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Shepard leaned against the railing next to Thane, looking down at the dance floor of Afterlife. Most of her companions were down there, gyrating to the heavy thump of the music—Grunt and Jack, Jacob and Miranda, Garrus and Tali, Zaeed and Kasumi, surprisingly enough. Mordin was haranguing the bartender about some scientific principle in the drinks, and Samara sat to the side with Legion, her eyes faraway even as the geth spoke to her. Thinking about Morinth, Shepard imagined.
She and Thane had been dancing, but mostly they wanted to be alone together back on the ship, and that had to wait while Joker and EDI took the Normandy for a spin to test the Reaper IFF. The rest of the crew had been allowed a day off on Omega before getting back on board for the final testing; now it was Shepard's turn, along with her companions, and she was glad to see them all enjoying themselves.
"It is good to see you let your hair down, Siha," Thane said into her ear. "Metaphorically speaking."
She laughed, leaning against him affectionately. He liked her hair down literally, as well, just as Kaidan had, but only in private. She wasn't about to be seen on Omega as Juniper, not when there was still the trip to the Collector base to go. Maybe afterward, she could put Commander Shepard away for a while, but for now, she still had a reputation to maintain.
Upstairs, Aria T'Loak was watching her, the asari's eyes missing nothing. Shepard was all right with that—Aria was out for herself, to be sure, but there was a certain code, as well. As long as betraying Shepard didn't gain Aria anything, she would be discreet about anything she noticed.
The comm link in her collar buzzed, and instantly Shepard snapped to attention, seeking one of the quieter side rooms. "Joker?"
"Commander." EDI's crisp voice crackled over the comm. "You need to come back to the ship immediately."
"What's up, EDI?" Shepard was on the move even as she asked the question, signaling the others, pleased to see that they were all in motion as soon as they saw her moving through the crowd. By the time she hit the docks, everyone was behind her.
"There was an … incident."
"What kind of incident, EDI? Out with it," Shepard snapped.
"The Collectors were on the ship."
"What?"
The others were clustered around, faces tense and worried. Shepard gestured them to silence.
"What do you mean, 'the Collectors were on the ship'?"
"They attacked the Normandy; there was a signal hidden in the Reaper IFF that transmitted our location, and Jeff and I did not discover it until too late."
Panic spiked through Shepard's veins. Her ship; her home. Her people. "How bad?"
"Very bad, Commander. Several crewmembers remain on board critically injured, but the rest are—gone. Taken by the Collectors. Only Jeff's bravery saved the ship itself from being destroyed."
"Is Joker all right?"
"He is injured; he broke a number of bones. And he feels … he feels responsible, Shepard."
"He should," Miranda snapped.
Shepard caught the other woman's eyes and shook her head. "Not the time."
Miranda subsided, reluctantly.
Garrus already had the shuttle in motion, and Shepard transmitted the coordinates for the Normandy's location to him. Once they docked, she hurried to medbay, trying not to look at the destruction around her; trying not to see in it the destruction of a previous Normandy.
"Commander, I—" Joker tried to rise when he saw her, but it was clearly very painful for him.
"Have you been taking your meds?" she asked immediately, knowing he hadn't.
Miranda had been hot on her heels, and she turned to Shepard incredulously. "That's your question?" To Joker, she said, "How could you be so careless? You lost everyone—and damned near lost the ship, too!"
"I know, all right? I was here." He looked at Shepard, his blue eyes dulled with misery. "I'm sorry, Shepard."
"You kept them from destroying the ship, Joker," she assured him, "and you did your best, I know."
Jacob leaned against the medbay doors, making sure no one else came in. "It's not his fault, Miranda. None of us caught it."
Shepard moved to the other beds, checking on the crewmembers there. Hadley, badly injured, and several others. "Get Mordin in here, Jacob." He nodded, slipping through the doors. She tried not to think of Dr. Chakwas in the Collectors' clutches, or Daniels and Donnelly, or Gardner, or any of the others.
"The harmful data in the Collector drive were even more sophisticated than the 'black box' Reaper viruses I was given," EDI was explaining.
"We have to head for the Collector homeworld immediately," Shepard said. "It was bad enough when it was the colonists, but these are my people. I was responsible for their safety. I should never have left the ship."
"They'd have taken you, too, Shepard, and then where would we be?" Jacob asked, re-entering the medbay with Mordin in tow. The salarian immediately began his rounds of the injured remaining crew members.
"The IFF is clean and online; with EDI hooked in, we can go through the Omega 4 relay anytime we want," Joker said. "But … Shepard. If they came after the ship, they'll know you'll be coming for them sooner rather than later."
"No help for that, Joker. I'm not abandoning the crew."
"I know you're not. I'm not either. I'm just saying—let's not throw away our shot at this."
"I cannot believe you unshackled the damned AI," Miranda growled.
"What was I going to do against the Collectors, Miranda, break my arm at them? EDI's the only reason we still have a ship!"
"I assure you, I am still bound by protocols in my programming," EDI said. "Even if I were not … you are my crewmates."
"So all systems, including the IFF, are fully operational?" Shepard asked her.
"Yes, Commander."
"Then let's get started. Everyone, to your stations. This is it."