*** Normandy ***

It was snowing.

No…it's red snow…and it's falling too fast.

Wait, Shepard realized, That's not fast red snow, it's raining blood

Everyone's dead…

Colors and forms moved, joined, split in confusing, meaningless ways...until the lights stopped moving.

"Doctor?" It was the voice of Silas Crosby, Normandy's Senior MedTech. "Doctor, I think he's waking up."

"Lieutenant, he's waking up," Ash repeated out the Medbay door, "Get in here."

Shepard blinked, squeezing his eyes shut, then opening them as friendly faces were just stepping into view. For a moment, he didn't move. He touched hands to legs, wiggled his toes. "Doctor?"

"I'm here, Stephen," the short-haired doctor said as she crossed the room. "How do you feel?"

He paused. "You never call people by their first names unless you're about to tell them something bad." He looked down at himself. "But everything still seems to be attached."

As she stepped up the left of the bed, doctor's expression changed from concerned to amused, "Yes, everything is still attached. And as you can see, I don't use first names only to deliver bad news." She touched the control board, waved her omnitool toward him briefly, "You had us worried there, Shepard. How do you feel?"

Shepard lifted his left arm, found his unlit omnitool attached to medical equipment. "Well...I'm still worried. Am I on life support?"

Chakwas glanced at the displays on the wall, checked her own omnitool, "Not really. I've had you connected to the brainbox because I couldn't tell why you were unconscious, or why you were staying that way." She pulled magnetic clips off his omnitool; he did not restart it.

Instead, he put a hand to his head. "What happened? How did I get here? Is everyone else okay?"

"Yes, everyone's fine…now. How are you feeling?"

"Terrific...next silly question." He sat up on his elbows, then laid back down. "My head feels huge…and…full. A bit of throbbing. But nothing serious that I can tell." He looked around as Kaidan jogged in. Everyone was in shipboard fatigues, including himself. "How long was I out?" He threw his feet over the edge of the bed and started to sit up.

The doctor looked up and left, checking a clock. "About…fifteen hours." She stepped closer, gestured to medical data that only her ARO was showing. "Something happened down there with the beacon, I think."

"It's my fault," Ash said quickly. "I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way."

He turned her way slightly, but didn't look up. "Are you okay?"

"You were the one not waking up," she replied, "We were worried your brain got fried by that damned beacon."

Kaidan waved a thumb at Ash. "She took it kind of hard," he added.

"Hey!" Ash elbowed him in the ribs.

"Don't worry about it, Chief." Shepard put up a hand reassuringly. "All's well that ends well, right?" He winced before he could control it. "Nnggh…my head really hurts. Is my neurotech offline?"

"It never did anything when they were digging it up," Ash interrupted. "We all thought it was just intact and could be reactivated if we could figure out how to get power to it. They'd already done full VRS on it. They said it was just a message relay and storage system."

Shepard put up a hand, "It's all right, Chief. You had no way to know what would happen."

Ash smiled faintly, and looked relieved.

"Actually, we don't even know if that's what set it off." Doctor Chakwas was still studying the instruments on her omnitool. "Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out. But to answer your question, no, your augmentation is all working fine." She pointed to a wall display that showed the various species of neurotech were interacting with his brain.

It was just pretty lights to Shepard. He closed his eyes again.

"The beacon exploded," Kaidan explained. "A system overload, maybe." He shrugged. "I suppose they will bring the University team back in to pick up the pieces and try to reassemble what they had."

Ash jumped back in, "We might have known more if it had blown up in a lab, but I'm sure they had learned about as much from it as could have been learned anyway."

Kaidan continued, "The blast knocked you cold. Williams and I made sure they didn't leave without you."

Shepard smiled weakly, nodded. "You're good about details like that. I appreciate it." He looked at Chakwas again. "Alright, give it to me straight, Doc. How long have I got?"

"Drama queen." Chakwas smirked, then looked closely at Shepard again. "Physically, you're fine. But I detected some unusual patterns in the cortical columns of your prefrontal lobes, especially in layers IV and VI of your medial prefrontal cortex, and the anterior insula."

"Uh...yeah," Shepard answered. "So what does that mean?"

"Like someone poked you with a ghost stick." Doctor Chakwas pointed to the center of her forehead. "Right there. It was like…well…have you ever seen a freshly mowed lawn, and you can tell which way the lawn mower had been driven across it? It's like that. I can tell where it went, but not exactly where it started. But it was trying to manipulate your brain, and the effect persisted."

As soon as the Doctor had said 'you're fine,' Shepard started to get off the bed.

Chakwas continued, "But I also noticed an increase in REM and beta waves, typically indicators of intense dreaming. Do you recall anything?"

"I saw…" He touched his forehead with a couple of fingers. "Mmh. Nothing's clear. At the moment, I only have emotional impressions. Death…destruction…and a city…or something." He shook his head. "Nothing's really clear."

The Doctor shrugged noncommittally. "Hm…I'd better add this to my report; it may—" She stopped as the door hissed open.

"Ten-haw," Ash barked, snapping to attention and saluting.

"As you were," Anderson said before she was even done.

Chakwas looked up. "Oh…Captain Anderson."

Anderson looked from Shepard to Chakwas. "How's our XO holding up, Doctor?"

She inclined her head to the instruments on the wall. "From what I can see, everything looks relatively normal. I'd say he's going to be fine."

"Glad to hear it. Commander, I need to speak with you. In private."

Shepard looked toward Doctor Chakwas again. "We done for now, Doctor?"

"Of course," she said. "But be sure to let me know if you notice anything unusual. Oh, and be sure to drink a lot of water. Also, your respirocyte and hydrocyte counts are both a bit low." She proffered a tall tumbler full of what looked like water across the exam table to him. "Start with this."

"Will do." He took the tumbler, turned to the Captain. "Your cabin, sir?"

Anderson nodded.

"Sirs, I'll be in the mess if you need me," Kaidan added.

"Me, too," said Ash. "Thanks again, Captain."

"Don't mention it, Chief."

As they stepped out of the Medical bay, Shepard glanced over his shoulder as though he could still see the two younger soldiers, talking to each other and giving the two officers time to get to the Captain's cabin. He spoke quietly, "With her unit destroyed, I assume you absorbed her into the crew? Oh, wait a second." He stepped over to the wall-mounted food printers, "I could eat a moose. Let me grab something." He took a few steps aft of the MedBay door and waved his finger through one of the holographic keys on the Autochef marked QuickPrint meal.

Anderson spoke quietly as he followed Shepard to the printer. "I did. It seemed the most humane thing to do." The Captain nodded in thought as they watched the printer's status lights change. "And she was all over you. Not in a bad way, but it was pretty obvious she felt bad about what happened. Thinks it's her fault. You might want to make an effort to let her know you're okay."

The printer chirped and hummed to itself as it scanned Shepard and polled his bloodstream computing to modify the meal for his current condition. Anderson continued, "Psych Personnel at Trident said she'd do better somewhere without the reminders; she was housed in the barracks, so we picked up her gear before we left. Trident is sending in two units to replace the 212."

"Just two?"

"It's twice what they had. I suspect one will be completely focused on fabrication and Therapeutics. They have some rebuilding to do."

The printer tray extended with a pancake-sized biscuit on it. Shepard lifted the "OptiMeal" efficiency food immediately to his mouth, took a bite, chased it with a swig of the liquid from the tumbler, and headed port and aft to avoid the commotion of the mess. "But no GARDIAN systems? Have they still not learned the lessons of Elysium?"

"Colonial Admin still doesn't want those things looming over the colonies. Think of it from their perspective. It's like living with a Howitzer in your front yard. You can't sell people on the attractiveness of the colonies if every third photo or vid has a massive cannon in it."

Shepard swallowed. "I'll live with the Howitzer every day it prevents a Mindoir or Elysium."

"Or now, an Eden Prime," Anderson nodded, "I'm with you, Commander; but it's not our call."

Shepard put a finger to his forehead. "Hmm…note to self: Things to Do When I am the Galactic Overlord…"

As they approached the door marked "CPT. ANDERSON", it hissed aside for Anderson, and Shepard followed him in.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Anderson sighed, crossed the room, sat down at the desk. Holographic displays winked to life as he waved at them. "Sounds like that beacon thing hit you pretty hard, Commander. You sure you're okay?"

"I'll be fine. But what about Nihlus?" Shepard dragged a chair away from the conference table and sat in it. "Did we pick him up? Or did you alert the Council…or whoever handles Spectres?"

"They found out on their own somehow...and asked me if I had any details. I debriefed the rest of the team, compared fireteam blackbox data, sent the whole steaming pile to Trident and the Citadel. Nihlus and his gear are down in the hangar, but it's out of our hands at this point."

"Nihlus is in the hangar? Not the MedBay? Is he going to be okay?"

Anderson looked pensive. "I won't lie to you. Things look bad. Nihlus is practically dead, but the only witness is a dockworker who's potentially implicated in a lightweight DFR-commercial piracy ring. The beacon was destroyed, and it looks like the geth are invading. The Council's going to want answers."

Biscuit in hand, Shepard pointed at himself. "To hell with the Council, I wants some answers," he said. "Why was Nihlus controlling all the intel on this? If we'd had some idea of what to expect…"

Anderson had his hands up placatingly, "That wasn't my call. The Council trusts the Spectres to handle themselves, and this was supposed to be about them trying you out." He shook his head. "Damn. Now I'm sorry I let you get tossed into that."

"We didn't do anything wrong, Captain. Hopefully the Council will see that."

"I'll stand behind you and whatever you want to add to the report. After what happened down there, you're a damned hero in my book. That's not why I wanted to talk. It's Saren, that other turian." He shifted in his chair, pointed toward one of the holographic displays on his wall; it showed images of Saren Arterius. "Saren's a Spectre, one of the best. A living legend. But if he's working with the geth, it means he's gone rogue." He turned back to face Shepard. "A rogue Spectre's trouble. Saren's dangerous. And he hates humans."

"Saren?"

"The other turian. The one the colonist saw and gave a name of."

Shepard's head still throbbed; it was hard to think. "He didn't go to Eden Prime because he hates humans."

"You're probably right. I think he was after that beacon. He must have booby-trapped it and left it for us to find. You're lucky you're not dead."

"The whole colony's lucky they're not dead; the...geth were deploying over a gigaton of nukes. But rigging the beacon to self-destruct? That would have required knowledge of how Prothean technology works…at a level possessed by…maybe five people in the galaxy, if even that many. Besides, if he was planning to leave a crater where the colony was, there wasn't much chance he'd also take the time to booby-trap the beacon. I doubt it."

"I still think Saren's aligned himself with the geth. I don't know how. I don't know why. But it must have something to do with that beacon." He looked at Shepard with a renewed intensity. "You were there just before the beacon self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue that might tell us what Saren was after?"

"The science team had figured out it was a communications device of some kind. I think it worked like neurolearning, but did it without direct contact. I think it gave me some kind of…vision."

Anderson squinted. "A vision? A vision of what?"

Closing his eyes, Shepard tried to recall. "I saw…people…being killed. Synthetics, I think, were doing it. I'm…not even sure if they were big or small, they seemed to be everywhere. They were butchering them." He grimaced, shook his head gently. "It hurts too much to think about. My head, I mean. My head hurts."

"We need to report this to the Council. The scientists knew it was a part of a galactic messaging system, so whatever the beacon was trying to tell you, it's probably important."

Shepard's eyes snapped open. "What are we going to tell them? I had a bad dream? The only reason they won't be able to fire me is because they'll be laughing too hard."

"We don't know what information was stored in that beacon. Lost Prothean technology? Blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction? Whatever it was, Saren took it." He rose from his chair, started to pace around the table. "But I know Saren. Worked with him…once. I know his reputation, his politics. He believes humans are a blight on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war!" He landed a fist on the table. "He has the secrets from the beacon. He has an army of geth at his command. And he won't stop until he's wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy!"

"Can we present our evidence to the Council? Have them freeze his assets, take away his RelayID? Put him in time-out, or whatever they do?"

"It's not that easy. He's a Spectre. He can go anywhere, do almost anything. As a matter of course, he probably already has four or five false IDs with him all the time. That's why we need the Council on our side."

"Right, but…at least if we prove Saren's gone rogue, the Council will revoke his Spectre status…won't they?"

"I'll contact the ambassador and see if he can get us an audience with the Council. Even if he doesn't, he'll want to see us as soon as we reach the Citadel."

That was a surprise. "We're going to the Citadel?"

"We were asked to return Nihlus and his gear to the Spectre Office directly, and Trident approved it. We're also going to get the turians to give us some of their latest updates." He smiled to himself. "And I have a nice surprise for future ground operations." He looked at Shepard again, "Anyway, we're through the relay; we should be coming in to dock shortly. You might want to go round up the ground team, get 'em in their semiformals to meet the ambassador. Oh, wait." He gestured, manipulating his omnitool. "Udina…hmm…better make that bristling battle dress. Udina will want to see value for money." He harrumphed to himself, shook his head. "Thank you, Commander." He turned back to the desk, which was his way of indicating the meeting was over.

Shepard checked the Ship's Status display on his ARO. 31:20 to Citadel dock. He stood and saluted. "The team will be at the airlock when we dock, sir."

# # #

Having donned his cleaned and serviced battle dress, and tumbler still in hand, Shepard approached Ash, who was sitting at a table in the mess, toying with a plate full of food.

"Hey, Chief. How are you holding up?" He sat opposite her, noticing she had managed to actually eat absolutely nothing after a day spent shooting and running for her life.

"Oh…okay, I guess." She sighed. "Bad day." She frowned. "Your Mad Scientist CFS actually tranqued me when I came aboard. I only woke up a couple of hours before you did, sir."

Shepard didn't look up, shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry we didn't get there sooner."

Ash turned to him quickly, "Don't get me wrong," she said, "I'm glad you're okay, Commander. But part of me feels guilty over what happened. If anyone else in my unit was still alive, I might not be here."

"You're an excellent soldier, Williams. I saw you at work. I like your go get 'em attitude."

Ash looked away. "It was probably the drugs talking. I wanted those things dead."

"Don't minimize your work," Shepard said. "You made Eden Prime safer for everyone else. All the colonists still there owe you their lives. You defused a three hundred megaton nuke." He nodded and smiled encouragingly.

She nodded subtly, looked up at him again. "Yeah…I did. Well, I had your help."

"Couldn't have done it without you, Chief."

"Thanks, Commander. That means a lot coming from you. I've never met anyone who was awarded the Star of Terra."

Now it was his turn to look away. "It doesn't mean what you think it does."

"Held off an enemy platoon? Alone? With all due respect, Commander, I think you've got someone watching over you."

Shepard nodded. "Yes, I do. And he lives in that stateroom." He waved a thumb over his shoulder at the Captain's quarters. "But ask me about that cluster event at Elysium sometime…later. You've seen the docudrama approved by Alliance brass, and heard the fish stories from survivors on talk shows. I'll tell you what really happened that week." He seemed to deflate. "Things were pretty rough down there. You guys took the worst of it."

Ash looked away, seemed to lose focus. "I've seen friends die before. Comes with being a marine. And you never get used to seeing dead civilians. But things would have been a lot worse if you hadn't shown up."

"We couldn't have done it without you, Williams."

"Thanks, Commander. I have to admit, I was a little worried about being assigned to Normandy. It's nice when someone makes you feel welcome."

"Don't get too comfortable yet. We're headed for the Citadel. Be there in about twenty minutes, and you get to join me and the skipper in an all-expenses-paid visit to Ambassador Udina."

"Ambassador?" She put an elbow on the table, dropped her forehead into her palm. "Oh, god. Shoot me now."

"What? You know him?"

"I'm not in the damn mood. I thought we were just going to drop off the…turian equipment." She paused, looked up, seemed to think better of what she was going to say. Resignedly, "Semiformal?"

"Skipper says, 'Bristling Battle Dress'."

She squinted at him. "We expecting a fight?"

"He said something about value for money. I suppose the Ambassador likes to think he's a BFD."

Kaidan stepped around the corner, wearing nothing but his pants and a smile. Toweling his hair dry, he dropped into the seat next to Ash. "Okay, I'm out." He turned to her, "Know where the showers are?"

"Showered when I woke." She glanced at his right shoulder, pointed at it. "You don't need a Final Coat on that?"

He shrugged. "It was a clean perforation…deep enough that it came in under the armor, not deep enough to damage bone."

"It'll scar," she warned.

"But it feels fine. No warnings from the monitors." He flexed his arm, illuminated his gauntlet. "If it looks like it isn't healing well, I'll have the Doc fix it."

Noticing he had just activated his omnitool even though there was nothing on his arm, she pointed at him as if having a realization. "Wait…you're not a biotic. You're a Sentinel!"

He brightened at the word. "Yeah…I am." He turned the omnitool gauntlet off and held up his left forearm for her. "The omnitool I wear into combat is a hardened Serrice, but the implanted interface was installed with my amp." He flashed a grin, "No bloodstream DCE required, and it's also a Serrice, so it was a perfect integration of…" He stopped as he saw her expression.

Ash shook her head slowly, a smile forming on her face. "And you are such a geek."

He looked away, embarrassed. "Yeah…well…there's that."

Shepard tapped on the table as if calling a meeting to order. "All right, need to be focused for a moment here. Alenko: Good thing you showered; we're heading to the Citadel, gonna be there in about twenty minutes. Skipper wants us to meet the Ambassador…in full combat gear. We're going for the clean-and-freshly-pressed look, not the I-just-barely-escaped look."

He directed his attention to Ashley. "If you haven't already done it, you should stop in the MedBay, have Chakwas verify you don't have any WYDKTCHY." He shook his head. "You're gonna show us up in that white Phoenix gear. Udina's gonna think we had an asari along if you don't leave the top down."

Ash waved a hand at him. "Don't even get me started. The Sirta rep was on base a few weeks ago, and since we don't have any asari to show off their paramedic field armor, he asked me to do it. So they printed a set for me, and I wore it for the demos. He let me keep it, right?" She looked from Shepard to Alenko and back. "Yesterday was just supposed to be another snark hunt with the eggheads. Seemed like a good time to wear it…just to try it out. See if it was as helpful as they said in the field…"

Shepard realized he knew how this story was going to end, and interrupted, "But you have another set you normally wear?"

She seemed to brighten. "Hell, yeah. I wear an upgraded Predator H V. Full combat exoskeleton, medical enhancements, 80-boost VI-assisted shields, 30-second jump jets, and combat VI that's so smart it's almost illegal. I'm a walking battleship." With a confident grin, she brought a fist down on the table, rattling plates, flatware, and cups.

"Hooah!" Kaidan barked.

"Well, I'd rather you wear that, Chief, if it's okay with you," Shepard nodded towards Kaidan, "Seems to have good effects on morale. And the Predator looks more like the Normandy-standard Onyx that we'll be wearing."

"They transferred my locker and kit when I got reposted, sir. I wasn't going to wear the Phoenix if I didn't have to."

Shepard nodded. "Outstanding. I've got some bureaucracy to sort out before we dock; Chief, I'd still suggest you visit the Doctor before getting all shiny for the ambassador." He rose from the table, hesitated, looked meaningfully as Ash. "And Doctor Chakwas…has talsit if you need it."

Ash looked at him with mild surprise. "Not puttin' that shit my head. Dad said to stay away from it."

He nodded. "Of course, Chief; that's not an order, just a point of information." He extended his right hand, palm slightly up. "I think you're gonna fit in here just fine, Williams. Welcome aboard."

Ash stood quickly, took his hand firmly, shook it. "Thanks, Commander."

They watched him walk aft toward the ladder, gesturing to his ARO.

Ash was still looking the way he'd left as she say back down. "Talsit? Seriously?"

Kaidan was watching the table, looked lost in thought.

Ash turned, expecting him to say something.

Kaidan looked at her briefly, then back to where Shepard had just left. "His wife…suicided."

Ash balked. "She what?!"

"They'd been married for…I don't know. Eight, nine years. It was while he was deployed. I think…I think she did it with him watching on the comm."

"What the hell…?"

"He was…just a zombie for…weeks. Captain dropped him off at Elysium to catch a space-available flight with a courier…and…well, that was when the Elysium Incident happened." Kaidan shook his head as if to make the topic go away. "Aw, this isn't my story to tell. But he's been off the stuff for a couple of years now, and I don't think he'd have said that if he didn't think it was helpful. You can't stay on ET3 forever."

"'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,'" Ash said.

"If you can't stand the heat, wear protective gear," Kaidan parried. She's not wanting to talk about this, he thought. "Still, speaking of kitchens, if you're gonna go see the Doc, are you going to eat all that?" He pointed at the tray of food she had in front of her.

"I told you, I showered when I woke." She looked at him, towel over his muscular shoulders, and smiled. "So go get your own damn breakfast, Lieutenant."

# # #

Shepard jogged up the ladder, stepped into the CIC and over to one of the consoles near the Command dais. Noting the file downloads were complete from the fireteam members, he reviewed some of the footage briefly, ran the RPGVI, checked its findings, added some commentary and tweaked its language, before approving and filing it.

With the geth potentially back in the game after centuries of hiding, analysts at Trident would be looking at the every hexel of data almost instantly. But he wanted to get it done so he could be satisfied he had done everything right.

It did not always bring peace, but it was the best he could do.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Richard walking forward.

"Jenkins…how you doing? Did you go see Chakwas?"

The Corporal balked in mid-stride, turned and faced Shepard. "Sir?"

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, sure. I was first in line after they got you hooked up. I should be asking how you're doing."

Shepard put a finger on the work surface to mark his place as he looked up at the younger man. "I'll be fine. How's your leg? And your gut injury? You were shot up pretty bad. I wasn't sure we did everything…there just wasn't time."

"Oh, Doc said you did great. She was surprised you knew about that field splint. She even said you'd have made a good medic, but we'd have been the poorer for it."

Shepard leaned forward on the console. "No point in sucking up to me, pal; you and I are both being awarded the Cockadoodle Cross."

Jenkins expression changed to one of confusion. "Sir?"

"That's the You-Just-Got-Your-Ass-Handed-To-You medal. But mine was just a bronze star cluster…'cause I've screwed up before." He held up a hand to stop the conversation. "New topic: We just jumped to the Widow; should be docking in a few minutes. Skipper's having us join him in a meeting with our ambassador, Donnel Udina…"

Richard gawked. "We're going aboard the Citadel?"

"To hear Joker tell it, it's more like landing on a planet. The thing has its own gravitational signature. Weird and complex, too; not the sort of thing you can really do manually. Unless, of course, you're Joker." He glanced forward quickly. "Anyway, yes, we're meeting the ambassador. Skipper wants us there in Full Battle Dress. If you haven't gotten all cleaned up yet, get down there and do it now. ETA's about fifteen minutes. Meet us at the forward airlock by then."

The Corporal snapped a salute; Shepard noticed a twitch in the younger man's eyebrows. "Still healing?"

"Yes, sir."

He returned the salute. "Might be a good idea to get with Chief Williams and…the MFO. Can't think of his name at the moment. See if you can replicate that shield generator Williams was using. It'd be good to equip the whole team with that if we can. But worry about that after we get back."

"Yes, sir."

"Also make sure you eat before going ashore. You can burn through a month's pay just eating finger foods."

"Yes, sir. Thanks for the warning."

Shepard nodded absently. "I'll be on the bridge if you need me." Jenkins turned around and headed back toward the ladder; Shepard turned to his left and jogged forward, past the eight Department Masters in the Ops Alley. The smell of freshly-sintered composites was still occasionally present, and it made him just a bit less unhappy to be there.

Captain Anderson's hand-picked crew, a state-of-the-art ship, and we might make a difference out here, he thought. It made him smile with a refreshed sense of confidence. He stepped through the airlock foyer, stepped left at Joker's center chair and slid into his seat. The console lit its holographics, presenting him with more information than he could reasonably digest...but always let him know where to find out.

The pilot looked across at him, "Good timing, Commander, I was about to bring us in to the Citadel. We're about to clear the nebula, so you'll get a nice view."

"How long do we have?"

Joker waved at a display only he could see. "You should start to see it now, the place is self-lit on the inside of the arms. But we should pop out of the Syncee Bubble in…three or four minutes. You'll get a nice view then, before we turn on final."

Shepard put two fingers to his ear. "Alenko, Jenkins, Williams. We're about to get a first look at the Citadel in the next three or four minutes. If you're interested, you might want to get up here to see it for yourself."

He turned left and looked out the window; the cloud-like formations of nebular dust made it impossible to see more than a kilometer from the ship, but at the speed they were moving, gaps occasionally flashed past, letting a view of the flower-like station's silhouette wink on and off. He checked a status board in front of him; apparently the ship had taken some hits from ground fire. Armor plating showed some damage, but otherwise the ship looked to be in good condition, considering they'd been in an air-to-surface fight.

Still, there was a growing list of things that were in need of repair, consumables that needed to be replenished. Molecular manufacturing might have made it possible to build almost anything on demand, but doing so required feedstock of every element and a growing array of exotic generators; positrons, muons, and a few other energetic or highly reactive particles were necessary to fabricate the metamaterials that made Normandy possible. And it seemed like every deficiency that could have shown up in a shakedown had done so.

Ash - wearing the armor legs and underfittings of the torso - was the first to arrive, heading straight to the port window and gaping. "Look at the size of that ship!"

Prowling the approach corridor was an enormous shadow; as they arced around it, the shadow turned slowly, light from the nearby dwarf stars drawn slowly across its graceful, alien lines. Ash's HUD displayed relative size to Arcturus Station, Jump Zero, Alliance dreadnoughts, and the Brazilia Tower, things of which she had some sense of scale.

Joker turned to look. "Hey…Hey! No fingerprints on the windows, thank you!"

Kaidan came up behind Ash. "That's Joker. Don't let him rattle you; the windows are Vaxilon," he bent over so he could see out the windows, too. "And that's the asari Ascension, flagship of the Citadel fleet."

"That's Destiny Ascension," Joker corrected. "And…well, size isn't everything," he added under his breath.

Ash glanced over her shoulder briefly, teased the pilot. "Why so touchy, Joker?"

"I'm just sayin'…you need firepower, too." Keeping Normandy's speed at the maximum allowed, he wove a course through the various refuelers, cruisers, and other traffic toward the backlit Citadel itself.

Richard came jogging up to the bridge, looking for a place to stand that offered a good view.

Ash hadn't taken her eyes off the city-sized asari ship. "Look at that monster. Its main gun could rip through the barrier of any ship in the Alliance fleet."

Shepard thought Kaidan sounded as if he was trying to reassure himself, "Good thing it's on our side, then."

Joker touched the tips of his fingers together, crossfading the full-immersion ARO into its SVS Mode. The bridge disappeared from his view as the array of cameras and sensor feeds became his entire experience. Faintly-glowing gold markers showed FPV, energy cue, relative attitude, navigation data, flight corridors, other vessels, fuel data, engine modular status, and a continuous parade of data.

He smiled unconsciously. He was no longer the pilot, sitting in a chair on the cramped bridge of a tiny Alliance frigate, he was a starship, soaring around other starships; free of gravity, unaware of the nagging pain in his body, seeing everything around him all at once.

Holographic gauntlets on both hands, he manipulated the flight control interface, performing a coordinated turn toward the massive turian dreadnought at their 2:00 high position. "Citadel Control, this SSV Normandy, requesting permission to land."

The reply came from the bridge speakers, "Stand by for clearance, Normandy." The VOX system chirped as it was briefly muted by the controller.

Raising an eyebrow, Joker selected the nearest approach corridor, rolling the ship in a corkscrew maneuver that didn't require compensation by the ship's gravitational director; inertia and centrifugal forces left the impression that the entire world was simply rotating around them. With an audience on hand, he was determined to give 'em the whole show…even if he couldn't see their reactions.

Ash turned to Kaidan, "Wow! How did we do that?"

Continuing smoothly through the maneuver, Joker tried not to smile; he almost succeeded.

Shepard held up a hand, "Quiet, he's listening. He'll think you're impressed." He leaned over toward Joker and stage whispered, "Act like you didn't hear that."

"No, sir, not a single 'Wow' can reach my ears." Joker didn't bother to turn; there was no one else in his field of vision to see.

The Citadel controller answered from the cabin speakers, "SSV Normandy, Citadel. Clearance granted, you may begin your approach on Corridor Alpha Charlie. Transferring you to an Alliance operator."

"Roger, Citadel Tower, Corridor Alpha Charlie. Normandy out."

Bringing the ship out of its graceful barrel roll, Joker smirked to himself at the annoyance his maneuver would almost certainly cause on the bridge of the patrolling turian ship. And now we're perfectly aligned with the orientation and rotational speed of the Presidium ring, he thought.

"Normandy, this is Alliance tower. We have you in Alpha Charlie at 2700. Please proceed to dock 422. Final handover at one kilometer."

Joker nodded absently, gestured the PTT. "Alliance tower, Normandy acknowledging Dock 422, handover at one kilometer. Out."

Lights continued to stream by the windows from starscrapers and transparent pressure domes; only Joker could see their destination at this distance. Slowly trading kinetic energy for pressure in the MEFGs and transferring it back into the ultracapacitors, he decelerated them steadily to 200 meters per second before having to resort to braking thrusters. He nudged the MEFGs to make it easier for them to do so, and to let himself savor the view.

Joker looked down and left at displays that only he could see. "Dock 422, this is Normandy, ready for handover."

The ship and dock control computers exchanged information, and then transferred control to the dock. "Normandy, Dock 422. Handover complete."

Even having relinquished control of the ship to the Alliance tower, Joker left his SVS fully engaged, watching for mistakes and corrections, noticing the tiny service crews inside and outside the pressure field, watching the VI track alignment, nodding at the modifications that had been made to Alliance hardware even since the last time he'd been here.

When the docking clamps thumped into place, he looked around briefly, sighed, and dismissed the SVS.

Shepard was gone.

Glancing up at the mirror, he saw the battledressed team stepping into the airlock.

He leaned around his chair and called, "Have fun! Bring me something expensive!"

*** Glossary ***

BFD: Big Fat Deal

bronze star cluster: like an Oak Leaf cluster, the star cluster (bronze, silver, or gold) is presented to recipients of an award who are receiving it for a second (or subsequent) time. Three bronze star clusters equals a silver star cluster, three silvers equals a gold. New recruits are told that if you are awarded more than three gold star clusters for any decoration, you're automatically advanced in rank to God.

biocaneer: bio-buccaneer; people who develop their own biological and neurological modifications, most of which skirt the law or simply ignore it

CFS: Chief Flight Surgeon

DFR: Digital Fabrication Rights

ET3: Technically "TC-5c," a therapeutic post-stroke neurotech developed in the early 2130s by Erizzo, Thompson, Tprrez Terapie, SpA (aka ETTT, SpA), but referred to by its manufacturer's popularized name ("ET3") rather than its product name (in a manner similar to how people will say, "I opened Microsoft" rather than "I opened Word.") The name stuck when the profitable but short-lived company was acquired by Amgen, which even went so far as to rename the product to "ExtraTerrestrial Thalmic Tranquility," which more aptly describes its modern application, and aligned with common usage.

Final Coat: a dermal reconstruction nanotech paste made by Organo-Endy, compatible with Sirta medi-gel

FPV: Flight Path Vector. A ship's plotted trajectory, usually displayed on a navigational display or SVS

ghost stick: fictional plot device from a popular vid series; a 10-centimeter stick capable of moving nonmetallic objects as if they were ferrous and the stick was an electromagnet

handover: Transfer of flight control from ship's pilot to ATC, usually VI-operated

hydrocyte: nanotech in the form of glucose-to-ATP converters

"leave the top down": collapse a combat suit's helmet into its "off" position

MFO: Master Fabrication Officer

microbivore: nanotech in the form of artificial white blood cells

neurotech: neurological nanotechnology

neurotronics: neurological electronics; term can refer to either the wiring or the artificial neurons individually

respirocyte: nanotech in the form of artificial red blood cells; increases oxygenation efficiency by a factor of fifteen to sixty, depending on the user and other modifications, interactions with other tech; first proposed by Robert Frietas in

RPGVI: Report Program Generator Virtual Intelligence

PTT: Press To Talk, effectively the transmitter switch on a communications system

SVS: Synthetic Vision System. A 360-degree Virtual Reality mode that reduces everything to computer-generated imagery [CGI]. Prevents overloading glare, allows VI-controlled imagers to highlight potential threats at greater distances regardless of location

Syncee Bubble: a formation of gases in the Widow Nebula between the mass relay and the Citadel, sometimes called "the Fog"

Talsit: Originally an anti-suicidal drug for protracted or severe depression, activated by automated neurotech. When the safer, fully-regulated and self-neutralizing ET3 became available, talsit's higher addiction rate and greater tendency to prompt users to one-way into VR worlds like No Regrets and A Perfect World got it banned from most insurance plans; after being pulled from the market, biocaneers developed user controls in AR allow a brain enhanced with one of a very few models of obsolete implant to purge the chemical as it adapts. Controversial for its ability to attenuate specific emotions, it remains popular as a recreational drug/technology, even though it was banned from medical use in 2174.

Vaxilon: Trade name for vapor-deposited "perfect glass" that has extremely high thermal capacity; useful for stealth applications because of its ability to absorb active sensor energies, and even be selectively used as part of Normandy's heat sink array, depending on the mission. Layers of silicon-indomethacin form groups of atoms in the glass that can quantum mechanically "tunnel" between alternative configurations, passing right through any obstacles, and even occupy both levels of the two-level system at once for the purposes of heat transfer. Because it is not a crystal, it also provides better protection against projectiles that make it past kinetic barriers. The various layers of different configurations of the material allow its function to change on command. quantamagazine dot org/ideal-glass-would-explain-why-glass-exists-at-all-20200311/

WYDKTCHY: What You Don't Know That Can Hurt You, pronounced "WID-kitchy"