The Normandy still had three days before reaching Omega, they'd gone straight to the nearest mass relay, only to find it destroyed. Kaidan questioned why, when Tali had explained the Crucible could have destroyed it when passing through the Milky Way. They had to take the long route, which the ship was struggling to do.
The drive core was working overtime and someone had to be down in engineering twenty-four, seven to make sure it didn't overheat. The team was exhausted, but they kept going with the spirits they'd make Omega alive.
"Major, Admiral Hackett has replied to your message," Traynor says as she meets Kaidan at his station, which would be Shepard's usual workbench.
"Thanks, Traynor," he says with a smile before opening the message. Some words had been lost in the transcript, but the datapad was able to automatically find the words needed to make it readable.
Major,
I'm relieved to finally hear from you. Confirmation of your next moves has been noted. The bulk of our forces have returned to the Sol System, we look forward to seeing you all again.
We have no contact with other planets at the moment, but our engineers believe comms will return in the next week or so. We have no way of knowing what the situation is in the other council's words.
The Citadel is nearly destroyed, so we have sent multiple teams to scout the area. I am sorry, Alenko, we haven't found Gemma.
Admiral Hackett.
"Fuck!" Kaidan shouts as he slams the datapad down and stalks off to the lift. He needed some breathing space from everyone. Traynor looked at the datapad, then him, she sadly shook her head and turned back to her terminal.
The cargo bay was empty, Vega had offered to help Adam and Tali the best he could and Cortez was working in the comms room with Gabby. They'd hoped some comm buoys might have survived the war, but so far they'd had no luck connecting to any.
Kaidan took his shirt off, needing some air as he started to jog around the cargo bay. He was enjoying the solitude, he even was able to push his own thoughts away. He let his legs carry him as he picked the speed up, letting the sweat drip down his bare chest.
It was twenty minutes of sprinting before Kaidan finally stopped and looked over at Vega's station, seeing the pull-up bar and weights. He hadn't worked out in months, the constant missions kept him in shape. Right now he needed to let off steam and doing it through physical activity was the best thing he could do at that moment.
He grunts as he pulls his body up with the bar, letting his chin come over it before dropping back down. He did this multiple times, wanting to feel the burn.
"Well, L2. Don't think I've ever seen you work out," Vega says as he walks out of the lift, smirking to see his commanding officer use his personal equipment.
"Needed to let off steam," Kaidan replies nonchalantly. He looked at Vega as he did another pull-up. The Lieutenant almost saw it as a competition.
"Let's make it interesting. I'll show you my workout, how about it?" Kaidan stops at his pull-ups and narrows his brows at Vega. He had his back turned to him as he bent down to pull a duffle bag of exercise equipment out.
"You're on, Vega," Kaidan says with a smirk.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Gemma asked as Miranda explained the full story of the Reaper war and her time on the Normandy. Though missed some parts out like her relationship with Kaidan and her full part played in destroying the Reapers.
"I wouldn't know so much about you if I was lying. Have you seen one Reaper since we rescued you?" Gemma shakes her head, "exactly. I am telling the truth, Gemma."
"What happened to my parents?" she asks from her bed. Gemma had been given the full treatment from Miranda and her team, they were on a ship that was currently sitting just on the outer atmosphere of Earth.
"I was there when we found your parents. Your mother was alive and is with the Alliance under their protection." Miranda paused, not sure if she should tell Gemma the truth about her father.
"And my dad?" Gemma asked, sitting up in the bed. She knew what it could be, but she needed to hear it from Miranda to accept it.
"He passed away, Shepard and her crew found his body. You did take him back to the ship and gave him an honorary send-off." A tear fell down her cheek. Miranda sat up in her chair next to the bed, placing her datapad on the table. Shepard had contacted Miranda not long after Daniel's funeral, she wanted to make sure Miranda and Oriana made it off Horizon safely.
"I need to find my mum, she needs to know I'm safe," Gemma cries. Miranda wanted to help, but the Alliance was broken up into fractions and communications were impossible with the ships being lightyears away.
"You can't right now. The Alliance took all civilian ships to another system. Word is they are coming back, but it will take a few weeks for them to get here." The words stung, Gemma wanted her to mum. She needed to hold her after being away for such a long time.
"Can you tell me what this is?" Gemma asks as she pulls her gown down to pull the necklace off her neck. Her engagement ring is attached to it. Miranda narrowed her brows at her, she had forgotten she and Kaidan got engaged during their shore leave.
"Just hold on to it for now. You will get your answers soon enough." Miranda stands up to leave the room, "this isn't my story to tell you," she whispers as she leaves the room. Gemma stares at the door, even more, confused than ever.
She looked down at the ring, it was a beautiful ring. It needed a clean, the dirt from her armour had dug into the diamonds. She felt a tear fall down her cheek, why couldn't she remember anything? Her biotics activated at that moment, offering what comfort they could. She feels her blood run warm and relaxes her tensed muscles.
"Help me remember," she whispers to no one. She had to remember.
Omega was in their sights. Joker was thrilled, he had been swapping with Cortez in shifts of flying the ship. Autopilot wasn't working so someone needed to be at the helm for the whole three-day trip. Everyone was tired, but they were finally safe and could get some rest here.
"Sir, Omega is trying to contact us," Joker announces as Kaidan stops next to his seat. "Though how they got comms up was beyond me," he adds.
Kaidan looked out of the window, and Omega looked untouched. It was as if the Reapers never even got to this system. "Open a channel, see if you can piggyback on one of them."
Joker opens a channel and for a moment static fills the helm. Then the voice of a Batarian fills the air. "Ship, identify yourself," he demands. Kaidan rolls his eyes, they could see it was the damn Normandy, limping in flight towards them.
"This is Major Kaidan Alenko. Captain of the Normandy SR2. our ship is in need of repairs and we have wounded onboard." Kaidan looks at Joker before finally asking, "is Aria T'loak there?"
There was silence for a few moments before Joker's terminal lit up with a code to the docking stations. "She wishes to see you, dock your ship and come unarmed. Is Commander Shepard there?"
"Yes, but she is sick," Kaidan replies. Chakwas had been checking Shepard every hour, but her condition hadn't changed. The coma had stopped the damage caused to her brain from getting worse, and her implants were still doing what they could to fix the damage within.
"Noted, dock your ship," the Batarian aggressively says. Kaidan looks at Joker who only shrugs his shoulders. Kaidan would take Vega and Liara with him, he wasn't about to go alone.
The ship docked with Omega, the station was untouched. The war seemed to never have reached Omega before it ended. They had cleaned up since Cerberus took the station over. Kaidan had his old blue armour on, his other usual one was wrecked after the war and it was beyond saving. Liara and James followed him as they all went through decontamination and walked down the hallway of Omega.
The station was quiet, very quiet for what Omega was known for. The eery walls could tell a thousand stories and its muddy stained windows revealed the Normandy they left behind to see Aria.
"Welcome to Omega," the Batarian from before greets them. Kaidan nods his head at him as they are led to the Afterlife bar. No music played and there weren't many people inside besides Krogan and Turians armed to the teeth. Liara saw Aria who stood in her normal booth, overlooking her home. "Name's Bray. I'm head of Aria's security."
"Surprised she needs security," Vega comments as they are led upstairs to the bar. He turns to look at the platform that once housed dancing Asari. Bray only eyed him in response and turned right at the stairs to Aria's small booth.
"Well, well. If it isn't the great Major Alenko," the seductive voice of Aria greets him as she turns from her platform to stare at him. Kaidan stood tall as her Krogan guards moved closer to him. They had no weapons and his nor Liara's biotics would be enough to fight out of this.
"Easy," Bray shouts to his guards. They all back down and move back to their previous posts. Aria sits down on her pink couch, motioning her head for Kaidan to sit in the small corner of it.
"I hear Normandy is in need of repairs?" she asks as she stares at Liara, smirking at the Shadow Broker. Though the knowledge wasn't of course public. Aria knew who exactly it was behind the teams sent to get information on her. Liara T'soni, once the best broker on Illium, is now probably the most powerful enemy anyone could have.
"Correct," Kaidan replies. "Our AI, Edi, has become unresponsive since the Crucible hit our ship. Most of the systems of the ship run through her." Aria looks at him, narrowing her drawn brows at his words.
"I met Edi, I thought she was your pilot's sex robot. The sweet thing she was. My technicians will board the ship and help get her back." Vega almost grunted with happiness, they might finally be able to get home.
"How do you have comms and working systems?" Liara asks. She needed to contact her broker teams. They were lost without her, but with no comm buoys, they were impossible to contact.
"The comm buoys around Omega are still active," she lazily replies, swinging one leg over the other. "I know the Reapers destroy all forms of comms before attacking, so we hid some around the asteroids of Omega. They are impossible to find without asking me nicely," she smirks.
"May I have access to one? I have teams to contact," Liara kindly asks. Hoping the Asari would help her.
"Course, a famous broker like yourself cannot go without her contacts," Aria slyly replies, smirking at Liara.
"Truly," Liara smirks back in reply. Vega eyed both Asari and uncomfortable cleared his throat, looking at Kaidan to break this odd sexual tension.
"Aria," Kaidan grunts to get her attention. She looks over at him, her cold glare ripping him apart. "We have Shepard, she's alive... barely."
Aria stood up, not wasting a moment to call her medic crews in. "Bring her to me, I have just the man who can help her. Anyone else injured?" Kaidan nods before replying.
"Thane, our Drell team member. He had Kepral's Syndrome and was cured, but got injured on Earth and his illness has come back worse than before." Aria nodded, looking to Bray to get it sorted.
"I know Thane, he's just as easily to sweet talk you as he could snap your neck. I respect the man, we will treat him the best we can." Kaidan stands up, holding his hand out to Aria. She looks down and only turns her head up to it. "I don't need your thanks, I owe my life to Shepard. Just do what you need, Omega is free for what you need to do."
Kaidan quickly departed with Liara and Vega, speed walking to the ship so they could get straight on with fixing the ship and sorting Shepard and Thane out. It would definitely take time to fix the ship, but if it's enough to get home then they'd wait as long as they needed to. A new sense of happiness washed over Kaidan, he was excited for once and hoped to get back to the Sol System, he might have the chance to find Gemma or know what her fate was.