* * * Ontario: Armed Archaeologist * * *
Shepard stretched; something he often did when recovering from mild stress or deep thought. "Victor Indigo, where's Doctor T'Soni?"
His VI routed the query to the ship; internal tracking located the alien and the Boatswain VI displayed on his ARO, Liara T'Soni is in MedBay.
He exited the CommCon and headed down the starboard ladder, saluting the guard as he did. As he descended, he smelled food and immediately changed direction, heading toward Dispenser 4, ordered a blueberry Fast1 nutrient bar. While waiting for it, he realized Liara might also be hungry. He upped the count to two; the printer chirped its acknowledgement.
When the tray slid out a few seconds later, he lifted the two bars off and continued across to Medical.
"Doctor Chocolate," he greeted Karin. "Don't mind me…just passing through."
Dr. Chakwas looked up briefly, smiled and returned to her work. "Heard about that, did you?"
Shepard nodded with a still-growing smile. "Kaidan told me. Couldn't wait to use it myself."
He stopped at the door to the Convertible Clean Room. With his hand on the doorframe, he leaned in.
Liara looked over her shoulder at him.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you, but we've got a situation," Shepard said. "It isn't directly related to our primary objective, but it's time-sensitive, and it would be helpful to have as many biotics as possible on this. Would you be willing to help out with a little side trip? I should warn you that there could be injuries involved."
As he was speaking, she stood and faced him, a hand on the chair. "If I can help you, I will."
"You're not official crew, or even a contractor, so I…feel awkward asking you to be part of the fireteam."
"Together, we may succeed." She crossed to the door and stopped just inside it. "What shall I do?"
Asari philosophical reference: Matriarch Dilinaga, as a Maiden, joins the Serrice Huntresses.
Implication: I am at your disposal.
As he stood straight, Shepard noticed the asari was standing closer than he was used to people standing.
Asari social distances are typically larger than humans', his ARO added, Speaker is presenting active pro-social behaviour, typical of one who has a sense of obligation toward the listener.
Looks like Kaidan knows his stuff, Shepard thought. And there's that vanilla bubblegum smell again… He held up the two mealbars in his left hand, intending to offer one. "I also thought you might be hungry."
Her eyes widened quickly; she almost gasped in surprise, took them immediately, one in each hand. "Thank you," she said, "Oh thank you. Goddess, I have been so focused on my debrief that I keep forgetting to eat." The first bar crunched softly as she took a bite.
"Just one more thing?" He smiled and nodded, "Yeah, that gets me a lot, too." He gestured out the door. "If you're going to help us, would you first join me for a couple of prerequisite tasks?" Leading the way through Medical, he stopped at the starboard food printers, wiped a finger through the holographic Quick Print key for another Fast1; as the printer started, he selected flavour and format.
"It is delicious," the asari held the two bars up and looked at them, "It is a human…brand?"
Shepard nodded, pointed to the Quick Print keys. "The Alliance has a special contract with the designers of these nutrition-focused food replacements. They cover over 99% of the nutritional requirements of over 99% of the human phenotypes." He shrugged internally as he realised he was parroting the advertising he'd heard elsewhere. "If you haven't had Doctor Chakwas run a New Crew scan on you, you should. It'll tell you what combination is best for you, add it to your p-net, and provide info to the printers when you eat."
The printer continued its rhythmical vrrt-vrrt-vrrt as Liara chewed experimentally. "I have not…I did not know to ask. But even if I had, I would wonder if it was appropriate for me to do so. I am not 'new crew.'"
Shepard looked back at the Medical Bay. "That's just what we call it. It takes about 30 minutes and a lot of processing, so it's not the kind of thing we do for just anyone who gets attached to the ship's company. But since you're going to join the fireteam, we should have a complete set of medical data on you…so we can fix you up if you get hurt badly. You should ask before our little…outing."
"I'm not sure it will be necessary," Liara lit her omnitool gauntlet, "I carry a complete Optimal Personal Biome Signature in my omnitool, and I have a Tarilli subscription."
Shepard's ARO reminded him, Tarilli TCI: Asari medical nanotech organization that supplies and researches personalized life sustainment and exhaustive medical NfoX hosting, primarily marketed on Thessia.
Shepard nodded. "Hm. In that case, make sure the Doctor knows about it and how to use it."
Liara looked toward the MedBay. "I am sure she does; she asked me if I had it. She already has the public download for it, and I have given her my update key."
"Oh…right, then. Well done. You had said you were impressed with her knowledge; I hadn't known what that entailed. You still ought to have her run a New Crew scan for you. It'll help in lots of other places, too."
"I believe she already did. She gave reasons similar to yours."
At that, the printer chirped musically and extended its tray; Shepard took the bar, waved it toward the lift. "In that case, let's go get you armed and armoured." He took a bite and chewed as they walked to the lift, waited for the door to open, and stepped in. "I don't recall seeing you carrying a firearm."
"I had a small pistol, but I was not carrying it when the geth landed. I did not have time to get it." Eyes downcast, Liara shook her head, remembering all the equipment now buried under a kilometre of rock.
Shepard watched her silently for a moment, waved a hand through the activating holo. "We'll just re-download your license to the MFO and he can print you a new one. Did you lose any personal stuff?" The freight door growled closed so the lift could descend.
The asari looked up at him. "Ah…no, not really. This was just a short expedition; part of the study's value was in how quickly I expected to complete it. I knew exactly where I was going and how long it would take to carry out my scan. But it will be…difficult to explain losing University equipment. Especially the mining laser, which we had expected to lease back or sell to the mining company. There will be some repercussions. Hopefully they will perceive the value of the data I have gathered to be sufficient, but I am still working to analyse all that I found."
MFO Gomez looked up when Shepard stepped out of the lift, but his eyes went immediately to Liara. Once the asari had finished speaking, he looked quickly to Shepard. "Hey, Commander. Looking for supplies?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact." Shepard waved a thumb toward the Mako, where Garrus and Tali were standing and talking. "By the way, good work getting armour for our contractors, Doyle. But I hadn't expected to have Doctor T'Soni as part of the fireteam, so I didn't have you download asari data…" He stopped without finishing the sentence, but looked meaningfully toward Liara. "I mean...Liara."
A huge pre-emptive smile had formed on the MFO's face as he held up an open hand. "Don't even worry, sir. I gotcha covered. Asari actually have their own armorers, but they can use human armour with minor helmet modification, and they're easy to add…"
He turned away for a moment, then turned back, placing a display kiosk on the bench where Shepard and Liara could see it. "Got this as part of the fabber kit from the Rosenkov rep on the Citadel; haven't even put it away yet. It won't show you prices or features, but it will side-by-side armour from other designers with general specs, all of which I have First Tier and can build for you on demand… probably in an hour or less. I've stored it and was going to gel it down, but since we have it right here..." He turned slightly and pointed confidently across the hangar, spoke to Liara. "And Chief Williams brought along that Phoenix armour from Eden Prime. We can put you in that for free, and right now, ma'am. Assuming Chief Williams has no objection, I'll transfer the license, and get you fitted out."
Shepard nodded, "Good thinking."
Liara raised her omnitool and selected a holographic icon, pinched it, and held it toward MFO Gomez. "Here is my personal biometric data. Will that be sufficient?"
Gomez blinked in surprise, glanced at Shepard and then back at Liara. "Uh…yeah." He smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, that'll be perfect. How current is it?"
"Your doctor updated it when she first saw me."
"The Therum landing," Shepard clarified for the MFO.
Gomez took the glowing icon from Liara, nodding confidently. "Couldn't ask for better, ma'am. Um…give me an hour, I'll have the Phoenix ready for you." He turned to the systems on the wall, sliding the icon into the receptor column; an adjacent display blinked to life.
"And recolour it to standard black, will you?" Shepard shook his head, remembering the brilliant white of the Phoenix demo armour. "Williams said it was intended for civilian medical applications. And if it'll take an active camo outer layer, add that in, too."
Gomez grinned over his shoulder. "Chameleon with black default; can do, sir. Oh, and…do you need any weapons, ma'am?"
Liara reacted by looking down at an open hand.
Shepard's ARO tagged her expression, Embarrassment.
"I had a pistol with a biotic enhancement."
"We lost it during extraction," Shepard waved a hand casually, "Can you use her CSID and download the printable?"
"I had modifcations…" Liara started.
Gomez straightened, focusing on the asari. He seemed suspicious. "Warp ammunition?"
Liara returned his look, seemed taken aback. "Um…I have heard it called that, yes. It renders the things it hits more subject to biotic energy."
The MFO was shaking his head. "Sorry, ma'am. I don't have that, and I don't think the Alliance authorises its use. Lieutenant Alenko could probably tell you more." The man turned to face Shepard. "Anyway, if you want, I haven't gelled your old pistol down yet, sir. Your Stiletto-IV." He looked over his shoulder at the cabinet to his left.
Shepard turned to Liara, "I downloaded your license when we were in the tent, so you can have that weapon back if you're comfortable with it, but have you ever shot a Stiletto?" Liara shook her head. "It's one of the best sidearms on the market, as far as I'm concerned; even a three or a four will hit more precisely than almost anything for the same money. Mine has a modified barrel so it hits harder, too." He shrugged, "Actually, it's unlikely you'll ever shoot it, but I want you to have something in hand in case it comes to that. I'm going to assign two people to you; they'll keep you safe."
"I have biotic barriers of my own," Liara said, "Though I thank you for the extra consideration, I'm not quite so inexperienced as all that. And I'm mostly capable of defending myself, too. Though I certainly appreciate the extra help; one cannot see everything at once. A moment's distraction can turn dangerous to deadly."
Shepard nodded. "Well said, and I'm glad to hear you're aware." He turned to Gomez again, indicating himself and the asari, "Let one or both of us know when that armour's done cooking and cooling, and we'll have her try it out. Reassign the license on the Stiletto for her use."
"You got it, sir." He looked to Liara again, "You want anything else, ma'am? A shotgun can be helpful if things get really up close and personal."
Liara turned her head down and away, but continued to look at Gomez. "I'd rather Stasis if I can. It's a highly effective non-lethal response to being surprised, particularly up close, and I've become quite proficient at it."
"Very good, ma'am." With a quick nod, Gomez turned to his devices and started issuing orders to control panels. "Like I said, this shouldn't take more than an hour, so if you come back down here, I can test fit it for you, and we can get you all checked out in it."
# # #
Liara and Shepard went up to the middeck; Shepard went to his stateroom, Liara went to Kaidan's tech bench.
The Canadian couldn't help but notice the asari as she approached; his biotic nodes made him sensitive. He only flicked his eyes over to her briefly. "Hey, Liara."
"Hello. I...ahm...am I disturbing you?"
Kaidan continued to chemical-treat the device before him. "Not really. I just have to stay focused. But I can talk if you're needing something."
"I was just down below, and the Manufacturing officer said the Alliance doesn't approve the use of what he called 'warp ammunition.' Is that true?"
He sighed with resignation. "Yeah, well...it's complicated. Hang on a minute, let me finish bonding this." He focused on the electronic widget, carefully applying the material-specific epoxy to it, and then seating a component on it with a pair of forceps. He set down the applicator, lifted a corded tool out of a sort of cradle, and lowered it over the component. He looked up, pointing away with his left hand, "Oh, look over at the food printers for a minute, will you?"
Liara's head was turned away when there was a very brief "fft" sound, and a brilliant, sun-bright flash from the tech bench that seemed to illuminate the overhead of the entire middeck like a strobe.
Liara heard Kaidan set the tool back down. "Yeah, now...about that 'warp ammo' thing," he said.
She turned back to him just as he turned off the holographic visor.
"Firearms are good in the sense of an IFF can save a life. 'Friendly fire' - that's what we call getting shot at by your allies - almost doesn't happen anymore, at least not with firearms.
"But biotics are different. There's no IFF to stop you using a biotic effect on an ally, so it's kind of tricky. If regular troops were packing warp ammo, they could be adversely affected by any biotics I use, or field splash that they get caught in. So the Alliance doesn't generally approve its use to keep this sort of thing from happening. To make it easier on supply, they effectively don't stock it, but because I'm a biotic, I can get it. I just also have to be proficient enough to install it."
He made eye contact again. "I'd be happy to install it for you, and this is a really good time. Do you have the weapon, or can you get it?"
# # #
"The LRSA report really doesn't tell us much we didn't already know." Shepard waved briefly at the system view that showed the relative locations of planets, debris belt, and a slowly-pulsing marker indicating the location of Ontario. "Some biotics threw out a false distress, boarded and commandeered this freighter. Their target was an Earth MP named Martin Burns. He represents a part of Canada." He touched an icon on his omnitool with Burns' image on it, displaying the man's face on the holo behind him.
"But their pilot really screwed things up; they ran the tanks on that ship dry trying to avoid crashing into themselves. Their current trajectory will put them out of the system in a couple of days. The only way they're getting back to anywhere is if we tow them; ship's engines use the wrong kind of fuel.
He touched a control on his omnitool, pointed at the holo. "I've notified the local authorities – if you can call it that – and the outpost manager who doubles as the Science Director should have a tug out to intercept in a few hours. It isn't a colony, it's just a research station parked at the L2 of Farinata and Nepneu, the farthest planet. If we can get this situation under control fast enough, we'll have time to rig for towing and get it headed in the right direction. When the tug shows up, we can just transfer the towline."
Kaidan asked, "He's not my district, but have you notified Burns' office? They'll be able to send someone out to get him, and they'll probably want to know anyway."
"Gladstone has contacted them; they were well aware of the situation, and Admiral Hackett's office has offered to send one of those new UT-47s; they're relay-ready and FTL-capable. I think they liked that there was zero chance they'd be in a firefight."
He gestured at the holo, selecting the marker, and zooming in on it. A freighter appeared, displayed in three orthogonal views plus isometric. Explanatory callouts - identifying systems and unique features - blossomed from it as Shepard continued, "Ontario's equipped with lots of PV from a previous assignment/configuration, and we think that's one of the reasons they were able to use this ship as a combination hideout and trap: They'll be able to survive out there in it, broadcasting their noise and living free and easy…at least until they start to run low on their one non-renewable: food. Which should be about two days ago, based on what we saw them bring. So they may be getting a bit nervous already, and I'm hoping they'll start making mistakes."
He gestured at the display, and a list of attempted contact scrolled through a tile. "They're not answering hails, but they haven't disabled the transponder. As far as we can tell, their comms are working, they're just ignoring us.
"But the big news for this operation is that I will not be part of the boarding party. I've been temporarily relieved of that by our CFS. I'm not sending you into anything I'm not willing to take on myself, but I won't be combat-ready for this mission. Kaidan, you'll be leading; Ash will be your right hand." He turned and handed his digital tablet to the biotic.
As Kaidan stood and Shepard sat, Wrex shifted in his seat. "Do I get to be a foot?"
Everyone turned to look at him.
He held up one of his giant feet, wearing boots with articulated toes, "Feet are where it's at. They're really good at ass-kicking." He put his foot back down with a gentle but solid thump. "Just like me."
Kaidan nodded with a lopsided grin. "That's almost relevant," he said. "In fact, you and I will be on point, but our job will mostly be to find the hostiles. Ash, Garrus; you'll be tasked with protecting Liara, and moving her around the ship as needed. She can generate a Singularity on her own, and that's our big crowd control tactic. Once she gets them airborne, we can go fish out the MP in case he's been caught in it, and then either of us can detonate it, and then secure the rest of them."
Ash raised her hand; Kaidan pointed at her instantly. "Not as if I haven't heard of them, but I haven't been exposed to them, and haven't trained for them. What actually is a biotic Singularity, and what do I need to know about it?"
"Excellent question, thank you, Chief." Kaidan looked around at the assembled team members, "I could put you all to sleep with what I know about the Singularity; the reason it's significant is that it requires large amounts of biotic energy, more than most humans can generate or even control. In fact, uh…correct me if I'm wrong, Liara…as far as I know, only asari can generate them, and not even all asari can generate them."
Liara glanced sideways at Ash, then back at Kaidan. "That is…mostly true. There are a few non-asari who can create a Singularity, but they are very rare, and it is...ahm...usually more of a 'stunt' than something of the duration that a Huntress or Commando would consider sufficient."
Kaidan continued, but spoke to Liara. "The issue, as I understand it, is supply. Even if a human could generate enough of a charge to project the kernel, and perform a gravitational implosion at range, the problem is keeping it powered long enough that it can actually pick stuff up and hold it."
Liara glanced to both sides, as if hoping anyone else would answer; her omnitool winked on and back off without her touching it. "Ahm…yes, that is also true. Even after learning how to generate one, it requires almost two thousand Lucens to hold an average-sized Singularity for a full minute." She shook her head. "Few species have the ability to start one."
Kaidan looked meaningfully at Ash. "And that ability is to briefly create a very small gravitational vortex with the strength of a planetary gravitational field. That's why – if you can generate one – it allows you to lift bad guys into the air and hold them there for a few seconds. The vortex has enough gravity to counteract the gravity field you're currently in. But because it's a relatively small vortex, maybe a couple of meters across, you can only pick up things that are within a couple of meters of its centre."
Liara leaned toward Kaidan, lifting a hand toward him slightly. "Ahm…it has been my experience that modern heavy armour composites often contain, or have been processed with, element zero such that it can render the Singularity ineffective on armour-wearers. At least until it has been shot away, or weakened by a biotic Warp."
"Yeah," Ash pointed an index finger at the asari, "What's up with that? I heard you can explode a Singularity with a Warp? What does that even mean? What kind of yield are we talking about?"
"The…ahm…technical term is 'detonate,' and yes, a Singularity can be detonated in a variety of ways, a Warp being one of them." Liara glanced at Kaidan to see if he was presenting any signs that he wanted her to stop talking; her Human Interaction VI indicated he appeared to be both attentive and encouraging her to continue. "Ahm, without going into too much technical detail, biotic effects are created first by exertion; the biotic energy itself is stored throughout my body, and I can force it out at will. I can also control how much of it I force out at a time, and from which emitters."
As she spoke, Liara noticed that Garrus and Tali also seemed to be paying close attention.
"But what distinguishes one effect from another – say, a Warp from a Singularity or Stasis – is how and when I shape and emit the energy. The nuances are vast, but the way one forces air over the vocal cords and manipulate it with the shape of the mouth and tongue are actually quite similar. Vortexing, trellising, spin and spinturbulence, lofting, pitch…each of these even has its own subtleties that – depending on how, where, and when I apply them, can create the 'vocabulary' of biotic powers.
"A detonation happens when one biotic effect is merged destructively with another. Some effects are similar enough that they do not cause detonations. Some effects must be applied in a particular way to cause another effect to detonate; for example, a Stasis field cannot be detonated; it does not, and cannot detonate any others. I suppose you could say that it is the most stable biotic effect.
"On the other hand, there are few effects that a Throw will not detonate; it is a very highly reactive effect even by itself. A Throw can detonate a Warp effect if applied quickly, but a Warp cannot detonate a Throw." She blinked, looking aside as her omnitool lit briefly. "Ahm...well, at least not without considerable training.
"As for the effects of the detonation itself, it varies by which effect is applied to…ahm…thus, detonating…which other effect. In this case, we were speaking of a Warp detonating a Singularity: Assuming I have generated a 3500 Lucen Singularity, I would be able to project it only seven or eight meters away from myself. Lieutenant Alenko could detonate it easily with a Throw, and from almost any distance. The resulting 'explosion' would depend upon the energy of the Throw, but I'd estimate it would exert a force of…ahm…" Liara looked down at her omnitool, worked it for a moment. "Just under a million meter-kilograms."
Kaidan, who had long ago worked out the effects of a power he could never have, pointed at Liara as he looked at Ash and nodded, "More explosive force than two stacked grenades!" He held up his other hand as if holding the 7cm disk of a typical grenade. (A/N: about 2kg of trinitrotoluene, or 2600kWh).
Ash looked grim. "But a 'Stasis field' can protect the MP?"
"Right," Kaidan nodded. "It could even protect him if he's in a Singularity and someone tried to detonate it. But we can't leave him in it for very long, because the effect of a Stasis field is to 'freeze you in place.' The unfortunate side effect of this is that it stops you from breathing. In an emergency, it can potentially protect you from the effects of vacuum exposure, but it can suffocate you if you're not adequately prepared."
"Didn't they use that in an episode of Updater?" Ash looked as though she were trying to remember something she'd seen but not been paying a lot of attention to at the time, "The asari has to get herself and her human from one ship to another, and there's only one suit?"
"Yeah," Kaidan nodded. "Richard loves that scene because it's actually true to life. A little over-dramatised, but possible."
Ash slowly leaned back in her chair with an thoughtful expression.
Kaidan touched his omnitool, which brought up profile and portrait stills of a human on the CommCon's main holodisplay. "Where it might help the most at the outset, is that the goal here is to find this guy, MP Martin Burns, and keep him from getting killed. As soon as any of us have eyes on him, be ready to get a Stasis field on him. It'll make him effectively impervious to them trying to kill him, or use him as a hostage." He glanced meaningfully at the other two biotics, "And we all know how to do Stasis."
Liara nodded; Wrex merely smacked his lips and looked aside as though bored.
"Okay, good." Kaidan nodded, turned his attention to Wrex and Ash. "As much as possible, we're counting on not having to do a lot of shooting. This is an old freighter; it predates the First Contact War, and it doesn't even have emergency Kiggs field generators. If we start shooting holes in the hull, we could potentially kill our hostage by asphyxiation before we even get to see him.
"So the plan is to subdue these guys if we can. If we encounter one or two at a time, any of the three of us can Stasis them, apply restraints, consider them neutralised. But if they are behind a barricade, firing non-MEFG linacs, or if they are all in a single compartment, we'll need a Singularity to get the whole lot.
"Again, Stasis is the best protection he could have, in case the whole thing turns into a goat-rope and we don't want to accidentally kill him." He tossed an icon from his omnitool toward the main display. "His name is Burns; if you think you see him, say his name to him as if you want to speak to him," he turned slightly aside and spoke as if the man were in the CommCon, "Mister Burns?" He turned back to the team, "Like that. That should make him look at you to reply. In fact, he's a representative for Ontario in Canada's local Parliament, but he's a big proponent of Earth in the colonies, and even on the Council Citadel. This isn't the first time he's chartered this particular freighter, probably because of the name."
Wrex nodded, turned and looked at the asari, who was self-consciously sitting very still on the forward edge of the seat, in her new armour. "Gonna be nice to finally see you in action." He reached toward her with his right thumb holding a finger cocked, and plinked the a matte black shoulder armour plate in jest. "And don't be nervous; you're armoured, and we'll keep you covered."
Even though her helmet was retracted, Liara only moved her eyes to look at the krogan. "Thank you," she said. She seemed nervous.
"But we're not going in blind," Kaidan said. "As soon as we're within network range, Tali's going to try to crack into their systems, particularly their internal cameras. We might have a really good idea of where they are before we even get started, and that'll help a lot."
Tali's hand had shot up as soon as Kaidan said "network." The biotic pointed at her and said, "Tali. Whaddya got?"
The quarian stood as she spoke, "As you said, the design of the Kowloon predates your peoples' discovery of Prothean technology, including what you call 'Kiggs fields.' Because of that, it has more rugged external plating, relatively speaking, but it's easier to compromise with MEFG weapons. As a freighter, it doesn't have any airlocks forward, but it has one on each side astern. If we can't crack their network from the docking points aft, I can easily go outside and forward to take full control of ship hardware there."
# # #
Tali looked up from the bridge console and shook her head. "They must have anticipated this. Of course they've disabled all the camera controls, and internal sensors. I can't even tell you what the cabin temp is right now."
"Great," Garrus sighed. "This isn't going to stop us, is it?"
"Not a chance, princess," Wrex grinned. "My feet have an appointment to keep."
Shepard glanced at his ARO chronometer. "Still have at least 30 minutes before we can expect to be docked."
"They're drifting, not spinning," Pressly added. "Docking won't take long at all, even if they're not helping. We won't even need to use the clamp or force board her."
"You have interdiction stuff like that?" Garrus sounded genuinely surprised.
Pressly brought his right hand to up to his face, scanning the board for a certain control; when he saw it, he extended his index finger and landed it on a control, summoning an orange wireframe view of the ship to the central holo display, replacing the galaxy map, and showed what the gear looked like when fitted.
He pointed to a highlighted area forward. "We do, but it's WOTTA gear. Other Alliance frigates – Alamo class and later – have that, but they had to really fight to make it possible because of Normandy's hard waterline and essentially concave belly. Gives us great flexibility for AFG and extra FOV for the underwings, but it's a challenge to force-dock a ship shaped like this with an hostile. Has to be fitted right before the operation, and requires a 6-hand EVA to do it. The Alliance has better ships for that kind of operation, but…they wanted to give us options." He shrugged. "Later editions, they may decide it's not worth carrying the extra mass all the time."
The XO twiddled a control on his console, replacing the holo of Normandy with that of Ontario. "Ontario is a 50-year-old Kowloon freighter; the original had universal airlocks on both sides, fore and aft. They were meant to dock anywhere, with anything, and that makes things easy for us. This one has traded the forward docks for a retrofitted relay drive system, but the engines' relatively short range limits it to systems that have a relay in the system; she doesn't have a mass effect drive, so she can't make more than –"
Joker's voice spoke from the console, "Nav, Flight. Ontario now at maximum visual range. LIDAR confirms all external systems intact, no significant spin. Want to get there a few minutes early?"
Shepard looked quickly at the assembled ground team in the CIC and touched the comm control. "Flight, Command. Ground team is ready to go. Let's not waste any time." He was displeased to not be going on this mission, and he wasn't ready to admit that he was especially anxious for the asari.
"'Not waste any time?'" Joker nudged the throttle, "Well why didn't you say so?"
Everyone felt the compensators as the ship practically jumped.
Joker, in his full-immersion display, aimed Normandy just over the older freighter, rotating as the ship crossed the remaining distance at a run, stopped just overhead, settling into place at the freighter's opposite side from their approach. Normandy yawed gently into place, thunked against one of the standard docking arms that jutted from either side of the utilitarian ship.
Pressly looked up from a display. "None of you could see that; what he did was put our final approach on the opposite side of our approach, and about twenty minutes early. They surely saw us coming, and have likely been setting up defences against us at the docking arm on the other side of the ship. He's also denied them the ability to move any gear or personnel quickly." He pointed through Ops Alley toward the main airlock. "To make the most of this, I suggest you get going."
Kaidan was already starting forward. "You heard him, and you know he's right. Come on, team: Let's go!"
Shepard could only watch them. Moving to an empty console, he opened his workspace, set up a Mission Controller arrangement, and began watching the operation through the team's cameras.
* * * Glossary * * *
6-hand: In EVA parlance, a task requiring at least three people
AFG: Atmospheric Flight Geometry
CFS: Chief Flight Surgeon
CIC: Combat Information Centre
CSID: "see-sid," Citadel [or Council] Space ID
FOV: Field of View
FTL: Faster Than Light; even though it technically isn't, the speeds that mass effect drives are capable of have significant relativistic effects, seeming like FTL to novices and people who don't deal with them on a daily basis
LIDAR: Laser Detection and Ranging (though the Li stands for light, which a laser is)
LRSA: Long Range Scan and Analysis
Lucen: a figure in asari mythology, for whom the unit measure of biotic energy is named
MFO: Master Fabrication Officer
MP: Member of Parliament
NfoX: Information Exchange; a technology/protocol used by research organizations and universities for scientific research data collection and dissemination. Pioneered on Thessia, popularized in the Alliance by Husseinomica (part of the Venus Project 2.0) after the Prothean discovery on Mars, acquired by Google in 2173.
PV: photovoltaics
TCI: Thessian Collective Interest
UT-47: Kodiak shuttle
WOTTA: Works Once, Then Throw Away
A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus. I could fill a 5K-word chapter with what's happened, but it would be a waste of all our time. Here are some highlights:
Bought 2/3 of a 1930s house in another state (with K&T wiring still in service!) took a relative up and moved him into the basement (fabricated insulation for the doors and windows to triple the insulation value,) attended two more ISSD Competitions (including our first with telepresence,) lost two more friends. (The one was more time-consuming because she was a Navy vet who had a stroke, and was being booted out of her flat. So we rescued her two dogs, and tried to put everything in storage until the situation stabilised. And then she died.) We had the pool filled in without a Bobcat; just guys with wheelbarrows, shovels, and jackhammers. I got involved in medical research as a professional Petri dish. The clothes washer failed catastrophically, but the store would not deliver the replacement. (So I rented a small flatbed and did it myself.) Took a mini-vacation in the Pacific Northwest, discovered Beacon rock, planted a flag, and claimed it for the Alliance. Discovered Ryoji Ikeda and his technological video panels, but apparently he's already claimed by Japan.
Anyway, it's all been very distractive. When I had time to write, it was usually writing ahead, not "the next chapter." Fortunately, I was discovered by SanjarN7, who inquired about my malfunction, and offered to help. Betelgeuse-sized shout-out and thanks to SanjarN7. Should I come to an unexpectedly early demise, he now has the full working copy of all the other material; I've asked him to publish it so you can read what else there was in case I can't do so myself.
