soldiers Cerberus could field. Then, he'd somehow have to inject the virus directly to the hub without the aid of an infected mobile platform.

Impossible, the Illusive Man told himself. Impossible, just like Shepard's defeat of Sovereign at the Citadel, or Harbinger at the Collector Base. Impossible, like every challenge Shepard faced along the way in the long road to victory over both. Shepard's entire career was a symphony of the impossible.

"Eva," he said into the air.

"Yes sir," answered the disembodied voice.

"I'd like to review our contingency plans for the evacuation of Cronos Station."

"Self destruct terminated," Legion said over Shepard's comm. "Subsystems disabled. No further attempts will be possible."

"Good work, Legion," Shepard glanced at the ship's status on the nav station's main screen. Power levels were beginning to fluctuate as the ship diverted more energy to its defensive screens. With the reactor running at maximum, the Xenophon would soon cook from within even as it tried to resist the searing rays from outside. "Can you do anything with the helm?"

"AI Countermeasures have control. Attempting to override."

"Keep at it. I'll look for another way off the ship."

"Acknowledged."

So what now, Shepard thought? This close to the sun, the escape pods would be useless for all the protection they could provide. But a man like Archer might have a personal shuttle or some specially made lifeboat. He flicked through the Xenophon's deck plans. At the nose of the ship, one deck down, a sleek, elegant-looking runabout was docked.

"Bingo," he said to himself. "Legion, forget the helm. I've marked the location of Archer's runabout, deck three, forward. Meet me at the hatch to deck two."

"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander."

Shepard turned to leave, but stopped. What was he thinking? He was standing in front of the ship's comm console. He powered up the system, punched in a frequency and keyed the transmitter. "Normandy, Shepard. Copy? Normandy, this is Shepard, calling from Xenophon. Do you read?" The signal indicators on the panel all remained flat. He reached to the console and flipped open a cover and flipped a switch. "Distress beacon activated," said a calm, disembodied voice. No one might be around to hear his SOS, or worse the wrong people might hear it, but some chance was better than none.

Weapon at the ready, Shepard turned back to the hatch leading to CIC to rendezvous with Legion.

At the console in the geth hub, Gavin Archer watched the progress icon spin endlessly in place. He was telling the truth when he said he had no idea how long it would take for the geth hub to come back online. Individual, isolated ships responded more quickly as they completed their power cycles, but the hub remained inactive. It could be seconds, it could be minutes, it might be an hour for all he knew. The only certainty was that he was powerless until it happened.

He looked at Major Griggs, who paced at the other end of the room, her hand cupped over the side of her helmet as she waited for a response from the surface team. The chamber they occupied was dimly lit, perhaps fifteen meters deep and half again as wide. Eight columns holding four geth platforms each, filled the center of the chamber with the console at its rear. A solid metal door as wide as the room remained shut in front of where the Major paced.

"Xenophon, come in," Griggs said into her comm. "Hazan, report. Anyone on the surface, do you read?"

"Still no contact with the ship," Archer said. "No signal."

"One of the signal relays must have gone down," suggested Takagi, one of Grigg's sergeants. "Want me to take a look? Just take a second."

Archer let out a laugh. "Open the door before the geth have reactivated? Are you mad? What if the quarians are out there?"

"No way the quarians could take Hazan out," Amil, a heavy weapons trooper said.

"We need to know what's going on one way or another," Takagi said. "We're blind in here, ma'am."

Griggs shook her head. "Archer's right. The door stays closed until the geth come back online. If it's a malfunction, someone from Bravo will come down and-"

As if the walls had ears, the giant metal door began sliding open to the right. It couldn't be someone from the surface - none of them had the code key. "Cover," she shouted. She and her troopers dispersed behind the columns in the room and aimed at the door as it continued to grind open. The corridor beyond was empty.

"Farrow," Griggs said. The door was halfway open now. "Get your drone up-" A flash in the corner of her eye her made her turn. Farrow's head enveloped in light, barely revealing the faint outline of a humanoid figure darting away as the Centurion fell.

The soldier next to Farrow brought his rifle up, only to be knocked on his back as well by the invisible attacker. Griggs inhaled to give the order to fire but her head smacked into the floor as her feet were yanked from beneath her. She and the five Centurions around her tumbled through the open door, their weapons skittering away. Lying on her back in a daze, she watched a giant krogan vault overhead, followed by an asari in red armor flooding the room with blasts of biotic energy.

Griggs reached for her sidearm but couldn't even draw before point-blank rifle fire ripped away her barrier. Holes erupted across her torso. As she convulsed on the deck, a woman in a Cerberus hardsuit stepped over her wearing a dull expression. It wasn't the quarians after all, Griggs thought as the woman's submachine gun emptied into her skull. It was a small comfort to know that at least she hadn't been defeated by mere quarians.

The Normandy team spread through the console chamber, making sure none of the enemy would get up to trouble them later. Grunt lead the way, shattering helmets of the downed Cerberus soldiers with blasts from his Claymore. Samara, Jacob and Zaeed followed close behind, also making sure none of the enemy would recover.

Tali rushed past them to the control station at the far end of the room. She stepped wide around the geth console, shotgun raised. Her finger tensed on the trigger when she saw a human in white vac suit croched down behind it. Unlike the others, his sleek, trim environment suit was not armored for combat. His eyes were wide with fear as he held up his hands.

The man's hands were up and empty, his eyes full of fear.

Grunt picked up the cowering human, and slammed him against the back wall by his neck.

"Keep watch," Garrus told Jacob as he trotted to the console. Grunt's prisoner clutched at the krogan's arm, trying to pull himself up so all the weight wasn't on his neck. Garrus moved closer to peer at the human's face behind his visor. "Well, well. Doctor Archer. It's been a while."

"Tell the krogan to put me down!" Archer yelled. "If you let me go, I'll have the geth spare you!"

"I think Tali will be able to convince them for us." Garrus said.

Archer smiled. "Are you sure about that? Your quarian friend may beg to differ. "

Tali slammed her fists against the terminal. "He's done something to the console. Encrypted the system or something. I can't get in."

"If you start back now," Archer said, his voice brimming with confidence, "you might be able to get back to your ship before the geth reactivate. But if you kill me, they'll destroy you on sight the moment they awaken."

Garrus ignored the scientist, looking over Tali's shoulder. "Can you get through?"

"I can't even open a port," Tali said. She punched commands fruitlessly into her omnitool. "It's locked tight."

"Kasumi?" Garrus looked around for the thief, who appeared out of thin air next to Tali.

"However long Tali says, multiply it by two for me. This is out of my league."

Time was ticking down on more than one clock. Garrus raised his rifle, but did not aim it specifically at Archer. "We need access to this console, Doctor."

Archer raised his chin. "Kill me and the geth kill you. It's that simple. If you want to live, leave now, because-" His voice trailed off when another figure walked into view.

"Gavin," Miranda stepped in front of the console and leaned with her back against it, her arms crossed in front of her. "I'd like the console unlocked, and unlocked now."

Archer paled behind his face mask and struggled to keep his voice level. "You have less than five minutes, I estimate."

"Whether we live or die is irrelevant compared to your own well being. If you cooperate, I guarantee you'll be unharmed. However, if you don't, I promise that you will spend the rest of your days retraining your vast intellect to spell complicated words like 'cat.' You know that's a promise I can keep, even with the limited time we have left."

A drop of sweat dribbled down the side of Archer's head behind his facemask. He finally gave a nod.

Miranda stepped aside. "Grunt, please help Doctor Archer to the console."

Lifting the puny human caused no strain for Grunt as he pivoted around and deposited Archer in front of the geth systems. He rested a massive hand on Archer's shoulder in an unfriendly fashion. "Atta way, Doc. I knew you'd want to put that big brain of yours to use instead of letting me bounce it off of the walls."

"Remember, Doctor," Garrus said, "If Tali doesn't get full access..."

"He knows what will happen," Miranda said, leaning in close to Archer. "Don't you, Gavin?"

Archer shook as he took a deep breath. It was obvious he feared the Cerberus operative next to him more than the giant krogan behind him. He unlocked the console without having to redo a single keystroke. "The console is open," he said. "Full admin access."

"Tali?" Miranda asked.

The quarian shifted in front of the console and worked the interface. She gave Miranda a nod, and went straight to the task of re-coding the virus.

"Well done, Gavin," Miranda said, raising her own omnitool to Archer's back. A bright cascade of sparks arced across his body and he dropped to the ground.

"I thought you were going to let me do that," Grunt said with obvious disappointment.

"Sorry," Miranda said as she knelt over Archer's body.

Garrus stood next to Miranda to look at the unconscious human. "That was beautiful, Miranda. Is he dead?"

"Oh no," Miranda said. "I'm a woman of my word. Besides, it'd be nice to have someone corroborate my deposition to C-Sec, don't you think?"

Garrus smiled. "Absolutely. Let's get him somewhere out of the way." He motioned to Grunt, who dragged the unconscious scientist to the far corner of the chamber with one hand. Garrus turned back to Tali. "How long do you need?"

"Three, four minutes," Tali said. "I've got to alter the code for direct injection to the console, but it won't take until the hub itself is back online."

Miranda looked toward the corridor. "Think you'll be done before that happens?"

Tali shook her head and continued to work. "I don't know."

Not wanting to distract their only chance for survival any further, Garrus took a step back, motioning the squad to follow. "We'd better get ready then. Start in here. Take down these platforms. When that's done, move on to the the ones in the corridor."

The squad dispersed to pull down the geth platforms from their mounts. Kasumi nodded toward the opening. "Think maybe we should we close the door?"

Garrus shook his head as he yanked a geth platform from its column. "The geth will just open it again. No way we we'll be able to lock them out of their own systems."

"Good point," Kasumi said as she pulled another Legion-look-alike from its mount.

Zaeed hammered at another geth with the butt of his rifle. "Be a goddamn death trap in here if we did, anyway. They can only get at us down that one corridor. Better to have a shot at 'em as they come."

Soon the deck was littered with geth platforms collapsed in heaps, in both the chamber and the corridor outside. Garrus pointed to the now empty alcoves lining the corridor. "Kasumi, Miranda, take this row, opposite sides, just before the intersection. Fry as many as you can when they come, then fall back as soon as you need to recharge. Zaeed, Jacob, in the row behind, covering. Grunt, Samara, back row. When Zaeed and Jacob have to retreat, you cover everyone and we'll fall back into the chamber together. Got that? As soon as Zaeed and Jacob pull back we all do. Grunt? Hold off on the arc projector until I say. Clear?"

"Got it," Grunt said, hefting his his new toy.

Garrus glanced once more down the empty corridor as the squad settled into their firing positions. He pulled his Mantis from its mount and turned back to the console chamber. Inside, Tali concentrated on her work, surrounded by a ring of holo panels. As he approached, the entire compartment erupted with an angry crimson glow. Bright traces of red light shown through the grating in the deck, walls and ceilings, pulsing with looked up, bathed in red light.

For a moment, their eyes met. Tali gave a mute nod. She didn't have to be told to hurry.

"We're set up outside," Garrus said, turning back for the corridor. "We'll hold them off as long as we can."