VII. Grounded
A million lightyears from home, only to find a bar filled with men drooling over half-naked women shaking their asses on stage. Williams raised the bottle to her lips and shook her head. I don't know whether that's funny or sad.
Of course, she wasn't much better. To any onlooker, she was surely just another of a dozen or more soldiers of various planets and creeds crowded in the grungy, dimly lit space. Just because she had a sob story didn't make her special. Hell, half the people there probably had one of those — both behind the bar and in front of it.
One of the dancers slinked up, hips loaded each with a double magnum, and stopped in front of her to offer the marine a shot. Hard liquor, no glasses. If you wanted an overpriced drink from one of these roving stewardesses they'd clamor up on your lap and pour it directly into your mouth. One of the few chances the patrons had to touch the merchandise. Williams could still remember catching Alenko with a slack jaw watching just such a scene the first time they'd wandered in with the Commander.
"Hey, Lieutenant? Put your tongue back in your mouth before you trip on it."
Williams shook her head and the server was on her way, off to a corner where a small horde of off-duty C-Sec officers were leering at her, hungrily.
So this was how the 'Williams' name gets snuffed out, huh?, she asked herself as she looked about, off saving the galaxy with the first human spectre. Not even on some backwater agricultural colony setting up a redneck's extranet tower. But in a grimy corner of Chora's Den, in her fatigues, drinking away her last few hours before Saren stole the Milky Way right out from under them. Utterly unopposed.
She still couldn't believe Udina had sold them out. That snake. Even going so far as to have lied about a joint-species fleet to get Shepard back on the Citadel and then shackle her, grounding the Normandy and her crew. That bastard. And the Council had just let him do it. Cowards. Idiots. But what could she have expected, truly? A bunch of Citadel-space alien diplomats working together? Trusting a human? Listening to their own agent? Of course not! It had always seemed like too much to hope for. And, as was so often the case for Ashley: in the end, that's exactly it was.
"I hate it when I'm right," Williams said out loud as she finished off the bottle and got up to order another.
Shepard had been devastated. Utterly inconsolable. She'd shaken off any attempt at commiseration from her crew as they were all unceremoniously thrown from the Council chambers. The last Williams had seen of her, the commander was stomping off back towards the Normandy, despite its status as dry-docked. The woman was livid. That much had been clear. But Williams had seen that in the commander's eyes before, and it wasn't what had scared her most. Rather, it was just how beaten Shepard had looked. Dejected. Defeated. And looking badly in need of a private place to let herself fall apart before the galaxy came to an end around her feet.
Williams had followed suit, as she imagined most of the crew must have. She'd quietly slumped off alone towards the wards before nearly started a brawl with a group of Terra Firma protesters demonstrating outside of Flux. Right as her conversation with the party leader, Saracino, was getting heated, she was pulled aside by a waitress – Rita – who recognized her from when she, Shepard, and Alenko had helped get the girl's sister out from spying for Chellick in Chora's Den. And that was exactly where the young woman had sent her, familiar with the particularly destructive combination of blind rage and grief in the marine's eyes. "If you're going to start something," she'd hissed, "at least do yourself a favor and do it down in Chora's Den where C-Sec may not drag you in for it."
The suggestion had been a sarcastic one, but Williams had taken it, just the same. It was as good a place as any to disappear. She sat in the back with a bottle, thumbing the label and fully intent on drowning herself in cheap booze and self-pity. When her first round ran dry she pushed her way up to the counter and set down her empty bottle. Wordlessly, one of the barmaids swapped it for a fresh one and scanned the chief's omnitool to charge her account. As Williams grabbed for the communal bottle-opener chained to the bar top, she overheard one of the patrons saying to someone beside her: "–nothing like any of the outfits I've ever seen on these girls. Maybe it's for some kind of act?"
Mildly curious, Williams looked up towards where the man had motioned.
"T'Soni? What the hell are you doing here?"
Still in her science and medical jumpsuit, the maiden looked woefully out of place in the club. She seemed to be wandering through in something of a daze. At the sound of her name, she flinched and looked around, eyes coming to focus on the marine in front of her as she blinked back confusion at the sight. But she had a chance to answer, Williams took her by the hand and led her back to the spot by the booth she'd been occupying. The doctor, while initially startled by the sudden handling, seemed ultimately thankful, and followed willingly. For an instant, the chief thought she felt the asari squeeze her hand back as they moved through the crowd.
"Chief Williams," she said once Ashley had let her go and she'd watched the chief drop into the seat, leaning back against the dank booth and propping her feet up on a chair across the table. The archeologist minded her briefly as all around them the music and lights pounded and pulsed like a migraine. "You look… unwell."
The gunnery chief snorted. "You sure know how to flatter a girl."
"I- I hadn't intended to- I had only meant that-"
"Relax, doc." Williams took an indelicate gulp from her bottle and looked away. "I'm sure you're right." Might as well look like hell if that's where we're all heading.
Liara continued cautiously eyeing the chief. When Williams supplied her with nothing further in reply, her eyes turned slowly to their surroundings. Few other patrons seemed to pay the pair any mind, especially once it became clear the asari was not part of any of the acts. With far more visually stimulating subjects to observe, it wasn't long before the two women were relegated to obscurity. Background noise in the hellishly uncaring landscape of the space station's underbelly. The indifference of the masses washed over them both, and Williams watched the way the archeologist seemed to squirm in clear distress. Yet still, she stayed. Why? When T'Soni's gaze at last returned to her, Williams was greeted with an aporetic look that struck her as almost amusing in its utter sincerity. The doctor, Williams was coming to realize, was not an asari of half measures.
The two hold each other in place with a look. Finally, Williams breathed out a sigh. She raised one foot off the seat in front of her and with the other kicked the chair out towards her company. T'Soni jumped back and stared at it, wide eyed, before her eyes snapped back up to the chief.
"Take a load off." Ashley told her.
"Why is the music in these places always so loud?" asked Liara at no point in particular. In her hands she fiddled with a cocktail napkin. She wrung it between her fingers and set about tearing it into tiny pieces. "It almost seems as if people here want an excuse not to talk to each other."
"They do," Ashley grunted in answer. Absently, she picked at her label again.
"Why do you—? Oh, I see."
Williams looked up in time to see Liara fumble and turn away, a self-conscious look in her eyes as her gaze swept across the table. "Of course. I am intruding. I apologize. I will leave you to your grief, chief."
"What? No, doc, I didn't-" Ashley rose to her feet as the doctor pushed back her chair, about to leave. "I didn't mean it like that. Really."
When T'Soni seemed disbelieving, Williams groaned internally. Ask me to clear a bunker full of armed hostiles, no problem. Dealing with the foot in my mouth? Not so good at that.
"I… like talking with you, T'Soni. Really. Stay."
Hesitating only briefly after that, the doctor returned to her seat with an almost imperceivable smile on her lips. They sat for quite some time in an almost comfortable silence. Williams sipped at her beer until it grew lukewarm and began to lose its appeal. A few times she had some false starts, trying to rally her mind for some kind of conversation topic. But each time she tried, the chief drew a blank and returned to idly flicking her thumb against the label of the bottle to pass the time. Eventually, T'Soni spoke up again. Her tone seemed wistful. Words quiet enough to almost get swallowed up by the sounds of the club by the time they reached across the table.
"Everyone always seems so busy, here. So rushed." Then, after a moment's contemplation, added, "I wonder if they are happy?"
The casual compassion of the inquiry caught Williams unawares, and for a time she just stared at the archeologist, who returned her gaze with one of gentle curiosity.
"They're idiots," said Williams at last as she brushed her hand about her, "All of them. The geth are attacking, a rogue spectre is known to be at large, and everyone around here is still worried about ordinary business. It's surreal."
"I find it comforting."
"You've got some sense of humor, T'Soni." It's spoken with acerb, but, even so, the asari seemed flattered.
"The pains and joys of ordinary life. Is that not what we are fighting to protect from Saren and the Reapers?"
"Were." Williams took another pull.
A pause. "What is it you are drinking?"
"Lite beer."
"I'm afraid I don't know what that is."
"Alcohol."
"I see. It inebriates you?"
"Not really. Would take a lot of these to really get me blitzed."
"Then you enjoy it for the taste?"
Williams shrugged. She put the bottle on the table and pushed it towards T'Soni, who caught it, if only to keep it from falling off the other edge, before observing both the bottle and the chief suspiciously. She took a meager sip before making a face and the chief laughs.
"It's an acquired taste."
"I fail to see why anyone would bother to acquire it."
"You talk like my sister. You want one?"
"A lite beer?"
"Yeah," Williams answered, but was already flagging down a waitress. She pointed to her near-empty bottle, then holds up two fingers like bunny ears. "Two more?"
She looked back to find T'Soni wearing an unreadable expression. But as soon as it was there it's gone.
"You never told me what you were doing here." Williams eyes fell briefly to a dancer off in one corner where a turian was leaning in for an almost private show. "Kind of thought places like this hit a nerve with you."
"Yes," she answered. Her tone faltered as she stole a glance behind her and caught the view before quickly turning back around. "Many business owners take advantage of my peoples' openness with our sexualities, as well as the obsession many young males seem to have with our species."
"So why come?"
She looked down and didn't answer. It was impossible to see in the dim and strobing light if T'Soni was blushing. But Williams could wager a guess.
"Uh-huh..." she said, before clearing her throat. She turned to look off but suddenly felt embarrassed of anywhere else her eyes might've fallen in that lecherous place. They stayed like that briefly, each avoiding eye contact with the other, or anything else. This is ridiculous, Williams thought, before, with a grunt, she downed the rest of her drink and then rose to her feet. "Come on. I'll close out my tab. Let's find someplace else to watch the galaxy end."
They ended up at Flux. Rita had seemed wary when she first made eye contact with Williams at the door but settled some when she saw the marine was not without company. They settled off to one side near the entrance, across from the dance floor. Williams ordered another beer, and T'Soni got something the chief had never heard of and couldn't pronounce.
A short while after they'd order their drinks, out of the corner of her eye Williams thought she saw Captain Anderson walk in and deliberately stalk off towards a table in the back. She considered going up to him but saw as he sat down that he put on an air that made it clear he was not interested in company. He's probably just as pissed as we are, she told herself, and left the man to his own misery.
"My sisters would love this place," Williams noted as she looked back out the large windows of the club and casino and watch as cars speed by. "I would have loved to have brought them here for a girls' night out."
It was clear from the archeologist's expression that Ashley's use of past tense had not gone unnoticed. She, too, turned to watch the cars go by before she shook her head. There was a smile in her voice as she said, "I do not know how anyone could live here. There are just too many people," she sipped her drink and Williams turned to watch as her brow knit together when she next looked out. "Cities and stations were always my mother's area of comfort. I much prefer the solitude of dig sites. Too much time working by myself, I suppose."
"They say opposites attract."
After a beat, Ashley felt herself go a little stiff. Her ears went red, and she thought, Did I really just say that? She'd always been something of a flirt, and likewise was pretty prone to saying things without thinking. Do I really think that? she asked herself next. Me and her? I mean, she's nice and all, but still...
She tried to play the moment off by coughing into her elbow but looked up to see T'Soni admiring her with a demure, almost playful smile.
"I guess we never will get that time to work out… us, huh?" Williams said.
"I guess not."
"That's too bad."
"Yes, it is."
Ashley raised her glass, "To 'what-if's'?"
Thankfully, it seemed Liara did know what a toast was, and she smiled somewhat mournfully before knocking her drink against the chief's. Just as the glasses clinked!, Williams' gaze was pulled from the lovely asari beside her as Commander Shepard came through the door behind them.
"Commander!" Williams jumped to her feet. Beside her, T'Soni turned around and similarly began to stand.
Shepard turned at the call and spotted the pair. She motioned for them to sit back down as she cautiously approached the table. She stopped in front of them without sitting down. "Either of you seen Captain Anderson?"
"Yeah, he's in the back, looking like he might murder the first idiot that tries to talk to him." With her chin, Williams motioned off towards the shadowy corner where the captain sat glowering.
Shepard looked up, expression unreadable, before she turned back to the pair. "Wait here," was all she told them.
"Commander—?"
"That's an order, Williams." And she walked off.
Ashley and Liara turned quizzically to one another.
"What could that be about?" T'Soni asked.
"I don't know. But we're due for some good news."
Ashley had nearly finished her beer when Shepard twisted around from where she sat with Anderson and waved her over. "Come on," the chief said, and T'Soni followed. When they got up to the captain's table, they were given no time for pleasantries.
"Collect the crew," said Shepard, who was already beginning to stand, "Then meet me down at the docking bay."
"What for? The Normandy's locked down. Ambassador Udina gave the order, himself."
"Not for long."
"But, how-?"
"Leave that to me." Captain Anderson interjected.
"I'll explain everything later." Shepard assured, "Just get a hold of Joker, get him back in the cockpit, and tell him to stand by." When the chief hesitated for just the briefest of moments, the Commander fixed her with a steely look and said "Trust me, Ash. We can do this. We're getting the Normandy back, we're going to Ilos, and we're stopping Saren."
Williams took a shaky breath to steady herself, let it out, then nodded, "Aye aye, Commander."
Shepard and Anderson got up and headed out of the club. Liara turned to Ashley, a question in her eyes. "Come on," Ashley said, turning to make for the exit, herself, "You heard the commander. Let's round everybody up. The rest of the crew couldn't've gotten far."
Liara hesitated and Ashley felt thin fingers curl around the crook of her elbow. "But, chief, if you do this…" She managed to halt her just as she was about to walk down the stairwell leading out of the club. "If the Commander is implying what she seems to be- stealing the Normandy is mutiny! You, the Commander, Captain Anderson, could all be charged with treason."
"What are you saying? You're not going to follow Shepard?" Williams couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"That is not what I am suggesting at all." Liara shook her head and seemed hurt by the suggestion. "But I am not Alliance military. My charges will be minimal in comparison to those you and your fellow Alliance crew members will face."
"Yeah," Williams said, and nodded her head, "You're probably right, they will."
She turned and headed down the stairs.