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Shore leave had been nice, once she got used to having nothing to do, but Shepard had to admit she was glad to be back on her ship, to hear the familiar hum of the engines and to sleep under the passing stars and to check in on Joker in the cockpit. The others seemed to feel much the same. Garrus had immediately gotten back to his never-ending calibrating, and Liara was locked in her room catching up on Shadow Broker secrets, and Joker was back where he felt comfortable, in his super-fancy swiveling leather seat, with EDI in the copilot's seat next to him.
They were speeding through the galaxy on their way to find the elusive Leviathan. EDI had narrowed down the location to one of a couple of worlds in one particular star system. There was some tension aboard as they scanned the first world and found nothing—Shepard worried that they were chasing an illusion, despite the evidence that such an intelligence as Leviathan existed that they had gathered from watching so many people be taken over by it.
The second world appeared to be the right one. A probe sent down had found Leviathan's signal. It was water-logged, most of the planet covered by oceans. Shepard found that intriguing. She had experienced so little water in her life, and now, after Thane had gone across the sea, after listening to Kaidan's tales of growing up near the beach and swimming in the sea, she was about to have to go down into the depths of an ocean, see it up close and personal.
James Vega stopped her as she was getting her gear on, ready to climb on board the shuttle. "Lola, you sure about this?"
"Have to, James. Whatever Leviathan knows, we need to know it, too."
"I know, it's just …" He grimaced. "After what happened with Ann, I just—well, I'd hate to have you not come back, Commander."
"I'd hate that, too, James," she told him, putting a firm hand on his shoulder. "Which is why I intend to get what I need and get back on board. There's no more time to waste."
"Uh-huh." She could tell by his expression that he wasn't convinced.
Kaidan finished strapping his favorite gun on his back and joined them. "Makes you wonder what's down there, though, doesn't it?"
"Answers," Shepard said. Beyond that, she didn't need to speculate. She would be there soon enough. "What do you say, Javik? In your cycle, what did you do when you went hunting Reaper-killing pieces of mythology?"
"We never had the chance. Now we do, and that is all that matters. Even if this Leviathan doesn't want to be found."
"It doesn't have a choice. You ready, Steve?" Shepard called.
"As I'll ever be." Cortez climbed aboard the shuttle, and Shepard and Kaidan and Javik followed suit. Vega was still shaking his head, looking unhappy, as the shuttle doors closed behind them.
"Seriously, though, Shepard. Say this thing actually is a Reaper. Do we really want its help?" Kaidan asked.
"We're not going to win this war by turning away help, even if it does have blood on its hands." Shepard wished she could afford to be principled, but they were far past that now.
"Commander. Come look."
At Cortez's call, she hurried to the front of the shuttle to look over his shoulder. "It's nothing but ocean."
"There's a concentration of structures floating on the surface, but the probe is giving us a signal below that. Way below."
"Well, we knew we were going to have to go down into the water."
"Yeah, we did." Cortez's voice made it clear that he hadn't expected quite how far down they were likely to have to go. He piloted the shuttle into the atmosphere and down toward the ocean's surface.
Suddenly, all the systems seemed to go haywire. Cortez's fingers danced across the console, but the shuttle was in freefall.
"Some kind of pulse hit us," he said tersely, fighting to stabilize the shuttle's flight. "Systems are shutting down."
Shepard stayed silent and let him work, and he managed to maintain enough control to land the shuttle on the broad deck of a massive ship.
The four of them climbed out of the shuttle, Kaidan and Javik surveying the surroundings while Cortez started looking into the shuttle's workings to see what needed to be fixed.
"Looks like we're not the first ones taken out by that pulse," Kaidan observed. Shipwrecks in various stages of dereliction floated here and there on the ocean's surface, as far as the eye could see.
"Leviathan's last line of defense," Shepard guessed. "You might be able to find the location, but you'll never get away to tell about it." It didn't occur to her to worry that they might not be able to leave. She trusted her people, and she trusted herself to be able to get through to Leviathan. There was no other choice.
Kaidan's eyes were still on the horizon and the other ships. He shook his head in wonder. "Amazing. I don't even recognize most of those ships. How long have they been here?"
Javik pointed across the water to what looked to Shepard like a small dot. "That is of my people. It has been here for fifty thousand years. Someone in my cycle knew where to find Leviathan. That is of some comfort."
Shepard left them to it and returned to Steve. "How does it look?"
"Doable, Commander. I should be able to get it fixed and get us back in the water soon." He looked up as something hurtled through the air toward them. "That is, if you can keep those Reaper troops off me."
"Will do, Lieutenant. Kaidan! Javik! Company!"
The three of them braced for the attack, arranging themselves so they could protect Cortez and the shuttle.